Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Libyan Rebel Forces Surround Gadhafi Compound; Case Against Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be Dropped; Stock Futures up; Banks Continue Mass Layoffs; Concerns Surface over Control Of Weapons Stockpiles in Libya; Concern Over Libya's Weapons; Hurricane Irene Heads Towards U.S.; NATO Jets Flying Low Over Gadhafi Compound; Saif Gadhafi on The Town in Tripoli
Aired August 23, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning out of Libya. What could be Gadhafi's last stand? His compound under attack at this hour. New reports of explosions right now.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Danger is brewing as hurricane Irene winds up in what could be a possible strike on the east coast, and the National Hurricane Center is now warning this storm could become a monster.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: On the verge of freedom, Dominique Strauss- Kahn could walk after New York prosecutors determine that the woman accused of raping -- accusing him of rape -- I'm sorry -- has credibility issues.
ROMANS: A medical breakthrough that offers patients with Lou Gehrig's disease hope for a treatment and maybe one day a cure, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It is Tuesday, August 23rd. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Up first this morning, breaking news in the battle for Libya. Al Jazeera is reporting hundreds of rebel trucks loaded with heavy machine guns have surrounded Moammar Gadhafi's compound. This coming as his regime is teetering on the brink of collapse. No one has seen Gadhafi since the opposition rolled into Tripoli over the weekend. And now one of his sons says his father is safe and in Tripoli. We're unclear whether he's in that compound that's been surrounded by rebels.
ROMANS: That son, Saif al Islam Gadhafi, made that statement during a surprise appearance, I think you can say, at a Tripoli hotel that was filled with western journalists. It's a surprise because the opposition had claimed he was in opposition custody and he comes rolling into the hotel Rixos. Another one of his siblings, Mohammed Gadhafi, escaped Monday according to the Libyan ambassador to the United States.
COSTELLO: Both those developments a major setback at least in terms of morale for Libyan opposition fighters. You can see here they're trying to hold on to their ground and finish off Gadhafi after 42 years.
Arwa Damon has more from Tripoli's airport on these new reported explosions at the Gadhafi compound.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The compound has really been the focus of some of the most intense fighting ever since rebel fighters began their initial push into Tripoli. What we are now hearing there are ongoing sounds of explosions, smoke rising above that part of the capital.
We're around 15 miles to the south at the Tripoli international airport that rebel fighters captured yesterday. They said that the fighting has been quite intense. What they have managed to do is clear the area to the west of the airport and now they're running probing missions into the east and up north because there is a straight shot from here all the way to the compound.
But they fully anticipate it is going to be a fairly intense battle because on that road there are many significant military positions, Gadhafi military positions. There is, for example, a refueling station and also an oil storage facility plus to the east, there are also two main military compounds. So they're telling us right now they're trying to push forward slowly, try to see what kind of resistance they encounter before they begin to pull back. But they most certainly expect a fierce battle ahead.
COSTELLO: Al Jazeera, reporting rebel fighters are closing in within 500 meters of the compound. Meantime the opposition now saying that sleeper cells of secretly armed residents helped them take Tripoli. What can you tell us about that?
DAMON: That's right. We heard that from the fighters that we are with as well, effectively seems as if the rebels set up and established these sleeper cells early on in this uprising in these neighborhoods. The sleeper cells have a fairly complex chain of command. And the minute they received the word go, that the operation to try to attack Tripoli was going to be taking place, they all rose up as well and joined in the effort.
However, although we are hearing from opposition fighters that they do control or they say that they control most of the capital and they say that they especially control the areas to the west, at the very same time they are saying they have been forced back from certain positions as Gadhafi's force appear to have regrouped and launched various counterattacks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: That was Arwa Damon reporting from the airport in Tripoli.
Now to another developing story here in the United States -- hurricane Irene is growing in strength and could become the first hurricane to seriously threaten the east coast in years. Right now the category two storm with winds of about 100 miles per hour is lashing parts of the Dominican Republic. And forecasters warn it could grow into a category four storm as it moves toward the Carolinas.
The storm is really picking up steam since it pounded Puerto Rico yesterday, knocking out power and causing widespread flooding and landslides. President Obama has declared a state of emergency on the island. And as we speak, Irene is lashing parts of the Dominican Republic, flooding the streets and knocking down trees there.
VELSHI: A lightning strike from hurricane Irene sparked a fire in the British virgin islands that destroyed the home of Richard Branson. The chairman of Virgin Group said about 20 people were in his home at the time, including the actress Kate Winslet. Nobody was injured.
ROMANS: He thanked her for getting his mother out of there, by the way, his 90-year-old mother.
COSTELLO: She carried her out, Kate Winslet.
VELSHI: Yes. And that's quite a fire as you take a look at that. That's quite a house, too.
Right now Irene is predicted -- Irene's predicted track takes it from Florida to Virginia. People are getting ready. In Florida they're stacking up on bottled water, flashlights, and batteries and in the Carolinas, officials are warning residents and vacationers along the coast to start reviewing their emergency plans.
Lets' get the latest now, Jacqui Jeras live in the CNN hurricane headquarters. Jacqui, what are you looking at?
Jacqui's talking silently.
COSTELLO: Jacqui is looking at the radar and --
VELSHI: Looking at it, paying very close attention.
COSTELLO: Yes. I think she was having trouble with her mic. Hey, Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hello.
COSTELLO: There she is.
VELSHI: That's nice. When Carol asks for Jacqui, Jacqui speaks.
ROMANS: She's not listening to you, Ali.
JERAS: That's what happens when you try to eat breakfast between weather hits. You don't want to hear me crunching, do you? Sorry about that.
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: Anyway, let's tell you what's going on, latest with Irene. It is a strong category two hurricane at this time packing winds at 100 miles per hour. The center is to the north of the Dominican Republic. This is why this is going to be such a serious threat to life and property in the Carolinas and into the U.S. is because this thing stayed over open water, it stayed over that warm water in the energy source, so that means there's nothing in its way really, just a couple of flat islands between here and there, so this thing will continue to get stronger, unfortunately.
Let's talk about that forecast track. It's going to be moving through the Caicos then through the Bahamas on Thursday. And we're going to start to feel the impact of this in south Florida already by Thursday morning, we think. You folks could get tropical storm force winds. But all the computer models no longer take this thing to Florida and are curving it northward and heading up towards the Carolinas. It could be South Carolina, could be North Carolina, maybe a smidgen to the east of there.
It's been 15 years since the Carolinas have had a major hurricane. That's category three or better. We're expecting at least a three, maybe a four. We'll have to wait and see.
So getting prepared, that is the key right now. This thing probably isn't going to hit you until the weekend, so you got a couple of days to make sure you stay in contact, have that plan in place, at least three days of food and water as this storm gets closer and closer to you.
There you can see the official forecast coming in early on Saturday morning, maybe into Sunday. Those models, let's go ahead and it take a look at those by the way. That big thick white line that you see, that's the official forecast from the National Hurricane Center. And you can see that we have still had a little bit of trending here on off towards the east. So keep that in mind. And there you can see, none of those models any longer bringing that into Florida. So they're very close together. That gives us a lot of confidence in that forecast. So we need to be prepared for this major storm.
A lot of rainfall, of course, concerned about that and the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Three to six inches, locally heavier amounts of flash flooding going to be a big concern and our friends in the Bahamas, every island is going to get lashed by this storm. This thing is huge, guys. As we take a look at that satellite picture. That stretches across 400 miles wide. So this is a very powerful, very large storm.
ROMANS: Jacqui, if it keeps trending to the east as you say, it might be, there's an off chance, does the gather steam and get more ferocious or dissipate as it moves north?
JERAS: Well, you know, the water temperatures are warm all the way up, so trending east won't, you know, necessarily make it any more. We don't think it's going to necessarily get past the outer banks but we'll have to wait and see.
Something to keep in mind for you guys, down the line, things happen after landfalls. So inland flooding will be a big concern. This could move up even into New York City, not necessarily as a hurricane, potentially, but right now it could be a powerful storm for you guys next week with winds -- VELSHI: Feeling like a Nor'easter. It could feel that way.
ROMANS: So wet this spring. Nobody needs any more rain up here. It's been so wet. Thanks, Jacqui.
Speaking of rain, parts of Iowa drying out this morning after getting drenched with up to five inches of rain in just a few hours yesterday. This is the scene in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just outside Omaha. Streets are submerged, several businesses had to be evacuated. The National Guard was called to help rescue. Get this, 24 kids trapped in their school bus, whoa. The bus apparently stalled in about four feet of water. Luckily there were no reports of any injuries, but boy, how was school today? Nothing happened.
COSTELLO: Good story to tell, right?
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: A 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit southern Colorado near the New Mexico border overnight. There are reports of rockslides and damage to buildings, but no word of any injuries.
VELSHI: Today Vice President Joe Biden is expected to tour the tsunami ravaged coastline of Japan. Biden says Japan will recover from the disaster, just like the U.S. will put itself out of its debt crisis. Japan is the final stop of Biden's eight-day trip to Asia.
COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning -- why isn't America more excited about its presidential contenders? Marching toward 2012, and the first Republican primary, some of the most talked about candidates are those who are not even running. Want proof? Young gun Republican congressman Paul Ryan, to the chagrin of many in the GOP, the architect of the Republican budget that would cut federal spending by $6.2 trillion, has issued a definitive no. Ryan says, "While humbled by the encouragement, I have not changed my mind, and, therefore, I am not seeking our party's nomination for president."
The desire for alternative blood is as fresh as it ever was. When supporters were begging New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to run, and continue today even after he made his lack of desire crystal clear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: I said what do I have to do short of suicide to convince people I'm not running? Apparently I have to actually commit suicide to convince people I'm not running.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Why can't Christi and company just be? Because in a recent CNN/ORC poll, only 14 percent of Republican voters say they are very satisfied with the field. Ouch. It's not like Democrats are jumping up and down either -- 28 percent of Democrats would rather see a candidate other than President Obama nominated, a record high or low for him. There have even been calls for Hillary Clinton to run in 2012.
That makes you wonder, is there anyone out there who could inspire the whole country, anybody who would want to be president when the economy is in the toilet and two wars continue to drag on. So the talk back question today, why isn't America more excited about its presidential contenders? Facebook.com/AmericanMorning, Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. I'll read your comments later this hour.
ROMANS: Still to come this morning, New York prosecutors asking a judge to dismiss rape charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn because prosecutors say they can't prove them. A live report just ahead. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. It's 12 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning. Welcome back. A stunning twist in a criminal case involving power, sex, international politics, it's been more than three months since former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was pulled off a Paris bound plane and charged with raping a housekeeper in his New York City hotel room. It looks like those charges will be dropped.
CNN's Susan Candiotti live outside the courthouse. Susan, the accuser's credibility, how did this case physical apart?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the main thing. Two things really -- credibility and evidence in this case. And in the end, prosecutors said this was boiling down to a he said/she said case and that's a very difficult way to go to a trial and try to convince a jury one way or the other with that kind of evidence. They said there was simply not enough physical evidence to prove that the sex that happened wasn't forced versus consensual. That's what it boils down to.
And there's how the district attorney summed it up. He said, quote, "Whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant, if we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."
This, of course, not good news for Miss Diallo, who brought this case, who prosecutors and the police initially said was very credible, that her account was believable. But in the end, her lawyer is saying it was a bad move by the district attorney to now ask the court to drop the case because, among many other things, it sends the wrong signal to other rape victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNETH THOMPSON, ATTORNEY FOR NAFISSATOU DIALLO: The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case. He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim, but he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical, and other physical evidence in this case. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Miss Diallo remains an alleged rape victim in this case and will not have a chance to convince a jury, at least a criminal jury, otherwise. She still has a civil lawsuit in play.
Of course, this news is good news for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his lawyers who are happy to see that the prosecutor is going to try to dump the case. Here's what he is -- his statement said, quote, "Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his family are grateful that the district attorney's office took our concerns seriously and concluded on its own that this case could not proceed further."
So we'll wait to see what happens in court this day, but in the end, certainly I think everyone can agree on one thing -- there are no winners in this case. Back to you.
ROMANS: A case that made international headlines and now a case that has crumbled. Susan Candiotti, thank you so much.
Still to come this morning, gold prices, you know how much I love to talk about gold prices.
COSTELLO: Can you believe it.
ROMANS: I can't believe. But is it a bubble ready to pop? Wall street buzzing after the precious metal keeps setting record after record.
VELSHI: And Would you pay $16.5 million for a car?
ROMANS: No.
VELSHI: OK, settled. Well, somebody did. We're going to tell you what car and why after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: "Minding your Business" this morning. Right now U.S. stock futures trading significantly higher ahead of the opening bell. Investors are looking ahead to Friday when Fed Chief Ben Bernanke gives a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Wall Street is hoping for some hint at plans that the Fed has to help the struggling economy.
Gold prices just keep going up, another record last night, $1,900 an ounce. That's up $100 in the past two weeks. The week over week rise for gold has got some analysts a little worried this could be a bubble ready to pop, but investors are still flocking to the precious metal for security because of the shaky economy.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has retained counsel related to an investigation by the justice department. A Senate subcommittee said in April that the bank misled clients and Congress about its housing market activities. Lots of buzz about this because the lawyer, Reid Weingarten, also represented World.com Bernie Ebbers during his downfall. Swiss bank UBS announced this morning it's slashing 3,500 jobs as part of a cost cutting measure. Since the beginning of the year more than 36,000 jobs have been slashed at some of the world's largest banks.
The president of Standard & Poor's is stepping down. S&P's parent company McGraw-Hill announced this morning Devon Sharma will leave his post by the end of the year to, quote, "pursue other opportunities." No mention of the announcement of S&P's controversial downgrade of America's credit rating.
Would you spend $16.5 million on a car? Someone did. A 1957 Ferrari Testarossa race car broke the auction record in California, but that is not the most expensive car ever sold. Ferraris have gone for about twice that much in private sales according to a collector car insurer.
Don't forget, for the latest news about your money, check out the all new CNNmoney.com. AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's 27 minutes past the hour. Right now, rebels in Libya are storming Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli. With Gadhafi's regime on the verge of collapsing, obviously there's still a lot of uncertainty over Libya's future.
VELSHI: And perhaps what's most important to the United States is Libya's stockpile of chemical weapons and explosives. Where are they and what will happen to them? If Libya find itself with no leader, it's possible these weapons could fall into the wrong hands. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon this morning looking into this. Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to all of you. Well, if there isn't enough to worry about, this is now a major concern. What are we really talking about here? Well, Libya has a large quantity to start with of mustard gas. Now, people will tell you, it's not in a form that can be readily put on a weapon and used to attack right now. But who controls that inventory? That's the issue, of course. Could it fall into the wrong hands? Could whoever has it right now basically sell some of it off to terrorists who might take it out of the country and store it?
So you're beginning to see what the concerns are for the U.S. intelligence community. It's things like the mustard gas, like large quantities of surface-to-air missiles, shoulder-fired launchers, large quantities of plastic explosives. It's who controls this, whose hands is it all going to fall into.
A top U.S. official told me yesterday that the U.S. is now making it very clear to this transitional national council that it will hold it responsible for making sure there is control over these weapons stocks and they don't fall into the wrong hands. But still, the U.S. intelligence community has satellite coverage of this 24/7, trying to keep eyes on all of this, trying to keep track of all of this very dangerous material and make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Ali? VELSHI: Barbara, we saw three Scud missiles that were launched. What do we know about the control of the weapons? Obviously -- I don't know if it's obvious -- were those in the hands of the government? Are they centralized? Who controls them?
STARR: You know, this now is the most immediate example of what we're talking about, isn't it? Actually, to update this morning, NATO is telling us, yesterday one scud missile fired a couple of days ago there was another one, and a third one destroyed on the ground by a NATO aircraft.
By all accounts this is Gadhafi loyalist troops. So look, still, they control very significant weapons. You don't just wheel a scud out and, you know, essentially light a match on the end of it. You have to know what you're doing. You have to be in control of those weapons and those launchers. Scuds are very inaccurate but nonetheless weapons of terror because they can basically hold a city at risk, they can terrorize a population.
So very concerning that these scuds are being wheeled out and launch NATO war planes even today, looking for them wherever they can find them. It's one of the reasons NATO war planes are staying in the air, looking for any movement by these Gadhafi loyalist fighters.
VELSHI: That's another, yet another area of concern to be thinking about as this Gadhafi regime looks closer to toppling. Thanks so much, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.
STARR: Sure.
ROMANS: Half past the hour. Top stories, Hurricane Irene gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean, may be headed toward the U.S. It's a category 2 storm right now. It's near the Dominican Republic, but forecasters warn it could become a dangerous Category 4 later in the week. And by all accounts it's barreling closer to the Carolinas.
COSTELLO: A New York City district attorney says he cannot prove the rape case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and at a hearing this morning he will ask a judge to toss it out. Prosecutors say they no longer believe DSK's accuser so how could they expect a jury to believe her?
VELSHI: And next year's presidential election could be a nail biter according to a new Gallup poll. President Obama is in a statistical dead heat when pitted against Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul or Michele Bachmann. Although one always knows it's a little early to call things dead heats.
ROMANS: That's true. All right, back to our top story. The crisis in Libya. Moammar Gadhafi on the ropes, already talks of Libya's oil fields coming back on-line. Could we see a price drop at the pump? Will oil profits and Libya's billions in frozen assets, will they be used to rebuild the country?
Peter Beutel joins us from Stanford, Connecticut. He's the president of Cameron Hanover and author of the book "Surviving Energy Prices" and also Ambassador Marc Ginsberg joins us from D.C. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco.
Gentlemen, thanks for joining us. Peter, start with you first, how quickly can the sidelined Libyan oil get back on the market? We know the European market is hungry for this high quality crude to drive its economies.
PETER BEUTEL, 30-YEAR VETERAN OF THE ENERGY MARKETS: Well, there's a great deal of disagreement on that. Nobody's sure what state the oil fields are in. People are estimating some oil by the end of the year, some people have said as many as 18 months.
But when this is their only export, their only hope of putting this government together, and tying this country up, I've got to think they're going to move heaven and earth to get it. I expect it's going to be a lot sooner than anybody guesses.
I think that they're going to have some oil almost within a month and I think within a quarter they're going to have a decent amount. Of course, they have to get into these oil fields and inspect them, go through all of that.
But I would be willing to bet every European person who knows how to deal with this, is going to be on planes down there to help them right away.
ROMANS: I mean, they're huge investments in those oil fields by European companies, no question, who will want to take a look at their assets.
BEUTEL: Particularly from Italy. So I expect that you're going to see a lot of Italian experts down there in short order and I would expect some British and some French and possibly even American, although we don't get very -- we don't get any oil from Libya.
ROMANS: Quick question, I mean, as every drop of Libyan oil that gets back into the market, though, that's a good thing for U.S. consumers of oil even though the U.S. only consumes about, you know, 3 percent of their only, right?
BEUTEL: It's very good news, because the Libyan crude what is I call a Cadillac crude. It's very rich in gasoline and that means that gasoline that's been diverted from Canada or from South America to replace this in Europe, will then come to the United States. So it will push the price of gasoline lower at some point once it gets back into the market.
ROMANS: Yes, already with gas moving lower because of worries about a weaker economy. Ambassador Ginsburg, let me bring you in here because, you know, it's long been said that you drill to the heart of every war and you strike oil.
And oil is something here that's incredibly important for the rebuilding of this country and we've seen it, I guess, not meet up to expectations elsewhere like in Iraq, for example, where we thought the rebuilding would be paid for by the richest underground. How important is the oil infrastructure to getting Libya on a path to its new future?
AMBASSADOR MARC GINSBERG, FORMER MIDDLE EAST PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO MOROCCO: Well, 95 percent of Libya's revenues come from oil and last year or in the last few years, they've generated close to about $40 billion to $45 billion a year in revenues.
And you take the difference between what they spend on their 6 million people in the country and the difference between what they spend in government and let's just say it's $30 billion. And the $12 billion that's leftover is going into the Gadhafi family fortune.
ROMANS: How do you make sure that that money doesn't go into the pockets of groups of tribes or different leaders in groups who are trying to take control in the country? How do you make sure that the infrastructure of the country doesn't -- is used for the best interests of the country?
GINSBERG: That's going to be the $64,000 question to play a cliche here, because in the end all those oil revenues have been used in part and there's no doubt that Gadhafi did spend money on the infrastructure in the country.
There was a higher rate of education than there had been in the past, but Gadhafi's government was pretty lavish when it came to spending money on tribal elders and tribal leaders loyal to him and then squandering a great deal of that money and pocketing it and buying everything from water plants in Italy to real estate in London to stashing money away in secret bank accounts in Dubai and Southeast Asia.
So getting repatriating hundred billion dollars if not $150 billion that's lying offshore, in addition to that oil revenue that needs to come online, is going to be a real test to the new Transitional National Council.
ROMANS: Yes, I mean, 42 years of an iron grip rule. There is no transparency in this country. There are no institutions to speak of in this country. I'm wondering how do you think Ambassador Ginsburg, you make sure what happened in Iraq where that oil wealth didn't really go to rebuilding, doesn't happen in Libya?
GINSBERG: It's going to take the commitment on the part of a transparent national government that is going to first of all be able to get that money back, get those assets unfrozen from foreign governments, and most importantly, prepare a budget that is going to be able to be reviewed by the IMF, the world bank, and by other institutions.
The key here and the one thing that is -- there is no doubt, transparency by international institutions overseeing this government is going to be key for the people of Libya to understand they have a government that's going to be accountable to them, unlike the Gadhafi government only accountable to the family.
ROMANS: It's interesting. We don't even have Moammar Gadhafi. We don't know where he is. He hasn't been captured. He's not on trial. Two of his sons resurface.
I mean, these are still early days to be talking, of course, about oil wealth, but in the end, this is incredibly important for the people who are asking for freedom in this country, isn't it?
GINSBERG: There's no doubt that you know throughout the Middle East, we talk about revolutions, political revolutions, but the real job here, job one, is going to be jobs, job creation, economic reform, whether it's in Egypt, Morocco or in Syria.
These people who are revolting, revolting because they have no economic opportunity in their own country. They have been denied jobs. Look at how many Libyans have fled the country to try to get jobs elsewhere in Europe.
That's the real question here, is how will you basically use this oil revenue, which is incredible? I mean after all, Libya is the third largest producer of oil in Africa, one -- as Peter just said, the producer of Cadillac crude, that's the richness for the country's future.
ROMANS: All right, Marc Ginsberg. Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, thank you so much. Peter Buetel, thank you to both of you.
BUETEL: Thank you.
GINSBERG: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Talking about the situation in Libya, a bit of breaking news to share with you. We've been telling you that Moammar Gadhafi's compound, you know the place that encompasses his residence and military barracks has been surrounded by rebels.
Well, now we hear that NATO jets are flying low over that compound. We don't know exactly what that means, but we do know there have been several loud explosions coming from inside that compound.
We do not know if Moammar Gadhafi is inside the compound, but we do know he's missing and he's hiding somewhere in the country of Libya.
VELSHI: That's what his kids are saying.
COSTELLO: At least that's what his kids are saying. When we get more information, we'll pass it along.
VELSHI: This compound has been hit many, many times. It's largely destroyed. So it's what we're unclear about with all these rebels, we know the rebels are surrounding it. We've seen evidence of trucks going in heavily armed, but we don't know whether this is symbolic or this is the last stand or what it is.
ROMANS: And where he could be difficult to pull him out because, you know, when he would meet foreign dignitaries. He had this tent made of quilts and blankets, but there was an underground bunker and he was a very paranoid person. It's impossible to know what the situation is. VELSHI: Not clear what's going on.
COSTELLO: They're attacking it and blowing it up for some reason.
VELSHI: All right, still to come this morning, trying to prevent the same missteps that were made after Iraq. Why Libya even after Gadhafi could be a lingering headache for the president.
COSTELLO: And a medical breakthrough for Lou Gehrig's disease. Researchers say this could help them develop a treatment. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us live with details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. If you're like us you woke up to some bizarre video today. The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, out for a night on the town in Tripoli, just hours after the world was told he was under arrest in custody and his father's regime was crumbling.
What does this say about the rebels who said they had him in custody and could it be a headache for the president who is thousands of miles away vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. Hoping he isn't going to end up with another Iraq on his hands.
I'm not going there. We've got a great group here to discuss this, this morning and much, much more. Will Cain is a CNN contributor and columnist at the blaze.com. Charles Blow is an op-ed columnist at "The New York Times" and in San Diego, Ruben Navarette who is a contributor at cnn.com.
It is great to have you all here. So I don't know if this will have political implications for the president, but just seeing the pictures of Saif Gadhafi was strange. So your initial thoughts, Will?
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think you're putting it exactly right. It illustrates the complexity of what we're dealing with there. Not only do we have pretty much an unclear goal, we have unclear allies.
What are their motives, what country do they want? Can we trust them about what they tell us? These people are divided along tribal, ethnic and sectarian lines. This is a hugely complex situation.
COSTELLO: Charles, what if the government doesn't form as most Americans would like it to form and to something that resembles a democracy? What if that doesn't happen and chaos breaks out what would that mean for the president?
CHARLES BLOW, THE NEW YORK TIMES, VISUAL OP-ED COLUMNIST: Well, which of these new governments will form as Americans want them to form, which of them will look like democracy as Americans know democracy to be?
It's not just Libya where that becomes a striking issue. That is always across the Arab world as all of these governments fall. And the truth is, is that none of these may look like a democracy as Americans think democracy should look. And how that plays politically back home, that won't even be on this president's watch.
CAIN: Charles is right, the only difference is we've invested military and financially Egypt --
COSTELLO: We have, but it didn't come at a great cost. I mean, not one American was injured and you say taxpayers will spend, what, $1.1 billion by the end of September, but that's not a lot of money when you enter the factors in.
I wanted to ask Ruben, because I don't want to leave you out just because you're in California.
Do most Americans care in the long run about what happens in Libya?
RUBEN NAVARETTE, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: I was thinking about that the other day when I heard the news the rebels had closed in on Tripoli. I think that the sense is no, that they don't really care. There are those battles that we care about, those wars that we're heavily invested in, usually because we have troops there, because we hear news reports about casualties, god forbid.
And then there are other, sort of neat and clean, if there is such a thing, military actions, like this, that people are not really invested in. And I think life goes on and we sort of walk by, you know, at the gym or whenever we see stories in the news, we see stories on television, we take note of it but we're not really heavily invested in the outcome.
And that's probably a problem for people running for president, because they're trying to find ways to speak to an issue like this in a way that makes them sound presidential, that tells us all that the way to be commander in chief, but at the same time they're speaking to an audience that really has its mind somewhere else.
COSTELLO: Well let's talk about the man who is president right now. Of course, he's in Martha's Vineyard. And Morgan Freeman, the actor, ran into him on the golf course and he said, he said he wanted to tell the president to, quote, "Get pissed off, get fighting mad." But he added, he knew the president wouldn't do it because it's not politically smart.
Charles, you're one of the people who's been writing that president needs to come out like hitting harder. So what do you think about Morgan? I know he's an actor but what do you think about what he said?
BLOW: Well, I mean I disagree to a certain degree. I'm not necessarily advocating he hit harder as much as he needs to figure out a way to connect. Leadership is about leading people, having people follow. If more and more people who would be following you are falling away then you have a problem.
The president was able to tell America what America wanted to hear in 2008. That changes over time. It's just like you go to your doctor and sometimes you want your doctor to say, oh don't worry about it, we'll fix it, it's going to be OK. But when you keep having to come back and you're still ill, you start to lose faith in the doctor and then you say, doctor give it to me straight. How did I get here, what's the problem, you know, how long will I be sick?
That's kind of what America wants to hear now and the president is having a little bit of time adjusting his messaging to deal with what America wants to hear. That's why you keep hearing rumbles about people like Chris Christie. Because even if you disagree with his politics you kind of feel like the guy is going to give it to you straight.
COSTELLO: That's right. Somebody who was trying to give it to people straight, perhaps, is Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Out in California, she was at a jobs fair and said the Tea Party can go straight to hell.
Is that the kind of thing that voters are looking for?
CAIN: Do I have to answer that?
COSTELLO: Yes, you have to answer that Will Cain.
CAIN: Meaning -- I mean, that should be obvious. No, that's obviously not what people are looking for. We have continued calls for civility and that should apply to everyone. Telling a group of voters that they should go to hell, I don't think kind of fits in that box, Carol. I mean, no.
COSTELLO: But, Ruben, I'll ask you this question, because I think there's a Gallup poll out and it says 30 percent of Americans don't have favorable opinions of the Tea Party.
So maybe that is the enemy to latch on to at this particular time, to resonate with voters on the Democratic side that is?
NAVARETTE: Right. Absolutely. I think it is. I'll disagree with my friend Will. I think it is very much something people want to hear. They want people to attack the Tea Party. If you happen to be on the left that's what you want.
But the problem for Obama is, you know, if he were to strike back he's supposed to strike back at his critics in the black community that are increasing, including Maxine Waters who's saying he's neglecting our inner cities? Or does he strike back at Latino voters where his popularity ratings keep falling? I mean, he has problems that go well beyond the Tea Party here.
A more complex look at the situation tells us that the president's support is withering underneath his feet across the board, even among liberals, parts of his own base. So it's really not a question of the president not being tough enough, he just has to be much more capable and competent in a job he's doing and he's not pulling it off.
CAIN: I just want to say to Ruben, the problem with that analysis on the Tea Party, whether that's what people want to hear is, who cares what people want to hear. It's what they should want to hear. The Tea Party has given you plenty of substantive ideas and plenty of substantive areas for which to criticize them. There's no need to just say go to hell. Doesn't really get anything accomplished.
COSTELLO: I wish we could continue this conversation.
NAVARETTE: Well, it fires up the base. It fires up the base.
COSTELLO: Yes, it does that. Charles Blow, Will Cain, and Ruben out in California. Ruben Navarette.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning -- Ali.
VELSHI: Thanks, Carol.
Still to come this morning, a medical breakthrough in the cause of Lou Gehrig's disease and what it could mean for a treatment. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live with the details. This is an interesting story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
A medical breakthrough may offer some help with people with ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease. Researchers say they found a common thread among patients that could lead to an effective treatment, one day maybe even a cure.
ROMANS: I know. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us now with this amazing story.
Sanjay, let's start with the basics. ALS is known as Lou Gehrig's disease. What is it?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is exciting stuff for sure, possibly finding a cause for this.
ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disorder which there's been certainly no cure and no effective treatment for some time. It affects all of the different muscles in the body.
Let me just show you here, if I can, for a second here. Think about the brain continuously sending impulses to the all these various places I the body, including the muscles. At some point, if this pathway here that's sending a message to the muscle starts to die off, what happens is the muscles eventually just stop working, they just have no function whatsoever and that can affect the diaphragm, as well, which is why people, about universally, three to five years don't survive this. The diaphragm simply stops working.
So you start to get paralysis in the hands and the feet first and it just moves progressively more and more toward the center of the body. Again, it's one of the most frustrating things I'll tell you to try to address in my world, the world of neuroscience. But now they think they found this protein that seems to be present in every patient they have been studying since the late 1980s that has ALS, this one protein. That's a big deal, it could be a cause.
COSTELLO: Sanjay, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean they're close to treating it or are they close to a cure?
GUPTA: Well, the science moves frustratingly slow for most people outside the world of science. I will tell you first of all, this protein, what they think it does, it's sort of a natural recycling mechanism for the body.
In all different places in the body you have cells that grow, you have cells that die, you have a mechanism to get rid of that clutter, if you will. They believe this protein called Ubiclin 2 is constantly sort of just recycling dead neurons and neurons that aren't functioning as well. If that breaks down you start to develop clutter so that is what they believe the mechanism is. And again, that's a big deal because people haven't known what causes this exactly for some time.
What does it mean in terms of treatment, which I guess is the important question? This protein could be a target. Is there a way to potentially take that protein and turn it back on again so the recycling mechanism starts all over? That's what they're hoping could happen. Who knows. That could be several years still down the line but this is how science moves here sometimes. A big sort of development like this and then lots of work afterward.
ROMANS: And it just focuses the resources and it focuses the attention of researchers. It just narrows down the possibilities and hopefully that helps longer term.
Sanjay, thank you so much.
GUPTA: Yes. Exciting stuff. Thank you.
COSTELLO: All right. We asked you to Talk Back this morning on one of the big stories of the day. We asked you this question: why isn't America more excited about its presidential contenders?
This from Bonner. "I'm not excited about the current presidential contenders because I'm not excited about America. Don't get me wrong. I'm a patriotic American. But since 2000, I've grown disillusioned with an American government that embraces rash decisions on both sides of the aisle, as opposed to moderate discussion, passionate promise and common sense."
This from BJ. "Americans would like to see our elected officials as public servants, people who are elected to represent the welfare of the people and the country. It seems it has become about the three P's. Power, partisanship and publicity. Who's running that's not partisan or seeking power or publicity? Where are the politicians who are true public servants looking out for us, the citizen of the country, not after their own political career."
And this from Fran. "Perhaps we're tired of this country being caught in the middle of a tug of war between the extreme left and right. The only victory in a tug of war is to pull the other side into the mud. The only way for us to move forward is for someone to step into the middle and start pulling the two extremes together.
Keep the conversation going. Facebook.com/Americanmorning.
I'm a little bit depressed after these.
VELSHI: Cheerier ones the next hour.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: We've been lamenting the death of the American Dream for 300 years, right, and it just keeps going on.
So ahead in the next hour, breaking news on the battle for Libya. Moammar Gadhafi's compound under attack right now. NATO is expected to brief us on the war right at the top of the next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
