Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

European Bailout Deal; Closer Look at Europe's Debt Deal; Polls: Romney on Top in First Four States; Perry May Skip Some Debates; "Occupy Wall Street" Arrests; "Occupy Oakland" Vigil; "We Decided To Kill Ourselves"; Defending Conrad Murray; Pentagon Experiencing Espionage Aimed at Stealing Underwater Drone Technology; Women Protesting in Yemen Against Government Crackdown on Demonstrators; 2011: A Year of Historic Upheaval; Polls: Romney On Top In Early States; Two Survivors Rescued In Turkey; Floodwaters Rising In Bangkok

Aired October 27, 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: Survey says, Mitt Romney. I'm Ali Velshi. A brand new poll showing Romney is out in front in the first four voting states and Rick Perry now hanging around Newt Gingrich.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A Madoff bombshell. I'm Christine Romans. What Ruth Madoff says she and her husband vowed to do together following Bernie Madoff's arrest nearly three years ago.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello. "Occupy Wall Street" protesters again storming the street of Lower Manhattan and last night, they were met again by police. Clashes break out. Arrests were made on this AMERICAN MORNING."

VELSHI: Good morning to you. It is Thursday, October the 27th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It is an incredibly busy morning.

ROMANS: It sure is. We start with Europe. It's in the news. Investors across the globe, it's the news that they've been waiting for, Europe striking a deal to address its long-running debt crisis.

This agreement made overnight after a marathon 11 hours of talks. That has sparked a major rally in Europe and Asia. U.S. stock futures are also significantly higher.

We begin our coverage this morning with CNN's Nina Dos Santos in Brussels, Belgium.

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After 11 hours of fraught negotiations here in Brussels, EU leaders did finally manage to come up with what they call a lasting and incredible agreement to solve the Eurozone debt crisis once and for all.

Here it is. In this 15-page draft communique that was released soon after they ramped up their talks. It aims to tackle three problems together and also unprecedented in their complexity.

These leaders decided to boost the Eurozone firepower or ESFF, the Eurozone bailout fund by no less than four folds or maybe even five folds to reinforce the problem of Greece and prevent countries like Italy and Spain from being infected by the same issues.

Also another particularly sticky point of discussion that took hours of negotiating was the issue of agreeing to a haircut or write down with private bondholders that owned Greek debt. They managed to push through proposals for a voluntary 50 percent haircut with those investors.

And last but not least, the banks that have had people worried for quite so long. It seems to be the last of these ministers' problems. They managed to push through early in the negotiations to recapitalize the European banks to the tune of 106 billion euros.

The question is, will it be enough? And how long will it take to put into place. Nina Dos Santos, CNN, Brussels.

VELSHI: Let's take a closer look at this deal. You may have been hearing about it around the edges. Let's talk about what it really is meant to do, what it solves.

Well, not only at least for now some of the Greek debt crisis. It also solves the instability of euro banks and the European bailout fund. What is it in deal specifically?

Well, private holders, meaning nongovernment holders of Greek bonds are taking as Nina said, a 50 percent haircut, 50 percent of the value of their investment is dropping. What that does for Greek debt. It drops its GDP -- debt to GDP ratio from 150 percent to 120 percent.

That is still pretty big, by the way, but it makes it a lot more manageable and there's also a new $100 billion International Monetary Fund package of money. This also boosts the impact of the existing EU bailout fund.

What's important in this deal? It creates new ways for others to invest in the EU and China, which has lots of money, could be a major investor. European banks need to increase their core capital. The safe amount of capital they have to 9 percent.

Here is the danger, though. In the long run, this deal may not be enough. We're still waiting to see what the reaction is as investors kind of particularly in the west start to wake up to this and study it and see whether it's enough. Some say it may not be enough.

ROMANS: When you talk about that core capital, so the amount of money that they have to have that is safe. It has the money in their bank that they can't be lending out 10 times, 11 times, 12 times in that big leverage, overleveraging that gets banks in trouble. So that starts to cause concerns about how much the economy can grow if banks are holding so much cash.

VELSHI: But can you imagine that the amount of core capital a bank has to lend, the minimum they have to have is 9 percent. I mean, I think the average person thinks that banks have a lot more cash on hand than --

ROMANS: Yes, they do.

COSTELLO: Absolutely do. Well, the early numbers, futures are looking good this morning.

VELSHI: That's encouraging.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

Now on to politics and the Republican battle for the White House. Brand new poll numbers zooming in on four key early states. In a race where we know momentum could mean everything. Mitt Romney is blowing out the field in two of them.

And Herman Cain is right there with him in the other two. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is live in Washington. Good morning, Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, Carol. You know, we talk a lot about national polls. Remember, there is no national primary. That's why these state polls are so important.

And as you said, these are the first four states in the battle for the nomination because it is a battle for states and delegates. So let's take a look at these numbers from CNN/ORC and "Time" magazine.

You could see right here in Florida. We'll start in Florida because Florida has become a real power player. Remember it will have its primary on January 31st. Look right there, Mitt Romney with a 12- point lead over former Godfather's Pizza CEO, Herman Cain.

One reason he's got that 12-point lead? He's doing really well with those at/or near the retirement age in Florida. And Carol, we know they are a really big factor in the sunshine state.

Let's go to New Hampshire. I guess you could say in New Hampshire its' home field advantage for Romney, why? They know him really well in that state. Remember he was governor of neighboring Massachusetts and a lot of southern New Hampshire and that Boston media market.

He has a home in New Hampshire. He spent a lot of time over there in the past few years helping Republican candidates. When you break down the numbers in New Hampshire, he leads among all of the subsets and we're talking about Tea Party supporters and even Christian conservatives -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Herman Cain, let's talk about him a little bit because he's much closer in a couple of other key states. So tell us about that. STEINHAUSER: Yes, and let's start with Iowa. Iowa is going to have its caucus on January 3rd. They're the state that always leads the calendar and they do this time. Let's take a look at that CNN/ Time and ORC poll.

And it's basically a dead heat. You've got Romney at 24 percent, Cain at 21, but that 3-point margin there for Mitt Romney is within the polls sampling error. Now when you break it down, what's happening here in Iowa, Carol, Romney is getting mostly of that establishment and moderate Republican vote.

Cain, Ron Paul, Gingrich, Perry and all of the rest, they seem to be dividing up the Tea Party vote and the social conservative vote in Iowa, which is pretty important.

Let's go to South Carolina, that's the first southern state to vote. They will have their primary on January 21st. It's kind of the same story. Romney and Cain basically all knotted up at the top.

And once again, Romney is getting more of the moderate vote and the establishment vote and the other candidates splitting the more social conservative vote and Tea Party vote.

And Carol, one of the things I think I want to tell you here is it's still October and our poll indicates there a lot of people that are undecided.

In fact, only about a quarter of the voters we polled say they're definitely made their mind up. They're sticking with their candidate. So things can change between now and the beginning of January -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You got that right. Paul Steinhauser live in Washington this morning. Thank you.

ROMANS: And you know, Rick Perry was right up there with Mitt Romney in the polls until the debates began. Now Perry is thinking about skipping some of the remaining debates. The Perry camp telling John King, he'd rather spend more time with the voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY SULLIVAN, PERRY CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: There had been eight Republican debates so far. Five since Governor Perry got in. We certainly respect the process, but when you have eight or nine candidates and 30 seconds to a minute, it takes valuable time away from campaigning in Iowa, as those elections approach.

JOHN KING, HOST, CNN's "JOHN KING USA": Do I take that as he's not -- are you saying he's going to look over the calendar and scratch some of them out?

SULLIVAN: John, there are I think 18 more in the planning phase. There's no way that the candidates can do all of those debates.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: All right, even Perry himself has said taking part in the debates was a mistake. Analysts have called his performance everything from unsteady to a flat out disaster. They're anywhere from a dozen to 18 more GOP debates in the works right now.

COSTELLO: Can you imagine 18 more debates?

VELSHI: I don't think it's fair to call anybody up there a disaster. You were at the last debate in Las Vegas where it was -- you know, a lot of people say, didn't really show up. That he wasn't in there, but to get up there and, you know --

ROMANS: Carol says disaster.

COSTELLO: Not in this last debate because Rick Perry did better although he got into that argument with Mitt Romney. And many of the audience told me they didn't really like that and diminished Rick Perry even more because he came off as petty.

So maybe it's a good idea for Rick Perry not to participate in 18 more debates although by like, you know, number 15 -- be good.

VELSHI: A lot of experts suggest that this crowd is going to thin out by February.

ROMANS: But he did 9 percent in the polls now. I mean, you think about how much heat there was around him before he was declared. You got to wonder what his camp is thinking right now about how to regain that heat. When everyone wanted him in, and he gets in, and now at 9 percent.

COSTELLO: What if he hadn't participated in debates until later? Because his campaign people knew debating wasn't his thing. So what if he had met with smaller groups of voters and talked to them one-on- one, which he's very good at and then practiced and participated in later debates?

VELSHI: Maybe he's going to try that out.

COSTELLO: We'll see.

VELSHI: All right, hundreds of Wall Street protesters took to the streets overnight to show their support for the "Occupy Oakland" movement.

As you can see, a number of clashes broke out after some of the protesters started walking in the street, something that the New York police have a problem with. They are blocking traffic, ignoring police orders to stay on the sidewalk. Ten people were taken away for disorderly conduct.

In Oakland itself, occupy protesters held a vigil for Scott Olson, a two-time Iraq war veteran, whose skull was allegedly broken during a fight between demonstrators and police on Wednesday night. Olson remains in critical condition. COSTELLO: A stunning revelation from Ruth Madoff, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Madoff says the burden of her husband's crimes was so heavy they attempted suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUTH MADOFF, WIFE OF BERNARD MADOFF: I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves, because it was so horrendous, what was happening. We had terrible phone calls, hate mail. Just beyond anything. And I said I can't -- I just can't go on anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ruth Madoff says they tried to overdose on pills, but they woke up the next day. Her husband now is serving a life sentence after his conviction for stealing billions of dollars in the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

VELSHI: Testimony at the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, is drawing to a close. The defense is set to call its final two witnesses.

Scientific experts say they hope will convince jurors that Jackson gave himself the drug overdose that killed him. Now in court yesterday, five character witnesses said Dr. Murray saved their lives.

Their testimonials brought Murray to tears at one point. They described him as a gentle, caring doctor. Not the inept opportunist that the prosecution has portrayed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW GUEST, CONRAD MURRAY'S FORMER PATIENT: That man sitting there is the best doctor I've ever seen.

LYNETTE SAMPSON, CONRAD MURRAY'S FORMER PATIENT: I have never had a doctor more caring, never, and Dr. Murray is a very caring doctor. He is a very thorough doctor.

GERRY CAUSEY, CONRAD MURRAY'S FORMER PATIENT: I've known him, I know him, know his love, compassion, feelings, for his patients. You can ask every one of them and they will say exactly the same thing. He's the most -- he's the best doctor I've ever been to.

DENNIS HICKS, CONRAD MURRAY'S FORMER PATIENT: I've gone to a lot of doctors, a lot of doctors. And I've never had one who gave me the care that he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: The jury in the Michael Jackson death trial could get the case early next week.

ROMANS: Amanda Knox's former Italian boyfriend says she and Knox have been speaking or writing to each other every day since they were acquitted of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith Kerchner earlier this month, that acquittal earlier this month.

In an interview with an Italian magazine, Rafaelle Sollecito also says he plans to visit Knox at her home in Washington. While they are no longer together as a couple, Rafaelle says he can't wait to see Amanda again and talk to her about the experience that nearly crushed them.

COSTELLO: The champagne still on ice for the Texas Rangers who lead the World Series three games to two over the St. Louis Cardinals. Last night's game six in St. Louis was rained out.

The Rangers and Cards will try again tonight with Texas. One win away from the first World Series championship in franchise history. If the Cards win, a seventh and deciding game will be played on Friday, unless, of course, it rains.

VELSHI: Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, the next generation of American drones could operate under water. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr tells us why many nations want to steal this technology.

ROMANS: Mexico in the crosshairs of Hurricane Rina. We're live in Cancun where they're bracing for a very dangerous storm surge right now.

COSTELLO: And U.S. embassies around the world consider President Obama's memoir required reading? The State Department under fire for spending thousands of dollars on President Obama's best sellers. It's 13 minutes past the hour. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. In recent months, the world has witnessed the remarkable power of American-made drones. Now, these unmanned aerial rockets, which you see here, have changed the course of wars. Now the U.S. is forging ahead with a new kind of drone. It operates underwater, and as Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports, some countries will do just about anything to get their hands on them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: They glide deep underwater, no crew on board. Sensors gather intelligence about everything from the movement of warships to port security. The U.S. military leads the world in developing these classified, unmanned underwater vehicles. Other nations, especially in Asia, are urgently trying to get their hands on them according to a new Pentagon report.

Targeting the U.S. with industrial espionage is a global problem. In 2010 the Pentagon witnessed a stunning increase of over 140 percent in attempts to get military information of all types. Industry reports everything from phone calls, asking for pricing and technical information, to cyber-attacks aimed at outright stealing.

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG : If it's a choice between stealing our technology and developing your own, it's a lot cheaper to try to steal our good stuff than to try to develop it with your own money.

STARR: Weapons expert John Pike says China is most likely behind most of the efforts to steal the U.S.'s underwater secrets.

PIKE: The Chinese are interested in underwater drones for the same reason that everybody else is. Over the last decade, we've seen this explosion of activity in aerial drones, and everybody believes that underwater drones will be the next great thing.

STARR: The Pentagon found more than 70 percent of all attempts to get access to this technology came from east Asian and Pacific nations, but the report does not name countries. It's a region getting increased military attention. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, now in Asia, promises stronger ties in the face of growing Chinese military power and an unstable North Korea.

LEON PANETTA, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We're going to maintain our presence. We're going to not only maintain our presence, but we're going to strengthen our presence in the Pacific region.

STARR (on camera): And, of course, there are commercial uses for this type of underwater technology as well -- monitoring fisheries, offshore oil drilling, and even looking for old shipwrecks.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, the White House now defending the State Department's decision to buy more than $70,000 of President Obama's books, saying embassies provide them to help advance U.S. foreign policy. The White House saying the decision was made by individual embassies around the world and that Washington had nothing to do with it.

"The Washington Times" first reported that embassies from Egypt to South Korea to Indonesia spent thousands of dollars to stock their libraries with copies of the president's memoir "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

COSTELLO: Also new this morning, Italian lawmakers literally at each other's throats. Check out these pictures from inside Italy's parliament. A dispute over pension reform apparently led to the parliamentary fisticuffs. The issue has been a hot topic of debate as Italy deals with its own debt crisis.

VELSHI: Kenyan trooped backed by tanks and aircraft are pouring across that country's border into Somalia. The offensive is aimed at rooting out Islamic rebels. The Kenyan air force reportedly launching airstrikes against several training sites used by the extremist militant group al-Shabaab.

ROMANS: Thousands of women in Yemen are taking a dramatic stand against a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. They burned their veils and head scarves in an unprecedented protest in that country. They accused the Yemeni government of killing women and children and they called on tribal leaders to speak out against the attacks.

COSTELLO: The Occupy movement now spreading to Pakistan. Around 75 people came together yesterday for an occupy Islamabad rally. The protests were aimed at the World Bank and what they call an unfair capitalist world.

VELSHI: Still to come this morning, Republicans furious over the botched fast and furious gunrunning program. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano getting an earful on Capitol Hill. We'll show you why one lawmaker could barely stay in his seat.

And a lawsuit against SeaWorld. We'll tell you what Peta is claiming about this popular tourist spot when AMERICAN MORNING continues. It's 22 minutes after the hour.

ROMANS: Welcome back. "Minding your Business" this morning. Right now markets are on track to open sharply higher, after European leaders reached an agreement finally overnight to deal with that region's debt crisis. Overseas markets are also significantly higher at this hour.

That agreement coming after a marathon 11 hours of talks. The plan involves three parts. Private investors holding Greek debt will take a 50 percent loss on their investment, and that will in turn reduce the amount of debt that Greece owes. It also shores up the region's banks and it creates a stronger, more dynamic bailout fund.

This morning we're waiting for the first estimate of how much the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter. Economists surveyed by CNN Money predicted 2.5 percent growth rate in the quarter. That report out in two hours, along with a new read on just how many Americans filed jobless claims for the first time last week.

Now, for the first time since last year's deadly Deep Water Horizon explosion, BP is getting ready to drill for oil again in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says it has been granted a drilling permit by federal officials. A spokesman for BP says work on the well will begin as soon as operationally possible.

A new milestone for women in business with the adding of Virginia Rometty as CEO at IBM and Heather Bresch at the helm of pharmaceutical company Mylan, there are now a new record number of female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. By the end of 2011 there will be a total of 18 women running these 500 of the largest American corporations.

AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Time for our top stories.

A new CNN/"TIME"/ORC poll showing Mitt Romney on top in the first four voting states. Romney with a double digit lead in New Hampshire and Florida. But Herman Cain is well within striking distance in Iowa and South Carolina. And Rick Perry plunging into single digits in some states.

VELSHI: Just weeks after Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme was exposed, Ruth Madoff says she and her husband tried to commit suicide together. She makes the stunning admission in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview. It's her first since Bernie Madoff's arrest back in December 2008.

ROMANS: Arrests were made after "Occupy" Wall Street protesters marched through Lower Manhattan last night to show support for demonstrators in Oakland who were pushed out of their encampment by police and tear gas. Police say at least 10 people in New York were taken into custody for disobeying orders that they have to stay on the sidewalks.

COSTELLO: Hurricane Rina bearing down on Mexico, the storm isn't packing much punch. And that's a good thing. Rina is now a category 1 hurricane.

VELSHI: On Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, they're bracing for an intense storm surge. And American tourists are worried vacation plans might be washed out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOANNE ANDREWS, PHILADELPHIA TOURIST: We were upset. We waited a long time to come here, and we thought we're going to have fun, and the first thing they told us is we have to evacuate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love the sun, I love the beach, and now everything's downhill.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just enjoying the last bit of sun we can get on the beach, so we'll be all right. They took real good care of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Reynolds Wolf, tracking Rina from the extreme weather center in the last -- 24 hours ago. I mean, Rafael Romo was telling us, if you weren't out by then, you're not going home.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. I would expect those conditions -- travel conditions to be relatively the same. But the storm itself, with Rina, there are going to be a few fluctuations. In fact, right now, we still have as it as you mentioned earlier is a category 1 storm. It is drifting to the northwest at about six miles per hour.

And over the next several days, we're going to see some fluctuations, which is usually the case of these tropical systems. It's going to move up a bit more to the north, up towards Cancun and Cozumel, and then veer off a bit more north easterly. And as we get into Sunday at 1:00 a.m., the latest forecast we have is 45 miles per hour maximum sustained winds and very, very week tropical storm.

But what's interesting, if you take a look at computer models, they go everywhere. Some of them have it going back over towards Florida, and two of them, in fact, some of pull it back towards Havana, Cuba, and some of them back and south across the Yucatan.

So, bottom line is, we really don't know where it's going to go in excess of, say, 72 hours or some of we'll watch it carefully. But no question, it is certainly going to cause some delays. Anyone trying to get out of Cancun is going to have a difficult time getting in, same situation.

If you are just trying to get to the airport, you might be facing some delays in New York and Philadelphia due to rain and win. The north, in Boston, same situation. Delays maybe a little bit less, about an hour or less. In Chicago and Detroit, low clouds and some showers could keep grounded. Some deal in D.C. Also, thunderstorms in Dallas, especially by late afternoon could cause problems.

And the thing that's going to cause the problem is this frontal boundary, to the extension parts of the Northeast, still down to the Central Plains. Top half of the system -- we got chilly conditions coming in. We have some video out of Denver, Colorado, yesterday, some 8 inches of snowfall in Denver, Colorado. Across parts of the great basin we go.

Very dry conditions and with the very dry condition and the wind picking up out of the West Coast, to San Gabriel and back into the Sierra Nevadas, we have that fire threat that will remain in effect through the weekend, as far south as San Diego. But for the Central Plains and the Midwest, the freeze threat, hard freeze, warning, watch, advisories in effect and in through tomorrow.

A lot of this cold air is going to shift off into the Northeast. In fact, by tomorrow morning from Buffalo, back to New York and even into Boston, chillier conditions. In New York City, you're going to be just away from that hard freeze warning and watch and advisories. That's some good news for you.

Let's pitch it back to you in New York.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Reynolds.

WOLF: You bet guys.

COSTELLO: Yes, thanks for that good news. Not looking forward to cold weather. I'll admit it.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano grilled on Capitol Hill about the botched Fast and Furious gun-running program which put illegal guns in the hands of drug cartels in an effort to disrupt the flow of illegal weapons south. It literally backfired and some of those weapons were found at the murder scenes of two federal agents.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee shocked to find out Napolitano never met with Attorney General Holder about the program. Take a look at this heated exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: I find that absolutely stunning. And for you to have two dead agents and to have never had a conversation with Eric Holder about Fast and Furious and about this is totally unacceptable -- totally unacceptable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your time is expired.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Mr. Chairman, I know Representative Chaffetz has his opinion on this matter, as the tone of his question reveals, but I would suggest that no one takes the deaths of agents more seriously than I. And also that one of the --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Attorney General Eric Holder has been subpoenaed for documents relating to the Fast and Furious program.

VELSHI: Also new in morning, the attorney for the parents of a missing 11-month-old Missouri toddler, a day after investigators say Lisa Irwin's parents have refused separate interviews. The Irwin's attorney says that the couple is not opposed to separate interviews. Lisa has been missing since October 4th. Tomorrow, police are scheduled to interview Lisa's 6-year-old and 8-year-old brothers.

ROMANS: All right. We're about to find out if killer whales are protected under the U.S. Constitution. PETA will file a lawsuit against SeaWorld. The 25-page complaint on behalf of five killer whales claims they are being held in slavery or involuntary servitude in violation of the 13th Amendment. SeaWorld calls the suit a baseless publicity stunt.

COSTELLO: Really?

And a piece of pirate treasure raised from the ocean floor. Crews have uncovered a one-ton cannon from the pirate Blackbeard's ship, 300 years after it wrecked off the North Carolina coast. Isn't this cool?

It will be on display at the maritime museum before being taken to a lab for some research. I love to see that.

ROMANS: All right. Still to come, it's been a year of history- making upheaval from the Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East and now to the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in America. What will history say about these two movements? CNN's go in-depth ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

You know, this has been a year of historic global upheaval. In the Middle East, the Arab Spring uprising drove Egypt's president out of office. And in Libya, a dictator of 42 years, 42 bloody years met his bloody end.

Here in the U.S., the "Occupy Wall Street" is building momentum. And in cities like Oakland, California, we're beginning see violent clashes with police.

This morning, we're taking an in-depth look at these movements, their similarities, their differences, and where all of this is heading.

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us. Ben has covered every Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East and just got his first look at the "Occupy Wall Street" in Lower Manhattan.

And, I should say, for years, have been covering people taking their displeasure to the street and trying to enact change in their government. So, where does "Occupy Wall Street" fit in this pantheon of street protest?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you have to realize that the Arab world has very unique circumstance. They've -- almost every one of these countries have been living under dictatorships for decades, brutal dictatorships -- where if you step out of line, you will be arrested, tortured, possibly executed in a dark room. So, they realized that they needed a long time to organize an effective uprising against the regimes.

And that's what happened in Egypt. It happened very suddenly, this January, but behind the scenes, behind closed doors, they were working and organizing and making contacts.

I think what we're seeing here in "Occupy Wall Street" is a genuine manifestation of unhappiness with the political and economic system. But it's more spontaneous. It's clear that even though there is a core of people who are dedicated and well-organized, it's attracted sort of motley group of people who don't know where it's going.

ROMANS: One of the thing you saw one there, you know, the Egyptian flag flying, beneath the American flag in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.

And we've heard from the very beginning, many of these organizers -- if you can call them organizers because their point is that they are not organized -- have said that they modeled themselves after the Arab Spring. And one of them who helped organized this movement in Egypt, you actually -- he was actually down in Zuccotti. You met him. His name is Ahmed Maher.

I want to listen to what he said quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED MAHER, EGYPTIAN ACTIVIST: They need more communication and more clear, united goals, united demands, and a plan on how to reach more people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: They say the point is they are not going to have a list of demands, that they are against the status quo. Are they going -- are they going to get more organized? Do they need to get more organized? Will that make them more effective?

WEDEMAN: That should they get more organized is that is definitely the case. Will it happen -- as I said, it's a beginning. And Ahmed Maher himself told me, this is the first step of the first step. They have a long way to go.

And he was a bit baffled by the whole thing. First of all, he, like I, was surprised by how small it is. When they took over the square in Egypt, we are talking about tens of thousands of people paralyzing a city of 18 million.

I was down there, I walked one block, and you wouldn't know anything was going on.

ROMANS: We have pictures of you in Benghazi that I find very moving. You know, seven months ago, you in Benghazi -- I mean, all of these people in the streets. I mean, look at you on this rooftop and the people behind you.

Can you compare that with "Occupy Wall Street," what they want, what they are fighting against, and I guess the emotional image of that?

WEDEMAN: I mean, you have to realize, 42 years of this dictatorship and they -- certainly, the first few days in Libya it was incredible, mind blowing. People would come up and wave about you know -- what they've gone through, how much they hated Gadhafi, how much they wanted basic rights, freedom and dignity.

There's not really a comparison with the United States, where life is relatively good.

ROMANS: Richest nation of the world, moving -- losing its status.

WEDEMAN: Losing its edge, but it's apples and oranges. The situation in Libya was completely different.

ROMANS: When you went to "Occupy Wall Street," did you feel the -- and we've noticed the people who are there, I mean, who really feel like they will change something.

WEDEMAN: Yes, of course, you feel the passion. I mean, you have to be passionate to sleep out there night after night. But it seems to be attracting a lot of other people who aren't really part of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Activists for Tibet, opponents to the Chinese communist party, and when you already have a small group like that, it's been diluted by all of these other people who have latched on to the movement.

ROMANS: When you look at Libya, because I want to end, you were such an expert of what is happening there, and it has been so monumental -- do you see this National Transitional Council moving forward in this country finally having the hope that it hasn't had for four decades? I mean, are you hopeful for the future for Libya here?

WEDEMAN: I'm hopeful in the long term. In the short term, it's going to be messy. If you look at every system, every country, where you have had a long dictatorship, followed by the end of it, like Yugoslavia, like Iraq -- there is going to be a period of uncertainty, chaos perhaps.

But Libya has a lot going for it -- it's got a small population, wonderful real estate on the Mediterranean.

ROMANS: Natural resources, unbelievable.

WEDEMAN: Most oil resources in Africa are relatively well educated population. So, I just think they need to get their political House in order. There are a lot of problems between the Islamists and the secularists, the military and the political, but in the long term, I think Libya will find its way.

ROMANS: If journalism is a rough draft of history, it will be quite interesting to see what the history books say about people, and people rising up here, there, all over the country, all over the world in 2011. Ben Wedeman, of course, on the front lines for all of it. Thanks, Ben -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a drunken, topless 128-mile-per-hour car chase. I don't think I can go on.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Say it! Say it!

COSTELLO: OK. In a G-string. Now, tell me you're not sticking around for that one.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: That's way more interesting than what I'm about to tease. Herman Cain's new ad featuring his chief of staff smoking on camera. Let's just say it was right in Letterman, Leno, and Conan's wheel house. Actually, it's pretty funny. You'll want to hear what they had to say about it. Forty-six minutes after the hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scott Olson is it at again. The inventor of rollerblades has a new way to move people around. This is skyride, a human powered elevated monorail.

SCOTT OLSON, ROLLERBLADES INVENTOR: My ideas have all been pretty much moving with the roller blades, and the row bike, the skyride.

BALDWIN: Skyride's capsules hang from a 12-foot track, and it can travel up to 30 miles per hour. No gas required. It gets its power from you. There are two versions, one where you row, and one you pedal.

OLSON: The important part of our development has been the actual drive system. You know, what allows people to propel themselves along that track, smoothly, quickly, efficiently, safely. So, we can adapt it to different people's needs.

BALDWIN: For Olson and his team, the sky is the limit. They expect sky ride at ski resorts in the near future, and eventually, they see it as a replacement for cars and buses in cities.

Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Forty-nine minutes after the hour. Here's what you need to know to start your day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (voice-over): New CNN/"Time/"ORC polls showing Mitt Romney on top in the first four voting states. Romney with double digit leads in New Hampshire and Florida. Herman Cain is well within striking distance in Iowa and South Carolina.

In a CBS "60 Minutes," Ruth Madoff says she and her husband were so distraught after his Ponzi scheme arrest in 2008, that they tried to commit suicide together on Christmas Eve that year.

Three days after an earthquake devastated Eastern Turkey, two more survivors have been pulled from the rubble. The death toll from Sunday 7.2 magnitude quake now stands at 471, with more than 1,600 people injured.

Heavy monsoon rains triggering the worst flooding Thailand has seen in half a century. Flood waters are rising in Bangkok. The government says it plans to open evacuation centers in eight provinces. Thousands of people forced to leave the city. More than 370 people have been killed since July.

Occupy Wall Street protests getting out of hand last night in the streets of Manhattan. Police arresting at least ten people. The group was marching to show their support for an Iraq war veteran who was hurt when Oakland police forced protesters out of their encampments using teargas.

And rain washed out the World Series last night. It's game six tonight in St. Louis. The Cardinals versus the Texas Rangers. This was first series washout since 2008 in Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (on-camera): That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's, what, 51 minutes past the hour.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Why do these things always happen in Ohio?

ROMANS: What, Carol?

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: A high-speed chase with the top down. Well, if it was a convertible, it would be normal, but in this case, it really wasn't. Police in Ohio say they were forced to chase down a car that hit speeds of 128 miles per hour on the highway. They put out the spike strips, and they finally brought the car to a stop.

VELSHI: Whoa! What's going on there?

COSTELLO: Oh, yes! That was the driver of the speedy car. She was topless, tattooed stumbling, and she had a G-string on and nothing else. She came out with her hands up, though. Did you see that?

ROMANS: Oh, she had sneakers on, too.

VELSHI: Good. Good. Always want sneakers.

COSTELLO: Anyway, she started kicking and screaming in the back of a police cruiser. Her name is 28-year-old Erin Holzworth (ph). I'm sure her mother is very proud of her this morning. She is now charged with a list of crimes, including DUI -- what a surprise -- and driving with a suspended license.

VELSHI: Wow.

ROMANS: You're from Ohio?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: That's how (INAUDIBLE), Carol?

All right. Pumpkins are pumpkins. Not hard to find in the suburbs of Detroit. They're rolling all over Interstate 696 yesterday, bouncing off cars, breaking windshields after a truck lost its load during the morning rush. And you know what, it's been so wet, the pumpkin prices are going up. So, that's a big --

VELSHI: That's not going to help.

ROMANS: That's a lot of inventory there.

VELSHI: All right. Halloween tradition in -- oh, look, Ohio.

(LAUGHTER VELSHI: The annual pumpkin roll in Chagrin Falls, just outside of Cleveland. High school kids tossing pumpkins down the hill. Most of them don't really roll, as you can see. They burst into piece, then the kids slide down all that slop. Everyone knows Halloween can get messy.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: That's the kind of clean fun we're used to in Ohio.

ROMANS: And everyone is wearing clothes.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: That's what we like to see in Ohio.

COSTELLO: OK. The stuff late-night dreams are made of. Herman Cain's new internet campaign ad that features his chief of staff, you know, dragging on the cigarette. It has triggered a firestorm of parody.

ROMANS: And that parody that our Jeanne Moos, you know, she had to hand out the first ever silver smokering (ph) awards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suddenly, everybody is pretending to smoke. And it's all because this man, Herman Cain's chief of staff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can take this country back.

(SINGING)

MOOS: Took one little drag in a campaign ad.

MARK BLOCK, HERMAN CAIN'S CHIEF OF STAFF: You know, I'm not the only one that smokes in America, for God sake.

MOOS: Now, everyone is inhaling his smoke, one parody even paraphrases Charlie Sheen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm on a drug, and it's called Herman Cain. Herman Cain has tiger blood.

MOOS: That's from a left-leaning political group in South Carolina asking Herman Cain, what are you smoking? Not since the famous witch ad --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a witch

MOOS: Have we seen a political spot so parodied? So, we thought we'd hand out the silvery smoke ring award to some of our favorites.

(on-camera) We award one measly smoke ring to the Letterman show for its video parody. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rich Lowrie (ph) here, chief economic adviser for Herman Cain.

(SINGING)

MOOS: And for all those who replaced the cigarette with booze, we award two smoke rings.

(SINGING)

MOOS: Our three smoke ring award goes to Conan's show for most imaginative prop.

(SINGING)

MOOS: We award Jimmy Kimmel and his crew four smoke rings for inventive voiceover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Herman Cain, and I approve cigarettes, and if that doesn't make me sound crazy, check out this smile.

MOOS (voice-over): Herman Cain's smile that takes eight seconds to develop prompted Stephen Colbert to challenge Cain to a slow smile contest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!

(SINGING)

MOOS: Colbert managed to stretch his smile 25 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be right back.

MOOS (on-camera): The coveted five smoke rings award goes to "The Colbert Report" for replacing smoking with sniffing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Herman Cain's personal assistant. We hope you share our vision.

(SINGING)

MOOS (voice-over): By the way, we'd like to bestow a shortened lifetime achievement award to the human smoke machine who provided us with our smoke screen.

Jeanne Moos, CNN. New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: I am still unclear as to what the genesis of that ad was.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: But Herman Cain is effective of getting people to talk about his stuff. ROMANS: His campaign manager was trying to be just like --

VELSHI: Every man.

COSTELLO: Every man, right? He said he ever go to a veteran (INAUDIBLE). Everybody's smoking like that. What I was trying to portray.

VELSHI: We are talking about it.

Coming up, Joe versus the reporter. We will hear from the self- proclaimed ambush reporter who got under the vice president's skin. Fifty-seven minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)