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American Morning
Cain's Shifting Story; JetBlue Apologizes; G20 Leaders Gather In France; FBI Releases Tapes of Spy Rings in U.S.; Occupy Wall Street Protestors Not Racially Representative of Country; We are the 99 Percent; Fatal Shooting on Bourbon Street; Cain: I was Falsely Accused; Will Dr. Conrad Murray Testify; Occupy Iowa Caucuses Planned; Cold Water Burns Calories; Overcoming the Voices in Her Head
Aired November 01, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. Herman Cain now fighting back against sexual allegation harassment and answering the question, do you have a wandering eye?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. He ran one of Wall Street's most powerful investment banks, but now former New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine, is in the midst of one of the biggest bankruptcy filings in financial history. What brought down Corzine's Wall Street firm -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It is Tuesday, November 1st already. Ali has the day off.
ROMANS: He sure does.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Up first, Herman Cain now saying, I never sexually harassed anyone. The GOP frontrunner defending himself against the political report citing unnamed sources that claims two women accuse Cain of inappropriate behavior during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association, you know, back in the 1990s. Last night on FOX News, Cain talked about a hand gesture he made, referring to a woman's height that may have been perceived as some kind of advance. But Cain says he didn't mean it like that at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN, (R), FORMER GODFATHER'S PIZZA CEO & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe I have a good sense where you cross the line relative to sexual harassment. But you have to know the -- the lady, the individual.
And if you look at my entire 40-year career and you look at the fact that I worked of the Department of the Navy, Coca-Cola, the Pillsbury Company, managed organizations, ran a region for Burger King, ran Godfather's Pizza and I get to the National Restaurant Association. Up to that point, not one accusation of sexual harassment, which meant that I did a pretty good job of knowing where to draw the line. I thought I had drawn the line and not infringed upon what was obviously perceived as sexual harassment on her part when I made that little gesture about her height and I can't honestly even remember what was in the accusation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Greta Van Susteren asked Cain basically whether he's too friendly for his own good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Got a roaming eye at all?
CAIN: A roaming eye?
VAN SUSTEREN: Yes.
CAIN: I enjoy flowers like everybody else.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know what I mean.
(LAUGHTER)
CAIN: No, not at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: Not at all?
CAIN: Well, I wouldn't say "not at all." It depends on what you mean and distinct to what you mean.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I'm trying to, you know, women see sexual harassment sometimes very differently than men.
CAIN: Correct.
VAN SUSTEREN: And you don't recall exactly and maybe it didn't occur, maybe there was no conversation. I mean, women -- look, women can make it up and they can be telling the truth and it's always, it's always just two people alone hard to tell. So, I'm trying to get a sense of whether or not you're one of those guys that are a little too friendly and little too cozy when you're with a co-worker.
CAIN: Here's what I can tell you. I know I never made any innuendoes with the lady that filed the complaint that we were talking about at first. None.
VAN SUSTEREN: Zero?
CAIN: Zero. Zero. None.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cain is creating even more questions because his story changed so much over the past two days. Cain is now acknowledging there was a payout involved, a big change from his denials just a few hours before.
COSTELLO: Yes. Also, let's bring in our CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also the editorial director at the "National Journal."
Good morning.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about Herman Cain. I guess we should look at how his answers changed yesterday, and the course of a few hours when he was asked specifically if there had been a cash settlement of any kind.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
COSTELLO: So, let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
CAIN: If the restaurant association did a settlement, I am not -- I wasn't even aware of it.
I am unaware of any sort of settlement.
I was aware that an agreement was reached. The word settlement versus the word agreement, you know, I'm not sure what they called it.
And, yes, that was some sort of settlement or termination, and I don't even know what the contents of that was.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
COSTELLO: So, Herman Cain kept shifting his story, even though his campaign knew that "Politico" was going to come out with this investigative report for a while, knew for at least, what, 10 days?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: So, what's going on here do you think is going on here, do you think?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, this is -- this is the flip side when you have an outsider candidate. I mean, this is someone who is not running for office and who is not really been vetted in other campaigns and who now, as a result, is being forced to kind of learn on the fly how you respond to a very serious allegation. And I -- you know, on the one hand, I think this is unlikely to completely sink and derail his campaign because his base is the most conservative part of the Republican Party, which tends to be pretty skeptical of the media, to begin with.
On the other hand, I think this will have a significant effect on his ability to grow or even to haul of that support.
And, Carol, it's not likely to go away until both he and the National Restaurant Association provide more information about what exactly happened and what was done and what kind of settlements, if any, were offered.
COSTELLO: Well, see? That's what I think. Maybe he should sit down because he's not bound by this confidential settlement, right? He can say anything he wants about it.
BROWNSTEIN: And he was asked -- right. He was asked to -- I believe he was asked to call on the restaurant association to release information without getting into the specifics of the women's name and so forth on exactly what happened. I think that would be the wise course.
I mean, you're talking about someone who could be the Republican nominee for president, potentially the leader of the free world. Certainly, all the relevant information about this while protecting privacy should be out there. And I suspect until it is, this story is not going to completely go away for him.
COSTELLO: You mentioned conservative support because some conservatives are coming out in support of him, including people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter saying, you know, it's a witch-hunt, it's the liberal media trying to bury Herman Cain.
I mean, is he really that -- I mean, is he really Teflon because other things that he said during the campaign, I've heard him, too, like on his stand on abortion, you know, the shifting thing he had there. You remember when he said there should be an electrified fence on the border and maybe let people coming over would be electrocuted, killed by that fence and then he said, oh that was just a joke.
BROWNSTEIN: I think we'll find out. I mean, look, part of what has propelled Cain is the desire to have an alternative to Mitt Romney, the previous aspirants of that title, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, haven't hold it very long. So, there is kind of a need, a demand side need for a candidate to fill the role that he is filling.
But, you know, there is not a lot of information out there about him, people don't know a lot about him. And if you're a more casual Republican voter and this is the first thing you learn about him, especially the shifting stories, that's not going to be something that's going to pull towards him. So, as I was saying, I think it really kind of imposes a sealing unless he is more able to effectively deal with the substance of these allegations and get a complete story out there of what's really going on.
COSTELLO: OK. So, let's talk about Mitt Romney who is probably sitting back and enjoying all of this because Herman Cain is sort of burying himself. But I do want you to listen to something we caught on "FOX News Sunday" after they had just interviewed Rick Perry.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: We have now interviewed all the major Republican candidates in our 2012 one-on-one series except Mitt Romney. He has not appeared on this program or any Sunday talk show since March of 2010. We invited Governor Romney, again, this week but his campaign says he's still not ready to sit down for an interview.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Romney really isn't granting interviews to anyone. I mean, George Will even came down on him this weekend. And he compared Romney to Michael Dukakis and he says he's not only becoming more unelectable, but he might actually damage Republican chances of winning the Senate.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, that not everyone -- I mean, obviously, George Will very eloquently expresses the conservative case against Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney is running what they use to call in basketball a four corners offense. I mean, he is, you know, trying to basically run out the clock on the race and has successfully kind of moved us back into the fall without really engaging with the others outside of the debates. Their feeling is they have a solid hole on their piece of the party and that none of these other alternatives have shown staying power.
So, they're just trying to keep the focus down and not really make any errors and they have been really very kind of consistently low key in that and it's worked for them because none of the other conservative alternatives to Romney have been able to sustain the spotlight.
COSTELLO: OK. I know you have some brand-new polls to show us, so take it away.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, so we do this congressional connection poll at the United Technologies/"National Journal" congressional connection poll, and the polling out this week really is a shot across the bow of both parties. We asked, do you want President Obama to be re-elected or do you want a Republican in the White House? Do you want the Republicans to hold the House or do you want Democrats to take back the House?
And, right now, on both of these questions, the public is in a firing mood. You have a narrow plurality that is tilting towards putting the outs in and throwing the ins out -- narrow plurality for Republican over President Obama, narrow plurality for Democrats over Republicans in the House. Neither of these deficits are insurmountable by any means -- but it does show the broad level of discontent that we are facing here.
And when you compare these polling results in particular to where President Obama was in 2008 or where the Republicans were in 2010, you see significant declines in their support in key groups. One particular thing that caught my eye, 28 percent of roughly 30 percent of minority voters said they wanted a Republican rather than President Obama in 2012. That's the measure of the fact that both young people and minorities, two of the absolute cornerstones of the his coalition are among the groups that have been the most hard hit by this recession and they've got to figure out an answer to that puzzle because they certainly need those voters in 2012.
COSTELLO: Fascinating stuff, Ron Brownstein, thanks, as usual, for joining us this morning.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Carol.
ROMANS: All right. It wasn't a great weekend for a couple of GOP contenders. Everyone is talking about Governor Rick Perry's very lively and all over the place speech in New Hampshire -- everyone including Jon Stewart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": So, Cain is possibly hobbled. Could Rick Perry, hurt by stiffness in his debate performances, seize the moment in New Hampshire this weekend.
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is such a cool state. Live free or die. I mean, it's like, live free or die. Victory or death. Bring it.
STEWART: You're overcorrecting. Don't worry, it gets worse.
PERRY: Texas Rangers, after 50 years, going to win a World Series! Oops. Today has been awesome, girl. Or that - 20 percent flat tax, put it on there, take your deductions off, send it in.
I grew up on a farm. I grew up -- I grew up on a farm. That little plan that I just shared with you doesn't force the Granite State to expand your tax footprint. You know what I mean. Like 9 percent expansion.
STEWART: All right. Best case scenario: that dude's hammered. Worse-case scenario: that is Perry sober and every time we've seen him previously, he's been hammered.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
ROMANS: So last hour I said I wanted to make sure, like they just cherry-picked some good spots out of a very long and otherwise sober speech. And, no, most of the speech was very animated like that -- energetic, animated, joking.
COSTELLO: He was like your crazy uncle after Thanksgiving dinner. You know, joking about stuff.
ROMANS: How do you know my uncle is like that?
COSTELLO: He was trying to be funny because humor seems to work in this political climate but before he took it --
ROMANS: There you go.
COSTELLO: OK. Still ahead, "Occupy Wall Street" activists are asking for help, to occupy Iowa. Details on their plans are getting Republicans and President Obama.
ROMANS: And the spies next door -- secret footage of a group of undercover Russian spies operating right here in the U.S. They were smart. They were tech savvy. Oh, yes, they were also caught on tape.
COSTELLO: And JetBlue takes to YouTube to speak directly to those passengers trapped aboard a JetBlue plane for seven long, ugly hours. They didn't have food or drinks or a bathroom. Hear the apologies, next.
It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Fourteen minutes past the hour.
Happening right now, a confrontation between "Occupy Portland" -- we're talking Portland, Oregon, protesters and the feds. Eight to 10 people now arrested. Forty officers on the scene, we're told.
It's a little different situation than we've seen in other cities because protesters have spilled over into federal property because the feds actually own the property near city hall and that's where the protesters are. The Department of Homeland Security has told these protesters to get off that land for some reason. They haven't really acted to do that. They're giving them some time, some unspecified timetable, and now, police are moving in to arrest a few of those protesters.
ROMANS: It's illegal to camp out on federal grounds, and it doesn't appear that anyone is really left. They say they're ready to be arrested there, and we're told that there have been eight to ten arrests in Portland, Oregon, from the Portland, the occupy Portland folks. So, this is a standoff.
You're right. A little bit different than we've seen, because this is the federal government involved here, not necessarily exactly city mayors.
COSTELLO: Yes.
ROMANS: All right. An apology from JetBlue. The airline facing millions of dollars in fines for leaving passengers stranded on the tarmac for seven hours in Hartford during that freak snowstorm on Saturday. JetBlue's chief operating officer offering up this apology in a video posted on YouTube.
ROB MARUSTER, COO, JETBLUE: We know we let some of you down over the course of this weekend, and for that, we are truly sorry. Going forward, we plan to fully participate with the Department of Transportation and cooperating with their investigation into the events over the weekend. And we're also going to conduct an internal evaluation so that we can learn from this event.
ROMANS: JetBlue faces a fine of $27,500 for each passenger that was stranded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (on-camera): Let's head to Atlanta and check in with Rob Marciano. So, JetBlue says, we're sorry.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'd be sorry, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: I just wanted to put you on the spot for some reason, and I apologize for that.
MARCIANO: Yes. It seems to happen every year. You know, some airline gets stuck in a bad position, and the passengers are stuck, as well, unhappily so. Good morning, again, guys. I want to start you out with some numbers coming out of Florida. The month of October just, you know, on the wet side, especially the southern half of Florida, typically gets 60, 70, maybe 80 inches a year, so they get between 15 and 20 inches in a month.
That's certainly unusual and considering they didn't really see any sort of landfall and a tropical system. Let's look at some of the video coming out yesterday. A lot of this rain came in about 24 to 36-hour period and, OK, well, that's Connecticut storm video. And there's your Miami flood video. So, there you go. Tremendous amount of rain yesterday.
In some cases, over four inches of it, and that's just not enough for those areas to handle that situation. In Connecticut, they still have 690,000 people without power and just clearing the roads and clearing the power lines that are down just to get the crews in there has been an obstacle, and a lot of folks are chipping in to do their part, some of the communities there.
Temperatures today will, of course, get above freezing. It' about 56 degrees in New York City, and that is right around where you should be for this time of year as a matter of fact. So, to get 20 inches of snow just north of New York City when you average almost 60 degrees, that's certainly a remarkable storm. Sixty-nine degrees expected in Atlanta.
Fairly quiet the eastern third of the country. This storm just strapping (ph) down in the intermountain west, and this has prompted a winter storm warnings in more usual spots. Although, the high plains will get several inches of snow from Denver back through parts of Western Nebraska, and this will usher in a decent shot of cold air, which this time of year, if the high pressure is strong enough, we'll get Santa Ana winds.
And we do expect that to happen tonight and tomorrow. So, our friends in Southern California expect high fire danger with winds gusting 40 to 60 miles an hour, but it will be a dry and sunny always to start your day today. Guys, back up to you in New York.
ROMANS (on-camera): All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet. COSTELLO: Now is your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, will sexual harassment accusations sink Herman Cain? You've heard this ever shifting story by now.
Starting out with a report on Politico, two women accuse Cain of sexual impropriety in the 1990s back when Cain was chief honcho for the National Restaurant Association. At first, Cain's camp says the Politico story was false and a witch hunt. Then, Cain denied there had ever been a cash settlement, until he didn't.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am unaware of any sort of settlement.
I was aware that an agreement was reached.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Yes, by the time Cain was on Fox News, he had an epiphany. Not only did he remember there was a cash settlement, he remembered the exact gesture that made one of his accusers uncomfortable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAIN: She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying, oh, -- and I was standing close to her. And I made a gesture, you have the same height as my wife and brought my hand -- I didn't touch her -- up to my chin and said, you're the same height as my wife because my wife comes up to my chin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: None of this means Cain is guilty of anything, but his shifting story matters to those who represent victims of sexual harassment. If Cain is elected president, he will be head of the largest workplace in the nation. As attorney and women's advocate, Gloria Allred, told me that president must be the gold standard of employers. Didn't we learn anything from the Clinton era?
So, the "Talk Back" question this morning, will sexual harassment accusations sink Herman Cain? Facebook.com/americanmorning. Facebook.com/americanmorning. I'll read your responses later this hour.
ROMANS: All right. A check of the markets up next.
Plus, Wall Street and the world markets rattled by the sudden bankruptcy of MF Global. This is a brokerage firm run by former New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine. How bad is this meltdown? How did it happen? Could it even be biggest failure since Lehman Brothers? Biggest bankruptcy, one of them, in corporate history. It's 20 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's 24 minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Will the Federal Reserve take any bold steps to boost the U.S. economy? We'll find out soon. Fed policy makers begin a two-day meeting today. We'll get an announcement on interest rates tomorrow.
U.S. markets are expected to take a hit at the opening bell. Right now, U.S. stock futures are down on fears a new Greek referendum could jeopardize Europe's bailout deal.
The world's most powerful political leaders are gathering in France for this week's G20 summit. Europe's debt crisis expected to dominate those talks. At the summit, President Obama is also expected to push for his latest jobs bill which remains stalled in Congress.
MF Global, a financial firm run by former New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine, has filed for bankruptcy. The firm filed for chapter 11 after bad bets on Europe helped to put the company's $39.7 billion in debt. And also, according to government agencies, the company may have millions of dollars missing from its balance sheet.
Joining me now to talk about all of this William Cohan, "Bloomberg View" contributor. This is a company run by a very powerful political figure. For ten years, he was in politics, Jon Corzine. What happened here? Did he take his Goldman Sachs credentials of more risk, more risk, more risk and bury this firm?
WILLIAM COHAN, BLOOMBERG VIEW CONTRIBUTOR: But Christine, unfortunately, that's exactly what he did do. Even though he has not sat on a trading desk as a trader for 25 years because in the interim period, he ran Goldman Sachs, and then was, as you said, in politics. He comes to MF global in March of 2010 determined to make this firm, which was basically considered a sleepy back water into a major risk taker in the markets.
He thought there was an opportunity to make this firm more like Goldman Sachs, to make it -- to redeem his reputation, actually done far from Goldman Sachs, to come into this firm and make it into a power in the market. And unfortunately, he took this major risk and, as we have learned all too often, it's all about confidence. If you lose confidence in these firms, you don't have anything.
ROMANS: And that risk was at a big discount, he bought the debt of some of these countries in Europe, the debt that has been downgraded and downgraded.
COHAN: Which may work out.
ROMANS: Right. But the market has lost confidence.
COHAN: Exactly.
ROMANS: So, what does it mean? I know that commodity's markets. There were commodity's brokers who couldn't do their deals because they were backed by MF Global. There was a lot (INAUDIBLE) Wall Street and commodities and world markets about this, what is the impact of this for the marketplace?
COHAN: Well, I think there's good news and bad news. I mean, relatively good news. I mean, it's none of it's good news, especially for the 2,800 people who may lose their jobs at MF Global, but the relative good news is that, this is not a Lehman Brothers. This is not a Bear Stearns. This is not a Merill Lynch or an AIG.
This is a relatively small broker dealer that has relationships, yes, with sophisticated institutional investors around the world, and so, their deals, their various trades and the money they have at this firm, if it can, in fact, be found as you alluded to in your opening --
ROMANS: Right.
COHAN: That's going to take years to work out. I mean, we're still -- the Lehman bankruptcy situation is now three plus years later, still in bankruptcy. Creditors still haven't gotten their money whatever it is they're going to get. This is going to take a long time.
ROMANS: How so soon after Lehman could we be talking about a mini-Lehman?
COHAN: You know, that's the outrageous thing about this, Christine. I mean, here's a guy who was co-head of Goldman Sachs and the head of it by himself. He was a governor and senator from New Jersey. A very, very smart sophisticated guy, and yet, pulling the same kind of stunt that he knows that he should not be in effect lending long and borrowing short.
What I mean by that is he shouldn't be making this big investment in the discounted debt of European sovereign nations, at the same time, relying on overnight short-term funding or close to overnight short-term funding to run his business. You can't do that. We learned that in Spades (ph) three years ago, and yet, here he is doing it again.
ROMANS: We have calls into the company, and of course, into him for request for an interview.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Right. But this is clearly something that is really caused a lot of head scratching on Wall Street that it could happen again so soon on a much smaller scale, but still, the biggest financial bankruptcy since Lehman Brothers.
COHAN: Absolutely. One of the six largest bankruptcies in all time.
ROMANS: In history. All right. William Cohan, "Bloomberg View" editor --
COHAN: Thank you.
ROMANS: -- Contributor, thank you so much for joining us -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Coming up next, Russian spies caught on tape. New FBI video show under cover Russian operatives in action. A rare glimpse into their behavior. It's 28 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO,: It is 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning to you, time for your top stories. A Halloween blood bath on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, two people killed, 15 others wounded in four separate shootings. That's according to CNN affiliate WWL.
ROMANS: A big day today in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray has until the start of court this morning to decide if he will testify in his own defense. As of yesterday, Murphy said he was undecided.
COSTELLO: From bankers to the ballot, I should say. Occupy Wall Street protesters are now threatening to shut down the Iowa caucus. Organizers say they plan to gather in Iowa one week before the vote is held on January 3rd. They plan to occupy the campaign offices of all the candidates, and that includes President Obama's campaign offices.
ROMANS: After struggling to respond for more than 24 hours, Herman Cain now says he never sexually harassed anyone. The GOP frontrunner reacting to a report that at least two women accused him of inappropriate behavior back in the '90s. Last night on FOX News, he also talked about a gesture that may have triggered one of those claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's the one incident that I recall as the day has gone on. She was in my office one day and I made a gesture saying, oh, I was standing close to her. And I made a gesture, "You have the same height as my wife," and brought my hand, didn't touch her, up to my chin and said, "You're the same height as my wife because my wife comes up to my chin," my wife of 43 years. And that was put in there as something that made her uncomfortable as part of the sexual harassment charge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cain also acknowledging there was a payout involved, a big change from his denials of a payout yesterday.
COSTELLO: Spies operating in broad daylight right here in the United States. The FBI has now released video of the red headed bombshell Anna Chapman and other Russian spies conducting their business here in the U.S. It's from an undercover surveillance operation called "Ghost Stories." Foreign Affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty joins us live from the State Department this morning. And usually you have to get, you know, pay 20 bucks to get a ticket to see this kind of stuff.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No popcorn. You do not need popcorn for this because it's the real thing. The FBI was tracking them for about 10 years and here's the result.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: Just in time for Halloween, the FBI releases a treasure-trove of videos, photos and heavily edited documents from operation ghost stories. A coincidence the FBI says, but it's an undercover peek at how a Russian spy ring collected and passed on information and how the FBI trailed them and finally cracked the operation.
In one video from January 2010, Anna Chapman, the redheaded bombshell who later went on to fame in Moscow as a TV host, sits in a New York coffee shop wearing designer sunglasses, unknowingly talking with an undercover FBI agent about problems with her laptop that she uses to communicate with Russian officials.
"You are ready for the next step, OK?" He asks. "OK," she says. "This is not laptop to laptop. This is person-to-person," the agent says. In another video, the classic spy technique a brush pass as another spy trades off a bag full of cash with a Russian official as they pass in a train station.
The FBI was forced to release the material recorded over the decade the FBI had the 10 Russians under surveillance as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, and it looks just like a spy movie. Including one Russian digging up a package of money from what in spy lingo is called a "dead drop." This spy ring is over, but the FBI says it's not the end of the story.
FRANK FIGLIUZZI, FBI: The U.S. remains the target of most of the world's spying. And, again, as long as we have policy information, technology and research that the rest of the world wants, and as long as foreign intel services want to gain a strategic advantage against us, we'll continue to be the target of that kind of spying.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: And you know we're kind of laughing about this because of Anna Chapman and she's endlessly fascinating, of course. But there really are, as you heard from the FBI agent there, serious considerations. There are spies who don't look like Anna Chapman who are trying to get information in the United States. And also don't forget the U.S. has spies abroad. So, it's a big business and a very serious one right now.
COSTELLO: In looking at that video, I mean, I remember initial stories about this Russian spy ring that came out saying they were kind of inept and amateurish. Did anything from the video tell you that, Jill?
DOUGHERTY: Not necessarily. I think initially the way it was interpreted is they were amateurish because they weren't getting sensitive, let's say military secrets. But that's not what they were supposed to be doing. They were supposed to be getting information on American culture, influential people, things like that, cultural directions, financial business, things like that.
So, I think that although they never really did, apparently, according to the FBI, get anything that was very serious and compromising, they could have. And this is just one other thing that spy agencies around the world want to collect, where societies are going.
COSTELLO: Right. Well, one thing Anna Chapman did do, she became a star in Russia. It all paid off for her.
ROMANS: In almost an American way, actually. Cross cultural influences. All right, thanks, Jill.
Up next, the Occupy Wall Street movement. Do members really reflect the 99 percent of Americans they claim to represent? Where are the blacks and Hispanics among those 99 percent? Why aren't more men and women of color joining in this cause? CNN goes in depth on this.
It's 36 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: New developments this morning from Occupy Portland, Oregon. Eight to 10 people arrested in just the last hour, and dozens of officers in riot gear are at the scene there. The Department of Homeland Security is involved because protesters spilled over on to federal land. And they were warned it is illegal to camp there on federal grounds. So far, everything has remained peaceful. Stay with CNN for any further developments on this.
"We are the 99 percent," a familiar battle cry of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. But when you break it down by class and color, the group is not exactly representative of the real 99 percent of Americans. Our next guest says embracing race will be key to this movement's success. CNN is "In Depth" this morning with James Peterson, director of Africana Studies and Lehigh University. He joins us live this morning from Philadelphia. Good morning.
JAMES PETERSON, DIRECTOR OF AFRICANA STUDIES, LEHIGH UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
ROMANS: So when you look at the 99 percent, it's not really the 99 percent when you break it down by racial and even socioeconomic lines. Tell me why.
PETERSON: Well, there are a number of different reasons why. This is a fairly complex issue. I think, first and foremost, when you think about a protest of this nature and you think about the way we want to include black folk and people of color, they will have to encounter the police in these kinds of protests, right?
So the relationship between the police institutions and communities of certain color and communities of certain class makes the participation in Occupy Wall Street skewed a little more towards people who don't have that same kind of negative history with confrontation with police.
So I think we should understand, there is some reluctance but the great thing is that Occupy Wall Street understands this and kind of working internally to become more representative of the 99 percent.
ROMANS: Let's talk about that. Florida University went down to the New York City protests, and that was in October and they surveyed the crowd. This is what they found. Almost 70 percent of the people on Occupy Wall Street were white, 10 percent were Hispanic, 10 percent were black, seven percent were Asian. When you compare that with New York city's makeup you can see the people who have the time or the means or the impetus to protest are not exactly representative of the 99 percent here.
Many people have pointed out to me, as well, that if you're working two jobs just to get by, you don't have the luxury of going down there. If you're taking care of three little kids, you can't go down there. Maybe you're letting this progressive group speak for you.
PETERSON: That's the irony of the situation is that the folk who have a little more autonomy in their careers, a little bit more financial autonomy may not represent the full range of the 99 percent, but they have more time and actually a little bit leeway to go down there and protest, and, yes, they do have to represent.
What's interesting is that every issue that Occupy Wall Street addresses is an issue that is central to the communities that want to be represented there. So if you want to talk about income disparities and poor folk experience the worst income disparities in this country.
And so one thing that we need to consider here is that Occupy Wall Street, those numbers are not that bad. It's not strong for New York. New york numbers as you mentioned here, blacks are around 27 percent, Latinos around 26 percent. Those numbers are not that great for New York. If you look at those nationally, they're not that bad.
A lot of other movements, the Occupy Harlem movement, there's the Occupy Hip Hop movement that other folks are talking about getting started. When you pull all those movements together and just look at the energy and attention that is being paid to Occupy Wall Street, I think they're going to get it right.
What's interesting, if you think about the Tea Party or you think about the one percent, no one talks too much about the racial makeup of those groups. When we look now at Occupy Wall Street, there's an internal push to become more diverse and more representative.
ROMANS: And you look at some of the groups that have been swept up in the Occupy Wall Street. There is the green movement and there's, you know, there's free Tibet. Sometimes you see a lot of anti-war folks. Some of those groups individually also have not really embraced race as one of their core, I don't know, one of their core messages. So that also feeds into it.
PETERSON: It's another limitation, I would say, as well, that those groups, especially the green movement, the issues they are talking about are issues that affect black folk, brown folk, and a diverse populations sometimes in worse ways than the mainstream population.
We have to, obviously, as a community and, obviously, as organizations become much more progressive about these issues. There's an organization in Philadelphia called professionals for progress or P2 that really was at the forefront of this move to try to get the banks to understand that they should not be charging these exorbitant debit card fees. You see that get absorbed in Occupy Wall Street, but I wonder to what extent it is acknowledged that's it's actually black and brown folk who are organizing around some of these issues and really contributing to some of this movement. They're just not always at the forefront.
ROMANS: And you look at the legacy of the Civil Rights movement. It changed America. So many saying that this is going to be our modern civil rights movement or the genesis of it. It needs to be more inclusive. You think that will happen?
PETERSON: I think it's -- I think it is happening. I think what we have to understand and we have to be patient here that Occupy Wall Street wants to be more diverse. There's plenty of black and brown groups out there that want to be part of this movement. And that already are part of this movement.
ROMANS: Right.
PETERSON: We just have to work together in a very organic way to bring those -- those things together. And I -- I think that's already happening, I think that's already happening.
ROMANS: All right, James Peterson, Director of Africana studies at Lehigh University. Nice to talk to you this morning. Thank you so much for dropping by.
PETERSON: Thank you for having me.
ROMANS: "Morning Headlines" are next.
PETERSON: Thank you.
ROMANS: Its 45 minutes after the hour.
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COSTELLO: It is 48 minutes past the hour. Here are your "Morning Headlines."
Two people have now been arrested after bloodshed on Bourbon Street during Halloween night. Two people were killed, ten others wounded in four separate shooting last night. That's according to CNN affiliate WWL.
Herman Cain now saying he never sexually harassed anyone after a request, after a report rather that at least two women accused him of that back in the '90s. Cain now also acknowledging there was a cash payout after denying he knew anything about such an agreement.
A big day in the trial of doctor -- of Michael Jackson's Dr. Conrad Murray has until the start of court this morning to decide if he will testify in his own defense. Closing arguments and jury deliberations could begin as early as Thursday.
Occupy Wall Street protesters threatening to shut down the Iowa caucus. Organizers say they plan to gather in Iowa one week before the vote is held on January 3rd. They're calling it the "First in the Nation Caucus Occupation.
Markets open in 45 minutes; right now the markets are on track to extend their losses from yesterday. The DOW, NASDAQ and S&P 500 futures all trading lower because of concerns about Europe's bailout deal.
1.7 million people without power in five states are being told they may have to wait until Friday until the lights and heat come back on. Almost half of those outages are in Connecticut where dozens of shelters have now been set up. Last weekend's nor'easter left at least 13 dead.
Heavy rain triggering flash flood warnings in two south Florida counties. Police in Miami-Dade, and Broward Counties have already rescued several stranded drivers. And in some neighborhoods homeowners are being told to stay indoors.
And a special honor for the crew of the space shuttle "Atlantis." Three months after flying the final shuttle mission they'll get to meet the President in the Oval Office this afternoon. "Atlantis", of course, was the last mission for NASA's shuttle program.
That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING back after a break.
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ROMANS: All right. Good morning, Atlanta. Sunny and 40 right now; it's going to be 68, a high of 68 later today.
All right, in "Am House Call" now drinking ice cold water could be an effective way for overweight kids to burn calories even if they're not active or exercising. Boys and girls age seven to 12 were tested in the new study. The cold water appears to increase the number of calories a child's body burns in order to maintain normal function in a resting state.
COSTELLO: Wow.
ROMANS: If you replace the cold water with soda and orange juices and all of the things that are full of sugar, that's probably a good bet, to do too.
COSTELLO: Absolutely.
If you toss and turn a lot at night, chances are you could use a little company. According to a new study of 95 adults those with the greatest frequency of sleep problems also reported the highest degree of loneliness.
ROMANS: Now she told the voices in her head that she was in control, now one woman is helping others do the same. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with this encouraging story from any -- for anyone who suffers from mental illness.
This is today's "Human Factor."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEY SMITH, HAS PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA: I heard voices. I saw images of people following me that scared me.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ashley Smith knows what it's like to nearly lose it all.
SMITH: I felt my life was in danger. I felt like my family members and strangers on the street were against me.
GUPTA: When she was in college, her sanity started slipping away.
SMITH: I thought everyone was against me.
GUPTA: Overwhelmed, Ashley blamed it on stress.
SMITH: I would pray a lot about it and I thought that if I just continue to cope with it the best way I knew how that I would get through it.
GUPTA: But she didn't. Ashley stole a military truck and led police on a high-speed chase. She ended up in jail. Two months went by before Ashley received the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia along with treatment.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness says more than two million Americans have schizophrenia but in the African-American community, mental illness is often misunderstood and is not often discussed.
But Ashley did something remarkable. She decided to be open about her diagnosis with the goal of helping others.
SMITH: Do I look like a person with schizophrenia? There is no face to this illness --
GUPTA: Today she helps train law enforcement officers. They learn to recognize signs and symptoms of people with mental illness to help the officers intervene in a crisis. Ashley has also started her own non-profit organization, "Embracing my Mind", which helps low income and homeless people with mental illness get help. She is studying to be a therapist.
SMITH: It's a life-long process to overcome schizophrenia. I do it through my medication, my support network, which is my treatment team and my peers and family.
GUPTA: Ashley hopes sharing her story would reduce stigma surrounding mental health.
SMITH: For those people that are newly diagnosed or who are still suffering or struggling with this illness, so there are going to be ups and downs but it is very manageable and that you can succeed.
Thank you all --
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: We asked you to "Talk Back" on our question of the day. The question is, will sexual harassment accusations sink Herman Cain? Your responses, next.
It's five minutes to the top of the hour.
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ROMANS: Washington, D.C., mostly cloudy, 46 degrees. Partly cloudy, 60 later on today. 23 days to go until that super committee makes their decisions. Counting down the clock.
COSTELLO: Not very long now. Let's talk about a man who wants to be in the White House there, the subject of our "Talk Back" question this morning. We asked "Will sexual harassment accusations sink Herman Cain?"
This from Mohammed, "Totally unnecessary. His campaign would have sunk on his own. Now he will be made to look like the victim of the liberal machine. Bad strategy.
This from Maureen. "By the time this sexual harassment nonsense is" -- wait, I'm not reading this right -- "The sexual --
ROMANS: The time it's getting --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: The time it's getting -- there are some words left out here, Maureen and I apologize for that; it's probably my fault. "The time that this sexual harassment nonsense is getting is an attempt by the liberal media to deflect attention away from the real economic issues. They know Mr. Cain will beat Obama and they are scared to death. They are grasping at straws."
This from Eric. "This allegation will most likely sink his campaign, not because of any truth to the accusations but because this issue will be the focus of the inside The Beltway media outlets. These media owners will latch on to this and pound it into the ground so as to clear out any opponents of the sitting president.
And this from Dennis, "He's done. He's treated the whole thing quite flippantly and has told different stories. The truth doesn't change, only lies do. I wouldn't trust Cain to change my oil or sell me pizza, much less run my country. No thanks."
Please, keep the conversation flowing. Facebook.com/Americanmorning. And thanks, as always, for your responses.
ROMANS: All right. That is going to wrap it up for us at AMERICAN MORNING here today. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now. Good morning Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning guys. Boy, I think of all the times I've harassed Carol Costello, and I'm still friends with her. It's absolutely remarkable.
Have a great morning, guys.
COSTELLO: It's a good thing I got that cash settlement from CNN.
PHILLIPS: No, no. You and I made an agreement, we'll move on.
