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New Day Saturday

Who Stands with U.S. in War Against ISIS?; NFL Star Adrian Peterson Indicted on Felony Child Abuse; Palin Party Brawl; Legality of U.S. Anti-ISIS Action in Syria; Apple Pay is Cool but is it Safe?; Human Body Used for Art

Aired September 13, 2014 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The White House says we are at war with ISIS. The question is, who is with us? Secretary of State John Kerry is in Cairo this morning looking for some assistance, some support in this coalition. He speaks this hour.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And he is one of the top players in the NFL, but this morning Adrian Peterson is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons after an indictment on some sort of child abuse.

BLACKWELL: And the birthday bash that turned into an ugly brawl, allegedly. Is the Palin family responsible here?

PAUL: Your NEW DAY starts now.

(MUSIC)

PAUL: Grab the coffee, OJ, whatever it is that gets you going in the morning here and just stick with us for a while. We'll get you informed. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. 8:00 here on the East Coast and this is NEW DAY SATURDAY. We're awaiting comments from the Secretary of State John Kerry; he is in Cairo in this morning. He was in Turkey yesterday building this coalition, especially in the neighborhood, let's say. People there who are in close proximity to this fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

He has said that it would be not a good idea, and I'm paraphrasing here, to bring Iran into this conversation, at least publicly. Because, and we'll talk about this, in the neighborhood there will be some role for Iran to play even if they are not part of this coalition.

PAUL: Of the coalition formally. Right. But it does have a lot of people, as they have been saying for a long time, where are the Arab nations and will they be part of this coalition? But Secretary of State is coming before Congress, remember, on Tuesday to detail the Obama administration's strategy to degrade, dismantle, and ultimately destroy ISIS. And that is a quote.

BLACKWELL: Yes, but before he heads to the capital there, he is in Cairo this morning. As we said, he's working to build this international coalition against ISIS. And while Secretary Kerry says the U.S. is not at war with ISIS, others in the Obama administration says, yes, the U.S. is at war with ISIS.

CNN's Erin McPike tells us more about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our objective is clear.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): As the president and his team piece together a strategy to fight ISIS, they are getting tripped up by one word. Is this war?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way we are at war with al Qaeda and its al Qaeda affiliates all around the globe.

MCPIKE: Whatever it's called, concern about terrorism has shot up in recent months. We asked Carroll Doherty from the Pew Research Center why American public opinion is increasingly volatile.

CARROLL DOHERTY, PEW RESEARCH CENTER: It's a moving target at this point. I think there's -- ISIS has gone from not being on the public's radar to front and center for the public in a very short period of time.

MCPIKE: In August, a Pew poll showed 67 percent consider ISIS a major threat. A new CNN poll shows 76 percent of Americans want more air strikes over is targets. But Doherty, Pew's political research director, says --

DOHERTY: The public does set limits even with the rising concern about ISIS, the rising concern about terrorism, 60 percent of so said CNN's poll said no ground troops.

MCPIKE: Like Gary Warren from Boca Raton.

GARY WARREN, BOCA RATON, FLORIDA: I'd be OK with them having to drop bombs. Boots on the ground is not OK.

MCPIKE: Theresa Cullens from Pittsburgh.

THERESA CULLENS, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: I think they need to get involved. I don't know to what extent. That's kind of a touchy subject.

MCPIKE: And Thomas Gage from Washington.

COL. THOMAS GAGE, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): I go along with Obama; I agree no boots on the ground. I don't think there is a direct threat from ISIS now but I think there will be eventually.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: And McPike joining us now live from the White House, along with Elise Labott with Secretary Kerry in Cairo. To Elise, let's talk to you first here. What's Kerry likely to tell lawmakers? How is he going to get them on board with this coalition?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't think it's a really hard sell, Christi and Victor. Because you've heard a lot of Congressmen not only in the Republican Party but also Democrats saying this is a big threat. Obviously the gruesome beheading videos of those two American journalists show that the group is a threat to U.S. interests.

I think what Secretary Kerry will do, which is to lay out the strategy a little bit more detail that President Obama did in terms of how he is going about assembling an international coalition. As you know, yesterday he announced retired General John Allen who will be coordinating this international effort, so he'll talk about that. He'll talk about who might be supportive of that. And he'll talk about some of the areas that they want to focus on. Not just the military campaign. That's what everybody is focused on, but this is a very multifaceted strategy which will include obviously cracking down on the foreign financing, which is giving ISIS the money to recruit fighters and also to sustain itself, and also cutting down on the flow of foreign fighters.

And, lastly, this is also a messaging campaign. So he wants to explain how he is asking the international community to use their religious leaders, use Arab media, everyone they can to send the message that the U.S. is united with the international community against ISIS.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk more about this event that's happening on Tuesday with Congress and go to Erin McPike at the White House.

We often hear from politicians that they don't govern by polls, but what could be the impact of these polls that show that a strong majority of Americans support air strikes to fight ISIS?

MCPIKE (on camera): What we're seeing is that what the administration is doing is tracking closely with public opinion. As that piece pointed out, it shows clearly that Americans do want to see more air strikes against ISIS targets, but they don't want boots on the ground. And, anecdotally, as I talked to people yesterday, that's the same thing we're hearing.

Now, I will point out to you that this doesn't really break down along party lines. We've been hearing over the last couple weeks that Democrats want to see more action. And I would point out that Senator Bill Nelson from Florida who has been on our air in the past couple weeks, he offered legislation authorizing air strikes well ahead of any request from President Obama. And also Senator Kay Hagan, a Democrat who's up for re-election in North Carolina just this year, she said a couple weeks ago at the top of the debate that the president needs to do something so.

So we're seeing a lot of movement that Americans do want air strikes and they want something to be done against ISIS, but they don't want a protracted war, Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All right, Erin McPike and Elise Labott, thank you, ladies, both of you.

Now, President Obama insists, as we've been talking about, no U.S. boots on the ground in Syria.

BLACKWELL: Instead he is relying on potential air strikes and arming and training Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS. Listen to what the president said when he addressed the nation this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Across the border in Syria, we have ramped up assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight I call on Congress again to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: A question that keeps coming up, though, is can the so-called moderate rebels take on ISIS effectively even with U.S. help?

Well, Andrew Tabler joins us now. He is the next generation fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute, also the author of "In The Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Washington's Battle With Syria."

BLACKWELL: We have retired Major General Paul Eaton, a commanding general. He was the commanding general of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team in Iraq.

And that's where I want to start, and I want to start with you, General, about training the Free Syrian Army and training these moderate rebels. Explain for us the challenges the U.S. faces in arming and training? That's good news from Saudi Arabia that at least it can happen there. But what is the U.S. up against?

MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON (RET.), FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL CMATT: Well, the real issue in working with disparate groups is find out who is in charge and to make sure that you've got the loyalties of the people you really need on the ground.

This ISIS represents a vital national interest to the countries that border the countries Syria and Iraq. It represents a conditional interest to the United States. In that light, we are absolutely well poised to identify the leadership of the disparate groups that we need to help and the countries we need to help, and provide them the military expertise and equipment that they need to prosecute the mission.

PAUL: Andrew, you know, one of the things I think that was most alarming this week were the reports that initially they suspected 10,000 ISIS fighters. That is now three times that. They're anticipating there are 30,000 ISI fighters. My question to you is do you believe that number is an expansion that ISIS has been able to procure in the last several months, or was our intelligence just wrong from the get-go? ANDREW TABLER, ARAB POLITICS PROGRAM, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE: Hard to

say exactly but I think what has occurred, and this, you know, is backed up by scholars as well, is that as ISIS advanced into various Sunni areas within Syria and Iraq, they rolled a lot of local people and also people who were coming under fire particularly by the Assad regime into their ranks and that's the way they have been bandwagoning. They have a very ruthless way of administering justice but they also have, are able to attract more and more fighters among their ranks. And that's something that the United States needs to degrade.

BLACKWELL: So General, one of the challenges when you flood an area with resources, with the weapons, there is a chance they could end up in the hands of the enemy. We saw that many ISIS fighters are fighting Iraqi soldiers with items that they stole or took from other Iraqi soldiers. So how do you control or prevent these weapons from getting into the hands of ISIS members?

EATON: What we really need do is provide the command and the control and direct the training of the command and control forces on the ground. So well led, well organized, and well equipped soldiers who feel that they are legitimate actors on behalf of a legitimate government, will not surrender their arms. They will fight competently and they will fight successfully.

And the problem that we've had with the Iraqi soldiers is that these young men did not feel that they were legitimate actors, acting on a legitimate mission on behalf of a legitimate government. All that's got to be turned around and that's part of the political effort that we see on the ground now.

PAUL: So Andrew, just last month President Obama told "The New York Times" arming the Syrian rebels to defeat President Al Assad was a fantasy. Several months ago he called ISIS a JV team. And now we hear him say we are at war with ISIS. How much does the political climate do you think dictate what the president does?

TABLER: Yes, I think tremendously so. And particularly on Syria. Syria's not something the president handles well at all. You can even see that in the speech. I think he is now in his sort of George Bush 2006 moment where he has to turn things around. And a lot of the decisions on Syria, at least in terms of arming the rebels, were particularly his.

BLACKWELL: So General, let me ask you this. The training that has to happen, as I mentioned a moment ago, that Saudi Arabia, the kingdom, has allowed for some of the training to happen there. U.S. troops, American troops will be there training?

EATON: I would expect that U.S. troops, particularly our special forces, will be involved in providing the training. But developing soldiers is -- you develop soldiers physically, you give them military skill sets, but you've got to go after the moral component. And that's the heart of the matter and that's that legitimacy issue that I brought up, that we need to get these fighters to feel that they believe in their chain of command, that they have a chain of command that's clearly identified, and that they are legitimate actors on behalf of a legitimate mission.

BLACKWELL: And, General, I ask you the question about the U.S. special forces training -- and I'm glad you confirmed that or at least your belief that they would -- because is could then just take the fight across the border, because clearly this group does not respect geopolitical borders. They could take this into Saudi Arabia, right? No boots on the ground in Syria, but this is a group that could go to where this training is happening. Is that a credible concern?

EATON: That is indeed the vital national interest of the countries that surround Syria and Iraq. These countries have got to understand that they are part of the coalition that must contain ISIS, first, reduce the pocket, reduce the terrain that they now occupy, and ultimately destroy them. What we hear a little less about is this anti-ideology, anti-ISIS ideology campaign plan, to frustrate this recruitment that's going on now that is bringing in the fighters into the area. That's got to stop as well.

BLACKWELL: Andrew Tabler, General Paul Eaton, I thank you both for helping us understand this.

PAUL: Thank you, gentlemen.

BLACKWELL: And more trouble in the NFL this morning. Star running back has been indicted on a felony child abuse charge. We'll have Adrian Peterson's side of the story.

PAUL: And in Pennsylvania, a manhunt under way right now for the gunman who killed a state patrol officer. We're going to bring you the latest on what officials call an ambush.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right, welcome back to NEW DAY. We're going to get you caught up on the morning read.

BLACKWELL: Police from three states are now involved in a massive manhunt in northern Pennsylvania. It follows what authorities describe as an ambush by a shooter at a police state barracks. One state patrol officer is dead; a second officer was shot, is in stable condition. That's after an operation. Law enforcement helicopters from New York and New Jersey are assisting here scouring the area.

PAUL: NFL running back Adrian Peterson's bonded out of jail after turning himself in to police in Texas. This happened overnight. A grand jury indicted the Vikings star on felony injury to a child. His lawyer says Peterson used a switch, or a thin branch, to spank his son and regrets unintentionally hurting the boy. We're going to have more on Peterson in just a moment, by the way.

BLACKWELL: Check business now. Eager iPhone 6 customers found themselves hitting the refresh button on Friday because a number of preorders crashed Apple's online store. Some people could not access the site at all. Others said the larger version of the smartphone is sold out already. Apple had no comment. PAUL: In health news, as Ebola spreads West Africa, experts fear now

it could become airborne. At the moment, the virus spreads only through direct contact with bodily fluids, remember. Apparently, though, every time Ebola copies itself, it changes or modifies slightly, and there is a rare chance that it could become spreadable through simply a cough or a sneeze. Experts say that scenario would be devastating.

BLACKWELL: And weather for you now. The last of two massive solar storms hitting earth right now. Yes, storms in space. Solar radiation is raining around our planet right now. Thankfully, none of the planet's power grids, satellites, or GPS systems have been affected, at least yet.

PAUL: Not been a good week for the NFL, let's say. First there was the Ray Rice controversy. Now a second NFL star is in serious trouble.

BLACKWELL: Overnight, Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson surrendered to police after being indicted on a felony child abuse charge. This morning, though, he is out on bail.

PAUL: CNN's Alexandra Field has been following this from New York. And Alexandra, we know that he has been cooperating in this investigation from the get-go. Is that right?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And in fact there was a warrant out for his arrest, but he instead left his home in Minnesota last night. Saw him leaving the house in a car and he made his way to Texas, where he turned himself in at a sheriff's office there. This is following an indictment from a grand jury. We know that he has been cooperating with the investigation, according to his attorney, who says that the charge has to do with him using a switch to spank his son.

But Adrian Peterson's attorney is defending him with this statement. He writes, "Adrian is a loving father. He used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son. He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child, growing up in East Texas." And then the statement goes on to say, "It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury."

Again, the attorney for Peterson underscoring the point he has been cooperating with the investigation even before he was indicted by this grand jury. We haven't really heard from Adrian himself, his attorney doing a lot of the talking right now, but we did see one tweet that Peterson posted on Twitter yesterday just a couple hours before this news broke. And in it, it was a quote, part of it, saying "God has you covered. Don't stress or worry at this point." Though that's really all we've heard from Peterson.

PAUL: All right, Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Alexandra.

Sarah Palin in the news again and it's a pretty wild story involving alcohol and a brawl at a party.

PAUL: We'll break it down for you. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREKA)

PAUL: Well, Sarah Palin is back in the news for her alleged involvement in a fight. It broke out at a house party.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that happened allegedly. Police say alcohol was involved. CNN national corespondent Suzanne Malveaux has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Palins reality show on TLC features the family dog, target shooting and caribou hunting.

But according to blogger Amanda Coyne, who broke the story out of Anchorage, Alaska, reality may be a lot more interesting.

AMANDA COYNE, ANCHORAGE BLOGGER: I would describe it as a big brawl, as a lot of people and other people there were describing it. A big, crazy brawl.

MALVEUX: It allegedly happened here last Saturday at a joint birthday party in this suburban neighborhood. Coyne says Sarah Palin, her husband Todd, and their children, Bristol, Willow and Track, pulled up in a stretch Hummer limo together. It was Todd's 50th birthday so he was one of those the party was celebrating.

COYNE: Track approached one of Willow Palin's ex-boyfriends and got into some sort of scuffle with him. Then Todd Palin somehow got involved in that scuffle. That was broken up. Willow and Bristol started approaching the family of the ex-boyfriend. Bristol, witnesses say, began to punch the owner of the house in the face.

MALVEAUX: Coyne says she talked to several eyewitnesses, including Eric Thompson, who told this to ABC News.

ERIC THOMPSON, WITNESS: Bristol just reached back and started clocking him. And she hit him, reached way back here and caught him right in the chin like, you know, I counted at least six times.

COYNE: Sarah Palin then herself, according to witnesses, got involved and tried to get into the middle of the brawl, and was screaming and yelling.

MALVEAUX: CNN cannot independently confirm that the Palins were involved in the melee, but the Anchorage police say the family was there, telling us, "Just before midnight Anchorage police responded to report of a verbal and physical altercation taking place between multiple subjects outside of a residence. Alcohol was believed to have been a factor in the incident. Some of the Palin family members were in attendance."

The Palin family has not commented on the alleged incident, despite CNN's numerous attempts to reach out to them. Sarah Palin did post on her Facebook page the next day, but made no mention of the party. She says, "I was traveling yesterday, so I'm posting Todd's 50th birthday greeting a day late, which is fine because the handsome guy barely looks a day over 50."

(on camera): Anchorage police tell us, at the time of the incident, none of the involved parties wanted to press charges, and no arrests were made.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Boy, you expect to get a little vivacious at a party like that.

BLACKWELL: A little bit ,a little bit.

PAUL: Who knows? Blogger Amanda Coyne is going to join us in the 10:00 a.m. hour to talk about this alleged Palin party brawl, so hope you'll be here for that.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely. Hey, as the investigation sparked by Joan Rivers' death continues, some major changes for the man who treated the late comedienne at this New York clinic.

PAUL: President Obama doubling down on ISIS. Is his plan to beat back the terror group, though, even legal some are asking?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: 31 minutes past the hour right now. We're so grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Let's start this half with five things you need to know for you new day.

Up first, the doctor who operated on Joan Rivers before she went into cardiac arrest last month has stepped down as head of that clinic. A Yorkville endoscopy spokesman says that Dr. Lawrence Cohen is no longer doing procedures there. Now, Rivers suffered complications during a routine procedure at the Manhattan clinic and died several days later.

PAUL: Number two, in Ukraine two residential homes were hit after the Donetsk International Airport came under artillery fire this morning. This is according to Ukraine's counter terrorism office. Officials say attackers used multiple missile launcher systems.

Meanwhile a Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid entered Ukraine without permission today. Russian state media report more than 200 trucks are heading for war-torn Luhansk.

BLACKWELL: Number three, police from three states are now involved in a massive manhunt in northeastern Pennsylvania. This comes after what authorities describe as an ambush by a shooter at a state police barracks. One state patrol officer is dead. A second officer was a shot. He's in stable condition. This comes after an operation. Law enforcement helicopters from New York and New Jersey are now part of this search scouring the area.

PAUL: Number four, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Egypt right now. He's going to be meeting leaders of the Arab league in Cairo to discuss ISIS. He has been visiting Arab countries this week, obviously to build support for President Obama's strategy to combat the terror group there.

BLACKWELL: And number give Secretary Kerry says he's quote, "taken aback" by slain journalist James Foley's mother's comments. Foley was beheaded by an ISIS terrorist in the video posted on the Internet and Foley's mother says the U.S. government did not do enough to bring him back home.

PAUL: As President Obama dives into the fight against ISIS here things are getting quite complicated, particularly in Syria. Under the President's plan the U.S. will carry out air strikes against the terror group there and the Free Syrian Army will be trained and equipped to try to beat back ISIS on the ground. But it's how the President is justifying this military action that is raising some big questions among people.

BLACKWELL: Joining us now Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen and senior national security correspondent for "The Daily Beast" Eli Lake. Eli, Hilary -- good to have you both.

Eli, I'm going to start with you. You say the President's approach may in fact be illegal. Explain why.

ELI LAKE, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, the justification that they are now saying that they have for the broader campaign against ISIS is an authorization for the use of military force that's been used by both George W. Bush and President Obama as the justification to attack al Qaeda and its affiliates. At one point ISIS was al Qaeda in Iraq. It's franchised in Iraq. Today it's not only formally broken with al Qaeda; ISIS fighters have attacked al Qaeda's franchise in Syria.

So, a lot of legal scholars that I've talked to and they have since written in their own blog posts have said that this is a huge stretch to say that a war against ISIS effectively a group that is itself at war with al Qaeda can be justified by an authorization that kind of created the war on terror, and particularly the war on al Qaeda.

PAUL: Hilary, your response.

HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, you know, I'm not a lawyer but a lawyer would say you have to have a plaintiff. And in this case, the plaintiff would be Congress. Congress doesn't seem to want to be jumping and making this decision for the President.

In fact, the leaders of Congress have said -- have said repeatedly that the President has this authority to go forward. And I think the question so really isn't does the President have the authority, it's really should he take this authority and what is Congress's role? I think that Congress should vigorously debate this. I find it kind of appalling that the Congress is nowhere to be found here.

We have individual senators like Dianne Feinstein who have engaged but most of the rest of Congress is just pulling back and sort of lobbing in their opinions instead of having a robust debate about a really serious issue on the floor of the House and the Senate.

BLACKWELL: What do you think about that, Eli? Is the President in not calling repeatedly and adamantly (ph) for a vote on this giving them a pass? I mean yes, we're a couple months out from the midterms, but what do you think? Where is Congress on this?

LAKE: The President hasn't said that he needs a vote from Congress to authorize military strikes. That was the approach that he took last year when Bashar al Assad crossed his red line and used chemical weapons against many civilians in Guta (ph) outside of Damascus. This time -- and he then even said he asserted he had this authority.

Here's the problem. President Obama campaigned for the office in 2008 as a constitutional law professor. It was wary of expansive claims of wartime authorities by a president, particularly George W. Bush. So if he had been consistent and said listen, I think the constitution says I have an obligation as president to protect the United States, and protect U.S. interests and I'm going to wage the war under those authorities, which is traditionally a fairly conservative argument it would be one thing.

But this is a president that asked Congress to tailor or possibly phase out the very authorization that he's using for this new war. So it's true that members of Congress have not been very keen to vote on this and largely supported action against ISIS but it's immaterial to the question of the President himself and the precedent that he is setting right now.

In a lot of ways this is somebody who came into office saying he took the constitution very seriously, and particularly the war-making powers of the presidency very seriously, and for many of his supporters on the civil libertarian side he's made a mockery of those things.

PAUL: Ok Hilary, he mentions the consistency of the President. We know that several months ago he called ISIS a JV team. We know that now he is saying we are at war with ISIS. How much do you think does the political climate dictate what the President does at this point?

ROSEN: You know, I think if the political climate were making the President's decisions for him he would be acting very differently. He would be more of a war monger, he would act more aggressively because something like 70 percent of the country now concerned about ISIS or ISIL. And I think you would see a lot more rhetoric from the President if that's the kind of guy he was.

You know, one thing that is kind of troubling to some Democrats, though, is that this notion of are we defining a new war? You know, we spent a lot of years talking about the difference between a war on terror and a war, and really resisted the Bush administration's enthusiasm for the war on terror. And I do think that we have to be careful.

I think, I agree partially with what Eli is saying but for a different reason. It's not that I don't think the President has the authority to act; it's that I'm pleased that he is acting with some caution. That they are being deliberate, that they are not listening to folks like John McCain who would have us go in full scale invasion.

So I think that's really the bigger question. It doesn't matter whether we're calling this a war on terror or whether we're using other rhetoric. What really matters is are we engaging in something where there is a specific goal and ability to achieve that goal; allies who agree with us; and things other than simply force that will get to the right solution.

PAUL: Yes, an end game.

All right. Hilary Rosen and Eli Lake -- we appreciate both of you. Thanks for being here.

LAKE: Thank you for having us.

ROSEN: Thank you.

PAUL: Sure.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, some hype.

PAUL: Just a little. Just a little bit of hype.

BLACKWELL: Yes -- around Apple's new mobile payment system.

PAUL: Basically it lets you use your phone kind of like a credit card. It's cool. Here's the question. Is it safe?

BLACKWELL: That's the important one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right. You're looking at pictures of Secretary of State John Kerry. He is there with Egypt's foreign minister in Cairo as they're trying to form this coalition and talk about what to do regarding ISIS. We're monitoring this behind the scenes here and we'll bring you the highlights in just a bit.

Meanwhile, Apple Pay is cool.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: I mean take my watch, let me put it up to something and you can just charge me right there. That makes it easy. But is it that easy for somebody else to get my information?

BLACKWELL: That's the important question -- safe and secure, those two questions. As part of its announcement of the iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus Apple unveiled the much talked-about Apple watch. But the Apple Pay could be the brand's sleeper hit. Maybe they know this. The new mobile payment system promises to make your wallet obsolete.

PAUL: Cyber and privacy expert Mark Rasch (ph) and CNet.com senior editor Bridget Carey, both with us here. Thank you for being with us. Bridget, I wanted to start with you and ask, I mean it seems like it's easy but really how will this thing work?

BRIDGET CAREY, CNET.COM: It actually is pretty easy like it looks. So, what you'll do is load up your credit card info for one time on the phone, and then when you approach a payment terminal that accepts Apple Pay, which is several places right now including Macy's, Mcdonald's, Disney World, you'll approach and simply take your phone out, hold your finger on the fingerprint scanner and voila it's done. You don't even have to unlock the phone because when it approaches it knows that you're about to pay for something. So, then you put your phone back in the purse and you're done.

BLACKWELL: Hey Mark, the concern as we highlighted is the safety, also the security, the Cloud has been hacked -- all right. So I don't even know how you hack a Cloud. But the Cloud has been hacked. How safe are our credit cards? How safe is our information?

MARK RASCH, CYBER And Privacy EXPERT: Well, it's interesting because you have to ask how safe compared to what? So what's nice about this system is that it doesn't actually transmit your credit card data back to the person you're paying with. It uses a portion of it to create what's called a hash or digital encrypted segment. That's what gets transmitted. So in that way it's more secure.

Where the vulnerability lies is when you actually put your credit card number into the phone. So, that's where you have the vulnerability. But, if you do it right, the biometric -- that is, the fingerprint scanner on your phone acts as a security device. If you do it right. If you do it wrong, you have vulnerability.

PAUL: Pure and simple. Bridget, you mentioned some -- I mean listen to some of the names that are with this. I think Discover just came out said something about being in talks with Apple. You've got Disney, Macy's, McDonald's Starbucks, Tyco, Nike, Staples. You hear those names and you think ok, it's got to be secure to some degree. You would assume.

But my question is how many people do you think will be willing, Bridget, to just give up all of that information?

CAREY: I think we do have some trust issues when you hear about hacking in the news all the time. But when you hear about how it works -- and Apple put a lot of stress on the security side -- that is interesting. And if people understand that I think they will want to use it. In a theoretical situation if you had another hack like Home Depot or Target well, those stores never would have had your credit card info to begin with if they used Apple Pay so it wouldn't have been useful for the hackers to get that one time use code that is stored in their system so they never would have had that. So I think that's interesting. But we're still going to be carrying around our wallets because not every store is going to have these. So when you see people use it more, you'll maybe think about using it more.

BLACKWELL: It's interesting I thought my cell phone made my watch obsolete. And now the watch is trying to make my wallet obsolete. Mark, do you think this is going to revolutionize payment as we know it? Is it going to make the wallet obsolete?

RASCH: I think so. And, you know, I hate to make these kind of predictions far into the future. But what it is, is you've already got a device that you're carrying that has -- that will have a biometric reader so it will provide you that security. It has the ability to transmit data digitally so you can -- buying stuff in person is going to be just like buying stuff online. You'll just be able to use this as a payment system. And it has the ability to take in tokens.

And when you think about your wallet, all the things in your wallet are just tokens -- the driver's license, the credit cards -- these will be digital and locked a lot more securely than they're locked when they're sitting in your wallet.

PAUL: All right. Bridget Carey and Mark Rasch, we appreciate both of you being here. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Thank you both.

RASCH: Thank you.

PAUL: You know, Disney has something like that already too when you go to the park. They give you a bracelet, you pay for everything, you get in your parks and your rides -- it's pretty cool.

BLACKWELL: And now you'll be able to carry one around with you if it really works the way people expect it will.

So we also want to let you know we're continuing to monitor the comments from Secretary of State John Kerry. There he is in Cairo with the Egyptian foreign minister. We're monitoring this and will get you the highlights of this in just a moment.

We will get you the latest in a moment. Quick break, we'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: You might just be sitting in the quiet of your -- comfort of your living room right now but the last of two massive solar storms is hitting earth as we speak.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We're going to talk about a coronal mass ejection.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: My favorite phrase.

PAUL: It sounds a little provocative. BLACKWELL: There's no reason to send the kids out of the room. It's

not what you think. Thankfully none of the planet's power grids, satellites and GPS systems have been affected, at least yet. CNN's Jennifer Gray joins us now for more. Jennifer -- what is it?

GRAY: Sounds a lot scarier than it is. Yes. We've already reached the peak of it. We really aren't expecting much to come of it. You know, there was a threat that we could see shortage in some of the power grids or even some GPS devices getting thrown off. We haven't seen any reports of that.

One thing that has been really cool though are the northern lights and we've gotten some pretty amazing pictures. You may be able to see it for one more night. It's actually reaching a lot farther south than normal. So we've seen folks in New Hampshire seeing this, even as far south as northern Illinois was supposed to be able to see it. Of course, haven't seen pictures out of there but we have seen some pretty incredible pictures.

In other news of course, weather news, we're seeing a really cool shot of air in the north and the northeast. So that's going to be the big weather story -- chilly in the north and then very hot out west. So we're going to see cold temperatures. There are frost freeze advisories and warnings in place as we speak this morning -- incredible. Folks waking up in the Northern Plains in the 30s and 40s --

BLACKWELL: Get out.

GRAY: -- it's incredible. It's 39 degrees in Minneapolis right now. We're only going to warm up to the mid-50s in that part of the country and then 60 degrees tomorrow so. Temperatures running about 20 degrees below normal in a lot of places, in the northeast we're also going to see a nice cool, crisp weekend. So enjoy it while you can.

And then one more thing to note: we're watching this area of low pressure that's on the west side of Florida. We're going to see if that is going to develop anything. Most of the models take it into south Texas by early to middle part of next week. Something to watch -- it's going to have to go through a lot of meteorological things in order for it to survive like wind shear and things like that --

PAUL: But that warm Gulf.

GRAY: The Gulf is very, very warm. It is going to cross over that loop current, so we'll see.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And more typically the height of that thing in the Atlantic.

GRAY: We're in the peak of hurricane season -- yes.

BLACKWELL: So 39 degrees up in the north. 109 here in Atlanta this weekend.

GRAY: Yes, pretty steamy. BLACKWELL: Gee, it is hot outside.

GRAY: I know.

PAUL: Thank you, Jennifer.

BLACKWELL: Jennifer Gray -- thank you.

PAUL: So next, an artist uses the human body for art.

BLACKWELL: Yes. These are not tattoos. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: As you're sitting there thinking about what you're going to wear today, a California artist uses the human body as her canvas. And we're not talking about tattoos. They are clothed in works of art in this week's "Start Small Think Big".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you look closely you'll see there is more there than meets the eye. What is there that you are missing that you're not taking a deeper look.

I'm Eliza (inaudible) and I'm an artist who turns people into paintings. In my art work I don't paint on canvas. I paint on whatever I want to paint a picture of. When it's done it's both the painting and a photo of you. When you look at the final image it really looks like a painting. If you look closely there is life coming through it. You see it in the eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being painted on is a very interesting feeling. It's wet, shocking and cold. It's absolutely wild.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I realize, you know, I always dreamt of being an artist. I didn't study art. I studied politics. At 22 I decided I would pick this up and make it my job to teach myself how to paint.

I found it to be quite entrepreneurial figuring out how I can support myself through my artwork. It went viral on the Internet after just like one little blog post.

What I do in my art is I skip the canvas altogether. And if I want to paint your portrait I'm painting it on you.

Being able to share my story (inaudible) has allowed almost two million people now to watch the video and learn about what I do.

When I first started out it was impossible to get people to model for me, but now I have a waiting list of like over 1,000 people. There is a saying I really love. Without risking the ridiculous artists will never get anywhere beyond the pre-validated and mundane. I chose to risk the ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: And good on the guy for standing there the whole time and agreeing to be painted.

PAUL: It takes a while.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

Thanks for starting your morning with us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 Eastern.

PAUL: Michael Smerconish is meeting you next. Stay close.