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Rick's List
New Nuclear Power Plants on U.S. Soil?; Mideast Murder Mystery
Aired February 16, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Here's what is making THE LIST today: The president signs off on two new nuclear power plants.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Investing in nuclear energy remains a necessary step.
SANCHEZ: Why have we not built one in a generation? Will it solve our energy needs? Who is against this? Who is for it? You will hear both.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was bringing to Gaza weapon, ammunition.
SANCHEZ: Members of a hit squad coordinate their arrivals at a hotel to kill this man. There are new details behind this surveillance video.
Dudley Do-Right could not have done this any better. He saves a life. Does he end up losing his in the process?
The lists you need to know about. Who's "Today's Most Intriguing Person"? Who's on "The List You Don't Want To Be On"? You will find out as our national conversation on Twitter, on the air continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Making THE LIST at the top of this hour: nuclear power. It will be the very first nuclear power plant in this country in an entire generation, in 30 years.
Risking a fight with liberals in his own party, the president of the United States did something that will anger some and delight others. He announced $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to build two reactors at a plant in the state of Georgia.
Let me show you a map. The plan is near Waynesboro, Georgia. See it right there? Once the Southern company gets the license -- and that could come as early as next year -- two new reactors will be built right there in that little orange dot.
Now, here's the president at a jobs training center today. He explains how this is going to create 3,000 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs. Acknowledging the controversy over the idea, Mr. Obama said that the U.S. simply can't meet growing energy needs and cut pollution without building nuclear power plants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Even when we have differences, we cannot allow those differences to prevent us from making progress. On an issue that effects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we can't keep on being mired in the same, old stale debates between the left and the right and between environmentalists and entrepreneurs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And there's more. Listen to this.
The feds are now looking at 22 -- 22 applications for more reactors over the next 20 years.
Oscar Harper, he's all for it, because his company, Georgia Power, is going to build the two reactors in Georgia. He is joining us by phone.
Stephen Smith, he's against it. He's with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and he is joining us from Knoxville.
My thanks to both of you for being with us.
Mr. Smith, let me begin with you.
If not this, then what?
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHEN SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY: Well, there's plenty of opportunities for clean, safe energy. The president has been making some very good investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy.
These are the clean, renewable jobs that we need in this country. And --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: I'm not talking about jobs, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: I'm not talking about jobs. I'm talking about, how do you make the energy, you know, something that is significant, that's not going to pollute the atmosphere and that is going to give Americans the energy we need. We're running out of everything else.
SMITH: Well, we're not running out of energy right now.
What we have got to focus on is using the energy we have more efficiently. That's energy efficiency. And, then, solar, wind, bioenergy, these are all technologies that we can go actually forth now, get jobs, and generate the energy this country needs.
SANCHEZ: So you say don't do any more nuclear plants, period?
SMITH: Well, here's the thing. We have 100 nuclear power plants in this country. They were very costly to build. Right now, they're forecasting that they're going to cost tens of billions additional dollars. That's why these companies are at the federal trough asking for more loan guarantees, because there's so they're extraordinarily expensive to build.
SANCHEZ: But one final question.
SMITH: There's a smarter way to use tax --
SANCHEZ: But -- but what --
SMITH: -- smarter way to use taxpayers' money.
SANCHEZ: I don't mean to interrupt. I'm sorry, but I just want to kind of cut to the chase on this. They are efficient, though, aren't they? They are efficient.
SMITH: No, no, they're -- they're extraordinarily expensive. For the dollars spent, we could do a lot more and get more out of our money with efficiency first, and then clean, safe, renewable energy now.
SANCHEZ: With what? Tell me what type of energy you propose we use in this country? What, wind energy?
SMITH: OK. Bio -- biomass in Georgia would be a huge opportunity. Wind power is the fastest-growing electric source in the world right now, and solar is just coming on.
SANCHEZ: OK.
SMITH: These are all sources that we could do right now.
But the biggest one is energy efficiency. That's where we can squeeze more work out of each kilowatt hours and really save consumers money, without putting --
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: -- taxpayers' money at risk.
SANCHEZ: All right. All right. We have gone through it, and I appreciate that. And we will come back to you in just a little bit.
SMITH: Sure.
SANCHEZ: Let me give Mr. Harper a chance to -- to get in here as well.
Mr. Harper, you heard the arguments that he made, that we just shouldn't do nuclear. There's other ways to do this.
Do you agree?
OSCAR HARPER, VICE PRESIDENT, GEORGIA POWER: Well, I agree with part of what Mr. Smith has said. I do believe that we need more biomass and renewable generation in this country and we need more efficiency.
And where that's cost-effective, we're investing that -- in that today in the state of Georgia. In fact, we're evaluating the potential to convert Plant Mitchell, which is an old coal-fired facility, to biomass. If we move forward with that, it would be about 100 megawatts and one of the largest in the United States.
But I also agree with the president. I don't believe that there's enough cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable potential alone to meet the energy demands that we have in front of us in the United States.
And I think that, if we're going to be serious about meeting some of the challenges that we face in this country, we have to have more energy efficiency, we have to have more renewables, but nuclear has to play a role, given the scale of this challenge.
SANCHEZ: Well, let me ask you a very serious question, because now I'm going to tell you what I'm concerned about, as an American. And I think most Americans should be.
As wonderful as nuclear seems to be on its face, in that it doesn't put out carbon pollution, as most others -- in fact, it's -- it's -- it's predicted that it will cut, if I recall correctly, 16 million tons of carbon pollution, compared to a coal-burning plant, for example. I think that's accepted as fact.
What I worry about is the waste. What do you do with the waste from a nuclear power plant?
HARPER: Well, and we kind of have a multipronged approach here.
First, and what we will do with the waste until we have a national solution, is that we will store that safely, effectively, and we can do that indefinitely on site. And we have the capability to do that, and we have been doing that for many years.
Now, we do believe that a national solution or a national repository makes more sense, so we are going to continue to work with Washington and try to find a long-term solution.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Yes, but we don't have that. I mean, let's not -- let's not mislead our viewers here. There is no national repository right now, right? The one that they were going to do in Nevada, that fell through. The president said, that's -- what, Yucca Mountain, right?
HARPER: That's exactly right.
And we're going to do is, we're going to continue to store that safely and effectively on site, which we can do. However, we do think -- and I believe the president said as well -- we need to look -- as a policy issue, we need to look at how we want to handle that waste long term.
I believe we will continue to look at things such as new technologies, reprocessing. I think there are a lot of opportunities from a technological standpoint to make advances to help with that.
But I agree. From an energy policy standpoint, we need to find a long-term unified solution, because I think it will be more efficient than what we're utilizing today.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And most people believe that.
But let's go back to Mr. Smith.
Are you concerned? And what can you -- educate us, if you would, on your concerns about the byproduct, the waste from a nuclear plant.
And let me remind the viewers they're looking at not just one, but 23 new nuclear plants perhaps over the next 20 years. That's a lot of waste.
SMITH: Well, it's a lot of waste. And you have got to go back to what you said. Exactly right, Rick. We haven't found a solution for the 100 nuclear power plants that are operating now that are just storing and this is -- waste is building up on site, with no solution.
So, the waste is a big issue. These things use a lot of water. There are proliferation concerns, because we can't export this technology to the developing world to solve global warming, because we don't want these countries building this -- these materials and using the waste and the -- for weapons.
So, these are all very real concerns with this technology. That's why I question why the president would want to put taxpayers' money at risk around this technology. Let's let the other technologies catch up to nuclear. We have got -- 20 percent of our power comes from nuclear power now. Why not use clean renewable energy --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
HARPER: -- 20 percent, and really focus on efficiency?
SANCHEZ: Mr. Smith, my thanks to you for coming on and sharing some of your wisdom on this.
And, Mr. Harper, same to you. My thanks to both of you.
HARPER: Thank you very much.
SANCHEZ: All right.
SMITH: Thank you. Thanks.
SANCHEZ: We're also going to be following this story for you throughout this newscast.
Shortly after those guys walked into a Dubai hotel -- See them right there? -- all right -- a man was killed inside the hotel. Are these secret Israeli agents? Did they assassinate a member of a militant wing of Hamas? Is that what was really going on there? This is a -- you -- I mean, you talk about a spy thriller. What a story.
And, again, for those of you who are now joining us, it's 10 minutes after the hour of 4:00. You're on CNN. This is THE LIST with Rick Sanchez.
This has been the story that has caught our attention today. And we're still on it. What you're looking at there is a picture that's coming in from Mount Saint Helens crater. A man has fallen inside that crater, and, as a result, has not been able to communicate with some of his rescue officials.
There's a Navy helicopter looking for him. Now, those are live pictures.
Take them full, Rog, if you can. Go ahead and take that shot full. All right, these are live pictures coming in right now from a helicopter. They are desperately looking for this man that fell into that crater -- 1,500 feet is what they say he fell, but they haven't been able to spot him yet, at least not when we last checked with our correspondent on the scene.
Stay with us, because we're going to update this story for you in just a little bit. I'm Rick Sanchez.
THE LIST scrolls on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: It has been 46 years since President Kennedy was assassinated -- John F. Kennedy, that is -- but, even all these years later, Americans remain fascinated with that day in Dallas, really with all the aspects of JFK's life.
And, today, we have two new glimpses of this. These are newly released images of Love Field in Dallas the morning that Mr. Kennedy arrived and died. A 15-year-old boy recorded this color film on an .8-millimeter camera.
Now 61 years old, William Ward Warren gave the video to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Now, you see the president and Jackie Kennedy there, wearing her bright pink dress that was so noted as they were welcomed in Dallas.
They were smiling as they passed the cameras. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was there as well. And wait a minute. Who's that next to Johnson? Who is that next to Johnson? You see who that is? That's David Gergen, the CNN analyst here, the senior CNN -- the one who was sitting next to me yesterday given me all kinds of crap about my hair.
Also, this week -- I just thought I would share that with you -- there are some new love letters written by JFK. They're going up for auction in Chicago. These are letters that Kennedy wrote when he was a senator in the 1950s to a young Swedish woman. Those of you who read lots of books about the Kennedys, like I do, know all about her.
Yes, Gunilla von Post says that she met JFK on the French Riviera in 1953, not long before he married Jackie. Their relationship continued after he was married until 1956. There are 11 letters and three telegrams.
Do we have pictures of her, by the way? We don't have them? Oh, what a shame.
Bidding started, by the way, at $25,000.
When we come back: cold-blooded killers or a case of mistaken identity? We are going to have the latest on the search for accused assassins, a search that may have swept some completely innocent people into the dragnet, or did it? This is a fascinating story about espionage, spies -- political assassinations?
Later, did the Alabama professor arrested last week for last week's deadly campus shooting get away with another shooting over 23 years ago, a shooting of her own brother? We're going to talk to the former police chief.
And, folks, it's now starting to look like that might be exactly the case. At least, the suspicions are growing. Brooke Baldwin is live from Boston. She's going to bring us the very latest on this story as well.
Stay right there. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
What a story this one is. I mean, what you're about to see is like a spy thriller, one of those movies in the week, something you would find somebody like James Bond in. But this is real.
It's looking like an assassination, where a hit squad was sent in. They see them, stalk their prey -- you will see the video, I swear -- a man who happened to be one of the leaders of Hamas, a man well known throughout the Middle East, a man that seemed to be on a hit list for Israel.
Did Israeli secret agents, 10 or 11 of them, actually go there, but they didn't know that they were caught on video planning this potential assassination? I want to watch this. And it's on the other side. And, on the other side, I'm going to speak with our reporter, Pamela -- Paula Hancocks.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minute by minute, this is the lead-up to the Dubai assassination of one of the founding members of Hamas, all captured on security cameras and released by the emirate's police, 10 men and one woman, the alleged hit squad.
Some check into the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel and await their target. This is Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arriving at the hotel, where he would be killed just hours later.
After checking in, the man Israeli security sources accuse of being a key link between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas was followed by two alleged killers dressed in tennis gear holding tennis rackets. The police say they were checking the number of his room. Then they booked the room directly across the corridor.
Leaving the hotel for a couple of hours, al-Mabhouh was again tracked by different teams. Police believe the killers entered his room at 8:00 p.m. using an electronic device to gain entry.
Al-Mabhouh entered his room at 8:25 p.m. His body was not discovered until the next morning. Police say he appears to have suffered electric shocks and may have been suffocated.
These are the suspects, all caught on camera, sparking an international manhunt. Six were on British passports. Three carried Irish passports, one French and one German, say Dubai police, but Irish and British police have said the names and passport numbers of their alleged nationals are fake. The other countries are checking.
At least four Israelis say they have the same names as the suspects. They deny any involvement and say they are shocked their names have been used.
The question remains, who ordered the hit? Hamas and al-Mabhouh's family in Gaza are convinced Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, is behind the assassination. Dubai police told the family there were signs of five or six electric shocks on his legs, behind his ears, on his genitals, and over his heart. Blood on a pillow also led police to believe he was suffocated.
Israeli sources say al-Mabhouh was smuggling arms to Gaza, so an arms dealer has many enemies. Dubai's police chief says whoever is responsible will be brought to justice.
He says, "If a state starts acting like gangsters, their leaders will be treated like gangsters, and they will be brought to justice, whoever and wherever they are."
But even with extensive security footage and photos of 11 of the alleged hit squad, so far, no one has been arrested. And their real identities may never be known.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And Paula is joining us now live. Paula, most people are looking at this report and they are saying, from everything I have read and from everything I have seen in the past, let's face it, the Israelis are very good at this. The Mossad is specializing in this kind of stuff in the past. What's to convince us that it's not the Israeli secret police, the Mossad?
HANCOCKS: Well, certainly, that hasn't been ruled out. It hasn't been ruled out by people here. It hasn't been ruled out by the Dubai police.
Before they released this information, they said that it is perfectly possible that it is Mossad. And we also know that Israel has tried to kill this man three times in the past. That's according to his family. At least three times, they have tried and failed, twice in Lebanon, once in Syria.
And so it is possible. But, of course, the Dubai police say they're not ruling anything out. And the fact is, they don't exactly know who these people are.
SANCHEZ: Right.
HANCOCKS: They have their faces. They say they have their names, but, interestingly, some Israeli people woke up this morning and saw their names being used by this hit squad in the newspapers, and they were being hounded by the international media.
So, they're a bit shell-shocked as to how that happened.
SANCHEZ: Here's what's interesting about this case, though. Let's suppose that Dubai gets its way and is able to press to get these folks extradited, whoever they are and wherever they are. Are there treaties that would force Israel or wherever country these people are from to hand them over?
HANCOCKS: In theory, yes, with most of these countries.
And we know that Dubai actually approached some of these countries. For example, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, they're all pretty friendly countries when it comes to this kind of extradition treaty. But the fact is, the names that they were given, the passport numbers they given were fake, so who knows if they are even British nationals or French or German?
And the fact is that many analysts are saying, if you're going to carry out something like this, if you're going to have an alleged hit squad that is going to carry out this kind of assassination, you're not going to use your real passport.
I mean, it goes without saying. So, certainly, it adds to the murder mystery. And Dubai, by publishing these photos, is almost saying, we don't know who they are. Please, if you recognize them, call us.
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
Paula Hancocks, for -- filing that report for us, we thank you for bringing us up to date on that. Stay on it.
We're going to continue to following this story.
And we're also going to be following some comments that you have been making so far. Let's go to our regular Twitter list, if we possibly can, Robert. I'm just going to pick up a couple of these.
"Rick, you need to look into hydro. It's the cheapest that there is. I'm working to build a number of plans in the next few years."
Then, look at this one. This is interesting, the second one. This is all about that nuclear conversation we had. You know, the president of the United States has decided he's going to build nuclear plants, and you guys are in on this.
"Nukes again? Efficient after built, but building and decommissioning costs make it less efficient. Send the nuclear way to D.C."
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Interesting comments. Now you know how America feels about elected officials in Washington, D.C., anyway.
Another whodunit makes our "List of the Most Intriguing." This one is a riddle as old as the Sphinx, a riddle that may finally be solved.
And, also, we have been in a party mood all day, thanks to the pictures that we have been seeing out of Mardi Gras. Does anybody work down there this month? Here's another taste of Fat Tuesday in New Orleans. Take a look.
And we're going to be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
He's been dead for a long, long, long time, so why do we still find a teenager from Egypt so darned intriguing?
Born about 3,500 years ago into pretty good family, he became a pharaoh when he was only 10 years old. A few years later, he would be dead, and scholars would scratch their heads and argue, how did he die? Was he murdered? Was he sick?
Well, there's big news today. A thorough DNA study shows that our most intriguing person probably passed away from a female anopheles mosquito that bit him -- that's right, from malaria, in case you didn't know what the female anopheles mosquito does -- and complications that he had as well from a leg fracture.
Read all about it in this week's "Journal of the American Medical Association." He's Egypt's boy king, Tutankhamen, King Tut, intriguing scientists for thousands of years and making our most intriguing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To find out that, you know, that she could have been potentially involved was just very hard for me, because I was very close to her, and I looked up to her, and I admired her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Amy Bishop Anderson needs all the support that she can get now. She's accused of a deadly shooting spree in Alabama last week.
And a case that she thought was closed ain't closed no more, the shooting death of her brother 23 years ago. What a story that is. A former police officer -- former police chief, I should say, is now coming forward and saying, yes, there were discrepancies in that investigation when she shot and killed her brother.
Brooke Baldwin is on the case. She is going to bring us an update in just a little bit. There's Brooke now.
Brooke, stand by.
We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come right back with that story. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: There is a lot going on today in the case of the professor charged with pulling out a gun and shooting her colleagues during a meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Three charges of attempted murder have been added to the capital murder charge against the professor, Amy Bishop Anderson. In other words, she killed three people, according to police, but there were three other people wounded as well. So they're charging her with those now.
One of the survivors describes this rampage. He says that it was a methodical killing and each victim was shot in the head.
It ended when the gun jammed and Anderson was pushed out of the room suddenly. That's his description. He was there.
And then there are questions that are being raised now about this investigation into what happened when Anderson was 21 years old -- 19 years old? This was like 23 years ago and she shot and killed her younger brother. This was in 1986.
Correspondent Brooke Baldwin has been looking into this question. She's up in Boston.
I understand, Brooke, that you talked to the former police chief where the shooting happened. What did he tell you?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, I sat down with John Polio, who was the guy in charge of Braintree police 23 years ago when Amy Bishop Anderson shot and killed her brother. She was 19 at the time. You just said that. Now, he told me he took a look at the state police report. It ruled it was an accident, and he said, you know what? There are distinguishes. He called it deficient, especially pertaining to the ballistics information.
And I asked him specifically, because there have been questions about this day that the shooting happened, and then Amy Bishop Anderson was arrested and subsequently released, I asked him about that. Here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We were told when she was arrested it was sort of a standoff situation, guns drawn.
JOHN POLIO, FMR. BRAINTREE POLICE CHIEF: There were guns drawn. Uniformed officers did take her into custody to bring her in for questioning. That did happen. I could understand where the officers would be shook up if they were looking down the barrel of a shotgun.
BALDWIN: And then she was released?
POLIO: She was released because, after a conference between my detective, Captain Buca (ph), and the state police, when it was turned over to them, they came to the conclusion that the girl should be turned over to her mother and they would conduct their own investigation, but did not conduct that investigation until 10 days later.
BALDWIN: Do you regret having her released?
POLIO: No. No, not at that point in time. In hindsight, if I had a crystal ball, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Interesting.
BALDWIN: So that was John Polio, Rick, and he was the police chief from 23 years ago. Obviously, a bunch of questions.
Also today -- let me get to this -- we dug up some of these old police reports from when Amy Bishop Anderson, she had moved on to another Boston suburb. It's called Ipswich. And apparently she tended to call police a number of times on her neighbors. In fact, let me read you just a couple of these.
Mrs. Anderson was upset because the kids were playing basketball, making noise in front of her house, kids are driving up and down on the motorized scooters. It's the noise that's bothering her.
And we talked to neighbors that still live in this neighborhood, and they remember. Listen to the neighbors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a lot of people really liked them. They thought they were strange.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just was in a kid-friendly neighborhood and didn't like being around the kids playing outside. She didn't like the ice cream truck coming here. She told them not to come. Truthfully, I thank God all our kids and us are alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Wow.
BALDWIN: So that's the story, Rick, really, out of Boston.
A last bit of information for you. We learned this afternoon down from Alabama that Amy Bishop Anderson is officially on the suicide watch in her jail cell in Huntsville.
SANCHEZ: You know, I'm curious as to something that the former chief told you a little while ago. I like him. He seems like a very honest guy.
BALDWIN: Yes, he was.
SANCHEZ: He said that the state wanted her turned over to her mother. Now, that's interesting. She was 19 years old. She wasn't a baby, she wasn't even a child.
I mean, she's 19. She's an adult. Turn her over to her mother?
You got any insight on this?
BALDWIN: Right. And I asked a little bit about that. And apparently, she was so emotional, I believe was the verbiage used in a state police report, that then they didn't question her, as John Polio told me, until 10 days after the shooting and then ruled it accidental. So, some questions about that as well. Good point.
SANCHEZ: Yes. I'll tell you what, what a question. We'll leave it at that and we'll see if we get any new information.
Meanwhile, she's charged in three other attempted killings by authorities in Huntsville, Alabama, today.
BALDWIN: Right.
SANCHEZ: That's significant as well.
Good stuff, Brooke. You've been doing great work over the last 48 hours. Thanks for going up there.
BALDWIN: Hey, I'll see you in Atlanta tomorrow.
SANCHEZ: All right. We'll see you here.
All right. Talk about your split-second decisions. I want you to look at this. A train is racing your way, and you decide you have to do something. You push the car out of the way. That's what that guy is doing right there, but now the train is coming.
Can you possibly get out of the way? Did you save someone, but then kill yourself?
We'll take you through this story. You'll be able to see it for yourself.
And then, why would someone take a swing at Mitt Romney? I'm serious, take a swing at the guy. This is a scuffle with the Mit-ster.
We'll tell you what happened, how it happened, who was at fault. And we'll be right back.
I'm Rick Sanchez. This is your LIST.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Oh the Olympic games -- citizens of the world putting aside their petty differences and facing one another in the spirit of brotherhood and athletic competition, right?
Let's do "Fotos."
Wait a minute. That doesn't look like the spirit of competition.
Vancouver, Winter Olympics venue 2010, these are demonstrators. About 300 of them that just showed up en masse. They're fighting with police, they're smashing windows, they're destroying storefronts, and then some.
They are anarchists who object to the world's powerful meeting there for these Olympic games. By the way, when these folks are not protesting, they're planning a protest.
Next, I want you to watch this. See the guy on the motorcycle? All right. That van right there is stuck, right?
So, he gets out of his car and he runs out there, pushes it out of the way and almost get run over by a train. Let's watch this one more time.
See the van? The van is stuck, the train is coming. He needs to do something.
He pushes it. But, oh, my God, he almost got hit, too. But he's able to do it, does a good deed, goes back to the motorcycle.
Roger, get rid of that little thing at the bottom.
I want to show you what he does. He high-fives his buddy when he's done.
OK. Now, watch. He comes back and he realizes he just saved somebody's life.
Oh, we didn't carry it that long. All right. Sorry. Anyway, I watched it several times, and you see him go back and high-five his buddy, like, saying, look what I just did.
Close call.
Now this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That means run for your lives. And then he says (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). That means the Virgin Mary, Saint Marry. My father used to say that, by the way. That's the only reason I know.
This is in Italy, folks. Look at the earth moving right before our eyes.
This is the Calabria region of southern Italy. It's on the toe of the boot. Heavy rains triggered several massive landslides there that buried buildings, tore down electric towers, caused hundreds of people to flee.
Yes, fun for your lives. He's right.
It happened in Sicily as well. Amazingly, nobody was hurt or killed. But what a frightening set of fotos today, huh?
There it is, your "Fotos."
Up next, a man poses for a photo right at the edge of a volcano and falls in. The latest on the rescue efforts at the top of Mount St. Helens on a man who's actually fallen into the crater.
And you see that guy right there? A lot of folks thought he was going to be president. Those are the Romneys.
They're all smiles at the Vancouver Olympics, but it was a very different story when he got on a plane and tried to fly back home. He ended up in a fight with a passenger. I mean, serious stuff happened. So serious, folks were arrested.
I'll take you through the whole story. Stay right there. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Have we got that picture from the old JFK days?
Roger, put that up again if you have it, please.
You see that right there? Now, doesn't that look like David Gergen? We were suggesting a little while ago, my God, how many presidents did this guy serve? Because it looks a lot like him, but it's not.
David's here. We checked with him a little while ago.
"Hey, did you serve in the LBJ and JFK administrations? How many administrations did you serve in?" He says, "No, but, you know, that is a very handsome fellow. I can see why you might think that he was me."
That's what he said.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Nice.
SANCHEZ: That Gergen.
All right. Chad is back. And the reason he's joining us now because he's going to let us know what's going on with Mount St. Helens.
Folks, have you seen what's going on with this story? I mean, a guy is taking his picture. Right? I mean, he's here. Let me stand up and show you what I'm talking about.
All right, I'm standing up like this, right, like I'm taking a picture?
Shoot me. All right? He's standing --
MYERS: Don't tase me, bro.
SANCHEZ: He's standing up just like this and someone is taking a picture of him. Little does he know that right behind him is the crater of Mt. Saint Helens volcano. And literally, as he's, like, posing for someone to take his picture, bam, he goes back and falls into the volcano.
And now they're looking for him. Apparently 1,500 feet he's dropped down?.
MYERS: May have been that, but it probably all wasn't in one drop. He was standing on what was just kind of a snow shelf. It's kind of call an overhang.
The snow wasn't strong enough to hold him, and his body went down in with the snow, and then down into the snow, and then down a very steep slope, which is the caldera, the part of a crater that he is in now. Now, there's no lava down there. He's not burning up.
SANCHEZ: No, I know, but it's still a heck of a thing. And the image of your head of a crater of a volcano makes all us think -- by the way, we've got Patrick Oppmann now. He's standing by.
Patrick, are you there? I know we've had a tough time trying to reach you throughout --
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN ALL-PLATFORM JOURNALIST: Rick, the very latest from the -- you can imagine trying to do live TV from the side of a mountain, but we're working through it.
The very latest from the sheriff's office, Rick, is that the Navy helicopter that they dispatched this morning was not able to put a rescuer down. Cloud cover, just too thick. They stayed over there, over the mountain, as long as they could, eventually had to leave to refuel, and are heading back to the mountain.
A little while ago I heard a helicopter, so this remains a very active scene. But at this point you still have very heavy cloud cover, and the worry is, with only a couple more hours of daylight in the day, they may not get it done today. The gentleman stuck in this crater may be spending another night there if they can't get somebody down in a few hours.
SANCHEZ: Well, I don't understand. Why is it so hard to spot him?
If they knew exactly where he fell, you'd think you'd draw a line from where he fell and follow it all the way down about 1,000 feet or so, and look and look and look. Why, if they've got men, if they've got searchers, if they're got rescue folks, if they've got a helicopter, they can't find him, Patrick?
OPPMANN: I'll tell you why, Rick. I've been here all day, and I have yet to see the top of this mountain. The cloud cover, it's clear up where I am. This morning, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, the fog was so thick.
But at that altitude, 8,000 feet, it's still fairly thick. And that means it's a very dangerous job.
They want to get in there, they want to find this guy, but they don't want to put people's lives at risk. And that's what the sheriff's office said they would be doing if they put somebody into a situation in this crater and they couldn't see what they're doing. They don't want to put somebody in there who's not tied to something. And it's just a question of having that visibility, which up until now they've not had.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
Patrick, thanks so much for filing that report. You make us understand it.
That's a live picture you're looking at right there, and you can see what he's talking about with this cloud cover.
They don't look like a lot of clouds, but they look like dark clouds, too, so it's all about, Chad, visibility.
MYERS: Yes. They came back in. They were go gone for a while, briefly.
We had some pictures a half hour, hour ago, and you could see it. And I was watching our routers here off the satellite.
And there were helicopters in there looking for him, but I guess my way to do this search, take the climber that went with him, put him in my helicopter. Take him, say, hey, where were you last?
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: Because there's not like a path.
SANCHEZ: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: So where were you? We were right there, and then follow it down. And maybe they weren't in contact with that guy. I don't know.
SANCHEZ: Well, I'll tell you, I hope he doesn't have to end up spending another night there.
Chad, thanks so much.
And Patrick as well, filing that story off, like he said, from the side of a mountain.
Who is at the top of "The List U Don't Want 2 Be On" today? We're going to share that with you in just a little bit.
I'm Rick Sanchez. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
John Podesta, a pretty big player in the world of Washington -- former chief of staff to President Clinton, the man that Barack Obama trusted to run his transition team. So it raised some eyebrows when it took him just one word in a "Financial Times" interview to sum up what's going on there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to ask you a sort of broader stand-back question about the condition, the health of American politics at the moment.
JOHN PODESTA, FMR. CHIEF OF STAFF, PRESIDENT CLINTON: It sucks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sucks. OK. That's a good, blunt way of putting it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, you know, it's interesting. That's the part that got all the attention.
But Wolf Blitzer is joining me now.
I'll tell you what got my attention in that interview when I listened to what Podesta had to say. He went on to say that, in many ways, the Obama administration may be losing its way. I mean, this is a guy who was tight with the president of the United States -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He did the transition. He helped the president in the transition. And he certainly understands a White House -- he served as the White House chief of staff during the Clinton administration, and he's a very influential guy here in Washington.
Like so many Democrats right now, he's clearly frustrated by what's going on in the aftermath of the Democratic defeats, not only most recently in Massachusetts, but earlier in Virginia and New Jersey, two states that the president also carried in the election. And that frustration, as you can tell, Rick, is coming out.
SANCHEZ: Let me ask you a question. You follow this kind of thing.
There's a difference -- and I've heard a lot of criticism from what this president used in his staff when he got to the White House, and the people that he had leading him to the White House, that they're two different crews of people. And I've read some material that seems to indicate that there may be some resentment between those who didn't get in and those who did get in, because they're very different and may have taken the president in a different direction.
What is your take on that, Wolf?
BLITZER: Well, I think in fairness to the president, most of the top people who helped him get elected stayed -- are working in the administration, like David Axelrod, for example. David Plouffe, who was the campaign manager, certainly very instrumental in helping the president get elected. He took the last year off, he wrote a book, but he's now coming back as a political adviser to the Democrats. So he'll be involved, but there's no doubt that a lot of the people who helped him get elected got jobs in this administration.
SANCHEZ: We're down to just 30 seconds, but I want to ask you about this nuclear energy thing the president signed off on today. The idea is that they're going to build something like 22 more plants over the next 20 years, if the government signs off on them, and they're going to start with two plants -- two reactors, I should say -- down here in Georgia.
This is what I hear a lot of Republicans saying they wanted the president to do, right?
BLITZER: Yes, but one of the big problems, what are they going to do with all that nuclear waste? They've got a problem, what they're going to do with it. They don't know where to dump it, if you will, and so there's -- this is not as easy an issue as a lot of folks would like.
SANCHEZ: But it's efficient. I mean, look, we need more energy, we're running out of oil, everything else causes carbon emissions. This answers all those questions.
BLITZER: And the nuclear reactors are very popular in western Europe, or France and countries over there. They do a pretty good job with it. There haven't been any new nuclear reactors built in this country in decades.
SANCHEZ: Wolf Blitzer, as usual, on top of things. And he's going to be joining you in just a little bit to bring you "THE SITUATION ROOM."
Thanks so much, Wolf. We'll be looking forward to that.
Up next, the flight fight that caused some turbulence for Mitt Romney, just one of the stunners that you'll find on "The List U Don't Want 2 Be On."
First, we let the good times roll one more time. This is Fat Tuesday in New Orleans. And man, those folks know how to party.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Time now before we leave you for "The List U Don't Want 2 Be On."
Coming in at number three, U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis. He won the Tour de France in 2006, but his title was taken away because he tested positive for drugs.
What did he do now? Somebody allegedly hacked into the computers at the French Anti-Doping Agency's lab, and a judge wants to question Landis about it, so he has issued a warrant for the arrest of Floyd Landis.
Landis tells the "LA Times," "It appears to be another case of fabricated evidence by a French lab who is still upset a United States citizen believed that he should have the right to face his accusers and defend himself."
Number two, one of the guys that any of us could run into on a plane, but this guy happened to cross paths with former Republican president candidate Mitt Romney.
It happened while Romney and his wife were leaving Vancouver after watching the Olympics. Romney asked the passenger sitting in front of his wife to put his seat back in the upright position. In other words, yes, put his seat forward before takeoff.
Instead, the passenger got mad and allegedly took a swing at Romney. Romney didn't respond, but the crew did. The pilot turned the plane around, airport police took the passenger into custody, and the flight continued.
Top of "The List U Don't Want 2 Be On," number one goes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona.
A federal judge says the sheriff destroyed evidence in a racial profiling case. That case accuses the sheriff and his deputies of detaining people based on the color of their skin.
Arpaio's office has acknowledged they've destroyed some records and e- mails connected to those roundups, and the judge is so peeved about it, he told Sheriff Joe to try to recover the e-mails and swear under oath that he took steps to gather the destroyed documents.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio denies any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied racial profiling allegations. He says he's won a dozen of these federal cases.
There's a hearing March 19th. And you better believe we will follow up on it.
That's why Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County is number one on "The List U Don't Want 2 Be On."
Here's Wolf Blitzer with "THE SITUATION ROOM."
