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CNN Sunday Morning
Twin Car Bombings Kill 74 in Baghdad; Obama Declares H1N1 Epidemic National Emergency; Taliban Election Threat
Aired October 25, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING for this October 25th. It's 8:00 a.m., where we're sitting in the headquarters here in Atlanta, Georgia.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
HOLMES: It's 3:00 p.m. in Baghdad. We got a lot going on there this morning.
Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Yes. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks so much for starting your day with us.
And we do want to show you just some remarkable video out of Baghdad this morning. It's cell phone video, where twin car bombs just rocked the city five hours ago. I want you to take a look at this as it happened.
(VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: You can see the person shooting that video off of his or her cell phone, was taking from shelter behind an armored vehicle. That was the second blast. Again, two suicide car bombs. They killed 74 people, hundreds are wounded. Those blasts were about a minute apart and it all happened just a few hundred yards away from the heavily protected Green Zone.
HOLMES: CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom is in Baghdad for us, who's at our bureau there.
Those explosions this morning, the targets, two government buildings -- I guess, it's everybody's speculation at this point, but what is the word out there about what they believe the point of these -- of these attacks were?
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., this is terrorism aimed squarely at the heart of the Baghdad government complex. And what you're seeing here are two suicide car bombings that happened just a minute apart. One outside of the finance -- sorry, the justice ministry; one outside of the Baghdad governor complex.
In many ways, these attacks mirror the attacks that happened on August 19. Now, on that day, there were six bombs across Baghdad. They targeted other government buildings, including the ministry of finance and the ministry of foreign affairs.
Now, what we're seeing today is that these attacks come at a time when people are very tense that national elections will not happen in time, will not happen on January 16th. In the past few weeks, we've seen a lot of leaders in Iraq, many saying that there will be political violence if the situation about the elections isn't solved, if the Iraqi election law is not passed.
And what you see today is Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has toured that site. He is saying that they believe al Qaeda is behind this. They also said al Qaeda was behind the attacks on August 19th. And right now, people are wondering if the Iraqi security forces are really up to the task of protecting this country at this crucial time -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Tell us, as well, this comes just at the same time -- around the same time that we just saw a U.S. official there. U.N. -- or the ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, was -- happened to be there. Tell us what she was doing in town.
JAMJOON: Well, interestingly enough, Ambassador Susan Rice was here the last two days. Yesterday, she actually went to the foreign ministry complex. That's also in the heart of Baghdad. Now, as I mentioned before, the foreign ministry was the target of one of the attacks on August 19th. It was utter devastation outside the foreign ministry. There were many people that were killed in that attack.
Yesterday, Ambassador Rice was here. She met with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Now, they primarily talked about how to remove sanctions against Iraq, but she also toured the scene of the devastation outside of the foreign ministry. The media was in two. And while she was out there, she expressed solidarity with the Iraqi people and expressed condolences on behalf of U.S. President Barack Obama, calling it a heinous crime.
But the fact that this happened so close to her visit and also before this law is passed for the election law really makes a lot of officials here concerned as to whether this violence will escalate. If that violence escalates, people are now wondering if that will affect or shift the troop drawdown schedule, which until now had been going rather well and had been accelerated -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Mohammed Jamjoom for us in Baghdad -- we appreciate your report this morning. Thanks so much.
NGUYEN: Here's another story that we are following very closely for you today. The H1N1 pandemic now considered a national emergency.
HOLMES: And President Obama made that happen, bringing the status up a bit. Here is why he made this move: the declaration now relaxes certain government requirements, which will allow hospitals to treat a surge of H1N1 patients more quickly.
More now from CNN's Elaine Quijano.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty and T.J., administration officials emphasize this is a "just in case" move. Still, it underscores the seriousness of the H1N1 pandemic and the threat it continues to pose.
(voice-over): President Obama declared a national H1N1 emergency, an ominous-sounding name for what officials insist is a purely preemptive move. In the declaration, the president said, "The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities."
The declaration is meant to lift that potential burden, so if hospitals get overwhelmed with H1N1 patients, they'll be able to bypass bureaucratic requirements, like making patients sign certain forms. The goal: to allow doctors and nurses in disaster mode to focus on patients, not paperwork.
The declaration comes as millions of Americans in 46 states have come down with H1N1.
DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: Of the pandemic, in April and May, we've seen more than 1,000 deaths from pandemic influenza, and more than 21,000 hospitalizations in this country.
QUIJANO: In communities nationwide, including this line that stretched for hours in Michigan...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two-hour wait for the swine flu shot.
QUIJANO: ... people are already flooding health care facilities anxious to get their H1N1 vaccines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been trying not to be paranoid about it, but be aware and be cautious and be safe, and take advantage of any opportunity that we can.
QUIJANO (on camera): But the government acknowledges officials have nowhere near the amount of H1N1 vaccines that manufacturers predicted they'd have. The shortage is being blamed on problems growing the vaccine, but one top official predicts there will eventually be enough vaccine to meet demand. Betty? T.J.?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: All right. So, you know, we know you have lots of questions about H1N1 -- you know, how it spreads, who's most at risk, what are the vaccine concerns out there.
HOLMES: Yes. We're trying to get those answers for you in our next half hour. We'll show you some of the Web resources out there to help you get many of those answers you seek.
NGUYEN: This week, past and present presidents are expected to attract big crowds and those tea parties -- well, they are back as well. For details, let's turn now to CNN's deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser.
Hey there, Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, Betty.
NGUYEN: All right. So, let's get right to it. Former President George Bush has been keeping a relatively low profile since the election. What does he have planned on Monday night?
STEINHAUSER: I guess you could say, George Bush, motivational speaker. That's what we're hearing from this group call canned Get Motivated, that President Bush, the former president, will be the big speaker, the motivation speaker, Monday night, that's tomorrow night in Houston, Texas. We'll also hear from the group that his former secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, will be there as well. And they say the president may do it again come November, Betty.
NGUYEN: Oh, interesting. Interesting.
All right. I know President Obama trying to help out a few of his friends, Democratic ones, indeed. Tell us what's on the schedule this week?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. The campaigner and fundraiser-in-chief continues. Tomorrow night, he's in Miami for a big fundraiser for congressional Democrats as they're beefing up towards next year's big midterm elections. The president is expected to be the headliner there and to bring in some big bucks for the party. He's been doing a lot of that lately.
The next day, he's in Virginia. On Tuesday, he's with Creigh Deeds. That's the Democratic candidate in Virginia who's running for governor. The president is going down there again to give his fellow Democrat a helping hand, Betty.
NGUYEN: Has the president's support changed anything when it comes do to the polls? Where are they trending right now?
STEINHAUSER: In that Virginia race, the Democrats are trailing right now, the Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds is trailing the Republican candidate by about eight or nine points. And we're getting down to the wire, just over two weeks.
He's also -- as you know, the president has been up in New Jersey to help out the incumbent Democratic governor up there, Jon Corzine, who's also fighting for his life. The polls up there indicate that race is pretty much dead-even, Betty.
NGUYEN: Oh, really? That's going to be a good one.
OK. Political tea parties, they are back. So where do they start and what's the message this time? STEINHAUSER: Yes, the tea party express, I guess you could call this the sequel, part two. You remember that big tea party caravan from late August until early September.
NGUYEN: Oh, yes.
STEINHAUSER: Well, this time, they're starting in San Diego and L.A., moving up to California into the northwest. And then they're going to cross the country. They're going to go through Atlanta, Betty, your way, and end up on Veterans Day in Florida.
The same issues as last time, really. They're -- you know, they're talking about too much taxpayer -- too much taxes, too much money being spent, the deficits are too big. They don't like the Democrats' health care proposals. They don't like some of the other things the president and the Democrats in Congress are pushing, Betty.
NGUYEN: All right. They want their voices to be heard and we, indeed, will be seeing them.
All right. Paul Steinhauser, thank you so much. We always appreciate your insight.
STEINHAUSER: Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, Afghans are set to vote once again for a presidential candidate and the runoff voting less than two weeks away, happening on November 7th.
CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us now from Kabul.
Chris, if it's not enough, a lot of these people are being asked to go out and vote once again in a presidential election. Now, they're being asked to do it under the threat of violence from the Taliban.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, T.J. You know, I spoke with some senior U.S. military officials and they told me -- on one hand, they've got less time to plan their defenses, but the Taliban is in the same boat. They have less time around this time to plan their attacks.
As for the Afghan people, here in Kabul, people feel very confident about voting, but the Taliban have issued another threat, demanding a boycott, ordering people not to vote, and threatening violence against those who do. A lot of people here tell me that threat will carry a lot of weight out in those provinces, where last time, the Taliban chopped off the fingers of those who had dipped their finger in that purple ink to prove they had voted. The intimidation was so bad in some areas that it kept turnout below 10 percent -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, has been seen certainly as a friend to the United States, a partner in fighting terrorism. But what is the concern -- or is there a concern about how Abdullah Abdullah, if he was to get in there, how he would feel about possibly sending more U.S. troops? And also, how has Hamid Karzai, has he come out and says how he feels about possibly more U.S. forces coming to his country?
LAWRENCE: From what we've heard from both candidates, and we've spoken to both of them over the past week, both seem fairly comfortable with the idea of more American troops coming here to Afghanistan. In fact, there's a U.S. congressional delegation that is here right now and over the past few days, and they spoke with both President Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.
And one senator said he came away feeling very confident that they're open to more troops coming here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GEORGE LEMIEUX (R), FLORIDA: They have to feel secure. That's what they're yearning for. We found -- we heard that today from President Karzai. We heard that today from Dr. Abdullah. The Afghan people want security.
And we can't just go in, kill the bad guys, and then leave -- because if we do, the Taliban comes back in. And they're the ones who provide order. So it's very important that we go to a place and we stay there and we promote security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: And now, they we're less than two weeks away from this runoff election, U.S. military officials say that securing this election has now become the highest mission priority for American troops here in the country -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Last thing, quickly here -- we're used to elections in this country, the last couple of weeks of a campaign are pretty fast and furious, and you can't see enough of the candidates. Doesn't look like that over there, does it?
LAWRENCE: No. I mean, it's a 12-day campaign. Can you imagine if American candidates only had 12 days to campaign? I mean, they wouldn't sleep, probably, for the entire two weeks.
It's not the case here. Both men staying right here in Kabul, choosing, instead, to talk to influential people, tribal elders, businessmen, clerics, in order to get them to then influence a greater number of people to vote for them -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Our Chris Lawrence for us in Kabul -- Chris, we appreciate you as always. Good to see you this morning.
Then coming up at the top of the hour, CNN's John King talking to Afghan presidential candidate, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Again, that's on "STATE OF THE UNION" coming your way at 9:00 at the top hour. We've got a check in with John King here live for a preview, just a few minutes away.
NGUYEN: Also, we're back in two minutes with an update on that deadly car bombing -- in fact, two car bombings in Baghdad.
HOLMES: Also, we're going to be hearing what it was like on board that Northwest Airlines flight that went awry -- went some 150 miles off-course.
NGUYEN: Yes.
HOLMES: We're going to get some answers from a passenger who was on board.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: OK. Breaking news out of Baghdad this morning. Just take a look at this.
(VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Cell phone video coming to us. This is the second of two suicide bombings, one coming shortly after the other near two government buildings. The toll so far, 74 people killed, 265 injured.
HOLMES: And you hear a lot of gunfire in this cell phone video. Not exactly sure what that gunfire was about. If that was possible Iraqi forces trying to fire on what they thought was the person attacking at the time or if there was -- I don't believe, at least, it was part of the attacks at this point, but you hear gunfire and all the chaos surrounding this video.
The streets around the building are also covered with burned out cars, concrete from the heavily damaged buildings all over the place. And Iraqi and U.S. officials there have warned of violence leading up to January's national elections.
We'll continue to follow that story, as we have been, throughout the morning.
We do want to turn to Texas, however, right now, where what started as a traffic stop has rapidly deteriorated into a pretty embarrassing situation for the police in Dallas.
NGUYEN: Yes, listen to this story, folks, because officers have been writing tickets for not speaking English. And we're told it's been happening for a while. But no one ever said anything until now, in fact.
And here's Jason Whitely from our affiliate WFAA to explain the whole story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE, WFAA)
BRENDA MONDRAGON, DAUGHTER: I'm upset. I'm really upset. I was -- I was very mad.
JASON WHITELY, WFAA REPORTER (voice-over): Humiliation has turned to anger over what happened to Brenda Mondragon's mother, Arnestina. She drove her 11-year-old daughter Vanessa to school this month after the girl missed the bus. And she got pulled over on the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was, like, upset. She was, like, worried.
WHITELY: Dallas police wrote her three tickets, no driver's license, she left it at home, darting out the door. Plus, making an illegal U-turn. And her last crime -- listen to this -- she was cited for being a non-English speaking driver.
MONDRAGON: At first, I thought it was a joke. I was like, I can't believe it, I actually laugh. I was like, oh, my God, mom, I've never seen this before. We moved from California two years ago, so I was like, well, maybe it's a law here.
WHITELY: It isn't. An officer in training wrote the citation to the Dallas mother still learning the language.
SGT. WARREN MITCHELL, DALLAS POLICE SPOKESMAN: We regret this happening (AUDIO BREAK) was a sincere mistake, we're just -- there's no excuse for it.
WHITELY: DPD says the rookie policeman might have been confused. There is a federal law saying you must speak English to drive a commercial vehicle, not a private one, like Miss Mondragon's '04 Toyota Corolla. A court dismissed her charge of not speaking English and the 49-year-old woman still learning the language tells us the officer in training clearly needs more of it.
Jason Whitely, Channel 8 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: So, there you have it. What do you think about it? We want to hear from you this morning. Let us know on our Facebook and Twitter sites.
Boy, getting a ticket for not speaking English.
HOLMES: Yes. And maybe it was an honest mistake, quite frankly, a rookie cop. Who knows what it might have been. It's just an unfortunate. Certainly, a blight there for the police department.
NGUYEN: Yes, no doubt. But it's happened before apparently, too.
OK. So, up next, another check of the morning's top stories.
HOLMES: Also, CNN's John King, he sat down with Abdullah Abdullah to talk about the struggle to become the next president of Afghanistan. John King is joining us live -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: We are following some breaking news out of Baghdad this morning. Two powerful suicide car bombs killed at least 74 people, injured hundreds more. Here's some new video coming into CNN. HOLMES: These blasts happened about five hours ago, targeted two government buildings there. Iraqi and U.S. officials have been warning of possible violence ahead of the country's national elections, which are set for mid-January.
Also, an 18-year-old girl who had been wandering the streets of New York for two weeks saying she didn't know who she was -- well, she might finally get some answers. Police say a CNN viewer in Maryland helped identify her. A photo of the teenager who'd been referred to as "Jane Doe" was circulated by police and aired on CNN this week, and her family now flying to New York from Washington state to meet up with her.
NGUYEN: Well, air traffic controllers in Minneapolis where a Northwest commercial plane flew past its scheduled destination weren't the only ones concerned. It turns out the White House was with also monitoring the situation, but it's still unclear if President Obama knew about it. Northwest Flight 188 was out of contact -- out of radio contact -- any kind of communication, in fact, for more than an hour Wednesday night, flying 150 miles beyond where it was supposed to land.
HOLMES: Well, it's almost that time, ladies and gentlemen. You're just about 35 minutes away from getting rid of us and seeing who you came here for. John King...
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: John King and "STATE OF THE UNION" coming up at the top of the hour.
JOHN KING, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": I just hope to keep your audience, that's my goal.
NGUYEN: That's going to be a tough one, though, I got to tell you.
(LAUGHTER)
NGUYEN: All right, John, let me ask you this. First up, let's talk about Afghanistan just for a minute, because it seems like every week now, we're waiting to hear if those troop levels are going to increase or not.
KING: And now -- remember, last week here on the program, "STATE OF THE UNION," Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said it would irresponsible for the president to make that decision, maybe send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, until we know what happens in that November 7th presidential runoff.
And this morning, we're going to talk to the challenger in that runoff, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, and he has a pretty sober message. He -- everyone thinks he's going to lose this election, and he thinks he still has a chance, but what he says, as President Obama mulls this big decision, is, if President Karzai wins re-election, Mr. Abdullah is saying why does anyone think it's going to be any different? The Afghan government has been inefficient -- many say -- it has been incredibly corrupt. Afghan police, Afghan army has not been trained.
His messages are very sober one to anyone here in the United States worry about not only the troops who are there, more than 60,000, but the possibility of sending more. He says he does not believe that Mr. Karzai can be an honest, effective, credible leader. And so, why then would President Obama, many will ask, send more troops into Afghanistan. It's a tough interview.
NGUYEN: Yes.
HOLMES: Well, we're looking forward to seeing that in a little bit. We've seen a little bit of it throughout the past couple of days. So, we will be tuned in for that.
Also, the president certainly stepping up, making -- already, we knew H1N1 was a serious threat here in this country, but the president getting involved now.
KING: He is getting involved now by declaring a national emergency. And the White House says it's not trying to alarm anybody, but he wants to give hospitals and the government new flexibility, that if you have a huge influx of patients and they need to say, move it to a school, move it up somewhere else to take care of patients, he wasn't to give them that flexibility and create a very quick process. So, if somebody needs a waiver they can call the government and get it without a lot of bureaucracy.
But this is happening thought at a time when many are questioning the government's preparation for this, because we've been talking about this for months. They said the vaccine was in the pipeline. They ordered all these doses.
And, guess what, they're well behind schedule now getting these doses, and you see people all around the country going to clinics or going to their own doctors and saying, "How can I get a vaccine for my children or for somebody in my family who's a high-risk patient." Some are getting them, but many are being turned away because the supplies are low and there's a growing frustration across the country about this.
NGUYEN: Yes. That might be behind schedule, but you, my friend, right on time -- in fact, maybe ahead of schedule. You've been traveling to, what, 41 states in 41 weeks. You got just a few more to go.
KING: We were in Nebraska this week. We set out when we started this program, the same weekend the president was inaugurated, we said, "We're going to try to visit all 50 states in our first year," because we think it's important to get out of Washington. If you stay in this town, you get caught up in the Washington speak. And we like to connect the dots -- the debate here, which was going on out in the real world.
Nebraska was our 41st state. We had a great time visiting some farmers. Had a great -- we have a meal every week, Betty and T.J. There's a reason we travel. We have good food all around the country even as we meet great people and share their stories.
And we have 41 states right now with Nebraska. Nine more to go, including Hawaii. If I go there, maybe I won't come back.
NGUYEN: That will be your last one and you'll just stay.
HOLMES: Have you hit our home states of Arkansas and Texas, yet?
KING: Arkansas still on the agenda. We have been to Texas, went down to Texas earlier this year. Arkansas is coming up next month. We're going to go down there, timing around the fifth anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Library. We're going to make our big trip down in Arkansas.
NGUYEN: So thought out.
HOLMES: You're going to hit Little Rock.
All right. Make sure you check with me before you head over there. I'll show you in the right direction.
KING: Sure, I will. You got a deal.
NGUYEN: Yes, the best restaurants in town. No doubt.
HOLMES: John, thanks as always. We'll see you -- again, about a half hour, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING." Don't miss it -- again, the big interview with Abdullah Abdullah, who's trying to unseat Hamid Karzai as president of Afghanistan.
NGUYEN: Do you know the best sites to help your family avoid the H1N1 virus? Our Josh Levs is keeping an eye on that and going to show you exactly how to find those places.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, what we want to do is we want to help you skirt those myths. We also want to help find vaccines when they do become available. And also, you can watch the spread of H1N1, including inside your own city. We'll show you the best online tools to fight the virus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Hello, again. Good morning and welcome back to the CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Yes, good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us. I'm Betty Nguyen. It's Sunday, October 25th.
And in case you are just joining us, there is some breaking news out of Baghdad to tell you about this morning: two devastating explosions. Take a look.
Suicide car bombers setting off their explosives at two government buildings; this is cell phone video coming in to CNN. One hundred eight people have been killed so far, more than 500 injured. These are updated numbers from earlier. Now, those explosions hitting about 10:30 in the morning Baghdad time; you can hear in this video the sirens going off in the background. These attacks come a day after the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. visited the city. Ambassador Susan Rice had met with officials in one of these targeted buildings, in fact, which is the Iraqi foreign ministry.
All right, back here in the U.S., a story a lot of people have been talking about. What happened aboard that wayward Flight 188? Well, the pilots certainly are not talking, but some of the passengers are.
Here's some background for you, though, this morning.
A Northwest flight on its way to Minneapolis overshot its destination by 150 miles. Air traffic controllers couldn't make contact with that plane for over an hour. Even senior White House officials were told that the plane was off-course and out of touch. The National Guard jets, they were put on standby, but they never took off.
Let's talk now to Lonnie Heidtke, he was on that flight. He joins me by phone. Lonnie, at any time during this flight, were you told that something went awry, something is wrong?
LONNIE HEIDTKE, PASSENGER ON FLIGHT 188 (via telephone): No, it was -- it was a relatively normal flight. A flight that, you know, it's a three and a half flight, three hours and 15 minutes and it just seemed to be taking longer than normal. I expected to be on the ground about 8:15, 8:30 time frame and at that time, I looked at my watch. And well, we're still flying, we hadn't begun descending, we hadn't -- you know, they hadn't told us to put away our computers yet or stop working.
NGUYEN: So no communication at all. Ok, so you're looking at your watch and you're thinking, something's not right here. This thing is taking way too long. At any point did you or any of the other passengers on board talked to the flight attendants and say, hey, what's up?
HEIDTKE: I did not.
NGUYEN: Did you see anybody else?
HEIDTKE: I didn't see anybody else either.
NGUYEN: Very interesting. Did you see the flight attendants at all try to communicate with the pilots to figure out what was going on?
HEIDTKE: No, I did not see them do that.
I had heard -- I've heard later that they had, but I didn't see them do anything out of the ordinary either.
NGUYEN: Very interesting. Ok, so you're on that flight and you realize, ok, this is taking an extra hour, but by the time that you do land and the little bell goes off and you get up to get your luggage, what happens then?
HEIDTKE: Well, we all stood up, everybody, you know, as soon as the seat belt light goes off, everybody stands up. They start getting their luggage out of the overheads and the flight attendant comes back on the intercom and says, "Everybody, please sit back down, or please re-take your seats."
And so everybody did and at that time, I saw the uniformed officer come on board and I was thinking to myself, perhaps they were -- you know, there was someone in custody that they were taking off or somebody was sick or something was going on, but that was the first time I'd ever experienced that, but that was the only thing out of the ordinary.
NGUYEN: But what did the officers do? Did they go and speak with the pilots? They escort the pilots off the plane? What did they do?
HEIDTKE: No, they just stood up by the front of the plane, talking to the pilots. So they just opened up the cockpit door and they were just talking to them and that was it. And they said, the flight attendants came back on and said, ok, everybody can get off.
NGUYEN: With no explanation whatsoever.
HEIDTKE: No explanation whatsoever.
NGUYEN: Hey, Lonnie, let me ask you this, what do you want to see happen?
HEIDTKE: I think that the airlines should, at least, apologize for the delay, or have the pilots apologize, at a minimum. You know, I -- I'm a frequent flyer, maybe some additional frequent flyer miles for the extra 300 and some odd miles that we were on that flight for. That's all I expect. I guess I don't expect anything, probably.
NGUYEN: All right.
Well, Lonnie Heidtke, joining us by phone, a passenger on that Northwest Flight 188 that overshot its runway by 150 miles. Lonnie thanks so much for your time today.
And some more stories to tell you about this morning, including President Obama. He's declared a state of emergency for Puerto Rico, where a massive fire is burning at an oil refinery.
HOLMES: Our Rafael Romo is our senior Latin affairs -- Latin American affairs editor on the ground. And we can see that shot behind you and see that fire still going on. Give us some update, if you can, about any kind of progress possibly being made.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: T.J. and Betty, good morning. We are here about 100 yards away from the scene of the fire; still burning this morning. We understand that there are still five tanks burning. They have put out eight tanks already, which makes the situation a lot better, but you still see the big plume of thick, black smoke here.
Luckily, so far, the wind is blowing to the west and north of us, which means that it's keeping the smoke away from the population. Just a few moments ago, emergency workers came up to us and gave us these masks, just in case we need to use them, but from where I'm standing at this location, the air quality seems to be good.
We were here last night; the air quality was a little poor. We felt our throat irritated. And after a while, our eyes were also irritated. But this morning, the situation seems to be better.
So far, it's estimated that the government of Puerto Rico has spent about $6.4 million. And President Barack Obama yesterday declared an emergency, which is going to free up funds for the EPA and other federal agencies to come and help in the operation.
We understand that there are about 1,500 people who were evacuated from this area. And also, at the same time, they are getting a stadium, a nearby stadium ready in case it's needed, because in this area surrounding the scene of the fire, we have about 45,000 people, just in close proximity. And so if it's needed, they're getting the stadium ready with everything people are going to need to be there.
But so far, like I said before, we're lucky that the wind is blowing to the north and the west, mostly west of here, which is keeping the smoke away from us, Betty and T.J.
NGUYEN: Just some incredible pictures though, coming out of Puerto Rico of those fires that are still burning.
All right, Rafael Romo, our senior Latin American affairs editor joining us live. Thank you so much for that report.
HOLMES: All right, before we turn to weather, I just want to give our viewers an update. We've been following this breaking news story out of Iraq. I got another update for you about the number of dead in two bombings there, dual bombings, now up to 108 dead, over 500 killed.
We've been showing you some cell phone video we got of the second blast. This is it here. But we've been following this story all morning. Initially, when we first got the report, it was 25 dead, went up to 30, 62, 65, 74, now we're up to 108 dead in those Baghdad blasts.
Again, this is leading up to elections that are happening in January. There was a thought that maybe some of these insurgents would try to increase attacks leading up to those elections and that could very well be the case.
But now 100 dead; we don't know if they will stay at that or that number will continue to go up. But we have seen the numbers to continue to increase in dead and also in injured, over 500 injured, 108 people...
NGUYEN: Wow.
HOLMES: ... now dead and two bombings in Baghdad that happened really close to each other.
Again, cell phone video you're seeing here of that second blast that was in fact caught on tape. I just wanted to bring you that update, a breaking story we have been on since we got on the air this morning.
NGUYEN: Yes, back-to-back car bombings there at two government buildings and of course, we will bring you the latest as soon as we get it.
In the meantime, back here at home, what's the weather going to be like in your neighborhood?
Well, Bonnie Schneider is in for Reynolds Wolf today. So how's it shaping up?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well Betty, I want to get right to Puerto Rico because ...
NGUYEN: Ok.
SCHNEIDER: ... we have an update on how the winds are going to change the path of the smoke plume that you've been seeing on the news pretty much all day and certainly when the explosion occurred on Friday.
Take a closer look at what we're looking at Google Earth. You'll see that what we're forecasting right now is a shift to direction in the winds. Originally, you can see where the fire is located, just south of San Juan. When the fire started on Friday the winds were actually blowing the smoke plume away from Puerto Rico, more towards this direction.
And our reporter on the scene has been saying that on Saturday and certainly early this morning, we've been seeing a slight shift in the winds, but mainly heading straight along, parallel to the shoreline, moving from east to west; still keeping that smoke plume away.
He also mentioned the poor air quality at night as opposed to this morning. That's because you saw the sun is shining there and as the sun shines ray actually heat the earth surface, the warm air arises and it takes the smoke plume vertically up and away and it does improve air quality.
That's all going to change later on this afternoon. We are seeing a change in the winds by as early as 3:00 today. The soot and the smoke should be working its way across Puerto Rico, because the winds instead of coming from a different direction will actually be coming from the northeast, heading to the southwest and that will take the smoke along this path. It is also going to bring about, unfortunately, more rain in this region, as you look towards western Puerto Rico. The rain may contain soot picked up from the upper levels and then pulling down.
So we're going to see the air quality get much worse there for today and I just wanted to let everyone know in this region and to keep an eye to official reports, because we are expecting that soot and smoke to be in the air, particularly towards western Puerto Rico and even the rain is not going to clear things out very much at all.
All right.
I want to show you what else is happening across the U.S. What we're looking at right now are the NASA smoke plume pictures, evident from the satellite picture, from outer space. We'll be seeing that smoke plume.
And you can see it's actually pushing to the north. Notice how it's moving away from mainland, Puerto Rico. That was actually taken yesterday, because the winds were carrying the smoke aloft and then off into the Atlantic.
However, that's going to change today. Unfortunately, the winds are not going to be favorable for that.
Now we mentioned just quickly about the weather today. Some good news, all the rain across New York has pushed to the east so it's drying out over New England and we're seeing some good weather for baseball tonight. Back to both of you.
NGUYEN: All right, Bonnie. Thank you so much.
And there is much more to come right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
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HOLMES: All right. At first glance, maybe it looked like a simple recruiting effort by the Catholic Church; the Vatican extending an invitation to Anglicans to come join the fold.
Well, let's take a closer look at this. Our Vatican analyst, John Allen, just finished writing another book. It's called "The Future Church." It will be out soon. We look forward of course.
But this morning, he joins us from Denver for our weekly conversation that we call our "Faces of Faith."
John, always good to see you here with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Let's start with this move by Pope Benedict here. There are a lot of moving parts to this story. Let's try to simplify. And some people say it is as simple as the Pope trying to bring more people into the Catholic Church. Is it that simple?
JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: That's certainly how some critics on the Anglican side would see it. They would look at this as Rome kind of fishing in the Anglican pond. Catholic critics would say that this is part of a bid by the Pope to make the church more conservative by welcoming in Anglicans who are opposed to things like gay marriage and women priests.
But the Vatican's position is that it's a lot more simple than that. They would say, "Look, there is a small but important number of Anglicans who have publicly asked to join the Catholic Church and we didn't go looking for these folks, but once they knocked on the door, we had a responsibility to open it up."
But probably the other thing worth saying, T.J., is that I think most people would agree that at least right out of the gate, the numbers involved here are likely to be pretty small.
HOLMES: Pretty small, but you gave us kind of the Roman Catholic Church's logic in doing this, but some people seem to think that it came out of nowhere. Like the Pope gave no one any warning, even some within the Catholic Church didn't really have much of a heads up, it seems.
Is that the case? Does it sound like -- I guess he can do it, but it seems like the Pope is going rogue in some ways.
ALLEN: WELL, again, that may be how some critics would look at this, but by the standards of the Vatican, I think this was a fairly carefully considered move.
You know, it's a matter of public record that there are groups of Anglicans, again, small, but quite visible groups in various parts of the world, including a group known as the Traditional Anglican Communion or TAC that have publicly made this request to Rome, that is to be received into communion with the Catholic Church.
So what the Vatican will tell you is that this wasn't the kind of dead of the night maneuver. I mean, this was a response to a public request and that the Catholic Church, after all, is in the business of making converts. And while they're not looking to poach Anglicans, when people show up on Rome's front lawn and ask to be let in the house, you know, they will say, it's our responsibility to open the door.
HOLMES: Let's -- so many other things to get at here -- but let's go the issue of, there are some married priests out there in the Anglican Church. Has that been addressed? How would that be dealt with if they wanted to come into the fold?
ALLEN: Well, you know, T.J., although a lot of people don't realize this, it's worth saying that there are already married priests in the Catholic Church. There are 22 Eastern Right Churches that follow Eastern Orthodox spiritualities that have married priests.
In the United States, there are about 100 former Episcopalian ministers who were married, who were received into the Catholic Church, became priests, and were allowed to remain married.
What the Vatican is going to do in this case is that they are going to allow Anglican ministers who are currently married, who want to become Catholics and want to become priests to do that. They're going to try very hard to circumscribe that, because they don't want it to erode the broader discipline of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church.
But I think the $64,000 question is, if there is something more and married priests sort moving around and if Catholics of the rank and file become more accustomed to seeing married priests, is that going to put increased pressure to sort of foster a broader re- examination of the whole question of celibacy in the church?
HOLMES: And last thing here, and quickly, I know Anglicans and Catholics, they share a lot of the same traditions, but how much will Anglicans, quite frankly, have to give up as far as their traditions go to be with the Catholic Church?
ALLEN: The Vatican is trying to bend over backwards to say that you're not going to have to give up very much at all. The whole point of creating these new structures is allow Anglicans to bring their ways of worship, their ways of prayer, their traditions into the Catholic Church with them.
But, obviously, the price of admission is that they are going to have to accept the spiritual authority of the Pope, which is a fairly significant concession, given that the whole origin of the English reformation, more than 500 years ago, was precisely on who gets to call the shots? Is it the Pope or is it the King?
And in this case, once Anglicans are willing to sort of make that move, what the Vatican is saying, is that beyond that, they will allow to remain basically as they were, practicing, praying, worshiping as they always have.
HOLMES: Like you said, I like the way you talk. Keep it simple sometimes; the price of admission to get into the Catholic Church.
John Allen, our Vatican analyst, it's always good to see you. Come back anytime. Thanks so much, enjoy your time in Denver.
ALLEN: Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: All right -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right.
Well, up next, using the web to answer your H1N1 questions. Our Josh Levs is here with a guide when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the rapid increase in the H1N1 flu cases. Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the U.S., including almost 100 children, have died from the strain. 46 states have reported widespread flu activity.
The declaration is expected to cut through red tape needed to get more people vaccinated. Federal health officials say about 11.3 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed.
Well, health officials are encouraging people to turn to the web as a key part of fighting the spread of the H1N1.
HOLMES: Josh Levs here with some of the best sites. Hello again Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi to you guys. I've never seen anything like this, a situation where so many authorities are calling on people to use the Internet to this extent. We're hearing it every day through health officials throughout the country.
What that means is there are a lot of web pages that can help you fight H1N1, protect your family. And we want to find the best for you.
Last hour, we showed you a few. Now we're going to show you more. You don't need to write it down. At the very end, I'm going to show you one place where I've linked everything for you.
Just go right into the screen. Flu.gov has what something everyone's talking about right now which is vaccines. All you need to do at flu.gov is just click on a state. It will bring you to the resources for any given state about where to find vaccines in that state.
Flu.gov also has this, the latest on H1N1 cases inside your state. Choosing a random one here, we'll go over to Iowa, it brings you information on the latest number of cases, also how widespread it is, any given date. It takes you through a lot of that.
This is another map that has something really special. This is from healthmap.org. And I have a video for you. Let's go to that.
What the folks at healthmap.org have done is they actually show you the progression. You can look worldwide, which I have here, or you can zoom in to just the United States or just any given city and see how those new colors keep popping up on your screen.
We went back to October 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, every day just this month. And every time you see more of these appear it means that there are more -- either confirmed cases or suspected cases of H1N1 appearing there.
Let's come back to the screen here, I'll show you one more thing. Then I'll show where to find all this. CNN.com/H1N1 is packed with information. It really is very impressive. Look at all this.
It has a lot about vaccines, a lot of your questions answered, a lot about busting through some of those myths that are out there. A couple of things that caught my eye; this gives you a way to understand the H1N1, things you may not have known including information about preventing it yourself.
Also a little quiz; you think you know a lot? Test your H1N1 knowledge right there. Here's the graphic. Let's go to it because this is where I've posted everything for you. It's up on the blog. We updated it this morning, cnn.com/josh. We've also posted at Facebook and Twitter at JoshLevsCNN and while you're there, try out these sites.
Also let us know if there are other really good sites out there that have worked for you or if you've found holes in some of these. We would love to hear from you and we'll keep popping back on the air, Betty and T.J., with the latest as the flu season keeps going. We hear about more of these cases obviously and we want to get people the best online resources we can.
NGUYEN: Yes. No doubt. Ok. Thank you Josh.
LEVS: Thanks Betty.
NGUYEN: We will be right back with a final check of the top stories.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. John King coming up at the top of the hour: speaking with one of the men running for president in Afghanistan. We've got a heated election coming up, runoff election.
HOLMES: Yes. They have a runoff election; Abdullah Abdullah and also Hamid Karzai going at it.
But right now, I want to give you a quick check of our top stories before we hand it over to John King.
Up first here, check out this cell phone video: two suicide car bombings in Baghdad earlier today. Just got an up date that now we're at 132 people that have been killed. Again, an update on this number: now 132 killed in this bombing, some 500 plus have been injured. The bombings targeted two government buildings. We'll stay on top of that story.
Also, President Obama has declared a national emergency as more and more cases of H1N1 flu are reported. The declaration is expected to cut through that bureaucratic red tape and make it easier for people to get help.
Now it's time for us to hand it over to John King and "STATE OF THE UNION."
