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CNN Saturday Morning News

Hundreds Missing, At Least 40 Dead as Ferryboat Carrying More Than 600 Capsizes Off Tanzania; Rebels Attacking Gadhafi Stronghold of Ben Walid; New Threats Spark Increased Police And Security Presence in NYC and DC; NASA Launches GRAIL Mission; Troops in Kabul Mark 9/11 Anniversary With Heavy Emotion; GOP Presidential Hopefuls Gather for Tea Party Express Debate

Aired September 10, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN, ANCHOR: Well, time now for a -- to check in with Christine Romans for a look at what's coming up on "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" at 9:30 Eastern time.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J.

September 11th, 2001, changed this country and its people forever. It's changed our security, it's changed our priorities. And most of all it's changed the day-to-day of everyday life in the United States.

Coming up on a special edition of "YOUR BOTTOM LINE," we're going to look at life after 9/11 from how it's being taught to our kids in the classroom to how it has changed those who narrowly escaped.

Meet a man whose life changed forever and who has made it his business to make sure you change yours as well. That's all coming up on a special edition of "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" at 9:30 a.m. Eastern -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Christine Romans. We'll see her in just a moment.

Time to give you a look at some of the stories that are making headlines here on the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

A tragedy today off the coast of the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Hundreds of people are missing after a ferry capsized. Rescue boats have been bringing survivors from the site. The Tanzanian state minister says at least 259 people have been rescued and 40 bodies recovered, but the minister says more than 600 people were aboard that ferry.

Also, in Libya, our Ben Wedeman reporting earlier this hour that rebels are attacking a town considered a stronghold for Moammar Gadhafi. The attack on Bani Walid began at daybreak there. Wedeman says the rebels ran into a lot of resistance apparently from elite forces in the town. Rebels believe key Gadhafi regime leaders including two of his sons may be there. Well, it is just a trickle of information, but it has led to a flood of extra security this morning. We're talking about the new threat that coincides possibly with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Intelligence officials say it could be two American citizens at the heart of the threat. The information comes from intercepted communications in Pakistan. They call it credible, still not confirmed. But it is a sobering reminder as we pause to remember the victims on 9/11 this weekend.

We've got our Suzanne Malveaux with us from Kabul, Afghanistan, where troops are rehearsing for their 9/11 ceremony. Also, our Athena Jones is in Washington keeping an eye on the increased security there, and CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is in Ground Zero for me this morning.

Allan, I'll start with you. What's the mood of the city?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: T.J., the mood is one of tension, but it's tension that has been experienced for the past 10 years. So, frankly, this tightened security that we have had in place since yesterday, something that New Yorkers unfortunately are very, very used to. It's the drill once again. We all knew it would be tight before the 10th anniversary, but, perhaps a little tighter because of this newest terror threat.

So police have had checkpoints throughout Manhattan, stopping vehicles, especially vans and trucks, looking inside. They are, in particular, targeting license plates that are rentals. That the license plates indicate that these are rental vehicles. They've also been wearing radiation detectors and they've been scanning plates at bridges and tunnels, so T.J., tight stuff, long traffic yesterday, very bad traffic jams, but most New Yorkers understand this is part of the new world created post-9/11.

HOLMES: All right. And Allan, to our Athena Jones, we'll go now to D.C.

Athena, they already were stepping up security for these 9/11 events, especially in New York, in D.C., anyway. With this new threat how did they step it up even more?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, everyone I talked to, they said "We're already at a heightened state of awareness. We've been in a heightened state of awareness." This anniversary coming up, isn't as though it came out of the blue.

They've had 10 years to prepare and they know that anniversaries like this are important to groups like al Qaeda and their extremist sympathizers, and so they say they're ready. All across town you're seeing an increased law enforcement presence.

At the Capitol you have more canine units, hazmat units, bomb squad units, all those specialty units coming out to -- in a show of force.

The Parks Police here who are in charge of protecting the monuments and memorials around town, they said they will be surveilling (ph) with technology like cameras. They also have officers in uniform, in plain clothes, on horseback, on foot out patrolling.

And on the metro here you've seen canine units patrolling the metro lines, doing bag searches, unannounced bag searches on people and the Metropolitan Police have added 200 to 400 police officers to be working this weekend and overlapping 12-hour shifts.

And so they've definitely stepped it up as we head into Sunday. And they believe they're ready. Let's listen to what police Chief Lanier had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CATHY LANIER, METROPOLITAN POLICE CHIEF: In terms of the safety of the city I feel very comfortable that we have a very safe environment for the weekend. I want people to go out and do what they were going to do without this threat being present.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so you heard that police chief say she wants people to continue with their lives. That's exactly what the D.C. mayor has said.

There's a lot going on here in the city today. Festivals, a triathlon, there's a big college football game going on this weekend. And so, they say go out and enjoy, but just be vigilant as always, you hear that phrase a lot, if you see something, say something. Report any suspicious activity.

And the police chief said they've already seen a little bit of an uptick in the number of people who are reporting suspicious things like cars parked in odd places and so the D.C. police, they want that kind of information. They want everyone to have their eyes out. They're running down all of those reports. Nothing has turned up luckily but they want everyone to be paying attention this weekend -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Athena Jones in D.C. Thanks as well to our Allan Chernoff in New York for us.

We're at six minutes past the hour, coming up on -- we are going to bring you what we have been waiting to bring you for the past few hours here, NASA is about to launch a mission to the moon, that is the GRAIL mission, we're talking about. You're about to see this vehicle take off in just about two minutes and 53 seconds. I'm watching the countdown here.

Let me bring in our John Zarrella who covers NASA for us. He's on the line with me.

John, always good to have you with me. How about this? You do a better job than I have been doing this morning explaining exactly what this mission is. I've been keeping it short and just saying NASA is going to the moon. But what exactly are they doing on this mission?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): As well, it T.J., it is a complicated mission even for those that cover the space program. What NASA is going to do on this Delta 2 rocket, if they can get off the ground here, they've been plagued by high winds the last few days in the upper levels of the atmosphere.

And what they're going to do is -- this Delta 2 rocket is going to be carrying twin satellites, each one about the size of a washing machine and they are going to take a three-month route to get to the moon so they'll going to be able to save fuel that way, save money.

When they get there they're going to go into orbit, literally identical orbits, one behind the other. And as they circle the moon for about three months in that orbit, they'll be going over mountains. They'll be going over valleys, they'll be going over masses that are hidden beneath the surface of the moon, and as they do that, the gravitational tug on those satellites will force them to either move a little closer together or a little further apart as one goes over the mountains and the other one trails behind it.

And by doing this, the data that they receive from that, they'll be able to map the gravitational field of the moon and by doing that, they're literally going to get a CAT scan of the interior of the moon. Why is that so important? Well, because despite the fact that we've seen humans to the moon and more than 100 different probes have either orbited or landed on the moon, we do not understand what makes up the interior of the moon. They don't know.

This CAT scan of the moon should prove to them or help them figure out what the interior of the moon is made of. And that will help them have a better understanding of what the inner planet, the rocky planet of the solar system, actually are made of, besides earth, and how they ultimately formed in the early, early eons of the solar system's formation.

HOLMES: OK.

ZARRELLA: That's the plan for this mission. As well as another interesting part of it is, they're going to have cameras, eight cameras, four on each of these spacecraft, and it's a project for middle school students around the world.

HOLMES: OK.

ZARRELLA: First time NASA has dedicated to education an entire suite of instruments.

HOLMES: Well, John, you can put it that way or just call it a mission to the moon like I have been doing. But it's about to take off. We're less than 30 seconds away. Let's go ahead and listen in to NASA and their mission control. This thing is about to take off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. zero. And liftoff of the Delta 2 with GRAIL journey to the center of the moon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rising and all six ground outlet motors.

The chamber pressure on all (INAUDIBLE) six ground let motors.

Twenty seconds into the flight.

Twenty-nine seconds. Mark 29 seconds.

MAC 1, vehicle now going transonic.

Thirty-five seconds in.

Thirty-eight seconds in. Max Q, dynamic pressure.

On the 45-second mark, 45 seconds in. Altitude 3.4 quarter of a miles, 14.4 nautical miles, velocity 1742 miles per hour.

On the one minute mark. Mark. One minute into the flight.

Standing by for solid motor burnout about 10 seconds from now. Pressure decreasing on the solids.

Standing by for burnout. And we have burnout.

Standing by. And we have separation.

And we have ignition on the three air lift motors. The three air lift motors have come up on chamber pressure. Chamber pressure on the air lift motors.

One-thirty-nine into the flight the Delta vehicle now only weighs one half of what it did at launch, expelling propeller now at the rate of about 2,700 ounce per second.

One-fifty in, altitude now 21.8 nautical miles. Down range 51 nautical miles, velocity 4,493 miles per hour.

HOLMES: All right, as I'll bring our John Zarrella back in here.

John, we're watching this and no matter what, it always captures the imagination when you see, you know, a rocket launch, frankly, into space, but we're not going to be seeing the space shuttle anymore, so these are the kinds of launches, John?

Is this what we're going to have to look forward to NASA in the foreseeable future, these kinds of launches, these kinds of missions? How many more do they have down the pike?

ZARRELLA: Well, the big one down the pike is the mission called MSL, which is the Mars mission coming up at the end of November where they're going to send rover, another rover to Mars, but it's the size of a Volkswagen. It is the most expensive, the ambitious Mars mission that will be -- has ever been undertaken.

So it will absolutely be a fascinating one to watch over the course of, you know, after they lift off and then the next year and a half.

And I'll finish that thought real quick, T.J.

HOLMES: Go ahead.

ZARRELLA: Middle school students around the world can actually go to moon cam, moonkam.com and you can go on-line and you can request a photo taken of a particular location on the moon's surface.

And you'll actually be able to follow the progress when the signal is uplinked to the vehicle and when they take your photo and it will be posted on the web sites eventually for teachers anywhere in the world with middle school students.

So that's a fascinating opportunity to get kids interested in science and space exploration -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. John Zarrella. I appreciate you hopping on the line here with me and certainly needed your expertise in walking me through exactly what this mission was all about.

But John Zarrella, of course, covers NASA right now, he's been covering some of the flooding up in Pennsylvania. We'll be checking in with him throughout the day and weekend on that.

But, John, thanks as always.

All right, 13 minutes past the hour now. We are going to be heading live to Afghanistan coming up. Our Suzanne Malveaux is there checking in with U.S. troops who have a different take on what 9/11 means. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, 16 minutes past the hour.

I want to say good morning now to our Suzanne Malveaux. She's at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Hello to you, Suzanne.

And so, many people as you know back here are getting ready to mark the anniversary of 9/11 but you're talking to troops there who are there because of 9/11. What are they saying to you?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, T.J. We had a chance to talk to a lot of soldiers here. Obviously, it had quite an emotional and a professional impact on them. It really motivated a lot of them to become part of the mission.

We just saw them do a dress rehearsal, if you will, for tomorrow's ceremony. I want to just point out very quickly here these are flags that represent 35 different countries all a part of the international effort here in Afghanistan.

I had a chance to talk to a lot of these guys and you might expect, right, that they talk about the mission and how tough that day was, but they were also very revealing, very personal about the raw emotions of those days and the memories of that particular tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): Thomas Carter was in room 4D 131 of the Pentagon when it was hit.

COL. THOMAS CARTER, U.S. AIR FORCE: I heard a loud, sonic boom, and then after that boom, it was like an earthquake had actually hit the Pentagon. That massive building actually literally shook. It was a feeling of surprise and shock and then anger.

MALVEAUX: Colonel Todd Key was also inside the Pentagon on the other side. He had just gotten off the phone with his wife.

COL. TODD KEY, U.S. ARMY: I swear, I thought she was dead. I just had that feeling that she was dead.

MALVEAUX: Key realized she was alive, when he reunited with her after escaping the burning building.

KEY: I realized, too, that everyone who died in the Pentagon, has a family and it made it real to me that was a -- it was different at that moment, it was different.

MALVEAUX: Colonel David Komar was thinking about his five and two-year-old children when he began carrying out the toddlers at the Pentagon day care.

COL. DAVID KOMAR, U.S. ARMY: What was painful was the thoughts that went through my head that, perhaps, some of those children's parents had perished.

MALVEAUX: For Captain Jason Gracin, the pain of 9/11 was different. He had to leave his pregnant wife to identify the Pentagon bodies.

CAPT. JASON GRACIN, U.S. AIR FORCE: I was the one who was taken all the x-rays on all the victims and trying to match dental records. To be honest the toughest part was at the end of the day, they would take the victims that were ready to be transported back to the families --

MALVEAUX (on camera): It's OK. Take your time.

GRACIN: The hearse.

MALVEAUX: Take your time. It's OK. Take your time. You want to join him? It's OK. It's OK.

GRACIN: The hearses would come, the military escorts, we would all line up and render that final salute. And you do that enough times, it wears on you. You know that could have been me, it could have been one of these guys, and they all had families and that was the worst part. That was the worst part. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: T.J., you can tell that Jason Gracin and his fellow military personnel, very close, very comforting, very supportive of each other. They really need each other during this time. He says there are times when he might listen to a song on the radio or smell a smell and it comes back to those days, those two weeks that were following September 11th and the day of the attack itself.

Tomorrow is when they're going to have the ceremony. It's going to be starting here at 5:00 p.m., local time, that's eight and a half hours ahead. That is Kabul time, eight and a half hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. They will also mark a moment of silence at 5:16 local time, the time that the first plane hit that twin tower -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, who has been reporting for us from Kabul and will continue to do so through tomorrow, thank you.

And to our viewers tomorrow morning, starting at 6:00 a.m., our show, "CNN SUNDAY MORNING" will be live from Ground Zero in New York and also starting at 8:00 a.m., you can see all the remembrances, all the ceremonies from New York, Washington, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: To our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser in Tampa.

Good morning to you, Paul.

Big debate, CNN teaming up with the Tea Party Express. What do they want to get out of this debate, do you think?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: T.J., you're right, the CNN Election Express right here. We're on the fair state, Florida State fair grounds and Monday night, eight candidates will be on the stage here.

And yes, Tea Party activists, Tea Party supporters. What do they want to hear? Well, like all Americans they want to hear about jobs and what those eight candidates will do to create jobs.

But for them as well, the budget deficit, cutting the massive federal budget deficit, lowering taxes, capping government spending. These are important issues to Tea Party activists and Tea Party supporters across the nation.

Also, health care, the new health care law that was passed under President Barack Obama and the Democrats, they want to see how these candidates would repeal that law.

And T.J., one other thing. Wednesday night in California social security we saw Mitt ROMNEY:, the former Massachusetts governor and Rick Perry, the Texas governor spar over that. They really battled over social security. I think we could see that again.

And remember, Florida, a lot of senior citizens, a lot of people near retirement age, social security and the enduring legacy and -- of that program very important to them. T.J. -- talked about on Monday night.

HOLMES: All right. Not as if we needed more reasons to watch, you just gave us plenty. Paul Steinhauser for us in Tampa, we'll talk to you again.

Again, the debate, CNN and Tea Party Express putting on the Republican debate that is Monday night 8:00 Eastern right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, a story making headlines today.

Just a tragedy right now more than 300 people missing after a ferry capsized off the island of Zanzibar on Africa's western coast. Tanzanian state minister says at least 259 people have been rescued, 40 bodies recovered but the minister says more than 600 people were aboard that ferry.

Also you saw it here live, just a few moments ago, from Florida. They had a go for launch and yes, in fact, it did. This was NASA's GRAIL mission to the moon. It got underway. This mission is going to map the lunar gravity, two satellites went up with this rocket but everything appeared to go as planned for this mission.

I'll be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news but right now I want to hand it over to "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" and Christine Romans.