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CNN Saturday Morning News

GOP Presidential Candidates Speak at CPAC; Maine Prepares for Caucuses; Interview with Florida Governor Rick Scott; Violence Against Anti-Government Protestors Continues in Syria; Asian-American NBA Player Jeremy Lin Overnight Sensation; Hacker Group Anonymous Shuts Down CIA Website

Aired February 11, 2012 - 10:00   ET

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

TED ROWLANDS, CNN ANCHOR: And it is February 11th. Good morning, everyone. This is CNN Saturday morning. I'm Ted Rowlands.

It's 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta and 5:00 p.m. in Syria. Amateur video from inside there shows the damage caused by the ongoing explosions and attacks in that country. A child's pink doll appears to be lying in the rubble. Hear from an activist from inside the country who says the people there just want a moment to save their children.

Plus, the CIA's website hacked. A group called Anonymous has taken credit for the cyber-attack, and they say they're not done targeting government websites.

You're looking at a live picture from CPAC. It's the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington. It's the third and final day of the convention which brings together the nation's leading conservative activists.

Here's a look at today's highlights. At 4:15 the conference will release the much anticipated results of the presidential straw poll. Mitt Romney won it back in 2008 after dropping his bid for the presidential nomination. And right after the straw poll results, Sarah Palin takes the stage to deliver the convention's keynote address. Three of the four GOP candidates addressed the conference yesterday, burnishing their credentials and attacking President Obama.

Our political director Mark Preston is covering CPAC for us this morning. Mark, lots to talk about. Let's start with today's events. What's the real significance of the straw poll?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you know, Ted, if Rick Santorum, who has come on with three major wins last week in Missouri and in Colorado and Minnesota, if he were to win the straw poll tomorrow that would be seen as a huge boon to his campaign. In fact, in the last three days Rick Santorum, who a lot of people didn't think he had a shot after the nomination, is now seen as an alternative to Mitt Romney. He has raised $3 million his campaign manager says in the last 72 hours, and they keep on clicking away. If Mitt Romney would win the straw poll today, perhaps that would help assuage some fears that, in fact, conservatives are not embracing his candidacy. That has been dogging him all along. So those are the two people we're looking at, Ted, today for this straw poll.

ROWLANDS: Sarah Palin, no official endorsement as of yet. But she does speak today. Can we expect her to back a candidate? And what could that do in terms of helping or hurting one of these candidates?

PRESTON: Well, I don't expect her to come out and officially endorse anyone. However, in the past few weeks she's been very complimentary of Newt Gingrich. She was so before the South Carolina and Florida primaries. She's also said some very kind words about Rick Santorum, not so much about Mitt Romney.

However, when she comes here at 4:30 and deliver the speech at CPAC, I can tell you this place will be electrified. It will be very much like when Rush Limbaugh came here a couple years ago and came into this group and delivered what we would best describe as a red meat speech and got these people on their feet. That's what we expect from Sarah Palin today.

ROWLANDS: OK, so the three candidates made their speeches yesterday. Let's listen to a little bit of what they said, starting with Rick Santorum sparring with Mitt Romney. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- who has supported, in fact, the stepchild of Obama care, the person in Massachusetts who billed the largest government-run health care system in the United States, someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall.

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me tell you, any politician that tries to convince you that they hated Washington so much that they just couldn't leave, well, that's the same politician that will try to sell you a bridge to nowhere.

NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't care what kind of deal he tries to cut, this is a man who is deeply committed -- if he wins the election he will wage war on the Catholic Church the morning after he is election. We cannot trust him. We should know -- we know who he really is, and we should make sure the country knows who he really is.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Mark, which candidate generated the most buzz after the speeches there?

PRESTON: Probably in a negative way Mitt Romney's speech generate add lot of buzz because it was directed strictly at conservatives. The idea was to try to calm any fears of his candidacy. He's used a word, though, that's caught a lot of people off guard. As describing himself as governor of Massachusetts, he said he was "severely conservative," something that conservatives here were puzzled why he decided to use that word. Rick Santorum probably the winner in his speech. He knows how to speak to the folks who come to groups -- organizations such as CPAC. He's been in the conservative movement for many, many years. He probably generated most positive buzz. And of course Newt Gingrich, what was interesting about his speech is he didn't attack any rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Instead he focused all his fire on President Obama.

So as we saw during those speeches, expect to hear in the next couple of days Rick Santorum going after Mitt Romney for health care, continuing do so, Mitt Romney going after Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum for being Washington insiders. Quite frankly, Ted, we don't know what Newt Gingrich is going do because he's very unpredictable.

ROWLANDS: Indeed he is. All right, Mark thank you, Mark Preston. We'll find out the results of the straw poll later today.

Florida Governor Rick Scott is one of this morning's CPAC headliners. He joins us live in about 15 minutes as well to preview his speech.

Republican voters in Maine are gathering in caucusing stations right now to choose a presidential candidate. Ron Paul is due in Lewiston at this hour, but Romney is expected shortly at the Portland caucuses. He'll sneak with the voters and try to sway them undoubtedly. They are really the only two candidates actively campaigning in Maine. Be sure to tune in to CNN later this evening for all of the results. CNN's coverage begins tonight at 6:00 eastern time.

Citing what it says are serious moral concerns, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is taking aim at President Obama's contraception plan despite some recently announced changes under the new rules. The employers with religious affiliations will not be required to offer contraceptive coverage to workers. Instead the service will be provided by insurers at no cost. But the bishops say the proposal would still force some people to violate their religious beliefs.

Turning now to Syria, where the violence is escalating as government there continues its bloody crackdown on dissidents. U.N. officials estimate that 6,000 people have died since the protest against Bashar al Assad regime began nearly a year ago. We have reports from anti- government activists that well over 100 people have been killed in just the last 24 hours. One of those opposition activists is in the besieged city of Homs. He's telling CNN that some victims of the attacks are the nation's youngest and most innocent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"OMAR" ACTIVIST IN HOMS, SYRIA (via translator): He's been injured. There are a few women who lost their babies. We just want from Assad to give us permission to move the injured babies. They're just babies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: CNN's Ivan Watson is monitoring developments from Istanbul, Turkey. Ivan, what is the latest on the developing situation in Syria?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, when you hear that desperate call coming from a resident there to help get some kind of a humanitarian corridor to help evacuate some people, this is the third largest city in Syria, a population of more than a million people, and it's besieged by the country's own military, which has been raining shells, heavy artillery, indiscriminately into residential-packed neighborhoods. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around what's going on in that city right now, Ted, if you try to take a step become and understand it.

Now, let's take look at a live feed that activists have put up via Bamboozer and satellite communications that show a bit of the skyline there as nightfall approaches. The residents there tell us that morning began with artillery slamming into the city once again. That is a deadly routine they have endured day after day for the better part of a week now with hundreds dead and untold number wounded. Doctors have told us they don't have antibiotics to treat those with all kinds of wounds from shrapnel wounds to roofs collapsing on top of them.

There is a siege-like situation because the military is not allowing medicine or food in. There may be a push now from outside to try to ameliorate that situation. Turkey, which is a neighbor of Syria, has just issued an announcement that it's going to request via the United Nations to set up some kind of system to transfer humanitarian aid to Syria. But that raises a lot of questions. A lot of obstacles to try to get aid into that country to people who are currently being attacked by the Syrian security services. You would probably need permission from the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad himself to try to allow some kind of humanitarian aid convoys in. So this is just as the preliminary discussion stage right now. Ted?

ROWLANDS: Clearly from those images that we're seeing coming out of Syria, it is aid that is desperately need. Hopefully it will get there, eventually sooner than later. Ivan Watson, thanks, from Istanbul, Turkey this morning.

An ominous announcement out of Iran this morning. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is saying stay tuned at a rally in Tehran just a few hours ago. He said major achievements in the nuclear field would be unveiled in the next few days.

Much of Europe has been in the grips of one of the hardest winters in years. The bitter cold is even icing over the beautiful Italian city of Venice. Look at this. Venice's famous canals are actually frozen over. Boats are just sitting there stuck in the ice.

(WEATHER BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Straight ahead, Florida Governor Rick Scott, he's one of the headliners at the major conservative gathering in Washington. We'll get a preview of tonight's and today's speech. Coming up he'll join us live.

And who would dare hack the CIA. Well, we'll tell you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: As we've been talking about all morning, there's a major gathering of conservatives wrapping up today in Washington. It's called CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Three of the four Republican presidential candidates addressed the group yesterday. Today one of the headliners is Florida Governor Rick Scott. He joins me now from Washington. Governor Scott, appreciate you joining us this morning. This is your first time, your first crack at it at the Washington CPAC conference. Give us a little bit of a preview of the message that you want to convey this morning.

GOV. RICK SCOTT, (R) FLORIDA: Well, what I'm going to talk about is what I ran on. I ran on getting our state back to work. And run your state like you run your business. Keep your costs low and in our case keep your taxes as low as possible. Get rid of regulation. Treat basically people like you want them in our state. And gosh, it works. Our unemployment dropped 2.1 percent. We generated 141,500 private sector jobs.

So what I'm going to talk about is if we want our federal economy to get going, we've got to reduce taxes, reduce regulation, reduce litigation, and say we want American companies to be more successful than companies anywhere in the world.

ROWLANDS: You're a rising star in the Republican party. How important is this opportunity for you to address the folks at CPAC?

SCOTT: Oh, well, you know, this is great opportunity. It's the conservative bedrock of the country. It's individuals that are, you know, going to help elect the next president. You can hear behind me they're applauding. They're very active. They're activists. They care about our country, they care about the constitution. They care about limiting government, lower taxes, less regulation. And so this is great opportunity for me. I'm really honored to be here.

ROWLANDS: We've heard from a lot of people. Just tell us what's the overall message you hear coming out of the conference this year?

SCOTT: I think message is one thing that's great about our country right now is people are active. We're having a healthy debate in the country. Do we want larger government or smaller government? Do we want more government regulation or less government regulations? Higher taxes or lower taxes? More litigation or less litigation? And so it's a clear choice this year.

And I think what everyone is talking about is the fact that if we want jobs, which is the biggest issue we have in our country, we've got to change the direction of our country and really say how can we make American businesses more successful so they can hire more American workers.

ROWLANDS: You did not endorse before the Florida primary. Instead you let the voters choose. They picked Romney. Do you agree with their choice?

SCOTT: Well, look. I think that across the country, voters ought to be looking at all these candidates. They ought to look at them based on, are they going to help turn our economy around? It's the biggest issue we have. It's jobs, jobs, jobs. I think the debates were healthy. I think having all the -- you know, having the candidates come to your state and campaign is really healthy. That's what they did in Florida and I know they're going do that across the country.

ROWLANDS: So who of the candidates do you support? Are you going to stand behind one? You heard them talk. You've met them all. Who do you like?

SCOTT: Well, I think all of them are great candidates. I think they all can win this election. I think if the election is going to be about jobs. Unfortunately the president has not been able to turn the economy around, so it's going to be about the economy. So any one of our candidates can win the election.

ROWLANDS: No endorsements from you yet, governor. Maybe we'll hear from you during the speech. Maybe we'll be able to see which way you're leaning after the speech. We really appreciate your joining us, and enjoy yourself over the weekend at the conference.

SCOTT: Thanks for the opportunity to be here.

ROWLANDS: You bet.

Well, they call themselves Anonymous, but they're anything but anonymous about who they are targeting. Now it is the CIA and other government websites. Details coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Today we are honoring the first CNN hero of 2012, an everyday person changing the world. His name is Scott Strode. After beating his addiction to drugs and alcohol, he used sports to fill the void. What worked for Scott is now helping hundreds of others to stay sober while experiencing a healthy high.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT STRODE, CNN HERO: I get on my bike and go ride up in the mountains. It really just brings peace. And in my drug and alcohol use, it was the opposite. I got into it pretty young. By the time I was 15 I was using pretty serious drugs. When I got sober, I lost my group of friends because they were still out drinking and using. I got into boxing, triathlon, climbing, and this new group of friends. I had completely redefined myself. So I thought, how can I give this to other people?

I'm Scott Strode, and I want to help people find a better life being sober.

Welcome to Friday night climbing. It's good to see all you here. We sponsor about 50 events a week. All the events are free for people who have 48 hours of sober. We have this common connection, so it's easy to make new friends. We do bike rides, hiking, triathlon training, strength training. It really is just a new community of folks to hang out with.

I'm an example of hitting rock bottom. I had a heroin overdose. They had to jumpstart me with the paddles. Going out biking, boxing, hitting the bags really fills the void. It's the best crew I could imagine. We're having fun and we're proud of being sober. So come out and go climbing with us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: Remember, CNN heroes are all chosen from people you tell us about. To nominate someone who is making a difference in their community, go to CNNheroes.com. Your nomination could help them help others.

Mitt Romney is trying to get back on the winning track, but has Rick Santorum stolen his thunder? Our favorite two political people, Lenny McAllister and Maria Cardona, are strapping up and ready to go. They're going to answer all those questions coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: And it's almost half past the hour. Welcome back. I'm Ted Rowlands. Thanks for starting your day with us on this Saturday.

Top stories. First off, violence continues to rage in Syria where activists say hundreds of people have died in the past week. One member of the opposition group says the city of Homs is now in its seventh consecutive day of attacks.

Jerry Sandusky may be released from house arrest as early as Monday. That's when the judge is expected to rule on whether he can leave to see his grandchildren. Sandusky, who has been on house arrest since December, is accused of sexually abusing young boys. He says he is innocent.

And the annual influential gathering known as CPAC is winding down, but not before a closing speech by vice president presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and, of course, the key presidential poll. Ron Paul has won that poll in the last two years, breaking a three year win streak by rival Mitt Romney.

The political landscape seems to have changed a bit with this week's results from Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri. Rick Santorum swept them all. We get results from Maine tonight. He's not going to win tonight, but we'll find out who does. Joining me now CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican analyst Lenny McAllister, who's in Chicago. Let's start with this week's results with Rick Santorum. A lot of momentum, but is this a blip or a sea change for conservative voters? Lenny?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN ANALYST: Well, he's no longer Rick Santorum. This is Rocky Santorum. He is the underdog that keeps fighting against all odds. I keep saying this. He needs to run down the streets of Philadelphia in a sweater vest and sweat pants with his arms up in the air and run up to the Rocky statue, because he keeps coming from behind to show that a underdog can make it in America.

And if he takes a part from the playbook from 2008 from President Obama and say, listen, I can be the inspirational figure to win back the White House, he can take this momentum and move forward. We've seen his fundraising numbers come up over the past week. I think if he continues to do well in the debates and the momentum moving into Super Tuesday, Rocky Santorum do a number in March.

MCALLISTER: But can Rocky Santorum go all the way to the White House, Maria? I would think he would be the candidate that the administration would love to go up against.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: There's no question about that, ted. That's certainly true. The surge is for real. I think that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich need to take him seriously and clearly they are because we're seeing that Mitt Romney is focusing all of his fire on Rick Santorum, which means they are taking him seriously.

What we've learned from this political season is that conventional wisdom has just completely gone out the window, and who knows what's going to happen? I believe the smart money is going to be on Mitt Romney. The problem with that, and we saw it with his own speech at CPAC, is that he still has a tremendous way to go to convince conservatives that he can carry their mantle. He talked about being "severely conservative" when he was governor of Massachusetts. What does that even mean? That's such an awkward phrase to use. You can see people awkwardly applaud, but they really didn't understand what that meant and they didn't like it very much.

He still has a problem connecting with conservatives. And for the general election if he is the nominee, more importantly than that, he has a huge problem connecting with everyday Americans struggling in this economy. So if he does become the nominee, he's going to be the weak nominee. And that's why the Republicans are so desperate to find the anybody-but-Romney candidate, and right now that's Rick Santorum.

ROWLANDS: Lenny, give us a sense of how important the CPAC is. It seems like if you want it, first you have to meet with Donald Trump, but then you have to woo the folks at CPAC. How important is it for candidates?

MCALLISTER: It was very important from several perspectives. If you look at how the candidates ended up going into CPAC with their speeches. Rick Santorum appealed to the heart of conservatives. Newt Gingrich appealed to the brain of the conservatives. And Mitt Romney kind of appealed to the pockets of the conservatives -- we have the structure, the money, and the length of time running for president to beat President Obama.

Unfortunately CPAC is for inspiring conservatives, getting a base behind you, gaining some supporters, finding some volunteers, and putting an effort together that's going to keep your momentum going. Santorum probably did a pretty good job of that. Newt Gingrich probably solidified himself as the historian in the room. Did Mitt Romney get the enthusiasm level up over the weekend? Probably not. As long as he has that gap in enthusiasm, he's going to be a Republican that may have enough resources to win but not enough oomph to win. And we may be looking at a two-term President Obama much to my and other Republicans' chagrin coming up --

ROWLANDS: Oh, my. Lenny, you're throwing in the towel already.

(LAUGHTER)

MCALLISTER: Not quite yet. We need to get that inspiration up, Ted. We have to get the inspiration and oomph up first.

ROWLANDS: The White House expanded their plan for new contraceptive health care requirements. This week a lot of pressure there, and a lot of people were very concerned by the way this was handled. Maria, was this a sign of weakness by the White House, the way it was handled?

CARDONA: No, not at all. It was absolutely the right policy to put forward, Ted. And maybe what they should have done was have a conversations with the Catholic leaders and make them understand that this is not what the government was trying to come in and be the bully and tell them what to do and trample on their religious freedoms.

We saw with the compromise and accommodation that what they're trying to do is actually keep the insurance companies and keep insurance plans from discriminating against women who want to have access and need to have access to preventative and life-saving health services and contraceptive medicines, which mainly 99 percent of American women at one point have taken contraceptives in their lives.

And this is frankly something that not only the majority of Americans believe it's the right thing do, the majority of women think it's the right thing to do, and the majority of Catholics think it's the right thing to do. So I think what it shows is this president puts policy before politics and puts the welfare of women before politics.

ROWLANDS: But it did cause a lot of --

(LAUGHTER)

ROWLANDS: All right, Lenny, quickly. Let her have it. What's your take on this?

MCALLISTER: No way. The bottom line is the president absolutely puts policy above policy. He tried to bully the Catholic Church, and all of a sudden realized, you know what, the Catholic Church fights amongst themselves, but they do not want the United States government telling them what the canonical laws should be. Even those twice a year Catholics at Easter and Christmas do not want the president telling the Pope what the policy should be. Why didn't he do this first? Why did he have to backtrack and then compromise? This shows why Republicans, although we're fighting amongst ourselves, still have a lot of hope going forward that we can win the president in November if we get our acts together.

CARDONA: There was no backtracking.

ROWLANDS: Quickly. Both of you?

MCALLISTER: There wasn't backtracking, Maria?

CARDONA: No, it was not backtracking. The policy is exactly the same one.

ROWLANDS: He had to come out and compromise.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: No, absolutely not. It was an accommodation -- no. It was an accommodation and the policy is exactly the same one. It does not let insurance companies discriminate --

(CROSSTALK)

MCALLISTER: It shifts the responsibility --

CARDONA: Absolutely not.

MCALLISTER: -- from the Catholic Church over to the insurance companies. It absolutely is a compromise and a backtrack.

CARDONA: It was an accommodation and the right thing do.

ROWLANDS: All right, both of you guys, appreciate it this morning. And as always, a spirited discussion.

CARDONA: Thank you, Ted.

ROWLANDS: Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

MCALLISTER: Thank you, Ted. Appreciate it. You too. God bless.

ROWLANDS: Well, up in smoke, movie memorabilia from the classic film "Gone with the Wind" is now gone forever. We'll till you about a devastating fire.

And the NBA's newest sensation, the Knicks' Jeremy Lin. His remarkable rise to court stardom is coming up next. Stay with us. It's incredible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Well, forget Tim Tebow. There's another superstar sports fan we need to start following. And HLN's sports guy Smoking Joe Carter is here to introduce us to this guy who came out of nowhere.

JOE CARTER, HLN SPORTS ANCHOR: We both said earlier in the week we didn't know who this guy was. Jeremy Lin plays for the New York Knicks and essentially in one week he's gone from the bench to the talk of the NBA. He's quickly become the feel-good story in sports so far.

He wasn't drafted out of college. Two NBA teams, the Rockets and the Golden State Warriors, both cut him. The Knicks scooped him up, but then sent to the D-league, but because of injuries, he was called back to the team. And in one week this unknown Asian-American with a degree in economics from Harvard has put up Lebron James like number. Last night he scored 38 points, outshined Kobe Bryan. He's the reason the Knicks have won four straight games. It's become "Lin-sanity" in New York. A rap song has been made after him. Knick tickets have been selling like hotcakes on Stub Hub. He's taken over Twitter. And here's the kicker -- he's been living with his brother in an apartment in New York City, sleeping on his brother's couch because he didn't have a guaranteed contract was making very little money. On this week, the Knicks said we're going to give you a one-year contract, $800,000. So he's apartment shopping in the Big Apple.

(LAUGHTER)

ROWLANDS: Yes. He going to stay a Knick for a while. Will Ferrell, this is beautiful. So many people have watched it now.

CARTER: He's gold. He's TV gold in so many ways. Earlier this week he had the opportunity to introduce the players before the game between the Bulls and the Hornets game. If you haven't seen the clip, here's a few of the intros. They're great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL FERRELL, COMEDIAN: At Forward, 6'10" from Mexico, he doesn't speak a lick of English, but we still love him, Gustavo, Aio. At center, 6'10" from Connecticut where he majored in economics, but minored in love --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: You can see he did a good job. Fans have a Facebook page. They want him to do the intros for the upcoming all-star game February 26. The game is lighthearted anyway. He's busy right now, but maybe he can do it February 26.

ROWLANDS: Maybe he can help us and al the fans out. All right, Joe, thank you.

CARTER: You bet.

ROWLANDS: All right, 21 delegates are at stake today in Maine's state caucuses. Next we'll tell you what Mitt Romney did today that he never done before.

Plus, legendary movie memorabilia is destroyed in a fire. We'll tell you what's now gone up in smoke.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Well, some of the nation ice most influential conservatives are gathering for the final day of the CPAC convention. CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference. On the agenda for today is a widely anticipated presidential straw poll and a closing speech by Sarah Palin.

Many Republican eyes are on CPAC, but a few are up in Maine. At least a couple of the candidates are spending time up there. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are in Maine today for the state's caucuses. Two other candidates are skipping the state. And 21 delegates are at stake. We'll get the result this evening.

CNN's Shannon Travis is live at one of the caucus sights. Shannon, Mitt Romney is doing something he's never done before in this election site.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ted. He spoke here a short while ago. Mitt Romney has not -- this is his first time campaigning in Maine this election cycle, and this is his first time actually coming to a caucus site on voting day. So these are a few firsts for Mitt Romney. Take a listen to an 11th hour appeal from the former governor of Massachusetts himself at the caucus here, Ted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I have a lot of passion for this country, concern for its resurrection, faith in the American people. I come to you asking for your support today. I want to be your nominee. I want to beat President Obama. I believe I can. I believe I'm the one person in this race who actually can beat the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Now, Mitt Romney coming here to Maine, to the caucus site, are they signs the former governor is worried about Ron Paul getting a first win? Is it a sign he doesn't want to avoid another embarrassing loss as he did on Tuesday when he lost three states?

The Romney campaign tells me this was always on the agenda for him to visit Maine. In terms of Ron Paul, he was here earlier as well. He did not address the crowd of caucus-goers. He pretty much greeted them at the doors. His campaign thinks they have a chance of picking up their first campaign -- first contest win because they're zero for eight right now.

ROWLANDS: It's nice, Shannon, that you have a musical accompaniment for your background of your report. Paul spent a lot of time there. Who has the edge going into tonight?

TRAVIS: Yes, it's really hard to tall. Ron Paul watched -- Ron Paul was here. He put on his sweater vest and headed north and came up campaigning. I was here with him. But Mitt Romney is a favorite political son of New England. Obviously he was the governor of Massachusetts. He spent a number of years here helping out other Republicans. He won here in 2008. So it's kind of hard to tell going into tonight who has the edge. I can tell you this much. I spoke with the Romney campaign last night. They said although they expected to do well, they will be satisfied with a second or even a third place win, Ted.

TRAVIS: All right, Shannon, join in here. Thanks. Busy day ahead for you and for all of us here at CNN.

CNN's special coverage of Maine's caucuses begins at 6:00 eastern time with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. That's followed by CNN's complete live coverage of the caucus results starting at 7:00.

The CIA's website has been hacked. The known -- the group known as Anonymous is taking credit, or the blame. But who are these guys? We'll find out coming up next.

And later, pulling people out of the snow -- it takes a special breed we'll introduce you to that coming up in our 11:00 hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: The CIA's website is back up and running this morning after hackers took it down. The computer hacking group known as Anonymous claimed responsibility. CNN Amber Lyons spoke to a member of the reclusive group. First of all, who are these "Anons" as they supposedly call themselves, Amber? Give us a sense of who they are.

AMBER LYONS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They really can be anyone. Anonymous is more an idea than an actual organization, and what unites its members is the belief they want open government, open Internet, and they also want to protect human rights. The way they do that -- in the Occupy movement you see people hitting the streets. Anonymous is usually an Internet attack. That's where Anons all get together and they flood website, like the CIA website, most recently they've done the FBI, DOJ websites, with so much traffic that it causes these websites to crash, Ted.

ROWLANDS: How many of these sites are we talking about that they've hacked so far? I know they want to do many. Who have they done so far besides the CIA?

LYONS: Hundreds of websites. And mostly these attacks are against governments, law enforcement agencies, corporations that they believe are infringing upon human rights or open government or open Internet, Ted.

ROWLANDS: What's the -- you talk to these folks. What's the ultimate goal here? It doesn't seem clear -- taking down websites is one way to create chaos or give somebody some pain, but what's the ultimate goal?

LYONS: I think what's often underreported, Ted, is that there is a certain sector of Anonymous that's calling for a total revolution similar to what we saw in Egypt and over in Tunisia. And what's also underreported is the role anonymous played in those revolutions in not only keeps the Internet open when some of these leaders tried to close it, also to protect the protesters on the ground and really serve as a propaganda tool to let people know what was happen. So there is a group of Anonymous, a more radical side, that is calling for a revolution here in the U.S. And they will hack and DDOS their way to make that happen, according to these Anons.

ROWLANDS: Quickly how do they do this? A lot of these guys aren't hackers. Is it just a few doing the heavy lifting?

LYONS: There's a certain sector of Anonymous that do know how to attack. But the majority of the Anons I spoke say they don't have those skills. What the majority of them use a program called low orbit software, and that allows the average Joe who may not know a lot about computers to essentially from their living room they could possibly be simultaneously watching football and flooding the CIA's website with traffic, participating in a DDOS attack. So this has been essential to really galvanize this movement and allow them be successful in so many of these attacks we've seen of late, Ted.

ROWLANDS: Amber Lyon with some insight there. The headline here, stay tuned for more attacks to come. Amber, appreciate it.

LYONS: Yes. They have a lot planned for 2012 according to some of my sources, especially when it comes to the conventions and elections coming up.

ROWLANDS: All right, Amber Lyon in Los Angeles coming up. Thanks, Amber.

A couple of hundred-thousand dollars worth of movie relics lost during a storage facility fire. We'll have details coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Let's take a look now at what's happening across country.

In North Carolina, Tommy Jordan posted a video of himself reading his daughter's disrespectful Facebook post and shooting her laptop with a handgun nine times. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY JORDAN, AUTHOR OF VIRAL FACEBOOK VIDEO: That right there is your laptop. You see it out here on the ground. This right here is my 45. That was the first round.

Oh, yes. And after that comment you made about your mom, your mom told me to make sure I put one in there from her. So that one's from her. And if I've got one left, I've got two left. Now I'm out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Now get this. He's making his daughter pay for the bullets. CNN reached out to Mr. Jordan but he is not talking.

And finally to Georgia where a storage facility fire destroyed part of a museum's collection of classic movie memorabilia, that includes movie posters and paintings from the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind". A museum spokesperson said the unit was insured but estimated losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.