with Six Felony Counts; Targeting Yemen's Terrorists; Scammers Prey on Recession Victims; Heroin How-To?; Study Suggest Homegrown Terrorism May Be Exaggerated; Manchester Airport's Full-Body Scanners - Part 2
| By John Roberts, Kiran Chetry, Rob Marciano, Jacqui Jeras |
|---|
xfdiw AMERICAN-MORNING-01
<Show: AMERICAN MORNING>
<Date: January 7, 2010>
<Time: 06:00>
<Tran: 010701CN.V74>
<Type: SHOW>
<Head: Deep Freeze Grips Midwest and Southeast; Abdulmutallab
Charged with Six Felony Counts; Targeting Yemen's Terrorists; Scammers Prey on
Recession Victims; Heroin How-To?; Study Suggest Homegrown Terrorism
May Be Exaggerated; Manchester Airport's Full-Body Scanners - Part 2>
<Sect: News; Domestic>
<Time: 06:00>
<End: 06:59>
And so - you know, it's a - it's a tough thing. Other people say if you're going to do something like this, do it right. Be detailed. But that's what's shocking to a lot of people.CHETRY: All right. Alina Cho, good stuff.
And we invite people to weigh in, of course. Once again, cnn.com/amfix. Thanks, Alina.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: And you can -- yes, as we say, go to the blog, any time you want. Just let us know what you think about everything this morning.
CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now. And that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
An arctic blast now blame for six deaths across the U.S. Many of the victims elderly or homeless. And after a very brief one day warm- up round two of unbearable cold is on the way. Jacqui Jeras will be here with the blizzard warnings for the north and the record lows for the south in 20 minutes.
ROBERTS: A report on the Intel failures before the attempted terror attack on Christmas is coming out today. National Security adviser Gen. Jim Jones says the details will shock some Americans. The president himself has said we had the information to stop a Nigerian man from allegedly boarding a flight overseas with explosives in his underwear, but did not connect the dots. He is expected to speak after the report is made public.
CHETRY: And our own Jeanne Meserve sat down with the president's Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, and flat out asked if we are more at risk today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The typical kind of assumption on the threat was sort of a large conspiratorial 9/11 style attack. What we saw on Christmas was an individual who comes out of Yemen, who's been radicalized, who gets into the travel system, dots are not connected in the intelligence community, and that's what the president has ordered to be addressed and rectified.
He gets through the screening done at Amsterdam, and gets on a plane bound for the United States. That's a much more difficult threat in a way to deal with than a conspiracy where you have multiple ways to intercept communications and the like. So I would say it's a changing threat, and perhaps a more difficult threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, the threat from so called homegrown terrorism may be real, but a new study says it's not as great as most people think. Duke University credits the American-Muslim Community with limiting radicalization by policing itself.
Joining us now from Durham, North Carolina is Ebrahim Moosa. He is a co-author of the Duke study. And professor of Islamic studies there, and from Fargo, North Dakota, Jarret Brachman. He is the author of Global Jihadism and an assistant professor at North Dakota State.
Thanks very much, gentleman. Both are being with us.
Let's go to you, first of all, Ebrahim.
When you look at this study, and I've got it here. It's a lengthy study. How big a problem did up find radicalization is in the United States. And is there some way to quantify it?
EBRAHIM MOOSA, PROFESSOR OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DUKE UNIVERSITY: John, it's very difficult to quantify it. But, you know, in the first areas that we looked at Detroit -- sorry, Seattle, Buffalo, Raleigh, Durham area and also Houston. In those areas we found that the communities are taking active steps in order to combat whatever elements of radicalization there is in their communities, et cetera. And this is a very, very healthy sign.
ROBERTS: You found that 139 people had been arrested and accused of -- arrested or accused of planning or carrying out terror-related violence since the September 11th attacks. Your co-author, Charles Kurtsman, said that the study was a demonstration that the fear of radicalization, homegrown terrorism is out of proportion to the actual threat.
Jarret, do you agree with that?
JARRET BRACHMAN, AUTHOR, GLOBAL JIHADISM : Well, I mean, that's the inherent nature of terrorism is that it doesn't -- you don't need a lot of people to create a lot of fear. And so, you know, in this case, I think their radicalization is a problem. I think we need to address it in context as the study says, but it's something that law enforcement is going to continue to wrestle with for a while in this country.
ROBERTS: You know, we don't, Jarret, have many of the same issues in the United States that many European nations do when it comes to radicalization. Obviously, a lot of Muslim countries as well. There's greater assimilation here, different peoples from around the world, greater prosperity.
So what are the steps to radicalization? What are the influences here that you're picking up?
BRACHMAN: Right. Well, you know, I think Muslim communities are doing a good job with the people who are embedded in the community. It's these people who feel ostracized from their own local communities, who feel distance from their parents, who have deep-seated political grievances and social grievances. In many times these people will travel to places like Yemen, or Pakistan where they become really radicalized and off the grid for local Muslim communities.
ROBERTS: Ebrahim, as you said, you found that the Muslim community has been taking active steps to fight radicalization. What are they doing?
MOOSA: Well, the kind of steps they're taking, John, is that they are monitoring young people in their mosques, et cetera, when they see people speaking things and talking in radical ways, and then they counsel those people, if those are very difficult to get a hold of, then they would also report such people. If they are suspicious looking individuals, report them to law enforcement, expel them from the community.
And there's also been a very active step of advancing religious literacy. And that's one of our recommendations in our report is. That we're asking communities -- Muslim communities to up religious literacy so the people do not understand things in a kind of one-on- one way, but also understand religion, and questions of dogma and their own understanding of the world is a much more complex one.
And part of that religious literacy also means there must also be an advanced political literacy in the United States. That if you have grievances as an individual, then there are ways in which you can remedy it in the United States, and that is by joining the political process and not use violence or not resort to terrorism.
ROBERTS: In terms of that monitoring, I guess we saw that recently, the case of the five men from Maryland who were arrested in Pakistan when the council on American Islamic Relations got concern about their whereabouts and went to the authorities.
Jarret, is there a general set of warning signs that somebody is becoming radicalized? Or is it much more general? And also, do people in this country take inspiration from people like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab even though his operation was a failure?
BRACHMAN: Yes, I mean, there's a lot of complexity to those questions. But first of all, you know, the Nigerian -- the underwear bomber as he's become known, is a hero even though he failed, in many ways because al Qaeda promotes him as such using the Internet.
And so, the fact that he did something and, you know, it wasn't political in nature, it was violent in nature. And al Qaeda's whole mantra is to convince you politics isn't the solution. You've got to go out and do something. And so, you know, the fact that he failed wasn't really an issue for them.
ROBERTS: And Ebrahim, this represents a whole new set of challenges for parents. You know, it used to be the parent had to worry whether the child was doing well at school, was hanging out with the right crowd, you know, wasn't into drugs, wasn't into criminal behavior. This kind of represents a whole new set of concerns here.
What suggestions would you have for parents in monitoring this, and dealing with this?
MOOSA: I think one of the most important thing is that, you know, parenting is becoming a much more serious responsibility. Not just because you have Muslim children, but also because the world has become a much more complex place.
And I think one of the important things is that the parents must be able to talk to the children about their own identities. Because one of the things we identify in our report is the question of identity politics, of how people feel about themselves and their religion, and how they feel that they are discriminated, or the grievances they might have. So it's very, very important that parents talk to their children, talk to them about politics, talk to them about religion, and make sure that they don't only get one kind of narrative about religion, because Islam is a very complex tradition.
ROBERTS: Right.
MOOSA: And there are different viewpoints in this whole -- there's a spectrum of viewpoints, et cetera. And that those kids should be exposed to those complexities about religion, and talking about them, ventilating them is much, much more important than keeping kids quiet, et cetera, and not allowing them to talk about their religious views.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, it's a very interesting and eye- opening report.
Ebrahim Moosa, thanks for being with us.
Jarrett Brachman as well, appreciate you joining us.
It's 38 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Forty-one minutes past the hour now. Aviation security experts are in Europe meeting today considering new rules, including the use of full body scanners.
ROBERTS: This after the TSA called on 14 countries to tighten security. Great Britain is not on that list, despite the fact that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was not the first suspected terrorist with ties to the country.
Our Phil Black went to an airport in England, where they are giving the full body scanners a try while keeping a close watch on privacy rights.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, full-body scanning machines are coming to Britain's airports. The government has said the first of them will be in place within weeks, and they'll be rolled out steadily across the country from there. Here at Manchester Airport in northern England, full-body scanning machines are already being trialled. But despite the government's strong support for this security upgrade, there are also strong concerns about the technology. Here in Britain and across Europe as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, sir. Will you step forward, please?
BLACK: The British government has said body scanners will be rolled out at all British airports despite strong concerns over privacy. To protect his identity, we won't show you this man's face. While we show you the image the machine produces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A couple items that I'd like to be highlighted up.
BLACK: In a nearby room, another security staff member can see through the man's clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Potentially threat items, obviously. But if there's anything of interest it's going to show up, anything that's metal, all the stent on the body, I prefer them to have a closer look at outside as a localized search. I'd definitely want a proper look at that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see what we've got.
BLACK: Back at the scanner, this is how suspect areas are identified so security staff know where to look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your belt buckle's fine. OK. Will you just turn around for me and show me what you've got.
BLACK: The airport says it's all done with privacy in mind. Only one person looks at the images. They're never stored. The computer is bolted down and cameras, apart from the CCTV above, are usually forbidden in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, sir, you can step around, please.
BLACK (on camera): Thank you.
I have used these machines in other parts of the world. And they are fast, they are not as intrusive as the full patdown, but in a room not far, there is someone right now looking at an image of me, well, pretty much naked. And there are people in Britain and across Europe who still have real concerns about those images.
(voice-over): Child protection advocates believe body scanner images are so revealing they may breach Britain's child pornography laws.
IAN DOWTY, ACTION ON RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN: Well, as far as anybody under the age of 18 is concerned, it's an offense to take an indecent image of any such person. And it is an offense whether or not consent is given.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And face this direction for me.
BLACK: And there are concerns about the scanner's effectiveness. British politician Ben Wallace used to work for a company that makes body scanners, and he says they have weaknesses.
BEN WALLACE, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: It doesn't really matter how many scanners you have around the world. It's not going to currently pick up what is being posed by al Qaeda, plastics, and liquid and chemical bombs.
BLACK: Manchester Airport carried out a body scanner test using items the Christmas bomb suspect is accused of smuggling on to his flight. Its assessment? The items probably would have been detected.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK: European countries are not united on full-body scanning machines. While countries like Britain and the Netherlands are going ahead, other countries like France and Germany say they have no intention of doing so, and they won't adopt the technology until their privacy concerns are resolved.
John, Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: Phil Black for us this morning.
Phil, thanks.
Forty-four, almost forty-five minutes after the hour now. Jacqui Jeras is going to have more on the cold gripping the Midwest and the south right after the break.
CHETRY: And also in ten minutes, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut announcing yesterday that he is not going to run for re- election. But it was actually his daughter who stole the spotlight as he was making that announcement. Jeanne Moos has this and other background distractions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty- eight minutes past the hour. That means it's time for your AM House Call, stories about your health. There is a new brain scan that could give doctors an advantage on figuring out whether or not someone has Alzheimer's. The technology is called a diffusion tenser image, and it can detect changes in brain chemistry unlike traditional MRIs. The scan promises improved diagnosis of normal memory loss as well as Alzheimer's disease.
Children who battled cancer are more prone to suffer other health problems that puts them at higher risk for heart disease. Researchers say they're nearly twice as likely to have to take medication for high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure. The study found that radiation treatment could actually be behind the development of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors.
And a study of mothers who's took folic acid late in their pregnancy, they're talking about week 30 and beyond, finds that their kids could be at greater risk of developing asthma. The report is in the American Journal of Epidemiology and is the first to make such a connection. Researchers emphasize that the study does not include supplement use, folic acid use, in early pregnancy and that it's too soon to give women advice based on these results, and it is a little bit puzzling because it's one of the big pushes to take folic acid even before you're pregnant to prevent neural tube problems and things like spina bifida.
ROBERTS: Yes, I think it's the best thing to do always in these cases is talk with your doctor about it before you do anything.
Forty-nine minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check at this morning's weather headlines. Our Jacqui Jeras is at the Extreme Weather Center in Atlanta. Good morning, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning guys. Cold big story once again today, and it's just brutal out there and so unusual to have cold air stick around for this long. Arctic high pressure is just diving down to the south, making its way towards the Gulf Coast, and it's going to continue to do that over the next couple of days. Take a look at some of these temperatures into the southeast. In fact, temperatures here are so cold that the iguanas literally are falling out of the trees because they stiffen up in the cold temperatures, and this is nearly unprecedented.
The worst of this arctic air hits the Southeast as we head into tomorrow, as you know. Now, we do have some cold conditions which continue across the area, and we're going to see that mixing with some moisture and bring some heavy snow at the parts of the Midwest, Chicago down towards St. Louis along I-70. They are going to see some rough condition, and if you're trying to travel today, we'll see winds in the northeast cause delays, the snow across the Midwest, and then the deep south will see some delays because of the wind here, and then that wintry mix that begins to move in.
Yes, that is snow that we're seeing across Northern Mississippi and Northern Alabama. We think that will move into Georgia later on today. Wind chills dangerously cold. It can take your skin only 15 to 30 minutes to freeze here in the upper Midwest, tomorrow morning, even colder than today, and Saturday morning will be the worst of it across the southeast, and we'll finally start to warm up a little bit, guys, by the end of the weekend.
CHETRY: Finally, that's some good news. Thanks, Jacqui.
This morning's top stories are just a few minutes away, including coming up at the top of the hour, two-thirds of the country as Jacqui is saying under a deep freeze. The temperatures are dropping even further.
ROBERTS: At 7:10 Eastern, a CNN exclusive. Our Nic Robertson went to Jordan to talk to the family of the suicide bomber, the alleged double agent, who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. They say that they didn't know until we did that he was working for al Qaeda.
CHETRY: At 7:40 Eastern, is it a yoga cult? Kyra Phillips' exclusive reporting on a spiritual leader accused of raping a woman who devoted her life to the self-proclaimed prophet. Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Time now for the Most News in the Morning, and sometimes, when there's a big announcement, it's really what happens behind the scenes that keeps you fixated.
ROBERTS: Case in point, the real star of yesterday's announcement from Senator Chris Dodd. Jeanne Moos takes a look at the over-the-shoulder antics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sure you can tell everyone where to stand, but getting kids to stand still? Good luck.
SENATOR CHRIS DODD, CONNECTICUT: I'm still driven by the same passions...
MOOS: We were more interested in what Senator Chris Dodd's daughter was whispering...
DODD: So many, many years ago.
MOOS: ... than we were on his speech. A 4-year-old Christine had her hand on dad's shoulder.
DODD: Wishing that I could have seen...
MOOS: And on Mom's nose.
DODD: Political shape of my career.
MOOS: And check out the older daughter going gaga at the mention of her name.
DODD: These young children of mine, Grace who is 8 (ph).
MOOS: When her dad kisses her, she wipes it off. Judging from her parting words, Grace would rather be saving grace.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'm starving. I'm starving.
MOOS: But beware what to eat. The man voters picked to be New Jersey's next governor wasn't the only thing picked at his acceptance speech.
We've seen enough of the lieutenant governor-elect son getting his hand up.
Remember Chief Justice John Roberts' son? He made the papers for escaping his mom's clutches and crawling around as the President introduced his dad.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: He's a honor graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School...
MOOS: Young Jack graduated to hand signals and fancy footwork.
BUSH: ... after he was nominated for the court of appeals in 2001.
MOOS: Eventually, Jack had to be marched off the stage.
BUSH: I received good advice from both Republicans and Democrats.
MOOS: Even older kids can't stand still. Letterman made this kid famous.
BUSH: If you're worried about the quality...
We stand for the fair treatment of faith based groups to receive federal support...
MOOS: Of course, there was Rudy Giuliani's son all grown up now, but will he ever live down his dad's swearing in as mayor, blowing kisses, joining in the oath.
MOOS (on-camera): You know, it's one thing when your kids steal the show, but how about when it's a couple of koalas?
MOOS (voice-over): Tennis star Andy Roddick was talking to reporters at an Australian koala sanctuary.
Who cares about the tennis court when you can watch koalas courting?
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Nature, ain't it wonderful?
CHETRY: Yes. Bees do it. Birds do it. Koalas do it.
(LAUGHING)
ROBERTS: Wow. Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)