Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20110513

in islamabad with the latest on this. nick, what have you learned? [ no audio ] >> we're going to fix that problem with nick's audio and get back to him in just a moment. let's talk about those navy s.e.a.l.s, though, who helped -- who did the raid that got bin laden and worried about their own safety. >> this from the defense secretary, actually. in the defense department sharing these concerns. secretary robert gates says that he met with the elite unit last week and these s.e.a.l.s are worried about their names being exposed and families potentially being harmed. >> i think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid and i think that has to continue. >> chris lawrence is live in washington this morning. chris, how do defense officials plan to keep the identities of the s.e.a.l.s under wraps? >> christine, i think secretary gates' comments are step one in that effort. basically, it's sending a message to government officials who, perhaps, know the identities or know about this mission, to say look, shut up about talking about specifics about this mission, stop talking about this team specifically. obviously he's not going to get any specific details about how to protect their families, but it is obviously a concern for some of the s.e.a.l. team members. >> when i met with the team last thursday, they expressed a concern about that and particularly with respect to their families, and so we're -- as you say, i can't get into the details in this form, but we are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security. >> reporter: and again, especially after what you guys just reported a couple minutes ago on protecting the identities of this team. >> you know, and chris, secretary gates is irritated by the amount of information released already about the raid in general. i mean, very candid he was yesterday. is he upset with the white house? >> well, you know, when you talk to secretary gates' spokesman, he says look he's not directing any criticism in any particular person or any particular building. we know that the role that the s.e.a.l. team played in this assault on the compound was first publicly confirmed by cia director leon panetta and vice president biden a few days after the assault on the compound on the sunday night. but, when you hear what secretary gates is saying, he said look, i was under the assumption we weren't going to get into the details and all of a sudden, they're out there. >> frankly, a week ago sunday, in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin laden. that all fell apart on monday, the next day. >> reporter: yeah. so not -- that's not a lot of bail to that criticism right there of all these details leaking out. his spokesman will tell you basically, there's just with been too much on tactics, techniques, weapons, equipment, that's been used. remember, this is a very, very secretive team. this is a commando team that is not public at all. they go out, they do their job, they quietly come back and get reassigned to the next job. so he feels it's a real concern, not so much for what's already happened, but by leaking all these details out, how much does that compromise the team's ability to perform a mission like this in the future. >> there were plenty of details. some details that were wrong in the beginning as well, but a lot of details in the first couple days, secretary gates clearly making not a veiled criticism there, thanks, chris. >> back to what chris was just talking about and this is that attack in pakistan on military recruits. 80 people dead in pakistan right now. this is in northwest pakistan. let's go to nick paton walsh who is in islamabad right now with more on this. nick, what do we got? >> two suicide bombers on motorcycles. one hitting a bus full of recruits who passed waiting [ inaudible ] recruitment sent out. pull tout to deal with the injured and casualties and a second suicide detonating causing this horrific death toll, 80 dead, 140 or so injured around the shop there. as we said, pakistanis have claimed -- there is some doubt they turned this attack around after the death of bin laden [ inaudible ] military carried this out. message being out there the retaliation starting for the u.s. for the bin laden operation. >> nick, thanks very much. we continue to have problems with nick's audio. you could glean quite a bit from what nick was saying. 80 dead, 140 injured, most of them new recruits from a military academy and al qaeda's representative saying this is in retaliation -- >> a revenge attack for the killing of osama bin laden, that more revenge attacks will be carried out on u.s. military and pakistani military and u.s. intelligence officers have interviewed three of osama bin laden's wives in pakistan. we've been talking about this. a senior pakistani government official describes the women as hostile. the questioning was done under the supervision of pakistan's intelligence service. the u.s. wanted to interview the women separately to see if there were inconsistent i sis in their stories. the eldest of bin laden's women reportedly spoke for the other two and nothing new was learned from it. john mccain one of a select group of lawmakers invited by the cia to see the bin laden death photos but he tells john king he's going to take a pass. >> i've lived a long life and i've seen enough dead bodies and pictures of them. >> you think it would serve no purpose for yourself personally or you have no doubt, therefore why do it? >> both. i have no doubts that this was osama bin laden and in my view there's no need and i've seen enough of it. >> republican senator jim imhoff of oklahoma was the first lawmaker to see the bin laden death photos says they're pretty graphic but some of the less shocking images should be made public. the head of one libyan rebel group is headed to washington to meet with a white house official hoping america will recognize that rebel group. this comes a day after they claimed a critical victory. the rebels shooting their guns in celebration in the city of misrata after months of fighting and hundreds of civilian deaths. the opposition now says once and for all, misrata belongs to the rebels. >> all right. we're staying on that story as well. lawmakers from both sides of the aisles are pushing to keep fbi director robert mueller on for another two years. they say given his record as long as the terrorist threat continues to evolve, countntinu and stability is important for the fbi. muller's ten-year term expires in september and congress would have to approve his extension. he was forced out of the senate but john ensign's legal troubles may be beginning. the senate ethics committee referring his case to the justice department saying there's evidence he broke federal laws trying to cover up his affair with a political aide. the nevada republican resigned his senate seat last week. and texas republican ron paul is expected to officially announce he is running for president in 2012. the news likely comes during a rally that he's taking part in new hampshire. now this will be ron paul's third white house bid. he ran in 1988, he ran in 2000 and 2000. you and i talked to him a couple weeks ago whether the tea party strengthens or weakens his message. >> it changes the dynamic as he comes into the race. should be interesting to watch. $36 billion, profit made by the five biggest oil companies in just the first quarter of this year. at the same time they're getting billions in tax subsidies and tax breaks. yesterday the big oil executives were hauled before congress to defend those tax breaks, saying it would be counter productive to take away these benefits. republicans also accuse democrats of just trying to score political points. >> i have a chart depicting what i expect this hearing to turn into, there you go. that's a really nice picture. i think that's pretty good myself. >> who's the horse and who's the dog? >> i think we both know. i know who the horse's -- is. i'll put it that way. >> okay. it was sort of humor at the grilling yesterday. if the tax breaks were repealed congress would use the money the oil companies would have been saving to pay down the deficit. the reduction, $21 billion over ten years. but you can see the public anger, paying $4 almost at the gas tank and hear about these billions in tax subsidies and just to them, it's a direct line -- >> you know, it's not as black and white as it appears. >> nothing ever is, is it? it was a night when dixie was on everybody's minds. listen ♪ the radio station don't sign off with dixie up there the way they did in sweet home alabama ♪ ♪ and the people didn't offer me no jim beam whiskey the way they did in the tennessee land ♪ >> that was fun. hank williams jr. playing "dixie on my mind" at cmt's benefit concert for tornado and flood victims in the south. country's biggest names including keith urban, lady antebellum, trace mcgraw, trace atkins, who was on our show yesterday, all pitched in. you can still donate at redcross.org and robin meade was one of the co-hosts. >> trace atkins told us yesterday, this is a disaster still unfolding, trouble for people for a long time, they want to keep it in the headlines because there's a lot going on in the world. >> the slow evolving flood, but as we know from reporting floods are difficult, go on for a long time, effects are felt for a long time. there's tornadoes just two weeks ago. that devastation that we kept looking at, it was remarkable. cbs may have found it mans to replace charlie sheen in "two and a half men" and that is ashton kucher. reports say they're pretty close to finalizing a deal with him to star in tv's top rated sitcom. cupper would get about $1 million an episode. the actor tweeted weight the square root of 6.25. the answer is 2.5. >> he's a whitey guy. >> the show's star charlie sheen was fired in march. since then cbs and warner brothers have been looking for ways to save this show. it's a cash cow for the network, so being able to save it is something they're looking at. >> the mississippi river is now -- that bulge in the river causing the flooding is headed further south. homes and harvest washed away, more farms, more homes in danger downstream. we'll talk about that and talk to somebody on the ground there who can tell us what's going on. >> next to the live shot of ali falling off a box this is the best i've seen. the tale of a tv and a camel with powerful timing and a bit of an appetite. that is better than you falling off the box. >> i forget i have more work to do. our question of the day, by the way, which has nothing to do with this, we'll stop showing that. is america safer after the death we want to know what you think? you probably heard a lot of analysis about it from other people, but do you think america's safer? e-mail us, cnn.com/a.m., tweet us@cnn am or facebook.com/americanmorning. we'll read through your responses later in the show. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] doctors have been saying it forever. let's take a look. but they've never actually been able to do it like this. let's take a look. v-scan from ge healthcare. a pocket sized imaging device that will help change the way doctors see patients. that's better health for more people. when i realized that weight watchers online is for guys. all the guys, they think, "do some crunches. that'll just make you thin right away." that just doesn't work. so with weight watchers online, it teaches you about doing the right things when you're eating. there's something called a digital cooler. grab some beer, maybe some chips, and you can stay on plan. i lost 57 pounds. i pick up a 55-pound weight and i cannot believe that used to be right here. [ male announcer ] hurry, join for free today. weight watchers online for men. finally, losing weight clicks. everything they owned, everything they worked for their livelihoods washed away. this morning we're hearing the painful stories of flood victims in the south. this wall of water is still surging along the mississippi river. >> hard to understand but some people are calling it a bubble. it's like this increased water level keeps moving slowly, but -- >> like a bulging hose except a hose is leaking -- >> doesn't have skin around it. >> that's right. officials say 3 million acres of farmland has been washed out. 600 people who live in vicksburg, mississippi, have been told to pack up and get out. the river is not expected to crest there until next week. rob marciano live in greenville, mississippi. you've been following this river all the way down from the north part of the country. how is this playing out differently in mississippi? >> well, you know, there's miles and miles of levee system here and there's also a lot of cutoffs where they've shortened the river in order to, you know, make it more efficient to ship here. every place they've shortened the river, there are these cutoffs where there's leftover what they call lakes or tributaries -- not really that, that's one we're standing in front of behind me. these are the areas that are most likely to flood and there are businesses in these areas, namely a lot of casinos, one of which is flooded behind me and also some residents, residents who choose to live on the other side of the protective levees. we've been talking to those people throughout, the most part breaking part. such a long-term event. you have been talking about this. such a long-term event. it's the waiting game that's weighing on the psyche of these flood victims. >> it's a day--day situation which nobody can hurry, nobody can speed it up. we have to live until the water recedes to see what we have left. >> i think the immediate reaction to these disasters is first off, shelter and support, physical support, and the shock of what was going on and reacting to that. i think they've started -- they've gone through that stage and they're at the stage now as i said, where i think they're ready to move to the next step. they want information and seem to be very thirty for that information. >> several of these folks not only homeless but not able to go back to their home to see what's left. what does that do to their psyche? >> they want to see. just put me on a boat and go see. one of the things we've been trying to provide with them for mental health, we get on the computer, one of the local newspapers has a website and they're able to get a reporter out and take a snapshot of their facilities and we're able to get there and those who want it, into the computer lab here, and we're able to bring up those pictures for them and it gives us a chance to relate with them what's happening in their lives and how they feel about it. it seemed to be therapeutic. >> reporter: there are people in greenville here going through the same thing. vicksburg as you mentioned, they're evacuated. the river not supposed to crest here until monday. it will come up a couple more feet and cresting at 65 feet. the levee here is massive that protects the main street of the town. that is built to support a wall of water up to 75 feet. up and down this system, guys, you know, it's a constant maintenan maintenance. we hear reports of seepage, some leakage, sand boils where there's parts of the river coming up and underneath the other side of the levee. the army corps of engineers and other officials continue to battle back and fight this flood until it gets down into the gulf of mexico as we've been reporting all week long is going to take several more weeks. back to you. >> rob marciano, thanks, rob. spay shuttle commander mark kelly and his crew back at kennedy space center. they arrived yesterday in preparation for monday's scheduled liftoff. this would make this -- >> the second time they've done it. kelly's wife, congresswoman gabrielle giffords is expected to attend the launch, still recovering after being shot in the head back in january. >> do all that to get ready for a space shuttle launch -- >> they scrub those launches they're in, ready to go, slept right, ate the right things, scrub the launch. >> that's all part of the training. who says tv reporting is a noncontact sport. >> a hard gig. >> check out what happened to reporter tara morgan, doing what's known in the business as a stand-up at a farm when a camel got serious or perhaps am mer russ, we're not sure. >> two of the dogs are in isolation at hanover animal control. they're still looking for the other two. meanwhile other livestock owners -- [ bleep ]. get it out. >> looking for the other two. >> with some help of the cameraman she managed to escape with all of her hair. i love the typical reaction of the cameraman had to be bleepds out. wow, there you go. >> i feel bad for her. but that will go down in -- it will make her station's christmas reel. wow. >> coming up on "american morning." facebook versus google, it's getting ugly, maybe the biggest tech battle of since bill gates and steve jobs. what's this option? 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[ male announcer ] get zyrtec®'s proven allergy relief and love the air®. good morning. it's 30 minutes after the hour. you're watching "american morning" on cnn. let me bring you up to speed with the top stories we're following right now. the taliban in pakistan claiming responsibility for two bombings at a military training base in northwest pakistan. at least 80 people have been killed. most of them pakistani military recruits. the attacks are said to be in retaliation for the killing of osama bin laden. here in the united states, defense secretary robert gates has concerns for the safety of the navy s.e.a.l.s who killed osama bin laden. gates says he met with the elite team last week and they're worried their identities might be released and harm might come to their families. the secretary says the pentagon is studying ways to pump up the security for them and says perhaps there should be less talk about them in general. u.s. intelligence agents interviewed three of bin laden's widows in pakistan. the women were described as hostile. the official tells cnn nothing knew was learned through the interviews. he was convicting of aiding in the extermination of nearly 30,000 jews in a nazi death camp, today he's walking free again. christine? >> 91-year-old john demjanjuk a retired u.s. autoworker was sentenced to five years in prison in germany. looked like the end of a 30-year legal battle but a judge set limb free pending an appeal and that has jewish groups concerned it's not fair. let's tell you about his story. someone who emigrated to the u.s. in 1952, identified as the guard known as ivan the terrible who worked at a nazi concentration camp in poland. you know, this is a 30-year legal saga that frankly has unfolded. in 1958 he became a citizen in this country, living in cleveland, ohio. then in 1986 he was extradited to israel. he was extradited to israel and tried for being ivan the terrible and assisted in deaths in a concentration camp, sentenced to death but the sentence was overturned and he returned then to ohio. so he returned to ohio and lived there for a while until essentially he was deported back to germany again in 2009 where he had been standing trial. this is more about his story about why -- these accusations came up to him. he was drafted in the soviet army in 1941. he's ukrainian born, captured by the germans as a german p.o.w., volunteered to be a guard at a nazi camp, charged as an accessory to 27,900 deaths. sentenced to five years in prison by the german court but he's been allowed to remain free as his appeal is being heard. at 91 years old, quite frankly many people who are nazi hunters and survivors of the holocaust are saying where was the mercy for them, he's been convicted and after a 30-year saga, now they say they still don't feel much closer to a solution here. >> and the judge saying, you know, he's old and he's ill and what happens if his appeal is successful, they don't want him sitting in jail sick and a lot of groups, the nazi hunter groups are saying, you know, a lot of victims who don't get that kind of consideration. >> so after 30 years, still now the appeal process begins. >> christine, thanks for that. a new united nations report claims iran is providing syria with weapons banned by the u.n. security council. the report says the transfers are concealed. syria is denying those allegations. syria is stepping up its violent crackdown on protesters. more video, security forces preparing for a new round of anti-government demonstrations across the country following friday prayers. all right. new information this morning about the two terror suspects charged in new york city yesterday. they're accused of a plot to blow up a synagogue and allegedly had bigger fantasies of blowing up gs would-be jihadists they said were very much aware of other would-be plots, for example, the times square bomber. evidently these men allegedly told under cover cops they wanted to use cash instead of credit cards so they wouldn't get caught like the times square bomber. the alleged plotters may have been short on details but they had lofty dreams. talks of blowing up crowded and empty synagogues, a church and new york's iconic empire state building. the plot was busted before it became operational. new york's counterterrorist squad had their eyes on these two men seven months and set up a sting and once they sold the men three automatic pistols, ammo and a grenade police arrested the men on a new york city street. >> what is the motive, susan? do they know quite yet? they're charged with a terror plot, but it's not -- the fbi is not involved. what is the motive? >> it even goes beyond the alleged terror plot. it's also they're being charged with hate crimes. authorities are saying that the men claim that muslims are being mistreated all over the world. they wanted to target jews. police commissioner ray kelly summarized what suspects allegedly told an undercover cop. >> he also said, quote, we will blow up a synagogue in manhattan and take out the entire building. on the same day, after momdu said, quote, i hate jews, ka haneny replied, i want to kill them. >> authorities say the plot is not linked to the death of osama bin laden. as to whether they could pull it off, it's really hard to say. the suspects talked about growing long hair, disguisings themselves, going into a synagogue, and then blowing it up to try to mix in with the group. >> who are these guys? >> well, one of them is 26 years old, he's an immigrant from ill jeer ya from africa, unemployed, the second man 24 years old, originally from morocco, a natural u.s. citizen, he was a delivery dispatcher. the fbi was aware of the case but deferred to the new york city police department and manhattan district attorney's office to lead and prosecute this case. and police say these guys didn't belong to any extremist group, but they said they're just as concerned about lone wolves because they're equally as dangero dangerous. >> harder to track because they have less interaction. we have police commissioner ray kelly on the show to talk about this and this idea of revenge attacks. ones that are connected and ones that aren't. great reporting on this. >> thank you. in fall river, massachusetts, city officials say it's time to ban the sale of lazy cake. >> i didn't know what these things were. >> we're not that hip. we don't know the latest in street stuff. but these are marketed as relaxation brownies. >> ease stress, apparently, improve your sleep. contain 8 milligrams of melatonin, one brownie equals two servings. come in a wrapper featuring a cartoon character named larry lazy cake. >> officials say they're marketed to children and the ingredients are not suitable for them and should be pulled from shelves. >> it's a long used herbal remedy for relaxation, for sleep and sometimes given to women as they approach or are dealing with menopause. let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines. reynolds wolf in the extreme weather. good morning. >> good morning. lazy cakes, weird stuff. have that with coffee and your body gets really confused. something that's not worth snoozing at your flooding story on the mississippi river. take a look at the levels we have of feet that we expect above the flood stage. a record set in vicksburg expected by may 19th, may 21st and may 22nd and natchez well in excess of 17 feet in red river landing. baton rouge, expected may 22nd, 12.5 feet and 2.5 in new orleans. the water, the river and some of the water expected to fall from the skies. we have today a moderate risk of strong storms developing, at least -- i'm sorry a slight risk for parts of the ohio valley and mid-mississippi valley. we expect most of those storms to form into the late afternoon hours. some possibly severe thunderstorms, maybe some hail and flash flooding expected for parts of the ohio valley all due to this area of low pressure and frontal boundary moving from west to east and places like atlanta, birmingham could see rainfall. high temperatures, 72. expected high in chicago. 58 in minneapolis. 68 in denver. 89 in el paso. new york, highs into the upper 60s. that's the latest in the forecast. let's kick it back to you in new york. >> reynolds if there wasn't this issue of the flooding going on, that nation's map looks fall, little cool in some points but no other major happenings beyond this flooding. >> absolutely right. rough winter, heavy snow melt moving down. you're right, aesthetically speaking it should be a beautiful day weather wise, just the flooding issues on the river itself. >> thanks very much for that. >> you bet. 160,000 facebook fans and now the government is getting involved. two connecticut state lawmakers are trying to help a high school senior, told you this story yesterday, who is banned from going to the prom for this, card board letters that he put up on the school wall, james tate decided to plaster his proposal in big letters on the side of the school building. not a marriage proposal, just a -- >> can we go to the prom with me. >> she said yes. he can't go. the school is punishing him. lawmakers say they're drafting legislation to give the option of community service as punishment instead. the school says, it is not budging. >> wow. some guys are sending text messaging saying you want to go to the prom with me. he does something romantic and gets burned. >> ron paul running in 2012. we'll tell you what his prospects are and who else is out there competing against him. >> on some levels his argument has got more traction than it ever had the other times. >> the tea party highlights what he's been talking about for a long time but it's the tea party compete with his message. >> 40 minutes after the hour. ♪ hey, dad, think i could drive? i'll tell you what -- when we stop to fill it up. ♪ ♪ [ son ] you realize, it's gotta run out sometime. ♪ another republican expected to get in the ring officially get in the ring today. republican ron paul expected to announce he's running for president in 2012. there's word the big news may come during a rally in new hampshire. >> our jim acosta live on the case in washington. in some ways the environment has never been more ripe for ron paul's smaller government views. >> that's right. people are sick of those bailouts. they don't like where the economy is heading right now. there is room for a guy like ron paul to jump back in there. he was there in 2008 and as you said he is expected to announce he is running for president later this morning in new hampshire. this will be the libertarian republican's third shot at white house and paul knows how to generate attention with his small government views such as ending the federal reserve and slashing foreign aid programs to name a couple and take what he said yesterday on a talk radio show in iowa where he told the program's host he would not have ordered the killing of osama bin laden. >> just want to be clear, a president ron paul would, therefore, not have ordered the kill of bin laden which could have only taken place by entering another sovereign nation. >> i don't think it wasn't necessary. >> wasn't necessary to do. >> absolutely not necessary. >> ron paul says, you know, this is consistent with this small government views, that you don't goo into a sovereign country and do something along those lines. he would have worked through pakistan to capture osama bin laden. he says sort of in the way that the united states worked through pakistan to get khalid shaikh mohammed. so, you know, paul does come to this contest with some controversial views after the gop debate in south carolina where he repeated his support for legalizing drugs, including heroin, he's one of those rarities in politics that will say whatever is on his mind. >> sticks to his philosophical view. >> the government is not meant for these things. >> the thing about the bin laden comment, one piece of bipartisan we've had in some time is the patriotism over the killing of bin laden. >> where is this getting him? poll wise? >> i mean because of these views and because he's so willing to be outspoken about these views this explains why gop voters have always been a little weary of ron paul. take the latest cnn polling it shows paul really in the back of the pack with 10% of support he does pull better than mitch daniel and tim pawlenty but that is where he was four years ago in 2008. the views on paul on evenly split inside the republican party about 30% like him, nearly that same number do not. what paul does have working for him, guys, is a very loyal and vocal following. you have seen this before at some of those informal straw polls like the c-pac convention this year. he sometimes wins those straw polls because of that vocal following but make no mistake he is a long shot for this nomination but will make it interesting. >> that's good for us. >> he's consistent. it will be interesting to watch. good to see you. >> you bet. >> our question of the day is this, is america safer after the death of osama bin laden? we want to know what you think. e-mail us at cnn.com/am. tweet us, you got a lot of choices, @cnnam, @ali velshi. we check all of it, read through some of them and read them on air later in the show. 47 minutes after the hour. our field research team. and our product development staff. we know military lives are different. we've been there. that's why our commitment to serve the financial needs of our military, veterans, and their families is without equal. and why, we'll always be there for you... both here... and here. usaa. for insurance, banking, investments, retirement and advice. we know what it means to serve. let us serve you. ♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ want you and everything that you do...do ♪ ♪ it's obvious that i like you ♪ i'd go anywhere to be near you ♪ ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do... ♪ i can't sleep ♪ do, do, do, do revenge attacks in pakistan. the pakistani taliban claiming responsibility for at least 80 deaths in two bombings at a military training base. a spokesman said the attacks are in retaliation for the killing of osama bin laden. three of osama bin laden's widows were reportedly hostile while they were questioned by u.s. intelligence officers. pakistani agents supervised the interview. officials tell cnn nothing new was learned from them. the head of a libyan rebel group going to washington asking a white house official to give his group the official nod. new evacuations downstream. 600 people in vicksburg, mississippi, told to get out of the way of the river. entire neighborhoods already under water upstream from there. ron paul may be closer to running for president in 2012. the republican is expected to make a major announcement later today. he formed a presidential exploratory committee last month. and it appears ashton kutcher will be replacing charlie sheen on "two and a half men." reports say cbs and warner brothers are set to pay kutcher about $1 million an episode. "american morning" back in 60 seconds. ???????????????????????? you may not know her by name but can't forget this face. >> lindsay wickson, on top of the fashion world, not even old enough to vote. alina cho got a chance to spend time with this teen supermodel. >> in glossy magazines she looks like an older version of herself. even her mom can't recognize her sometimes. insider in fashion, you probably have heard of lindsay wickson, if not you should know her name, a rising star in fashion, not your average teen, but she does have teenage dreams, like going to the prom. so we decided to follow her to the heartland, wichita, kansas, and it's a long way from the runway. ♪ >> reporter: she's the supermodel of the moment, at 17, lindsay wickson has had a immediate yoric rise in fashion. >> lindsay you're famous. i know a famous person. >> reporter: wixson started modeling two years ago at 15. a week after mosting photos on models.com, she got the attention of a famous photographer. then, prada came calling. she has it all. except for a ticket to the prom. >> i think it's time to show wichita a little glamour. >> reporter: that's right. wichita, kansas, wixson's hometown. she'll soon be there in a dress designed especially for her by jason wu. the same jason wu who designed michelle obama's dress for the inauguration. >> okay. >> check it out. >> reporter: a one of akind. >> we're calling this the lindsay. >> it's so beautiful, jason. >> reporter: the next time we see wixson we're in wichita and it's prom night. >> how do you stay grounded? >> i come home. i come home and i do yoga and i cook. >> reporter: in some ways, she is a normal teenager. >> this is my room but it's really messy. necklaces. >> reporter: what is going on in here? >> bags. >> reporter: in other ways, not so much. >> that's mark jacobs. >> mark jacobs. >> reporter: a gift from the designer himself. but it's this designer dress she'll wear to the prom. >> wow. >> everybody cheese. >> reporter: after a few photos with mom, there's a kiss from dad. >> yeah. i think so. >> reporter: daddy's girl and her friends pile into a limousine and then they're off to the place where memories are born. you're a long way from the runway. >> yeah i am. this is teenage zone. this is teenage zone. >> reporter: the night has just begun. and so has this young girl's career. ♪ and my ears are still ringing. so what's next for lindsay wixson? listen to this, she's headed to the cannes film festival invited by naomi campbell to walk in a runway show for japan relief and going to hong kong in june for prada, taking acting lessons and then she will visit wichita some time later in the summer to spend some time with her friends because they are all going to go off to college. >> how were they all reacting at the prom? >> they said, you know, it's great being friends. she's still the same lindsay wixson except for the times in new york and the paparazzi is chasing us. it's incredible. she really looks and acts her age. she's a 17-year-old. she's sweet as could be. then you see her on the runway and in glossy magazines, you almost can't believe it. >> hope you can keep that kernel of kansas and the midwest. >> you're a nice midwestern girl. do they often have jason wu? >> my first one from jc penney, my second my grandma made. >> you like most of america, christine romans. >> thanks so much. what great story. >> don't miss alina's half hour special called "fashion backstage pass" this saturday, may 14th, 2:30 p.m. here on cnn. you want to get up to speed on fashion alina is the one to tell you about it. >> new details on bin laden's life in the compound. officials say he was so comfy he didn't even have an escape plan. no reason for him to suspect he was going to be pulled out of there. >> which makes some people suspect he may have had help closer than we think. >> robert minner is back here after the break. 56 minutes after the hour. ♪ ♪ ♪ when you're resonsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on. ♪ two suicide bombers taking more than 80 lives at a military base in pakistan. the taliban calling it revenge for the death of osama bin laden. on this "american morning." good morning. it's friday, may 13th. we're following news about terror arrests in new york but very new york specific and thwarted early on in the planning stages, but another big terror bombing, though, in pakistan we're following. >> let's tell you about that. less than two weeks after the death of osama bin laden the taliban may be exacting its revenge. the group is claiming responsibility for two suicide bombing attacks overnight at a military training facility in northwest pakistan. at least 80 people were killed, many of them pakistani military recruits. a spokesman for the taliban is threatening more attacks. >> meantime the navy s.e.a.l.s who killed bin laden now have concerns about their own safety. defense secretary robert gates says he met with the elite unit last week and the s.e.a.l.s are worried about their names being exposed and made public and their families being harmed. >> i think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid and i think that has to continue. >> pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is live in washington this morning. how do defense officials plan to keep the identities of the s.e.a.l.s under wraps? the whole operation is supposed to be see vet and these teams operate in absolute secrecy but we know an awful lot. >> i think this is the defense secretary's way of indirectly maybe signaling to other people in the government, look, shut up and stop talking about the details of this mission. because remember, we're not talking so much about physical security. we're really talking about protecting the names of this team so that their families would never even be in danger. but obviously it's something that the s.e.a.l.s themselves have brought up to some of the officials. >> when i met with the team last thursday, they expressed a concern about that and particularly with respect to their families. and so we're -- as you say, i can't get into the details in this form, but we are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security. >> so, on one hand, you want to make sure that the officials who are in the loop on this, you know, stop talking about the details, but also, they're going to fall back probably on some of the things that they used in the wake of wikileaks, perhaps redacting the names of some of the s.e.a.l.s in the official reports, going back to some of the restricted access, to things like thumb drives, things like that, so that no one at a lower level is able to either on purpose or inadvaerntsly release the name of one of the team members. >> you know more about this than i do, but i know after it happened i was a little surprised by the amount of information that was coming out of the white house and from the government on, you know, specific detail about the attack. i suppose that was driven by pride and the fact that it was done. secretary gates seems a little irritated by all of that. >> i mean, were you surprised at the amount of information coming out or were you surprised at how much wrong and bad information was coming out? >> well -- >> the story was changing every day and i think that was because there was a rush to sort of, you know, naturally, to take some amount of pride in this operation in which you got the man that the united states has been targeting for a better part of a decade now. but yeah, i think the secretary is basically saying, he was under the impression there was some sort of agreement not to get into the operational details and then that all went away pretty quickly. >> chris, thanks for that. >> frankly, a week ago sunday, in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin laden. that all fell apart on monday. the next day. >> we first heard publicly about this specific s.e.a.l. team a few days after the president's announcement and we first heard publicly about it from cia director leon panetta and vice president joe biden. but secretary gates' spokesman says he's not pointing the finger at any one person or any one building. he's just saying look we have to stop talking about these details, otherwise it defeats the purpose of having a secret team. >> good point. chris, thanks for that. u.s. intelligence officers have interviewed three of osama bin laden's wives in pakistan. now, a senior pakistani government official describes the women as host still. the questioning was done under the supervision of pakistan's intelligence service. the u.s. wanted to interview the women separately to see if there were inconsistencies in their stories but they didn't get to do that. the eldest of bin laden's widows reportedly spoke for the other two and we're being told that nothing new was learned. irish authorities are holding a man suspected of making death threats against president obama. police say the suspect khalid kelly is a converted muslim who subscribes to al qaeda's ideology. police arrested him after his search in dublin. he can be held for three days of questioning under irish law. president obama is scheduled to visit ireland later this month. the head of one libyan rebel group is headed to washington today to meet with a white house official hoping america will recognize his group. this comes a day after they claim a critical victory. you're seeing the rebels in their vehicles, hearing them shooting their guns in celebration in the war torn city of misrata after months of fighting, hundreds of civilian deaths, the opposition saying that once and for all, the city is theirs. everything they owned, washed away. this morning we're hearing the painful stories of flood victims in the south, this wall of water still surging along the mississippi river. officials say 3 million acres of farmland have been washed out. 600 people who live in vicksburg, mississippi, have already been told to pack up and get out and people returning home upstream are returning home and they are in total shock. >> a nightmare. a big nightmare. everything you worked hard for got washed away. >> further south, louisiana bracing for the rising water. saint mary parish they're spopig up sandbags to save a church. people have been working so hard for so long and it's still coming. >> floods are tough. we're going to keep following it for them. we're expecting a major announcement today from republican ron paul, he's expected to officially toss his hat into the ring in the 2012 presidential race. the news is likely to come during a rally in new hampshire this morning. it would be his third run for president, 1988, and 2008 were his previous runs. but in a lot of ways, christine, the message he held in those two campaigns, was outside of the mainstream. now it's a little more common, this idea of government get out of my life. >> smaller government, lower taxes. it's interesting, i wonder if the tea party helps ron paul or hurts ron paul because it competes with what was until now pretty much his story. all right. can ashton kutcher save cbs? reports say the network is close to a deal with kutcher to re -- to have him replace charlie sheen as the new star of that sitcom "two and a half men." it's said to be a huge pay day for kutcher, about $1 million per episode. the show's original star, charlie sheen, you might not know this, he was fired back in march. >> of course. charlie sheen, who's that. a high school student in texas, found an envelope with $2,000 in cash. so what did she do? turned it in to police. that's the right thing to do. three months later police say they're keeping the money. >> police are keeping it? >> they say a new policy requires unclaimed funds to go to the city's general fund not the person who found it. for now it seems the only way for ashlee donaldson to get the money back is to find a loop hole. why didn't she keep it in the first place? >> could be someone's home, and i thought if i took it, i could never live down that guilt that would be in me. >> the mayor of dallas says she feels ashley should keep the money but says the policy is in place and needs to be enforced. good question. i mean. >> $400 or $500 as a reward. ashley did the right thing for the right reasons. >> regardless of whether she gets the money she did the right thing. >> and learned a valuable life lesson too somewhere along the way. >> i hope the lesson is don't turn in money you find. >> don't expect a pat on the back. >> ahead on "american morning," the new york terror arrests. two suspects with big plans. who were these guys? they have the will, did they have the way? police commissioner ray kelly will be with us live. >> education in america. we've got a report card, soledad o'brien has a story of a girl with big dreams, but schooling that may have failed her. we'll tell you that story when we come back. it's eight minutes after the hour. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you guys tomorrow. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 and talk to chuck about ttd# 1-800-345-2550 rolling over that old 401k. time now for your security watch. new information this morning about the two terror suspects charged in new york city yesterday. they're accused of a plot to blow up a synagogue. >> in the city. separately breaking overnight, the taliban is claiming responsibility for two suicide bombing attacks at a military training facility in northwest pakistan and they're calling it retaliation for the killing of bin laden. you'll recall the enormous amount of evidence seized in bin laden's killing. the terror mastermind kept diaries detailing he was plotting a fresh wave of attacks hoping to kill more people than were killed in 9/11. joining us now is new york police commissioner ray kelly. commissioner, thanks for being here. these retaliatory attacks this one happened in pakistan, but we heard after bin laden's death there was certainly some feeling that could happen anywhere else. >> we have to be prepared for a possible retaliatory attack. we've done a lot here, obviously we've raised our security level since 9/11, we've been doing it for almost ten years. but we've done some additional things in the aftermath of bin laden's death. we've increased our coverage of the subway and we've done other things with our patrol forces. >> every day we devote over 1,000 police officers to our counterterrorism efforts. >> talk about these two guys you arrested with this plot to bomb a synagogue. what do you know about these two guys and we always hear about aspirational versus operational. were they really able to pull something like this off? >> they were driven by a pathological hatred for jewish people and their rhetoric got more and more emotional in the last month, in particular, and yeah, certainly they were willing to do it and two days ago they showed they were willing to buy guns and a hand grenade to effect this plot. i think what's important here is to take away, yes, this home-grown threat is very real, there are people out there who want to kill us. you have to remain vigilant and that's what we're doing. >> what's the difference between aspirational and operational? >> that's sort of a federal term. >> right. >> aspirational. i think if you're close to being able to do an act of violence, then that's operational. but aspirational can go the operational pretty quickly. >> that's what you were seeing with these two guys, seeing it ramp up quickly from talking a lot, some bad language, to actually trying to buy the weapons. >> exactly yeah, particularly in the in the last two to three weeks. >> could they have pulled it off, do you think? >> we don't know. >> who knows. you caught them ahead of time. >> it's our job to stop them before they can get close. >> you said every day you have a thousand police officers in new york devoted to anti-terrorism stuff. we've seen the demonstrations you have, you know, when these forces gather in particular parts of the city and visitors always wonder why there are 50 police cruisers, lights and sirens going down the street, you're always prepared for it. in these diaries of osama bin laden's, they're talking about targeting smaller cities, places that don't have the degree of expertise and protection that new york has. do you share this information? is there some widespread sharing of anti-terrorist technique across police forces? >> sure. the joint terrorist task force, the fbi joint terrorist tack force, now i believe there are almost 100 throughout the country, that's probably the best flow of information, the best source of information, for smaller communities. we work closely with them here. we have over 120 new york city police officers in the joint terrorist task force. yeah, i mean, you know, we're -- what we're doing here is to prevent an attack. so, that may mean that, you know, smaller cities are at a greater risk. i don't know. but we're doing everything we think we have to do to protect this city. >> the conventional wisdom is after the death of osama bin laden, that in the short term there could be an increased risk of something happening, either from home groene terror threats or al qaeda around the world but longer term the world is safer without him and his ideological drive. what is your take running this big american city? >> that's our hope, no question about it. i think you're right in the short term we have to be particularly vigilant because we don't know if a lone wolf is going to strike out or al qaeda is going to do something just to show that they still can do something. so, there's a lot that we don't know. but we're hopeful that this means certainly diminishment you might say of the threat as we go forward. >> let me ask you this. with respect to these two guys who have been arrested the fbi isn't involved in this or chose not to go forward in this and you're handling this. why is that? what's the distinction? >> well, you know, obviously you're going to have to talk to the fbi, but they have the right of first refusal of all cases that come in. this -- in this instance, this individual was already -- he had actually wasn't indicted but went to a grand jury and there was no true bill, but it was already with the local district attorney, new york county district attorney. it seemed logical to keep it going in that form. but again, the federal government certainly could have superseded here if they chose to. >> one of the things so interesting about one of the guys in this case, he sold at one point at saks fifth avenue, he sold perfume. >> cosmetics. >> cosmetics counter and was a would-be actor and model, wearing a very fine suit. >> you see the pictures in court. he's a well-dressed guy. >> not sort of the public image you have of a radical terrorist, you know, hiding out in new york. >> he addressed that. he wanted to make sure the undercover officers were involved, they wore suits and ties so they didn't stand out. that was his operational security approach. >> you see that guy in the street you wouldn't get some impression he has something radical going on about him. that's the issue, isn't it? >> >> the world which we live. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. a question of the day is america safer after the death of osama bin laden? we want to know what you think. e-mail us at cnn.com/am, give us a tweet @cnnam, or facebook, go to either of our facebook pages or twitter handles and we'll read some of these later in the program. >> we'll be right back. e, is all we humans get. we spend them on treadmills. we spend them in traffic. and if we get lucky, really lucky, it dawns on us to go spend them in a world where a simple sunrise can still be magic. twenty-five thousand mornings. make sure some of them are pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. ♪ ♪ when you're resonsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on. ♪ you know, the ones find a who do a super job? superpages.com®. for local maps, reviews and videos & it's the only local search site with the superguarantee®. so next time, let the good guys save the day. get the superguarantee®, only at superpages®. in the book, on your phone or at superpages.com®. 21 minutes past the hour. minding your business, stocks bounce back from their lows to end the trading day higher yesterday. the dow added 6 6 points, nasdaq and s&p 500 were also higher. gas prices down slightly this morning, according to aaa, the national average $3.98 a gallon. though in 16 states and the district of columbia, that average price is over $4. mortgage rates are hitting their lowest level of year. home prices are down but mortgage rates down too. these might be the cheapest rates in a long time to lock in money to buy a louse. according to freddie mac the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan dropped 4.63%. general mills raising the price of its cereals like cheerios and snack prices by 5%. the price hike is needed to offset higher ingredient costs. alcoa introdug new building panels which reportedly have the ability to clean the air around them. alcoa says these page are coated with a chemical that will break down pollutants like smog into harmless matter. and facebook was behind an e-mail campaign to journalists accusing google of violating users' privacy. facebook admits it did hire a pr firm to bring attention to this issues but denies it was smear campaign. "american morning" back after a quick break. ok. [ cellphone rings ] hey. you haven't left yet. no. i'm boarding now... what's up? um...would you mind doing it again? last time. [ engine turns over ] oooohhhh...sweet. [ male announcer ] the chevy cruze with the my chevrolet app. the remote control car is finally here. well, now she's just playing with us. oh. [ horn honks ] we search, browse, and shop from anywhere. we live in a social world. isn't time we had a social currency to match? membership reward points from american express. use them to get the things you love on amazom.com. and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. the chief operating officer at a national tissue bank when she decided to get her masters in healthcare administration. by choosing a university that connects working students to faculty who are also leaders in their fields... she was able to apply her studies to the real world... and help more people, much quicker. ♪ my name is diane wilson, i deliver the best gifts on earth, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] learn more about the college of nursing at phoenix.edu. beautiful view right outside our window. new york city cloudy and 55 but it will be sunny and 69 and not that we're all ready for the weekend or anything. >> a little cool for sun bathing in central park. we've been previewing soledad o'brien's special "education in america don't fail me." it's something we know you care a deal about which is why we report on it so much here. soledad is looking into how our ed problems could threaten our financial. >> a woman who might change your life. soledad joins us with one girl's story. this girl maria. >> she's amazing. she's representative of millions of american students and also representative of the growing demographics she's a latina in arizona. to be prepared as we all know for the jobs of the future, american students have to be taking those hard math and science courses like physics and calculus but they're not. only 16% of american students are because either they opt out or their schools don't offer them. maria, however, this is where she's different, she decided to do something about it. take a look. >> maria, what is the ratios of the 45? >> the one, the one and the radical two. >> reporter: she wants a career that pays well and is pushing herself and her school to get it. >> i was like well why isn't anybody like challenging me. i mean i would do a whole week's lesson and i was like this is too simple for me. what's next? >> do you worry when you go off to college you're not going to be compared to compete? >> yeah. i am especially with like an example english we're learning how to capitalize and when to capitalize. that's things my sister should be learning, you know. >> reporter: it's because more than half of the 2200 students at maria's school don't pass statewide tests in reading, math. >> when they come to school, they come with a fourth grade reading level and behind in math. we really have a lot of catching up to do. >> it's just my little sister and i. >> everybody is older? >> everybody moved out. >> reporter: the sixth of seven children. >> all of my brothers and sisters were straight a students. >> went from being a students to -- >> dropping out. >> my sister, she got pregnant when she was younger. and like everybody was kind of just expecting me to follow into their same footsteps. >> reporter: everybody including her father. she overheard him two years ago at her 15th birthday party. >> he was like, just a matter of time before she fails. >> fails? >> yeah. >> he was just like -- it doesn't really matter what she does right now. i mean, she'll eventually give up. >> reporter: did it motivate you in. >> yeah, it did. >> it did? >> yeah. it's like okay f i'm going to get straight as, it's not just for you anymore, it's for me. >> maria castro, a remarkable kid. the thing is all the other kids as you know, so many jobs today available now, but they require american students to take the stem classes, science, technology, engineering and math. >> proficiency in all these things. >> most american students are not prepared, not taking those classes, opting out of taking those classes or not offered in their school and they don't have the wherewithal to fight for it. >> the schools to defend themselves often say look, we have -- there's a maria and then 400 other kids struggling just to get up to basic reading and writing skills. >> and don't want to pursue what she does. >> we can't worry about her. we have to worry about these. someone like maria has to fight. >> the numbers continue to prove what maria is doing is going to guarantee her a lucrative future. >> costs money, requires -- i think there's this blame game. it's the teachers are terrible and or administrators are wrong or unions are this or parents aren't committed or students are lazy or the buildings are crumbling. we need to move past the blaming game and say here's what is required to succeed today in an economy where manufacturing jobs have left. >> yes. >> and now the jobs are in technology. >> she wants to go to stamford in engineering. >> yes, she does. >> hello stamford and engineering. i would be -- >> i hope a lot of young people see this who are maria's age and get to understand that if you make that decision, you can carry through. >> you'll see a lot of young people in our documentary, because we take a look at a robotics competition full of high school students who are competing and trying to win first and that's the focus of our documentary on sunday. >> all right. the documentary is sunday, 8:00 p.m. eastern, soledad o'brien, special report "don't fail me" sunday, 8:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. we know how interested you are. we are. watch the special. >> it will change your view of the stereotypes of education. it's not like you think. top stories, revenge for bin laden. taliban says two suicide bombings at a military training center in northwest pakistan were retaliation for the killing of bin laden. those attacks overnight killed at least 80 people. most of them pakistani military recruits. u.s. intelligence officers are now interviewed three of osama bin laden's wives in pakistan. a senior pakistani government official describes these women, the widows of bin laden, as hostile. the eldest bin laden widow reportedly spoke for the other two and we're being told nothing new was learned from her. and the pentagon says it's studying ways to pump up security for the elite navy s.e.a.l.s who killed bin laden. defense secretary gates met with members of that unit last week. some of them are worried about their names being released and their families being harmed. >> a week ago sunday in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin laden. that all fell apart on monday. the next day. the one thing i would tell you, though, is that i think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid and i think that has to continue. we are very concerned about the security of our families, of your families, and our troops. and also these elite units that are engaged in things like that. >> so you heard secretary gates saying that the operational details from the bin laden raid were supposed to stay classified, but that all fell apart. we watched it fall apart. i mean it all sort of surprised us the way people were jumping over each other to brief the media on what happened. >> and the white house, you know, a day or two into it -- >> starts to pull back. >> and give a new series of events with nuance and detail. joining us to talk about it from our washington, d.c., bureau, this morning, take a look at all of this, is robert minter -- richard minter, the author of "mastermind, the many faces of the 9/11 architect khalid shaikh mohammed." thank you so much for joining us. what do you think about gates' comment that too much information was out there too quickly and he's actually concerned about the s.e.a.l.s? >> he should be concerned about the s.e.a.l.s. the only way these people can do their jobs is if their identities remain secret. that has been one of the defining elements of the s.e.a.l.s and special forces in jenle from the beginning. in fact, the agreement on sunday he referred to, the day that the bin laden raid occurred, was they weren't supposed to mention the s.e.a.l. unit at all. they would say special forces. of course vice president biden let that cat out of the bag by referring to the s.e.a.l.s openly and that became the thing that everyone was interested in. the problem with releasing these operational details, they're still exploiting the computers, hard drives and thumb driving so on that was captured in the raid that could lead to the location of al qaeda sleeper cells and operations around the world and with the -- without that knowledge being leaked, presumably the s.e.a.l.s or other special forces or cia could swoop in with surprise on these al qaeda units around the world and kill or capture them. that's not -- that surprise is gone now that the -- these guys have been leaked everywhere. >> let me ask you this, your book is about information gathering as it relates to al qaeda and khalid shaikh mohammed. a lot of -- since the raid, we spoke the morning after osama bin laden was killed, many former top bush administration officials are crediting this enhanced interrogation, which we don't do any more, some call it torture, waterboarding for the information that led to the death of osama bin laden. senator john mccain, who is a war veteran, former prisoner of war in vietnam spoke out about those tactics to john king just last night. listen to this. >> i think it's pretty clear you could have gotten the same good information through using standard techniques which don't entail waterboarding and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment. >> your book argues it is exactly those techniques that would have led to even though your book came out before osama bin laden was killed, that led to the capture of khalid shaikh mohammed and got a whole lot of information out there. where do you stand on this? >> well senator john mccain has been waging a jihad against president bush since -- ever since he lost the nomination in the year 2000 to president -- to few ur president bush. >> he's had a view on torture a lot longer before that. >> he was tortured. >> well, the bill that he pushed in the u.s. senate in 2003/2004 and ultimately 2005, what is ended the enhanced interrogation program that bush and other bush administration officials say was essential for gathering information. there's been a long-term animosity between senator mccain and the elements of the bush administration. i'm not taking a side in that fight. i'm just saying he's not sitting on the sidelines. he's a player. >> in your book you are taking a definite side. you say without enhanced interrogation we would not have the information we have today and i'm assuming now that osama bin laden is dead f your book were written after that, you would have said without enhanced interrogation we wouldn't have gotten the details about that courier from khalid shaikh mohammed and others that would have led to the death of osama bin laden, am i putting words in your mouth that are not fair? >> not entirely. look, certainly enhanced interrogation worked. it produced a lot of useful information and stopped a lot of plots and led to arrests around the world. stopped assassination attempts against u.s. ambassadors, attempts to blow up warships, blow up the brooklyn bridge, empire state building and so on. the benefits of this has to be weighed against the costs. the benefits innocent lives saved and arrests. there has to be a balance between inhumane treatment and harsh interrogation and decide where on the spectrum you decide to make the tradeoff. i'm sort of more in favor of using some of those enhanced interrogation measures to get the information which is life saving. >> richard, author of "mastermind" flows into our question of the day, do you think america is safer now that bin laden is dead. we want to know what you think. e-mail us at cnn.com/am, tweet us @cnn am or facebook at facebook.com/"american morning." >> a lot of responses. >> and great variety. even -- rather than just telling us yes or not, tell us why you think yes or no and we'll read the responses. the mississippi river not done, taking aim at cajun country. millions of acres inundated with floodwaters. some of those are where people live, some is farmedland. coming up next, mike womack, director of the mississippi emergency management agency. what things look like on the ground now. we'll be right back. e announcer] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. and having a partner like northern trust -- one of the nation's largest wealth managers -- makes all the difference. our goals-based investment strategies are tailored to your needs and overseen by experts who seek to maximize opportunities while minimizing risk. after all, you don't climb a mountain just to sit at the top. you lookround for other mountains to climb. ♪ expertise matters. find it at northern trust. could be the most destructive year of weather we have ever seen. a new report in "usa today" says the u.s. is on pace to spend a record amount of money cleaning up weather disasters. so far there have been five weather disasters costing more than a billion dollars each, that includes a blizzard that slammed the midwest and northeast in january and early february, then there was the most destructive tornado outbreak in american history, and back-to-back spring storms in april, that terrorized the midwest and the south. total costs so far estimated at $4.25 billion. and now, the mississippi flood disaster, they're only beginning to survey the damage upstream. some areas still waiting to be hit, but already the tally for that is over a billion dollars. >> hard to capture all of this. good to get that kind of breakdown of the numbers. the flooding has drowned crops and casinos in mississippi, taking its toll on some of the most poverty stricken areas of the country. they're already talking losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, could be billions by the time the river settles down. mike womack has been keeping an eye on the damage, the director of the mississippi emergency management agency joining us from jackson. thanks for being with us. we've been covering the story over a week. the flooding has been slow moving and it is actually hard to capture on tv because you don't see rushing waters, you just see water rising, can't tell what it's really getting at. how devastating is this flood to mississippi? >> well, we've had some families out of their homes in our northern most counties for about two weeks now. and all along the mississippi river, there are people who have built elevated homes on the riverside of the levees and, you know, they hoped those homes would never be flooded because of the elevations. the record crest of this river is pushing water into those homes. in fact, we estimate that every home that's been built on the river side of the levee from memphis all the way down to the louisiana line, is flooded. >> wow. >> with the exception if you look at vicksburg in the middle of the state, there's about three or four counties just to the south of vicksburg where it's high elevation along the river and so those homes largely are spared. but then our southern most county wilkinson, there's a community of lake mary where 75 to 100 homes are flooded and then fort adams as well. really all the way from memphis to the louisiana line. >> you're talking about houses that are built on elevation, but between the levee and the river where you wouldn't have expected flooding to occur, you're saying from tennessee down, you're seeing flooding possibly all of those homes there. a lot of people in mississippi in the areas that are being affected by the river, there are a lot of places where there are people with -- nine of the 11 counties, in fact, have poverty rates that are double the national average. how is that affecting the ability to get these people, the information and the help that they need? >> well, we're working very hard with the local officials who can best communicate the risk to the citizens that potentially are going to be flooded. we're trying to use local media as well to try to explain what the threat is, and starting sunday, we'll have a national guard and highway patrol and our wildlife fisheries and parks who will be deployed to the areas that are going to flood, or potentially going to flood, and they'll be assisting in not only trying to make sure the citizens know what the risk is but with the evacuation as necessary. >> in mississippi 98% of the agriculture and farms are family owned, not the big corporate owned farms you think. there really are people who will take a big hit in mississippi. our thoughts are with you, mike. thanks for letting us know what's going on there. mike womack, the director of the mississippi emergency management agency. cnn's coverage of these floods will continue even though we're not expecting some places to crest for another couple of weeks. all right. it's bad enough to have a fender-bender, that usually involvement you and another driver and irritated the people on the highway. how about a fender-bender on the airport, two planes, and a lot of people -- and air travel that starts to come to a grinding halt. we'll tell you about a delta jet that clipped another plane and what happened there. and brain surgery for tv sit kwom icon mary tyler moore. dr. sanjay gupta is going to join us to tell us about the surgery she chose to have to ru move a tumor and how it went after the break. it is 45 minutes after the hour. . but what if we could go to a place where real superheroes lived. ones who moved mountains. lifted an entire people. and taught the whole world how to fly. come see america's greatest history attraction, the henry ford. and ignite the spark of imagination in all of us. as we watch our heroes come alive in pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. a lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know to start your day. the pakistani taliban taking blame for a pair of suicide bombings at a paramilitary training center in northwest pakistan. at least 80 people are dead. the attacks said to be retaliation for the death of bin laden. the pentagon is concerned about the security of the navy s.e.a.l.s who killed bin laden. defense secretary robert gates says he met with the elite team last week and they're worried about their identities being revealed and their families being harmed. just a short time ago ron paul formally announced his run for the white house in 2012. it's his third time entering the presidential race. new evacuations downstream, 600 people in vicksburg, mississippi, told to get out of the way of the mississippi river. entire neighborhoods already under water upstream. a delta jet clipped another jet at atlanta's international airport last night. that jet was taxiing to the gate when its wing hit the tail of another jet sitting at a gate. a delta spokeswoman says no one was hurt. the crew of the space shuttle "endeavour" back at the kennedy space center in florida. they arrived there yesterday to get ready for the shuttle's final, final launch this monday. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" back right after a break. at usaa, this is our executive committee. this is our advisory board. our field research team. and our product development staff. we know military lives are different. we've been there. that's why our commitment to serve the financial needs of our military, veterans, and their families is without equal. and why, we'll always be there for you... both here... and here. usaa. for insurance, banking, investments, retirement and advice. we know what it means to serve. let us serve you. "mary tyler moore" is set to undergo brain surgery. the surgery is elect difference before neurosurgeons will be removing a tumor that they've been monitoring for some time. >> dr. gupta will join us from the cnn center in atlanta to explain why they decided not to have this removed right away. >> good morning. yeah this, is one of those interesting things. because it is benign, because it is sometimes found as we refer to it incidentally, so someone may be going into the doctor for headaches or maybe after a car accident or a fall and they get a cat scan, and they find that there is no bleeding or anything as a result of the accident, but there is this brain tumor sitting this, as well. it might be small at the time. and at that time usually a discussion takes place between patient and doctor saying there's a small thing there, it may not affect you in your entire life, it's not causing any problems. we don't know that we need to do anything except sort of observe the tumor. let me show you on this model of the brain. these are typically found on top of the brain. they may be pushing into the brain somewhat. they come from a lining right outside the brain, but they're not in the brain as much. so it's a fairly straightforward operation. but again to your question, the person may not need the operation at all, let's just watch this. >> we had occasionally to discuss this by chance and he explained to me it in great detail what these are about. and i ask now, if it is slow growing and doesn't seem to be presenting any danger, why did mary tyler moore make the decision now? >> there's really three major reasons. one is that it starts to grow more quickly. you get these bits of information. you're maybe getting a scan every year and the tumor doesn't seem to be changing much or just very slow rate of growth. and then all of a sudden in one year to the next, there's a rapid growth. that says this is starting to grow at a different pace. it could change in its nature. it has a very distinctive appearance when you look at these. if it starts to look different, you may wonder is it turning in to a malignant due more. or if it starts to present any problem, headache, blurriness of vision, if it's pushing on areas that cause weakness or loss of sensation, those can also be signs, as well. but it's really a balance. she's 74. she has this tumor. it's a big operation, those successfully done every day in this country. balancing that versus she may not need it the rest of her life. they decided it was time to operate. >> good information. thanks very much. >> and be sure to watch cnn this saturday and sunday morning at 7:30 eastern for sanjay gupta reports. he'll meet the doctors credited with saving the life of gabby giffords who was shot in the head and survived. >> not only remarkably inspirational, but we all got smarter about the brain thanks to that incident and thanks to sanjay knowing so much about it. our temperature top stories coming up right after the break. it's 54 after the hour. ooh, a brainteaser. how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can't fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. my brain didn't even break a sweat. where you book matters. expedia. deadly revenge for the kilting of osama bin laden. twin explosions at a paramilitary training center in northwest pakistan, 80 are dead. the taliban is claiming responsibility. s loose lips may be putting the navy s.e.a.l.s in danger. the most elite fighters on the planet worried about their own safety on this "american morning." >> good morning. it's friday, may the 13th. we have a lot of news developing. we're following the floods very closely. we're also following a foiled terrorist plan in new york city. but the big story coming out of pakistan. >> and the taliban claiming responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings overnight, bombings that killed at least 80 people. the target was a paramilitary training somewhere in northwest pakistan. the attacks said to be revenge attacks. most victims were military recruits who were preparing to leave to base when they were killed. >> u.s. intelligence officials have interviewed three of osama bin laden's wives in pakistan and a senior pakistani government official describes the women as hostile. the questioning was done under the supervision of pakistan's intelligence service. the u.s. had wanted to interview the women separately to see if there were inconsistencies in their story, but they didn't get to do that. the eldest reportedly spoke for the other two and we're being told nothing new was learned. >> and cbs reports the navy s.e.a.l.s who killed bin laden recorded the entire raid on tiny helmet cams. here's what they reportedly reveal. the s.e.a.l.s first spotted bin laden on the third floor landing and after shooting and missing, the al qaeda chief ran into his bedroom. one s.e.a.l. burst in it and grabbed the daughters. a wife was pushed aside and shot bin laden in the chest before a third member of the team shot him in the head. >> those s.e.a.l.s risked hair li their lives and many are concerned about the safety of them and their families. >> and all the information leaked or is public about this, chris lawrence, defense secretary robert gates seems irritated by all of the information being released about the navy s.e.a.l. raid. >> he seems to be making the point publicly now that there seem to be some understanding among the people "the situation room" who were game planning this, monitoring this mission that they weren't going to get into operational details. and he's making the case now that the reason that this stealth helicopter worked, the reason that contributed to the success of this special s.e.a.l. team was because you didn't know about the stealth helicopter, you didn't know about their tactics, their techniques, the makeup of the team. and he said all of that is being compromised by all this information that officials are releasing. >> frankly, a week ago sunday "the situation room," we all gr agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin had. that all fell apart on monday, the next day. >> and again when you're talking about the security and safety of the s.e.a.l. team and their families, you're not so much talking about physical security. it's more making sure that their names are never released. in one way gates may be indirectly telling officials and letting people know, look, shut up about this particular team. let's stop talking about them. >> chris, i want to ask you something. we've been reporting about how there were no internet connections, no phone lines at this compound, but we also know that bin laden was involved in it all sorts of planning. how did he e-mail without being detected? >> that's right. some of the intelligence officials are amazed that he was able to stay so disciplined with this system. here's basically how it worked. he would type out some directives or an e-mail and then he would save it to a thumb drive. so, again, he'd be offline, save it to thumb drive. the courier would take it outside to what's known as a cutout because he's cut out of the loop. in other words, he doesn't know this information is even coming from bin wlad. he just knows he's been given a thumb drive. he goes to a computer, he downloads the information, and he sends the e-mail out. then when they need to get information back it bin laden, you just reverse the process all the way back. and, again, you've got these layers of people who have no idea that they're either passing or receiving information from osama bin laden himself. the whole time he stays offline. >> all right, chris, thanks very much for your great reporting on this. and a programming mote. tomorrow at 8:00 eastern, chris lawyer reps and our team investigates how the raid was planned and carried out. don't miss the inside the mission, getting bin laden, tomorrow might. our question of the day, is america safer now that lbin ladn is dead? we want to know what you think. we'll read through some of them later in the program. >> get something great responses. everything that they worked for washed away. this morning we're hearing painful stories of flood victims in the south. some folks have been out of their home for two weeks now. >> 600 people in vicksburg, mississippi, for instance have already been told to back up and get out. these are people living between the levee and the river. the river is not even expected to crest there until next week. rob marciano is live there. emergency management saying alled way doall the way down the river there are people who have established homes on highland on the riverside of the levee, they were never expecting that to flood. >> reporter: on the other side of the river in protected areas. >> yes. >> reporter: yeah, there's a few instances like that. here in greenville, the levee system, which is behind the camera right here, goes to 75 feet and we're "forecast to go" to 65. but if you're on the unprotected side of the levee, which is where the kags ss could see kn all shut down and that's been the case from memphis all the way down to this area, down to vicksburg, as well. but this all used to be where the river used to come 50, 60 years ago. but now we've created these cutoffs that create shore cuts for shipping. but when the river gets this high, it wants to go back to where it normally would go. down that way are people that live on the wrong side of the levee and they've been evacuated much like our friends up there at the tunica cutoff. one gentleman yesterday explained what he's going through emotionally. >> it's a day by day situation which nobody can hurry, nobody can speed it up. we have to live until the fact and the water recedes to see what we have left. >> reporter: leveed holding up okay in most spots, but it's constant maintenance. i mean, there's seepage, sand boils where in weak areas, you'll just be walking down the street or across a dirt path and there will be water and sand bubbling up on the safe side of the levee. so water wants -- will try to go where there's the weakest point and we're certainly seeing that, but they're keeping a watchful eye on things and plugging holeses wheholes s where they can. we haven't had any large failures so far, but we're about halfway lieu. all this water still has to go down veem. a stream. and it won't crest here in greenville until monday morning. so a long grueling wait and then a long process after that obviously. >> thanks for that rob. and it is a good distinction that you're making so that we all understand this, the protected areas versus the nonprotected areas. in many cases the levee is not right at the river bank, it is it inland and there has been a lot of development. >> and rob has something in common with trace atkins because they've both been saying this a slow, evolving crisis and trying to kind of bring it to us as much as they can. and last night country came home to help. ♪ ♪ don't worry wiabout a thing because every little thing is going to be all right ♪ >> that's lady antebellum performing. a special concert for tornado and flood victims in the south. country's biggest names all pitched in. >> it was something. tim mcgraw, who warned people do not try to be a hero. >> i understand the desire to try to ride things out. folks in louisiana are pretty tough. but please, if you're in the path of the current flooding and someone tells you to evacuate, do it. don't risk your own life or the life of your family to stand your ground. >> and we spoke with trace atkins yesterday. all these people are saying we want to keep this in the headlines. a lot going on. this is going to keep happening all summer. we don't know how much money has been raised yet. but you can still donate and they're encouraging you to at redcross.org. >> you talk about fatigue about the story. a lot of people don't live anywhere near it who don't understand why they should be interested in this all the time and a lot of people in the region are saying there's flood fatigue. but it can be very devastating. you'll feel the effect everywhere. >> these natural disasters, it will be the most cost rly year ever when you look at toward t, winter weather. it's been epic. all right. we'll tell and you stoyou a sto facebook's secret attack on google. was it some sort of smear campaign? >> you couldn't write the movie script for this. we'll tell you about that. also let the presidential race of 2012 begin. a lot to talk about this morning. who is in the game? ran paul has just announced he's running. >> what will they come up with next? check out the trendy new thing. what lazy cakes. it looks like an innocent brown any. it is not. >> has a very different effect. ♪ [ male announcer ] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. a plant is only as good as the soil you put it in. look, both these potted plants got the same sun. same water. only difference? this. miracle-gro potting mix. rich organic ingredients with miracle-gro plant food mixed right in. it even feeds plants for six straight months. want this result? 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[ male announcer ] with xerox, you're ready for real business. it's going to be a sun shiny day in new york city and even down south. a lot of water, because lot of sunshine. >> that's right. about an hour ago, ron paul made it official. he's running for the white house in 2012 holding a campaign rally in new hampshire today where he's expected to receive several endorsements. it's his third run for the white house. it's going to be interesting. >> he joins a growing list. newt gingrich already announced he's in. joining us from washington, former new york republican congresswoman. welcome to the program. let's start with ron paul. >> of the ones in this right now, the most consistent. he has always stuck to what he believes in. he doesn't blow with the wind. >> is he more or less electable this time? >> he is one of the nicest people that i've ever met and i do think the environment is a little more hospitable than as four years ago for ron paul because of his consistent views on smaller government, lack of government intrusion, less taxes, sort of the personal independents message. nonetheless, he has some views that are going to cause him trouble politically not only in the republican party, but with the general public in large. i heard you talking about his support for the legalization of drugs and most recently his -- >> including heroin. >> including heroin. and his opposition to the raid in pakistan that took out osama bin laden. obviously these are very serious problems that make him more provocative than a serious candidate. >> as a journalist, i will give him 100% in terms of consistency. >> but it might force him or force the tea party candidates to really reveal whether they are truly into personal liberties. because he's been so consistent. >> he has been consistent. he's on that message. and i think the republican party in general are pretty united. and when we get to the general election and the republicanses finally have a canned dad, what you'll see is a republican party that's pretty strong and united on those issues. >> let's talk about mitt romney. do you think of him as a frontrunner in the race? >> there's no doubt that mitt romney, if you were going break down the candidates that have announced and haven't announced but probably will announce, mitt romney is in that top tier. he does have the issue with regard to his health care policies when he was governor of massachusetts. but he is somebody who has never stopped running from the day that he lost the republican nomination four years ago. he's kept his time together, he's kept his fund-raising together. he is still considered one of the frontrunners along with somebody -- i put him in the same tier of a tim pawlenty and the rest of the candidates become more niche candidates. i'd certainly put are nron paul that niche. >> to stay on mitt romney for a second, he addressed this issue of the health care plan. >> a lot of pundits around the nation are saying that shy just stand up and say this whole thing was a mistake. that it was a bonehead idea and i should admit it. and i presume that a lot of folks would conclude that if i did that, that would be good for me politically. but there's only one problem with that. it wouldn't be honest. >> so can he play the whole idea that i think states should be allowed to do what's right for them, the federal government out of our health care? will that play? >> i think it's the best option he has quite frankly. i read in the paper somebody used the phrase threading the needle and i think that it's appropriate for where it is. i think the problem that the governor will have is that this is an issue that's kept alive, obama care, if you will, by the republicans going into next year. no matter who the republican candidate is, this is a race that will be about president obama. will the economy be under control, will the deficit -- will there be steps taken to reduce the deficit, will we be dealing with inflation and what about the overreach of obama care. thatment would won't go away. this is an issue towards the finish line. so i think he does the best that he can. >> let's talk about newt gingrich. what do you think? >> again i put him in the niche category of somebody who has been around a long time. he has a lot of victories. i served with him when we did some pretty dramatic things when the house took control for the first time in a generation. but i don't put him in the category of a frontrunner. he can engage an audience, but certainly not somebody that i would consider a front-runner status by any means. >> we'll look at our polling, it shows the top five huckabee, trump, romney, palin and gingrich. we mentioned huckabee. can he do it? >> i think mike huckabee is somebody who because of the way he has conducted himself during the last several years is somebody who could win the republican mom nation and may be able to beat president obama bearsed on where we are with regard to the economy and the job situation certainly in the united states. >> susan, good to talk to you. former congresswoman from new york. >> nice to be here. thank you. teachers arrested in california in the capital in a fight over budget cuts. >> sounds familiar. >> a lot of teachers arrested. this battle rages on. >> we'll give you a look into the future. i want to show you what your electronic device, your phone, your pda of the future could look like. as thin and flexible literally as a piece of paper. we have a prototype of sortses and i'll unveil it in a few minutes. ♪ [ male announcer ] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. that's erica, by the way, and it's her last day with us. she's moving to the other side of the floor. >> very smart young woman and we're very happy for her that she's moving on. >> she's pretty magical. 20 after the hour. minding your business now. the plot readses li like a movi. facebook hired a pr firm to make pitches to google. to make people aware of how google was using its personal information. so far no comment from google yet on what facebook was doing. >> 28 teachers were arrested and charged with pre charged with trespassing after they refused to leave the california state capitol. the teachers are planning another sit-in at the capitol today. a lot of places teachers are hopping mad about budget cuts. >> and there's something to be said for -- we sometimes do pile it on to those who can least afford it or should least afford it. but that is and ongoing debate. senate democrats -- another story of people not wanting to pay for things. senate can democrats are taking on big oil's big tax breaks. yesterday they hauled in executives from five big companies that raked in $36 billion in profits. by the way, that's just the first three months of this year. one republican essentially called yesterday's hearing a dog and pony show, but that unit with wasn't the only time a creature was mentioned. >> i have a chart depicting what i expect this hear to go turn into, and there you go. >> who is the horse and who is the dog? >> well, you'd have an easier time convincing the american people that a unicorn just flew into this hearing room. >> very difficult to follow the unicorn from new york. that has a very sharp horn. are you all right over there? sometimes a unicorn can morph into a rhinoceros. >> here's how mr. letterman put it. gas prices, aren't they crazy? it's so expensive the rats are car pooling in from new jersey. we don't have as many rats in utah, but like folks in new jersey and new york, utah is plenty angry about high gas prices. >> here's the hinge about those two stories. the teachers being arrested in california and then the grilling of the oil execs at capitol hill. when you're running big deficits and the economy is not growing strongly, that's when teachers get arrested and congress people -- >> and when unemployment is low, everybody has a job and things are going well, nobody cares about what anybody else is making or nation taxes. in fall river,s massachusetts, they're fighting over something else. city officials say it's time to ban the sale of lazy kakss. they're marketed as a relaxation brown any promising to ease stress and improve sleep. they're laced with melatonin. they come in a psychodelic wrapper featuring a cartoon character named larry lazy cake. officials say they're marketed to the children but they're not suitable for children and should be pulled off the shelves. >> just screams ambition and overachievement. >> yeah. naomi pryce: i am. i'm in the name your own price division. i find empty hotel rooms and help people save - >> - up to 60% off. i am familiar. your name? > naomi pryce. >> what other "negotiating" skills do you have? > i'm a fifth-degree black belt. >> as am i. > i'm fluent in 37 languages. >> (indistinct clicking) > and i'm a master of disguise >> as am i. > as am i. >> as am i. > as am i. >> well played naomi pryce. shorts! tanktops! [ female announcer ] grab a box of multigrain cheerios. get a code to... ...a 7 day plan to get going on your summer weight loss. get the box. get the code. get started! yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside. it's friday. are you in love? >> i'm in love every day. that is atlanta. i'm in love with atlanta, too. i live there sometimes actually. it's a beautiful city. i have no idea what the weather is today in atlanta, but it's sort of mayish, so i suspect it's warm and sunny. if you live there, go to some local source for your weather. >> it's going to be a high of 85. it says right there. >> it also says new york. >> there's a new heartfelt comedy in theaters called jumping the broom. s >> looks like fun. i've seen the promos from it. >> soledad o'brien talked to one of the producers. >> you may or may not though him, but in the african-american community, this guy is huge. he has a church that has 30,000 people who attend and he's also written best selling books. and he also has a history of doing these gospel plays. but not movies necessarily until now. it's called jumping the broom, it stars angela basset. it's hilarious. and it's not about religion exactly. i asked him. here's what he said. >> it's somewhere in between. there is a faith thread woven into the fabric of real life and i think that's where faith plays out it best when you put it in an authentic environment where real people with real issues are grappling with the struggles of life. >> the overall story is a story of a culture clash, a class clash. you have the rich watsons versus the not wealthy taylor family coming together in a marriage. i want to run a little clip where the soon to be mothers in law meet each other and almost immediately hate each other. >> may i say that you certainly raised a wonderful man. >> well, thank you, he is wonderful. i wish i could say the same about you and your daughter. oh, i said that the wrong way. i mean i wish i had met her earlier before now. >> why don't we go into the house, make you more comfortable. >> one thing i wanted to point to, a deep discussion that goes on in the african-american community about class. and this was an opportunity to look at both extremes. the other underlying thing was one of forgiveness. both sides are flawed in some way. all families are flawed in some way and learning how to forgive each other is an underlying theme that i think you'll hear. >> do all your movies have to have themes of forgiveness, morality? would you ever be the producer of the fast and the furious number 9 or mission aimpossible 8? >> absolutely. >> you're just a movie producer. >> i'm not necessarily trying to draw an up billy cal cord between who i am as a producer and on the pulpit. i like to just have a good time. spiritual people need to chill out. sometimes we're too serious. we need to live life and enjoy our family and friends. >> you don't really hear a bishop say spiritual people need to chill out. he said they went a different route than sony normally goes. they did screenings with barbers, people this beauty shops. they had a whole e-mailing list to people who normally don't go to movies. your average person at a movie is a 15-year-old boy. they wanted a very different audience and they were able to deliver that. so it's -- but i love like mission impossible 9? yes, i'd love to be the producer. >> it makes a lot of sense because you stand at a pulpit and a good preacher sees what moves people and what works with people and how to communicate and the words and you can see how that could really translate. >> it's not a stretch. he thinks of its as this are lots of different platforms to reach people. movies and the pulpit are just different platforms. >> and he is entertaining. an interesting guy. i'm looking forward to seeing the movie. >> it's really funny. >> new bumper sticker. spiritual people need to chill out. top stories now. the taliban retaliating for the death of osama bin laden killing at least 80 people in a paver suicide bombings last night. the target was a military training center in northwest pakistan. most of those killed were young pack is an any recruits. u.s. intelligence officers have interrogated now these of bin laden's widows. a senior pakistani government official describes the women as hostile. the u.s. wanted to interview them separately but that did not happen. the eldest of bin laden's widows reported lir spoly spoke for th two and we're told nothing new was learned. and gh again they were hostile. and they're studying ways to pump up security for the navy s.e.a.l.s. robert gates met with the members of the unit and some are worried about their names being released and their families being harmed. >> a week ago sunday in the situation room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin laden. that all fell apart on monday, the next day. the one thing i would tell you, though, is that i think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid and i think that has to continue. we are very concerned about the security of our families -- of your families and our troops and also these elite units that are engaged in things like that. >> this brings us to our question of the day. gates is talking about the safety of those s.e.a.l.s and their families. we're asking whether you think america itself is safer now that bin laden is dead. we've got some of your responses here. >> 50/50, yes because he's gone, no, because his followers will want to avenge his death. >> and on twitter, no, i don't think america is safer. happier, but not safer. >> and d.j. says we might be safer, but what eat use of being safer when we all live in fear. >> and david says i honestly think we have nothing really to fear. the only thing we might see is weightless threats. a big blow has been dealt to them. we've seen what we're capable of doing. lots of great comments. we love getting them. and by the way, we do read all of them. so please send in all of your comments. happening right now, 600 more people are being told to move to higher ground in vicksburg, mississippi, as the record breaking flooding heads their way. people in louisiana now sandbagging before it's their turn for the highest part of the river to get to them and some floodgates are open. the national guard has already been mobilized. >> cnn going in-did depepth tak look at the human toll. >> ed lavendera spoke to some people coming to grips with it right now. >> reporter: tucked away in the shade of louisiana cypress trees and back water creeks, you'll have a hard time finding this dance floor. >> i put that sign up about two months ago and i've always wanted to name the camp last dance. >> reporter: the music has stopped and pierre is packing it all up before the floodwaters wash over. >> i had a big table in here. i had a cabinet over here. >> 70% of the people have packed up and gone. >> reporter: his bayou community will soon be flooded. >> i'm going to get three feet of water in it. >> reporter: but pierre is about to learn that the floodwaters will likely be worse than anything he imagined. pierre and hundreds of butte la rose residents pack into the firehouse to hear flood level predictions. >> i'm telling you the depth of water 15 feet. >> it's over. >> reporter: it's over for butte that ros la rose. the words too painful to hear. >> it's going to be a strong current. >> reporter: as pain turns to anger, colonel ed fleming offers a little comfort. >> when that moving struck drives away and you're standing in your driveway with your family it and a couple suitcases and a box, that's when -- >> reporter: and the sadness of the moment brings kelly to tears. >> it's worse than we thought. it's really worse than we thought. we thought maybe we might have water this our yard p. this is going to take everything we've got. >> reporter: pierre knows it's time to pack up the dance floor and put butte la rose in his rear view mirror, but he'll be back. >> it's not the last dance. >> you don't think so? >> no. we'll dance again around here. >> reporter: and the sign will be the last hinge he grthing he. ed lavendera, cnn. >> a great story. >> it does bring it home as people wonder what this flooding is doing. >> but it's nice to see ed and other reporters really trying to meet people along the way and try to show what is this bigs massive flood, but show on a very personal level. >> it doesn't feel as urgent as some other natural disasters that we tend to report on like storms or hurricanes, but it is very damaging. up next, we want to show you the first paper smart phone. you can imagine a piece of paper ringing? >> reading it, folding it trk rolling it up. we'll show it to you after the break. so, what's the snapshot discount? it's pretty revolutionary. patented, actually. it takes a snapshot of your good driving habits, so you can save money. like a snapshot? that's what i'm talking about. in a sports car. show it to me. yes! i want to believe it! ooh! fierce! argh! love it. i think we have it. the snapshot discount. new, huge, and only from progressive. watching your money this morning. thing your cell phone is thin now? one day you might be able to fold it up and roll it like a piece of paper. my huffi lhuff lovely assistant show you. >> i love this story. when i speak to engineers, the smart ones who say it will be not just smaller, but flexible and it will all be about imagery and video. it will be a different way of doing that. so we wanted to bring you something, it's a little unusual. it's like showing you the iphone years before it came to market. our next guest from queens university in canada has with him really a prototype or a step on the way to what the future of not just phones but ebook, what we do, what we carry with us, is going to look like. first of all, let's b fair, you and other scientists and engineers are working on this. are we talking about things being on the market in 5 or 10 years? >> yeah, more likely 10 than 5. there are still quite a few technical things to work out. >> let's it take a look. you have smpg here that you've mocked up for us. describe to us. >> what we have is a very, very thin film screen. and then we have a bunch of senses on the back. so we can navigate items on the screen which is similar to the way you work with paper. >> so give us an example of an ereader. >> so let's see. i open up the ebook reader using a bent gesture and i can page through by bending it. and now i'm going to close it. >> so it's very intuitive. >> absolutely. just like thumbing through paper. >> so it you use an ipad on read or -- this is how like a kindle. >> exactly. what we see here is a screen that's flexible. similar to your kindle, if you don't power it, it doesn't actually -- it doesn't consume any power. >> and this is where the science engineering is working. this is why you have power running to it at the moment. but when you're looking at it in ten years, it's just going to be that. >> just that and maybe a handle that has some of the rigid electron electronics. >> so a processor, a battery, and some sort of input device. >> and of course a touch screen. >> so what about opening your contacts. >> let's try. i'll move to the left here. and i'll open the contacts. so i'm in my contact list and i'll go down to my phone. i turned off my phone so it wouldn't ring, but here go, i'm calling it. >> and then i'd just hold it up to your ear? >> like a norm it al phone. >> i've heard this from drift places. there seems to be a collect it difference wisdom that this is where we're moving in terms of personal devices. so a lot of people betting on this. >> no doubt that ten years from now, where is n. your studio is the crt. it's gone. so this is the third wave of displacing technology. >> when? is this something that i'm going to touch in 10 or 15 year? >> i would say definitely within 10 years you'll see the products on the market. of course there's lots of advantages. they fit your body better than the current cell phone. they're light weight. >> i find it ruins the silhouette of my body. >> exactly. >> but other than the size, element proce will the processors be better? improvement plus the fact that it's small? >> and also real benefits to the user interface in the sense that right now we all suffer from tunnel vision. we use this one little computer that does everything poorly. what we want is to have multiples of these. because they're thin, you can fit a bunch of sheets in your pocket. and you just combine them. >> so we're going back to the paper. >> all computers will be paper at some point. >> great talking to you. thanks so much for the great work you've been doing. 45 after the hour. here's what you need to know. the taliban claiming responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings at a paramilitary training center in 234e69 pakistc northwest pakist. said to be in retaliation for the death of osama bin laden. the pentagon is concerned about the security of the navy s.e.a.l.s. robert gates says he met with the elite team last week and they're worried about their identities being revealed and their family being harmed. new evacuations downstream. 600 people in vicksburg told to get out of the way of the mississippi river. the highest water expected there next week. police are investigating the death of aaron douglas. they say the 21-year-old was found dead yesterday morning in a house in florida. ron paul is running for president. it's his third time running for the white house. markets open in 45 minutes. right now futures are up after the consumer price index found inflation rising at the fastest rate since october of 2008. the bulk of the increases coming from higher gas prices. lawless ? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. unseasonably coldorrow's weaon both coasts.a be blazing hot in the center of the country and on this island. jack! it doesn't matter what the weatherman says if you have a symmetrical all-wheel drive subaru then...over time... become dull... and lose their luster because washing in the bargain brand can leave dirt from the wash on your clothes causing your whites to get dingy. new improved tide plus bleach helps to remove the dirt in one wash to bring your whites back to bright. turning white-ish to...wow. tide plus bleach. style is an option. clean is not. also try tide stain release, the in-wash booster from tide. kids come to the streets hoping temperatures better than living in poverty in the countryside, but often they find these are much worse. you can identify kids who are living and working on the streets. it they may be detained by the authorities, they may get beaten up. there are gangs selling heroin. we're finding kids being tricked and then sold into prostitution. it was just a case of i can help, so i should help. my name is michael. i work in vietnam with street kids trying to get them off the streets and back into school and into safe homes. when we started out, our goal was just to get them back to school. to do that, we realized we would have to take that place of providing an income, food, providing the shelter. our center is where the kids know to come. this is where they feel safe. they can join in our activities, they can talk to the staff and then we have to make sure they're working towards education or getting a job or improving their health. we've also got to be careful that if the child has a family, the family is as involved as possible. it's an amazing feeling getting to watch these kids go from being malnourished and completely lacking confidence to wanting to make a change. i grew up in poverty and i often used to think i could do something good with my life if someone would come give me that chance. now i'm the guy who can help these kids and give them a chance. one company in north carolina not only outlasteded the recession, but also survived a fire to keep people on the job. >> people got to sleep. tom foreman joining us from thomasville touring around on the cnn express. you always have something good for us. >> reporter: good morning. no truer words were ever said than people have got to sleep. i'm in thomasville, north carolina. everybody in the country knows this area is just renowned for producing some of the best furniture this country has ever produced. and if you've read the news, you know the furniture business is really taking a pounding in recent years along with the textile business and yet there are companies that are finding ways to hang in there and keep fighting and make improvements, including this one small family operation we found that really has just a remarkable story. amid the clat clater of nail guns, 1400 mattresses roll out a day. but the owners of this small company have learned thousand handle bad days, too. >> we had to to survive. we lost half or more of our customer base. so to survive, we had to be very proactive. >> reporter: ten years ago just after they had opened, a devastating fire struck. wiping out their inventory, their life savings which they had invested here, and leaving a huge question. j. >> how are we going to overcome this. >> reporter: the answer, rebuild fast. moving into temporary space, they raced to repair, once again dropping as much money into their dream as they can describe up. this is all highly specialized equipment. >> absolutely. >> reporter: and i'm guessing expensive. >> very expensive. >> reporter: then they had an inspiration. they developed a ground breaking product based on their experience, a fire resist tabt mattress, one of the first of it kind. it took off with customers. >> it did gain us some new business, so there was a silver lining to that cloud. >> reporter: the lessons learned about taking care of their staff, working hard and never giving up have helped them grow from a handful to a hundred employees despite the recession. their mantra is simple. >> you can't retreat. you can't retreat. you have to keep moving forward. >> reporter: that doesn't guarantee success, but even in tough economic times, it helps them all sleep a little easier. and one of the things they've tapped into here really is just an enormous bed of enormously talented artists. you look at the people working in their factory, and you say it's factory worker. watch them for just a few minutes and you can see that there are generations of people here who know how to do this work. they've passed it on to others. they've learned it from others. and they're turning out these products at an extraordinary rate and they're remarkably well made when you're this watching it happen. quite a process. >> did you win a bet by saying an enormous bed oftal wlenlted artists. >> reporter: yeah, we had a wager could i work the word bed in. >> being in new york, we both had the same reaction as we're watching this. the bed bug problem can't be hurting the mattress industry. >> reporter: oh, no. well, i'll tell you something, they did talk about how mattress technology has really improved. i did not realize this. but they were talking about how a mattress came today is differ than ten years ago. this are all these improvements to the government and the strength for your back and all this stuff. of course they're in the business of selling mattresses. i guess they would say that. but nonetheless, they made a pretty good case for it. so i might go mattress shopping when i get back home. >> i know how that bus is packed, so you can't take one on the bus. you'll have to get it shipped. >> reporter: yeah, dale won't let me load a mattress. i'll have to get it at h

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