here. making more news on the national conversation. to those who know him, his behavior on flight 253 is unbelievable. >> he was a peaceful person, friendly person, and devoted religious person. >> and now we are learning more about umar farouk abdulmutallab from his own writings. why is yemen a new front in america's fight against terrorist? >> you have the pressure of the u.s. pressure in the tribal area in pakistan to send al qaeda to send some of the assets to yemen. >> new case, old debate. should airports profile passengers? >> looking for weapons is not the way you do this. looking for terrorists is the way you do this. >> one of college football's most respected and winningest coaches benched for what he did to a player. my access becomes your access with tweets from movers and shakers. this truly national conversation for tuesday, december 29th, for tuesday, december 29th, 2009, starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and hello, again, everybody. i'm rick sanchez with the next generation of news. this is a conversation and not a speech and again, it is your turn to get involved. if you are like most people, you have asked yourself why somebody would choose to literally blow themselves up with a bomb in their underwear while they are sitting on an airplane? well, let me tell you what i have been learning about umar farouk abdulmutallab, lonely, confused, unl su unsure about h and anxious about school and not a lot of friends. part of this is a self-portrait and painted by this young man now locked up for allegedly trying to blow up a passenger jet on christmas day. we have been going through a stack of e-mails and forum postings that have been written about abdulmutallab and some of them dating back to when he was 18. i have one here. listen to. this is, i have no one to speak to. i feel depress and lonely. i think that this loneliness leads me to other problems. many of the quotes, many of these e-mails were obtained by the "washington post." and then there is this, this is an intimate description of this would-be mass killer from somebody who knew him. cnn's mary snow spent much of the day looking for somebody who really could tell us about abdulmutallab and somebody who really knew him, and as you are about to see in the report, she found him. >> this man is having a hard time making sense of how his former schoolmate umar farouk abdulmutallab could be a suspected terrorist. he is seen here as a student and he went to the same school as abdulmutallab in africa in lagos. what did you think when you first heard it? >> i didn't believe it at first until i saw the images that showed that this was a student that, this is a student i went to school with. so, once i saw that, i was like, man, this is unbelievable, this is out of this world. we never would have guessed. >> reporter: what was he like? >> he was a peaceful person. you know, a friendly person. socialable, and someone if you had a problem you could go to talk to and always willing to help the students and a lot of the teachers in the school liked him, because he was an intelligent kid. >> reporter: was he a religious kid? >> he was devoted religious person and religion was one of the key aspects of his life. and he was someone that, you know, always prayed and for the traditions of his religion. >> reporter: was there anything that he ever talked about that made you think that he was somewhat of a radical at all? >> nope, not at all. >> reporter: he says he last saw abdulmutallab in 2007 when he left nigeria to come to the u.s. he describes the boarding school he attended him with in togo as a small elite school. he says while the two mostly talked about basketball, they did sometimes discuss religion. he is a christian, and says he asked abdulmutallab about his perceptions as well. >> well, we saw people on tv portraying them as bad people and that is the curiosity to ask him, is that true? he said, no. i value everything, and would i come to school with a bomb, no, it is always peace. that is the main philosophy of general is about islam. >> reporter: he says he has been keeping in touch with former schoolmates on facebook. >> some of them are shocked and terrified and don't want to believe it, and some are like, wow, this is unbelievable, and someone said, at first, i don't want to believe it. >> reporter: he says he last saw abdulmutallab in 2007 and never kept in touch with him after that. mary snow, cnn, new york. we cannot allow fear and paranoia to cause us to engage in bad policing. that is what racial profiling is. >> profiling, is it time that we begin using ate as viable way to catch terrorists. what is the threshold by the way? look, this is a heated debate, and i'm going to want you to join in on this one, and you will hear it. also, a very popular football coach and one of the most winningest in all of the ncaa and he is suspended after one of the players is accusing him of forcing, of being forced to stand in a dark room after having a concussion. this is a bizarre story. i'm going to explain the details to you, and i will talk to several guests who are going to help us get through this story, because as you know, there is always two or more sides to every story. also, don't forget, you can join us in this national conversation by calling here in the united states, this number, 1-877-742-5751. hey, rick, this is terrell from nashville, tennessee, i think we should do profiling in the airports, because if you have a passenger with a foreign name that says, hey, we should watch these guys and we should profile them by their name. hey, rick. this is diane from california. i wanted to point out that unless there is going to be a strip search, there is always going to be a place to hide that kind of powder, and have time for someone to go to the bathroom and create an explosion. welcome back. i'm rick sanchez to your national conversation, i am now keeping a list, which i will divulge each and every single day of what news makers and relevant personalities are treating and what you are tweeting as well. you see, my access is your access every single day. we are really going to be kicking this up a notch on january 18th. first up, i want you to listen to what an airline blogger is saying on this day. this is someone who specializes in just watching these developments, and they have tweeted this in the last half hour to me. rick sanchez, he says, passengers are demanding smarter security, and not more restrictions and racial profiling goes against the spirit of freedom in the united states. now, let me see what you are saying as well. back to the favorite's list and see what the regular tweets are from you. here is one from trav south bay la and every time tsa makes it more difficult to travel, the terrorists win. next, cavity searches? and the next one, racial profiling does not work, but the ways the checks are going today is ridiculous and sure as hell does not work. there you have it. >> to make the coaching points and more compelling than the fat little girlfriends. and now the fat little girlfriends have advantages, because the fat little girlfriends are telling them what they want to hear. >> yeah, he says what he thinks, but he is also one of the most winningest football coaches. he has been benched before a bowl game, and it is an espn analyst who is calling him out for what he, this coach, allegedly did to his son, the espn analyst's son. look, this is not your typical sports story. it is kind of bizarre. we will take you through it with several source, and then late, we will have what mike leach has to say about this through his attorney who is going to join me here live. stay with us. what a story this is. welcome back. i'm rick sanchez. one of college football's most successful coaches is suspended and will not be able to coach his team in the alamo bowl. >> as coaches we failed to make our coaching points and our points more compelling than the fat little girlfriends. now the fat little girlfriends have some obvious advantages and for one, the fat little girlfriends are telling them what they want to hear which is how great you are. >> that is mike leach, the unconventional coach of the texas red raiders and that is not the reason that the he is suspended. he didn't get suspended for calling the girlfriends fat, but the reason he is suspended today and this is bizarre for allegedly putting one of his players in a solitary confinement based on an unidentified source, the associated press is saying that sophomore adam james had a concussion and could not practice. so coach said, fine, go stand by yourself in the dark shed, and don't sit down or lean up against the wall or come out, or you are off of the team. he was reportedly kept there for hours and for the next part of the practice, james was sent to stand reportedly in a darkened electrical closet according to an unidentified source who is talking to several periodicals, including the associated press. now, have college coaches often treated players this way? probably. is it possible that leach messed with the wrong player in this case? well, let me give you more information that you may not know about it. but it turns out that adam james is the son of former nfl player and espn analyst craig james and in fact, the james' family filed a formal complaint with the school. mercury morris is part of the team, and he is successful in everything hable da he dabbles. and on the phone, we have eddie george who is a broadcast and is. okay. mercury, espn is reporting that all he had to do was to apologize and this thing could have been overwith. can you give us a sense of why this coach with the sense of accusations hurled against him would not have been willing to come forward and called the james' family and said, i apologize and put it behind him? >> you know what, i want to school at texas and went to school in west texas state which is right on route 105, about 100 miles from texas tech and i will tell you that texas football is different from any football i know of and particularly in the '60s when i played. our coaches were brutal. and there are such memories of this guy, that you either left there with a profound respect for what he gave you which i did or you left there totally shattered and never wanted to see the guy again. but once again, what i am hearing from this guy leach is the exact same thing i used to hear from the old school football coaches back there with coach joe kir vbill and he woul not hesitate to stick his foot up your butt, and he would say, i will send you to wheeling and he didn't mean west virginia. there was a constant threat about what would be done if you didn't do it right. >> well, people who have not played football and people from the outside would look at this and at least as far as the accusations and wonder if this behavior is not beyond the pale in this case. >> eddie, let me ask you in question what a lot of folks are talking about, would he be sus pe pended if james' dad was not a former nfl football player or espn analyst. >> i don't know if it has anything to do with the boy's father, but what it has to do with the relationship with the texas tech front office. you have to remember that the contract and they went through a bitter dispute in the off season for the contract, and they never got it settled, so there is bad blood between mike leach and the university and this could be the perfect storm for the university to say, well, we don't like mike leach and here is an opportunity for us to get rid of him on these grounds, a we donnd we dow the particulars of the story with the son being locked up in the dark room or whatever it was, but here is an opportunity for the university to hash out and say, listen, you don't have to apologize, and they know he won't apologize and he is the unconventional coach who makes outlandish statements and he has done so many crazy things in the past, that he is unpredictable. >> i will tell you that the lawyer is going to be joining us in a little bit and, he says that he expects that the coach will coach in the alamo bowl, and he will win this, and again, he will join me a little bit and we will ask him directly, but do you think it is settled or not, merc? >> well, it is old school and political correctness and they are finally clashing here. people need to remember that bobby knight coached there and if bobby knight throwing chairs and jacking people up as a rule rather than the exception to say that something that could be explained as a time-out, i don't know if you want to call it punishment, because we don't know, we weren't there, and we don't know the extent of it, but i know one thing, football is a tough game and you better be tough to play in it. >> but, mercury, so you are condoning the behavior as far as allowing to throw this kid into electrical shed because of a concussion that he may have -- that is not proper protocol for that. >> no, i am not condoning it, but i am saying that i don't know what happened, period, but i cannot make any prejudgmental conclusions about what i should condone or not. i am saying that -- >> well, what if we were to go with what he is being accused of doing, and by the way, for the record, he is not saying that he didn't do it. he is saying that it is being put in the wrong perspective. in other words, it sounds like what he is saying and he may be completely right in saying this by the way which happens as we all know that things have a tendency to be exaggerated, but what is on the record is that the kid had a concussion and decided to put the kid in some sort of isolation and there is a story of a shed or part of the training room and part of not letting him sit down and having a trainer watch over him while he is doing that. by itself, merk, does that pass the threshold? >> well, it is conflicting information and you don't know whether it is fact. you have to put the facts on the table and then when you do that, you make an evaluation on the facts as they happened. innuendo and describing where he was on the one end, it sounds like he was treating him fine and on the other end, it sounds like he is punishing him, and again, that is the old school view, and the new political correctness way. >> well, here is the thing, if the allegations are true and that happened, that does not follow the protocol for someone having a concussion. if you want to send a statement to somebody, you don't have to put them in a room to make a statement to the team, you send them home or back into the training room to get treatment. i am from the old school, too, and i played in the '90s and i played -- >> that is not old school, man. '90s is not old school, but '60s is. >> yeah, yeah, i understand that, coaches putting their hands on you, but nowadays the universities and the parents won't deal with that. my son! i want to be there in front of mike leach's face. >> that part i agree, but enough theless, you have to take into consideration this is a physical concept of the game, and sometimes people overdo it. it sounds like to me that this coach has overdone it, but nevertheless, you have to look at the facts and see what they are as opposed to contributing to a conversation that we really don't know what the facts are. >> well,ly tell you what else comes in here and we have to end the conversation, but i want to end with this and something we haven't spent enough time talking about, but as we know one of the biggest concerns of sports dealing with and especially the nfl is concussions and something not researched in the past and we are now learning more information about it. because the concussion is the thing that spurred this, we got this comment and i will read it to you coming to me right now from the james' family. this is what they write to me to complete this story. over the past year there has been greatly enhanced recognition of the dangers of concussions and the long-term physical damage to players. at every level of sports, where young people have sustained concussions they have increased diagnosis and treatment. the entire james' family looks to the conclusion of this. so, you have the player, the family, and the university and the coach. we are waiting for all of this to flesh out. >> i hope that the kid is okay and that is the most important thing, and they can resolve this issue so that everybody understands what went on and then move on from there. >> eddie george, what game are you doing tonight? you are calling a game to fight? >> yeah, i'm in orlandoing doing miami versus the university of wisconsin. so it should be a fun game. >> merk who are you and i pulling for in. >> miami. old school. >> my job so be professional, so i will give my perfect analysis of a great game and i hope that a big 10 team can pull it out. >> go canes menment ment. >> rick, follow me on twitter at mercury underscore morris so we can continue this. >> as i said, we have reached out to the attorney for mike leach to join me here on the show live. he has accepted. that is coming your way in a couple of minutes. hey, rick, this is josh from florida, how are you? listen, it is not a perfect world, and before i say what i am about to say, i am latin so i am one of the minorities and i say whatever it takes to keep us safe. so if they have to do profiling and if the lines need to be long, you are right, it is an age-old debate, but we have to be safe and we have to do what we have to do until we figure out how to make those crazy people disappear. keep up the good work. bye-bye. >> well, we have a lot of folks talking about that today. if you are ready to fly home after the holidays, you are probably wondering what to expect. well, we can tell you at least not exactly, but this is changing picture, but this is a live picture of dulles airport outside of washington, and the transportation security administration is telling travelers that they need to allow extra time to get through security. but, some of the in flight inspi instructions impose odd tefr we -- imposed have been lifted. well, here is what they say. they have shutdown in-flight entertainment systems, and ban passengers from leaving their seat during the final hour of the flight. so it is at the discretion of the flight crew, and that means it may or may not happen. and canada has banned most carry-on luggage bound for flights for the united states. if this leaves you confused as it does us for what to expect for the next trip, that may be on purpose. one expert says if passengers don't know about the security po t ten shall risk, neither do the terrorists. >> many americans in times like these will say, not all muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are muslim. fear or unfair? that is what many people are saying right now. profiling is a hot debate. we get into it, and i invite you. it is next. then, we have the 911 audio from mrs. charlie sheen on christmas morning when most people are watching their kids open up their gifts. there's -- their exchange is downright violent and ugly. you will hear it for yourself and you can hear it on the national conversation. next time you are in atlanta, just call 877-4cnn-tour. hey, rick, as far as profiling goes, it should not be done. the reason is because if you start profiling in the airports, they will justify it on the streets, and we know what that leads to. it is not a good thing and it should not be done. i do believe we need security, but we can do it without profiling. thanks, and have a good day. hey, rick, this is mike from houston. hey, i just wanted to say, thanks for playing that -- i heard a comment earlier today from another caller from cnn who said we should keep out a name like ahmed or anyone else with an arab-sounding name, and that is the key to, keep out people with certain names orrette necessities that we can