Transcripts For CNNW EarlyStart 20130902 : vimarsana.com

0 safe. we re going to go home now. the stunning decision and now the furious sales pitch. new developments as the president tries to convince congress to strike syria for allegedly poisoning their own people. sentence outrage. the teacher given 30 days behind bars for raping his student. now, the shocking sentence may be reversed. luck on the side of this driver. nearly crushed by a massive boulder. oh! look at that. that was a landslide there. he is an incredibly lucky driver. that is incredible. good morning to you. welcome to early start. i m zoraida sambolin. i m john berman. it is monday, september 2nd, happy labor day. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we are going to begin with the president s announcement. he will let congress decide if the u.s. should strike syria in what was a chemical assault on syrian people. there s a sales pitch to convince lawmakers a military response is the right thing to do. reporter: secret briefings on capitol hill. the white house making its case to skeptical lawmakers on cnn secretary of state john kerry revealing new evidence to back claims it assad regime killed hundreds with nerve gas. blood and hair samples that have come to us has tested positive for signatures of cerin. reporter: after the decision to put a strike on hold saying congress should approve. all of us should be accountable as we move forward. reporter: aids insist he was thinking of reversing course before the british parliament embarrassed cameron on friday. he sent kerry out for action. what is the risk of doing nothing? reporter: later, he signals second thoughts. nobody is more war ware ray than me. reporter: he didn t tell anybody until 6:00 a.m. when he takes a walk with the chief of staff. at 7:00, he tells the national security staff sparking a debate. saturday morning, calls the top team to the situation room. phones congressional leaders to get them on board, then heads to the rose garden to stun the world. i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people s representatives in congress. reporter: cn nrngs, washington. several members of congress remain skeptical about the president s proposal saying it gives the military too much power. they want to see changes before they authorize votes. the president s decision wasn t a surprise just here. some saying it s not what they wanted. the arab league and the saudis are urging international action. that is an important development. arwa damon is in beirut this morning. we ll get to the arab league in a moment. give me a sense of what s being said inside syria this morning. reporter: well, there s a lot of frustration, naturally, as there has been along u.s. policy when it comes to handling the situation in syria. ift s taking people by surprise on the one hand, but at the same time, not entirely shocking them. the u.s. has never really been our ally in all this, simply because of the fact up until now, there s been no concrete action when it comes to any of washington s decisions. people inside syria, on the one hand, do want to see those in opposition, do want to see some sort of military action. at the same time, they are saying the proposed strikes put forward by the u.s. is not enough. they want to see game changing action. regime changing action and, of course, that s not what s on the table. many people are saying if all the u.s. has to offer is these pinpoint specific strikes, that, potentially is going to harm the rebels and the opposition and the people more than it is going to harm the regime. john? you are harsh language from the syrian regime calling the president weak and a retreat. i want to talk about the arab league. they put out an interesting statement calling for some type of international action, but they had specific language. reporter: yeah, they most certainly did. they are saying they blame the regime. at the end of the day, the regime is responsible for security. they want to see international action along the lines of an investigation and court. they are not specifically calling for military action. this is a very important distinction to make, especially if you remember the rhetoric when the same debate was going on about libya and the league came out and supporting military action. that key ally, the arab league and nation, not necessarily someone or an entity the u.s. can turn to to rely on and is going to support strikes. it s a complicated situation here. everybody who is watching is anxious. what is happening in syria is not confined to that nation alone and impacting syria s neighbors and could impact the entire region. people are worried about what is going to happen. no overstatement to say the whole world is watching what happens in the united states and congress. arwa damon in beirut. thank you so much. we are following a developing story along the afghan border as well. taliban claiming responsibility for attacking a nato base, setting off explosives and setting fire. several of them caught fire. none of the members were killed. an afghan official says all the attackers are dead. terror connections. a classified government document obtained by the washington post saying some porking to work at the cia and nsa had connections to terror groups. the nsa claims to launch thousands of probes. the document was given to the provided by edward snowden, they were leaking before to mexico. the documents show the nsa used a surveillance program called the dni presenter to monitor the brazilian president s communications. progress report on the massive fire burning near yosemite national park. the fire is 45% contained but not before growing to 225,000 acres. that is huge. it s an area bigger than 350 square miles, some 5,000 firefighters are battling the blaze that has destroyed 11 homes, caused five injuries. this is the fourth largest fire in modern california history. wow. indra petersons is tracking the forecast. are fire crews getting help from the weather? a little bit. moisture is the biggest thing. they want the humidity levels up. this is the one thing we are watching. this is water vapor satellite. you can it in a dome of high pressure. the moisture is slowly getting into the area. it bring as chance for thunderstorms. this is yesterday s satellite. these are thunderstorm that is have been popping up in the area the last several days. today, we have the threat in the forecast for showers. winds, keep in mind, could gust stronger when you have thunderstorms in the city. there s the threat for dry lightning as well. a mixed bag. temperatures warming up and drying out if you want to look ahead into the forecast. one of the things we have been watching are the showers wrapping around the high, producing flooding into the southwest. remember, the ground is so dry there. it doesn t take much to get the floods in the area. a lot of flash flooding concerns today as we continue to get moisture in the area. the southeast, we are going to watch a front slowly make its way across, especially paying attention to the front around maine. we are looking for one to four inch ofs rain in maine today. a wet labor day. that s too bad, if you have plans today. indra is the bearer of bad news. you are welcome, again. nine minutes after the hour. egypt s military rulers tightening their grip. morsi will stand trial for allegedly insighting fellow islamists to kill opponents protesting outside the presidential palace while he was in office. morsi has not been seen publicly since ousted in july. more than a dozen members of the muslim brotherhood will be tried. the country s top nuclear regulator says signs of possible leaks have been found in several storage tankings. that, after thousands of gall s gallonsover radio liquid leeked out. radiation measures high enough to kill a person within four hours of exposure. it sounds like a cause for serious concern there. no kidding. for the first time in 12 weeks, nelson mandela is back home this morning. the 95-year-old was releaseed from a hospital on sunday. a government spokesman says his condition remains critical. at times, he is unstable, requiring medical interventions. he was first hospitalized in june for treatment of a recuring lung infection. his house is equipped to take care of him. incredible pictures to show you from taiwan. we gave you a sneak peek. look at that. a car almost hit by a boulder. this looks insane. it looks like a movie. it s like a movie set boulder. he s stuck there, right. probably paralyzed. it stopped feet away. the driver emerged with minor injuries. that part of taiwan was set with mud slides. 11 minutes after the hour. coming up, the shocking sentence that outraged so many across the country. the teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old student given 30 days in jail. now, new word that the sentence could be changing. next time i see you will be to celebrate. here we go again. all right. can she do it this time? diana nyad swimming from cuba to florida without a shark tank. she s already breaking records this morning. we are going to show you her progress coming up next. i was having trouble getting out of bed in the