Transcripts For WBAL Today 20091208 : vimarsana.com

good morning. breaking news. a woman rushed from tiger woods florida home to a local hospital overnight. we are live with the latest. whiteout. blizzard warnings posted from the southern rockies to the upper midwest. this morning, some areas are bracing for as much as a foot and a half of snow. and mission afghanistan. as the first wave of some 30,000 u.s. troops prepare to ship out as part of president obama s surge strategy, we have traveled to the war zone to talk to the troops already on the ground and the people who live there. matt s live at camp eggers in kabul, today, tuesday, december 8th, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to a special edition of today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira in new york. we re going to get to that breaking news involving tiger woods in just a moment, but first, matt has made his way to afghanistan overnight. matt, good morning to you. meredith, good morning to you, and welcome to camp eggers in kabul, afghanistan. we arrived here a little bit earlier on today. we did fly overnight on the plane that carried secretary of defense robert gates here to afghanistan in advance of those 30,000 u.s. troops you talked about earlier that should be arriving here in the next couple of weeks and months. on the flight over here to afghanistan, we had a chance to talk to secretary gates about a wide variety of subjects, including what he needs to do here in afghanistan during these trips, this trip, to pave the way for those troops so that they have a better chance of success once they get here. we also talked to him about the training of afghan forces and many other things. you ll hear that interview coming up in just a couple of minutes. but let me tell you a little bit more about camp eggers. we re in the heart of kabul right now, just across the street from the presidential palace. this is a joint u.s./nato facility. it serves as a headquarters. they oversee the training of all those afghan forces. it is such a critical element to the surge strategy, because until the afghans can stand up and secure their own country in significant numbers, significant numbers of u.s. forces cannot begin to leave this country. we re going to talk much more about that in the next couple of minutes. but first, i have to tell you also that i have not traveled here alone. al roker has made the trip to afghanistan. al, good to see you here. and the situation in this country is weighing so heavily on the minds of the people back home. right. but it s weighing heavily on their minds as well. absolutely. they are the focal point, these brave men and women. they are going to be the ones carrying out these orders. we re going to talk with them, get a sense of how they re feeling, how their family back home is feeling, and as we re approaching the holidays, what does it mean to be here. all right. we re going to do a lot of that as we come to you from camp eggers in kabul, afghanistan, meredith. but for now, i know you ve got a lot going on there, so back to you. matt and al, thank you very much. we ll check in with both of you in a bit. let s begin with that breaking news, a woman rushed from tiger woods florida home to the hospital. our nbc affiliate in orlando is at the hospital in ocoee, florida. jeff, what can you tell us at this point? reporter: meredith that 911 call came into dispatchers around 2:36 this morning. the call apparently placed from tiger woods exclusive home here in central florida. we have video of this woman who was transported to health center in ocoee, a hospital here in central florida. cording to the early reports, the late-breaking reports we are getting in all this, that phone call came in about a woman who was apparently in distress at tiger woods home. now, if we look at that call log, it says at first that the patient refused service, then later in the call log, it does say that somebody was transported to this hospital, and you can see right here, a middle-aged woman on a stretcher being taken into that hospital by paramedics. at this point, not exactly sure who is on that stretcher, but that person, the ambulance arrived soon after the phone calls came in at 2:45 this morning. later in the video, you see a black cadillac escalade speeding away from health central here in ocoee, and it appears that was a loaner from gm, the exact same registration on the suv that tiger woods was driving that crashed back on november 27th. so again, right now, waiting on confirmation, trying to figure out exactly who was on that stretcher taken from tiger woods home earlier this morning. as soon as we find that out, of course we will report it. back to you, meredith. jeff lennox, we appreciate it very much. dr. nancy snyderman is nbc s chief medical editor. hi, meredith. it seems someone was taken from the home. we know both mothers have been in and out. speculation as to whether one of the moms might be harmed in some way i mean, whether she s not feeling well. always makes you think of heart attacks, problems like that. right. we don t know. but certainly at the hospital will be observed and we ll find out more later today. the radio log shows an adult female was transported to health central hospital. log shows a patient refusal, then an advanced life support patient. i looked at that what does that mean? i m not sure that s not three people. i thought perhaps the log just means one person refused, another one called out for this, another call was advanced life support. that s just the log of the calls coming in. it might not all pertain to one pickup. to one person. right. let s turn to tiger woods himself and what happened that night after the accident when he went to the hospital there. was a request of subpoena of woods blood, shows he consumed alcohol that day, also was taking prescription medications, including sleeping pill ambien and the painkiller vicodin. you combine all those three, what are the possible results? so, any time you take a narcotic and a sleeping pill and alcohol, they re all suppressants and they can cause you to not breathe as well, so, the neighbor reported the snoring, but you may have heard instead was not snoring, but the airway just slowly getting a little mushy and obstructing, and that can sound sort of like when you have a deep, deep snoring in your deep sleep. so, the fact that he was taken from the ambulance from the site to the intensive care unit probably had not so much to do with the status of his health more than it did security. they could make sure there weren t visitors, they could attend to him. if they had to put a breathing tube down him, they could. they could tend to the lacerations of his face. but one thing i will tell you is that in any situation like that, doctors will pull blood and urine for what we call a tox screen. everything from alcohol to medications, because it s just good medicine. now the legal ramifications of who has the right to get that, usually it s a doctor and his patient and it s confidential. it would have to be a criminal investigation to be able to subpoena those records. so, right now that s doctor-patient confidentiality. dr. nancy, thank you so much. you bet, meredith. we ll have much more later on, obviously on this breaking story. now to the major storm pounding a big section of the country. some spots could see up to 18 inches of snow. the weather channel s mike seidel is in johnston, iowa, with more. good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. we ve already had two inches overnight in des moines, temperature s around 20, windchill s around 10, but it s going to get a lot worse today and tonight. first out west where they ve already been hit by the same storm. auburn, california. from above, you can see the snow. this is not far from sacramento. it has not snowed in sacramento since 1976. it almost got there yesterday. not as rare, though, as in houston. 20s this morning and a freeze warning this morning around san francisco. now to the other side of the mountains to reno, nevada, where the ski resorts got pounded with 2 1/2 feet here in reno, 7 inches of snow. the high yesterday was only 21, 30 degrees off their average of 48. you ve got to get out and shovel and plow those parking lots. and in the southwest mountains of new mexico, they were hit hard, too. laguna, new mexico, along i-40, notice the plows last night trying to get the snow off the roadways. the mountains there under blizzard warnings with wind gusts projected at 60 miles an hour. now the storm on the satellite and the radar, it s coming out of colorado. it s going to take a track just to the south of chicago, and with that track where we are in a lot of the midwest, increasing wind today, increasing snowfall intensity. the national weather service, meredith, out of the quad cities in illinois saying this could be the worst storm impactwise. the combination of snow and wind and at least 20, if not 30 years. tomorrow morning you may not even see me out here. back to you. well, i hope we do, though, mike. mike seidel, thank you very much. it is 7:08. now let s get to matt in kabul. all right, meredith, thank you very much. we are back here at camp eggers in kabul, afghanistan. i mentioned earlier that i flew here overnight with secretary of defense robert gates, who told me that shortly before he left for afghanistan, he signed the deployment orders for the first 17,000 of the eventual 30,000 troops that will be a part of president obama s surge strategy here. many of those are marines. they ll head to the southern provinces of helmand and kandahar, where much of the insurgency is taking place. i sat down with secretary gates in a conference room aboard his military jet, and i started by asking him what he needs to accomplish on the ground here during this trip to pave the way for those troops that are arriving to be successful. one of the things that i ll clearly be talking to president karzai and the afghan minister of defense about is accelerating the growth of their security forces, both their army and police and really security forces at every level down to the local level. we cannot succeed here, ultimately, unless the afghan security forces are expanded and trained, get some experience in combat with us, and then gradually are able to take over responsibility for the security of their own country. let me go back, then to this idea of the training of the security forces. it s my understanding now they have roughly 180,000 between the army and the security forces, the police. you d like to see that number at 400,000. what i found disturbing by several estimates was they have a loss rate of about 25%. so, they re either dying or deserting or just up and quitting. how is that going to work? i mean, it s like filling your car tank with gas but you keep losing a quarter of the tank every year. there are a couple of problems that need to be addressed. one is, we have found that the army and the police in afghanistan are actually more poorly paid than the taliban they re fighting, of all things. and so, one thing we can address almost immediately is increasing the pay of the police and the army. one of the problems that we ve had and that they ve had is that particularly those that are sent in to areas where there s a lot of combat, there aren t enough of them to rotate. and so, they basically are sent there to fight until they either desert or are killed or wounded. but is that 400,000 number realistic? can you accomplish that in two years? well, i think what the president has said you know, maybe that s an aspirational goal, but what we need are annual goals. so, the goal for the army is to go from about 96,000 right now to 134,000 at the end of 2010. so, let s get to 134,000 instead of looking immediately to the 240,000 ultimate size of the army or the people have talked about, general mcchrystal has talked about. let s talk about getting to 134,000 first. the reporting in the last couple of days has been that you and other people at the pentagon were not at all in favor of this exit timetable. is this plan that you re being put in charge of putting into effect right now, is this the best possible plan? is it the plan you wanted? in terms of lighting a fire under the afghan government to get on with recruiting the size forces they need and getting them trained and getting them into the field, i don t know a better way to do that than what we have. by the same token, in terms of an assertion, of providing confidence of our commitment, i think that the conditions-based way of approaching the drawdowns after july 2011 is also exactly the right way. every single expert i talk to, mr. secretary, said, without great improvement in our ability to fight in that border region between pakistan and afghanistan, and even across the border in pakistan, the afghan solution doesn t work. have the pakistanis given you any indication that they re willing to change the rules of engagement and give us more access to those areas, not with drones, but with people on the ground to go in and get the people we want to get? no. i do think that more importantly is what the pakistanis are doing on their side of the border. and you know, if somebody had said a year ago that we would see the pakistani army in south waziristan, as long as you have pressure on both sides of that border, even if it s not perfectly aligned, it creates huge opportunities. i mean, we re already getting information that al qaeda has been that certain people in al qaeda have been forced out of south waziristan, that they re being told they should go to afghanistan. so, if we could get al qaeda coming back into afghanistan where we could go after them, that s fine, but i think there is pressure on both sides of the border, and i think that the more terrible things happen, such as this tragedy at rawalpindi and the mosque, the more the pakistanis understand that these people are an existential threat to pakistan itself, and they will begin to do more and more on the border. in terms of the taliban, clearly, there are members of the taliban that are going to have to be hunted down and killed, but there are other aspects of the taliban that, it s my understanding, you d like to make a part of the dynamic in the future of afghanistan. what incentives can you provide and can the afghan government provide to make those people a part of the solution as opposed to the problem? the intelligence that s available to us suggests that there is a substantial number of the foot soldiers in the taliban in particular who have joined the taliban either to get money or because they ve been intimidated. so, the way you bring them over first of all, you have to break the momentum. they have to begin to understand they re not on the winning side, they re on the losing side. and then they have to have some kind of a job to go to where they will be paid, can support their families. so, that s why the economic development part of this and the agricultural part of the president s strategy is so important. how do you think the american people will feel after eight years of a conflict and the loss of life and the huge financial expense of this war, to view the taliban as partners in some way down the road? well, the taliban are a part of the political fabric of afghanistan at this point at some level, but there is a parallel to iraq. i mean, when we had the turn in anbar, in iraq, we knew that we were reconciling with people who had american blood on their hands. but at the end of the day, that s how this kind of a conflict always ends in some kind of a political accommodation. everything you say is dissected these days. you said something else in an interview over the weekend that i think got a lot of attention, and that is that at this date you were asked if we have good intelligence or credible intelligence on osama bin laden, and you re smiling, but when you said we haven t had credible intelligence and i believe your expression was, in years. i m now celebrating my third anniversary and i haven t seen any. i think that probably is going to surprise a lot of people. it s the most infamous terrorist in the world. his resume includes events that have taken so many american lives, and i guess the question is, why don t we have better intelligence on his whereabouts? well, because he has sought refuge in what is essentially ungoverned space, where the pakistani government has not had a presence of any kind or of any substantial kind in years, if ever, and where he has the protection of local tribes, and it s incredibly rough terrain. and the truth of the matter is, somebody who is smart and who is cautious can elude people for many years. i mean, look at the unabomber in the united states. 17 years or something that guy eluded the fbi, and that was inside our own country. so, if you have a lot of help, as he does, you certainly are able to do that. that was secretary robert gates on our flight over here to afghanistan overnight aboard his military jet, which is fascinating in its own right. it s called an e-4b. during the cold war it was nicknamed the doomsday plane, and we re going to tell you more about that later in the show. by the way, i ll be spending more time with secretary gates on the ground here in afghanistan in the coming day. but right now, let s go back to new york, studio 1a. ann curry s standing by at the news desk with all the headlines of the morning. good morning to you. good morning to you, matt, and all of you who are listening this morning. in the news, a series of coordinated car bombings in baghdad today targeted government buildings, labor ministry, a court complex and the finance ministry. in all, at least 112 people were killed. about 200 were wounded in the worst attacks this year. meantime in central pakistan, a bomb exploded near an intelligence office. at least 12 people died in that violence. and today the defense secretary, as you just heard, gates, talked about the u.s. ready to help fight militants in pakistan in the country wants it. today at the climate summit in denmark, the head of the world meteorological association said this decade has been likely the very warmest ever recorded. today, president obama announces a plan he hopes will get millions of americans back to work. he s unveiling a jobs proposal involving small businesses, roads and highways and energy-efficient homes. a new report from the national cancer institute shows some progress in the battle against cancer. it finds from 1999 to 2006 the overall cancer rate was down 20% for men and 12% for women. the report also finds deaths from prostate, breast and colon cancer down but deaths from pancreatic cancer in women are still climbing. the consumer product safety commission has ruled that the popular zhu zhu pets robotic hamsters do not violate safety hazards, despite concerns raised by a consumer group about heavy metals. and in boston, a train attendant has been fired and an operator suspended after a woman s purse got caught in the door of the train. when the train started moving, she ran along the platform because it kept moving and she was ultimately thrown into a wall, but she was not seriously hurt. it is now 7:19. let s go back to matt in kabul. ann, thank you very much. that is scary video. i know you ve got a big storm barreling down on parts of the country. al s got a long-distance forecast because he s here with me at camp eggers in kabul. al, good morning to you. good morning. we are joined by lieutenant colonel james parson, who is a chief meteorologist for the international security assistance force, and we ve got a snowstorm coming in here. absolutely. that s what we re looking for tonight, a little bit of snow and tomorrow snow as well. so we ll have our first significant snowfall of the season. well, thanks for your forecast means a lot more, because obviously, here, military operations hinge on these forecasts. lieutenant colonel parsons, thanks so much. let s show you what s going on as far as our big storm back home. it is huge. we are talking about winter storm warnings, blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings from the southwest all the way to the great lakes. as you look at the radar, you can see we ve got a huge area of precipitation, a mixed bag of frozen precip down through the south, through oklahoma. snow as you move up into iowa, nebraska, on into illinois. we re talking locally 12-plus inches of snow from sioux city into waterloo, the four corners area, minneapolis, maybe up to 18 inches of snow. once this storm system moves past, the lake-effect snow machine gets into effect in parts of the great lakes by saturday night, could see four feet of snow. so, we are talking a and that s your latest weather, meredith? al, thank you. we ll see you in just a little while. just ahead, much more on that breaking news. a woman at tiger woods home taken to the hospital overnight. latest details in a moment, but first, this is today on nbc. meredith, coming up, i ll take you into the streets of kabul to talk to some of the people who live here. all right, matt. plus, one of the most memorable stories of the past decade. we re going to catch up with the hiker forced to cut off his own arm. this is wbal-tv 11 news. tied to get a check on the morning commute. dealing with several accidents. fortunately the delays are not bad. if you are traveling in the westminster, want to remind you of this accident. foreiwe are noticing delays on eastbound i-70. nazarene camp road shutdown at 272. that closure is expected to remain into effect until 9:00 a.m. south bend 295 going slow. we are looking much better from 24 to not road. that is the latest. things are pretty quiet on this tuesday morning. that may change tonight. smooth sailing and whether department for now. into whether department for now. temperatures are close to 40 in the city. a mixture of clouds and sunshine today. high temperatures around 43 degrees. things began to change tonight. we will get through the evening to you ok, but around 9:00 we will see a combination of rain, sleet, and possibly freezing rain. i do not see this as a big deal as far as ice goes. chillly and drlly and dry on thd friday. the next update at 7:55 a.m. the next update at 7:55 a.m. 7:30 now on a tuesday morning, 5:00 here in kabul, afghanistan. you re looking at some of the troops stationed here at camp eggers in the heart of downtown kabul, enjoying a little relaxation and meal time here amid a very tense situation in this region. i m matt lauer reporting live from camp eggers. meredith vieira is back in studio 1a in new york city. meredith, good morning again to you. yeah, good morning to you, matt. it looks like you ve obviously changed locations there at the base. i have, actually. i m on one of the main thoroughfares here at camp eggers. i want to show you something. behind me, this is an mrap, a mine-resistance ambush protection vehicle. you ve heard over the last couple years about casualties sustained not only here in afghanistan, but in iraq as well because of the ieds, the improvised explosive devices. they explode underneath the troop carriers. well, this is a new troop carrier and the design is unique. see this carriage here? if an ied explodes under this vehicle, the explosion doesn t go up into a flat underby and into the compartment holding the troops. instead, it will be dispersed by the shape of this out to the sides and protect the men and women who ride in here. by the way, these windows here, they re about this thick. one of the soldiers here told me you don t roll those babies down. they re designed to protect against bullets and shrapnel, and they re really hoping that they can lower the number of casualties using vehicles just like this. by the way, something else you hear an awful lot about here is corruption. oftentimes, the government here is painted with kind of a broad brush, but coming up, we re going to show you a specific example about how waste, mismanagement, perhaps even corruption, can impact the situation on the ground here, and it s something taxpayers back home will want to pay attention to, meredith. all right, matt, thank you very much. we re going to check in with matt in just a bit. and also ahead, from here in new york, one of the most remarkable men that we have met over the last decade. aron ralston was hiking in 2003 when his hand got pinned beneath a massive boulder. after six agonizing days, he realized he would have to save himself, so he cut off his own arm. we re going to talk to him about how his life has changed since then in just a moment. but let s begin with the breaking news involving tiger woods. a woman rushed from the golfer s home to a hospital overnight. nbc s peter alexander is here with the very latest. peter, good morning. meredith, good morning to you. a serious series of events that occurred this morning. this woman was rushed by ambulance from tiger woods exclusive central florida mansion to health central hospital, the same medical center where woods was taken after his bizarre crash 11 days ago. this happened this morning at 2:36 a.m. witnesses say the woman in this video was a middle-aged woman. the hospital this morning not confirming who it is, but there are reports that elin s mother that s tiger woods wife s mother had recently arrived to be with her daughter. immediately after the ambulance left the home it was trailed by a black cadillac escalade, similar to the vehicle elin was seen driving shortly after last month s crash, the driver reportedly a blond woman. as a report of tiger woods sex scandal, he s been caught up in this tabloid bunker you ve been reading about. the number of named women now linked to woods has risen to seven. he is the world s most recognizable athlete, but the tabloid parade of women surfacing as tiger woods reported lovers has quickly tarnished his carefully crafted image of perfection. the latest name linked to woods, according to the new york daily news, 36-year-old porn star holly sampson, whose credits include omg stop tickling me and flying solo 2. her lawyer told the paper sampson has no comment. tiger s tabloid tally has now grown to at least seven reported extramarital affairs. the best thing tiger woods can do is to ignore every allegation, deal with his wife and deal with the restoration of his career. reporter: woods fans are already weighing in. a just-released poll shows the golfing great s popularity has dropped 24% since june with more than 20,000 new posts to woods personal website. what a shame this is now your legacy, one writes. you did it to yourself, another one reads, what a letdown to our children. woods collects $9 million each year in endorsements, in part due to his image as a high-achieving family man, as seen promoting this north carolina golfing community. with a wife and two kids, your perspective in life changes. i want to have my kids experience something like this. i want to be able to bring them up here and feel safe. reporter: despite the deepening scandal, woods has yet to lose a single sponsor. every corporate sponsor and every corporate deal tiger woods has is iron clad. they re locked in years in advance. reporter: nbc news has also obtained new documents that show florida state troopers suspected woods was driving under the influence when he mysteriously crashed his suv 11 days ago. this request for a subpoena of woods blood shows the 33-year-old had consumed alcohol that day and was taking prescription medications, including the sleeping pill ambien and the painkiller vicodin. the state attorney s office denied the request, citing insufficient evidence woods was impaired, even though evidence showed he was unconscious and snoring on the ground outside his wrecked vehicle. woods has not been seen in public since the incident. his present whereabouts are unknown. and some public relation experts say that s not necessarily a bad thing. for him to address it, tiger woods to speak right now would just add more fuel to the fire. and again, as for tiger s wife elin, before this morning s developments, one of her friends, tennis great lindsay davenport, spoke out saying elin s incredibly hurt by what s going on but is working it out as best she can. of course, that situation down in florida, a woman rushed to the hospital from woods home, still developing. as soon as we learn more information about who that is being wheeled into the hospital, of course, we will let you know her status and condition. the story just keeps growing and growing. thank you, peter alexander, very much. and now let s get a check of the weather from al in afghanistan this morning. announcer: today s weather is brought to you by kay jewelers, the number one jewelry store in america. and good morning, everybody. we are live in the dining facility here on the base of camp eggers. and you know, you guys, you men and women, you are the ones who are going to be the center point of this surge. what goes through your minds as you think about what s going to be coming up? well, part of the surge, we expect, is going to be additional trainers, which is  really our primary mission is to train both the afghan national army and the police. so, this surge, if it allows us to train these police and soldiers more effectively, then it s a great thing for us. what about your families at home, what are they thinking about all this? well, they re very grateful right now because we re doing a great job right here. my wife is very supportive. i mean, even though i m here, even though i ll spend my christmastime here, she is very supportive. you just mentioned holidays. the holidays coming up, must take on a special meaning to be here trying to protect freedom while you guys are in harm s way. it does, and you know, being over here, we re all like a family over here as well. so, it helps us get through the holidays being away from our own families. well, it s great seeing this family together. you guys are a terrific family. y to cut the weather should be pretty quiet as we had three the day on this tuesday. there is a possibility of a wintry mix coming in tonight. and we ve got some folks over here we didn t get to. they ve been busy eating. so, want to make sure everybody gets seen. we re going to go out to a courtyard where we ve got even more soldiers hanging out. stay tuned, matt. you ve seen these men and women. they re doing a terrific job. they certainly are, al. thank you very much. we appreciate that. gaining some level of security in this country, rebuilding the country from the ground up and popping up its people, those are major priorities here at this time. but in afghanistan, those things are easier talked about than accomplished. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel has been covering the war here for years and joins me at camp eggers. richard, good morning. good to see you. good morning. good to see you. those things are very expensive. the u.s. has spent about $38 billion since 2001 on development, reconstruction, training, but many of the projects have been marred by corruption, mismanagement and taliban racketeering. final exams at the sardar high school for girls in kabul. it s so crowded, many of the 5,000 students here have to sit outside. there are definitely not enough schools for girls in this country. reporter: so, u.s. aid is building sardar 53 new classrooms and science labs. but even something as well meaning as building a school can be a major challenge in this lawless country. in fact, many new schools are empty. we sent an afghan crew to a dangerous taliban-controlled area near kandahar to see 1 of 500 schools the ministry of education says the taliban have closed. the taliban oppose education for girls, but the militants only empty the classrooms and lock the doors after they ve made a profit. western contractors tell nbc news they routinely have to pay $20,000 to $40,000 security fees they suspect go directly to the taliban, but after the schools are built, the militants just scare away the teachers and students or burn the schools down. a recent report said in districts of southern afghanistan, 60% to 80% of schools are now closed. but it s not only schools where development can go off track here. this camp with 1,100 homes outside kabul built by the u.n. was supposed to be a model public housing project, but the camp is almost entirely abandoned. most people left because the homes aren t insulated, leak and are already falling apart. the ones who stayed behind worry they won t survive the winter. central to the new u.s. strategy is a so-called development surge, but hundreds of projects like this one have been complete failures. $8 million was spent building these houses. the problem is, they were built badly in a remote area with no jobs and no water. graham hunter, a british architect working in afghanistan for three years, says projects often go unsupervised in dangerous areas. how is $8 million spent on this? it s a mystery. reporter: and oftentimes, this is the quality of work that is being delivered to the people. yes. i mean, i sometimes reflect that the western powers that be active in afghanistan now for eight years. during this time, we ve managed to build a few roads. we ve built a few hundred schools, many of which are abandoned. we ve built some desolate townships, but we ve actually achieved almost nothing in terms of rebuilding the economy of this country. reporter: alascan is just a few miles from bagram air base, the biggest u.s. base in afghanistan. local elder senar gule told me that only adds to his frustration. when i see the lights from bagram at night, he says, i used to think maybe one day we ll have lights like americans. now i see the lights and i m depressed. delivering aid here has proven to be as difficult as fighting the war. aid projects, of course, are designed to win hearts and minds, but when they fail, it can actually backfire because people feel they were promised something and then cheated. you know, taxpayers back home are going to see your story, richard, they re going to be furious. we hear so much about mismanagement and waste and corruption, and the government officials in our country say they ve got to fix that problem here, but it s been going on for years. can they really fix it? reporter: it is a major problem. this is a very, very poor country. and now suddenly, for the last several years, billions of dollars are being poured in through a very weak government. it is considered the second most corrupt government in the world. a lot of people see that money coming in and they want a piece of it. reporter: absolutely, particularly here in kabul, the seat of the government. richard engel, thank you very much. still to come from kabul this morning, i m going to take you out into the streets of this city, one of the most troubled, yet fastest growing cities in the world. we ll take a look around. and from back in new york, one of the stories that was unforgettable this decade. remember the hiker who cut off his own arm to survive? we ll find out how he s doing right after this. now to our special series today s buzziest stories of the decade. if one story in the past ten years showed us how much one person can do to survive it was aron ralston s. six years ago, he cut his own arm off when a hike went terribly wrong. first, his story. it was a typical day in april 2003 for aron ralston. i was on a solo hike in southeast utah, went into a slot canyon. that s when things went horribly wrong. he fell into a crevice and sdlojed a half-ton rock onto his arm, pinning him against the canyon wall. i definitely freaked out, though. i m not going to pretend that i didn t. it was an extremely intense experience, and especially because i was alone and because no one knew where i was. trapped for six days, he was unable to remove the boulder from his lifeless arm. running out of water and any hope of being rescued, aron had a decision to make. i told myself, aron, you re going to have to cut your arm off, and my response was, i don t want to cut my arm off! who would? but that s exactly what he did, as he told tom brokaw in an interview six months after the accident. i just dove into this exercise, this surgical procedure and started cutting away. after years of rehabilitation, aron returned to an active lifestyle. he still climbs mountains and wrote a book about his ordeal, titled between a rock and a hard place. today, he and his wife jessica are house hunting, the newlyweds expecting their first child early next year. it s a premonition he had while trapped in that canyon six years ago, part of an ongoing transition from daring adventurer to family man. i didn t survive from the memory of having climbed so many mountains in my life. i survived because of the love that i had and the relationships i have with my family and my friends. and aron ralston is with us exclusively and we re going to talk to him live in our next half hour, but first, these messages. and just ahead, we re going to find out about the diagnos diagnosis remember the girl who couldn t stop sneezing? that s right. well, doctors think they have figured out why she s sneezing. there she is. we ll talk to her and her doctor next half hour. and we re also going back to afghanistan. matt, what do you have coming up? ann and meredith, i have a lot to talk about, but there are more important people here i want the folks at home to see and say hi to. take a look. these are the men and women of camp eggers, serving their country a long way from home in afghanistan. we re going to have much more from camp eggers and kabul in just a moment. and this is wbal-tv 11 news. let s get a check on the morning commute. dealing with heavy delays. let s take a look at some of the speed sensors. southbound i-95 heavy traffic. 3 miles per hour your average speed there. there is an accident blocking the lane. 795 is backing up traffic. the disabled vehicle is on 895 southbound. take the fort mchenry for the next few minutes. for as part as security another accident location. nazarene can t roads still closed at 272 due to a serious accident. nazarene road still closed at 272 due to a serious accident that is the latest on traffic polls a weapon. traffic pulse 11. temperature in the lower end of the 30 s. forecast for today, partly sunny or a mix of glass and sen. the high-temperature around 43 degrees. a little bit of trouble starting tonight. after 8:00 we will see a mixture of light sweet, rain, or freezing rain. some minor ice accumulation heading into wednesday morning. be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news year, when you boughtru during the share the love event, you helped us donate almost $5 million dollars to charity. i chose the boys & girls clubs. it s an investment for the future. i chose the national wildlife federation. our pets are our kids. we chose the aspca. we re sharing the love again this year. because giving back feels good. get a great deal on the subaru outback, motor trend s 2010 sport/utility of the year and two hundred fifty dollars gets donated to your choice of five charities. 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, december 8th, 2009. 5:30 in the evening in afghanistan. matt and al have made their way to camp eggers this morning, as we say hello to a few of the 1,200 u.s. and nato forces stationed there. what a great picture. hey, guys. hey, meredith. that is, i have to say, very emotional a few minutes ago. we came into the courtyard area here where a lot of the troops have gathered with signs, and they gave us the nicest greeting, and i know they want to in a second get a chance to say hi to their friends and family members back home during this holiday season, but thank you for that nice greeting. that was great. really nice. we really appreciate it. this is a great spot. they normally come together here, maybe not in these numbers, but not with signs. no, exactly. coffee house, a place to rent dvds. there s even one of two gyms right over here. so, this is a really gathering place for these soldiers. yeah. we re going to get to talk to some in just a little while. also, we re going to go onto the streets of kabul. it s a fascinating, and in some ways, bizarre place. if you weren t looking at it with your own eyes, you d think it s right out of a movie. but we ll take to the streets to find out what life is like here for the people who live in kabul. meredith, back to you. all right, matt. before i let you go, tell us about your ride over there on the doomsday plane, i think is how you referred to it. yeah. that s the nickname from the cold war era. it s the military version of a 747. it s an e-4b. it s an amazing plane with complete command and control. so, for example, when secretary gates is flying on that plane, he has complete access and communication to all aspects of the military, including this nation s nuclear assets. and one of the really cool things that happened we flew from andrews air force base outside washington 14 1/2 hours direct to kabul, and the way we were able to do that is we refueled in midair twice. wow. they invited us into the cockpit. that s the scene from the cockpit. if you ve ever been in a 747 and watched it cody up to a refueling tanker, that is something to behold, and it tells you just how skilled the men and women who fly those planes are. speaking of assets, how are the seats flying over? they weren t so great. they were not so great. that was 14 1/2 long hours. but we thanked the military for the ride. absolutely. all right, guys, back to you. you got there safe and sound, for sure. thank you very much, guys. also ahead in fr here, remember the girl we met last month who couldn t stop sneezing and didn t know why? well, she is still sneezing. her name is lauren. she s 12 years old. but there have been some fascinating, new developments. a doctor now believes he knows why it is happening. this morning we re going to talk to him as well as lauren and her mom. a little bit of a sneeze still. but first, let s get a check of the top stories from ann. hey, meredith. good morning once again, everybody. we begin with terrorism attacks this morning taking a heavy toll in both iraq and pakistan. police say the coordinated car bombings targeted government buildings in baghdad, including the labor ministry and a court complex and killed at least 112 people. some 200 were wounded. in pakistan, officials say a bomb exploded near an intelligence office today, the third attack there in two days, and at least 12 people were killed and 30 were wounded. defense secretary robert gates today offered increased military aid to pakistan. he flew to afghanistan today and said that the u.s. is in the fight for the long haul, despite president obama s 2011 deadline for beginning troop withdrawals. the top u.s. military commander in afghanistan, general stanley mcchrystal, is in capitol hill today, telling lawmakers just how he will use the 30,000 reinforcements the president is sending into the war in afghanistan. early this morning, a woman described as middle-aged was taken by ambulance from the home of tiger woods to the same hospital where woods was treated after the car crash 11 days ago. snowstorms closed schools and roads from washington state to new mexico and are now barreling into the midwest. icy conditions are blamed for at least three traffic deaths and heavier snow and fierce winds are expected as the snow reaches illinois and minnesota. the ultimate thrill ride was unveiled monday in the california desert. virgin galactic rolled out a spaceship 2, designed to be the first commercial space plane. for $200,000, passengers get a suborbital ride with five minutes of weightlessness. service is scheduled to begin within three years. it is now four minutes past the hour. let s go back to matt and al in kabul. hey, guys. hey, ann. hey. thank you very much. i was just going around you here. some of the folks saying they re going home in 32 days back here, in january over here tomorrow? you re going home tomorrow? absolutely! no, he s making it up. no! really? congratulations! where? texas. texas. you re your family s christmas present. absolutely. fantastic. we re going to have to wrap you up. with a big red bow. there you go! where are you guys from? ohio. yeah? from d.c. who do you want to say hi to? my mom and my friends back there. i want to say hi to my dad. i love you! marcia and matt? yes. not matt lauer. no. stationed in south carolina, sumter, south carolina. all right. happy holidays. who do you want to say hi to? my mom and my son antonio. i love you! let s go over to this side here. who do you want to say hi to? i want to say hi to my wife bobbie joe, monique, miah and lewis. and this gentleman gave me the texas longhorns banner. who do you want to say hi to. my wife diane, my daughter kathleen and beloved son andrew. all right, longhorns. we ve got everybody any georgia bulldogs in here? no! all right. i m just saying. anyway. anybody from oswego? ye i love it here! what is that? new york! that david hasselhoff poster is very disturbing. yes! oh, god. we want to tell you that kabul is located in east-central afghanistan at an altitude of about 5,900 feet. that makes it one of the highest capitals anywhere in the world. and earlier today i had a chance to hit the streets and take a look around. because security is such a huge concern in afghanistan, there are weapons everywhere. the afghan military carries weapons. the afghan security forces carry weapons. u.s. forces have weapons. even private security firms here carry weapons. and yet, the people who work for us here, our producers and correspondents say that, in general, they feel fairly safe within kabul. yes, there are attacks. some have made headlines in the last couple of weeks, and there are threats. there was a threat as we arrived here today of a suicide bombing. but the people here say that in general, within the bubble of kabul, they feel safe. outside that bubble is a very different story. this is the seventh district here in kabul. it s a booming, booming neighborhood. they re building all kinds of homes and villas around here. some of them are incredibly elaborate by kabul standards. now, people here will be very quick to tell you and very open to tell you that these buildings are being built by drug lords and drug money, corruption money, and that s the reason they re much more elaborate than what you ll ninth other parts of the city. people here like to call this narchitecture, architecture driven by narcotics. and yet, even as the buildings here are above average, look at the streets. no pavement here. they re dirt roads, little in the way of sewer systems. the infrastructure in this city is horribly substandard. the population of kabul is exploding. at the start of the war there were 300,000 people living here. today there are 5 million. many of the new arrivals are refugees from other parts of this war-torn nation. the traffic, foot traffic, vehicle traffic is intense. the life expectancy in this country is 44. and what really strikes you is when you look at the faces of the people. they seem old beyond their years. an expert on this area told me before i arrived that in his opinion, just about everyone living here has some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. decades of war have taken a terrible toll physically, emotionally and financially. it really is an assault on the senses and the focus of so much of our efforts in this region right now, and we re going to have more from camp eggers and kabul in just a little while, but right now, let s go back to meredith in new york. all right, matt. we ll see you in just a bit. and still to come on today, why is the girl who can t stop sneezing sneezing? what her doctor now says about that. but first, these messages. make my pc simpler. so what did i do? i pass it along to microsoft. next thing you know, windows 7 and this new snap feature. now if i m working at two things at once i just drag this over here, this over here. snap! simpler! pretty much exactly what i told them. i mean i m not trying to take all the credit. wife: he called his mother. of course i called her. she needed to know this. i m a pc and windows 7 was my idea. i m more active, i eat right, and i switched to new one a day women s active metabolism. a complete women s multivitamin plus more for metabolism support. and that s a change i feel good about. new from one a day. what makes a hershey s bar pure? pure togetherness. 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(announcer) throughout the years, she thought. then one day.there was. with natural oils that soothe. .and relieve itchy skin. brings calming one step sooner. sait s one day only to get ourt lowest prices of the season! wednesday 7am-midnight! get 50% off on toys from the hottest brands! this wednesday only! we break it, then we fix it. so you can start your day sunny side up. that s what we re made of. back now with more of our special series today s buzziest stories of the decade. aron ralston cut off his arm seven years ago to survive a tragic accident. good morning to you. meredith, hi. a boulder crushed your arm and you called it an entrapment. how often these days do you think about what happened to you? very frequently. i still speak about it. i m going tomorrow to speak to a middle school here in boulder, and it s still very much a part of my life and it illuminates every bit of the blessings i live out today. when you speak about it, aron, what is your message to audiences? i especially like talking about responsibility and acknowledging and being the author of your life, that we get to create this life, and i think that our mental mindset is a lot of what goes into that. seeing things that could have been a tragedy and seeing them as a blessing and maximizing the opportunities that come. it certainly could have been a tragedy. six days. at one point, probably at several points, you thought you d never get out of there alive, but you did by removing your arm, by cutting off your arm. but after that, aron, what amazed me is you kept going on these pretty risky adventures. some people even thought you might have a death wish. why did you push yourself so much after the fact? and now that you re about to have a baby, have you scaled back on the adventures or started to look at them in a different light? being married and having a baby is definitely the new big adventure in my life. the psychology as far as why i was doing the things i was doing is very complex, but a lot of it has to do with trying to fill up a void of esteem in my life and to accomplish things. i had a lot of fun out there, too, but at the same time, finding an inner source of that happiness and fulfillment is the real achievement. and now you re going to have a baby boy, and i know that is extraordinarily significant to you because of something that happened while you were trapped six years ago. can you tell us about that? indeed. it bakinde of the first half of a deja vu or some might call it a prophecy, but i certainly feel that this little boy is perhaps the same little boy that i saw the very last night that i was stuck in the canyon, when i thought i was going to die, and there was a little child about 3 years old, blond hair, that i picked up and was interacting with with my left hand and a handless right arm, and i saw myself holding him there, and i can t wait to see him. he helped save my life in the canyon and i get to tell him thank you in a couple more months. he ll be born in a couple more months? yes, yeah, just after valentine s day. very excited. the year anniversary of the engagement that jessica and i had. you have said, and i find this i find it almost hard to believe that if you had to do it all over again, you wouldn t change anything. given what happened to you, why do you say that? it s been such a blessing for me in my life, for my family, for the people around the world that still come up to me on a daily basis to say thank you for the story that has inspired their lives, for people i would never take any of that away from someone to have my hand back. so, yeah, if i had it all to do over again, i wouldn t change a single thing. and now your story s being turned into a movie. danny boyle, who directed slum dog millionaire is directing it. who do you want to play you, aron? we re still picking out the actor, but it is a fun thing. the classic kind of dinner table conversation. if you re going to be in a movie, who would you have play you? i don t, it s a fun thing just to banter about, but i m excited about the whole project. we re excited to see you, and congratulations again on your marijua marriage and also the upcoming birth of your little boy. thank you very much. it s a pleasure to be back with you. aron ralston. and tomorrow we re going to catch up with tillie tutor, the florida grandma who survived in a swamp for two days. she s well over 90 today and still quite the character. we ll talk to her tomorrow on today. but up next, remember the girl who can t stop sneezing? well, it looks like a doctor may finally know why. we re going to talk to both of them right after this. the seven passenger toyota highlander. this is a little seat, i m a big girl. well this is the eight- passenger chevy traverse. which offers more room and an epa estimated 24 on the highway. that s a big girl car. i want the big girl car. a very smart little girl. the chevy traverse. america s best crossover. compare us to anyone and may the best car win. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic s in the mix. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. thousands and thousands of wind turbines. my mom works on ct scanners and checks people s bones. if you had a business, my dad would help make your business bigger. my papa thinks of new things that have never been made before. (announcer) it s the people at ge that are creating innovation today for america s tomorrow. my mom helps make things to make people better. stains surrender to the power of all. our powerful stainlifters fight stains and leave clothes whiter and brighter. win the battle for clean clothes while saving over 25% versus the leading brand. y win the battle for clean clothes while saving over 25% to eat right at work. grab it. 100% natural white meat chicken and no msg added. campbell s select harvest chicken with egg noodles soup. m m! m m! good! @ work. i thought that s what you wanted? it is. it s just. you spent way too much. what? i ve been a bad girl. i ve been reading allison s diary, and i got a d on a spelling test, and i forged your signature. honey, we didn t really spend that much. chestnuts roasting on an open fire. back now at 8:21. this morning on today s update, the girl who can t stop sneezing. for more than a month, 12-year-old lauren johnson has sneezed up to 12 times a minute. that s up to 12,000 times a day. she only stops when she s asleep. now, after seeing just about every doctor under the sun, she finally has some answers. lauren and her mom lynn are back with us exclusively along with lauren s doctor, pediatric neurologist rosario trivoletti and chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. good morning to all of you. dr. trivoletti, there seems to be a diagnosis. you have examined lauren and think she s suffering from something called pandas. in layman s terms, what is pandas, and why do you think that s what she has? well, pandas is an acronym. as a bunch of letters that stand for a bigger thing pediatric autoimmune disorders associated with strep cookis. and following a strep infection, a child will develop a sudden onset of either ticks or ocd-type behavior. is this a tick, then, what we re seeing? i think so. at this point, i would call it either a habit or a tick. so are the ticks underlying and the strep infection just brings them to the surface? in many patients, they have a tendency towards ticks and the strep infection can make it much worse. nancy, why is this controversial? i understand a lot of doctors don t believe in this. what is the controversy? it s controversial because it s new and it s sort of easier in medicine when you have a true cause and effect. and here, what we have is sometimes histories that don t always look the same. we met a young boy on this air who had strep, had severe ocd right. treated with antibiotics and got better. and lauren sort of falls in sort of the in-between category. not all the blood tests really sort of spell out things clearly. so, whenever there s a new syndrome in medicine, you re going to have doctors on both sides of the fence who are going to say yay or nay. and i want to point out that dr. nancy was not part of this diagnosis not a treating doctor at all. right. lauren, they put you on antibiotics and steroids. are you feeling better? it seems like you re not sneezing as often. yeah, i d say that. i don t really notice. everyone else does. they say it s a little less often than usual. but to you, it s still a problem. not really. it s a little better. a little bit better? lauren, i know when i asked you about the diagnosis in the commercial break, you said to me, it s sort of bittersweet. why do you say that? sdwlrks we well, it s bittersweet. we have a direction to go towards, but there s not a lot of answers. there needs to be more research done, more funding for research, more answers so we can help treat her effectively. doctor, you re shaking your head. there is no cure, then. if she takes the antibiotics and the steroids, will this end the problem for her or not? well, i think it depends from patient to patient. there s some patients that have acute onset of ticks that a single dose of antibiotics, they re miraculously better, and if they re maintained on prophylactic antibiotics, that will be enough to prevent it from coming back, but some other patients need stronger treatments. in lauren s case, she has an unusual condition that, really, by now you ve heard that doctors have been puzzled by this. we re not exactly sure what s going to happen, but if it behaves like other ticks, we expect we ll be able to cure her completely. is there a i was going to say, a reminder, meredith, most kids have ear infections or strep throat and don t have anything like this happen. absolutely. right. this is a very small, select group of patients. nonetheless, bankrupt abrupt on anxiety disorders, trouble separating from parents, all underlying problems, and if your child has any of these, ask your pediatrician for a referral to a pediatric neurologist. because i m sure a lot of children are undiagnosed at this point. or have other things. thank you very much. you bet. just ahead, the legendary bill cosby. this is wbal tv ad revenues today in baltimore. good morning. let s get a final check on your morning commute. most of the early morning problems have cleared out. a few problem spots. northbound on the harrisburg expressway we re getting a report of an accident. obviously some southbound delays. that is volume-related. we re down to 11 miles per hour on southbound 95. heavy spots on the northeast side on both loops. 35 miles per hour on average from 795 to edmonton. a 13 minute ride on the north east two. northeast loop. everything flowing well at this point. we re looking at a bit of a delay at liberty road on the west side. things are pretty quiet as we start this tuesday. a couple of scattered clashes misheaouds. a mixture of clouds and sunshine today. no precipitation. high temperature of 43 degrees. that will change tonight. after 8:00 we will see a combination of light rain, snow, and maybe sleet mixing in. minor ice accumulations as we head into wednesday morning. for those of you in the northwest suburbs, there could be minor ice accumulations going into wednesday. high temperature around 50 in the afternoon. we tell me who s watching. i always feel like somebody s watching me. (announcer) it s right here. it s easy. i always feel like somebody s watching me. it s the money you could be saving with geico. the holiday season with our delicious new peppermint mocha latte and chocolate mint donut. great flavors, great value. just another reason the holidays run on dunkin . back now at 8:30 on a tuesday morning. it s the 8th day of december 2009. you re looking at some of our newfound friends here at camp eggers in kabul, afghanistan, the men and women serving their country. a lot of these people will, unfortunately, not get a chance to be home for the holidays. a few lucky ones will, but it s a good chance for us to stop and say thank you, folks, for what you re doing. we re proud of you. i m matt lauer here at camp eggers. i was here with al roker a second ago, and all of a sudden, it got quiet. he disappeared. and i understand the reason is he s at the grill? al, is that right? al, are you at the grill? i actually am, matt. i am right now with drew hunter. he is the grillmeister here on fridays. matt, do you like steak? yeah, i like steak. you re going to love fridays, because that s when drew here does 650 pounds of steak. right now he s grilling how much chicken are you grilling up, drew? about 400 pounds. 400 pounds! now, everybody likes the grilled stuff, right? oh, absolutely. a lot of soldiers have these grills in their backyards. so, when they re over here, they re envying me. now, what s the specialty here? how are you doing this? this is grilled curry chicken. put a little curry spice on top and let the grill marks happen after i turn them. ooh. can i try a little bit? absolutely. ooh, that s what i m talking about. i ll let you just, yeah, ooh. just a oh, yeah. oh, that s good. oh, that s good. how good is this man? how good is this man? oh, that is tender! this is the food of the gods! yeah. that s right. come on up, matt. hook a brother up here, al, all right? come on. as soon as i find one, i will. yeah, thanks. meanwhile, let s go back to new york. i understand we have meredith and ann. i thought the troops were going to riot. eating their chicken, man. we have a group here as well. john krasinski is collecting toys for our 16th annual toy drive and we re going to talk to him in just a moment. also ahead this morning, the one and only dr. bill cosby is in the house. he s got a new project, one you may not expect from him. he s actually got a hip-hop cd, one with a message, and he s going to be talking about that in just a moment. it s great to see him. always great to see him. but let s bring on our little elf or not so little, john krasinski, star of the office and now it s complicated . find out what realizes when the star of the show realizes his divorced parents are reconnecting, so to speak. [ coughing ] harvey! i m really sorry. i didn t mean to spit on you, i just had to kiss you. while you were choking. but it worked because i m not really choking. who did you just see? no one. that was weird. i thought it was your cousin from oh, my sweet lord. and as mark traub pointed out, you are smooth. thank you. smooth with the ladies. yes. the movie looks incredible, and now you re working with meryl streep. so you have arrived. you have to work with indie actors, people who are up and coming, you have to support them as much as they support you, so but it had to have been fun. yeah. it s totally surreal and we re doing press for it and the fact that they even remember my name let s talk to people about the movie. it s basically about two people who divorced yes. who are getting back together well, sort of not really getting back together they give it a shot. they sort of wonder what if and they give a run to the what if well, she becomes the other woman, right? exactly. because he s remarried. to a younger woman and yet, she is the one who s desired, so so, you re a big movie star, but you re still on the office sure, the office married now, going to have a baby. yes, exactly. on the show. on the show? you re having a baby on the show? wow, that s intense. yeah. we re casting now, so for the baby. yeah. it has to be cute. exactly. have really big eyes. he s not a good enough actor. we are mentioning wedding, baby, emily blunt oh, how d that come up? we weren t talking about that, meredith. is there any news? no news? no. darn it. she seems great. we re planning. thank you. john krasinski, thank you very much. thank you. it s complicated with john krasinski opens on christmas day and the office is right here on nbc, where else? now let s go back to matt in afghanistan. hey, matt. meredith and ann, thank you very much. and john, thank you as well. the american station here at camp eggers come from all branches of the military. one of their jobs is to train members of the afghan military and police. i m joined by army sergeant thomas mcgrady and specialist brad hughes. thank you for being here. you re stationed at camp blackhorse, outside kabul. what has been the reaction out there from the troops there about this surge that the president is putting into effect? from my opinion, the reaction has been really great reaction. everybody s thinking it s a great plan. it s what s needed to get these guys trained up, more troops coming out here, kind of helping out with the mentorship of these future combat soldiers. and you serve as a mentor. tell me how the training is going. you hear all kinds of mixed reports, one that it s not going so well, it s not happening fast enough, that the afghan soldiers are not up to par. i know you have a different point of view on that. yeah. the training s going great. i mean, we re doing our best to get them combat effective, and they are they re really eager to learn and doing a great job out there. specialist hughes, you re with force protection. your job is to help get these folks out to these forward bases. and it s my understanding, one of the things you do is get out and drive one of these fuel tankers. is that right? no, sir, we escort the trucks. we don t actually drive the fuel tankers or any of the supply trucks. we re out there in the humvees making sure the people driving those trucks are getting the supplies here safe and without getting commandeered by any taliban fighters. what is it like to be around one of these tanker trucks? basically, it s gallons and gallons of fuel going through hostile areas. it s like a bomb on wheels if something goes wrong. how nerve-racking is that? at first it was nerve-racking and now it s just like another day at the job back home. you ve got a brother who is deployed to iraq. you ve got another brother who i understand could be coming here to afghanistan. how is your family coping? i guess everybody s doing all right. we re just hoping my older brother comes here after i go home, but hopefully, anthony s going to be home soon because he found out he should be coming home pretty soon with his unit. wow. want to say something to your family? i want to say hi to my parents and everything, but most of all, i want to say hi to my wife because we ve been married for a little over four months now, and i miss you, baby. and we ve only been i m sure she misses you, too. since we ve been married, we ve only been together two days, so i miss her a lot. we hope you get back together soon. sergeant, want to say a quick hi? yeah, hi to my mom in california, my brother, my friends nick, mallory and lydia. how s it going out there? good luck, guys. happy holidays. nice to see you. let s go to al. thanks a lot, matt. again, they re expecting some snow, their first major snowfall here in kabul some time starting as rain tonight and then moving, turning into snow. so, we ll be keeping an eye on that. but back home, we ve got big weather going on. nevada, in parts of nevada, they got dumped, anywhere from six to eight inches of snow in some areas, and this system is making its way now into the midwest and causing huge problems. let s look at the today map, show you what s going on and where it s going on. you ll see that basically we re looking at that risk of strong storms ahead of this system. that s bringing a possibility of tornadoes down through the southeast, snow from the southwest all the way into illinois, indiana, minnesota, sunshine in the pacific northwest. tomorrow we re looking for that system to make its way further into the midwest, bringing anywhere from 6 to 18 inches of snow. and then by friday, the lake-effect snow machine kicks on full time and parts of the grea to cut the weather should be pretty quiet as we had three the day on this tuesday. there is a possibility of a wintry mix coming in tonight. and this is the secret ingredient that goes onto the chicken. matt? don t worry about us down here, al. i m not. we re fine. we re not. we re fine. much more from camp eggers in kabul and we ll have more from afghanistan tomorrow on should a phone be pretty ? should it be a tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty pageant queen ? or should it be fast ? racehorse-duct taped- to-a-scud-missile fast. we say the latter. so we built the phone that does. does rip through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana. is it a precious, porcelain figurine of a phone ? in truth, no. it s not a princess it s a robot. a phone that trades hair-do for can-do. now to one of the most influential names in entertainment, mr. bill cosby. his many achievements in business, including creating and starring in the cosby show, the award-winning sitcom that highlighted messages of family, love and education, and he s passing on similar messages on a new hip-hop album called bill cosby presents: the cosnarati state of emergency. co-produced by patterson and features jason the great, brother haz and supernova slom and all of you gentlemen, good morning. good morning. dr. cosby, you write on the sleeve jacket of this cd, please listen to the words. we worked very hard to tell you about the state of emergency. thank you. describe the state of emergency. we re trying to have people look at those particular areas of cities, some called inner city, but then there are other parts outside where people are not paying attention to the plus factors of if you abandon your child, you cause your child to think that he or she did something bad, and that when you leave your child up to being raised by someone else, that thinking, too, goes awry, that people don t understand why they are where they are. and so, we ve done lyrics to help them think, lyrics to help them listen and talk to each other to become better and have higher self-esteem and realize that life is just wonderful and you needn t look at it as a place that has no light for you, no help, and that s what this is about. it s about all those lofty messages, but listening to the cd, you hear some groovy music. i mean, maybe i m using the wrong adjective, but it is powerful and it s strong and it s very much of today. you helped write, i understand, many of these hip-hop tunes, and you also perform in two of them. how was dr. i mean, here it is. let s let them hear it. crime rate is going up, but i need you to settle down william spaceman patterson. talk to me about the creative process to create, taking these lofty ideas and making them into something real that young people cannot only hear, enjoy, but also learn from. well, you know, all of us come from a lot of different musical backgrounds and we have experience in creating music that s contemporary, that s right now, in any given situation. when dr. cosby presented the concept of state of emergency, it wasn t too far away from what s going on and even from the way that he expresses himself. jason haas, you both are from newark, new jersey, i understand, and supa, you re from brooklyn, new york. how have these songs come from your own experience? you want to take it? well, i mean, coming from the city of newark, a lot of the songs, like the one we just was played, sent from your heart, we lived this. so, it s easy to come out and feel good coming out, and it s addressing our city. so, we re talking not just to our city, but to the world, but the passion is there because we walked those shoes, we lived that, and we want to see a change. and haz, you performed in something called dads behind the glass. yes. very powerful song. yes. does this come from something you know about, something you heard about? just from a lot of my friends not having their fathers. i grew up without a dad, but friends i had that i was close to, they grew up with their fathers that was in prison and they had to deal with growing up in the streets without a father figure. so, it was a very touchy topic and it was a very serious topic. i really wanted to be that voice for them in this song to express their feelings towards their fathers. i don t mean to bust you, dr. cosby, but supa, i ve got to ask you this how is dr. cosby, who is not himself in your age group, how was he in writing the songs, reaching out to the young people in this groovy way? one incident that i remember in the studio, he called one day and said where s the parade? and we were like, where s the parade? he was saying, we need a parade to celebrate women in history who have done profound things that a lot of times go unnoticed, and we have to have a song that really catches that. so, he started telling space, blat, blat, boom, boom, and channeling the songs and the tones and giving us a charge. so, we took that vibe and we was right with him because we recognized, coming from where we come from, women do need to be uplifted, and they are the backbone and the supporter. so, he just charged us up and we got it together, put it back out and he was really inspired. it was really beautiful it is beautiful. ba, da, where s the parade and then they say, you know, calling women out of their names. you don t call women out of their names. then they start to throw out names of women who have done wonderful things in different areas and parts of life, and it made my face fuzzy. you know what, you ve done something wonderful, dr. bill cosby. thank you, yet again, for enlightening us and also entertaining us at the same time. i recommend it. the album is called bill cosby presents: the cosnarati state of emergency. bill cosby, william spaceman patterson, jason the great, brother hahs and supa slum. and a hooray for you saying those names. and coming up next, who will be crowned the biggest loser on tonight s finale? we ll have a breakdown of the this morning on get fit today, who will be crowned the biggest loser ? after more than 3 million calories burned and more than 1,000 pounds lost, it s down to the final four for tonight s live finale. amanda, liz, danny and rudy. alison sweeney is the host of the biggest loser. alison, good morning to you. good morning. okay, let s start with the men, because danny and rudy, they are both confirmed finalists because they had the largest percentage of weight at the last weigh-in that they lost. right now, they started both over 400 pounds, pretty evenly matched, but danny holds the record for the most consecutive weeks of double-digit weight loss. so, is he the one to beat, essentially? well, i mean, danny really is on a roll. he just figured it out, and he had tremendous success at home. he lost almost 60 pounds at home when they went home for two months before he came back to the marathon, which is amazing, and he is a sweetheart. he s a wonderful guy. so, i think he s going to do really well and i m so hammy hr him. on the other hand, rudy started with more weight on him than danny. so, is that going to help him a little bit? yeah, i mean, traditionally, it gives him a little more of an edge. he has a little bit more to go. he s a big, strong, amazing guy. and he s been able to take the weight off, too. he broke some records as well. he lost 100 pounds the fastest ever on the show. he s really set some amazing records. when it comes to the women, it s up to america to decide whether amanda or liz was going to be the third finalist. strategy for those, quickly? liz, obviously, is the oldest contestant ever, if she makes it to the finals. she s a sweetheart, has her charm. and amanda already had america s vote one time when they voted her onto the show. we ll see where america s heart is tonight. we ll all be watching. alison sweeney, as always, thank you very much. thanks! and again, the biggest loser s two-hour live finale airs tonight at 8:00/7:00 central right here on nbc. we re going to have the winner live in our studio tomorrow on today. back in a moment. this is today on nbc. let s head back to matt and al at camp eggers in kabul, afghanistan. matt, you had a chance to walk around the city. is the mood as tense there as one might expect it would be? it s hard to tell what the people who live here are feeling in terms of tension, but i will tell you as an american, and clearly someone who does not look like everyone else who lives here, it is tense. we have security here. we didn t just go out by ourselves with a crew. we took precautions and they were careful to put us in certain circumstances and not in others. so, as an american, there is some tension here. and as i mentioned in one of those pieces, there was a threat this morning, somewhat of a specific threat about some kind of a suicide bombing. so, we were extra careful, meredith. and one of the things that you notice is just the simple things we take for granted, like traffic lights. yeah, no. non-existent. [ laughter ] and it is a free for all out ege this is wbal-tv 11 news. here is a look at some of the top stories this morning. the green bay packers uniform was not the only yellow that the reagans fall too much of last night. was not the only yellow that htthe ravens saw too much of last night. down just 10 in the courts. final score, packers 27, things will be quiet during the day today. that will change tonight. platts in sunshine today. clouds and sunshine today. there could be minor ice accumulations in some areas as we head towards wednesday. another update at 9:25 a.m.