Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

9/11 Terror Warning; President Obama's Jobs Push; Family Copes with Children's Disease; Shoes from "Back to the Future" for Sale; Small Business Deal with Sometimes Onerous Regulations; Tea Party Debate to Take Place in Tampa

Aired September 09, 2011 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at this. This is fresh video we have just gotten in from Washington, where the initial warning was issued just last evening based upon some intel that only began emerging on Wednesday.

It's very fresh information, law enforcement authorities struggling today to piece all of it together.

And from our nation's capital, I want to show you some images we have also gotten from New York City. Scenes just like this. Police popping open the backs of trucks, taking a close look at trucks, vans. Here is what we have learned just within the past hour.

All of this coming from intel sources in Washington. They say their source of information is a communications intercept involving a known al Qaeda operative in Pakistan. This known operative is said to have discussed a vehicle bomb attack against either New York or Washington on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We will get you some more details on that here momentarily.

But first, I want to -- OK. We're going to get straight to Paul Cruickshank. And he is our terror expert, terrorism analyst out of New York.

And, Paul, we have heard that authorities are trying to trace the movements of it's not one, it's not two, apparently these three individuals, including possibly one American. These three may have recently entered the U.S. or perhaps are on the way. What more can you tell us about that?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I think the key point here is this could be an al Qaeda central plot against the United States. So the intelligence suggests that these individuals coming back to America, including an American citizen, are linked to al Qaeda central.

But at this point, it's uncorroborated information. Other sources are not corroborating this information. But it's caused a lot of concern in U.S. counterterrorism circles obviously right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Haven't we, and when I say we, the U.S., been looking for something like this? Didn't the CIA in the raid in Abbottabad find one of bin Laden's notebooks with writings perhaps about mounting an attack on such an anniversary as this Sunday?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's absolutely right. Osama bin Laden appears to have been somewhat obsessed by attacking the United States 10 years after 9/11.

He was handwriting some notes about this. He also reportedly was in communication with another al Qaeda operative, Atiyah al-Rahman, in terms of trying to think through how they could launch this sort of attack. Within this sort of context, this threat information now through to U.S. intelligence is very concerning. Brooke, this is not some lone wolf amateur here. This is al Qaeda central.

Over the years, they have given bombmaking training to Western operatives in the tribal areas of Pakistan, including two years ago to Najibullah Zazi. There was a plot here to attack the New York subway system. So a lot of concern right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Here we are, though, Paul, 10 years just about after the 9/11 attacks. You can see we're getting more video of police there in Manhattan, Midtown, Lower Manhattan prepping for this weekend's memorial. And very vigilant in the wake of some of these possible threats.

We know, as you mentioned, Osama bin Laden, he's now dead. Al Qaeda though very much so still in business. I want to throw an image up on the screen. And I want you, Paul Cruickshank, tell me, who is this man? We know he's a Saudi American. And why may he be of interest to this particular plot?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, this individual, Adnan Shukrijumah, is an American, but he was born in Saudi Arabia. And over the years, he's risen up through al Qaeda's the ranks. He helped orchestrate the 2009 Zazi plot against New York City.

He's someone who has handled American recruits in the tribal areas of Pakistan before that would understand American vulnerabilities, playing an operational role for this terrorist group now in the tribal areas of Pakistan and likely a more senior role now we have seen all these leaders being taken out by drone strikes. Someone like Shukrijumah that could be involved in an al Qaeda plot now against the United States. But at this point it's uncorroborated information. And that's very important to stress, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Uncorroborated. But as we're culling through this information and trying to confirm what we can, we know intel sources are saying that their source of information is this communications intercept.

Could it also involve that high-level al Qaeda operative arrested just last -- what was it, last Wednesday in Pakistan?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's very possible. Younis al Mauritania was a high-level al Qaeda operative, a North African operative arrested in Quetta, Pakistan, recently. The arrest was actually announced earlier this week. This is someone who has been intimately involved against al Qaeda plotting Europe, the Mumbai-style plot just late last year and also Pakistani officials saying that he was actually now involved in plotting against the United States, against economic interests of the United States, also against the United States homeland, was actually in touch with bin Laden on this.

I think U.S. intelligence agencies will be very keen to get access to this individual Mauritania. The Pakistanis at this point say the United States have not had access to this individual, this senior al Qaeda operative now in custody that could be an intelligence gold mine and could have very important information with regard to this current threat -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. So, the U.S. -- he's in Pakistan. ISI has him. You said the U.S. very anxious to talk to him. When might that happen, as he may be a gold mine?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, we just don't know if that has happened already.

The Pakistanis are denying that it has happened. But I think that CIA would be very, very keen indeed to speak to this -- information -- to get information from this individual because this is someone intimately involved as I was saying in al Qaeda plotting against the West and may know about this particular plot that we seem to be getting information about right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Paul Cruickshank, do me a favor. Just stand by for me, because I want to bring in Allan Chernoff, who is also standing by live following all these different checks, the high, high vigilance there in the island of Manhattan as people are coming and going, trucks, vans.

Allan, what are you seeing? What can you tell us?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I can tell you that that terror threat you have just been talking about is the reason that we have got so many of these checkpoints all over Manhattan.

We're at the beginning of the Upper West Side. There are checkpoints downtown, midtown and above us, further up the West Side. It's really a traffic nightmare here. What's going on is that the police officers are visually inspecting cars as they go by. One by one, we're merging here four lanes of traffic into one. They also are pulling aside trucks and vans if they believe there might possibly be anything suspicious.

And they're also wearing detectors a little larger than my audio box here that can tell them if there's any radiation coming from the vehicle. Those detectors will vibrate if anything were to be found.

Now, also, the other measures that will be taken, they're checking license plates, not just visually, but the police actually have scanners. In some cases, they're actually on police vehicles. They're also all the time here in New York at bridges and tunnels scanning license plates in case there are any stolen plates, any other plates that are of note to the police.

That's another alert they're taking. And they're supposed to be aggressively towing vehicles. However, this vehicle that has been standing right here, it's been ticketed, it's standing here illegally, hasn't been towed just yet. But, Brooke, other than that, I can say, as you see, very, very aggressive presence by the police.

BALDWIN: At least where you are, Allan, the traffic appears to be free-flowing. But we're looking at some of these pictures on one of the bridges. And it just seems to be crawling along. Have you had a chance to talk to some of the New Yorkers who are going through this? Are they frustrated, are they apprehensive or are they just grateful that police are being so thorough?

CHERNOFF: Both. I spoke to a truck driver a little while ago who told me it took him an hour-and-a-half to travel essentially three miles down the West Side of Manhattan.

He said it's the worst traffic that he has ever driven in, in all his years of being a truck driver here in New York City. But when the police officer pulled him over, had him open up his truck, he said to the officer, you have got a job to do. It's frustrating, but we all understand it.

It's basically the street equivalent of what we all go through at the airport. Well, now we have got it in New York City and the police are going to keep this up through 9/11.

BALDWIN: Well, we know they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't find it necessary. Allan Chernoff, thank you very much. Paul Cruickshank, my thanks to you as well.

Now this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to feel like he's that distant from me that I have to got remind myself about where we were with each other. And then I'm caught between having to move on, because I'm still only 34.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A film crew checked in with these people every year since 9/11, five people who were either injured in the World Trade Center, lost loved ones on 9/11, like that woman, she lost her fiancee. It's almost a decade-long look at how people are living their lives after loss.

I will talk with the director behind this fascinating documentary called "Rebirth."

Also, emergency situations across the Northeast as people there bracing for more, more rising floodwaters. And it's turned deadly now. Up next, we will take you live to Pennsylvania where they're hoping the levees will hold. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Before we talk jobs and the president's speech last night, take a look at the Dow. It's very much so down on this Friday afternoon. We're 50 minutes away from the closing bell. It's already down 334 points.

You can always check the numbers CNNMoney.com. Not at all a good day on Wall Street. A lot of fears because of what's happening in Europe and the economy there.

If you did not hear the president's speech last night to the joint session of Congress, well, here's your chance. Because he pretty much gave the same speech today. Not before Congress. You see the packed crowd here. These are folks in Richmond, Virginia. The president is now out. He's selling the jobs plan he first unveiled last night on Capitol Hill. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now is not the time for people in Washington to be worrying about their jobs, it's time for them to be worrying about your jobs. Now's the time to put Americans back to work. Now's the time to act.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

We are not a people that just look and watch and wait to see what happens. We're Americans. We make things happen.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So how is this plan supposed to work?

For that, we will go to Rick Newman, chief business correspondent "U.S. News & World Report."

Rick, good to see you.

Stand by for me.

RICK NEWMAN, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Good to see you. Because everyone likes it when they talk about cutting taxes. Let's listen one more time to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Passing this bill will give a typical working family a $1,500 tax cut next year.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

So this boosts the thousand-dollar tax cut the Democrats and Republicans already had passed for this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Rick, we heard him mention the $1,500. What does that mean? Tax cut last year, tax cut this year. He wants to cut our taxes again?

NEWMAN: Yes. This would basically be the amount that the government withholds from your paycheck. So it applies to virtually all taxpayers the way I understand it.

And we have been getting these tax cuts really for two years now. There was a tax cut that was part of the 2009 stimulus. Part of the reason President Obama doesn't get credit for tax cuts is, number one, that big stimulus plan included so many other things. It kind of got lost. But also, this is a few dollars that basically would be taken out of your paycheck otherwise if tax rates were where they were in 2008, let's say, but isn't taken out.

If this were to pass Congress, it means that a little bit less would get taken out of everybody's paycheck and you would have a little bit more spending money. It's not necessarily so much that you would notice and you certainly wouldn't be rushing out to Bergdorf to splurge on a new outfit. But it is real money that will certainly help some people at the margin.

BALDWIN: Yes, perhaps people who aren't heading to Bergdorf. It would mean -- every little bit counts right now. We know that.

NEWMAN: I suppose.

BALDWIN: Also, though, the president says we have workers who need work. What is it, 14 million Americans unemployed right now and an infrastructure also that needs rebuilding.

So, you know, you put two and two together here, here he is again, the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: You've got aging -- you've got aging bridges on I-95, need to replace them. You got schools like Nigel's (ph) that need to be upgraded.

There are millions of unemployed construction workers across America ready to put on their tool belt and get dirty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So is he talking Keynesian economics there? Would that work?

NEWMAN: I think that is Keynesian economics. You are certainly not going to hear President Obama say that, because that's not a popular word in Washington these days. But he is at least looking where the problem is. Of those 14 million unemployed Americans, we have lost about two million construction jobs since the recession began at the end of 2007. No industry has been hurt as bad by job losses as construction. We know the obvious reasons. It is the housing bust and things like that. He's looking where the action is. He also wants to save some teacher jobs, and put more teachers back to work.

Again, there have been a lot of jobs in local education that have been lost since the recession. I think this is going to be the hardest sell in Congress, though, because this is very similar to what Washington did with the 2009 stimulus. And this is the kind of spending that the Republicans say is just not very effective.

BALDWIN: OK. So teachers and construction workers maybe don't want to hear you say that. But you mention the housing bust. And you know there are millions of homeowners sitting on homes that are pretty much underwater. And it's awful for them, bad for our economy. Last night, the president said, look, we have record low interest rates. Let's let these folks refinance. How would that work, Rick?

NEWMAN: He didn't really spell this out. And this is not exactly part of his jobs program. But this could be something that comes later. This is complicated and it's somewhat controversial because a lot of people feel, well, a lot of those people who are underwater on their homes, they should not have bought those homes in the first place. They couldn't really afford a home or they bought more home than they should have and they just did not make a good financial decision. Why should the government bail them out?

However, there is growing support for a plan that would at least allow people like that to refinance their mortgages so that they could take advantage of low interest rates which are now close to 4 percent. A lot of people who are underwater, they're still paying mortgages at 6 percent interest rates or even much higher than that. And they just can't refinance because no bank will give them a loan. The idea is that the government might somehow guarantee refinance loans for these people so that if there are losses on the loans or defaults, the government will bear the burden.

There wouldn't necessarily be defaults, but nobody is really sure. This is a very complicated program that would probably involve Fannie and Freddie. And it's going to take some work to get a proposal together on that.

BALDWIN: But, ultimately, the question is, Mr. Newman, will Congress meet the president with all of this?

NEWMAN: Well, for a homeowner bailout plan, it's not clear that Congress would have to approve that. They would only have to approve it if there needed to be new money appropriated for it. And some people say you could actually do this program in a way that would not cost the government up-front money. That could happen.

As for the other parts, I think that President Obama made Republicans an offer they can't refuse with the tax cuts. Out of $450 billion in new ideas, about $250 billion of those are tax cuts. Those probably have a pretty good chance of getting through Congress. The other $200 billion are those spending -- that's the spending for infrastructure, construction jobs and so forth, which we might need, but that's going to be a very, very hard sell on Capitol Hill.

BALDWIN: Rick Newman, we love having you come on the show and just explain some of this stuff to us. We appreciate it. Come back any time.

NEWMAN: Glad to do it. Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The apartment has become affectionately known as the sanctuary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A firefighter loses his best friend. A high school student loses his mom. A woman there lost her fiancee, and a construction worker lost his brother. A film crew followed each of the individuals ever since the 9/11 attacks. This documentary, it is emotional, it is inspiring. Coming up next, I will speak with the director of "Rebirth." Jim Whitaker is the man behind movies like "Cinderella Man," "8 Mile."

He tells us about what he discovered in this piece of film. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to share a 9/11 documentary with you that does not look at the terror group that launched the attack nor does it just simply focus on the horror of that very day. It's called "Rebirth."

And this documentary follows five people over the course of multiple years since the attacks who either lost loved ones or were injured in the attacks. It is an intimate look at how they fight the demons of their own grief and transcend ultimately the tragedy. Here's just one clip. It's called Rebirth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Edelmiro Abad .

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Benjamin Keefe Clark. Eugene Clark. Gregory Alan Clark. Kevin Francis Cleary. James D. Cleere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can never question the fact that I love this man And that he loved me. But as time goes by and all this stuff, I don't want to have to keep going into this to remind myself.

You know, like, the person that you -- I was supposed to spend of rest of my life with, I don't want to feel like he's that distant from me that I have to got remind myself about where we were with each other. And then I'm caught between having to move on, because I'm still only 34. But I don't want to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much, November, I (INAUDIBLE) an apartment in Miami and then I just started going every month. The apartment has become affectionately known as the Sanctuary. On my cell phone, it is listed under Sanctuary. And on my key chains, it's Sanctuary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What a film, Jim Whitaker, the director of "Rebirth." I watched it last night. And I wish someone had given me the heads-up. I need Kleenex in a very inspirational way. I should say that.

You're live for us in Washington.

We just met Tanya, who lost her fiancee, one of five people you chronicle in this doc. Can you just quickly beginning with Tanya run down these five individuals who we meet in your film?

JIM WHITAKER, DIRECTOR, "REBIRTH": Sure.

Well, Tanya lost her fiance and her story is really about letting go and the possibility of love and actually coming to a place where she can actually fall in love and have a family.

Ling was on the impact floor, Ling Young. And she sustained burns over about a third of her body. And hers is kind of a struggle of the physical loss that happened. And then what's great about Ling that it is the sort of indomitable spirit within her that emerges where she realizes, you know, I can look at life in a different way and become a different person.

Next, a young boy, he was 15 at the time and through the course of the film, we watch him grow up and he becomes a man. Brian Lyons is a construction worker. And he goes down to the site in order to find his brother who he lost and basically stays there, ends up rebuilding the Freedom Tower and still remains there today.

And then Tim is a firefighter. Tim, unfortunately, sustained the loss of 93 friends. And he really ends up having to deal through the course of the film with survivor's guilt, the challenge of that loss and how to overcome it. And the thing about these stories is that and what was amazing was is that they all find a way to come to a more hopeful, healing place, even though it was very hard for them in the beginning.

BALDWIN: Right. That's perhaps the title of "Rebirth." What really struck me is when Nick said toward the end, everyone heals in a completely different way.

And I know you were the one who followed these people through the years, interviewing them. Having covered tragedies myself, sometimes, I find that people you talk to, it's almost cathartic for them to talk to you. Is that what you found through the years?

WHITAKER: Well, it was interesting.

You know, they were very courageous and emotionally open. They really, really gave of themselves. But after the first couple of years, you know, in a way that's natural, people stopped asking them about the day and where they were. And so what ended up kind of happening was is they had a place to come every year. I was interviewing them every year, once a year, for roughly three to five hours at a time.

And it was a time and a moment they could come and really reflect on what had happened the past year and really think about where they were headed. And so for them, I think -- Tanya uses the word sanctuary.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WHITAKER: I think it was a place they could come to in order to have someone listen to where they were, which is primarily what I did. I just listened.

BALDWIN: You listened. And unlike so many stories about 9/11/01, what happened that day, in your document, the first 10 minutes, you never actually show the planes, the smoke or the collapse. It's just black. And you lay down the audio. Why did you do that?

WHITAKER: Well, I didn't know that people necessarily needed to see those images again. I also just felt the film was always about the day after. And it was about the possibility of what could come after.

And then, you know, personally, a goal for me was to create as much intimacy as possible between the audience and the viewer. And I felt like actually people's experience of that day was their own. And kind of as such, as a result, I felt like they should be able to allow their own experience to come into the film and allow themselves to kind of fall into it and be a part of it from their own perspective.

BALDWIN: And the time-lapse video that you have in the film, it is amazing, what, 15 different cameras, just briefly, 15 different cameras through the years showing sort of the rebuilding of that site.

WHITAKER: Yes.

I had -- one of my closest friends, Tom Lappin, is the director of photography, and from the very beginning, when I had the idea, what Tom and I talked about was really that we were recording history, that what we were trying to do is get the best possible image we could.

So we decided to shoot it in .35-millimeter film, so it's film cameras, motion picture cameras set up to take a frame of film every five minutes 24 hours a day. Those cameras are still running. The cameras will run until probably 2015, with the notion that we will actually be able to take that film literally and take to the Library of Congress. So it will be a record for -- really for our country of the evolution of the site over time. BALDWIN: Jim Whitaker, I thank you for sharing these people's stories. Like I said, it's tearful but in an inspirational way. Thank you very much.

If you're interested, they're on Twitter @RebirthProject. Also, tune in for CNN live coverage of the 9/11 memorial ceremonies in New York, in Washington and in Pennsylvania. Our special programming begins 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

Coming up next, the flooding across the Northeast is being called near historic. We will take you there.

Also, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wasn't even 2. All the symptoms and signs and things to look for that they were explaining about Jason, I just kept seeing in Justin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A family hears the news, "Your son won't live long enough to see high school."

But as they deal with the hurt here, they're also taking action. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Real quickly I want to remind you just we talked to the director of the documentary "Rebirth," Jim Whitaker. And I misspoke. The Twitter handle is @projectrebirth. You can read about the Project Rebirth Center and how proceeds from this documentary go to first responders. Go to project rebirth.org.

And it is news that any parent dreads. Your child may not be living long enough to make it to high school. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to a brave family in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jeff and Deena Leider are the proud parents of three beautiful children. People would say they're living the good life. And they were until the beginning of this year when things started to crumble. It began with reports from school.

JEFF LEIDER, FATHER: They said something is just not quite right with Jason.

GUPTA: So they took their oldest son, four-year-old, to Hackinsack University medical center. The diagnosis was devastating.

JEFF LEIDER: Jason has MPS 2. There is no cure. Jason will probably be gone by the age of 15 years old. GUPTA: MPS 2 known as hunter's syndrome. It's a rare inherited disease that causes stiffness, facial changes, respiratory problems, and eventually brain failure. Those who are diagnosed with it usually don't live long enough to graduate from high school. Since it's genetic, they feared the worst for their younger son, two-year-old Justin.

DEENA LEIDER, MOTHER: My thoughts kept going to Justin. He wasn't even two. All of the symptoms and signs and things to look for that they were explaining about Jason, I kept seeing it in Justin.

GUPTA: Justin was also diagnosed with a fatal disease. The Lieders face it head on. They were determined not to let these terrible events change their family life. They began a routine, taking the boys to weekly hospital visits to get muscle juice, a special concoction of medicines that helped them fight off the illness' side effects. They try do their best in making their children's lives as normal as possible.

But it's not easy. They have decided another way to overcome their setbacks is to give to others. They created an organization known as Let Them be Little Times Two designed to raise awareness about Hunter's syndrome and to help provide financial resources to families who may be faced with the diagnosis.

JEFF LEIDER: That's what I live for is for trying to create some type of awareness and cure with the help of doctors for MPS diseases.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you. Now, frightening predictions are holding true. Flooding along the Pennsylvania-New York line known as the southern tier is now being called near historic. Take a look at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. As bad as it is there, the Susquehanna River won't flood downstream in the capital until later today. The rising water, flooded homes and businesses forced just about 70,000 people to head to higher ground.

According to the National Weather Service, the Susquehanna crested at nearly 39 feet at Wilkes-Barre. That is about 17 feet above flood stage. Upstream across the border in New York state thousands more had to evacuate. This is what they're up against.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a house? Oh, my god, get off the bridge seriously. That's metal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. That was a house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Unreal. Unreal. Now this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You give the final salute. And you do that enough times, it wears on you. It does. Because you know that that could have been me, it could have been one of these guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Four soldiers who were at the Pentagon back on 9/11 talk candidly about that day, including how they identified bodies from the rubble. Suzanne Malveaux sat down with these guys in Afghanistan for emotional moments. Please don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about 10 years after 9/11 and even at this very moment, the United States is on guard. Investigators now saying they have a specific credible threat from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and they are operating on this working assumption that the three men could be here in the U.S.

Suzanne Malveaux is in Afghanistan. She sat down with four U.S. troops fighting there in the Afghan warzone and they told her they will never forget where they were on September 11, 2001.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thomas Carter was in room 4D, 131 of the Pentagon when it was hit.

COL. THOMAS CARTER, U.S. AIR FORCE: I heard a loud sonic boom. After that boom, it was like an earthquake had hit the Pentagon. That massive building shook. It was a feeling of surprise and shock and then anger.

MALVEAUX: Colonel Todd Key was also inside the Pentagon on the other side. He had just gotten off the phone with his wife.

COL. TODD KEY, U.S. ARMY: I swear, I thought she was dead. I just had that feeling that she was dead.

MALVEAUX: He realized she was alive when he reunited with her after escaping the burning building.

KEY: I realize, too, that everyone that died in the Pentagon has a family. And it made it real to me that that was a -- it was different at that moment. It was different.

MALVEAUX: Colonel David Komar was thinking about his five and two- year-old children when he began carrying out the toddlers at the Pentagon daycare.

COL. DAVID KOMAR, U.S. ARMY: What was painful was the thoughts that went through my head that perhaps some of those children's parents had perished.

MALVEAUX: For Captain Jason Gracin, the pain of 9/11 was different. He had to leave his pregnant wife to identify the Pentagon bodies.

CAPT. JASON GRACIN, U.S. AIR FORCE: I was the one who was taking all the x-rays on the victims and trying to match dental records. To be honest, the toughest part was at the end of the day, they would take the victims ready to be transported back to the families.

MALVEAUX: It's OK. Take your time.

GRACIN: It hurts.

MALVEAUX: It's OK. Take your time. It's OK. It's OK. Take your time. It's OK. You want to join him, that's OK. That's OK.

GRACIN: The nurses would come, the military escorts, we would all line up and give them the final salute. And you do that enough times, it wears on you, because you know that that could have been me, that could have been one of these guys and they all had families. And that was the worst part. That was the worst part.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Suzanne Malveaux in Afghanistan.

Back here at home an $800 fine for a record keeping violation? You have heard that small business owners complain about regulations, red tape. Coming up next we'll show you what that means for a family- owned shop that's been painting cars for four decades. CNN goes in- depth on small businesses, the backbone of our economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you sit down and listen to small business owners, many of them will tell you that regulations are strangling them. And they are the ones who create most of the jobs here in America. Here is Casey Wian in depth on the red tape choking an industry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As City Body and Frame in Riverside, California opens for business, owner Don Feeley doesn't know about the surprise visitors who will arrive later in the day. For now, he's focused on moving a worker to help out here.

DONALD FEELEY JR. CITY BODY AND FRAME: In business today, collision repair or otherwise, there are always constantly running around because you're just lack of resources. In '07 we were on the peak and we ended up, we had 60 employees. Now we're down to 28 employees.

WIAN: The economy is the main reason. Feeley says constantly expanding federal, state, and local regulations also are choking his business. FEELEY: You never want anyone to think that you're not trying to be compliant, you're not trying to meet the needs of clean air or clean water, because you are.

WIAN (on camera): Right.

FEELEY: But a lot of those, did you dot the i's and cross the t's stuff.

WIAN (voice-over): On top of the regulating any small business, collision repair shops because they deal with hazardous materials are expected and permitted by an alphabet soup of government bureaucracies.

FEELEY: We see a lot more of those people than we have.

WIAN: The irony is that Feeley's family owned company has been in business for 37 years. He says it's never been safer or cleaner than today.

FEELEY: We have the latest in paint equipment right here. We have the new spray booths which basically to install these, they're about $250,000.

WIAN: Those booths use water-based paint, not the more toxic petroleum-based variety to comply with California clean air standards. Hazardous substances are kept to a bare minimum. Feeley estimates he spends 35 percent of his time trying to satisfy regulators.

GARY TOEBREN, L.A. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: When the regulations are more important than the creation of jobs, we find ourselves in an economic situation where there's not enough tax revenue coming in to pay the bills because there aren't enough people working.

WIAN: Feeley is still upset over a dispute that began last year with local air quality regulators that ended up in an $800 fine for record keeping violations. That agency says the regulations do more good than harm.

BARRY WALLERSTEIN, AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT: The health impact associated with air pollution was estimated at over $20 billion a year. In terms of the potential costs of control to achieve federal clean air standards, that was estimated at about $4 billion a year.

WIAN: Back to the unexpected visitors. About three hours after we showed up, Riverside Fire Department inspectors arrived at his shop. The result, another stack of paperwork to fill out, a new hazardous material fee and the possibility that he may have to pay for electronic monitoring of his fire sprinkler system.

House Speaker John Boehner recently wrote a letter to President Obama complaining about nearly 200 newly proposed regulations on business. He said the House is considering legislation that would require Congressional approval of any new regulation that is have a significant impact on jobs.

Casey Wian, CNN, Riverside, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Casey, thank you.

Still ahead, the lights suddenly go out for millions of people. But did it all happen because somebody goofed? That is ahead.

Also -- OK, so we've all seen planking, but there's a new Internet craze. This one is more bizarre. I hadn't heard about this. Maybe you're more hip. It's called Batman-ing. You'll hear what is behind this oddity. We're back in 70 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Time now for the Help Desk, where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Lynette Khalfani-Cox, the founder of the financial advice blog AskTheMoneyCoach.com, and Stacy Francis, a certified financial planner and also president of Francis Financial. Thanks for being here, ladies.

First question to you Lynette. This comes from Martin in Philadelphia. Martin has a number of different debts. He's got credit card debt, mortgage debt, car loan, et cetera. He says it's getting harder and harder for him to make ends meet and he's asking if bankruptcy is an option.

LYNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: I think a lot of people are struggling with debt of all form. But frankly, bankruptcy isn't some magic bullet. With the mortgage, bankruptcy won't make that go away. A chapter 13 can help you save the house, but a chapter seven will do absolutely nothing for it. So do think twice before you do something as drastic as bankruptcy. It will stay on your credit report for up to 10 years.

HARLOW: I think people saw companies go through bankruptcy and re- emerge and they think I can do that, too. But it's very, very different. Stacy, Joe writes he's about to leave his job and work on his masters. he's got about $18,000 in his mention and 401(k). What should he do with that money? Should he combine it into a single IRA or keep it separate.

STACY FRANCIS, FINANCIAL PLANNER: It's really going to depend on what kind of contributions it's been. If it's pretax, it's OK to put them together in the same IRA. However, if that has post tax contribution, he wants to keep track of that. That will be a reduced tax when he takes it out. In that case, keep them separate.

HARLOW: Do the homework. If you have a question you want answered, just send an email any time to CNNHelpDesk@CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, just in to us here at CNN, reports of an earthquake. I want to go with Chad Myers. Chad, where are we talking? And how strong?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Fairly big earthquake, 6.7 on Vancouver Island. This will be British Columbia even about 150 miles from Vancouver, maybe a couple hundred miles, 250 maybe to Seattle. But I'm sure this was felt in Seattle. If you felt the ground move because of that, 6.7, it's a pretty good quake.

Now, the only issue with this compared to the one we had in Virginia, which was a whole magnitude smaller, five something, is that this one is fairly deep, about 50 miles deep. That means there's 50 mile offense padding, or the shaking is 50 miles away even from the surface. If it was 100 miles away from Vancouver, that makes it 150 miles. There was shaking.

So far no reports of any damage. We'll keep you advised. No reports of any tsunami issues with this whatsoever. But of course, we'll keep you up to date.

BALDWIN: Chard Myers, thank you very much.

"Back to the Future" fan, are you a fan, Chad? I wanted a hover board. Remember the shoes that Michael J. Fox wore in the sequel? You need a reminder, here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The shoe is back, as in "Back to the Future." Here's why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This shoe over time seemed to develop a cult following.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There has been so much of a demand that Nike is actually creating this limited edition shoe. It's an exact replica of the shoe Michael J. Fox's, Marty McFly wore in the '89 time traveling hit movie. Here's how you get them. Nike released 1,500 pairs of these bad boys, Nike mag sneaker. It's on eBay. Be prepared to shell out thousands if you want to roll like Marty McFly did.

But the money sent goes to a wonderful cause. All the proceeds from the sales will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research. Look at that wall of shoes. Unfortunately, Nike hasn't figured out how to make the shoes tie themselves or create the hover board.

OK, another movie legend is trending, sort of. It's Batman or rather it's become a verb, to batman or batman-ing. It's kind of like planking. Are you still confused like me? Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I guess horizontal wasn't good enough, so they had to do this vertically. You must have crazy ankle strength to do that. Don't fall. Ouch.

OK, let's move along, shall we? Talk politics. Wolf Blitzer is in Tampa for the latest news off the Political Ticker. And you're in Tampa because?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Because this is where I'm going to be moderating the CNN Tea Party debate Monday night. It's going to be right here on CNN obviously. Obviously it's going to be eight Republican candidates.

You know, I just blogged about this on my blog page at CNN.com/SituationRoom. If you take a look at the various debates and I moderated them over the years. I moderated five presidential debates four years ago, Democratic and Republican debates, it's actually more difficult to moderate a debate with eight candidates up on the stage than only two candidates.

I did the final debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Kodiak theatre four years ago. From my perspective, it was a little bit easier to moderate that kind of debate. When you have eight, you try to give everybody equal time. You want to make slur everyone gets a chance to make his or her, in the case of Michele Bachmann, their respective case. So it's a little bit more difficult, a little more tricky from the perspective of the moderator.

Having said all that, it's an historic moment. One of these eight almost certainly, unless somebody else jumps into the race at the last minute, Sarah Palin, even though it's getting late and she may have already missed her moment by delaying for so long, one of these eight is going to be the next Republican nominee and potentially maybe even the next president of the United States.

So it's an enormous responsibility to ask important, tough, serious, substantive questions and give the voters out there, whether the Republican voters in caucuses or primaries, give them a chance to size up the eight candidates. And then give the general electorate a chance to size up whoever is going to be the Republican nominee against the incumbent president of the United States, Barack Obama.

So I take these debates very seriously. I think they're historic and important and I'm looking forward to the debate Monday night. You probably want to ask me, Brooke, if it's Monday night, why are you here today?

BALDWIN: Because you're getting a jump on it, Wolf Blitzer. I know you. I know how you work. Is that right?

BLITZER: That's part of the answer, but the real answer is you have no idea, some day you will, Brooke, but right now, you have no idea how much work goes into doing a debate like this. The preparation, not just for me, but --

BALDWIN: Our whole crew.

BLITZER: It's a technological difficulty, let's put it that way. So they need me here to go through this. But also we're going through questions, going through all of their position papers, all their speeches, their records on all the important issues. I have to be knowledgeable about that. So it takes a lot of work. So that's why I'm here in Tampa today, tomorrow getting ready for the debate.

BALDWIN: You're doing your homework.

BLITZER: It will be on Monday night. Yes, a lot of it.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much. We will be watching Monday night 8:00 eastern right here on CNN. Thank you so much, sir.