korea's nuclear deceit now that a u.s. scientist has seen the footage upclose. are they surprised by the scope of this program or the potential for a nuclear attack. and bobby jindal about the new lines of attack against president obama. homeland security, presidential politics, and why he says washington, his words, has turned into godzilla. i'm suzanne malveaux and you're in "the situation room". just in, we have new information about the revolving door at the revolving white house. the possible timing of a major player's exit. ed, we know things are coming down the line. what do we know right now. >> a top democratic strategist, the former campaign manager in 2008 is going to come in here to be the senior advisor as early as the beginning of january. david plouffe was seen here at the west wing today. i asked him about the future. he told me he's just visiting. i've been told by officials he's going to stick around for sometime to come. secondly, we're learning that david axelrod is likely to leave sooner than expected. he suggested he stick around for six more months. i'm being told by the two sources that david axelrod is likely to leave after the state of the union, late january, early february. what does it mean for the president? it means david axelrod will be around but in chicago. he may want to leave a little sooner to get some time off before jumping in to 2012. secondly, look, david axelrod will tell you he's not the most organized fellow. senior advisor, the strategist, but organization is not his thing. david plouffe is an organized guy. he had a plan. the white house is looking for someone to build a plan with dealing with this new congress and getting ready for 2012. that's something david plouffe might be suited for. >> what do we know about other moves happening down the line? >> a lot of pressure on the president to bring in new blood. i hear there's going to be a lot more moods but a lot of faces we know moving in to new positions. see how that shakes out. carol browner, the current energy czar. the president's current lobbyist for congress pushing through the agenda out there on the hill. he's likely to become a deputy chief of staff or senior advisor, i'm told, by the officials. likely to be replaced by rob neighbna nene boris. now likely to become the congressional lobbyist. it will be interesting to see how the democrats who wanted to see new blood, fresh faces, would take this change coming. >> see if that means change for policy initiatives. thank you so much. i appreciate it. u.s. officials are responding today to a brazen taunt by north korea of the nuclear capabilities. the secretive regime suddenly now is opening up and showing off the uranium-based nuclear facility for the first time. obviously president bush used to talk about it all the time. the potential threat from knot korea and how secretive they are. why are we seeing this opening up of the nuclear facility. >> that 's the question, why are they going public. the state department spokesman is calling this a publicity stunt by north korea. officials say pyongyang has been shopping for components to enrich rue yuranium for 20 year. have they succeeded? that's what the obama administration says is now evaporatin evaporating. >> what looked like a dedeped building. the government said it's a new uranium facility used for peaceful production. it could be a step to new, more powerful nuclear weapons. >> this doesn't just kind of magically appear shocking the world. people have been watching that. >> people would see the roof, yeah, certainly. it would show up in satellite imagery and you would wonder what's going on there. but there's nothing that telegraphs centrifuge. >> now we know what the satellites couldn't see. ten days ago, north korean officials gave a tour to nuclear expert siegfried hagger. he was stunned by the sophistication with hundreds of centrifuges making low enriched yuranium uranium. david albright says intelligence agencies were tracking the north korean uranium program but didn't know where it was hidden. >> where were you looking? >> anywhere in north korea. >> why would the north admit it? >> one is to send the signal that they have more than you think. the nuclear deterrent is stronger than you may think. they wanted the world to know they have a century funeral progr -- centrifuge program. they explained it. >> that eve got allies in the next step. but they're going downplay the blow back from the news. >> not be drawn into rewarding north korea for bd behavior. they frequently anticipate doing something outrageous and provocative and forcing us to jump through hoops vul. we're not going to buy into this cycle. >> the state department spokesman said secretary hecker got a brief glimpse of the capability of enriching uranium and they're evaluating what that capability is. at this point, the u.s. is not changing the policy toward the north or discussing anymore economic sapnctions. president obama may face a nuclear battle with republicans over a passage of the new arms reduction treaty with russia. i'll talk to bobby jindal on the take of the machine and whether she represents it party. the right balance between airline security and passenger privacy. i'll ask tsa administrator john crystal about the uproar of patdowns and full-body screenings. receiving the bronze star, that was definitely one of my proudest moments. i graduated from west point, then i did a tour of duty in iraq. when i was transitioning from active duty, i went to a military officer hiring conference. it was kind of like speed dating. there were 12 companies that i was pre-matched with, but walmart turned out to be the best for me. sam walton was in the military, and he understood the importance of developing your people. it's an honor to be in a position of leadership at walmart. i'm captain tracey lloyd, and i work at walmart. ♪ we asked people all over america where the best potatoes come the best potatoes? idaho.t. idaho! idaho. and how do you know you're getting idaho potatoes? well...uh... uhm... heh.. (sighs) not all potatoes come from idaho. so if you want the best, you have to do one important thing. always look for the grown in idaho seal. i knew that. i knew that. look for the grown in idaho seal. . >> jack cafferty is here with the cafferty file. nice to see you. >> good to have a turkey with you, suzanne. or two. 2 million people a day are expected to travel through the nation's airports tomorrow and wednesday. i'm so glad i'm not one of them. airline travel is shaping up to be a nightmare thanks to the government's new airport security measures including full body scans and invasive patdowns. a growing backlash to all of this coming from about everywhere. pilot, flight attendant, groups, civil right and privacy advocates. even hillary clinton said she wouldn't want to submit to an enhanced patdown if she could avoid it. there are outrageous stories from passengers around the country that show how embarrassing and invasive all of this can become. a flight attendant and breast cancer survivor said she was asked to remove her prosthetic breast during a platdown. a bladder cancer survivor ended up soaked in his own europe in a patdown. the latest example comes from the example of the shirtless boy getting a patdown from a tsa agent. a partially disrobed child forced to submit to groping by a strange adult is just disgraceful. the tsa insists it's trying to strike a balance between security and privacy concerns. really? one industry -- we won't do a profiling, right, which is how other places like israel manage to keep their airlines straight. one agency tells the action p the agency is working under an unachievable mandate since the risks change -- the tsa is always in crisis mode aeding new policies to be added to the terrorist ploy. four of five americans support the use of full body scans. here's the question -- how much are you looking forward to airplane travel the holiday season in light of the full body scans and invasive patdowns? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile. post a comment on mur blog. you been through all of that. you travel all the time. >> have not been through some of the intimate screening. really glad we're not traveling this week. get to avoid all of that. going to ask the head of tsa what's happening. >> wish him happy turkey from me. >> all right, jack. president obama is keeping a low profile after returning from the nato summit that was in portugal. now that he's back, he has a lot of work to do cut out for him trying to get congress to approve a new nuclear arms treaty with russia. david gergen, thank you so much for joining us. just got back from the nato summit. heard from president obama and other nato allies. even russian president me have def th -- medvedev. he said it's not only a good idea, but critical to security as well. he faces a lot of resistance from republicans. how does he get over that? >> not sure he can. a distressing sign of things to come. there are going to be a lot of fights in which they might be on one side or the other. in this particular case, my own bias is that i think president obama is right on the merits. he actually has very good policies with regard to trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear we papons. this is a solid treaty. three former republican secretaries of state have endorsed this. as have three others, including the military. the president hasn't been able to convince republicans he's done enough in terms of modernizing the weapons that would remain. i think the republicans are on the wrong side of the issue. but i must tell you that there are people who know a lot more about arms control that support president obama who think the administration made a blunder by waiting too long. that they should have gotten this done much earlier in the year. >> one of the things that i heard the president say over the weekend, he struck a consillitory tone. he was asked by the republican leading that effort. he said senator kyl didn't say he's against it. he doesn't believe it will fit many the lame duck session. he said in his words, my republican friends will come around and see the wisdom in this. is that the right approach for the president to take. >> it is for now. i think they'll harden up. i think they're hoping that senator kyl will give them legal room on this and get a favorable vote. i think that's unlikely to happen and the rhetoric will get tougher and meaner. it looks like lit be next year. i don't believe going to nato -- even though the nato allies gave him support on this. i think having a russian president, having mr. medvedev speak out on this does not help the republicans. they're not going to take instructions from russia on how to vote on a security treaty with russia. >> quickly, one of the things that he walk aid way from was an agreement with nato allies, 2014 being a goal for the u.s. as well as nato allies. no longer to do combat missions but training missions with the afghan forces instead. a number of people who expressed doubt about that, including the russian president and the head of the u.n. is that realistic to think that 2014, by the end of 2014 they can make that kind of transition? >> goodness gracious. what the president has really done is moved the deadline back. we thought we would see the beginning of the end of the next summer. he's saying 2014 before we see the final troops. he's giving himself a lot more room. and it's been pretty deft -- this trip overall i have to tell you was a much better trip for the president than was the one to asia. this trip he seemed to have in. orchestrated it well. good agreement on missile defense. this is a good trip for the president. i don't think it changes it dynamics at home on star treatment. >> we'll have to leave it at that. thanks so much for joining us in "the situation room". >> thank you. >> military jets scrambled and part of the white house evacuated. someone violated the skies over washington. was the nation's capitol in danger? we'll find out. her husband is dubbed the merchant of death. she's speaking out about his arrest. the wife of the man accused of dealing arms to terrorists says she's going to sue. (announcer) energy security. climate protection. challenges as vast as the space race a generation ago. and vital to global security. to reach this destination, our engineers are exploring every possibility. from energy efficiency to climate monitoring. securing our nations clean energy future is all a question of how. and it is the how that will make all the difference. is all a question of how. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you guys tomorrow. searis open 7am thanksgiving w black friday doorbusters in apparel, fragrances, acories, sleepwear and outerwear. plus, get an extra five percent off storewide with your searsard. sears. military jets on alert. kate baldwin is monitoring what's coming in the newsroom right now. busy day in washington. two f-16 fighter jets scrambled and took to the skies over washington, d.c. right now where the small plane violated air restrictions. the cessna was escorted to manassas, virginia where it landed this afternoon. the secret service said it would be interviewing the pilot. new confirmation that the federal government and the oil industry were not prepared for the deep water horizon disaster. they released preliminary findings today. one draft report calls the five-month effort to seal the well impressive but necessary only because of the failure to anticipate a blowout in the first place. another draft urges more funding and creative incentives to close a gap of oil spill cleanup technology that still exists. also, pakistan is denying a u.s. request to allow american drones to patrol more of the country. pakistani military officials tell cnn they're in no position to deal with possible public outcry over the idea. the u.s. made the request three weeks ago. another official says the two-countries have agreed to enhanced intelligence sharing allowing u.s. agents on the ground in pakistan. and the wife of an accused arm's dealer extradited to the u.s. says she plans to sue the government of thailand. olive boot said thai officials buckled under political pressure when they turned victor boot over to the country. boot, dubbed by prosecutors the merchant of death faces conspiracy for weapons under a terrorist group. he pleaded not guilty in a federal court last week. suzanne? >> the plot for bombs inside cargo planes came with a price. it's not nearly as expensive as you might think. we look at terror. and bobby jindal says the obama administration should be more worried about passenger rights. i'll ask him about the uproar on airport patdowns as well as his gripe about a monster he called godzilla. >> the oil that's leaking offshore. concerning the medicare part d changes this year. so she went to her walgreens pharmacist for guidance and a free personalized report that looks at her prescriptions and highlights easy ways for her to save. because norma prefers her painting to paperwork. see how much you can save. get your free report today. expertise -- find it everywhere there's a walgreens. (announcer) new icy hot spray. relief that's icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. and no mess. new icy hot spray. don't mess around with pain. right now, holiday fliers are bracing for possible patdowns at the airport and other security measures many people find intrusive. president obama is looking at the policy but trying to acknowledge that it's evolving. a leading republican who's been critical of president obama on the issue as well as others. thank you for joining us in the situation room. >> thank you for having me. >> no immediate changes for the holidays could be happy when it comes to the advanced screening. we're constantly evaluating and adapting to our security measures and as we have said, we're striking the right balance between privacy and security? do they need to do more. >> two concerns. obviously we need to take the threat of terrorism safely. two concerns the american people have. they don't see them using common sense. we see the picture of the 8-year-old boy, 6-year-old girl being groped on the way to their grandparents' home for traveling over the holidays. we want them to use common sense. >> would it be the profiling that we're seeing out of the israeli government, for insta e instance? we need to use it for intelligence. we shouldn't let political correctnd keep us from doing that. the second concern is there seems to be the obsessive concern with the rights of the terrorists. they seem more worried about treating terrorists like citizens and citizens like suspects. for example -- >> why do you say political correctness. the head of the tsa and president obama himself said at the nato summit this is america's safety. this is about people flying and do not have to worry that it's on the plane. >> political correctness. they don't seem to be target their procedures to the common sense call way to the people. i say political correctness. don't call them terrorist attacks, call them man made events. i say it's political correctness because they read the miranda rights to the underwear bomber. they seem so focused on -- the president's own record, when he talks about the war on terrorism. he talked about, for example, he goes abroad and talks about making ourselves less offensive to those who are angry and talks about social and justice grievances. this is a clash of the people who don't like our way of loif, freedoms, rights. >> what should you do to guarantee the freedoms. passengers have to be screened. >> we need to target our procedures to those who we have a greater concern about. you heard the folks from the administration like secretary clinton saying, yeah, maybe we do need to change how we apply those procedures that are not that widely applied. let's target our searches for those who most likely to cause damage. most likely to pose a threat to the united states. >> let's talk about the economy. you deal with your book, "leadership in crisis," talk about the need for a supermajority to raise taxes. you say specifically we didn't get to the economic mess by not taxing the american people enough. we got into it by letting washington become, in your words, fed-zilla, a wealth-eating monster of unimaginable proportions. >> how do you take on fedzilla. you have to have the revenue. >> too whole chatter in the book, leadership in crisis about how to fix congress. many of the reforms we live with are on the state level. balanced budget in the constitution. a supermajority on spending. we spend 18% on gdp for the federal government. now close to 40%. >> what should the president cut? >> oh nondefense discretionary spending. $100 billion in savings. >> give us an example. >> across the board. >> inflated spending across the board. >> nondefense discretionary. you have a whole chapter in leadership in crisis about medical reform. bipartisan recommendation in the '90s, conservatives have to be unafraid to look at entitlements. do it an way. we have a proposal and he didn't choose to implement could make medicare affordable or be more modern or more efficient to our seniors. it starts with how members of congress today. you want to talk about cutting a trillion dollars of spending. hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and medicare cuts. >> you're opposed of many of the economic policies of the president's. obviously there are some you agree with. name one. >> he went to india and made a strong relationship with the a relationship with the largest market economy. that was a good sign. refuse to withdraw before we're done in afghanistan. third, you look at some of the reforms arnie duncan tried in education. liked where they started. like to see strong follow through. we started in charter schools to teacher evaluation, many of the good things we're doing in louisiana. >> who's the best spokesperson for the republican party. sarah palin is under a lot of publicity for her. >> who's going to be the rnc chairman, the spokesperson. it's the message, not the messenger. >> is she a good representative for the party? >> absolutely. four years ago, we lost power because we defended spending and corruption we shouldn't have tolerated. we need to earn our way back to be the majority party. we need to show people we're going to govern differently. it's a symbolic but important first step. "leadership in crisis" it's called. congratulations on your book. >> thank you for having me. >> the economy on the brink and elections on hold as global financial minds join forces to fashion a bailout in ireland. demonstrators lose their patience and air their anger. also, bells are ringing in the holiday season. this year donations to the salvation army can be more than just a drop in the bucket. later, an assignment that got him an a and it was a published piece that got him kicked off of campus. why school officials won't let an iraq war vet come back with a psych evaluation. you're going to want to see that story. [ s. greenlee ] i would love to have been a musician but i knew that i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. coming in the situation room right now including nagging questions about rental cars. tell us about that. >> the national highway safety and transportation is looking at why they're not fixed yet. the review is prompt bid the deaths of two women who rented a car from enterprise. the car caught fire and had crashed into a truck. it had called for a fire risk but not been repaired. tempers flared about 100 people stormed office buildings after a demonstration against the governor's handling of the economy. the prime minister says he'll delay the decision on the national election there until the 2011 budget is passed and the plan is placed to counter the crisis. it offered ireland a direct loan of more than $11 million. the european union and national monetary fund are hammering out details of a irish financial bailout. bell ringers are out in force again this season. you know it's the season when they're out there. if you don't have cash to drop in the familiar red kettle, those bell ringers in some states are carrying what they call cashless kettles. wireless credit card readers. who could have thought it. the nonprofit said it would reach the donations by expanding the reach to social media. it's on face book and has an on-line donation site. i know a lot of people who don't carry cash anymore. this will help them. don't you enjoy the whole idea of dropping some money in the bucket? >> absolutely. the credit for everything here. trying to keep up with all of that. >> exactly. >> a bit more. that's a good idea. thanks, kate. well, in the wake of the history-making midterm elections, political talk is turning into 2012. sarah palin, media darling, is she a contender to take on president obama. that's just ahead in our strategy session. later, hard-hitting, head-banging pro football. could be hazardous to players' health. cnn's dr. sanjay gupta goes inside the culture of concessions. we asked people all over america where the best potatoes come from. the best potatoes? idaho. idaho! idaho. and how do you know you're getting idaho potatoes? well...uh... uhm... heh.. (sighs) not all potatoes come from idaho. so if you want the best, you have to do one important thing. always look for the grown in idaho seal. i knew that. i knew that. look for the grown in idaho seal. the midterm elections are well under our belts so we want to talk, of course, 2012, secretary of state hillary clinton said over the weekend, she's out. but the question we really know is she really joining me for today's strategy session. two cnn contributors, donna brazille and republican strategist, mary matalin. thank you for joining us here, the holiday week in "the situation room," play a little sound from our friends from fox over the weekend to take a listen to what hillary clinton said. >> you're done with elective office? >> happy doing what i'm doing and not in any way interested in or pursuing anything in elective office. >> kay. i don't know how many times i asked her that question before she jumped into the ring. you asked her that question. mary, you asked her that question. do you believe her? >> i actually do believe her. >> you do? >> she clearly -- i think she clearly is having fun and the -- one of the benefits of being a woman of a certain age which we are is that you can -- you can -- you can make a huge significant critical impact without having to run. she can get to the arena. she has the guts to get to the arena. she's always been -- she's always been a workhorse more than a show horse. and she's getting the job done out there. and she'll have continue working for many decades to come. but i think the age of being kaka cagey about whether or not you're running has past. there's nothing she can say further running against a sitting president anyway. >> could she say i'm not interested now and perhaps change her mind. >> i agree with mary. we have to take her at her word that she is not interested in pursuing the president at this time. but i want to say like mary, secretary clinton is a phenomenal woman. she's a terrific secretary of state. she's a great diplomat. she's the face of our country overseas along with the president. she's done a great job as secretary of state. and perhaps she's waiting to serve in another capacity like grandmother at some point in the near future. so let's give an opportunity to exhale for a moment and see what other woman is in the pipeline for, you know, the future years. >> all right, fair enough. with hillary clinton out of the ring here, take a look at the potential matchups. a poll showing interesting numbers. challenges that obama might face for 2012. we asked if the election was held today, who would win? 40%. barack obama beat her, 48%. he was ahead by eight points. he beat mike huckabee by two points but lost to rick -- mitt romney by one point. what do you make of the numbers, first of all, with sarah palin, that he would beat her at this point. is that surprising to you, mary? oh. >> absolutely not. all of the numbers are meaningless. >> we famously talk about reagan and clinton's reversals. but the opposite is also true. president george h.w. bush was 91% two years out from the election and he lost. this is not a time to measure this. significant in those polls, barack obama does not exceed 50% against anybody when the race has not begun. he's got some mending to do. >> do you agree, donna, is he in trouble? does he need to turn things around? >> the only thing the president should be focusing on right now is restoring the economy so the american people feel comfortable so that the jobs are coming back. the number one job of the president right now is to keep it safe and secure and to help restore the economy. so jobs, jobs, jobs. we have a long time before 2012. and as you know, there's going to be an exciting race on the republican side. let's see which republicans emerge after that. that fistfight. and president obama, i'm sure, would be in a good decision to defeat that republican once we get that economy back on its feet. >> which one of the republicans do you think, mary, might have the best shot of going up against obama. huckabee, romney, palin. >> too early. >> it's -- >> i'm not -- i don't have a dog in this fight. i have a message in the fight. i don't think the field is full yet. i believe the majority in the house, the enhanced numbers in the senate, how they respond to what the message was in the jobs, jobsi jobs, it was, slow down, ratchet it back. if they deliver on that, it would be a different feel than if they don't. donna -- the exciting race ahead. >> the other message, mary, is they want the politicians to act like grown-ups. to seek compromise and find common sense solutions to the many problems that the great nation faces. so let's see if the republicans are ready to govern with the little power in the house of representatives and the big voice they have with so many of the other faces here in washington, d.c. we miss you this holiday season. but happy thanksgiving to you and your family. >> happy -- >> we're having a churducken. come on down, we're coming up. >> we're invited, we'll be there. >> happy thanksgiving to all of you. jack cafferty is asking how much are you looking forward to airline traveling this holiday season in light of invasive patdowns. >> and barred from a community college after writing a graphic essay about his addiction to war. jack joins us again with the cafferty file. hey, jack. >> suzanne, the question this hour is how much are you looking forward to airplane travel this holiday season in light of those new full body scans and invasive patdowns. craig in arizona -- since 9/11, i've chosen to fly less and less for business and pleasure. i keep the business relationships close to home. this latest intrusion is all the more reason to avoid air travel. all of this could be avoided with common sense profiling. but america doesn't have the stomach for that. and treat all americans as if they are terrorists. harry writes, i can't thank the tsa enough for keeping us safe. i travel so much, i want all the security i can get. once the doors close on the aircraft, we're all along for the ride. john writes, we murder each other at the rate of 30,000 gun death as year, we slaughter tens of thousands more on the highways, people die from all sorts of strange screw-ups every year. no outcry over this. what is the big deal about airplane security? terrorists could easily attack churches, schools, malls, hospitals, theaters, et cetera, but they don't. i think this madness at the airport is a knee-jerk reaction and it ought to be ended. lou in south carolina, the groping of a youngster is beyond appalling. a pedophile's dream job all in the time of safety. every pervert in the country is applying for jobs right now, and some of them will get them. if israel can do this stuff without all this embarrassment and humiliation, why can't we? andrew writes, 4 of 5 americans support body scans, but would the same number support them if you asked do you support being exposed to radiation for a body scan? carolyn in illinois, i may not be flying real soon, but i have flown a lot in the past. the terrorist threat is real and it scares me to death. i'm so glad that the tsa is using aggressive procedures to help ensure our safety. the complainers need to grow up. i'm a breast cancer survivor. if the inspector wants to touch my prosthesis, then have at it. and queen writes, i weigh 307 pounds. i'm more worried about getting kicked off the flight than blinding the agents with my hot body. if you want to read more on this, you'll find it on my bog, cnn.com/caffertyfile. >> all right. thank you, jack. i'll ask the transportation security administrator why the stepped-up pat-downs are necessary and whether the president is having second thoughts. and dr. sanjay gupta teams up with kurt warner to talk about the danger of getting hit in the head. (announcer) energy security. climate protection. challenges as vast as the space race a generation ago. and vital to global security. to reach this destination, our engineers are exploring every possibility. from energy efficiency to climate monitoring. securing our nations clean energy future is all a question of how. and it is the how that will make all the difference. [ male announcer ] let's be honest. no one ever wished for a smaller holiday gift. ♪ ♪ it's the lexus december to remember sales event, and for a limited time, we're celebrating some of our greatest offers of the year. see your lexus dealer. we're coming off another big weekend in pro football. one that featured more violent hits. our cnn grief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta had some candid conversations with former players about the culture of concussions in the game today. >> i think what a lot of these players will tell you, they acknowledge this paradox that people -- they know watch football in part because they want to see the big hits. but they're also what make us cringe. last night, take a look here. ellis hobbs takes a helmet-to-helmet hit, a significant blow. he's on the field for ten minutes after that hit. just last night. this happens quite a bit in the nfl. what's unsettling is just how much we know about what's happening to the brain when this happens. and how much more likely someone is to develop a second concussion, for example, if they take a significant blow to the first -- in the first place. when you see all sorts of hits like this. what's also unsettling is the fact that we still have this persistent ignorance about what concussion is and how best to treat it. exactly what i wanted to talk to former nfl quarterback and super bowl mvp kurt warner about to really understand what he thinks the culture is right now and what he's learned both personally and professionally about this topic. >> shotgun snap, blitz coming. warner steps up. >> reporter: it's a chilling moment in football. >> and kurt warner is hurt. >> reporter: a player is hit. and does not get up. >> kurt warner is on his back. >> reporter: january 16th, 2010, former nfl quarterback kurt warner was that player. >> and the trainers race out. >> reporter: he got up and later he returned to the game. do you feel like you ever stayed in a game or were sort of pushed to stay in a game when you shouldn't have? >> yeah. there's no question that's happened. a lot of guys when they get, you know, those hits or those concussions, they think, okay, i'm just going to play through it here for the short-term and it's going to get better. >> he was just lifted up. >> reporter: playing through it is part of football. a big part. >> probably 100% of the guys that play my sport in the nfl have been there. i think for a long time, it was felt like, well, if you didn't get up dizzy or with no memory, then you really didn't suffer a concussion. >> reporter: what does a concussion feel like? >> it's a mental fogginess. you feel like you're separated from the situation. you're in it but you're kind of looking at it from the outside looking in. >> reporter: according to the nfl, there are more than 100 documented concussions every season. after a big hit, doctors on the sidelines test players for signs of concussion, memory problems, confusion, dizziness. but there is no definitive answer to the most important question. who should continue playing and when should come out of the game? >> how many of you have by show of hands had a concussion? >> reporter: kevin, formerly a pittsburgh steelers trainer, studies concussion's impact on the brain in high school players. >> this is showing moderate levels of atrophy. >> reporter: and retired athl e athletes. players who have had three or more concussions get mris. >> i'm going to say three words. >> reporter: and memory tests. >> apple, penny, table. now you say those. >> apple, penny, table. >> good. what were those three words i asked you to remember earlier. >> i don't remember. penny. that's all i remember. >> okay. >> reporter: memory problems are not the only thing they're finding. concussions may be shrinking memory and learning centers in the brain. t thwarting its ability to transmit signals. did you retire because of concussions? >> no, but there's no question, you know, as i contemplated the big picture and, you know, thought about life after football, do i want to put myself at risk for another concussion? or for a worse concussion? >> reporter: many players, of course, decide to play through it. >> dropped! great defense play! >> now, kurt warner knows a lot about this topic. he's had at least five documented concussions. what he says, the problem is o two-fold. one, many players want to play. they don't want to be on the bench, so they'll minimize their symptoms. also, a lot of teams want to win. and so that's where the culture is pushing things. he says explicitly that he was never told to play despite his symptoms, but he worries about that culture overall for other players. we did talk to the nfl specifically about this. they released this statement to us. they said if anything, we're going in the other direction where people sit out until they're totally symptom-free. there are so many protocols now. also, incidentally, you watch a video of ellis hobbs at the beginning there. he was on the field for ten minutes. but he did get into a stretcher, ultimately. the thumbs-up sign, moving all of his extremities. he got x-rays, which were -- did not show any evidence of fracture. he's expected to do well. tomorrow, we're talking about high school football. 3 million players, brains that are still developing. lots of hard hits. max conrad, who you say there, he's a player who will teach us about something known as second impact syndrome and just how devastating that can be. that's tomorrow. back to you for now. you're in "the situation room." happening now, security versus privacy. the nationwide uproar over airport pat-downs and body scans. as millions are starting their thanksgiving travel, i'll speak with tsa administrator john pistole and ron paul. an iraq war vet gets an "a" for a very graphic college essay about his addiction to war. but now he is barred from campus. and sarah palin's pr campaign almost seems like the start of a presidential campaign. former first lady barbara bush says she should stay home in alaska. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. breaking news and political headlines are straight ahead. wolf blitzer is off. i'm suzanne malveaux, and you're i'm suzanne malveaux, and you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com there are 2 million holiday travelers expected to fly on each of the next two days. some will face those intimate body scans or pat-downs. while most passengers actually seem to favor the stepped-up security and most screenings go off without a hitch, there are horror stories about insensitive treatment of cancer patients, children, and others. and some of these episodes have gone viral through online videos. for travelers and the tsa, it's a tug of war between privacy and safety. let's go to deborah feyerick. what do we know about this struggle? where do passengers see themselves falling in this? >> it's the horror stories that are make this a really hard sell, especially to people who may not have had the most positive experiences with tsa agents. the tsa is doing as much as it can to make sure the new scanners stay. airport body scanners. those who hate them call them an invasion of privacy, an outable, a boundary violation. the tsa is on the defensive, trying to balance passenger sensitivity it heightened security, triggered by the cargo bombs sent to the u.s. from yemen. and last year's attempted christmas-day attack. >> that's exactly the reason that we put these inplace, to make sure we don't have other people like this christmas-day bomber trying to kill hundreds of people on passenger airlines. >> reporter: in a recent cbs poll, 81% said they were in favor of the scans and enhanced pat-downs. the department of homeland security calls their screeners the last line of defense and says only a small percent of air travellers will get the enhanced screening. even fewer, the enhanced p pat-down. >> this is all being done for the protection of the traveling public. it is being done in as minimally invasive a way as we think appropriate. given the risk. >> reporter: still, one group is calling for passengers to opt out. another privacy group has filed a lawsuit. >> if it was the case that it would make air travel safe, i think a lot of the criticism would go away. but the flaws are known. the devices are defective. they don't work. and the privacy invasion is very real. >> reporter: pilots are now exempt from the process. it is unlikely to devices will go away anytime soon. roughly 490 full-body scanners have been bought using stimulus money. an expert on human behavior and safety says that terror threats have made people very nervous about flying. so you add in the naked scanner images, the pat-downs, anxiety really rises. people are at the start of the learning curve, but after repeated exposure, it's likely that they'll become routine just as really it did with original screening procedures. a lot of people who show up at the airport are already on edge and they're looking for a fight. so it's got to be on both sides. >> all right. we'll have much more on the pat-down debate that is gripping the nation. i'll speak with john pistole and republican congressman ron paul of texas about this controversy. well, we are now also talking about terror on believe it or not a shoestring budget. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula says it spent just over $4,000 to plant explosive packages on cargo planes headed to the united states. the plot is laid out in the group's rather sophisticated english language journal. our brian todd has been looking into that. brian, it's surprising to know that there's such a magazine, a journal, put out by al qaeda. what do we know about this? >> well, this looks like the slickest of western publications. indeed, it has very strong western influence. it lays out shocking detail of the recent plot to bomb cargo planes. in unprecedented detail, al qaeda's branch in yemen reveals the anatomy of a terror plot for the world to see. it comes in what looks like a glossy online travel publication. inside the cover page of the so-called special issue of "inspire" magazine, jarring information on the recent plot to place bombs inside cargo planes. the plot had a name. operation hemorrhage. it involved, quote, three months of work for a team of less than six brothers. and a grocery list. two phones, $150 each, two printers, $300 each, plus shipping, other miscellaneous e pences, for a total bill of $4,200. provoking western nations into spending billions in new security measures. i went over some details with ben vensky. he provides counterterror sport to the u.s. government. they talk about making these bombs. isn't that just revealing too much detail to western int intelligen intelligence? >> the point they're trying to make it even by telling you all of this detail, you still can't prevent this kind of attack and we're going to share this with other groups so it's going to happen again and again and again. >> reporter: a u.s. counterterror official tells cnn the posting from al qaeda in the ar arabian peninsula is authentic and is, quote, par for the course for that group. if it has the look of a western publication, there's a reason. intelligence officials believe the driving force behind "inspire" magazine is an american citizen now living in yemen. this is not just a technical how-to. it deals with broader plans as well, calling these operations the strategy of a thousand cuts. the aim is to bleed the enemy to death, literally and economically. i asked brian fishman, an expert on al qaeda's strategy, about that. >> it has been forced into that strategy. it wasn't a choice. it didn't have another option. it doesn't have the option to conduct these major attacks in the way that it used to. >> now, fishman says that does not mean this new al qaeda strategy is not dangerous. he says it's just taking a different form now from the grand 9/11-style attacks having been forced to adapt to western counterterror operations. >> brian, tell us more about this american who now runs this al qaeda magazine. >> fascinating story. he was a blogger based in charlotte, north carolina, until recently. he fled to yemen. we believe in the summertime. he wrote on article in a previous edition of "inspire" magazine. think about this. this means that two american citizens are key figures in al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, one of the most dangerous bre h branches of al qaeda in the world. >> okay. thank you, brian. she recently said that she thinks she could actually win in 2012. so with the new tv show, a new book, is sarah palin already campaigning? our mary snow has been looking at the former alaska governorer's pr blitz. >> you know, even if you're not following sarah palin closely, it's hard to miss her. the next chapter in our media blitz is a 16-city book tour kicking off tomorrow. it's only stoking questions about what may be in spore for 2012. of all things sarah palin, there's the reality show on tlc. >> a couple of my girlfriends threw me my baby shower right here in this shooting range. my first baby shower. i love to share that story because it gets the liberals sl up. >> reporter: and then there's her book. also keeping her in the spotlight, daughter bristol going to the finals in "dancing with the stars," which potentially draws well above 10 million viewers. and in between, there are hints about 2012. >> if you ran for president, could you beat barack obama? >> i believe so. >> reporter: politicians and pundits read the tea leaves trying to decipher whether paler while run for president. this professor ties the start of her campaign to the kick-off of her reality show. >> it's not what we expected of presidents. this has been something we've heard for a while when bill clinton played saxophone on late-night tv when he was running for president. people said, that's not presidential. we keep seeing candidates appear where we don't expect them. >> reporter: adding to the speculation of presidential campaign ambitions, she'll go to iowa and south carolina, two states posing critical early tests for a candidate. with more attention, more people are weighing in, like former first lady barbara bush. >> what is your read about sarah palin? >> i sat next to her once. she was beautiful. i think she's very happy in alaska. and i hope she'll stay there. >> reporter: media critic howie kurts says for the most part, palin's strategy right now is working. she's getting a lot of attention and she's controlling her message. >> the second that sarah palin decides to run for president, if she does, then she steps out of this protective cocoon. then she can't only go on fox. she can't only script her image through a tlc reality show. she may not want to put up with that kind of skracrutiny. that's going to be the price of admission to start campaigning in iowa and new hampshire. >> sarah palin is indicating that should she run, she won't repeat something she did in the last campaign, and that is to do an interview with cbs's katie couric. in 2008, palin stumbled over a number of questions. fast forward to today, speaking of fox, palin calls couric bias biased and says she wouldn't waste her time with another interview with her. >> bristol palin is going to be on "dancing with the stars" tonight. many people will be watching that as well. >> yeah. the big finale. tomorrow night is the winner. these are two big nights. >> i'm sure we'll talk about the palins tomorrow, don't you think? >> we probably will. >> thanks, mary. raising taxes, jack cafferty is here with "the cafferty file" to talk about. hey, jack. >> before we get to that, one of the things we'll do tomorrow is we'll show you the real reason that sarah palin may not want to do another interview with katie couric. rich people should be paying a lot more in taxes. that's a quote from one of the richest americans out there, billionaire warren buffett. he said that taxes for the lower, middle class and possibly even upper middle class ought to be cut further. but he said, quote, i think people at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. we have it better than we've ever had it, unquote. hey, so send him a check. write it out and mail it into the u.s. treasury. buffett says the rich insist if their taxes are lower and they have more money, they'll spend it and then it will trickle down. but he says that hasn't happened for the last ten years. buffett is not the only super-wealthy person to advocate more taxes. a group of 45 people come call themselves patriotic millionaires agree. they're asking president obama to allow the bush tax cuts to expire for incomes over $1 million. critics of the critical motivations of this group are several. in any case, if congress does nothing about the bush tax cuts and so far that's what they've done, nothing, there are 39 days left until the largest tax increase in american history will go into effect. new year's day. democrats in the house and senate say they will hold votes after thanksgiving to extend the bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year. but it's unclear if they've got enough votes in either chamber to pass only the middle class tax cuts. they may naeed to find middle ground with the republicans. so here's the question. warren buffett says rich people should be paying more in taxes. do you agree that statement? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile. >> all right, jack. thank you. we're going to get more on the controversy raging over those airplane security pat-downs. the head of the tsa is going to join us this hour. and congressman ron paul will be here as well. he's proposed a bill that could have tsa employees facing charges. also, panic and horror at a massive festival. hundreds of people are killed in a stampede. we are getting new details. plus, an iraq war veteran barred from a college campus because of what he wrote for a class assignment. up next. [ s. greenlee ] i would love to have been a musician but i knew that i was going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. witnesses describe a scene of complete and utter panic. hundreds of people killed in a stampede during a massive festival in the cambodian capital. these pictures, i want to warn you, they're horrifying. steve finch is joining us on the phone with the details. he's a journalist there. he'll explain how this happened. steve, can you walk us through what we're seeing and what we understand happened here? >> yeah, hi, sure. so it was around 10:00 p.m. yesterday evening. there was a situation where there was a large build-up of people on the bridge in central phnom penh. people were being crushed. we had reports that the policemen started firing water canons at the crowd to get them moving along. and that's when we had people saying that there were people on the bridge that were electrocuted and then they fell into the river. we have government officials denying that this was what happened. doctors who saw the bodies come in at one hospital, they said that they've seen that people were electrocuted and suffocated in the mele rks the that happen the bridge there. >> steve, i don't understand. how did this start? >> well, reports coming out were that the bridge has actually got electric lights on either side of it. once the water canons were fired at the crowd, then that caused electric shocks across the crowd. also, some witnesses were saying that police were also shot. and that's when people started falling in the water. we have authorities pulling people out of the water and taking them to a hospital. it was -- it was chaos. >> does cambodia have the kind of supplies or infrastructure to deal with this kind of tragedy that we're seeing here? >> i mean, it doesn't. it doesn't have a very good health care system. but certainly the police and the ambulances that arrived were doing a very good job of ferrying people away from the scene. there were a lot of emergency vehicles coming down to the bridge where it took place. i was at one of the hospitals. that was definitely overcrowded. it's one of the main hospitals in the city. so, yeah, we saw that the hospitals were struggling to cope last night. >> all right. steve, this is a difficult story to cover. we really appreciate your giving us these details. we certainly hope that survivors will be able to carry on. again, a really -- just a tragic story out of cambodia. appreciate it, steve. well, he wants the controversial airport security pat-downs banned, but that is not all congressman ron paul wants. he says the body scanners need to go as well. he is here to explain why. plus, wikileaks, the website that has leaked thousands of war documents, says its biggest leak is yet to come. (announcer) everything you need to stretch out on long trips. residence inn. don't want to deal with a lot of flibbity-flab or mumbo-jumbo. sounds like you need to name your price. no gobbledy-gook? never. do i still get all the dagnabbit coverage i need? sure. we give you a quote and you can adjust your price up and down to find something that works for you. ♪ this thing is okey-mcsmokey skiddly-doo. great! i think. diggity. oh! still not sure. the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. call or click today. almost a decade after her death, there is a verdict now in the chandra levy murder case. kate baldwin is monitoring that and the other top stories coming into "the situation room" right now. ka kate? >> a jury has found ingmar guandique guilty of killing chandra levy back in 2001. the case made headlines when gary condit was questioned and his relationship with levy was revealed, although condit was never a suspect. guandique could get life in prison. and the families of two american hikers held by iran are pleading for their release for thanksgiving. shane bauer and josh futalweatte arrested along with sarah shourd last year. sarah was ruleaseleased in sept. and the group that's released thousands of reports on the wars in iraq and afghanistan is promising something bigger. wikileaks and its founder say a new release of previously classified documents is on its way. and they say this batch will be seven times the size of the last leak, which contained almost 400,000 iraq war reports. here's an interesting one for you. the album that john lennon autographed for his killer is being sold. asking price, $850,000. christmas is coming up. lennon signed a copy of the album for mark david chavpman just hours before chapman gunned him down. police returned the album to the maintenance worker who found it. he sold it to an anonymous buyer for $165,000 a decade ago. there is something just a little bit dark about wanting to buy an album like that. >> it's kind of creepy. >> okay. not what i'm getting you for christmas. >> thank you, kate. appreciate it. again, we are talking about aggravation at the airports. are pat-downs just something you'll have to put up with? i'll talk with security versus privacy with john pistole and congressman ron paul. and he got an "a" on his college essay that discussed his addiction to war. but now an iraqi vet is barred from campus. three. two. one. ♪ don't cha wish your work phone was hot like me?... ♪ the droid pro by motorola knows you need business on the go. with its powerful 1 gigahertz processor... ♪ da da da don't cha... ♪ its globetrotting wi-fi hotspotting swagger... it knows you want a rich web experience with adobe flash and access to over 100,000 android apps. finally a work phone worth taking home. this is norma. who's inundated with all the information coming at her concerning the medicare part d changes this year. so she went to her walgreens pharmacist for guidance and a free personalized report that looks at her prescriptions and highlights easy ways for her to save. because norma prefers her painting to paperwork. see how much you can save. get your free report today. expertise -- find it everywhere there's a walgreens. get your free report today. fifteen percent or more on car insurance? does a former drill sergeant make a terrible therapist? patient: and that's why yellow makes me sad. i tnk. sarge: that's interesting. you know what makes me sad? you do! maybe we should chug on over to mambie pambie land sawhere maybe can find some yoself-confidence for you.? ya jackwagon! tissue? crybaby. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. well, between body scans and frisking, airport screeners have touched a nerve among the traveling public. the result, an uproar over pat-downs. joining me here, fran townsend. she was homeland security advisor to president george w. bush and serves on the homeland security advisory board. and from texas via skype, ron paul. thank you so much, both of you, for joining us here in "the situation room." i want to start off with you, congressman. there is the -- the tsa has put an announcement out for travelers who are traveling over the holiday weekend saying if you have to have one of those enhanced patdowns, it would take place in a private area and they could be accompanied by someone to watch what was taking place. does that give you any comfort in thinking that perhaps people will not feel as violated, as disturbed by that intimate process? >> well, i think they should feel violated. all you have to do is look at some of the pictures. the people are outraged over it. they're not feeling safer because of it. they just feel like the government has overstepped their bounds. they don't want to be x-rayed. there's questions about x-rays. there's questions about malfunctions of the x-rays. there's no evidence that this is going to make anybody any safer. and there's actually some pretty good bomb experts that testified that the bomb from the underwear bomber, the material he had, he had a long way to go before he would have been able to explode something, yet i would say this is an understatement that we have overreacted to what hapand year ago. >> fran, you understand security intimately from the ground up. tell us, does this make a difference here? is the congressman right when he says this really doesn't matter? >> no. i mean, let's be clear. the same bomb-maker who made the christmas-day detroit attempted bomb, the guy with the bomb in his underwear s the same one who was behind this most recent package coming out of yemen. it's a sophisticated bomb-maker. the government is worried that as he adapts that they may not be able to catch it. so while there's been many problems with the way the government has gone about explaining what they're doing and training their employees to to it properly, let's be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. we have to be very careful during a period of increased threat to make sure we're appropriately screening. i think the government understands they haven't gone about this very well. john pistole issued a statement saying they'll be mindful to try to be less -- as least intrusive as possible. i think they've got a long way to go to convince the american people this is right. but we don't want to intimidate them into not doing it at all. >> congressman, you're shaking your head. why? >> we're dealing with a created problem. it's a manufactured problem. i mean, we got to look at it in the proper perspective. first, you can't have perfect safety. another thing is the odds of any person in this country getting killed by a terrorist is less than getting struck by lightning. i mean, just think. in the last ten years, things have done pretty well because they put a gun in the cockpit and they locked the door. but to destroy our liberties, throw away the constitution, don't care about the fourth amendment and cavalierly say, well, the people want to be safe, it's good to sacrifice our liberties and on and on, but, you know, there's no going back on this. this one -- the government gets away with a lot. they won't pay attention to all the killing going on overseas. they get confused about the financial crisis. i'll tell you what, this prodding, the people have had it and they're not going to put up with it. it's a great issue to call the attention to the american people how abusive our government is. they're supposed to protect our liberties, not be engaged in destroying our liberties. >> fran, those are pretty serious accusations. >> let's be clear. the congressman says that this is a manufactured problem. it's a problem manufactured by our enemies and al qaeda who have been trying to blow up airplanes. >> why? why do they want to come after us? did you ever ask that question? >> i don't really care why. i want to be safe. >> you've got to ask that. that's why we're not getting anywhere. you've got to find out why. we're over there fighting a war against the taliban. the taliban are not even part of the al qaeda. we're spending trillions of dollars trying to kill taliban, creating more al qaeda. if you don't ask that question -- >> the taliban is very closely aligned to quooal qaeda and the methods. we have to be clear that this is -- they have obsessed -- al qaeda is obsessed with aviation. they want to target it and kill americans. the government has an obligation to act against that. >> congressman, you -- >> that's what you're doing. the kids are having to take their clothes off. why does a woman have to remove her breast implant in order for somebody to be guaranteed that she's not a bomber? this is ensignty. this is not logic. >> i agree, those examples are egregious. congressman, i agree with you. those examples are -- >> let's let fran respond, please. fran, go ahead. >> i agree the congressman, suzanne. those examples are egregious. and what we hope that -- is that those are the exceptions. and tsa has got a responsible to ensure those are the exceptions and that action is taken against the most egregious violations that are not consistent with their own policies. they have to make sure people are appropriately trained and that these searches are not an opportunity for abuse. the government has a very severe responsibility to ensure that. >> i'm going to have to leave it at that. congressman ron paul, we appreciate your time as well as fran townsend. we will be able to speak with the head of the tsa, john pistole, very shortly after this break. up to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan called the humana walmart-. it's a new plan that covers both brand ans and has the lowest-pricednatioy of only $14.80 per month and in-store copays as . when you could save over, you can focus on the things . ♪ go to walmart.com for details. i've been looking at the numbers, and i think our campus is spending too much money on printing. i'd like to put you in charge of cutting costs. calm down. i know that it is not your job. what i'm saying... excuse me? alright, fine. no, you don't have to do it. ok? [ male announcer ] notre dame knows it's better for xerox to control its printing costs. so they can focus on winning on and off the field. [ manager ] are you sure i can't talk -- ok, no, i get it. [ male announcer ] with xerox, you're ready for real business. an iraq war veteran wrote in graphic terms about his addiction to war. he received an "a" on his essay at a maryland community college, but after it was published in the school newspaper, he was barred from campus. i want to go live to barbara starr. barbara, tell us what this is all about. how did this come about? >> well, you know, charles witti witti witti wittington is an iraq war veteran. he came home and is going to college in baltimore, maryland. he wrote an essay for his class. it was published in a school publication entitled "war is a drug." now he finds himself banned from the college campus. let me read just a little bit of what he said in this very graphic essay. he said, quote, killing becomes a drug and it is really addictive. i had a really hard time with this problem when i returned to the united states because turning this addiction off was impossible. to this day, i still feel the addictions running through my blood, throughout my body, but now i know i have to keep myself composed and keep order in myself, my mind. when the college administrators saw this, they became concerned about his state of mind and said he had to stay off campus, out of his classes until he got a psychological violation. we went to baltimore and spoke to charles wittington. >> i'm not saying i'm going to do anything. i'm not. i was just telling -- trying to spread awareness and self-therapy, i guess, for myself, you know. trying to help myself cope with things and get over things. i'm not a threat at all. i mean, i'm not there to cause anyone harm or to threaten anyone. i'm there for myself so i can graduate college and move on with my life. >> this combat veteran writing very graphically says he is not a threat but the campus wanted the psychological violation because they say in this post-virginia tech world, they have to be assured of campus safety. you remember virginia tech, the massacre in 2007 that killed more than 30 people on that campus. >> right. >> but this young soldier, this young veteran says he's not a threat to anybody. >> thank you, barbara. we are going to get more on the controversy raging over the airport security pat-downs. the head of the tsa is going to join us live, up next. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. [ male announcer ] lately there's been a lot of talk about plug-in cars. we've got one. it's called the volt. ♪ fuel efficiency and hybrids are hot topics too. and we've got cars like that. even trucks. but we believe we can do even more. starting today, when you buy a chevrolet, we'll invest in renewable-energy, energy-efficiency, and tree-planting programs across america. over the next few years, these initiatives will reduce carbon emissions by up to eight million metric tons. that's like planting a forest the size of yellowstone. what do we call this program? we call it a start -- and one more way that today, tomorrow, and on into a better future we can proudly say: "chevy runs deep." ♪ back to our top story. the backlash over tough security measures at the nation's airports. some passengers will face body scans. others may get patted down by screeners. now, while most accept these measures as necessary in the face of an ongoing terror threat, others are outraged. joining me now, john pistole. thank you so much for joining us in "the situation room." you were at the white house this afternoon. tell us why. >> well, the whole purpose is to address the current threat environment that we're dealing with and the security protocols that we have in place to address the security threats, trying to make sure that we are doing everything we can while respecting the privacy of the traveling public so that blending of privacy and security and how best do we calibrate that? >> who did you talk to? >> just senior advisers at the white house and other agencies. >> is there -- was the president involved in these conversations? >> the president was involved in conversations about this, but i was not in that conversation. >> is the president happy with the job that you've been doing, in communicating these kind of screening measures and why they're necessary? >> well, i would defer to the president on that. but what's been related to me is that we are doing everything we can, again, to provide the best possible security, to make sure that people have a high level of confidence, that they will arrive at their destination safety and that we are doing all that while we're trying to respect the privacy of those individuals who have concerns about that. >> i was in lisbon when the president was asked about this. he said that he has been in constant communication with the tsa, specifically over the sensitivity of this issue and trying to strike a balance. what is your understanding about the president and how he feels about the job you've been doing and what needs to happen to move forward? >> well, the president is obviously focused on the security of the american people to make sure that they don't get blown up in an airplane. and so that's -- that's the bottom line. the challenge is how can we do less invasive type of security at airports as the president talked about? how can we do that in a meaningful fashion? so that's what i am reviewing now to assess whether the current pat-downs are the best opportunity for doing that, using the best technology, to make sure that we are providing that best opportunity to detect and deter terrorists. >> will passengers see anything different during this holiday season? will these enhanced pat-downs and scanning take place or will there be changes? >> no, the -- the public will see what we have been working on the last several weeks in terms of they have the option to not go through the advanced imaging technology. in the 70 or so airports where we have those machines. if they do opt out of that, they'll receive a thorough pat-down to make sure that we don't have another christm christmas-day-type bomber. if people go to the tsa.gov website, they'll have a lot of information to prepare them. because the best-informed traveler is the best way to get through the checkpoints safety, securely and on a timely basis to make sure they can make those flights. >> have you any intelligence that would indicate that these enhanced pat-downs are necessary at this time of travel, the timing of this, the fact that this is now the vacation, the thanksgiving holiday? >> well, of course we've been informed by a number of inspector general and goa reports about successful covert testing where undercover agents have been able to get through security over the last five years. one of the issues is what steps have we taken because one of the common findings is -- one of the common findings were -- was that we were not being thorough enough in our pat-downs. >> do we think there's a threat that would happen during this period of time, this -- >> so we know there is a current advisory for travel to europe and we know the same people who have an interest in attacking europe have an interest in the u.s. we've seen a clear aviation focus given last christmas and then the cargo plot just here in the last month by the same bomb-maker and so that is the concern that they are targeting, the holiday period. that's what we're dealing with. >> i want to bring up the fact -- i'm sure you've heard these stories. you know, obviously there are tsa employees who are trying to do their jobs in a very dignified and professional way. there have been horror stories, quite frankly, from others who have experienced what they feel is sexual abuse and incen insensitivi insensitivity. one man said he had a pat-down by officials. here's what he told us on cnn's "american morning" abo boubout experience. >> it was embarrassed. i'm -- it's been three years for me, so i'm used to this now, but it's not something i like to show the world. one of the biggest fears for all patients is that we'll have a leak in public, let alone in an airport. >> now, i understand that because of the way that he was treated, he says he was covered in urine. it was very embarrassing to him. have you reached out to him and others that due an apology? >> i did reach out because i was concerned when i heard this report because we -- our goal is to treat each and every traveler with dignity and respect. if that doesn't happen, want to take corrective action. i wanted to get all the facts about the matter so i did reach out for him. his concern was that he tried to explain the situation to the security officer who did not want to pry into his personal life so he actually offered at the end of the conversation to provide training to our officers from the standpoint of -- if you encounter somebody like this with this type of external medical device, here's how you can best engage them. >> john pistole, thank you so much. head of the tsa. good luck this week. it's going to be a challenging one all around. >> thank you. really appreciate it. >> thank you. warren buffett says that rich people should be paying a lot more in taxes. we want to know if you agree. jack cafferty is standing by with your e-mail. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you guys tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. rethink possible. time now to check back in with the cafferty file. hey, jack. >> suzanne, the question this hour warren buffett said rich people ought to be paying a lot more in taxes. do you agree? jeff in minnesota we need to go to a tax code that is simpler and straightforward. a think a graduated tax with fewer or no deductions would be the best way to get this done. that way everyone pays their share. there's little or no paperwork to filing your taxes and the government doesn't have to invest in super computers to process our returns every year. dane in fort lauderdale writes the rich should should pay more tacks. -- taxes. agge that writes if buffet thinks he should pay more taxes his share will compensate for the wasted taxpayer money. i would prefer to waste my own money that i work so hard for rather than let congress and the white house waste it. they don't know the value of someone else's dollar. ray in georgia, rich people should give poor people a job, pay them wages, unemployment benefits, social security, health benefits, make their house payments and if it doesn't all work out then give them ever lasting unemployment checks. why work at all if you can get it for free? al in delaware rights the republicans favor the rich, the democrats the middle class. the contrast couldn't be clearer. with warren buffett behind him president obama has a chance to take a strong stance on something the majority of the people would back him on, but knowing him he'll probably wimp out and let the rich people's party have its way. joanie in wisconsin writes the rich find a loop hole. what is stopping buffet and his pals from sending more money to the treasury. put your money where your mouth is. richard writes why shouldn't the rich pay more. what's left of the middle class has been paying more than our share for years. leave the rich alone when is the last time a poor man offered you a job. if you want to read more, go to my blog cnn.com/caffertyfile. >> thank you. up next, sarah palin's new book, we've got the excerpts. [ male announcer ] opportunity is a powerful force. set it in motion... and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy. one opportunity leading to another... and another. we all have a hand in it. because opportunity can start anywhere, and go everywhere. let's keep it moving. ♪ (announcer) everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn. sarah palin's new book comes out tomorrow, but we have managed to buy a copy and our brian todd has been going through it. brian, what are we learning about this new book? >> we've busted down the doors of every book store in town. our intern did, truth be told. we did buy a copy of it. interesting quotes in this book, "america by heart." sarah palin out with it. we did buy a copy today. what is interesting is a little bit of self-blame on the part of sarah palin for i guess the period where her daughter bristol got pregnant. i'll read you a quote here. when my then 17-year-old daughter dropped the bomb on todd and me with her announcement spinning momentarily. bristol was a good girl. this was not supposed to happen. and what was interesting, kind of later in that same passage, she said, i assumed that bristol was making only wise decisions while staying with my sister in anchorage. i kick myself to this day for myselfish assumption. i made a mistake. refreshing self-blame on the part of sarah palin. she, of course, as you would expect, kind of slams the obama administration for that arizona law that was passed on immy grags, checking the status of people arrested in arizona. quote, as soon as the arizona law was passed the obama administration shifted into a familiar mode, apologizing for america, before foreign audiences. some political charge here in sarah palin's book, some personal revelation. interesting to see someone in the public light talk about a painful episode in her family. >> you're just beginning to go through this. when you look at the excerpts who do you think her audience is, who do you think she's speaking to? it sounds like perhaps those who already know and like her. >> i think so. she is very good at playing to her base. it does look like she's playing to those people who are her followers who like her, are going to watch her reality show. those are the kind of people she wants to expand upon and play upon. now, you know, she's dropping some serious hints about running for the presidency. this book is well timed in that regard to kind of get the interests going. i guess we're going to be exploring this in the days ahead. >> timing as well. her daughter on "dancing with the stars" so she's been in the audience, very supportive of her daughter and taking some of the heat for some of the mistakes, so -- >> that's right. >> timing as well.
Related Keywords
Louisiana , United States , Phnom Penh , B11 , Cambodia , Alaska , Turkey , China , Delaware , Minnesota , Portugal , Russia , Washington , District Of Columbia , Charlotte , North Carolina , Berkeley , California , Arizona , India , South Carolina , Iowa , Ireland , Chicago , Illinois , Baltimore , Maryland , West Point , Pyongyang , P Yongyang Si , North Korea , Lisbon , Lisboa , New Hampshire , Texas , Iran , Afghanistan , Virginia , Wisconsin , Georgia , Pakistan , Thailand , Iraq , Israel , Idaho , Yemen , Americans , America , Russian , Pakistani , Thai , Afghan , North Korean , Iraqi , Cambodian , Israeli , Irish , American , Barnie Duncan , Max Conrad , Ellis Hobbs , Bobby Jindal , Shane Bauer , David Albright , Ron Paul , John Lennon , Mary Matalin , John Pistole , Steve Finch , Tracey Lloyd , David Axelrod , David Plouffe , Al Qaeda , Brooke Baldwin , Kate Baldwin , Bristol Palin , David Gergen , Sam Walton , Barbara Bush , Warren Buffett , Barbara Starr , Tsa John Pistole , Notre Dame , Kate , Kurt Warner , Katie Couric , Barack Obama , Carol Browner , George W Bush , Mike Huckabee , Ingmar Guandique , Sarah Palin , Brian Fishman , Brian Todd , Hillary Clinton , Sanjay Gupta ,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.