[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] You're in the SITUATION ROOM. Happening now An extraordinary meeting, top executives of BP summoned to the White House to face President Obama and finally yielding to demands for a multibillion dollar compensation fund. Also, a grim tour of the once burden wetlands are now being called the ground zero area of the oil disaster where both wildlife and livelihoods are falling victim to the crude. And a race against time to reach thousands of birds doom to an oil depth unless rescuers could find them. We go along on the search. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in the SITUATION ROOM. It started with an apology from BP's chairman of the board, then four hours, he and top executives squared off with top members of the Obama administration, including the president, himself, to discuss the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. By the time it was over, BP had agreed to establish a $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill, plus an additional $120 billion fund for laid off oil workers. The president called it an important step.
[Allan Chernoff, Cnn Senior Correspondent:] BP's most senior figure emerges from the White House and from the shadows, to offer an apology to the American people for this environmental nightmare, and some backhanded sounding sympathy.
[Carl-henric Svanberg, Bp Board Chairman:] I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.
[Chernoff:] It was Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP's board of directors who sat solemnly across from President Obama with his second in command, CEO, Tony Hayward next to him. BP officials said Svanberg was not available to be interviewed for this story. Who is this previously invisible exec who makes more than a million dollars a year?
[Svanberg:] I want like my life back.
[Chernoff:] One reason Svanberg's been so low key, corporate cultural differences. In Europe, the board chairman is often separate from the CEO, a bottom line finance oriented executive while the CEO masters the technical piece, but other crucial factors are at play in this situation. Carl-Henric Svanberg's only been BP's chairman since January, only joined the company last September, and prior to that, he had no experience in the oil industry, having served for six years as president and CEO of mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson, Dan Hays, a management consultant for the telephone industry says Svanberg got high marks for turning that company around. Can you speak to his management style at all? What was he known for in that realm?
[Daniel Hays, Prtm Management Consulting:] He's known as really being a guy who gets hand's on in operations. He is able to come in and help make some of the difficult choices and help drive things into execution. He also has a very, very powerful reputation for being customer-focused. He gets out there and he meets with the stakeholders and the customers of the companies that he works with.
[Chernoff:] The chink in Svanberg's armor, according to Hays, he left Sony Ericsson before the turnaround was complete, and the company was still struggling. Will Svanberg replace Tony Hayward? A BP official tells CNN Hayward has the full backing of the board. An analyst at one executive recruiting firm says that may only be a matter of timing.
[Roger Kenny, Ctpartners:] You can bet that there's somebody in the wings, but I would suspect they're not going take any action until this thing is complete.
[Chernoff:] And could Carl-Henric Svanberg be on the chopping block? Well, analysts say in Europe, there's more of a clamor for him to be fired than for Hayward to be fired, but he may get a temporary pass since he's been there such a short time. After awhile, one analyst told me, however, he too may fall victims of corporate bad channels maneuvers by other board members what this analysts called a a posse of men in suits. That's usually how it happens in the corporate world, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Yes. Here's the question I have two questions. Why would BP hire someone without any really oil industry experience and the second question is why would he want this job if he didn't have any oil industry experience?
[Chernoff:] Wolf, the second part that's unclear. He didn't want to be interviewed by CNN. We didn't get the chance to ask him. That's a good question. It might have been the challenge that he could have face, maybe the money. Now, as far as why they would hire him, I asked that analyst, Dan Hays, about that, he said that Svanberg had a good reputation as a very strong corporate leader and expert of turning companies around, had a very solid European business background of leading countries through very challenging times. That was very attractive to BP, and remember, they were on hard times when he joined them. Both he and Tony Hayward have must be said have turned that company around in three years that Hayward has been there leading up to the spill. Hayward had a pretty good reputation, himself, before this happened.
[Blitzer:] Until now.
[Chernoff:] Until now.
[Blitzer:] All right. Thanks very much, and his testimony tomorrow before Congress, we'll watch that closely. After the meeting of four hours of talks over at the White House, the president emerged and said this.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] Currently, under federal law, there is a $75 million cap of how much oil companies could under certain circumstances be required to pay for economic damages resulting from a spill such as this. That amount, obviously, would be insufficient. That's why I'm pleased to announce that BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion to pay claims for damages resulting from this spill. This $20 billion will provide substantial assurance. The claims people and businesses have will be honored. It's also important to emphasize this is not a cap. People of the Gulf have my commitment that BP will meet its obligations to them.
[Blitzer:] And only a few minutes after the president spoke, Svanberg emerged and told reporters that BP is suspending its quarterly dividend for the rest of the year. He says the company will revisit the issue next year when it has a better idea of how much the cleanup and the legal fees from the Gulf disaster will cost. The news boosted BP's stock, by the way, which had fallen 50 percent since the crisis erupted. It closed up 1.4 percent today. Now, we want to take you to what's being called the ground zero of the Gulf, an area in the Louisiana Bay where the crude is taking a heavy toll, a very heavy toll on both fishermen and wildlife. CNN's Mary Snow is joining us from there. Mary, you were out in the water today. You had a chance to see it up close. Tell our viewers what you saw.
[Mary Snow, Cnn Correspondent:] Wolf, we really concentrated today on marshes several miles out of the coast, and they are damaged by oil, badly damaged. And Barataria Bay is becoming increasingly concern about it because some areas have seen some of the deepest reaches of the oil spill. We were out there today with scientists, and they're very concerned, because the bay is home to fragile wetlands and it's teeming with wildlife.
[Snow:] Pulling up to this marshland about ten miles from the coast of Grand Isle, a sign that the war against oil is being lost. Booms so saturated they've been rendered useless.
[Mike Blum, Tulane University:] You need people out there maintaining it. People out there should changing this out, so obviously, this is spent. You're not going to see anything other than that.
[Snow:] Tulane University ecologist, Mike Blum and the environmental group, Natural Resources Defense Council took us out on the boat to call attention to how badly damaged marshes are at Barataria Bay and the long-term implications. While there are stepped up efforts to clean up these marshes, there are hundreds of these islands, and on this one, the damage is done. So, in order to do it effectively here, what was needed?
[Blum:] Here's what I would say, it's too late.
[Lisa Suatoni, Natural Resources Defense Council:] What we are seeing right now with these marshes oiled is the ring around the bathtub.
[Snow:] Where waters are shallow, we were able to get a firsthand look at some of the damage.
[Blum:] It's not something that you can tell until you actually get on the land and you start looking at the details, but, this is not a good indication at all. And you can see, this is the same, this is all across the shoreline.
[Snow:] The big concern is what's to become of the habitat for shrimp, crab, and snails. As the marshes were choked off by oil, a whole way of life is endangered.
[Blum:] Thinking about what these communities have suffered since hurricane Katrina, a lot of them are already at a threshold where they can't respond to additional events and so a one-year event or an event that's going to shut them down for a year, that may be enough where the communities decide to up and go, go somewhere else, because they can't maintain their livelihood here.
[Snow:] Wolf, the scientists we were with today really want a long-term commitment on the scientific end. You know, BP has committed hundreds of millions dollars to researchers, but these scientists say they want to make sure that that research is going to be done independently, and they want a long-term commitment. One of the scientists said that we were with today plans to meet with the BP officials tomorrow to discuss just that, and while the pictures today was very discouraging, and the scientists we were with has been going out there for weeks and seeing the damage just really increase over those weeks. He still says in the best case scenario, there is a chance of recovery in three to five years. He's trying to keep his fingers crossed, he told us, and remain optimistic, but obviously, the damage that you saw was pretty grim Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Very grim. All right. Mary is on Grand Isle, Louisiana, right now. Thank you. Jack Cafferty is coming up next. Then, 60,000 barrels a day, that's the latest estimate of the Gulf oil spill. Why is the number going up and up? Should we believe this latest figure? And a different kind of bird hunt. We go along with rescuers trying to save thousands of birds from an oily death. And more than two dozen Americans killed in Afghanistan this month alone. Pointed questions of the U.S. military's central command, General David Petraeus. Jack Cafferty is here with "The Cafferty File" Jack.
[Jack Cafferty, Cnn Anchor:] This may be a sign of things to come right here in the United States, running out of money and drowning in debt, governments across Europe are cutting and cutting and then cutting some more. And the pain is palpable. CNNMoney.com reports what fiscal austerity looks like in countries including Greece, Italy, Spain, Hungry, Portugal, and Ireland are living through it right now. These governments are implementing a wide range of tough measures, and in the process, imposing a dramatic change in lifestyle on the residents. These include freezing public sector wages, state spending, cutting jobs, cutting social welfare benefits, and cutting state and local budgets. Some governments are raising retirement ages, reducing pension payments. Others are increasing taxes from the value-added taxes to higher taxes on gasoline and cigarettes and income and profit taxes as well. It gets worse with the added concern that economic instability could lead to political unrest. Top European officials including the head of the European union are warning that democracy could collapse in Greece, Spain and Portugal, unless, they take urgent action to fix the debt crises. They worry these countries could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as America's debt tops $13 trillion, there's absolutely no indication that our federal government is going to stop spending any time soon. Just this week, President Obama asked for another $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments. Not a single word on where the money is supposed to come from, who is going to pay for it, none of that, just let's print up another $50 billion. At the same time, some statement governments which are actually required by law to balance their budgets are threatening to either cut services or shutdown state governments if lawmakers can't agree on spending cuts. It's getting ugly out there. Here's the question: What would fiscal austerity look like here in the United States? Go to CNN.comcaffertyfile. Post a comment on my blog.
[Blitzer:] Jack Cafferty, thank you. Hundreds of oil birds rescued, but there are untold thousands more that will die unless they can be found in time. Our national correspondent, Gary Tuchman, has more.
[Gary Tuchman:] Deep into the Louisiana marshland, searching for pelicans and gulls struggling to survive.
[Tuchman:] There are thousands of birds just in this one location, one small barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. At any time, every one of these birds could plunge into the water to get a fish and end up mired in oil. And that's what Michael Carlos with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is looking for.
[Michael Carloss, Louisiana Department Of Wildlife And Fisheries:] You see a little opening in that grass? I think he's sitting right in there.
[Tuchman:] We then see it, too, a baby seagull drenched in oil, barely moving. The gull is one of more than 600 visibly oiled birds that have now been rescued in Louisiana since this oil disaster occurred and brought for cleaning and care to a center that has been opened in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana. The bird we have spotted is being rescued by state wildlife workers. Others birds are rescued by federal wildlife workers. However, there are many other bird experts and enthusiasts who want to participate in rescues but are being told at this time by the state and federal agencies they are not interested in help from outsiders. Drew Wheelen from the American Birding Association says there are hundreds people from other parts of the country experienced to dealing with birds covered with oil.
[Drew Wheelen, American Birding Association:] I cannot see any reason why they would not want as many people here as possible.
[Tuchman:] The Humane Society of the United States agrees and the president of the organization saying, we need more trained personnel and boats working in the Gulf, and we need more boats deployed to search in a more systematic way for the animals in distress.
[Unidentified Male:] Throw me some gloves!
[Tuchman:] But the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says, we have the resources to handle the job at hand at this time. The volunteers who have offered services simply need to be ready to respond when the call comes and when that time comes.
[Carloss:] I think the misconception maybe that we're not doing our best, and you know, I would argue that our field staff is doing their absolute best.
[Tuchman:] State officials say even if they haven't dealt with oil spills, they know their birds and their birds' habitats. Plus, they say that almost all boats and housing resources are being used.
[Carloss:] It's a chick, too. You will see it.
[Tuchman:] As our baby seagull is handed over for cleaning, we don't know for sure if it will survive. What we do know for sure is that there is plenty of disagreement about the rescue operation, and that there are many more birds that need to be saved. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Grand Isle, Louisiana.
[Blitzer:] The Obama administration puts the financial squeeze on Iran today with new sanctions against the country's nuclear program, but the direct target isn't Iran. We're going to tell you who is. And Apple's new iPhone and AT&T; are no longer taking advance orders.