Attack on a U.S./Afghan Base; Getting Sandy Victims Back Home
RANDY KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, this is EARLY START WEEKEND. A murder-suicide stuns the NFL. What made the Kansas City Chief's linebacker kill his girlfriend and take his own life. Women in war. Only a few country allow women on the battle lines and now some servicewomen here are suing for that right. Our legal expert weighs in. And he's the first person to visit 200 countries without ever getting on a plane. Wait until you hear how he did it. It is Sunday, December 2nd. Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. We begin this morning in Afghanistan where five people are confirmed dead and at least 18 others wounded after suicide bombers and six gunmen attacked a joint U.S./Afghan base. It happened near the Jalalabad Airfield in eastern Afghanistan. There are no immediate reports of any casualties. And the Taliban is claiming responsibility for the attack. Joining me now by phone from Kabul is journalist Ben Farmer. Ben, the attack is being described as, quote, "complex." Can you walk us through what happened?</s>BEN FARMER, JOURNALIST, (via telephone): Well, it does seem to be complex and ambitious. It began at about 6:00 local time this morning, just after dawn. It began with two suicide car bomb attacks, attacking the gate of Jalalabad Airfield. The vehicles were packed with explosives and driven towards the gate and detonated. That followed a wave of suicide attackers armed with assault rifles. Some also wearing suicide vests. They started to attack the gate guards and the guards on the walls. It was a two-hour fire fight. During that fire fight, helicopters took off from Jalalabad Airfield to join in the battle to fire down on the attackers. The fire fight took about two hours, at the end of which all the attackers were dead. We believe there were about nine in total, including those in the suicide car bombs. Now, the coalition here has said that none of the attackers managed to breach the perimeter defenses and get inside the base.</s>KAYE: And officials say that these three Afghan soldiers and two civilians were killed on this base, which is located in an area that NATO recently turned over to the Afghan forces for security. How could this affect security, do you think, moving forward?</s>FARMER: Well, this handover of security really is what everyone's looking at, at the moment. The strategy is we build up the Afghan army and the Afghan army takes over security duties, combat duties, and that allows all the NATO troops, all the American troops, the British troops and so on, to go home. Now, this attack shows that despite NATO saying that they've reversed the momentum of the insurgency, the Taliban is still more than capable of attacking these big bases, launching well-coordinated, ambitious attacks like this. Does this mean that the strategy will change? I don't think so. This hand over of security duties has been going on for two years now. It really is the main focus of everything that's being done here. The coalition doesn't have a plan "b." I think what this attack shows, though, is that even after things are handed over, they'll be handed over to Afghan forces who are going to have to continue to fight. Certainly after we go home, the Afghans will look like they still will have to fight a lot.</s>KAYE: Ben Farmer for us in Afghanistan this morning. Ben, thank you. Just seven hours from now, the Kansas City Chiefs will play the Carolina Panther. The team deciding not to reschedule today's game after linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend in front of his mother yesterday and then driving to the Chiefs' training facility where he killed himself in front of the head coach and the general manager. Casey Wian is in Kansas City, Missouri, for us this morning. Casey, good morning. Local media is reporting that the two had a fight of some sort following a concert on Friday night. What do you know about that?</s>CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know much about the concert that "The Kansas City Star" is reporting about, but we do know that police say there was some sort of an argument either late Friday night or early Saturday morning before this tragic -- these two tragic shootings happened. We spoke last night with a next door neighbor of Jovan Belcher and of his girlfriend. They had been living in that house for about a year the neighbor told us. The neighbor did not want us to use his name. But he said that the two appeared to have been getting along very, very well. They had a baby just three months ago, born on September 11th. They were both proud parents, very happy by all outward appearances. The neighbor tells us that he heard no fighting overnight. He was up at the time of the shooting, when the girlfriend was shot. He said he heard noises, didn't immediately identify them as gunshots because it's not something they hear in that neighborhood. It's a very nice, upper middle class type neighborhood. He said that he then looked outside and saw Jovan outside of his front door pacing back and forth talking to himself. He then got in his car and drove away and apparently drove here to the Chiefs training facility where he shot and killed himself just a little while later. Randi.</s>KAYE: So it sounds like, Casey, according to that neighbor, that they had a pretty good relationship and hadn't turned violent before. We know that he spoke with his coaches before he shot himself. Do we know what they talked about?</s>WIAN: We don't know what specifically they talked about. We do know that police say that head coach Romeo Crennel and the general manager of the Chiefs, Scott Pioli, both say they never felt like they were in danger. Apparently they were trying to talk him out of harming himself. We spoke with Jovan Belcher's agent last night, who is also the agent for the Kansas City Chiefs' head coach. He said he spoke with the general manager last night very, very briefly. Of course, these men are very distraught about what happened. He says they will press on. They're both very strong men. Absolutely shocked, though, the agent said, who knew Jovan Belcher for a long time. Back into the years when he just got out of college in Maine. He said he was a very strong family man, had a close relationship with his family. He said he wasn't some -- he wasn't the type of agent who speaks with his players all the time, but he gave us a story about how Jovan was such a caring person. He said during Hurricane Sandy, the agent lives in Connecticut, Jovan texted him to make sure that the agent's family was doing all right in the hurricane. So he says it's absolutely out of character for something like this to happen. No previous run-ins with the law that anyone's aware of. So just a lot of shock here, Randi.</s>KAYE: And the child, the couple's child, that child was home at the time, right? And where -- who's caring for that child now?</s>WIAN: Yes, the child was at the home with Kasandra Perkins and Jovan at the time of the shooting. His mother was actually, according to the neighbor, his mother had actually been in town for a couple of weeks for the holidays, and we understand that the child and the mother witnessed the shooting, called 911 after Belcher shot Kasandra Perkins and she is now with the child at another location there. Of course, they're away from the home now, Randi.</s>KAYE: What a tragedy. Casey Wian, our thanks to you. Appreciate that. The Kansas City Chiefs released a statement following the incident yesterday. It reads in part, "the entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today's event, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy. We will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities and work to ensure that the appropriate counseling resources are available." It's been a month since Superstorm Sandy ripped through the northeast, but it seems like an eternity for residents who are struggling to clean up and who say the response from FEMA has been too darn slow. Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti traveled to Staten Island to see if a FEMA-backed program, designed to get homeowners back on their feet, is really working.</s>ROBERT RIBAUDO, HOMEOWNER: If we were here when the storm had ended, everybody here would be under water standing straight up.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Weeks after Superstorm Sandy flooded his basement, Robert Ribaudo is one of the first 150 homeowners getting his home fixed as part of a rapid repairs program run by the city and mainly funded by FEMA. The repairs aren't fancy, just a basic fix to restore electricity, heat, and hot water to make homes livable. Thousands wait in the wings hoping for similar repairs. At a town hall meeting, frustration was everywhere.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are extremely, extremely frustrated. This is what you need to understand.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): How do you think the program is going so far?</s>DEPUTY MAYOR CAS HOLLOWAY, NEW YORK: I think so far the program is going well.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): But New York City Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway is well aware emotions are high.</s>HOLLOWAY: Some of these frustrations go beyond the fact that a repair person maybe isn't showing up as fast as they want them to. I think it just has to do with the magnitude of what people have been through. And it's a lot.</s>CANDIOTTI: New York officials say they have thousands of contractors and supplies beginning to deploy with hopes of eventually repairing at least 200 homes a day. And if contractors don't measure up --</s>HOLLOWAY: We're just going to take work from them and give it to the best performing contractors.</s>CANDIOTTI: FEMA hopes the rapid repairs program, something new for the agency, will turn frustration around.</s>MICHAEL BYRNE, FEMA COORDINATING OFFICER: Government agencies don't change fast. We changed on the dime on this one to do things that had never been done before.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): How would you sum up what happened at that town hall meeting?</s>ALLISON D'AMICO, HOMEOWNER: Nobody knows what they're doing. They have no idea what to do. They're learning as they go along. That's why people were so angry.</s>BYRNE: The storm causes the anger, OK. And we're used to that. What we want to do is get past the anger to solutions. And that's what we're working with people to do.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): With his power restored, Robert Ribaudo is feeling better.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): You're satisfied?</s>RIBAUDO: Yes.</s>CANDIOTTI: You think they did a good job?</s>RIBAUDO: Yes. For a big city of 8 million people and you got service within a couple of days to a week, literally, that's fast.</s>CANDIOTTI: As the rapid repair program enters its second week and contractors fan out, officials hope more homeowners will be as satisfied in the weeks to come. Randi.</s>KAYE: Susan Candiotti, thank you. Well, then there were two. This weekend Alabama rolled over the Georgia Bulldogs 32-28 to earn a spot against undefeated Notre Dame in a big-time battle for the coveted BCS title. The Crimson Tide looking to win back-to-back titles and their third title in four years, which would be an unprecedented achievement. If you thought the campaign season was over, you'd be wrong. Politicians are taking a cue from November's playbook to get their message out about the fiscal cliff. And a highway tunnel comes crashing down while cars are inside, igniting a fire. Several people may still be trapped.