Air Terror Alert in India; The Plight of the Orphans
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good Friday morning to you. It's January 22nd. Glad you are with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories that we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes. We begin this morning with breaking news: a terror alert in India. Aviation officials issuing a warning for the country's airports after intelligence agencies uncover reports that al Qaeda was plotting to hijack a plane. According to India media, the plot targeted an Air India or Indian Airlines flight destined for a neighboring south Asian country.</s>CHETRY: Well, hundreds of Haiti's orphans in jeopardy this morning. Food and medical supplies are dwindling and so is hope for the people trying to save them. Our Anderson Cooper is live in Port- au-Prince where time is running out for some of the most helpless victims of last week's earthquake.</s>ROBERTS: A year after President Obama promised to reach across the aisle, it's uglier than ever. Carol Costello sat down with someone from the left and someone of the right to find out why.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. So, a Republican and a Democrat sitting together. You don't see that very often, like close together, and you actually like each other.</s>ROBERTS: The new arrival of the Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown makes a difference. Carol's live report is coming up just ahead. We begin, though, this morning with breaking news. A terror alert -- a hijacking threat in India. Airports are on high alert after Indian intelligence warned that al Qaeda-linked militants want to take over a plane. Our Paula Newton is watching this for us, live from London this morning. And, Paula, what are we learning today?</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, John. We're learning that enhanced security procedures will be used across India. Now, what's interesting here is the specific threat from chatter derived from intelligence information that they were actually trying to hijack an airplane. And you might ask yourself, is that still possible? Well, I think we've listed some of the countries at risk, talking flights in and out of India from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma. And for those reason, Air India is now confirming that there are enhanced security procedures. The civil aviation ministry telling us, you're talking about more sky marshals, more pat-downs, John, and certainly, enhanced security at every single point through those India airports. Again, John, this really is a</s>ROBERTS: Paula, in situations like this, where we often talk about the quality, the credibility of the so-called chatter. Do we have any idea of what kind of credibility there is to this - this intelligence?</s>NEWTON: Credible enough that they felt that when they look at these countries, again, countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh that they could, perhaps, either on Air India, the national carrier, one of the larger private airlines, actually succeed in taking over that airplane. And that is they have these enhanced security procedures. But, you know, John, we saw a similar -- not in particular, hijacking, but we saw security alerts through Canada, couple of week ago. Again, authorities being very careful and really not wanting to go judge that chatter by the same basis they would have before the attempted bombing at Christmastime.</s>ROBERTS: And reports this morning, Paula, that 120 al Qaeda suspects have been arrested in raids early this morning in Turkey. Is there any possible connection?</s>NEWTON: So far, no information about that. But interesting here as well because security authorities in Turkey, simultaneously, 16 provinces, 120 suspects. Interesting, they are still going through documents and computers, trying to look for any kinds of seeds of a plot. Also, some high-ranking academics, according to Turkey's officials have been taken into custody. They are charged for trying to recruit terrorists to go to Afghanistan to attack troops there -- John.</s>ROBERTS: Paula Newton for us this morning in London -- Paula, thanks.</s>CHETRY: And there are some new developments out of Haiti this morning. A brief aftershock sending hundreds fleeing to the streets that happened just hours ago. But there was little damage, just some badly frayed nerves when it happened. And a monumental challenge for the Haitian government -- they are preparing to bus 400,000 homeless earthquake victims out of Port-au- Prince, and into newly built resettlement camps on the outskirts of the capital. Also, the U.S. military gearing up for a possible influx of Haitian immigrants by setting up beds and tents at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. So, there is a lot happening in Haiti this morning. The most heartbreaking is the plight of these orphans. There were 380,000 of them before the earthquake struck, and there's no telling how many more there are now. Our Anderson Cooper is live in Port-au-Prince this morning. A lot of these children, Anderson, who made it through the disaster, now there are concerns they may not survive the aftermath. What's going on?</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we were at the pediatric ward at general hospital yesterday and saw this little boy Johnny, who, his parents have died. He had no clothes. He had a broken leg. And the nurses, the Haitian-American nurses and doctors who are there, who had come from the New York area, to do what they could, you know, they didn't have any place to send him. And they had treated his leg. Normally, he would have been discharged and his parents would have taken him home. But, you know, the nurse -- the doctor I spoke with was saying, you know, I'm not -- I can't send him out into the streets. And there's not really a system in place yet to deal with this new influx of kids who don't have parents. There are no actual numbers at this point of how many there are. But, you know, we have seen -- I personally met many kids whose parents are gone. A lot of times, they are being cared for by a distant relative or even a family friend or just somebody who kind of takes them in. There is a tradition in Haiti of large extended families and, you know, people taking one another in, people really look after one another here. But it's going to be a real -- kind of in the next wave of the relief effort, they're going to have to figure out a way to kind of build new orphanages, or just develop some sort of a system for this new generation of orphans.</s>COOPER (voice-over): Outside the crumbling pediatric ward at general hospital, a nurse sings of God and grace.</s>COOPER: You can't hear the singing inside the pediatric tent... WANDA SMILEY (ph), 11</s>YEARS OLD: Mama!</s>COOPER: ... because Wanda Smiley can't stop screaming. She's 11 years old. Her legs are broken. No one sure exactly what else is wrong. Nearby, a little boy with a broken leg sits silently, watching it all. His name is Johnny. He doesn't know his last name. His parents are dead. He has no clothes and nowhere else to go.</s>DR. MARIE FRANCE CONDE: Right now, he has a broken leg, a broken foot (ph), a femur, as well as a broken -- he has several fractures on that leg. But no one is here for him.</s>COOPER (on camera): What will happen to him?</s>CONDE: Last night, I did not sleep thinking about Johnny because I got up. I said, maybe I should take Johnny home. And I said, I know it's not going to be possible.</s>COOPER (voice-over): For kids whose parents are dead, there is no clear system. That's part of the planning that needs to be done.</s>CONDE: We don't have much. That's all we have.</s>COOPER: Dominique Toussaint, a Haitian-American nurse from Harlem doesn't cry in front of the children. But outside the tent, she's overcome by it all.</s>DOMINIQUE TOUSSAINT, HAITIAN-AMERICAN NURSE: Everybody has infections. It seems as though to me like they're going to eventually die. I don't even have someplace to wash my hands. I have one bottle of hand sanitizer. We can't do anything under sterile technique. It's impossible not to have, you know, horrible infections. You know, the medications we're giving them, we could use some stronger medications. We don't have them.</s>COOPER (on camera): It also seems like a lot of the medication, the supplies you do have are not built for children. They're not geared for children.</s>TOUSSAINT: They're not. Like I just went to get an oxygen tank, it took forever to get the tank. It took forever to get a mask. The mask we have is probably too big to even put on my face, it looks big (ph). We have no -- the needles on our syringes are too long. We have nothing for the kids. It's like the kids are forgotten almost.</s>COOPER: It's like the kids are forgotten.</s>TOUSSAINT: Yes. So, we're just doing the best we can. I mean, it's frustrating, I just -- I'm overwhelmed.</s>COOPER (voice-over): It is overwhelming for nurses and children. The injured keep coming. There's no space to be had.</s>COOPER: One of the big frustrations for the doctors and nurses who are working with these kids, is that a lot of the medical supplies that they are getting, and they don't have enough, but even what they are getting are not designed for children, it's not the right doses for children. The needles are too big to put in their little arms. I should also point out, Kiran, that we actually had an aftershock while you guys were playing that report, and we had another one in probably about 10 minutes ago when Chris Lawrence was on. So, it's kind of unsettling morning.</s>CHETRY: Well, I can only imagine. Anderson, you know, we spoke to one of the captains of the USNS Comfort. You know, they're there. They're tending the patients. They said they've already seen 250, that these patients are being flown to them. They have the beds. They have the doctors. They have all of the supplies. Why can't some of these children go there?</s>COOPER: Well, they are. There's no doubt. In fact, while I was there, there was a great U.S. medic, and I wish I knew his name, but he was working so much, I didn't want to interrupt him to ask. But he identified one kid who had severe facial injuries, his whole head had swollen up, clearly needed surgery and pretty advanced kind of surgery, this medic, you know, got this -- got some other Army guys, guys from the 82nd Airborne, they put him on a stretcher, they took him to</s>CHETRY: So, we see your stories where the kids there are suffering, screaming and they have nothing to give them. We saw Sanjay make his way by himself to the airport where he'd seen tons and tons of medical supplies that need to be out there to the people that are still standing at the airport. I mean, have you -- have you gotten any word or seen whether or not that is starting to free up?</s>COOPER: Well, you know, there are a lot of good people on all -- on all ends of the supply chain who, you know, want to get the stuff out. I mean, all the folks working at the airport, they want it to get out. You know, there has been a big reliance -- a big fear about security. And I think that's maybe kind of colored the way. Some aid organizations have operated, some places are obviously unsafe and you need security; some place is less so. But there's sort of this blanket rule about security. That may be slowing things up. But I think -- I think all the relief workers are hoping now that, you know, it's been this long at least, and the systems seem to be established and there's more people spread out on the ground that it's going to start flowing fast enough, but it's incredibly frustrating for everyone.</s>CHETRY: All right. Anderson Cooper for us this morning. As he said, two aftershocks just in a few minutes, last 20 minutes. Thanks, Anderson. Well, at 8:30, we're going to be joined by Mark Stuart. He is the co-founder of the Hands and Feet Project in Haiti, currently caring for dozens of orphans. And wait until you hear the hoops that he has been jumping through to try to get more help to the most desperate victims.</s>ROBERTS: Ten days have passed since that Tuesday of the earthquake and the window of survivability rapidly beginning to close. One of the teams that's been out there working, oh, so hard to try to save people from the rubble is the urban search and rescue team from Miami-Dade County. We'll be talking to members of that team coming right up. You do want to hear what they have to say. It's 12 1/2 minutes after the hour.