Bull Run on Wall Street; Is the GOP Losing Women?
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Continuing with our developing story today, the alleged gunman in the Fort Hood shootings is now talking. He'll soon face questioning by investigators.</s>CHETRY: This morning, though, it's the feds facing some difficult questions. They knew that he reached out to a radical Muslim cleric, yet apparently no one acted, and now today people are asking why. Here's our investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was inside this suburban Washington mosque that Nidal Hasan may have first heard radical anti-American views. It is a mosque identified in this, the 9/11 Commission report on the attacks of the morning of September 11, 2001. Now, eight years on, the FBI is looking at whose paths may have crossed here at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center. It was in early 2001 a cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen arrives at the mosque. He'd already been the subject of several terrorism investigations but was never arrested or charged. By April of that year, the 9/11 Commission reports two of the 9/11 hijackers were attending services here. And just weeks later, Nidal Hasan chose to hold his mother's funeral services at this same mosque. There is no evidence Nidal Hasan attended the mosque regularly at that time, nor that he ever met with or was influenced by the cleric al-Awlaki who left the United States a year later. Now, al-Awlaki is thought to be in Yemen, where he is on the most wanted terror list. Al-Awlaki has applauded the Fort Hood attacks on his website, calling Nidal Hasan a hero. The mosque authorities denounce both the attacks on Fort Hood and their former Imam, and they dismissed any link between Hasan and the 9/11 plotters.</s>SHAKER ELSAYED, IMAM: To say that he was here when they were here as if they converged on a place, which is not the case. We know better now.</s>GRIFFIN: Meanwhile, in Texas, authorities are trying to track down six people Hasan Nidal had dinner with the very night before the shootings. This man was there, a local imam who said the gathering was for a fellow worshiper about to make a pilgrimage. Hasan was not the focus, but he is now, and all six names of the diners have been turned over to the</s>FBI. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Wednesday night, there was a party dinner. I think six, seven, people are invited. In that party, Nidal also there. So he asked me, who -- who person (ph) -- can you give me the names? So I give the names to the</s>FBI. GRIFFIN: The FBI is also poring over Nidal Hasan's computers -- computers he used or had contact with, trying to find out if the accused killer visited extreme Jihadist websites or even tried to make contact with dedicated terror groups.</s>FRANK CILLUFFO, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: It's obviously very troubling to think that a mass murder has -- has attended some of our events.</s>GRIFFIN: Frank Cilluffo met Nidal Hasan here at George Washington University in Washington, DC where Cilluffo heads the Homeland Security Institute. It turns out Hasan was a frequent attendee at counterterrorism conferences here, including this one in January where Hasan is seen sitting in the second row, in uniform, taking notes and attracting little attention.</s>CILLUFFO: You're going to have folks who aren't necessarily on anyone's radar screens who are coming up with their ideas on their own and then acting on some of those ideas. So, there is no conspiracy. There is nowhere to -- to pull the thread on the investigative chain. So, clearly, that is a concern.</s>GRIFFIN: A concern there are more out there, lone wolves waiting to strike and no clear way just yet how to find them. Drew Griffin, CNN, Washington.</s>CHETRY: Drew Griffin for us. Thanks. Coming up at 7:10 Eastern time, in just about 40 minutes, we're going to be talking to Congressman Peter Hoekstra. He's the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. He calls the mass shooting at Fort Hood a terrorist attack, and he's accusing the government of dragging its feet when it comes to releasing important information about the suspect. John is going to be speaking to him in just about 40 minutes.</s>ROBERTS: And as we approach the half hour, new information this morning about the alleged Fort Hood shooter kicks off our top stories. "The Washington Post" report that back in 2007 Major Nidal Hasan warned a roomful of senior army physicians about the dangers of waging war in Muslim lands. His lecture at Walter Reed was supposed to be on a medical topic. Instead, Hasan reportedly lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and said Muslims in the military should be released as conscientious objectors rather than fight Muslims. An army spokesperson says they were aware -- they're unaware of the presentation. Details coming in this morning after North and South Korea navies exchanged fire, each side blaming the other for violating their disputed western sea border. There were no casualties on the South Korean side. It's still not clear whether the North suffered any. It's the first clash in seven years and comes a week before President Obama is scheduled to visit Seoul. And a striking symbol to mark the 20th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall. A giant display of dominos decorated to look like the infamous Wall was topped one after another along the spot where the Wall once stood in Central Berlin -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: John, thanks. Well, all this week we're taking a look at the future of the Republican Party in our series "GOP, the Next Chapter" and with her memoir out this week, Sarah Palin is still a big player in the party. Some critics, though, on the Left say the GOP is alienating its moderate wing and that that's having an impact on GOP women. One of the critics is author and columnist for "The Daily Beast" Linda Hirshman. She joins me now. In fact, her latest piece is called "How the GOP Loses Women." Also joining us from D.C. is author and Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez who also wrote a book about women in politics. You've come a long way, maybe. Thanks for being with us, Leslie, as well.</s>LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.</s>CHETRY: Well, Linda, let me start with you. You wrote this piece for The Daily Beast. As we said, called, "How the GOP Losses Women." It's sort of ironic, though, because the GOP in 2008 was the party that ran a woman on the presidential ticket. How did these two sort of merge?</s>LINDA HIRSHMAN, COLUMNIST, "THE DAILY BEAST": They did. But they run a particular kind of women, which was a woman who did not believe that woman should be able to control their own reproduction. And was otherwise very conservative in her beliefs and also in her family life. So, so she represents a very tiny segment of the population. Women who want to rule, who want to run for office and be political, and also believe that women should not control their own reproduction. So it's a very odd phenomenon. I don't think that she represents numbers of women.</s>CHETRY: What I wanted to ask you about that, I was reading your article, and to some, it's not just necessarily the choice, the reproductive choice. They believe that really it's a true belief that abortion is morally wrong. How does that take away power from a woman who truly believes that?</s>HIRSHMAN: If you truly believe that abortion is morally wrong, then you are laying down a particular kind of life for women, which is a life in which they cannot ultimately control their own reproduction, which is also morally wrong. But if you believe that, then you're saying that women will have to reproduce as fate would have it. And then they are often trapped in marriages, in the home and so fort in a way that would disable them from being political figures. So, that's the consequence of that moral belief.</s>CHETRY: I want to bring Leslie in on this because, Leslie, you wrote about Sarah Palin extensively in your new book that's out as well. And she was very vocal figure in the party. How does Sarah Palin represent GOP women and the future of the party?</s>SANCHEZ: She has a tremendous impact with evangelical and conservative women. They are looking not only at traditional values with respect to family, certainly life is one of those issues, but also pocketbook issues. You're seeing kind of a transformation in terms of these women. They want sensible government. They want a government that is limited to the extent that it can affect their small businesses. It's not just looking at what was considered a traditional, feminist agenda that's very political. It's looking at a broader set of issues.</s>CHETRY: I want to ask you, though, Leslie about Deedee Scozzafava in this race in New York for the congressional seat, the 23rd congressional sit. She talks about basically being attacked by conservatives. In fact, she said that she heard that there were conservative robocalls going on in her district describing her as a child killer, a lesbian lover and a homo. She described in this article just literally crying, sitting in her car crying not knowing what to do. Ultimately what she did was throw her support behind the Democrat who won. How do you view what she claims happen to her because people felt she wasn't conservative enough?</s>SANCHEZ: I think the bigger issue, there's a tremendous amount of pushback certainly with conservatives. I think it's a fair argument to say that she was not conservative enough for a lot of the constituents in that district. I think that's a fair argument. What I will tell you that Sarah Palin like some others were able to do was shed light on the conservative candidate, Hoffman. With respect to the type of attacks that she face, that's a problem regardless of sex. Nobody should face that on gender, sexuality. Any of those types of issues. That's just dirty politics. But I think it's a fair case to be made she was not what ideally you would think of as a Republican candidate, not even just conservative. She was much more moderate, much more left of center, and I think that was a very difficult candidate for many Republican voters to embrace.</s>CHETRY: Where does it leave women, in your opinion, Linda, who are fiscally conservative who may be, as Leslie said, are a little bit more practical. They don't necessarily, you know, think ideologically, but just, you know, on some ways they want to make sure that women have health care and the children have health care, and others are very fiscally conservative. Is there room in the GOP tent?</s>HIRSHMAN: You know, the Republican Party has been formed by three very conservative forces. Fundamentalist, religion and the conservative revival that started in the '50s, and all of those have a place for women and that place is in the traditional home. So regardless of what they think about health care, the newly conservative Republican Party has their idea of women's place is not consistent with that. As it happens, health care would be very good for women. Many of whom are dependent upon their spouses for their health care and so forth. So just in a practical kitchen table way, the Republican opposition to health care not only hurt, well it hurts women as a substantive matter. And they also can't find candidates to field because most women who seek public office don't see themselves in that extremely conservative Sarah Palin way. So you get, for example, in Texas, there's going to be a primary involving Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the current senator. And she has a very uphill battle to fight because she won't say that abortion should be criminal. So, the Republican Party is both taking substantive positions that hurt the interests of women in general. And also don't, don't advance women candidates. The numbers are really pretty shocking.</s>CHETRY: And Leslie, let me ask you about that. Is it getting harder to increase the ranks in terms of women in the GOP?</s>SANCHEZ: I think to be fair it is always been a challenge. You have many more Democratic women elected. They tend to be elected in democratic districts. You run a Democratic candidate or a minority candidate in a very safe district on the left. You see them a lot throughout the northeast. Republican women are different. We didn't come from academia to run or civil service or from some sort of union background. The path of Republican women is different. Look at the types of candidates you see now. You're seeing a mug woman, women of business and industry. And they're economic conservatives. You're seeing people like Kay Bailey Hutchinson with respect to the senator, she's not having an issue on the choice, she's getting tremendous support from women. It's small business owners and more so men. It's actually dividing on gender in Texas who want to keep the status quo. Women are changing. It's not just reproductive rights. It's another basket of issues.</s>CHETRY: Well, we're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank both of you. Leslie Sanchez and Linda Hirshman, thanks for being with us this morning.</s>HIRSHMAN: Thank you for having me.</s>CHETRY: Also coming up at 7:25 Eastern, our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley has an in-depth look at new author and former governor, Sarah Palin. It's part of our special series "</s>GOP: The Next Chapter." That's all still ahead right here on the Most News in the Morning. John?</s>ROBERTS: Bad news for three American hikers being detained in Iran a month and a half after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asks the Iranian courts to treat them with maximum leniency. They are charged with espionage, a charge that potentially carries with it the death penalty. What can be done to free them out of Iran's notorious Evan Prison? Our Jill Dougherty takes a look coming right up. It's 37 minutes after the hour.