Return to Transcripts main page
CNN NEWSROOM
U.S. Expected to Issue Double Advisory Sunday Due to Terror Alert; Rutgers Suicide Shows Vulnerabilities; Risk of Hackers Accessing Your Computer, Webcams; Documentary Highlights the Young Conservative Movement; Dr. Gupta Interviews Michael J. Fox
Aired October 2, 2010 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Americans on alert. A travel warning is expected to be issued tomorrow, affecting hundreds of thousands of tourists in places like Paris, London, even Berlin. Plus, got a webcam? Know how to turn it off to keep hackers out. We're going to show you how to safeguard your own privacy.
And you might have seen them on twitter, maybe on Facebook. They are young, rising stars in the conservative movement. CNN with unprecedented insight from the inside.
All right, listen up, everyone. If you are possibly planning to travel to Europe or know someone who might be, breaking news. The U.S. State Department is preparing this new terror alert for Americans traveling abroad. Now, details are still really coming in to CNN. We're learning with you the new travel advisory could come, we're hearing as early as tomorrow morning. In fact, one senior U.S. official calls it, quote, "A serious situation."
CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us now from Washington. And Jean, help me figure this one out. I'm really -- the U.S. State Department is expected to issue a travel alert. Is expected, is that a definite first of all and second of all, can you give me specifics?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, we have to rely on the language given to us by a senior U.S. official and the language is expected to issue this travel alert. Two Americans in Europe, perhaps as early as tomorrow, it will urge them to be vigilant, to keep their eyes open, especially when in public places like airports and tourist sites. In addition, a different senior U.S. official says that U.S. Military installations are taking what he calls prudent precautions. Quoting this official, "this is a serious situation." Now, we know, U.S. and European officials have been saying for several days that they are concerned about the possibility of terror attacks against targets in Europe.
They have said they are following several threads of intelligence. One of which concerns Mumbai style commando attacks against multiple locations possibly in Great Britain, France and Germany but they have said, they do not have specific information about timing, mode or places of attack. U.S. officials said, also told CNN that Osama Bin Laden has been in communication with Al Qaeda affiliates within Pakistan and elsewhere, urging them to act. Today, one official says the alert is being prompted not by any new intelligence, but simply by the volume of intelligence related to terror. In addition, Brooke, we've heard from a different U.S. official that U.S. law enforcement is likely to get an advisory after this travel alert is issued. This official said it is just to keep them in the loop. The intelligence at this point in time still concerns possible terror strikes in Europe, not in the United States -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: And if in fact this terror alert is issued, Jeanne, what might tourists abroad expect if say they're at the Eiffel tower or near loop, would they expect additional security? Would there be a visible presence? Do we know that yet?
MESERVE: Well, officials terrorists threat levels have not gone up in Europe but the Europeans have been highly aware of all of these threats intelligence coming in, it certainly wouldn't be a surprise if they saw some additional security personnel around those kind of very public places where crowds gather. But again, this is just an alert. This is just saying to Americans be aware, keep your eyes open, report anything suspicious if you see it -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Be aware. Jeanne Meserve, thank you.
I want to continue the conversation and bring in former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes is going to join me over the phone here from San Francisco. But Tom, stand by for me for just a minute. Because I want to walk through some of these numbers here just to emphasize how many Americans are abroad here. We look at some numbers and here's what we have. The U.S. government estimates some 13 million Americans visit Europe each and every year. October Fest happening right now in Munich, that's hugely popular.
Also, France, Italy, huge honeymoon destinations. And in terms of this young people, nearly 50,000 American college students study abroad each year in Europe. So clearly, if and when this happens, Tom, this would affect many, many Americans abroad. But at the same time, and we're not getting specifics yet from the State Department, very vague language at best at this point, Tom, what's your reaction to that?
THOMAS FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (via telephone): I think, Brooke, you hit it right on the end. There's no specific threat information and to me, to put a threat warning out where you have so little, you can't name the country, you can't name the city, you can't name the type of location that's going to be attacked, it borderlines on being on absurd. As you've mentioned, millions of Americans, businessman, students, tourists, other travelers traveling all over, traveling in Europe, what do you avoid? You know, they made the comment in one of the warnings about that the expectation was a Mumbai type attack.
Well, in November 2008, the ten attackers in Mumbai were, you know, young 20-year-olds with AK-47s and grenades carrying backpacks. If you're overseas and you see somebody with a backpack, everybody has out running around with a backpack. And the other issue is that that attack was for railroad stations, taxi cabs, restaurants and the major hotels in Mumbai. How do you avoid this? If you're not supposed to go out to a public place and avoid the Eiffel Tower, OK, go stay in your hotel. Well, they blew up hotels, they started firing and killed people in hotels, there are bombing in the restaurants in the hotels. So in a way, even if you have a more specific threat, there's really not a lot of places to hide, other than don't go in the first place and that would be devastating and we'll try to avoid that.
BALDWIN: Right. And I don't think that's what the message is. As simply as Jeanne emphasized, be alert. But you said, you know, so far this is borderline absurd. What might being form the FBI, Tom? What might the motivation be from a security angle as to purposely keeping this nebulous at least at this point?
FUENTES: I think the motivation is they don't have enough details. If they knew who was going to do the attack and where, they would be in a better condition, they go stop the individuals, stop the group and prevent it in the first place. So the fact that they don't know, it's not news for the past nine years or more that terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Yemen and other places are training bad guys to go back to Europe, go to the U.S., go to western countries and conduct shootings, bombings and other terror attacks. That's not a surprise. So we know they're continuously training people. We know from the Abdulmutallab debriefings back in December and January of this year, he claimed he was with 20 other individuals in Yemen who were going to be sent abroad to do these kinds of attacks.
In this case, he was attempting to do a bombing on an airliner. So, we know that there's continuous school going on in those countries to train terrorists. We know the terrorists are being sent out throughout, as I said, western countries. And the idea of trying to figure out where a specific attack will be conducted is really very difficult. And if they had the information, I think they would be in a better position to prevent it instead of putting out a warning that is just unenforceable around execution. How do you stop people from going to Europe and if you're out there, you know, you're an American and you're in another country, to you everything looks strange. The behavior of...
BALDWIN: Right. You wouldn't be able to differentiate strange from normal since it's a foreign place.
FUENTES: Right. You're not walking around in downtown Peoria, you're in a foreign country. So, everything looks little bit different. What is going to be suspicious to you is going to be practically everything.
BALDWIN: Right. Hopefully the State Department will nail down some specifics. Because I'm sure Americans with that plans preparing to Berlin or possibly London would love to have that now down for heading abroad precisely that point you just made. Tom Fuentes, former FBI, good talking to you. Thank you.
Have you heard about this story? The U.S. apologizing for conducting medical experiments, that's the word we'll use, on Guatemalans 60 years ago. What did we do and is Guatemala accepting our "I'm sorry."
Plus, a massive cleanup under way all along the east coast after tropical storm Nicole brings heavy rains and flooding. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The northeast is slowly but surely drying out, but still a lot of you facing flood warnings and in some parts out today, look at this, heading out in boats instead of cars. Flooding in North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and New England for the most part, killing at least eight people. One county in North Carolina saw waters rise as high as stop signs. The Red Cross has set up a number of emergency shelters in that hard hit state. In fact, Bonnie Schneider, I spoke with a county manager I think was Bertie County, North Carolina, I talk to him on the air yesterday. And he said he had to take a boat into work.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm not surprised. North Carolina, particularly eastern North Carolina, was one of the hardest hit places, Brooke. We saw almost a foot of water over four days time. That means we saw as much rain as we've seen maybe in six months in four days. So the rain has to go somewhere. A lot of the runoff has pooled and that's why we continue to see the flood threat from all the heavy rain in the Carolinas as far north as Vermont. And believe it or not, even as we head into the Saturday evening, we still have many places that are under flood warnings, all the way from the Carolinas up to Vermont and upstate New York.
There's been some severe flooding just north of Binghamton as well. So the risk continues tonight because of runoff. Doesn't mean we're going to see even more rain come in. I would like to say it's going to stay dry for days but I can't do that. We have a brand new system coming in from the west. And this will produce some heavy rain through parts of the northeast in the mid-Atlantic, and even places like New York City saw three inches of rain and the subway system shut down for a while, Friday morning. So, this is all headed in that direction. We're going to be monitoring it for Sunday because it may cause more problems into this already saggy drench area.
BALDWIN: I feel for those folks. Could take days like you said for it to go away. Bonnie, thank you.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
BALDWIN: The U.S. is apologizing for this cruel experiment more than six decades later. The shocking details only recently came to light. American researchers intentionally infected people in Guatemala with syphilis, syphilis in the 1940s.
I want to bring in Senior Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. We've been looking in this story, wow. Huge wow factor in this story. I want you to explain to me who specifically they were infecting, and the obvious question is, why?
ELIZABETH COHEN, SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Why? Why? Because they wanted to know more about penicillin. This is such a horrifying story because their intentions were to learn more about penicillin, which is a legitimate intention. Obviously, not the right way to go about it. What they did is a researchers from the U.S. Public Health Service. So, we're talking about people in the U.S. government went down to Guatemala and they found prostitutes who had syphilis. They just naturally had syphilis and they arranged for them to have sex with prisoners and with patients in mental institutions. And when that didn't give them syphilis, they would do abrasions on their forearms and on the men's penises...
BALDWIN: Just to make extra sure that they will be infected.
COHEN: This is do their experiment. They needed to have people with syphilis. They needed to make sure that these people have syphilis. When that didn't work, in a few cases, they would actually puncture their spines and deliver the bacteria that way and then, they would treat them with syphilis to see how it works. I mean, it's just, it's beyond terrific.
BALDWIN: OK. Quickly, your special today, documentary is "Empowered Patient?"
COHEN: That's right. I mean, thank God we live in better times now, things like that, don't happen. But still, in totally different ways, you need to take control of your health and that will be on at 7:00 tonight.
BALDWIN: OK. Elizabeth, thank you.
A man suffers a massive stroke at a ski lodge. You want to rush him to the nearest hospital, but Elizabeth will be back to tell us why that's not always the best idea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A man in the prime of his life has this massive stroke at a remote mountain ski lodge. Not a good situation but if he doesn't get the right treatment soon, he could rather be dead, possibly paralyzed for life. A nurse on the scene refuses to let a helicopter crew to take him to the nearest hospital, a decision that may have actually saved his life. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): Bear Valley, California, is a mountain paradise. Gorgeous skiing and loads of snowmobilers. After skiing down the slopes one morning, Chuck Toenskoetter stopped in at the local snowmobile center. And while he was inside, all of a sudden, he fell down.
CHUCH TOENSKOETTER, STROKE SURVIVOR: You could draw a line down the center of my body. And everything was disconnected on the right-hand side.
COHEN: Chuck had just had a massive stroke in the middle of nowhere. Bear Valley nurse Kathy Snyder raced Chuck to the edge of town to wait for a helicopter ambulance.
TOENSKOETTER: I just remember the rotors turning and the snow flying, and just waiting to go.
COHEN (on camera): Time is of the essence, and this helicopter doesn't move.
(voice-over) Why were precious minutes being wasted? The flight nurse wanted to take Chuck to the nearest hospital, which was a small hospital.
KATHY SNYDER, NURSE: He had a cardiac problem. He had a stroke problem. He needed to go to a hospital where there were specialists standing by, and these small hospitals don't offer that.
COHEN (on camera): You argued hard.
SNYDER: I did argue hard. Kind of got like this in each other's face.
COHEN (voice-over): Kathy convinced the helicopter team to fly to a hospital that was much further away. The flight took an extra 15 minutes. Dr. Christopher Markus took one look at Chuck's CT scan and knew he had a drug that could reverse the stroke.
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS, DOCTOR, SUTTER ROSEVILLE MEDICAL CENTER: And we have three hours to give it. So we had to get the drug in in the next ten minutes.
COHEN (on camera): Talk about under the wire.
You must think back and think, "Wow, what if Kathy hadn't argued with them?"
TOENSKOETTER: I am convinced it was a very, very high probability I would have been in a wheelchair.
COHEN: Can anyone do this? I mean, if you feel like a bad decision is about to be made with your health care, can you put your foot down?
SNYDER: You can change hospitals. Everybody has that ability. And they should be aware of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, it is all about the hospital, isn't it?
COHEN: It is, to a great extent. I think sometimes we as consumers think a hospital is a hospital is a hospital.
BALDWIN: Kind of get to the closest one.
COHEN: Right. Get to the closest one and often times that is what you want. In many cases, it's not what you want, you want to go to the place that specializes in what you have. BALDWIN: And we saw in the piece, it was the nurse, right, who was saying we got to go to the place, it takes 15 extra minutes. But could I, or could you say, hey, want to go to this hospital versus that hospital if you've been able to speak at that point?
COHEN: Right, if you've been able in the first part is knowing which hospitalize specialized in which things. And which hospitals are good for what kind of things. So, actually on cnnhealth.com, we have all of the websites that you need where you can check that out. I mean, you can't be all automatically be as smart as Kathy Snyder who is the professional nurse lives in the area forever but what we can do is we can go online and there are great websites you put in, I want to have cardiac surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. And it will tell you the places that do the most of that kind of surgery and get the best rating.
BALDWIN: So we should go ahead and have our list I guess ready to roll in the back pocket? Sort of thing.
COHEN: Well, you know, if you have -- for example, if your spouse has a heart condition, it behooves you to do that work. But just in general, even if you don't know what's going to happen to you, go can go on websites and see which hospital has the best safety rating in general, because hospitals get these kinds of ratings. It takes five minutes. Just go and look and you'll know, you know what? This hospital is -- seems to be a lot better, people seem to live more at this hospital than at that hospital. And it's good thing to know...
BALDWIN: Valuable information.
COHEN: Sure is.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.
And by the way, Elizabeth will be having this one-hour calling at her "Empowered Patient" special that will air tonight at 7:00 Eastern. And again tomorrow night same time, 7:00.
Here's a question for you. Could someone be watching you on your webcam without you having any idea? Security experts think there is a good possibility about that. We will talk to one cyber prevention expert when we come back. We'll go inside his computer, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: There has been a lot of talk across the country this week about the suicide of that Rutgers University student who was a freshmen, he was just 18. And today, the Rutgers community observed this moment of silence to remember Tyler Clementi, 18-year-old freshmen killed himself days after his roommate secretly recorded him essentially kissing another man, streamed the video online for all to see on the internet, that's according to prosecutors here. The pause in remembrance at Rutgers took place at the Rutgers Tulane football game.
So, how often though, do you actually notice if your computer you're walking by may or may not have a webcam? The suicide of Tyler Clementi reveals how these tiny inconspicuous devices really carry huge risks, risks you and I need to know about. Prosecutors in New Jersey say the roommate who recorded him, as I mentioned, used this webcam. But they're also looking into the possibility that the roommate turned on the webcam remotely from another room. He left the dorm room and turned it on, possibly, but there have been multiple cases of hackers who access other people's webcams, live streaming, recording you, maybe, for days without the victim having any idea. Cyber security expert Gregory Evans explains how they do it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY D. EVANS, CEO, LIGATT SECURITY: I want to make sure people understand this. Just because you have a camera on your computer doesn't mean somebody can just turn on your camera just like that. They have to know exactly what they're doing. So what we're going to do is we're going to use a program like let's say, nearest point (ph), all right? Which is one of a hacking program. It's the most usable program out there in the world when it comes to computer hacking. You can download it on the internet for free.
We will use that and we'll hack into one of our test networks and then we'll get a prompt where we can execute any command on that computer, including turning on the camera. Once a person has access to your webcam or he gets in, you'll have all the capabilities that that camera has. So if you can -- if that camera can follow you around, that person can follow you around the room. If that camera has a built-in mike, it can record you as well. It can be that easy. This is a serious situation. And what makes it really scary, again, you never know when you are a victim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Stand by.
BALDWIN: All right. So, now you see the problem. I've been talking to him, it's so interesting. Gregory Evans is actually sitting next to me now and offers us some solutions. Wow, I have a laptop and it has a tiny little camera and I'm kind of sitting on the edge of my fear because I'm wondering if someone could access, get into my computer with the camera. Tell me, let me start simply, Gregory.
EVANS: OK.
BALDWIN: If my computer is off, am I OK?
EVANS: You're OK.
BALDWIN: When I am not OK?
EVANS: When your computer is on. Whenever your computer is on and you're connected to the internet, like most people, we use our computer, we'll get up go to work, go to church, wherever it may be and we leave our computer on and it's always connected to the internet. As long as it's connected to the internet, anyone with a little bit of experience, can access, hack into your computer, and turn on your computer -- I mean, turn on your camera. BALDWIN: So you're here to tell me how to keep someone if my computer is on from getting access to my webcam. So we've got camera over our shoulder, we're going to go in on your laptop, starting with a wireless network.
EVANS: We're not going to do that at the wireless part right here but I want to talk about that.
BALDWIN: I got it.
EVANS: Most is the layman, the layman goes and buys a wireless router -- whatever, right out of the store, OK?
BALDWIN: Like me.
EVANS: Like you. When you go home, you turn it on and the next thing you know, you are connected to the internet, you plugged it in. But you didn't go in and turn on the firewall and you didn't turn on the wireless encryption. You know, how you sometimes, you can use your neighbors' internet because you don't have...
BALDWIN: We're trying to do that...
(CROSSTALK)
EVANS: But, if you access someone else's wireless network, and that's open, they can turn on your webcam. So, people would set up their wireless purposely to get all their neighbors to connect with and then, they can access that person's computer.
BALDWIN: So step number one, make sure you have a secure wireless connection.
EVANS: Exactly.
BALDWIN: And number two, never rely solely on firewalls that come with your operating systems.
EVANS: That's correct. Well, I was going to mention, most computers like PCs come with Norton, and comes with McAfee. Make sure that you're not just rely on that. You're operating system needs...
BALDWIN: You need more than that?
EVANS: You need more than that. And it's good to have a real firewall, not daily linksys (ph) but it's good to have different ways. You can use your daily linksys (ph), you can use the one that's built in the windows and you can also use your windows firewall as well or the Norton and McAfee I should say.
BALDWIN: OK. So you need extra security there. And then, this is what I find interesting. If somebody sends you a PDF link, that may be nefarious.
EVANS: Yes. That is so true. Right now, you'll see that you'll get a whole bunch of spam and say, here's your invoice or here's your business proposal that I sent you. You like, what business proposal? And a person clicks on that and what it will do is open up certain ports on your computer, and it will connect your computer back to the hacker's computer. So he doesn't have to hack into your computer. And anyone who doesn't know anything about computers can send you an e-mail and just actually click on a PDF and now they have full access to your computer.
BALDWIN: So, you brought your computer. What can you show me?
EVANS: Well, one thing that's very important is, you want to see -- like if you went to the police and say, hey, someone hacked me into my computer, they'll going to say, prove it, show me your logs. And most people are like, what logs? Every computer has logs, especially in Windows. And to find your logs, you could just go here to the start menu and just type in the word logs, so you don't have to go searching for it. Once it comes up on your screen, you can come over to here and you can actually click, and you can see all the applications --
BALDWIN: So Windows logs and applications.
EVANS: And it will show you the date and time each application was actually accessed. In addition to that, you can look at your security logs on your computer.
Now, if someone from the outside had hacked in, what you will see is I.P. addresses of that person, OK, who accessed these particular files.
BALDWIN: So I'm going to be able to tell when I'm looking at my security logs that there's a differentiation between what's normal and what's not?
EVANS: That's correct. And that's what you want to use when you give it to law enforcement.
BALDWIN: How am I going to know what the difference is?
EVANS: You should not be accessing your personal computer remotely where it will show you I.P. addresses here. It should just show you like Microsoft Windows, security and things of that sort.
BALDWIN: Got it. See an I.P. address and you're in trouble.
EVANS: Yes.
BALDWIN: Bottom line, what is your biggest tip for people?
EVANS: One is to make sure that, so no one can access your camera. If they can access your camera, they can access all your key strokes. Make sure your computer is hacker proof and you can even go to mihackerproof.com and scan your machine for free and it will let you know.
BALDWIN: mihackerproof.com.
EVANS: mihackerproof.com (LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Gregory, thank you so much.
EVANS: No, thank you.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
You got that? All right.
We'll be right back. CNN is invited into the world of young conservatives to see what makes them tick. It's a place where religion and politics all get mixed up together. We'll talk to Abby Boudreau here in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back. They're a new generation of political activists. They're young, they're conservative and many call themselves investigative reporters. And they're hip when it comes to social media to get their message out.
After more than six months, CNN followed this group of rising stars within the conservative movement. And "Special Investigations Unit" correspondent, Abby Boudreau, is here to talk about her documentary coming on tonight.
I'll hear there's lots of buzz, Abby Boudreau. Tell me about it.
(LAUGHTER)
ABBY BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: We are very excited about this documentary. We thought it would be really interesting to take a deeper look into a group of young people who were passionate about their beliefs. You might agree or disagree with their viewpoints but you cannot deny their passion.
For the last several months, we followed a group of young conservatives. And the clip you're about to see involves Christian Hertzog, a 23-year-old film maker who is trying to make it big in Hollywood. And also in the same clip, you'll meet Ryan Sorba, an anti-gay activist who enjoys stirring up controversy and pushing the limits.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU (voice-over): For months, we documented Christian.
CHRISTIAN HARTZOG, FILMMAKER: The disco lights come on.
BOUDREAU: A young conservative trying to make it big in Hollywood.
HARTZOG: Zooming in, zooming out, boom.
BOUDREAU: Today, he's prepping for a music video he's directing.
(MUSIC)
HARTZOG: I don't necessarily want to change people's minds. I would rather turn heads and get people talking. My job is to make provocative content.
You're going to say, get against the car!
BOUDREAU: And he does that with controversial people.
Ryan Sorba is rehearsing the part of an FBI agent in the music video.
RYAN SORBA, ANTI-GAY ACTIVIST: First of all, there is a scene where Mary Landrieu is going to be here.
HARTZOG: She's going to be freaking out on us.
SORBA: She's going to freaking out like --
HARTZOG: OK, cool.
SORBA: Then you know a little big about the Tea Party.
BOUDREAU: We first met Ryan at a meeting for young conservatives in California. Christian introduced us.
(on camera): I heard you guys moan and grown about liberal media. First of all, do you view CNN as liberal media?
SORBA: Yes.
BOUDREAU: OK, What is it like to have me sitting right here. What are you thinking?
SORBA: The Communist News Network. I feel like I'm under fire right now. I feel afraid, a little bit.
BOUDREAU: When you're watching --
SORBA: I don't watch CNN or MSNBC.
BOUDREAU: Well then, how do you know --
SORBA: Only once in a blue moon.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): At age 28, Ryan is the oldest young conservative we've met.
SORBA: I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you.
BOUDREAU: He invited us to an anti-gay event called Americans for Truth Academy.
SORBA: It's like eating sole. It's disorder of soul, the nature of man.
(SHOUTING) BOUDREAU: After the speech outside Chicago, a group of gay rights protestors is ready to take Ryan on. And Ryan is ready.
SORBA: Do you guys hate Christians?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
SORBA: No? Then why are you protesting a Christian church for promoting their most fundamentally held beliefs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to put us in gas chambers, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?
SORBA: No, we don't. Hey, dude, do you hate Christians?
(SHOUTING)
SORBA: Why are you yelling me? This is the definition of tolerance right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right wing bigot, go away.
(SHOUTING)
SORBA: This is the definition of tolerance, right here.
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep smiling all the way to hell, pretty boy!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: Wow.
BALDWIN: Wow is right.
BOUDREU: What do you think?
BALDWIN: Looking at how close the cameras -- these guys allowed the cameras to get inside of this back and forth. What did you do? You said, I'm Abby Boudreau from CNN, I would like to do a piece on these right wing young folks.
BOUDREAU: It was not easy, but we got great access. It took many, many months of just explaining to people, like this is what it's about. It's a fly on a wall. It's not going to be a point- counterpoint documentary. It truly is just -- we want to watch, we want to watch and learn and observe and take a look at this young group of very passionate people with passionate beliefs.
BALDWIN: So however you fall on the political spectrum, you'll be either supportive or it will make you angry, but it will elicit a response from you.
BOUDREAU: Oh, yes. There have been a lot of twists around turns last week with other things involving James O'Keefe. BALDWIN: Other things. Let's get into that, Abby.
BOUDREAU: Right.
BALDWIN: James O'Keefe, kind of known as the pimp in the ACORN video scandal, which you covered some time ago. So he basically -- I know the word we kept using the word "punked."
BOUDREAU: That was the word he used.
BALDWIN: That was the word he used.
BOUDREAU: Right. That was the word in the documentary.
BALDWIN: If people don't know what happened, if they haven't been watching CNN in the last couple of days, explain again how that happened and, if at all, that punk affected this doc.
BOUDREAU: I was going to meet James O'Keefe. He was going to be part of a video shoot that was coming up that we were going to be a part of. And he had questions and concerns about having us there at the shoot. So he said, why don't you meet us in Maryland and we can talk about my concerns. I said, sure. He wanted me to come alone. I went alone. What ended up happening -- very long story. There was a plan to try to get me onto a boat and to fake seduce me on this boat or who knows how far it would have gone? It was a plan to embarrass me, to embarrass CNN, and that's essentially what you're referring to.
But as far as how much will it be a part of the documentary, it will be part of it, because it was part of our journey as a reporter working on this story. But it is not the whole documentary by any means. We talked to a lot of young conservatives. and they're all going to be part of this documentary. Like I said, it is just a fly on the wall glimpse into this movement. And we'll see, hopefully, people find it interesting.
BALDWIN: What time?
BOUDREAU: 8:00 and 11:00 tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
BALDWIN: Abby Boudreau, good deal.
BOUDREAU: OK, thanks.
BALDWIN: I'll watch. I'll watch.
(LAUGHTER)
You can watch that entire documentary called "Right on the Edge" tonight and Sunday, 8:00 and 11:00 eastern time.
If you are headed to Europe any time soon, the U.S. State Department is expected to issue this new travel advisory. What does that mean and why are they doing it now? Find out coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: I want to take you back to our breaking story tonight, and that is the fact that Americans abroad, in Europe specifically, may soon be told to be extra careful. The U.S. State Department says an abundance of information about possible terror attacks is likely to bring a new travel advisory, we're hearing, as early as tomorrow morning. In fact, one U.S. official tells CNN it is a, quote, "serious situation."
CNN's Phil Black joins us now from London.
Phil, if I can begin on the British side, what are you hearing from government officials, parliament officials there?
PHIL BLACK, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We've got some insight, Brooke, from a British intelligence official, a source that has told us that it's believed that this possible warning from the U.S. government is not related to any new intelligence about a threat or a plot, potential plot in Europe that was made public a few days ago. We learned of a plot, described as a possible Mumbai-style attack, like the one that took place in Mumbai two years ago, with a team of people attacking multiple sites, using small arms, guns and grenades. So we're told that it's not new intelligence pointing to that, but we're told officials in Europe and the United States are taking that potentially threat so seriously that America would consider issuing a warning just like the one that we're hearing about.
This British intelligence sources has also told us there's another reason behind this, a feared backlash against France and its legislation to ban women from wearing the full-face veil, the so- called burqa ban. We're hearing in Britain there are no plans for Britain to increase its security threat level. That remains at severe, which means a threat is considered highly likely. It's the second-highest level, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Phil, that is new information on both those counts. Thank you for getting that from a source within British authorities.
Phil, thank you.
I want to turn your attention now to Hamburg, Germany. Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is there.
Nic, you heard what we just heard, that this is not new information, that this might pertain to those Mumbai-style plots that the U.K. intercepted in the past week, and also to the burqa ban. What is your reaction to that information?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN NEWS SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems to fit with what German authorities here are telling us. The sources we've been speaking to in Hamburg, who are talking about a specific individual who attended this mosque behind me, a mosque that the authorities have closed down, Ahmed Zadeeki (ph). They say that he's in U.S. captivity in Afghanistan. He's a German national of Afghan decent and he's the one that's been talking about the possibility of this Mumbai-type attack. What the sources here say is that Mr. Zadeeki (ph) has been telling his U.S. captors new information every day.
Now, the German authorities say they're not privy to all that information. However, they do say that they believe there is no current active threat at the moment. However, they also add to that, that when Mr. Zadeeki (ph) left this mosque here about a year and a half ago, he was with a group of about ten other individuals. Right now, German officials don't know where all those individuals are. They know they went to terror training camps in Pakistan. The question is now are where are they, what are their intentions and what are their plans -- Fredricka?
ANDERSON: Nic, I'll take it -- it's Brooke. Following up on that, given a talk of new terror threats here, let me ask you being in Germany, have you talked to any Germans? Are they at all worried? Are they changing their course of action or does it still seem normal there?
ROBERTSON: You know, Brooke, there's an interesting situation here in Germany -- and I've talked to a number of people here -- and that is Germans haven't had a terror attack like Madrid, the Spanish, like London, the British, like the United States, 9/11. They haven't had an attack like that. There have been two foiled plots and plans here.
So at the moment, because the German authorities are playing this down, playing this new sort of Mumbai-type attack down, there's a very real sense that if there was an attack and one did happen, it would shock people here, because they're really not expecting it, because it hasn't happened at all, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Not expecting it because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it can never happen.
Nic Robertson for us in Hamburg, Germany. Nic, thank you.
Coming up, an exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: Other than having Parkinson's, everything else is my choice and that's incredibly liberating. That's much more liberating than the physical constraints of this disease are limiting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talking with the actor about how he is still able to live a good life, despite all these obstacles presented by Parkinson's disease. And really how he's trying to help others with Parkinson's, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: This week here, we're starting this new series on CNN. We're calling it "The Human Factor," that will introduce you to people who will most definitely be inspiring you, people who overcame obstacles, even exceed their own expectations. I want to begin tonight with Dr. Sanjay Gupta's exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox, who, by all means, faces challenges, obstacles, but he's working to find a better treatment for those living and surviving with Parkinson's disease.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I had the rare opportunity to sit down with Michael J. Fox for an unprecedented 90 minutes. These long interviews are something he hardly does anymore. We wanted to talk about Parkinson's disease, talk about his foundation and talk about the numerous obstacles that he's overcome the last 20 years since he was diagnosed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOX: It was a clear period around 1993, '94, two years after the diagnose, where I just got it. I just accepted it. I realized that there's an old saying that my happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance of my inverse, reverse, and my expectation. This is what it is, so now what?
GUPTA: Once you were not in denial, you think you were happier?
FOX: Yes, absolutely. When you can look at the truth of something, then, I mean, that's what it is. It is what it is. Now you have options. The only thing I don't have a choice about is whether I have Parkinson's. Everything else is my choice and that's incredibly liberating. That's much more liberating than the physical constraints of this disease are limiting.
GUPTA: Are the things that you particularly miss that you can't do, I mean, things that you say, god, I really wish I could do this still?
FOX: No.
GUPTA: You do everything?
FOX: I do anything I ever did before. Yes, I know. I play hockey. I play golf. I play guitar. I hang out with my kids. That's -- if it seriously limited or restricted or affected my ability to interact with my kids, that would be something that would be hard to deal with.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: He's just a remarkable guy. It was a captivating conversation. His foundation has raised over $200 million which they're putting to lots of different uses, including trying to answer some of the questions regarding the mystery of Parkinson's. They've also set up this bio marker study, trying to figure out are there clues about Parkinson's within people's bodies that can help become targets for medications down the line?
Back to you.
BALDWIN: Sanjay Gupta for us in New York. Sanjay, thanks.
Ahead, Academy Award-winning actress, Mira Sorvino, she will be introducing us to one of the top-ten "CNN Heroes" of the year. Find out how both of them are working to combat the horrors of human trafficking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Last week at CNN we had a big announcement. We told you who our top-ten "CNN Heroes" of 2010 were by selection of our blue-ribbon panel. And we'll b calling up friends of "CNN Heroes" in the next couple weeks to tell us about each and every one of these amazing people.
Tonight, Academy-Award winning actress, Mira Sorvino, introduces us to Anuradha Koirala, whose group controls the India/Nepal border to stop sex trafficking and has rescued and rehabilitated more than 12,000 women and young girls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIRA SORVINO, ACTRESS: Hi, I'm Mira Sorvino. In 2007, I had the honor of presenting at the first annual "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute." As a U.N. goodwill ambassador to combat human trafficking, I'm committed to ending the suffering caused by it. When I hear the heart-wrenching personal stories of the victims of this heinous crime, I see how much this world needs heroes. Now I'm thrilled to help CNN introduce one of this year's top-ten honorees.
ANURADHA KOIRALA, CNN HERO: If someone convinces I want to make your child a prostitute, you would shot them. But here, families, they are tricked all the time.
The border between India and Nepal is the point of trafficking. Once they are here, there's no way to escape.
I'm Anuradha Koirala. It's my strong hope to stop every Nepali girl from being trafficked.
When we go to the border, we are intercepting girls. After the rescue, the girls are taken to Nepal. They are totally psychologically broken. We give them whatever work they want to do, whatever training they want to do. There is always a small (INAUDIBLE). But today, I have something new in my life. They are my strength.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Well, CNN decided to pick up the phone, make a really long- distance phone call to Anuradha in Nepal. We asked her reaction to when she found out that she was one of the top-ten finalists for "CNN Hero" of the year.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
KOIRALA: It was, like, all my children and myself and my girls, and was, you know -- I cried first. And it was excitement. and I was also very happy that at least we were recognized for doing our work and at least the whole world knew about the trafficking, the problem most heinous crime that occurs in our country. And that now we are going to get support.
(END AUDIO FEED)
BALDWIN: We want to remind you, you can vote online. Vote as often as for as many people as you like. Go to CNN.com. The winner will be honored Thanksgiving night during "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute," hosted by Anderson Cooper.
I'm Brooke Baldwin at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. I'll be back with 10:00 with more on that possible threat in Europe, that travel advisory.
Meantime, "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer starts now.
