>> thank you. i think, carter evans. we appreciate it as always. "american morning" continues right now. i'm christine romans. standard and poor's downgraded the u.s. credit rating. the u.s. justice department investigating s&p. we will tell why you, ahead. >> i'm ali velshi. president obama leaving for summer vacation with a promise to deliver a plan for new jobs in economic growth. all of this as public approval of his handling of the economy reaches another new low. >> i'm carol costello. bombshell allegations against the university of miami athletic program. says he spent millions on athletes. meals, even prostitutes. good morning. it is thursday, august 18. welcome to "american morning." >> that was quite something.

anderson. >> he was giggle. >> that's the first time i have ever seen him completely lose it. it was funny. >> a lot to talk about this morning. we have breaking news. a suicide truck bomber targeting the u.s. military base in afghanistan. it happened in the city of gardez a few hours ago. officials say the truck ripped through the main security gate. killed two afghan guards. nine others were hurt. and the taliban is taking credit for the attack. >> less than two weeks after downgrading america's aaa credit rating standard and poor's is the target of a justice department investigation. that's according to "the new york times." the feds want to know how the credit rating agency somehow missed the mortgage crisis. you will remember s&p along with the other major credit agencies gave those mortgage backed securities very high ratings. even though would now know they weren't worth the paper they were printed on. "the times" is reporting the justice department is looking into claims s&p business managers overruled analysts who wanted to assign lower ration to the bonds because they were making record profits.

now they t investigation reportedly began before the nation's credit rating was downgraded. cnn contacted the justice department but they declined to comment this morning. next after president obama, a vacation on martha's vineyard after he meets with his economic team today. all that coming on the heels of a new gallup poll that shows just 26% of americans approve now of how he's handling the economy. that's a new low. mr. obama does have a new jobs plan which he says he will lay out after labor day. one he suggests can be paid for by deficit reduction. >> when folks tell you we have a choice between jobs now or dealing with our debt crisis, they are wrong. they are wrong. we can't afford to just do one or the other. we have to do both. >> new jobs package is expected include tax cuts and infrastructure spending, help for the long-term unemployed, and also targeting specific struggling industries. the white house announcement may have been well timed but cuts

both ways. >> what you would want to do before you went on vacation to martha's vineyard hurting the way they are? put out something that has there will be action. most americans would like to see him have right now -- people at the white house saying republicans -- here are my proposals. what are your proposals? let's see if we can't make a marriage with the two and get going now. why wait, wait, wait? >> the white house says the job plan is still a work in progress. texas governor rick perry casting himself as a republican president at candidate who is best suited to create jobs and grow the economy. he's calling himself a job creator. and he is calling the president a job destroyer. our senior political editor mark preston is traveling with governor perry. mark joins us now from portsmouth, new hampshire, this morning. mark, while governor perry is not holding back in his criticism of the president in terms of the economy, he continues to stand by his fairly ridiculous comments calling fed

chairman ben bernanke ridiculous and a lot more -- evidence is coming to light that rick perry may not have been as responsible for job creation as he would like to have the country believe. >> well, you know, he was up here yesterday meeting with business leaders in the city of nashua just a couple of hours at this coffee shop behind me doing retail meet and greet. there has been criticism rick pairy taking credit for all the job creation happened down in texas. when many people say it was -- due in part because of the oil and gas intruss friday. hearing a lot of that from dem tra democrats. he's very critical of president obama, as you said. clearly the gloves are being taken off. listen to what he had to say yesterday about president obama. >> the president said i needed to watch what i say. i just want to respond back, if

i may. mr. president, actions speak louder than words. my actions as governor are helping create jobs in this country. the president's actions are killing jobs in this country. it's time to get america working again. >> reporter: there you have it. the texas governor rick perry in new hampshire. yesterday speaking to business and and political leaders here in the state. he calls himself the pro-business president. we will hear what he has to say today when he meets with locals here in the city of portsmouth. >> the election clearly, like the last one, is going to be largely about the economy. the two leading republican candidates right now, rick perry, mitt romney, they have to win that gop nomination if they want to take on president obama. but there are other people that are tracking the hearts and minds of republican primary

voters. >> reporter: yes. two leading contenders is mitt romney and rick perry and they are both running very hard on the issue. i was talking to a perry adviser and said this is what you are going to hear from rick perry. jobs, jobs, jobs. that's going to be his message. interestingly, we saw mitt romney here in new hampshire yesterday. he was at a steel plant. today we will see rick perry talking to the owner of a home manufacturer. when they are here in this state and running for president, they are going to be talking about the economy. >> thanks very much for being out there and look forward to talking to you again. mark preston in nashua, new hampshire. now is your chance to talk about on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, are rick perry's action against the fed out of line? i know. this whole treason thing has been dragging on for days now. it won't die because perry's critics won't let it and neither will he. the tough talk of texan is not backing down. he said it would be treasonous for ben bernanke to keep

printing money for politics. yesterday he upped the ante. >> they should open their books up. until they do that there will continue to be questions about their activity and what their true goal is for the united states. >> critics are appalled that includes some republicans. a former bush white house spokesman tweeted perry's remarks are inappropriate and unpresidential. although perry has the supporters, too. >> the fundamental point he makes is totally true! actually. we are devaluing the currency. it is happening because of the fed's policies. it is benefitting in a short-term way the white house. >> still treason? as defined in article 3 of the constitution? if you don't have your pocket sized constitution handy this is what it says. levying war against them or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort, as in benedict arnold, who betrayed america during the revolutionary

war. fed chair ben bernanke? the man running the federal reserve which is basically the central bank for the country is he conspiring against the united states? so the talk back question this morning, are rick perry's treason activity against the fed out of line? send your comments to facebook.com/american morning. facebook.com/americanmorning. read your comments later this hour. a florida teen's plot to bomb his former high school. this could have turned out to be worse than columbine. that's according to tampa police. it was spoiled and that's a good thing. they arrested jared cano tuesday. he planned to set off several pipe bombs on the first day of class at freedom high school. they found explosive materials inside of his home. also found there, a manifesto outlining a minute-by-minute plan to hunt down two assistant principals, to kill 30 students. the school's principal says this

young man was expelled last year for, quote, inappropriate behavior. >> his mother gave police permission to search his place and say it was pretty definite. it could have hurt a lot of people. >> deadly. the university of miami rocked by a widening scandal this morning. jailed businessman and ex-booster shapiro claims he spent millions of dollars on athletes over an eight-year period. expensive jewelry, meals and prostitutes. he claims several coaches knew about it. shapiro serving a 20-year sentence for fraud. david mattingly joins us live from coral gables, florida, with this shocking story. good morning, david. >> reporter: good morning. everyone here at the university of miami this morning talking about shapiro, former booster, now in federal prison on violations from a ponzi scheme. he opened up in an interview and gave all sorts of details about alleged violations he participated in while a booster here at the university of miami.

he says that it involves 72 players for the year's 2002 to 2010. this also involving about a dozen current players. it is very serious for the university of miami. if the allegations are true. these are allegations that almost defied description. he talks about gifts that he gave players, televisions, jewelry, and clothing. but he also talks about entertaining the players, taking them out for nights on the town and expensive clubs. he took them to strip joints and he claims also that he paid for prostitutes for miami players and actually hosted sex parties for these players. and on one occasion he says he even paid for an abortion for a stripper who claims that she was impregnated by one of the miami players. now this has been under investigation for some time. the new coach here at the university of miami, al golden, took over in december. all of this allegedly took place before he got here.

and he has been talking about it. we expect to hear from him later today. he's already said that part of his job now is to be here and to get to the bottom of all of these allegations. >> all right. what are the -- the miami players, former hurricane players, and the ncaa say being the allegations? >> reporter: everyone involved with this program knows just how serious this is. if any of these prove to be true, this program could face very serious sanctions. and some of the players, very few of them actually have come out in the last 24 hours, but they are not giving a lot of information about their dealings with shapiro but are talking a little bit. listen. >> you can go back and forthwith someone in jail and try to explain yourself. don't want to do that. that's very unnecessary. >> you know, he knows and i know, you know, what really happened. but -- you know, it is -- you know, it is over. it is done with.

the ncaa is family and we are moving on. >> reporter: now mark, the president of the ncaa, says that that organization has been investigating these allegations already now for five months. the university of miami says that they have been cooperating a full part in in this investigation as well. but the ncaa saying this could be very significant here at the university of miami and if these alleges are true, they could have impacts on schools all across the country looking at possible changes to be made in the way thee schools deal with these boosters. >> david, thanks very much. we will stay on top of the story with you. david mattingly in florida. >> the saddest part about that, the players that have gone pro that left the university, then won't pay at all. the students there now, they are the ones that will pay. >> the program will get hit or something will happen. you are right. >> including students who don't know who this guy is. >> right. >> when y would someone that clearly loved that school if all of this true -- that's what i

don't understand -- >> big man on campus, man. you are like -- hanging out with the star players. and you -- also, i -- i believe that players who are being recruited, he also took them out and wined and dined them to make -- you know, entice them to come to the university of miami. >> why would he turn on them now? if he is serving time for an unrelated offense, why turn on the school now? >> he is singing like a canary. coming up on "american morning," david letterman, a terror target. why one jihadist website is posting death threats against david letterman. >> christine o'donnell walks out of cnn's piers morgan in the middle of an interview. we will show you what happened and why she said he is rude. you are watching "american morning." 13 minutes after the hour. no positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers.

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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. 16 minutes fast hour. good morning. welcome back to "american morning." late night talk show host david letterman is being targeted by terrorists, assassination threat, posted on a jihadist website calling for letterman's tongue to be cut out and his mouth shut forever. this traffic funny man cracked a

joke about an al qaeda leader's death. listen. >> so anyway, they picked a successor to osama bin laden and his name was ilyas kashmiri. well, guess what. he was blown up by an american drone. yeah. [ applause ] >> the fbi is looking into the threat. no comment from letterman's camp. all right. a bizarre encounter on cnn last night when former delaware senate candidate christine o'donnell walked off the set during an interview with piers morgan. o'donnell came on the show to promote her new book called "troublemaker." but when pressed by morgan by her feelings on gay marriage, she walked out. >> why are you being weird about this? >> i'm not being weird bit. i'm not running for office. i'm promoting the policies that i lay out in the book that are mostly fiscal and mostly constitutional. that's what i agreed to come on your show and that's what i want

to talk about. i'm not being weird. you are being a little rude. >> i'm baffled as to why you think i'm being -- i think i'm being rather charming and respectful. i'm just asking you questions based on your own public statements and now what have you written in your own book. it is not rude to ask you that sure. >> i well, don't you think as a host, if i say this is what i-want to talk about, that's what we should address? >> not really, no. you are a politician. >> yeah. okay. i'm being pulled away. you know, we turned down another interview for this. >> where are you going? you are leaving? >> okay, you can see shadowy figure tries to stand in front of the camera trying to block the view of o'donnell. >> i-found it a very strange moment. i don't think anyone who watches the interview would deduce i was being rude. a little bit chieeky but not

rude. >> it is fire ask about past statements someone made and someone's position on same-sex marriage. that's in the news. that's not like you are pulling it out of a hat. >> not completely. i found it odd she would use that particular moment to leave because i think on reflection when she looks back at this, it looks like she has something to hide. in other words, her view may be so extreme or contentious that it would cause her political damage. that was the only thing i could deduce from it. a rather bizarre encounter. >> o'donnell was invited back on the show tonight. thanks for the invite. schedule already packed. no hard feelings, you cheeky bugger. what's the definition? >> she must know you don't get to say -- you don't get to say what you are going to be asked in an interview especially when you wrote a book about your

polici policies. >> next time i come on my show i'm only talking about what i want to talk about. >> it is not a dinner party. the invite on -- >> that's how you sell your book. if she is trying to sell your book, sell your book by telling what you think about things, what your positions are and that -- connect was people or doesn't connect with people. >> maybe she did it on purpose. >> if she comes back i'm tuning in. that's for sure. >> let's go to aour own cheeky bugger. oh, we are not going to our own cheeky rob marciano. >> why not? he turned his mike on and left. >> he decided he would only answer the questions he wanted to plans he knew where you were going with this. you get your weather somewhere else from now. we are going to take a break. >> we will come back and talk about joe biden. strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®.

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247 minutes after the hour. u.s. stock futures are trading much lower this morning. dow futures down more than 160 points ahead of today's open. that's the european mark receipts tumbling now after

morgan stanley put out a note warning of global recession. we will talk about that in five minutes. vice president joe biden is in china to kick off a five-day official visit. meeting with his counterpart for talks on trade and currency. upon arrival today in beijing, biden praised china's rapid growth and called for more cooperation between the u.s. and china. securities and exchange commission under fire for allegations that it illegally destroyed thousands of files related to probes of bernie madeoff, goldman sachs and others going back years. chuck grassly called for an investigation into the agency after an sec whistle blower contacted him with the allegations. the drought in texas racked up $5.2 billion in agricultural losses. that's a record for the state. economists say texas at texas a&m without rain to help winter wheat it will get worse. chavez is getting in on the gold rush. he's planning to take control of the country's gold industry. that's a move that allows him to crack down on illegal mining and move the country's existing gold

reserves out of foreign banks and into venezuelan vaults. one critic that describes it was the looting of the nation's savings. it is official. plug-in cad slack coming. gm announces it is moving forward with plans to build an electric cadillac. no word on how much it will cost or when it will hit show room floors. "american morning" back right after the break.

it is 29 minutes after the hour. time for the morning's top stories. deadly attack on a u.s. military base in afghanistan happened in the city of gardez earlier this morning. a truck bomber ripped through the main security gate, killing two afghan guards, and nine others were hurt. the taliban taking credit for that attack. standard & poor's up under investigation by the justice department for the ratings it gave mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis. according to "the new york times" the justice department is looking into whether s&p business managers overruled analysts on deals potentially to keep earning more money. scandal at the university of miami. jailed businessman and ex-booster shapiro claims he spent millions of dollars on gifts, meals, and prostitutes for hurricane athletes. this over an eight-year period. he says that several coaches knew about it. shapiro is serving a 20-year sentence for fraud on another

matter. the school and ncaa are investigating. breaking news about your money this morning. morgan stanley warning the global economy is, quote, dangerously close to a recession. that report is slamming markets around the world. live in london. she had a chance to get through it and we were having a rough morning on markets nonetheless. it does seem to have been act seg rating. i don't know what happened in the last little while. bring us up to speed, please. >> that's right. we have some markets the dax down about 2.3%. heavy losses right across the board. the ftse. follows on dismal performance in asia as well. let's take a look at what morgan stanley said the bank cut its globe am domestic product to 3.9% for the whole world from 4.2%. and that means that investors are now even more closely watching the global economy and perhaps some say pricing in the possibility of a double-dip going back to a recession.

morgan stanley support is particularly interesting because dash it comes just two days after sarkozy, french president, and merkel of germany, tried to hammer out? kind of agreement to shore up the euro and a lot of people have been saying over the last two days from paris to frankfurt, london, what they came up with was not enough and morgan stanley is also saying they are not just worried about things in europe, that also wore -- they are worried about the united states. broadly speaking, markets down as a result. gold still rising. heading perilously close to yet another record of after surpassing 1,800 an ounce. >> looking at that time report christine has been going through it, they talk about policy errors in the united states and expect more action from central banks and including rate cuts and non-standard easing from the fed and the ecb. rick perry won't like that very much. it says dangerously close to a recession. not the base case. that's the good news. it is -- they are saying not the base case but close. what i also know is christine

pointing out here is that they are saying that -- the -- slow and insufficient response in europe to the sovereign debt crisis and the drama around the lifting of the u.s. debt ceiling have weighed down on financial markets and eroded business and consumer confidence. the debt ceiling debate over but the -- european question is still in play. >> definitely still in play. and from what we heard in paris, because -- when merkel and car soezy met it was not enough. they came up with three proposals including starting up a new euro zone governance to get these countries to get their budgets in order because you have a monetary union but not a fiscal union. and they also came out with a finance am transaction text. that's been punishing banking stocks here in europe the last two days. s, punishing the stock exchanges, stocks. i wouldn't point out one thing. s&p just over the last half hour or so saying that it is still confident about that aaa rating for france. that will give some support to the markets one would have thought. the economic picture, i'm

afraid, is bleak. >> always good to see you sort of because every time we see you that means there is something going wrong in europe. thanks very much for staying on top of it. we will check in with you later. >> thanks for being our voice of doom, nina. pay attention to this because i'm going to ask you guys questions about this story. michele bachmann says she has a great idea. congressman bachmann is making a bold campaign promise on the stump. she told a crowd if she is elected president you will see the price of gas, which is now about $3 opinion -- $3.60, drop a buck 50. >> under president obama you will see gasoline come down under $2 a gallon again. >> how do you make that happen as president of the united states? i mean, seriously. >> a global recession with huge deflation which is -- destroys jobs -- >> that's one way to get gas prices down. if she can do that, maybe she

can grow hair on my bald head. i mean if somebody could do that without messing the economy, would you -- would you think someone would have done that? >> it is a huge global market what if she opened the oil reserves? >> that would last how many days? how many day? >> you would have to open up a whole lot of drilling in the u.s. and it would be several years before you could get the oil it of that. michele bachmann knows this topic quite well. she knows oil quite well. it is a strange -- >> you have been -- >> i was with her in alaska. i was up there when we were looking at -- opening up drilling in alaska. strange commentary. if she can come up with reasons why she will get that done, might be very attractive to people. we would all like lower gas price. >> a global recession, i don't want -- >> i don't want that for a global recession. rick perry's campaign offensive hitting a few bumps in the road. he is keeping it in overdrive. for sore muscles use new l] bengay cold therapy. it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse, who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs.

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breaking news we have been working on here at cnn. we are trying to get you accurate information on this. there's more violence in israel. attack on a bus near the

egyptian border. israel radio reporting three terrorist opened fire. at least five people were hurt. and there's also reporting of another bus attack nearby. we have our people working on this story. we will bring you more information as it develops. an attack on a bus in the israeli city. rick perry is fighting back against his krit thiks morning. they are railing at him for his disbelief in global warning. criticizing the job creation record he brags about and then there is that treasonous comment. plus perry says the fed should be audited. even though its financial statements are audited every year. something that has the -- all something that has the "usa today" editorial board saying this. in today's paper. it says -- perry is smart enough to know all of this but apparently cynical or clumsy enough not to really care. his detour to the low road is a bad sign for a presidential campaign that has barely begun. he certain sly the gift that

keeps on giving now. joining me to talk about this, cnn contributor and conservative commentator. welcome to you both. >> glad to be here. >> cane wait to have this conversation. kate, let's start with you because everybody criticized -- nearly everyone criticizing rick perry for his comments. is he crazy like a fox? i mean, he's appealing who he has to appeal with to win the prirm, rig primary, right? >> it is over the top but i don't think it is going to seem so over the top to an elector e electorate, tea party electorate having so much power in november. who actually has been -- talking about the fed quite a bit. does hear what he says. is in the mood for that temper and outrage of the fed. they believe that the fed has -- been as ron paul -- talked about for years, lefying a hidden tax on all of us by principle morgue money. that means those of us that have

more money have >> "the wall street journal" -- i'm going to read what it says. "wall street journal" did say that rick perry shouldn't have used that tress onasonous word . the u.s. also needs a debate over the fed's political independence. in our view independence has been compromised over the last 15 years as greenspan and bernanke allow themselves to get too close to the white house and the treasury. the problem with all of this is average americans, they really don't quite know what the federal reserve does and ben bernanke -- >> but they should. >> ben bernanke's like punxsutawney phil. pops out and talks about interest rates and then goes back in his hole. when someone says something about the federal reserve and it is inaccurate it is very difficult, people to get to the truth. that's not a good thing, is it? >> well, no. carol, you put the point right on it. the good thing is we are talking about the federal reserve. the comment about treason as kate said, it was inappropriate. mostly trash talk, campaign trash talk. now being overblown. that being said, you know, i think rick perry is putting the

fed in the spotlight and has a principled position. i think core conviction level he is right. you should be wary of the federal reserve. as kate said if they print too much money it can cause inflation and deval through money in your pocket. problem is the position of perry has now put out there isn't nuanced. there is no room for intellectual nuance. if you believe there is a role for the fed, these are things like you said, people don't understand, you got to know that population grows, money contracts and print money sometime. >> but -- the comment he said yesterday, and he intimated there is a conspiracy between the fed and the white house to pour more money into the economy, whether we all want it or not. i mean, that's -- it is not a great thing to say, is it? >> well, i think -- you know, the argument against this, this is how monetary policy works. you -- you know, you control the supply of money. that's -- control -- you -- so

this is how monetary policy works. i think what he is saying they need to have -- like to see bernanke -- be more independent but i think that this is sort of -- you know the notion of the -- too close to the white house, that sort of -- you know, again, that's -- this is how -- >> right. resonate was a certain segment of his constituency. right? most people don't understand it. and he is sending like out these -- throwing these bombs, not clarifying and that's really not good for the country, though. >> right. i do think there is a certain -- what's happening now is that people are looking for a reason why their money is worth and less why the economy isn't coming back. the fed, again, we have seen so many easy answers and the fed becomes an easy target. >> i have to disagree with you. look, i think that the way he is putting it out there is not the best but it is -- overridden by the fact we are talking about the fed. this is one of the most important things in our society. and in the end the "wall street journal" is right. there's no conspiracy. i have a hard time buying the

theory of conspiracy. i want to ensure the fed is not politicized. you don't want the president or his administration or congress for that matter influencing the decisions of ben bernanke. >> okay. on another tag, i heard there is another push out there to get chris christie to run, new jersey governor. >> i wish. >> you wish. that -- will told me he thought rick perry would become president. now you say i wish. >> i wrote this. there is only one hand? ing between rick perry and the white house, in my opinion. that's chris christie. he is the one person i can think can go toe to toe with perry. take his big person sxalt put it about perry's big combative personality and win. without that everyone else is a shrinking violet. >> they love chris christie. it is interesting. in material polls before people thought to ask what they thought of chris christie, tea partiers volunteer. they would list off, you know, ron paul, michele bachmann,

sarah palin. chris christie. yes. i think there's very -- great enthusiasm for him. >> yeah. well, i don't think he will do it. >> it is not a coincidence karl rove keeps writing and saying chris christie might run. >> but he hates rick perry. >> that's right. he is raining on perry's parade. >> thank you so much for joining us. that was fun. back to you guys. >> that was an excellent discussion. 45 minutes after the hour. let's get up to speed on the top stories including, well the latest on a bus attack in israel. a little more information on that. we will bring it to you on the other side of the break. >> we are going to tell you about how abercrombie & fitch was hurt. major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! [ quack ] oh yeah? what about your family? ♪ we added aflac, so we get cash! it's like our safety net... ♪

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46 minutes past the hour. we are following breaking news right now out of israel. an attack on a passenger bus left at least five wounded and that's near the egyptian border. israel radio reports that at least three gunmen in a car opened fire. there are reports of an anti-tank missile fire at another bus. it comes as the egyptian army and police are cracking down on an anti-terror operation. a suicide truck bomber targeting a u.s. base in afghanistan this morning. official space that two afghan guards were killed. nine others injured. the taliban taking responsibility for the attack.

"the new york times" reports the justice department is investigating whether standard & poor's improperly gave mortgage backed securities a triple backed rate when they knew it didn't deserve such high marks at the height of the housing bubble. jailed businessman and ex-booster shapiro claims he spent millions of dollars on gifts, meals, even prostitutes for hurricane athletes over an eight-year period. he says several coaches knew about it. the coach, the school, and ncaa are investigating. that's the news you need to start your day.

abercrombie & pitch has itself a situation. their diss of jersey shore p. they offered him to offer him cash to stop wearing their clothes. they claim he is hurting their image. very nicely done package on this. >> that was -- take a good look at the lime green sweatpants because they are what led am control by & fitch to offer to pay this "jersey shore" star not to wear their clothing. >> what i don't want is for you not to be yourself. >> reporter: the guy who calls himself the situation who made things worse with these blue pants by abercrombie. >> actually -- >> come on. >> reporter: abercrombie & fitch employee noticed the outfits and told the ceo. >> someone came up and said,

mike, i have terrible, terrible news for you. last night on "jersey shores" they had an a&f product. >> that's when the company decided -- >> let's pay them not to wear the product. >> reporter: outside the fifth avenue store the one with a half naked doorman -- >> i found it ironic they prom poet going to gyms, going to tanning salons and clubs, people at the door are tan, hard bodies and there is a rope out here that looks like a club. >> reporter: abercrombie sold a. the shirt combining fitch and the situation. as for offering to pay the situation for not wearing their clothes, abercrombie's ceo says -- >> we are having a lot of fun with this. >> reporter: what do you call this? unbranding? an tip branding? unendorsement? how about a big publicity stunt? the producers of "jersey shore" says it is a clever pr student and we would love to work with them on other ways they can

leverage "jersey shore" to reach the largest youth audience on television. this reminds us of a story of snooki's gucci bag. the one she was carrying when she got arrested for being drunk on the beach. >> get the [ bleep ] off! get off. >> reporter: "the new yorker" observe wrote that luxury accessory houses are sending snooki prebags. here is the shocker. they are not sending her their own bags. then sending her each other's bags. competitors' bags. an effort to make their rival seem tack xwrip the article calls snooki the tie food mary of luxury branding. then there is another situation. one with abercrombie & fitch stock. the stock prices shot in the abs. down more than 8% wednesday. analysts say it has nothing to do with the "the situation" situation. but you can bet he and his six-pack abs are shaking with laughter.

jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> i'm a fan of "jersey shore." for those of you that aren't "the situation sts are the abs which he refers to the situation and gets called "the situation." it is a strange situation. ceo of the marketing firm hanss projects. it is very enticing to think that this was all marketing ploy. it may well be but there is a real underlying problem here. that's that abcontrol by and and pitch is informationed now and have a huge growth market assuming things go okay in europe where their positioning as a premium product more so than they are here in the united states. frankly, "jersey shore," in italy this year, it is kind of messing with their target audience. >> let's look at it in reality. you have a reality show and you have fantasy. abercrombie is a fantasy brand even in the states and particularly in europe. they want to create an image for themselves that's imaginary. and when you have a reality show, there is a clash there, fundamental clash. they want to disassociate themselves from reality and they are selling a fantasy.

>> let's -- how different is that fantasy? i walked by the stores. i was by the abercrombie & fitch yesterday. it is like a club. it was in the middle of the day. there are ropes and people come in and it is dark inside and spray that perfect fall. everybody is a hard body in there. these clothes are supposed to be for hard body people that are tanned and fit which is what you see on "jersey shore. >> right. i don't think that we can say all hard bodies are created equal. there is a cheesiness about the reality show about snooki and the situation and abercrombie wants a bit of class and dignity within their hard bodies. it is a nuance but important to their brand. >> what about the audience? what about "jersey shore's" sponsz saying we have the largest youth audience on television. isn't that worth more to abercrombie thanning the fact it may be trashy? >> i think "jersey shore" is doing the right thing. abercrombie picked a fight with them. they are having some fun with it. abercrombie is use thing to ride this kind of a conversation. they are detaching themselves from the brand and media is

disassociating themselves and it is a win-win. >> we have been suckered. >> it is august and fun media story. >> i will end it now so we don't fall for the trap anymore. thanks very much. good to see. >> did you i'm still frightened you watch "the jersey shore" but whatever. we have been giving you a chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. you have a lot to say. we asked you this question -- are rick perry's treason accusations against the fed out of line? here are some of your responses. this from joshua. of course, perry was out of line. thanks to the media he has gotten a lot of attention for it. energized to supporters. take the word treason out of what perry said and the underlying message of perry's statement shows his ignorance of economics and to me, that's what is out of line. not to mention scary. i'm not fond of rick perry but he is entitled to point the finger to whoever he chooses. his accusations hold no ground. why does anyone care. without it only reflect poorly on himself. i like his tenacity but not enough to vote republican. this from cameron.

i'm not a rick perry fan by any stretch of the imagination. even i have to admit histories onlious comment isn't even close to being out of line. it is just your standard tea party rhetoric. wait until the election season starts. then things will really get nasty. this will seem tame in comparison. keep your comments coming. facebook.com/americanmorning. we will read more comments later on in the show. >> up next, the latest this morning's breaking story. apparent terrorist attack on a bus in israel. we will have the latest for you there. developments in that part of the country. ♪ i've been waiting

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this morning's allegation against a former booster at the university of miami. claims he paid lavish gifts to athletes. >> late night talk show host david letterman the target of a jihadist website wanted dead. >> standard & poor's downgraded the credit rating. the justice department is investigating s&p.

that's why i agreed to come on your show. that's what i want to talk about. i'm not being weird. >> that's right. we are learning about mre violence. attackers went after abus, assaulted in israeli military force. and even targeted another vehicle near the egyptian border. at least five people critically wounded at this hour. kevin flower joins us the phone from jerusalem. what can you tell us about the attacks? >> as we know from the israeli

military at this point, there are two confirmed attacks. the first one on a bus that was headed to that southern lot. it was attacked by gunmen in a car following it. that's the attack where the five people were injured. but there was military also told us was that shortly after that attack and very close to that first location, explosive device, bomb detonated on the road, targeting another bus and unknown number of injuries stemming from that. there are also reports of a third attack on a pedestrian car in a private vehicle. sketchy from the israeli military at this point. but what they also told us is that this is a situation that is ongoing now. we spoke to one of their suppose people just a few minutes ago and told us israeli military personnel are currently engaged in gun battle with these atta attackers and say that it could could be one squad of attackers

or maybe more. no word on where these people came from. of course, all eyes will be looking at the gaza strip or from the -- across the egyptian border. as the places where the attackers possibly came from, christine. >> kevin, it is still happening as we speak. do we know anything about who the people are or what their motive would be, why this is happening on the southern part of the country near the egyptian border? >> well, the speculation for us to take, who it is. the authorities are going to be looking at -- certain places. they are going to be looking at the peninsula. the military has been engaged in military operations against what it calls al qaeda element operating in the pen lanes. that's in the last week. they sent several thousand troops. they will be looking at the gaza strip, of course. gaza strip home to many palestinian militant groups who routinely -- engage in attacks

against israel. just earlier this year, there is an anti- -- initial attack from the gaza strip, targeting israeli bus. anti-tank missiles. they will be looking there. at this point it is too early to say. it is a developing situation and information is quite scattered at the moment. >> all right. we will let you get going back to your news gathering as this -- details continue to unfold in this ongoing event. thanks, kevin. very unusual for ain't tack in this part of the country that did not happen when hosni mubarak was running egypt. maybe that has something to do with it, too. we are following breaking news out of syria this morning. senior u.s. officials say the white house is ready to call for syrian president al assad to step down over the government's crackdown on its own people. that could come as early as today. u.s. expects other international leaders to follow suit. assad told the united nations that military operations against civilian protesters have ended

when new violence was reported overnight. university of miami rocked. jailed businessman shapiro claims he spent millions of dollars on hurricane athletes. miami hurricane athletes, over an eight-year period. giving them expensive jewelry, meals, even prostitutes. he claims several coaches knew about it. shapiro is serving a 20-year sentence for fraud unrelated to this. david mattingly joins us live from coral gables, florida. give us more on this story, david. >> reporter: shapiro had a lot of access to a lot of miami players over the years. now he is revealing details about violations of ncaa rules that he instigated involving 72 student athletes here at the university of miami. most of them football players and including a dozen current players here at the university. he says he bought them gifts from clothing to jewelry and suits and televisions. and he also paid for lavish nights out on the town. taking players to clubs, strip

clubs. this is where it gets worse. he says he also paid for prostitutes for miami players and also arranged sex parties for some of the players. on one occasion shapiro says that he even paid for the abortion for a stripper who claims that she got pregnant by one of the miami players. all of these violations, of course, very -- almost off the charts when you think about it in terms of violations for ncaa rules when they tried to protect the amateur status of these players at universities like miami. the ncaa already saying that these -- allegations are true, it could have impacts on programs all across the country and the way they deal with the boosters. >> that's what the ncaa is saying about it. it is relating to former players. any response from them and the ncaa about them? >> reporter: the former players that have been speaking up so far are not saying a lot about

their relationship with shapiro. listen to what they have to say. these are players that left the program and are in the pro. listen to what they have to say here. >> you know, you can go back and forthwith someone that's in jail. and try to explain yourself. and really don't want to do that. that's very unnecessary. i will leave it at that. >> you know, he missouri and i know, you know, what -- what really happened. you know, it is -- you know, it is over. it is done with. the ncaa is -- we are just moving on. >> reporter: the ncaa says that it has been looking into these allegations for five months now. and they are looking very strongly at the relationship universities have with these boosters here at the university of miami. one of the premier football programs in the country. the university pledged to stay on top of this investigation and cooperate fully. their new coach here signed on in december and says part of his job now also is to get to the

bottom of this. >> david, thanks very much. we will stay on top of it with you. david mattingly in florida. less than two weeks after downgrading america's aaa credit rating standard & poor's reportedly is the target of a justice department investigation. according to "the new york times" the feds want to know how the credit rating agency missed the mortgage crisis and you remember s&p along with the other major credit agencies gave those mortgage backed securities very high ratings. even though we now know that they weren't worth the paper they were printed on. "the times" reports the business managers overruled analysts that wanted to align lower ratings to those bonds because they were making record profits. now the investigation reportedly began before the nation's credit rating was downgraded. cnn contacted the justice department but declined to comment. late night talk show host david letterman is being targeted by terrorists. assassination threat posted on a jihadist website calls for letterman's tongue to be cut out and his mouth shut forever.

this after the funnyman cracked a joke about an al qaeda's leader's death. >> they picked a successor to osama bin laden and his name was ilyas kashmiri. well, guess what. he was blown up by an american drone. yeah. >> the fbi is looking into the jihadist threat. no comment from letterman. a bizarre encounter here on cnn last night. former delaware senate candidate christine o'donnell, you remember her, walked off the set during an interview with piers morgan. o'donnell was on the show to promote her new book but when pressed by piers about her positions on gay marriage and don't ask, don't tell, she had enough. listen. >> why are you being so weird about this? >> i'm not being weird about this. i'm not running for office. i'm not promoting a legislative agenda. i'm promoting the policies that i lay out in the book that are mostly fiscal and mostly

constitutional. that's why i agreed to come on your show. that's what i want to talk about. i'm not being weird. you are being a little rude. >> i thought -- i'm baffled as to why you think i'm being -- i think i'm being rather charming and respectful. i'm just asking you questions based on your own public statements and now what you have written in your own book. it is hardly rude to ask you that. surely. >> well, don't you think as a host if i say this is what i want to talk about, that's what we should address? >> not really, no. you are a politician. >> yeah. okay. i'm being pulled away. you know, we turned down another interview for this. >> where are you going? you are leaving? >> that's a unique way of doing it, somebody blocking the camera. you can see that shadowy figure tries to stand in front of the camera. later piers talked about the exchange with anderson cooper. >> i found it a very strange moment. and -- i don't think anyone who

watches the interview would deduce i was being rude. chi cheeky maybe but not rude. i found it odd to p that it was that particular moment she leaves. it looks like she has something to hide. her view may be so extreme or contentious it would cause her political damage. that was the only thing i could deduce from it. >> piers invited o'donnell to come back on the show tonight. thanks for the invite. schedule already packed. maybe another night. no hard feelings, you cheeky bugger. >> that's what i call ali all the time. >> and i didn't walk off. >> no, you didn't. you are going to stay here for my talk. i know you enjoy the topic. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big store cease of the day. are rick perry's treason accusation against the fed out of line? i know. this whole treason thing has been dragging on for days now. it won't die because perry's critics won't let and it neither

will he. t he said it would be treasonous for fed chair ben bernanke could con printing money to play politics. yesterday he upped the ante. >> they should open their books up. until they do that i think they will continue to be questions about their activity and what their true goal is for the united states. >> critics are appalled. that includes some republicans. former bush white house spokesman tweeted perry's remarks are inappropriate and unpresidential. perry has his supporters, too. >> the fundamental point he makes is totally true. actually. we are devaluing the currency. it is happening because of the fed's policies. it is benefiting in a short-term way the white house. >> still treason? as defined in article 3 of the constitution if you don't have your pocket sized constitution handy this is what it says. l levying war against them, or in

adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. ben bernanke, the man running the federal reserve which is basically the central bank fortunes, is he conspiring against the united states? the talk back question today are rick perry's treason accusation against the fed out of line? tell us on facebook. facebook.com/americanmorning. >> i submitted my response. >> whoever knew economists were so exciting they could be called treasonous. >> tucker carlson in that defense is defending the wrong thing. he -- >> i didn't hear him make the point tucker carlson is talking about. >> i can't believe rick perry doesn't understand this because he must. it is very strange. >> let me ask you this question. is the federal reserve audited every year? >> its books are open and you can see them. they were more close in the day christine covered them.

they were very close. the closed. by congressional decree they have to be more open than they are. this is an old strange argument people made much better than rick perry has. >> that argument he is making, this vague we don't know what they are doing and who they are working for, that appeals to a crowd that have long held that there are black helicopters and this sort of, you know, conspiracy theory, new world order type stuff. you always hear the fed at the center of that. if he has a more nuanced criticism of what the fed has been doing the past year, he should give up, lay that out. >> he is talking about whether you like what the fed is doing or not. rick pairy making it sound like a dan brown novel. >> between want to hear what you think. >> still to come, missing piece. how aruban investigators think a bloody handprint might help uncover the mystery of a maryland woman who simply vanished. >> president obama promising a plan that will create jobs and jump start the economy. can he really do it? if not him, who?

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president obama heading to martha's vineyard for vacation after he meets with his economic team today. all that coming on the heels of a new gallup poll that shows 26% of americans approve of how he is handling the economy. the president promised to present his own plan, jobs plan, when congress returns in september. how much leverage does he have? who in d.c. has power to create jobs? jay powell joins us. treasury undersecretary in bush's administration. visiting scholar at the bipartisan policy center. jay, welcome. nice to get your perspective on this. you know, we kind of know what we think the president is going to unveil. we don't know all of the details. it looks like it will be tax cuts he will push for. and infrastructure spending, something we tried before, of course, but -- has been a little disappointing. help for the long-term unemployed. specific help for struggling sectors. can the president with a big plan in september fix what's wrong with the economy now?

>> well, the president will try to make the case that we should have some additional deficit spending and programs now to help the unemployed and get the economy started on the one hand. while at the same time proposing substantial deficit reduction in the medium and long term. that's the case he will have to make and it is a complicated case and it will be very difficult because, of course, there's -- not that much support for additional deficit to spending among the republicans or among independent voters. in addition, if there is a lot of more deficit spending we are going to meet the need to increase the debt ceiling again before the presidential election and that's not something the president would like. >> no. you know, messing around with the debt ceiling morgan stanley coming out with a note that's -- royal global markets saying we are dangerous lely close to a recession in the world. and one of the reasons that they list is the debt ceiling drama that has hurt confidence around the world, quite frankly. we are still kind of feeling the after-effects of that at least if you listen to analysts on wall street. you have -- you have rick perry

and now -- you know, a -- proclaimed presidential candidate and he is saying that the fed chairman is somehow treasonous if he continues on the path the fed has been going. is it treason what's happen at the fed now under ben bernanke in your view? you are an expert on military poll. >> i certainly not. there have been many errors or some airoerrors in the fed's history. the fed has had interest rates effectively at zero for almost three years now. so it is -- more or less out of ammunition. there are some modest additional things that the fed can do, perhaps more quantitative easing but are modest and at the margin and i don't think we can look at the fed for a lot of help on the jobs front in the near term. >> that's the irony here. you have criticism of the fed on one hand. people saying we need more from central bankers around the world because, in fact, it is global central banks the only one was a clear policy now to try to help

the economy. >> i think they are doing what they can. but it is -- on the -- we used the monetary powers that we have. really to the fullest extent. again, some -- additional things margin and fiscal things at the margin can be done. that will be a difficult case to make. it will be made. but fundamentally there 'no magic bullet here in washington to fix what's wrong with the economy. >> interesting to say that, an economist that says don't they get it that if there were magic bullet someone would have fired it already? we fired every kind of bullet we can think of. essentially the fed the only game in town running out of bullets. economy worldwide still slow. isn't it maybe quite frankly we are in a difficult period here? people who want an easy and simple solution 401-ks it, we are not going to get that. >> yes. as you know, christine, this is a different kind of a recession. it is really a contraction and what it is about is the fact that consumers are substantially overlevered because their homes are worth 30% less than what they used to be worth and they still have big mortgages and

secondly, unemployment and p underemployment is about 25 million people or 16% of the work force. so -- you have a really difficult situation and the -- traditional tools have been deployed. we are going to be looking at novel ols and experimental programs that -- mortgage relief and that kind of thing get the economy started. it will be a period of continued pain for some time, i believe. >> jay powell, thank you very much for that perspective. nice to see you again. >> nice to see you. all right p.let's check in marciano to give us a look at the nation's weather. what's going on? >> got a couple of thunderstorms rolling. actually your neighborhood. northeast. let's take a look at them. philadelphia, up towards new york city. we have ground stops at these airports because of the -- rough weather. this won't last all that long. nonetheless, philadelphia seeing departure delays now at about an hour. other spots we may see some in the afternoon. d.c., atlanta, miami, orlando, florida has seen pop-up thunderstorms the past few days

that will continue to be the case today. th this weak front pushing off. thunderstorms ahead of the front. behind it, cooler and drier air. down to the south, hazy, hot, humid conditions continue. number of heat advisories out for parts of texas, oklahoma. shreveport coming in with a record breaking number of 109. tyler, texas, 105. houston, 102. lafayette seeing triple digit heat yesterday. you can bet there was humidity as well. humidity here, our next tropical storm. very slow doefl and moving quickly off towards the west, towards central america. the question is does it get to tropical storm status before it makes landfall? we will have to wait and see. distinct possibility that happening. the track is going to keep it unfortunately south of texas which is where they desperately need the rain. there is another storm, more interesting than this one that's

off the coast of africa. has plenty of time to develop and looks like currents now will take it in the general vicinity of the lower 48. we will keep you up to date on that as we go throughout the morning. back to you. >> all right, rob. thanks very much. we will keep an eye out for all of that. coming up, stocks in europe taking a tumble. started off a little rough and things taking a big turn. we will tell you what is going on in europe when we get back. >> also ahead, abercrombie & fitch's stock took a big hit. what's behind the drop? ♪ let me entertain you

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26 minutes after the hour. u.s. stock futures trading much lower. ahead of today's market open. dow futures down more than 160 points. nasdaq down 40. s&p futures down around 20 points.

meanwhile, stocks in europe tumbling as investors react to a statement from morgan stanley warning of a possible -- possibility after global recession. germany's market is leading the losses with stocks there down almost 3.5%. michele bachmann promises cheaper gas if elected president. she told a crowd of supporters in south carolina on wednesday that goose will come down to below $2 in a bachmann administration. gas prices are tied to global oil prices not to washington. it is official. plug-in ad lack on its way. gm announced it is moving forward with plans to build an electric cadillac coupe. a luxury version of the volt. abercrombie & fitch taking a big hit. retailer stock dropped nearly 9% yesterday. this after telling the cast of "jersey shore" not to wear its brand. stock dip appears to be unrelated. it seems to have more to do with the company's earnings. economic in with the all new cnn money.com for the latest in money news. have i got a surprise for you!

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we are polling breaking news out of the middle east. escalating violence in israel. terrorists launching several attacks this morning. began with a bus shooting near a city close to the egyptian border. a tourist city generally. the attackers launched an assault on soldiers. at least five people have been critically injured. many more wounded. there's also reports of a roadside bombing targeting a second bus in. no word yet on who the assail apartments may be. we have people on the ground there watching the story develop. we will bring you more information as we get it. also break thing morning. the u.s. ready to call for

syria's president al assad to step down because of the brutal crackdown on his own people. it could come as early as today. senior u.s. officials say the move has been coordinated with allies in europe, turkey, arab world. we are expecting a statement from secretary of state hillary clinton at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. we will bring that to you live. standard & poor satisfies under investigation by the justice department for the ratings it gave mortgage securities in the years leegd up to the financial crisis. according to "the new york times," the justice department is looking into whether s&p business managers overruled analysts on deals to potentially earn more money. >> developing story out of aruba now where an american woman simply vanished two weeks ago. robin gardner was last seen snorkeling on the tip of the island. he was with a man that brought her to aruba and a guy named gary giardorno. they discover ad bloody handprint where the pair were snorkeling. is this a big deal for

investigators, martin? >> reporter: it is a big deal. there are two developments significant for moving the case forward. number one, up until this point authorities had gary as a suspect primarily because he was the last to be with robin gardner and is the one that reported her missing. they found out about an insurance policy and they say that could be motive. as you point out now they have also found traces of blood in the area where the couple was said to be snorkeling. that's raising suspicions here because if you have a drowning or an incident in the water, how do you end up with blood? here is the first thing. they have not determined yet whether that is human blood. it could come from somebody fishing or some other means. if they determine it is human blood then, of course, they want to find out if it is his blood, robin gardner's blood. they have the dna from both to check that. gary giord ro no tells authorities the blood came from him, he cut his hand on coral.

as to the insurance policy gary admitted to authorities that he did take it out and called it travel insurance and said he took it out on both of them. the real question here and aruban authorities are not talking about the amounts, is whether there would be an accidental death payoff because as they know money for murder is one of the oldest crimes on the book. that's what they suspect. looking for proof. that's another matter. >> right. martin, thanks very much. i know you are covering this. if there are any more developments we will come back to you. the prime suspect in natalee hollow holloway's disappear nance aruba is a murder suspect in peru. van der sloot could be a free man by 2012. van der sloot faces charges in the may 2010 killing of stephany flores. she was found dead in his lima hotel room. her family wants prosecutors to pick up the pace. warning peruvian law allows van der sloot to walk if he's not on trial within 18 months of his arrest. police in tampa, florida, say they foiled a

columbine-style plot to bomb a high school campus. expelled student, 17-year-old jared, allegedly planned to blow up freedom high school on the first day of class next tuesday. among the evidence seized at his home, a journal that detailed a minute by minute plan to hunt down two assistant principals and kill about 30 students. there were drawings of the school in his home and bomb making materials, too. >> we are probably able to thwart a potentially catastrophic event, the likes of which the city of tampa has not seen. >> police say that an anonymous tip led them to him. the teenager wanted to cause more casualties the combine attack in 1999. >> wow. >> anonymous tip is so important because kids when they hear -- how many times have we heard -- we heard something about something. they have to act. i don't know if it was a kid who turned him in but -- it is incredibly important to keep your ears open on things like this. >> good job by everybody involved on that. still to come this morning,

allegations of athlete payoffs at the university of miami. how widespread is this problem among other ncaa teams? executive director for si.com weighing in. >> out of the blue, signs that you should and shouldn't ignore for a heart attack. dr. sanjay gupta is on the case. 35 minutes after the hour. at the university of miami. [ female ] we will always be dependent on foreign oil.

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how widespread is this problem

university of miami, jailed businessman shapiro claims he spent millions of dollars on the athletes at the school over eight years buying them expensive jewelry, meals and even buying them prostitutes. he claims that several coaches knew all about it. joining me to talk about the fallout from these allegations is b.j.schecter. thanks for coming in. >> no problem. >> these -- i mean, this is really scandalous. this isn't the first time this sort of thing has hit the university of miami. in fact in 1995, you feature the university of miami on the cover of "sports illustrated" and said the program should be canceled. >> yes. if you look back on our article as i did yesterday, a lot of the

things that are happening now or coming out now happened then. in terms of paying players and in terms of taking them to strip clubs and getting them women. it is really eerily similar. so they didn't -- got hit hard with sanctions before. they really didn't learn their lessons. >> so this guy, shapiro, he is a booster, right? he is in jail now for a ponzi scheme and is singing because none of these players that supposedly he -- helped in the past are coming forward to help him. and that's why he is spilling everything. so -- you don't doubt the truth of his allegations. >> unfortunately, in college sports, we see this all the time. whether it is tattoos at ohio state, whether it is money at the university of alabama, every big time program has these lurkers that hang around the program and that have money and that want to look cool around the players and that want to think that they have influence over the players and now we are seeing sometime it is coaches. >> the paying for sex parties.

i can understand parties on a yacht and stuff like that. but paying for sex parties, i mean, that's just decadent and disgusting actually. >> a lot of this is really disgusting. this yahoo report, shapiro allegedly paid for an abortion for, you know, a -- >> stripper. >> a woman -- stripper that one of the players allegedly impregnated. it is all about access, you know. a lot of these players have no problem finding women. but if they get invited to a party and everything is laid out right in front of them, you know, it is cool to these guys. >> let's talk about these guys, boosters. this is what jimmy johnson said about boosters. he said that these parasites hang around every program and the players have got to be smart enough to know they want something. they aren't giving out free drinks to them unless they get something in return. why aren't universities keeping a closer eye on boosters? i know they give a lot of money to the university. and football programs. and that's probably one of the reasons why. but if they get the university

in trouble like this, why aren't they clamping down on these boosters? >> well, a couple of reasons. jimmy johnson, i would say jimmy johnson -- happened under his watch. and so, you know, he should -- he should know what type of influence and how bad these are for their programs. on the other hand, they do it for a couple of reasons. you mentioned the money that they give a lot of money to the school. they help lure players to that school to miami and to ohio state, to usc. if they don't allow these players to have access to these boosters, they will go -- they will go to a school that will. so a lot of times they -- they are turning their head and putting their heads in the sand and not acknowledging. sometime that's know all about it. they just don't -- they don't want to hear about it. >> money and football. >> yeah. >> i know that's the way of the world. maybe i'm naive but that really stink. >> it does. the ncaa has could clean this up. they have the opportunity to

clean this up. unless they come down hard on these programs, really hard, i don't think that death penalty but really hard sanction. >> let's talk about the death penalty. they can say to the university of miami your program is over. good-bye. why wouldn't they do that? if this is going on for eight years, under a -- a variety of coaches, and -- ape there school's administration had no idea which is kind of hard to believe, well, why shouldn't the university of miami's football program be bye-bye? >> well, if it were up to me, i -- you know, i might give them the death penalty. i don't think the ncaa ever will and there is one reason, it is money. tv contracts, the amount of money that it brings in to the school, the city, they would -- i don't think they would ever do that because it would be a catastrophic impact for miami and for other businesses that rely on the you don't know of miami football to bring in millions of dollars. not only for the university but to the city. >> what probably will happen? >> well, i think that you are

looking at severe scholarship reductions. i think you are looking at two, three, four years of a bowl ban. you know, i think this is going to cripple the program. i think it is going to cripple the program even before the sanctions come out because if you are a top recruit, whether it is in south florida or anywhere else why would you go to the university of miami right now? you know that they are going to get hammered. >> yeah. b.j., depressing conversation. but an interesting one all the same. thank you so much for coming in this morning. >> thank you. the story, the headlines are horrible and reepd beyond the headlines, and it is still horrible need goat away from it all? for a million dollars you can have a trip that's out of this world. we will explain. >> familiar sly important. family, right? well, coming up, we will tell why you it matters when it comes to your heart. [ male announcer ] 95% of all americans

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you never forget your first subaru. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. lot going on this morning. sheer what you need to know to start your day. israel reports six people have died following a string of violent attacks this morning. at least 29 others were hurt. it began with a bus shooting near the egyptian border. the attackers launched an assault on israeli soldiers. there's also reports of a roadside bombing targeting a second bus. no word yet on who the assailants may be. the white house set to call for syrian president assad to step down as early as today.

u.s. officials say that it is a coordinated move with allies in europe, turkey, arab world. we expect to hear from secretary of state hillary clinton at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. pope benedict arriving in madrid for a four-davis tonight connection with the world youth day. met with protests saying it is costing money. the gill friend of reputed crime boss james whitey bulger is being arraigned this morning in boston. she is accused of helping him elude authorities during his 16 years as a fugitive. the two were arrested in california in june. they wanted to build a campfire along with their fort. now two nevada teens face third-degree arson charges after winds caught hold of that fire. forced evacuations and closed a section of highway. two firefighters were also injured. the record drought in texas choked the industrial agricultural industry. it already cost farmers $5.2 billion. economists in texas a&m say

without rain to help winter wheat lit get even worse. a hotel room with an incredible view. the commercial space station will float 250 miles above earth, five days there will cost you a cool million bucks. you are caught up the day's headlines. "american morning" back in 60 seconds.

welcome back. new this morning, san francisco bay area transit system's website hacked again this week with home addresses and personal information of 102 officers out for the whole world to see. sunday's incident was the work of a hacking group ammon muss

but unclear if they were also responsible for yesterday. no warn when there should have been. the indiana state fair now admitting it did not follow severe weather procedures last weekend before high winds brought down that stage that killed five people. comments coming after indiana governor mitch daniels said, quote, maybe there were some things left undone that shouldn't have been. take a look at the salt truck after it plowed through a repair shop wall in queens. yes. yeah. >> that's scary. dangling more than 30 feet above the ground. debris and concrete falling to the street crush some parked cars below. that's a half hour. if fire department able to get the driver out and he is okay. >> you mean he was dangling in the cab for a while? >> i don't know how they got him out but that was -- yeah. >> oh. >> you know what, the -- no need for salt trucks this time of year. he is out of practice. >> there the crash was the salt truck going through the wall! i'm sorry. glad everyone is okay. a flood of information out

there about heart attacks sometimes confusing and even misleading. frankly, it's hard to kind of tell what is myth and fact. >> everybody thinks they know a lot about. this morning to give us the cold, hard facts is cnn' chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is with us. you spent a year looking at heart disease from almost every angle. have you a documentary coming up. i think we can eliminate heart attacks is great. give us the more glaring misconceptions and myths we have about heart attacks. >> some things really just jumped out at you as soon as we started working on this documentary. people's misconceptions about this. i want to say part of this whole journey for the last heart attack i, myself, wanted to become if i could be heart attack proof which doctors said was possible and now say that i am. so that, obviously, is something that i think we can achieve for many, many people in the country. one of the big misconceptions i'll tell you right away is the

idea first of all, that people say heart attacks came out of the blue. you know? there was no warning signs at all and myth number one is that, oftentimes, you know, a heart attack is going to be proceeded by chest pain. that may not be the case. in fact, the first symptom that someone may have that they, in fact, have catastrophic heart disease is that crushing chest pain that is associated with a heart attack. it may not be any pain whatsoever. people may not have that heart attack where they clutch their chest. they may have back pain and feel fatigue and feel unusual and something they need to remember to get checked out especially if they have had some concern that they have heart disease. don't always think you're going to have some sort of warning sign. really quickly. something that people talk about quite a bit is their cholesterol numbers. they say, look, my cholesterol is fine. i am not at risk of having a heart attack. what they find in some of these studies is about a fifth of the people who fall into the safe zone, in fact, still had heart attacks.

that is another myth that low cholesterol will tell you you're safe. what is interesting is that in the study, in this documentary we found that you really need to look at the blood vessels themselves to understand, regardless of what the cholesterol number is the real question what do the blood vessels look like and simple tests out there that can give you that information. also it has less to do, we found, new information, less to do with how much cholesterol you have in your blood rather than the size of the cholesterol particles. the smaller the size the more damaging they are to your blood vessel walk. big particles, less damaging. you could have a high cholesterol number and big parl ka particles may not be that bad. you have to know these numbers to ask your doctor about. >> my doctor, since i have heart disease in my family, my father died of a heart attack, he is always talking about lower your

cholesterol, that is really important because you have this family history. are you saying my doctor might be wrong? >> reporter: i'm saying your doctor and many doctors out there may be incomplete. this is based on brand-new data that people are getting. there was a study done on out of mass which tried to categorize what are the risk factors for heart disease. not so say the factors are wrong but we have much more knowledge now about what causes a heart attack. some say i had none of these problems and i still had a heart attack. why? because the risk factors we knew about were just incomplete. cholesterol, i think, is the best example, carol. if you have the ldl, the bad cholesterol what you need to figure out is how damaging is that cholesterol to your blood vessels. again, looking at the amount, but also looking at the particle size and taking that extra beat

will give you a lot of information. >> i'm going to go back and have an argument with my doctor. >> excellent to do that on national tv. always great to see you, sanjay. you can catch his entire special report called "the last heart attack," i'm definitely watching this. sunday at 8:00 eastern on cnn. no different than what i normally do on sunday night. >> but you won't eat a whole pizza while you do it. >> exactly right. carol, i can't believe you outages your doctor. >> i didn't say hi name. >> he knows who he is. >> someone who has a heart attack in your family all the more reason to live a healthy lifestyle. >> i didn't know they could tell you the size in your includes patrol. >> doesn't say on the menu. >> that is the next disclosure. >> i need more information. we have been asking you to talk back on one of the big stories on the day and do you have a lot to say. are rick perry's treason

accusations against the fed out of line is our talk back question of the day. here is one of our responses. i'm confused. if the fed's actions are treasonous, in favor of the white house, would perry then be implying that the administration is deliberately anti-american? this from kirby. i think a mistake was made but being a republican, i'm willing to forgive him. it seems to me that all of the candidates for president are being carol with what they say and the pundits, bloggers and the news hosts are having a heyday with it. this from tom. we have been shocked to death by these people running for president. let's hear some answers instead of catch phrases. i'm looking for truth in a candidate but all i hear is rhetoric. >> i like what tom says. that said, i don't know whether tom is putting his hands up and saying, yeah, they said it for shock value. i don't think treason is a word that you bring into the world

for -- i mean, treason is a very serious crime that is in the constitution. >> on the other side of the coin you could say the same thing whoever the democrat was that called the tea party terrorists, true? >> i agree with you. i don't think these kind of words should be bandied about. >> rick perry has not said treason or treasonous. he elaborated on it but the word is not coming out of his mouth. karl rove in an op-ed said it's a mulligan. every fir time. when you get out there, you get the first mulligan and this may have been rick perry's first mulligan. we will see. >> if i'm the fed chief i might be talking to a lawyer about suing him. if somebody accused me of treason? i would be in a lawyer's office if somebody accused me of treason." keep your comments coming. we are interested if what you have to say.

facebook.com/americanmorning. attackers in israel launching several attacks apparently. not only on the military but on civilians. we know there is some people very seriously injured. the latest developments from israel on the other side of this. david letterman a terrorist target? we will tell you why. you're watching "american morning." 57 minutes after the hour. would you like to have a look at a map, my lad? ah, why not? should we check on the status of your knighthood? yes. again? yes, again! please. thank you! with my digital manservant, i'll never be homesick again. would you like me to put the kettle on, sir? no! i'd like you to get rid of that ostrich. it's been here a month. [ male announcer ] the new hp touchpad starting at $399.99. ♪ you know, the ones9.99. who do such a super job, they're backed by the superguarantee®? only superpages®. wherever you are, wherever you're going,

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i'm christine romans. could the global economy getting too close to recession. the warning this morning morgan stanley. bombshell allegations against the university of miami. one claiming he spent millions of dollars on gifts for athletes. some talking meals and gifts and even prostitute. >> i'm ali velshi. why one jihadist website wants david letterman dead on this "american morning." ♪ good morning, everyone. it's thursday, august 18th. welcome to "american morning." >> it's become a very busy

morning. >> certainly has. >> we are watching the financial markets and things developing on the other side of the world. >> out of israel, six people are reportedly dead after a string of violent attacks. more than two dozen more hurt. it began with a bus shooting near a city of ilad which is close to the egyptian border and they baunched attacks on israeli soldiers and reports of a roadside bombinging on a second bus. >> we are reporters on the ground and trying to get as much information as we can get. a message to syrian president assad saying the time to go. the international community has condemned assad's brutal attack on syrian protesters who have been demand is his removal. secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to make a statement later this morning and cnn will carry it live and later on this hour, we will talk to a former u.s. bread ambassador on

whether this move will have an impact on al assad or the protesters taking the brunt of his wrath. >> the world is calling for him to stop the blood shed for months now. new fears putting investors on the u.s. on edge. morgan stanley with a note this morning warning that the global economy is, quote, dangerously close to recession. the bank is slashing its global growth forecasts. the whole world will grow slowly than thought and blaming the usual suspects including the slower response to europe to their debt crisis and what it calls policy errors here in the united states, including the debt ceiling drama, as it said, which is fueling low consumer and business confidence. >> do you want to break the news to rick perry about what else they said? >> they said they expect global central banks like the fed to have to keep interest rates very, very low and do more and new things to try to keep the oxygen flowing in the world. >> and possibly treasonist things. >> oh, geez! we are going to talk about that later. let's talk about the stock market.

all of that stock news has futures down in the united states. dow futures off more than a hundred points and nasdaq and s&p future are also lower. >> standard & poor's is reportedly the target of a justice department investigation. this is according to reporting in "the new york times." the feds want to know if the credit agency knowingly fudged the rating on bundled mortgages during the height of the housing bubble. it tanked the value as the housing market headed south. the investigation reportedly began well before the nation's credit rating was downgraded. cnn contacted the justice department but they have not responded. we also have calls out to the s&p. right now, joe biden is

meeting with the vice president of china. the talks are expected to last for about five days. it won't be just economics and politics. they also will be talking with arm sales to taiwan which is high on china's list of reasons why they get a little ticked off at the u.s. >> we will keep you posted on that. his bags are packed but before president obama goes on vacation he will meet with his economic team to discuss jobs. the white house will have a tough time putting a positive spin on the latest gallup poll, however. just 26% of americans approve of the way the president is handling the economy. that would be a new low. mr. obama just completed a three-day bus tour through the midwest. he says he will unveil his new plan for jobs and economic growth after labor day. no rest for the republican presidential candidates. this morning, congresswoman michele bachmann is back in south carolina for two rallies. congressman ron paul is visiting leaders in concord and texas governor rick perry is also in

new hampshire meeting and greeting folks in port smith and dover. it's new hampshire so you can't call it concord. it's concord. >> bachmann making a bold campaign promise on the stump. she told a crowd tuesday that if she is elected president, president bachmann, you will see the price of gas which is about $3.60, you'll see it drop by more than $1.50. >> you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. that will happen! >> we will see how that works out. we want to get back to the breaking news out of israel. attackers went after a bus, assaulted an israel military force and even targeted another vehicle in the city of ilad, near the egyptian border in the southern part of israel. five people critically wounded. kevin flower joins us live now from jerusalem. give us an update who might be

responsible for this. >> reporter: well, at this point, the israeli government is laying blame for incident on gaza, on militant gr the gaza strip. the defense minister here, ehud barak released a statement saying it came from the gaza strip and in the same breath holding egypt responsible for allowing terrorist elements to expand in the cyanide peninsula. connecting the dots from the statement it would suggest the israeli government believes some militants crossed from the gaza strip into egypt in the peninsula and crossed back into southern israel to carry out these attacks. this is a quickly developing story. let me just update you on some of the facts here. what we know at this point is that five people, at least five people have been killed in that attack. over two dozen have been injured and what the israel military is saying happened is that it was

actually four different attacks carried out by multiple terrorists attackers, they say. the first one was an attack on a bus, this happened slightly after noon. the second attack was roadside bomb that targeted a military vehicle that was responding to the site of that first attack. then there were mortars fired across the border from egypt into southern israel. and then finally there was a firing of an anti-tank missile on a vehicle in southern israel. so this is a very complicated widespread attack. the details of it are still emerging at this point. clearly israel policymakers and security officials are greatly worried about what this means for the future. >> we are getting information from all over the place, kevin. cnn has now confirmed six are now dead. i just wanted to ask you, is it unusual in this particular part of israel for these types of attacks to happen? >> reporter: it's not unusual. just in april of this year,

there was an attack against a bus, a similar bus, a public bus, a school bus, in fact. that was an attack by an anti-tank missile fired from the gaza strip. now, that didn't involve as many injuries and as many dead as this attack here so it is not unheard of, but for the fast few years by and large it has been quiet in southern israel, the past four to five years, there have been not been the same number of attacks in israel that we saw earlier at the beginning of the decade 2000, 2001, the first couple of years. so this is really going to have people worried that there is some sort of return to some sort of lawlessness d not lawlessness but concern primarily about the southern border of egypt and lawlessness in the peninsula allowing for elements to cross the israeli/egyptian border and where the questions will be coming for egypt and the palestinian government as well.

>> i also wonder, hosni mubarak is no longer the leader of egypt. would this have anything to do with this renewed violence in this particular part of israel? >> reporter: it's really -- it's really hard to speculate at this point. what we do know about what is going on in egypt at this point is just this past week, the egyptian military sent in additional forces to carry out operations against what it called al qaeda elements. now, this is a very -- a stunning development really in a lot of ways, because basically what we have seen in the cyanide peninsula is a breakdown of law and order there since the mubarak regime fell and basically what has had to happen is the israel government essentially had to give permission to the egyptian government to send in the additional troops because of the peace treaty that governs the cyanide peninsula. the egyptian and israelis to a

certain extent have been working together to try and combat some of this activity in the cyanide peninsula, but it's clearly still going to be a source of concern going forward and it's noticeable that the defense minister pointed the finger directly at egypt in his statement. >> kevin, when we talked last, you said that there were some reporting that there was a gunfight under way. are we looking at two attacks, three attacks and have we gotten confirmation that is over now? >> reporter: well, we don't. it's really still developing. we have sort of gone over the facts. here are the different reports out there. we know from the israeli military spokesman that there were three-point four different attacks. what we don't know is how many attackers were involved in this. the israeli military is suggesting that it was multiple attackers, more than one team and based on the information they are giving us, this would seem to be the case, because these were attacks that were

happening within a close proximity of each other, but it roughly at the same time. it also -- this is a fairly sew fest indicated attack using anti-tank weapons and improvised explosive device within israeli territory. this is not likely the work of one or two people, it is likely that a number of people were involved in this and this is an area in southern israel, this is within its territory that is patrolled by the israel military so it is a very, very serious attack and israel is going to be quite concerned about it. >> kevin flower for us in jerusalem, thanks so much. david letterman has an assassination threat. after the funny man cracked a joke about an al qaeda leader's death. listen. >> jo anyway, they picked a successor to osama bin laden and

his name was elaskaz miles an houry. guess what? he was blown up by a fbi drone. >> no word from letterman's camp this morning. >> now is your chance to talk back. the question for you this morning are rick perry's treason accusations out of line? the whole thing has been dragging on for days now and it won't die because perry's critic won't let it die and neither will be at the he is not backing down. he sa he upped the ante yesterday. >> they should open their books up. until they do that, i think there will continue to be questions about their activity and what their true goal is for the united states. >> critics are appalled and that

includes some republicans. a former bush white house spokesman tweeted perry's remarks are inappropriate and unpresidential, although perry has his supporters too. >> the fundamental point he makes is totally true, actually! we are devaluing the currency. it's happening because of the fed's policies and it is benefiting in a short-term way, i think, the white house. >> still, treason? as defined in article iii of the constitution? if you don't have your constitution handy this is what it says. you know? like in benedict arnold who portrayed america during the revolutionary war. the man running the federal reserve, ben bernanke, which is the essential bank for the united states conspire against his own country is in the talkback question of the day are recognize perry's treason accusation is against the fed out of line? tell us what you think.

we will read your comments later this hour. >> tucker carlson says he thinks the policies might be benefiting the white house. recent polls don't indicate anything benefiting the white house for that. >> touche! the digital battleground. all of the cool kids are doing and even the cool politicians. now president obama has signed on. why should politicians or for that matter why should you be using four square and if you don't have any idea what it is, we will tell you what you come back. miami could take a major ncaa hit appear a former booster said he spent millions of dollars on athletes including jewelry, parties, prostitutes. 15 minutes after the hour. the eagle flies at dawn. the monkey eats custard. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor. so, you've been double crossed by other travel sites

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stunning allegations of the university of miami. a booster claims he spent

millions of dollars over the athletes eight-year period and giving them expensive jewelry and meals and even brought them prostitut prostitutes. he claims several coaches knew about it. >> he is serving a 20-year sentence for fraud on ponzi scheme unrelated to this. david mattingly has this report for us. >> reporter: former university of miami booster nevin shapiro had a lot of access to players over the years here at the university of miami and he says from 2002 until 2010, he broke a whole host of ncaa rules involving what sort of gifts and services you can provide to these players. he says over those years, he was involved with 72 student athletes here, most of them football players, and this involving, he says, about a dozen current players. he says he bout them gifts from jewelry to watches and clothes and paid for lavish trips to his yacht and also to nights out on the town at clubs.

he says he took players to strip clubs. he also says he arranged prostitutes for miami players, as well as arranging sex parties for some of these players and on one occasion, shapiro says he paid for an abortion for a stripper who claims sha she got pregnant by one of the university of miami players. of course, this very serious with this program. the ncaa says they have been looking into this for months already and if the allegations prove to be true, then the ncaa says it could have impacts on programs all the way across the country in the way they deal with boosters like shapiro. all eyes on the university of miami and the future of their program in the wake of these allegations. david mattingly, cnn, miami. >> david is going to update us as soon as he gets more information on that. "minding your business" is next. watching the stock sell-off in europe and how it will affect your portfolio this morning. >> gold at a record high. with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced.

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it's 23 minutes after the hour. "minding your business" this morning. dow futures are down morning 200 points right now on the run-up to today's open a little more than an hour as european markets stumble. morgan stanley put out an analyst note that warns of the possibility of a global recession and that has investigators moving their money out of stocks and into gold. the precious metal hit a new record high. right now topping $1800 an ounce. hugo chavez is getting in on the gold rush. venezuela's president is planning to take control of the gold and crack down on illegal mining and moving the country's existing gold reserve out of

banks and into venezuelan vaults. one critic sdrips looting of the nation's savings. the record drought in texas choking the agricultural industry and costing farmers $5.2 billion. economists at texas a&m without rain to help winter wheat it will only get worse. move over facebook and twitter. why every politician should be using four square. should you? "american morning" is back after the break. discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them.

it pays to switch, it pays to discover.

♪ soccer noshl is everywhere. 10 million users and counting and called four square. president obama just checked in to check it out and if you're wondering what it is and what it can do for you i got answers for you. four square is a location based service that lets you friends know where you are and let you know where your friends are. you need a smart phone with foursquare app available on

every device and platform iphone to blackberry. when you're at a location you check it and tap the check in bottom at the bottom of the screen. bam. your friends know where you are. it's raised some red flags when it comes to privacy because based on your settings folks who don't know you could find out where you're hanging out. if you check into a location, for instance more than anyone else does you can get reward fred that business for being a loyal customer. you can get reviews and suggestions of places and a sense of what your friends like. joining me to talk about foursquare and what it can do for politician or for you is dennis crowley. the cofounder and ceo of foursquare. did i do a good job or okay job? >> i think you do a better job than i do sometimes. >> what did i miss? >> i think what is interesting we are helping people discover the world in new ways so when

people check in they let their friends know about where they are but they are discovering new parks and new interesting things happening in their neighborhood. >> based on where you are and based on friend recommendations or more just locality? >> like what your friends have been doing and a lot what is going on in the ecosystem. the same way netflix we can do the same. >> i love that part that amazon and netflix tells me. as a consumer i don't mind people know my habits so that they can inform me better on purchases. is this mostly about businesses, foursquare? >> it's a lot about users sharing their locations with their friends. i'm at this coffee shop and found a great restaurant and we should meet up some time. we talk about using technology to help people find places they normally wouldn't discover and help them find a restaurant or park that is interesting to

them. >> you think about this in a different way. you're of an age of founders in the digital space. this thing started up by southwest. privacy concerns in your mind are not the first thing. you think of the digital world and location based services as access and discovery. how do you tackle the privacy side? >> we think about privacy but allowing people to share with their friends. every time you check in, we ask you who do you want to share with. we give you the controls so people are rarely sharing their location without realizing it but we found a lot of users like to send their check ins to facebook or twitter and allows them to share those moments with more people. >> do the places you check into, the restaurant, the bar, the airport, do they register or does foursquare know who they are if i keep going to the same bar but it's -- will foursquare know where it is?

>> sure. a lot of places in foursquare are added by users. if a new restaurant opens around the corner chances are it's in foursquare in a couple of days. >> if i keep going to a place and checking in, i become like the governor or the senator? >> the mayor of the place. one of the most interesting things i think we are doing is helping merchants connect with their best customers whether someone been there more than anyone else. we let them identify who their new customers and best customers are. >> why slg this helpful to the president? >> foursquare is sharing with friends and seeing it for politicians. we have seen folks check in from the campaign trail and sharing information about different things they have accomplished in different cities and leaving the accomplishments behind for somebody who might follow obama or other politicians on foursquare and get information about some of the things they have been doing. >> you do have to have your location base avented on your

device to this for work. >> a lot of this is based off gps. the check-ins when you open up foursquare we show you information about things particularly around us. >> dennis, thanks for the explanation. >> thank you for having me. we are following several breaking news story including a deadly act tack on a u.s. military base in afghanistan. officials say a truck bomber ripped through the u.s. base in gardez. nine others hurt and three killed. taliban taking credit for this attack. u.s. officials say the move for assad to step down is closely coordinated and could happen as early as today. assads in his military crackdown on protesters has ended but new evidence against civilians overnight in syria. secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to make an announcement later this morning. cnn will carry that live. also following breaking news

out of israel. the israel defense minister speaking out about a string of deadly attacks this morning saying the origin of the terror strikes is in gaza. six people reportedly dead and two dozen others hurt. attackers opened fire on a bus near eilat and launched attack on israeli soldiers and reports of a roadside bombing targeting a second bus. >> let's bring in mark iensburg. we start in israel before we move on what is happening to syria. welcome to the program. >> good morning. >> first this is a situation that is still unfolding we will tell you in this southern part of israel right now. give us your thoughts on this attack. it comes at a time when there is egyptian military active in the sinai. thoughts to be elements of al qaeda there. >> i'm surprised by the report.

i thought this was better when tribesmen who have been rebelling both against israeli and egyptian forces and why the egyptians have poured more military into the sinai in recent days. attacks on gas lines and on israelis. if this originates from the gaza strip, this is a major development. the israelis more or less know that they have been causing problems for them. the fact that hamas forces or other terrorist forces from gaza went to city of eilat to attack israeli soldiers will cause a great deal of alarm in israel. >> we don't know who the elements are behind it. the israelis saying they are terrorists is the word they are using. >> i think they did come forward. i don't know. maybe our producers can check on this. the attacks were coming from gaza. >> yes. >> that, indeed, as i said, it would be a significant escalation of perhaps hamas orchestrated attacks, particularly on the eve of a vote in the general assembly.

i think the palestinian authority was hoping to keep things quiet. this raises very interesting questions and gives further pretext to the israelis to say this is why they don't deserve that. >> marc, this is interesting. what happened is we saw a hard line several months ago, particularly when benjamin netanyahu was in the united states and a softening of the line a few weeks ago in the hopes they could trade off against the palestinians looking for recognition by the united nations. we are weeks away from that now. pull back 50,000 feet and tell me where things stand with respect to israel and palestine. >> ironically, what is happening the palestinians basically dedefieded calls by the united states and the other members of the united nations and middle quartet to proceed with an effort to get that vote in the general assembly in mid september. israeli ironically announced

they will increase housing construction in the west bank as a result. so they seem to be even further apart than before. >> let's switch gears and talk about syria. secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to make an announcement and we expect her to say president assad, it is time for you to step down. what will get him to step down? >> well, i think that is too little, too late, frankly, and i think the administration's policy towards syria is, i guess, called tepid and i would say, at this point in time, they have been leading from behind on syria. whatever the administration says orally will be irrelevant to assad. i think what is more important is what the turkish government is going to do. the turks have basically signaled they will give assad from several days ago, two weeks to stop this clamp-down or else the turks are going to start supporting the opposition forces

and make life far more miserable for the syrian regime in which they have invested so much on. more or less, the obama administration has piggybacked on to irk turkey's diplomacy. >> ambassador ginsburg, thank you for joining us. secretary of state is expected to speak at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> we know now she is speaking about syria. we will cover that live on cnn. what is waiting at home for soldiers returning from iraq and afghanistan? we know it's a rough economy but is all bad news? it doesn't have to be. these soldiers are a force to be reckoned with, how they are changing your workplace and your politics next. you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime

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♪ ♪ i'm halfway gone and i'm on my way ♪ >> more often than not we hear the dark side after war pr the

high unemployment rate and high suicide rates. we don't hear enough good news but joe klein writes this new generation of veterans is fast become ago force to be reckoned with. bringing a sharper skill set than veterans of past wars. joe joins us along with paul reikoff. gentlemen, welcome to the program. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> good morning. >> joe, the piece so eloquently lays out just how these soldiers are different. they are fast, they are nivenl, they know technology. they should be something that every company and every organization wants simply for these skills they are learning on the battlefield. >> well, yeah. i spent a lot of time embedded overseas the last five or six years in iraq and afghanistan. what i saw there on the ground was not the typical sense that civilians have of the military which is yes or no, sir, we will

take that hill, sir. people who have to be essentially the government of small towns in iraq and afghanistan who have to be entrepreneurial and creative. as general petraeus says, they never know whether they will get a handshake or a hand grenade. they have to do this with extreme pressure and those are leadership skills. plus, the rigor and discipline that comes from being part of the military. those are things we really need in this society now. >> are more leaders in per capita into these cars going back to vietnam and world war ii and world war i? >> i think the skill set is different and it's the skill set that produces leaders. world war i was fought by battalions, hundreds and hundreds of troops moving into the front. word war ii were companies, 200 or 300. vietnam was a platoon war. this is fire teams and individuals having to make connections with local leadership. having to figure out how to

spend their emergency response funds. you know? are we going to clean out the irrigation tich or reopen the school? they have to be politicians? >> it's fascinating. probably want to ask you. the president sort of said i'm paraphrasing just think how many of these veterans have led their comrades on life or death missions and they are 25. it's a responsibility that really any business in america would like to take advantage of but you look at the unemployment rates, i mean, it's just not right and it's not fair. it's a quarter of all soldiers coming back from iraq and afghanistan who are around 20, to 24 years old are unemployed. how do you make sure they get hired? >> what we are trying to do is help the civilian population understand the skill set these folks bring. this "time" magazine cover will rebrand our generation. >> show the cover again. you can see what the folks look

like. it's nurses, it's business managers, right. >> these are small business leaders and entrepreneurs and folks who have led overseas and want to come home and lead again. they are dynamic and tough and great discipline and great values and there is a tremendous can do spirit that permeates this entire generation. >> we are finding it in disaster relief. you are finding the skills working well into disaster relief. part of the problem is one of the areas many people come from are the construction industry and some areas have been hit pretty hard by the economy. that is part of the problem. >> but they are across the spectr spectrum. paul went to amhorst college. we have one of the guys i write about was a harvard vl dick torian in 2001. his mother said she wouldn't -- she would have been more disappointed only if he had chosen a life of crime than the military and this is a guy who is bringing incredible leadership skills. they are going to be

politicians. they are going to be one or two presidents in this group as well. >> just about everybody knows who is coming out of there, these five-point action plans. anybody in an office, any kind of job. tell me how what they are learning on the field is boiling it down. >> let him tell you. sugar cookies, right? >> sergeant major sugar cookies is the way you remember the planning. you learn to forward pla and think about time lines and budget and personnels and contingency planning. exactly the type of thinking you have to have in a dynamic environment that changes all the time. that is exactly what you need when you come home and do disaster relief in a small community or if you start up a business or you're working in an inner city school. that planning, discipline and structure and learning to be a leader at every level is lacking in the society. the difference now is we are a much smaller percentage of the population. less than one half of 1% serve now and world war ii was 12%.

these folks are elite group of people trained to be leaders and embedded in them and that is a tremendous potential the neck couple of decades. >> i've been a journalist 42 years now and the greatest privilege of my career has been yoi going overseas and watching the kids in action and following them when they get home. it is amazing. >> hope the economy can start to heal and an opportunity for everyone, including people coming back from the battlefield. the piece is fantastic. thank you both for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> morning headlines are next.

just minutes ago, the weekly report on new jobless claims came in and worse than economists expected. 408,000 applications were first-time unemployment benefits last week that up from the previous week. markets open in 45 minutes. u.s. stock futures are down right now sharply. dow futures off now indicating an open that is more than 200 points lower after morgan stanley warned the united states and europe are hovering dangerously close to a recession. seen the downturn in markets the last half hour or so. a triple terror attack in israel. six people killed and two dozen injured and officials are not sure who is responsible right now but hearing reports the attackers may have come out of the gaza strip. obama administration may call for syria president to step down today. president assad says violence against protesters is over but

cnn hearing other reports that is not true. secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to make a statement later this morning. cnn will carry that statement live. terrorist targeting david letterman. assassination threat calling for letterman's tongue to be cut out and his mouth to be shut forever. this after the funny man cracked a joke about an al qaeda's death. the fbi is looking into the threat. that is what you need to start your day. "american morning" will be back after the break.

♪ the change in my pocket wasn't enough forgot you ♪

>> a shot of atlanta and not at the futures for a second? fair, 76. partly cloudy. 90 later. those are numbers -- >> this is not an inappropriate song for this because you can't forget atlanta. once it's in you, it stays with you. >> i love atlanta. a great time every time i go there. welcome back to "american morning." are you holding a grudge against someone? really? it's only human but then there is this. a new study says that kind of anger and bitterness can literally make you sick. >> senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen who doesn't hold any grudges against anyone. >> she is a very nice person. >> oh, thank you. >> this is the thing i remember my mother saying to me and i just thought that is nice but it's something your mother says. >> never go to bed mad. >> do you think it's true? >> ali, you should listen to your mother. >> i listen to you and your mother, if i did, i would be fit, happy, healthy, all of those things. >> and look at the wreck of a human being he is now! >> your mother on facebook, i will connect with her and we

will do an ali vacation. >> your mother is not on facebook? >> she is actually. >> she is? >> i will look for her as soon as this is over. i will help her get the word out that bitterness doesn't pay. when you are bitter at someone the person it hurts is yourself even if the person has done you wrong and even if the spouse has cheated on you and you have a horrible nasty boss. if you harbor bitterness it ends up hurting you. a new book out and talk about the studies that show that bitterness makes your heart rate go up and it makes your blood pressure go up. people who harbor grudges are more likely to die earlier deaths, especially of heart disease. it may in some ways feel good to think the bad thoughts about someone but in the end it ends up, well, biting you in butt. >> this is that mind/body connection, basically? >> it is. we are kind of built to get mad at people when we perceive them as a threat.

you perceive someone as a threat. your blood pressure goes up. all of these inflammatory responses in your body and that is because if that person comes after you, you want to be prepared to fight them. so in some ways it's a good instinct, it gets you ready for a physical fight if it should come to that which, obviously, hopefully, it wouldn't. but when you have those bodily responses over days and weeks and months and, for some people, years or even decades, it really takes a toll to have that blood pressure up that high for that long, to have that inflammatory response sustained really takes a toll, especially on your heart. >> we are basically all cave men. >> it's true. >> we are fighting off our fauxes. how do you lose the bitterness and forgive and forget and be happy? >> it's not easy. not easy. i spoke to a bunch of psychologists and psychiatrists and people who have given up bitterness. allow yourself to gripe a period

of time to a close friend or to someone in your family. allow yourself to do that. and then think about the harm that you're doing yourself. think about, gee, if i keep this up, i may very well be shortening my life. and, also, try compassion. try thinking that person who did me wrong, that may be just the only way they know how to behave. that is the best that they can do. and also remember don't be a doormat. as a matter of fact a psychiatrist told me he is like, look. it doesn't mean that you fold. so, for example, if your spouse cheated on you, the best revenge is going to be pick your life up and get yourself a new and better looking spouse and your old spouse will come back and want you back and you can say, sorry, too late! that is okay. that is an okay kind of feeling. but not the harboring of bitterness and running yourself down for years. >> revenge is good. >> i was totally sure elizabeth would sneak in the idea i should exercise or one should exercise because she always manages to get that in. >> what about eating right?

>> i'm telling you, it always seems to come down to that. you're actually just telling me to be nice. i don't have to eat anything? >> since you brought it up, ali, it is true that if you are harboring a grudge and feeling awful about the world, that going out for a good walk every day and eating well is definitely going to help you feel better, but, ali, you don't seem the guy that holds a grudge. >> in fact, i don't so that is good. one less problem i have to deal with in life. elizabeth, always great to talk to you. coming up next, our talkback question of the day. are rick perry's treason act sayingses against the fed out of line? commend the ensure brand for extra nutrition. ensure clinical strength has revigor and thirteen grams of protein to protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. and immune balance to help support your immune system. ensure clinical strength...

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♪ washington, d.c., good morning to you! 76 degrees and mostly cloudy but you will getting thunderstorms like we will in new york later on. it's going to get up to 90 today. >> at least we can all share the thunderstorms. that's a nice way to think about it, isn't it? we asked you to talk back and asked you this question.

here are some of your responses. larry says too much political discourse is crude and inflammatory. perry can says he disagrees with printing money. which statement will get him the most publicity? it's my or the highway and as a result we are only seeing extreme solutions that won't work instead of a middle ground that will solve the problems. peter says perry is right about the very troubling nature of the fed's relentless assault on our dollar and any historian knows the most direct way to bring about a nation's decline is undermine and devalue its currenc currency. you're right about it being misunderstood because, frankly, most most of us it's difficult to understand how the fed works? >> ron paul has