in terms of money about 5 grand in cash in addition to plane tickets, accommodations and dinner. >> all right. that's it. thanks for watching. see you later tonight. larry king starts right now. >> larry: tonight president obama takes the heat on the shocking failures that allowed a suspected terrorist on the plane and spells out security breakdowns that could have led to catastrophe. >> we must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes. >> larry: how did intelligence fall through the cracks, and what's the white house going to do now to prevent it from happening again. their bodies are their prisons. confined by morbid obesity that could kill them. carney williams is still

battling and so is a biggest lose erwiner and a family that is fighting the war against weight next on "larry king live." >> larry: good evening. the terror threat continues to top the news tonight. president obama took responsibility today for fail us to prevent an attempted attack on christmas day. as you saw, he said the buck stops with me and more. watch. >> all of these agencies and their leaders are responsible for implementing these reforms. all will be held builtable acco they don't. moreover i'm less interested in passing out blame than correcting thiz mistakes to make us safer for ultimately the buck stops with me. as president i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my

responsibility. over the past two weeks we've been reminded again of the challenge we face in protecting our country against a foe that is bent on our destruction. while passions and politics can obscure the hard work before us, let's be clear about what this moment demands. we are at war. we are at war against al qaeda. >> larry: the former ambassador at large for counterterrorism will join out. dan loitian is the white house correspondent. was what the president said today expected? >> reporter: we had been hearing from white house officials that the president would take responsibility for the failings and he did that saying that the buck stopped with him. the president didn't point fingers at anyone else saying there was no one agency or one person that was responsible for the problems, but it was system-wide failure. now, the president did go on to say and also the report that was released today did spell out

that clearly there was information there that could have prevented this suspect from getting onto the airplane. there are bits and pieces of information out there, but that no one person put it altogether. so the president told the intelligence community that they need to do better. he didn't ask them to overhaul the way that they do their work but to do that work much better. the president spelling out about a dozen various reforms saying they need to beef up their analysis and move that information around quicker into a wider group of people. they need to beef up their international partnerships, and john brennan, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, said that intelligence simply fell through the cracks. he told the president that, quote, i let you down, and i will do better. larry. >> larry: thanks, dan. dan lothian at the white house. the terror suspect is in court tomorrow. what do we expect? >> we expect him to enter a plea

tomorrow. he's facing six charges, one of them carries life in prison. that would be having a weapon of mass destruction. some of the other charges relate to attempting to kill the 289 people on that northwest airline flight. six charges in all. he will be there we expect a possibility of a plea, but we're not absolutely certain that's going to happen, layrrylarry. >> larry: this is his criminal arraignment? >> that's correct. they deal with the matter of detention. there's so much on the table already, we're not expecting the government to put a lot of new information out there for us. >> larry: that's jeanne meserve, our homeland security security correspondent. former head of the coalition provisional authority in iraq. good to have him back. what did you make of the president today, paul? >> i think, first of all, this whole thing proves bremer's first rule of counterterrorism intelligence which is it's always easier to find the needle

when the haystack has been taken away. there's good news and bad news in what the president did today. the good news he acknowledged clearly he we're at war with al qaeda and this was a terrorist attack. secondly he took responsibility. the bad news is that the president never really conveyed a sense of urgency to the country or his team about this incide incident. this is two weeks after the incident, and his counterterrorism adviser apparently told one of the senior counterterrorism analyst to take six days vacation the day after this incident. the second bad news piece is more serious, and that is that the administration seems to be entrapped in its commitment to the failed counterterrorist policy of the 1990s, which is to treat terrorists as criminals. that, in fact, could be even more dangerous than some of these systemic problems the president talked about today. >> larry: a terrorist isn't a criminal until a court of law

says he is. how do you deal with the balance here between the constitution in all of this? >> this man committed a terrorist attack or tried to commit a terrorist attack. he could have been rounded up by the military, perfectly legal according to the supreme court rulings, and interrogated by professional counterterrorist interrogators for information. counterterrorism intelligence information is highly perishable. you need to know right away where he came from, who made the bomb, where did he get the bomb, what other operations are being planned, by whom and where and when. that kind of information, as soon as you treat him as a criminal and he gets a lawyer and abdulmutallab now has a lawyer, obviously you don't get any more. you're left with the rather pathetic counterterrorism policy of a plea bargain with a man that tried to kill 300 americans. it's the wrong approach. >> larry: how about those that say the president treated us as

adults today. he told us nothing is perfect. being honest is not bad, is it? >> no, and i said at the beginning i think he's to be congratulated for that. i think it's important to that we wish that he gets this right now. but i think unless this conceptual problem is overcome, the idea that it these are just criminals and we treat them that way, we have a lot more problems in the future. also, lauriwye lary, these fixe minor fixes am they were proposed by the various bureaucracies that missed the various dots in the pattern. there are two fundamental questions that should be asked. number one is this whole structure of the director of national intelligence really working? if you read the white house paper you find there are conflicting areas of responsibility right between the national counterterrorism center and the cia. in fact, the paper congratulates itself that these two agencies are mutually responsible. i don't know. my old rule in business is, if

everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible. secondly, i think this whole incident raises the question whether we shouldn't -- it isn't time again to look at the proposition to establish a domestic intelligence agency such as britain has had for decades. we've avoids that question for a decade, and it's time to look at it again. >> larry: paul, what's your biggest worry? >> my biggest worry is that we -- you know, in a way i thought we were safer than we were before 9/11. i'm not so sure anymore. i'm not so sure, and i'm not so sure because part of it is the problem of wading through all of this intelligence. tens of thousands of documents and pieces coming in over the transmitter every day. the systemic problems of how you manage all of that, but most importantly the conceptual problem of understanding this is a war. it's not about criminals. it's about islamic extremists.

>> thanks, mr. ambassador. we'll call on you again. always good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> larry: right and left weighs in on what the president said today, next.

this was not a hoax. we had searched the house high and low and -- >> we did this for the show. >> larry: you're swearing none of that was staged?

>> larry: before we meet our panel, i want to remind you richard heene the father who led the country to believe his son was in a balloon, will be here tomorrow night. his first interview since he was sentenced to jail. he said it wasn't a hoax. that's friday's "larry king live." joining us in new york, stephanie miller. bay buchanan, republican president of the american cause. in philadelphia, liberal side, is marc lamont hill. professor at columbia university. contributor to theroot.com. he's a liberal. and the conservative in washington, amanda carpenter, "the washington times." stephanie, the president said the buck stops with him. was that a good move today? >> certainly a different move than we heard in the bush administration. i never heard anybody taking responsibility for 9/11, for katrina. i thought he stepped to the plate and i couldn't disagree with paul bremer more, larry.

i think he is prosecuting the same way president bush prosecuted the shoe bomber, richard reid as a criminal. you don't want to make them holy warriors. you want to prosecute them as what they are and that's criminals. that's what clinton did when he put the previous bombers in jail instead of letting them get away like osama bin laden. >> larry: bay, what did you make of the president today? >> you know, i think it's a little bit too late is what it is. i think what he did today was right and he took responsibility, as stephanie said, as he well should. look what happened here. this was an attempted act of war against the united states of america. we had al qaeda moving an operative on an american plane, putting him in a specific seat to do this crime. the president took days to respond. they treat this fellow, reading him his miranda rights instead of getting an interrogation where we can get serious information. they didn't notify the other pilots. larry, did they do anything right is what i want to ask?

this is a commander in chief who looks to me like he's not certain what to do when something goes wrong. he has to study it a couple weeks. we need better. >> larry: mark, how do you deal with the delicate balance between the constitution and rights of any individual, to presumption of innocence, the right to a lawyer and an imminent threat to the country? >> well, i don't think it's that delicate of a balance. we need to keep both things in full view. the reality is we can never compromise our values or beliefs in the service of fighting the war on terror. it's not an either/or proposition. it's a both/and proposition. we can uphold our ideals the same time we fight a war on terror. it's unfair to say president obama waited a week or nine days or however long to respond. did he wait a bit too long to give a public statement? yes. his agency was right on the money, right on the ball. immediately after the christmas attack. there were many things going on behind the scenes. much interrogation going on. many deals being negotiated. a lot was going on.

it's unfair to say he sat there asleep at the wheel while things were going on. >> larry: amanda, if we give up our constitutional rights isn't that just what the terrorists want? >> well, i don't think we're giving up our constitutional rights if we're talking about the debate where we give people who are attempting acts of terrorism whether we give them a lawyer or not. this guy tried to blow up a u.s. airline on christmas day. he met with al qaeda. he was directed by al qaeda and tried to carry out their mission. he gets here, he's given a lawyer. there's a legitimate debate going on right now about whether we should be treating these people as enemy combatants by giving them a lawyer and miranda rights and putting them through a trial. the closing of guantanamo bay, bringing ksm for a trial. all this is piling up. there's a sense we need to get closure out of some of this somehow. we're not getting it. >> we heard the administration did a whole lot going on behind the scenes. in a few takes after this event

they sent the homeland security director on national television misleading the americans saying, oh, the system works fine. this is what she added. she said, maybe this is good news here, silver lining that we will have a sense of urgency. say what you want about dick cheney or george bush. we had a sense of urgency and it's been lost in the past year. >> larry: hold on. one at a time. stephanie? >> are you kidding me? what george bush -- that was a sense of urgency? he sat in a classroom looking like he went in his pants for god's sake. it took him how many minutes to respond? he flew over hurricane katrina how many days after it happened? that's ridiculous. had the information. >> larry: let me get a break. when we come back -- one at a time. we'll be back in 60 seconds. [ announcer ] if you think about it, this is a lot like most job search sites.

- they let everyone in, - [ crowd groans ] so the best people can't stand out. join theladders.com. the premium job site for only $100k+ jobs... and only $100k+ talent. >> larry: president obama had a message today for the muslim world and also for al qaeda. watch. >> we know that the vast majority of muslims reject al

qaeda, but it is clear that al qaeda increasingly seeks to recruit individuals without known terrorist affiliations not just in the middle east but in africa and other places to do their bidding. that's why i've directed my national security team to develop a strategy that addresses the unique challenges posed by lone recruits and why we must communicate clearly to muslims around the world that al qaeda offers nothing but a bankrupt vision of misery and death including the murder of fellow muslims. while the united states stand with those who seek justice and progress. to advance that progress we've sought new beginnings with muslim communities around the world. one of which we engage on the basis of mutual interest, mutual respect and work to fulfill the aspirations all people share. to get an education, work with dignity, to live in peace and security. that's what america believes in. that's the vision that is far more powerful than the hatred of these violent extremists. >> larry: we'll be back with our panel right after these words.

>> larry: amanda carpenter, let's start with you. what does the president do about yemen? >> he has to get some kind of promise they will start producing members of al qaeda. reports earlier this week they arrested three people. we're going to need a heck of a lot more than that before we start sending troops in ourselves. >> larry: stephanie? >> well, you know, yeah, i mean, i think this points up, though, larry, why the bush administration had the wrong strategy on terrorism and have no grounds to criticize the president now.

the worst security failure in our history happened on their watch, despite numerous warnings. then they let the people behind it go at tora bora, attack the wrong country in iraq. they have no credibility in his matter. are we going to bomb yemen now? we need a fight a top-smart war on terror and need intelligence sharing. >> i think stephanie would have gotten the president's memo on behaving like citizens right now when we're attacked with these kind of attacks, but if you do want to talk about somebody that should be blamed is secretary janet napolitano. she was asked what was the most surprising thing that you -- >> larry: one at a time. one at a time, girls. >> we never politicized this after the shoe bomber. the right is the one -- >> larry: let me get bay and marc in. hold it, hold it. let marc comment then bay. marc? >> i tend to support president obama on some of these tactics.

the reality is the obama administration certainly dropped the ball here. there's no doubt about that. president obama was courageous enough today to step up and say, look, there were enormous intelligence gaps. we had enough information to stop this from happening and we failed. that's an important thing. should someone lose their job? perhaps. president obama is doing something wise by being deliberative and not reactionary. my concern with president obama with regard to yemen and iran, iraq and afghanistan, if we continue to engage in militaristic policies that galvanize terrorists and engage in language that's anti-muslim rather than anti-terrorist, we're going to continue to radicalize and recruit more terrorists to attack the united states. it has to be a very balanced approach. >> larry: in a sense, bay, he's saying we create the terrorists. >> he makes an excellent point. go over there to iraq, have a war, aggravate people and it ends up creating more terrorists than we kill. i don't disagree with that. at the same time, when there's

an act of war against this country and our commander in chief does not respond to something more than soft words, we are in trouble. they will come after us again. it was barack obama who said we're not going to use war on terror anymore because it's so offensive to people. we will talk about individual extremists or man-caused disasters. excuse me. hopefully from christmas day now he understands we are at war with al qaeda and he best respond as commander in chief and not as some kind of english professor trying to come up with different words to talk about it. >> larry: don't you agree, stephanie, these are perilous times? >> well, yeah. that's a completely false criticism of the president, that the right is making. just use the google, as george bush called it. he said the words terror and war on terror and terrorism many times. i think he understands it. we disagree on how to fight it. bay, we can't do it militarily. we agree on that. you can't go bomb yemen. >> you take action when they come after us.

just as we did in afghanistan, stephanie. and that is absolutely certain. we must take strong action today. >> but that's a straw argument. at no point did president obama suggest we should not take action. i've never met anybody -- even dennis kucinich doesn't say we shouldn't take action if someone attacks us. it becomes a straw argument to suggest president obama doesn't want to be tough on terror. >> larry: amanda, the right wing is criticizing he doesn't say terror. i believe he said it 11 times today. >> he said it and talks about how this was an attempted act of terror. i want to say the most shocking thing that came out of the press conference today were statements made by janet napolitano. she was asked what were the most surprising things she found in the intelligence review. one, the determination of al qaeda. we know how determined al qaeda is. she was this was a surprise. two, they tried to attack us with a lone suspect. we have seen this before. we know they're suicide bombers. it is shocking she thinks these are the two most shocking things that came out of this review. people calling for her head, and

i think when people review that tape, those calls will be renewed. >> i think that critique is unfair. the reality is the obama administration didn't underestimate al qaeda's determination -- i'm not doubting what was on the tape. she gave a bad press conference as she did for a second time in the row now. i think she's really bad at talking to the media. the obama administration to be sure doesn't think al qaeda isn't tough. what they did underestimate was the capacity of al qaeda in yemen. what they thought was an aspirational terrorist practice was far more developed than they thought. they dropped the ball on that. there was an intelligence gap. >> larry: thanks, guys. thanks, everybody. we'll be having your back. stephanie miller, bay buchanan, marc lamont hill and amanda carpenter. we're going to talk about another serious issue. affects millions of americans. weight, obesity. first, it's time for another great cnn hero. it's our first in 2010. watch.

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garlique's clinically proven ingredient maintains healthy cholesterol naturally. eat right. exercise. garlique. >> larry: welcome back. carnie wilson is here, singer, entertainer and host of the "newlywed game." star of the reality series "carnie wilson unstapled." it prepier mooers january 14th. she underwent gastric bypass surgery in 1999. jillian michaels is back. she's a health and wellness expert and trainer on nbc's "biggest loser." let's begin by taking a look at a clip from carnie's new reality show "carnie unstapled." >> i don't know about this one.

with my very pale calves. >> let me try something. >> can't breathe. >> this will help give you the waist. >> the waist i don't have? >> do i feel like i'm going to lift off? >> no, no, we can tweak the sleeves a little. let me give you something else. >> do you like it? whoa. i feel like i'm about to go to the prom. veins coming out. i hate mirrors. >> larry: why has weight been such a problem to you? >> oh, gosh. >> larry: looking back, why? >> it's been my achilles' heel. it's my life story. >> larry: as a kid? >> oh, yeah, 4 years old, yeah. i think that it will probably always be a struggle. i think that i've been up. i've been down. it might be that way forever. i crave and strive for balance. >> larry: how up have you been? >> i've been up to over 300 pounds. >> larry: how down? >> i've been low as 148. 146.

>> larry: don't you miss the 148? >> yeah. i mean, i miss maybe wearing a size six, but, you know, what i don't miss is having, you know, things associated with morbid obesity. i was very, very sick at 300 pounds and i had sleep apnea, i had high blood pressure, high cholesterol. i was pre-diabetic. my liver was inflamed. i was in poor health at 31. i have none of these now. i'm grateful. >> larry: 2/3 of adults are overweight or obese. with all the emphasis on your show, why? >> actually i believe it's a matter of economics. and, of course, people that are prone to that type of self-destruction. we all have dysfunction. i think it manifests in different ways for many people.

>> larry: 67%? >> i really do believe that's an matter of economics. when i say that i think it's because americans don't realize what they're eating. now, you know, with the dollar menu, everybody is struggling to make ends meet. when you can get a burger and fries for a buck i think it's difficult. i think that's a huge part of the problem. >> i agree. i don't think -- i mean, i wouldn't say obesity is a dysfunction. i mean, obesity is a disease. there's definitely people that are predisposed -- >> larry: childhood obesity, is that a disease? the kid wants french fries. >> i think there's a huge genetic component here. if there's a child that has the obesity gene, they have discovered that there is, if they eat that stuff by the time they're 12, 13, 14 they'll be more obese than other people. >> larry: what was gastric bypass surgery like? >> it was life-saving. it was life-saving.

>> larry: how many pounds did it take off? >> 150. >> larry: in one operation? >> it was over the course of a year and a half with obviously much less calories taken in, mixed with exercise and a definite change of lifestyle. i changed my lifestyle. i don't eat fried foods anymore. sugar is hard. i could snack all day long and the weight can creep up. it's not an answer for a cure it's not an answer or a cure for morbid obesity, but definitely a cure for type 2 diabetes. i strive for health. i'm not perfect. my message is i'm not perfect. i strive for balance. >> larry: exercise is just one of the instruments. right? >> absolutely. >> larry: it's your baby, but it's one of the instruments. if you can eat your way through any amount of exercise. a piece of pizza is 500 calories and so is an hour on the treadmill. >> calories in, calories out. >> without a doubt. exercise accelerates weight loss. in my opinion it is number one form of preventive medicine. you shouldn't skip exercise but it is not the sole solution.

it's a combination of diet, exercise, doing the emotional work, taking care of yourself internally as well. >> larry: a man who lost more than half his body weight and gained a brand new life is here. the latest "biggest loser" winner is next. where's my car? where's my car?!!!! where are you?! arghhh... (announcer) dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles give you outrageous comfort, all-day-guaranteed. woah. it's not too far... (announcer) are you gellin'? dr. scholl's.

>> larry: danny cahill joins us, winner of the eighth season of nbc's "the biggest loser." danny lost 239 pounds.

more than half his body weight. he lost 56% of the body weight. let's take a look at how he did it. >> danny, your starting weight is 430 pounds. >> this thing has stolen my life. i want my life back. >> look at that word, believe, okay? right there. >> do it! press. one more. >> let's go. pop it. >> what? >> danny is a -- >> i'm not afraid to believe that i can do what i need to do. >> larry: maybe the greatest "biggest loser" ever. when you look at that now and look at your 460 pound self, what do you think?

>> i remember what it felt like and it hurt. it did hurt. i was terribly unhealthy. >> larry: how did it get to that? >> you know, it was a combination of not being mentally right. i put away my dreams, my aspirations for something else. so i stopped making myself a priority. and then it was also, you know, eating the wrong things and not exercising. it was exactly the opposite of what jillian said. you know, a combination of diet and exercise and mine was neither. >> larry: do you fear a reversal of form? >> you know, it's -- >> larry: when you see carnie talk about up and downs all her life. >> i've been there too. this season was called "second chance." i was overweight and obese until i was 15. i lost 75 to 80 pounds over a summer because i put my mind to it and said i'm tired for this. i kept it off for eight, almost nine years. >> larry: then what happened? >> then it started when i got engaged and got comfortable. you get comfortable and kind of -- you know, i got engaged so i'm going to quit running now.

i don't have time to run right now. you know, i started putting away the exercise and i got comfortable and it didn't stop from there. it escalated. >> larry: jillian, are you comfortable he's set now? >> i'm actually very comfortable. danny had a psychological shift early on in the show and we had a moment about it and i realize that he grasped -- he was capable of more. he believed he was worth it. >> larry: carnie, when you look at something like that, what do you think? you look fantastic. >> i relate. it's touching, it's moving, it's inspiring. you know, i've been there and i know what it feels like to be completely depleted of all of yourself and your spirit just crashing. going to feeling that inspiration and that deserving of being in better health. >> larry: what about the show did it for you?

>> you know, what the show was i think was my accountability. you know, i had reached a point where i was going to do something about it, but -- i had done things about it a few years before, but i would always retract and stop. and it was lack of accountability. i think the show, what the show gave me was the accountability. hey, you're out there. you know, you have to do it now. you need to be accountable to someone. i was accountable for the whole country. >> larry: what do you do for a living? >> i was a land surveyor and musician. >> larry: now? >> now i'm doing music and going to do inspirational motivational speaking. >> larry: do you win money on that show? >> yes, i won a $250,000. >> larry: that's a good incentive. >> that was very good incentive. that's not why i went though. i went to get my life back. when she's talking about i had the switch, that's when i pictured myself, i can be the biggest loser. >> larry: we're going to meet a family in a minute in north carolina. everybody in the family is over 300 pounds. can you fathom that?

>> absolutely. it's genetic. that's very common. >> it is -- people are genetically predisposed but you can control your genetics. genetics are dynamic. they're not static. >> larry: was your father overweight? >> my father was not overweight. my mother was overweight and, you know, it does tend to run in the family. you can do something about it. you can do something about it. you have to get this right. >> larry: the show proves it. we'll take a break. and a family that's packed on the pounds wants to put a stop to it all. want to end eating and stop doing the wrong things. mom, dad, brother and sister in 60 seconds.

>> larry: we're joined by a family now in indian trail, north carolina, that loves each other and losing weight together. norris coles, the dad, stars in tlc's "one big happy family." along with his daughter, amber, his son, shayne and mom, tameka.

each weighs more than 300 pounds. they've decided to get fit as a family without the help of trainers or nutritionists. here is a clip from "one big happy family." >> that does kind of make me feel guilty that these are habits they learned early on. norris and i, i think we both were to blame. we got to make some changes. >> i think we should all try together. i need the family's help. >> did you hear that? >> i heard it. >> okay. thank you, doctor. >> no problem, i'll see you in october. >> without a family's cooperation, shayne will develop diabetes within two years unless this entire family works together. as you look at shayne's mom and look at shayne's dad, it's clear to me the entire family's at risk. >> larry: tameka coles. how did this start? you're 36 years old and weigh 380 pounds.

how did this start? >> well, you mean as far as the weight gain? >> larry: yeah. >> basically, larry, food is really good. food is our comfort. it has been forever and we've always just loved to eat and never really exercise. so the pounds just started adding up and packing on. >> larry: didn't you realize, though, how it was affect your children? >> you know, i've never -- i never really looked at it as me hurting them. i never really looked it as them really being at risk until really we went to the doctor's office that day and god basically spoke to my husband, me, and my kids through the doctors and that's when the red light went off and said, okay. there's a problem here and we need to do something about it.

>> larry: we're going to take a break and find out what you're doing and get the thoughts of our panel here in los angeles as we don't go away. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco. tell carl he's coming to new york with me. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] he is. just last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they print, bind, and ship it. the presentation looks good, right? yes, but -- wait, you didn't actually bring carl with you. good morning! but i digress. [ male announcer ] we understand.

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>> larry: before we get back to the coles family in north carolina and our group in los angeles, let's check in with anderson cooper. he'll host "a.c. 360" at the top of the hour. what's up tonight? >> larry, breaking news tonight. stunning news in the world of late night television. big changes ahead for jay leno and conan o'brien. a do-over in the works with jay leno returning to his old time slot. that's not the only change.

we have details ahead for you. president obama vowing to fix the broken system that allowed a terrorist to try to blow up a flight on christmas day. what went wrong and more importantly what's being done about it. we're keeping them honest. we have the video, the surveillance tape showing the mystery security breach in newark airport outside new york city. that man still unaccounted for shut down one of the nation's busiest airports. an airport some of the 9/11 hijackers left from. we're going to show you the tape and what we've learned from it. those stories and a new job for those white house party crashers. we'll tell you who is actually paying them to attend a party. that's ahead on "360." >> larry: anderson cooper, "a.c. 360" 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific. back to the coles family. norris, you're the father and weigh 340 pounds. as a family, what do you try to do together to get rid of this problem? >> well, as a family, larry, we try to stay focused on basically losing weight and the way we're

doing it is through a buddy system. we're going to the gym. we're watching what we eat. we're eating good food. i mean, we're eating food that's organic. all this stuff is new to us, but it's working. i mean, we're losing drastic weight. our confidence is up, shayne's diabetes is down. my high blood pressure is down. my cholesterol is down. it's working. >> larry: amber, did you -- >> my doctor told me to keep to what i'm doing. >> larry: amber, did you want to go on the "the biggest loser?" >> no, i never wanted to go on "the biggest loser." >> who could blame her? >> larry: could they go on as a family, jillian? >> on "the biggest loser" the most we've had is couples so far. brothers and sisters.

i'm going to be dealing with families on my new show, "losing it." hopefully i could work with a family like that. it doesn't seem like they need me. it seems like they're doing amazing on their own and that's really inspirational. >> larry: shayne, you're only 14. have you -- is it hard for you not to eat those oreo cookies? >> actually at first it was hard for me not to eat oreo cookies, but i realized that it was something i had to do. something i had to change. so i could better myself. i mean, i don't want to die early just for oreos. >> larry: what do you make of this, carnie? >> i feel for them. i wish them all the best of luck. i think the buddy system is incredible. they can really inspire each other. the main thing to be concerned with is their health. that was a brilliant comment. it is a realization. they have to do it for themselves individually.

they can't do it for everybody else because they're on a tv show. i know what that's like to be under a microscope and have the world watch you lose weight or gain weight. >> larry: danny, what do you make as you look at this family? >> it brings back a lot of families. what inspired me to get up and get moving and get on "the biggest loser" was my daughter. the fact they're accountable, using the buddy system. i caught my daughter closet eating like i used to when i was young. the fact they're accountable to each other using the buddy system, i mean, it works. my wife lost 70 pounds while i was on the show. >> larry: tameka, are you confident you and the family are going to lick this? >> absolutely. i'm very confident and they're very confident. it's going to happen. whether they're on the show or not, it's going to happen. >> larry: we'll take a break. it's time for home inspection. we're going to look at what's in the coles' refrigerator after the break. every time you take advil liqui-gels

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>> larry: carnie wilson, jillian michaels and danny cahill are here with us in l.a. in north carolina, the coles family. tameka is now at the family refrigerator. what's in there, what are you going to show us? >> okay, larry. i'm glad you want to look and see what's in here. well, now we have a lot of fruits and vegetables, especially like cucumbers. we really love cucumbers. we eat a lot of these. we have fresh green beans. i like to cook fresh foods. and everybody knows norris' favorite, spinach. now we have spinach in here as well and we don't use regular cheese anymore. everything is fat free or low fat.

apples and we don't use regular, like, mayonnaise. we use mayo with olive oil now. pineapples, of course. we love pineapples. >> larry: what's in the freezer? >> in the freezer we have a lot of veggies. whole bunch of veggies. we do have those times when we have cheap days we don't want to go out. people are always stalking us, you know. we have times when we cheat with these little hot dog things. we love these things. they're the bomb. ground turkey. >> larry: no ice cream? >> no ice cream. we had to give up ice cream because they love ice cream too much. they love ice cream. >> larry: that's impressive, is it not, carnie? >> it is. they're on the right track. for me when i have brown rice, lots of veggies, fresh organic

food, taste really great that i'm happy to be eating that food. if it doesn't taste great i'm not happy. i don't have to be deprived. >> larry: what did you do, danny, when you're hungry? you're on this big diet but you're hungry. >> when i was hungry, you know, i tended to -- what i did was i started to eat more meals throughout the day and a little less calories. >> larry: smaller meals. what do you do, norris, when you're hungry? >> when i'm hungry, what i do i just eat a bocca burger or might eat something fresh like a grapefruit or papaya. it's a whole different transition in my brain. it's working good and i'm sticking with it and i'm getting good results. that's what i do when i'm hungry. >> larry: amber, are you all under doctors care? >> yes. we're all under doctors care and it's very important before we started any of this we all consulted our doctor. >> larry: shayne, do your classmates make fun of you?

>> no. my classmates do not make fun of me. my classmates love me as far as i know. and they're proud of me for making this lifestyle change. >> larry: you're very lovable. >> i love him. >> larry: what about exercise, jillian? should they be exercising? >> seems like you guys are exercising. the trick with exercise is it's going to accelerate your weight loss. so danny lost 100 pounds in, what, eight, seven weeks? >> nine weeks. >> that's exercise. that's totally unrealistic but the reason it was so fast is because he was exercising so much. i have to advocate exercise without a doubt. >> larry: there they are exercising. carnie, they put a lot of pressure on themselves by going on television. could be embarrassing if they gain weight. >> if they don't lose it or they gain. all i can say is they have to keep in mind they're doing it for themselves, doing it as a family. they're going to inspire people.

that's why i had a gastric bypass. on the internet, i wanted people to know that's an option. medical intervention is an option. it works for some people. >> larry: should they think of gastric bypass? >> you know, i have to say a very staggering statistic. and that is that only 1% of people that lose over 100 pounds will keep that weight off, and medical intervention is sometimes necessary. >> larry: that's hardly encouraging. >> you know, i applaud them. i encourage them for doing it the right way, which is exercise and diet. however, i did that along with a gastric bypass. that worked for me. >> larry: guys, the best of luck for you. norris coles, tamika, amber, shayne. we're going to follow you. six months i'm going into the refrigerator again. better not be frozen pizza. thank you, carnie wilson, jillian michaels, danny cahill, and the coles family. "unstapled" premieres january 14th. looking forward to that.