them to you. pay attention to your body. >> thank you, dr. oz. always great seeing you. >> it's my honor. take care. we'll be talking golf as tiger woods returns to the masters tomorrow. right now, anderson cooper and ac "360." anderson? breaking news now at the top of the hour, a major scare aboard an airliner tonight that smelled like a terror attempt, thankfully it was not. it happened on the united airlines jet. a man coming out of the lavatory apparently when he was asked what he was doing for so long in there, he said that -- he made some sort of a reference to lighting his shoe on fire or shoes on fire. the man a mid level qatari diplomat was escorted off the flight, he's now in custody.

joining us on the phone, peter bergen. as you heard from a source, even if this man had tried to do something, he is a diplomat, so he would have had diplomatic immunity, right? >> indeed, although there have been case is in the past where diplomatic immunity has not worked. there was a case in washington a diplomat from georgia killed a young girl in a traffic accident some years back and the country involved allowed his diplomatic immunity to be revoked so he could stand charges. diplomatic immunity is not -- doesn't excuse you from everything. obviously in this case, interest it seems it was just a misunderstanding. he may face some charges, creating some sort of public nuisance or i'm not sure what the charges would be. if it was a serious crime, diplomatic immunity can be revoked. >> in the last hour, you were talking about past history in

qatar and a person from -- who lived there, one of the planners of 9/11, but the government of qatar has friendly relationships with the united states? >> absolutely. they also fund al jazeera, not the most friendly television network in the world, but the this is like most of the gulf emirate states, quite proamerican. has one of the highest per capita income in the world because of the enormous oil reserves. >> fran, i know you've been talking to your sources in the last hour. bring us up to date on what you have heard from the folks you have talked to. >> sure, anderson. what we are hearing what i heard

from senior law enforcement officials, is very much consistent with what peter said. there was a disturbance. the diplomat was in the lavatory and comes out and had reason to believe he may have tried to set his shoes on fire. after the plane lands, law enforcement met the plane. did an initial examination of the shoes and we are told, were satisfied from that initial examination there was no explosive. here's the good news to all this, while this was an idiot that made some statement like, he was trying to set his shoes on fire there, will be a problem -- as peter was saying, likely what happens here, is because he's in diplomatic status is not ultimately charged with a crime, assuming he is not involved in some sort of terrorist attack. but the country will recall him, he'll be removed from the united

states. that has the most likely informal way of resolving it. the good news in all this, though, look how quickly the entire law enforcement community came together at national and local levels. information flowed, people were reacting and sharing information including the locals there in denver. norad did scramble fighters and did accompany the jet in for safe landing. the plane was met by the fbi and transportation security administration. in some sense, if there's any good news to this story is the system this time worked as you would have expected it to work in response to the incident. i wish we had that -- >> how does that compare to the underwear incident and the richard reid incident? can you make comparisons, in terms of response time? >> it's a little bit hard.

let's compare it to the christmas day incident. the initial information was better and more accurate from the beginning. the initial report on christmas day was that this was a firecracker, and it turned out to be much more serious. what we knew here, there was a disturbance, they would get to the bottom of it and they very quickly looked at it and able to make assessment it was not serious and got that accurate information disseminated across the federal and local governments and the public. that is an improvement over what we've sometimes seen in the past. the thing you can't really tell is the detection, the prevention piece of this, did that work? we don't really know. they didn't prevent the christmas day bomber getting on a plane. this was not a bomber and we don't know if the system would have worked to prevent such an attack.

>> fran, i appreciate you working your sources over this last hour. it could have been a lot worse, thankfully it was not. thank you for being with us. peter bergen and others at cnn working to bring us the correct information. we will continue our programming, a lot of controversy out of the state of virginia, a proclamation naming april as confederate history month. no mention of slavery in the proclamation by the governor. the governor's backtracking on that. we'll have the debate ahead.

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first up tonight, keeping them honest. governor bob mcdwon mcdonnell of virginia calling april confederate month. a proclamation that resulted in the governor a few hours ago reversing himself. i will do to the wall and show you what the proclamation said. it was issued friday by the newly elected governor of virginia. here is the actual proclamation. i want to make it very big here. it starts off saying whereas april is the morning the people of virginia joined the confederate states of america and joins the confederate states of americaine four year war between the states for independence, talking about the civil war against the war of the united states. skips ahead to clause 3, it is important for all virginians to reflect upon our commonwealth shared history to understand the sacrifices of confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the civil war. do you notice anything missing?

he's saying that in the month of april, all the people in the state of virginia, black and white, should understand and effectively pay homage to the sacrifices of confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens. makes no mention of slavery, nothing about the sacrifices the half million enslaved people in virginia were forced to make. you can scroll through the proclamation and never see the word, slavery. that was friday. when asked about it tuesday, he didn't say that was an oversight, he actually suggested slavery was insignificant in virginia, telling the "washington post" there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states, obviously it involved slavery, it involved other issues but i focused on the ones i thought were most significant for virginia. a few hours ago, after increasing criticism, the governor called the slavery omission a mistake and inserted this into the new proclamation. this is the new paragraph he put in. whereas it's important for all

virginians to understand the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their god given inalienable rights and all virginians are thankful to its permanent eradication from our borders and the study of this time period should reflect upon and learn from this painful part of our history. keeping them honest, it seems hard to argue this was an oversight by the governor. we showed you as late as yesterday, he was defending excluding any mention of slavery. and the other mention, it was calculated effort to appeal to his base. governor mcdonnell was lobbied to make the proclamation by the sons of confederate veterans. they call the war the second american revolution and saying the citizen soldiers who fought for the confederacy personify the best qualities of americans. that's their quote. joining me now, from the sons of confederate veterans and political contributor roland martin.

>> roland, what do you make of this? was the governor trying to appeal to his base? was this just a mistake? >> he was clearly trying to appeal to his base. it was an idiotic mistake to sit here and proclaim this. bottom line, the confederacy was based upon this issue of slavery. it was hurtful, it was degrading, an oppressive system. i don't see how he can come up with this whole notion it wasn't significant enough to mention it, no big deal. let's celebrate the confederates. it makes no sense.

that's like somebody sitting here saying, let's celebrate nazi soldiers, it's ridiculous. >> there were a lot of issues other than slavery involved in that war. and he's given a good reason why there should be confederate history month. he knows only one reason, and that's slavery p. >> a lot more. >> but do you think it was a mistake for the governor not to mention slavery in his proclamation? >> the governor, it was an omission, in the sons of the confederate veterans has always wanted a true and accurate history of the war, that includes slavery, we are not at all opposed to the insertion of that cause. no sane person in the 21st century supports slavery. >> on your -- >> 50 years ago there were people that act like it's 1865 right now. >> on your website, though, your home page, you don't mention anything about slavery, you say the civil war you call the second american revolution was about the preservation of liberty and freedom, that was the motivating factor. >> it was, there's no doubt about it. >> you make no mention of slavery here.

>> we're an organization of confederate descendents. we're going to support the honor and good name of the confederate soldier. he wasn't a politician, he was a soldier. >> wait a minute. here's the reality. the fact is virginia did not want the federal government telling them what to do, dealing with the issue of slavery. you sit here and talk about freedom. guess what? people who looked like me, they were not free. >> i hate to give you a history lesson, sir. >> let him finish. >> again, though, that this is reality. when you sit here and say we will celebrate the confederate veterans, these folks committed treason by taking up arms against the united states. you celebrate that? they were domestic terrorists. >> can i speak? >> yes. >> okay. he's incorrect, especially when it comes to virginia. slavery had absolutely nothing to do with virginia leaving the union. >> come on. >> as of fort sumter, virginia was firmly pro union.

it was when abraham lincoln called up 75,000 troops to invade the lower south that virginia seceded. and the governor of virginia said no virginian would be allowed to fight against fellow americans and be coerced into staying in the union, virginia wouldn't do that. it had nothing to do with slavery. >> then why did they do it? slavery. south carolina, it's all slavery. you can dance around it, spin it, dress it up, that's the reality. the problem is, you had two previous democratic governors who would not issue this proclamation and a couple republican governors who did so. even governor jim gilmore saw the need to call slavery what it was. this governor made an egregious mistake. it is insulting for you to say it was an omission. >> you wouldn't have supported the confederate history month proclamation even if he put the reference in. this is political. >> i don't support celebrating of terrorists. >> this is political, mr. martin. >> i don't support somebody

celebrating nazi soldiers by simply saying they were only doing their job. i equate the two the same. >> i hate to tell you but the confederate soldier was hardly a nazi. he's been the main fighting force for the united states in every war we ever fought as a southerner. >> brad, do you then disagree -- brad, do you disagree with what the governor has now done? because in his new statement, in the new proclamation, he seems to disagree with you -- you say slavery had nothing to do with virginia and the war. >> i disagree with the fact he said it was the reason and it wasn't. but he's been pushed into this by people like mr. martin. this is a political opposition to robert mcdonnell, is basically what he's hearing from. >> no, it's not. it's called history. these same confederate veterans didn't want people who looked like me to read and this is why, because we understand the history. you can sit here and create a secondary history. it can be revisionist.

that is the reality. there is a whole body of work that lays it out. when people sit here and say, it was state's rights, not telling us what to do, because they wanted to keep the way of life, which was to keep people like me in chains, beating them, oppressing them and denying them the rights they richly deserved, those are facts. >> the united states was the only country in the western hemisphere that ended slavery through war. that was a policy of the union government. >> what was the first state to legalize slavery? virginia. who had more slaves than any other state? virginia. every single president that came from virginia was a slaveholder. you can sit here and say that's not true but they are simply facts. >> why do you call the civil war the second american revolution? >> we're seeing the same issues. >> it was a war that destroyed the united states. >> mr. cooper, we're seeing many of the same issues today that the confederacy fought for 150

years ago. smaller government. >> like what? >> lower taxation, less imperialistic government, too. >> are you saying that the current efforts by republicans are similar to efforts by confederate soldiers? >> no, i'm not. i'm saying the issues, many of the issues, which were part of the confederacy in 1860, you still see today. >> those issues were pretty much resolved by the civil war. go ahead, roland. >> no. secession was resolved by the civil war. that was the only issue that was truly resolved. >> seceded because of slavery primarily. these are the ones that use states rights. the two biggest reasons they've used the tenth amendment is because of slavery and education. in a position, all those particular position, the same

voices, the same people saying oh, no, confederates, way of life, the southern way of life. that should be rejected absolutely. he wants to talk about taxes and things along those lines, nonsense. the secondary issue, slavery was the primary issue. >> we will continue this conversation after a quick break. alice, more on the breaking news out of denver. disturbance on flight 663 out of washington, apparently a misunderstanding. details on that. and then sarah palin and republican chairman, michael steele, which one really speaks? hunt's flashsteams every tomato to keep that backyard garden fresh taste. isn't it time to take a fresh look at your tomatoes? on the days that you have arthritis pain, you could end up taking 4 times the number of pills... compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day.

we're back talking about virginia governor bob mcdonnell's proclamation and history month, initially not talking about slavery at all. the proclamation was updated today to add a clause about slavery. the controversy is not dying down. we're here with brad bolin and roland martin and the sons of

confederate veterans lobbied the governor to make the proclamation in the first place. there are those who say this is inherently offensive to the african-american sit residents in the state of virginia, being asked to understand the sacrifices made by confederate leaders and confederate soldiers and citizens, and says nothing about sacrifices forced pong enslaved formally africans, enslaved black people. >> right. this is supposed to be a resolution, proclamation sought for by our organization, honoring the sacrifices of confederates. >> why should black citizens in the state of virginia today be told this is a month when they should understand the sacrifices made by confederate leaders and soldiers, you can understand why some black residents in the state of virginia would say, what are you talking about? >> let me ask you something. if we don't -- i'm sure this is the way my opponent here feels.

should we not study confederate history, which is an important part of american history because if we don't we'll be treating it like russia. that's the way the soviet union handled the history they didn't like. >> let me give my answer and then let roland give his answer. my answer is i have relatives who were confederate soldiers, i have relatives who were union soldiers and have relatives buried in the confederate cemeteries in the state of mississippi, i go and visit their graves. that doesn't mean you whitewash what the history was, what the cause was, i think your critics say that's what you're trying to do. >> i think governor mcdonnell was writing a proclamation for our organization. that's the approach he took. he changed it now because of the vitriolic opposition of people like roland. >> roland. >> here's the problem. your organization does not represent all virginians. he is the governor of the commonwealth of virginia, that means whites, african-americans,

hispanic, asians, men, women, people who support confederate veterans and those who oppose them. when the governor makes this kind of decision, he has to make it for all the people in that particular state. that is what is so offensive. no right thinking person, especially any african-american would not sit here and support the praise and celebration of a group of people who wanted to oppress their ancestors. when you talk about your ancestors, trust me, mine were in chains, they were beaten, oppressed, degraded, families were broken up. for you to say, they had to sacrifice. guess what? people with my skin color paid a significant sacrifice by dealing with the folks who you are supporting. >> i can say this. i don't think you represent the feelings of all black people either. >> i didn't say all black people. i can tell you this here, virginia had more slaves than anybody else. it was a state deeply embedded with the culture of slavery. you can deny it and dress it up.

that was the whole point of the civil war. it is shameful you cannot recognize the mistake that this governor has made by not even mentioning it, and then following up by saying, it was not significant enough to mention it by saying there were other issues he wanted to focus on. and then to put tourism into it, give me a break. >> there were other issues. >> what was the dominant issue? that's like tiger woods' wife saying i'm leaving you because we can't communicate. you're leaving because he cheated. stop trying to sit here and say there's other stuff. the dominant issue that cast a cloud over everything was slavery. >> i want to give you the final thought and then we have to go. >> no, i just -- i totally disagree. i think there's a place to honor veterans, all veterans. the confederate veteran is a recognized american veteran by congress and he deserves full honor for the sacrifice he made. >> the critics say why not have the month where everyone who

fought in the civil war is recognized, confederate veterans, union veterans? >> that's an easy one because the union army invaded the south. the union army killed thousands and thousands of virginians. >> right. there were plenty of virginians who actually supported the union and actually formed the state of west virginia and to say that they invaded virginia, there are those who would argue with you as part of the united states. >> i think that's the prime motivating factor of the confederate soldier, is the fact they were invaded and they had to defend their homes and families and some of the things the union armies did when they were in virginia by completely destroying shenandoah valley and burning people's homes and stealing things. >> sir, how dare you -- >> this is the way the union army behaved in every southern state, from the march to the sea all the way through southern carolina. it was shameful and degrading.

>> so were you offended when they destroyed africans? were you ashamed when they destroyed families? killed them? tortured them and murdered them? you sit here and talk about what the union army did. >> the union army? >> no. the people you're supporting, they tortured and killed africans who were slaves and you're sitting here by saying they invaded. come on, do you even hear how you sound? >> i think i sound perfectly rational. i'm giving you what happened. >> i think you sound delirious when you can't even recognize how they destroyed human beings. this was a -- >> you're giving a perfect reason why this whole era needs a full study. >> but you're not -- i just want to give you an opportunity to respond to what mr. martin said, you do recognize that, you know, slavery was inherently evil and africans who were brought over here were treated terribly? >> i do. i make no defense of slavery. but we live in 2010, we don't live in 1860, where slavery was a world-wide institution.

it's a completely different place now. >> and it was wrong then. and the governor's statement, he even said we need to recognize the times people lived in. i'm sorry, sir, i reject evil then and i reject it now. >> we have to leave it there. we appreciate your perspective being on the program with us and roland martin as well. thank you. coming up next, sarah palin speaking out today, what she is saying about the tea party and what our political panel has to say about hire political future, and the political future of michael steele, who's supposed to be leading the gop. and now, what seems like some sort of misunderstanding or active stupidity on the part of a passenger. i'm gonna take allison jenkins to the senior prom

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we continue following breaking news throughout the hour, terrorism breaking news from washington to denver and a qatar diplomat joking about lighting his shoes on fire. more as we get it throughout the hour. in the meantime, lisa bloom has the 360 news. rescue crews may be able to enter a rescue mine to search for four missing miners sometime tonight. dangerous gases kept them from going inside the upper big branch coal mine but the levels have been dropping. 25 miners died in monday's explosion, the deadliest disaster in 25 years. in kyrgyzstan, waves of protesters storming government buildings and apparently driving the president from office. at least 40 people killed and a

former foreign minister claims to be in control of the interim government. alan greenspan said he made mistakes during his 24 year tenure as chairman of the federal reserve. he said he was wrong about 30% of the time. he also said his policy of keeping interest rates low did not inflate the housing bubble. he was testifying at a hearing on the causes of the financial crisis. in less than 24 hours, tiger woods tees off at the masters. today, billy payne, the chairman of the augusta national golf club didn't cut him any slack, saying he disappointed everyone with his sex scandal. this is a new ad featuring tiger woods and the voice of his late father. >> tiger, i am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion.

i want to find out what your thinking was, i want to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything? >> i don't know what to make of that. it's -- critics say he used his kids to promote his image and now he's sort of using his father to be sympathetic and make us see things through his dad's eyes. i don't know. i'm not sure what to make of it. what about you? >> i can't think of any other situation where a large company like nike would bring on their celebrity endorser and sort of publicly spank him. to add to that, they're using the recorded voice of his deceased father, obviously recorded in another context. it is eerie. maybe nike is trying to

transition into more positive ads for tiger and i don't think they had to do this. >> i don't think spanking is the best term to use. >> you had to go there. >> it's only running a couple days on basic cable. that's it. >> it will show up everywhere. it's very compelling, people will want to talk about it. they probably don't need a big ad buy. >> not that there's anything wrong with basic cable. >> not at all. it comes with the package. who's really in charge of the republican party. the question is, are you looking at them? sarah palin and michelle bachmann. they were at an event in minneapolis. their appearance outshined tim pawlenty, who was a presidential contender and probably still is. >> backstage, michelle and i were talking about the tea party movement. we wanted to give a shout-out to the tea party movement and do we have any today?

>> i thank you then for being part of this beautiful grass roots movement that's really sweeping across our country. and it is full of common sense conservatives who are ready to take our country back. i think you for being a part of this. >> no shout-out for this guy, gop michael steele. cnn contributor gop advisor saying the party needed to change direction because chairman steele had lost the trust of any party's lifeblood major donors. he's talking about the latest gaffe on steele's watch, rnc money spent at a west hollywood bondage themed strip club, voyeurs, called itself an art club. there have been a number of other missteps since steele became chairman. let's talk "raw politics" with cnn contributor ed rollins and former bush speechwriter, david frum. should michael steele step down? >> i think for the good of the party, he should step aside. he can't be effective in the

very important six months we have left. his job is to raise money. >> has he become too much of an distraction? >> he's absolutely a distraction. we have spent the last two weeks discussing things that shouldn't be relevant to the american public. what should be relevant is the president signing not a very good treaty with the russians and the health care debate needs to go on, and we're talking about sex clubs. that goes against our base. i think any donor today, who thinks about giving money to the rnc will think about jets and wasted money spent well on a candidate. >> david, do you agree he should step down? >> i do not agree. you led the story with the proclamation in virginia. i don't think governor bob mcdonnell had any ill intent and actually, was trying to avoid controversy, not make controversy. but he couldn't see that situation with any eyes except the eyes he happened to have. and the eyes around him are also similar kind of eyes. we need different perspectives inside the republican party and the highest levels that no other

in american history and other points of view and not from a book. that is something very precious michael steele brings. michael steele is also a little bit the victim here of the difficulty of breaking a media narrative. on my website we broke a story the democratic national committee spent not $1900 but $6,000 at a d.c. strip club called josephines, putting it all over our front page and that doesn't get as much traction. are there calls for the head of the dnc to step down? michael steele didn't make that strip club decision, it was made by somebody who has since been disciplined. it was a big mistake and there are a lot of problems inside the rnc but michael steele should not be made the victim and fall guy for everything that goes wrong. >> i had no idea. ed, is so much money always traditionally spent at strip clubs by republicans or democrats? >> first of all -- i have great respect for david, a great speechwriter for president bush. i oversaw when i was at the white house for the rnc, the man at the top has total control of that place. we have had four or five

scandals in the fund-raising today where we're turning donors off. the role of the national republican committee is to raise money. it's not doing a very effective job. haley barbour, one of our great governors, former chairman, is saying, don't give to them, give to the rga. the head of the congressional committee is saying, don't waste your money there, give to us. how are you effective? in six months we have an alaska. the party is about the people. not people running around with hats every four years at conventions. >> what about to david's point needing different voices, different complexions? >> we need to elect people. michael steele will hopefully run again some day for office. at this point in time, everyday it's about him. it's not a good reflection. he himself making comments about race being involved in this, i thought was a very real insult to republicans. at the end of the day, our job is to take safe republican seats we have 180 of them, take good candidates, may also be african-american or hispanic and elect them.

that will long term broaden it. it won't be david and i talking about why you should be a good republican, it will be people like those elected who can do that. >> david, could anybody in the republican party ask michael steele to step down at this point because of his race? it certainly would not -- that would become an issue, wouldn't it? >> i get the feeling quite a lot of people are asking him to step down including ed rollins. i don't think race buys you any immunity, nor should it. we just should value, i think, some of the insights michael steele brings. it's sobering to consider what would the party's national image look like? >> would you give money to the rnc or another group right now? >> i would give money to the rnc because i'm a small dollar donor i'm afraid, i apologize to say, and small dollar donors have historically gravitated to the

rnc. big dollar donors sometimes go elsewhere. who would be the face of the party but for michael steele? the media collaborates we wouldn't hear so much from mitt romney and tim pawlenty but hear a lot from sarah palin and faces at fox news. that's not enough of a face to turn to the country. >> are you concerned by the attention sarah palin gets or michelle bachmann gets? are they the face the republican party wants out there right now? >> they're a very important part of the republican party. i think the party is big enough -- i go back to the point, i think the party is to elect people to office. the office holders are the ones that vote everyday. the rest is a service part of the organization. the more people you can have, the more diversified you can have, the better. sarah palin was our vice-presidential candidate and energized a political part of this campaign nobody else could, including john mccain. she's an important part of this. if she ever walked away from our party -- michael steele can go away, if sarah palin decided she would go to the tea party and run as an independent candidate, she would do so much damage, we

need her and more like her. at the end of the day, she's an effective communicator. >> david, do you think the republican party needs her now? >> she is like plutonium. ed rollins is right, if she decided to run as a third party candidate as the head of the tea party, she would do a lot of damage to the republican party. and if she decided to run inside the republican primary, she will do a lot of damage. to the republican party. pretty much wherever she goes, she will do a lot of damage. to the republican party. despite the intense devotion of her relatively small band of followers, she's very offputting. cnn has done a poll, an interesting number, half of republican women think sarah palin is unqualified to be president. she has a huge reverse gender gap, her own gender is more suspicious of her than the male gender is. >> she energized a very large segment of this party. if she wanted to be a player, she can be a very significant player. >> ed rollins, david, appreciate you being on tonight. we're continuing to follow

breaking news out of denver.

updating breaking news out of denver, united flight 663, on the ground safely. after some kind of disturb an from reagan national airport in washington. fran townsend is reporting a passenger, qatar diplomat is in custody and may have been smoking in the bathroom and when asked, he joked he may have been trying to light his shoes on fire. again, these reports are sketchy now, just based on one or two sources. jim spellman joins us from denver international airport with the latest. jim, what are you hearing? >> anderson, as you said, details are sketchy. sources saying it's very early in their investigation, i just spoke to a passenger on the plane, who coincidentally is a spokesman for norad. even though two norad f-16s had been scrambled to accompany the plane, passengers weren't aware anything was going on.

they landed, stayed for two hours on the plane and row by row take often the plane and questioned by the fbi in a remote location. he said he knew nothing and had no information to give them. didn't even see the gentleman in question being taken off. they're on their way back here to the terminal to go about their business. it's like business as usual. you would have no idea anything of this magnitude of investigation was going on. >> let's bring in national security contributor fran towsend. she's been on the phone the last hour, hour and a half or so. what have you heard from our sources so far? >> anderson, what they're telling us, after the plane landed, law enforcement officials began examining this guy's shoes because initial reports suggested he tried to light his shoes on fire,

concerning potentially a shoe bomb similar to richard reid in 2001. they did an initial examination and no indication there was any explosives involved and that frankly led over the course of time to the fact it appears there has been some sort of misunderstanding that led to this whole thing. >> this man is a qatari diplomat, has diplomatic immunity. so even if -- no matter what, there's nothing in terms of prosecution that would take place, even if he had done something? >> reporter: that's probably right. there have been instances where countries wave diplomatic immunity to permit somebody to be prosecuted here. if this is, as we expect it, a misunderstanding, more likely this is a case he will not be prosecuted and frankly, if it was handled in informal diplomatic channels, he may be recalled back to qatar and returned to his country of nationality. >> also on the phone, jeanne

meserve, what are you hearing from your sources? >> reporter: they're questioning all the people on that flight. they're going over the aircrafts, they're being extra careful that nothing of significance has occurred here. but in the meantime, i think what i'm hearing is largely what the others have heard, that this individual was in a restroom, he took a long time, a federal air marshall became curious about what he was doing. interrupted him to find out what was going on, and this man is -- i'm told by a u.s. official, made an unfortunate remark about possibly having a shoe bomb, and that is what led to this incredible series of event this is afternoon as they try toer if et out exactly what was going on. i can tell you, having troubled with the federal air marshalls one time, one of the things they very much keep their eye on is what's happening with the restrooms, because there's always been fear that someone

could hide something in there, and someone on board a flight could be retrieving it. there's also concern that something would be assembled in a restroom, they monitored quite carefully the traffic in and out, and how long someone lingers when they're there. >> it's an indication of -- at least on this flight, the fact that there were air marshalls assigned, the program is in place, and in this case at least, you know, they were on the front line right there. >> absolutely, anderson. furthermore, that's an indication the plane was clearly communicating back to the tower, the ground in denver, there were tsa officials in denver requested to meet the plane there. norad was notified, they did scramble two f-16 fighter jets, as you heard. there was a disturbance on the plane, it was not fully understood until after it landed. the system worked, the note fakss and information flow

worked as we hoped it would. in that sense, it's a positive development from the story. >> fran towsend, i appreciate you working your sources into this late hour, covering this story. jeanne meserve as well, we'll continue to follow the story throughout the night and tomorrow on "american morning". one simple thing, how college students are turning trash into cash.

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students at one university are not just preparing for exams, they're taking care of the environment. that's tonight's "one simple thing." here's jim spellman. >> reporter: at the university of colorado, boulder, even the trash has gone green. >> my name is kat, and i'm a compost goalie. i tell people what is and what isn't compostable. >> that's how you do it. >> reporter: the school has topped the sierra clubs cool schools ranking. football games are now zero waste, everything is either recycled or composted. bicycles rule on campus, there's 10,000 of them. one for every three students. campus buses run on biodiesel. and the school chancellor tools around campus in a plug-in hybrid while solar power heats his university provided home. solar panels help power the campus, and water bottle refill

stations cutdown on waste. >> as you can see, this one just since january has refilled 24,000 times, so that's 24,000 16-ounce plastic water bottles that we are not sending to the landfill. >> how long has the environmental center been around? >> 40 years on earth day. >> reporter: the center is governed by students and funded by students 100%. so the students here have voted with their wallets for 40 years. >> reporter: the recycling effort has turned into a profit center for the university, it's turning trash into cash. >> it's about a $15 per ton net benefit. so this particular model is working really well for us. >> the students aren't afraid to do the dirty work. >> at the end of the day, i feel like i've done something by recycling this paper, you know? this is like a symbol of how we can create an impact in the world. >> reporter: behind all these efforts, there's one simple

thing, create students whose impact on the planet will grow after they graduate. >> when they leave, i believe that they're going to be the leaders of the next generation from the standpoint of preserving this environment. >> and not only when i leave here, this college, i think that when i leave this shift, i'm going to take what i learned away with me. outside into wherever i'm at right now. >> i think it boils down to personal behavioral choices. how you see the needs that you have, how you pursue them. >> it's not only something for those hippies in boulder, it's really something that should just be part of every day life, and you don't even think twice about it. ♪ >> reporter: students with a lesson for us all. jim spellman, cnn, boulder, colorado. >> we'll have more at the top of the hour, we'll be right back.