the mission in afghanistan in perle? >> president obama's pow-wow today of top advisers, hammering a way forward in a country where so much is at stake. and violence is interfering with america's goals. a desperate effort in american samoa after tsunami waves swamp villages on the small island. we will talk with the fema director this hour about this particular story and why he thinks americans should take more responsibility ahead of disasters. america's spending time, energy and all rights of money helping mexico crackdown on violent drug cartels but you know, maybe we should start looking into our own backyard, booming crops of mexican marijuana right here in the good ole u.s. of a. a driver is throwing kittens out the window. that whole story ahead. and good wednesday, everyone, glad to have you along for the ride, i'm contessa brewer. we have a jam-packed hour ahead on msnbc. first, a breaking news, a

small single-engine plane crashed in a small area near muncie, indiana, the pilot was talking to air traffic control and then air traffic control lost contact. let's go to tom costello right now our aviation correspondent. what do they think happened with this pilot? >> well, we don't know, but the leading theory right now is that for some reason, he was incapacitated and the -- one of the theorys is he may have had hypoxia, which, of course is a condition which you are not getting enough oxygen in your bloodstream, that can lead to a blackout condition. the plane is a single-engine mooney m-20, a single-engine mooney m-20. we believe the plane crashed somewhere near the ohio state line, near muncie, as you mentioned, about 12:50 or so eastern time. we do know who the plane is licensed to or registered to, but we are not going to report that right now. we want to make sure that the family and the individuals involved know before we say it

on national tv. let's go to the flight map. there is the mooney m-20, to begin with, that's what it looks like. let's go to the map provided to us by flight wise.com and gives you a sense of the erratic nature of this flight path as it began it is difficult to see. what i want to draw your attention to down there on the bottom of that squiggly line, see how the plane seemed to do a loopty loop, a straight line and did a loopty loop. we are -- according to flight wise.com, this flight left at 9:43 eastern it flew northbound before reaching the great lakes area, turned back on its course, due southbound, almost overlapping that original northbound course, and then it apparently had some problem and there was this erratic behavior in which the air traffic controllers lost coordination and communication with the pilot. the thinking is he or she may have had some sort of a medical issue in the pocockpit and the plane crashed. that is where we stand now.

we can draw a parallel with what happened with payne stewart's plane a number of years ago. you may recall that was a jet aircraft traveling at a very high altitude and investigators later learned that, for whatever reason, they lost pressurization, they lost any oxygen in the cockpit and that incapacitated everybody on board. they all became unconscious and eventually, the plane went off autopilot when it ran out of fuel and everybody died. and so the question today is whether there might be any similarity whatsoever. >> so tom, one question here, if the pilot was flying at an at a tude of 23,000 feet is that customary for these small planes to be flying that particularly high? >> that's -- that is high, but it's not unusual for this particular aircraft. the stall speed on an m-20 is somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 to 60 knots, about 60, 65 miles per hour. and according to some reporting, that was where that plane was when it began to have specific problems and then crashed.

you're off near stall speed at 60, 65 miles an hour. as to the altitude, i can't really speak to exactually where they are at that point. >> so we know when the communications tower lost communications with the plane this he contacted the military so the military was trying to figure out what was going on with the pilot. we will pass on any new information as we get it in. tom, thanks. within the hour, 129 leaders heading up the u.s. strategy in afghanistan meet with the president. the national security team will weigh the options at happened for u.s. troops. we want to get to msnbc's military analyst, retired army colonel jack jacobs. your new book out, your memoir, "if not now, when" can be found in book stores around the country it looks like they are trying to sort through three major different strategies k you go through them with me? >> well, one strategy is to cede to general mcchrystal's request somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or 45,000 more troops of specific types be sent to afghanistan.

another option, quite a few options but another option is to have about half that number added to what general mcchrystal has and third option is to just pull out altogether. it is unlikely the last will be the case. most likely event, quite frankly, they will pick a suboptimal situation and instead of giving general mcchrystal everything that he says he needs, they will select something between zero and that which will probably not be enough in order for him to accomplish his mission. >> okay to, but if they give him everything he says he needs, if he says i need x-number of troops and i need them by january 1st and the president makes that happen, what happens, at that point if the situation does not stabilize in afghanistan? >> well, then you have a lot of the same situation that we had in vietnam, as you recall, where we incrementalized the addition of troops in vietnam and still did not accomplish the mission because the mission was not specifically articulated in the first place. i think mcchrystal is in a

better position there he knows exactly where he wants to do and where he needs to do it, but there is one thing to keep in mind, no matter how many troops he has given it is going to take a long time. whether he is given 12,000 or 45,000 or even more than that which he won't be, we have to be prepared for a long period of time where we are going to have americans in afghanistan fighting against al qaeda and the taliban before he will ever see any results. and i think, given the political nature of a commitment like that i don't think the president is prepared to do t. >> jack, good to see you. thank you for sharing your pert tease. is there a rel for other countries in fighting strategy for afghanistan and how much patience does the american public have in this war you heard the colonel suggesting we ought to have patience to achieve the mission there and why does anyone think leaving afghanistan, just pulling out entirely works not put us in the exact same situation we were in before 9/11? more answers on that in the days

ahead. the u.s. supreme court weighs in on the legal battle over gun rights in the united states. the court will decide whether state and local gun laws violate the second amendment right to bear arms. last year, the court ruled the constitution prohibits i the federal government from imposing certain restrictions on firearms. now, it will decide if the same law applies to the state. a massive underwater earthquake struck off the soup mat tran coast in indonesia, killing at least 75 people. officials say the death toll will rise because thousands of people are trapped, they are under the rubble now from collapse aed houses and big buildings. the square had a magnitude 7.6. there was a tsunami warning, it was pulled back, right now there is no tsunami warning. with a different story in the sam mowen islands, an earthquake measuring 8.0 triggered a huge tsunami. the wall of water flattened entire villages and swept people out to sea. at this point, 99 people are listed as killed, dozens are

missing. here is an excerpt from a letter written to the u.s. representative for american samoa by his sister. "the morg can't handle all of these bodies in one day people in their caskets are wheeled in the hospital chap sol they have room to handle the newly dead a good number of the dead are children from midkiff, a school, who ran home when the tsunami hit the village pretty bad. our dear cousin, michelle eneliko, drowned in the 100-foot wave." the director of homeland security for samoa is on the line now. how desperate are the needs right now for the people of american samoa? >> right now, we are moving in the right direction. in a few minutes, there will be a c-130 flied from honolulu, bringing down staff from fema and others to support us in coordinating our damage assessment. right now, the total fatalities

is elevated up from 24 to 26, 55 people were injured an treated and then released. there are about 18 people that have been seriously hurt and being operated at the hospital. there will be hawaiian airline labor life agent 4:00 to bring the supplies a for treatmentment. >> mike, can you describe to me the search effort for those missing? >> right now there are 26 but it could be more. like i said it may be three days

from now and then we will find out the accurate toll but it could be more down the road. >> all right, mike sala who is joining me from american samoa, thank you, mike, i wish you the best of luck, i know is a busy day for you. coming up in a few minutes, i will interview craig fugate from fema about how we can prepare for these disasters what, our own personal responsibility is ahead of any disaster actually happening. still ahead, senators are working on the health care overhaul and rejecting an anti-abortion provision in the bill. up next, we will talk to senator judd gregg of new hampshire how the bill is shaping up and is the public option dead? plus, john travolta takes the stand in the bahamas extortion trial detail how long a paramedic threatened to sell stories to the media if travolta didn't shell out 25 million bucks. we will head to the bahamas for the latest. a 37-year-old mother of three on life support after a procedure at a day spa. what happened here? ♪

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the senate finance committee is about to come back for lunch break on this, day six, of what will go into what will be in the health care reform bill. the committee voted down two amendments proposing a public option. today it took up other controversial topics like abortion and health coverage for illegal immigrants w me now, senator gregg, republican from new hampshire. senator, good to see you. >> thanks for having me, contessa. >> tell me where you stand on the insurance for illegal immigrants. what's the discussion? >> well, they shouldn't be insure and i'm not sure where the finance committee is going to end up on that, but clearly, american taxpayers shouldn't be paying that cost. >> you know, i think you would probably get a lot of americans who agree with you on that point

about paying for it, but do you think that illegal immigrants, senator, should be encouraged to buy health insurance on their own? the more people you have in the pool of those covered, the more costs come down, isn't that the case? >> sort of a catch-22, isn't it? i mean, they are illegal. so it's a little hard to say what they should be able to buy insurance or they should have insurance. i think the best thing to do would be to ask them to return to their countries and come back here legally. >> i get that point but you know, isn't that sort of like you have them here, illegal immigrants are here, and would you rather have them have car insurance so that they are covered if there is an accident as opposed to just saying you are not supposed to be here in the first place, so who cares whether you have insurance or not? >> i'm not really sure how do you do that how do you so i say to somebody who is illegally here, you have got to buy insurance? the two don't connect, as far as i'm concerned. the simple fact is if somebody is illegally here, they

shouldn't be here and they should be asked to return to their country and come into this country legally or a system where they can get to a position where they have legal status, not citizenship, but legal status. so, this should really be taken up in an immigration reform bill, probably not the health care view. >> ask you about the public option, i mentioned here the senate finance committee voted down chuck schumer's option and senator rockefeller's amendment, both having to deal with a public option. does that meet public option is dead or that there is no chance, either in the floor vote that comes up in the senate and the re reconciliation with the house bill that there will be a public option? >> not at all. i say the odds are there will be a government plan because of the fact that you have got a majority of the house that wants it and the democratic party and you have got a leadership down at the white house that wants it. and this bill, what is being written in the finance committee today is not the final bill, in fact, is not even going to be close to the final bill much the final bill is going to be written in some anteroom off

harry reid's office or down at the white house or some anteroom off the cabinet room. and there is the constituencies that bill will speak to i suspect are going to be the majority of constituencies in the republican party and that majority constituency in the house very much wants a government plan because they want to move toward a single-payer system. >> i know there are some democrats who wouldn't with mind entertaining that notion. there are also some moderate democrats who are very resistant to that as well, especially those up for re-election next year. senator gregg, bobby jindal came out and he said that he thinks republicans need to go to the white house, they need to work with president obama and they need to find common ground. here is his quote. "i think now is the perfect time to pivot and say not only here is what we are against and not only here is how we are going to contrast ourselves but here is what we're for." let me give you an opportunity for you to say what you are for when it comes to health care reform? >> actually, i'm co-sponsor of two major bills that would be comprehensive. one is the widen/bennett bill,

can a comprehensive bill cover everybody through the private sector and my own bill, cpr, would cover every bub in a fiscally responsible way it would control the costs and not create a program where the government gets between you and your doctor. >> can you briefly describe that to me? >> well, essentially, the proposal i have has three parts to it. number one it requires everybody have insurance in the catastrophic form and it helps people who have low incomes subsidize that the purchase of that insurance, but it is a stripped down policy basically affordable. number two, this it strongly encourages prevention and healthy lifestyles through cash incentives allowing employers to pay people to live a healthy lifestyle and number three it focuses on the disease -- on the diseases which are the cost drivers such as obesity and alzheimer's that we know are driving the majority of the costs and also has tort reform in it and an effort to try to change from reimbursing on the

basis as long as reimbursing on the basis of quality. >> i feel we have barely scratched the surface, here it is time for me to let you go will you rejoin me again and talk more about that? >> i appreciate the opportunity to talk to you any time. thank you very much. >> thank you, senator gregg. the cdc issues recommendations to protect themselves from the risk of swine flu. people with h1n1 came down with pneumonia so the cdc is recommending the pneumonia vaccine, seniors, children younger than 5, those with serious illnesses, with the swine flu and seasonal flu shot that might be thee shots this year, especially those in the high-risk category. a scary story out of florida, a woman went to a day spa and ended up brain dead. a 37-year-old nurse, mom of three, reportedly went to the spa for what they are calling a minimally invasive procedure last friday but something went terribly wrong. she has been declared brain

dead. she is on life support at the cleveland clinic florida. not clear what procedure she was having but the family has told friends it was liposuction. here, let me get my cellular out - call ya a wrecker. ...oh shoot...i got no phone ...cuz i'm a pothole...so....k, bye! anncr: accidents are bad. anncr: but geico's good. with emergency road service. ding! really bad. then we learned that a flu shot can reduce the risk of getting the flu by up to 70%. we got our flu shots at cvs pharmacy. best thing we ever did. yes, indeed. [ laughs ] come in to get a flu shot today and get a $100 coupon book just for stopping by. go to cvs.com to find a flu shot location near you.

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can help make your sixties a time of freedom. again. i want to say a word about the tragic events that took place yesterday in american samoa. my deepest sympathies are with the families who lost loved ones and many people whose lives have been affected by the earthquake and the tsunami, to aid in the response, i declared this a major disaster. >> president obama talking about the measures being taken to help people in american samoa. a tsunami slammed into the southern pacific islands, killing at least 99 people. the federal emergency management agency, feel smashing working with emergency responders on the ground and help from the coast guard arrived just a short time ago. craig fugate is the director of fema. craig, good to see you today. what is the priority right now in terms of the operations happening on american samoa.

>> i talked with the governor yesterday and his team. first priority is life safety, rescue operations, supporting them medically for the impact of the eye land and life sustaining, getting enough supplies in there to continue to provide them essential resources. >> we read a letter from the sister of the representative from american samoa to the united states legislature and she was saying the hospital was so innoneone -- inundated with victims they had to move caskets into the chapel. do they have what they need on the island? there is aircraft in the air, coast guard c-130 has already arrived bringing with them some of the first team members, including a federal coordinating officer, who has been designated bait president to coordinate the federal response. additional supplies and resources are currently in the air or loaded up based upon the request from the governor's team.

again, we are not waiting for assessments, we are sending things based upon the priorities the governor's team is establishing and moving those resources as rapidly to american samoa as we can. we know this is an event that occurred with no warning. earthquake occurred, tsunami occurred a short time later jaurks little bit about 4 hours from the original event. >> five minutes from the attorney general when the water receded that telltale sign that a tsunami is coming. i want to talk to you broadly, not just american samoa but getting ready in general for these kinds of disasters. you have brought a real change in the way that you are viewing personal responsibility ahead of the fashional disaster. can you describe it? >> let's talk about american samoa. one of the things happening since this tragedy unfolded, neighbors were helping neighbors. in my line of work, we have a

tendency that look at people in a disaster area as victims, people rev with to have take care of and we forget they are oftentimes the first responders helping each other. i would like to recognize that andrae fer to those folks as survivors and part of the planning needs to encourage people to prepare to the best of their ability. >> do you see specific areas were americans are failing in terms of preparedness? >> yeah, unfortunately, there's too many people that could have gotten ready but didn't. i don't want people to confuse the fact that i recognize there are people out there every day just trying to get through, you know, a day, much less being ready for a disaster. the problem is those that can and should have gotten ready and been prepared we take away from

our most vulnerable citizens when we don't and compete with them for resources. we encourage people to take steps now, go to ready.gov, get your plan in place, when disaster strikes after you and your family are okay, do one more thing and check on a neighbor. we already know and have heard reports of fellow folks in the islands helping each other, like we saw in georgia last week, like we see every disaster, your neighbors, oftentimes, will be the closest response. do your part get ready today so we can focus on the most vulnerable folks out there. >> get a kilt, make a plan ahead of time and be informed. craig fugate, good to talk to you, thank you. >> thank you. when we return, iran faces off with world leaders in switzerland tomorrow to talk news. the likelihood the meeting will reduce nuclear tension. john travolta gives details of the paramedic alleged plot to extort millions from him or the smear campaign. a live report as the superstar takes the stand, coming up.

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john travolta was back on the stand today in a bam ham mas' courthouse. he answered questions from defense attorneys in the trial of two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from him. let's go to nbc's michelle kosinski following that trial from the bahamas. what was the it testimony here today, michelle? >> hi, contessa. this is the second time he has had to stand before this courtroom. when we say take the stand, he literally has to stand up before the court while everyone else is seated. he again looked grim and very pale but was not emotional as he described the nature of this alleged threat, as told to him by his attorney. he said that the paramedics who is the accused, said he, travolta did not meet the demand of $25 million that certain stories would be sold to the press that would imply that this medical document stated that

travolta either wanted his son to die or is somehow culpable for his death. travolta then told his attorney to go to the police. basically what happened here, according to other witnesses' testimony is this paramedic saw this routine medical waiver do not transport waiver that turned out to be irrelevant. he thought this might somehow be embarrassing to travolta and threat tonight release it to the in theary national press unless travolta came up with the $25 million. what is so stunning to people here is if these allegations are true and the defense denies they are, how could two intelligent people expect this alleged plot would actually work out? more so that one of the accused was, at the time, a bahamian senator. today, we expect to hear more of the secretly recorded conversations allegedly between these two accuse and travolta's attorney, contessa. >> michelle kosinski, thank you. this afternoon, president obama meets with key military leaders to discuss strategy in afghanistan. meanwhile, policy in iraq also getting some attention on

capitol hill. iraq forces commander, ray odierno, says the u.s. is on pace to withdraw tense of thousands of troops from iraq in the coming months, despite recent months. or deyarn know appeared at a hearing of the house armed services committee this morning. president obama called for unfettered access by tomorrow in geneva. the latest from iran with the latest. what is iran's stand going these talks ali? >> reporter: they said they will open up this newly disclosed facility to the iaea. they said tomorrow any discussions about this newly discovered facility is off the table, their sovereign right to have this facility and they are into the going to talk about t tomorrow will be an uphill

struggle. >> if they refuse to talk about the international facility, are there issues would-to-wade through? >> to get sanctions moving along, the international community needs to support china, which doesn't look like it is going to happen. china has huge investments in iran. it depends on -- [ inaudible ] so for the chinese to come on board with sanctions it would mean a reverse of apology, which seems very unlikely. >> thank you for the update from tehran. some house members are raising eyebrows with their recent comes during a take back america conference over the weekend. trent franks of arizona lashed out at the president over a decision that he characterized as sending taxpayer money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children. >> a president that has lost his

way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of god in these little fellow human beings if he can't do that right then he has no place at any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy. >> an enemy of humanity. the president. last night, democratic congressman alan grayson of florida criticized the republicans' plan to overhaul health care. he says the gop wants americans to die. >> the republican health care plan is this, die quickly. that's right. the republicans want to you die quickly if you get sick. you want the democratic plan or do you want the republican plan? remember, the republican plan, don't get sick and if you do get sick, die quickly. >> well, house republicans considered drafting a resolution criticizing grayson but then just a short time ago, the leadership said, you know, we'd rather just have an apology. let's get real on health care here i have been asking my

viewers to send me their stories about their situation with the health care system this next someone a doozy. sarah price is from indianapolis, joins me now. sarah, tell me what your experience was when you needed your insurance company to step up and cover a particular procedure. >> well, i had an iud placed to prevent pregnancy and when it expired, i called my insurance company ahead of time, before i even made an appointment with the doctor, to make sure that it would be covered. they assured me it would be. i went ahead, went to the doctor, tid removed. they told me later that it qualified as a pre-existing condition and they would not cover it. >> an iud to prevent pregnancy? and what would happen if the insurance company doesn't cover it and it remains in? did you talk about the consequences of that with your insurance company? >> absolutely. i told the representative that i was on the phone with that if it was left in, since it would no longer be effective in

preventing pregnancy it would leave me at higher risk of spontaneous abortion, miscarriage and physical birth defects. >> how much were you paying for your premiums? >> i was paying $180 out of my biweekly paycheck. >> okay, so you are paying more than $300 a month for a procedure that seems relatively basic. did you go ahead and pay that out of pocket? >> i did. i had to. it was a $268 office visit that they were arguing with me about. i was lucky enough that my doctor's office, once they realized i would have to pay for it entirely out of pocket they gave me a discount and i cover it had completely. >> are you still with the same insurance company? >> no, i'm not. >> how shortly after all of this transpired did you drop that insurance company or did they drop you? >> they dropped me, actually, when i argued with them about that situation, i was told by the representative that her supervise wore call me back. her supervisor never did but she returned my call and said that they have found an error in my paperwork from my previous insurance company and that no

claim presented against this policy would ever be followed through. >> sarah price, goes to show you is not always catastrophic procedures that the insurance companies are trying to get out of. sometimes it is the very simple ones. thank you for sharing your story, i appreciate that you reached out. >> thank you, ctesss at thyou, . >> you can reach me on facebook or twitter. i like hearing from you. we will be right back. weon't jr money... we put our economy in the hands of hostile nations. we let big oil make record profits... while we struggle. and we lose new energy jobs, that go overseas. but we can take charge of our economy... by passing strong clean energy legislation. 1.7 million new american jobs. less carbon pollution. and a cleaner america for our children. it's time for clean american energy. ♪

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the united states has committed $1.4 billion to crackdown on drug cartels south of the border but perhaps they ought to spend more of that money here at home. investigators discovered mexican-run pot farms in texas, california and other western states. mcclatchy news wires reports oklahoma officials first spotted a trend this summer when police, doing aerial surveillance, spotted a "buck naked mexican in red boots bathing in a creek."

authorities moved in to investigate and they found 30,000 marijuana plants growing nearby. scott freedman of nbc affiliate -- sorry, nbc station there in dallas, kxas, joins me with more. what did they find in dallas? >> reporter: contessa, the police here in texas are seeing more cases of large-scale marijuana-growing operations here in the u.s. that appeared to have been run by mexican cartels. we have some pictures of one of those operations that was busted earlier this month in ellis county, texas, just south of dallas n that case, they found almost 10,000 marijuana plants, worth an estimated $24 million this marijuana farm had an elaborate irrigation system, fertilizer being used there. also, makeshift camps for workers tending to the crops and protecting them as well. police suspect what they are seeing here is the increase in border security may actually be pushing the cartels to the north so they are setting up shop here

in the u.s. they may have decided that it's simply safer and cheaper to operate here than to try to smuggle the drugs across the border. >> that is an unbelievable statement. okay so, they found this one near dallas. is it more than just an isolated incident, do they think? >> well, we first saw signs of this back in 2007. the dallas police using a helicopter actually found some similar operations right in the city of dallas. one of them was actually not far from the de a's dallas headquarters. they suspect mexican carts in those cases as well but they have not made any arrests and now just in the last two months, we have seen three of these operations raided a little bit further south of dallas. again this is a business, so it may be that the cartels have found this is a better way to get the product closer to the ultimate point of sale. >> that is a sad and sorry state of affairs. scott freedman, thank you, buddy. it is an all-out battle here, four different cities pushing for the 2016 olympic games and the lobbying shifts into high gear.

first lady michelle obama is in copenhagen making a pitch for the president to host the games. the president joins her tomorrow in a big speech, the final opportunity to convince members of the international olympic committee. some opponents would rather see the president not cheering for chicago. here is house majority leader, john boehner. >> i think it is a great idea to promote chicago but he is the president of the united states, not the may other of chicago. and the problems we have here at home affect all americans and that's where his attention ought to be. >> certainly there san amount of risk here for the president, to put his time and reputation on the line in copenhagen but other heads of state have succeeded in the past and brazil's president is going to pitch for rio de janeiro. now we wait and see whether president obama is successful in his coaxing. in a few minutes, the president meets with his national security team to begin to map out the way forward in afghanistan. officials are reviewing the strategy in the face of declining u.s. support a spike

in violence and troop deaths and allegations of fraud in recent elections, bring in an assistant to two afghan independent broadcasters, covering the most recent presidential election. you were on the ground there phil. what did you see in terms of the way -- one of the things we have been talking about here, this report from general mcchrystal saying corruption runs rampant in the government. >> what was interesting about these elections two independents that you mentioned that i worked with, the reason why there were two independents, because of the language differences, darry and pashtun. and what we were experiencing as it was going, approaching, the fear because of the taliban threats because of the fact that people do indeed stick their finger in and have the indelible ink for two dis, they were easily identifiable as they left. as they were approaching we figured out how to talk to people about that two of the problems, women as well, women wanted to vote but there was security issues for them, not only because there were threats

to their life but also the people who would be checking them as they came in, women need to check women. many of those women didn't show up as well. so, the problem we saw the day of the election, many people did indeed stay home but it has been reported, people would show up at 8:00 in the morning to the polling places and found ballot boxes already stuffed and how did that happen? so, a lot of questions like that were asked. >> there's been and still is a major debate going on that if you add troops, what effectively does that accomplish? are you better off, the head of afghan said to me she was talking to members of the military who said i would give my whole battalion for one great expert in agriculture because having people earn a living provides more stability so that they are not so open to what the taliban has to offer. could you have just civilian experts in there advising on things like how to build roads, how to set up schools, how to start small businesses without

more troops to provide the security? >> absolutely not n my opinion, from what i saw in my time in afghanistan, and i was there off and on over the last six months, several times and in the last two months, july and august the country needs a all right of help there is a lot of money coming in, unfortunately, a lot of that aid isn't even being coordinated directly. at a meeting had that with someone, we were discussion the aid, it was from a different country than the united states and i asked, how does this all happen? do all of you come charging in? he said until very recently, phil, you are absolutely right, we were not coordinating together. what happened during the election though is that there was a a lot of money appropriated for security purposes and much of that money ended up being probably wasted because the threats were taken seriously. >> how do we work with our afghan partner it is our afghan partners are corrupt? >> i thank you is something facing -- i was in washington earlier this week talking to people. what the president has facing him right now, with the karzai

corruption being so rampant, as it was, a lot of people think what's going to happen to ecc, the election complaint commission, they now have the election and going to be having someone investigate close to 3,000 complaints that were filed. if they come back and say that some of the votes that karzai got will be cut and there will have to be a runoff, i'm also told that we are possibly looking at the runoff being probably in the spring. >> wow. >> because it is going to take time for the iac, international election committee to put this back on track, so we could end up also with an interim government in afghanistan over the winters, since the wenters are so harsh. >> a long time to go without a clear winner for that presidential election. phil, good to see you. should mention, phil spearheaded our nbc news special coverage for many, many years. good to have you back. >> thank you. up next, a summit, the experts tackle the deadly problem of texting and talking on cell phones while driving. how close are we to a national

ban now on distraction for drivers? and little kittens, their 9 lives cruelly tested by a bus driver. that story when we return. and when i fell and busted my back up, that ended my driving career. and then i lost my health insurance. we tried to get health insurance on our own, but was turned down every time because of pre-existing condition. last year i lost my wife to cancer. like all of this could have been prevented if we'd of had a simple thing called insurance it's just hard to swallow. to lose somebody like that announcer: trying to be good to your heart? so is campbell's healthy request soup. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you'll love. chef: we're all kind of excited about it. guy: mmm!

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well it is one thing to let the cat out of the bag but out of the bus? come on a philadelphia mom and daughter saw a school bus driver parked in front of their home tossing, they say, three kittens from the bus's back door. take a look at one of these kittens. here is the sweet little thing. up in of the countries apparently were seriously hurt but the school bus driver was charged with three misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. today, the white house convened a two-day summit on distracted driving and so many people wanted to attend that organizers had to find a bigger venue. distracted driving is getting more attention after a national survey found people who text or talk on cell phones while driving are more likely to cause a fatal accident than even drunk

drivers. nbc's tom costello joins me now, tom, people believe if you use a hands-free phone that everything will be okay what are they finding about that? >> that is absolutely not true. all of the evidence is overwhelming here. hands-free devices do not help you if you're using your cell phone, you are still cognitively distracked. you are going to think i'm making this up. i'm not. after the "today" show this morning, went to starbucks, the lady next to me was curling her eyelashes as she was going down the street. if you have one of these in your car, if you are using it, guess what the experts say that you are as likely to have an ex-accident as if you were distradi an accident as you were by drunk driving. if you take out a mailbox or nearly go off a bridge, police reports distracted driving is is now a constant threat.

horrific cases involving bus, truck and trolly drivers, even train engineers. and nen there's the case of 19-year-old reggie shaw. >> definitely not my intention. i wouldn't harm anyone. >> reporter: three years ago on a utah highway, reggie crossed a center line while texting, the accident killed two men, rocket scientists, husbands and fathers. >> and i remembered being so shocked that someone could be so selfish and irresponsible and kill hide husband. >> reporter: at the university of utah, researchers have spent years studying driving while on a cell phone or while texting. they are findings are stunning. it double the risk of someone who is driving at a .08 alcohol level. the text messaging driver hits a dangerous person on the road as a ticking time bomb for an

accident. >> i think there san epidemic in america. >> reporter: now the obama administration is weighing in, out with new statistics this morning. more than 5800 people were killed and half a million injured last year in accidents involving some form of thi distracted driving. the 20 to 29-year-olds were most involved in fatal accidents. nationwide, 18 states and d.c. have outlawed texting while driving, six also ban hand-held cell phones but the transportation secretary says every state must take distracted driving as seriously as drunk driving. >> the reason .08 works and the reason that seat belt laws work is because there are police on the street stopping people, issuing tickets, hauling people in to the lockups when they are above .08. >> reporter: reggie shaw was charged with negligent homicide. as part of his sentence, he takes the story to anyone who will listen. >> i thought it was safe.

i thought it was something that i could do, that i could drive down the road and send a text message and be safe. >> reporter: reggie shaw is here in washington, d.c. spreading the message. he got 30 days in jail. if he did it today, he would get 15 years under the new law in utah. back to you. >> very sobering report. thank you very much. breaking news into us now, wfla in tampa. john cue which, who was convicted of killing 9-year-old jessica lunsford in 2005, remember, she had been missing a long time and finally found her body stuffed in a black garbage bag, buried alive, john cue which has died in prison. cameron and david will have more on that death. john cku couey dead in prison. more after a quick break here.

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