Air Strikes in Ajdabiya; Tea Party: Bring on Government Shutdown
CHETRY: Thirteen minutes past the hour. And some developments right now out of Libya. Our Ben Wedeman joins us right now from Ajdabiya, an eastern city in Libya, with the latest on some conflicts there. Hi, Ben.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi. What we're hearing from eyewitnesses is that there was an airstrike on an opposition formation near Brega, about 10 kilometers, about seven miles to the east of there. According to this eyewitness, a plane flew over. They assumed it was NATO and didn't worry about it. But then it flew back again, apparently bombed their convoy which included a large bus of soldiers, and then came back for a second time and hit again. It's not clear the identity of the plane because they fly so high, but there haven't been any planes, Libyan air force planes in the sky for several weeks now. I'm at the hospital in Ajdabiya where doctors here tell me that at least six people were injured and, of course, they're still bringing in ambulances. But of those six injured, several of them are in critical condition. This is, of course, if it is a NATO airstrike, it's the second time that NATO aircrafts have mistakenly hit forces of the opposition.</s>CHETRY: I know what you're saying is that it's still unclear as to who was flying this plane, who launched that strike. Did they know -- is it possible that Gadhafi's planes are still able to fly or were the NATO air strikes successful in damaging that air power capability?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, our understanding was that a lot of that capability has been disabled. Some of the airstrips themselves have been disabled. And we did hear several days ago from a NATO official who says that 30 percent of the Libyan Army's military capabilities have been disabled, but we - we don't know. Certainly there haven't been any Libyan Air Force planes in the sky for several weeks, actually, at least three weeks now. So it would be difficult for them to be up in the air at the moment.</s>CHETRY: All right. Ben Wedeman bringing us the latest right now on a breaking situation there in an area near Brega where they say that they were the - the targets of a strike from a plane. Thanks so much.</s>ROMANS: Nic Robertson just reporting that a couple of big explosions in Central Tripoli in the last few minutes, actually.</s>VELSHI: Right. So he - he's on the government-controlled side of things.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>VELSHI: Ben is in the opposition-controlled side. So while there might be some sense of these being coordinated attacks, what Ben says is very troubling, that he is saying that they are seeing rebels being wounded, six people transported to hospital. We've already had one instance where NATO has mistakenly attacked the rebels. This is where it starts to get confusing and difficult.</s>ROMANS: And rebel leaders have complained that they don't feel as if there's enough coordination with</s>NATO. VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: They said they've been calling in exactly this is where we need help and they haven't been getting that help.</s>VELSHI: But you got to imagine that that's complicated.</s>ROMANS: Oh, yes.</s>VELSHI: That these are rebels who have had virtually no training.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>VELSHI: No logistics training. What are you calling in? You know -</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>VELSHI: I don't know. Maybe there's a communication issue.</s>ROMANS: Absolutely.</s>VELSHI: But very troubling news. We'll stay on top of it for you. This story is amazing, about this another air traffic controller busted for sleeping on the job during overnight hours. This time, though, officials say he did it on purpose. Listen to this. It happened at -</s>CHETRY: McGhee - this is McGhee Tyson.</s>VELSHI: McGhee Tyson Airport right in Knoxville, Tennessee. He slept for five hours. His co-worker landed seven planes by himself. So, apparently there was some kind of agreement between the two of them. It happened back in February. It was only revealed yesterday during a Congressional hearing. Now, this worker is in the process of being fired. Second sanction is less than three months. As you know in March, a controller at the Reagan National Airport fell asleep during a midnight shift and a couple of planes had to land themselves.</s>CHETRY: But what's even scarier in that one is that there was nobody managing (ph).</s>VELSHI: There's nobody, right.</s>CHETRY: That was a huge - I mean, Reagan International Airport.</s>VELSHI: This guy just had his buddy take care of things.</s>ROMANS: All right. A government shutdown much closer to reality this morning. You may have heard the sound bites, the talking points. You've seen the numbers. But what do you think? According to a Gallup Poll by almost a 2 to 1 margin, Americans want their representatives to reach a compromise.</s>VELSHI: Yes. The Tea Party helped bring the GOP back into power in the House of Representatives with a promise that they will shrink the size of government, which by the way, means the budget. Now many in the party are saying a promise is a promise. Bring on a government shutdown. Jim Acosta live in Washington. Wow, Jim, this is getting - it's getting very close. Closer than we've -</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>VELSHI: -- been to a shutdown the last couple of times.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.</s>VELSHI: And the Tea Party's holding tight.</s>ACOSTA: They are. They are ratcheting up the rhetoric, guys. And, as you both know, leaders in both parties say they don't want a government shutdown, but some in the Tea Party hope that's exactly what happens saying it will teach Washington a lesson.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut it down, shut it down!</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): As the clock ticks toward a shutdown, the Tea Party is turning up the heat. At a rally near the steps of the Capitol, conservative activists urge Republicans to stand and fight.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): You would support a government shutdown?</s>DAVID WILLIAMS, TAXPAYER PROTECTION ALLIANCE: Absolutely. It's time for taxpayers to take back the government and ley's shut it down for a few days. It's not going to come to a catastrophic end.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Indiana Republican Mike Pence was right there with them.</s>REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: Liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and force a government shutdown instead of accepting a modest down payment on fiscal discipline and reform. I say shut it down.</s>CROWD: Shut it down, shut it down!</s>ACOSTA: But not all Tea Partiers are sure that's a good idea. Despite appearances.</s>JOHN OLTESVIG, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST: Shut 'er down.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): And you're saying shut the government down?</s>OLTESVIG: I don't want to shut the government down. I'm making a point.</s>ACOSTA: And what's that?</s>OLTESVIG: That's we need to get serious about cutting our budget. We don't even have a budget. We're a year late in getting a budget.</s>ACOSTA: And so what about why hold a sign that says shut 'er down if you don't want to shut her down?</s>OLTESVIG: Making a point.</s>REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Here's the extremist that I like to hang with.</s>ACOSTA: Republican Michele Bachmann also stops short of calling for a shutdown, telling CNN she thinks a deal will happen.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): Do you think we're going to get to a shutdown, Congresswoman? What do you think at this point?</s>BACHMANN: I actually think that we will see a resolution by Friday. I think that in all likelihood it will happen.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): That would be good news for thousands of federal employees who would be deemed nonessential by their agencies and furloughed.</s>MELANIE DIXON, EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: I'm concerned. I'm concerned about the delay. I'm concerned about being able to pay my mortgage. I'm concerned about being able to pay my bills.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats point out some of those workers performs critical tasks like medical researchers.</s>SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D), MARYLAND: I know you're working on that</s>ACOSTA: And as for those calls to shut 'er down, even Republican Mike Pence is showing some wiggle room this morning. The Tea Party favorite has released a statement saying he could sign on to another stop gap spending measure to avoid one of the big consequences of a shutdown, military troops not getting their pay on time, guys.</s>ROMANS: Now, Jim, what Tea Party people like to say a lot is that, look, this is the 2011 budget. That was something that a Republican - oh, I'm sorry, Democratic president, Democratic controlled Congress couldn't get done last year. So why are you blaming us?</s>ACOSTA: That's right.</s>ROMANS: You know, we're just making a point after Democrats didn't do their job. Is that sort of the message that they keep - they keep giving?</s>ACOSTA: Well, their message is, is basically with the Republicans, a deal is a deal. And if you look at some of the e-mails coming from the Tea Party Nation, just one of the Tea Party groups out there, they're just as nasty with John Boehner. They call John Boehner words that even Democrats aren't calling John Boehner at this point. So they're very angry with Republicans for not holding the line here.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>ACOSTA: And there will be major disappointment inside some sections of the Tea Party if this government does not shut down and the Republicans don't get everything that they want.</s>CHETRY: But, you know - and it's - I'm just wondering, we keep saying 42 hours still shutdown. I know you've been in Washington a long time. The last time this happened, Congress actually agreed on a bill, sent it to the president and it was vetoed. This time they haven't even agreed on a bill.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ACOSTA: That's right. And one big difference between then and now is that in 1995 and 1996, the economy was not in the throes -</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ACOSTA: -- of a very weak recovery. And so we're in uncharted waters here. Government shutdown could have major unintended consequences. As, you know, Mark Zandi, a noted economist, said yesterday that this could throw the country into possibly a recession. So lots of unintended consequences.</s>ROMANS: And another economist yesterday from Capitol Economics has been trying to say it would shave one percentage point off GDP. That means -</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>CHETRY: We can't afford -</s>VELSHI: And they're talking necessarily crazy liberal economist</s>ACOSTA: Sounds good.</s>VELSHI: All right.</s>ROMANS: You might have noticed, you guys, that your local mall is running on empty. Find out what these shopping centers are doing to plug the growing number of vacancies. Have you noticed this?</s>VELSHI: I have, yes.</s>ROMANS: There's a lot of empty storefronts in the local mall.</s>VELSHI: Twenty-two minutes after the hour.