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Dutch arrests may have been dry run, U.S. source says

(CNN) - Two men held in the Netherlands may have been trying to test U.S. airport security by putting bottles with electronic devices attached in checked baggage, a U.S. law enforcement source said Monday.

The men were taken into custody after landing in Amsterdam on a flight from Chicago, Illinois, Dutch prosecutors said. Both men were being held at Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport at the request of Dutch national police, airport spokesman Robert Kapel said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they were arrested after "suspicious items" in their luggage raised concern.

"The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves, and as we share information with our international partners, Dutch authorities were notified of the suspicious items," the U.S. agency said. "This matter continues to be under investigation."

Those items were an empty shampoo bottle with watches attached to it and an empty bottle of a stomach medicine with mobile phones attached, according to the U.S. law enforcement source, who has been briefed on the investigation. That has raised concern that the men may have been testing a future terrorist plot, the source said. Read more

House GOP leader to make 'prebuttal' on upcoming Obama speech on Iraq
(CNN) - House Republican leader John Boehner will lay out a "prebuttal" ahead of President Obama's prime time speech on Iraq on Tuesday night.

Boehner will speak to about 10,000 people Tuesday afternoon at the 92nd American Legion National Convention in Milwaukee on Iraq and national security issues.

Obama's Oval Office address is timed to coincide with the official end of the U.S. military's combat mission in Iraq.

In an op-ed published Friday in the conservative news site Human Events, Boehner said Tuesday's shift of U.S. forces from combat to an advisory mission "was made possible by the very surge that President Obama and Vice President Biden opposed.

"With all due respect to them, our troops who have served so courageously in Iraq deserve the credit for the success of the surge and, along with the Iraqi people, the turnaround in Iraq," he said.

"Then-Sen. Barack Obama, who campaigned on his opposition to the Iraq war, flatly declared that the troop surge would not work," Boehner said in the editorial.

Boehner says that at the time, Obama said: "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse."

The president's speech - set to start at 8 p.m. ET - is expected to last about 15 minutes.

Obama's remarks will also touch on Afghanistan and the broader war against terrorism, the White House said last week.

The total number of U.S. troops in Iraq has now fallen below 50,000 - the lowest level since the U.S-led invasion in 2003.

The remaining American troops will train, assist and advise the Iraqis.

Sound off: We want to hear from you this morning. Add your comments to the LIVE Blog below and we'll read some of them on the show.

Editor's Note: Welcome to American Morning's LIVE Blog where you can discuss the "most news in the morning" with us each week day. Join the live chat during the show by adding your comments below. It's your chance to share your thoughts on the day's headlines. You have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules: 1) Keep it brief 2) No writing in ALL CAPS 3) Use your real name (first name only is fine) 4) No links 5) Watch your language (that includes $#&*) 6) Stay relevant to the topic.

Drilling to reach Chilean miners to begin

(CNN) - Chilean officials plan to start drilling a rescue shaft Monday, as they begin a months-long operation to reach 33 miners who have been trapped underground for more than three weeks.

The effort to drill through more than 2,300 feet (701 meters) of rock and safely extract the miners could take three to four months, officials said.

The miners have been stuck in the mine since an August 5 cave-in and are surviving off food, water and other supplies funneled to them from above ground through an "umbilical cord" - a tube about four inches in diameter.

Meanwhile, a four-person team from NASA is set to arrive in Chile this week to help provide physical and behavioral health support to the miners. NASA has a long history in dealing with isolated environments and thinks experiences in space and underground are not too different, said Michael Duncan, the U.S. space agency's lead person on the Chile effort.

Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said a medical official, a nutritional medic, a psychologist and an engineering expert in logistics from NASA will stay at the mine from Wednesday through Friday to help.

"I do not imagine, like I saw a cartoon in a daily newspaper, that NASA will be setting up an area with no oxygen and no gravity where the miners will be floating about ... but you never know," Manalich joked.

The miners spoke directly with family members for the first time Sunday, as officials worked to keep the men's spirits and health in good shape. Read more

Stabbed cabbie out of work, worries about feeding family

(CNN) - New York cab driver Ahmed Sharif cannot bring himself to talk about the young man who allegedly cut his throat and nearly killed him last week, a taxi union representative said Sunday.
"Ahmed is a strong man, but mentally he has limits," said Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. "The trauma he's experienced will last for a long time."

Desai spent time this weekend with Sharif. She said his most pressing worry is how he'll provide for his wife and four children - including a 10-month-old –without a job. Sharif is receiving 2/3 of his salary, about $30,000 a year, in workers' compensation. Union members do not get health insurance or disability payments, Desai said.

"My guess is that he'll be unable to work for at least four months," Desai said. "He can't even pick up his baby because of the wounds to his arms. He can't turn his neck."

There's been so little money raised over the past few days for Sharif that it would "barely cover baby formula," said Desai who, along with Sharif, held a widely publicized press conference Friday announcing the union was creating a fund for the family. The union's website indicates how to mail a donation or give online. Read More

Editor's Note: Welcome to American Morning's LIVE Blog where you can discuss the "most news in the morning" with us each week day. Join the live chat during the show by adding your comments below. It's your chance to share your thoughts on the day's headlines. You have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules: 1) Keep it brief 2) No writing in ALL CAPS 3) Use your real name (first name only is fine) 4) No links 5) Watch your language (that includes $#&*) 6) Stay relevant to the topic.

Katrina: 5 years later
Five years after Katrina, we're reporting live from the lower ninth ward in New Orleans. How much progress do you think the city has mad since the disaster?

Ex-FEMA chief: 'Fatal mistake' made during Katrina response
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) - The Bush administration made a "fatal mistake" by talking up facts and figures without painting a broader picture of the obstacles in its widely criticized Hurricane Katrina response effort, ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown said Thursday.

Brown told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the talking points he and other federal officials used at the time didn't tell the whole story.

"They were factually correct, but weren't in context. We're moving all of this stuff in. We have teams here. Rescue teams are doing this," he said. "But we never explained to the people that it's not coming as fast as we want it to, and it's not enough, because of the number of people that were left behind in the aftermath of the storm."

Not making that clear was a "fatal mistake," Brown said. FULL STORY

Sound off: We want to hear from you this morning. Add your comments to the LIVE Blog below and we'll read some of them on the show.

Editor's Note: Welcome to American Morning's LIVE Blog where you can discuss the "most news in the morning" with us each week day. Join the live chat during the show by adding your comments below. It's your chance to share your thoughts on the day's headlines. You have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules: 1) Keep it brief 2) No writing in ALL CAPS 3) Use your real name (first name only is fine) 4) No links 5) Watch your language (that includes $#&*) 6) Stay relevant to the topic.

Attack on Awakening Council checkpoint kills 6 in Iraq

Baghdad, Iraq(CNN) - Gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by Awakening Council members in Baquba on Thursday and killed four people. When a local awakening council leader rushed to the scene, a roadside bomb killed him and another member, police said.

The attack on the checkpoint took place early Thursday morning in Diyala province.

Hearing about the attack, the Awakening Council leader Ali Qader Ameen headed to the scene with three other members, police said.

But before he reached the site of the attack, a bomb exploded - killing him and another occupant, and wounding the rest.

Awakening council members or Sons of Iraq are mainly made up of Sunni Arab fighters who turned on al Qaeda and are credited for being one of the main factors that contributed to the drop in violence across the country in the past two years.

They have been a frequent target of militants affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq.

Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads

(CNN) - Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section.

"The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution - including ads trafficking children - are rampant on it," the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark.

The letter continued: "We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist."

A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter. FULL STORY

Elin Nordegren: 'I feel stronger than I ever have'
(PEOPLE.com) - Her divorce is final and she's ready to talk. Elin Nordegren breaks her nine-month silence in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE magazine.

"I have been through the stages of disbelief and shock, to anger and ultimately grief over the loss of the family I so badly wanted for my children," she says in the magazine's latest issue, out just days after her split from Tiger Woods was made official.

The 30-year-old mother of two, who is studying towards a college degree in psychology, says that despite her husband's betrayal, "I also feel stronger than I ever have. I have confidence in my beliefs, my decisions and myself."

In 19 hours over four visits to her Windermere, Florida, rental home, Nordegren shared never-before-seen personal photographs and opened up to PEOPLE about the emotional roller coaster she's been on, her life as a mother to Sam, 3, and Charlie, 19 months, and her hopes for the future. FULL STORY

Sound off: We want to hear from you this morning. Add your comments to the LIVE Blog below and we'll read some of them on the show.

Editor's Note: Welcome to American Morning's LIVE Blog where you can discuss the "most news in the morning" with us each week day. Join the live chat during the show by adding your comments below. It's your chance to share your thoughts on the day's headlines. You have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules: 1) Keep it brief 2) No writing in ALL CAPS 3) Use your real name (first name only is fine) 4) No links 5) Watch your language (that includes $#&*) 6) Stay relevant to the topic.

Shirley Sherrod to meet with agriculture secretary, discuss job

(CNN) - Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department, will meet Tuesday morning with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss a job offer.

It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two since a controversial sequence of events last month culminated in her stepping down.

Sherrod, who was the Agriculture Department's Georgia Director of Rural Development, has said she is being offered the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

The position includes administration and outreach to improve the Agriculture Department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.

Sherrod was forced to resign in July after misleading and incomplete video footage of a speech she gave was posted on the internet and picked up in media reports. Vilsack apologized to her and offered her the promotion.

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a portion of a speech Sherrod gave in which she spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The original post by Breitbart indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department, and news outlets quickly picked up on the story.

However, the incident took place decades before she joined the department, and her speech in its unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race. In addition, the white farmer who Sherrod mentioned has told reporters that she helped him save his farm.

Big bucks, ugly battles dominate Tuesday primaries

(CNN) - As voters in five states go to the polls on Tuesday, big-dollar challenges to veteran politicians dominate the top races.

The big storylines: Two billionaire political newcomers spent millions of their own money to try to pull upsets in Florida, Arizona Sen. John McCain is expected to fend off the biggest Republican primary challenge of his Senate career and a little-known Tea Party candidate is taking on an incumbent senator in Alaska.

Voters will also pick the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in a wide-open Vermont race, and decide the runoff winners in two Oklahoma Republican primaries. Read More

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