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CNN Live Today

Rader Faces 10 Concurrent or Consecutive Sentences; Israel Plans to Evacuate 6-8 Settlements Today; Three Car Bombings in Baghdad Kills 43 People; Protestors in Texas Moving A Mile From President's Ranch; Rein In Teen Spending Tips

Aired August 17, 2005 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want you to know, we're showing you this live picture from the Wichita courthouse. We are looking at this and showing it to you on a five-second delay. We do expect much of what is discussed in the courtroom today to be very graphic, perhaps inappropriate for air. We are monitoring that for you and keeping an eye on it for you and listening in. More on that just ahead.
To the Middle East where Israel begins its forced removal of settlers and protesters in Gaza. Earlier today, Israeli troops entered the biggest Jewish settlement in the territory. Some of the holdouts had barricaded themselves inside of a synagogue.

For Spanish authorities, a breakthrough in a major terror investigation. A Madrid train bombing suspect wanted since last year has been arrested in Serbia. Spanish officials say he was carrying forged Iraqi documents. The March 11, 2004, bombings in the Spanish capital killed almost 200 people.

Record-breaking gasoline prices are fueling inflationary pressure here in the U.S. The Labor Department says the Producer Price Index climbed a full percentage point last month, much more than had been expected. And the core inflation rate, that excludes food and energy, was up 0.4 percent. That's the biggest jump since January.

Good morning. I'm Daryn Kagan from CNN Center in Atlanta.

We expect to learn more today about the grizzly details of the BTK killer's crimes. A sentencing hearing for Dennis Rader gets underway this hour in a Wichita, Kansas, courtroom. Raider pleaded guilty in June to 10 murders between 1974 and 1991. A judge will decide whether he will serve 10 sentences consecutively or concurrently. CNN's Chris Lawrence is outside that courthouse in Wichita and joins us now.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Now hard to believe but prosecutors say they will be presenting evidence of these murders that is even more graphic than what we have already heard. First up today will be eight law enforcement officers who will be describing some of the same crimes that Dennis Rader did during his testimony. All of the people are already inside the courtroom. It started about a couple minutes ago. But the defense is saying none of this is really necessary. They say Kansas didn't have the death penalty during the time that these crimes were committed, so that's off the table. And Rader himself has already said he will accept the harshest penalty possible, which is life without parole.

Dennis Rader nicknamed himself BTK, which stands for bind, torture and kill. That's a fairly appropriate description of how he stalked and murdered 10 people from 1974 to 1991. Over the years, Rader taunted police with cryptic messages to the media and sending clues in the mail.

But he was no loner, like you see in some of these movies. After his killings, Rader would go home to his wife and kids. He was also very involved in a local church here in Wichita. And yet he showed almost no emotion whatsoever when he pleaded guilty to the 10 murders and described his crimes.

One of the first crimes that he committed in 1974 was the murder of Josephine Otero. That will be the focus in the beginning today as several law enforcement officers describe what happened during that crime. Last night we spoke with the Otero family who have come here just for this sentencing. They talked about what it's going to be like inside that courtroom with Rader, one last time, fully expecting that he will show no remorse for what he's done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sure there will be a lot of frustration, a lot of sadness, a lot of reliving, but like I said before, that's what we got to do. We have to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: And again, Rader himself may take the stand and address the court and address the victims, but it would be at the end of the sentencing hearing just before the judge issues his ruling.

Daryn.

KAGAN: This hearing could go as long as three days, including a big chunk tomorrow where victims family members, like we were hearing there, they'll have their say in this courtroom.

LAWRENCE: Exactly. Today you're going to hear from the law enforcement officials describing some of these crimes. Prosecutors say Dennis Rader left out a lot of the details, some of the what they call the very horrific details of what he's done. They're trying to prove to the judge that he should impose the harshest sentence possible on Rader. So today they will give the evidence of those crimes from law enforcement. Tomorrow you will get that human face, what he's done to these families, which Rader himself did not give during his testimony.

KAGAN: Chris Lawrence live from Wichita, Kansas. Thank you. And we will be listening in to those proceedings today and tomorrow.

In to international news now.

Thousands of Israeli troops entered Jewish settlements in Gaza today to clear out remaining residents and protesters. This has been a very emotional day. The evacuation marks the beginning of the end of Israel's 38-year occupation of Gaza. The land will be turned over to Palestinian control in hopes of improving Israeli security. CNN's John Vause joins us from the largest settlement in Gaza with the latest on today's removal.

John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

So far today in the last nine hours, seven settlements have been completely evacuated. An eighth is almost completed we are told by Israeli police. They are small settlement. However, there are two other settlements which were evacuated before the midnight deadline last night, bringing the total so far almost 10 settlements. It is an astonishing pace. They thought this evacuation could take weeks. They're now saying it could take days.

Here in Neveh Dekalim, these people up on this balcony, they will soon be evacuated. They've been up there all day long waving flags and singing. We are told their time is now running out. Over here, we have the Israeli police who have been brought in to evacuate these settlers. Just over here, the men and women in the black overalls are the specialized Israeli police who will be carrying these settlers out one by one. It is already under way in other parts of Neveh Dekalim.

In this house just beyond me, you can see the black smoke. Now some of the settlers here have been destroying their homes, smashing windows, bringing down walls inside and setting fires. Now these homes will be destroyed but they say this is a symbolic protest. They say this is their house, they are the ones who will destroy their home.

Also, of concern in Neveh Dekalim, the situation at the synagogue. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of infiltrators who are now holed up inside that synagogue. The police are also there as well surrounding that synagogue. We understand there is singing and dancing. But that situation, we are told by Israeli police, could rapidly change.

Here in Neveh Dekalim, they are expecting this to go fairly soon, within the next few hours. However, it is a big settlement. Most of the settler families here have already left. The majority have left. But there are still a number of holdouts and the police say time is now up. They will be carried out one at a time.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And how long do they expect to let those people stay in that synagogue, John? VAUSE: Well, what we are being told by the Israeli police is that there are two categories here that they're dealing with. They're dealing with the people who live here, the settlers. They're being dealt with, with a great deal of sensitivity we're told, being spoken to. They're being counseled. They're sending rabbis into their houses. They are trying their best.

In fact, just to give you an idea of what's happening here, we are now seeing the police move in. We've been seeing this similar scene like this all day long, police marching up and down the streets. This will be an evacuation team heading off to a home. All these homes to the left of the camera are still occupied by settler families. These police are now taking up positions, Daryn, here.

Now as far as the synagogue is concerned, the infiltrators are being treated differently to the people who live here. Now what the police and the Israeli army are saying is that they will be dealt with in a very with a very heavy hand because they're not meant to be here.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And getting back to that live picture you're showing us with the police marching down the street. How does that process work?

VAUSE: I didn't quite catch all of the question, Daryn. But what we have here is that these guys operate in teams of 17. They have a senior officer who goes and knocks on the door, tells them what they're there for, does not engage in a debate, does not tell them anything about this engagement but simply how the evacuation will take place.

As I said, 17 men per team. They move into the house, they carry the people out one at a time. Four officers per person. Once for each limb. And then once they're out of the house, that's when the Israeli army then makes the offer of moving in and packing up whatever is left behind. But what they're saying is that they'll only take away two container loads worth of possession. Anything beyond that, it stays behind. And if it's not piled up in the middle of the house, then they will lose all those possessions.

Daryn.

KAGAN: It is a very dramatic day indeed in Gaza. John Vause, thank you. We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning.

Also coming up at the half hour, my interview with Shimon Perez, the veteran Israeli politician, about the Gaza withdraw.

To Baghdad now. We've been following the political conflict over the new constitution. But today the battle was back on the streets. A trio of bombings killed dozens ending a lull in major attacks. Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad now with that story.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning. The Iraqi capital waking today to a trio of car bombs that killed at least 43 people, wounded upwards of 90 others. The first two explosions took place just before 8:00 a.m. local at the Al-Nahda bus station, one of Baghdad's busiest, where at that time of the day there would have presumably been a good number of Iraqis trying to travel throughout the country. After that explosion, as casualties from there began being transported to various hospitals, another car bomb at one of those exact hospitals, Al-Kindi.

A scene of utter disaster. We have not seen an attack at this scale, Daryn, for weeks in Iraq, perhaps even a month. And it underscores the need of Iraqi civilians to have stability, to have security.

It comes, of course, amid political turmoil. As you mentioned, Iraqi leaders trying to forge compromise on the new constitution. Iraqi civilians eager for that process to go forward. They hope once it is complete their leaders can spend more time on helping their daily life improve.

Now also, Daryn, today word from the U.S. military that two more American soldiers have been killed in the past few days. On Tuesday, an American troop was killed after a roadside bomb detonated in the capital. Yesterday, another American soldier killed from gunfire near the town of Mosul. It brings to 59, Daryn, the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the start of this month.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Aneesh Raman, live from Baghdad. Aneesh, thank you.

Back here in the U.S., Cindy Sheehan and her group of Iraq War protesters are packing up and moving, but they are not leaving town. Instead, they'll be moving their demonstration a little bit closer to the president's ranch. CNN's Bob Franken joins us from the current camp site with that story on moving day.

Hello, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

Well, actually, it probably won't happen until tomorrow. What they hope to do is by Friday, which would be, what, the day after tomorrow, day after tomorrow, they want to be in place for the memorial service that their supporters are planning to hold outside the President Bush ranch, which is just down the road. But they are going to be moving. It's just complicated.

By now this has grown from that one woman protest to one that is involving any number of supporters. Many of them are from the progressive wing, the left part of the political spectrum. In fact, one of the jokes they were making here is that they could be called the granola survivalists here with the camp that they've established here.

It's going to be moved up the road because a lot of the people who lived here complained. Not only complaining about the fact that they didn't necessarily agree with their political views, but also complaining about the fact that this road, which is normally not the road well traveled, has been very heavily traveled of late. It is the road that goes right to the Bush ranch just down the road. The county commissioners complained about it. So what they've decided to do now is to move to a ranch one of their supporters has a ranch much closer, as it happens, to where President Bush is and that's where they're going to locate in the fields that they hope will stop the disruption to the county functions that have antagonized an awful lot of people.

As I said, they intend to have it done by Friday. They hope to have it done by Friday and that memorial service. This began as Cindy Sheehan was trying to make her statement as the bereaved mother of Casey Sheehan who lost his life in Iraq, saying that the troops should be pulled out. This was really consistent with political beliefs that she just had. And now her supporters have grown in number. And even at this distance, Daryn, can be heard at the Bush ranch, which is just down the road. Now they'll be closer.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Bob Franken live from Texas. Thank you.

A programming note for you, Anderson Cooper will anchor his show tonight from Crawford, Texas. ANDERSON COOPER 360 airs at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

It wreaked havoc by wiggling its way into thousands of computers here and abroad. And we mean here at CNN. Where did the worm come from and how do you rid your computer of it if you have it? Still to come, we go live to Microsoft's headquarters to get some answers.

Plus, this was no Christmas sale. A look at why mark down prices on special items sent shoppers into a frenzy.

And later, the Gaza withdraw moves forward but not without resistance. I talk to the Israeli veteran who says a pullout is a cruel choice but one that had to be made.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's talk worms, shall we? A computer worm unleashed over the weekend is working its way through some major corporate and government computer systems. So far the damage appears to be minimal. Experts say the Zotob worm and apparent variations of it have mostly targeted computers running Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. And that includes our system right here at CNN. The worm took aim at the network's computers in Atlanta and New York yesterday. It also hit the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol. Computers in the House were not affected. Our Ted Rowlands is with us from Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

I bet they are busy today, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they have been busy really since Sunday, Daryn, when this worm first surfaced. Overnight, Microsoft officials tell us that no significant increases have come up in terms of people that have been affected. That is good news. But they continue to work throughout the night. They did throughout last night helping companies get back to where they were before this worm infiltrated their systems.

When they first saw evidence of the worm, they enacted their security response center, which is basically Microsoft's version of a situation or a war room. And since then they have been working actively to try to help people out. As you mentioned, this is only Windows 2000 and it is only businesses with intranet. Home users do not have to worry about this. This worm has not infiltrated home users.

Microsoft first identified a potential problem six days ago. They did release a software patch. Those that did not install the patch, however, are feeling the brunt of it now. Microsoft is helping those companies. They are also actively trying to find out who's responsible for this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBY FRY WILSON, DIRECTOR, MICROSOFT SECURITY CENTER: Often times there's criminal intent involved where criminals are trying to steal personal information or financial records or money. So as long as there's a negative intent, then we do face a battle in terms of going after these people. But the good news is that we are becoming more sophisticated, we're learning, we're working very hard. We have a dedicated team at Microsoft, the Microsoft Security Response Center, which does nothing else but to monitor for these kinds of situations and to work to get ahead of their activities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And Microsoft continues to work with people that are affected. The help is free and you can get it at microsoft.com.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Ted Rowlands live from Seattle. Thank you.

What about the weather? It looks kind of typically overcast in Seattle. What about the rest of the country?

Hey, Rob.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: They keep rising and rising. We are talking gas prices. But who is reaping the benefits from the high cost? We'll follow the dollar to see where it goes once it leave yours pocket.

Plus, they live at home for free, they have no jobs and they often think money grows on trees. Who would keep these people? We're talking teenagers. Coming up, a fool-proof way for parents to control their teenagers bad spending habits. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Being a teenager and spending money, they often go hand in hand. So if you're a parent with a teenager who spends way too much, well good luck. No, really, what do you do? In today's "Top Five Tips," we are finding out from Eric Schurenberg the best ways to reign in teen spending. He is managing editor of "Money" magazine.

Do you have one of them at home, Eric?

ERIC SCHURENBERG, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: I do, Daryn.

KAGAN: You do. So you're speaking . . .

SCHURENBERG: I do. I know where of I speak.

KAGAN: OK. OK. Let's get started. The first tip and it has to do with the cell phone.

SCHURENBERG: That's right. You can load a prepaid amount on to your teen's cell phone. So set this up in advance so that there is a set number of talk minutes and a set number of text messages. Don't forget the text messages. And when all the money's up, so is your teen's talk time. Now it's a good idea to set this up with your own carrier if your own carrier has one of those plans where there are unlimited minutes to spend as long as you call other accounts on that same carrier. That way your teen can call you in an emergency even after the minutes are up.

KAGAN: A credit card in the hand of a teenager does not sound like a good combination to me.

SCHURENBERG: Well, we're talking about a prepaid account on your credit card.

KAGAN: Ah, prepaid. Prepaid. OK.

SCHURENBERG: Right.

KAGAN: And how do you set that up?

SCHURENBERG: All right. You can set up what's called a Visa buxx account. Go on to visabuxx.com. That's b-u-x-x. And it's essentially a debit card that your child can use and learn the experience and the responsibility of using a credit card without you being at risk of being spent out of house and home. Now the fees for this setup range from depend on the issuer and they range from, you know, $10 to $15 for a setup fee, $2 or so for reloading and maybe a $15 annual fee.

KAGAN: Let's talk about buying music online, iTunes. I'm no teenager. I recently discovered iTunes and discovered how quickly you can rack up a nice size bill on there as well.

SCHURENBERG: You really can, can't you?

KAGAN: Quickly, quickly.

SCHURENBERG: Well, what you can do for your teenager is set up an iTunes allowance that is you can authorize Apple to replenish a credit card account, an account that's funded by your credit card every month. Then when the teen uses up all that music, you're done for the month. The good thing about this is that the music I mean the money remains in the account until the teen spends it.

KAGAN: Good. Now if you're sending your teen to the mall.

SCHURENBERG: Right.

KAGAN: These all sound so awful.

SCHURENBERG: Well, always a very risky endeavor. But a lot of malls will give you a gift certificate, will sell you a gift certificate or a gift card that is usable in any denomination, at any store in the mall. Then when you shew your little one off to the mall, you can rest at ease or at relative ease.

One of the good things about this is that your child isn't wandering around the mall with a wad of cash in his or her pocket. If a gift certificate is lost, it can usually be replaced for free. The setup, $1, $5, depends on the mall but it's not very much.

KAGAN: And finally, the hardest one, possibly, do as I say, not as I do?

SCHURENBERG: Well, you know, I would say do as I do. But that may be the hard part. Look, the best way to get your teen to regulate spending is to get the teen to regulate it himself or herself. And the secret to that is to be a good example. Spend wisely. Don't spend willy nilly yourself. With children, actions always speak louder than words.

KAGAN: You learn that over the years I'm sure. Eric Schurenberg from "Money" magazine. Thank you. And good luck with is it one teenager at home?

SCHURENBERG: Just one.

KAGAN: Just one.

SCHURENBERG: And that's plenty, believe me, Daryn.

KAGAN: Plenty. Plenty. Very good. OK. Good luck with that. Thank you.

SCHURENBERG: Bye-bye.

KAGAN: Well, their time is up and now tensions rise in Gaza. But one Israeli leader said this was bound to happen. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Perez talks about his concerns with the pullout.

Plus, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Could that be the case? We have details about the man gunned down by officials on a London subway.

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