Return to Transcripts main page
Paula Zahn Now
Interview With Kevin Trudeau; Could Thousands of New Orleans Criminals Go Free?
Aired October 13, 2005 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. I'm Heidi Collins. Paula has the night off.
What if the doors of hundreds of jail cells suddenly swung open, the prisoners allowed to go free? Unfortunately, for one city, that nightmare may be a reality.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (voice-over): Crime, punishment, and startling allegations in New Orleans, prisoners abandoned in the hurricane, criminal evidence washed away.
KIMBERLY BUTLER, CLERK OF COURT: I have no doubt that there are going to be individuals who will be able to walk.
COLLINS: Was justice a casualty of Katrina?
Would you trust a convicted felon with your health? What if he asked you to throw away your prescription drugs? Millions of people do.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: No medical training. You're a convicted felon. Why should anyone listen to what you have to say about health matters?
COLLINS: The natural world of Kevin Trudeau.
And...
(ENGINES REVVING)
COLLINS: ... driven to extremes. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins a NASCAR pit crew, gas, grease, and incredible grace. Go ahead. Try this at home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Good evening once again, everyone.
If you were watching "ANDERSON COOPER" just a few minutes ago, we want to take you back to that scene. We are going to begin in New Orleans tonight with a new development and controversy over what happened Saturday night when police officers beat a 64-year-old schoolteacher as they tried to arrest him on Bourbon Street. A cameraman for the Associated Press took pictures of the confrontation. You're looking at them now. But the AP released an edited version on Sunday. We have seen a lot of that. Just a few moments ago, the AP released the full video. That full version of the video runs just over five minutes or so, about one more minute than the edited version.
The additional minute mostly shows the street scene after Robert Davis was taken down and is laying on the street. At one point, you can hear Davis say -- quote -- "If you allow me to turn over, I will." Davis has pleaded not guilty to charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer, and public intimidation.
The three patrolmen involved in the incident have been charged with battery. Their -- officers' attorney, Frank DeSalvo, says the edited tape does not tell the full story of the confrontation. We will keep you up to date on that story, of course, if any more developments come to us tonight.
Now to the newest nightmare in trying to rebuild New Orleans: thousands of accused criminals who could walk free because the water washed away the evidence.
Here's investigative correspondent now, Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the Orleans Parish Criminal Courts Building.
BUTLER: The waterline here that, you know, is five feet.
GRIFFIN: And if you were an accused criminal waiting to go on trial here, Katrina may have just acquitted you.
BUTLER: And I'm showing you the worst one.
GRIFFIN: You are looking at what is left of the Orleans criminal clerk's evidence room -- that's right, evidence, criminal evidence that would have been used in gun crime cases, drug cases, thefts, even murder, much of it potentially destroyed when Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters swept across the Orleans Criminal Courts Building.
There is an ongoing dispute of how much is in here and how much was ruined, but clerk of court Kimberly Williamson (ph) Butler says some criminal cases simply washed away.
BUTLER: I have no doubt that there are going to be individuals who will be able to walk.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Criminals able to walk free because of an unforeseen disaster. But that is only part of the disaster that took place here.
CNN has learned that the evidence rooms in this building have been in turmoil for many years, that the city was warned about the potential for flooding here.
And, according to this letter sent from the clerk of courts to Mayor Ray Nagin, just this past May, an $800,000 contract that would have helped protect some of the evidence in this building was abruptly canceled by the city of New Orleans.
(voice-over): Through his spokesperson, Mayor Ray Nagin refused to comment on this story or any other reports, saying, right now, the mayor is not granting interviews. But the district attorney of Orleans Parish is.
And Eddie Jordan says, when he toured the flood-ravaged evidence rooms just Wednesday, he says he saw his already tough job prosecuting criminals just got tougher.
EDDIE JORDAN, ORLEANS PARISH DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It's something that's obviously going to require that we look at the evidence in each case to determine whether we have all the evidence that we had before the storm and whether that evidence is -- is usable.
GRIFFIN: There is a bigger picture here, says Jordan, one of a city mired in crime, yet unable, or unwilling, to tackle it -- the evidence rooms, just one example.
JORDAN: It's just not a good situation. It has not been a good situation. And our funding for the entire criminal justice system is -- is inadequate -- inadequate, in my opinion.
GRIFFIN: Jordan points to the police department, which pays new officers far less than the national average. His own office hires prosecutors at such a low salary, most leave within 18 months.
And the infrastructure of the entire system, including the evidence rooms, has been crumbling, he says, for years -- this despite a murder rate last year that was seven times the national average.
(on camera): Could that be why there is such a high crime rate in this town?
JORDAN: I think that the city has not fully understood that, in order to get the job done, in order for our system to function effectively, that adequate funding must be in place.
GRIFFIN: I'm asking this question to the top prosecutor. Does the city of New Orleans not consider crime a top priority?
JORDAN: I would say the city has not demonstrated that it considers crime the top priority by its funding.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Eddie Jordan made it clear, he blames the mayor. It's the mayor, he says, who decides what gets funded in New Orleans. Now he wonders where the money will come from to recover what evidence was not destroyed before it is dismissed in court.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COLLINS: Drew, I know you said in the piece that the mayor is, for whatever reason, not granting interviews. And we actually tried to contact his press office from here in New York as well. We couldn't even leave a message.
But here is what I'm wondering. Police officers aren't being paid as well as in many other cities, according to the district attorney. The murder rate is seven times the national average. The mayor decides on how much fund willing go to law enforcement. So, is anyone there talking about when he will be able to deal with the crime problems in New Orleans?
GRIFFIN: Well, he hasn't dealt with it yet, according to the people we're talking to. And this is a mayor who partly ran on a platform to reduce crime, especially that murder rate. It hasn't happened. In fact, the DA had to reduce his staff, send out some layoff notices in January, before the storm, and then he had to reduce his staff again after the storm.
The district attorney and the clerk of court says this city is not funding its judicial system.
COLLINS: All right, Drew Griffin, thanks so much for that, from New Orleans tonight.
We are also hearing tonight some former prisoners say they were abandoned without food or clean water, while the New Orleans City jail flooded after Katrina.
Our Ed Lavandera has been looking into that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN BRIGHT, FORMER INMATE: We couldn't stay. We just had to go look and see what we can salvage and -- and leave.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dan Bright is a free man again, looking for work, but he says he's lucky to be alive.
BRIGHT: If we wouldn't have got out on our own, we would have drowned. They didn't care.
LAVANDERA: The day before Hurricane Katrina struck, Bright was arrested on a misdemeanor public intoxication charge. He was about to get out of jail when the floodwaters came.
BRIGHT: You still had guys who were stuck in there. I'm looking at guys stuck in these cells, couldn't get out. And you have to remember, the lights is out. All the power is out. So, all you're seeing is water constantly rising. And you are stuck in these cells. Can you imagine that?
LAVANDERA: Inmates and sheriff's deputies describe a chaotic scene. As authorities rushed to evacuate 6,000 inmates, six feet of water poured into the city's jail. The sewage system failed. Power went out. And drinking water was contaminated. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A very, very volatile situation.
LAVANDERA: Deputies moved inmates out on boats and corralled them along a highway. Authorities involved say the mission was a success. No inmates escaped. None died.
MARLIN GUSMAN, ORLEANS PARISH SHERIFF: Let me tell you, if you were in New Orleans during the storm and immediately afterward, it was tough. I make no apologies. It was tough. But we did it safely.
LAVANDERA: But Dan Bright says he and a group of other inmates were left behind, prying open doors to get themselves to safety.
BRIGHT: We kicked on the cell doors until they -- we knocked them off the hinge, off the slide hinge. You had to push the cell door open from the bottom and squeeze out.
LAVANDERA: Bright says it took two days to get out of the jail itself, because deputies weren't checking his section.
GUSMAN: That's just so ridiculous. I'm indignant about it that we would leave anyone locked in a cell for that period of time. We didn't.
LAVANDERA: Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman says what his officers did to protect the city and keep inmates alive was heroic.
GUSMAN: We evacuated everyone out of this jail before the city was evacuated. That's a fact.
LAVANDERA (on camera): All of the inmates from the city jail were sent to other prisons all over Louisiana. But prisoner-rights activists say that hundreds of them should have already been released in the days and weeks after the hurricane struck. But because New Orleans' justice system has essentially collapsed, they say many of those people are still trapped behind bars.
(voice-over): Civil rights activists want the immediate release of inmates like Dan Bright. They say it's unjust to keep people in jail indefinitely for minor crimes, while they wait for the court system to work again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of these sons and daughters and mothers and fathers need to be with their families in this time of crisis.
LAVANDERA: That's why Dan Bright feels lucky. One night in jail might have turned into a month, but he's back home now and alive to tell the story.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Ed Lavandera reporting.
Our next story sounds and looks so familiar -- soggy basement, ruined homes and a staggering cleanup bill. But this isn't the Gulf Coast. We will take you to the scene of nature's latest rampage, coming up next.
And, later tonight, how could Syria affect the war on terror and what you pay for gas and heating oil? Be sure to tune in, 11:30 Eastern, for a CNN "Security Watch" special, "The Syrian Connection."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Another cloudy New York shot -- we're kind of getting used to this around here. At least you can see some of the lights, though, tonight. This is maybe a good sign.
Meanwhile, after more than a week of drenching and practically nonstop rain, the Northeast is a soggy mess. Homes from New Jersey to New Hampshire are flooded, roads washed out and airline flights held up.
Let's go ahead and see where things stand tonight.
Meteorologist Rob Marciano is in Wayne, New Jersey.
Rob, I was out there last night and that water was accumulating pretty fast.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
COLLINS: How does it look now?
MARCIANO: Well, the accumulation has somewhat tapered off. It's not quite raining as hard anymore, so, that's good news, Heidi.
But the -- the rivers continue to rise. I mean, before -- behind me is the Pompton River. And, then, behind that is the Passaic River. Here's where they merge. And they continue to rise up.
As you mentioned, much of the Northeast and New England has endured quite a bit of rainfall. It's been over seven days. And it just seems to not want to end.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): Racing floodwaters thrashed trees, roads, cars and homes throughout many parts of the soggy Northeast. Four people are still missing in New Hampshire. And thousands of sandbags sit ready for more flooding.
And, in northern New Jersey, teams in high-water rescue vehicles searched flooded neighborhood in Oakland. Many roads are under water. Voluntary evacuations are under way. Emergency crews in Fairfield expect major flooding of the Passaic and Pompton rivers.
LIEUTENANT STEVEN GUTKIN, FAIRFIELD, NEW JERSEY, POLICE DEPARTMENT: At that point, we will begin evacuations. And we use -- we have fire department boats and a police boat. And we will actually go to those areas and offer to bring residents and their property out to a shelter that has already been opened, and make other arrangements for them, help them to get to other family in the area, if possible. LAURA BARRY, FLOODED HOMEOWNER: Oh, when we moved in here, my kids were teenagers.
MARCIANO: Homeowner Laura Barry of Pequannock Township says the knee-deep water is nothing new.
(on camera): You have flood insurance?
BARRY: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. From the day I bought the house, I was told I need flood insurance. And we have had it ever since.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Only those with webbed feet seem to be taking things in stride. But Barry is not looking for sympathy.
BARRY: Don't feel sorry for me. It's just nature. There's nothing you can do. There's absolutely nothing you can do about this. It's -- it's going to happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Well that is certainly a good attitude. And there's not a whole lot you can do about rising water. And it continues to do that tonight.
You know, it's kind of unusual to see this sort of rainfall over a week's time, this time of year. Certainly, in the springtime, with fall runoff or snow runoff, it happens a little bit more readily. But the last time there was serious flooding like this was back in 1999 -- remnants of Hurricane Floyd making it up this way.
And some of the moisture that has been falling out of the clouds of last week has been from tropical systems dying and that moisture moving up this way -- so, can't even escape the hurricanes this far north -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Boy, that's for sure. And being a gal who lives in New Jersey, I'm pretty tired of it, too.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Rob Marciano, thank you.
So, when can the Northeast expect some relief? That's the question, right?
Going to check in with meteorologist Dave Hennen. He is in Atlanta tonight.
Hi, Dave.
DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Heidi.
Yes. It's going to going to be a while. It looks like the rain is going to continue for at least the next couple of days, right on into the weekend -- and a number of flash flood watches, flood warnings, in effect as well. That's the darker green areas. And you see, much of southern New York, into Connecticut, and west of New York City, under these flood warnings.
Most of the rivers -- I was just looking at some of the gauges -- are above flood stages through much of northern New Jersey. The flood warnings include counties like Essex County, back into Passaic County, Bergen County, just to name a few. And the rain is going to continue here for the next couple of days.
Let's show you some of the rainfall totals we have seen so far. This is just from the storm -- Plainview, nearly nine inches of rain -- over six inches of rain in Central Park in New York -- even Newark, up to about five inches of rain, and more on the way, too, over the next 24 hours.
In fact, here's an estimation. This is what our computer does, adding up the precipitation that is forecast over the next 48 hours. This takes us through midday on Saturday. What are we -- what are we concerned about? It's the areas in white. That is over three inches of additional rainfall on top of what has already fallen.
And you can get the idea that heavier rainfall is going to be shifting a little bit further to the north, but the runoff from that eventually heading southward along the river. So, we're not out of the woods yet, into New Jersey, into Pennsylvania as well, as the rainfall continues.
It has been a mess throughout the day, through much of the airports. Check out some of these delays into the Northeastern U.S. If you're traveling, still, at this hour, in Philadelphia, the average delays are four hours at JFK, about 50 minutes and, in La Guardia and Newark, delays still running two hours, even at this late hour -- back to you, Heidi.
COLLINS: Maybe a train or car a little bit better.
HENNEN: Not a bad idea.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: All right.
COLLINS: All right. Dave Hennen, thank you.
HENNEN: All right.
COLLINS: Coming up, what you probably don't know about the man behind a best-selling book of natural cures. He isn't a doctor. And the government has banned him from selling health products. So, why are his infomercials all over late-night TV?
And, later, we will take a pit stop. How do these guys do it so fast?
Right now, it's time for us to check the hour's top stories, though.
And here is Christi Paul at Headline News. CHRISTI PAUL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Heidi.
More trouble today for two top Republicans on Capitol Hill. The home telephone records of Tom DeLay have been subpoenaed by the Texas DA Ronnie Earle, who has already launched two campaign fraud indictments against DeLay. A spokesman for the former House majority leader calls the subpoena a -- quote -- "stunt."
And Senate Leader Bill Frist has been subpoenaed by federal security regulators looking into his sale of millions of dollars in stock in a family-run health care company. A Frist spokesman called that subpoena expected.
On the CNN "Security Watch," the Department of Homeland Security confirms it is investigating whether insiders tipped off relatives and friends about last week's alleged terror threat in New York before it became public. The threat turned out to be a hoax, but the tip could be a leak of classified information.
And a Pentagon report on a Iraq says the U.S. withdrawal of troops now depends on more than the number of Iraqi battalions ready to defend the country. It also says the infiltration of Iraqi police by insurgents remains a significant top problem.
Those are the headlines -- Heidi, back to you.
COLLINS: Christi, thanks.
Can a man whose book of natural cures has sold nearly three million copies be wrong? The vast majority of doctors say, yes. What does he say?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN TRUDEAU, AUTHOR, "NATURAL CURES": Of course medical doctors are going to say they don't believe in what I'm doing, because the whole book is about exposing the medical business for what it is: fraud.
And there's also two other compounds.
COLLINS: Coming up, Kevin Trudeau defends his controversial record and his even more controversial book.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: What's it take for a convicted felon, a man with no medical training, to write a health care self-help book that sold millions of copies? Try a solid half-hour of TV time -- in other words, an infomercial.
That's how Kevin Trudeau has done it, despite scathing criticism from medical professionals, who say some of the advice in his book is actually dangerous. Paula Zahn sat down with Trudeau recently for an interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): If you have ever been up late at night channel-surfing, chances are, you know Kevin Trudeau.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, INFOMERCIAL)
TRUDEAU: This is the book we're talking about, "Natural Cures," they don't want you to know about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: The infomercial for his "Natural Cures" book is one of the most frequently run in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, INFOMERCIAL)
TRUDEAU: If you have acid reflux, blood clots, varicose veins, asthma, arthritis, migraine headaches, pain of any kind, insomnia, any type of disease you need to pay attention, because there are natural cures for virtually every disease out there.
ZAHN: So far, "Natural Cures' has sold at least three million copies, outsold only by the latest "Harry Potter" book. Natural Cures has been the best-selling advice book for weeks, remarkable for someone who isn't an author, a doctor, or even a scientist.
I sat down with Kevin and asked why, despite his book's success, the vast majority of medical professionals seem to view him as a quack.
TRUDEAU: Of course medical doctors are going to say they don't believe in what I'm doing, because the whole book is about exposing the medical business for what it is: fraud.
ZAHN: Fraud is something Kevin Trudeau knows about firsthand. In 1991, he served a two-year prison term for credit card fraud. He's also had several run-ins with the Federal Trade Commission for years over false claims.
In 2003, he was fined $2 million over claims made for his Coral Calcium Supreme. Trudeau was banned from selling products in infomercials and banned from selling health products in any format at all. But his constitutional right to free speech allows him to use infomercials to sell his book and newsletter.
ZAHN (on camera): You're the only person ever to have been banned from selling a product by the FTC. You have absolutely no medical training. You're a convicted felon. Why should anyone listen to what you have to say about health matters?
TRUDEAU: Why should anyone listen to a medical doctor about health?
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Well, one would assume they have training that would reinforce what...
TRUDEAU: You would assume that.
ZAHN: ... they're advising their patients to do.
TRUDEAU: You would assume that. These are the same experts who told us to use Vioxx that killed 150,000 people. These are the same people that kill 900,000 people a year.
ZAHN (voice-over): Claims that can't be substantiated.
(on camera): Kevin, what I would like to do now is run through some of the illnesses you talk about in your book and what you think are cures for them.
Arthritis, you say caused by heavy metal toxicity. Among some of the ways you think to cure it are parasite cleanser, crocodile protein peptide, removal of all dental metal in your mouth.
So, what do you say to the doctors who say, don't even think about this stuff?
TRUDEAU: Right.
ZAHN: Crocodile protein peptide is...
TRUDEAU: Yes. I know...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... a joke. And don't even think about taking the fillings out of your mouth, because that's going to make no difference at all.
TRUDEAU: I know.
I know. Doctors say that all the time. And, you know, what happens is, the doctors say that. The guy does it and he goes, all my symptoms went away. And the doctor says, well, it had -- one had nothing to do with the other.
ZAHN (voice-over): In chapter six, called "How to Never Get Sick Again," Trudeau lists over 150 steps to take. Some are good common sense: Drink eight glasses of water. Go for a walk every day. Stop smoking.
Others, like staying away from microwaves, wearing white, or sleeping on a magnetic mattress pad, are more controversial. And then there are those that physicians say could actually be dangerous.
(on camera): David Johnson, vice president of the American College of Gastroenterology, he notes that...
TRUDEAU: Drug pusher.
ZAHN: ... he notes that there is no evidence to support many of the book's claims. He says some of Trudeau's suggestions could actually be harmful.
TRUDEAU: Such as?
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Digestive enzymes. He says -- quote -- "These enzymes are very caustic and could burn the esophagus..."
TRUDEAU: OK.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... and that they are typically only prescribed for people with pancreatic problems, to begin with.
TRUDEAU: OK.
Well, that's a doctor giving his opinion. Now, is it a fact or his opinion?
ZAHN: This is his opinion.
TRUDEAU: Does he say it's his opinion? He's presenting his...
ZAHN: And what you write in your book is your opinion.
TRUDEAU: Correct. And that's the point.
Should people have the option of reviewing opinions? First off, there's over 900 studies in the book that's listed. Under the chapter that says, "Still Not Convinced," I list over three dozen books. And each of those books lists virtually hundreds of studies that back up everything that is said in there.
ZAHN: And one of the things you recommend is getting 15 colonics in 30 days. According to this same Dr. Johnson: "There is no medical reason to have even one of these procedures..."
TRUDEAU: Sure.
ZAHN: "... which typically involve purging the bowels with enemas, let alone 15 in one month."
TRUDEAU: Horror. I know.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: He says -- quote -- "All that purging could lead to dehydration..."
TRUDEAU: Yes.
ZAHN: "... or electrolyte imbalances, which can disturb heart rhythms."
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: True or false?
TRUDEAU: It's false. That's his opinion.
ZAHN (voice-over): Ironically, Trudeau says its his lack of medical training that allows him to reveal these natural cures, cures some readers say aren't actually in the book.
(on camera): But, Kevin, even you have to concede you haven't won a legion of fans.
Let me read to you something a reader, Christina Miller (ph), had to say about your book.
TRUDEAU: Sure.
ZAHN: She contacted the FTC to say -- quote -- "I recently purchased the book and feel like the whole thing is a huge scam. The book has vague information urging the reader to join the Web site for a fee for specific information. However, when you join the Web site, after you give your credit card info and your order is processed, then you get the disclaimer stating brand names cannot be mentioned, as promised. Also, the things that are promised upon joining are not available."
TRUDEAU: One person.
ZAHN: Well, I got a whole bunch of them.
TRUDEAU: Now, hold on.
ZAHN: Respond specifically to what...
TRUDEAU: No.
ZAHN: ... Christina Miller (ph) is saying.
TRUDEAU: Let's -- let's not mislead the public, Paula. Don't mislead the public. Three million people bought this book. The majority, overwhelming majority, of people that read my book are writing me letters by the tens of the thousands, thanking me.
ZAHN: What you're saying, I'm sure, is true. But there are enough of these letters, that we have been given copies of it. I just want you to respond to specific criticism that these people feel hoodwinked, that, once they pay a fee...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... to get on the Web site, they don't feel that the information that you promise in the book is there for the taking.
TRUDEAU: How do you respond to the criticism from somebody who goes to the movies, sees an Academy Award-winning picture, and says, unwatchable? How do you respond to that?
ZAHN: But it's not a question of people saying that they don't like what they read. They don't think the information you have promised...
TRUDEAU: No. You're misleading...
ZAHN: ... in the book is there.
TRUDEAU: You're misleading people. The majority of people, Paula, believe that the information I promise is in the book.
ZAHN (voice-over): On Internet book-seller Amazon.com, "Natural Cures" averages two-and-a-half stars out of five in reader reviews, with some readers satisfied, others, clearly not.
(on camera): Kevin, one of the things I'm struck by in our conversation is the number of times you have mentioned the word options to consider.
TRUDEAU: Yes.
ZAHN: And, yet, the title of your book is "Natural Cures."
TRUDEAU: Correct.
ZAHN: There's a disconnect between those two.
TRUDEAU: I don't think so.
I think the reason I called the book "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" is, the -- the book could be titled, "There Are Natural Cures Out There."
ZAHN: "There Are Options."
TRUDEAU: "There Are Options. There are Things to Consider That I Believe Are Natural Cures That I Believe That the Government, the FTC, the FDA and the Drug Companies Don't Want People to Know About for Profit Reasons."
And so, the whole book is about...
ZAHN: But you explicitly state natural cures.
TRUDEAU: Oh yes, there are natural cures in the book -- categorically.
ZAHN: But not that are options?
TRUDEAU: Well, in my opinion they're natural cures. In my opinion they are categorically natural cures. And by the results of the tens of thousands, you hundreds of thousands of people that are sending me the letters telling me how they were cured by doing what I say in the book -- it seems to be working. ZAHN: On the first page of his book, Trudeau says he's using all of the profits to educate people about natural health. On page 125, he revises that to "most of the profits."
Then there's that subscription-based Web site. And Infomercial Monitoring System estimates Trudeau spends as much as $1 million a week on paid programming airing on national cable and probably takes in many times that.
Kevin, you talked an awful lot about the greed that you think drives the drug industry. It has been reported that you run a $2 billion industry. Aren't you motivated by money?
TRUDEAU: I was motivated by money a lot, yes. Absolutely. And making money, as I say in the book, is not a four-letter word. But when you make money like Ford Motor Company did with the exploding Pinto and you kill people, I think it's bad.
ZAHN: What about...
TRUDEAU: So making money is not bad. But making money at the expense of people's lives, I think, is a terrible thing.
ZAHN: But what about some of the things you offer in your book that...
TRUDEAU: That's the real hope.
ZAHN: ... these medical doctors (inaudible) are exaggerated and offer false hope.
TRUDEAU: Yes, the drug companies create false hope. My book is the real hope.
COLLINS: Paula's interview with Kevin Trudeau. And we want to stress once again that Trudeau's book is based only on his opinions. He is not a physician, a scientist or a medical expert. He is a salesman with no medical training to speak of.
Next, how many people are cruising to disaster? On a dream vacation, this man got engaged, then he vanished without a trace. And he's not the only one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Here's a mystery: What happened to a father of three who vanished on a Caribbean cruise with his new fiancee? It happened last July and, while his family is still looking for answers, what may be more disturbing is how often this happens.
Here's Deborah Feyerick.
FEYERICK: He was on top of the world when his cruise ship pulled out of Miami last July. Chris Caldwell (ph), a disk jockey raising three kids, was off to the Caribbean with his girlfriend. He had called his sister Shannon to tell her he had just gotten engaged. SHANNON NOWLAN, BROTHER LOST AT SEA: What, really? Well, call me after the cruise so we can talk about this.
FEYERICK: But it would be the last time she would ever hear his voice. On the final night of his cruise, just 14 miles off the Florida coast, Chris Caldwell (ph) vanished.
Is it crazy for you that, here's somebody who was so full of life, and now he just disappeared, he just vanished -- and there are no answers.
NOWLAN: There's no answers. And, you know, it's really amazing...
FEYERICK: No answers. And the thing is, it happens more often than you might think. The trade group that represents major cruise lines says that 10 to 12 people have gone overboard in the last year and a half.
MICHAEL CRYE, INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CRUISE LINES: I think you need to keep this in perspective. Ten to 12 people out of maybe 15 million who cruised in that same time frame is something less than 1 person goes missing for every million people.
FEYERICK: But for Shannon and others going through the same thing, that's not the point.
NOWLAN: That's not very high statistically, but we're not talking about cattle here, we're talking about my brother, we're talking about somebody's sister, we're talking about somebody's mom and dad, niece, nephew, uncle, aunt.
FEYERICK: No one saw Chris Caldwell (ph) fall overboard, and investigators had few clues. Part of the reason: no surveillance cameras monitoring the railings. Cruise ships aren't required by law to have them.
CRYE: I can tell you that it would require an investment of literally millions of dollars to have those types of security cameras installed and monitored. And is it a significant enough problem to justify that kind of expense?
FEYERICK: The cruise industry is a $25 billion business. Lawyer James Walker says some of that money should be spent on cameras to alert the crew when someone falls overboard. And his concerns go further than just surveillance.
JAMES WALKER, ATTORNEY: They don't warn the public. They don't want the public to know that they are at risk in going on a cruise because, of course, they are in the business of selling dream vacations.
FEYERICK: Walker represents people who say they were hurt or victimized on ships. He says most people don't even realize cruise ships are not governed by U.S. laws. WALKER: They set themselves up in foreign countries in order to escape any type of regulation by the U.S. They are not subject to wage and labor laws. They try to isolate themselves from paying any type of income tax.
FEYERICK: The cruise spokesman, Michael Crye, says it's because ships flying the stars and stripes must be built in America and staffed entirely by Americans. Crye says the cruise industry is not responsible for keeping track of the number of passengers lost at sea. And while he sympathizes with families, the number of people disappearing is not significant enough to warrant changes in security.
CRYE: The record of the cruise industry is one of the best in the entire world. It is the safest form of transportation that there is in the United States.
FEYERICK: Yet when people do vanish in or near U.S. waters, search and rescue teams are called to help.
When you're doing 14 miles are the chances pretty good you're going to find somebody, or does it really depend?
LT. KIM GUEDRY, COAST GUARD: It's really dependent on the time that we receive the report until time we start searching -- given that information.
FEYERICK: 14 miles -- that's how far Chris Caldwell (ph) was from shore when he vanished. His fiancee didn't immediately realize he was missing, and then it took three hours for the crew to search the ship.
Only then, as is procedure, did the captain alert the Coast Guard. Lieutenant Kim Guedry, who handles search and rescue, says that kind of delay can be frustrating.
GUEDRY: It expands our search area, basically, is what it does.
FEYERICK: A search area that ultimately spread 3,000 miles and lasted a day.
NOWLAN: On Saturday evening, the Coast Guard called me and told me that they were calling off the search and that basically that no one could have survived as long as they had been looking in the water so that he was presumed dead at that point.
FEYERICK: So what happened to Chris Caldwell (ph)? A bartender who spoke to authorities said Caldwell (ph) was in the casino acting loud and drunk. That description has haunted Shannon and her family.
NOWLAN: If a bartender reported to someone that he was belligerent and very, you know, heavily drinking, then why didn't they escort him back to his room?
FEYERICK: That begs the question: Who is ultimately responsible when someone is lost at sea? CRYE: You can't treat adults as children. You have to give them the benefit of the doubt. You cannot tell them what to do and guard against any eventuality. So -- otherwise you would be taking away from the experience of the cruise itself.
FEYERICK: When her brother disappeared, Shannon was eight months pregnant.
(on camera): He knew you were having this baby, and he never got a chance to meet that baby.
NOWLAN: That is really hard, because she's the most amazing thing that ever happened to me and I'd really like to share that with him.
FEYERICK: A small number lost at sea, but a number to those who love them no less significant.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: That was Deborah Feyerick.
Just this month a Connecticut Congressman called for hearings into the cruise industry in response to the disappearance of another American from a cruise ship back in July.
We're going to switch gears in just a second and take you to the racetrack. Could you keep up with a NASCAR pit crew?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: This week we're giving you an inside look at the physical demands of one of the most popular sports in the nation, NASCAR. Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has shown us how drivers push themselves to be in top physical shape and tonight, how the pit crews are becoming fitter to get faster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been called ballet without tutus, every step choreographed, two tire changers, two tire carriers, a jack man, a gas man and a catch can man, all moving in unison. Each position requiring a different blend of strength, agility, flexibility, reflexes and coordination.
A good pitstop means four new tires and 22 gallons of gas in 14 seconds. Let your local full service station try that. Phil Horton coaches the pit crews for Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates (ph). He recruits former college and high school athletes with the skill he needs in the pits.
PHIL HORTON, GANASSI PIT CREW COACH: An example of that would be the tire changers. They have to be accurate in what they do, you know, five off, five on with the lugnuts. And they have to be precise. So then we would use a quarterback, wide receiver, somebody who is going to be accurate in what they do and precise. And then that translates into being a good changer.
GUPTA: Wander into one of Coach Horton's practices and you may think it's a football team, working on agility and fitness. A pitstop may look smooth, but the moves are not easy, as I learned for myself.
HORTON: If you take off on the correct foot -- if you come off on the correct foot, you can cut this corner here, and cut this corner here without shuffling your feet. And it can concentrate on working on the lugnut, on hitting the lugnuts. So that is kind of basic Ergonomics 101. That's proper footwork. That's the way it's done. You ready?
GUPTA (on camera): Three point two seconds.
HORTON: That was good.
GUPTA (voice-over): Coach Horton said he could even have me ready for pit row -- in a year-and-a-half.
HORTON: There you go. All right, you got to start over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Thank God the surgery that he does he can go nice and slow.
For more about NASCAR behind the scenes join Sanjay Sunday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern for "NASCAR: Driven To Extremes" right here on CNN.
Coming up, some awards from the annals from improbable research, really.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are prizes for things that first make people laugh and then make them think.
COLLINS: Coming up Jeanne Moos with an award winning supporting cast: penguins, locusts, and would you believe, a rolling alarm clock.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS; Pakistan's president said last weekend's devastating earthquake left nearly 2.5 million people homeless. Saturday's quake killed at least 23,000 people in Pakistan alone. The images of sorrow and death of deeply troubling. CNN's senior international correspondent Satinder Bindra reports now from Balakot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 74-year-old Shardan Shah (ph) isn't sure what happened to his 20-year-old son Amjad (ph). He's just about to find out. An army team pulls out a body and Shardan Shah's (ph) worst fears are confirmed.
I've lost everything, my home and my team family, he says. I have nothing to live for now I'm left all alone. There's misery and grief like this in every corner of Balakot. No one knows for sure how many people have been killed here, but authorities say the casualties may be in the thousands. Most of the injured we have seen are young children.
(on camera): There's an overpowering stench of death in this town. Hundreds of bodies still remain trapped underneath all this rubble. And residents know if they are not removed soon, they could face another disaster: disease.
(voice-over): The odd scuffle still breaks out over a much needed item here: a shovel. Six days after the earthquake, there's now plenty of food and bottled water. There's also so many clothes, tons of them now litter Balakot streets. Streets where residents complain some people are continuing to loot and plunder.
The administration, he says, should order anyone looting our homes and shops be shot dead.
Authorities say they are being extra vigilant and are monitoring all incoming and outgoing traffic. All this means little to Shardan Shah (ph), who is unconsolable after the death of his younger son. His elder son remains missing.
I have no support, no job, no land, he says. All I can look forward to now is digging graves.
It's a fate shared by thousands in this town who are still too traumatized to even think of rebuilding their lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Senior international correspondent Satinder Bindra, tonight.
Time now for tonight's headlines news business break. Here is Christi Paul.
(MARKET REPORT)
COLLINS: LARRY KING LIVE starts in a few minutes. Larry, who do you have tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST: Heidi, you don't have a lot of time. Amazing story of plastic surgery. A young beautiful lady who is only 28 has had 30 procedures. We'll have a psychologist and plastic surgeon -- not hers -- look at this case and discuss it halfway through. It's all ahead at the top of the hour, Heidi.
COLLINS: Wow. Great, Larry. We'll be watching. Thank as lot. See you at 9:00.
Some of the greatest accomplishments in science are honored with the Nobel Prize. And then there are accomplishments like showing "Star Wars" to a bunch of locusts. What kind of prizewinner is that? Jeanne Moos will show us next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: They finished announces this year's Nobel Prizes today. Sorry, Jeanne Moos didn't get one. But she has found some surprises in prizes that is that are a little less noble and a lot more fun.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Penguins and frogs and locusts and fake testicles and rolling alarm clocks may never win Nobel Prizes, but they did earn IG Nobel Prizes. For instance, the IG Nobel Peace Prize went to researchers studying brain cell activity in locusts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While the locust was watching selected highlights from the movie "Star Wars."
MOOS: Researchers in England really did show "Star Wars" to locusts. Because locusts swarm without colliding, researchers figure studying their reactions to oncoming spacecraft could someday help in designing collision avoidance sensors for humans.
MARC ABRAHAMS, ANIMALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCH: These are prizes for things that first make people laugh and then make them think.
MOOS: Marc Abrahams is Editor of the "Annals of Improbable Research." And he runs the IG Nobel Prize ceremony, which is a very big deal at Harvard. Real Nobel laureates come and present the prizes while the audience launches paper airplanes.
The IG Nobel Prize for economics went to the creator of clocky (ph), a shag covered alarm clock that runs away from you so you can't shut off the alarm and go back to sleep.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes he will go under the bed and sort of get lost under there.
MOOS: Ignoble was defined as being of low character. And the IG Nobel Prize for fluid dynamics was certainly low brow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pressures produced when penguins poo calculations on avian defecation.
MOOS: Go ahead and laugh, but defecating penguins display powerful propulsion.
As for the IG Nobel Prize for medicine, the winner is fake dog testicles.
GREGG MILLER, CREATOR, NEUTICLES: It took nearly two years to get the balls rolling.
MOOS: Inventor Gregg Miller accepted via videotape. His invention, Neuticles, have been implanted in some 150,000 animals. We once accompanied unsuspecting pets on their way to get neutered. After the real things are snipped off, Neuticles allow pets to maintain their manliness.
(on camera): I actually have the honor of owning a Neuticles key chain. Neuticles, by the way, come in various sizes, from Chiuaua size to Rottweiler.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we can't go any bigger than what we're doing today.
MOOS (voice-over): For the days when dogs fetched balls rather than have them implanted.
A Japanese doctor won the IG Nobel Prize for nutrition. He photographed and analyzed every meal he's eaten for...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-four years and counting.
MOOS: Real Nobel Prize winners, like Jimmy Carter, may get all the glory; but even a Nobel laureate can't afford to oversleep.
By the way, the MIT grad who invented clocky is planning on mass producing it. If the alarm doesn't wake you up, maybe the thump will.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Now that is what I need. It can go under the bed and do the dusting and also wake you up in the morning. Love that. Alarms clocks everybody.
All right. Well, that's all for tonight. We thank you for watching us. And Paula is going to be back tomorrow. She will continue her special series, "My New Life," trying to help victims of Hurricane Katrina get a fresh start by finding new jobs. So go ahead and call in to the "PAULA ZAHN NOW" show if you are interested in that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
