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CNN Live Today

Pirate Tale

Aired November 08, 2005 - 11:34   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Terror on the high seas now. We're learning more about how a cruise ship escaped attacking pirates this past weekend off Somalia's coast. Seabourn Cruise Lines officials say the ship's crew used a non-lethal sonic weapon. It's known at LRAD. LRAD is short for long-range acoustical device. It can produce an ear-splitting shrill tone that sounds something like a smoke detector, but a lot louder. Despite that technology, as CNN's Carol Costello discussed earlier today, the pirate incident raises a number of questions for potential tourists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So if I'm going on a cruise ship, let's say, normally Americans go to the care bean or something like that, that it's Al Qaeda, I guess that makes me feel a little more nervous?

KIM PETERSEN, PRESIDENT, SEASECURE: Well, it's important to keep in mind that the cruise-line industry has spent more, taken more efforts and work in partnership with more governments with respect to security than any other element of the maritime industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: LRAD is now used by U.S. military in Iraq. It was originally designed after the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS cole in Yemen as a way to keep small boats away from U.S. warships.

Well, that Seabourn cruise ship has safely docked since the pirate attack, and those onboard certainly have a tale to tell, and they did that to ITV's Paul Davies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL DAVIES, ITV REPORTER (voice-over): Safely back in port with an incredible story to tell and the scars to show for it. This was a cruise holiday that won't be forgoten in a hurry.

The luxury liner Seabourn Spirit is now docked in Maje Island in the Seychelles, but there were several reminders of her brush with pirates: the damage inflicted by automatic gunfire, and rocket- propelled grenades. And there's another dramatic souvenir, a photograph of the attackers in their high-speed boat taken by a holiday maker.

Passengers, including several Britains, record the warning sounded by the captain as the liner came under fire off the coast of Somalia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard in our room, we were still aslpee, the captain, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, we are in trouble. We have something I don't like. And then...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay in your room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay in your room, because he didn't want to sound the alarm, because then you are told to go to the boats, to the lifeboats, you see?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't want us up there.

UNIDENTIFIFIED MALE: And he didn't want us on the deck. So the captain was very clever.

DAVIES: This man from Jersey saw the pirates open fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One chap at the front of the boat, and he had a red shirt on, pulled up this thing and held it over his shoulder like this, and I thought, what the hell's this? And then -- and there was a flash of red, and then I heard something go crash up above, and I thought it was a bloody airplane, and I said actually it was worse!

DAVIES: The luxury liner was able to outrun the pirates' boats, but the passengers say the close call hasn't put them off cruising.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're English, old boy!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't get frightened by little things like this!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we don't.

DAVIES: None of the passengers were injured, but a crew member is being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds.

Paul Davies, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Police in australia say they have arrested 17 terror suspects and disrupted plans for a major attack on that country. The suspects were arrested during raids in Sydney and Melbourne. Authorities say they seized weapons, travel documents, computers and backpacks. Police say chemicals that could be used to make bombs were also seized. Hundreds of police, backed up by helicopters, carried out those raids. One police official says he believes the suspects were in the final stages of planning a large-scale terrorist attack in Australia.

Live this hour on Capitol Hill, the House Energy and Commerce Committee holding a hearing on the threat of bird flu. Specifically, lawmakers want to assess how prepared the U.S. is to combat a pandemic outbreak. Among those to testify, is Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is warning governments to prepare for when, not if, a deadly pandemic strikes. The warnings come as the country's worst hit by bird flu, Vietnam, has confirmed its first human death in three months. The South Asian country has recorded 42 deaths and accounts for two-thirds of those across the region. Vietnam's latest victim was a 35-year-old man from Hanoi.

The maker of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu says it is halting reveal sales in China. Tamiflu is one of the few drugs believed to be effective against bird flu. The company says it's turning over supplies of Tamiflu to the Chinese health ministry. Officials say the government would be better able to handle rapid distribution of the drug in the event of a flu pandemic.

For more on bird flu and all your health news, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical stories, special reports and a health library. The address is CNN.com/health.

The taser, a device used by police to send suspects into submission, it's popping up in a new place: your local school. We'l talk about it and we'll take a look about how that news is being received.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The taser device is used by police to stun suspects into submission. It is now popping up in a new place: your child's school. More and more police officers working at middle and high schools across country are now equipped with tasers, and some of them have used them on students. Is that a good idea?

Our correspondent Drew Griffin has the results in a three-month investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is surveillance video inside Pinellas Park High School near Tampa, Florida last February. An ordinary day that's about to get ugly for one student.

DOUG WALKER: One was here. One was here. And he said, you know, put your hands behind your back.

GRIFFIN: You can see two school police officers approaching 18- year-old Doug Walker. Police say he started swearing at them.

WALKER: Then all of a sudden they both grabbed me by the arm and slammed me to the ground.

GRIFFIN: He's then hand-cuffed.

WALKER: They grab the chain in my cuff. Yanked me up to my feet.

GRIFFIN: He's then taken to the principal's office where the videotape ends, but Walker says his nightmare doesn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Walker decided that he was going to flee.

WALKER: I didn't even get two steps when they ran up behind me and slammed me to my face again.

GRIFFIN: According to the police report, he used excessive profanities and continued to thrash and kick while being held down by three officers. He was still in handcuffs.

CAPT. SANDFIELD FORSETH, PINELLAS PARK POLICE: He was kicking, flailing around, being told to quit. He wouldn't quit. So the officers used the weapon like this.

GRIFFIN: The weapon was a taser, a stun gun that temporarily numbs your body with 50,000 volts of energy. Police used it on Doug Walker's back.

WALKER: My whole body just flexed. Like my neck flexed back.

GRIFFIN: Police say he continued kicking. And for that reason was tasered for a total of three times. The first time for five seconds, then two more, one-second blasts.

WALKER: It's probably the worst pain you could probably ever feel.

GRIFFIN: Walker was charged with resisting arrest. School officials won't talk with CNN saying it's a police matter.

FORSETH: He was a threat to the officer's safety and possibly the safety of other people nearby.

GRIFFIN: So why did police confront Walker in the first place? The police report says he threw a book and swore at a teacher saying "get the F away from me. And don't F'ing touch me."

John Trevena defended Walker against the charges.

JOHN TREVENA, LAWYER: Here he have police officers who are zapping a guy with 50,000 volts repeatedly because he's mouthing off to them?

STEVEN WALKER, DOUG WALKER'S DAD: It's hard to understand. Is it justified to use that much force on a kid?

GRIFFIN: A number of similar incidents have raised concerns about the use of tasers on teens and kids. Police used a taser on a 6-year-old boy in Miami. In Central Florida, a mentally challenged girl was tasered five times. And in Chicago, the tasering of a 14- year-old sparked debate about the safety of tasers on minors.

According to the makers of the device, Taser International, 1700 school police officers were carrying tasers as of last year. The company refused to be interviewed by CNN for this report, but did tell us in an e-mail their product is safe. They also say police in 49 states have used the device effectively for years. Only New Jersey has banned them.

So how does it work? The shock of the taser causes loss of muscle control for up to five seconds. It can either be used from a distance of up to 21 feet or at close range, pressed against the body in what's called a stun or touch mode.

SHERIFF DEAN KELLY, PUTNAM COUNTY, FLORIDA: You'd simply pull the trigger. And it cycles for five seconds. Now, if you were using the air cartridge, it would be plugged in in this fashion.

GRIFFIN: When the trigger is pulled, two probes connected to the gun by wires fire out. The sharp probes can penetrate through two inches of clothes and into skin. This Taser International training video shows how those probes pierce the skin. When removed, there's a chance of bleeding and scarring.

Police departments across the country have told CNN many lives have been saved because officers used a taser instead of a real gun. Still, some parents fear school police might use the taser just to keep students in line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The potential is there to have situations where it's misused, misapplied, and someone ends up getting tasered that should never have been tasered.

GRIFFIN: CNN examined a dozen police reports from cities across the country where students were tased by police. These were the reasons listed for officers using a taser: students ran away from police, mouthed off, argued with a teacher or got into a fight. King Downing is with the ACLU.

KING DOWNING, ACLU: Most of these cases, these are behavioral issues and not really crimes.

GRIFFIN (on camera): But police on campus say they are not replacing a deadly weapon. The taser for them replaces literally the strong arm of the law.

SGT. STEVE BAUM, NEWARK, OHIO POLICE: This is an option for officers to use instead of either macing them, hitting them or hitting them with a nightstick.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): That's what happened in this case at Newark High School in Ohio. A police officer used the taser to break up a student fight. It's the only time a taser has been used on a student there and school officials supported the decision.

SUPT. KEITH RICHARDS, NEWARK CITY SCHOOLS: I'm not going to put my judgment in place of our police officers. They've made the decision that a taser is an appropriate law enforcement tool.

GRIFFIN: Keith Richards is the city school superintendent.

RICHARDS: The most important salient point here is if you don't do something you shouldn't, you don't have to worry about any of them.

GRIFFIN: But some parents say it may not be that simple.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Teenagers do not react like adults. They aren't as mature. They don't know how to handle things sometimes.

GRIFFIN: In an e-mail to CNN Taser International told us that the taser device has been shown to be medically safe when used on children based on independent medical tests.

We asked to see those medical tests, and the company e-mailed us this study. In it, there is no mention of use on children or teens, but Taser International says pigs between 66 pounds and 257 pounds were tasered for the study without problems meaning it's safe to tase humans in that same weight range.

The company also says there is no harm in tasing someone more than once because you can reduce the length of a shock from five seconds down to one or two seconds, which is what the officers, who tasered Doug Walker said they did.

Here's what the company CEO Rick Smith told CNN about his product last year.

RICK SMITH, CEO TASER INTERNATIONAL: There's no cumulative effect of electricity. It doesn't stay in the body. Each pulse transverses through the body. It's out and it's gone.

GRIFFIN: Dr. David Nykanen is pediatric cardiologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida. He says nobody truly knows the danger.

DR. DAVID NYKANEN, ARNOLD PALMER HOSPITAL: I'm not aware of any studies that have been done in children.

GRIFFIN: And he says there's one more thing to consider.

NYKANEN: Emotionally, there's an effect that can't be underestimated.

GRIFFIN: Doug Walker knows that firsthand. He was suspended from school the day he was tasered, and never went back or finished high school.

If they would have came to me and said, hey, son, why don't we come into my office and talk? I would have walked with them and everything would have been fine. I doubt anything would have happened.

GRIFFIN: And who knows what would have happened had he behaved differently. Even so, the question remains, are tasers in schools right or even necessary?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that was CNN's Drew Griffin reporting. No one keeps national records on how many times tasers are used in schools, but we do know there are no reports of children being permanently injured or killed by taser used in a school.

More news ahead after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: This just in to CNN. Word out of Alabama, the governor there, Bob Riley, calling for a boycott, a travel boycott, for everyone in Alabama to boycott travel in Aruba. This is encouraging people, he says, encouraging the government of Aruba to take the Natalee Holloway disappearance case more seriously. You might know, you might remember Natalee Holloway was on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. And on may 30, 2005. She disappeared. She has not been seen since. Her body has never been found, her whereabouts, exactly what happened to her after that night unknown.

It was June of this year that three suspects, Joran Van Der Sloot and Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were arrested, but they were later let go for a lack of evidence.

So once again, Bob Riley, the governor of Alabama, calling for a travel boycott to Aruba, and calling on other governors from other states to do the same, for other Americans to not go to Aruba. More on that story just ahead.

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KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is up next. Stay tuned for YOUR WORLD TODAY. Jim Clancy, Zain Verjee will be along. They will be here after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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