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American Morning

Lone Star State Ablaze; Worldwide Child Pornography Ring Busted

Aired March 16, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

The Lone Star State ablaze. Folks in the Texas Panhandle fleeing in advance of the flames.

The opposite problem in Hawaii. The rain keeps coming there. Dams full to bursting, threatening even more people. There's still people missing from that first dam break.

S. O'BRIEN: A worldwide child pornography ring is busted. The U.S. attorney general says they found truly the worst imaginable porn of child porn.

And these are pictures from Paris, under siege again from protesters. Today students pour into the streets. They're angry over jobs.

M. O'BRIEN: A million-dollar Ferrari in the midst of a crash in the Pacific Coast highway. It's quite a mystery we have to tell you about.

Stay with us as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

Oh, it has been a terrible four days in the Texas Panhandle where wind-driven fires have been swallowing up huge swathes of plains. The fires have been bearing down six towns and moving fast. One raced along at 40 miles an hour. Officials have been urging people in some of these towns to get out. So far, more than 200 fires have burned 863,000 acres, and this morning, officials are worried that the flames could cross over into Oklahoma.

Also today, Texas Governor Rick Perry will be out assessing some of the damage.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Flick. He's got more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY FLICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Authorities in Texas are calling in the cavalry, asking firefighters in neighboring states to help them battle destructive wildfires that already have blackened hundreds of thousands of acre. Residents are fleeing for their safety. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Panicked. I knew I had the kids and they were safe. My husband is a volunteer firefighter, and he was out fighting the fire. And I was like I hope he's OK.

FLICK: A reporter with the Dallas TV station offered this perspective.

SCOTT SAYERS, REPORTER: Let's give you an idea of what those wildfires have done over the past couple of days. This building is basically melted. The fire melted down to it. It gutted everything inside.

FLICK: Besides the human toll and destruction of property, there's the livestock. It's believed thousands of cattle have died in the fires.

Andy Flick, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Those gusting winds are sweeping embers into Oklahoma. Firefighters there on alert today after battling at least 14 fires that burned more than 4,000 acres there. And at one point, residents near Moore and parts of southeast Oklahoma City evacuated because of the fire threat. They're back now. Parts of Interstate 240 were also closed for a little bit. No reports of any injuries or any damaged or destroyed homes to tell you about.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: From the dangers of fire in the Texas Panhandle to really the opposite problem, fears today that weeks of drenching rains could lead to more dams failing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Searchers are looking for seven people who have been missing in a dam collapse on Tuesday. Now two bodies have been recovered. Among the missing, a couple who were set to be married Saturday.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you've heard about child porn busts before, but probably never one as sickening as this one. Investigators say they've broken up a global Internet operation that was as tech savvy as it was brutal. Its youngest victim, an infant.

CNN's Kelli Arena with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The acting Toronto police chief has seen a lot of pornography cases, but Tony Warr says, this is one of the worst he has ever seen.

TONY WARR, ACTING TORONTO POLICE CHIEF: This is very disturbing. But they all are disturbing. It is children. You know, these are our children. And -- and anything that does -- anybody does to abuse or exploit them is disgusting.

ARENA: The global sting started with an arrest last year in the city of Edmonton in western Canada. Since then, 27 people have been charged in Canada, Australia, Britain, and 13 in the United States. The defendants allegedly used a chat room called "Kiddypics" and "Kiddyvids" to trade pornography.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The behavior in these chat rooms and the images many of these defendants sent around the world through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs and private instant- messaging services are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography.

ARENA: One defendant from the Chicago suburb of Bartlett who went by the screen name Acidburn is accused in an indictment of molesting an infant live on the Internet.

Brian Annoreno's lawyer says he will plead not guilty.

MICHAEL FALCONER, ATTORNEY FOR BRIAN A. ANNORENO: He tells me that he has never and never would molest any infant.

ARENA: According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, who led the effort, the case illustrates some key new trends.

JULIE MYERS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY FOR U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: At one time, about 85 percent of child pornography featured -- quote, unquote -- "known victims," shown in recycled images over and over again. That is starting to change. We're seeing more new material and more new victims.

ARENA: Investigators say those victims are younger. In this case, the youngest was less than 18 months old. And the molestation is becoming much more violent, including gang rape and torture with deadly weapons.

JAMES PLITT, DIRECTOR, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT CYBER CRIMES CENTER: You want to find the -- the perpetrator. When you want to free that child, that child can't talk. That child can't tell you what happened. That child can't testify. That -- that child, in some cases, cannot even stand.

ARENA: Officials say child porn cases are becoming more difficult to crack, as perpetrators become more technologically savvy.

(on camera): In this case, the chat room was protected by several security devices, including an encryption key, which was limited to members of the ring. It took nearly a year, but investigators were able to open up that chat room and track down the alleged pornographers.

(voice-over): According to law enforcement officials, seven of the children who had been molested were identified and are now in safe hands.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) M. O'BRIEN: Coming up in our 8:00 Eastern hour, we'll be joined by Julie Myers. You just saw her in Kelli's story. She's in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security. She'll talk to us more about this investigation, and most important how you can keep your children safe -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What a horrific story.

President Bush, well, he's pointing the finger at Iran today. A new national security report names Iran as the biggest security challenge for the United States.

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us live this morning.

Hey, Suzanne, good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Soledad.

This is the report here, it's 49 pages. It's required by law for the president to submit this, essentially update this every year, and the last time he submitted one was four years ago, so it is long overdue. We just got in about a half hour ago.

But there are two things that basically stand out in this report. One, of course, is singling out of Iran. This report simply saying that we may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran. It accuses Iran for 20 years of hiding its efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

The other thing that really stands out here of course is the reaffirmation of the preemptive, or first-strike policy, of the United States. This was used essentially in the war of Iraq. This was an argument that was made that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it posed a danger to the United States, despite the fact that later we found out there were no weapons of mass destruction. But the policy remains. It states, if necessary, however, "under longstanding principles of self-defense, we do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack" -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne, let me ask you a question about some of the areas named in the security report.

MALVEAUX: Well, that's right. There are actually seven countries that are singled out as particularly dangerous regimes, despotic regimes. Those countries are North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe.

And finally, Soledad, I should say that the one thing this report does actually emphasize is the use of diplomacy. They say diplomacy of course is the first option, but again that preemptive strike policy remains.

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House for us this morning. Suzanne, as always, thanks a lot.

You want to stay with CNN, of course, day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Iraq's new parliament can agree on at least one thing, taking the oath of office, but it appears that's all they're agreeing on so far. Sectarian violence overshadowing efforts to forge a government there. Members of the parliament elected -- they were elected back in December -- listened to a speech, took the oath and promptly left the meeting hall, all in about 30 minutes.

The fear of violence led security forces to ban vehicles on Baghdad's streets today. Violence goes on nevertheless. Twenty-five bodies found in the capital today. That brings the total found since Sunday to 160. Today's bodies were scattered all throughout the city. Iraqi police say all of them had been shot, and their identification removed.

We'll ask the U.S. ambassador to Iraq about the violence and parliament's problems. He'll be joining us live from Baghdad at the half hour, 20 minutes from now -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the body of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is going on display in a Belgrade museum shortly. There's going to be no state funeral.

Let's get right to CNN's Alessio Vinci. He's outside that museum. He joins us live.

Hey, Alessio. Good morning.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

We're waiting for the body of Mr. Milosevic to arrive shortly. We understand it is still being held at a morgue, about 10 minutes' drive away from here. So we expect it to arrive in perhaps the next 20 minutes or hour or so.

As you can see here behind me, a crowd of perhaps a thousand people or so, largely Milosevic's loyalists and supporters, members of the Socialist Party that Mr. Milosevic led from his prison cell at The Hague. This is people who are waiting for the body.

And this museum is also known as the museum of 25th of May, after the birthday of Joseph Tito, the Yugoslav leader who led this country after the Second World War, and next to it is a villa where Mr. Milosevic lived for the last few months before being arrested back in 2001 and extradited at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal, the scene of an intense standoff between Milosevic supporters and the Serb authorities who tried to arrest him.

Now we are expecting the body to arrive here any time soon. Of course this is very important to note, this is not a state funeral. This is not a laying in state. Mr. Milosevic is -- the public viewing is being organized by his supporters, those Serb officials here, were the very same ones who actually ousted him from power back in 2000, did not want to organize anything that resembled a state honor.

Back to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Alessio Vinci for us this morning. Alessio, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In France today, a youth job plan has put students there on the streets. Take a look at some pictures now from a little while ago. As you can see, angry students and several unions as well who are backing them took to the streets. This new law would allow companies to hire young workers for a two-year sort of probationary period, and during that time those companies could fire those younger workers at any time.

Now take a look at live pictures from APTN now. Things have died down a little bit, as you can see, a little more sedate. Actually I believe that is probably Serbia. That is the Milosevic funeral.

In any case, France's prime minister called a crisis meeting today to discuss the wave of student protests, and we'll keep you posted on that.

Still to come on the program, financial service firm, H&R Block accused of defrauding customers. Andy "Minding Your Business" with that.

S. O'BRIEN: Then a story that everybody is talking about, the drug Ambien, you know, the one we've been telling you about, how people are sleep-eating, sleepwalking and then eating, and then scarfing down all of this food while they think they're asleep.

M. O'BRIEN: That picture just amazes me right here. How do you do that?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, look or that.

You know, is it just Ambien, or are there other sleep drugs that make people do this? We're going to talk to a sleep disorder specialist ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And you're going to want to see this bun. A Nevada teacher getting high marks for diffusing a potentially deadly situation at her middle school, a really dramatic tale.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: You know what they says, another one bites the dust.

SERWER: Just send Freddy Mercury over here.

M. O'BRIEN: That was really good. Keep going.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm talking about "American Idol," which I didn't see, but here it is.

SERWER: Heads bowed.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, 21-year-old Melissa McGhee, bye-bye.

M. O'BRIEN: And you'll be miss congeniality.

S. O'BRIEN: Voted off the show on Wednesday night. She's the first of the final 12 to get the boot. I chatted with Simon Cowell, the show's creator, and sort of the chief justice, about reports that this year, believe it or not, he's even meaner, he's even more brutal to contestants.

SERWER: If you can imagine.

S. O'BRIEN: Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON COWELL, "AMERICAN IDOL": What's the point of even messing around with most of these people? They're not going to make a career, or any type of decent career, out of singing, so I'm going to point them in the right direction. I thought I was being kinder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: You see, you misunderstand, he's actually kinder this year, because he's a little more brutal and a little more blunt.

M. O'BRIEN: Baby, as he says.

S. O'BRIEN: He called me babe a lot. I kind of like that. I want you guys to call me babe from now on.

Thanks, Babe. Love you, babe. Thank you, babe.

M. O'BRIEN: No, but his point was all of the contestants who are run through there, one and a half careers.

S. O'BRIEN: He says Half a million people run through in auditions et cetera. He said we have 1.5 careers made. The numbers show me and prove to me this is absurd. So I'm going to be even more blunt and get people out and let them know early on.

M. O'BRIEN: Babe.

S. O'BRIEN: Babe.

Simon can call me babe whenever he wants. He has like a lottery with the same odds, bad, bad, bad.

He also has a new show premiering tonight on ABC. It's an "American Idol" for inventors, "American Inventor." You want to watch my entire interview with Simon. He's a funny guy.

M. O'BRIEN: Can you imagine Thomas Edison appearing before Simon Cowell with his light bulb?

S. O'BRIEN: They have audition. You have audition with your lightbulb. I have this idea -- anyway -- we talk to him a little later on.

M. O'BRIEN: Such a silly idea.

S. O'BRIEN: Look at you, it's terrible.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, almost three years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Right now, the country on the verge of civil war, the government struggling to get itself together. What kind of hope is there at this point? We'll ask the U.S. ambassador to Iraq who will be our guest in just a little bit.

But first, we're talking to a sleep specialist about those unusual side effects of the sleep drug Ambien.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We want to get to a story this morning that everybody's been talking about, this popular sleeping pill Ambien. Instead of sleepwalking, some people say the drug is making them sleep-eat. Getting up in the middle of the night, fast asleep scarfing down food. They don't even realize it. Are other sleep aids do the same thing?

Let's get right to Dr. Mark Mahowald. He's director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center.

Nice to see you, doctor. Thanks for talking with us.

DR. MARK MAHOWALD, MINN. REG. SLEEP DISORDERS CTR.: My pleasure.

S. O'BRIEN: The sleep-eating phenomena, which really I think In the last couple of days we've learned more about because of the story about Ambien. Is it particular to Ambien, or are their other sleep aids that could cause the same problems?

MAHOWALD: Well, for perspective, what sleep eating represents is an admixed state of awake and asleep. The brain is half awake and half asleep. And we saw this long before sleeping medications were prescribed. What we're seeing is that sleeping medications and/or alcohol tend to increase the likelihood of this happening.

Now, it appears to be more common with Ambien, but we have to keep in mind that Ambien is, by far, one of the most widely-prescribed sleeping medications. So it could just reflect the fact -- reflect the prescribing practices.

S. O'BRIEN: So you're saying these are people who would sleep- eat anyway, and it's not necessarily being caused by the drug?

MAHOWALD: Oh, I think that there's no question about the fact that anything that can cause sleepiness, and that would be alcohol and a number of different sleeping medications, can make these behaviors much more apt to occur in people who are predisposed to have them. Clearly, we're seeing more of it now than we did before sleeping medications were widely prescribed.

S. O'BRIEN: Sanofi Aventis, which makes Ambien, released a statement. I want to just read it to you. It says, "It's difficult to determine with certainty whether a particular instance of sleepwalk-walking is drug induced, spontaneous in origin, or the result of an underlying disorder."

What other kinds of things do you she? Patients who are not just sleepwalking, which is what that statement talks about, or sleep- eating. Is there a typical patient?

MAHOWALD: No, there's not actually. This is not seen more frequently in people who have daytime awaking eating disorders. It's not a nighttime extension of a daytime personality trait. We see this in young people, old people, men, it's somewhat more common in women, but it doesn't seem to reflect any identifiable underlying psychiatric or psychological problem.

S. O'BRIEN: That's interesting.

You know, you hear some of the stories. There was one woman who as quoted as saying she gained 10 pounds sort of inexplicably, and finally realized she was sleep eating. Are there other serious risks for these kinds of patients?

MAHOWALD: I think the major risks are complex very sleepwalking. They could end up -- I had somebody walk outside their home or actually drive in their sleep without conscious awareness, and we and others have certainly heard instance of that sort of behavior.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow. That percentage of people experience this sleep-eating phenomenon. Is it a tiny, tiny percentage, but just because it's such an interesting phenomena, it's sort of gotten a lot of attention?

MAHOWALD: Well, we used to think it was extremely uncommon, but judging from the large number of e-mails we've gotten just in the last two days about this, it likely is more common than we used to think it is.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. Interesting. All right, Dr. Mark Mahowald. joining us. He's with the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center.

Nice to talk to you.

MAHOWALD: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a car crash that turned into a bizarre international mystery. Take a look at this, a million- dollar Ferrari, sliced literally in half. Amazingly nobody was injured, but where exactly is the driver? Then we're going to meet a teacher this morning who risked her own life to stop a school shooter.

Those stories are ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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