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In Afghanistan Suicide Attacker Kills At Least 17; Military Recruiters and Inappropriate Behavior; Woodring Kills Wife At Domestic Abuse Shelter

Aired September 26, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, their session with reporters, live in the NEWSROOM.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A public political feud over Osama bin Laden. What the secretary of state says, what the former president says.

COLLINS: And Superdome, super party. The Saints marching to victory. New Orleans marching on the road to recovery. You are in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: At this hour, inside the Oval Office, President Bush sits down with a key ally in the war on terror. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in Washington for critical talks today and tomorrow. The primary topic, terrorism. Violence is surging in Afghanistan and it erupted again today. We'll hear from the two leaders next hour. You can see their news conference live here in the NEWSROOM. It is scheduled for 11:40 Eastern.

Now a closer look at today's deadly bombings in Afghanistan. Officials say one suicide attacker struck outside the compound of a provincial governor. At least 17 people were killed, including several Muslim pilgrims. They were seeking papers for travel to the holy city of Mecca. Also today, a bomb targeting a NATO patrol. A child and an Italian soldier were reported killed. Police say the bomb was planted under a bridge and set off by remote control.

COLLINS: Now taking the pulse of the public on the war in Afghanistan. Support has waned sharply over the last five years. A CNN poll conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation finds 50 percent of Americans asked favor the war in Afghanistan, 48 percent oppose it. The pollsters talked with just over 1,000 American adults to get these results. It is worth noting that when the war started in 2001, roughly nine in 10 Americans approved.

The latest from Afghanistan now. Journalist Tom Coghlan joins me now by phone from the capital Kabul.

Tom, tell us the very latest and all of this that has happened overnight there in the capital city.

TOM COGHLAN, JOURNALIST: Well, I'm here in Kabul. The attacks that we've seen today, one of them took place down in the southern province of Helman (ph). That's an area which has seen intense fighting in the past few months. Four and a half thousand British troops are down there. Now that suicide bomb today, in fact, I think the death toll is now 18 from that attack, another 17 injured.

The second attack you talked about there, that was a remote controlled bomb which hit a convoy, an Italian military convoy. That was very near to Kabul. Just south of the capital here. Kabul has really been an area of relative calm until recent weeks, recent months. We've had four suicide bombs now in Kabul in the past month. Two quite serious ones. One of which killed two American soldiers on the 8th of September. So rising tempered violence around the capital.

COLLINS: Well, as you well know, Tom, there's been quite a bit of talk about a possible resurgence of the Taliban. I know the Taliban has claimed responsibility for some of these attacks as of late. And the fact that it is moving closer to the capital, four suicide bombs that you mentioned. Does that speak to a resurgence in the spread of the Taliban there?

COGHLAN: Well, Kabul itself is very heavily defended and it has proved difficult in the past for the Taliban to strike at the capital. They do appear to be coming more sophisticated in the methods they use. The suicide bombs definitely becoming more deadly.

And we have seen levels of violence, particularly in the provinces just south of Kabul, you know, within an hour or so of Kabul. That the levels have violence, the level of security there, is definitely deteriorating. And there is concern amongst both diplomats and the military community here that there is this deterioration going on and that violence is actually creeping closer and closer to the capital

COLLINS: So as we become very familiar over the past few weeks, at least, of the conversations held here in the United States and in Washington today on the heels of the meeting between President Bush and President Karzai, we hear that they think there's this resurgence of the Taliban. What do the people on the ground there, the residents of Afghanistan, what do they say about it?

COGHLAN: Well, generally, within Kabul I can certainly talk at some length. I mean the people of Kabul generally don't favor the Taliban. There's a lot of pro-government supporting Kabul. There's a relatively -- it's in relative prosperity since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. They're not instinctive supporters of the Taliban.

Now they are generally very concerned. There are -- there's a great deal of pessimism about the situation at the moment. Military figures are talking about, you know, this being the last roll for the dice of the Taliban. That the Taliban's spirit, the Taliban's military might, they're throwing everything they've got at NATO and U.S. forces at the moment. They're going to lose their momentum soon.

Now, Afghans aren't sharing that -- they're not buying that message at the moment. There's really, actually, a great deal of negative sort of -- negative talk coming from ordinary Afghans.

COLLINS: Tom Coghlan, our man on the ground there in Kabul, Afghanistan. Tom, thank you. Osama bin Laden, the hunter and the hunted. We talked to a former FBI agent who scoured the world for the al Qaeda leader. He will join us coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Hold on, Mr. President. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenging President Bush's predecessor. As you may have seen in a weekend interview, Bill Clinton fired angry accusations against the Bush White House. He says the administration didn't actively pursue al Qaeda until after the 9/11 attacks. And that he even left the Bush team a comprehensive strategy on terrorism.

Rice adamantly rejected that in an interview with "The New York Post." Right counters, "but what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive at what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years. We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda."

One board member asked, "so you're saying Bill Clinton is a liar?"

Rice's response, "no, I'm just saying that, look, there was a lot of passion in that interview and I'm not going to -- I would just suggest that you go back and read the 9/11 Commission report on the efforts of the Bush administration in the eight months." There you have it.

Bill Clinton's finger in the face retort on Fox raises the obvious question today, what went on in the White House before Osama bin Laden became a household name? Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Back in August of 1998, the U.S. military insisted publicly the 62 cruise missiles that lobed into Afghanistan were aimed at terrorist infrastructure. The inside word at the time was infrastructure was simply a euphemism for Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants. But after the attacks of September 11th, former Clinton administration officials wanted full credit for targeting the terrorist leader.

SAMUEL BERGER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I assure you they were not delivering an arrest warrant. The intent was to kill bin Laden. That's number one his overall intent was manifest in August '98.

MCINTYRE: Bin Laden escaped by hours, apparently. And in an impassioned interview with "Fox News Sunday," President Clinton claims, while he failed, no one has had a better shot since.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized the finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody's gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. MCINTYRE: Clinton argues his efforts were undercut by partisan sniping, including some critics who charged the cruise missile strike was a wag the dog stunt to divert attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And Clinton's own FBI director, Louis Free, charges in his 2005 book that the U.S. lacked the political spine to put its full force behind covert attempts to get bin Laden. Former deputy CIA director for intelligence, John McLaughlin, says from his inside perspective it looked a lot different.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: President Clinton did aggressively pursue Osama bin Laden. I give the Clinton administration a lot of credit for the aggressiveness with which they went after al Qaeda and bin Laden.

MCINTYRE: President Clinton also argues he was hampered by inconclusive intelligence. Bin Laden's backing of Muslim militants in Somalia in 1993 wasn't immediately clear. And the U.S. initially suspected Iran in the 1996 bombing of Cobart Towers in Saudi Arabia. Even after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, he says, there was no consensus bin Laden was the mastermind.

CLINTON: We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that al Qaeda was responsible while I was president.

MCINTYRE: That assertion is backed up by the 9/11 Commission report.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: We expected people to look at the facts, look at what happened after the Cole, why there was no response by the Clinton administration, which wasn't advised by CIA that it was an al Qaeda sponsored attack until after the election of 2000.

MCINTYRE: If nothing else, the debate over President Clinton's spirited defense shows the conclusion is debatable. Officially, the White House is staying out of it. Spokesman Tony Snow, a former Fox News commentator, quipped "he retorts, you decide."

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: See more from the Pentagon in "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer weekdays at 4:00 Eastern and again in primetime at 7:00.

COLLINS: Narrowing the field in that deadly E. coli outbreak. So where did it start and how soon until you're a spinach connoisseur once again? Boy, it's been a long time, hasn't it? That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

A mother's trust results in a daughter's pain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of guilt. I handed her to him. I signed permission slips for her to go with him. I thought she was safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: This attacker wore a military uniform and had easy access to his victim. The story in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Not the whole story. That's how the Bush administration officials describe the leaked portion of a classified intelligence report on Iraq and terrorism. Now, a call for that report to be declassified so Americans can judge for themselves. Here's CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It is the most authoritative assessment of the terrorism threat, according to officials, concludes the war in Iraq has only made things worse. Ellen Laipson used to help prepare intelligence estimates.

ELLEN LAIPSON, STIMSON CENTER: The judgment itself seems pretty straight-forward to me and I think would not come as a surprise to many people who've been watching the violence in Iraq.

ARENA: Officials familiar with the report say it discusses how Iraq is now the primary training ground for Islamic extremists. The fear is those terrorists could then return to their home countries to carry out attacks there. But the administration says the leaked portions of this secret report don't present a complete picture.

DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: It doesn't make any final judgments to say that America is less safe or not because of this. It's just saying that they used us to use as a recruitment tool, which we shouldn't be surprised about.

ARENA: Officials say Bartlett's right, the report doesn't specifically address the threat of another attack on U.S. soil. But the question persists. The director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, was asked Monday night whether Americans should be more worried.

JOHN NEGROPONTE, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: My personal assessment, with respect to the United States, is that we are certainly more vigilant, we're better prepared. And in that sense I think we could safely say that we are safer and that the threat to the homeland itself has, if anything, been reduced since 9/11.

ARENA: Negroponte also said that he is seriously considering a proposal from Senator Pat Roberts to declassify the report. He says in light of the interest in it, he'll make a decision within the next few days.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: More antics in a Baghdad courtroom for the second straight day. In the third straight court session, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was kicked out for causing a scene. His six co- defendants also removed after a recess. Proceedings were adjourned until October 9th. Hussein and his co-defendants are facing genocide charges. Meanwhile, Hussein waits for a verdict from an earlier trial. It is expected to come down next month.

Shootings, bombings, more than a dozen dead across Iraq today and police find more bodies dumped in the capital. To Baghdad and CNN's Arwa Damon.

Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

That's right, it has been a very violent day here. In an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, and just so we know the attacks that happened today illustrate the variety of violence that happens here, if we just start by listing a couple of them.

In a western Baghdad neighborhood, unknown gunmen, believed to be part of a Shia militia, opened fire on innocent civilians. At least three Iraqis killed in that attack, 10 wounded. The gunmen then moved to a nearby mixed neighborhood and set fire to three Sunni shops.

In eastern Baghdad, a complex attack. A car bomb detonated as Iraqi police and U.S. military were responding to the attack, a roadside bomb detonated. Three Iraqis killed in that incident, 21 wounded. Eight of those police officers.

And in the southern city of Mahmoudiya, two roadside bombs killed at least five Iraqis, wounded another eight. And back in Baghdad again, four Iraqi police officers were wounded when they tried to move a body that was booby-trapped. A total of at least 18 Iraqis killed here, 66 wounded just in and around the capital

Tony.

HARRIS: Arwa, what are the Iraqi government and the coalition forces doing to stop all this violence? I know there was talk about a week or so ago about building a trench around Baghdad. Is that on the table, off the table?

DAMON: There was talk of building a trench. There was also talk of more roadblocks in and out of the city, more check points. That is all part of what they're calling Operation Together Forward that has been ongoing for some time now. The idea behind the trench is, which is still an idea in progress, one of the many things that they're thinking about here, was to prevent a flow of fighters, explosives, car bombs in and out of the capital. And part of Operation Together Forward is also this effort between the U.S. and the Iraqi security forces to go through each neighborhood and clear the area of any fighters or weapons, hold positions there and then start working on the infrastructure. When you speak to Iraqi citizens, especially those living in the capital here in Baghdad, about whether or not that's working, the answer coming from them is not really. Not just yet. Many of them are viewing their government as being too weak, unable to stand up in the face of the insurgents here, unable to pull itself together and unable to bring an end to the violence.

Tony.

HARRIS: OK, Arwa, just another quick question. Maybe a personal comment or two. We take a look at all these pictures of all of this violence in Baghdad and we recognize that it is a snapshot of what's happening at that moment. But give us a sense of what you feel about your own safety. Can you get outside of the green zone? Can you get outside of the bureau and talk to Iraqis and, I don't know, get outside of that area that you're working in now?

DAMON: We do get out and about. And I do have to say, without disclosing our exact location, that we are not in the green zone. We do live in what they call the red. But we are able to get out and about in Baghdad, but our movements are incredibly restricted. We're best able to get out when we're with the military.

And that is actually why we rely so heavily on our Iraqi staff. I mean, our Iraqi camera men and our Iraqi producers, they're really the ones that are out there. They're really the ones that are giving us the feedback of what's happening in the street. All of our staff, in fact, is very much involved in helping us get a real feeling for what's going on out there because we are not able to get out on a daily basis.

But just to give you an example of how close to home these incidences can hit. In one of the attacks today happened very close to the home of one of our Iraqi colleagues. He ended up immediately leaving the bureau, needing to go take care of his family. He arrived at his home to find that his windows had been blown in and that his young daughter had actually been knocked unconscious for five minutes.

Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad. Arwa, appreciate it. Thank you.

COLLINS: A needle in a haystack of sorts in the deadly E. coli outbreak. Where did it start? How soon until you can enjoy a good spinach salad again. The latest coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: There is no place like home. No place like home. Look at this scene.

COLLINS: They sing a lot better than you, I have to say.

HARRIS: Is that, U2, Bono. New Orleans rocks and rolls as it welcomes the Hodats (ph) back to the Superdome. The big celebration ahead in the NEWSROOM. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: One produce company, two bags of spinach contaminated with E. coli. They were processed at the same plant, on the same shift, and they may be the clue investigators were looking for in the nationwide E. coli outbreak. The packages of Dole Baby Spinach were found in refrigerators in New Mexico and Utah.

Both were processed August 15th by Natural Selection Foods in San Juan. A spinach linked E. coli has sickened at least 175 people across 25 states. At least one person has died. Growers in California's Salinas Valley are working on new safety guidelines now before their bagged spinach can return to store shelves.

HARRIS: How good is that? I didn't see a single frame of it last night. Did you see any of it?

COLLINS: I was in bad.

HARRIS: Yes, yes, me, too. I had to play the tooth fairy a little bit and then it was beddy-bye.

COLLINS: Awe.

HARRIS: But clearly . . .

COLLINS: It was a great game. People were excited. Lots of music.

HARRIS: Well, if you're a Saints fan.

COLLINS: Right.

HARRIS: We live in Atlanta. It wasn't so good for us. Rocking and rolling in New Orleans. The battered city gets, wow, quite a big lift. The Superdome back in business today, almost 13 months after Hurricane Katrina.

COLLINS: Last night's opening was a concert and football game all rolled into one. U2, Green Day set the stage. Then the New Orleans Saints took the field, body slamming their big rival, the Atlanta Falcons. In all, a great night for a city still facing, of course, a long, long recovery from the great storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SINGING: There's a house in New Orleans they call the Superdome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My neighbor down the block. He died here. We've still got a lot of work to do, but this is a great big step.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first big event to demonstrate to the world that the city's on it's way back. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just thought it was over. I thought it was over. But I'm happy that, you know, we're back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought this would happen. I'm just so happy to be back here rebuilding New Orleans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a touching feeling. It's an emotional feeling to see that so many people coming today with a different attitude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been waiting so long to be here. It's like it don't matter what it is, just as long as I'm here, I'm good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been building my whole week up for this, you know, for this game. I can't explain it. I can't wait. I've got my binoculars and all. I'm ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they had as many tailgaters as they had people trying to get in the door. If you got tickets or not, everybody wants to be part of this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm happy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see all the folks and, you know, I'm happy it's back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SINGING: Beautiful day. Beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Wow. People so excited. I mean, no question about it. It's hard not to root for the Saints. They're 3-0, now, right?

HARRIS: Yes, they are.

COLLINS: Yes.

HARRIS: I wish I had stayed up now. That looked great.

COLLINS: You just saw the whole thing right there. Of course, none of the football.

HARRIS: That's right.

Still to come, President Bush, his predecessor, and the hunt for bin Laden. Insights from a former FBI agent who played a key role in tracking the terror mastermind. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Assigned to enlist the people for the marines, he recruited one young woman for sex. This ex-military man's case is not an isolated one.

CNN's Randi Kaye investigates. Her report is a joint project of the Associated Press and "A.C. 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shedrick Hamilton was a Marine sergeant, a popular and respected recruiter.

JILL GIUNTA, VICTIM: He had that uniform on, and everybody trusted him.

KAYE: Yet, he had a terrible secret.

TRISH GIUNTA, JILL'S MOTHER: I had no idea. I didn't ever think anything happened. I vouched for this man when my husband questioned why, why was calling all the time? It's Hamilton. Everybody -- the kids loved him.

KAYE: Especially Trish Giunta's daughter, Jill, until...

J. GIUNTA: He threw me in the back of the car. And, you know, again, like, I kept saying, no, like, you know, I mean, I didn't want to do it.

KAYE: Sergeant Shedrick Hamilton first raped Jill Giunta on Valentine's Day nearly three years ago. She was just 16 years old. Sergeant Hamilton was 34, married, with two children.

T. GIUNTA: I woke her to go with him.

KAYE (on camera): As a mother, do you feel -- am I seeing guilt? Is that what that is?

T. GIUNTA: There's a lot of guilt. I handed her to him. I signed permission slips for her to go with him. I thought she was safe.

KAYE (voice-over): The sergeant drove Jill to Marine Corps physical training, a program to involve kids in the Marines in hopes they will join. Nearly every week, he picked up Jill at her home in his government car and drove her to this New York recruiting center, until, one day, he made a sharp turn down this deserted road, not even a mile from Jill's home.

J. GIUNTA: He just started doing what he wanted to do. And, you know, I would just like sit there and just, like, you know, look off. And tears would just come down my face and stuff like that. And he just would finish up what he wanted to do.

KAYE (on camera): Help me understand why, after the first incident, or even the second incident, why didn't you run home and say, Mom, help me. This guy is attacking me?

J. GIUNTA: He kept making sure that I knew, that he would repeatedly tell me that nobody would find out about this, nobody would believe me.

KAYE (voice-over): As disturbing as it is, Jill's story is not unique. An investigation by the "Associated Press" found last year at least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees.

MARTHA MENDOZA, ASSOCIATED PRESS: In 2005, 80 recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct, with more than 100 victims.

KAYE: AP Reporter Martha Mendoza found across all services one out of 200 recruiters, those who deal directly with young people, was disciplined for sexual misconduct. The abuse ranged from inappropriate touching to rape.

In Pennsylvania, an Army recruiter pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old girl. In Wisconsin, a Marine Corps recruiter was recently charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment of a potential female enlistee. He has pleaded not guilty. In Indiana, a National Guard recruiter was indicted for allegedly assaulting eight different potential recruits outside schools, in cars, and in recruiting stations. He's out on bail, pending trial.

(on camera): Why are there so many cases of sexual misconduct among recruiters? Remember, the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2001, in part to help grow the military's ranks.

No Child Left Behind guarantees schools federal funding, as long as they grant recruiters access to students on campus. Unlike the rest of us, who have to show ID, recruiters can walk right in, no questions asked.

J. GIUNTA: I would be sitting in class and then my teacher is like, tapping me on my shoulder saying that -- to go outside the classroom, that somebody needs to speak to me and it was him.

KAYE (voice-over): No Child Left Behind also mandates recruiters be provided with students' home phone numbers and addresses.

J. GIUNTA: I definitely feel like he was stalking me. There were times when he would call the house, and he would tell me to look out my bedroom window. And he would be sitting in the government van right on the corner of the street.

SHEDRICK HAMILTON, FORMER RECRUITER, CONVICTED OF RAPE: I'm sorry.

KAYE: Shedrick Hamilton pleaded guilty. He was convicted of rape and endangering the welfare of a child and sentenced to prison. At sentencing the judge called Hamilton a child molester and a disgrace to his country and his uniform.

Sergeant Hamilton spoke with the "Associated Press" from jail.

HAMILTON: I ended up putting myself into a position to where I sought out comfort in a young lady that I shouldn't have done. I allowed myself to -- to get caught up into the wrong situation at the wrong time and I have no one to blame but myself. KAYE: The Department of Defense declined our request for an on camera interview, but issued this statement to CNN. "All military recruiters are briefed in regard to the conduct and ethics required of them and receive training. The Department of Defense has zero tolerance for misconduct by military recruiters."

The Pentagon says it is now monitoring its recruiter and will evaluate whether it needs to change its policy. But that comes only in response to the A.P. report and a Congressional Accountability Office study which found the DOD does not track all allegations of recruiter wrongdoing.

In January, having served two years for rape, Shedrick Hamilton is expected to be released.

T. GIUNTA: This is my child. He hurt my child. So, I'm going to watch him.

KAYE: Jill Giunta, now 19, has decided not to join the military, but to go to college and become a police officer instead. And she's made a promise to herself, when she puts on that police uniform, never to abuse her authority.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Monroe, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And catch more of Randi Kaye's reports on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." "A.C. 360" airs weeknights at 10:00 Eastern. You'll see it only on CNN.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, this is a big day for two of the biggest names in the corporate scandals from earlier this decade.

COLLINS: That's for sure.

Cheryl Casone now joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with the details. Boy, it's taken awhile to get to this point, hasn't it?

CHERYL CASONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Heidi and Tony, it seems like forever and a day ago that we started to cover these stories, and it really is kind of a close to both of them. So it's fascinating that it's actually happening -- both of these stories -- today.

Let's start out with WorldCom. Bernie Ebbers, one of the poster children for corporate greed, is going to start his 25-year prison sentence today. He was convicted a year-and-a-half ago for his role in the $11 billion accounting fraud that brought down that company.

Ebbers built it from a tiny telecom firm in Mississippi into an industry giant before it collapsed into bankruptcy back in 2002. No word on whether he's going to serve his sentence in a prison in his home state of Mississippi or in Louisiana.

Tony and Heidi, you know, Ebbers, he has got heart trouble, and he's 65, so that 25 year sentence in theory could be a life sentence for him.

HARRIS: Yes. And Cheryl, he's not the only former top executive kind of facing the music today, right?

CASONE: Yes, Andrew Fastow is the other one, and we've heard that name a lot as well over the last few years. He is the former CEO -- CFO of Enron and he's going to be sentenced today. He pleaded guilty. And then he helped convict his bosses, Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, for their part in Enron's bankruptcy and collapse back in 2001.

Now, as part of the plea deal, he has agreed to serve up to 10 years in prison. It's possible but it's not likely he's going to get a lighter sentence, but before he is sentenced, he is going to have to listen to former Enron employees, shareholders and customers who were victimized by that scandal. Anyone who's in line at the courthouse by 10:00 a.m. is going to get to vent with no time limit. So, Heidi and Tony, he's going to get an earful.

COLLINS: Wow, yes, he's going to get an earful.

HARRIS: A lot.

COLLINS: It's going to be a long day. Hey, does any of this have any effect on Wall Street today?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COLLINS: Cheryl Casone, thanks so much.

A safe haven becomes a crime scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does everybody in this town know where that shelter is? Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I wouldn't say so. The longer that a location is in existence then, of course, the more well-known it becomes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A victim of abuse is now dead and the hunt is on for her husband, the accused. It's all coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Keeping our eye on an important meeting that will happen there, at the White House in Washington today, President Bush meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. This meeting comes at 11:40 -- actually the meeting prior to that press conference, so we will hear about what happened at that meeting. Comes at 11:40. So we will carry that for you live.

Basically going to be talking quite a bit about some of the violence that has erupted in Afghanistan, the worst since U.S. forces took down the Taliban five years ago. Be talking, undoubtedly, about Afghanistan's cooperation with Pakistan and what it all could mean for helping to decrease that latest violence.

Also, the future of al Qaeda, what happens if bin Laden is taken out of the picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They lost their -- you know, I would say concentration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A former insider and others weigh in on that discussion. It's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: She was simply looking for a safe place. Instead, she found violence. A victim, police say, of the man she tried to escape.

CNN's Rusty Dornin has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After her husband allegedly beat and choked her earlier this month, Bonnie Woodring decided she'd had enough. So she took out a restraining order, took her 13-year-old son, and fled to a women's domestic violence shelter here in Sylva, North Carolina.

But days later, police say her husband, John "Woody" Woodring, tracked her down at the shelter, forced his way in, and shot and killed her. Now, the 35-year-old Woodring, a former Marine and ex-con with a history of domestic violence is on the run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say there's a community panic, and as the search continues and the days get by, I think a lot of people are concerned that he still could be in the area.

DORNIN: This little town nestled in the Smoky Mountains is in shock. Bonnie Woodring was a well-loved nurse at the local hospital. Woody was studying at the local college -- ironically, to be a counselor. But in their well-kept house on the hill, the Woodring family showed signs of strain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever since they got married, he was just the real jealous type.

DORNIN: Now, Bonnie's family is terrified Woodring will come after them. This close relative didn't even want her name or real voice used.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) everybody's scared, you know, family, and even Bonnie's close friends, co-workers, anybody.

DORNIN: Before her death, Bonnie sensed she was in serious trouble. In the restraining order filed just two weeks ago, she wrote, "When I attempted to leave, he choked me twice. He also threatens to kill me if I ever left him."

Bonnie apparently trusted that she would be safe in the shelter, a location that was supposed to be a secret.

(on camera): Does everybody in this town know where that shelter is? Really?

CHIEF JEFF JAMISON, SYLVA POLICE: No, I wouldn't say so. The longer that a location is in existence, then of course the more well- known it becomes.

DORNIN (voice-over): Jeane Bockstahler is director of the shelter.

(on camera): Was he able to just open the door?

JEANE BOCKSTAHLER, REACH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER: It was when a shelter person was coming out.

DORNIN: A shelter person was coming out, and he was able to force his way in by pointing his gun.

BOCKSTAHLER: Right.

DORNIN: (INAUDIBLE) hit the panic button?

BOCKSTAHLER: No. That's as much as I'm able to really say.

DORNIN (voice-over): Words that chill the hearts of many abuse victims and the people who try to protect them.

JAMISON: When you're dealing with an individual that is as determined as Woodring has shown himself to be and with such a twisted obsession, that it becomes very difficult to safeguard them completely.

DORNIN: Rusty Dornin, CNN, Sylva, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And still to come, the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Missed opportunities. Is the momentum lost, too? A former FBI special agent weighs in, ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Also, about maybe 40 minutes or so away from a press conference that we will go to live from the White House there. President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai going to be talking about their meeting, happening just a few moments from now. Surge in Taliban activity along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, certainly to be part of those discussions. We'll bring it to you live, coming up. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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