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One Climber Found Dead on Mount Hood; Robert Gates Sworn in as New Defense Secretary

Aired December 18, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm T.J. Holmes, in today for Don Lemon.

Ramping up the search on Mount Hood -- one climber found dead, two others still missing. We're live with the latest.

PHILLIPS: In England, police make an arrest in that high-profile murder spree. We check out the suspect on MySpace.

HOLMES: Then to outer space -- a stubborn gizmo, if you will, has shuttle astronauts back in the clunky suits again. Miles O'Brien has the play-by-play.

You are in the NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: They found the summit, but lost their way down. One climber is dead, two others still missing, on Oregon's Mount Hood. One family mourns, while two others cling to hope.

Our Chris Lawrence it at the base of Mount Hood with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These three men obviously shared a great passion for mountain climbing. And now these three families share a grief for Kelly James.

Earlier, his brother talked about how his brother Kelly felt closest to God when he was up on that mountain. And he also talked about the evidence that finally proved to he and the family that it was his brother's dead body that was found in that snow cave on Sunday.

FRANK JAMES, BROTHER OF KELLY JAMES: They identified a ring with my brother's initials on it, which has led me and our family to conclude that the climber found in the cave yesterday was -- was my brother, my brother Kelly.

LAWRENCE: Although it's cloudy and overcast here on the ground, above 2,500 feet, they are reporting clear skies.

The search is narrowing today. They are concentrating mostly in an area around the two snow caves that were found on Sunday and an area directly below that. The sheriff described it as -- called it the gully, an area with about a 2,500-foot drop, at about a 60 percent grade.

He said, there has been so much avalanche activity in that area, that it is too dangerous to actually put ground crews down, but that they would be looking at it from the air.

He also said that is an area where, in the past, there have been problems with people falling into that area, and that that is a concern, as they move forward in trying to bring back the other two missing climbers who may still be up there.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Hood River, Oregon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, weather has been a problem in a lot of the searching.

We check in now with Rob Marciano in the -- Marciano in the Weather Center to see, how are things treating them now, weather-wise?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pretty good -- not as good as yesterday. There is a low-level layer of moisture and cloudiness. You saw it in Chris Lawrence's live shot -- still overcast. There was ice fog at that level.

But you go above about 2,000, 3,000 feet, and you break out into fairly clear skies. So, visibilities above that level should be pretty good today.

Weather, of course, an issue with this -- questions like, did these guys know that bad weather was coming? Did they think they were going to get up and down the mountain and beat the bad weather? These are some questions that we -- we just don't know.

But joining me on the line is one of my weather colleagues in Portland, Oregon, our affiliate KGW, is Matt Zaffino, not only a meteorologist, but has climbed the mountain a number of times.

Hey, Matt, thanks for joining us.

MATT ZAFFINO, KGW METEOROLOGIST: You bet, Rob. Happy to join you.

MARCIANO: Listen, the weather forecast was for the storm or the weather to decline on Mount Hood when, Friday -- Friday night, correct?

ZAFFINO: Yes. They -- we had good weather, actually, last week. They actually left their car on Wednesday, and the weather was good Wednesday, Thursday. And it was forecast to be good through Friday. And, then, it started raining in the valleys and snowing up in the mountains either Friday night or Saturday.

So, had they checked the forecast -- and I'm sure they did before they left -- they would have had an accurate forecast, as to when -- how long the good weather was going to last.

MARCIANO: These guys climb during the wintertime. You have made this summit during the wintertime, albeit on the south side. Describe for us, you know, just how nasty the weather can be up on Mount Hood in the middle of winter.

ZAFFINO: Well, you know, even with an average storm, Rob, as you and I were talking before, an average storm that brings rain to the valley, snow in the mountain, you get up high, at 8,000 to 10,000 feet, and it's absolutely brutal.

And the winds are easily, you know, 100 miles an hour or so up there. And, when the visibility socks in, it's very disorienting. One of the things, even on the south side climb, which is considered, you know, an easy climb by mountaineering standards, the fall line, which is the natural way that a ball would roll down the mountain, leads you to a set of cliffs into a canyon.

And, so, if you don't know better, and you just follow the natural downhill progress that your steps would take you, it would lead you to a very dangerous zone. Now, we have some of the same type of terrain traps, if you will, on the north and east side of the mountain, where these climbers were.

So, once you start moving down, and you have no visibility, and you don't know the mountain extremely well, it's very, very easy to get into trouble.

MARCIANO: Now, I know you have not summited, but climbed some of the backcountry over on the northeast side, the -- from the -- the Cloud Cap and Cooper Spur base area.

What can you tell us about Eliot Glacier, especially during the wintertime? What kind of terrain are you looking at there?

ZAFFINO: Right, Rob. I have skied up there several times in the summertime. It's a favorite destination for backcountry skiers here in the Northwest.

There's no -- there's no lift-served skiing over on that side of the mountain.

But the Eliot Glacier is extremely steep and extremely crevassed. It has got a lot of cracks in it. Now, we have had a lot of snow, meaning a lot of those crevasses were probably bridged over and filled with snow, making them safer. But you don't know that for sure.

And the problem is, when you're traveling on crevassed glaciers is, especially if it's only a two-man rope team, if somebody falls in, they have to be able to get themselves out on their own. Basically, the person who is not in -- in the crevasse acts as an anchor, and the person that is in the crack has to climb the rope out of the -- out of the crevasse.

So, that terrain is very, very steep. There's a lot of cracks on it. And it's real easy to -- to -- to get into trouble up there when you have no visibility. Now, it looks like they were heading off of the Cooper Spur route, which is -- it's a ridge that is extremely steep.

And, over the years, there have been many mountaineering accidents on the Cooper Spur route. Had they come down that and -- and gotten over on to the Newton Clark Glacier, the terrain there is a little flatter. And that could be why they went over in that direction. That could have potentially led them over to the Mount Hood Meadows ski area as well. But we just don't know if that's where they were trying to go.

MARCIANO: All right, let's -- I'm going to -- I'm going to illustrate about a -- a little bit about what you're talking on -- via Google Earth, if we can go to that, and show you what -- what kind of dangerous conditions there -- there -- Matt is talking about there.

The head wall here off the -- the Eliot Glacier, where these guys were climbing up, in some -- in some areas, sheer walls of ice to the summit. And then the -- the Cooper Spur route that Matt is talking about is right along here. And you can see the -- the severe drop- offs.

And, Matt, back in 1999, we had a couple of climbers die off -- off that Cooper Spur. And that was May. Now we're -- we're talking about -- we're talking about the middle of the winter.

Now, what is -- what do you -- why would they build snow caves on this Clark -- Newton Clark Glacier here? You're -- you told me earlier, that terrain is just unbelievably steep.

ZAFFINO: Well, they probably -- that's probably as far as they could go. If they had an injured climber, and the weather was just becoming unbearable -- you know, once the winds get up above 60 miles an hour, it's hard to even stand up. And you know that from your hurricane coverage.

And, so, they -- they -- I'm sure they -- they made the decision that, hey, we have got to hunker down. And they -- I'm sure they picked, being experienced climbers, the best place possible. And, when you're in a situation like this, you know, you have to make decisions based on what you have at hand and what is around you.

And, also, being experienced climbers, I'm sure they knew that the avalanche situation was going to be getting increasingly worse as the storm went on. Most of our avalanches here in the Northwest happen, if not during, within 24 hours after the storm itself.

So, they were probably concerned that they have -- that they have a safe place to build the snow cave, in terms of avalanche conditions. And that is just where they were. And you just don't know, with an injured person in the party, how -- that may have been as far as they were able to get him.

MARCIANO: Do you talk to climbers who are not from Oregon, and maybe have not climbed Mount Hood and maybe -- and climbed other world-class mountains, Denali or Rainier, or even Everest? Do you think there's some underestimating -- they're underestimating the -- the power and the weather on Mount Hood? Do you think it doesn't get the respect it might deserve?

ZAFFINO: You know, Rob, that's an interesting question, because a lot of people have -- have wondered or speculated that, well, maybe they just, like you said, underestimated Mount Hood.

"Oh, it's just Mount Hood," you actually hear that in the climbing circle sometimes, because Mount Hood is not a Mount Rainier, let alone a Denali or something over in Nepal.

But I don't think it's fair to say that. I don't think it's -- I don't think we're paying enough respect to the climbers if we assume that, because we don't know what they were thinking. Just because they were experienced climbers does not mean they did not have respect for Mount Hood and for what they were facing.

So, I don't think it's fair for anybody to say that, hey, these guys were underestimating Mount Hood. They may have had the utmost respect for the mountain and for what the mountain had to offer. They knew that they were climbing up above 8,000 feet, and up to 11,000 feet. And I'm sure they knew what kind of weather they can encounter in that -- that type of area.

So, I think that to say that they underestimated it, we just don't know that. And, at this point, I think, out of respect for the climbers, it -- it's -- it's not fair to assume that.

MARCIANO: One of many questions, Matt, that we may never have the answers to.

Thanks very much for -- for your insight. And I will talk to you later.

ZAFFINO: Thanks, Rob. Appreciate it.

MARCIANO: T.J., the weather that's coming in over the next day- and-a-half will -- it will be here on Wednesday -- the storm that is coming in, at least forecast right now, not to be terribly strong, but, up on -- at that elevation, winds can whip up in a matter of minutes. So, we will have to watch that carefully. Window right now is about a day-and-a-half where they will have pretty decent weather.

HOLMES: They will take what they can get, but, yes, the clock is ticking.

Rob, thank you so much.

If nothing else, the searchers on Mount Hood at least know which mountain to search -- not the case in Southwest China, where two Americans have been out of sight for more than a month now.

The search is on for Christine Boskoff and her climbing partner, Charlie Fowler. They were last heard from in a e-mail that said they planned to climb two remote mountains, but didn't say which ones. The two missed their flight back to the U.S. PHILLIPS: The Rumsfeld era is history. The Gates reign begins. Robert Gates was sworn in today as defense secretary, as the Pentagon awaits new marching orders on Iraq.

With the story live from the White House, CNN's Ed Henry.

Hey, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Kyra.

Secretary Gates officially sworn in here at the White House early this morning by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, then a ceremonial swearing-in at the Pentagon this afternoon by Vice President Cheney -- Mr. Gates immediately declaring that failure in Iraq would be a -- quote -- "calamity" that would haunt America for decades -- turning the war around, though, obviously, a daunting task that he will be facing now.

It was Secretary Gates himself during his confirmation hearing who said he believes the U.S. is not winning in Iraq right now -- former Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday going a step further by saying he believes the U.S. is currently losing.

Secretary Gates will be weighing, among things, whether or not a surge of some 30,000 to 40,000 more U.S. troops should go to Iraq, whether that should be the president's new strategy. And, if so, can the military handle it, with the Army chief of staff saying it's stretched pretty thin right now?

The president and the new secretary both steering clear of specifics at the Pentagon, but they were trying to focus on the positive, as they turn the page from the Rumsfeld era, where Secretary Rumsfeld was a lightning rod.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bob Gates is a talented and innovative leader who brings a fresh perspective to the Department of Defense. I'm pleased that he's answered the call to serve our nation again.

ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I intend to travel quite soon to Iraq and meet with our military leaders and other personnel there. I look forward to hearing their honest assessments of the situation on the ground and to having the benefit of their advice, unvarnished and straight from the shoulder, on how to proceed in the weeks and months ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, you heard the president talk about fresh perspective -- Secretary Gates also promising candor in his remarks.

But the bottom-line question: Will the president listen to Secretary Gates if he calls for a dramatic change, or will other advisers, like Vice President Cheney, outweigh Mr. Gates, as he advises the president on this new strategy? Obviously, time will tell -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ed Henry, live from the White House, thanks.

HENRY: Thank you.

HOLMES: And, as you have been hearing, we now know one of those three climbers on Mount Hood did not make it, but the search is on for the other two. Rescue teams renew the attack on Mount Hood by foot, by air. We will talk with one of the search coordinators live.

PHILLIPS: Ever try your hand at origami, even try your hand at origami in zero gravity? Coming up: Shuttle astronauts and solar arrays, they know how to hold them, but can they figure out how to fold them? Miles O'Brien knows to do origami. He's going to show us live -- straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: They risk their lives and battle the elements to save the lives of strangers. The Hood River Crag Rats have been there these past nine days, helping search for the missing climbers in Oregon.

Their search coordinator is Bill Pattison, who is joining us now from Hood River.

Sir, Mr. Pattison, thank you for being here. And thank you for the work you're doing there. Your group has been around a long time.

Tell me, first, how are you all lending a hand? I know there are helicopters there you have and whatnot from -- from the military. But your group has been in and around this area a long time. How are you all lending a hand?

BILL PATTISON, SEARCH COORDINATOR, HOOD RIVER CRAG RATS: The Hood River Crag Rats are attached to the Hood River County Sheriff's Department for search-and-rescue. We do other activities, mostly have fun in the mountains, when we don't have to do chores like this.

But that -- that's the connection. We're the only organization on the north side. And -- but, when a -- a situation like this occurs, we have a lot of people and equipment and good brains at our disposal. And, since it is in the Hood River County, the Hood River county sheriff, Joe Wampler, is in charge of everything. And the pyramid goes down from there.

HOLMES: And, sir, you said good brains attached to this thing. So, what are those good brains telling you right now?

We know that one climber has been found dead, Kelly James. What does the whole situation, in your experience around that mountain, knowing it so well, tell you about what possibly was going on? He was separated from his other two comrades. What does it tell you? And -- and how optimistic are you that the other two are somewhere holed up and possibly could be surviving this thing? PATTISON: Well, we couldn't be very honest and -- and say that we're rejoiced with what happened, by any means.

Right now, it's -- we're in a -- a window that we're trying to make smaller of where the location of the other two climbers are. The good news is, as you can probably see, the sun is shining on me right now. And we have approximately four more hours of daylight.

We have two ground crews, one of them in standby mode, to go in and pick up any personal property that may have -- have come loose up there that hasn't already been recovered. We're going to have that analyzed. Hopefully, we can find it. And that is just going to pinpoint it to the location of these other two men. And that is what we're hoping to accomplish today.

HOLMES: How much have you been able to pinpoint? I know they have left some things behind, left somewhat of a -- a SOS signal as well. How well have you been able to narrow down where they may be? Give us an idea of that search area now. Do you have a pretty good idea and where to concentrate?

PATTISON: Yes, we do.

And -- and one thing I would like to correct at this time is that that -- that signal, or help signal, or directions of which we were going to travel...

HOLMES: Yes, sir.

PATTISON: ... is really not true. That's a -- that's an anchor that was put in by those people, probably to keep them from literally getting blown off the mountain.

And they had their carabiners, and snapped into those slings up there. And they deployed a couple of -- of climbing ropes out. And one of them parted. We don't know how. And the second rope is missing. We have to assume that they were roped in somehow to make a descent on the lee side of the weather.

HOLMES: Well, thank you for clearing that up for us.

And -- but still go back to, I guess, how big of an area you think you're having to search now, and how -- how concentrated your search is.

PATTISON: Vertically, we're looking at up to 2,000 feet, and laterally, probably 500, maybe a little more.

HOLMES: So, give us -- a lot of us who don't climb mountains and don't have an idea, is that kind of still a needle-in-a-haystack-type situation for you, or is that pretty much a lot smaller than certainly you were dealing with, but give you a better feel of, you know exactly where you need to be looking now?

PATTISON: Well, with history of -- of working on that mountain over many years, we know the pattern of -- of trouble up there. And we go back and replay that again. And that's what we're doing now.

And, as I said earlier, when -- when we make a discovery of any of the personal property, we will have a -- a ground crew airlifted in there, and bring that back. And -- and that's what we're trying to accomplish this afternoon.

HOLMES: All right.

Well, again, Bill Pattison of the Hood River Crag Rats, sir, good luck to you all in the search. We will be checking back in with you. Hopefully, we have some good news to report.

But, sir, thank you so much.

PATTISON: Thank you much.

PHILLIPS: So, is this the face of a killer?

Coming up: British police make an arrest in that string of prostitute murders -- a profile of the suspect, including his own description from a MySpace account.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The self-proclaimed gossip gangster serves up celebrity dish on his blog...

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: ... and served himself -- wasn't that good?

HOLMES: It wasn't that good.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: That was good, very good.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

T.J. is saying I didn't get the gangster right, Sibila Vargas. I'm sorry. I am going to have to work on that.

(LAUGHTER)

VARGAS: No, that was -- that was excellent, actually.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. Thank you very much.

(LAUGHTER)

VARGAS: Well, you know, it's not unusual, though, for celebrities to file lawsuits against the paparazzi these days.

Everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Cameron Diaz has done it. But, this time around, Kyra, it's the paparazzi who are filing suit. And you might be surprised to find out who is the target.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton -- that's P-E-R-E-Z -- who makes a living gossip about Hollywood A-listers has found himself in the middle of his own juicy story. Hilton, no relationship to Paris or Nikki, is being sued for $7.6 million by X17 Inc., a Los Angeles-based photo agency known for its images of stars in personal or embarrassing moments -- the charge, alleged copyright infringement.

In the suit, X17 claims Hilton used 51 photos on his Web site, PerezHilton.com, without permission from the agency -- among the pictures, a pregnant Katie Holmes, Kevin Federline pumping gas, and his soon-to-be-ex-wife Britney Spears showing her privates.

Seven other photo agencies are also upset about Hilton's online conduct, and they have sent a joint letter asking him to stop using their pictures online.

Hilton's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, says his client has the right to make satirical or humorous use of the newsworthy photographs -- so, more to come on that story.

But newsworthy photographs? I'm not sure about that.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. All right.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Well, the whole idea of celebrities uncensored has really become a big business online, hasn't it?

VARGAS: It -- it sure has. And it seems that we have become a nation obsessed with catching stars in embarrassing moments. But one celebrity in particular tops the list for 2006.

Any guesses? Britney Spears.

(LAUGHTER)

VARGAS: Yes, of course.

According to viralvideochart.com, the newly single Spears has the most viewed celebrity video clip online for 2006. An excerpt of the pop star belching, and mumbling on about time travel, as shown on YouTube.com, has now been viewed by over three million people online. The video was shot by her husband at the time, Kevin Federline. And, speaking of K-Fed, a video of him allegedly receiving a text message from Spears saying it's over came in second place.

PHILLIPS: All right, enough of Britney, K-Fed, all this stuff.

VARGAS: Yes, all right.

PHILLIPS: All right, Edward Norton making some noise of his own. He is an outspoken guy.

VARGAS: He sure is.

And, you know, it's award show season here in Hollywood. And along with award show ceremonies come award show freebies, AKA swag, right?

Well, no more swag -- at least that is what actor Edward Norton is saying. The film star has recently been speaking out against celebrity freebies at major award shows such as the Oscars and Golden Globes. He has even gone as far as to contact the Academy Awards organization to ask them to put a stop to the lavish gifts.

Norton says there's a lot of underprivileged families who could benefit more from the backstage items. I happen to agree with that.

Hopefully, his ex-girlfriend, Salma Hayek, agrees, because her ABC comedy, "Ugly Betty," just picked up a Golden Globe nomination -- so, more on the Hollywood swag controversy to come.

And coming up tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": one on one with Angelina Jolie. Jolie opens up about Brad Pitt and what he really said about when they might get married -- plus, her tough words for the paparazzi.

"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT"'s revealing interview with Angelina Jolie on TV's most provocative entertainment news show, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," 11:00 p.m. Eastern, on Headline Prime.

PHILLIPS: Sibila, thank you.

VARGAS: Back to you.

Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, are you having a tough time keeping your MySpace profile up to date? I know I'm having a heck of a time with mine, actually.

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange has an idea that might be able to help you with that.

Hello.

(MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: One of the those three missing climbers didn't make it, but where are the other two? We're going to talk to a member of the rescue crew who is down from the mountain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta.

HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes, in today for Don Lemon.

Clear skies over Mt. Hood, but cloudy prospects for two climbers still missing after more than a week. Nevertheless, searchers are giving it their all. We're staying on top of all the latest developments. You are in the NEWSROOM.

We want to get now -- more on that search from a rescue crew member whose really been coordinating the efforts over the past few days. Captain Chris Bernard of the 304th Rescue Squadron. Joining us now live.

Sir, thank you for giving us some time here. I want to start. I know you've just taken a flight up the mountain where the search has been going on. Can you tell me, first, has Kelly James' body been recovered and brought down back the mountain yet?

CAPT. CHRIS BERNARD, U.S. AIR FORCE RESERVE: No, it hasn't. I just returned -- primarily, our mission was to insert the pararescue team from the 304th and secondary, we conducted a detailed search below the area of the snow cave where the body is located and worked our way down the mountain, looking in every hole, every crack, for every clue, and that was our focus.

So last I heard, when we landed, the team was making their way down there right now and the estimated time for recovery was an hour to two hours.

HOLMES: You said you're looking for anything right now. Can you tell me, did you find any minute little thing so far, any signs of the climbers?

BERNARD: Well, you're talking about additional finds.

HOLMES: Uh-huh.

BERNARD: We do have some additional things that we targeted up there. However, we need to take it back, analyze it, and determine that it's not just old climbing clutter or maybe that somebody dropped yesterday.

HOLMES: But at this point, you didn't see anything, at least in this last trip you just took. I know some of your guys are still working and still going through, but nothing you found that was obviously encouraging?

BERNARD: On my portion of the search, we didn't find anything that was significant.

HOLMES: Are you all searching -- are you using the naked eye? I hope you can still hear me there, I believe ...

BERNARD: No we -- yes, I hear you. Actually, no, we're utilizing the naked eye. On this mission, for instance, we had approximately six air crew members and two combat rescue officers scanning and then both of us, we utilized some stabilization binoculars.

So, with the naked eye, we locate something of interest and usually determine it with binoculars and we're right down there. These pilots, the CH-47 pilots out of Pendleton, they are doing an excellent job. I think they got a little bit of practice yesterday and getting in real tight and real close.

HOLMES: How long are you able to fly one mission, like the one you went on today? How long are you able to stay up? You said you dropped off a team, but how long are you able to stay up in the helicopter and do one of those searches and how much of an area are you able to cover in one trip up like that?

BERNARD: Well, gas is what the consideration is. And then managing the search. We have to maintain gas and helicopter crew ready to assist the climbers that are up there and this search wasn't a matter of time, mostly, just an area that the sheriff asked us to conduct a detailed search on.

HOLMES: And do you believe now, you have narrowed down the area real well? We talked to another search coordinator earlier and thinks you have a good idea right now of where exactly you need to be searching.

How small of an area have you narrowed it down to that you're concentrating on, that you know that it's pretty good chance that this is the area you're going to find these guys in?

BERNARD: Well, you know, as the sheriff said this morning, it's narrowed down and primarily, it's from the location, from the summit, basically, location of the -- where the snow cave was found.

And then it's probably kind of a pie shape out from there. And I would guesstimate probably one mile in length and maybe -- well, it's pie shaped but it's a half mile wide near the summit -- half mile in the width.

HOLMES: All right. Well, sir, Captain Chris Bernard helping with those rescue efforts. Sir, thank you for taking some time with us. I know it's difficult for you to hear for a moment and I know you're just coming down. Thanks for stopping and giving us some time and good luck to you guys.

BERNARD: No problem. You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Let's head straight to the NEWSROOM. Betty Nguyen is working details on a developing story out of California. Betty, what do you have?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, from a mountain search to a cliff rescue. We're going to take a look at these pictures today. This is coming to us from Palos Verdes, California. There's a helicopter there on the ground. We assume the guy who is being air-lifted to a nearby hospital is in that helicopter at the moment.

But let me tell you what we were looking at, just minutes ago, as it widens out, maybe we can get a better idea what is going on. Here's some tape. There is the person there on the ground as you see the rescue crews are trying to assist him.

What we know about this person is only this, that he's a 40-year- old man who fell at least 100 feet over a cliff there in Palos Verdes, California. Don't know exactly why he fell, what caused it, maybe it was just loose footing, if he was hiking? A lot of this is unknown and don't know how many people were with him.

Apparently he either had a cellphone or there were others with him who did because the rescue crews are on the scene. They put him on a brace here and as you can see, the helicopter is standing by waiting to air-lift him to a nearby hospital. But really, a frightening scenario. A man falling at least, at least Kyra, a hundred feet over a cliff there in Palos Verdes, California.

PHILLIPS: All right. We will track those pictures coming to us from KTTV, one of our affiliates there in Los Angeles. Thanks Betty.

NGUYEN: Sure.

HOLMES: Thousands of tips, hundreds of interviews and now an arrest. Police in Britain are holding a supermarket clerk in the murders of five young prostitutes whose bodies turned up over a ten- day period this month. They are not releasing the suspect's name, but he's no stranger to the British media. ITN's Helen Wright reports.

HELEN WRIGHT, ITN CORRESPONDENT: Police stand guard at the suspect's house. He lives alone here. It's just two miles from where two of the dead women were found. In an extraordinary frank interview published in "The Sunday Mirror," the man named as Tom Stevens talks openly about knowing all five of the women and says he recognizes he fits the police profile for their killer.

Stephens claims he was close to all of the women acting as a protector to them. He says, "I'm a friend of all the girls. I was closest to Tania and Gemma as well. I was close to others as well, but I should have been there to watch over them."

Stephens, who says his 18-year marriage recently collapsed also predicted this morning's police swoop. "I could get arrested," he said. "That is quite likely. Let's not say likely, let's say possible. If a car very like mine is seen in the area up a lane somewhere, then I'd expect police would arrest me and question me very hard. I would have complete opportunity, the girls would have trusted me so much."

Stephens also says he's been questioned by police four times and he says, "They searched my house. There were two groups of officers. The first wore white, plastic suits. The group who wore plain clothes couldn't come in until they'd finished. They searched my car as well."

Stephens says he doesn't have alibis, but maintains his innocence. It may well be his media frankness prompted today's events. Helen Wright, ITV News. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Coming up, shuttle astronauts and long repair missions. Miles O'Brien joins us live with the record space walk.

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PHILLIPS: Handy men in space. Two astronauts on a fix-it mission. One of them making history in the process. Watching every move for us, our space correspondent, Miles O'Brien. Miles, this space walk a bit unexpected, right?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a bit unexpected. And we've been watching them try to solve this problem of how do you fold that huge solar array? Take a look at live pictures coming to you from space.

This is Bob Curbeam's view of the world right now. He's looking on us, isn't he? And there is that bulky solar array that they would like to retract into its blanket box so that they can move it ultimately in September. What they've been doing is trying to get those slats to fold together properly like an old map. Let's listen for a second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Using maybe some loop pin puller might be the best tool, but that's your call.

O'BRIEN: So they're going through their possibility of tools right now. Take a look at the tool they used a little while ago. This is NASA high tech at its finest. Yes, that's a scraper, folks. And it is wrapped up in that burnt orange kind of translucent tape, they call it cap-on tape, which does not conduct electricity.

Of course the suit he's in is not a conductor either, as well insulated. But nevertheless, they've had the tools at the ready here. Not insulative because there is about 200 volts going through those solar rays and don't want to have the astronauts get hurt, of course. Go back to the live shot, if you can, for a second. Take a look at that, look at that piece there. That is a cheater bar that they use. They actually pat a ratchet on the end there, normally a ratchet. But it looks like you can do some harm with that, doesn't it Kyra?

PHILLIPS: I need to keep that in the trunk of my car.

O'BRIEN: It's a good thing to have, you never know when you might need that.

PHILLIPS: Miles, let me ask you a question. As we're watching these live pictures, put it into perspective for, you know, my mom and dad back home. The purpose of this project, what these solar panels mean to us here on earth. What is happening up there and how it affects us?

O'BRIEN: You're asking me hard questions now.

PHILLIPS: Come on, Miles. Give me the bottom line. O'BRIEN: Let me give the nutshell. The space station, first of all they want to get things retracted there. That's what they're trying to do, that's how things got stuck. But that space station that you see right there, what's it all about? Why are we doing it, why are we spending all of this money on it?

It has to do a lot with the effort to continue pressing on toward the moon and maybe one day, Mars, with human beings. Why would you want to do this in the first place? Well you learn an awful lot about what it's like to work in space, you learn about how to retract solar arrays that don't want to cooperate so well. And when you're a year or so away by journey to Mars, you better know how to do these things. And it's important to learn how human beings do in the absence of gravity for a long period of time. Now, so yes, in the grand scheme in your day-to-day life, it's kind of hard to understand how the space station is.

PHILLIPS: But, I can see the big picture. I mean there's the talk about the base on the moon, right? They're wanting to build that base on the moon and that's what's taking another step towards Mars. I mean, that's the ultimate goal, right?

O'BRIEN: Yes. And there are people who would say, well, can we afford to do this? Should we be doing this? What is the point?

Exploration is a part of us as a people. And let's see -- is Beamer going to use that cheater bar right now? No, they're still going back and forth deciding how to use this, but he is trying to make sure it folds. He's not going to actually put his gloved hand on it.

But nevertheless that is what the space station is all about. The shuttle of course as we know is part of this whole plan to put a base on the moon, will be retired at the end of 2010, so these shuttle missions over the next few years are very crucial and everything has to go just according to plan. This shows you that things don't always go according to plan and that is why they called for this unplanned -- previously unplanned spacewalk.

I've got to show you one more thing.

PHILLIPS: All right, they're giving me the big, hard wrap, like the old days. I'm sorry.

O'BRIEN: Nevermind, we'll come back to it.

PHILLIPS: They're going to take that cheater bar and knock me over the head. Thank you, Miles. We'll keep watching them, they're cool pics.

A look at the busy holiday shipping day coming up next.

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PHILLIPS: Well, you've shopped till you dropped, wrapped everything beautifully and shipped at all off. Now it's up to others to get your packages there on time. Our Ali Velshi is keeping track of how they do it.

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ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Kyra, I'm here outside of Memphis, Tennessee at FedEx's largest sorting facility . FedEx will see about ten million packages go through its system today. On Wednesday more than 20 million will go through UPS's system.

And we sort of wanted to think about what it takes to get a package from the place that you send it to the place that it goes to. So we tried it out ourselves. And this is what we found out.

(voice-over): How complicated can it be to get a package from New York to Houston? Not complicated for me. I sent two identical envelopes from New York to the same address in Houston. I shipped one using FedEx, the other, UPS and asked that they both be delivered the next day by 10:30 a.m.

Both packages arrived ahead of schedule and within a few minutes of each other. The UPS package went from New York to a UPS hub in Rockford, Illinois and then to Houston. The FedEx package went to that company's Newark, New Jersey hub, then to its biggest hub, Memphis, and then to Houston.

Paul Tronsor probably had something to do with that. Paul runs FedEx's global operations control center in Memphis with military efficiency.

PAUL TRONSOR, FEDEX: We've got 670 aircraft that operate in the FedEx fleet and we're responsible for the tactical, daily operations of those aircraft all over the world.

VELSHI: FedEx has a fleet second only in size to American Airlines. But, unlike the airlines, if your package arrives late, you get a refund. That nearly happened to customers in Lafayette, Louisiana recently, but Paul and his team had another plan.

TRONSOR: Nobody can get in in that particular airport and so we go to an alternate site, an alternate airport in Baton Rouge and we truck the freight back over to Lafayette and make sure our customers are satisfied.

VELSHI: But being able to divert shipments means having extra trucks, five extra aircraft that fly around the country empty just in case and a team of experienced meteorologists.

Harry Wolford is one of them. He says keeping the FedEx planes flying is part science, part art and a little bit of intuition.

HARRY WOLFORD, FEDEX METEOROLOGIST: Aviation forecasting is a lot different than mostly cloudy and a chance of rain. At some point at times, you do rely on "Oh, I saw that before, so this is what's going to happen."

VELSHI (on camera): Now, with all of this technology, the ability to track planes and trucks and packages at every point, neither UPS nor FedEx could tell us exactly how many of these packages actually missed their deadlines. You got to figure they know that information but they weren't able to tell us about it.

We're kind of assuming that because so many businesses use these companies to ship their goods that if they were missing deadlines, they'd probably lose the business.

But for now, at least if your package doesn't get there on time, unlike the airlines, you get your money back -- Kyra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: I'm actually going to take it from here.

Thank you, Ali.

But we're going to talk about the story we showed you a short time ago. Video here of this rescue that was going on in Palas Verdes (ph, California where a vehicle had gone down a cliff and down some hundred feet. And a rescue going on.

Well, we're now being told from L.A. County spokespeople that it is, in fact, a woman, a 40 year-old woman who had to be rescued there.

You're getting an idea here of just how far that vehicle went down that cliff. My goodness, some hundred feet at least. See the vehicle there, kind of middle-bottom of your screen now. Out of view, there. But it went down that far.

And we're also getting word -- being told that this 40 year-old woman who has been rescued has actually been there since last evening, last night. There you go.

So we apologize for these pictures but, still, we're trying to bring these to you. Hasn't been edited. But that's the vehicle and that's how far it went down.

Don't know what happened with the incident, but that 40 year-old woman has been taken to the hospital, don't exactly know the condition. We'll keep an eye on that.

We do now want to check in with Wolf Blitzer.

PHILLIPS: Standing by in the Sit Room to tell us what's coming up at the top of hour.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys.

Thanks very much.

We're going to have a lot more on the search for the survivors. We're going to take you to the top of Mt. Hood, where there's a race against time now for those two missing climbers. Also, the fight over the war. President Bush considers sending more troops to Iraq. We're going to find out why that plan right now dividing key Democrats.

Also, Fidel Castro: is he preparing for a comeback or is he actually on the brink of death? A closer look at what the Cuban government has been telling ten United States Congressmen.

And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are they actually squeezing other Democrats out of the race for the White House before the first vote is cast?

All of that, coming up right at the top of the hour in the "SITUATION ROOM".

Back to you guys.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Wolf.

The closing bell and a wrap of action on Wall Street straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: All right. The closing bell about to ring on Wall Street.

(MARKET REPORT)

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now let's go to the "SITUATION ROOM and Wolf Blitzer.

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