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Kidnapping Suspect Arraigned; Dems to Take Stand Against Bush's Iraq Plan; Iraqi Prime Minister Criticizes Bush; Mother Dies After Radio Contest

Aired January 18, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips.

Michael Devlin, the suspect in a Missouri kidnapping, Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck now safe at home. Is Devlin responsible for the kidnapping of another missing boy?

LEMON: Did old football injuries drive former NFL player Andre Waters to suicide? The disturbing story says concussions may have had a devastating effect on his brain.

WHITFIELD: And mercury and the L.A. transit system. What was this man doing with a vial of heavy metal? Was it the makings of a terror attack? CNN's Deborah Feyerick on the investigation from the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: The man you see in orange here, Michael Devlin, telling a judge in Missouri he's not guilty of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy. He faces 30 years to life if convicted.

Today's arraignment dealt with one abduction, one alleged victim. But Devlin's accused of two. There also are two sides to the story, the procedural and the personal. The former -- the former first with Keith Oppenheim from Franklin County Courthouse in Union, Missouri.

And Keith, we're hearing talk of a confession at this point from the suspect. Is that true?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're hearing from the Franklin County prosecutor, Robert Parks, that in an interview with Michael Devlin, he says that Michael Devlin did confess to the abduction of 13-year-old Ben Ownby.

The talk about the arraignment was very brief this morning, Don. Michael Devlin appeared in an orange jump suit, and he was in the jail and connected by video link to the court -- courtroom. Judge David Tobben asked him several questions. And let's listen to a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE DAVID TOBBEN, FRANKLIN COUNTY, MISSOURI: Mr. Devlin, how do you wish to plead to this matter? Mr. Devlin?

MICHAEL DEVLIN, KIDNAPPING SUSPECT: I'm not guilty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Formally, Devlin was charged with one count of kidnapping Ben Ownby. And after the arraignment, Michael Devlin's two defense attorneys said that they were concerned about pretrial publicity, and they explained why they are filing a motion to try to get this case moved from Franklin County.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL KIELTY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's a relatively small county; it's a close-knit community. And the purported victim here is a member of that community, as is his family. And I think it really hits home.

And you get -- you know, when you have a couple hundred news people down here and they're hearing about it day in and day out, in local metropolitan and national, international news, I mean, I think it would make it next to impossible to have a fair jury in this trial -- in this county.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Don, this is a multi-jurisdictional case, and yesterday there were charges filed in neighboring Washington County for the kidnapping of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.

And I also -- I should note that we're hearing about other cases where authorities are trying to see if there's a connection between Michael Devlin and open child abduction cases.

The latest one comes also from the area, from St. Charles County. The boy was Scott Kleeschulte, and he was abducted 19 years ago. And one should read an appropriate amount into these connections. That means authorities are looking to see if there's a connection. They don't necessarily have anything stronger than a lead beyond that.

Back to you.

LEMON: All right. You mentioned a lot of facets to this case. And today, just dealing with one of those. What -- what might we see next from this, Keith?

OPPENHEIM: Well, one thing that the prosecutor talked about, Don, is a grand jury -- having -- taking a case to the grand jury in February. And the reason for that is that way he can build the case without exposing Ben Ownby in this case to wider media exposure.

And that is obviously a concern that prosecutors have, is to try to keep the boys somewhat shielded from that; and, you know, that raises the question of whether or not this case could lead to a plea and actually not go to trial. So we'll wait and see what happens there. LEMON: Keith Oppenheim, thank you so much for your report.

WHITFIELD: A gathering storm on Capitol Hill against the war in Iraq. In the span of one week, President Bush's plan to boost troop levels has turned some skeptics into outright opponents.

With the latest now, here's CNN's Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

Well, what we are seeing, as we have, as you said, for the past week, is continued jockeying and, certainly, a growing opposition to the president's plan.

On the Democrats' side what we saw yesterday is -- is Democratic leaders, with the help of one longtime Republican critic, Chuck Hagel, coming out and saying that they are going to propose a resolution, symbolic resolution, saying that -- stating on the floor of the Senate that Congress opposes the president's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

But what is as equally interesting is to watch what is going on inside what we call here the '08 caucus. About one-tenth of the Senate, Fredricka, is running for president.

So that has changed the dynamic in an interesting way here, because you just saw Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, she came out and said that she will vote for that resolution, but that she thinks something more is needed, that she thinks that there should be a bill to cap the troop levels in Iraq.

Senator Chris Dodd, who also announced he's going to run for president, said the same thing. And just this morning, Barack Obama, who took his first formal steps, of course, this week, into the presidential race, he went to the Senate floor to say he agrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: I want to emphasize that I'm not unique in taking this approach. I know that senator Dodd has crafted similar legislation. Senator Clinton, I believe, yesterday, indicated she shared similar views.

The cap would not affect the money spent on the war or on our troops. But it would write into law that the number of U.S. forces in Iraq should not exceed the number that were there on January 10, 2007, the day the president announced his escalation policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So there you heard Barack Obama giving one date, January 10. Some of the other Democrats have given various dates. But the point that they are trying to make and the signal that they are trying to send, especially to Democratic primary voters, in key states like Iowa and New Hampshire, who -- for whom the war is a big, big issue, is that they're not standing just by this idea of a symbolic resolution, that they are going to, even as Senator Clinton said yesterday, put a marker down for where they think the Congress should go and not just talking about opposing the president, but actually trying to do something about it.

WHITFIELD: And so, Dana, does this mean in terms of the Democrats is this an attempt to make a political statement and, perhaps even more, to try to bring the troops home?

BASH: Well, you know, what Republicans say is that this statement doesn't do what they think it should, which is yes, it states opposition to the president's plan, but it doesn't necessarily give very much in terms of their own plan.

It does say, again, that this is just symbolic, but it does -- the resolution does say that the idea that this should not be an open- ended commitment in Iraq and that the Iraqis should stand up for themselves before the U.S. sends more troops there.

But I can tell you, Fredricka, what is perhaps most interesting is not necessarily what's happening with the Democrats who now control Congress but how the Republicans, the president's own party, they continue to break off from him.

We saw, as we were just talking about, one senator, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, come out and say out that he stood with those Democrats, saying that he supports a resolution opposing the president. There are about eight Republican senators who have publicly opposed the president.

And what many of them are now doing is trying to come up with their own measure, their own resolution. For example, Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota just told us in the last hour that they don't support what the Democrats are doing because of some of the language in there they see as too partisan, perhaps.

But they do feel -- these are Republican senators -- that it is still important to send the president, their own president, a message that the idea of sending more troops is just wrong. So they are actually working on their own measure that they hope to take up for a vote on the Senate floor, essentially to say to the president, "We think you're wrong." Republicans.

This is quite a different world here on Capitol Hill.

WHITFIELD: It is indeed. All right. As was the promise going into this congressional session. Thanks so much.

BASH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Dana Bash.

Well, no slack for President Bush from Iraqi prime minister Nuri al Maliki either. In a series of interviews, the Iraqi leader says Washington failed to provide enough equipment for Iraqi security forces. He says the failure has cost American lives. As quoted by "The Washington Post," al-Maliki says if the U.S. provides more and better weapons for his forces, Iraq's need for American troops would dramatically drop in three to six months.

Also today, the Iraqi leader is quoted as slamming Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for criticizing the manner of Saddam Hussein's execution. Maliki says that criticism boosts the morale of the terrorists.

LEMON: And Al Maliki's criticism is being heard and addressed in Washington. Here's CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Don.

Well, you know, one of the questions for many Americans is why should we care about what the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki says? The reason is very clear.

For Washington, all of the Bush administration's hopes, now, really pinned on al-Maliki getting a handle on the violence in Iraq, getting control over those militias that are causing so much of the sectarian violence, making it clear that he controls the Iraqi government.

That has been one of the key problems. And all the troops in the world, all the U.S. troops in the world, aren't going to fix any of it, officials believe, unless it can be demonstrated that Maliki is in control.

So this interview now that he has given to the international print press corps and to wire services is being very closely scrutinized. Already, the official government spokesman is saying, well, Maliki didn't quite say it that way.

But press accounts indicate that the prime minister, indeed, is saying that he is critical of the U.S. for not providing sufficient equipment and training for his security force, that if the U.S. had done that, he says, the violence would not be as dire as it is right now.

Administration officials are noting privately this is something Maliki has spoken about in the past, and they are noting his remarks that apparently he believes U.S. troops could begin to leave the country in significant numbers in two to three months. But again, that is only if there's a real handle on the violence and that prime minister can prove that he's in control of his country -- Don.

LEMON: And, Barbara, it's not the first time that he's spoken out. Very recently, he said he would much rather be helping his country in some other way than with this -- than in his capacity now?

STARR: You know, he's in a really tough position. This is a man who really has a coalition that is across the board in Iraq and, of course, much of his power rests with the fact that the militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr is key to keeping Maliki in power.

So he is continuing to walk that fine, difficult line between, you know, being somewhat loyal to the Shia that put him in power, but also trying to meet the U.S. demand now that he crack down.

Because the U.S. -- President Bush has made it very clear, at least in Washington's view, that that troop surge over the next five months or so is going to depend on seeing real progress in Iraq and that if the Iraqis don't step up to the plate, if they don't put more troops in Baghdad and really begin to control things, the U.S. troops aren't going to show up either, that that might be a real problem.

So, again, all of it, now, really rests on Maliki trying to prove to the international community that he can control his country -- Don.

LEMON: CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, not a state has been spared in a week of winter storms. North Georgia and the Carolinas getting a taste of winter today with a coating of snow and ice. It was enough to close a few schools there.

And then there was the West Coast. A surprise snowfall had folks in Malibu, of all places, grabbing their cameras and throwing snowballs. No kidding. It hasn't snowed there in almost 20 years.

Only now is Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles reopening. You remember the pictures from yesterday.

And then take a work at McAlester, Oklahoma, iced over for a week now, most homes still without power and another storm is on the way.

So how soon will it get there and how bad might it be? Reynolds Wolf tracking it in our severe weather center.

I feel for all the folks in Oklahoma and nearby.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot. Well, that last image, pretty fierce. But at the same time, it was pretty.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No question, double-edged sword for you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Reynolds -- Don.

LEMON: We want to get you to the White House now. Tony Snow is holding a briefing talking about al Maliki's comment that Washington failed to provide enough equipment for Iraqi security forces. He's talking about that now.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... considered probably worth making -- with at least three more.

No. 1, Barham Sali (ph), who is pointing out -- who is Kurdish, made the point that the oil law is close to completion, and he hopes for a date on a vote on that very soon.

Secondly, you had Iyad Allawi. He was one of the original promoters of de-Ba'athification, talking about importance of pursuing reforms in the de-Ba'athification laws so that people who were at lower levels of government employment when Saddam was in power -- teachers, civil servants and the like -- can get jobs, can vote, and can have full participation in the society.

Also reports that the second of two brigades making its way from the north toward Baghdad. So there's a lot of progress in a number of areas.

The prime minister obviously -- sometimes reacts also to the tone of comments that are made in the United States. But the one thing that's clear is that he understands on the basis of his conversations with the president and with the ambassador, with combatant commanders, that we're committed to success in Iraq. And we define -- both sides are defining it the same way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what specific -- his displeasure with the borrowed time comment? And clearly, you all in the last week or so have been trying to walk a fine line. You want to telegraph to both Maliki and to the American public that patience is not going to last forever. At the same time, Secretary Rice has made clear, and others have made clear, we can't push too hard. So have you gone too far in...

SNOW: I don't think so. Take a -- I think what's interesting is the volume of action that's taken place in the last couple of weeks.

And interestingly, if you listen to congressional critics. We want these things to happen. We want political progress, for instance. That's been cited by a number of the critics of the president's proposal.

Well, guess what? Political progress has taken place. And on arguably, the two most important fronts, which are the hydrocarbon law, sharing oil and natural gas revenues, and also opening up society, full participation rights, to people who, in order to be employed when Saddam was in power, had to be members of the Ba'ath Party and therefore have been shut out. They are going to have those opportunities, as well.

You've seen increased military activities, such as the actions on Haifa Street last week. You also now have the reports on the Mehdi Army, which I think reassures a lot of people in terms of going after Shia militias. You have the reports of the two brigades moving down from the north.

So for people who have said we need to see action on the part of the Iraqis, you've seen it, and I think it's encouraging.

LEMON: White House spokesman Tony Snow addressing some comments made by the Iraqi leader, Nuri al-Maliki, saying that if more troops, more equipment, had been sent in, then things may be better now in Iraq and that more is going to be needed in order for the president to get those troop levels up and to get the situation under control within the amount of time that he is planning to announce when he does his State of the Union come next week.

We want to tell you, if you want to continue to watch, that press conference is going to continue to go on, that briefing, rather. It will be on CNN Pipeline. So you can go to CNN.com and look up "pipeline" and it should be there for you.

Let's move on now and talk about the missing boys. The missing son, home at last. The parents of Shawn Hornbeck share their emotional story on national television. What did they tell Oprah about Shawn's four-year ordeal? That is ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: And a California mom dies after competing in a radio contest. Now police want to know why the D.J.'s laughed off warnings and the victim's own complaint. The NEWSROOM follows up on an outrage.

LEMON: An element of danger. Deadly mercury is spilled inside an L.A. subway station. Was it a terror attack dry run or a peculiar incident? Well -- or accident, rather. Up next in the NEWSROOM, a heavy metal mystery. We'll tell you about that. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: What started as a radio contest in Sacramento, California, is now a homicide investigation. Jennifer Strange, a 28- year-old mother of three, was one of 18 contestants trying to win a Nintendo WII video game. The contestants had to drink as much water as they could without going to the bathroom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jennifer, I heard that you're not doing too well.

JENNIFER STRANGE, RADIO CONTESTANT: My head hurts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aw.

STRANGE: They keep telling me that it's the water, that it will tell my head to hurt and then it will make me puke, but I...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who told you that, the intern?

STRANGE: Yes. It kind of makes you -- it hurts that it makes you feel light headed so I'm not sure if I'm just like...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what it feels like when you're drowning. There's a lot of water inside of you.

STRANGE: Oh. It hurts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, Jennifer Strange died shortly after the contest of water intoxication. Police are investigating whether criminal negligence may have been involved since deejays were warned of the possible outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to say that those people that are drinking all that water can get sick and possibly die from water intoxication.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're aware of that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they signed releases so we're not responsible, it's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if they get to the point where they have to throw up, then they're going to throw up and they're out of the contest before they die. So that's good, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, the radio station's parent company has fired ten employees connected to this contest.

LEMON: For months, Andre Waters' suicide has baffled friends, family and the National Football League. But now a leading expert in forensic pathology may have some answers.

Doctor Bennet Omalu says Waters' brain resembles that of an 85- year-old man in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. He attributes the damage to the numerous concussions Waters suffered in his football career.

Waters once told a reporter he stopped counting his concussions after 15.

None of this may ever have come to light if it wasn't for Chris Nowinski. He's a former Harvard football player and professional wrestler who's had so many concussions he had to find a new career.

And we'll tell you what part he played in the Andre Waters revelation. You won't believe this. He's going to join us for a live interview in our 3 p.m. Eastern hour.

WHITFIELD: And big oil over a barrel? Congress sets its sights on an energy package that could cost the oil and gas industry billions while funding alternative fuel options.

Pull in at the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll fill you up with the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Are oil subsidies drying up in Congress? House Democrats plan to scrap billions of dollars in tax breaks in the name of renewable energy.

Our Ali Velshi joins us now, live from New York with more. Explain, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred.

This is No. 6 of the six things that this Congress wants to do before the 100 hours. This one is interesting.

When companies -- when oil companies drill for oil and, like the Gulf of Mexico, they don't own that land that they're drilling under the sea. They lease it from the government.

Well, back in the '90s oil was pretty cheap. It was about $11 a barrel. And drilling for oil and exploring for oil in water is expensive. So in order to keep the oil companies from going elsewhere to drill, the government gave them this royalty relief. They didn't have to pay the government royalties until oil got above, say, $30 a barrel.

A few of those leases that were written in 1988 -- 1998 and 1999, through what the government says is a clerical error, didn't contain the clause that said that when oil goes back up, these companies have to start paying again.

So now we have this problem that these companies in perpetuity, with oil at $50 a barrel now, but it was as high as $78, they're not paying royalties to the government.

Well, the Democrats are trying to repeal that. They're trying to get those royalties back. A few of the companies have agreed to pay royalties from here on in but not the back pay. That's cost the government about $2 billion.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

VELSHI: The other things that they're trying to do is impose a conservation fee on all the oil that's brought out of deep water wells under the -- under the sea. And they're trying to scrap some tax breaks that were not meant for the oil industry that were passed in 2004.

They were meant from keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States, but the oil industry ended up gaining between three-quarters- of-a-billion and $1 billion out of that. So there's sort of three parts to this whole thing. The government is moving against the oil industry. The oil industry is saying, don't do that because you guys need the oil that we drill for.

WHITFIELD: All because of a very costly mistake, a mistake that may have cost about $2 billion. That's pretty big. So assuming the House passes this measure, then when might the Senate have it?

VELSHI: Well, here, there's a couple problems here. One is...

WHITFIELD: Or should we even make that assumption?

VELSHI: That's the thing, do we know that the Senate will pass this? And the White House has said there are things in it, like that that break, that inadvertent tax break that they got. Even the oil industry is not really battling that one; they know that they're going to have to give that one back.

But these contract, the oil industry is saying, these are contracts, they are legal, and if you guys start putting too much pressure on us, we'll go drill for our oil elsewhere.

I don't know that it's going to get all the way through in the form that it passes the House now, but it's definitely part of the Democrats' stand on taking a tough position against Big Oil.

WHITFIELD: Ali Velshi, thanks so much.

VELSHI: See you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And of course you can always watch both the House and the Senate sessions from Capitol Hill, streamed live on CNN pipeline. Go to CNN.com/pipeline.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips.

What was a man doing with deadly mercury at an L.A. subway station? And why did he call the cops to report it? Investigators still haven't found the culprit, and they can't figure out what all of this means. We're following the story from the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: At the bottom of the hour and we start with that story. A dry run for a terror attack, or just an odd and hard to explain accident? Well, last month, an L.A. subway camera spotted a man spilling mercury on a train platform, and police have serious questions for him, if they can find him.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick is standing by for us in New York.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, finding him is what they want now. Four weeks after that mercury spill on the Los Angeles subway in response to numerous inquiries by CNN, the FBI is now asking the public for help finding the man who spilled the hazardous material. They want to question him to determine whether or not this was a terrorist incident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do these pictures mean? Especially in a post-9/11 world when what appears ordinary may be the key to a future terror attack?

This surveillance video obtained exclusively by CNN shows the Pershing Square subway station in Los Angeles late Friday before Christmas. A man in a brown jacket crouches on the platform and spills a silvery liquid from a small bottle.

An accident? Maybe. Except the liquid turns out to be mercury. About five fluid ounces.

KEN ROBINSON, TERRORISM EXPERT: Doesn't make sense. The only thing that does make sense is to find him and interrogate him.

FEYERICK (on camera): The fact it doesn't make sense, is that what bothers you the most?

ROBINSON: Yes. Because the -- he's got a heavy metal, and he's taking it into a subway. There's no good reason to do that. None.

FEYERICK: Ken Robinson, a terrorism expert who worked intelligence in the Pentagon, has analyzed hundreds of al Qaeda tapes for CNN.

When you look at this incident, do you think in your mind that this is a dry run for a terror attack?

ROBINSON: I for sure think that it should be treated as if it is.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Mercury, found in thermometers is dangerous when swallowed, but spilling it would have no immediate toxic effect. That's one reason the L.A. County sheriff's department, in charge of the investigation, believes the spill was likely an accident. Also, the man who spilled it placed a call moments after from a call box alerting authorities.

STEVE WHITMORE, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: At this point, we are relatively confident it is not a credible threat.

FEYERICK: But a 2005 joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin warns terrorists may make calls to test police reaction.

In the case of the spilled mercury, according to the hazmat cleanup report read to CNN, law enforcement did not respond for a full eight hours. Pat D'Amuro, now a CNN analyst, was a top FBI counterterrorism agent. He says it's premature to rule out terror.

PAT D'AMURO, GIULIANI SECURITY AND SAFETY: I'm not saying that in this video these individuals are terrorists but there's some very strange activity that needs to be identified here.

FEYERICK: The sheriff who oversees the investigation, sent out an alert to be on the lookout for a man described as white or Middle Eastern, wanted in connection with a possible act of terror. Four weeks later, the FBI in Los Angeles sent out its own bulletin, saying the man is still wanted for questioning in connection with unexplained activity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now several law enforcement people we spoke with said the intelligence really should have been shared more widely, more quickly, so that authorities at the federal, state and local levels could have analyzed it independently -- Don.

LEMON: And, Deb, obviously a lot of questions here. One of which, why did it take them eight hours to respond and to clean it up?

FEYERICK: Well, we spoke to the commander this morning from the sheriff's department, and he says that is one of the things that is under investigation. Al Qaeda and terrorist organizations tend to do a lot of surveillance. They want to know how authorities are going to respond. One of the experts we spoke to said that the lack of response gave that person a lot of information if, in fact, it was a terror act, but they just don't know for sure, and they're not going to know until they find that person. And, again, it's how you analyze the information. It may look innocent, it may be innocent, or it may be something more sinister.

LEMON: It's kind of amazing, Deb. You know, you're thinking this whole, like, "CSI" sort of thing. Very clear picture of this person. They also have his voice, a voice recognition -- you just wonder why. If you look at the surveillance video, it looks like it's -- you know, I can make out who he was if I saw him. You just wonder why -- what's the holdup in finding this person?

FEYERICK: Well, also, his actions are very deliberate and some of the counterterror people that we spoke with say that that is very concerning. He doesn't stop. He doesn't pause. He just bends over.

And one theory is that he may have even been recording the spill from a device on the belt. So a lot of things to consider, a lot of things to think about, just to rule out terror.

LEMON: Yes, this is very interesting. Deborah Feyerick, thank you for bringing us that story.

WHITFIELD: They came, they saw, they added their culture to the U.S. melting pot -- the Vietnamese-American experience. Special coverage straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, the story of America is the story of immigrants. A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington will focus on one of the more recent chapters. Exit Saigon, enter Little Saigon. It's a look at the Vietnamese refugees who begin arriving in the mid-1970s.

As a young girl, our own Betty Nguyen was one of those refugees. Tonight, she will host a reception in the exhibit's honor. But first Betty joins us now from Washington.

Good to see you, Betty. This is near and dear to your heart.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Fred.

It truly is. And this exhibit is really a real source of significance and importance within the Vietnamese-American community. And to really understand how important it truly is, you have to look back at our history.

You mentioned I was a little girl. In fact, I was just a baby when we fled Vietnam to this country. And, ironically, it is war that brought us here. Today, we stand very proud as Vietnamese-Americans, but let's take a look back first.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): America's involvement in Vietnam spanned two decades and five presidents. It began in the mid-1950s with the fall of France's colonial empire in Indochina. The man who led the fight against France, Ho Chi Minh, ran a Communist government in North Vietnam.

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower backed an anti-Communist government in South Vietnam. An election that was supposed to unify the country never took place, and in 1960, opponents of the U.S.- backed government in the south formed the National Liberation Front.

U.S. officials said it was a front all right, not for liberation but for a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. They called the NLF the Viet Cong short for Vietnam Communists. At first, the U.S. response was limited. President John F. Kennedy sent weapons and military advisers.

The turning point came in 1964 amid report of a North Vietnamese attack on two U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although details of that incident remain murky to this day, Congress responded by giving President Lyndon Johnson broad war powers.

The result was a steady increase of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and a steady escalation of war protest in America. Many Americans turned against the war in 1968, after the Tet Offensive raised questions about whether the U.S. could win.

But it would take seven more years for U.S. involvement in Vietnam to end completely. Faced with growing anti-war sentiment, President Richard Nixon gradually reduced U.S. troop strength, and hoped that with U.S. aid, the South Vietnamese government could continue to fight on its own.

But in April 1975, South Vietnam collapsed. The last U.S. president in the Vietnam War, Gerald Ford, ordered the remaining U.S. troops and other U.S. personnel to leave. The result was a scene of chaos, as supporters of the fallen government descended on the U.S. embassy, pleading to be evacuated. Some tried to climb over the walls.

In what's been called the largest helicopter evacuation in history, Marine choppers carried thousands of Americans and Vietnamese citizens to aircraft carriers in the South China Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NGUYEN: Now, that exodus led to 130,000 Vietnamese-Americans landing on American soil. Today, there are nearly two million Vietnamese-Americans in the U.S., and one of them is the curator of this exhibit, Dr. Vu Pham, who join us now.

To me, this exhibit really exemplifies what we have done in this country, not only the sacrifices but also the accomplishments. What does it mean to you?

VU PHAM, CURATOR: Well, thanks for having me, Betty.

Yes, I think it -- to me personally, it means three areas, which is the challenges that we face as a community, the contributions we've given to America, and the change -- how we've changed America, and we've changed what the face of it means to be in America, as well as Americans changing us. We're no longer Vietnamese, we're Vietnamese- American.

NGUYEN: That is very true. So on top of that though, you can't put one of these together overnight. What did it take to get to this point?

PHAM: Oh.

NGUYEN: Because this is the first of its kind.

PHAM: Oh, absolutely. So this took -- before I even came in, the Vietnamese community fundraised money and they brought me in. And this took over two years to put together and about $500,000. And we are continuing to fundraise. We're trying to hit a $1 million mark so we've been doing very well, and it's taken a lot of work coordinating the community.

NGUYEN: A lot of hard work, and it's a really amazing exhibit. We got a chance to walk through it just a little bit earlier. I want you to take a look at some of the highlights of this new exhibit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHAM: This is a refugee that typically was during the boat person exodus, so actually post-1975. And this was -- we tried to replicate a common situation where someone had a very small cot to stay in. They had to hang dry their clothing. And, on top of that, they might have had a small, little wash bin, which is actually behind our display. So they were very sparse environments.

NGUYEN: And this really does have a lot of meaning, because we were talking -- not only did my family have to go through three different refugee camps, so did your family. This is something many Vietnamese-Americans have experienced firsthand. This is a part of the history of coming to this country.

PHAM: Right, and it's so important. And, actually, we incidentally came to the same camps, right? Camp Pendleton?

NGUYEN: Yes, Camp Pendleton. PHAM: Yes, so what's important, if you start to look over here -- maybe if we could back up a little bit, if that's OK. These were actually the refugee camps in the U.S., so these -- or actually, more correctly, these were resettlement camps. Camp Pendleton, Fort Chaffee, Fort Indiantown Gap and Eglin Air Force Base were the four in the U.S.

NGUYEN: And then we have really a tribute to the boat people, because the sacrifice with the boat people has been so tremendous. Not only were they having to be at sea for so long, a lot of them lost their lives trying to come to this country.

PHAM: Yes. It's estimated -- the estimates vary wildly from the hundreds of thousands to, some say, close to 2 million, died at sea. And here's an actual photo of someone who perished with the -- as part of this trip here.

NGUYEN: Not only that, but there are many other things featured in this exhibit. Dr. Pham, talk to me about the significance of the people that you featured here.

PHAM: Oh, sure. And we have some people who have contributed greatly to change the face of America.

NGUYEN: We have Astronauts, we have professional football players...

PHAM: The co-author of the PATRIOT Act. We have the designer of the Ford Mustang, 40th anniversary addition. And we have, for our viewers -- you actually, the first Vietnamese-American news anchor. So, we have to -- I know you're being modest, but we want to highlight that, as well as fashion designers, that have been worn by celebrities.

NGUYEN: And I think that the key to all this is that if you really think about it, Vietnamese-Americans have only been in this country for just a little over 30 years. So to see this accomplishments in such a short amount of time is just something that is a great source of pride within the Vietnamese-American community.

And we're so exhibit excited about this exhibit, Fred, not only does it tell our story, but on top of that, it is the first of its kind. And besides being here at the Smithsonian after it runs through March, it will tour the country for three years.

So if you don't get a chance to come up to Washington and see it you'll get to see if in your town somewhere.

WHITFIELD: Oh, Betty, it's fascinating. And I know you are being modest just as Dr. Pham said. You are the first Vietnamese- American network anchor. And that's one of the reasons why you're being showcased there.

But we also have some great pictures that are also part of the exhibit to help document what your journey, your family's journey was like. Talk us through it. NGUYEN: Yes. You know, it's really a journey of struggle. And that's one of the words that really comes up a lot is the struggle. Because many Vietnamese-Americans -- we call them Vietnamese-Americans now because that's what we truly are. We stand proudly as Americans.

But where we come from, a time of war. And to come to a new country, an unknown, a new language, a new culture, it's all so different. But in this country, we really made it our own.

And that's why when we talk about the latter part of the exhibit, when you hear the stories, the people who have come from, really, nothing, and risen to great, great areas, in any particular field, it's really a source of pride. So it's a great exhibit. There's a lot to see here. And hopefully folks can come on out.

WHITFIELD: All right. Right there at the Smithsonian Institution in the mall in Washington. Betty Nguyen, thanks so much.

LEMON: Pawns in the deadly violence in Iraq.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They said he was screaming the whole time I am booby trapped, I am booby trapped.

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LEMON: Innocent Iraqis kidnapped and forced to be suicide bombers. One family's chilling story straight ahead right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: So you're driving on snow and ice and your wheels start to do pretty scary things. What do you do?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you'd make yourself look somewhere else almost instinctively, your hands and your feet will figure it out and help you get to where you want to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look away from the bad stuff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look away from the bad stuff.

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WHITFIELD: And people, don't slam on the brakes. That's always a big mistake. Driving tips that could save your life straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

LEMON: And you don't like the weather here, well, it really blows in Europe, literally. From beyond breezy in Britain to an actual hurricane headed for Germany. The overseas storm report, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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