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Rules of Engagement Change For Coalition Forces in Iraq; Missing 6-Year-Old Girl Found Alive

Aired January 26, 2007 - 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, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Don Lemon.

Were four U.S. soldiers killed by kidnappers, or did they die in the heat of the of the battle? A disturbing twist to a deadly raid in Karbala.

PHILLIPS: Plus: going underground. Whether it's to catch illegal immigrants or drug dealers, it's a nasty and dangerous job.

LEMON: Plus this: wrongly imprisoned for years, and finally set free. We will talk about starting over with a man who has been there.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Good news at the top of the hour out of Maricopa, Arizona. A 6-year-old girl that was allegedly taken by a registered sex offender is found.

Fredricka Whitfield working the latest on this now from the newsroom -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, good news, indeed, that the 6-year-old has been located.

Now, apparently, she was located about 21 miles southwest of Maricopa, Arizona, the place of her residence, where she was allegedly abducted early this morning while she was still wearing her pajamas. It took place at about 8:00 a.m.

And, apparently, according to authorities, she was found walking in a neighborhood 21 miles southeast of her neighborhood. However, the search continues now for the man who allegedly abducted her, 26- year-old George Richard Horner, who is believed to be a family friend. He's described as having been in a green or blue 1993 Nissan Pathfinder with a Louisiana license plate, the license plate being PKL-399.

I still give you that information, because authorities continue to look for him. It had been the scenario that police had been expressing that possibly he was on his way to Lafayette, Louisiana. He's from Louisiana, where he is, indeed, a registered sex offender. The search continues for him.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: The good news, that the 6-year-old girl has been located, and presumably will be reunited with her family.

PHILLIPS: Fred, we're going to straight to Maricopa, Arizona. A reporter actually is interviewing law enforcement there.

Let's listen in.

CHRIS VASQUEZ, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA, SHERIFF: Olivia and her mom will be reunited here, hopefully in the next five to 10 minutes, however long it takes to get from Casa Grande to here.

COURTNEY ZUBOWSKI, REPORTER: Can you tell me the circumstances? Obviously abducted from her home around 8:00 this morning, but, about 30 minutes ago, you started getting some phone calls here?

VASQUEZ: Basically, just kind of recap what happened, Mr. Horner is the live-in boyfriend of the mom. He was supposed to be dropping her off, I just learned, at school. She never showed up to school. She never arrived to school when she was supposed to.

We also had information -- or a witness, a neighbor across the street saw him loading the child up in the vehicle, in the back seat of the vehicle in a hurried manner, and then leave the scene, squealing tires in a very hurried, panic state, because, with that and not showing up at school, like she should have been, the fact he's a registered sex offender, and we knew he was going to go on his way back to Louisiana today, necessitated us to initiate an Amber Alert.

We received many phone calls from witnesses or from people with sightings, and a lot of them in the area of where we -- we found the young girl. So, we believe that he also knew about the Amber Alert, became worried or scared, and he dropped the child off in a residential neighborhood, and then drove away.

ZUBOWSKI: And you're still looking for him this afternoon?

VASQUEZ: Absolutely. We have a -- there is a valid warrant for his arrest, minimum right now for kidnapping, or child abduction. And then, once we interview the child, and find out what other crimes that may -- he may have committed, then those will be added on to that.

ZUBOWSKI: All right, Sheriff Chris Vasquez with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, thank you very much.

VASQUEZ: Thank you.

ZUBOWSKI: And, again, in just a few short minutes here...

PHILLIPS: All right, that was perfect timing, as we had just reported that that 6-year-old girl, Olivia Alvarez, was found alive. We were able to go to one of our affiliates there out of Arizona. And she was able to conduct a live interview with Sheriff Chris Vasquez, talking about this man, George Richard Horner. Apparently, he was the live-in boyfriend to this little girl's mother there in their home in Maricopa, Arizona. Something seemed odd, according to witnesses and neighbors. He shuffled the young girl into his car. She did not go to school. Next thing you know, the Amber Alert is issued, and the hunt is on for this registered sex offender out of Louisiana who was living with this little 6-year-old girl and her mother in Maricopa, Arizona.

The little girl is safe and sound, but the sheriff as you heard is still looking for this man, George Richard Horner, 26 years old, believed to be driving either a green or blue Nissan Pathfinder with Louisiana plates PKL-399.

Once again, sheriff's deputies there in Maricopa, Arizona, need your help trying to find this man, 26-year-old George Richard Horner, after he, according to the sheriff there, abducted 6-year-old Olivia Alvarez. He's a registered sex offender. He's still on the loose.

LEMON: Now to the situation in Iraq, new, different, far more disturbing, the latest military account of how several U.S. soldiers died this week south of Baghdad.

Straight to the Pentagon and CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

Jamie, you just heard the defense secretary, Robert Gates, speak. What did he have to say?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Secretary Gates said he is just learning about the discrepancies between the original account put out back on January 20 and the new details that we heard on sources this morning and have now been officially released by the U.S. military.

And they give a much more disturbing and graphic account of what happened in that sneak attack against an Iraqi government facility where U.S. military personnel were staging a security meeting.

And, according to a press release from the U.S. military issued in Iraq, the scenario went something like this. The insurgence, or militants, dressed in American uniforms and using American SUVs, were able to get into the facility. A gunfight ensued. They were able to -- they killed one American soldier, wounded three others with a hand grenade, and then were able to abduct four soldiers, and took off.

At that point, they passed through another Iraqi checkpoint, but the Iraqis at that checkpoint became suspicious and followed the vehicles. The vehicles were later found in nearby Babil Province. In one of the cars, they found two of the American soldiers handcuffed together and shot to death. In another vehicle, they found another American -- outside one of the vehicles, they found another American shot to death.

And a fourth American soldier was found with a gunshot wound to the head, very serious condition. He died en route to the hospital. The Iraqi security people were rushing him to the hospital when he died. So, it's not the case, as was originally reported, that they died in a gunfight at the provisional office there where the meeting was going on. In fact, this daring, audacious attack against the United States succeeded in abducting four U.S. soldiers. And then they were killed at some point after that -- Don.

LEMON: And, Jamie, you know, much has been made over these resolutions to be voted on next week. Did Secretary Gates address any of the concerns about those resolutions, about troop surge in Iraq?

MCINTYRE: He said, as many people have said, that those kind of congressional resolutions would simply embolden the enemy, I believe is the phrase he used in his first sit-down meeting with reporters at the Pentagon.

Secretary Gates made the point that he wanted to do things in a different way than his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who was noted for his Pentagon briefings. Instead, he invited reporters into a smaller room, a dining room near his office, sat down at a table and discussed a wide range of issues for about half-an-hour or so.

He talked about that resolution. He also talked about -- Don, about the possibility of accelerating the deployment of those additional five brigades to Iraq. That is something that General Petraeus has asked for, for those troops to be sent as soon as possible -- Don.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I think it's pretty clear that a resolution that, in effect, says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: And, again, regarding troops in Iraq, Secretary Gates says he is going to wait until General Petraeus gets there to see if any additional forces are needed.

But, frankly, privately, sources in the military say the U.S. doesn't have a whole lot more troops to send to Iraq, even -- unless they were needed for an absolute emergency -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Jamie McIntyre, at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

PHILLIPS: A new commander for coalition forces in Iraq and new rules of engagement for insurgents who come from Iran: capture or kill.

More on those fronts from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

So, why have the rules of engagement changed? SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, this is really interesting, because the president really issued a stern warning to Iran -- this was two weeks ago -- that address when he talked about his new Iraq policy, saying, we will interrupt the flow of support; we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq, a clear signal, a sign that the U.S. is going to get tough.

Now, why all this tough language, as well as tough action? That is because U.S. officials say that they have evidence that Iranian agents have been supplying weapons to Iraqi militia, that they have been helping train them, and that the situation in Iraq, quite frankly, is dire. There is also a political component to this as well, Kyra.

That is that Iran has been defiant, defiant against U.S. demands and U.N. sanctions to give up its nuclear program, a program the Bush administration believes is being used to actually build weapons, as well as explosives, that kind of thing.

And, so, what you're seeing here is tough talk and tough action from the president. But a lot of people here, a lot of discussion over whether or not it's provocative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goal or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them.

It's an obligation we all have, is to protect our folks and achieve our goal. Now, some are trying to say that, because we're enforcing, helping ourselves in Iraq by stopping outside influence from killing those soldiers or hurting Iraqi people, that we want to expand this beyond the borders. That's a presumption that simply is not accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, Kyra, that is, of course, the fine line the Bush administration is walking here, trying to demonstrate that they are getting tough with Iran, but, at the same time, trying to send the message here that, look, they are not trying to engage in any kind of war with Iraq's neighbors -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And senators already responding to this?

MALVEAUX: Oh, absolutely. We have seen a lot of response. From the Iranians themselves, they say, this is not helpful. We heard from the Iraqi foreign minister on CNN earlier, saying, look, he doesn't believe it's a blank order to kill all Iranians.

But, certainly, the Democrats are using this as another example, another sign, they believe, to show that President Bush is, indeed, escalating the conflict. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: We want the American troops protected in Iraq. Whatever it takes to protect them is something we're certainly interested in.

But, for the president to escalate this conflict outside of Iraq is something he has to come back and ask us permission to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, Kyra, just to make clear here. The president, we heard earlier today, saying that that conflict was not going to cross the border into Iran, that the fighting would take place within Iraq.

It is far from clear, Kyra, whether or not any of this is going to work.

PHILLIPS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, live from the White House, thanks.

And a surprise visit and all-too-familiar violence in Baghdad today -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a seven-member congressional delegation. They and Iraq's prime minister talked about troop strength, training schedules and timelines to a handover. Like all such visits, this one wasn't announced until the group arrived.

LEMON: And a story we have been following here in the NEWSROOM: An Amber Alert ends in Arizona. A 6-year-old girl, she is found alive, but the suspect is still on the loose -- details on this developing story next.

PHILLIPS: Securing Afghanistan -- the Bush administration wants billions more dollars and thousands more troops -- details coming up in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Attention, Northeast: Brutal cold is on the march, in case you hadn't already noticed that. How low will it go? Only the severe Weather Center knows for sure. So, make sure you stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, Fredricka, at last check, the little girl was found, but a suspect was still on the loose in that Amber Alert?

WHITFIELD: That's right.

And we understand that, any minute now, that 6-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted early this morning from her own home in Maricopa, Arizona, is to be reunited with her mother.

Now, apparently, the alleged abductor is the boyfriend of the mother. He is 26-year-old George Richard Horner. Police continue to look for him. He is believed to be in a green or a blue 1993 Nissan Pathfinder with Louisiana license plates. He is a registered sex offender in Louisiana. The plate is PKL-399. Now, the Pinal County sheriff, Chris Vasquez, explained all of what took place just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VASQUEZ: We received many phone calls from witnesses or from people with sightings, and a lot of them in the area of where we found the young girl. So, we believe that he also knew about the Amber Alert, became worried or scared, and he dropped the child off in a residential neighborhood, and then drove away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And, so, someone saw that little girl just walking in that neighborhood, which is about 21 miles southwest of Maricopa, her home address. And, thankfully, perhaps as a result of the Amber Alert and some very astute passersby, this little girl was picked up by authorities, where now we understand, any moment now, she will be reunited with her mother.

LEMON: And I'm seeing there on the screen, Fredricka, it looks like that he knew about the Amber Alert, and that is why he may have dropped the little girl off?

WHITFIELD: Well, you heard the sheriff say that it's possible that he knew of the Amber Alert.

LEMON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And you know, when you drive the vehicle...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And, Fredricka, I want to cut you off. We're going to go -- this is the -- I believe to be the mother.

Sorry about that.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GLENNA ALVAREZ, MOTHER: ... my daughter was kidnapped by a man. And I don't really have a whole lot of information to give you, but she's found. And that is the most important thing right now.

QUESTION: What do you know about Mr. Horner?

ALVAREZ: I'm not at liberty to say right now.

QUESTION: We were told that he was your boyfriend. Is that correct?

ALVAREZ: Oh, no.

(LAUGHTER)

ALVAREZ: Definitely not. There was no involvement whatsoever. He's friend of a good friend of mine.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Did you know that he was a sex offender?

(CROSSTALK)

ALVAREZ: I did not know that, or else he would not have been a hundred million miles near my house.

QUESTION: You talked to Olivia on the phone just a few minutes ago?

ALVAREZ: Yes.

QUESTION: What did she say? What did you all talk about?

ALVAREZ: I just told her that I loved her. And she said she loves me and can't wait to see me. And she wants me. So...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What happened today?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... Mr. Horner right now?

ALVAREZ: What is that?

QUESTION: Any message for Mr. Horner right now?

ALVAREZ: Oh, no. No, no, no. Hopefully, they are in real close pursuit into catching him.

QUESTION: What happened today?

ALVAREZ: Basically, in a nutshell, he was taking my daughter to school for me, and got a strange gut feeling, found out that she never approached school grounds.

And, from then on, I called the police, and they went -- Pinal County Sheriff went into action immediately. And thanks to them and their great efforts, this information has gone out to everyone. And there's a wonderful woman -- I don't know her name, but she lives in Casa Grande -- and she found my daughter walking down the street.

QUESTION: What would you like to say to her?

ALVAREZ: I would like to say to you, thank you so much. I don't know if you're a mother, but I really appreciate you finding my daughter and giving me the opportunity to have her back in my life.

QUESTION: Your thoughts on the Amber Alert system?

ALVAREZ: That's all that I was asking about this morning to the sheriff. Is it on? Is it on? Is it on? Because I know how wonderful that is. I know that, when I see it, that I'm immediately looking around for that person. So, the Amber Alert is one of the best things that has ever happened to this country.

QUESTION: Olivia has already obviously been alone with him before. Now knowing what you know about him, that must be so concerning to you.

ALVAREZ: I really don't find it concerning. My daughter is very smart and very outspoken. And I feel, if something like this would have happened, I have educated her very well from a very early age. I feel like she would have shared something like that with me. I feel very strongly about that. I'm not worried about that.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: How is she doing?

(CROSSTALK)

ALVAREZ: She is -- at this point, I have -- I'm on my way to see her. She is doing as well as can be expected. And she is her normal, cheery, happy self.

QUESTION: With him being a sex offender, he is still out there on loose. How does that make you feel?

ALVAREZ: I have the most -- utmost confidence that he's going to be caught. So, I feel good. No worries right now.

QUESTION: Is there anything about him that ever made you suspicious?

ALVAREZ: No, nothing, nothing, nothing at all. But, then again, people like that are sick and demented, and have ways of disguising their real behavior.

QUESTION: So, when you asked him to take her to school today, you had no idea of his background?

ALVAREZ: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. And that's my fault for having a good heart and trusting, and trusting a friend that assured me that he was a good person.

And I don't hold her responsible for this, because she didn't know. But it just makes me think a little bit differently about people in this world.

QUESTION: Message to other parents out there?

ALVAREZ: No. Common sense, I guess. Just don't trust anybody.

QUESTION: OK.

QUESTION: Can you give the spelling of your name, please?

ALVAREZ: G-L-E-N-N-A.

QUESTION: What is your first name?

QUESTION: Glenna.

ALVAREZ: Glenna.

QUESTION: Glenna?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Glenna what?

ALVAREZ: Alvarez.

LEMON: OK. Glenn Alvarez is the mother of 6-year-old Olivia Alvarez. Apparently, the child has been found. Glenna has not been reunited, she said, thus far with Olivia. But police do have her in custody. They found the little girl dropped off in a neighboring area, where she went missing from, from where she went missing.

So, that is that -- you're looking there at the suspect, 26-year- old George Richard Horner, who is still on the loose.

Now, according to the sheriff, Sheriff Chris Vasquez -- Was that his name, Kyra? -- Chris Vasquez.

PHILLIPS: The -- you're talking about the sheriff?

LEMON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Chris Vasquez.

LEMON: He said earlier that it was a live-in boyfriend, and -- the live-in boyfriend.

But the mother denies that, saying it was just a friend.

We're going to get a local reporter who has been following this there on the ground, I believe is at the press conference. And she's going to join us now.

Can you hear me?

ZUBOWSKI: Yes, I can.

LEMON: What is your name?

ZUBOWSKI: I'm Courtney.

LEMON: Hi, Courtney.

ZUBOWSKI: Zubowski. Hi.

LEMON: Can you tell us what you know?

ZUBOWSKI: Basically, just about two minutes ago, little Olivia Alvarez's mother came out here. She was just so relieved to learn that her daughter was OK just about 30 minutes ago.

Her little girl was abducted from her home by a man she knows, a convicted sex offender by the name of George Horner. He was on his way to Louisiana, supposed to drop little Olivia off at school, but ended up taking her along for the ride. The school noticed that she didn't show up. That's when they notified the sheriff's department.

The sheriff's department puts out an Amber Alert. And, just about an hour ago, someone in a nearby city, in the city of Casa Grande, little Olivia walking along by herself, called the sheriff's office after hearing about the Amber Alert. And that's when authorities were notified -- the mother very relieved.

Again, right now, the little girl is at a nearby hospital. She is being checked out by paramedics. And that little girl's mother is on the way right now to the hospital to be reunited with her daughter.

LEMON: So, Courtney, Glenna Alvarez is saying that it's not her live-in boyfriend.

But, according to the sheriff -- I believe you interviewed him earlier -- he said it was her live-in boyfriend.

Was she challenged on that at all?

ZUBOWSKI: No, she wasn't challenged on it.

Basically, she said: No, I do not know him. He is not my boyfriend, just recently had met him.

And, so, she is saying that she did not know he was a convicted sex offender. Had she (AUDIO GAP) she would never have allowed him to take her daughter to school.

LEMON: Now, she was saying that she got a hunch that something was wrong, just a hunch, and then she called the school, that -- that her daughter hadn't shown up?

ZUBOWSKI: Well, the school -- the school actually also notified the sheriff's department when the sheriff's -- when the school realized that the little girl hadn't been there. And then she just started feeling kind of odd.

And, so, that's when she decided that something wasn't right. And that's when the police got involved, and the Amber Alert was issued.

LEMON: All right, Courtney, I didn't get your last name. What is your last name?

ZUBOWSKI: Zubowski.

LEMON: Zubowski. Courtney Zubowski from our affiliate there in Maricopa, Arizona, thank you so much for your report.

You're watching the CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, YouTube and Wikipedia stormed into the mainstream in just the last few years. Now they're storming into a list of top brands.

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with the details.

Hey, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

Well, online branding magazine brandchannel.com is out with its list of top brands. And, once again, Internet firm Google has topped Apple for the highest spot. And YouTube and Wikipedia come in third and fourth place.

The magazine's editor says their debuts highlight a larger trend, the growing impact of user-generated content online. And, finally, coffee chain Starbucks gets pushed back to fifty -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, Starbucks might soon be latching on to another trend, right?

LISOVICZ: Yes. It's not coffee. It's the digital music craze.

"Business 2.0" stays Starbucks may start selling MP3s within a year, this according to company chairman Howard Schultz. A Starbucks spokesperson tells CNN that the company is -- quote -- "excited about a future that includes a 'Device Philips' (ph) strategy" -- end quote. No decision has been made as of now.

And if that morning cup of coffee at Starbucks doesn't give you enough of a jolt, you might be able to get your buzz from baked goods. A North Carolina scientist says he's found a way to add caffeine to doughnuts and bagels.

Dr. Robert Vulkanen (ph) -- he is a molecular scientist -- I mean, he's the real thing -- says each piece of pastry has as much caffeine as two cups of coffee, but without the bitter taste. He's already pitching the idea to chains like Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.

Think about it.

OK, let's look at the markets real quick. Well, investors could use a little bit of caffeine in the final hour of trading. We are seeing a little bit of an attempt of a rally here, but not much.

We also saw an economic report earlier today that raised worries about rising interest rates -- oil prices also weighing on investors. They finished more than $1 higher. Checking the numbers, the Dow industrials are still under pressure, down 11 points, but off their lows -- the NASDAQ composite up five points or about a fifth of a percent.

And that's the latest from Wall Street. I will be back in about 30 minutes with a wrap-up of the trading day.

NEWSROOM continues in a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN GRANT, CEO, 100 BLACK MEN OF ATLANTA: ... to really sell in and market.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Grant is a man in motion.

JOHN GRANT, 100 BLACK MEN OF ATLANTA: I walk at a very fast pace. I often have people telling me who are with me, will you slow down?

GUPTA: As CEO of 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Grant teamed up with former Surgeon General David Satcher and the Morehouse School of Medicine to create a health program.

GRANT: I'm much more conscious of the fact that one can walk 10,000 steps a day, how much he can lower your incidence of diabetes.

GUPTA: Sixty percent of African-American men are overweight, 41 percent have cardiovascular disease, in addition, black men are twice as likely as white men to have diabetes or die of cancer.

DR. DAVID SATCHER, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We felt that if we started with these men, it would be an investment in their health and in the health of their community.

GUPTA: Initial health screenings found many undiagnosed problems such as prostate cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. Each participant was encouraged to increase their physical activity to 10,000 steps a day and eat at least nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Those simple changes lowered their cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels over the first two years of the program. And now the group is reaching out to young people in its scholarship program.

DR. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We believe very strongly that if we can help our students improve their health, then they will improve their academic performance.

GUPTA: Walter Burson is a sophomore at Tuskegee University who was overweight and at risk. He has lost 15 pounds since starting the health challenge.

WALTER BURSON, STUDENT: I want to be healthy, so I want to live a long life and now is the time to start.

SATCHER: This is the black men playing their role, taking their responsibility in the home and, ultimately, in the community. That's what this is about.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Bitterly cold, dangerously cold across parts of the Northeast. A frightening site outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. Cars and big rigs, even an ambulance in a twisted heap. The pileup blamed on lake-effect snow that blinded dozens of driver. One person was killed and 10 miles of I-90 was shut down for almost 15 hours.

From Maine to Maryland it's just plain raw. An Arctic blast brought the coldest temperatures of the season so far. The entire State of Massachusetts under a wind chill advisory.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: The battle for America's borders, the hardest ones to protect may be the ones we never see, most of us anyway.

CNN's Gary Tuchman reports from one of the underground gateways to America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the left side of this wall, Arizona; on the right, the Mexican state of Sonora. Huge numbers of illegal immigrants scale the wall to get into the U.S. On the Mexican side, this man turned back.

But this mother and child squeezed through a hole in the wall, just two of the roughly 400,000 people just in this part of Arizona nabbed in the last year.

The desperation of many Mexicans and the Border Patrol's effectiveness on the ground has moved the battle underground to the huge sewers and storm drains that connect the cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see there's not a whole lot to hide behind, so you just got to...

TUCHMAN (on camera): There's nothing to hide behind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a whole lot.

TUCHMAN: Yes, so if you're claustrophobic, afraid of the dark, this ain't the job for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, I guess not. TUCHMAN (voice-over): The U.S. Border Patrol is a specially trained unit that scours the dark underbelly of this border region, searching for illegal immigrants and the smugglers who bring them and bring drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a Heckler and Koch -- it's H.K. UMP- 40.

TUCHMAN (on camera): And you're ready to use it if need be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, to protect myself or anyone else on the team.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Tense moments are about to come.

But first, a look at where the journey begins: a strip joint in Nogales, Mexico, and underneath it, a wide open sewer, where many journeys to America start.

And this is where many of them conclude, a taco restaurant on the U.S. side. The tunnel's end point, where border agents are preparing to begin their patrol.

(on camera): You literally can't see your hand in front of your face.

(voice-over): Without special equipment, this is what you see as you're stepping in sewage muck.

And this is what it looks like with the night vision goggles the agents wear. All is quiet as the team approaches the international border. We pass tunnels in the sides of the wall with welded grates that are often broken by the Mexicans. We encounter a short burst of daylight under a welded grate. A startled citizen sees me from above.

(on camera): Are you used to the fact that there are immigrants passing under your city?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not really.

TUCHMAN: It's kind of strange, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): We go back to darkness. Part of the tunnel system has rushing sewage water flowing through. We find shoes and cell phones discarded. And then the agents command us to be quiet. They see something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).

TUCHMAN: "Who is it? Who is it?" agents yell in Spanish. And listen to this whisper.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a body south.

TUCHMAN: "A body south."

As it turns out, the night vision goggles reveal at least six moving bodies just feet away on the other side of the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).

TUCHMAN: "We are American police, slow down," say the agents.

It's hard to make sense of their soft responses. And it's still not clear who these people are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).

TUCHMAN: "What are you doing?" they ask.

The moments are nerve-racking. Weapons are readied. The silence lasts minutes. There's always concern that smugglers with nothing to lose will fire first.

CHIEF MICHAEL NICLEY, U.S. BORDER PATROL, TUCSON SECTOR: It's them against the smugglers inside those tunnels. It's a very dangerous job.

TUCHMAN: This night vision video was shot by the Border Patrol a couple of months ago. On the right, Mexicans who have crossed over into the U.S. They can't see the Border Patrol agents on the left or the bats flying in circles. Watch what happens when one of the agents jumps down to catch them. Chaos ensues, but ultimately the agents arrest them and others they find in the tunnel. They're brought out of the sewer. And the ones without criminal records are sent back to Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you back here behind me.

TUCHMAN: Back in our tunnel, the agents see lights. Mexican authorities have arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on down, dude. It's clear.

TUCHMAN: The six suspicious people have disappeared on the other side of this yellow borderline in Mexico. It's still not clear what they were up to.

So I leave the sewer the same way many illegal immigrants do, climb through a side tunnel and exit into blinding sunlight in the middle of a busy American street.

(on camera): It's not known how many people escape into Nogales, Arizona, without ever being seen. But it's clear a lot of them come through sewers like I just did. And it doesn't even shock the people in the city because it happens so frequently.

(voice-over): Most of the arrests are still of the traditional variety. But the number of people captured in the tunnels every month now sometimes approaches 1,000.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Nogales, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And finally, free after years of serving prison time for crimes he didn't commit. How do they get their life back? Details straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Air strike on the Taliban. NATO says a precision-guided weapon may have killed a senior Taliban leader and some of his deputies in southern Afghanistan. It happened yesterday in Helmand province. No details were released.

Now the Afghan cause comes to Brussels. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today asked NATO foreign ministers to come up with more cash to help secure Afghanistan. For its part, the Bush administration plans to ask Congress for almost $11 billion to beef up security and speed up reconstruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: This is a major strategic step by the United States to, in a very dramatic way, increase our assistance to Afghanistan, to show support for President Karzai and the Afghan people, and to make sure that the Afghan national army and the police are ready to undertake their responsibilities and that NATO and the United States of America can be stronger in the effort that we undertake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And the European Union today pledged more than $850 million to improve Afghan health care and to wean the Afghan community off opium.

PHILLIPS: As if his plate weren't full enough, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is assuming new duties. He is a first-time dad at the age of 49. Karzai's wife gave birth last night to a son who is named for the former leader of the 18th Century Sunni revolt. The mother and child are said to be just fine.

Well, in this week's "Life after Work," a woman who spent her career fighting crime, she's now turning that experience into a series of best sellers. Randi Kaye has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She has spent her life fighting for victims of sexual assault.

LINDA FAIRSTEIN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: When I came to the practice of law in 1972, the laws in this state and across the country were so archaic that most victims of sexual assault were not allowed to have a day in court. So the year I joined the office more than 1,000 men in the City of New York were arrested for sexual assault. Eighteen of them were convicted.

KAYE: Linda Fairstein spent 30 years trying to change that. As head of the sex crimes unit in the New York district attorney's office, she pioneered the use of DNA evidence and made other real changes.

FAIRSTEIN: There was no victim advocacy, there were no rape crisis units, there were no rape evidence collection kits. Those all came to be through the years that I did the work.

KAYE: But she had another passion, writing crime novels.

FAIRSTEIN: The summer of 1994 we went to Martha's Vineyard on our vacation and I spent a few hours every couple days writing this first crime novel that became "Final Jeopardy."

KAYE: In 2002 with the success of her writing career, Fairstein retired from the D.A.'s office. But not from the fight for victims of sexual assault.

FAIRSTEIN: It's interesting now that some of the celebrity, if you will, of the fictional career gets me in doors. People will listen who didn't listen to a Linda Fairstein, 35-year-old prosecutor.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Freedom takes a bit of getting used to. Just ask Pete Williams. The 44-year-old Georgia man was released this week after spending almost half his life in prison for a crime he did it not commit. DNA testing finally cleared him. Williams says he loves being back with his family but he's having trouble sleeping, it's just too quiet and he says he is being extra careful not to touch anything he might not know how to use.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE WILLIAMS, FREED BY DNA EVIDENCE: It's scary. Put it like that, you know? The cell phones, you know, the computer, all of the different things, you know, and it's like not scary/scary, but, you know, I don't want to, you know, do something, you know, try to, you know, mess with anything and not be able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Now, recently, I spoke with a man who understands what Pete Williams is going through, perhaps more than anyone. Clarence Harrison (ph) spent almost 18 years in a Georgia prison for a rape, robbery and kidnapping he did not commit. Now he, too, was cleared by DNA evidence and released three years ago thanks largely to the Georgia Innocence Project. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARENCE HARRISON, SPENT 17 YEARS IN PRISON: I had an opportunity to meet Pete Williams earlier today and talk with him. And we had a very good talk. And I think that he's on the right path and he wants to do a lot of things to talk with youth as well.

LEMON: What did you say to him?

HARRISON: I just told him, you know, just stay focused and just, you know, use your experience to better you, and not only just to better you, but try to help others. And I also told him that no longer is it about him, it's about the others that are in prison that he must try to do something, whatever he can to do to help bring someone else out.

LEMON: You met your wife, though, when you were in prison?

HARRISON: In prison, yes, I did. I met her -- as a matter of fact, she was my backbone. I met her over the telephone and through a friend who introduced me over the phone, had me talk with her. When she come in my life, she was the blessing, the one who gave me the faith to go back to fight my case because I had given up.

And she was the one who encouraged me to continue (ph) fight and try to seek help. And she is the one sent me an address to start to writing to the Georgia Innocence Project and ask for help and stuff.

And, you know, I feel that, you know, if it wasn't for her, I don't know where she got her faith at, but I know I got my faith by watching her having faith, you know, that I will come out.

LEMON: Godsend?

HARRISON: She was a God-sent woman, no doubt about that. I haven't established a relationship that I would like with my kid, but I do try to keep in touch with him. And there was such a gap in there in his heart (ph), (INAUDIBLE). But, you know, you're talking and you really just see that -- you know, that I'm still the same father that they left, but they don't remember me as much as I remember them. So that's difficult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Now Harrison tells me he holds no anger about his time in prison. He's enrolled in a paralegal program at Emory University in hopes of helping other wrongfully convicted prisoners.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we see a lot of robots these days but not quite like these. This little troupe of dance-bots, well, they strutted their stuff at a South Korean education expo. As you can see, their routine was flawlessly choreographed. There was a message in all of this, too. Educators should teach robotics because robots are the future. Is that Andrea Bocelli? That is Bocelli, listen.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: They are playing Andrea Bocelli to the robots. You have got to love it. All right.

Well, on your mark, get set, mush. No dogs and sleds here though. New Yorkers prefer humans and shopping carts, or in some cases, imaginary carts. It's the annual Iditarod.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: A takeoff of course on the famous Alaskan dog race, Iditarod. And if you're in the Big Apple tomorrow, hey, you might want to clear your schedules.

LEMON: Whatever. All right. Watch this outrageous video. It is from Costa -- oh my God, look at that. Costa Rica. It doesn't look like he is putting up much of a fight. Whatever the guy in loin cloth paid, there you go, it's not enough. He and the 17-foot reptile "croc 'n' roll" like this every Sunday for tourists. The man known as Tiko Tarzan (ph), the wounded croc, back to health for five years. All right. And they've been mixing it up ever since. Oh, he wounded -- he got him back to health.

PHILLIPS: And now he's got it on drugs because there is no way that croc is not sedated in some way or another.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: The croc is on something.

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