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American Morning
Fighting Terror: Chertoff in Germany; Birth Certificate Battle: Grieving Mothers Fight for Change; Skydiving Murder?
Aired January 26, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Blustery biting and below zero. A deadly winter storm is socking the Northeast. Dangerous roads and bitter cold is ahead.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Lebanon divided. Mass rioting tearing the nation apart. Beirut is in lock-down right now.
S. O'BRIEN: And Hillary Clinton is making history. And not just for the reasons you think. It could forever change the race for the White House. We'll tell you all about that on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's Friday, January 26th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez. I'm in for Miles. Always great to be here.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, it's nice to have you.
SANCHEZ: Thanks for having me.
S. O'BRIEN: Appreciate you helping us out today.
SANCHEZ: By the way, Miles is on assignment today.
S. O'BRIEN: He is. And you brought the cold weather with you.
SANCHEZ: Isn't that amazing?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: The guy from the south brings the cold weather with him.
S. O'BRIEN: Bitterly cold, obviously. Wind chills well below zero. You're going to feel it the very moment you step outside in the Northeast today. This could be one of the coldest days of the season. Highs only in the single digits in some parts.
An incredible scene in Erie, Pennsylvania, we want to share with you. A 50 car pile-up and white-out conditions closed miles of Interstate 90. I-79 as well. One person was pinned between two trucks and was killed.
Want to take you right to severe weather expert Chad Myers. He's at the CNN Center this morning in Atlanta. Chad, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: Other stories we're following this morning.
Happening now in Brussels, a promise to help two war zones. The U.S. pledging $11 billion to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. While in Lebanon, the international community is offering $7.6 billion to rebuild from the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict last summer. Beirut's current curfew is over right now. The city locked down after some deadly protests there. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Beirut. Zain Verjee's at her post at the State Department in Washington.
Nic, we're going to begin with you.
You know the region as well as anybody. What's the situation right now in Beirut?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation is people going about their daily lives almost as normal. Less traffic. The curfew was successful. No violence overnight. It was the first curfew since the civil war ended in 1990 according to the Lebanese army. It does seem to have achieved their aims in the short term. But it wasn't in place and there was no restrictions in place and the day was just like this yesterday when the violence was set off at the university.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON, (voice over): Armed with rocks and intent on a fight, hundreds of ferocious and angry young men converged on Beirut's Arab University. The violence started late in the afternoon. Clashes inside the campus between students loyal to Lebanon's government and anti-government Hezbollah supporters.
As the situation escalated, vehicles were set on fire. Anyone who could scrambled to save them. Dense black smoke billowed up from the university. Lebanese army soldiers on foot and in armored personnel carriers push forward towards the rock-throwers.
From the tops of vehicles in the midst of the chaos, appealing for calm.
Right now the army is holding back here. The violence is over there where the students are. There's a lot of gunfire going on. At the moment, the army is holding back, deciding (ph) what they should do.
At one point the crowd of angry, young, pro-government men set fire to a Hezbollah flag, as inflammatory an insult as any here can be. From within the battle zone, both soldiers and civilians stretch it out as the confrontation continued to flare. Volley after volley of gunfire blasted into the air by soldiers in an effort to calm and separate the rock-throwing crowds. In nearby side streets and on highways, the Lebanese army flooded the area with troops to contain the violence close to its epicenter at the university. Not long after, they called a curfew from 8:30 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning.
FUAD SINIORA, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER, (though translator): I would appeal to all Lebanese to stay away from any hot spots and renounce the temptation to fan the flames of tension and conflict.
ROBERTSON: And on Hezbollah's own TV channel, its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, used the strongest language possible, calling for an end to violence, telling supporters to calm down.
After several hours of clashes, the army was able to bring enough calm to get a fire truck into the university. And the burning vehicles belching black smoke, signaling chaos across the city, extinguished.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And the real concern is here now that this is perhaps moving from a political conflict to a sectarian conflict that is reminiscent of that 15 year long civil war and that really worries the leaders here right now.
Rick.
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for saying on top of that for us, Nic. Certainly, if need be, we'll get back to you.
Soledad, over to you.
S. O'BRIEN: In Afghanistan there's news that a NATO air strike has killed a Taliban leader. It happened on Thursday in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban has been resurging. NATO has not yet identified the Taliban leader that was killed.
Also overnight, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels promising more money, possibly keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan longer to fight the Taliban. State Department correspondent Zain Verjee has more for us this morning.
Good morning to you, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
This really needs to be looked at as a big strategy shift on the part of the United States. The idea here is increase aid to Afghanistan and give a big boost to Hamid Karzai, the president, who's had a really hard time controlling Afghanistan.
Let's tale a look at some of the numbers. The State Department is asking Congress for $10.6 billion. That's in new aid to Afghanistan.
Let's break that down a little bit for you. Most of the money, that's $8.6 billion, is going to go to beefing up Afghan security forces, training, equipping soldiers and police. $2 billion is going to reconstruction. You're going to look at roads being built, irrigation products, schools and clinics and all that sort of thing. So this is all actually in addition to $14 billion the U.S. has spent on Afghanistan's reconstruction since 2001.
And all of this is coming, of course, the backdrop, as you mentioned, of the resurgent Taliban, worsening Afghanistan/Pakistan relations, as well as a general increase in attacks on NATO forces there.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And let me ask you a question about the money. How is the U.S. going to use the money? Mostly for fighting the drug trade?
VERJEE: That's a really key point, the drug issue. I mean Afghanistan's production over the last year of poppies that produces most of the world's heroin, about 90 percent, increased by 49 percent last year. And that's a really substantial increase because a lot of that money goes into funding the Taliban that allows them to launch their offenses on NATO.
But the U.S. does wants to do that. The State Department's idea, Soledad, is basically this. You know, give a boost to the economy. For example, you know, put a lot of money into building roads and that will create the infrastructure where farmers can move perishable agricultural product that right now they're unable to do that. So if it's wheat or anything else, they have an infrastructure to deliver that.
And right now, what farmers are doing, is just turning toward opium because that brings them the money. The Afghan government is reluctant to crack down on that, although the U.S. wants to launch a stronger counter insurgency or counter narcotic effort in Afghanistan.
S. O'BRIEN: Zain Verjee in Washington, D.C., this morning.
Thanks, Zain.
A developing story to tell you about out of Pakistan this morning. Within the last hour, a bomb blast has been reported outside the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. Wire reports are saying that a suicide bomber killed himself and a security guard, blowing up the bomb in the parking lot near the hotel laundry.
SANCHEZ: Let's talk about Iraq now because there's a controversial new tactic. It's called shoot to kill Iranian operatives. This morning's "Washington Post" is reporting that the Bush administration is giving U.S. troops the OK now to kill Iranian nationals that are working for the insurgency inside Iraq. This would be a change. In fact, we could call it an escalation from the previous policy which allowed troops to catch and release suspected Iranian agents. Meanwhile in Iran, apparently they're ready to step up the missile program, converting a ballistic missile into a launch vehicle for a satellite. That report is coming from the "Aviation Week and Space Technology" magazine. It would extend Iran's missile reach beyond the Middle East, possibly as far as into central Europe, maybe Russia.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.
The Senate is now considering a second Iraq resolution. This one from Republican Senator John Warner. His proposal opposes a big troop build-up into Iraq, but leaves the door open for smaller deployments. A competing resolution, which was passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, called President Bush's troop surge plan "not in the national interest."
More testimony in the trial of Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. On the stand, Cheney's spokeswomen, Cathie Martin, under cross examination she said she wasn't sure when she told Libby who CIA operative Valerie Plame was. Plame's identity was leaked to the press. Libby is charged with lying to prosecutors who are investigating that leak.
More heat this morning from the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. He might kick the U.S. ambassador out of his country, he says, if that ambassador "continues to medal in its affairs." This morning, after (ph) Ambassador William Brownfield said U.S. investors must receive a fair price for their shares in Venezuelan's largest telephone company when the Chavez government nationalizes it.
Rick.
SANCHEZ: A 71-year-old former sheriffs deputy is behind bars this morning and there's relief from families after more than 40 years. James Seale has pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the 1964 killings of two black teenagers. CNN's Rusty Dornin now with this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For 43 years, this was the only marker of the death of 19-year-old Charles Moore. A misspelled tomb stone in the outer reaches of the local cemetery. Then two years ago his brother, Thomas, decided that was it.
THOMAS MOORE, VICTIM'S BROTHER: I promised him in 2005 that his grave in Franklin County, (INAUDIBLE) cemetery, that I will fight until I die.
DORNIN: A promise to find justice in the deaths of his brother, Charles, and Charles' friend Henry Dee. Two African-American teens brutally murdered in 1964. Their killings never solved. So Thomas Moore went home to Meadville, Mississippi, with a CBC documentary filmmaker and Donna Ladd, a reporter from the Jackson Free Press. DONNA LADD, JACKSON FREE PRESS: This spot is where they were hitchhiking.
DORNIN: According to FBI informants in documents dating from 1964, the African-American teens were picked up by James Seale and Charles Edwards. Reputed members of the Ku Klux Klan. The documents alleged Seale and Edwards took the young men here to the Homochitto National Forest.
LADD: They took them out of the car, they tied them to a tree and kind if around their waste and then they took these long, skinny sticks, that we call beating sticks, and just started beating them.
DORNIN: The two young men are believed to have been alive when they were reportedly then tied to an engine block and thrown into the old Mississippi River. Edwards and Seale were arrested in 1964, charged with kidnapping and murder. The FBI turned the case over to local authorities. But a justice at peace said witnesses refused to testify and the charges against Seale and Edwards were dropped. James Seale was thought to have died years earlier. Then to his utter shock, Moore found out otherwise.
MOORE: They said, no, he never passed away. They directed us to where he lived. That changed our mission.
DORNIN: In July 2005, the U.S. attorney's office agreed to take a fresh look at the case. Seale has consistently denied involvement in the murders. Almost exactly 42 years after charges against him were dropped, James Seale was walked into federal court under heavy guard, arraigned on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Meadville, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Want to let you know what we're going to do in our next hour. We're going to talk to Charles Moore's brother, Thomas Moore. Now Thomas Moore's never let this go. He's been after it. Pretty much took a vow that he would somehow avenge this in a way. And documentary filmmaker David Ridgeen (ph), he's with him, too. This is all about the stunning developments in this Mississippi murders case.
Soledad.
Ahead this morning, brrr, it's cold. We'll have much more on the bitter cold temperatures across much of the country this morning. Chad will be back with your weekend forecast.
Plus, the story of a small southern town at the center of a border battle. When the immigration agents moved in, the town nearly closed down. We'll tell you what happened.
And Hillary Clinton's gamble. She's making fundraising history by doing something that no other candidates ever done. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning.
A deadly bombing unleashes chaos in a Baghdad pet store. The bomb was hidden in a pigeon carrier box.
And there are more indications this morning that Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, an outspoken Republican critic of the war in Iraq, is now considering a run for the White House in '08. More on both of those stories straight ahead.
It's 16 minutes past the hour. Chad Myers is at the CNN Weather Center with a look at the traveler's forecast.
Good morning to you, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: President Bush rekindled the immigration debate this week with more talk of the guest worker program. There seems to be general agreement to the need that we somehow need to secure the border. But the question is, what do you do with the seven to 20 million immigrants that are already here in the United States? Most of them illegally.
Well, if you think it's an easy answer to that, you think it's cut and dry, then you probably never heard of a little town in Georgia called Stillmore. I went there recently. And until recently it was a place where the economy seemed to be doing very well. But an immigration crack-down has changed that for a long time to come. Here is our closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ, (voice over): Stillmore, Georgia, is a small town at the center of a southern paradox. When it comes to immigration, it may be where the best and the worst of the south conflict. The worst, critics charge, because Georgia leads the nation in the growth of its undocumented worker population. But economically, and in large measure due to its immigrant work force, Georgia has thrived in construction, in carpet manufacturing and in poultry. The numbers are staggering. It's been a veritable boom.
But here in Stillmore, that boom turned into an overnight bust in early September. That's when federal agents swooped in to forcibly remove the illegal immigrant population.
MARY BAUER, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: These plaintiffs are all United States citizens who were detained, harassed, and terrified solely because of their appearance.
SANCHEZ: The Southern Poverty Law Center says that federal agents, in their zeal to capture illegal immigrants, violated the rights of legal residents, like Justeen Mancha. She's a 15-year-old U.S. citizen who says immigration and customs agents entered her home without warning and without a warrant.
JUSTEEN MANCHA, U.S. CITIZEN: I said, why are you in my house? You know, I was very scared.
SANCHEZ: And what did they say?
MANCHA: They said we're looking for illegals.
SANCHEZ: Immigration and customs enforcement officials would not answer CNN's questions on camera. However, they did respond with this e-mail saying "the raids were conducted in accordance with constitutional principals" and that "race and ethnicity played no role." As for using warrants, they says they "are permitted under the law to make arrests without warrants."
Stillmore now resembles a ghost town. Since the raid, its immigrant residents have all but disappeared. Storefronts are shuttered. Though we did find one open. The clerk says she hasn't seen a customer in days.
Business is bad. (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).
SANCHEZ: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH). Very bad.
Immediately after the raid, the town's chief employer, the Crider chicken plant, lost half its work force. While others who benefited from the immigrant population, like landlord David Robinson, ended up with 20 empty rental properties. He says it left him barely scraping by.
DAVID ROBINSON, LANDLORD: I had to go and refinance all of them. All I'm doing is basically paying interest right now. I'm just treading water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: So in the end, as you look at this story, Stillmore may represent a microcosm of a much bigger problem. What happened there may signal that there is really no easy fix for the nation's immigration crisis, or at least not one that doesn't bring with it, as you may have seen in this report, some unintended consequences.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, like a lawsuit, I would imagine. Are they suing? I mean you can't raid the home of an American citizen.
SANCHEZ: The Southern Poverty Law Center says they're doing just that.
S. O'BRIEN: Without a warrant.
SANCHEZ: Well, even if supposing you have information that there are nine people that may be illegal immigrations in a house, what about that one who's not? And what if he's the one who answers the door? And what if the property's in his name? So there's a lot of questions that need to be answered before we try and somehow figure the problem out.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting story. Great story, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Sure.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, some fourth quarter earnings are out. Good news or is it bad news for our portfolio? We're "Minding Your Business." We'll take a closer look.
And then Hillary Clinton doubles down. The race for '08 could be history-making in more ways than one. We'll tell you how coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I'm Rick Sanchez, filling in for Miles. Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
It's what the financial industry calls earnings season, but some companies aren't actually earning so much. At 24 minutes past the hour, Carrie Lee is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning, Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rick. Good morning to you.
And maybe a good morning for Microsoft. Shares gained a little bit of ground after hours last night after reporting basically that xBox marked the spot in the software giant in the fourth quarter. Sales up 6 percent over the holiday quarter because of strong xBox sales. Year-over-year profits did fall a little bit, but, still, they beat the Wall Street expectation. World-wide distribution, meanwhile, of Vista -- this is Microsoft's operating system coming out -- is due on January 30th.
Now also January 30th, General Motors was supposed to report profits. Well now they say because of some tax accounting errors, they are delaying Q4 and 2006 results indefinitely. So GM delaying some numbers, although they do say for their recent quarter that they expect a net profit.
Meanwhile, taking a look at stocks. We did see some red arrows yesterday. The Dow losing over 100 points. Techs taking a big slide. And this morning, it is looking like a mixed start for stocks. Technology issues, Soledad, looking a little higher. Techs really been on a nice run lately, but the stocks, across the board, looking like a little bit of a weak start.
That's the latest. Back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Carrie.
Well, this is the Democratic run -- front-runner, rather, in the early days of the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton of course, going to be in Iowa this weekend. Kind of getting presidential. Her money machine, meanwhile, is cranking up for the long road ahead. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider has more this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): 2008 is likely to be the country's first billion-dollar presidential campaign. That became clear when Hillary Clinton let it be known that she would forego public financing.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: The system, unfortunately, is not working. And it doesn't have the confidence of the taxpayers who do not check the box on their tax returns to make the contribution. So I opted out.
SCHNEIDER: Senator Clinton would be the first candidate to reject public money for both the primaries and the general election, if she gets the Democratic nomination.
Why is she doing it? If Senator Clinton accepted public money, she would have to abide by spending limits. About $50 million in the primary and about $80 million in the general election. Those limits have failed to keep pace with the cost of a presidential campaign. You may not be able to win.
She's also doing it because she can. Any candidate who expects to be taken seriously has to be able to raise $100 million this year, sort of an entry fee. Senator Clinton may be able to raise as much as $500 million if she's the Democratic nominee. So would her Republican opponent.
CLINTON: Thank you all.
SCHNEIDER: That's far more than the just over $100 million each would get under public financing.
LAWRENCE NOBLE, CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWYER: If you sign up for the public system, the public funding system, you obviously don't have to ability to raise private funds. You don't have the support out there. You're not going to be taken as a serious candidate.
SCHNEIDER: From now on, candidates who accept public financing will put themselves at a serious disadvantage. They won't be able to compete.
Will voters resent that? Probably not.
NOBLE: When the first one, George Bush, forwent the public funding and nobody seemed to care, it really opened up the doors. So I don't think we're going to see any public outcry about it.
SCHNEIDER: Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: The top stories of the morning are coming up next.
The world's lead terror investigators are now converging on Germany. We're live in Berlin. Tell you why straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: New target. A deadly bomb blast in Baghdad at a pet store.
And heroes paying the highest price. The real cost of war hits home in the faces of the Americans lost when their chopper was shot down.
SANCHEZ: Also breaking the terror connection. Homeland security chief Michael Chertoff is in Germany. He's there to try to announce a plan to fight worldwide terror.
O'BRIEN: And grief and politics. Heartbroken parents fighting for something to hold on to finding themselves in the middle of a national debate on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. It's Friday, January 26th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for Miles O'Brien, who is on assignment this day.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for helping us out. We certainly appreciate it.
SANCHEZ: Always nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, an arctic blast is sweeping across the eastern part of the country today. It's making for some of the coldest temperatures of the season. Some areas could see highs only in the single digits. Wind chills are well below zero.
In Brussels right now, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is meeting with officials from NATO, pledging more troops and money for Afghanistan. Also asking for the same from U.S. allies.
President Bush is sitting down with his top military advisers in just a few hours, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The meeting comes as senators on both sides of the aisle worked on resolutions opposing the president's plan to send more troops into Iraq.
A developing story out of Pakistan this morning. Within the past hour, a bomb blast has been reported outside the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. Wire reports say a suicide bomber killed himself and a security guard, blowing the bomb up in the parking lot near the hotel laundry.
SANCHEZ: We mentioned this to you just a little while ago. U.S. homeland security chief Michael Chertoff, he's in Germany this morning. He's there to talk with some other world leaders about the global war on terror.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live for us. He's following the conference in Berlin.
What are we going to expect to see out there today, Frederik?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, you're absolutely right, what Chertoff was saying is that Europe and the United States have to coordinate their efforts better to thwart international terrorist plotting. Here's what was going on at the press conference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (voice over): Fighting terrorism was the main issue when Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff met German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin. Chertoff says Germany is making inroads at combating violent Islamists.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The threat of terrorism remains very real and touches all of us, and can potentially have catastrophic consequences. So we need to work together to make sure that we have a synchronized and coordinate our security measures in a way that increases security for all of our publics.
PLEITGEN: But that synchronization was not always happening. Three of the four 9/11 terror pilots lived in Germany and operated from a terror cell in Hamburg. The country was long known as a safe haven for terrorists, but Germany has since cracked down on violent Islamists.
New legislation lowered barriers for wire tapping and monitoring bank accounts. And a new unified anti-terror center combines German police and Secret Service efforts to thwart terrorist plotting. Plotting, interior minister Schaeuble says, is still going on in Germany, but has moved primarily to the Internet.
"We are working very closely with the U.S. to combine all of our resource, our expertise, even language skills, to win the race against those that want to use the Internet for terrorism."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN: Now, Rick, what the German interior minister is saying is that he still believes that there is terror plotting going on in Germany, but he says that a lot of that has moved to the Internet. He says that terror cell plotting that you were seeing before, before the 9/11 attacks, has pretty much died down due to a lot of increase in law enforcement here, but he said that they've moved to chat rooms and are now plotting attacks and jihadism from there -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Frederik, we're so glad you're there following this for us. I imagine there may be some developments throughout the day. Thanks so much. Soledad, over to you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Rick.
A pet market which was filled with families is the latest insurgent target in Baghdad. At least 15 people are dead after the bombing. Dozens of other people were hurt.
Police think that the bomber hid explosives in a cardboard box with holes that were punched in it and tried to pass it off as a container to hold birds. Now, that same pet fair was targeted last year when militants launched a mortar round into the store.
We're learning more about the 12 U.S. soldiers who were lost when their Black Helicopter was shot down northeast of Baghdad last weekend. Ten of them were members of the National Guard. One was a U.S. top surgeon. All of them, of course, missed by their families and their friends.
Here's CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Colonel Brian Allgood (ph) was the Army's chief surgeon in Iraq. His troops saved hundreds of lives.
Colonel Paul Kelly was called "The Senator". He was always shaking hands with his soldiers.
Six foot five Staff Sergeant Daryl Booker (ph) was simply "Big Daddy" to his unit.
Twelve souls lost last weekend when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed in this empty patch of desert northeast of Baghdad. All indications are it was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile.
Now, for 12 families, the wrenching grief is just beginning.
Paul Kelly had a wife and two small children. His brother John knows how the colonel did not easily leave them behind.
JOHN KELLY, BROTHER OF FALLEN SOLDIER: You love your family so much. He says, "Yes, but I love my country. I love the soldiers." And that's it.
STARR: Reverend Ernest Hardy talked to his son, Daryl Booker (ph), at Christmas. The reverend says his son loved being a soldier.
REV. ERNEST HARDY, FATHER OF FALLEN SOLDIER: I think -- somebody asked me earlier, "Well, do you think we ought to still be here?" But my answer is, I think we should have never been there.
STARR: Brian Allgood (ph) was the Army's top doctor in Iraq. His mother Cleo got the phone call every military mother dreads.
CLEO ALLGOOD, MOTHER OF FALLEN SOLDIER: He's been killed, and all I could do was scream and cry.
STARR: For the Army, 30 years of medical expertise had just died. For his family...
ALLGOOD: Empty feeling for a long, long -- forever.
STARR (on camera): Ten of the 12 on board the Black Hawk were members of the Army National Guard from towns all across America. This is now the single largest combat loss for the Guard in more than half a century.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING, more on this morning's deep freeze. Much of the country seeing really the coldest weather of the season thus far. Chad's going to have your weekend forecast and tell you what's going on, tell you how long it's going to last.
Also, why a birth certificate is at the center of a fight, and why grieving families want to change the law.
And a bizarre murder case thousands of feet in the air. We're going to explain on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And good morning, everyone. The most news in the morning. Here's what's on our radar right now.
Senate Republicans drafting their own resolution against the president's war plan. They won't sign on to the Democratic version. Instead, they're looking to making their own.
And President Hugo Chavez is threatening to kick out the U.S. ambassador from his country. The ambassador is critical of Chavez's plan to nationalize Venezuela's biggest phone company -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Each year thousands of babies in the U.S. don't survive childbirth. They're stillborn. In most cases, their parents will receive a death certificate, but no official record that the baby was ever born, no birth certificate.
Now, some parents think that that adds to the trauma to the parents' grief already. And there's one group of mothers that's trying to change that. It turns out, though, it's much more controversial than you might think.
CNN's Peter Viles has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For Sunita Param, pregnancy was a joy.
SUNITA PARAM, BABY DIED DURING BIRTH: It was easy. It was comfortable. I was super active.
VILES: But at 38 weeks, doctors suddenly could not find the baby's heartbeat. The next day, she delivered a girl.
PARAM: She was perfect. She was perfect. She was five pounds, one ounce. She was 18.75 inches. And she had dark curly hair. And she was beautiful, except she was silent.
VILES: Her daughter, Saroya (ph), was dead, stillborn. It happens 26,000 times a year in America. In most states, the heartbroken parents receive a death certificate, but no birth certificate.
To Sunita, that is unacceptable.
PARAM: We need to be able to give our child the dignity that she deserves, to be acknowledged that she was born.
VILES: Sunita and other mothers of stillborn children are lobbying to change California law so that parents of stillborn babies receive special birth certificates. Fourteen states now offer that option. Pro-choice groups have often opposed such legislation, fearing it will lead to new rights for the unborn, and, therefore, new restricts on abortion.
KIM GANDY, N.O.W. PRESIDENT: We understand this. It's a terrible loss, and it's very reasonable for you to want to memorialize this loss. At the same time, we need to make it optional, put rules in place so that it can't be used for an unintended purpose.
VILES: N.O.W. insists that such birth certificates be limited to late-term stillbirths, as opposed to miscarriages or abortions, and be optional, issued only at the request of the parents.
Like Sunita, Sari Ebder had a happy pregnancy. But at 37 weeks, her baby's heart suddenly stopped. She delivered a boy, Jacob, the next day.
SARI EBDER, BABY DIED DURING BIRTH: There was this little part of me that just said, "You're going to be that miracle baby that proves everybody wrong." And when that didn't happen, the silence in the room was unbearable.
VILES: Her son was also stillborn. But would a birth certificate make a difference? Well, it would to her.
EBDER: This is my way of being a mom and taking care of him, and making sure he gets the respect and the honor and the recognition that he deserves.
VILES: Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: You can learn more about this issue at missfoundation.org. The Miss Foundation for Mothers in Sympathy and Support was founded by Joann Cacciatore (ph), whose daughter Cheyenne (ph) was stillborn in 1994.
It's a sad story.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
Some unbelievable pictures to share with you now. Fallout from some real bizarre white-out conditions that really have caused a huge chain reaction pileup on Interstate 90 near Erie, Pennsylvania. Look at these pictures.
One person was killed. At least 50 vehicles plowed into one another during a blinding snow storm. Twenty-two trucks and tankers were involved, 13 people were injured. None seriously.
Well, it is now just 16 minutes before the hour. That's about the time we regularly check in with Chad Myers, so that's exactly what we're going to do right now, check in for -- what have we got, we've got a traveler's forecast and a cold and flu report, right?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Cold and flu report, yes.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, much more on the story we told you about yesterday, the Russian man who was caught trying to sell uranium on the black market. A closer look this morning at loose nukes. Just how much nuclear material is out there, and is anybody keeping track of it?
And was it a crime of passion? Murder at 13,000 feet, the latest on the investigation straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: This is AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Rick Sanchez. Most news in the morning happening right now eve as we speak.
Secretary of State Rice is in Brussels. She's talking with NATO ministers about more aid and troops for the war in Afghanistan.
And also this story we're keeping on eye on. Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, and yet a strong critic of the war in Iraq, thinking about a run for the White House in 2008 -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, at first it looked like a tragic accident, but now it's being called murder at 13,000 feet. Was it a tangled love triangle that led to a sabotaged parachute?
More from CNN's Anderson Cooper this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be just another jump for three members of a Belgian skydiving club, one they're done countless times before, but this time something went terribly wrong.
At 13,000 feet Els Van Doren pulled the cord on her parachute. It wouldn't open. Neither would her second chute, and she plummeted to her death.
Belgian investigators say it wasn't an accident. Her fate was sealed before she even left the ground.
MICHAEL ZEGERS, CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S SPOKESMAN (through translator): Both her main parachute and her reserve parachute had been tampered with, the first by binding it and the second by cutting the strings. She died after a spectacular fall.
COOPER: Tampered with, they say, by another member of the skydiving club. This woman, 22-year-old Els Clottemans. Her motive, prosecutors say it was jealousy. They say both women were dating the same man, another member of the skydiving club, identified only as Marcel.
They turned their attention on Clottemans when she attempted suicide the day before she was set to be questioned by police.
ZEGERS (through translator): The motives of this case have to be found in the area of passion.
COOPER: Sandy Reid wrote the FAA's official handbook for rigging parachutes and sky dives around the world. He says it wouldn't be hard for a close diving companion to cut the cords and sabotage a fellow sky diver after the parachute's been packed.
SANDY REID, PRESIDENT, RIGGING INNOVATIONS: It's very easy for other people to come along and to take a look at that and to do something with it. They'll wander off and go get a cup of cop coffee or a Coke or have a cigarette or just take a break for an hour or two and come back and they'll look at their parachute and say, "Hey, it's still there," but I think it's not very secure in the long term.
COOPER: Police say they have a video of Van Doren, video they haven't released yet, shot from a camera she was wearing in her helmet, that shows her desperate attempts to open her parachute. She failed.
She hit the ground at 130 miles an hour, landing in a back garden in a small Belgian town. It's taken two months, but prosecutors say they know she was sabotaged by a woman she considered her friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can see on the video that Miss Els Van Doren was panicking very much when it appeared to her that her parachute would not open while going down, and that makes us conclude that she was not intending to commit suicide.
COOPER: At her funeral, Els Van Doren's sister said, "You did all you could during that final jump to save your life, but someone did not want you to live."
And Belgian police say Els Clottemans, fellow sky diver and once her friend, is now the prime suspect in her death.
Anderson Cooper, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Clottemans is due to appear in a Belgian court later this month.
A quick programming note for you. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" airs weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Well, there's that arctic blast we've been telling you about. It's bringing a bitter cold to the Northeast. Chad Myers is going to have your traveler's forecast in just a little bit.
Also, Wal-Mart settles over -- settles in an overtime dispute, pardon me. We are "Minding Your Business" on that one.
Also, he promised to fight to his death to find his brother's killer. Now an arrest more than 40 years later. We're going to talk with him live in our next hour.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Wal-Mart agrees to pay back millions of dollars in overtime pay.
It's coming up to the top of the hour. Carrie Lee is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning, Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad. Thank you.
That's right, Wal-Mart paying more than $33 million to some current and former workers, thousands of workers, for not paying them enough in overtime. Now, Wal-Mart actually turned itself in on this to the Labor Department, saying that it apparently made some mistakes in its formulas for calculating overtime.
And there are some lucky folks here as well, because 215,000 employees were actually paid too much at this time, and Wal-Mart says it isn't going to collect that money. So some people receiving maybe a little bit of a bonus, you could say, in their paychecks.
Now, separately, California's labor commissioner also filing a suit against overtime shortfalls. They haven't settled with that state yet, but overall, the Labor Department says that it's not unusual for companies to turn themselves in for problems like this, although this dollar amount, the $33 million, is quite large historically. Also, you k now, Wal-Mart has seen a lot of payroll problems over the past couple of years. Different states, including Pennsylvania, alleging things like Wal-Mart not paying people for -- or not paying people for working off the clock, things like that, and also not paying them -- or making them work, rather, through rest breaks.
So, good that they were proactive. And that is the latest on this story.
Soledad, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Carrie. Thank you very much.
Some other headlines that we're watching this morning. One of CNN.com's most popular stories right now, in fact.
A "Woman, 65, Saves Husband from Mountain Lion." Nell and Jim Hamm apparently were walking around California. Nell fought off a mountain lion that had pounced on her husband, Jim. His scalp was torn, but he's alive thanks to his wife.
SANCHEZ: She's tough, huh?
O'BRIEN: She grabbed a log and hit the mountain lion over and over and over again. Sixty-five years old.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
O'BRIEN: They're going to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month. And he's going to be fine, apparently.
SANCHEZ: I wouldn't expect anything less from my wife in a situation like that.
O'BRIEN: To beat up a mountain lion?
SANCHEZ: She's tough, yes.
O'BRIEN: And at 65, that would be amazing if she could do it then, too.
SANCHEZ: Also this health story on CNN.com that we're going to share with you now. It's about a spot on the brain that they have found that may control the urge to smoke. So, if you smoke, it may be because of this place in your brain. It's amazing.
Scientists studying stoke patients found damage to the insula. That's the spot on the brain. It's right near the ear. And it can instantly and permanently break or make your smoking habit.
The study appearing in the journal "Science" report. It reports that one man with the injury said that he just forgot the urge to smoke. Doctors say these findings point to whole new avenues of research on kicking the smoking habit.
There you go. O'BRIEN: Wow, that's so interesting. So, theoretically, we could have brain surgery one day that would kick your habit.
SANCHEZ: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Interesting.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
O'BRIEN: Coming up on the top of the hour. Let's get right to Chad, who's watching the big weather story this morning, which is the brutal cold.
Good morning, again.
MYERS: Good morning, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.
Lebanon's divided mass rioting tearing the nation apart. Rival factions are at a standoff this morning.
SANCHEZ: Nuclear black market. Unknown quantities of atom bomb material for sale. Details out today about a smuggling operation we'll tell you about.
O'BRIEN: And Hillary Clinton is making history. Fund-raising history. It could forever change the race for the White House on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome, everybody, Friday, January 26th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
SANCHEZ: Friday's always a good word to use.
I'm Rick Sanchez, in for Miles O'Brien. He's on assignment today.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for helping us out. We appreciate it.
SANCHEZ: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to what's happening this morning in Brussels.
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