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Prosecutor Purge?; Alleged Mastermind Confesses to 9/11 Attacks; Missing Boy Search; President's Second Term Curse; U.S. Marine Commits Suicide
Aired March 15, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Heidi Collins.
For the next three hours, watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Thursday, the 15th, the Ides of March.
Here's what's on the rundown.
The pentagon says he's owning up to the crime. Suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaykh Muhammad said to confess.
HARRIS: Missing in Georgia. A boy's father holding out hope he will get his son back. Suspects in the case telling police to look for a shallow grave.
An orgy of liquor and prescription pills. A new report finds college students are taking it to new highs. Dangerous extremes in the NEWSROOM.
Eight federal prosecutors fired, their former boss may be also facing unemployment.
Next hour, the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up the case of Alberto Gonzales. Did the attorney general fire the prosecutors because of politics?
Lawmakers want answers and are threatening White House subpoenas now. Divisions are no longer along party lines.
CNN Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Hampshire Republican John Sununu says the attorney general has lost all credibility and is now the first Republican lawmaker to say he must go.
In a statement, Sununu said: "The president should fire the attorney general and replace him as soon as possible with someone who can provide strong, aggressive leadership." In a telephone interview, Sununu told CNN that Alberto Gonzales's "failed supervision over the firing of federal prosecutions was the last straw." Sununu is a Republican who is long tussled with the attorney general over civil liberties concerns in the Patriot Act and said he is still steaming over last week's revelation is that the FBI improperly obtained information about American citizens.
Sununu is up for re-election next year and is one of the Democrats top targets. He is the only Republican so far who has called for the attorney general to be fired. But there is widespread criticism of Gonzales from fellow Republicans who feel misled about why federal prosecutors were dismissed.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The attorney general has gotten himself in deep trouble by having a different story come out of the Justice Department about every second news cycle.
BASH: Many Republican lawmakers reluctant to say Gonzales should go are also careful not to say he should stay.
South Dakota Republican John Thune told CNN, "He's going to have to answer some hard questions and politically there are concerns about how things got handled. It doesn't look good."
Even Gonzales's fellow friend and Texan says he's concerned and called to offer advice.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I encouraged the attorney general to make his employees at the Department of Justice available for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And I think it's appropriate for them to answer questions from senators in a public forum.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Dana Bash joins us now live from Capitol Hill.
Dana, next hour, as we said, the Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to take up this very matter. What do we think is going to happen there?
BASH: Well, Heidi, what we expect is the chairman of that committee, Patrick Leahy, to say that he wants the power to authorize subpoenas for Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, and other Bush officials to get them to come to Congress and say what they knew and what -- how they were involved with this whole issue of the fired federal prosecutors. That is not likely to actually take place.
Why? Not to get too much into process here, but any senator could object to that, and it could be held over or delayed for a week. That is expected to happen.
We're certainly going to be watching to see if for some reason it doesn't. But this is all based on the idea that Democrats and even Republicans on that committee are saying that they want Karl Rove and others at the White House to come and speak to Congress voluntarily. This is just a threat of subpoena in order to force that to happen.
The White House counsel, Fred Fielding, was on Capitol Hill talking to lawmakers yesterday, talking about how they could perhaps come to a compromise on that. He has a deadline, Heidi, of tomorrow, Friday, to figure out what exactly the White House's answer is on that. That's why Democrats on the committee want to at least threaten the issue of sending Karl Rove and others a subpoena.
COLLINS: Yes. I wonder, Dana -- you know, we have said that this issue is no longer really along party lines. Any idea if Republicans are going to be trying to do that alongside Democrats?
BASH: That is what is interesting. The answer is yes.
This letter initially that went out to Karl Rove, also the former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, and two other current -- former Bush officials came not just from the Democratic chairman, Heidi, but it also came from the ranking Republican, Arlen Specter. That's on the Senate side, saying they want these people to come and talk to Congress -- again, voluntarily.
I spoke to the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. He said the same thing. He said he does not think that executive privilege, if that is what the president does claim here, should hold. He wants Karl Rove and others to come. That's a Republican, as well as Democrats.
COLLINS: Live from Capitol Hill this morning watching Alberto Gonzales for us, Dana Bash.
BASH: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you, Dana.
And President Bush back at the White House facing the bad news from Walter Reed to Alberto Gonzales. Is this the case of the second- term curse? We'll take a look with a veteran Washington newsman.
HARRIS: "I was responsible". Those are said to be the words of a suspected terrorist mastermind, a man confessing to the September 11th attacks. And the Pentagon says that's not all Khalid Shaykh Muhammad claims he did. According to transcripts, he cops to a long list of bomb plots and assassination attempts against two U.S. presidents.
Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr tracking the details for us this morning.
Barbara, what did we learn from these transcripts?
Good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Tony.
This is the first time that the public is now able to actually see what Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, a close associate of Osama bin Laden and a mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, what he has to say. Over the weekend, he appeared before a tribunal behind closed doors at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon now releasing an edited transcript of what he had to say.
He said he was responsible for 9/11 from A to Z, in his words. And then a list of some 30 additional attacks he says he was either responsible for the planning or financing of, including an alleged assassination plot against former President Clinton, against the late Pope John Paul II, even responsibility for Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber airline attack plot.
But, you know, there are some analysts who are a bit skeptical that Khalid Shaykh Muhammad really had a direct role in some 30 attack plans, that he might just be talking big. Listen to what one analyst had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, COURT TV: There's no question that there's plenty of corroborative evidence that KSM was the mastermind of 9/11, that he was behind, for example, the plot to blow up airliners in the mid-90s, what's called the Bojinka plot. But as far as other things he takes credit for, like the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, or those -- the nightclub explosion in Bali, people who know about those cases tell me they're pretty skeptical about what -- whether he had any role there.
And you wonder, what's his motivation here? Is he playing games with the system?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: And Tony, if anybody wants to read the full edited transcript of what Khalid Shaykh Muhammad had to say to the U.S. military, you can find it on the Pentagon's Web site at defenselink.mil -- Tony.
HARRIS: That should make for some interesting reading.
Barbara, what's next for Khalid Shaykh Muhammad?
STARR: Well, the real implication of this hearing that he appeared at is what does happen next. He may now be declared an unlawful enemy combatant, and under the procedures, that will pave way eventually for President Bush to possibly order him to stand trial for his alleged crimes -- Tony.
HARRIS: And there she is, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr for us this morning.
Barbara, thank you.
STARR: Sure.
(NEWSBREAK) (WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: New developments this hour in the search for a missing 6-year-old in south Georgia. Christopher Barrios was first reported missing one week ago today. Four suspects, one a convicted sex offender, are now in custody. And this morning, word that investigators found three shovels at a house owned by one of the suspects.
Nikki Preede of affiliate WJXT joins us now from the scene near Brunswick, Georgia.
Nikki, what can you tell us about these shovels?
NIKKI PREEDE, REPORTER, WJXT: Well, Heidi, they actually recovered the shovels yesterday about 3:30, several miles away from where we told Christopher Barrios disappeared from last Thursday. Officers say that the home where they found those shovels does belong to one of the individuals, one of the suspects that is currently in jail.
It was at that point that police tell us they issued another search warrant for another home, a mobile home, of the suspects that they do have in custody. They executed that warrant last night, and officers tell us they found more evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PREEDE (voice over): Police say that they have new in evidence the disappearance of 6-year-old Christopher Barrios, though just what they found they won't reveal.
CHIEF MATT DOERING, GLYNN COUNTY POLICE: Let's just say it's evidence.
PREEDE: What we do know, officers found the items here, a trailer belonging to three of the four suspects being held in connection with this case. Police say that each of them claim to know Christopher's whereabouts. The latest tip from these two.
According to the chief, they led searchers to a wooded area and pond on Wednesday, claiming that's where the 6-year-old was buried. They also allegedly informed officers about this new evidence.
DOERING: The information they gave us led us to search an area, gave us some information that we didn't have before. That led us to believe there's some evidence that we want to take out of here that we didn't recognize as evidence the first time we were here.
PREEDE: It's been a week since Christopher vanished. More than 100 officers are still on this case working round the clock and hopefully getting closer to finding the missing boy.
DOERING: It's difficult to answer, you know, are we getting closer? In some respects I'll say yes, because we can say definitively we have a certain thing that we didn't have before. Is that closer? Gosh, I wish I could answer that in a better way. It's hard to say. We're making progress.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PREEDE: And Heidi, we want to give you a live look at what's happening here now in Glynn County.
You can see a lot of the volunteers that are gathering behind us here. The police and canine units are about three-tenths of a mile from where we are right now. They are focusing on a pond and focusing on a wooded area. That is an area that police say they have been led to by two of the suspects that they currently have in jail, two men that they say claim to know where Christopher Barrios is buried.
Now, those two men are in jail, charged with giving police false information. But it is at this time the police chief is saying it's not so much that they think that these two individuals are lying to them. They've taken them out to these areas where they claim that the body is located and had them point it out. So far they've found nothing.
But it's at this time police say that it may be that they're just having a hard time finding the areas that they think that they're speaking of because the chief says the woods, they all really look alike around here, and say if someone was to be out at night -- and this was in the chief's words -- if someone wants to come out and night and be in that area, they may not be able to find it during the day.
Certainly hearing that is a little bit disheartening, but folks here are still holding out hope that they will find Christopher alive.
COLLINS: Oh boy. I bet they are.
Nikki, quickly, what about all four suspects? You mentioned the two. All four of them still in custody?
PREEDE: All four of them are still in custody. Three members of the Edenfield family, as well as a family friend. And they are all being held without bond at this time.
COLLINS: All right.
Nikki Preede updating us on that 6-year-old missing in south Georgia. WJXT.
Nikki, thank you.
HARRIS: A suicidal veteran pleading for help from the horrors he saw in Iraq. Instead, his family says he got a government runaround.
Number 26 in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Abusing prescription drugs the new buzz on college campuses. Disturbing findings about drugs and drinking. Higher learning in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Police officers killed. A wild shootout on the streets of New York.
That story ahead in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: It's getting hot in the kitchen for these Girl Scouts. A convenience store owner buys their cookies then flips them for the dough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It says right here, it's very clear, "Any resale or redistribution is unauthorized."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any resale? My goodness. I'm a little embarrassed. I never read that before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Cookie monster in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The question in New York this morning, why did it happen? Four dead in a shooting rampage, no motive known. Two volunteer police officers among those killed.
Police say it began when a heavily armed man walked into a Greenwich village pizzeria last night and shot. He shot an employee 15 times in the back, then ran, shooting two unarmed auxiliary officers who were chasing him before he was shot dead by police.
Auxiliary officers are civilian volunteers who wear uniforms but do not carry weapons. One of the officers killed, Eugene Marshalik, was a student at nearby New York University. The other, Nicholas Pekearo, was a writer with a book coming out soon.
HARRIS: Higher learning. More and more, it seems the buzz on college campuses is coming from the abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol. A new study out this morning points to an alarming trend of hard drinking and pill-popping among college students.
Medical Correspondent Judy Fortin is here with us this morning with details.
Judy, great to see you. You got my attention.
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You too, Tony. You know, we're both parents...
HARRIS: Absolutely.
FORTIN: ... so the numbers should be stunning to you and others who are watching this. HARRIS: Yes.
FORTIN: Nearly half of all full-time college students binge drink or abuse prescription and illegal drugs. Close to 23 percent meet the medical criteria for substance abuse and dependence. That's two and a half times the rate of the general population.
A short time ago I spoke with Joseph Califano, chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the group that completed the study, and he said prescription drug abuse among students is skyrocketing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH CALIFANO, NATIONAL CENTER ON ADDICTION & SUBSTANCE ABUSE: The prescription drug abuse numbers have exploded. They've grown 350 to 450 percent. I think that what's happened is college students have now really moved into the world of opioid abuse and tranquilizer abuse and stimulant abuse. I think students tends to think these substances are safer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FORTIN: Califano says the U.S. is playing Russian roulette with this issue, losing thousands of the best and brightest students to alcohol and drug abuse all around the country.
HARRIS: Hey, Judy, we're talking about college students here, but I will ask the question. Maybe I have an idea what the answer is, but who is to blame and what's the fix?
FORTIN: You know, you would think there would be a lot of finger-pointing, and there will be after this report really gets widespread. What the report says is there are a lot of barriers, major barriers, to the study.
The perception, that the substance abuse is a normal rite of passage by college students. Well, Califano says that college administrators are often distracted by fund-raising and other issues, too busy to focus on this one issue.
Secondly, he says students have too much time out of the classroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CALIFANO: They allow the students to arrange their schedules so they can have classes only three or four days a week. The partying can begin on Wednesday night or Thursday night and go right through Sunday.
Number three, there's very aggressive alcohol marketing to college students. You can see that if you just watch the March Madness basketball games and see all the beer ads on there.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FORTIN: Califano calls this a major public health crisis. He says parents must be engaged and alert their kids to the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse when they're in middle school and high school. And Tony, I've got a middle schooler.
HARRIS: Or middle school.
FORTIN: Right. So I've spoke with my daughter about this, but I wonder, is she listening, will she remember the lessons we talked about?
HARRIS: That's a great point.
FORTIN: It's hard to know.
HARRIS: It is hard to know. Interesting findings in the study.
Judy, great to see you.
FORTIN: You too.
HARRIS: Thanks.
FORTIN: Thanks.
COLLINS: Underwater and overwhelmed. A community calls out for help.
Details coming up here in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: And we are "Minding Your Business" this morning. Ali Velshi here now with a preview.
Ali, good morning.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, the folks around here want me to get through the morning without using the word "subprime," so I'm going to tell you about something else that might matter to you and a word you might understand better, is inflation.
Stay with us. I'll tell you what inflation's going to do to your money when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll just out this morning suggests Americans may be losing confidence in the economy. Fifty-two percent of those polled feel the economy is good, but that's an 11-point drop from January.
In the latest poll, 46 percent say the economy is in poor shape. As for the future, 53 percent of those polled believe the economy will be good a year from now. Forty-two percent are not so hopeful.
One note here. The poll was taken over the weekend. So it doesn't reflect views related to this week's market slide. COLLINS: A corporate spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard forced the computer maker's chair to resign. Now there are new developments in the case.
Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" on this one.
Good morning to you there, Ali.
VELSHI: Good morning, Heidi.
You'll remember this one. Patricia Dunn, the chair of Hewlett- Packard, involved in this scandal.
What was going on was that there were leaks from the board of directors. Patricia Dunn wanted to stop those leaks. It turns out that they allegedly did things that were illegal, impersonating board members and the journalists that they spoke to.
Four people were charged, Patricia Dunn one of them. The judge in the case has dismissed the charges against her, saying that he's doing so not because she's innocent, but because she's very sick.
Patricia Dunn is battling advanced ovarian cancer. She's been unhealthy for the last number of years. She had breast cancer in 2000, melanoma in 2002. She got ovarian cancer in 2004, and apparently it's affecting her pretty badly. She also had surgery last year when doctors discovered a malignant tumor in her liver.
The other people who are charged will have to perform community service and might get their charges dismissed as well. Generally speaking, a sad story.
You know, this was not the kind of -- the kind of scandal we're used to reporting on, where there is greed and all that kind of stuff. This was -- they were trying to do the right thing and apparently they went about it in a very bad and illegal way.
COLLINS: Boy, that's too bad.
Let's talk about Orbitz. I thought they were already public.
VELSHI: Yes. So did I.
Orbitz started off in the dot-com boom. It was the airlines that started it.
COLLINS: Yes.
VELSHI: You know, they used their own technology and said, why don't we go to the Web with this? And then it went public in 2003, I think, and then it got sold to another company and went private. And now the company that holds it wants to take it public again.
COLLINS: I'm lost.
VELSHI: So you'll probably be seeing an IP of Orbitz. Now, the thing that people have to remember is, you may like using Orbitz and like everything you may like using, it doesn't mean that you necessarily have to invest in the stock. It doesn't mean you shouldn't, but, you know, people get very excited when names they know become IPOs.
Consider the investment option the way it should be considered and decide whether you want to do that or not.
COLLINS: OK. Got it.
Now, I know you don't want to say that "subprime" word.
VELSHI: Can't say it.
COLLINS: OK. So this next part you have to do without saying that word.
VELSHI: OK. There's been this problem with this SP issue all week that's been affecting markets...
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Oh, SP. That is such a copout.
VELSHI: We saw markets come back on that. We're going to try to get past that today, because the thing we're looking at is inflation.
We just got a report of wholesale inflation that's a little higher than what we thought, but tomorrow is the granddaddy of inflation, it's the CPI, the Consumer Price Index, which is a basket of inflation goods. That's to expected out tomorrow morning. And next week we have a fed meeting.
So, we're going to take all of this into account and the Fed is going to decide whether or not it increases rates or keeps them the same or decreases them next week.
So, all eyes for the next 24 hours are going to be on inflation.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. Indeed, they will be.
VELSHI: Not SP.
COLLINS: Not SP, whatever the heck that is.
All right. Ali Velshi, "Minding Your Business" today.
Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: OK. See you.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT) HARRIS: President Bush back in the White House facing the bad news from Walter Reed to Alberto Gonzales. Is this the case of the second-term curse? We will take a look with a veteran Washington newsman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Alright, the opening bell on this Thursday. Yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up about 67 points, which was nice after the day prior that I won't even mention. The Dow resting at about 12,133. We'll be watching this one for you.
That big business headline, big bananas, Chiquita Brands International agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid terrorists for protection of a farming region in Colombia. We'll tell you more about that and have more on the business side coming up a little bit later.
HARRIS: The second-term second guessing, President Bush facing a series of political stumbles and setbacks, the military medical scandal at Walter Reed, the Democrats' growing challenge to his Iraq strategy and now the controversial firing of federal prosecutors. Are such troubles typical of a second term? Here to lend his expertise former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno serves as a special correspondent to the network. Frank, great to see you.
What concerns you the most about this Alberto Gonzales U.S. attorney story?
FRANK SESNO, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Tony, two words -- competence and credibility. The competence of the justice Department to do its job. You know, when Gonzales appeared before the Senate to go from why is White House counsel over to the attorney general, he said, "I'm not going to do the White House business anymore. I'm going to do the American people's business."
To the extent that there's been political pressure brought to bear on prosecutors, that they are being fired because of their political leanings, that's a competence issue. Credibility -- what did say? What did he promise? What did he actually do? That's all been called into question by these investigations in some of the papers that are coming out.
HARRIS: And Frank, I have to ask the question again, you know how we like to break these things down. Why should this matter to moms and dads all over the country? What's the "why I should care" factor here?
SESNO: I think that's a really great question, because we get so tangled up with this stuff here inside the beltway, sort of the never- land of the whole wide world. Here's why: American justice is supposed to be blind, right? It's supposed to do its job, all things being equal. But what some of these former prosecutors are saying as I look at this whole situation is that they believe that there was pressure coming from the Justice Department and elsewhere, from Gonzales and others on everything from death penalty and gun crime cases on through immigration and even obscenity cases. If that's the case, there's a real problem.
HARRIS: Yes, Frank, listen to David Gergen last night with Anderson Cooper. He wraps a couple of your concerns as well, and then I will ask you the "do you think he will stay or go" question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GERGEN, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": Even though the laws of the president are confirmed (ph), there are traditions that surround these U.S. attorneys and the way they were fired and the misleading conduct of the administration since then. The lies that in fact were told to Congress have just got everybody in Washington in a fervor about what this is all about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK, Frank. What do you think? Do you agree with David, it sounds like you do. And what is your thought on the "does he stay or does he go" question?
SESNO: Well, Washington is good at fervors. We do that a lot because I think we need it, sort of an addiction thing we've got here. So, yes, that's happening. And you saw Senator John Sununu, first Republican yesterday, calling for Gonzales' ouster. He's not going anywhere anytime fast, I don't think. Look how long Rumsfeld hung around after people started calling for his head. Bush is loyal, on the other hand, he's got a Democratic Congress now. They're lifting every rock they can to look under it. So I wouldn't say that he has the greatest job security in the world, but I can't imagine that he will go anywhere anytime fast.
HARRIS: What are your views on what I believe is of greatest concern for you as an individual and I think for a lot of Americans and might be the most pressing concern for this administration, the Walter Reed situation?
SESNO: Well, you started this whole segment by saying "is there a second term curse?"
HARRIS: Yes.
SESNO: And I think that when we look at what's going on in this administration, what they're up against, they're on the defensive across the board. And I think Bush, the president, has largely lost the agenda, lost the initiative, lost control of the events, the agenda, maybe his own legacy in all of this. Walter Reed thing I think is something that really cuts to the core. Look, you see pictures, you hear from these kids who come back, they're 20, 21, 22, 23 years old, they've had their legs blown off, their eyes, you know, blinded, or what have you.
HARRIS: Yes.
SESNO: The most solemn commitment the United States of America has is to their health and their well-being, and it's going to be for the next 60 years in many cases, and yet they can't get them up through Walter Reed, through the medical process, without this kind of thing. I think that the president and the whole administration is held to account on something like this. I think it reflects again on issues of credibility and what has been promised and what is being delivered, and it is the most solemn, the most serious commitment, that the administration, that the country has toward these folks. I think it's exceptionally damaging and does lend toward that second- term curse you were talking about.
HARRIS: Yes, hey Frank, finally, do you remember these words? We are going to roll them in a second. Do you remember these words from the president two days after his re-election?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE U.S.: This way, I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: What are your thoughts when you hear that now?
SESNO: Subprime? I mean, the political capital the president had doesn't exist anymore. He's got dreadful ratings. He's 27 percent giving him approval on his handling of Iraq. Only a quarter, a little more than a quarter of the country think America can win in Iraq. His overall job favorability ratings are as low as they have been. It's a very difficult time for this president of the United States. Can he turn it around? I suppose so, but it is so late in his presidency. And this is what we've seen from Nixon to Reagan to Clinton when they get late in their presidencies and they are ensconced in scandal or deep, deep trouble, turning that dynamic around is exceptionally difficult. And this president has something brand new, and that is a Democratic Congress that, as I say, is going to look and investigate into everything they can. So, he's not going to be cut any breaks here either by history, by events, or by the political opposition.
HARRIS: Frank Sesno, great to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.
SESNO: All right.
COLLINS: Dealing with horrors of war and the anguish of loss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was big, he was strong, he was brave. But his whole experience over there almost left him trembling like a little kid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A marine's personal battle lost. His family says the military failed him. See how coming up in the NEWSROOM.
And floodwaters rise. Survival measured by the inch and by the minute. What it takes to stay alive -- in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Breaking news coming just in now here at CNN. Fredricka Whitfield standing by. Fred, a Hazmat situation in Florida.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually in Frederick, Maryland, a Hazmat situation ...
COLLINS: Oh, all right.
WHITFIELD: ...and that's because of a chlorine spill taking place near a water treatment facility in Frederick, Maryland, on Gas House Pike. This is just outside of the Washington, D.C., area. We don't know how serious this chlorine leak is, but we have heard reports of clouds of gray smoke in the area just over that vicinity of that spill.
Hazmat crews are on the scene. No reports of injuries, and the next time I'm able to report to you, hopefully a little bit more about any kind of road closings in the area as well as whether there might be any evacuations in that area of Frederick, Maryland, as well.
Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Fred, thanks so much. We know you're watching that one. Appreciate it.
HARRIS: Two purple hearts in Iraq. Jonathan Schulze fought for his country, but when he came home and faced the fight of his life, who fought for him?
CNN's Randi Kaye with his story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the story of Marine Jonathan Schulze, No. 26 on a list, a list no one wants to be on.
(on camera) So you're telling me Jonathan told this hospital twice now that he was feeling suicidal, and they told him...
MARIANNE SCHULZE, JONATHAN'S STEPMOTHER: He was No. 26. They didn't have room. It would take two weeks.
KAYE: Before he could be admitted?
M. SCHULZE: Right.
KAYE: Twenty-sixth on a waiting list?
M. SCHULZE: Right. And to check back in a few days to see what number he was on the list.
KAYE: Did you think that Jonathan had a few days at that point to wait?
M. SCHULZE: No. No.
KAYE (voice-over): Months of intense fighting in Iraq. That's all it took for this fun-loving teddy bear of a guy, with a smile as wide as the Minnesota farm he grew up on, to unravel. Twenty-five- year-old Schulze returned home in March 2005 a tortured soul.
M. SCHULZE: I remember a broken man. Somebody who had no expression on his face, who would cry very easily, who at night you'd hear him screaming, moaning, groaning.
KAYE: Jonathan's step mom says he was sleeping just two hours a night, drinking heavily, having panic attacks. There was guilt over the loss of 16 men from his squad, including his two best friends.
JIM SCHULZE, JONATHAN'S DAD: He was big. He was strong. He was brave, but his whole experience over there almost left him trembling like a little kid.
KAYE: Jonathan's drinking and violence led the Marines to give him a general discharge. Jim Schulze says his son became withdrawn, edging dangerously close to ending his life. Jim says Jonathan talked openly about suicide.
The family doctor had diagnosed Jonathan with post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and prescribed Valium, Ambien and Paxil. None of it seemed to quiet this Marine's mind.
Desperate for help, Jonathan turned to the V.A. hospital in Minneapolis. He couldn't hold a job, and without medical insurance, the V.A. was the only place he could afford.
(on camera) When he asked to be accepted into an in-patient program at the Minneapolis V.A., what did that hospital tell him?
M. SCHULZE: They told him he couldn't get into that program at that time. It was full.
KAYE: And he had to wait how long for the next one?
M. SCHULZE: Six months.
KAYE (voice-over): Jonathan was sinking fast. In January this year the Schulzes tried another V.A. hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, about an hour outside Minneapolis.
(on camera) Jim and Marianne Schulze both insist they heard Jonathan tell the intake nurse he was feeling suicidal. They recall being told the social worker who screens PTSD patients was too busy to see their son that day, even though, they say, he'd been made aware of Jonathan's suicidal tendencies.
Jonathan was sent home and told to call back the next day. And when he did, his step mom was listening.
M. SCHULZE: And Jonathan said, "Yes, I feel suicidal."
KAYE: The next die when he called the hospital, you heard him tell them a second time?
M. SCHULZE: Yes, a second time. A second time. He eventually was told that right at that point it would be about a two-week wait. He at this point was No. 26 on the list and to check in periodically.
KAYE: Four days later with a picture of his daughter at his side, Jonathan wrapped an extension cord around his neck, tied it to a beam in the basement of this home he'd been renting from a friend, and hanged himself. Unanswered cries for help silenced.
M. SCHULZE: If our men are going to serve for our country and serve in a war or a conflict, when they come home, they should be taken care of.
They were promised when they went in. They were promised when they signed on that piece of paper. And they come home, and they have a problem, and what are they told? You're No. 26.
KAYE: In Jonathan's massive medical file an alarming absence. The social worker Jonathan spoke to by phone did not record the Marine's suicidal thoughts.
(on camera) How do you explain that in that 400-page medical file of his there isn't a single note mentioning that he said he felt suicidal?
J. SCHULZE: Very plain and simple. St. Cloud V.A. altered those records, or else the individual he talked to did not put it in there when Jon did mention that.
KAYE (voice-over): If so, why wasn't he admitted immediately? The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating and would not comment.
J. SCHULZE: When a vet cries out that he's suicidal, even if they'd have to set a bed up in a kitchen, you don't turn them away, you don't put them on a waiting list.
KAYE: Keeping them honest, we've learned the St. Cloud V.A. hospital has just 12 beds for PTSD patients. The Schulzes say those beds were full.
We've also confirmed the number of beds has remained unchanged for a decade, even though the U.S. has spent the last five years fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Veterans Affairs tells us it expects one in five returning veterans to need treatment for PTSD.
While the Schulzes struggle to heal, they find themselves at the center of a debate over the seemingly ill-prepared and overwhelmed V.A. system. Jonathan in death has breathed new life into the issue.
M. SCHULZE: Jonathan didn't come home to die. KAYE: Nor did he come off the battlefield expecting he'd have to fight to get medical help at home.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Stewart, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: From the trenches with U.S. troops in Iraq to the CNN NEWSROOM, don't miss CNN's Arwa Damon coming up live with what it's like to live every day for the past four years in the war zone.
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HARRIS: Hey you already know to catch us weekday mornings from 9:00 a.m. till noon Eastern right here on CNN. But did you know you can take us with you anywhere on your iPod? The CNN NEWSROOM podcast available 24/7 right on your iPod.
COLLINS: Prosecutors fired, the attorney general under fire. Congress considering subpoenas now this morning. Were the dismissals political payback? A developing story we are follow in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Confessions of a serial terrorist? The Pentagon says the suspected 9/11 mastermind admits he was behind the attacks, and that's not all. Laundry list of terror in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Searching for a missing 6-year-old in south Georgia. Police say suspects are talking. What they're saying in a live report coming up from the scene right here in the NEWSROOM.
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COLLINS: Hands up if you've ever thought about how much stress you put on your hands during the course of your life. Judy Fortin has a handle on hand health in your 30s, 40s, and 50s.
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JUDY FORTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We create with them, use them to communicate, work, and play. Yet as we age, our hands begin to tire.
DR. THOMAS GRAHAM CURTIS, NATIONAL HAND CENTER: So any instrument that is being used with that frequency certainly has the ability or opportunity to have damage or injury.
FORTIN: In our 30s, the tendons that connect the muscles to the bones begin to wear, causing inflammation or tendonitis. That can cause significant pain in the thumb and wrist. Medication or splints can help. In severe cases, surgery is need.
Athletes begin to feel pain in their hands as early as their 30s. Golfers like Arnold Palmer and Ernie Els were faced with early hand injuries.
CURTIS: Probably the most frequent acute injury we see in golf is when the ground is struck forcibly. There's a small prominence in the palm of your hand called the handmate bone, and so if you strike that and you have pain in your palm that is persistent, that would be a reason to seek medical attention.
FORTIN: By the time we hit our 40s and 50s, we've put a lot of miles and stress on our hands. Carpal tunnel becomes a problem, and it's not just caused by too much work at a keyboard. It can be due to any repetitive activity we do with our hands.
Frank Glorioso was in his forties when he began experiencing problems.
FRANK GLORIOSO, CARPAL TUNNEL PATIENT: I would wake up in the middle of the night with just severe pain, and you'd look at your hand and you could see a hand but you couldn't feel it.
FORTIN: The cause? Frank drove his car so much for his job that placing his hands on the wheel every day caused carpal tunnel.
CURTIS: It is actually a very specific compression of the medium nerve at the wrist causing numbness and tingling in the three fingers on the thumb side.
FORTIN: In our 50s, arthritis causes joints in the fingers to swell. It can be painful and chronic but can be controlled with medication. There is no cure for arthritis although doctors say exercising can help reduce pain.
Judy Fortin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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