Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Boy Scout Missing in North Carolina; Police Standoff in Syracuse, New York; Air Travelers Stranded by Winter Storm; Death Squads Operating in Iraq
Aired March 18, 2007 - ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: More than 80 people and numerous dog teams are combing thousands of acres for a Boy Scout lost in the woods, but with the night's guide just hours away, time is of the essence. We're going to be taking you live to North Carolina.
Also, allegations of torture, people getting burned, their fingernails ripped out, all in secret prisons in Iraq. Who is behind these prisons? Well, the answer will give you chills when you find out.
Also this, "bong hits 4 Jesus", but a student sign wasn't a hit with his school, and what happened to him has gotten the attention now of the Supreme Court.
Hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. We're going to begin this newscast with two big stories. Both are dramatic efforts demanding a lot of time and attention by authorities. On the left side of your screen, see that. You're looking at what is a frantic search that's underway right now for a missing Boy Scout in North Carolina. You saw his picture there momentarily.
On the right side of the screen as you look at it in your living rooms is western state New York where a gunman has been holding police at bay for hours now.
Let's go first to the mountains of North Carolina, that story we told you about where the searchers are looking for a Boy Scout that they say they now have a new clue. It's his mess kit. This is Michael Auberry, his mess kit, which is essentially something he uses to try and cook in while he's out in the woods, gives searchers at least a sense of direction to try and intensify their efforts. The rugged terrain is hindering the search though, but rescue crews plan to keep at it until they find him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID WELDON, INCIDENT COMMANDER: The plan is to still continue to search with the crews available that we have now. We're going to continue to be in the field searching the patterns that we've been doing the afternoon. Of course at night we're going to have to scale back and try to keep the searchers on the trails that are marked clearly. We'll continue operations through the night.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Let's do this now. Let's try and see if we can get some more information out there to see if we can do anything we can to help find this little boy. Dave Bauer is a park ranger. He's with the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Service. He's joining us now by phone with the very latest on this search. Dave thanks so much for joining us, sir.
DAVE BAUER, BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY NATL. PARK SERVICE (via phone): Sure, no problem.
SANCHEZ: Do we know how this little boy got lost?
BAUER: He was part of about eight to 10 group that was here from Greensboro, North Carolina. Some of them went out for a hike this morning, excuse me yesterday morning, and they came back. He did not go out on the hike with them. He stayed in camp with one of the adult leaders. When everybody returned, everybody all ate lunch together, and then shortly after that one of the adult leaders realized that he was not in camp, that he had apparently walked away from camp.
SANCHEZ: So that's important. He might have just walked away from camp and then gotten what, disoriented?
BAUER: That's what we're assuming that you know something caught his eye. He went out in the woods to take a look and then out here, all the woods look alike, if you get off trail. It can be real hard to find your way back. Everything looks alike.
SANCHEZ: Yes, I was just going to say. Can you put us in his shoes? What's it like to be him out in the woods like that? What's he seeing? What's he experiencing?
BAUER: Well you know, he's looking at all the woods, not sure which way is up at this point. You know, he's just trying to stay warm, trying to find his way out of here, and probably getting pretty scared at this point.
SANCHEZ: Yes, I guess at some point you look around. I mean it's happened to all of us when we go in the woods. You look around and suddenly it all does look very much the same, so what's the strategy for you? What are you guys trying to do to see if you can find him?
BAUER: Well, what we've been doing today is we've got dog teams out there. We had the North Carolina State Highway Patrol helicopter in the air today looking for him. We've had tracking teams out there in the woods trying to find his tracks, and we've had about 140 ground searchers on foot, ATV and horse trying to find him.
SANCHEZ: What -- you know where he started from, which I assume you do, right?
BAUER: Right. We have the point last seen.
SANCHEZ: So you go there and then you kind of fan out from there, right? BAUER: Right. And that's what the helicopters and the searchers have been trying to concentrate between where the point last seen was which was at their camp and where his mess kit was found, which is about half to three-quarters of a mile away from camp.
SANCHEZ: You know I'm wondering is there something you can do so maybe he can find you. Is there -- you know, I'm just thinking out loud here with you, but a giant noise you can make that would help him perhaps follow it back to where somebody is to make it easier for him?
BAUER: The searchers have been going out there and using audio attraction to try and get his attention.
SANCHEZ: So you are...
BAUER: Of course, yes -- at night we don't want to do that because we don't want him to hear one of the rescuers and start running at night towards that rescuer because, you know, there's all kinds of rocks and stumps and trees and vines out there so it's kind of dangerous at night, but during the day we are doing audio attraction.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting. Audio attraction, what is that, like a foghorn or something?
BAUER: No, basically, you know some people might use whistles. Some people are just out there shouting his name.
SANCHEZ: Wow. All right, listen, we'll be checking back with you throughout the night. We're going to be staying on this story all evening long. Hopefully you guys will be able to find them and we'll be able to share that news with our viewers right away. Thanks so much, Dave Bauer, a park ranger there with Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Service.
To western New York State we go now, police are in an intense standoff with a gunman there. The unidentified man has barricaded himself in his own house and he has a rifle, so do police, as you can see here. He's been there for more than 24 hours now. Police suspect the 62-year-old man shot his 52-year-old wife. They got her out of the house. She's recovering now in a hospital.
Kevin Torres with CNN affiliate WSYR is in Syracuse. He's been following this story. This thing doesn't seem to have an end in sight now, does it, Kevin?
KEVIN TORRES, WSYR REPORTER: Not right now, Rick. It's still an intense situation at this hour. Syracuse police have been in constant contact with the suspect. They say he's still inside his house with the gun and he's not budging. As for the folks in this area, well dozens of them have been evacuated. They are just wondering when they can return home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TORRES (voice-over): Since last evening Don Locket (ph) has been locked out of his house. It's a huge inconvenience seeing as how his son and his son's friend are still trapped inside. Don slept in his SUV overnight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It horrifies me because that's why I moved over here from the east side of Syracuse because you would think that you were in a better environment, but I guess you can't get away from it. It's everywhere.
TORRES: Officers armed with assault rifles are making their way through this area in a puzzling way. They are using one of Nancy Gillfoil's (ph) ex-husband's buildings as a makeshift post.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apparently they have got a sniper on the roof and they got people surrounded in the dumpster right -- that connects to the house.
TORRES: Nancy's children were supposed to spend the afternoon with their dad, but that won't happen today. In Vicky Holly's (ph) case it's not about seeing her immediate family but seeing her dog Pepper.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just worried about Pepper. I mean he's five years old and he's my only family I have.
TORRES: As the evening quickly turns into night, most of these people will be forced to stay elsewhere, at least until the situation is resolved.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TORRES: Now two SWAT teams have been trying to gas this man out with tear gas but it hasn't been successful yet. They plan on staying here until this issue is resolved. Obviously they are hoping that it's resolved peacefully, but Rick, back to you.
SANCHEZ: That's amazing. They keep throwing tear gas and still he doesn't come out. He must have some kind of equipment that's able to block it or something, some kind of mask. Kevin Torres, CNN affiliate WSYR. We're going to get back to you, Kevin, as this story unfolds as well. Let us know if anything changes and we'll get right back to you, all right.
TORRES: Will do, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Got another story that we've been following all weekend long for you, the nightmare at the nation airports, tens of thousands of travelers are still stranded two days after a brutal winter storm in the northeast forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights. The disruption has created a domino effect now, computer problems at U.S. Airways has made matters even worse. The airline says it's still trying to find seats for 100,000, 100,000 stranded passengers. That is an amazing situation.
Jacqui Jeras has been following it. Remember we were talking about this yesterday, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Yesterday we said, you know, the weather system was long gone, right?
JERAS: Well, it was, and you know yesterday the weather system didn't affect them so much outside the morning hours, but here's what's going on right now and how the weather is still impacting those people. The storm is way up here in Quebec, but high pressure is beginning to build into the area and the low is starting to move pretty slowly here, so there's a big differences in pressure and that's what drives the wind, so even though pretty much the snow has pulled on out of here, we're seeing some very gusty conditions, and that can cause airport delays and is at this hour.
Check out the winds coming in out of the northwest, in the teens right now, but we're seeing gusts well beyond that at times, 20-25 miles per hour, over here at JFK, 22 miles per hour, sustained winds, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Newark at 15 miles per hour, so delays are plentiful at this time. Atlanta those are just volume delays here, but JFK because of the winds, more than an hour, about an hour-and-a-half here at LaGuardia and Newark, a ground delay of over three hours, and that doesn't even account for the delays that you're dealing with in addition to the cancellations.
Now, tomorrow we think weather is going to be improving across the northeastern corner. Southerly winds are going to help bring your temperatures up a little bit but a clipper-type system could cause delays from Kansas City to St. Louis and to Chicago and Detroit and this will push into the northeast late Monday night into Tuesday, and that could be affecting travel as well -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Jacqui Jeras on top of things for us. We certainly appreciate it, Jacqui.
Coming up, they went investigating allegations of abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They found several hundred men, all Sunnis, locked up in a handful of dark overcrowded rooms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: This is amazing video. Never seen before, by the way, it's coming up in 30 minutes, beatings, tortures, rape. It's a secret prison no one has ever seen video from this place before. You're not going to believe who is running it, by the way.
Also, "bong hits 4 Jesus", is a message that sparked a huge controversy and earned one student some unexpected time off from school. The banner debate is coming up in just a little bit and then the search for that missing Boy Scout trudges into the evening. We're going to have a live update in just 20 minutes. Obviously, if something happens before then we'll have it sooner. In fact we're going to be all over this throughout the evening.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: That's part of our lighting team there and production guys who put everything together for you here. I'm back with you, Rick Sanchez here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Here's something important for you. In the past four years Iraq's bloody civil war has cost thousands of civilian lives, more than 34,000 last year alone. Well tonight on CNN we have a "Special Investigations Unit". It's a startling new report by John Roberts about rogue Shia death squads operating deep within Iraq's security forces.
Here's the segment now from "Death Squads" and a warning about this video that you're about to see. It includes some extremely graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SR. NAT'L CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Ministry of Interior runs many prisons in Iraq, some of them illegally according to U.S. reports. Allegations of torture and mistreatment are frequent. In June 2006 an Iraqi government delegation made an unannounced visit to a prison in Diyala province once used by Saddam and his security apparatus. There were allegations that it was illegally run by a Shia police commando unit believed to be torturing and killing Sunnis.
Mohammed al Diny (ph), a Sunni member of parliament normally hostile to the West, wants us to see the images from his visit to Diyala prison. This is the tape now seen for the first time in the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
ROBERTS: Al Diny (ph) says they found several hundred men, all Sunnis, locked up in a handful of dark, overcrowded rooms.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
ROBERTS: Almost none of them, he says, had been charged with any crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I've been here for two years.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Most of the prisoners have been jailed on false and groundless accusations. They told me 17 inmates have been sexually abused.
ROBERTS: One man is desperate to speak to al Diny (ph). He says he's an Imam at a local mosque.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They force us to talk by raping us. ROBERTS: He tells al Diny (ph) he confessed to murder, a murder he knew nothing about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They told him to choose between confessing to killing the man or seeing his family raped. Despite the fact that he confessed, he says he was still raped twice.
ROBERTS: Prisoners show him how they have been tortured. Fingernails ripped out, burns, beatings, several secret prisons, some run by the Interior Ministry have been exposed in the last two years, the reports of torture verified by international experts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: John, what a fabulous report, and the question that comes to mind as I watch it, does the government sanction this prison?
ROBERTS: Well, here's the thing, Rick. Who exactly is sanctioning it? And this all goes back to the days when the coalition provisional authority was handing over power to the Iraqi government, the transitional Iraqi government before the actual parliament was put in place, and during that time ministers established themselves in very powerful positions, and it's alleged that this one fellow named Bayan Jabr (ph), who took over as the Minister of Information, allowed these militias to come into the Ministry of Information and within the national police set up these commando units that were driven by militias and were also acting as death squads and as well running these secret prisons, so they are believed to have been established with some form if not actual government permission, at least with a wink and a nod or turning a blind eye sort of thing, and that's why these militia members came to be in charge of these particular prisons.
SANCHEZ: It's almost like a quasi-sanction then. Let me ask you. Why would they want to hold innocent people and torture them as such? Is this a tribal thing, people they have been wanting, to get out of the way for a long time, regardless of the charges?
ROBERTS: What you'll see in the program, Rick, is that there was such a program of terror, torture and retribution from the Sunnis upon the Shia that when the Shia finally took power that there were years and years, decades even, of these lingering hatreds, and when they got a chance to exercise some power, some of them exercised it in an appropriate way, but others exercised it in an inappropriate way.
You're going to see video in this program, Rick, that just -- it's almost impossible to look at of what Saddam Hussein's henchmen were doing to innocent Shias, and now there are some Shias who say now that we've got the power it's time for payback.
SANCHEZ: There's another segment you do that's tough to watch. Let me tell our viewers. We're going to come back and show you this one and have another conversation with John about this one. People going into -- police officers in uniform going into people's homes and shooting up the men in that home. Also tonight, we're following two dramatic stories happening right now. We're going to take you back to North Carolina where search parties are looking for a missing Boy Scout, and then we're going to head back to Syracuse. Remember that story we told you a little while ago in New York where police are locked in a standoff with a suspected murderer? We're going to check in on both of those stories in just about 10 minutes from now.
You're watching CNN. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rick Sanchez here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Let's get right back to this preview that we're showing of tonight's "Special Investigations Unit" report on Iraqi death squads. You saw the one a little while ago that John Roberts brought us. That was about a prison that the Iraqi government is somewhat or quasi- sanctioning. Again, we want to warn you in this case, this is a death squad case, also perhaps sanctioned by parts of the government, there are images you're about to see that are very graphic, video never seen before.
Here's John Roberts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): March 2002, a video of Sunni Sheikh Kadine Sarhid (ph) in happier times. One of his five sons is getting married.
(MUSIC)
ROBERTS: And this is the Sheikh's home today after dozens of uniformed men burst in. It is now a house of six widows, the children without fathers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The oldest is 6 years old. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
ROBERTS: It happened in November 2005. Aneed (ph) was asleep in her parent's bed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was asleep and I heard the gunshots so (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and they came into our home and they shot daddy. I told them not to kill my father but the man told me to shut up and then hit me.
ROBERTS: In all, five men were executed that night. The groom had been killed three weeks earlier. After a year, the six widows still will not go into their bedrooms, so a child takes Abdullah. The boy knows every bullet hole in every bedroom.
(SHOUTING AND CRYING)
ROBERTS: A neighbor took this footage hours after the massacre.
(SHOUTING AND CRYING)
ROBERTS: One of the widows says her husband, a policeman, recognized the gunman as fellow officers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): He grabbed one of them by the hand. He told them that he was a policeman like them. He said I am with you. I am with you, but they shot him in the stomach.
ROBERTS: The massacre of this prominent family sent shock waves through this predominantly Sunni neighborhood. Witnesses insist the killers were in uniform and arrived in 10 official vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: John, who are these people? Who are these death squads? What are they made up of?
ROBERTS: Well it looks, Rick, like they are some elements of the police commando units inside the national police, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Information, and it's believed that as the country was recruiting for those forces, that the vetting process didn't work as it was supposed to at the very least or that with the tacit if not outright approval of people who are in charge of those ministries, the Shia militia members were allowed in.
Once they got inside these ministries they formed these little units of retribution, if you will, these death squads which then roam the streets of Baghdad late at night, single out people for kidnappings, assassinations, other forms of murder and they literally had the run of the place. Things have gotten a little bit better in just the last few weeks now that David Petraeus is there and has initiated this new Baghdad security plan, but Rick, there's a belief that these people could just be lying low, waiting to see how that security plan is going, and if it starts to falter they will be out there again in force.
SANCHEZ: What you've shown us in this report and the one previous is really the definition of lawlessness, and what's to say that those people who have been punished in this way will then seek retribution in the future? In other words, you know, the sons and daughters of the people who we see mutilated in this way? I guess the question is, John, when does this end?
ROBERTS: Well it's a real tit for tat cycle. There's no question about that. We're focusing mostly on the Shia death squads, Rick, but on the other side of the equation there are Sunni insurgents who are attacking the government. They are also attacking innocent Shia. There has been somewhat of a reduction just in the city of Baghdad of the sectarian violence. As to whether or not that's going to hold is a matter that's really in question. If the U.S. forces certainly aren't there in the same numbers that they are now, let's say that the Democrats do manage to put through some of these measures on withdrawal, the U.S. military is worried that it could go right back to the way it was just a few weeks ago.
SANCHEZ: It's kidnapping. It's torture. It's murder. John Roberts bringing it to you, the brutality of rogue Shia militias secretly operating within, key word here, within the Iraqi government sanction.
Coming up at 8:00 Eastern at CNN SIU, "Death Squads" we'll have it for you.
Also coming up here, armed suspect holed up in a Syracuse home is frustrated that police's best efforts for nearly 24 hours haven't been able to get him out. We're going to go live to the scene. There you see somebody being taken out of the house. He did shoot his wife, but she's in the hospital still. We'll have it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a hard decision to make in here, but it's even harder out on the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The indictments apparently imminent in the shooting of a New York man on his wedding day so now the question for police officers is to shoot or not to shoot, and if so, how much? You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back I'm Rick Sanchez. We're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We told you that we're going to be following two developing stories throughout this newscast. First of all, search teams are trying to locate a missing boy, he's a boy scout, got lost in a state park in North Carolina. The rest of his troupe had gone out into the woods. He stayed behind, suddenly he seemed to wander into the woods according to officials we talked to just a little while ago when suddenly they couldn't find him.
It appears that he has gotten disoriented. He's been out there for quite some time. They expect it could be 20 degrees tonight, that's cold enough for officials there to be concerned that he could have a problem as far as just exposure is concerned. That's what he looks like. There is a full out rescue effort going on for him right now, and we are in touch with officials there. We'll be talking to some of the state officials, some ranger folks who are going to be talking to us as well. And as soon as we get any information we're going to share it with you.
Meanwhile, we're also following another story, this is a bizarre story that's unfolding in upstate New York. Another developer, it's day two now of a police standoff there. It looks like a domestic dispute that just got way, way out of control. Straight to Syracuse we go that's where our affiliate WSYR is following it. Kevin Torres is on the scene once again. Kevin, set the scene for us, if you would.
KEVIN TORRES, WSYR: Well Rick it all started yesterday afternoon around 3:00 when Syracuse police were called to 303 Gear Ave on the city's west side. They were responding to a call of two shots fired. When they arrived on the scene, they found a woman inside the home. They didn't find her inside the home. She escaped with two children. She was shot in her abdomen by her husband, a 52-year-old man. She is listed in critical condition at this point. The two children inside the home escaped with no injuries. Throughout the evening photographer Steve Leiper and I were on the scene and we just heard several popping noises. And that was Syracuse police firing tear gas into the home, trying to get this guy out. It has been more than 24 hours since he has been inside and he is not budging at all. Rick?
SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting about this piece is as we were watching it develop earlier, we were wondering whether police had made entry into the home at all. Have they been able to do that or attempted?
TORRES: Not yet, Rick. It's just too difficult because this guy is armed. He's already shot one person. They're just fearing that there's a possibility that an officer could get shot. We have heard reports, eyewitnesses tell us that they have seen a robot moving around the house. We're not sure whether or not they're going to try to move it inside or what, but this is pretty much what we know so far is trying to gain entry.
SANCHEZ: And he did have some kids, right? Were they his children that got out of the house earlier today?
TORRES: Yes, there were two children who escaped from the upstairs down through a ladder. Syracuse police picked them up, brought them out. We actually have some video of that. I'm not sure if you guys have it with you, but they did escape with no injuries.
SANCHEZ: What's his argument? What is he holding back? Why is he being so adamant about staying in the house?
TORRES: That's a very good question Rick. And Syracuse police are still unsure. They have been trying to get a hold of this guy. They've talked to him several times, but he just hasn't said they just don't have a motive at this point.
SANCHEZ: Wow, sounds like really a bizarre case. Boy, I hope they're able to get a handle on this thing, and I imagine all the rest of the neighbors and all the other residents have been pushed back so nobody else can get affected, right?
TORRES: Dozens of families have been evacuated from this area. The Red Cross is on the scene right now, they're assisting those families, giving them food, shelter, whatever they need to get through the night. Some folks who I spoke with earlier today said that they stayed in their vans overnight, just sleeping in the vas, but yes they are hoping to get back tomorrow.
SANCHEZ: Kevin Torres, you're all over it and we thank you for doing that. Stay where you are because if we get a chance to go back to you, we will and certainly if anything changes, let us know and we'll put up your live signal once again. Hopefully this thing will come to fruition at some point tonight and we'll be able to report that. Kevin Torres of WSYR on the case there.
Well in New York City tomorrow indictments are officially going to be unsealed. This is that high-profile case that we've been telling you about, it's a police shooting of a groom just hours before his wedding. According to union officials and defense lawyers, detective Michael Oliver seen here on the right and an undercover detective are going to face manslaughter charges. Detective Mark Cooper on the left is going to be charged with reckless endangerment. Again, that's coming from the attorneys, defense attorneys say they are confident though that eventually the officers will be cleared. The high-profile case has sparked outrage in New York City's African- American community.
Shoot or don't shoot, that's that split-second decision that's central to police work, and police departments go to great lengths to try and make sure that officers get it right. Here's CNN's Drew Griffin with an inside look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Magazine seated, charge the weapon, it should be on --
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Casal has only a few seconds to decide, crouched behind a barrel, his gun aimed at a man with a knife at a hostage's throat. All three of their lives will be forever changed if Deputy Casal squeezes that trigger or not. Fortunately for him this is just training in an air-conditioned studio, but the nervous sweat shows just how real it can feel. Captain Sims has brought five members of the Gwinnett County, Georgia swat team to FATS, a virtual training facility where police officers practice making split second life-and- death decisions. Here they learn not only when to shoot or not shoot, but if they actually could shoot and kill another human being.
CAPT. CARL SIMS, GWINNETT COUNTY POLICE: And that's what I love about the scenario. Because you can sit there and when you go home tonight, you think about it and you sit down and you have a talk with yourself, your god, whoever your inner soul is, and decide what you are made of and what you can do, is this really what I want to do for a living.
GRIFFIN: I'm about to learn some of that myself.
SIMS: When you can, use deadly force, and when you cannot use deadly force as a police officer.
GRIFFIN: The rule sounds simple.
SIMS: Not a slap on the wrist, ok, not a punch in the nose.
GRIFFIN: If someone is threatening me or someone else with a serious threat that could lead to death, then shooting is justified. In practice it becomes much more complicated. It's a domestic abuse call. A frantic family says someone in a back bedroom is being attacked. My partner opens the door, a man choking a woman, no weapons visible.
Step away, sir. Step away from her, sir.
I hesitate because the man has no weapon. Captain Sims says the weapon is his hands on the girl's throat. He would shoot.
SIMS: If that's your child on that bed are you going to wait?
GRIFFIN: No.
SIMS: Ok, that's someone else's child and you've got to make that choice yes or no. It's a hard decision, it's not an easy decision.
GRIFFIN: A second later my decision becomes easy. The man attacks my partner, grabs her gun, I open fire.
Back to Deputy Casal, focused on the man with a knife. Like me he hesitates. It's a mistake. The criminal kills his hostage before Kevin can kill him.
SIMS: What happened?
DEPUTY SHERIFF KEVIN CASAL, GWINNETT COUNTY, GEORGIA: He stabbed her.
SIMS: She's dead.
CASALLE: It's a hard decision to make, especially like Captain Sims said, it's a hard decision to make in here but it's even harder out on the street and you've got to live with it.
GRIFFIN: Casal hopes he never has to make the decision. But it is always there for any police officer, shoot or don't shoot. Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Tough call for sure, isn't it.
Well coming up, free speech or just your garden variety smart aleck? That's a debate over this banner. Should the student behind it be punished? We're going to take a look it's next in the NEWSROOM. And then later, Capitol Hill Democrats are being warned beware of Colbert. We're going to tell you why. This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI: With inflation fears and talk of a recession, the main event on the business docket this week will be the Federal Reserve's meeting in Washington. The fed meets eight times a year to assess the health of the economy and decide what to do about it. The fed has held interest rates steady at 5.25 percent since last June and while some people are hoping for a cut next week most economists don't think that will happen. Mortgage rates have been dropping, but have they dropped enough to kick start the sagging housing market? Again, lots of people hope so, but very few people think so. We'll get a couple of housing reports this week to stir into that mix. Housing starts tell us how much new home building got under way in February. It's a report of what's happening while building permits tell us how many homes are planned. Sort of a sense of how confident the home builders are that folks will keep buying the houses they build. We'll also find out how many existing homes were sold in February, and that's the biggest part of the housing market. And finally spring officially begins on Wednesday, and for many of you that means doing a little spring cleaning or taking a little spring break. Maybe on Delta. Delta is entering the home stretch in its bid to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The nation's third largest carrier fought off a takeover bid from US Airways in January and plans to re-emerge as a stand-alone company. Delta estimates the airline will be worth as much as $12 billion if and when that happens. If you want more of this sort of thing watch me on "Minding your Business" each weekday morning on "AMERICAN MORNING." That's it from New York, I'm Ali Velshi.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Some of the most popular stories on cnn.com, let's tell them to you. The frantic search for a boy scout who has been missing in the North Carolina Mountains. We've been telling you all about that one. Twelve-year-old Michael Auberry disappeared from a campsite Saturday. Temperatures have been dipping into the 20s overnight. That's a problem, it's expected to be just as cold tonight by the way. Also, many of you concerned about that recall on millions of cans of pet food. You've been checking our website as a result of that. The recall was prompted after at least 10 animals died from kidney failure. You can find the link to the company's website, by the way, with the list of the affected brands on cnn.com, and the grocery stores where you get them too, in case you can't recall the brand.
Also another story getting a lot of hits on our website, the escalating political unrest in Zimbabwe. Opposition leaders report that there's more harassment and violence as a result, the country's main opposition party says that four of its representatives were arrested at the airport. One was badly beaten.
We're back in B control, this is where we look at a lot of the video that has been coming in throughout the course of the day and man, we've got one that really takes the cake. The Supreme Court is now hearing arguments about this one just tomorrow in fact. It's a case that could set a limit on free speech rights in students, and here's where the video comes in. Some people find it shocking. It's divided the Bush administration and conservative Christian groups. Its name is hard to ignore, Bong Hits for Jesus. Here's CNN's Gary Nurenberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the symbolic torch was carried through Juneau, Alaska on its way to the 2002 Olympics, Douglas Public High School let students stand on city streets to watch it pass by. When it did, Douglas student Joe Frederick unfurled this banner, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
JOSEPH FREDERICK: I find it absurdly funny. I was not promoting drugs. I assumed most people would take it as a joke.
NURENBERG: His school principal didn't. She tore down the banner and suspended him. Frederick sued arguing his constitutional rights were violated.
DOUGLAS MERTZ, FREDERICK'S LAWYER: He was a citizen exercising free speech in a public place at a public event.
NURENBERG: But the school argues --
KENNETH STARR, DEAN, PEPPERDINE SCHOOL OF LAW: It was a field trip where the school was able and did exercise its authority.
NURENBERG: In this case to prevent kids from being exposed to arguably pro-drug messages, according to its attorney, Kenneth Starr.
STARR: The school should be able to put a stop to these kinds of pro-drug culture messages.
NURENBERG: They disagree. As members of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, they traveled to Washington to demonstrate for student speech rights.
ADAM KOLTUN, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: If they are learning at such a young age that freedom of speech is more a myth than a fact, then that is sort of a dangerous precedent to set for our country.
NURENBERG: The court has long ruled schools do have rights to limit student speech, but Frederick's lawyer Douglas Mertz says they don't apply in this case.
MERTZ: The test is whether the exercise of free speech creates a substantial disruption of the educational process.
NURENBERG: But what's disruptive enough to limit free speech? These California kids demonstrated against immigration policy last year. Others oppose the war in Iraq. Can school muzzle those views? Some Christian groups have filed briefs here saying that too much school power could prevent kids from espousing religious views.
ED LAZARUS, CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR: The legal rule that's established is going to cover a lot of different kinds of protests. It may involve student messages that are much more profound and are really aimed at some of the most important disputes in society.
NURENBERG: Making the fight over Bong hits 4 Jesus, a case that could define the limits on free speech for students. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Well in case you missed it, here are some of the highlights from the Sunday morning talk shows, a bevy of conversation on CNN's "LATE EDITION." National security adviser Stephen Hadley took exception to using the term civil war to describe the violence in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Iraqis don't call it a civil war. If you talk to Iraqis, what they say is it's not a civil war, it's a war against civilians, and that's what you have to understand. It is a particularly brutal strategy that was Zarqawi's strategy from the beginning, to attack innocent Shia civilians in order to provoke Shia attack on Sunnis in hopes of creating a civil war.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: We've got another one for you, another hot topic. This is a controversy over the firing of a group of federal prosecutors. Democratic senators investigating whether the firings were politically motivated, now about a subpoena, White House officials to testify on the matter in public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) CALIFORNIA: As the evidence comes in, as we look at the e-mails, there were clearly U.S. attorneys that were thorns in the side for one reason or another of the Justice Department, and they decided by strategy in one fell swoop to get rid of seven of them.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And guess now who's saying I'm sorry. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has spoken to the nation's U.S. attorneys apologizing for mishandling the dismissal of those federal prosecutors but some in Congress are not impressed. They're calling for him to resign, step down, quit, Gonzales supporters consider that an overreaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: When someone serves at the pleasure of the president, I don't know how you separate that entirely from politics, but I don't believe there's any evidence that indicates that these individuals were relieved of their responsibilities for any inappropriate reason. Having said that, I've told the attorney general that I think this has been mishandled, that by giving inaccurate information, by not giving complete information to Senator Leahy, the Judiciary Committee on which I serve at the outset, it's caused a real firestorm, and he better get the facts out fast.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Serving at the pleasure of the president. Boy, there's a term we've heard an awful lot this week. What exactly it means, well, we'll look into it more. David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart do as well. Politicians they usually love the exposure that comedy shows provide. But at least one party is advising its officials to avoid Stephen Colbert. What are they scared of with this guy? We're going to take a look. It's next in the NEWSROOM.
And then at 8:00 eastern, CNN Special Investigation Unit takes us into Iraq, it's an Iraq that you haven't seen before, certainly not pictures like these. An Iraq ruled by death squads, partly sanctioned by the government. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey, nice picture, Roger. Thanks for showing that to us. That's New York City, folks. St. Paddy's Day throughout the weekend, so they're staying with the green theme there. We want to also thank the folks by the way, Roger, did you know this, Tyrone, Georgia, they had me yesterday as their grand marshal in their parade? We want to thank the good folks out there for having me. I had to change my name for the day though, I had to be O'Sanchez.
Now to the campaign trail we go where the recent weather woes changed some travel plans but didn't stop the candidates from stumping. Senator John McCain got reacquainted with voters in Dover, New Hampshire today. He's hopping for a replay of 2000 when he won the granite state's primary, to the surprise of many at the time. Meanwhile Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd wasn't far away. He spent the morning speaking to supporters in Manchester. Senator Barack Obama returned to Colorado for a little quality time with democrats. He had a fundraiser in Denver where the Democratic National Convention is going to be held next year, so we're going to keep our eye on all the candidates as they travel throughout the country.
Well, no joke, Democrats in Congress have been warned to literally stay away from that popular TV comedian Stephen Colbert. Who better than CNN's Jeanne Moos to bring you this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beware of Colbert. The eagle in the show open won't get you, but the host might.
COLBERT: You've said by looking at your voting record you seem like a black woman. Congressman, are you a black woman?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously not.
MOOS: The segment known as --
COLBERT: Better know a district.
MOOS: Makes shows like "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" seem easy to face. You'll never catch Tim Russert asking --
COLBERT: Then why are you undressing me with your eyes, congresswoman?
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, (D) D.C. DELEGATE: Don't you flatter yourself, sir.
MOOS: Which explains why the chairman of the Democratic Caucus confirms he's steering Democrats away from appearing on "The Colbert Report."
REP. STEVE COHEN, (D) TENNESSEE: At some point Congressman Emanuel said to me, I wouldn't go on that show, I wouldn't do it.
MOOS: Too risky for Democrats even if the host is a parody of a right wing bloviator.
COLBERT: You tried to join the Congressional Black Caucus. Doesn't that make you one crazy honky?
COHEN: If you thought that was funny, if you would have seen what they cut out I would have had an Emmy.
MOOS (on camera): Not only did Congressman Cohen completely ignore the advice not to go on "The Colbert Report", he even put out a press release announcing his appearance. And even though things got hairy, he said he had fun. Is there such a thing as too much fun? Florida Congressman Robert Wexler was unopposed for re-election.
COLBERT: Let's say a few things that would really lose the election for you if you were contested. I enjoy cocaine because?
REP. ROBERT WEXLER, (D) FLORIDA: I enjoy cocaine because --
COLBERT: Can you try it without laughing because then people will think it's a joke.
WEXLER: Oh, I enjoy cocaine because it's a fun thing to do.
MOOS: And when real TV news shows did stories on the coke comment --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're calling it foot in mouth disease.
MOOS: Colbert rose to Wexler's defense.
COLBERT: Vote Wexler, the man's got a sense of humor, unlike evidently journalists.
MOOS: In Wexler's words, "There was no real fallout. Some of the media took it too seriously." Politicians are drawn by the demo, the young audience.
REP. BRAD SHERMAN, (D) CALIFORNIA: The porn industry is not in the San Fernando Valley, sir.
COLBERT: Have you ever been to your district?
SHERMAN: What.
MOOS: Colbert ended up putting Congressman Brad Sherman in a mock gay porn film, and Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland who tried to put the Ten Commandants in the capitol ended up getting quizzed on them.
COLBERT: What are the Ten Commandments?
REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND, (R) GEORGIA: What are all of them?
MOOS: Thou shalt not appear on Colbert.
COLBERT: This is "The Colbert Report."
MOOS: Unless you're prepared to leave the audience howling. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Do those people have handlers? It almost seems like they're going on there but they've never seen the show before. Mistake. A check of the headlines is just ahead and then kidnapping, torture, murder. It's coming up. It's a special that we've been telling you about. It's a CNN Special Investigations Unit report, the brutality of those rogue Shia militias secretly operating within the Iraqi government security forces. Can they be stopped? It's an all new CNN SIU death squads report, it is coming up next. I'm Rick Sanchez, obviously if news breaks, I'll break in. We'll see you then.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
