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Missing Boy Scout; Firing Fallout; Mine Disaster; Body Found At Purdue; Suicide Attack

Aired March 20, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony Harris. Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and stay informed. Here's what's on the rundown.
One phone call says it all. President Bush standing by his man at the Justice Department. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hanging on to his job, for now.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Missing since Saturday in the North Carolina mountains. The search for this 12-year-old Boy Scout, Michael Auberry, turns up few clues. But a father keeping the faith.

HARRIS: Combat rescue. The elite troops who plug down the fliers from the danger zone. A CNN exclusive for Tuesday, March 20th. You are in the NEWSROOM.

In the mountains of North Carolina, it is still a search and rescue operation. Rescue teams are back in high gear looking for missing 12-year-old Boy Scout. Michael Auberry disappeared on Saturday. He had been on a camping trip with his Scout troop at a park near the Virginia state line. The latest now from our national correspondent Bob Franken in McGrady, North Carolina.

And if you would, Bob, tell us again, remind us all of what Michael's dad had to say just about an hour ago.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he, who has been insisting on keeping the focus on the search for his son, decided he would talk to media. His father says he continues to have confidence in the Boy Scouts. Has been really re-enforced by watching the professionalism of the search operation. Which, by the way, is going to become much more methodical now. They're going to be putting in a lot of people into this operation after running a computer program and identifying 35 different segments in the very rugged woodland behind me. You see that, the Blue Ridge Mountain area, where Michael disappeared on Saturday. As for the parents, they have, obviously, been experiencing the full gamut of emotions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENT AUBERRY, MICHAEL'S FATHER: I'll be honest with you, is that one reason I did not want to do this is we want the focus to be on Michael. I'm not particularly talking about my emotions and my wife's emotions. We're on a roller coaster and we are up and down and up and down. And we have good moments, we have bad moments. When we found out that they -- we -- it was a particularly bad moment when we knew they were dragging below the dam.

But that's not why I agreed to come out here is talk about my emotions. And I'd really prefer, you know, that's my private -- that's my wife's private . . .

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And their private feelings, of course, and the very public feelings of the massive search effort, the people involved in that is, they're hoping that this all has a happy ending.

Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Bob Franken for us following the search for Michael Auberry.

Bob, thank you.

COLLINS: New insight into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and more calls for some in the Bush administration to face tough questioning. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Three thousand documents and still the story isn't straight. There is ongoing confusion over the real reason the eight U.S. attorneys lost their jobs. In one of the new e-mail messages released late last night, it's clear Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was "extremely upset" in February at what his number two man told Congress about the firing of one of those attorneys. Namely, Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney for Arkansas.

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told senators that Cummins was pushed out to make room for an associate of Karl Rove. Justice officials say Gonzales thought the dismissal was only due to poor performance. It seems to portray an attorney general who was out of the loop. All this as Gonzales faces continuous calls for his resignation.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He has the confidence of the president. But I do not -- it is a pure and simple matter. Nobody's prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months holds.

ARENA: There are e-mails from Margaret Chiara, the U.S. attorney from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Defending her work as exemplary, she asked that any reference to poor performance be dropped when discussing her dismissal.

Other e-mails raised questions about Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney for San Diego. While she's been criticized for her record on immigration, one document from a justice official defends her office's work.

Then there's a document in which McNulty admits he didn't even look at the performance of U.S. Attorney David Bogden. McNulty says he's "a little skittish" about Bogden being fired. Lawmakers have just about had it.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: I want a briefing where they stand before us, raise their right hand, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help them God.

ARENA: Justice officials insist that they did not remove the U.S. attorneys for improper reasons, but the new documents only muddy this issue even further when all anyone wants is the truth.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: A show of support from the top. Early this morning, President Bush phoned embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry is at his post this morning with more on this.

So an endorsement by telephone.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Heidi.

You know, it was about 7:15 a.m. in the Oval Office. We're told the president picked up the phone himself, called Alberto Gonzales. This is the second vote of confidence in one week.

You'll remember it was last Wednesday when the president was in Mexico that he also reached out to the attorney general to express his support as well. Obviously these meetings, interesting, not happening face to face yet, just phone calls, expressing full confidence. White House Spokesman Tony Snow saying the president was just reaffirming his "strong backing of the attorney general."

Snow adding that, in his words, this was an unprecedented document dump that you heard Kelli Arena reporting on. These 3,000 pages. And that the White House believes this was fully responsive to what members of Congress want. Snow also adding that Justice Department officials are being made available to voluntarily testify about their role in the matter.

What the White House is really doing here, bottom line, is trying to knock down this report last night, Politico.com. The political website reporting that the White House had authorized outside Republican officials to start canvassing around and reach out and find some replacement candidates to replace the attorney general. That was, obviously, looking like the White House was saying one thing publicly, while privately coming up with a plan b.

The White House insisting that's not true. But I can tell you, when you read the tea leaves here, while the president is offering a strong backing right now for the attorney general, the fact of the matter is, the White House still has not made clear what they're going to do in terms of voluntary testimony from Karl Rove and other White House aides. If it comes down a some sort of a constitutional show- down over executive privilege with lawmakers on The Hill about whether Karl Rove is going to testify, I can tell you, the White House is going to protect Karl Rove before they're going to protect this attorney general.

They've cited executive privilege and asserted that many times before. Very likely to do it again. And while the attorney general has the full support of the president right now, if his political standing on The Hill changes, if Republicans lash out at a lack of testimony or anything like that, his political situation can change in an instant.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Ed, if you could put it in perspective for us a little bit here. We know that this document or so-called document dump is unprecedented. How about attorneys general being released from their posts?

HENRY: Oh, it's, you know, just like any other cabinet post. People are replaced all the time. I think, you know, Attorney General Ashcroft, the previous attorney general, was in office for quite a bit of time and actually withstood a lot of pressure, calls from Democrats for him to step down over various matters as well.

What's interesting in the case of Alberto Gonzales is that he doesn't really have the reservoir of support on Capitol Hill that Ashcroft had. Ashcroft is a former U.S. senator, had Republicans and even a handful of Democrats who knew him from his Senate days and liked him personally and backed him. In the case of Gonzales, he's not a Washington insider, number one. And, number two, lawmakers on The Hill feel burned in both parties that Gonzales has stiffed them on other issues. Not just in this one, but where they believe he has not been forthcoming.

Gonzales, of course, rejects that. But he doesn't have the deep reservoir of support that Ashcroft had. And Ashcroft was, obviously, much maligned but had more support than Gonzales did on The Hill.

Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Ed Henry at his port this morning at the White House. We're going to talk a little bit later about Gonzales' possible replacements with the author of that report, Mike Allen from Politico.com, coming up a little bit later.

HARRIS: And more on this story now. We are just learning here at CNN that the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee will seek his committee's approval, authority, to issue subpoenas to key White House officials, past and current, to testify about the firing of the group of eight federal prosecutors, called by some the U.S. ate (ph) eight. Congressional correspondent Dana Bash has more on this story for us.

Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

And CNN has just learned that, as you said, the House Judiciary Committee is planning to have a vote tomorrow morning, Wednesday morning, to authorize the Democratic chairman, John Conyers, to send subpoenas to five Bush and current and former bush officials and one former Justice Department official. Karl Rove, the president's top political advisor. He, of course, as Ed has just been talking about, been at the center of this fight between Congress and the White House. Also the president's former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, her deputy over in the counsel's office, and also Karl Rove's deputy, as well as Kyle Sampson, the man who has just recently left the Justice Department. He was Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff.

Now why are they going to do this? It's a simple tactic in negotiating, Tony. The House Judiciary Committee is sending a signal to the White House today, the day that they intend to meet and have a discussion about whether or not Karl Rove and others are going to come and testify voluntarily. They are making it clear that tomorrow morning, if their answer is not yes, that they are going to at least give the authority to the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to send all of those players in this drama subpoenas to make it official.

So it is the same sort of tactic that we are likely to see if this does not get resolved in the next 24 or 48 hours or so in the Senate Judiciary Committee. They're planning on doing this on Thursday. So as you see, it's kind of the 11th hour come when these discussions are going to come to a head.

Probably about 2:00 this afternoon, the White House counsel is going to come here to The Hill and that's something we're going to look for later today, to have these discussions both on the House and the Senate side about whether or not they agreed at the White House to allow Karl Rove and others to come and talk voluntarily. But regardless, they have set this up, a vote tomorrow morning to authorize the Democratic chairman to send subpoenas to Karl Rove and others, current and former, inside the White House.

HARRIS: Yes, applying pressure to get a decision on this. Our congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us this morning.

Dana, thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

COLLINS: A desperate search. More than 100 people killed in a mine disaster in southwestern Siberia. Several people still missing. We get more now from senior international correspondent Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It's being called Russia's worst ming disaster in a decade. Scores have been killed. Rescue workers are still searching for the missing. And this confusion about the cause of the accident which struck an impoverished but coal-rich region of southern Siberia.

VALERI KORCHAGIN, EMERGENCY MINISTRY SITUATIONS, (through translator): A suspected cause, according to some data, is a methane explosion. According to other data, it was a discharge of coal dust. It's difficult to be specific at the moment. Probably it will become clear when the specialists have done their work.

CHANCE: Russian coal mines are notoriously run down and outdated, but this pit was relatively modern, only opening in 2003. Officials say it was being fitted with a British-made hazard monitoring system when the blast took place. At least 20 of the coal mines' local managers, as well as a British citizen inspecting the system, are believed to be among the dead.

AMAN TULEYEV, KEMEROVO REGIONAL GOVERNOR, (through translator): Today, at this mine, we were to launch an English system to insure secure work underground. Unfortunately, the chief engineer and all senior managers of the mine have left with the representatives of the English firm to test the work of this system.

CHANCE: And this is only the latest disaster to hit this remote Siberian mining community. Twenty-one miners were killed in the same area in 2005. A year earlier, 45 were killed. Russia's coal mines may be producing more than they once were, but at what cost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: CNN's Matthew Chance joining us now from Moscow.

Matthew, this is a relatively modern facility. What exactly is being done now to help the people who are still trapped?

CHANCE: Well, emergency workers have been working around the clock to try and get to the five people they believe are still inside the mine shaft. We're getting very sketchy reports, though, from officials on the ground as to whether they believe those five individuals are still alive. Although if they are, hope will be fading fast at this point, I imagine, for them to be brought out alive.

Investigators are also working around the clock to try and establish the cause of this accident. As I mentioned, the main theory at the moment was a build-up of methane gas that was somehow ignited. But this whole incident really underlines the problem of safety in Russia's coal mines. They have a very patchy safety record indeed.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes. All right. Matthew Chance is following this story for us. Matthew, we'll come back if we get any more developments on it. Thanks so much.

Meanwhile, a nursing home burns in Russia. At least 62 people are dead this morning. Dozens of people injured. Emergency officials say a night watchman ignored at least two fire alarms before calling the fire department. The nearest firehouse was 35 miles away. So it took about an hour for firefighters to arrive. Officials say some nursing home workers were not at their posts and many of the elderly residents could not escape on their own.

HARRIS: Witness to a suicide attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This great wall of flame lifts this car up in the air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: A rare glimpse of the moments just after a bombing. That story, these pictures, in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Also, combat zone rescues. The front-line stories of winged warriors. They swoop in to pick up troops in harm's way. A CNN exclusive in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And police chase caught on tape. Bank robber suspects on the run. Did the pursuit follow guidelines or was it over the top? You decide. See for yourself in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: And over the edge at the Grand Canyon. The sky walk that has some people seeing green, others seeing red, and still others just closing their eyes. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's get you to Betty if the NEWSROOM right now. Betty's following a disturbing story out of Purdue University in Indiana.

Betty, good morning.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

It is really disturbing. In fact, a body has been found inside a utility room at a residence hall. Owen Hall, to be exact. That body was removed today. And they're hoping to have an identification by tomorrow.

But, again, the body was found inside a high voltage utility room in Owen Hall. And what is so significant here is that a freshman, Wade Steffey, who has been missing since January 13th, were last reported at a location near Owen Hall. And he had just come back from a fraternity party when he went missing again on January 13th. So it's been a while. Yet this body was just found today in this utility room. A high voltage one at that inside Owen Hall.

It's not known if the body is that of the 19-year-old. A news conference is going on at this hour. So we should learn more. But at this point, we're not even told whether the body is that of a male or a female. But it is really significant that it was found inside Owen Hall today and that was the last area where Wade Steffey was seen back on January 13th. He's just 19 years old. So hopefully we'll learn more information as that news conference provides it.

HARRIS: OK. Betty, I know you're following that for us. Appreciate it. Thank you, Betty. Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, emergency war drills in Israel preparing for the worst case scenario. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

New home construction. Is the housing market climbing out of its slump? New numbers to consider, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Oh, the things that are said during the break, people.

HARRIS: Sorry, sorry.

COLLINS: Thank goodness we have that filter. Looking now at the Dow Jones Industrial average, we see that the numbers are down an itty, bitty bit, about 8 points or so, resting at 12, 217. A big report out this morning, housing starts. A bit of a rebound from that nine-year low. We'll talk more about that with our wonderful Susan Lisovicz a little bit later on today.

HARRIS: Well, the largest ever civil defense drill taking place in Israel. Emergency personnel are responding to a variety of simulated assaults, including a chemical attack on a school or a rocket strike in Tel Aviv. The two-day exercise is designed to test the response of rescue personnel in case of an attack, and to apply lessons learned from last summer's war with Lebanese-based Hezbollah fighters.

COLLINS: Suicide bombings. They are becoming more commonplace in Afghanistan. In this case, part of a cameraman's commute. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): In flames and on its roof, the suicide bomber's vehicle burns just feet away. The apparent target, a black U.S. embassy SUV, is intact but heavily damaged. At least one American is badly injured. Several others less severely. The cameraman who took these pictures was just two cars away from the blast.

RICHARD PERRY, FREELANCE CAMERAMAN: The next thing I know, this great wall of flame lifts this car up in the air. And first I said (ph), oh, what was that? And, second, that must be a bomb.

ROBERTSON: As his camera rolls, it reveal as rare glimpse of the moments immediately after an attack. American and Afghan security personnel protect the injured. Sirens signal help is on the way, but there's concern of a second attack.

PERRY: The immediate American response was very -- or the securities response was very stern. They were worried about secondary IEDs. So we had guns pointing at us. Get out of here, get out of here, we have to pull back. Pull back to a safe distance.

ROBERTSON: After the streets were cordoned off, police found several unexploded artillery shells. Not clear if they were from the suicide attack or part of a second planned explosion. No claims of responsibility so far. The Taliban considered the most likely perpetrators.

According to unofficial Afghan police sources, three people died in the attack. The U.S. embassy acknowledged Afghan bystanders may have been killed in the blast and offered condolences but could not confirm how many casualties on the normally busy road close to Kabul's airport.

Over the past few months, there have been several suicide attacks on this road. Americans in the region have been warned in security messages from the embassy here to avoid traveling it if they can. The Taliban vowed to keep up their attacks.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Death by a thousand paper cuts? The future of Alberto Gonzales. New documents, new uncertainty. Details in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Holding out hope. Searchers in high gear again this morning looking for that missing Boy Scout. It's all ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Combat zone rescues. The front line stories of winged warriors. They swoop in to pick up troops in harm's way. A CNN exclusive in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We have an update on a story that we've been following this morning about a body that was found at Purdue University. Betty Nguyen has been working on this.

It sounds like, Betty, there's been an ID made.

NGUYEN: Yes, there has. According to a news conference there at the school, we have learned that that body is that of 19-year-old Wade Steffey. You see him right there.

He went missing back on January 13th. He left a fraternity party and no one had seen him since. Well, a body was found inside a high voltage utility room today. And it appears that body is indeed of Wade Steffey. That utility room in Owen Hall.

And here's the story behind that. Learning this from the news conference. In fact, his parents had been speaking and Wade was trying to get into Owen Hall to retrieve his coat. And this door to the utility room is about 50 feet from the door that Wade was trying to enter, which he couldn't, but the door to the utility room was unlocked.

So once you enter that utility room, what we've been told from the news conference, is that it's a very, very dark room. And once that door behind him shut, it was locked from the inside. So just imagine being in a room that you're really not familiar with. It's completely dark and the door behind you locks as it shuts.

And so there are a lot of issues today dealing with the possible liability. Why was the door to the utility room unlocked in the first place. And another thing is, you know, why did it lock behind him? So a lot of questions surrounding this still, even though the one answer that this family was hoping to hear, as far as it went to finding out exactly what happened to their son, even though it's not what they indeed wanted to hear, at least they have some kind of closure in the fact knowing that their son Wade Steffey is, indeed, that of who was found today in the utility room. So at least they know what has happened to their son. The question is why did this happen and that's what they're trying to figure out. Again, 19-year- old Wade Steffey from Bloomington, Indiana, missing since January 13th. His body was found today in a high-voltage utility room on the campus of Purdue University. An investigation is indeed under way to determine exactly who is liable here and what happened. Back to you, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Betty, some people may be wondering as they look at the bottom of our screen there as we call it the lower third, saying that he was apparently electrocuted by a transformer in that room. Any indication from the press conference?

NGUYEN: That's what they said. It's a high voltage utility room. It's a dark room. So when he entered that from the unlocked door, not knowing where he's going he's trying to feel around. What we learned from the news conference is that at some point he was touching the different wires and there was an electrical arc that formed and that is unfortunately what electrocuted him. But again, that's going to be part of the investigation as to exactly what happened and why it happened. And even though this family knows what happened to their son, the big question today is why.

COLLINS: All right, Betty Nguyen following this for us. Betty, thank you.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Another member of Saddam Hussein's regime executed, this on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. Former Vice President Tahad Yusein Ramadan (ph) hanged overnight. The fourth man to be executed in the killings of nearly 150 Shiites in a town of Dujail back in 1982. The incident occurred after a failed assassination attempt on Hussein. An advisor to Iraq's prime minister says the execution went, in his words, smoothly.

Chopper down. A distress call sends another helicopter crew into the skies over Iraq. In a CNN exclusive, our Alex Quaid reports on the rescuers who risk all to bring their comrades back alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUAID, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Downed air crews looking for cover, isolated in the middle of a war zone, desperate for rescue, before enemy insurgents find them first. Training based on the real thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's what happened to these soldiers, their Chinook in a sandstorm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on a re-supply mission, the dust and the sand, the aircraft started to roll. We really didn't have time to think. We had to ground aircraft, rolled over on its right side.

QUAID: Two combat search and rescue helicopters known as jollies responded (INAUDIBLE) They worried that you wouldn't come get them because of the sandstorm.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We had to. That crashed helicopter is like a beacon. The insurgents, they will definitely descend on that. They would have became POWs.

QUAID: So Shrimp and the second jollie piloted by Chef flew into the same sandstorm that took the Chinook out. How difficult are the conditions?

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: It's kind of like being in a heavy rainstorm without the windshield wipers on.

QUAID: The soldiers injured but alive waiting for the para rescue men, or the PJs, still like they've learned.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: The PJs run out armed to the teeth. They kind of drag them back to the aircraft because we need to go.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: The sight of these guys coming in, those two aircraft coming in to pick us up was the best sight I've ever seen in my life.

QUAID: It was the best sight, too, during a different incident for a shaken up master Sergeant Jeff Gore, cousin of former Vice President Al Gore.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: When we picked them up we just watched a very close friend of his die.

QUAID: The pilot call sign (INAUDIBLE) picked Gore up after a fatal convoy attack.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: You know, he was just another service man on the field of battle who was injured. It was our job to take care of them.

QUAID: PJ treated Gore in flight to the CASH, combat support hospital, Baghdad.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: He took the time as he went by to give me the thumbs up. I saw him say thank you as he passed the cockpit.

QUAID: Later the PJs who treated Gore went on to ground rescue and recovery back home.

LARRY KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, breaking news and its tragic news from high atop Oregon's Mt. Hood.

QUAID: Their photos of this high risk mission seen now for the first time, PJ Mark.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: It doesn't have to be overseas to make it dangerous. It's one of those careers where a few miles away from home base is pretty dangerous

QUAID: The PJ's war experiences from Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan prepared them for this challenge. And the challenges don't end once they're back in the helicopter. Remember pilot Shrimp and Chef? Rescuing those soldiers in that sandstorm. They now face an insurgent ambush. The events sketched by one of their copilots.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We're being engaged. Multiple missiles fired from the shoulder of insurgents.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Cruise missiles come up. I kind of break to the right.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: He was being shot at. The only thing I knew to do at that time was to turn back into it and put as many rounds in that area that I could.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: He fired 50 count, a 50 count is a very intimidating weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: I'm being all I can be on the controls trying to evade the missiles coming in at plus mach two.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Almost immediately he gets to come out the left-hand side of his aircraft. I did the same for him. I just opened up a 50 count.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We invaded the missiles, broke hard, banked, caught our breath and flew the rest of the way back to our base and delivered the five individuals to the hospital.

QUAID: These are their night scope photos landing at the Lawd (ph) air base, delivering the soldiers.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Seemed like one of the longest nights of my life.

QUAID: The soldier most injured, Specialist Roxanne Shim (ph) now back home with her daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: It was wonderful. She walked in. She went uh, mom? She couldn't believe it.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: We know that we're going to go through some hard stuff. And -- but that's why we do it.

QUAID: They're doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: They say the two soldiers have been recovered. The crash site has been secured.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Both of the soldiers were recovered. QUAID: Combat search and rescue men ready for the next call.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: There is a recovery operation going on.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: If it happened once, there's a very good chance it could happen again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Wow, CNN's Alex Quaid joins us now. Alex, great stuff.

QUAID: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: We're talking about really special operations, teams here in the way, certainly not exactly the same, but in the way we think of the Delta force, right, in the way that we think of the Navy SEALS, Green Beret, but these guys are Air Force, who knew.

QUAID: Exactly. These are special operators. They work within the Air Force. And a lot of folks, they're very familiar with the SEALS. They're very familiar with a lot of these very special units and what they do. But they're not aware of what, you know, the PJs, they are called SEALS with stethoscopes because of their medical expertise. For instance, there are about 2500, 2,500 Navy SEALS. There's only about 270 para-rescuers. So they are very unique.

HARRIS: And how did you find this story?

QUAID: Four years ago I was an embedded journalist during shock and awe and we had an A10 (ph) pilot who was shot down by surface to air missile over Baghdad and the Air Force and the combat search and rescue team, the entire community clammed up. They did not want to talk about this. I decided then and there that I wanted to track this pilot down, track down the rescuers and find out about these special people.

HARRIS: Clearly, it's taken you some time to bring all the pieces together. Why were they hesitant to talk to you?

QUAID: They really want to be able to do their job under fire and in hostile territory. They're not in it for the publicity. They're not in it to be on camera. They want to be able to do their jobs and they don't want to be compromised. They say they're not in it for the thank you's even.

HARRIS: Well, thank you. We want to say thank you and we want to acknowledge that great work. Alex Quaid, what a piece. Thank you. Great to see you Alex.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Chris Lawrence, live on top of the Grand Canyon where some people are calling this manmade sky walk sacrilege. Others call it just plain stunning. Take a look and decide for yourself, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. New numbers on the housing front raise hopes and concerns. I'll explain when NEWSROOM continues. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A grand opening today at the Grand Canyon. CNN's Chris Lawrence joining us now live with a look at a new addition to a natural wonder. How can it get any better, Chris? I've got to tell you people here in the studio watching and reports their hair standing up on their arms. You are a little close to the edge, my friend.

LAWRENCE: Yes. Tribal leaders, Heidi, say that the sky walk really speaks to something in human nature that just kind of compels us to walk right to the edge. You know, really just take that look over. They say what the sky walk does is allow you to take that one step further. Now, some call the view stunning. Some of the tribe's critics call it sacrilege.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice-over): The sky walk is sheer glass. It's higher than three Empire State buildings stacked on top of each other. But when tribal leaders and environmentalists peer over the edge, they see two very different views.

ROBERT BRAVO, JR., HUALAPI TRIBE: I mean look at this thing. This is a modern marvel of the world out here.

KIERAN SUCKLING, CTR. FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: The Eiffel Tower is an architectural wonder. Do I want the Eiffel Tower sitting on top of the Grand Canyon? No.

LAWRENCE: Environmentalist Kieran Suckling expects more than half a million tourists to make the two-hour drive from Las Vegas. He says speculators are already buying up the land in between, hoping to build hotels and restaurants.

SUCKLING: We don't need to bring Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon.

LAWRENCE: Our view from a helicopter was stunning. For $75, tourist will be able to step over the edge and look 4,000 feet straight down.

It looks so precarious, just jutting out over the canyon like that. But the builders say you could land 70 Boeing 747s on top of the sky walk and it could still support the weight. More than 100 steel bars were drilled 40 feet into limestone bed rock, then capped with steel plates. The Hualapi leaders compare to it Canada's development of Niagara Falls.

BRAVO: I mean, did they desecrate that and is that OK for them to do that? Why isn't it OK for the Hualapi's to do it?

LAWRENCE: The tribe is small and poor. Unemployment is at 50 percent.

SHERI YELLOWHAWK, HUALAPI TRIBE: We have to go 50 miles to get groceries. We have to -- we don't have a gas station in town. We don't -- there's lot of things we don't have.

LAWRENCE: They're hope that every visitor who sets foot on sky walk puts the tribe one step closer to getting that. You can see some of the workers putting the finishing touches cleaning that glass to give the best view possible. A Las Vegas developer paid $30 million to build the sky walk. The way it works out is they have to get about an extra 400,000 tourists to recoup that money. The tribe and the developer will split the earnings for a while but eventually the tribe will own the sky walk. Heidi?

COLLINS: Chris, any idea, you say about 400,000 tourists are needed to make a profit on all of this. Can you get a sense of how many people are interested in coming there and actually walking around that thing?

LAWRENCE: Well, right now the tribe gets about $300,000 a year for their other activities here, cultural activities, helicopter rides, riding on the river. They expect to double that in the first year and for that to increase as more and more people learn about it. Again, they're not looking to attract the four million people who visit the Grand Canyon National Park. They're looking at the 40 million who visit Las Vegas every year and who may be enticed to take that two- to three-hour drive.

COLLINS: Got it, OK. Now, stand back from the edge, my friend. We just don't have the budget. Chris Lawrence reporting right there at The Grand Canyon. Chris, thank you.

HARRIS: We have a budget?

COLLINS: Yeah, a little one.

HARRIS: The weak housing market, to business news now, it's been a concern. The Federal Reserve has recently thrown the financial markets into a bit of a tizzy. But the latest government numbers may calm some fears. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange to explain what it all means. Susan, good morning.

LISOVICZ: Good morning, Tony. Speaking about falling off an edge, we've been very worried I'd say, it's a fair statement about the housing market. Today's numbers not yet a clear sign that the housing market has finally hit bottom, but it does offer some hopeful signs. Construction starts of new homes rose 9 percent in February. That beat the estimates. Obviously that's good news. But analysts aren't too surprised by this because January housing starts were so awful. They plunged more than 14 percent. Because of the winter weather, construction can always be volatile.

So what can we expect going forward? Well, there may be more trouble ahead. Building permits, a gauge of builder's intentions over the next few months dropped 2 1/2 percent last month. That is the 12th decline in the past 13 months. Many analysts are paying close attention to these numbers because of the turmoil in the mortgage sector, especially the sub-prime mortgage sector which provides loans to people with damaged credit history, late payments a rising. We told you about that. Foreclosure, told you about that, too and that could lead to a glut of unsold homes and limit demand for newly built homes. So it just doesn't make things any better obviously Tony.

HARRIS: We've been trying to figure out leading indicators, lagging indicators, housing starts, building permits. A little good news, a little uncertainty. How about the Fed? There's a meeting next week?

LISOVICZ: That's right. It's a two-day meeting. It begins later today. And we're expecting a decision on interest rates tomorrow afternoon. That's really the headline of the week on Wall Street with the problems in the housing sector and signs that consumers aren't spending money as freely as they used to. You would think the central bank might want to cut rates to stimulate the economy. But economists are nearly unanimous on what will happen tomorrow. They expect the Fed keeps short-term interest rates to stay at 5 1/4 percent. That's because the Fed still sees inflation as the biggest potential problem. Both wholesale and retail prices rose last month. Hourly wages also rising. So despite worries about the economy is slowing, don't expect the Fed to make any moves tomorrow. As for the reaction on Wall Street, no big moves here on Wall Street either. Everybody's really curious as to what the Fed is going to say about the housing market and inflation. Right now the major averages not a lot of positive mo after yesterday's triple digit gains. The Dow is up 10. The Nasdaq is up seven, or a third of a percent and that's is the latest from Wall Street. Tony and Heidi, back to you.

HARRIS: Outstanding. Susan, see you next hour.

LISOVICZ: You got it.

COLLINS: Police chase caught on tape. Bank robbery suspects on the run. Did the pursuit follow guidelines or was it over the top? See for yourself in the NEWSROOM.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fresh out of school or starting up your own business? You may be like 30 percent of 18 to 34- year-olds who are uninsured, making it the fastest growing group of people without coverage. That's crazy because there's so many options out there now. Employee sponsored healthcare is not the only standard. In New York, for example, there's the freelancers union. It offers its membership healthcare plans at reasonable rates and there's plans like this all around the nation. Just go to the Internet and type in self employment and health insurance.

Paying for the nine broken bones from your fall on that black diamond? It will be a lot less painful with insurance and that's something you definitely can't know soon enough. Stephanie Elam, CNN, New York.

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HARRIS: How about this? Police pursuit cleared, dashboard camera video shows Lakeland Florida, police chasing two bank robbery suspects in a truck. Look at this. The high speed highway chase went on for 27 miles until that maneuver there, that pit maneuver flipped the truck. The suspects survived the crash. A police review board found the forced crash was necessary and that the extra police vehicles in the chase were within guidelines, pretty dramatic stuff.

COLLINS: That's for sure. Chad Myers, take a look at all the weather across the country now. He says it's spring today.

HARRIS: Sure, a little later.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's going to be.

COLLINS: I say today. Spring's today.

MYERS: Nine hours of winter left.

COLLINS: I'm done with that.

MYERS: Absolutely. I have been so over winter now for so long. 2,000 lightning strikes though across parts of Oklahoma this morning from south of Wichita through Osage County. Some areas picking up even four and seven inches of rainfall. Still a lot of lightning going on here too south of Ponca (ph) City and even right in Ponca City for that matter and then farther out there has been some heavier rainfall into Wichita as well. That's all part of warm air coming up from Dallas, 65 for you, 64 for Memphis and 45 right now in St. Louis. It does warm up across the south. This is that warm battling the cold. And the cold's trying to hang in in the northeast, not doing so well, getting pushed out tomorrow. 46, New York City, 48 DC, 73 for Atlanta. It's going to be warm again in Atlanta today and all through the week.

There is some rain coming into the west from San Francisco through San Jose. We had some airport delays in San Francisco, but they were limited to about 30 minutes or so today. This is where the big weather will be today, also another round of severe weather, maybe even more severe weather for tomorrow through the plains. But for today, a brisk northwest breeze at La Guardia still not slowing the airport down just yet. That's some good news because they had this cross runway thing where you try to use two different runways, one for landing and one for taking off. Sometimes if the cross winds get too bad at one of those, they have to reduce it down to one and then they can't get as many plains en route.

HARRIS: 73 in Atlanta.

MYERS: Yeah.

HARRIS: Go on down to Atlanta and visit us. Say hello. Take a tour. We'll get you a coffee mug or something.

COLLINS: Do we have those?

MYERS: For sale at the store.

COLLINS: Does it say CNN NEWSROOM on them?

HARRIS: Sure. Oh, well, yeah.

COLLINS: We're working on that. MYERS: Get a Sharpie (INAUDIBLE)

COLLINS: Chad Myers, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COLLINS: Talk of the town now. Who would replace Alberto Gonzales as the nation's top prosecutor if he went? We're going to go inside the beltway with a veteran Washington report.

JUDY FORTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New findings for people who suffer the most common form of stroke. Columbia researchers aren't sure why but they say men recover better than women when treat we'd a clot-busting drug TPA. Mental illness is taking a toll on U.S. soldier. According to a review of more than 100,000 vets of Iraq and Afghanistan, 25 percent have been diagnosed with some form of mental disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the biggest problem, diagnosed in 13 percent of returning veterans followed by anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

And a startling report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reveals half of college students binge drink and abuse drugs; 1.8 million students meet the medical criteria for substance abuse and dependence. That's 2 1/2 times more than the general population. Judy Fortin, CNN.

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HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming into the NEWSROOM on this Tuesday, March 20th, the first day of spring.

Here's what's on the rundown now. Career call. President Bush gets his embattled attorney general on the line. A strong show of support for Alberto Gonzales this morning.

HARRIS: Few clues, but a father refuses to give up hope. The search for a Boy Scout in the mountains of North Carolina, the 12- year-old missing since Saturday.

COLLINS: The Grand Canyon never looked so grand.

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