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Atlanta Police Indictments; Senate Takes Up Iraq Pullout Bill Approved by House; 'Hated Dad' Busted

Aired April 26, 2007 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins.

Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on this Thursday morning, April 26th.

Here's what's on the rundown.

The Iraq war commander assessing the security crackdown last hour. General David Petraeus calls the Iraq war the most complex and challenging he's ever seen.

HARRIS: He got out of jail to give his son a kidney. Instead, he took off. The man dubbed "Most Hated Dad" captured in Mexico.

WHITFIELD: A skater's dramatic comeback just months after what appeared to be a career-ending injury.

Slashed on the ice, that's straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

Welcome to the NEWSROOM.

It's a story we've been following here closely in Atlanta. A 92- year-old woman is killed during a narcotic search in her own home, and now some of the police officers involved in that search at her home that resulted in her death have now been indicted.

Rusty Dornin is here with the latest on this.

Pretty shocking, because the police department had really defended their actions that they went to this home because an informant told them drug activity was taking place.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But very quickly after that happened their story began to break down, because the informant came forward who was named in this warrant and said, "I did not tell them to go to that house. I did not tell them that there were any drugs at that house."

Of course, then the federal authorities were called in. There's a federal investigation also ongoing in this case. But right now the three officers that have been indicted, two of them have been indicted on felony murder charges with aggravated assaults, false imprisonment, various circumstances included in those charges. Also for false statements, criminal solicitation, two counts of burglary.

Now, what we understand is those two officers, Gregg Junnier and Jason Smith, will be appearing later this afternoon in a local court for some kind of plea agreement on those charges. The other officer, Arthur Tesler, was not charged with murder. Now, he is not part of that plea agreement, from what we understand. But then after they go for their plea agreement, we understand they will be appearing in a federal court because there will be some kind of federal charges issued by a grand jury there.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

DORNIN: So, once they finish with the local charges, they move on to the federal charges that may be placed against them. And also, we may be hearing from federal authorities what their investigation revealed.

What we're hearing from our sources is that there will be an ongoing investigation into corruption in the Atlanta Police Department, because a couple of these officers have been involved in these other no-knock warrants that were very questionable.

WHITFIELD: Right. And so this really is the tip of the iceberg when it comes down to the investigation of what happened to Kathryn Johnston. But it sounds as though also under scrutiny is this no- knock warrant.

I mean, it is very controversial. Atlanta PD at least had defended it and said that it really does warrant a necessity in terms of narcotic busts. They really need something like this. But now people are debating whether, especially if they're relying on informants who may not be giving them the right information, whether they really are worthy.

DORNIN: Well, the judges also, you have to remember, are issuing these warrant from just the statements made by officers often. So, they're depending that the officers are telling them the truth.

They're not going in and saying, how did you get this information? Who is this informant? Have we heard from him before? That sort of thing.

They are just writing these off and issuing these warrants. So, also, the magistrates also may be coming under scrutiny in terms of issuing these warrants without really looking into them.

WHITFIELD: Demanding that they ask for more. More is required before their signature.

DORNIN: Right.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rusty Dornin, thanks so much for the update. HARRIS: And we have breaking news in to the NEWSROOM we want to share with you. Boy, this sounds absolutely horrible. And I think we have some of the pictures to show you as well.

Police are telling us, at least -- wow, those are horrible. At least seven people are dead after a crash involving eight vehicles on the Indiana toll road. Let's work through all of this information together.

The accident apparently happened 6:40 a.m. local time, and it happened in Elkhart County and involved four semi-trucks and four vehicles, four cars. Indiana State Police tell us that at least seven people are dead and two are hurt.

Crews are still working right now, as you take a look at this new video in to the CNN NEWSROOM -- still working to extract several people from their vehicles. We understand raining at the time. I think you can discern that from these pictures.

The crash occurred in a construction zone. One of the vehicles involved -- maybe you've seen it -- was actually crushed under one of the semis.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness.

HARRIS: Traffic in this area, man, had been reduced to one lane because of the construction work going on.

But once again, at least seven people dead after a horrific -- oh, boy.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HARRIS: A horrific crash involving eight vehicles on the Indiana toll road near Elkhart County in Indiana.

We will continue to follow developments here.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And clearly, if anyone has plans or perhaps...

HARRIS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: ... listening to us on satellite radio, and is stuck on the Indiana toll road, you should know that those westbound lanes are going to be closed for a long time.

HARRIS: Those are some horrible pictures.

We want to get to Chad Myers in the severe weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Democrats in Congress just one step away from a veto showdown with the president over Iraq. The Senate votes today on a war spending bill with a timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq. It passed in the House last night. Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel joins us live now from Capitol Hill.

And Andrea, good to see you this morning.

Once the Senate passes this bill today, when can we expect Democrats to send it on to the president?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning to you, Tony.

Well, what I've been told by Senator Dick Durbin, who is the second ranking Democrat in the Senate, is that they plan to send it early next week, either Monday or Tuesday. And just as a footnote, Tuesday is also the fourth anniversary -- remember when President Bush landed on the U.S. aircraft carrier the Abraham Lincoln and declared "Mission Accomplished," and he was standing in front of that big sign? Well, that's the fourth anniversary. Democrats say that's just a coincidence.

Nevertheless, you can bet that they will, as well as other anti- war activists, be hitting that point very hard on Tuesday if President Bush follows through on his veto threat.

HARRIS: So, Andrea, what happens next? The president and the Pentagon say this is -- we need this money now, this is emergency aid, and we need to fund these wars. So, where do we go from here?

KOPPEL: Well, the Democrats have made a big issue of the whole emergency matter. They say that this is really a lot of smoke in mirrors. The fact of the matter is the president should have been putting the money in the defense budget for the last four years, but every year since the war began he's had this emergency money needed right away.

Now, just last year, the Republican-controlled Congress didn't approve the emergency supplemental, as it's known, until June. Nevertheless, Democrats say and they cite this nonpartisan organization, this nonpartisan group called the Congressional Research Service that did put out a report saying that the money actually won't run out probably until June or July.

Nevertheless, Tony, they expect to try to get some sort of funding through, if President Bush vetoes the bill, as soon as possible.

HARRIS: OK. Our congressional correspondent, Andrea Koppel, for us.

Andrea, thank you.

Walking in harm's way and expecting the worst...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main thing is, you want to separate and get a distance between us, all right, in case something does happen that will take us all out. Make sure we spread out. All right?

Anybody have any questions? No? All right. Let's do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: "Let's do this." On foot patrol in Baghdad, ahead in the NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: And the road runs out for this man dubbed the most hated dad in America. Fugitive -- kidney fugitive, that is, caught -- in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: A life-and-death struggle over a terminally ill baby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to play god by saying who lives and who dies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Should his mother or the hospital have the final say on baby Emilio's fate? A difficult decision, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Called the most hated dad in America. For months, address unknown. Today he is behind bars.

CNN's Susan Candiotti reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you have to say to your son Destin? You promised him a kidney...

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With nothing to say to the son he deserted, Byron Perkins and girlfriend Lee Ann Howard were escorted back to the U.S. Authorities say they've been hopscotching around Mexico doing odd jobs to keep under the radar. But their luck ran out.

JOE CHAVARRIA, U.S. MARSHAL: Unfortunately for them, they came back to a place where everyone was looking for them because they had been there last year.

CANDIOTTI: Perkins, nicknamed the most hated dad in America, busted in Mexico, back in the U.S., in a heap of trouble. A dad who cried in front of a judge who let him out of jail last year so he could donate a kidney for his son Destin, a son who desperately need a kidney to live.

Perkins fooled them all and took off running with his girlfriend. It was only after CNN ran the story that tourists in Mexico recognized him and called police. The couple had run up hotel and bar bills and skipped out on those, too.

For over a year, the U.S. Marshals searched for the odd couple and finally caught up with them in Puerto Vallarta. Authorities say they spent time before that Manzanillo.

Last fall, we visited with Destin after he got a new kidney from an anonymous donor. Back then he said this about his dad, and his mom says nothing has changed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you could ever forgive him?

DESTIN PERKINS, SON OF ARRESTED FUGITIVE: Forgive him, probably not. It's a pretty bad thing that he did to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pretty bad is an understatement.

Susan Candiotti joining us live now from Miami.

So, what next legally? What can we expect?

CANDIOTTI: Well, the first thing in the morning in Los Angeles, of course Perkins and his girlfriend will make an appearance before a federal magistrate there, and he'll face additional charges, of course, of unlawful flight. Then, if he waives extradition, then they will put him on a plane back to Kentucky, where he will face these additional charges.

And remember, that's not the only thing Perkins is in trouble for. Before all this happened when he went on the lam, he was about to be sentenced for a minimum 25 years because of other pending charges...

WHITFIELD: Oh boy.

CANDIOTTI: ... for probation violation, drug trafficking, robberies, gun possession, that kind of thing.

WHITFIELD: And so what about for his girlfriend there, as we watch her being handcuffed away?

CANDIOTTI: Right. At the present time, she is also charged with unlawful flight. But I'm told that the U.S. attorney in Kentucky is considering whether to charge her with aiding and abetting a fugitive. That would put her under federal jurisdiction, not under state charges in Kentucky. The marshals clearly want to keep hold of her, too.

WHITFIELD: Bad rap all the way around.

HARRIS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much.

HARRIS: A life-and-death struggle over a terminally ill baby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to play god by saying who lives and who dies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Should his mother or the hospital have the final say on Baby Emilio's fate?

A difficult decision -- straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, before we get to your "Daily Dose," this story we're following out of Istanbul, Turkey.

CNN has confirmed that a six-story building has collapsed. We're still investigating, as are authorities, as to why and who may be in this building, the significance of this building. It taking place on the city's European side known as Sirinevler there in Istanbul.

We are going to continue to follow this story. Our CNN Turk, which is based there in Istanbul, as well as Ankara, they're on the story. And when we get any more information, we'll be able to bring that to you -- Tony.

HARRIS: A decision no parent should face, when to let a terminally ill child die. Do doctors get a say? That's the crisis facing one Texas community.

The story now from medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. .

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emilio Gonzalez doesn't have long to live, maybe a month, maybe two. This hospital wants to pull the plug on his ventilator, in which case Emilio would die much sooner, probably within hours. The hospital says it's the only humane thing to do because the ventilator and other treatments are causing the 17-month-old to be in pain.

MICHAEL REGIER, GEN. COUNSEL, SETON FAMILY OF HOSPITALS: We are inflicting suffering. We're inflicting harm on this child.

COHEN: But the toddler's mother says Emilio is on so much morphine, he's not in pain. Catarina Gonzalez says she knows her son only has a month or two to live, but she wants him to have every possible minute of life. Even though a rare genetic disorder has left him unable to speak or see or eat on his own, she says his life still has value.

CATARINA GONZALES, EMILIO'S MOTHER: I put my finger in his hand and I'm talking to him and he'll just squeeze it. He'll open his eyes and turn his head towards you. . And he'll look at you and look at you for a good while. COHEN: So the question is, who gets to decide whether Emilio will live or die? His mother or the hospital? In an unusual law, the State of Texas says the hospital. If doctors feel treatment is inappropriate, they can take someone off life support even if the family disagrees.

Doctors say for them it's a matter of ethics, according to this hospital spokesman.

REGIER: We have to have balance. We have to have a point at which it will be permissible for a physician to say, I have my sense of professional ethics and I have my moral values and I'm simply not going to do this anymore.

COHEN: Emilio's mother has taken the hospital to court because she says it has overstepped its bounds.

GONZALES: They're trying to play God by saying who lives and who dies.

COHEN: A lawyer for Austin Children's Hospital says it's not playing God and that as a Catholic hospital, the church's teachings are clear.

REGIER: In the Catholic tradition, we're obligated to use ordinary means to pursue and preserve our lives. We're not required to use extraordinary means.

COHEN: So how did this Texas law come about giving hospitals the right to decide when it is time for someone to die? President George Bush, when he was governor of Texas, signed the law. Many see an irony given his stance six years later that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to live.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The legislative branch, the executive branch ought to err on the side of life.

COHEN: Dr. Lainie Ross, a pediatrician and bioethicist disagrees with the Texas law.

DR. LAINIE ROSS, BIOETHICIST, UNIV. OF CHICAGO MED. CTR.: I think the mother should absolutely make the final decision. I would definitely not pull the child off of the ventilator.

COHEN: Bioethicist Art Caplan says the hospital should decide.

ART CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: So there are situations where even though a mother's love would say, I don't ever want you to give up, medicine does have to set some limits to the continuation of care.

COHEN: In Texas, the legislature is reconsidering the law giving hospitals the right to make life and death decisions. It's not clear if a decision would be made in time to change the fate of Emilio Gonzalez.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: A judge has appointed a guardian ad litem to help decide what's really best for Emilio. The next court hearing is scheduled for May 8th.

Now, to learn more about baby Emilio and his controversy, you can go to cnn.com/health. What you're seeing right there is an article that I wrote all about baby Emilio.

HARRIS: Well -- well, Elizabeth, Catarina says she want Emilio to die naturally. What is natural about really being kept alive on a ventilator, right?

COHEN: That's what the hospital says. The hospital says there's nothing natural about being kept alive on a ventilator.

And what Catarina counters with is, look, there are many, many people who are kept alive on medical technology, whether it's a ventilator or a drug. And she says, "I want him kept alive as long as medical technology can keep him alive." And she adds, you know, "God gave us these technologies. This is natural."

HARRIS: I want to ask it again. I know you addressed it in the piece, but are there any cost pressures at all attached to this case?

COHEN: The hospital says there are no cost measures. And they said everyone making these decisions, they're not thinking about costs, they're not even aware of the costs.

However, it is important to note that Emilio and his mother are on Medicaid, and Medicaid does not pay for the full cost of this child's hospitalization. The hospital is very open about that. They said Medicaid is not paying for all of the bills. The hospital basically has to eat, has to pay for a lot of these costs, but they say that's not part of the equation.

HARRIS: OK.

Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning.

Elizabeth, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're continuing to follow the situation out of Istanbul, Turkey, where we have confirmed that a six-story building has collapsed. And now you're looking at new pictures that are just now coming in.

A lot of folks converging on the scene from emergency workers, to what appear to be passersby and maybe even some residents of that building. We still are trying to determine whether this was a residential building or an office building, or perhaps even a combination of both, because in Istanbul, very crowded quarters there, and sometimes businesses are at the first level and people live on the upper levels. We're not sure if this is one of those combination kind of complexes, but clearly, you know, the agony here of people making the discovery and dealing with this kind of tragedy, we don't know what caused the collapse, whether it was an explosion or whether it may have been something that resulted from perhaps a gas explosion or something much more sinister. These are the new pictures that we're getting in.

Our CNN Turk is there on the ground trying to work its sources there and to find out exactly what's going on and whether anybody's lives are in jeopardy as a result. It would be nice if it were a vacant building, but not a whole lot of vacant buildings there in those tight quarters there in Istanbul.

HARRIS: And still to come this morning in the NEWSROOM, it is graduation season. Most of us spend, what, four years -- five in college. This young woman...

WHITFIELD: Whatever it takes.

HARRIS: How about this story? This young woman, overachiever. She was able to get her diploma in just one year.

WHITFIELD: Oh, she's making me sick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The easiest course I think I took in college was Behavior Neural Science.

COHEN: Behavioral Neural Science?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The speedy student.

WHITFIELD: She's beyond bright.

HARRIS: Man. That story coming up for you in the NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: And soldier's secret mission on the home front. He's picking up his boy, but the boy doesn't know it. Not as of yet.

Get your hanky, people, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Bottom of the hour, welcome back, everyone to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

WHITFIELD: And I am Fredricka Whitfield. This is an interesting day, Tony. Today we talked about and we're seeing a lot of kids in the NEWSROOM ...

HARRIS: Tell me about it.

WHITFIELD: And other workplaces where you bring your children to work day t-shirts. You and I talked about music and how important music is in children's lives.

HARRIS: I love this conversation.

WHITFIELD: Well, we have combination of that now.

HARRIS: Oh, great.

WHITFIELD: Things taking place at the White House earlier today where we have a music teacher right there, Andrea Peterson being honored by President Bush as the national teacher of the year.

HARRIS: She's not too happy about that, is she?

WHITFIELD: I know. She is thrilled. She ought to be and so are we because this woman is remarkable. Obviously, because being honored there at the White House. Mrs. Peterson, good to see you.

ANDREA PETERSON, NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR: Good it see you, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Remarkable, too, because your story is such you have this love of music and you decided to go to a small school district and introduce muse tock a place where music was not really a priority, so, you got really innovative to try and teach young people about the value of music and, so, now, I understand every child in that school by the time they graduate from fifth grade they can read music.

PETERSON: That is certainly my goal, yes.

WHITFIELD: That's incredible. So, while these kids are learning from you being so innovative, do you feel like you've learned a lot from them, too?

PETERSON: Oh, I mean, most certainly. I think any teacher would say that you learn as much or more during a day when you're teaching students than they learn from you.

WHITFIELD: And so, really, this value that you have of music kind of came from some frustration, too, that you were teaching some older kids or trying to teach older kids music and it wasn't sticking or something didn't go right where you decided, you know, let me start at a younger age.

PETERSON: Basically I started teaching at the middle school and high school level and I realized these kids haven't been given the skills early on to build upon to achieve at a high enough music level that they would be able to feel proud of what they were accomplishing. So that's why I chose go to the elementary level.

WHITFIELD: And that's incredible. When you did go to the elementary level, it was more than just you're bringing with you your love of music, but we're talking about, no music program in place, right, and there was no money for it.

So tell me how you made it happen.

PETERSON: There was a bit of a music program in place, but certainly no music. I just have to say it was a complete community partnership. As far as finding the financing for the music program, that money came from the student body doing fund-raisers, that came from the parent group, that came from community organizations and then, of course, the district, you know, they contributed, also. And that's really the only way that it could have happened for the whole community to get involved.

WHITFIELD: You are only the second music teacher to get this honor over a 57-year span. So do you feel like you can really do something even further by having this honor? By helping to highlight the importance of music in a child's life?

PETERSON: Absolutely. Just to highlight the value of arts in a child's life in general is something that I'm pretty passionate about. You know, a lot of kids when they go to school, they might not be that excited to wake up in the morning, except that they have that one, you know, art class or music class or wood shop class that they just get jazzed about and that's just so exciting to be able to get that message out there that these are the things that are inspiring our children to achieve and once they achieve in music, at least, I've seen so many time where they take that achievement into their regular classroom and achieve in math and science and all the other subjects, as well.

WHITFIELD: And let's talk a little bit more about how you got some students jazzed about what could have been a pretty boring topic to just read a book. In this case it was "The Outsiders." And you said, let's take a bit further and let's make it into a play. Which you did. You helped them write, you helped compose music, tell me about that.

PETERSON: They basically, it was really a collaboration with their classroom teacher, Deborah Hal (ph), her and another teacher, Mike Scheierman (ph) had been teaching them the literary devices in "The Outsiders" and they were reading about it as a class and reading about it from a literary standpoint but then I had them condense the book into a series of short scenes and we performed that play and then I wrote music, as well as they picked music from Broadway musicals that would support the themes that are evident in that book.

So, it was just an amazing, amazing experience and the kids did an incredible job. And I've done that with so many cross-curricular subjects with many grade levels.

WHITFIELD: And that is so incredible and so, now, by example, so many other teachers can learn about what it means to be the kind of innovative thinker that you've been. Andrea Peterson, thank you so much and congratulations on being the national teacher of the year.

PETERSON: Thank you so much. HARRIS: We want to get you an update on this breaking story that we're following here in the CNN NEWSROOM out of Ankara, Turkey -- Istanbul, Turkey, to be more precise here. We're getting some conflicting reports of either an eight-story building, you see the lower third there. It appears that perhaps it was a six-story building that collapsed in Istanbul.

Let's go to the scene now. Andrew Finkel is a freelance journalist on the line with us. Andrew, if you would, clear up whether we're talking about a six-story building, eight-story building, but, more importantly, can you describe the scene, provide the narration for these unbelievable pictures that are coming to us here at the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST (on phone): Well, of course, it's impossible to say whether it's a six-story building or an eight-story building because it seems to have crumpled into dust. The building has completely accordioned -- collapsed like an accordion.

It happened about a half hour ago. In a neighborhood not all that far from the airport in Istanbul. This is a neighborhood which is known to be on an earthquake fault line and in 1999 when there was a terrible earthquake here, people, buildings did collapse not too far from here. But of course there has not actually been an earthquake.

So we don't really understand or know why this building just seemed to crumble. We had some official announcements that it didn't happen automatically. It didn't happen in a moment that many people were able to leave the building and then to save themselves, but, there are reports of people trapped underneath.

There are firemen and neighbors and policemen and ambulances which have rushed to the scene. There is, obviously, quite a frenzy of activity going on. But of course, what is behind all this, we can't yet say.

HARRIS: Well, let me just throw some thoughts out there and maybe you can help us fill in some of the blanks, maybe you can't. But Andrew, are we possibly talking about shoddy construction or are we talking about an explosion? Are you getting any reports of any possible cause?

FINKEL: Again, there's no report yet of an explosion before this thing happened. I think shoddy construction is, again, I'm guessing, I'm not speaking from any knowledge. We have had examples of buildings in these sorts of neighborhoods which were built by contractors who really didn't do their job properly and didn't use the right sort of rebar or tenants perhaps taking away a pillar to enlarge their shops, but there have been isolated examples of buildings just falling apart because they weren't built properly and that would be my bet this time.

HARRIS: Yeah. And Andrew, what neighborhood, what district are we talking about in Istanbul.

FINKEL: Well it's Cochinanern (ph) in Turkish, which rather ironically means "sweet houses", not so sweet for the people struggling to get out of them at the moment. It's a working class neighborhood, not all that far from Istanbul's airport, away from the sort of historical or business districts, the bit of Istanbul which most places where people would come to see. Most people who come here as tourists or business people would never pass through these sorts of neighborhoods. These are the neighborhood where ordinary people live and work.

HARRIS: Sure. And how do we proceed now? Is this a case where fire rescue is on the scene, perhaps ...

FINKEL: The fire department are actually on the scene clearing away rubble and, of course, when these sort of things happen in Turkey, everyone chips in. The neighbors stop what they're doing, the local tradesmen stop what they're doing and everyone rushes to the scene. Turkey actually has very well-trained and sophisticated rescue teams who are able to locate building under earthquake rubble, they've had experienced in Turkey's own earthquake in 1999 and they've used that experience to go abroad and when disasters happen outside of Turkey, often it's Turkish teams who are there to help rescue survivors. So they certainly have the capability to deal with this sort of tragedy and because it's in a built-up neighborhood, these people will, obviously, be taken to hospitals and then rescue facilities.

HARRIS: These are some horrible pictures coming into us here at CNN. Andrew Finkel, thanks for your time.

FINKEL: We do have word of children's cries being heard from under the rubble.

HARRIS: Boy. All right. Andrew, thanks for your time and thanks for your reporting, as we continue to follow this story of this building collapse. Perhaps an apartment building, a collapse today in Istanbul, Turkey. We'll continue to follow this story for you.

WHITFIELD: Well, here in this country in the nation's capital, the Senate sets the stage today for a veto showdown over the Iraq War, debate is under way right now on a war funding bill that calls for pulling troops out of Iraq. The House approved the bill last night by a vote of 218-208. It calls for troops to begin pulling out of Iraq October 1st. Republicans call it a surrender date. President Bush has promised to veto any war spending bill that includes a timetable for withdrawal.

Well, making progress, but problems still remain. That's the assessment from the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. He talked about efforts to secure the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL FORCES IRAQ: Baghdad is the main effort and we continue to establish joint security stations and combat outposts in the city and in the belts around it. The presence of coalition and Iraqi forces and increased operational tempo, especially in areas where until recently we had no sustained presence and have begun to produce results.

Most significantly, Iraqi and coalition forces have helped to bring about a substantial reduction in the rate of sectarian murders each month from January until now in Baghdad. A reduction of about two-thirds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us live and, so, Barbara, the general certainly did say Baghdad is becoming more secure. And he did underscore the problems that are at issue. But did he shed much light on what some of the solutions can be?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, at this point the only solution that the U.S. is working towards is continuing with that troop surge, the Baghdad security plan. Trying to put more U.S. and Iraqi troops on the streets of Baghdad to try and make the city more secure. Make people feel more comfortable and more safe and hope that that will buy enough time for the Iraqi government to try and get some political momentum to bring some unity to the country.

But General Petraeus, to be clear, took a very cautious line on all of this. I don't think anyone thought in this one-hour press conference here at the Pentagon that he painted a terribly rosy picture of what's going on in Iraq. In fact, he said that some of the spectacular car bombs that have caused such horrific damage in the last weeks that basically the overall level of violence in the country had pretty much stayed the same.

Although some of the sectarian killings, the Shia on Sunni killings are down. Now these car bombs, these suicide car bombs are a major problem and he said that al Qaeda in Iraq is really now public enemy number one.

WHITFIELD: And the general was very frank about saying Iraq really is the central front of the global campaign of that kind of killing. He said this network that supports foreign fighters has tentacles that reach into Syria, but did he say directly Iran, as well?

STARR: He did offer a good deal of new information, indeed, about Iran's alleged involvement in the situation in Iraq. General Petraeus laid out some new details that have come from interrogations in the last month or so of several members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force that have been captured by the U.S. inside Iraq.

He said that they had captured some documents, actually, on some computers that they had seized from some people. Documents showing that Iran had provided financing, training, and other support, especially of very serious attack that took place in January back in Karbala in which five U.S. troops were killed. It was a sneak attack. They dressed up as Americans, snuck past soldiers in the compound and proceed to kill five American troops.

They found a 22-page document, he said, detailing that attack and those people had some links back to Iran. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, thereby underscoring complex and challenging, what the general said. He had never seen anything far worse than this in any war scenario. Barbara Starr, thanks so much.

HARRIS: Soldier's secret mission on the home front. He is picking up his boy and everyone's spirits right now in the NEWSROOM.

This young woman is so smart, you'll see her here in a second, her teachers couldn't quite believe it. A spark, a spark of genius ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: This is heartbreaking coming out of Istanbul because the situation really is going to grow to be far worse than the way we're seeing it with these new pictures coming in right now.

HARRIS: I think you're absolutely right. This is a building, an apartment building collapse in Istanbul in a residential neighborhood and we just spoke a moment ago with Andrew Finkel, a reporter on the ground there, who described just a horrible scene of this building sort of pancaking.

WHITFIELD: A residential building.

HARRIS: A residential building. A number of people inside and then his footnote was that the screams of children could be heard from inside.

WHITFIELD: Jim Clancy is going to be following this and other stories, watching developments around the world coming up at the top of the hour. Jim?

JIM CLANCY, CNN HOST: That's right and we're going to keep an eye on what's going on on Capitol Hill with that budget vote, as well as what's going on in Turkey. Minute by minute, people digging with their bare hands trying to get to some people that are still believed to be trapped there.

Also, let's get real, that's what the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to say about Russian concerns over a U.S. missile defense shield being deployed -- in Russia. The Russians got real all right, they got real angry. We'll have some details of that.

And the prince who volunteered to do duty in Iraq with his squad may not be going after all. It seems al Qaeda has been looking forward to that trip and it's got some in Britain having second thoughts about Prince Harry's plans. All those stories and much more coming up. YOUR WORLD TODAY at the top of the hour.

WHITFIELD: I think we all saw that one coming, Jim.

HARRIS: Yeah. Thanks, Jim.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. All right. Let's talk about some pretty bad weather and possibly, weather-related here with this absolutely horrible pileup in Indiana. A pileup that has proven to be so deadly, so far at least seven people dead from what appears to be an eight car, if not more, pileup there on the toll road there in Indiana and, at last check, they were still trying to extricate people from some of the crushed vehicle there's.

So, the westbound lanes completely shut down as a result of the crash. The pileup is horrible and the backup is horrible, as well.

HARRIS: And Chad, it sound like a horrible combination here, traffic merging from a number of lanes, maybe two lanes, three lanes down to one to get through this construction location. Rain on the ground and it looks like a horrible result.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It was raining a lot, didn't see the visibility there, but it was less than a mile for a little bit this morning and so it was somewhere in the morning early hours, probably predawn, just really not a good scene.

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HARRIS: I love that you remind folks to do that, Chad.

WHITFIELD: That remind me because I said I was going to get one last tornado, OK, I got to get it.

HARRIS: We're done in a couple minutes here, Fred.

Still to come this morning in NEWSROOM. It is graduation season most of us spend, what, four, five years in college, this young woman got a diploma in just one. The speedy student in THE NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: So what you didn't know we had a third co-anchor here today, Brooks Burns who happens to be the son of our executive producer, Eric Burns because it is bring your children to work today. He is a sheer genius and so is this lady, Nicole Matisse. She was once a challenging five-year-old who dumbfounded her skeptical teachers and now she's a 19 year old college grad looking for a challenge.

More from Paula Tutman at affiliate WDIV in Michigan.

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PAULA TUTMAN, WDIV TV CORRESPONDENT: (inaudible) a brand-new crop of students will be walking the campus of Wayne State University. Among those students a 19-year-old from Bloomfield Hills. While that might not see out of the ordinary, get this, she will be entering the law school as one of the youngest students ever.

(voice-over): Her name is Nicole Matisse, she was reading at a fifth grade level at age five, finished under grad in a year and even with fake nails, can pretty much type as fast as she can think or as quickly as anybody can read.

(on camera): "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham. "Harry Rex Bonner was a huge slob of a lawyer."

NICOLE MATISSE, 19 YEAR OLD COLLEGE GRAD: "Reporters crammed into the room which trailed down the hall into the reception area."

TUTMAN: "Reporters crammed into the room which overflowed and trailed down the halls to the reception area." Good girl.

(voice-over): She graduates this year from University of Michigan at the tender age of 19 with a 4.0 average in sight having aced 87 credits in one year.

MATISSE: The easiest course I think I took in college was behavioral neuroscience.

TUTMAN: Behavioral neuroscience?

A product of public school, her biggest challenge is she has yet to really find a challenge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just hearing teachers say she was plagiarizing her work when she was five. She was writing things that they thought she was copying from the "World Book."

TUTMAN: Next stop Wayne State University Law School where she will enter as the youngest student ever. How tough will it be, we asked some of the students.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got out of the hardest final I have ever taken. There isa good chance I was in the entirely wrong classroom for that test.

TUTMAN: How will these 23 year olds regard a 19-year-old?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have people like full-grown adults that are like 50 and 60 and it doesn't matter to anybody. Age doesn't matter right now. The more important things are finals.

TUTMAN: And besides, she won't be 19 forever. Next February, she'll be 20.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, not bad. How old are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine.

WHITFIELD: Nine. All right. Great things happening for nine year olds. You've been an incredible helper today.

Much more of the NEWSROOM coming up one hour from now. Don Lemon and Suzanne Malveaux will be joining us all up here in THE NEWSROOM. Have a great day.

HARRIS: YOUR WORLD TODAY is next.

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