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Georgia Firefighters Battle Massive Blaze; World War II 'Comfort Women' Demand Apology From Japan; Fallen Heroes
Aired April 27, 2007 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Suzanne Malveaux, in for Kyra Phillips.
If we were talking about the mafia, he would count as a kingpin. Gitmo welcomes a new inmate. And he described as a senior member of al Qaeda, known and trusted by Osama bin Laden.
LEMON: And caught in her own web of lies -- a top MIT official resigns after claiming college degrees she never earned. Have you ever lied on a resume? We're reading some of your e-mails right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
MALVEAUX: He supposedly knows Osama bin Laden. He's worked with the Taliban and directed attacks against American troops. His name is Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi. And, today, he's a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
We're also told that he has been talking.
We have got some details now from CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena.
Kelli, what do we know about this guy?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I will tell you, Suzanne, this is definitely a significant catch.
This guy wasn't lying low. He wasn't dormant. Officials say that he was still very much in the thick of it. They say that he was pretty much al Qaeda's most significant operational player. And his name is not new to those who cover this beat. He's been around since way before the 9/11 attacks in a leadership role.
As a matter of fact, he used to be part of al Qaeda's ruling council. And he just recently called on al Qaeda operatives to attack the U.K. before Tony Blair leaves office. When he was caught, he was actually on his way back to Iraq, where he was born and where, as you know, Suzanne, U.S. troops are an al Qaeda target.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Probably felt supremely qualified to go and help, given his -- the fact that he's a native Iraqi. So, I would guess he was going there to join in the fight and probably to take some sort of a leadership role. I mean, his experience is in things like logistics and movement of troops and recruiting and operational planning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: Now, I can't tell you how long he's been in custody. The government is not saying. But officials do say that he came into CIA custody late last year. He's now, as you said, at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: So, Kelli, we think U.S. officials think he might have information about possible attacks?
ARENA: Absolutely. I mean, he was very operational until the moment he was caught, according to the intelligence officials that we spoke to, very much a player, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Kelli Arena, thank you so much.
LEMON: Dead before arrival -- that's the White House description of the Iraq war funding bill that's on its way to the president's desk, complete with a deadline for U.S. troops to start pulling out.
But what happens after the guaranteed veto? Democrats are torn, but the president isn't. He says he will keep killing measures that try to tell generals when to pack it in.
Democrats say it's the president who needs to stop fighting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: We need to change direction. We must change direction in the war in Iraq.
We must focus on the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. We must focus on what General Petraeus has told us, that the war cannot be won militarily. We need to win it politically, economically and diplomatically.
Please, Mr. President, follow the advice of the American people, the Iraq Study Group, and a bipartisan member -- bipartisan members of the House and the Senate.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I haven't vetoed the first bill yet. But I'm going to.
And the reason why I'm going to is because the members of Congress have made military decisions on behalf of the military. They're telling our generals what to do. They're withdrawing before we have even finished reinforcing our troops in Baghdad. They're sending, in my judgment, a bad message to the Iraqis and to an enemy, and, most importantly, to our military folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: And, speaking of the war, he is the man running the Iraq war, in country these days. U.S. Army General David Petraeus is in Washington for a few days, fielding questions about money, about troops, about progress in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Let me ask you about the benchmarks. You mentioned yesterday four general areas of benchmarks that you're going to be looking at, security, economics, politics and governance, and the rule of law.
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: Right.
MCINTYRE: Now, three of those are not military objectives, strictly speaking. Security, obviously, is.
Doesn't -- again, how is that going to come about, if they're not militarily achievable missions?
PETRAEUS: Well, first of all, we actually are talking about benchmarks that are achieved by a team effort here. And the team is the U.S. Embassy and the other coalition embassies and the multinational force.
So, everyone's making way together. In a number of areas, we contribute. We contribute in the rule of law for example. We have members. We have a number of U.S. Army judge advocate general officers. We're helping to -- with the effort to stand up the Iraqi corrections officer program.
We oversee construction of detention facilities. We have helped create the rule-of-law Green Zone. Again, we have the capacity to assist in this area. And then other elements from the interagency, the Department of Justice, ICITAP, others, will contribute as well, certainly, and may have, as in that case, the lead.
We have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They have expertise when it comes to electricity and oil and a variety of other waterways projects and so forth. So, again, we are certainly going to contribute wherever we can, because this is very much -- Ryan Crocker and I are absolutely determined that this will be one team, one mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And these comments from the general's face-to-face interview with CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
And Jamie joins us now.
Jamie, it appears that it's bad news, bad news after bad news. Are there any positive signs in any of this that he spoke about?
MCINTYRE: Well, yes. Both yesterday and today, he talked about what's going on in Al Anbar Province, which, at one point, was considered to be probably the province that would be the last to turn over to Iraqi authority. But there is where we have seen some of the local tribes, the local sheikhs actually get tired of the al Qaeda presence and actually help the U.S. troops there.
That's a positive success story out in Al Anbar Province, much better than they suspected at this point, but still some very fierce fighting there. And, again, in Baghdad, which is still seen as the center of gravity, those spectacular attacks that inflict a lot of mass casualties are really overshadowing some of the smaller successes.
LEMON: And, you know, the general has to be positive and upbeat and -- when he's talking about these things. But you get a sense of someone when you're sitting there in the room, interviewing them face to face, of what he really thinks. Did you get that during this interview? Is he telling you what he really thinks?
I'm sure he's holding some things back.
MCINTYRE: Well, you know, the thing that really came through to me is that he knows he's not the miracle worker that some people have portrayed him to be.
You know, he did help write the book on counterinsurgency. He is considered one of the best and brightest generals. But he notes it is more than about him. It's more than really just about what the Americans can do. It is about what the Iraqis do.
And you look at the Iraqi government, the disarray there, the lack of political unity, and you see, that's really the main obstacle to peace over the next couple of months, not even so much the violence, the insurgency, some of the other problems. It's that lack of political will.
And, with the Iraq legislature talking about taking some months off in the summer, before they have completed all of the things that they need to do, that's just another indication that things aren't going as planned.
LEMON: Good stuff, Jamie. Enjoyed that interview -- senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
MALVEAUX: And flaring up again -- wildfires in southeast Georgia chewing up 61,000 acres of forest and swampland so far, and threatening much, much more. Hundreds more people have evacuated. Several more buildings have burned. Firefighters thought they had the upper hand on one fire, until the winds picked up again.
What south Georgia desperately needs, the mid-Atlantic is getting way too much of, and that is rain. Here is what it looks like in parts of Newark, New Jersey. Firefighters there are busy pulling stranded drivers from flooded cars.
And how is the weather shaping up for your weekend?
Our own Rob Marciano looking over the radar and maps as we speak.
Is it going to be a rough weekend?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It looks like it is not going to be nearly as rough -- we coming to me now?
LEMON: Yes, Rob.
MARCIANO: Not nearly as rough this weekend as it has this week. That's good news.
This is the storm that caused the deadly tornado across the Mexican border, is now moving across the Great Lakes. But it is pouring down severe weather across the Atlantic and across the Northeast as well -- as you mentioned, a lot of rainfall in this area -- severe thunderstorm watch in effect for parts of North Carolina into the Delmarva until 7:00 tonight.
Some of these have had some hail and some gusty winds -- no real threat of tornadoes with these storms. That's the good news.
Want to show you an interesting map out of the USGS. This is real-time river flood gauge -- river gauge map, which blue and black means that you're either at flood stage or in a bad situation. Black is a bad situation. We have got a lot of that happening in eastern parts of Pennsylvania, Jersey, and up through parts of -- up through parts of -- I will tell you what.
Can -- I don't know who is in control of this. But, Dave, if you could go back, I just want to show a couple things.
Blue and black, that means a lot of water. Red and across parts of the Southeast, that means they're dying for some water. And that's where we have the forest fire happening across southeast Georgia, right in through there, where this area has seen a tremendous lack of rain over the past, really, several months. Since the beginning of the year, every month has been well below average for rainfall across the Southeast, so parched conditions.
It has been breezy at times. And that fire, because of that, has been tough to battle.
And here's your situation across the Southeast. The good news is that will begin to taper off. Tomorrow looks to be a tranquil day. Tornado Alley, no real threat for tornadoes, but a couple of severe thunderstorms have popped up around the Oklahoma City area.
These have had nickel-sized hail and some gusty winds up to 60 miles an hour. But the big blue H takes in control across the Intermountain West, the southern Plains tomorrow, and eventually across the East Coast. And the weekend certainly looks to be quieter than it is this week.
But we have got big-time flooding across the Northeast and a lack thereof across the Southeast, where we really need the rain. That's the problem with this weather situation -- Suzanne, back to you.
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Rob.
And other weather worries -- in north Georgia, firefighter Justin Whitfield sent us this I-Report photo. This is of a funnel cloud forming outside Fire Station 3 in Hall County yesterday. That's due northeast of Atlanta. The photo was taken after all the local warning signals were activated -- incredible picture.
LEMON: Yes, it certainly is.
And, Suzanne, it took a month to catch him. And police certainly wanted him. And New Yorkers certainly wanted to catch him. We now know who this man is, right? Look what he's doing. Unbelievable, right, that surveillance video.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: It's hard to watch.
LEMON: That is Jack Rhodes. According to police, he's 44. They believe he is a suspect in the beating of this 101-year-old woman, took place on March 4 in New York. He attacked her in the vestibule of her building.
They have arrested him. He will be charged and processed and all those things. This is the woman who he's accused of attacking her in her vestibule as she was on her way to church. That is 101-year-old Rose Morat from New York there.
LEMON: She suffered a fractured cheek bone.
MALVEAUX: She looks beautiful.
LEMON: Yes. And she spent some time in the hospital. But there he is. They got him.
MALVEAUX: It's good.
LEMON: Yes.
MALVEAUX: She looks lovely, like she's recovered very well. So, that's good for her.
LEMON: And we hope she's -- we hope she's doing great.
OK. We are going to talk about weapons of terror, evidence, we're told, of a terrifying plot in Saudi Arabia. CNN's Frank Sesno joins us in the NEWSROOM with more on al Qaeda's bloodlust for Saudi oil.
MALVEAUX: Abused by the Japanese army in World War II, demanding an apology today, a comfort woman's crusade -- straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
LEMON: And admissions director at a prominent university admits she lied. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.
Plus, we want to know, have you ever fudged your resume? We're reading your e-mails in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Fifteen past the hour here -- three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Firefighters in south Georgia still have their hands full with a wildfire that's burned 95 square miles of forest. Hundreds of people have been forced out of their homes, some more than once.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine says he will pay his own medical bills while he recovers from a serious car accident. Corzine's SUV was speeding, and he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of that crash.
President Bush and the Japanese prime minister are meeting at Camp David. The two are demanding that North Korea fully abandon its nuclear program. Mr. Bush warns -- quote -- "Our patience is not limited."
MALVEAUX: Of all the front-burner issues facing President Bush and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a wartime disgrace from generations past is front and center, Japan's use of sex slaves, euphemistically called comfort women, to service its soldiers in World War II is still causing a lot of pain. in victims and others who say there has never been proper atonement.
CNN's Jill Dougherty met with one so-called comfort woman who took her crusade to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN INTERNATIONAL U.S. AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice- over): She's now 78 years old, but, for Lee Young Soo, life as he knew it ended when she was just 15.
LEE YOUNG SOO, FORMER SEX SLAVE (through translator): I was abducted at age 15 by the Japanese imperial army. I was put on a Japanese naval ship. There were 300 military men there and five girls, including myself.
DOUGHERTY: Ms. Lee, a Korean citizen, was one of what are called the comfort woman. She doesn't use that euphemism. She refers to herself as a sexual slave.
There were 200,000 so-called comfort women, mostly Korean and Chinese, forced into military brothels to service the Japanese army during World War II. Ms. Lee says she was held for three years. Once, she tried to escape and hid in a cave. Japanese soldiers, she says, found her, beat her, tortured her, until she lost consciousness.
But, like most of the women, she never spoke about it publicly until the early 1990s, when the South Korean government quietly urged the women to come forward for help.
LEE YOUNG SOO (through translator): I would rather die than disclose my shameful past. It was so shameful, so embarrassing, so awkward to disclose my painful past in public, but I felt I had to speak up.
DOUGHERTY: Thursday, she and others protested in front of the White House just a few hours before U.S. President George W. Bush held a dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This February, Ms. Lee testified in the United States Congress in support of a non- binding resolution urging Japan to offer an official apology for enslaving the women.
(on camera): The Japanese prime minister has expressed regret for the situation in which the women found themselves, but Ms. Lee and others say that doesn't go far enough.
(voice-over): Congressman Mike Honda, a Japanese-American, says, Japan has never officially acknowledged the truth of what happened more than 60 years ago.
REP. MIKE HONDA (D), CALIFORNIA: They have done bits and pieces. It's been individual prime ministers. And I'm not going to question their sincerity. But I do question the completeness and their understanding of what they're doing.
DOUGHERTY: Korean-American Florence Lowe-Lee brought her two daughters, Annette (ph) and Janet (ph), to march with Ms. Lee. She tried to explain to them what happened to the girls back then who were labelled comfort women. She says she wants her daughters to grow up respecting every country.
FLORENCE LOWE-LEE, PROTESTER: No discrimination, but, when something is wrong, it needs to be corrected. And it can be forgiven and forget, but it need to be corrected somehow.
DOUGHERTY: Lee Young Soo says she's marching not just for herself. There is sexual slavery even today all over the world, she says, and there won't be a solution until Japan apologizes.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: A high ranking active-duty Army officer takes aim at his higher-ups. Ahead in the NEWSROOM: details on an article that blasts the top brass on Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: It's case of high-tech cheating; iPods have been in schools for a while now, but many of them are loaded with more than just music.
Our own Felicia Taylor is in the New York Stock Exchange to tell us how some students are actually using these devices in a way that they were not designed for.
Felicia, what is going on? Good or bad news?
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not exactly good news, but, then again, on the other side, it's not so bad.
It used to be the brim of the baseball cap, for those of us that remember. Now it's an iPod. Cheating the high-tech way isn't a new idea. But teachers are starting to catch on. And school districts around the country are banning digital music players.
The problem isn't limited to the United States. Schools in Canada and Australia are doing the same, as they discover that students can download formulas and other information on to their MP3 players. Kids hide them in the lyrics text files. Others have used iPod-compatible voice recorders to record answers in advance and play them back -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And the music -- I guess players have -- they have these earbuds. So, how do they hide them?
TAYLOR: Well, frankly, it's pretty easy. You just sort of thread the earbud up your sleeve, and then hold the earbud up to your ear, like as though you were almost resting your head in your hands, or like this.
But this story isn't meant to bash iPods. They have also been used to enhance learning. Three years ago, Duke University gave some students iPods as part of an experiment, and found that they were valuable teaching tools in many of their courses.
Let's take a look at Wall Street today. The Dow industrials are taking a crack at another record high. Any gains today, of course, would bring the 19th win out of the past 21 sessions. Over that time, the Dow has soared more than 800 points. The blue-chip average has been riding a wave of success due to strong corporate earnings. And, today, it is Microsoft.
Its shares are up 4 percent on a 65 percent jump in profits. That's leading the Dow further into record territory. And, right now, the Dow industrials are better by about 21 points. The Nasdaq composite, for its part, is up four-and-a-half, and the S&P 500 is up just fractionally.
To see if the markets can end on a high note, join me for the closing bell in 30 minutes -- Don and Suzanne, back to you.
MALVEAUX: Great. Felicia, have a great weekend.
TAYLOR: You, too.
LEMON: Weapons of terror evidence -- we're told of a terrifying plot in Saudi Arabia.
CNN's Frank Sesno joins us in the NEWSROOM with more on al Qaeda's bloodlust for Saudi oil. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
MALVEAUX: And I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
Saudi Arabia's richest resource could be the world's Achilles' heel. Today, a terror sweep may have thwarted a huge attack on the Saudi oil industry.
But CNN's Frank Sesno warns, al Qaeda will keep trying. He joins us live with more.
You're in the NEWSROOM.
LEMON: From Saudi Arabia, news of a kingdom-wide roundup of suspected terrorists and thwarted attack plans; 172 people have been arrested, including Saudis believed to be al Qaeda agents, other Arab citizens, Africans, and airline and oil workers.
Authorities rounded up stashed weapons, millions in cash and this unsettling find: airline manuals. It was a sweeping nine-month operation.
But is it news that potential terrorists are still active around the world? Well, the short answer is no.
CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno envisioned a futuristic oil crisis that well -- that is well within the realm of the possible.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK SESNO, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 26, 2009: Saudi Arabia is pumping 10 million barrels a day. Much of the kingdom's oil passes through the sprawling Abqaiq processing facility near Ras Tanura.
At 12:45 p.m., air traffic controllers pick up a distress call from a passenger jet flying from Tehran to Riyadh. The plane disappears from their screens.
At 1:04, an Arab satellite channel reports massive explosions at Abqaiq. Within minutes there are reports of a second attack on Saudi Arabia's two largest export terminals at Ras Tanura and at Yanbu on the Red Sea.
Oil markets are in chaos. A barrel of crude quickly tops $150. Oil experts predict gasoline will hit $7 a gallon in the U.S., $10 a gallon in Europe. Political and business leaders fear the worst.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Frank Sesno joins us live from Washington.
Thanks for joining us, Frank. You mentioned Abqaiq oil, that processing center, as a possible target. Why?
SESNO: Biggest refinery in the world. It represents two-thirds of where all of Saudi crude passes through before it makes it on to the world markets.
Saudi Arabia all by itself represents something like 10 percent of the oil that the entire planet uses every day. So it's really the nerve center. And if terrorists were able to hijack a plane, as we laid out there in that scenario -- and let me say again it's a fictitious scenario.
LEMON: Right.
SESNO: But if they were to do it, they could hit Saudi supplies. And experts think that they could knock 50 percent of Saudi production out for six months or more.
LEMON: OK. Fifty percent for six months or more. So then how would an attack like this impact the economy?
SESNO: It would be utterly devastating. It would be utterly devastating. The ripple effects would be, of course, around the planet because of the amount of Saudi oil that is produced.
And here's the thing to keep in hind. You know, there are terrorist attacks, have been against oil facilities in Iraq and Nigeria and elsewhere and other production facilities, but Saudi Arabia sits on top of a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves. And Saudi Arabia alone is able to turn the spigot and add millions of barrels a day if necessary to global production.
So, if you take Saudi Arabia out, you remove this lifeline. And al Qaeda has called it dead on. When they said they were going to start targeting oil, they said they would target the umbilical cord -- I'm reading their words -- the umbilical cord and lifeline of the crusader community.
This is what they want to do.
LEMON: CNN Special Correspondent Frank Sesno.
Thank you very much.
SESNO: Sure.
MALVEAUX: And this doesn't happen very often. An active duty U.S. military officer publicly calling the senior military leadership incompetent, and on the brink of losing the war in Iraq.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling wrote an article published in "Armed Forces Journal," a civilian publication for military leaders. Quoting here, "For the second time in a generation, the United States faces the prospect of defeat at the hands of an insurgency." He continues, "These debacles are not attributable to individual failures, but rather to a crisis in an entire institution: America's general officer corps." Yingling led troops against Iraqi forces both in 1991 and two combat tours in this war. A Pentagon spokesman calls Yingling's words his personal opinion.
LEMON: A suicide truck bombing killed nine U.S. paratroopers in the Iraqi province of Diyala on Monday. Nine U.S. families are devastated.
One of those fallen heroes was Private First Class Michael Rodriguez. Reporter Adam Longo of CNN affiliate spoke with Rodriguez's fiancee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM LONGO, REPORTER (voice over): Rodriguez was an Army Ranger like his father. He had been in Iraq since last August. He came back to Knoxville on leave in January and proposed to his girlfriend.
CAITLIN STONE, FIANCEE: He could have had a very full life, and cut short.
LONGO: Rodriguez's unit based out of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. This is recent footage of the unit. They came under attack at a small U.S. patrol base in Diyala, north of Baghdad.
W.O. DAVID JOHNSTON, CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL ROTC: A good student, a real bright kid. Voracious reader. One of our best student leaders.
LONGO: Retired Marine warrant officer David Johnston taught Rodriguez in the ROTC program at Central High School.
JOHNSTON: He was going to be a military guy from day one.
STONE: And she called me home and told me when I got here.
LONGO: Fiancee Caitlin Stone heard the news after her mom spoke with Rodriguez's mother in North Carolina.
STONE: Very purpose-driven, very respectful, very loving.
LONGO: Caitlin said they spoke about once a week, and her mom didn't even know about the engagement. The couple was waiting for Rodriguez to ask dad's permission.
Twenty-one-year-old Mike Rodriguez, one of nine soldiers killed. The sun setting on a life full of promise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And Michael Rodriguez one of 3,337 American servicemen and women who have sacrificed their lives in the Iraq war.
And you can put a name to the face and story behind each of the U.S. casualties of the Iraq war in a special report on CNN.com. Just go to CNN.com/war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Suzanne, we have some new video just in to CNN. Private Jessica Lynch, remember, injured in Iraq back in 2003. She was made out to be a hero, but she just testified this week that she was not a hero in all of this, but, you know, one of those people who put their lives on the line by fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan in the war on terror.
This video never seen, her being transported to a hospital. We want you to take a listen and look at it, and then we'll come back and talk to you about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring your hands up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doctor, myself (INAUDIBLE) working here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I'm going to do is I'm gong to put cups (ph) on you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you in any pain? OK.
PRIVATE JESSICA LYNCH, U.S. ARMY: Just my back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do those windows (ph) go out to, Aaron (ph)?
It's OK. It's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, you can obviously hear her. She's clearly frightened. We understand from this video, though, it's not from her being treated, but rather the sound of gunshots outside of the hospital. And they're asking her to move her at that time, and I noticed as well you can see and hear the ripping of the patch, the American flag.
You spoke to her just a couple days ago. And she told you those stories, as she did before Congress.
LEMON: As a matter of fact, you were talking about her, and you can hear her crying a little bit. And just at the end of the video, Suzanne, you can hear those gunshots. And obviously, I mean, in that situation, anyone would be frightened.
Again, this is new video coming in from -- you can see liveleak.com is the Web site that it's on.
But, you know, as you said, Suzanne, on Tuesday, I spoke with Jessica Lynch right after she testified at a congressional hearing. And we talked about how her story, her story has been portrayed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Why do you say that you're not the person that you were made out to be by the government and by the media?
LYNCH: Well, because I didn't do any of those -- you know, I didn't go down shooting like a Rambo-G.I. Jane. I didn't -- didn't even shoot off my weapon. So, you know, I just felt that it was important to set the record straight.
LEMON: Why do you think those stories came about then? What's the reason?
LYNCH: I don't know. I have no answer for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And that was just in the NEWSROOM earlier this week. And she was -- it was the first time, too, Suzanne, that she had met the Tillman family as well. They were telling their story, of course. There's some controversy about friendly fire there.
MALVEAUX: Right. And she didn't blame the government. But she didn't understand.
She said she really wanted the truth to come out. She wasn't a hero, a female Rambo. And the new video that we're seeing really, it backs it up. It confirms that she was frightened, she was moved, she was talking to some of her fellow soldiers.
LEMON: Yes.
MALVEAUX: But she did not feel and the story didn't match to some of those heroics that were initially put out in the media.
LEMON: Do we have that video? We can just show it a little bit again because this is new, very interesting video, never before seen. Shot from different angles.
There was some video earlier. I don't know if you remember the night vision video of her being taken and being treated.
MALVEAUX: Right, she was rushed away to an Iraqi hospital.
LEMON: This one is much more clear -- it's much clearer, and also, it shows just the amount of pain and just how intense. And there's a ripping of the patch there.
MALVEAUX: And you can just see the emotion on her face. I mean, you really -- it's almost like you're there.
LEMON: Yes. All right.
We'll move on. But that video, there you go. New video just in to CNN, Private Jessica Lynch.
Coming up, more of my interview with Roger Ebert. He took a licking, but he keeps on picking, movies, that is. Coming up, his views on this weekend's new releases.
Did we ever get that information from Roger? We'll see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The NFL draft is this weekend, but there's one NFL player who has been preparing for life after the pros since his first kickoff.
Christine Romans has today's "Life After Work".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TROY VINCENT, NFL PLAYER: The day that you're drafted is the day that you prepare leaving the game.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The average NFL career lasts less than four years. So entering his 16th season, Troy Vincent has been preparing for life beyond the field for quite some time.
VINCENT: As far as I'm concerned, you just need to get to school.
ROMANS: On the sidelines, most of Vincent's business and philanthropic work centers around the rough neighborhood where he grew up, Trenton, New Jersey.
VINCENT: This is where I learned to play football, on this concrete, not any grass.
ROMANS: In fact, the financial services company Vincent founded is just two blocks from his boyhood home.
VINCENT: It still puzzles me why my community in which I grew up in looks the same, and why the people are not changing. The environment is still hostile.
ROMANS: Vincent is also focused on helping other NFL players deal with the often sudden end to their careers.
VINCENT: We've been working on a vision.
ROMANS: As president of the NFL Players Association, he helped launch the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program.
VINCENT: At the end of the day, the story is I've created options for myself. I have some companies that I could obviously go to and work in, but my heart and my soul was with the men in the National Football League.
ROMANS: The program offers more than 100 NFL players the opportunity to take part in three-day business workshops during the off season.
As for Vincent, he has his eye on a lofty off-field goal.
VINCENT: I've always thought about owning a football team or being part owner of a National Football League team.
ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Two thumbs up for film critic Roger Ebert going public with his battle against cancer and how it's changed his life and also his appearance. This is how we remember the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and TV host giving his famous thumbs up or thumbs down to new movies.
Now, what many of us didn't know was just how difficult his months-long battle against cancer has been until we saw him this week at his Overlooked Film Festival. That's what it's called, the Overlooked Film Festival. It was in Champaign, Illinois.
Surgery has altered his appearance and has taken away his ability to speak, but not to communicate. I spoke with Roger and his wife Chaz about their relationship and what they both have learned from his battle against cancer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAZ EBERT, ROGER EBERT'S WIFE: Roger says, "It's still you, and every day can contain joy, as well as suffering. You just keep on living."
LEMON: What made you decide to come out and be out in the open or in public about this?
EBERT: You know what I think it is? Essentially, Roger is a man who -- he is very definite about what he thinks and about his standards and his whatever. And I think he just felt it was essentially the right thing to do. It just boils down to the fact that he just thought it was the right thing to do.
LEMON: Yes. And what is he saying?
EBERT: Roger said, "Yes, but surgery was necessary." But at least he's cancer-free. "I hope to do TV again, but I can still write for the newspaper, and maybe there are other creative ways to do television."
LEMON: Are you surprised at the reception that you've gotten?
EBERT: "It was very encouraging," Don. "It's nice to know people care about the reviews. I don't believe in hiding. This is me."
LEMON: Roger and Chaz, what's next for both of you?
EBERT: What's next?
LEMON: Yes. EBERT: He said he's "really enjoying this film festival." We're down at the Roger Ebert's ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival, and he's really enjoying the film festival.
Right now, you know what, Don? I have to tell you the truth. All the things that we've learned over the last eight or nine months since Roger has been ill is to stay in the now.
We are enjoying the now. This is a great moment. We are so happy. We are thrilled.
We have everything going for us. There's nothing that we want. We just want good things to happen for our family, our friends.
We would like to see better things happening in the world. We are staying in the now. And that's what we're looking forward to and enjoying.
LEMON: Is there something you want people to know about you and about Roger and about dealing with an illness?
EBERT: People would send in e-mails and letters from all over the world saying, "We are praying for you. We have prayer groups."
Or some people would say, you know, "I'm Buddhist." Or "We meditating."
And we concentrated on the seeing him in the healing light. And people said they were doing that. And I could actually feel people's prayers.
I know it sounds a little strange, but I could feel them. And we never felt alone. Being very sick is a real education.
"It makes you grateful for the good things."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: There you have it. And Roger Ebert isn't slowing down too much. He has two new books out and is enjoying his film festival all weekend in Champaign, Illinois.
MALVEAUX: Such a great interview, Don.
LEMON: An amazing couple.
MALVEAUX: To see both of them like that, really, really good.
LEMON: Thank you. We wish him the very best. Two new books out. And as I said, they're just a fantastic couple.
And they're getting out in front of the disease. You know, I talked to him about Elizabeth Edwards as well, and he said...
MALVEAUX: Survivors.
LEMON: ... yes, just get out there and live your life. And both of them say the same thing.
So we wish both of them well.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
Remembering a maestro. Mstislav Rostropovich renowned cellist and composer and human rights crusader, has died in Russia at 80. Friends and former students call him magical and inspiring, as well as outspoken.
Rostropovich championed the rights of Soviet-era dissidents, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, actions that led to his exile in 1974. He returned to his homeland only last month after living for years in Paris.
Mstislav Rostropovich will be buried on Sunday in Moscow.
The closing bell and a wrap of the action on Wall Street straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Do you know what time it is?
MALVEAUX: It's almost that time.
LEMON: To check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
MALVEAUX: He's standing by in "THE SITUATION ROOM" to tell us what is coming up at the top of the hour.
Wolf, what are you working on?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush, he's urging Congress not to test him, saying he won't accept a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. But as the two branches of government battle here in Washington, how might the troops be reacting on the battlefield?
I'll ask former Democratic senator and Vietnam War veteran Max Cleland.
Speaking of Vietnam, one active duty officer now blasting the military for repeating the mistakes, he says, of the Vietnam War in Iraq. He's calling it a crisis of generalship.
And seized -- weapons, cash and alleged terrorists. Some plotting to become pilots. Saudi officials mounting a massive anti- terror operation, rounding up nearly 200 suspects. They were allegedly plotting other nightmarish attacks.
All that coming up, guys, right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM".
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Wolf. We'll be looking out for it.
Thanks again. LEMON: Well, the money was there in his very own account. So he spent it. It doesn't sound unusual, does it?
Well, now a Nebraska man is charged with felony theft. George Costa (ph) went on an $80,000 spending spree using deposits put in his account by mistake.
The prosecutors points out finders keepers isn't a legal principle. That thing about, you know, two-thirds...
MALVEAUX: Losers, weepers.
LEMON: ... being nine-tenths of the law, or possession or whatever. Well, Costa's (ph) attorney is offering to work out a repayment plan in civil court, not criminal court.
So, you know, finders, keepers.
MALVEAUX: Losers, weepers.
LEMON: Thank you so much.
You know, Wolf -- I wanted to thank Wolf -- but I had another story -- for sharing me with you, because you usually fill in for him. We usually see you at the White House, and you fill in for Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM".
MALVEAUX: Well, thanks, Don. It has been a wonderful week. It's been a pleasure.
I'm going back to the White House on Monday. Tony Snow will be back as well.
LEMON: Yes.
MALVEAUX: So it will be good to go back.
But it's been a wonderful week. You and -- your whole team.
LEMON: Oh, thank you so much. We really enjoyed it. And you promise to come back and visit?
MALVEAUX: I will.
LEMON: All right.
MALVEAUX: Have me back. Invite me.
LEMON: I hope you get out with all the weather, too.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
LEMON: Otherwise we'll be hanging out this weekend.
MALVEAUX: OK. Fair enough.
LEMON: All right. The closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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