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Pentagon Officials Find Clues About Missing Soldiers; Tony Blair Visits Iraq; Mexico's Drug War

Aired May 19, 2007 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The battle over the attorney general as more and more people in Washington want Alberto Gonzales fired now. The latest twist in the NEWSROOM.
Plus, spiraling violence along the southern U.S. border. On the rundown, the deadly war on drugs in Mexico.

And hope still alive. At least two of the missing soldiers in Iraq believed to be alive a week after being kidnapped. The latest developments straight ahead.

Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. First this hour, eight more American troop deaths in Iraq since Friday. The U.S. military announced four Americans killed in and around Baghdad, three dead in Diyala province and one in Anbar province. These latest deaths come as the military continues a massive search for three missing soldiers.

The search has been going on now for a week. Optimistic Pentagon officials say striking clues are emerging. Here's CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on phone): The U.S. commanders believe at least two and perhaps all three of the missing soldiers are still alive and being held by an al Qaeda affiliate group in Iraq, according to officials talking to CNN.

One official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of this matter said that the conclusion that at least two of the soldiers may be alive was based on evidence and clues that have been gathered in the week long search that has been going on south of Baghdad. That official also said that there was some reason to believe that one of the missing soldiers may have died after capture, but stressed there was no way to confirm that.

Another senior official said at least two of the suspects detained over the past week, part of the big roundup that's been going on, were believed to be directly responsible for the direct last Saturday and could provide, again, additional intelligence as interrogations continue.

The U.S. military confirmed on Friday that various military items had been recovered during the search that could provide clues to what happened to the soldiers. Including, one official said, parts of a U.S. military uniform, but the military is urging a lot of caution here saying that any potential evidence they found in the field is being tested for connection to the missing soldiers, and when they determined it definitely connected, then they say they'll be able to talk about it.

But while the search is going on, a lot of this information is extremely sensitive. But again, U.S. soldier commanders believe that all the evidence points to the fact that at least two and perhaps all three of the soldiers may still be alive, as the search enters its second week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That was CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre in Washington.

In Iraq, meantime, CNN's Arwa Damon went along on a painstaking search through hostile territory some 20 miles south of Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's day eight for the search for the missing soldiers. We're southwest of Yusufiya in these fields and farmlands with Charlie Company of the 123 striker battalion.

They have finished up their mission and are now back. The mission was to clear that small farming village over there based on intelligence there could be enemy activity, perhaps clues that would lead them to the kidnapped soldiers.

Now, they are forced to move through these fields and farmlands because the roads around here are in-lane with roadside bombs. It is incredibly hot. The men are very tired. In fact, within a few minutes of leaving the base, everyone was sweating through their uniforms, sweating through their boots.

Now the striker battalion was brought here from Baghdad to help out the soldiers of the 2nd brigade 10th mountain division, all of this part of the army's effort to recover no matter what its missing men. Arwa Damon, CNN, near Yusufiya, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we've now confirmed the identities of all four soldiers killed in last weekend's ambush. The final name to be released, Sergeant Anthony Schobar from Reno, Nevada. His father says Schobar joined the army after the 9/11 attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD SCHOBAR, LOST SON IN IRAQ: At the age of 17, he came to me and said he wanted to join the army. He was affected by the 9/11 incident. I asked whether he was sure about this, he really wanted to do it? He said, yes. So I signed the papers. When he came home from basic training, advanced training, I noticed a huge difference in him. He truly changed from a boy to a man. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The names of the three soldiers still missing after last week's ambush, Sergeant Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Private first class Joseph J. Anzack Jr. of Torrance, California and Private Brian Fouty of Waterford, Michigan.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is assuring Iraqi leaders of continued British support even after he leaves office. Blair is on his final official trip to Iraq, he met in Baghdad today with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and later traveled to Basra.

That's the primary base for the shrinking British contingent of 5,500 troops. Blair says he has no regrets about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein, despite the war's unpopularity in Britain and the potential damage to his legacy.

Authorities in the border town of Naco, Arizona are on high alert this weekend. The fear, that drug cartel violence could spill over from Mexico. It follows a deadly raid by gunmen on a Mexican town near the border.

Friday, Naco put its own school on lockdown and Mexico banned cars from crossing the border. Mexico has deployed thousands of troops to different states, after a rash of gruesome executions by drug cartel hitmen. This week's body count alone includes government officials, journalists and civilians. Here's CNN's Casey Wian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just 20 miles south of the Arizona border, the deadliest battle so far in Mexico's war against the drug cartels that control much of the country. Twenty two people in the Sonoran town of Cananea are dead after a federal troop stormed a ranch Wednesday. Fifteen drug cartel members, five policeman and two civilians.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We find ourselves terrorized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Very, very bad. It's a very peaceful town. We have never seen this here.

WIAN: But it's happening throughout Mexico. In the capital Monday, gunman assassinated Jose Lugo, a top antinarcotics official in the attorney general's office.

RICARDO NAJERA, MEXICAN ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE (through translator): We're working very hard to find out what's caused this violence and we hope to have a quick response to the situation.

WIAN: The Mexican government's response has been to deploy 22,000 federal troops to battle drug traffickers nationwide. Still, violence is escalating. Kidnappings occur regularly, including this week's abduction of a Mexican television news crew. So far this year more than a thousand people have been killed by drug cartels according to Mexican media reports. And the violence is spreading to U.S. border communities. The governors of Arizona and New Mexico wrote President Bush this week demanding more Border Patrol agents.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, (D) NM: When there's an open border with illegal flow of workers, it breeds other bad people, like drug lords that take advantage of a porous border. And they're violent. And they want to get their drug product in.

WIAN: The drug violence has become entrenched in Mexican popular culture. Videos like these on YouTube set narcocorido (ph) music to images to drugs, weapons and dead bodies. They are a celebration of the drug cultural and the drug lords now battle for control of a third of Mexico's states. Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So all the violence has prompted Mexico to consult with U.S. law enforcement about cutting off the flow of guns from the American side of the border.

For more on this brutal drug war, we're joined on the phone by Sean Holstege, a report for the "Arizona Republic." So what more can you tell me Sean about that kind of agreement or the kind of negotiations that are ongoing between Mexican authorities and U.S. authorities?

SEAN HOLSTEGE, REPORTER, ARIZONA REPUBLIC (on phone): Well, those negotiations are tense. They're often secret. But it's not a secret that the Mexican authorities have long wanted the United States authorities to prevent guns going across the border south, because these are the guns that are being used in such attacks.

Guns go across the border every day south and we're talking about hundreds of AK-47s and automatic weapons. From their point of view, they really need help trying to prevent that. And it's to our advantage in the United States, because it was the same weapons that allow these smugglers to do their trade.

WHITFIELD: So U.S. guns across the border into Mexico, drugs coming from Mexico into the U.S. and all of this kind of crashing along those border towns. Naco, Arizona being one of them, with a school on lockdown and then local authorities saying, wait a minute, we've got to the try and protect our city. How are they equipped to do that?

HOLSTEGE: The cities themselves or the border in general?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLSTEGE: The cities rely on local police. And again, it's no secret, it's widely reported border communities in the United States have been overwhelmed all along the border with ancillary crime related to the drug trade. WHITFIELD: So local police cannot handle it alone. It means trying to get more federal authorities?

HOLSTEGE: Right. And that's -- exactly.

WHITFIELD: How do they work together then?

HOLSTEGE: Well, they work together fairly well. A lot of it involved the DEA, a lot of it involves the FBI, the immigration officials with ICE and CBB also work with them. The border patrol, obviously, and they share intelligence and they report people smuggling over the border. The problem is, there are so many people and so much drugs, they just can't keep up with it.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. It's a dim outlook, isn't it, Sean?

HOLSTEGE: It is. It's getting violent. For now that violence exists on the south side of the border, but many officials on this side of the border are wondering when and if and how bad it will be when it gets on our side.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sean Holstege, thanks so much for your time, as a reporter with the "Arizona Republic."

So how long can this man hold onto his job? Yet another senior senator joins those who want this man right here, U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales fired now. Details straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

Plus, injured Iraq war veterans facing a different kind of challenge now, as they seek therapy for their souls under water. We'll take you to Cayman Islands in about 20 minutes from now.

And she fell in love with the wrong boy. And for that, she died a gruesome death. A question of honor says her family -- as they watched their daughter stoned to death, all the facts and details, 40 minutes from now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: News across America now, Canadian authorities have identified the snowbird pilot who died Friday while practicing for today's scheduled air snow in Montana. Witnesses say 31-year-old captain Shawn McCaughey's jet went now maneuvering over Malmstrom Air Force Base. The snowbirds are Canada's equivalent of the Blue Angels and part of the Canadian air force.

In suburban Atlanta, a jury finds a Georgia mother of three not guilty of illegally enrolling her kids in school. Janine Eckles (ph) admits she used relative's address on school application forms, but the jury exonerated her of the 16 charges and possible jail time she faced. We'll talk with Eckles (ph) next hour in the NEWSROOM.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a 15-year-old's horseplay gets him a double dose of discipline. Travis Griffin earned a 10-day school suspension for putting his teacher in a headlock. But when his mom found out, she forced him to pick up the trash while wearing this sign of apology. Griffin's mother hopes her son's act of contrition will prompt the school to reconsider the suspension.

And from New Hampshire, a young amputee and cancer patient will meet her own English idol, Heather Mills -- 7-year-old Sammy Rodman (ph) and family are going to Hollywood next week at Mills invitation. Friends of Sammy (ph) wrote about the little girl's adulation and both dance with a prosthetic leg. Little Sammy (ph) lost her leg last February from bone cancer.

And someone else watching their step is embattled U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales after another U.S. senator comes forward calling for his ouster. The latest being Colorado Democrat Senator Ken Salazar. But for now, Gonzales keeps hanging onto his job.

CNN's Joe Johns looks back to all of this -- looks back at all that has added to in this controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First, there was the warrantless wiretapping, then the justifications for what some call torture, then the firings of United States attorneys, a cauldron of controversy surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, leaving his critics to ask, why is she still in office?

RALPH NEAS, PRESIDENT, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: Alberto Gonzales has dishonored himself, his office, and the Department of Justice, and he has to go.

JOHNS: Ralph Neas of the liberal interest group People For the American Way wants Gonzales to resign or be fired, saying, there's a basis for even tougher measures than no-confidence votes on the Hill.

NEAS: There's probably legal grounds for something far more serious than a vote of no confidence.

JOHNS (on camera): Like what?

NEAS: Like bipartisan censure or even impeachment.

JOHNS (voice-over): But he doesn't think Congress has the will to go that far.

JAMES COMEY, FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: That night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life.

JOHNS: The thing that stirred up the hornet's nest again was former Department of Justice James Comey, who told of a race through Washington to the hospital bedside of the seriously ill then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card were trying to get Justice to certify that the domestic spying program was legal. Comey and Ashcroft said it wasn't, and refused to sign off. COMEY: I was concerned that, given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me, when he was in no condition to do that.

JOHNS: Conservative legal analyst Bruce Fein, who served in two Republican administrations, says, this is an ugly set of facts for Gonzales and Card.

BRUCE FEIN, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW EXPERT: And it looks like they're trying to put together a paper trail, if you will, that would justify four years of illegalities of taking Americans' privacy without any court orders and violating the law without any possible good-faith defense.

JOHNS: That law is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which, in court, protects Americans from spying.

Former Republican Congressman and prosecutor Bob Barr:

BOB BARR, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: All of these shenanigans and goings-on try to work around this really are simply different ways to evade the law. They have been breaking the law in this case. It seems to me very clear.

JOHNS: Card has declined comment. Gonzales has said the administration was within its rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: This program, from its inception, has been carefully reviewed by lawyers throughout the administration. And we do believe the president does have the legal authorities to authorize this program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So, back to the original question, why is Gonzales still in office? It's pretty simple.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's going to continue. We have -- we have faith in him.

JIM VANDEHEI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE POLITICO": Loyalty. This is a president who values loyalty. And the president really wants Gonzales to stay. But, even for Bush, loyalty has its limits.

JOHNS: Limits that apparently have not been reached, not yet anyway.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Timelines for a withdrawal, benchmarks for real political progress in Iraq? A meeting between the White House and Democrats yesterday brought only one result -- no result. Where's to go from here? Is a compromise still possible? Answers in about 10 minutes from now here in the NEWSROOM.

Plus, remember the e. Coli contamination of spinach, lettuce, beef, the list goes on. And what about food imports? How vulnerable is the nation's food supply really? A reality check, 20 minutes from now.

And an update on the efforts to encourage two whales in the Sacramento river to head back into the ocean. That's straight ahead in the NEWSROOM. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So two directionally stranded whales can't seem to get their bearing. The humpbacks are big celebrities after they turned up a few days ago in the Sacramento River. But people are turning out to see them and that's also compounding an already difficult situation. CNN's Kara Finnstrom has the latest.

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there will be a big change in tactics now for wildlife experts. Instead of the gentle coaxing that they were doing using those sounds from humpback whales to try to lure them back to the ocean, they've now set Tuesday as the day that they will begin aggressive herding.

And by that, what they'll do is on boats, they'll have loud pipes banging and they'll use that sound to try and drive these two whales towards the ocean.

They'll follow the whales in a boat with these pipes onboard. They'll also line the channel with boats that also have these pipes banging and they'll try and block off all the tributaries.

The whales of course could actually swim under these boats. So it's not the boats themselves that are keeping the whales from going off in to tributaries.

It's actually the sound of those pipes banging. Now, once the whales do start on this journey, wildlife experts tell us this is the most dangerous part of getting them back to the ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROD MCINNES, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE: We want to keep them out of the tributaries. Not only because we want to keep them on a straight route through San Francisco, to San Francisco Bay and beyond, but there are shallows, and we don't want to get them stranded.

FINNSTROM: This is really going to be tricky. They could go in the tributaries, if they decide to do that?

MCINEES: Yes. That's why I say that where they are right now, we've got some time to think and to plan and when we start moving, we'd be putting -- they're going to be put at risk.

LT. GOV. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Most the expense is going to be directly associated with human beings wanting to see the whale. And so that's crowd control. That's traffic. And that's also, people on the river, in their boats, that are in a position to harm or harass an endangered species. So it's really the human element that creates most of the cost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINNSTROM: Between today and Tuesday when that herding begin, the wildlife experts will be giving these whales a break and they are hoping just perhaps they may head out to the ocean on their own. Kara Finnstrom reporting.

WHITFIELD: All fingers are crossed for those wayward whales. Let's hope they find their way back out to the ocean. Jacqui Jeras is in the Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Well the war funding stalemate gets even more stale after talks break down between congressional leaders and the White House. The sticking point? Troop withdrawal timelines.

And seeking healing in the blue waters of the Caribbean. For trauma suffered on the parched sand of Iraq, underwater warriors, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Recapping our top stories now, a crackdown on drug cartels in Mexico is threatening to spill across the U.S. border. At least one Arizona town is now on high alert.

And hopeful news out of Iraq. U.S. military officials tell CNN military commanders are operating under the assumption that two and possibly all three missing soldiers are still alive. A massive search is still under way.

War funding. Now what? Democrats say they will move ahead with a new bill to pay for the Iraq War next week. Compromise talks with the White House collapsed, however, over timelines. Here is congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): It was all smiles at the start of this high stakes meeting. The president's men and Congressional leaders trying to hammer out an agreement on how to fund the war.

At the end, the only thing they agreed on was this.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The meeting was disappointing.

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MARYLAND: Our meeting earlier this morning was a great disappointment.

BASH: What happened behind closed doors?

Democrats put on the table a war spending bill with a time line for troop withdrawal, which the president already vetoed. They tried to sweeten the offer by saying he could waive those deadlines.

The White House said no.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: The answer we got time after time in the meeting that we had this morning is the president would take no responsibility. That's too bad.

JOSH BOLTEN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The Democratic leaders did talk about having time lines for withdrawal

We -- we consider that to be not a -- not a significant distinction. It -- whether waivable or not, time lines send exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries, to our allies and, most importantly, to the troops in the field.

BASH: Democrats say they also offered to drop billions of dollars in domestic spending the president opposes if he would accept the Iraq withdrawal time line.

The answer again?

REID: No. Everything was no.

BASH: On its face, a surprising breakdown.

All sides share the urgent goal of agreeing on a war spending measure by Memorial Day -- only a week away. And Democrats have privately admitted for weeks they know Mr. Bush won't sign anything with deadlines attached.

BASH: But the new majority remains under intense pressure from anti-war voters not to give in and sources familiar with the strategy say Democrats are trying to show they're standing their ground until the eleventh hour.

PELOSI: The difference between the Democrats and the president was the issue of accountability.

BASH (on camera): The White House made an offer, too. A funding bill that threatens to cut off Iraqi economic aid if they don't make political and economic progress and forces the president to revise his war strategy. Democrats rejected it. Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Recovering from injures sustained in Iraq can be a long process to say the least, but a new diving program is helping wounded soldiers heal on the inside and out. Robert Golsten of affiliate WTVF introduces us to these underwater warriors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very therapeutic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All is water as far as you can see.

ROBERT GOULSTON, WTVF CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cayman Broc (ph), 14 square miles in the western Caribbean. Where the beauty is only more impressive beneath the surface.

Here soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are on a mission, to battle what changed them. Each with their story how it happened.

LORI HILL, INJURED SOLDIER: There was a very complex attack ...

GOULSTON: Lori was flying an army helicopter in the skies over Iraq.

HILL: A barrage of machine gun fire, started shooting at the helicopter.

GOULSTON: Bryan Price was manning a gun on a Humvee.

BRYAN PRICE, INJURED SOLDIER: Boom. That's all I heard.

HILL: There was obviously a lot of blood.

PRICE: I realized my legs wouldn't move.

HILL: I was pretty sure that I'd been shot.

GOULSTON: They are back on foreign soil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: USA!

GOULSTON: For something called Underwater Warriors.

PRICE: It helps you get a sense of confidence.

GOULSTON: A program that helps rehabilitate soldiers, not physically, emotionally.

HILL: We like to take care of ourselves and not be able to do that a little while takes a lot out of to have to ask people to help you do everything.

GOULSTON: In Bryan's case, 25 doctors said he would never walk again.

PRICE: They couldn't tell how many nerves had actually been cut when the shrapnel went in.

GOULSTON: But Bryan isn't exactly the type to take news like that sitting down.

PRICE: I got back pain and nerve pain and shrapnel pain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Need help getting on?

PRICE: No.

GOULSTON: The shrapnel Ripped through Bryan's spinal cord leaving scar tissue that blocks his upper body from communicate with his lower body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look goods down there, buddy, you're going to like this.

GOULSTON: But under the water surface, Bryan, for just a while, is able to leave those problems behind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready? One, two, three, go!

PRICE: It's like I had no disability. All your restrictions had you on land are gone.

GOULSTON: The Underwater Warriors dive all week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you guys all ready to go?

GOULSTON: Mastering new skills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting about 23 to 24 knot winds right now.

GOULSTON: Learning to overcome their disabilities.

PRICE: My favorite part was definitely the ship wreck. The Russian destroyer. We got to swim down to it and swim all through the inside of it and stuff.

GOULSTON: Then becomes as clear as the water.

PRICE: The camaraderie is awesome.

GOULSTON: It's not just their passion to heal that runs deep.

HILL: We all have the same sick, twisted sense of humor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just want to drink the ocean, right?

PRICE: I've never been to a group of people that became so close so fast.

HILL: To get to come here and experience all this with all these other great soldiers who have overcome so much in their lives -- it's just phenomenal.

GOULSTON: Their new friendships ...

PRICE: I couldn't have so much fun without these people here with me.

GOULSTON: Are becoming the clearest path to a full recovery. HILL: Shut up, you guys!

GOULSTON: On special assignment with photojournalist Jared Rogers.

HILL: Sorry, I'm having an unwarrior-like moment there.

GOULSTON: Robert Goulston, News Channel 5.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now another story of inspiration. An 18-year-old California teen has something big to celebrate. Samantha Larson is believed to be the youngest foreigner to climb the mother of all mountains. Mount Everest. Larsen called her mother by satellite phone which when she reached the summit Thursday. Larson's stepmother, Janet Moore on the phone now from Long Beach. So what was that conversation like, Ms. Moore?

JANET MOORE, DAUGHTER CLIMBED EVEREST (on phone): It was a relief to hear she made it and we were not totally happy until we knew she'd made it safely back to base camp, which she now has. She is sleeping at base camp right now.

WHITFIELD: Wow. I know your daughter is a, you know, quite the daredevil. She's done these peaks before. So you know what it's like when she goes off to climb a peak. This now her seventh peak, but you have to be pretty worried all the way through that journey.

MOORE: We are. I think for me one of the reassuring aspects of her climb is that she made each of these climbs accompanied by her father. And I think that adds an element of safety elements of safety to the expedition, my father, her husband, her father, my husband -- would not take any unnecessary risks.

WHITFIELD: So together they have done these climbs time and time again. She's been climbing since a child. I mentioned she's only 18. Really, she still is a child, but very young when she first started climbing, reaching a South American summit at the age of 13. Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro by age 14.

What is it about the thrill of climbing that gets her going, do you think?

MOORE: I think it's the challenge. It's the testing of herself. To see if she can actually make from the bottom to the top. She is very goal-driven and she's very passionate about climbing. And I think there is an enormous camaraderie when she does the climbs with her father and she's been on the last three summits with two other people who she's very close to. So I think it's a combination of factors.

WHITFIELD: Wow. She's a real high achiever. She graduated from high school with I understand a 4.43 GPA and is delaying her, I guess, aspirations to Stanford University by at least a year, so -- you know, what's her next peak? Do you suppose? MOORE: That's a good question and one I can answer pretty quickly. There's one peak that they've yet to climb on the continent of Oceania, which is in Indonesia, Carstensz Pyramid and their plan is to knock that one off in early, oh, of this year. So in a few months they're going to be leaving for the last time we hope.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, congratulations to Samantha Larsen and congratulations to you, too, supportive mom.

MOORE: Well, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Especially now that you've heard from her and you know that she is well.

MOORE: She is safe and she is sleeping as we speak.

WHITFIELD: Great. Well, Janet Moore, thanks so much for your time.

MOORE: Pleasure. Bye-bye.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Well, switching gearing quite a bit, here is a question for you. What would happen if terrorists decided to interfere with the nation's food supply? And what is the U.S. government doing to prevent it? It's enough to give you an upset stomach for sure.

And check out that mouth on John McCain, reportedly dropping the F bomb on a Senate colleague? What's the explanation there coming up in the NEWSROOM. McCain's latest lip flap.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Georgia Tech researcher Leanne West has created a wearable captioning system that provides real-time captioning to patrons who are hearing impaired or speak a different language.

LEANNE WEST, GEORGIA TECH: You could use it at a movie theater, live theater, a baseball stadium, any other sport sporting venue, a place of worship, a classroom, a conference room. Anywhere you want to provide a text. There's really two parts to the system. The part of that involves the venue and there's the part that the patron carries around with them.

ANNOUNCER: In the system captions are sent by a venue transmitter via standard wireless technology to a received device such as a PDA or cell phone. Patrons can read the captions from the receiver or the electronic eyewear that gives users relaxed viewing of the text.

WEST: What we hope is that it will encourage venues to actually provide the content to send to their patrons. That way you're helping the community as a whole. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, one week it's fish, another it's beef. So what is safe to eat these days? And what do we blame? Lots of accidents or is there a real intentional meddling out there?

Josh Levs has been looking in to all of it for our latest reality check. So what's the answer?

LEVS: What's the answer ...

WHITFIELD: Who do we get mad at?

LEVS: I got you some answers this week. I know you like answers. I got you're your answers.

Here's the deal. We are doing a lot of coverage lately about the accidental poisoning of food. But I remembered that couple years ago there was a major U.S. official who signaled a big warning saying, you know what? Terrorists could purposefully damage our food and kill lots and lots of people. So I started looking into what has been done and has it been enough? And it turns out there's a big report by the Department of Homeland Security that says whatever has been done certainly not enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS (voice-over): A stark warning came more than two years ago.

TOMMY THOMPSON, FORMER HHS SECRETARY: I for the life of me cannot und why the terrorists have not you know, attacked our food supply. Because it is so easy to do.

LEVS: That triggered a flurry of concern about imports and foods grown here. Skip ahead to 2007. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general finds that most experts called the U.S. food sector "highly vulnerable" to attack and the audit says security for food is "less intensive" than for other critical infrastructures.

So what's happened since Tommy Thompson's warning? The Government Accountability Office has cited progress. For example, agencies that oversee different kinds of food have coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security to increase protections and prepare a response plan.

The Food and Drug administration which oversees 80 percent the food supply, points to new government initiatives including this.

ANNOUNCER: The endless opportunities to intentionally contaminate our nation's food supply.

LEVS: ALERT, a food defense program training people at every point between the farm and your table. The FDA says some of the most likely terrorist targets are foods that require little processing, like milk and fresh produce and that precautions are helping make foods safe, but most imports and produce are uninspected.

And since 2003, the FDA has lost inspection staff.

Food safety experts like Jeff Nelken worry a terrorist could unleash a deadly illness could spread quickly through U.S. crops or cattle.

JEFF NELKEN, FOOD SAFETY ANALYST: Pretty much you can walk in and grab a hold of anything you'd like to grab a hold of.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS (on camera): There are some serious question about the FDA and also the USDA, which oversees meat and poultry. A lot of people are asking whether they have enough money and really enough authority do all the work they need to do to ultimately create the security that people are expecting and actually the accidental poisoning that's occurred lately are leaving more people to make those kinds of complaints, and we're actually going to learn more about that, Fred, tonight.

Right, we're going to learn a lot more about that in a special coming up tonight.

WHITFIELD: That's right. 8:00 tonight as well as tomorrow, and it's Dr. Sanjay Gupta's special, which uncovers the truth about how tainted the food supply really is. It's called "Danger: Poisoned Food."

Again, tonight 8:00 p.m. Or tomorrow, 8:00 p.m. As well. Josh Levs, thanks so much.

LEVS: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: The immigration deal. So touchy it had a pair of Republican senators shouting at each other. Here is how sources familiar with the meeting say it went down this way. John McCain, bill supporter, John Cornyn, doubter. McCain calls Cornyn's concern "petty," describing them as chicken manure, so to speak.

Cornyn then accuses McCain of parachuting in to the negotiations from the presidential campaign trail. "The Washington Post" says that caused McCain to blow up, dropping the F bomb. A McCain spokesperson concedes that the ruckus went down but the disputes or rather he disputes some of the particulars, such as the language involved.

President Bush's commerce secretary talking up the immigration deal. Carlos Guttierez in the NEWSROOM tonight with Rick Sanchez, 10:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Rick Sanchez is here right now to talk a little bit more about what else?

SANCHEZ: I've been having this conversation for months now. We've know each other for quite a while and we've had a lot of conversations. And I've called his office, and he's been telling me how it's going. Say what you want, the fact they were able to -- he was able to, and Chertoff, broke this with Democrats on the far left and Republicans on the far right to just come up way deal, I don't know if it's going to get passed or not.

We certainly know the debate is starting, though right?

WHITFIELD: Still bubbling over.

SANCHEZ: From the McCain story you just read, the debate is on. And it's nasty and it's angry. More on that in a minute. Let me tell you about what we're going to have at 5:00. This is testing.

Suppose you're a mom and you have kids and they're latchkey kids and you want to make sure they're close to a school, but that is not the school you're designated to send them to because it's further away from your house. So you put the address and status of someone like a relative, aunt, a grandma. That's lying.

WHITFIELD: It's not new, by the way.

SANCHEZ: People have done this for years.

WHITFIELD: A lot of people do that. Not saying it's right. Just saying it's been done before.

SANCHEZ: You can't file a false documents. It's lying and not right.

But 80 years in prison? Eighty years in prison for wanting to improve the welfare and education of your children, that is what she was actually charged with. It's crazy. We're going to talk about it in a little bit with her lawyer, as a matter of fact.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, well ...

SANCHEZ: Eighty years!

WHITFIELD: I hear ya. That's a lot of years. That's not good.

SANCHEZ: When I saw it I just jumped out of my chair. Come on.

WHITFIELD: I know. It's ridiculous. But you know, again, a lot of parents, households, have done this. In her case it's actually one that went to court.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

WHITFIELD: And even the prosecutors I know said they didn't expect it to go that far.

SANCHEZ: I think it's a certain amount of priggishness on the part of parents who are at one school, they're right. They're saying look, I pay a lot of taxes, because I want my school to be really good. I don't want you from there sending your kids to my school. That's not right, though.

WHITFIELD: All right it will be interesting to see.

SANCHEZ: It is. WHITFIELD: We'll be listening and watching.

SANCHEZ: Tonight, by the way ...

WHITFIELD: Got to go. They're yelling at me.

SANCHEZ: Can we talk about it during break?

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll talk about it amongst ourselves. All right. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Going global now with a check of the headlines around the world. Israeli troops and Hamas militants are targeting each other in Gaza. Israeli air strikes killed at least three Palestinians. This in response to an attack by Hamas rebels. The violence comes despite a new truce between fighting factions of Fatah and Hamas.

In northern Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted NATO soldiers in a crowded market in Kunduz. Three German soldiers were killed when they got out of their vehicle to shop. Seven Afghan civilians also were killed. The area is considered safe compared to southern and eastern Afghanistan.

The fate of eight Pakistani government workers is uncertain at this hour. The Taliban kidnapped them Friday on the Afghan border. More than 100 militants ambushed their vehicle, five women aid workers are among the hostages.

Iran is pressing ahead with its nuclear ambitions. Tehran announced today it has started work on the country's first domestically made atomic power plant. Many western nations including the U.S. fear Iran plans to make warheads, but Iran says it only wants to produce electricity.

Think turtles are always mellow and so slow? Well, you might be in for a surprise. When turtles attack. You have to see it to believe. A turtle with some kind of grudge against kitty cats. Straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Animals behaving badly. This is kind of fun.

A gorilla is back on display at a Dutch zoo after running amok and injuring four visitors. Well that part was not so fun but what's coming up is.

The 400 pound male gorilla broke free from his enclosure and barged into a restaurant yesterday. He bit one woman, three other people were injured in the panic and the gorilla's brief taste of freedom was ended with a tranquilizer dart.

In South Africa the fable of the tortoise and the hare. This is the funny part. Well it gets a modern day makeover. This I-Report video shows a tortoise getting territorial with a house cat who has invaded his turf. Ow.

Well, the video goes on for several minutes. The cat tries everything it can to get rid of the pesky tortoise which obviously has other things on its mind. Very persistent. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The next hour of THE NEWSROOM with Rick Sanchez, he too another very persistent creature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: I was arrested and I sat in jail for over five hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Why was she in jail? Because she allegedly used fake addresses to send her children to what she calls a better school. A guilty verdict would mean years and years in prison. Her lawyer is going to join us. That's coming up in THE NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was here for the hurricane. I was one of the 400 students stuck on campus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Also, we're going to have a documentary with students who say no one is listening to the lessons that they learned from Hurricane Katrina. The producer, a student herself, is going to join us in THE NEWSROOM.

And some encouraging from Baghdad, military officials think at least two missing U.S. soldiers are still alive. Still alive.

Hello, again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. We want to get you right now to the latest information we have been pulling out of Iraq.

First U.S. military officials are saying they have good reason to believe that at least two of the three missing American soldiers are still alive. Even a possibility of a third, by the way.

A week after attackers kidnapped them outside Baghdad. U.S. military commanders are saying they have been talking to informants and detainees who insist they have not heard any information about the soldiers being killed.

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