Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

War Policy Debate; Al Qaeda Regrouping

Aired July 14, 2007 - 17:00   ET

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

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Nuri Al Maliki -- I guess you could probably say he's not doing President Bush any favors with a comment like the one that I just told you that he had shared according to the "Associated Press" as Mr. Bush battles his calls here at home to withdraw the troops from Iraq.
Now al Maliki told reporters in Baghdad that his Iraqi armed forces can secure the country themselves. And he didn't stop there. And neither did some of the folks who work for him. He said that his troops can handle the fighting if American troops leave Iraq and this is a direct quote now, "Any time they want." Those are his words. In another sign of strain, a top aide to al Maliki today accused American forces of committing human rights violations and said that the U.S. military is, this is another direct quote, "Embarrassing to the Iraqi government." Strange coming from a government where the United States is pumping $2 billion a month. The comments out of Baghdad are sure to be heard in Washington, where the U.S. Senate is debating Iraq again for the first time Mr. Bush could face a vote on a legislative challenge penned by this time Republicans, members of his own party. Here's CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two of the Senate's most influential GOP senators unveiled legislation demanding the president give congress a new war plan by this fall to start redeploying troops from Iraq. The bill would require the president to deliver the plan by October 16th, and be ready to implement it by the end of the year. However, the measure by Senators John Warner and Richard Lugar would not mandate the president actually put this plan in place. In the face of GOP rebellion, the White House has been intensely lobbying lawmakers for patience, to give the surge more time.

BUSH: In September as congress has required General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will return to Washington to provide a more comprehensive assessment.

BASH: Lugar said he and Warner are quote, "Attempting to ensure that U.S. military and diplomatic policy is prepared for change when General Petraeus' report arrives in September. It is a direct challenge to the president's war strategy from two prominent fellow republicans who have been increasingly outspoken about the need for change. But by waiting until this fall to require plans for a new Iraq policy, Lugar is giving up on his high-profile, urgent plea just last month.

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR, (R) INDIANA: A course change should happen now, while there is still some possibility of constructing a sustainable, bipartisan strategy in Iraq.

BASH: The Republican's legislation also calls on the president to seek a new authorization for the war, because the 2002 authorization, which talks of weapons of mass destruction and toppling Saddam Hussein, is obsolete.

(On camera): It is important to emphasize, this Republican bill may challenge the president to come up with a new war plan, but not until the fall. In fact, at the end of a week when the White House was trying to head off an all-out GOP revolt, most Republican senators say they are willing to give the president one thing he wants, and that is just a little bit more time. Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, overseas, two more men have been charged in connection with the recent terror plots in Britain that we reported. They included the attack on Glasgow International Airport. From London now, here is CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh.

(BEGIN VIDETOAPE)

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Metropolitan police in London are charging Sabeel Ahmed, a 26-year-old Indian doctor under the UK terrorism act of 2000. That's in connection with the failed car bomb attacks in London and at Glasgow International airport. Now the charges in part accuse Ahmed of having information who you know or believed may be of material assistance in preventing the commission by another of an act of terrorism. In essence, they're accusing him of having information that could have prevented a terror attack.

The 26-year-old Ahmed was picked up in Liverpool following the failed car bomb attacks and he is understood to have studied at the same medical institution as another suspect Mohammed Haneef who was arrested in Australia and who has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organization. We also understand from our sources that the two may be distant cousins. Ahmed is scheduled to appear in a London court, possibly as soon as Monday. Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN, London.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Again, the second doctor, the second suspect charges today I should say, is an Indian doctor arrested in Brisbane, Australia. Two days after the Glasgow attack Mohammad Haneef, that's his name, he's a distant cousin of the brothers that are being held now. He is charged with supporting a terrorist group. Haneef had shared a home with the brothers before leaving Britain a year ago. His attorney says that Haneef was an unwitting dupe in this case, those are his words. Reclusive North Korea claims that it has shut down the reactor that made enough fuel to build a dozen or more nuclear bombs. United Nations inspectors are traveling to the plant to try and verify this claim. With the story live from New York now here is U.N. correspondent Richard Roth following this. What do we know about this Richard? What are they actually doing? Richard Roth is there for us. Let me try one more time, Richard, it's Rick Sanchez, over here in Atlanta, can you hear me? Apparently he can't hear. We'll get back to Richard in just a little bit. Maybe there's a technical snafu that I'm sure we'll be able to figure out in just a minute.

Meanwhile, April 20, 2008, the ninth anniversary of the Columbine tragedy and police say, the date when two New York high school students hoped to make some twisted history of their own. CNN's Jim Acosta has more on their alleged plot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police on New York's Long Island arrested two teens after discovering what they described as a chilling journal handwritten in elaborate detail by a 15-year-old juvenile.

RICHARD DORMER, SUFFOLK POLICE COMMISSIONER: The threats were to shoot students and staff and to detonate explosives materials at the school.

ACOSTA: The journal was found in the parking lot of this McDonald's where the teen worked and allegedly conspired with 17-year- old Michael McDonough who went to a different school. Police would not provide details on McDonough's role except to say McDonough agreed to go along with the plot. Police say the two teens were targeting Connetquot High School in Bohemia where the 15-year-old was a student but had been on long term suspension. Police say the journal paints a picture of a troubled teen with revealing excerpts, reading I want to take out everyone there and then turn the gun on cops and then myself. I want to kill so many people in the war zone and the target, so many that this will go down in history. Authorities obtained a search warrant for the 15-year-old's house where they found no weapons but did find incriminating computer evidence and videotapes.

DORMER: The 15-year-old had made numerous inquiries and multiple attempts to purchase weapons, including an Uzi machine rifle or automatic rifle and five pounds of explosive black powder.

ACOSTA: Police describe some of the tapes as alarming.

DORMER: And it was a very chilling tape. It was akin to the tapes that we all saw from Columbine.

ACOSTA: Connetquot's High School superintendent referred to the 15-year-old as social but said the teen had been under watch for a while.

DR. ALAN GROVEMAN, CONNETQUOT SCHOOLS SUPT.: This is a whole new world and we take different actions than we did five or six years ago, that's why we were able to get right on top of it.

ACOSTA: Both were charged with conspiracy in the fifth degree. McDonough was arraigned and is being held on $25,000 bail. His family and attorney gave no comment. Police continue their investigation into whether any weapons were actually obtained. Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: All right, we tried to reach Richard Roth just a little bit ago. The reason we want to go to the United Nations and Richard Roth is because the North Koreans have decided to shut down a reactor. Richard I first have to tell you this. For a guy who didn't know that he was on camera a little while ago, you were very well behaved. That could be dangerous duty, my friend.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: I'd like to know what I was doing.

SANCHEZ: You were doing nothing, you were just sitting there looking handsome as usual you little devil you.

ROTH: I hope I was looking disarming because that's what the west is looking for from North Korea, disarming on its nuclear front. The reason I'm on the air today is because North Korea, according to the U.S. State Department says that it has shut down its Pyongyang nuclear facility, this is its main nuclear reactor. North Korea was committed to this under an agreement reached in February with six other nations whereby it would shut this reactor down and start getting badly needed fuel for its impoverished state. The long-term goal for the United States is for North Korea to disclose and disarm any of its nuclear capabilities. Critics say under this agreement though North Korea still will never really be put to the test to give up any nuclear devices it has. Rick?

SANCHEZ: You know, you look at this and it's almost like a tit for tat situation. They give something up and then they take something away, then we threaten them, then they threaten us back or finally gets -- It just goes back and forth doesn't it?

ROTH: But isn't that a normal male-female relationship? I don't know. This has been going on, look, there's no official peace treaty since the Korean War ended and that's over 50 years ago. This time, will it be different? There are not many I think who would say it's going to happen, but Chris Hill, the U.S. special envoy has been very dogged in pursuing and so far the Bush administration and other governments using China as a little bit of leverage, because it's a close ally of North Korea, has gotten to this point. Now there's another meeting in Beijing on Wednesday where according to some reports the U.S. wants to see a list from North Korea of its nuclear weapon sites, what does it have, what is it ready to disclose? So we're going to get a quick idea maybe within a week of the next steps. North Korea got about $25 million in money that was frozen in a bank. Money may solve a lot of problems, it was enough for North Korea under this agreement to shut down this reactor and now it's receiving some fuel oil this weekend. And international inspectors are on the scene to start verifying whether that reactor is indeed closed.

SANCHEZ: And on and on it goes. Thanks so much for clearing it up for us, Richard Roth who looks good whether he knows he's on camera or not folks. Thanks, Richard.

A warning from the U.S. Mexican border. You might be on a drug cartel's hit list if you do a specific job for a living. We'll tell you what that job is. The full story straight ahead.

Also, huge flames, major damage, all preventable, 911 tapes shedding new light on the Lake Tahoe fire.

And then, a violent robber tamed, not with a taser, ala Rick Sanchez, who is that guy? Not with a gun, but with a glass of wine and a hug. Huh? About 20 minutes to a story that you couldn't make up. Not if you tried. You're watching CNN, we're the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Checking stories across America now, if a candidate falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it really fall? You know the story, right? The tree falls in the forest and nobody hears. Well that's kind of the same thing with this. So few people know who's running for president at this point, that now we get to tell you who's not running for president even though many of you didn't know he was running for president to begin with. Now, to the story. His campaign pointed to the fact that Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore has just dropped out of the presidential race. Many of you say who? His campaign is saying he had a late start and quote front loaded nature of the primary schedule caused him to do so. We wish him well.

Police in Nashville, Tennessee, say a long haul truck driver has confessed to killing six people. People in Bruce Menenhal's hometown of Albion, Illinois, can't believe what they're hearing about him. Menenhal ran for town mayor about 10 years ago. By the way, he lost.

More calls for a change by the NAACP in suburban Atlanta today on behalf of Genarlow Wilson. Wilson is still in prison on a child molestation conviction for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old when he was just a teenager. So it's two teenagers having sex, 10 years in prison. Georgia's law has been changed since the conviction and Wilson's supporters say his sentence should be changed as well. But state courts say the sentence can't be applied retroactively at this point.

It's not repeat, not rocket science, it took NASA officials some 90 minutes to discover that they had misspelled the name of the space shuttle Endeavour on a welcome banner. It is spelled Brit style will with a "u" toward the end of the Endeavour. The shuttle is set to launch early next month with you or without you. Get it?

Reporters often put their lives on the line working in war zones in global hot spots. I have myself on many occasions. You don't think of journalists covering stories in the United States as being at risk. Well think again. There's a warning that's gone out to reporters in Texas who are writing about or covering the drug cartels in Mexico and all the violence across the border in areas around Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to be specific. Cartel leaders may be targeting them for assassination, hiring hit men easy or threatening to kill them right here in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The last image American photographer Brad Wills captured was his death. More than 30 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2001, most by drug cartels.

LUCIE MORILLON, REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS: It's more and more dangerous for journalists to cover any issues related either to drug traffic or to local corruption. These drug traffickers or politicians who have things to hide have understood how critical it is for them to control the media.

SANCHEZ: U.S. law enforcement sources told several Texas newspapers last week that Lozetas(ph) assassins have been hired to cross the border and execute reporters. U.S. ambassador Tony Garza said in a statement that, "Threats against journalists in an attempt to intimidate them from reporting the truth, must be condemned by all of us who understand the important role of a free press in a democratic society." Garza says the U.S. and Mexican authorities are working to ensure the safety of all journalists so that scenes like this -- when drug cartel members hurled grenades and fired bullets into the working offices of Mexico's La Mananan newspaper last year, don't happen again.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Interestingly enough I recently went into one of those small towns inside Mexico controlled by the drug cartel or said to be. In fact it's so dangerous, I couldn't find a police officer to escort me into the town. They say, essentially, are you crazy? We won't go there. We'll get shot. I'll have that story for you tonight here at 10:00 eastern.

Millions of dollars in damage, livelihoods destroyed. How the Lake Tahoe fire might have been avoided, straight ahead, that's in the NEWSROOM.

Also, teens killed in a fatal accident. The probable cause? Texting on their phones. What you should know about this problem or are you now saying, oh my God, I've done that.

Then later, a little wine and that was enough to make everything fine for a would-be robber in Washington. The story is ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back. Firefighters are trying to put out dozens of wildfires in the state of Washington. Lightning strikes started them Friday. One blaze threatened as many as 50 homes. One home and a couple of outbuildings burned in Grand Coulee yesterday, but there are no reports of any injuries at this point.

There is good news regarding this burner in Arizona though. Fire officials say that the El Hambre fire, El Hambre stands for wire by the way, is near 80 percent contained now. It's already charred more than 7600 acres, it's one of three wildfires state officials say is ready to finally just flame out.

Remember this massive blaze that charred more than 250 homes last month in Lake Tahoe? Now there's word that some of the destruction might have been prevented if dispatchers had taken the first 911 calls a little more seriously. Mark Hedlin with CNN affiliate KXTV has the latest on this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLER: We can see smoke coming off the mountain to the west of us.

MARK HEDLIN, KXTV: The first 911 call comes out Sunday at 2:02 p.m., yet CHP dispatchers are nonchalant.

DISPATCHER: Yeah. Yeah, they're doing a control burn there.

HEDLIN: But it was anything but controlled. Even nine minutes later at 2:11 in the afternoon, two CHP dispatchers, blowing off reports of fire several times.

DISPATCHER: That's up the hill. Yeah, that's a control burn.

CALLER: We're coming down Echo Summit and I'm seeing white smoke on the side of...

DISPATCHER: Uh huh. Is that by the airport? That's a controlled burn.

ASST. CHIEF SAL SAGURA, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL: It appears that from our view that a total of five calls were dismissed initially by the Truckee CHP dispatchers as controlled burns.

HEDLIN: And a gap of precious time, a gap of 7 to 9 minutes before CHP dispatchers in Truckee even decide to check it out.

CALLER: We saw a lot of smoke.

DISPATCHER: It's a control burn, I'm pretty sure, so we're checking on it now.

HEDLIN: The highway patrol investigating and obviously upset at what appear to be serious mistakes.

SAGURA: We're always concerned when we find that our employees failed to handle something or apparently at this point in time failed to follow proper protocol and policy. The dispatchers are temporarily relieved of their dispatching duties.

HEDLIN: Two experienced dispatchers on the hot seat, it's more than embarrassing. These delays coming to light now could have made a critical difference in this devastating wildfire.

SAGURA: A lot of those people are our friends, our neighbors, and we feel badly for the individuals that may have lost property.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Mistake. Good reporting, that was Mark Hedlin from KXTV. "The Sacramento Bee" newspaper reports that there were no controlled burns on that day by the way. Both CHP dispatchers have been reassigned as a result of this report pending an investigation.

Typhoon Man-Yi is whipping the Japanese coast for a second consecutive day. Typhoon is essentially what they call hurricanes out there. Japanese media reports put an 11-year-old boy dead, another 56 people hurt. The storm packing winds over 130 miles an hour. It hit Okinawa yesterday. It's expected to hit Tokyo tomorrow before finally heading out to sea.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Six years into the war on terror but al Qaeda seems to get bigger. Question, how strong is al Qaeda right now? Well you saw the reports this week. We're going to break it down for you ahead in the NEWSROOM with experts.

Then the crook and the cork. How some wine helped stop an armed robber, this is just an unbelievable story. It's coming up in just a -- it's a head turner, up in a couple of minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. It's half past the hour here. And here's what is going on right now. Funeral services have gotten under way for former first lady Lady Bird Johnson. The 94-year-old widow of former President Lyndon Johnson -- Lyndon Baines Johnson, as we always referring to him, LBJ, died Wednesday of natural causes.

In Pakistan, Islamic militants are suspected in a suicide car bombing which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Another 29 troops were hurt in this morning's attack in the nation's lawless northwestern territory.

A videotape showing Osama bin Laden has surfaced in public today. The 40-minute tape includes a minute-long sound byte in which bin Laden purportedly stresses the importance of martyrdom to his followers. The date of the tape is not clear. And some are suggesting that it might have been reported a long time ago, some even say it may have been recorded prior to 9/11.

In just a few moments, we're going to discuss the status of the war on terror with analyst with Jim Walsh.

Well, after almost six years -- 9/11, almost six years into the war in Afghanistan as well, more than four years into the war in Iraq, what is the state of al Qaeda, government officials wanted to know? A U.S. government assessment concludes that it is strong, and here's the worst part of, I guess, this whole thing, it's getting stronger.

CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite bombing al Qaeda's strongholds in counterterrorism operations around the world, al Qaeda is regrouping and is at it's strongest since the war on terror began. U.S. officials say that's the conclusion of a classified government report. It certainly seems to back up what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has been saying.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We do see some general trends that are concerning. We see the fact that they are training in certain parts of Pakistan, we see the fact that they have now reached into North Africa and they've got an affiliate in North Africa. We've seen over the last year increased activity in Europe.

ARENA: The secretary took a great deal of heat for saying it was his gut feeling that the U.S. was in a particularly vulnerable period.

SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: I would hope that someone who's the director of homeland security would have something else to offer us if he's going to be talking like that.

ARENA: So Chertoff had to spend time explaining what he meant.

CHERTOFF: We don't currently have specific, credible information about a particular threat against the homeland in the near future.

ARENA: Intelligence experts say al Qaeda has been able to find safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

JOHN KRINGEN, CIA DIR. FOR INTELLIGENCE: We see more training, we see more money, we see more communications, so we see that activity rising.

ARENA: What's more, the volume of messages from al Qaeda leaders has sharply increased.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: But what it does tell us is that al Qaeda feels that it's in a pretty safe place for recording messages and distributing them. They certainly don't look like they're on the run.

ARENA (on camera): The FBI has put together a special group of agents and analysts to comb through current threat information and any leads to supplement work that's already being done in the field. That's just to be sure that nothing is missed.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Well, apparently gone are the days when the White House claimed that al Qaeda is on the run. What happened? Joining us now from Newton, Massachusetts, terrorism analyst Jim Walsh was good enough to join us.

Let's go ahead and stay with that theme a little bit. Because we are four years into the Iraq War. Certainly there's problems over there. Zawahiri is still alive and kicking somewhere. Bin Laden for all we know is alive and kicking somewhere. And now, smack dab in the middle of all this we get this report, Jim, this week that says that al Qaeda operationally has gotten stronger and that they could possibly even be ready to attack in the United States. Man, that ain't good.

JIM WALSH, TERRORISM ANALYST: It's not good. It's not good, and the things that you talk about are all tied together, Rick. That is to say, the war in Iraq, the continuation of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri being able to be at the head of the organization, all of these things are related.

What do I mean by that? Well, unfortunately the war in Iraq has been a fund-raising boon for al Qaeda. It it's not that al Qaeda is sending money into Iraq, it's that they're raising so much money for insurgent attacks in Iraq that they are now sending money back home to Pakistan, back to bin Laden.

So they've replaced their coffers. That's fund-raising. On recruitment, here's another category of capability. Again, they've been able to recruit people from around the world, sort of franchising the idea behind al Qaeda, but they've also replaced some of the people in the central leadership in that frontier region of Pakistan.

And finally, communications, Kelli referred to it. In the first half of this year, Rick, the production company, if you will, of al Qaeda, has put out as many audio and videotapes as they did all of 2006. And so that's not a good sign.

SANCHEZ: We read a story recently, I think it started with TIME magazine where they had pictures of children in parts of Africa where they are wearing T-shirts that have Osama bin Laden's picture on it. And they wear it proudly, almost as if he's some kind of hero to the people there.

Boy, again, that smacks against what we wanted to do, right? If nothing else, from a public relations front, it's a win for the bad guys and a loss for the United States.

WALSH: Yes, it's not only a loss, it's a lost opportunity, because if you track those polling numbers in the Muslim and Arab world, it was not always the case. Right after 9/11, there were a lot of Muslims and Arabs who did not support what al Qaeda had done, who thought it was terrible that the World Trade Center had been attacked.

But when we went into Afghanistan, which I think it was a good -- you know, we had to do that, but then going on into Iraq, that raised anger and antipathy in the Muslim world. And suddenly a group that was looked down upon suddenly began to be looked on in favor.

Not by everyone, we're talking about a minority. But that minority is big enough that you can recruit from it and cause a lot of attacks.

SANCHEZ: Well, that's interesting. What you're saying and what the viewers just heard you at the beginning of this, and what a lot of experts are frankly saying is that al Qaeda has gained as a result of the war in Iraq, both from a recruitment standpoint and from a fund- raising standpoint.

And now, as we begin this newscast, there are statements from Prime Minister al-Maliki in Iraq saying if the United States pulls its troops, we're fine. We can handle it. Another of his deputies is quoted as saying that the U.S. military is embarrassing the Iraqis. What do you make of this?

WALSH: Well, I think Maliki is trying to walk a fine line here. On the one hand, I doubt very seriously if he wants all the U.S. troops to disappear tomorrow, because clearly those Iraqi troops are not prepared it take over the job.

On the other hand, he has lots of constituents that want the U.S. government out of Iraq and it also is humiliating to have to appear as if he's begging the U.S. to stay. So on the one hand he has real security needs that he has to keep in mind, on the other hand there are political considerations that he has.

SANCHEZ: But can't you just hear Americans who are watching this discussion between you and I, saying, that's what you want, fine, bring my boys home. I don't want them there anyway, right?

WALSH: Absolutely. And I think we will hear this in the weeks to come. They are already under fire, as you well know, Rick, for talking about taking a month off -- the legislature taking a month off during the summer when Americans are over there fighting. This will just add to that sort of upset and comments.

SANCHEZ: Jim Walsh, you're good, thanks, appreciate it. Enjoyed the discussion.

WALSH: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We've all heard about the dangers of talking on a cell phone while driving, and yet there's probably not a one among us who hasn't done it at one time or another. Well, now police in New York say that text messaging on a cell phone may have played a role in a horrible car crash that left five teenagers dead.

CNN's Jim Acosta has this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Bailey Goodman and her four teenage friends were on a late-night drive to her parents' vacation home in western New York when their SUV suddenly swerved into a tractor-trailer head-on. In an instant they were all gone. The accident late last month came just five days after they graduated from high school, where they had won a national cheerleading championship. SARA DASTIN, FRIEND OF CAR CRASH VICTIMS: There's no words to describe what -- the feelings and emotions that you go through when you're told that your best friends aren't coming back.

ACOSTA: How could so much promise be lost so suddenly? Investigators say Bailey, who was technically breaking the law by driving at night on a junior permit, was attempting to pass another car on a two-lane road, all while her cell phone was in use.

SHERIFF PHILIP POVERO, ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK: Cell phones are a distraction and could be a contributing factor in this accident.

ACOSTA: As Bailey was driving, police say, her cell phone had sent and received a text message just 38 seconds before the first call came in to 911 reporting the teens had been in an accident. Because there were no survivors in the SUV, investigators will never know if it was Bailey doing the text-messaging.

POVERO: The records indicate her phone was in use. We will never be able to, you know, clearly state that she was the one that was doing any text-messaging.

ACOSTA: Driving while texting is a relatively new danger on the roads. Only one state, Washington, will ban the behavior outright beginning in January.

ROBERT SINCLAIR, AAA, NEW YORK: Well, imagine what you have to do when you're texting. You need two hands to operate the device. So, automatically, one hand is not going to be on the steering wheel.

ACOSTA: For the sheriff investigating the crash that killed Bailey Goodman and her friends, it's just common sense.

POVERO: As we drive a motor vehicle, we need to constantly remind ourselves that this is our -- this is our main and only responsibility.

ACOSTA: A responsibility that's too often forgotten with tragic consequences.

Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And now a would-be robber with a -- well, a taste for fine wine. Sounds good being poured, doesn't it? He also likes great food and he also likes good company and a hug or two. It's a story right out of a screenplay. But it's not. This tale is true.

Here to tell it, CNN's Zain Verjee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Xavier Cervera took his dog out for a walk as his guests were winding down a dinner party last month on his patio, sipping French wine and nibbling cheese. Almost as soon as Xavier left, his party was crashed by an armed, hooded gunman who had burst through an opened patio door.

XAVIER CERVERA, HOMEOWNER: I usually latch it when I leave. That evening, I did not. And so they were all sitting, spread out in the courtyard, and he just kicked the gate in.

VERJEE: The intruder pressed his gun against a 14-year-old's head, saying, give me your money or I'll start shooting. Then Xavier's guests did something extraordinary.

CERVERA: They offered him some food and wine, which he accepted, which I assume really helped.

VERJEE (on camera): The wine or the cheese?

CERVERA: Probably both. But maybe the wine more so.

VERJEE (voice-over): Then someone hits a sore spot.

CERVERA: One of them said to him, your mother would be ashamed of you. And apparently, that really toned him down. He became a little morose upon hearing that, and he said his mother was no longer alive.

VERJEE (on camera): The attacker took down his hood, had a little bit more wine, helped himself to some cheese. Then he tucked away his gun and looked around and said, maybe I've come to the wrong place.

(voice-over): William Chambliss is a professor of sociology at George Washington University, and says that comment by the gunman was revealing.

WILLIAM CHAMBLISS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: "I think I came to the wrong place." He came to the wrong place because these people were so nice and because they treated him like a human being. He couldn't really go through with the robbery.

VERJEE: Chambliss says treating the gunman with dignity was the key. And for the intruder, getting hugs was important, too. First, he wanted individual hugs. Then, a group hug.

(on camera): And after the group hug, he just turned around and left. Just the same way that he came.

CERVERA: Yes, thanked them again and apologized again. And went on his way.

VERJEE (voice-over): Police told The Washington Post it was strange but true. A suspect still hasn't been found. Only the crystal glass he left with.

Zain Verjee, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: By the way, that works with cops, too, when you get pulled over. Not the offering a glass of wine or a hug, by the way, but you know, just being nice. You want to hear more details on this one, the family saved by the wine recounts their story live on Monday on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." They're going to have them live. They're going to be able to talk about the story. So you'll see it right there at 6:00 a.m., by the way. Get up early, go ahead.

More heavy fighting out of Lebanon as government troops pound a refugee camp where Islamic militants are holed up. Details coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to be fine. I know how to campaign. In the state of New Hampshire, I can win in New Hampshire as I did in 2000 and I know that I can and I know that I will.

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: I never was going to rely on money to win this campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: GOP presidential candidate John McCain. He is in New Hampshire as promised today, dismissing reports that his campaign is losing ground and losing money. More McCain staffers are expected to leave the Straight Talk Express Monday amid abysmal campaign fund- raising totals. McCain's apparent new cost-effective strategy is to stump hard in early primary states such as New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

SANCHEZ: Ah, the power of the open mike. Two of the so-called top tier Democratic presidential candidates are smarting from a new and, well, inadvertent controversy.

Here's CNN's Tom foreman with the debate squeeze.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beware of the open microphone. At the end of an NAACP presidential forum Thursday in Detroit, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were caught talking in the background.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Senator Joseph Biden. Again, thank you so much.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got to talk because they are just being trivialized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much for coming. Have a great afternoon.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They are not serious.

FOREMAN: Edwards says he was just talking about a new approach to forums and debates, limiting them to four candidates at a time, rotating selected at random.

CLINTON: You know, I think there was an effort by our campaigns to do that, but that got somehow detoured. We've got to get back to it because that's all we are going to do.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CLINTON: Our guys should talk.

FOREMAN: No candidate is mentioned by name, but one of the people objecting to any squeeze play is back of the pack Dennis Kucinich, the congressman from Ohio. He blasted what he called "imperial candidates." In a statement, he said: "Candidates no matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not."

Hillary Clinton says the "cut the candidates" idea came from Edwards. Edwards says he doesn't want to keep any candidates out, just show them off in smaller groups.

(on camera): All that said, however, some of the lesser-known candidates think they heard the message loud and clear from the frontrunners, better watch your back.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: If you could ask the questions, what would you ask the presidential candidates? Here's your chance. CNN is teaming up with YouTube for the next round of presidential debates, submitting your videotape questions by going to cnn.com/youtubedebates.

How would you like to be the cop chasing this stolen vehicle? Sometimes the road block or road spikes just won't do the trick. You're watching CNN, we'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to our "CNN Heroes" for you. Forced into prostitution at age 16, she's now devoted to saving others as victims of sex slavery. So here now our CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOMALY MAM, "FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE": In Cambodia prostitution is illegal. But right now you can see everywhere we have the prostitutes because of the corruption.

The brothel owners, they force them to have sex. They hit them. They receive a lot of violence. I remember when I was young. I was sold into the brothel. I was forced to have sex and I was raped. When I need the people to help me, I need the people but nobody helped me.

My name is Somaly Mam. And my mission is to help the victims, to take them out from the brothel. And many of them, they have HIV/AIDS. Sometimes they say cut themselves. Sometimes they try suicide. I just say to them, you have your pain full, everybody treats you so bad. Why you treat yourself bad? It's not your fault.

My work is so dangerous. You face the police, who are corrupted. You go in the courts, sometimes they are so corrupted.

I have a lot of people trying to destroy me everywhere. They are trying, trying. But I just want to say to them, no way. My organization, we have the counseling, we have all kinds of training, like sewing, hairdressing. And then give them opportunity to work and then integrate them into society.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel like I have a new life. I was so upset before. It seems like everything was destroyed. Now I have a new life.

MAM: I just want to give them love for real. It's what I needed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: If you would like to learn more about Somaly Mam's organization, just logon to cnn.com/heroes.

Well, how about a cruise through town in style, military style? The stolen tank that could barrel your way, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A car seemed like chump change to guy behind the wheel of this massive tank. Police in Australia are saying he stole the armored personnel carrier and then went on a rampage, ramming phone towers and buildings. That's a phone tower, by the way, it's like a phone booth. After a 90-minute chase, the tank stalled and he was arrested.

Now, look at this picture, if you've got the stomach for it. Two American brothers were double-gored in the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain. One was hit in the leg. The other brother was hit, well, you can see for yourself. Ouch. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Rick Sanchez. Here now, Lou Dobbs.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com