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Utah Mine Rescue Effort; Jose Padilla Found Guilty on All Counts; Tropical Depression Erin Brings More Rain and Flooding to Texas

Aired August 16, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for joining us.

And we are being told right now a verdict has been reached after less than two days of deliberations in the case of Jose Padilla, that terror trial that we have been following. We're told the verdict should be announced any second now. Padilla and two co-defendants on trial on charges of conspiracy to fund and support Islamic terrorism overseas.

Our Susan Candiotti is in Miami. She's been tracking it for us -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Yes, this verdict came down pretty quickly, and you can interpret that whatever way you want to, but at this time we are waiting for all the parties to gather in that courtroom and the verdict to be read. This is a very important case for the Bush administration because they were using it as an example to prove what kinds of things they were doing to fight the war on terror.

Now, the question is, which portrait of Jose Padilla will this jury accept, the government's portrait that he was intending, conspiring to carry out a jihad overseas to murder, maim, and kidnap, as the charges read, or as the defense puts it, was he simply a man who was a former gang member who went through a religious conversion and went overseas to study Islam and to learn the Arabic language? Well, we are soon to find out.

This is a case that has been followed for quite some time that actually has been in the making for five years. You remember Jose Padilla was the man who back in the year 2000 was originally accused by the Bush administration as being a so-called dirty bomber, but that never came up in this case, and he was never charged with any such crime. Instead, he was held in a Navy brig for three years, and then his case was transferred to a civilian court, and that's how he wound up where we are now.

Something unusual will happen after this verdict is read. The judge in this case will allow reporters to stay in the courtroom and has invited any member of the jury who wants to remain behind to stay and answer questions off-camera, but to talk about their verdict -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, Susan, we're supposed to see the two co-defendants come forward before we hear about Jose Padilla, right? And maybe we should explain to our viewers how the case sort of shifted, whereas the administration was going after Padilla solely as a terrorist acting on his own, but then once things started to shift, they are now tying him to these two other co-defendants as acting together to create terrorist activity.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. The question always was, well, why didn't the government charge him with being the so-called "dirty bomber" and this plan to supposedly blow up apartment buildings using natural gas systems and that kind of thing?

Well, we don't have a precise answer on that, but it has been explained in part by a lot of analysts that specifically part of the information they gathered about him, remember, came from high-value detainees, and through intelligence gathering. And it is believed that the administration would not want to put these high-value detainees out in the open, out in an American courtroom, to be heard from, to be cross-examined, and also to put under scrutiny the kind of techniques that were used to gather information. For whatever reason, those charges were never placed upon Jose Padilla. Instead, he was added to another ongoing case, and that's where we are.

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Candiotti, live out of Miami. As soon as we get that verdict, we will bring it live to our viewers.

Thanks, Susan.

LEMON: All right. Let's get you to Houston, Texas, now where Tropical Depression Erin is causing lots of headaches there, including some floodwaters. And I'm looking at a very eerie shot. Not sure if it's live of downtown Houston.

Storm clouds everywhere. There it goes. Right there. And you can see the traffic backed up there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, within the past hour, the earthquake death toll has risen again in Peru. Rescue teams are struggling to reach the area just south of Lima that bore the brunt of the quake. A relief official now puts the death toll at 450 dead and 1,500 injured, and hundreds of homes destroyed.

At least one American is among the dead, and according to the State Department, the initial jolt struck last evening, lasted a terrifying two minutes. The magnitude, 8.0.

The quake toppled buildings and left roads in the region largely impassable. The AP quoted the mayor of one town saying that a church collapsed burying at least 200 worshipers inside.

President Alan Garcia has declared a regional state of emergency as rescue teams are trying to get in there. Now, U.S. citizen Electra Anderson lives in an apartment overlooking the Pan American Highway along the Peruvian coast. She's accustomed to riding out earthquakes. And earlier today, the native Californian told CNN the quake in Peru was the absolute worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELECTRA ANDERSON, AMERICAN LIVING IN PERU: People just ran out. They ran out of our building also, into the street. Everybody was out in the street, and then they came back in for a little while, but then we've been having so many aftershocks that were -- they've been big.

I mean, we've probably had 70, and I'm not kidding. And some of them are bigger than others. Some of them I felt like they were like a 4.0, just the aftershocks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And if you're looking for a way to make a difference for the victims of the Peru earthquake, impact your world by logging on to CNN.com/impact and click on "Natural Disasters" to learn how you can become a part of the solution.

LEMON: Renewed hope tempered with caution at a collapsed coal mine in Utah. Devices put on top of the mine have picked up unidentified noise where six trapped miners may be.

You're looking at new video now that they showed at a press conference. It came from that third hole they bored into the side of the mountain.

Let's get straight to the ground now and Brian Todd. He's working the story for us.

Brian, tell us about this new video.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty encouraging video they say, Don, from this chamber that was drilled with the third hole that shows water. It spans 360 degrees and, according to officials here, it can see about 30 to 40 feet.

You see water and wire meshing. We're going to let Robert Murray, the mine owner, kind of describe it to you as he narrated it to us a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD STICKLER, DIRECTOR, MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMIN.: We saw spikes about every second and a half that lasted for approximately five minutes. We had the equipment shut down. We knew that. We tried to eliminate all the possible known sources of that noise. We have no idea where that vibration originated, but we felt that we could not discount it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY, PRESIDENT & CEO, MURRAY ENERGY CORP.: You can see now all of this is water flowing down the hole, but you can see the cavity is open. And as Mr. Stickler has reported, there's 15, 16 percent, almost 17 percent oxygen in there. Almost a normal atmosphere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: As Mr. Murray alluded to, 16 -- about 16 percent oxygen in that cavity that they showed in that number three drill hole, which is enough to sustain life. They say it does effect your heart rate, but an operative point here that Richard Stickler, the head of the Mine Safety & Health Administration made, the video, he says, shows that those miners apparently did not go into that chamber.

It's a very important point to make. They're not sure. This video doesn't capture all of that chamber, but they say at least from what they see now, Don, that that video doesn't look like those miners went in there.

LEMON: And Brian, I think we'll be checking back with you. Just real quickly, did you just do an interview with Bob Murray?

TODD: Yes, and we asked him a lot of questions there. His tone at the news conference seemed to be very down and disappointed and I asked him about that. He said, "I'm not down, I'm just very tired."

They are frustrated with setbacks. Just overnight and this morning, early, just actually a few moments ago in the main tunnel operation where they're digging toward these miners, they had seismic activity again, another bump. This has been happening fairly regularly over the last 24 hours after a period of days where they didn't have it.

So this has set them back further. It's very frustrating to them. They're also trying to figure out about the sounds that they picked up yesterday, whether those sounds mean anything.

The drill hole that's going to go down to where they believe those sounds might have come from, that hasn't even begun yet. They want to start that very soon -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Brian Todd, hopefully we can get that video cued up of your interview. I'd love to hear from you.

Thank you very much for that report.

PHILLIPS: Well, after less than two days of deliberations, the jury in the Jose Padilla terror trial have reached a verdict. We are waiting for that to be announced. It's going to happen any minute now.

You'll remember Padilla and two co-defendants have been on trial on charges of conspiracy to fund and support Islamic terrorism overseas. As soon as that verdict is read, we'll bring it to you.

Meanwhile, it's a horrific story that gets more so with every bit of new information. This week's multi-suicide attacks in remote northern Iraq, it looks early death toll estimates were way off. The Iraqi government now puts the death toll, mostly ethnic Yazidi men, women and children, at more than 400. And you can expect that number to go up further. Lots of collapsed buildings and rubble piles have not yet been thoroughly searched.

Now, the largest branch of this military has a large problem, suicide in the ranks of the Army, and it's happening at a rate high enough to set off an alarm at the Pentagon.

Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, joins us now with more -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, this is always a very sad and tragic story. The military, now the U.S. Army, releasing the latest statistics on the rate of Army suicides. Last year in 2006, there was a jump. Of course, a lot of questions about whether serving on the front lines in the combat zone is a contributor to this tragedy.

Let's just take a quick look at the numbers, Kyra.

Last year in 2006, 101 U.S. Army soldiers committed suicide. That is an increase from the year before of 88.

Now, under that you see they even it out for statistical differences, so it jumped from 12.8 per 100,000 to over 17.8 per 100,000.

The big question, of course, is, is the war having an impact? So, let's look at a second set of statistics.

In terms of suicides amongst deployed soldiers, 30 last year in 2006. The year before there were 25.

Of course, most of the Army is deployed to the war zone, so the question is, how many are suffering this tragedy even once they come back and may be out of the military? The Army says they're doing everything they possibly can in suicide prevention and suicide awareness, but they're even going to try and improve those programs further -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we'll definitely follow it. It's something that we pay close attention to.

Barbara Starr from the Pentagon.

Thank you.

STARR: Sure.

LEMON: We're following news coming out of Miami. Jose Padilla, a verdict has been reached in his terror support trial. We're going to get you live to Miami as soon as that verdict is read. It's expected to be read at any moment.

Also, other developing news we're following here, tropical troublemakers. Erin sloshes ashore in Texas, a place that doesn't need much more rain. And in the Atlantic, Dean steps up to hurricane status and aims at the Caribbean vacation isles.

We'll have much, much more right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The numbers just keep coming in on the death toll out of Peru, where that earthquake hit with 8.0 magnitude. We're now being told 450, at least 450 people dead in that earthquake.

And as you know, a number of buildings and homes have been destroyed. Still, a lot of search crews out there looking for bodies underneath the rubble. We are expecting that number to rise.

It's 2:16 Eastern Time right now. Here are some other stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A verdict is reached in the terrorism trial of American-born Jose Padilla. We're standing by for the announcement from federal court in Miami. Once suspected of plotting a dirty bomb attack, Padilla was tried on lesser charges after the government held him more than three years without filing charges.

And new video now from the Crandall Canyon Mine. It shows a key part of the cavern's roof is intact. Bob Murray says that's good news as rescue workers are trying to determine the cause of unexpected noise readings in the effort to find those six missing miners.

And two more sets of human remains recovered today in connection with the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Prior to this latest discovery, four people were listed as missing, with nine bodies recovered.

LEMON: Want to get you straight to the news room now. Fredricka Whitfield working on a developing story.

OK, Fred, most people don't know who John H. Hager of Richmond, Virginia, is, but...

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

LEMON: But...

WHITFIELD: You're going to know now.

LEMON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: He's been a few things. I mean, he was the Virginia lieutenant governor, and now he's also the chairman of the Republican Party for Virginia. And now soon to be the father-in-law of one of the first family's daughters right there, Jenna Bush. It's been quite the week, or maybe even quite the year for the first family. We just learned last week that Jenna Bush, 25, along with her mother, Laura Bush, are penning a children's book. Both of them school teachers, or at least the first lady was a school teacher. And now Jenna Bush is just newly engaged, just got engaged yesterday to a young man by the name of Henry Hager, who is the son of Mr. -- or the Honorable John Hager of Richmond, Virginia.

No details from the White House as of yet as to when this big day could be, but the White House did release this written statement today, proudly boasting that the president, George W. Bush, and the first lady are happy to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jenna Bush, to Mr. Henry Hager.

So, congratulations to them. They were just engaged yesterday.

LEMON: Wow. Now, can you imagine...

WHITFIELD: But now made public.

LEMON: All right. So do you remember -- I kind of know your dad a little bit, right? I met your husband.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEMON: So it was tough for him, right? Was it a tough thing to go, "Sir, I'd like to..."

WHITFIELD: I didn't get the impression that it was tough.

LEMON: OK.

WHITFIELD: Maybe because I was an old bride, as opposed to, you know, Jenna, who is just 25. I mean I waited until I was in my 30s to even think about getting married.

LEMON: Well, you look like you're 25.

WHITFIELD: A little too much information, right?

LEMON: Yes, I know. But what I was getting at...

WHITFIELD: So that was probably like, thank gosh she's getting married, finally. Maybe he felt that way.

LEMON: I was just getting -- doing it for the president, you know. You know, you've got to go to the president and say, "Sir, I'd like to..."

WHITFIELD: Yes. Yes, that was a tough moment, I'm sure, for him to ask permission.

LEMON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: For the hand of marriage of Jenna Bush. Maybe he skipped it because his dad is a big cheese, too. I don't know.

LEMON: We wish them the best of luck.

WHITFIELD: OK.

LEMON: We're rambling on and on.

WHITFIELD: Right.

LEMON: It's all good news. We need a little good news today considering all the bad news we have.

WHITFIELD: All right.

LEMON: Fred, congratulations to you and to Jenna Bush.

The market's down for the sixth day in a row.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: A verdict to be announced very soon in the Jose Padilla terror trial. We'll have that as soon as they step up to the mics.

Live pictures out of Miami.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM.

We have a verdict in the Jose Padilla trial. We're going to get you to Miami.

Kyra, I believe Susan Candiotti is standing by. Let's check in with her.

Susan, tell us about this verdict. Guilty?

CANDIOTTI: Don, guilty on all counts. Jose Padilla, as well as the two other defendants, guilty, guilty of conspiring to carry out a jihad overseas, guilty -- that's a conspiracy. Guilty of conspiring to provide material support, and guilty for providing material support to terrorist organizations overseas.

A huge victory for the Bush administration, who had made this case a centerpiece to prove what it was doing for the war on terror. Remember, he was never charged, Jose Padilla, with being the "dirty bomber". The government saying later on that they didn't want to jeopardize their intelligence sources, so he was never charged with that.

Instead, charged with this particular case in a trial that took three months, three defendants. The jurors sorted it all out in a day and a half, and, boom, we have a verdict. And in an unusual situation, once this verdict -- the verdicts have been read, the judge is inviting any members of the jurors who want to stay behind in a locked courtroom to address members of the news media without a camera, if they wish, to talk about how they reached their verdict.

Back to you.

LEMON: All right. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much.

Guilty. Also for the co-conspirators in this as well, correct?

CANDIOTTI: And Don, yes. We've also learned that the sentencing will be announced on December the 5th.

LEMON: Susan Candiotti in Miami on top of it for us.

Thank you.

PHILLIPS: On the phone with us now, GW University law professor Jonathan Turley.

I know you've been following this as well, Jonathan. I guess we should talk about the implications now.

He's found guilty. This has been an important case for the Bush administration. No doubt very happy about this outcome.

PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Well, I would say they're probably very relieved about the outcome. Remember, they had always intended to treat him as an enemy combatant, and that issue was before the Supreme Court, when they suddenly withdrew their enemy combatant status and added him to this case in Florida.

So he's actually not being charged with the crimes that he was originally arrested for. And it was an effort, many people believe, to make sure they could secure a verdict against Padilla, because they were concerned that he could actually walk.

And the context of all this is that he was held for many years without charge, without access to a lawyer, without access to the courts. That meant that many lawyers believed that he could, in fact, secure his own freedom.

So they put him in this case in the hopes of gaining a conviction, which they did today. And I think it's going to come as a great relief.

The complication is that he has all these issues upon which he can appeal. And so while the conviction was secured, many people are expecting a very robust and compelling appeal from Jose Padilla.

PHILLIPS: You're saying there's all these issues where he can appeal. What do you think would be the strongest issue of the various ones that are out there?

TURLEY: Well, I think that probably the strongest is going to be the conditions of his confinement for all those years, the fact that he was treated very harshly. In fact, his lawyers have argued that he was not competent to stand trial, that the conditions of his confinement were such that he had become mentally incompetent.

The defense attorneys in the trial though took a very high-risk strategy. They decided not to put on any evidence in defense of Padilla.

They essentially rested after the government closed its case, and their argument was the government has simply failed to prove that Padilla was guilty of these -- these charges. So the concern for many defense attorneys about the strategy is that the type of charges they used are very easy to prove.

He was being charged with giving material support to terrorists. And they had in their hands a document that he allegedly filled out while in the al Qaeda training camp, and that's a highly damaging piece of evidence to use against him.

PHILLIPS: George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

We'll talk to you within the next couple hours.

Thanks so much, John.

And we are waiting for attorneys to step up to the mics there in Miami.

If you're just tuning in, accused enemy combatant Jose Padilla found guilty on charges he conspired to kill people in an overseas jihad and conspired to fund and support overseas terrorism.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: And if you've just tuned in word has just come across accused enemy combatant, Jose Padilla, found guilty on charges that he conspired to kill people in an overseas jihad and conspired to fund and support overseas terrorism. The question was, was this a former gang member who just went overseas to study Islam? The court finding him guilty today for conspiring to kill people overseas through Islamic terrorism. We're following it throughout the afternoon.

LEMON: Well, it certainly didn't pack much of a punch, but it left much of Texas soaking, a big chunk of Texas. It ripped ashore this morning just north of Corpus Christi, Texas. You're looking at live radar now. It dumped a ton of rain on places that certainly don't need anymore. One of them, Houston, Texas. Between three and five inches have fallen across that city, and roads in every direction, well, they're under water. Chad Myers, monitoring the floodwaters, too, and the tropical depression that produced both of them.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. And you know what? Houston was nowhere near where the center came onshore. That's the odd part. This storm just kind of fell apart and one of its arms ended up over Houston and now that arm is not moving. There's this flow of moisture off the Gulf of Mexico, kind of an outer band, if you will. Kind of think of about it as that. Although this never really had an eye so it wasn't really a hurricane.

Now I'll tell you what. Erin is going to be the least of our worries at this point. I know Houston, you're in it right now, and the rain continues. Most of it is now getting east of the city. There are still some areas that are still getting slammed. Here's a live shot from one of our affiliates. I haven't seen it, but there it is. KPRC. I don't think that's Houston. I don't think Houston has an ocean. Just guessing. Probably down around Galveston, south of the city. And Galveston, you're finally clearing up.

Now here is the deal. I want you to pay attention to this. Look how small this storm is, how small this storm was, basically an irrelevant little storm, except just that one spot that happened to be right over a very populated area. Winds were only 35 miles per hour.

This storm is Dean. This storm means business. This storm means business to the islands and also into Jamaica, and I have seen some computer models that have this storm at 180 miles an hour not that far between Cuba and the Yucatan peninsula. That means it could make a right-hand turn into the Gulf of Mexico. That comes the beginning of next week. Look at the size of this storm now.

Here are the Virgin Islands. Here is Venezuela. It's that big. It's going to encompass a lot of area. This thing is going to get very mean, very angry, and very strong. Some of the computers now making it a category five. Back to you guys.

LEMON: Wow. That is huge.

MYERS: It is.

LEMON: Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Look at that.

MYERS: I mean look at the size. And it continues to move -- I can show you a track. It continues to move south of the Virgin Islands, but it's going to be right up and south of Havana as a category four. That's the official forecast. But some of the computers have it here as a category five and we know what happened here last time with Rita and all the rest and Katrina. They all start there, and we don't know if it goes left, right or up. So that's going to be a big-time storm for next week. Pay attention.

LEMON: We will be watching that one. I know you will be busy. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome. PHILLIPS: All right. As we take to break, we want you to take a look at the big board quickly. The stock market right now, it looks like the Dow industrial is down 166 points. Susan Lisovicz all over the numbers for us.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

LEMON: Also, charged with flying a little too high.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excuse me. That was my (INAUDIBLE) I.D.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Trust me, you're not going to want to miss this one. Fasten your seat belts. The NEWSROOM will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a flight attendant who was accused of public intoxication and making terrorist threats while working is set for a September court hearing. Sara Mills (ph), an Atlanta-based flight attendant for Atlantic Southeast Airlines was taken off a Delta connection flight and arrested August 5th.

A Tuesday status hearing was delayed after Mill's attorney asked to see the evidence, including surveillance video of Mill's at the airport and the jail. The video shows Mills in a highly agitated state minutes after being brought into the Lexington, Kentucky Police Station. Bound by handcuffs, Mills hurled insults.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA MILLS, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: This is my (INAUDIBLE). Excuse me. That is my (INAUDIBLE) I.D.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Blood tests revealed that Mill's blood alcohol was 0.03 which is under the 0.08 legal limit for driving and the 0.04 limit for flying. Her attorney, Derek Gordon, says that Mills does not believe she violated any laws or workplace rules. She admits drinking alcohol the night before the flight but not within eight hours of reporting for work. Mills is temporarily suspended while the incident is being investigated.

LEMON: When you fly, you may face dangers on the ground. Runway collisions are more common than you might think.

Here is CNN's Jessica Yellin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this near collision, a United Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff and came within 300 feet of crashing into a cargo plane that had just landed. The FAA blamed an air-traffic controller.

Last year, 49 people died in this crash at a Kentucky airport after pilots took off on the wrong runway.

According to the FAA, this year commercial planes have been involved in eight serious runway near-collisions, and in the last few weeks, planes have nearly crashed on runways in Ft. Lauderdale, Philadelphia, and New York. Now, the FAA intends to do something about it.

ROBERT STURGELL, FAA: Even though we have made things safer, we want to do more, and we want to do it quickly.

YELLIN: Among the improvements they agreed to make, add brighter paint to the runways so pilots can see the taxi and landing paths better. Update taxiing guidelines so air-traffic controllers can give pilots more precise directions to the runway. Begin safety reviews of signs and procedures at the airports with the most near misses.

But is this enough? Air-traffic controllers say they don't have nearly enough staff to handle the 62 million takeoffs and landings every year. At times, they say, they're asked to work ten-hour days six days a week leaving them fatigued and more likely to make mistakes. Some of these changes could lead to more delays at the nation's airports, but the FAA is confident the 750 million air travelers a year agree safety has to be their first concern.

Jessica Yellin, CNN, Reagan National Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: He blames a simple electrical switch in his pickup for losing a loved one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said you have to get out of that house. She come a running, and she never made it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ford is denying blame in that case but making a dramatic recall nonetheless. Ahead in the NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: And luxury cars put to the test in side impact tests. Find out which models performed best and worst. Straight ahead on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: BMW's ultimate driving machine may not be so ultimate if someone slams into its side. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been running side impact crash tests on luxury sedans and released these results today. Here they are: worst performer, the 2008 BMW 5 series. Keep in mind these tests are designed to show what would happen if a truck or SUV hits the side of a sedan going at about 31 miles per hour. That's considered a serious crash.

The best performers were the Acura RL, Kia Amanti, and Volvo S- 80. The Cadillac STS and Mercedes E class earned the insurance industry's second highest rating.

PHILLIPS: When Ford recently recalled more than three million cars, trucks, SUVs and vans, the first thing we wondered was what took you so long. That's because two years ago a CNN investigation warned Americans that a part in those very same vehicles was a potential danger. Ford had already recalled several vehicles and in keeping them honest, we wanted to know why they let so many of their vehicles stay on the road until just weeks ago.

Here is our investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a windy night in 2005, 74-year-old Dolly Molus woke up smelling smoke. Weakened by arthritis, she sent her husband Earl to find the source while she called 911. Earl looked in the garage and couldn't believe what he saw. Dolly's 1996 Ford F-150 pickup truck was on fire in the garage attached to their home.

(on camera): This is where you saw flames, huh?

EARL MOLUS: Well, it was more like ...

GRIFFIN: Right there.

MOLUS: The glass was in there yet. She was coming out here, right there. Right there is where she was coming out.

GRIFFIN: You saw the front of that pickup truck burning. That's what you saw.

MOLUS: You bet. She was burning.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Earl opened the garage door to try to get the truck out, about you the wind, approaching 50 miles an hour that night, fanned the flames and they quickly enveloped the house. The fire department in their rural east Iowa town couldn't get there quickly enough. Dolly, on the phone, was suddenly trapped.

MOLUS: It was burning so fast. The wind was blowing 50 miles an hour from the northwest. I says to Dolly, you got to get out of that house. She come a running, and she never made it.

GRIFFIN: What caused the fire? Earl Molus now believes it began inside his wife's pickup truck, under the hood in a tiny switch that was part of the cruise control mechanism. After the fire, he learned Ford had been recalling cruise control switches in other vehicles for years, but he did not know that Fords similar to his wife's pickup truck were catching fire, even when they were turned off and the engine was cold. Two years ago, CNN began airing a series of investigative reports on the Ford cars and trucks suddenly erupting in flames. Our reports exposed what turned out to be a tiny electrical switch in the cruise control system that could burst into flame even hours after the car was turned off.

Ford had begun recalling the parts in some cars and trucks back in 1999, but as we reported two years ago, as many as 3.7 million Ford cars and trucks were still on the road with similar cruise control switches inside. None under the recall.

Earlier this month, a dramatic announcement from Ford. Every single car and truck it built with the switch is being recalled. 3.6 million vehicles on the road will need to have their cruise control wiring replaced or repaired. That brings the total number of recalled vehicles under this issue to more than 10 million.

Keeping them honest, we asked for an interview with Ford about this recall. Ford declined, but a spokesman told us by phone Ford is voluntarily announcing this huge recall in part because Ford could not be confident about the long-term durability of the switches. He also says media reports like CNN's have created fear among Ford owners, and Ford is acting to allay those fears. And the spokesman said the newly-recalled vehicles do not have a higher-than-normal fire incidence.

While fire officials say it is technically accurate to say there were no confirmed increases if fires in the newly-recalled vehicles, the national highway traffic safety administration says it was seeing evidence of elevated fire complaints, and it was sharing that information with Ford when Ford suddenly announced the recall last week.

The official went on to say there was no need for NHTSA to investigate further because Ford took corrective action. NHTSA has documented more than 600 fires since the cruise control switch was first introduced in 1992. Ford continues to insist the fire that killed earl's wife of 34 years started elsewhere in his garage, but this spring Ford settled his wrongful death lawsuit. Neither Molus nor Ford released the terms of that settlement, but the hog farmer said he still cries for his wife, Dolly, every day.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: For more information or to see if your car is affected, you can go to Ford's Web site, Ford.com/recall.

LEMON: Time to lose some weight. Well, you may wind up losing your life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will take my medication because I want to lose an extra pound. It's always what isn't good for your body, but what you want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's a very interesting story. The risk of what is called diabulimia.

PHILLIPS: Let's look at the big board. Dow industrial is down 162 points. We'll have more from the NEWSROOM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Parents take note. The Food and Drug Administration wants to stop giving cold and cough medications to children under the age of 2. Children are suffering serious side effects because they're being given too much of this stuff too often. An FDA advisory committee is set to meet in October to discuss if a warning's enough or if they need to take stronger action.

LEMON: Gambling on their lives. Some diabetes are dropping their medication to drop a few pounds.

CNN's Dan Lothian reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jackie Lyons knew her daughter, J., who suffered from type I diabetes, was very ill. But the real truth about what took her life only came to light after her death in these disturbing diaries.

JACKIE LYONS: Why won't someone explain to me why I cannot take my insulin. I often think it is because I want to eat and stay thin. It is just becoming an awful habit.

LOTHIAN: Jacqueline Walsh, or J.J., had a dark secret, often called diabulimia. The life-saving injections are needed to regulate blood sugar levels.

LYONS: I have lived through five years of comatose death.

LOTHIAN (on camera): Do you think J. understood what was happening and what was driving this?

LYONS: Now that I'm reading her journals, I see that she consciously was taking her insulin improperly to lose weight.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): J.J., an attractive young woman, engaged to be married, began to fade away.

LYONS: Her hair fell out, her skin was very dry, her face was sallow. She didn't look like the same person.

LOTHIAN: After several emergency room visits, J.J. died just one week shy of her 28th birthday.

DR. ANN GOEBEL-FABBRI, JOSLIN DIABETES CENTER: The research we have done here at Joslin shows that 30 percent of women with type I diabetes engage in this behavior at some point in their lifetime for weight management.

LOTHIAN: Thirty-six-year-old Crystal Marshon said she skipped shots and gambled with her life for three years before therapy set her straight.

CRYSTAL MARSHON: I thought about the fact that I was doing damage to my body, but at the time it was more important for me to be a certain weight and to look a certain way.

LOTHIAN: As in J.J.'s case, eventually it can become fatal when toxic acids build up and can't be flushed out. All the warnings don't seem to rattle 30-year-old Christa Pioszak, a wife and mother of a three-year-old who compares her self-destructive actions to that of an alcoholic.

CHRISTA PIOSZAK, TYPE 1 DIABETIC: I'm not going to take my medication because I want to lose an extra pound. It's always what isn't good for your body, but what you do want.

LOTHIAN: Pioszack's husband tried to get her help. She refused.

(on camera): Why wouldn't you do something for your husband who wants you to be healthy and be around for your child to grow up?

PIOSZAK: I don't really have a good reason except for the fact that I just didn't feel that maybe I was strong enough to do that.

GOEBEL-FABBRI: People can rationalize. They say my body is used to this. I'm doing OK.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): She has already suffered the side effects of skipping insulin shots. Damaged blood vessels in her eyes and numbness in her feet.

(on camera): So just part of the foot is numb?

PIOSZAK: My toes for the most part.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): She said her decision to go public is part therapy, part cautionary tale.

PIOSZAK: I would like just to let other people know that there are others going through this.

LOTHIAN: Still, she's not willing to do the right thing.

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