Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Madeleine McCann Case; Steve Fossett Search

Aired September 08, 2007 - 17:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As John Howard accurately noted, when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Did he say Austrian?

BUSH: Austrian troops.

MOOS: He meant Australian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Oops. Let's say it again. Oops. Ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, fresh fodder for anyone tracking the president's every step or in this case, every misstep.

And then, Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of county music and home to a gang unlike any we've seen.

But first, the young girl missing for months. Her parents now named as suspects.

And hello everyone, I'm Tony Harris, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you with us.

The parents of the missing little girl Madeleine McCann reportedly now plan to remain where they are in Portugal. Reports had said that the McCanns were desperate to return to Britain, raising questions as to whether Portuguese authorities would let them. This all comes in the wake of the shocking revelation that police now consider them suspects.

With the latest on the case, live to Portugal now and CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney. Good to see you this evening. So the parents are thought of as suspects, but they haven't been charged with anything. Have they?

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESP0ONDENT: Well, you know, it operates very differently the law here in Portugal to what you might expect in the United States. And how it works is allegedly to protect those who are the suspects.

And so when Gerry and Kate McCann were declared official suspects 24 hours ago, it was in a way to give them more protection. They now have the right to remain silent. They have the right to a lawyer. But it does mean that this case, which is galvanized most of Europe throughout the summer, has now taken a dramatic new twist.

And it all apparently, Tony, is based on forensic evidence that was sent to Britain collected here in Portugal and returned from Britain this week.

And it was at that point that the police called in the McCann parents who are both doctors, both 39 years of age and instead of updating them on what had been taking place and what evidence they now had, the parents found themselves being questioned separately for hours at a time.

And indeed it was after midnight last night, after 13 hours of questioning that Gerry McCann emerged to disclose to his lawyer that he was now also an official suspect like his wife, who had been declared an official suspect earlier.

Now of course, their family and friends have been very supportive around them. And while they themselves, the parents, can't talk to the media anymore because they are suspects, certainly we've been hearing from their family and friends.

And earlier in the day, Kate McCann's mother back in England spoke about how she thought her daughter was holding up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN HEALEY, MOTHER OF KATE MCCANN: (INUAUDIBLE) I think she's been forced into a situation where -- I think - (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: Ludicrous is the word that family and friends of the McCanns have been using. They are actually staying here in the house behind this driveway. We're not expecting them to go to mass tomorrow morning as they usually do because they've been under intense press scrutiny, and they want to break from it.

And as you mentioned, they had been planning to return to England this weekend. They'd always say they'd stay here to continue the search for Madeleine. And Tony, they say that the fact that they've been named as formal suspects distracts from the search for Madeleine, who has not been found either dead or alive. Tony?

HARRIS: And Fionnuala, just a quick question here. We've been following this case for months now. I'm wondering about the -- let's call it what it is, flak that the authorities there are getting for the way they've handled this investigation. Is it ratcheting up a bit?

SWEENEY: It's been ratcheting up in the British press all throughout the summer. There was no quick result to this. One suspect was taken in and he is still an official suspect, but he hasn't been charged.

And basically, the family of the McCanns are now saying that if there is any evidence, the police should reveal it. So the only evidence we've been hearing or have been through leaks from the police themselves here, because the whole case is surrounded in secrecy under Portuguese law, to the Portuguese media.

And we understand from the Portuguese press that what they are hearing is that they believe the McCanns are involved in this to some degree. They're linking that DNA evidence.

But it's not just the Portuguese police who are working on this case. All police leave for Portugal's police in this region was cancelled in August in order to pursue the case. There's been help from the British police as well. They've been over here. And as I mentioned earlier, the forensic evidence that was collected both at the apartment that Madeleine and her family had been staying in and also in the McCanns car was send back to Birmingham, England.

Half of that has come back to Portugal and we're now awaiting the rest of the results. So yes, the Portuguese police have been receiving a lot of flak. But it's been mainly from the British press. The Portuguese press has been very of the Portuguese media so far.

HARRIS: All right, CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney for us. Fionnuala, good to see you, thank you.

Let's bring it back home here for a moment and talk about - well, Jacqui Jeras what do we have here? Sub-tropical, do we have a tropical storm now in Gabrielle?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: President Bush touched down in Hawaii just moments ago, a live picture there. He's scheduled to have dinner with military commanders before heading back to Washington. Now earlier today, the president wrapped up meetings at the Asia/Pacific Summit in Australia. Leaders agreed to a climate change plan that's intended to quote here, "slow, stop and then reverse greenhouse gas emissions."

But thousands of protesters call the voluntary plan far too weak and are demanding more action. Other demonstrators denounced the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

First Lady Laura Bush recovering from outpatient surgery at this hour. She underwent 2.5 hours of procedure at a hospital in Washington to relieve pinched nerves in her neck. The White House calls the minimally invasive surgery a success. Mrs. Bush is now back at the White House. Officials say she spoke to the president after the surgery and is now resting comfortably.

Searchers and loved ones alike are still trying to hold out hope in the hunt for missing aviator Steve Fossett. Fossett hasn't been seen since he took off Monday from a western Nevada airstrip. More than 200 volunteers have joined in aerial and ground searches. CNN's Kara Finnstrom has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 40 aircraft have joined the massive search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett, now on its fifth day.

Shal Irigone (ph), a volunteer pilot with the Civil Air Patrol detailed the difficulty crews are having scouring this rugged Nevada terrain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got a lot of flat land area and then right next to it will be these really tall mountains, 13,000, 14,000, 15,000 feet.

FINNSTROM: And much covered by clumps of trees or sage brush that can easily camouflage a plane. The military, Civil Air Patrol pilots and more than 230 searchers on the ground are now joined by about 20 volunteer pilots in private airport contributed by the Flying M Ranch. That ranch is owned by the Hilton family. Fossett took off from a private airstrip there on Monday.

MAJ. CYNTHIA RYAN, CIVIL AIR PATROL: They did some of their own work based on the knowledge of what Mr. Fossett's habits were. They've done an amazing job in keeping track of just what they've searched, how they searched it.

FINNSTROM: In nearby Reno, balloonists who knew Fossett are taking part in the Great Balloon Race and they say they're not giving up hope.

KOH MURAI, BALLOONIST: It's a serious concern, but if there's a person in the world that had any faith in coming out of it, that would be Steve compared to almost any of us. He's a survivalist and he's got the skills mentally and physically to tough it out, do things that most people would give up on. Steve won't give up.

HARRIS: And Kara Finnstrom joins us live. Good to see you, Kara.

FINNSTROM: Good to see you, Tony. Interesting side development to this story. It's been that the wreckage of six different planes has been found during the search. Now yesterday, they thought one of them could be Fossett's, but they later discovered it wasn't.

They tell us that between 150 and 200 undiscovered plane wreckage sites could be in the Nevada Mountains, and this is just because it's so difficult to find these planes when they go down. So once this search is complete, they say they will identify these planes and try to contact any of the remaining survivors of the pilots who were originally in those planes.

So perhaps some closure for those families will come out of all this. But again today, this still is very much a rescue operation. They still have a lot of hope that they may find Fossett and his plane.

HARRIS: We were saying just the other day, Kara, that they're searching an area the size of the state of Massachusetts, maybe it's even larger now. How long will teams continue to search? Have they set any kind of a time limit? FINNSTROM: They haven't set an end date, but they have told us that they wouldn't be surprised if they were searching for two weeks that pilots have been found at that point still alive.

We're on day five now. The big concern is they're not sure that Fossett had any water or food with him or had very much of it. They say that he may have had one bottle of water, but that he wasn't prepared to be gone for a long period of time. And after a number of days, that can become a big issue.

HARRIS: CNN's Kara Finnstrom for us -- Kara, appreciate it, thank you.

The United States officials saying that the videotape of Osama bin Laden appears to be the real deal, authentic bin Laden. The message that surfaced yesterday is the first new glimpse of the terrorist leader since 2004. It comes days ahead of the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Officials say the message was probably recorded recently. The big question, where? There's no explicit call for attacks against Americans but the al Qaeda leader calls for Americans to embrace Islam. An unnamed official describes the 30-minute message as ranting and raving.

In Italy today, the final farewell to the great Luciano Pavarotti. The opera legend remembered at a funeral service in his Italian hometown. Among those present, Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi, U2's Bono and former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. On Thursday, the world renowned tenor lost his year-long battle with cancer. He was 71-years-old.

Two big names, one big party. We are dishing details on the Barack Obama fundraiser tonight hosted by Oprah Winfrey.

Plus, think Kurdish militias are limited to Iraq? Well, think again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gangs are common in just about every American city usually divided along ethnic lines: black, white, Hispanic, Asian. But here in Nashville, Tennessee, there is a Kurdish gang. Most of the Kurds emigrated here from northern Iraq to escape the oppression of Saddam Hussein. Tonight, we're going to take a ride with an undercover police officer as he tries to stop the violence.

HARRIS: And the top American commander in Iraq goes to Capitol Hill next week to give Congress a long-awaited progress report. But CNN already knows what he'll say. Details ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Oprah Winfrey teaming up with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. No, an Obama-Oprah ticket is not what we're talking about here. Instead, Winfrey is focusing on the finances of the senator's campaign, hosting a fund-raiser at her massive estate in southern California. That garden soiree starts in just about 45 minutes. All 1,500 tickets are sold out at $2,300 a piece. That comes to a little more than $3 million on the guest list. Hollywood heavyweights including Halle Barry and John Travolta.

In other news across American now, a career change for Senator Chuck Hagel. A source close to the Nebraska Republican says he will leave the Senate when his term ends in January of 2009. And a source says Hagel will not run for president next year. The senator is expected to make a formal announcement Monday in Omaha.

Police at the University of Maryland say they may have a hate crime on their hands. They're investigating Friday's discovery of an object that resembled a noose hanging from a tree. University officials just released a statement saying they will not tolerate any racially-motivated harassment or acts of hate.

Here's a look at the latest addition to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Jon Savarino Schillaci is a convicted sex offender, wanted for allegedly assaulting a 5-year-old boy. Soon after his release from prison in 1999, the following year, Schillaci was charged with 23 counts of possessing child pornography.

Former Durham County, North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong is a free man after completing his 24 hour jail sentence. A small contingent of supporters greeted him this morning. Now disbarred, disgraced, Nifong was convicted on one contempt of court for his mishandling of the Duke lacrosse rape case.

And here's to keeping your priorities straight. One of the new Mega Millions winners said that the first thing he wanted to do was upgrade his wardrobe. New Jersey's John Belawsky came forth with his wife Sandra to claim their share of a jackpot pegged at some $330 million. John's been shopping already.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BELAWKY, MEGA MILLIONS WINNER: New pants were the first thing I bought because all my pants were too small for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you play the lottery?

BELAWSKY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do.

BELAWSKY: I'm not a real consistent player. But usually when the pot gets big or bigger, I start playing consistently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, three other winning tickets were sold, including one to a Wiccan minister in Maryland. Winners in Virginia and Texas have yet to come forward.

More deadly violence in Iraq today as the top American commander prepares to tell Congress whether now is the time to change the war strategy. Our military analyst weighs in later in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Also ahead, this woman gave more than just money to kids who wanted an education. She's one of our CNN Heroes.

And you could definitely call it a verbal faux pas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit --- APEC summit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: President Bush arriving now just off of air force one in Hawaii to meet with military commanders after the APEC summit. More on the president's trip coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREKA)

HARRIS: Live pictures now of the president's motorcade. The president just arriving touching down a short time ago, stepping off of Air Force One there in Hawaii. We understand he's staying the night in Hawaii, probably arriving in Washington sometime tomorrow.

Big week in Washington, no doubt for the president. General Petraeus to offer his report to Congress on the Iraq war and the benefits so far, at least, and some of the problems with the surge.

But the president there in Hawaii right now. We'll continue to follow his trip wrapping up the Asia Pacific Summit.

As we begin the school season, imagine if this happened to you. When you started first grade, someone promised graduate from high school and I'll pay for your college education. In Oakland, California, a woman named Oral Lee Brown did just that. How she kept her promise is what makes her today's CNN's Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ORAL LEE BROWN, CNN HERO: These are our kids. We should at least take them to a position in their life that they can lead their way. And they can't do it without an education.

An education can get you everything you want. You can go wherever you want to go. It's the way out of the ghettos, bottom line.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Good morning, Mrs. Oral Brown.

YOLANDA PEEK, FMR. SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: She says, "Give me your first graders who are really struggling and who are most needy. I want to adopt the class. And I want to follow the class until they graduate from high school."

And she says that she was going to pay their college tuitions.

BROWN: How many are going to college?

At the time, I was making I think $45,000, $46,000 a year. So I committed $10,000 to the kids. I grew up in Mississippi. I lived off of $2 a day. That's what we got, $2 a day for picking cotton.

And so I really feel that I was blessed from God. And so I cannot pay him back, but these kids are his kids. These kids are -- some of them are poor like I was.

LAQUITA WHITE, FMR. STUDENT: When you have that mentor like Miss Brown, a very strong person, you can't go wrong, because she's on you constantly every day. "What are you doing? How are you doing?"

BROWN: The world doubted us. I was told that, "Lady, you cannot do it." And I would say, "You know what? These kids are just like any other kid. The only thing, they don't have the love and they don't have the support."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They called me yesterday and told me I was accepted. Good news.

BROWN: You're looking at doctors and lawyers and one president of the United States. When you give a kid an education and they get it up here, nobody or nothing can take it away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: You can go to CNN.com/Heroes to hear more about Oral Lee Brown's remarkable commitment. And while you're there, you can also nominate a hero of your own. Selected winners will be honored during a special live global broadcast on December 6th hosted by our own Anderson Cooper.

And still to come this week, the top U.S. general in Iraq tells Congress if the U.S. should stay the course or start bringing troops home.

And recovering from Hurricane Felix won't be easy for some of the hardest hit victims in remote Central America. CNN goes along with one group trying to help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, just about half past the hour and here's what's happening right now.

Outrage boils and questions mount after Portuguese police named Madeleine McCann's parents suspects in the 4-year-old's disappearance. Family and friends of Kate and Gerry McCann say police should reveal any evidence that supposedly implicates the couple.

Still no sign of missing aviator Steve Fossett who disappeared after taking off from a Nevada air strip on Monday. Teams have expanded the area they're searching from an initial 600 square miles to a 17,000 square-mile grid.

And the Outer Banks of North Carolina are under a tropical storm warning. Take a look at the radar. Satellite imagery there as Gabrielle gains strength off the East Coast. The system is expected to drop a couple of inches of rain before heading out to sea.

Iraqi police opened fire on a suicide car bomber who was apparently targeting them. Iraqi ministry officials say it happened outside a police station in Sadr City.

Officials believe the bomber was trying to drive the vehicle into the police precinct, but detonated his explosives officers began shooting at him. Twelve people were killed, dozens more wounded. Sadr City, as you know, is a predominantly Shiite-dominated slum just outside of the Iraqi capital.

Well today's bombing may underscore what we're hearing prior to Monday's meeting between President Bush and his top military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. Bottom line, don't expect any significant changes in the U.S. war strategy.

The latest now from CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned that when General Petraeus meets with President Bush and reports to Congress, we'll recommend maintaining the current higher U.S. troop levels in Iraq until spring, when the surge will begin to be phased out.

Officials familiar with the thinking of the top commander strongly dispute published reports in the New York Times and Washington Post, suggesting General Petraeus would be OK with pulling back or pulling out one brigade, roughly 4,000 troops in a nod to critics in Congress.

That's nonsense, one military official told CNN, insisting Petraeus believes at this crucial time, every brigade is important.

In an April interview with CNN, General Petraeus promised, as he has many times, to give the unvarnished truth about the prospects for success.

(on camera): If in September you think this surge strategy is not working, are you going to tell that to the president and presumably the Congress?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: Not only will I be able to, Ambassador Crocker and I will do that. We have an obligation to the young men and women who are out there giving their all to do just that.

MCINTYRE (voice-over)): Some of the general's thinking is revealed in a letter he sent to all U.S. troops in Iraq on the eve of his congressional testimony. In it he acknowledges while the security improvements have been dramatic in some areas, such as Ramadi and Anbar Province, overall progress has been uneven. And the Iraqis have not used the breathing space to embrace reconciliation. He concedes, "It has not worked out as well as we had hoped. We are a long way from the goal line. It's clearly taking more time than we initially expected."

(on camera): Ultimately, it will be up to President Bush to decide if he should order a brigade home before the surge is scheduled to end. But if he does, sources tell CNN it will not be on the recommendation of General Petraeus.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN military analyst Major General Don Shepherd joins us live with more on Monday's military talks.

Don, great to see you.

GEN. DON SHEPHERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: What are you expecting to hear from General Petraeus in his testimony on Monday?

SHEPHERD: I'll tell you, I think Jamie's report is right on. I was part of a small group that met with General Petraeus about three days before he left for the surge, and we asked the same question that Jamie McIntyre asked, if you think it's not working, are you going to blow the whistle? And he was very thoughtful and said yes, I will. But I cannot imagine him, with where he is right now, what we're hearing about the success of the surge, the success in Anbar, and even progress in other areas, I can't imagine him recommending troop draw down, although it could happen because it's the president's decision -- Tony?

HARRIS: Don, come on. Isn't General Petraeus more a politician than a general now? Isn't he going to follow the marching orders as dictated by the commander in chief? He was never going to come back and say it's not working, we need to pull back. You never expected that, did you?

SHEPHERD: I'll tell you, if anybody would do it, Dave Petraeus would. I absolutely have a great deal of confidence and he is a great soldier, a great mind. Of course, politics are enmeshed in everything that the military is doing. But I believe that if Dave Petraeus thought he was wasting the lives of American kids, he would blow the whistle. But, again, he would do it responsibly. He wouldn't come back and say we're all messed up. He would say in a way that says, look, we need to work out way out. We've done all we can. I don't think that's what we're going to hear.

HARRIS: You're a smart guy and we love your guidance in all of these areas. Has the surge worked?

SHEPHERD: Partially. It's no secret that when you put more troops in, violence is going to diminish in the area where the troops are and they're going to go somewhere else. That's what has happened. At the same time, with the number of troops available to General Petraeus, he's been able to pursue those in other areas. So it has worked.

But it has not -- the major part of the surge has been in Baghdad and hasn't worked all over Baghdad because a lot of the surge has to do with sectarian violence and that's different than fighting al Qaeda. So it's a mixed picture wherever you look. But if you keep the troops longer it's going to help the Iraqis come up to speed, and it's going to be better the longer you can keep them. If you take them out, it's going to slip backwards. No secrets about that, Tony.

HARRIS: How long? Do you have a thought on how long, if at some point -- the surge has to end in April, unless you're going to extend the deployments? So doesn't Iraq, Baghdad revert back in May?

SHEPHERD: It may, depending on how far up to speed the Iraqi security forces are. There's another report out there, in addition to General Petraeus, General Jones' report. He went over there with a group of 20 former retired uniformed officers and also police chiefs and they basically came back and said, look, the Iraqi security forces are getting better. They're doing well in some areas. But it's going to take 12 to 18 months. Even then they won't be able to carry out independent operations. They're going to need our help for a long time.

This is a political question, not a military question. The more troops you keep, the better things will be. But will the politics of America permit it in a presidential election year? That's the tough question, Tony.

HARRIS: There you go. Way to capsulize. Don, great to see you. Thanks for your time this evening.

SHEPHERD: You bet.

HARRIS: Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," ever said something and wished you could take it back? President Bush may have been feeling like that after a memorable speech in Australia. Hear what he said and what he meant to say coming up later in the "NEWSROOM."

Plus this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Gangs are common in just about every American city, usually divided along ethnic lines -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian. But here in Nashville, Tennessee, there is a Kurdish gang. Most of the Kurds emigrated here from northern Iraq to escape the oppression of Saddam Hussein. Tonight, we'll take a ride with an undercover police officer as he tries to stop the violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, HOST, "THIS WEEK AT WAR": Once again, terrorists threaten U.S. citizens in Europe. What is being done? And the future of U.S. troops in Iraq could be decided in the next few days. A complete preview of General Petraeus' report on "This Week at War."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: ... a classic American dinner, everyone sitting down at the same time every night. Today, it's not so common. But the Lee family makes sure it's a priority. Crystal and Wayne both work but manage to have dinner with their daughter Erin. Their strategy -- prepare meals ahead of time, freeze them and reheat during the week.

CRYSTAL LEE, ERIN'S MOM: If I had to prepare a meal, we would probably not eat until 6:30. And then Erin has homework.

GUPTA: Erin's glad for the home cooking.

ERIN LEE, STUDENT: Sometimes the stuff that you eat every single day at restaurants are greasy, first of all, and they're salty.

GUPTA: And they're eating better foods.

WAYNE LEE, ERIN'S DAD: We try to select foods that are lower in fat and high in fiber.

GUPTA: University of Minnesota researchers questioned 1,700 high school students on their eating habits and found those who ate with their families had more fruits and vegetables, fewer sodas and most sat down for breakfast. More importantly, they discovered that the same teens discovered those lifestyles who adulthood.

NICOLE LARSON, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Those teenagers, who ate with their families, several more times a week when they were in high school, had almost a full serving more of fruits and vegetables when they were young adults.

GUPTA: For family whose can't always eat together, nutritionists say a couple of family meals, even on weekends, can help young people develop better eating habits.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Here's a question for you, are Kurdish gangs marking new territory, not in northern Iraq, where you might expect them, but in this country? We go to Nashville, the home of country music, and one of the largest Kurdish communities in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 10:00 p.m, on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. We're with detective Mark Anderson on the lookout. MARK ANDERSON, DETECTIVE, NASHVILLE TENNESSEE: We're going in behind those cars.

DORNIN: He's looking for members of a one of a kind gang in the U.S. It's called the Kurdish Pride Gang, or KPG.

Nashville is home to about 8,000 Kurds, the largest Kurdish community in the U.S. Most are from northern Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Many came here years ago to escape persecution by Saddam Hussein, who killed thousands of Kurds during his regime.

Gangs emerge in nearly every immigrant community, a show of bravado. Atho Nashad (ph) tells the world he's a member. On his My Space Page, he calls himself Kurdish Pride Gangsta. Now jailed, Nashad (ph), his brother Ocko (ph) and three others are accused of a conspiracy to kill a rival drug dealer and attempted murder of a police officer who interrupted the alleged hit. They pleaded not guilty.

But some wonder if the violent roots of the homeland foster a gang mentality.

No way, says Kamaran Abdullah. He emigrated from Iraq eight years ago but says it doesn't make sense because most gang members were born in the U.S.

That may be part of the problem. Many have one foot in a culture thousands of years old, another in one that glorifies sex, drugs and rap.

KAMARAN ABDULLAH, KURD-AMERICAN: They are alienated. They are outside of the circle, so they create this group, eventually they call it Kurdish Pride Gang.

DORNIN (on camera): So you find them in this park, right?

ABDULLAH: Yes.

DORNIN (voice-over): But Mark Anderson says these kids don't fit the profile of the disenfranchised from poor neighborhoods.

ANDERSON: They usually come from two-parent homes. They come from middle class families. They come from a strong work ethic. Strong religious beliefs, strong education.

DORNIN (on camera): So why are they joining gangs?

ANDERSON: I feel like they've become too Americanized.

DORNIN (voice-over): Aram Torabian could fit a poster for all things American. Here only seven years, Torabian had no interest in the gang. His parents were jailed in Iran for their political views.

ARAM TORABIAN, KURDISH AMERICAN YOUTH ORGANIZATION: I came here from the same or even more violent than I've seen in my life and I did not join. DORNIN (voice-over): Federal investigators are also keeping an eye on the KPG. Most nights, an ATF agent rides with Anderson. Often they comb the Internet for self-professed gang members. Tonight, the gang is elusive.

(on camera): Tonight, we didn't get close to any KPG members?

ANDERSON: No, we didn't. We did see some, but we didn't want to approach them.

DORNIN (voice-over): Kirmanj Gundi teaches at the local college and worries about his own son joining the gang.

(on camera): Does the Kurdish community feel responsible for trying to stop this from happening?

KIRMANJ GUNDI, TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY: Absolutely. It's our responsibility. It's our problem.

DORNIN (voice-over): A problem that has created community activists, like Nawzad Hawrami, who went into the park to convince gang members...

NAWZAD HAWRAMI, SALAHADEEN CENTER OF NASHVILLE: To quit these kinds of groups, to dissolve these groups.

DORNIN (voice-over): This group shows no signs of giving up the outlaw mentality.

(on camera): As with many immigrants, blending the old ways with the new is often difficult. But the Kurdish community here in Nashville is very tight nit and many here hope that they can bring the members of the Kurdish Pride Gang back into the fold.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Nashville, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Still to come in the "CNN NEWSROOM," flooding in the heartland thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Henriette. We'll check back in with Jacqui Jeras in a couple of moments to see when the folks of Oklahoma will get a break from all of that rain.

And the cleanup continues from another hurricane. We're talking about Felix this time. We go to a remote corner of the world where U.S. troops are delivering emergency supplies to thousands.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: In Oklahoma, more of what that state does not need, rain and a lot of it. Downpours are forecast for tonight and flash flooding is a real threat again. The streets of Tulsa already inundated with water after heavy rains overnight, all being blamed on the remnants of Hurricane Henriette, colliding with a cold front, and the other big weather worry, Tropical Storm Gabrielle. Right now, it is headed for the southeastern coast.

Tracking the storm from CNN's Hurricane Headquarters, Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, this storm was supposed to keep tracking east. And then it decided to back up. You just can't trust those steering currents, can you?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Gabrielle has been all over the place. Is it going to happen, is it not going to happen, is it going to hit us? So it's been kind of -- we've almost been placing bets in the Weather Center. But we have a good handle on that storm now and the good news is it's going to be a little on the weak side hopefully, and maybe it will bring in beneficial rain.

This rain not beneficial, this is not what these folks want to see. A system all summer long right in this I-44 corridor, the rain starting to push to the south and east of there, but heavy across southern parts of Arkansas, coming down at about an inch or two an hour.

Here's the area, from Tulsa towards Joplin, they had all the flooding rains overnight and in the early morning hours, between five to seven inches of rainfall.

And look at this, flash flood watches in effect now because more rain is possible. As our frontal system not moving all that fast, pushing off towards the south and to the east. So this is going to be an issue throughout the rest of the weekend unfortunately.

Here we can see our forecast rainfall totals for the next 24 hours. How much more are we going to be expecting? Not a whole heck of a lot. We're going to be seeing lighter amounts around an inch or less. When we see some of these goes up towards the Ohio River, that's a good two, three plus inches of rainfall. That's not what we want to see.

Also heavy rain expected in the lower Great Lakes and across Indiana and northern Ohio. Some of those storms could be on the strong side, possibly severe. You can see our highlighted area along with this front.

One thing this front is going to be doing is be the steering mechanism for Gabrielle eventually. This is what's going to start pulling Gabrielle away from the coastline. It's high pressure pulling it in near the coast and the showers and thunderstorms still several hours away. We think you'll feel the impacts of this in the overnight hours. Breezy out there right now, winds in the teens in terms of miles per hour. We'll expect to see some gusts around 50, 60 miles per hour in the Outer Banks about this time tomorrow almost, Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Glad you're watching it for us. Jacqui Jeras in the Severe Weather Center for us.

In the meantime, emergency relief is pouring into isolated areas of Nicaragua hit hard my Hurricane Felix. Harris Whitbeck flew with a U.S. relief mission into a remote Miskito community on the coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Swarming around an aid helicopter, residents on the coast clammer for bottled water and much-needed food.

Supplies are flown in by the U.S. military. In some cases, the first aid deliveries since Hurricane Felix smashed into this remote part of Nicaragua last Monday.

The food is military issue MREs, Meals Ready to Eat. It is a concept not understood by these Miskito Indians, many of whom only speak a local dialect. And who have lived in isolation for centuries.

(on camera): I'm showing him how to use this because I don't want them to think they can eat the heating element. You know, these MREs are great if you know how to use them. If they're just thrown at these people, you have to show them how to use it. We learned how to use them when we were embedded and stuff. I'll show them to make sure they don't get into trouble.

(voice-over): Not only do the people of Sandy Bay worry about how to feed themselves, they are anxious about some still missing in the aftermath of Felix. Like most of the men in this village, Joni (ph) and his cousin, Marisio (ph), are fishermen. On the day of the storm they were lucky, they had finished catching lobster and returned to port before Felix hit. But they are worried about their teenage cousin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): I worry about my family. He's only 16. He went out fishing with a group of 20 boats and none of them have been heard from.

WHITBECK: The memories of the horror of that morning are still fresh. Local people say some 300 men of this town of just 1,000 are still missing. Other estimates are lower, but virtually all of the buildings here, many of them rudimentary shacks, were destroyed.

And while emergency aid is now arriving for these desperate people, their future remains clouded in uncertainty.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Nicaragua.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Still to come in the "NEWSROOM," President Bush having a bad moment with the whole world watching. The slip of the tongue he made before wrapping up his trip to Australia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's sort this out a little bit. When you misspeak, it can be a little embarrassing. You laugh about it and move on, right? If I misspeak, it's on YouTube. We laugh about it and we move on. But when President Bush makes the gaffe, the world is watching and recording every detail.

With more now on the president's latest bit of verbal gymnastics, shall we say, here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a bad day when the president seems to say "What summit am I at?" Prime minister of Australia preceded President Bush to the podium.

JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: As it states here on the podium -- but I don't think it's for me.

MOOS: No, it's for him. And his first gaff came only three sentences into the speech.

BUSH: Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit. I appreciate -- APEC summit, excuse me.

MOOS: APEC may have been written behind him and in front of him, but he had OPEC on his tongue. OPEC is a group of oil-producing countries. APEC stands for Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation.

BUSH: He invited me to the OPEC summit next year.

MOOS: But what's a little one-letter off mistake. The next one was two letters. The president referred to the Australian prime minister's visit to Iraq.

BUSH: As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year...

MOOS: Did he say Austrian?

BUSH: The Austrian troops there last year.

MOOS: He meant Australian. What's 10,000 miles off between friends?

(on camera): Coming this fall, the sixth -- and say it ain't so -- final edition of George Bush's "The Ultimate Bushisms." Probably too late to include the OPEC-APEC slip up. But who doesn't misspeak? Take the guys introducing the latest presidential candidate, Fred Thompson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Fred Roberts from Tennessee.

MOOS: Fred Thompson didn't bat an eye over Fred Roberts.

Back in Australia:

BUSH: God bless.

MOOS: President Bush laughed up his summit speech, then tried to exit the wrong way, until the Prime Minister called him back.

(on camera): At least it wasn't as bad as the locked door thwarted exit a couple of years ago in Beijing.

BUSH: I was trying to escape.

MOOS (voice-over): But there's no escaping the unblinking, unkind eye of the press. We're already panicking at the thought of loosing our lame duck linguist-in-chief.

BUSH: Terriers embarrass everywhere -- hold this nation hostile -- Subliminal messages.

MOOS: Presidential homework before attending next year's summit, repeat three times, without saying OPEC.

BUSH: The APEC summit -- the APEC summit -- the APEC summit.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. And from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris. "Lou Dobbs this Week" starts right now.

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