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General Petraeus in Front of Senate Today; Remembering 9/11; Woman Brutally Beaten in New York State

Aired September 11, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First up, severe weather bearing down this hour on New York City.
(WEATHER REPORT)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Along with those heaven's tears, bagpipes and bells. A slow procession, a reading of names, flowers in a reflecting pool and also, silence. This is how New York City honored victims of 9/11. The ceremony was held outside Ground Zero. For the first time former mayor Rudolph Giuliani talked about the day that put him on a national stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: On this day six years ago, and on the days that followed, in the midst of our great grief and turmoil, we also witnessed uncompromising strength and resilience as a people. It was a day with no answers but with an unending line of those who came forward to try to help one another.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg, led that ceremony. Family members and friends read the names of the victims.

PHILLIPS: At the Pentagon where defense secretary Robert Gates helped lay a wreath, the ceremony began at 9:37 a.m. Six years to the minute after American flight 77 crashed into that building, killing 184 people. It was an emotional day, even for a general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We cannot touch our loved ones today. Those who are lost. Therefore, we ask God to hug them for us. That they might know that we love them and we miss them and we will serve this nation in their honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Across the Potomac, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other officials gathered on the White House lawn for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. That's when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

LEMON: Dozens of people gathered near Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the victims of United flight 93. 40 passengers and crew died when that plane crashed into a field. The passengers famously ensuring the hijackers would not hit their target. The homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, I should say, spoke at that ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: Some people ask the question do we have 9/11 fatigue? Has the time come to move on? I will tell you that as long as I draw a breath, I will not move on and neither will the 208,000 people in my department or anybody else who is serving at every level of government protecting the people in this country.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also this morning, the New York Stock Exchange went quiet for a moment out of respect for the victims. It closed for several days after the attacks.

PHILLIPS: U.S. troops overseas remembered 9/11 their own way. At a service at Camp Victory in Baghdad. Soldiers paused before the equipment of a New York firefighter. Taps, salutes, spout heads that marked the services in Afghanistan. Afghan flags flew at half-staff alongside lowered American flags.

LEMON: Medical technology has come a long way since September 11, 2001. A new way to get DNA has helped put a name on a set of remains and given a family some sense of peace. CNN's Allan Chernoff has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carrie Lemack, daughter of a 9/11 victim got startling news a few months ago. A portion of her mother's remains had finally been identified.

CARRIE LEMACK, DAUGHTER OF 9/11 VICTIM: We were shocked. It is not -- we hadn't woken up that morning and expected to hear that they found mom.

CHERNOFF: Carrie's mom, Judy Larock, was a passenger on the American Airlines flight that crashed into the World Trade Center. Investigators have identified Judy's left foot by extracting DNA from her bone.

(on camera): Did it bring any sense of closure?

LEMACK: No. I don't think we would ever use "closure" to describe it. I think it brought some sense of being able to do something for mom to bring her home and taking that journey and bringing her back to Boston was really important to us.

CHERNOFF: Did you feel then that at least you were back with her?

LEMACK: A little bit, yes. To be able to hold a part of her felt really complete. I felt like I could be near her again.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Judy Lemack's remains were uncovered at Ground Zero only weeks after the terror attack. But only recently could they be identified. Thanks to a new DNA extraction technique developed here in Virginia at Bodie, Technology. A process that didn't even exist on September 11th, 2001.

Here in two freezers at the biotech firm lie small bone fragment from trade center victims. DNA analyst Steve Weitz has the job of retrieving their genetic code. The need to create powder from the bone by using a blender or a drill. He then adds chemicals that pull calcium from the bone and break down cells so the DNA can be filtered out. It is work that is grisly but Weitz says rewarding.

STEVE WEITZ, DNA ANALYST, BODE TECH GROUP: If you remember what you are working for it makes it easy to keep going.

CHERNOFF (on camera): It's gratifying.

WEITZ: Very much so.

CHERNOFF: In the past year and a half, Bodey's new DNA extraction technique identified 12 additional trade center victims, including Judy Lemack. Significant considering that 40 percent of those who perished at Ground Zero, 1,133 people have never had any remains identified.

CARRIE LEMACK: The people who are doing the DNA identification are heroes in their own right in a sense that they are helping bring home to people parts of their loved ones that otherwise they would never get to have.

CHERNOFF: Allan Chernoff, CNN, Lorton, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A new name was read today from the list of 9/11 victims in New York, but the family of Felicia Dunn Jones says her name should never have been on that list because she should be alive today. We'll talk to her husband in just a few minutes.

PHILLIPS: On Capitol Hill day two of hearings on the surge in Iraq. Today the actions shift to the senate. General David Petraeus, top U.S. commander in Iraq, is appearing before the foreign relations committee. His message, the same as he delivered to a joint house committee yesterday. Political goals have not been met but military progress is undeniable and drawing down forces now which sacrifice gains and jeopardize Iraq. Many committee members aren't buying, including several senior Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK, HAGEL We're going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we are doing now? For what? The president said let's buy time. Time for what? Every report I have seen -- I assume both you agree with this. There has been really very little, if any, political process that's the ultimate core issue, political reconciliation in Iraq.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: For more on the hearing, love from Capitol Hill our own Jessica Yellin. Jessica?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, today far more stinging questions for General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Not just from Democrats but from Republicans as we just heard Senator Chuck Hagel there with a biting question for the general. And also the top Republican on this committee, Senator Richard Lugar had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR, (R) INDIANA: The surge must not be an excuse for failure to prepare for the next phase of our involvement, whether that is a partial withdrawal, a gradual redeployment, or some other option. We saw in 2003 after the initial invasion of Iraq disastrous results of failing to plan out (INAUDIBLE) for contingencies.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: That's significant because moderate Republicans are the key if Democrats want to win a vote on a drawdown in Iraq. Also today, we heard far less rosy words from Ambassador Ryan Crocker when he was describing the Iraqi government. He suggested that there is less political progress in Iraq than they had hoped to see from the surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: It is no exaggeration to say that Iraq is and will remain for some time a traumatized society. There is an enormous amount of dysfunctionality in Iraq. That is beyond question. The government in many respects is dysfunctional and members of the government know it.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So the big question now is where does this all leave us? Well, Democrats will wait to see whether what the Republicans have heard from the ambassador and the general today is disappointing enough that some Republicans will choose to join Democrats in a vote to draw down troops. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll keep listening in. Jessica Yellin, thanks so much.

LEMON: Mary Winkler served her time for killing her husband and Oprah Winfrey went to Tennessee to talk to her, but will anyone ever see the interview on TV? A judge may have to decide.

PHILLIPS: Plus, tortured. Police say what went on in this trailer for a week may have been fueled by racism.

LEMON: And later, their names aren't being read today but they, too, are victims of 9/11, suffering with PTSD. A look at this very real medical problem. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: 1:15 eastern time, here are three of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM right now. A helicopter crashes into the Gulf of Mexico near Sarasota, Florida. Two people are killed, one seriously hurt. People on the chopper reportedly work for a boat magazine and they were doing a photo shoot when it crashed.

If the charges are true, what happened in this West Virginia home is the stuff of horror movies. Six people, all white, accused of kidnapping a black woman, sexually assaulting her and torturing her for at least a week. A tip led authorities to her. The suspects could face hate crime charges among many other charges.

Here is something you don't see every day. Americans in North Korea. An international delegation of nuclear experts arrived in Pyongyang today to figure out ways to dispose of the north's nuclear facilities.

LEMON: Remembering 9/11. Six years later, the pain is still fresh for many who lost loved ones. CNN's Richard Roth has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you got to see the twin towers before they came down?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The calmness of the tour guide hides her grief. On 9/11, Dorry Tooker lost her son, a New York fireman, at what became known as Ground Zero. She sees it on every tour offered to tourists who have made the site a must stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an event that changed the course of humanity.

ROTH: Every 9/11 anniversary brings reflection and by now, familiar rituals. The ceremony.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott Larson.

ROTH: The reading of names. And perhaps on this year's sixth anniversary, a sense of 9/11 fatigue. "The New York Times" asked on page one, how much tribute is enough?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think if you lost somebody, is there really enough grief? Do you think there's enough grief? Come on, it is horrible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think at this point, frankly, it's enough. I think that we ought to move on.

DORRY TOOKER, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: Oh I hear that all the time. I just want to punch them because you can't stop. Remember, the words that are "never forget"? Well there are a lot of people that say we have already forgotten. You just want to shake them and say how can you forget? That was my son.

ROTH: Psychologist Alan Goodwin who helped those suffering after 9/11 think family members' grief should not be minimized. But believes it is healthier for all to end what he termed the public spectacles.

ALAN GOODWIN, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST: It is becoming -- I'm going to get myself in trouble, but this is becoming a Macy's Parade. I think it -- people have to move on. That's the bottom line.

ROTH: Some families report relatives are trying to put some distance from 9/11. The World Trade Center family center survey of relatives of victims found a 19 percent drop of those reporting strong support from loved ones.

MINA BARRETT, PSYCHOLOGIST: They report to us that people are saying I don't understand why can't you just get on with it. But they aren't ready. Many of them are not ready.

ROTH: And neither is much of New York. A plan by one local TV station to broadcast only the first hour of the 9/11 ceremonies was canceled after protests by families and viewers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should tell you that eyewitness news has decided to expand its coverage of the September 11th ceremonies.

ROTH: When to stop is an individual decision, says a fire chief who was in the south tower that day.

CHIEF JAY JONES, NEW YORK FIRE DEPT.: I think you can do both. You know, you can move on. You can live your life, but September 11th, everybody in this country should stop and pause.

TOOKER: That was history. He loved going to a fire. He lived and breathed it.

ROTH: Richard Roth, CNN, New York.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: CNN decided to ask what you think about the 9/11 remembrances. Our cnn.com quick vote question is this, "Is it time to scale back the large annual observances on the anniversaries? So far, the response is 50/50. Go to cnn.com to cast your vote.

PHILLIPS: It is the kind of interview you expect to see on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" the first week of a new season. Mary Winkler, preacher's wife, convicted killer. But will a judge block Oprah viewers from hearing her story? We'll tell you about it straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Now more of your money is going toward health care and that's something that could really make you sick. Susan Lisovicz, at the New York Stock Exchange with the details on that. Hi Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ: Hi Kyra, well a new report shows health care premiums rose more than 6 percent this year. The increase higher than the rise in both wages and inflation overall. And as those numbers add up over the years, we can really see how dramatic the change has been. Since 2001, health care premiums are up 78 percent. During the same period wages went up only 19 percent. In other words, we're spending much more on health care premiums. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Well it sounds like health care could bankrupt us.

LISOVICZ: That's literally the case Kyra. When you look at personal bankruptcies, nothing matches health care because it's number one. But one silver lining from this report is that this year's increase shows the lowest growth rate in eight years and the fourth straight year of slowing growth in premium costs.

But health care, of course, will continue to be a big problem for companies and their workers. In fact the Detroit automakers and the United Autoworkers are embroiled in some tough negotiations right now and health care is at the heart of it. They face a Friday deadline because that's when the current contract expires. While they are expected to struggle to meet that deadline, a strike not considered likely. That's good news.

Turning to Wall Street on September 11th, we are seeing some nice gains despite a report from the National Association of Realtors which shows the housing market will continue to struggle through all of next year. OPEC officials meeting in Vienna have agreed to boost oil production by a half million barrels per day. Oil prices are flat today but still above $77 a barrel. About less than $1.50 from the all-time closing high.

Right now, the Dow industrials are up 117 points or 1 percent. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 each up about 1 percent as well. Shares of McDonald's gaining 4 percent on strong sales especially overseas. Fast food restaurants often considered recession-proof stocks. For those who work on Wall Street, the 9/11 attacks quite literally hit home. The next hour of NEWSROOM, the financial world, six years later. Kyra and Don, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right Susan, thanks so much.

LEMON: We have some developing news to tell you about. Let's get to the straight to the NEWSROOM. I think it involves Steve Fossett, the search for him. T.J. Holmes, what do you have?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah Don, that search continues out in Nevada for Steve Fossett, the adventurer. He has been missing now since Labor Day. Of course, you know this story by now, took off in his plane and hasn't been heard from since. The search continues out there. The civil air patrol official folks participating in this search.

But of course, a big part of this search has been folks can set up at their homes because of technology on the internet that allows them to with the Google search and the maps, they can zoom in on this rugged terrain. They're trying to help so we have been getting updates day in and day out. About 1:00, a press conference happens around that time.

We're getting another update. Some of it happened to do with some of those computer and Google generated tips. And they go through each and every one of them and go through some of the best but there have been a lot of false sightings of the plane. It's kind of a good thing and a bad thing that people are able to participate in this way.

And also, this has been going on now for about a week, this search. A lot of resources towards it. Cynthia Ryan, who is with the civil air patrol out there, got a question in the press conference a short time ago about possibly scaling back or ending the search. This is how she answered that question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. CYNTHIA RYAN, CIVIL AIR PATROL: (INAUDIBLE) I suppose we would scale back to some extent. But what that extent is, I can't speak to it. We are not in the habit of walking away from searches.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Again, not walking away from searches, but a few more weeks. But not something they are considering right now. And again, Don, it has been an interesting part that people can actually help. They can sit at their home and with this Google map technology scan that rugged terrain out there. And they're trying to help in the search, but it gives people a lot more of --the official rescuers a lot more information to go through, a lot of false leads. Some debate about whether it's really helping or hurting in this search. But still, it has been since Labor Day now, been a full week and still no word, Steve Fossett, but that search continues. Don?

LEMON: Yeah, every day, not good news if they don't find him. Thank you very much. T.J., we're also going to talk about, a little bit later on in the show, some of the other crash sites they have been finding there. This has led them to find other crash sites and other victims as well. An interesting development coming out of the story. We're going to talk about it straight ahead right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Also just in right now, a ruling on a very interesting angle in the Mary Winkler story. She is scheduled to appear tomorrow on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" to talk about killing her minister husband with a shotgun. But her late husband's parents have gone to court to try to stop her. CNN's Susan Candiotti live in Miami with the latest. What's happened Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi Kyra. This is all part of the grandparents' battle. Custody battle to try to prevent Mary Winkler from getting back her three daughters. Just a little while ago, the Winklers' grandparents lost a battle to try to prevent Mary Winkler from appearing on Oprah's show tomorrow. That's because the judge refused to grant a restraining order or a gag order to stop Mary Winkler from appearing on "Oprah." The talk show host landed an exclusive interview with Mary Winkler that she actually taped two -- about 12 days ago.

And you remember that Mary Winkler just spent seven months in jail after being convicted of manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of her preacher husband. The Winklers wanted to squelch that interview Mary did with Oprah. Oprah has been promoting that exclusive interview as part of her brand new season that started on Monday. Oprah says that Mary Winkler will reveal details of the day that she shot her husband. Here is part of what Mary Winkler had to say during the trial about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY WINKLER: Matthew was ranting and raving about something and he knocked something over. And I bent down to pick it up and he kicked me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He kicked you?

WINKLER: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he kick you?

WINKLER: In my face.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Winkler said during the trial that she was sexually humiliated and physically abused by her husband over the course of several years during their marriage. She also said that her husband at one point made her dress up in a wig and high heels before they had sex.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINKLER: Matthew wanted me to wear it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean he wanted you to wear it, Mary?

WINKLER: Liked me to dress up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dress up?

WINKLER: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dress up for what purpose, Mary?

WINKLER: Sex. (END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now Winklers' lawyers tell me that the reason that Mary Winkler is doing interviews now is that she wants to try to educate the public about domestic abuse and to tell other women that if they are being abused, that they should seek help, something that she did not do. Of course Kyra, we have put out a call to the "Oprah Winfrey Show," they have not yet gotten back to us.

PHILLILPS: It is hard to watch that and it's hard to listen to her. Have you seen an impact by following this story, Susan, other women coming forward, wanting to talk about abuse?

CANDIOTTI: Well, in fact, the lawyers told me both of them did yesterday, that they are constantly stopped on the street by women they said who come up and say the same thing happened to me. I wish I had gone for help. Et cetera, et cetera. So, they say they are getting that kind of feedback.

PHILLIPS: Susan Candiotti, thanks.

LEMON: An elderly woman brutally beaten at her home. Two young mothers accused. Police say they went shopping with blood still on their clothes. We'll tell you about it straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Live picture now on Capitol Hill. General David Petraeus taking his case for the surge in Iraq to the Senate. He's now before the Foreign Relations Committee. One day after making his case before the House. Petraeus conceded again the political goals of the surge may not have been met but he says military gains are undeniable.

Joining us from our Iraq fact check desk, say that three times, in Washington our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre. I'm so used to tossing to you at the Pentagon, Jamie. So, this is a new role here. By the way, been very interesting.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. Sitting around with all the folks that put together the show, "The Week At War" we have been pouring over transcripts documents, trying to keep everything in perspective. The question we're looking at this hour has been a big point of controversy in the last two days, which is, is the level of violence really down in Iraq?

Or, is the U.S. military counting in such a way makes it look better than it really is? Part of the controversy is fuelled by this contention. Reported and repeated again today in the Washington Post which quotes, " One senior intelligence official in Washington noting that Iraqis fatally shot through the back of the head are considered victims of sectarian attacks, while those shot in the front are deemed victims of ordinary crime."

Is that holding down the numbers on sectarian violence. Now, General David Petraeus denied that there was such a standard, and said he had never heard of that standard. And that they -- they use very solid methodology. Here is what he said today in defending his numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, CMDR. MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ: Two U.S. intelligence agencies recently reviewed our methodology and concluded that the data we produced is the most accurate and authoritative in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Kyra, remember when we talk about ethno sectarian violence we're talking about violence that's fueled by hatred, either religious hatred or ethnic hatred. And so, it is sometimes very hard to figure out why a murder is committed. That's one of things they tend to look at. Was somebody killed execution style. It is also a question of how you slice these numbers.

Let's take a look. These are General Petraeus' own charts. He brought out at today's hearing and yesterday's hearing. Here is the one for ethno sectarian deaths. You can see they are down. You can see they are down from the point in January. Right about when the surge starts. Surge starts right about here. It actually started going down just before the surge starts.

But, if you compare it to the beginning of 2006, you can see it is actually still a little higher then. Same thing if you look at the civilian deaths. Again, it's where you slice it. Here's the chart. Again, General Petraeus' own chart on civilian deaths. You can see, here August '07, it is down. The blue line, the lower line is Baghdad. The upper line is Iraq. You can see they have gone down.

But, again, they were very high back in December, so they've come down since then. But, if you compare it again to the beginning of the year you can see it is still -- it is still higher than it was back in January of '06. Once again, it is the old saying about statistics being (INAUDIBLE) analyzed and statistics. How they look, pretty depends on how you slice them.

PHILLIPS: And, Jamie, just by covering this now for a number of years and listening to the various speeches and obviously various military commanders throw out a lot of different numbers and talk about progress and where we are now versus a couple of years ago. Was there anything that stood out in your mind as that was new? Or I definitely want to seek out more on what was said in that part of the testimony.

MCINTYRE: Well, one of the challenges we have always had is actually getting good numbers. For instance, the number of civilians death. We don't know how many civilians were killed in Iraq. One point that General Petreaus made is when they are arguing about these numbers is most of the numbers we are arguing about, not all but most of them, come from the U.S. military.

They do the most tracking -- aside from a few independent organizations that try to, for instance, count reports of people being killed in Iraq. It is very difficult to get numbers and we are relying on the U.S. military and their methodology sometime to see what's going on. The other sort of conundrum here is that we have the military takes a look at, say, death rates and they say when -- things are getting worse, it is because they are on the offensive. When things are getting better, it is because they are winning.

So, they have a cake and eat it situation. By the way, next hour, we are going to take a look at probably the statistic everybody thinks about the most. The number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. We will take a look at what that shows us.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jamie McIntyre, appreciate it.

LEMON: Donald Rumsfeld on the record talking about the war in Iraq and his role. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America remains a nation at war.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nine months out of office, he still is chided for being an architect of a war that's gone wrong in so many ways. The woman who interviewed Donald Rumsfeld says flat out the man does not do regret.

LISA DEPAULO, GQ MAGAZINE: If he feels any kind of remorse or pain or sorrow, he is just not going say it. That's not who he is. And if he did, he wouldn't be Donald Rumsfeld.

TODD: In his interview with "GQ Magazine" Rumsfeld says he sent a memo to the president about the dangers of entering Iraq. "I wrote down all of the things that could be problems: That we wouldn't find weapons of mass destruction. That there'd be a Fortress Baghdad, and a lot people would be killed."

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell who Rumsfeld says he was never close to acknowledges Rumsfeld issued those warnings, but also speaking with GQ Powell says, ..."we didn't do the contingency planning on what we would do about it. So we watched those buildings get burned down, and nobody told the divisions, hey, go in there and declare martial law..."

Rumsfeld says they did have a plan, but still believes Iraq hasn't worked out as well as Afghanistan. "It has been a big success. The Iraqi government has not been successful as yet what the Department of Defense is doing is working. What isn't working is the diplomatic side. Despite Iraq being the reason for his departure, Rumsfeld told GQ that wasn't the toughest moment in his life.

DEPAULO: In his mind, and he believes that being Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff, was harder than being the architect of the war in Iraq.

TODD: Rumsfeld said before last Novemember's midterm elections, he decided he would resign if the Republicans lost either the House or the Senate. But if the Republicans had kept control of Congress, would he have acted differently? Rumsfeld said without elaborating, he would have.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: 9/11 was a traumatic experience for the entire nation. But for some people who had to work Ground Zero after the attacks, that trauma just won't go away. We'll have that story coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: And he's one of the heroes who helped save lives as America came under attack. We'll hear from New York fire chief Jay Jonas coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Things might have changed at Ground Zero. It's a construction zone now. But for some, the past goes beyond bad memories, it haunts their present.

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us to talk about a new study on post-traumatic stress disorder and those who worked at Ground Zero after the attacks -- PTSD.

ELIZABETH COHEN, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: PTSD, and it's something that usually, you think of in terms of people who've suffered through a war. But in fact, doctors have found that people who were involved in the rescue and recovery effort at Ground Zero in 2001, that some of them years later were still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

That includes a variety of symptoms, including that they were reliving the event in their heads, even years later, that they were hyper-alert, that just sort of any little thing could kind of set them off. Or perhaps that they were on the other end of the spectrum, they were emotionally numb, they were feeling like they weren't feeling much of anything at all.

Again, that's one out of every eight workers and sometimes, unfortunately, because of post-traumatic stress disorder, people do develop actual depression and may even develop drug or alcohol abuse issues.

LEMON: And it's certainly understandable. I mean, because ...

COHEN: Sure.

LEMON: ...when you're going through that -- I couldn't believe it. No one could believe it, and if you're down there in the middle of it, it makes it just that much harder. Plus, breathing all of that stuff which we're going to talk about later.

But there are some people who are more prone or more likely, some of the workers to get PTSD?

COHEN: Yes, there were. They could really delineate who was more likely to get PTSD. And what they found in this study was that volunteers, in other words, non-professionals who came down to help in the rescue effort, that they were more likely to get PTSD.

The feeling there is that they weren't as well trained as some of the professionals: the firefighters or the police. And also, they hadn't been through anything like this before. They hadn't been through a fire. They hadn't been through a crime scene.

Also, something else that was interesting is that firefighters more likely to suffer PTSD than police. Firefighters more likely than police who were down there working. They think the reason for that is that firefighters were six times as likely to have lost a comrade in 9/11.

LEMON: Oh.

COHEN: So, they were really grieving in some ways to a larger degree.

LEMON: And it has nothing to do with -- or maybe -- police officers being at crime scenes more. I don't know if that would have anything to do with it. But what would -- what are the lessons here? Especially when you said, you know, that there were some people who were more prone to it. What are the lessons here to learn? Is it training, or what is it?

COHEN: There are two big lessons that they learned. One is that if you're going to use volunteers in something as huge as cleaning up after 9/11, then you really should have specially-trained mental health services for those volunteers. Those volunteers need something apparently quite different than what professionals need.

Another thing that they learned is that shift rotations are really important. We all heard stories about workers down there, just working endlessly hour after hour. And, of course, they were dedicated and wanted to do that. But one of the lessons learned is that you need to rotate people in and out of there. It's a very tough thing to do. On and on and on.

LEMON: It is, and just even looking at the footage now, Elizabeth, it's just -- you know.

COHEN: Exactly. So you can imagine if you were down there in that day after day, that years later, you would still feel it.

LEMON: Wow, OK. Elizabeth Cohen, always appreciate it. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: New York fire captain Jay Jonas, one of the heroes of 9/11, he's credited with helping save lives and today, he's a chief. He talked with us about 9/11 and new fire department procedures that are in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JAY JONAS, FDNY: On September 11th, 2001, I was the captain of Ladder Company Six. We responded to the World Trade Center after the first plane struck the North Tower. After the second plane hit, we went up the stairs.

While we were on the 27th floor, we experienced the collapse of the South Tower. You could feel every floor hit another floor. And it created tremendous vibration and it got louder as it got closer. There was 14 people trapped in the stairway, and we all survived. What was left of the stairway was the twisted, mangled debris-filled mess, but it was our little life ball.

The Fire Department, to its credit, wanted to make sure that we took a critical look at what we did. A lot of firefighters reported directly to the scene. That doesn't happen anymore. Now they report to their firehouses or where they're directed to report.

September 11th, everybody in this country should stop and pause and think about those firemen who charged up those stairways, those policemen who charged up those stairways and say a prayer for those who didn't make it through that day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It happened here, an elderly woman savagely mugged. Police say one attacker brought along her newborn, the second was pregnant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they punched her first, they then threw bleach on her. And it's my understanding that they actually -- after getting the purse from her, they struck her again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A hard-hearted crime brings outrage and disbelief in New York State. We'll have the details for you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An 88-year-old woman brutally beaten, bleach thrown in her face. The accused, a young mother and her pregnant friend.

The story now from Kumi Tucker of our New York affiliate WNYT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOMINIQUE LUCAS, ACCUSED OF MUGGING 88-YEAR-OLD: First of all, I ain't do nothing. I have nothing to say.

KUMI TUCKER, WNYT REPORTER: You didn't do it? LUCAS: I didn't do nothing.

TUCKER: Well, they say that you threw bleach at the old lady?

LUCAS: Well, I didn't throw bleach in the old lady's face. I did not throw bleach in her face. I would not do that to no old lady. I don't do no (EXPLETIVE DELETED) like that. I have a grandmother, I wouldn't want nobody to do that to my grandmother, for real.

TUCKER: And you're pregnant.

LUCAS: And I'm pregnant on top of that. I'm due in three weeks. Think I'm going to be out here trying do something to an old lady? And I'm pregnant, I have nobody to take care of my kids. I don't have time for this.

TUCKER (voice-over): Police say Dominique Lucas and Tiffany Tolliver followed an 88-year-old Rotterdam woman four miles home from the store and attacked her before taking her purse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was punched several times. She was -- she had bleach thrown into her eyes, which blinded her. Then, she was possibly punched after they removed the purse as well.

TUCKER: Police say the women took off, leaving the elderly victim lying in a pool of blood at the Victoria Apartments in Rotterdam Saturday evening. Authorities say the pair still had blood on their clothing when they went on to use the victim's credit card to buy hundreds of dollars worth of clothes.

LUCAS: Right now, I'm not -- they implicating me, I'm not involved in that. I didn't ...

TUCKER (on camera): So, it's the other woman.

LUCAS: Yes.

TUCKER: And you didn't have anything to do with it.

LUCAS: I didn't have nothing to do with it, I didn't have nothing to do with it.

TUCKER (voice-over): Lucas cried in court and began shrieking and complaining of pain. She was taken away in an ambulance. Police say the other woman, Tiffany Tolliver, had a 2-week-old child with her when she was arrested Saturday and had left a 17-month-old child home alone during the attacks. The 21-year-old woman had nothing to say as she went into court, but she talked on her way out.

(on camera): She said you did it.

TIFFANY TOLLIVER, ACCUSED OF MUGGING 88-YEAR-OLD: Hey, I'm someone's wife, I'm a mother, and I have five beautiful kids. I have nothing to worry about. Person who has a good life like that, would they mess it up?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the elderly woman suffered multiple injuries and temporary vision problems from that bleach attack. She is finally recovering.

LEMON: Have you seen this man? His name is William Enman. He's a killer and he's supposed to be safely within the confines of a New Jersey mental hospital. Only problem, he's escaped. The search for him has stretched from the Garden State up to Canada where he may own land. In 1974, Enman confessed to killing his roommate and that man's 4-year-old son. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed. He disappeared while on a walk around the sprawling hospital grounds on Sunday.

PHILLIPS: Six years, the day after 9/11, Osama bin Laden hasn't been caught, except on tape. Yet another video came out today. On it, bin Laden introduces a last testament from one of the 9/11 hijackers and praises the man. There are no moving pictures of bin Laden, just a still picture over the recorded voice. A technical analysis of the voice by U.S. intelligence, though, indicates it's bin Laden's voice on that tape. Another bin Laden video was released just last week.

We're going to speak to a terror expert about what the new tape shows in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Also ahead, unthinkably twisted treatment. Six people in West Virginia accused of kidnapping and torturing a young woman. We'll have a live report straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Six years post 9/11, Homeland Security aims to plug what Secretary Michael Chertoff calls a major gap. That would be terrorists using private planes from abroad to attack the U.S. Brand- new rules require private pilots to give U.S. officials the names and other information about passengers one hour before taking off to or from the U.S. Until now, the information wasn't required 'til just before landing or taking off. The rule will take effect for commercial flights next February.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton's campaign is giving back $850,000. The money was raised Norman Hsu who is now under investigation for allegedly violating election laws. Hsu is accused of reimbursing donors for their campaign donations in order to get around limits on contributions.

Mitt Romney robbed -- well, actually, the presidential candidate's spokesperson says there was a break-in at his campaign headquarters in Boston. Several computers and a TV were taken. The Romney camp says it doesn't appear to be politically motivated.

And you can see all the day's political news any time day or night at CNN.com/ticker. We're constantly updating it for you with the latest from the candidates on the campaign trail.

The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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