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Name Added to NYC 9/11 Annual Recitation; Woman Tortured in WVA

Aired September 11, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A four-star general, 44 senators, five presidential candidates, one difficult war.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: If you thought General David Petraeus was under fire yesterday from House members and again this morning from Senate Republicans, well, those may have just been skirmishes compared to what comes next.

PHILLIPS: Petraeus takes on the Senate Armed Services Committee and vice versa this hour. Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

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

It is 2:00 p.m. here in the East. General David Petraeus has a date this hour with the Senate Armed Services Committee. He will be briefing members on the status of the surge in Iraq, and he's already meeting more resistance than he got from House members yesterday. Joining us with the very latest from Capitol Hill now, congressional correspondent Jessica Yellin.

Jessica, what do you have for us?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, more pointed questions, far more skepticism here today in the Senate than both these men faced in the House yesterday, and not just from Democrats, from Republicans, too, who pushed both men hard on whether there has been any political progress and whether the surge really has worked.

As a result of these tough questions, there were some concessions. In particular, Ambassador Ryan Crocker acknowledged that Iraq is a traumatized society, and the government, he said, is dysfunctional. But he went out of his way to insist that any drawdown beyond pre-surge levels would have disastrous consequences. This is what he says would be the result.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: It would make them, I would fear, more focused on, you know, building the walls, stocking the ammunition, and getting ready for a big, nasty street fight without us around.

(END VIDEO CLIP) YELLIN: So Ryan Crocker saying a drawdown, the kind of plan the Democrats want, just won't work in Iraq. It will lead to more violence there. But presidential candidates here, Biden, Dodd, and in particular, Obama, they just weren't buying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have now set the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation, to the point where now we just have the levels of intolerable violence that existed in June of 2006, is considered success. And it's not. This continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, we understand some -- a Senate Democrat and a Senate Republican are planning to sort of meet quietly tomorrow and see if they can't forge some sort of plan that will allow both sides to come together and force a drawdown or a plan for a drawdown in Iraq.

Again, they're looking for that 60 votes in the Senate we've been talking about for so long for that drawdown. Right now behind me, the Senate Armed Services Committee is getting in place to continue questioning these two men who have already spent several long hours before a committee and some tough grilling -- Don.

LEMON: CNN's Jessica Yellin. Thank you for your report, Jessica.

PHILLIPS: Six years ago today there was chaos, bewilderment and death. Today there were bagpipes, bowed heads, tolling bells, and silence. New York remembers 9/11. Our Jason Carroll is there.

Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, I know that you've been here at Ground Zero before. And every single time you come here, you become unsure of exactly how it is going to affect you. I can tell you that six years later, it is still just as powerful as ever, especially, Kyra, when you look in the faces of the families, the young children who lost fathers, sisters, brothers, and you see how much these people are still grieving, and grieving very deeply.

Like in years' past, the names of each victim was read aloud during the ceremony. There were four moments of silence, pausing four times for the times that the towers fell and each time the tower was struck.

Unlike in previous years, the names of the victims were not read by families, but read by the first responders. And it was just as emotional, because many of the first responders, as you can imagine, Kyra, had family members or colleagues that obviously they had lost. So they had personal comments about those members. When the ceremony ended, that ended at about noon, some of the family members that we spoke reflected on how the day had affect them and one common theme that we heard over and over from some of these family members was, they did not want people to forget. And that is the theme that many of these people came away with from today -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And I'm being told that we actually have a chance to hear from some of those people. We'll go ahead and take a listen, Jason.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID JONES, LOST BROTHER ON 9/11: Never, never ever, ever forget. Do they know what (INAUDIBLE)? See this massive thing that happened here? Like they said, they don't show justice when you looked at it TV. But when you was down here and you seen all of that, it was unbelievable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

JONES: I'll never forget it. It will never heal. But I have to stay strong and keep living and keep moving. But I'll never let my brother's memory die.

VIRGINIA MCDERMOTT, LOST FATHER ON 9/11: No, it doesn't get easier. You think it does. It doesn't. Hard to believe. Every time we come down here and see these buildings, it is hard to believe that those two buildings aren't here. So it is very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Jason, we remember that day. You know, working the story, and we could all sort of converge on that area. And then slowly they had built up that fence for the investigative part of it. And of course, recovering a lot of the remains. And now you actually can go there and see -- I was surprised years later, all of the pictures.

And it is always very quiet, still, just like it was that day when people are walking around that area.

CARROLL: Very much so. And quiet and reflective and once again you heard from the family members there talking about not wanting to forget. But I have to tell you, in being in the city, you know, you ride the subway, you're walking the streets, you oftentimes hear from people who want to do just that, Kyra. They want to forget. They want to move forward.

They want to talk about how the area is being redeveloped and the future of Ground Zero, you know, the Freedom Tower. At this point, we've got street level construction of the Freedom Tower. So that is proceeding forward. And so you have these two schools of thought.

Those who are still trying to hold on and those who clearly are ready to move on -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jason Carroll, from the site right there of the Twin Towers the day they collapsed. Appreciate it.

And 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 have been alive today. We're going to talk to her husband in just a few minutes.

LEMON: The Department of Defense, defenseless against a hijacked airliner six years ago. This morning Secretary Robert Gates helped lay a wreath at the Pentagon in honor of those who died on American Flight 77, crashed into the building. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now.

And, Barbara, I think I remember watching you. You were at the Pentagon watching another secretary of defense do his thing.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Don. You know, six years later, as everyone is seeing today, the moments are so fresh. At 9:37 this morning, a moment of silence, memorializing the 184 souls who lost their lives here.

You know, like many of my Pentagon press colleagues, Jamie McIntyre and others, I was inside the building when the plane struck. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on-scene within minutes. Out there helping carry stretchers, helping carry the wounded. Even though his own security people were begging him to go to a more secure area, curmudgeon that he always is and was in those days, he flat out refused to leave the building that day.

He went back inside, went back to work in the command center even as smoke filled the building, and really was able to be the one who made sure that a page written in history would be that when the headquarters of the U.S. military was attacked that day, the U.S. military did not leave. This building stayed open. People kept working here the next morning, September 12th, in the early morning hours of the dark.

Thousands of people in their cars coming to work here even though the building was still in flames, the dead and the wounded still being tended to. It was a very important moment for the U.S. military.

I want to explain the picture we're showing of that awful day. You look at that roofline, Don, one of the other great legendary moments that day, that roofline held for some 20 minutes before it collapsed. That is credited with allowing thousands of people to escape safely from this building.

It was really a case of this 60-year-old pile of concrete and cement, it was one of the heroes that day, when that roofline held for a long time so people could get out. Those are the kind of stories that are being remembered here today as well as so many of the people who perished here.

There was another moment of great irony here. One of the men who died in this building was an older man. He was an Army civilian. His name was Max Beilke. When Max Beilke was a young soldier serving in Vietnam, he is listed in U.S. Army history as the last combat soldier to leave Vietnam. He died here in this building on 9/11 -- Don.

LEMON: CNN's Barbara Starr. Barbara, thank you.

PHILLIPS: In West Virginia this hour, six people are in jail and facing potential hate crime charges after they allegedly kidnapped and tortured a 20-year-old woman. All the suspects are white, the victim is black. What these people are accused of doing is just unbelievable.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us now live from Washington with more -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this is just a horrific, unbelievable story. As you said, six West Virginians, three men, three women, ranging in age from 20 to 49, are in custody today in West Virginia's Southwestern Region Jail. Among the charges, kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault.

Now the criminal complaint filed alleges that for a week a 20- year-old African-American woman from Charleston, West Virginia, was held against her will. The complaint alleges she was sexually assaulted, stabbed in the leg, choked, beaten, forced to eat rat and dog feces, lick up blood, drink from a toilet.

Deputies luckily discovered here on Saturday after getting an anonymous that a woman was being held in a Big Creek mobile home against her will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF W.E. HUNTER, LOGAN COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: Upon approaching the place, deputies found Frankie Brewster sitting on the front porch, got to talking to her. She got up and walked toward the door. And a young black lady came to the door and said, please help me. She had two black eyes, part of her hair had been pulled out. She had lacerations on her legs, marks on her neck. And she had been physically, mentally, and sexually abused.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This just sounds like a horrific...

(CROSSTALK)

HUNTER: It is out of a horror movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: The complaint alleges that the suspects uttered racial slurs while assaulting the victim. So the FBI this afternoon is meeting with local authorities to determine whether or not this was a hate crime.

Right now the suspects are all being held on $100,000 bond each. The maximum penalties for the crimes range from life in prison for kidnapping to 35 years for first degree sexual assault -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Do we know anything more about the suspects. You talk about the investigation into a hate a crime. Do we know if they are related to any hate crime groups?

KOCH: We don't know that yet, Kyra. Though apparently the sheriff in Logan County, West Virginia, is reporting that law enforcement officials are very familiar with these six suspects, that they have been in trouble with the law before.

So we are going to our reporting on that, have more details soon -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll follow up, Kathleen Koch, appreciate it.

LEMON: As General David Petraeus testifies to senators on Capitol Hill, we are checking the facts. Coming up, our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is at the Iraq fact desk.

PHILLIPS: And going inside al Qaeda. Terrorism analyst takes a closer look at Osama bin Laden's messages. How menacing are they?

LEMON: He's a 25-year-old professional football player who may now be paralyzed. Ahead, Kevin Everett's injury through the eyes of our Dr. Sanjay Gupta. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Remembering the victims of 9/11 by reading their names.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Felicia Gail (ph) Dunn-Jones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The family of Felicia Jones had to fight for years to get her name read at today's ceremony.

LEMON: We will talk with her husband about why it was such a battle straight ahead right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: 2:15 Eastern time. Right now here are some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM. She was convicted of killing their father. Now Mary Winkler is seeking custody of her three daughters. The Tennessee preacher's wife just filed a petition saying it's detrimental for the girls to be apart from her. Her former in-laws are trying to adopt them.

A Georgia man allegedly had some serious skills making funny money. He has reportedly deposited $10,000 a day into his bank account. Now the Secret Service is analyzing the counterfeit bills allegedly made by the 29-year-old suspect.

A memorial service held in Ohio today for Congressman Paul Gillmor. He was found dead last week after what was ruled an accidental fall. The Republican spent almost 20 years in Congress. A special election will be called to fill his seat.

LEMON: Reading the names of 9/11 victims has been a tradition since the attacks. One family fought for years for their moment at the ceremonies to hear the name of their wife and mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Felicia Gail Dunn-Jones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: On September 11th, 2001, Felicia Gail Dunn-Jones was an attorney whose office was one block from the World Trade Center. As the towers were coming down, she and thousands of others were trying to escape. Felicia made it home, but the dust she breathed that day ended up taking her life five months later. But she was not officially declared a victim of 9/11 until this year. Felicia's husband, Joseph Jones, was at today's ceremony, and he joins me now from New York.

Thank you for doing this for us today. It's good to see you.

JOSEPH JONES, FELICIA DUNN-JONES' WIDOWER: Good afternoon, Mr. Lemon. How are you?

LEMON: I'm doing very well. How are you is the question? What was it like today? What did it do for you and your family today to hear Felicia's name read?

JONES: Well, you know, Felicia's loss was devastating to the family. It was some relief. It brought a sense of closure I guess to one episode of all the incidents that occurred after 9/11.

We were honored to hear her name announced, and I guess her addition to the list is a grim but important reminder that people die from the dust, and that people are dealing with post-9/11 illnesses.

LEMON: You mention -- you said that you felt some sense of closure. I'm wondering if you do as well feel some sense of justice because you fought for a long time to have the cause of her death, the name of it, changed from natural causes to a homicide, and that was eventually done.

JONES: That's correct.

LEMON: Tell us about that fight.

JONES: OK. Well, after we had got the award from the 9/11 Commission that she had been declared a victim of 9/11, we requested that her name be added to the list. That was initially denied, so we had an ongoing battle for about three years. They have her name included.

LEMON: Yes. And so finally, they did have their name included and today is the result of that. To your recollection, is she the first name, the first person to be named who had a lung problem from breathing the dust from 9/11?

JONES: We think her name is the first acknowledgement that a person actually died from the dust.

LEMON: So, yes.

JONES: Correct.

LEMON: So this is a milestone. You're making a difference here. How do you think and do you think it will help other people who died from 9/11 from the dust?

JONES: Well, we think, you know, it probably carries some historic significance, but just as you pointed to, we hope the major impact will be that it is going to help others get recognition or at least get consideration upon, you know, reviewing everything that at least their families could be added to the list if it's deemed necessary that they died from the situation that happened that day.

LEMON: All right. So it's obvious that you're making a difference here. And I'm sure thousands of people, thousands of families appreciate what you're doing. I want to ask you about your family and the last couple of years. You had an aspiring career, your wife as well. You were doing very well. You have two children, a teenage daughter and also a son who has special needs. The last few years for you...

JONES: That's correct.

LEMON: ... I understand you had to take a leave from your job.

JONES: Well, that's correct. I still haven't returned to work, so currently I'm devoted -- I guess, a full-time father, seeing my daughter through school hopefully into college and just attending to the special needs of my son, Joseph.

LEMON: What do you want people to know, and, you know, everyone -- a lot of people have answered this question, but what do you want people to know about the folks who suffer tragedies from 9/11 and how your life has changed over the past couple of years, especially with -- obviously without your wife?

JONES: Well, one thing is that persons who were in the area that day, if they become ill, there are agencies that they can go to, to get help. It's our hope that this also will lead to the reopening of the 9/11 Fund.

I think there's legislation being presented today, I think, in the House requesting that the 9/11 Fund be reopened. It's my belief that it was -- its work is unfinished, it was closed prematurely.

LEMON: I have to ask you really quickly, do you think Felicia is smiling down on you after hearing her name today and the work you've done? JONES: I'm pretty sure she's looking down on us. And if the role were reversed, she would be doing the same thing for me.

LEMON: I have to ask you one last question because there has been a bit of controversy about -- much has been made about whether or not the celebrations or the celebrations of life and the remembrances of folks, should they continue to be the scale that they are now or should they be scaled back? As someone who has a very personal part of this, how do you feel about that?

JONES: Mr. Lemon, could you repeat that?

LEMON: Do you think that the ceremonies involving 9/11, should they be scaled back?

JONES: You know, boy, that's a pretty emotional -- you have a lot of families involved in this. I think it should be left to them to decide how they want to honor those who perished that day. I really don't think it should be scaled back. I mean, it's an event we definitely should always memorialize, and it's a lot of feelings there, but I definitely -- I'm not in favor of scaling back anything, no.

LEMON: Joseph Jones, Felicia Dunn-Jones is his wife who died as a result of the toxins that were in the air during the 9/11 tragedy. We appreciate you joining us today and we wish you well.

JONES: You're welcome, Mr. Lemon.

PHILLIPS: Osama bin Laden, a new release, a new tape is a twisted way to remember 9/11, but how real is it? We're going to talk to an expert on al Qaeda coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: Afghanistan, it was the first front in America's war on terror. Six years after the Taliban were thrown out of power, has life changed for women there? A fascinating, also a disturbing story about life still lived beneath the veil. Ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Witnesses today on Capitol Hill to the case being made for the surge in Iraq. The senior U.S. commander there, General David Petraeus, is spending the day before a pair of senate committees. Members of both parties more willing to challenge Petraeus today than members of the House did yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER, (D) CALIFORNIA: Let's look at the poll both of you tried to discredit yesterday. ABC, BBC, a Japanese station, 42 percent of Iraqis say their children will have a worse life. 25 percent say it will be no better. That's 67 percent saying their kids' life will not be better than their own. 70 percent say the surge is making matters worse. Is that what our troops are dying for? I ask you to take off your rosy glasses. You had them on in '05. I believed you. I thought for sure we were going it see the Iraqis take over their own defense.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's check the facts. Joining us now from the Iraq fact desk in Washington, our senior pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. What have you learned Jamie?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Don, there's been a lot of debate over these last two days about the statistics, about violence, the numbers, what do they mean. But there's one set of statistics that we have a high degree of confidence in because for one thing, CNN tracks them ourselves. Those are the number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. Now Senator Barbara Boxer, who you just saw there, showed up today at a hearing with her own chart, one you did not see in General Petraeus' presentation, that showed while U.S. combat deaths are down for the last couple of months, this was still the deadliest summer in -- since the war began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOXER: The greatest mistake because we've lost so many of our own and so many are wounded who we will be dealing with for years and years, it breaks our hearts, all of our hearts.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: So let's take a look at those numbers because, as I say, we track them here at CNN, and take a look, and you can see that if you compare the June, July, August figures for 2007 compared to the last couple of years, you can see that Barbara Boxer is right. Although they are down significantly from May, which was a peak month of fighting, they're still higher than the summers before. But the question is what do those statistics tell us about how things are going in Iraq? The problem is if you take a look at these other areas like in 2006 and 2005, 2006 in particular when it's kind of low, that was not an indicator that things were getting better in Iraq. In fact, things were deteriorating right at that point, even though the combat deaths were down. So while U.S. combat deaths is a very significant figure and obviously if things are getting better we would expect the number of U.S. casualties to go down, the very fact that they're going down doesn't mean that things are getting better. It's, again, an example of how statistics only show part of the picture, and you really need to take a look at the whole in order to make a decision, and that's what makes assessing what's going on in Iraq so difficult. Don?

LEMON: That's why we check with you, to check the facts. Jamie McIntyre, thank you.

PHILLIPS: The 9/11 attacks changed life in the United States and brought changes to the country of Afghanistan. American and coalition military forces overthrew the Taliban government that had given save haven to all Al Qaeda terrorists. Afghanistan now has a democracy, but has everyday life changed for the women who live there? Documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has put together a fascinating special for our CNN Special Investigations Unit called lifting the veil. Here's her story about a young woman in a desperate situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY, JOURNALIST AND FILMMAKER: Today Afghanistan is freed from the control of the Taliban and trying to move towards a brighter future. But still very young girls are being sold into marriage. I'm on my way to meet a child bride who lives with a family at the edge of Herot, where the desert begins. What is your name? Tell me about your father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My father, my father was a drug addict. He had many gambling debts. And so he sold me.

OBAID-CHINOY: How old were you when your father sold you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was seven.

OBAID-CHINOY: How did you feel when your father told you that you had been sold?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt depressed when I found out.

OBAID-CHINOY: It's difficult for us to speak to her because her mother-in-law and her husband keep coming into the room. And although I have permission to speak to her, her husband seems nervous because as it turns out, she had burned herself to protest their marriage. Tell me why you decided to burn yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of the people saying, "look at all her father did., look at how her mother married, look at how they married you." Because of this kind of talk, I thought I should just burn myself so I could just die and not hear this anymore.

OBAID-CHINOY: How old were you when you decided to burn yourself?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I was 11 years old. I still have fresh scars and I have had two operations.

OBAID-CHINOY: Would you like to go to school?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.

OBAID-CHINOY: What would you have liked to have done had you not been sold into marriage?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was too young to wonder about what I would do with my future.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Sharmeen now joins me live from London. Wow, Sharmeen, this was one of the pieces that really struck us, and I wanted to ask you about Shanas and will she ever be able to go back to school and why do you think her husband allowed you to talk to her?

OBAID-CHINOY: Well, it was very difficult to get access to Shanas. But because I'm Muslim and I understand the language, I was able to navigate my way to people's homes that journalists are seldom allowed into. You know, at this September 11th anniversary we should be asking ourselves the questions whether the life of ordinary Afghans has changed in the last six years. Women like Shanas, I would say girls like Shanas are still struggling. The law says that you can't get married until you are 16 in Afghanistan but nobody seems to be following it at all.

PHILLIPS: Are there any women in any high positions that can make a difference politically?

OBAID-CHINOY: You know, there are women in parliament and women are allowed to vote in Afghanistan, which is empowering in some way. But women aren't even allowed to speak in parliament. They can't even pass laws. They're virtual prisoners. So in name, yes, you know Afghanistan has the second highest number of women in parliament, but if they don't have any power, what good s their being in parliament?

PHILLIPS: So how can things change?

OBAID-CHINOY: You know, it's going to take a long time because the social fabric of Afghan society has been torn by decades of war, and, you know, the coalition forces are there, but Afghan people also need to decide whether they have the will to make a difference, whether women should be allowed to go to school, whether women should be allowed to work. You know, Afghan men, even educated Afghan men, feel that women should stay at home. Their first priority is being a mother and a daughter. Until that mindset changes, there's very little that can be done.

PHILLIPS: So do women feel cheated by this war?

OBAID-CHINOY: The women do feel cheated. I think in 2003, 2002, there was a lot of hope. They thought that actual liberation had arrived, but now a lot of women are wary. They see that there's a war still going on in the south. In the north where there isn't a war going on, very little reconstruction has taken place. No factories are coming up. There's no employment for people. You know, so there's this sense of restlessness that I think has seeped into Afghan society.

PHILLIPS: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, sure appreciate your time. Incredible work and we're looking forward to seeing the entire hour.

OBAID-CHINOY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You can tune in this weekend for the CNN Special Investigations Unit report, "Afghanistan, Lifting the Veil." It does premiere Saturday night, 8:00 eastern, right here on CNN. Other viewing times, 11:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday night, 8:00 and 11:00.

LEMON: Let's talk now about Osama bin Laden, the new release. The new tape is a twisted way to remember 9/11, but how real is it? We'll talk to an expert on al Qaeda coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It looks like Osama bin Laden, sounds like Osama bin Laden, but is it really him? Another tape came out today. You can't think the timing is a coincidence. Its 14 minutes of what could be bin Laden's voice over a still picture praising a 9/11 hijacker. Some experts say it sounds a lot like the real thing and it is the real thing. Rohan Gunaratna wrote the book "Inside al Qaeda." Rohan, what do you think the two tapes inside of one week. What's going on here? Two tapes, inside of one week, why is that?

ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, "INSIDE AL QAEDA": It demonstrates that bin Laden is still a credible force. It demonstrates the importance bin Laden assigns to propaganda, towards disseminating his ideology.

LEMON: And you have no question it's him you say.

GUNARATNA: I have to doubt it is Osama bin Laden.

LEMON: The question everybody wants to know, why haven't we caught Osama bin Laden?

GUNARATNA: The only place bin Laden can survive is on the Afghan/Pakistan border, 1,500-mile-long border. It's a very difficult terrain, and also bin Laden has in many ways perfected the art of living clandestinely, surviving in that area. And in that area not only the al Qaeda is surviving, but there are a number of other important al Qaeda figures, including Ayman al Zawahiri as well as leaders of a few other regional terrorist organizations.

LEMON: You also, it is your contention as well that Osama bin Laden hasn't been caught because of the resources devoted to Iraq.

GUNARATNA: Certainly Iraq has been a distraction. If more intelligence assets, more elite forces, were concentrated on that border area, I believe that the United States would have had much more success.

LEMON: We have been listening to the leaders from Iraq, the Iraq war, talking, the generals and the ambassadors, talking about the war and the importance of it and what's going on. And specifically mentioning al Qaeda, a lot about al Qaeda's presence in Iraq. How big is it and what is the influence of al Qaeda in Iraq?

GUNARATNA: After (INAUDIBLE) al Zarqawi was killed in Iraq, the al Qaeda center or al Qaeda classically by bin Laden has replaced the leadership of al Zarqawi's group with al Qaeda members. Abub Al Masri, who is a member of al Qaeda, has assumed leadership of Zarqawi's group. So in many ways bin Laden has increased his influence over that organization in Iraq. LEMON: Before I ask you this next question, I want to go to one of the experts we had on CNN this morning talking about whether or not we will find -- ever find Osama bin Laden. Let's take a listen and I will come back and talk to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCES TOWNSEND, W.H. HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Similar to the hunt for Eric Rudolph, as you'll recall, on American soil with American law enforcement and it took us more than five years to find him and we had a big reward. Obviously catching bin Laden is a huge priority for us, and American military and intelligence assets are deployed against that, and I'm confident that eventually we are going to get him.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser believes we're going to get him. A poll came out last week, and for the first time Americans believed -- a majority of Americans believed that we would not ever catch Osama bin Laden. Do you think we'll ever get him?

GUNARATNA: I believe that if you devote more resources, if you have a better strategy, a clear strategy, you will be able to hunt him down. Al Qaeda is the most hunted group, and bin Laden should be brought to justice. So I believe that the U.S. should focus more attention in what is happening in the tribal area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and hunt those leaders down.

LEMON: Should pay more attention. And also reading about you, you believe that America really underestimated the power of Osama bin Laden and his influence and reach, especially in the days after 9/11.

GUNARATNA: Absolutely. Bin Laden is a very symbolic and a very significant figure because he was not only able to inspire the members of al Qaeda, but also 30 to 40 different associated groups from Asia, Africa, Middle East, as well as the home-grown cells.

LEMON: Ok, two-prong question I will end with. We haven't suffered a major attack like 9/11 since then. Do you think that al Qaeda still poses a serious threat to the U.S.?

GUNARATNA: Yes, Al Qaeda still poses a very significant and a sustained, enduring threat to the United States. And it is very important for the United States to continue to work with the Muslim world to detect and disrupt other operations that have been planned against the United States from overseas as well as to increase American capabilities to better monitor radicalized cells operating in North America.

LEMON: All right, Rohan Gunaratna, we thank you for joining us today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

GUNARATNA: Thank you. PHILLIPS: A helmet to helmet hit, an NFL player struck down in his prime. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, updates Kevin Everett's condition shortly.

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PHILLIPS: Close to 35 firefighters working around the clock trying to contain this blaze in northern California. Over the past week the moonlight fire in Plumas National Forest has blackened more than 60,000 acres. Erratic winds are fanning the blaze across hillsides covered with timber. Other major fires are burning south of Sacramento and in Riverside County.

LEMON: Internet tips pouring in. Volunteer pilots rushing to help, but still no sign of missing aviator Steve Fossett after taking off from an isolated Nevada ranch eight days ago. The offers to help come with a catch. Officials aren't sure if it's helping or hurting the hundreds of official searchers. Meantime, a hint today, the search may taper off in the near future.

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MAJ. CYNTHIA RYAN, CIVIL AIR PATROL: As this goes on into multiple weeks, I suppose we would scale back some extent, but what that extent is I can't speak to that. We are not in the habit of walking away from searches.

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LEMON: Among the 63-year-old Fossett's numerous feats, he was the first to circle the globe in a balloon.

PHILLIPS: Well it's one of the things pro athletes fear most, career ending injury. That appears to be the prospect for the Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett, who suffered what his doctors call a catastrophic life-threatening injury to his spinal cord. It happened during Sunday's game with the Denver Broncos. Dr. Andrew Capacino says that Everett's chances of regaining a full range of motion are not good. More now from CNN Chief Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We do have some new details regarding Kevin Everett's condition this morning. He does remain in intensive care. He does remain under sedation. He is on a breathing machine. We know that he has some touch sensation in his body but has very little, if any movement and doctors are grim about his prognosis and the likelihood that he would be able to walk again. That much we know this morning. I want to just point out a couple things to you. When he was actually -- took that hit on the football field, you could see that there. Within 15 minutes he was actually transported to the hospital where he was immediately given medications to try and reduce the swelling in the spinal cord, and he also got scans, a CAT Scan, an MRI scan, an x-ray trying to determine exactly what happened to his spinal canal. Surgeons then found in fact he had broken a bone in his neck. I want to show you wear, it's sort of in this area. Pretty high up in his neck between the third bone and the fourth bone. Some of that disk material was actually pushing on his spinal cord. Doctors removed that disk material and actually put a fusion there between two of the bones, and then actually also from the backside they also removed some of the bone that was pushing on his spinal canal and created a fusion there as well. That is all to try and stabilize his spinal canal and make sure that he doesn't have continued injury to his spinal cord.

While the operation is over, Kevin Everett still has a long ways to go. He is still at risk for blood clots, he is still at risk for pneumonia. He is still on the breathing machine. So many concerns still for him over the next few days and few weeks. The likelihood of him being able to walk again is obviously a question many people are asking this morning. Based on all the data that exists today regarding these types of injuries, it is unlikely that he will be able to walk. He may regain some movement and rehabilitation is going to be the name of the game for him for quite some time. There's also a question about how can we prevent these sorts of injuries or injuries to the brain in the future. Let me show you a new sort of helmet that's getting some enthusiasm out there. It's not being used in the NFL, but it is being used in a few college football teams right now. That's the helmet there. It actually has the sensors in there that tells someone on the sideline exactly how much of a hit someone has just taken. It can give that information back to trainers and to physicians and may even be available for the lay public so parents could watch at home on a home computer just how hard a hit the helmet has taken, how hard their child's brain has taken a hit just over the previous few minutes. That might be some interesting new information. Obviously a lot of people focused on Kevin Everett this morning. However, we'll keep you posted on his progress as those details come forward. Back to you.

LEMON: All right Sanjay thank you. (INAUDIBLE) 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.

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