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Making a Stand in Jena, Louisiana; Youssif's Surgery Under Way; Lebanon Blast

Aired September 20, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Making a stand. Thousands travel to America's Deep South to challenge charges brought against six black teenagers.
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Reconstructing a face and transforming a life. An Iraqi boy disfigured in an attack undergoes the first of many surgeries.

Request denied! Iran's president will be kept from visiting a place that many Americans consider hallowed ground.

FRAZIER: Request denied. Iran's president will be kept from visiting a place that many Americans consider hallowed ground.

VASSILEVA: And no longer at the helm. One of the most high- profile managers in English football surprises everyone with a stunning move off the field.

FRAZIER: It's 5:00 p.m. in London, 11:00 a.m. in Jena, Louisiana.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Stephen Frazier.

VASSILEVA: And I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.

From New York to New Delhi, wherever you're watching us, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

One activist says this could be the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement in America.

FRAZIER: It looks a lot like the 20th century, though. Thousands of people converging on a tiny town in the Deep South for a rally that is heavy with racial tension.

VASSILEVA: Streets in tiny Jena, Louisiana, are jammed with traffic as protesters stream in from all over the country. They are demanding legal justice for black teens known as the Jena 6. And these are live pictures from that rally we're showing you right now.

FRAZIER: Five hundred busloads of people converging here from all over the country. This is outside the courthouse where the charges, which were that, you know, a young black teenager accused of beating a white classmate unconscious. All six actually were charged with this, initially charged with attempted murder.

The weapons cited in the charges were shoes. Most of the charges have now been reduced, but activists say that this case still symbolizes the unfairness of the legal system and the racism that's still inherent in the United States.

VASSILEVA: And in fact, they point to an incident just a few months before the beating, when white students hung nooses from a schoolyard tree a day after black students had gathered there. The white students were not charged, only briefly suspended from school.

FRAZIER: Now, the attorney who is prosecuting the Jena 6 says this case is not about race, but rather about holding people accountable for their actions. He says the victim here, Justin Barker, has been all but forgotten and his injuries have been reduced to less than a footnote.

The protesters in Jena easily outnumber the 3,000 residents of this predominantly white small town. Some locals say they welcome the activists, but a lot feel that their town is being unfairly portrayed as racist by outside agitators.

Susan Roesgen has been in Jena since the buses began to roll in, and they had a lot of big names on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Hi. How are you doing?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Big- city activists have come to small town Louisiana. Reverend Al Sharpton, part of the sea of cameras to meet with 17-year-old Mychal Bell, who has been locked up since December.

SHARPTON: It breaks our heart to see him handcuffed and in leg shackles. But his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands of people are coming to this little town to stand up for him and his five friends.

ROESGEN: Bell was the first of six black teenagers known as the Jena 6 to face felony charges for the school attack on a white classmate, Justin Barker. The case has brought national attention and local anxiety.

(on camera): Can we talk to you about the Jena 6 case?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't think so.

ROESGEN: All right.

(voice over): However, the district attorney, Reed Walters, did want to talk. Justin Barker stood right behind him.

REED WALTERS, JENA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: With all the focus on the defendants, many people seem to have forgotten that there was a victim in this case. The injury that was done to him and the serious threats to his survival have become less than a footnote.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: Now, Susan Roesgen joins us live from Jena, where we have been following these events since the start of the day.

Susan, this is one of those cases that the mainstream media missed for a long time. It's really been propelled by the Internet and by, in particular, a talk show radio host.

ROESGEN: But I must point out, Stephen, that CNN was on this case from the very beginning. CNN was involved very early on. We were in touch with our local television affiliates in this area. We knew that this case was happening, and we were there, the first and only national television broadcast media to be there when the first of the students, Mychal Bell, went on trial. And we have covered this very thoroughly since then.

I want to show you what's happening now, Stephen.

There have been wave after wave of marchers that have come up on this street here behind me. And now some of them are starting to leave.

They wanted to get here to Jena High School, where this all took place. And I was really surprised, Stephen, to see this, and that's that the state police, the state troopers here and the sheriffs deputies, allowed the crowd to actually get on school property.

The school is closed today, but this is still a functioning school. They allowed this huge wave, who knows how many thousands of people, to actually come on school property. And once they got there, Stephen, they wanted to do one thing.

It was almost like making a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem or to Mecca. They all wanted to go where the tree was, where the nooses had been hanging last September.

As we reported earlier here on CNN, that tree was cut down by the school just before the start of this school year. They realized it was a lightning rod.

So what people did here, Stephen, is they actually went and touched the dirt. The school has even since our last photographs of that tree being chopped down, has dug up the stump.

People here wanted to come and touch the dirt and take pictures of it. They said this is where it all started. It started with, you know, a terrible racial signal that was sent by three white students to black students at this school. And they wanted to document it as part of civil rights history -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Let's point out, Susan, for our international viewers here the subtlety of some of these issues.

There are no places on that campus where any student of any race is forbidden from going. And, yet, this tree had become a gathering place for whites only, and they felt, I guess, that they had ownership of that. And it was the fact that some black teenagers had gathered there one day that started all of this, something seemingly as insignificant as where a person goes and what color his skin is.

ROESGEN: Well, Stephen, you know, you have to remember these are high-schoolers. And I think teenagers in any part of this world are going through, you know, a difficult time. Adolescence is a strange time for a lot of kids. So, what would seem normal to us as adults may not seem normal to them.

You're right, by school policy, there is no part of this campus that is off limits to any student of any color. But this school is the same in demographics as the town, 85 percent white. And by tradition -- and I mean student tradition -- the white students sat under this tree.

A couple of black students asked the assistant principal, could they sit under the tree as well? He told them, yes, sure, you can sit anywhere you wish. They sat under the tree and the next day the nooses appeared.

Now, some tried to dismiss it as a teenage prank. White residents tried to dismiss it as a teenage prank. The school was playing a cowboy-themed football game that night. The black students got the message loud and clear. That referred to the lynching of the civil rights era, and it was a terribly offensive act that led to racial tension that just escalated, Stephen, in off-campus fights, on- campus fights, and then the big incident in which the white student was very savagely attacked and six black classmates were charged in that attack.

So, that's why all these people have come here today from all across the country. I've spoken to people from Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans. They are all here to show their support for the six students who are still facing, Stephen, aggravated battery charges, which is a felony in Louisiana, and it could mean more than 20 years in an adult prison for these 16-and-17-year-old boys -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Which are the specifics of what these protesters have gathered to object to.

Susan, thank you for laying out that so clearly for us, how subtly race is lived in the United States from Jena, Louisiana.

VASSILEVA: Well, this racially-charged case is becoming a major issue even in the U.S. presidential campaign. President Bush even commented on the case just a short time ago, urging candidates in his Republican Party to reach out to the African-American community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe that we've got a very strong record when it comes to empowerment, when it comes to education or homeownership or small business formation. The events in Louisiana are -- have saddened me. And I understand the emotions.

The Justice Department and the FBI are, you know, monitoring the situation down there. And all of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRAZIER: Stay with CNN for live coverage of all of the events in Jena throughout the day, and the implications that are rippling all the way to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

And for our viewers inside the United States, be sure to tune in for a CNN Special Investigations Unit report which is called "Judgment in Jena". That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

And for everybody else, this special will be shown during YOUR WORLD TODAY at 15:00 GMT tomorrow.

VASSILEVA: This is a highly emotional day for a 5-year-old Iraqi boy and his family. We've been bringing you the story of Youssif, who was doused with gasoline by masked gunmen and set on fire in Baghdad. Now doctors in California have begun the first of a series of surgeries to erase those scars.

CNN's Arwa Damon joins us now.

Arwa, how is the surgery progressing?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ralitsa, it's going quite well. We're about three hours into the surgery right now, and this is the main surgery, the first surgery to have taken place.

What they've done so far is they've injected steroids into the hard scare tissue on his forehead and on his ears as well. The aim of that is to reduce the swelling and try to flatten the scar tissue.

Then they've also inserted what's called skin expanders. They're basically balloons that they are putting in, into his right cheek, right where the scar tissue meets the "good skin". They've also put a larger balloon underneath his chin. Over the next three months they'll be expanding these balloons and then he'll have to go back into surgery, where they'll remove the scar tissue and then stretch out that good skin to cover up the area that they removed the scar tissue from.

What they're working on right now is the thick scarring around his nose. They're actually removing all of that in this area. And then they're going to be placing temporary cadaver skin on top of it. And that will be removed in the next few days, replaced by a skin graft taken from his belly.

But he really is in the hands of experts here at the Grossman Burn Center at the Sherman Oaks Hospital. And they are saying right now, doctors are saying, that everything is going very well -- Ralitsa. VASSILEVA: Was Youssif scared? This is a very complicated -- what you were describing is very complicated and a very painful process that he is beginning.

DAMON: It is very complicated. I have to say when we came with Youssif and his family to the hospital yesterday, he was very excited. He was playing with his bed, moving it up and down, screaming up and down the corridors of the hospital.

His parents very worried at that point. But he had said to his mother, "I want to go to the hospital, because I want the doctors to fix my face so I can go play with my cousins."

Youssif this morning, before going into surgery, seemed to be very scared. Very worried. As he was being rolled into the O.R., accompanied to the very last point by his parents, he began screaming out for his mother and his father.

Both of his parents broke down into tears at that point as they watched their little boy being wheeled into the O.R. And there, in fact, it took about four doctors to hold him down. And he did continue to cry out for his mother and his father until they were able to put him to sleep.

This has really been a very emotional time for the entire family. An emotional roller-coaster. The highs coming as they've seen their son's emotional transformation -- when he arrived here about a week ago, he was sullen and withdrawn. The Youssif that we saw up until the point of the surgery, in his mother's words, was happy. He was reminding her of her son before the attack.

So, the difficult part, of course, is coming, in the words of the father, that they have to see their son even go through this. As he put it, no 5-year-old boy should ever have to live through something like this -- Ralitsa

VASSILEVA: Absolutely.

Arwa Damon, thank you very much.

Well, Youssif's story has generated a lot of sympathy from all of us, all of you. It continues to be one of the most viewed stories on our Web site. And if you're looking for a way to make a difference for Youssif, for others like him, you can. Just log on to CNN.com/impact and click on "Iraq burn victim".

FRAZIER: I don't know if he'll ever end up looking the same as that picture on the left side of the screen there, which is what he was like before the burns, but I hope some of that happiness returns to his smile.

VASSILEVA: Absolutely.

FRAZIER: A beautiful child. And courageous, too.

Here, a short break for us. But coming up, a fast-emerging Middle East investment fund takes a big bite out of a major U.S. investment group.

VASSILEVA: Also ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, Lebanon stands firm against those who seek to derail the political process. One day after a massive explosion killed another member of parliament, the prime minister vows to press on with presidential elections.

FRAZIER: And later, what really happened that fateful night when O.J. Simpson barged into a Las Vegas hotel room and made demands?

We'll try to sort it all out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VASSILEVA: We are going to take you now live to Jena, Louisiana, where there is a massive protest under way. These are pictures, live pictures, we're showing to you from Main Street.

Thousands have converged on this tiny little town of 3,000 people in the Deep South. A rally heavy, heavy with racial tensions. The streets there jammed with people, protesting what they see as excessive charges against six black teenagers. It is entirely peaceful so far.

The six black teenagers accused of -- charged in the case of beating a white schoolmate unconscious. The group there that has gathered says that they have been charged with very excessive -- and in a very excessive way. That there are double standards for white and black people in that tiny little town.

Very prominent civil rights leaders from the United States have gathered there, including Reverend Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and other celebrities have come there to lead that rally, to demand that this be looked into, and that they want justice. So, this is not about race, in their words, this is about justice on the other side of the story.

The district attorneys there are saying that the victim in this case who was beaten, stomped, has been forgotten. A very racially- charged atmosphere, but peaceful up until now.

We'll continue to monitor this and bring you the latest.

FRAZIER: Let's turn now to the aftermath of that powerful explosion in Lebanon which killed a key anti-Syrian member of parliament. The prime minister in Lebanon, Fouad Siniora, has pledged that that blast will not stop parliament from proceeding with presidential elections which are scheduled to begin next week. It's parliament that selects the next president.

Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): The blast site of another politically motivated murder in Lebanon yielding no substantial clues to help security forces identify the killers. Anti- Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem was consumed in a massive fireball from a bomb triggered, it's suspected, by remote control. The MP was stalked like prey and fingered for assassination in a ruthless conspiracy, it's claimed, by the leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority, Saad Hariri. It was engineered, he alleges, by Syria to weaken the western-backed government here and influence the outcome of a crucial presidential election.

"Six MPs have been killed by car bombs or bullets," says Hariri. "But we're not afraid and we will not be scared off."

Despite their dwindling numbers, anti-Syrian MPs and activists threw down the gauntlet, vowing to forge ahead on the divisive presidential issue in parliament next week, regardless of risk.

NAYLA MOUAWAD, SOCIAL AFFAIRS MINISTER: We are determined to go to the presidential elections. We are determined to fulfill our duties. We are determined to give to the Lebanese people a new president.

SADLER: Balance of power in parliament is key to a vicious political battle here. Syria consistently denies any involvement in the violence, but President Bashar al-Assad's regime strongly supports Lebanon's opposition led by Hezbollah, including a sizable Christian faction determined to either topple the government or block the ruling majority from consolidating power.

A worst-case scenario, projects analyst Michael Young, could be the election of a consensus, but ineffectual president.

MICHAEL YOUNG, POLITICAL ANALYST: A weak president who in a way -- in a way, because of his weakness, allows the clock to be set back to where it was before 2005, and Lebanon's from emergence under Syrian rule.

SADLER (on camera): Lebanon's political fate may hang by a thread after this latest attack. And the election of a new president, if that's even possible now, will likely fuel tension and raise fears among many Lebanese that this country could suffer even greater stability and bloodshed.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VASSILEVA: Well, still ahead, a major shake-up in the world of British socker to tell you about.

FRAZIER: Yes, he called himself "The Special One," and most people agreed. But now Chelsea Football Club can call Jose Mourinho the departed one. Why did this high-profile manager leave so suddenly?

VASSILEVA: Also, live pictures. A matter of justice. Demonstrators filling up a small town in a southern U.S. state, a school beating case that has thrust racial tensions into the national spotlight. We're monitoring the situation very closely. That's coming up just ahead.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including the United States.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Stephen Frazier.

VASSILEVA: And I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.

FRAZIER: Well, that civil rights rally in the U.S. south is continuing at this hour.

VASSILEVA: You're watching live pictures from Jena, Louisiana, tiny little town in the southern United States. Activists saying that the case of the Jena 6 symbolizes the unfairness of the American legal system and the racism still inherent in America.

FRAZIER: Organizers have managed to fill 500 long-range buses with protesters who have jammed Jena in this big show of support for the six black high school students, teenagers, charged with beating a white student.

VASSILEVA: Demonstrators say that the teens were treated unfairly. Meanwhile, white students who hung nooses from a tree were not charged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING III, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Incredible. The new generation of young people who were not exposed to the movement are here today to march.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In your dad's spirit?

KING: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this what he'd want you to do?

KING: I think it is. It's certainly one of the things. Obviously at the end of the day it's about bringing this community back together. But justice has to be done first.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has there been changes since your dad marched in Selma?

KING: Oh, most definitely. Many changes, but we still have a long way to go. The triple evils of poverty and militarism and racism are still in force today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is this about today?

KING: This is about justice. Justice for the six young men and even justice for the victim.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the three boys that hung the nooses?

KING: That is something that we must address, in terms of a hate crime piece of legislation. I think clearly it is not being addressed appropriately. There's been no penalty for those individuals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, there's more to come?

KING: We're certainly going to advocate for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASSILEVA: Well, students and teachers of Jena High say that the public is getting the wrong impression of their school.

CHARLENE RANTON, JENA HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: I feel that the world is not seeing the real picture of Jena High School. I feel like we here do your best to get along with all genders, races, and kinds. And we do here on the school campus. We have put this other behind us, and are moving forward.

The biggest hindrance we have at this point is the absence of our main academic school building. That's the biggest problem we have. It's not about race.

Now, what I see mostly that is the problem is outside of this school community. Those that have, you know, chosen to come and really don't know what it's like here. Our school is a peaceful place, and it's a good learning environment for our students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anna Marie, I was looking through the yearbook. Best all around, they voted a black and a white student, most witty, black and a white student, most athletic, black and a white student. And even the homecoming court. There seems to be a big misconception in a number of ways.

ANNA MARIE RANTON, JENA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: There is. We go to school functions together. We communicate at school outside at lunch. You know we're all friends here and people don't see that because they are not at our school every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what happened on this campus? Was that something that doesn't happen on a regular basis? And why do you think it happened?

RANTON: I really don't know. I think it's people from outside bringing it inside to the school every day.

VASSILEVA: Well, Tony Harris is in Jena, Louisiana. He joins us now live from there.

Tony, describe the scene to us, this tiny little town with tens of thousands of people descending on it to protest.

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ralitsa, so much in what you just said, but I have to tell you, I appreciate so much that your team at CNN International pulled the excerpts from Kyra Phillips' special that is airing tonight on CNN Domestic titled "Judgment In Jena," because as you take a look and loop some of these pictures in of the scene behind me, it is an incredible scene. It is a crowd mixed with blacks and whites. But let's be honest, it's a mostly black crowd that is here in Jena, Louisiana. And we have tried so hard to try to bring some balance to this story.

So, I appreciate the fact that you pulled an excerpt from the special tonight that gives some of the locals here in Jena an opportunity, some of the white locals, let's be frank about it, an opportunity to give you a sense of what all of this means for their town.

It has been an extraordinary day. We're talking about a rally that has taken shape over the last three or four weeks in Jena, Louisiana, and I feel the need to sort of locate folks and your international viewers as to where we are. We are between Alexandria, Louisiana, and Monroe, Louisiana, about 175 miles or so from New Orleans. And everybody is familiar with New Orleans at this point.

And it's been an extraordinary morning. We were here before the crack of dawn. And hundreds of people had already descended on this small city of about anywhere from 2,900 to 3,500 people. That's it. The population breaks out about 85 percent white and anywhere from 12 percent to 15 percent African American.

And this is a city pretty much at the epicenter right now of what many are considering a new era in the civil rights movement. That's where we are. We have seen two huge camps separated about by about a mile and a half that have come together in the last hour or so. We have an aerial view, oh, about 30 feet above the ground here, where it is just hard to discern the numbers of people. The street just clogged here. Obviously a massive security presence is here in place. And I have to tell you, i'm a little bit concerned about this time of the day, because it is absolutely scorching here. And -- but to this point, I have to tell you, it has been peaceful, about as organized as you can organize 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Let me answer a question before you ask it. And I'll shut up for a moment here. I have no idea, Ralitsa, how many people are here in Jena, Louisiana, right now.

VASSILEVA: Well, let's say a lot. Ten times probably ...

HARRIS: Yes.

VASSILEVA: The size of this tiny little town of 3,000.

HARRIS: Yes.

VASSILEVA: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: All right, Ralitsa.

VASSILEVA: We'll check in with you as we monitor the situation for now. Peaceful but very, very sensitive and racially charged protests there in tiny little Jena, Louisiana.

Stay with CNN for live coverage, as Tony was mentioning, from Jena throughout the day. And for our viewers in the United States, you can tune in for a CNN's special investigations unit report, "Judgment in Jena," which airs at 8 p.m. eastern and for the rest of you, it will air during "YOUR WORLD TODAY" at 1500 GMT tomorrow.

FRAZIER: A big development in the business world, an emerging Middle East investment fund is investing heavily in one of the most established private investment houses in the United States. Abu Dhabi based, Mubadala Development Company, which is actually an arm of the government, its investment arm has now sealed a deal to pay the Carlyle Group $1.35 billion for a 7.5 percent stake.

Joining us for more on this and its implications is CNN correspondent John Defterious who is on the line from Abu Dhabi. Another sign here John of the clout that the Persian Gulf emirates yield financially.

JOHN DEFTERIOUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed Stephen and immediately it values Carlyle at $20 billion which is important if they want to take its company to the market in an IPO. The Carlyle Group, as you noted, is a well known yet secretive private equity firm with great reach into Washington. It counts among its advisors and partners, former U.S. President George Bush, James Baker and former British Prime Minister John Major. It's a fast growing investment fund and its CEO, Khaldoon Mubarak, is eager to broaden his investment pool while benefiting right now clearly from rising oil revenues.

This follows a move by a Chinese firm ahead of the Blackstone IPO that you remember on Wall Street. That was valued at $3 billion, that investment by the Chinese group. Middle East funds lately Stephen as you noted here, buy-out, MGM Mirage, GE Plastics and the U.K. super market group Sainsbury so a major trend. Just one fact here, $130 billion worth of deals from developing countries into the developed world so far this year. That's five times what we saw just five years ago.

FRAZIER: And probably not a trend that's about to end anytime soon. John, thank you for that update. John Defterious joining us there from Abu Dhabi. For more on the region's deals and dealmakers and power brokers and ground breakers, join John Defterious for "Marketplace Middle East." It's a new 15-minute program which focuses on the people that are changing the business game in the Middle East and around the world. It debuts Friday at 8:15 GMT.

VASSILEVA: Well, coming up, O.J. Simpson is on the move.

FRAZIER: He is out of jail for now. We'll bring you the latest on the case and the new cast of characters this time.

VASSILEVA: And Iraq's president will be kept away from visiting a place many Americans consider hallowed ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VASSILEVA: Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY here on CNN International.

FRAZIER: We're seen live in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe.

Well, the juice is loose now, at least temporarily. He's out on $125,000 bond. O.J. Simpson left Las Vegas last night, heading for Miami. Where he and his girlfriend then boarded a Ford Excursion, an SUV that is awfully reminiscent of that Ford Bronco that made a slow- speed run a long time ago and the first time.

VASSILEVA: The most famous chase. Infamous.

FRAZIER: Anyway, they headed home in that car, and that was an uneventful drive.

VASSILEVA: Simpson will have to return, though, to Las Vegas on October 22nd.

FRAZIER: That's when they are planning to arraign him on a number of felony charges ranging from robbery to kidnapping.

VASSILEVA: And those charges stemming from a confrontation between Simpson, his three co-defendants and a pair of memorabilia dealers who felt that they were meeting a buyer for Simpson souvenirs.

FRAZIER: But as Anderson Cooper tells us now, that is about all we know for certain about the notorious night.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What happened at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino depends on whom you ask. Just about everyone who was inside room 1203 is talking. Let's start with one of the alleged victims, Bruce Fromong, a former salesman for Simpson. He says he owns a valuable collection of O.J. Simpson memorabilia and was approached by a business acquaintance, Alfred Beardsley, about a potential buyer at the casino.

BRUCE FROMONG, MEMORABILIA DEALER: He asked that we meet there. We took the stuff there to meet him. We're talking about a deal, approximately could have been as much as $75,000 to $100,000 worth of stuff on the market.

COOPER: Beardsley arrested on a California fugitive warrant told CNN the man who arranged the meeting was Thomas Riccio, the auction house owner and ex-con. Riccio said he had a buyer. But he also had a secret. He told us the collection was stolen from Simpson and was going to surprise them with O.J. himself.

THOMAS RICCIO: The original plan was O.J. was going to come and come to the room and identify the stuff, and then he would give him the option of turning the stuff over or calling the police. COOPER: On September 13th, Beardsley, Fromong and Riccio were in room 1203, and items for sale were on the bed. Then Riccio left to get what he believed was his client.

FROMONG: The gentleman that set us up on this thing, I use that term loosely, said there is -- my buyer is here. Let me go get him. About a minute later, the door first opened. Guys came rushing in one after another. Second one had a gun draw.

COOPER: Fromong told police that Simpson and five other men burst into the room, two of them holding guns. Riccio says he recorded what happened next on his cell phone.

It was over in minutes. Beardsley says it was terrifying.

ALFRED BEARDSLEY, ALLEGED ROBBERY VICTIM: When you're a victim of a violent setting like this, you just -- it's like somebody telling you that somebody in your family passed away. You know how you get the cold chill through your body? I mean, it was scary.

COOPER: Riccio knew Simpson would enter the room but he claims he had no idea there would be guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know there would be other people to get the merchandise back?

RICCIO: I knew he would be coming with a couple other people, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know he was coming with people armed?

RICCIO: I didn't know that it was going to be that many people and definitely not armed.

COOPER: One co-defendant points a finger at Riccio saying Simpson was tricked.

WALTER ALEXANDER, CO-DEFENDANT: I believe it was set up. You see it was taped. I believe it was a setup. It's very obvious that Thomas Riccio, you know, had intentions to set O.J. up. And that's what happened.

COOPER: But Simpson says it was not an armed robbery and no guns were involved. He says he was conducting a sting operation to retrieve items he claims were stolen from him. One room, one night, too many stories to count. Who's telling the truth in yet another Simpson criminal case, it may be impossible to know for sure.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.

VASSILEVA: We'll take a short break now.

FRAZIER: But there's a lot more coming on YOUR WORLD TODAY so stay with us please.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FRAZIER: Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing to speak to the entire United Nations General assembly when it convenes next week and he's already ruffling feathers in New York well ahead of that visit. City's police department has just denied Mr. Ahmadinejad's request to visit ground zero and place a wreath there. That, of course, the site where almost 3,000 Americans lost their lives.

Our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth joins us now. Richard, you're usually there to talk about the subtleties of diplomatic bloviating. But you have an example of how New York is really an example of media political incorrectness.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, New York City is where 9/11 happened. And when it comes to any -- anything touching on terrorism or someone's opinion of who might be behind it, you're going to touch some raw nerves. However, New York City is used to world leaders coming here. There are dozens coming for the General Assembly.

The Iranian president is slated to speak to the General Assembly on Tuesday. Before that, where he speaks, where he shows up is big news. The tabloids in New York City, the newspapers, "The Daily News" saying if you ever think of setting foot near ground zero, you can go to you know where. And "The New York Post" saying "zero chance," referring to ground zero. We talked to tourists down there earlier today. They were not happy about him going down there. Some thought it would help chances for world peace.

President Bush earlier today also telling journalists that it would not be a good idea for him to go down there. And the New York City Police Department saying that he would not be allowed to make a visit to ground zero due to construction.

He may speak indeed at Columbia University. Arrangements are being made for that.

FRAZIER: We should point out, riff charred, remind our viewers there's no linkage between Iran and the attacks on the world trade center which resulted in ground zero as it is today.

ROTH: That's correct. Iran has not been named as any type of participant in that. However the Iranian president has called for the elimination of Israel being wiped off the face of the earth and denying the existence of the Holocaust. It's been a field day for some presidential candidates in America who have said he should never be invited to the U.N. However it isn't up to the secretary-general. The rules of this club, if you're a world leader and you head a country which has membership here, you can come here.

FRAZIER: And, of course, he has been seeking to have some kind of dialogue, perhaps by extended long letter that he sent to President Bush. You know, he's been seeking some kind of dialogue for quite a while now.

ROTH: Yes, he would like to have a dialogue. The Americans have a host of other problems that block that but there have been sought one-on-ones and private meetings in Iraq. American dip diplomats say there's no been no progress [inaudible] and its neighbor.

FRAZIER: Anything else about the upcoming session and what is likely to be some of the more noteworthy addresses from the other world leaders?

ROTH: The theme is climate change. But some will say there is going to be a lot of hot air in the room. Many are looking forward to the presence of Hugo Chavez, last year he said there was a smell of sulfur in the room and obliquely referring to President Bush. Not every country is sending their top leaders. Gordon brown of Britain will not be here. President Musharraf of Pakistan, the leader of Sudan is not going to be here. That's different from other years. Each has their internal reasons back home why it may not be good to travel.

FRAZIER: Such an August body but sometimes such political circus there as you mentioned with the president of Venezuela last year. That was quite a moment and we're glad you're on the case for us. Richard Roth, thanks for joining us now.

VASSILEVA: And now the latest on that little Iraqi boy burned in a brutal attack. He has undergone his first reconstruction facial surgery in the United States. We're just hearing that it has ended. We have with us his -- the doctor who performed this operation. He is joining us now, Dr. Peter Grossman.

Thank you so much for joining us. How did it go?

DR. PETER GROSSMAN, YOUSSIF'S SURGEON: It went well. I was very pleased to see that everything went the way we wanted it to. Youssif was scared, but he was a trooper. And surgery really went without any complications. And we're very pleased at the outcome.

VASSILEVA: So, what exactly did you do to his little face?

GROSSMAN: Well, there are a number of things that we did. One of the major things we did was excise the significant scar tissue on the top of the nose, where it bridges up against the forehead extending down to the side of the face. It's basically an area from here and extending down to the areas of the corner of the mouth. And we put a temporary skin graft on there, which was cadaver skin. We did that to kind of prime the wound bed for a few days for eventual second-stage surgery which will be next week where we'll take a full- thickness skin graft from another part of his body and place it up in that area. The other thing we did --

VASSILEVA: How much pain is he going to -- how much pain is he going to be in after this surgery?

GROSSMAN: You know, he'll have some discomfort. He will have some pain for the first couple of hours. But kids are really pretty brave. And they get over the pain relatively quickly. And he's shown that he's a brave young boy. He's got a lot of other things that he's going to have to heal from the surgery today, so he'll need a little help, a little pain medicine, but he's going to be all right.

VASSILEVA: All right. Dr. Peter Grossman, thank you very much. We'll be speaking with you in just a moment.

But for our U.S. and international viewers, we'll take a short break now. The surgery went well. That is good news. This is a brave little boy.

FRAZIER: We can hardly wait for some more details from Dr. Peter Grossman.

VASSILEVA: And we'll have some more.

FRAZIER: I'm Stephen Frazier.

VASSILEVA: And I'm Ralitsa Vassileva. This is CNN.

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