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Your World Today
U.S. Air Security: Government Investigators Slip Past With Bomb Components; Airline Industry Faces Worst Year for On-Time Performance; Hillary Clinton Still the Candidate to Beat
Aired November 15, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Extreme weather. A fierce cyclone packing extreme winds and tidal waves, bearing down this minute on Bangladesh.
ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Taking a gamble on Las Vegas, Democratic presidential candidates get ready to roll the dice on another big debate.
CLANCY: Deadly force. Canadian police face fierce criticism now for the way that they handled or mishandled a distraught passenger at an airport.
SESAY: The second time around. Sad, touching stories of those who find love again because they don't remember.
It's 11:00 p.m. in Dakar, 9:00 a.m. in Vancouver.
Hello and welcome to our report seen around the globe.
I'm Isha Sesay.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.
From Las Vegas to London, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
SESAY: Now, one nervous resident says, "It looks like the sea is coming to grab us."
CLANCY: You can understand that point of view as violent winds, pounding rain and a potentially catastrophic storm surge all combining to bear down on Bangladesh.
SESAY: Hundreds of thousands of coastal villages are seeking shelter as Tropical Cyclone Sidr barrels ashore. The powerful Category 4 storm is wiping out homes and uprooting trees as it pounds the coast near India.
CLANCY: Now, as we look at it, the biggest threat from this is the storm surge. That could bring walls of water literally as high as 20 feet or 6 meters. Finding higher ground, though, not an easy task in one of the lowest lying regions in the entire world.
(WEATHER REPORT) CLANCY: Meantime, in Chile, strong aftershocks rattling the northern regions of the country on Thursday, just a day after Chile was jolted by a powerful 7.7 magnitude quake. Two women died in Wednesday's quake, 150 others were injured, and hundreds of homes and other structures were damaged or destroyed.
Many residents decided to spend the night more safely outdoors. The three large aftershocks shook the region in the space of just 13 minutes. That came at midday in Chile.
One of our viewers sent in this video. Valentina Busto says many buildings were evacuated. She says people are very frightened up there. They've got the jitters as these aftershocks keep rolling in. A lot of them would just like to go home and see things calm down.
SESAY: Well, despite heightened security at U.S. airports, a government test shows that bomb parts can still make it onto airplanes.
Jeanne Meserve is following the story in Washington, where investigators are testifying to Congress. She joins us live.
And Jeanne, first off, tell us what exactly they managed to get through those airport security checkpoints.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Government Accountability Office says it got through components for IEDs, improvised explosive devices, and also incendiary devices. They weren't assembled, but they did get them through and, in fact, onto aircraft. So a lot of tough questions from Congress today for the head of the Transportation Securit4y Administration.
Kip Hawley told Congress that his agency has to dwell on the most serious threats, and although the bombs created with the components successfully smuggled through the checkpoints by GAO do, indeed, make a big bang, he says they are not the highest priority for the TSA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIP HAWLEY, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: Frankly, some of the stuff we saw here is not a concern, honestly. There is some of it that is a concern. And so we focus on the piece that could do, you know, catastrophic damage.
You take an airplane down, that's what we go after. And we know that if somebody goes up and puts on a flash in the plane, that is not a good thing. They will be arrested and the other passengers will certainly take it out on him, but it's not -- we're not going to put our resources against things that -- that are scientific demonstrations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: The GAO was then asked what it thought could the IEDs, if created with readily available materials, smuggled through the checkpoints, bring down a plane. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN COONEY, U.S. GAO: We've had...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the result?
COONEY: ... two independent opinions on that, and the results are that, placed in the appropriate place on an aircraft -- and I can't say where that is at this hearing -- that it could possibly do catastrophic damage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: This is the second year GAO has done these tests, and members of Congress are not happy that for the second year, the results are dismal. In the words of Congressman Henry Waxman, six years after 9/11, after spending billions of dollars on airport security, it is what he called an embarrassing and dangerous record.
Back to you.
SESAY: All right. Jeanne Meserve there.
We must leave it. Many thanks.
CLANCY: Well, talking about airline travel, the security report came just as airports are gearing up for a holiday crunch. Starting tomorrow, U.S. airlines expected to fly 27 million passengers worldwide over the next 12 days. President George W. Bush may have a little bit of good news if the next hour for travelers expecting long delays.
Kathleen Koch joins us now from Washington with some details.
What's afoot?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it was back in September that President Bush announced a plan to come up with a plan to help air travelers with these massive record delays we've seen this year. Now, we are being told, though, that today we're going to hear some real changes of substance.
Now, first of all, sources who are familiar with the plan tell me that one of the newest changes will be the air space, military air space to the east of New York City and New Jersey. It will be now opened to commercial aircraft, but that will be just temporary, just for this busy holiday season.
Then at JFK airport in New York, a couple of changes there. Simultaneous landings will be allowed on some of the runways to get planes on the ground more quickly, and then a runway that's normally used only for landings, planes will be allowed now to take off there under the right conditions, the right types of planes. And that will help get planes off the ground more quickly.
Another change the president we're told is going to propose, fining airlines for chronically delayed flights, accusing them basically of false advertising. Then another change -- and this was one that we heard from the president back in September -- would be tripling the payments to passengers when they are involuntary bumped off of flights. And, of course, with all the crowded skies, the record delays, that's happening more and more.
Now, that was an idea that the Department of Transportation started floating this summer, the idea of penalizing the airlines for the delayed flights. That was floated starting back in March. So these aren't all new ideas, and it's unclear how quickly those two changes could be put into place. But the good news for holiday travelers is the other changes as far as military air space and the JFK changes, they could happen quickly and they could help -- Jim.
CLANCY: Kathleen Koch, thank you for that.
KOCH: You bet.
CLANCY: Always good to hear some good news.
SESAY: You hear that music, Jim? Time to talk politics.
The Democratic candidates for U.S. president are preparing for another round of punches. This time the ring is in Las Vegas, Nevada.
CLANCY: And the winner of tonight's debate, really it's anybody's gamble.
SESAY: IT is, indeed. The race is tightening among the Democratic frontrunners, so who's got the edge tonight?
CLANCY: Well, let's take a look here. There's a "New York Times"/CBS News poll out. It shows a virtual three-way tie in the key election state of Iowa. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are really within a few points of each other.
SESAY: In New Hampshire, Clinton is clearingly ahead with 37 percent of the vote among Democratic primary voters.
OK. Well, despite a stumble at her last debate, Clinton is still the frontrunner, and she enters tonight's match-up wearing, some would say, a bull's eye.
For more on the incoming fire, I'm pleased to say we're joined by host Wolf Blitzer. He's live in Las Vegas.
Wolf, good to see you.
It's been said that after Hillary's performance in Philadelphia, her campaign is hoping for a somewhat easier ride from the moderator. Is she likely to get it from you tonight, Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I think she's going to be asked tough questions. I think all of the seven Democratic presidential candidates are going to be asked tough questions. John Roberts will be joining me in the questioning, as will our own Campbell Brown. And then in the second hour, undecided Democratic voters here in the state of Nevada will be able to stand up, look those candidates in the eye, and ask whatever is on their mind as well, and then we'll follow up and make sure the candidates actually answer the questions.
So, all of the candidates will be put on the spot. And we'll try to, as we say here at CNN, keep them honest.
SESAY: Well, Wolf, you mentioned there that there will be audience participation. I mean, we know that Nevada has, you know, a growing Latino population and a strong union workforce. I mean, what are the issues you expect to dominate the agenda tonight?
BLITZER: I think a lot of the domestic, the key domestic issues, will be on the agenda, whether Social Security or health care or illegal immigration. I think there will be a focus on foreign policy issues. There's no shortage of crises going on, especially in Pakistan right now, potentially with Iran, certainly the war in Iraq.
It's going to be a full gamut. There's going to be two hours of questioning, so we will be able to get through a lot of the substantive issues that are on the agenda, on the minds of American voters right now.
SESAY: Well, just looking at pictures there of John Edwards and Barack Obama, and it certainly seems as if after that Philadelphia debate the intensity of rhetoric coming out of those camps has been a lot fiercer.
Do you think that Hillary Clinton is in store for some more political body blows, as it were, from these two?
BLITZER: Yes, I think she's the frontrunner. In all of the national polls, she's way ahead. And when you are the frontrunner, whether you're male or female, you're going to be attacked, you're going to be the target. There's going to be a bull's eye on you. And that goes with the territory.
And there's no doubt that Barack Obama, John Edwards and the others are going to be trying to differentiate their positions, their attitudes to Hillary Clinton's. And I think that will certainly be evident later tonight here in Las Vegas. But there's also no doubt that she's been preparing.
She knows she stumbled at the last Democratic presidential debate. She told our own Candy Crowley that it wasn't her best day. So she's been honing her skills, and they have been rehearsing and practicing with their advisers, as all the candidates do, to get ready for tonight. And I'm sure she will be anticipating some tough questions and she'll also be anticipating some tough comments from her rivals.
SESAY: All right, Wolf, there we must leave it.
We'll all be watching. Many thanks.
And you can watch the debate right here live from Las Vegas, Thursday, November 15th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For our international viewers, that's Friday, November 16th at 01:00 GMT.
CLANCY: Well, coming up, a story about a lethal attack that involved a supposedly non-lethal weapon.
SESAY: A deadly incident in a Canadian airport calls into question the safety of the Taser electroshock weapon.
CLANCY: And for once, the weather is in their favor, but experts say it could still take years and years to clean up the mess from that oil spill in the Black Sea.
SESAY: And later, doctors discover a new way that Alzheimer's can break hearts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: A special welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States this hour.
Well, there's a report, a new one from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. It says Iran continues to defy the Security Council on uranium enrichment. But the report says Tehran is making what it terms substantial progress in revealing the nature and extent of its nuclear program.
The report suggests Iran has told the truth about key aspects of its past nuclear activities. The agency says Iran needs to be more proactive in providing information. The IAEA also acknowledging that its knowledge of the nuclear program is shrinking, but Iran is pointing toward the positive, saying the report proves it's cooperating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAEED JALILI, IRANIAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR (through translator): As it is written in the NPT, I think that we can easily have good cooperation when it comes to disarmament or non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and for promotion of cooperation for having peaceful use of nuclear technology. I think this is a very good basis itself, and this is the framework within which we can work and cooperate. And I'm sure that we can set a very good ground for further progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: All right. Calmly stressing the positive there. Jalili says Iran is interested in peace and security for all the world.
SESAY: All right. We want to take you to Canada now, where Royal Canadian Mounted Police are facing blistering criticism for the way they handled or some say mishandled an airport tasing incident.
CLANCY: All right. Let's give you a little bit of background here. We are going to take you back a month, show you a distraught 40-year-old Polish immigrant who was tased at the Vancouver airport. The reality, he died moments later. The Polish government asking Canada, give us some information.
SESAY: But was he a direct threat to police? That's what everyone is asking. New video of the incident is out and we want to warn you, it is disturbing.
Terry Milewski has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TERRY MILEWSKI, REPORTER, CBC (voice over): The last moments of Robert Dziekanski captured by a bystander. It's 1:00 in the morning and he's holding a table at the door to the arrivals area of Vancouver airport.
He's exhausted, confused and breathing heavily. After arriving from Poland on his first-ever plane ride, he's been waiting 10 hours for his mother, who told him to wait in the baggage area, but she couldn't go in there, couldn't get a message to him, and finally went home after being told he never arrived.
A bystander tries to calm Dziekanski down, but he doesn't understand. Then he picks up a computer, throws it.
Then he throws a stool at the glass. A security man appears, but they can't communicate. Another bystander says we need an interpreter here. But the RCMP arrive, and before they get near Dziekanski, one officer asks another, "May I taser him?" And the answer is yes.
As the Mounties approach, a bystander tells him the man speaks no English. For a moment, the four Mounties try to talk to Dziekanski, but it's no good. He seems to shrug and move away, and that is when he is tasered with 50,000 volts of electricity.
He falls and is tasered again. The Mounties pile on top of him as he writhes and moans. At this point the man behind the camera becomes concerned.
PAUL PRITCHARD, BYSTANDER: Probably the most disturbing part is one of the officers uses his leg and his knee to pin his neck and his head against the ground.
MILEWSKI: Within moments, Dziekanski loses consciousness.
We showed the tape to retired superintendent Ron Foyle, a 33-year veteran of the Vancouver Police.
RON FOYLE, VANCOUVER POLICE DEPT. (RET.): I don't know why it ever became a police incident. It didn't seem that he made any threatening gestures toward them.
MILEWSKI: Before the video became public, the RCMP claimed that Dziekanski fought with them. Now that the video has been returned to its owner and he has made it public, the RCMP say it's not the whole story.
CORPORAL DALE CARR, RCMP: But it's only one piece of evidence and it's one person's view. It's through the viewfinder of one individual.
MILEWSKI: But for Dziekanski's mother, the video shows the taser is too dangerous.
ZOFIA CISOWSKI, DZIEKANSKI'S MOTHER: That way from taser, they should do something, because that is killer -- people killer.
MILEWSKI (on camera): There will now be several investigations by the coroner, by the RCMP, by the RCMP Complaints Commission. And all of that will take many months. But for Robert Dziekanski's mother, the verdict is already in that her son died for nothing.
Terry Milewski, CBC News, Vancouver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: All right. Let's take a few minutes here and take a closer look at tasers.
SESAY: Here's what you need to know.
To start with, the proper name is electroshock weapons. Taser is actually a trademark for a particular brand. It's an acronym for Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle. Tom Swift was, of course, a fictional inventor here, overseas, of early 20th century books for boys.
CLANCY: Now, the guns fire small, dart-like projectiles, using compressed air cartridges. These darts then trail very thin wires that can conduct a high-voltage, low-current electrical discharge, in some cases as much as 50,000 volts.
SESAY: The guns are marketed as non-lethal. The company that makes them says Tasers have never directly caused any deaths, but a CBS News report found that Tasers were seen as a contributing factor in some 70 deaths, especially when fired on someone with a weak heart.
Well, despite the controversy, Tasers have caught on in America, especially among one very surprisingly segment of the population. This is a Taser party, a new phenomenon that promoters say is spreading like, well, lightning across the U.S. As you can see, the target audience is women.
CLANCY: Now, participants instructed on how to operate the weapon and even given a chance to practice on a metallized target. Organizers market the Tasers as a perfect self-protection weapon for women. And at this party, at least, they seem to agree.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNNE RIGBERG, TASER PARTY GUEST: It makes it an instrument of protection in a non-threatening environment, and that's exactly what the danger is. It is an easy -- it's an easy device to carry for protection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, one of the women who hosts Taser parties appeared on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" a little earlier to give a lesson on how to use it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA SHAFMAN, SHIELDHER, INC.: Basically, it's a one-handed type device, so the proper way to handle it is basically to hold it close to you, with a distance that's safe, about 15 feet or less. Basically, you open the safety and you go ahead and shoot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: All right. Well, there you get the demonstration of what it's like to fire one. We are looking at a case, though, in Canada where, you know, as they say, it's never directly caused a death but it's a contributing cause.
SESAY: But it's a contributing factor.
CLANCY: This is, you know, what they're going to be investigating there.
SESAY: So you know what does it feel like on the other end, you may remember the time our Rick Sanchez volunteered to get tased just to tell us what it was like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm about to receive 50,000 volts of electricity.
Do it.
Oh! It hurts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Yes, I think that sums it up, doesn't it?
SESAY: Yes.
CLANCY: Because, you know, that's -- that's what it is. You can see, it just grips all of your muscles.
We have got to take a break.
SESAY: We do. We're going to take a short break. YOUR WORLD TODAY continues.
Stay with us.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JIM CLANCY, CO-HOST: Hello to everyone, our viewers joining us from all around the globe, including right here in the United States. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.
ISHA SESAY, CO-HOST: And I'm Isha Sesay. Here are some of the top stories we're following for you.
Violent rain, pounding waves and a potentially catastrophic storm surge are all bearing down on Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of coastal villagers are seeking shelter as Tropical Cyclone Sidr barrels ashore. The Category 4 storm is wiping out homes and uprooting trees as it pounds the coast near India.
CLANCY: A day after Chile was jolted by a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake, strong aftershocks rolling across the region. All three quakes were centered near Antofagasta. Two people died, and hundreds of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed when the larger quake hit Wednesday.
SESAY: Police in Canada are under fire for their handling of an airport incident that resulted in the death of a Polish immigrant. The man died after being tasered by Mounties. But a video that has just surfaced seems to show the man was more distraught than dangerous.
CLANCY: Returning now to dramatic efforts to try to clean up a large oil spill in the Black Sea. Environmentalists say the damage there could last 15 years, but improved weather has helped the cleanup efforts.
Matthew Chance is in Anapa, Russia, and joins us now.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, thanks very much. As you say, the bad weather, the bad storms that led to the ship wrecks of at least 11 vessels in the Black Sea (AUDIO GAP) speaking to you now has died down considerably, although it is still a bit blustery.
But it's calm enough to allow the efforts to step up the cleaning-up efforts and the salvage efforts along this coastline, which has been so severely scarred by that oil spillage, 560,000 gallons of fuel oil spilling into the Black Sea, much of it sinking to the bottom of the Black Sea and will remain there for 15 years or so, according to environmentalists, until it's gradually taken away by the currents.
But much of it washing up on the seashore and causing terrible pollution along the long, sandy beaches here along the Black Sea coast. Famous in the former Soviet Union for its stretches of sand, it's very big in tourism here. The fishing industry is very big, as well. This has put an end to all of that in the areas affected.
Hundreds of people are here on the ground, attempting to clean up those beaches, using shovels and rakes and bulldozers to try and scrape the thick oil, which is mixed with dead sea creatures and seaweed and sand into the backs of trucks to take it away.
That major operation is expected to take, according to officials, between seven and ten days further. It will be 45 days before all traces of the oil have cleaned up on the land, according to officials, but as you mentioned, years until the effects of this oil slick cease to be felt, Jim.
CLANCY: Matthew Chance there along the Black Sea on a very important story today that is developing there, one that continues to develop as the cleanup efforts go on. Matthew, as always, thank you -- Isha.
SESAY: Turning to Pakistan now, political maneuvers emerge from a still deep and dangerous political crisis.
President Pervez Musharraf is expected to appoint a caretaker government today, just as both he and parliament reached the end of their five-year terms. Protests raged as General Musharraf stays in power under his own emergency declaration.
At the same time, CNN has learned that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's party is entering talks with Nawaz Sharif's party. They're considering an alliance to oppose the general's grip on power.
Now Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is explicitly calling for the overthrow of Hamas for the first time since the group seized control of Gaza.
During a speech in the West Bank where his government is based, President Abbas said, quote, "We have to bring down this bunch that took over Gaza with armed force and is abusing the sufferings and pains of our people."
Tensions between his Fatah Party and Hamas are extremely high in Gaza, after gunfire blamed on Hamas loyalists killed eight civilians at a huge Fatah rally earlier this week.
CLANCY: The United States wants to make sure the West Bank doesn't go the way of Gaza, so it's spending big money to try to help the moderate government of Mahmoud Abbas stay in power and keep Hamas in check.
Ben Wedeman is following that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drills start early at the security academy in Jericho, a showcase for the Palestinian Authority striving in the West Bank to replace violent, chaos and confusion with discipline, law and order. Rather than preparing to fight Israel, here they try to learn the language of their old enemy. The academy is part of an American effort to assure the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, stays afloat in the West Bank after its forces were crushed by Hamas last June in Gaza.
Much of that effort is focused here in the northern West Bank city of Nablis, home to a myriad of militant groups, including Hamas.
Earlier this month, 300 Palestinian policemen deployed in Nablis, and this week officials made a rare appearance to show their support.
JACOB WELLS, U.S. CONSUL GENERAL IN JERUSALEM: I want to congratulate you, Mr. Prime Minister, and your government for the recent steps that you've taken here in Nablis to improve the daily lives of the people. And also for the security forces and Palestinian Authority for what you've done to restore law and order here in the city.
WEDEMAN: The U.S. also announced Nablis will be given $1.3 million for development and reconstruction. Some residents welcome the aid but say the Americans could do much more.
"Of course it helps," says truck driver Khalil Hamid (ph). "But it would be more useful if they told the Israelis to take away all the checkpoints around the city."
Israeli troops still conduct regular raids in Nablis, raids that underscore how little real power the Palestinian Authority actually has.
And though Hamas in the West Bank has gone underground, it still poses a very real threat, says Palestinian analyst Said Zidani.
"If there wasn't any money or Israeli forces," he warns, "Hamas would take over the West Bank in two days."
By backing Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. isn't just preventing another Hamas victory. It's also trying to ensure that, if Abbas manages to reach a peace deal with Israel, he'll have the political power to sell it to his people.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Nablis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Now, does it count as adultery if a cheating spouse forgets he's married?
CLANCY: Well, that's just one of many complicated questions concerning Alzheimer's love triangles. Coming up next, the confusion and the dedication that comes with a forgotten romance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY right here on CNN International.
SESAY: We're seen live in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe.
CLANCY: Now, he's serving a seven-year prison sentence in Britain, but he's also wanted by the United States, though.
SESAY: Now, a British court opens the door for the possible extradition of a controversial Muslim cleric.
Abu Hamza al-Masri is serving time for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred in London. You may remember him as the cleric who preached outside a London mosque, praising the September 11 attacks and calling al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a hero.
CLANCY: All right. Will he go to the United States? Well, an extradition isn't going to happen right away. We know that much. There is an appeals process. All of this could take months. But the U.S. wants him.
SESAY: Now, those who drive Germany's passenger trains have joined their freight train peers on strike. Deutsche Bahn, which runs the national rail system, calls the planned three-day rail strike the largest it's ever faced. Commuters are using trams and buses. Deutsche Bahn has pressed 500 buses into service.
It's also the second day of a nationwide transportation strike in France. Trains and buses are going nowhere. The government and unions are at odds over changes in pensions.
CLANCY: And now a story of fear and torture from a man who escaped detention in North Korea.
SESAY: Shin Dong-Hyuk (suffered abuse daily at a notorious North Korean prison camp, and his scarred body is testament to what he endured.
CLANCY: Sohn Ji-Ae has his story. She met with him, talked with him and brings us this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOHN JI-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When he was just 14, Shin Dong-Hyuk saw his mother's execution. Shin and his father were forced to watch his mother hanged and his 22-year-old brother killed by a firing squad in North Korean prison camp No. 14.
"I was angry at her," he says. "And I blamed her for what I had to go through."
A deep scar down his spine is evidence of what he had to go through. He says guards at the camp literally grilled him over charcoal to get him to confess that he had conspired with his mother and brother to escape, the crime for which they were executed.
Shin was born in prison camp No. 14. He says he knew no other life than being beaten and tortured by guards, doing hard labor every day and always being hungry.
His young body riddled with scars is a testament to that life. Deep burns on his legs are from climbing over an electrified fence to finally escape three years ago. He's the first North Korean to come to the south, fleeing a prison camp known as a total control zone.
KIM SANG-HOON, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Anybody gets sent there, they are going to spend rest of their entire lives there, and they can never get out of the camp, dead or alive.
SOHN: Shown here in a satellite photo, prison camp No. 14 is one of at least five such places in North Korea. The U.S. State Department says as many as 200,000 political prisoners languish in these camps.
Shin is 24 now, and in a new book describing his life in North Korea, Shin lists words he never heard in the camp: money, radio, telephone. And emotions he never felt: happiness, satisfaction, love.
(on camera) Today is another new experience for shin. He is here at a university to talk to South Koreans of his own age about the life that he has led, a life that they can't even imagine.
(voice-over) They listen and cannot help but be moved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was pretty impressed by the fact that he didn't know that he was living a miserable life, with unimaginable situations.
SOHN: Shin still carries emotional as well as physical scars.
"Every time I see a policeman," he says, "I have flashbacks of the prison camp. Chills run down my spine."
Shin Dong-Hyuk says he still deals with guilt about the father he left behind in the camp. As for his mother, he says he's only starting to realize his ordeal is not her fault.
Sohn Ji-Ae, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: All right. We continue to track a deadly cyclone that is ramming its way northward into Bangladesh. We're going to talk with someone at the scene, coming up.
SESAY: That's right. We're going to speak to someone from the red zone (ph). Stay tuned for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: All right. We continue to track Hurricane Sidr as it makes its way into Bangladesh. We'll keep you updated on this story.
This is a major storm. We just talked moments ago with the Red Cross. There's 20 to 30,000 volunteers that have combed the beaches there, trying to warn people to get off of them. No reports yet of any deaths or injuries caused by this storm, but you can believe this when we tell you that parts of India and Bangladesh are bracing for the worst this hour.
SESAY: Jim, what could be harder to bear than seeing the love of your life fall in love with someone else?
CLANCY: Well, and what if it was because he or she doesn't even -- doesn't even remember you? Now, that's what's happened to some spouses of people who, sadly, are suffering from Alzheimer's.
SESAY: Gary Tuchman introduces us to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thomas Schnyder and Josephine Scalzo (ph) are both in advanced stages of Alzheimer's Disease. They live in an Alzheimer's group home in Las Vegas, and they like each other a lot.
(on camera) My name is Gary. You're Josephine. Hi, Josephine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
TUCHMAN: And you're Thomas. Hello, Thomas.
(voice-over) Eighty-year-old Josephine does most of the talking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, thank you.
TUCHMAN: We asked the owner of the group home about Thomas.
CHRIS TAM, LAS VEGAS ALZHEIMER'S & MEMORY CARE: He kissed everybody to say good-bye. And then, you know, he likes to be touched. He likes to joke with our people. But he cannot even speak, you know.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Josephine is behind you. That's his girlfriend, right?
TAM: Josephine, right here, yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But there's another woman in Thomas's life.
J. SCHNYDER: Hello, Thomas. Hi.
TUCHMAN: His bride of 54 years, the woman who takes care of him, is devoted to him and still loves him.
J. SCHNYDER: Keeping his arm (ph)?
TUCHMAN: Her name is June, and she regularly visits her husband, who no longer knows who she is.
(on camera) You see him with this other woman, and they're holding hands. I mean, I would think, you know, it must be hard to see that. Is it hard?
J. SCHNYDER: In a way, but not totally, because I understand his condition. And if he can find someone to make him laugh or talk to, that's fine.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): This is the husband of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He, too, is an Alzheimer's patient who is romancing a fellow patient.
DR. GAIL SALZ, WEILL-CORNELL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Because Alzheimer's affects one's judgment and memory, finding someone else isn't the same as actually betraying or stepping out on your spouse, who you know, who you remember and who you've made a commitment to.
TUCHMAN: Do you talk, Thomas?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TUCHMAN: OK, well there you go. OK. Well, it's nice talking to you. Do you like living here?
THOMAS SCHNYDER, ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: Yes.
TUCHMAN: And do you like being with Josephine?
T. SCHNYDER: Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): June gets nostalgic.
(on camera) What was your wedding like?
J. SCHNYDER: Beautiful.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): She has not forgotten the words she uttered in 1953, to take her husband in sickness and in health.
(on camera) You're very generous, very unselfish. Isn't that what love is all about?
J. SCHNYDER: Oh, yes. Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The Schnyders have had a good life and raised two healthy children. But now, Thomas has two ladies in his life.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: To other news now.
The head of the International Olympic Committee pushing governments and sports groups to get up to speed with the global rules against doping. There's a three-day summit going on right now in Madrid, and Jacques Rogge has promised to enforce the Olympic zero- tolerance policy during the 2008 summer games in Beijing. Earlier we talked with him, asking him for more about that and just what Chinese authorities are going to do about pollution in Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUES ROGGE, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Yes, there is a vast array of measures, such as planting millions of trees between Beijing and the Gobi Desert, such as closing polluting factories, removing polluting cars out of circulation and probably also removing one million, 300,000 cars out of circulation during games time.
At the same time, most of their plants are being switched from coal energy to gas energy, which is far less polluting. So they are doing a lot of efforts, and we believe that this will be good results.
CLANCY: Well, there from Madrid at the world anti-doping conference, what's going to be the message on that front in Beijing?
ROGGE: Well, the message is that the cheaters best stay out, because we are putting in a very intensive testing program. We will test more than 4,500 athletes in and out of competition with the highest technology possible. We'll do it also with urine and blood.
And when needed, we'll also pursue the athletes that would want to import illegal drugs. So definitely this is something that's going to be very strong.
CLANCY: All right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: We have just about one minute to give you an important update on what is going on in Bangladesh, an unusual opportunity as the head of the ICRC there, the country representative joins us on the line from Bangladesh, Selva Sinnadurai.
What can you tell us about the preparedness of this region? What do you expect?
SELVA SINNADURAI, RED CROSS IN BANGLADESH: All right. Since the last two days due to strong wind, and yesterday the authorities raised cautionary -- precautionary signal from No. 4 to No. 10.
Since then, the Bangladesh Red Crescent society volunteers numbering between 20,000 to 30,000 have been deployed along the coastline to raise awareness among the residents.
And since last night, after the signal was raised to No. 10, these volunteers advised residents to safer ground, evacuation to cyclone shelters and other makeshift shelters.
CLANCY: All right. Selva Sinnadurai there, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Bangladesh. Many thanks to you. An important storm we'll continue to follow here on CNN. That's it for this hour. I'm Jim Clancy.
SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay. And this is CNN.
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