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American Morning
Who Shot Sean Taylor; Ron Paul Revolution; Ready for Battle: Republican Debate on YouTube
Aired November 28, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The Ron Paul revolution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I usually vote Democrat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Converts, crowds, record fund-raising.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Hear the message that will help him stand out in tonight's YouTube debate.
Plus, going negative. Hillary haters raising millions to derail her campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This can't be cheap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Campbell Brown, inside the world of campaign killers on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Negative campaigns. Everybody says they're not going to go negative and most people do because it works.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Right.
ROBERTS: That's the reason why. Thanks for joining us on this Wednesday, November 28th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We have brand new information this morning in this case out of Illinois, the search for missing mom, Stacy Peterson. Well, one of her husband's relatives is now saying that he may have unknowingly helped her husband, Drew Peterson, dump her body. The "Chicago Tribune" and the "Chicago Sun-Times" are both reporting this story. He is Drew Peterson's stepbrother, and the paper say he told a friend that he helped Drew Peterson haul out a large rectangular container which was still warm to the touch that weighed about as much as Stacy, about 120 pounds, he says.
This was on October 28th, just a day before Stacy Peterson's sister reported her missing. The man was reportedly so distraught that he had to be hospitalized for an apparent suicide attempt two days later. Now, late yesterday night, Drew Peterson responded to the new accusations when questioned by a reporter from local affiliate WGN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW PETERSON, SUSPECT IN WIFE'S DISAPPEARANCE: I have no idea what anybody's talking about like that.
REPORTER: Warm to the touch?
PETERSON: No.
REPORTER: He says he believes that he helped you dispose of your wife's body. Can you at least respond to that?
PETERSON: No.
REPORTER: Not at all?
PETERSON: No response. Talk to my lawyers. I got nothing to say about it.
REPORTER: No truth to it whatsoever?
PETERSON: None. Nobody else helped me with anything, in such a manner.
REPORTER: On October 28th, where were you October 28th? This gentleman says he helped you carry a container out of your home.
PETERSON: Talk to my attorney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Wow. Well, search teams say police told them to look out for a blue barrel, not a rectangular container, though, big enough to fit a woman's body -- John.
ROBERTS: Breaking news from Pakistan this morning. President Pervez Musharraf stepped down overnight as commander of Pakistan's military. He gave one final salute to his troops before handing over the ceremonial baton to his successor. It's a move that could help ease the political crisis this Pakistan, a key ally with the United States in the war on terror.
The Bush administration has been urging Musharraf to lift the emergency rule he imposed before general elections take place early next year.
The next step for Middle East peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said to the White House today, to start a new round of peace talks. More than 50 countries are attending a Middle East Peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The goal is to create an independent Palestinian state.
And Blackwater security guards in Iraq under fire again. This time new allegations that some of them are using steroids. A civil suit on behalf of Iraqi victims shot by Blackwater guards in September in Baghdad claims that a quarter of Blackwater's guards are taking steroids and other judgment-altering substances. Blackwater denies the charges -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Also new this morning. More turmoil at the head of the Red Cross. President Mark Everson forced to resign after only six months on the job accused of having an affair with a subordinate. Now, he is the fifth leader to leave the Red Cross in the last six years. Everson is married and has two children.
Our new numbers just in this morning in the presidential race. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll of registered voters in Florida gives Hillary Clinton the lead among the Democrats, 51 percent of the vote. On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani leads in Florida with 42 percent.
Now when asked who can best handle terrorism, voters give Rudy Giuliani the edge. He leads with 53 percent. This is among Republicans, followed by John McCain at 19 percent.
You can see the candidates talking about terrorism, Iraq and everything you wanted to know, since they'll be answering your questions. This is the CNN/YouTube debate. It's tonight. It's at 8:00 Eastern live from St. Petersburg, Florida.
ROBERTS: The manhunt is on for the person who shot and killed NFL star Sean Taylor. Football fans grieved the lost of the Redskins' defensive back at a vigil last night. And there's a live picture right now outside of Fedex Field just outside of Washington, where fans have set up a makeshift memorial, and the number 21, which is Sean Taylor's number, has been painted in the grass there.
The pro-bowler's father, who is also a police chief in Florida City, which is about 20 miles south of Miami, is making an emotional plea for the shooter to come forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEDRO TAYLOR, SEAN TAYLOR'S FATHER: Own up to it and say, you know what? Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it shouldn't have happened the way it happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Alina Cho is live at our national update desk this morning with the latest on the investigation and the search for Sean Taylor's killer. Alina, is there anything new to report in the investigation?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it doesn't appear as though Miami police have any strong leads at this point. But what they are saying is that this is clearly a homicide investigation, and there are clear signs of a break-in at the home. Now, if you've been following this story, you also know that they're looking into whether the shooting incident is also somehow connected to another break-in at the home eight days earlier.
Nobody was home during that break-in. Also, some new details are out about what may have happened on the night Taylor was shot. A teammate who spoke with Taylor's girlfriend talked to CNN last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON PORTIS, REDSKINS RUNNING BACK: I think she's pretty holding up pretty well, considering the conditions. She really didn't say a lot. He told her and the baby to stay still and stay in the room and he went out and checked, and I don't think he ever came back in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: She apparently did not see anything. Taylor's girlfriend, by the way, Jackie Garcia, happens to be the niece of actor Andy Garcia. Interestingly enough, Taylor himself spoke out in 2005 about another shooting incident and about how life can be fragile.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN TAYLOR, KILLED NFL PLAYER: We've seen a couple players in the last couple of weeks, you know, be subjects to shootings, and it's just a life-changing thing where one shot of a bullet or whatever the case is, you know, it changes lives. So it's just, basically just staying away from those types of things and stay out of harm's danger -- harm's way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: It is so eerie to listen to that now. We should mention that funeral arrangements are still being worked out. But as you heard a moment ago from John, a makeshift memorial is already up outside Fedex field in Maryland. That's where the Redskins play. There's a live look again there, as you can see, Taylor's number 21 painted on the grass there. That's right outside the front gate.
Meanwhile, the Washington Redskins will resume practice today. They'll play at home on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. The Redskins will also remember Taylor this weekend by wearing a patch on their jerseys and his number 21 on their helmets. Around the league, NFL teams will be holding moments of silence this week. And going forward, John, the big question is going to be, was this a random act of violence or premeditated murder? If they know, police are not saying, they're only saying that they're pulling out all the stops and they're looking for an unnamed suspect -- John.
ROBERTS: Such a tragedy. Alina Cho for us this morning. Alina, thanks.
O.J. Simpson back in court today. He is expected to plead not guilty to 12 charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery. Simpson and two other men are accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas Hotel room back in September. Simpson says he was trying to take back items stolen that were stolen from him -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Rob Marciano at our weather update desk tracking extreme weather in southern California. We're looking, of course, to the Santa Ana winds again, and the danger for sparking wildfires.
ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: That's right, and we had them over the weekend. And once again, after a couple of daybreak, we're going to see fire up again today. It should be a moderate event. It shouldn't be as severe as what we saw a month ago, but winds could easily gust high enough to fan flames like we saw just over the weekend in Malibu. So that's, of course, a concern.
Here's where the wind advisory is right now, mostly for southwestern California. This does not include what is a red flag warning, which includes most of southern California for low humidity and high winds.
Here's what's going on, the usual case. You got an area of high pressure that's here, that forces the wind offshore and that's where you get your relative humidity levels. Very low, less than 10 percent expected today. And we do have a critical fire or danger according to the Storm Prediction Center out of Normand, Oklahoma. We could see winds gusting at times over 50 miles an hour.
It's all in association with what is a cool front that is driving down across parts of Colorado, seeing a little bit of snowfall there and a little bit of snowfall across the U.P. of Michigan.
Look at these winds yesterday as the front moved through parts of Michigan over hurricane-force winds. It's at Stannard Rock there in northern parts of Michigan. So a little bit calmer weather today. The wind focus will be, as we mentioned, across southern Californian. Back to you guys in New York.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. Rob, thanks.
ROBERTS: A blast from the past discovered in Maine, and this really was a blast. A farm worker says he found a World War II air bomb undetonated in a remote blueberry field. There it is, as they blew it up there. He was installing an irrigation system.
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ERNEST HEDBERG, FOUND WWII-ERA BOMB: This morning I got looking it over, a little bit closer and I peeked in a hole, I saw some mechanism and stuff. So I got a little suspicious and then I took the end plate off and I see those yellow canisters.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: Then the state police bomb squad was called in to blow up the small piece of history. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The weapon was close to three feet long and weighed about 100 pounds.
CHETRY: Wow, and the ammunition stayed. It could be exploded after all those years.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine?
CHETRY: No. I think it's amazing, really. Wow.
Well, another resignation at the White House topping your "Quick Hits". "The Wall Street Journal" reporting this morning that president's economic adviser Al Hubbard is going to be stepping down at the end of the year. Hubbard is the latest in a series of White House departures including Homeland Security Adviser, Fran Townsend.
Well, Richard Nixon's presidential library releasing more than 10,000 pages of previously classified documents. A lot of them covering Nixon's foreign policy including the Vietnam war. Some documents will be available online this morning. It's nixonlibrary.gov.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the Ron Paul revolution.
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REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just get the government out of our lives and off our backs and out of our wallets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: What's behind the surge that has a 10-term congressman gaining so many supporters and so much money? That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 12 minutes past 7:00 here on the East Coast, and check this out. This is in Jefferson City, Missouri. A fireball and thick cloud of black smoke on an interstate there. An I-Reporter, Anthony Dewitt, sent this in for us.
The truck -- it was a tanker truck carrying diesel fuel. It went up in flames. Two nearby schools had to be evacuated, but no injuries were reported.
Also caught on tape. An SUV barrels through the front of a grocery store. This in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and there you see the surveillance tape and the aftermath.
Police say the 71-year-old driver hit the gas, instead of the brake, when she was trying to park. There were people inside the store at the time but miraculously, nobody was in the path of that speeding SUV.
Well, not much left in a village in the southern Philippines. Waves from a deadly typhoon demolished homes along the coastline, leaving hundreds of families homeless and sending more than 5,000 running for their lives over fears that a tsunami was coming -- John.
ROBERTS: Fourteen minutes now after the hour. He is a one-man sound bite machine and at tonight's CNN/YouTube debate, you'll find out why. Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul believes we should bring impeachment charges against Vice President Cheney and abolish the CIA. And right now his campaign is surging.
Our own Chris Lawrence is live in Washington with a closer look at why. Chris, months ago, Ron Paul was written off as being on the extreme end of the party and not quite sure which end. Now people are taking him seriously.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you've got to. With his poll numbers now, you got to take him seriously, John. You know, Ron Paul's campaign is really based here on the Internet. But now that online support is starting to translate to success on the ground.
I rode along with Paul to a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And I got to tell you, his supporters not only know about some of his positions, they agree with a lot of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Ron Paul's revolution.
REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.
LAWRENCE: And its soldiers have defected from a lot of different camps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I voted for Bush twice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I usually vote Democrat, and I voted for Kerry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually campaigned for Barack Obama until I heard about Ron Paul.
LAWRENCE: He's a 10-term congressman who already ran for president once. Even fellow Republicans are wondering how Ron Paul became this maverick, who broke a record and raised more than $4 million online in a single day.
PAUL: It isn't a technique. It isn't a good computer guy that does this.
LAWRENCE: Paul told me it's his message. Return the American dollar to the gold standard, and eliminate personal income tax.
PAUL: Just get the government out of our lives and off our backs and out of our wallets.
LAWRENCE: But the thing his supporters mention most is Paul's position on the war. How he'd pull out American troops and hand over the country to Iraqis, like Muqtada al-Sadr.
PAUL: I mean, he has his pros and cons but he's Iraqi. They'll listen to him, and he has his troops. He has his brigade, and they don't need training.
LAWRENCE: In the Web site like MySpace, Spacebook and Meetup, that messages earned him more supporter than Giuliani, Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney. And word is spreading in unorthodox ways.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have people all around town who is like, who is Ron Paul?
LAWRENCE: He's the candidate underestimated by practically everyone, now outpolling Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee in New Hampshire.
(on camera): If you didn't get the nomination, would you consider running as an independent?
PAUL: I have no plans to do that. I am running. I've been a Republican congressman for 10 terms, and I think I represent the Republican Party.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And boy, his Republican opponents -- take a look at that kind of promise and go, whew! Because he could do what Ross Perot did in 1992, which is draw enough voters away from the Republican nominee to cost this party the election in the fall -- John?
ROBERTS: So Chris, if he's not planning on splitting off and running as a third party candidate, it looks at this point like he doesn't have any hope of becoming the nominee, why does he still matter?
LAWRENCE: Well, you're going to see that tonight in the debate. When he is saying very popular things like "end the war in Iraq," he's going to force some of the people on stage with him to answer in a way that otherwise they might not have to. And his supporters right now are trying to raise another $2.5 million by the end of the week to get a TV ad campaign going.
If he continues to draw support, he's taking votes away from other candidates and in a very close election, every single vote is going to count. ROBERTS: And as a political exercise at the very least it's great to see underdogs like Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee getting a lot of attention. Chris Lawrence for us in Washington this morning. Great story. Chris, thanks.
Republican independent, either way, Ron Paul is resonating with quite a few of you this morning. It's our "Quick Vote" question. And we're asking, which Republican candidate will best handle tonight's YouTube debate format?
Cast your vote at CNN.com/AM. Right now, Congressman Paul is barreling over the other candidates, with 82 percent of the vote. Among the others, 0 percent believed that Congressman Tom Tancredo will handle it well. Seven percent say Mike Huckabee. Three percent are for Governor Mitt Romney, 3 percent for Rudy Giuliani as well. Only 1 percent say Fred Thompson, 1 percent say Senator McCain, and 1 percent for Congressman Duncan Hunter.
We'll continue to update the votes throughout the morning. Interesting to see the way that the polls kind of switch around when you ask the question that way.
CHETRY: It sure is. Well, while the GOP candidates are also getting ready for tonight's big debate as we talked about. How will they handle it? We'll see in just what? Thirteen hours. Just under 13 hours.
ROBERTS: Just under 13 hours. Yes.
Our Veronica De La Cruz has been keeping an eye on all of the preparations this morning. She's going over a lot of the questions that have been submitted as well.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of questions. Yes.
ROBERTS: What do you got for us this time?
DE LA CRUZ: More questions this time around for sure. It looks like more people are catching on to this YouTube debate phenomena. In the Democratic debate, we saw some 3,000 questions submitted to YouTube, and this time there are at least 2,000 more. And our CNN staffers have been working around the clock to prepare for tonight.
Here it is. The stage being set in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, our political unit has taken on the laborious task of whittling down the nearly 5,000 questions to roughly 40. And coming up, we're going to take a look at the lighter side of it all and some of the more unique and downright funny questions that we received, something that you definitely don't want to miss.
ROBERTS: That is a Herculean task going through all of those questions and trying to pick which ones the best.
(CROSSTALK)
DE LA CRUZ: Yes.
ROBERTS: Because there are so many good ones.
DE LA CRUZ: And some people -- and some people didn't stick to the criteria. We said 30 seconds max, five minutes.
CHETRY: So they're automatically out, or did they pare down the answer?
DE LA CRUZ: You know, I don't want to speak for the CNN political unit. I'm sure they looked at everything but again, you know, 30 seconds tops for tonight.
CHETRY: That's right. Hear the buzzer if you go over. Thanks, Veronica.
ROBERTS: We look forward to seeing more of this.
Coming up. New questions, meanwhile, for Miss Puerto Rico this morning. She won the crown after her gown and makeup were allegedly sabotaged with pepper spray. But now, police are now skeptical of that story. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's coming up now to 23 minutes after the hour. Where you live may affect how you feel. A new study ranks that 50 states and the District of Colombia by rates of depression and suicide. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the medical update desk in Atlanta with more on this. And I went through the rankings here, Sanjay, and frankly, I was stunned.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is surprising. I think anybody who looks at some of these states where they are and they're sort of depressive characteristics as compared to the rest of the country.
First of all, I should point out a couple of things. This was a study funded by Wyatt Pharmaceuticals, but really is a compilation of lots of different databases, including the CDC, really trying to figure out where some of the most depressed states are in America and where some of the least depressed states are in America.
You know, there's all sorts of factors that you sort of think of, John, which is why you may be surprised, such as the isolation of a particular community from the rest of the country. Guns in the house, for example, gun control laws or even the weather, but some of those things really didn't seem to make that much of a difference.
Take a look at the list here. We have an exclusive look at this. Looking at some of the -- first of all, some of the least depressed states or healthiest states when it comes to depression. South Dakota number one. Now, that's pretty remarkable. Hawaii, number two. New Jersey, number three. Iowa was four. Maryland was five.
We also have, we want to give you the bottom five, too, in terms of least healthy states when it comes to depression. Utah, actually, was at the bottom of the list, West Virginia, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Nevada.
John, something interesting emerged as we looked at the study and looked at all the data here, and that is why those other factors seemed to play a role. Overall, access to health care, any kind of health care, including mental health care seems to make the biggest difference.
So communities or states that had the most access tended to have the best time in terms of dealing with depression, and those have the least access to worst times. Maybe that's common sense, but it had never been proven before, John. That state was -- sort of says it all.
ROBERTS: I'll tell you. I was so surprised that Utah was leading the list of states that had the least healthy states in terms of depression.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: The worst.
ROBERTS: Access to state -- health care, as you say, is one thing. But does money really make a difference here?
GUPTA: You know, so you brought up Utah, and I looked at that same thing. I was surprised by that. So Utah is at the bottom of the list. New Jersey is actually third on the list. So if you take a look at these two states, in particular as a scale of reference, some things start to emerge.
First of all, New Jersey has twice as many psychiatrists per capita as Utah. OK. So that's one thing. Again, maybe that's common sense. But overall, the spending on mental health issues in New Jersey is about $133 per person versus $73 per person in Utah. All of that seems to translate to a much greater emphasis on overall mental health care.
And keep in mind again, John, it wasn't just access to doctors. But something else that seemed to be important here was overall access to health care in general even if it wasn't mental health. So states that had better health care systems that provide a more access seem to have lower rates of depression.
ROBERTS: Hmmm, fascinating stuff. Though, I would like to know a little bit more about the link between the pharmaceutical company that sponsored it and the number of psychiatrists or psychologists. In a particular reason, maybe we can delve into that. Sanjay, thanks. We'll see you real soon with another topic
GUPTA: All right. Thanks. Thank you.
CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" word that Verizon is going to be opening up its phone network to any phones by next year, except for -- (CROSSTALK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, you know, I know where you're going with this. The iPhone thing, which is an AT&T and Apple product, but the iPhone, the ability to not unlock that iPhone and use it wherever you want really underscored people's general frustration with the fact that I pay enough money, by the way, I have a bit of experience on the show about showing phone numbers of somebody else's device.
CHETRY: Please don't.
ROBERTS: Thank you for bringing that up.
VELSHI: But most Americans --
ROBERTS: I will walk away with my tail between my legs.
VELSHI: ... would want to be able -- like most people around the world, they want to be able to buy their phone for whatever money they pay for it, and they want to be able to pay for their service for whatever money they pay for it. And they don't want the two connected necessarily.
So Verizon has come out and said that by 2008, assuming that the phones meet certain specifications, they will allow their network to be used on other phones. They'll also allow other applications to be used on their phones, thereby opening up the market.
Now, Google decided it was coming out with this sort of a system a little while ago, and I think Verizon sees the writing on the wall because most people have a phone that they want to change the service provider with. You know full well, and if you don't know this, I'm telling you this, you can go to a mall in an urban area or some side street somewhere and someone will unlock it for you.
They tell me that's illegal. Bottom line is, it's good for business and Verizon is getting the point that people want to be able to choose their phones. They want to be able to choose their service. If you want the discount, the free phone because you take a two-year contract with Verizon...
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: ... you want to end up with their phone, that should be your privilege and your right. But Verizon is saying now, it's going to open up its network to services and applications and phones from other people, and I think that's a very good move for consumers.
ROBERTS: How soon will this happen?
VELSHI: It will happen. It will roll out over the course of the next year.
CHETRY: My iPhone is still locked with Apple?
VELSHI: iPhone remains locked. I think that's got to change. I think it will change.
CHETRY: Lots of AT&T.
VELSHI: Locked to AT&T. Correct. But this is a trend that just got to have to happen across the board. I want to use the phone that I want to use.
CHETRY: Whenever you want to use it.
VELSHI: When I want to use it.
ROBERTS: Even if it's an iPhone.
VELSHI: They make enough money off of us.
ROBERTS: Yes. Twenty minutes after the hour.
Still ahead an eyewitness could break the Madeleine McCann case wide open. His story may explain what really happened to the little British girl who disappeared in Portugal. What he has to say ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday, November 28th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm John Roberts. This just in to CNN. President Bush's chief economic adviser Al Hubbard, chairman of the National Economic Council says he is leaving the White House. He'll be submitting his resignation today, we've learned, and intends to step down at the end of the year. Hubbard is the latest in a series of White House departures including Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend, also leaving at the end of the year.
Happening right now in Florida, a huge manhunt on for two suspects after a speeding car kills two Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies. Police say the officers were putting down stop sticks on the highway when they were both hit. Another deputy also suffered head wounds. Police say two men took off from the car which was believed to be stolen, at least 75 officers were combing nearby cane fields where the suspects were believed to be hiding.
Also new this morning, a disturbing revelation in the search for missing Illinois mom Stacy Peterson. One of her husband's relatives says he may have unknowingly helped Drew Peterson dump the body. Two Chicago newspapers are reporting that the man told a friend that he helped Drew Peterson haul out a large rectangular container which was warm to the touch and weighed about as much as Stacy would have, he estimated to be about 120 pounds or so. Police are also looking at surveillance video from a supermarket after Drew Peterson claimed that he received a letter from someone about a possible Stacy sighting. But right now, anything he says raises doubts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: I think this guy is very deceptively complex. This is no simple man, this Drew Peterson, and it is possible that he faked this letter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Drew Peterson, a former police officer, is the only named suspect in his wife's disappearance.
And police in Florida on a manhunt for the person who shot and killed Washington Redskins Safety Sean Taylor. He died yesterday after suffering severe blood loss from the gunshot wounds suffered inside his home. He was hit in the leg, severing his femoral artery. Now, investigators are trying to figure out if it was a break-in gone bad or could it have been premeditated murder?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD SHARPSTEIN, FMR. TAYLOR ATTORNEY & FRIEND: In my opinion, this was not a random violence, the house had been broken into two weeks before. It's my speculation that this was burglars that had already been there, they were armed. They didn't expect to have Sean there because he was a football player. They happened upon him, fired two random shots, one went in his leg and one in the wall. If they were there to kill him, they would have unloaded six rounds in his head or chest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: His teammates will have a prayer service before the Redskins practice later on today. There's a live picture outside of Fedex Field now, a makeshift memorial, people leaving cards and flowers. And they painted the number 21 into the grass there in front of Fedex Field. Last night on CNN's "Out in the Open" fellow Pro Bowler running back Clinton Portis talked about how Taylor's girlfriend is coping with the tragedy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON PORTIS, TAYLOR'S TEAMMATE: I think she's pretty holding up pretty well, considering the condition. She really didn't say a lot, just that they were in bed when Sean heard a noise, and you know, he told her and the baby to stay still, to stay in the room. And he went out and checked, and I don't think he ever came back in. You know, I think she was trying to be strong. That's her story, you know, she was sleeping. I don't think she had an opportunity to see anyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The Redskins will also honor Sean Taylor with a patch on their jersey this is weekend and his number, 21 on their helmets.
CHETRY: We have some breaking news from Pakistan right now as well. President Pervez Musharraf stepping down overnight as commander of Pakistan's military. He gave one final salute to his troops there, you see it, before handing over the ceremonial baton to his successor. It's a move that could help ease the political crisis in Pakistan, a key ally in the war on terror. The Bush administration has been urging Musharraf to lift the emergency rule that he imposed before general elections are set to happen early next year.
They're blaming faulty intelligence this morning for the accidental deaths of 14 Afghan construction workers and coalition air strikes. The workers were building a road for the U.S. military in a remote mountain region of eastern Afghanistan. They were sleeping in two large tents when they were attacked Monday night. Coalition forces report says the Taliban, another militant fighters were in the area. But Afghan officials say that the enemy purposely fed wrong information to U.S.-led troops.
Blackwater security guards in Iraq under fire again, this time new allegations that some of them are on steroids. A civil suit on behalf of Iraqi victims shot by Blackwater guards in September is claiming that a quarter of Blackwater's guards are taking steroids and other judgment-altering substances. Blackwater denies the charges.
New developments in the case of missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann. British newspapers are reporting this morning that a potential witness has come forward, claiming that he saw Madeleine being dragged away. Portuguese investigators are also heading to Britain today. Our Emily Chang following all of this from our World Update desk in London. Good morning, Emily.
EMILY CHANG, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. CNN has confirmed that a team of investigators from Portugal, including two Portuguese forensic scientists will be meeting with British scientists here in the U.K. sometime in the next 24 hours. They will be getting the latest results of DNA tests in the Madeleine McCann investigation. Portuguese police are said to be relying heavily on these results to advance the case. We've been told, however, this is not the first time they'll meet in the U.K.. In fact, they've been in constant touch since the case began.
We shouldn't be expecting any break-throughs here. In fact, the forensic tests have not concluded, they are very much still live and ongoing. Now a spokesperson for the McCann family says he's not aware of any plans to re-interview Kate or Gerry McCann or any of their friends. Meantime, speculation in this case continues to swirl. Madeleine is again on the cover of the British tabloids as she is on almost every day. "The Daily Mirror" reporting that headline "I saw Maddy dragged away by vicious men." This is a report about a man who says he saw Madeleine with a couple near the Portuguese coast, hours after she disappeared, perhaps saying she may have been smuggled away by sea. Portuguese police won't comment on it. The McCanns spokespeople won't comment on it either. They simply say they have a team of private investigators to respond to all of these sightings. However, there have been more than 400 sightings of Madeleine reported around the world and all of them so far have come to nothing. So John, still no sign of Madeleine.
ROBERTS: The family maintains hope, though, difficult for them to do it at this point. Emily Chang for us in London. Emily, thanks. Kiran.
Some new questions this morning about the case of the pageant queen and the pepper spray. Police in Puerto Rico are said to be questioning and looking into claims by Ingrid Marie Rivera that her gown and makeup were sabotaged with pepper spray. Police skeptical how she was able to stop crying and stay composed in between camera appearances. Once she got off camera, she reportedly had to take off her gown and put ice bags on her face and body. The pageant director said that Rivera's clothes did test positive for pepper stray.
ROBERTS: Your "Quick Hits" now. Riots in France have taken another violent turn this morning with protesters now shooting at police. For three days now, teens have torched dozens of cars and garbage cans, even a library and an auto dealership. Police say at least 82 officers are injured. The violence triggered Sunday after two teenagers died in a motorcycle accident involving a police car.
A suspect re-arrested in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Now complaining about his treatment in jail. An Aruban official says Joran Van Der Sloot is asking to see his family, watch television and read magazines and the bible. His American attorney compared the restrictions to "Nazi Germany." Investigators picked up Van Der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Sateesh Kalpoe last week, citing new evidence, evidence that they have yet to disclose.
We learned in 2004 just how quickly an attack ad like the swift boat campaign can change a presidential election. We'll have a look at one group hoping to come up with 2008's big ad. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Live picture for you this morning outside of the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida. There is the, looks like a CNN airstream trailer pulling up in front. That's the site of tonight's second cnn/youtube debate. That's not the CNN express bus, that's something different. I've never seen that one before. That comes your way 8 p.m. tonight.
You've seen it before from Willie Horton to the Swift boats. Attack ads can be powerful weapons in a presidential campaign. Who is really behind them and why do they work? CNN's Campbell Brown is looking into this for her special tonight called "Campaign Killers" and Campbell joins us this morning. Good morning to you.
CAMPBELL BROWN: Good morning to you, John. Good morning, everybody. Guerrilla groups are lining up right now on both the left and the right to sling mud this campaign season. So we decided to take an in-depth look at what they do and why. And here's one group that has its sights set right now on Hillary Clinton. Take a look. Richard Collins is a Texan, a republican, and a millionaire, who has found his calling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD COLLINS, STOP HER NOW: We're not being balanced. BROWN (voice-over): Collins says he spent $500,000. His goal is to raise $3 million more in 2008. He hopes from the same people who funded the swift boat attacks, all that money supporting his pet project, "Stop Her Now," a web-based weekly cartoon and blog that lambasts and lampoons the democratic front-runner.
COLLINS: Her name is Hill. She fills her till with dirty bills.
BROWN: Without the membership or the money of moveon.org, on the right, it's smaller fringe groups like this one. They are forming the ranks of Hillary hunters. This can't be cheap.
COLLINS: No.
BROWN: We went behind the scenes as they drew up their latest battle plan. So are you kind of always on the lookout for ideas?
COLLINS: We've got about eight or nine guys on the lookout for ideas and recently, a story went out that, when Hillary was at the AFL-CIO convention.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl.
COLLINS: Got a cartoon out about 48 hours, where Hillary said in front of the audience that "I'm your girl." Out front we got Bill with his arm around a babe and says, "Honey, would you be my girl"?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And we should also mention that we also looked at what the left is doing to go after the right. Moveon.org obviously one of the most powerful independent groups and also one of the most controversial.
ROBERTS: And of course, moveon.org known to go after its own as well if they don't think that the democratic candidates are towing the line.
BROWN: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Every election cycle, we hear from the candidates - no more attack ads, we don't like these attack ads. And then every election cycle we see them and they get nastier. Why does that happen? Is it because they work?
BROWN: Yes, of course. They do work. They're incredibly effective and you know, it feels like it gets nastier, but for this documentary, we actually went back and pulled some of the language they used in the 1800s, presidential campaigns, against Thomas Jefferson and their pamphlets where it says, 'if you elect Jefferson, there's going to be rape, murder, incest, chaos in the street.' I mean it was nasty stuff, but what has changed is the technology, TV. It's immediacy. It's more pervasive. It reaches more people and so it feels like it's much more powerful.
ROBERTS: So, you went way back in history for this.
BROWN: Yes.
ROBERTS: So, is either party worse? Is the democrats worse than republicans or vice versa and what part does the internet play in all of this now?
BROWN: I think you can find examples on both sides of intense negativity. Driving it more though is less the parties and the candidates as it is the independent organizations. You know we saw groups like swift boat, who are doing the really nasty stuff, which then allows the candidates to sort of say 'hey, it wasn't me,' but the internet is making it even more interesting, because there's no accountability online. Anybody can make an ad. It's not the traditional media consultants who are sort of driving the process, but anybody who wants to, like, you know, we sort of profile the guy who did the 1984 Hillary ad. No one knew who he was. He did it anonymously, threw it up on the web. It took off virally, millions of people saw it and it had a dramatic impact so it's sort of wild west out there now, all bets are off.
ROBERTS: It is a fascinating aspect of this campaign. Thank you for coming in. By the way, when are you due?
BROWN: Christmas Day.
ROBERTS: Excellent.
BROWN: That close.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that one.
BROWN: I should probably be home in bed right now.
ROBERTS: But we know you're not going to be because you're such a great journalist, who want to go out there and do the work all the time.
BROWN: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: Thanks for this and we'll see that tonight by the way. Catch Campbell's "Broken Government" special, "Campaign Killers," tonight at 11:00 Eastern. That's 9:00 Pacific right after the youtube debate right here on CNN. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, we'll be watching.
Well, there's new technology that could help crime scene investigators solve cases faster. Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta is actually a crime scene investigator. I don't know what it is you don't do, Sanjay. I got to tell you. You're in Atlanta this morning and there are some new tools that could help you and others who do this, find out causes, maybe more accurately and quicker.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is really interesting, Kiran. Actually, when you take a look at typical autopsies, they can take hours, even days. We talk a lot about that as we cover deaths of people in the media, for example and figure how long it takes for some of the results to come back. Well, there's been a group of researchers trying to figure out ways to do this a lot faster.
Now, there's a technology out there known as full body C.A.T. scans. You guys may have heard of that but the idea was, what about actually, instead of performing an actual autopsy, doing one of these full body C.A.T. scans and seeing how good the results might be, how comparable it might be to an actual autopsy. Let me give you an example. For nonhomicides, when accidental blunt trauma, such as a car accident or something like that, you can get a full body C.A.T. scan and take a look at the C.A.T. scan of the head specifically and figure out if there was specific damage. Here's a C.A.T. scan of the head. I don't know if you can see them on the screen yet, but basically if you're looking at this C.A.T. scan which they would get within minutes literally.
You can tell pretty quickly if there's actually a lot of air here in the brain. You can see that black area is all air, that's not supposed to be there and also there's a layer of blood in here as well. And that suggests that there was some sort of blunt force trauma to the head, that would confirm what the pathologist might suspect as a possible cause of death. For example, due to a car accident. As part of the study, Kiran, they actually did 20 of these full body C.A.T. scans and they compared the results to actual autopsies and they were dead on. So this might be a very, very quick way to get a sense not homicide but accidental blunt trauma. Remember, with homicide, Kiran, for example, if it was a gunshot wound you'd want to see if there was gun powder on the skin for example or for stabbing you'd want to get a sense of the force of the impact. You can't tell that from a C.A.T. scan but you can get a lot of other information.
CHETRY: You also have another technology that can help, I know this is morbid, but you know god forbid the mass disasters and these big disasters where you have mass casualties, they can help at least provide some comfort for the families by being able to identify people faster.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, as much as we talk about all these sophisticated technology out there, in those mass casualty situations that you're alluding to, the way that most pathologists approach those is through dental records, old-fashioned but very effective. Part of the problem though is if you look at old dental records and compare the new, sometimes they don't quite match and it's hard to actually figure out if this is in fact the same person. So, what they've actually created is a software. Let me show you this as well, a software that immediately collates the two images to make them look identical to get a sense of that. If you take a look at the image here, you'll see on the left, this may be a little bit hard to figure out, but this is 290 pixelations and this is 254, and it's hard to the untrained eye to tell if this is in fact the same person. What this software does is it immediately converts it so in fact they're very similar in pixelations, 290 to 291, and you get a very clear idea if this is, in fact, the same person and make that identification very quickly. So, again, it's all in the name of speed. It's all in the name of accuracy, but this radiograph for the dental record, and the C.A.T. scan seem to be two good tools.
CHETRY: All right. Sounds fascinating stuff and ways to get through this quicker. Sanjay, thanks. As always, by the way, Sanjay is going to be opening up the mail bag just a day from today, that would be tomorrow. OK, CNN.com/am and if you have a question for Sanjay, he will answer them every Thursday on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: Hey, 10 minutes to the top of the hour. Just a quick correction here. Campbell's special is on at 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 Pacific. I thought maybe it was delayed by an hour for a replay in the west but not. Simply a typo.
CHETRY: That's all right, we'll be watching.
ROBERTS: All right. The Hollywood writer strike is causing many popular shows to halt production. The American public seems to be standing behind them. We'll take a look at why that may be ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. The Hollywood Writer's strike now entering its fourth week and some of the shows have already shut down production and some of them people's favorite shows are really close to it.
ROBERTS: It does seem though that the writers have found plenty of support and our Veronica De La Cruz is here to explain why. Good morning to you.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning to you, guys. Again, well some 12,000 members of the WGA or the Writer's Guild of America have been on strike since November 4th. Now, negotiations with producers will resume in a few hours, about 10:00 Pacific this morning. Why are they striking? Writers want a bigger cut of the proceeds from anything that runs on the internet, reruns, downloads, internet shows, and they have cleverly tapped the internet to garner support for their cause.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE SCHUR, WRITER, "THE OFFICE:" You're watching this thing on the internet, the thing that pays us zero dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: You know, writers have flooded sites like youtube with all sorts of videos like this one. While the more popular clips, a series of black and white short called "Speechless" and they feature different actors like Sean Penn and the cast of "Ugly Betty" sitting silently or talking but you can't hear the sound. Another clip you can find online is called "This is not the daily show" from one of that show's writers. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our top story, really our only story, the ongoing writer's strike, which began last Monday after talks broke down between writers, seen here working slavishly for your entertainment, and media company's CEOs, captured here in their natural habitat.
CHETRY (voice-over): Hey, they have a shot of our newsroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: Winter of our discontent. I love it, hysterical and that clip, by the way, has gotten nearly 400,000 views on youtube. Other videos show the writers partying down on the picket lines. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: This video is called "strike dancing fever hits the nation." The point of this video writers say is to show network execs that they are in it for the long run. Actually, they're having a good time on the picket lines. So, interesting to see that the writers, they're using the internet to spread their message. You know, they're going to be resuming talks this morning at 10:00 Pacific. So, hopefully they come to some sort of agreement. And the "New York Times" have been reporting that a Pepperdine University poll found that 63% of Americans do side with the writers because of course they want their entertainment back. I'm sure.
ROBERTS: So, it's good to see the comedy writers are keeping those humor muscles exercised.
DE LA CRUZ: At least they've got a platform, you know? They hope for that for sure.
CHETRY: Pretty interesting. It's also interesting to see how these actors are really jumping in to support and whether or not there's fallout from that. We saw Eva Longoria and Nicolette Sheridan also taking part in one of those videos.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, a lot of them. Tina Fey has been on the picket line.
ROBERTS: And you know, at the bottom line, you're only as good as the script that you're reading from.
DE LA CRUZ: There you go.
CHETRY: True. For us, too. Thanks, Veronica.
Well, and Usher, ushering in a new phase in his life. See that, I could have thought that for myself. You see, that's usher is ushering in a new phase. Some entertainment "quick hits" now. His wife, Tamika Foster, gave birth to a boy Monday night. The couple's first child. Usher says he will name the newborn after himself. The couple got married this past summer. And Amy Winehouse calling it quits for the rest of the year. She's a soul singer and she's canceling overseas concert dates under doctor's orders citing physical strain in touring and emotional strain of being away from her husband, who was arrested following a vicious bar fight.
Doctors at Rhode Island Hospital operated on the wrong side of a patient's head. This has happened three times, how? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is looking into it and he's going to break it down for us, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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