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Heart-Wrenching Details Emerge in Baby Grace Murder; GOP Hopefuls Square off in CNN/YouTube Debate; Young Iraqi Burn Victim Undergoes Reconstructive Surgery; Does Fair Tax Live Up to Promise?; Teacher Sentenced in Sudan for Naming Teddy Bear after Muslim Leader

Aired November 29, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another operation for Youssif, and this is the big one. Removing scars, replacing skin, giving this Iraqi boy a whole new face and a reason to smile. We're live in L.A. with the latest.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: We're also following the teddy bear trial in Sudan. A British teacher could be -- could be -- whipped and jailed over the name of her class mascot. Prosecutors are calling it blasphemy.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And it's the top of the hour. This just in to CNN. We're told that Al Jazeera is going to broadcast a new audio message purported to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Of course, we're trying to confirm this. We're going to take a listen. We're going to try and authenticate the voice and definitely see if it is new.

But Al Jazeera reporting it does have a new audio message, apparently from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Our senior Arab affairs editor, Octavia Nasr, will be monitoring this. Once we know it is authenticated, we will bring it to you live.

LEMON: Also, we have new horrific details, and they're still coming out, in the Riley Ann Sawyers case. You'll recall, she's believed to be the 2-year-old girl whose body washed ashore last month in Texas. The child was called Baby Grace while police tried to figure out her name and what happened to her.

They now have a better idea after her mother talked to police. It is a stomach-turning story of a discipline lesson that turned deadly.

Reporter Kevin Reese from our Houston affiliate, KHOU, has the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY TRENOR, KIMBERLY'S MOTHER: I couldn't (UNINTELLIGIBLE) KEVIN REESE, KHOU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kimberly Trenor's parents in Ohio are devastated and defending their daughter. The attorney defending her says Trenor first contacted investigators as far back as November 14, that wilting under endless media coverage, she could no longer keep the secret between her and her husband and wanted to tell somebody from the beginning.

The attorney says that, without telling her husband, Royce Zeigler, Trenor and the lawyer drove together to Galveston to tell her story. In a 3-1/2-hour conversation videotaped by investigators, she described an authoritarian husband who stayed home from work that day in July because Kimberly wasn't following his discipline plan, wasn't tough enough on Riley.

She said he used a second leather belt that day, because the first one wasn't big enough. Trenor's attorney says what happened in the next hours in the house in spring, "was something that went on beyond the point it should have ever gone." And that there was no intentional desire to kill Riley.

Court documents say Royce Zeigler grabbed the little girl by the hair and threw her onto a tile floor. She died of three skull fractures.

Her attorney says Trenor then went along with the plan to get rid of Riley's body because she was scared of her husband, whom she'd married only a month before.

NEAL DAVIS III, ZEIGLER'S ATTORNEY: We're going to question each and every part of that statement.

REESE: We met Royce Zeigler's attorney at the Galveston County Jail, where he had just talked with his client.

DAVIS: Right now he's -- he's at the lowest point, justifiably the lowest point in his life. And it's -- it's killing him. It really is.

REESE: Davis says he won't play the he said/she said game but did say the entire truth hasn't yet been told.

DAVIS: And we become more aware of actually what happened, her credibility is going to be a big issue, we feel.

REESE: Kimberly Trenor's attorney says she is despondent and remorseful and that the last thing she told investigators was, "She just wanted to make sure everybody knew Baby Grace's real name was Riley."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Heart-wrenching. And that's how Riley's father described his daughter's last few hours or life. Riley's biological dad and grandmother spoke to us earlier about the little girl that they loved and what may have led to her beating, allegedly, at the hands of her new stepfather. Sheryl Sawyers says her granddaughter was a special little girl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERYL SAWYERS, RILEY ANN SAWYERS'S GRANDMOTHER: She, you know, was a very wonderful child. She loved to sing. She loved to dance, watch movies. Her favorite was "Cars." You know, she liked to sit and read books, you know. Just sit with you in a chair, snuggled up.

Loved to be outside. When it was nice out, she wanted to be outside. Didn't want to come back in the house. But yes, I mean, she was -- she was the light of my life.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: When was the last time that you saw Riley?

SAWYERS: May 25.

COLLINS: And I know it had been some time after that where you had not seen her, in fact, a couple of months. What were you thinking in that time? Were you worried about her?

SAWYERS: Yes. I was worried where she was, you know. We couldn't locate her. We couldn't locate her mother and that we had visitation that was set up, you know, my son, and we'd go to pick the child up. She was never there. You know, we didn't know where she was.

And of course family, her family was not helpful in us finding where she was.

When I first saw the sketch you know, on the Internet and I looked at it, you know, that's what kind of first drew me to it, is a little blond-haired little girl who you know, kind of resembles my granddaughter.

And as I, you know, read through the story and realized it was a toddler who was found in Texas, which we found out the end of August, finally, that Kimberly was in Texas, I just you know, I didn't want to -- I didn't want to believe it could be her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Investigators say they expect DNA will confirm Baby Grace's identity.

Riley's mother and stepfather are each being held under $350,000 bail.

Now, we just want to recap our top story, and that's the alleged or reported Osama bin Laden audiotape that is being listened to right now on Al Jazeera. This is Al Jazeera's live broadcast. They are airing this audiotape.

I can tell you Octavia Nasr, our senior Arab affairs editor, is listening to this. We're going to try and authenticate and, indeed, see if this is his voice, if this is an audiotape by Osama bin Laden and if, indeed, it is new. We're working that right now, and we'll let you know.

LEMON: Well, they clashed on virtually every major issue: immigration, taxes, Iraq. And the Democrats -- remember them -- they barely got a mention.

Last night's CNN/YouTube Republican debate featured plenty of back and forth among the White House hopefuls. Our John King hits the highlights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Up first, immigration. And from the get-go, crackling.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the reality is that New York City was not a sanctuary city.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The mayor actually brought a suit to maintain its sanctuary city status.

GIULIANI: In his case, there was six sanctuary cities. He did nothing it. There was a sanctuary mansion. At his own home, illegal immigrants were being employed.

KING: The Romney/Giuliani face-off on immigration, one of many raw moments.

Another, when Romney refused to say whether he considered water- boarding terrorism suspects to be torture.

GIULIANI: I don't think it's wise for us to describe specifically which measures we would and would not use.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a defining issue. And clearly, we should be able, if we want to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, to take a definite and positive position.

KING: The unique format meant unique questions. This one from Joseph in Dallas.

JOSEPH DEARING, RESIDENT OF DALLAS, TEXAS: Do you believe every word of this book?

KING: The Book of Mormon defines Romney's faith. And yet...

ROMNEY: I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read the Bible, and I believe the Bible is the word of God.

KING: Faith factored, as well, in a death penalty question.

TYLER OVERMAN, RESIDENT OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: What would Jesus do? MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office.

NICK ANDERSON, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST (over graphic of Dick Cheney): Will you grant your vice president as much power and influence as I've had?

KING: That colorful entry brought a rare Republican debate criticism of President Bush.

MCCAIN: And he did not have as much national security experience as I do. So, he had to rely more on the vice president of the United States. And that's obvious.

KING: Just back from Iraq, McCain was assertive again when Ron Paul called for bringing the troops home.

MCCAIN: The message of these brave men and women who are serving over there is "let us win."

KING: Each candidate was allowed a 30-second video, and the struggling Fred Thompson used his to attack two rivals, causing him fits by drawing conservative support.

ROMNEY: I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.

About abortion I was wrong, and I changed my mind as the governor.

KING: When it was over, a momentary truce. It won't last. The first votes in Iowa are just five weeks away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: John, you still standing after -- after all those barbs that were thrown last night? John King joins us now live from St. Petersburg.

John, Iowa is looming and New Hampshire not far behind. We saw lots of fireworks last night. I mean, it was, in fact, particularly snarky, all the comments. Are the candidates thinking that that was their last chance to make a big impression on voters in those states?

KING: Well, there certainly are a couple more debates scheduled, Don, but they understand the ticking clock, if you will, including especially if you take the holidays into account. People will probably tune out for a little bit, come Christmas. And then the Iowa caucus is on January 3, as you mentioned, Iowa just a week behind that on January 8.

And it's fascinating. If you watch, there's two separate campaigns, if you will. Iowa is very conservative. And if you're a conservative in Iowa, a Republican in Iowa, what you're getting in the mail is what you heard last night: criticism, critical mails on immigration, on abortion, on same-sex marriage. Those are the issues that will define the next five weeks in Iowa.

In New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani just went up with an ad on taxes today. It's a much more libertarian, perhaps less socially conservative Republican Party. So you're going to see the social issues fought out in Iowa; things like taxes, probably the Iraq war fought out in New Hampshire.

Five weeks to Iowa, six weeks to New Hampshire. Fasten your seat belt, Don.

LEMON: Absolutely fasten your seatbelts. And I think that the funniest comment of the night was the "Jesus was too smart to run for president" comment. Do you remember that?

KING: Mike Huckabee is a funny man. You know, he has skills developed as a preacher in the pulpit, as a Southern Baptist preacher in Arkansas, and they have served him well in the debates over the years.

Not only can he make a joke about Jesus, because he is a preacher, but he just has that skill, if you will, on the stage. A very funny candidate. And it's working for him.

Again, religious conservatives are the biggest slice of the Republican base in Iowa. Mike Huckabee running second, even threatening for the lead in some of the polls out there. He is the surprise of the Republican race at this moment.

LEMON: Yes, absolutely. And probably showed -- and I don't know if you disagree or not -- more personality than anyone there last night. I was sort of very interested in watching him.

KING: He is very comfortable in his skin. And that, again, has showed.

And you know, we talked about immigration. We talked about taxes. We talked about abortion, same-sex marriage, the war and so on and so forth. And make no mistake about it: issues matter, especially for a party that is picking a new leader after eight years of George W. Bush. So the issues definitely matter.

But people also pick a president based on the comfort factor...

LEMON: Right.

KING: ... and likeability. Is that the guy I want to see on TV every day? And on that score Huckabee is doing very well. He's proven himself to do very well in the debates, and he even noted it last night, Don. You know he's doing better in the debates and that people like him, because the other candidates, who ignored him for months, are now taking after him.

LEMON: Yes. And you boiled it down. You said it better than I could when I was making that comment about Huckabee. Thank you, John King, for your report. And who do you think won the debate? Check out CNNPolitics.com to watch highlights and get analysis from the best political team on television. See what everyone's talking about at CNN.com.

And if you missed even a minute of the action, or all of the tough viewer questions, you can still see what everyone is talking about. An encore presentation of the YouTube -- CNN/YouTube debate will air Saturday night, 8 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

PHILLIPS: Another big step for the little Iraqi burn victim named Youssif. He's been undergoing the biggest and most important operation yet on his badly disfigured face, right in Los Angeles.

Youssif was horribly wounded last year in Baghdad when gunmen doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. It's a story that our Arwa Damon has been following for months. She joins us now from L.A.

Give us an update, Arwa. How is it going with him?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it has gone very well. I just got out of the operating room, and his surgery is done. The team in there are currently dressing his wounds.

It is such an incredible experience to watch these doctors at work.

This is what took place today. The tissue expanders that were placed underneath Youssif's chin and in his right cheek, that is the swelling that you see in the images before the surgery. They have been inflated with a saline solution over the last two months to create good skin.

Today the tissue expanders were removed, and that good skin was stretched over that thick scar tissue you see on his chin. And believe it or not, the tissue expander that they removed from underneath his chin was about the size of a soda can. So you can just imagine how uncomfortable it was for little Youssif to have to deal with that.

The scar tissue that they removed, Dr. Peter Grossman, the lead surgeon on his case, said that it was comparable to wood. That's how hard it was. And that's why it impeded the movement of his mouth so much. As that scar tissue was being removed, we could actually see his mouth beginning to relax. Already he was gaining a little bit more mobility from it.

You could also see Youssif's chin, the outline of his chin. He has his chin back.

We gave this news to his parents. They have still yet to see their little boy, but they were beside themselves, very happy that everything has gone well today. His father wanting to thank everybody that supported his child, that donated to the Children's Burn Foundation, which allowed him and Youssif to come over to the United States. He also wanted people to know that he was not seeking revenge, saying that those that carried out this attack would have to face God. And he also wanted people to continue to pray for a speedy recovery for his little boy.

PHILLIPS: Great, great news. Arwa Damon, thanks so much.

And you'll want to stay right here in the NEWSROOM for updates on Youssif's operation. Arwa will give us updates. And also at 3 p.m. Eastern today, we're going to hear from the lead surgeon, Dr. Peter Grossman.

LEMON: A new message, possibly from Osama bin Laden. We told you two days ago here in the CNN NEWSROOM that Arabic -- Arab Web sites were putting up a banner saying that there was a message to be expected soon from the al Qaeda leader.

Well, we're hearing now from Al Jazeera Television and also from our international desk that there is a message, and it sounds like the voice of Osama bin Laden. This is according to our senior Arab affairs correspondent, Octavia Nasr, with asking Europeans to stop the leaders from supporting the U.S. in Afghanistan.

We're listening to that tape to try to authenticate it and also to get more from that message. But also I'm told that, in this tape, the person who's believed to be Osama bin Laden is talking about taking full responsibility for 9/11, and saying that the Taliban had nothing to do with them.

So, we're going to authenticate this, get Octavia Nasr on board and to make sure that this is all true and fact right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

In the meantime, how would you like to never owe the IRS another penny? Some presidential candidates are putting in their two cents on a so-called Fair Tax. We'll check in with CNN's Ali Velshi in New York to see what this is about.

PHILLIPS: Forty lashes and six months in jail. That could await a British teacher in Sudan if she's convicted of insulting Islam. Her trial underway now.

LEMON: And actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins, the victim of a medical mishap. How do you make sure such a thing doesn't happen to you or your loved ones?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. This one is very interesting. Here's what supporters call it. They call it a Fair Tax. It would basically abolish the IRS and wipe out the federal income tax, replacing it with a national sales tax.

The question is, would it work? Critics, including some Republicans, say no, but supporters, including Mike Huckabee, say it's the thing to spark the economy and relieve the American taxpayer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUCKABEE: The first thing that I would get rid of would be the Internal Revenue Service. We have -- getting rid of a $10 billion a year industry. Which, I'm not being facetious, if we enacted the Fair Tax, one of the researched ways to revive our economic feature, we will get rid of the IRS.

Most people of this country are more afraid of an audit than they are a mugging, and there's a reason why.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We have more questions on this topic.

This next one is -- this next question is for Senator McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD LANHAM, RESIDENT OF MOBILE, ALABAMA: My name is Ronald Lanham from Mobile, Alabama. And I want you to tell me, do you support the elimination of the federal income tax in favor of a national retail sales tax, also known as the Fair Tax. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Governor Huckabee supports it. Do you?

MCCAIN: I do not. And I think we should look very carefully at it. And I think we should look very carefully at some of the provisions which, according to "The Wall Street Journal," would increase an individual's tax rate up into the 30s.

Obviously we need a simpler, fairer tax code. Everybody knows that. We need to have a commission that reports out a credible proposal. And then we do what we do with the base closing commissions. Congress can't fool around. They either vote yes or no. If Congress can't fix the tax code, give me the job, and I'll fix it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: So is a Fair Tax really what it says it is? Is it fair? And will it really do all the things that supporters say it will?

Let's bring in our very own Ali Velshi from New York.

Ali, you know the answer to everything. I mean, Mike Huckabee got a huge applause. If the cameras were turned the other way, we may have seen a standing ovation.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unbelievable. Yes, no, he really got a lot of applause. And I think more than half of that was the fact that people find -- find the IRS and the tax filing system a little complicated.

It might be -- you know, it's probably not news to Americans, but most people around the world don't love their tax systems. It's not a fun part of your life.

It's unclear whether this Fair Tax, which is a sales tax. You'll pay 23 percent more for everything, but you don't get any deductions off your check. You won't get Medicare. You won't get Social Security deducted. You won't get federal income tax deducted.

And guys like Huckabee like to talk about the fact that you'll get all of the money that you're supposed to get.

Except you're still going to pay state taxes. You're still going to pay local taxes. You're still going to pay property taxes. And the bottom line is this is the kind of tax that rewards people who save money and penalizes people who spend money. That's a double- edged sword in America, Don, because we're constantly talking about how 2/3 of this economy is based on people spending money.

So it's creative, and it definitely addresses the deep-seated frustration most people have with the tax code and the complexity and the fact that guys like me who know a lot about money don't do their own taxes. I mean, this is one complicated thing. It gets to that frustration.

It's unclear whether this is the solution that's really going to help people and whether or not we're going to be paying more or less.

LEMON: So the bottom line is, really, we don't really know if it's fair. Yet, I guess it would have to be sort of -- sort of figured out as it goes. But I don't know. I guess, depending on your tax bracket, you either find it fair or not. You pay more or less.

VELSHI: There are studies out there that say that -- I mean, I read one. Again, I don't know that this is the case. Somebody, one professor, has said that 90 percent of taxpayers will end up paying more on their taxes as a result. And the top 1 percent of taxpayers will end up getting a lot more money back.

But I've been reading a lot of conflicting information. You're right, with taxes, if it's going to be a consumption tax, a tax on what you buy, Don, that means people's behavior will be affected. So we don't really know how it pans out.

Again, the simplicity is very appealing. Whether or not it actually saves you money is not clear.

LEMON: Maybe it will stop some of this rampant consumerism, you know.

VELSHI: I'm sure it will. But remember, rampant consumerism does keep us all employed.

LEMON: Absolutely. OK. Ali Velshi, always appreciate it. Thank you very much, sir.

VELSHI: My pleasure.

LEMON: If you missed even a minute of the action or all the tough viewer questions, you can still see what everyone is talking about. An encore presentation of the CNN/YouTube debate will air Saturday night, 8 p.m. Eastern.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: More now on that teacher out of Sudan.

Fredricka Whitfield, you have details on this story for us?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Right. Very disturbing information for those who are supporters of this British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, 54 years old.

Apparently the court in Khartoum has decided to find her guilty of inciting religious hatred, and so they sentenced her to 15 days in prison and deportation, following that, from Sudan.

Just to bring you up to date as to what happened, this British teacher asked her 7-year-old -- or class of 7-year-olds what to name a teddy bear. The name Mohamed came to mind, and everyone agreed that would be the name given to the teddy bear.

Well, apparently there was a lot of outrage that followed. It's unclear whether it was the parents who expressed outrage or if it was villagers, people in the community, or it may be even other teachers.

But bottom line, she was detained very soon after that and being held. Today she was in court, without her defense attorney allowed to be present, and without the presence of journalists allowed in that courtroom.

In the end, the court decided she would be found guilty for inciting religious hatred -- is the charge, for naming this teddy bear Mohamed. And now she is facing 15 days in prison. And it's unclear exactly how immediately she would be deported from Sudan.

The foreign ministry or secretary of Great Britain expressing real disappointment in this, saying that this has to be an innocent misunderstanding. And the foreign secretary, David Miliband, then had a conversation with the Sudanese ambassador to Britain, saying that they were very concerned about the case. They believe that this was an innocent misunderstanding.

But in the end the court has spoken.

PHILLIPS: At the same time, Fred, when we follow stories like this and we bring attention to it, a lot of times the international pressure does become so great that it affects these cases and the outcome of these cases.

WHITFIELD: Sometimes it does happen. It hasn't happened as of yet. So I guess anyone who is in support of Ms. Gibbons would be hopeful that that would be the outcome, that perhaps any kind of pressure would -- would allow the Sudanese government or at least the court to say, "Wait a minute. Maybe this is a little too stringent."

But for now that court has spoken. Fifteen days in jail is what likely will take place from here.

PHILLIPS: We'll keep following it. Fred, thanks a lot.

LEMON: Could it be three straight winning sessions for Wall Street? It's hard to believe after dropping to correction levels earlier in the week. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with the latest. Susan on the floor, as a matter of fact.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. Well, you know, I guess you wouldn't be surprised if stocks are a little bit sluggish today, because we're coming off five straight days of triple-digit moves. I'm talking about triple-digit moves to the up and to the down side. Of course the down side helping to account for that correction we saw on Monday.

We're also coming off the best two-day rally for the Dow Industrials in five years.

But yes, today is a little sluggish. We had a weak open. The market actually rallied. And one of the reasons why we had the weak open was because of oil prices that were sharply higher, up by 4 bucks because of a pipeline explosion in Northern Minnesota.

Since then the situation has improved. Two of the pipelines that were out have actually been restored, and things are getting back to normal. So, right now crude is only up 38 cents. And of course, that is, given some of the big moves we've seen, that's kind of a relief on Wall Street.

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: He is a soldier, en officer, a general, and now one of the many Iraq war wounded. Insurgent bombs do not respect ranks. We have the general's story, and you'll see it only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: British teacher Gillian Gibbons was found guilty just moments ago of inspiring religious hatred. Her crime, Gibbons let her second grade students name a teddy bear Muhammad.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has the latest now from the teacher's hometown of Liverpool, England -- Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

Well, she has been found guilty now, Gillian Gibbons, of inciting religious hatred. We understand from the defense team that's just left the court in Khartoum, they are going to appeal. Now, she has been sentenced at this point to 15 days in a woman's prison in Khartoum followed by deportation. So she will be brought back here to Britain.

Now, this is going to be horrifying for the family here in Liverpool. They were surprised that it had even got this far. They were very worried about how she was going to be treated, very worried that she had no intention of inciting religious hatred. It was an naive and innocent mistake, and certainly we know that at the court throughout day it's more than eight hours that Gillian Gibbons has been inside this court throughout the day. We understand also there have been teachers supporting her claim that it was an innocent mistake -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Paula, is there anything that the British government can do to negotiate with the Sudanese?

HANCOCKS: Well, up until this point they have been trying to make it a consular issue and not a diplomatic issue. Certainly you don't want something like this to blow out of all proportion, but at this point it does appear as though they're going to have to get involved further. We know that the Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been in touch with the family. He said he was disappointed with the charges that came yesterday. So certainly he's going to be bitterly disappointed by the sentencing coming today and the fact she's found guilty.

We know that the foreign secretary has called the Sudanese ambassador to the U.K. in to see him, to ask what was going on, to say to him, go back to Khartoum, say to the very highest level which presumably is the president, that they can intervene, so certainly at this point it looks as though the officials are going to have to get involved even further.

PHILLIPS: We'll definitely follow it. Paula Cox live there, from Liverpool, England, the hometown of that teacher. Appreciate it.

LEMON: More on the hunt for Sean Taylor's murderer. While friends and family plan a funeral no one expected, the service will take place Monday at Florida International University in Miami. Police are now saying Taylor was shot in a random break-in. There is no indication he knew his attacker. The Redskins safety died of a single gunshot to the leg. Police are still trying to figure out whether a break-in at Taylor's home earlier this month is connected to what happened on Monday.

And there is a column about Taylor today in "The Philadelphia Enquirer." It was written by sportswriter David Aldridge and got our attention. Let me read some of it to you right now.

It says, "Sean Taylor, while no saint, was not a thug. He didn't grow up in the hood. He went to private schools before college. And even if he was a thug, whatever that is, or embraced that culture during one part of his life, that doesn't mean he deserved to die in front of his child and fiancee in his home bothering no one. I'm angry that people cry about Sean Taylor's death because he was an outstanding football player, as if his death has extra meaning because he had great closing speed. This is not about sports." Well, that's not all David Aldridge has to say about Sean Taylor, American society and the black experience. We'll talk with him in the NEWSROOM. It should be a very interesting conversation. That'll happen next hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

LEMON: Aside from winning wars, a top priority of the Pentagon may be planning to win wars. A long term planning session is underway there today and President Bush will listen in, it'll happen this afternoon. On the agenda, Iraq, of course, also Iran and the shape of U.S. forces after current wars have ended. The president is expected to speak after that session and stay with CNN. And we plan to carry it for you live.

PHILLIPS: The Iraq War, do we really have to emphasize that nowhere in Baghdad -- nowhere in this country is safe from determined insurgents bent on violence and killing. Even the highest ranking U.S. military officers are vulnerable, and today, I spoke with an army brigadier general still recovering from an IED attack in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. JEFFREY DORKO, INJURED BY IED IN IRAQ: The IED went off, and I guess that my first sensation was that all the tires of the vehicle were flat and we were running on flats and our security officer asked me how I felt, and I told him that I had been hit. And he crawled to the back of the vehicle with his aid bag and we continued down the road to get to a safe area where I was put into another vehicle and quickly transported back to the combat support hospital where they took care of me there.

PHILLIPS: Where were you hit?

DORKO: In the back and the side from the blast off to the side of the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, General Dorko is the commander of the Gulf Region Army Corps of Engineers. I asked him if he felt that he had been targeted because of his rank. His answer to that and his view on security in the war zone later, right here in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: More than two million Iraqis fled to Syria and Jordan as the war dragged on. Now with violence on the decline, jobs and Visas harder to come by and the Iraqi government offering to pay for the trip, more and more refugees are going home.

CNN's Brent Sadler was in the Syrian capitol as hundreds of Iraqis boarded buses for Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A chaotic start to a long and uncertain journey to Baghdad. Hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Syria jam their worldly possessions into overloaded buses. For the first time in more than two years, a tide of 1.5 million refugees arriving in Damascus has started to turn.

Twenty-six-year-old Amar Jasum Ali (ph) is head of his small and long suffering family. They are Muslim Shiites who were driven from a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad a year ago. Victims, they say, of bomb blasts, kidnapping and violent intimidation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, this was in the house in Baghdad.

SADLER: Amar shows a picture of his sister Adhlam (ph), kidnapped and missing, presumed dead. But now, surviving relatives want them back to live in safer areas. And the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is luring returnees with hundreds of dollars in support of their move.

"It's hopefully safer," says Amar, "that's what was on TV, thanks to Maliki and God willing, we'll go back."

(on camera): The crucial cash incentive and free transport encourages many refugees to weigh their options. But these life and death decisions to gamble on going back to Iraq seemed to be more about ending their hopeless limbo here than any real expectation of a smooth and safe return home.

(voice-over): In less than a year, Amar's already impoverished family ran out of funds. Syria restricted Visas and brother-in-law Saad (ph) is overcome with emotion when he recalls that he was forced to leave his wife and child behind. An agonizing dilemma faces them all.

"If they come for me again," explains Amar, "I won't do anything. Let them kill me in my own country."

This largest organized return of refugees from Syria comes as the Iraqi government faces intense pressure to show progress after months of political deadlock.

SYBELLA WILKES, U.N. HIGH COMM. FOR REFUGEES: We of course, would love to see a day when Iraqis can go back, we're just not sure that today is the day that the majority of Iraqis can feel they can go back.

SADLER: Casting doubt on the scale of any dramatic moves. For the refugees, their trip is arduous, the roads in Iraq dangerous for homesick families sharing the same calculated risk.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Damascus.

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PHILLIPS: A doctor's bad handwriting, a nurse reads the wrong chart. Who knows why so many people are given the wrong medication, but they are. We're going to tell you how you can avoid being one of them.

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LEMON: Well, maybe it is the wrong dosage or the wrong medication altogether. But according to the Institute of Medicine, medical mistakes like these are far too common in hospitals.

Just recently, actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins reportedly were given 1,000 times the intended dosage of a blood thinner. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has some advice on how to avoid mishaps in this week's Empowered Patient.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Medication errors harm at least 1.5 million Americans every year. That's according to a report by the Institute of Medicine. Now, some medication errors are completely out of your control. But sometimes, there are things you can do to avoid becoming a victim.

So in this week's Empowered Patient column, we list some tips. First of all, if you're a patient in the hospital, ask the nurse for a complete list of every medication that you'll be given, what it's going to look like and what time you'll be receiving it. So that way, if you're supposed to have an orange pill at noon and instead somebody gives you a blue one, you'll know that perhaps there's been some kind of a mistake.

And as an outpatient, when you go to the pharmacy to pick up your drugs, open up the bottle and show it to the pharmacist and say, is this what the doctor ordered?

For more tips on how to avoid being the victim of a medication error, go to CNN.com/health and look for Empowered Patient. For Empowered Patient, I'm Elizabeth Cohen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: The man who spear-headed President Clinton's impeachment has died. Henry Hyde was a Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal exploded in 1998. In 1999, he took part in Clinton's trial in the Senate but the charges, as we know, didn't stick.

Hyde retired from Capitol Hill this past January after 32 years representing Illinois. Just this month, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush. Henry Hyde died this morning in a Chicago hospital. He was 83-years-old.

PHILLIPS: You may not always taste it, but you can count on salt and lots of it in many types of fast food and packaged meals in super markets. And the Food and Drug Administration is not happy. It's holding a hearing today on how much salt and sodium Americans consume. That could lead to government restrictions. The Food Industry admits there's a problem, but wants voluntary solutions. Doctors say too much sodium contributes to high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes.

LEMON: A hunting disagreement gets Texas Tech, a basketball coach there, Bob Knight, fired up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Swore and cussed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly what I said. I'm asking you now to move down so the pellets don't land on the house again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ask us politely, I'll be glad to do it. You ask us politely now. You can film whatever you want to film. I don't care. We'll go wherever you want to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, get the story behind the bird shot heard round the Lone Star State.

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LEMON: Is it Osama bin Laden? Is it not? We always have these questions when there's a purported videotape or audiotape around. And for that, we turn to our senior Arab affairs correspondent Octavia Nasr.

Octavia, do we know if it's Osama bin Laden or not in this audiotape?

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR ARAB AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it sure sounds like Osama bin Laden. You know, we at CNN do not authenticate these audios. We can listen to the man and it sounds like Osama bin Laden. But we always wait for CIA voice verification. They will come back and tell us if they think it is him.

LEMON: What does he say? He has a message about 9/11?

NASR: 9/11, basically saying, I'm the only person responsible for 9/11. Trying to get the Taliban out of the picture. For some reason, he feels that he has to say that Taliban knew nothing about 9/11, had nothing to do with 9/11.

And then the next step, this is a message to the Europeans, made it clear even when the tape was announced a couple days ago, they said this is going to be a message to the Europeans. He's calling on them to quit Afghanistan. So, basically he's saying Afghanistan is a losing war, your affiliation with the U.S. is a losing affiliation. He is advising them to pressure the leaders to quit Afghanistan.

LEMON: So, asserting his power, saying he was all 9/11, was all him and the message to the Europeans, that's what we've gotten out of it now. And you're still listening to these tapes, right?

NASR: Right, and one thing, you know at the end, his last sound bite that al-Jazeera aired, basically, he's saying that he's telling the Europeans that by bombing civilians in Afghanistan, he used one example. He said you bombed a wedding. You knew there were women and children at that wedding. You bombed them on purpose. So basically saying you played against the rules of war. So, there is a hint of threat there.

LEMON: Right.

NASR: But of course, bin Laden threatened Europe before. He even offered them a truce at one point, then said -- then came back and said you didn't accept my truce, in the name of -- with a voice of his second man in command. So, he's used to talking to the Americans at one time ...

LEMON: Right.

NASR: ...and then the Europeans, so.

LEMON: I was going to say, this sort of threat is nothing new for him.

NASR: Nothing new.

LEMON: Octavia Nasser, thank you very much for that.

NASR: Any time.

PHILLIPS: Arizona typically isn't known for rainy forecasts, but a storm system is developing over the southwest and it's putting a new spin on that. Time to check in with Chad Myers in the CNN weather center.

Hey, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: 'Tis the season at the White House. First Lady Laura Bush gives us a peek at this season's holiday decorations at the executive mansion.

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