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Austrian Man Accused of Locking Up & Raping Daughter; Firefighters Battle Sierra Madre Blaze; CNN Tours Camp Bucca

Aired April 28, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This man, for 24 years he led a double life. Before with his wife, he had had his -- had a family of seven children, and then he had another six children with his own daughter, of which he had himself brought up three of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: As you can see from that incest is only -- it's just the begin, of what allegedly went on for decades in this house of horrors in Austria. We're live with the whole revolting story.

MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: And you don't need YouTube to get your fill of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama's former pastor is making up for weeks of public silence, and he's not making any apologies.

LEMON: Certainly isn't.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta.

LONG: And hello, I'm Melissa long in today for Kyra Phillips.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Right off the top, for the second straight day, Barack Obama's former pastor is speaking out about those sermons that sparked such a firestorm. Well, this morning, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright addressed the National Press Club in Washington and, as you may have seen live right here on CNN, he took questions afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA LEINWAND, VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB: You have said that the media have taken you out of context. Can you explain what you meant in the sermon shortly after 9/11 when you said the United States had brought the terrorist attacks on itself, "America's chickens are coming home to roost"?

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, SEN. BARACK OBAMA'S FORMER PASTOR: Have you heard the whole sermon? Have you heard the whole sermon?

LEINWAND: I -- most -- WRIGHT: No, no, the whole sermon? Yes or no? No, you haven't heard the whole sermon? That nullifies that question.

Well, let me try to respond, in a nonbombastic way. If you heard the whole sermon, first of all you heard that I was quoting the ambassador from Iraq -- Iraq. That's No. 1.

But No. 2, to quote the Bible, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever you sow, that you also shall"...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reap.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reap.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reap.

WRIGHT: Jesus said do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back one you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic, divisive principles.

LEINWAND: Some critics have said that your sermons are un- patriotic. How do you feel about America and about being an American?

WRIGHT: I feel that those -- I feel that those citizens who say that have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me, and they are unfair accusations taken from sound bites and that which is looped over and over again on certain channels.

I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?

LEINWAND: What is your relationship with Louis Farrakhan? Do you agree with and respect his views, including his most racially divisive views?

WRIGHT: What I think about him, as I said on Bill Moyers, and it got edited out, how many other African-Americans or European Americans do you know that can get one million people together on the Mall? He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century. That's what I think about him.

I said, as I said on Bill Moyers, when Louis Farrakhan speaks it's like E.F. Hutton speaks: all black America listens. Whether they agree with him or not, they listen.

Now, I'm not going to put down Louis Farrakhan anymore than Mandela would put down Fidel Castro. You remember that Ted Koppel show where Ted wanted Mandela to put down Castro, because Castro is our enemy. And he said, "You don't tell me who my enemies are. You don't tell me who my friends are."

Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains. He did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color.

LEINWAND: In light of your widely quoted comments, damning America, do you think you owe the American people an apology? If not, do you think that America is still damned in the eyes of God?

WRIGHT: The governmental leaders, those, as I said to Barack Obama, my member, I'm a pastor. He's a member. I'm not a spiritual mentor, a guru. I'm his pastor. And I said to Barack Obama, last year, "If you get elected, November the 5th, I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind up people." All right? It's about policy, not the American people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. That was today. That was just today. And last night, though, Reverend Wright addressed an audience of 10,000 people at an NAACP dinner in Detroit.

Father Michael Flagere (ph) is a friend of Reverend Wright's from Chicago and was in the audience today in Washington. CNN contributor Roland Martin was at the dinner in Detroit. We'll hear from both of them in just a few minutes. That'll be very interesting.

Also, we want to hear your thoughts on Reverend Wright's comments. Were they divisive or were they descriptive, as he said? Sound off at ireport.com, and we'll read some of your comments right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LONG: And now to Austria, where a 73-year-old man allegedly made his daughter his slave, raped her repeatedly, fathered children with her, and no one knew his terrible secret? Not even his own wife?

Police say this man is behind one of the country's worst crimes ever. They say some of the children he had never saw the light of day until now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK POLZER, LOWER AUSTRIA POLICE (through translator): Yes, that's true. At least as far as we can see, as far as we know, according to the testimony of the father, perhaps a week ago, the first time that -- and the 18-year-old, this is the first time he had let them out of the cellar. Yes, in all their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LONG: The more we hear about this story, the more shocking it gets.

Here's CNN's Frederik Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the investigation here in Amstetten, Austria, here goes on, the police find the nature of this alleged crime hard to believe but yet credible enough to launch a full-scale investigation.

A 42-year-old woman claims that, for 24 year she was locked up in the cellar underneath the house behind me by her own father, who's now a 73-year-old pensioner. She says she was raped on many occasions and that he fathered six of her children in this very house.

Now, three of those children were taken away from her immediately after birth, and they actually lived in this house. They played in this house. They played soccer in the yard. They had a makeshift pool here, as their mother and three of their siblings were being held in cellars below.

Now, one thing that the mother has also told authorities, she said that they never saw the light of day, that they only got food when the 73-year-old man wanted them to get food, that they only got clothes when he wanted them to get clothes.

Police have taken a look inside those cellars underneath that house. They got in because the man let them in. He gave them the combination to an electronic lock. They say it's a series of rooms down there which are very narrow, very dark, and very, very damp. And yet, you do have the basic necessities down there. You have a place to wash up, and you also have a little cooking area.

Nevertheless, for 24 years these people were locked up, allegedly, in that cellar. And right now, a team of psychologists is trying to help them come to terms with what's been going on in the past decades, really.

Fred Pleitgen, Amstetten, Austria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LONG: Police are identifying the suspect only as Josef F. They say he told them he fathered a seventh child with his daughter but that child died shortly after birth, and he tossed the body into an incinerator.

LEMON: Oh, boy.

Well, for the moment, few people except firefighters are allowed into the foothills east of Los Angeles. A fire that started Saturday is still burning out of control near Sierra Madre. And CNN's Thelma Gutierrez is in the neighborhood there.

Thelma, bring us up to date. What are you seeing there right now?

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, I can tell you, if we just pan right over, take a look right through those trees up on the ridge. You can see that the flames are licking the ridge right now. Right out in front are residents who are positioned on top of their rooftops, watching that flame. And the fear is whether or not the wind picks up and actually forces the flames down into the homes.

But I can tell you that firefighters have launched a very aggressive attack. They have engines that are positioned at the end of the road and along the ridge in front of those homes, ready to -- to attack, should those flames come down.

They've also been very aggressive by the air. They've had a Fire Hawk that has come down into a nearby pond, and it siphons out about a thousand gallons at a time, goes up into this very steep, rugged terrain, then makes that water drop.

Again, 400 firefighters, up to 500 this morning, I'm told, that are on the ground, and they're cutting through that very dense, dry brush. This is an area, Don, that has not burned for 40 years. So you have a lot of fuel up there.

And out here in Sierra Madre in this neighborhood, we're actually out of -- an area called Wisteria Way. And I'm standing here with a bunch of the residents who were given evacuation orders but decided to stand tight and wait it out.

Hillary Hanel, tell me what did you hear -- 2:00 in the morning, suddenly a big bullhorn and you're told to leave?

HILARY HANEL, SIERRA MADRE RESIDENT: Right. They -- they basically said, "This is the Sierra Madre Fire Department, and we're requesting that you leave this area and evacuate." So, we actually took our children to a friend's house but stayed behind and watered the roof and the trees and the bushes. And...

GUTIERREZ: Why did you stay behind? So many times people say that, you know, you're actually putting others at risk by staying behind and you know, perhaps then suddenly now you have a rescue?

HANEL: Right, right. Well, we were -- we were positioned. All our cars were already packed, and we would have been immediately down the hill if it had looked like we needed to leave.

But it was -- it was -- actually, it was -- it was deceiving, because yesterday it felt like it was much better by the end of the day because they were so aggressive from the air. So we felt better. And then it was there, but it was far enough away that you could tell, and it was not moving. It had sort of stayed, and it was burning really hard in one spot. So that's why we sort of could watch it.

GUTIERREZ: Must be a little scary as you look up on the ridge, though, and you see those flames coming down.

HANEL: Especially at night. It is very disconcerting, because they are -- it's so bright at night that it lights up the sky. And the flames were high, but they were all in one -- that one ridge there. And so we watched it very carefully. And...

GUTIERREZ: And you're going to stick around?

HANEL: Yes. We'll stick around. And you know.

GUTIERREZ: I understand school is closed. And that's why all the students are out here, all the kids are out here.

HANEL: Yes, it's a -- yes. First time, certainly, in our years living here, that the schools are closed for something. So...

GUTIERREZ: All right, Hilary. Thank you so much. And good luck to you.

HANEL: Thank you.

GUTIERREZ: And I know that you are ready to leave, should you be ordered out.

HANEL: Yes. Yes.

GUTIERREZ: OK.

So, Don, that's the situation out here. Again, everybody just keeping a very close eye on this fire, making sure it doesn't come into the -- to the homes down below.

LEMON: We hope that doesn't happen. OK, Thelma Gutierrez, thank you very much for your reporting.

LONG: Well, we do have the fires out west, east of Los Angeles. Of course, tornadoes possibly in the south today. Let's get straight to meteorologist Chad Myers, who's keeping an eye on the severe weather for us -- Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Although most of today is not a tornado day, it's a wind and hail day. Hail, look at the hail coming out of the picture. This is an I-Reporter from Rockford, Illinois, Ben Guth. Just -- I'm going to be quiet for a second.

That will ruin your day. And this went on and on for a -- three or four minutes on this entire video. So if you have anything like this. And Ben did the best job he could, stayed inside. Didn't shot it out through the window, wasn't in any danger, and still got us the I-Report and sent it to us.

So that's how I want you to do it, not going out there and getting hit on the head with those things, because they hurt, coming down at about 100 miles per hour. And they put dings in the cars. And I've had many cars with hail dents when I lived in Oklahoma.

Don, Melissa, back to you.

LONG: Amazing. Amazing. And again, don't ever compromise your safety...

LEMON: Absolutely not.

LONG: ... when you are, of course, contributing to the I-Report.

Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

Now, it is the new front line in the war on terrorism. We're going to give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the biggest detention center for the U.S. in Iraq. LEMON: And also, a new report raises red flags about the safety of blood substitutes. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LONG: No I.D., no vote. The Supreme Court says making voters show photo identification before they cast ballots does not violate their constitutional rights. It was a 6-3 ruling, and the court upholds a law in Indiana which, by the way, holds its primaries a week from tomorrow.

Now, critics say the law unfairly burdens poor, minority and elderly voters.

LEMON: Barack Obama's former pastor is on the defensive about those fiery sermons. We've seen a lot of him the last couple days. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke to the National Press Club in Washington this morning and said attacks on him are actually attacks on the black church.

Well, last night, a similar tone in Detroit as Reverend Wright addressed an NAACP event.

CNN contributor Roland Martin was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Based on the question and answer session today, actually blew it. I actually called this last on my radio show, WVON in Chicago. I told my listeners that I felt that he should not appear before the National Press Club, that he was walking into a place that was not his comfort zone, was not, frankly, where he normally is. And that to take questions in an open-ended format on live television was not to his advantage.

I did feel, though, that the -- that the interview with Bill Moyers, it made sense. It's a different kind of environment; it was a controlled environment.

The speech last night before the NAACP was very well received. Some people disagreed with it, but still it gave you a different sense of who he was.

There were moments today, I felt, where he was too flippant, where I felt that his tone was inappropriate and also the behavior there. The issue is not substance. The issue is tone, how you come across in what you say. So there's no way in the world -- and also some of them comments he made today, the Obama campaign is going to have to address. He was even more so flippant with the whole issue of the Obama response to the politician, more so than he was in the clips that the Moyers folks provided.

And so I would say, certainly, the Moyers interview, A; last night, B; today, F.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: CNN contributor Roland Martin.

And we want to hear your thoughts on the Reverend Wright's comments. Were they divisive or descriptive, as he said? Sound off at ireport.com, and we'll hear some of your comments a little bit later on, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LONG: Fueled by anger over gas prices, truckers make a protest pit stop on Capitol Hill.

LEMON: Your pain is but a tickle to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: These people are not hurt. And to the extent that they are hurt, they're down to their last $50 million.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, the economy may be slumping, but there's no slowing the superrich.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CARS AND TRUNKS HONKING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, there you go: the sentiment is honk if you hate high gas prices. Truck drivers are paying big bucks to fill up their big rigs, and they are ticked off. A convoy of trucks has rumbled into Washington for a protest on Capitol Hill.

And just to make sure President Bush gets the message, drivers did a lap around the White House, too. A group called Truckers and Citizens United wants to meet with Congress to demand price caps and other government help.

LONG: As you know, Delta and Northwest Airlines announced their merger a couple of weeks ago now. And now, Wall Street is abuzz with talk of which airlines will be next to tie the knot.

Susan Lisovicz is live on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with the latest possible marriage.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Melissa.

Well, according to the "AP," it's United and U.S. Airways and that they are in advanced talks. No comment from either of the airlines. But U.S. Airways is a good example of some of the pressures that are so great within the industry. It's filed for bankruptcy protection twice in recent years. And when it did emerge last time, it took over America West.

Of course, it's the high fuel prices and the slowing economy that are a double whammy for the industry as a whole. Both of those airlines lost money in the first quarter. They've been raising fees or fares and reducing capacity, and we're all feeling it, as well -- Melissa.

LONG: So then this is United and U.S. Air. But what about the potential for a merger with Continental? What happened with that?

LISOVICZ: Good point. I know, you've got to keep track. It's like musical chairs in the skies.

That's right. Continental came out over the weekend, and said, yes, while it had been talking and thinking about a possible tie-up, it said it is going to go it alone for now.

And Continental's considered in better shape than some of its competitors. It has newer fleets, solid management, and pretty good labor relations. The CEO said that a merger could threaten its cultural, operational and financial strength. Continental is cutting its domestic flights and reducing fleet size.

But not the same story for Eos Airlines. This is a new start-up in the last couple of years; only did transatlantic business fares. So high end. Its fares went up to $9,000 per. It is the fifth airline to shut its doors in recent months.

U.S. Airway shares right now on Wall Street, up about 11 percent. Continental/United shares are down slightly.

Overall, the market, it's OK; it's quiet today. The Dow is up 29 points. The NASDAQ is up around nine points. Oil is up 33 cents. And we've got real close to $120 a barrel in electronic trading earlier today.

Coming up next hour, Wrigley shares are on a sugar high. They're up 23 percent. I'll tell you why -- Melissa.

LONG: I know that sugar high has something to do with a seal of approval, too. So looking forward to hearing more about that.

LISOVICZ: Got it.

LONG: Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange for us. Susan, thanks.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

LEMON: A lot of taxpayers won't be getting those economic stimulus checks because they make, well, simply too much money. Most of those high earners probably don't feel rich, but the top tier do, because, well, they are, and their spending doesn't need stimulating.

CNN's Alina Cho saw it for herself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Entrepreneur Paul Parmer (ph) says he doesn't feel any turbulence up here in his private jet or on the ground.

(on-camera): Same is true for money.

PAUL PARMER, ENTREPRENEUR: Same is true for money; you're right.

Hi, welcome to my house.

CHO (voice-over): Parmer belongs to a small, elite club, the ultra-rich. Unlike millions of Americans hit by skyrocketing fuel and food prices, the wealthy are snapping up high-priced cars, homes, and jewelry.

(on-camera) This seems counterintuitive. What's going on?

SERWER: These people are not hurt. And to the extent that they are hurt, they're down to their last $50 million.

CHO (voice-over): A new study by the Harrison Group says the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans accounts for more than half of all U.S. consumer spending. The luxury market is not only booming: in some cases, it's setting records.

Take real estate. Seventy-one Manhattan apartments worth at least $10 million sold so far this year. That's compared to 17 in all of last year.

Foreign buyers are helping, taking advantage of the weak dollar. But the richest Americans are also in the market for what they believe is a good deal.

PAM LIEBMAN, THE CORCORAN GROUP: And I wish we had more of them to sell. This part of the market is basically recession proof.

CHO: Fine jeweler Faraone Mennella's business has never been better. Everything is selling, even with sticker shock prices like this $180,000 necklace and $65,000 matching earrings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really doesn't surprise us, right?

ROBERTO FARAONE MENNELLA, FARAONE MENNELLA: Yes. It's true. I mean, we travel around the country and we see in our stores, everything that is high-ticket is selling out.

CHO: That includes smaller communities like Fresno, California, where there is still an appetite for everything from designer handbags to Jaguars to million dollar homes.

Back to Parmer. He owns five homes in three countries, a dozen cars, three jets, and says he'll keep spending without looking at the price.

(on-camera) What recession? PARMER: Yes, what recession?

CHO (voice-over): Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: What recession on his private jet, huh?

LONG: I mean, certainly very entrepreneurial. He's worked very hard.

LEMON: Yes.

LONG: There are countless other people, though, that have worked hard and could never, ever imagine a $180,000 necklace.

LEMON: Well, we were just talking while the story was going, and I was in Las Vegas this weekend. And one of the things we're going to do later on in the week is how can you afford to go and gamble and pay $400, $500, $600 a night for a hotel and fly in this economy? And you won't believe what some of the people had to say. But...

LONG: You don't have to spend $400, $500 out in Vegas.

LEMON: Well, hotel rooms are expensive. Yes, even the least, you know.

LONG: You've got to negotiate. You can get it lower than that.

LEMON: You should know. Vegas is not my place. Maybe you know. A high roller. Hearing that.

LONG: I don't think so. Actually never gambled.

LEMON: Yes.

LONG: Well, still to come on NEWSROOM today, it was an Abu Ghraib waiting to happen. Today, it is a weapon in the war on terror. CNN's Nic Robertson has an exclusive look behind the walls of a maximum-security prison in Iraq.

LEMON: Also, Melissa, Barack Obama's former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, says he is descriptive; he's not divisive. And we'll hear one of Pastor Wright's friends, a Catholic priest, what he has to say about his latest comments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

LONG: Hello, I'm Melissa Long in today for Kyra Phillips.

Again, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: All right. News happening right now -- these pictures just into the CNN NEWSROOM. As a matter of fact, they are live. They are coming to us from Miami, Florida. And you can see, firefighters are on the scene there fighting a brushfire.

And once this pulls out here, you'll be able to see the fire just to the left here. But these are firefighters on the scene. Now here's what we are told -- this call regarding a brushfire came in at about 12:30, 1:00 Eastern. The fire is mostly in a heavily wooded area of Miami-Dade County. Firefighters are fighting the fire from the ground and also from the air.

Again, these pictures courtesy of our affiliate, WSVN. And there we go, we see the actual fire there. Not exactly sure how many acres are involved.

But let's talk about the wind and the danger of fires in Florida. Especially now, it's been dry. We lad a drought last year.

Chad Myers, bring us up to date. Give us some perspective on this.

MYERS: Yes, Don, it hasn't rained in Miami-Dade area all the way since April 8. April 7 and the sixth they picked up an inch and a half over both those days and then it's been dry with very little measurable rain at all on any given day here for the past 21 days. So things have dried out all across most of central and northern Florida as well. Although northern Florida today getting some rain showers.

There's a red flag warning in the northern part of the state, but not here for the southern part in Miami-Dade. The wind speed, though, right now from the southeast at 16 miles per hour. And that you can really see. When the smoke doesn't go straight up, you know that the wind is fairly strong. And it's blowing downwind there from right to left on your screen. So, therefore, winds are from the southeast, we'd actually be looking to the south from the north part of this fire event.

And it's going to be a smoldery event for a lot of people. And there are interstates in the way here. When the wind blows so sideways, you really can get yourself in trouble when the winds blow across roadways. You don't want to drive into the smoke if you don't have to.

Saw the pictures of this truck getting off the road and into something that they can't get out of.

LEMON: That's not good.

MYERS: No. That's got a little dozier on the front of this truck. They tried to get this -- tried to make a fire line with this truck. They can't do it if it's stuck in the ditch like this one is.

LEMON: Yes and it looks -- just from what it looked like a second ago, like it's really close to tipping --

LONG: It's teetering there.

LEMON: Yes, teetering on the edge there.

Hey Chad, I've got to ask you real quick -- we're going to get back to this after we get more news in -- is this sort of a sign of things to come for us down here south with this summer with the drought?

MYERS: Well, there's no way to know.

Unfortunately, with 21 days of no rainfall, lawns are drying up. And this -- this brush dries up. It was a pretty decent March and early April for rain, and that made growth. And then the growth, well, dried up. And when the growth dries up, then you have all of this fuel to make fires like we have right now and really need some showers across all of Florida to help out the drought situation.

There will be some in central Florida, but I don't see any rainfall for Miami for a while, at least a couple of days.

LEMON: We'll be checking in on this and the fires out west, as well.

Chad Myers, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

LONG: It is the bottom of the hour. Let's get you up to date on some of the stories we're working for you right now in the NEWSROOM.

First glimpse into what people in Austria are calling a house of horrors. Police say a 73-year-old man kept his daughter captive in the cellar for 24 years, raped her repeatedly and fathered seven children with her. The daughter's now 42.

We mentioned the fires in the Miami area. Now some fires east of Los Angeles. Firefighters there managing to keep this raging wildfire from burning several homes near L.A. Around 500 acres have been scorched, but firefighters are hoping to get some help from calmer winds and higher humidity in the forecast today.

The death toll is expected to climb after a high speed passenger train jumped the tracks and hit another train in eastern China. The official news agency is reporting at least 70 people dead and more than 400 hurt, dozens of them critically.

LEMON: Take a look at some of the aftermath of the heavy fighting in Baghdad. By some accounts, the most violent clashes in weeks. The United States and Iraqi forces are taking on Shiite militias in the Sadr City slum. U.S. military says the militants have suffered 38 deaths in the path two days.

Now to say it's a rough neighborhood -- well it doesn't quite describe Camp Bucca. It is the biggest military prison camp in Iraq. Once it was another PR nightmare just waiting to happen, but now, as we see, it's an American asset.

Here's an exclusive report from CNN's Nic Robertson. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a new front line in the fight against terrorism. Camp Bucca, the United States' biggest detention facility in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over here this is al Qaeda here.

ROBERTSON: We're the first TV crew to get a tour.

Marine General, Douglas Stone, leads the way. This is the most dangerous part.

MAJOR GEN. DOUGLAS STONE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We've got about 2,000 identified al Qaeda here in the internment facility (ph). They are hard to break.

ROBERTSON (on-camera): Right now, we're wearing protective glasses. You've got shields up here to protect us. Everyone down here is crowded around looking at us now?

STONE: Right. But this is not a place that you want to hang around. So we really don't want to stand here that much longer, because they will now organize around us. And you can already see the lieutenant is ready to move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you go back this way, I'll take you up the center.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): We move on through the massive razor wire as alleged al Qaeda members gather below. We can't show their faces, or talk to them. To do so would violate Geneva conventions and Red Cross rules. It's the only special condition of our visit.

STONE: We want you to see everything. I mean everything.

ROBERTSON: Inside Camp Bucca, there are more than 19,000 civilian detainees. They are neither criminals nor prisoners of war. For Stone, Bucca is a terror trove like another.

STONE: This is the only place notice world where U.S. and coalitions forces day in and day out, engage with al Qaeda. Day in and day out -- we meet them, we talk to them, we understand them. That's an advantage for us as it a disadvantage for them.

ROBERTSON: But it wasn't always this way. When Stone arrived last year, the camp was literally in flames.

(on-camera): At its worst, the violence involved between 1,000 and 10,000 detainees, rioting spread across half of the compounds in the camp, some of them were set on fire. Detainees also planned to kidnap guards and kill them. It was so bad, it was considered a strategic threat.

(voice-over): So bad, Stone says the detainees were effectively running the institution. STONE: But it most assuredly was a jihadist university -- unquestionably.

ROBERTSON: So bad, Stone was on the verge of shooting rioting prisoners. Action, he says, would have made the abuses at Abu Ghraib pale in comparison, and undermine the United States' moral authority.

STONE: Those were certainly my turning points. I can't speak to others before them, but I could only see bad things coming for the command, for the overall effort here in Iraq and for what was really a lost opportunity.

ROBERTSON: Since then, Stone has radically reshaped the camp, changed the attitude of guards and detainees.

STONE: Detainees now tell us more about the network of al Qaeda, about the training techniques of al Qaeda, about how they fund their operations.

ROBERTSON: But he's met plenty of resistance to his reforms along the way from within the U.S. military.

STONE: Always been a block. Every single time somebody has said, no, no, no, because it's not doctrine, it's not the way we've done it. And so somebody has tried to block that except for one guy, one guy.

ROBERTSON: When we come back, how Camp Bucca was turned around, and who helped Stone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Part II of Nic Robertson's exclusive report come yours way next hour.

LONG: It was once touted as promising to fill blood bank shortages. So why are some medical experts now saying that synthetic blood is simply dangerous medicine?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. Live pictures now. We're going back to this developing story happening now in Miami-Dade County in Florida.

Look at this -- this is just a small spot here. But as soon as this pulls out, you'll see there is a much bigger area affected here. This all started around 12:30, 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, just an hour and 15 minutes ago, or so. And firefighters are having a devil of a time trying to get this under control.

We saw one of those water drop planes -- there is it right there as I'm talking about it -- about to prepare to go take a dip in some big body of water, a lake or a reservoir, or somewhere so that it can start -- they can start attacking these fires from the sky.

They're fighting them from the ground and also from the air. But we've got some brushfires. Not sure how much acreage in Miami-Dade County in Florida, but we'll keep checking it out for you.

Our Chad Myers looking at it as well, talking about the wind conditions. We'll keep updating you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Chad, I'm looking -- do you want to come in or --

MYERS: Yes, sure, Don.

This is up by the Dolphin Mall, north, kind of up by the toll 836. It would be 137th Avenue Northwest -- 137th Avenue and about 17th street. A little bit of an industrial area.

As you zoom out, you'll notice that there are a lot of these little reservoirs, these lakes around here. He's going to have a very easy time getting water on the fire. And the way the wind is pushing it, there really will be no homes in the way. There are a few businesses out there. We'll keep our eye on that. But this -- I think these guys are going to get a good handle on this.

They got it early. It's only about an hour-and-a-half old. Very few acres involved right now. And they are going to do a good job to get this out quickly.

LEMON: It's always interesting to see this dip as it goes -- I think it's in the water now. Because of the haze of the smoke -- there it is, they dip it in there, and then pull it up. This thing holds gallons and gallons of water. It looks small here, but it's actually pretty big, Chad.

OK --

MYERS: The water is heavy. They can't get too much at a time. They've got take off.

LEMON: OK. All right, Chad, we've got wrap it up. We've got other news, but we're going to continue to check on it and bring you all of the updates right here in the NEWSROOM -- Melissa.

LONG: Now, a story about blood banks having to beg for every drop. So you would think synthetic blood would be a God-send. Apparently, however, it's no match for the real thing.

Let me bring in CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

Just help us to understand -- synthetic blood sounds like a tremendous idea.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, because we all hear -- shortages of blood, quality (ph) of blood and it has the advantage -- synthetic blood has the advantage that it has a long shelf life, it doesn't need to be refrigerated, you don't have to match types. In many ways it is a great thing.

But there have been concerns that people who get fake blood, and it's not on the market now, it's only been studied, but it's been studied for years, that people who get fake blood are more likely to have heart attacks and other problems and die. So researchers looked at all of the studies, all of the big studies that have been done on fake blood.

And here is what they found. They found that folks who received real blood, in this group they were looking at, had 16 heart attacks. The folks who received fake blood, had 59 heart attacks.

LONG: Wow.

COHEN: So as you can see, that is a big difference.

And that has made an editorial writer at "Journal of the American Medical Association" say we need to stop these studies. We need to just stop them. This is too dangerous to keep studying these things.

LONG: Well, the companies that actually make the blood substitutes, how are they weighing in?

COHEN: They don't like the study.

LONG: Of course.

COHEN: They think the study is invalid. They said, look, you've lumped together a whole bunch of different blood substitutes made by different companies, and so the conclusions are invalid. They say the study just doesn't make any sense.

LONG: OK. You showed us the chances of having a heart attack if you had the regular blood versus the blood substitute. So people out there may be saying, well, how do I know if I had a blood substitute? How common are they?

COHEN: Well, first of all, they're not on the market right now. SO you wouldn't just end up at a hospital where they would give it as part of standard routine. It's done in studies.

But there was a problem a while back where people were getting substitute blood, experimentally, but the patients were never told that. They were never told anything. So they didn't even realize that they had gotten it.

So, theoretically, that problem is over. And people are no longer getting fake blood, unless they're told that they're getting fake blood as part of the study.

LONG: All right. Thanks for helping us understand.

COHEN: OK, thanks.

LONG: Elizabeth Cohen, medical correspondent.

Thank you.

And here's a new reason for future moms to lose that extra weight before getting pregnant. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente say the number of women with diabetes before motherhood has doubled, and the number of pregnant diabetic teens has skyrocketed. Diabetic pregnancies are considered high risk with a higher chance of birth defects.

Diabetes is way up in the general population, as well. The most common form, Type II, linked to obesity.

LEMON: All right. Here's a question -- is Disney's pop princess shedding her G-rating status? Why this new photo spread of "Hannah Montana," the star of "Hannah Montana" -- issuing an apology to her fans. Why is she doing it?

Four little letters, are they really open to interpretation?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people could say, oh my frickin' goodness. Other people could think it means other things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's blasphemy, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. Well, we'll ask the kids what they think, as a popular TV show finds a new envelope to push.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This one is definitely causing a stir online. She's embarrassed, she says, and apologetic. That's how Disney's "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus describes her reaction to her new photo spread in "Vanity Fair" Magazine. One shot shows the 15-year-old topless clutching what appears to be a bed sheet to cover her chest. Cyrus is apologizing to her fans.

Renowned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, well she took the photos. And Cyrus says they were supposed to be artistic. Disney officials criticize the spread saying the magazine manipulated Cyrus to sell the issue. Well, Leibovitz is defending her photos, and here's what she has to say. I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted.

Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup and I think it is very beautiful. And a spokeswoman for "Vanity Fair" says Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot, and everyone thought it was beautiful -- it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley.

LONG: A lot of people talking about this story. Checking the top ten on CNN.com. It's in there twice.

LEMON: It's very interesting. I'm not sure --. Some people don't get it -- but we've seen leak this before. Remember the Calvin Klein thing we talked about earlier. LONG: With Brooke Shields.

LEMON: What comes between me and Calvin. I think she was topless in that or holding what have you. So, I don't know. Some people say it's a beautiful picture, other says she's 15-year-old and she's a role model to a lot of --.

LONG: Exactly, and a role model to some little girls, four, five, eight years old, not somebody who is necessarily 15, 16. It's of course causing a lot of conversation. We welcome your thoughts on our Web site as you weigh in.

Can you say that on television? Four little letters are causing a huge controversy over a TV show known for pushing the envelope and some parents' buttons.

Here's CNN's Brooke Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Drinking. Drugs. Sex. And they're still in high school. It's no secret "Gossip Girl" is racy, But it's the show's provocative new ad campaign that has many, including the Parents' Television Council, outraged.

MELISSA HENSON, PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL: They're using nothing but sex to sell this program. The lowest common denominator, I think, is a good way to describe it.

ANDERSON: Two high schoolers appearing to have sex with the acronym OMFG splashed online, on posters and billboards in plain view of unsuspecting kids and parents.

RICK HASKINS, EXEC. V.P. MARKETING, CW: Some people could say, oh my frickin' goodness other people can say it means other things.

ANDERSON: Are you kidding? Rick Haskins, the Vice President of Marketing at the CW which airs "Gossip Girl" is serious when he says it's open to interpretation.

HASKINS: What it stands for is an explanation of surprise, or I can't believe it.

ANDERSON: It's been called raunchy. It's been called border line pornography. You don't agree with that?

HASKINS: No, not at all.

ANDERSON: Haskins insists the campaign isn't sending a negative message, and that the ads like these on this public sidewalk are meant for older viewers.

HASKINS: OMG, or OMFG, whichever you say are just letters. Anyone you talk to, talk to ten people and they will give you probably ten different answers.

ANDERSON: We spoke to more than 30 people, and everyone except two women in their 60s said they knew what it meant. One thing --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God.

ANDERSON: Could it possibly stand for anything else?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's blasphemy, actually.

ANDERSON: The PTC is considering pressuring advertisers, and is already warning parents.

HENSON: Rather than reinforcing positive values that parents are trying to instill in their children, this program very often is undermining those positive values.

ANDERSON: Brooke Anderson, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LONG: The CW Network is part of Time Warner, CNN's parent company.

LEMON: All right, take a look at this. Hot and dry and at times windy. Not exactly helpful for those trying to put out this fire east of Los Angeles. We're going to tell you who's in danger. And check this out, on the other coast, this is happening in Florida, live pictures now of a brushfire there, in a very heavily wooded area.

You can see the plane right there, fighting it from the air and fighting it from the ground. We'll check in with Chad Meyers and update you on both these stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LONG: Let's check some of the stories that are finding themselves the most popular today on our Web site CNN.com. Talk about a water hazard. A golf course diver stalked and grabbed by an alligator. It happened over the weekend in Tampa. The 62-year-old says he poked the gator in the eye, and then struggled until it released him.

An Army dad is horrified by the conditions at his son's post Fort Bragg. He shot some video at that North Carolina base, and then posted it where else? YouTube. Among the complaints, mold and sewage clogged drains. Indifferent, not sufficient. A central theme of this morning's speech of the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Barack Obama's former pastor was talking about the black church and it's religious tradition. These stories, you want to find out more? Go to our Web site CNN.com to find more, whether by video, or by written story.

And again, the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.