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Death in Iraq: Missing Soldiers' Bodies Found; Battle for Paradise, California; Demanding Answers: Troops Killed by Faulty Wiring
Aired July 11, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Fourteen newborns in fragile health, overdosed with the blood thinner Heparin. A brother and sister are dead. And this hour, we hear from the family's lawyer.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you've got to play hurt. What athlete hasn't heard that? You don't have to compete in the Olympics after being diagnosed with cancer. But swimmer Eric Shanteau, well, he plans to do it.
He'll tell us why, straight ahead, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips in New York.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
For more than a year, their families held onto a sliver of hope. And today, there's just sorrow.
Two bodies found in Iraq have been identified as the remains of Army Sergeant Alex Jimenez and Army Private Byron Fouty. They were ambushed and kidnapped in May, 2007, in an area just south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In May 2007, insurgents attacked this observation post south of Baghdad.
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. ARMY: As a result of this attack, five soldiers were killed in action and three are currently missing.
PLEITGEN: Two weeks later, the body of one of the missing soldiers, Private First Class Joseph Anzack, Jr., was found in the Euphrates. But Sergeant Alex Jimenez and Private 1st Class Byron Fouty were still unaccounted for, sparking a massive search operation, even using boats to comb the banks of the Euphrates, and door-to-door searches in nearby villages.
SGT. 1ST CLASS BRENT PAINE, U.S. ARMY: The bottom line is we're looking for three of our guys. And if we can find a clue, even one remote clue out here that helps and gets those guys back, that's what we're here for.
PLEITGEN: And clues did surface. An Islamic Web site showed Sergeant Jimenez' and Private 1st Class Fouty's IDs and claimed the two were dead, without offering any proof.
In June, U.S. troops recovered the IDs after a raid on a suspected al Qaeda safe house. Finally, in fall of last year, the soldiers' weapons were also found. And while the hopes of finding Sergeant Jimenez and Private 1st Class Fouty alive dwindled, the military never gave up the search and never stopped trying to piece together what happened to the two missing.
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN BERGNER, U.S. ARMY: The operational aspects of how they conducted the attack, and specifically who was involved, and the possibility that that information could lead us to locate our missing soldiers, is what we're all focused on.
PLEITGEN: Until now. Relatives say the military has told them the two soldiers' remains have been found.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, the family of Private Jimenez is holding a news conference this hour. We're going to have live coverage of that later in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Two western states are ground zero for firefighters. Washington's governor has declared a state of emergency for Spokane Valley. At least seven homes and another structure burned there overnight, fanned by hot, dry winds.
That's exactly what fire crews in northern California are worried about. Their goal is to keep the flames jumping the fire lines and reaching the city of Paradise. For now, though, those California crews are getting a bit of a break.
No break for our Reynolds Wolf, though.
He's right there in the middle of it all.
Reynolds, what do you have for us now?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, Don, covering fires can be an awfully colorful thing. In this case, you've got red, you've got yellow. But behind me, you've got blue skies turning to brown in a couple of spots.
You see this road up here. You'll see the sign that. It says, "Slow trucks."
They've got crews that have gone up on top of this hill. This is a new flare-up. They've got a couple of homes clustered up there and a new pillar of smoke.
You still have plenty of activity here though in the parking lot. Plenty of command vehicles here and there.
You see some fire retardant trucks over there. At the same time, over on this side, you've got here on Highway 70, back over here if you pan around a little bit here, you'll see other crews waiting. You've got the road closed but still open for a lot of fire crews.
It's going to be interesting to see these crews coming back and forth here. They've been shuttling back and forth. And we've also seen some aircraft that have been shuttling around the area from high above.
They're doing two things. Let's -- got a car right behind us. Watch out here. Here we go. My bad.
Here, come on through.
We tend to guide traffic in here from time to time. We have got not only people that live nearby, but of course the firefighters. Here come some other people that are spotting around.
What we have been seeing, Don, speaking of traffic, as I was just talking about, we've had a lot of planes that have been flying overhead. Some of these are spotter aircraft.
What they're doing is assessing the fire from one of the safest points, from high above. If conditions become favorable, what they're going to do is allow some other aircraft -- we're talking about the bigger, fixed-wing aircraft -- to come in with flame retardant.
Speaking of flames, down this road we've got some great video that we want to share with you. Let's go to that right now.
And not only can you see it, but at times you can hear it. Just incredible flames that are popping up and down.
You see it here, I assume at that point. It has been very rough for the firefighters because you've got that very dry foliage. At the same time, humidity levels remain very low. The wind picking up into the afternoon.
Certainly was the case yesterday. Last night they got a little bit of a break. And today, they anticipate the winds once again to pop up just a bit.
They do have the red flags warning that will remain in effect until 8:00 tonight. So certainly they're going to have their work cut out for them. The fire right now 50 percent contained, but over 49,000 acres have been burned.
Here comes another fire vehicle. This one from the Monterey Fire Department. Keep in mind, Monterey, very cool place, situated right on California's central coast, where their daytime highs this time of the year normally range into the 60s. But today, we're talking 90s. And, of course, near the flames, much, much hotter.
Let's go back to you, Don.
LEMON: All right, Reynolds Wolf. Thank you very much for that.
Calmer winds also are helping crews to the south in Big Sur. They have managed to contain 40 percent of a monster fire that has consumed nearly 169 square miles. That's bigger than some major cities like Boston or Atlanta.
Now, specially-trained National Guard troops helped crews in Santa Barbara County get three-fourths of the so-called Gap Fire under control. They're now heading north to help save Paradise.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, not one, but two new record oil prices this morning, topping $147.27 a barrel. The hike stoked by fuel supply fears, Nigerian militants, Iran's saber rattling, and a planned labor strike in Brazil.
President Bush's answer to record-high oil prices, bump up the supply, of course. The president met with his team of economic advisers today and he pushed the idea of more oil exploration offshore and in the Alaskan wilderness. He also blamed Democrats in Congress for a lack of action on both fronts.
Poppy Harlow from CNNMoney.com is back later this hour for your daily "Energy Fix." She'll talk about new car labels that target global warming, and she'll have more on oil trading.
LEMON: Their sons went off to war as soldiers. They died in the war zone. But not in combat.
Up next, who's to blame? And is anyone taking responsibility for the soldiers electrocuted by flawed wiring inside U.S. bases in Iraq?
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: This is really a sad story, no matter how you cut it here. At least a dozen U.S. troops have died horrible, painful deaths in Iraq, but not by combat. They were electrocuted by faulty wiring on U.S. bases. In some cases, simply by turning on water to take a shower.
Well, Senate Democrats today held a policy meeting to hear more. Witnesses included two women who lost their sons in similar tragedies involving bad wiring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERYL HARRIS, MOTHER OF FALLEN SOLDIER IN IRAQ: I stand before you today to demand accountability, to implore that preventative measures be adopted, and to ask for your commitment that no military family will have to endure the paralyzing pain of this type of senseless tragedy.
LARRAINE MCGEE, MOTHER OF FALLEN SOLDIER IN IRAQ: My son should have never died. Ryan Maseth (ph) should have never died. Proper grounding of electricity is a basic safety requirement. The problem was known long before Chris' death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Larraine McGee, whom you just saw, is a mother of Texas National Guardsman Christopher Everett. He died in September of 2005, electrocuted while power-washing a Humvee on a base in central Iraq.
And Larraine McGee joins me now from Washington.
Thank you very much for joining me today.
MCGEE: Thank you.
LEMON: How are you doing?
MCGEE: I'm fine, thank you.
LEMON: You're fine? I'm sure it was a tough day for you, right?
MCGEE: It's been a very long day.
LEMON: Yes. And I just want to make sure that you're OK.
Do you feel -- I'm going to ask you right off -- that you got your point across, and that there will be anything done about this?
MCGEE: I feel like we have gotten our point across. Hopefully, something will be done about it.
Cheryl and I both have been very impressed with Senator Dorgan and Senator Casey. They seem to be very, very interested, and have taken a strong position against this. Also, the representative from my district in the House is also -- Kevin Brady has also stood up against this and is writing letters and doing what he can to see that this comes to an end.
LEMON: You initially thought that this was something that was unique or unusual. And then you came to realize what?
MCGEE: In April of this year, I was contacted by "The New York Times," and they were doing an investigative piece. And that's when I found out that Chris wasn't the first one. And neither was he the last. And that's what has driven me to be here and to do something about it, to try to bring an end to it, because it's such a basic thing.
Grounding of the equipment over there takes so little. It's just inexcusable that they are not doing it properly so that our soldiers over there are protected when they're doing a simple a thing as taking a shower, or doing their job in the motor pool -- in a place where they should be safe. LEMON: You mentioned taking a shower. Now, Ryan's (ph) mom was told Ryan was killed while taking a shower just because there wasn't the proper grounding in one instance. And Ryan's mom Cheryl was told it would never happen again, and it did.
MCGEE: Well, no. I was the one that was told it wouldn't happen again.
LEMON: You were told it wouldn't happen again?
MCGEE: When the generator that was powering the power washer that Christopher was using in December of '05, when the military came and gave me the full investigative report, they led me to believe that he was the first, the way they worded it. And they said, you know, "We are so sorry. We guarantee that this is not going to happen again."
All the generators across Iraq will be corrected so that this does not happen to someone else. And that was the consolation, at least a little bit of consolation that we had out of it, that maybe Chris' death will prevent it from happening to someone else.
And we thought that it was just the first. That, you know, the problem was discovered with his death. And it's inexcusable that that wasn't want case.
They knew since 2004 that electrocution was a problem. And even after Christopher's death, it still hasn't been corrected.
LEMON: Ms. McGee, have you heard from other mothers? And what are they saying to you?
MCGEE: Unfortunately, the only one that I've been in contact with is Sheryl. We both keep hoping that maybe someone else will come forward and share their story with us so that we can United and make a united front against this to bring it to an end.
LEMON: You have this platform where lots of people are watching you, even members of our government, and other mothers as well. Do you have a message for them?
MCGEE: Our boys are over there fighting for our freedom. They're fighting for our rights that we cherish over here. And we need to do everything we can to protect them when they're over there.
And this is the least you can do, is have electrical things done correctly so that they can take a shower, or they can power-wash a Humvee, and not be afraid. You know, they have enough to worry about when they have to fight the bullets and the roadside bombs and the IEDs, and the terrorists over there. That's where their worries should be, not stepping in a shower or power-washing a Humvee.
LEMON: OK. Hey, we thank you very much for joining us today in the CNN NEWSROOM, and we wish you all the best.
MCGEE: Thank you. LEMON: And I have to say this, that KBR, which is one of the contractors over there, declined to speak on camera to CNN. But the company sent us a statement that said it found no evidence of a link between the work it's been asked to perform and the reported electrocutions. The defense contract management agency responsible for handling the contract with KBR also declined to answer CNN's questions -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a question about Viagra and birth control pills causes consternation on John McCain's Straight Talk Express.
We're going to have the awkward details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Talk about momentarily speechlessness, a strong desire to be anywhere else on earth. Side-effects of facing a Viagra question when you're running for president.
CNN's Joe Johns explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Straight Talk Express started sputtering a little when a reporter asked John McCain whether it was fair that many insurance companies that don't cover birth control pills for women do cover Viagra for men.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I think you voted against it.
MCCAIN: I don't know what I...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You voted against the coverage of forcing health insurance companies to cover birth control in the past. Is that still your position?
MCCAIN: I'll look at my voting record on it. But I have -- I don't recall the vote right now. But I'll be glad to look at it.
JOHNS: What triggered that uncomfortable exchange? Comments from McCain's campaign co-chairwoman Carly Fiorina, the high profile CEO who is helping McCain win over women voters.
Earlier this week, Fiorina blasted insurance companies saying, "There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice."
McCain later faced a grilling about Fiorina's charge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess her statement was that it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that?
MCCAIN: I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don't recall the vote. I have cast thousands of votes in the Senate. I will respond to that -- it's a...
JOHNS: For the record in 2003, McCain voted "no" on legislation requiring insurance coverage of birth control. His campaign says contraception is a personal matter, best left up to individuals not government.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And leading our Political Ticker, another round of town halls on the campaign trail. And once again, the focus is on the economy.
John McCain talked jobs, taxes at a town hall Tuesday in Hudson, Wisconsin. He told working women in the audience that they and their families would fare better under his policies than under Barack Obama's.
And Obama is campaigning today in another Midwestern state -- Ohio. He told a cheering audience in Dayton that his policies would bring them more prosperity. The Democratic candidate also talked about his energy policy, and he called America's addiction to fossil fuels a security threat to national security.
LEMON: A boost for Barack Obama in our new CNN Poll of Polls. Obama now leads Republican John McCain by eight percentage points, 49 percent to 41 percent. Just a week ago, Obama led McCain by six points.
Our Poll of Polls is an average of three different national surveys.
Check out our Political Ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log on to CNN.com, your source for all things political.
Well, there is no shortage of culprits for the sharp selloff that we're seeing on Wall Street right now. Oil prices hit a new record, and there is growing concern that two of the nation's largest lenders may need a government bailout.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: 2:32 Eastern time right now. Here are some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The bodies of two missing American soldiers have been found in Iraq. Private Byron Fouty and Sergeant Alex Jimenez were ambushed and kidnapped south of Baghdad more than a year ago.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking President Bush to send more firefighters. Lightning sparked fires that burned more than 1,100 square miles in the last three weeks.
Crude oil prices hit a new record today. They spiked above $147 a barrel amid continuing concern about tensions in the Middle East.
LEMON: OK. Talk about the true -- the true -- Olympic spirit. An American swimmer is postponing his cancer surgery for a chance to compete in the summer games. Eric Shanteau is not letting testicular cancer get in the way of his Beijing dream. This is just an unbelievable story.
He's on the phone now. But you find out, one, you qualified for the Olympics, but then you find out you have testicular cancer. He is joining us by phone.
Thank you, sir.
VOICE OF ERIC SHANTEAU, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: Hi, how are you doing? Thank you.
LEMON: How are you doing? That is the question.
SHANTEAU: I'm hanging in there. It's kind of been overwhelming a little bit over the past month or so. But I'm hanging in there. Everything is going really well at this point.
LEMON: Tell everybody your story. You're a 200 meter breast stroke swimmer, right?
SHANTEAU: Uh-huh.
LEMON: And you were -- this was -- did you find out just before or after the Olympic trials? It was just a month ago that you found out.
SHANTEAU: Yes. I was diagnosed exactly -- actually it was one week before I left for the Olympic trials. It was about 10 days before the first event that I competed in is when they actually diagnosed me. It was just kind of one of those life-changing experiences, to say the least. I'm sure I'll look back on this 10 years from now and really realize how this affected me.
LEMON: Yes. And I'm just wondering if, in some odd way, I don't really know how to phrase this -- has this -- do you think that it will mistake a difference in your performance at the Olympics?
SHANTEAU: I don't know if it's going to make a difference in my performance. I think more than anything else, it's given me a new perspective on swimming. And so having that, I think, might actually help me at the Olympics.
When you get to that big, international stage, a lot of times the pressure can get to people. And I think this has just kind of helped me to deal with that pressure and really realize that swimming is just a sport, and it should be fun. And having that kind of relaxed mentality, I think, is definitely going to help me out in Beijing.
LEMON: So it's really a new perspective on life that you're talking about?
SHANTEAU: Absolutely. In everything in general. But at this point, swimming is my life.
LEMON: I have to ask you this because so many men find out this way. You found out from someone who encouraged you to go to the doctor.
SHANTEAU: Yes. I found it myself and didn't think too much about it. But my girlfriend at the time -- actually, she's still my girlfriend -- she was going out of town for the weekend. And she yelled at me; she said I better get in and get this thing checked out before she gets back. So that was kind of a kick in the butt to get this thing taken care of.
LEMON: Lance Armstrong, you looked up to him even before this?
SHANTEAU: Absolutely. Lance is one of those guys I think if you were in the sporting world, you see him as one of those icons. And now that I obviously have a better perspective of what he's going through, I have even more respect for him and hopefully I can follow down a similar path that he did.
LEMON: Eric Shanteau, we'll be following you.
SHANTEAU: Thank you very much.
LEMON: Best of luck to you, OK?
SHANTEAU: Thank you.
LEMON: All right.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well a Corpus Christi, Texas hospital is blaming a mixing error for Heparin overdoses given to 14 infants; two newborn twins died. But officials say there is no direct evidence that the overdoses are what killed them. Funeral services for the twins, Keith and Kaylnn Garcia (ph), will be held tomorrow, the day the family had originally planned to hold a baby shower.
Bob Patterson is the Garcia family's attorney. He joins me on the phone now from Houston.
Can you hear me OK, Bob?
VOICE OF BOB PATTERSON, GARCIA FAMILY ATTORNEY: Yes, I can. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: I was looking at a number of these articles, and one caught my attention. The headline in this one with background said, "Two weeks before her 17th birthday, Erica Garcia was faced with a very grown-up task, picking out outfits in which to bury her newborn twins."
I can't imagine what's going through her mind and her grandparents' minds right now.
PATTERSON: Well that's true, Kyra. They had really hoped to be having some sort of baby shower tomorrow instead of what they're actually doing.
PHILLIPS: Tell me what happened.
GARCIA: Well, we don't know for certain.
What we know is what has been released, that there was some sort of error in the pharmacy and that a dosage exceeding 100 times the normal dose was given to these, and several other, children.
PHILLIPS: And this is what the chief medical officer for the CHRISTUS Spohn Health System has said, Bob -- "CHRISTUS Spohn confirms that an error occurred during the mixing process in our hospital pharmacy."
They are admitting to that.
Going on to say, "At this time, no direct adverse effects of Heparin have been identified in the infants that died or any other patients in the NICU and we continue to monitor all babies in the NICU."
Now, what is being done -- have autopsies been done? Are there further medical tests to be done on the twins?
PATTERSON: Well two things, Kyra. First, the family learned of this incident through that same press release. The hospital didn't approach them, didn't talk to them, held a press release, and that's how they learned of it.
Secondly, there has been one autopsy completed. And a second one, I'm assuming, will be taking place today. The hospital has released some information, claiming that sepsis was the cause of the children's death -- the first child's death. But a well-known expert has told me that sepsis can't result from Heparin because it leads to bleeding, which leads to infection.
PHILLIPS: So as you wait for the second test to be done, or the second round of autopsies, do you think that (AUDIO GAP) ... add to the power behind your case? PATTERSON: Well actually, all we're really trying to do is to find out what happened at this point. And once we have the autopsies, we'll still want to see the lab work that was generated in the hospital. We'll still want to try to understand how this happened. We filed today a motion seeking to take depositions of the pharmacy staff and the medical staff.
PHILLIPS: So your ultimate goal, if indeed Heparin is the culprit here?
PATTERSON: Well, we'll cross that bridge if we get there. Right now, we're just trying to learn what happened.
PHILLIPS: Bob Patterson, attorney for the Garcia family. We'll follow the case.
Thanks, Bob.
PATTERSON: Thank you.
LEMON: We're also following other news across America. A daring rescue early today in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Firefighters went window-to-window grabbing adults and children out of a burning apartment building with little time to spare. There are no reports of any injuries.
You might call this a sign of the times. After numerous complaints from female employees and the editor of a women's magazine, the city of Atlanta is removing all signs that say, 'Men at Work.' The new ones will read, 'Workers Ahead.' At a cost of $144 a sign.
Police in north Texas are eating humble pie after wrongly accusing a teenager of delivering drug-laced cookies to their department. Test results on the treats found no traces of LSD or marijuana. And that meant 18-year-old Christian Phillips (ph) got to leave jail and go home. But his dad is not pleased with the public's rush to judgment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN PHILLIPS, FATHER OF EXONERATED TEEN: I just hate to see something like this stop him from being a person that he can be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The police chief defended his department, saying they went by the book on this one.
We have some breaking news from Brazil. It's sure to impact you. We'll get to that in just a little bit.
But now we want to go to Poppy Harlow.
Poppy --
Right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Tornadoes are ripping through parts of Minneapolis. Pretty good pictures here coming in from our affiliate, KRTV, out of Minneapolis. These aerials of a barn that was damaged, apparently in southeastern Minnesota. Two tornadoes came through there as a midsummer storm moved through that area in particular here. Not quite sure of the exact location. But I do know it's southeastern Minnesota.
The National Weather Service did confirm that one of those tornadoes was in Dakota County, the other one in Goodview County. Both tornadoes broke a number of trees, damaged a lot of homes and sheds. And as you can see here, through these pictures, the tornado taking down large parts of this barn.
Thanks to our affiliate, KRTV, out of Minneapolis. We'll get more, of course, from the Weather Center. Bonnie Schneider is tracking all the developments there.
LEMON: An ugly legal battle among the children of a civil rights icon. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III are suing Dexter King, the executor of their father's estate. The suit accuses him of converting substantial funds from the estate for his own use and withholding information from other heirs. No public comment as yet from the King children or their lawyers.
All right. Now, for many months now, I have been involved in a project with five amazing women whose names you might know, their last names anyway. Rasheda Ali, Tiffany Cochran, Sherri Poitier, Bernice King, Attallah Shabazz. Their fathers are Muhammad Ali, Johnnie Cochran, Sidney Poitier, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
"Daughters of Legacy" is a revealing and remarkable hour-long conversation airing this weekend on CNN. Check out this preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIFFANY COCHRAN, DAUGHTER OF JOHNNIE COCHRAN: To be able to sit and just chat about our fathers, I've never had an opportunity like this.
BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: Right, right. Because he was just my daddy, you know?
RASHEDA ALI, DAUGHTER OF MUHAMMAD ALI: Do you call your dad daddy too?
Do you say Daddy? Do you say Daddy?
Me too.
SHERRI POITIER, DAUGHTER OF SIDNEY POITIER: He would literally sit you down and speak to you to a point that you would want to say, please give me a spanking.
ATTALLAH SHABAZZ, DAUGHTER OF MALCOLM X: Many people don't know that I watched my father's funeral from her parents' master bedroom.
POITIER: It's all about family.
LEMON: What was life like as a child in the King home? Was it -- do you think it was like a normal, typical American family?
KING: My mother, even after my father died, she wanted to make sure we had a fairly normal life. We hung out in the neighborhood with the neighborhood kids. We didn't have -- people meet me now and they're like, you don't have bodyguards?
No. I never had bodyguards.
LEMON: And you?
COCHRAN: When I was in high school, my father -- a lot of people didn't know him nationally, but he was still very well known in Los Angeles because if you ever got in any trouble, you would see Johnnie Cochran.
LEMON: Did you ever wish that you were just Bob Jones' daughter?
R. ALI: Honestly, I hid my identity a lot because growing up, people already knew who I was because my dad would come into our elementary school and then it would be a big ordeal. And I knew at a young age that being Muhammad's daughter, and people knowing that, you'll never know the truth.
LEMON: So I'm looking at both -- right -- and you're sitting there, chatting really close, the both of you.
KING: Yes.
LEMON: What is it? Is it a connection that's like sisters, or is beyond that? What is it?
SHABAZZ: For me, it's beyond that because it's more dimensions to what it is. It's kind of an unconditional existence that has a forever after to it. There is no explanation. We're different, but yet it's all in congress. There's never debate in over 40 years of being in each others' lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That's just a little bit of it, just a little bit. And note, there is a time change on this because of a special we're airing with those former hostages. Time change on this -- "Daughters of Legacy" airs at 6:00 p.m. Eastern and 11:00 p.m. Eastern now on CNN Saturday and Sunday night. You don't want to miss it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Forced to marry a man three times her age. She says her husband beat her and she finally got a divorce. We're going to have this pretty incredible story of a 10-year-old and what she has gone through.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: All right. Severe weather happening, and here's the proof. Take a look at these pictures coming to us from our affiliate, KARE. This is located in Dakota County in Minnesota. And just to give you an idea. the nearest big city there, Minneapolis/St. Paul -- the 16th largest metropolitan area in the United States. This is very close to that.
And according to our Bonnie Schneider, who has been checking with the National Weather Service, two tornadoes touched down in this area.
Bonnie, take it away.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right.
Don, these were what's known as a smaller scale tornado, and the scale is an EF-0, meaning the winds were estimated somewhere between 40 and 72 miles per hour -- gale force winds, a little stronger than that. Currently we're not seeing severe weather coming through this region in Minneapolis. But there is a threat for strong thunderstorms tonight.
Now the pictures that we were seeing -- if we can go back to some of those pictures -- you can see the damage strewn about. That's one of the things that the National Weather Service surveyors are looking at. You can see that roof completely down. If the winds were stronger, we would see even more damage. But at this point, they're classifying this as an EF-0 that took a six-mile path west of Vermilion, three miles northeast of Hampton in Minnesota. But you can see the damage and devastation already.
Now as we go towards the evening hours, we're looking for severe storms to break out in this region as well. Here's a look at where those two tornadoes touched down in the Minneapolis area, more south and east of the city, Don.
LEMON: All right, Bonnie. More next hour. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: She's just 10, but already she's had to deal with issues that many grown-ups have never faced -- marriage and divorce amid allegations of abuse. The case unfolded in Yemen, where child marriage is common. The country's legal minimum age for marriage is 15. But the law was revised a decade ago, allowing girls to may marry even earlier. Now this little girl's case has led to calls for reform.
Now CNN does not usually identify children in such circumstances, but we've made an exception here. It's a story of a young girl and her story is to be told with the permission of her parents.
Here's CNN's Paula Newton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nujood Ali is every inch a child. And yet at just 10, she has already been married and divorced. The very portrait of innocence, the shy smile, a playful nature. It makes her story all the more moving.
In February, her parents married her off to a man more than three times her age.
NUJOOD ALI, CHILD BRIDE (through translator): I didn't want to sleep with him, but he forced me to. He hit me and insulted me.
NEWTON (on camera): It must have been torture?
N. ALI: Yes.
NEWTON (voice-over): Her husband declined to be interviewed for this story. But Nujood says she was beaten and raped and turned to her own family for mercy after just a few weeks of marriage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I heard, my heart burned for her. He wasn't supposed to sleep with her.
NEWTON: The parents told her they couldn't protect her, she belonged to her husband now.
The international aid group, OXFAM, says more than half of all young Yemeni girls are married before the age of 18, many to older men. It means the girls are no longer a financial burden to there often impoverished parents.
SUHA BASHREN, OXFAM: A lot of people in the public don't think that is wrong or what happened to her is abuse.
NEWTON (on camera): The truth is, here in Yemen there is nothing rare or extraordinary about Nujood's story. But what is incredible is that this young girl had the courage to take an intensely private family matter and go public with it.
(voice-over): Nujood escaped, got herself across town to the central courthouse, sat on a bench and demanded to speak to a judge.
N. ALI (through translator): And he asked me, what do you want? And I said, I want a divorce. And he said, you are married? And I said, yes.
NEWTON: What unfolded in those few days in April gripped the country. Nujood got her divorce but based on the principles of Sharia law, her husband was compensated, not prosecuted. There were no charges against him. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200.
For this determined spirit, it was sweet victory.
N. ALI (through translator): I did this so that people would listen and think about not marrying their daughters off as young as they want.
NEWTON: But the fact is human rights advocates say it will take more than a generation if any of this is to change in Yemen.
BASHREN: So these girls, they live in a misery that no one is talking about.
NEWTON: But Nujood hopes her defiance will at least salvage the childhood of Yemen's next generation of women.
Paula Newton, CNN, Raida, Yemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Fire on the mountains, fire in the foothills, fire in the canyons and suburbs and small towns in much of central California and Washington State. This hour we'll talk live with Washington's governor.
PHILLIPS: She's an all-American girl but Ali McBeal isn't an American. Our Zain Verjee looks at Ali's fight to stay in the country that she calls home.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
