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GM Set to Scale Back Assembly Line; Tape Released of Canadian Questioned at Gitmo; Students Return to School Despite Destruction in Myanmar
Aired July 15, 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: Well, look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you're being honest.
OMAR KHADR, INTERROGATED AT GITMO: I am being honest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: A Canadian teen at Guantanamo Bay on the receiving end of the first Gitmo interrogation ever seen by the public. You'll hear more and hear live from the suspect's lawyers this hour.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Still too big, losing too much money on too many vehicles for too few customers. General Motors tries again to shrink its way to profitability.
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.
We start out first with the economy. It is issue No. 1. Why do we call it that day after day? Because every day brings something new, something startling: fast and furious developments that hit Washington, Wall Street, and your wallet.
Today certainly proves it. The biggest car maker in the U.S. scaling back on the assembly line, desperately trying to boost its bottom line. President Bush and his financial big guns responding to reporters and politicians but talking directly to you. And something you haven't heard in a long time, oil prices sharply down after a warning from Washington.
We have a lot to get to today. We want to start with General Motors slashing jobs, selling assets, trying to survive. Let's go straight now to our Susan Lisovicz.
She joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with the very latest on that -- Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.
Well, GM says it has a plan not just to survive but to win, as well. The world's biggest automaker announced another round of cost- cutting efforts today. It plans to cut back on truck production, suspend its dividends, sell up to $7 billion in assets, and cut 20 percent of salaried costs.
A large chunk of those white-collar reductions will be made by cutting healthcare benefits and jobs. GM chief executive officer Rick Wagoner is confident the measures will help the company overcome its biggest concern: the weak economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK WAGONER, CEO, GM: While we face some difficult conditions in the U.S. right now, we have a solid and well-thought-out plan that aggressively addresses the challenges we face.
We recognize we can't sit back and wait for U.S. conditions to improve. We need to continue to be proactive and even take some very tough actions to ensure our survival and our success.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LISOVICZ: All told, the cost-cutting measures are expected to help GM generate $10 billion in cash by the end of next year -- Don.
LEMON: Is he confident all of these cuts will work, Susan?
LISOVICZ: Well, it's going to take a lot to revive GM. It's like turning around a tanker. You don't do it very quickly. The automaker hasn't posted a profit since 2005. And some analysts recently speculated about bankruptcy, although Wagoner denied those rumors last week.
Investors certainly have been worried, though. GM stock has fallen more than 60 percent this year and hit a series of 50-year lows this month. But today, GM shares are revving higher. They're up 7 percent.
It's important to note that the company does have a strong spot. Sales in Europe have risen this year. Undoubtedly, the weak dollar helping out there, Don.
LEMON: And Susan Lisovicz, helping us out from the New York Stock exchange.
Susan, thank you very much for that. We will check back with you.
And if you want to have an idea of just how broad General Motors is, check out its brands: Chevrolet -- you know Chevrolet, Chevy -- Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Saturn, Hummer, Saab and Cadillac, to name a few -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, the state of the economy has the head of state front and center today. President Bush is pushing Congress to pass legislation aimed at propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as shares of the mortgage giants keep plunging. And in the wake of this IndyMac bust, the president is trying to assure Americans their bank deposits are safe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the system basically is sound, I truly do. And I understand there's a lot of nervousness. And the economy's growing. Productivity's high; trade's up. People are working. It's not as good as we'd like. But -- and to an extent that we find weakness, we'll move. That's one thing about this administration: we're not afraid of making tough decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now Mr. Bush also pushed Congress to lift a ban on offshore oil drilling. But oil prices actually slid today after Fed chief Ben Bernanke warned that energy costs are eating into Americans' purchasing power.
LEMON: And those high oil or fuel prices also eating into airline profits as airlines try to handle higher demand during the summer travel season. The summer months are notorious -- notorious for flight delays and airport congestion.
And right now, a Senate subcommittee is trying to figure out what to do about that. It's hearing from the FAA and the airline industry, which has suffered a string of recent layoffs and cutbacks in its fleet.
PHILLIPS: Now to the secret world of interrogation at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This video, the first from Gitmo released to the public, shows a 16-year-old Canadian prisoner being questioned by Canadian intelligence agents in 2003.
Omar Khadr, who's now 21, was captured in 2002 in Afghanistan and accused of killing an American soldier. Khadr's attorneys are holding a news conference right now. We're monitoring it for you.
Meantime, here's our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The tape itself does not show any interaction with U.S. officials. It does not show Omar Khadr being tortured or mistreated.
But he was very young on the tape. He was 15 when he was taken into custody, and these tapes were shot just about a year later. The tapes could be used to show what his mental state was like. I mean, he's seen uncontrollably crying on the tape, showing his interrogator his wounds and insisting that no one cares about him.
Let's listen to an excerpt.
KHADR: I can't move my arms. It is healthy? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
KHADR: It's healthy. I can't move my arms. I requested medical a long time, never heard anything about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I mean, they look like they're healing well to me. You know, I'm not a doctor, but I think you're getting good medical care.
KHADR: No, I'm not. You're not here. I lost my eyes. I lost my feet, everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you still have your eyes. And your feet are still at the end of your legs, you know.
ARENA: It was his lawyers who actually released these tapes in hopes that it would bring worldwide attention to his plight. They argue the conditions that he was being held in were deplorable, that he was sleep-deprived, kept in solitary confinement, which they contend is especially harmful to a minor.
Now, their goal is to get him out of Gitmo and back to Canada. But Khadr is charged with the murder of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, and he's expected to go before a military tribunal.
At the very least, civil liberty advocates that I spoke to today are hoping that these tapes will put further pressure on the Bush administration to close down Guantanamo. That's something the administration is already talking about.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now later this hour, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin will join me for more on the Gitmo tape and inmate interrogations.
The estranged husband of a slain Army nurse is due in a North Carolina courtroom next hour. Marine Corporal John Wimunc is accused of killing his wife, Holley, a fellow Marine. Lance Corporal Kyle Alden is charged with being an accessory after the fact. He's due in court next hour, too.
What are believed to be Mrs. Wimunc's charred remains were found Sunday in a shallow pit near Camp Lejeune. She was reported missing Thursday after failing to show up for work.
LEMON: From Barack Obama, a strong new vow to end the war in Iraq. The Democratic presidential candidate laid out his foreign policy plans in a speech this morning in Washington.
In his comments, seen live right here on CNN, Obama called the war in Iraq, which he opposed from the beginning, a dangerous distraction. He said it's responsible for much of the country's economic problems. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize. This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century. By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, ending the Iraq war responsibly is one of five goals Obama says will make America safer. Also on his list, finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; keeping nuclear weapon ace away from terrorists and rogue states; achieving energy security; and rebuilding alliances.
Well, foreign policy is also John McCain's focus today in New Mexico. In a speech you may have seen live just a short time ago, right here on CNN, the Republican nominee-to-be said Barack Obama is wrong with his plans for Iraq and for Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Obama will tell you we can't win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards. It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan. It's -- it's by applying the tried and true principal principles used in the surge, which Senator Obama opposed, that we will win in Afghanistan.
With the right strategy and the right forces, we can succeed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are not disconnected. Success breeds success. Failure breeds failure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Leading our political ticker, a new survey on Iraq and the race to the White House. The ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows that Americans split on whom they trust more on Iraq: 47 percent say McCain; 45 percent say Obama. A wide majority, almost 2/3, say the war wasn't worth fighting at all.
Jesse Ventura is not running for the Senate, at least not at the moment. The former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler announced his decision on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE VENTURA, FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I will tell you now I am not going to run at this moment. But if between now and 5 p.m., maybe God comes and speaks to me, like he did the president and tells me I should run, like he apparently told the president to invade Iraq, well, then maybe at 5 p.m. tomorrow, Larry, don't call me a liar, just understand God sent me to file. How's that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. Laying it out there. Deadline to file in Minnesota is a few hours from now. The Senate seat is held by Republican Norm Coleman, by the way, who's being challenged by Democrat Al Franken.
Well, check out our political ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log onto CNNpolitics.com, your source for all things political.
LEMON: Let's talk about the weather now. With mountains rising from the sea, Big Sur is breathtaking, for sure. But chunks have fallen victim to California's biggest wildfires.
We're finally able to get some perspective from these pictures. The Basin Complex fire has burned for more than three weeks across 187 square miles. It's about 60 percent contained, and the threat to Big Sur has eased a bit, but evacuation orders are still in place nearby.
People in Bermuda have weathered Tropical Storm Bertha OK. But now we're keeping our eye on a couple more systems out there in the Atlantic.
I turn now to our Chad Myers, working the details for us in the weather center -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Don.
We're not going to get ahead of ourselves. These things don't have names. They're not tropical systems or storms yet. But Tropical Storm Bertha is still hanging on, 70 miles per hour, gusting to 85. Had a couple of gusts in Bermuda over 60 miles per hour yesterday. That's out in the ocean and moving away.
Now we'll look at a couple of things that maybe moving closer to land, rather than moving away from land. This little area here of cyclonic formation possibly later on today, maybe tonight could get a number. Right now it's 94-L. It's just kind of an area of investigation.
Another one, a little closer to the U.S., though, is a little bit more worrisome because of how close it is. An old dying front here in the Gulf of Mexico caused a big flare-up of clouds yesterday.
And this could turn into something in the Gulf of Mexico. If it does, it is so close that it's going to be moving into the U.S. rather rapidly. The good news is, if it moves in rather rapidly, it won't have time, probably, to become a hurricane. Lots of showers across the Gulf Coast, monsoon rains in the southwest.
Let's go to Hawaii right now, show you some of the Pu'u O'o Vent, Kilauea, boy, just pouring out the lava there. Great shots from the sky here. And eventually you're going to see where it hits the water. I was there -- I don't know -- about four years ago, but it wasn't all the way to the water at the time. It's a magnificent sight. It really is like you're in an iron factory or something, and you're so close to the heat that you only can only get so close, and your senses back you up. That's how close and how hot that lava is. They let you walk right up to it. It's very amazing.
LEMON: You know what you said?
MYERS: What's that?
LEMON: You said, "Let's go to Hawaii right now," and I took you up on that.
MYERS: OK.
LEMON: All right. You ready?
MYERS: It's more than 25,000 sky miles. So that's all I have.
LEMON: We'll check back with you. Thank you. Love to do it. Thank you very much, Chad Myers for that -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Wait, can I get on that Hawaii trip?
LEMON: Of course you can. Chad has enough miles for all of us.
PHILLIPS: Excellent.
MYERS: That's not fair.
PHILLIPS: I thought Chad flies in a private jet.
MYERS: That's the one that my son goes like this, "Bbbbbb!"
PHILLIPS: Yes, it's got a little motor.
All right, guys.
LEMON: All right, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, it shouldn't happen at all. A baby left alone in a stifling hot car while Mom and Dad apparently were inside a bar. But it's happened more than once in one Tennessee town. We're going to tell you about a troubling trend.
Also...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Betty Nguyen. Coming up, I'll take you inside Myanmar to find out if aid is finally getting to the cyclone victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: And she tried and tried to lose weight, but nothing worked. She was 140 pounds lighter now, and we'll tell you what was causing an Oregon woman to be much heavier than she should have been.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, at least 28 people are dead in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, victims of back-to-back suicide bombings. The attackers blew themselves up in a crowd of Army recruits waiting to sign up. Witnesses say the second bomber struck while people were rushing to help the victims of the first blast.
Those attacks come ahead of a planned offensive by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
LEMON: Barring any last-minute snags, a long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah is just hours away. Israel will hand over five prisoners, including a Lebanese militant convicted of killing three people. Hezbollah will hand over two Israeli soldiers, who were presumed dead after being captured by Hezbollah guerrillas two years ago.
Hezbollah has given no indication the soldiers are still alive. The transfer is expected to take place tomorrow at a crossing in western Galilee.
PHILLIPS: More than two months after a catastrophic cyclone, recovery in Myanmar is slow and painful and mostly unseen by the outside world until now. CNN's Betty Nguyen managed to get into Myanmar, reveal what the government wants to keep hidden. Today, she looks at what's being done to get kids back into their classrooms.
She's now in Bangkok, Thailand, where she filed this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: The Myanmar government is saying all schools have reopened along the Irrawaddy Delta, and we did see students attending class in some of the villages that had received very little aid. Still, thousands of desks will remain empty, a painful reminder of the lives lost in the storm.
(voice-over) School has officially begun along the Irrawaddy Delta, even though few classrooms are still standing. Cyclone Nargis did more than destroy lives; it robbed many of a bright future.
This woman survived the tidal surge by grabbing onto a tree trunk. Today, her hands are wrapped tightly around a picture of her daughter, killed in the cyclone.
She says she never imagined losing her. And even though they're poor, they did their best to give her an education. After all, she was their own child. Two weeks after the storm, they learned she passed her final exam and would have graduated high school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I couldn't help but cry out loud.
NGUYEN: Sadly, she isn't the only mother crying. Dozens died in this small village.
(on camera) Her daughter attended this high school. As you can see, there's not much left. Some two months since the cyclone hit, they haven't even begun rebuilding, because they're still waiting on materials and skilled workers.
(voice-over) And until it arrives, these piles of wood will stay right where the cyclone left them. In fact, very little aid has even reached this farming community.
Yet, there is the sound of hope. Thanks to UNICEF, work has begun on the elementary school. Eventually, books will be recovered from the rubble and placed back on these desks. And just maybe there will come a time when children can once again look out these windows and see better days.
(on camera) UNICEF is reporting some 4,000 schools were damaged in the storm. Tent schools have been set up in some villages. Others are holding class in monasteries. They're using whatever they can to bring some kind of normalcy back to their communities.
Betty Nguyen, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Offshore drilling. President Bush says it'll translate to savings at the pump. Democrats aren't so sure. We'll talk to experts.
PHILLIPS: Natural gas is closer to your nearest tap. Quite a surprise for a family in upstate New York. Hot shower, anyone?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Let's go to Wall Street now. On Wall Street, stocks are swinging all over the place. The Dow posted triple-digit losses right at the open, but then turned higher. That was some good news.
Our Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange keeping track on all of this.
I guess it can only be described as volatility, right, Susan?
LISOVICZ: Yes, and you can expect more of it in the coming weeks, because we're also in earnings season and we're getting a lot of financials later this week.
But to talk about today's reversal of fortune, look no further than the huge drop in oil prices. Crude dropped as much as $10 a barrel earlier today on concerns that the slowing U.S. economy would curb demand. Right now crude is down more than $7 a barrel, just about $138 a barrel. And, of course, the Federal Reserve chairman on Capitol Hill today had plenty to say about that. He said that high energy prices are sapping the buying power of American households.
The national gas prices, by the way, are at another record high; AAA says just under $4.11 a gallon.
Ben Bernanke also in really, perhaps, his most pessimistic outlook of the economy to date, says the mortgage crisis and high energy costs will continue to remain a drag on the economy.
Two economic reports we got out earlier today on wholesale prices came in much worse than expected because of high energy prices. And retail sales also came in worse than expected, because we're spending so much money on high gas prices. Vicious circle, Don.
LEMON: Yes, and speaking of vicious circle, we've got the mortgage crisis and, of course, energy. Really, how much more of an effect can this have on the economy? A lot, I'm sure.
LISOVICZ: These are the twin evils that the economy is dealing with right now. We have a slowing economy because of the housing crisis and the credit crunch. And we have sharply higher prices that we're paying, not only on gas, but food and many other things at this point.
But the housing prices, in particular, remains one of the biggest drags on the economy. And you continue to see mortgage and financial stocks under pressure today. Freddie Mac shares down 18 percent right now. Fannie Mae shares down 17 percent. We're watching Wachovia, as well. An analyst there said that Wachovia's mortgage portfolio makes it difficult to generate revenue. We're down sharply earlier today. We're coming back when I last looked.
And while the Dow is -- well, it was positive when I came down to the floor. Right now just modestly lower, down 24 or 25 points. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, is up nearly seven points. And crude, down $7 -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Susan Lisovicz. We will check back with you. We appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: From the ocean floor to refineries to your gas pump, President Bush says drilling for oil offshore could ease your fuel costs. Today he made a fresh push for Congress to lift a long- standing ban. But Democratic critics are skeptical. What did the experts say?
Here's CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ian McIntyre doesn't use a drop of gasoline. He drives a bicycle taxi, but he's still concerned about the prospects of offshore drilling. IAN MCINTYRE, DRIVES BICYCLE TAXI: You've got these beautiful shorelines and this is a tourist state. And if we mess up the shorelines, you know it's going to take a lot of money from the economy.
ZARRELLA: Environmental impacts drove Congress more than 25 years ago to place a moratorium on the drilling in the eastern gulf. That's still the biggest concern. But some energy experts say advances in technology have greatly reduced the chance of a catastrophic spill. They point to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
JORGE PINON, ENERGY ANALYST: Over 300 platforms were totally destroyed, and we did not have one single catastrophic oil spill.
ZARRELLA: Environmental groups insist it doesn't take a big spill to make a mess, or worse.
JACQUIE WEISBLUM, AUDUBON OF FLORIDA: There's a day-to-day chronic impact of toxic drilling muds, the infrastructure that needs to be installed to accommodate rigs. All of those impacts can have terrible pollutant -- pollution impacts on our coast.
ZARRELLA: Experts say it will take three to five years to get the first barrel of new gulf oil. And until test wells are drilled, no one knows for sure how much is out there. Even a major find, some oil experts say, won't reduce your pain at the pump.
PINON: It's going to slow down the rise in crude oil prices over the long-term. Short-term impact is going to be zero.
ZARRELLA: No quick fix for America's energy crisis or its addiction to oil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Coming up next hour, two energy experts. One is for offshore drilling, the other is against it. They'll go head to head in the NEWSROOM.
LEMON: All right. No smoking in this house. And let me tell you why: water from the bathroom sink actually burns. The family thinks the house may be sitting on a natural gas reserve, and their well might have tapped right into it. A plumber thought they had air in the pipes until he checked a little bit further.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY OSTERHOUT, HOMEOWNER: He had a cigarette lighter in his hand, and two of his workers were up there with him. He turned it on, and about a three-foot flame shot up. Two of them ran out of the -- one went one way out of the bathroom. One went the other way, yelling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Say what? All right. Well, the answer to the question you're probably asking is, yes, the family leased its land to a gas drilling company.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, we'll tell you about a crashing entrance caught on tape that surprised some east Texas bank tellers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: We're going to tell you now about some of the stories we're working on for you today, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The first one, General Motors launches a massive cost-cutting plan slashing thousands of white collar jobs, selling assets and suspending payments to shareholders. GM's been hit hard by record gas prices, a weak economy and low demand for trucks and SUVs.
President Bush has vetoed a bill that would have stopped a cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The White House says, it wants the doctors to get paid, but it opposes the way the legislation is financed.
A court hearing in North Carolina, next hour for the estranged husband of slain soldier, Holley Wimunc. John Wimunc, a Marine, is accused of killing his wife, whose charred body was apparently found near Camp Lejeune.
PHILLIPS: More now on this video. The first public tape of a suspect being interrogated in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It shows a 16-year-old Canadian being questioned by Canadian intelligence agents in 2003. Omar Khadr, who's now 21 and still at Gitmo was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, and accused of killing an American soldier. His lawyers spoke about the tape and Khadr's condition just a few minutes ago.
Here's part what of what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN WHITLING, KHADR'S ATTORNEY: Days three and four show Omar less emotional, but he is despondent. As CISA's (ph) agents continue their efforts to extract information from the boy. He talks about the 27 July, 2002 battle and his father's decision to leave him with militants in Afghanistan, recognizing his family's responsibility for letting him be exploited as a child soldier. Omar empathizes the obvious, that as a 15-year-old boy he had no choice than to do what his father told him to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. So there were no revelations, Jeffrey Toobin, in this tape. No blockbuster, no moment of torture. So, why release this tape? JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's part of what Khadr's lawyers have been trying to do for a long time. Which is call attention to his case, point out that he was arrested when he was a child, that he's been held without a trial now for six years and that he is, at least according to them, a somewhat sympathetic figure. But as a legal matter, I don't think there's any great significance to this case.
PHILLIPS: So this tape, I'm told, lasted seven hours. Apparently the attorneys put together the highlight reel. OK. So you would think what we saw was the most quote-unquote, "devastating stuff" that they wanted to portray. However there really isn't anything that's devastating.
So why even make -- is this just to put pressure on the fact that, OK, there are kids being held here indefinitely, not just adults?
TOOBIN: There was one, actually. One kid. He is the only one at the moment, who was arrested as a juvenile.
PHILLIPS: Oh, there are no other juveniles there?
TOOBIN: I don't believe anymore. There were -- have been over the time -- over a period...
PHILLIPS: And they've been released?
TOOBIN: But they have been released. But Khadr has not been released. And I think his lawyers are not doing this as part of a legal strategy, but just to call attention to the fact that he's been there for so long without a trial. He, in fact, is one of the very few inmates who is actually getting a trial at least in theory. His trial is starting. But the legal process in Guantanamo has been so slowed down, so bogged down. So often rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, it's far from clear that his trial will ever take place.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's go ahead and just take a listen to part of this interrogation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHADR: You don't care about me. That's what.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I do care about you, but I want to talk to the honest Omar that I was talking to yesterday. I don't want to talk to this Omar.
KHADR: It wasn't honest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes it was.
KHADR: You see, you're not going to believe me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you're being honest. KHADR: I am being honest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. You look at that and part of me says, well, OK, they're pretty nice to this kid. This looks like a typical interrogation to a kid that allegedly lobbed a grenade on a U.S. Special Forces soldier and killed him.
TOOBIN: Right. And these -- the interrogators here are not even Americans. These are the Canadian Intelligence Services who's doing the interrogation. So, there's no allegation that there was anything improper done by Americans, here. And I don't think that interrogation looks inappropriate at all. I think it is simply a reminder of who this kid is and the fact that his case is still pending after all of this time.
PHILLIPS: So, does this add to the controversy in any way, that Gitmo should be closed?
TOOBIN: Well, I don't think specifically.
What is a big problem for the administration is the Supreme Court for now, the third time last month said, that these prisoners have a right to go to court and challenge their interrogations. These trials, a couple have gotten started but it's far from clear that they will actually proceed to a verdict. So, the legal morass is still very much unresolved there. And I think most people regard the situation at this point, as falling in the lap of the next administration.
PHILLIPS: Now, this young man, Omar Khadr. He's going to stand trial, what, this fall, right?
TOOBIN: Well, that's the theory. But his lawyers and other lawyers are now saying, because of the Supreme Court's most recent decision, they are going to go back into federal district court in Washington, try to stop the trial from taking place, move all the proceedings to the United States.
You know, both Barack Obama and John McCain have said they want to close Gitmo. Coni Rice has said it. Robert Gates, the secretary of state has said it -- the secretary of defense has said it.
The question is, OK, let's even suppose you close Gitmo. What do you do with these people? You still have the question of what kind of trials they're going to get, who's going to try them? What the resolution is going to be. And we still really don't know the answer to that question.
PHILLIPS: And there's such a wide variety of prisoners that are still there. From those that were allegedly involved in 9/11, to sort of low-grade criminals.
TOOBIN: Well, we don't know how many. I mean, you have Khalid Sheik Mohammed there, the architect of 9/11. PHILLIPS: Right.
TOOBIN: Certainly he is not going anywhere. He's going to get some kind of trial. There are other people there, as you point out, who may be very low level people. The government, our government continues to release people. They've released actually hundreds of people out of Guantanamo already. So, the process is ongoing. But, as for the really worst of the worst, to use Donald Rumsfeld's phrase of many years ago, they will get trials. But boy, it sure doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.
PHILLIPS: It may happen 50 years from now, who knows.
Jeffrey Toobin, appreciate your time. Thanks.
Well, what are Omar Khadr's lawyers saying about the tape, his condition, the interrogation? We're going to talk with one of the lawyers later, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: And when the Supreme Court talks, city councils listen. In Washington today, the District of Columbia council plans to vote on a measure allowing handgun at home for self defense. D.C. has banned handguns for 32 years, but last month the Supreme Court ruled the ban unconstitutional. The new bill preserves some gun restrictions and that's brought a threat of more legal action by gun rights advocates.
We have this one. After almost four decades, one of the women involved in the Manson family murders, could be going free. A California parole board is holding a hearing today on Susan Atkins' future. Prison officials flagged her for a compassionate release after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She's been given less than six months to live. Atkins was convicted for her role in the murders of actress Sharon Tate and seven other people, committed by followers of Charles Manson. The L.A. County DA has asked the board to deny the release.
PHILLIPS: Well, now to our outrage story of the day. A Tennessee couple is locked up because they were allegedly in a Clarksville bar while their baby was locked in the car outside. And it's not the first time this has happened in this small town.
Erin Steinbruchel with CNN affiliate WKRN tells about the disturbing trend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN STEINBRUCHEL, WKRN REPORTER: It's beginning to look like an unwelcomed trend in Clarksville. Children left in cars in the summer heat with parents nowhere to be found. Now, police are keeping an eye out for helpless victims who may be trapped in a car.
OFC. ANDY BECHTOLD, CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE POLICE: They're being more observant too. They get a call in a certain area that they look at the vehicles parked around because it's getting to be an ongoing thing here. STEINBRUCHEL: Around 2:30 Sunday morning, a Clarksville police officer found a 5 month-old infant crying in a vehicle with the windows rolled up and the doors locked. The parents were inside this bar, Chapala's, and left the infant alone for over three hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody should be furious about that.
STEINBRUCHEL (on camera): Clarksville police say it's lucky this small infant wasn't left inside of the hot parked car during the middle of the day, otherwise things could have turned out much differently.
(voice-over): There could be a memorial, like this one remembering a 3-month-old baby named Faith. Less than a week ago, police say the small child died after being left in a hot car while the mother was inside a bar.
BECHTOLD: You can't put somebody in a vehicle and leave them there without any supervision.
STEINBRUCHEL: This latest incident is the sixth time, according to police, a child has been left alone in a car in the summer heat this year. The parents, Marlini Martinez (ph) and Enrique Ramirez (ph), are charged with child abuse and neglect.
In Clarksville, Erin Steinbruchel, News 2.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Doctors make a shocking find. A tumor as big as a full grown person growing inside of a woman.
PHILLIPS: And a disturbing crime. Who would steal a little boy's hearing aid?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We've been hearing all the time, exercise, exercise. OK, here's the proof -- exercise at any age can help keep us healthy. But a new study shows it might help slow Alzheimer's disease, as well. As we age, our brains shrink and they shrink a lot faster in Alzheimer's patients. A new study in the journal "Neurology" finds that early Alzheimer's patients who exercised had less brain shrinkage. But they didn't seem to do significantly better on mental tests than people who didn't exercise.
PHILLIPS: Too much TV may be harmful for kids even if they're not watching it. Researchers watched 50 kids in a playroom. Part of the time the TV was off, part of the time the TV was on, and during free time children were focussed on playing or learning. When the TV was on, they were less calm and more aimless. Pediatricians advise no TV for kids under age 2.
LEMON: OK. Yes, you want to pay attention to this story, it's an amazing story. One hundred and forty pounds lighter, Linda Rittenbach says doctors told her to lose weight. But no matter what she tried, she just couldn't do it. Now she knows why -- a cancerous tumor weighing 140 pounds. Doctors say it had been growing near her stomach for 15 or 20 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA RITTENBACH, HAD 140-LB. TUMOR: My doctor told me that I had two choices and that was -- I'd either live or die. And I had a 20 percent chance if I had the surgery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. It took three surgeries, over two months to remove the entire tumor. Joining us now to talk about this, CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
This is an incredible story. I don't know -- how can you have a full grown adult with a tumor like that and not know it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Her tumor was the size of a full grown adult. The tumor was 140 pounds.
Well, we put that question to some oncologists and this is what they said -- they said, look, this type of tumor -- which is called the liposarcoma -- they say it is not unusual for people to have this inside of them, 40 pounds, 50 pounds, and not know it because it grows so slowly. And people think, oh, I'm just gaining weight, I'm middle aged, these tumors usually show up in people who are about 50-years- old. And they figure, oh, it's just the weight of middle age.
Now, these doctors did say that 140 pounds, which is how large her tumor was, was really big. They -- the ones we talked to hadn't heard of tumors that size before. But they said that they did see how it could happen because the tumors don't hit organs, and if they're not compromising your organs, you might not know that it's happening.
LEMON: I have to tell you I knew someone who wasn't that big, but had a tumor and people always thought she was pregnant. They would say, when are you -- and she wasn't. And I guess it was -- to keep it was probably better than having to remove it. It probably threatened her life in some way.
But what are the signs when you have something like this? Are there warning signs?
COHEN: Often there are no warning signs, except sometimes you gain weight because of the tumor itself. But the weight gain is very slow and takes decades, so that's not a good sign to watch for.
But we asked these doctors and they said sometimes people do have this vague feeling of abdominal fullness and a vague feeling of pain. And so they'll go to the doctor and those things are so -- so many people have those problems that it's often hard to really pinpoint it. In extreme cases, these tumors will block the intestine or block the stomach.
So, of course, the question is, well gosh, how would I even know if I had one?
First of all, they are extremely rare, exceedingly rare. So chances are if you're gaining weight, it really is because you're eating too much and not exercising enough, and it's not because you have a tumor. But, if you feel like you are trying and trying to lose weight and you have this feeling of fullness and a feeling of pain and you keep gaining weight, here's what one doctor involved in Ms. Rittenbach's care said: "If things don't quite make sense to you and become a chronic problem, don't stop until you find the answer."
So if it just feels like something isn't right to you, you have to keep asking, hey what's going on here?
LEMON: Imagine the stress on her organs and everything -- her limbs and joints -- everything. She's carrying another person around.
COHEN: Right, but it -- what's amazing is that it didn't really cause problems for decades. Eventually, yes, it would. But for a long time it didn't really cause problems.
LEMON: Boy, oh boy. All right. Thank you very much, Elizabeth.
PHILLIPS: Bluetooth headsets are big prizes (ph) in California where cell phones for drivers have to be hands-free. Well that popularity may be the reason a 3-year-old deaf boy was robbed not once, but twice.
Thieves dropped Jose Franco's hearing aid the parking lot the first time it was snatched. Los Angeles police believe they mistook the external ear piece of the boy's cochlear implant for a Bluetooth headset. Advocates for the deaf fear that the popularity of the Bluetooth ear piece could make more deaf people targets for thieves.
LEMON: Word for thieves, but you can't say it on television.
This is where bad guys' fates can be sealed. We'll go inside the FBI crime lab and see the techniques they really crack cases.
PHILLIPS: And we'll tell you about a crashing entrance caught on tape that surprised a number of east Texas bank tellers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: OK, the F in FBI doesn't stand for forensics, but the Bureau wouldn't be the Bureau without them. As we speak, critical evidence is being analyzed in the FBI crime lab at Guantanamo.
Our Kelli Arena takes you inside the cutting edge facility, her second in a series of reports marking the agency's 100th anniversary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA (voice-over): Before the crime lab looked like this, there was this. One agent, a single room, and the crime of the century.
It was 1932, the toddler sun of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and murdered. All the FBI had to go on were handwritten ransom notes, but they were enough to convict the killer. Over the next seven decades, the FBI crime lab, which has gone through several transformations, has worked on everything from the JFK assassination to the September 11 attacks.
ROBERT FRAM, CHIEF OF SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS SECTION: We had the luxury of being a larger lab that was able to specialize in a lot of different areas.
ARENA: It even inspired one of the most popular crime series on TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Bingo -- your bullet came from that gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're sure?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm sure.
ARENA: That show, "CSI," drives the FBI nuts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firing.
CARLO ROSATI, FORENSIC FIREARMS EXAMINER: The part about solving a crime in an hour, though, that's very unrealistic. We work on some cases for years at a time.
ARENA: And real crimes often don't get buttoned up as neatly as they do on television. Yet, that's what some juries have come to expect. Still, the myth is not all that far from reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This laser will help us detect any prints that fluoresce on here.
ARENA: The laser is great for picking up prints that can't be seen with the naked eye. With boxes of evidence arriving every day, accuracy comes first. But speed is a close second. The DART machine, short for direct analysis in real time, can quickly identify things like poisons and explosives.
DR. MARC LEBEAU, CHIEF OF CHEMISTRY UNIT: So we're able to take advantage of this newer technology and actually perform analyses within minutes as opposed to hours.
ARENA: And when human hands are not fast enough, there are robots, already making a big difference in examining DNA evidence.
RICHARD GUERRIERI, CHIEF, DNA ANALYSTS UNIT #1: The robotics behind me allows us to process anywhere from 80 to 90 samples at a time in a period of less than two hours.
ARENA: The FBI crime lab successes are legendary, but it's had some major failures.
In the 1990s the lab went through major reform after accusation its scientists slanted evidence in favor of prosecutors. And in 2004, fingerprint analysts mistakenly linked Oregon lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, to the Madrid train bombings.
FRAM: No one's infallible, a mistake can be made. The idea is to minimize that and the idea is to act on it if it was made and correct it and make sure it doesn't happen again.
ARENA: From that one room to a globally recognized facility, a crime lab itself under a very powerful public microscope.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Quantico, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: A would be robber in disguise, but a brave employee fights right back. You won't believe how it ends.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Time to tell you what's caught on camera. A robbery at a Denton, Texas pizza parlor caught on camera, but it doesn't go off without a hitch. Surveillance video shows the alleged robber and a restaurant employee tussling over the cash. The employee punches the robber, knocking off his disguise. That was a rude surprise for another pizza worker.
The alleged bad guy turned out to be her dad. The family affair doesn't end there. Police arrested the suspect and two more people who fled the scene. One of them was the pizza worker's mom.
PHILLIPS: Damaging miscalculation caught on camera in Center, Texas. Watch the pickup pulling the trailer around a bank's drive through. Seems a tad too tall, and look what happens. It clips the canopy right there bringing the whole thing crashing down. Police say there were no injuries, believe it or not. That incident was caught on the bank's surveillance camera.
LEMON: Well the mom probably thought this little tyke was just joking around, trying to be an adult. But a Missouri mom may be kicking herself for not paying more attention to her 3-year-old boy. The boy told her he was going out for a ride and grabbed the keys to her SUV. Police say the toddler drove the vehicle into the yard of a neighbor and hit the house. The vehicle and the house need a little work. Nobody was hurt, thank goodness.
And the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
