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Obama Overseas; Female Soldiers Murdered at Fort Bragg

Aired July 19, 2008 - 23:30   ET

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

SANCHEZ: Tonight, Barack Obama arrives.
How is this Democratic candidate received by troops? In Kuwait, Afghanistan. The test. Does he look like he belongs or not yet ready?

Also this -- did a mistaken White House e-mail today give Obama a boost? Oops. Should he cut him loose? We asked.

Now McCain's economic adviser steps down.

And our special report tonight from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Two female soldiers killed.

What's going on here?

The news that affects you now.

And hello, again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. Tonight, you're going to be seeing the very first pictures of presidential candidate Barack Obama's overseas with U.S. troops.

Those are stills that you're looking at behind me that we've been getting from this trip by this junior senator, a trip that seems to be captivating the rest of the world as much, if not more the many in the United States.

I want you to evaluate for yourself Obama's performance. But know this: the White House has, tonight, accidentally released an e-mail that seems to give Obama a boost overseas. They probably wished they hadn't hit that send button when it happened.

First though, let's get to this video. We begin with Senator Obama as he makes an appearance at a gym in Kuwait. Here it is.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: All right, there it is. Now I want you to watch something else.

Come back to me, if you can, Claude(ph). Let me give you a quick set- up on this next piece of video. Senator Obama goes into the gym afterwards. He shoots a free-through. Then mingles with some of the soldiers. One female soldier in particular challenges him to try and do it again.

Now watch this as it plays out. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you? What's your name? Willington?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need you to step off the floor.

OBAMA: I've got to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Obama, you need to...

OBAMA: All right. Let's go and take the picture. Come on. Let's go and take this picture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready, sir?

OBAMA: I'm ready. I'm lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Well, it may be luck -- come back to me, if you could, Claude. This may be luck. It may be smart politics, it may be something else. But the timing of Obama's visit coincides with two major policy decisions that he has argued for.

Senator Obama argued the U.S. should negotiate with Iran.

Here, today, is Undersecretary of State William Burns in Geneva negotiating with the Iranians over their nuclear program.

Senator Obama also argued for a timetable to remove troops from Iraq within 16 months. President Bush has announced that he plans to set up a, quote, "time horizon." And now this that we earlier alluded to -- during an interview with a German magazine, Iraqi prime minister al-Maliki is quoted as saying that he backs Obama's proposal to withdraw troops within 16 months.

As damaging as that may seem to the White House, somebody at the White House press office accidentally forwarded that story -- that Reuters story -- to all members of the media, a story about al-Maliki reportedly endorsing the Obama plan.

Oops.

Now tonight, al-Maliki is saying that his comments were taken out of context. And Senator John McCain's campaign is saying, quote, "Barack Obama advocates an unconditional withdrawal that ignores the facts on the ground and the advice of our top military commanders."

And here's what McCain said about Obama's trip while making the late- night rounds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm glad he's going. I think it's important that he sit down with General Petraeus and go to Afghanistan, where he's never been before, and see the situation, because I think the situation is very tough in Afghanistan as well.

Yes, I'm glad that he's going. I'll be interested in hearing his conclusions when he returns. I'm a little disappointed that he gave a policy statement before he left. You usually do that after you learn from your trip.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Much has been made of this trip and the potential hurdles and the pitfalls for Senator Obama overseas. One potential pitfall could be that Obama could overstep his authority or seem to undercut the Bush administration's authority.

Here's Obama's answering a reporter's question about what he would tell the Iraqi president.

His answer, quote, "I am going over there," he says, "as a U.S. senator. We have one president at a time. So it's the president's job to deliver those messages."

Joining us now CNN national security analyst and acclaimed author, Peter Bergen.

Peter, thanks so much for being with us. Why this rousing ovation for Senator Obama that may surprise some from U.S. troops? I mean are they essentially saying, this guy gives us the best chance to get out of here? Are they applauding the senator's rock star status, as some have called it?

And I guess, as a caveat to that, would John McCain be treated this way?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, it's not for me to answer that exactly. But, you know, the fact is that a recent poll suggested that if you are a Barack Obama supporter, there is a fair degree of excitement about that.

That is not the case for McCain. I think the polls showed 38 percent of Obama supporters were very excited about his candidacy whereas only 9 percent of McCain supporters were excited about his candidacy.

So it just may simply reflect the level of excitement about this particular candidate. I mean, of course, American soldiers or American (INAUDIBLE) have their own views about politics just as much as anybody else. Usually they keep them to themselves.

SANCHEZ: In this case, they seem to be almost exuberant as they watch the man walk into the room. And let me ask you about the international acclaim that Barack Obama seems to be getting.

I spent much of the night last night reading papers from Germany, from Spain and from England, places where Obama plans to visit. They see they're expecting tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, in Berlin. In Spain, they seem all but giddy with anticipation. And in London, they're saying they -- he is all the rage.

Is this a pro-Obama thing or is it an anti-Bush thing?

BERGEN: That's a good question. Clearly, you know, President Bush is deeply unpopular in much of Europe. So there may be an anybody-but- Bush idea in terms of that. But I think there is also excitement about Barack Obama himself, a younger candidate, an African-American candidate, somebody who clearly is generating a lot of excitement in Europe.

SANCHEZ: Peter Bergen, thanks so much for being with us on this abridged newscast tonight. We appreciate it.

Barack Obama wasn't the only senator on this trip. He's accompanied by Republican senator Chuck Hagel on the right of the screen, in the picture you're about to see here. I think you should be able to get that up. There he is. And then there on the left with the baseball cap -- that's Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island, standing next to Barack Obama.

A week after saying that we are a nation of whiners, John McCain's campaign co-chair is stepping down. Former Senator Phil Gramm released a statement saying that his recent comments have become a distraction for McCain. Gramm had also been criticized for his lobbying activities while advising Senator McCain.

Two military women found dead weeks apart in the military town with a history of violence. A special report tonight on Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.

A woman may have ripped another woman's baby from her womb and tried to call it her own. This is a gruesome mystery that's unfolding tonight. It's in Pennsylvania. We're there. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Tonight we're following a gruesome story out of the Pittsburgh area. Here's the latest. A woman shows up at a hospital with a newborn baby. When police go to her house, they find a dead pregnant woman with her uterus literally cut out.

Was that where this woman at the hospital found the baby?

Here's Jerome Sherman. He reports for the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette." He's been following the story since it broke.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEROME SHERMAN, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: They're still trying to identify the woman who was found in the apartment of Andrea Curry- Demus who was arrested after she brought in a baby that wasn't her own and said it was her own.

They're trying to track down dental records for this woman. They have definitely confirmed that she gave birth and they found a placenta at the scene. And her hands had been fastened behind her back with duct tape. Her feet had been fastened, her mouth had been fastened. And they found some types of drugs at the scene. They couldn't identify the drugs but they suspected the woman had been sedated in some way.

SANCHEZ: So is the allegation then -- I mean, you know, the elephant in the room here is that she cut -- allegedly -- this baby from this woman's womb and then took it to the hospital and says, it's mine, which, you know, how hard would it be for hospital officials to figure out it's not hers?

I mean you could tell if she just delivered a baby or not. But is that what we're dealing with here? Because you didn't put those two together for us yet.

SHERMAN: Well, they -- the police are still trying to determine the identification and then they said that's the first step. Then they can move to the next step of filing more charges. It's definitely a homicide. She was found in the apartment of the woman who tried to pass the baby off as her own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: By the way, we've also learned tonight this woman has been in trouble before. According to court records obtained by the "Pittsburgh Tribune Review" Curry-Demus had a miscarriage in 1990.

A few months later, she befriended a woman who had just given birth, attacked her with a knife, and tried to steal the baby. She spent several years behind bars.

Police in El Paso, Texas think that Private Jeneesa Lewis is in danger after she failed to report for work at Fort Bliss. They say that they found evidence in her apartment that points to foul play. Authorities are now looking for Lewis and her husband. Those who know her say the couple had been having marital problems.

News today about a no-longer-missing servicewoman in North Carolina. Using dental records, police have been able to identify this burned body of Second Lieutenant Holley Wimunc. She was an army nurse, 24 years old, stationed in Ft. Bragg, in Fayetteville.

It's another high profile crime in a town that's, sadly, accustomed to tragedy.

Here tonight, we put this special report for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice over): It could be the weekend headline in your town or any town in America.

A slain young woman, her remains verified, her husband in jail, charged with her murder. Tragic, senseless, and the violence -- so hard to comprehend.

But this weekend, it's not your town -- unless you live in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a military town. Just down the road from two sprawling bases, one of them, Ft. Bragg. The densest concentration of trained, equipped, war-ready, direct combat troops in the United States Army. The 18th Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division, the Green Beret, young men mostly, paratroopers.

They train them there to fight and kill in war.

A scan of the Fayetteville news from the past 40 years reveals a list of violent acts and deaths involving military men and women connected in some way to Ft. Bragg. There have been books and movies made about Captain Jeffrey McDonald, a Special Forces doctor convicted of killing his wife and his own daughters.

In 1995, an 82nd airborne sergeant opens fire in his own unit. An officer is killed. In the same year, two Ft. Bragg privates described as "skinheads" shot to death a black couple in Fayetteville. Both were convicted of murder.

Then there was a horrific six-week spell in the summer of 2002. Four women, all killed, allegedly, by their active duty army husbands. All stationed at Ft. Bragg.

June of this year, Specialist Megan Touma's body is found in a Fayetteville motel room. She's seven months pregnant. A military spokesman says they have a person of interest. A Ft. Bragg soldier, but no official suspect.

MAYOR TOM CHAVONNE, FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: You know, I think we're realists and we understand that negative things happen in the world. They happen all over the world and all over our country. And Fayetteville is not immune to that. We have our share of it.

SANCHEZ: Why Fayetteville?

OSCAR TRAHAN, FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT: I guess Fayetteville gets the attention. But it's bad because people are dying in order to get the attention.

SANCHEZ: Fayetteville's second-term mayor says that attention is unwarranted and crime here has fallen. But the murder rate has regularly been higher than the national average, we should add. And because of who lives here and trains here, Fayetteville is an easy target for the headline hungry media.

CHAVONNE: I think the part about Fayetteville being a military community and all the dynamics that play with that, make these particular tragedies probably more interesting to people and a little easier to put drama on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: By the way, we are not finished with this fascinating and sad subject. Military men and women who go to war and survive war and then come home different people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope they have gotten their act together and get these guys help if they need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't come back the same way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have bullets flying over your head, you can talk it all day. But until it happens, you don't know what you're going to do or what's going to happen when you come back and you lay your head down at night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Do they not come down the same way? Something happens under the crushing weight of combat stress, repeated deployment and prolonged separation. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. Tonight we are talking about military-linked crime, often violent, often committed by service members with one or more tours in a war zone.

We mentioned Ft. Bragg earlier, but this is not a localized phenomenon, certainly not exclusively.

Are men and women in uniform given not only the tools to fight, but are they also given the tools to cope?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice over): Two U.S. army soldiers, both assigned to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, both women, both killed within the past four weeks. The husband of one victim, a two-tour Iraq veteran charged with murder.

The killing of Holley Wimunc is the most recent in a list of violent acts allegedly involving service members directly connected to an enormous army combat headquarters, a place where professional, highly trained warriors, some of them fresh from battle, are suddenly thrust back into civilian surroundings.

The army recognizes the dangers.

COL. ELSPETH CAMERON RITCHIE, U.S. ARMY PSYCHIATRIST: Obviously, we have a very high operations tempo. Military couples are often separated for either short or long periods of time and in many cases the spouse is deployed to a dangerous combat environment.

LT. COL. PETER FREDERICH, U.S. ARMY CHAPLAIN: It's not like he's just off at camp. He's off in a -- or she's off in a theater where, you know -- in addition to meaningful, challenging work, there's also some danger. And so that's a challenge that a couple has to overcome.

SANCHEZ: To one army wife, support is critical.

CHRIS FREY, WIFE OF U.S. SOLDIER: I think as long as a soldier has a strong support system, they will be fine. I don't think, in general, that the populace has anything to worry about when they see the uniform.

SANCHEZ: So to try and keep it that way, the army's doing something about it, about soldiers healing physically and emotionally for those in uniform and for those who love them.

RITCHIE: After there were some really very tragic incidents back in 2002 with murders and murder-suicides, we sent a large team down to Ft. Bragg to look at issues such as access to care and stigma and the support for soldiers and their families. And a wide range of programs have grown out of that that are across the army.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Dr. Paul Ragan is an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. He's also a former military physician with combat experience.

Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. How do you teach somebody to kill and then teach them to come back and just be a part of everyday life and to cope with that?

DR. PAUL RAGAN, PSYCHIATRY PROF., VANDERBILT UNIV.: Well, I think that the more mature soldiers are able to compartmentalize their work. When they were in a combat zone, they're training to be violent, and then understand at home or in civilian or domestic situations that violence isn't tolerated.

SANCHEZ: Then why do some of them flip out?

RAGAN: Well, that's a very good question. And I think some of them -- for example, somebody like Scott Peterson is violent probably because of his personality disorder. I think others are maybe immature and they're overwhelmed.

They may be coming back with post traumatic stress disorder. They may be coming back with depression. In the particular case of the Lieutenant Wimunc, they're separated. He's down in Camp Lejeune. She's up at Ft. Bragg. They both work full-time. And I think the pregnancy, you know, can tip some of these immature men over the edge.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you a question specifically to our time. I recently watched this movie, it's called "Stop-Loss," and it made me think an awful lot as I was watching that with my kids and my family.

RAGAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: What's the impact of these repeated recalls and these unanticipated tours on these soldiers? And does that have an effect?

RAGAN: It's -- I think that movie did a very good job of portraying the enormous amount of stress. You have a contract. You feel like you fulfilled your contract. And then, unilaterally, you can be extended. I think that's -- build an enormous amount of resentment. And then that resentment then can be taken out on vulnerable parties.

SANCHEZ: Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. RAGAN: You're welcome.

SANCHEZ: Paul Ragan, associate professor at Vanderbilt University.

Thank you, sir.

RAGAN: You're welcome.

SANCHEZ: Waves and whitecaps along the Carolina coast, the first signs that a tropical storm is brewing. We are taking you there and showing it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: There is a storm out in the Atlantic, and it looks like the Carolinas may be feeling its effects.

Jacqui Jeras is standing by for us now to bring us up to date on this.

Jacqui, what do we know?

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: All right, Jacqui, thanks so much.

Coming up, look at this. Hey, mom, I want that toy. And you know what, I'm going in to get it.

"Rick's Picks" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We call this one "Rick's Picks" because it's my favorite video of the day. Why? Because it reminds me of something one of my kids would do.

Take a look at this. The little girl wants the toy in there, right, that usually is gotten by the claw. No, no, no, no. She decides she's just going to in there and grab it. See her right there? She's scooting in that little hole. See her tatting little feet?

All of a sudden she comes up the other end. Her mom's gone and suddenly her mom turns around and says, where is she? Then the mom comes -- and there's the little girl. Not even affected by anything.

Finally she's able to call some of the officials there and they're able to open the machine and they are able to get her out. No worse for the ware.

Good for her.

That's something my little Savannah would do, I swear.

We'll have the latest tomorrow on the Obama visit and the rest of the news going on. We'll have it for you right here on CNN. Thanks for being with us. I'm Rick Sanchez. Good night, everybody.