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Obama's War Zone Tour; Beijing Aims for Cleaner Air; Woman Accused of Murder for Motherhood

Aired July 21, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two, dead girls, and a shocked and a screaming relative. Police release a 911 tape, as they try to catch a killer. We have got it. And you will hear it.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a woman allegedly goes to a murderous extreme just to be a mother. A horrific case, a host of questions.

NGUYEN: Look out, Texas. Something might be coming your way. We're going to tell you what is coming.

Hello, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Kyra Phillips, at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: Oh, looks like something ominous on the radar, Betty. And I'm Don Lemon.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, he's part of a congressional delegation, but he's trying to project a presidential demeanor. You're seeing the latest pictures right now from Senator Barack Obama's overseas trip, which has now taken him to Iraq after a weekend in Afghanistan. Here he is with General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq. Obama plans to head to Jordan next.

And our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, is in Amman.

And, Candy, we have heard just about every facet of this trip. How is it going so far?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are pleased so far. The images are good. They say, listen, this is not about the pictures. This is about substantive discussions with leaders in Afghanistan and Kuwait, by the way, as well as in Iraq.

But I will tell you what. The atmospherics at this point are really great for Obama, because they blend so well into his political campaign. First of all, you have the Iraqis saying, well, we think and we hope that U.S. combat troops can be out by 2010.

Well, that's right in line with Barack Obama's 16-month timetable. So, that obviously is great wind for him as he goes into Iraq. The same was true for Afghanistan when he visited there. What we see there is a resurgence of al Qaeda. We see there increased attacks on coalition forces.

And just last week, Obama repeated that in fact the war in Iraq was a mistake because it has distracted us from the real war on terror in Afghanistan. So, these situations have kind of come together to give Obama some wind as he moves into these trouble spots.

LEMON: And, Candy, he's saying it's part of a Senate delegation. It has nothing to do with him running for president. That's sort of is being said there because he's going with two other senators, a Republican and a Democratic senator. But what is the real purpose of this trip?

CROWLEY: It very hard to get away from the fact that this is a campaign trip, particularly when he leaves Iraq and comes here to Jordan. He will be flying on his campaign plane, which has Obama on the side of it.

In fact, the trip will be paid for by the Obama campaign. So, there is a lot of politics to that. But they say it's a chance for him to have substantive discussions with world leaders.

LEMON: All right, that's senior political Candy Crowley. Stay safe. Thank you very much, Candy -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Republican John McCain is spending the day down east. Just a short time ago, he talked about economic issues during at the Maine Military Museum in Portland.

And before that, a private meeting with President Bush's father Kennebunkport. McCain, who supported the so-called troop surge in Iraq, says he is glad his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is getting a first-hand look at the situation there. Senator Obama opposed the surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you win wars, the troops come home. And we are winning. And the fact is, if we would have done what Senator Obama wanted to do, we would have lost. And we would have faced a wider war. And we would have had greater problems in Afghanistan and the entire region. And Iran would have increased their influence.

So, let's have no doubt about the consequences of pursuing what Senator Obama wanted to do, which was complete opposition to the surge, said that there was no way it could succeed, and said in fact that ethnic violence, that sectarian violence would increase, rather than decrease. So, he's been completely wrong on the issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Meanwhile, top Republicans are just furious at "The New York Times" over the paper's refusal to print an opinion piece from John McCain.

The paper's decision comes less a week after its printed an op-ed piece by Democrat Barack Obama. And in that piece, Obama outlined his plans for Iraq. In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, the campaign's op-ed editor, David Shipley, says Obama's essay offered new information. And McCain would have to spell out in his essay how he would define victory in Iraq.

Shipley says he would pleased to look at another draft. Well, a McCain spokesman tells CNN -- quote -- "John McCain believes that victory in Iraq must be based on conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables. Unlike Barack Obama, that position will not change based on political -- politics or the demands of 'The New York Times.'"

Now, while you won't read Senator McCain's op-ed in its current form in "The New York Times," you can read it right now by logging onto our Web site, CNN.com.

And a little bit earlier this year, conservative Christian leader James Dobson said he wouldn't support John McCain. Well, now Dobson may be having a change of heart. He says Barack Obama's positions on life, marriage, and national security have forced him to rethink his earlier position to McCain.

He told the Associated Press -- quote -- "If that's a flip-flop, then so be it." Dobson is head of the conservative group Focus on the Family.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

NGUYEN: Well, Don, there is hope that a 911 tape could jump- start justice for two girls found dead last month in Oklahoma and keep this case from going cold.

Our Rusty Dornin has been following the investigation.

And now they're hoping that this new piece of tape may provide some kind of help.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Betty.

And it's 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Placker. They think maybe they were spending the night together, that sort of thing, having a sleepover. And they were found about a half- mile from the house on a gravel road. Their bodies were bullet- ridden.

They are now saying there might be two shooters in the case. But now authorities are releasing a tape, six weeks after the killings, they think that might compel someone to come forward. This is a tape of the grandmother who called this 911 in right after the bodies were discovered.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody killed two girls. And one's my daughter's -- my grandbaby, and her daughter -- her friend. I'm on County Line Road.

OPERATOR: What happened, now, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. They went for a walk and they're both down here dead.

OPERATOR: They're dead?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're dead.

OPERATOR: Your granddaughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, and her friend.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, the reason why they are saying that possibly two shooters were involved were that two different bullet casings were found in on the scene. They brought in the ATF canines to examine the scene where the murders happened. They are bringing in the U.S. Marshals Service and really expanding.

There's been 500 leads so far in the case. And they have no motive, no suspects so far in this case. There is a person of interest that they're describing. But that's all they will say. He's only described as a tall Native American man. But they have not been able to locate him at all for questioning.

NGUYEN: So, there was no new information in this 911 tape. So, they're just hoping that hearing that desperate, maybe someone will know something and come forward?

DORNIN: That's right. And they have also signed a victimologist, which is really one of the first time I have ever heard that term. But they are examining the girls' backgrounds, their friends, their likes, their dislikes, to see if they can just find any small lead that will lead them to the killer at this point. But they are saying they have no motive in this case so far.

NGUYEN: All right. OK. Rusty Dornin, thank you for that -- Don.

LEMON: Betty and Rusty, the pieces appear to be coming together for police near Pittsburgh.

Allegheny County Police have charged a woman with criminal homicide, kidnapping, and unlawful restraint. They believe Andrea Curry-Demus killed a pregnant woman, cut out her baby, and tried to pass the child off as her own.

The suspect's friends can't believe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went to her baby shower, her wedding. I had no idea something like this can happen. I'm totally shocked. And she was so nice and so kind. And it's just unbelievable. I'm just -- I don't even know what else to say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We understand why.

Curry-Demus has served jail time for trying to steal newborns before. Later this hour, we will talk to an expert about what might drive a woman to go to such extremes for a baby -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Navy and Coast Guard members are searching the Pacific off Guam for crew members of a crashed B-52. They found at least two of the crew already. Their condition has not been released. Six people were aboard the bomber. It went down today about 30 miles northwest of the island. The Pentagon says the plane was not armed. The B-52 was based in Louisiana and was headed to a parade for a flyover when it cashed.

LEMON: The Supreme Court gave terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to right to challenge their detention. But who is going to make the rules for their civil court hearings. The attorney general thinks Congress should make that call. Michael Mukasey says the Supreme Court telling on habeas corpus left some process holes that lawmakers need to fill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MUKASEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL: For the sake of national security, we can not turn habeas corpus cases into smorgasbord of classified information for our enemies. We need to devise rules for the habeas corpus cases that will provide for the necessary protection of national security information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Mukasey's speech comes as the first military commission trial got under way today at Guantanamo.

Osama bin Laden's former driver faces charges of providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. The government says Salim Hamdan was a member of al Qaeda and served as Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard and driver. Hamdan is the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried.

He is accused of purchasing vehicles to help bin Laden evade capture after 9/11 and delivering weapons to al Qaeda after U.S. military operations began in Afghanistan.

NGUYEN: Well, in China, there are fears of terrorism less than three weeks before the start of the Summer Olympics. Explosions on two public buses killed two people and wounded 14 in a southwest province today. Public security officials say the two separate blasts were deliberately set. And the state-run newspaper quotes China's Olympic security chief as saying that a radical Chinese Islamic group poses a real threat to the Beijing Games.

LEMON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasted no time accusing Iran of dragging its feet during weekend talks about its nuclear program. Envoys at the multilateral meeting in Switzerland had hoped that Iran would agree to suspend uranium enrichment.

But Iranian didn't budge, saying its enrichment process is for peaceful purposes. Despite that setback, the meeting was groundbreaking, because, for the first time, a senior State Department official was on-hand, although just as an observer. Rice told our Wolf Blitzer that Iran's intransigent position could result in new sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The world is sending Iran a message on both tracks. First of all, there are consequences for continuing to defy the will of the international community, continued economic isolation, continued isolation that is leading to an ever-worsening economic situation in Iran, and, on the other hand, a pathway out. Suspend and negotiate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, well, here's the bottom line for those talks in Switzerland. Iran has two weeks to agree to freeze enrichment or start negotiations or be hit with new penalties.

NGUYEN: For Zimbabwe, it may be the spark of hope that could end nearly three months of government-sponsored violence and political turmoil. President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai today agreed to hold power-sharing talks within two weeks. Tsvangirai got the most votes in the general election back in March, but not enough to avoid a run-off. He then refused to take part in last month's run-off, accusing the government of violence against his supporters.

Mugabe won reelection in that run-off. But the process was widely criticized.

LEMON: All right, your home on the market, and not a buyer in sight. So many people are dealing with this. So, how do you really sell if you have to, if you really need to? We will tell you about some creative marketing ideas.

NGUYEN: And talk about creative. Look at this. We will tell you why two environmentalists are sailing the Pacific on a raft made of junk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Getting ready to go to Iraq, soldiers training for dangerous duty getting a little help from Hollywood.

CNN's Brooke Anderson has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fierce fighting. Angry crowds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down, down (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Down, down George Bush.

ANDERSON: This may look like the war in Iraq, but, in fact, these battles are being fought on U.S. soil orchestrated by the Army.

TONY GERBER, CO-DIRECTOR, FULL BATTLE RATTLE : It seems too strange to be true that in the Mojave Desert in southern California, the Army had constructed a fake Iraq.

ANDERSON: The new documentary, Full Battle Rattle, goes inside the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, where Hollywood-like sets have been erected, created faux Iraqi towns were simulated war is waged.

(on camera): The film was shot here, in the fake village of Medina Wasl. Populated by Iraqi actors but real American soldiers. Put them together and you've got training meant to prepare the troops for the real thing.

(voice-over): Three-week cycles, 10 times a year, soldiers en route to Iraq live in this pretend world complete with a coffee shop, hotel, and marketplace.

(on camera): This village looks very realistic. Take this Sunni mosque, for example. But when you get a little closer, this hollow wall is one indication that not everything is as it seems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like a big expensive army laser tag.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Lasers used instead of bullets, pyrotechnics versus real explosives, prosthetics and fake blood to resemble injuries.

GERBER: There's no amount of preparation that can prepare these young men and women for the actuality of battle, but maybe it mitigates some of the fear.

ANDERSON: The film follows not only the Americans' experiences, but the Iraqi natives who act out scenarios crafted by a team of writers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your occupation is going to be an Iraqi police officer.

ANDERSON: Nagi Moshi fled Iraq to live in America. He's been working at the training center for three years and sees the value of these exercises for soldiers.

NAGI MOSHI, IRAQI ACTOR: They make a mistake over here. They're not doing it over there because when they do it over there, they are going to cost them a lot.

ANDERSON: A sentiment shared by everyone in this simulated reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And for each three-week stint working at the National Training Center, the actors are paid upwards of $4,000. "Full Battle Rattle" is now playing at New York's Film Forum and will be in Seattle, San Francisco, and possibly more cities soon.

LEMON: Very interesting.

A race against the clock. We will tell you about the latest efforts by one of the most polluted cities in the world to clean its air in time to host the Summer Olympics.

NGUYEN: Why are two men taking to the high seas with a bunch of junk for a raft? You will talking about this one.

LEMON: Buy a house, get a car free -- unique incentives to jump- start slow home sales.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, it may be an impossible task, but China is giving it its best shot, trying to clean up Beijing's dirty air before the start of the Summer Olympics. Less than three weeks from now, the Olympics start.

Under government orders, half of the capital's drivers left their cars at home today and took public transportation. And, for the next two months, half of the city's more than three million cars won't be permitted on the streets on alternate days. Experts warn, the plan, well, it may work because unpredictable could blow pollution into the city from other provinces.

NGUYEN: Well, houses sitting unsold, a byproduct of the mortgage mess and the economy. Well, now some sellers are getting creative.

CNN's Kate Bolduan takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE POE, HOMEOWNER: Come on upstairs.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): Maryland resident Catherine Poe bought this three-bedroom colonial with her daughter as an investment property in 2005. They share a love for restoring historic houses.

POE: Well, they always had two parlors in those days.

BOLDUAN: They fixed up and resold two historic properties before, no problem. But not this time.

POE: It was the beginning of what people just thought was going to be a blip. And actually it sort of went blip,, whop. It dropped drastically. BOLDUAN: The house has been on and off the market twice in two years. Poe's hoping the third time's the charm with the help of a Prius thrown in.

POE: I'm hoping that it makes people say, oh, let me go take a look because that is something wonderful.

BOLDUAN: Extreme economic times, calling for extreme house- selling measures. A free car, a free vacation, raffling off a house for $100 a ticket, and even buy one house, get one free in the case of one San Diego developer. All examples of creative incentives and the lengths people are going in today's floundering housing market. Poe's realtor says it's a first for him but worth a try.

CHUCK MANGOLD, REALTOR: You have to make a specific house more attractive to a buyer so that it can compete with the sea of inventory that's out there.

BOLDUAN: But the National Association of Realtors warns that creative incentive may not be the best way to close a deal.

ELIZABETH BLAKESLEE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS: If you're going to offer incentives, offer closing costs help. Or if it's a condominium, offer to pay condo fees for six months. Your incentive ought to deal with what you're doing.

BOLDUAN: Despite the draw of the free Prius, just a handful of people showed for Catherine Poe's open house. She now expects to take a loss of at least $60,000. Further proof the housing slump has not yet passed?

POE: The love affair with historic houses is still there, but we're having to be realists also.

BOLDUAN (on camera): The National Association of Realtors says these kinds of incentives are often negotiated out during the sales process. Poe says, if the buyer doesn't want the car, they will gladly take the 20 grand off the price of the house.

Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

NGUYEN: Speaking of investing, probably not in that, but how about the shaky market? Can you make some money off it? Could it pay off down the road?

Well, Ali Velshi is "Right on Your Money."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Money may be tight these days, but now might be the time to invest even if it's only a small amount. HILARY KRAMER, AOL MONEY COACH: We're so low. It's always where you start investing. This is a perfect time to put your money in the market. Absolutely perfect.

VELSHI: The key could be thinking long term.

KRAMER: It is the power of long term investing. What you have to realize is that if you invest $500, $500 in an S&P 500 index, and it does 10 percent over the next 20 years, you're going to more than double your money. So, as long as you have a very, very long time horizon, decades rather than months through the years, there's a lot of money to be made.

VELSHI: But there are ways to invest and cash out sooner rather than later.

KRAMER: Well, it depends when you need access to the money. If it's in the next one to two years, do a Certificate of Deposit.

VELSHI: CD's are offered for fixed terms. From a few months up to five years. But remember, withdrawals before maturity will usually be hit with a substantial penalty.

And that's this week's "Right on Your Money."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, here's one way to lose your lunch. Hard to believe, but the man in the booth lived to dine about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

NGUYEN: Hello, everybody on this Monday. I'm Betty Nguyen.

And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: All right. Now, it's time now to tell you about some of the stories we're working for you today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We still don't know what happened to a gunman who apparently shot at firefighters from this burning house in suburban St. Louis. One firefighter was killed, two police officers were wounded in that.

Part of the Texas and Mexican coasts are now under a hurricane watch and this is why. Tropical Storm Dolly is churning away in the Gulf of Mexico and could grow into a hurricane by tomorrow.

Senator Barack Obama and General David Petraeus in the war zone talking war. The latest leg of Obama's overseas trip has taken him to Iraq, where he met with U.S. commanders -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Shocking and gruesome seems like understatements in this case near Pittsburgh. It involves a dead woman, her baby cut out of her body and another woman with a history of trying to steal newborns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Using dental records, the Allegheny County medical examiner's office identified the body of 18-year-old Kia Johnson. Police say the pregnant woman was found inside a suburban Pittsburgh apartment building with her arms and legs bound, her mouth gagged. Investigators believe she was drug before her baby was cut out of her womb.

KARL WILLIAMS, MEDICAL EXAMINER: And her abdomen had been opened with a sharp weapon. The uterus had been opened. The uterus appeared to be what we say is grabbed (ph), meaning that there had been a baby there.

ACOSTA: Police say the apartment where Johnson's body was found belonged to 38-year-old Andrea Curry-Demus. Investigators believe the two may have known each other.

CHARLES MOFFATT, SUPT. ALLEGHENY COUNTY POLICE: We have information that they met one another. How long -- how far it goes back, we don't know at this time. But we do have evidence there was contact between the two of them.

ACOSTA: Last week, authorities say Curry-Demus took a baby to a Pittsburgh hospital and claimed it was hers. Then she said she bought the infant from a local woman. Curry-Demus told reporters after her arrest, "I didn't do nothing."

That stunning news put a renewed focus on the whereabouts of Kia Johnson, who had recently gone missing. Before Johnson's body was been identified, relatives were beginning to worry.

SHAKEEA WASHINGTON, VICTIM'S SISTER: We don't know where she's at. She's pregnant. It's not like her. She's been gone for three days. It's not like her just to be missing. She would have called somebody. She does not not go home.

ACOSTA: According to the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review," Curry- Demus suffered two miscarriages at ages 12 and 21. In 1990, she was accused in an alleged plot to steal a woman's baby and in a separate incident, of kidnapping an infant from a hospital. She was sent to prison after pleading guilty to various charges from both incidents.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did she do this? Why did she do this? Why?

ACOSTA: Flash forward to this year -- friends and relatives say Curry-Demus had told them she was pregnant and went so far as to attend a baby shower.

STEPHANIE EPPS, SUSPECT'S SISTER-IN-LAW: She would never like let you touch her stomach, lift her stomach up. But pregnant women do things like that. They're happy because they're pregnant. But she would never do none of that. She wouldn't let me do it at all. And she just kept a distance from me. ACOSTA (on camera): Authorities say that the baby boy Andrea Curry-Demus brought to the hospital is doing fine. Curry-Demus is scheduled to appear in court later this week.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: This crime, as shocking as it is, is hardly unheard of. Just last year, Lisa Montgomery of Kansas was convicted of killing a pregnant woman whose womb had been cut open and her baby taken. Montgomery was found later trying to pass the child off as her own.

And there's a similar case going through court right now in Washington State. This woman is accused of stabbing a pregnant woman to death and then cutting the baby from her womb.

And how about this case in Florida -- a nurse that allegedly snatches a newborn from a hospital. Fortunately, no one was killed in that case.

So how can maternal instinct go so high haywire?

Let's talk now with Dr. Gail Saltz. She is associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

So I just listed a string of cases that we've seen recently. Is this somehow becoming some kind of a sick trend?

DR. GAIL SALTZ, PSYCHIATRY PROFESSOR, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: I wouldn't say it's a trend. I would say it is a very rare event. And I certainly wouldn't want pregnant women out there to be worried about something like this happening to them. It is very unusual. And it is probably a perfect storm of events that occur in a woman whose entire self-worth, if you will -- she probably feels very valueless and all that matters to her or her belief of what she's worth is the ability to produce a baby. And, you know, many women do struggle a lot if they have problems with infertility and cannot have a child. It can cause a real depression, a real problem.

But in this -- these cases, this is a person who's self-worth was based on the ability to produce an infant. And that had to be combined with, you know, a lack of some sort of moral compass in terms of, you know, for instance, the incredible narcissism -- if I want that, I should get it at all costs.

NGUYEN: So self-worth, I guess a lack of self-esteem, depression and just that -- that sense that if I want it, I'm going to get it no matter what it takes.

That's what leads to this kind of extreme action?

SALTZ: Well, you know, probably in most of these cases, there is either psychosis, which is a break with reality, you know, in the mind of some of these women -- or what we would call an extreme character disorder, like narcissism, where basically the person cannot see outside of their own needs. They don't have a decent moral compass. And that's not to say they don't know what they're doing is wrong.

So that's really the legal question -- do they know what they did was wrong?

And it sounds like in many of these cases, they did. But they desired it so much, they felt that they were so worthless without it -- and sometimes, by the way, this is about a man. This is about if I don't produce a baby, then the man that I need to hold onto will leave me.

NGUYEN: OK. That is the person who is committing this.

What about for the other people out there?

What are some of the warning signs that they should be looking out for?

SALTZ: Well, I think, again, I'd just like to repeat, you know, this is not a common occurrence. So I don't think people don't have to be in fear of this. But obviously, in these cases, you saw this case, there was already an attempt to do this in the past. I think a person who has attempted to do such a thing who doesn't get serious psychiatric help and perhaps the question of, you know, a longer sentence, is at risk. But I think somebody who is unable to get pregnant, somebody who's been dishonest about miscarriages, about what's going on, Someone who feels desperate to hold onto a man in their life and, you know, talks incessantly about the need to get a baby, get a baby.

NGUYEN: All right, Dr. Gail Saltz, associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

It's just such a shocking case and frightening, in fact. And I know you say it's not a trend. Hopefully, it is not.

Thank you for your time.

SALTZ: My pleasure.

LEMON: Well, Barack Obama's overseas trip has now taken him to two war zones.

He is in Iraq today with top U.S. commander David Petraeus, after spending most of the weekend in Afghanistan. Obama is part of a Congressional delegation. But his plan as a presidential candidate is what everyone is talking about.

He supports pulling U.S. combat troops from Iraq over a 16-month period and focusing more on the increasing violence in Afghanistan. But GOP rival, John McCain, who opposes any timetables, is criticizing Obama's war plans as naive and premature.

Time now to take a look at our Political Ticker.

Barack Obama's Iraq policies take a hit from Al Gore's running mate eight years ago. Senator Joe Lieberman, who's now an Independent, says Obama would be choosing to lose the war in Iraq by pulling out American troops. Lieberman supports John McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: Senator Obama was prepared -- he announced it early last year -- to begin pulling American troops out, one or two brigades a month, so that in March of this year, 2008, this American combat troops would be out.

If he had done that -- if Barack Obama had carried out the policy he wanted in Iraq, Barack Obama couldn't be in Iraq today, because it wouldn't be safe. Al Qaeda and Iranian extremists would be in charge of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Rudy Giuliani says Obama's overseas trip shows his inexperience in world affairs. The former New York City mayor took in a Yankees game yesterday with his former Republican rival, John McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fact that Barack Obama is kind of making his first tour, in essence, of the world, is an indication that John McCain is the man with the experience. John doesn't have to go for the first or second time to these places. He's been going there for 20 or 30 years. He knows the world. He understands the world. And without any disrespect to the other side, he's just so far more experienced that I think the American people will elect him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: While Barack Obama's visiting Iraq -- is visiting Iraq, John McCain is staying stateside, where he's talking about jobs, oil prices and other economic issues. McCain has been to Iraq numerous times to get updates on the security situation there.

And CNN's Jonathan Mann takes a closer look at the Republican candidate's previous trips and his war strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This may have been John McCain's most famous visit to Iraq -- a walk through Baghdad's Central Market on April 1st last year. McCain said that the stroll proved that Iraq was getting safer.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have been here many years, many times over the years. Never have I been able to drive from the airport. Never have I been able to go out into the city, as I was today.

MANN: Some Iraqis and Americans suggested he was able to go out because he was protected by more than 100 soldiers and attack helicopters patrolling overhead. From the outset, John McCain has consistently looked forward to victory in Iraq. The U.S. first invaded, and even after the occupation turned bloody, he supported the Bush's administration's goals. He did not support the way it fought the war, openly calling for more troops long before the administration announced its troop surge.

Now McCain says the surge has succeeded and it's proved something.

MCCAIN: In wartime, judgment and experience matter. They matter. In a time of war, the commander-in-chief doesn't get a learning curve. If I have that privilege, I will bring to the job many years of military and political experience, experience that gave me the judgment necessary to make the right call in Iraq a year-and-a-half ago.

MANN: McCain says the right call now is to keep U.S. troops in Iraq until the Iraqi forces can safeguard the country themselves. He says it's best for the United States, but something more as well. McCain says that it's a moral obligation.

Jonathan Mann, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And at the top of the hour, you'll you want to hear what two key supporters of John McCain and Barack Obama say about their candidates and their views on Iraq. Senators Lindsey Graham and Evan Bayh join CNN's Wolf Blitzer today in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Betty.

NGUYEN: More setbacks for the cholesterol drug Vytorin. A new large scale study says the drug failed to show a benefit for people with major heart valve problems. In fact, it didn't lower the risk of a major cardiovascular event any more than a placebo.

And health experts announced a new worry today. In a smaller study, 93 people taking Vytorin got cancer versus the 65 cancer victims on a placebo.

Now medical experts say Vytorin should only be a drug used as a last resort in people with high cholesterol.

And we also have this just in to CNN dealing with salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration has found that salmonella bacteria on jalapeno peppers imported from Mexico. Now this bacteria was found at a distribution center in McAllen, Texas. Investigators are not certain where the bacteria originated.

Of course, we'll stay on top of this story for you -- Don.

LEMON: Absolutely, Betty.

Well, you've heard the phrase hope floats. Well, so does junk.

We'll tell you why two sailors are pinning their hopes on a pile of junk that they hope floats.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. So would you risk your life riding on a bunch of soda bottles across the Pacific?

A pair of plunky environmentalists are out in the Pacific Ocean right now on a raft made out of junk and they're heading from California to Hawaii. And there's a serious message behind this wacky voyage.

Our Josh Levs is here to explain it.

All right, break it down for us.

JOSHUA LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty.

NGUYEN: Hey!

LEVS: Betty's back, everybody.

NGUYEN: Good to be back.

LEVS: Well, you were doing an incredible boating adventure yourself over there in Myanmar, a couple of guys had their own ideas about what to do with a boat. Get this -- they're taking off from California all the way to Hawaii in this thing. This is a boat that they made out of junk. It has a piece of an old Cessna aircraft and 15,000 bottles underneath.

I managed to do an interview with one of them and I asked him what he's thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. MARCUS ERIKSEN, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, ALGALITA MARINE RESEARCH FOUNDATION: Well, we have discovered a rapid accumulation of plastic trash in the mid-Pacific Ocean. And most of it comes from land. We thought, what a great way to get the nation paying attention to plastic waste than to build a boat out of that plastic waste itself and go across the Pacific.

LEVS: How long do you expect to be on this boat?

ERIKSEN: That's funny, because we began this June 1st. And I told everyone and my girlfriend, OK, six weeks, that's all it's going to take. And then seven weeks later, we've still got six weeks to go.

The ocean has a tendency to twist caps off of bottles. When the caps come off, the bottles fill with water and the boat begins to sink. So the crew came out with a lot of glue and helped us glue the caps back on and empty the waters out of the bottles. And then it still took us a month to get south of Guadalupe Island and away from the coast of North America.

LEVS: Do you have enough to survive?

ERIKSEN: Yes. We just made, last week, about maybe 15 pounds of fish jerky from three mahi-mahi that we speared.

LEVS: Marcus, how seasick are you getting on that raft?

You are in a raft made out of plastic bottles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There is not enough Dramamine in the world to get me to set foot on that thing.

Are you seasick? Are you guys getting a little crazy?

ERIKSEN: We brought with us tons of Dramamine and Scopolamine patches. We have everything you can think of to keep us from getting seasick.

We haven't gotten seasick once. Our boat is so stable, it's so low in the water that we ride the waves rather gently.

LEVS: Hold on.

ERIKSEN: Actually, the waves go over the boat.

LEVS: I'm hearing a danger here. You're telling me that you are now proving that if you make a boat out of lots of plastic bottles, it can be a very smooth ride.

ERIKSEN: Yes, that's the solution.

LEVS: What if people get -- love this idea and start making their boats out of plastic bottles?

ERIKSEN: Well, I guess that's one alternative to recycling. You can reuse them to make a boat. It works for us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: And apparently it is working for them. Not bad, I guess.

Now, I'll tell you, he is a Marine biologist. He's a Ph.D. and a Gulf War vet. These are a couple of guys who know what they're doing. And if you're interested, I'm going to show you quickly. This is their main Web site here, junkraftblogspot.com.

They have this thing you can do. You can send a message in a bottle. You can get a message into one of the thousands of bottle that they have for $5. They'll even deliver it to some people when they get to Hawaii. If it's something you want, you can visit it there. But obviously, not a lot of people would do this. But apparently, as you can see, Betty, there is a method behind their madness.

NGUYEN: Yes. Well, madness it is -- and a lot of that.

LEVS: Yes.

NGUYEN: OK. Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: Thanks.

LEMON: A memorable moment in Super Bowl history -- what's the legal system saying to the government's indecency watchdog now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. If ever a guy deserves to get his meal for free, Kenneth Anderson is the guy. Look what happened to him while he sat in a booth at his favorite diner in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Believe it or not, he is fine. Just a scrape here and a bruise there. He did, however, lose his cigarettes .

NGUYEN: It's a good thing he lose his lunch.

LEMON: Yes.

NGUYEN: Yowza (ph).

LEMON: And his life, huh?

NGUYEN: Well, the idea is to design a human powered machine that flies. As you can see, most of these creations clearly do not. They just plunge off the pier and end at Tampa Bay. But then again, the annual Flugtag flying day sponsored by Red Bull is mainly for entertainment.

It's time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

LEMON: That looks fun.

NGUYEN: It does look kind of fun.

LEMON: It could be a little dangerous, though.

Yes, he's standing by in "THE SITUATION ROOM" to tell us what's coming up in just a few minutes at the top of the hour.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys. Thanks very much.

Lots coming up.

Barack Obama wheels down in Iraq, where he met with top Iraqi and U.S. military leaders. But has any of it changed his mind about U.S. troop levels?

I'll get reaction from the national co-chairman of the McCain campaign, Senator Lindsay Graham, and I'll get a rebuttal from the man who may be Obama's running mate, Democratic Senator Evan Bayh.

And the great lady of journalism, "The New York Times," versus the McCain campaign.

Why did "The New York Times" reject an op-ed from McCain only days after it published Obama's entry?

Plus, coastal Texas bracing for a possible hurricane.

Should residents there get ready to evacuate?

I'll speak live with the director of the National Hurricane Center.

All that and a lot more coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM -- back to you.

NGUYEN: All right, Wolf, thank you.

LEMON: The closing bell and a wrap of all the action on Wall Street is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, new information. We're talking about that salmonella outbreak scare here.

Elizabeth Cohen joining us with the very latest.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the latest from the FDA. Bottom line -- don't eat raw jalapeno peppers. I know we've been talking about tomatoes. Those are OK to eat. Now they're saying do not eat jalapeno peppers.

What happened with that was more than 1,200 people sick. The FDA could never actually find salmonella on any fruit or vegetable. They candidate find it.

Well, they just did find it. They found salmonella on a jalapeno pepper in Texas. It was a distribution center. The jalapeno was grown in Mexico. They don't know exactly where it was contaminated. But again, bottom line -- don't eat raw jalapenos.

LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.

And we'll have more on this coming up at the top of the hour in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, a sigh of relief from CBS today over Janet Jackson's notorious wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl. Remember this?

Well, a federal appeals court tossed out an FCC indecency fine in the case. And that means CBS won't be penalized $550,000. The court says the FCC overstepped its bounds and its own policies.

Jackson's breast was exposed less than a second when Justin Timberlake tore off part of her costume during that halftime show.

LEMON: And we'll leave it at that.

NGUYEN: Yes.

LEMON: The closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.

NGUYEN: Susan Lisovicz is standing by with a final look at the trading day and no wardrobe malfunction there.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no. But we do want to talk about naked toes.

NGUYEN: Oh. OK.

LEMON: OK.

LISOVICZ: Yes. The A.P. says that there is a pedicure making a splash in Virginia. It is the fish pedicure, where tiny carp nibble at your toes.

LEMON: Oh my gosh.

LISOVICZ: The proprietor says that it's a great healthy alternative to those razors that scrape off the dead skin, that the carp, because they have no teeth, will only pick away at the dead, flaky skin and won't go after live skin. It costs $35...

NGUYEN: That is just disgusting, I'm sorry.

LISOVICZ: ...for 15 minutes.

LEMON: Wait.

How much is it?

LISOVICZ: Thirty-five for 15 minutes, $50 for 30 minutes.

LEMON: I've got some piranha.

NGUYEN: Wait. You're paying to feed the fish here.

(LAUGHTER)

LISOVICZ: Some people say it's ticklish. Some people say I'd rather not. Betty, I'm sure...

LEMON: Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

NGUYEN: No.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LISOVICZ: See you guys tomorrow.

LEMON: All right. Have a good evening. Thank you.

NGUYEN: Now let's go to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Wolf Blitzer.