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Protest Continue in Iran As Ayatollah Derides Protestors

Aired June 19, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And, we're pushing forward the eyes of the world are on Iran, but is the Iranian government turning a blind eye on its own people? Looking at the state-run TV out of Tehran, you wouldn't know we're at a historic moment in the nation's history. The Iranian government may be backing off on coverage, but we are pushing forward. And the ultimate power in Iran is making an ultimatum. In a rare speech today, the supreme leader passionately defended last week's presidential election. He is speaking up, but the opposition isn't backing down. More rallies are planned for tomorrow, including one supporting main challenger, Mir Husein- Mousavi. But the government has issued no permits.

No details now -- or new details rather from Iran. They're coming out in new ways, bypassing traditional avenues and heading into sometimes uncharted territory. Iranian Americans have launched a petition now to get Google Earth to upload new images of Tehran, allowing people to actually watch protests or other events live. And skirt a government clamp down on the Internet. All you have to do is go to petitionspot.com.

Also, the Google Translate page has added the major language in Iran, Persian, also known as Farsi. The free service lets you translate Persian text into English and vice versa. Plus at CNN, we're closely watching Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and all the social networking sites.

Now let's get right to a major new development. The man you see not only here crosses the line between church and state in Iran. He holds sway over both. We are talking about the supreme leader, Ali Khomeini. He has declared last Friday's presidential election a definitive victory for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And he told opposition protesters to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI KHOMEINI, SUPREME LEADER (through translator): Arms wrestling in streets is not the right thing to do after the election. It only challenges the election and democracy. I want everyone to put an end to this. This is not the right thing to do. If they don't stop this, then the consequences and the writing, everything, they will be held accountable for all this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So who is this guy and why is everybody listening to him? The ayatollah is the highest authority in Iran with the final say in matters of faith and matters of state. He has served two terms as Iran's president from 1981 to '89. He then succeeded the late Ayatollah Khomeini as supreme leader for life. He confirms the results of presidential elections and even picks the country's election overseers. Well Iran is a complex nation full of conflicting voices and those voices extend well beyond its borders. We have heard plenty from the opposition this week.

Now, let's get another perspective. Kaveh Afrasiabi is an Iranian political scientist and has taught at Tehran University. He joins me now life from Boston. Kaveh, first of all, you have said that all of these allegations that the voting was corrupt, don't hold any water. Why?

KAVEH AFRASIABI, IRANIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST: Well, we could scrutinize Mr. Mousavi's official complaint to the Council of Guardians and found that to be lacking principally because he passes a lot of pre-election improprieties as evidences of re-election. And simply that doesn't wash. The burden is on Mr. Mousavi who had thousands of his monitors, independent monitors, to oversee the elections, to provide documented evidence that would corroborate his allegations and he has failed in that department. He cannot possibly expect a new election based on the scant evidence that he has presented so far.

And I think that is the moment of scrutiny for Mr. Mousavi. He will either abide by the will of the majority who reelected Mr. Ahmadinejad or he will try to implement the dictatorship of Tehran's majority because he wants the capital city and all those demonstrators, who represent the majority in Tehran. But they are not the majority in Iran. And they have to abide by the will of the majority and the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, rightly pointed out that Mr. Ahmadinejad received 11 million more votes. How could there be a rigged election with such a wide margin? It cannot be.

PHILLIPS: But how do you explain 40 million votes, an estimated 40 million votes hand counted in just a matter of hours?

AFRASIABI: Simple, because I'm sure you can do that yourself, Kyra, because there are 60,000 people counting that votes. That translates to roughly 700 votes per person, which can easily be done in matter of six to eight hours.

PHILLIPS: Well, you say six to eight hours. But it was less than that that Ahmadinejad was declared the winner.

AFRASIABI: Even four hours.

PHILLIPS: If it was two hours. Reports came out in two hours he was declared the winner.

AFRASIABI: No look, the official results were declared by the interior ministry. And if you go and you see that they made incremental announcements every two, every three hours. And eventually, they declared him the winner. That's what counts. There is no irregularity, no inconsistency about the figures that they put out. And that's on their Web site right now and you can go and check it out yourself. PHILLIPS: OK, so let me ask you this then. If, indeed, there was no irregularity and this was a totally fair election, how do you explain the hundreds of thousands of people that are out on the street trying to be heard and demanding change?

AFRASIABI: Well, look, whether they have legitimate grievances for greater personal freedom and so forth, that's a separate issue. What we are dealing with here is whether or not this was a rigged election. It is a basic fact, irreversible fact that this was a uniquely open, competitive election that afforded these opposition candidates six nationally televised debates, et cetera. OK, so the people who voted for Mr. Mousavi, were misled. This is a case of misperception. They thought that simply because they won in Tehran, they should have won in the rest of the country where the majority of Iranians live. And that was not the case and the votes, the results, ascertain that. So there are two issues here.

PHILLIPS: But how can you say that every single person out on the street is upset about a corrupt election? We have talked to a number of people that have been at those rallies that have called in fearing for their lives saying this isn't about Mousavi or Ahmadinejad. This is about a movement for change. This is about a younger generation saying we want change no matter who is in the presidency. We want something different for our country. We want freedom. We don't want to have to worry about human rights abuses anymore. We want a different life.

AFRASIABI: Look, I have no qualms about that. And in my writings, I have praised Mr. Mousavi. No, there is no doubt that a lot of those demands are legitimate. But let's not confuse the issues. You cannot have undemocratic means to reach a legitimate Democratic objective. And here you find the elements of a majority in Tehran trying to muscle themselves on the majority of Iranians who legitimately voted Mr. Ahmadinejad into power. So there is really a serious issue here that the CNN and other Western media have not paid attention to, which is the fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad has been unfairly smeared, unfairly victimized. He is an honest person who lives a simple life and has made anti-corruption his number one agenda. And you have to be fair to the man.

PHILLIPS: Kaveh, he is someone who thought the Holocaust never happened.

AFRASIABI: OK and that's something that I have personally disagreed with but you have to be nuanced and adopt the facts as they are. With respect to the elections, the facts do not support Mr. Mousavi's allegations, period.

And now, he has a choice. He can either abide by the will of the majority or continue with his defiance causing havoc on the country and with probably dire consequences. And I'm sure that what the leader said yesterday in terms of calling him as one of their own and asking them to reach out and so forth and by the way, Mr. Khomeini severely criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad for his undue criticism of the former president. He is saying that this was an error on his part and so forth and that was very important for Ayatollah Khomeini to reach out. So I think we are headed toward an amicable resolution of this whole affair.

PHILLIPS: Well, we will definitely be following it on a daily basis. Kaveh Afrasiabi, interesting perspective. Quite the opposite to so many people that we have been talking to but we appreciate your insight.

AFRASIABI: Absolutely, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well as you can imagine, Iranian-American TV stations are staffed 24/7 this week. And some of them are going 007 actually helping their countrymen and women lift the veil of secrecy with some pretty high-tech gadgets.

Kara Finnstrom at Channel 1 in Los Angeles. And Kara, show our viewers this camera hidden inside this pen and how this station has sent out dozens of them or I guess more than dozens of them, right, to Iranians in country to send back video?

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. About 10,000 of them. I mean, Kyra, we should make clear, that this isn't your typical TV station. They do present all kinds of information to Iranians and Iranian-Americans, but they are also very active in the push for democracy in that country.

The owner is an Iranian exile who makes it clear he is pro regime change and that he is involved in the protest, in the encouraging of democracy through the TV station. But here is what you are talking about. It looks just like a pen but actually there is a little dot right here. And it is a camera. And if you press the button, it records an image. You open it up. There is a port there that you plug into your computer. And then that image can be fed to anyone you want.

And if we walk over here, we tried it out a little bit earlier. Arwash (ph), if you'd hit that for us, all right, image a little gray, a little overblown. But it gives you an idea of how this technology works.

And Arwash, if you'd also play up here for us, this the first piece of videotape that they say they got back using this camera. This was taken at a rally for democracy, as you can see, the date back on there in October of last year. So very interesting technology, Kyra.

I also want to give you a quick look around this station as well. So we can give you a feel of all the operations that go on here. They have live programming on, as you mentioned, 24/7 right now. A big push to get all the information they can out to the public. And if we whip back around here, I'm also going to show you some of the images that they're bringing in. Some of these, they say, come from the device that we just showed you. Others juts come from people on the street. And if you would, Arwash, tell us what we're seeing there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. This is a picture of what we see here is there's four Iranian students wearing black just because they are against killing their brothers or what they call brothers. And there is written word on their shirts which says, "my killed brother, I will take your vote back."

FINNSTROM: All right, thank you very much. Kyra, all the images obviously that we have here, all of the e-mails that they are actually getting in some 1,500 a day that we have been sharing with you through the course of the day, obviously, not verified by CNN, coming in here very quickly. We are just trying to give you a glimpse at what the community here, the Iranian-American community in this country and also actually around the world and in Iran is getting a glimpse of.

PHILLIPS: So Kara, they have been able to confirm if any of the pen video that has been fed is from the past couple of days?

FINNSTROM: They do believe that some of it has been. Really, the only way they say they can tell is if the person who takes the video alerts them to this in their e-mail. Sometimes they alert them to this. Sometimes they don't. They are sending it very quickly. But they do say that they have received some video in.

And Kyra, you mentioned earlier, and we should stress this for our viewers, they don't believe they are putting anyone in danger by sharing this information with us. They say, actually, the government is very much aware at this point because the pens have been in the country for awhile that these pens exist and they have alerted everyone that has these pens to that fact. But it is still a small camera that they can use and kind of discreetly hide.

PHILLIPS: Kara Finnstrom, appreciate it. TV, radio, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, I-Report. Iranians are using all of it to get their messages out. And the list just keeps on growing. YouTube is also giving us a glimpse into the heart of Iran now. We're going to take you to the heart of YouTube, coming up.

We also have news about your stomach. Five words, put down the cookie dough.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's a fashion that could land you a job. A bracelet with a simple message helping the unemployed get their foot in the door. A couple of out of work Florida women are smiling all the way to the bank now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, right? When a couple of Florida women lost their jobs, they made bracelets with a simple message, "I need a job." We thought they would be good candidates for our 30-second pitch. But it runs out being out of work has turned into a full-time job. Reporter Anne Imanuel of our affiliate WBBH has their great story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know anybody that needs a job?

ANNE IMANUEL, WBBH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frustrated with the traditional job search.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need a job?

IMANUEL: Two Southwest Florida women trying something new.

UNIDENTIIFED FEMALE: We're going to give you a wrist band and it says, "I need a job."

IMANUEL: They think of it as banding together with the unemployed.

BARBARA BOURN, BRACELET MAKER: It was out of desperation.

IMANUEL: A bracelet that says it all, "I need a job."

BOURN: Wear it everywhere you go and hopefully, good luck.

IMANUEL: Underemployed and unemployed themselves, Barbara Bourn and her friend Stephanie O'Quinn (ph) knew they needed a different way to stand out to employers.

BOURN: It's hard, because I am 60 years old. So what am I going to do for retirement?

IMANUEL: But they found more than a way to market themselves. They found a way to help everyone and with it a whole new career.

BOURN: To market yourself everywhere you go, let people know you are looking for a job.

IMANUEL: They give these bracelets away to some but they also sell them for $3. These bracelets only hit the market in March and already these women have given out or sold more than 6,000 of them. But with nearly 900,000 unemployed people, in Florida alone, there are a lot more people out there that could be wearing one. Already the bracelets turning a success story.

BOURN: There was a girl that was in a convenience store, and somebody noticed her bracelet and asked her about it and it led to a job.

IMANUEL: You can bet the people putting these new accessories on today hope the same turns the same turns true for them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long did you say you've been unemployed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About six or seven months.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you surviving?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barely.

IMANUEL: They say, to dress for success, this could be the fashion statement they need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: So if you want to find out more about the bracelets, you can actually go to their Web site or our Web site, actually, we'll lead you there, CNN.com/Newsroom. And if you want to be a part of the 30-second pitch, get in touch with us there or you can tweet me at KyraCNN.

What a week for Lynda Lenell. She was already grieving and preparing for one funeral, then came word that her husband, on his way to be with her, had died on the job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The widow of a Continental pilot who died during a Transatlantic flight couldn't believe what she was hearing yesterday. Lynda Lenell said that her husband of 36 years was in perfect health, never showed signs of heart trouble, and physicals twice per year. It is believed that 60-year-old Craig Lenell had a heart attack about halfway through the flight from Brussels to Newark. The reason he was flying home was to attend his mother's funeral. Well, none of the passengers on the plane knew exactly what had happened. Is that something that you would want to know if you were sitting in your seat thousands of feet above the ocean? Or is ignorance bliss, in this case?

This Tweeter wrote, "I personally would want to know but for the greater good of all passengers, being uninformed is best to avoid panic."

Adela (ph) writes, "The crew of the Continental flight should be commended for their focus on keeping passengers safe under the tragic situation of losing one of their own."

Jcampbell444 writes, "I would rather not be informed until after the flight knowing that the pilot or anyone has a medial situation rattles nerves."

And thecrazyredhed shared a close call, "Husband got sick in flight 45 minutes out of L.A. to Ohio. Thought he was having a heart attack. Doctor on the plane and crew were amazing."

Well, thanks to all of you for tweeting us on this story.

A father who nearly lost his life to his own anger and grief. Now turning all the negative energy from his marine son's death into something positive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: We want to get you answers to your financial questions. Let's get straight to the help desk. Gary Schatsky is the president of objectiveadvice.com and Lynnette Khalfani-Cox is a personal finance author. All right guys, let's get to work.

Karla asks, "When bills have gone into collection, what is the best way to restore your credit? Does paying them off help your credit?" -- Lynette?

LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, PERSONAL FINANCE AUTHOR: Believe it or not, the short answer is simply paying them frankly off will not help your credit score. A lot of people don't know what you need to do is work out an agreement with the creditor. Get something called a PDF letter, a pay for deletion.

WILLIS: Pay for deletion.

KHALFANI-COX: Exactly. You have to say, listen, if I pay you X amount of dollars, will you agree to delete all negative references to my reports to Transunion, Equifax and Experion? If you don't do that, frankly, it will stay on there. It will say paid, was 90 days delinquent and that's not going to improve your Fico credit score.

GARY SCHATSKY, OBJECTIVEADVICE.COM: Not everyone is going to give you that. But very few people know that it could exist.

WILLIS: I think that's great advice. Let's go on to the next question. Matt asks, "With experts predicting a future increase in inflation, what investments or areas should I put my money in so that it maintains its value respective to growing inflation?" Gary, a lot of people are worried about inflation out there and for pretty good reason.

SCHATSKY: With absolutely great reason. We could expect growing inflation. The classic areas would be things like commodities, gold, and general commodities, perhaps treasure tips, Treasury inflation protection.

WILLIS: But you don't mean this kind of gold, right?

SCHATSKY: Normally not, not on your arm but as an investment, it would work nicely. But the key thing is you have to do it in moderation. You can't put everything into it. And make sure if you have bonds that they are short-term. Because short-term bonds are not dramatically impacted by rising inflation. So those are the keys.

WILLIS: And possibly Treasury inflation protected securities might be a good way to go too. And that's easy to buy, because you just buy a mutual fund.

SCHATSKY: Vanguard has great funds, low cost, great way to step into it.

WILLIS: Gary and Lynette, thanks for your help today, great answers. All right, the help desk is all about getting you answers. Send me an e-mail to gerri@CNN.com or log onto CNN.com/helpdesk to see more of our financial solutions. And the help desk is everywhere. Make sure to check out the latest issue of "Money" magazine on newsstands now.

PHILLIPS: America's wounded veterans, why is the V.A. adding insults to their injuries, making them wait so long to get the benefits they are due and need? It is a problem that is snowballing, no end in sight. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Another missile threat from North Korea. Well, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says anti-missile systems are in place in Hawaii ready to shoot down whatever might be coming. Japanese media reporting North Korea is getting ready to launch a missile over the Pacific. And we've learned that the U.S. military is tracking a North Korean ship by air and sea. The ship believed to be carrying elicit weapons or technology. Right now, it's heading south in the Yellow Sea along the Chinese coast.

And when you are a wounded veteran back home with bills to pay and a family to feed, the last thing you want to worry about is a quagmire of red tape between you and your benefits. But that's the reality now for nearly 1 million vets. The V.A. is buried so deep in a backlog of 900,000 unprocessed disability claims with some 80,000 cases added monthly.

Right now, it is taking about four months to process a claim, plenty of time to have your home foreclosed on and there is an overhaul underway to basically bring the V.A.'s computer system in the 21st Century. But it is not clear how that will fix the problem. And it looks like more soldiers still serving are drowning their stress. "USA Today" reporting that the number of army soldiers now in treatment for alcohol abuse has about doubled since 2003 and the number of Marines who tested positive for drug or alcohol problems was up 12 percent from 2005 to 2008.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen tells the paper he can't believe the stress of eight years of combat isn't taking a toll. Well overworked troops, self-medicating with booze, a V.A. swamped, 13 percent more disability claims than a year ago and the surprise health inspection at V.A. clinics, remember those? That's where fewer than half passed. Congress trying to figure out what's going on. So many problems, so much to fix, so little time. America's heroes caught in the middle.

Let's talk with retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore and Ryan Tabu (ph) of the Wounded Warrior Project about all of these issues that must be dealt with. Why is it taking so long? A lot of us just can't understand.

General Honore, let's start with you. You know, if they can't get the help from our government, what are they to do? It is like they are self-medicating.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, (RET): Well, that's what the data is showing, Kyra. And I think we need to bring the medical care for our veterans and our warriors -- we could solve this problem tomorrow by giving them the same medical benefits that members of Congress have. We have veterans traveling hundreds of miles to V.A. hospitals for care when there is care right around the corner but because of budget and our traditions, we are sending them to these V.A. hospitals who are trying to do their best.

We could solve this problem tomorrow. Give them the same medical benefits that members of Congress have. These young warriors have served underpaid -- almost minimum wage, served around the world and are coming back wounded. And we're treating them with indigent-level care.

PHILLIPS: You know, you bring up a very interesting point. I was interviewing a vet/member of the Senate, and I asked, "Would you go to a VA hospital, would you get treatment there? And do you go to a VA hospital?" He said, "Well, yes, I would go, but I don't go because I make too much money."

You make a very good point there. These men and women are dying for our country. They are coming back with more mental disabilities than ever before, and it's taking four months to process these claims on average. What do you see? Let me ask you this. When you were active, and you were active during both these wars, you were active during Katrina, did you see our men and women turning more to alcohol, to drug abuse, talking about suicide? You were losing guys. I remember that.

HONORE: That is constantly coming that way. We are keeping good information now. We can track why these soldiers and the number of them that are overusing alcohol and drugs, because we continue to do our drug testing. Again, it comes back to the same issue. How do they get immediate care when they need it? Right now, we're finding out too late. When stress has gotten to a point -- they come back home and they are facing another deployment, there are only so many times we can continue to redeploy these troops at the pace we are deploying them, and then they go through a VA system when they get out of the Army and they are treated with indigent medical care. They need to have the same type of medical care that Congress has, and I think you would see a difference.

PHILLIPS: Ryan, you were a part of the Wounded Warrior Project, a fantastic organization. You go out and you meet with these men and women and hear their stories on a regular basis. Tell me how these claims that take on an average four months affect the families? I mean, the bills rack up. The houses foreclose. They can't pay for their kids' schools and the needs that they have. You hear this on a daily basis, right?

RYAN PAVLU, WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: Yes. Actually, we receive numerous, numerous e-mails on a daily basis requesting financial assistance. The thing is that with the amount of time that is taking place to file these claims, it is putting these individuals, these families into financial hardship. With the number of claims that are currently pending and the financial situation that the country is in, you have warriors from past and present that are flooding to the VA system looking for help.

PHILLIPS: You bring up a great point. Look at our Vietnam vets and how hosed they have gotten with regard to just getting treatment for mental health issues and even other types of disabilities. Your motto is "The greatest casualty is being forgotten." If you could sit before the Secretary of the VA., Eric Shinseki, what would you say to him? PAVLU: Well, I would say that, one, there are many resources out there like Wounded Warrior Project and many other organizations out there ready and willing to help.

PHILLIPS: Shouldn't the help come from the government as well? Yes, there is tons of wonderful projects out there like Wounded Warrior Project. Ryan, where is the help from the VA? Where is the help from the government? All the money we are putting into these wars. These guys are coming back and not even getting their claims taken care of.

PAVLU: Well, you are looking at a system that is limping on the resources that it has right now. You have -- with the technological resources that they currently have, you have individuals pushing paper and opening regular files when you have technological things out there to put everything on the computer and control all of these claims electronically. Not only that, but the VA simply was not prepared for the amount of claims that are coming in. It is just not something you can throw bodies at and expect it to fix the problem because the claims process is very complex. The injuries are very complex. Making decisions on these claims is very complex. These new folks have to be adequately trained, because we are not really doing the warrior a favor if the decisions they get from VA are incorrect.

PHILLIPS: General Honore, the VA. A hopeless bureaucracy or not?

HONORE: Well, I think it has a role to play but we need to get our wounded warriors. We see people in industrial accidents every day, automobile accidents and there are systems in the civilian community that adjudicate benefits and entitlements. We need to use that and we need to make -- downsize the number of people going to the VA. When the VA is overrun because they are treating a Vietnam veteran who may be making a claim for Agent Orange application because he was injured from that, and the VA is overrun with Vietnam and Korea veterans who are now coming to try and get help, help they didn't get after the war. So they are overrun with that population.

Now, you've got kids coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq who have different issues. So we could downsize the amount of people coming to the VA by giving them a good equal to Congress medical care so they are not overflooding the VA system. The biggest problem with the VA is not just backlog of benefits for wounds, it's people seeking medical care that they don't have public health to care for them.

PHILLIPS: You would think we would learn from history after seeing what happened to Vietnam vets, and now you're seeing a backlog of mental health claims of Iraq vets. You wish somehow you'd learn from history.

General Russell Honore, thank you very much. Ryan Pavlu, I wanted to give a shout-out to your Web site, woundedwarriorproject.org, incredible organization. I want to point out the WWP packs that you can order. Inside here, all types of supplies for the wounded warrior when they are checking into a hospital that's designed to make that hospital stay easier. Fantastic project. We want to pump that and push people to go towards that Web site. Ryan, thanks. General Honore, thanks. Appreciate it.

The father of one Marine killed in Iraq nearly let his anger and grief kill him as well. Now, he has found a way to repurpose the pain, helping others and maybe even helping himself and others in the process. CNN's Jason Carroll bring us this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This is an incredible story about how a father who saw no hope and didn't want to live found a way to make life better for himself and for others like him.

(voice-over): August 25, 2004, a day Carlos Arrendondo says he will never forget. It was his birthday. Instead of celebrating, it became a day of mourning.

CARLOS ARRENDONDO (ph), FATHER OF KILLED SOLDIER: The last thing in my mind is that my son has died. That's the last thing for any family.

CARROLL: The three Marines tasked with delivering the tragic news told him his 20-year-old son, Alexander, was killed in Iraq, hit by a sniper's bullet.

ARRENDONDO: It was about me losing my firstborn. Nothing else mattered. My life stopped right there.

CARROLL: Arrendondo was inconsolable and says that helps explain what he did next. He set fire to the Marines' van. They were not hurt but he was badly burned.

ARRENDONDO: I thank God I survived that.

CARROLL: He still bears scars from that day. Physically, he has healed well. Emotionally, he and his wife, Melida, are recovering too, thanks in part to what he has done to his truck. Turning it into a moving memorial for his son.

ARRENDONDO: This picture was taken perhaps two days before he lost his life.

CARROLL: Arrendondo has been driving it since 2005, logging more than 100,000 miles. Word spread within the military community. He has visited other grieving families sharing his pain with theirs.

ARRENDONDO: Miguel is a father. Don't do anything to avoid this. It is very, very heavy.

CARROLL: The Arrendondos say they get mostly positive responses but not always. Sometimes he shows this picture of his son's flag- draped coffin. Some have attacked him, even vandalizing his son's grave. That won't stop Carlos or his wife.

MELINDA ARRENDONDO, CARLOS' WIFE: If we were not to be doing something and we know that a neighbor was going through this, we would feel remiss.

CARROLL: This week, at a Massachusetts Department of Veteran Affairs event, the state's lieutenant governor was pleased to have the Arrendondos lend their support.

TIMOTHY MURRAY, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, MASSACHUSETTS: What the Arrendondos have done is making sure that we are cognizant of the challenges that face families.

CARROLL: Arrendando points out on his first letter home, his son, Alexander wrote, "I am not afraid of dying, I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love." His father says, wherever his son may be, he need not worry.

Well, Kyra, what's next for the Arrendondos? They say they want to fight for veterans' rights and bring attention to better ways of informing families of fallen soldiers like providing bilingual soldiers and chaplains in the notification process -- Kyra?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Jason, thanks so much.

Tackling an online outrage. Tons of Web sites, making money off murder victims, often with the help of their killers. The market for murderer-abilia, why it exists and what can be done about it? I will talk to the guy with intimate knowledge of this disgusting phenomenon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As you know, we have had a lot of limitations put on us trying to get the information to you from Iran about what's happening with the protests and this election that pro reformist candidate supporters Mousavi say has been corrupt, that there was corruption within the voting system. So, as the days have gone on, we have been limited more and more on what we can report out of there, but we have formed a lot of trusted sources that are there on the ground and they've been e-mailing us and calling us and not wanting to be identified on the air but giving us great information.

This e-mail just came through to me from one of our trusted sources, saying that he is realizing something interesting about tonight in Tehran. He tells me there is this quasi state of martial law he is seeing happening in the capital city right now. He just passed through a road check that state militia there are controlling. Older and younger members of the state militia, they're holding huge guns and are checking out all the passing cars for potential trouble makers, as he puts it.

He says meanwhile, despite the supreme leader's stark warning against the demonstrators, many went on their rooftops and shouted "Allah Akbar." "God is great." Pro-Mousavi people are glued to their computers, waiting to hear what Mousavi will actually say about tomorrow planned rally. If he backs off, one person argues, it will be the end of the demonstrations and the so-called green movement. Here is what caught our attention. Our source within Iran saying the state militia setting up road checks now with members of that militia holding guns and looking inside the cars and looking for, quote, "troublemakers" and implementing a type of martial law in the capital city. We are going to follow up and bring you more information.

We are getting more feedback like this in and as we do that, we will report to you. There is a tremendous fear that violence is going to break out in the streets there in Tehran. We are monitoring it very closely.

This year's World Refugee Day is especially poignant for a woman named Rose Mapendo. After surviving a Congolese death camp ten years ago, she went on to start a group dedicated to saving and resettling refugees. Yesterday, she was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the U.N.'s Refugee's Agency. She is this week's CNN Hero.

ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Heroes."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN SARANDON, ACTRESS: When I first met Rose, I was just so taken by her heart. She's the story of the power of forgiveness. I'm Susan Sarandon, and my hero fights for the survival and resettlement of refugees.

ROSE MAPENDO, FOUNDER, MAPENDO INTERNATIONAL: I had seven children. With me and my husband. I never, never thought that genocide could happen in Congo. (INAUDIBLE) or the men that put us in the prison, they were so angry for God. When they found out I was pregnant, I said, "God, accept my life, forgive me, I forgive those enemies." I named my twins after the commanders that tried to kill us. That day is the day I survive.

SARANDON: She dedicated her whole life to saving these refugees that are falling through the cracks with Mapendo.

MAPENDO: Mapendo is my national (INAUDIBLE). It's my hope. It's my answer for my prayer.

SARANDON: What Rose has done is shown this great capacity to move on and to forgive and to embrace life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN is searching the globe for unheralded heroes. If you know someone who deserving to be a CNN hero, let us know. You can nominate them by logging on to CNN.com/heroes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if your weekend plans include cookie dough, bake it before you eat it. And if it says Nestle, throw it out. The company's recalling roughly 300,000 cases of its Toll House dough that may be contaminated with E. Coli bacteria. The government says that 66 dough eaters have gotten sick since March in 28 states. Prebaked Toll House cookies are okay, and so is cookie dough in ice cream, by the way.

It is going to be a long day for Tiger Woods and everybody else at the U.S. Open. A day-long rain put the field way behind schedule. The Open is being at a state park in New York on a public course. Our Larry Smith tells us what some people will do to play Bethpage Black.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Scott Finlayson playing Bethpage Black, and despite what you see...

SCOTT FINLAYSON: Did you see that?

SMITH: ... this is a triumph.

FINLAYSON: Are you kidding me?

SMITH: To understand why, you have to go all the way back to the parking lot some 20 hours ago.

FINLAYSON: We show up at 1:30, sure enough, there's seven guys already here and we're the eighth spot.

SMITH (off camera): You're not leaving.

FINLAYSON: We're not leaving.

SMITH (voice-over): On this day, he's just one of the Bethpage State Park parking lot community. Waiting overnight in their cars to play the famed black course in the same U.S. Open setup the pros will face. Waiting it see how tough it is, no matter how long it takes.

MICHAEL FRANZINO, GOLFER, FROM GREEN LAWN, N.Y.: We didn't know the whole situation about who has to show up at what time, and we actually just got very lucky and got the last spot.

SMITH (off camera): They got the lucky spot, right? Number six. You are guaranteed that you will be playing the black course tomorrow.

FRANZINO: As long as I don't disappear by 4:30. SMITH (on camera): Anybody that will be with you must be in that car with you at 4:30 when they come out.

JOHN PHILLIPS, SUPERVISOR OF GOLF OPERATIONS, BETHPAGE COURSE: You see people driven here from Pennsylvania. We've had people -- the one car down here is from Maine. We've had people up from Texas. When they find they're in space seven or eight, they'll be a little more disappointed.

SMITH: With only 24 golfers guaranteed a chance to play the famed course each day, the wait can be nearly as long as the list of rules for waiting.

PHILLIPS: The biggest rule being, one person has to be in the car. You cannot leave the car for longer than an hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get a little bit of everything -- some adult beverage to make us feel a little better, to make the time go by. Supposedly that's a two-man tent but we're going one in there.

JUSTIN HAND, BETHPAGE PLAYER, FROM NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I: I'm just going to sleep in the front seat.

SMITH: Two nights?

HAND: If I have to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I drove four hours, no way I'm leaving here without playing 18 holes on the black course. That's the way I look at it.

SMITH: And so, Finlayson is triumphant. A twosome didn't show up by the 4:30 a.m. deadline, getting him on the course where his luck runs out, quickly.

FINLAYSON: You're kidding me. This stuff sucks.

I got a birdie, right? Did I birdie yet?

SMITH: How many?

FINLAYSON: Two and a half.

(LAUGHTER)

SMITH: Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, the line begins anew.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Larry, you and I both know that stuff does suck when you have to play in those kind of conditions. He is smiling and nodding his head. I guess you are agreeing with me. Do you want me to throw a question at you like "Okay, with all the rain, are they going to play or not?" Hello, Larry. Respond to me, pal.

SMITH: I was on camera there. Absolutely. That stuff is really bad. Real quick about the rain, they are playing as much as they can today. They will start the second round at 4:00 p.m. Eastern today. They won't get through it all. Phil, by the way, is two under on the course. He won't finish his second round. Tiger won't begin his second round until tomorrow, when more rain is coming up. Tiger Woods, four over par after round one.

PHILLIPS: Larry, thanks. We will take a break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: This is one of the biggest outrage stories of the day for me. It is hard to believe that there are even people out there that try to make money off the murder of human beings and even harder to believe there is an eager crowd throwing the money at it. Murderabilia is big bucks online. The sale of serial killers' stuff.

Andy Kahan is an expert on it and, in fact, coined the term murderabilia. He joins us live from Houston, where he is the director of the mayor's Crime Victim Office. Andy, when you look at everything out there -- and I started looking at some of these Web sites, which are disgusting. What do you think are maybe three of the worst things you have seen for sale?

ANDY KAHAN, DIERCTOR, HOUSTON MAYOR'S CRIME VICTIM OFFICE: Extremely pornographic, sexually graphic art work. I have seen bodily fluids deposited by high-profile mass murderers and serial killers on scantily-clad females, pieces of clothing, and then there's the letters describing what some of these killers have actually done to their victims. It's a revolting, insidious, despicable industry. From my perspective, as a board member of Parents of Murdered Children, you shouldn't be able to rob, rape and murder and then turn around and make a buck off of it.

PHILLIPS: You do have a personal story here, don't you?

KAHAN: Yes. I found this on a fluke. I grew up in upstate New York, where by the way, it's not raining right now. They should be playing golf up there. I found a New York serial killer's art privileges were rescinded. They found he had artwork for sale on eBay. And I figured where there was one figure, there had to be others. Clunked in a search for serial killers. Items came pouring out, and like most people, I was under the false illusion that killers can't profit off the ill-gotten fame and notoriety they receive by murdering other human beings.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. I was told by eBay officials, they are not the morality police. If you don't like it, you go do something about it. So I did. For a couple of years, we had a great battle. We've actually crafted laws in eight states called the "Notoriety For Profit Law." We zeroed in on that key word, profit. Most courts frown on anything that restricts free speech.

Unfortunately, where we are today, it is nice to have state laws, but I can't enforce a Texas law when a Florida dealer is selling items. Hence, we had a federal bill filed several years ago.

PHILLIPS: The federal bill, that was John's Cornan's (ph) bill, stopped the sale of murderabilia to protect the Dignity of Crime Victims Act of 2007. Why is it still sitting there? This seems like a no-brainer. Why didn't this pass?

KAHAN: My favorite saying is criminal justice and logic are oxymoronic terms that often have difficult times meeting each other. This is living proof right here. You would think that everybody could agree on this issue that you shouldn't be able to rape, rob, and murder and profit off of it. For whatever reason, this is Politics 101, we have been unable to secure a Democrat cosponsor. Hopefully, with some of the new stories coming out, particularly with the New York serial rapist and murder who is actually selling rape cards through third-party dealers -- maybe now we can give the attention and get this bill moving. PHILLIPS: We want to do whatever we can to help, Andy Kahan. You stay in touch with us. We will tell our viewers to go online to our Web site, tweet us, e-mail us, see how they can get in touch with you in efforts to stop this. It's crazy that these slimebags can buy this stuff and have a market for it.

Andy Kahan, we are going to have you back. I appreciate your passion so much.

KAHAN: Thanks. They're parasitic vermin.

PHILLIPS: Yes, they are. They're disgusting. But I'll tell you who's not. Rick Sanchez. Rick, take it from here, Rick.