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Lawyer Advocates Revisiting Georgia Sex Offender Laws; Terror Suspect Pleads Not Guilty; Losing Weight Leads to Better Sleep; Air Traffic Controllers Train with New Simulator; Custodial Father Arrested in Japan for Trying to Kidnap His Kids; Former Radical Rejects Eco-Terrorism

Aired September 29, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thanks so much.

Sex offenders on the move. No refuge, even in a no man's land for freed offenders with nowhere else to live. Where will they go now?

And the Earth Liberation Front exposed. They call themselves radical environmentalists. The feds call them terrorists. Our Drew Griffin has an inside look you won't see anywhere else.

And you may have seen this on the Web.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are evil, thieving bastards. You have reaped ungodly profits in your behemoth casino scams, then lost. And then you turn around, and you...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: She was mad as hell, and she wasn't going to take it anymore! And guess what? She doesn't have to. We're pushing forward on one woman's battle with Bank of America.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, they're not in jail. They don't have homes. They're not even welcome in the woods. A small group of sex offenders is pretty much forced to wander. And everybody else is left to wonder about a side effect of child protection laws.

Since we first brought you the news of this campsite just outside of Atlanta, which owns the land, by the way -- the state does -- it's kicked the campers out. They landed here because they couldn't find houses or jobs more than 1,000 feet from any school, church, or playground. Probation officers were actually referring freed offenders to these woods if all else failed. So, now what?

Gerry Weber is a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights. His group called the tent city, quote, "a terrible idea for public safety."

So, I'm wondering is kicking them out or re-arresting them, what's the better option?

GERRY WEBER, LAWYER, SOUTHERN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Well, I mean, sex offenders need to be in an environment that's stable and where law enforcement can keep tabs on them, and casting sex offenders out into the woods or out into the streets with no place to go is a terrible idea from a law enforcement perspective.

PHILLIPS: OK. So, now they're -- now they have no place to go. So, now we're going to have sex offenders wandering around Atlanta, possibly. If they can't sleep in a tent out in the woods, they can't find a job, they can't go into shelters, because I understand there's very few of those with very limited beds that will actually allow sex offenders in the shelter.

WEBER: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: What do they do, Gerry?

WEBER: Well, we don't know. I mean, Georgia's law is so restrictive, so utterly lacking in common sense that it sends sex offenders out to the woods and now out to the streets, and they face 10 to 30 years in prison if they don't find an address that they can provide to law enforcement within the next few days.

PHILLIPS: Now, many of these offenders have been convicted of some pretty heinous crimes. The likelihood of them committing another crime, sex crime, how high is that? If you don't have money, you don't have a place to live, you have nowhere to go, nobody to embrace you. It just seems like it's making the matter even worse.

WEBER: Absolutely. And Georgia's law is so broad, it casts so wide a net, that it treats the consensual sex between a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old the same way that it treats a true sexual predator. And so the true sexual predators are the ones that are the greatest risk, and this net that Georgia's law casts captures the 17-year-old who had sex with a 15-year-old.

PHILLIPS: Now, I understand you are taking on, representing, a couple of these individuals. Tell me why you're doing that and how you think you could help them? Or what is your goal, I guess, by taking on representation?

WEBER: Well, we're actually representing the entire class of sex offenders in Georgia. And we think that the law, which is so restrictive, is truly unconstitutional.

And law enforcement has come to our aid. They've said that Georgia's law is so bad, so utterly lacking in common sense, that it's leading to them having a hard time keeping tabs on sex offenders.

PHILLIPS: So, tell me what your ultimate goal is, then. What would make this situation better? What is it you're striving for that would help these guys that have been living in the woods but now no longer are going to be able to live there? They're just going to be wandering around. WEBER: If Georgia's law focused on the true sexual predators, then there could be a heavy supervision of those folks. Let's focus law enforcement on the people that are the real problem. And Georgia's law doesn't do that.

PHILLIPS: Now, what about, though, about where they can go? I mean, I've just -- the research that I have done, they don't have very many options. I mean, they're stereotyped immediately. They don't -- no one has wanted to give these guys in particular any work. Apparently, I've been told some of them have been trying to find work.

And then when shelters don't even take them in, do they just have no option but to try and wander someplace else, move to another state?

WEBER: Absolutely. I mean, especially the bus stop restriction, 1,000 feet from a bus stop. In Cobb County, Georgia, alone, there are over 40,000 bus stops, so essentially the whole -- the whole county is blacked out. There is no place for these folks to live.

And if you leave them with no place to live, they're just moving from county to county, moving out of the state. And law enforcement is trying to keep dibs on them, trying to keep tabs on them, and it makes it incredibly difficult for law enforcement.

PHILLIPS: All right, bottom line, while cops are trying to keep tabs on these guys, now they have no place to go. Are you doing anything to try -- I mean, how are you advising them right now with regard to not only staying out of trouble but having a safe place to be?

WEBER: Well, we're kind of out of solutions. There is only one shelter in the entire state for homeless sex offenders, and it only has a handful of beds. Some of these folks have no solution.

And if they don't report an address to law enforcement in the next few days, they face a crime that subjects them to 10 to 30 years in prison for failing to report an address. That's the crime.

PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, a lot of kids at risk right now. All right, Gerry, we'll continue to follow-up with you. We appreciate you being here.

WEBER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, do you want to know whether sex offenders actually live in your neighborhood? Well, guess what? They probably do. We've posted a link to the Department of Justice Web site on our blog, CNN.com/Kyra. Where are the offenders? Who are they? Well, just logon and find out.

All right, we've been telling you about this guy, Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan immigrant the feds say was plotting to bomb targets in New York City. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment just a short while ago in Brooklyn. Our Deb Feyerick is there.

Deb, just what happened in the courtroom? DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was very quick, Kyra. As you mentioned he did enter a "not guilty" plea through his lawyer.

During his proceeding he looked rather relaxed. He was leaning in, talking to his attorney. U.S. Marshals had actually saved an entire row for his family, but they were a no-show in that courtroom.

Took just a matter of minutes. The judge designated the case a complex case. That means they'll be able to waive sort of speedy trial deadlines. The prosecutor saying that there's going to be voluminous discovery, that there's issues of translations; plus it's an international case, so it's going to involve travel. So, the defense attorney agreed to that.

Now, of course, Najibullah Zazi charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. And in the indictment, prosecutors really paint a case of somebody who checked into his Denver hotel room with bottles of hydrogen peroxide and other bomb-making chemicals and was experimenting, trying to build a bomb, unsuccessfully as it turns out. Communications showing that he was frantically trying to get directions as to why it wasn't going the way it was supposed to be going.

All of this happening in the days before September 11, before he drove from Denver to New York, allegedly to meet up with certain people here.

Investigators believe that he may have been targeting trains and subways in the New York City area. They're now really fanning out across the area. They're talking to people at storage houses and beauty supply areas, to see whether, in fact, Zazi or others may have been there to buy more products for this alleged plot -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Deb Feyerick, we'll keep following it. Thank you so much.

Now pushing forward on something that you're passionate about: health-care reform. And especially should the government create a public option to compete with private insurers?

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are locking horns over this right now. That's right, Dems versus Dems. A vote is expected sometime today. And in the hot seat, Chairman Max Baucus. He rejects liberal charges that he's lukewarm, if not outright opposed, to the public option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT), FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: We all agree on the goal. The whole health insurance feeds the fire. But I just think it's important to also explain that the mark is not easy on insurance companies by any stretch of the imagination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Senator Jay Rockefeller, who's fuming over insurance companies' profits, proposes a public option similar to Medicare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), FINANCE COMMITTEE: Insurance companies have seen their profits soar over 400 percent since 2001, while premiums to consumers have doubled.

It seems to me that the message of shared responsibility, we're asking everybody to give a little something up here, and I think it applies to every relevant health-care group, except insurers. And I don't understand that. I don't understand why we'd make that public policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Republican Senator Charles Grassley puts out this warning. A public option would mean the eventual government takeover of the health-care system. At any rate, the measure isn't expected to pass today.

Up next, debate in the full House and Senate.

What health care is to the president's domestic agenda, Afghanistan is to foreign policy. On the eve of a big-time strategy session with his national security cabinet, the president met with the secretary-general of NATO. The alliance chief says that he agrees with the White House approach, namely strategy first and then resources. But Mr. Obama says this isn't just America's fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is not an American battle. This is a NATO mission, as well, and we are working actively and diligently to consult with NATO at every step of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And next hour, we're going to push forward on strategy, and you're going to meet a military wife who keeps the peace, does the laundry, cooks the meals, you name it, right here on the home front.

And you've heard the -- flying the friendly skies, right? How about flying the fake skies? Wannabe air traffic controllers do it all the time? Well, we're going to actually show you a souped-up video game that will really make you safer in the air?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Tired, cranky, out of sorts? Maybe you need some sleep. Some real sleep. If you're tossing and turning, waking up groggy, we're going to tuck you in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hey, there, wake up. I'm talking to you. Did you get less than a restful night of Zs? Did you wake up fatigued? Well, you might have sleep apnea and not even know it.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here to try and tell us how you know and reveal a simple fix. Is it really that simple?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It actually is that simple.

PHILLIPS: Really?

COHEN: I have to say, it is not that hard. The fix is to lose weight. Now I know, you're thinking everyone has trouble losing weight.

PHILLIPS: It's not an easy fix for anybody.

COHEN: It's not all that much. What they did in this study is they took those folks who needed to lose weight and who had sleep apnea, and they had them lose 10 percent of their weight. So if they weighed 220 pounds, they had to lose, like 22 pounds over the course of the year. That's not all.

I mean, that's difficult, but it's not like losing 50 pounds. And what they found is that when they lost that weight, there was a huge reward. For many of these people, their sleep apnea went away.

Now, sleep apnea is when you snore loudly and you kind of gasp for breath at different points in the night. You actually don't take in oxygen for several seconds at a time. Obviously, it's not good for your health to have these episodes where you're not even getting any oxygen.

PHILLIPS: Well, how do you know, though, if you're just snoring or if you have sleep apnea?

COHEN: Do you know what your first clue is? Your first clue is if the person lying next to you whacks you in the middle of the night and says, "Shut up!" Seriously, if you are snoring really loudly, that is a sign that you could have sleep apnea. If you're just snoring at a lower volume, it's less likely that you have sleep apnea. So snoring isn't just annoying; it actually can be bad for your health, because it could mean you're not breathing for chunks of time. That's not good.

PHILLIPS: OK. What if it's a light snore but you kind of choke on it, like...

COHEN: Right. That's worth checking out, too.

PHILLIPS: We've got to talk about this.

COHEN: If you can feel yourself not taking in oxygen, it's time to go see a doctor.

PHILLIPS: That's an issue. OK. So, we all know that weight loss takes time. We've already talked about that. So, what other things can we all do immediately to try and prevent this or figure it out?

COHEN: Right. There are a couple of things you can do if you think you suffer from sleep apnea or, more importantly, if your bed partner thinks you suffer from sleep apnea.

The first thing, as we said, is lose weight. It doesn't take a whole lot to make a big difference. Also, don't sleep on your back. If you think about it, you've got gravity working against you. You've got all this tissue kind of falling back into your airway.

Also, don't smoke, don't drink. And you can get a mouthpiece. There are mouthpieces that can help people with apnea. Folks tell me they're not the most comfortable things in the world, but they often do work.

PHILLIPS: Good advice. Thanks, Elizabeth. All right.

Well, he landed a plane in a river, saved dozens of lives, touched Hearts Across America. But what's next? Miracle on the Hudson pilot Sully Sullenberger is heading back to work at U.S. airways. He'll be a management pilot and work with the airline's safety management team.

Sullenberger says that he can't wait to get back in the cockpit. Nine months ago he landed his jetliner right there on the Hudson River in New York after the plane hit a flock of birds and both engines went out. All 155 people on board survived.

They hold thousands of lives in their hands every single minute. Air traffic controllers have to know their stuff, or your next flight could turn into a disaster. Now, they're beefing up their skills with a new high-tech training program. But not everybody's on board with it.

Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heavy triple seven.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rated one of the most stressful jobs in America, air traffic controller. They're the ones in the towers like this one at New York's JFK Airport tracking each plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One eighteen, continue straight ahead.

CARROLL: Not easy, considering the crowded skies. Each triangle on radar is a plane. So many flying on a typical afternoon, the entire country looks red. Controllers and those who train them, like John Kuhnic (ph), know the stakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mistake on my part can cause somebody to die. It's just that simple.

CARROLL: Kuhnic (ph), a former controller, now has a new high- tech tool to train his students, a high-tech simulator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left bravo to Juliet.

CARROLL: It's a digital reproduction of THE view from an airport tower, and it looks remarkably accurate. David Jennings helped create it.

(on camera) How is this different from how you were trained in the very beginning?

DAVID JENNINGS, ADACEL: Light years different.

CARROLL (voice-over): The simulator's circular structure, modified for any weather condition or airport.

JENNINGS: The student goes upstairs with more knowledge, better skills, and a level of confidence.

CARROLL: Students like Asif Ali say the simulator has helped his training.

ASIF ALI, TRAINING ON SIMULATOR: With the simulator you can practice before you actually get onto the -- go into the tower.

CARROLL: The simulation training, not easy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he pops up like this, you get this call sign, "JetBlue 741, Kennedy ground. Taxi two, runway three one left," but we want him to go that way, via right alpha and then gulf and zulu.

CARROLL (on camera): You want me to say all that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CARROLL (voice-over): Not everyone likes the idea of training on a simulator. Stephen Abraham represents the air traffic controllers union in New York.

STEPHEN ABRAHAM, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: You don't teach people to drive a car with a video game, and I don't think you should teach people how to work air traffic with a video game.

CARROLL: Abraham says the traditional method of on-the-job training, where students train alongside experienced controllers in the tower, is best. Randy Babbitt, the head of the FAA, says the simulator won't be instead of on-the-job training. It will be in addition to.

RANDY BABBITT, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're giving them quality training as opposed to quantity. So, we're giving them a higher quality of exposure and experienced training to help them in their future decision making, so it's a very effective tool.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: Jason Carroll joins us now live from New York.

All right, Jason, what was it like to be in that simulator? Did it feel like a video game or something more than that?

CARROLL: Well, as you know, Kyra, I'm pretty good at these video games.

PHILLIPS: Yes, you are.

CARROLL: Yes. It was really, really tough. Because what you cannot see is, just off-camera, there are two people who are working there, and they're basically shouting commands in your ear at every given second.

And so, if you can imagine a video game that, the minute you start to get a little bit better or start to adapt, there are people who are basically shouting in your ear and saying, "OK, this plane's on this runway. That plane's on that runway. This one's about to land. That one's about to take off."

So it really is one of those interactive types of simulators that they've got going here. And not just at the facility at JFK but at some 22 airports all over the country.

PHILLIPS: Oh, now I see why you did so well, because people were shouting in your ear. It makes perfect sense.

CARROLL: We're used to that with these things, right?

PHILLIPS: Yes, we are.

All right. What are some of the other benefits that the FAA expects to see by training folks on the simulator?

CARROLL: Well, you know, that's a good question. Take, for example, that there is some sort of an emergency at some sort of an airport. What they can actually do with these simulators is take those who are learning and even take some of the experienced air traffic controllers, bring them into the simulator and say, OK, let's replay this exact emergency as it occurred here on a runway, and let's look at some of the better options that could have been looked at here."

So, that's another one of the tools that that they can use with this simulator that they didn't have in their hands before.

PHILLIPS: Good stuff.

CARROLL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jason.

Well, top stories now. They're not free yet, but Iran says it will grant a visit to three detained American hikers. The Swiss, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, will get to visit the Americans to check their condition. The three were arrested in July after they apparently crossed into Iran while hiking in Iraq.

Four suspects now in custody in Chicago in the brutal videotaped beating death of a teen. All four face first-degree murder charges. Sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert was heading home from school when he apparently caught -- got caught up in a gang fight and was beaten with wooden boards. Police say the honor student was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A soaring death toll in the Philippines. Devastating floods have now killed at least 246 people, and 2 million homes are under water. That flooding unleashed by a tropical storm that quickly grew into a typhoon. It's now heading into Laos after hitting Vietnam, where nearly two dozen more deaths are being reported.

A credit-card customer who truly reached her limit. The bank raised her rate. She raised hell. And guess what? Her rant paid off. If your bank won't listen to you, then you've got to hear her story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: America's biggest national park is smoky, but still open, as firefighters take on a huge wildfire. That blaze at Yellowstone has burned at least 9,300 acres. Part of the main road through the park is shut down, but the National Park Service says there's no danger to travelers and tourists.

Chad Myers tracking the big fire in the CNN weather center.

Chad, how do you think it's looking?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, fire, a natural part of any forest. And some trees won't even reproduce without fires opening their pinecones and things, the fire pine there.

We do see quite a bit of wind, though. In Yellowstone only 5 miles per hour, but you get down toward Salt Lake City, and I've seen some numbers in the 20-mile-per-hour range, back out here toward Ft. Collins. That's 14, 12, 16 miles per hour in Sheridan (ph) at night. And it's going to continue to be slightly breezy today and also hot and very dry.

The humidity's going to be dry all the way across the west. That's why we circled this area, really painted it in orange. All the way from Montana all the way back down even into Southern California, where that's where the hot, dry conditions will be, ahead of this next cold front that comes in. When that cold front comes in, it will push that dry air away, cool it down a little bit, but it won't make it all -- that much more moist. So, not going to be all that much of a help.

Cool night tonight across parts of the Midwest and the northeast. Boston, you'll be down to 50. D.C., 53. Memphis down to 49 degrees tonight. Open the doors and save the air-conditioning. Open the windows and let some nice air in. Cool air.

Severe weather tomorrow, though, almost because of this cold air that's kind of clashing with warm air. We're almost seeing a spring- like condition, Kyra. And so cold and warm, that conventionally comes back up from the Gulf of Mexico could spark some severe weather for both tomorrow and into Thursday and Friday across parts of the Midwest and maybe even toward the southeast. But that won't happen probably until the beginning of the weekend, so we'll see.

I know there's a severe weather season in the spring. Everybody knows about that one, but there's a small severe weather season in the winter/fall, as well.

PHILLIPS: OK, we'll be watching it. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

PHILLIPS: He had the law on his side until he went to her country. An American dad sits in a Japanese jail, his kids being raised by the woman who abducted them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: She broke the law and fled the country with their kids. So, why is he sitting in a Japanese jail? Ugly divorce gets way, way uglier, going from family fight to kidnap crisis to international incident.

CNN's Kyung Lah has the latest now from Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Embassy here in Tokyo says it is fully aware of what has happened to the American, that they have sent representatives to speak to him yesterday and today, and that he has been given a list of attorneys to try to get legal representation here.

But this is a very delicate matter, very difficult situation, because Japanese family law is very different from American family law. In the event of a divorce, only one parent typically is recognized as the custodian. The other essentially has no rights. And Japan also hasn't signed on to the Hague treaty, which really means here, Japan isn't necessarily obligated to act in any sort of way in this matter.

What this means for Christopher Savoie, he is in a jail cell. Even though under U.S. law, he is considered the sole custodian, and his Japanese ex-wife is the one who is considered the abductor, under Japanese law, he is the criminal here.

Japanese police say that he grabbed his two children, 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca, as they walked to school with their mother on Monday morning. He took them -- or attempted to take them -- to the U.S. Consulate. Steps from the doorway, from the doorway of the U.S. Consulate, local police stopped him, and because he was standing on Japanese soil, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

Now, before all of this happened, Savoie shared his frustration and his desperations from his Tennessee home.

CHRISTOPHER SAVOIE, FATHER OF ABDUCTED CHILDREN: I said, they're what? They're what? They're in Japan?

LAH: The U.S. State Department says they believe that there are up to 100 cases involving Japanese and American citizens and parental abductions. They are hoping for a long-term solution, but in the meantime for this case, a very sad story about divorce, and two cultures and laws colliding

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Following up on another American dad fighting a foreign country for his kid. David Goldman's been trying to get his son Sean back since 2004, when his wife fled the country with him. She died suddenly last year, but the 9-year-old's still living in Brazil with his stepfather.

And David Goldman is in legal limbo. Actually, legal hell is more like it. A Brazilian judge ruled in his favor in June, but then the case was kicked back to appeals court. Goldman's still fighting, and his friends and neighbors in New Jersey still supporting them. They're holding a fund-raiser this weekend to help with legal fees.

And you thought the best way to talk to the bank was to call the toll-free line? Enter your account number, mom's maiden name, blah, blah, blah. Yes, right, forget that. Just turn on the camera, rant like there's no tomorrow and post it. It worked for this woman.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: There you go. You want to watch Team Kyra's best stuff on the go? Yes, there's an app for that, and it rolled out today. Folks with iPhones can actually get their CNN fix and even get it personalized. There's also a direct line to share your personal stories as well.

And Internet correspondent Abbi Tatton's been playing with the new app all day. So, all right, Abbi, let's play. Show me how it works.

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, there is live streaming video. There is personalized stories, breaking news, as you mentioned.

But I wanted to start off with a section of this iPhone app that really sets it apart from other news apps. We know how important citizen journalism these days. IReport has become an important component of our coverage. And we know this is a pretty impressive news-gathering device, so that's why we built in iReport to this app so people can submit their content to us when they're out on the road.

Take a look at this. These are all submissions from iReporters all over the world. A lot of what we've been getting in in the last couple of days has been on Typhoon Ketsana, which slammed into the Philippines, made its way to Vietnam as well. All of these are personal stories, personal accounts from our iReporters about the situations that they're now finding themselves in, in addition to the coverage that CNN, as a news organization, is provided.

In addition to this, on the app, this is a place where you can submit your own content. It's pretty simple. You go to the button that says "submit." You can take a photo right there, and then record a video, send it to us, choose a video that you've already got our iPhone, send it to us here at CNN.

And we've got people who are constantly going through this content and choosing very best, interviewing people over the phone, choosing the best content available for air to be part of our stories. Because, of course, CNN is in many, many places around the world, but we can't be everywhere.

As you know, Kyra, you've featured so many of these iReports on your show. We're really now seeing this as an essential part of our news gathering, listening to people who are out there with their cell phones and can give us another part of the story.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, we love getting our iReports. OK, so that's how folks can send the news to us. Now, walk us through some of the ways that maybe our viewers can get their news.

TATTON: Right in the palm of their hands. Let me show you. This is divided into segments here. Live streaming video, I'm going to be bringing you a little bit more of that later on. But then this is the section we're on right now, the headline sections, divided into world, U.S., politics, crime. Scroll through and choose the story that you want to read.

I want to show you how you can personalize this as well, because you can see all the content there, but if there's something specific you want to read, there are a couple of ways of doing that. First of all, there's a way to localize it. These iPhones have a GPS. They know exactly where you are. So, it's going to bring you stories from right around where you are currently. It's weather, traffic, plus the local news from the affiliates around you that's relevant to what you're doing right then.

Also, you can follow stories as well. And I set this up earlier, some topics that I wanted updates on. This way, whenever CNN comes out with a story about one of these topics, it's going to go straight to you in your follow section, so it's going to compile a little personalized news section for you.

You can also save stories for later. That way if you're reading something and you may not have your Internet connection for that long, you can save it, come back to it in a little bit later. This is all available at the App Store, $1.99. I think you'll agree, that's a pretty good value for all of that.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Abbi, thanks so much.

TATTON: Sure.

PHILLIPS: President Obama one on one with the man in charge of NATO troops today. The war in Afghanistan took center stage. The NATO secretary-general and the president agreed that we should first define the strategy before committing more troops.

It's showdown day for Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee. Moderates and liberals are wrestling with compromise health care reforms on Capitol Hill in a plan that doesn't include a government- run insurance option. Some liberals think it should, but moderates and their Republican counterparts say no.

Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The Afghan immigrant was denied bail when he appealed in federal court in New York today. Zazi pleaded not guilty to charges that he planned to set off a homemade bomb in New York.

Facebook, a social and networking tool where any tool can post a poll, even one about killing the president. Yes, that was a real poll. Now, the Secret Service wants to "friend" whoever made it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Jacked-up rates, higher late penalties, lower credit limits, have these made you all want to tell your credit card company to stick it? Well, Ann Minch did, and boy, did she ever. This California firebrand got so mad that she launched a very public one- woman revolt. You may be one of more than 300,000 people who saw her video rant on YouTube. She says Bank of America raised her credit card rate to 30 percent even though her payments were on time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN MINCH, DEBTOR REVOLTING AGAINST BANK: Well, I'm here to tell you, B of A, I officially notify you, Ken Lay (ph), that I'm staging a debtor's revolt right here, right now, and thereby refuse to pay you one more red cent on your 30 percent credit card account. This is called civil disobedience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, in the video, Ann refers to Ken Lay. She actually meant to say Ken Lewis, who's the bank CEO. Well, apparently, Bank of America saw that video, and Ann got a phone call from the vice president.

And guess what? Her rate has gone from 30 percent to a promised 12.9. Way to go, Ann. And by the way, we did call Bank of America, and it says that they did reach a mutually agreeable solution with her.

PHILLIPS: Now, Ann is urging anyone who's got a problem with their bank to launch a video revolt. But if that's a bit too rebellious for you, we brought in our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis. Don't get me wrong, Gerri can be rebellious, but...

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: I love that, are you kidding me? That is so ballsy, you know it?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: And you and I would probably do the same darn thing. But it just gets better. Let's watch this little part from the video where she really goes after the bank, Gerri.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINCH: These are my terms. Unless you return my interest rate and monthly installment amount to what it was before the rate hike, or you make me a too-good-to-turn-down payoff offer, you're not getting another penny out of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Okay now, for those of us who do care about our credit score, Gerri, what should we do?

WILLIS: Well, I find what she's suggesting interesting, and a lot of people are doing this same thing. Some people are asking for loan forgiveness, but that totally creams your credit score.

If you don't want to hurt your credit score, there's several things to do. First of all, think twice about closing accounts. That hurts your score. And remember, these days credit card issuers are looking at your patterns of spending -- we talked about this this week -- not just your credit score.

So, look, if you're buying rounds at the local bar or shopping at the dollar store, this hurts your terms of your credit card. Now, if your credit limit was recently lowered, and you've been a loyal customer, call the issuer and try to reinstate that limit. Having a lower credit limit, though, can hurt your credit score. So, devil's in the details here -- kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, so how much wiggle room is there with credit card policies these days?

WILLIS: Well, you know, Kyra, sometimes it's their way or the highway. Especially with the new laws that will be implemented, credit card issuers are being even more strict about extending credit. You can choose to vote with your feet, however, look for a credit card, if you're going to get a new one, with better terms. And great places to shop, cardratings.com and creditcards.com.

PHILLIPS: All right, and finally, you know, how ... you're still laughing at the video.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: I can't get over this. I know.

PHILLIPS: I know.

WILLIS: I think she's amazing! PHILLIPS: No, it really is brilliant. I mean, here we are being all serious -- OK, what can we really do and how much wiggle room. You know what, just put a video on YouTube and see what happens? It goes from 30 percent down to 12.9.

But OK, but how are issues like rates impacted by the new rules that Congress passed? Because I think it gets confusing for some people.

WILLIS: Well, you know, you would think that the law would fix all of this, and we wouldn't be ranting on the web. But not true. Guess what? even with the law they can raise your rate.

But there are new rules around that. They can't raise rates on existing balances, and they have to give you 45 days' notice before they do it. So, if you get this notice in the mail, you can change issuers if you want to, and that won't apply to your existing balance. So, let's say you've got $10,000 on your credit card, you get a letter saying that your rate's going to go up in 45 days, it won't impact that amount of money that you have already spent.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Gerri.

WILLIS: Devil's in the details.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Meanwhile, do what Ann Minch did.

WILLIS: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Got to love the video. I love that she got results. I think that's terrific.

WILLIS: I know. It's impressive.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Gerri.

WILLIS: My pleasure.

PHILLIPS: All right, pushing forward next hour. Marry into the military, and you're kind of signing up for a tour of duty of your own. Troops, spouses and families facing a fight right here on the home front.

And deciding big thing in your life based on somebody else's? Are data brokers invading your privacy and worse, mixing up your identity? We're going to tell you what to watch for.

OK, Facebook calls it inappropriate content. I call it the understatement of the year. This is what drives me nuts about social networking. Any clown at any time can say anything about anybody.

Case in point, the Secret Service is now tracking down a Facebook poll that asked if President Obama should be killed. That's right, a tally on how many people want to see our president assassinated. What is wrong with people? Facebook removed the, quote, "inappropriate content," but here's my beef. There's a huge online world out there, and sometimes it's a lawless one. How can we possibly keep something like this happening from again? Well, guess what, people, we can't, unless we get some kind of moral compass online and off.

They say they want to save the earth. So, what do they do? Blow stuff up, set things on fire, unleash chaos. Not exactly hugging trees, are they?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, you've heard about them. They've actually been called terrorists, and they've claimed responsibility for dozens of violent attacks since the '90s, blowing up buildings, burning SUVs and a whole lot more. Members of one of the most extreme groups, Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, say that they have one mission, to protect the environment.

CNN's Drew Griffin actually sat down with one former ELF member who got caught and ratted on his comrades. And you'll see it only on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were idealistic and young, all motivated environmentalists, from the Pacific Northwest, hoping to stop development in America's pristine places. But their protests didn't stop anything. So, Jake Ferguson and the group called the Family went radical.

JACOB "JAKE" FERGUSON, FORMER ELF MEMBER: Maybe you do an arson fire, and you burn down a truck. And you're like, well, that wasn't good enough. I want to go from there. So, then you do a building. Then you're doing two buildings, you know. Then you're doing multiple buildings in different states, you know. And it just kept getting more and more and more. You never want to backtrack and do something smaller.

GRIFFIN: It did start small, beginning with a dare to burn down the Detroit, Oregon ranger station. It was 1996.

FERGUSON: I just kind of on a whim spray-painted ELF on the building and on some vehicles at the Detroit ranger station. And I think that was the first time like an ELF action had happened in North America.

GRIFFIN: ELF, Earth Liberation Front, a secretive group. Fear of their attacks grew across seven Western States. Living in warehouses, communicating by code, the six or seven hard-core members of the Family would develop target after target, always bigger, always bolder.

(on camera): Were you surprised at what you were able to pull off?

FERGUSON: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Scary surprised?

FERGUSON: It's a lot scarier when I think about it because, I mean, there were a lot of times where, you know, the incendiary devices that we're transporting could have gone off in the van we were in, you know. Or there were a couple times when we were setting them up that they almost went off right in our faces.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): They were destroying entire car lots of SUVs, building incendiary devices, paranoid they were being watched.

FERGUSON: We, you know, were as safe as possible, not leaving prints. We would wrap up everything in garbage bags. You know, we'd get rid of all our clothes.

GRIFFIN: Living like a fugitive, he planned an attack still regarded as the most spectacular of his movement. In October 1998, Ferguson carried jugs of flammable liquid up Vail ski mountain, part of the Family's biggest and most destructive acts.

FERGUSON: For the movement's sake, Vail was the trophy.

GRIFFIN: Damages exceeding $12 million. But it was also the beginning of the end for the Family itself.

FERGUSON: What broke things up was that we were starting -- they were starting to catch on to us.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The FBI was hunting them and had his van. Ferguson didn't know it, but his friends had used that van in an attack, and police traced it back to him. It was the one break they needed. Ferguson was called in by a FBI and caught in a lie. He was given just two options: Turn on his friends or spend the rest of his life in prison.

FERGUSON: I had to do whatever they wanted, and it wasn't something I felt good about, you know, getting people to confess by wearing a wire.

GRIFFIN: Kirk Engdall was the assistant U.S. attorney at the forefront of the task force, tracking down the ELF.

(on camera): His evidence that he provided tore apart the Family. Correct? Brought it down?

KIRK ENGDALL, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: It certainly was essential. It was absolutely essential in our investigation to find out who the perpetrators were and to approach them, make our arrests, get our indictments. So, you're right. He was essential.

GRIFFIN: At the time, were you considering yourself, "Hey this is a terror cell"?

FERGUSON: I think, pretty much, yes, we considered ourselves being at war, you know, with the government. GRIFFIN (voice-over): Ferguson escaped with just one felony count and five years on parole, and a fresh perspective on the damage he planned.

FERGUSON: There are a minority of people that feel that their views should be imposed on everybody, and it's full of a lot of propaganda, and they feel like they're right and everything's wrong.

GRIFFIN: Still, there's been at least one new ELF attack. Just this month, the ELF took responsibility for toppling two radio towers in Seattle. Ferguson says looking back, he did more harm than good for the environmental movement and calls current attempts to rekindle the ELF terrorism misguided.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, reality check. This was such a secretive group. Why is he speaking out now?

GRIFFIN: Good question. He sees this sudden resurgence with the ELF name. You know, this is more a movement than a terror group. He was part of a terror cell. He says it didn't work, set the environmental movement backwards. And he thinks that anybody out there doing this kind of damage should really rethink how they are affecting his cause, which he still believes in, which is protecting the environment.

PHILLIPS: How did he -- or -- yes, how did he help the FBI?

GRIFFIN: You know, the FBI used him really bad. They...

PHILLIPS: In a bad way.

GRIFFIN: Well, for him. They caught him in a lie. He had really two options, life in prison or turn on his friends. He wound up wearing a wire...

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy.

GRIFFIN: ... taping 88 hours of conversations with what were his friends. And he was able to get 10 convictions. And these people are doing serious, serious time. He's left walking the streets on parole.

PHILLIPS: Wow. It will be interesting to follow up where he goes from here.

GRIFFIN: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Drew, thanks.

GRIFFIN: You bet.