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Chicago Loses Summer Games to Rio; Rescuers Search for People Trapped in Indonesian Earthquake

Aired October 02, 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: Well, "Da Bulls," "Da Bears," "Da Cubs," but not, alas, the Games. As you just heard live from Denmark, the 2016 Summer Olympics are headed for Rio de Janeiro.

All right, we're going to take you -- actually take you to those pictures, once we get them fired up for you. Once again, if you were just watching the end of the hour -- here we go, we've got the live pictures. As you can see, it's quite a Carnivale right now, as the word just came down -- within the last five minutes.

Unfortunately, it's a bit of a different story on the streets of Chicago, despite an impassioned and unprecedented pitch from President Obama for his adopted hometown. Here's a live -- pictures from the Second City, incredibly eliminated in the first round of IOC voting. Boy, what a difference between Chicago and Rio.

Now, before the vote this appeared to be a two-city race, Rio versus Chicago. Our Ali Velshi is in the unfortunate, deflated Windy City. Shasta Darlington is on Copacabana Beach, where there's quite a different scene.

Ali, you know, Chicago is also known for the blues, and I guess right now that kind of goes without saying.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look. This is -- Chicagoans have great spirit, and they'll rally and get their spirit back. But you said it exactly. They -- they thought here that it was going to come down to Chicago or Rio, and they felt Chicago had a very organized bid. And, boy, with that -- with Oprah and the president and the first lady there, making an impassioned plea, they thought that this was really a very real possibility.

But as we just heard this announcement a few minutes ago, that it was Rio, they were expecting here in Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago to be here a few minutes ago and hearing whether or not it was going to be Chicago. I think there were people here who were prepared that it wouldn't have been Chicago. What they weren't prepared for was to hear over an hour ago that Chicago was the first city eliminated, because it got the fewest number of votes.

Now, Daley Plaza was filled. You couldn't walk. There were thousands and thousands of people her, braving some chilly weather to stand out here. I couldn't walk. I was on a pedestal to do the reporting. And then this happened. People looked at each other to say, did that really happen? Did Chicago just get eliminated? It wasn't even the normal response that you'd get out of defeat. This was absolute confusion and confoundment that Chicago didn't get it.

So, at this point there's a lot of talking amongst people about what might have gotten wrong. I just spoke to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He was here a few moments ago, and he said maybe the International Olympic Committee decided it's not about going to a city that is Olympic ready, but it's about what the Olympics can bring to a city and how it can change a city or a country. That was his conjecture on it.

But lots of talking and thinking about what went wrong. And I guess a lot of people wondering whether they should go back to their offices, because they'd probably planned to be here to hear that Chicago got the Olympics and then perhaps spend the rest of the afternoon and evening celebrating -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, and you know, Ali, I guess this does, in many ways, shapes and form, it brings Chicago into the international spotlight. I mean, there's got to be a positive side to this. There's got to be some sort of benefit...

VELSHI: Sure.

PHILLIPS: ... maybe with regard to international trade. I mean, it was a big contender.

VELSHI: Obviously. It really is. I mean, Chicago doesn't go down in humiliation. You know, when New York's bid failed for the Olympics, there was real talk about the fact that New York just didn't have a very organized bid. And things were going wrong.

This was a solid, solid bid which was meant to paint Chicago as the city it's really become. Chicago is a fantastic city. It's one of the few cities that appreciates its waterways. Its lake is accessible. The river is beautiful. The architecture is great. The entertainment is first rate. The sports is world class.

And Chicago will go on to continue to be that city and maybe get the attention of a lot of people who typically fly to L.A. or New York from other countries. Maybe Chicago will get more of that. This is a world-class city, and a lot of people walk away from today with a lot of pride that the world-class city put forward a strong, strong bid. And you know what? Someone's got to lose. In this case three cities had to lose. Chicago's one of them.

PHILLIPS: Yes, big bummer, especially for all of us here in the United States, that we're really rooting for one of our own. Ali Velshi, thanks so much.

I'll tell you somebody else who's pretty disappointed. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who's actually in Copenhagen with the Chicago delegation. He's joining me on the phone now.

Governor, it must have been tough to hear those words that Chicago just wasn't going to get it.

GOV. PAT QUINN (D), ILLINOIS (via phone): Yes, it's disappointing, but we don't quit on anything. We just keep on moving forward. We really put together a great group of people, a lot of volunteers who worked on the Olympic bid. And that team work, that's going to help us in a lot of other ways.

And we know Chicago's a great city. And we wish we could have had the Olympics, but we certainly congratulate Rio de Janeiro. The Olympics will be in South America for the first time ever in 2016. We want to make it a great Olympics.

And the people of Chicago, we are strong. The people of Illinois are strong. And we will -- this, too, will pass. We'll keep on moving forward.

PHILLIPS: You know, David Axelrod came on the air, President Obama's chief adviser, and said, "Look, you know," he sort of downplayed it. It appeared that he downplayed it a bit, Governor, and said, "You know, I don't know. We can't overcome the internal currents."

You were there inside all of this. Can you tell us, did you get a sense for why it went this way? Did you feel the internal current? Is there some sort of tension when it comes to the United States?

QUINN: Well, I want to say one thing. President Obama did an outstanding job today as well as first lady Michelle Obama. They just made a wonderful presentation on behalf of Chicago and Illinois and the USA.

But the bottom line is, I think Rio de Janeiro was the sentimental favorite. Never have the Olympics been held in South America. And this is their opportunity to do it. And we congratulate them. You know, it wasn't to be for Chicago this time around.

But we have a wonderful network of people that we've put together over the last three-and-a-half years, led by our mayor, Mayor Richard Daley, America's mayor. He's just a leader, and we are going to work on all the things about sustainability and greening our city and our state; water conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy. We wanted to have the greenest Olympics ever, and we may have that someday, but it just won't be in 2016.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's have a reality check here. A hundred million dollars was spent to get ready to make this pitch. That money's got to come from somewhere. This could cause a tremendous problem for the city of Chicago when it comes to debt. Already there's a lot of economic hardships taking place, the violence there in that city has been on the rise. It's been in our headlines, covering the death of Derrion Albert, that horrible beating that was caught on videotape.

What's going to happen now with regard to making up for that $100 million? And also tackling the economic and violent issues taking place in Chicago?

QUINN: No. 1, the money that was raised for the Olympic bid was all privately raised. It wasn't public money. It was volunteers giving of their own funds, because they believed in the cause, and that's a healthy thing.

And one of the things we found is that just the process of the Olympic bid has helped Chicago become better known around the world. And that's one of our goals, to be an international city that's a destination from people all over planet earth.

Everybody knows in every city there are serious problems with violence, and we have to deal with them, and the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois. But that's something that we work on every day. And horrific situations, we really want to make sure, do not continue.

And as governor of Illinois, the land of Lincoln, we believe that every person counts, and everybody's in and nobody's left out.

PHILLIPS: Well, even though the Olympics will not be there in Chicago, we just sure hope that the attention stays on Chicago and the struggles that are taking place there right now, especially in light, as I mentioned, Governor, of the story that we've been covering for the past couple of weeks.

Governor Pat Quinn joining us on the phone from Copenhagen. There with the Chicago delegation. Huge blow to the city of Chicago.

Governor, thanks for joining us.

Now we want to take you to those live pictures, quite a different scene where people are celebrating, and that is in Rio de Janeiro.

Shasta Darlington on Copacabana Beach. She's going to join us in just a sec.

Now, take the champagne out of the ice bucket in Chicago, save it for another time. Can't help but wonder: did the city's recent wave of brutal and often deadly violence like we've talked about there with the governor by and against teens actually work against it?

Let's talk more about that with William Rathburn. He was the security director for the '96 Atlanta Olympics. He was also police chief in Dallas. He is now a consultant. He's actually worked with 11 different Olympic games.

You know, Bill, we were talking yesterday about the violence plaguing that city. You were really hoping that the Olympics would come there on so many levels, for the financial support; also so there would be more focus on crime and security. This is a tough time, no doubt, for Chicago right now as they get this news. What's your take from a security perspective?

WILLIAM RATHBURN, SECURITY CONSULTANT (via phone): Well, I'm disappointed for Chicago, and I'm disappointed as an American that Chicago failed in its bid, but I hope that the emphasis that the city has placed on the security in their bid for the Olympics will carry over into improved security and the reduction in the number of people killed in violent crime in Chicago.

PHILLIPS: So, do you think that played a part in this, Bill, the violence that's been taking place in this city? The fact that Chicago has been in the headlines for the past couple of weeks, in particular with this videotape, this beating of Derrion Albert, the 16-year-old that was killed right there on the streets?

RATHBURN: Certainly, that did not help, and it got a lot of play in the media around the world. But I think the crime situation in Rio is far worse than it is in Chicago. So, I don't think crime or the threat of crime was a -- was a factor, a significant factor, at all. Otherwise, they would have probably awarded the games to Tokyo.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, then let's push forward on that, then. Let's talk about Rio de Janeiro, as we're looking at these live pictures from the country that will now host the Olympics seven years from now.

You know, you have been in charge of security for the Olympics. They've got seven years. You've talked about the high crime rate. We've talked about the poverty level in Brazil. Where do you even begin, now that you've got the news that the Olympics will be right there in Rio? How do you start dealing with the issue of security? Does it start tomorrow?

RATHBURN: ... start tomorrow. There's not a lot of time before the 2016 games, although it may seem to some that there's a lot of time. There's not. And Brazil is a developing country. The infrastructure, the basic law enforcement infrastructure, is going to not be anything comparable to what we have in the United States. And so they're going to have to basically start from scratch and build the infrastructure so they can then start improving security and able to provide security during the operational period of the games.

PHILLIPS: Can you do that by 2016?

RATHBURN: Well, yes. If you throw enough money at it, you can. I think Greece proved that before the Athens games. You know, they were another developing country that hosted the games and hosted them successfully. It can be done. It takes an enormous investment.

So, the cost of the games is somewhat distorted, because there's a lot of money expended just on building infrastructure that should have been in place before the games.

PHILLIPS: William Rathburn, you let us know if you get called in to get involved with the security there in Rio. We'd love to talk to you about how you're going to put that plan forward, if indeed you are called in.

RATHBURN: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it, Bill.

CNN international sports anchor Pedro Pinto is in Copenhagen, as well, where the great news and the big letdowns came down.

Pedro, you know, you've got three parts disappointment and one part euphoria out there. Tell us: how was the decision made? How did this all unfold?

PEDRO PINTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, there were three rounds of voting in all. The process would have ended earlier if one of the four bid cities would have won a majority right away. That didn't happen. You've been talking about the fact of Chicago being eliminated in the first round. That was a shock. Everyone here in the media center, I can tell you, their jaws dropped to the ground. No one could believe it.

So, Chicago was out in the first round. The second round was then undertaken. Tokyo was knocked out. That left Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. Every IOC member could vote, except the ones representing those two cities, of course. And in the end we don't have the vote numbers, but the majority finally went to Rio de Janeiro.

So, this was a process that started at about 8:30 a.m. local time, with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama leading the Chicago final presentation. It was the first one of the day. After all the presentations were done, the voting started.

And finally the long wait, Kyra, is over. We've got a 2016 Olympic venue. It's going to South America for the first time ever.

PHILLIPS: Pedro Pinto, live from Copenhagen. Pedro, thanks.

And the 2009 Obamas couldn't bring home the 2016 Olympics. The president took a special strip to Copenhagen for Pete's sake, and you think maybe his opponents will take this loss and run with it? I doubt Oprah's opponents care that much.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: There you go. The thrill of victory. People in Rio, the just-named host city of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Now to Rio, where the games of 2016 will be a first for the South American continent. Shasta Darlington is there and actually had to get on the phone with us via her live location, because it's so darn loud on the beach.

Shasta, hopefully you can hear me and you can give us a sense for basically the Carnivale part two that's taking place right now.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): For the time being, at least, I can hear you. As you can imagine, the crowds here absolutely exploded when the announcement was made.

There are hundreds of people along the beach here, the Copacabana Beach, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. The city actually declared this a public holiday, and people have been streaming down here all day.

And right before the announcement was made, there was silence. People started holding their breath, and then Rio de Janeiro, they exploded with -- with throwing things in the air, shouting. And I expect this party to go on for quite a while.

This has really been part of their bid, the whole idea that Brazilians are passionate about hosting these games. It is not the first time that Rio de Janeiro has tried to host the games, but this will be the first time that it got it and the first time that a South American city has won. So, it's absolute euphoria here.

Overlooking at least for this day the challenges that lay ahead, that include an enormous budget. They've really promised to put out a lot of money and build a lot of infrastructure. And on top of that, they've got to get some big security problem under control. There's a lot of crime here, especially the slums that have developed. About 1 million people looking in those villages and they've got to get them under control before 2016.

But today, this is all about partying. This is all about -- the president repeatedly said, "Our time has finally come."

PHILLIPS: That's our Shasta Darlington. You could probably barely hear her, but she's right there in the middle of that crowd that's celebrating the fact that they got the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

It's calmed down a little bit now since they first got the word, but, hey, that's not going to stop the party as it flows into the weekend. But as you heard our Shasta, they may be pretty excited about getting the games, but at the same time they have got a huge crime rate, a very high poverty level, in addition to security. That is going to be one of the main issues to tackle in Rio from now until the point of those games and when they begin.

Now, "yes, we can," unless you're campaigning for the International Olympic Committee. In that case, no, you can't. Big bummer. President Obama spent a bundle of Chicago's Olympic bid, a bundle of political capital, flying a bundle of miles to Copenhagen, and the first lady went do. Kind of a political gamble. You've got to wonder if Chicago's loss is his loss, too.

Well, the president's senior adviser weighs in, kind of downplaying it a little bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR ADVISOR TO OBAMA: I don't view this as a repudiation of the president or the first lady. I think that there are politics everywhere, and there are politics inside that room.

You had the city of Madrid, the state -- their bid being essentially led by a former president of the IOC, who had long- standing relationships with many members in that room.

Rio obviously, had had a strong bid from the beginning. We knew that. So, you know, there are a lot of factors that go into this.

So, I think that the president, and everybody in the room, I think, will acknowledge, the president made a very strong appeal. The first lady made a very strong appeal. It wasn't strong enough to overcome some of the internal currents there, but it was worth the effort. And he would do it again if he had the opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, joins us now, live from Copenhagen.

Ed, what does David Axelrod mean by "internal currents"?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's some suggestions, perhaps, here on the ground, I can tell you, that maybe Madrid got a push early on that helped knock Chicago out. Because we've just gotten new information, which is the vote numbers, for the first time, in the last couple of moments have been released.

It turns out in the first round Rio did not win. Madrid won the first round. They had 28 votes. Rio had 26, Tokyo, 22. Chicago only had 18 votes. That's why they were knocked out. They had the lowest vote total.

But, then, watch what happens in the second round. Rio shot up to 46. Madrid only went from 28 to 29. They only picked up one more vote in the second round. Tokyo had 20. They were, then, knocked out.

Then in the final round, Rio had 66 votes. Madrid only 32. So, they, again, only climbed a couple of votes in that process.

So, maybe something was going on there with Madrid that knocked Chicago out early on and cleared the way for Rio ultimately to win. Because many of the votes ended up going towards Rio in the end, obviously, a big victory, far more -- for example, London a few years ago beat out Paris by just four votes. This turned out to be a landslide for Rio.

I think in fairness to the president, David Axelrod is right, that no president, Democrat or Republican, is going to come to an institution like the IOC and bend it to its will, and just say, "Look, do this for my adopted hometown."

Nevertheless, if the president came home with a victory, David Axelrod would be leading the parade right now. And obviously, he can't do that. This is a blow to the president -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Axelrod talked about the president's pitch. You've mentioned President Obama and Michelle Obama, the first lady, her pitch. Let's go ahead and take a little bit -- let's take a little look at a little bit of each one of those and let's look at that. HENRY: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a city that works. From its first World's Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the '90s, we know how to put on big events.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: Today I can dream. And I am dreaming of an Olympic and Paralympic Games in Chicago that will light up lives and neighborhoods all across America and all across the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Is it fair to ask the question, where did they go wrong?

HENRY: Well, you're -- absolutely it's fair to ask it. And, you know, I think that the first lady's speech was very emotional, very personal, about growing up in Chicago, talking about her late father and his love of the Olympics and athletics. But maybe some of these IOC members wanted to hear more of the nuts and bolts of how Chicago was going to actually pull it off.

We haven't heard from those members yet. They've been locked behind closed doors. We'll find that out in the hours and days ahead.

But I think the broader question, as well, is, the first lady in her remarks mentioned the words "hope" and "change," as well, and then introduced her husband. And he was the final speaker. That worked in 2008, here, you know, back home in the United States, in the electorate.

But here, maybe it just didn't sell. And I think that naturally people are going to be wondering. The president talked a lot last year about improving America's image around the world, that suddenly he being elected, that maybe some things would change, not just in the United States, but around the world. We're starting to see, maybe there are limits to exactly how much clout he has on the international stage, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ed Henry, live from Copenhagen. Ed, thanks.

Well, there's the agony of defeat. The home page of "The Chicago Tribune's" Web site after Chicago lost the games in the first round of IOC voting. Well, these pictures are worth more than 1,000 words.

And is anyone trapped under all that rubble? The answer might prove horrifying. Hundreds of people dead, thousands more missing, and the body count is climbing.

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PHILLIPS: A late-night stunner. CBS News producer, Robert "Joe" Halderman, now charged with attempted grand larceny. Why? Because he allegedly tried to extort 2 million bucks from David letterman. Letterman admitted on his show last night that he had had sex with members of his staff, and he also revealed to the grand jury looking into the extortion case.

A pep talk from Vice President Joe Biden. He notes last month's jump in the jobless rate, but he says it doesn't shake his confidence that we're going to recover from the slump. September's rate climbed to 9.8 percent, with 263,000 jobs cut.

It's called a proof-of-life video. An Israeli soldier held captive for more than three years shown with a recent newspaper. Gilad Shalit says that he's being treated well. He was kidnapped by the militant group Hamas. Israel released 19 Palestinian women prisoners in exchange for that tape.

Shattering scenes in Indonesia. Search crews pull more bodies from the rubble of this week two big earthquakes, and the search goes on. The death toll, now at least 1,100, could climb into the thousands.

CNN's Dan Rivers is in the heart of the quake zone right there in the city of Padang.

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DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here at the Amachang (ph) Hotel in central Padang where a frantic search-and-rescue operation is now underway. A team from Switzerland is here with sniffer dogs, and they're going through the massive rubble up behind me.

Now, what they've heard is that there is a group of up to eight people who are trapped inside who have been sending text messages to their families, saying they're in there and that they can't get out.

We've been hearing from one survivor who got out just after the earthquake, a couple of hours afterwards, and he was saying basically inside there is a sort of labyrinth of passageways and dead-ends. It's very dark and suffocating. He spent two hours crawling around in the dark, really unable to breathe, trying to find a way out, and finally got his way out.

And the fear is, obviously, that there are more people who are going through this right now. They've had big, heavy-lifting equipment and bulldozers in, trying to clear a path to the back of the hotel. And at the moment they're going in there, as you can see, with torches and sniffer dogs to try and find out if there are any more survivors here.

Dan Rivers, CNN, Padang, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And a view from the air, hell on earth. Incredible scenes of that that destruction as Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga cope with a huge natural disaster. The death toll from Tuesday's Tsunami has now climbed to at least 168. The Samoan government plans a mass burial for the victims there next week. The U.S., Australia and New Zealand are rushing in aid.

Snitches get stitches. That's the code of the streets. And innocent young people get killed. What will it take to make witnesses to brutal crimes bear witness?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, Chicago's Olympic torch dreams have flickered out, but President Obama's big push did shed light on the kid-on-kid violence now raging in pockets of his adopted hometown. Chilling cell phone video of 16-year-old Derrion Albert being beaten to death by other teens has the White House on the move. The president is dispatching two of his top men to Chicago to confront school violence. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will make that trip Wednesday.

Swarms of kids on that tape, some armed with railroad ties, others brawling and some just running away. All those witnesses, but no calls to a police tip line. What's going on?

CNN's Joe Johns shows us why it's so hard to crack the code of silence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would seem obvious, right? If you saw this happen, if you were a witness to this murderous beating of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, you'd call the police and tell them what you saw and the names of the guys who did it. Four teens identified from the video have been arrested, and three others are being sought.

But to this moment, cops tell us, no one has called. No kids, no parents. Why? Call it a code of silence urban schoolchildren learn early, especially in tougher neighborhoods: Mind your own business. And that means don't talk to the police.

(on camera): The death of Derrion Albert brought an outpouring of sympathy here. It also brought quite a police presence. Take a look. One, two, three, four police vehicles near the community center where Derrion was beaten. But the question really right now is not about police (INAUDIBLE), who may have seen something or heard something aren't coming forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't want to get jumped.

JOHNS: What do you mean they don't want to get jumped?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they snitch, get beat up.

JOHNS (voice-over): And yet, it is clear. A message that it's OK not to get involved may send kids a message that crazy senseless violence is OK, and it's not.

REV. MICHAEL PFLEGER, ST. SABINA'S PARISH, CHICAGO: We have got to get to the hearts of our children, because nothing -- nothing -- excuses or justifies the actions of an individual who would beat another individual. Nothing justifies that in this society.

JOHNS (on camera): So, why is it that people don't want to talk to the police?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because some call it snitching. Snitching. Don't snitch. It's not your business, OK? So...

JOHNS: Is that something somebody told you, or is that something you tell people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's the way of the streets. You snitch -- the snitches get stitches. Put it like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As my momma said, she said that the kids should be burying their parents, but the parents are now burying the kids.

JOHNS: Whatever reasons high school students on the street may give, experts say one of the main things driving this behavior is fear, fear of what could happen if you talk to the police. It's not just a Chicago phenomenon. It happens all over the country, and it undermines the criminal justice system.

What people here in Chicago and other cities are trying to figure out is, what do you do about it?

(voice-over): "Keeping Them Honest," one problem is that the heavy police presence that's supposed to provide a sense of security is often viewed in big-city neighborhoods as very temporary. Once the TV cameras leave, it's back to business as usual.

MIKE MOSEBERRY, RESIDENT: They know that this police presence is not going to last. It's not going to last. A couple of week or two, it's not going to last. And these kids going to be out here by theirselves, and then another kid get killed.

JOHNS: Of course, it's complicated, but if people don't feel safe and will not go to authorities, then experts say intervention is needed even before violence erupts.

TIO HARDIMAN, CEASEFIRE: If people are not willing to break the code, they should be willing to step up and stop it on the front end, then. That's it right there.

Derrion, somebody in the crowd should have said, you know what, I'm not going to tell on nobody, but I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to stop all this mess from happening.

JOHNS: And finally, we checked again. So far, police say, no one's come forward to report what they saw outside the community center.

Joe Johns, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: And if you watched David Letterman last night, your jaw's probably still on the floor. He confessed to sex with staffers and revealed an alleged $2 million extortion plot against him. The accused blackmailer, Robert Joe Halderman, an Emmy Award-winning producer for CBS and "48 Hours," Letterman's own network.

CNN's Susan Candiotti live in New York. Susan, what do we know about Halderman?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that he worked for CBS News for more than 20 years and has won an Emmy for his work. He's going to be arraigned at about 2:15 this afternoon, Eastern time here in New York City. Prosecutors are charging him with attempted larceny. That's an easy way or a more difficult legalese way of saying that he tried to blackmail David Letterman, tried to extort money from him, $2 million to be exact.

Here's what the prosecutors told us this morning, that Halderman delivered a letter to David Letterman on September the 9th outside his Manhattan home at 6:00 in the morning. Letterman said that he found a package in his car on that very day. In this package was a letter and what they called a one-page screenplay treatment.

Letterman went to his lawyer. The lawyer contacted this man by the name of Halderman, and prosecutors say that David Letterman's attorney had three meetings with Halderman. Two of the three were recorded on audiotape. Letterman's lawyer went to the prosecutors, and they set up a sting for this man. And then just last Wednesday, that's when the whole thing went down and a check was paid. Here's what the D.A. had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MORGENTHAU, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The check for $2 million was delivered to Halderman on -- at that Wednesday, September 30, meeting. And he deposited the check the next morning in his bank in Connecticut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And that is when the arrest went down. That, prosecutors say, gave them the evidence they needed to put the cuffs on Mr. Halderman. He was arrested outside CBS studios yesterday when he walked out of a building. We are told by a source that he walked out of the building with a female employee. He was asked to identify himself, and then the prosecutors took him away in a waiting vehicle.

Halderman is now suspended from CBS News while this investigate continues, and we'll hear more. Bail will be set and asked for. Whether he will be able to make it, of course, is another matter -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Susan Candiotti. We'll continue to follow the case.

And a show of strength and security. The Chinese government's big day was kind of a big hassle for our own CNN Beijing crew, right along with them in today's backstory. Michael Holmes on his way up.

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PHILLIPS: Get a flu vaccine, get a mask or get fired? Thousands of Washington state nurses say they won't make that choice, so their union is suing the Multicare Hospital Group, asking a judge to nix the new rule. Multicare insists it's a matter of safety. Nurses must get seasonal and swine flu vaccines or wear a surgical mask. But the union says the government should make those rules, not the hospitals.

Top stories now. The stench of death spreading across quake- ravaged Indonesia. Rescuers digging through the ruins by hand, looking for survivors. Two quakes in as many days rocked the island nation. Thousands remain missing. At least 1,100 are dead.

President Obama and his top military commander in Afghanistan talking strategy this morning aboard Air Force One. General Stanley McChrystal wants more troops. President Obama wants more time to decide. The meeting, we're told, lasted about 25 minutes.

Rio de Janeiro reveals (sic) after the IOC chooses it to host the 2016 Olympic games. Brazil's second-largest city beat out Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago. It will mark the first time the world games are held in South America.

An easy drive in, but it all went downhill from there. Food and water confiscated. Every move restricted, and some very thorough security searches. Covering a big celebration proves no party for our crew. Today's backstory made in China.

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PHILLIPS: Pushing forward to the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, depending on who you ask, al Qaeda's on the run or running the show in Afghanistan. What's the story? And are more U.S. troops going to end up shipping out?

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PHILLIPS: Rio de Janiero won the 2016 Olympic games today, so it's appropriate that our backstory comes from Beijing. The Chinese capital is recovering from its biggest party since hosting last year's games. Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, and like I said, it was a pretty big party, and our own crew is hung over.

It's the focus of our "Backstory." You know, our Michael Holmes knows what it's like to be hung over.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "BACKSTORY": Oh, yes.

PHILLIPS: Not on assignment.

HOLMES: Not since 1973, yes.

PHILLIPS: (INAUDIBLE) you were a young chap. HOLMES: Yes, I know. I'm very old.

No, this was fun actually, because the guys had to go out from our Beijing bureau, John Vause, you know, Vause, and Wyn Chung (ph), the cameraman, the second-tallest Chinese man I've ever seen.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: He's like 6-6 or something. And they went out and covered the huge parade that went on there. But, you know, as with anything in China, you know, it's a complicated thing to get anything done. And so, I think Vause got out of bed at -- probably got to bed at 2:30 in the morning and had to get up at 3:00 to go and cover this thing. It was crazy.

PHILLIPS: So, it was quite a midnight ride.

HOLMES: It was. But it was a good ride, and I'll explain that in this "Backstory," actually, why getting up early actually had its benefit. Have a look yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is cool. I love driving like this. They should always shut the city down for us.

Does it look like it's in focus?

Now it's good. Now it's good.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So it's just after 3:00 in the morning. The parade doesn't start for about seven hours, but we need to get to Tiananmen Square very early for security checks. We've already been through a couple of checkpoints already. The city has been pretty much locked down. There's an incredibly high-security presence everywhere. No one else, it seems, is out, apart from soldiers and police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got to get this shot.

It's amazing. I have never seen the city like this, this is crazy.

VAUSE: Good morning, good morning, lovely to see you. Good morning. It's lovely to be here. Good morning, good morning.

No food. No food or water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No water. That's what he just said.

VAUSE: Save me a seat. Thanks.

Twenty past four. I think we've gone through the last security checks. They went through us very thoroughly, searched all the equipment, took away all the food and water that we brought with us. And so now, we have just got to get to the square and set up and then wait. There's a lot of waiting. A lot of waiting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're in my shot, mate.

VAUSE: Sorry.

OK, the sun is just rising over Tiananmen Square right now, and there's a few thousand people in the square itself on the actual plaza, and all the media crews are now starting to arrive. We've been here for a couple of hours. We got in first. There's not a lot of space to operate here. We're all sort of sardine-canned in here. It's been like doing the Academy Awards, actually.

Just passing a crew from Japan crew here. This is TBS. Everyone's very, very close together, so we're going to have to make friends with the people next to us. These guys are from Hong Kong on the left here. On the right here is Australian, ABC, and this is our area here. There's not a lot of space to work. We're going to be here for the next couple of hours. And this will be our position.

So, we're right actually -- got some prime real estate right here, just on the parade route, so we should actually have a very good view of the military parade. It should come from that direction past us, heading that way. The senior Communist Party officials will be up there on the Gates of Heavenly Peace, just above the portrait of Mao, if you can see that.

And President Hu Jintao will be up there. He'll also come down at the beginning of the parade and review all the troops. And now, it's just a matter of waiting just a little bit more.

The military part of the parade is now over. This is the civilian component. This represents industry. Earlier we had the agricultural float. Coming just over here is now the transportation display as well. Further down, is also the space float. That's just weird.

And right here, there's a film cameras. They've got four or five of these guys running around. They're obviously shooting this on film to be kept for posterity to be locked away for historical records.

So, now it's time to get out of here. We're just passing by the Great Hall of the People just over here, and Tiananmen Square just there on our left. About 300,000 people took part in this parade in some form or another. They're all scrambling for their buses. All the media who were here covering this as well are trying to get to theirs as well.

This seems to be the only part of the day that wasn't meticulously rehearsed for months on end. It's all a bit chaotic right now. But so much for National Day 2009.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Is it just me, or did he seem very bored?

HOLMES: He did seem a little bored, didn't he? And you know Vause. He needs a bit of mental stimulation.

PHILLIPS: He needs a little excitement.

HOLMES: He's getting on the bus, he's like, oh.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: It's going to be a long day.

HOLMES: Well, it was, too. I mean, they were like, I think it was ten hours by the end of it, you know, just to do a little two- minute story. But you know, it's an idea of what the guys go through to get this. And I've yet to find out -- I actually e-mailed him earlier, and he's probably in bed -- about why they took the food off them.

PHILLIPS: Well, that's -- the food and the water.

HOLMES: Yes, yes, yes.

PHILLIPS: I thought that was bizarre.

HOLMES: Yes. Well, you know, maybe they thought Vause was putting on a bit too much weight, and they were looking out for his diet.

PHILLIPS: They wanted to put him on a diet?

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Yes.

PHILLIPS: But that's a real reality check of what you have to go through trying to be a journalist in communist China.

HOLMES: Yes, especially with the, yes, with the security going through there. It takes ages, apparently, to get through. Went through every little thing.

You ever had that happen when you're going through an airport, and they want to go through everything, from the little clips of the microphones (INAUDIBLE)?

PHILLIPS: Yes, Baghdad.

HOLMES: Baghdad, it happens.

PHILLIPS: I'll never forget that. You've got to give yourself a few hours, as you well know.

HOLMES: Oh, hours, hours, yes. I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

But anyway, Vause's alive and well and complaining. So, everything's normal.

PHILLIPS: So he's in good position.

HOLMES: He's in good shape.

PHILLIPS: All right, so, now, let's go ahead and plug online and...

HOLMES: Oh, yes, yes, yes.

PHILLIPS: ... can you give us an idea about maybe what we might have next Friday?

HOLMES: You know, we've already had a couple of really good ones come in. We've got a beauty from Arwa Damon. Did you -- oh, Mark Phillips (ph), the cameraman. Did you see that?

PHILLIPS: Oh, in the tsunami when he was talking to the guy that was trapped behind the...

HOLMES: Five hours he was with that guy, by the way.

PHILLIPS: That was chilling.

HOLMES: We did a debrief with him, and got into more the emotional side of it from Mark's point of view of having to deal with it. But he thought he was going to die. Well, he caught up with him today. The guy got out, and he's alive. And they caught up with him at the hospital.

PHILLIPS: Oh, bring us that next week.

HOLMES: That's another (INAUDIBLE) "Backstory." We'll bring that next week, because the interview with Mark (ph) was great. And it's mainly just an interview. But as you get to know this guy, Mark Phillips (ph), a great cameraman, producer, Australian of course.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: And Phillips is just amazing how he recounts what he went through, and how he had to basically not tell the guy the truth about the desperation of the situation. And like the guy asked about one of his friends who was in the building with him. And Mark had to say, yes, they're still trying to work, get him out, whereas the guys who were there said no, he's dead. Just a really, really good interview. We'll do that next week.

PHILLIPS: Sounds good. Michael Holmes, you can catch him on CNNi when you're overseas...

HOLMES: CNN.com.

PHILLIPS: ... but you can -- cnn.com of course now, and then with us every Friday. Great to see you, Michael.

HOLMES: Good to see you, too.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

HOLMES: Will you start showing up on Fridays? PHILLIPS: OK, I'll try. I did today.

All right, we are moving through the next hour here on the CNN NEWSROOM.