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9/11 Suspects Trial; NASA's Successful Mission; A "CNN Hero" Opened an Orphanage for East Timor Refugees; Mathias Shapiro Uses Video to Explain the Economy; Ashes of Korean War Vet Stolen Before Funeral

Aired November 14, 2009 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight here on CNN, only on CNN, possible new homes for Guantanamo Bay detainees. Guess where? The president's home state. We talked to the reporter who is out in front on this developing story tonight.

Those killed in a massacre inside military wall of Fort Hood are being laid to rest tonight. We take you there.

Mitt Romney back in the spotlight and taking aim right at the man whose job he wanted, President Obama. What's he saying now?

One woman's calling halfway around the world to change lives two feet at a time.

And he served his country in honor, but before his family could lay him to rest, a thief stole his remains. Family members talk to us live this hour.

Good evening everyone, I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

We start tonight with a developing story. It's coming right on the heels of the president's decision to bring five 9/11 suspects to New York City for trial. Practically in the shadow of ground zero. It's an enormous high stakes gamble.

Right now, the men are all being held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but when they do come to the U.S. a nearly empty maximum security prison in Thompson, Illinois, and others could become their new home. We're learning that tonight from our own reporting and also from Lynn Sweet who broke this story earlier. She's been on top of this story since the beginning. She's from the Chicago Sun Times and also politicsdaily.com. She joins us from Washington.

Lynn, the president's home state as a new Gitmo? What's going on?

LYNN SWEET, "CHICAGO SUN TIMES": Well, the governor of Illinois has an empty prison in northwestern part of the state and he talked to Obama about it when he was at the White House on November 4th. The mayor of this town is crying for help. The state built this prison and they expected to have a lot of jobs and they don't have it there.

So a lot of leaders in Illinois are open to it. The White House is interested in it. They have a task force that's been in existence looking at different facilities throughout the nation, either military brigs or state and local facilities to see where these detainees may be housed if they come here. There's been, besides its location in Illinois, there's been checking out places in South Carolina and near Standish, Michigan.

But, Don, this is quickly becoming part of the big political debate in Illinois because there's a big primary coming up and already today people who are running for big office, governor, senator, are coming out with statements that they have reservations about it.

LEMON: And, Lynn, it's not just even in Illinois. People around the country have reservations by the Guantanamo Bay detainees being placed into facilities within the United States. It's a big issue because it's the president's home state and the president is out of the country right now on an important week-long trip to Asia, but the controversial decision to bring the 9/11 suspects to New York has almost completely overshadowed his trip and now this, Lynn.

SWEET: Well, it's coming to a head. The administration promised to close Guantanamo a year after he was inaugurated. Even, Eric Holder, the attorney general, said yesterday when he was talking about having the five 9/11 terror suspects stand trial in New York, he said they will never make this January 22nd deadline.

I think what you have here though is a microcosm of what's going to be happening. You have a lot of different views on bringing back these detainees. The Congress did pass a law about if they come, no one will ever be released domestically no matter what. There's a lot of education, I think everybody will have about what the proposals really are, but I could tell you already it's going to be caught in some of the partisan cross fire.

LEMON: Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times, thank you so much. We'll watching this developing story and report it to you throughout the evening. And depending on what happens with this story and the outcome of the trial, bringing the suspects to New York will be judged as either one of the bravest or stupidest moves of the young president. Already people are lining up on both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not understand why a war criminal should be able to have the same rights as a common criminal. I think the American people will be very unhappy about this decision. They should be, and they should reverse this decision and they should be tried in military tribunals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The justice department looked into this and they concluded there were some big benefits to being in New York. The bay mayor of New York i actually quite pleased about it. The people who suffered are New Yorkers. I'm a New Yorker. Eric holder is a New Yorker. This may turn out to be an opportunity for some people to get some of the justice they've been looking for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: And for families of the 9/11 victims, news of the suspects will be coming to New York city has reawakened a lot of raw emotions. Susan Candiotti has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight years of waiting is eight years too long for retired firefighter Jim Riches. He wants the alleged 9/11 conspirators tried in New York. The attack killed his son, a fellow firefighter.

JIM RICHES, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: I just want to get this moving, you know justice delayed is justice denied.

CANDIOTTI: Riches is one of a handful of civilians who got a close-up look at suspected terrorist, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and others in a Guantanamo courtroom last January. That's when KSM told a military judge he was the mastermind of 9/11. We don't care about capital punishment or a life sentence, he said. We are doing Jihad for the cause of God.

RICHES: They call for Jihad against America. They were proud of what they did, and here I am sitting there, the man who murdered my son is standing there saying he's proud that he killed my son.

CANDIOTTI: But another relative who met us at the World Trade Center site says bringing the terror suspects back to the scene of the crime will bring unbearable pain. He lost his son in the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To bring it back here for me, my feelings, it's tasteless, it's insensitive, and those scars which have never been healed are just going to be opened again. So, I am not comfortable one with this call.

CANDIOTTI: Kristen Breitweiser who helped push for the independent 9/11 commission says New York is ready. She plans to attend the trial as often as she can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think New Yorkers are certainly more than capable of handling it, and I think again it speaks to the very heart of who we are, not only as New Yorkers, but as American citizens. You know, if a crime is committed on our soil, you are going to be given a trial. You will be given access to an attorney. You will be innocent until proven guilty.

CANDIOTTI: Some worry about massive security needs with worldwide focus on five accused terrorists a few blocks from ground zero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are certainly prepared for any eventuality. We handle a lot of high profile events here. We had the blind sheikh's trial here. Other high profile trials and events. That's what we do. So I think we're in excellent shape to handle it.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMOM: Susan Candiotti joins us tonight from New York. Susan, this isn't the first time that New York city has had to deal with this.

Do they know what they're getting into it?

CANDIOTTI: I'm sure that the police commissioner does and certainly Mayor Bloomberg does as well. Yes, you have heard Commissioner Kelly talk about other trials they have had here before, for example, the first World Trade Center bombing, and security is going to be extremely tight here. You will never get to see the prisoners. They're going to be in lockups either right in the courthouse in the basement or close by. They won't be outdoors, and if there should be any protesters, believe me, Don, they will be kept at a great distance.

LEMON: In these cases usually the defense will ask for a change of venue. What about the possibilities there?

CANDIOTTI: Well, you can bet that that will happen. The question is will they get it because this is the kind of case that everybody knows about all over the United States. So it will come down to how those jurors will be questioned to see whether, and they will be asked this, can you set aside your opinion and try to listen to the evidence with an open mind, and that generally works. It may take a while to get a jury, but it works.

LEMON: You know what, Susan, you were at Guantanamo Bay last January, right, with families of the victims when Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said he was the mastermind of the attacks. Talk to us about that.

CANDIOTTI: Well, the families you can imagine their reaction, very angry. You heard Jim Riches talk about that, and to the person those families are equally divided. Some of them think the trial should be here in the United States in New York, and others think that the military tribunals and the commission should go on as planned and they're not happy about it. But the fact of the matter is that these families want the trial to happen. They're just mostly tired of the delay.

LEMON: Susan Candiotti. Thank you, Susan.

Holding the 9/11 trial in federal court in New York City raises many serious legal issues and still unresolved, how to end the war in Afghanistan. Are more troops the answer? Coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight we'll explore those issues in greater depth for you, and you'll hear from a widow of 9/11 terrorism attacks.

Setting the stage for 2012, Mitt Romney takes on the president's handling of Afghanistan with an interesting comparison. You're going to hear from him in "Morning Across our Nation" tonight. The process of burying the victims of the Fort Hood shootings begins. Also, we want your feedback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: What has been a day of mourning across the country as families, friends, and fellow soldiers say good-bye to victims of the Fort Hood shootings. Army Staff Sergeant, Justin Decrow's funeral is one of seven funerals being held today. Others being laid to rest are Staff Sergeant Amy Kruger in Wisconsin, Private Ellen Nemelka in Utah, Private Michael Pearson in Illinois, Army Reserve Captain, John Paul Gaffaney is being buried in San Diego and Private Cam Xiong in Minnesota and Specialist Jason D. Dunt in Oklahoma.

President Obama used his weekly address to pledge a full investigation into what happened but he's urging congress not to get involve at least not yet.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know there will also be inquiries by Congress and there should, but all of us should resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater that sometimes dominates the discussion here in Washington. The stakes are far too high.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

Well, Major Hassan, we will talk about him just a little bit late on our newscast. A penny here, a penny there, and pretty soon you're talking about the federal deficit. We'll have a look at Washington spending like you've never seen before, and also walking away from poverty one step at a time. We'll talk to a woman who is sending shoes to Africa tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Former presidential candidate and one-time Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney is taking on President Obama over his policy in Afghanistan. Romney delivered a scathing speech to a group of conservative activists last night in California accusing the president of taking too long to reassess and implement his new strategy in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: The president's inattention and dereliction have reminded me of the Northwest Airline pilots who became so distracted with things of little importance that they lost their way, which is exactly what this president has done in Afghanistan. In this case with greater consequence.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Romney is widely expected to make another run at the GOP nomination for president. He's raised thousands of dollars for Republican candidates all across the country.

Make sure you check out CNN's Amanpour tomorrow at 2:00 Eastern. Christiane Amanpour has an inside look at how Al Qaeda is evolving and spreading throughout Europe, the United Kingdom and even the United States. Christiane also sits down with the U.S. ambassador at large for counterterrorism tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

Success for the shoot the moon mission. NASA says the spacecraft that was intentionally crashed into the moon last month has found water. CNN's Jacqui Jeras, a meteorologist here tells us how they did it. Jacqui, it was sort of anti-climactic, we were like what happens, but it's successful, right?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know, it's great. A lot of people didn't hear about it. All of sudden, guess what, there's water. They had been working on this for quite some time and they crashed this satellite a month ago, which just takes a little while sometimes to analyze the data.

Now what happened, here we go, this is a Google earth actually of the moon now or a Google program rather of the moon, and where they crashed this satellite was at the south pole of the moon into this really dark spot or this dark crater. The reason why it's dark, it hasn't seen the sun in literally millions of years and it's very, very cold there as a result of that. The temperature about 360 degrees below zero believe it or not.

So let's go ahead and show you. This is what it looked like. This was the satellite that they actually crashed into it just to give you an idea of what it looked like. It orbited around the earth a couple times and crashed into the moon and when it made that, it made another big crater basically about 100 feet wide.

There you can see in the animation, here it comes down and then it crashes and all of this dust and debris is exploded into the atmosphere and then following it is a spacecraft which then takes those samples they were talking about and then they analyze those samples.

One of the things they use to help analyze this is something we call the spectrometer and what this basically does is measures wavelengths of light. It has to do with reflecting or absorbing light. If this was just dirt or rock or dust, we would have seen a sample that was like this red line, but instead we got all these little dips in here like this which indicates that there was water vapor and ice.

So we're not talking about a big frozen sheet of ice or a frozen lake or anything like this. This was water mixed in with the soil. It only found about maybe 25 gallons, so about enough to fill up the bathtub, but it's significant because it does mean they could potentially be able to have a space station there. Believe or not. Don --

LEMON: Very interesting, Jacqui. Thank you very much. Hey, Jacqui, why don't you stick around and watch this next story with me because I think it's going to touch your heart.

Changing lives, Jacqui, we're talking about two feet at a time. That's a goal of the Ashay Foundation which just shipped 10,000 pairs of shoes and more than two tons of medical supplies to Ghana. We were there watching it all come together with the woman behind the movement.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): She's a mother.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I'm okay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in the --.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A visionary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They sit like that and put another pair of shoes in between. There's a science to this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And a fighter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's packing the shoes wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Battling extreme poverty on the continent of Africa. Her weapon? Shoes? A million pair she hopes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A million pair of shoes, but I believe it's going to be way more than a million pairs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dion Furon founded a nonprofit called the Ashe Foundation. Ashe is the power to make things happen and that's exactly what she did after seeing this image.

DION FURON, FOUNDER, ASHE FOUNDATION: That image of the feet wearing pop bottles for sandals kind of struck a chord in me and I said you know what I could do something about that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shoes for Africa was off to a running start with a little star power from R&B recording artist Kenny Latimore, celebrity stylist, Ocura Banks, and Antena Campbell, a complete stranger who would become Furon's closest ally. The two met in church after one of Furon's appeals for shoes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She started talking about the Ashe foundation and collecting shoes and taking them over to Africa and all that was like wow to me. Like I got to help her. I had just wrapped up a Nickelodeon show so I had abundance of shoes for kids and I said, I'm going to go home and I'm going to go through that garage and give her some shoes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't want it to just be somebody used my name and I came by, I dropped a little donation in the bucket and kept going. I wanted to really be a part of something that was going to be life changing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The organization's mission is to change the lives in millions of children in African nation who have been orphaned by the devastating effects caused by HIV and AIDS. Thanks to Actor Will Smith, the Ashe foundation took its first shipment of shoes to Africa in January.

FURON: Will Smith was in church one Sunday, and he heard me begging for shoes, and he said, okay, I'll pay for 15 people, 15 members of the congregation to go to Africa to deliver these shoes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The experience made her even more determined to, as they calls it, beg for shoes for barefoot children. These two showed up for the shoe distribution sharing one shoe each.

FURON: My heart is in Africa. It beats in Africa, and for a very, very, very long time I ran from the responsibility of knowing that I was going to make a difference there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now she's at it again. This time it's more than two tons of medical supplies and 10,000 pairs of shoes en route to Ghana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This looks like it's hardly ever been worn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never been worn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Volunteers showed up to pack the shoes. A box like this one holds 70 pairs if packed right and packed tight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE-1: So what's the count?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE-2: 70 pairs in this box.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On shipping day, a handful of volunteers loaded this 20-foot crate with box after box after box. It's hard work, but it's fueled by purpose and passion. The crate is finally packed to capacity and ready to head to the shipping dock.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a good day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says a prayer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That this container makes it to its final destination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In hope that its contents will change lives two feet at a time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Very nice. Anyone can make a difference, anybody if you put your mind and your really heart behind it, right?

JERAS: What a beautiful woman inside and out, and, you know, shoes seem so doable I think to most people in terms of reaching out and helping people. We all could probably afford to help somebody with a pair of shoes.

LEMON: Very nice story and, of course, congratulations to Dion Furon for all the work she's doing. Thank you, Jacqui. Tonight, I want to tell you just a programming note for you. You're going to hear from singer Kenny Lattimore about how he became part of the Ashe foundation shoes for Africa initiative. He's not just a voice behind the movement, he's hands on and very involved in that. Tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

The FBI working with Cleveland police today. They are searching above and below ground next door to a suspected serial killer's home. What have they found? Are there more victims? We are concerned about that.

And he served his country with honor, but before his country laid him to rest, a thief stole his remains.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is a really terrible story. Four bodies pulled from a charred mobile home in Arkansas, but police say there were bullets before that blaze. The victims are too badly burned to even identify, but investigators think they were all shot before the fire. An 80-year-old man was found shot in a separate home on that property. At this point, no suspects and no leads.

Eleven corpses found so far at Cleveland's house of horrors, but investigators say the remains of more women maybe buried across property lines. The police are searching Anthony Sowell's home plus the red house next door. Rakes, shovels, even thermal imaging technology all being used to dig up potential evidence against the suspected serial ideal killer. The 50-year-old Sowell is currently being held on $6 million bond.

What family secrets are buried beneath the surface at the sprawling Missouri property? Well, maybe bodies, maybe glass jars, holding old notes from the young victims of suspected sodomy and rape. Thelma Gutierrez is an independent Missouri with this story for you.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The case against a father and his four sons who are accused of sexually abusing small children on their family farm some 20 years ago continues to grow. Investigators say it happened here in rural Missouri. They allege that Mohler, a lay minister, his brother, Daryl, and Mohler's four sons, Roland who's now a paramedic, Jared and David who are also lay ministers, sexually abused six children they were related to over the course of a decade.

Authorities say that one woman now 26 came forward and she told investigators as children they coped with the abuse by writing down their experiences, placing the notes in jars and burying those jars on the property to make the memories go away. They didn't and now 20 years later authorities say the Mohler children are seeking justice. Their priesthoods have been suspended. Sheriff's investigators spent several days digging on the 50-acre property looking for evidence of the jars or anything else. They would not say what they found, but they did say they expected more charges to be filed.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Independence, Missouri. (END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Thelma, thank you.

Former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson has been sentenced to prison for taking bribes. In 2005, FBI agents found in $90,000 in cash in his freezer, believed to be a part of a shady, multi-million communications deal in Africa. Jefferson is planning to appeal.

Evangelist Tony Alamow (ph) has been sentenced to 175 years in prison. Prosecutors say the 75-year-old preacher took child brides as young as 8 years old across state lines for sex and other crimes, threatening them with the loss of their salvation if they disobeyed. His lawyers say he is expected to appeal as well.

A penny here and a penny there and pretty soon you're talking about the federal deficit. We'll have a look at Washington spending like you have never seen it before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: An Indonesian pilot moonlights as a father to 47 children living in an orphanage in West Timor. Budi Soehardi founded the orphanage with his wife after watching a CNN report on refugees fleeing East Timor in 1999. They cancelled a vacation and instead went to the area where they found families living in cardboard boxes and children wearing rags for clothing. For his work establishing the orphanage, Budi Soehardi was recently named one of our 2009 top-ten "CNN Heroes." And there he is. He joins us from Singapore.

Congratulations to you.

Apparently, he's having trouble hearing us.

Can you hear me, Mr. Soehardi?

He can't hear us. We'll get back to him on that story. He's a "CNN Hero." We'll try to get it back.

In the meantime, we'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, if you don't have a job right now, you are not alone. The unemployment rate now stands at 10.2 percent, double digits for the first time since 1983. Nearly 16 million Americans are out of work. And these latest numbers are much worse than many analysts had expected as employers keep slashing jobs.

Plus, the Labor Department says if you count people who have settled for part-time work or stopped looking altogether, the number of unemployed bumps way up to 17.5 percent.

So what does the jobless rate really mean? CNN Contributor Mathais Shapiro became a YouTube sensation when he used pennies to explain the Obama administration's proposed budget cuts. So who better to break down the complicated unemployment figures? Listen up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATHIAS SHAPIRO: A lot of the time when people think of the unemployment rate, they think of it as just a measurement of people without jobs, but the rate comes from a definition that isn't exactly what we might expect. If the U.S. is made up only 100 people, 21 of those people are too young to have a job, five others are in college, one is in the military, 13 are retirement age, 46 of them are working, five match the technical definition of the unemployed, and the rest may or may not want a job, but they haven't really been looking for job.

Of all of these, to get the unemployment rate, we see on the news, we only look at two groups, the 46 people with jobs and the 5 people who have been looking for a job. If all these people had a panic attack and barricaded themselves indoors to avoid the zombie flu apocalypse, four weeks from now, the unemployment rate would be zero percent. This doesn't mean everybody's got a job. It just means that people that are stocking up on zombie repellent no longer get counted as part of the labor force. And that makes sense. If someone can't find a job for long enough, they might go back to school or stay at home with the kids. They're now out of the labor force.

That's a growing concern because the working group has been shrinking for the last decade. The unemployment rate will recover in time, but as the baby boomers begin to retire, we're going to see a smaller and smaller percentage of people with jobs. It's the money that these 46 people make that help support the other 54 people. They may do it directly by paying for their kids' food. Or they may do it indirectly through charities, unemployment benefits, Social Security payments, and zombie flu vaccinations.

So as the jobless numbers rise, more people move into the top group, which means more weight on the dwindling support group. This kind of support isn't unprecedented. But getting people out of the unemployed category and getting them into the employed category is what we really need for an economic recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wow. That was very involved, very good. So rising unemployment and a shrinking labor force, right?

We're joined by Mathias Shapiro.

It's a unique way to break down this issue. Why did you do this?

SHAPIRO: I did this because there's a lot of data that kind of goes back and forth and a lot of these statistics, and sometimes the data isn't exactly what we're expecting, and I wanted to try to explain in a way that we can all get pretty simply and pretty quickly.

LEMON: It is pretty simple, especially when you talked about weighting, those of us who are working down because we're supporting -- and how did you come up with those figures and come up with the animation? Did you do that all yourself?

SHAPIRO: I did the animations myself. The figures come from either the Census Bureau, when it's talking about how many people are how old, and the rest of it comes from the bureau of labor statistics. It's all free data. You just need to know how to find it.

LEMON: Did you learn anything from doing this? Did this help you understand anything, especially about the economy and the recession and the unemployment rate that we're dealing with right now?

SHAPIRO: Well, the thing that I learned through doing this was that at least in the last two months we've had this enormous exodus from the labor force. We have lost I think 1.3 million jobs but the unemployment -- the number of unemployed has only risen about 800,000. Well, where did the other half million people go? The answer is quite frankly I don't think we really know, but they're not looking for a job anymore. As I said, either they have gone back to school. Maybe they have taken early retirement, staying home with kids. We don't know. but the unemployment rate is actually lower than it would otherwise be just because a lot of people aren't looking.

LEMON: You have a couple of other videos. You have one about lowering the deficit.

Do we have that? Are we going to play that?

Hey, we're going to listen to it and then I'll talk to you about it.

SHAPRIO: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAPIRO: Recently, President Obama made news by announcing his team would find $100 million worth of federal spending they could cut from the budget. Some people say the president is taking a number that sounds big so it will look like he's doing something with federal spending. We humans have a problem with big numbers. We hear he's taking $100 million out of a $3.5 trillion budget, but what we understand is the president is taking a big pile of money out of a bigger pile of money. We don't get the concept of scale very well when we dealing with that kind of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So this is -- again, you're doing this. What is the response because as we said, on the 10,000 pennies video, you got, what, a million-plus views? How are people responding to this one as well?

SHAPIRO: This one, being the CNN one or...

LEMON: Yes.

SHAPIRO: The response has been generally good. It's not on YouTube unfortunately, gosh darn it. LEMON: It might be now after it runs on this show. I'm sure it will be. What's been the response from that?

SHAPIRO: The response is generally there are some people who want to nitpick in the data. and the chances are you've missed one thing or another. It's hard to get a lot of data together and explain it in a way that's absolutely perfect for everybody. But for the most part, people are pretty responsive and pretty receptive. And it's really exciting to me because it's the kind of thing where in 90 seconds or less people can really kind of grasp some piece of data that usually only economists have a good hold on.

LEMON: Yes. And I think it's very simple and I always say less is more. The simpler, the better. So I appreciate it.

Hey, I want to get you back on the show. I know you have become a contributor on CNN, so anytime you have something, you're welcome to come back. Give us a shout, OK?

SHAPIRO: Well, thank you.

LEMON: Best of luck to you.

SHAPIRO: Appreciate it.

LEMON: "The Situation Room" is straight ahead.

Wolf Blitzer, what do you have for us?

WOLF BLILTZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Coming up at the top of the hour, we're going to go in depth and take a close look at what's happening with the suspected Ft. Hood gunman. He's now been charged 13 counts of premeditated murder.

Also, will Israel launch a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities? The defense minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, he's here in "The Situation Room."

And I'll also speak with a State Department employee who quit his job in Afghanistan to protest the war there. All that and a lot more coming up at the top of the hour.

Don, back to you.

LEMON: We look forward to it. Thank you, Wolf.

So if you're overweight, does that increase your risk of cancer? A link has been suspected for years but a new study puts it in concrete terms. Dr. Sanjay Gupta spells it out for you in our "Fit Nation" report.

(FIT NATION)

LEMON: All right, Sanjay, thank you.

He broke baseball's color barrier and now one of Jackie Robinson's old jerseys sells for big, big bucks. Wait until you hear.

And what a welcome. Look at this. Talk about man's best friend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A heartbreaking ordeal for the family of a Korean War veteran. His ashes were stolen just hours before his scheduled burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Suzanne Kennedy of CNN affiliate WJLA has the story.

SUZANNE KENNEDY, REPORTER, WJLA (voice-over): The burial at Arlington National Cemetery went off with full military honors. But one critical element of this somber event was missing -- the remains of retired Army Colonel Norbert Otto Schmidt. The family's rented van was broken into outside the Smithsonian last night. That's when thieves stole an urn containing the colonel's remains.

CAROL SCHMIDT, DAUGHTER OF COLONEL SCHMIDT: We lost him three months ago. We went through all that. And as my sister put it, it's like we just lost him all over again. You know, it feels like he died yesterday again.

KENNEDY: Schmidt was a West Point graduate and a Bronze Star recipient. He always wanted to be buried in Arlington so he could be alongside soldiers he fought with in the Korean War.

CAROL SCHMIDT: I think a lot of it had to do with that, just sort of to be with the people that I think he sort of felt he should have died with back then because they all died around him.

KENNEDY: The family debated whether to hold the service today. But in a driving rain, they got into the van from which the urn was stolen, headed to a service of which they were uncertain about.

CAROL SCHMIDT: You don't go to a funeral and, like, go, oops, there's no Budi, you know? You don't do that. So yes, it's a big difference. If we were just having a memorial to honor him, that would be one thing. But this was supposed to be the burial.

KENNEDY: The family now heads home with one last request.

CAROL SCHMIDT: It means nothing to them. And they've got the jewelry. They've got the computer. They've got the GPS, you know. Those are things. We need my dad's ashes back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was Suzanne Kennedy reporting from our affiliate WJLA.

Norbert Schmidt is Colonel Schmidt's son. He is on the phone with us.

Thank you, I'm so sorry for your loss. Any sign of the urn, of the remains, yet? NORBERT SCHMIDT, SON OF COLONEL SCHMIDT: No, sir. I'm talking to you from the Marriott Key Bridge out here right down the road from Arlington cemetery. We've been staying here. I have contacted the police. I have not gotten any response back. We know they're busy, that they've got a lot of things going on on their plate, you know, and it takes them a long time to get engaged with something like that. But they really haven't responded back at all to give us any indication that anything's move it had forward in spite of the fact that we put out a $1,000 reward to get his, you know, information, get his return.

It's pretty sad. My mom's really broken up about it. The real issue there is, you know, my mom expected to be buried alongside him.

LEMON: I can only imagine, Mr. Schmidt -- are you OK to go on or would you rather end it now?

SCHMIDT: I'm OK.

LEMON: OK. It's really heart wrenching. We haven't heard from police, but we're going to reach out. And your family with this -- once you do find the remains it -- and we are hopeful that you will -- are you going to do another ceremony or have some sort of another memorial service for him?

SCHMIDT: Well, the Army -- we had the service. They gave us a choice of waiting to have the service if they ever recover the remains. We had a number of people flying in. My father was not only in the Army, but he was a professor of civil engineering, and he taught people from around the world. And we had a number of people come from a lot of different places to his service here. It was kind of really hard not to hold the service given all those people that have flown in.

LEMON: Well, I thought you might have another private ceremony for him afterwards with the family.

SCHMIDT: We've been offered that by the Army if his remains are recovered. Right now, he is in a place in Arlington where they have people whose remains are not recovered and in memorial of. And if he is recovered, they would bury him in the place that they expected to before.

LEMON: Mr. Schmidt, before I let you go, what do you want to say to -- if the person is watching or someone knows something about your dad's remains, what do you want to say?

SCHMIDT: You know, it's very personal for us, you know. We would hope you would have the decency to return them, you know, put them someplace where, you know, we can recover them, you know, whether it's, you know, to a local funeral home or -- I'm not going to ask you to put it to the police department, put it to someplace where, you know, it can get back to us. We really ask that. It's really for my mom's sake.

SCHMIDT: Yes. Hey, listen, we really appreciate you joining us. Norbert Schmidt and his dad is Colonel Norbert Otto Schmidt.

And we really appreciate you joining us. Best of luck. Let us know what happens, OK?

We want to move back to our segment that we had earlier. We had a little technical difficulty with our CNN hero. And he joins us now by telephone. He founded an orphanage in West Timor, Africa. That's why he is one of our top ten heroes. His name is Budi Soehardi. He joins us by phone now.

Congratulations to you. Hopefully, you can hear me now.

BUDI SOEHARDI, CNN HERO: Yes, I can. Good morning.

LEMON: Good morning or good evening as it is here on the east coast of the United States. Congratulations. How do you feel about being a top ten hero?

SOEHARDI: Well, thank you, Don. I'm happy because I have more friends now. And I know more things what can be done together. So I hope there will be more people joining us.

LEMON: More people joining you. How many people have you helped? How many children have you helped in this orphanage so far?

SOEHARDI: OK. Now we have additional children. So far, we have 50 inside the orphanage. But outside the orphanage, we are helping more than 400 children, and that's excluding those we are visiting for our mobile library project. That can be more than 1,000 children.

LEMON: OK. So more than 1,000. And that's over the course of the time that you've had the orphanage and your charity available?

SOEHARDI: Well, if I'm not flying, then I will be there with my wife at the orphanage. Usually, just going and seeing because we are going to the villages area. We hardly stay in the city area.

LEMON: OK.

SOEHARDI: Our place is either the farm or the villages.

LEMON: I was just wondering how many people you've helped over the course of time that you've had the orphanage. That's what I was asking you. I wasn't sure if you understood my question.

SOEHARDI: Well, I do not know how much in terms of numbers, but we always do our best. And from village to another village, it's quite a lot.

LEMON: I would say that says a lot about you, that you don't know how many. That means you've helped a lot of people, and that is a good thing.

Listen, we are so glad to have you, finally get you and get our technical issues resolved here. Hopefully, we will see you here stateside very soon. You are coming to the ceremony, right? SOEHARDI: Yes, I will. I will be arriving on the 19th morning in Los Angeles.

LEMON: All right. We will see you. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you.

SOEHARDI: Thank you, Don. Thank you so much.

LEMON: And I want to tell the viewer, you can go to CNN.com/heroes right now to vote for the hero you think should be the hero of the year. They will all be honored at an all-star tribute hosted by Anderson Cooper Thanksgiving night here on CNN.

It will be little comfort to people who lost their life savings, but an auction under way today will benefit people victimized by disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. The high bidders will take home everything from jewelry, watches and even personalized stationery. About 200 items are up for bid, including Madoff's New York Mets jacket, which has already sold for more than $14,000. The total amount raised, as of a short time ago, was 750,000 bucks in that auction.

Another auction to tell you about, this one includes the jersey of an American legend. Look at that. This is a 1948 Brooklyn Dodger uniform once worn by Jackie Robinson, the man, of course, who broke baseball's color barrier. It sold today for -- get this -- more than 373,000 bucks. At the Louisville Slugger Museum auction today. Other items sold include a 1966 Mickey Mantle bat which went for more than $26,000.

I want you to take a look at this next video we're going to show you. A soldier returns home from Afghanistan. If you didn't know he was missed by his best friend, he sure does now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get him! Who is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gracey. Oh, my gosh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's ecstatic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gracey?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gracey, do you remember DaDa? Honey. Did you miss your Dada? Honey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you're going to make me cry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honey, do you remember Dada?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Very nice. We should all be so loved. Man's best friend. That's why they call them that.

OK. You know, holding 9/11 trial in federal court in New York City raises many serious legal issues, and still unresolved, how to end the war in Afghanistan. Are more troops the answer here? Coming up at 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight, we'll explore those issues in greater depth for you. And you'll hear from a widow of a 9/11 terrorism attack.

Plus, we'll update you on our developing story, housing the Gitmo inmates possibly in Illinois. We'll break it down for you.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'll see you back here at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

"The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer begins right now.