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Prison for Terrorist Suspects; President's Asian Trip; New York Terror Trial; Romney's criticism toward Pres. Obama on Afghanistan, Veterans go to Washington, D.C., "Skull & Bones"

Aired November 15, 2009 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Terror suspects in the heartland? Take a good look here. Will this Illinois prison replace Guantanamo?

And a long overdue look at really a long overdue tribute. We will join some of these World War II veterans on the flight of a lifetime.

A step in the right direction. We will tell you why these shoes could be changing lives. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Sunday, the 15th of November. Hi, everybody. I'm Brooke Baldwin, sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield.

To our top story here. The Obama administration and their decision that is shaking up not only Washington, but New York as well. Putting the self-proclaimed 9/11 master mind and four co-defendants on trial just blocks from the World Trade Center. This move as you can imagine really triggering some sharp reaction from all corners.

As Kate Bolduan reports, it's only part of a much larger, divisive issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The political firestorm surrounding the Obama administration's decision to try self- described 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others just blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood is not holding up.

REP. PETE HOEKSTRA (R), MICHIGAN: We're now going to go back to New York City. You know, the scene of the tragedy on 9/11. We're now going to rip that wound wide open.

BOLDUAN: Many Republicans, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani argue the alleged terrorists should face military commissions. Not deserving the protections afforded in civilian courts.

RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: First of all, it's an unnecessary advantage to give to the terrorists. I don't know why you want to give terrorists advantages. And secondly, it's an unnecessary risk to the city of New York.

BOLDUAN: But the Obama administration is pushing back against criticism. The move is misguided. White House senior adviser David Axelrod. DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SR. ADVISER: These folks should be tried in New York City. As you say, near where their heinous acts were conducted. In full view and in our court system which we believe in. We feel strongly that justice will be done here.

BOLDUAN: At the same time, the administration is still trying to figure out what to do with the more than 200 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Where the alleged 9/11 conspirators are currently being held. A leading contender, the nearly vacant maximum security Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois.

GOV. PAT QUINN (D), ILLINOIS: This is something that is very good for our state. It's good for our economy. It's good for our public safety.

BOLDUAN: Officials from the Departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Prisons are expected to tour the prison Monday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And Kate Bolduan joining me now live from Washington. Kate, I read about this Thomson Correctional Center has something like 1,600 cells. So then, as far as detainees go, how many of these detainees to be transferred to the U.S. are we talking about here?

BOLDUAN: Well, It doesn't seem there's an official number brought. But according to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, if chosen, fewer than 100 detainees would be transferred to the state facility. Now, as we know, President Obama has vowed to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison. But that has proved tricky. The administration has acknowledged and continues to that it seems unlikely they'll meet their self-imposed deadline of the end of November. But at least they seem to be, they say, making progress here.

BALDWIN: Making progress. And you mentioned in your piece, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of five of these so-called - having these alleged ties with the 9/11 conspiracy, and we heard in your piece from your former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani saying, you know, this is an unnecessary risk and an unnecessary advantage. But what about the current mayor of New York, Mayor Bloomberg? Have we heard his reaction?

BOLDUAN: We have. Mayor Bloomberg's come out really supporting the administration's decision. He said in a statement that he thought it was fitting that the 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where all this happened. He also noted New York City has been host to other high profile terrorism trials in the past, including the master mind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

So it seems that at least according to Mayor Bloomberg, he think that - he's confident that New York City is ready and able for this to happen here.

BALDWIN: All right. Kate Bolduan for us from Washington. Kate, thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's talk now here about the most populous country on earth. America's biggest foreign lender. Did you know we're talking about China here. It is the latest stop on the president's Asian tour. He will be spending three days there reflecting on its growing economic and political importance. The president arrived in Shanghai today after attending the Asia Pacific summit in Singapore. And CNN senior White House correspondent Ed Henry is traveling right alongside Mr. Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): At President Obama's first Asia Pacific Economic Summit, the leaders did what they do best at these events. A lot of talk but not a lot of concrete action, especially on climate change. The leaders revealing they do not expect any major breakthroughs next month in Copenhagen. Instead they hope to make a little bit of progress.

And then they plan to hold more meetings down the road. That's why the most dramatic moments here at this summit for Mr. Obama came on the sidelines during a one on one with the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev. Both leaders expressing confidence that they'll be able to agree on a new treaty by the end of the year that will reduce both country's nuclear stockpiles.

And Mr. Obama was talking tough about Iran, saying they need to come clean about their nuclear program on a diplomatic track or they'll face tough new sanctions on a second track.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are now running out of time with respect to that approach. And so I discussed with President Medvedev the fact that we have to continue to maintain urgency and that our previous discussions confirming the need for a dual track approach are still the right approach to take.

HENRY: To get tough new sanctions against Iran, Mr. Obama will need support at the U.N. from both the Russian president and Chinese president Hu Jintao. One reason why the next stop Mr. Obama will have extensive discussions with the Chinese president in Beijing later this week. But first it's a stop in Shanghai where he'll have a town hall meeting with Chinese students.

Ed Henry, CNN, Singapore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: It's early Monday morning right now in China. And it's President Obama's official events here won't be beginning for a couple more hours. Let's take a look at his schedule right now. He is scheduled to meet with Shanghai's mayor and a local communist party secretary. That will be happening at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time.

And then after that a town hall meeting Ed Henry spoke about. President Obama departing for Beijing. He will arrive there right around 3:35 a.m. Eastern time. And he is scheduled as he mentioned to meet with China's president Hu Jintao at 5:30 a.m. Eastern.

Now, the president here really started his Asian trip with a visit to Tokyo before heading on to Singapore. Here's the map. After his stops in Shanghai and Beijing, he will visit Seoul, South Korea before returning home to Washington Thursday night.

As you likely know, China - it really is a world power on the rise. And he owes - the U.S., I should say, owing the Chinese a lot of money. They are paying for a lot of our debt. So what is online really with this trip to China? Eamon Javers is with Politico.com. And Eamon, I'm really interested - I want to go over this piece you wrote essentially, you wrote, talking about the collapse of China for politico.com.

And it seems like there's two different stories here emerging when it comes to China's economy. Yes, we hear China is this economic power house with something like an 8.9 percent, you know, increase in GDP in the third quarter of this year. At the same time, I love this line in your piece, you talk about China - much vaunted Chinese economic miracle nothing but a paper dragon.

EAMON JAVERS, POLITICO.COM: Yes.

BALDWIN: Where does the truth lie?

JAVERS: Well, there's a couple schools of thought here. And we won't know until this all plays out. Most people, most economists think what's going to happen here is that the Chinese economy is going to be the one that leads this global economy out of recession. The Chinese consumers will start to buy products and rather than relying totally on an export led market they'll actually start to buy some stuff at home allowing U.S. exporters to sell products to China and drive an entire global recovery.

But there are a few people who think that Chinese - the Chinese economy, the Chinese numbers are slightly cooked. And, in fact, the Chinese economy is much worse than an official data they're putting out. And this minority view says that the Chinese have been building all these white elephants. They've been spending a ton of money on infrastructure that they don't need, building luxury products, shopping malls that are sitting empty.

And, in fact, the Chinese economy is about to run out of steam and run out of gas. And that has really dire implications for the global economic recovery that we're all really hoping for.

BALDWIN: Yes, profound ramifications globally but also for us here in the U.S..

JAVERS: Right.

BALDWIN: China has paid a pretty penny on helping us pay off our debt. We're intricately intertwined, these two economies. So tell me as President Obama is heading to Beijing shortly here, what does he need to ask from Beijing and is China's economy robust enough to deliver?

JAVERS: Yes. Well, those are two good questions. I mean, the first thing you're going to see with Barack Obama in China is a very different posture for an American president. In the past American presidents have gone over there and really lectured the Chinese about how they ought to change their system and improve their behavior on different issues.

Don't expect to hear a lot of that from Barack Obama instead because of the difference in the power relationship now between the Chinese and the U.S., expect to hear Barack Obama making a lot of reassuring noises to the Chinese saying that they should continue to buy our debt, to finance our deficit spending.

And if they do that the United States will live up to its end of the bargain and continue to pay down its debt at some point and be fiscally responsible here at home. So the power dynamic between the U.S. and the Chinese is totally different. And that's going to play out in the diplomacy that we see over the next couple of days.

BALDWIN: Totally different and also moving away from China here, let's talk about Afghanistan. You know, a whole lot of people have been weighing in as the president is trying to determine if he will and how many additional U.S. troops we may send into Afghanistan. A lot of people weighing in with their different opinions.

We heard from Colin Powell recently. Now we're hearing from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She spoke this morning on NBC's "Meet the Press." Let's listen to the clip and I want your reaction.

JAVERS: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not interested in staying in Afghanistan. We have no long-term stake there. We want that to be made very clear. We came to do a mission. Unfortunately it was not achieved in the last eight years.

In fact, the mission was changed because it could not be achieved or no longer was the primary goal that was expressed in the prior administration. Well, our goal is very clear. We want to get the people who attacked us. And we want to prevent them and their syndicate of terrorism from posing a threat to us, our allies and our interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right. Eamon, so we're hearing now from her. What do we know? When will this decision be made? Let's brief through all these opinions.

JAVERS: Well, we don't know. I mean, this has really taken a long time. The Obama administration has been really deciding very publicly. They've been having these meetings inside the situation room and then releasing pictures of those meetings on the web showing the president meeting with his war council and deciding there.

But I think the important thing about that clip that we just saw of Hillary Clinton is notice what she didn't say. She said our mission there is to get the people who got us. That is the 9/11 master minds in Al Qaeda. She did not say that our mission there is to build a functional Afghan democracy which a lot of people are concluding is maybe not possible, particularly with Hamid Karzai in control over there and the corruption allegations that are bedeviling him and the recent election

That might hint at a more narrow strategy out of this White House coming up when this decision is finally made. But we'll have to wait and see what they actually decide.

BALDWIN: Eamon Javers, stick around for me, will you? Stick around for me. 20 minutes from now, we'll be talking about what Eamon thinks about a feud brewing between the White House and Mitt Romney. Have you heard what he said?

Also, some comments coming from the White House today on abortion and the health care debate. We'll talk about that in about 20 minutes time.

Meantime, it has happened again. An airliner ran into a flock of birds as, yes, it was taking off just last night. We will tell you about that story after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Can you imagine this? Some tense moments on board a Frontier Airlines passenger jet last night. We're talking about flight 820. It was en route from Kansas City to Denver. It hit a flock of birds just shortly after takeoff. In fact, one of the passengers on board remembers precisely what he was doing the moment of impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM WEISGAL, PASSENGER: We were talking about the airplane that had gone down in the drink in New York and how it survived. And all of a sudden the plane felt like it hit something. I mean, you could feel a shudder. The plane shuddered. OK?

The first thing that happened as the plane shuddered was out the right side of the windows of the airplane on the right side, you could see flashes of light, sparks and flames, smoke immediately started to come into the cabin. You could smell something that was burning, obviously something out of the engine. And the plane immediately canted, OK? Immediately started going down to the right. Like that. And I think everybody in the plane thought we were going down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heard this rumble, bang. Boom, boom! Then saw kind of like a flash. And then you saw smoke. And then, you know, we started decreasing in altitude.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Birds. Apparently the FAA says this happens pretty often. That's what I've read. The Airbus 319 with 129 passengers and crew on board did manage to land safely back at Kansas City International. And the airport spokeswoman said two of the plane's engines did suffer damage but that only one actually lost power.

Yes. I guess some birds in the sky to snowflakes. Winter storm dumping up to a foot of snow, Jacqui Jeras, in the Denver area? Can we say ski season?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know, right?

BALDWIN: Beautiful.

JERAS: Some of the ski resorts already open, believe it or not.

BALDWIN: Wow.

JERAS: At least on the weekends. Most of them usually open up Thanksgiving week. So we will certainly be set and have a nice base for that, won't we?

BALDWIN: Nice base.

JERAS: If you would like to do that. Snow continues to come down across parts of the west, across Colorado. Also getting really heavy right now into western parts of Kansas. We'll zoom in a little bit and show you where the worst of it has been. You can see in the Denver area, things are starting to calm down a little bit.

But as we take a look at our live picture here from KUSA TV. It's still overcast. Light snow is coming down. 26 degrees is your temperature. But you add in that little wind we've got, and it feels like 20. Little additional snowfall can be expected in the Denver Metro area. You had just under seven inches in Denver proper.

Let's go ahead and show you some of the totals that we've had from this storm system in the big state of Colorado. There you can see the forecast snowfall. I think I actually took it out. Taylor, would you stick it up on magic three if you don't mind? This is a forecast accumulation. You can see where the real heavy stuff is going to be moving in across central parts of the state of Kansas. That's like six to eight inches. That's a heck of a whole lot of snowfall, isn't it?

Here we can see our forecast here. And that shows you that low pressure storm system. And that's what's bringing in that cold air and why we're seeing the snow. Rain across the plain states. It's been really heavy, by the way, across southwestern parts of Missouri up towards Jefferson City. You had 2.6 inches of rainfall. So some flooding going on here.

High pressure across the west has been bringing incredible wind gusts up to 64 miles per hour in parts of southern California. Fire danger is high here. Today and tomorrow both. So be aware of that. And last and not least, we've got those snowfall totals. Thank you, Taylor, for getting those for me. There you can see Wolf Creek Pass, 20 inches of snow there. Conifer, over a foot. There's a foot in the Littleton area, that's a suburb of Denver. Lots of people love that snow. Lots of people don't like to travel in it though.

BALDWIN: I know, traveling not so fun. Skiing down a mountain with the beautiful snow flakes coming down.

JERAS: I like that.

BALDWIN: All right, Jacqui. You and I will be chatting in the chat room.

JERAS: Yes.

BALDWIN: It's what you guys call this after the break. Are you a baseball fan?

JERAS: Sure, I like baseball.

BALDWIN: I like baseball. How about this jersey? I think we saw a picture of it. This jersey, pretty famous. Went for $375,000 in this auction. So we'll be talking about who actually wore that jersey. Might explain the price tag. We'll tell you about that story and a couple of others coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Checking some of the top stories now, President Obama now on the third leg of his four-nation tour through Asia. He arrived in Shanghai earlier today. A little bit of rainfall looks like, after attending the Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore. Mr. Obama will spend three days in China, highlighting the country's importance as an economic powerhouse.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani now criticizing the Obama administration's decision to put five suspected 9/11 terrorists on trial in a civilian courtroom in New York City. Giuliani said it would put Americans at risk and give advantage to the terrorists.

He says instead the cases should be tried before military tribunals. Current New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among others says he supports the move to have the trial right there in New York.

And the space shuttle "Atlantis" scheduled for blastoff from Kennedy Space Center tomorrow morning. The crew will be delivering supplies to the International Space Station. NASA's scheduled three space walks for the mission.

And now the part we've been waiting for. Jacqui Jeras in the chat room. Talking about a couple stories today that are kind of fun. This first one, we were talking about the potential baseball fans here. And really how could you not be a fan. Jackie Robinson. Civil rights activist. Incredibly famous for helping to integrate major league baseball.

Jackie Robinson, there was this jersey that was up for auction. We talked, I guess, yesterday a lot about the Bernie Madoff auction.

JERAS: Yes. I like this one better.

BALDWIN: We're going pass Bernie Madoff. We're talking about this one and he had this jersey that he wore. Guess what? It sold for $375,000.

JERAS: Wow. This was somebody's personal collection. He had a whole bunch of memorabilia, I guess. That was the highest bid that they had.

BALDWIN: That's something to hold on to. That's something certainly to hold on to. You know a whole lot about this story. How about this 61-year-old?

JERAS: I live this - well, in the chat room, Fredricka and I have talked a lot about Brett Favre and football and playing football at the age of 40.

BALDWIN: Yes.

JERAS: OK. If you think 40 is old, how about 61? Check out this story. Tom Thompson plays for Austin College. And he is 61 years old. Believe it or not. He is 61.

BALDWIN: He's 61 and not only that, they were saying he's like as old as some of the players' parents could be, maybe even a grandparent. They were saying, hey, you know, if you don't kick this field goal, you may not live to see your next game. The good news, he played in the game yesterday. We heard he was able to kick a goal.

JERAS: He scored one for the team. It was against their rivals. That's really great news.

BALDWIN: Good for him.

JERAS: And apparently he's worked hard. He's trained hard. And they treat him just like anybody else.

BALDWIN: You wouldn't know with his helmet on, right?

JERAS: His helmet covers up a lot.

BALDWIN: A little bit. OK. And also, let's be honest. You know, library books. We're all guilty.

JERAS: Overdue?

BALDWIN: Of course.

JERAS: On a regular basis. In fact, you just pay 10 cents on Friday for my overdue.

BALDWIN: Jacqui 10 cents is one thing. How about $1,000 bucks? This story out of Phoenix. A librarian has come forward, well actually not - well, it's a librarian who has come forward and said these former students, they've just turned in two of these books. Just slightly overdue. Try 51 years.

51 years. In fact, they sent this $1,000 - they sent a letter anonymously, mind you. The letter said the money order was to cover fines of two cents per day for each book. That would total about $745 and the letter said the extra money would be added in case the rates had changed.

JERAS: Yes, these books have been missing since 1959. So I'm guessing they thought they'd never see them again.

BALDWIN: I guess not.

JERAS: Can you imagine? Isn't that great. And now the school has $1,000 that they can buy new books. And they say these two books are going to be back on the shelves. Believe it or not?

BALDWIN: I kept wondering what the books would be. I went into the affiliate who we got the story from, it didn't say what the books are. Do you wonder?

JERAS: I want to know. I hope they were worth it.

BALDWIN: I know. I guess so. Jacqui Jeras, good talking to you.

JERAS: You too.

BALDWIN: Thank you. How about this? There was a scathing new criticism of President Obama from somebody who just may want to take his job. We'll tell you about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Criticism of President Obama coming from a Republican who ran for that job. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke to a group of young conservatives in California Friday night and he had some scathing remarks about the president's handling of the war in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I find it incomprehensible and inexcusable that this president has been in office for ten months and he does not yet have a strategy. What has he been doing? That is so much more important than -- than developing -- you have some ideas. Than developing a strategy to protect the lives of our soldiers who are in harm's way?

He is the commander in chief. What has he been doing? Do you realize he carried out more than 30 campaign visits in this last season for various Democrats? While he can't make up his mind on Afghanistan or have enough time to meet with generals, he's out there campaigning. He's also carrying out these bogus, phony town meetings. I call them that because, of course, the audiences are very carefully selected to include only those that are friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. So those are the remarks. Now, president's senior adviser David Axelrod has strong words about Mitt Romney's criticism. Suggesting that Romney just doesn't get Afghanistan. Axelrod made his comments to CNN's John King on this morning's "State of the Union."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SENIOR ADVISOR: I know that Governor Romney has never had responsibility for any decision akin to this. So he just may not be familiar with all that it entails. But I think the American people are being well served by a process that is assiduous in which every aspect of this is considered. Because, after all, lives of American servicemen are involved here. Enormous investment on the part of the American people. We ought to -- we ought to get it right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So what is the takeaway from this Romney/Axelrod smack down? Yes. We'll call it that. Let's get right back to Eamon Javers of politico.com on that and also what's ahead this week for the healthcare debate. Eamon, you know politics is so fun because there's always some kind of reading and a meeting and motivation behind somebody's comments. I mean come on, is that what we are thinking? Is that what Mitt Romney was thinking?

JAVERS: Clearly, Mitt Romney has never really totally given up his presidential campaign. Obviously Republicans are seeing an angle here to get some traction on Barack Obama with this long drawn out decision process on Afghanistan. But what's interesting with Mitt Romney, I think, is that he's really picking his shots. He has not been critical of Obama everywhere.

In fact, I interviewed Mitt Romney a little while ago when he was -- when Barack Obama was going over to Europe to campaign for the Olympics in the United States. And Romney told me then that he thought that was a terrific idea. The president should represent in Europe and try to bring the Olympics to the U.S. At a time when other Republicans were very critical of the president for doing that. Romney backed him up.

So he's clearly looking for areas to show some agreement with Barack Obama on things that are relatively uncontroversial. And then really stick it to him as we saw in that clip in an area where he thinks that Republicans can get some traction. The White House is really showing an opening here by having this very long, very public decision process on Afghanistan.

BALDWIN: Well there's also been a very long, very public debate going on in Washington, health care. Let's talk about that for a moment here. Last weekend the House squeaked out this version of the bill. Now it's up to the Senate. We're hearing from Harry Reid, Senate majority leader Harry Reid saying you know what I'm hoping for debate this week. But what I thought was interesting, is in order for Cribsrob (ph) even to debate this week in the Senate you have to have this vote of 60. So that would be the 58 Democrats plus the 2 independents. So whose arm might Harry Reid be twisting to get those votes?

JAVERS: Yes. Well, they're going to be twisting every arm in the Senate, probably, to start with. They're not going to work with a lot of those hard core Republicans. The trick is, you're right. In the Senate the process is much more difficult. They have this filibuster process and they do have to get 60 votes. So they're going to be looking at Joe Lieberman. They're going to be looking at Olympia Snowe, Republican from Maine. Maybe she would side with the Democrats in order to move this debate along.

They're going to be looking for any kind of way to break out the one or two votes that they need to get this thing done. And the White House really is eager to have this past and to turn the page. They really want to shift the focus on the nation's unemployment rate. They think that the Republicans are getting a lot of traction on them in criticizing the White House for not being able to bring down the extremely painful level of unemployment in the country. They want to get health care off their desk and past and really focus on the laser beam on the issue that's really driving a lot of angst in the country right now and that's unemployment.

BALDWIN: I wish I could ask you about health care and what's going on with abortion possibly, but I'm out of time. Eamon we will talk about that another time, Eamon fantastic to see you and talk to you live there from Washington. Thank you.

Never a dull moment in Washington. But also an amazing trip to Washington, from World War II veterans going on this emotional journey. We will join them on the flight of a lifetime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's take another quick look at some of the day's top stories. We've been talking about this. President Obama arriving in Shanghai today. There he is with his umbrella, a little rainfall there. China is the latest stop on his Asia tour. He'll be spending a couple more hours in Shanghai, and then it's off to Beijing and a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Funeral services continue for the victims of the Ft. Hood massacre. They include a funeral mass in Cameron, Texas, today for Michael Cahill, the only civilian killed in those shootings. Six other victims were remembered yesterday.

The countdown is on here for tomorrow's scheduled space shuttle launch, "Atlantis" set to liftoff at 2:28 p.m. precisely Eastern Time. At least they hope so. On this mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. NASA will let 100 twitter follows attend the launch so they can tweet as the shuttle takes off.

They are the ageing veterans of the last world war. Many of them never seen the memorial built in their honor in Washington and dedicated to them a couple years ago in 2004. On our flight, it's a program that flies World War II veterans from all around the country to see that memorial no charge. We had the privilege of following nearly 80 veterans on that very trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you. We're going to get to go finally.

JIM MCLAUGHLIN, CHAIRMAN, HONOR FLIGHT NETWORK: The program was started, and it was named Honor Flight. The idea being that it was to provide a flight of honor, in honor of the World War II veterans. They are so humble and so appreciative of the slightest little thing and to suddenly give them an entire day. First of all, they're overwhelmed by the generosity of it. Then they're even more overwhelmed when they get to the memorial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a great trip, OK? Thank you for your service.

GISELA TITMAN, U.S. ARMY (RET): Thinking about coming brought back the emotion and the memories.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to say good morning and welcome aboard. Honor flight 184 to Washington, D.C.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Washington, D.C.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

SGT. WALTER VICTOR, U.S. ARMY (RET): Very seldom you'll see something like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the right now is your memorial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's awesome. It's so big. And I didn't imagine it ever being this big.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The troops are on their way.

FRANK BALES, U.S. ARMY (RET): My name is Frank Bales. I'm from Idaho, originally. August 18th, 1944 was when I crashed. That was a horrible mistake. We shouldn't have gone down. We shouldn't have been hit that day. We were the only plane in the crew to get hit. Some German gunner must have had a moment of ecstasy. I got one, I got one! That was the bad day. Four fellows were killed in the crash. Five of us survived. I almost didn't. I was declared -- reported to the base as deceased. But I wasn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Where's my man. There he is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll have a very emotional journey in about five minutes as we go through the memorial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very fortunate to be able to be here. There are so many that didn't make it.

ALLEN PITTARO, U.S. ARMY (RET): Reminds us that thousands and thousands didn't make it.

MARCUS LEE LONG, U.S. NAVY (RET): I miss a lot of my buddies that we went into the service together. They didn't make it back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are 40 of those stars that belong to my division. About 13,900 injured.

TOM RONE, U.S. MARINES (RET): My name is Tom Rone. I'm a marine from World War II. I was platoon sergeant in the first marine division, fifth regiment. On August 7th, 1942, we had the first invasion of World War II on Gaudal Canal. Invading the beaches wasn't all that bad on that one. There was some later much worse. After we landed, everything broke loose.

The Japanese didn't like the fact we had come taking an airport away from them. They began to land troops north and south of us. They were determined to take us off the island. My memory of war is not good. I remember some wonderful men and young boys. And they really were young. The average age of first marine division was not 21 years old when we landed on Guadal Canal. We were mostly 17, 18, 19 years old.

And when you join, you think you're doing something for your country and you feel like you certainly are. But you don't realize what it's all about till you're there. And now someone's trying to kill you. And you realize what war is all about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Washington, D.C. you're going to have a good day.

RONE: I look at my flag. Were you in the Marine Corps? I say yes. When? I say World War II, and they say thank you. Feels very good inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more than we expected much more than we expected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hear back from family members that say, dad, my husband; my grandfather has never spoken of the war before. Now he's talking about it. A lot of them thank god are recording that on video cameras. Because when these men are gone, this history is gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What a story. You can learn more about this honor flight and the other organizations that honor our nation's troops on Veterans Day and really throughout the year. All you have to do is go to our Impact your World page. There it is, CNN.com/impact. We thank all of those veterans, of course, for their service. Amazing, amazing memorial.

Its membership roles include some of America's most famous names, even presidents and now a secret society at Yale University the target of a lawsuit. When we return, the mystery of Geronimo's skull.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Descendants of Geronimo they are suing Yale University. Secret Society called Skull and Bones were his remains. The heirs of the legendary chief claims that members robbed his grave all the way back in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since. Well Yale University says no it does not have Geronimo's remains or speak for the secret society. Skull and bones is the society really shrouded in secrecy. But many bones men as they are called are highly public figures. CNN's Campbell Brown takes a peek inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What really happens behind the padlocked doors of this windowless building? The tomb of "Skull and Bones" Yale's oldest secret society. Its members include some of America's most powerful and privileged elite, all sworn to secrecy.

ALEXANDER ROBBINS, AUTHOR: Skull and Bones' only purpose is to get its members into positions of prominence around the world so that they can elevate other members to similar positions. That's it.

BROWN: Alexander Robbins broke through the wall of silence to write "Secrets of the Tomb" based on clandestine interviews with dozens of Bones men. Only 15 Yalelies get picked each other. The society includes three U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices and too many Senators and CEOs to name. In 2004 Bush versus Kerry was the first all Bones men presidential election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You both were members of Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale. What does that tell us?

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Not much because it's a secret.

BROWN: And it's that secrecy that has allowed conspiracy theories to run wild on campus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great for the freshmen when they come in and they see a cross on old campus. Nobody knows what goes on there.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: There are people who think they run the world and it's a giant conspiracy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you haven't made $1million by the time you hit 35 they give you $1 million.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I imagine a darkroom with a lot of people sitting around in hooded capes.

BROWN: No Bones man has ever publicly revealed the truth. But it's believed the 15 juniors are selected each spring based on a mix of family connections and accomplishments.

ROBBINS: Initiation is actually pretty silly. Members dress in costumes, skeleton costumes, devil costumes, other costumes. The niches have to do things like drink fake blood out of a skull.

BROWN: And share their deepest, darkest secrets.

ROBBINS: One of the first activities they participate in is called the sexual history. During CB, as it's called, each member must spend an evening standing in front of the other 14 Bones men and recount his or her entire sexual and romantic history.

BROWN: Legend has it true Bones men have gone to even greater lengths to prove their loyalty. According to one story, Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's grandfather was part of a group that broke into the Oklahoma burial place of the apache Chief Geronimo and made off with his skull. An archivist at Yale's library says there is some evidence to support the claim.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: There happen to be a letter there amongst the students who were friends from a friend of Prescott Bush who said he and Prescott Bush had, indeed, stolen the skull of Geronimo.

BROWN: While there is no independent information Geronimo's grave was disturbed back in 1918, there are photos of skulls inside the Skull and Bones tomb.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: If you saw some of the earlier photographs of the society, their annual picture was always taken around a table which was at least one skull that they owned.

BROWN: So what's the payoff for all the secrecy, all the elaborate rituals? Here's the thing. Skull and Bones has a reputation of taking care of its own no matter the cost.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: They will come to the aid of families. If a man dies unexpectedly without money, they will assist the widow and the children.

BROWN: Not only that, but they have their own private retreat. Deer Island off the coast of New York. And a world of ready investors and political contacts in the highest echelons of American society.

ROBBINS: Each member gets a catalog of the members of the society. It lists where they live, what they do. A little bit about their resume, how you can contact them.

BROWN: But the biggest mystery of all? What exactly is the point? Setting aside all the legend and myth, what has kept this secret society alive for all these years? Good old-fashioned networking for the super elite.

Campbell Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: One woman, one mission, and one continent. We'll tell you where these shoes are going and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Changing lives two feet at a time. That's the motto of a foundation that just shipped 12,000 pairs of shoes to African. Don Lemon has the story from a woman who started it all after seeing this picture of feet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): She's a mother.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I'm OK. I know how to get down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in the thicket?

LEMON: A visionary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a science to this.

LEMON: And a fighter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's packing the shoes wrong.

LEMON: Battling extreme poverty on the continent of Africa. Her weapon, shoes. A million pairs, she hopes.

DION FEARON, FOUNDER, THE ASHE FOUNDATION: A million pairs of shoes. But I believe that it's going to be way more than a million pairs.

LEMON: Dion Fearon founded a nonprofit called the Ashe Foundation. Ashe is uribe for the power to make things happen. That's exactly what she did after seeing this image.

FEARON: That image of the feet wearing pop bottles for sandals kind of struck a cord in me. I said, you know what? I could do something about that.

LEMON: Shoes for Africa was off to a running start. With a little star power from R & B Recording artist Kenny Lattimore. Celebrity stylist Banks and then Antina Campbell a complete stranger who had become Fearon's closest ally. The two met in church after one of Fearon's appeals for shoes.

ANTINA CAMPBELL, DIR. OF OPERATIONS, THE ASHE FOUNDATION: She starts talking about the Ashe Foundation and collecting shoes. And taking them over to Africa. And all that was like wow, to me. I got to help her. I had just wrapped a Nickelodeon show. I had an 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.

KENNY LATTIMORE, SINGER: I didn't want it to just be, oh, 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.

LEMON: The organization's mission is to change the lives of millions of children in Africa nations 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.

FEARON: Will smith was in church one Sunday. He heard me begging for shoes. He said, OK, I'll pay for 15 people, 15 members of the congregation to go to Africa to deliver these shoes.

LEMON: The experience made Fearon even more determined to; as she calls it, beg for shoes for barefoot children. These two showed up for the shoe distribution sharing one shoe each.

FEARON: 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.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has never been worn.

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

FEARON: What's the count?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventy pairs in this box.

LEMON: 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.

FEARON: This is a good day.

LEMON: She says a prayer.

FEARON: That this container makes it to its final destination.

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

(END VIDETAPE)

BALDWIN: Don Lemon there. Amazing what a pair of shoes can do, isn't it? You can read more about this story online. Just go to CNN.com/don. And you can see more pictures from the producer's story. Amazing stuff. Thank you so much for joining me.

Again I'm Brooke Baldwin sitting in for Fredricka Whitfield this Sunday.