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President Obama Meets Turkish Prime Minister; Rape Cover-Up 101; New Global Warming Controversy

Aired December 07, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The president there at the Oval Office, side by side with the Turkish prime minister, obviously talking about Iraq, its relationship with Turkey in fighting that war. Also talking about creating jobs.

And he's getting ready for his speech at the global warming summit there in Copenhagen, Denmark. We'll be following all of that.

Also, this hour's top stories. We're talking about drawing the line on abortion again. This time, it's the Senate facing a push by anti-abortion rights members led by a Democrat to tighten restrictions in a health care reform bill.

Liberals say an amendment from Democratic Senator Ben Nelson goes too far. Nelson and others say they won't support reform without it.

And from California to Michigan, winter's coming on with a vengeance. Watches and warnings are in effect in more than a dozen states, and forecasters say we haven't seen anything yet.

A storm taking shape out West could bring blizzards to the southern Rockies tonight and to parts of the Midwest tomorrow. We could be measuring the snow, believe it or not, in feet.

Well, it was quite an education, to say the least. A college junior tells police that she was raped. They declined to press charges. She files a complaint with campus cops and gets checked out by school doctors. And then she says she was urged to go away, to drop the complaint and pick up with her studies.

Kathryn Russell is the face of a case that became a much wider investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, and the group found this is not an isolated outrage. Here's some stats.

According to the Justice Department, one in five women on college campuses will become a victim of rape or attempted rape. And about 95 percent remain silent, never even reporting the crime.

Joining us from New York, Paul Callan, defense attorney and former prosecutor, and also Kristen Lombardi. She's the investigative reporter who dug into all of this for the Center for Public Integrity.

And I've got to tell you, Kristen, great job. We were pretty amazed by this story and, of course, wanted to talk to you more about it.

We just set up Kathryn's story, Kathryn Russell and what she says happened to her. But she wasn't alone.

What shocked you the most as you investigated this story for nine months?

KRISTEN LOMBARDI, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Thank you, Kyra, for having me on.

I think one of the things that shocked us the most about this is just the level of underreporting that goes on about this problem. I mean, we found, overwhelmingly, many students don't report simply because they don't identify what happened to them as sexual assault. And to me, that was pretty striking. But when they do report, even if it's delayed and it's late reporting, we found that institutional obstacles really compound the problem.

For instance, a lot of students that we interviewed described situations where administrators discouraged them from pursuing rape complaints within the college judicial system. They actively discouraged them by presenting the on-campus judicial process as, you know, a really unappealing, unattractive process, something that they were going to beat their heads against the wall with. And so students often just said, why bother? Why go forward?

And then for students who actually did go through a judicial process, they really described a process that was shrouded in secrecy. You know, we heard about students -- we heard from students, you know, really mystifying disciplinary proceedings where they were shut out of the process.

They filed a complaint, but they didn't necessarily know what happened during the adjudicatory process. All they knew were the outcomes. Or we talked with students who were sort of, they believed, steered into confidential mediations with the accused student and their alleged perpetrator, where everything that was said was, you know, confidential and not to be used in any further judicial proceeding.

And we also a talked to students that, you know, submitted to policies that acted as gag orders, essentially, where they had to keep quiet about certain details of their cases and...

PHILLIPS: All right. Here's what I find interesting.

You know, Kristen, as I'm listening to you, I'm thinking about page by page by page of this investigation where I was reading all this thinking, oh, my gosh, why is all this happening? What's the law? What law protects the university? What law protects the students?

And Paul, that's where I want to bring you in, because administrators of these universities say, oh, we're just following the law. I mean, this is a privacy issue, yet you've got students saying no way, they just want to keep it a secret and that's what they were telling me to do.

What does -- and, you know, FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, I know plays a part here. Explain how that kind of creates a gray area here for both victim and also university in its take.

PAUL CALLAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, the universities are in a complicated position. They have this FERPA law that you've just cited to which basically preserves confidentiality. That's the law that if you send your kid off to college and you want to see his report card, the parents can't even look at the report card because FERPA says unless the student signs a consent form, his records are private. So, they're looking at that law and they're saying FERPA prohibits us from revealing publicly what goes on in some of these disciplinary proceedings.

Now, there are two other laws that are in play here. One is called Title IX, which basically, among other things, prevents discrimination against women. And the third is the Clery Act, which requires colleges to report crimes, particularly violent crimes, that occur on their campus.

So, the colleges are trying to balance all of these laws and the rights of their students, and they have come up with what is the best thing for them. And that is, let's keep it secret. Because what college wants to report that rapes are taking place on college campuses?

So you know the pressure is going to be there to try to underreport or not report the existence of sexual assaults on campuses. And that's where the colleges have been going with this traditionally.

PHILLIPS: So, taking this all into consideration, if my daughter is in college right now and she's raped, what should she do? I mean, I would advise her, call the police department, tell them what happened, file a report, and pursue this as any other woman would do if raped.

I mean, I guess, do they have to deal with the university? Do they have to deal with university police? Do they have to go through the university system or can they just call the police department?

CALLAN: They can absolutely just call the cops. I mean, that's what the law allows.

And I think what you have to remember with respect to this study, this study is focusing on cases, a lot of cases, where women have gone to the police and the police have found there is a problem with the case. And they don't want to prosecute the case.

So they then turn back to the university and they get involved in university disciplinary proceedings and mediation proceedings. These proceedings all have special rules, they have privacy rules. And these women are finding they don't get satisfaction on campus. But they can pursue criminal charges and they also can pursue civil charges. You could sue somebody civilly for money damages if you are raped. So these women, these young college students, there are alternatives available to them if the colleges don't give them satisfaction.

PHILLIPS: And Kristen, just to button it up, you actually name universities in your report. You talk about some of the biggest offenders and the fact that these deans leave these universities, go on to other universities. So, have you seen any result yet from your investigation that may force universities to think more about the victims' rights and doing what's right for them versus keeping a secret?

LOMBARDI: Well, certainly there's been a lot of attention to the series. And that's great, because it's raising awareness of the problem.

One thing I would like to point out is that a lot of students who go through the process, who may feel that the process -- you know, they may feel unsatisfied by the school's response, I would encourage them to look at the Education Department. The Education Department enforces both Title IX and the Clery Act, and there are complaint processes that are available to students who have gone through a process on their campuses where Education Department investigators will investigate a school's policies and procedures and make sure they are in compliance with the law, at the very least.

It's not going to overturn a verdict on campus, but at least you will be able to be ensuring that your school is implementing policies and procedures that are in compliance with the law. So I would encourage students to look at that as well.

CALLAN: You know, Kyra...

PHILLIPS: Button it up there, Paul.

CALLAN: Kyra, I wanted to add one other thing. And I think you have to remember this -- the Duke case is a reminder of this.

The men who are charged with these crimes also have rights in this process as well. And, you know, if a false complaint is made against a male student of this kind of conduct, it can be devastating to his entire life. So, you need a system that encourages fairness to both men and women, and I think we have to remember there are two sides to this equation.

PHILLIPS: Point well made.

Paul Callan, thanks so much.

And Kristen Lombardi, great reporting.

LOMBARDI: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: We're actually going to link all of you -- you bet -- to Kristen Lombardi's report on our blog. If you want to read the entire investigation, CNN.com/Kyra. You can check back after the show for that information. We encourage you to read it, especially if you have a daughter in college.

Global warming, fact, fiction or somewhere in between? This contentious debate is back on the front burner in a big way after the leak of e-mails that skeptics say cast doubt on the science behind climate change. And the opening of a major U.N. conference on the issue in Denmark.

Back in the U.S., the EPA chief has declared that greenhouse gases pose a threat to your health, adding there is nothing in the hacked e-mails that undermines that declaration. But, again, skeptics aren't so sure.

Our John Roberts is in Britain, where the e-mails were stolen.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, what you see behind me here over my right shoulder, this cylindrical building, is the Climatic Research Unit here at the University of East Anglia. It is the epicenter of this huge controversy over the research around global warming.

About six weeks ago, a thousand e-mails, some 3,000 documents were stolen off of the computer servers here by hackers who have now funneled that information to skeptics of global warming who are using it to cast doubt on the entire science surrounding global warming. The person who is at the center of the controversy is Phil Jones, a professor here who is the director of the unit. He has now stepped down pending an independent review of everything that's been going on here.

Now, yesterday, I got a tour of the Climatic Research Unit by the interim director, Professor Peter Liss. He took me inside, and it's really not what you would expect to see.

It's not like a NASA or a NOAA facility where there are big weather maps with temperature indicators beeping all over. It's really -- it's just a collection of academic offices, where researchers sit there crunching numbers on a computer, which is how they come up with their data set. The big question in all of this though is what impact -- what's being called Climategate surrounding these e-mails have on the Copenhagen summit which opens today.

In an exclusive interview with Professor Liss, I put the question to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER LISS, ACTING DIRECTOR, CLIMATE RESEARCH UNIT: I don't think it should influence things at all. Of course, I'm not a politician, but I can sort of see that it might have some impact. I hope it's small or insignificant, but you have already seen people saying, well, this knocks the bottom out of the climate argument.

I mean, I don't think that's true at all. But people will say that because it suits them to say that.

ROBERTS: You said, "I hope it doesn't have an influence. It shouldn't have an influence. I think it shouldn't have an influence." But there's every possibility that it very well could.

LISS: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Well, you have heard various politicians and representatives of politicians making statements this week, saying exactly that it will have an influence, as far as they are concerned. We'll have to wait and see whether the bulk of the nations are swayed by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: As you can imagine, this is all having a tremendous impact here on the university. This Climate Research Unit was the crown jewel of the university, and it is one of the most cited climatic research centers around the world, and particularly for the fellow who was in charge of it, Phil Jones.

This was his life work, working on this global temperature record which he believes shows an increase in temperature that he believes can only be due to manmade reasons. This was to be the best time of his life now, going into the most important climate conference since Kyoto. Instead, it's turned into the worst time of his life.

And I talked to Dr. Liss about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISS: Obviously, it's not a nice thing to happen to you, because as you say, it is his life's work. I think he's a very good scientist with a huge international reputation, a very honest man.

The language is robust, but then, I think, scientists talking to scientists in what they thought was a private conversation, you know, we do speak verbosely, we do express opinions about all sorts of things. And language, well, as we see, can be very misinterpreted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: As a result of all of this, Professor Phil Jones has literally gone underground. There are dozens of requests from media not just here in the U.K., but in the United States as well, for an interview with him. We went around yesterday knocking on the door of every Phil Jones that we could find, and we couldn't come up with him.

Researchers here at the university say he is still working, though we haven't seen him come into the Climatic Research Center at all today. So, there is so much intrigue surrounding this.

Now, officials here at the university believe that when all is said and done, when this independent review is completed, Phil Jones will be found guilty of no wrongdoing or manipulation of data. But between now and then there is this enormous climate conference, and it will be long over. Policy may be set before we find out just how much of an impact this has had on everything -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, thanks.

And don't miss CNN's special coverage of the U.N. Climate Change Conference and the latest controversy over global warming kicking off tonight at 8:00 Eastern with Campbell Brown. "Trick or Truth?" only on CNN.

Too young for a colonoscopy but not too young to get Stage 4 colon cancer, a disease that doesn't play by the VA's. A vet who is now in the fight of his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

Timing is everything, right? Coinciding with the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the EPA announces greenhouse gases not only endanger the environment, but risk your health as well. Despite the declaration, EPA chief Lisa Jackson says no immediate regulatory action is needed.

An American has been charged for alleged involvement in last year's Mumbai terror attacks. They killed 160 people, six of them Americans. The suspect is David Headley of Chicago. Feds say Headley has attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan in the past. He's already facing charges that he planned attacks against a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Flags are flying at half-staff across Russia today to mourn the victims of a weekend nightclub fire. One hundred and thirteen people were killed. Investigators believe that blaze was likely ignited by an indoor fireworks display.

Four people have been charged. A fifth suspect remains hospitalized.

The next big hurdle in the health care reform track is one that we have seen before and will see again. And any time now, senators will vote on an amendment by Nebraska's Ben Nelson, a Democrat, that would bar any insurance plan that takes federal subsidies from covering abortion. It's just like a measure in the House bill at the insistence of a so-called Blue Dog Democrat and over the objections of liberals.

Here two liberals say it goes too far, but Nelson says without it he'll vote no on reform. All that notwithstanding, the Senate's top Democrat says victory is at hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: I think everyone would acknowledge the historic time legislatively we're now involved. We have tried to get to this point with health care legislation for almost 70 years, and we're there. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: If and when the Senate passes a bill, it will have to be reconciled with the House bill and both chambers will have to vote again.

A Navy veteran knew that he might get colon cancer. It runs in his family. So of course he wanted a colonoscopy for early detection's sake. But the VA denied him over and over, and now his fear is the fight of his life.

More now from Milus Harrison (ph) of WIVB in Buffalo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILUS HARRISON (ph), REPORTER, WIVB(voice-over): It's a weekly walk David Cohen would rather not make. Thursday afternoon, and another visit to the VA hospital in Buffalo.

DAVID COHEN, DIAGNOSED WITH COLON CANCER: Well, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer in August.

HARRISON: David was diagnosed in August, but this Navy veteran story starts several years earlier. Because of his family history...

COHEN: My grandmother died of colon cancer in the '70s.

HARRISON: ... and because several other family members showed signs of colon cancer, David started asking the VA to conduct a colonoscopy in 2003. He says he had colon cancer symptoms.

COHEN: I just didn't understand why I was getting them disapproved or denied every single request.

HARRISON: David has proof the VA didn't take long to deny his request.

COHEN: It was denied within minutes.

HARRISON: David provided us with paperwork showing his request for colonoscopies from the VA. This one from December, 2008, shows the request was received at 15:13, which is 3:13 in the afternoon, and denied just four minutes later.

His prognosis...

COHEN: The prognosis, from what they say, is 26 months. But, you know, I don't plan on ever living up to that.

HARRISON: But David says he plans to live much longer.

COHEN: If you feel something is wrong, if you know something, if you feel like you're not getting the right answers, don't take anyone's word for it unless you get yourself checked out and have peace of mind yourself.

HARRISON (on camera): Did this country let you down?

COHEN: I don't know about the country letting me down. I know that the VA let me down.

HARRISON (voice-over): As part of his campaign to educate the public, David is filing a lawsuit against the VA hospital.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Milus Harrison (ph), once again, of WIVB.

Now, the VA hospital told him that the VA has a comprehensive colon cancer screening program and follows U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations. The patient, David Cohen, by the way, is 40, and he would have been in his mid 30s when he asked for screenings.

Was he too young for a colonoscopy even though he wasn't too young to get the disease? Let's ask Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

You know, the name of this task force sounds familiar. We have been hearing a lot about them lately. This is the same folks saying don't get mammograms, right?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the same group that says women in their 40s do not need regular mammograms.

PHILLIPS: OK. So, well, this is interesting. I mean, here comes story number two.

You've got this guy in his 30s. He knows he's had a family history of this. He wants to get a colonoscopy. He's denied it.

What do you do?

COHEN: Well, it's tough, because let's take a look at what the Preventive Services Task Force says about when someone should be able to get a colonoscopy, because the VA follows this.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for colorectal cancer beginning at age 50. Now, they say there are some exceptions, but they say David Cohen, with his grandmother who died of colon cancer and some other family members who might have it, they say that's not enough. Grandma dying of colon cancer is not enough, we won't give you a colonoscopy.

PHILLIPS: And you know, you and I were talking about this. I brought this up about someone else that I knew that made up a bigger history in the family because she knew she had an issue. This involved ovarian cancer. And so she was able to get tests that otherwise she wouldn't have been able to get because she knew it was going to be a tough fight.

I mean, would he have gotten a colonoscopy if he maybe made up a bigger story about family history?

COHEN: If he made up a bigger story and a different story about family history, there is truly a chance that the VA would have given him the screening that now we see might have saved his life. And that is the sad reality. But a point I want to make here is that not everyone agrees with this Preventive Services Task Force, just like we saw with the mammograms.

For example, the American Cancer Society says those with a family history, like David Cohen, should talk to their doctor about starting screening at a younger age. I mean, the American Cancer Society leaves it up to the individual doctors. The VA does not leave it up to individual doctors.

And what's interesting here, Kyra, is that I spoke to some doctors and I said, "Given his history, would you have done a colonoscopy?" And they said, "Yes, in a second. We would have given him a colonoscopy." Now, not everyone would agree with that, but there are a lot of doctors out there that say, grandma died of colon cancer, I'm giving you a colonoscopy.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, it's one more reason that the VA hospitals have got to get funding and change its ways. I mean, we are constantly reporting these stories on the vet hospitals.

All right, Elizabeth. Thanks.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow this story for sure.

Remember the game show "Password"? Well, I can do your weather forecast in two words -- look West. What's falling there now is most likely heading your way soon, and there's plenty of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The first major winter storm packing a real punch. The West right now taking it on the chin. The nation's midsection may be next.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll keep following it. Thanks, Jacqui.

Hey, we found some concrete evidence that the economic stimulus is working. The proof's in the full pockets of crooks and scammers. And the empty pockets of their victims. We investigate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: I want to take a few minutes to talk about U.S. military kids growing up in wartime. Let me start in Japan. Four American teens, all children of military parents stationed there, are facing attempted murder charges. Tokyo police say the teens strung a rope between two poles on opposite sides of the street like a trip wire. It knocked a woman off her motor bike and left her with a severe head injury.

The back stories on the teens aren't clear just yet, but here's something to think about, especially as the U.S. prepares to send 30,000 more women and men to war. A new report suggests kids of military families are more stressed out, have more emotional problems than other kids. And that's not just when a parent is deployed. That's after he or she comes back. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to break down the story for us, and the numbers and the research out there.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because there hasn't been much research. We have all of these children who are being left by a parent when they are deployed, and we don't know what's happened to them.

Let's look at the study. They looked at 1,500 families where a parent was deployed. The result is 30 percent of these children reported anxiety. And the longer the deployment, the more difficulties the children had. By the way, the deployment on average in this study was about 11 months.

PHILLIPS: So let's -- all right. Talking about the different groups -- was there a certain group of kids more likely to have a harder time than another group of kids when mom or dad left?

COHEN: There were. It was interesting. Not all kids were the same. So what they found was that some kids had a harder time. For example, teens had a harder time than younger children dealing with the deployment of a parent. Also, girls had a harder time on the whole than boys. And kids living off the military base had a harder time than kids who lived on-base.

For the teens and girls, the thinking is that maybe when a parent left, they just had more responsibility at home, so they then had to take on more responsibility. As far as the kids living off the base, it's unclear, but maybe living on the base kind of gave them a community and more support.

PHILLIPS: So, why do these groups have a tougher time?

COHEN: Right. For the kids who were living off the base, it's really not entirely clear, but it is an interesting finding they want to pursue. Do kids do better when they live on a military base than when they are renting housing off the base? That's something they want to pursue as time goes on.

PHILLIPS: Then Mom and Dad gets home, does it get any better? Does it improve?

COHEN: Unfortunately, not always. You would think Mom or Dad comes home, you have this happy ending, everything's back to normal. But unfortunately, that's not always the situation. They found that there were still problems, partly because when Mom or Dad comes home, they may be a different person. They may have seen things in the war, they may have suffered psychologically, have substance abuse problems. So, you don't always get the same parent back who left.

PHILLIPS: Got it. That's tough on families all around, especially when Mom and Dad go away.

COHEN: Oh, absolutely. That's even worse.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Uncle Sam won't have to reach as deeply in the pocket to rescue troubled banks and businesses. The Treasury Department now estimates that those bailout loans will be about $200 billion less. One reason, the banks are repaying loans more quickly than anyone thought.

Just minutes ago, President Obama said the bailout program is less costly than expected but still not cheap. He wouldn't say if held redirect the money saved to create new jobs, but he does plan to touch on the topic in a speech tomorrow.

There is a group that's one hundred percent guaranteed to cash in during a recession: con artists. Many of them using stimulus scams, wracking up millions of dollars from unsuspecting, often desperate people. Our senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff, spoke with a disabled woman taken in by promises that just didn't deliver.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frances Culley was thrilled when a card arrived in the mail telling her she was approved to access a government grant of $25,000, part of the economic stimulus program.

FRANCES CULLEY, STIMULUS SCAM VICTIM: We were guaranteed $25,000, so we sent it back in.

CHERNOFF: With no strings attached. When Frances called the number listed on the postcard, she heard this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our government released over $700 billion into the private sector. What you probably don't know is there is another $300 billion that must be given away this year to people just like you.

CHERNOFF: Frances and her father, Warren, had reached the grant writer's institute. They were told their payday would be triple what the postcard had promised.

F. CULLEY: And they told him that we would definitely be getting the $75,000, that it had been approved and it would be here within a couple of weeks.

CHERNOFF: All she had to do was send $500 to the institute and they'd take care of all the paperwork to get the grant. Warren put the payment on his credit card, and Frances, anticipating her piece of the stimulus, hired a contractor to renovate her Salina, Kansas home, something she had wanted to do for years.

F. CULLEY: The floor, the cabinets the counter tops, you know, the new bathroom -- all those things that I wanted forever.

CHERNOFF: Things Frances couldn't afford because she was deep in debt due to medical bills for multiple knee operations and cancer treatments.

But all Frances ever got from the grant writer's institute was this letter, requesting $75,000 from the Nathan M. Warburg Foundation. The Federal Trade Commission says there is no Nathan M. Warburg Foundation, no guaranteed grants as part of the government stimulus program.

Frances and Warren had been taken.

WARREN CULLEY, STIMULUS SCAM VICTIM: They stole from a lot of people in this United States.

CHERNOFF: A quarter of a million people, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which charges scam artists have taken about $27 million so far through false claims tied to the economic stimulus.

MONICA VACA, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: These are opportunistic fraudsters. There are con men who will exploit any news story, the news of the day to reach into people's wallets, to get their money.

CHERNOFF (on camera): The FDC sued the Grantwriter's Institute and gained a court order, stopping the organization from making its pitch. The Grantwriters Institute and its officers deny the FTC charge of deception. They claim in court papers, "defendant has acted in good faith and in a manner that is reasonable and justified." A defense attorney declined CNN's request for an interview.

Allan Chernoff, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: They'll be shipping out soon. The first group of American troops heading out to Afghanistan. Under the new surge, some 15,000 troops are expected to deploy before the end of the year. They're part of an infantry task force. Basic camp, Lejeune, North Carolina. Another stage in the surge is expected by spring involving an additional 13,000 troops.

The search is over for a Texas inmate who escaped on foot last week despite being, quote, "paralyzed." Arcade Comeaux (ph) is back behind bars today. The 49-year-old had apparently duped prison officials into thinking a stroke left him wheelchair-bound. He's serving three life sentences for a long list of sexual assualt and other attacks.

Pope Benedict is keeping different hours than his predecessor. According to the Associated Press, the Vatican's Christmas Eve mass will be earlier this year. Crowds should flock to Saint Peter's Basilica by 10 p.m., some two hours earlier than normal. The Vatican said the break with tradition will actually help the Pope deal with busy holiday commitments without tiring him out.

Fight club. That's what you get on Capitol Hill when controversy erupts over global warming. Egging them on this time, stolen emails. And this time, we will talk about "Fight Club."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Those fine folks on Capitol Hill, our elected officials, love nothing more than a good fight over global warming. And those who diss arguments that greenhouse gases are threatening our climate, are jumping all over some stolen e-mails. Our Jim Acosta with the latest on what some are calling Climategate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With world leaders in Copenhagen hoping to cut a deal to curb carbon dioxide emissions, there are calls in Washington for hearings into a slew of stolen e- mails that global warming skeptics allege show leading scientists cooking the books on climate change.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: They read more like scientific fascism than scientific process.

ACOSTA: It all started when the University at East Anglia in Britain discovered hackers had seized a file of more than 1,000 e- mails revealing researchers' private discussions on global warming. Climate change deniers have zeroed in on this e-mail that references an American scientist's trick to "hide the decline." That researcher, Penn State's Michael Mann, has since become the target of conservative critics who say he was trying to conceal a drop in global temperatures -- a charge he denies.

Across the blogosphere of skeptics, Climategate was born.

The controversy could not have come at a better time for Republicans. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe has fought Democrats on climate change legislation for months.

SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), OKLAHOMA: One cannot deny the e-mails raised fundamental questions concerning, among other things, transparency and openness in science, especially taxpayer-funded science.

LISA JACKSON, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: You call it climate-gate, and I call it e-mail theft-gate.

ACOSTA: Last week, Republicans fired up a letter to the EPA, demanding it'll delay new limits on greenhouse gas emissions until the agency can demonstrate the science underlying these regulatory decisions has not been compromised.

The head of the EPA says the e-mails don't affect the scientific consensus on global warming.

JACKSON: I have not heard anything that causes to believe that that overwhelming consensus that climate change is happening and that manmade emissions are contributing to it have changed.

ACOSTA: GOP leaders are warning President Obama to reject any new climate change agreements in Copenhagen.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: We're not a dictatorship. The president can promise whatever he wants. The Congress has a role, if there is some proposed treaty, the Senate will vote on it.

ACOSTA: But in an era of green jobs, Democrats say denying global warming is not just bad science, it's bad business.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: If we ignore it, put our head in the sand, we're going to find countries like China leap flogging us, moving forward. That's going to create jobs for China, but not for America.

ACOSTA (on camera): Despite what these e-mails say, many respected climate scientists say the larger data still supports the global warming theory. And the controversy is not stopping the president from going to Copenhagen for the conclusion of the summit. Environmentalists hope that's a sign Mr. Obama wants to be there in person when a climate agreement is unveiled to the world.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Mrs. Santa Claus getting frisky with Frosty. With apologies to John McEnroe, you cannot be serious. Then again, for a snowman, Frosty is pretty hot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, just think. Somewhere an ad person had this amazing idea -- take two beloved Christmas characters, put them in an adulterous relationship, and hope that people buy cell phones. Take a look at this ad from Boost mobile.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BOOST MOBILE ADVERTISEMENT)

MRS. CLAUS, ANIMATION CHARACTER: You nasty boy.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, ANIMATION CHARACTER: Don't mind if I do.

MRS. CLAUS: What? You think this is wrong? Santa's busy and I have -- needs.

I'll tell you what's wrong -- cell phone plans with contracts that cost a fortune. That's why I got Boost Mobile. Their monthly unlimited plan has no contracts and it's only $50 a month.

SANTA CLAUS, ANIMATION CHARACTER: Honey, I'm home.

FROSTY: No!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And a peeping Rudolph. Oh, boy. OK, I know it's cold at the North Pole, especially when the jolly old husband's working late, but sleeping with Frosty the player there whose body heat tops out at 32 degrees isn't going to help.

So thanks a lot. Now when I watch my favorite Christmas specials, this is what I will think of. Isn't anything sacred anymore?

And a "What the ...?" follow up this hour. No truce, but a ceasefire in the between a 90-year-old veteran and his Virginia neighbors. Colonel Van Barfoot (ph) American flag still flapping from a pole in his yard after his homeowner's association pushed back a deadline to remove it. The new deadline -- Friday. Colonel Barfoot went ahead and put the pole up after the HOA denied him permission. It wasn't the flag itself they had a problem with but the pole. They threatened to sue and things got pretty ugly. Now Virginia Senator Mark Warner has stepped in to mediate.

As always Team Sanchez back there working hard for his money in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. What you got, Sanchez?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We're working on a couple of things. First of all, John McCain -- boy, lately he's just been a pistol with all the comments.

He's going after both sides really, and he's talking about the money that lobbyists are getting and giving in Washington to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. The question is, when he made this most recent accusation about the guys in the hallways being out there with money ready to give -- what was that? $1.7 million. Well, we called McCain's office because we wanted to find out who exactly were you talking about. Who is the lobbyist? The main guy for big pharma whose out there apparently taking and giving to all these Congressmen and lawmakers.

Well, we found out who he's talking about. We're going to report that. We're going to put the real numbers down by following the money for you. And we've also got information on John McCain himself and what his ties are to all this.

So we're drilling down big time on this. I think it's important. I think people should know about the lobbyists/political contribution ties to their elected officials, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I agree. We want to know where the money's going.

SANCHEZ: Absolutely. And that's what we try to do.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Bye bye.

PHILLIPS: Predicting winter snow not by inches but by feet. Blizzard watches and warnings, wind advisories and possibly flooding, and it could be headed your way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: That does it for us. Back here tomorrow at 1:00 Eastern time. Rick Sanchez picks it up from here.