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The Toronto 18 May Still Pose Threat; Tough Questions for Wall Street Fat Cats; Lucky 13; "Walk in Their Shoes"

Aired December 14, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time to push forward now with the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips.

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Tony, great to see you.

We are. We're getting started now. Talking about more loans, more regulation. The president says it's a small price to pay for taxpayer-funded bailouts. Banks say, "What bailouts?"

If Tiger Woods bails on golf, will fans follow? What do you think? Tweet me on the future of the game without its biggest name.

And home-grown terror in Toronto, a CNN special investigation. If you think the crime is shocking, wait till you hear the punishment.

We begin now with an estimated one in five U.S. troops who serve in Iraq or Afghanistan coming home with posttraumatic stress. One in ten troops fighting America's two wars are women. We'll do the math.

It means thousands of American women know the horrors of war firsthand, not merely through husbands or fathers or brothers. Consider this: two million Americans have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. More than 220,000 of those, 11 percent are women.

Pentagon policy bars women from officially-designated combat ops, but women still get hurt or killed, or traumatized, in war zones. June Moss is one of them. She's a single mom who survived the war in Iraq but couldn't handle life back home. My colleague Campbell Brown has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAFF SERGEANT JUNE MOSS, IRAQ VETERAN: We were part of the first wave in.

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): When Staff Sergeant June Moss was deployed in Iraq in 2003, she had already served a stint in Kosovo in 1999. She thought she knew what she was in for, but she had no idea.

MOSS: Kosovo was nothing like Iraq at all. People were literally dying right there on the spot.

BROWN: Moss worked as a mechanic and a driver, navigating dangerous terrain. She never knew what to expect, and she was scared every day. MOSS: Decapitations. We saw the charred bodies from the explosions and seeing all the debris. You didn't know when you drove through a crowd whether there was a suicide bomber or not. You didn't know if somebody was going to throw something your way.

BROWN: After five months of that, Moss says she returned home to her family.

MOSS: Within a few months of being home, that's when I noticed, hey, you know, something's a little odd.

BROWN: Moss says she was crying all the time and always felt anxious.

MOSS: Because I was never sleeping. I was constantly checking the locks and making sure we were secure.

BROWN: Her daughter Brianna (ph) saw the change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said she had nightmares about, like, people taking us away or her and war or guns shooting.

BROWN: June distanced herself from her family and her friends.

MOSS: Most of the time I would stay in the house and stay secluded, either isolated and wouldn't go shopping or wouldn't visit. There was times that I didn't even want to get out of bed.

BROWN: With her life spiraling out of control, she attempted suicide by cutting her wrists.

MOSS: The ambulance came and my kids asked me, "Mommy, why did you do that?" And the only thing I could say at the time was I had a bad day.

BROWN: She knew then she needed help.

Nearly 20 percent of all servicemen and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, which is posttraumatic stress disorder, or its symptoms. And that's according to Dr. Natara Garavoi (ph). She works at a first-of-its-kind center for women's mental health at the V.A. in Northern California. She says returning female soldiers like June Moss are particularly vulnerable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anytime they've been exposed or experienced horror, all of that can qualify as a traumatic event that could lead to PTSD.

BROWN: Women are joining the military at unprecedented rates, making up 14 percent of active duty troops, and 20 percent are in the reserves. Technically, they only serve in combat support roles, but that doesn't shield them from the horrors of war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their combat exposure and their combat trauma is just as significant as men whoa re in combat roles. And so from a society perspective, sort of appreciating kind of women's contribution is a really important thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were fired at by snipers a few times.

BROWN: Twenty-four-year-old Corporal Shiloh Morrison (ph) was a gunner in Iraq. She's been seeing Dr. Garavoi (ph) for about a year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was really frustrating when you come back from a deployment, and people already have their mind made up and already infer that you're not in combat, when everyone is in combat.

BROWN: Morrison served her time first in Iraq and then in Kuwait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I worked in the mortuary the last four months of my deployment, and it's all the human remains from Iraq go through there. The fallen angels that I saw were younger than me. I grew up very quickly in four months.

BROWN: When she came back home, she reenrolled in college, but life was anything but normal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you're a reservist, you come back, and you're thrown right back into civilian, happy-go-lucky family life, and I mean, that's not the reality.

BROWN: And like many people who suffer the symptoms of PTSD, she couldn't sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's nothing that's going to stop certain images from coming.

BROWN: She soon realized she needed help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew that the person that I was at the time wasn't who I wanted to be. Just the angry -- angry person just wasn't who I was.

BROWN: Today, Shiloh Morrison is back in college full-time. She says she still struggles sometimes, worries about being deployed again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's mentally and physically exhausting. I feel like I'm about 40 years older than I am, after one deployment. I don't want to go through two.

BROWN: June Moss says she was diagnosed with PTSD two years ago. She's recovering, but slowly.

MOSS: Cured is a big -- that's a strong -- coping, adapting is probably where we're at. It's probably the best we can hope for. I don't think it ever goes away.

BROWN: Campbell Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: "Band of Sisters," a series of special reports on "CAMPBELL BROWN," 8 Eastern tonight only on CNN.

America's highest ranking officer is laying out the plan for Afghanistan in Afghanistan. Joint chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen tells G.I.s in the Afghan capital that al Qaeda and the Taliban can run, but they can't be allowed to keep hiding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Most important goal in this strategy is the elimination of the safe havens for al Qaeda and its extremist allies and to ensure that Afghanistan does not provide a safe haven in the future. Part of that, certainly, is to capture or kill bin Laden and Zawahiri and his other compatriots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, he says that 30,000 U.S. reinforcements and 7,000 new troops from NATO will fight only in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan where militants hide out and launch attacks in both countries. The U.S. will help Pakistanis with training and equipment.

A stunning blow for Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and for once I don't mean that politically. The flamboyant leader was badly hurt when a man hit him in the face with a metal statuette in Milan yesterday. Berlusconi suffered a broken nose and broken teeth. And even though he's feeling better today, his doctor says he's aggrieved by, and I quote, "the hatred" that spurred the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALBERTO ZANGRILLO, SAN RAFFAELE HOSPITAL (through translator): It was not easy for the prime minister. He was shocked. He was upset, no doubt he had an interrupted sleep, and it's just like he had woken up from a nightmare. He was most upset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Berlusconi is expected to stay in the hospital at least another day and a half. His alleged attacker is in jail pending formal charges.

There's a conspiracy out there. But don't worry. They're not out to get you. They just want your good will. You might not look at Christmas the same way again.

And good for you, Stephen King. The scaremeister and Mrs. King donated $12,999 so members of Maine's National Guard could travel home for the holidays before they go to Afghanistan. King didn't want to the donate the total cost of $13,000, because he didn't want to the mess with that number 13. So an assistant actually chipped in the last buck.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The nation's chief exec meeting a room full of bank chief execs. More suits in one place than a Men's Warehouse. CEOs lend the president their ear. But the big question is will they lend the economic recovery their money?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Just a few minutes ago, the president emerged from his big meeting with big bankers. The basic message: "We bailed you out, now it's your turn to help with our recovery."

The president said that he wants them to support financial reforms that would protect you and me. He also urged the big banks to loosen the purse strings and start loaning again, especially to small businesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Around the table all of the financial industry executives said they supported financial regulatory reform. The problem is, there's a big gap between what I'm hearing here in the White House and the activities of lobbyists on behalf of these institutions or associations of which they're a member up on Capitol Hill. I urged them to close that gap.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: OK. Enough about Wall Street for now. Let's go ahead and turn back to Main Street, and are things looking up where you live? That was a question CNN chief business correspondent Ali Velshi actually asked in Ashboro, North Carolina, home of the state zoo. And it's not too far but not too close to the state's major cities and their resources. So how is Ashboro making do on its own?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we're seeing is this town in the middle of a slow change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You simply have to understand that you're not going to make the same and do the same work that you did before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a city full of vacant buildings. Something ought to come in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must be poised to answer as a community whether or not we have what it takes to get the resources into the hands of the folks that are creating jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From my perspective, we've seen this economy go from denial to crisis and panic to resignation -- and I feel, and I don't want to put words in people's mouths, but I feel like we may be pushing out of the resignation now and into the solutions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to get out there and do what it takes to find that job, and if that means moving to a new place, which wasn't possible for me. I had plenty of job offers but not here. Then going back to school, may be your best option. And we're fortunate because we have a terrific option here. ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: You've got a lot of universities in the larger area but it won't have necessarily been practical for you to go too far out to go to school. But these universities have partnered to provide education right here in your community?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right here in our community. It saves people a commute. So this is really set up for people in this community looking for retraining.

VELSHI: This issue of retraining is a big deal, though, because for a lot of mid-career people, they lose their jobs. It disorients them. And for a long time, they're waiting for that job to come back or something to change. You had to make some decision at some point to say, "I'm going to have to go after something different."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can sit around and wait but I think -- what is it, God helps those who help themselves?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Ali switches to the Carolinas tomorrow. He's heading 100 miles down I-73 and checking out how things are going in Dillon, South Carolina.

And back in Washington, lawmakers plan to whip out Uncle Sam's checkbook. The Senate has passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill. Benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid on the receiving end of that money.

Democrats say that more Americans need the help. Republicans are slamming it and the growing federal deficits.

Issue No. 1, the economy probably taking a toll on a Santa near you. Expect gift giving this holiday season to be a bit more practical and a lot less extravagant. Just check out our latest CNN/Opinion Research poll. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed say they'll spend less this holiday season than last. Thirty-nine percent say they'll spend about the same. Only 12 percent plan to shell out more.

And practicality, well, will be under a lot of Christmas trees, 68 percent saying they're getting gifts people need, compared to 27 percent who say they're buying more of the fun stuff.

Did you heard about -- hear about, rather, the Advent Conspiracy? Don't worry. I'm not talking "X Files" here. It's a Christian group that feels that the Christmas holiday has become far too commercialized, and this Christmas, you can bet that people are hearing their message.

CNN's Christine Romans has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Ken and Joanne Hawkins and their four kids, the family that prays together shops together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Christmas has always been very chaotic, and a lot of shopping, a lot of wrapping, and craziness, and then January would come around, and it would be this whole letdown.

ROMANS: But that's changing this year. The Hawkins family has joined a growing Christian movement that calls itself the Advent Conspiracy. A conspiracy that boils down to this: conspire to give fewer, more thoughtful gifts and put the savings toward a good cause.

The recession has made the message resonate. This clip promoting the true meaning of Christmas has gone viral, more than a million views on YouTube.

Here in St. Louis, pastors gather for a briefing how to join the Advent Conspiracy and get a pep talk from professional baseball player and devotee Albert Pujols. More than 1,000 churches have signed on.

GREG HOLDER, CO-FOUNDER, ADVENT CONSPIRACY: We're seeing a variety of different church types: megachurches, house churches, mainline established churches. It's crossing a variety of lines, because we're remembering what we have in common, and that's the story of Jesus and this longing that each of us has to make a difference.

ROMANS: The Hawkins' pastor is hoping his parishioners will think before they buy.

JONATHAN MITCHICAN, PASTOR, CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMFORTER: We're not saying, you know, don't buy anything, but spend less. Buy one less gift. Don't go into debt. Buy -- buy less, worship more.

ROMANS: The church has held seminars and make-your-own-gift workshops, raised money through its annual bazaar. Sermons have focused on the movement's four tenets: worship fully, spend less, give more, love all. The Hawkins family is trying to do just that.

HAWKINS: It's not about things, the commercialism of Christmas. Not saying that we're not going to get any gifts. Of course, we're going to get gifts. But we're going to spend less. We're going to really look at what -- how we spend our money.

ROMANS: Of course, devout Christians every year decry the commercialism of their holiday. The question is: does the Advent Conspiracy still resonate once the recession is finally over?

Christine Romans, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Balancing faith and finances. When money's tight, Christine Romans explores how we worship and how we spend. "In God we Trust: Faith and Money in America," Saturday night, 8 Eastern, only on CNN.

Say cheese. Why are families on the brink of financial collapse smiling this holiday season? They're doing so in a flash and capturing memories for a lifetime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

She won the votes. She made history, Annise Parker, the first openly-gay person to be elected mayor of Houston. Houston is now the biggest city to elect an openly-gay mayor. Parker won nearly 54 percent of the vote in a run-off.

Defendants or political pawns? Iran says it will put three American hikers on trial, saying they had suspicious aims when they crossed the border from Iraq in July. There are fears Iran is simply using the hikers as bargaining chips in talks over its nuclear program.

Talk about bad timing. Santa might be bringing chaos to British Airways passengers after cabin crews voted to strike for 12 days over Christmas and New Years. The union is protesting a string of layoffs and a pay freeze. The airline says it's, quote, "working hard on contingency plans."

Well, it's raining and it's pouring, and the south is getting a real soaking. And then some. What do you think? Are we in for a wet Christmas, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I thought you were going to say, "The old man is snoring." I didn't know where you were going with that one.

PHILLIPS: It kind of looked like I was going there.

MYERS: Yes, a little bit.

PHILLIPS: It couldn't be too cliche.

MYERS: Exactly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Hey, my Web site of the day -- I know you've heard about this -- Google.com. Why is it my Web site of the day? Because if you go to maps.Google.com, or just click on "maps," and you can click on traffic. There's a little button on the top of the Google Maps button. Bet you never even knew that. And you can get traffic for all over the country. And if you're going to be traveling like everybody else is this Christmas holiday season, may be a good thing.

You can even look for these little symbols, kind of like little "caution" symbols. You touch that little caution symbol, tap that, it will say right there, as I double tap it, it will say that there's snow on I-70 at Vail Pass. Look at that. Chains on one drive. Axel combos, commercial vehicles.

You can learn a lot more things about where you're going, especially if you're having to drive through some of the mountain passes, because they can be tricky with 51 inches of snow on the ground, too, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. That's a lot of snow.

MYERS: Not in Vail but in Utah.

PHILLIPS: Yes, there you go. That's normal. Thanks, Chad.

Making holiday memories that last a lifetime, one family at a time. There's actually a wonderful group of still photographers who are capturing the true spirit of the season and providing a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look here. Two, one. Awesome.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are moms and dads trying hard to make ends meet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give me a little smile.

CANDIOTTI: They are mother and son, trying to get a troubled life back on track.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys. Here we go.

CANDIOTTI: They're a family worrying whether their son will live to sit for another portrait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks awesome. Everybody smile.

CANDIOTTI: Bringing them all together on a single day is Nashville photographer Jeremy Cowart. He calls it Help Portrait.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take one more step forward.

JEREMY COWART, FOUNDER, HELP PORTRAIT: We just want to show people that they are beautiful, that they are valued, and it's really, really happening so far.

CANDIOTTI: And it was happening for Amanda, who's disabled and raising three kids alone. Volunteers did her hair and make-up for the shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I always wanted professional makeup.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): What was it like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like being queen for a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fun. CANDIOTTI: Jeremy Cowart came up with the idea over the summer. And before you know it, word spread, mainly over the Internet, to more than 50 countries, including the Netherlands and Italy, more than 6,000 pros volunteering their time and talent.

(voice-over) And in nearly every state, photos. First-class photos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheese!

CANDIOTTI: Taken and printed for free.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just something special for them. And that -- that makes me happy, when I can give something -- something as simple as smiling in a picture to someone else.

CANDIOTTI: In Tennessee, the Carter family wanted a portrait to include Barrett (ph), who's recovering from cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're thankful for each picture that we have taken. You never know when it's going to be the last.

CANDIOTTI: In New York, 18-year-old Hansel Narata (ph), on probation for drug charges, is in a rehab program. He's trying to turn his life around and wants his mom to have a photo to show her he means it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to make me feel positive, you know? Looking at myself smiling. And my mother smiling. I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time.

CANDIOTTI: Or these young people in a program battling low self- esteem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really awesome to see them smile, especially some of the girls that don't really like smiling anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Look at that!

COWART: It's a reminder to me that photography is a very special gift. It's not something that we should take for granted.

CANDIOTTI: From the looks of it, no one this day took it for granted, in about 30,000 portraits and at least that many smiles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate it.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All kinds of terror plots have been foiled all around the world, but this one would have been big: a 9/11 anniversary attack planned by Canadian teenagers, brought down by a Muslim mole.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The Toronto 18, a group of young Canadians accused of planning their own version of 9/11 on September 11, 2006. Only now, are the details coming to light. Here's Drew Griffin of CNN's special investigations unit.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Investigators say this is the devastation their bomb would have caused. The aim? Kill as many Canadians as possible. The target? Downtown Toronto. The aim? Kill as many Canadians as possible. The target? Downtown Toronto -- three buildings, three bombs, all right here in the heart of Downtown Toronto and all to go off almost simultaneously using one cell phone.

MUBIN SHAIK, YOUTH DIRECTOR: It would have been that same phone, probably would have been three different numbers, and so the -- I mean, the time it takes to dial three numbers.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Mubin Shaik was the mole on the inside, a paid informant of Canadian police, and this was the so-called ringleader of the conspiracy. His name is Zakaria Amara, seen here on police evidence tape testing a cell phone-triggered detonator.

SHAIK: He knew it would cause chaos, damage, destruction, and he timed it so that -- he timed it -- he wanted to do it around 9/11. He wanted it to have the maximum effect on the Canadian psyche and the public psyche, and that is where the strength of terrorism lies.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Shaik, a Muslim youth director in Toronto, infiltrated the group, most of them teenagers. He calls them high school friends who played soccer together, had been involved with after-school Muslim youth groups.

He says they had also begun looking at perceived injustice towards Muslims around the world, and literally became self- radicalized.

SHAIK: And some have termed them "jihobbyists" because it becomes a -- it's a hobby. They are online, they are checking all this stuff out, and then it is a cause for celebration when one of them actually goes and does something.

GRIFFIN: For Toronto's police chief Bill Blair, the Toronto 18 is the new and growing threat of terror.

BILL BLAIR, CHIEF OF POLICE, TORONTO: It is one thing to keep a threat outside your borders. It is another to realize that that threat can germinate and grow inside your borders and inside your own communities. GRIFFIN: What prevented catastrophe three years ago was inside information allowing Shaik to penetrate the group, actually going on these training missions. On this undercover tape the group practices guerilla war tactics.

Also caught on tape -- purchases of what the would-be terrorists thought were large quantities of ammonium nitrate to make the three one-ton bombs they would plant in rental vans.

This police demonstration was to show a jury what the real intent was -- to kill Canadians.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And you don't say that lightly -- they could have killed thousands.

BLAIR: The detonators that have been retained worked. Had they been able to obtain the chemicals, all of the chemicals that they were trying to obtain, had they been able to detonate that in the city of Toronto, thousands of citizens would have been killed.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What may surprise you even more than the plot to kill thousands of Canadians is the punishment handed down for trying to pull it off.

(voice-over): Of the two conspirators seen loading and unloading what they thought was ammonium nitrate, one got a 14-year prison sentence but can apply for parole in just two-and-a-half years.

The other will be sentenced in January. Zakaria Amara, the mastermind who was fine-tuning those cell phone-activated detonators, has pled guilty and faces a sentence next month of up to life in prison. But in Canada, life means 25 years with the possibility for parole after serving just 15.

One of those convicted is already free, and charges against seven others were either dropped or stayed. Toronto's police chief doesn't believe the punishments fit the crime.

BLAIR: The police always want greater sentences to reflect the abhorrence we have to such crime. I think this is a very real plot. Had they been successful, they could have killed thousands of citizens in the city.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Now many are back on the streets are back on the streets with no guarantees for the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: So two questions. Why such light sentences? We're talking about thousands of people potentially.

GRIFFIN: And these people thought they were going to pull it off. One problem is -- well not a problem. There's a difference between Canadian law and U.S. law. Which we're seeing today with sentencing here in Atlanta for two terrorists. But the other part of this is police in Toronto did such a good job, that I think they had a hard time convincing anybody that these plotters were actually going to do this. In other words, they were on the inside, trying to make sure this wasn't going to happen, and they had outsmarted themselves in thinking that, well, the police were on this from the beginning, so this was not a serious threat.

But as you heard from the police chief, very serious crime they were plotting.

PHILLIPS: And you've got some that are back on the street. So, how do you know that they're not going to commit any type of crime?

GRIFFIN: I talked with two people ho have talked to those who are on the streets or about to be released.

Kyra, there's no guarantee. They're saying they're not convinced their minds have been changed by the short stints they did in prison or for the seven people -- who just walked that had gotten any punishment at all. So, an there will really is a fear that this kind of thinking, this homegrown terrorististic thinking is still very fervent up there in Toronto.

PHILLIPS: We'll have to wait and see. Thanks, Drew.

Turns out those five young Americans busted last week in Pakistan won't be headed home soon. The group disappeared from their homes and families in Virginia only to turn up half a world away, supposedly bent on joining the Taliban or al Qaeda.

Now, Pakistani police say two well-known militant groups turned the Americans away. The U.S. had pushed for speedy extradition, but a court order blocked it at least until a hearing on Thursday.

And here in Georgia, it's sentencing day for two other young Muslims convicted of taking up jihad. The man on the right (INAUDIBLE) Sadiqi, was given 17 years for supporting terrorists and a foreign terror organization. His co-conspirator, Sayeh Akmed (ph), will be sentenced next hour.

Imagine sitting on a waiting list and almost running out of time. Thirteen people. They nearly ran out of hope for a kidney transplant. Now they've found their match.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Tough questions for Wall Street fat cats as President Obama meets with the nation's bankers today. He wants to know what the rest of America is asking: how can they hand out major bonuses for top execs and not make more loans to small businesses? The president says the banks got a big bailout from taxpayers, so it's their turn to help us out.

How private are text messages? The Supreme Court is going to weigh in on that, taking up the case of a California police officer and whether he can expect text messages on his city-issued pager to be off-limits from the boss. This happened after he sent hundreds of sexually explicit texts to his wife.

If you're going to the post office, don't plan on anything -- don't plan anything for later, I guess you should say. You could be there for quite awhile. Today is the busiest mailing day of the year. More than 800 million other packages, cards and letters are competing with yours to be processed.

Who says 13 isn't a lucky number? For 13 kidney transplant patients, 13 donors brought the gift of life. But not quite how the you think. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the multiswap program that culminated with an incredible six days of surgery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Renee Patterson is looking forward to Christmas. And although there's going to be plenty of boxes under the tree, the most precious present for Patterson this year isn't something from a store. This week she was given the gift of life.

RENEE PATTERSON, KIDNEY RECIPIENT: I've told people I'm getting my kidney, I've told them how I'm getting it, the first thing out of their mouth is wow.

GUPTA: Nine years ago, Renee learned she was suffering from kidney disease. Her kidney eventually began to deteriorate. Because she couldn't find a family match, her colleague, Michael Williams, said he would donate his own kidney. Problem was, Renee and Michael didn't match either. But Renee's doctor knew of a donor recipient pair kidney donation program at Washington Hospital Center. So she and Michael put themselves on a list.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS, KIDNEY DONOR: It was kind of jumping out there on faith. And lo and behold, it's working out for her.

GUPTA: Across town in Washington, D.C., businesswoman Leslie Wolfe was in a similar situation. She was willing to give a kidney to her best friend's husband, Stewart Block. But they didn't match. Lesley along with Stewart put herself on a similar list at Georgetown University Hospital.

LESLIE WOLFE, KIDNEY DONOR: If you can do something that is not life threatening to you that will save someone else's life, why would you say no?

GUPTA: So early this December in an effort to help more patients receive kidney transplants, doctors from Georgetown and the hospital center decided to meld their lists together. Coming up with a 13 way, 26 patient match that would take six days to complete, performing at least two to three operations a day.

DR. JOSEPHN MELANCON, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: All of the recipients had donors that they didn't match with. And they had to receive a transplant via a paired kidney exchange. GUPTA: Renee, Michael, Leslie and Stewart were part of that 26. And Renee would get Leslie's kidney. On the last day of the operations, Leslie's kidney was removed, cleaned and ready to be transported to Washington Hospital Center where Renee's doctors were waiting to implant the kidney. Stewart had already received his transplant. And Michael's kidney was removed the same day that Renee received hers. By crisscrossing patients, 13 people were able to renew their lives. And 11 of them were minorities.

Doctors say more minorities need to join these exchange programs.

MELANCON: It's very important for minorities to be able to receive living transplants because their outcomes with disease donor are not as good as everyone else.

GUPTA: As soon as Renee is recuperated, she and Leslie plan to meet. Renee realized the sacrifice Leslie made for her. But she also realizes this would have never happened without her best friend by her side. He's saving my life, because I wouldn't have been able to be in this circle. At the same time, he's saving somebody else's life.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The fallout and the faces behind state budget crunches. A lot of poor women are now going to have to find another way to protect their health. At least 20 states are cutting or limiting who gets free mammograms or Pap smears. Women not turned away are put on long waiting lists. All this at a time when more people are out of work and uninsured. State programs are focusing their free screenings only on women considered high-risk now.

The Senate compromise over health care reform could be in big trouble. Independent senator Joe Lieberman says he'll oppose it if it expands Medicare coverage to uninsured Americans as young as 55. Lieberman's vote is critical. Senate Democrats had counted on his support for the 60th vote need to pass that measure. Republicans united against it.

And a second week of climate talks underway in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here are today's headlines so far. The United States announcing a new initiative to support clean energy technologies in developing nations. It's called Climate Ready. Short -- for renewables and efficiency deployment initiative.

Now, it will be funded by $350 million coming from industrialized countries. $85 million of that money from the U.S. Also announced today, an international meeting slated for next year in Washington touted as the first-ever clean energy.

Well that, guy looked paralyzed to you, right? Wheelchair-bound inmates, fluffing their pillows. Sure. And I've got some ocean front property in Amarillo for you, too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: All right. Let's face it. Making fun of school cafeteria food is about as old as meatloaf itself. But next hour, you might not look at school meat the same way again.

Plus, a golf legend puts in her two cents on Tiger Woods, and she's got a wealth of insight. Also, your two cents via Twitter.

What in the name in Sam Houston was going on at that prison in Texas? Check out the security video that we got our hands on. There's prison lifer, sexual assault Arcade Como back in 2007 in his cell. He had the prison staff believing that a stroke left him paralyzed. Uh-huh.

And now you'd think the mask would have come off after this video, but no. Last year, Como unlocked his cell and attacked a prison guard. But he kept the con going, and people actually believed him. Two weeks ago, he pulled a gun, overpowered some guards and ran -- yes, ran off. He was caught a few days later, and OK, news flash to the Texas corrections system, he's not paralyzed.

A lot of folks compare bankers to weasels these days, but a British engineer was thinking moles all the way. Remember the arcade classic Whack-a-Mole? Well, he replaced them with bankers. For about 40 pence you pay, about 65 cents, you can whack a banker to your heart's content -- well, about 30 seconds, actually.

And no surprise, it's a total hit. Folks are wearing out the mallets faster than the inventor can even replace them. Sadly, even if you win, you lose. High scorers hear a message from the bankers saying they're retiring on our dime.

To understand the brawl that left another student dead in the street, he says you've got to walk in his shoes. One of the teens in this video talks about the day Derrion died.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We have been shocked by some horrific acts of teen violence recently -- the brutality and senselessness impossible to understand -- unless, some of these kids say, you take a walk in their shoes. Our T.J. Holmes has put together a fantastic series for "AMERICAN MORNING." He joins us live from New York. Hey, T.J.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra. Yes. We all remember the story of Derrion Alert. The video that shocked everybody. Unfortunately, so many fights and thing that happen every single day. Not everybody's getting killed every day, but still, so many fights happen every single day.

We went to try to understand really the story behind that video -- that shocking video we saw. We went to Chicago and, yes, quite literally took a walk in some of these kids shoes and talked to a young man who participated in that fight whose brother right now is in jail, charged with the murder of Derrion Albert. We went to him to try to understand. And he explains what we saw in the video isn't the same thing he saw that day on that street. We share with you the first part of the series. But we want to warn our viewers, some of the video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): Teen violence, it's a problem just about everywhere. In California, a crowd watches a 15-year-old girl gang raped after a high school dance. Five of the six suspects are teenagers.

In Florida a 15-year-old suffers second degree burns over 80 percent of his body when five teens set him on fire in a dispute involving his failure to pay them $40 for a video game. And in Chicago, this violent image captured on a cell phone camera. 16-year- old Darien Albert beaten to death by a mob of teens. A killing so senseless and brutal, it strikes a nerve across the country.

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This nation was shocked. Shocked.

HOLMES: All the way to the White House.

HOLDER: It was a stark wake-up call to a reality that can be easy for too many to ignore.

HOLMES: A wake-up call to a startling reality. Where, according to the most recently released CDC figures, on average, 16 young people are murdered each day in the United States.

In Chicago, 12 public school students have been killed in the last four months, including Derrion Albert.

VASHION BULLOCK, FOUGHT IN BRAWL THAT KILLED DERRION ALBERT: I've got some regrets. I wished I would have just stayed home that day.

HOLMES: Vashion Bullock was one of those kids who took part in the Chicago brawl.

BULLOCK: One of the kids had thrown a rock in my brother's car, so I approached the body. I'm like, why are you throwing rocks and stuff at the car?

HOLMES (on camera): Who is this on the ground?

BULLOCK: That's Derrion.

HOLMES (voice-over): Vashion says what the public sees in these images and what he saw that day are two different stories. In his world he says fighting is about survival.

(on camera): Tell me, though, in the few years you were at Fenger, how often were you getting in fights?

BULLOCK: Like every two weeks, something like that. HOLMES: Every couple of weeks?

BULLOCK: No. What you mean by fights? What I'm talking about is like fistfights when I go home for like the whole day. Or are you just talking just an altercation?

HOLMES: Either way. Some would say just a little altercation, that's still a fight. And if you get into it every couple of weeks, that's a lot.

BULLOCK: Right. You can only walk away for so long.

HOLMES (voice-over): No one seemed to walk away that day. That September afternoon when Derrion Albert was murdered.

(on camera): Let me get to this point about Derrion. Did you know him beforehand?

BULLOCK: Yes.

HOLMES: From school?

BULLOCK: Yes.

HOLMES: How well did you know him?

BULLOCK: I didn't know him like that. All I know is he used to come sit in the back of the lunch room and come sit with us.

HOLMES: But Derrion would also hang out with kids Vashion didn't get along with. A simmering tension that would come to a head.

BULLOCK: How long can you be firm with somebody messing with you?

HOLMES: We'll ask Vashion what was going through his mind that day. How he could have participated in a fight that shocked the nation. And why he does not think his brother should be in jail as one of the four teens charged in the killing of Derrion Albert.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And Kyra, the answer you hear so much about why, why do you do it, why do you have to fight, why is this necessary -- and we heard this quote so often in Chicago. "I ain't no punk." To an adult, that sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever, but for these kids, so many of these kids, they don't have anything else. They come from broken homes a lot of times, tough neighborhoods, nothing to look forward to, and all they have as their currency is their reputation to fight for.

Kids do it all the time, depending on where you are. In a rich suburb, you're competing with another kid who has the nicest car, who's dating the top athlete. You're always competing. These kids -- all they have is reputation, and that's what they are fighting for. Literally.

PHILLIPS: So, what actually started the fight? No one's ever been able to give a clear answer about that.

HOLMES: That's the word -- clear answer. He said he was simply, he was driving by and guys were throwing rocks at his brother's car. They decided to step out, and that's how they got involved. But really, a melee was taking place before that.

Now, before that, no one can pretty much pin it down. You have two kids from two different neighborhoods, essentially there, in Chicago who have been thrown together in this one school. After one school shut down, these kids were forced to go to school with other kids from two neighborhoods that didn't like each other. And these little flares happen all the time. And it just so happened in this one, someone got killed.

PHILLIPS: T.J., do me a favor and stick around. We'll do part a two of your report in just a moment.

HOLMES: I'll be right here.