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Campbell Brown

American Missionaries Freed; BBC Host Arrested After Confession; Mini Madoff

Aired February 17, 2010 - 20:00   ET

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


CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody, after weeks of seclusion, Tiger Woods announces he's going to break his silence on the scandal that has threatened to destroy his career. We've got all the details coming up tonight. We start with The Mash-Up. We are watching it all so you don't have too.

In Haiti tonight, a judge released eight Americans who were facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country in the wake of that devastating earthquake. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the American missionaries will be set free immediately on bail. They are free to leave the country, they are free to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: those eight American missionaries were loaded into a van at the jail in American and taken directly to the airport. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This came after parents of the children testified they had handed their children over to the missionaries voluntarily. Two Americans however remain in custody for further questioning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those two who are staying here in American will be Laura Silsby and her assistant if you like, Charisa Coulter. The judge, he wants Silsby and Coulter to stay behind here in American for a few days more because he wants to investigate what they were doing in Haiti on a trip prior to when the earthquake happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only condition of their release is that they has agree to come back to Haiti for questioning if asked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: A lawyer for one of the Americans freed tonight says he is optimistic all charges will be dropped. We're going to have a lot more on this story coming up a little bit later.

Hard to believe but the President signed his stimulus plan into law one year ago today and he is still battling to convince Americans that it is a success.

(BEGIN VIDE CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: So far, the recovery act is responsible for the jobs of about 2 million Americans who would otherwise be unemployed.

BLITZER: Has this plan been a success or a failure?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has it created jobs? It absolutely has. We have been direct reports, we've been phoning companies finding out if jobs have been created. The question Wolf is the return on the investment. Was it worth more than $800 billion for the job that have been created and will be created as the result of this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The numbers are all over the map, but they all credit the stimulus with significant job creation. Anywhere from 800,000 to 2.4 million new jobs.

MARK ZANDI: The stimulus is effective, it helped the economy, we're out of recession into recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Economist Kevin Hassett says the costly package actually hurts in the long run.

KEVIN HASSETT, ECONOMIST: The Administration decided to give us a sugar high last year rather than to fix something that was broken. The problem is that we still have to fix the broken things and now we don't have any money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The White House clearly fighting an uphill P.R. battle here. All week long, members of the administration including Vice President Joe Biden are out on the road preaching the stimulus gospel.

Turning to Huntsville, Alabama where witness to last week shooting rampage describes her ordeal for the first time.

Professor Moriarty was in that faculty meeting where Amy Bishop allegedly open fire and she told her story on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Moriarty scrambled under the table, grabbed at the shooters legs and then crawled for the door. She was barely over the threshold when she looked up to see the gun pointed squarely at her. PROFESSOR MORIARTY: She stepped out into the hall and pointed the gun at me. And pulled the trigger and it clicked and it clicked again. I'm here talking to you today because the gun didn't fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (on camera): The gun didn't fire? MORIARTY: Several times. She looked like she was intent on doing this and she was angry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did she say anything?

MORIARTY: No, not a word.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Moriarty says she begged with the shooter stop. MORIARTY: I know I yelled at her, Amy think about my grandson, think about my daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Moriarty is being hailed as a hero for help push Bishop out of the room and bring the rampage to a close.

BROWN: An ocean away in the United Kingdom, police have arrested that B.B.C. correspondent who admitted to killing his lover who was dying of AIDS. The correspondent Ray Gosling made his confession on national television, he explained himself on an interview with Sky News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY GOSLING, BBC CORRESPONDENT: He was in pain, he got AIDS, there was no cure, it was in the early days and there was no relief of the pain and I went through those things with the doctors and when he first got AIDS, we had a pact. He was my lover, he wasn't my partner, he was my bit on the side. But we had a wonderful, wonderful love affair and we said if it comes to that, I don't want to live. You, I rely on you, Ray, to finish it. And he was in terrible, terrible, terrible pain. And I finished it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you aware of what you were doing was against the law?

BBC CORRESPONDENT: There are different kinds of laws, you know. There's a law that's written in law books and there's a law in your heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Gosling admits to smothering his former lover with a pillow as he lay in a hospital bed. Her at home prepare for a new level of screening at the airport. TSA personnel has started swabbing personnel's hands to test for explosive residue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Experts are pretty enthusiastic about his. They say that it will pick most of the explosives of the kind that are used by terrorists. It does occasionally get false hits, it can hit on some heart medications, on fertilizer, but the TSA says hey we have looked at this and we think can cope with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The TSA says these screening will be random, pulling passengers aside and swabbing their hands with a cotton material then putting that swab through a detector and looking for any traces of explosive residue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When there's a positive reading, what will happen is the passenger will be pulled aside and there will be a secondary screening, they'll be asked questions, there may be a hard pat down, things of that sort.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: TSA says we're doing this randomly, we're not doing it to everybody, it's not going to have a huge effect but I traveled up to Canada recently with a senior producer Carol Pratty and they were swabbing everybody's hands. And Carol, you got extra scrutiny. CAROL PRATTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I had all the disks for my shoes. So they even swab one of the disks to make sure there was no explosive residue on that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The TSA launched the program after the foiled Christmas Day bomb plotting and they plan to expand it in the coming weeks. And that brings us to The Punchline.

Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman bemoaning the fact that their networks are an Olympics free zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: We are not part of NBC, we can't show any footage from the Olympics. In fact I'm not even supposed to say the word Olympics, that may have cost us $800,000 right there. We're not even allowed to show the Olympics symbol. In fact this afternoon, we are trying to figure out we had our legal team do an experiment. Okay so here are five rings, some might call them rings. Let's see how close together we can move them before it becomes trademark infringement. Oh right that s--

DAVID LETERMAN, HOST: Here now is all we can show you of Body Miller's bronze winning run last night. Take a look.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman, everybody. And that is the "Mash-Up."

Tonight's breaking news, eight American missionaries are released from jail but not out of trouble. We are going to be live in American and at their home church in Idaho right when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Breaking news from Haiti tonight. Eight of the ten American missionaries charged with kidnapping 33 Haitian children after the earthquake are heading home. A judge released them today and we hear that they are leaving Haiti within the hour. Still the charges against them have not been dropped. CNN's John Vause reports from Port-Au-Prince tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After almost three weeks in a Haitian jail cell eight of the ten Americans are free on bail and free to go home. A judge granted unconditional for the eight missionaries and that means they can leave with only a promise to return to Haiti if asked by the authorities.

AVIOL FLEURANT, DEFENSE LAWYER: We have to ask the Lord to forgive the Haitian prosecutor who invited the justice to push through them

VAUSE: Unconditional bail say their lawyers might mean the charges of kidnapping and criminal conspiracy will be dropped.

GARY LISSADE, DEFENSE LAYWER: If they're wise, you know, good reason to keep them the judge will certainly request either, you know, bail or will request for them to sit in the country.

VAUSE: But groups leader, Laura Silsby and her assistant Charisa Coulter were not released. Silsby has repeatedly denied any wrong doing.

LAURA SILSBY, MISSIONARY: We believe we have been charged very falsely with trafficking which of course is the very farthest extreme.

VAUSE: As the bail hearing unfolded, Coulter a diabetic was taken from her cell for medical care. She was said to be sick and in pain. This is at least the second time she's needed treatment since being arrested.

VAUSE (on camera): The lawyers for the two women say bail was declined because the judge wants to know what they were both doing here in Haiti on a previous trip before the earthquake. That investigation could take just a few days, but under Haitian law, it could also take a few months.

FLEURANT: They will be free, as I promised the Americans people.

VAUSE (voice-over): Silsby says she organized the trip to Haiti to save orphans after last month's quake. But the Baptist missionaries were caught trying to take 33 children out of the country without any documentation.

SILSBY: Our heart and our intent was to help only those children that needed us most, that they had lost either mother and father.

VAUSE: But most of the children still had at least one living parent and in a country where child trafficking is ripe, the Haitian government seemed determined to make an example of the Americans, saying so much here is broken, but at least the legal system is still working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Senior International Correspondent John Vause is joining me right now from Port-Au-Prince. John, what is going to happen to these 33 children in all of this, do we know?

VAUSE (on camera): Well, Campbell, ever since the Americans were arrested the kids have been cared for by an NGO group called SOS International. And they told us that their goal all along is to try to reunite these kids, most of them with their parents because some of them still have one parent still alive or maybe some aunt or uncles or extended family. That hasn't happened because SOS say that they're still waiting for an assessment to be done by the Haitian social services. And they won't release the kids until that's done.

Some of the parents have told us that they are eager to get their children back. But there is a much bigger fallout from this. Haitian officials and even some U.S. officials will tell you off the record that they're really kind of annoyed by this case because it's overshadowed the entire relief effort and has also slowed international adoptions. Even before this happen the Haiti government was concerned that children, be they orphans or not, were being taken out of this country by traffickers who say they're just here to help. Campbell.

BROWN: All right, John Vause for us tonight and most of the missionaries are from this church in Meridian, Idaho.

A news conference happened at the church literally moments ago and our own Dan Simon has been there for us. Dan, what did we learn tonight?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Campbell we just learned that within the next 30 minutes or so that group of eight Americans will be hopping on a plane going to the state of Florida, from there they'll have to basically get their own transportation back to their respective cities. We're told that those details have already been made, but have not been made public.

Let's first talk about Laura Silsby, she is the leader of this trip and she and her 24-year-old nanny Charisa Coulter, still in the country of Haiti. I spoke to Silsby sister earlier today, Kim Barton she told us that quote "Obviously the family is very disappointed and they're just hoping for the best." That's from the sister of Laura Silsby.

Obviously for the relatives of those eight Americans ecstatic, I spoke to the mother of Jim Allen, he's from Texas, he's a welder, he went down to the country of Haiti because he's good at building things, he was going to help in converting that hotel into an orphanage. This is what Jim Allen's mother had to say to me by phone, obviously very emotional. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: What have these last few weeks been like for you?

ALLEN: It's been awful. But we entrusted in God that it would happen.

SIMON: What would you like to say to your son?

ALLEN: I would just like to tell him that I love him and I'm so proud of him. I'm very proud of him. And I can't wait to see him.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIMON: So one family quite ecstatic, obviously for the families of Charisa Coulter and Laura Silsby, a mixed blessing here. Obviously they would love to see their loved ones come home. But happy that the other eight are returning.

In terms of why, they are saying in the country, Idaho Senator Jim Riche, he was here at this press conference, kind of addressed that, but what we can tell you, look they are the leaders of this mission, they are the ones who came up with this idea to build this orphanage some two years ago and then this earthquake happened. Campbell they accelerated their plan to go to the country.

They rounded up the volunteers from this church and from another church in Twin Falls, Idaho and obviously something went awry down there and that's what the legal system is trying to figure out what happened and what mistakes were made. Campbell.

BROWN: All right Dan Simon very latest from Meridian tonight. Dan thank you very much.

Tiger Woods breaking his silence to say I'm sorry. But will that be enough to save the billion dollar brand? We're going to have the latest on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tiger Woods is finally ending his self-imposed exile. He's breaking his silence on Friday and apparently plans to finally say, "I'm sorry." in a tightly controlled appearance, Woods will make a televised appearance to a small group of friends, colleagues, associates and selected. We weren't invited.

No questions, as we understand, will be allowed. A statement from his agent Reads, quote, "Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he intends to apologize for his behavior." Will this orchestrated mea culpa be enough to save his billion dollar brand? With me right now to talk about all this is David Dusek, the senior editor of Sport Illustrated Golf Group. And Marvete Britto, who has a public relations in brand strategy firm. Marvete let me start with you here, the statement posted on Tiger's website right now reads: While Tiger feels what happened was fundamentally matter between he and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of people who are close to him. He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends and that is what he is going to discuss. First of all, what do you think he's going to say what, what should he say?

MARVET BRITTO, PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT: I think what Tiger will say, I think when we see him emerge is he will speak to his fans, he will speak first to apologize to his wife, to his family, and then we'll see him address his fans. I think we'll see very humble, remorseful, contrite Tiger Woods. I think he will go, dig deep right into the matter of what took place. He won't get into specifics, but he'll give a broad stroke of what took place and he'll apologize for it.

BROWN: Really.

BRITTO: Absolutely because he knows he's been away for three months clearly recalibrating his life and now Team Tiger has really reconvened in a way that he will re-emerge and really speak to his effort of being a better father, a better golfer, a husband.

BROWN: David does he have to do this? Could he return to golf without make some kind of public statement?

DAVID DUSEK, SR. ED. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED GOLF GROUP: No, I think at some point or another this part of the interview, this beginning of the process has to happen. And I agree that this is basically the first of what will become many steps in what will become the many steps in the process of him rebuilding himself as a person, as brand, as an athlete in this case.

But that journey of the proverbial thousand miles begins with a step. This is a very controlled step, this is very much in keeping with the old Tiger Woods that we - who follow golf day in and day out have seen all along.

No Q&A going on. One single television camera. There's going to be basically a controlled environment in the PGA Tour headquarters in Ponta Beach Florida. It's a very cocooned, protected environment. I'm sure this is going to be very scripted. There will be no surprises. Tiger I'm sure has been preparing for this mentally and emotionally and along with everything else going on in his life for quite some time.

BROWN: And David some of his corporate sponsors I know dropped him when the scandal erupted. But other like Nike have been hanging on, sort of have been waiting for him to reemerge. What are they going to listening for on Friday?

DUSEK: Well they're totally surprised, I can tell you, I'm here at the Accenture match play championship in Tucson and I actually had one of the Nike, you know, Tour op, somebody who is on the Tour week in and week out come up to me on the very first day and say hey, when do you think Tiger's coming back?

They have no idea. They've been totally out of the loop just as much as almost everybody else it seems, as far as it comes with Tiger.

They'll be looking for, I think number one for him to be remorseful. Number two for him to give some kind of an inkling or a plan as to what exactly he's looking for, you know, in terms of the future. Is he going to come back to golf in the next few weeks before the masters, as many people have suspected. Will he potentially come out and say, you know what, in order for me to be the person and the father that I want to be, the husband they want to aspire to be, with all these problems that I have had, I'm going to take the entire 2010 season off.

Everything is possible right now, we are speculating. But right now the brands that have associated themselves with Tiger Woods are waiting just like we are. BROWN: So what do you think, Marvet, I mean before this was happening he was the highest paid athlete in sports, can he get back there?

BRITTO: Absolutely.

BROWN: Are they willing to forget, all these brands and sponsors.

BRITTO: I think that we have seen others that have had similar transgressions, and you know high-profile individuals come back and we embrace them. I think we need to see and hear from Tiger. And when we do, we will forgive him, the brands will re-embrace him as long as Tiger brings his a-game back to the golf course.

DUSEK: The key is he has to be authentic. It has to be genuine and it has to come through not only in this press conference or the statement reading if you will. But then in subsequent, you know, press conferences and interviews that he's going to grant going forward, it has to feel sincere.

BROWN: And David you have touched on this, the Masters a little more than a month away, it is speculative, you said it, but do you think he's going to be back out on the golf course?

DUSEK: I think this is the first step, I think if we had heard about a divorce between him and his wife Elin in the beginning of January, then that would have freed him up to potentially do some other things, but I think this is the first step in the process.

My gut tells me that he'll probably come back and maybe play one event, you know, sometime in the middle of March, possibly at Bay Hill which is in Orlando. Or the PGA Tour in Miami, leading up to the Masters. And the get to Augusta National which will be basically the second week in April. Very protected environment there, very cocooned there at Augusta National as well.

So I think that he wants to play, and this is the first step, if you want to see him as a fan at the Masters, this is important and the timing of this is good for you.

BROWN: David Dusek, I appreciate your time as always and Marvet Britto, good to have you here as well, good to see you Marvet.

Tonight we're going to hear from a man they call a Mini Bernie Madoff, but this admitted ponzi scheme had a twist, he used lawsuits scam his victims out of more than a billion dollars. Our special investigation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Madoff may be the king of Ponzi schemes, but he is certainly not alone. Tonight the story of another man whose lies kept him rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful even as he turned some of them into his victims. Abbie Boudreau of CNN special investigations unit introduces us to the man they call Mini Madoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): it's an office photo collection any wheeler dealer would envy.

BENNY FISHER, AUCTION HOUSE: That's a very, very unique piece.

BOUDREAU: The court asked Vinnie Fisher auction it off.

FISHER: This was where he was guessed at the inauguration of the President.

BOUDREAU (on camera): This person is very tied in politically. Can you imagine going into his office and seeing all this, that adds a lot of credibility to who this person is?

FISHER: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): There's the one with President George Bush, his brother Jeb, and a bunch of other governors, Palin, Schwarzenegger, and Scott Richardson. Scott Rollins is the man standing with all these people. He's an attorney who donated at least 1.9 million to political campaigns. One of Florida Governor Charlie Crist's biggest financial backer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is of course a birthday for the governor.

BOB NORMAN, BROWARD NEW TIMES: He bought the governor's birthday cake and it was $1,000 a candle and he bought 52 candles for governor Crist. Here you have the biggest criminal ever to basically grace the state who is literally blowing out the governor's birthday candles. You look at that and it's a pretty heavy story.

BOUDREAU: These same politicians, forever caught on film, arm in arm with a convicted felon. Now these are up for auction to pay off his victims, because it turns out Rothstein seen here at a distance being lead away in handcuffs ran the largest ponzi scheme in south Florida history. The FBI says his investors are out $1.2 billion. That's exactly why in November, the FBI and IRS started confiscating his prized possessions.

JEFFREY SLOMAN, U.S. ATTORNEY: Now the mansions, the Ferraris, the yachts, the law firm and his friends are all goon.

BOUDREAU: And this is how it happen, Rothstein ran one of the most powerful law firms in Florida. He told his wealthy friends he had a business proposition for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOUDREAU: He said he had client who did not want to wait for their settlement payouts. If his investor friends cut him a check, that money would go straight to his clients. In exchange for the money, those clients would take a smaller settlement. The investors would get all the rest of the money along with about a 20 plus return on their money. It sounded like a good deal. The trouble is none of those clients ever existed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN: Right.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): Bob Norman covered the scheme as a reporter for the Broward County New Times.

NORMAN: But you have to understand, Rothstein's law firm had hired exjudges, prosecutors, big name attorneys. He would bring them in, again, to enhance his own credibility.

BOUDREAU: According to the lawsuit, Rothstein was using the money he made from fake lawsuit settlements to cozy up to politicians and help them fund their campaigns. But he was also spending his millions on himself and on his toilet seats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the golden toilet.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): Norman showed us pictures someone sent him of Rothstein's his and hers gold toilet seats worth an estimated $25,000 apiece.

BOB NORMAN, BROWARD NEW TIMES: Someone told me yesterday, as a matter of fact, they said that I was lulled into believing this myth that he created and I really believed that he had a golden touch. And what better way to kind of perpetuate that myth than to have a golden toilet.

BOUDREAU: Rothstein's fictitious settlement scheme collapsed this October. When he ran out of enough money to pay back investors, Rothstein wired himself $16 million and boarded a private jet bound for Morocco. When he returned, he gave an exclusive interview to CNN affiliate WSBN.

SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, FORMER ATTORNEY: I went away for the purpose of making sure that I had my head on straight, that when I came back, I had already been through all the emotional things. I've been through the hysterics, I've been through all the other things that you go through when you realize that you have done something that you shouldn't have done.

BOUDREAU: It was an apparent act of contrition. He promised to pay everyone back.

ROTHSTEIN: I will not stop until every single penny is paid back.

BOUDREAU: An attorney for some of his victims says he doesn't buy it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a pathological liar. He's trying to avoid life in prison. He doesn't want to be a Bernie Madoff. WILLIAM SCHERER, VICTIM'S ATTORNEY: It's like Madoff on crack. It's just he did it a whole lot faster and a whole lot wilder.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOUDREAU: Just last month, Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty to five felony charges. He'll be sentenced in May and could face up to 100 years in prison. Though he could get a reduced sentence since he came back from Morocco and then he turned himself in.

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: So, Abbie, this whole thing was sort of built around investing in lawsuits --

BOUDREAU: Right.

BROWN: -- which in this case was a total lie. But is that like a real thing, people actually invest in lawsuits?

BOUDREAU: Yes, and it's a growing business and it's largely unregulated. I mean, when we first heard about this idea of investing in lawsuits, we thought are people really, do they have this kind of job where they actually gamble on lawsuits for a living? And the answer is yes.

BROWN: What kind of investors are we talking about?

BOUDREAU: Mostly hedge funds, wealthy investors, for the most part, but there are more and more companies that are popping up that are investing in personal injury claims and that's what we're talking about more tomorrow.

BROWN: You're looking into this --

BOUDREAU: Yes, it's legal. It's just very controversial and really risky.

BROWN: Oh, we will see. I know tomorrow night, you're going to take a closer look at this industry, as you mentioned, barely regulated and as some say recession proof, I guess. How it works and why more people are taking this gamble as Abbie mentioned. All that coming tomorrow night. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

A suspected hit squad caught on tape carrying out an assassination operation. A closer look at the cloak and dagger who done it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: New developments tonight in the case of a Hamas official taken out by a team of assassins in a luxury Dubai hotel. The British foreign ministry is meeting with Israel's ambassador tomorrow to demand answers. Eleven suspects caught on surveillance cameras during the operations, some apparently using forged British passports. Israel won't confirm or deny that its Mossad intelligence unit is behind the hit that was caught on tape. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minute by minute, this is the lead-up to the Dubai assassination of one of the founding members of Hamas. All captured on security cameras and released by the Emirates police.

Ten men and one woman, the alleged hit squad. Some check into the Al Bustan Rotana hotel and await their target. This is Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arriving at the hotel where he would be killed just hours later.

After trekking in, the man Israeli security sources accused of being a key link between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas was followed by two alleged killers dressed in tennis gear holding tennis rackets. The police say they were checking the number of his room then they booked the room directly across the corridor. Leaving the hotel for a couple of hours, al-Mabhouh was again tracked by different teams. Police believe the killers entered his room at 8:00 p.m. using an electronic device to gain entry.

Al-Mabhouh entered his room at 8:25 p.m. His body was not discovered until the next morning. Police say he appears to have suffered electric shocks and may have been suffocated. These are the suspects, all caught on camera sparking an international manhunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Paula Hancock, who you just heard there, is joining me right now. Our Paula Hancock from Jerusalem tonight along with Robert Baer who's a former CIA operative and intelligence columnist for time.com.

Paula, let me start with you here. The assumption has been generally that Israel did this, that Mossad was behind it. And while the official line we mention from Israel do not confirm or deny any involvement, apparently some inside Israel now are saying that the whole operation was way too sloppy to be a Mossad operation. Is that what you're hearing?

HANCOCK: Absolutely, yes, we're hearing that some of the Israeli media, we're listening, watching some of the Israeli editorials saying that strategically it was a success. They're saying though it is the Mossad, though it's a fact that it is Mossad that carried out this attack, strategically they manage to hit their target but it was incredibly sloppy.

We know now that there are seven Israeli residents here who have dual citizenship in Europe. So they have British passports many of them, who are slap bang in the middle of this international manhunt. They are furious and they are worried. They say they've never gone to Dubai. They say they've been victims of identity theft and they're trying to figure out just how this could have happened, and of course, this is pointing fingers even more firmly towards Israel.

Again, Israel will not comment. Mossad will not comment. Intelligence agencies around the world wouldn't comment on something like this. But those inside Israel are almost assuming that it is the Mossad that carried this act -- Campbell.

BROWN: And, Bob, this guy as a target was very important for Israel. Explain why, explain who he was.

BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: He was an arms salesman sending weapons to Gaza and the West Bank. He was a connection with Iran. The Iranians would -- I'm sorry, the Israelis would look at him is an existential threat to Israel. He was certainly a target worth taking out.

BROWN: And I know you think having looked at the videotape and, you know, from what you've looked at in terms of the whole detective work, I guess, surrounding this that the Dubai government had a lot of unusual access here, right?

BAER: Well, I think they did. I think they're using a software program to connect all their databases in the phone calls out of the hotel. They connected the phones together, the number in Austria, the entry points. And I think what happened if it was the Israelis is they didn't understand the government of Dubai has this software that can put all this data together. So in a sense, it wasn't all that sloppy. If the Israelis, if it had been them, got very unlucky that they were able to put this all together.

BROWN: And just give us for those of us lay people who look at something like this and we see all of these people involved in what appears to be this massive sort of complicated operation, is that unusual? Is that par for the course?

BAER: Oh, no, it's absolutely, it's necessary. I mean, they have to have security people on every floor to check, make sure the police aren't arriving. They have to keep track of the maids, the front door, the local police station. You need at least 11 people and there were probably more.

BROWN: All right, Bob Baer and Paula Hancock joining us as well for more on all that. Appreciate it, thanks very much.

When we come back, a nasty custody battle turning into a fight over religion. What should the courts do when divorcing parents can't agree on the faith of their child? We're going to have more on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A holy war splits a family with a toddler in the middle of it all. Should the child be raised in the Jewish faith or as a Catholic and who decides? We're going to have that religious legal battle coming up in a moment. But first, more must-see news happening right now.

Mike Galanos here with the "Download." Hey, Mike.

MIKE GALANOS, HLN PRIME NEWS: Hey, Campbell. First off, still more troubles for Toyota. The Transportation Department says it will investigate now complaints over potential problems with the Corolla's power steering. Five hundred thousand Corollas made from the model years 2009, 2010 may be affected. Keep an eye on that.

Well, Bill Clinton says he has no intention of slowing down. The former president went back to work at his foundation that is today less than a week after his surgery to unclog a blocked artery. In an event focusing on childhood obesity, the former president said it would be a mistake to stop working.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've been given this gift of life by my surgery five years ago, the medicine I take, the lifestyle changes I make. I don't want to throw it around, throw it away by being a vegetable. I want to do things with it every day. So I intend to continue to work as hard as I can, but I'm going to manage the stress better, sleep more, fewer overnight flights, be more disciplined about taking some exercise every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALANOS: All right. And we know that President Clinton had quadruple bypass surgery back in 2004.

The British coroner's office says fashion designer Alexander McQueen committed suicide by hanging himself. At today's inquest, the coroner also testified that McQueen left a suicide note. Now his body was discovered last Thursday. McQueen was known for his dramatic designs for the likes of Cameron Diaz, Lady Gaga, and other stars.

And finally this one, Canadian authorities confirmed to CNN that a mentally ill man with a homemade security pass was able to get within a few feet of Vice President Joe Biden at the Winter Olympics. The intruder managed to slip past three layers of security last Friday. He was finally intercepted by two plainclothes Mounties who described him as quote unquote, "not fitting in with the crowd." Now the Canadians stressed that Vice President Biden was never in any danger. But thank goodness for these plainclothes Mounties who just --

BROWN: No kidding.

GALANOS: -- they attacked there and basically the accreditation deemed fake so --

BROWN: And caught what everybody else seemed to miss.

GALANOS: Yes.

BROWN: All right, Mike Galanos for us tonight. Mike, thanks very much.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starting in just a few minutes. Larry, tell us what's on the show tonight.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Campbell, we're going to get reaction to the announcement today that Tiger Woods will apologize for the behavior that's made him front page news for almost three months now. Is that too little or too late? And then the balance of the show, Judge Judy sounds off on that and a lot more. All next on "LARRY KING LIVE," Campbell.

BROWN: All right, Larry. We'll see you in a few.

Coming up next, a bitter custody battle, hanging on religion with a toddler caught in the middle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, a bitter custody battle that's turning into a religious dispute between divorcing parents. A Chicago man could be going to jail after violating a court order to stop taking his daughter to church. His ex-wife wants their daughter to be raised in the Jewish faith, but he went ahead and baptized the girl without the mother's consent. The father Joseph Reyes explained what happened next on ABC's "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSEPH REYES, ORDERED NOT TO TAKE CHILD TO CHURCH: I sent her pictures and I sent her an e-mail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did Rebecca react when you told her that you had baptized your child?

REYES: She responded in kind with a motion for a temporary restraining order.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But instead of waiting the 30 days ordered by court, Joseph called a local TV station to watch him take his daughter to church again.

REYES: I'm taking her to hear the teachings of perhaps the most prominent Jewish rabbi in the history of this great planet of ours.

Going to church I don't think violated the order.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

REYES: Based on the information that I was given Catholicism falls right under the umbrella of Judaism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you're making it better by what you did, flouting the order and calling in the media?

REYES: I don't think that that helped to basically end the conflict. I've made every confession that I possibly can make for Rebecca, and I have to draw the line in the sand somewhere. And this is where I choose to draw it. My faith means a lot to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Joining me now, CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom and Steven Lake. He represents the girl's mother here, Rebecca Shapiro. We should mention, too, that we invited the attorney for Mr. Reyes on as well, but he was not able to join us tonight.

Steve, I know Mr. Reyes says he just wants to expose his child to his religion. But actually getting his daughter baptized takes us to a whole other level. How did your client I guess react when she found out?

STEVEN LAKE, ATTORNEY FOR GIRL'S MOTHER: Absolutely, I mean, she was completely shocked. I think if he had just taken her to church and said you know what, I took our daughter to church just to expose her and just let her sit in, I don't think any of us would have had the reaction that we did when he just surreptitiously and without and warning or discussion had the church baptize her, which basically my understanding is, the church declaring this little girl to be Catholic.

BROWN: And Mr. Reyes though says that he and his wife never made any official decision to raise their daughter in the Jewish faith. He says they actually celebrated Christian and Jewish holidays together. Was that the case?

LAKE: No, not to my knowledge. I mean, he actually converted to Judaism. They never went to church together. They certainly went to synagogue. The little girl was going to a Jewish preschool which he had full knowledge of and, you know, there's no way in the world that he did this not knowing that my client would be extremely upset.

BROWN: Lisa, how unusual is it for the courts to essentially decide, I guess, which faith a child that is raised in, which I guess is what ultimately may have to happen here? I mean, putting the baptism and, you know, restraining order aside and looking at the bigger issue?

LISA BLOOM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: We live in a country now where there are many interfaith marriages and after divorces sometimes people change religions. This issue comes up frequently. What the courts try to do is get the parties to agree. If they can't agree, the primary caretaker of the child, the person who has sole custody gets to make the decisions about religion.

Now, what about the non-custodial parent? Here, the father. Doesn't he have a first amendment right to practice his religion? Doesn't he have the right to bring that child to church even if the mother doesn't like it?

The courts generally try to avoid that issue, try to avoid reaching that issue, but I think there is a first amendment issue there. The way that Mr. Reyes has handled himself was not smart. You never want to violate a court order.

BROWN: Well, I was going to say that because --

BLOOM: You don't want to bring the cameras along with you to church.

BROWN: That is a little bit because this -- I mean, and I want to get the heart of that because it seems to me that that's what this is about. I mean, we can have a broader discussion about --

BLOOM: Right.

BROWN: -- you know, how parents decide, divorcing parents what religion to raise their child in. But he violated a restraining order and he then called in TV cameras to go with him while he was violating it. I mean, not exactly the brainiest legal strategy in the world.

BLOOM: Right. That's right. And the judge is not going to like that because that looks harmful to the child and that's the legal standard. He also gets a little bit cute in his interview where he says I'm not violating the order because Catholicism is part of Judaism.

BROWN: I know. Give me a break.

BLOOM: But no one is going to believe that.

BROWN: And I think -- I guess, Steve, if I can go back to him that's because nobody wants a war like this in any way when there's a 3-year-old involved. Is there any hope or any middle ground here, a way for these parents to resolve this?

LAKE: I think there would have been had Joseph not handled himself the way he has. I mean, he's just done all this as you say in an inappropriate way, no discussion, and you just have to question his judgment on a lot of things. And, you know, had there been an opening to try to resolve this, he certainly blew it by his behavior.

BROWN: All right. Lisa Bloom and Steven Lake, we're going to end it there. Appreciate your time tonight. Thanks, guys.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starting in just a few minutes. But next, we are putting on the alpha dog. Jeanne Moos next with tonight's "Guilty Pleasure."

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BROWN: "LARRY KING" starts in a few minutes. But first, tonight's "Guilty Pleasure." Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a brush and a shake, the terrier takes Manhattan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sadie, Sadie, Sadie.

MOOS: Great Scott, it's the hottie Scottie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sadie the Scottie.

MOOS: She barked her way from interview to interview.

WHOOPI GOOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": You are the baddest girl in the United States of America. Yes, you are. Say yes I am. Say it, girl.

MOOS: Ready for her close-up, except when the camera closing in freaked her out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has a great breed. She has great --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's got a great bone too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

MOOS: The toast of the town ran around in a two-van motorcade. Followed by flashes, she posed patiently for pictures, accepted endless treats. Her favorite dish?

GABRIEL RANGEL, SADIE'S HANDLER: Chicken hot dogs.

MOOS (on camera): I heard it's organic hot dogs.

RANGEL: No, they aren't organic.

MOOS (voice-over): Gabriel Rangel is Sadie's handler. She lives with him in California like a normal dog in a house with three kids. Now here she was riding up and down skyscrapers and elevators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like a dog to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dog.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll have Sadie up on the table.

MOOS: Before her appearance on "Inside Edition," there was the obligatory photo-op. Best in show shown getting fed off a silver platter, though her manners were no match for this labradors. We award the lab best in show on YouTube. Sadie dropped her chicken. The lab didn't drop a thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what's next for Sadie?

RANGEL: I think she's going to want to be a mama.

MOOS: As for who's going to be the dad.

RANGEL: She loves her friend. It's a Chihuahua.

MOOS (on camera): Oh, is it a romance?

RANGEL: Well, I think so.

MOOS: You're going to have a mixed breed --

RANGEL: No, we're not going to have any mixed breed.

MOOS (voice-over): Maybe (INAUDIBLE) protesters of the dog show think much rule. They're not ruling Sadie, the number one Scottie and the number one Chihuahua, Ted, are doomed to forbidden love.

(on camera): So here you have a secret meeting with Donald Trump.

(voice-over): Actually just another photo-op, but he wants Sadie's hair to trump Donald's. Better brush it before the bow-wow pow-wow on Trump Towers' 26th floor.

No relation to Sadie. He won over 100 other competitions before winning at Westminster. It's enough to give a regular dog an inferiority complex.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And that is going to do it for us. Thanks for joining us tonight, everybody. We'll see you right back here same time tomorrow night.

A reminder again to join us for tomorrow when we do take a closer look into the barely regulated industry that some are calling recession proof. How does it work? Why are more people taking a gamble and investing in lawsuits? Again that is tomorrow night right here.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.