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Campbell Brown
Mexican President Addresses Congress; Lance Armstrong Under Fire
Aired May 20, 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: Hi there, everybody.
An extraordinary moment on Capitol Hill today, one that is generating a lot of controversy. It was Mexican President Felipe Calderon's speech to Congress and his tone arguing against Arizona's tough new immigration law. The debate on that law and on national immigration reform is dividing our country right now, and it's prompted some students, illegal immigrants brought here by their parents when they were children, to stage a sit-in this week at John McCain's office trying to get his support for a bill that could allow them to become citizens.
Well, they now face deportation. We talked with them today.
We're also tonight going to have new developments in the story we have been following all week, the Muslim soldier who says he has been harassed at Fort Hood because of his faith. He is here tonight with new charges.
Plus, Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, will be battling new allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. Today, he was injured in a bike crash in California -- the latest on that as well.
But we're going to begin with our number-one national story, charges that BP has been hiding the truth about how much oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. The company finally made a live underwater camera available for the public to view today, and what it shows is disturbing. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: They admit, concede, that it is more than the 5,000 barrels per day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The white skinny tube is what was until midnight injecting chemicals into the plume to break up the oil. Under new orders from the EPA, BP now has to switch to less toxic chemicals. The members of Congress who saw the video accuse BP of trying to hide the truth.
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: BP has lost all credibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: Late today, the White House ordered BP to release all data, any information related to the bill. BP now concedes there is more oil spewing from the leaking well than the 5,000 barrels a day it had originally estimated. By CNN's calculations, the spill has grown to almost 14,000 square miles now. That's about the size of the state of Maryland.
And our David Mattingly has been covering the story. He's in New Orleans tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look at this right here. This is some of the thickest sheen that I have seen out here.
(voice-over): I had already seen oil washing ashore in Louisiana several times before, but nothing like this, a thick syrupy slug of oil oozing into delicate wetlands.
(on camera): It's -- it's getting even worse. Take a look at this over this way. Look at that, solid black. Look at that.
(voice-over): It's exactly what we were promised, an up-close look at a pool of crude oil poisoning an environmentally sensitive marsh.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal led us here to show the Coast Guard and anyone else who will listen attempts to contain the BP oil slick aren't working well enough.
(on camera): Do you feel like they're listening to you? And do you think they will listen to you now?
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I hope we get approval for the permit today. I hope that people see this heavy oil, they see the impact this is having on the marsh. Let's be very clear. This isn't tar balls. This isn't sheen. This is heavy oil.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Oil that is coating everything it touches, killing plants, just like it could kill any fish, turtle or bird that gets caught in it. This is the first time a patch of heavy raw crude has made contact with land since the disaster begin.
(on camera): The big question is, how did it get here? How did it get past all those booms? How did it get past the dispersant and the skimmers? This is exactly the kind of spot where they did not want to see this coming.
(voice-over): This oil not only hit land. It made its way into the fringes of Louisiana's estuaries, the vital birthing areas of the Gulf fisheries, something the state is trying to protect at all costs. This trip is part of a political I told you, as Jindal wants federal approval and BP money for a massive plan to restore eroded barriers islands, natural barriers to storms and oil slicks.
(on camera): The oil here. How do you get it out of here? Cleaning it off a beach is one thing, but how do you get it out of the marshes?
JINDAL: That's exactly right. They have got folks out here with shallow-water skimmers and absorbent boom. But the reality is this. It's much, much easier to fight this off a beach, off a rocky island. It's much, much tougher. And many of our wetland areas, many of our marsh areas, the cleanup efforts probably do more damage than the actual oil itself.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): This is one marsh that may never recover in a month-old disaster that continues to get worse.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And David is joining us right now.
And, David, we saw you out there in the thick of that mess. What did it feel like when you dipped your hand down in it? Describe it to us.
MATTINGLY: Well, that was actually a big surprise for me. When I put my hand down in there, normally, if you put your hand down in water, you feel a cool sensation. This was actually hot. That hot, thick, oil had been collecting heat from the sun all day.
And you put your hand down there, it was surprisingly hot when I put my hand down in there. And the other thing that surprised me was how it stuck to everything that it touched. When I pulled my hand out, the glove that I was wearing was completely covered. I couldn't shake the oil off of it. The bottle I was holding was completely covered.
And this is another bottle that we transferred that oil into. You can see how thick it is inside there. I keep comparing it to chocolate syrup. Just imagine taking chocolate syrup, heating it up in a pan. That's what it was like, very heavy, very thick, and actually hot to the touch.
BROWN: All right, David Mattingly with us tonight with that very graphic description.
David, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Historian Doug Brinkley has been one of our very best resources tracking the oil spill disaster. And he happens to be in New York tonight. So, he's joining me here. We have also got Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer from Florida State University, who is joining us live from Tallahassee, Florida. He's an expert in the analysis of oil slicks and was among the first to question that official estimate of 210,000 gallons gushing a day.
And, Professor MacDonald, this is what you said to "The New York Times" about BP -- quote -- "They want to hide the body," which are pretty tough words. Explain what you mean, what you think is happening.
IAN MACDONALD, OCEANOGRAPHER, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, they have obviously failed to hide the body here. And I think they have been caught out in their own misleading estimates, if they had been saying 5,000 barrels a day and now they're recovering 5,000 barrels a day, and to the normal onlooker, it doesn't look like the flow of oil has diminished at all.
So, whatever we want to say about the science or the technology, this was a public relations debacle for BP to be stuck like this, having to admit that the 5,000 barrels a day they had been sticking to for weeks wasn't anywhere near accurate.
BROWN: Well, and it goes beyond that. I think the White House said today they're asking BP to disclose more information or whatever they know about the spill, including measurements on the size of the leak. But there is very much a sense right now that no one is really in charge or in control of this.
MACDONALD: Well, I think people are working very hard. I know that to be a fact. I was in Pensacola. I talked to some of the responders there. I can see NOAA has fully mobilized.
This is an unprecedented situation., we have to recognize. There's never been a spill of this magnitude at this depth so uncontrolled for so long. And there's no rule book here. Well, there are rule books, but there's no sort of game plan, what do you do when you have an uncontrolled blowout at 5,000 feet?
So, there is a lot of making it up as they go along. But I think that the guide here ought to be good information, accurate information released in a timely fashion, so that you don't get stuck admitting that you're -- what you have been saying for weeks is dead wrong.
BROWN: Doug, the White House has been getting a lot of criticism as well, the government in terms of their response. Do you think the president has done enough? Should he be appointing somebody to oversee this?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think they need to have some kind of high commissioner, a major person like Colin Powell to be in charge. And I'm just picking his name. There are dozens of others.
But because -- just take Interior. In Interior, you have MMS, but you also have U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Or in Homeland Security, you have FEMA and you have the Coast Guard. And we need somebody to coordinate all this and we need a stronger federal government.
And I also think that the Obama administration has to make this a learning experience for the country, not stand back, but hold BP completely accountable and start talking about wildlife refuges, the need to save our marine environment. Coming up in July, the big political moment is going to be ANWR, because Shell is supposed to start offshore drilling off the coast of our Arctic Refuge.
And that's our number-one place for polar bear, for seals, et cetera. And if they're allowed to offshore drill and at that wildlife refuge while these in the Gulf, Theodore Roosevelt's wildlife refuges, like Breton Island, are being destroyed, we have a crisis in wildlife management in this country. I think the president needs to address it.
BROWN: And sooner, rather than later.
Professor MacDonald, I want to ask you about this, too. Today the EPA ordered BP to stop using a certain chemical dispersant here, many of the effects of the chemical not known. I guess, why was this ever allowed? Because I think, when people hear this, it's as scary as the oil spill itself, especially when we know so little about the long-term effects.
Professor MacDonald, have I -- have I lost you? I -- all right. Well, let me -- do you -- or do you have a...
BRINKLEY: Yes.
I mean, one of the things that's happened today, which is encouraging, is the EPA finally seems to be being tough on BP. They have come out now and said, you are going to have to use a safer kind of dispersant. One of the things environmentalists have been worried about is these injections of chemicals.
It's creating toxic dead zones in the Gulf. And these wetlands that you just showed Bobby Jindal moving trying to get -- wake up America to it, these are America's wetlands. This is the Mississippi River. This is -- BP is a foreign company coming here and fouling American waters and fouling our great estuary where our shrimp and our oysters are.
And so this -- we have to start defending our homeland and this should not be a left or right issue. It should be Americans going after BP and holding them accountable at this point.
BROWN: All right, Doug Brinkley, really appreciate you being here, and Professor Ian MacDonald.
Apologies to the professor. We lost his audio there for a moment.
We will be back right after this.
And coming up, the DREAM Act, we're going to talk about that. It could give citizenship to children who are brought to the U.S. illegally, but there's a lot of controversy surrounding it. And we will talk about that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Our other big story tonight: President Calderon's message to Congress. He bluntly criticized Arizona's immigration law and absolutely nothing was lost in translation. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FELIPE CALDERON, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: I am convinced that a comprehensive immigration reform is also crucial to securing our common border. However, I strongly disagree with your recently adopted law in Arizona.
(APPLAUSE)
FELIPE CALDERON: It is a law...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: As you would imagine, some in the blogosphere are all fired up about that tonight, The Drudge Report blasting Mexico's meddling president, while The Huffington Post points out that Calderon got a standing ovation -- well, from Democrats anyway.
So, imagine that your parents were brought here from another country, that you work hard in school, or hoping for a bright future in the United States, except for one thing. You were brought here illegally, and you could be deported at any time.
Well, this week, three people with exactly that story took a giant risk, in hopes of changing immigration law. They staged a very public sit-in at Senator John McCain's office in Tucson trying to jump-start support for a bill called the DREAM Act.
Casey -- CNN's Casey Wian sat down with one of the demonstrators who risked her future here by stepping out of the shadows.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIZBETH MATEO, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: I was young and I was naive and I didn't really realize what -- what I was about to do or how my life would change. I knew I was undocumented, but I didn't know what that meant or what -- how would that impact my life until I tried to apply to college. And that's when I realized having no legal status would affect everything else in my life.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were able to graduate from college, though, despite having no legal status.
MATEO: It was difficult to go through all of that. It was -- it took me about six years to finally graduate, and I did that in 2008.
WIAN: So, why did you take this risky step of engaging in a sit- in at Senator McCain's office earlier this week, had yourself arrested, had transferred to ICE custody? And now in deportation proceedings and you're risking make happen what exactly you don't want to happen. And that's the possibility of being deported back to your native country, which is Mexico. Why take that risk?
MATEO: Because we want to (INAUDIBLE) students. And we -- we had to do something. We had to take a stand, assure communities that to create change, you need to have courage and you need to take really bold steps.
I realize that there's such an urgency, not only for myself, but for the young people who are graduating from high school and don't know what to do: Can I access college education? Can I get the job that they want? Can I travel, get a driver's license? Do simple things that any American kid could do.
This is the first time that undocumented youth have taken the risk of being put in deportation proceedings by taking such a bold action by staging a sit-in in a peaceful resistance.
WIAN: Have you thought about what's going to happen, what life is going to be like if you actually are deported back to Mexico?
MATEO: You know, I haven't really had the chance to think about that.
(CROSSTALK)
WIAN: Really? Before you sat down in that office and risked getting arrested, you didn't think about what it was going to be like?
MATEO: I think, you know, the reason we did it, it wasn't because we wanted to get attention to ourselves. But the message that we're really trying to send is that we are willing to make this kind of sacrifices to make something happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And that, as we said before, was Casey Wian reporting. The students believe it's time to change immigration laws. So, should good kids be given a break, even if they are here illegally? That coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The DREAM Act would grant citizenship to those brought to the U.S. illegally, when they were kids, as long as they stayed out of trouble, spent time in college or the military. Is it a reasonable solution?
We're following up on the conversation we started just before the break.
And here with two different views, Margo Cowan, an attorney representing Lizbeth Mateo, who you just saw in the piece just a few minutes ago, two others arrested at Senator McCain's office, and also Bob Dane from the Federation For American Immigration Reform.
Welcome to both of you.
BOB DANE, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM: Hi, Campbell.
BROWN: Margo, let me start with you here.
The United States government is going forward with deportation proceedings against your clients. Were they prepared? It didn't seem like it in that interview, really. But do you think they were prepared for what actually may happen here? MARGO COWAN, ATTORNEY FOR STUDENTS: You know, I think they were absolutely prepared.
What these young people have done is taken a very courageous step to push Congress to enact the DREAM Act. Their generation, it's really not about these three, four young people. It's about their generation. And they're poised to make a tremendous contribution to our country. And Congress has got to step up and set them free and let them get on with their lives and make that contribution.
BROWN: Bob, can you see that it can be sort of hard, listening to them, to not have at least some empathy for these kids?
DANE: Well, there are two sides of the equation. We used to grant diplomas when you graduated. Now it's going to be a green card. We hope not.
Look, the DREAM Act is a massive amnesty that is being disguised as an educational initiative. It's another way to piecemeal amnesty. What we're -- if this were enacted, we would be giving away wholesale college tuition admission slots, financial aid, grants, scholarships to illegal aliens, at the expense of legal U.S. residents.
And, like all amnesties, it rewards illegal behavior, it encourages more, and it's fundamentally unfair. And it's unfair particularly in this situation because, Campbell, think about it. If you are a poor U.S. resident, legal U.S. resident, your kid is a real go-getter, and you're scrambling for a small and limited very share of financial aid, it's not going to resonate very well with moms and dads all across the country that they now have to start competing with illegal aliens for that limited pool.
BROWN: Margo, how do you respond to that, the dressed-up amnesty?
COWAN: Well, I respond to it that the parents of these young people have paid in sweat equity and they have earned a place for their kids to be here.
I represent a young woman who is a DREAM Act student whose husband is in combat in Afghanistan right now, and he's done two tours in Iraq. That young woman deserves to be a U.S. citizen.
BROWN: And, Bob, to that point, the people you are talking about here have largely assimilated. They speak English. They have graduated from high school or college and in some cases have risked their lives to serve our country in the military. They're not only fitting in. They're succeeding in this country.
Shouldn't there be some reward for that? I mean, are these not the type of people that you want to stay here?
DANE: Well, you know, one thing, Campbell, to understand about the DREAM Act, you know, illegal aliens can still -- they shouldn't, but, for better or for worse, they can still attend colleges. I mean, most community colleges across the country look the other way as to immigration status. So, they can certainly attend school.
But here's what the DREAM Act does. The DREAM Act gives them the reward for doing it, in two ways. It gives them in-state tuition. In-state tuition -- they're not even residents of the United States, let alone the state that they're applying for in-state tuition for.
And, secondly, it does reward them with another very huge incentive. And that is one of the most precious things possible, American citizenship. So, you know, we're simply saying you should not be rewarding illegal alien students for going to college.
BROWN: So, let me ask you both this question, but, Bob, start here. I know we all want comprehensive immigration reform, right? Everybody has talked about that. And I know you're interested in much more enforcement, Bob, correct, of the borders? Would you be OK with the DREAM Act if enforcement were a component? Could this be the beginning of a step toward more comprehensive reform?
DANE: Well, you know, our -- our -- we certainly need comprehensive immigration reform, but we need to dispense with this notion that amnesty has -- really has anything to do with it at all. We need to secure the borders and dry up the incentives on the interior, jobs, driver's licenses...
BROWN: All right.
DANE: ... and, yes, unfortunately, subsidized college tuition and in-state tuition.
CAVUTO: All right. I'm running out of time here, so I want to give Margo a chance to respond.
Margo.
COWAN: But, you know, this is not -- this is not about rewarding these young people. Their mothers and fathers have earned this. These are de facto American citizens, but for what's on their birth certificate. They're poised to make a tremendous contribution. Congress must act and set them free.
CAVUTO: To both of you, to Bob and Margo, thank you very much.
DANE: Thank you.
CAVUTO: I appreciate your time tonight.
COWAN: Thank you so much, Campbell.
BROWN: We're going to end it there.
When we come back, we're going to have an update on a story we brought you earlier this week, the Fort Hood soldier who told us he believes he's being harassed because of his religion. But, tonight, he's back to tell us why he believes he's now being punished -- after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Our number-one political story tonight: Rand Paul struggled to explain his position on the Civil Rights Act. Just days after winning the Republican nomination for senator in Kentucky, Dr. Paul is having some trouble explaining whether he believes a private business should have the right to refuse service to an African- American patron.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I don't like the idea of telling private business owners -- I abhor racism. I think it's a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant.
But, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I will ask you a simple question. If you had been a member of the Senate or the House back in 1964, would you have voted yea or nay for the Civil Rights Act?
PAUL: Yes. I would have voted yes. I think that there was an overriding problem in the South so big that it did require federal intervention in the '60s.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Paul also complained to Wolf Blitzer about news coverage of his comments, saying -- quote -- "I thought I was supposed to get a honeymoon."
New developments tonight in a story we first brought you on Monday. Less than 24 hours after Fort Hood Army Specialist Zachari Klawonn told us his story of alleged harassment, he says because he's a Muslim, Klawonn claims that the Army yanked him from his unit and told him he was going to be reassigned, he claims, as punishment for doing that interview.
Here's some of what he told us earlier this week. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPC. ZACHARI KLAWONN, U.S. ARMY: Just within the first week of basic training it was evident that there was this vibe, this sense of terrorism and Islam as one, which is obviously false.
Within the first week, you know, the Islamic service that was held at my basic training installation was basically made a mockery of. When I raised my hand and said that I was willing to attend. I was automatically brought out of the group and, you know, singled out and humiliated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Specialist Klawonn is back with us right now, along with Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and also Thomas Kenniff, a former military JAG and now a criminal defense attorney here with me in New York.
Specialist Klawonn, let me start with you. You were on the show three nights ago and the very next day you got called in by your superiors. Describe what happened.
SPEC. ZACHARI KLAWONN, U.S. ARMY: Yes, Campbell. I was directed by my first sergeant to report to the three corps sergeant major's office with my chain of command there, my sergeant major and my section sergeant. During that meeting, I was told that I was going to be moved from the unit and I was told it wasn't my fault. I was told it wasn't due to bad leadership. The command sergeant major looked my sergeant major in the face and said you're going to be losing Specialist Klawonn. That's what happened that day.
BROWN: So the Army tells us, though -- and this is from tonight -- that this is not a punishment. That they are giving you a choice of whether to move. And I do want to read a statement that they sent over. It says, quote, "Specialist Klawonn's commanding officer has taken the unusual step of offering him new duties that will benefit him and the Army. One option is to move him to the Fort Hood chaplain's office where he could help shape the spiritual fitness program for Muslim soldiers and family members. The other was to move him to another unit in preparation for his next assignment at fort still in Oklahoma. These options were offered in good faith, not as a directive or an act of punishment. The decision to accept is clearly Specialist Klawonn's."
I mean, is that how you viewed it, as a choice?
KLAWONN: No.
BROWN: No.
KLAWONN: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Even following the meeting, I requested to my chain of command to utilize the open door policy to basically, you know, fight for the fact that I -- to fight that I could just stay in the unit.
BROWN: So you do want to stay in the unit?
KLAWONN: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The headway that I've made thus far in the unit as far as, you know, moving forward as a progressive solution to like Muslim rights and, you know, addressing the cultural training issues, you know, I've made a big impact on that. I'm moving forward on that. And to leave the unit would wipe all that out. I need to start with a clean slate.
BROWN: Tom, you've been through or you've witnessed situations like this, I guess. Maybe not exactly like this. But is the military following the right procedure here? THOMAS KENNIFF, FMR. MILITARY JAG: Well, it sounds like what they're proposing is a safety transfer, which is not unusual in the military. And Mr. Weinstein is a JAG guy. He can speak to this. When you're dealing with a crime victim, it's very typical with rape victims in the military to get them transferred to another unit.
Now my understanding as far as that the allegations that Specialist Klawonn has made is that his safety is jeopardized in this current location. He said that he received threatening notes either at his barracks or on his vehicle, that he's been the subject of several other harassing acts that have made him fear for his safety. It seems that the command offering him a transfer, which is not a demotion, simply a relocation, where he may not face these issues isn't punishment. It's probably them trying to fasten a, you know, practical result for what he's alleging.
BROWN: So, Mikey, let me bring you into this because I know you want to make the change of duties a part of your lawsuit now against the Army. But, you know, what Tom just outlined sounds pretty reasonably. And don't you have to sort of prove that this is punishment in some way? And how do you do that?
MICHAEL WEINSTEIN, MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FDN.: Well, and I agree with my colleague there, Tom. In the case of a rape or some of the sort of violent act or personal situation of significant magnitude, a safety transfer is common.
But listen, we're the Military Religious Military Freedom Foundation. We have nearly 18,000 active duty sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen who are our clients and we see this pattern over and over again. When a young enlisted or officer, troop decides to stand up and speak truth to power, it's amazing. It's like, hey, you've won the lottery. We're kicking you out of your unit. And let's not forget Specialist Klawonn received an official counseling form yesterday which is a black mark on his record which heretofore had been completely pristine. So much so that he was the only soldier in his unit to qualify, you know, to try out for Special Forces. So this is clearly, we know it to be punitive, retributive --
BROWN: All right.
WEINSTEIN: -- to be clear reprisal. We've seen this over and over again and we're not going to allow it.
BROWN: Specialist Klawonn, let me give you the last word here. I mean, how do you want to see this play out? Obviously, even if you get what you want, staying in your unit filing this lawsuit, I mean, are you going to feel like you've won?
KLAWONN: Look, I just want to clarify one thing. During the meeting, there was no talk of safety whatsoever. I was told that this was a leadership decision through the history that has built up with me and the unit. There was never any talk of safety. There was never any talk of a choice. This was I was told this was a leadership decision.
KENNIFF: But aren't you alleging that your safety has been jeopardized?
KLAWONN: Right.
KENNIFF: Isn't that one of your allegations?
KLAWONN: Sure. But the relocation in which they are going to do or which they, you know, decide to proceed in isn't moving me from Fort Hood, isn't moving me from the situation. It's solely moving me from the unit.
KENNIFF: The infantry unit.
BROWN: All right.
KLAWONN: I'll be in the same place I'm still going to be doing the --
WEINSTEIN: It's just rearranging the -- is rearranging the deck chairs on the "Titanic."
BROWN: All right.
WEINSTEIN: It's a facade. It's a red hearing (ph).
BROWN: And gentlemen, we're out of time but I really do appreciate you all being here and, of course, we'll stay on the story as it develops. Many thanks to all of you. Thank you.
KLAWONN: Thank you for your time, Campbell.
KENNIFF: Thanks, Campbell.
WEINSTEIN: Thank you, Campbell.
BROWN: Coming up next, Lance Armstrong was involved in a big crash today. We're going to have the latest on the seven-time Tour de France winner when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Our number one international story tonight, the emotional reunion of three American mothers with their children jailed in Iran for nearly 10 months after they were arrested hiking near the border. In their first public appearance since being captured, the hikers talked about their treatment in one of Iran's most notorious prisons. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH SHOURD, DETAINED AMERICAN: Shane and Josh are in the room together but I'm alone. And that's the most difficult thing for me. But I see them twice a day.
JOSH FATTAL, DETAINED AMERICAN: Grateful once we started getting books. That really helped the prison experience a lot. Yes.
SHANE BAUER, DETAINED AMERICAN: He said relationships with the guards have been civil.
SHOURD: But it's terrible to be away from my family this long.
CINDY HICKEY, SHANE BAUER'S MOTHER: Gratitude. Gratitude is the biggest word. Gratitude to the Iranian authorities, to Mr. Mottaki for allowing us to come and visit our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The hikers denied that they had crossed the border and said they hope they will be released very soon.
Coming up, a city where violence in the streets has translated to chaos in the classroom. We're going to tell you what one Chicago school is doing to try to turn the tide. But first, Joe Johns has a look at some of the other stories we're following tonight. Hey, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Campbell, President Obama's top intelligence adviser is stepping down. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair says he's leaving with deep regret. Blair came under fire after the intelligence community failed to detect two nearly successful terrorist attacks, one on Christmas Day, the other more recently in Times Square. Blair's office oversees 17 federal agencies including the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated across Greece today in the second general strike this month. They are demanding the government drop a controversial pension reform, spending cuts, pay cuts, the unrest in Greece and a weak Euro helped push stocks sharply lower on Wall Street. The Dow fell 376 points, the biggest point drop in over three months.
Tonight, Bangkok's normally busy shopping district looks like a charred war zone. Military checkpoints have turned one of the capital's ritziest shopping precincts into a no man's land. A military crackdown yesterday on those anti-government protesters triggered more rioting. Thirty-nine buildings in the center of the city were burned.
And a brazen art heist worthy of a movie script this morning in Paris. A thief gets away with $123 million worth of masterpieces. A broken security system let a masked intruder smash a window to steal a Picasso, a Matisse and three other masterpieces from a Paris museum. It is one of the world's biggest art heists. And you can bet your bottom dollar they are absolutely going to be writing about that one in Hollywood.
BROWN: Yes. That will be a good movie.
JOHNS: Yes.
BROWN: All right, Joe Johns for us tonight. Joe, thanks very much.
Coming up, cycling superstar Lance Armstrong takes a tumble. We're going to have the latest on that.
BROWN: And we continue our series "America's Schools in Crisis" with what is being called the school-to-prison pipeline. Rampant suspensions leading to broken lives and what one school is doing to make a change.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In too many Chicago public schools, an alarming number of African-American boys never graduate because they are suspended or expelled. And a rapidly growing number of girls, regardless of race, are also being kicked out. And many of these kids even wind up in jail. Experts are calling this the pipeline to prison. But there is a school in one of Chicago's tougher neighborhoods that is steering a different course. Here right now CNN's Soledad O'Brien with part two of our series "America's Schools in Crisis."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIONELL ALLEN, SHERMAN PRINCIPAL: We're silent in the hallway.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When he was just 28, Principal Lionell Allen took on a daunting assignment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when they arrived here, the kids were prepared to do battle.
O'BRIEN: The old staff at failing Sherman Elementary had been fired. And in a school turnaround, Allen and a brand new staff took over in 2006. That year, Allen suspended a third of all the students.
(on camera): The number of kids who are suspended is high.
ALLEN: We have to send a message to the students and to the community of what behaviors are going to be tolerated and what behaviors were not going to be tolerated.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): In 2008, there were 510 murders in Chicago. Almost the same number as in New York City, a city three times the size.
ALLEN: Gangs play a significant role here. And it's just the place where students have developed a survival mentality. It's hard for them to imagine greatness in themselves because they don't see greatness around them.
ELAINE ALLENSWORTH, CONSORTIUM ON CHICAGO SCHOOL RESEARCH: There's some schools where half the students get, you know, at least one suspension in a year. Half the students.
O'BRIEN: Consortium on Chicago schools research co-director Elaine Allensworth says teachers get overwhelmed with the chaos.
ALLENSWORTH: They get so frustrated that they start handing out suspensions right and left because that's the only -- that's the only thing they know how to do. O'BRIEN: Teachers union president Marilyn Stewart blames the district for laying off school counselors. She says it's not in the teachers' best interest to suspend students.
MARILYN STEWART, CTU PRESIDENT: And when a child gets expelled, he's not in school. When he comes back, he's behind. So when a child is behind or they don't understand the lesson, they're going to misbehave. And if they misbehave they get expelled again.
O'BRIEN (on camera): There's a correlation between suspension, expulsion and race and gender too.
ARNE DUNCAN, EDUCATION SECRETARY: And dropouts.
O'BRIEN: Black boys are often the ones who are suspended or expelled.
DUNCAN: It's hugely disproportionate numbers. I think we have to collectively better help support and nurture young African-American boys.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's exactly what Principal Allen thought his school needed. So he decided to try something different.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you go with that one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because she got mad.
O'BRIEN: Many of these kids have bounced from one failing school to another and are dealing with problems at home. To help them cope and keep them in school, Allen brought in a full-time counselor to teach anger management skills, peer mediation, and provide grief and trauma counseling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So give me some specific feelings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anger, good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hatred.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hatred, good.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Have you gotten better since being in this group about flashes of anger? What do you do when someone cuts in front of you in line?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just let it go and then wait for my turn. Don't let my anger control me.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Ladonna Brewer says the program has made a noticeable difference in her daughter, Kendra. Kendra used to throw tantrums in class.
(on camera): So would they call you and say Kendra is flipping out, she's unmanageable?
LADONNA BREWER, KENDRA'S MOTHER: Yes, they would call me. Then I would come to the school. We do everything. They'll try to calm her down.
O'BRIEN: So what does the class do that's made you change so much?
KENDRA BREWER, STUDENT: I feel like I don't have to disrespect people all the time. If a teacher doesn't call on me, I don't have to yell and get mad.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Ladonna knows the program is hardly a cure-all. But it seems to be making a difference at Sherman. Suspensions are down by 75 percent. Attendance is up by 11 percent. And there's order in the halls.
(on camera): Have you seen a big change in discipline since starting these programs?
ALLEN: We have. They've matured. They understand that we love them, we have their back here and they don't have to blow up. When they have an issue, they can come to us because they can trust us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five and nine.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): And the teachers don't have to blow up either and suspend a kid who might just need a little support.
In America, Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up tomorrow in our special series "America's Schools in Crisis," the recession has been especially hard on teachers looking for work. Today's "New York Times" reports teachers are facing the weakest job market in years. How the impact of a bad economy could be felt for generations. That story tomorrow.
But still ahead tonight, "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. Larry, what do you have tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Campbell, Lance Armstrong is cut and bruised tonight after a cycling crash in California. The mishap occurred after he flatly denied doping allegations made by disgraced rider Floyd Landis. We've got all the latest.
And we'll get into Lindsay Lohan's new legal drama. This is real life law and order for the troubled star. And then the BP exec overseeing the oil spill clean-up. He'll be here too. It's a potpourri tonight all next on "LARRY KING LIVE" -- Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Larry. We'll see you in a few minutes. We are also, when we come back, going to talk about this about-face for U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis. He's now confessing that he took performance-enhancing drugs. We're going to have more on that coming in a moment and how Lance Armstrong is doing as well right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Our number one sports story tonight, a bruising day for Lance Armstrong. The seven-time Tour de France champion was involved in a bit of a rough crash today. Check this out. This is during a race in California. Armstrong went to a hospital for x-rays, but doctors found no fractures. Later Armstrong tweeted this picture of a bruise and cut under his eye. Eight stitches and he was good to go.
And in other cycling news, a shocking admission tonight. This is from disgraced U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis. After years of saying that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, Landis now admits that he did and he insists he was not the only one. But the embattled cyclist told quite a different story in 2006. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLOYD LANDIS, CYCLIST: I would like to leave absolutely clear that I'm not in any doping process. I declare convincingly and categorically that my winning the Tour de France has been exclusively due to many years of training and my complete devotion to cycling, to the sacrifice of an entire life to carry out my dream, a dream of thousands of kilometers that I have completed through an absolute respect to the cleanness of the sport.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Landis fessed up in a series of e-mail messages to sponsors and officials. And joining me right now is sports journalist Loren Mooney who is editor-in-chief of "Bicycling" magazine and she was also the co-author of Landis' book in 2007. So, Loren, I guess the big surprise here isn't that he was using drugs but sort of that he's finally admitting it, right?
LOREN MOONEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF "BICYCLING" MAGAZINE: Yes. You know, and to some extent, you know, maybe that's not so surprising. This does tend to happen with certain athletes after a few years. Landis has even said, told ESPN today that he wants to be able to sleep at night and wants to get this off his conscience a little bit.
BROWN: But I guess why now? Because he was defending this just a couple of months ago.
MOONEY: Even as recently as a few months ago, he was sticking to his story that he was innocent. You know, again, he has said that his motivation is simply to clear his conscience. I don't think, however, that it's a coincidence that it's being announced during the largest U.S. race, the tour of California.
BROWN: Where he knows it's going to get a lot of attention. So it's not just that he wants to come clean. He actually wants to put a lot of other information out there. He's accusing Lance Armstrong of doping, too. And I want to play for people what Armstrong had to say in response. This was earlier today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANCE ARMSTRONG, CYCLIST: I remind everybody that this is a man that's been under oath several times and had a very different version. This is a man that wrote a book for profit that had a completely different version. This is somebody that took someone said close to a million dollars from innocent people for his defense under a different premise. And now when it's all run out, the story changes. So we're just as -- I should say we're a little confused, maybe just as confused as you guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So before I ask you about Landis' credibility, Armstrong, he has been pretty thoroughly investigated on the doping issue, right?
MOONEY: That's right. The first allegations again Lance Armstrong surfaced in 1999. So in every case -- and there have been many of them over the years -- he systematically fought, in some cases, even former teammates have come out and said that he admitted doping in a certain context. However, there's been counter testimony to that. So Armstrong successfully defended every accusation so far. This one goes into a lot of detail. But at this point it's still just Floyd's word.
BROWN: But -- and to that point, does he have any credibility left?
MOONEY: His credibility is incredibly compromised obviously. As you heard Lance say, Floyd mounted a legal defense raising money from the public. He has staunchly defended himself for years up until this point. So, yes, his credibility is compromised.
I think, you know, what you may see that, you know, it's also been reported by the "New York Times" that Floyd is cooperating with investigators. If those investigations lead somewhere, then it may lead to something. But if it ends up just Landis' word against Armstrong's, history says that Armstrong is going to come out on top.
BROWN: And to that point we should just make sure people understand he's accusing a lot of people, too, besides Armstrong just across the board.
MOONEY: That's exactly right. He's basically saying that there was systematic doping on Armstrong's old postal team.
BROWN: Right. Loren, really appreciate it you being here. Thanks very much.
MOONEY: Thank you.
BROWN: Appreciate it.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starting in just a few minutes. But up next, tonight's "Punch Line." Here's a sample. Take it away, Dave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": You can't pump that much oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It's already affecting wildlife. It's having a horrible effect of -- and if you don't believe me, take a look at this.
You know, look at this. We've got proof. Watch. (coughing).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Time for tonight's "Punch Line." Here's our roundup of the best of late night with Jimmy, Jay and Dave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": During a speech in Ohio yesterday, President Obama reminded the crowd that the economy was much worse a year ago. And then the crowd reminded him that he was already the president a year ago. So he's like --
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE JAY LENO SHOW": And in welcoming Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, to the White House today, President Obama told him we are not defined by our borders. And the president of Mexico said, what borders?
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": There's a show "Lost." You know anything about "Lost"?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LETTERMAN: Well, I don't want to break your hearts but it's coming to an end. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
LETTERMAN: Big season finale Sunday night, and I happen to know how it ends. You want to hear?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
LETTERMAN: Their luggage turns up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And that's it for us, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a great night.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
