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Campbell Brown

Primary Day Arrives; Gulf Oil Disaster Day 50

Aired June 08, 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, everybody.

It is day 50 of the disaster in the Gulf. And tonight we have new, exclusive video showing the flow just before the containment cap was placed on the well last week. And, this time, the pictures are high-resolution, showing us much more detail.

BP gave up the video only after Senators Barbara Boxer and Bill Nelson demanded it in an effort to help scientists try to get a handle on just how much oil is pouring into the Gulf. It is stunning, after 50 days, that oil execs and scientists still do not have an accurate number.

And some expert says BP's containment efforts are actually making the lease worse, much worse. We learned today that the oil we can see on the surface and washing up on the beaches may actually also only be the tip of the iceberg. Undersea plumes of oil are spreading far and wide below the ocean's surface, threatening the Gulf food chain. So, is this environmental disaster possibly even worse than we thought?

We're going to talk about that.

On another front, though, it is also primary day across the country, with contests in 12 states. And, in many of them, Republican women are the front-runners. Are women the new rock stars of the GOP? We will have that debate tonight.

Also tonight, the fascinating confession of Joran van der Sloot in what may be a breakthrough in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway after all this time.

Lots of news to get to tonight, but we begin with our number-one story, the disaster in the Gulf.

With all the numbers we are hearing -- BP says it has collected 42,500 barrels in just four days -- it's easy to lose track of the human face of this tragedy, but there was a moment today that brings us back to, I think, the heart of the matter.

And first, though, remember this famous line from BP's CEO, Tony Hayward?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP GROUP: There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I would like my life back. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, now listen to the emotional testimony on Capitol Hill today by the brother of one of the men who died when the Deepwater Horizon blew up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER JONES, BROTHER OF RIG EXPLOSION VICTIM: Well, Mr. Hayward, I want my brother's life back. And I know the families of the other 10 men want their lives back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, is due to testify before a congressional committee next week.

But the key question is one that we have been asking for weeks now. Just how much oil is gushing out of that well? Frustration is rising tonight over the fact that we still can't accurately answer that question a month-and-a-half after the rig blew up.

And officials from U.S. senators to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are demanding more information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: They first told us it was 1,000 barrels. Then it was 5,000 barrels. Then it was 12,000 to 19,000. Then it was 20 percent more.

I wouldn't be surprised at all, based on the amount of oil we're seeing in the water, the amount of oil we're seeing in the wetlands, that the flow rate is actually higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Here now to help us try to get to the bottom of all this, historian Doug Brinkley, who has been tracking this story with us from the very beginning, and also geologist Don Van Nieuwenhuise, who is joining us tonight as well.

And, Don, let me put this up on the screen. This is the new high-resolution video I mentioned earlier we have of the oil well. We're hearing experts saying that this could indicate as much as 100,000 barrels a day of oil gushing out. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told CNN this evening he has been getting estimates that high.

I mean, you're -- you're the scientist here. I mean, tell us what we're looking at. What is really happening? How much oil is gushing out?

DONALD VAN NIEUWENHUISE, GEOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Well, I have to say, I'm not exactly overwhelmed by it. It doesn't look like it's flowing that much faster than it was before, although you're seeing through some of the turbidity that you could not see before. And I think what is important for everyone to see, including the people trying to make these calculations, is that there are gas bubbles coming up with this oil. And those gas bubbles are displacing volume in the pipe, and therefore it's not going to be as much oil as you might imagine if it was just pure oil coming up through that pipe without the gas bubbles filling it up.

You might consider it something like a soda bottle. When you shake it up and you let the bottle explode with bubbles, the bubbles will displace the liquid, and you don't get as much liquid to come through the opening, because a lot of it is displaced with those bubbles from the escaping gases.

And here you have reached the bubble point, and a lot of gas is starting to come out and form free gas bubbles. And that's why you have the gas clathrates.

BROWN: So, you think -- just kind of bottom-line for me -- that it may not be as bad as you're hearing a lot of other people say right now?

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Based on what I'm looking at right now, it doesn't make me think that the estimate is going to jump up dramatically.

Of course, the best way to know this -- and, of course, Thad Allen mentioned it earlier -- and that is to get the oil all on a production line and actually measure it for real in a pipe in a controlled situation.

When you have fluids escaping out into an open ocean, you don't have a good estimate or way to estimate the actual volumes, especially because it's turbulent the way it is, mainly because these gas bubbles are forming and displacing a lot of the oil that would potentially be volumes of oil.

But, rather than volumes of oil, you have got bubbles that are displacing that oil.

BROWN: All right.

But, before I bring Doug into this, let me just also ask you quickly, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, is telling the Associated Press tonight that BP expects to be capturing virtually all the oil leaking from the Gulf floor by early next week, that the flow should decrease in their words to a relative trickle by Monday or Tuesday.

Do you think that's feasible just so soon?

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Yes, I do because what they're actually going to be doing is pulling online those -- the manifold that is attached to the two hydraulic lines. And they will pull another 5,000 barrels into that. And they're optimizing this -- the cap much more quickly than I thought they would. They're -- you know, they're adding on something like 2,000 or 3,000 barrels a day to production flow rates. It's over 15,000 barrels a day right now. If they can add on 5,000 from the hydraulic lines that will be a sort of direct tie or a direct drain from the blowout preventer, then they can get over 20,000 barrels.

And I think, beyond that, they're hoping that they can further maximize it, if they need to. And my best estimate right now would be that the flow is somewhere around 24,000 barrels.

BROWN: OK.

VAN NIEUWENHUISE: And it could be as high as 30,000.

BROWN: Doug, as I get your take on this, let me play something first, though. This is BP -- one of the BP officials, because they have continually -- continually said that they are more focused on containing the spill than trying to calculate the flow rate.

And this is BP senior vice president Kent Wells. This was talking to reporters yesterday. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENT WELLS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BP: How much that is, we would all love to know. It's really difficult to tell. I think we have had all sorts of people much smarter than I am all over the world trying to guess what that number is.

I know what the team here is focused on is, we're committed to capturing every barrel of oil we can possibly capture that is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, Doug, what is your take? Do you believe them when they say that they don't really have a sense for how much oil is gushing out?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, BP has a clear sense. It's always a lot more than whatever they say it is. Hopefully, that we're starting to get some of this captured right now. But when you heard the clip you ran of Governor Bobby Jindal, and today Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and others are very worried about this lowballing that has been going on.

Even now, when you talked about Doug Suttles of BP talking about, it will soon be a trickle, and then we had before Tony Hayward, one of his great hits of, it's just a drop in the bucket in the sea -- this -- this is where BP is killing themselves with the American public.

There is a constant feeling of trying to minimize people's lives that are being traumatized. Governor Bobby Jindal isn't anti-oil. He is a pro-oil Republican from Louisiana who is watching the marshlands and the wetlands be destroyed by a lot more oil than BP ever told them was coming. And, so, I think the company would be best to be pushing to get exact figures, to say, we want to know, too. We're working with university researchers. We're working with the federal government. We're going to get the public figures soon.

Thad Allen said that today. BP didn't.

BROWN: All right, Doug Brinkley, stay with us. I know you're going to be with us for another segment as well.

Gentlemen, to both of you, thank you very much for that.

We're going to take a quick break.

With all the problems on the Gulf surface -- and they are -- wait until you hear what the government is saying now about the spill's impact under the water. It has people asking yet again, is BP intentionally downplaying the true impact of this disaster? We're going to talk about that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Brand-new information tonight about just how insidious this oil spill really is for the region.

After seven weeks, we thought we had heard it all, but today, even with all the oil spreading over the surface of the Gulf, we learned the environmental nightmare underwater is much worse than we had imagined, proof now that toxic plumes are lingering more than a half-a-mile below the surface, spreading more than 40 miles from the broken well.

And those plumes have the potential to choke off the oxygen that undersea life needs to survive. BP has questioned whether such oil plumes even existed, but, today, the federal government confirmed what researchers at the University of South Florida uncovered. There is a lot more oil out there spread out over a lot wider area of sea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HOLLANDER, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: And so this is a very much of a -- representative of a biodegraded oil, and that would suggest indeed that the source of these hydrocarbons are from -- from depth, that these are not associated with the sinking of surface degraded oil, which is sort of getting a fingerprint on a smoking gun.

The worst-case scenario is that it causes severe issues with the fish larvae and the fisheries industry, and the worst-case scenario I think is collapse of the food chain. That's rather on the extreme side of things. But we're in unchartered territories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: William Hogarth is dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. And I just kind of want you to educate us to start off a little bit and explain to people, what exactly is a plume? It's not just a bunch of oil suspended underwater, right? What did your team really find?

WILLIAM HOGARTH, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: Well, I think, in this instance, plume is probably not the correct answer.

When you think of a plume, you think of a volcano erupting or even what you would see underwater. Much of what we saw was invisible to the naked eye. And it's in the water column, and it's like -- say, it's from the top to the bottom. Some of the surface oil could definitely be traced to 252, which is the BP spill.

Some of it, we did not have sufficient samples to link it to BP, because there's natural seepage in the Gulf of Mexico also that you have to deal with. But we saw low concentrations from the surface to the bottom, but up to 0.5 parts per million, which is -- and, more or less, I guess if you want to explain, it's maybe like a cloud, but it's in layers, the surface layer, which is about maybe 100 feet at oil, and then you said 400 meters, you saw another layer, so to speak, and then down to about 1,000 meters. So...

BROWN: But this is oil, just to be clear. These clouds, or whatever we want to call it or name it, is oil from the spill, correct, that is going on layers and layers down underneath the water?

(CROSSTALK)

HOGARTH: Yes, some of it definitely is tied to the spill. But some of it, with the information we now have, we cannot tie to it the spill, because, as I said earlier, we do have natural seepage in the Gulf of Mexico.

BROWN: Right.

HOGARTH: There are natural oils that seep.

But, yes, the surface oil definitely was tied to BP and to 252, is what they call the leakage. But we have got -- we have additional samples which we're working on now that we will try to look at the depth and see if we -- what that shows also.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: So, let me just get you to bottom-line this again for us here. On a scale, I guess, of one to 10, how worried are you about what you have seen so far in this confirmation that this does exist, it is from the spill, and it is underwater? How worried should we be?

HOGARTH: Well, from a fishery person -- and I am a fishery person -- I am, I would say, at probably a 10. I think we have to look at what has taken place in the food chain.

What happens, is bacteria eat on the oil. And we saw very good evidence that the bacteria are being very effective in reducing the oil. And -- but this -- these bacteria are fed on by microscopic organisms, which work up into phytoplankton. Your larval fish and your adult fish will feed on this.

So, you have to be concerned with what goes on in the food chain. And as you work up the food chain into your larger organisms, will it impact their reproduction? Will it impact the (INAUDIBLE) And, so, will we have lower populations in the future?

So, that is from the sample of how large this spill appears to be, and there is, and it's affecting -- and the fact it's -- we saw concentrations from the surface to the bottom, and we don't know a lot about the dispersant that was used, which seems to be very effective in breaking it down into these smaller molecules.

We have to be concerned. We need to get out now, I think personally, and start looking at the organisms in the water, not just look where oil is, but look at the organisms themselves.

BROWN: This is a lot, a lot to figure out, and the damage obviously going in many different directions that we haven't even identified yet.

Sir, we appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much for being with us...

HOGARTH: Thank you.

BROWN: Mr. William Hogarth from Tampa.

We're going to talk about this a lot more, the extent of this spill and the surprising answers that BP has been giving when reporters press the company about it. Doug Brinkley will be back with us, along with an environmental scientist, to talk about that in just a minute.

Also, some breaking news tonight -- some crucial primaries going on right now from coast to coast. The best political team on television staking out all the hot spots on a night the White House is watching very closely.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today's confirmation of these underwater oil plumes in the Gulf could mark yet another environmental and P.R. disaster by BP and its top executives.

And, as we mentioned, BP has been pressed repeatedly over the last few days about these so-called deep sea clouds. And this has been the company line. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I keep seeing these reports of scientists saying that they would find these giant underwater plumes.

(CROSSTALK) HAYWARD: I don't -- I don't think there is any evidence of that, actually, so far. The oil is on the surface, but not in the water column.

ROBERT DUDLEY, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BP: They have found evidence of very small decreases in oxygen levels, which is what you would expect when the bacteria eats the oil. We're -- actually, everyone is out there looking for these plumes, haven't found them yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Now, we called BP today for a comment on the new findings. The company declined to be interviewed and has yet to give us a statement about it.

With me right now is Louisiana State environmental scientist Ed Overton. And back with us once again is Doug Brinkley to try to give us a little perspective on this.

Doug, do you believe BP knew about these plumes all along?

BRINKLEY: I don't think BP -- Robert Dudley, who you just had on, he is not an oceanographer. They can't tell us anything even about how much oil is coming out of their own well, and he is now suddenly a marine biologist.

Serious scientists from a number of universities have found these clouds, as you're calling them, existing. How dangerous it is, we don't know. The fear is that, with all of those chemical dispersants were just dumped in one area, and it -- it was a hardening effect in a way and pushed all the oil down towards the ocean floor.

And the fear now is that a whole zone is like a dead zone on the sea. We see the visuals of what is happening in the marshlands when the oil hits shore. Well, imagine that marine life, which is hard for us to film at this point, if this continues, week after week after week, and then it gets into the Gulf loop current eventually, and you start looking at wildlife devastation in places like Florida in a serious way.

Right now, we're having seen pelicans or terns on the shore with oil on them. Imagine if you start getting a scenario with dolphins, with oil dead washing up to shore. It's going to create a whole new realm of this environmental disaster. And so I don't think BP should be getting into the business now of doing marine biology. Leave to it the experts, the oceanographers.

They're concerned about what they're seeing right now. And, so, every day, we need to keep gathering more and more valuable information.

BROWN: Ed, let me go to Doug's initial point, that the dispersants BP is using may be responsible for spreading these plumes, you know, one way or another. What do you think about that? EDWARD OVERTON, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, I think it's absolutely right. The oil is coming in the environment down at subsurface a mile down.

And through natural dispersion and chemical dispersion, this cloud of oil is -- is at the bottom of the ocean. And it moves out with currents. Now, remember, it's not a lake of oil. You couldn't see it. It's a -- it's water that has oil dissolved in it. That's what dispersed oil is.

And it's down at the part per million level to part per billion level. And it's moving around and moving out. So, clearly, there is a lot of oil, but it's not a lake of oil. You couldn't see the oil, and it's not coating anything.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: But does that matter when you're talking about the marine life and the impact it has on the food chain? Does it matter if it's dispersed or if it's in one big chunk?

OVERTON: Well -- well, it certainly does, because, if it's in one big chunk, you're not going to get very much exposure. When it's dispersed, you have the opportunity for exposure, as well as loss of oxygen.

Now, the good news is here, if there is any good news, is that the oxygen levels appear don't -- not to be significantly affected. They're down 15, 20, 30 percent. But -- but you also have exposure to toxic chemicals. And, as fish swim through this, they are exposed.

But the concentrations are extremely low, part per billion. Remember, that's -- that's not very much, still a lot of cause for impact. But I think what BP is saying -- I'm not being an apologist for BP, but I think they vision a lake of oil floating around.

And that's not the case. There is oil that has -- there is water that has oil highly dispersed in it at the part per million, part per billion level. And everybody knows that and has been saying that from the beginning -- maybe not BP, but scientists that I deal with.

BROWN: But, Doug, you don't have as optimistic a take on, I guess, what that means, do you?

BRINKLEY: Well, it's not a matter of optimism. It's that we have got -- we're always looking for what is the good news scenario, how is this going to get capped and contained.

But we also have to start thinking about what can we do if this goes on for a month or two months. Hopefully, Tony Hayward and -- is going to have to start coming to Capitol Hill. He is going to be going and very soon and starting to be releasing documents about what they know about how much oil has come out.

We need more information about these toxic dispersants. There are many environmental groups that think the dispersants are going to prove in the long run to be almost as damaging to the ecosystem in the Gulf as the oil spill. And so there are a lot of questions up there.

One doesn't want to over-ring alarms. But to do what BP is doing, and it's constantly minimizing everything, and five days later, the information says, well, you were wrong, you were wrong, you were wrong. That's why the president today on an interview said that he would not employ Tony Hayward if he was -- as a CEO if he was on any board.

That's very strong language for the president of the United States against a corporate leader. It's because that corporate leader has lied numerous times to the American public. They talk about areas of marine biology and wetlands conservation that they know nothing about.

They have one interest, and that is to constantly minimize and downplay of catastrophic event into being just a little spill in the -- in the ocean. And I'm afraid that -- that what is going on in the Gulf right now, many marine biologists are talking about a whole part of an underwater, a seafloor ecosystem that could be dead now from the amount of dispersants dropped in a single area in what we're calling clouds.

If you have a camera on the ocean floor right now, you would not like what you see. It's going to be rocks like balls that are all down there, and fish can get contaminated. And, again, it could -- right now, we're looking at about a third or more of the Gulf closed to fishing. This could end up being half. By the end of the summer, it could be the Gulf of Mexico shut down for fishing.

BROWN: It's unbelievable. It really is.

And Tony Hayward, of course, is certainly going to be on the hot seat, having to address questions about all of this next week when he testifies before Congress. That is June 17. We will certainly be watching.

Gentlemen, thank you both, Mr. Overton and Doug Brinkley, as always.

Tonight, we track this evening's primary election returns across the country. We will look at a powerful force in tonight's vote: female power, both parties banking on women in key races. We will talk about that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It is a busy day in politics with primaries playing out across the country. Polls closed 90 minutes ago in South Carolina's hard-fought Republican primary for governor. This is, of course, the battle to succeed Mark Sanford, he of the Argentinean soul mate fame. The campaign to replace him has had no shortage of drama and intrigue on its own. In the past two weeks, front-runner State Representative Nikki Haley has fended off not one but two charges of infidelity. It got so bad that Haley promised to resign if the allegations were ever proven true. Did any of it matter to voters? Well, here's an early look at the results from South Carolina with 13 percent of the precincts reporting. Haley leads with 42 percent of the vote. Congressman Gresham Barrett is at 29 percent. State Attorney General Henry McMaster has 15 percent. And Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer trails with 13 percent. Those are, of course, we should say very early returns. If nobody gets 50 percent tonight, there will be a runoff on June 22nd.

And we want to check in on some of the other very high profile races happening around the country as well. CNN national political correspondent Jessica Yellin live for us in Burbank, California where there are two big contests. And CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is standing by in Little Rock, Arkansas where one senator is seeing her political life flash before her eyes. And also here with me in New York, Mark Halperin, "Time" magazine's senior political analyst joining me as well.

Dana, let me start with you here. Polls just closed in Arkansas. You're at Senator Blanche Lincoln's headquarters. I know she's really struggling to hang on, isn't she?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She's absolutely struggling to hang on, and she's struggling not to be another statistic in what is the national political narrative. And that statistic would be the fifth sitting lawmaker and the third sitting senator to be ousted by members of his or her own party. And she has been really battling that anti-incumbent wave here in Arkansas that we have seen across the country. And what is really fascinating about this particular race is that she really is, when you look at the way the Senate is, she's really in the middle. She is a true moderate. And so she is in this Democratic primary battle trying to beat back both those on the left who just take health care, for example, said that they are furious at her for not supporting a public option in health care. But then she also has, these are Democratic voters in this conservative state, people are angry at her for voting for health care at all. So that is the kind of pickle that she is in which is really representative I think of what's going on on a national level in both parties with moderates who say that they're trying to, in her words today, get out of the foxhole and work with people on both sides of the aisle to form consensus.

BROWN: Right. Mark, another very vulnerable senator this year, Majority Leader Harry Reid. And in Nevada, Republicans are choosing his challenger but not really a strong field.

MARK HALPERIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: This is a field not of "A" candidates or "B" candidates, but "C" level candidates. And in some cases, that's being generous. This is the reason why I thought for a while that Harry Reid has a real chance to hold his seat. Whoever wins tonight, and the person who's going to win tonight, many Republicans will acknowledge is the weakest perhaps of the four major candidates running for the Republican nomination. Whoever wins needs to quickly pivot to a general election message. They have spent months battling for the narrow sliver of the electorate who will vote in this Republican primary. They cannot win unless they can prove that they can talk to the center to win against Harry Reid who has a lot of money in the bank to go after whoever wins.

BROWN: Let's check in with Jessica Yellin because I know she's out in California, where the front runners in the Republican primaries for Senate and governor both political newcomers, both wealthy businesswomen. They have run very different campaigns, though, haven't they?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATL. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They have. That's right, Campbell. There is first, Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who has done her -- worked her hardest to try to be a conservative who is not too far to the right. She wants to stay a moderate so that she has a good chance of competing in Democratic- leaning California when she has to likely face Jerry Brown, a well- known Democrat who's run in the state before.

Then you have Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who has done the opposite. She has tried to move significantly to the right, prove that she is the most conservative Republican in this race. And she is gambling that her likely opponent, that her opponent Barbara Boxer is so disliked that Democrats will be willing to switch sides but independents will go for somebody they traditionally wouldn't, a conservative Republican in California, simply because they want a change. We'll have to see.

I'll tell you one thing, Campbell. If either of these women wins, it will be the first time a Republican woman has won statewide in California since 1970.

BROWN: Wow. Talk to me, Mark, just a little bit about this generally, because it's not only California, it's South Carolina. It's Nevada where the leading Republican candidates who are all women, and traditionally Democrats enjoy an advantage with women. But this is something new and sort of unique, isn't it?

HALPERIN: Well, it's a little bit just state by state, the fact that you have kind of a coincidence. But I think there are two factors at play. One is as time passes in both parties, women move up the ranks. They achieve in business in the case of some and politics in the case of others. But it's also I think most of all a year for outsiders, a year for people going after the establishment. And a strong woman candidate, and these are all strong candidates across various dimensions I think can make a better case implicitly and sometimes explicitly. They're not from the old boys network.

BROWN: A fair point. And an important year to be making that case.

Mark Halperin, Jessica Yellin and Dana Bash, to everybody, thank you guys. We'll, of course, be updating you throughout the night as more results come in.

Coming up after the break, the very latest on the Joran van der Sloot murder investigation. Why authorities believe he killed the young Peruvian woman. And new information on his ties to Natalee Holloway still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Coming up, Joran van der Sloot confesses. Why he killed 21-year-old Stephany Flores and what really happened in that South American hotel room. But first, Gary Tuchman is here with a look at some of the other stories we're following tonight -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Campbell, hello to you. The U.S. military passes a grim milestone today. More than 1,000 American troops have now been killed in Afghanistan. According to CNN's calculations, the death toll hit 1,001 today when an IED exploded killing two troops in southern Afghanistan. The violence though comes just 24 hours after insurgents killed 12 NATO soldiers including seven Americans, with yesterday the deadliest day for coalition forces in Afghanistan this year.

Rod Blagojevich finally gets his day in court. Opening statements beginning today in the federal criminal trial against the former Illinois governor turned reality star. The two-term Democrat was impeached and removed from office in January 2009 for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. Blagojevich has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Tonight, more than 400 medical marijuana shops are under orders to close in Los Angeles. California becoming the first state to criminalize pot for medical use. But after complaints that the pot shops in L.A. were catering more to recreational smokers than patients, the city council cracked down. In November, Californians will vote on a measure that could legalize recreational use.

And Washington is notorious for its flip-flopping politicians. But take a look at this. A World War II era biplane did a back flip while trying to land at Reagan National Airport. It was movie stunt that kind of backfired. The crash closed the airport just outside the nation's capital for nearly an hour. Amazingly, the pilot and passenger got out unhurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Well, we want to show you the instant replay if we can wrack it up again because that was some amazing video. The two-seat open cockpit plane seemed to land safely until, oops, not so good. It's an old-fashioned plane, Campbell.

BROWN: Yes.

TUCHMAN: But fortunately it has -- fortunately, it has new fangled seat belts.

BROWN: Yes.

TUCHMAN: Because without the seat belts, those guys would have fallen out.

BROWN: No kidding and I love the guy -- you're like you OK? Yes, fine. Everything is fine.

TUCHMAN: Routine day at the office.

BROWN: Totally.

Gary Tuchman for us tonight. Gary, thanks very much. And I should mention you'll be back in a moment. Because coming up, Joran van der Sloot cracks under questioning. But will he finally give new details about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway? Gary will be back with the very latest on that, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A major break today in the investigation of murder suspect Joran van der Sloot. Authorities say the young Dutchman burst into tears early this morning as he confessed to killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores. He also agreed to reenact the crime at the hotel in Peru where Flores was found beaten to death. Long a suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, van der Sloot told investigators it was Flores' discovery of his ties to the Alabama teenager that sent him into a rage. CNN's Gary Tuchman has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): When 21-year-old Stephany Flores walked into this hotel in Peru with Joran van der Sloot, she would only have hours to live. It was May 30th, exactly five years to the day that Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared after also spending time with van der Sloot. He was arrested twice in connection with the Holloway disappearance, but released each time for lack of evidence. But now, Peruvian authorities say they have the proof to put him away. They brought an unemotional looking van der Sloot before the news media, following what they say is his confession that he killed Stephany Flores. This is the victim's sister-in-law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need justice. He's a psycho, a murderer, and he has to pay.

TUCHMAN: This surveillance tape shows van der Sloot leaving the hotel by himself after the victim was killed. Her body wasn't discovered until the next day. According to a source with direct knowledge of the investigation, van der Sloot became enraged when the victim found information on his laptop that tied him to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. She wanted to leave and slapped van der Sloot, but he hit her back and then grabbed her neck, ultimately beating her to death.

The source also tells us van der Sloot says he was intoxicated with marijuana when this happened. He fled to Chile, was captured, and quickly extradited back to Peru.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most important thing was how the Chilean government and its president rapidly responded and the coordination that happened between police agencies.

TUCHMAN: Coincidentally these developments are happening as the nonprofit Natalee Holloway Resource Center opens in Washington. Her mother attended the opening, not surprisingly saying this is a very stressful time.

BETH HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S MOTHER: And please, again, let's all remind ourselves and keep the Flores family in our hearts and in our prayers. Thank you. God bless.

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TUCHMAN: Van der Sloot could officially be charged with murder as early as tomorrow. There is no death penalty in Peru. There's no life sentence in Peru. The most he could get is 35 years behind bars. Probably get less, though, because in Peru when you turn yourself in, they give you a bonus and you don't get as much time. So he probably won't even get 35 years.

And one very important thing that a lot of you are wondering if he said anything about what happened in Aruba five years, at least for now he's not talking about that -- Campbell.

BROWN: All right, Gary Tuchman tonight. We are going to talk more about that. We're going to hear more about van der Sloot's possible motive coming up in just a moment. But first, "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in a few minutes. Larry, what do you have tonight?

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Campbell, more of the same. Following those incredible developments in that murder case against Joran van der Sloot in Peru. What will his confession regarding the killing of that young woman there mean for the Natalee Holloway case? He was the prime suspect, of course, in her disappearance five years ago to the day. Plus, the latest on the Election Day results and a lot more, all next on "LARRY KING LIVE" -- Campbell.

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

Coming up, we also have more as Larry said on van der Sloot's disturbing history with the law. What could be his motives, and is this latest confession believable? After the break.

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BROWN: More now on the van der Sloot murder investigation. As stunning as his confession might be, it's not the first time he has admitted being involved in a young girl's death. In a 2008 sting operation orchestrated by an investigative reporter, Peter De Vries, the young Dutchman was caught on a hidden camera saying he was in fact responsible for Natalee Holloway's disappearance, and that her body would never be found. I spoke to Peter De Vries today about the latest twist in van der Sloot's long checkered history with the law.

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BROWN: Peter De Vries joins us right now. And, Peter, as we just heard, Joran is telling investigators he killed Stephany Flores because she was snooping around in his computer. But you don't buy that, do you?

PETER DE VRIES, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: No, I don't really buy that. Of course, it's possible. But I think it's a story he made up, because legally, it's more interesting for him to make-believe that he killed her because she was too curious and nosy and looking in his computer. Then he can say well, I did it, I got furious and then I killed her, and I didn't really know what I was doing.

The other story is that he tried to rob her from her money because she won the night before her death a serious amount of money in a poker play, $5,000. And what I know and that's a fact, that Joran was in serious financial trouble. He was begging people and friends in Holland for money.

BROWN: And Joran was the last known person, as we all know, seen with Natalee Holloway. He had repeatedly denied having anything to do with her disappearance until you caught him on hidden camera admitting that he was involved. What did he actually confess to?

DE VRIES: Well, what he confessed was that he was with Natalee on the beach that fatal night, and that Natalee suddenly shakes and then she died in his arms. And then he said, well, I panicked. I didn't know what to do. And well, I called the friends, and well, we dumped the body into the ocean. And we wanted to get rid of her. That's what he confessed.

BROWN: And did Joran actually say that Natalee could have been alive when they dumped her body into the ocean?

DE VRIES: Yes, he was not completely sure about it. He wasn't able to see if she was really dead.

BROWN: And what happened, again, when you gave the tape to the Aruban authorities? Why weren't they able to use it against him?

DE VRIES: Well, there were some legal problems because he only confessed that she didn't feel well, and that she died in his arms. He didn't confess that he hit her or that he murdered her. So the only thing they could accuse him of was to dispose of the body, and that's not a very heavy crime in Holland.

BROWN: And Joran's father I know recently died. He was a judge in Aruba. And many see him as his son's protector. With him gone, do you think that Joran could face new scrutiny?

DE VRIES: Oh, yes, I'm pretty sure that the Aruban authorities will interrogate him again. I spoke to one of them this evening, and they confirmed to me that they will talk to Joran again. And they hope that he will, yes, he will tell the truth now and answer questions which he didn't do before.

BROWN: Peter De Vries, we appreciate your time and your insight. Thanks for talking to us.

DE VRIES: OK, you're welcome.

BROWN: "LARRY KING LIVE" starting in just a few minutes. But up next, tonight's "Punch Line." A sample courtesy of BP and Stephen Colbert.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, I am Tony Hayward. There is no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Well, Tony, on behalf of the American people, just let me say -- get out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally, tonight's "Punch Line." Here is the latest from our friends who stay up late to make us laugh.

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JAY LENO, HOST, "THE JAY LENO SHOW": BP officials are now saying the campaign to clean it up could last until fall. That's why they call it a campaign. You know why it's called a campaign? Because it's like an election. It's dirty. It's slimy. It never seems to end. That's why they call a campaign.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": What should Obama be doing in this moment of crisis? We know if this was Reagan, he would have stripped to his skivvies, put a knife in his teeth, gone down there and punched that oil well shut.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": Today, President Obama spoke at Kalamazoo Central High School's graduation ceremony in Michigan. He told the students they could be anything they want to be, but if they could be oil leak experts, that would be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Jimmy Fallon, everybody. That does it for us. You can follow me any time on Twitter. Thanks for joining us.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.