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Manure Pile Found in Egg Farms; Detroit's Math Corps; Desperation Soars in Pakistan; Saddam's Final Days and Activities; Home and Away

Aired August 31, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's a historic milestone today but by no means an end to the violence in Iraq. U.S. troops marked the formal end of the combat mission but unfortunately, we are still bringing you reports of bombings and deaths of U.S. troops.

Case in point, IEDs: they're still a threat to the 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq and are the weapon of choice for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now U.S. forces have a new force to fight them, planes. CNN's Barbara Starr explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Planes like these are the newest secret weapon against road side bombs in Afghanistan, carrying sensors that sniff out deadly threat. Ashton Carter is the senior Pentagon official responsible for finding ways to fight improvised explosive device.

ASHTON CARTER, PENTAGON OFFICIAL: Just in the last few weeks, we deployed a couple of airplanes with really revolutionary capability to do essentially chemical analysis at a distance. And they can distinguish ammonium nitrate, which is one of the fertilizer based chemicals that are being used to make IEDs. So the airplanes are flying now. We're seeing how they work. They're finding IED laboratories --

STARR: Troops may be celebrating the official end of combat in Iraq but IEDs still threaten troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan despite years of improved armor protection.

In Iraq insurgents still put more than 400 IEDs a month out on the roads but Afghanistan is now the focus.

CARTER: For the first time in eight years, we are really surging our counter IED capability there. The number of pieces of equipment, the number of trained people is increasing by a large factor, so we are getting in the game in Afghanistan in a way we've not been in the past.

STARR: Waiting has been costly. In 2008, 87 U.S. troops were killed by IED attacks in Afghanistan. Last year, it skyrocketed to 187. In just the first seven months of this year, more than 140 troops killed. Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Fank has treated hundreds of the wounded.

LT. COL. RAYMOND FANK: We have seen I think more devastating IEDs recently because I think as reported in the news, the amount of explosive is being increased because our protection is increased, and the enemy adapts and so they make bigger bombs.

STARR: Bigger, deadlier bombs often with little or no metal content that can be detected, making these new planes a vital tool in this very long war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We have been talking about the troops leaving Iraq but there are 50,000 still there. A closer look at their mission just ahead.

Well, if you are eating breakfast, I want to give you a heads up. This story probably will kill your appetite. Rodents, frogs, maggots and seeping manure found by federal investigators at the egg farms linked to the Salmonella outbreak.

Josh Levs has actually been looking over the reports for us. Bottom line, Josh, gross?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, in fact, I have a slight advantage over you folks this morning that I have read this report enough times this morning that I'm passed the point of being revulsed by it. But it's new to you. So I don't want to clobber you over the head.

Here's the idea. The FDA released these inspection reports noting violations at six farms operated by Wright County Egg and Quality Egg, which are owned by the same family and three Hillendale Farms locations. I mean, these inspections took place in August after new egg safety rules went into effect.

All right. I got some examples here for you. What these inspectors found, I'm going to tell you about them now. We are using general pictures, we don't have pictures from the actual farm themselves. Uncaged hens tracking manure at Hillendale Farms, and another one here, manure leaking onto the floor in several locations at Hillendale Farms locations, live rodents and rodent holes as well.

Now we're going to jump over to this one, some of these Quality Egg and Wright County Egg sites. They found live frogs in one section and they found a bunch of live wild birds that were just not supposed to be there and in areas where they wouldn't think that there would be birds in general.

A whole mess of flies, tons and tons of flies, living and dead, all over the place. Maggots, always the word you want to here at 7:00 a.m. Pacific, 10:00 a.m. Eastern. And manure piles. Now, when you take a look at what they write about these manure piles, that they found that these farms there. Some were big enough that they actually couldn't close some of the doors. And some as high as eight feet tall. Now, I'm 6'1". So eight feet is two feet ahead of me but I think that's going to be even more graphic for you if you imagine it next to this ladder. It's an eight foot ladder. So I'm going to walk up and imagine all along next to this ladder, is all, lots and lots of manure. That would top right about there, just above the ladder there.

So everything from the floor, all the way up and past this ladder is a manure pile that they found at one of these egg farm behind this Salmonella outbreak. Now, just last week I was speaking with a food safety expert who said it's so clear that more inspections are needed. Here is what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, FOOD SAFETY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN PUBLIC INTEREST: We think that high-risk facilities, including these egg plants should be visited every six to 12 months. That's critically important if we're going to see improvements in egg safety, in spinach safety, in peanut butter and lots of these food products that have caused outbreaks in recent years.

LEVS: OK. And you think that if that's in place, it would actually do what it takes to protect the nation's egg supply? We wouldn't see this ever again in your view?

DEWAAL: We might see it occasionally but it wouldn't get so big and it's critically important that Congress act quickly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: Now, I'm going to add here that the companies have said that they're working with authorities, they're working with investigators. They're doing everything that they have to do to clean up, to do everything that is necessary to prevent this from happening again and they made clear repeatedly through various statements that they are committed to doing so, but, Kyra, when those inspections finally do happen, as we saw here now, you just find out about some incredibly gross stuff that you don't want anywhere near your food.

PHILLIPS: Well, this explains why so many people got sick. Hopefully something's going to be done about it. Thanks, Josh.

The East Coast is keeping a close eye on Hurricane Earl. It's a category 4 storm and it could impact the Carolinas just in time to ruin those labor day plans. Check out the latest radar view of Hurricane Earl on the left side of your screen, and on your right, what the storm looks like from the International Space Station.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is tracking both. So what do you think, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I think it's a really close call, Kyra. And even if we don't get a direct hit from this storm, certainly it's going to ruin your beach weekend, unfortunately, at least the early part.

So if you are thinking about going to the coast, make sure you heed the warnings. If you see those red flags flying, stay out of the water. And at a minimum, I think we are going to start to see tropical storm force conditions beginning to come in there with the high waves by Thursday.

Here's the latest on Earl, as Kyra mentioned, a category 4 storm, and those winds, maximum sustained at 135 miles per hour. It's going through a cycle right now. We've seen a couple of wobbles which is really common when we're talking about a hurricane this powerful. It is pulling away from Puerto Rico, and skirting north of the Dominican Republic and heading towards the Turks and Caicos later on today.

Now, let's take a look at the forecast path. Then you can see that cone of uncertainty as we head into Thursday night into Friday morning. It is right along the Carolinas up towards Virginia Beach and then curving up towards Cape Cod, later into the weekend. So we definitely expect those conditions to deteriorate. And it's just going to be a really close call. We're talking probably within 80 miles of the coast, Kyra. So this is something we are going to be watching.

Rob Marciano heading out to the beach and will be reporting live there tomorrow morning. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jacqui, thanks.

With Labor Day weekend almost here, this story may rattle the nerves of the nation's air travelers and the people in charge of keeping them safe. Two men were taken into custody in the Netherlands after stepping off a Chicago to Amsterdam flight. They are being questioned about suspicious items in their luggage.

Those items included a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle. Three cell phones taped together and several watches taped together plus a box cutter and three large knives. The law enforcement source said the men may have been trying to test U.S. airport security.

The Department of Homeland Security isn't willing to go that far at least publicly but here's the statement. "The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves, and as we share information with our international partner, Dutch authorities were notified of the suspicious items. This matter continues to be under investigation."

President Obama is on his way to Ft. Bliss, Texas, where he's going to meet with troops. Ft. Bliss, as you may not know, it's home to the troops who have served at every stage of the Iraq war, and it's a historic milestone today. But by no means an end to the violence in Iraq.

U.S. troops marked the formal end of the combat mission but unfortunately we're still bringing you reports of bombings and deaths of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. Tonight, the president will address the nation and all this week here on CNN, we are reflecting on the last seven years and what withdrawing U.S. troops means to both the U.S. and Iraq.

There are 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq who want you to know that they have not pulled out. These troops are now in support of Iraqi forces but can still be in harm's way. CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Loaded down in Kevlar on the same dusty roads. Don't tell these soldiers the combat troops are gone.

STAFF SGT. ADAM STEFFENS, 3RD BRIGADE, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: It's a misnomer. It sounds like that, you know, we all went home. We're all still here.

LAWRENCE: Or in the words of Staff Sergeant Adam Steffens --

STEFFENS: These are the same guys that unleashed the fury.

LAWRENCE: Sgt. John Roberts is no his third tour. Lt. Col. John ((INAUDIBLE) in Baghdad. Third brigade, fourth ID is on its fourth deployment here. Some of these soldiers conducting "New Dawn's" noncombat mission are some of the most battle hardened troops in the Army.

STEFFENS: I mean, there were times and places when, you know, you had streets run red with blood.

LAWRENCE (on camera): So it's better, much better but the sergeant told me he'll never be able to totally let his guard down.

STEFFENS: The IED threat is always there.

LAWRENCE: Buried in the ground, camouflaged as trash. And if enough insurgents get together, the sergeant says they'll even try a complex direct attack.

STEFFENS: They want to mount the on us and they want to get squarely and go toe to toe for a while. It's rare. Most of those guys are already dead so it doesn't really happen too much but there's something that we got to be careful of.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Even before "New Dawn's official beginning, American and Iraqi troops have been living together on bases like (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're in Baghdad.

LAWRENCE: Their new advise and assist mission means U.S. troops are still in convoys, still on patrols but following the Iraqis, not leading them.

1ST LT. WILL SWEARINGE, U.S. ARMY: We're there, watching, teaching, coaching, we're kind of prodding them onto the right decisions. (END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: And over the next year and a half, the U.S. troops will continue to draw down, so as the time progresses, there's going to be less troops and resources for the Iraqis to draw on. So what the U.S. forces are going to be trying to do is try to improve the Iraqi's human intelligence. In other words, right now, when the Iraqis go after those high-value targets, they're only getting their man about 20 percent of the time. The U.S. would like to raise that success rate to about 70 percent. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Chris, how exactly is this advise, assist and coaching going to work?

LAWRENCE: Yes, think of it like this. The Iraqis decide to go on a raid. They target a specific compound and go on a raid. They ask the Americans to provide some helicopter, air support. Well, then you have maybe two to three American Humvees on the ground coordinating that air support. They'd be able to give the Iraqi commander a video display so that he can see real-time where his troops were and the Americans could advise as the operation is happening in real-time.

PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence from Baghdad. Chris, thanks.

President Obama will address the nation on Iraq tonight from the Oval Office. He is also going to talk about Afghanistan and the broader war on terrorism. So join CNN for live coverage of that speech 8:00 p.m. Eastern, followed by our breakdown of the president's remarks and reports from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Detroit students cheering about math problems. It's all because of a camp that's helping them rise above the city's high dropout rates and low test scores. Almost all of these kids will go on to graduate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: "Fix our Schools." Those three words will drive much of what you see on CNN this week because as America's children return to school, CNN has a mission. We sent reporting teams across the country to document the education crisis in America and most importantly, we'll shine a light on success stories that can empower us to offer our children so much more than they're getting right now.

Before we talk solutions, let's take a look at one of the problems. Our public education system used to lead the pack globally. Now, we're fighting to keep pace with the international community. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is opening up about it and he hits the road for the second leg of his courage in the classroom tour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNE DUNCAN, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: I think as a country we've gotten complacent and we've gotten soft and rested on our laurels. (INAUDIBLE) not so much that we have not dropped. We have flat lined and stagnated and other countries have passed us by. So I think other countries have invested more. They have taken this more seriously, and they have understood in this globally competitive economy that to have a strong country you have to have a great education system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Detroit's public schools rank among the worst in the country. Logging some of the lowest test scores on record on the nation's report card. If you want to know just how bad it is, here's an example. 301 minus 75, it's a sample question from a national test given to fourth graders. The answer is a, 224. Only one in every three kids in Detroit got that right.

Low test scores, high dropout rates -- it paints a pretty bleak picture but there are bright spots, like a camp that's getting students so excited about math problems that they cheer.

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow live in New York. Poppy, these kids are pretty passionate about math.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: They are incredibly passionate about math, of all things. You know, these kids, they're the exception to the rule, especially Kyra, when you talk about Detroit. By many standards, the Detroit public school system is just failing its children. They have massive debt, mounting dropouts, but there is this change that is brewing in Detroit, thanks to two teachers determined to change the lives of their students. We met them. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW (voice-over): Detroit may be trying to reinvent itself but when it comes to educating its children, the word struggle only begins to describe the situation.

PROF. LEONARD BOEHM, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, MATH CORPS: Almost every kid has to walk through a metal detector just to go to school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of my students says he and his friends prepared themselves for what to do if somebody puts a gun in your face.

HARLOW: Only 59 percent of Detroit's public school students graduate from high school and right now the school system is battling a $363 million budget deficit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's start it off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three plus three.

HARLOW: But as desperate as the situation may be, two Wayne State University professors have found success inspiring Detroit kids, and of all places, a math camp.

BOEHM: Remember you want to play mathematics up here, you better keep it simple. OK. Better keep it down. HARLOW: In 1991 with just a few kids at first, Professors Leonard Boehm and Steve Kahn started math corps, a free six-week program for youngsters, grade seven and up. What's different? Complex and often scary math problems are transformed into team challenges.

BOEHM: That's perfect!

HARLOW: The curriculum creates an environment where supporting others is central to learning.

LASHIONTE LUKE-OWENS, STUDENT, MATH CORPS: We have a support system. We support people like this, and when we get it right, we agree and so like, it makes them happy to see when they turn around and these people agreeing with them.

HARLOW: Math Corps now accepts 500 students per year. They come from different backgrounds with different abilities, not only to learn but also to teach.

PROF. STEVE KAHN, DIRECTOR, MATH CORPS: Kids teaching kids works unbelievably well because it's not kids teaching kids. It's kids caring about kids.

HARLOW: And the proof is in the numbers. 90 percent of students who complete Math Corps graduate from high school, and 80 percent go on to college.

BOEHM: The fact that you have them on a college environment at a young age -- I'm sorry. It tells them you're worth something. You're worth 100 point.

KAHN: We believe we cannot just change the school system but change, you know, the city in a fundamental way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: So the goal here, Kyra, change the entire city, not just Detroit school system. You know, one of the girls in that piece Lashionte, said to me, "I think we can change Detroit just a little bit at a time" and another kid we talked to, Gerald (ph) says "this has given me a purpose to live, to help others."

So it's incredible what this program is doing for students. It's getting some recognition. President Clinton talked about it at the Global Initiative last year. So more and more people are catching on, but the key here really when you talk to those teachers who give so much of their life to do this is they say we're just teaching math because that's what we know how to do but what we're really teaching is courage, integrity and compassion and I think it goes a long way. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And you hit it right on the head. I mean, these teachers have passion. They love what they do, and students feed off that. Bottom line. Think of the teachers we remember, they were all the ones that were fun and animated and full of great energy, right? HARLOW: It is. That's who you remember. I said to them, "well, you know, you hear the excuse kids come from broken homes so we can't fix that problem." These teachers don't believe that. Most of these kids come from broken homes and they completely turn around because of a six-week program in the summer.

So they say it's not about excuses or broken homes or family problems. It's about what you do in that classroom. Empowering these kids, making them think not only can I go to college, I will go to college and then I can teach other kids what I learned. That's what makes this program so different.

They're trying to spread it across Detroit but guess what, Kyra, major bureaucracy problems are getting in the way and funding problems. They still haven't been paid by the Detroit public school system for the program they ran this summer. They had to pay for it themselves. So major funding issues are getting in the way of something that's proven for 20 years, getting spread across the city and then across the country. We will stay on top of it and see if they can get that funding.

PHILLIPS: I know you will. We've raised money before for Detroit schools.

HARLOW: Yes, we have.

PHILLIPS: We'll do it again.

HARLOW: We'll do it again.

PHILLIPS: All right.

HARLOW: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Well, how do you think America should fix our schools? Tweet your ideas, and we'll read some of your comments on the air throughout the day.

In Pakistan, most of the floodwaters have receded and now millions of people are going hungry and they're thirsty and they're in dire need of help.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the aid efforts that are falling short.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking top stories. Rodents, piles of manure and swarms of flies. That's what the FDA has found at the two Iowa farms at the heart of that huge egg recall. No wonder nearly 1,500 people have gotten sick from Salmonella linked to eggs.

Mexico's first drug cartel leader from the United States has been captured. American born drug lord Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a.k.a., La Barbie, was nabbed after a shoot-out. And in Chile, drilling on a rescue shaft with 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground has begun. These pictures are just coming in to us. The miners have been trapped there for three weeks and it could still take three to four months to even reach them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: In Pakistan, at least 17 million people have been affected by the devastating floods that swallowed much of the country. Many of those people now going hungry, thirsty and they're desperate.

CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has been witnessing these heart breaking scenes of the crisis that seem to be getting worse. He joins us now in Karachi.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The scope of this, Kyra, is amazing to think about. You know, you have 17 million people, like you said, but also a fifth of the country really being affected by this, Kyra.

Aid, giving it to these people, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I can tell you, it can break your heart sometimes when the whole relief process falls through the cracks. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): Ever wonder what desperation looks like? This is it.

(on camera): Now the police are coming in to basically break up this demonstration. So what happened here was locals basically set up a road block right over here. As soon as an aid truck would come in, they'd basically storm that aid truck and try and steal as many supplies as they could.

(voice-over): They're desperate and they are quick to tell you about it. It wasn't so much anger as it was bitter frustration and hopelessness. Thousands of displaced people feeling forgotten and ignored.

(on camera): Here's how it is supposed to work. A much more organized camp, for example, a family over here, they have mats, they have tents that can withstand a lot of rain that's coming.

If you look inside this tent over here, you see water jugs, you see cooking oil, even cooking utensils.

(voice-over): The problem is you won't find many camps like this one. Most look like this. Thousands of families, low on tents, low on food, thick with desperation.

(on camera): One of the really difficult situations here is that there's no mechanism of distributing the aid. It is just awful to think about. And as people describe it to us, they say it is just really embarrassing to be treated like animals.

Where is all the aid going? We see trucks with aid in it but it doesn't seem to be getting to people who need it the most.

(voice-over): So we followed this aid truck in the distance. First sign of hope these people felt in weeks. But what was about to happen was outrageous. First government rangers with big sticks organized and women and children here, men over there, all of them waiting in the hot sun.

This is hard to believe. These people have been waiting for some time for food, women and children over here and men and children over here. The truck was here with aid in it, pulled into the gas station and now leaving.

There was no explanation for this. More importantly, all these people are still hungry and still thirsty. This is incredibly heartbreaking. People are waiting for quite a while for that truck, thinking they were going to get aid and received nothing.

Commander Faisal Shah has the impossible task of trying to feed 20 million people.

GUPTA (on camera): Have you been out to some of these camps outside of here and talked to the people? Have you actually heard from them? I hear what you are saying, but when I talk to them, I hear something entirely else.

COMMANDER FAISAL SHAH, PAKISTAN NAVY MARINE CORPS: People are desperate. There are people that have been very fed. I believe most of them are being fed regularly.

GUPTA (voice-over): I saw a different story in the dozen refugee camps I visited. There's no regular meals here. Desperation mounts.

They're basically going in and trying to get what they can get. A quick idea what can happen to some of the most precious commodities needed when something like this happens. There was just a riot out here, antibiotics on the ground shattered. Desperation has its consequences. In this case, no one benefited.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Just so hard to see those bottles, those smashed bottled of medicines that were so hard to get into the country in the first place lying there smashed on the ground. Obviously, there are people that are being fed, as the commander said, Commander Faisal.

But there are so many examples like the one we just showed you. They're inexplicable, frankly, Kyra. I don't know where the truck ended up. I don't know. People say they are only going to feed only their specific communities or friends. It's just very disorganized and you see some of the side effects of that, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, and they may have survived the flood, yet they're dying from dehydration and not getting these supplies.

GUPTA: I always talk about the fact that they talk about a second wave of illness and death after a natural disaster. They talked about it after Haiti and the tsunami. The reality is, oftentimes that doesn't emerge. Get clean water over there, and people can actually escape that scourge.

But you are seeing it already. People keep asking, is it going to happen? I can tell you, we are outside this hospital right now, one of the largest in the area, and people are already coming in with significant problems, including typhoid fever, including malaria, denghy (ph). These are things that can really cause a huge problem if people don't get some sort of treatment, and lying in those relief camps without any clean water, without any nutrition, they are not getting any care whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Sanjay Gupta reporting from Karachi for us. Sanjay, thanks.

We've been talking about these two men taken into custody in the Netherlands after stepping off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam flight. They are being questioned about suspicious items in their luggage, but apparently new details now coming from Homeland Security. Jeanne Meserve has it for us. Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, accordingly to a U.S. government official who was briefed on this situation, quote, "This looks like a nothing. We see no evidence of a dry run or a connection to terrorism."

The men were detained in Amsterdam by Dutch authorities after arriving on a flight from Chicago. Here's why. One of the men, who departed from Birmingham, Alabama, a security check found suspicious items in his checked luggage, including watches attached to a shampoo bottle, cell phones attached to a medicine bottle, knives and box cutters. The Department of Homeland Security says the items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves; none of them are prohibited in checked luggage and the man was allowed to fly.

But another thing had law enforcement concerned. The man flying from Birmingham to Chicago and another man flying to Chicago from Memphis, both Yemenis, were ticketed on a flight from Chicago to Washington's Dulles airport. That flight was then going then on to Dubai and Yemen. The luggage went on that flight, but both men ended up on a different flight going from Chicago to Amsterdam. So, investigators wanted to know if it was intentional, if they knew each other.

Well, apparently not. According to this U.S. government official, briefed this morning, they both missed their original flight in Chicago due to a gate change. They were rebooked by United onto the Chicago/Amsterdam flight. It appears they did not know each other. One of them was only going as far as Dulles on that flight.

As to the suspicious items in the checked luggage of the man from Birmingham, the U.S. official briefed on the matter says the man had picked up items requested by people in Yemen and then taped together the items requested by each person. We're also told investigators have searched his house and delved into this background - the background of both men -- and have not, as yet, found anything suspicion --suspicious.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne, thanks.

Coming up next: it's been seven years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and I will take you to the last place the former Iraqi strongman called home prior to his execution, his prison cell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: President Obama is on his way to Fort Bliss, Texas where he's going to meet with troops. Fort Bliss is home to the troops who have served in every stage of the Iraq war.

It's an historic milestone today, but by no means an end to the violence in Iraq. U.S. troops mark the formal end of the combat mission, but unfortunately, we are still bringing you reports on bombings and deaths of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. Tonight, the president will address the nation, and all this week here on CNN we are reflecting on the last seven years and what withdrawing U.S. troops means to both the U.S. and Iraq.

You know, one of the watershed moments of the Iraq war has to be December 14th, 2003. That's when U.S. troops captured former dictator Saddam Hussein cowering in a spider hole near his hometown of Tikrit. A little more than three years later, the deposed strongman was sent to the gallows for his execution.

But Saddam's last days were spent much like any other convicted criminal, living in a prison cell block. While reporting in Baghdad, I had exclusive access to this last place he called home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): It was one of the last times the world saw Saddam Hussein alive. Now, for the first time, you will see where he lived out his last moments. In his cell, reading from his journal, and his final haunting photograph.

(on camera): So he was actually jailed in a building he built?

MAJ. GEN. DOUG STONE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Jailed in a building he built, jailed in a building that many of his guests came and enjoyed.

PHILLIPS: Did he know where he was?

STONE: You know, initially, we didn't think he did. But he actually did know. I mean, he ultimately knew exactly where he was for accommodation reasons that only the owner would probably know.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Major General Doug Stone oversees detention operations. According to Stone, Saddam also knew what was once decadent had become bare. This is the cell where Saddam Hussein slept, bathed and spent his final morning. STONE: So, he got up and was informed that, in fact, today would be the day that he would be going to the execution. He bathed himself here in a very modest manner. It was winter, so it was cold.

He then put on his dark suit, the one I think most people have seen that was laying out here. He put that on, and he was all ready to go and took about a ten-minute delay, but as he went out, he said good-bye to the guards and then got in the vehicles and, of course, proceeded on over for the execution.

PHILLIPS: What did the guard write about his final minutes before he went to the gallows?

STONE: Just in the last ten minutes while he was waiting, he asked the guard, he said, "I want to give you all my belongings. Please give those to the lawyer, and please tell my daughter he is going to meet God with a clear conscience and that he's going as a soldier, sacrificing himself for Iraq and for his people."

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next, to Saddam's cell, his exercise bike, examining table, basic medication, and a nickname not many people have ever heard.

(on camera): Why did you all call him vic?

STONE: Ah, a little known secret. When he came here, there was a debate. "Do you call him Mr. President? No, that doesn't sound very good. What do you call him?" Each detainee has an interment security number, and so we though we can't call him that, either.

One day he looked across and said, "Why do you have that initials on there?" And we said, "Well, that stands for very important criminal." He says, what does that mean? He says, well, it's Vic. He says, "OK, that's what I want to be called."

PHILLIPS (voice-over): But, says Stone, Saddam felt much more comfortable in his garden, a garden he was allowed to grow under a watchful eye.

STONE: This was his favorite area. Again, not particularly too elaborate.

PHILLIPS (on camera): Did you find it odd he wanted a garden or did you suggest that?

STONE: No, no. He wanted a garden. He wanted to have a little planting over here. It's somewhat interesting, nothing he ever planted grew very well. And I don't know why that is, other than, you know, you can see there are still some plants left there that kind of grew up, but the kind of flowering he was hoping for didn't flower.

This is kind of interesting. I know this is just a lawn chair, but he was a little uncomfortable in his arms, often times trying to write, sort of resting his arms. Couldn't rest it up here. This got built up and duct taped so that at the right level he could kind of continue to keep writing. PHILLIPS: There are writings, Stone tells us, that have never been read publicly before. Here in these pages, it is clear Saddam was obsessed with his legacy.

STONE: "Therefore, I find my responsibility of citizens in my role as a believer in the nation require putting the dots on the letters so that the people in history thereafter me know the facts as they are and not as though who want to counterfeit."

PHILLIPS: So, he's afraid history will not be recorded as he wants it recorded?

STONE: As he wants it recorded. Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you about the poetry. He writes this one poem talking about Baghdad. He says, "The nights are darker after the sunset but the smoke and burning overwhelms the city. You will feel suffocated under the skies. My days are now nights: no stars, no moons but lots of screams." He was writing about something he couldn't see?

STONE: Yes, it's fascinating. Even where we're located now, he would have heard things, probably could have sensed fumes and that sort of thing. But he was seeing a very different battlefield than what he physically could see or even experience at the moment.

PHILLIPS: What do you think of the fact that he wrote poetry? Saddam Hussein writing poetry?

STONE: Trust me, I'm not a literary major here, but I think there's a sense in poetry, a timelessness about the sense of things. And I think Saddam Hussein through all of his writings was trying to equate himself with timelessness. He was important in history and will be important in the future. And so, linking all this poetry together, all I can surmise is much like linking the rest of this together in one, he wanted people to remember him in a very poetic, large fashion.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The empty chair. An eerie image of Saddam sitting next to us, watching us do exactly what he wanted.

(on camera): In one part of the journal, he writes, "Dear nation, Get rid of the hatred. Take the clothes of hate and throw them in the ocean of hatred. God will save you and you will start a clean life with a clean heart." But this was someone that was so full of hate.

STONE: Well, he certainly was. At least those were his actions. But how we see ourselves, how the world sees us, how we you want yourself to be seen in history. How you'll write about it - there's a kindness to him. There's a sense of where he's fitting. There's a desire to sort of piece things together so this is what you remember.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): But this is the way many will remember Saddam Hussein.

(on camera): So, this was the last photo that was taken of him?

STONE: That's right, Kyra. This is the last picture ever taken of Saddam Hussein alive that we're aware of.

PHILLIPS: Why is he so irritated? He looks angry.

STONE: He is angry. And that's very perceptive. He actually is a guy that wouldn't normally look like that. But our guards noticed it. What had happened was, the Iraqi guards had written his name on the back of this white board, as if to take his picture in front of the words Saddam Hussein. And they had misspelled his name, and so he turned to them and said, "I am Saddam Hussein."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: I want to introduce you once again to my photographer and editor, the one who was shooting these stories for me months and months on end when I was in Baghdad a number of times. Sarmad Qaseera. So lucky that you are living now in the States now. You came over on the refugee program. In one day, your whole life changed.

But I want our viewers to know what it was like from your perspective because I came into your room in Baghdad and I said, "We got a story tomorrow, and I want to make sure you're comfortable with it."

SARMAD QASEERA, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: You came to me two days before the story.

PHILLIPS: Two days before. You remember.

QASEERA: And I was editing at my desk, and you said to me, there's something like I don't know if we can do it or not. We have access to Saddam's cell. And at that time, I don't know -- as journalism, that's a very, very big story, okay? And on the same time when I go with you to do the story, one of the first tapes to his jail, go me and you put the tape, put the battery, everything, put the microphone on the general and on you.

The first tape, I remember every moment with my father because he destroyed my family. He destroyed -- he killed my father. And at that time, I remember every nice moment with my father. Yes.

PHILLIPS: And I -- you know, you're making me cry, too, Sarmad. I remember, I didn't want anybody else doing that piece but you.

QASEERA: yes.

PHILLIPS: Because you're from Iraq, you're my best shooter, my best editor. But you also knew how important it was to tell this story.

QASEERA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: And you were thinking about those things, yet you remained very calm, and you -- even listening to his journal and what he said about Iraqi people. Do you remember how you felt throughout that entire day? Were you -- because you didn't say anything to me. You just kept doing your job.

QASEERA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But I could tell you were thinking a lot, and I know you were thinking about your father.

QASEERA: At that time I told you I was thinking about every nice moment I spent with my father, and also, he not destroyed just my family. He destroyed entire families. Iraqi families. Many Iraqis.

And you have been in many houses of Iraqi families. Each house there is tons of stories of Saddam. He destroyed many, many people, not just me or my family. He destroyed many, many people. And, also, I have to think I have to shoot it like fair because, you know, we work at CNN. I have to shoot it like journalist, like you know.

I tried to calm down. I try not too much think about that, that he destroyed my family or destroyed another families. But I tried to shoot everything fair. And I'm glad to one day after being in this prison to see where is his bed, where he take bathroom --

PHILLIPS: How he spent his final days?

QASEERA: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Do you think it was important for the Iraqi people -- like your family members that had survived, your friends that survived his regime -- do you think it was important for Iraqis to see that story?

QASEERA: Of course, of course. That's -- I told you -- and until now, every time I -- I have been in this cell, and until now, I can't believe one day he was there. I've been there. I shoot on my camera, and me and you walk in the cell. But until now, can you imagine, until now, I can't think about he was there and how about the other people, and other families, right?

PHILLIPS: And we wanted to show a picture of your family and especially your dad, but you had to leave in one night, and had you to leave everything behind in Iraq when you came here.

QASEERA: Yes. I don't have -- I have just two suitcase, one for me, one for my mother. I don't have -- I just take these two suitcase, and I left Iraq. I left my home, and I never back until now, back more than five -- for almost five years.

PHILLIPS: Sarmad, I say this over and over, we are blessed to have you working for us still here in the U.S. And I just thank you so much for so many amazing experiences in Iraq. A lot of that was because of you.

QASEERA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Sarmad.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if you're like me, once in a while, you see a commercial and you think to yourself, I cannot believe I'm seeing this on television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): I can't wait can't wait to go home, I can't wait to go home. Viva Viagra!

ANNOUNCER: Talk to your doctor about Viagra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Ah, viva Viagra. A classic example of TMI on TV. A lot of us are still recovering from that one.

We've also seen commercials for condoms, lubricants, male enhancement, unthinkable stuff 20 or 25 years ago, right? We're entering new territory again. Check out this ad for medical marijuana.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get muscle spasms real bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was hit by a drunk driver.

UINDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 11 years an AIDS survivor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: A medical marijuana store in Sacramento paid to run this ad on the local Fox station. You see patients talking about how medical cannabis has helped them.

Well, critics say the ad makes marijuana seem mainstream, and they don't want that. California voters decide in November whether to legalize pot for everyone over 21.

So, we asked you what you thought. Does medical marijuana have a place on TV in California? It's legal, after all. Or are some things best left off the airwaves? Go to my blog, CNN.com/kyra and leave your comments.

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PHILLIPS: Time for "Home and Away." It's our daily tribute to our men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq or Afghanistan. Today, we are lifting up Sergeant Johnny Wayne Lumpkin from Columbus, Georgia. He died July 2 in Faladarah (ph) His daughter, Brittany, wrote into us. Said, Johnny was a great dad to both me and my brother, and a great husband to my mom. If there was something we didn't do right, he was always there to fix it. We think of him now as Johnny our hero. And earlier this month, Sergeant Lumpkin was honored at Fort Stewart, Georgia's warrior walk. A tree is planted there for each Third Infantry Division soldier that gave his or her life in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Sergeant Lumpkin's wife, Carol, spoke about him right after the ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL LUMPKIN, SGT. JOHNNY LUMPKIN'S WIFE: I was very happy when he came to me and said, "I just talked to your father and quit my job at Leon's Fabrics, and I'm joining the Army." I was ecstatic.

Loud, proud and country. That was my husband.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: We need you to step forward and honor your loved one, your comrade or your high school buddy. Go to CNN.com/homeandaway. Type in your service member's name in the upper right-hand search field, pull up the profile, then send us your thoughts and your pictures. And we promise to keep the memory of your hero alive.

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