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President Obama Visits Joplin; Palin's Thunder; Don't Jail Them, Flog Them; Explosions Rock Yemen's Capital; Bringing Gadhafi to Justice; Teen Honors War Heroes Online
Aired May 29, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: The next hour of the NEWSROOM begins right now.
We start this hour with explosions and gunfire in Yemen. It's been a focal point in the war on terror and where the government is waging battle against Islamist militants, its own people as well.
In the south, security forces fired from rooftops as you can see, an antigovernment protest. At least three people killed, dozens injured. Meantime explosions rocked the capital of Sanaa. Troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been fighting tribal members in the streets for days now.
We will have a live report on what's happening. That's ahead. Our Mahmoud Jamjoom is in Abu Dhabi with the latest on this developing story. We're going to talk to him in a few minutes from now.
President Obama is back at the White House after spending several hours in Joplin, Missouri. It was exactly a week ago that an F-5 tornado ripped through the city killing at least 142 people in minutes. About 20 minutes 5:41 Central time there was a moment of silence marked by the precise instant that tornado hit.
Our Dan Lothian traveled with the President to Joplin and Dan, a tough job for the President to try to lift spirits after, not only being amongst the people but seeing this disaster first-hand.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you know, this is a president who has had to do this quite a bit lately -- other natural disasters as well. The President as you know last week was overseas among other things building relationships with European partners. Throughout that time, a White House aide said that the President was getting regular updates on the situation here in Joplin.
Well, today the President got to see the devastation up close.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN (voice-over): Before touching down, Air Force One flew over Joplin, Missouri, giving the President an aerial view of the devastation. What took months and years to build was destroyed in a few moments: homes, businesses, and anything else in the tornado's path. On the ground, it was a somber president surveying the breathtaking damage up close. Meeting with officials, survivors and promising not to abandon this city.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I've been telling every family that I've met here is we're going to be here long of after the cameras leave. We are not going to stop until Joplin is fully back on its feet.
LOTHIAN: There is plenty of pain here but also plenty of hope. Roadways were lined with thousands of people, some waving flags or holding signs with messages like, "God bless Joplin".
At a memorial service on the campus of Missouri Southern State University that escaped the tornado's wrath --
OBAMA: We will be with you every step of the way. We're not going anywhere.
LOTHIAN: -- President Obama thanked the people of Joplin for their courage.
OBAMA: You've banded together. You have come to each other's aid. You demonstrated a simple truth: that amid heart break, and tragedy, no one is a stranger. Everybody is a brother. Everybody is a sister.
LOTHIAN: Recovering from one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, will not happen overnight. But Missouri governor Jay Nixon is optimistic about the future.
GOV. JAY NIXON, MISSOURI: Joplin will look different and more different still in two years and three and five. And as the years pass, the moral of our story will be the same. Love thy neighbor. God bless.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: President Obama's message was not just focused on the people of Missouri but also on all the people across the country. He urged them to get involved by supporting the organizations that are providing food and shelter for the hundreds of people who have been displaced by the killer tornado -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Dan Lothian, live, with the President in Joplin, Missouri. Thanks, Dan.
And as we mentioned, a moment of silence today for the victims of last Sunday's tornado, our Casey Wian was there. Casey, what's the mood there now?
CASEY WIAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was an incredible scene Drew. As you can imagine and as you saw, there were hundreds of people behind me here. They're just now starting to leave the site where they observed a moment of silence here and at several other locations around the city for those victims of the Joplin tornado. City Councilman Gary Shaw saying we need each other, we need to pull together. Then the moment of silence happened and City Manager Mark Rohr says we will rebuild Joplin, make no mistake about it.
That process already starting to just begin to get under way; FEMA says it has now approved $6.2 million to be distributed to 5,600 households in Joplin who have applied for assistance. That's about an average of $1,100 per household. Not a lot but it's a start.
Also more good news for the city; the city lifted its water boil order. For the last week, you haven't been able to drink water from the city's supply. You've had to use bottled water. So now they determined that the water is once again safe to drink; just one more example of the efforts that this city is trying to make to get back to normal.
At the same time the very, very gruesome task of recovering bodies from the wreckage is continuing. Officials now say they have found 146 sets of human remains. It is a little gruesome here. But what we can say is that, that doesn't mean there is 146 deceased because there may be duplicate and partial remains.
Also they say there are 43 people still unaccounted for. That number also a little bit soft because four of those folks, their family members say they are, in fact, deceased. We are expecting that number of unaccounted for to go down and the number of perished because of this tornado to go up over the next several days -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Casey Wian, live from Joplin, Missouri. Thanks, Casey.
CNN crews are on the ground in Joplin within hours after that tornado ripped through the city. And besides all the reporting they have done this past week, they took many still photographs. Some you are seeing now. Just take a moment to look at them and the story that each one of these photos tells.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(IMAGES OF THE JOPLIN, MISSOURI DISASTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: For the town of Joplin, Missouri it hasn't forgotten that this is Memorial Day weekend. Coming up, images from our iReporters as they show scenes in Joplin.
But first a word from our troops overseas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. MECREDI CRUDER: Hi, my name is Mecredi Cruder and I want to wish my son Michael Cruder, my brother Chad Cruder, and my mom Maria Brown, a happy Memorial Day weekend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Everybody wants to know what the weather's going to be like tomorrow for Memorial Day, the picnicking is going on. But we have got some severe weather, believe it or not, again in the Midwest. Let's get right to meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras from the weather center -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey Drew. We have been tracking the storms across the Midwest today primarily causing some hail damage and wind damage. This is the area we're talking about.
It's starting to moving out of Michigan now and we are focusing in on northern parts of Ohio. There are severe thunderstorms just west of Cleveland and they could be producing some winds in excess of 60 miles-per-hour as well as golf ball sized hail.
So this isn't in the Cleveland proper yet. You're not under the warning just yet but just be on alert that this is minutes away for you folks. Now those storms are going to continue to push eastward throughout the day today.
We also have a lot of problems if you were trying to travel yesterday at the airports. We had thunderstorms earlier in Chicago and so we are looking at delays, nearly three hours. That's to get from other airports into Chicago O'Hare.
Departure delays at Detroit now at an hour and 30 minutes and 20- minute delays in Toronto.
Ok. What about those barbecues tomorrow, huh Drew?
GRIFFIN: Yes.
JERAS: Well, we're expecting to see some thunderstorms you know dodging rain drops on the Bar-b. We see it from Minnesota all the way down into parts of Texas. And some of these storms could be severe especially in the northern tier up in this area here; high pressure controlling the east. So it's going to be gorgeous for you, plenty of sunshine say from the mid-Atlantic all the way down to the Gulf Coast.
Great beach weather but those temperatures are really going to be extreme. We are talking about well into the 90s and probably tack on another 3 to 5 degrees because of the humidity. That will be temperature that your body feels. We already have heat advisories and warnings in effect from Philadelphia through Baltimore into Washington, D.C. so probably sticking with those water beverages as opposed to the alternate choice tomorrow to keep it safe.
GRIFFIN: Thank you, Jacqui Jeras. I will keep that in mind.
JERAS: Ok.
GRIFFIN: An inspiring sight among the rubble in Joplin, Missouri this Memorial Day weekend. One of our iReporters caught this: a volunteer worker cleaning up. The group found this American flag in the debris of a home there. One of them climbed a tree and let the "Stars and Stripes" fly from a branch, old school.
An 81-year-old veteran lived at this home before it was flattened. He reportedly survived though by hiding inside his refrigerator.
Well Sarah Palin on a Harley. Need we see more? Part of Rolling Thunder -- she is riding into Washington, D.C. but political watchers think she may be riding into a 2012 race. We'll have the inside scoop, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Sarah Palin's appearance at Rolling Thunder caused a bit of a sensation today. It is a big bike rally in Washington that honors America veterans. CNN political reporter, Peter Hamby, joins me; and Peter you've covered Sarah Palin a lot. She did show up at this Rolling Thunder and her new bus tour kicked off today too but Palin insists there is nothing political going on. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: I am an American. I have no (INAUDIBLE) office. And to be an American citizen, the freedom to come out here and assemble and thank our veterans. I can't tell you how honored I am --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: A couple of her daughters and her husband behind her there.
Peter, let's cut to the chase; what's the over or under on this. Is this the start of a political campaign?
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Oh, wow. Over/under, that's tough.
I think when she said she holds no office and she is just an American, that's understating it a little bit. I think she does have her eyes on one office.
It's no accident that this rally, this visit to the rally, this bus tour that you spoke of is happening right at a moment in the political universe. We're having to kind of coalesce around the idea that the Republican presidential field was settled; Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, John Huntsman -- these are the people that are running for president. All of a sudden Sarah Palin comes out and reminds us, "Hey guess what? I'm a superstar in the Republican Party and I can command all kinds of media attention. I can raise tons of money at the drop of a hat," and that's why we can't count her out.
Whether or not this is a precursor to a presidential bid or just another attempt at staying in the spotlight is a difficult question. But it is certain that Palin knows the kind of power that she wields and does not want to be left out of the political discussion and she's going to keep doing this, drawing this out.
She can probably wait a couple of months even before jumping in the Presidential race just because she has that megawatt celebrity within the Republican Party -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Right. And within the Republican Party she certainly is somewhat of an outsider and certainly an outsider in D.C. So we don't see a lot of that inside speculation or leaks coming from her inner circle because that inner circle is so tight.
HAMBY: It really is tight. You make a really smart point about this insider/outsider thing. Remember back in 1964 no one on the (INAUDIBLE) thought Barry Goldwater would be the Republican nominee. In 1968 no one wanted Richard Nixon to be the Republican nominee. They all had their Nelson Rockefellers, their George Romneys. These were the people that were going to be the Republican nominee.
And to an extent, that's why, you know, the Democratic Party and some of the media don't quite understand the Republican base.
You know, George W. Bush managed to confound liberals. They are like, "How can this guy get elected?" Guess what, they do have a strong grass roots appeal and that really drives the Presidential nominating process on the Republican side.
So, you know, the Palin circle of advisors as you said, they don't really talk to the media that much. They talk to a few reporters. I'm lucky to be one of them but they don't see the need to communicate through the rest of the main stream media -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Yes, you spent the week in Iowa, I understand. What's the buzz up there? Are they looking Palin or are they looking at Romney? Bachmann? Some of these other people who we haven't talked about here because we are so busy talking about this non-runner on a race -- on the back of a motorcycle?
HAMBY: Right. And all this news about Palin broke the day that Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite, congresswoman from Minnesota was scheduled to give a speech out there.
I talked to a lot of Iowa Republican voters. They say the race is still wide open. They like to be -- they like the attention, so they are saying Sarah definitely needs to get out here pretty soon or else. But you know what; she can command a lot of attention on very short notice. The field out there is wide open.
There is the closely watched AIMS straw poll in August which is traditionally a test of each candidate's organization in the caucus state. I believe the Palin people believe they can afford to wait and just kind of skip that.
But you know, Mitt Romney was out there. He came in second last time. He has a lot of built-in support. Michele Bachmann, if she runs, will have a lot of support among the social conservative set that Mike Huckabee dominated last time but if Sarah Palin steps in, she explodes all of that so the other campaigns are kind of taking a wait and see approach with Sarah Palin. Again she can wait a month, perhaps another two months. So this waiting game will continue for a little while -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: All right, Peter Hamby, CNN political reporter. Thanks Peter.
Some terrible news here: a birthday party turns deadly in Atlanta. A model tumbles from a hotel window. We will tell you how.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Tonight's headlines: the President went to Joplin, Missouri today. It was his first chance to see the damage caused by last Sunday F-5 tornado. He spoke at a memorial service for the 142 known victims. The President promising continuing federal assistance as that city rebuilds.
Much more on this disasters coming up at the top of the hour, "A TWISTER'S FURY", CNN presents a special report airing at 8 p.m. Eastern.
A violent night erupting across Yemen in the south; security forces fired from rooftops on antigovernment protesters. Three people, at least, have been killed. Dozens hurt. And following mass protest in the capital Sanaa there have been a string of explosions. We're going to bring a live report on this chaos to you in just about 10 minutes from now.
In Atlanta, a model plunges to her death while partying for her birthday. Police say LaShawna Threatt, she was play-fighting with another woman at a high rise hotel early Saturday. The preliminary investigation shows they accidentally crashed through a 10th-story window and plummeted below. Threatt died, the other woman is listed in critical condition.
Overcrowded prisons are a major public safety concern across the country, California which has nation's largest prison system, is so overcrowded the federal government has ordered it to reduce the inmate population by up to 46,000. The Supreme Court last week upheld that order. California now has two years to comply.
Perhaps there is another solution, one few people are willing to talk about, flogging. Former Baltimore police officer and criminologist Peter Moskos, makes the case in his new book, "In Defense of Flogging". He says offering a guilty person the choice of flogging or incarceration many would choose to take a severe beating with a whip or a cane.
Peter joins us from New York; I have to tell you on its face, it sounds a little barbaric, a return to medieval past. How do you defend this idea of flogging?
PETER MOSKOS, FORMER BALTIMORE POLICE OFFICER: Because it's better than prison. I do think it is barbaric. But if it was so bad, I don't really see the harm in offering the choice. I don't want to sentence people to flogging. I want to -- when someone's convicted, I want to give them the chance of staying out of prison. And I think flogging is a good honest punishment. It's really one of the -- perhaps the only politically feasible way to reduce the prison situation. I mean something has to be done. GRIFFIN: Something does have to be done and I think the biggest problem is: how do we get these people -- these criminals who are convicted of a crime to not commit another crime. Whether that be through a three, five, ten-year sentence or a flogging is there anything that you have seen -- any data that you have seen that this kind of punishment would work in reducing recidivism?
MOSKOS: Absolutely not. But here's the key: it's prison doesn't work. If anything, prison makes you more likely to commit a crime when you get out. So simply by avoiding prison, flogging succeeds. I mean these people need help. That's something that we need to give them but it's something that we're not giving -- we don't give them in prison. That's one of the fallacies that somehow people -- anyway, does anyone really think people leave prison better than they go in? Of course not.
GRIFFIN: So how would flogging work? Talk me through this. If you had your magic wand and would make this happen tomorrow, what kind of person gets convicted and is allowed by the judge, hey buddy, you want to serve time or do you want to get flogged?
MOSKOS: Well if I had a magic wand, I hope there would be some third path. But I'm all ears.
What I would propose is -- here is the basic idea. They are convicted of a crime and the judge says take your choice, you may get five years in the joint or you get ten lashes. I imagine most people who choose the lashes. I mean -- ironically, often people say, well it is not harsh enough. It is harsh. We're talking about flogging people. It's a horrible punishment. But the point is, it's better than prison. Prison is even worse.
So I think you should flog someone like they do in Singapore. Get it over with. In a few minutes it will be done and you'd be able to go home, hopefully keep your family together. Maybe even keep your job if you had one. But all the harms that come from prison and all the horrors that come from prison will just simply be avoided.
And also, we'd also save a lot of money. If nothing else, it's a whole lot cheaper.
GRIFFIN: Yes, you mentioned Singapore. You know, this American teenager Michael Fay sentenced to caning in Singapore in 1994. I think the charge was vandalism. That caused a huge uproar in this country. Why would flogging be any more acceptable now?
MOSKO: Well you know, it caused a huge uproar. There was a lot of support for that kind of punishment. Look, I don't think someone should be flogged for what he did which was vandalize street signs. There are better ways to deal with that.
But the point is right now what we're doing is -- we have 2.3 million prisoners in America. That is more than any other country in the history of the world ever. You know, we have more prisoners than military personnel. We have to do something. And it wasn't always this way. It is related to crime. It is not because of crime. In 1970 we had a normal level of incarceration. It's really since then that things -- mostly because of the horrible war on drugs -- but since then things have gotten out of hand in this country. Yes it is a radical proposal but hopefully it will get us talking about something that's far worse which is this prison industrial complex.
GRIFFIN: All right, Peter Moskos, "In Defense of Flogging". I've got the book right here and it's gotten us talking. We thank you for joining us from New York. Thanks a lot.
MOSKOS: Thanks for having me.
GRIFFIN: Yemeni troops turning water cannons on the very people they are meant to protect. Is the battle between the antigovernment protesters and Yemen's president at the tipping point?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Explosions, gunfire and battles raging in the streets. It's all happening at flash points across Yemen where the embattled president seems to be doing everything he can to hold on to power. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom is following the fast-moving developments. He is joining us from Abu Dhabi. And Mohammed, we have been watching this video of what appears to be soldiers, security forces firing down on a crowd in the city of Taizz.
Can you tell our viewers what is happening there?
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): I will, Drew. Let's talk first about these pictures we are just seeing from Youtube that reports to show just a little earlier this evening, water cannons and tear gas being thrown at protesters, peaceful protesters, in the city of Taizz in Freedom Square in that city, trying to disperse the crowd.
We have heard from witnesses there that that is happening, that they are being attacked, being shot at by security forces there. But earlier today, far more dramatic pictures, also a lot of it posted on social media, purporting to show security forces in this city of Taizz, firing on these protesters from rooftops of nearby buildings. Take a listen to some of the shots as you can hear on these videos.
Officials there tell us that rocks were being thrown from rooftops. That gunfire was ringing out from rooftops. That over 90 people were injured, at least three people killed as a result of that gunfire being aimed at those protesters, the members of the peaceful youth revolutionary movement in the city of Taizz. Now another worrying development in Yemen today happened in the city of Zinjiban, that is in the province of Abyan. We are told from eyewitnesses there, from residents there and security forces that Islamic militants, masked Islamic militants in the past two days, seized that city. And that they took over the city. They started attacking security forces there. Security forces initially withdrew. They came back. There were fierce clashes throughout the day. We have some video reporting to show some of those clashes as well. Now one of the reasons this is so worrying is because this province is a real hot bed for extremism. For Al Qaeda in that country, there is a huge Al Qaeda problem in Yemen. Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula has been able to, try to launch very spectacular attacks to the west, against the U.S. from their base in Yemen. Because there is so much political turmoil in Yemen, there has been concern for a while not that Al Qaeda could take advantage of that political turmoil to try to make their presence known once before.
Government officials there are very concerned that Al Qaeda and Islamic militants are trying to take advantage with all the strife that's going on in Yemen right now that they will try to attack more, that they will plan more attacks in Yemen, not just in Yemen but in other parts of the world. A big concern is that this is happening and a big concern that Yemen might be on the verge of civil war right now.
GRIFFIN: Mohammed, I just want to slow down a second and parse that out for our viewers. Because what we have here is two different towns and two different problems. In Taizz you have a so-called freedom movement that's being fired on by the government but in Zanjibar, you have the government trying to root out what could be the makings of an Al Qaeda strong hold, right?
JAMJOOM: That's right. This is one of the problems in Yemen right now. There is strife wherever you look. You have a peaceful protest movement that's been going on now. People that are emboldened by the Arab spring movement these past few months that have been coming out by the hundreds of thousands in major cities across Yemen these past several months. They are committed to trying to make sure that president Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen steps aside.
Now there have been times they have been met with violence. Today, peaceful protesters and eyewitnesses are telling us that security forces fired upon them in the city of Taizz. That's one issue. Now the other issue in Zanjibar, you have militants there. They are saying they are taking over this town. People are worried that Al Qaeda in Yemen and militants in Yemen will try to make their presence more known and that will be more of a threat not just to Yemen but surrounding countries and the west as well. Drew.
GRIFFIN: All right. Mohammed Jamjoom reporting from Abu Dhabi on this unrest in Yemen. Thank you.
Well, in an exclusive interview with CNN, Libya's top rebel leader says the opposition is running out of money and fast. Mustafa Abdul Jalil also opens up to our Sara Sidner about how he would like to see Moammar Gadhafi brought to justice and he calls on the U.S. to take a bigger role in the conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MUSTAFA ABDUL JALIL, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL (through translator): We would like the U.S. administration though to further pressure Moammar Gadhafi to leave. We would also like its economic support through freeing some of Libya's frozen assets there.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What will it take for the National Transitional Council to agree to a ceasefire?
JALIL: We agree to any ceasefire that leads to removing Moammar Gadhafi. Anything short of that is unacceptable. Any ceasefire must be a part of a deal that must result in removing Gadhafi, his sons and his deputies.
SIDNER: You were the former justice minister for the Gadhafi regime. If Moammar Gadhafi is brought up on charges of war crimes, who should try him? Should he be tried here in Libya or should the ICC, the International Criminal Court, try him?
JALIL: We prefer Moammar Gadhafi to be tried outside Libya to guarantee transparency because there is enough evidence to indict him for crimes he committed either inside or outside Libya. We have a good justice system here but we prefer Moammar Gadhafi's trial to be held internationally.
SIDNER: Why do you prefer the International Criminal Court other than the justice system here? Is it not repaired?
JALIL: Because all Libyans have suffered under Moammar Gadhafi and therefore legally they shouldn't try him in court. All Libyans have been hurting from his actions.
SIDNER: You told us that the Russian delegation will be coming to meet with the National Transitional Council here in Libya. What are you asking from Russia?
JALIL: We welcome Russia's latest decision that its president announced at the G8 summit. We welcome this great development in Russia's relations with the revolution. We know very well that the Russians have relations with Moammar Gadhafi's regime and perhaps these contacts will be employed to the benefit of the revolutionaries in terms of finding an exit plan for Gadhafi so no more blood will be spilled.
SIDNER: 95 percent of the exports from Libya is oil. How is that going? Is there still oil production and have you been able to sell any of the oil?
JALIL: I said we are in desperate need of money. We really need money. I think this is obvious. We are going through a financial crisis now.
SIDNER: But not able to sell any more oil?
JALIL: We exported one shipment and shortly after Moammar Gadhafi bombed the oil fields.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And to Pakistan now where it's been nearly a month since American forces found and killed Osama Bin Laden in (INAUDIBLE). Several children were living inside Bin Laden's compound and just like any kids they like to play and make friends but as our Stan Grant reports, their neighborhood friends didn't really understand who is really was living behind those walls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One month of killing Osama Bin Laden has not won America too many friends here. This shopkeeper lives less than 200 meters from where Bin Laden lived and died. He has more sympathy for the slain Al Qaeda leader than foreigners, swearing us, calling us pigs.
Are Muslims terrorists everywhere he said? Actually America is the biggest terrorist.
Others though are friendlier. This boy, Zara (ph), approaches us with a story to tell. He and his sister, Assa (ph), befriended Bin Laden's youngest children and grandchildren. They say there were two boys and one girl, seven, four and three years old. Zara (ph) relives the (INAUDIBLE) game he played with them. That's the white Bin Laden house you can see behind us. Contradicting reports that no outsiders breeched the Bin Laden security, Zara (ph) says he actually played inside the compound itself. Getting a close look at a secret world.
Despite being neighbors, the brother and sister didn't know the Bin Laden children's names. The children told them their father was the family courier they called Nadeen (ph). Only now do they know who their playmates really were.
My grandmother asked in Pashtun, "Who is your father?" Assa (ph) said, they said "Nadeen. They always said Nadeen."
Through this brother and sister, we get to piece together daily life in the Bin Laden compound, rather than speaking the local language, the Bin Laden's preferred Pashtun, the language of the Afghanistan- Pakistan border. They were a normal family, friendly, the children say. They never saw Osama Bin Laden. He remained well hidden. They did meet the Bin Laden wives.
There were two (INAUDIBLE) standing in the house, Zara (ph) says. They asked me, "How was I? Where did live? What did my mother do. I told them my mother was a housewife. They wore ordinary Pakistani clothes." Zara (ph) said he noticed the women were different from other mothers in the neighborhood. They spoke in a strange language he said, very poor (INAUDIBLE). Then I thought, probably they were Arabic. And the children were different too. Even in this Muslim community, they were specially devout.
They were very religious, Zara (ph) says. Whenever I went there to play, they asked me to wait until afternoon prayer and then they would start playing later for evening prayer. Assa (ph) shows us pet rabbits, a gift from the Bin Laden family. After everything, she says, she misses her friends.
They were young. They were beautiful. I really miss them. They were the only children we played with. Zara (ph) and Assa's (ph) father is a government official in the justice department. Yet Osama Bin Laden lived right next door and no one knew. The Bin Laden's lived this way for years, in the heart of a Abbottabad, a military city in the mountains two hours' drive north from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Now the area is in lock down. In recent days it's been open for the CIA to collect material and information. But no such access for us. As we try to get close, this is what happens.
Roll on. The police say, they are under instructions to smash our cameras. We get it back but we won't be going any further.
(on camera): Well, this is clearly as far as we are going to go. We are not going to get any closer to the Bin Laden compound. Here, life continues as normal. Beyond here though, 200 meters or so away, is the Bin Laden house, still holding in so many of the secrets of his life here in Abbottabad.
OK. We're finished. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(voice-over): Stan Grant, CNN, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And coming up -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAFF SGT. LYLE WILLIAMS, U.S. ARMY: I come here and look at the birth dates and the death dates. And I think, these are kids not much older than me. They are not just a number of casualties, they are actual people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: That 17-year-old is turning Arlington National Cemetery's memories digital with the use of his computer. We'll have that story coming up.
But first a word from our soldiers overseas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAFF SGT. LYLE WILLIAMS, U.S. ARMY: Hi everybody. This is Staff Sergeant Lyle Williams from (INAUDIBLE), Afghanistan. I want to take this opportunity to say hello to my mother and father, Jena (ph) and David Williams, my sister, Anne and Bailey (ph). I love you guys, I miss you guys. I will be home soon on R and R and I can't wait to see you. I wish you guys a happy memorial day and hope you enjoy the game. Take care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Memorial Day weekend is a time to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and those who continue to put their lives on the line every day for us and these days more and more of America's men and women in uniform are Latino. Adriana Houser has one of their stories. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADRIANA HOUSER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Memorial Day is not just a day off for Manny Gonzalez. This father of five, a lieutenant with the New York City Police Department, who spent nearly two decades in the U.S. Army wants his kids to know the meaning of this solemn holiday.
MANNY GONZALEZ, CWO, U.S. ARMY RESERVE: That's the flag I flew in Iraq when I was there. I let them know, it's not just, you know, a decoration. It's, you know, there are people, men and women, who sacrifice their lives to have THAT flag proudly waving.
HAUSER: In 1997, Gonzalez had gone back to civilian life after serving eight years as an officer. After 9/11, he decided to join again, this time as an enlisted man.
GONZALEZ: I had seen the devastation in Ground Zero personally. My brother's a New York City firefighter. We were out there together, in the bucket brigade, you know, digging up dirt and trying to get people out. And you know, after a while, you just felt that need to serve.
HAUSER: That service took him to Iraq twice, in 2003 and again in 2008. A highlight, a team he led, recovered Iraqi treasures looted from museums during the fall of Baghdad. Among the recoveries was the (INAUDIBLE) mask, an artifact that dates back to 3100 BC.
GONZALEZ: It was a very happy time. I know the children really appreciated it because they would come on a regular basis to those museums. It is like you are giving back the history back to the Iraqis.
HAUSER: Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents, Gonzalez, now a chief warrant officer is among a growing number of Latinos serving in the military. He says his background helped him relate to the Iraqi people.
GONZALEZ: For the most part, Latinos come from a lower economic standard, and we identified with that type of living and living in kind of an impoverished areas.
HAUSER: The Department of Defense says Hispanics made up nearly 12 percent of the armed forces in 2009. Gonzalez says he sees more Latinos with stars and bars on their shoulders than he did during his first enlistment.
GONZALEZ: Now, the Latinos are now the captains, the colonels and even quite a bit of generals. I get actually proud when I see a Latino in those leadership positions. You know that that commander can identify with how hard it is for you to just be in the military.
HAUSER: Proud of his heritage and of the service he has given his country, especially on Memorial Day.
Adriana Hauser, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And on this Memorial Day weekend, CNN's Sandra Endo caught up with a teenager trying to preserve the memories of war heroes on- line.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One by one, 17-year-old Ricky Gilleland keeps the spirit behind these head stones at Arlington National Cemetery alive, on-line.
(on camera): You come here thinking what?
RICKY GILLELAND, FOUNDER, PRESERVEANDHONOR.COM: Well, it's sad because I come here and I look at the birth dates and death dates and I think, you know, these are kids not much older than me.
ENDO (voice-over): The computer whiz started documenting the 858 soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and are buried at Arlington after he heard about the record keeping problems at the cemetery. He posted the information and pictures on his Web site called preserveandhonor.com. It received more than a million hits since it launched in October?
(on camera): What do you hope for when people log on to your Web site?
GILLELAND: I hope that they can go on and feel a little bit of comfort in knowing that, you know, they are not just a number of casualties or anything like that, but actual people.
ENDO: An investigation by the Army inspector general found 211 graves were mislabeled here. Arlington cemetery has been under fire for keeping an antiquated record system of the roughly 300,000 men and women laid to rest here.
JENNIFER LYNCH, ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY: We actually are in the process of modernizing our record keeping. It'll make actually people who are doing sites like Ricky's a lot easier because it's all going to be available on our Web site.
ENDO (voice-over): For Gilleland whose project took on a deeper meaning as he learned more about one fallen soldier.
GILLELAND: What is special about this (INAUDIBLE) particular is that it is the only one around it that has gold lettering which means that he was a medal of honor winner.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: Keep us ever grateful for the life of Ross Andrew McGinnis.
GILLELAND: He was fighting. Someone threw a grenade inside the Humvee. He jumped in, put his body over the grenade and absorbed most of the blast, so he saved everyone else.
ENDO: We reached out to the McGinnis family who had no idea about the Gilleland's project and became emotional after seeing the site. In an e-mail Mr. McGinnis thanked Gilleland for his work, describing it as a way to showcase the sacrifices of our nation's heroes. But there are still new sacrifices Gilleland will continue to capture.
Sandra Endo, CNN, Arlington National Cemetery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: The devastation in Joplin became an opportunity for heroism as well. Next, we're going to show you an average guy who made a lifesaving difference the night that the tornado struck.
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GRIFFIN: The deadly tornadoes that have hit the nation have shown us at our most vulnerable but also inspired us with acts of bravery and given us an opportunity to show off some generosity. In Joplin, Missouri we met one of our many heroes. We only known him by his first name, Jason. He took it upon himself to clear out debris and rescue his neighbors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON, TREE CUTTER HERO: I was down the road, saw the rain go through real bad. And we didn't know it was a tornado but every time the lightning struck you can just see it moving down the road. Immediately started getting our chain saws and cutting stuff up out of the road and pushing everything we can because we knew that the ambulance would have to be in there and fire and everything else. I just knew there was people in trouble. This from all the damage I'd seen and debris, I knew that there was people out there.
And I knew that we had to get them out, and at the same time I knew that we had to get the roads cleared. And I was clearing roads until I heard people screaming. That's when I would go into the house and started yelling and listening for them. And as soon as they yelled back, I'd dig them out of the rubble or whatever and try and get them to the street. And once I got them to the street, everyone else could see what was going on. And I would just go running house to house to house for four or five hours.
There was a house the walls caved in on and the roof, (INAUDIBLE) pretty much, and I saw the smoke coming out so I got my chain saw, cut a hole in the roof to get through and when I did that, the house was on fire and part of the wall kind of came at me and just the charcoal from it got me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Nice job. Hey, at Dodgers Stadium, a man gets so excited to catch a ball, he drops a kid. That's not the funny part. The best part is the child's reaction. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Top stories at this hour. Rookie driver J.R. Hildebrand made it to the final turn today in his attempt to win the 100th Indianapolis 500 but it wasn't enough. Hildebrand was leading the race in the last lap when he slammed into the wall. Dan Wheldon sped past him to the checkered flag. Hildebrand crashed when he move to pass on the outside to pass another driver. He slid across the finish line and finished second. Check out the reaction of the crash, of the Indiana National Guard soldiers watching in Iraq. They look sad. Hildebrand's car, by the way, sponsored by the National Guard.
In Los Angeles, fire broke out right in the middle of the Dodgers game against the Florida Marlin. You can see the smoke there coming from a small fire in a storage area. Several fans had to move. No one was evacuated, though, and the game was not interrupted.
And in the stands, a Dodger fan did something that's going to come back to bite him on father's day in a few weeks. Watch the video. Dad trying to get a player to throw him a foul ball. It works but he drops his little girl when it comes at him. And the ball flies through his hand. When he tries to pick her back up, she elbows him. Good job, dad.
And take a look at what was wandering the streets of Abu Dhabi. A young wild cheetah. It was spotted behind a house in the Emirati capital. Police and wildlife experts rushed to the scene, caught it. It had a broken left paw, was taken to a wildlife center for treatment. Here's the interesting thing, cheetahs are native to Africa and parts of the Middle East but they hadn't been thought to live in the wild in the United Arab Emirates.
I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. CNN presents special "A Twister's Fury: In the Path of Destruction" begins right now.
