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Hope for Survivors in Ship Wreck Fades; Web Sites Go Dark in Protest; Gingrich Wants Perry and Santorum Out; Ship Captain Under House Arrest; Ship Captain Under House Arrest; Iran Firm to Send Toy Drones to Obama; Airmen Survive Crash, Tell Harrowing Tale; Principal "Flips" School, Kids Improve; Colbert Tells S.C. to Vote for Cain; Web Sites Go Dark in Protest

Aired January 18, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Sounds great, Soledad. Thanks so much.

Good morning, everyone. We start this hour with that doomed cruise ship off Italy and fading hope of finding any more survivors. About two dozen people are still missing in those frigid waters including two Americans. At least 11 people have been killed. Rescue operations are on hold again because it's too risky for divers as the cruise ship moves in the water.

Meanwhile, the ship's captain is under house arrest. He could be looking at manslaughter and abandoning ship charges after the Costa Concordia hit a rock on Friday night.

Well, Barbie Nadeau is joining us live by phone from Rome. She has been following this story for us.

Barbie, any idea when the rescue operations might start up again? Barbie, are you with us?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I can hear you now. Yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, great. Tell us, do you have any idea when these rescue crews could start working again? We understand that the water is cold, that weather -- bad weather is moving in causing that ship to shift, and it has not been easy for divers to continue their operations.

NADEAU: That's right. They're waiting right now for the conditions to stabilize a little bit. They're expecting some heavy seas in the next 24 hours, but the problem is the ship is really sitting on a sort of terrorist sea bed. And they're worried that it could be pushed off and fall even deeper into the water. So they've got to make sure that those divers are safe. And they've got to make sure that their rescue people are not put at risk, which could potentially add to the human toll of this if these rescue workers are put at risk as well.

PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, we saw this morning, early morning, the video of the ship's captain being released from jail. Now under house arrest. What can you tell us about him and why that decision was made.

NADEAU: Well, you know, it was a really strange decision. It happened very late last night. This captain was basically whisked out of prison. And he arrived at his home just south of Naples around 2:00 a.m. local time here. The Italians are livid about this. There is a lot of anger. There were 1,000 Italians on that ship. And they believe he should be in jail right now.

And the prosecutor who is trying to build a case in which he can charge him with manslaughter, abandoning ship, and causing the shipwreck, is also very angry. And he's intending to go back to the judge and get him back, and get the captain back in jail.

Yesterday, of course, he was in court, Captain Schettino was in court, and he -- the judge made a decision in which she would defer her decision basically. In Italy you can keep a suspect in jail for up to a year without formally charging them. She decided she needed to make sure the recovering rescue efforts were finished before she made a decision whether or not he should stay in jail.

Because it's just -- it's really too early on, she thought. And she didn't consider him a risk of flight, but that decision has not been well received here in Italy. People are very angry and upset about it.

PHILLIPS: Barbie Nadeau there reporting for us out of Rome. Barbie, thanks.

Well, a major protest is underway this hour and it's as close as your computer. Several Web sites including Wikipedia are blocking out their Web pages for the entire day. It's all in protest of an anti- piracy bill in Congress that Web site employees say could put them out of business.

Christine Romans is in New York.

Christine, for the sake of full disclosure, of course, CNN's parent company Time Warner supports this bill.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.

PHILLIPS: So let's talk about the protests that are going on and those that see this pending legislation as a threat.

ROMANS: So it's called SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and it's really pitting Hollywood and Silicon Valley. And here's how. Hollywood wants to protect its creativity, its content, its movies, its songs, the things that people are paid to come up with and do that the rest of the world wants, right? Well, those things are knocked off quite frequently overseas. They're put up on Web sites. They're pirated, and make their way back here to this country where people can basically see them for free.

I mean this is American -- an international creative content that is, frankly, stolen, right? So the people who don't want their stuff stolen support SOPA. The people who don't want the Internet, censored don't. And that's the big tech companies. The Facebooks, the Googles, the SCs, and a lot of them have signed a big letter saying, look, the way that Congress is going about this is wrong.

They're talking about two draconian of a way to stop this. And you know, my colleague, Jennifer Westhoven at HLN, puts it -- puts it very well. She says, you know, the tech companies don't want to have the burden of every picture that you upload, every home video of your child crawling across the floor, every little thing that you put out there, tech companies having to verify whether it is pirated content. That is just too -- that's just too difficult to do.

So you've got these two sides. Look, everyone hates piracy, right? Everyone is against piracy. It's how do you fix it? Tech companies say the way Congress is doing it is wrong. The way the content providers say they're doing it, they want it done and they want it done now.

PHILLIPS: So if enacted, how exactly would the bill actually work? How does the government shut down these Web sites?

ROMANS: And that's a really good, important question because they're actually changing that conversation as we speak. Because of all of this pressure from the tech companies now and also the White House didn't like the way this -- the direction this was going in as well, some of these early versions of this bill where it would actually be changing. And it's very technical even for me that the technical architecture of the Internet. They're backing away from that. Backing away from that.

So I think what you're going to see now is you're going to see this process is going to slow down and these voices have been heard from the tech industry, especially blocking out Wikipedia, Google, and a lot of very powerful people in tech land are saying, no, slow down and do this right. Congress, you're not doing this right.

Because again, everyone agrees that piracy costs jobs and costs money to the people who create content. The question is, you don't want to end up with Web censorship in the name of trying to stop piracy. And that's a delicate balance that Congress is going to have to tackle.

PHILLIPS: All right. Christine Romans out of New York for us. Christine, thanks so much.

And not surprisingly the Internet is abuzz with talk of these Web site protests.

Zain Verjee has been looking online, joining us from London with some reaction -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hey there. Good morning, Kyra. There's been a lot of reaction online as you can imagine. This is such a hot topic.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the media giant, News Corps, supports it, Kyra. I was looking at his tweet and he said this. "Nonsense argument about danger to Internet. How about Google, others blocking porn, hate speech, et cetera? Internet hurt?"

The U.S. Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison, Kyra, too, weighing in backing the protests against the piracy laws. He tweeted this, "SOPA would harm Internet innovation and jobs. Better ways to fight piracy."

A bunch of CNN viewers were pretty critical. One of them had to say this. "There are merits to both sides of this argument. A re- write of this bill in consultation with both sides is needed."

And finally, Kyra, this tweet from Charlie Beckett, the director of a media think tank here in the U.K. who writes, "Remind me who I'm angry with? The Hollywood millionaires or the Silicon Valley billionaires?"

A lot of chatter online, Kyra. The majority of voices, though, weighing in speaking out against this proposed legislation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Hey, all points well made. That's for sure. Zain, thanks so much.

Back here in the States, three days to go until South Carolina votes in the Republican presidential primary. And Newt Gingrich is working hard to sell himself as the anti-Romney candidate, so he wants Perry and Santorum to drop out of the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You look at the polling, I'm the only conservative who realistically has a chance to be the nominee. So any vote for Santorum or Perry, in effect, is a vote to allow Romney to become the nominee. Because we've got to bring conservatives together in order to stop him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And Sarah Palin weighing in now. This is who she says she's voting for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: If I had to vote in South Carolina in order to keep this thing going, I'd vote for Newt, and I would want this to continue, more debates, more vetting of candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser live in Charleston.

So, Paul, Gingrich says that he knows that South Carolina is a do-or -die state for his campaign. So what do you think? How and can he mount an upset? PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: You know, Kyra, he could because, listen, South Carolina, a very different state than New Hampshire. Here southern social conservatives play a bigger factor, so do Tea Party activists. And of course so do retired and active military personnel.

And remember, Gingrich is from neighboring Georgia where you are, so I'm not saying he's got home field advantage here in South Carolina, but it is a more favorable ground than it was in New Hampshire for the former House speaker.

You know that Palin sound you saw played from an interview last night, the Gingrich campaign definitely running with that this morning. They say it's a pretty clear call to arms. And listen, Palin still pretty -- pretty important, pretty influential with a lot of conservative voters.

As for Gingrich's call for Santorum to drop out, here's what Santorum says about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's an enormous amount of hubris for someone who lost their first two races who thinks enough of themselves that they should now, because a couple of polls have him at this moment in time ahead of me, that everybody should step aside and let him, who hasn't won -- who hasn't defeated me in two of the -- two of the elections so far, to let him, you know, have a wide berth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Santorum, Gingrich, Perry, Paul, Romney, they're all going to be right behind me there, Kyra. It's the North Charleston Coliseum. We got our big "CNN SOUTHERN REPUBLICAN DEBATE" tomorrow night.

PHILLIPS: All right. Just quickly. Speaking of Santorum, you know, we all remember how close the Iowa caucuses were. I mean we're talking just eight votes separated him from Romney, Paul.

STEINHAUSER: Eight votes out of over 120,000, so did Santorum really lose to Romney? We'll find out by later this week. 5:00 local time in Iowa all the 99 counties got to get their certified votes back to the Iowa GOP in Des Moines. The chairman of the party out there says he'll get those results out by Friday at the latest. Stay tuned on that one, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Paul Steinhauser in Charleston for us. Paul, thanks.

And tomorrow just days before the South Carolina primary election the GOP contenders debate the issues. The "SOUTHERN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" on CNN tomorrow night 8:00 Eastern.

The captain of the capsized Italian cruise ship under house arrest this morning. We're talking to our Ashleigh Banfield about why he's not behind bars.

And shoveling in Seattle. The Pacific Northwest getting hammered by another major snowstorm, the second one this week. We've got a live report just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Now rescue efforts at the capsized Italian cruise ship are on hold because the ship has moved and it's too risky for divers to be near that wreckage. The captain far away from the scene now. He's under house arrest this morning and could face charges of manslaughter, ship wreck, and abandoning ship.

Just listen and follow along on the screen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. FRANCESCO SCHETTINO, COSTA CONCORDIA: What do you mean get down? We abandoned the ship. The ship turned.

CAPT. GREGORIO DE FALCO, ITALIAN COAST GUARD COMMANDER: And with 100 people on board you abandon the ship?

SCHETTINO: I did not abandon any ship with 100 people. The ship skidded. We were catapulted into water.

DE FALCO: We'll see later what happened, OK? Now tell me everything that takes place. Everything. Get on the lifeboat, don't move. Clear?

SCHETTINO: We are here. We are here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Our Ashleigh Banfield following all the legal angles for us now.

Ashleigh, around this time yesterday you and I were talking about that judge that ordered the captain to stay in jail. So what happened? He's under house arrest.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the judge reconsidered and figured he's not a flight risk and there was no evidence from any of the transcriptions that you just showed that he was ever trying to really flee the scene. There is some speculation at this point that he certainly did abandon ship.

And I'll tell you something, Kyra. There are some very curious things that you can mine through those conversations that he was having with the port authority that can play perhaps for and against him in this matter.

And I was very interested to see the accusations by the port authorities where they said, look, Schettino -- that's the captain -- you may have saved yourself from the sea. This will put you through a lot of trouble. It will be very bad for you. Get back on board for F's sake.

That sounds really damming, but we have to remember. This was very dark. And Schettino was essentially in a life boat. And who knows if it was possible to get back on board.

So, listen, if anything is clear at this point, prosecutors are livid with the notion that he is on house arrest right now. They've already announced that they're going to appeal this and suggest that he be jailed instead awaiting the charges.

PHILLIPS: You know, is there a law in Italy that a captain has to stay on that ship until he or she knows that every passenger is safe?

BANFIELD: That's an awesome question because we all sort of harken back to Titanic where we saw the captain valiantly going down with the ship. It's a thing of legend, believe it or not. While there is that charge of abandoning ship, there is no law that you have to go down with the ship.

But to your point, and you make a good one, you can't just leave when all those other people were in need. So that's something they're going to have to really assess. And he certainly did say multiple times on that tape with port authority that he had abandoned ship. But then, Kyra, he also called it catapulted. And if you saw the angle of the ship like I did, I could easily see people falling off as well. So that may be something that kind of mitigates in his favor there.

PHILLIPS: OK, real quickly before you go -- the passengers and legal recourse that they might have, the survivors, you know, there's this talk that the cruise line could actually be protected by ticket disclaimers. Is there any validity to that?

BANFIELD: That seems so bizarre in American law, right? No way does the small print matter here, especially when it comes to civil action.

So, you can bet your bottom dollar, Kyra Phillips, right now there are hundreds of lawyers absolutely mining through all of the different potential jurisdictional issues that they might be able to get their hands on. If there's a way, and there may be a different avenue, to get some jurisdiction in Florida, somewhere in the United States, like if this series of companies does business with the U.S. and there are strict qualifications for what doing business actually means, then there may be some action that can actually be launched in this country. And then the protections for the companies involved are not quite as strident.

But if they have to stick with the conventions that guarantee the rights of the company in the maritime law of Italy and the surrounding nations, it's so preclusionary and so protective of the company that they really might not have much recourse other than like I think somewhere upwards of $70,000 per passenger.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what? A lot of Americans, a lot of us love to take cruises. We'll keep this conversation going as we follow the investigation.

Ashleigh, thanks so much.

BANFIELD: Sure.

PHILLIPS: All right. News cross country now:

Hundreds of Occupy protesters are taking their cause to Washington, appearing outside the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Supreme Court. Capitol police say that at least two protesters were detained, including one charged with allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Now to Bridgewater, Mass, where a man pulled an 87-year-old woman out of a burning car within seconds to spare. These pictures are incredible. The man said that he saw the car actually careen into a neighbor's yard right here. It broke a window, opened the door, and he pulled her out. She is expected to be OK.

And in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, cleanup begins after tornadoes struck yesterday. Violent storms damaged roofs, flipped several cars and trucks. No deaths reported.

Well, the Pacific Northwest is bracing for the second winter storm this week and it could lead the region under record amounts of snow.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez, a true Southern California gal, life in Seattle for us to tell us how those conditions are at this moment.

Hi, Thelma.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Well, I can start by telling you that it's very, very cold out here. Again, not used to this kind of weather being from Los Angeles.

But conditions out here actually not too bad, Kyra. Take a look right here. This is the famous Pike Street road. And this one goes all the way down to that famous market.

And you can see that the snow is sticking right out here on the sidewalk. But if you look on the ground, snowplows have been out all morning, making sure to keep this one goes all the way down to that famous market.

You can see that the snow is sticking right out here on the sidewalk, but if you look on the ground, snowplows have been out all morning making sure to keep all the roadways, highways clear. And they were also putting out a mixture of salt and sand. So you can see that these roads, at least the busy thoroughfares are being kept open and clean. There are many areas, though, in the -- around this downtown area, Kyra, where it is much more problematic.

And as you well know being out here, it is very hilly terrain. And so, that can be very treacherous for commuters.

And what we're talking about is the brunt of this storm hitting around rush hour. And so, people are going to have to try to navigate this kind of slippery weather this morning. And that's what the big concern has been all morning long.

But further to the south in Tacoma, that is where it has really been snowing, Kyra -- about an inch an hour. Extreme avalanche danger southeast of here in the cascades.

So, we'll have to see what the storm brings, but the mayor is telling people to stay home.

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll follow it. Thelma, hanks so much.

And did you know that the average car on the road is more than a decade old? In this brutal economy, folks just can't let go of that clunker. Live to New York Stock Exchange, next.

And, Mr. President, what color drone would you like from Iran? That story right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Blue, pink, maybe green? Well, if President Obama can figure out his favorite color, he may get a very special gift from Iran.

Zain Verjee joining us in London and telling us what this is all about.

Pretty good marketing, I must say. They're getting attention this Iranian firm.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: They are. They think that this is one big, fat joke. They are really mocking the United States and mocking President Obama as well. Just a little while ago, Iran claimed to have taken down a U.S. drone. The U.S. says that it was its drone, but it came down because of a technical malfunction.

Well, the U.S. has been telling Iran, give us back our drone. Iran has said, well, if you want your drone, they're saying, we'll give you a drone. We'll give you a little toy replica of the drone.

Kyra, it's about 1/80th the size of the actual drone. They're saying they're going to send one to President Obama sometime soon, which is why he can pick the kind of color that he wants.

So they're just having a jolly good old laugh. They're also making more replicas of this drone that they want to sell to the Iranian people for something like $4 in the stores.

So this is -- they're taking a little jab here, but underscoring all of this are really serious issues between Iran and the U.S. Firstly, over its nuclear weapons program that the U.S. suspects Iran is building. And Iran, because of sanctions the U.S. has whacked on it, is threatening to be difficult when it comes to the Straits of Hormuz. And even close it.

That's a big deal because something like 40 percent of the world's oil supply comes through those straits. So, they may have a laugh, but the message they're sending is serious.

PHILLIPS: Yes, I think that's a cold day in hell when we see Iran and the U.S. having a jolly old good laugh. Is that what you said? I'm going to quote you on that.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Zain, thanks.

Well, the economy is recovering, but Americans are still trying to save cash. For one, holding on to that clunker.

Felecia Taylor at the New York Stock Exchange.

So, how old are the hoopties, Felicia?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you wouldn't believe it, but the average car on the road is now about 11 years old, which is a lot more than I would have thought. It's actually the largest since recordkeeping began in 1995.

People are basically saying that the quality of cars is getting better so they last longer, which is kind of good news. But, obviously, the tough time in the economy has been playing a big part because you obviously are not going to buy a car if you're worried about your job or paying your bills out there.

So, as the economy begins to get a little bit better, the trend could reverse and so there are some new car sales but, nevertheless, people seem to be holding on to their cars a little bit longer than they used to.

PHILLIPS: All right.

TAYLOR: In New York, we don't drive cars very often.

PHILLIPS: This is something you don't have to worry about. You've always got the trains and the subway.

TAYLOR: The bus.

PHILLIPS: The bus. Let's not forget that. Of course, walking.

Stocks -- how you are things looking after yesterday's boost?

TAYLOR: Well, you know what was interesting, we had significant gains yesterday. Things kind of trended downward a little bit. And right now, Dow futures are a little bit lower. We've got some reports coming out the IMF may be putting more money into its bailout fund. But also, all eyes are on Greece and what's going to happen there, whether or not it's going to be able to have an agreement with its creditors to actually try to cut its debt load.

This is a significant problem. If they aren't able to do so, we could see some triggers going into the marketplace that would be -- not catastrophic but certainly have a very negative impact on the marketplace. So, that's where all eyes are right now.

PHILLIPS: All right. Felecia, thanks.

Five dollar a gallon gas -- yes, we're not happy about that either. We're going to look at how drivers in one city are dealing with that.

Plus, two U.S. military pilots describe what it was like when their jet was going down over Libya.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much if you were driving your car down the road, you hit a patch of ice and your car started spinning. That's exactly what our aircraft at that point was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Pilots tell their harrowing story for the first time, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking top stories.

Rescue operations on hold at site of the capsized cruise ship off Italy. The searches were suspended after the ship began to move. At least 11 people have died since the Costa Concordia ran aground last week. About two dozens are missing. The captain is now under house arrest.

Wikipedia and several other major Web sites going dark for the day in protest of an anti-piracy bill before Congress. The sites say the legislation could lead to censorship and make operating nearly impossible for many sites. Supporters say the measure protects copyright holders.

And Congress expected to vote on a resolution denying President Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling. The measure is expected to pass the Republican-led House but die in the Senate.

Gas prices nationwide are already about 30 cents higher now than a year ago and we could see $5 a gallon gas by summer.

Live in Burbank, California, our Paul Vercammen is still filling up his gas tank.

Prices not that bad yet, right, Paul?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you what, Kyra? Here in California, though, we do suffer from very high gas prices, $3.70 a gallon. So, this place here in Burbank is one of the best bargains around at $3.55.

Why does California seem to pay a little bit more? Well, we pay more because of basically increased production costs, because we've got all these standards for emissions here. We also have very high taxes.

And on the global level, you're saying what's driving the rise in prices? Of course, Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane. That's driven up the price of crude oil. And also at play is an emerging demand from these markets such as China, and Brazil, and Southeast Asia.

So, back here in California -- what do you think it's like for a small business? When you're someone who's a painter or a plumber, or somebody of that nature.

We talked to someone who installs tile and granite countertops. And this so far is affecting his business, a downturn, by 15 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEMITRI PAGLIDIS, ALL AMERICAN STONEWORK AND TILE: It's almost $100 to fill up the tank and before you know it here comes Wednesday or Thursday morning, I'm putting another $50 to $100 in the tank. It's the stop and go driving, the zigzag, the gridlock. No matter where you have to drive in L.A. And, unfortunately, we're having to go out of the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And so back here live and in further talk to go this business owner, he would love to buy a more fuel efficient car. But, of course, it's a catch 22 because when your profits are eroded by these rising gas prices, you just don't have the rest of the disposable income to go out and buy that new, more fuel efficient truck.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: OK, Paul Vercammen there in Burbank -- thanks so much, Paul.

Well, it's been nearly a year since NATO launched a bombing campaign over Libya. And you may remember, two U.S. pilots' plane crashed during the early days of that campaign.

Now, they share their harrowing tale for the very first time in an exclusive interview with our Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The The U.S. war over the skies of Libya was just two days old when F-15 pilot Maj. Kenneth Harney and Capt. Tyler Stark got their mission -- conduct airstrikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Harney in the front seat. Stark in the back.

MAJ. KENNETH HARNEY, U.S. AIR FORCE: This is the big leagues. We're going to be flying in combat tonight.

CAPT. TYLER STARK, U.S. AIR FORCE: For me, it was, you know, I'm pumped. First time, I had to out and potentially drop in combat.

STARR: After bombing their target near Benghazi, they turned for home. But suddenly, the aircraft is spinning out of control. They are headed for a crash.

For the first time ever, Harney and Stark tell what happened in what would be the most tense hours for the U.S. military in its aid of the NATO mission.

HARNEY: Pretty much if you were driving your car down the road, you hit a patch of ice and your car started spinning. That's exactly what our aircraft at that point was doing.

STARK: From there, it was, OK, this is -- first thought, is this is really happening. A little bit of surreal, like we're spinning. This is not good. Very not good.

HARNEY: I call mayday, mayday, mayday.

STARK: We're in the spinning, falling. Counting down the altitudes.

STARR: They bail out and hope they don't land in the middle of Gadhafi's forces.

HARNEY: I was scared. There's no doubt in my mind that I was terrified.

STARR: They have landed in separate locations. On the ground, Harney spends the next three hours on the run, trying to hide and radio his position to U.S. planes overhead. The Marines fly in a rescue team. Harney wants no mistakes.

HARNEY: I put my hands up in the air hoping that they don't come at me very hostile at this point. At that point I don't care if they put me in cuffs. I don't care if they throw a bag over my head. I know I just want to be on that helicopter.

STARR: Stark winds up in a field suddenly two vehicles approach, someone calls out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll help you.

STARK: I hear the voice a little bit closer. American come out, we're here to help.

STARR: Lights are shining right at his hiding position.

STARK: I get up and put my hands up and start walking to the voice and the light. Once I get there, my impression is, OK, you have to assume that they are the bad guys. And so, I approach them thinking, OK, I'm caught.

STARR: He's driven to a nearby building, still very much on his guard.

STARK: There's a half circle of locals and I'm thinking, OK, this is going to end one or two ways. This is where the beatings are going to start or this is where I'm going to get a lot of help. Fortunately, I walked in the room and got a round of applause.

STARR: With all the stress, Stark can't remember the phone number in England to call for rescue, so he calls his father from Libya.

STARK: In the age of cell phones, whose number do you know off the top of your head? Your parents. I called them up, spoke with my dad. I said, hey, I need you to make a call for me.

STARR (on camera): Stark was sheltered that night by the friendly Libyans until an Italian boat could come and pick him up to bring him to safety. What went wrong with the F-15 that night? Well, investigators found that one of the flight maneuvers threw the plane off balance for technical reasons that the crew could not have anticipated.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. Coming up in a few minutes, we're going to talk to a principal who says he's found a winning formula to help kids make better grades and enjoy school. We're flipping classrooms, next.

And celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain not feeling sorry for Paula Deen and her diabetes, slamming the Southern food star via Twitter, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more wild ideas you want to realize, the more dry and rational and professional and rigorous you have to be in your approach. If you're just going to do the standard solution, you can actually be quite lazy. Whereas, if you want to go even just a little bit beyond sort of the conventional path, you really have to try hard to convince a whole series of authorities and also clients and investors and neighbors that this is actually feasible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Chef Anthony Bourdain slamming Paula Deen via Twitter.

"Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer with us.

A.J., Deen announcing she's diabetic and Bourdain showing that he doesn't have much sympathy for her.

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": That's right. He responded really to this whole situation, Kyra, in the same way so many people have. Bourdain's publicly called Deen's food bad for you in the past and he seemed stunned to hear now she's a paid spokesperson for a diabetes medication.

So, here's what Bourdain tweeted to Paula Deen. "Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business so I can profitably sell crutches later."

Now he and Deen do have a history. Last year he called her the most dangerous person to America saying that she is proud that, as he put it, her food is bleeping bad for you.

For her part she did tell him last year to get a life. Kyra, I haven't seen her directly respond to him in the last 24 hours.

But Deen is publicly defending herself now, saying her recipes were always meant to enjoy in moderation, not as an everyday kind of a thing. But certainly, Kyra, Deen's revelation having diabetes has raised a lot of questions for a lot of people.

PHILLIPS: Where's the moderation in a stick of butter? Just explain that to me, A.J., and I will try.

HAMMER: Or the thing that she has with the two donuts and the beef patty and the eggs and the bacon. I don't know.

PHILLIPS: And let's not get into the fried chicken, OK?

Now, country superstar Garth Brooks taking a hospital to court -- what's going on there?

HAMMER: Here's the deal. This is about a 2005 charitable donation that Brooks made and he now wants it back. He says he gave a half million dollars to the Integris Canadian Hospital of Yukon, Oklahoma. That's his hometown hospital.

The country star says they solicited the donation by promising to name a building after his late mother Colleen who died of cancer. Well, the building was never built. So, Garth wants his money back.

TMZ says the hospital is calling this all a misunderstanding and is hoping that things come to a quick and amicable resolution.

But "People" has a report, Kyra, from Brooks' representative that says he is taking this extremely personally and not to expect any sort of happy ending. It's going to be interesting to see how this sorts itself out, because you can certainly understand why this is so personal to Garth Brooks.

PHILLIPS: All right. I'm going to let you tease what's coming up next hour. Our favorite show, "Modern Family," someone drops the F bomb, are you serious?

HAMMER: Yes. It's my best new friend from the show. I actually had a chance to spend some time with him at the Golden Globes, which I really enjoyed it. So, I'll tell you all about it next hour.

PHILLIPS: Oh, what a tease. A.J., see you soon.

Well, failure rates at a Michigan high school plummet. Kids actually enjoy school and are less stressed. So, how did the principal turn it all around? Well, by flipping the classroom, of course. We'll explain what that means coming up.

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PHILLIPS: So I'm curious. Was your high school experience like mine? You listened to the teacher, talked most of the day, then you go home and listen to your parents nag you for the rest of the day about doing your homework?

Well, imagine this, doing your homework at school and listening to the class lectures at home. Well, a school near Detroit is actually doing that. It flipped the old school idea, and it's working. Kids are getting better grades and they're less stressed.

Greg Green is the principal at Clintondale High. And Greg these stats from flip program are amazing. I was reading in English the failure rate went from 52 percent to 19 percent. And you're seeing great numbers in math, and social studies and science also. Explain to me how "flipping" got you there.

GREG GREEN, PRINCIPAL, CLINTONDALE HIGH SCHOOL: Well, I think the "flip" concept is relatively simple. I mean we're having kids process the information right with the expert in class. And also if a student who may be at risk needs technology, like the Internet, or a computer, we're able to offer that. If they need support services outside the realm of the classroom, we're able to offer that.

And we're also able to offer a safe learning environment. So we're really -- our schools are really built around supporting the student learning. And why shouldn't we do that at school rather than put the burden on families who are struggling to make ends meet and aren't part of the classroom experience every day.

PHILLIPS: So in a little more detail then, I know this concept, the homework isn't done at home anymore; it's done there in school. So what is it about this concept, the "flip" concept, that works where previously, you know, it didn't?

GREEN: Well, I think that in a traditional sense when students come to school they -- they listen to a lecture and then they go home and they try and process it. Well, they may have struggled on problem one or problem five or number ten and there's really no support network to help them.

When they're in the classroom, in a "flip" classroom, what happens is because they see their lecture prior to class they have some sort of working knowledge of it.

And then when they come into class the expert teacher and also students as well contribute to their learning environment. And so if a student has trouble on one, the teacher's right there. If a student has trouble on number five, they're right there. And you're -- you're building your learning platform around the expert teacher rather than maybe a support system that can't regularly support an individual, especially in an adverse environment.

When you have adverse environment you have to make real decisions about some of the -- you know some of the things that you support your children with. You know food or the Internet? So those decisions are tougher and tougher.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Well and you know, for a lot of these kids that aren't well off, I mean they depend on school for their main meal of the day, yet you need a computer or a Smartphone to get the full benefit of the "flip" classroom. So how do you handle that?

GREEN: Well, we just simply extend our services. You know at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, and also at lunchtime. So and -- and remember, when we created this model, we didn't have really the cash flow to do that within the district. So we created this model without any grants or what have you, and so what we do is we just use existing equipment at school.

And most schools have laptops and desk tops that students can use. And we just make those things available to our students. And so they don't fall behind.

PHILLIPS: Greg Green, interesting concept. And really pretty simple concept. It's incredible what you're able to do with it as well. Thank you so much, Greg.

And you can actually read his commentary about "flip" classrooms on CNN's schools of thought blog. It's titled "Flip Classrooms give every Student a Chance to Succeed".

All right, coming up in sports, one for the record books, a paralyzed athlete reaches the South Pole. We'll tell you how he did it.

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PHILLIPS: Happening later in the CNN NEWSROOM 11:45 Eastern Time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meeting with basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He's getting a new title, Cultural Ambassador.

And at 1:00 California Governor Jerry Brown will try to sell his budget plan when he delivers his state of the state address.

And around 5:30 President Obama will address the Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Also next hour, the head of Hobby Lobby, you know that chain, well, he's going to be here to share his own hobby, rare biblical antiquities. You're going to see the priceless items that he's now putting on a worldwide tour including his latest find, the earliest known text from the book of Romans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. We talk a lot about sports stars in our "Big Play", but this guy is in a class by himself. Grant Corgen (ph) thas become the first adaptive athlete ever to reach the South Pole. He crossed 75 miles on a custom sit ski pushing about a quarter million times while braving a 45 below zero wind chill. Corgen He was paralyzed from the waist down after a snowmobiling accident in 2010. He now has feelings down to his knees, but not his feet.

Miami Heat without Dwyane Wade. He has a sprained ankle now. The Heat's two other stars take up the slack, though. Chris Bosh coast to coast spins in for the slam. There you go. He scored 30. Lebron James had 33. The Heat beat the Spurs.

How about the Australian Open. Watch Juan martin del Potro. He rushes the net, then races back for the between the legs shot. We always love this. Here we go. Then he crossed court for the winner. Del Potro won the match too. He moves on to the third round.

This could be the play of the day from Melbourne. A ball girl getting rid of a cricket. Take a look at her face. The match went on and the ball girls was probably happy to get back to her real job.

In South Carolina could a vote for Herman Cain be a vote for Stephen Colbert? Cain already suspended his presidential bid, but now Colbert has pulled him back in. Jeanne Moos, of course, explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How did a comedian and a pizza CEO turned politician become one?

STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: Anybody who shares my values can show it by voting for Herman Cain.

MOOS: It's the latest Stephen Colbert caper. Even more cunning than his decision to explore his own possible candidacy.

COLBERT: For the president of the United States of South Carolina, I'm doing it.

MOOS: But how to get on the ballot? Problem: it's too late for Stephen Colbert to get on the South Carolina ballot and write ins aren't allowed. Solution: Herman Cain is already on the ballot, though he's dropped out of race. So take his place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is one name on the ballot that stands for true American unity (ph) -- Herman Cain.

MOOS: Colbert's super PAC produced a vote Herman Cain commercial and Colbert used his show to exhort fans and young people of the Internet to -- COLBERT: Tell the world how much you love Herman Cain.

MOOS: South Carolina has an open primary. So Democrats and Independents could vote for Cain. And Colbert friendly Web sites were buzzing with Colbert/Cain fever. So could the fake commentator impact South Carolina's real primary?

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Short answer is no. We may see a bump, but I think the serious point is that sometimes takes satire to tell the truth in a really spin=saturated world.

MOOS: We wondered what Herman Cain thinks about Colbert stealing his electoral identity, but he didn't return our calls. Remember what Cain said the day he dropped out of the presidential race?

HERMAN CAIN (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not going to be silenced and I'm not going away.

MOOS: He's not going away if Stephen Colbert can help it.

Send them a message, vote Herman Cain.

May the best smile win; make that slowest.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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