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CNN Saturday Morning News

9/11 Trial Latest; Living Below the Poverty Line; Addicted Baby Death

Aired May 05, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Christine, what do you have on tap today?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Randi. The key to winning this election: getting you a job. We'll show you the battleground states both candidates need to worry about.

And the Occupy Wall Street movement shows that free speech and protest are alive and well in America, and not just limited to Tea Partiers. Lots of people in the 99 percent are now asking themselves, six months on, does Occupy represent everyday Americans? Are they now the 1 percent of the 99?

And 10 rules for raising boys right with Lisa Bloom. That's all coming up at 9:30 am Eastern. Randi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has to be the death penalty.

KAYE: Families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks arrive in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the alleged mastermind behind the notorious day of terror is arraigned. We'll take you there.

Plus President Obama officially kicks off his campaign today in Ohio. We'll take you there live.

Also, a Colombian prostitute speaks.

DANIA SUAREZ, PROSTITUTE (through translator): They're a bunch of fools. They're responsible for Obama's security and they still let this happen.

KAYE: Her story about what really happened the night she met U.S. Secret Service agents.

Could you live off $1.50 a day? We'll talk with one celebrity who's going to try and ask her why she's doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. It is 9 o'clock on the East Coast. Glad you're spending part of your morning with us. Let's get you caught up on the news right now.

The men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks are expected in court at this hour. After years of delays, they will be charged with terrorism, conspiracy and murder. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged terrorists are being arraigned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mohammed is the admitted mastermind of 9/11, blamed for planning the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people. It will be a rare look, no doubt, at the man dubbed KSM. After Osama bin Laden's death, he's probably the most notorious terrorist alive in the world. Our pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, is in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for us this morning.

Chris, what can we expect in court today?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Probably the unexpected, Randi, in that no one knows exactly what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to say. We're just a few minutes away from getting our first look at KSM and the other defendants in years. Some of the family members who have journeyed down to Guantanamo Bay have already filed into the courtroom.

There are also viewing sites set up at military bases in Maryland, in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, where other victims' family members will be keeping a very close eye on what happens here.

There are some motions to take care of first, in which the defense is going to raise some points, such as that the government has been reading and looking at some of the written letters between these defendants and their attorneys.

The defense counsel says that violates attorney-client privilege. And then it will move into the actual plea in which KSM may enter a plea, he may not. He may plead guilty, he may plead not guilty. That all up in the air in the next few hours, Randi.

KAYE: And, Chris, in terms of the timetable, this has been going on now for years. We've seen delays. Is there a chance that it could be delayed again?

LAWRENCE: More than a chance. This is something that will stretch out for years and years because even if KSM does plead guilty, his defense attorneys are likely to file several motions excluding certain evidence that will tie this up to years.

And no one that I spoke to at the Pentagon thinks this is anywhere close to being wrapped up, which -- it's heartbreaking for some of the family members who have seen this drag on. They watched as his trial was moved by the attorney general to New York and then after a large public outcry, brought back here to Guantanamo Bay.

Some of the families say they have been through the wringer and that the only thing that will bring true closure is to see the death penalty imposed on KSM.

KAYE: Yes, no doubt they want justice. Chris Lawrence there at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thank you, Chris.

An escort at the center of the Colombian prostitution scandal is spilling all about her night with Secret Service agents. Dania Suarez told a Colombian radio station the agents involved were, quote, "idiots," and bought alcohol at a Cartagena club like it was water and danced on the bar.

And she says if she had been a spy or a terrorist, she could have easily gotten sensitive information compromising President Obama's security.

SUAREZ (through translator): Of course. At that moment if I had been a member of one of those terrorist gangs, it's obvious that I would have been able to get everything. Just like the newspapers say, I put them in checkmate. They're a bunch of fools. They're responsible for Obama's security and they still let this happen.

I told them, I'm going to call the police so that they would pay me my money. They didn't care. They didn't see the magnitude of the problem, even when being responsible for Obama's security. I could have done a thousand other things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Believe it or not, she says that her reputation and her life have been ruined, but she also says that she's open to other opportunities, like posing in men's magazines.

President Obama is kicking off his re-election campaign in a key battleground state. That would be Ohio. He's holding a rally in Columbus later today showing just how important Ohio is. Mr. Obama has visited the state 20 times since he took office.

Republican rival Mitt Romney has also set his sights on the Buckeye State. He's been there twice in just the last month and returns again on Monday.

CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser joining us now from Columbus. You have been there a few times as well. Why is Ohio so critical, Paul?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It sure seems to play a major role in presidential contests. Remember back in 2004 it was the state that put George W. Bush over the top in his re-election bid. President Obama, then Senator Obama four years ago won Ohio, one of the reasons he captured the White House.

And, Randi, as you said, they're all here. It's no surprise that President Obama is holding his first kickoff rally for the re-election bid -- where? Right here. Take a look at this, the latest polling in the Buckeye State from Quinnipiac came out the other day, you can see, pretty tight. Just about dead even 44 percent for the president, 42 percent for Romney, who's the presumptive Republican nominee.

Randi, that's basically dead even right here in Ohio. So behind me that's that's the shot of Steen (ph) Center, where in about four hours the president will hold that rally. And you can see right behind me the CNN Election Express. We're going to have it all over the campaign trail between now and election day, which is six months from tomorrow, Randi.

KAYE: Wow, six months to go. OK, Paul, thank you very much. Keep it right here today at1 o'clock Eastern, CNN will bring you President Obama's first campaign speech of the election from Columbus, Ohio. That is scheduled to get under way, once again, 1 o'clock Eastern right here on CNN.

And now to Canada, where a Canadian hang gliding instructor has been granted bail after he was charged with obstructing justice related to a fatal accident one week ago. The woman in the glider with him dropped to the ground. Investigators say the instructor may have tried to hide key evidence about what happened by swallowing a memory card that has the video of the fall. That video is now in police custody.

He is being called a visionary, a pioneer and a legend.

(MUSIC PLAYING, BEASTIE BOYS, "FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT")

KAYE: Adam Yauch, a co-founder of the Beastie Boys, has died after a three-year battle with cancer. The group which first came together to play at Yauch's 17th birthday party has sold more than 40 million records. Yauch leaves behind a wife and daughter. He was 47.

A baby born addicted to drugs is always a tragedy, but in one state it is also a felony. We'll tell you where and why some people are saying that women's civil rights are in danger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: One baby an hour born addicted: that shocking revelation came in a new study released this week. Those babies showing signs of withdrawal just after being born, but it's not just illegal drugs. The biggest rise is addiction to prescription drugs.

It is a sad story, but in Alabama, it's a criminal story. That's because in Alabama, giving birth to a drug-addicted infant is a felony, punishable by a prison sentence, all because of a law known as the Chemical Endangerment Law.

Now, in one case a man named Amanda Kimbrough had a baby addicted to crystal meth who died after 19 minutes. She alleges that she did the drug just once during her pregnancy. Still, the death of her infant landed her in jail.

Joining me now is Brian White, attorney for Amanda Kimbrough, and Ben Dupre, head of the organization Personhood Alabama, a group that is arguing for the rights of unborn babies.

Gentlemen, welcome to both of you.

Brian, let me start with you on this one. Many people might say, well, a mother did meth while pregnant, an illegal drug no less, and it killed her baby, why shouldn't she go to jail? What's your response?

BRIAN WHITE, ALABAMA DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, my response is that the punitive approach to that problem has proven not to be effective. The therapeutic approach, that is helping women overcome their addiction as quickly as they might can during their pregnancy, is in the best interest of the mother and the best interest of the fetus.

Prosecuting them -- prosecuting the pregnant mother has a great deal of adverse possibilities and separating the child from the mother is not in their best interests, putting the mother in jail in unsanitary conditions.

KAYE: I want to share a bit of what the law says, Brian. In fact, the Chemical Endangerment Law prohibits a responsible person from exposing a child to an environment in which he or she knowingly, recklessly or intentionally causes or permits a child to be exposed to, to ingest or inhale or to have contact with a controlled substance, chemical substance or drug paraphernalia.

I mean, when you look at the law, this was supposed to protect children from meth lab explosions at home. So are you saying what happened with your client is more a case for child protection services, not prison?

WHITE: Exactly. That's the very heart of our case, is that the word "child" in that statute does not mean a child in utero. The legislature in passing a law where a third party would kill a pregnant woman and her child specifically says the woman and her child in utero. In this law, it just simply says child.

The court says child means viable fetus, which is absolutely unsupported by the legislature's intention. Interestingly enough, the legislature five times since 2006 have tried to -- legislators have tried to introduce bills to clarify to mean child in utero. Those bills have not passed.

KAYE: Well, let me bring in Ben here.

Ben, if the law was meant to protect children from potentially explosive meth labs at home and it doesn't mention womb or fetus or even pregnant woman anywhere in the language, I mean, is this a bit of a stretch of this law and that it's criminalizing what women are doing with their own body?

BEN DUPRE, PERSONHOOD ALABAMA: No, and it doesn't just cover meth lab explosions, it covers any exposure of a drug intentionally to a child. And it does not limit a child after birth and I think that's what the courts have noted, is that the legislature wanted to limit it, it could have.

But using the common sense term, a child refers to whether a woman is carrying a child in utero or a child that's born. And just as a born child if it's exposed intentionally to meth or any other controlled substance, we would criminalize that certainly, and we do. In the same way, an unborn child is a captive audience of the mother, it takes whatever drugs that mother is taking and that makes it a double tragedy and it should be prohibited.

KAYE: I want to share with our viewers something, Ben, that you told "The New York Times" magazine. You said, quote, "I think it would be unequal protection to give the woman a pass when anyone else who injects drugs into a child would be prosecuted." What do you mean by that?

DUPRE: Well, the 14th Amendment requires equal protection of the law and requires it of all persons. And in this case I believe a child would be covered under this law, unborn or born. And so if we -- if a mother was injecting her 1-year-old child with an illegal substance, we would be up in arms about that.

In the same way, an unborn child -- a mother doesn't drink alone when she's pregnant and she doesn't do drugs alone. And in the same way that child has no choice in that case. It takes whatever the mother takes, be it crystal meth or oxycodone or whatever controlled substance that mother is abusing, that child is forced to become an addict as well.

And as your coverage has shown, those children go through horrible withdrawals when they're born and doctors are scrambling to cope with the epidemic of these children born drug addicts already.

KAYE: Ben, just very quickly I want to ask you because there's a new study by the "Journal of/t American Medical Association," reporting that the number of babies born addicted to painkillers has actually tripled in the last 10 years. In Alabama there have been cases where pregnant women who have taken painkillers legally have given birth to addicted babies and then the mothers have been jailed.

Do you think pregnant women should have different civil rights than nonpregnant women?

DUPRE: No, I think they should have the exact same civil rights. But I also believe that the unborn child should have the same right, the right to life, first of all, and the right not to be forcibly injected, which is essentially what happens, since they're attached through the umbilical cord and depending on that mother. The womb should be the safest place for that child.

And when a mother does illegal substances or abuses legal drugs, then it becomes a place of poison for that child and they're born an addict.

KAYE: Ben Dupre, Brian White, thank you both very much for your time. Such an important issue to discuss, and we'll continue to follow it as well.

So do you ever think about how much you spend on something to eat and drink in just one day? Try doing it all for only $1.50 or less. Actress Malin Akerman did that and she's promoting awareness against extreme global poverty. She'll tell us what she lived on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mission of business is to make invention accessible, right, to make it possible for all people to execute on their great ideas, regardless of their luck, their circumstance or their pedigree, to give everyone a chance.

We give these people an opportunity to literally see their ideas up to their full potential. Sometimes their full potential is a week later, we tell them their idea isn't good. Sometimes their full potential is five years from now and a million dollars in their bank account. We just want to make sure that we're giving it as good of a run as we can.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Imagine every person in China surviving on less than $1.50 a day. That is almost the number of people around the world now who actually do, 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, a growing number the Global Poverty Project hopes to change.

"Live Below the Line" campaign is raising money and challenging people to live below the line of poverty in the U.S. for five days. Celebrities and activists are stepping up to the challenge and daring you to do the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALIN AKERMAN, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: A dollar 50 a day is only enough for two bowls of rice with a couple of spoonfuls of beans. Dare. I dare you to challenge yourself. I dare you to find a cause that you believe in. I dare you to put your body and mind to the test. I dare you to take a stand. I dare you to eat for less than $1.50 a day for five days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: You probably recognize Malin Akerman from movies such as "27 Dresses" and "The Romantic." She's an award-winning actress, raising awareness for extreme poverty, and she's joining me this morning live from Los Angeles.

Malin, good morning to you.

AKERMAN: Good morning, Randi, how are you?

KAYE: I'm well, thank you. I love this cause. It's so important. I know that you have actually seen some of this poverty first-hand, so I want to talk about your recent trip to Tanzania with Opportunity International. What were the conditions that the people there were dealing with?

AKERMAN: Well, you know, it's interesting. We came into a small town called Arusha and traveled around and met all the clients of Opportunity International. Many of them work in markets, selling potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Some of them have restaurants, which basically consists of four walls and a bench and a table, cooking, you know, rice and beans over coal. And it's interesting because you walk around these towns and small cities and they don't have much, but what they do have is a lot of pride, happiness and hope that they have finally gotten some financial aid, because -- and the most fascinating part to me was the first thing that they told me was what they did with the money was send their kids to school, which is such a great cycle, I find.

KAYE: Oh, sure. But the "Live Below the Line" challenge that we were talking about, it kicks off Monday. But you've actually already lived below the line for a day. How did that go?

AKERMAN: We did. It was actually a really fun experience, going into the supermarkets here in L.A., trying to figure out what you're going to buy for $1.50, because you can't really buy much here in the States. And it was -- we went straight to the rice and beans, which really is the most economic choice, because it can last you a few days.

As you can see a few ramen noodles always works well, four for a dollar. And it was interesting because you really start to appreciate. Even as we were putting water in the pot, you realize a lot of people when we were in Tanzania, they don't have running water or electricity in most of their homes.

KAYE: The thing is, though, we all run and we buy these expensive coffees and things. I'm sure this has really changed as you tried to live for $1.50 a day. I'm sure it's changed your global perspective. How so, just in terms of your personal habits and spending or even wastefulness?

AKERMAN: Absolutely. I mean you feel extremely lucky. You understand sort of -- it feels really silly to think that we spend $5 on a coffee when, you know, people spend a fraction of that on everything. I mean literally. This challenge is just $1.50 on food. Meanwhile, people over in third world countries are spending $1.50 for everything. So it really just puts everything into perspective.

KAYE: I want to show you what we did here, because we decided to actually see what we could buy for $1.50. So watch what a couple of my producers were able to do so.

AKERMAN: Great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've got $1.50. Let's see what I can get. We've been here for a little bit and it's tough, like really tough, 59 cents for a gallon of water. I have about 88 cents after that water. I can pretty much get three different ramen noodles.

(Inaudible) I found this bread for 49 cents but that means to make my budget, I have to return two of the ramen noodles -- 29 cents, 49 cents, 59 cents adds up to $1.37 before taxes. I made my budget. The noodles were on sale, so I only spent $1.33. I have 17 cents left to survive for the rest of the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: It is quite challenging. So tell us, I mean, how can people sign up? How can they do this to try and bring more attention to it?

AKERMAN: Well, you can go to livebelowtheline.com and partner with Opportunity International and grab a group of friends. The more people you get involved, the more money you have to spend. It's a little easier to find food and sort of fraction it out. So make it a fun thing. Challenge your co-workers at the office, maybe your family members. Go to the grocery store, get your food for the five days and, you know, invite people over and do dinner parties on $1.50 a day.

KAYE: I'm going to search --

AKERMAN: It's actually --

KAYE: I'm going to spend a little time Googling recipes for ramen noodles because I am determined to try this for at least one day. So we'll see how we do --

AKERMAN: Please do.

KAYE: Malin, it was great to have you on. Again, congratulations on highlighting a great cause. We appreciate that.

AKERMAN: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

KAYE: Thank you. Have a great day and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)