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God Moves Mountains; Wildfires Force Thousands From Homes; Kidnapping Monster Shows Face In Court; Arial Castro Pleads Not Guilty; Uneasy Calm After Violence In Turkey; Mom Pulls Baby From Under Car; Man Rescued Girl and Now Is Paralyzed; Criminal Charges for Reporting Leaked Classified Information? Hands-Free Phones Still Affect Drivers Concentration on the Road

Aired June 12, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Check out the world's tallest twisted tower. It is the newest landmark in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The residential building spirals at 90 degrees from the bottom to the top and stands more than a thousand feet high. How would you like to live in that? Pretty cool. The builder says most of the units have already been sold. A one bedroom goes for about $435,000.

Well, that's it for AROUND THE WORLD. CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

"God moves mountains." That is what the mother of 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan just wrote on her FaceBook page. Her daughter, you see her there, who sparked a national debate due to her need of a lung transplant, is undergoing surgery this hour. We're going to bring you the very latest.

Plus --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was dense smoke blowing across our yard and at that point I thought we're done. We're out of here.

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MALVEAUX: -- a fast moving wildfire forces thousands out of their homes. We are live from Colorado with the very latest.

And he is accused of holding three women captive in his home for years. Well today, the man called a monster even by his own family shows his face in court.

This is the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

The family of a little girl in desperate need of a lung transplant, well ,they say she has now found a donor and went into surgery this morning. Sarah Murnaghan's mother, as you know, you see Sarah right there, launched an effective campaign to change lung transplant rules. That moved her 10-year-old up the list for a transplant. The girl has cystic fibrosis and would have died soon without new lungs. This is what Janet Murnaghan posted on her Facebook page. God the great. He moved the mountain. Sarah got the call. She will be taken back into the O.R. in 30 minutes. Please pray for Sarah's donor, her hero, who has give her the gift of life. Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that the road to recovery after a lung transplant, however, is rather long and tricky.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): The operation itself, Suzanne, takes several hours and then even after that, patients, in this case, Sarah, is often sedated for some time. So, it'll be late into the night and maybe even tomorrow morning before we really have an idea, clear idea of how things went.

MALVEAUX: Sanjay, tell us about this long road to recovery after she gets these lungs.

GUPTA: Yes, it's a really good question, Suzanne. I think for any transplant patient, you know, obviously, it's a big operation in and of itself. When you do transplantation surgery, one of the big goals is to prevent the body from thinking of these new organs as foreign, as a foreign body. In order to do that, you have to give medications that can suppress the immune system. So, those are medications that she will need to take and, you know, there is significant medications in terms of making sure she doesn't develop other infections. You also have a genetic disease that's at the heart of all this, cystic fibrosis. And the lung transplant does not take care of that genetic disease. It takes care of the lungs but people who have cystic fibrosis are at risk for infections. They're at risk of damage to they're other organs including the sinuses, pancreas, organs like that in the body. So, it is going to be a long road.

MALVEAUX: Now, her mom's successful battle to get a transplant will change doesn't sit well with everybody. I want to bring our medical ethicist, Art Caplan, who's joining us to talk a little bit about that. And first of all, let's just set the scene here. The girl's mother, Janet Murnaghan, she was able to bring about this one-year change that allows any child in need of a lung transplant under the age of 12 to get on the list for an adult lung. Apparently there are not that many children's lungs available. Who are the winners? Who are the losers? I mean, is there kind of a trade off here because this has changed?

ARTHUR CAPLAN, PH.D., NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Sarah and her family definitely did poke a hole in a rule that needed to be re- examined. I'm not sure the evidence really did show that kids under 12 wouldn't do as well with adult lungs. She didn't get every kid on the list but she got every kid the right to appeal so case by case, the system will take a look at that. Who lost? There are definitely some adults today who might have benefitted from that organ donation that just took place. They're -- they didn't get it. Sarah did. I think, you know, we have to continue to keep in mind, you don't add more lives just because Sarah's family managed to get a change in that rule for her. You're just changing who it is who's saved.

MALVEAUX: And, Art, explain the process here because it's not really clear whether or not Sarah got the lungs because she was moved up the list or maybe somebody else requested specifically that their lungs go directly to her, right?

CAPLAN: That's right. Every once in a while, you get a family that says, I want to donate organs. I've heard about someone through the media. I want the organ to go to that person. We don't know if that happened here. I don't think it did. I think she just got pushed up a list. Remember, a judge said she has to be added to that list for 10 days until we figure out the merits of this rule. So, that's why she's up on the top of the list. She's very sick. That's why she climbed to the very top of the list.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

CAPLAN: And I think she probably got a general donation. I got to point out, if you want to prevent problems like Sarah, it's very important to sign your donor card. Talk about it with your family, like this very generous family did to help Sarah.

MALVEAUX: And you had mentioned before, you said you believe that Sarah might not be the best candidate for a lung transplant. Can you tell me why?

CAPLAN: There are really a couple of reasons. The adult lung probably to fit into her is going to have to be, if you will, cut back and a piece used. That makes some transplant surgeons nervous that it's not going to work so well. She does have cystic fibrosis. That makes it hard for her to resist infections. So, even with the transplant, she's now getting drugs that weaken her immune system. Those infections get much more difficult for her. And it's hard to do the immunosuppression, the use of these drugs post transplant in a little girl. They're just harder to manage. She may do well and let's hope she does. She's just a little bit of a bigger challenge.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

CAPLAN: My pleasure.

MALVEAUX: And, of course, we wish Sarah and her family the best in her recovery.

CAPLAN: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: And now to an extremely -- this is an extremely dangerous situation. This is out of Colorado. We're talking about five wildfires ripping through hillsides there, burning dozens of homes, forcing thousands of people to get out and to get out fast.

Dan Simon, he's in Colorado Springs. Dan, you're actually near, right, one of biggest wildfires, the Black Forest fire, a mandatory evacuation in effect. How are people holding out?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's tough. You know, obviously for people who don't know what's going on with their homes, this is an anxious, you know, period of time. Let me explain where we are. We're in the parking lot of a community college. The fire is a few miles behind us. I'm going to step out of the way and you can get a pretty good view of that plume of smoke. You can also see some helicopters off in the distance, perhaps you can make out some of those aircraft dropping water on the fire. The real critical need right now is to get more firefighters in place. They believe that's going to be happening this afternoon.

But the conditions out here are terrible, Suzanne. You're talking about hot, windy and dry conditions. The absolute worse when it comes to battling this blaze. And that's why, at this point, they are at zero percent containment. In terms of wind, that might go up. We really don't know. We're -- it's dependent upon how well those helicopters are doing and whether or not the wind is going to shift directions. That kind of thing. But, at this point, more than 7,000 people evacuated from their homes and a lot of structures lost here. It's in the dozens. They believe that it could be approaching a hundred but we won't have a -- have a firm sense until later on this afternoon -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Precarious situation. I understand a prison also had to be evacuated as well. How did that go?

SIMON: Well, that's a prison southwest of here, 800 inmates and this was just a precaution. These were low to medium-risk prisoners. They were transferred to other facilities throughout the state. This was simply a precaution and apparently it happened without incident -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dan, thank you. I appreciate it. We'll be keeping a close eye on those fires.

In Cleveland today, Ariel Castro stood before a judge, pleaded not guilty to a long list of charges, including kidnapping, rape and even murder. He didn't actually speak. It was his defense attorney who did all the talking. Castro kept his head down for a minute and a half while he was in the courtroom. The charges stemmed from, you know the story, 10 years he allegedly kept three women captive in his home.

Our Pamela Brown, she's in Cleveland. And you were there. You were inside the courtroom when he appeared. What was the reaction?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Suzanne, I was there. And it was very similar to the way it was when Arial Castro appeared in court for the first time just a few weeks ago. He walked in today. He was wearing an orange jump suit. His feet were shackled. He was hand cuffed. He kept his head down the entire time. He looked expressionless and despondent and it appeared, at some point, that his eyes were actually closed during the quick arrangement today. It only last about a minute so it happened in a flash.

And as expected, his plea was not guilty. After that, he left. And it was what his attorney said, Craig Weintraub, after this arraignment that really came as a bit of a surprise. Essentially, his attorney said that some of the charges, some of the 329 charges, are essentially indefensible. That basically saying, basically conceding that the charges are indisputable. He talked a lot about the aggravated murder charge and said that's the sticking point here. And he showed a willingness to work out a plea deal if the prosecutor would take that aggravated murder charge off the table -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And do we know anything about Castro's alleged victims? The three women who were held in his home for nearly 10 years?

BROWN: Well, at this point, they are -- they are still healing. We spoke to a family friend who said that they're just trying to adjust to their new life, that they've actually been visiting nail salons, that they've been to the park, and that they're trying their best to move forward. The fact that they're actually enjoying their freedom now, able to leave their home is a big improvement from when they were first rescued back in May. And so, it's clear that they are feeling a sense of relief now that Arial Castro is behind bars. And not only that but he faces an astounding umber of charges, 329, and the fact that more charges could be on the way certainly gives these women a sense of relief -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, thank you. This time yesterday, you might recall Turkish riot police, they were starting this fierce assault on protesters. CNN's Arwa Damon, our own Arwa Damon, she was right there when the tear gas started filling the air.

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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The situation really changed so quickly, so dramatically. And if we move out of it, we can show you where all of the demonstrators were. Right down in that direction there were thousands, 10s of thousands of demonstrators who were peaceful. Again, we were standing right here when something like an altercation seem to have broken out.

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MALVEAUX: In addition to the tear gas, riot police used stun grenades and water cannons against the protesters. The demonstrators fought back as best they could with rocks, fireworks, some Molotov cocktails as well. The violent did not end until early this morning. It prompted protest leaders to cancel plans to meet today with Turkey's prime minister. Activists say the crackdown shows that talks would be fruitless. You're looking at live pictures there from that square. We're keeping a close eye on this throughout the hour. The crowd has grown in numbers but still a peaceful situation on the ground. We're going to be watching throughout the day.

Here is also what we're working on for this hour. A New York cab slams into a baby stroller and the mom jumps into action. The amazing rescue of her little girl up ahead.

Plus, prosecute the reporters? That is what one Congressman wants when it comes to the leaks of classified information.

All those hands- free devices supposed to help drivers, right? But actually do they or is it just as bad as texting when you're behind the wheel? We're going to put that to the test.

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MALVEAUX: In Georgia, a man is paralyzed from the waist down after diving into a flooded creek to save a four-year-old girl from drowning. Michael Patterson is in intensive care at a hospital in Rome, Georgia. The girl's mother says he saved her daughter's life.

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CARLISSA JONES, MOTHER OF RESCUED GIRL: He jumped in headfirst and after I grabbed her, we looked back and he was floating on top of the water. He's a hero, an angel.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): This is actually not first time that Patterson has stepped in to help.

According to our affiliate WSB, just two weeks ago Patterson and another man pulled a driver from his burning tanker truck. He's a hero.

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MALVEAUX: In New York, a 10-month-old baby is in stable condition. This is after her mom pulled her from beneath the wreckage of an out- of-control cab. The whole thing caught on surveillance camera.

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MALVEAUX (voice-over): Police say the cab plowed into the mother and baby as they were walking on the sidewalk. This is in the Bronx. The driver had passed out at the wheel. The woman was thrown several feet. The stroller ended up underneath the car. The mom jumped to her feet, dove to the ground and pulled the baby to safety.

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MALVEAUX: And this, the man who leaked details of the government's secret phone and Internet surveillance program, well, he is giving his first interview since revealing his identity.

Edward Snowden talks to the "South China Morning Post" today from a secret location in Hong Kong. Now he tells the paper, quote, "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."

As for his decision to hide out of Hong Kong, he says, "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice. I'm here to reveal criminality. I've had many opportunities to flee Hong Kong, but I would rather stay and fight the U.S. government in the courts because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law."

Edward Snowden, believed to be hiding out in a safe house in Hong Kong, that's according to "The Guardian" newspaper, but it is the head of the agency behind the government surveillance program who is in the spotlight today.

You see him there. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, NSA, testifying before a Senate panel in the next hour.

I want to bring in our own John King to talk about what the significance of that moment is going to be, because John, I imagine here, it's a hearing about cyber security. It's probably not going to be about cyber security. It's going to be about surveillance here.

What are the lawmakers, what are folks going to be pummeling with him today, those kinds of questions that he's going to have to answer?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Certainly off the top, Suzanne, Mr. Alexander thinks he's scheduled this to talk about cyber crime, cyber security. But he knows -- he knows what's coming to him.

And part of this is to challenge. So you'll see in the public hearing -- you will see questions about the PRISM program. You will see questions about government eavesdropping. You will hear questions about what you just played there, Mr. Snowden's account that he is there to reveal criminality.

Now lawmakers can't ask in public, sir, have you done anything that violates the Constitution? Have you done anything that violates the guidelines of these programs? Have you, as Mr. Snowden says, broken the law? What you won't get is a lot of the intimate, behind-the- scenes details of these programs because, Suzanne, much of that is classified. That's why we're in this big debate to begin with.

And so you have the balance now between a public congressional testimony, where they can ask some questions, but some of the lawmakers will deliberately back away from asking certain things and sometimes if they ask very specific questions, you might hear Mr. Alexander say, here is what I can say but I can't answer part of your questions.

So as the American people have their own questions about this, member of Congress -- members of Congress have questions about this, some of them can and will be dealt with in a public setting, like Senate testimony, like House testimony. Trust me, the Senate wants to bring James Clapper, the director of national intelligence back, because he said a few months back when he was asked specifically does the United States government collect e-mails from average Americans, he said no. Then he said not wittingly. And the -- one of the senators, Ron Wyden, the senator that asked him that question thinks maybe he wasn't terribly truthful. So Mr. Alexander will get the first round of these questions today, but it won't be the last.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I imagine it's going to be quite frustrating for some of the lawmakers who are going to hear, "I can't talk about that. It's classified information."

We heard from Congressman Peter King, Republican chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, talking to Anderson Cooper about all this and he was asked -- Anderson asked him whether or not he thought journalists who published those leak information should be prosecuted, and here is what he said.

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REP. PETER KING (R), N.Y.: If they willing knew that this was classified information, I think action should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude. I know that the whole issue of leaks has been -- gone into over the last month. But I think something on this magnitude, there is an obligation both moral but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security.

As a practical matter, I guess there have been, in the past several years, a number of reporters who have been prosecuted under it. So I -- the answer is yes.

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MALVEAUX: John, how is that playing out?

KING: Well, that last part there, the answer is yes. It's chilling if you do what we do for a living. And I would say this, I don't know very much about "The Guardian's" dealing with national security agencies but I do know if you read the initial "Washington Post" account, when Mr. Snowden decided to put his name out publicly, they talked about how Mr. Snowden approached them back in February, how he wanted them to put full graphics in the newspaper. And that's when he wanted to push with them.

And when "The Washington Post" refused to do that, "The Washington Post" said it needed to discuss this with national security officials both in and outside of government to make sure that it wasn't doing anything dangerous, that it wasn't doing anything that would dramatically or drastically undermine national security.

So if you read "The Washington Post" account of how he -- they handled this, it strikes you as quite responsible. They received a leak. There's no evidence of any criminal activity. Mr. King's talking about prosecuting -- Congressman King -- talking about prosecuting reporters. Well, if a reporter breaks the law, that's one thing.

If a reporter gets a leak of classified information and then handles it in a responsible way and then publishes a story that puts out information but perhaps withholds some of it after negotiations with the government, that's called a reporter doing their job.

MALVEAUX: All right. Well said, John. Good to see you as always.

Phone calls, texting, GPS, a lot of things to distract you when you're driving.

But do those hands-free devices actually help you keep your eyes on the road?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm trying to look out for the red and the green light and listen to the message and keep my eye on the pylons, I mean, it was tougher than I thought it was.

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MALVEAUX: Any time you're in car accident, police ask for your license and registration, right? But a New Jersey lawmaker wants to allow officers to ask you for your cell phone as well. The bill would let police confiscate a cell phone if they suspect that the driver was talking or texting before that accident occurred. That information could be used in the police report.

The ACLU is opposing the legislation, saying it violates privacy rights. There's no word yet on when the New Jersey state legislature might actually vote on that bill.

And there's new hands-free technology to keep you focused on the road, right? But we also found out it can get in the way. Chris Lawrence took us on this spin to find out what the technology is all about.

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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We all thought hands- free would allow us to combine the morning commute with the demands of staying connected.

YOLANDA CADE, AAA: Making the decision to talk hands-free and interact with this technology does pose a considerable risk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here?

LAWRENCE (voice-over): But I wanted to get a first-hand look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks good.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): So researchers wired me up to see if I could still drive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is just sort of measuring your background mental workload.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Making hands-free calls.

LAWRENCE: Good. I'm out here on the driving test.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): -- and using new voice-to-text technology.

LAWRENCE: We should get together sometime soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What would you like to say?

LAWRENCE: How about Sunday?

LAWRENCE (voice-over): One message seemed simple enough.

LAWRENCE: Next message.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Text from Courtney (ph).

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Until you realize they just keep coming. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your next message is loading.

Message from psychology survey.

Text from Victoria (ph).

Are you busy tonight?

LAWRENCE: Does 8 o'clock work for you?

LAWRENCE (voice-over): The more I tried to multitask, the less my brain could do.

CADE: It's how your driving performance deteriorated, your brain activity really, really was reduced and transformed. During the process of trying to perform tasks behind the wheel --

LAWRENCE: It's hard to disconnect. I get it. My daughter is in day care and catches every cold known to man.

My wife works 10 hours a day and she's nine months pregnant.

And my bosses at CNN, well, they want what they want when they want it.

So when can I put this down?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We also collected your brain waves while you were driving.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): And those prove that even when I wasn't using my hands, my brain was still engaged in conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible), do I have any text messages?

LAWRENCE (voice-over): And the automakers and app designers are not making it easier, adding features like Facebook and Twitter to our dashboards.

CADE: This is a looming public safety crisis for us.

LAWRENCE: When I'm trying to look out for the red and the green light and listen to the message and keep my eye on the pylons, I mean, it was tougher than I thought it was.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.

MALVEAUX: And she says she's lost at sea and that her world has opened and closed all at once. We're learning more about the mysterious woman the NSA leaker left behind.

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