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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Toddler Died Inside Car, Accident or Murder?; Crisis in Iraq: PM Al-Maliki "We Actually Welcome Any Syrian Strike Against ISIS"; Stepmom in Custody After Missing Boy Found Alone in Detroit Basement; Rep. Lewis Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks

Aired June 26, 2014 - 20:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us.

We begin tonight with breaking news, breaking in the story that many people in this country have been talking about. The death of a toddler, trapped in his car seat, locked in a -- a hot car outside Atlanta, Georgia. Left in the car by his own father.

The child, 22 months old, his name, Cooper Harris. Cooper was left in the back of the family SUV for seven hours in the hot Georgia sun and died. Police in Cobb County, Georgia, charged the father Justin Harris with murder in the death of his son.

Tonight we know more about the chain of evidence that may have led them to arrest him. Authorities have apparently seized computers from his father's office. It alleged has a search history on it that raises questions and certainly suspicions.

Let's get the latest now from Martin Savidge who joins us from outside Atlanta.

So what do we know now, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Anderson. Yes, a source close to the investigation has spoken to HLN's Nancy Grace and says that, as you point out there, there were a number of computers, work computers, for the father that have now been seized and apparently investigated. And that source says on one of those computers there was a search that specifically was looking for how long it takes for an animal to die in a hot car.

Now that would seem like an electronic smoking gun. However, it's quite clear to authorities they already felt that the father's excuse or explanation that this was an accident was unraveling. They felt that because just one look at the route he claims to have taken would show that. We found out ourselves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (on camera) According to the investigative narrative, the day that the baby dies begins here, when the father and son are seen at this restaurant and the father is seen placing the 22-month-old baby into the backseat of his car into a child seat. They don't say how investigators saw that, whether it's by television or some eyewitness. But the clear point here is that father and son are interacting. The father knows he has the child. And he's going to drive to work.

Let me point out something. Those white buildings just in the distance, that's work. So let's do the drive.

So what I've done is reset the odometer so we can basically see just how far a drive is it.

All right. We're just about at his work space. We can't drive on the property. It's .6 miles, obviously just over half a mile and less than five minutes.

That's the building where Justin Harris works, and apparently what police are trying to imply here is that, well, how did you know you had a child just down the road but apparently less than five minutes later you forget that you have a child? And instead, the father goes into work. The next time authorities say that he is seen -- they don't say whether on video or whether it's by an eyewitness -- he is coming out and opens the driver's door of the car but then goes back into work. And the next reference they make to him is when he gets in the vehicle and leaves.

Now we don't know the exact route that the father took after he left work but we do know where he ended up, and it's just a little bit down here.

All right. So this is the last stop and this is really the horrible realization. We've gone 2.3 miles, again, we don't know the specific route but it's taken us a little over 10 minutes to get here.

This is the shopping center where, according to authorities, the father pulls over. It's also where the witnesses say it became very obvious that something was terribly wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopped out of the driver's seat, opened the backdoor, pulled his child out. Laid him on the concrete. Tried to resuscitate him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just screamed, what have I done, loudly. Obviously, it was a bit dramatic, you know, hands in the air, looking up towards the sky, what have I done type of -- type of thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Just horrible. Martin, that computer that's allegedly been confiscated. How potentially damaging could that evidence be if in fact there is search history and he did actually search -- again, this is based on one source, but if he did search for how long it takes an animal to die in a hot car?

SAVIDGE: It certainly sounds very damming but I'll point out a couple of things. One, we don't know whether somebody else could have had access to that computer. We don't know exactly when that search might have been conducted. Was it days before? Was it weeks before? Was it months before?. And then on top of that, the other thing is, I should point out that

there have been other famous cases in which this kind of computer searching has been used against somebody in a courtroom. And it hasn't necessarily worked out in a conviction.

COOPER: Right.

SAVIDGE: And Casey Anthony would be one prime example of that.

COOPER: Yes. All right, Martin, stick around. I want to bring in our legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin, and criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, also attorney and children's advocate Areva Martin is joining us as well.

Sunny, I mean, again, we don't know, again, this is one source. I want to be very cautious about the source saying about the search history.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

COOPER: But it certainly is not a good development for the father.

HOSTIN: Well, it's not, of course. I mean, it gives me pause but we don't know enough about this case to really jump to conclusions and I know Mark is shocked that I'm saying this.

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Wow.

COOPER: Yes.

HOSTIN: But, you know I knew --

COOPER: Do you work in cable news?

(CROSSTALK)

GERAGOS: Somebody hacked into Sunny's body.

HOSTIN: I know, because I'm --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I mean, you're right to say that.

HOSTIN: But, you know, I think I need to hear motive in a case like this as a former prosecutor. I need to hear about a divorce or custody battle. I need to hear about perhaps an insurance policy on this child. I need to hear about substance abuse. I need to hear about child abuse. I need prior child abuse. I need to hear more because it doesn't make sense.

COOPER: Because this does happen.

HOSTIN: And it does happen.

COOPER: And this does happen. HOSTIN: And I looked up some stats. I know Mark is going to make fun

of me because I have some notes. But if you look at the survey on, safekids.org, which I question, I mean, everyone really should look at this. Nearly one in four parents of a child under 3 has forgotten a child in a car. That's 25 percent. I've done it. I admitted that yesterday.

GERAGOS: I did it.

HOSTIN: You've done it. Wow.

GERAGOS: Just -- I'm telling you --

HOSTIN: Eleven percent of parents admit to it.

GERAGOS: I can't tell you the number of people who watched the show last night who called me afterwards and said I've done the exact same thing. And it's --

HOSTIN: It happens.

GERAGOS: And you panic. You absolutely panic when it happens because you just -- I know Martin did that -- the piece, the setup piece, and talked about the five minutes. You can forget that quickly. It's just --

HOSTIN: I did.

GERAGOS: You get --

COOPER: Well, also, I mean, -- and we're going to have a woman on coming up after this panel who actually had done this and her child died. And one of the things that a reporter who we're also going to have on from the "Washington Post," who wrote about this, said is that you actually create false memories sometimes if you're really stressed, and you think you've dropped off your child or you think you've done something but in fact you haven't and the child is still in the car.

HOSTIN: No question about it.

GERAGOS: You know, this search history also gives me great pause. I've had -- I can't tell you how many cases where it's been -- something has been reported about a search history and then when you go in and you start cross-examining or take a look at it, it turns out it really wasn't a search history. When it comes to the search page, there may be those things that are at the bottom where they sponsor --

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: Sure. Pop-ups.

GERAGOS: -- links and pop-ups and things like that.

HOSTIN: Or someone else could have done it.

GERAGOS: Or someone else could have done it.

COOPER: Well, Areva, let me bring you in. I understand you're more skeptical of the father in this incident, why?

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: You know, I think there are some issues that we need to point out, Anderson, and one is that in most of these cases, these are toddlers. You know, they're infants -- let me just start over. They're infants who under 1 years old. In this case, we're talking about 22-month-old boy. At 22 months old, you're talking, you're making noise. So I have some concerns about what was going on in the car. Oftentimes, parents, we have these routines. We're singing with our child. We're engaging with our child. We're playing "I Spy". We're not just in the car quiet.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: Or they have just eaten, Areva, and they fell asleep.

MARTIN: So I want to know what was happening with the child.

GERAGOS: Areva, think about how many times --

COOPER: One at a time. One at a time.

GERAGOS: Think about how many parents I know who will actually go into the car, put their kid in the car and drive up and down the driveway to put them to sleep --

HOSTIN: So they go to sleep.

GERAGOS: Because that's the way to get them to sleep.

MARTIN: But also, in this case, what's different is this dad went back to the car a second time. It just wasn't getting in the car one time and driving that little short distance from the restaurant to work. He went back at lunch and went into that car. So I am just concerned.

COOPER: So Areva, you don't --

MARTIN: About the child in the case. Forty kids die in a year from being left in the car. Somebody has to stand up for these kids. That's too many kids dying from these incidents.

GERAGOS: I don't think that there is anybody who's saying this is a good thing or not standing up for the kids.

HOSTIN: And it happens far too often.

GERAGOS: Right. It does happen.

HOSTIN: And I think the broader discussion needs to be what do we do about this? And I've mentioned this before, when this happened to me four years, and this may not make sense to a lot of people, I drove without shoes. I put my shoes in the backseat with my children because I knew that I would never walk to work or walk anywhere barefoot. So I know I wouldn't forget my kids. So we need to talk about prevention instead of punishing --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Right. Let's also get back to the case.

Areva, you don't think that this rises to the level of felony homicide, though.

MARTIN: I think that we're talking about potential child neglect. I think we're talking about, you know, about child neglect. I think we're talking about, you know, negligence that rises to some kind of criminal negligence.

I don't think we can just dismiss this as an accident. I get very concerned about all the people that say because this is so horrific, we should ignore it. The father already has enough guilt. There are lots of crimes where people are guilty after it occurs and I'm very concerned about the kids in these cases and I think we do have to realize --

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: I want to address that, though.

MARTIN: And the obligation of parents to be responsible.

HOSTIN: I want to address that.

COOPER: OK. Just wait, wait. We don't need -- we don't need to yell. We don't need to jump on each other. Just one at a time, Sunny.

HOSTIN: I really want to address that because as a former prosecutor I know that you want to put people in jail, you do want to hold them responsible. If they can be rehabilitated or perhaps a bit of deterrent. Punishing a parent for an accident is never a deterrent. It's certainly not going to rehabilitate and no one is going to now say I'm not going to put my kid in a hot car and leave them accidently --

COOPER: So let me -- let me push back --

HOSTIN: -- because I'm going to get put in jail.

COOPER: OK. But let me push back. Calling it an accident is -- is that the right word? I mean, an accident is something that you cannot prevent. This is -- this is more than an accident.

GERAGOS: Legally --

COOPER: This is not an accident.

GERAGOS: Legally an accident can still -- you can still attach criminal liability to it. What they have charged here is an intentional act. They are not charging that it's accidental, and could be a lesser, but they are proceeding and accidents can be criminal --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Martin, they have not determined motive. I mean, that's one of the things obviously investigators are looking at.

SAVIDGE: Right, and, you know, Sunny brings up a key point, I've wondered that, too. What is the motive? Would be the motivation, if, in fact, this is some kind of murder. Who gains from that? And that hasn't been explained. But I will point out that, of course, the chief of the Cobb County Police Department put out his own message and you had it last night and that is he has apparently evidence and he has testimony that indicates to him this is more than just a tragic accident.

And what that is we don't know but it's been indicated that there is a whole lot more to this case yet to be revealed.

COOPER: Mark, you're -- I mean obviously --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Mark, you're a defense attorney obviously but you're skeptical of this. You say that a lot of this is based on the police officers' sort of perception of this man.

GERAGOS: Right, and I also take great exception to the police putting out an amorphous tainting of this guy. You know, you arrested him, fine. I understand it. Go take your case over to the DA and make your case in court. You shouldn't be putting out this kind of slanderous stuff out there into the ether. It taints the jury pool. I think that's the biggest --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: It is extraordinary, Areva, given the number of kids that this happens to each year. You know, I read that upwards -- as many as 40 kids died this way last year alone. Are there steps, I mean, Sunny had an idea of, you know, she puts her shoes in the back and therefore she's always checking in the back which is a -- you know, it's a clever simple solution.

Are there other things to prevent this from happening?

MARTIN: You know, Anderson, I don't know why the automobile manufacturers and car seat manufactures haven't figured out how to put an alarm on these car seats. You know, the car goes off if you leave the door open. The car goes off if you don't put on your seatbelt. If you don't turn on your lights. So many instances when we drive that alarms go off.

How come these cars when they stop, if a kid is in a weighted car seat, there can't be an alarm that goes off to tell the parents that there is a kid in the back of this car --

COOPER: Yes. HOSTIN: Absolutely.

MARTIN: -- that needs to be attended to. We can fix this. I don't see what -- you know, the technology as advance as it is, there should not be 40 kids dying every year --

COOPER: Yes.

MARTIN: -- from being left in hot cars.

GERAGOS: Spectacular idea.

COOPER: You know --

MARTIN: This is unacceptable.

COOPER: Again, we're having the writer from "The Washington Post" out in just a moment but in their article they actually recount a case in which a father was at work, the car alarm went off three times. He'd locked -- accidently locked his kid in the car, car alarm went off three times, and motion detector, he looked out the window from work, though, didn't see anybody bothering with his car and just automatically turned it off.

Can you imagine what that person is going through?

HOSTIN: And how remarkable is that that he, given the alarm going off, that still didn't trigger his mind.

COOPER: Yes.

HOSTIN: Still didn't trigger the memory. But let me make it clear, if it is found that he intentionally left his kid in the car, and I'm not a proponent of the death penalty --

COOPER: I know, I know. Hang them high, Hostin. I know.

HOSTIN: But this is -- this would be a death penalty case.

COOPER: All right. Areva Martin, thank you so much. Sunny as well. Martin Savidge, Mark Geragos as well.

Just -- I mean, again, it's a case that has a lot of people talking. Make sure you set your DVRs so you can watch 360 whenever you want.

Coming up next, more on prevention. You're going to meet a woman who left her child in a car. Sadly did not notice in time.

And also Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who's come to the conclusion that this can happen to anyone.

Later, Iraq, exclusive details on what life is now like in the areas held by the extremist group ISIS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: While authorities in Cobb County, Georgia, try to substantiate their claim that Justin Harris did something beyond just making a terrible, terrible mistake in the death of his 22-month-old son, we're all left to wonder how such mistakes ever happen. How could anyone forget they've got a child in the backseat? Kids after all aren't house keys or cell phones, they're beyond precious, certainly in our hearts they are.

To our brains, though, it's a different story. Seven years ago Lyn Balfour went in to work with her nine-month-old son in the car mistakenly thinking he was already with the babysitter. By the time she left work and got back to the car, it was already too late.

She's now an advocate on the subject and "Washington Post" columnist Gene Weingarten has written about Lyn and many others who have made similar terrible mistakes. His reporting earned him a Pulitzer Prize. But apologies to Gene for the editing, I want to read you a highly condensed portion of his piece from March of 2009 that you really should read in full.

"What kind of person forgets a baby?" he writes. "The wealthy do it turns out, and the poor, and the middle class. It happens to the chronically absent minded and the fanatically organized, to a dentist, to police officers, a soldier, a nurse, a mental health counselor. It happened to a pediatrician, it happened to a rocket scientist."

Gene Weingarten and Lyn Balfour join us now.

I appreciate both of you being with us.

Lyn, you were a woman who had served her country in Iraq and Bosnia. You've been awarded a Bronze Star and yet you forgot your son. And I've heard your situation described as the perfect storm. That everything that could go wrong did go wrong that day.

Can you explain that?

LYN BALFOUR, SON DIED WHILE IN CAR SEAT: Yes. Normally during the day my husband or I, one of us dropped the baby off but we only had one stop, and that was to drop the baby off. This particular week, my son had had a bad cold and he was fussy and wasn't sleeping well. Very lethargic. And I had been dropping my -- my husband off first at work and then dropping the baby off at daycare. And then on the way to work, I got a phone call.

We were honoring a fallen soldier's family -- a fallen soldier by bringing their family in for a ceremony at the JAG school here in Charlottesville. And the plane tickets had not been paid for like they were supposed to and the family was supposed to be on the flight within 20 minutes. I immediately went into work mode. I already made a stop thinking I dropped the baby off and went on into work to take care of the emergency.

Getting out of my vehicle, when I got into -- when I got to work and went on to work. And I had no child care communication system in place with my home care provider and her knowing that the baby must -- that I must have stayed home with him that day because he had been fussy and not feeling well with a bad cold, she just assumed he was with me at home. And she missed my -- I missed her call because I was dealing with the emergency in the morning around 10:30.

Then she missed my return call around 1:00 and then finally she called me back at 4:00 and asked me about how Brice was doing. And she asked me two or three times, and I had to respond what do you mean? Did Jarrett pick him up early? Not realizing that he wasn't there. And finally after the third time she's trying to explain to me, she said no, Lyn, you didn't drop him off. That's when I --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: So you had really -- you'd really created a false memory of having dropped him off?

BALFOUR: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I did it every day. It was part of my routine and because I had a change in my routine, and I had already made one stop that I didn't normally make, I thought he was already at daycare. I even remember, which is something that memory specialists now coin a misremembering, I remember dropping him off. I remember having a conversation with her that I never had.

COOPER: Wow.

BALFOUR: Because it was part of the routine every day.

COOPER: Gene, I mean, in your research on this topic, and again the article that you published in the "Washington Post" is just extraordinary and I recommend everybody -- we'll put a link to it on our Web site, because it's just -- it's incredible reading.

I mean, she formed this kind of false memory that she thought she had dropped Brice off at daycare. The father in Atlanta is apparently claiming the same thing. In your research, how common is that?

GENE WEINGARTEN, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Basically, this has been extensively looked at by neuroscientists and what seems to be the case in almost all of these cases is that this turns out to be a failure of memory, not of love, not of bad parenting. It's something that happens under a certain set of circumstances. They tend to be the same. Lyn's case was very much like this.

There is stress involved. There is a change in routine. You're not doing the things the way you usually do and it creates this horrifying hiccup of memory.

COOPER: And you wrote about, I believe, it was a father who the alarm in the car went off three times when he was at work and he just from his desk turned it off, correct?

WEINGARTEN: Absolutely.

COOPER: I mean --

WEINGARTEN: I mean he had had -- he hadn't -- he was so distant from the notion that he hadn't dropped his child off at daycare that that didn't even give him a clue. Imagine having to live with that for the rest of your life.

COOPER: It's just incredible. And -- I mean, Lyn, how do you -- I mean, I don't know how to ask this question but how do you survive something like this as a parent?

BALFOUR: Well, I will tell you that it's something that you -- it's not like the death of a child where it was an accidental death or, you know, something happened like cancer or a family member when it was your fault, it's something you live with every day and I've -- I've within the support group that other parents have formed under these circumstances, first-time parents that deal with this, I tell them straight out, it never goes away.

It will -- the pain will never go away. It never gets any less. It's something that you live with every day. You just learn to live with it, and then you try and figure out why and how it's possible and then often these parents, if they feel compelled to talk, they become advocates for educating people.

I'd like to add that, you know, I heard during the earlier discussion one person say well, this could rise to a criminal negligence, but I argue that plenty of domestic accidents happen every day, every year all across the country. A child gets out the backdoor that was supposed to be locked and accidently drowns in the pool. A child falls down their stairs and breaks their neck and dies or becomes paralyzed.

And those parents are not charged because it was an accident. But people do not understand or can't conceive, and within Gene's article, that it could ever happen to them. And I was one of those parents. I've heard of stories of this happening before my son died and I -- the first thing I said was that's an irresponsible parent because there is no way you can forget your child until it happened to me.

And when I began to look into the research and talked with, I actually found a memory specialist out of Florida, Dr. David Diamond, and started wanting to know -- more or less holding myself accountable. I managed $47 million in Iraq with every penny accounted for, I was awarded a Bronze Star for it, and I can forget my child? How is that possible?

I understand medically and understand logically how it's possible but it still doesn't mean that I don't -- I don't believe it myself, that I could actually forget him in the car.

COOPER: Sure.

And, Gene, I mean, it seems like prosecutors, it really depends on the local prosecutor, whether or not a parent is charge in a case like this.

WEINGARTEN: Yes, absolutely. In fact, in most jurisdictions, the laws are essentially the same. And in most of these cases, you have almost identical fact patterns but it turns out that roughly half the cases are prosecuted as a crime and half are -- they're dismissed as what they really are, which was a terrible, terrible accident.

COOPER: Lyn, just briefly, do you have recommendations for parents to prevent this from happening?

BALFOUR: Absolutely. One of the things that we are now educating a lot of parents, thanks to organizations and corporations like Pet Smart, provide little toys or stuffed animals that we put cards on and we tie around their neck and we give them to newborn parents, we give them to grandparents, we give them to aunts and uncles who don't have the children very often. And it has a set of rules on how to ensure that you don't accidently forget your child.

But what I learned was that when my children were born, I baby proofed my house just like everybody. You've learned, you put plastic safety devices in the electrical outlets. You put a baby gate up so they don't fall down the stairs.

COOPER: Yes.

BALFOUR: But we don't baby proof our vehicles. And outside of domestic accidents within the home, non-vehicular accidents are the highest of any other death of children.

COOPER: Right.

BALFOUR: Accidental backovers, accidental frontovers, accidental window strangulations.

COOPER: Yes.

BALFOUR: All of these things that can be prevented if we would have only known. When I became an advocate for Kids in Cars, I went to their Web site and I read all of these tips and ideas in order to make sure that my car was baby proof.

COOPER: So that at Kidsincars.com?

BALFOUR: Yes.

COOPER: All right.

BALFOUR: Kidsincars.org.

COOPER: Dot org. Kidsincars. And we'll put a link again on our Web site.

Lyn Balfour, I appreciate you being here. And Gene Weingarten, again, your reporting is just extraordinary on this.

As I mention we'll link to Gene's article on ac360.com

As always for more on the story and others you can go to CNN.com.

Up next, more breaking news. Why the stepmom of the missing boy found alive in his basement is now in custody.

And on the ground in Iraq, an exclusive look of what life is like now where ISIS is in control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A lot happening in Iraq tonight, 50 more U.S. military advisers have arrive as suicide attack today in a Shia town south of Baghdad killing 13. A separate bomb blast in the Shia area of Baghdad killing 19. As we reported, local officials say Syria is now carrying out air strikes on the border targeting ISIS.

Iraq's Prime Minister Al-Maliki said he welcomes that. CNN obtained video what life is like under ISIS in Mosul. Here is Arwa Damon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ISIS is also distributing much needed cooking gas to families, even selling it at a cheaper price than the Iraqi government used to. In a nation where the day to day basics are a necessity for survival, acts like this do garner goodwill, but ISIS is also implementing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Obligatory prayers for all and banning women from movements outside their home without a male guardian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Arwa joins me from Baghdad and in New York, Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent. So Iraqi military officials, Arwa, are claiming they have been able to make some gains today against ISIS. Is that for real? Because they seem to make a lot of claims that are hard to actually verify.

DAMON: And that is still the case, Anderson, very difficult to actually obtain accurate independent information about what is taking place on the ground. Now, according to state television, according to the government, they have managed to make sole gains in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

The government is saying that they launched air strikes and then actually air dropped special commandos into the Tikrit university premises. In all they are claiming to have killed 40 militants. When it comes to the oil refinery in Baiji, the government claiming to have control over it, but at this stage still conflicting reports about that and the front lines in the province to the west of the capital existing there.

But at this stage, the government very much seeming to want to present an image of being an entity that is under control whose security forces are actually beginning take the fight to is, to those who are fighting alongside is rather than the image portrayed thus far of an army that has abandoned weapons.

COOPER: Whether it's really happening now, we'll see. You said that the threat from these foreign fighters is unlike any jihadi threat that the United States and Western Europe faced. How so?

ALI SOUFAN, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Now in the situation between Iraq and Syria, we have 12,000 foreign fighters, most from about 81 different countries. Unlike other jihad wars that happened before, most of these people went knowing exactly who ISIS are, knowing exactly who al Qaeda affiliates --

COOPER: Not like someone went to Afghanistan pre-9/11 with some other idea.

SOUFAN: Exactly and recruited using social media tools, they have their own bubbles in social heed media. The situation in Iraq is different there are foreign fighters from England and stuff like that and both in Syria and in Iraq fighting with ISIS. The situation in Iraq is more complicated.

Because ISIS was able to build that strength in the Sunni areas because of the sectarian policies of Maliki government. Most of the Sunnis feel that they are not involved in the political process and the very first thing that need to be done in Iraq today is to bring them to the fold. Bring them to the presence of Iraq and make them feel that they are part of the future.

COOPER: That can only be done with the change of leadership in Iraq?

SOUFAN: Absolutely. Maliki is not going to be the guy to do this. Maliki won the election. His coalition political coalition won the election, but there is many different politicians in his coalition that can take over and it seems to me that he who holds significant power among the Shia, the equivalent of the pope to the Catholics indicated his willingness for Maliki to be changed.

COOPER: Arwa, in terms of life in Mosul under is, we saw a little bit in that piece but have they already, they posted new rules women can't go outside, no smoking, no drinking, no music. Have they actually started to enforce that or I've read that often, you know, there is a honeymoon period where they are consolidating gains and don't reveal themselves as they ultimately will become.

DAMON: They have begun to a little bit and you hear from people living Mosul that more and more women are wearing the full on black covering, but also interestingly, Anderson, is that they have opened these centers, certain mosques as designated centers where people can go in and repeat.

So if you're a member of the Iraqi security forces, affiliated you can go in and repent and given a piece of paper there clears you when you go out into the streets just in case you run into another member of ISIS. What they have done is taken areas where people used to go out and have fun.

The main entertainment district in Mosul, this main street that used to be filled with cafes and restaurants, now ISIS has turned into a stage where they can launch their public preaching. So they really are beginning to implement their own version of what they want to see the city become.

COOPER: Arwa Damon, appreciate it. Stay safe.

The stepmother of missing Michigan boy who was found safe last night is now in custody. The mother is in custody. The latest ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: More breaking news tonight, this time in the disappearance, a very strange, reappearance of a 12-year-old boy in Detroit. His stepmother is in custody. Charlie Bothel has been gone 11 days when he was found alive in the basement. His father, also named Charles, learning the news last night from Nancy Grace on TV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Charlie, we're getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothel --

CHARLES BOTHEL, FATHER OF MISSING CHILD: What?

GRACE: We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

BOTHEL: What?

GRACE: If you can hear me, very quickly, we're getting that right now from, from -- how could your son be alive in your basement?

BOTHEL: I have -- I have no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Bizarre to say the least. Police have talked to the boy. We're learning details about some of the physical evidence and of course, the arrest of the stepmother. Susan Candiotti is reporting on it and joins us now. What is the deal here? What happened?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what they are still trying to sort out. Police however were able to talk to and interview Charlie today and he told them what happened.

COOPER: Charlie, the child?

CANDIOTTI: Charlie, the child, that's right. This was after he was checked out at the hospital. He's OK and a child psychologist also spoke with him, as well. But now investigators are saying that because of what Charlie told them, they are making progress and they are taking that information, they are not done yet to the prosecutors to decide whether charges will be filed.

COOPER: But that basement, I understand, was searched multiple times by police.

CANDIOTTI: That's what is so strange about this. They went down there several times on different days. They found this weird contraption down there. It was either like a trap, a makeshift trap, maybe a hiding place. They don't know. A big 55 gallon drum. He was behind that as well as a dresser and boxes.

COOPER: They don't think he was there the whole time. They think this is relatively reasonable. They don't think that he could have built that contraption.

CANDIOTTI: Yes, because it's just so big it doesn't make sense, but on the other end, they are trying to figure it out. He wasn't there before. They were in the middle of a search just yesterday afternoon and in the middle of it, they won't tell me why but something they said made them stop and go back down to the basement.

COOPER: Why is the stepmother arrested? Is that known?

CANDIOTTI: You know, they are saying for now it's unrelated that a warrant was issued for her on Monday.

COOPER: They are saying it's unrelated to this?

CANDIOTTI: At this point, at this point because it's a to parole violation on a weapons charge and there was no rush to pick her up on Monday. There might be a connection, we just don't know for sure yet.

COOPER: Bizarre to say the least. Susan Candiotti, thanks very much.

Up next, a preview of our special series "The Sixties," the decade that changed the world. Tonight's focus, the fight for civil rights. This is a great episode tonight and we're joined in a moment by just a remarkable man, Congressman John Lewis, who joined Martin Luther King, and others in the fight.

He was 15 years old when he heard Martin Luther King for the first time decided he was going to get involved. I'll talk to him ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: At the top of the hour, don't miss CNN's six-part documentary, "THE SIXTIES." This week's episode focuses on the long march from segregation to civil rights. Here is a sneak peak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you can keep burning them in the present situation of segregation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I may not be able to do it, but I'll die trying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Conner has a well-known identity as one of the hardest headliners in defensive segregation. He encouraged the hiring the Klansmen on the police force.

DIANE MCWHORTER, AUTHOR, "CARRY ME HOME": He assumes he'll provide the footage they need to outrage the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The commissioner has mass arrests, police dogs to break up the demonstrations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The civil rights leader, John Lewis, was a key part of the movement and featured in this week's episode of "THE SIXTIES." The Georgia congressman joins me tonight. It's great to have you on, Congressman Lewis. I think for a lot of young Americans watching that, it's hard to imagine a world where Conner can say he died trying to uphold segregation.

Was there a moment that propelled you to join the civil rights movement? Was there a moment where you decided, I mean, you were a young man, that you decided I've got to get involved?

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: I made a decision very early to get involved in the civil rights movement. I was 15 years old in 1955. When I heard the words of Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio, when I heard about Rosa Parks and seen like Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking directly to me saying, John Lewis, you, too, can do something. You can make a contribution.

I grew up 50 miles from Montgomery and growing up there, I saw the signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored women. I didn't like it and Dr. King provided a way out for me. It was not easy. We were beaten. Yes, we were jailed and we lost some friends, lost some relatives, some colleagues, but we didn't give up. We didn't give in. We kept the faith.

COOPER: What is it like to confront hate? I mean, it's one thing to, you know, talk about it. It's one thing to kind of see hate on a massive scale, but individual hate, someone looking you in the eyes and, you know, punching you, looking you in the eyes and saying horrible things to your face, how -- what is that like?

LEWIS: Well, during the '60s, I had people who would pour hot water, hot chocolate, hot coffee on many of us. Put lighted cigarettes out in our hair or down our backs. Pull us off the stool and spit on us, but we were trained to look straight ahead and be as ordinarily and peaceful as possible.

When I was beaten on a bridge by a state trooper, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death, but I was prepared and I was ready, but to do all I could to end segregation and racial discrimination and gain the right for all of our citizens to participate in a democratic process.

COOPER: I heard you say you hope this next generation will be inspired to get in trouble, good and necessary trouble. Explain what you mean by that.

LEWIS: My mother and my father, especially my mother told me over and over again when asked about the signs that I saw growing up saying white waiting, colored waiting, white men, colored men, white women, colored women. She would say don't get in trouble. Don't get in trouble. Don't get in the way. That's the way it is.

But Martin Luther King Jr. inspired me to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. It's my hope and my prayer that the next generation of young people will stand up and speak up and speak out and confront the injustice, confront the evils that we see around us and be bold and be courageous. COOPER: It is important, I think, to have documentaries like this and to remember the stories and remember the names and remember the struggle because I mean, this was in our lifetime. This was not some distant past of America. This was -- this is, you know, the 60s, the 70s and the ramifications are still being felt.

LEWIS: Well, we have today in America come to the right to vote, the right to participate in a democratic process. Trying to make it harder, more difficult so another generation must stand up and push. I knew two of the young men and had met one of the third young men that was beaten, murdered in Mississippi, two young white men and one young black man, went out to investigate the burning of a church just 50 years ago.

And I tell young people and students all the time, these three young people didn't die in Vietnam. They didn't die in the Middle East or Eastern Europe or in Africa, they died right here in our own country. That's why it's so important for young people, for young children to understand that when they become 18 they must register. They must go out and vote in every election.

COOPER: Representative John Lewis, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you.

LEWIS: Thank you, sir.

COOPER: If you don't know what he did, you should tune in to "The Sixties," he's a hero of the movement, a remarkable man and others in the civil right movement will be focused tonight in the installment of "THE SIXTIES, THE DECADE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD" airs at 9:00 p.m. on CNN. We'll be back at 11:00 p.m. another edition of 360 and we'll be back in just a moment with "The Ridiculist."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Time now for "The Ridiculist." We're adding anyone that doesn't love older ladies. You might recall over the years especially during my reality show, we showcased some of those supposed music videos I can't believe I just did this. The music videos from various Real Housewives. Along comes a video that truly deserves our support.

We're just getting started. The song is called "Older Ladies" and in all seriousness, it is a wonderful owe to ageing and self-confidence. It was written by singer, Donna Lou Stevens and let's just say Rihanna does her thing, these ladies do theirs.

Catchy, right? A couple of things, first of all, we actually have a similar band here at CNN, a gentlemen's band, Wolf Blitzer, John King and of course, David Gergen, on drums, they are available for birthdays, weddings receptions.

In fact, they do a mean "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Secondly, that last verse was great. Not just musically, but also as a nod to one of my favorite TV moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a long, hot steamy bath with just enough water to barely cover my perky bosoms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're only going to sit in an inch of water?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Zing. Back now to the singing older ladies.

Maybe that's not love. I love this song. I love this band. At one point they use the word "hoochie coochie." One person they might want to consider adding to the group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Sally Omally. I'm proud to say I'm 50 years old and I'm not afraid to tell her real age and I like to kick, stretch and kick, 50 years old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I can't tell you, you know, there is probably not a day that goes by that I do not quote Sally Omally. I could watch that clip for the rest of my life. Congratulations to Donna Lou Stevens, anyone that doesn't love them will top the charts on "The Ridiculist."

That does it for us. We'll see you again at 11:00 p.m., another edition of 360. I hope you joins us. The CNN original series "The Sixties" starts now.