Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Pentagon Worried Over Blow Back Cuts From Debt Deal; The Hunt For D.B. Cooper; Super Committee Coming; "Let Me See You Do It": D.A. Hopes Tape Release Prompts Parole Reforms

Aired August 03, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: At this very minute, the numbers are settling on Wall Street and nerves are starting to rise. We're all over that.

Plus, who is really getting the squeeze between soldiers and students as the dirt is finally settling over this debt debate?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): The secret plan is a year in the making, but now the feds are revealing a new strategy to track down terrorists living in America. So, how do you catch a lone wolf?

They don't even know it yet, but in two weeks, 12 lawmakers will hold an extraordinary amount of power. Together, Democrats and Republicans will decide what gets cut and who gets spared.

(on camera): Would you like a seat if you could have one on this six-member committee?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly don't know the answer to that question.

BALDWIN (voice-over): A seat on the so-called super committee could become a hot one.

Plus, when this year began, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak ruled with an iron fist, but today he watched his own trial from an iron cage.

And shocking new revelations from the woman who held Jaycee Dugard captive for 18 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we talking less than 20, more than 20?

BALDWIN: Find out what Nancy Garrido did to feet her husband's sick fantasies. Sunny Hostin is on the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Welcome back, hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The debt deal is done, but if you thought the U.S. has dodged a bullet, well, not so fast. Economists are now ringing some alarm bells, warning the U.S. could fall into a new recession, even though the debt ceiling crisis is recently behind us. And those warnings have most definitely spooked investigators.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

BALDWIN: And from New York back to Washington, we go, because the bruising battle over the debt ceiling could soon blow back on the Pentagon. And as you may have heard by now, if Congress cannot agree on some new spending cuts, then automatic cuts would hit the Defense Department, cuts that could eventually total more than $700 billion.

Let's go to Barbara Starr standing by for me at the Pentagon.

And, Barbara, did the folks at the Pentagon, did they see this coming ahead of time or were they just totally taken -- surprise at the level of the cuts they could be facing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brooke, we actually just have come out of a briefing from a senior Pentagon official about all of this. And it's half and half at the moment.

Now, the initial $350 billion cut that they had expected doesn't faze them that much. They say it will be tough to achieve, there will be a lot of pain involved, but they think they can make it.

What they are worried about here is the possibility of an additional up to $500 billion cut. That's if this whole thing that Washington's now calling sequestration, if Congress can't agree, there's then this automatic trigger, $500 billion in cuts across the board.

And the officials that we just heard from are very anxious about the whole thing. They say it could lead to civilians being fired, it could lead to military people having what they call forced separation, basically being booted out of the military, so they can save that money. They don't want to upset people. They don't want to concern them, but they are so concerned that they are publicly saying they assume, maybe they hope, Congress will consider entitlement cuts and tax hikes before they get to more cuts in military spending -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: But Barbara, let's say if, because as you mention the $500 billion would come if the trigger mechanism is, in fact, enacted.

So if that happens, if they have to make those kind of cuts, does the Pentagon have any idea how they find 10 years of savings totaling all these hundreds of billions of dollars?

STARR: That's the problem, because they will try and do some of it, perhaps, by downsizing, making a smaller military force. But the big chunk of savings can only come through cutting major weapon systems, modernization, advanced technology, and cutting it at a very time when the Pentagon thinks they may need it the most. In the coming years, U.S. troops may well be out of Iraq and may be getting out of Afghanistan, but they still need to spend a lot of money modernizing the force after that 10 years of war. And there's going to be a question of whether they can even afford to do it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about recruits, though? Because I guess a question could be, will we begin promising less to them in terms of long-term benefits, and, if so, how do we get folks to volunteer for the armed forces?

STARR: Well, it's remarkable, isn't it? Just a few days ago, there was actual discussion about no guarantee that military personnel would be paid if the government went into default, a few months before that, no guarantee that military personnel would be paid if the government had to shut down in a fiscal crisis.

So, twice in just a few months, the American military facing, I think, truly unprecedented circumstances, in the last several hundred years at least, that their own leaders cannot any more guarantee them a paycheck -- that discussion on the table is really fairly remarkable. And that is going to be something, I think, a lot of young people may have in mind. They still -- those who want to join the volunteer force will. But maybe they will join it a little differently with a little more realism about Washington politics these days.

BALDWIN: Eyes wide open, I suppose.

Final question. If these cuts should ever take hold, would we see America's global military reach start to shrink?

STARR: Oh, I think that's absolutely a given. You know, even Defense Secretary Gates before he left several weeks ago started talking about the fact that you just couldn't do it all anymore, that, you know, 10 years of war, his belief was, had taught America a lesson about getting into large land wars that are going to last forever.

Osama bin Laden may be dead, al Qaeda may be set back on its heels, but you only have to look around the world these days, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, the Chinese rising threat in the Pacific, plenty of uncertainty, plenty of anxiety out there all coming at a time when there's going to be very serious questions on just what you said. How much can the U.S. military really take on? -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: This is eye-opening stuff from you, Barbara Starr. Thank you so much at the Pentagon.

STARR: Sure.

BALDWIN: CNN has learned who piqued the FBI's interest in its only unsolved hijacking case, the only unsolved case here. Coming up next, I will speak to that very person, a woman who believes her uncle is the man who hijacked that plane, collected a ransom, and leapt into the darkness, amidst this storm some 40 years ago. You don't want to miss this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It could be the break the FBI has been sent decades waiting for, a tip that could help them finally figure out one of the country's most fascinating unsolved hijackings.

An alleged relative here of the infamous now skyjacker D.B. Cooper has stepped forward. But, first, let me take you back before I speak with her. It goes all the way back to the night before Thanksgiving, 1971. A man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. He demanded and got, I should say, $200,000 in ransom.

And now 40 years after he parachuted into folklore history, made a movie after this guy, Cooper could soon be identified.

Marla Cooper joining me now by phone from Oklahoma City.

And, Marla, let me get this straight. You say D.B. Cooper was actually L.D. Cooper, who was your uncle?

MARLA COOPER, ALLEGED NIECE OF D.B. COOPER (via telephone): He was my uncle, yes.

BALDWIN: Why do you believe that?

COOPER: Well, as I stated in the interviews yesterday, I saw my uncle plotting a scheme. I was with them while they were plotting it. I didn't really know what was going on. They were teasing me. I was a little girl.

And, afterwards, on Thanksgiving Day, I saw them return. I heard them discussing what they had done with my father. And I have very vivid memories of it that have surfaced in the last -- well, they began surfacing two years ago and then they just kind of came back in a flood. And, so, I'm certain of it because of my memories. And --

BALDWIN: Well, let's be more specific, if we can, with regard to your memories. Who -- so, you were -- it was before this hijacking happened, you say you saw your uncle and who else plotting, and what were they plotting?

COOPER: It was my other uncle who was with him. Another uncle was -- was -- they were visiting my grandmother's house. It was Thanksgiving time and our family had gathered.

I believe that both of my uncles were living with my grandmother at the time. And they were, you know, drinking a lot, and they were telling me, you know, that they were going to go turkey hunting. They were putting together a duck blind I had never seen that I had never been stashed in my grandmother's garage. And they told me they were going to go turkey hunting, when they explained what that duck blind was.

And then they were laughing about it and --

BALDWIN: And then did you see him afterwards?

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Yes, I did. I saw him Thanksgiving Day, as I told the reporters yesterday, that he and my other uncle came back very early on Thanksgiving morning. And my uncle L.D. was -- was wounded.

He had blood on his shirt. He was banged up. He was really in bad shape. And I was traumatized. You know, it was frightening to see my uncle in that state. And, of course, that left a really vivid memory of mine. And then, afterwards, my father sat me down. He swore me to secrecy.

He explained that what my uncles had done could mean death for my uncle L.D. And he said, Marla, you can never speak of this. And I literally have blocked the memory of it until a couple years ago, when my mother mentioned it at her birthday party. And I -- I read about the story. My father had mentioned it to me several years ago.

And, as I read it, I started having flashbacks of that time. And for a while, I thought I was just imagining it. But, eventually, I realized I'm really -- these are real memories.

BALDWIN: Because that's an obvious question for people sitting here and they're listening to you and thinking, gosh, this was 40 years ago, and I know, you know, then you were eight. So, you're saying you blocked the memory and it never actually really came back to you until recently and that's why you're coming forward now and talking with the FBI.

COOPER: Yes, actually, it was two years ago that I initially contacted the FBI. It was several months later before they before any action was taken.

BALDWIN: I know -- well let me just jump in and say, I know we have been in touch with the FBI. Our correspondent out in Seattle, Patrick Oppmann, has been talking to the FBI, and of course, they won't comment in any ongoing investigation. But we do know that sources close to this investigation have told us here at CNN that it was your tip about your uncle that reinvigorated the FBI's investigation here.

When did you first reach out and tip off the FBI?

COOPER: Well, it was via a friend of mine and another friend of his who were fairly high-ranking law enforcement officers who had -- one of them was near retirement, the other one was retired -- and they built case file, they investigated him. They were thoroughly convinced that I was telling the truth and they went forward to the Seattle bureau with that case file. And they, the bureau, of course, there are far more important matters to be investigated by the FBI, and it took a while for them to communicate with me.

But that happened in July of last year. And I have been told by the FBI agents that I've been interviewed by the, from day one, including the proligrapher (ph) who I had about a five-hour interview with last January, that from the beginning they did believe me. Which I think that that carries a lot of weight. But they can't comment about it.

BALDWIN: No, I understand that. But I also do know that, you know, through the years and there have been 40 years here since this still unsolved hijacking happened, all these people came forward saying D.B. Cooper was my uncle, my husband, my father. If I may, the cynic in me wants to say, why should we believe you?

COOPER: Well, there are collaborating circumstances and testimonials of other people.

I didn't see my uncle after 1972, but he went on to remarry. He had a new family. He had two children. And this has all been uncovered by the FBI.

BALDWIN: Where did he live?

COOPER: I'm not at liberty to say that.

BALDWIN: When did he pass away?

COOPER: It's my understanding that he passed away in 1999.

BALDWIN: So the last time you saw your uncle was 1972?

COOPER: It was about Christmas of 1972.

BALDWIN: OK.

COOPER: He gave my mother the guitar strap --

BALDWIN: Yes, I wanted to ask you about that. You gave the FBI this guitar strap for fingerprint testing.

COOPER: Right, which the materials were not satisfactory -- I mean, it's a 40-year-old guitar strap, it's been handled over the years and they said they couldn't lift any prints from it, is what they told me.

But he had spent the year between Thanksgiving and several months I know that he was in the V.A. hospital being treated for his injuries. I believe that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder not only from the jump but before that he had been a veteran from the Korean War and , you know, my family lore is that he was never the same after being in the war and that affected his decision- making.

BALDWIN: But he lived a public life. He wasn't living in hiding?

COOPER: I don't know that it was public. He wasn't -- I searched for him on many occasions. Once the Internet was available, you know, I was curious about him. And only one of his brothers, the brother who assisted him in the hijacking had any contact with him after, after Christmas of 1972. He missed my grandmother's funeral that happened, I believe it was about 1975. He just vanished from the life that he had known before.

BALDWIN: I know that you can't comment specifically on this FBI investigation. I know the FBI can't either. But can you give me a timeline when they may know definitively, based upon evidence that they have and you provided if, in fact, this man, was your uncle D.B. Cooper?

COOPER: They may never be able to prove it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Really?

COOPER: In order to prove it they have to place him on the plane. He has been gone since 1999, to find a fingerprint of his that's still in existence would be really hard to do. The FBI told me that there were no fingerprints as part of his military record.

He had been arrested once for some minor -- I don't know what it was he had been arrested for at some point a long time ago, and there were no fingerprints with that.

And unless his wife, his widow has something of his, possibly his letter working tools because he was pretty --

BALDWIN: A calligrapher.

COOPER: Yes, he was -- well, he was quite a leather worker. He crafted many things besides that guitar strap of my mother's. So maybe his leather-working tools are there. I know the FBI is going back to his widow to see if there's anything that has a fingerprint that they could --

BALDWIN: Have you been in touch with his widow? Do you know her?

COOPER: No, I never met her.

BALDWIN: OK.

COOPER: I have never met her, and I informed the FBI that I intended to speak with when they were at a dead end. Well, it wasn't really a dead end, they needed to go back and talk to her.

BALDWIN: They may never know definitively if this man is your uncle because, as you said, they have to place him on the plane. It is fascinating, nonetheless. Many, many people know D.B. Cooper's story.

Marla Cooper, I thank you so much for all your time for calling in. Let us know what happens.

COOPER: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

COOPER: Bye-bye.

BALDWIN: Wow.

Just ahead, scores of people around the world charged in a major child pornography bust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Dreamboard's members allegedly traded graphic images and videos of adults molesting young children, often violently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Attorney General Eric Holder says there were rules for membership in this sick club and the rules will turn your stomach.

Also, bomb techs work to save a teenage girl locked in a house with what police call an elaborate and sophisticated device. The resolution to this hours long ordeal coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's take you back to Washington and go to Lisa Desjardins with the latest news fresh off the Political Ticker.

Lisa D., to you.

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN RADIO CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, what's up, Brooke?

All right, let's start with the president. Obviously, empty here at the Capitol and August when Washington gets out of town, everybody gets out of town. The president also, we learned, he's going on a bus tour starting in a week and a half to the Midwest. Don't have any details yet where he's going, what he's talking about.

But you know, Brooke, I looked it up and exactly four years ago on August 15th and 16th of 2007, that's when this same president was saying that he could better unite the country then his rival then, which was of course Hillary Clinton. Well, expect this bus tour him to be focusing more on Republicans and not Democrats.

How about those Republicans, though? They're also hitting the public. We have got Michele Bachmann with her third TV ad of her presidential campaign. And it's interesting, Brooke, she's talking about the national debt and vigorously defending her vote not to raise the debt ceiling. She's serious about the balance budget amendment and in her words she says, "I mean it and you can believe it." We can expect this debt debate to be a big part of this presidential campaign the entire year.

And there you see Michele Bachmann right there. Interesting she is speaking in Ames, Iowa. They've got a pretty big poll coming up that Michele Bachmann hopes to win resoundingly.

On that national debt topic, a lot of folks might still have headaches or feel politically hung over from the debt debate, right? So we want to tell folks, we actually have a debt deal cheat sheet that we put up on the Political Ticker. Go to CNN.com, search for "debt deal cheat sheet."

It's also on my website, it's CNN.com/AmericanSauce, that's our podcast where we get into what's really going on with, believe it or not, none of the blame game sound bites.

So check both of those things out -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Very refreshing, as you are. It's so empty behind you. I'm sure driving on Rock Creek Parkway now will be very nice for the next five weeks there in D.C.

DESJARDINS: Great parking spots up here.

BALDWIN: Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

And now to this image, take a look at this. Ah, how the mighty have fallen. Hosni Mubarak caged and on a stretcher. Still to come, we're going to take you live to Cairo where the ousted Egyptian leader was wheeled into this courtroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If it's interesting and it's happening right now you're about to see it -- "Rapid Fire."

Let's go, beginning in Africa, Somalia. Three more regions of the country have flipped into famine, this according to the United Nations now. That includes the capital Mogadishu. These are scenes from a feeding center there today. In June, the U.N. issued a famine declaration for two districts of southern Somalia, the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab has hindered relief efforts there.

And a major online child porn ring busted. Just a couple hours ago, Attorney General Eric Holder announced 72 people are charged in several countries, 52 of them charged in custody here in the U.S., 10 more charged abroad. All of this following the investigation launched back in 2009 into a members-only online message board. Our attorney general says it promoted pedophilia and sexual abuse of young children, members were required to post pictures of children being abused.

An Australian teenager is recovering at this hour after she spent just about ten hours trapped in her family's home today. Police say she was attached to a very elaborate, sophisticated device, though they have not confirmed whether or not it was a bomb. But as technicians worked to free this 18-year-old, police evacuated other homes in this wealthy Sydney neighborhood. And according to Australian newspapers, the young woman called to report someone breaking in, putting this device on her and then leaving a ransom note.

Here's an update for you today on the death of 11-year-old Celina Cass, the New Hampshire girl whose body was found in the Connecticut River over the weekend. Investigators are calling Celina's death suspicious. Earlier this morning, they hauled off a silver pickup truck parked near the girl's home. Not clear who owns this truck. Also, CNN affiliate WBZ is quoting sources saying Celina's body was wrapped in a blanket when it was discovered in a river -- I should say it was discovered Monday.

And it's been a year in the making, but the White House revealing its new strategy to fight homegrown terror. The solution here? Local communities are best equipped to tackle extremism, including the threat of lone wolves. Though the feds are promising to provide more support. The details are pretty generic, but the report does highlight growing fears that terrorists are targeting Americans online.

Just ahead, Congress fails to act with thousands of jobs and billions of dollars hanging in the balance. I'm not talking about the debt ceiling this time. Thousands of FAA employees, they're not getting paid. Construction projects, they're getting put on hold. And lawmakers, they're on vacation. Wonder if they're flying.

Also this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got kids and grandkids coming up and we're going to need this water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A desperate situation in this small town. Down to its final drops of water. Next, why their dire situation could get worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The FAA fails to get funding, and that leaves thousands of people without jobs. Also, a former leader goes on trial behind bars. And sweltering heat bears down on much of the country. Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

And Ted Rowlands, let's begin with you in Chicago at O'Hare Airport for more on this FAA related work stoppage. Ted, Congress is on vacation now for a couple weeks without passing this FAA funding bill. Were these workers here expecting to be out of a job for as long as a month?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely not. We talked to one FAA employee who said, you know, he figured maybe it would take them an extra day or two and they might be out of work for a day, maybe two days. He was shocked that they actually went on vacation and left for a month, possibly for a month, hopefully they'll come back without tending to this (ph). He and thousands of other people absolutely shocked to be sitting at home today instead of going to work and not collecting a paycheck.

BALDWIN: FAA inspectors, a lot of these construction workers on the airport projects. Wow, Ted Rowlands, thank you very much. Next here on "Reporter Roulette," Chad Myers talking - let me guess -- heat. We talked about where, what was it Robert Lee, Texas. One percent of the water supply remaining.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's it.

BALDWIN: One percent.

MYERS: He said you could take a three-minute shower. I was thinking more like 30 seconds.

BALDWIN: And then take that shower water and water your plants, reuse it somehow.

MYERS: That's what the lake looks like that they're using to drink out of. It's literally that bad.

Other towns were actually taking water from there and stopped -- thank goodness because that lake is almost gone. It is 114 degrees right now in Ft. Smith. 114! That's not heat index. That's just, that's the temperature in the shade - oh, that's an all-time record. Ft. Smith all the way over to Little Rock. 114 to 113, and feels like 118 in Memphis.

BALDWIN: Show me the map.

MYERS: It just doesn't stop.

BALDWIN: Show me these numbers, Chad Myers.

MYERS: It doesn't stop. It just keeps going. When will the temperature just finally cool off? I am thinking maybe we need a tropical storm or something to break this. Ft. Smith, 113 yesterday. 114 today. Now, I expect Phoenix to be hot and I expect Kansas to be hot. But still, 113.

And remember, weather service takes the temperature in the shade. It has to be in the shade for the temps to be real. Can't just stand out there in the sunshine with a thermometer and hope that is the number. That is not.

There's little boxes in the shade, and that's 110 and Little Rock for the high today, they broke that. Forecast was 110; they are 113. When you break the record, boy, I tell you what, that is a brutal day.

One more thing we want to talk about is Emily. It's not over yet. Emily is a tropical system south of Santa Domingo and right through Haiti and Port-au-Prince for tomorrow. And that could cause major flooding, and I know it looks like the storm misses the U.S. but let me tell you, Miami and Key West and all the way up even into the Carolinas, you're still in the cone. Some computers have it as a 100- mile-per-hour storm as it makes a run in Florida in three days. Don't tune away from that one, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Texas needs Emily. Texas needs Emily. Chad, thank you very much. Finally here on "Reporter Roulette," Fred Pleitgen. He is live for me in Cairo where ousted president Hosni Mubarak is in trial - on trial, I should say. And Fred, we saw these stunning images of Mubarak and also his sons, his codefendants, in a cage. Can you explain why? Here's the image. Why were they in the cage and what is the reaction like among Egyptians?

FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke. Actually, that's standard procedure here in criminal cases in Egypt that you have that very heavy black metal cage for the defendants to be in. And it's really a security precaution for their safety more than anything else in case anyone inside the courtroom tries to attack them.

In this case, of course, there are a lot of people angry at Hosni Mubarak and his two sons. But also one of the other defendants who was on trial which is the former interior minister here in this country. So, that's sort of a standard operating procedure here inside the Egyptian judicial system.

Now, as far as the mood is concerned here, obviously, this is the biggest news of the day by far. A lot of people, I can tell you, were quite shocked to see the way Hosni Mubarak looked when we brought him in that courtroom. I was in the courtroom myself. I talked to some of the lawyers in there ,and they said they were shocked to see him so frail, so weak and the one time that he did speak they also said that his voice sounded very weak, as well.

Certainly, this is something that people are talking about. No matter which side of the equation you're on, just this whole demeanor of Hosni Mubarak is something that many people found quite shocking, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Shocking and if they didn't believe it, there he was in that hospital bed. Heart problems, right, Fred? Heart problems. Fred Pleitgen in Cairo. Fred, thank you so much.

And in two weeks' time, a dozen lawmakers will hold incredible power. Deciding what gets cut and who gets spared. Coming up next, find out why the hottest ticket in Washington could actually be a seat on the so-called super-committee, and why there's no turning back once they made their decision. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's look ahead, "In Depth."

Get ready to hear a lot about the super-committee. You know now what I'm talking about here? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, minority leader Mitch McConnell, House speaker John Boehner and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi each get to pick three lawmakers. So, three times four, you have 12. Twelve people to try to reach this agreement to cut the national debt by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. It's all part of the debt reduction agreement that the president just signed off on. Now, not that anyone asked him, but we are reading today that Senator Bill Nelson, the Oklahoma Democrat, has taken himself out of the running. So, he will not be serving. But just this past Monday, perhaps you were watching, I asked Mike Crapo, member of the Senate Gang of Six whether he would have any interest in sitting on this super-committee. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE CRAPO (R), IDAHO: I've wondered myself. I honestly don't know the answer to that question as to whether I would really love the opportunity or not to serve on this committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, he wasn't so sure. Joining me now from Washington, political blogger, friend of the show Craig Crawford. Craig, good to see you.

Look, a lot of money at stake here. A cool trillion or so, trillion and some change. I have a hard time believing they won't find members of Congress wanting to fill this committee, correct?

CRAIG CRAWFORD, POLITICAL BLOGGER: Well, one advantage is, they'll get a lot of contributions from lobbyists who will be working to their advantage.

But, seriously, I think a lot of people are not lining up for it. I mean, who wants to do this on their summer vacation, right, for one thing. And it's going to be a thankless task. Probably whatever they come up with, nobody will like, even if they vote for it.

BALDWIN: Well, let's talk about what they could come up with, or I guess how. Let's talk strategy, Craig Crawford.

So, if you're one of these people in charge as we just mentioned these four men and women in charge of picking this super-committee, who do you name? Do you name the three biggest hard heads they know, or do you know folks who like the word compromise?

CRAWFORD: Yes I've been around here for 25 years. I have seen a lot of these committees and commissions, and very often what happens the leaders pick people to put on the committees who will not get anything done. I've seen that happen, where they don't actually want the committee to do anything. So, they put people on their design.

And usually, that's putting very partisan people on there. In this case, for Republicans, people who aren't going to agree to any tax increases of any kind. And Democrats appointing people who will not agree to any entitlement reforms of any kind. If that happens, then the committee might not get anything done, and that's a real possibility that they don't do anything --

BALDWIN: And trigger mechanisms.

CRAWFORD: And the automatic cuts -- and the automatic cuts that would be triggered are not as real as they look. They wouldn't start until after the next election and be spread out over eight years and entitlements like Medicare and Social Security benefits are exempt on those automatic triggers. So, in other words, even if the committee fails, not a whole lot happens. It's all that painful and that Congress can't change.

BALDWIN: So, let me just get this straight then. Let's see if the super committee agrees to this great big debt reduction package and let's say Congress approves it. So, a future Congress could come in and just unravel the whole thing? Is that what I'm hearing?

CRAWFORD: Yes. I've seen this many times in the '80s and '90s. They've tried this reduction over and over again. Trying to impose cuts that would be automatically triggered later on they just disappeared somehow.

I mean, these things are as full of holes as my mom's crochet blankets and this one is such a case. You know, the last time I saw a commission like this or a committee like this get anything really done is when Congress actually passed what they proposed was going back to 1983 with the social security reforms when they raised payroll taxes to make it solvent.

Both Reagan and Tip O'Neill, the House speaker agreed to that. It was a bipartisan deal and it came out of a commission that Alan Greenspan chaired. That's the last time I remember anything --

BALDWIN: In '83?

CRAWFORD: In '83. Last time I've seen anything major done like this.

BALDWIN: So the suspense, it's killing those people who are very into politics and want to know exactly who will these 12 will be. Who do you think, when do you think we'll know who will be seated on the Super Committee?

CRAWFORD: Well, I think Ryan will get on there from the Republicans who proposed privatizing Medicare and the head of the Budget Committee. I imagine a lot of the heads of the big committees on both the Senate and the House will be front and center.

BALDWIN: Do you think Paul Ryan is a lock?

CRAWFORD: I think that would aggravate the Democrats to no end and make it harder to get compromise because he is uncompromising and he is the poster kid on Capitol Hill for privatizing Medicare, which is the most out there idea I've seen even though the House passed it.

That will cause a lot of friction with Democrats something like that. If they each try to appoint some moderates who are compromises, who are known for it.

You know, even John McCain would be an example of somebody who I think in the past has worked across the aisle. That will tell us a lot about where it is going who they pick as you know. BALDWIN: Exactly, Craig Crawford, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

CRAWFORD: Loved that Willie Nelson interview yesterday.

BALDWIN: Thank you. He was awesome to call in from Mozulla, Montana.

CRAWFORD: That was great.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up here, birds of a feather, they flock together. But this one decided to strike out all on its own. Find out why the zookeeper plan to bring him home was all about nothing. He likes Park Avenue, instead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You got to see this here. This is no ordinary sight on Highway 101. Take a look closely at this video. What is it? It's a whale in the Clamouth River.

The I-Reporter who shot this video says he pulled over on the Clamouth River Bridge when he noticed a bunch of people looking on, but it was expecting to see salmon, maybe a bear.

Look at this thing. It's huge. It was a whale stuck in the fresh waters near California's coastline and concerned neighbors have been keeping an eye on this whale. Scientists from U.C. Davis have been on the river collecting breath samples from her spray.

And who cares why the chicken crossed the road. In fact, what everyone wants to know is how and why the peacock escaped the zoo. Real New Yorkers know it's all about location, location, location in the big apple. The proof, here he is or she.

Even the Central Park zoo peacock knows that. Yesterday the real estate savvy peacock escaped the zoo to move on up to a luxury condo. Of course, there on the beautiful east side of the island of Manhattan.

Wasted no time perching itself on a fifth floor window ledge much to the delight of these crowds snapping pictures below. Zookeepers apparently weren't worried, though. They knew the bird would fly back to the proverbial coop this morning after a night on the town.

From that we go to Wolf Blitzer with a look at what's coming up next on "THE SITUATION ROOM" as you mentioned before you have Senator Hatch coming up on the show.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Orrin Hatch. He blocked the compromise yesterday that would have kept the FAA sort of in business right now and, of course, the FAA for all practical purposes out of business. It affects 4,000 workers immediately. About tens of thousands of construction workers have now been furloughed for all practical purposes costing U.S. taxpayers about $200 million a week. If Congress stays in recess until after Labor Day, that could be another five weeks and that could be a billion, $1 billion.

So, I'm talking to Senator Hatch and asking him why he didn't accept that last-minute compromise that could have averted this. He's got his explanation. We'll hear another explanation. We'll hear that as well.

The president was pretty out raged when he held a meeting with his cabinet today before heading off for Chicago. He was pretty upset about this. A lot of people are outraged. It's crazy to say what 10, 20, $30 million for some small airports out there, rural airports could cost American taxpayers a billion dollars.

Think about that, Brooke, what we could be doing with $1 billion with all sorts of projects and maybe just use that money to reduce the national debt. A billion here and a billion there, after all, you're talking real money.

BALDWIN: All this talk of saving money. I was reading that some of these workers are actually being asked to use their own personal credit cards simply because they can't get their money right from their bosses.

BLITZER: Hopefully they'll be reimbursed. Some of them live paycheck to paycheck and they don't have a lot of extra cash to go on flights and spend nights at hotels. It's not an easy situation.

BALDWIN: We'll look forward to your interview then. Wolf Blitzer, we'll see you in a matter of minutes.

BLITZER: You can tell I'm a little bit upset about this.

BALDWIN: I am, as well, Wolf. Thank you so much. Now this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many are we talking about? You getting the kids in the van and actually doing a face-to-face taping as opposed to out in the park? Are we talking less than 20, more than 20?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Speaking of feeling outraged, a wife helping to feed her husband's sick fantasies. Shocker new revelations of the couple convicted of keeping Jaycee Dugard in their backyard for 18 years.

Coming up next, these disturbing videos that are coming out and why the behavior you are about to see could be happening in your neighborhood. Sunny Hostin is on the case. She's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Disturbing videos are surfacing of one of Jaycee Dugard's kidnappers luring this little girl into a van and taping her doing splits. The video was released by the district attorney who helped to put Phillip and Nancy Garrido in prison for a very long time.

He hopes it would bring changes in the California parole system. And before I bring Sunny Hostin in, I want you to listen to this exchange. Nancy Garrido encourages this little girl to do splits.

The video is frozen and blurred. This is by the D.A.'s office. We have discussed the girl's voice simply for the sake of her own privacy, but listen closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's it. Can you go all the way down? I bet you can go down really easy. Yes, that is easy. Let me see you do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: During police interrogation, Nancy Garrido admitted making tapes likes the one you just heard for her husband's pleasure on several occasions. Here's another one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many instances are we talking about you getting the kids in the van and actually doing a face-to-face taping as opposed to out in the park? Are we talking less than 20, more than 20?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's got to be less than 20.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somewhere between 10 and 20?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe somewhere in there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe or maybe less. Maybe just ten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This video is part of a report that is detailing the parole oversight of Phillip Garrido. Sunny Hostin is on the case. Sunny, let me just first say this is disgusting. Some of these videos were made two years after Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped.

So the huge question is, the D.A., part of the reason why he's putting the video out, how could the couple fly under their division radar for so long?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, the parole board really botched this entire case up. I mean, there's no question about it. As you mentioned, this is 162-page report and it outlines dozens of opportunities that parole officers had to catch, you know, these people and to detect Dugard because she was held for 18 years.

I think what is fascinating about it is that he had dozens of parole violations, but they never returned him to prison, Brooke. He tried while he worked at a nursing home to get co-workers to buy his drugs. He had positive drugs for a methamphetamine.

He submitted watered down urine samples. He used fake Mountain Dew to submit, you know, these drug tests, urine samples so it's really just unbelievable that this was almost a botched effort just wholesale. They messed up at every single turn.

What is really fascinating to me is that he had received a 50- year prison sentence, but was released in 11 years. I think that is really one of the problems that the report outlines is that parole boards don't have the authority to keep these offenders. These vicious sexual predators behind bars and that's really, I think, where we need to start in terms of legislation.

BALDWIN: That would be one change. Quickly here, if this could be happening there, this could be happening in other states.

HOSTIN: Well, there's no question about it. I mean, this parole system certainly needs to be overhauled. There have been not only reports in California, but done across the country outlining a lot of the problems with the parole system. So I hope this case, in particular, Brooke, because it's so egregious --

BALDWIN: Brings to light --

HOSTIN: -- would lead to parole reform.

BALDWIN: Reform, reform, Sunny Hostin, thank you very much and thank you so much for watching. Now to "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer.