Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Alligator Anxiety in Florida; Organ Donor Died from Poor Medical Treatment; Great Pressure on U.S. Marines in Iraq

Aired June 03, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now in the news, in Canada 17 people now under arrest on terrorism charges. They're accused of plotting to carry out a series of bombings in southern Ontario. The suspects include a dozen adults and five young people. And during a speech in Ottawa just a few minutes ago, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, talked about the arrests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HARPER, CANADA PRIME MINISTER: Dangerous world. We cannot walk away from it. Today, Canadians have learned that the RCMP and Toronto Area Police, with the help of CSIS and our intelligence community, have arrested 17 individuals for terrorism offenses under the Criminal Code. Their target -- they're alleged target was Canada, Canadian institutions, the Canadian economy, the Canadian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Another bloody day in Iraq. A bomb went off at a crowded outdoor market in the southern city of Basra. The latest reports say 33 people are dead and 55 wounded.

Police in Indianapolis are urging a mass murder suspect to turn himself in. They're looking for 28 year old Desmond Turner. Seven family members were killed during an apparent home invasion in Indianapolis.

In Baghdad, a Russian diplomat shot to death and four others taken hostage. It happened this morning on a Baghdad street when gunmen attacked a car carrying the Russian diplomat.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Your next update is coming up at 2:45 Eastern.

Did U.S. Marines kill 24 unarmed civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha? It will be weeks before investigations are complete, but a month before the alleged incident, our Arwa Damon was with that Marine battalion. In a story that first aired on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," she looks back at the dangers and the tensions in western Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was not until I went back months later and looked again at the video you're watching now that it hit me. I was with the Marines in Haditha a month before the alleged killings last November, with the same battalion that's under investigation: the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.

It was on its third tour of duty in Iraq, having lost 30 of its members on its previous deployment during the battle of Fallujah. What I remember most are the IEDs, the roadside bombs. On the way to the operation, the Humvee that I was in was hit by an IED. If it had hit another two inches back, we would have all been dead.

The city of Haditha seemed to be a mine field of IEDs, daisy- chained up and down the main road, buried on street corners. In fact, the number of times that we were told we were standing right on top of an IED minutes before it was found turned into a dark joke between the Marines and our CNN team. It was our way of coping.

The Iraqis here were wary, not unfriendly, but keeping their distance, watching behind closed doors as Marines searched their city. It was not the first time they had seen the Marines operate here.

I have been on countless operations up and down the Euphrates River Valley with other Marine battalions, going into cities and towns where closed doors sometimes were rigged with IEDs, or had an insurgent waiting with an AK-47, or a frightened family.

And it's a split-second decision to fire or not. The wrong decision could mean a dead Marine or a dead innocent civilian. How they didn't pull the trigger at the first movement they saw sometimes, I don't know, but I did not see that happen.

I have been pinned down on rooftops with them for hours, taking incoming fire, and seen them not fire a shot back, because they had not positively identified a shooter. In this case, they thought they had a positive I.D. and fired a tank round. Wounded civilians streamed out. The Marines seemed horrified and rushed to help.

I was not in Haditha for the killings now under investigation, but given the restraint I saw on so many operations, I found myself asking, could it really be true? Could there have been intentional killings of civilians? I don't know.

Arwa Damon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that story comes to us from "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Join Paula weeknights at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

Well, five days after she was wounded in a Baghdad car bombing, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier remains in critical but stable condition in Landstuhl, Germany. The network says she could be back in the United States as early as tomorrow. Dozier suffered wounds to her head and legs in Monday's bombing. Her British cameraman and sound man were killed along with an American soldier and an Iraqi translator. The public sides with the FBI, big time. An ABC poll says 86 percent of Americans support the agency's raid on a congressional office. The man under investigation, Louisiana's William Jefferson is a Democrat, but even Republicans are denouncing the FBI's tactics as unconstitutional. They called in scholarly experts this week for support.

Here now is national correspondent Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do you do when the nation's capital is nearly empty and the media are desperate for news? You hold a hearing with anybody who's left, that's what. The issue doesn't even need to be sexy. Rehashing debate over the FBI's recent nighttime raid on Congressman William Jefferson's office certainly is not sexy. But no matter.

PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: To put it bluntly, the president did not prove to be a good constitutional neighbor.

FRANKEN: It was definitely not a good day in the neighborhood office of a congressman accused of accepting kickbacks. He's denied the allegations.

PROF. CHARLES TIEFER, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE LAW SCHOOL: Now this raid had all the elements of unconstitutional executive intimidation.

FRANKEN: Intimidation. That's what the Constitution's authors were concerned about. They were mindful of the raid King Charles I ordered on parliament in 1642 that started the British civil wars. Nothing quite so severe seems to be in the works this time around.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The intelligence activities I authorized are lawful.

FRANKEN: But many critics charge this Congress has been intimidated by President Bush for years.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: There are many other areas where this executive branch has exerted their authority and I think overstepped their bounds.

FRANKEN: Many in Congress complain, for instance, the administration never bothered with adequate consultation over national security matters like the Dubai ports deal and electronic surveillance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house will be in order.

FRANKEN: Of course, the power struggle between the two branches is nothing new. President Clinton was impeached for his activities with Monica Lewinsky. President Johnson was accused of deceiving Congress into passing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that led to a massive commitment to the Vietnam War. Fast forward to 2006 and the FBI raid on a congressman's office.

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Nobody called up and said this is going to happen. The White House was informed after the process had begun.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI), HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: I want to have Attorney General Gonzales and FBI Director Mueller up here to tell us how they reached the conclusion that they did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Bob Franken reporting for "AMERICAN MORNING." And make sure to join Soledad and Miles weekday mornings, bright and early, 6:00 a.m. Eastern.

And as you heard in Bob's story, critics in Congress maintained during a Judiciary Committee hearing the raid was unconstitutional. So what now? Let's see what our legal experts have to say. Avery Friedman is a civil rights attorney and law professor, and joining us, for once, from Atlanta ...

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Wonderful to be here.

WHITFIELD: .. and Richard Herman -- oh, don't shake your head. It's going to hurt your neck one of these days, right?

HERMAN: Trying to get that edge. Always trying to get the edge, Avery.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: There is no edge. There's no edge.

WHITFIELD: There is no edge. This worked out very convenient, but because you have home court advantage here, Avery, I want to begin with you. So this is the first time to have this kind of raid with a city lawmaker's office, a first to have this kind of hearing. What could possibly be resolved from this?

FRIEDMAN: Well, nothing.

WHITFIELD: From the hearing.

FRIEDMAN: From the hearing, it's interesting because all the panelists, all four, said it kind of sounds like it's unconstitutional, but nobody really said it, and the reason is that it probably isn't unconstitutional.

The difficulty here is that they took the hard drive from Congressman Jefferson's office and what's on that hard drive may be something the FBI is not entitled to. So the bottom line is everybody's sort of danced during the hearing, and we still are ready to hear what the FBI director and what the attorney general has to say.

WHITFIELD: All right. And nobody's going to hear anything about what's on that hard drive or anything else that was confiscated because of this 45-day period where the White House has managed to get it sealed.

So you have to wonder then, Richard, with this 45-day, I guess, waiting period, does this mean that no way could there be another raid of this sort to happen in the next 45 days involving a congressional office or anyone on Capitol Hill while this waits out? No protection?

HERMAN: I don't think so, Fred, and I agree -- I agree with Avery. I think it is constitutional, it's great that the American people can see when the FBI comes in how they just take everything because I've got plenty of clients that would make these complaints about what's seized when their homes and their offices are seized.

But in any event, in this case, you must understand that Congressman Jefferson has been under investigation for well over a year, subpoenas have been issued to him last August which he's just decided not to comply with. His house has been raided, his office has been raided, and finally, the FBI went into his congressional office. So what? Big deal. They've got videotape on this guy in a bribe situation taking $100,000, they found $90,000 and a bag of cash in his freezer. The case is pretty substantial against him and just because he's a congressman is not going to be allowed to cloak himself with some sort of invinceability from the crimes.

FRIEDMAN: That's not the right argument. To me I think that the question becomes whether or not the respect of restraint between the two branches of government --

WHITFIELD: It's still the separation of powers at issue here.

FRIEDMAN: Exactly right. And to me there has to be -- that has to be honored. I mean this wasn't overreaching. The question is was the overreaching unconstitutional, and where Richard and I agree that it does not appear to be so.

WHITFIELD: A lot of things yet to be resolved in this case before we really get to the bottom of it. There's so many splintering issues here. Avery Friedman good to see you here in Atlanta.

FRIEDMAN: Wonderful to be here.

WHITFIELD: And Richard Herman good to see you too. Even though you're from New York, right?

HERMAN: Fred, I'm coming to Atlanta, soon.

WHITFIELD: I can't keep up with you. It's either the beach in Florida, Las Vegas, whatever.

HERMAN: You were away for a couple weeks there, we missed you too.

WHITFIELD: And I missed you guys too, and I'm glad we're all back together again even with a few miles apart. Thanks so much, gentlemen.

Giving the gift of life can be a pretty wonderful thing, but what happens when organ donations goes wrong? That story straight ahead you're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now in the news at 45 past the hour an apparent suicide attack on a crowded Basra market kills 33 Iraqis today. The explosion happened during the market's busiest time of day. It mangled several cars and a motorcycle.

Police in Toronto questioned 17 terror suspects. They describe the group as inspired by al Quada. Police say the suspects planned to attack Canadian targets with a fertilizer bomb. They say it would have been similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used in Oklahoma City, only bigger.

A police raid in a house in Indianapolis today and apparently they even lobbed tear gas in the urgent search for this man, 28 year old Desmond Turner. He wasn't inside. Police call Turner their chief suspect in the deaths of seven family members Thursday. His alleged accomplice is in custody.

President Bush is urging the Senate to approve a Constitutional ban on guy marriage. Lawmakers take up the measure next week. It is given little chance of passage, however. Critics accuse the president of trying to appease his right wing base to boost his approval ratings. We update the top stories every 15 minutes here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

Every hour patients needing organ transplants pray their pagers will go off. Every day some people decide to donate their organs. On good days these surgeries go smoothly. Elizabeth Cohen reports on one bad day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Who was looking out for your husband?

RHONDA BOONE, WIDOW: Me. No one was looking out for my husband except for me.

COHEN (voice-over): Danny Boone was 41 when he gave a section of his liver to his brother, who would have died without it. A liver donation is far riskier than kidney donation. According to the federal government's Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, up to one-third of donors suffer complications. Immediately after the surgery, Rhonda Boone noticed something was very wrong.

BOONE: When I took one look at him, he didn't even look like a human being. He was swollen from his head to his toes. He was unrecognizable.

The first words I said to the nurse that was taking care of him, I said do all of the transplant patients look this way? She said I don't know. This is the first time I've ever taken care of one. I thought, oh, no. That's not a good sign. And let me tell you, it went from bad to worse right there. COHEN: Danny was in liver failure. And ironically, he now needed a liver transplant. Over the course of three weeks, surgeons operated on him five more times.

BOONE: By the time they put him on the transplant list to receive the liver transplant himself, it was the day before he died. And it was only a token.

COHEN: Danny Boone died July 16, 1999. What his widow learned later made her furious.

BOONE: My husband's death was very preventable, very preventable. Post-op care was horrible. It was a nightmare. The list of complications Danny suffered are so numerous.

COHEN: An expert testified that based on medical records, too much of Danny's liver was removed. What's more, before the surgery, his doctors knew he had a condition called celiac stenosis, which restricts the blood flow to the liver. Rhonda says his doctors brushed it aside.

BOONE: Danny was told that would be no problem.

COHEN: The doctors from the hospital where Danny had his surgery declined to be interviewed for this story. They settled out of court with Rhonda. She and her son, Justin, now live on a farm in Boone, North Carolina.

BOONE: There's a lot of things that happened from the time you're 15 until you're 21 that you need your father for. And Justin didn't have that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can see more of Elizabeth's report coming up on "CNN PRESENTS: Body Parts," Saturday and Sunday night at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 central.

Time now for "Going Global." A double whammy for Indonesia's earthquake survivors, aftershocks rattled the region overnight and today Mt. Marapi, the volcano is spewing lava and hot clouds. Fear is spreading in the region just one week after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck, killing more than 6,200 people. Some 30,000 people were injured.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair visits the Pope at The Vatican. A spokesman says two agreed on the importance of dialogue between faiths and cultures to tackle terrorism. It was Mr. Blair's first meeting with Pope Benedict since he became pontiff.

And these unlikely best friends may soon be separated. A baby hippo rescued from the Southeast Asian tsunami two years ago has formed a friendship with a 100 year old giant tortoise at a park in Kenya. Well they are true celebrities now, but authorities are planning to introduce Owen, the hippo, to a grown-up female hippo at the park, because Owen is growing up too fast. They're worried he could accidentally hurt his old buddy.

Gators gone wild. There's a severe case of alligator anxiety in Florida. Closer look at what lurking in the waters coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, cuff him, Danno or tape him. This baby gator got arrested in Coral Gables, Florida. He showed up invited at the front door of an unhappy homeowner. Wildlife workers will take the reptile to the Everglades, of course they will untape it before setting it on its merry way .

In Florida it is a pretty serious story. It's pretty dangerous out there in the water. Recently three women were killed by alligators in one week. CNN's John Zarrella looks at what's being done to prevent more attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Not in his 20- plus years of rounding up alligators had Todd Hardwick ever caught one so big, 11.5 feet, more than 600 pounds. The gator trapper called in a tow truck to hoist the writhing beast on to a flatbed.

TODD HARDWICK, ALLIGATOR TRAPPER: He got me good, didn't he?

ZARRELLA: In the wake of three fatal gator attacks on women in Florida, this one killed a jogger west of Ft. Lauderdale, gator trappers have been busier than ever before. Trappers are getting calls nonstop from people spotting gators in backyard lakes and along canals. They're targeting the biggest ones first. The recent attacks have brought on a frenzy of public awareness and a degree of alligator anxiety. But experts say they're really isn't anything different between this and past years.

HARDWICK: Everything that we're experiencing right now has happened before, except for three fatalities in less than a week.

ZARRELLA: During Florida's usually dry winters and springs, alligators are on the move looking for water, which usually leads them to urban lakes, closer to humans, and more importantly, this is mating season.

HARDWICK: Because they're breeding and fighting with each other for territory and breeding rights, we literally have these alligators moving down the canal systems into the urban areas.

ZARRELLA: And they don't turn up just in the water. This one crossed without looking both ways. Another took a bite out of a bumper before its capture. Adam Stern is the senior children's zoo keeper at Miami's Metro Zoo. He's holding a four-year-old, 4.5-foot alligator named Kisses.

I'm not sure I want Kisses to be giving me any kisses.

ADAM STERN, MIAMI METRO ZOO: Probably not a good idea. ZARRELLA: Kisses is motionless in Stern's arms. It looks like a stuffed animal until you see the eyelid roll from front to back. Stern says gators you encounter on land can be just as dangerous as one in the water.

STERN: I know it's kind of like an urban legend that if you try to outrun a gator you do it by zigzagging. But they are so fast, it's not going to happen.

ZARRELLA: By the time you think about making your move to get away, it's probably already too late, right?

STERN: Exactly.

ZARRELLA: Stern says gators don't go out looking for humans to attack. But as Florida's population booms, alligators and people share more of the same land and neither species sees eye to eye.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pretty serious bite. That story comes from "AMERICAN MORNING," and make sure to join Soledad and Miles weekday mornings bright and early at 6:00 a.m. eastern.

Coming up next "CNN PRESENTS: The End of AIDS."

Our doctor Sanjay Gupta speaks with former president Bill Clinton about finding a cure.

Then at 4:00 some college coeds say it's an easy why make some big bucks, but is selling your eggs really a good way to get out of debt.

At 5:00 tonight we take a closer look at the core values training for those in the military. Will it help soldiers in battle.

A check of the day's headlines is next and then "CNN PRESENTS."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com