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CNN Live Saturday

Limited Fighting Breaks Out in Lebanon; John Karr to be Deported to The U.S. on Sunday; Snakes on a Plane

Aired August 19, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Half past the hour, here's what's happening right now.
The Middle East cease-fire may be in trouble. Israel staged a raid deep inside Lebanon today in what it said was a move to stop Iran and Syria from delivering weapons to Hezbollah. The Lebanese government calls the raid a violation of the cease-fire and it's threatening to pull its troops out of the peacekeeping effort.

Adding to the jitters in the Middle East today, Iran has started conducting war games. State run television says the exercises could run for the next five weeks.

The man accused of murdering JonBenet Ramsey should be heading back to the United States as early as tomorrow. John Mark Karr was arrested in Thailand this week. Officials there say they'll be putting him on a plane for Los Angeles.

And here we go again. A top athlete is again facing questions about performance-enhancing drugs. A positive test for Olympic sprinter Marion Jones. The Associated Press said she failed an initial test at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June, and could face a two year suspension if she fails a second test.

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

It is a start. French troops, the first contingent of a beefed- up U.N. peacekeeping, force have arrived in Lebanon.

CNN's Jim Clancy reports from Naqoura, where the French troops landed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT:. The United Nations interim force in Lebanon entered a new phase on Saturday, as French peacekeepers began arriving ashore. The first to arrive was a very small security contingent that secured the port. And then amphibious landing ships began to arrive carrying heavy equipment, amphibious troop carriers and other vehicles, as well as heavy equipment like bulldozers.

All of that is part of the equipment needed for this engineering unit that is going to be arriving in the next 72 hours. Fifty members of that unit are now already on the ground. We got more information from Commander Bertrand Bonneau of the French Navy. CMDR. BERTRAND BONNEAU, FRENCH NAVY:. Today we are landing a group of 49 engineering soldiers, coming from the -- coming for the U.N. They are at the U.N. camp. This is the very first type of deployment of two soldiers, specialists also in engineering, which is going to happen next week.

CLANCY:. Already, some of the UNIFIL troops have begun-working with Lebanese Army forces that deployed this week. They have been doing joint patrols and generally helping to support the Lebanese Army in this role.

It's a very popular mission from the viewpoint of the Lebanese who live here in South Lebanon. Many hadn't seen the deployment of their own forces in South Lebanon in decades.

At the same time, the United Nations' mission has some challenges ahead of it. First of all, it hopes to reach a total strength of some 15,000. It is far short of that now in terms of commitment. Countries have to decide when and if they are sending troops.

And second, the rules of engagement. Currently, it's a Chapter 6 United Nations peacekeeping force. There are many here that say it needs to be Chapter 7, giving it more robust strength to respond to any threats.

Jim Clancy, CNN, at the U.N. base in Naqoura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Detained and about to be deported. Here's what we know about the JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect. Plans are set to bring John Mark Karr back to the U.S. He is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow night on a flight from Bangkok. Karr got a visit today from Homeland Security official Ann Hurst. She says Karr is in good condition at Thailand's immigration detention center.

Well, questions persist over the 41-year-old teacher's stunning admission that he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she died. Our Tom Foreman looks at Karr's claims about JonBenet Ramsey and the inconsistencies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His words alarming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you an innocent man? Are you an innocent man?

JOHN MARK KARR, SUSPECT: No.

FOREMAN: But John Mark Karr isn't the first to link himself to JonBenet Ramsey's murder. Ramsey attorney Lin Wood tells CNN JonBenet Ramsey's father John has received e-mail confessions in the past.

So what makes authorities so keen on John Mark Karr? A U.S. law enforcement source tells CNN Karr offered graphic and gruesome physical details about the condition of JonBenet's body -- details, this source says, would be known only to the medical examiner and investigators. Still, there are loose ends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?

KARR: Her death was an accident.

FOREMAN: Take that statement you just heard. All along, law enforcement sources say evidence from the crime scene shows the death was not accidental. And in Thailand, authorities are now backing away from what they said were Karr's claims that he drugged JonBenet before the murder.

CNN reported yesterday that JonBenet's autopsy concluded JonBenet was not drugged. This is what the Thai authorities are saying about the matter now, something that U.S. law enforcement authorities have yet to confirm.

SUWAT TUMRONGSISKUL, THAI POLICE LIEUTENANT GENERAL: I heard from my people that he said that he had sex with her, the girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about drugging her?

TUMRONGSISKUL: About drugging her and my officer asked how come you had sex with the girl 6 years old? He said at that time it was just a blur.

FOREMAN: As for the one piece of evidence that may prove conclusive, The Associated Press reports Karr was given a DNA mouth swab in Bangkok and will receive another test when Karr arrives in the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And with so many unanswered questions, we turn now to our legal experts. Avery Friedman is a civil rights attorney and law professor. Good to see you, Avery.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, LAW PROFESSOR: Hi, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Richard Herman is a New York criminal defense attorney. Good to see you as well, Richard.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good afternoon, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, Avery, let me begin with you. There are so many skeptics out there who are now saying wait a minute. He's not even the right man. Are you in agreement with them?

FRIEDMAN: Well, there is such a mess right now. We're hearing hyperbolic hypotheses. What's going on right now is there is such inconsistency over what's been said, it's sort of like remember, O.J., you know, if the glove don't fit you must acquit. Well, this case gets down to this: no DNA, Karr goes away. That's the definitive information right now. That's what's going to make or break this case. WHITFIELD: OK, Richard, do you agree with that? Does this mean that arrest is premature without the DNA?

HERMAN: The arrest, Fred, is an abomination. Look at this guy. He's got his pants up to his chin. I mean, the guy is clearly a whack job. That's number one.

WHITFIELD: What is that supposed to mean?

FRIEDMAN: What is that?

HERMAN: He's absolutely a whack job. Was he competent to even give a confession? Any competency hearing is going to show this guy's nuts.

Number two, very important, his ex-wife -- the 16-year-old, not to be confused with the 13-year-old, the first one -- she says he was home with the family in Alabama Christmas time 1996. Come on? How did the D.A. not go and talk to her? That's outrageous. And number three very important ...

WHITFIELD: But she hasn't produced the evidence on that yet apparently. They've asked her to do so. Find some pictures.

HERMAN: Oh, Fred, please. It's outrageous.

And number three, and very, very important, Monday, Larry King has Professor Tracy on. He has to go after this guy for an agenda. If you Google Tracy, you'll see in 1996, his career was languishing.

Two years later, he wrote documentary, a scathing report on law enforcement in Colorado, saying how could they just concentrate on the Ramseys, there had to be someone else. And then he gets into conversation for years with this guy, Karr. Who knows what information he supplied him with. Hundreds of e-mails back and forth. It's outrageous. He has an agenda. It's just outrageous.

WHITFIELD: So Avery, would you agree that there's something wrong about this correspondence between the Colorado professor and Karr, and if there really was something to this correspondence, why didn't authorities know about it and agent upon it long ago?

FRIEDMAN: Yes, I think Michael Tracey's involvement in this case is significant. I need Richard to start getting a little excited about this though. And I do think, actually, he's absolutely right on the point.

In order to understand if there's something there. I want to see what's in that affidavit that supported the arrest warrant. I hope it's more than this simple statement by Karr, I hope it's more than law enforcement working with Professor Tracey.

There may very well be -- and I'm skeptical, but there must be more evidence. If not, the press conference that we heard from Mary Lacy, who is, of course, the district attorney, offered nothing. It was a press conference to tell us nothing. So we're going to know with the second DNA swab coming up when Karr gets back to America tomorrow night where this case is going

WHITFIELD: Did you see or agree that Lacy was awfully cautious? Not only did she not really reveal a whole lot but by design she said they still have a lot of work to do.

FRIEDMAN: That's an understatement. I mean, why was that there a press conference? It made no sense. If there was some sense of where the case was going, I understand the press conference, but responsible law enforcement builds the case before you go public and there are so many loose ends here.

Again, we've heard from forensic people, we've heard from psychics, believe it or not, on this case. And when it gets right down to the law, to the evidence, let's take a look at the DNA, that's what is going to make or break this case.

WHITFIELD: All right. And Richard?

HERMAN: Fred? Yes, Fred, over the past few day, Dr. Henry Lee, who is the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy, and Michael Boden, another well-known forensic pathologist, said clearly the DNA sample is not of blood of semen. It's not going to be definitive.

It's not going to tie this guy in on a definitive 99 percentile. It's just not going to do it. It's a red herring. I'm telling you. This case is going nowhere and this prosecutor should resign. They have bungled this investigation from the beginning.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

FRIEDMAN: No, no.

WHITFIELD: They have bungled it from the beginning. There was a ton of evidence there. They've done nothing. They've stripped law enforcement. The D.A. took over the case. It's outrageous what's going on with this runaway prosecutor.

FRIEDMAN: There's a dead child.

WHITFIELD: But the D.A. took over the case. That whole office took over the case after Boulder police then kind of passed it over because there was so much criticism of the Boulder police department, right?

FRIEDMAN: And you know what else? What's very important is that there is a dead child, and we have to do everything we can to try to find out who the killer is. This case may be going -- this guy may be going nowhere, but at least there's an effort, and I have to be respectful of that effort going on. We've got to find the killer.

WHITFIELD: All right, Avery and Richard hold on because we want to give this programming note. Larry King will have an exclusive interview with the Ramsey family attorney, Lin Wood and the Colorado professor that you two have such strong words about. He's the one who led police to Karr. That is Monday at 9:00 Eastern. And of course we're not finished with our legal discussion as of yet. Up next, wire taps and the war on terror. President Bush is not happy with that court decision to pull the plug on warrantless wire taps. Was it the right decision? We'll be asking Richard and Avery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This country of ours is at war. And we must give those whose responsibility it is to protect United States the tools necessary to protect this country at a time of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Forty five minutes past the hour now. Here's what's happening right now. John Mark Karr, the man suspected of killing JonBenet Ramsey, due back in the U.S. tomorrow. Karr is wanted in Colorado on charges of murdering JonBenet ten years ago. He told reporters this week in Thailand that her death was an accident.

Too early to call it a setback, but fighting flared today in southern Lebanon. Israeli commandos hit Hezbollah targets in a bid to stop the transfer of weapons. Lebanon threatens to stop its troop deployment to the south if the U.N. fails to respond to that attack.

President Bush is again promising to defeat terrorism and establish democracy in Iraq and Lebanon. It came during his weekly radio address today. Democrats countered that Americans will be safer if the U.S. begin a phased pull-out of troops from Iraq.

White House or bust. A Katrina survivor is towing his FEMA trailer all the way from New Orleans to Washington. Rocky Backarella (ph) wants to thank President Bush and the American people for what they've done so far and remind everyone that the rebuilding job in the Gulf is not complete. He'll discuss all of that over a Cajon dinner with the president in the FEMA trailer. And I'll talk to Rocky live in the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour.

Another potential drug scandal hits the world of sports. AP, Associated Press, reports that Olympic track champion Marion Jones failed an initial drug test at the U.S. championships in June. If a second sample also tests positive, the sprinter could face a minimum two-year ban from the sport.

We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Your next update is coming up at the top of the hour, 3:00 Eastern.

The JonBenet Ramsey case isn't the only legal news this week. A federal judge says President Bush's warrantless wire tapping program is unconstitutional.

And in Tennessee a woman accused of killing her minister husband is out on parole. Let's bring in our legal experts again. Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor, and Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney.

All right, gentlemen, let's go straight to the wire tapping. Huge blow, Richard, to the Bush Administration, all along them saying this is OK, to have warrantless wire tapping. What kind of message does this court send?

HERMAN: I don't think so, Fred. I think, you know this was a President Jimmy Carter appointee to the bench. I think on appeal the president is going to be upheld. You know, he said I'm the commander in chief and one of the most important duties I have is to protect the American people. If you're in the United States and you're speaking to someone outside of the United States who the government believes are involved with al Qaeda, our enemy, the government can tap you. That's what the president said. Why should anybody have a problem with that in this dye and age? In this day and age, why should you have a problem with that? But look, she's going to get reversed on appeal. And I'll put a dinner on that to Avery.

FRIEDMAN: Yes, and you know what I'll collect on that dinner and let me tell you why. Anna Diggs Taylor (ph) is a smart, respected federal district judge in Detroit. I studied that 44 pages. From a constitutional perspective she's absolutely right in what she did. Since 1978, every president has gone to the secret courts, to FISA courts, to get warrants. And while I do agree that I think this case is headed to the U.S. court of appeals for the sixth circuit, down in Cincinnati, and they may very well reverse, I think this case is bound to the U.S. Supreme Court and if the present composition of that court remains the same, I think that ruling will be upheld. The problem I have with the opinion is simply the lack of scholarship. What Judge Taylor could have done is really fulfilled making this case bullet proof. That is not be reversed by building the record. The difficulty here, it's somewhat superficial. I think she's wrong on the first amendment, but I think it is an unreasonable search and seizure.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so if we're talking about the appeals court and then possibly Supreme Court. How much time are we talking about elapsing before this might eventually be resolved?

FRIEDMAN: It's on a rocket docket. This thing is going to move through the sixth circuit, down in Cincinnati, and to the U.S. Supreme Court by the time the court starts its next term in the Fall.

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

HERMAN: But Fred, until that ruling, the president can still act the way he was before. The judge has stayed enforcement of her decision.

FRIEDMAN: That's right.

HERMAN: So he can still act the way he was.

FRIEDMAN: That's right.

WHITFIELD: OK, let's talk now about the case of a Tennessee woman, Mary Winkler, who is facing murder charges for the killing of her preacher husband. And now out on bail. And so Richard, you have to wonder, first degree murder charges and at first, the defense was complaining that bail was going to be too high, make it reasonable. And now she walks, at least until trial.

HERMAN: Hey, Fred, she took a shotgun to her husband, point blank range and blew him up. I mean, risk of flight, and danger to the community. Well, after she blew her husband away she got the kids and took off. That's where they caught her.

WHITFIELD: So how does she get out on bail? When did that happen?

HERMAN: Unbelievable. I think the judge blew it. I really do. I can't believe it. If was a guy, I don't think he would have been granted bail.

WHITFIELD: Avery, have you ever heard of anything like this?

FRIEDMAN: Nothing, never. It doesn't happen. Richard is 100 percent correct. If it were a guy, that guy would still be in the (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: So it's a simple as that, because she's a woman, because she's a mother and she and her attorney make the argument that her children need to be with her?

FRIEDMAN: Hey, all I know is that whatever that judge was thinking, it was certainly unclear. I think this is a bizarre ruling. That individual has no more right being out on the streets that John Dillinger. I mean that's ridiculous that she's out there.

WHITFIELD: So, I don't know if we have heard anything about what her legal defense will be, you know, was it like a momentarily insanity, anything like that. But her being out, getting an opportunity to be with her children, kind of melt into society again, how is that going to impact her trial? Avery?

HERMAN: It won't, Fred.

FRIEDMAN: It will not impact at all. They're now having her working at the local dry cleaner. How would you like her coming to your house to deliver your dry cleaning. The fact that she's out will have no effect on the merits, but frankly, for those people in the community, stay away from the dry cleaner.

WHITFIELD: You guys are cracking me up today. Richard?

HERMAN: Hey Fred, incredibly, from what I'm hearings, there is tremendous sentiment for her and people feel sorry for her in that community and that might have had a bearing on how the judge came to grant this bail. But her kids are not with her. They are with her dead husband's parents. That's will they are right now. She will have some visitation with them, but this really, I think this ruling is wrong. This woman is a menace to society. How worse could it be, really?

WHITFIELD: All right, well you guys, I've been taking some copious notes. We're talking about dinner dates now, dry cleaning, car goes away. HERMAN: You're invited, Fred.

FRIEDMAN: That's right, yes, you can come to.

WHITFIELD: All right, very good. I'm in. All right, good to see you, gentlemen.

HERMAN: Nice toe see you. Take care.

FRIEDMAN: Have a good day.

WHITFIELD: Well the title says it all, "Snakes on the Plane," find out how the Internet community helped the films creators make sure the movie lives up to its name.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In the western Caribbean, a cruise ship comes upon nine Cuban rafters. This photo from I-Reporter Finola Jacabucci, a passenger on board of the Carnival Glory. She tells CNN the rafters refused the cruise ship's offer to come aboard. So the crew handed down fresh water, food, and life jackets. The ship waited until the U.S. coast guard arrived. And if you've got pictures like that, go to CNN.com, send in an I-Report and join the world's most powerful news team.

"Snakes on a Plane" slithers into a theater near you this weekend, but it has already taken a big bite out of the Internet. Nina Nannar explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA NANNAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It could so easily have been just another B movie, but when the online community heard that Samuel L. Jackson was planning to make a thriller called simply "Snakes on the Plane," they made it the most Internet hyped film in history.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ACTOR: You know all those security scenarios we ran? Well, I'm smack in the middle of one we didn't think of.

NANNAR: Internet bloggers, intrigued by the concept, created their own music for the film and made trailers and posters, speculating on its content. They built up a frenzy of expectation and the film star is grateful.

JACKSON: The fact that everybody on the net knew about the film, they were talking about the title, people started making t-shirts and hats and posters and trailers and all kinds of things way before the studio did. The smartest thing the studio did was not to tell them to stop.

NANNAR: This was not just a case of Internet fans having fun, making spoof versions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snakes on a plane! NANNAR: By protesting online, they also stopped the filmmakers from changing the movie's title, got them to reshoot some of the scenes and changed some of the dialogue.

GIA MILINOVICH, FILM BLOGGER: The appeal of film blogging, for both filmmakers and fans, is that it gives both of them a kind of direct connection to one another. Fans are sitting out there wanting to hear about their favorite actor in the film that they're making.

NANNAR (on camera): Unusually for a new film and perhaps to maintain the Internet frenzy, no critic has been allowed a preview of the film, everyone has had to buy their tickets and wait in line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can kind of tell that it was written on the Internet because it's pretty crazy. It's the most unusual film I've ever seen. It's great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got action, Samuel L. Jackson, nudity, what more could you want?

NANNAR: No one expects this film to crash at the box office, whatever the critics make of it. The power of the Internet has scaled new heights.

Nina Nannar, I-TV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And straight ahead, at the top of the hour, "CNN PRESENTS, No Survivors." Why TWA 800 could happen again.

And at 4:00 p.m. Eastern I'll speak with a victim of Hurricane Katrina who is taking his FEMA trailer all the way to Washington. Find out who he wants to speak with and whether his request will be filled.

A check of the headlines right after this.

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