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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Why Were Female American Soldiers Mud-Wrestling at Iraqi Prison Camp?; Dems Call Bush's Budget a 'Hoax'

Aired February 07, 2005 - 19:00 ET

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

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

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York, I'm Anderson Cooper.
Why were female American soldiers mud-wrestling at an Iraqi prison camp?

360 starts now.

Women soldiers mud-wrestling on duty? The "New York Daily News" publishes pictures that have the Army seeing red. Was it an aberration, or something downright dirty going on in this prison camp?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a budget that focuses on results. Taxpayers in America don't want us spending our money onto something that's not achieving results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The president's budget. Democrats call it a hoax. Republicans say the spending cuts are for real. Tonight, what the White House budget really means for you.

Family secrets, everyone has them, things they hide from the outside world. Tonight, meet a suburban mom who couldn't stop stealing. The secret life of a kleptomaniac.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never really occurred to me that I would ever get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hundreds of faithful flock to see an apparition. Tonight, see for yourself why some are calling this mark a miracle.

And the mystery of Deep Throat, reports the man responsible for bringing down the Nixon presidency is sick. Will the Deep Throat guessing game finally be over?

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening to you. It's nice to be back.

On its Web site, the United States Army today put up this picture from Iraq. Take a look.

It shows a sergeant from the 103rd Armored Battalion giving candy to Iraqi kids near the city of Baiji. Now, this is the kind of image you see in Iraq, soldiers handing out candy to kids. It happens all the time. It's also the kind of image the Army wants you to see, an image the Army is, of course, proud to show.

Which is much different than the next set of pictures you're about to see. They were taken last year at the largest detention center in Iraq, in the south. The photos are of female U.S. soldiers mud-wrestling, and they've led to embarrassment for the Pentagon and punishment for some of the participants.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. military officials tell CNN the incident depicted in these photos is the subject of an ongoing investigation involving two military police units, and that 10 people have already been disciplined.

October 30 of last year, at Camp Buicka (ph), a facility in southern Iraq, housing more than 5,000 Iraqi detainees, officials say one unit, the 160th Military Police Battalion, was rotating out the next day. Members of the unit replacing it, 105th Battalion, were also there that night.

LT. COL. BARRY JOHNSON, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN: A group of soldiers decided to celebrate their last night there in an area isolated from other parts of the camp by having this mud-wrestling competition.

TODD: The spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq tells CNN four female soldiers are known to have taken part. One of them, who's with the unit still serving there, was reduced in rank. Three other women were from the unit deploying out, and they're still under investigation.

Officials say nine other soldiers, identified as observers, who didn't step into stop it were given counseling and verbal reprimands.

Officials tell CNN it's unclear exactly how many people were present. They say they're looking into whether any unit leaders had knowledge of this party. No names have been released.

JOHNSON: Of course it's embarrassing for the units that are there. It's embarrassing for the individuals that were a part of it. Everybody recognizes that this was inappropriate and foolish.

TODD: These photos were obtained by the "New York Daily News." Military officials tell CNN the detainees were at least half a mile away and could not have observed the incident. They say investigators have found no indication of alcohol use. Officials confirm one witness told investigators that sergeants involved lent their rooms to soldiers for sex parties, but they say the investigation has found no evidence of that or any evidence of other sexual misconduct.

(on camera): We asked U.S. military officials who instigated the mud-wrestling contest. One official would only say there are indications that sergeants from the 106th Military Police Battalion were, as he said, involved in this. An official with the U.S. Army Reserve command overseeing that unit said officers from the 160th are investigating.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, as we said, this has all happened at Camp Buicka, when and a place where really controversy is nothing new. Here's a quick news note for you. Last month, you may remember, a riot left four detainees dead and at least six injured. The riot involved four compounds that house nearly 3,000 inmates. And last year, a soldier told "60 Minutes II" of CBS about two inmates being shot to death.

In addition, there have been several escape, escapes reported at Camp Buicka, and problems with morale amongst the guards.

The first Monday in February may not be a especially significant date on your calendar or mine, but it is an important date on the calendar of the president of the United States,, because federal law requires him to send to Congress by today his budget proposal, his spending plan for the next fiscal year.

President Bush did that today. He sent Congress a budget of just under $2.6 trillion -- trillion with a T.

CNN's senior White House correspondent John King explains what's in it, what's out, and why some are already calling the proposal dead on arrival.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president voiced confidence he can rally public support for a budget he calls lean, and one that proposes the biggest spending cuts since the Reagan administration.

BUSH: I fully understand that sometimes it's hard to eliminate a program that sounds good.

KING: The budget calls for $2.57 trillion in federal spending next year, and projects a record $427 billion deficit. Democrats called it reckless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not get out of deficit. The deficit only gets bigger and deeper. KING: Winners include homeland security and the Pentagon, which gets a nearly 5 percent boost in spending. Bush campaign promises mean more money for Pell grants and community health clinics, and mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare will cost more.

Republican leaders label the Bush blueprint a good starting point, a polite but hardly enthusiastic reception that underscores the president's challenge cutting programs that are popular in Congress.

Twelve of the 23 major government agencies would get less money, because 150 government programs are slated for elimination or significant cuts, including trimming the Medicaid health program for the poor, health benefits for more affluent veterans, more than $8 billion from agriculture programs, including a billion dollars from Food Stamps, federal subsidies for Amtrak, and grants for school literacy and antidrug programs.

BUSH: The important question that needs to be asked for all constituencies is whether or not the programs achieve a certain result.

KING: Democrats say the president's promise to cut the deficit in half is dishonest, because his budget doesn't include costs for the Iraq war next year, money to pay for the Social Security changes Mr. Bush proposes, and hides the cost of making the big Bush tax cuts permanent.

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE: None of this adds up. I mean, it isn't even close. None of this adds up. And the result is, I think, going to be very, very serious damage to the fiscal strength of our country.

KING: The White House insists the president will keep his deficit promise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And that promise, outlined in this, one of the many budget books the administration released today, the administration says the budget should go down to about $391 billion next year, but, Anderson, officials concede it might actually eclipse this year's record deficit.

Why? Because the administration doesn't know how much the Iraq war will cost yet. The costs would have to go down dramatically from this year for the deficit to go down. Nobody here expect those costs to head in that direction, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, John, how confident is the president he can actually get this budget passed on Capitol Hill? A lot of these programs he's talking about cutting are popular, or, you know, among some senators, among some congresspeople.

KING: They're very popular. And already here, even Republicans saying, You're not going to get all those cuts, Mr. President. What the White House hopes is they bottom-line the numbers, how much is in the budget, that that is relatively close to the president's proposal that Mr. Bush is willing to negotiate the exact details, so long as he gets essentially the bottom line being pretty close to what he proposes.

In the past, the administration's track record is pretty good, but the president in the past has not suggested cuts this deep.

COOPER: All right, the devil is in the details. John King, thanks.

The president and the Republican Party were the targets today of an angry outburst on Capitol Hill, not over the budget this time, but over what the Senate's new Democratic leader, Harry Reid, is calling, and I quote, "a hit piece" against him, and he's taking it very personally.

More from congressional correspondent Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: What government's all about is honesty, integrity, not phoniness.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid blamed the president for a Republican attack against him and his family. The 13-page Republican memo calls Reid the, quote, "chief Democratic obstructionist," highlighting his opposition to Social Security reform and conservative judicial nominees.

REID: Why didn't he stand and tell the American people last Wednesday that one of the first items of business we were going to do in Washington is send out a hit piece on the Democratic leader?

HENRY: The Republican National Committee memo also gets personal, raising old questions about the lobbying activities of Reid's sons. Reid has denied any improper conduct, but did change his office policy to ban family members from lobbying him. Although soft- spoken, Reid is a tough partisan infighter. Aides say the memo made him furious.

REID: I mean, is he, is President George Bush a man of his word? He said that he was going to reach out to the Democrats. Strange way to reach out.

Mr. President, I call upon you to repudiate this document, to tell the Republican National Committee, don't mail it.

HENRY: No chance of that. An RNC spokesman said the party is going ahead with the mailing, adding, quote, "This is just intended to show he is an obstructionist and out of step with Americans and people in his home state of Nevada."

Privately, Republican strategists say this hardball strategy has a proven track record, helping to knock off former Georgia senator Max Cleland, John Kerry, and Harry Reid's predecessor, Senator Tom Daschle. The Republican who beat Daschle says all's fair.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: If in fact the Democrat leadership continues the pattern of the last Congress, and that is to block and obstruct the agenda, then that's a legitimate charge to make.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: As it turns out, Senator Reid and his wife have a previously scheduled dinner at the White House tonight with President Bush and the first lady. Reid's staff isn't sure whether the senator will directly confront the president. They say he prefers to do his talking on the Senate floor, Anderson.

COOPER: Ed Henry, thanks very much.

The world's best-known unknown person, the famous figure who helped cause the downfall of Richard Nixon, may soon actually be known, but not by a code name, but by his real name. Washington insiders say the Watergate source called Deep Throat is gravely ill, and that with his life ending, so too at long last will his anonymity end.

CNN's Judy Woodruff has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hang around Washington long enough, and chances are, someone will ask, Was it you?

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You really are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't deny it, though?

WOODRUFF: OK, so he's not Deep Throat. But who is?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN")

HAL HOLBROOK, ACTOR: Follow the money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: It's not that easy. But let's start with what we know, which is pretty much whatever Bob Woodward's told us. Journalism's most famous secret source is one man, not a composite character. He was a government insider, privy to some of the Nixon presidency's biggest secrets, and he passed some of them along to the "The Washington Post. In the Watergate era, at least, he enjoyed cigarettes and a good Scotch.

And that's what we've got. Oh, and one more thing, we know Deep Throat is still alive, the one clue that has helped narrow the field with each passing year.

BEN BRADLEE, FORMER EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WASHINGTON POST": The truth in Washington and the truth in life emerges.

WOODRUFF: Right now, one of the leading Deep Throat suspects is in his 90s, Mark Felt, the number three man at the FBI in the Nixon years. The president passed him over for the agency's top job. And in 1972, chief of staff H.R. Haldeman disparaged Felt as a frequent source of White House leaks.

Adding fuel to the fire, Bob Woodward's 1999 visit with Felt on the heels of a media boomlet fingering the former official as Deep Throat.

Felt has long said he's not the man we're looking for.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, ACTOR: I always felt it was Kissinger's trick.

WOODRUFF: As for the high-profile possibles, Henry Kissinger, of course, and Pat Buchanan. And David Gergen, and even Diane Sawyer, though she's hardly in the top tier.

Can this riddle be solved? Maybe we should just be patient.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Wasn't me.

The deadliest day in Iraq since elections eight days ago, that tops our look at what's happening around the world in the uplink.

In Baqubah, a car bombing targeted job-seekers outside a police station. We've seen this so many times before. Fifteen people were killed. Earlier in Mosul, 12 policemen were killed in another suicide bombing outside a hospital. Still targeting policemen.

In the Middle East, a truce, maybe. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders say that they will announce a cease-fire agreement at tomorrow's summit meeting in Egypt. Now, under the deal, Israel will halt incursions into Palestinian territories, Palestinians will stop attacking Israel. The aim is to end more than four years of fighting.

In France, breaking records. Twenty-eight-year-old British yachtswoman Ellen McArthur has broken the solo round-the-world sailing record. Amazingly, she did it in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and, well, 33 seconds. McArthur called it, quote, "an absolutely unbelievable voyage, both physically and mentally." I can hardly imagine.

And the Cooks Islands now, in the South Pacific, escape the worst. A cyclone, better known as a hurricane in these parts, ripped through the islands, flooding homes, causing some destruction. Thanks to advance warnings, however, most people moved to higher ground and storm shelters.

And near Mexico City, Mexico, a holy site? Some people say so. Hundreds of Catholics are flocking to an empty lot, where humidity from a drainage pipe has caused a water stain that they say is an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. The site was discovered two weeks ago by a construction worker.

That's a quick look what's happening around the world.

Religious sightings, of course, not as rare as you may think. They're actually quite frequent, though very few are actually authenticated by the Catholic Church.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Do you see the Virgin Mary on the side of this Florida office building? Or here on a fencepost in Australia? Or here, a hospital window in Massachusetts?

Thousands of people have looked at these images and said they see Mary.

Alleged sightings of the Virgin Mary have been happening for centuries. Only a handful of Mary apparitions have been authenticated by the Catholic Church, the first one dating back to 1531 in Guadalupe, Mexico. In 1838, in Lourdes, a French village, the Madonna allegedly appeared before a teenaged girl, Bernadette. Today, 5 million believers make a pilgrimage each year. Some hope to be cured of illness, others come simply to pray.

The 20th century saw a big increase in reports of apparitions. In 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, three children said they got a message from the Virgin, and tens of thousands of spectators claimed they saw a light in the sky.

Of the apparitions which are not yet church approved, Metagorga (ph) in Bosnia is perhaps the most famous. Since the apparitions allegedly began in 1981, millions of people of all faiths have visited.

And, of course, there are more recent sightings, many of them closer to home. Passaic, New Jersey, some said the Virgin Mary was seen in a tree trunk. Rawls (ph), Texas, residents said that's Mary in a smudge of melted chocolate on a porch. Campbell, Ohio, some said they saw the eyes of a Virgin Mary statue glowing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Sightings all around the world.

360 next, plane crash survivor, a flight attendant's harrowing brush with death. Find out how she helped pull others to safety.

Also tonight, they're calling her Getaway Mama. Police bust the mother of an alleged bank robber. That's the son. Then the mother got involved, accused of stealing and killing together. A bizarre set of family values this pair has.

And a little later, landslide in slow motion. A $2.5 million home, hanging by a thread, could collapse any minute. We'll take you there.

First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: in the terrible seconds before this corporate jet sped off the end of a New Jersey runway last week and then plowed into a warehouse, 22-year-old Angelica Calad-Gomez, who was taking time off from college to work as a flight attendant, watched through the cockpit windshield and just waited for the worst.

Tonight, she is telling her story of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Angelica Calad-Gomez considers herself lucky to be alive after walking away from the wreckage of a corporate jet crash in New Jersey last week with only minor injuries.

ANGELICA CALAD-GOMEZ, SURVIVED PLANE CRASH: It was exactly just what -- you watching a movie, and feeling like you're in it.

COOPER: The 22-year-old cabin aide had been working for Platinum Jet Management for only five months when the Canadair CL-600 failed to take off. The jet careened down the runway, plowed through a fence, skidded across a highway, and crashed into a warehouse.

CALAD-GOMEZ: I thought we were just about to take off. And when I realized, kind of in the middle of the runway, that we didn't lift, I just remember, I mean, looking at the building, closing my eyes, and hoping that it would just stop, and hoping that, you know, that we wouldn't just blow up and then something would happen to us. I was just praying to God.

COOPER: Calad-Gomez credits the plane's eight passengers with opening a jammed door, allowing her and everyone else on the flight to exit once the plane stopped moving.

CALAD-GOMEZ: And then they were able to get up and open that door, because the door was stuck. I crawled out of that plane, fell into the snow, slid through the snow, kept going straight, fell again. I was running with one boot. I was covered in gasoline from head to toe. I smelled like it, I tasted like it, I inhaled all the fumes.

COOPER: Despite the accident, Calad-Gomez says she hopes to be flying again as early as next week.

CALAD-GOMEZ: Oh, I will definitely continue. I will be back on the job as soon as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, they're calling her Getaway Mama, a mother accused of helping her son rob and murder. Find out why police say they teamed up. Also ahead, what secrets does your family hide? Every family does. Tonight, the secret life of a kleptomaniac, a suburban housewife compelled to steal, part of our special series, Family Secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, she cased the stores, he pulled the trigger. That is how police in New York say a mother and son ran their family business. Authorities believe they were in the business of murder. The pair are suspected in a string of armed jewelry store robberies that have left a trail of blood and tears.

CNN's Mary Snow reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was the target of a nationwide manhunt, accused of a deadly robbery spree in two states. One day after Christopher De Mello (ph) surrendered to SWAT teams in New Jersey, police arrested his mother and charged her with being his accomplice.

LT. DENNIS FARRELL, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: She was in the car when they were scouting potential sites. There's no question that she knew what was going on.

SNOW: Forty-year-old Mary Ann Taylor-Casey (ph) pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. But police say she told them she helped her son to get cash for heroin. She was arrested at a boarding home. Neighbors don't know much about her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, that's what you, the cops come all hours of the night, all hours of the day.

SNOW: Police accuse Taylor-Casey of driving a getaway car for her son from the scene of a December jewelry store robbery. A store manager was killed. Police don't know if she played a role in any of the other three robberies linked to her son. The latest one was last week in Fairfield, Connecticut. The husband-and-wife jewelry store owners were shot to death.

SGT. GENE PALAZZOLO, FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT, POLICE: His M.O. is to enter the store, gain the confidence of the employees and/or owners, under the pretense of wanting to buy jewelry or other items.

SNOW: But police say De Mello's reputation as a gambler helped officers track him down in Atlantic City, where he surrendered after a five-hour standoff. His girlfriend, Nicole Pierce (ph), also was taken into custody. Both are expected to extradited to New York Tuesday to face charges.

Police say De Mello, his girlfriend, and his mother have one thing in common, a heroin habit.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A verdict in a notorious church sex abuse trial, that story tops our look at news right now cross-country.

Cambridge, Mass., the verdict is guilty for this man, defrocked priest Paul Shanley. A jury found he repeatedly molested a boy in his church during the 1980s. He faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced February 15.

Monticello, Utah, a story we've been following, a couple accused of torturing five of their adopted children has agreed to return to Florida to face charges. John and Linda Dollar are accused of beating the children with hammers, of starving them, of even pulling their toenails out with pliers. These are just horrific, the accusations. They were captured in Utah on Friday night.

New York City now, the company that tracks these things say TV ratings for last night's Super Bowl were down. Nielsen Media Research says the New England Patriots' victory over the Philadelphia Eagles drew just over 86 million people, the least-watched of the team's three Super Bowl victories in the past four years. Still, the games are the most-watched TV event each year.

That's a quick look at stories right now cross-country.

Family secrets, everyone has them, things they hide from the outside world. Tonight, meet a suburban mom who couldn't stop stealing. The secret life of a kleptomaniac.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never really occurred that I would ever get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And, why is she the most powerful woman in fashion? Tonight, an up-close look at Anna Wintour, what she thinks may affect what you wear.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: All families hide secrets, some are shameful, some simply embarrassing. All this week we're going to be looking at family secrets, problems that many of us experience but often don't talk about until it's too late. Tonight we turn the spotlight on a serious disorder that millions of people are said to suffer from, maybe even someone you know, someone in your family. It's the compulsion to shoplift. CNN's Adaora Udoji introduces us to one suburban mom who found herself unable to stop stealing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alyssa Tease, mom of three, wife and college grad is also a recovering shoplifter, a struggle that began innocently she says when her two-year-old son left a store holding a $40 toy.

ALYSSA TEASE, RECOVERING SHOPLIFTER: And I thought, hmm, got away with that, and I was exhilarated. I was exhilarated.

UDOJI: So it was completely by accident you discovered this.

TEASE: And I started to then chase that feeling, because it was so powerful.

UDOJI: So powerful it took her down a dark road of deceit for five years. Struggling with infant twins and a young son, she found relief in taking small $5 to $10 items, anything from Cheddar cheese to VHS tapes and she can't remember a run to the store or a vacation back then when she wasn't scheming.

TEASE: I remember that day as well stealing a souvenir for a neighbor of mine who was going to be watching my kids.

UDOJI: The shame, the guilt of keeping her secret from her husband, family and friends, was overwhelming. It got so bad when actress Winona Ryder was caught shoplifting in Beverly Hills she hoped the issue would get more attention. Like Tease, the vast majority of 23 million Americans who shoplift says the Association of Shoplifting Prevention are driven by personal angst and could afford to pay for what they take. Dr. Bethany Marshall says for kleptomaniacs it's a compulsion triggered by deep-rooted problems.

DR. BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: This is a compulsion that's painful, it's distressing, it's embarrassing. The kleptomania experiences a buildup of unbearable tension and anxiety that he or she can only alleviate through the act of stealing.

UDOJI: Tease knew it was wrong and got caught in a grocery store stealing salad dressing and DVDs with her seven-year-old son.

TEASE: They just walked right up to me and said, ma'am, what is in your purse? And I froze. I mean, I knew, that's it.

UDOJI: Your number was up?

TEASE: That's it.

UDOJI: At the same time it was a relief, she says. Her secret was out. Her sentence of probation required therapy and she says she hasn't stolen since.

TEASE: I feel better about myself when I come out of the store.

UDOJI: It must feel like a real victory every time you come out and you haven't taken anything.

TEASE: It does. UDOJI: Which is why she's talking about it publicly. She hopes to inspire others who are struggling to seek help and do it soon. Adaora Udoji, CNN, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the irresistible compulsion to steal and to keep it a shameful secret doesn't discriminate. Men, of course, suffer as well. Men like Terry Shulman. He's a therapist and author of the book "Something for Nothing" and a recovering kleptomaniac himself. He's the founder of Kleptomaniacs and Shoplifters Anonymous. He joins us tonight from Mangonia Park in Florida. Thanks very much for being with us, Terry. What's the difference between kleptomania and shoplifting? Is it stealing in other forms?

TERRY SHULMAN, RECOVERING KLEPTOMANIAC: Well, kleptomania is a very rare disorder, by the way, thank you for having me on, Anderson, and I think people like Alyssa ought to really be commended. This is a very cutting edge topic and a very shameful topic so I want to take my hat off to her and her bravery. Kleptomania is a very impulsive kind of stealing. It can be from stores, from the workplace, from a person's home, but mostly what we're dealing with is not kleptomania. We're dealing with something I would call shoplifting or theft addiction, which is more preplanned but compulsive. A person cannot resist the stealing, even if they're trying to talk themselves out of it, very much like an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sexual behavior, gambling, shopping, sexual behavior. And we have a way of looking at it in terms of an addiction recovery model. That's why I wrote the book, "Something for Nothing, Shoplifting, Addiction...

COOPER: You say most shoplifters fall into a couple of categories, overachievers, overgivers, people who think life is unfair and those who suffer from low self-esteem. Do some people use it as a justification for stealing though?

SHULMAN: Great question. Of course, some can, but if you look at any addict, that's kind of what their mindset is. They feel very much like they're blaming the world. They've been victims and what I try to do in both the counseling that I do locally and nationally, as well as what I write about in the book and in the support groups that I've started, is to tell people that there is a process through all of the blaming, through all of the excuses, but most people actually really feel a lot of shame and want to stop the behavior, but they don't even know there is a path. We heard a bit earlier that Alyssa got into therapy. I know for a fact that she's in a support group for this kind of behavior. There are very few groups for this behavior, because it is a kind of a new way of looking at things.

COOPER: How do you get them to stop? You stole apparently more than 1,000 times before coming clean, how do you stop it?

SHULMAN: I've been in recovery myself from shoplifting for 15 years. For everybody I work with, there's a slightly different path, but what I do encourage people to do is to approach it indeed as an addictive compulsive behavior and I will assess for that. And we have people get involved in a support group, if not locally because there are very few at least on an e-mail group that I created. The book has been valuable, there's a lot of key exercises that I ask people to do, and we track it, and we try to get to the bottom of why and when they first began stealing. And then we have a path to look at possible triggers and warning signs that could tempt them to steal again. And we've been very successful in ways that many other therapists have not been. So I'm greatly encouraged that you're doing a program on this.

COOPER: Well, it seems like the bottom line you ought to do is just take it seriously and treat it like any other addiction and address it as it should be addressed. Terry Shulman, we're out of time, but I appreciate you being with us. Thanks very much.

SHULMAN: Thank you, Anderson Cooper. And we have a website at Shoplifters Anonymous.com and the first international conference on theft addictions and disorders in Detroit in September and October.

COOPER: Terry, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

All this week we'll be revealing some of the ways that millions of us are living double lives. Tomorrow on 360 the secret life of a bigamist, and on Wednesday we're going to look at the secret lives of suburban wives. Thursday, the secret life of a porn addict, and on Friday, the secret life of a stripper. Covering all the angles on 360.

Coming up next, smashed. A young woman's sobering story of battling alcoholism. She was a child and routinely binge drinking and having blackout sex. How she quit cold turkey.

Plus, the most powerful woman in fashion worshipped by some feared by others. How she decides what you are going to be wearing. Part of our special look at New York's fashion week.

And a little later, Grammy awards preview. Green Day once the bad boys of punk music making a huge comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Some of you may recall that was from the dramatic movie "Kids." For many parents -- pretty shocking movie. It's about kids and drugs, sex and alcohol, all the stuff that made for a great Hollywood movie and real-life nightmare, of course, for parents. Now, a painful and powerful book is out. It's called "Smashed," the story of a drunken girlhood.

Joining me now is the author, Koren Zailckas, to talk about her incredible and sobering memoir.

Thanks very much for being with us.

KOREN ZAILCKAS, AUTHOR, "SMASHED": Thank you for having me.

COOPER: This is your first TV interview, I know you're a little nervous.

ZAILCKAS: Yes. COOPER: Thanks for being with us.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you.

COOPER: The book is getting a lot of attention. You were 14- years- old when you started drinking. What was the appeal.

ZAILCKAS: I didn't. I took my first drink at 14. It really seemed like a rite of passage at the time. I think when you're 14- years-old, I think you're sort of looking for markers that prove you're an adult and you're independent of your parents. That's what it felt like.

COOPER: But it became something more for you.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. It really took hold of it. It helped me become the person that I wanted to be. And I think you're trying on a lot of different roles when you're 14-years-old. So one day you're the good girl, and another day you're the bad girl, and the bad girl kind of stuck.

COOPER: you, at one point, you had your stomach pumped.

ZAILCKAS: Right.

COOPER: And yet, even that didn't stop you from drink. I mean, how soon after you had your stomach pumped did you think, all right, I want to drink again.

ZAILCKAS: I was 16 when I had my stomach pumped. And sort of month after that -- well, for a month after that, I said enough is enough, no more drinking. But I think girls are trained to put so much stock in their female friendships. And the idea of being isolated when all my friends were still out hitting the keg parties every weekend really scared me.

COOPER: It's scary though, because in the book, it's not as if your mom wasn't around. I mean, she was a stay-at-home mom.

ZAILCKAS: Right.

COOPER: And you say, you know, they asked all the right questions. You parents asked all the right questions. And it's sort of terrifying for parents to hear that.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. And if there was a will, there was a way. Yes, I was climbing out windows at friends' houses to go to parties. And I mean, alcohol was always readily available right there in the liquor cabinet. So...

COOPER: I mean, once you got to college, though, it sort of reached a whole new level. I mean, everyone's sort of -- there's a level of acceptance almost on college campuses that surprised you.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. The second I got to college, it was almost like a switch happened. And all of a sudden it was OK to be drinking underage. And teachers on a slow Friday morning class would say everyone started their weekends early.

COOPER: We have some pictures, I think, I don't know if we're showing them, of you during your college days. The thing -- I mean, the striking about pictures, everyone around you is drinking. So, it's not as if you were an aberration.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. I mean, I never considered that I might have a problem because I was always drinking in really social settings. And yes, in those pictures people are hanging all over me and I am hanging all over them. And alcohol really bonded us together.

COOPER: You write in the book, I'm ashamed of my gnarled soul which something that no surgeon can correct.

How has it changed you?

ZAILCKAS: Alcohol -- alcohol made me feel so -- it was the only way I could achieve self-confidence, I think. And I think it prevented me from doing a lot of things that you do in order to grow up, to feel comfortable in your skin, and bond with women and relate to men. And it sort of prevented me from doing a lot of that.

COOPER: I mean, write in the book about waking up next to guy, and you realized you'd lost your virginity somebody, you don't even remember.

ZAILCKAS: Right, I had no idea what happened. I might have, I might not have, and that's scary. And I think in a lot of ways that's a consequence that men don't have to worry about.

COOPER: And for parents who are listening to this tonight, because there are a lot of them out there, what's your advice to them about what to do with their kids -- their kids out there?

ZAILCKAS: I think it's really important to know what -- what and this behavior sort of starts and when the pressure to drink begins. It's not outrageous to sit down with your 12-year-old daughter, and say I know you're going to be pressured to drink soon, and kids will be drinking. But it's important to delay that first drink to -- 16's better than 14, 18 you're almost in the clear. We sort of don't understand how the alcohol affects the teenage brain.

COOPER: And once you get to college, it's such a whole completely different thing.

ZAILCKAS: I know.

COOPER: It's fascinating. It's great book, "Smashed," Koren Zailckas, appreciate you being with us. Thanks.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you for having me.

COOPER: All right, you did well on your first interview.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you. COOPER: Coming up next on 360, the queen of fashion, whether you shop at Saks or Kmart, one woman has a big say on what's on the racks. It's part of special look at New York's fashion week.

Plus 6 million albums sold in just four months, the band Green Day, making a big comeback, hoping to win big at the Grammy Awards.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Coco Chanel once said that, fashion is made to become unfashionable. I really don't understand what she was talking about, but I think it sort of explains the 1980's. Coco Chanel was huge trend setter of course. And now there's another women who has taken her place. She's not a designer. Her name is Anna Wintour, she's the power editor-in-chief of "Vogue" magazine. Wintour was the model for the boss from hell in the book, "The Devil wears Prada." She's now the subject of a new unauthorized biography, "Front Row," by Jerry Oppenheimer.

And you may not think Anna Wintour affects your life, but you might be surprised to learn how much she can influence what you wear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): She's the quintessential fashionista, the goddess of the garmentos. Anna Wintour, editor and chief of fashion Bible, "Vogue." She sits stone-faced in the front row at every runway show, and designers know she can make or break a current collection with the wave of a pen or the arch of an eyebrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She almost has a psychic sense (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COOPER: Some insiders call her Nuclear Wintour, for her somewhat icy demeanor. But she is the epitome of the style icon, worshipped by some, feared by others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If a designer were to come out on the record and attack Anna for doing something that would hurt him in some way, his business would go down the tube.

COOPER: She was a child of London in the swinging '60s, but according to an unauthorized biography of her called "Front Row," the woman with the world-famous bob and the ever-present shades was a high school dropout who clawed her way to the top of "Vogue," the hyperion of haute couture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anna's name came on people's radar I would think, newspaper radar, in bold face, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) radar, after she became editor in chief of "Vogue," which was in 1988, and that in itself is a major story.

COOPER: OK, so you're not surprised that fashion insiders can be a little, well, bitchy, but why should you care about Anna and her ilk? Because whether or not you're a wannabe fashionista, not much makes it down the runway or onto the rack without Anna's OK. Her blessings boost designers on a path to stardom.

ANNA WINTOUR, EDITOR IN CHIEF, VOGUE: I think what Tom Boad (ph) has done to totally change the image of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and make it every woman's dream again is just remarkable.

COOPER: And artists and writers in the rag trade hang on her every word.

WINTOUR: The main thing that's really, really happening is that clothes just have become completely seasonless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She controls a $160 billion a year fashion industry. Skirts rise and fall on her decision. Today, this week in New York, all the world's fashion top people are here -- designers, editors -- and they're looking at one person, Anna Wintour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I mean, exhausting. Anna Wintour would probably want nothing to do with this Sunday's Grammy Awards. After all, you know, it's so last year. I personally want to know who wins category 73, the best polka album. I don't even think Barry Mitchell was nominated. He was robbed yet again.

One band more into punk than polka is Green Day, and they have a chance to walk away with six Grammys this weekend. CNN's A.J. Hammer has a look at their return to the center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A.J. HAMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, otherwise known as Green Day.

MIKE DIRNT, GREEN DAY: Fifteen years. We've just been playing together a long time, and we're the true definition of a band.

HAMMER: Born into Northern California's underground punk scene in the late '80s, the guys slammed into commercial success with their 1994 release, "Dookie." The album sold 10 million copies worldwide and earned the group a Grammy for best alternative music performance, as well as respect in the music industry and street credit with fans.

Green Day were the new bad boys of punk.

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG, GREEN DAY: We always call a little bit of trouble. We wouldn't be Green Day if we weren't causing a little bit of trouble.

HAMMER: The band's three-string power chords and catchy, smart alec lyrics resonated with the masses, but provided little in terms of depth.

Back then, a quick buzz and validation, but fading sales on the band's next three releases suggested a shift in appetite. Green Day was losing traction with their audience. ARMSTRONG: We don't do this for the money, we don't do this for chicks, that's for sure. Obviously we're just kind of doing it because we like to sit in a Jacuzzi together from time to time.

HAMMER: Luckily, the formula was about to change. Time off with their growing families and a 30-something political awareness gave Green Day a new musical theme that would once again click with fans.

ARMSTRONG: We definitely wanted to outdo ourselves. You know, I mean, with every record that we've ever put out, you see a progression. With "American Idiot," it's like this is a kind of record that sort of separates from the rest of that pack. It's not just simply called a progression, it's like a statement, it's a piece of art.

HAMMER: A tale of social injustice, "American Idiot" has sold nearly six million albums in just four months, and earned an impressive seven Grammy nominations, including one for album of the year, a first for a punk rock group.

DIRNT: It's really honoring to get any sort of nod or a nomination, what have you. I mean, obviously you want it, but I kind of put it out of my mind, and by the time it hit us, it was like, oh!

HAMMER: Underscoring their punk turned mature rocker status, Green Day's most recent move is one of compassion, donating the proceeds of all iTunes sales of their hit single "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," to the victims of the tsunami.

ARMSTRONG: For us, it's really important for us to get involved in any way if we possibly could.

HAMMER: A.J. Hammer, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Beginning Monday, February 21st, just two weeks from today, A.J. Hammer will team up with co-host Karen Bryant for "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," a one-hour live entertainment news program on CNN'S HEADLINE NEWS. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" will air weeknights at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Wait a minute. That's my time slot. Anyway.

Now, let's see what's coming up in just two minutes on "PAULA ZAHN NOW" -- Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Shilling for the competition there, Anderson. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

COOPER: Well, I'm a nice guy.

ZAHN: All right, Anderson, thanks.

As you know, there's a bunch of films out there stirring up controversy. And the latest film under fire is Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby," but some critics are calling him a million- dollar bigot. We're going to show you why and take a closer look at the film that is becoming an Oscar favorite.

We'll also be talking with a former CIA operative to find out what we need to do to actually win the spy wars. And we're going to find out a little bit more about the man who may have the toughest job in the legal system -- the judge presiding over the Michael Jackson trial.

Anderson, remember Judge Ito?

COOPER: Yes.

ZAHN: That poor guy couldn't catch a break. We'll see what this judge is going to be up against, in what we're now calling the new trial of the century.

COOPER: Yeah, we hear he's a lot tougher than Ito was. It will be interesting to see your piece. Thanks very much, Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, so young, so focused, a 4-year- old driver. You're not going to believe what this kid did. We're going to take him to "The Nth Degree."

And tomorrow, the secret life of a bigamist. Part of our special series, "Family Secrets."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking precociousness to "The Nth Degree."

There is an absolutely astonishing prodigy among us, a stunning marvel of a little guy, and the sad fact is, we don't even know his name.

The Michigan police aren't releasing it, because this wonder of nature, who was picked up behind the wheel of his mother's car, after making a trip to the local video store at 1:30 in the morning, no less, is only 4 years old. 4! Think of it. That slouch, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, didn't come up with a tune we know as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" until he was 5. What was he doing before that, sitting around sucking his thumb? And the British philosopher John Stewart Mill was 7, 7, for Pete's sake, before he could read Plato in the original Greek. Clearly, little Johnny Mill wasn't applying himself, not really. And yes, Orson Welles got a lot of local media attention for playing two parts in a full-scale stage production he mounted himself, but he was 10 at the time. Big deal! Pitiful late bloomers, the lot of them, compared to our nameless 4-year-old movie fanatic of a driver.

And bear in mind that this little genius of ours only just coasted the video store. Think what he may be capable of when he can actually reach the gas pedal. Oh, the places he'll go and oh, the movies he'll rent. What a piece of work is man.

That's it for 360 tonight. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. Prime-time coverage continues now with Paula Zahn -- Paula.

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

Aired February 7, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York, I'm Anderson Cooper.
Why were female American soldiers mud-wrestling at an Iraqi prison camp?

360 starts now.

Women soldiers mud-wrestling on duty? The "New York Daily News" publishes pictures that have the Army seeing red. Was it an aberration, or something downright dirty going on in this prison camp?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a budget that focuses on results. Taxpayers in America don't want us spending our money onto something that's not achieving results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The president's budget. Democrats call it a hoax. Republicans say the spending cuts are for real. Tonight, what the White House budget really means for you.

Family secrets, everyone has them, things they hide from the outside world. Tonight, meet a suburban mom who couldn't stop stealing. The secret life of a kleptomaniac.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never really occurred to me that I would ever get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hundreds of faithful flock to see an apparition. Tonight, see for yourself why some are calling this mark a miracle.

And the mystery of Deep Throat, reports the man responsible for bringing down the Nixon presidency is sick. Will the Deep Throat guessing game finally be over?

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening to you. It's nice to be back.

On its Web site, the United States Army today put up this picture from Iraq. Take a look.

It shows a sergeant from the 103rd Armored Battalion giving candy to Iraqi kids near the city of Baiji. Now, this is the kind of image you see in Iraq, soldiers handing out candy to kids. It happens all the time. It's also the kind of image the Army wants you to see, an image the Army is, of course, proud to show.

Which is much different than the next set of pictures you're about to see. They were taken last year at the largest detention center in Iraq, in the south. The photos are of female U.S. soldiers mud-wrestling, and they've led to embarrassment for the Pentagon and punishment for some of the participants.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. military officials tell CNN the incident depicted in these photos is the subject of an ongoing investigation involving two military police units, and that 10 people have already been disciplined.

October 30 of last year, at Camp Buicka (ph), a facility in southern Iraq, housing more than 5,000 Iraqi detainees, officials say one unit, the 160th Military Police Battalion, was rotating out the next day. Members of the unit replacing it, 105th Battalion, were also there that night.

LT. COL. BARRY JOHNSON, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN: A group of soldiers decided to celebrate their last night there in an area isolated from other parts of the camp by having this mud-wrestling competition.

TODD: The spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq tells CNN four female soldiers are known to have taken part. One of them, who's with the unit still serving there, was reduced in rank. Three other women were from the unit deploying out, and they're still under investigation.

Officials say nine other soldiers, identified as observers, who didn't step into stop it were given counseling and verbal reprimands.

Officials tell CNN it's unclear exactly how many people were present. They say they're looking into whether any unit leaders had knowledge of this party. No names have been released.

JOHNSON: Of course it's embarrassing for the units that are there. It's embarrassing for the individuals that were a part of it. Everybody recognizes that this was inappropriate and foolish.

TODD: These photos were obtained by the "New York Daily News." Military officials tell CNN the detainees were at least half a mile away and could not have observed the incident. They say investigators have found no indication of alcohol use. Officials confirm one witness told investigators that sergeants involved lent their rooms to soldiers for sex parties, but they say the investigation has found no evidence of that or any evidence of other sexual misconduct.

(on camera): We asked U.S. military officials who instigated the mud-wrestling contest. One official would only say there are indications that sergeants from the 106th Military Police Battalion were, as he said, involved in this. An official with the U.S. Army Reserve command overseeing that unit said officers from the 160th are investigating.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, as we said, this has all happened at Camp Buicka, when and a place where really controversy is nothing new. Here's a quick news note for you. Last month, you may remember, a riot left four detainees dead and at least six injured. The riot involved four compounds that house nearly 3,000 inmates. And last year, a soldier told "60 Minutes II" of CBS about two inmates being shot to death.

In addition, there have been several escape, escapes reported at Camp Buicka, and problems with morale amongst the guards.

The first Monday in February may not be a especially significant date on your calendar or mine, but it is an important date on the calendar of the president of the United States,, because federal law requires him to send to Congress by today his budget proposal, his spending plan for the next fiscal year.

President Bush did that today. He sent Congress a budget of just under $2.6 trillion -- trillion with a T.

CNN's senior White House correspondent John King explains what's in it, what's out, and why some are already calling the proposal dead on arrival.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president voiced confidence he can rally public support for a budget he calls lean, and one that proposes the biggest spending cuts since the Reagan administration.

BUSH: I fully understand that sometimes it's hard to eliminate a program that sounds good.

KING: The budget calls for $2.57 trillion in federal spending next year, and projects a record $427 billion deficit. Democrats called it reckless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not get out of deficit. The deficit only gets bigger and deeper. KING: Winners include homeland security and the Pentagon, which gets a nearly 5 percent boost in spending. Bush campaign promises mean more money for Pell grants and community health clinics, and mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare will cost more.

Republican leaders label the Bush blueprint a good starting point, a polite but hardly enthusiastic reception that underscores the president's challenge cutting programs that are popular in Congress.

Twelve of the 23 major government agencies would get less money, because 150 government programs are slated for elimination or significant cuts, including trimming the Medicaid health program for the poor, health benefits for more affluent veterans, more than $8 billion from agriculture programs, including a billion dollars from Food Stamps, federal subsidies for Amtrak, and grants for school literacy and antidrug programs.

BUSH: The important question that needs to be asked for all constituencies is whether or not the programs achieve a certain result.

KING: Democrats say the president's promise to cut the deficit in half is dishonest, because his budget doesn't include costs for the Iraq war next year, money to pay for the Social Security changes Mr. Bush proposes, and hides the cost of making the big Bush tax cuts permanent.

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE: None of this adds up. I mean, it isn't even close. None of this adds up. And the result is, I think, going to be very, very serious damage to the fiscal strength of our country.

KING: The White House insists the president will keep his deficit promise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And that promise, outlined in this, one of the many budget books the administration released today, the administration says the budget should go down to about $391 billion next year, but, Anderson, officials concede it might actually eclipse this year's record deficit.

Why? Because the administration doesn't know how much the Iraq war will cost yet. The costs would have to go down dramatically from this year for the deficit to go down. Nobody here expect those costs to head in that direction, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, John, how confident is the president he can actually get this budget passed on Capitol Hill? A lot of these programs he's talking about cutting are popular, or, you know, among some senators, among some congresspeople.

KING: They're very popular. And already here, even Republicans saying, You're not going to get all those cuts, Mr. President. What the White House hopes is they bottom-line the numbers, how much is in the budget, that that is relatively close to the president's proposal that Mr. Bush is willing to negotiate the exact details, so long as he gets essentially the bottom line being pretty close to what he proposes.

In the past, the administration's track record is pretty good, but the president in the past has not suggested cuts this deep.

COOPER: All right, the devil is in the details. John King, thanks.

The president and the Republican Party were the targets today of an angry outburst on Capitol Hill, not over the budget this time, but over what the Senate's new Democratic leader, Harry Reid, is calling, and I quote, "a hit piece" against him, and he's taking it very personally.

More from congressional correspondent Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: What government's all about is honesty, integrity, not phoniness.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid blamed the president for a Republican attack against him and his family. The 13-page Republican memo calls Reid the, quote, "chief Democratic obstructionist," highlighting his opposition to Social Security reform and conservative judicial nominees.

REID: Why didn't he stand and tell the American people last Wednesday that one of the first items of business we were going to do in Washington is send out a hit piece on the Democratic leader?

HENRY: The Republican National Committee memo also gets personal, raising old questions about the lobbying activities of Reid's sons. Reid has denied any improper conduct, but did change his office policy to ban family members from lobbying him. Although soft- spoken, Reid is a tough partisan infighter. Aides say the memo made him furious.

REID: I mean, is he, is President George Bush a man of his word? He said that he was going to reach out to the Democrats. Strange way to reach out.

Mr. President, I call upon you to repudiate this document, to tell the Republican National Committee, don't mail it.

HENRY: No chance of that. An RNC spokesman said the party is going ahead with the mailing, adding, quote, "This is just intended to show he is an obstructionist and out of step with Americans and people in his home state of Nevada."

Privately, Republican strategists say this hardball strategy has a proven track record, helping to knock off former Georgia senator Max Cleland, John Kerry, and Harry Reid's predecessor, Senator Tom Daschle. The Republican who beat Daschle says all's fair.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: If in fact the Democrat leadership continues the pattern of the last Congress, and that is to block and obstruct the agenda, then that's a legitimate charge to make.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: As it turns out, Senator Reid and his wife have a previously scheduled dinner at the White House tonight with President Bush and the first lady. Reid's staff isn't sure whether the senator will directly confront the president. They say he prefers to do his talking on the Senate floor, Anderson.

COOPER: Ed Henry, thanks very much.

The world's best-known unknown person, the famous figure who helped cause the downfall of Richard Nixon, may soon actually be known, but not by a code name, but by his real name. Washington insiders say the Watergate source called Deep Throat is gravely ill, and that with his life ending, so too at long last will his anonymity end.

CNN's Judy Woodruff has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hang around Washington long enough, and chances are, someone will ask, Was it you?

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You really are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't deny it, though?

WOODRUFF: OK, so he's not Deep Throat. But who is?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN")

HAL HOLBROOK, ACTOR: Follow the money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: It's not that easy. But let's start with what we know, which is pretty much whatever Bob Woodward's told us. Journalism's most famous secret source is one man, not a composite character. He was a government insider, privy to some of the Nixon presidency's biggest secrets, and he passed some of them along to the "The Washington Post. In the Watergate era, at least, he enjoyed cigarettes and a good Scotch.

And that's what we've got. Oh, and one more thing, we know Deep Throat is still alive, the one clue that has helped narrow the field with each passing year.

BEN BRADLEE, FORMER EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WASHINGTON POST": The truth in Washington and the truth in life emerges.

WOODRUFF: Right now, one of the leading Deep Throat suspects is in his 90s, Mark Felt, the number three man at the FBI in the Nixon years. The president passed him over for the agency's top job. And in 1972, chief of staff H.R. Haldeman disparaged Felt as a frequent source of White House leaks.

Adding fuel to the fire, Bob Woodward's 1999 visit with Felt on the heels of a media boomlet fingering the former official as Deep Throat.

Felt has long said he's not the man we're looking for.

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, ACTOR: I always felt it was Kissinger's trick.

WOODRUFF: As for the high-profile possibles, Henry Kissinger, of course, and Pat Buchanan. And David Gergen, and even Diane Sawyer, though she's hardly in the top tier.

Can this riddle be solved? Maybe we should just be patient.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Wasn't me.

The deadliest day in Iraq since elections eight days ago, that tops our look at what's happening around the world in the uplink.

In Baqubah, a car bombing targeted job-seekers outside a police station. We've seen this so many times before. Fifteen people were killed. Earlier in Mosul, 12 policemen were killed in another suicide bombing outside a hospital. Still targeting policemen.

In the Middle East, a truce, maybe. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders say that they will announce a cease-fire agreement at tomorrow's summit meeting in Egypt. Now, under the deal, Israel will halt incursions into Palestinian territories, Palestinians will stop attacking Israel. The aim is to end more than four years of fighting.

In France, breaking records. Twenty-eight-year-old British yachtswoman Ellen McArthur has broken the solo round-the-world sailing record. Amazingly, she did it in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and, well, 33 seconds. McArthur called it, quote, "an absolutely unbelievable voyage, both physically and mentally." I can hardly imagine.

And the Cooks Islands now, in the South Pacific, escape the worst. A cyclone, better known as a hurricane in these parts, ripped through the islands, flooding homes, causing some destruction. Thanks to advance warnings, however, most people moved to higher ground and storm shelters.

And near Mexico City, Mexico, a holy site? Some people say so. Hundreds of Catholics are flocking to an empty lot, where humidity from a drainage pipe has caused a water stain that they say is an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. The site was discovered two weeks ago by a construction worker.

That's a quick look what's happening around the world.

Religious sightings, of course, not as rare as you may think. They're actually quite frequent, though very few are actually authenticated by the Catholic Church.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Do you see the Virgin Mary on the side of this Florida office building? Or here on a fencepost in Australia? Or here, a hospital window in Massachusetts?

Thousands of people have looked at these images and said they see Mary.

Alleged sightings of the Virgin Mary have been happening for centuries. Only a handful of Mary apparitions have been authenticated by the Catholic Church, the first one dating back to 1531 in Guadalupe, Mexico. In 1838, in Lourdes, a French village, the Madonna allegedly appeared before a teenaged girl, Bernadette. Today, 5 million believers make a pilgrimage each year. Some hope to be cured of illness, others come simply to pray.

The 20th century saw a big increase in reports of apparitions. In 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, three children said they got a message from the Virgin, and tens of thousands of spectators claimed they saw a light in the sky.

Of the apparitions which are not yet church approved, Metagorga (ph) in Bosnia is perhaps the most famous. Since the apparitions allegedly began in 1981, millions of people of all faiths have visited.

And, of course, there are more recent sightings, many of them closer to home. Passaic, New Jersey, some said the Virgin Mary was seen in a tree trunk. Rawls (ph), Texas, residents said that's Mary in a smudge of melted chocolate on a porch. Campbell, Ohio, some said they saw the eyes of a Virgin Mary statue glowing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Sightings all around the world.

360 next, plane crash survivor, a flight attendant's harrowing brush with death. Find out how she helped pull others to safety.

Also tonight, they're calling her Getaway Mama. Police bust the mother of an alleged bank robber. That's the son. Then the mother got involved, accused of stealing and killing together. A bizarre set of family values this pair has.

And a little later, landslide in slow motion. A $2.5 million home, hanging by a thread, could collapse any minute. We'll take you there.

First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: in the terrible seconds before this corporate jet sped off the end of a New Jersey runway last week and then plowed into a warehouse, 22-year-old Angelica Calad-Gomez, who was taking time off from college to work as a flight attendant, watched through the cockpit windshield and just waited for the worst.

Tonight, she is telling her story of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Angelica Calad-Gomez considers herself lucky to be alive after walking away from the wreckage of a corporate jet crash in New Jersey last week with only minor injuries.

ANGELICA CALAD-GOMEZ, SURVIVED PLANE CRASH: It was exactly just what -- you watching a movie, and feeling like you're in it.

COOPER: The 22-year-old cabin aide had been working for Platinum Jet Management for only five months when the Canadair CL-600 failed to take off. The jet careened down the runway, plowed through a fence, skidded across a highway, and crashed into a warehouse.

CALAD-GOMEZ: I thought we were just about to take off. And when I realized, kind of in the middle of the runway, that we didn't lift, I just remember, I mean, looking at the building, closing my eyes, and hoping that it would just stop, and hoping that, you know, that we wouldn't just blow up and then something would happen to us. I was just praying to God.

COOPER: Calad-Gomez credits the plane's eight passengers with opening a jammed door, allowing her and everyone else on the flight to exit once the plane stopped moving.

CALAD-GOMEZ: And then they were able to get up and open that door, because the door was stuck. I crawled out of that plane, fell into the snow, slid through the snow, kept going straight, fell again. I was running with one boot. I was covered in gasoline from head to toe. I smelled like it, I tasted like it, I inhaled all the fumes.

COOPER: Despite the accident, Calad-Gomez says she hopes to be flying again as early as next week.

CALAD-GOMEZ: Oh, I will definitely continue. I will be back on the job as soon as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, they're calling her Getaway Mama, a mother accused of helping her son rob and murder. Find out why police say they teamed up. Also ahead, what secrets does your family hide? Every family does. Tonight, the secret life of a kleptomaniac, a suburban housewife compelled to steal, part of our special series, Family Secrets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, she cased the stores, he pulled the trigger. That is how police in New York say a mother and son ran their family business. Authorities believe they were in the business of murder. The pair are suspected in a string of armed jewelry store robberies that have left a trail of blood and tears.

CNN's Mary Snow reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was the target of a nationwide manhunt, accused of a deadly robbery spree in two states. One day after Christopher De Mello (ph) surrendered to SWAT teams in New Jersey, police arrested his mother and charged her with being his accomplice.

LT. DENNIS FARRELL, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: She was in the car when they were scouting potential sites. There's no question that she knew what was going on.

SNOW: Forty-year-old Mary Ann Taylor-Casey (ph) pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. But police say she told them she helped her son to get cash for heroin. She was arrested at a boarding home. Neighbors don't know much about her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, that's what you, the cops come all hours of the night, all hours of the day.

SNOW: Police accuse Taylor-Casey of driving a getaway car for her son from the scene of a December jewelry store robbery. A store manager was killed. Police don't know if she played a role in any of the other three robberies linked to her son. The latest one was last week in Fairfield, Connecticut. The husband-and-wife jewelry store owners were shot to death.

SGT. GENE PALAZZOLO, FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT, POLICE: His M.O. is to enter the store, gain the confidence of the employees and/or owners, under the pretense of wanting to buy jewelry or other items.

SNOW: But police say De Mello's reputation as a gambler helped officers track him down in Atlantic City, where he surrendered after a five-hour standoff. His girlfriend, Nicole Pierce (ph), also was taken into custody. Both are expected to extradited to New York Tuesday to face charges.

Police say De Mello, his girlfriend, and his mother have one thing in common, a heroin habit.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A verdict in a notorious church sex abuse trial, that story tops our look at news right now cross-country.

Cambridge, Mass., the verdict is guilty for this man, defrocked priest Paul Shanley. A jury found he repeatedly molested a boy in his church during the 1980s. He faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced February 15.

Monticello, Utah, a story we've been following, a couple accused of torturing five of their adopted children has agreed to return to Florida to face charges. John and Linda Dollar are accused of beating the children with hammers, of starving them, of even pulling their toenails out with pliers. These are just horrific, the accusations. They were captured in Utah on Friday night.

New York City now, the company that tracks these things say TV ratings for last night's Super Bowl were down. Nielsen Media Research says the New England Patriots' victory over the Philadelphia Eagles drew just over 86 million people, the least-watched of the team's three Super Bowl victories in the past four years. Still, the games are the most-watched TV event each year.

That's a quick look at stories right now cross-country.

Family secrets, everyone has them, things they hide from the outside world. Tonight, meet a suburban mom who couldn't stop stealing. The secret life of a kleptomaniac.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It never really occurred that I would ever get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And, why is she the most powerful woman in fashion? Tonight, an up-close look at Anna Wintour, what she thinks may affect what you wear.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: All families hide secrets, some are shameful, some simply embarrassing. All this week we're going to be looking at family secrets, problems that many of us experience but often don't talk about until it's too late. Tonight we turn the spotlight on a serious disorder that millions of people are said to suffer from, maybe even someone you know, someone in your family. It's the compulsion to shoplift. CNN's Adaora Udoji introduces us to one suburban mom who found herself unable to stop stealing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alyssa Tease, mom of three, wife and college grad is also a recovering shoplifter, a struggle that began innocently she says when her two-year-old son left a store holding a $40 toy.

ALYSSA TEASE, RECOVERING SHOPLIFTER: And I thought, hmm, got away with that, and I was exhilarated. I was exhilarated.

UDOJI: So it was completely by accident you discovered this.

TEASE: And I started to then chase that feeling, because it was so powerful.

UDOJI: So powerful it took her down a dark road of deceit for five years. Struggling with infant twins and a young son, she found relief in taking small $5 to $10 items, anything from Cheddar cheese to VHS tapes and she can't remember a run to the store or a vacation back then when she wasn't scheming.

TEASE: I remember that day as well stealing a souvenir for a neighbor of mine who was going to be watching my kids.

UDOJI: The shame, the guilt of keeping her secret from her husband, family and friends, was overwhelming. It got so bad when actress Winona Ryder was caught shoplifting in Beverly Hills she hoped the issue would get more attention. Like Tease, the vast majority of 23 million Americans who shoplift says the Association of Shoplifting Prevention are driven by personal angst and could afford to pay for what they take. Dr. Bethany Marshall says for kleptomaniacs it's a compulsion triggered by deep-rooted problems.

DR. BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: This is a compulsion that's painful, it's distressing, it's embarrassing. The kleptomania experiences a buildup of unbearable tension and anxiety that he or she can only alleviate through the act of stealing.

UDOJI: Tease knew it was wrong and got caught in a grocery store stealing salad dressing and DVDs with her seven-year-old son.

TEASE: They just walked right up to me and said, ma'am, what is in your purse? And I froze. I mean, I knew, that's it.

UDOJI: Your number was up?

TEASE: That's it.

UDOJI: At the same time it was a relief, she says. Her secret was out. Her sentence of probation required therapy and she says she hasn't stolen since.

TEASE: I feel better about myself when I come out of the store.

UDOJI: It must feel like a real victory every time you come out and you haven't taken anything.

TEASE: It does. UDOJI: Which is why she's talking about it publicly. She hopes to inspire others who are struggling to seek help and do it soon. Adaora Udoji, CNN, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the irresistible compulsion to steal and to keep it a shameful secret doesn't discriminate. Men, of course, suffer as well. Men like Terry Shulman. He's a therapist and author of the book "Something for Nothing" and a recovering kleptomaniac himself. He's the founder of Kleptomaniacs and Shoplifters Anonymous. He joins us tonight from Mangonia Park in Florida. Thanks very much for being with us, Terry. What's the difference between kleptomania and shoplifting? Is it stealing in other forms?

TERRY SHULMAN, RECOVERING KLEPTOMANIAC: Well, kleptomania is a very rare disorder, by the way, thank you for having me on, Anderson, and I think people like Alyssa ought to really be commended. This is a very cutting edge topic and a very shameful topic so I want to take my hat off to her and her bravery. Kleptomania is a very impulsive kind of stealing. It can be from stores, from the workplace, from a person's home, but mostly what we're dealing with is not kleptomania. We're dealing with something I would call shoplifting or theft addiction, which is more preplanned but compulsive. A person cannot resist the stealing, even if they're trying to talk themselves out of it, very much like an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sexual behavior, gambling, shopping, sexual behavior. And we have a way of looking at it in terms of an addiction recovery model. That's why I wrote the book, "Something for Nothing, Shoplifting, Addiction...

COOPER: You say most shoplifters fall into a couple of categories, overachievers, overgivers, people who think life is unfair and those who suffer from low self-esteem. Do some people use it as a justification for stealing though?

SHULMAN: Great question. Of course, some can, but if you look at any addict, that's kind of what their mindset is. They feel very much like they're blaming the world. They've been victims and what I try to do in both the counseling that I do locally and nationally, as well as what I write about in the book and in the support groups that I've started, is to tell people that there is a process through all of the blaming, through all of the excuses, but most people actually really feel a lot of shame and want to stop the behavior, but they don't even know there is a path. We heard a bit earlier that Alyssa got into therapy. I know for a fact that she's in a support group for this kind of behavior. There are very few groups for this behavior, because it is a kind of a new way of looking at things.

COOPER: How do you get them to stop? You stole apparently more than 1,000 times before coming clean, how do you stop it?

SHULMAN: I've been in recovery myself from shoplifting for 15 years. For everybody I work with, there's a slightly different path, but what I do encourage people to do is to approach it indeed as an addictive compulsive behavior and I will assess for that. And we have people get involved in a support group, if not locally because there are very few at least on an e-mail group that I created. The book has been valuable, there's a lot of key exercises that I ask people to do, and we track it, and we try to get to the bottom of why and when they first began stealing. And then we have a path to look at possible triggers and warning signs that could tempt them to steal again. And we've been very successful in ways that many other therapists have not been. So I'm greatly encouraged that you're doing a program on this.

COOPER: Well, it seems like the bottom line you ought to do is just take it seriously and treat it like any other addiction and address it as it should be addressed. Terry Shulman, we're out of time, but I appreciate you being with us. Thanks very much.

SHULMAN: Thank you, Anderson Cooper. And we have a website at Shoplifters Anonymous.com and the first international conference on theft addictions and disorders in Detroit in September and October.

COOPER: Terry, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

All this week we'll be revealing some of the ways that millions of us are living double lives. Tomorrow on 360 the secret life of a bigamist, and on Wednesday we're going to look at the secret lives of suburban wives. Thursday, the secret life of a porn addict, and on Friday, the secret life of a stripper. Covering all the angles on 360.

Coming up next, smashed. A young woman's sobering story of battling alcoholism. She was a child and routinely binge drinking and having blackout sex. How she quit cold turkey.

Plus, the most powerful woman in fashion worshipped by some feared by others. How she decides what you are going to be wearing. Part of our special look at New York's fashion week.

And a little later, Grammy awards preview. Green Day once the bad boys of punk music making a huge comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Some of you may recall that was from the dramatic movie "Kids." For many parents -- pretty shocking movie. It's about kids and drugs, sex and alcohol, all the stuff that made for a great Hollywood movie and real-life nightmare, of course, for parents. Now, a painful and powerful book is out. It's called "Smashed," the story of a drunken girlhood.

Joining me now is the author, Koren Zailckas, to talk about her incredible and sobering memoir.

Thanks very much for being with us.

KOREN ZAILCKAS, AUTHOR, "SMASHED": Thank you for having me.

COOPER: This is your first TV interview, I know you're a little nervous.

ZAILCKAS: Yes. COOPER: Thanks for being with us.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you.

COOPER: The book is getting a lot of attention. You were 14- years- old when you started drinking. What was the appeal.

ZAILCKAS: I didn't. I took my first drink at 14. It really seemed like a rite of passage at the time. I think when you're 14- years-old, I think you're sort of looking for markers that prove you're an adult and you're independent of your parents. That's what it felt like.

COOPER: But it became something more for you.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. It really took hold of it. It helped me become the person that I wanted to be. And I think you're trying on a lot of different roles when you're 14-years-old. So one day you're the good girl, and another day you're the bad girl, and the bad girl kind of stuck.

COOPER: you, at one point, you had your stomach pumped.

ZAILCKAS: Right.

COOPER: And yet, even that didn't stop you from drink. I mean, how soon after you had your stomach pumped did you think, all right, I want to drink again.

ZAILCKAS: I was 16 when I had my stomach pumped. And sort of month after that -- well, for a month after that, I said enough is enough, no more drinking. But I think girls are trained to put so much stock in their female friendships. And the idea of being isolated when all my friends were still out hitting the keg parties every weekend really scared me.

COOPER: It's scary though, because in the book, it's not as if your mom wasn't around. I mean, she was a stay-at-home mom.

ZAILCKAS: Right.

COOPER: And you say, you know, they asked all the right questions. You parents asked all the right questions. And it's sort of terrifying for parents to hear that.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. And if there was a will, there was a way. Yes, I was climbing out windows at friends' houses to go to parties. And I mean, alcohol was always readily available right there in the liquor cabinet. So...

COOPER: I mean, once you got to college, though, it sort of reached a whole new level. I mean, everyone's sort of -- there's a level of acceptance almost on college campuses that surprised you.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. The second I got to college, it was almost like a switch happened. And all of a sudden it was OK to be drinking underage. And teachers on a slow Friday morning class would say everyone started their weekends early.

COOPER: We have some pictures, I think, I don't know if we're showing them, of you during your college days. The thing -- I mean, the striking about pictures, everyone around you is drinking. So, it's not as if you were an aberration.

ZAILCKAS: Absolutely. I mean, I never considered that I might have a problem because I was always drinking in really social settings. And yes, in those pictures people are hanging all over me and I am hanging all over them. And alcohol really bonded us together.

COOPER: You write in the book, I'm ashamed of my gnarled soul which something that no surgeon can correct.

How has it changed you?

ZAILCKAS: Alcohol -- alcohol made me feel so -- it was the only way I could achieve self-confidence, I think. And I think it prevented me from doing a lot of things that you do in order to grow up, to feel comfortable in your skin, and bond with women and relate to men. And it sort of prevented me from doing a lot of that.

COOPER: I mean, write in the book about waking up next to guy, and you realized you'd lost your virginity somebody, you don't even remember.

ZAILCKAS: Right, I had no idea what happened. I might have, I might not have, and that's scary. And I think in a lot of ways that's a consequence that men don't have to worry about.

COOPER: And for parents who are listening to this tonight, because there are a lot of them out there, what's your advice to them about what to do with their kids -- their kids out there?

ZAILCKAS: I think it's really important to know what -- what and this behavior sort of starts and when the pressure to drink begins. It's not outrageous to sit down with your 12-year-old daughter, and say I know you're going to be pressured to drink soon, and kids will be drinking. But it's important to delay that first drink to -- 16's better than 14, 18 you're almost in the clear. We sort of don't understand how the alcohol affects the teenage brain.

COOPER: And once you get to college, it's such a whole completely different thing.

ZAILCKAS: I know.

COOPER: It's fascinating. It's great book, "Smashed," Koren Zailckas, appreciate you being with us. Thanks.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you for having me.

COOPER: All right, you did well on your first interview.

ZAILCKAS: Thank you. COOPER: Coming up next on 360, the queen of fashion, whether you shop at Saks or Kmart, one woman has a big say on what's on the racks. It's part of special look at New York's fashion week.

Plus 6 million albums sold in just four months, the band Green Day, making a big comeback, hoping to win big at the Grammy Awards.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Coco Chanel once said that, fashion is made to become unfashionable. I really don't understand what she was talking about, but I think it sort of explains the 1980's. Coco Chanel was huge trend setter of course. And now there's another women who has taken her place. She's not a designer. Her name is Anna Wintour, she's the power editor-in-chief of "Vogue" magazine. Wintour was the model for the boss from hell in the book, "The Devil wears Prada." She's now the subject of a new unauthorized biography, "Front Row," by Jerry Oppenheimer.

And you may not think Anna Wintour affects your life, but you might be surprised to learn how much she can influence what you wear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): She's the quintessential fashionista, the goddess of the garmentos. Anna Wintour, editor and chief of fashion Bible, "Vogue." She sits stone-faced in the front row at every runway show, and designers know she can make or break a current collection with the wave of a pen or the arch of an eyebrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She almost has a psychic sense (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COOPER: Some insiders call her Nuclear Wintour, for her somewhat icy demeanor. But she is the epitome of the style icon, worshipped by some, feared by others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If a designer were to come out on the record and attack Anna for doing something that would hurt him in some way, his business would go down the tube.

COOPER: She was a child of London in the swinging '60s, but according to an unauthorized biography of her called "Front Row," the woman with the world-famous bob and the ever-present shades was a high school dropout who clawed her way to the top of "Vogue," the hyperion of haute couture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anna's name came on people's radar I would think, newspaper radar, in bold face, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) radar, after she became editor in chief of "Vogue," which was in 1988, and that in itself is a major story.

COOPER: OK, so you're not surprised that fashion insiders can be a little, well, bitchy, but why should you care about Anna and her ilk? Because whether or not you're a wannabe fashionista, not much makes it down the runway or onto the rack without Anna's OK. Her blessings boost designers on a path to stardom.

ANNA WINTOUR, EDITOR IN CHIEF, VOGUE: I think what Tom Boad (ph) has done to totally change the image of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and make it every woman's dream again is just remarkable.

COOPER: And artists and writers in the rag trade hang on her every word.

WINTOUR: The main thing that's really, really happening is that clothes just have become completely seasonless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She controls a $160 billion a year fashion industry. Skirts rise and fall on her decision. Today, this week in New York, all the world's fashion top people are here -- designers, editors -- and they're looking at one person, Anna Wintour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I mean, exhausting. Anna Wintour would probably want nothing to do with this Sunday's Grammy Awards. After all, you know, it's so last year. I personally want to know who wins category 73, the best polka album. I don't even think Barry Mitchell was nominated. He was robbed yet again.

One band more into punk than polka is Green Day, and they have a chance to walk away with six Grammys this weekend. CNN's A.J. Hammer has a look at their return to the center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A.J. HAMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, otherwise known as Green Day.

MIKE DIRNT, GREEN DAY: Fifteen years. We've just been playing together a long time, and we're the true definition of a band.

HAMMER: Born into Northern California's underground punk scene in the late '80s, the guys slammed into commercial success with their 1994 release, "Dookie." The album sold 10 million copies worldwide and earned the group a Grammy for best alternative music performance, as well as respect in the music industry and street credit with fans.

Green Day were the new bad boys of punk.

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG, GREEN DAY: We always call a little bit of trouble. We wouldn't be Green Day if we weren't causing a little bit of trouble.

HAMMER: The band's three-string power chords and catchy, smart alec lyrics resonated with the masses, but provided little in terms of depth.

Back then, a quick buzz and validation, but fading sales on the band's next three releases suggested a shift in appetite. Green Day was losing traction with their audience. ARMSTRONG: We don't do this for the money, we don't do this for chicks, that's for sure. Obviously we're just kind of doing it because we like to sit in a Jacuzzi together from time to time.

HAMMER: Luckily, the formula was about to change. Time off with their growing families and a 30-something political awareness gave Green Day a new musical theme that would once again click with fans.

ARMSTRONG: We definitely wanted to outdo ourselves. You know, I mean, with every record that we've ever put out, you see a progression. With "American Idiot," it's like this is a kind of record that sort of separates from the rest of that pack. It's not just simply called a progression, it's like a statement, it's a piece of art.

HAMMER: A tale of social injustice, "American Idiot" has sold nearly six million albums in just four months, and earned an impressive seven Grammy nominations, including one for album of the year, a first for a punk rock group.

DIRNT: It's really honoring to get any sort of nod or a nomination, what have you. I mean, obviously you want it, but I kind of put it out of my mind, and by the time it hit us, it was like, oh!

HAMMER: Underscoring their punk turned mature rocker status, Green Day's most recent move is one of compassion, donating the proceeds of all iTunes sales of their hit single "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," to the victims of the tsunami.

ARMSTRONG: For us, it's really important for us to get involved in any way if we possibly could.

HAMMER: A.J. Hammer, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Beginning Monday, February 21st, just two weeks from today, A.J. Hammer will team up with co-host Karen Bryant for "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," a one-hour live entertainment news program on CNN'S HEADLINE NEWS. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" will air weeknights at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Wait a minute. That's my time slot. Anyway.

Now, let's see what's coming up in just two minutes on "PAULA ZAHN NOW" -- Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Shilling for the competition there, Anderson. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

COOPER: Well, I'm a nice guy.

ZAHN: All right, Anderson, thanks.

As you know, there's a bunch of films out there stirring up controversy. And the latest film under fire is Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby," but some critics are calling him a million- dollar bigot. We're going to show you why and take a closer look at the film that is becoming an Oscar favorite.

We'll also be talking with a former CIA operative to find out what we need to do to actually win the spy wars. And we're going to find out a little bit more about the man who may have the toughest job in the legal system -- the judge presiding over the Michael Jackson trial.

Anderson, remember Judge Ito?

COOPER: Yes.

ZAHN: That poor guy couldn't catch a break. We'll see what this judge is going to be up against, in what we're now calling the new trial of the century.

COOPER: Yeah, we hear he's a lot tougher than Ito was. It will be interesting to see your piece. Thanks very much, Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, so young, so focused, a 4-year- old driver. You're not going to believe what this kid did. We're going to take him to "The Nth Degree."

And tomorrow, the secret life of a bigamist. Part of our special series, "Family Secrets."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking precociousness to "The Nth Degree."

There is an absolutely astonishing prodigy among us, a stunning marvel of a little guy, and the sad fact is, we don't even know his name.

The Michigan police aren't releasing it, because this wonder of nature, who was picked up behind the wheel of his mother's car, after making a trip to the local video store at 1:30 in the morning, no less, is only 4 years old. 4! Think of it. That slouch, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, didn't come up with a tune we know as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" until he was 5. What was he doing before that, sitting around sucking his thumb? And the British philosopher John Stewart Mill was 7, 7, for Pete's sake, before he could read Plato in the original Greek. Clearly, little Johnny Mill wasn't applying himself, not really. And yes, Orson Welles got a lot of local media attention for playing two parts in a full-scale stage production he mounted himself, but he was 10 at the time. Big deal! Pitiful late bloomers, the lot of them, compared to our nameless 4-year-old movie fanatic of a driver.

And bear in mind that this little genius of ours only just coasted the video store. Think what he may be capable of when he can actually reach the gas pedal. Oh, the places he'll go and oh, the movies he'll rent. What a piece of work is man.

That's it for 360 tonight. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching. Prime-time coverage continues now with Paula Zahn -- Paula.

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