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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Police Handcuff Five-Year-Old; Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq

Aired April 22, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Why was a 5-year-old girl placed in handcuffs by police? Tonight, the startling tape that has parents outraged and America talking. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Cops cuff a 5-year-old girl. She acted out in kindergarten, and wound up in handcuffs. Tonight, what were police thinking, and what happened to the girl when the cuffs came off?

She said she found a finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili, but now she's under arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case became what could best be described as a CSI type of investigation.

COOPER: Tonight, CSI: California -- how cops say they figured out a finger fraud. But why can't they find where the real finger came from?

A helicopter shot down in Iraq. The sole survivor executed. Tonight, the brutality of insurgents, caught on tape.

The enemy within. Lone wolves, American extremists with hate in their hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love this country, just can't stand the bastards in it.

COOPER: Tonight, who are these lone wolves and what can be done to stop them?

And are you tired of being tired? If you're not sleeping right, the problem may be in your head. Tonight, I get wired up to find out what really happens in our heads when we drift off to sleep.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Good evening again. We're about to show you a videotape that will make you stop in your tracks. You're going to see a 5-year- old girl misbehaving in her kindergarten class. Now, that of course is nothing new, but what happens next is startling. Three police officers arrive on the scene and place the girl in handcuffs. It happened in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 5-year-old girl is named Jaisha (ph), and clearly what happens next is very disturbing.

Now, on 360, we don't take sides. Every story has more than one angle, more than one point of view. We're going to show you as much of the tape as we can and let you judge for yourself whether the girl was out of control, or the police were out of control. Here's CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you please stop that?

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first time we see Jaisha, she's in a classroom with a teacher at Fairmount Park Elementary School. Jaisha is throwing things on the ground and doesn't appear to be cooperating with the teacher's request to stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jaisha, we're not making a bigger mess, no, ma'am. No.

BAKHTIAR: At one point, Jaisha strikes out at Assistant Principal Nicole Di Benedetto, who has been called in to help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not touching you. You -- no, ma'am. We're not touching you; you don't touch me!

BAKHTIAR: Jaisha continues to defy their calls to calm down. She paces the room, sometimes destroying school property. At one point, Jaisha's kindergarten teacher, Christina Oderbach (ph), comes back into the room after having removed the other kids. Oderbach (ph) is visibly distraught.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It breaks my heart to see you do stuff like this.

BAKHTIAR: Then what appears to be the first small breakthrough. Jaisha agrees to pick up some toys, and the educators respond positively.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good choice. Thank you for cleaning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

BAKHTIAR: But later, Jaisha gets restless again. She's followed by Di Benedetto and another teacher out of sight of the camera, but we can hear a scuffle break out in the background.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch me. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. Stop. What are you trying to bite me for?

BAKHTIAR: Di Benedetto bends down to eye level and tries to talk to Jaisha about why she's so upset.

NICOLE DI BENEDETTO, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, FAIRMOUNT PARK ELEMENTARY: Why are you angry? You wanted to play? Was it time to play? BAKHTIAR: Jaisha calms down, but she must be moved to the assistant principal's office so the other students can return to the classroom. In the office, Jaisha's distress escalates, physically lashing out at Di Benedetto. But minutes later, when the police arrive, Jaisha is sitting quietly in a chair, seemingly calm, until the police move to take her away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to let you tell you mom to put handcuffs on you. Is there a problem?

JAISHA: No!

BAKHTIAR: The video ends after the arrest. Some educators in Florida have seen the tape and praised the school staff for their handling of the situation.

PROF. ROBERT EGLEY, USF ST. PETERSBURG: In my opinion, the educators responded admirably. The assistant principal gave the child a lot of room, a lot of distance. She used proper hand gestures and proper verbal commands. She allowed -- she gave the child several options to choose from on different occasions.

BAKHTIAR: The attorney hired by Jaisha's family doesn't agree.

JOHN TREVENA, FAMILY'S ATTORNEY: I'm concerned that the educators shadowed and hovered around the young girl. Certainly gives credence to the argument they may have been provoking her to act out more.

BAKHTIAR: St. Petersburg police have declined to comment while they're investigating the case, but the family's attorney says there's little doubt the police were heavyhanded with their methods.

TREVENA: There's no question that the police officers' actions are way over the top. Three police officers having to handcuff -- forcibly handcuff a 5-year-old little girl? I mean, come on. Does there need anything more, you know, to be said about that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: An official complaint by Jaisha's family has sparked an investigation by the police department. It just so happens that two of the three officers involved were new on the job and were being trained that day. A spokesman for the police department says that the investigation should be complete in about two weeks, and they will be making the findings public.

COOPER: Rudi, thanks very much for that. As I said, we try to cover all the angles on this program. Now, we wanted to talk with the police and the school system down there in St. Petersburg, get their point of view. We asked, they passed, saying an investigation is under way, as Rudi just mentioned, and they can't comment. Jaisha's mother, Inda Akins, is planning to sue the police for arresting and handcuffing her child, although the police say they didn't actually arrest her; they just handcuffed her and then ultimately let her go. I talked with her attorney, John Trevena, earlier in Tampa. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: John, let's talk about what happened before the police arrived. On this tape, we see Jaisha. I mean, she's clearly, you know, lashing out. She's kicking, she's punching at the assistant principal in the tape. She at one point jumps on a table. She's breaking things, breaks up the office. Do you have any problem with what the assistant principal was doing here?

TREVENA: Well, the only thing I question was the way the assistant principal and the other educators were hovering over the girl.

COOPER: What do you mean hovering?

TREVENA: Well, very close physical proximity. I mean, my experience with children, when they're upset or angry, you kind of step back, give them a little space and let the situation calm down on its own.

It seemed to me that upon watching that videotape several times, that the educators were almost provoking her by standing so close to her and continuously surrounding her.

COOPER: "The St. Petersburg Times", who you gave this tape to once you got it from police, they had a number of educators look at this and said that they thought the educators actually did very appropriate things. They got the other kids out of the room, they tried to de-escalate the situation. They don't try to touch her too much. You're not suing at this point the teachers or the school. Right now, you're just planing to sue the police, is that right?

TREVENA: That's correct. And we're going to evaluate whether there's any liability on the part of the school, but at this point our focus is clearly on the St. Petersburg police.

COOPER: Should police have been called?

TREVENA: Absolutely not. First of all, there's a campus police officer that's assigned there, who would normally handle anything involving that particular school, but these were actual patrol officers that were called and dispatched to the school.

COOPER: Now, this is actually the second time, I understand, that police have been called to deal with Jaisha. Is that true?

TREVENA: Well, there's clearly -- there was previous contact between the one officer and Jaisha, because on the tape you can hear him clearly say that he had told Jaisha's mother that he felt that she should put her in handcuffs, and then he proceeded to do so himself. So clearly there was some prior contact. The nature of that contact is unclear.

COOPER: So had the police told your client, Jaisha's mother, that they would put her in handcuffs at some point? TREVENA: No. She was never told that her daughter would be put in handcuffs. And quite frankly, if she had placed her child in handcuffs, she would have been arrested for felony child abuse. You can't put a child in handcuffs.

COOPER: This tape was sort of made -- I mean, it was almost accidentally made. They had a videotape -- a video camera there for another purpose. This is clearly the strongest part of your case.

TREVENA: Absolutely. It was a fluke that the arrest itself was captured on tape. Not the total arrest, because the tape mysteriously shuts off and goes to an empty room at the point that the child is taken into custody. But we have enough with what we see to go forward.

COOPER: We, of course, asked the police for a comment, we asked the school for a comment, they said they won't comment, an investigation is under way and they just simply won't comment at this time. Under any circumstances, in your opinion, is it OK to put handcuffs on a 5-year-old child?

TREVENA: I cannot fathom a circumstance where it is -- it would be necessary to handcuff a 5-year-old. And if you look at it closely, even in this case, the handcuffs didn't fit, and ultimately they had to use plastic ties. Handcuffs aren't made for 5-year-olds, and there's a reason for that. You don't take 5-year-olds into custody in that manner.

COOPER: And of course, a lot of people also point out, she was already sitting down, she already had seemed to calm down by the time the police got there, and then, of course, it escalated again. She was put in a police cruiser, later released.

We're going to continue following this. John Trevena, I appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

TREVENA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, they're calling it the finger food fraud. Police arrest the woman who claimed to have found a finger in her chili at Wendy's. Tonight, what really happened and can Wendy's get its customers back? And whose finger was it?

Plus, CSI: Wendy's. Find out how police are using advanced forensics to try to track down that very question, trying to track down where the finger came from.

Also ahead tonight, "Enemy Within," an up close look at American extremists, lone wolves they call them. A disturbing story on how one mans rage against the government ended in a hail of gunfire in a South Carolina town.

Take a quick look at the stories you've been checking out online, with popular stories on cnn.com, right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN JAY, WENDY'S REGIONAL DIR. OF MARKETING: To the Wendy's customers, we encourage you to come back to Wendy's and allow us to once again build your trust in Wendy's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, if you happen to be eating something at the moment, you might want to think about pausing for a second. No doubt, you've heard about the women who said she found a severed finger tip in her Wendy's chili. The story was a stomach turning, turned into a heartbreaker for Wendy's. Today, the story became a head scratcher. The alleged victim, she was arrested and police have fingered it a fraud.

CNN's Rusty Dornin takes us beyond the headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How did this get into a bowl of chili? Police say they're not sure, but they are sure, that this woman, Anna Ayala, hasn't been telling the truth about how she found it. The incident happened at Wendy's in San Jose, California last month.

Who's finger was it? Where did it come from? Police now say they're sure it wasn't Wendy's. Ayala's been charged with attempted grand theft, that's for the financial problem she allegedly caused Wendy's and its employees.

CHIEF ROB DAVIS, SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT: If the incident did not occur as Anna Ayala is explaining it to be, if people have suffered losses as a result of that, that can be a crime.

DORNIN: Within a day of incident, Wendy's scrambled into crisis mode, the digits of workers at the Wendy's where it happened were checked for all 10 fingers, they even took lie detector test. There were tip lines and a $50,000 reward, later doubled to $100,000. Endless interviews denying the allegations, and then there were the copy cats. Chicken bones, fingernails, and the list goes on of things people claimed to be finding in their food. Then the story got stranger, at one point, a woman who had her finger bitten off by a leopard wondered if it was hers. It wasn't. Her was three inches long, the digit in question, only an inch and half.

Ayala was visiting her family here when it happened, and her older sister claimed, despite the fact that she threatened to file a lawsuit against Wendy's, money was not the object.

MARY AYALA, SUSPECT'S SISTER: I've heard a lot of people make comments. They say, oh, she put it there. Oh, she's out to get a buck. DORNIN: Those comments flew fast and furious when it was discovered Ayala had a history of filing lawsuits against major corporations. Then earlier this month police in Las Vegas searched Ayala's home, following that search, she abruptly dropped her plans for a lawsuit against Wendy's. Wendy's spokesman says the damage is done. Business has been so bad here in the San Jose area, employees had to have hours cut and some were even laid off.

JAY: We feel that we have been victimized, and we are hope that our customers will recognize that, will understand that we are vindicated and they will come back to our restaurants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: As for Ayala, police are charging her for grand theft in another unrelated case. Claiming that she (INAUDIBLE) a women out of her life savings. What about the finger? Well, police say it's still under a microscope, and as far as Wendy's goes, the offer still stands, you tell us who the finger belongs to, and we'll give you the $100,000 reward -- Anderson.

COOPER: That's a Rusty Dornin, thanks. About the only thing that isn't questionable in this weird business, is the reality of the human fingertip itself. That is what it is, all right. It must have come from somewhere or rather from someone. Investigators do have some clues to work from. The digit is one and a half inches long. It was found in two pieces. And police are sure it is from a female because it has a long, manicured nail.

360 M.D., Sanjay Gupta, take a look at how forensic scientists approach such a bizarre clue. Please be aware, though, that some of what follows is a bit graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Even the real investigators of the mysterious finger in the Wendy's chili likened it to a TV crime drama.

DAVIS: Thus the case became what could be best described as a CSI type of investigation, which included both the forensic examination of fingertip tissue, as well as some excellent gumshoe work.

GUPTA: The TV show "CSI," crime scene investigation, it's two spinoffs and other shows like it have made forensic science cool and part of popular culture. A "CSI" type of investigation starts with a detailed look at all the clues.

(on camera): Whether it's analyzing human tissue or blood for a cancer patient or examining body parts for clues in a criminal case, the process usually begins here in a lab like this one in my hospital using complex machinery.

(voice-over): DNA testing is the most accurate of the forensic sciences, perhaps the greatest advance in the field. But it's not infallible. Different experts can make vastly different interpretations of the same DNA sample, or even worse in extremely rare case, contaminate a sample or confuse it with someone else's. Still, DNA testing is expensive and time consuming. And the most advanced machines are in high demand. But I got a peek at one of the best behind the scenes on the set of "CSI Miami."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, there's, obviously, one that's a little bit bigger and more advanced, but this is basically the workhorse of the DNA labs now.

GUPTA (on camera): And this is a real analyzer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes. This is a -- got some of the guts taken out of it, but it is what they use now in crime labs to do the DNA analysis. So we're fortunate to have that, and we actually have a lot of the software that they use.

GUPTA: And this is donated, you said, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.

GUPTA: About $200,000?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something like that. I could be off a bit, but very, very expensive.

GUPTA (voice-over): But even before you get to the machines, you have the gumshoe detective work, and the expertise technicians like Jose Hernandez (ph). He's often asked to identify an individual with nothing more than a finger, even a finger with no print.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the hand. You come into the case, you (INAUDIBLE) of the finger is very, very hard.

GUPTA (on camera): Can I put on some gloves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Nothing there.

GUPTA: So, this finger looked like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looked exactly like that, yes.

GUPTA: And now you can get a fingerprint off of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: And there's a fingerprint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA (voice-over): For now it's unclear whose finger this is. But with technology like this, they are almost certain to be found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And obviously, DNA and fingerprinting is just a small part of forensic science, overall. Really important to this particular case. We're going to do a lot more of this in a special we got coming up as well, Anderson, on May 15, "Anatomy of Murder." Everything you want to know about forensic science.

COOPER: Seeing them roll that finger was rather startling.

Let's talk about fingerprinting. I mean, we're talking about a finger, in this case, in this Wendy's incident, that I guess, been soaking in chili, to say the least, of whatever else it was in. Should they be able to identify the finger from the fingerprint alone? Have they taken a fingerprint, I guess?

GUPTA: Well, two things. First of all, you have to determine whether you have enough surface area to actually get a print. It looks like it just from what I've seen of these two parts of the finger. The other part is decomposition, which may, obviously, have happened, if it was cooked in some way, or in the chili as well.

You saw there from what we just presented that you can actually retrieve a fingerprint in just about every circumstance. There's a good chance they can get that. There's also about 47 million fingerprints in the national database. So, that's a good thing to keep in mind when you're trying to cross match these, Anderson.

COOPER: Well, fascinating. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.

Time now for a look at other stories making headlines across the country. Right now Erica Hill joins us now with the latest. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson. Good to see you. Al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty today to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks. He says he plans to fight the death penalty. In a statement of facts presented at today's hearing, Moussaoui said Osama bin Laden had personally selected him to attack the White House with a commercial airliner.

In Miami Beach, quite an awesome sight this morning. Not one, but two water spouts over the Atlantic Ocean. Made even more picturesque by a sailboat between them. Water spouts are revolving columns of air kind of like a tornado over water, but weaker, which is a good thing.

A rain shower appears to have calmed a huge brush fire in the Everglades that burned about 30 acres. Officials shut down the historic Tamiami Trail in both directions for part of the afternoon because of dense smoke. And it looks as though firefighters did save a nearby barbecue joint. It's still not clear how that fire started.

And the Today sponge contraceptive returned to the market a decade after it was pulled off store shelves. Its effectiveness and safety were never in question, the problem, the manufacturer stopped making them in 1995, rather than upgrade the plant where the FDA found deficiencies. The sponge will be available over the Internet in two months, later on at retailers. And Anderson, with that, cue your sponge-worthy jokes. COOPER: No jokes there. Erica Hill, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, insurgents shoot a chopper -- a chopper crash survivor in Iraq in cold blood. It's all caught on tape. If you want to see what the U.S. and Iraqis are up against, well, you'll see it all on this tape.

Also ahead tonight, the enemy within, lone wolves, they call them, American extremists. Find out why two brothers declare war on the government that ended in a deadly shoot out.

A little later tonight, inside your brain while you sleep. Find out what happens when you're slumbering. I get all hooked up to take -- whoa, what was that -- all hooked up to take the test. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We want to warn you, some of the images of this next story are disturbing. But we think it's important you see this tape. It's important you see the reality of how the insurgents in Iraq are fighting.

The tapes you're about to see apparently show a commercial helicopter being shot down, the one that crashed north of Baghdad yesterday. All on board, including six Americans were killed.

But when you watch one of the videos, you'll notice that one person apparently survived the crash. Now, it's at that point you really see what kind of monsters are roaming Iraq. Here's CNN's Ryan Chilcote.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The insurgent video shows the burning wreckage of the helicopter. There are pictures we can't show you of burned bodies.

The scene changes to a field of tall grass. A voice can be heard telling the cameraman in Arabic, look at this dirty man.

The Bulgarian company that operated the helicopter says this man was the commander of the flight crew, a Bulgarian citizen who somehow survived the crash.

Images released later by another insurgent group may give a clue as to how the helicopter crashed. They show a Russian-made helicopter flying low in the distance. Shortly after, the tape records two thuds, the helicopter bursts into flames and falls to the earth.

CNN cannot vouch for the authenticity of this video, nor had we ever heard of the insurgent group the Army of Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the attack. But the images appear consistent with these from closer up from a better known group that calls itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. This pictures include what happened to the Bulgarian helicopter commander back in the tall grass.

The man is instructed, in English, to get up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand up. Stand up.

CHILCOTE: He responds in a whisper, asking for help.

UNIDENTIFIED: Something's broken (ph).

CHILCOTE: Eventually, he is pulled up, asked in Arabic if he is armed. And receives one final instruction. To walk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go.

CHILCOTE: In Arabic, the photographer asks someone off camera to wait until he gets his picture. The man begins to turn around and is shot. Falling to the ground. The shooter continues firing, more than 15 shots in all.

The U.S. military says an investigation team has surveyed the crash site. And all 11 bodies of those aboard the helicopter have been recovered. The U.S. military says it has not definitively determined what caused the chopper to go down.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ryan didn't mention it, but you can hear on that tape when that man was being shot -- that unarmed man being shot -- they were saying Allah akbar, "God is great."

The six Americans killed in that crash were employees of Blackwater USA, a security contractor that protects American and Iraqi officials as well as installations. It's had its share of casualties in Iraq.

Here's a quick news note. In March of last year, you'll remember four Blackwater USA employees were killed and mutilated by insurgents in Falluja. Their remains hanged from a nearby bridge.

Blackwater says in all, 18 of its employees have died since the war in Iraq began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: "The Enemy Within" lone wolves, American extremists with hate in their hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love this country, I just can't stand the bastards in it.

COOPER: Tonight, who are these lone wolves. And what can be done to stop them? And are you tired of being tired? If you're not sleeping right, the problem may be in your head. Tonight, I get wired up to find out what really happens in our heads when we drift off to sleep. 360 continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: This week, we've been looking at home-grown threats to our national security in our special series, "The Enemy Within." Tonight, we focus on the lone wolf, the terrorist who acts alone within our borders, and is often very difficult to trace. CNN's Rick Sanchez reports on one deadly attack that caught a small town by surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abbeville, South Carolina, a town that prides itself as the birthplace of the Confederacy.

Chiropractor Craig Gagnon is called Doc in Abbeville. He got a strange phone call one morning from one of his patients.

(on camera): And she says what?

CRAIG GAGNON, CHIROPRACTOR: She says, Craig, this is Rita Bixby. I just wanted to let you know that it's begun and Steven has shot a deputy. And I said, well, when did this happen? She said, about 15 minutes ago. He came into the house and Steven shot him. And I said well, how is the deputy? She says, well, I don't suppose he's doing too good right about now, seeing how Steven shot him with a 7 millimeter.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Hell was about to break loose in Abbeville that day, and it wouldn't be just a shootout. It would be a family's declaration of war against the government, and Gagnon would find himself right smack in the middle of it.

Because after the call from Rita Bixby, Gagnon and his partner raced to the scene, where they found a car with the engine still running, a deputy's car.

So when they saw another officer arrive, they tried to warn him. "Don't go toward the house," Gagnon's partner shouted. It was too late.

GAGNON: When I saw -- when I heard an explosion from the house and instantly knew it was a shot, and I heard the glass hit the front porch, after the shot. It was just a weird -- it was almost like it was in slow motion almost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got shots fired.

SANCHEZ: What he heard was a second shot, a second officer down. Constable Donny Ouzts now lay dying just steps from the Bixbys' front door, while his fellow officer, Danny Wilson, lay dying inside the Bixby home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). They got an officer down.

SANCHEZ: Police, even Gagnon, tried talking Steven and Arthur Bixby out of the house. It didn't work. They were headed for a showdown. A massive gunfight.

GAGNON: When they started finally exchanging gunfire, you could hear the service revolvers of the agents, and you could hear Steven in the house, boom, boom! So it would be an exchange.

SANCHEZ: Hundreds, maybe thousands of rounds were exchanged, and it took all that, as well as countless canisters of tear gas, over 13 hours to get the Bixbys to give themselves up, to be charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of the two officers.

(on camera): And what was this all about? This small chunk of land. The government wanted to expand Highway 72 onto their property. How much property? We'll count it for you. One, two, three steps.

(voice-over): It was government surveyors preparing that piece of land three days earlier that had apparently set off the Bixbys. But local law enforcement officials are convinced there was more to it. They call it an ambush, a setup against anyone wearing a uniform.

CHIEF NEAL HENDERSON, ABBEVILLE, SC POLICE: Whether it was the UPS man, the mailman, a meter reader, whatever, the first person to step foot on that property that day was going to get it.

SANCHEZ: In fact, in court, the day after the shootout, Steven Bixby revealed what touched off the family's rage.

STEVEN BIXBY, ACCUSED KILLER: Why did I do it? We didn't do it. They started it. They started it, and if we can't be any freer than that in this country, I'd just as soon die.

SANCHEZ: Even though the Bixbys would actually have gained, not lost land. Bixby referred to the government as "Communist bureaucratic dictators," and claimed that he had a constitutional right to revolution.

BIXBY: Ruby Ridge. Waco. This country's shown what it is. I love this country, just can't stand the bastards in it.

SANCHEZ: The Bixbys brought their defiant anti-government and pro-property right stance with them when they moved to South Carolina.

BIXBY: I'm originally from New Hampshire, where the motto is "live free or die." (INAUDIBLE).

SANCHEZ: Back in New Hampshire, a Superior Court judge had feared the Bixbys so much, she asked for and received around-the-clock police protection.

In law enforcement terms, Steven Bixby is a lone wolf, driven to act by his anti-government views. And he's not the only one.

Even though the nation's attention has shifted since 9/11 to the threat from al Qaeda, the danger here at home remains enormous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luckily for all of us, up to this point they have not been as organized or nearly as sophisticated as al Qaeda.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Not as organized, not as sophisticated -- that doesn't mean they're not trying. 360 next, "The Enemy Within:" Lone wolves and the people trying to track them down. Part two of our special report.

Also ahead tonight, ever wonder what happens when you go to sleep inside your mind? I got wired up to find out.

And trying to kick the habit. Yeah, this guy, yeah. We'll explain. Believe me, we'll explain. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We continue with our special series, the "Enemy Within."

Before the break we told you about a deadly shootout in Abbeville, South Carolina. Now, police say a man they call a lone wolf killed two police officers back in December of 2003. Lone wolves are a big threat to national security. Police say, they're often difficult to track because they don't act through terrorist organizations. They're isolated cells or individuals.

CNN's Rick Sanchez follows those who try to hunt them down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigator Joe Roy watches things that would make your stomach turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There isn't a Jew on this earth that deserves to live for what they have done to our race.

SANCHEZ: On this day, he's monitoring a speech from Reverend James Wickstrom at a neo-Nazi rally.

REVEREND JAMES WICKSTROM: The Jews will go away, because they're all going to die. And I say that with my heart. What you do with this, and how you handle it is strictly going to be between you..

JOE ROY, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: It's the lone wolf thing.

SANCHEZ: At the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, Roy and others keep a constant watch on people who may be driven to act after hearing such hateful language. People who evolve from hate filled to violent, like Oklahoma City Bomber, Tim McVeigh, and quite possibly, Steven Bixby (ph).

However, since 9/11, the hunt for these types has not been the top priority for U.S. law enforcement.

(on camera): Do they ignore domestic terrorism at their own peril?

ROY: Well, sure. I think anybody that ignores it, it's their own peril.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: It's not only Osama bin Laden out there. It's not only people with turbans on who are capable of blowing you and your family up. That there are actual, you know, real life Americans, people from -- people who are our neighbors.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): People like William Krar, arrested in texas With enough sodium cinide to potentially kill thousands. He's now in federal prison. And Steven Jordi, arrested and convicted for planning to firebomb abortion clinics. And what about the anthrax killer? Remember him? The one who terrorized all of us after 9/11, but he still hasn't been caught.

(on camera): Do you think that person -- that person out there, the anthrax killer is a lone wolf?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I don't think there's any question.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Mark Potok was a newspaper reporter who joined the center after seeing the carnage that Tim McVeigh wrought on Oklahoma City. Now he runs the "Intelligence Report," the center's magazine, which exposes extremists groups on both right and the left.

POTOK: What is our aim, our aim is to destroy these groups, if possible.

SANCHEZ: And they've had success by working with law enforcement and bringing civil suits against groups like the Neo Nazi National Alliance, whose former reader wrote the book that inspired Tim McVeigh.

POTOK: Two years ago, these people were all staff at the National Alliance. Every one of these people is now gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

SANCHEZ: Security here is tight -- for good reason. They've made lots of enemies, even been fire bombed.

(on camera): Do you worry about your own safety or the safety of this building and the people who work inside here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is that there are close to 30 people in federal prison for various plots over the last 20 years to blow this place up or to assassinate its founder.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): There's something else that worries Potok and Roy these days, and it may be a product of their own success. While they've manage to splinter or eliminate large, well organized hate groups, they may have made it harder to keep track of their former members, who could be spurred to act after hearing speeches like this one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And give them the holocaust that they rightly deserve.

SANCHEZ: (on camera): Whether it's a small town in the south like Abbeville or a big city in the Midwest, the big question that remains is how many others -- how many others living perhaps in communities like our own, could have an ax to grind against the government?

(voice-over): And are willing to act on it, as Steve Bixby is now accused of.

KOTOK: It's inevitable that's we'll see another Bixby shootout. There'll be something more like this. There's something like it almost every year.

SANCHEZ: But how do you stop it? How do you stop the lone wolf? In Abbeville, the chief of police knew Steven Bixby, even drove him around town, thought he was loud, strange. But capable of murdering two police officers on that day in December 2003?

CHIEF NEAL HENDERSON, ABBEVILLE POLICE: You never would think nothing like this would happen in a town of 6,000 people. This guy here, you never saw it coming. I never saw anything like this coming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Never saw it coming.

Time no for a look some of the other stories making headlines right now. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest, Erica.

HILL: Hey, Anderson.

We'll start off in Iraq where it seems in recent days that violence may have been getting worse.

We're actually going to get to that story in just a moment.

Let's start off instead with a little bit of irony for President Bush today, as nature itself forced him to cancel an Earth Day appearance, celebrating Earth Day, of course, today. He had planned to visit the great Smoky Mountain National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. But because of the threat of hail and thunderstorms, Mr. Bush made Earth Day remarks from an airport outside of Knoxville instead. He urged Congress to the pass the air pollution proposal which he calls Clear Skies.

The Virginia Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty for Washington D.C. area snipper, John Allen Muhammad. He was convicted on two capital murder counts on the shooting death of a man in Manassas, Virginia. Lawyers for Mohammed had argued he couldn't be sentenced to death because he was not the trigger man. Mohammed's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo has entered a plea deal for the Manassas killing. And was convicted for one of the other nine murders attributed to the pair.

In Germany a federal court has ordered a retrial for a man found guilty last year of killing and eating another man. Prosecutors say they hope to put the convicted cannibal away for longer than eight and a half years, that what he as originally sentenced to. The man did confess to the killing, but claims the victim answered an Internet posting, seeking a young man for slaughter and consumption.

Lets lighten things up at the end of the night shall we. Officials at a zoo in South Africa asking the public to just stop throwing the butts to their start chimpanzee. They say chimp, his name is Charlie (ph), was evidently mimicking the movement of smokers near his pen, so people started tossing him cigarettes. One of the zoo keepers says too, Anderson, he apparently kind of sneaks and hides them just like a kid would with their parents.

COOPER: A true smoker. I love the fact that all kids there are sitting there applauding Charlie the chimp smoking. That's not a good thing.

HILL: Isn't that wild? And who's throwing cigarettes, by the way, at the chimp?

COOPER: Morons, morons.

Erica, thanks very much. Have a great weekend.

HILL: You to.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, inside your brain when you sleep a lot is going on. I, actually, wired myself up to see what happens -- actually, other people -- professionals wired me up, thankfully. If you're having trouble getting some Z's, you can't miss that report. No, that's not me while I'm sleeping, by the way. That's not me either. Anyway, I'm much more calm. And I also sleep in my jammies.

Also tonight, a 5-year-old girl handcuffed by police at school. This is her assistant principal trying to calm her down, then the police come, they put her in handcuffs. We showed you the tape at the top of the program. You're going to see the it again in a few minutes. Judge for yourself whether you think cops were right or wrong. You're e-mails are pouring in. Most of you, actually, seem to agree with the cops.

Send us your thoughts, cnn.com/360, click on the instant feedback link.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know, sleep is something we, of course, all do, but actually know very little about, which is remarkable considering it should take up about a third of our lives. But for many of us, eight hours of shut eye is just a dream. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 83 -- what's going on there, it's very dark there -- 82 million Americans do not get enough sleep, and the consequences could be far reaching. That's why all next week we're bringing you a new series "Sleepless in America" devoted to helping you or someone you know get a better night's sleep.

First, to find out exactly what happens when you doze off, I volunteered to undergo an experiment that involved a pair of blue jammies and enough wiring to build a switchboard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the electrodes that are going to go over your head.

COOPER (voice-over): The night began by getting wired up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You shouldn't feel anything at all.

COOPER: The electrodes measure breathing, muscle movement, eye movement, brain waves, even pulse, all of which will tell doctors if I have sleeping disorders.

(on camera): It's one of those things that seemed like a good idea in the office.

(voice-over): With so many cables attached to me, frankly, I didn't think I could get sleep...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, you can try to get some sleep right now. Good night.

COOPER: But surprisingly, it didn't take long.

Sleep may seem like a restful time, but there's actually a lot going on inside your head.

(MUSIC)

COOPER: All of us go through several stages of sleep, often in 90-minute cycles that repeat throughout the night.

Stage one is the transition from being awake to asleep. It starts off when your eyes slowly begin to roll. Stage two, your heart rate slows and body temperature drops. Stages three and four are the deep sleep periods when your body carries out most of the repair work.

REM sleep, is the final stage of the sleep cycle. REM stands for rapid eye movement, it's the time of night we have the most vivid dreams.

During REM sleep, your bodies skeletal muscles shut down so you don't act out your dreams. But some people's muscles keep working, they suffer from REM sleep behavior disorder, which means they can dangerously act out they're dreams. Sleep clinics are used to observe many sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome and sleepwalking.

Thankfully, my sleep was not so exciting. Dr. Gary Zamit (ph) monitored my sleep cycles, which turns out, are pretty normal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I detect mild snoring here, but nothing...

COOPER: That I deny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I do not snore.

Sleep is vital, research shows creativity and problem solving greatly improve with sleep. Sleep even plays a crucial role in mastering physical activities like playing the piano or riding a bike.

Sleep does not come easily, of course, to many of us which is why all next week in our special series "Sleepless in America," we're going to focus on how you can get the best night of sleep possible.

Now, let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour on PAULA ZAHN NOW. Hey, Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Weren't you kind of relieved, Anderson, that you didn't go into that REM cycle and do any acting out of any kind on camera?

COOPER: I was very relieved, yes. I must admit.

ZAHN: That was fascinating to watch. It's probably a little intimidating to be all wired up like that and do it. Look forward to the series next week. Thanks.

Tonight, we're going to focus on a woman who's lived her life in the headlines and on the big silver screen. Oscar winner Nicole Kidman is trying her hand at political thriller genres with Sean Penn. But she's played many challenging roles, including a heart breaker, the role in a real life Hollywood marriage that fell apart.

Nicole Kidman's story in her own words at the top of the hour.

COOPER: Great, in about six minutes from now. Thanks, Paula.

360 next, the video America is talking about. We're going to show it to you again, a five-year-old girl handcuffed by police. Her mom plans to sue. We'll show you the tape. You can judge from yourself. Your e-mails are pouring in. Send us your thoughts, cnn.com/360. Click on the instant feedback link. Were police right or way out of line, what do you think?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, your e-mails have been pouring in about the video we showed you earlier in the program. We're going to show it to you again. A five-year-old girl, little girl in St. Petersburg, Florida who was handcuffed by police after really throwing a temper tantrum against her assistant principal. Here's the tape. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! no! no!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull her hands down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead. Don't worry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: They put the handcuffs on her, then they put little flexible flyer handcuffs on her, then they ultimately released her.

Jim from Ontario writes, "regarding the little girl put in handcuffs, it appears the school staff are well trained and acted admirably." You're not seeing this part of the tape where the school administrators really tried to calm the girl down. "I believe the police also did the right thing" says our e-mailer, "I believe the police did the right thing to prevent any physical injury to the child by using three officers instead of one."

Kathy from Canada completely different point of view, "I'm outraged over the police handcuffing a small child." She says, "who does that to a baby. The police were dead wrong. The five-year-old is still a baby in my mind, she says. I would sue if that was done to my child. Unbelievable and sick."

Well, this little girl's mother is suing police, maybe suing school officials as well.

Paul from Texas e-mails saying, "Anderson, if I had acted like the little girl in your news, I would have gotten my butt paddle paddled by the teacher and again by my own mother when I got home. I don't recall having too much trouble with kids back in those days."

Tracy from Toronto writes, "I'm a second grade teacher in Toronto who wholly supports the police in handcuffing that five-year-old girl. I've taught six and seven-year-olds who throw chairs at teachers, students, hit and kick principals and bite others. One child lit a girl's hair on fire, gave a teacher's assistant whiplash and a sprained neck. The common response is to let the child get away with it."

A lot of points of view. We like to have all points of view on 360. We don't take sides. We cover all the angles.

Thanks for watching this edition of 360. Our primetime coverage continues right now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.

END

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 April 22, 2005 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Why was a 5-year-old girl placed in handcuffs by police? Tonight, the startling tape that has parents outraged and America talking. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Cops cuff a 5-year-old girl. She acted out in kindergarten, and wound up in handcuffs. Tonight, what were police thinking, and what happened to the girl when the cuffs came off?

She said she found a finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili, but now she's under arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case became what could best be described as a CSI type of investigation.

COOPER: Tonight, CSI: California -- how cops say they figured out a finger fraud. But why can't they find where the real finger came from?

A helicopter shot down in Iraq. The sole survivor executed. Tonight, the brutality of insurgents, caught on tape.

The enemy within. Lone wolves, American extremists with hate in their hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love this country, just can't stand the bastards in it.

COOPER: Tonight, who are these lone wolves and what can be done to stop them?

And are you tired of being tired? If you're not sleeping right, the problem may be in your head. Tonight, I get wired up to find out what really happens in our heads when we drift off to sleep.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Good evening again. We're about to show you a videotape that will make you stop in your tracks. You're going to see a 5-year- old girl misbehaving in her kindergarten class. Now, that of course is nothing new, but what happens next is startling. Three police officers arrive on the scene and place the girl in handcuffs. It happened in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 5-year-old girl is named Jaisha (ph), and clearly what happens next is very disturbing.

Now, on 360, we don't take sides. Every story has more than one angle, more than one point of view. We're going to show you as much of the tape as we can and let you judge for yourself whether the girl was out of control, or the police were out of control. Here's CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you please stop that?

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first time we see Jaisha, she's in a classroom with a teacher at Fairmount Park Elementary School. Jaisha is throwing things on the ground and doesn't appear to be cooperating with the teacher's request to stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jaisha, we're not making a bigger mess, no, ma'am. No.

BAKHTIAR: At one point, Jaisha strikes out at Assistant Principal Nicole Di Benedetto, who has been called in to help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not touching you. You -- no, ma'am. We're not touching you; you don't touch me!

BAKHTIAR: Jaisha continues to defy their calls to calm down. She paces the room, sometimes destroying school property. At one point, Jaisha's kindergarten teacher, Christina Oderbach (ph), comes back into the room after having removed the other kids. Oderbach (ph) is visibly distraught.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It breaks my heart to see you do stuff like this.

BAKHTIAR: Then what appears to be the first small breakthrough. Jaisha agrees to pick up some toys, and the educators respond positively.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good choice. Thank you for cleaning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

BAKHTIAR: But later, Jaisha gets restless again. She's followed by Di Benedetto and another teacher out of sight of the camera, but we can hear a scuffle break out in the background.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch me. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. Stop. What are you trying to bite me for?

BAKHTIAR: Di Benedetto bends down to eye level and tries to talk to Jaisha about why she's so upset.

NICOLE DI BENEDETTO, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, FAIRMOUNT PARK ELEMENTARY: Why are you angry? You wanted to play? Was it time to play? BAKHTIAR: Jaisha calms down, but she must be moved to the assistant principal's office so the other students can return to the classroom. In the office, Jaisha's distress escalates, physically lashing out at Di Benedetto. But minutes later, when the police arrive, Jaisha is sitting quietly in a chair, seemingly calm, until the police move to take her away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to let you tell you mom to put handcuffs on you. Is there a problem?

JAISHA: No!

BAKHTIAR: The video ends after the arrest. Some educators in Florida have seen the tape and praised the school staff for their handling of the situation.

PROF. ROBERT EGLEY, USF ST. PETERSBURG: In my opinion, the educators responded admirably. The assistant principal gave the child a lot of room, a lot of distance. She used proper hand gestures and proper verbal commands. She allowed -- she gave the child several options to choose from on different occasions.

BAKHTIAR: The attorney hired by Jaisha's family doesn't agree.

JOHN TREVENA, FAMILY'S ATTORNEY: I'm concerned that the educators shadowed and hovered around the young girl. Certainly gives credence to the argument they may have been provoking her to act out more.

BAKHTIAR: St. Petersburg police have declined to comment while they're investigating the case, but the family's attorney says there's little doubt the police were heavyhanded with their methods.

TREVENA: There's no question that the police officers' actions are way over the top. Three police officers having to handcuff -- forcibly handcuff a 5-year-old little girl? I mean, come on. Does there need anything more, you know, to be said about that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: An official complaint by Jaisha's family has sparked an investigation by the police department. It just so happens that two of the three officers involved were new on the job and were being trained that day. A spokesman for the police department says that the investigation should be complete in about two weeks, and they will be making the findings public.

COOPER: Rudi, thanks very much for that. As I said, we try to cover all the angles on this program. Now, we wanted to talk with the police and the school system down there in St. Petersburg, get their point of view. We asked, they passed, saying an investigation is under way, as Rudi just mentioned, and they can't comment. Jaisha's mother, Inda Akins, is planning to sue the police for arresting and handcuffing her child, although the police say they didn't actually arrest her; they just handcuffed her and then ultimately let her go. I talked with her attorney, John Trevena, earlier in Tampa. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: John, let's talk about what happened before the police arrived. On this tape, we see Jaisha. I mean, she's clearly, you know, lashing out. She's kicking, she's punching at the assistant principal in the tape. She at one point jumps on a table. She's breaking things, breaks up the office. Do you have any problem with what the assistant principal was doing here?

TREVENA: Well, the only thing I question was the way the assistant principal and the other educators were hovering over the girl.

COOPER: What do you mean hovering?

TREVENA: Well, very close physical proximity. I mean, my experience with children, when they're upset or angry, you kind of step back, give them a little space and let the situation calm down on its own.

It seemed to me that upon watching that videotape several times, that the educators were almost provoking her by standing so close to her and continuously surrounding her.

COOPER: "The St. Petersburg Times", who you gave this tape to once you got it from police, they had a number of educators look at this and said that they thought the educators actually did very appropriate things. They got the other kids out of the room, they tried to de-escalate the situation. They don't try to touch her too much. You're not suing at this point the teachers or the school. Right now, you're just planing to sue the police, is that right?

TREVENA: That's correct. And we're going to evaluate whether there's any liability on the part of the school, but at this point our focus is clearly on the St. Petersburg police.

COOPER: Should police have been called?

TREVENA: Absolutely not. First of all, there's a campus police officer that's assigned there, who would normally handle anything involving that particular school, but these were actual patrol officers that were called and dispatched to the school.

COOPER: Now, this is actually the second time, I understand, that police have been called to deal with Jaisha. Is that true?

TREVENA: Well, there's clearly -- there was previous contact between the one officer and Jaisha, because on the tape you can hear him clearly say that he had told Jaisha's mother that he felt that she should put her in handcuffs, and then he proceeded to do so himself. So clearly there was some prior contact. The nature of that contact is unclear.

COOPER: So had the police told your client, Jaisha's mother, that they would put her in handcuffs at some point? TREVENA: No. She was never told that her daughter would be put in handcuffs. And quite frankly, if she had placed her child in handcuffs, she would have been arrested for felony child abuse. You can't put a child in handcuffs.

COOPER: This tape was sort of made -- I mean, it was almost accidentally made. They had a videotape -- a video camera there for another purpose. This is clearly the strongest part of your case.

TREVENA: Absolutely. It was a fluke that the arrest itself was captured on tape. Not the total arrest, because the tape mysteriously shuts off and goes to an empty room at the point that the child is taken into custody. But we have enough with what we see to go forward.

COOPER: We, of course, asked the police for a comment, we asked the school for a comment, they said they won't comment, an investigation is under way and they just simply won't comment at this time. Under any circumstances, in your opinion, is it OK to put handcuffs on a 5-year-old child?

TREVENA: I cannot fathom a circumstance where it is -- it would be necessary to handcuff a 5-year-old. And if you look at it closely, even in this case, the handcuffs didn't fit, and ultimately they had to use plastic ties. Handcuffs aren't made for 5-year-olds, and there's a reason for that. You don't take 5-year-olds into custody in that manner.

COOPER: And of course, a lot of people also point out, she was already sitting down, she already had seemed to calm down by the time the police got there, and then, of course, it escalated again. She was put in a police cruiser, later released.

We're going to continue following this. John Trevena, I appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.

TREVENA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, they're calling it the finger food fraud. Police arrest the woman who claimed to have found a finger in her chili at Wendy's. Tonight, what really happened and can Wendy's get its customers back? And whose finger was it?

Plus, CSI: Wendy's. Find out how police are using advanced forensics to try to track down that very question, trying to track down where the finger came from.

Also ahead tonight, "Enemy Within," an up close look at American extremists, lone wolves they call them. A disturbing story on how one mans rage against the government ended in a hail of gunfire in a South Carolina town.

Take a quick look at the stories you've been checking out online, with popular stories on cnn.com, right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN JAY, WENDY'S REGIONAL DIR. OF MARKETING: To the Wendy's customers, we encourage you to come back to Wendy's and allow us to once again build your trust in Wendy's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, if you happen to be eating something at the moment, you might want to think about pausing for a second. No doubt, you've heard about the women who said she found a severed finger tip in her Wendy's chili. The story was a stomach turning, turned into a heartbreaker for Wendy's. Today, the story became a head scratcher. The alleged victim, she was arrested and police have fingered it a fraud.

CNN's Rusty Dornin takes us beyond the headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How did this get into a bowl of chili? Police say they're not sure, but they are sure, that this woman, Anna Ayala, hasn't been telling the truth about how she found it. The incident happened at Wendy's in San Jose, California last month.

Who's finger was it? Where did it come from? Police now say they're sure it wasn't Wendy's. Ayala's been charged with attempted grand theft, that's for the financial problem she allegedly caused Wendy's and its employees.

CHIEF ROB DAVIS, SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT: If the incident did not occur as Anna Ayala is explaining it to be, if people have suffered losses as a result of that, that can be a crime.

DORNIN: Within a day of incident, Wendy's scrambled into crisis mode, the digits of workers at the Wendy's where it happened were checked for all 10 fingers, they even took lie detector test. There were tip lines and a $50,000 reward, later doubled to $100,000. Endless interviews denying the allegations, and then there were the copy cats. Chicken bones, fingernails, and the list goes on of things people claimed to be finding in their food. Then the story got stranger, at one point, a woman who had her finger bitten off by a leopard wondered if it was hers. It wasn't. Her was three inches long, the digit in question, only an inch and half.

Ayala was visiting her family here when it happened, and her older sister claimed, despite the fact that she threatened to file a lawsuit against Wendy's, money was not the object.

MARY AYALA, SUSPECT'S SISTER: I've heard a lot of people make comments. They say, oh, she put it there. Oh, she's out to get a buck. DORNIN: Those comments flew fast and furious when it was discovered Ayala had a history of filing lawsuits against major corporations. Then earlier this month police in Las Vegas searched Ayala's home, following that search, she abruptly dropped her plans for a lawsuit against Wendy's. Wendy's spokesman says the damage is done. Business has been so bad here in the San Jose area, employees had to have hours cut and some were even laid off.

JAY: We feel that we have been victimized, and we are hope that our customers will recognize that, will understand that we are vindicated and they will come back to our restaurants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: As for Ayala, police are charging her for grand theft in another unrelated case. Claiming that she (INAUDIBLE) a women out of her life savings. What about the finger? Well, police say it's still under a microscope, and as far as Wendy's goes, the offer still stands, you tell us who the finger belongs to, and we'll give you the $100,000 reward -- Anderson.

COOPER: That's a Rusty Dornin, thanks. About the only thing that isn't questionable in this weird business, is the reality of the human fingertip itself. That is what it is, all right. It must have come from somewhere or rather from someone. Investigators do have some clues to work from. The digit is one and a half inches long. It was found in two pieces. And police are sure it is from a female because it has a long, manicured nail.

360 M.D., Sanjay Gupta, take a look at how forensic scientists approach such a bizarre clue. Please be aware, though, that some of what follows is a bit graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Even the real investigators of the mysterious finger in the Wendy's chili likened it to a TV crime drama.

DAVIS: Thus the case became what could be best described as a CSI type of investigation, which included both the forensic examination of fingertip tissue, as well as some excellent gumshoe work.

GUPTA: The TV show "CSI," crime scene investigation, it's two spinoffs and other shows like it have made forensic science cool and part of popular culture. A "CSI" type of investigation starts with a detailed look at all the clues.

(on camera): Whether it's analyzing human tissue or blood for a cancer patient or examining body parts for clues in a criminal case, the process usually begins here in a lab like this one in my hospital using complex machinery.

(voice-over): DNA testing is the most accurate of the forensic sciences, perhaps the greatest advance in the field. But it's not infallible. Different experts can make vastly different interpretations of the same DNA sample, or even worse in extremely rare case, contaminate a sample or confuse it with someone else's. Still, DNA testing is expensive and time consuming. And the most advanced machines are in high demand. But I got a peek at one of the best behind the scenes on the set of "CSI Miami."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, there's, obviously, one that's a little bit bigger and more advanced, but this is basically the workhorse of the DNA labs now.

GUPTA (on camera): And this is a real analyzer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes. This is a -- got some of the guts taken out of it, but it is what they use now in crime labs to do the DNA analysis. So we're fortunate to have that, and we actually have a lot of the software that they use.

GUPTA: And this is donated, you said, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.

GUPTA: About $200,000?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something like that. I could be off a bit, but very, very expensive.

GUPTA (voice-over): But even before you get to the machines, you have the gumshoe detective work, and the expertise technicians like Jose Hernandez (ph). He's often asked to identify an individual with nothing more than a finger, even a finger with no print.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the hand. You come into the case, you (INAUDIBLE) of the finger is very, very hard.

GUPTA (on camera): Can I put on some gloves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Nothing there.

GUPTA: So, this finger looked like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looked exactly like that, yes.

GUPTA: And now you can get a fingerprint off of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: And there's a fingerprint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA (voice-over): For now it's unclear whose finger this is. But with technology like this, they are almost certain to be found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And obviously, DNA and fingerprinting is just a small part of forensic science, overall. Really important to this particular case. We're going to do a lot more of this in a special we got coming up as well, Anderson, on May 15, "Anatomy of Murder." Everything you want to know about forensic science.

COOPER: Seeing them roll that finger was rather startling.

Let's talk about fingerprinting. I mean, we're talking about a finger, in this case, in this Wendy's incident, that I guess, been soaking in chili, to say the least, of whatever else it was in. Should they be able to identify the finger from the fingerprint alone? Have they taken a fingerprint, I guess?

GUPTA: Well, two things. First of all, you have to determine whether you have enough surface area to actually get a print. It looks like it just from what I've seen of these two parts of the finger. The other part is decomposition, which may, obviously, have happened, if it was cooked in some way, or in the chili as well.

You saw there from what we just presented that you can actually retrieve a fingerprint in just about every circumstance. There's a good chance they can get that. There's also about 47 million fingerprints in the national database. So, that's a good thing to keep in mind when you're trying to cross match these, Anderson.

COOPER: Well, fascinating. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.

Time now for a look at other stories making headlines across the country. Right now Erica Hill joins us now with the latest. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson. Good to see you. Al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty today to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks. He says he plans to fight the death penalty. In a statement of facts presented at today's hearing, Moussaoui said Osama bin Laden had personally selected him to attack the White House with a commercial airliner.

In Miami Beach, quite an awesome sight this morning. Not one, but two water spouts over the Atlantic Ocean. Made even more picturesque by a sailboat between them. Water spouts are revolving columns of air kind of like a tornado over water, but weaker, which is a good thing.

A rain shower appears to have calmed a huge brush fire in the Everglades that burned about 30 acres. Officials shut down the historic Tamiami Trail in both directions for part of the afternoon because of dense smoke. And it looks as though firefighters did save a nearby barbecue joint. It's still not clear how that fire started.

And the Today sponge contraceptive returned to the market a decade after it was pulled off store shelves. Its effectiveness and safety were never in question, the problem, the manufacturer stopped making them in 1995, rather than upgrade the plant where the FDA found deficiencies. The sponge will be available over the Internet in two months, later on at retailers. And Anderson, with that, cue your sponge-worthy jokes. COOPER: No jokes there. Erica Hill, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, insurgents shoot a chopper -- a chopper crash survivor in Iraq in cold blood. It's all caught on tape. If you want to see what the U.S. and Iraqis are up against, well, you'll see it all on this tape.

Also ahead tonight, the enemy within, lone wolves, they call them, American extremists. Find out why two brothers declare war on the government that ended in a deadly shoot out.

A little later tonight, inside your brain while you sleep. Find out what happens when you're slumbering. I get all hooked up to take -- whoa, what was that -- all hooked up to take the test. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We want to warn you, some of the images of this next story are disturbing. But we think it's important you see this tape. It's important you see the reality of how the insurgents in Iraq are fighting.

The tapes you're about to see apparently show a commercial helicopter being shot down, the one that crashed north of Baghdad yesterday. All on board, including six Americans were killed.

But when you watch one of the videos, you'll notice that one person apparently survived the crash. Now, it's at that point you really see what kind of monsters are roaming Iraq. Here's CNN's Ryan Chilcote.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The insurgent video shows the burning wreckage of the helicopter. There are pictures we can't show you of burned bodies.

The scene changes to a field of tall grass. A voice can be heard telling the cameraman in Arabic, look at this dirty man.

The Bulgarian company that operated the helicopter says this man was the commander of the flight crew, a Bulgarian citizen who somehow survived the crash.

Images released later by another insurgent group may give a clue as to how the helicopter crashed. They show a Russian-made helicopter flying low in the distance. Shortly after, the tape records two thuds, the helicopter bursts into flames and falls to the earth.

CNN cannot vouch for the authenticity of this video, nor had we ever heard of the insurgent group the Army of Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the attack. But the images appear consistent with these from closer up from a better known group that calls itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. This pictures include what happened to the Bulgarian helicopter commander back in the tall grass.

The man is instructed, in English, to get up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand up. Stand up.

CHILCOTE: He responds in a whisper, asking for help.

UNIDENTIFIED: Something's broken (ph).

CHILCOTE: Eventually, he is pulled up, asked in Arabic if he is armed. And receives one final instruction. To walk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go.

CHILCOTE: In Arabic, the photographer asks someone off camera to wait until he gets his picture. The man begins to turn around and is shot. Falling to the ground. The shooter continues firing, more than 15 shots in all.

The U.S. military says an investigation team has surveyed the crash site. And all 11 bodies of those aboard the helicopter have been recovered. The U.S. military says it has not definitively determined what caused the chopper to go down.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ryan didn't mention it, but you can hear on that tape when that man was being shot -- that unarmed man being shot -- they were saying Allah akbar, "God is great."

The six Americans killed in that crash were employees of Blackwater USA, a security contractor that protects American and Iraqi officials as well as installations. It's had its share of casualties in Iraq.

Here's a quick news note. In March of last year, you'll remember four Blackwater USA employees were killed and mutilated by insurgents in Falluja. Their remains hanged from a nearby bridge.

Blackwater says in all, 18 of its employees have died since the war in Iraq began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: "The Enemy Within" lone wolves, American extremists with hate in their hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love this country, I just can't stand the bastards in it.

COOPER: Tonight, who are these lone wolves. And what can be done to stop them? And are you tired of being tired? If you're not sleeping right, the problem may be in your head. Tonight, I get wired up to find out what really happens in our heads when we drift off to sleep. 360 continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: This week, we've been looking at home-grown threats to our national security in our special series, "The Enemy Within." Tonight, we focus on the lone wolf, the terrorist who acts alone within our borders, and is often very difficult to trace. CNN's Rick Sanchez reports on one deadly attack that caught a small town by surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abbeville, South Carolina, a town that prides itself as the birthplace of the Confederacy.

Chiropractor Craig Gagnon is called Doc in Abbeville. He got a strange phone call one morning from one of his patients.

(on camera): And she says what?

CRAIG GAGNON, CHIROPRACTOR: She says, Craig, this is Rita Bixby. I just wanted to let you know that it's begun and Steven has shot a deputy. And I said, well, when did this happen? She said, about 15 minutes ago. He came into the house and Steven shot him. And I said well, how is the deputy? She says, well, I don't suppose he's doing too good right about now, seeing how Steven shot him with a 7 millimeter.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Hell was about to break loose in Abbeville that day, and it wouldn't be just a shootout. It would be a family's declaration of war against the government, and Gagnon would find himself right smack in the middle of it.

Because after the call from Rita Bixby, Gagnon and his partner raced to the scene, where they found a car with the engine still running, a deputy's car.

So when they saw another officer arrive, they tried to warn him. "Don't go toward the house," Gagnon's partner shouted. It was too late.

GAGNON: When I saw -- when I heard an explosion from the house and instantly knew it was a shot, and I heard the glass hit the front porch, after the shot. It was just a weird -- it was almost like it was in slow motion almost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got shots fired.

SANCHEZ: What he heard was a second shot, a second officer down. Constable Donny Ouzts now lay dying just steps from the Bixbys' front door, while his fellow officer, Danny Wilson, lay dying inside the Bixby home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). They got an officer down.

SANCHEZ: Police, even Gagnon, tried talking Steven and Arthur Bixby out of the house. It didn't work. They were headed for a showdown. A massive gunfight.

GAGNON: When they started finally exchanging gunfire, you could hear the service revolvers of the agents, and you could hear Steven in the house, boom, boom! So it would be an exchange.

SANCHEZ: Hundreds, maybe thousands of rounds were exchanged, and it took all that, as well as countless canisters of tear gas, over 13 hours to get the Bixbys to give themselves up, to be charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of the two officers.

(on camera): And what was this all about? This small chunk of land. The government wanted to expand Highway 72 onto their property. How much property? We'll count it for you. One, two, three steps.

(voice-over): It was government surveyors preparing that piece of land three days earlier that had apparently set off the Bixbys. But local law enforcement officials are convinced there was more to it. They call it an ambush, a setup against anyone wearing a uniform.

CHIEF NEAL HENDERSON, ABBEVILLE, SC POLICE: Whether it was the UPS man, the mailman, a meter reader, whatever, the first person to step foot on that property that day was going to get it.

SANCHEZ: In fact, in court, the day after the shootout, Steven Bixby revealed what touched off the family's rage.

STEVEN BIXBY, ACCUSED KILLER: Why did I do it? We didn't do it. They started it. They started it, and if we can't be any freer than that in this country, I'd just as soon die.

SANCHEZ: Even though the Bixbys would actually have gained, not lost land. Bixby referred to the government as "Communist bureaucratic dictators," and claimed that he had a constitutional right to revolution.

BIXBY: Ruby Ridge. Waco. This country's shown what it is. I love this country, just can't stand the bastards in it.

SANCHEZ: The Bixbys brought their defiant anti-government and pro-property right stance with them when they moved to South Carolina.

BIXBY: I'm originally from New Hampshire, where the motto is "live free or die." (INAUDIBLE).

SANCHEZ: Back in New Hampshire, a Superior Court judge had feared the Bixbys so much, she asked for and received around-the-clock police protection.

In law enforcement terms, Steven Bixby is a lone wolf, driven to act by his anti-government views. And he's not the only one.

Even though the nation's attention has shifted since 9/11 to the threat from al Qaeda, the danger here at home remains enormous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luckily for all of us, up to this point they have not been as organized or nearly as sophisticated as al Qaeda.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Not as organized, not as sophisticated -- that doesn't mean they're not trying. 360 next, "The Enemy Within:" Lone wolves and the people trying to track them down. Part two of our special report.

Also ahead tonight, ever wonder what happens when you go to sleep inside your mind? I got wired up to find out.

And trying to kick the habit. Yeah, this guy, yeah. We'll explain. Believe me, we'll explain. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We continue with our special series, the "Enemy Within."

Before the break we told you about a deadly shootout in Abbeville, South Carolina. Now, police say a man they call a lone wolf killed two police officers back in December of 2003. Lone wolves are a big threat to national security. Police say, they're often difficult to track because they don't act through terrorist organizations. They're isolated cells or individuals.

CNN's Rick Sanchez follows those who try to hunt them down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigator Joe Roy watches things that would make your stomach turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There isn't a Jew on this earth that deserves to live for what they have done to our race.

SANCHEZ: On this day, he's monitoring a speech from Reverend James Wickstrom at a neo-Nazi rally.

REVEREND JAMES WICKSTROM: The Jews will go away, because they're all going to die. And I say that with my heart. What you do with this, and how you handle it is strictly going to be between you..

JOE ROY, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: It's the lone wolf thing.

SANCHEZ: At the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, Roy and others keep a constant watch on people who may be driven to act after hearing such hateful language. People who evolve from hate filled to violent, like Oklahoma City Bomber, Tim McVeigh, and quite possibly, Steven Bixby (ph).

However, since 9/11, the hunt for these types has not been the top priority for U.S. law enforcement.

(on camera): Do they ignore domestic terrorism at their own peril?

ROY: Well, sure. I think anybody that ignores it, it's their own peril.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: It's not only Osama bin Laden out there. It's not only people with turbans on who are capable of blowing you and your family up. That there are actual, you know, real life Americans, people from -- people who are our neighbors.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): People like William Krar, arrested in texas With enough sodium cinide to potentially kill thousands. He's now in federal prison. And Steven Jordi, arrested and convicted for planning to firebomb abortion clinics. And what about the anthrax killer? Remember him? The one who terrorized all of us after 9/11, but he still hasn't been caught.

(on camera): Do you think that person -- that person out there, the anthrax killer is a lone wolf?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I don't think there's any question.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Mark Potok was a newspaper reporter who joined the center after seeing the carnage that Tim McVeigh wrought on Oklahoma City. Now he runs the "Intelligence Report," the center's magazine, which exposes extremists groups on both right and the left.

POTOK: What is our aim, our aim is to destroy these groups, if possible.

SANCHEZ: And they've had success by working with law enforcement and bringing civil suits against groups like the Neo Nazi National Alliance, whose former reader wrote the book that inspired Tim McVeigh.

POTOK: Two years ago, these people were all staff at the National Alliance. Every one of these people is now gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone.

SANCHEZ: Security here is tight -- for good reason. They've made lots of enemies, even been fire bombed.

(on camera): Do you worry about your own safety or the safety of this building and the people who work inside here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is that there are close to 30 people in federal prison for various plots over the last 20 years to blow this place up or to assassinate its founder.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): There's something else that worries Potok and Roy these days, and it may be a product of their own success. While they've manage to splinter or eliminate large, well organized hate groups, they may have made it harder to keep track of their former members, who could be spurred to act after hearing speeches like this one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And give them the holocaust that they rightly deserve.

SANCHEZ: (on camera): Whether it's a small town in the south like Abbeville or a big city in the Midwest, the big question that remains is how many others -- how many others living perhaps in communities like our own, could have an ax to grind against the government?

(voice-over): And are willing to act on it, as Steve Bixby is now accused of.

KOTOK: It's inevitable that's we'll see another Bixby shootout. There'll be something more like this. There's something like it almost every year.

SANCHEZ: But how do you stop it? How do you stop the lone wolf? In Abbeville, the chief of police knew Steven Bixby, even drove him around town, thought he was loud, strange. But capable of murdering two police officers on that day in December 2003?

CHIEF NEAL HENDERSON, ABBEVILLE POLICE: You never would think nothing like this would happen in a town of 6,000 people. This guy here, you never saw it coming. I never saw anything like this coming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Never saw it coming.

Time no for a look some of the other stories making headlines right now. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest, Erica.

HILL: Hey, Anderson.

We'll start off in Iraq where it seems in recent days that violence may have been getting worse.

We're actually going to get to that story in just a moment.

Let's start off instead with a little bit of irony for President Bush today, as nature itself forced him to cancel an Earth Day appearance, celebrating Earth Day, of course, today. He had planned to visit the great Smoky Mountain National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. But because of the threat of hail and thunderstorms, Mr. Bush made Earth Day remarks from an airport outside of Knoxville instead. He urged Congress to the pass the air pollution proposal which he calls Clear Skies.

The Virginia Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty for Washington D.C. area snipper, John Allen Muhammad. He was convicted on two capital murder counts on the shooting death of a man in Manassas, Virginia. Lawyers for Mohammed had argued he couldn't be sentenced to death because he was not the trigger man. Mohammed's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo has entered a plea deal for the Manassas killing. And was convicted for one of the other nine murders attributed to the pair.

In Germany a federal court has ordered a retrial for a man found guilty last year of killing and eating another man. Prosecutors say they hope to put the convicted cannibal away for longer than eight and a half years, that what he as originally sentenced to. The man did confess to the killing, but claims the victim answered an Internet posting, seeking a young man for slaughter and consumption.

Lets lighten things up at the end of the night shall we. Officials at a zoo in South Africa asking the public to just stop throwing the butts to their start chimpanzee. They say chimp, his name is Charlie (ph), was evidently mimicking the movement of smokers near his pen, so people started tossing him cigarettes. One of the zoo keepers says too, Anderson, he apparently kind of sneaks and hides them just like a kid would with their parents.

COOPER: A true smoker. I love the fact that all kids there are sitting there applauding Charlie the chimp smoking. That's not a good thing.

HILL: Isn't that wild? And who's throwing cigarettes, by the way, at the chimp?

COOPER: Morons, morons.

Erica, thanks very much. Have a great weekend.

HILL: You to.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, inside your brain when you sleep a lot is going on. I, actually, wired myself up to see what happens -- actually, other people -- professionals wired me up, thankfully. If you're having trouble getting some Z's, you can't miss that report. No, that's not me while I'm sleeping, by the way. That's not me either. Anyway, I'm much more calm. And I also sleep in my jammies.

Also tonight, a 5-year-old girl handcuffed by police at school. This is her assistant principal trying to calm her down, then the police come, they put her in handcuffs. We showed you the tape at the top of the program. You're going to see the it again in a few minutes. Judge for yourself whether you think cops were right or wrong. You're e-mails are pouring in. Most of you, actually, seem to agree with the cops.

Send us your thoughts, cnn.com/360, click on the instant feedback link.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know, sleep is something we, of course, all do, but actually know very little about, which is remarkable considering it should take up about a third of our lives. But for many of us, eight hours of shut eye is just a dream. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 83 -- what's going on there, it's very dark there -- 82 million Americans do not get enough sleep, and the consequences could be far reaching. That's why all next week we're bringing you a new series "Sleepless in America" devoted to helping you or someone you know get a better night's sleep.

First, to find out exactly what happens when you doze off, I volunteered to undergo an experiment that involved a pair of blue jammies and enough wiring to build a switchboard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the electrodes that are going to go over your head.

COOPER (voice-over): The night began by getting wired up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You shouldn't feel anything at all.

COOPER: The electrodes measure breathing, muscle movement, eye movement, brain waves, even pulse, all of which will tell doctors if I have sleeping disorders.

(on camera): It's one of those things that seemed like a good idea in the office.

(voice-over): With so many cables attached to me, frankly, I didn't think I could get sleep...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, you can try to get some sleep right now. Good night.

COOPER: But surprisingly, it didn't take long.

Sleep may seem like a restful time, but there's actually a lot going on inside your head.

(MUSIC)

COOPER: All of us go through several stages of sleep, often in 90-minute cycles that repeat throughout the night.

Stage one is the transition from being awake to asleep. It starts off when your eyes slowly begin to roll. Stage two, your heart rate slows and body temperature drops. Stages three and four are the deep sleep periods when your body carries out most of the repair work.

REM sleep, is the final stage of the sleep cycle. REM stands for rapid eye movement, it's the time of night we have the most vivid dreams.

During REM sleep, your bodies skeletal muscles shut down so you don't act out your dreams. But some people's muscles keep working, they suffer from REM sleep behavior disorder, which means they can dangerously act out they're dreams. Sleep clinics are used to observe many sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome and sleepwalking.

Thankfully, my sleep was not so exciting. Dr. Gary Zamit (ph) monitored my sleep cycles, which turns out, are pretty normal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I detect mild snoring here, but nothing...

COOPER: That I deny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I do not snore.

Sleep is vital, research shows creativity and problem solving greatly improve with sleep. Sleep even plays a crucial role in mastering physical activities like playing the piano or riding a bike.

Sleep does not come easily, of course, to many of us which is why all next week in our special series "Sleepless in America," we're going to focus on how you can get the best night of sleep possible.

Now, let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour on PAULA ZAHN NOW. Hey, Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Weren't you kind of relieved, Anderson, that you didn't go into that REM cycle and do any acting out of any kind on camera?

COOPER: I was very relieved, yes. I must admit.

ZAHN: That was fascinating to watch. It's probably a little intimidating to be all wired up like that and do it. Look forward to the series next week. Thanks.

Tonight, we're going to focus on a woman who's lived her life in the headlines and on the big silver screen. Oscar winner Nicole Kidman is trying her hand at political thriller genres with Sean Penn. But she's played many challenging roles, including a heart breaker, the role in a real life Hollywood marriage that fell apart.

Nicole Kidman's story in her own words at the top of the hour.

COOPER: Great, in about six minutes from now. Thanks, Paula.

360 next, the video America is talking about. We're going to show it to you again, a five-year-old girl handcuffed by police. Her mom plans to sue. We'll show you the tape. You can judge from yourself. Your e-mails are pouring in. Send us your thoughts, cnn.com/360. Click on the instant feedback link. Were police right or way out of line, what do you think?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, your e-mails have been pouring in about the video we showed you earlier in the program. We're going to show it to you again. A five-year-old girl, little girl in St. Petersburg, Florida who was handcuffed by police after really throwing a temper tantrum against her assistant principal. Here's the tape. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! no! no!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull her hands down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead. Don't worry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: They put the handcuffs on her, then they put little flexible flyer handcuffs on her, then they ultimately released her.

Jim from Ontario writes, "regarding the little girl put in handcuffs, it appears the school staff are well trained and acted admirably." You're not seeing this part of the tape where the school administrators really tried to calm the girl down. "I believe the police also did the right thing" says our e-mailer, "I believe the police did the right thing to prevent any physical injury to the child by using three officers instead of one."

Kathy from Canada completely different point of view, "I'm outraged over the police handcuffing a small child." She says, "who does that to a baby. The police were dead wrong. The five-year-old is still a baby in my mind, she says. I would sue if that was done to my child. Unbelievable and sick."

Well, this little girl's mother is suing police, maybe suing school officials as well.

Paul from Texas e-mails saying, "Anderson, if I had acted like the little girl in your news, I would have gotten my butt paddle paddled by the teacher and again by my own mother when I got home. I don't recall having too much trouble with kids back in those days."

Tracy from Toronto writes, "I'm a second grade teacher in Toronto who wholly supports the police in handcuffing that five-year-old girl. I've taught six and seven-year-olds who throw chairs at teachers, students, hit and kick principals and bite others. One child lit a girl's hair on fire, gave a teacher's assistant whiplash and a sprained neck. The common response is to let the child get away with it."

A lot of points of view. We like to have all points of view on 360. We don't take sides. We cover all the angles.

Thanks for watching this edition of 360. Our primetime coverage continues right now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.

END

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