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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Port Security; Is FEMA Ready?; No Room for Evacuees; Civil War in Iraq?; Donald vs. Martha
Aired February 22, 2006 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, against Republicans. Their hearing set for tomorrow in the Senate. Late tonight, we learned that in exchange for allowing the deal to go through, the administration got extra assurances from the company in question that it would have access to any security-related information that it needs in the future. But the news and the larger fuss surrounding it got us wondering how secure are American ports, no matter who's running them right now.
While reporting a story on nuclear terror back in 2004, CNN's David Mattingly got a rare inside look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's biggest container port -- 43 percent of all the goods that come into the U.S. by water in shipping containers, come through here.
STEPHEN E. FLYNN, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: The port of Los Angeles and Long Beach is not only America's most critical port, but potentially the most important port in the world.
MATTINGLY (on camera): It is one of the single biggest engines driving the U.S. economy, a gateway to more than $200 billion in annual trade with more than 5,000 ships unloading over 9 million cargo containers a year.
If the numbers don't impress you, consider this. Without this port, store shelves would empty, factories would close and untold thousands would find themselves out of a job.
(Voice-over): If terrorists inserted one of their agents somewhere into the long chain of companies involved in sending a product from a factory in south China to the United States, they would be in a position to get a nuclear device into a box, then onto a container, into the frenzy of commerce heading west and onto a ship headed for California. And the device would not have to detonate to blow a whole in the U.S. economy.
If authorities got a tip about a nuclear device in one of these boxes, they might well shut down the port to find it.
(On camera): And so if you shut down this port, you're talking about -- these are the warehouses for the entire national economy. We don't have big warehouses anymore -- it's in this transportation system.
(Voice-over): Steve Flynn has been banging the drum, raising awareness about Maritime Security, he says is deeply vulnerable.
FLYNN: Most Americans that I meet are simply flummoxed by the fact that while we can track -- FAA can track airplanes, it turns out we can't track ships.
It's a fool's game to be playing this way. There are things that we could be doing at reasonable cost to reign in this risk. Not to eliminate it, but to reign it in.
MATTINGLY: He's not alone in his fears.
NOEL CUNNINGHAM, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS, PORT OF LOS ANGELES: I worry a lot. Never in all my days that I've thought in my lifetime that I would be concerned about dirty bombs and international terrorists.
MATTINGLY: Noel Cunningham is the chief of operations for the port of Los Angeles. A long-time senior officer with the LAPD. He's had to learn a lot about nuclear terrorism in the last decade.
CUNNINGHAM: I really believe that somewhere in this country it will happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, that was CNN's David Mattingly. One footnote, Noel Cunningham, who you just heard from in David's report has since retired.
Now, to "Keeping them Honest," 99 days -- that's all there is until June 1, the official start of the next hurricane season -- 99 days. Now, it doesn't seem like a lot, considering it's been almost six months since Hurricane Katrina. And much of the Gulf still looks like it's been hit. The recovery hasn't stopped and so haven't the questions about FEMA. Will it be ready when the next storm strikes?
CNN's Tom Foreman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the time hurricanes hit American shores again, FEMA will be improved and ready to respond. That's the promise from Acting Director David Paulison.
DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ACTING DIRECTOR: FEMA has lost the confidence of a lot of people in this country, and we have to prove that we can do it.
FOREMAN: FEMA says its working on dozens of reforms. During Katrina, police, firefighters and the Coast Guard had radios that did not work with each other. And cell phones were out, hindering rescues. FEMA says it has new equipment, similar to the gear on this military truck, that will link radio systems and provide cell service even when the phone towers are down.
PAULISON: We will have the ability to get real-time, accurate information. We'll know when things go wrong, we'll know exactly when the docks give way or whatever could happen.
FOREMAN (on camera): You'll know where it's going on.
PAULISON: And where it's going on too.
FOREMAN (voice-over): FEMA is replacing millions of prepackaged military meals, water, rescue equipment, too. The agency is reviewing its supply chain to figure out why some trucks ended up stranded, lost or in the wrong place.
After Katrina, FEMA phone and computer help lines were clogged. So capacity is being doubled to let 200,000 disaster victims register for help each day.
PAULISON: And I think that's the important thing, that we're not just sitting back and saying oh it's not going to happen again. Well, by golly, it darn well may happen again and we better be ready.
FOREMAN: Local emergency managers say the federal government is cutting $13 million of their readiness funding, so they're not convinced FEMA is remade yet.
MIKE SELVES, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: I'm not sure -- I've heard the proposals that have been made. I don't know that FEMA is any different, not in any substantive way that we've seen, than it was last August.
FOREMAN: And there is Michael Chertoff. The embattled Secretary of Homeland Security was overseeing FEMA last hurricane season. He still is. Morrie Goodman is a former FEMA official.
(On camera): Do you think the people in FEMA will follow Michael Chertoff?
MORRIE GOODMAN, FORMER FEMA OFFICIAL: What do you mean by follow him? You mean follow his lead?
FOREMAN: Trust him as a leader.
GOODMAN: I think the people at FEMA are very bewildered about who's the captain of the ship and where's the ship headed.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Paulison disagrees, but understands the doubt.
(On camera): Why should the American public believe you when you say FEMA will be ready?
PAULISON: That's a difficult question. I don't know that I would expect them to believe me. The proof is going to be in the pudding.
FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, FEMA and other agencies are still trying to help the thousands of people left homeless after Katrina. It hasn't been easy and it's getting even more complicated. You see, some of the people who opened their doors to these evacuees several months ago, are now saying they simply cannot take anymore.
CNN's Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen visits one such community.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Half an hour away from downtown New Orleans and practically untouched by the hurricane, St. John the Baptist Parish welcomed New Orleans evacuees six months ago.
That was then, this is now. Since September, the parish has grown by 24 percent. Nearly 18,000 evacuees poured into the parish early on, overwhelming local businesses and nearly crippling local traffic. Although crime in the parish is actually down 5 percent, something else has begun to flood this area. Fear, the uncertainty of what evacuees might bring.
MARGARET WILCOX, RESIDENT: Drugs, prostitution, murders, anything, you know.
ROESGEN: Why do you think that would come with hurricane evacuees?
WILCOX: Well, if it's from the people that lived in New Orleans, that lived that lifestyle, I don't want to be around it because that's why I never went into the city because of that.
ROESGEN: Margaret Wilcox lives across the street from a FEMA mobile home park that hasn't opened yet. When it does, it will be one of the last in the parish to take anymore evacuees.
NICKIE MONICA, PARISH PRESIDENT: We have several on a book that are already, you know, en route to St. John's, but no new additional permits will be issued.
ROESGEN: This week, Parish President Nickie Monica said enough is enough. No more FEMA trailers or mobile homes will be allowed.
MONICA: As a local elected official, our primary concern is our constituents in St. John's Parish. And although we would do everything we can to help our neighbors to the east, we just want to take a step back, evaluate where we are in the process and hopefully in the near future, to start working with FEMA to allow more temporary housing in St. John's Parish.
AZELEAN BICKHAM, EVACUEE: It's livable. ROESGEN: That means New Orleans evacuees like Azalean Bickham, who are already in the parish, can stay, but other evacuees won't get a trailer.
BICKHAM: But I really appreciate St. John letting us stay here. Where can you go when you have nowhere else to go.
ROESGEN: St. John the Baptist Parish, which gathered the homeless in at first, can find room for no more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN (on camera): And we are live tonight at the parish government offices. We talked to a FEMA representative in Washington, who said that FEMA respects the parish government's decision not to take anymore trailers, but FEMA had hoped to send more down here -- Anderson.
COOPER: So how many people will be living there in that trailer park when it opens?
ROESGEN: There will be about 200 people in three different trailer parks all around the parish and those are trailer parks that the parish says, yes, we'll keep those open. We'll honor our commitment with FEMA to take about 200 more and then that is it.
COOPER: All right, Susan Roesgen, thanks. Appreciate it.
In the days after Katrina, when a lot of those evacuees were still stuck in the sweltering shelters -- or they, frankly, weren't even really shelters -- or on the streets, the police force in New Orleans got a lot of flack over reports that officers abandoned their posts, essentially leaving these evacuees helpless in dangerous times. The truth was, those were only a minority of officers. A small number in a very large force. In reality, most officers stayed on the job and fought bravely against the elements to save the lives of thousands. Those officers were honored today in New Orleans.
CNN's Sean Callebs talks with two of them about what they experienced during that awful time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Katrina hit, New Orleans' police officers raced to the lower Ninth Ward. Sgt. Todd Morrell and others, crossing a low bridge to get there.
TODD MORRELL, SERGEANT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: The thing I just remember about coming over the crest of the bridge was just seeing just the rooftop of all the houses and, you know, green water.
CALLEBS: He said this was at least four days before military troops arrived. At this point, it was just a few cops, a chainsaw and two boats.
MORRELL: What we would do is we would idle down a street in a boat. We would then kill the engine on the boat so we could listen for people screaming.
CALLEBS: People trapped in 15 feet of flood water. At the same time, about a mile away, Fifth District Officer Carolyn Dalton found herself in Bywater Hospital with waters rising.
CAROLYN DALTON, OFFICER, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Of course, I mean, we were scared. We was in the mid of chaos, something we had never experienced before in our lives. Yet, instinct kicked in and it's survival at this point, you know. I'm going to survive this.
CALLEBS: Dalton's fellow officers fanned out. They had to siphon gas. The hospital's generators were running out of fuel. That could mean death for patients on life support.
Back in the lower Ninth Ward, Sgt. Morrell was trying to get frightened residents into a small boat.
MORRELL: Originally, we tried to bring the boats directly to the house, and to load people onto our boats. Well, both boats almost got capsized.
CALLEBS: Here's Morrell at work, trying to calm the traumatized.
MORRELL: We actually had to put on our dive gear. We'd have to jump in the water, swim to the house, calm everybody down and then bring the boat in to get them afterwards.
CALLEBS: Back at the hospital with Dalton, the situation was dire. Generators failed. She and others manually ventilated patients and frantically tried to find another facility to help them.
DALTON: After three hours, I pumped, I pumped -- me and my fellow officers, we'd pump. I saved somebody's life. You know, I wasn't able to save everybody's life and a lot of people died, but I was able to save one person's life and I think that was my finest point.
CALLEBS: Morrell was credited with saving hundreds of people over a period of days. But that didn't get nearly as much attention as other officers, accused of running away or looting.
MORRELL: Nobody ever gave us any credit, you know, for the amount of people that we saved.
CALLEBS: Today, finally, some recognition. The New Orleans Police Department honored all officers who stayed and worked through the worst of times. Today, Morrell says he's closer to his family, dedicated to training to keep his edge, and goes nowhere without the chainsaw that freed so many people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That's amazing. He still carries the chainsaw.
Did either of the officers talk at all about or what they thought about those members of the police force who did abandon their post? CALLEBS (on camera): Yes, I talked to Todd at length about it. About more than 140 or so abandoned their post or were accused of abandoning their post; 70 or so never came back. A bunch of others were simply fired. When I asked Todd about it, he said that like any profession, there are good and there are bad people. And he said when these people really needed to shine, those people who left, showed their true colors.
COOPER: And there's so many remarkable stories like that. I've talked to a lot of the officers about what they saw. It's just truly incredible. No one probably will ever really know the full story.
Sean, appreciate it.
Almost three years since the war in Iraq began. Is the country descending into a new one? A civil war? A mosque blown up, Sunnis massacred -- the latest in what some are calling the beginning of a bloody new phase for Iraqis and the American forces caught in the middle.
Also, think you're a packrat? Well, you're going to meet a woman who can't part with anything, literally. She cannot throw anything out. It is so bad, her son says he wishes she were a drug addict instead. It would be easier that way.
Or perhaps you're a perfectionist. See why striving for the best might in fact be a sign of perfection obsession.
You're watching 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: When the Iraq war's history is written, today may get its own chapter. A shrine revered by Iraq's Shiites was destroyed by parties unidentified, but it triggered deadly reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques.
Even though Iraq has weathered the '91 Gulf War, over a decade of sanctions and nearly three years a new war, it's today's attack that may sink the future before it gets here.
CNN's Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A dawn attack, striking one of Shia Islam's most sacred shrines. Reduced to rubble, the iconic Askariya mosque in Samarra, now without the golden dome that for a century proclaimed its importance. Destroyed after men dressed as Iraqi police commandos bound the guards on duty; and once inside, detonated a series of bombs.
The attack ignited immediate fury among Iraq's majority Shia community, pouring onto the streets in thousands in Samarra in the Kotamiya (ph) area of Baghdad, in neighboring Sadr City where Mehdi militia, loyal to the Shia Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, armed themselves, threatening to descend on Samarra.
We are prepared to strongly defend our shrines, says this man. And we swear by God that we will battle all those who do not defend the holy shrines of our imams.
So devastating was this assault, that Iraq's highest Shia spiritual authority, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has not been seen in public in a year and a half, made a television appearance, surrounded by senior Shia clerics, urging in a separate statement peaceful protest, in line with the words of Iraq's prime minister, announcing a three-day period of mourning, condemning the attack, calling for calm.
But that's been a hard sell to an enraged people. Reprisal attacks took place within hours. Nearly 30 Sunni mosques in the capital alone, coming under fire; three Sunni imans killed. And in the southern city of Basra, Shia militia engaged in a gun battle with the Sunni political party, amid a massive protest, as sectarian tensions in the country reach new levels.
(On camera): For nearly three years now, Iraq's Shia community has come under near daily attack by the Sunni dominated insurgency, and has all along stopped short of responding with large-scale violence of its own. The fear now, though, is that this latest attack may be a tipping point, with Shia leaders saying their patience is wearing thin.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Erica Hill, from "HEADINE NEWS," joins us with some of the other stories tonight -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Anderson.
We start off with a massive bank heist. It happened in England. The Bank of England, saying robbers posing as police officers, made off with at least $43.5 million. The money was taken from a cash center. Luckily, none of the employees were injured.
A New York musician is in a Pennsylvania hospital tonight, after inhaling anthrax. Officials say the exposure was accidental. The patient is a drum maker who may have come in contact with the anthrax from raw animal hides he brought back from Africa to make drums.
If a new leadership is needed for a New Orleans, Louisiana's lieutenant governor announced his candidacy for mayor today. Mitch Landrieu praised Ray Nagin, but said Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed New Orleans in unexpected ways. Landrieu's father was a mayor of New Orleans in the 1970s. His sister, Mary Landrieu, is a U.S. Senator from Louisiana -- Anderson.
COOPER: And it is going to be a very interesting race indeed.
HILL: Absolutely. COOPER: Erica, thanks.
Coming up, obsessive human behavior. We're going to take a look at two dramatically different examples.
First, people who hoard. Stuff comes into their lives, they simply cannot throw it out. Why do they do it? Is their help for those who can't help themselves. We'll show you one woman's story.
Then an obsession for perfection. You're going to meet a young woman who's inner voice told her be perfect, and eventually took control of her life. What causes that? And is there a cure?
We'll investigate when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight we're going to spend some time looking at compulsive behaviors. Conduct that you may know all too well. First up, do you hoard? Are you surrounded by stuff, just lots and lots of stuff that you simply can't throw out? If so, running out of space may not be your only problem.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the outside, this home seems to fit its suburban Illinois neighborhood. But inside, you immediately see that Kathleen Haskin has a problem.
KATHLEEN HASKIN, HOARDER: My paperwork's over in this direction. Some of this is books that I just recently got because I definitely hoard books.
ROWLANDS: Kathleen is a hoarder. Nearly every room in house is stacked with things she's collected and won't let go. Clothes she's never worn, presents she's never given, knick-knacks, furniture, it's endless.
HASKIN: I also hoard -- I love tapes, I love music. I like any self-help, self-development thing, so I have a lot of tapes. Haven't put all the holiday decorations away yet, so I've got a pile there. You know, the things have a tendency to get knocked over.
ROWLANDS: There's the laundry on the floors, some of it clean. The kitchen is overflowing. Even Kathleen's bed is full of stuff.
(On camera): How do you sleep in this bed? Where do you -- how do you do it?
HASKIN: What I usually do when it's time to go to bed, I just move the stuff. This stuff I put on the bed as I'm sorting, but I just move everything off usually like this.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): Kathleen says last summer she slept outside on this swing because her house was so full. She says over the years people have tried to help her.
HASKIN: People have thrown my things away before and I've actually gone back to the trash to get it, to retrieve it, and brought like the whole trash bag in and gone through it. And one time I even climbed in a dumpster because they threw my things in a dumpster.
ROWLANDS: Kathleen is a nurse, twice divorced, and mother of five. Her 13-year-old daughter is the only child still living at home. Kathleen says her hoarding has not affected her job, but has hurt her family.
Her son Abraham left home at the age of 14, to live with an older sister. Kathleen says before he left, he told her he wished that she was a drug addict.
HASKIN: He actually said to me, I wish you were because then they'd have a reason to take me away from you. That's how strong he felt about the clutter.
PETER BELANGER, KATHLEEN'S SON: We're all trying to help my mom progress in what -- in her situation, trying to get her out from the hole that she's in.
ROWLANDS: Kathleen's son Peter is in college. He's planning to move in with his mother during his summer break. He says the mess may be an issue.
BELANGER: You don't want to take the average person to your house and who, you know, this is what my house looks like.
ROWLANDS (on camera): Kathleen is by no means alone. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of others in the United States are suffering from the same problem.
Including Richard Duffield. Richard has not allowed anybody into his house in 33 years, until now. He's allowing us to see it for the first time.
(Voice-over): Richard's hoarding problem is with paper.
RICHARD DUFFIELD, HOARDER: Mainly books, trade papers, variety, "Hollywood Reporter."
ROWLANDS: Richard lives alone in Los Angeles. For years, he has been saving newspaper articles, magazines and any other document he finds interesting.
DUFFIELD: This is a file of opera reviews.
ROWLANDS: Richard says he has a problem with procrastination.
DUFFIELD: I bought these lamps at a friend's yard sale. Wonderful lamps, oh I'll use those someday. Here they are, seven, eight years later, because I'm too busy getting more or avoiding them.
ROWLANDS: Richard also avoids his kitchen, which he says he hasn't used for six years.
DUFFIELD: Around the year 2000, it became of no interest to me and obviously too cluttered and too much bother and I went about my business and ignored it.
ROWLANDS: Richard also ignored his roof. For years it was leaking, but instead of getting it fixed, Richard said he just put buckets down to catch the water. Richard says he wanted to fix his roof, but couldn't decide who he should hire.
DUFFIELD: I would have estimates. But then deciding which will it be? I might make a mistake.
ROWLANDS: Both Richard and Kathleen acknowledge they have a problem. Kathleen says she used to keep a clean house. She's not sure if her problem is due to heredity. She says she has an aunt who broke her hip, stumbling over clutter. Kathleen bruised her ankle the same way the day before our interview.
HASKIN: I don't even really know what I hit it up against.
ROWLANDS: Kathleen says she buys most of her stuff from dollar stores and garage sales, constantly fighting the urge to buy more.
HASKIN: I'm going by like three different thrift stores and two dollar stores, and it's just like, you know, if an alcoholic is going by a bar, they want another drink. It's like I want to go in, I want to buy more.
ROWLANDS: Kathleen is trying to help herself through an Internet self-help group, but acknowledges she hasn't made much progress when it comes to cleaning her house.
DUFFIELD: I threw away 60 empty boxes a month ago from the living room. Looks like a lot in there now, but there were 60 more.
ROWLANDS: Richard said it was a big decision to let us into his home after keeping it a secret from family and friends for 33 years. He is seeing Karron Maidment, a therapist with the UCLA Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Program.
KARRON MAIDMENT, THERAPIST, UCLA OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER PROGRAM: What's your anxiety level there?
DUFFIELD: Seven eight.
MAIDMENT: OK. It hasn't been that high for a long time.
DUFFIELD: That's right.
ROWLAND: Richard's therapy is focused on teaching him how to get rid of things he thinks are important.
DUFFIELD: I see a log (inaudible).
MAIDMENT: We want people with compulsive hoarding to throw away thing that feel special or important and see if it really is as catastrophic as they think it's going to be.
ROWLANDS: According to some experts, hoarding is the most difficult obsessive compulsive disorder to treat, with only about half of those who seek treatment having success.
Richard says throwing some things away is so difficult, he actually has a physical reaction to it.
DUFFIELD: You feel a constriction in the throat, a fast beating of the heart, something in the stomach, sometimes a bit of nausea.
ROWLANDS: Since getting help a few months ago, Richard has made progress. He's cleared a hallway and his bedroom of clutter. And after getting four estimates, he finally hired someone to fix his roof.
Kathleen says she works a few hours a week, clearing different zones in her house. She's hoping that eventually, with the help of her Internet group and a few close friends, she can someday get her house in order and her family back.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Dekalb, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Wow.
Coming up, another compulsive disorder, how one young woman's need for perfection nearly ruined her life. A look at a debilitating disease, coming up.
Also, swearing off sex, why some Olympic athletes are choosing abstinence, believing sex before competition will cost them the gold medal, when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So, a few questions to ponder. Do you expect too much from yourself? Do you get angry when you make a mistake? And would you ever accept being average in anything? Depending on your answers, you may be a perfectionist. Many of us are. That's a fact of life. And so is this -- the need for perfection may be a sign of a mental illness.
CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Folding laundry is such a simple task, but watch what happens when Shannon Fleishman tries to fold this shirt.
SHANNON FLEISHMAN, PERFECTION OBSESSION DISORDER: I don't really want to touch that.
COHEN: She is desperate to smooth the wrinkles that bother only her. She is tortured that these sock seams don't lineup perfectly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How anxious are you on a scale from zero to 10?
FLEISHMAN: Ten.
COHEN: These clothes look fine to the rest of us, but in Shannon's mind they're a wrinkled, disorganized mess. And she wants more than anything...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Try not to touch them again.
COHEN: ... to make them look perfect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead and shut it.
COHEN: As painful as this is to watch, imagine how painful it is for Shannon, who has a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder called Perfection Obsession.
FLEISHMAN: A fear of making mistakes regardless of how little, how small or minute it might be.
COHEN (on camera): So getting a load of dirty clothes off the floor would take three hours?
FLEISHMAN: Well, I only got three items in three hours.
COHEN (voice over): Growing up, Shannon was an incredible kid: a popular girl, an A-plus student admired by her teachers, and a gifted athlete. She was the daughter every parent dreamed of.
LORI FLEISHMAN, SHANNON'S MOTHER: We were extremely proud of Shannon and her accomplishments.
S. FLEISHMAN: Spend six to eight hour as night on homework, because I would check everything and everything was done so thoroughly.
COHEN: So it sounds like you were in some ways the perfect girl.
S. FLEISHMAN: I was like the golden child.
COHEN (voice over): But as Shannon got older, there were signs of a problem.
L. FLEISHMAN: Setting her alarm for like 2:30, 3:00 o'clock in the morning to redo homework that was already done.
COHEN: Shannon graduated fourth in her class and was voted most likely to succeed. She won a softball scholarship to college.
S. FLEISHMAN: I have the expectations that's like a 4.0 what I want to get, a 4.0.
COHEN: She couldn't live up to that 4.0 and when she had her first taste of failure, she began to unravel. Her doctor prescribed an anti-depressant.
S. FLEISHMAN: The medicine wasn't helping. I remember telling him I think I have OCD, and he said, no, you're just a perfectionist.
COHEN: So much so, that she stopped turning in assignments because she felt they weren't perfect enough, and she eventually flunked out of college.
S. FLEISHMAN: And it was a huge disappointment and I was very ashamed and embarrassed.
COHEN: Her perfectionism became all-consuming.
L. FLEISHMAN: Thinks like taking care of groceries, she could go buy them, but she'd get them home, she wasn't able to get them in the cupboard. She couldn't line everything up perfect enough. She couldn't stop herself from ironing clothes. She literally burned her clothes.
COHEN: And she began what psychiatrists call obsessive compulsive rituals, counting everything.
S. FLEISHMAN: I would brush my teeth it sets of eight, I would blow my nose in sets of eight. I would put makeup on in sets of eight. The number of times I padded under my eyes in sets of eight, which I still do.
COHEN: These rituals took all day to complete, and eventually took over her life.
S. FLEISHMAN: Sometimes I use the metaphor that it's like a record, the same song, going over and over and over again in your head. You know, like you just can't get rid of that obsession. It's just always there.
COHEN: The breaking point, when Shannon's parents got a long- distance call from one of her friends. Their daughter needed help. But when her mother, Lori, went to pick her up, even she wasn't prepared for what she was about to see.
L. FLEISHMAN: When we pulled in that day and I saw her the way she was, I just couldn't believe it was her.
S. FLEISHMAN: I was voted most likely to succeed by my high school class. And now look at me.
L. FLEISHMAN: When you go from being on top of the world and able to do anything that your heart desires, to not being able to wash yourself or do a load of laundry, it's pretty depressing.
COHEN: Shannon checked into McLean Hospital's OCD Institute, a residential hospital dedicated to treating patients like hers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's try to put a big wrinkle in the middle.
COHEN: She is taking medication and getting intense behavioral therapy like this...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave the hair on it.
COHEN: It's called exposure therapy.
S. FLEISHMAN: Just leave it how it is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Does that bother you?
S. FLEISHMAN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Then let's leave it.
COHEN: And counselor Carol Hevya is helping Shannon to deal with her biggest fears...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop before the last tug.
S. FLEISHMAN: All right. I can do this.
COHEN: ... by confronting them head on.
S. FLEISHMAN: All right. I guess it's done.
COHEN (on camera): Now, I saw her, she was holding something, and there really was a hair on it. Why not let her take the hair off of it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because she'd take off that hair and then she'd see another piece of lint and then she'd see another piece of lint and she could potentially be taking off lint for hours.
DR. MICHAEL JENIKE (ph), HEAD OF OCD PROGRAM, MCLEAN: There's more and more evidence that it really is a brain disorder.
COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Michael Jenike (ph) is head of the OCD program at McLean, and one of the nation's top experts in the field.
JENIKE (ph): So that we are, actually looking at structure, we're looking at function and trying to figure out what's going on.
COHEN: Brain scans show these areas of the brain control simple decision-making, like judging whether a shirt has wrinkles. In people with OCD, these areas are hyperactive, as shown by the red.
When people with OCD try to make a simple decision, it keeps skipping, like that broken record.
So how do people get this brain disorder? Most of the time, no one knows. Some experts say there's a genetic link. In some rare cases, it's because of some damage to the brain.
What doctors know for sure is that there's almost never a cure, but treatment does help.
JENIKE (ph): Cure is something we don't generally expect. Probably over 70 percent of the ones that stayed in treatment and really worked hard are doing really good.
COHEN: Shannon is a gifted artist, and this expression helps her to find some answers.
This one is of a road that starts out bleak, and on the road is a turtle. Shannon's friends used to call her turtle because it took her so long to do everything.
S. FLEISHMAN: The road is lined with numbers, going from one to eight, that sort of fade away. The further down the road you get, the greener the grass is. And more, you know, there's a beautiful sunset, there's so much more color and life.
COHEN: Shannon has been at McLean for a month and a half, and she is halfway through her treatment.
(On camera): Do you think you'll ever come to feel that this bed is good enough even with this wrinkle, even with that lint?
S. FLEISHMAN: Honestly, no. I think I can live with little wrinkles. I don't think that my OCD will ever go away. I think that I can control it. Like, maybe I can make my bed in five minutes, you know, it would be great.
This is going to be the toughest battle in my life that I'll have to face. I can still succeed.
COHEN (voice over): Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Belmont, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, coming up, the connection between athletes and abstinence. Why some say the best way to victory is by swearing off sex. The story coming up.
Also ahead tonight, pointing fingers and blaming each other. The very nasty fight between, oh, who else? Donald Trump and his former pal Martha Stewart. Yikes. Why can't these two kids just get along?
When 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So a great number of Americans hold athletes in awe, and for good reason. They push their physical potential as far as it will go, and then some. Needless to say, their habits serve as models for a lot others -- how they train, what they eat, all the things they do. So what if one of the secrets to athletic success is something athletes don't do?
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): Ancient Greek Olympians, the Buffalo Bills and Josh Davis, all have something in common. They're all lean, mean athletic machines, living by a strict code -- train hard, compete hard, and no sex before a competition.
(on camera): So, it was through trial and error that you figured out abstaining was a good idea...
JOSH DAVIS, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Right.
COHEN: ... to win a medal?
J. DAVIS: Yes. When -- when I abstained, I got the gold.
COHEN (voice-over): Josh won gold three times in Atlanta, two silvers in Sydney, and he broke seven U.S. records.
And while he adores Shantel, his wife of 10 years, he says, abstaining days before a competition and the day of works for him. Of course, he does have sex. The man has five children.
J. DAVIS: It is awesome. I mean, God invented it. And He said, go for it. And I love it. And we love it. And it is great. And we celebrate that. But, being that my job is to race for our country, one night every four years, I can probably abstain that day and really focus my energy, you know, to bring home the gold.
COHEN (on camera): You said you have made some mistakes.
J. DAVIS: Yes.
COHEN (voice-over): It was Fort Lauderdale, 2002.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My perennial favorite, Josh Davis. He will not be in this final heat tonight.
COHEN: The Davises blame Josh's poor athletic performance in part on too much canoodling.
J. DAVIS: Well, I flew her with me to Fort Lauderdale. We are on the beach, and I'm getting ready to race. And not having the kids around and being on the beach, it was just so romantic and so wonderful. And we had a great time at the hotel.
But my times in the pool were awful. I was really tired. I don't know what was wrong with me. I just could not perform, and I -- in the pool -- and I didn't make the USA team. And -- but we had a great -- a great time together.
COHEN: Now Josh says he's learned his lesson. And so have others before him. Muhammad Ali said he didn't have sex for six weeks before a match. The no-sex rule has even made it into movies like "Bull Durham."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BULL DURHAM")
SUSAN SARANDON, ACTRESS: There is no relationship between sex and baseball. Ask Crash. TIM ROBBINS, ACTOR: I did.
SARANDON: And what did he say?
ROBBINS: He said, if I give in to you, I will start losing again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, AUTHOR, "CRACKED: PUTTING BROKEN LIVES TOGETHER AGAIN": For the most part, this is a wives' tale.
COHEN: Psychologist Drew Pinsky says, it is all in an athlete's head.
PINSKY: I think it what -- it might be what you call retaining the eye of the tiger. I think people have sort of a sense that, if they remain irritable and deprive themselves of things, that, perhaps, then, they will be more apt to be aggressive when they need it.
COHEN: Dr. Ian Shrier, past president of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, agrees.
DR. IAN SHRIER, FORMER PRESIDENT, CANADIAN ACADEMY OF SPORT MEDICINE: Among the six studies that we looked at, all of them showed the same thing. Sex the night before competition does not make you weaker, it does not decrease your aerobic capacity, and doesn't make you more tired.
COHEN (on camera): So at the trials for 2008, you're not going to make the same mistake?
J. DAVIS: Right. We won't be together for that week.
COHEN: Separate rooms?
J. DAVIS: Separate rooms that week and then we can celebrate after I make the team.
COHEN (voice-over): An old wives' tale? A myth? The Davises don't really care. All they know is, there is a time for love and a time when love takes a back seat.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Erica Hill, from "HEADINE NEWS," joins us with some of the business stories we're following -- Erica.
HILL: How fun to follow, Anderson.
If things seem a little pricier these days, they are. Consumer prices rose more than expected in January, thanks to soaring energy and food costs. And analysts think those gains are going to catch the attention of the Federal Reserve and could lead to an additional rate increase in March and perhaps -- ouch -- another one in May.
Overruling objections by Delta pilots today, a U.S. bankruptcy court allowed the airline to implement a severance plan for senior managers. Delta says this is going to help it keep senior execs, but the pilots union objects because while those managers are getting severance packages, the pilots are being asked to take a pay cut.
And just because it is more difficult to file for bankruptcy these days, doesn't mean plenty of people aren't still doing it. That's according to a survey from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. The group says forcing consumers into credit counseling was a waste of money and did little to weed out deadbeats looking to bankruptcy as a way to avoid their debt.
Uplifting one there to end on -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes. Erica, thanks.
So the gloves are off for The Donald and the Martha. Can you call her the Martha? I think we can. They're rich, they're powerful, and right now they apparently hate each other with a vengeance. We'll tell you what's behind the bitter feud when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well tonight, two people who usually shun the spotlight and rarely invite ridicule are in the middle of a bitter and very public argument. The battle is between the man with the golden hairdo. He goes by the name of Trump. Maybe you've heard of him. And the woman who might offer him a makeover. We'll just call her Martha.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the story of how The Donald slipped his wig over Martha.
REGIS, CO-HOST, REGIS AND KELLY: "Trump Blows his Top."
KELLY, CO-HOST, REGIS AND KELLY: Yes, I don't...
REGIS: Ugly.
KELLY: Yes, I don't think those two are going to be going out for sushi anytime soon.
REGIS: The (inaudible) is furious.
MOOS: And to think that not so long ago, the two were merrily plugging each other's show.
DONALD TRUMP: My original Apprentice, plus Apprentice Martha Stewart. It just doesn't get any better than that.
MARTHA STEWART: Donald, it can always get better.
MOOS: Or worse.
LINDA STASI, TV CRITIC, NEW YORK POST: Her show was such a dog, it needed a leash to go out. I'm sorry, Martha, but it stunk.
MOOS: NBC canceled Martha's Apprentice and Martha told various magazines the reason it failed was there were too many apprentices, that originally she was supposed to fire The Donald...
TRUMP: You're fired, fired, fired.
MOOS: ... killing off his Apprentice, when hers appeared. The show's producer confirmed that there had been talk of that, adding, thank God that didn't happen. But in a "Dear Martha" letter, The Donald trashed Martha's show. "Your performance was terrible..." I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He did not.
MOOS: Oh, yes he did. And there's more. "Essentially, you made this firing up just as you made up your sell order of ImClone."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's brutal.
MOOS: Lying about ImClone stock was what sent Martha to jail. Referring to Martha's daytime show, The Donald added a "p.s. Be careful or I will do a syndicated daytime show, perhaps called the Boardroom, and further destroy the meager ratings you already have."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe he'll do a cooking show.
MOOS: Martha's response to The Donald's attack...
STEWART: I'm disappointed. I'm hurt, and I'm really very upset at my longtime friend and that's really all I want to say.
STASI: And she'll probably send him a thank you note on hand- engraved stationery.
MOOS: Some smell something fishy. After all, the new season of Donald's apprentice is about to begin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like a ploy just to keep your name in the papers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a bunch of trumped off fuss.
MOOS: It struck me that both of them are acting like characters on The Apprentice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're both idiots.
MOOS: Watch it, lady, or The Donald will send you a poison pen letter.
STASI: Donald Trump takes no prisoners. That's why he's The Donald. Remember that old movie, the Breakfast Club, where the principal says, you mess with the bull's son, you'll get the horns.
MOOS: Martha got the horns.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I'm just shocked that she would imply that Donald Trump might be trumping this up to, you know, add ratings to his upcoming TV show. I'm just shocked by that. Shocked, I tell you.
"On the Radar" tonight, lying to tell the truth. A report on using an MRI machine to catch your brain in a lie. It's getting a lot of play on the blog today.
"What a ridiculous use of an MRI machine," writes Joel in Toronto. "Now I know why people often have to wait months for a scan."
Good point.
Shane in Topeka, Kansas, writes, "I believe that a fool-proof lie detector test would go a long way to prevent innocent people from going to jail."
And while Ron in Levittown, New York, wonders, "Now, if such a machine does come to exist, who is going to determine who is honest enough to monitor it and use it properly? 'Who watches the Watchman?'"
Jessica in Clovis, California, says "I would pay toll money for that machine to be hooked up to my significant other." Yikes. "He keeps everything to himself and his eyes give it away. There's a whole world beyond those eyes that I will never know."
Man. I think you got more issues than an MRI machine will settle there.
And Matt, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, or is it Homer Simpson? Either way, he writes, "Mmmmmmm...must love Big Brother. Mmmmmmm...must always think nice about Big Brother. Mmmmmm...losing my individual identity. I'm scared y'all!"
But don't you be scared. Tell us what you think. Just go to cnn.com/360. You can check out our blog. It's growing everyday. Click on the link to our blog and weigh in.
Also, we'll have more of 360 in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Thanks for watching. "LARRY KING" is next. Johnny Carson's former sidekick, Ed McMahon, shares more than 30 years of memories.
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