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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Could Arrested American Missionaries Be Set Free?; Who Broke Haiti?; Recovering Haiti's Dead; Who Wrecked Haiti?; Life Goes on for New Yorkers Despite Storm
Aired February 10, 2010 - 22:00 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 tonight from Port-au- Prince.
Tonight, the heroic work being done on many blocks here, as Haitians and American volunteers try to recover this city's dead before they are lost forever, as earthquake-damaged buildings are torn down.
We will also have the latest on those 10 American missionaries arrested for child kidnapping. Is it possible they could be set free?
And who broke Haiti? Who stole money given to Haiti over the years? We will look at corruption before the earthquake to see if it can be prevented in the future.
First, though, a quick look at the important news back home, the blizzard, the streets in Washington empty, the government shut down, the second major snowstorm in days hammering the Atlantic Coast, in a lot of places now, the snowiest season on record, six feet of snow in Baltimore this winter, a deadly chain reaction crash in Pennsylvania, airports shut down.
Gary Tuchman joins us in New York -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I know a lot of our friends in Minnesota and Maine and Montana are wondering what the big deal is.
But here's the big deal, the magnitude of this blizzard, 10 states and the District of Columbia getting pelted with snow today, and it's the most densely populated part of the country that's getting the worst of it, the part between Boston and Washington, tens of millions of people.
Here in New York City, it started snowing at 11:00 last night. It's been snowing for 23 hours, expected to snow for hours more, 12 to 20 inches of snow on the ground by the time it is all over. Schools were closed in New York City today, more than one million school children off of school, only the first time in the last six years that's happened.
Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., eight to 10 inches of snow, but that's on top of the huge snowfall that Washington got this past Friday. In Washington, D.C., federal workers have been off for the past three-and-a-half days off of work. It's costing taxpayers about $100 million a day.
The House of Representatives has already said there will be no votes the rest of the week, Philadelphia, 12 to 24 inches of snow. That's the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. Baltimore, 12 to 20 inches of snow by the time this is all over.
In Baltimore, in Philadelphia, in Washington, the most snow that's ever fallen in recorded weather history, and it is only February. Meanwhile, the airports, what a disaster we have there. Here in New York, La Guardia, Kennedy, Newark International, and Baltimore, Baltimore Washington International, Philadelphia international, Washington Reagan, Dulles Airport, we have a situation where the airports have either been closed or most of the flights canceled, tens of thousands of flights canceled.
And we are told that this has been the most flights canceled for any time over the last five years. And, obviously, the tip that we give people, don't go on the roads. They learned it the hard way in Central Pennsylvania in the town of Clearfield. That's right in the middle of Pennsylvania near Interstate 80, chain-reaction accident with dozens of vehicles, one person killed, many people hurt -- very disastrous on the roadways.
And here in New York City, for people wondering when this is all going to melt, for the next two weeks, the forecast, the temperatures never supposed to get above 38 degrees -- Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Wow. It sounds like you are talking from another planet. It is very, very warm here, as you can imagine.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Gary, we're going to have more with you later on in the program. We will also talk to Tom Foreman, who actually skied to work today in Washington, D.C. -- just downright surreal.
But we want to tell you about what is going on here on the streets of Port-au-Prince, because there are extraordinary things happening. You know, in the first week or two, we all got used to seeing those remarkable rescues, Haitians and international volunteers literally risking their lives in -- in very precarious rubble to rescue people who were still living.
But would you risk your life to save -- to -- to bring out somebody from the rubble who you knew was already dead? Would you -- would you risk your life just to bring their remains out and bury them with dignity?
We have -- a number of Haitians are doing just that on many blocks throughout this city. And, today, we wanted to show you what is happening on just one block near General Hospital in the ruins of what was a nursing college. Take a look.
It is very graphic, though, we do want to warn you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER (voice-over): Nearly a month since the quake, and Port- au-Prince is still a graveyard. In the ruins of the national nursing college, as many as 100 students remain crushed under concrete.
(on camera): At first, on a site like this, it is hard to understand what you are actually looking at. It's like it takes time for your eyes to adjust to what you are actually seeing. I mean, there's notebooks scattered all around, a nurse's shoe.
But then you realize this whole area, discolored area, is actually the -- the remains of people.
(voice-over): Joseph Charles was a security guard at the school. Every day now, he searches for the student he once tried to protect.
"They used to call me Poppy Joe, Poppy Joe," he says. "This is really hard."
In a locked storeroom, he collects the personal possessions he finds, old textbooks, nurse's shoes, even their uniforms. He has to work quickly, however. A government bulldozer is on site removing what's left of the building.
(on camera): While rescue operations are delicate, precise, and time-consuming, recovery operations in Port-au-Prince, as you can see, are anything but. They are just here to destroy and tear down what remains of the building.
The backhoe just rips through the structure. The human remains mix with the steel and the concrete. All of it just gets picked up and dumped into a truck.
Eric Jones (ph), a volunteer, has been helping Joseph recover the dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has been very heart-wrenching, to say the least.
COOPER (on camera): Heart-wrenching?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heart-wrenching, just the whole process and the tragedy of it, to have so many nurses. You know, obviously, nursing is such an honorable profession. They are some of the hardest-working people in the medical field. And to have so many of them killed here is just very emotional.
COOPER (voice-over): Eric works in real estate in Washington, D.C., but he was once a paramedic. He doesn't like to talk about it, but he received the Medal of Valor for pulling people out of the Pentagon on 9/11.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground zero, they had, under the walls, names of loved ones. Here, there's -- there doesn't seem to be anything like that. And the truth is, I don't know if we will ever really know how many people were -- were killed in places like this. It's -- it is an unreal situation. But it is -- what struck me most is just the incredible resilience of these people, and, you know, just their strength and their courage and their tenacity and...
COOPER: Eric and Joseph may work side by side, but they don't speak the same language.
(on camera): How do you guys communicate, because you don't speak French?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, actually, this is the most communication we have had since I have been here. So, it is really nice to be able to finally communicate a little.
COOPER: So, you haven't had a translator or anything? You've just been kind of working together without -- just kind of hand signals and..
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I speak a little bit of French, and -- but, yes, it's pretty much been hand signals and sort of helping him however he needs help. But I am really appreciative for your translator.
COOPER (voice-over): The work they do is beyond words. It is the most gruesome job imaginable. They do the best they can.
(on camera): Eric and Joseph found 10 nurses about three days ago, and they brought their remains here. They left them on the side of the road, expecting the Haitian government to come and collect them, but the government never came.
Dogs ultimately got to the -- their bodies. And now all that remains is the smell and a few bones.
(voice-over): Scattered throughout the rubble are photos of the nurses.
(on camera): All throughout the wreckage, you find photographs of the nurses. Here's some registration documents. This is a girl named Ruth (ph). This is a student named Gabrielle (ph). Here's pictures from a graduation ceremony.
(voice-over): Pictures are not worth money, however, and the men who scavenge for scrap metal amidst the rubble and human remains show no interest.
(on camera): It has got to be incredibly frustrating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is. It's upsetting and frustrating to witness that, but it is just, I think, a state of the affairs, as people, they don't mean disrespect by it. It is just they are hungry and they need -- they need money to buy food. And, so, they have to do what they need to do to earn money for themselves and their own families.
It is just sad that that is what they have to do to get it. COOPER (voice-over): Eric has been in Haiti for weeks already. He plans to stay until he and Joseph finish the work at this site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was telling him earlier, I have as much so much respect for him. I have seen him every day a week just working, you know, 15-, 16-hour days, risking his own life time and time again to recover the artifacts and personal effects of the people he used to work and used to -- he has shown nothing but courage and dignity and respect. And he is definitely my hero.
COOPER (on camera): He is your hero?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, absolutely.
COOPER (voice-over): It is a heroic effort, a thankless task. Amidst so much loss, they try to bring dignity to the dead.
(on camera): What they are doing is truly just extraordinary and extraordinarily difficult.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I want to get you updated now on those 10 American missionaries. They spent another day in court today, with a lot of rumors swirling around that they could be released, and released as early as tomorrow.
They are accused, of course, as you know, of kidnapping, after being caught trying to take 33 kids out of the country.
Karl Penhaul has been trying to separate the facts from the fiction on these rumors. He spoke earlier tonight with the judge on the case. He joins us now.
What do you know?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is really going on is that there is an application pending for bail, for a conditional release, for all 10 Americans. Now, the judge initially said that that could take up to probably another five days to rule on.
When I phoned him back tonight, he has obviously fast-tracked this whole thing. And he says that he may have a ruling on whether the Americans can be set free on bail by as early as mid-afternoon Thursday.
COOPER: So, if all of a sudden -- I mean, this is supposed to take five days. All of a sudden, he -- today, he's suddenly fast- tracking it, that sounds like there is some sort of behind-the-scenes work or pressure he is getting from above to move this thing along.
PENHAUL: He certainly said he was giving it a priority. Now, of course, we don't officially know whether there is any political pressure to bear.
COOPER: Right. PENHAUL: We saw some messages from Bill Clinton when he was here last week. Then the State Department stepped in and appeared to say, no, we will let the Haitian justice system do its bit.
But what it does mean is, if conditional release is granted tomorrow, then the judge can also set conditions.
COOPER: And those conditions could mean that they could go back to the United States as early as tomorrow if they are released?
PENHAUL: Exactly. The judge can feasibly say, you are released. You can go back to the United States, on condition you come back at a later stage for trial, if it goes to trial.
COOPER: And even, you know, a month from now, they get them back to the United States, and a month from now, they could just say, well, we have decided to just drop the charges and it could all go away.
PENHAUL: A very different picture month from now, because they know right now the media spotlight is on this case, both in the U.S. and in Haiti, but, a month down the line -- things are changing very rapidly here.
COOPER: There are some who have speculated and say, well, look, you know, this has allowed -- this is like a face-saving move. This has allowed the Haitian government to say, look, we are enforcing our laws. We are protecting our kids.
And, yet, also, you know, no one really wants the -- the amount of attention that this has gotten here in Haiti, because it is distracting from the real story and the -- the real struggle here, which is the half-million people in this city who are homeless right now.
PENHAUL: I think it would also be a face-saving move for the U.S. government as well, because, all the while, they want to say that the Haitian government is capable of standing it on its own two feet.
And so if they take away the initiative from the Haitian government by pressuring it, then they will no longer be able to say, well, the Haitian government can run itself. So, I think it is a face-saving move for the U.S. government as well, if it comes down to that. We will just have to wait and see tomorrow.
COOPER: All right. Well, we will of course -- we're going to be here tomorrow night and we're going to be here Friday night. We will be covering all of this, all the things going on.
Karl, appreciate it. Thank you very much.
A man and his family connecting from opposite ends of the medical lifeline between South Florida and here. Our coverage from Haiti continues, and the latest on that crazy weather all over the East Coast.
We will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: According to "The New York Times," more than 500 Haitians have been flown to the United States for medical treatment since the quake.
Now, it has put an enormous burden on the health care system and a terrible strain on families here, as you can imagine. This next story is about there and about here, trying to forge a connection between the two.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story is common, too common.
JEAN CHERY, HAITI QUAKE VICTIM IN MIAMI HOSPITAL (through translator): Yes, I was running. My shirt...
(CROSSTALK)
CHERY (through translator): The back of the shirt burned. I just closed my eyes and asked God, are you going to let me die?
GUPTA (on camera): The nightmare started here at a gas station in downtown Port-au-Prince. Thirty-nine-year-old Jean Chery was driving in a truck down this street when this power line fell and hit a propane tank. There was a huge explosion. And, just like that, Jean Chery was burned over a quarter of his body. His friends scooped him up and drove him quickly to a hospital two blocks down the road.
The care at this Doctors Without Borders hospital is good. It's very good. But burns are notoriously difficult to treat. And they are deadly if that treatment doesn't come fast, all this to say that, even in the best of times, Haiti wasn't the place for him.
(voice-over): And that meant a transfer, in this case, to the United States. Since the earthquake, hundreds of patients have been brought to the U.S., like Jean Chery. As things stand today, their medical costs are paid for through a program called the National Disaster Medical System. Think of it as a special relief fund. And this is the first time it has ever been used for a natural disaster outside the United States.
And here's something that might surprise you. The plan is, the hospitals that take these patients are reimbursed at 110 percent of Medicare costs. Why 110 percent, and not just 100 percent, you ask? Well, we wanted to know as well. A government spokesperson told us: "It was set up as an incentive. We don't want hospitals to worry about extra costs or the extra manpower required to treat patients after a disaster."
(on camera): You know, as things stand now, there really is no end in sight. You see, there's a lot of critically ill patients here in Haiti, a country that can barely afford the basics.
As for Jean Chery, doctors say that he is going to do very well. And there is another thing to all this. His wife hasn't spoken to him, seen him in over a month. So, we tracked her down, Jula (ph), to this particular marketplace.
I wanted to show you a picture of your husband. Is it good to see him? Yes? You want to talk to your husband? Here you go.
This is the first time they have spoken almost since this all happened.
(voice-over): "He asked about the kids, said I love you, and that he is coming home soon."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Has this fund been activated before?
GUPTA: Yes. In fact, you know, it's surprising. It has been around for quite some time, since 1984. And you should appreciate the fact that, during Hurricane Katrina, actually, most recently, it was activated. There were some 2,700 patients who were eligible for that. So, Louisiana, the thought was, couldn't handle the entire medical burden. A lot of patients moved out of state. And that -- that exact fund...
COOPER: I think it does surprise a lot of people and probably concerns a lot of people that they are paying 110 percent above and beyond the cost of the actual medical treatment.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, we really tried to drill down on that today, talked to a lot of folks at USAID, as well as HHS. They said that they -- during disaster, you have to provide incentives for these patients to be cared for at hospitals that may already be full. That may involve hiring more personnel to take care of those patients.
And, also, sometimes, those patients don't have a place to go after they have recovered, so just keeping them in the hospital or arranging some sort of rehab also very important.
COOPER: All right, Sanjay, thanks. Appreciate it.
Coming up: The little boy we told you about last night, 5-year- old Kenzie Charles (ph), was reunited with his father today aboard the USS Comfort. Kenzie's parents thought he had died in the quake, if you remember. They didn't know he was alive until a UNICEF worker showed them photos of Kenzie. The boy was taken to the U.S. ship for medical treatment.
Now preparations are being made for Kenzie to leave that ship and be reunited with his entire family in the days ahead. We certainly will follow up on that and wish him well.
Coming up next though: snow, more snow, and even more snow, and Tom Foreman, who skied to work today. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Just ahead: Who broke Haiti? Abbie Boudreau "Keeping Them Honest" on the money trail.
But, first, the latest on a major blizzard that has ground cities to a halt, pummeled, buried, blasted, battered, take your pick. If you live in the Northeast, they all pretty much apply. If you live in or around the nation's capital, you are relieving last weekend's nightmare, record snowfall for the second time in a week.
Tom Foreman joins me now from the thick of it.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson.
The capital has never really seen any weather like this in the winter in recorded history. And the result has been staggering. This is the third day in which the federal government has been shut down by this. And that is not a cheap prospect.
One official estimates it is costing $100 million every day in lost productivity. But the simple problem is, right here in front of the Capitol even, even for people who want to get to work, there's just no way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): As the blizzard ripped through, dropping at times two inches of snow an hour, even snowplows were pulled off of the streets for safety now and then. And the impassable roads made the commute into D.C. all but impossible. I had to strap on cross- country skis just to break out of my neighborhood, where many drifts are running chest-high.
(on camera): Well, you can see how getting out of the neighborhood is going to be tough, at best. My skis are being buried in the snow, and they are not real trail-breaking skis. So, I'm going to keep slogging down this hill down up here, and then got a bunch of uphills to go to maybe make it to the Metro, about three miles from here.
(voice-over): The snow has closed schools, offices, museums. Even some White House staff members are working from home. The weight of the snow has caused some roofs to collapse, including one at a Smithsonian storage facility.
Overburdened trees have broken, taking down power lines and leaving tens of thousands without electricity at various times since the snows began.
(on camera): We were without power for four days. You can see how buried a lot of these houses are. They really just have snow, in many cases well up into the windows. The blowing wind is really complicating things here.
(voice-over): It's been complicated, too, at all of the capital region's major airports, closed after it proved impossible to keep up with the steadily falling and drifting snow. Everywhere, from the city to the suburbs, the warning is the same: Park the car. Stay inside. Sit tight until the storm passes.
(on camera): Pretty much everything is closed. And you still see very few people out. I'm almost to the Metro.
(voice-over): The Metro trains proved one of the few operable lifelines, but even they are running with long delays and only on the underground sections of track. Still, if you want to commute in D.C. these days, it's the only game in town.
(on camera): Finally, here I am, about three hours later, skiing up to the CNN offices.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And, Tom, I mean, how many inches -- first of all, I'm amazed that you -- you skied into snow. I hope our bosses are seeing that.
How many inches of snow are we talking about?
FOREMAN: Well, here is a measure, Anderson. Out at Dulles Airport here, this winter, they have had 72 inches of snow. That is as tall as I am. And one of the big problems that's coming up right now is -- is evident right here.
I'm standing in snow about a foot-and-a-half down, but I'm standing on top of probably three feet of snow underneath that. They are simply running out of places to put all of this. And we have more snow coming this way in the forecast, Anderson. So, for the capital, it's going to be a long time digging out.
COOPER: Amazing.
Tom, thanks very much. I hope you get a good night's sleep after all that skiing.
We're going to have more from Haiti ahead.
But, first, let's get the latest on some other important stories we are following.
Candy Crowley has a 360 news and business bulletin -- Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson.
The Treasury Department says it's freezing the assets of four Iranian companies it says are linked with Iran's weapons of mass destruction program. The new sanctions come a day after President Obama warned that the U.S. and its allies are going to turn up pressure on Iran. This all comes as Iran's government ratchets up efforts to prevent protests, like these last summer, from erupting tomorrow, the anniversary of Iran's revolution. Officials say they will arrest protesters and hold them until April if they disrupt state-sanctioned marches.
Two new national polls show a majority of Americans want September 11 terror suspects tried in military, rather than civilian courts. In one of the polls, nearly seven in 10 said terror suspects should not receive all the constitutional protections afforded Americans in a civilian trial.
Google says it will begin testing a new super-fast broadband network with download speeds of about 100 times faster than traditional broadband connections.
And a new picture to add to the collective family tree. International teams of scientists thinks this is what one of the earliest known inhabitants of Greenland looked like. They were able to sequence his DNA from samples of 4,000-year-old hair found frozen in Greenland's permafrost, all words, really, Anderson, that I never thought I would say in a single sentence.
I don't know what that means, but they found a really old guy.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: That is good to know.
Candy, thanks.
We will check in with Candy a little bit more, some other updates on stories.
Still ahead, though, we're on the money trail, "Keeping Them Honest." Who stole Haiti's future and enriched themselves along the way? We investigate ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Some sad news to report from Port-au-Prince: Two bodies were recovered. One was that of Air Force Major Ken Bourland. He had been missing in the rubble of the Hotel Montana since the quake. His remains came back through Dover Air Force Base yesterday. They were met by his wife, Peggy, his stepson, his sister, and parents. Major Bourland had been in Haiti to take a disaster-preparedness course, of all things.
Also today, confirmation that American student Courtney Hayes died in the earthquake. Three other students and two faculty members from Lynn University in South Florida are still missing and presumed dead. The group was in Haiti on an aid mission when the quake hit.
The earthquake that -- that struck here was -- we all know, it was incredibly powerful, but the damage it did was magnified by the manmade disasters that came before it.
This is what remains of Haiti's presidential palace after the earthquake. And parts of it, the front of it really just crumbled, collapsed. And, by Haiti's building standards, this was probably one of the most secure buildings. So, to understand why Haiti was so poor and so ill-equipped to cope with a disaster of this scale, you have to follow the trail of corruption that robbed Haiti of so much over the years. The trail leads back to "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Baby Doc, who used to rule this country. Abbie Boudreau is Keeping Them Honest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've come to Paris in search of the man who wrecked Haiti, the man whose family stole as much as a billion dollars from one of the neediest countries in the world.
GILES AUGUST, ATTORNEY: From the $500 million we documented, which are probably half of the money which has been embezzled by Mr. Duvalier and his wife and the accomplices, we have evidence that they transferred abroad $120 million.
BOUDREAU: Giles August is the attorney who was hired to get the money back, and he's talking about this man, Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, but it was really a father and son act. Baby Doc's father was a brutal dictator, known as Papa Doc Duvalier.
He began their nearly 30-year crime spree in the 1950s. They had a vicious secret militia, the Tonton Macoute. Roughly translated, it means "the boogiemen." Under the reign of terror, as many as 60,000 Haitians were killed.
After his father died, Baby Doc took larceny to a new level, especially after he married his glamorous wife, Michelle. Together, they used their country like a personal piggy bank.
AUGUST: It's like the president going to the Federal Reserve and, upon instruction of a president, please give $100,000.
BOUDREAU (on camera): Just writing himself checks?
AUGUST: Absolutely. And that was happening almost every day. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. And this is the bank of the republic.
BOUDREAU: Oh, my goodness.
AUGUST: You see?
BOUDREAU: He was just using this as his personal bank account?
AUGUST: Absolutely. Here they are debiting something like $400,000. And this $400,000 are debited from the national defense to New York care of Spritzer and Fehrmann, which is a nice jewelry shop in New York.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Jacques Sales also worked on the case.
JACQUES SALES, ATTORNEY: Another example, following instruction by his Excellency, the president for life, please transfer $100,000 to the Ferrari automotive company in Modena, Italy, you know.
BOUDREAU (on camera): Ferrari? So he was buying himself cars and what other things was he buying himself?
SALES: Roughly $20 million to buy, I would say, stuff, you know, jewelry, mink coats, a yacht, cars, et cetera. And then $100 million in cash or in real estate. That's why we believe that they are about $100 million when they went away.
BOUDREAU: A popular uprising forced the Duvaliers to run away to France in 1986, but many of those who conspired and enriched themselves with the dictator remained in power, allowing Baby Doc to escape free and clear.
At first, the ex-dictator and his wife lived like royalty on the French Riviera, but the Duvaliers' riches and romance came to an end. Their divorce was messy. Michelle reportedly ended up with most of the loot, according to British journalist Peter Allen, who showed us her ritzy Parisian penthouse.
(on camera) She's on the top floor?
PETER ALLEN, BRITISH JOURNALIST: She's on the top floor. She has a rather impressive apartment up there, which suggests she's retained quite a bit of the money that they managed to bring out of their homeland.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Baby Doc fell on harder times, and he's kept a very low profile. Despite his once vast wealth with, critics say he's now hiding from bill collectors.
ALLEN: Whereas his wife is now living in a penthouse, he is likely to be living in a small -- what they are, they're the kind of little flats which were originally used for servants in the building.
BOUDREAU: We heard Baby Doc was in this lower-rent Parisian neighborhood so we showed local store owner his picture.
(on camera) Un photo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FRENCH)
BOUDREAU: So you have seen him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): He said he was once a regular customer, but the trail was now cold.
(on camera) Monsieur Duvalier? Monsieur Duvalier?
ALLEN: This is all part of the mystery, and it's a mystery that needs to be solved, if we are to put the questions to him that deserve to be put to him.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Duvalier had disappeared, like most of his money. But we did find what little was left. It's held in a UBS account in Geneva, Switzerland.
MARC HENZELIN: Out of the whole fortune of the Duvaliers, we a managed to find 5 to 7 million at UBS here in Geneva. For the rest, it's probably in the hands of lawyers, real-estate agents. We don't know what. Probably even the Duvaliers don't know. But in any case, the money will not go back to the Duvaliers. Don't worry about that.
BOUDREAU: That's because attorney Mark Kenselaf (ph) blocked those funds on behalf of two men, victims, who were tortured during Duvalier's reign.
ETZER LALANES, VICTIM: My family was telling me it is time now to leave the country, because if you -- if you don't leave, they will kill you.
BOUDREAU: Etzer Lalanes won his case against Duvalier, but he hasn't seen a dime. He says he's not fighting this battle for personal gain.
LALANES: I will fight until I get the right because I don't want Duvalier to get a dime of this money. This money is for the people of Haiti. The people of Haiti will use this money.
BOUDREAU: People who desperately need it now more than ever. That's why Jacques Sales is so sorry Baby Doc has never been held accountable.
(on camera) How responsible is he for the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake, given the fact that he had stolen so much money from -- from them?
SALES: They destroyed the country completely. The army, the church, the university, everything was destroyed. Everything. So they are naturally responsible for the state of the country today.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Just one day before the earthquake, Switzerland's supreme court ruled it could no longer block Duvalier's funds, but the Swiss government then quickly stepped in and promised to create a new law that would prevent Duvalier from ever getting that money.
Abbie Boudreau, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Of course, should also point out the United States government's supported the Duvalier regime for years during the Cold War. A lot of that money was probably given by the United States initially.
Papa Doc, Baby Doc, they've been out of the picture for a long time, so who else is to blame? We pick up the money trail when we come back. We'll take a look at who's been bleeding Haiti dry over the years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Well, corruption in Haiti didn't end with Baby Doc in his wife. Billions of foreign aid have poured into Haiti, yet you can see in a lot of places little to show for it. And the earthquake has made all that too clear.
So let's dig deeper with Dan Erikson, a senior associate for U.S. policy and director of Caribbean programs at American Dialogue.
Dan, after Duvalier left, there was a lot of foreign aid coming in. Haiti received, I think, $4 billion between 1990 and 2003, $1 billion a year in aid pledges since 2004. Where did that money go? Do we know?
DAN ERIKSON, CARIBBEAN AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, we do have a sense of where the money went. The first thing that has to be said is with Haiti and foreign aid, it's really been a situation of feast or famine since the departure of the Duvaliers.
On the one hand, Haiti has received huge sums of money like what is happening today, but there have been aid cutoffs, as well. So, there hasn't -- there hasn't been a cumulative effect over time.
What we do know is a fair amount has gone to the Haitian government itself. Obviously, corruption remains a problem there. And in addition, a large amount of resources have been going to nongovernmental organizations working in Haiti. And there was a 2006 report by the National Academy of Public Administration that found that about 30 percent of the civil service here were actually phantom employees. They didn't actually exist, but they -- people were getting paid for it and taking money in it. Is that common?
ERIKSON: Yes. That's happened quite frequently in Haiti. Haiti is a country that has very fragile institutions. It's a weak state. Some would say a hollow state. You don't really have much operational capacity within the government, but there certainly has been cases over the years of pumping up payrolls or other types of graft, basically as a way to siphon off resources from the government.
COOPER: Is it difficult to actually track where the money goes? In Haiti, I read that the U.S. had trouble tracking $45 million in aid that it gave to Haiti after a 2004 storm because, I guess, some initial fact-finding trip was ruled as too dangerous?
ERIKSON: That's right. Tracking the money has really been a huge challenge. Everyone realizes that there needs to be accountability in aid, and that it's important to have a zero- tolerance policy for corruption.
But as a practical matter, what you have in Haiti is so much money coming in from different sources -- private sources, multilateral organizations, as well as the U.S. government and other foreign governments -- it's going to nongovernmental organizations, local governments in some cases, the national government.
So as a result it's really hard to get a clear picture of where all this money is going. There are some successes, some areas were aid has been quite effective, but at the macro level, clearly it's failed to achieve any sort of sustainable development for the country.
COOPER: So, if a lot of money is going to NGOs and the U.N., I mean, I've never understood all these countries, the U.N., people drive around in brand-new vehicles. I've never seen so many brand- new, clean, gleaming white Land Rovers my life than I've seen in Haiti and places like Congo. I mean, are they spending a lot of money?
ERIKSON: Well, there is a lot of money. And also, Haiti is considered to be own unstable environment and so you do tend to have a lot of money spent on things like security for buildings and for vehicles, which is another important element.
What I think international aid has contributed to in Haiti is the emergence of almost a dual economy, where there's the actual economy, where people live on $2 a day or less, really struggling to get by, and then there is a parallel economy where international aid workers work. Many of them do do good projects, but the fact is they operate on a different level than Haitian civil society as a whole.
COOPER: There's been a lot of talk about, you know, influence of drug trafficking in this country, corruption in various arms of the government over the years. Is that an -- I mean, is there anyone investigating that here on the ground, in terms of international groups? Or are they tracking where -- I'm not talking about right now, the new money. I'm talking about the money that's been given. Are they tracking individually? Is there one central international group that's tracking it?
ERIKSON: No, what you have is different groups that are tracking -- groups in general, particularly professional ones and multilateral organizations, really try to track their own projects very effectively. And indeed, there is a warehouse of documents here in Washington, D.C., in New York, of various relief agencies and international organizations, about the outcomes of their aid projects in Haiti.
So it's really been very difficult to develop a central source. I think this is an area where the United Nations could perhaps play a much more dominant role in the coming months much the U.N. could serve as a clearing house for this type of organization.
And it's also important to focus on donor coordination. Sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing in Haiti when you have so many international aid groups working there. So I do think it's important there is more knowledge sharing and more transparency.
COOPER: And there certainly, given the amount of money coming in here now and the amount of international interests. There's going to be more focus on how the money is being spent, probably, in Haiti than ever before, and I mean international attention is certainly a good thing. Transparency is key.
ERIKSON: That's right. International attention is very good for two reasons. The first is aid effectiveness. You want to make sure that the aid is effective, and it's going where it needs to go. And the second is really the political sustainability of this current desire to help Haiti. What Haiti needs right now is some successes. If people are confident that their money is being well spent and governments are confident that their money is well spent, that will help to continue a more sustainable engagement with Haiti in the future, if by contrast there's a sense that this money is ill-used or wasted, what you're going to see is a level of donor fatigue set in, and Haiti could once again be forgotten.
COOPER: All right. We want to continue looking at this, at the money trail over the last many years. So much money has been given, and a lot of Haitian people kind of are saying, "Where has it all gone?" We'll continue to follow this. Dan Erikson, we appreciate you being on with us tonight.
Coming up, we'll take you to the eye of the storm, the latest on the blizzard slamming much of the East Coast. And braving the storm, Gary Tuchman shows us how the people aren't letting the brutal weather ruin their day. We'll be right back.
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COOPER: If you haven't been affected by the blizzard pounding the mid-Atlantic and northeast, consider yourself lucky. The storm has paralyzed cities, grounded thousands of flights and wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people. New York has taken a direct hit with some pretty brutal weather conditions, but as Gary Tuchman found out, New Yorkers are, well, taking it in stride, as we do most things. Here's Gary's report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the nation's capital, the streets extremely quiet. Washington, D.C., practically a ghost town from the blizzard.
(SIRENS)
TUCHMAN: But in New York City the streets remain lively. Life can be fairly normal in Manhattan on a day like this, on an island where most don't need or have cars.
Sledding hills all over Manhattan were jammed with a good number of the one million-plus school kids who had the day off. And when it's too far to walk here, there is the unglamorous but expensive city bus system. Some service may get delayed or canceled, but there are buss on Manhattan streets 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter what the calamity.
Aidan Castillo (ph) has been driving for six years.
(on camera) When you woke up today and you saw it was snowing and icy, what did you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God, I have to go. And I pray. I said, I'm going to do my best, and that's what I'm doing. TUCHMAN (voice-over): The streets are slippery; visibility is bad. Sometimes the buses wait way behind a red light to gather momentum up a hill, where they wait for the light to turn green.
The faithful passengers are used to it all and feel very secure.
(on camera) You have no concern about being on the bus in a blizzard?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, only the pickpockets. But...
TUCHMAN: Not the ride itself?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not the ride itself.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Passengers tend to dread getting on and off the bus and stepping into huge ice puddles, but the ride itself phases few.
Rebecca Schull is an actress who you can see reruns of the old NBC comedy "Wings." She's also a veteran bus passenger.
REBECCA SCHULL, ACTRESS: The buses are heavy, and most of the drivers are wonderful. She's a good driver. Sometimes you get a sort of cowboy driver.
TUCHMAN (on camera): We don't have a cowgirl driver today?
SCHULL: No, no, she is very careful.
TUCHMAN: What's the key to successful driving in the ice and snow?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take -- take our time, go slow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Gary, sanitation workers and bus drivers are the unsung heroes of this snowstorm, certainly in New York.
What's the forecast for, I mean, tomorrow, people going to work? How long is this thing going to last?
TUCHMAN: Well, the system will be in the Atlantic Ocean, so if you're in a boat, it will be bad. But things will be better on the East Coast tomorrow.
Here in New York City the sledding should still be good, but those sledders will be back in school. The New York City schools back in session, most government workers, private workers back in work. The city, while lively today, will be back to its New York style of lively tomorrow. Things are getting pretty normal, except, Anderson, for those big puddles when you get on and off the buses.
COOPER: I know. There's big puddles of yellow snow in New York. You've got to watch out for that. Gary, thanks very much.
If you're snowed in go to AC360.com for the best way to spend your snow day, as suggested by our 360 interns.
Coming up next, a blizzard with no snow day for reporters like Gary but sometimes coverage overshadows the storm. We have the best of the worst reports. It's our "Shot of the Day."
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COOPER: Quick check of the headlines. Candy Crowley has a "360 Bulletin" -- Candy .
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson.
Former congressman, Charlie Wilson, has died after being rushed to the hospital earlier today with difficulty breathing. The 12-term Texas Democrat is best known for helping arm Mujahideen fighters again the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His exploits inspired the movie "Charlie Wilson's War." Congressman Wilson also earned the nickname "Good Time Charlie" for his love of the good life. Charlie Wilson was 76.
The Food and Drug Administration is trying to reduce radiation exposure in medical imaging tests. That's things like CT scans. Among the suggestions: developing more precise dosing standards and providing each patient with an imaging history card to keep track of their total radiation exposure.
An earthquake hit about 50 miles west-northwest of Chicago today, but could be felt as far south as Chicago -- sorry, as Georgia. No injuries reported in the magnitude 3.8 quake.
And they're taking time to inspect the roses. Agriculture specialists with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are busy ahead of Valentine's Day inspecting millions of flowers before they go on sale here. They are looking for insects and plant diseases.
So Anderson, you can give someone 12 dozen roses and say, "Honey, they are insect and plant disease free." It just adds a little to the romance.
COOPER: Very romantic. Exactly.
So, Candy, thank you for coming in, by the way. I'm glad. I hope you didn't have to ski in.
CROWLEY: I did not ski. I wouldn't have -- even for you, I wouldn't have skied in. Sorry.
COOPER: I don't believe that.
Anyway, if you've been watching the reports on the blizzard, you sometimes get the sense that the world is about to end. That's what's happened in the media, well, when they handle big weather stories like this.
And while we'll tell you, a snowstorm certainly is serious business and it's costing a lot of money for the country, it also gives an opportunity for, well, maybe have some fun at our own expense. So here's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For these guys, snow time means show time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the perfect day for sledding. Woo!
KAYE: News teams live for this stuff. They fan out, dig in and measure up the white stuff, many with a breathless, heart-pounding doomsday delivery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A beatdown this afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Conditions are atrocious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is like getting hit with a big crashing wave.
KAYE: Snowmaggedon, Snowzilla Monster. And Mother Nature's wrath.
And almost everyone gets into the act, CNN included, with a promo that could easily double as a trailer for a Hollywood action film.
ANNOUNCER: CNN is there.
KAYE: Scary stuff for a time-tested weather formula that follows a simple TV equation. They frequently start with dire warnings of an impending apocalypse. Scary, very, very scary.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Weather not fit for man nor beast, although the kids rather enjoying the snowstorm.
KAYE: Then you know by now what comes next: the live shots, from the salt trucks and airports to the roads and, of course, the mounds of snow.
Next, on-the-street interviews, with drivers, business owners and the occasional pet.
During the lulls, reporters turn to light-hearted banter or, as our own Reynolds Wolf demonstrated, an impromptu dance. Remember, even though the forecast can be fearful and, in this case down right bizarre.
JIM KOSEK, ACCUWEATHER: So you shovel, drifts back over, shovel.
KAYE: Can you say meltdown? Not everyone is preparing for the worst.
WOLF: Are you glad that school is out today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:
KAYE: Just look at these kids enjoying the winter wonderland and giving us all something to consider. Seems sometimes the snow can just be fun.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Wow. That was quite a snowman. We have more from Port- au-Prince and around the world at the top of the hour. Stay tuned.
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