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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Latest on Navy Yard Shooting; Is Syria Moving Chemical Weapons?; Interview with Senator John McCain; Government Shutdown Showdown; Bodies In Oklahoma Lake May Crack Two Cold Cases; Hundreds Of Teens Trash Home Of Ex-NFL Player; New Details Of Georgia Home Invasion
Aired September 19, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, thanks.
Good evening, everyone.
We begin tonight with breaking news: the answer, a very awkward one, to the question who did the background check on the D.C. Navy Yard killer? The guy you'll recall with a history of gun violence.
It turns out it was the same outfit that handled NSA leaker Edward Snowden, the company that did the vetting of both those contractors is itself a contractor, a company called USIS.
Joe Johns is with us. He's got late details.
So, Joe, what do we know about this?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the same company that conducted background check on admitted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden also did a background check on Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis in 2007. The company's called USIS, it's based in Virginia. It's one of the largest providers of background checks for the federal government. USIS did the check on Alexis for the Federal Office of Personnel Management. The Navy says it also did its own background check on Alexis in 2007 and there were no red flags.
COOPER: The incident with the police -- I mean, it happened six years ago. Is that the only time the shooter has gotten a background check to our knowledge?
JOHNS: Anderson, not by a long shot. A source familiar with the situation told me today that Alexis got a background check in mid- September of 2012. The background check at that time was done by another well-known provider of background checks.
The Navy also did its own security clearance, as well. Alexis went to work in Japan as a subcontractor with a company called the Experts and left the job around the end of last year. And then this year, the source says, he went back to the Experts in July and had to go through the same process again. So from what we can tell, this guy was vetted by the government and private contractors at least six times in the last six years. So that's a big deal.
COOPER: And also, our own understanding is the last time the government -- the private contractors didn't come up with his past law enforcement encounters where his journalists were able to find them, you know, in an hour or so through Google searches, basically. I understand also you have some new information on the investigation of the shooting itself.
JOHNS: That's right, Anderson. The FBI director briefed reporters today. He said the shotgun Aaron Alexis had was sawed off at both ends. He took it into a bathroom, disassembled in a little bag, put it back together and came out firing indiscriminately. He's believed to have gone floor to floor firing with no discernible pattern, nothing to indicate he was targeting specific people.
And we also learned today that he created an online alias using the name Mohammed Salim but never did anything with it. It's a mystery as to why he even went through the trouble -- Anderson.
COOPER: all right. Joe, appreciate the update. Thanks.
Now, Syria, breaking details that it could be playing games with its chemical arsenal and, again, possibly playing the rest of the world, as well. The U.S./Russia agreement last weekend gives the Assad regime until this Saturday to provide details on what they've got and where they've got it.
Now CNN has learned the regime has been moving some of their stockpile around since that deal.
Jim Sciutto is working the story for us. He joins us tonight.
So what do we know about this? Assad just this past week still has been moving his chemical weapons.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I spoke to a U.S. official today and I asked him this question and he said we don't honestly know what it means. It could mean anything. It could mean the most benign interpretation that Syria's moving the weapons to places where it could better account for them. That's the most benign interpretation.
It could also mean that they're hiding them in advance of having to report this weekend. That's the deadline on Saturday to give a full accounting of their chemical weapons.
And the fact that this is happening 48 hours before that deadline is, Anderson, problematic to say the least and the fact that U.S. officials honestly don't know why they're doing it.
COOPER: And Kerry -- Secretary Kerry spoke about Syria today. What did he say? Did he talk about this? SCIUTTO: Well, we saw -- no, he spoke about Russia in particular. He didn't name Russia. But he was clearly exasperated with Russian leaders still questioning whether there's proof that the Assad regime was behind this chemical weapons attack last month. And you could see it in his voice that he had just lost patience with it. And some of the old prosecutor in him ticking off all the things Russian leaders have said and knocking them down in effect.
You can hear that anger coming across in the statement earlier today. Let's have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Sarin was used, sarin killed. The world can decide whether it was used by the regime which has used chemical weapons before, the regime which had the rockets and the weapons, or whether the opposition secretly went unnoticed into territory they don't control to fire rockets they don't have containing sarin that they don't possess to kill their own people. And then without even being noticed they just disassembled it all and packed up and got out of the center of Damascus controlled by Assad. Please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Here's why he's saying this right now. He wants to avoid next week at the U.N. General Assembly this being a debate about the evidence about this attack. He wants it to be a debate and a resolution backing up this deal that he has made with the Russians for Syria to get rid of its chemical weapons. He wants to focus on a resolution that's enforceable. He doesn't want to be going back over the evidence here and questions Russians --
COOPER: Right.
SCIUTTO: -- are raising about Assad being behind it.
COOPER: And on Iran, Kerry had some positive comments about Iran's new president, Rouhani.
SCIUTTO: Well, President Rouhani, as you know, has -- had really unprecedented outreach just in the last couple of weeks. I've been going to Iran for a number of years. And something like this hasn't been seen since the 1979 resolution. He's invited the president to meet with him in New York next week. He's just written an editorial in the "Washington Post" promising new outreach to the world.
Now the trouble is the U.S. and Iran, as you know, have a very troubled history of disappointment with outreach in the past. I think -- and what others think -- as to why this may be more sincere and substantive is Iran is truly suffering under the weight of economic sanctions due to its nuclear program and may be looking for a way out.
COOPER: All right. Jim, appreciate the update. Jim Sciutto.
More now on the implications of the Syria story with David Kay, former top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, currently he's a member of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. Also Christopher Dickey, Middle East editor for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast."
David, let me start with you. Assad moving the weapons around.
DAVID KAY, CNN ANALYST: Right.
COOPER: Are you suspicious of this? And if so, why?
KAY: Well, I think everyone would be. The optics certainly don't look good. And if anyone had been giving Assad advice, and that includes the Russians, they should have told him not to do it now. It strengthens the French and the U.S. belief that any resolution from the Security Council must have Chapter Seven as a sanction if they don't cooperate.
Now there is a missing piece of information, which the U.S. government should have. That is, were they moving the weapons from well-known large chemical weapons storage facilities to someplace else? Or were they moving them from small sites into these larger assembly sites which would tell you maybe they're doing it, in fact, to consolidate so they can declare what they have easier and they can be inspected easier?
But on the surface of it, all you can say is it looks like (INAUDIBLE), cat and mouse, and cheat and retreat which we've been through with Saddam.
COOPER: What you're talking about -- the potential for the use of force if these -- if the resolutions aren't followed through on. But that idea that maybe it's just consolidating weapons for inspectors, that's not something that you would normally do, is it?
KAY: Well, I normally would not expect that help from this regime. But I wouldn't rule it out. Look, this is going to be a difficult enough inspection process. We don't need to speculate. What we do need is very quickly get inspectors on the ground and find out. But like I say, I'm amazed that this took place. I thought the Russians would've had a better understanding of how this would look and how it would drive suspicions. Apparently not.
COOPER: Chris, you wanted a diplomatic solution. Does this -- these movements of chemical weapons, does that concern you?
CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, MIDDLE EAST EDITOR, NEWSWEEK/THE DAILY BEAST: Of course it does. It's a shell game, basically. You know, Assad has played this game a lot over the last several months. I mean, if you go back to December, he was moving all this stuff around and there was all these concerns on the part of the administration. Not as many people were paying attention back then because we hadn't had the sense of crisis.
Same thing in May. And the administration in some ways or at least people talking to the press in Washington have telegraphed all kinds of measures that they're trying to take. There's a group called Unit 450 that basically is in charge of these weapons. Well, you know, there have been people in Washington saying to our correspondents, for instance, Eli Lake, down there that the U.S. has been trying to recruit the members of Unit 450.
There was a point at which because the U.S. was trying to do that, Assad was starting to talk to militias about maybe them taking some of the chemical weapons. It's -- it really is like watching a shell game where you -- you know, which side of the nut has a pea under it?
COOPER: Also, I mean, the truth is, this is a regime which has just lied repeatedly from the beginning. I mean, besides even before this conflict began, but from the beginning, they have been lying and, you know, using, when secretary -- when Kofi Annan was there, you know, negotiating with him on the one hand and intensifying attacks in Homs on the other hand.
DICKEY: Yes, and I think that that is eventually going to work against Assad. If he continues to play that kind of game, he'll find himself in the position that Milosevic was in in the Balkans eventually where nobody trusted anything he said including when the Russians acted as guarantors for his word. And if that is the case, then if we were to move toward military action again, there would be a much broader consensus behind it.
COOPER: David, when we hear about them moving these chemicals, before we'd talked about how dangerous it can be to move chemical weapons to make them leave the country in order to destroy them. So what is so dangerous about the idea of moving them around? And does that raise a concern for you if he is in fact --
KAY: But it does raise a concern, Anderson because, in fact, the road network and while you're moving these weapons, they're the most vulnerable to ambush an attack. The Syrian road network is not secure. It's neither secure physically because it's been heavily damaged in some parts and you've got the rebel forces operating along it.
The weapons themselves are also dangerous. It's quite common to have leakers and all it takes is a truck turning over and you've got a chemical weapons accident on your hands.
COOPER: But even --
(CROSSTALK)
Aren't they in precursor -- I mean, aren't they separate chemicals? And it's only when they're combined together that there's lethality?
KAY: These are the binaries and that's not all of them.
COOPER: OK.
KAY: He's got mustard, which is not a binary. And he's preloaded some of his strategic weapons everyone thinks. So I don't know what he's moving. And I don't think anyone does. The critical question right now is to find out from where to where, but I agree with Christopher Dickey.
Look, the optics of this is horrible. This is a regime that you never use trust -- trust and verify, you never use trust in the sentence because he's lied so often that no one does believe his word.
COOPER: And, David, I've heard you say that you believe boots on the ground is inevitable now.
KAY: I do. I mean --
COOPER: Why?
KAY: Well, the more you looks at the numbers of what you think you have and how long it's going to take you to do it, I don't think you can give security to the inspectors, maintain 24/7 watch around the weapons, whatever number are eventually disclosed by the regime, without having a military force of some type on the ground to do this.
COOPER: But, Chris, I mean, the idea that they would allow U.S. military personnel in that country --
(CROSSTALK)
DICKEY: Well, it's a stretch. It's a stretch. It depends on how much pressure can be put on Assad by the -- international community, by the United States. I mean, there were -- if you look back to the weapons inspection after '91 in Iraq which David Kay was running, there were some amazing showdowns in parking lots where things were being refused. He was insisting. He had the backing of the international community and the potential backing of American military force but he didn't have troops on the ground.
In this case, it might require something like that. Let's hope not because then the troops will just become targets themselves.
COOPER: Yes. Chris Dickey, appreciate it. David Kay, again, thanks for your expertise.
There are many skeptics of the Syria deal. A few more vocal obviously than Arizona Republican senator and former presidential candidate, John McCain. He's especially leery of Russia as a negotiating partner. Today in part responding to Russian President Putin's recent and sharply worded op-ed page in "New York Times," Senator McCain spoke out on the Russian Web site, Pravda.ru.
He writes, "President Putin claims his purpose is to restore Russia to greatness at home and among the nations of the world. But by what measure has he restored your greatness?" He goes on to ask, quote, "How has he strengthened Russia's international stature? By allying Russia with some of the world's most offensive and threatening tyrannies."
Senator McCain who said a lot more than just that joins me tonight. So, Senator, this op-ed, let's start with that. Why did you feel it necessary to write it? What do you hope will come of it?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, how this started, Anderson, is I made a comment. I said, I bet I wouldn't be able to publish this in Pravda. And then one of the foreign policy magazines contacted them. There's two Pravdas, as you know. One that's online that took it and then the old line communist periodically that refused to do so. So they said they would take it so I wrote it and --
(LAUGHTER)
It is what it is.
COOPER: So Putin responded to you, suggesting that you were locked in an outdated Cold War mindset. When you heard that, I mean, what's your reaction?
MCCAIN: Well, you know, Mr. Putin has made several remarks about me over the years, none of them flattering. And I'm afraid that in response I could say that Mr. Putin has taken Russia back to many of the Cold War practices of the then Soviet Union.
If you look at any human rights organization, they give them very low or failing marks. You look at the Magnitsky case, you look at Khodorkovsky, you look at their passing laws outlawing what they view as a different lifestyle than what they find acceptable. This kind of thing is really all earmarks of an autocratic government led by a person who wants to stay in power for life.
COOPER: I mean, he's obviously got a KGB background. To you -- I mean, is there any way that you could trust him? Is there any way that you see the U.S. able to deal with him?
MCCAIN: Only in a situation where he viewed it as his interest, which means that it would be to his detriment if he didn't agree. And then, of course, it would have to be the old Reagan line trust but verify.
COOPER: It's obviously a very harsh -- assessment of the Putin's leadership that you wrote. Do you have any concerns that it might make him back away from the negotiating table where Syria's concerned?
MCCAIN: No, but could I point out that he again says the Syrian rebels launched the chemical attack as a sly provocation? Now you and I know on its face that is a total falsehood.
COOPER: Do you think he actually believes that?
MCCAIN: So -- he's saying it. Why would he say such a thing unless he's so disrespectful of us that he thinks he can say anything and not be held accountable for it? Either in world opinion or in our relations.
COOPER: Does Pravda pay well? Like do you get a freelancer rate? MCCAIN: I'm hoping that I get a chance to go over to Russia and do a face-to-face interview with Pravda. I will look forward to that opportunity and maybe while I'm there get a chance to chat with Vladimir about, you know, or maybe take my shirt off, and we can do some things together.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: You could arm wrestle or something.
Senator McCain, I appreciate you being on. Thank you.
MCCAIN: Thank you.
COOPER: All right. Let us know what you think. Follow me on Twitter @andersoncooper.
Coming up next, welcome to the thunder dome. The slugging matches going on inside the capitol within the Republican Party of whether or not to try and shut down the government over Obamacare.
And later tonight, "Crime and Punishment." Strange case. We're going to tell you why police now think the abduction of the 14-year- old Georgia girl was no random act. The connection they think her mom had with one of the kidnap suspects.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Hey, welcome back. "Raw Politics" now in what's being described by some Republicans as everything from a civil war to a suicide pact within their own party. Tomorrow the GOP-controlled House is expected to pass a bill financing the government but defunding Obamacare.
Virtually no chance of passing the Senate and none whatsoever of escaping a presidential veto. It sets the stage for a government shutdown which has a lot of House Republicans and a few key senators like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Mike Lee, saying bring it on, and other Republicans including John McCain warning of disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: Well, my message to my Senate colleagues is that we have seen this movie before. That Americans don't like government but they don't want it shut down. And Congress will get the blame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's not the only Republican counseling caution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: We can't let the government shut down. We can't be kamikazes and we can't be General Custer.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: Well, similar warning in the "Wall Street Journal" from Karl Rove. The GOP strategist saying, quote, "It would strengthen the president while alienating independents. It's an ill-conceived tactic and Republicans should reject it."
That's one aspect of the inter-party warfare. Now there's another. The same senators saying bring it on are also saying so many words we probably can't win, acknowledging they simply don't have the votes, and that is earning the ire of their House colleagues who are about to go way out on the shaky legislative limb.
Arkansas Republican Congressman Tim Griffin tweeting, "So far, Senate Republicans are good at getting Facebook likes and town halls, not much else. Do something."
A nameless House GOP leadership aide went further referring to the Texas state senator who filibustered an abortion bill. The aide declared, quote, "Wendy Davis has more balls than Ted Cruz." Senator Cruz is now promising to get tougher.
Plenty to talk about with chief national correspondent John King, chief political analyst Gloria Borger, and political commentator Ana Navarro, national Hispanic chair for the Huntsman 2012 campaign.
So, John, are Republicans as divided on this issue as it seems, or is it just the loudest voices the ones that are being heard?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes and yes, in the sense that Republicans are divided on this. And let me start with the idea that I think is still unlikely to have a government shutdown. But there's a higher probability today than there was two or three days ago.
Look, the vocal minority of newer Republicans, Tea Party Republicans, newly elected conservatives, mostly in the House, most of them from safe districts that the president lost by 20 points or more in the last election. They say this is what they were sent here to do and they're going to do it.
Even though their leadership and their outside groups like the Chamber of Commerce, like the "Wall Street Journal" say, wait a minute, this is not the vehicle to have the fight about Obamacare, especially as we head into an election cycle in which Republicans are favored to pick up a few seats in the House and maybe even get control of the Senate.
So politically long-term, most establishment Republicans, most smart strategists think it's a mistake, but there's this vocal group, Anderson, that says we're going to plant this flag and fight and we're going to play it out for the next 10 days over the government shutdown possibility and then again over the debt ceiling.
COOPER: And, Gloria, I mean, what are Republicans saying privately to you about what's going on?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Anderson, I just got off the phone with the senior House Republican and he is so angry at the Republicans in the Senate. I mean, he didn't have much anger for President Obama, but for Republicans in the Senate like Ted Cruz, for example, who they believe have sort of left them holding the bag here. He said to me, look, we have been beaten up by a grassroots movement, started by Ted Cruz.
We heard it in our town halls. Everything we heard this summer was you've got to kill Obamacare. Then we decide we're going to try and defund it and take a stand. And what does Ted Cruz do? He says, oh, never mind. And so what he said to me is, you can't imagine the anger over here. He called Ted Cruz a demagogue and a half.
He said this isn't what you do to your teammates. They've been shooting at us from behind, now they've put us in a bad position. And, you know, this is only the start.
COOPER: So -- Ana, I mean, if it's clear Republicans aren't going to be able to defund Obamacare, which it seems clear, then why keep pushing it?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Frankly because John Boehner can't get to 218 votes. He tried it the other way. This is clearly not what John Boehner wanted to do. The problem is he doesn't have those 218 votes because of what Gloria and John just said, because folks like Ted Cruz have been going around the country, ginning up the base, and putting a lot of pressure on Congress members to defund Obamacare.
So, you know, there's logic to this method of John Boehner's. OK, we're going to try it your way. We're going to pass this, we're going to send it over to you guys, hot shots, at the Senate, see what you can do.
BORGER: Right.
NAVARRO: Stop talking, start acting, and give it back to us, and then, you know, we're going to go from there.
COOPER: Also, I mean, John, is this some way for some Republican candidates to basically fundraise on the idea of, you know, I'm going to stop Obamacare?
KING: Make no mistake about it. That is a big part of this. And the Democrats are doing it, too. If you look on your e-mails --
COOPER: Sure.
KING: If you get political e-mails, both sides are now fundraising over this. And we're not really having a new policy debate, we're having another fight over Obamacare which we've been through many times before. As Senator McCain said, we have seen this movie before.
And they don't have the votes right now, Anderson. And so you're part of a representative democracy. And again, a lot of these House members are standing on principle, they ran on this. However, if you join a government, you have to accept the math of the government. And the Republicans control the House but they don't control the Senate and they don't control the executive branch.
Now, again, there's principle involved here but there's a whole lot of politics. And the people who have raised this over the last few months, some of them are potential candidates like Senator Cruz. Like Ana's friend, Marco Rubio. Some of them are potential candidates down the road, and they're trying to make friends with the grassroots. But a lot of it also are groups in the grassroots trying to raise money.
BORGER: But here's the problem that Karl Rove --
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: And John is absolutely right. This has been particularly good for Ted Cruz and the -- and the fundraising aspect.
BORGER: Yes.
NAVARRO: And also in increasing his national profile. What two- year senator do you know whose name is known nationwide? Some people don't like him, others like him very much in the Republican base.
BORGER: But --
NAVARRO: So he's increased his persona tremendously.
BORGER: But here's the problem Karl Rove was talking about in his op-ed. And I think it's a real problem for the Republican Party. Right now they're a congressional party. They can get a majority of the House because a lot of these members are from conservative districts. They don't have to be concerned about independent voters. They will get reelected on a platform of defunding Obamacare.
Fine with them. But if you want to become a presidential party and win the White House, what you have to do is appeal to independent voters. And overwhelmingly, independent voters are against shutting down the government. They don't love Obamacare but they don't want to shut down the government.
So if you want to make that transition and actually be able to win the White House, you have to think a little broader than some of these House Republicans are thinking.
COOPER: Right.
BORGER: And --
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: And frankly, Gloria --
BORGER: Frankly, Cruz is just trying to raise money.
NAVARRO: It's also, you know, as a Republican, I can tell you -- as a Republican, I can tell you, I think of it as very destructive and unseemly. Who wants to join a dysfunctional family? So I can see why independents would be antagonized by watching this spectacle of getting mounted by the --
BORGER: Yes.
NAVARRO: By Republicans on opposing sides of this issue. I think we need to learn as a party to disagree with each other without that meaning that we want to take each other out in primaries. That's the big problem we're having.
COOPER: And, John, in terms of what actually happens, though, it passes in the House, it fails in the Senate, so then the House pass -- strips out the Obamacare part and passes it. So who wins?
KING: Well, House leadership aides I talked to tonight said that if the Senate puts the Obama money back in, the Obamacare money back in, that doesn't mean the House will just blindly accept it. They may -- they may try something else related to Obamacare. And they may go for deeper spending cuts so I would expect ping-pong to go back and forth, not just once, but ping-pong right up to the deadline here.
As to who wins, look, the president and the Democrats have the political high ground in the short term. There is zero doubt about that. Nobody disputes that. The polling shows that. But here's a problem for the president, Anderson. Even as he wins here, he loses, because this is the first year of his second term. It's the most important year for a second-term president. And what has been accomplished?
And we're going to spend the rest of it fighting shutting down the government. And then the debt ceiling. So the president's grand plans for his second term, the first year of that, not his fault, mind you, not all of his fault, anyway, largely frittered away. And between now and the end of the legislative year, there's almost nothing he can do about it because this is the business he has to get done.
COOPER: Right.
BORGER: And not to mention the impact this could have on the economy, John, right?
KING: Right.
BORGER: I mean, you know, in addition to immigration reform and all the rest.
COOPER: Right. Nothing else --
BORGER: You know, this could hurt the economy.
COOPER: Gloria Borger, thank you --
NAVARRO: I think this is a shortsighted -- I think this is shortsighted because, look, Obamacare was going to be huge headache, was turning into a huge headache for Democrats and for this White House. It's increasingly unpopular. We've had delay after delay and exception after exception and Republicans, instead of making Democrats deal with the problems of Obamacare, it's become a big problem for us.
COOPER: Ana Navarro, thanks for being on. John King, and Gloria, as well. Thanks.
For more on the story, you can go to CNN.com any time.
Up next, police in Georgia now believe the kidnapping of a 14- year-old girl from her home in the middle of the night was not a random act at all. We've got the late information.
Also, a home owned by a former NFL player is trashed by hundreds of teenagers. They partied and drank there. Wait until you see how the owner found out about it and what he did about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Preparations are underway to begin DNA testing on six sets of human remains found in two submerged cars in an Oklahoma Lake, a 1952 Chevy and a '69 Chevy Camaro. The DNA test will be done at the University of North Texas. Now the discovery of the bodies has raised hopes that two cold cases dating back decades may soon be solved. Ed Lavandera tonight has new details on those cases.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was Jimmy Williams standing next to his bright blue 1969 Camaro bought six days before he disappeared 43 years ago, a sweet driving muscle car that would be the envy of any teenage boy. This is what Oklahoma investigators believe that car looks like now, a corroded jelly-like carcass found sitting at the bottom of the Foss Lake in Western Oklahoma. It was one of two cars found there this week containing the remains of six bodies.
When Williams and two other teenage friends disappeared in 1970, his family spread missing posters all over their hometown of Oklahoma offering a $500 reward. The teenagers were believed to either be on their way to a football game or on a hunting expedition, no one really knows. But we did see investigators uncover two corroded rifles from the car.
(on camera): Investigators say they have not ruled out foul play yet, but they suspect that these six victims accidentally drown that the cars rolled back into the water and the victims were trapped inside.
(voice-over): The cars were discovered by a team of divers with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Darrell Splawn and his colleagues were testing new sonar equipment.
DARRELL SPLAWN, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: You can't see anything, it's too murky.
LAVANDERA: It wasn't until the cars were pulled out of the water that the gruesome and mysterious discovery was made.
SPLAWN: When we brought them up on to the shore, that was when the doors opened and you could see the skeletal remains in them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See the old cars, isn't that cool?
LAVANDERA (on camera): That's your grandfather right there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): John Alba Porter is believed to be one of the victims in the second car. He and two friends were last seen driving a 1950s Chevy when they disappeared in 1969, a year before the teenagers went missing. This could be what that car looks like now. His granddaughter says her family used to look out on to this water and wonder.
DEBBIE MCMANAMAN, MISSING MAN'S GRANDDAUGHTER: We'd always, no, grandpa -- maybe grandpa's in the lake. You know, maybe he had an accident and he's in the lake.
LAVANDERA (on camera): You used to say that?
MCMANAMAN: Yes. Even since I've been married and an adult, we would come up here and, you know, maybe grandpa's in the lake. Maybe that's where he's at.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): A random thought that may turn out to be oddly prophetic. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Foss Lake, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Such a strange case. A lot more happening tonight, Susan Hendricks has a "360 Bulletin" -- Susan.
SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, authorities in Colorado now say that seven people are confirmed dead due to the massive flooding. Three others are presumed dead. Property damage north of Denver is estimated at $2 billion.
In Mexico, which has been slammed by three major storms and severe flooding, at least 97 people have been killed. Today, Manuel was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but it was still packing heavy winds and rain.
The death of a 4-year-old boy in Louisiana from a brain-eating ameba may be traced back to the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Officials say so many people left St. Bernard Parish that local water systems remain unused. Chlorine levels dropped and organisms thrived. The water safe to drink, the organism entered the child's body through his nose.
How about this one? Have you heard of yellow bellied legless lizards? They looked like snakes and live in various parts of California. Scientists are only now learning about the creatures, but we're told they've been around for millions of years. COOPER: How can it be they're only now learning about them? That's crazy.
HENDRICKS: Where have they been?
COOPER: Yes. And we've got photos of them. All right, thanks, Susan.
Just ahead, we're not showing these teenagers' faces even though they tweeted these pictures themselves shamelessly showing them trashing a house they broke into when the owner wasn't there. Now some of their parents are mad at him. We'll tell you why ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. Imagine being in Florida and discovering that your beautiful home in New York is being overrun by hundreds of teenagers who broke in, they're drinking, partying, trashing the place. It happened to Brian Holloway, a former NFL player. He found out what's going on through social media because some of the teens were actually tweeting as it was happening. Someone posted this photo of three girls at the party. We're blurring their faces.
Another photo showed someone standing on top of a table or counter top and the photos go on and on. Holloway estimates the damage to his property runs into the thousands of dollars. While the police are involved, incredibly, he wants to turn this incident into a positive, he says, to teach the teens that what they did wasn't fun and games their behavior was wrong. Here's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Labor Day weekend, Brian Holloway is about 1,200 miles away from his farmhouse in upstate New York when he learns there's a party going on there and he wasn't even invited. Confused? Holloway is too. As he watches it all unfold in realtime on his Twitter feed.
Holloway is in Tampa, Florida, on this night. When his son and a friend start funneling him tweets from the partygoers. Mugging for the camera, taking selfie photos in the bathroom and dancing on the kitchen counter all from inside Holloway's house.
BRIAN HOLLOWAY, FORMER NFL PLAYER: We started listening to these tweets, I can't believe we're in the house, I can't believe how we trashed it. I can't believe how much alcohol is here. We're going to be partying for three days. I can't believe she's passed out. Look at her over there, this is an amazing night. I can't believe, you know, they're on meth. Give me some of the drugs.
KAYE: Some of the more memorable tweets, yes, it's like so trashed, cannot get over this. Did a keg stand and yes, mom, I went to a party and got drunk. But, at least I'm not a meth addict, right? In all, 300 teenagers are at Holloway's home causing at least $20,000 in damage. They tear the place apart, punching holes in walls, spraying graffiti everywhere, scratching the floors with kegs, even urinating inside, and through it all, stupidly documenting nearly all of their antics.
They also help themselves to whatever isn't nailed down including this statue of an eagle which had been on Holloway's grandson's headstone. Desperate to save his home, Holloway, a former NFL player with the New England Patriots quickly calls police who rush over. When they arrive, more tweets from the uninvited guests. Busted or not, it was still the best party in the 518 of the summer. Crazy night and pigs showed up with canines and I was out, yo.
(on camera): What makes this even worse, Brian Holloway, recognizes many of the teens partying at his house. They're friendly with his son and have been to the house before when Holloway was there and invited them. The teenagers slept overnight and Holloway would make them burgers and hotdogs and hundreds of pancakes in the morning. At those parties, he says, there was never any alcohol or drugs.
HOLLOWAY: The window, this window was just replaced today.
KAYE (voice-over): Now back at his home, Holloway is getting it repaired, and you might say getting even. He's turning the tables on these teenagers and teaching them a thing or two about the power of social media. On his newly minted web site, helpmesave300.com, Holloway posts tweets identifying about 200 or so teens from the party. It's not out of spite, he says, but a call for action to turn the moment into a movement, create a dialogue about teens behaving badly and drugs. But some parents are actually upset with Holloway's postings.
HOLLOWAY: I don't know how to respond to a mother that says I'm mad at you because you put my son's picture up there. I'm going, well, actually he's at my house and he's robbing and breaking in and drinking and doing drugs and -- and you're upset with me posting the picture that he posted upon Twitter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: This is unbelievable the story. First of all, how lame is it that someone tweeted the 518.
KAYE: Dude.
COOPER: Please, is that upstate New York somewhere?
KAYE: They thought they were cool doing this.
COOPER: Yes, man, the 518, rocking it, keeping it real. That's how we roll in New York or whatever.
KAYE: Exactly. You're going to get calls now.
COOPER: I've been there. I'm sure it's lovely. But anyway, I digress. He's giving these kids other opportunities.
KAYE: Yes, I mean, he's really reaching out trying to do the right thing. He actually invited all of the partygoers to his house not only to help clean up but also to own up to what they'd done. Anderson, out of all those kids, 300 kids, only one person --
COOPER: Are you kidding me? And they knew him, and they knew his son.
KAYE: Knew his family, knew his son.
COOPER: And so they break into -- did he not have an alarm system.
KAYE: They used ladders, broke in through the windows, they came in. One person shows up, he says that's a slap in the face.
COOPER: I can't believe that.
KAYE: But on a bright note, that eagle statue I mentioned in the story that came from his grandson's headstone. That was returned. It seems as though maybe one person -- I know, one person maybe they discovered they had a conscience.
COOPER: And the parents are getting mad he showed their faces?
KAYE: I thought his point was excellent. They broke into my house and you're upset I'm posting their tweets that they took from inside my house while they were partying? And I also want to point out, no arrests, the sheriff is still investigating.
COOPER: Really?
KAYE: Yes.
COOPER: Wow. Unbelievable. Randi, thanks very much.
KAYE: Sure.
COOPER: What a nightmare?
Up next, a new twist in a kidnapping of a Georgia teenager, what police have learned about the connection between the girl's mom and one of the suspects?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: An epic song inspired by Wolf Blitzer, the "Ridiculist" is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Crime and Punishment, new details tonight, the kidnapping of a Georgia teenager who is abducted from her home in the middle of the night in an apparent home invasion. She was found unharmed about 25 miles from her home. Authorities said they had reason to believe that the break-in abduction may not have been random because of a possible connection between the girl's mother and one of the suspects. Tonight we know more about that connection. Martin Savidge joins us now. What do we know about this connection? MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we've been doing a lot of digging especially through documents and one of the common themes we are beginning to find, they revolve around a background of drugs and money. Specifically, the newest document is a criminal complaint we got. And in it, that's kind of the federal case's cliff notes if you will of what they've seen so far.
They say the night this girl was abducted, the gunmen broke into the home, the family, the mother and two teens, along with the family dog tried to hide in the closet. The gunmen found it, kicked open the door, she was holding the family dog, the dog jumps out of her arms, barks, and that's when the gunman shoots it right in front of her. They drag her off into the darkness, her mother chasing after screaming.
It just shows you the brutality and the emotion of that night. Also, she says she thinks there were about four people that helped kidnap her. That's a significant number over if two. And lastly, she says that she was dropped off at a relative's home when she was released by the kidnappers. It's so interesting detail -- Anderson.
COOPER: And what is -- do we know what the connection is between one of the suspects and the mother of the alleged connection?
SAVIDGE: We do and this one is interesting. About a year ago, her mother was arrested in a drug raid that took place south of Atlanta. She wasn't charged, but there was another man arrested at that same time. And that man who also was in charge has shown up again in custody this time in connection with the kidnapping of her daughter. So what does that mean?
It means that the victim's family and at least one of those who police have in custody have a connection. What's the connection? Is it romantic? Is it financial? Is it something else? Authorities won't say, but it definitely suggests that break into this home and everything that followed was not random.
COOPER: There's a back story there. Martin, appreciate it. Thanks.
Let's get caught up on other stories out there. Susan Hendricks is here again with the "360 Bulletin" -- Susan.
HENDRICKS: Anderson, in his first extensive interview, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church has the right to express its opinions, but not to interfere spiritually in the lives of gays and lesbians. He also says the church has been too focused on the issues of abortion, gay marriage and contraception and suggested it find a new balance to deliver that message. His remarks were published in a Jesuit magazine.
Former heavy weight champion Ken Norton has died. Forty years he broke Mohammad Ali's jaw in their bout and won the fight. He'd lost his next two bouts with Ali. Ken Norton was 70 years old.
The new edition of "Grand Theft Auto" has smashed a sales record. The wildly popular video game brought in more than $800 million the first day of its release. The stock of Take Two Interactive Video, which makes that game, shut up 2 percent as well today.
And millions played but just one ticket hit yesterday's Powerball jackpot. It was sold at a gas station in Lexington, South Carolina. The winner or winners have 180 days to claim their prize of a cool $399 million.
COOPER: I can't believe "Grand Theft Auto" made $800 million the first -- that's incredible.
HENDRICKS: Surpassed a lot of movies. It's amazing.
COOPER: Back in my day, we didn't have these video games.
HENDRICKS: In the olden days.
COOPER: That's right. Back in the five one eight. Susan, Thanks very much. The "Ridiculist" is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Time now for the "Ridiculist." And tonight I want to introduce you to the song stylings of a band called "Man Man." They just released a song, and one song in particular that caught our attention it's called "End Boss." Let's all take a listen and I'll be with you in just a moment.
So you're getting the lyrical theme here, right? A wolf is sneaking up on a sleeping baby at night. You might think is typical Indy rock imagery, but you're wrong. It's not just about any wolf. It is so much of the art that surrounds us inspired by none other than Wolf Blitzer. Yes, let's hear some more, shall we.
Hang on, did Wolf Blitzer just drink vodka and eat the baby? Sounds like wolf ate the baby and a churro, as well. But we don't assume. So we asked Ryan, the front man of Man Man for the real story. He confirmed that when he began writing the song the basic story line was about a wolf that eats a baby, but that premise seemed a bit passe.
So, quote, "I thought it'd be more interesting to reimagine the wolf being Wolf Blitzer sneaking into houses and devouring children. The kind eyes, smiling gray beard with a baby dancing in his belly while drinking lemon-flavored vodka. Still gets to me.
Now, I don't know if you noticed in that picture there, but the lead singer of Man Man is wearing a custom made tunic that is emblazoned with multiple Wolf Blitzer heads. How do I get that was my first question? As Ryan notes, it turned out gorgeous and Wolf looks very handsome and devilish and might I say hungry.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know three things, one, if I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, tonight, I would be going to the chop shop to see Man Man on tour. Two, I would steal that tunic during a sound check. Three, we finally have an answer to a question that a young balloon boy poised many, many years ago as he awaited his interview with Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say hi to Wolf.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Hi.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Hi, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Who the hell is Wolf?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I'll tell you who Wolf is. He is an enigma. That does it for us. We'll see you one hour from now at 10:00 p.m. eastern for "360 LATER," our panel discussion show. Thanks for watching. "PIERS MORGAN LIVE" starts now.
