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ATM Attack; Sex Offender; Arrested Florida Prosecutor Commits Suicide; U.S. Torture; Olympic Medalist Pleads Guilty; Pakistani President Wins Third Term; Myanmar Global Protests

Aired October 06, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: All right, straight ahead this hour -- a suspected killer caught after a brazen armored car heist. Two guards were executed, the crime all caught on tape, more on the suspects, coming up.
Also, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARION JONES, OLYMPIC MEDALIST: It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: From Olympic champ to tainted gold, the impact on the sport of track and field. We'll take a closer look at Marion Jones' fall from grace.

Plus, supporting the monks of Myanmar. Rallies and protests coming in from around the globe. Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you are in the NEWSROOM.

First up, an arrest in a deadly armored car robbery. Philadelphia police identify their suspect as 36-year-old Mustafa Ali. He faces two counts of murder, robbery, and other related charges. Police say Ali opened fire on guards as they were servicing an ATM outside a Wachovia bank on Thursday, killing two guards and wounding a third and then making off with an undetermined amount of money. Ali is due to be arraigned within 24 hours.

It was a brazen attack and CNN's Jim Acosta takes us back to the crime scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Draped in white sheets, the bodies of the two slain security guards lay just feet from their bullet-riddled armored carrier. The motive was money, no matter what.

SYLVESTER JOHNSON, PHILADELPHIA POLICE COMM: Obviously with whatever he did today, he did intend on assassinating people and he did. ACOSTA: These are the victims, both retired Philadelphia police officers, each with more than 20 years on the force. And this is the killer, opening fire on his victims before calmly looking for his bounty. The ambush was brazen and it happened in broad daylight.

At about 8:00 a.m., the armored car rolled up to the Wachovia bank next to a mall right in the middle of morning rush hour, while one guard remained inside the van, his two colleagues left to collect the cash out of this ATM. That's when the gunman struck. A security camera captures the moment he pulled the trigger.

JOHNSON: Unidentified black male comes up around the side of him on the left-hand side, starts shooting the male and fatally wounding him, fatally killing him, actually. He then goes around the pole, shoots the other guard. He is also fatally wounded.

ACOSTA: The gunman wasn't finished. He shot at the armored car, shattering the glass and wounding the third guard. He left with an unknown amount of cash in a black Acura with tinted windows.

JOHNSON: And it was a black male wearing a yellow baseball cap, a black logo on it, black short-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, black gloves, armed with a black handgun.

ACOSTA: Jim Acosta, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And then this, a high-risk sex offender still on the loose. Police are searching for William Joe Mitchell. He is believed to have abducted a young girl who he met online, 15-year-old Elisa Frank is now safe and back home. She was found in a Wal-Mart in Pensacola, Florida, a day after she disappeared. The Polk County sheriff says the girl's abductor apparently dropped her off at that store.

It's a parent's nightmare. What you and your children need to know to protect against predators. I'll be talking to that sheriff, Grady Judd, who investigated this case, as well as to the girl's father, Roger Frank, who admitted that he didn't know enough about his daughter's online activity. Later today, a candid conversation with both during the 4:00 p.m. Hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.

And a sex sting operation that led to the arrest of a Florida prosecutor may have led to his suicide, now. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Acheson was accused of flying to sdroit to molest a 5-year-old girl. He was arrested after weeks of Internet conversations with authorities posing as the mother of the 5-year-old. Officials say Atchison was found unresponsive in his cell yesterday. He was being held in a special unit at a federal prison outside Detroit.

And a big disappointment in the sports world and now tarnished gold. Former Olympic track champion, Marion Jones, could be looking at jail time. Jones pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to federal agents about steroid use prior to winning five Olympic medals in the 2000 games in Sydney. She tearfully apologized on the courthouse steps in White Plains, New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so it is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.

Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do, and I am responsible fully for my actions. I have no one to blame but myself for what I have done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Where do we begin? There is so much to talk about, so many questions still about this whole Marion Jones scandal. Larry Smith here with me now with CNN SPORTS.

So, let's just begin with, you know, why now? Why would she come clean, and why in this way?

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS: Well, that's a big question, and one thing I look at is Trevor Graham, who is her coach and has been connected to so many different athletes being involved in steroids, her -- Tim Montgomery, her former boyfriend, Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100-meter champion. He's serving a two-year ban currently. He has been connected with Graham. Graham's trial is coming up late next month for the same -- he faces three charges also for lying to federal agents as part of the Balco case. And so you wonder, is there something with that case that connects Marion Jones?

WHITFIELD: Something, meaning might she be up to testimony maybe in exchange for a plea deal?

SMITH: Yeah, possibly. There's something to that. I mean, it is strange, and she's been adamant about her innocence so long and yet now all of a sudden she's...

WHITFIELD: Using words like "never ever" asked so many times...

SMITH: She was angry.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, denied all this. So, a huge blow not just to her, her career. She says she is, you know, hanging up track and field, but to the whole sport as a whole. I mean, it's going to have a ripple effect, because let's talk about the relay games. I mean -- or the relay, you know, gold medal that she has. I mean, this affects other athletes. Might they all have to give up their medals?

SMITH: Well, they could. There is precedence back in 2003, in the world championships, a Great Britain sprinter tested positive and that whole 400-meter men's relay team had to give up their silver medals as a result of that. So, certainly there is precedent. There is an eight-year period in which you can be stripped of medals, so I think her 1999 world championship medals that she won, those probably will not be affected, but she did win gold in the 400 by 400 relay team, and so the other three women that are a part of that team could facing having their medals stripped, as well. And they would not be happy, I'm sure.

WHITFIELD: Wow, she is perhaps the highest profile athlete right now, to at least plead guilty to lying to federal agents. She didn't say in her statements, you know, I used steroids. She says she apologizes for being dishonest and, you know, she's disappointed a lot of people. But you have to wonder if, perhaps her testimony, if it comes to that, or whatever information she had, might lead to other big-name athletes, many of whom have been under, you know, the suspicion of steroid use in relation to the Balco...

SMITH: Right. There are so many athletes that have been a part of that Balco. We have seen testimony, the grand jury testimony linked by the "San Francisco Chronicle's" report of Barry Bonds, now the all-time home run leader. His name is linked with that, he testified, Jason Giambi has since admitted to use. Gary Sheffield was also one of those that went up to the stand and talked about this.

You know, and that's the thing I think a lot of officials would like to see, certainly the International Olympic Committee. They are hoping, and they said so on Friday, they are hoping that out of this that Marion Jones will give some information that will jump-start their own Balco investigation, which has been sitting almost dormant since 2004. She is, you know, if she's convicted of this, and clearly she'll be sentenced in January, she will become the first athlete to be convicted as part of the Balco case.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Still lots of questions, we're going to have you back in the 4:00 Eastern hour to explore lots more of that, particularly what's the message being sent to a lot of young athletes, and might this case be a deterrent, perhaps, for other athletes, and especially as we come upon the Olympic trials coming up for the Beijing games.

SMITH: And we're 10 months away from Beijing. And so certainly that's a question too, we will look into at 4:00, is this a deterrent? I think maybe a surprise to some people what will come.

WHITFIELD: All right, good, look forward to that. Thanks a lot, Larry.

SMITH: OK.

WHITFIELD: All right, meantime, still talking sports now, this time sexual harassment. This time, the Knicks, Isaiah Thomas, and that huge suit settlement. That's what we're talking about. Reverend al Sharpton now demanding an apology this morning, and calling on fans to picket the New York Knicks. Sharpton insisting team president Isaiah Thomas to apologize for saying it's OK for black men, but not white men to degrade black women with vulgar language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: (INAUDIBLE) in this city, where women of any color and women in the black community being discussed here feels that it matters whose calling you a "B" rather than it matters who is calling you a "B." That's the point. And whether it's a hip-hopper, whether it's a rapper, rocker, coach, Imus, we going to have one statement in this movement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, Thomas is defending remarks that were made on a deposition played at his sexual harassment trial. Sharpton says Thomas told him the tape had been doctored.

Our legal team will weigh in on the Isaiah Thomas sexual harassment case, as well as the revived topic of U.S. Supreme Court Justice and now author, Clarence Thomas, and what he's saying about his experience with Anita Hill. Some surprising parallels in these cases.

That, plus the legal road ahead for tarnished gold medalist Marion Jones, it's all coming up in the NEWSROOM today at 2:00 Eastern.

Now to Washington, President Bush denies plans to attack Iran. In an interview with the Arab television station al Arabia, the president brushed off Arab media reports of an attack plan, calling it "baseless gossip." The president repeated his commitment to working diplomatically to resolve a nuclear standoff with Tehran.

Another issue for the president -- does the U.S. engage in torture? Congress wants to know, but the White House isn't exactly talking. Details now from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANN MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): despite fresh accusations that the U.S. tortures suspected terrorists in its custody, President Bush insisted he'll continue to do whatever it takes to protect the American people.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And when we find somebody who may have information regarding an (sic) potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain him, and you bet we're going to question him.

MALVEAUX: But Mr. Bush insists the harsh interrogation methods he'd signed off on do not amount to torture.

BUSH: This gument (ph) does not torture people. You know, we, we, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.

MALVEAUX: But how do we know? Thursday, the "New York Times" revealed a once-secret Justice Department memo from February of 2005, which alleged the administration approved harsh interrogation techniques, including simulated drowning, head slapping, and exposure to extreme cold.

Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller, said that's a lot more information than he got when he and other committee members were briefed by the administration. He lashed out, saying "I'm tired of these games. They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program."

The White House says they've been as open as they can.

DANA PERINO, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What would make it better? What would make it better, that we should tell everybody exactly what we have? You want to know the techniques that we use so that we can tell exactly al Qaeda what we do? That's absurd.

MALVEAUX (on camera): So does the U.S. engage in torture? Well, it depends how you define it. Those who know the definition are pledged to secrecy, leaving the American people to trust, not to know.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: President Bush's ally in the fight against terror is claiming victory in Pakistan's presidential election. Unofficial ballot results show President General Pervez Musharraf winning a third term, but Musharraf still has a fight ahead of him. Pakistan's Supreme Court could choose to disqualify him because he still holds the title of army chief. Nearly all of the opposition parties abstained or boycotted today's election, which was done in secret ballot by lawmakers. The opposition demands that Musharraf resign from the military. Election results won't be ratified for at least 11 days, so legal challenges can be resolved.

The crackdown in Myanmar has sparked rallies around the world. Stay tuned as we spotlight the man running the government there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A global day of protests against the military government of Myanmar. In London thousands turned out to protest last week's brutal crackdown on Buddhist monks. And this was the scene in Taiwan a few hours ago, where about 200 people there braved a typhoon to support democracy in the country also known as Burma.

And then take a look at Thailand, where refugees are seeking shelter from the crackdown. The demonstrators' message to Myanmar's junta, "the world is still watching."

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a mystery to many in the west, and it's pretty isolated, even from its neighbors. And that's just the way its military dictator seems to like it. CNN's Anderson Cooper takes a rare look inside the country and how it got to be the way it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): COOPER (voice- over): It's a country shrouded in secrecy, plagued in decades by violence. The military junta that controls it today has ruled with an iron fist since it ousted the last dictatorship in 1988.

A year later the generals changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar to rid the country of its British colonial legacy. The United States, Great Britain and democracy advocates around the world refused to recognize the name change.

The man behind the shadowy regime is a 74-year-old senior general named Than Shwe.

JOSH KURLANTZICK, SCHOLAR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: He's a really kind of paranoid and xenophobic and unpredictable person.

COOPER: Than Shwe controls 400,000 troops, one of the largest armies in Asia. They live in isolated barracks, cut off from civilians. He has lived in isolation as well, ever since, without warning, he moved the capital of the country from the city of Yangon to a remote jungle outpost just two years ago.

KURLANTZICK: Some people think that Than Shwe's astrologer told him that was a good idea. That wouldn't be so out of left field. Than Shwe sort of maybe fancies himself as kind of a modern day king and in the past Burmese kings just sort of make their mark, to show their greatness, they would build new capitals as kind of monuments to themselves.

COOPER: Than Shwe spent most of his life in military service, never graduating from high school and rarely traveling outside the country. In recent years as his health declined, he's remained sequestered in the remote capital, only traveling to the old capital of Yangon last year for his daughter's lavish wedding. The event, shown here in these exclusive pictures is reported to have cost more than $300,000 and brought in $50 million in gifts.

KURLANTZICK: That was a huge shocker. Because this is one of the poorest countries in Asia, really that has -- the economy has been run into the ground. And here you have this general and their daughter living this incredibly lavish lifestyle.

COOPER: But outrage in Burma is quickly, often violently stamped out. In 1988 the army opened fire into masses of peaceful protesters, killing more than 3,000. In 1990 the junta actually allowed free elections assuming they would win. But when pro-democracy activist Aung Sung Suu Kyi won in a landslide, she was imprisoned. The government has kept her under house arrest ever since.

The junta has detained and tortured countless other political prisoners. They've also led a brutal military campaign against ethnic groups in the country, sending a flood of refugees into neighboring Thailand. The violent reaction to recent demonstrations, just another chapter in Burma's long history of suffering.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can see more stories like that on ANDERSON COOPER 360, weekdays 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Meantime, he wanted to get people's attention, well he did. A new strategy for selling cars in south Florida, well, it's angered a lot of people, too, long-time customers, in fact. But the dealer says it's boosting sales, so you know what? He's not backing down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Here's Reynolds Wolf in the Severe Weather Center, and you got a really busy map behind you, and hopefully, folks are lucky enough to be in the sunshine kind of region, because there's a lot of rain and even snow back there.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, there's everything today. This is one of those weird days and we're in that time of year when we have that transition really getting into fall and leaving summer behind, but we've got some nixed up weather out there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: OK. I just want to be where there's severe sunshine.

WOLF: We will do whatever we can just to make it picture perfect for you.

WHITFIELD: Oh, I like it!

WOLF: All right. Any time.

WHITFIELD: Made to order. Thanks a lot, Reynolds. Well, usually, that severe sunshine is in places like Florida, but not today, especially not for a particular local car driver or car dealership, where the ad apparently is driving some people into a fury. They're calling the dealer all sorts of names, including "traitor." Our Susan Candiotti reports, it's not what the ad says, but it's how it's being said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Without cue cards, Earl Stewart doesn't speak a lick of Spanish, but he knows how to sell cars. His family's been in the business for 70 years in West Palm Beach, Florida. He figured, why not advertise in Spanish with subtitles on English-language TV to reach Latinos who might be watching?

EARL STEWART, CAR DEALER: I wasn't trying to make a political statement, I was trying to sell more Toyotas.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CANDIOTTI: Viewers started calling, with a vengeance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will no longer be buying anything from your dealership. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not right, what -- your advertisement is unbelievable.

CANDIOTTI: Within days, he got more than 200 angry e-mails.

STEWART: "I find your Spanish commercial stupid and insulting. I would never buy a car from someone who doesn't know what country he lives in. This is not Mexico."

CANDIOTTI (on camera): this one says, "Tell Earl he's a traitor and un-American."

When you started to run these ads, did you ever think it was going to create such a stir?

STEWART: I had no idea. I was shocked.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): On the other hand, Sadano's (ph) Hispanic supermarket chain is running a combo Spanish-English commercial on Miami's English-language TV with no complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People who advertise in Spanish are just trying to expand their consumer base. They're being smart. They want to sell their products.

CANDIOTTI: We asked one of Stewart's customers who watched the ad. She gets it but doesn't think it helps Hispanics assimilate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They help draw the people in, which is what he wants, but they don't help them learn English.

STEWART: Well, I think it's nonsense to think that a car dealer's commercial on television is going to encourage anybody not to learn English.

CANDIOTTI: Stewart shrugs off e-mails like, "anything to make a buck, right Earl"?

STEWART: I did do it for the almighty dollar. I did it to sell more Toyotas.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): If you think those Spanish-language ads have had a negative impact on car sales, remember those people who said they would never set their foot inside this dealership? Well, apparently, just the opposite has happened. Earl Stewart says he had a record sales month in September.

(voice-over): He says he won't mess with success.

(on camera): In the words of Tom Petty, you will not back down.

STEWART: I'm not going to back down. I'm going to continue to run my Hispanic TV commercial, and it'll be a permanent part of my television advertising from now on.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Suzanne Candiotti, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, well a tape of another kind. This tape tells one tale, but not the whole story. If you look closely, a woman is being handcuffed by police and then led away. But then she was later found dead. That story straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, here's what's happening right now. A suspect is in custody in a deadly armored car robbery in Philadelphia. Police say Mustafa Ali faces murder and armed robbery charges. He is accused of gunning down guards as they were servicing an ATM outside a Wachovia Bank. Two of the guards died. One was wounded.

And this march in London was one of several demonstrations around the world today to protest last week's military crackdown in Myanmar, or Burma as many people like to still call it. Officials there say 10 people were killed and 2,000 detained, but there are reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested.

And former Olympic track champion Marion Jones could be looking at jail time. She pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to federal agents about steroid use prior to winning five Olympic medals in the 2000 games.

How did she do it? How did former Olympic champion Marion Jones manage to avoid drug detection, despite all those tests? Our Randi Kaye found out there are plenty of ways to beat the system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How can this still be happening, athletes pumping themselves up with steroids, yet somehow the drugs are escaping detection? Sports attorney Ryan Smith says the tests used to spot them are simply outdated.

RYAN SMITH, SPORTS ATTORNEY: New drugs are being created every day to enhance performance. The testers just can't keep up with them. They find the drug by the athlete using it first. So they're automatically behind the 8-ball.

KAYE (on camera): For decades, athletes have been coming up with creative ways to beat the system, they have used diuretics, even catheter tubes under their clothing so they can empty their bladder of the tainted urine and replace it with a clean sample.

SMITH: In the early '80s, it was always, you can switch urine or have somebody take the test for you before people caught on and said, let me stand in the urinal.

KAYE: These days, some athletes use masking agents like one called "Clear," taken by Marion Jones.

(on camera): "Keeping Them Honest," we found the greatest threat to a clean game seems to be the human growth hormone. Experts say it enhances an athlete's performance by increasing muscle mass and reducing fat. Problem is, professional sports teams don't test for it because instead of urine, it requires a blood sample.

SMITH: You're finding out a lot more about that player than just whether or not they took HGH or THG, you're finding out if they might have AIDS or a sexually-transmitted diseases, and those things could potentially be used to terminate a player, so the players unions have always, always been against blood tests. And I don't think that is going to happen any time soon.

KAYE: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta says tests look for a pattern of molecules that make up the steroid, but athletes are using new, synthetic versions which are harder than ever to detect.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's testosterone, but they will add a specific molecule here to just to sort of escaped the test. The test isn't designed yet to catch the specific change, you won't find it. As soon as you give the substance to someone, it breaks down back into testosterone. So it still does the same thing, but evades all sort of testing.

KAYE: Still, some, like the U.S. doping agency's Gary Walder, predict the days of doping are coming to an end, because he thinks tests are getting better.

GARY WALDER, WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY: There is no question we have arrived at a point in time where the likelihood of getting away with doping has become a very unlikely scenario.

KAYE: He may be right, one day.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now something to lose your appetite over. You need to check the freezer. Another frozen beef patty recall is under way. Sam's Club is pulling American Chef's Selection Angus beef patties off the shelves in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. This is after four children who ate them got sick with E. coli.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the best of our knowledge, it's just Sam's Clubs right now. But of course, it's being investigated much further, and we may come out with additional information some time here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The patties have an expiration date of February 12th, 2008. Cargill is asking customers to return the patties or destroy them. Well, this is happening just one day after another massive recall put Topps Meat Company out of business. An E. coli scare forced the New Jersey company to pull nearly 22 million pounds of frozen hamburger patties last week. Topps, in business since 1940, says it simply can't overcome this economic loss.

A Kentucky jury sides with a McDonald's worker who was strip- searched at work. Louise Ogborn was awarded more than $6 million. It happened after a prank caller falsely accused Ogborn of stealing money from a customer. Other McDonald's restaurants had been duped by this same hoax. Ogborn says McDonald's knew about the ongoing prank but never warned its employees. The McDonald's says it wasn't responsible and may, may appeal the decision.

Seen under arrest, but then not seen later, Phoenix police have released video of a woman who died in custody. Here's CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A few, but not all of the last moments of Carol Ann Gotbaum's life preserved in pictures. Three camera angles caught the action, but there is no audio. Still, it's clear the woman is making a scene. In a moment, one camera shows she's on the floor, taken down and handcuffed. Two other cameras show her being taken away, apparently stiff-legged.

Police say they found no violations of policy or procedures so far, and the investigation is still ongoing. Whatever the video shows, there are things it clearly doesn't, like what happened in a holding cell when she was placed handcuffed and shackled to a bench. She was later discovered and pronounced dead after attempts to revive her failed. Police say she was left there alone for between six to eight minutes.

SGT. ANDY HILL, PHOENIX POLICE: They heard her yelling and screaming the whole time, so, and that was within earshot of the officers that were there. We do not have cameras inside of holding cells. We're prohibited to do that by policy.

JOHNS: The family's lawyer says that is a big problem. He says they should never have left her alone and there should have been a camera in the lock-up to be the final record of what happened in confinement.

MICHAEL MANNING, GOTBAUM FAMILY ATTORNEY: Unfortunately, there is no video in that portion of the airport so that we can tell. And more unfortunately, Carol is not here to tell us one way or the other.

JOHNS: A police department policy manual says: "Audio and video recording of detainees is not permitted in the lock-up to protect detainees' privacy." The husband of Carol Ann Gotbaum arrived in Phoenix to take her body back to New York City, and there was even controversy over the body itself. While the county medical examiner's office permitted an independent autopsy by a pathologist who was hired by the family, the family's lawyer said certain organs, the brain, the neck, and the heart, were not turned over for independent examination.

MANNING: We don't know why. What we were told is that they were too busy, and that's a hard thing to hear under those circumstances because our pathologist had to leave that afternoon, and they knew that. So we were on a serious time pressure, under serious time pressure to get that autopsy done and get it done completely. JOHNS: The Maricopa County medical examiner could not be reached for comment. One former medical examiner who has handled his share of high-profile cases is Dr. Jonathan Arden of Washington, D.C. He said it is not uncommon for certain body parts to be held back for further study. In a case like this, however, there is a danger.

DR. JONATHAN ARDEN, FMR. MEDICAL EXAMINER: You really need to be particularly careful about the release of information, not to look like you are hiding something, not to give anybody the false impression or any impression that they're not getting the full story.

JOHNS: And transparency here is part of the reason police held this news conference and released the video.

Joe Johns, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now this investigation. A dead Iraqi guard, a Blackwater employee, and accusations of a cover-up. We're "Keeping Them Honest" today at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIK TORKELLS, EDITOR, BUDGET TRAVEL: Some travelers feel guilty because they have heard that flying contributes to global warming. Now there's one way to lessen the guilt and counteract greenhouse gas emissions from flights. Find what are called carbon offsets. The money you spend helps plant trees or fund renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

When you book with Delta, you get the option of donating $5.50 for domestic round trips, and $11 for international round trips to its partner, The Conservation Fund. Travelocity also partners with the organization. When booking with them, you can donate $25, which they say will offset the effects of air travel, a four-night hotel stay, and a rental car.

Before buying an offset, find out how it's calculated. Some organizations factor in plane type, seat class, and other details, while others are less precise. Make sure the organization will disclose the details of projects it invests in, the percentage of funds that goes to those projects and whether the organization is a non-profit or not.

The carbon offset industry is largely unregulated, but there is the gold standard operated under the World Wildlife Fund. Look for it on the offsettered (ph) Web site. Now while offsets aren't environmental pardons, experts do say they might help spur innovation, including the financing of carbon-reducing projects that might otherwise not happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: The U.S. State Department accused of a cover-up over the killing of an Iraqi security guard and the rehiring of a fired Blackwater employee. Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre is "Keeping Them Honest."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has confirmed that this man, Andrew Moonen of Seattle, Washington, is the Blackwater contractor accused of killing a bodyguard for the Iraqi vice president, after allegedly drinking too much at a party last Christmas Eve in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lawyer. Please go talk to him.

MCINTYRE: His lawyer told CNN he doesn't believe his client committed a criminal offense. Still, at a congressional oversight hearing earlier this week, the head of embattled Blackwater USA insisted, fired employees like Moonen would have a hard time getting any sensitive government work in the future.

ERIK PRINCE, CEO, BLACKWATER USA: We endeavor to get their security clearance pulled, cancelled. And once that's done, they'll never work in a clearance capacity for the U.S. government again, or very, very unlikely.

MCINTYRE: So Committee Chairman Henry Waxman was outraged to learn from a CNN investigative report Moonen was hired just two months later by another firm, Combat Support Associates, a Pentagon contractor in Kuwait.

A spokesman confirmed Andrew J. Moonen was employed by CSA from February to August this year, but the company would not say if Moonen's job required any special clearance. Waxman cited CNN's reporting in angry letter he fired off to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Serious questions now exist about whether the State Department may have withheld from the U.S. Defense department facts about this Blackwater contractor's shooting of the Iraqi guard that should have prevented his hiring to work on another contract in support of the Iraq War."

The Pentagon says it does not do background checks on employees of private contractors. A spokesman saying: "The DOD does not hire individuals, it hires companies, and we expect companies to apply standards that are appropriate." CNN has also learned from Army personnel records that Moonen was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division for three years and served a tour in Iraq before his honorable discharge in 2005.

(on camera): Congressman Waxman accuses the State Department of being too anxious to pay cash to the families of shooting victims instead of holding Blackwater accountable. A State Department spokesman disputes that and says the department will happily comply with Waxman's request for more information and documents. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up, this will shock you, an unthinkable medical error. This woman's breast exam showed she was cancer-free. So why did her doctors do what they did? A shocking medical mix-up, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. This is pretty outrageous. A New York woman who had a double mastectomy is now being told the lab made a mistake, that she actually never had breast cancer. It happened to Darrie Eason, a 35-year-old single mom from Long Island. She's now suing the lab. Her attorney says someone else's lab results were mislabeled and put in Eason's file.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN PEGALIS, ATTORNEY: The pathologist read the slide correctly. The report was not attached to the correct patient.

DARRIE EASON, VICTIM: I have a philosophy that you have to laugh to keep from crying, so I try to laugh as much as I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. She's a good sport. A spokeswoman for the state health department said mistakes of this sort are very rare in New York.

And now new information on breast cancer as a whole, that it's not as rare as it once was in developing countries. The global rise of breast cancer is the subject of the latest TIME magazine. The disease once largely confined to mostly white well-to-do women is now spreading across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Alice Park is a senior editor with TIME. She joins us now from New York.

Good to see you, Alice.

ALICE PARK, TIME: Good afternoon.

WHITFIELD: This is really alarming, because you have some really incredible details as to why this disease seems to be spreading across the world. Let's begin with that. Why?

PARK: Well, it's ironic that the reason you're seeing more breast cancer in developing nations is a result of the fact that the women there are actually healthier and living longer. As governments invest more in their health care infrastructure, you're seeing them address issues such as infectious diseases much better, and that means that the populations are living longer, and as we know, cancer is a disease of older age, and the longer you live, the more likely it is that you'll be exposed to many of the carcinogens known to trigger breast cancer. WHITFIELD: I guess what's frightening, too, as you explore in this article, is that while it is spreading, while it seems to be reaching parts of Africa, parts of Asia, where it wasn't before, part of the big problem now is, not only is it reaching, you know, women who have no history of experiencing this, but now you've got to have technology and medicine get to these locations to help these women in early detection or to help them in treatment. But how is that coming along?

PARK: Well, that's the scariest prospect right now, because by 2020, officials estimate that about 70 percent of breast cancer cases worldwide will be occurring in developing countries. And these are nations that still in many places don't have mammograms.

Here in the United States we take it for granted that women over 40 should get an annual mammogram screening to detect breast cancer at its earliest stages. But these are nations where, you know, many people still think that breast cancer is contagious.

There is little education about what breast cancer is, and even less education about how best to prevent it. So that is the scariest prospect, that a lot of the technologies we need to really prevent this disease and head it off before it becomes a big problem are not really in place yet.

WHITFIELD: And still one of the mysterious facets of the whole why is, you have to wonder if the introduction of certain foods or certain, you know, environmental carcinogens are reaching some of these places. How much is geography playing a role in how women are being diagnosed or turning out to be breast cancer carriers?

PARK: Well, I don't think anyone will deny that something as complicated as breast cancer is really the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, but there is an increasing appreciation for how much geography, as you say, can really play a role.

And the strongest evidence comes from populations such as Asian- Americans, who now -- who, traditionally, Asian women have had a very, very low rate of breast cancer, and if you look at Asian-American women who were born and raised here in the United States, exposed to the Western diet, the Western lifestyle, those breast cancer rates are rising.

So those low rates in their grandmothers, great-great- grandmothers are now approaching levels of women here in the United States.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alice Park, it's really a fascinating read. One of the things I found was really fascinating, too, was that notation, talking about women who have the least amount of children, those who have two children or less have a higher risk of breast cancer, and folks need to read this article in TIME magazine to understand exactly what the science or researchers are saying about all this. Alice Park, thanks so much. It is a fascinating read, something that we can all learn from. All right. Well, this is also a learning example, an unusual custody case, not over children, but over a limb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's his leg! It's his very own flesh and blood leg.

SHANNON WHISNANT, FOUND LEG: Well, honey, if he wanted it, he should have packed it up, put it in a duffel bag and took it with him because it sure don't take up much room, mm-hmm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, Jeanne Moos has this lesson for us and has a leg up on the competition in covering this story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. CNN's Jeanne Moos has covered some pretty unusual stories throughout the years, but this is the first time that she ever reported on a custody battle over a severed leg.

We'll let her explain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOOS (voice-over): Forget the Britney Spears custody battle. In North Carolina, a one-legged guy is fighting for custody of his own severed leg, the one in this bag.

JOHN WOOD, ORIGINAL LEG OWNER: This thing has become a freak show.

MOOS: His rival for the leg found it in a meat smoker.

WHISNANT: But this is off the wall, man. You know? I mean, a real foot with five toes.

MOOS: And when you find something like that in a smoker you just bought at auction, you call 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the problem there?

WHISNANT: I've got a human foot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a what?

WHISNANT: I've got a human left foot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

WHISNANT: My name is Shannon Whisnant and it's plum nasty, got me grossed out.

MOOS: Don't say that to the original owner. WOOD: It actually looks pretty good. I had a real nice pedicure before it was done.

MOOS: John Wood lost his leg in a plane crash a few years back and had it embalmed. He wanted to keep it so he could someday be cremated as a whole man.

He kept the leg at this mini storage in the meat smoker. But when he got behind in his storage rent, his belongings were sold and Whisnant bought the smoker with a surprise inside.

WHISNANT: It has still got meat and bone and skin on it. Toenails.

MOOS: Whisnant turned it over to police. But soon after decided he wanted to display the leg as a tourist attraction, charging adults 3 bucks a peep. As for the original owner...

MOOS (on camera): It's his leg. It's his very own flesh and blood leg.

WHISNANT: Well, honey, if he wanted it, he should have packed it up, put it in a duffle bag, and took it with him, because it sure don't take up much room.

MOOS (voice-over): Hmm, police took it to a funeral home. John Wood's sister came and got it.

WOOD: I have it. I have possession of the leg. I have a leg up on this situation.

MOOS (on camera): And I see you have a sense of humor about it, too.

WOOD: And he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

MOOS (voice-over): Or does he?

RAOUL FELDER, ATTORNEY: My client paid good money at an auction for it. It's his property.

MOOS (on camera): But he bought the cooker. He didn't buy the leg.

FELDER: Well, what about when you get a chest of drawers or something, and you find something in it? You own it.

MOOS: Do you know how much you paid for the smoker?

WHISNANT: Yes, ma'am.

MOOS: And how much did you pay for the smoker?

WHISNANT: Oh, let's just say I got a good deal.

MOOS: OK. WHISNANT: I didn't give no arm and a leg for it.

MOOS (voice-over): Now Whisnant's getting a lawyer. What we really need is an injunction against any more leg puns.

WOOD: I'll keep it close at hand. I'll guarantee you that.

MOOS (on camera): At hand.

WOOD: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And only Jeanne can go out on a limb like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa!

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: The top stories in a moment -- I got you to chuckle though, didn't I? "YOUR MONEY" is coming up next. Here's a preview.

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