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U.S. Targeting Iran?; Pregnant Soldier's Death Treated as Murder; Obama Rejects Wesley Clark's Comment; U.S. Warship Delivers Food to North Korea

Aired June 30, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Iran, Iraq, North Korea, the so-called axis of evil on America's agenda today. Is the U.S. sizing up Iran for a fight?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, was the fight for Iraq bungled from the beginning? A new report pulls no punches.

LEMON: And a U.S. warship arrives in North Korea, not brandishing arms but bearing food.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin with allegations that President Bush is preparing for a possible attack against Iran before he leaves office next year. Journalist Seymour Hersh says that Mr. Bush is preparing the battlefield by significantly increasing the number of covert operations inside Iran.

Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The allegation that U.S. Special Ops commandos have been conducting covert operations into Iran from southern Iraq threw a quick and unequivocal denial from the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad.

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran in the south or anywhere else.

MCINTYRE: While the investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, whose "New Yorker" magazine article claims the efforts are part of a $400- million covert campaign to destabilize Iran's government, argues the operations are so super secret Ambassador Crocker may be out of the loop.

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": He may not know the extent to which we're operating deeply, with commandos -- not so much with our Special Forces inside Iran. So it's possible, because he's not somebody -- he'll spin it but he's not somebody who won't say something he doesn't believe.

MCINTYRE: it's not the first time Hersh has reported the U.S. has spies inside Iran, and senior Pentagon officials have hinted to CNN that CIA and other highly classified operations are conducted from time to time in the Islamic Republic, but they have never confirmed it.

In a statement, the CIA said as a rule it "does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," but some members of Congress were not so quick to dismiss the idea of the U.S. working secretly in Iran to stop its meddling in Iraq.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: I think we should be doing whatever we can to let the Iranians know they can't continue this and not expect us to take some action against them on this basis.

MCINTYRE: Hersh says some of the U.S. forces operating in Iran may be coming from the other border, Afghanistan. And he suggests their mission is, in part, to gather intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, possibly to lay the groundwork for a military strike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Jamie McIntyre is joining us now, live from the Pentagon.

Jamie, this is something the U.S. has done across the globe, covert operations within a country, whether it's supporting opposition groups or just getting intelligence.

MCINTYRE: And you have to remember, Kyra, that this is not something that is discussed openly at the Pentagon, not even on, you know, what we call deep background.

The -- the information we get about these kinds of operations often comes with sort of a wink and a nod and a nudge and a shake of the head that indicates, yes, there are operations that take place inside Iran. But it's not clear to what extent it's done by the CIA, to what extent some of these military task forces that assist the CIA or are assisting them, either from just across the border or whether anybody is actually crossing into the country.

They're very shadowy operations. But from what we're told, they're basically aimed at supporting the kind of people who would be opposing the Islamic government in Iran. Essentially doing in Iran what the U.S. accuses Iran of doing in Iraq, which is supporting people in Iraq that don't -- that oppose the Iraqi government and U.S. forces there. So it's kind of a fighting fire with fire approach.

PHILLIPS: So basically, it's supporting opposition groups and supporting a revolution to overturn that country, the government, versus an open war, where you see U.S. troops coming in by land and by sea?

MCINTYRE: Right. I mean, we're not talking about an operation where, you know, a bunch of Delta Force commandos wearing night-vision goggles helicopter deep into Iran and snatch somebody and take them out. Much more subtle kinds of operations than that.

And also, there's no expectation this kind of low-level covert activity is going to result in some sort of overnight revolution in Iran. It's more of a constant irritant to Iran, the same way that the U.S. bristles at the interference that they see from Iran in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: All right. We're going to talk more about this, obviously, with General David Grange, coming up within the hour. Jamie McIntyre, thanks so much.

And with U.S. forces already fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, does a strike against Iran actually make military sense? That's what I'll address with military analyst, retired Brigadier General David Grange, a little bit later in the hour -- Don.

LEMON: Another thick report on the was in Iraq says high-level failures led things astray from the very beginning. The study, released today by the Rand Corporation, cites failure -- failures to challenge rosy pre-war assumptions, bureaucratic bungling, and a lack of adequate power to sustain the country at the end of major combat.

The Rand report was done for the Army, which released an internal review over the weekend.

Among the errors, the Army lists a lack of necessary troop strength, the dissolution of Iraq's armed forces, and a change in the chain of command that blindsided leadership and hampered combat efforts during the rise of Iraq's insurgency.

At the White House today, President Bush signed legislation providing $162 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The occasion marked a rare time-out in the partisan struggle provoked by the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bill shows the American people that, even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops and their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The funding Bill the president signed puts the official total for the war in Iraq at more than $650 billion.

The Iraq war looms as perhaps the most important foreign policy issue in the 2008 election. And we want to hear from those of you directly affected by the war. Tell us the most important thing the next president needs to know about the war. If you had the chance, what would you show the next president about the war? Share your stories and your photos at iReport.com/Iraq.

And we'll be devoting time throughout the day to a deeper examination of Iraq. We'll take a closer look at homeless Iraqi veterans. Also Iraqi civilian women aiding U.S. security efforts, the so-called daughters of Iraq. And highly trained U.S. bomb investigators, otherwise known as Baghdad CSI. That's all ahead, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, a published report details a daring secret plan to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant. "The New York Times" is reporting that late last year, U.S. Special Ops forces were on the verge of moving into the mountains of Pakistan to respond to a buildup of al Qaeda training camps. Six months later, "The Times" says that the Special Ops teams are still waiting for the green light.

"The Times" also says that al Qaeda has a new band of terrorist camps where they can plan and train attacks on western targets.

LEMON: And news here closer to home. We don't know how she was killed. We don't know who did it. But we do know police are now treating the death of this pregnant soldier as a homicide.

Specialist Megan Touma, her body was found in a hotel near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. And our T.J. Holmes is in Fayetteville with the very latest on that.

And T.J., I hear there is some new information about a possible person of interest or someone they're questioning.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We've got all kinds of twists and turns in this case right now, Don.

I want to go to that point you made about this being treated as a homicide. That's a key word there, treated. They haven't confirmed yet if, in fact, she was murdered. There was an autopsy that was done here by the state medical examiner in North Carolina. We don't know the results of that, don't know if it was exactly inconclusive or if there's evidence from that the police have and are just not sharing with us. However, we'd have to understand or believe, at least, if they got information from that autopsy that she was, in fact, murdered, they would be treating this as -- this would be a homicide instead of just saying it's being treated as such.

Now that person of interest you speak of, that person we do know, that person has not been named just yet, but we have been told that person is a fellow soldier at Ft. Bragg. Ft. Bragg, of course, is where Sergeant Megan Touma had just been transferred to. That was her new base, as well. We do not know the relationship between Megan Touma and this person of interest but do know this person was training at Ft. Bragg.

Also important to note that just because it is a person of interest, it does not necessarily mean it's a suspect. It could turn out to be someone that just believe is connected to the case in some way or someone they just want to question. So we want to make sure we're careful there. But still, a person of interest is how the police are naming it. Also, another autopsy being done. The Army has gotten involved now in this case. They have taken possession of Megan Touma's body. Her body is now in Washington, D.C., going through another autopsy, going through a pathology lab there that has more advanced technology that might be able to help police understand a little better exactly how she may have died.

But again, Don, the word today, the new information that she is being treated -- or this case being treated as a homicide but still have not confirmed if, in fact, she was in fact murdered and how she was murdered.

And Don, no press conference right now expected from the police today. They say they're not going to come out unless they have a major piece of news to pass along.

LEMON: T.J. Holmes at Fayetteville. We appreciate your reporting. Thank you, T.J. -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And right now federal investigators are on the scene of a fiery and deadly helicopter collision in Arizona. Two medical choppers hit each other yesterday while taking patients to a Flagstaff hospital. At least six people, including a patient, were killed, and one person was critically hurt.

Now, minutes ago federal investigators did say that it could take a while to try and figure out what exactly went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ROSENKER, NTSB CHAIRMAN: Takes anywhere between 12 and 18 months to get the determination and then make recommendations to prevent this kind of accident from happening again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, we've had a rash of medical chopper crashes recently, and the latest, actually, is in the eight -- eight in the last six months apparently. In all, at least 19 people have been killed.

LEMON: Let's talk now about beauty and grace on the outside, demons on the inside. The death of 20-year-old model Ruslana Koshunova has been ruled a suicide. She plunged nine stories from her Manhattan apartment building Saturday. The Kazakhstan native graced the covers of top fashion magazines and walked the runways for top designers.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're learning new and brutal details about Eve Carson's last moments earlier this year. An autopsy report released today says the University of North Carolina student -- well, the body -- the student body president, rather, she was shot at least five times, including a shotgun blast that tore through her hand and struck her in the head.

Also new court documents say that two Durham men kidnapped Carson from her home, took her to an ATM before they killed her, and those two now face first degree murder charges.

LEMON: A missing 12-year-old girl has triggered Vermont's first ever Amber Alert. Brooke Bennett was last seen on Wednesday, and police are now looking into contacts she made on MySpace on that Web site.

One of the last people to see Brooke appears in court this hour. Her 42-year-old uncle, Michael Jacques, is shown on the surveillance video, dropping her off at a convenience store on Wednesday. Police have charged Jacques with sexually assaulting a minor, but they say it's not related to Brooke's case.

PHILLIPS: Well, at the rate that we're going, worth it's weight in oil might become the new saying. Black gold setting another record. This morning it actually surged past $143 a barrel for the first time.

Analysts point to fears of a supply disruption over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

As for your Monday markets, let's take a look at the big board right now. Dow industrials up 57 points. We're going to go live to the trading floor at half past for a full business roundup from our Susan Lisovicz.

LEMON: As people hope the Dow will rise, well, we're watching the water rise as well. Weeks after the floodwaters started swamping parts of the Midwest, the Mississippi River's crest heads downstream, and we've got the latest for you.

PHILLIPS: They've served their country with honor and valor. Now they're homeless. Tens of thousands of American vets are sleeping on the streets, even park benches right across the street from the White House. We're going to look at just how serious that problem is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Retired General Wesley Clark is drawing fire for some comments about John McCain's military experience. On one of the Sunday talk shows, Clark, who supports Barack Obama, called McCain a hero but said he's untested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: That large squadron in the air -- in the Navy that he commanded, it wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Just a short time ago, during a meeting with reporters in Pennsylvania, McCain was asked whether Obama should address Clark's comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know we've heard this many times and other comments that have been made, and -- but, no, that's certainly up to Senator Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: During a campaign speech a short time ago in Independence, Missouri, Senator Obama addressed the controversy over Wesley Clark's comments, and CNN's Jessica Yellin joins us now from Washington with the very latest from that.

I was listening to the speech. It wasn't -- did he specifically call the name or was it just sort of assumed you knew who he was talking about, Jessica?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was sort of an indirect or oblique reference, but first I should let you know the Obama campaign has since released a very clear statement saying that, quote, "Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service and, of course, he rejects -- rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."

That's from the campaign spokesperson, Bill Burton.

Now, in the speech itself Barack Obama did broadly reference this controversy by saying, essentially, he doesn't want patriotism to become a political campaign issue, and he does not plan to make it one. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say this at the outset of my remarks: I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.

No one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters of both sides. We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform, period, full stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, Barack Obama says that he delivered this speech today, because he found that his own patriotism was questioned during the primary season. And he said in part that was because of -- he used the word his own carelessness at times and at other times because people were trying to, as he put it, score political points based on patriotism.

So he gave a bit of his own biography, his family's history with military service, his love for the country. In essence, Don, he's trying to take, again, patriotism off the table as a political football this season, saying he'd rather focus on substantive issue that affect real Americans -- Don. PHILLIPS: CNN's Jessica Yellin in Washington. We appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much.

And check out our political ticker for all the latest campaigns news. Just logon to CNN.com, your source for all things politics.

PHILLIPS: Well, a week after rivers began overflowing in Iowa, the Mississippi is finally cresting at St. Louis. It's about nine feet above flood stage. The floodwaters forced only a few businesses along the riverfront to close.

Now firefighters are gaining ground slowly against all those wild fires in Northern California. More than 1,000 are still burning, two of the biggest in Monterey County. Crews have managed to build a fire line around the town of Big Sur, but a section of the Pacific Coast Highway still remains closed.

Now in Arizona firefighters are scrambling to keep these flames from the town of Crown King. So far so good. About 120 people were evacuated from their homes overnight.

And spectator tents collapsed and a 5-year-old boy was killed during a violent thunderstorm in Huntsville, Alabama. It happened at an air show yesterday. Twelve other people were hurt. One, another child, was taken to the hospital.

Well, it's turning into a pretty long, hot summer already for some of us, Chad Myers.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right. Chad, thanks.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sure.

LEMON: A new breed of Americans consigned to life in the streets. We'll tell you about the homeless vets of the Iraq war.

PHILLIPS: And we've flown with them: travelers who think a carry-on means anything you can carry. Well, you better pack some extra money in those oversized bags, folks. That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, do you usually cram all your stuff into a carry- on bag instead of checking luggage? Better stow some extra cash on you now. The airlines cracking down, again, on travelers who overflow those overhead bins.

Apparently, several carriers now charging for checked bags will have employees out policing the size of carry-ons. And if you're stuck at the gate with a bulky bag, American will charge you $15 right there to check it.

United hasn't decided whether to charge. And for now, anyway, U.S. Airways won't charge you for checking the bag at the gate.

One more thing, Don.

LEMON: Kyra, you check everything. You don't carry anything except maybe a purse or a wallet. I put it all in my carry-on bag and stuff it in and try to smile really big...

PHILLIPS: You're going to have to start paying.

LEMON: I know. I'm going to have to carry, like, a fist full of money to pay people off to get my luggage on. I hate to check, because they always lose it. Always do.

PHILLIPS: Pretty soon we'll be paying for the pilot.

LEMON: Two bucks. I paid 2 bucks this weekend for earphones. So there you go.

All right. Let's move on now and talk about some business. A big reason those airlines are nickel-and-diming us is because of skyrocketing oil prices, and today we've got a record high again. Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

I'm going to stop right there. I'm just going to let you be the bearer of bad news. I'm going to go away. See you later.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not all bad, Don, but I have to say, there is some baggage also on Wall Street. It's been playing out quite dramatically for this past month.

Yes, oil prices for the first time in electronic trading crossed over $143 a barrel. But it's since retreated, up now just half a buck.

And investors worry about high energy prices, certainly, record- high energy prices, because of what it does to consumer spending and corporate profits. We had a weak open, but it's been a choppy session, typical of the final day in the quarter, when many portfolio managers adjust their investments.

But the Dow is rallying. There's your good news. Blue chips up 61 points. NASDAQ is it down just a couple points. Earlier today the Dow slipped back into bear market territory, and the Dow is on track to record its worst performance, Don, since the Great Depression, a loss of 10 percent.

LEMON: OK. So then how worried should we be that the Dow actually fell into bear market territory again?

LISOVICZ: Bear market, Don, commonly defined as a 20 percent drop from its most recent high. That would be in October of last year. The Dow was above 14,000 then. This morning it was in danger of going below 11,000.

MarketWatch.com says bear markets tend to come every five years and that bull markets typically last much longer. Savvy investors know there are still buying opportunities out there, because so many of the companies that trade do business overseas where a weak dollar helps, and they're doing gang busters. And that's been one of the few bright spots in the economy.

And the next hour we're going to talk about eBay. Hit with a luxury fine. I'll have all the details on that. Of course, the numbers, as well, Don.

Back to you.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Susan.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, is the Bush administration buttering up the battlefield, planning to attack Iran? A new published report says it is. We want to know what a military expert has to say about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, time now to tell you a couple story we're working on for you today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

North Carolina police are now treating the death of this pregnant soldier as a homicide and the Army has officially joined that investigation. Specialist Megan Touma's body was found in a hotel near Ft. Bragg and police have a person of interest in that case and it's a fellow soldier.

Federal investigators say it could take more than a year to wrap up this their probe into this deadly Arizona helicopter collision. Two medical choppers collided over Flagstaff yesterday while carrying patients. At least six people are dead.

Also in Arizona, the small town of Crown King has been evacuated as a wildfire gets closer. The fire has already burned 600 acres and winds are fanning those flames.

PHILLIPS: New allegations that President Bush has significantly increased Special Ops missions inside Iraq. Journalist Seymour Hersh writing in "The New Yorker" says that Mr. Bush is preparing the battlefield for a possible strike against Iran. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSH: This president did escalate the covert war, the secret war, inside Iran. We have been doing stuff (ph) inside Iran since '05 pretty much, pretty heavily. Looking at the nuclear facilities, collecting intelligence, trying to undermine the regime, et cetera, et cetera. But there was a significant escalation this year. With -- first of all, they got a great deal of authorization to spend up to $400 million. That doesn't mean he spent it all yet, but he's got that kind of authorization from one of the secret committees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, our military analyst retired Army Brigadier General David Grange here to give us his take on all of this.

You heard Seymour Hersh right there. You and I both know that certain types of missions, covert operations, happen inside that country. I guess the question is: Should we be doing it?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I hope we're doing it. I think that every country in the world does covert operations.

Remember, a covert operation is one where the act is not hidden, it's the sponsor of the act that's hidden, and it gives you an opportunity for a plausible denial. But it's important to do covert operations to shape our interest abroad, whether it be for war or any other reason globally. And we're just one of many countries that do it.

PHILLIPS: And we should make the point that covert operations doesn't mean preparation for war or that the U.S. will engage in an open war with Iran.

GRANGE: You're exactly right. It could be for other reasons. It could be to get some type of effect that's necessary before a negotiation, to give people the opportunity to do something within a country, whatever the case may be, not necessarily for war. That is correct.

PHILLIPS: And also, too, these covert operations could be a matter of supporting opposition groups to support a revolution versus an open war, correct?

GRANGE: Correct.

Many covert operations that are conducted by any country really use the indigenous population, using surrogates, using proxies, to do certain acts, certain type of missions without using your own country's forces.

PHILLIPS: And you're aware of a number of covert operations that are even happening right now. You and I were talking about Burma.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

GRANGE: Well, my -- the example I was discussing about Burma is right now, as you know, this is not really a covert operation, but it's an operation that's not known internationally to many people in that we do have a lot of nonprofit organizations in the world trying to help some of the oppressed Burmese people. And some of those are using covert-type activities in order to make things happen, to actually give humanitarian aid or to get refugees out.

And they're very effective, and they're done in the private sector.

PHILLIPS: And within these covert operations, not only gathering intelligence and supporting opposition groups militarily, strategy- wise, but the passing of money, this happens quite a bit, and could that be a part of this money that was approved by Congress? Not necessarily money to go toward a war, but money to be passed to support an underground operation?

GRANGE: Well, money transfer in the world -- you have the typical cash transfer of money to pay for certain activities. But you also have in some places in the world used mostly by -- not by Americans but people that may be opposed to us. And it's informal money transfer systems using a value system to transfer, an IOU of material.

It could be drugs. It could be weapons. It could be a promissory note of so many hours of service. It could be a hostage. There's many ways -- it's called (INAUDIBLE). It's an informal transfer system. So a lot of these type of black or -- unusual irregular operations that go on use informal money transfer, just not formal money transfer systems.

PHILLIPS: Now, there are risks to passing money, correct? Because you don't always know, necessarily, where that money is going.

GRANGE: Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's always risk.

It's no different than actual money. Let's say that a private organization wanted to give a half million dollars to help the Burmese people in Burma. And they go, you know, I just found out I don't know where that money went that I gave over to this so-called nonprofit organization that's trying to help these people. Yes, to follow the money through to see if you're getting the effects you paid for is extremely difficult and quite often you can't do anything about it if you don't get what you paid for.

PHILLIPS: General, final thought. In this article with Seymour Hersh, a lot of stuff we already knew, but he's making the point that there's an escalation in these covert operations. What's the significance there -- or is there no significance?

GRANGE: Well, I don't know if there is a significance or not. We did covert operations against the Soviet Union --

PHILLIPS: For decades.

GRANGE: -- for years. And actually, if you're doing an operation like that that yes, there's risk involved, there's embarrassment, there's lives at stake quite often, but if you can do something like that that doesn't cause open war, then maybe it is for the better. I would say a country would want robust covert operation capability in order for survivability and to portray your interests abroad. I think it's a good thing. PHILLIPS: General David Grange. Great to see you.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

LEMON: So -- what to do about President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. That is the key question facing members of the African Union meeting in Egypt today. Mugabe is there and no doubt hoping for a boost after his re-election on Friday. So far, other A.U. leaders have avoided strong public criticism of Mugabe despite the fact that his opponent dropped out of Friday's runoff because of widespread violence. The U.S. and other governments have called the results of that election a sham.

PHILLIPS: Tons of U.S. food has arrived in North Korea today. It's the first installment of 500,000 tons in aid promised by the Bush administration. It comes just days after the north delivered a long- delayed nuclear declaration and blew up the cooling tower at its main reactor site. However, the U.S. says that the food was not directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks.

LEMON: Well, it seems to happen to every generation. Men go off to war and return forever changed. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, looks now at the growing problem of homeless vets, including those from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES STREET, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: How are you doing, man? Are you a vet?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lunchtime at a Washington, D.C. soup kitchen. James Street is reaching out. If any of these homeless men are veterans, he will try to help.

STREET: You've got my card, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

STREET: When can you come over and talk to me at the V.A.?

STARR: Street works for the Department of Veterans Affairs trying to get homeless vets in to shelters. A regular stop, outside the most powerful address in the world, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

STREET: I have had homeless veterans here. One of my veterans live down here on the park bench right across from the White House.

STARR: There are about 150,000 homeless vets nationwide, according to the V.A. About 2,000 fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Joseph Jacobo has been homeless since returning from Iraq two years ago. At one point, he went four days without food.

JOSEPH JACOBO, HOMELESS VETERAN: I have to live day by day, not knowing where I was going to get my next meal or to be able to shower the next day. I mean -- because you can stink here. Believe me, you can stink here.

STARR: Jacobo is now in a shelter dealing with post-traumatic stress.

JACOBO: When you get to see people dying next to you, it's traumatic -- it's traumatic. It stays with you for a long time.

STARR: The V.A. worries post-combat stress is leading to a rise in homelessness in today's vets.

PETE DOUGHERTY, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: They come back. They're having night trauma. They're having difficulty sleeping. They're feeling alienated.

STREET: These guys, they go to Iraq and Afghanistan with the intent that -- yes, I'm going to go and serve my country but I'm going to come home and I'm going to step right in to where I was and I won't be affected. Well, they will be affected.

STARR (on camera): Veterans experts tell us their big worry -- what will happen over the next three to five years as more troops return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Barbara Starr, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And the Iraq War looms as perhaps the most important foreign policy issue in the 2008 election. We want to hear from those of you directly affected by the war. Tell us the most important thing the next president needs to know about the war, and if you had the chance, what would you show the next president about the war?

Share your stories and your photos at ireport.com/Iraq.

PHILLIPS: Easing a mother's secret fear. Eliminating the worry that her unborn baby could develop an inherited form of cancer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. A pregnant woman in Britain is carrying a baby believed to be free of an inherited form of cancer. Doctors screened her embryos for the defective gene and medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, explains this.

OK, so what does this mean? Does this have implications for cancer and getting --

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is very interesting what she did.

First of all, we'll talk about how she did what she did. This woman and her husband went to a fertility clinic and said, we have breast cancer, the breast cancer gene running in our family. So what they did was they created a bunch of embryos and froze them -- here we will see some frozen embryos -- and then tested each of the embryos to see if they carried the BRACA gene.

If they carried it, they didn't use them. If they were good, then they were implanted in her for a pregnancy.

And this is really -- a lot of doctors will tell you this is very exciting stuff. So you don't have to pass down the bad stuff to your kids. It's used for Cystic Fibrosis, it's used for Huntington's disease, it's used for many diseases.

LEMON: OK. So, she had it in her family. That's -- OK, now I get it. I get it. I wasn't sure at first.

OK, so is this a slippery slope though? Are people going to go, -- when they talk about designer babies -- are they going to do this designer genes? I want a baby who is really smart, a genius or has a certain color hair or eyes.

COHEN: There are those concerns. And you hear people talk about that.

But the bottom line is that right now even if you wanted a genius baby and $10 trillion to pay for one, you couldn't get one. There's no genius gene to check the embryos for. So you can't do the kind of designer babies that people talk about when they talk about this slippery slope. Some day maybe.

That's how we got you, OK. That's very clear.

Some day might you be able to screen for eye color or hair color or something like that? Maybe. And then there's some clear ethical discussions to be had.

LEMON: I'm sure the ethical questions will come, but I absolutely -- one day I think it will happen. Look how far we've come.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: That's true. Who knows?

LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Important news for seniors. The Bush administration is freezing a planned cut of doctors' fees for Medicare patients. The 10 percent cuts were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, and a congressional vote to stop the cuts altogether is expected after the July 4th recess. Now some physicians had been running ads hinting that the reduced rates could make it harder for seniors to find doctors willing to treat them.

And there are lingering questions about the cause of a nationwide salmonella scare originally linked to tomatoes. Now health officials aren't so sure. Stores pulled the tomatoes from their shelves and restaurants have taken them off the menus, but more people are getting sick.

The CDC says there have been more than 800 cases in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Health officials spent the weekend searching for other possible sources of the outbreak, checking fields, warehouses, and distribution centers in Mexico and Florida.

LEMON: So listen to this, while investigating one possible crime, he becomes the victim of another. A Chicago firefighter shot on the job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Chicago firefighter shot in the line of duty. He was investigating a possible arson yesterday when a bullet tore into his ribs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND OROZCO, CHICAGO FIRE COMMISSIONER: He's been a fire investigator for three to four years that I know of. So -- know him to seem him, good man, good family man. All we can do now is just pray that he's going to be OK and that he's going to make a good recovery.

It's been a long time. I've got to go back in memory a long time going back thinking about when a firefighter was shot in the line of duty. It's been a while. So -- it was just the wrong place, wrong time. He was out doing his job. And we don't really have all those details with us. We'll let the police department look at that.

Like I said, our main concern is his health and making sure that we take care of his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That firefighter is in serious but stable condition now.

LEMON: Stopping bad guys. Law enforcement looks for ways to get the job done without the loss of life. They're turning to a new generation of weapons that are less than lethal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smoke deployed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ready?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull pin and bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in Moundsville, West Virginia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Team ready?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the 12th annual Mock Prison Riot. The old state penitentiary has the history of having the bloodiest riots of any prison in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Get down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's kind of ironic that we have the capability to bring Less Lethal in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Less Lethal is...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great thing to be able to assist in preventing crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Less Lethal technology is the only way to go in a law enforcement and corrections community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We use batons, use beanbag guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These can be fired either out of a 12 gauge or a .37 millimeter launcher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pepper ball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The newest technology this year is Taser.

CINDY BARON, MOCK RIOT ORGANIZER: Taser is an electronic controlled device.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taser will stun you...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... will leave a mark on you...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah! Ah! Ah!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... will hurt you, but won't kill you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's been shot in a low muscle mass hit. I'm going to give you a little taste right here of what it feels like and then I'm going to shut it off. This is what it feels like for about a second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah!

BARON: It is not a pleasurable experience. Compliance is what we're after with electronic control devices.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just during that five seconds you're totally incapacitated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we're trying to get at. All right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Less Lethal product...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This would be a less than lethal round, not the real one, of course. And it would be more industrial, more for a correctional facility and area denial system. Being able to be used on the border to prevent border crossings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good for law enforcement because it saves lives. That's the bottom line. We want Less Lethal. We want to be able to put these people in a court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a police officer, my life is just as valuable to me as the criminal's life is. I do not want to take a life if I don't have to. If I make it through my career and never take a life, I am going to be happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was good. That was fun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the great flood of '08. From Iowa to Missouri, towns and farmlands are soaked. When will the river stop rising?

LEMON: And you've heard of people racing to the toilet, but what about the reverse? We'll have the results of a most unusual race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It may not do much for a man's ego, but it's sure making all the women happy. CNN's Kyung Lah reports on a Tokyo restaurant serving up Prince Charming for its customers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And they lived happily ever after, just like the fairy-tale says. Right? Not always.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. My princess is...

LAH: But dream life meets real life at The Butlers Cafe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every princess needs your special tiara.

LAH: Yes, those are tiaras gracing the heads of giddy customers, or...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My princesses.

LAH: As they're called here.

They're served sweets and tea, surrounded by flowers from a dashing man on bended knee. And not just any man. All of the servers are Western men. Innocent fun, nothing more they say, here at your beck and call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my princess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my princess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my princess.

LAH (on camera): Do you sell these?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please enjoy, my princess.

THOR HELGASON, BUTLERS CAFE: Well, I mean, I thought it was English teaching or nothing. But no, apparently there's other work for us out here.

LAH (voice-over): The owner came up with the concept by walking through the streets of Shibuya. She spoke to 200 women who all told her the same thing. They wanted a cafe where the waiters were male, good looking, would treat them nice, but most importantly, were Western.

"Being a gentleman is embarrassing for Japanese men," says cafe owner Yuki Hirohata. "Our culture isn't like that." Hirohata says women are exhausted by the rules of Japanese society, unyielding in its expectations of a woman's role in maintaining a career, home, husband and family.

"We're tired from our daily lives," says this customer. "These guys are different than Japanese men. They're smoother and make me feel special."

CHRISTOPHER DEVERILL, BUTLERS CAFE: And I think maybe just for the princesses it's refreshing to see, you know, this guy who is confident. He's like, hey, how are you?

LAH (on camera): Prince Charming.

DEVERILL: Yes. Maybe Prince Charming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

LAH (voice-over): Brendan Reed, a native of Chicago, Illinois, doesn't mind being the object of their affection.

BRENDAN REED, BUTLERS CAFE: You have bars for men, you have bars for women. You have Hooters. You have -- like, you have a lot of places where you're going into kind of a special place or a special area where rules are a little different.

HELGASON: Something I haven't told anybody about back home yet, but...

LAH (on camera): I think the cat is out of the bag.

HELGASON: ... I guess I'm going to have to now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, lift.

LAH (voice-over): Campy, silly, perhaps. But for just one lunch, these ladies say, it's their storybook come to life.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. This is outrageous. Killed because she was black. One victim, two families, all destroyed by racism.

PHILLIPS: We're going to look at the shocking crime and dig into its racist roots.

Hello everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlnata.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.