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Ship's Crew Recaptures Boat from Pirates; Italian Town Picking up Pieces after Earthquake; Power Grid Might be Vulnerable to Cyber Attack; Critics Take Obama to Task for Travel;
Aired April 08, 2009 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Drama on the high seas changes course. Twenty American crew members apparently back in control of the ship after a hijack from pirates.
Foreign spies might know all about your power grid. Can you imagine the chaos if they managed to shut it off?
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
It's apparently over: pirates hijacking a U.S. cargo ship off of Somalia for about 12 hours. The Pentagon says American crew members have regained control, are safe, and have taken at least one pirate into custody. They're still questions here, though. We're going to push them forward for the next couple of hours.
The Maersk Alabama was flying a U.S. flag taking food to Kenya when the pirates made their move.
Let's get straight to Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon, where some of the developments are still trickling out.
Chris, what can you tell us?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we're told that it was four hijackers that boarded the ship and tried to take control of it. We're now told that the crew has been able to retake control and that they have at least one of those hijackers in custody.
They said there are no reported injuries right now to any of those American crew members, and we're also being told that three of the hijackers tried to escape. That does raise some questions about where they are now and what the situation is with the remaining hijackers.
I'm also told by a defense official that there is a U.S. Navy ship that is heading that way. It is the USS Bainbridge. That's a Navy destroyer. It's got a cruising speed of about 25 to 30 knots. Based on where it is now, still about 250 to 300 nautical miles away, that's anywhere from, you know, 8 to 12 hours away from the Alabama right now.
PHILLIPS: All right. And you mentioned the U.S. Navy. Thanks, Chris. At sea, it can really be hard to tell friend from foe. And that's something that I learned firsthand patrolling off the coast of Iraq with the U.S. Navy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Right now we're about 40 miles from Iraqi territorial waters, and overnight commanders of this operation observed two ships coming out of Iraq.
As you can see, it's quite an orchestrated effort, either loading their guns. They're putting on their bulletproof gear. These high- threat boarding teams don't always know what they're up against until they actually reach the ship, and in this case no one got hurt. Boarding teams found illegal cargo, but no pirates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: John Burnett is intimately familiar with the pirate attacks. He survived one actually in 1992. John's the author of "Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas." He joins us now live from London.
John, tell me what happened to you off the South China Sea.
JOHN BURNETT, AUTHOR, "DANGEROUS WATERS": Well, it was an incident that really hard to forget. I was sailing across the South China Sea from Borneo to Singapore to meet my wife in Singapore. And it was late at night, and I was in the shipping lanes, and the ships had their normal defenses against pirates, which is what they're using today, actually. There are fire hoses blasting outboard and the halogen lights illuminating the decks.
And I was down below, and all of a sudden I felt a thump on my boat and felt some footsteps. And I ran outside, and there were three shadowy figures pointed their loaded guns at me. And I've never before faced anyone pointing a loaded gun, and so it was quite frightening. But...
PHILLIPS: And you obviously survived, but that experience, John, pushed you to want to research why this happens, how it could happen to you. So you did. You spent four years investigating this problem. What do you think surprised you the most from what you discovered within your investigation?
BURNETT: Well, you know, piracy is an ongoing situation. It's a crime that's out of control, as witnessed by the events today. And what we really see is that it's a crime that cannot be stopped. You have off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, you have 20 nations with their naval assets trying to control piracy. And it's not being done because wherever the naval assets, wherever the warships are, the pirates are going to go elsewhere.
And they're striking ships with impunity. The ships that are being attacked now mostly are out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, or nearly the middle of the Indian Ocean, far away from Somali territory. I don't know (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: Well, what do you think needs to be done then? I mean, obviously the military can't just step in and try and help avert a situation once it's already happened, but how do you prevent it from happening? It sounds like to me, you've got to start dealing with the Somali government and the lack of work and resources, because these pirates obviously see a way to make money, and this is a way to do it.
BURNETT: Yes. You've hit the nail on the head, Kyra. The only way to quit paid (ph) piracy is very simply, you have to have a government on land that's willing to take control of their people. And Somalia hasn't had a government since 1991. And it's a country in a virtual state of anarchy.
The pirates are local people who have -- with some maritime experience who are taking down ships whenever they want. In southeast Asia, piracy was controlled when the literal states -- that's Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia -- got together and pooled their resources and determined that piracy was no longer going to be a threat to merchant shipping.
You don't have that. You don't have a government to make that kind of forceful move off of Somalia. And therefore, Somali piracy is going to continue and probably get worse.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you're working on a book on that exact subject matter. I look forward to it. John Burnett, always good to talk to you. Great insight. Appreciate it.
BURNETT: Thanks very much.
PHILLIPS: The Maersk Alabama was the sixth ship hijacked in a week. The five others happened from Saturday all the way into Monday. And a navy spokesperson actually says that this was the first pirate attack involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory.
It actually came a day after the U.S. military issued a new warning for ships in that area, saying that pirates are now carrying out attacks farther offshore.
You know, cyber spies take down the U.S. power grid, causing all sorts of chaos. It happens in the movies. You've seen it, but now new word that Russian and Chinese spies have already penetrated the grid in real life. We're going to tell you about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: As you know, we've been covering this story about this ship off the coast of Somalia being pirated -- or pirates actually boarding. And finding out, though, that possibly the crew has regained control of that ship.
You know, as we were following this story, we were trying to find out more about who was on that ship and if, indeed, they had any training in hijacking. What we did find out, that the second in command of that ship is Shane Murphy, a Captain Shane Murphy. Trying to trace his background, his family members. Our Jason Carroll just happened to be working on another story at the school where Shane Murphy had been trained. He was able to locate the parents of Shane Murphy and had a chance to talk to them. He joins us now by phone.
Jason, can you hear me OK?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Absolutely, Kyra. And not only were we...
PHILLIPS: OK. Go ahead.
CARROLL: Not only were we able to reach Shane Murphy's father, but also his wife. I'm going to tell you about that in a little bit.
I know you were talking about training. Suffice it to say that Shane Murphy has received extensive training here at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Kyra, not just -- he graduated in 2001, and before he took off with this most recent assignment aboard the Maersk, he was here at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy talking to cadets about what, of all things, but how to deal with pirates. So Shane Murphy was very well-trained.
Let's go back and talk about what happened earlier today. Shane's wife, I spoke to her just about a half hour ago. She told me at around 10 a.m. this morning, Eastern Standard Time, she got a call from Shane saying that, first, he was alive, that he could not speak for very long, but that he wanted her to know that they were able to take down one of the pirates. That's a quote from him, "We have taken down one of the pirates."
He also let her know that he felt as though the situation was going to get resolved and for her just to sit tight.
I also spoke with Joe Murphy. That would be Shane's father. He told me more about the training that his son received here at the academy. He basically said that his son received -- received extensive training in weaponry, even though there were no weapons, we are told, at least from Joe Murphy, on board. That his son received extensive training in defensive maneuvers and how to deal with these pirates.
PHILLIPS: So, OK. Because that -- these were the questions that I had, if, indeed, they were armed, Jason. If they had weapons on that ship, because a number of times they don't want to talk about that, just for the sake of giving away what type of training they have or security they have.
But do -- do you know if, indeed, he was the one that took down that pirate? Is he the one that used these defensive measures to actually put his hands on one of those pirates and take him down?
CARROLL: Well, all good questions. Basically, some of the details we just don't have for you right now. We just know that Shane did make it clear that they were able to take down one of the pirates. When I asked, I said, "Was there any indication that any of them were armed?" Joe Murphy, Shane's father, said, no, it was his understanding that they were not armed.
But as you know, as many people know, dealing with these types of vessels and vessels that have to run in these waters, you're absolutely right. Some of them do carry weapons, but they don't want to publicize that for obvious reasons.
In this particular case, Joe Murphy says that these crew members -- there were some 20 crew members on board -- were able to take down at least one of these pirates, and were able to do it without using weaponry.
PHILLIPS: And, Jason, just for -- to explain to our viewers, it was extremely lucky that you were there at MMA working on another story. Can you tell us what story you were working on and, obviously, you air your reports on "AMERICAN MORNING," our morning show, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern Time.
What will that story be, and will we be able to see that tomorrow morning?
CARROLL: Well, you absolutely will be able to see it tomorrow morning, Kyra, so I hope you watch. I know you will be.
What we were doing is we were interested in doing a story about how some of these young cadets are trained to deal with pirates. Something different is happening here at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, because what they're doing here is, for the first time, they are teaching some of the cadets to use small gun -- weapons in order to take down some of these pirates.
This is not something that is taught at other academies. You know, there's one in Maine, for example. They do not advocate or teach that, but at this particular academy, it is a -- it's part of the curriculum. It's an elective course, we understand. And they feel as though it's just one of the components that they can use to deal with these pirates.
Of course, you want -- what you want to do is you want to avoid getting in this type of situation by using as many defensive mechanisms as possible. And apparently, with this particular vessel, Shane and his crew were able to try to fend off these pirates, using defensive -- using defensive moves for what we're told several hours before the pirates were able to finally, you know, get on board and overtake them.
But what they're doing here is this is a new thing that they're doing here at the academy. And we wanted to explore, first, why the decision to teach the young cadets -- some of the young cadets -- to use -- to use guns, and, second, how they're doing it. So that was the story that we had set out to explore.
And coincidentally, Kyra, Joe Murphy was one of the people that we had scheduled an interview with, and then -- so we head on up here to do an interview with Joe -- right, Kyra -- and all of a sudden Joe let's us know, "By the way, my son was one of those taken hostage."
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. Going to school with you, Jason, the luck has always followed you. You're an incredible reporter. This doesn't surprise me at all.
Jason Carroll there at MMA. We look forward to your report tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."
As you heard, Jason really got lucky. As this was going down, he was actually at the school that Shane Murphy, now considered a true hero there on the ship, actually was teaching. His father teaches at that school, and what do they teach? Hijacking training to -- for other students and cadets there that may be on ships like Shane was on today.
So it's pretty amazing how it's all come full circle. And hopefully, we'll get a chance to talk to Shane once he's able to get back home.
Jason Carroll, thank you so much.
Other stories. A VIP welcome for some American troops back home from Iraq. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, flew to North Carolina this morning to welcome home members of the 18th Airborne Corps from Ft. Bragg. They spent more than a year in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As much as people care, they just don't know the extent of the sacrifice you're making, but I want you to know that my wife and I know. President Obama and Michelle Obama know. My colleagues in the Congress know, and we appreciate it more than you can imagine. You know...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Vice President Biden's son, Beau, is serving in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard.
Honoring our fallen heroes. At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the body of other fallen hero returns home. For the second time in three days, TV cameras were allowed to cover the return of an American combat casualty. Not just a casualty, but a name.
The body of 28-year-old Army specialist Israel Mejias arrived late last night. He was killed Sunday by an improvised explosive device in Iraq. We remember what he fought for today as he comes home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, thousands of police, soldiers, emergency workers, and volunteers pressing forward with the grim recovery in L'Aquila, Italy. The death toll in Monday's earthquake now stands at 260. A mass funeral will be held on Friday. Survivors are having a pretty rough time, physically and emotionally. Some 28,000 people now left homeless. And many of them are living in tent cities, suffering through frequent aftershocks. Psychologists have even been rushed to the area to offer grief and trauma counseling.
Let's get the latest now from CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney right there on the ground in L'Aquila -- Fionnuala.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Yes, now the people of L'Aquila and, indeed, the surrounding area preparing themselves for funerals, which we heard are now going to be held on Friday, a mass funeral in a town near us here in L'Aquila.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, was here earlier in the day. He somewhat put his foot in it yesterday when he spoke to German television and said that the people who had been made homeless had everything they could need: medication, food, water, and plenty of tents, and that they should treat it somewhat like a camping holiday.
He also spoke to CNN's Paula Newton, where he spoke about the unpredictability of earthquakes. There has been some controversy here about whether or not this earthquake had been predicted and whether or not more deaths could have been averted.
Essentially we're here in a tent city, one of the many tent cities that have sprung up around here. But as you mentioned, the continuing aftershocks continuing to hamper the work of rescue workers and, indeed, the doctors and the survivors, as they try to put their lives back together -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Fionnuala Sweeney, appreciate it so much.
And Pope Benedict XVI actually planning a trip to the earthquake zone. The Vatican says that the pontiff will visit soon after the Easter holiday on Sunday. Earlier this week, the pope sent his condolences to the victims.
Your chance to help now. Go to CNN.com for links to eight organizations helping the victims right now in that earthquake in Italy. We'll give you the tools, but it's up to you to "Impact Your World."
From Binghamton, New York, shocking new revelations from last week's deadly shooting spree. The police chief tells us that the gunman, Jiverly Wong, fired 98 shots in little more than a minute. Eight-seven shots were from a nine millimeter pistol, 11 from a .45 handgun.
Wong killed 13 people at immigration services center before killing himself. Police say he was upset about recently losing a job, but they're still not sure for the motive -- or of the motive, rather, for those shootings.
Foreign cyber spies reportedly have penetrated the U.S. power grid. And that could cause chaos during a national crisis, even wartime. We're going to talk about that frightening possibility with a former CIA operative.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John, I feel like we've gotten off on the wrong foot, and because of that you think I'm the bad guy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm the good guy here. I told them this could happen if they didn't prepare. Did I get a thank you? No, I got crucified. They wouldn't listen.
BRUCE WILLIS, ACTOR: You got their attention now, don't you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. I am doing the country a favor.
WILLIS: By tearing it apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Cyber terrorists threaten to knock out the U.S. power grid in the Bruce Willis movie "Live Free or Die Hard," but it's not just the stuff of Hollywood. Now "The Wall Street Journal" reports that cyber spies from Russia, China, and other countries have already penetrated the grid, and they could cause chaos during a war or national crisis.
As our Jeanne Meserve has reported, there's a new concern that a so-called smart power grid could be even more vulnerable to a cyber attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned that tests have shown that a hacker with a few hundred dollars and some specialized skills can penetrate some types of meters and other points in the smart grid two-way communication system.
The hacker could then turn off thousands, even millions, of meters under his control, or he might be able to jack electricity demand up and down so dramatically it could destabilize the local electric grid and take out power to potentially a large metropolitan area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So what are the Chinese and Russians up to? And just how serious is this cyber threat?
Joining me now from Washington, former CIA operative, Robert Baer.
What do you think, Robert? How serious is it? ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: You know, most terrorist threats I don't take very seriously. This one I do, in terms of the Chinese and the Russians in particular. Their foreign intelligence service have been probing our computers: our defense computers, our defense contractors, our power grids, smart power grids, our telephone system.
I just came from a speech at the National Defense University, and they were hit by the Chinese not too long ago, trying to get into their system. So they are testing, and they have gotten through many of our important portals and gotten into servers. It's a serious threat.
PHILLIPS: And how do they do that? How do they tap in? I mean, you're former CIA. How could you do it?
BAER: There's simple programs like key strokes. You can get into computer systems by monitoring the key strokes, get into the system, get passwords, and get into the databases and control them. It's not that you can do it privately, and certainly, the Russian intelligence service -- FACSI (ph), as it's called -- can do this as well as the Chinese.
PHILLIPS: When you were active, did you ever do anything like this to another country?
BAER: Oh, all the time. We were always into computers. I mean, it was key to collecting intelligence. And I don't know -- we shouldn't worry about the Russians or the Chinese doing this preemptively. It's -- they are using this as a tool of war in the event we do go to war, unlikely as it is.
PHILLIPS: Well, did you ever penetrate a power grid?
BAER: We did physically, but it certainly was possible. We had no reason to.
PHILLIPS: Got it. So you talk about that this is -- that these cyber terrorists are getting progressively aggressive. Can you define that for me? What do you mean by that? And why are they doing that? Are they seeing easy gaps to infiltrate?
BAER: It is an easy gap, but it's a reserve capacity. And what they're doing is, the Chinese or Russians, this is deterrence in the event of war. They're going to have another weapon at their disposal, which would be to turn off our power.
Now, obviously, they can't turn off all American power. And it's not just the power grids. We have nuclear power plants that are vulnerable to the Chinese and the Russians, which is even a worst-case scenario.
And this -- again, I think this is a risk. And they are certainly advancing at a very high speed. How far they'll get in five years, I don't know enough about it. But they could -- it's a serious threat. PHILLIPS: Is there something less obvious that we haven't talked about? Like you just mentioned, sure, they could knock out our power to one degree to another, but what else could they do? Obviously, it could be a much larger concern.
BAER: They can put viruses in switches for the telephone company, and they can listen to our phones remotely over international lines, which is -- they can hit the entire infrastructure of the United States.
Again, this is a risk. There's no plan of this. But it's something that this government is certainly aware of and is certainly a high anxiety almost on the level of bin Laden in terms of that kind of threat.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So what does the U.S. need to do?
BAER: It's a constant cat-and-mouse game. There are experts that really know computers that are on this, build firewalls, protect systems, look for viruses, you know, normal stuff. But the Russians and the Chinese are so advanced. We're talking about the government has to do this. You can't do this privately.
PHILLIPS: I'm reading between the lines here. Read between the grid lines, I guess, that we're pretty behind the curve.
BAER: We don't take these threats seriously. I mean, what other countries -- can the Iranians do it to us? Can al Qaeda get into these systems at some point? And I'm certainly not current enough to know that, but it is a risk.
PHILLIPS: Robert Baer, appreciate your insight. We'll stay on top of the story.
Back in the U.S. today, but not for long. President Obama getting ready for yet another round of foreign travel. Now critics and even some supporters of the president are concerned that homegrown problems aren't getting the attention they deserve. We're going to go live to the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The Pentagon says the American crew is retaking control of a cargo ship after a pirate attack off the Somali coast. The 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama are reported to be safe and with one of four pirates in custody. It's still unclear what happened to the other three.
We also understand a Navy destroyer is headed toward that ship but won't get there for another eight hours at least. Earlier, CNN's Jason Carroll talked with the father of the captain of that hijacked cargo ship. Here's part of his exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE MURPHY, FATHER OF SHIP CAPTAIN: They also sent a global distress message, which was received by the United States Navy, and the U.S. Navy responded immediately. The problem is that the Navy was almost 200 miles away. They used evasive maneuvers to keep the pirates off.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): And they did that for several hours.
MURPHY: Three hours. Over three hours. Three to five hours. And once the pirates get on board, there's nothing that can be done.
CARROLL: Do you know if anyone was armed on board?
MURPHY: No, the ship is not armed.
CARROLL: The pirates made their way on board.
MURPHY: They made their way on board. They held the crew in a secure area. They shut down all communication, no further communications, stopped the ship, and it progressed from that point on. We have some indications now that the crew has overpowered the pirates, and I'm not sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Go straight to our Stan Graham (ph). He's live in Dubai right now with more details as the story unfolds. Stan, can you hear me OK? OK. We're having a little trouble connecting to him. We got him up there at the last minute. We'll work on that, bring it to you live as soon as it happens.
Meanwhile, we're going to continue to push this story forward with the bigger picture. This was the sixth pirate attack in the area in the past week, by the way, but the first in about 200 years that involved American sailors. They've raised it a notch. So, what are these pirates doing right? We're going to talk with someone who's been watching them for months.
President Obama back from Europe and Asia, but he won't be home for long. Next week, he's off to Mexico and the Caribbean. Critics and even some of the parents -- or president's supporters, rather, say that the trips are too much, especially with so many economic problems at home. CNN's Kate Bolduan joins us now live from the White House. Hi, Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra. Yes, I mean, it's interesting. You know, with the economy continuing to struggle and unemployment hitting a 25-year high, with the president overseas, some may be asking that question. But the White House and the president -- the White House maintains that the president, the administration, is capable and -- is capable of and is taking on both domestic and foreign policy issues at the same time.
I mean, if you look at the economy, the issue of the U.S. economy and how it's so interlinked with the economies around the globe, that was a big issue at the G-20 as well as throughout the European trip, so that would be one thing. But also moving into next week, when you look at the issues on the plate for the president as he heads to the Caribbean for the Summit of the Americas, we hear from the administration that the economy here as well as the countries involved, that is going to be a central focus.
So, maybe it depends on the lens we look at it through, or maybe simply it's just the juggling or balancing act, you know, that presidents past and present face. You know, while you're taking on one major crisis, another can come up.
PHILLIPS: And, of course, we follow every single one of them as well, and that keeps you busy. Kate Bolduan, thank you.
BOLDUAN: Of course.
PHILLIPS: Well, right now, high school seniors are finding out where they might be going to college this fall. Next comes the tricky problem, how to pay for it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A lot of high school seniors running to the mailbox this time of year, checking for those college acceptance letters. Remember that? But for some, that joy will be offset with a lot of anxiety. How are they going to pay for it? Personal finance editor Gerri Willis in New York comparing financial aid plans. Oh, Gerri.
And let me tell you, it gets really expensive. I just had a friend, their son accepted to NYU, and her husband called me up and said, we're going to be eating ramen noodles and little packaged hot dogs for the next four years of our life.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: For the rest of your life, not just the next four years, right? Well, and just comparing the offers can be difficult, Kyra. It's like comparing apples to oranges. And that's because different colleges, they don't all put their information in the same format when you get that.
Let's look at what you really want to take a look at. The expected family contribution, that's the bottom line, the amount of money your family will be expected to contribute. You'll make a judgment about whether you can afford this amount, obviously, but you should know that some colleges include loans in your total financial aid package. And guess what? You're going to have to pay that back.
So, to get the true cost of the school, subtract out the loans from the package and consider not just the cost of tuition and fees here, but also the out-of-pocket expenses like books, room and board, beer, pizza, right? You'll really want to look at these offers, lay them out side by side by side. Yes, beer and pizza.
PHILLIPS: Yes. I'm laughing about that. I'm thinking more of, you know, noodle soup and not enough money -- I mean, are you kidding? Working a couple jobs trying to pay off all those loans.
WILLIS: Macaroni and cheese.
PHILLIPS: There you go, macaroni and cheese. Twenty-nine cents a box at that time.
WILLIS: Thirty-three. Yes.
PHILLIPS: Blah, blah, blah. People are playing the violin for us now.
WILLIS: Right. Exactly.
PHILLIPS: But hey, look at us now. We worked hard. We got here.
Well, you know, what happens though if they're not happy with the financial aid packages? I mean, I've seen some of these financial aid packages. Even with families that truly cannot afford to pay for that education, you know, how do you get creative?
WILLIS: Well, you know, your financial aid package isn't set in stone. You can ask for an appeal. They call it a professional judgment review. If something happened that really changed your finances, like you lost your job, maybe your income changed in some dramatic way, maybe you overstated the income you actually had when you filed for the FAFSA, then you have a right to ask for more aid.
And experts recommend, hey, don't go to the financial aid office in person to negotiate. You're much better off writing a letter or phoning the financial aid office. Finally, remember that what's offered one year might not be offered the next. Financial aid is based on the family's income from the previous year, and that's obviously subject to change -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it, Gerri.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
PHILLIPS: Keep saving.
WILLIS: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Well, more than 5 million jobs have disappeared in the United States since the recession began. And one of the people covered by these distressing numbers is Henry Deck. He was just laid off from his job as a log home designer more than a year ago. His young daughters, Daleen (ph) and Lillian (ph), actually wrote a heartfelt letter to President Obama asking for help. Here's a little bit of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LILLIAN (ph) DECK, DAD LOOKING FOR A JOB: My father does not want a handout. He wants a job.
DALEEN DECK, DAD LOOKING FOR A JOB: He has sent out over 300 resumes in the past year with no luck, and we know that because we had to lick the envelopes.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Oh. Well, the Deck family has not heard back from the White House, but we're doing what we can to link up Henry with potential employers. We call it the 30-second pitch. Henry Deck joins me live from Spokane, Washington. Oh, Henry. You listen to your daughters and your heart just melts. Did you even know that they were doing this?
HENRY DECK, JOB SEEKER: No, actually, I did not. Not until they asked me to drive them to the TV station to talk to a reporter.
PHILLIPS: And when you found out that they did that, how did you respond? What did you say to them? I imagine your heart just melted.
H. DECK: It did, but I responded as -- hopefully as a true American. I said congratulations, you issued your First Amendment rights, and just because they don't vote, they're still Americans.
PHILLIPS: Well, they are strong little girls, I tell you what. So, I know that you are not only dealing with looking for a job, and it's been a year, but you also are losing your home, and here you have a family to support. What happened with your job? How did it all go down a year ago? And did you see it coming?
H. DECK: Actually, we did start seeing it coming because log home business, especially, is very dependent on economy. And when people aren't buying log homes because they cost more than a normal home, we start seeing layoffs right away. There's 65 log home companies right now going out of business.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you have been applying for everything under the sun. And we just ask that employers pay attention right now. We want to give you 30 seconds here to make your pitch. And thank you so much for Lillian (ph) and Daleen, your two daughters, how strong they were to go on tv and read their letter they sent to the president. But Henry, let's go ahead and start the clock. And you ready to start with your pitch?
H. DECK: Sure, I guess.
PHILLIPS: All right. Here we go. It's vatalwolf@hotmail.com. Your e-mail right there at the bottom of the screen. All right, Henry, go for it.
H. DECK: OK, thank you. My name is Henry Deck. I have 20-plus years of design experience in log home, stick-frame (ph) home. I also have water hydraulic experience for doing lifts using water hydraulic. I have a stamping and die design experience. Pretty much every gamut of engineering, I have worked on. And I enjoy -- but I enjoy designing homes for people and seeing their dreams come true.
PHILLIPS: You are right on the money. Henry Deck, the e-mail is right there, vatal...
H. DECK: There's the beep.
PHILLIPS: ...yes, wolf -- exactly. It's like a game show. But you know, here we do want you to win the prize. We want you to...
H. DECK: Did I win?
PHILLIPS: Well, we hope so, Henry. Thanks for keeping a good attitude about this. You stay in touch with us, Henry Deck. Let us know if you get any inquiries. Your e-mail once again right there at the bottom of the screen. Stay in touch with us, Henry, OK?
H. DECK: Thank you, ma'am, I will.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it. All right.
Well, opening your cell phone bill can be a pretty nasty surprise, especially if you're the parent of a text-happy teenager. A Wyoming family on the hook for thousands of dollars.
But first, Rice University creating a buzz with the latest project it's brewing up, a healthy beer. CNN's Sean Callebs -- oh, imagine that -- has the story on this "Edge of Discovery."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Belushi's character in "Animal House" believed in the healing powers of beer.
JOHN BELUSHI, ACTOR, IN "ANIMAL HOUSE": My advice to you: Start drinking heavily.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, IN "ANIMAL HOUSE": You better listen to him, Flounder. He's in premed.
CALLEBS: These students at Rice University are making that a reality. They call it biobeer. It might sound like a dorm room experiment, but, folks, this is cutting-edge science. In order to make the healthy brew, they needed to add one special ingredient, a substance called resveratrol.
PETER NGUYEN, GRADUATE STUDENT, RICE UNIVERSITY: It's a little bit of a miracle molecule.
CALLEBS: Recent studies at the Mayo Clinic found it can help fight heart disease and cancer. If resveratrol sounds familiar, well, you might have heard of it while sipping a glass of a different alcoholic beverage or watching old episodes of "I Love Lucy."
JOFF SILBERG, ASST. PROFESSOR, RICE UNIVERSITY: One of the most common places that people get it from is red wine, and that's because it's found in grapes.
CALLEBS: Since the average American drinks more beer than wine every year, biobeer could have a big impact. The project is still in the works, but they're hoping to raise a glass to health by the end of the year. But you still need to know when to say when.
NGUYEN: You probably won't get less hungover, but you'll be healthier the next morning. Sean Callebs, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Election news topping our "What the...?" file for today. Congratulations. The mayor of Winfield, Missouri, Harry Stonebreaker, has been re-elected to a fourth term. There's only one problem: He died a month ago of a heart attack. So, how did he win? Well, his name was still on the election ballot.
Election officials believed that everyone knew he was dead, and voters would skip over his name. Well, they didn't. Stonebreaker got 90 percent of the vote.
And you think your kid's a texting fiend? Well, a Wyoming teenager's parents were pretty shocked by this bill -- $4,700 on the cell phone bill. They thought texting was disabled on her phone. But, no. She sent and received almost 20,000 messages in one month, most of them at school. Mom and dad put a stop to that real quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENA CHRISTOFFERSEN, TEEN TEXTER: Dad took it with a hammer and, yes, this is what happened to it. No, I felt really bad, and I have learned my lesson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What lesson is that?
CHRISTOFFERSEN: When your parents tell you not to do something, don't do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, not only did dad hammer her phone to death, as you can see here, but she's also been grounded for the rest of the school year. Happily, Verizon's agreed to knock the bill down to a reasonable level. Thank you, Verizon.
Well, we're pushing forward on the pirate story, working the phones to find out more about what went down on the Maersk Alabama. I'm also going to talk to Major General Tom Wilkerson, U.S. Marine Corps, retired. He now heads up the U.S. naval institute. He has some very definite ideas about how to combat the piracy threat.
Also, next hour, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta weighs in on the health care conscience clause. It's that Bush administration ruling that President Obama plans to rescind, and some doctors do not approve.
A critically ill baby on life support right now, her parents facing an agonizing choice: whether to give her heart to another sick little girl.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Well, the Pentagon says the American crew has retaken control of a cargo ship after a pirate attack off the Somali coast. The 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama are reported to be safe, and one of the four pirates in custody. But it's still unclear what happened to the other three. We also understand a Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, is headed toward that ship.
A Canadian family made a gut-wrenching choice. Their terminally ill baby was taken off of a respirator so that another infant might have a shot at a normal life. Jason Wallace and Crystal Vitale made that decision in Toronto last night. Doctors removed 2-month-old Kaylee's life support so her heart could be donated to another couple's ailing newborn, Lillian O'Connor
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON WALLACE, KAYLEE'S FATHER: It scares us right now (INAUDIBLE). We understand that, but we don't want to lose two.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: But Kaylee is still alive and now breathing without assistance. She's not expected to survive, and the transplant surgery for the other child is on hold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JIM WRIGHT, HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN: This protocol is designed to give the recipients, the potential recipients the best chance and not to put them at even greater risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta now joins us to explain. So what happened here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a tough story to even talk about. The baby has something known as Guber's syndrome, which is a brain malformation. She has a very hard time breathing any time she falls asleep, which is why she was on the breathing machine for so long.
What doctors thought was going to happen was, they were going to take her off the machine, she would stop breathing and her heart would fail. She would have what's known as cardiac death. Within a few minutes after that, they were thinking they would go ahead and take her heart, which had recently failed, and transplant it into this other child.
That was sort of the thinking. What is so gut-wrenching about this, I think, in so many ways, this is a child that has a terrible disease. She did not die. She started breathing on her own. She continued to breathe on her own, and so they took her back up after 30 minutes, saying this simply isn't going to work. It must have been so hard on that family, that father, as you heard him talk there. Typically in this country, we use a critia known as brain death. When the brain has died, then you can take organs.
PHILLIPS: So she wasn't brain dead?
GUPTA: She was not brain dead. She is not brain dead.
PHILLIPS: She's still not brain dead.
GUPTA: She's still not brain dead. She has a severely malformed brain that doesn't allow her to breathe on her own. She has no -- she's not able to interact in a way that's meaningful. So, she is severely brain affected by this Guber's syndrome.
PHILLIPS: So, if they don't -- so, is it possible that she could go on and live a life like -- with your background in brain surgery and knowing the brain like you do, would she just have to be on some sort of a breathing device her whole entire life, or is that just extremely rare?
GUPTA: This is a rare syndrome, and there are also different degrees of severity within the syndrome, so it's hard to say exactly for sure. But her doctors believed that her brain was malformed enough that when they took her off the breathing machine, they thought she would stop breathing.
PHILLIPS: And she didn't?
GUPTA: She did not.
PHILLIPS: So, does that change the whole dynamic here?
GUPTA: Well, I think what they're going to do now is they're going to -- she's back in the ICU part of the hospital. They're just observing her, and they think she may still lapse into this state of not breathing. They don't know when. They don't know how long it will take. It is just gut-wrenching, I think, for the doctors and the family alike.
PHILLIPS: So, do they keep her breathing on her own -- I mean, this is -- so do they keep her breathing on her own, basically just waiting to see if she dies and -- or do they decide -- you know, when do you make that decision that, OK, well, maybe she could live? Maybe this is a unique situation. She could grow up and live a somewhat normal life if we just work with the breathing devices.
Am I making sense?
GUPTA: Yes, no, you absolutely are.
PHILLIPS: Now I'm seeing the struggle because the dynamic has changed.
GUPTA: It's a huge struggle. And to say that she would live a normal life, I think the doctors and the parents alike have decided that she probably won't, no matter what happens.
PHILLIPS: OK. So, you have to make that decision no matter what.
GUPTA: What they were thinking is, she would be in the operating room when she would go into cardiac death, and they would immediately take her heart and transplant it. If she stops breathing in the hospital somewhere, by the time they bring her down to the hospital operating room and take the heart, it probably would be too long. The heart would no longer be viable for transplantation, which is why this whole process was taking place.
PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh.
GUPTA: But it's rare what we're describing, and just very hard, I imagine.
PHILLIPS: Yes, there's no black and white answer. It's very much a gray area, and you have to kind of go on, well, what kind of experience do I have as a doctor, and what's my gut, what are the parents comfortable with. And that is never easy.
GUPTA; No. They came up with this protocol.
PHILLIPS: All right, so, next hour, you're working another story for us. It's a big day.
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, speaking of gray areas, this is another hugely gray area in the world of medicine, something known as the conscience clause, where doctors can basically say, based on their conscience, they can withhold certain types of treatment, certain medications, certain procedures.
Where do you draw the line and what is happening politically? It's one of the most politically charged issues in medicine. I'm going to talk about it. It's fascinating stuff.
PHILLIPS: And when you say conscience, that includes doctors' religious beliefs as well, or no?
GUPTA: It can be predicated on their religious beliefs. But a lot of the things you might imagine would come up when someone thinks of -- in a conscience clause are exactly the issues that we're talking about, and they are some of the most sort of controversial and pivotal issues in medicine. So this really drives at the medicine and the ethics of it all together.
PHILLIPS: Maybe we can talk about how you feel about that, too, as a doctor, and how you put things through your mind as well. Think about that. We'll come back to that next hour.
GUPTA: All right. I'll be there.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right.
