Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Daycare Pursues Suit Against Swim Club; DEA Involved in Florida Couple's Killing; President Obama on Health Care; New Report on Violent Crimes in Soldiers
Aired July 15, 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: Wolf, thanks so much.
A well-off couple with 14 kids. Byrd and Melanie Billings had seemingly blissful lives, undoubtedly violent deaths. New details now live from Pensacola.
Study abroad, see the world, but do your homework first. We're pushing forward with a CNN special investigation. Foreign exchange students shortchanged right here in America.
Hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips. Live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, while the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor breaks for lunch, we're watching the White House as well, where President Obama is about to make another pitch for health care reform. We're going to bring you the president's remarks live as soon as he steps outside.
And we're keeping close watch on Pensacola, Florida, right now. More details coming from that murder case, where a wealthy couple with 14 children, many with special needs, was gunned down in their home. CNN has learned federal drug agents are helping with the case now.
The sheriff's office says that the case would be, in their words, a humdinger, so you got to think they're going to drop a real bombshell on us soon.
Seven people arrested so far, ages 16 to 56. Sheriffs saying the group trained for at least a month before their assault on Byrd and Melanie Billings' house, an assault you can see unfold on the home security cameras.
So, what about all of those adopted children? How do you explain to them what's happening? Melanie Billings' grown daughter talked about that this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEY MARKHAM, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: We've shielded them as much as possible, and that's probably my fault. I know that they need, you know, to know. They have asked questions. It has been talked about with the ones who have asked questions.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Swim club near Philadelphia accused of racism says that a lawsuit would put them under. A mostly minority day care center is pursuing a federal civil rights case against the Valley Swim Club after its kids were kicked out of the pool last month. The pool is run by volunteers who say that they don't have the money to fight a lawsuit. They say overcrowding and not racism prompted them to expel the kids and they have since invited them back. Some of the minority kids said that pool patrons made discriminatory comments about them while they were there.
Smoking debris, that's pretty much all that is left of an Iranian jet. Caspian Airlines flight was headed from Tehran to Armenia when it went down not long after takeoff. 168 people on board. No survivors. Iran's deadliest air crash in six years. A witness said that the plane's tail was on fire when it crashed, nose-down into the ground. The plane was a Russian-made jet.
Back to Florida now, and more on that murder mystery surrounding the Billings. New developments possibly now from the sheriff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, is it unusual for someone to have that many possible aliases? What should we read into the fact? I mean, most people have one name, and maybe if they were married, they have a maiden name, but we have like five or six names there.
SHERIFF DAVID MORGAN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: Well, again, sir, because Miss Long is not a subject of an investigation. We've not developed background data on her. The answer could be as simple is she's had multiple marriages. We don't know. And so, again, I would not speculate on this.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you elaborate a little more on this surveillance not being enabled. Do you believe that one of the seven people were supposed to disable it and did not? And why do you believe that?
MORGAN: No, we believe there's an additional person that that was their job and they failed in that task.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And they didn't show up, or they'd showed up and didn't do their job?
MORGAN: Well, again, we're speculating an attack of conscience, who knows. But we believe, again, in our formulation of this crime from beginning to end that the gaping hole has always been. The execution was basically flawless from the entry into the compound, the entry into the house, and the exit from the property. The one gaping hole that would not have made this a perfect operation, if you will, was the fact that the security system, the surveillance system was not disabled, and so it begs the question, why was it not?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I guess my confusion there is if you've got all seven people that were on the compound or at the compound, then what -- UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They didn't show up to disable it or one of the seven people there supposed to disable it?
MORGAN: Let me explain this again. We've identified the seven people that entered the complex. We have those folks in custody. So, obviously, there is an eighth or ninth person that was supposed to have played that part that we've yet to identify.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were they supposed to be there at the time of the crime, or they supposed to do this ahead of time? Do they have some context?
MORGAN: Again, we're in speculation at this point. Again, we are pursuing an avenue in this investigation that because of this operation, we believe that the system should have been disabled by someone, again, that has yet to be identified, or an arrest effected in this case.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, were they surprised that it wasn't disabled?
MORGAN: I believe that they entered that compound -- and this is the theory that we're currently working on to conclude this case -- they entered the compound with the belief that they were not under surveillance.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can this be disarmed from location?
MORGAN: Most of your security systems can be disarmed either at the location of their installation, or they can be remotely disabled. As many people will tell you in their homes and businesses, they have a security system installed and they can monitor their home or whoever, or the business from their home by using their access code on their home computer in monitoring their business or the home, whichever the case may be.
You can also activate and/or disable the system, so it may have been done from a remote location.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you share at least some of the theories that the investigators are working on. I know they don't know, but what are some of the avenues that they are going down to try to understand for themselves?
MORGAN: Well, this is the reason for persons, again, of interest. We are now looking at anyone that may have had an involvement with the security system. Everyone from the company that installed it on back. And so we're wondering, again, why was this system left on in an otherwise -- otherwise -- very -- I hate to use the word "perfect," but perfectly executed murder.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Drugs being involved. Can you confirm if the DEA is involved in helping you in your investigation?
MORGAN: I will not address that question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know what the address on the property is that Miss Long rented to Gonzalez?
MORGAN: It's a matter of public record, sir, I believe. I will not release that, just like I will not release Miss Long's address. Again, the intent here is not to harass Miss Long. We need to speak to Miss Long.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If you're asking the public to look for her, can we get some stats on her -- her age, you know, her height, weight, stuff that --
MORGAN: I will check with the state attorney's office. Again, we received clearance from Mr. Bill Eddin's office to release this information. And if Mr. Eddin's is comfortable with releasing that, we most certainly will. This is a current photo.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Date of birth?
MORGAN: I won't address that issue. Again, Miss Long at this point is a person of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you believe that she might be in danger?
MORGAN: No, sir, I've already answered that question. The answer is no.
Yes, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you recovered the weapons used in the murders?
MORGAN: We have executed numerous search warrants. I will not release at this time the items that were seized.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How about the safe? Did you recover the safe?
MORGAN: We have issued numerous search warrants. I will not address items that have been seized.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, why is she considered a person -- at least when we were told in the beginning that she was a person that a lot of people would know. That the name would be familiar, and somebody that would ring a bell.
Why is that?
MORGAN: Miss Long is well-known in the community, in the Gulf Breeze area. I will tell you that, in the Gulf Breeze area, in Gulf Breeze proper.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Obviously one of her aliases would ring a few bells that another person prompted. Is she related to anybody that more people might know?
MORGAN: Possibly. Possibly.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you tell us now?
MORGAN: No, I cannot.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Does she have another residence out of state?
MORGAN: As I understand, she has numerous property holdings, and I'll let it go at that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, you had previously mentioned that you guys earlier got contact with Miss Long. Was she asked to come in, to answer questions, and did not?
MORGAN: At that time, she was not. To the best -- to the best of my knowledge.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What kind of information has she provided with so far? Did she help in leading to some of the other arrest?
MORGAN: She has not provided us any information. That's why we would like to speak with her.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff --
MORGAN: Any other questions? You got one question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you mind, Sheriff -- can we ask you, you know, (INAUDIBLE) yesterday and made a lot of comments. I'm sure you're aware of about how he believe the investigation was still (INAUDIBLE).
Do you want to comment on any of the things he said about that?
MORGAN: Yes. And people in hell want ice water. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right. Sheriff David Morgan there, Escambia County sheriff's department, giving a quick briefing there.
CNN had learned that Federal Drug agents are helping with this case now. We were possibly expecting to hear some interesting twists and turns to this case. But as you heard, when the reporter asked if the DEA is involved in this case or not, he just simply said, "I will not address that question."
Apparently they're looking for one, approximately two other people involved in this case. Seven people have been arrested now in the murder of the Billings couple, the couple with 14 children, many with special needs. These are the six that are in custody right now, including a 16-year-old teenager. There are seven in custody, possibly now authorities saying they are looking for an eighth or ninth person involved in this case.
Also, once again, we want to point out that we have learned, through our sources and our correspondents working this story, that Federal Drug agents are helping with this case now. Possible talk of a drug cartel possibly involved in this case.
The sheriff not wanting to address that, actually asked twice about that. And doesn't -- did not want to answer that question.
We're going to continue to follow this story, of course, and all breaking developments. We will bring all of that to you as we get it.
Meanwhile, live picture, once again, from the White House. We are waiting for the president of the United States to make another pitch for health care reform. This morning one of several plans were being hammered out there on Capitol Hill. Clearing the Senate Health Committee, if only on a party-line vote. We're going to bring the president's live comments once he steps outside.
Plus, they've come to America to get an education and learn more about the U.S. But some foreign exchange students say they've seen an awful sight of this country. Our Drew Griffin has been looking in to their claims of abuse. We're going to have that story coming up in a moment.
But, first, we're going to take you back to the White House now, where the president of the United States is getting ready to step up to the mike, once again, pitching his health care reform bill.
We continue, obviously, to follow the hearings for the Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor as they are breaking for lunch. And while we wait to come back to that, we are going to now take you to the president and his health care reform efforts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.
Good afternoon.
I am pleased to be joined by not only some of my former colleagues and outstanding legislators, but also by nurses. And I think I've said this before: I -- I really like nurses.
(LAUGHTER)
And so to have them here today on behalf of such a critical issue at a critical time is -- is extraordinary. Let me introduce a few of them. We've got Becky Patton, who's the president of the American Nurses Association here.
Raise your hand, Becky.
We have Dr. Mary Wakefield, who is a nurse and happens to be the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS, our highest-ranking nurse in the administration. We've got Keisha Walker, an RN, currently a senior research nurse at John Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.
We have Dr. Rebecca Wiseman, nurse and assistant professor of adult health at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. And I'm also joined by Representative Johnson, Representative Capps, Representative McCarthy, Chairman George Miller and my friend, Chris Dodd.
I am very pleased to be joined today by the representatives from the American Nurses Association on behalf of 2.9 million registered nurses in America - men and women who know as well as anyone the urgent need for health reform.
Now as I said before, I have a long-standing bias towards nurses. When Sasha, our younger daughter, was diagnosed with a dangerous case of meningitis when she was just three months old, we were terrified. And we were appreciative of the doctors, but it was the nurses who walk us through the entire process to make sure that Sasha was OK. When both my daughters were born, the obstetrician was one of our best friends, but we saw her for about ten minutes in each delivery. The rest of the time what we saw were nurses who did an incredible amount of work in not only taking care of Michelle, but also caring for a nervous husband, and then later for a couple of fat little babies.
So I know how important nurses are, and the nation does, too. Nurses aren't in health care to get rich; the last I check, they're in it to care for all of us, from the time they bring a new life into this world to the moment they ease the pain of those who pass from it. If it weren't for nurses, many Americans in underserved and rural areas would have no access to health care at all.
That's why it's safe to say that few understand why we have to pass reform as intimately as our nation's nurses. They see firsthand the heartbreaking cost of our health care crisis. They hear the same stories that I've heard across this country -- of treatment deferred or coverage denied by insurance companies; of insurance premiums and prescriptions that are so expensive they consume a family's entire budget; from Americans forced to use the emergency room for something as simple as a sore throat just because they can't afford to see a doctor.
And they understand that this is a problem that we can no longer defer. We can't kick the can down the road any longer. Deferring reform is nothing more than defending the status quo -- and those who would oppose our efforts should take a hard look at just what it is that they're defending. Over the last decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages. Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs are skyrocketing. And every single day we wait to act, thousands of Americans lose their insurance, some turning to nurses in emergency rooms as their only recourse.
So make no mistake, the status quo on health care is not an option for the United States of America. It's threatening the financial stability of families, of businesses, and of government. It's unsustainable, and it has to change.
I know a lot of Americans who are satisfied with their health care right now are wondering what reform would mean for them, so let me be clear: If you like your doctor or health care provider, you can keep them. If you like your health care plan, you can keep that, too.
But here's what else reform will mean for you -- and this is for people who have health insurance: You will save money. If you lose your job, change your job, or start a new business, you'll still be able to find quality health insurance that you can afford. If you have a preexisting medical condition, no insurance company will be able to deny you coverage. You won't have to worry about being priced out of the market. You won't have to worry about one illness leading your family into financial ruin. That's what reform means, not just for the uninsured but for the people who have health insurance right now.
The naysayers and the cynics still doubt that we can do this. But it wasn't too long ago that those same naysayers doubted that we'd be able to make real progress on health care reform. And thanks to the work of key committees in Congress, we're now closer to the goal of health reform than we have ever been.
Yesterday, the House introduced its health reform proposal. Today, thanks to the unyielding passion and inspiration of our friend Ted Kennedy, and to the bold leadership of Senator Chris Dodd, the Senate HELP Committee reached a major milestone by passing a similarly strong proposal for health reform. It's a plan that was debated for more than 50 hours and that, by the way, includes 160 Republican amendments -- a hopeful sign of bipartisan support for the final product, if people are serious about bipartisanship.
Both proposals will take what's best about our system today and make it the basis for our system tomorrow -- reducing costs, raising quality, and ensuring fair treatment of consumers by the insurance industry. Both include a health insurance exchange, a marketplace that will allow families and small businesses to compare prices, services, and the quality, so they can choose the plan that best suits their needs. And among the choices available would be a public health insurance option that would make health care more affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices, and keeping insurance companies honest. Both proposals will offer stability and security to Americans who have coverage today, and affordable options to those who don't.
This progress should make us hopeful, but it can't make us complacent. It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and the Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess.
America's nurses need us to succeed, not just on behalf of the patients that they sometimes speak for. If we invest in prevention, nurses won't have to treat diseases or complications that could have been avoided. If we modernize health records, we'll streamline the paperwork that can take up more than one-third of the average nurse's day, freeing them to spend more time with their patients. If we make their jobs a little bit easier, we can attract and train the young nurses we need to make up a nursing shortage that's only getting worse. Nurses do their part every time they check another healthy patient out of the hospital. It's now time for us to do our part.
I just want to be clear: We are going to get this done. Becky and I were talking in the Oval Office. Becky just pointed out, we need to buck up people a little bit here.
That's what nurses do all the time -- they buck up patients, sometimes they buck up some young resident who doesn't quite know what they're doing.
(LAUGHTER)
You look at Becky, you can tell she knows what she's doing. And what she's saying is it's time for us to buck up -- Congress, this administration, the entire federal government -- to be clear that we've got to get this done.
Our nurses are on board. The American people are on board. It's now up to us. We can do what we've done for so long and defer tough decisions for another day -- or we can step up and meet our responsibilities. In other words, we can lead. We can look beyond the next news cycle and the next election to the next generation, and come together to build a system that works not just for these nurses, but for the patients they care for; for doctors and hospitals; for families and businesses -- and for our very future as a nation.
I'm confident it's going to get done because we've got a great team behind us. And we are going to be continually talking about this for the next two to three weeks until we've got a bill off the Senate and we've got a bill out of the House. Then we'll deserve a few weeks' rest before we come back and finally get a bill done so we can sign it right here in the Rose Garden.
Thank you, everybody.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: The president of the United States there with his last pitch for health care reform. Meanwhile, the health care reform bill that cleared the senate panel this morning would cost an estimated $600 billion over 10 years. It would mandate coverage for just about everybody, and force employers to help cover the costs. Lower-income families would get government subsidies. The measure passed on a party-line vote. Republicans say, well, there's a reason. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE ENZI (R), HEALTH COMMITTEE: The president had set some goals. The president said that everyone should be covered, that if you like what you have, you can keep it, that we needed to drive down the cost of health care and that it should be paid for. That bill gets an "f." It does not cover any of those things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Republicans opposed the so-called public option for health insurance, something akin to Medicare. They're also against tax hikes and employer mandates.
Well, they've come to America to get an education and learn about the U.S. But some foreign exchange students say they've seen an awful side of this country. Our Drew Griffin looking in to claims of abuse.
We're also taking you live to Ft. Carson, Colorado. Why are our soldiers coming back from war and being charged with rape and murder? A shocking army investigation, and Ft. Carson's commander taking our questions, live, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Army Corporal Robert Marko went to Iraq trained to kill the enemy. He came home, and within months, was accused of raping and murdering an innocent civilian. Marko was based at Ft. Carson, Colorado. He's now awaiting trial on charges that he raped and killed a disabled teenager that he met online. And if you think that is horrific, listen to this -- before that killing, the army actually evaluated Marko's mental health three times and cleared him for combat.
"The New York Times" reports army documents even show that Marko believed he would become half-man, half-dinosaur by his 21st birthday. Sadly, Marko's story and the breakdown in the military's handling of mental health issues is not isolated. Today the army has released its report on Marko and 13 other cases involving homicide or attempted homicide since 2005. It's part of an ongoing investigation of violent crimes throughout the army as soldiers return from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Well, the man in charge of Ft. Carson, Major General Mark Graham, is no stranger to mental health tragedies and the costs of war. His oldest son, Jeff, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq just a year after his other son, Kevin, a top ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky, took his own life. Once again, General Graham is boldly talking about what the military has ignored for years. He joins me live from Ft. Carson, Colorado.
General, I appreciate you once again joining us.
MAJOR GENERAL MARK GRAHAM, FT. CARSON: Hi, Kyra, glad to do it.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's start with the Marko case. You know, he had mental health evaluations three times, still cleared for combat. Now, we see what he stands accused of.
And I know I've asked you these questions many times in the past, and I want to address it again especially after reading this report. You know, why has behavioral health resources been pushed aside for so many years in the military?
GRAHAM: Well, Kyra, first, let me tell you, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families that have lost loved ones through tragedy. And I also want to tell you that this study looked at more than one soldier. Looked at several different soldiers to make sure we understand and know more about this.
I asked the army, the surgeon general of the army, to send out a team to look in-depth at why -- why a cluster of homicides occurred at Ft. Carson between 2005 and 2008. And, you know, was there something common about these? Was there something within each soldier? And, frankly, what the study came back and told us was there was no single thing that can be identified to do that, to identify a soldier and what they would do in the future.
What we did find is risk factors and risky behavior and the different risk factors. So we've identified risk factors that have caused, because of many conditions, whether it's the stigma, whether it's peer-to-peer stigma, or stigma from leadership to go forward and get help.
And I think we've made great leaps in bringing soldiers forward to get care. To know it's OK to come forward and get help. I know at Ft. Carson we have more than doubled the number of soldiers that monthly come forward to get care now for behavioral health care, which to me is very encouraging.
PHILLIPS: And let's talk about that, because as you read through the report, you find out that a number of these guys had criminal histories. They had issues with substance abuse that was never dealt with. They were suffering from PTSD. I mean, there were a lot of serious mental health concerns, and their leaders, their commanding officers, knew about it.
So, what are you doing now, General, to make sure that these men and women that are getting ready to go off to these wars and also come back, don't stand accused of rape and murder and suicide?
GRAHAM: Well, we've done several things. We have several programs in our army. Army-level programs as well as things that we are starting here at Ft. Carson that the army is looking at as well to ensure we do mental toughness and resiliency training prior to departure and also when they get back.
We're also doing something called Reintegration Plus. We look at soldiers and when they come back, we have mobile behavioral health teams that go right down to the units to make it easier for soldiers to have access to care.
We also have military family life consultants, and we serve additional resources for those military family life consultants when they get back to make sure soldiers feel comfortable going forward and getting help. We tell them it's a sign of strength and not weakness to come forward and get help. And you'll find that 99.9 percent of our great American soldiers who are all volunteers are doing great work for the nation.
They are fighting the nation's wars. They're coming back and they're doing well. There are some that not. The ability to identify a soldier and to single them out to say this soldier is the one that's going to do something horrific is frankly hard to do. So, what we do now is we look at risk factors. What are the risk factors? Ensure the chain of command has the ability to see those risk factors and then to make sure those soldiers get to care, to make sure that they are getting the proper care for these things.
And let's just talk about preventive maintenance here, and you know this, especially the guys that are in these combat teams that are sent out. I mean, they're trained to kill. They're trained to compartmentalize. They're trained to basically shove that emotional side sort of away. So, then, they come home, and there has to be something in place that sort of brings them back to that sensitive side that they -- that they had before they left.
And so what specifically will be done to do that? Because that -- that is extremely necessary when you look at what's happening to them when they come back.
GRAHAM: Sure. Absolutely. And, you know, I'll tell you, we do have some very good programs. We have a program in the Army called Reintegration. Every soldier that gets deploys comes back -- they go through a reintegration program throughout our Army. And remember, the Army's a learning organization. We get better all the time. We're very tough on ourselves, how can we always make things better. So, that reintegration program over time has continued to get better.
We also have -- as I was saying -- we have the Reintegration Plus where we have mobile behavioral health teams now at the units once they get back off their block leave -- the Military family life consultants. We have a program called Warrior Adventure Quest.
And something new we start recently with this last brigade was Middle Toughness and Resiliency training. It helps soldiers understand when you have high anxiety, when you've been on a mission and you come back, what are some skills you can draw on to help yourself come back down, whether you're in a group or whether you're by yourself in your room. What are skills you can use to come back down off of that.
So, we're doing exactly that. And Army continues to get better and better at that. And again, most soldiers do very well with that. But there are some that have challenges. And the key is, how do we help leaders identify those soldiers who are struggling to make sure we can get them to the proper care.
PHILLIPS: And I also want to point out to viewers, that in all fairness, you came to Ft. Carson dealing with a lot of this. You were really thrown into the fire and you're doing remarkable work there to make a difference.
General Mark Graham, I really appreciate your candidness today.
GRAHAM: Well, thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, they've come to America to get an education and learn about the U.S. But some foreign exchange students say that they've seen an awful side of this story. Our Drew Griffin has been investigating these claims of abuse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Living with ex-cons, living in filthy flophouses, living with hardly any food. It's a pure horror story for five foreign exchange students who thought they would be living with all- American families for a year of high school in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Their visit is now part of a criminal investigation, and it doesn't stop there.
Drew Griffin, with our Special Investigations Unit is actually breaking this story right now.
Pretty heart-wrenching.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this becoming a pretty big embarrassment to the U.S. State Department with calls for changes in how we welcome foreign students into this country. And when you see what happened to these kids, you're going to understand why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Tanzanian Musa Mpulki was told was told he'd be living with a prescreened, loving family. He ended up in a second-floor apartment with a 72-year-old man and hardly any food.
(on camera): You're the guy that passed out at track?
MUSA MPULKI, FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT: Yes.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Carlos Villarreal came here from Colombia, for a year in high school. It cost his family $13,000.
CARLOS VILLARREAL, FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT: I ended up in a house living with a couple of ex-convicts with low amounts of food, which I lost a lot of body weight. And in a non-safe environment.
GRIFFIN: There was a drug bust on this street the week Carlos moved in. His hosts? A local reverend who according to the local prosecutor also houses his drug-dealing grandson.
(on camera): Did you starve him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
GRIFFIN: Were you not feeding him? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)! Do you think I would have him and not feed him? I have two of my own. He ate -- I bought -- get that camera off me, will you please?
VILLARREAL: We signed up for a family that was going to transport us from our homes to school. It was going to feed us three times a day. And basically that was going to be a family.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): This Norwegian girl, who doesn't want us to show her face, found herself in a sort of flophouse and took pictures of the dog droppings all over the floor.
(on camera): The mother and the daughter slept on the couch, you slept in a bed and there was a man who stayed somewhere else in the house?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In an apartment. Three room apartment.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Health officials in Scranton actually condemned part of the house and county officials say the girl and four other students were taken out of their host homes. What happened to these guests of the U.S. is now a criminal investigation.
ANDREW JARBOLA JR., LACKAWANNA CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They expected to get certain degree of quality of life for the money that they provided, and obviously weren't. That's one possible crime that we'd be looking at as well.
GRIFFIN: This is the local placement agent who placed youngsters in the homes of ex-cons and rooming houses and was paid $400 per student. She kicked a local television station out of her home, and so far has not responded to calls and door knocks from CNN.
She worked for Aspect, a San Francisco firm that takes in millions of dollars bringing students here with a State Department approval. While local prosecutors are looking at charges against Aspect and its placement director in Scranton, there is a much bigger question going on in Washington.
SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: It's inexcusable that our government didn't do a better job of oversight. And it's inexcusable that this foundation hasn't done the job to provide basic protection for children.
GRIFFIN: Aspect gave conflicting responses to CNN. While calling the Scranton situation deplorable, it also said, based on its investigation and talks with county officials, no student was abused, malnourished or dehydrated.
That, county officials repeatedly told CNN, is just not true. Aspect says it fired its local agent and two other of its officers have resigned. But that was after the fact. CNN has learned Aspect knew about the problems in Scranton, way back in October, when a student sent photos in an e-mail pleading for help. And the State Department, which spends $34 million a year on exchange programs? Well, it knew, too. CASEY: I'm the father of four daughters, OK? I would never want my daughter, nor would any parent want their daughter or son, exposed to these kind of conditions.
GRIFFIN: Senator Casey said e-mails show the State Department knew about the problems here since last October and did something for months. And then the State Department allowed Aspect, the agency that placed the students in these homes, to investigate itself.
P.J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for public affairs says that was a mistake.
P.J. CROWLEY, ASST. SECY. OF STATE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: I think in large respect because we put too much emphasis on the program agents to police themselves, we recognized that that has not worked properly.
GRIFFIN: Danielle Grijalda who has been tracking exchange student abuse for years, says the typical scenario is kids complain, the State Department does nothing, and agencies around the country keep recruiting students.
DANIELLA GRIJALDA, CMTE. OF SAFETY FOR FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS: It's self-regulated, unmonitored, underreported. Students becoming raped, placed in the homes of convicted felons, placed in the homes of registered sex offenders, come to the United States and lose, 20, 30, 40 pounds.
GRIFFIN: Musa Mpulki says, despite the living conditions, he's loved his time in the U.S.
MPULKI: All the people are good.
GRIFFIN: He plans to come back, but next time, he says, not to a home where he needs to wonder where his next meal is coming from.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Now, the State Department is sanctioning that company, trying to -- and also trying to do a better job of monitoring these agencies, but, Kyra, even now an estimated 30,000 students are on their way for another year in the U.S. through these programs. And a lot of the cricks, as you heard, said that they're just not monitored.
PHILLIPS: But that's ridiculous. The State Department shouldn't be allowing all of this money to be paid to these organizations and you've got these kids starving and even the accusations of rape. I mean, this is ridiculous. There has to be something done within that department.
GRIFFIN: Exactly. And the State Department is reviewing that. They've asked for a full Inspector General's report, how they can make this better.
But the record clearly shows that this has been a problem for years. Kids complain, but they're foreign kids, so the threat of just sending you back home keeps a lot of them basically in check.
PHILLIPS: So, then, you wonder why these young kids are going back overseas saying, "I hate America," or "Americas are cruel," because look at how they're treated. That's ridiculous.
GRIFFIN: And some of these programs are designed specifically to those kids we want to tell America is not that bad -- Muslims in Africa, Eastern Block, former Soviet Union kids. So it's really a shame.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Drew, appreciate the report. We'll develop follow-up.
All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Well, it may be the world's longest job interview. Confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. But first, Edge of Discovery.
(EDGE OF DISCOVERY)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the right to bear arms, the disputed right to abortion, the separation of powers. Heavy stuff for the second day of Q and A, between the Senate Judiciary Committee and Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. It's due resume in just a few minutes. You'll see it live, right here on CNN.
In the meantime, this variation on the question that every high court nominee faces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White House goes on to say "White House press secretary said the president did not ask Sotomayor specifically about abortion rights during their interview." Is that correct?
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Yes. It is absolutely correct. I was asked no question by anyone, including the president, about my views on any specific legal issue.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Do you know, then, on what basis, if that's the case -- and I accept your statement -- on what basis that the White House officials would subsequently send a message that abortion rights groups do not need to worry about how you might rule in a challenge to Roe v. Wade?
SOTOMAYOR: No, sir, because you just have to look at my record to know that in the cases that I addressed on all issues, I follow the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The nominee and senators are due to come back from their lunch break at the top of the hour. You'll see them live when they do that.
A broken elbow kept her out of circulation for weeks, but Hillary Clinton wants the whole world to know that she's back. The secretary of state is speaking right now to the Council on Foreign Relations. An appearance that her aids are calling a major address. Her subject is so-called "smart power," a blend of defense, diplomacy, and development.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: -- in the world today.
Now, some see the rise of other nations and our economic troubles here at home as signs that American power has waned. Others simply don't trust us to lead. They view America as an unaccountable power, too quick to impose its will at the expense of their interests and our principles. But they are wrong.
The question is not whether our nation can or should lead, but how it will lead in the 21st century. Rigid ideologies and old formulas don't apply. We need a new mindset about how America will use its power to safeguard our nation, expand shared prosperity and help more people in more places live up to their God-given potential.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Clinton's singling out Iran for a warning: Engage the U.S. now over nukes or risk further sanctions.
Well-planned and executed without flaw, except for one thing. You're looking right at it. The killers of a wealthy Florida couple with 14 children didn't knock out the security system. A criminal case that's snowballing in Pensacola.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a couple of new tests show promise for early detection of Alzheimer's. One of the test assesses changes in brain size and memories skills. Irish researchers say by using it, they were able to accurately identify nearly 95 percent of people in the early stages of the disease. A second test looks at body chemistry by measuring glucose levels and memory test scores. U.S. researchers found a strong indicator of the diseases progression. The findings are part of a five-year, $60 million series of studies hoping to pinpoint biological markers to identify and track the disease.
Updating the murder case where a wealthy couple with 14 children, many with special needs, was gunned down in their home. Federal drug agents, now part of the case. Escambia County sheriffs not saying a word about it.
CNN's Ed Lavendera is covering this story for us in Pensacola.
Ed, they've made seven arrests in the case. I know they are looking for more. And what's the deal with the DEA getting involved? ED LAVENDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've known for several days that various federal agencies have been involved as part of this investigation. Authorities here telling us that as they've investigated this other things have come up. We can't get into what those things are. But we presume that that's probably part of what brings in a lot of the federal help that's been going on in this case.
But even though authorities now say they have arrested the seven men that were at the compound where the Billings family was murdered last week. They have come out today and say that they're still not done. That there are an additional two people of interest that they are looking for. One of them a woman by the name of Pamela LaVerne Long (ph), that they are now looking for. They say that they had been able to speak with her early on. For the last several days, they have not been able to contact her. But authorities very tight-lipped as to what extent she might be involved, if she's involved at all. But they do say that they want to get her picture out there in hopes that someone somewhere out there might be able to call them and tip them off as to where she is.
In addition to that, there is another person that they are interested in speaking with but we've got no information on them. But it did open up an interesting theory as to what investigators are looking into. And that's this whole idea that they're operating under the belief that perhaps someone else should have been responsible for turning off the elaborate surveillance system at the Billings compound. And that they're wondering, how if they practiced for weeks and rehearsed for weeks leading up to these killings, and as the investigators have said that these seven suspects did, why wasn't this security system turned off.
So, they believe -- they have just announced that they believe someone was responsible for that but for some reason, didn't follow through. About who that person is, a male, female, whatever. Authorities very tight-lipped as to who that person might be. But it's really clearly an indication that authorities here still aren't done with their investigation into these murder cases.
PHILLIPS: All right. Ed Lavandera, we'll continue to follow the story.
Appreciate it.
We want to send it back now to Wolf Blitzer and the Best Political Team on Televisions now for our gavel to gavel coverage of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.
BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much. Kyra.
We're going to continue our coverage now on these historic hearings here in Washington, D.C., before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sonia Sotomayor -- she's getting ready to be confirmed, we assume. Looks like she's got plenty of votes there. The Democrats have 60 votes already. It doesn't look like any of them, at least so far, are waffling or wavering at all. There you'll see live pictures. They've been on a lunch break for the last hour but they're coming back. Pretty soon, we'll be seeing Sonia Sotomayor walking into the briefing -- into the judiciary hearing room. The chairman will gavel this meeting to order Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the committee, the Democrat Vermont.
Two senators now are scheduled to ask questions, each for about 30 minutes. Arlen Specter, the former Republican, now Democrat of Pennsylvania, former chairman of the judiciary committee. He'll be asking the questions first. And then Al Franken, the newest senator, he'll be joining in, in the questioning. Al Franken, the former comedian, the comedy writer, who is now the junior senator from Minnesota. He'll be asking his own questions. Both of them have 30 minutes in this the first round.
Once they're finished, the first round of questioning is over with. The chairman Patrick Leahy told us earlier that they would then go into recess and go into another room for a closed-door meeting involving Sonia Sotomayor and representatives from the FBI for the background check, the vetting process, that's a traditional part of all of these confirmation hearings.
And only after that session, that closed-door meeting is over with, will they then reconvene in this room and resume round two. During round two, all 19 senators will have a maximum of 20 minutes each for questioning although the chairman Patrick Leahy is appealing to all of those senators. You know what, you don't need 20 minutes, it would be good if you do 10 minutes, or even five minutes or just move on because we've had a lot of minutes already of questioning.
Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is there over at the Hart Senate office building.
Dana, are we getting any indication they might be able to wrap this up today or will it continue to tomorrow?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the Democratic side, at least, they are certainly hoping to wrap it up today.
I was talking to a senior aide on the Judiciary Committee on the Democratic side who said, basically what they're going to try to figure out with the Republicans is just how much each of the Republican senators -- each of the seven Republican senators want to speak. And basically the strategy on the Democratic side is they're going to let the Republicans, if they want to have, if all seven want to have those 20 full minutes, they're going to get it. But then the Democrats are going to kind of intersperse a Democratic senator in between senators. A bit of a point, counterpoint.
What they said is that -- this aide I talked to said -- that if it looks like they are going to have to go until like 10:00 tonight, they'll probably break and come back tomorrow morning to do the final round of questioning with the judge. But they're hoping they won't do that. And, of course, tomorrow, there is an additional day, a full day, of hearings. At least right now, it's not scheduled to be with the judge. It's just going to be a lot of outside witnesses for both the majority and the minority, Wolf.
BLITZER: And those witnesses are basically all of them are in Washington. There will be those who support her, those who don't support her. That was always scheduled for tomorrow. We'll see how much longer they will be able to continue this today as we await the chairman to come in to the hearing room and the witness in this particular case, the nominee, the Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.
