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America's Third War Front; Lockerbie Bomber Released; Afghan Voters Defy Taliban Threat; Cash For Clunkers; Bad Credit Derailing Dreams; Critical Condition; Assassins for Hire; Debt Collection Abuse; Giving Afghans a Voice

Aired August 20, 2009 - 12:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you can call this America's third war front. We're talking about the war against drug cartels in Mexico. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today revealed a dozen new indictments against several leaders and dozens of high-ranking cartel officials. Though civilians are not necessarily targeted, thousands have died have died in drug-related crossfire. And just this week, shootouts in two Mexican cities near the U.S. border left three people wounded and at least four people dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today we are announcing in a coordinated action, major drug trafficking charges against 43 individuals, including cartel leaders, members, and associates in two federal districts in 12 indictments. Specifically we allege that these defendants shipped multiton quantity of narcotics into the United States through various established smuggling corridors and then through a network of affiliated distributors, disbursed these drugs into cities and neighborhoods around the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: CNN.com reveals some of the major players in the drug cartels explain how the violence is impacting U.S. communities. And our Josh Levs have been looking in to that -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, this is one of the most extensive spreads I've seen on CNN.com of any topic at all. Let's zoom right in. Because I want everyone to see some of the features that we have that show why people will be affected by it so much; obviously a lot of video.

But take a look right here. If you click over here, "key cartel players," we trace you through who some of these figures are and you can learn the status, what's happened with them. You can search by last name or if you click down here, it will bring you to various names. You can just skip ahead to someone and it will tell you who is part of which organization, who's part of which cartel, all right here, CNN.com.

Now, as we were mentioning, a lot of video. We also have maps that show you where some of these cartels are in Mexico. But one of the most striking things is right here, this map of the United States. Let's zoom right in to this. Everywhere that you see a white mark on this entire map, that is a place in which officials are saying Mexican drug cartels now have a presence -- every single one.

If you take a look at some of the red marks, I'll click on one, for example, you can actually click on it, and it will bring you to some information about that specific city. For example, this talks about some crime that was happening in Birmingham as a result of what is believed to be the Mexican drug cartels' increasing reach.

Now, while we're taking a look at this, go over here. This is something we were talking about, that talk about how more and more kidnappings are being seen in some various cities now.

Take a look at this. This was one of our reporters, Elliott McLaughlin (ph), who spent some time in -- you can see right here -- Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's kidnapping capital with more than one reported there daily since 2007.

What he does here is he traces you through how these kidnappings are taking place in U.S. cities, why they are taking place, what authorities are attempting to do about it, and how sometimes it doesn't play out the way they want it to, and in many cases people are ultimately freed as part of this big money game that's going on there.

What we have here really is an extensive look at how these Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach more and more into the United States, impacting communities that you might not think are there. In fact, we trace you through some suburban areas, look like average suburban homes. Meanwhile things are going on underground, in basements, there have been shootings more and more often linked to those cartels.

So Drew, as we hear this news now that might be a little bit of a success in the battle against them. It's important to remember that this is kind of a growing monster for the United States, and an increasing matter of importance for the Obama administration.

GRIFFIN: Right. We should also point out the money involved here, Josh, huge. They are talking in this indictment about $5.8 billion -- and $5.8 billion in cash proceeds.

LEVS: Sure.

GRIFFIN: Most likely coming from Americans who are using and buying these drugs.

LEVS: Look, a lot of it is U.S. money, absolutely. And keep in mind, it's also connected to all this. And you'll learn more of that -- it's also the weapons trade.

When you're hearing about the drugs kind of working their way across the border, you also hear about weapons working their way the other way across the border. Both of these at the same time kind of have become one big battle for the United States to face.

This is a reminder. Let me go back to that map for just a second. I mean, look at this. Every time you're seeing one of these cities, it's another one that's being affected. And this has been growing, over 200.

I'm just going to say it again -- every white mark is a city in the United States with the presence of Mexican drug cartels and growing.

There you go; you can't get a more stark realization than that about how important this is for this country.

GRIFFIN: Right. Thanks, Josh. It is shocking.

This is shocking, too. The man who brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland 20 years ago is flying home right now to Libya. Scotland let him go. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, after just eight years in prison, is now a free man. Scottish authorities say he has terminal prostate cancer. They say they're showing compassion and sending him home to die presumably with his family.

The Obama administration fiercely opposed the release. Two hundred seventy people were killed when that Pan Am jetliner was blown out of the sky.

Here's CNN's Diana Magnay (ph) in Scotland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was the crater left by the 747 airliner that was Pan Am Flight 103 brought down over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, in December 1988 by a terrorist bomb in the cargo hold of the plane. Twenty years on in the town's quiet memorial gardens, it is hard to imagine the carnage.

But George Stobbs, who was one of the first policemen at the scene, remembers it vividly.

GEORGE STOBBS, DUMFRIES POLICE OFFICER: Houses were just slowly burning and more houses were crackling fire. The windows were popping, the doors were burning. Everything was just -- it was like hell.

I remember also seeing a wrought iron gate and in the distance, and I could see it, it was actually dripping like molten butter; just drip, drip, dripping away.

MAGNAY: All 259 people on board the flight, most of them Americans on their way home for Christmas, were killed, as were 11 residents of the town. The debris from the wreckage scattered over a vast area.

We're three miles from the actual crash site at Lockerbie here, but this is where the nose cone landed. And between here and the tip of the horizon, they found 120 bodies.

Search teams combed 845 square miles for clues as to what brought the plane down, a trail which led Scotland's criminal justice system to a Libyan businessman and suspected intelligence officer, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.

STOBBS: The houses that were here were destroyed. MAGNAY: John Gair was never entirely convinced Megrahi was the man who destroyed his neighbors' homes. But he says the politics behind the bombing was always only a distant reality for the people of this town.

JOHN GAIR, LOCKERBIE RESIDENT: The politics of the Middle East were and still are immensely complicated. The ordinary citizen has no means of judging these things.

MAGNAY: Policeman George Stobbs says most Lockerbie residents never really cared who was behind it.

STOBBS: They're not interested in the politics of the thing, they just want to go on with their life. And I think Lockerbie has gotten to that stage now.

MAGNAY: Two hundred seventy people from 21 nations met their death in these beautiful hills and in the backyards of Lockerbie. Twenty years later, homes are rebuilt. The events of that terrible night are buried here, but not forgotten.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: A lot of people want to speak out about this. We're asking what you think about Lockerbie's bomber's release on our Web site and our blog. You can share your views when you go to cnn.com/newsroom.

That was a sampling of the responses we've gotten so far. This from Michael; he writes -- "he's being shown more compassion than he showed his victims."

That's very common.

This from Joanne -- "They should drop the bomber off somewhere over Libya."

And here's what Paul in Britain has to say -- "America is a bully. Always think it's good to get its way. The law is Scottish law, butt out, Hillary Clinton. One finger in the air at USA."

You know what, I'm not sure what that all means, but anyway.

Washington has been closely watching Afghans vote in the national elections today. Afghan officials say 26 people were killed during Election Day violence, despite that they're calling the vote a success.

Many Afghans had to defy a threat from Taliban bombers to cast their votes. Security there have been very high. Our Ivan Watson is in the central Bamiyan province where the votes are now being counted inside tents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Election workers are counting the ballots by battery-powered lamp light. This just underscores how difficult and complicated it's been to hold this $223 million election in one of the world's poorest and least developed countries with very few paved roads, very little electricity and spotty telecommunications.

On top of that, an electorate that has a large number of illiterate people who had to identify their candidates by symbols, rather than by their written names. On top of that, there is the deadly Taliban insurgency that has raged in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and increasingly in northern Afghanistan, and has been challenging this election, declaring that if the election should not be held at all, and carrying out violent attacks as well.

And one American soldier killed in eastern Afghanistan by a mortar strike, reports of other deadly clashes as well. And even here, in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province, long considered one of the safest parts of this country, one rocket was fired at a town in the north of the province earlier today.

That did not interrupt the elections in this province. More than 5,000 people are estimated to have come to this polling station alone. Old gentlemen with turbans and white beards, a number of women as well trickling in; fewer women than the male voters, of course, in part because of the traditional role, rather subservient role of women in Afghan society.

The big question now will be the voter turnout, especially in those insurgent-ridden provinces in the south and east of the country. If not enough people came out to vote, that will call into question the legitimacy of the election itself and of the next Afghan government.

But reporting here from Bamiyan Province, where the security situation has been remarkably good in comparison the turnout has been rather high.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: And while we wait for results on the Afghan election, another developing story is the release of the Lockerbie, Scotland bombing suspect. There he is right there taken today to a plane and sent to Libya to supposedly go home and die in peace.

With us on the phone is Bert Ammerman, whose brother Tom, was on that plane. Actually, you're live now. I'm getting to see you. Thanks for joining us, Burt.

I'm wondering what your re -- I know what my reaction was when I saw this supposedly sick guy climb up the stairs of a plane and be set free. What was your reaction?

BERT AMMERMAN, BROTHER DIED IN PAN AM FLIGHT 103: Well, when the news first came out, I thought it was ludicrous and insane. I just couldn't believe anybody with common sense would allow a convicted murderer of 270 people, massacring 259 at 31,000 feet, would ever be released before natural death. As I watched the victory parade of the convoy of police cars and ambulances going to the plane and watching Gadhafi's son come down and hug him as a hero and bring him back to a hero's welcome, it looked to me like it was our presidential transition with the outgoing president leaving. I expected him to turn around at the top of the steps and salute and go off into the sunset.

This is absolutely unacceptable. It's insane. State-sponsored terrorism has won. We weren't even able to keep one individual in -- that was convicted to serve his natural term in prison.

GRIFFIN: We have a picture of your brother. He was on a business trip. He was returning home from a business trip when he was killed. There's a young man.

What do you think is going to happen in Libya? Is this guy going to go back as a hero? Do you have any idea?

AMMERMAN: If he was -- if it was reversed coming back here, we'd have a ticker tape parade for him down Broadway to Gracie Square, so, yes, he's going back as a national hero. He'll be treated that way. He'll be treated as a martyr. This was bigger than an individual.

This is symbolic that you're telling terrorists that you can outwait the United States and the United Kingdom because they're soft. They'll give in eventually.

GRIFFIN: So, you think this could lead to worst things down the road potentially.

AMMERMAN: If I was a terrorist, I wouldn't be too concerned. They already got the passion with suicide bombers. But they'll see here another weakness.

It's symbolic that the United States can't be strong on anything. And please, with all the rhetoric that we're getting from the State Department, the Press Secretary on how much they're against this, the one thing I've learned in my 20 years working with our government, if the United States wants to do something especially in their relationship with the United Kingdom, it gets done.

So, please don't insult my intelligence. Where's President Obama? They haven't gotten him out front to speak yet, that speaks volumes as to what's taking place.

GRIFFIN: When did you first learn that he was -- that this day would come, that he would be released? And did you have any say? Did anyone in your family have any say or speak their piece against it?

AMMERMAN: Well, basically what they've done is a dog-and-pony show. They've had videoconferences so that they can say they consulted with everyone. So, I've been through that. I did not attend that.

I started to realize this was reality last week, when the drums started to get louder. And then I knew it was a done deal when he dropped his appeals. So, in the last week or two, it became very strong.

About five, six months ago when they signed the prisoner transfer agreement; we got concerned. We were told that this most likely would not apply to him. So, it built up slowly, and then as you can see, they moved quickly.

I think it's the hope of the governments that the media coverage and the family outrage will go away for two or three days and then we can start getting American businessmen all over Libya in the next six months.

GRIFFIN: Bert Ammerman whose brother Tom was blown up on that plane by that man you just saw going free joining us live. Thank you so much, Bert, for your insight and obviously frustration and pain, still to this day, some 20-some years after this took place.

AMMERMAN: Thank you.

GRIFFIN: Thanks Bert.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Senator Ted Kennedy stricken with brain cancer wants to change the law up in Massachusetts to have a speedy replacement if he has to give up his senate seat. The senator is a longtime champion of health care reform. And he's concerned that a lengthy vacancy could deny Democrats a crucial vote on reform.

Kennedy wants an interim replacement appointed ahead of the special election, which in Massachusetts is required by law. In a letter to the governor and other officials he says, quote, I strongly support that law and the principle that people should elect their senator." He's talking about the law that allows for a special election. He says, though, "I also believe that it's vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election."

President Obama pitches health care reform on the air and online today. Next hour, the president has an interview with a radio talk show broadcasting from the White House. Michael Smerconish, generally considered a conservative, but did endorse Mr. Obama last year.

Later the President makes a conference call and delivers an online address to health care reform supporters.

The vice president on the road today, pushing the administration's plan for health care reform. For more on that, and this fight, let's bring in our national correspondent, Jessica Yellin.

Jessica, what's the vice president up to?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Drew. Well, right now, as you can see, Vice President Joe Biden, he's discussing health care reform. He's at a hospital in Chicago with doctors, nurses, hospital administrators. It's part of the White House's effort to try and gain the upper hand in this debate.

Now, so far the vice president has talked about what he called the moral imperative of providing sound health care for all Americans, but also the economic imperative, saying it benefits all of us -- their argument -- if everyone is covered. Now, we have a sound bite from him. Let's listen real quick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Only concern is the fiscal side of the equation. You can't get from here to there without a significant change in bending the health care curve, the cost curve, in order to gain control of our ability to deal with the myriad of other issues that government has to deal with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, that's where the administration would prefer this debate to stay, but instead, as you know, Drew, we continue to hear members of Congress, from both parties, getting an angry earful from constituents in town hall meetings across the country.

And one common theme all along is this enormous distrust of government. Here's just one example. Conservative Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska was holding a town hall yesterday. Now, he has not supported a public option. He's not even sure he can support what's been called a co-op. But, still, he was on the defensive.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not specifically directed towards you, but it is directed towards the White House and Pelosi, Reid, and Waxman. As a famous columnist wrote, Robert Novak, who recently died, he stated, "Always love your country, never trust your government. And the government that can give you everything, can take everything away." And at this time, Senator Nelson, I don't trust my government.

SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: Well, look, I understand.

What we have to do is make sure that we get it right. And then you can trust it. It's got to be -- it's got to be done right. And there will always be people who will be opposed to it because of -- fill in the blank. And there will be always people out there trying to mislead, for whatever purpose they have...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: All right, Drew. He'll be holding another town hall today. We'll also be hearing from some South Florida Democrats who will be meeting with seniors. And then the big one, Nancy Pelosi holding her first press conference in some time. We expect her to get asked whether or not the House will pass a version -- or could pass a version of this bill without a public option -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jessica that will be interesting, because she, Pelosi, has come up in so many of these meetings across the country. It would be good to hear from her.

Thanks, Jessica, for that.

Well, a quick look at our top stories.

Afghanistan officials say 26 people were killed in Election Day violence today. Despite that they are saying that the national election process was a success.

Thousands of civilians in Mexico have been massacred in drug-related violence. Well, today, the U.S. Attorney general, Eric Holder, is hoping to stop that with a dozen new indictments, accusing cartel leaders and others, of pumping huge amounts of drugs into the U.S. cities over almost two decades.

And the Libyan man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 is in the air right now, flying home. Scotland freed him today because he has terminal cancer. 270 people died right before Christmas, 1988, when the plane blew-up and rained down on the village of Lockerbie, Scotland.

There is still a lot of action taking place in the Atlantic. We're going to get the latest from our Severe Weather Center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Chad Myers in the hurricane tracking center, the Severe Weather Center. You've got both hurricane and severe weather today, right, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I do. I want to talk a little bit about both, about what the hurricane is doing, what it did overnight, lost a little bit of intensity, down to 120. Still a still a very serious storm, of course, at 120 miles per hour.

I want to show you what the models have done as well. There is the storm itself. The islands still well to the south of here, so it is not going to affect the British Virgin Islands other than waves. U.S. Virgin Islands, again, but mainly the north shore here.

The computer models have tried to take it away from the U.S., and what I typically see here is when we're trying to catch a hurricane especially on the outer banks. You'll think its coming, it's coming, it's coming. And then all of a sudden it keeps turning away with those westerly winds taking it away from the U.S. We will see if that actually happens.

A couple of things I wanted to talk about, Minneapolis yesterday really hit hard by some wind damage. We don't know yet if it was a tornado. I believe it probably was a treetop tornado. Here's some video here. This is an area south of downtown. Call it south Minneapolis, if you will, right along the street called Portland. And then if you go a little bit farther to the east, you've got Powderhorn Park and then right here, the I-35W just east of that.

This is KARE, K-A-R-E, our affiliate there, from Minneapolis yesterday, taking us to all of those pictures here.

And also I had some pictures from a couple of our iReporters. And one of our producers was right here in the midst of it. And here is right at the Central Lutheran Church, the Sunday worship, its 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. here, right across the street would be the convention center and there is debris all over that part of the city.

So, what's going to happen here? We'll go back to Bill. What do we think is going to happen? Well, yesterday, for the very first time, for the very, very, first time, the eastern side of New England was in the cone. It's that cone of uncertainty, the cone of possibility.

And so, we will continue to watch this storm try to turn away from the U.S. If it doesn't, it will affect the east coast with some wind. We do know for sure, Drew, the biggest effect I think that if it doesn't hit land -- and I don't think it will -- the biggest effect, we could have 15-foot waves all the way up and down the east coast, going over at sandbars and making huge, fatal rip currents.

The dangerousness of the ocean this weekend can't be stressed more.

GRIFFIN: All right, Chad.

You know, fine line between fun and trouble with those waves. I know a lot of people will be running to the beach hoping to catch some.

MYERS: Yes.

GRIFFIN: But it can be trouble.

MYERS: It can be. And, you know, it's just a matter of you have to watch yourself; you have to watch the kids. And if you're going to be surfing in this -- and I don't recommend it -- put on a shorty and put on something that a little bit of a flotation device in case you are taking out 300, 400 yards, in a rip current at least you have some kind of a flotation you on.

GRIFFIN: Very good.

Hey, many car dealers say the government's auto industry stimulus program is turning into a clunker. We're breaking down the impact to that plan, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: If you're trying to track what's goes on in the economy, financial news, stocks, cnnmoney.com, probably the most understandable financial page you're going to find out there. And we encourage you to take a look, cnnmoney.com, for all the analysis. We're going to show you what's going on the big board right now. Stocks up. Both the big board there up 34, 35 points now and the Nasdaq up about 10 the last time we checked just a few seconds ago.

There's been a surprise jump in unemployment claims for the second straight week. The Labor Department says the number of laid-off American workers filing new claims rose to 576,000 last week. That's 15,000 more than the week before. Not a good trend. Economists surveyed by briefing.com expected new claims to actually fall.

That Cash for Clunkers deal could be winding down, just as some dealers are getting fed up with it. They're quitting the program because they say Uncle Sam is too slow with giving them their money. Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Breakdown" from New York.

Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: You know, this comes as quite a disappointment to a lot of folks that might have wanted to take advantage of this program. It might be ending soon. The government, we're hearing, could announce, Drew, as soon as today when it will wind down that Cash for Clunkers program. And this comes, as you said, as hundreds of auto dealers in the New York area have literally quit the program. And, Drew, that's because they say it's taking too long to get reimbursed by the government for those vouchers. It can be up to $4,500 for the trade-ins. And they say they just can't afford to wait. Take a listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?

MARK SCHIENBERG, PRESIDENT, GREATER N.Y. AUTO DEALERS: They've been so frustrated with the administration and the program that they can't continue to exist with it. I mean, this has been a program that's actually probably the best incentive funds, stimulus funds, that the federal government can come up with, because it's generated tremendous amounts of foot traffic.

The problem is in the details. And the details of this program is an administration -- a program that's just too hard to sort of control. There are dealers out hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, waiting for some indication of whether they're going to be paid for the cars that they've already sold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Now, obviously, that comes as a frustration to the man you see there, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He's trying to reassure auto dealers, saying they will get the money, Drew, and that all of the dealers will be reimbursed. But as you can see, some of them aren't buying it and they're pulling out of the program.

Drew.

GRIFFIN: Well, and when? You know, these guys are sitting on inventory forever. They couldn't sell it.

HARLOW: Right.

GRIFFIN: I mean they've got to pay their bills and now they did the deals and now they can't get their money. That's -- that ain't working.

HARLOW: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Hey, can people still get in on the Cash for Clunkers or was it just . . .

HARLOW: Yes. Yes, let's be clear, I mean, it's not totally over here. No formal announcement yet. But it could be harder if we see more of these dealers pull out. You're already seeing hundreds pull out in the city of New York.

And despite some reassurances from the government, the National Association of Auto Dealers say there's a growing risk that more and more dealers might not be reimbursed. They're worried the program could run out of money before reimbursing all the dealers. Even what we're seeing, Drew, is that participating dealerships, some people are actually being asked to pay back the voucher money if the deal doesn't get reimbursed. They're being asked to sign a document saying that.

Another possibility, sometimes this is happening, you make the deal, but the dealer doesn't let you take home the new car until the dealer gets reimbursed. That is not allowed. Folks, if that happens to you, you should immediately report it to the government.

But automakers, interestingly enough, of course, right, Drew, they don't want this program to end. And there's new news today that General Motors has announced it will provide cash advances to dealers to cover those vouchers. We'll see if some of the other automakers are going to do the same. But the program is not over. We're watching it, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Yes, I'm just wondering when it is over, if there's going to be a slump in sales, you know, all the demand will be scooped up.

HARLOW: Well, yes, of course, you're probably will be right.

GRIFFIN: Yes. All right, Poppy, thanks for keeping us on track.

Well, you want to create jobs? One North Carolina restaurant owner says he'd create 35 jobs within three months if you'd just send him some stimulus money. He just needs a loan. But as CNN's Christine Romans reports, it's a new, tougher world out there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Dinnertime in Lumberton, North Carolina.

ROBERT REDFEARN, BLACK WATER GRILLE: Is everything good?

ROMANS: Restaurant owner Rob Redfearn.

REDFEARN: We did $1.2 million in 2007. It's not bad for a small town and a small restaurant.

ROMANS: He's got 35 employees, a crowded bar on weekends, a dependable banquette business. Five years ago, he turned a century-old mule stable into this. He's confident he's got the ingredients to open another restaurant, here, 35 miles north on I-95, in Fayetteville.

REDFEARN: I'll hire 50 people in three months if I get the money that I'm looking for.

ROMANS: $150,000 to be exact.

REDFEARN: My issue is that stimulus money that everybody's talking about needs to flow through to small businesses like this one. I don't want a bailout, I just want, you know, open the door. I'll walk through it myself.

ROMANS: But so far that door is shut. We called BB&T Bank, the area's biggest small business lender, and asked them why. It turns out Redfearn's credit score doesn't match his confidence. A spokesperson for BB&T, who recently paid back its own $3 billion bailout, said, "we would have turned him down based on his credit history." Redfearn admits to bumps in the road that have dinged his credit. This is the new world of lending.

LEE CORNELISON, DISTRICT DIR., SBA, NORTH CAROLINA: Lenders are -- have returned to the old-fashioned lending standards, you know. They're making loans with the expectation that all of them are going to be repaid.

ROMANS: That means making fewer loans to only the best applicants. Even small business owners like Redfearn, who've had no trouble borrowing money in the past, are being turned away.

STACY COWLEY, SMALL BUSINESS EDITOR, CNNMONEY.COM: We've sort of ended up in this chicken-and-egg situation here where the banks don't want to make those loans because the small business sectors as a whole has been having such trouble, but then small business owners can't get the financing they need to run their businesses normally to expand.

ROMANS: The number of new small business loans is less than half what it was before the recession, but the stimulus has helped. The amount of money loaned through SBA's programs has risen 50 percent since February.

Ever the entrepreneur, Redfearn doesn't have the loan, but he still has the vision.

ROMANS (on camera): And you look at this parking lot and you see cars?

REDFEARN: I see it full.

ROMANS: And you see a successful restaurant.

REDFEARN: I see it full.

ROMANS (voice-over): Christine Romans, CNN, Lumberton, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: You can watch more "Money & Main Street" reports tonight at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, it is no surprise, the bad economy is impacting people's health. Now, one California family facing even bigger challenges due to state budget cuts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Our top stories now.

Senator Ted Kennedy calling for an immediate replacement if he has to give up his seat as he battles brain cancer. He's been a champion for health care reform in Congress. He wants to change Massachusetts law to allow a temporary successor ahead of a special election to make sure that his state is fully representative and its vote counts on health care.

President Obama pitches held care reform on the air and online today. The president has an interview with a radio talk show host at the White House next hour, and later he speaks to reform supporters during a conference call and an online address.

Afghan officials calling today's national election a success. That's despite 26 people being killed in violence across that country. The counting is going on right now and the taliban had threatened to disrupt those elections.

In today's "Health Care in Focus," a family's critical condition. Their daughter suffers from a genetic birth defect that has robbed her of the ability to walk, talk, or breathe on her own. Now, with looming state budget cuts, the home health care nurses she relies on will be gone. Los Angeles photojournalist John Torego (ph) brings us Jessica's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

CROWD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?

CROWD: A balanced budget.

MARK LEONI, JESSICA'S UNCLE: I'm here to talk about how the home health care cuts might affect my 12-year-old niece, pictured here. Her name is Jessica.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?

CROWD: A balanced budget.

M. LEONI: Jessica suffers from a debilitating disease called Nemanpit Type C (ph) and she receives home health care through the Westside Regional Center in Los Angeles.

LISA LEONI, JESSICA'S MOTHER (singing): Good morning. Good morning

BILL FREEMAN, WESTSIDE REGIONAL CENTER: You're looking at a family who, when I first met them over a year ago, they were exhausted. They were trying to be caregivers, nurses, doctors and then get up and go to work during the day and still support their family.

ANTHONY LEONI, JESSICA'S FATHER: We've been able to find how to take care of Jessica. If you'd have told me 10 years ago, this is what your life's going to be, I would have said, we're not capable of that. We don't have the training. We don't have the ability. We don't have the energy. The real key was that they all fell in love with Jessica and wanted to help.

L. LEONI: Remember how we say Carmen's going to the races. Who's going to win?

Carmen, when she came, she just said, I think I can do this. And we were so desperate for somebody to come in.

CARMEN BAILEY, CARING CONNECTION: I call her my angel. I bathe her, groom her, position her, massage her, to make her comfortable.

KRISTINA CARMICKLE, JESSICA'S FRIEND: Your hair is very pretty.

I've been her friend for so long that I feel that we've just always had a connection together. So I've wanted to keep it. Once you have a friendship that's big enough like that, you're always wishing for the best for her.

FREEMAN: We finally got everything in place where they can be parents again, which is a wonderful thing. And that's what scares me a little bit about these budget cuts.

A. LEONI: It's absolutely frightening to think what would happen if the services were no longer there. They're absolutely essential to keep Jessica going.

L. LEONI: I believe, worst-case scenario, if the services stopped coming, physically you just cannot do it. You can't 24-hour care give. We also wouldn't have like the medicine, the supplies that are required to sustain her life.

A. LEONI: Jessica would like to thank everybody for coming to her 12th birthday party.

CARMICKLE: This was her 12th birthday and it was really significant because we don't know how many more birthdays she can celebrate with us. It's just hard to think of that -- one day I'm not going to be able to see her anymore. And it comes bad -- sad, but then it also comes happy that she's going to be happier there. (END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Just one girl's story out in California. Touching.

Did the U.S. government outsource assassinations to a private contractor? Our Pentagon team is going to bring us the latest on that story. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A wave of deadly bombings in Baghdad has led to new security measures there today. If you remember, more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in six bombings yesterday. Well, CNN has now learned from the interior ministry that 11 high-ranking security officials have been arrested. The new security measures include additional checkpoints, more stringent vehicle searches and random vehicle stops. Iraqi state television reports the head of the parliament has called for an emergency session just to deal with security issues.

The private security company, Blackwater, was a major player in Iraq during the Bush years, and today indications the firm's mission in the region may have involved much more. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr tracking that.

What do we know about Blackwater, the CIA, and this plan?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, complicated details now emerging. A source familiar with the program confirms to CNN that in 2004, the CIA hired Blackwater to work on a program that involved training, surveillance, and, indeed, possibly putting contractors into the field to target and kill top al Qaeda leaders. Now, the CIA doesn't like to call this assassination squads, but that's basically what you're talking about. People that would be trained and go into the field to kill top al Qaeda officials.

The program ebbed and flowed over the years, we are told. There were never any actual missions in the field that carried out this work, according to officials that we have spoken with, but the program still stayed in play. It was earlier this year that CIA Director Leon Panetta stepped in and canceled the whole effort. It was still on the books for a couple of reasons.

First, it was never notified to Congress. As many people said, it would have to have been under the law. And it was moving into that potential operational phase. Panetta thought it didn't work -- it would not have worked out. He canceled it.

It was all very controversial for two conflicting reasons. One, they wanted to put contractors into the field originally because it would keep a U.S. government face off the program. But if you put contractors into the field to carry out these missions and they get into trouble, you have a diplomatic disaster on your hands.

Drew. GRIFFIN: Barbara, here's what I don't understand. We had soldiers trained to kill people over there all this time and supposedly chasing al Qaeda.

STARR: Exactly right.

GRIFFIN: Why were they outsourcing this?

STARR: Right, why outsource this when you have hundreds, if not thousands, of special operations forces, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, that are very highly trained and very capable of doing exactly the same thing.

It goes back to why would you put this program in place. One reason, take an official U.S. face off of it because you might be going into areas like that tribal region of Pakistan, where you wouldn't want U.S. military forces at the risk of being caught. But, on the other hand, it was a diplomatic disaster from the beginning, because how could you put contractors in there without an official government backing. So, it all became a big mess, and apparently that's why Director Panetta decided to cancel the whole thing.

GRIFFIN: Barbara, thanks for staying on top of that. Appreciate it.

The threatening phone calls, impersonating police? Just some of the tactics being used by debt collectors. Now, the New York attorney general is suing several collection companies over how they collected debts. CNN's Mary Snow is taking a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Michelle Minton says she'll never forget the call she got the same day her daughter was diagnosed with autism. A man posing as a lawyer claims she owed $4,400 and said her arrest was imminent if she didn't pay up.

MICHELLE MINTON, DEBT COLLECTION VICTIM: He was getting very insistent and started, you know, I don't remember all the words, but started talking about, your kids will see you arrested. If there's nobody there, if you husband can't make it home, child protective services will have to take your kids.

SNOW: Minton wasn't actually in debt. But feeling the pressure, she relented, gave the number of her bank account and lost $900.

Dorothy Gilbert teared up listening to the voice mail left at her home over a $187 bill she'd already paid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are totally ghetto. Second of all, ma'am, learn English. Get an education since you're just sitting on your fat derriere all day long, making money off the rest of the free working population in this country, you might want to try to get educated enough to at least be able to say "payment plan" instead of "payment pan." You uneducated reject.

SNOW: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says that call and others in which law enforcement is impersonated and some even threatening sexual assault are tied to operators at 13 companies he's now trying to shut down in New York.

ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: The tactics, they are so disturbing, so threatening, that they tend to be effective. That's why they do it.

SNOW: Private attorney Joe Mauro represents debt collection abuse victims. He says there's been an increase in cases tying it to the economic downturn.

JOSEPH MAURO, ATTORNEY: There is no money to be pulled out of consumers these days. And as that happens, the debt collectors become more desperate.

SNOW: But the trade group for debt collectors says don't paint them all with the same brush. It estimates rogue collectors make up about 10 percent of the industry.

ROZANNE ANDERSEN, ACA INTERNATIONAL: The harassing phone calls and the aggressive behavior is absolutely unacceptable.

SNOW (on camera): Cuomo filed a lawsuit against the Benning-Smith Group. An umbrella group for 13 companies. We called several and they were either disconnected or out of service. Three individuals in Buffalo, New York, were also named. We reached a lawyer for one who said he'll fight the charges.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: You're in the driver's seat now for a head-on collision in Indiana. Take a look. A dash cam gives you the officer's view. Watch as an oncoming car crosses the center line and slams the cruiser 50 miles an hour. The officer says he tried to swerve out of the way, but it all happened in a split second. You know, neither the officer nor the teen driver were seriously hurt. That young driver, though, cited. Criminal charges are not expected.

As Afghans vote on their future, a filmmaker from that country tries to capture their concerns from a distance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A lot of Afghans live in London. They wanted to get in on this election. At least comment on it, without the fear of bombs or bullets, especially women there. So Zain Verjee reports on a film director in the U.K. who's giving real people a real voice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would just like you to accept me as an Afghan.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A hooded presidential candidate kicking off his bid for the leadership of Afghanistan, from London. Sound unreal? That's because it is. The candidate is a made-for-TV movie, shot on a shoestring budget around Britain's capital. So, why here?

SHAPUR AMINI, DIRECTOR, "THE CANDIDATE": Well, basically it was a missed opportunity to voice what the Afghan wants inside or outside Afghanistan.

VERJEE: Shapur Amini is the movie's Afghan-born director.

AMINI: One (ph) of the same threat and fear that Afghans have inside the country from the warlords or other particular groups or from the opposition parties of the government. So they can talk and challenge any issues that are in Afghanistan. And they can openly talk about the things that most of the candidates cannot talk in Afghanistan.

VERJEE: The film's part fiction, part documentary. The candidate himself is an actor reading from a script, but the ordinary people he meets on the campaign trail are just that, real people voicing real opinions. Opinions that may be too dangerous to express back in Afghanistan.

AMINI: Well, basically voices -- a woman's view in London, and also talks about role of Afghan woman in Afghanistan. That how important it is for them to take part in political, economical and social life in Afghanistan and not only let the men run again the whole affair.

VERJEE: "The Candidate" cost just $2,000 to make. Most of that spent on food for Amini's volunteer actors and extras. Amini isn't just the film's director, he's also the writer, cameraman, lighting technician and editor, all rolled into one. A lot of the scenes were shot right here in Amini's apartment.

"The candidate" has already aired in the U.S. and Afghanistan, but Amini says his project isn't about commercial success, it's about letting the world hear what Afghans think without the fear of violence.

Zain Verjee, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Tony Harris is back tomorrow. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Kyra Phillips.

Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Drew, thanks.

We're pushing forward. Town hall meets talk radio. President Obama hits the airwaves pitching health care reform to a conservative audience. It starts in minutes and you'll hear it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Nobody says democracy is easy, but don't complain to Afghans about touch screens and butterfly ballots. A country at war holds a historic election. And the outrage begins over Scotland's release of the only man convicted in the Lockerbie bombing of 1988. He's gone home, to Libya, to die.

Hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All week long, President Obama's kept a pretty low profile in the health care fight, but that's about to change. Minutes from now he'll join conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, for a call- in forum live from the White House. You'll see it right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And later in the hour, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks out from San Francisco. As the president did yesterday by phone, Pelosi