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Demonstrators Vent Their Anger at G-20 Summit; Tracking Tropical Storm Alex; Oil Disaster Costing Jobs; Gulf Disasters Impact on Seafood
Aired June 26, 2010 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Toronto streets erupt with violent protests as world leaders gather for the G-20 Summit. The latest on the marches, the arrests and clashes with police.
The Gulf Coast seafood industry facing big trouble. Large areas close the fishing. Oyster houses are shutting down. How bad is it and can the industry survive? I'll ask legendary Louisiana Chef Paul Prudhomme.
And this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could say I'm a religious freak. You could say I'm a Rambo or samurai or whatever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Call him what you want. He's talking to CNN about his time in Pakistan on a one-man mission to take out Osama Bin Laden. You won't forget our exclusive one-on-one interview with Gary Faulkner.
Hi, I'm Drew Griffin. Don Lemon on assignment tonight.
It's a gathering of the world's most powerful people. The G-20 Summit joins the political and financial leaders of the wealthiest, most powerful countries on the globe. President Obama spent part of the day discussing the world economy with people like the presidents of Korea and China. But outside the secure meeting, protesters turned out clashing with police, shattering storefronts and setting fire to police vehicles. We've just learned more than 130 people have been arrested so far. Toronto's police chief says his officers are on top of the situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF BILL BLAIR, TORONTO POLICE SERVICES: Tonight, we began removing members of the mob from our streets, and so far tonight 75 persons have been taken into custody. These arrests will continue as is necessary. Those responsible for acts of vandalism will be held accountable. We know who many of them are and we have photographs of many others. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Again, just in the last few minutes, police tell us 130 arrests now made.
Our Jeanne Meserve has been in the streets of Toronto all day in the middle of it all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The protests and arrests continued into the evening as demonstrators against the G-20 clashed repeatedly with the police protecting it.
More than one police car went up in flames and smoke during hours and hours of confrontation. Confrontation with flashes of violence, anger and destruction. Some protesters were injured.
PROTESTERS: Whose streets, our streets! Whose streets, our streets!
MESERVE: The crowd moved from intersection to intersection to try to circumvent police and get to the security fence protecting the summit meeting.
The fence is a symbol of -- that they can build a fence and spend a billion dollars to make sure that they get their agenda works. So that's what the symbol -- the fence is a symbol of what's wrong with this country.
MESERVE: But everywhere the protesters went, police were waiting to head them off. In some cases with individual blasts of pepper spray and tear gas and bean bag pellets. The fence was not breached.
Protesters course through downtown streets leaving behind broken windows, graffiti, a few smashed cars. But some demonstrator said the destruction they caused was nothing compared to the economic and environmental crimes of the G-20 leaders meeting just a few blocks away. Despite the flashes of anger, despite the destruction, not all encounters between the police and protesters were hostile. At one intersection the crowd danced.
And chanted "you're sexy, you're cute, take off your riot suit." But the crowd would move, the mood would morph and again the tone would grow threatening.
(on camera) There's one day left in the G-20 meeting, and that means one more day of this.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Toronto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: So what's happening at the actual meetings? G-20 leaders spending a lot of time discussing ways to stimulate economic growth around the world without increasing public debt. A delicate balance in those debt concerns are very real. The recent crisis in Greece forced European countries to come up with a plan to rescue that nation.
CNN chief business correspondent Ali Velshi talked about the threat of a Greek-style economic meltdown with the president of the European commission who insists the EU is prepared.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSE MANUEL BARROSO, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: If there was another case like the one you mentioned, we will be more than prepared to face it because now the mechanism is ready. The mechanism is established to act. When the Greek problem came, frankly speaking it was unprecedented problem. It was the first time we had this question of sovereign debt crisis in one member of it. So we have to invent the response. It was the first time from an institutional, political and also from a financial point of view, we had to create some kind of mechanism and we have done it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Rescuing the Greek economy is going to cost Europe almost $1 trillion dollars, but European leaders decided the cost was worth it to prevent Greece from disrupting the rest of the world's economic recovery.
Well, former Vice President Dick Cheney remains hospitalized for a second night. Mr. Cheney undergoing tests after saying he didn't feel well yesterday. He has had five heart attacks in the last 30 years. So far, though, no official explanation of the former vice president's illness. Cheney is 69. He is expected to be at the George Washington University Hospital through the weekend.
Tropical storm Alex slamming into Mexico right now. And hundreds of workers in the gulf are evacuating ahead of it, but not those working on the oil political cleanup. BP is removing some employees from three rigs in the far south of the gulf and Shell oil is pulling about 300 employees off production platforms and rigs.
Right now it doesn't look like Alex will directly hit the area of the massive oil leak, but it could still churn up lots of winds and waves, and if Alex changes course, the federal incident commander says it could seriously impact containment efforts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: About 120 hours out of the onset of gale-force winds, we will start to redeploy the equipment from the well site, redeploy other equipment to safe venues so they can come in after the storm to re-establish production or to take part in rescue activities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: If that worst case scenario happens Allen says it would take two weeks to put everything back in place. In that time as much as 2.5 million gallons of oil could flow out.
Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is tracking Alex for us.
Bonnie, it's still looking like this will avoid that area, though, right?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It will. And I want to show you this on the Shell.US Web site. You can see down here. This is a look at some of where they have vessels right now that are deployed into the Gulf of Mexico. On this Web site, you can see that they're scattered about just south of Louisiana, south of Texas, so it is standard operating procedure if there is a tropical storm in the gulf, which there, you know, typically can be this time of year to get the nonessential personnel out of the way.
Here's a look at the way Alex is shaping up right now. The storm has intensified as it bears down along the Yucatan and Belize coast line. The winds are intense. Right now maximum winds are at 65 miles per hour and the storm is really bearing down on this region. We're seeing very heavy wind and rain. Possibly up to 6 inches will accumulate, maybe more and we also run the risk of mud slides because of the rocky terrain.
Now, the big question is, we'll get through the Yucatan which is kind of a narrow area. What will happen next? Well, here's a closer look at the latest track. Notice it works its way across the bay of Campeche as early as tomorrow into the evening. We're talking about it re-emerging over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico as well. The cone of uncertainty has narrowed a bit because we're getting closer to that second landfall, and it looks like it's more likely somewhere between the Texas-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas, all the way down through central sections of Mexico, somewhere in that vicinity. Not to say that we're not still concerned about wind and waves in the gulf, but it looks like the threat has been minimized to what it could have been had the storm turned in this direction.
We're still monitoring if it's still an active storm and it may get to hurricane intensity before it makes that second land fall. We'll keep you posted.
Drew?
GRIFFIN: Bonnie, thanks.
From making millions to making major cuts, when we come back, how the gulf oil spill has forced one oyster company to close its doors.
And famous New Orleans Chef Paul Prudhomme joins us live to talk about how the food industry is coping with this crisis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: More than 32 percent of the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico are now closed to fishermen because of this oil disaster. The leak costing many oyster workers their jobs but as T.J. Holmes tells us it's not because the oysters are contaminated. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PARTICK FEAY, CO-OWNER, AMERIPURE OYSTERS: On a typical Monday morning here, before the spill, I'd open that door and find 800 to 1,000 sacks of oysters to be reduced to this in a matter of 60 days because of something we have no control over. It's very sad. Very sad. What can you say?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This was one of the largest post-harvest processing plants in the Gulf. The co-owner, Patrick Feay, says last year the company did $8 million in sales, but the oil spill in the Gulf has forced the company to cease operations, a move that cost 48 employees their jobs.
FEAY: They're part of your family. And you have to tell them to go away.
ANDREW STEWARD, FORMER OYSTER SHUCKER: When they come back around I'll probably be too old to do it. So it hurt me. It hurt. I can tell you that. It really hurt me.
HOLMES: Andrew Steward has been shucking oysters since 1958. The last seven years spent behind this table.
STEWARD: Nobody going to hire a man of my age. A youngster has a chance. My chance is over with. If they don't come back soon, it's all over for me.
HOLMES: Ashley Gibson is a single mom with three children. She worked here for seven years and is angry with BP.
ASHLEY GIBSON, FOMER OYSTER WORKER: I wonder from day to day how I'm going to take care of them. And how I'm going to make it off the money that I'm getting, Because, I mean, it is right around school time. I have school stuff to buy and everything. I'm trying to figure out all that.
HOLMES: But it wasn't oil that directly impacted the oyster harvest and shut this facility down.
FEAY: We haven't seen oil on any oysters since the spill began. Not a drop. Not a scent, nothing. What caused it is because of the effects of the spill, because of the multiple harvest area closures, and because so many boats have now been retained by BP to help fight the spill, which we understand, our ability to procure oysters and satisfy our business footprint was taken away from us.
HOLMES: Many of the workers filed claims with BP and quickly got compensation checks. A skeleton crew will continue to clean the plant and maintains the Pasteurization tanks, a process patented here. But now the 75,000-gallon tanks are bone dry. Feay hopes one day soon he'll be able to get the family of workers together again and back to work.
(END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFIN: Well, our next guest is the man who would Cajun cooking on the map 30 years ago. Now celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme must watch his miles of Louisiana coastal waters are closed to fishing because of the oil catastrophe. The map that we're going to show shows the closings of the state of Louisiana imposed yesterday. Local seafood getting scarce, while seafood overall the price is getting higher.
Chef Prudhomme joins me live now from New York.
Chef, pleasure to have you on. A lot of fans I'm getting e-mails from people talking about how great your cooking and food has been, and your spices are especial for years. You run the restaurant K- Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in the French quarter. I've got to ask you, where are you getting your seafood now? Is it still coming in?
PAUL PRUDHOMME, CHEF, K-PAUL'S LOUISIANA KITCHEN: Well, it's still coming in because we've had our purveyor that has given us seafood has been doing it for us for many, many, many years, and he not only can get stuff out of the Louisiana gulf, but he's got a brother in Texas that also is a fishermen and between the two of them they really satisfy the restaurant with all the seafood we need.
GRIFFIN: You know, I can't think of any place like Louisiana where the producer, the distributor, the chefs like you all form a kind of a community, and are close to each other.
Are you concerned about like the story we just see where people are losing their jobs, where fishing families are finding themselves on the verge of extinction because of this spill?
PRUDHOMME: I think so many have already experienced that. And I think that it's -- you know, the really bad thing about the whole oil thing is that we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what the future is. We don't know what we've been told, whether it's true or not. And it's so -- it's so daunting. It's so -- it's so amazing how, you know, I've been in the restaurant business all my life, and I think that the possibilities that are -- that can happen to our restaurants in New Orleans, which is the greatest restaurants in anywhere around the world.
I mean New Orleans has great food. The restaurants that do fresh -- I mean they're just amazing restaurant, families have gone on for generations and generations and to see that go away, to see that just be really destroyed would be absolutely awful. And it's sad that so many things that have been told, that seems to be -- seems to be not the right thing to say, and not the right thing to do. And it just goes on and on. You know, we're so lucky that the west side of the lake -- I mean of the river towards -- towards Houston has been -- I mean has been absolutely wonderful there, and you can get great seafood from that area. And the Mississippi river probably is a great reason for it because it has so much push of water coming out of there. And so it's really sad that we have to -- the people that are -- that make their living by it and people that -- you know, they're just such wonderful people that are so -- so committed to what they do and so -- you know, they just love what they do and it's gone away from them. GRIFFIN: Yes.
PRUDHOMME: It's gone away in an ugly, ugly way.
GRIFFIN: Yes, and I dare say just really bouncing back from the Hurricane Katrina blow that they had.
PRUDHOMME: Yes. New Orleans -- New Orleans and the New Orleans area and the coast have had really a -- five years of a lot of tragedy, but we're tough people, and we want our city and the area that we have in Louisiana, we want it to be the best food in the world and we're going to continue just battling.
GRIFFIN: All right. Chef Paul Prudhomme live from New York.
Chef, thanks for joining us tonight. I appreciate.
PRUDHOMME: I only got one more thing to say.
GRIFFIN: What's you got to say?
PRUDHOMME: Good cooking, good eating, good loving. We love you guys.
GRIFFIN: Paul Prudhomme, thank you so much.
Well, there's been another no-hitter. Is this baseball already becoming common? Our iReporters are weighing in, and the nail-biting match between Ghana and the U.S. ends in over time. We're going to tell you who came out on top.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Across the first round in their first world cup. We've done it again this time. He's killing Prince Boating, attacking on this side and score. The U.S. --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Sorry to report. No more miracles for team USA at the World Cup. America's team lost 2-1 to Ghana. The defeat was a huge disappointment to the fans who felt this -- this was the team destined for bigger things especially after its last-minute win against Algeria. Ghana advances to the quarterfinals and the U.S. goes home. The tournament runs for another two weeks.
No one knows exactly why the pitchers definitely in charge this year in Major League Baseball.
Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamond Backs last night became the fourth this season to throw a no-hitter. Not even at the halfway point yet. Normally we only see about three no-hitters over the entire season. And we're not counting what we had been that no-hit perfect game ruined by an empire's blown call. What is causing baseball's power outage at the plate? And why do pitchers seem to have the upper hand? No one knows for sure, but there are plenty of theories. And CNN's iReporters are weighing in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EGBERTO WILLIES, IREPORTER: Given that there's a lot more scrutiny on the players and what kinds of illegal drugs they may be taking, it could be that their performance will drop because of that. It could be a panacea for pitchers this year as we have a lot less drugged players.
OMEKONGO, IREPORTER: Nowadays, baseball is a pitcher's game. It's always been a pitcher's game. Basketball is a point guard's game right now, and the truth of the matter is it's the same with football. It's always been a quarterback's game. They always have to work harder because they can't hide their weaknesses. So I think players nowadays, they need to focus on not just being successful, but they need to focus on being great. And if they can do that, then we won't have as many no-hitters because the hitters will be working twice as hard or at least equally as hard as the pitchers. Come on, guys. Get it together. It's getting kind of boring.
GRIFFIN: I-News sports analysts for you.
Another baseball oddity to consider. Last night's no-hitter came at the expense of the Tampa Bay Ray, the second time this season they have been no-hit, and the third time since last July.
Well, having a baby isn't easy for anyone, especially at gay couple. Up next a look at the changing face of families in America.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: In less than an hour CNN is going to go in-depth on gay parenting in America. We have a special report, "Gary & Tony Have a Baby," talking about the legal and other struggles that these two men have had trying to -- actually have a child.
Here's an excerpt from Soledad O'Brien's special report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a baby on the way and Gary and Tony need just about everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice to meet you too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't been in here.
O'BRIEN: So they register for their baby shower.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is so exciting. All right. You're going to have a baby. How old?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Newborn?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's been born.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not adoption. No, no, no, we're having it with our surrogate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. And so --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So she's 38 weeks pregnant now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, so she's really having your baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Well, since this documentary aired we have gotten at least 7,000 people who have written in to us. And I want to show you just some of the e-mails that we have gotten.
Here's one. "My child is a lesbian. I think she'd make a fantastic mom. Some of the best parents I've known have been lesbian or gay."
Another supportive one. "I'm a heterosexual parent, but over the years I have met several gay couples, and after spending some time with these families, I have to say they are the best, most informed, most dedicated parents."
Not all supportive. Like this one. "We are talking about children. A gay couple will never ever be able to make a baby naturally. A child needs a man and a woman in his life"
And I want you to look at this perspective from a daughter. "I have no problem with homosexuality; however, I do have a problem with it when it comes to parenting. It torments me to have to tell people my mom's marital status with a woman. And I never have my friends over. It's just too difficult to explain."
You can find out what everybody is talking about. Gary & Tony Have a Baby" is coming up in about 30 minutes at 11:00 p.m. Eastern.
Well, it has been a year since Michael Jackson passed away. And there are still many questions about how and why he died. We'll get his doctor's side of the story after the break.
Plus, prom, a rite of passage but for teens with cancer it can be impossible dreams. Our CNN hero is helping change all of that. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Checking some of our top stories now. June has become the deadliest month for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Since this war began, six NATO troops died today in three separate bombing attacks. Four others were killed yesterday. Those four were Americans. We don't know the nationality of the troops today, but it does bring the total for the month to 91 and there are four days yet to go.
A smuggling tunnel leading from Mexico right into the U.S. Boarder agents found one end near El Paso, Texas, and discovered that it ran under the Rio Grande at the other side. A hole in a drainage pipe led them to it after they arrested a teenager from Mexico. Authorities say that teen was carrying about 200 pounds of marijuana.
A terrifying crash led to this fireball in Madison County, Alabama. A truck rear ended car knocking it into a gas pump. The driver jumped from the car as the flames spread. No one was seriously hurt in that accident.
This time last year, the nation was in shock over the sudden death of Michael Jackson. On the anniversary of it his father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray. But Murray's lawyer tells our Ted Rowlands that he doesn't deserve the blame.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: Drew, in an exclusive interview Ed Chernoff, the lead attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray told us that his client was not the person that gave Michael Jackson a fatal overdose.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED CHERNOFF, DR. CONRAD MURRAY'S ATTORNEY: Dr. Murray did not cause the death of Michael Jackson.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): Ed Chernoff says when Dr. Conrad Murray went to work as Michael Jackson's personal doctor, he had no idea that Jackson was, in Chernoff's words, "addicted to Propofol," a drug normally used to put surgical patients to sleep. Murray started giving Jackson the powerful drug in Jackson's home.
ROWLANDS (on camera): Doctor after doctor gets up and says this should never be used outside of a clinical setting, outside of a hospital or clinic.
CHERNOFF: The fact that the circumstances may be unusual, may be demonstrated to be unusual, does not make it egregious. That alone does not make it egregious.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): According to the coroner's report, Jackson had the same amount of Propofol in his body when he died as is used for major surgery. But Murray says he didn't give Jackson that much Propofol.
CHERNOFF: There's no way that Dr. Murray would pump Michael Jackson full of Propofol sufficient for major surgery and walk out that room. It's not going to happen. That's not the doctor that Dr. Murray is.
ROWLANDS (on camera): How did it get in him?
CHERNOFF: Well that's a good question, Ted. Do you have any idea how it got in him?
ROWLANDS (voice-over): The only other scenarios, someone else gave Jackson the fatal dose, or Jackson woke up and injected himself, which the coroner addressed but concluded would be a long shot.
CHERNOFF: But is it possible? Absolutely it's possible.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): This is Michael Jackson rehearsing two nights before he died. Murray says he got Jackson to sleep without Propofol after this rehearsal.
But the day Jackson died on June 25th, it was a different story. According to an affidavit filed in the case, Dr. Murray gave detectives the following timeline: 1:30 a.m., Murray gives Jackson a 10 milligram Valium. 2:00 a.m., Murray injects Jackson with two milligrams of Lorazepam, another sleep aid. An hour later, he gives him two milligrams of another drug, Versed. 5:00 a.m., Jackson is still awake, Murray gives him more Lorazepam. At 7:30 a.m., more Versed. By 10:40 a.m. after nine hours of trying to sleep, Jackson is still awake and Murray gives him an IV drip of 25 milligrams of Propofol.
Where Dr. Murray was from 10:40 until noon when the coroner's report says Jackson was found unresponsive is unclear. It's the only window of time that someone else, including Jackson himself, could have administered the fatal dose of Propofol. Prosecutors say the evidence points toward Conrad Murray as the person responsible for the overdose, but Chernoff maintains that Murray had the expertise and the equipment to safely give Jackson small doses of Propofol, and he says the doctor had the knowledge not to give him an overdose.
CHERNOFF: Whatever he did was to help. And he took the necessary precautions and then something happened that is unexplainable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: Conrad Murray is facing involuntary manslaughter charges. He has pled not guilty in the criminal case. The preliminary hearing is set to take place this fall.
Drew?
GRIFFIN: CNN's Ted Rowlands.
Well, a young man who turns personal tragedies into prom dreams. Meet our CNN hero when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: Well, this month has been prom season for millions of American teens but, you know, some young people fighting life- threatening illnesses aren't always able to join in the fun. This week's CNN's hero is giving seriously ill teens their night to remember.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Losing my hair was worse than hearing I had cancer.
Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You like it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So pretty.
Living with this life-threatening illness -- I am a whole new person -- you just wonder if this could be your last day.
FRED SCARF, YOUNG WONDER: Large here, small here, and then just put medium on the floor.
My best friend, Sherry (ph), passed away when we were in high school and one thing she really wanted to do was attend prom together and we never had a chance to do it. I didn't want to forget her charm, how funny she was, how optimistic she was. I just knew that I had to do something.
My name is Fred Scarf, and I organize proms for teens who may not live long enough to attend their own. You know, these battles go on for years and this is their life. They are continually running a marathon and they're never going to get a break.
These proms provide you with this break and create a milestone and you capture these kids imaginations and they can put on a tux and just kind of have a night off and be themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I definitely feel a different intimacy with everyone. It's so great to have a good time and let loose.
SCARF: We're going to get them all in the same place by the end of the day, which literally is on the dance floor and figuratively would be just enjoying themselves.
By the way, I hope you don't mind, I'm stealing all your girls right now.
Sherry would say, oh, my gosh, Fred and just laugh and like hit me or something. I think she'd be very proud, yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Well, Fred Scarf's work has made prom dreams come true for more than 400 teens now. If you want to nominate someone you think is changing the world go to CNNHEROES.com. America's most wanted man hunted by a 50-year-old Colorado man on dialysis? Yes, it's stranger than fiction, and you'll hear the back story to CNN's exclusive sit-down interview with a man who spends his vacations trying to kill Osama Bin Laden.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: You know, the FBI will pay $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Osama Bin Laden. But for a Colorado man, excuse me, it wasn't the payoff but being a patriot that inspired him to go to Pakistan and hunt the al Qaeda leader.
Gary Faulkner gave an exclusive one-on-one interview with CNN after he arrived back in the U.S., Wednesday. On June 13th Pakistani police stopped him near the border of Pakistan. He had a pistol, a sword and night vision equipment. Faulkner says he was trying to assassinate the FBI's most wanted man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALISTS: How does one go about trying to find Osama Bin Laden?
GARY FAULKNER, HUNTED FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN: You don't. You let the spirit guide you. And unless you have the spirit of God -- not as the mother Mary or some Mohammed or something like that. God almighty has to put his hand upon you. I have been protected. I'm here right now. I was protected this time, every time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: CNN's all platform journalist Jim Spellman got that exclusive one-on-one time with Faulkner. He told me that Faulkner who was 50 years old has been to Pakistan before.
SPELLMAN: He tells us that this is the 7th time he's gone to Pakistan to hunt for Osama Bin Laden, capture or kill him. And he says, every time he's gone, he's made more progress, met more locals, worked a little more on his language skills and built these contacts. What he would do is every year basically he would work all year, he works as a contractor, save up some money and just about every year go for two, three weeks over there and try to work on his hunt -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: It's like a working vacation. I'm going to play one clip where you ask how close he got. Listen to some of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPELLMAN: Do you think you ever got close?
FAULKNER: Yes.
SPELLMAN: How close?
FAULKNER: Well, let me put it to you this way. If I had a rifle, I could shoot him. SPELLMAN: Have you seen -- I mean, have you seen him?
FAULKNER: I haven't seen him personally, but he's very close. I will just put it to you that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Jim, I got to ask you this. Does this guy have help over there? Do you believe him when he says he's getting close?
SPELLMAN: You know, I don't know what to make of that. I mean, I think it's pretty impossible to really know. But he tells us that through the contacts he's met, what they have heard, that he's been as close as perhaps in the same valley as Osama Bin Laden. And he told me about seeing caves guarded by men with rifles and walkie-talkies, and, you know, why guard a cave? So, that's the basis. I don't think there's really, anyway to really know for sure. And I don't think he would have say he really knows hundred percent for sure that that's the case -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Yes. A lot of people have doubts about what he's doing, whether he's telling the truth. This reporter personally has doubts about it. But you asked him directly. Let's hear what he has to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAULKNER: There's people out there talking smack -- oh, he's crazy or this or that. You know what, those are the people sitting on their (EXPLETIVE DELETED) talking (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: I mean, he's certainly got the spirit behind him. Does he feel like he is a true patriot? He's actually serving this country, trying to go out on his own and Rambo-style, kill Osama Bin Laden?
SPELLMAN: Yes. I mean, he does. And listen here, the question in a lot of people's minds is, you know, is this guy crazy? I rode on the plane back with him from Los Angeles to Denver, and I really do not think he's crazy. I think, he's certainly an unusual guy. He would be the first to admit that. He's got a real larger than life personality but more than anything, he reminds me of a guy from another time, he almost like out of a Hemingway novel or something, they would go on this big adventure.
Listen, he also said people climb mountains, they jump out of airplanes, they sail around the world just to say they have done it. He says what he's doing is for God and country and there is even, you know, a big reward. So, you know, he doesn't think that what he's doing is as crazy as what some other people do just for kicks. And I honestly don't think he's crazy.
GRIFFIN: All right. All purpose journalist Jim Spellman tonight. Well, he was America's first black Supreme Court justice and a civil rights pioneer, and now the subject of a one-man play starring Laurence Fishburne who tells us what made Thurgood Marshall's life a uniquely American story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: In tonight's "What Matters," the Supreme Court's first black Justice Thurgood Marshall is a subject of a one-man play that's travelled the country and will open in Los Angeles tomorrow. The man would plays him, Laurence Fishburne and the playwright George Stevens Jr. talked exclusively to CNN about their play "Thurgood."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURENCE FISHBURNE, ACTOR, "THURGOOD": Before I read the script for "Thurgood," I knew nothing about Thurgood Marshall. I didn't even know the man was born in Baltimore. I only knew that he was the first African-American to be appointed to the Supreme Court. That's all I knew.
But let the record show I wrote 98 majority opinions. Not a one of them was overturned by the Supreme Court.
He was a very, very funny man. He was also a very serious man when it came time to be serious. I think he understood there was a time and a place for all kinds of behavior from human beings, and he indulged in those things at the appropriate times.
The Negroes who are forced to submit to segregation are all American citizens who, by accident of birth, are a different color. Color makes no difference insofar as this court is concerned.
GEORGE STEVENS JR., PLAYWRIGHT, "THURGOOD": Marshall was a man of heroic imagination. A hundred years after the end of slavery in the '50s, he looks around and lives in a segregated society where people can't go to lunch counters, schools, swimming pools, all of that discrimination, housing, and decides that you can use the law to change it. And that was such an active imagination.
THURGOOD MARSHALL, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Whoever calls the shots determines whether we have integration, segregation, or decency.
FISHBURNE: It is a uniquely American life. And he talks about America, the last thing that he says, he quotes Langston Hughes, and he says, "America will be." That this is a work-in-progress. That this is the great experiment. And it is. And that we all have a stake in it. And that we are all sort of in some small way responsible for realizing it.
STEVENS: I found a little note to myself that I had when I was writing it, "information is the enemy" because you tend to want to -- gosh, they really should know this, they need to know that. So it's a way of artfully finding a way to salt in what people need to know without it becoming a history lesson or a lecture.
FISHBURNE: I tell him, well, I'd accept a lifetime appointment. I'm staying for life.
"Education is not the teaching of the three Rs."
MARSHALL: Education is teaching of the overall citizenship, to learn to live together with fellow citizens. And above all, to learn to obey the law. I worry about the white children in Little Rock who are told as young people that the way to get your rights is to violate the law and defy the lawful authorities. I'm worried about their future.
FISHBURNE: "I don't worry about those Negro kids' future. They've been struggling with democracy long enough. They know about it."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Thurgood Marshall died in 1993 at the age of 84. Now, a play.
Well, even for the world of celebrities this one is a bizarre feud. We're going to tell you what pop star Lady Gaga did to get on the bad side of another big name comedian, Jerry Seinfeld.
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GRIFFIN: Well, on Saturday we always want to try to catch up with you on some of the news you may have missed this week. You have no doubt seen this photo, the famous Times Square kiss of the sailor in the uniform nurse as the nation got word the end of World War II. It appeared in "Life" magazine and later became one of the most famous American photos of all time. That woman there is believed to have been Edith Shain. Edith Shain died this week of cancer. She was 91 years old.
Some of the more plus-sized folks are less than enchanted by the new Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios Orland. They're being turned away from Harry Potter and the forbidden journey because seat restraints won't fit around them. Universal has attendants waiting with test seats and belts to check people in line to see if they're just too fat or if they can fit comfortably on board. The ride just opened a little more than a week ago.
Well, in this corner we have outrageous pop sensation Lady Gaga. In the other corner comedian and former sitcom star Jerry Seinfeld. How did these two get on each other's radar and what's their beef, our Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): OK. Maybe it's not a showdown on the scale of president versus general. But Seinfeld versus Gaga ain't exactly chopped meat.
VOICE OF JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: Oh, she's a jerk.
MOOS: It started politely enough. SEINFELD: I wish her the best. You know, you take one "a" off of that and you got "gag."
MOOS: Jerry started to rag on Lady Gaga during a WFAN sports radio interview when talked turned into these pictures. Lady Gaga at a Mets game dressed in a skimpy outfit giving photographers a certain finger. To get her away from the paparazzi, the Mets gave her a new seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They escorted her to your luxury box.
SEINFELD: You know, I changed my mind. You're right. This woman is a jerk.
MOOS (on-camera): Seinfeld's box was empty when Mets management moved Lady Gaga into it. He only found out later that she'd been there.
SEINFELD: I hate her. I can't believe they put her in my box.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did.
SEINFELD: That I paid for. This is what you give people the finger and you get upgraded? Is that the world we're living in?
MOOS (voice-over): The Mets apologized, but Seinfeld evidently felt stung. And here you thought Lady Gaga had a monopoly on outrageous outfits. As for that upraised middle finger --
SEINFELD: What is she giving the finger? Speaking of interesting and new, how old is the finger?
MOOS: It was an action Lady Gaga had defended earlier by tweeting, I guess I'm just a Bronx cheer kind of girl.
MOOS (on-camera): But even while dissing Lady Gaga, Seinfeld did put his finger on something interesting about the anatomy of the hand.
SEINFELD: Now, the thumbs up is a good finger, right? So, you really one finger from a compliment.
MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin in Atlanta. I'll see you back here tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Eastern. "Gary & Tony Have a Baby" starts right now.
