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BP Aims to Plug Gulf Well Tomorrow; Inciting Holy War; FBI and Justice Department on the Case in WikiLeak Investigation; Disasters 'Round the World in "Globe Trekking"; DNA Exonerates Texas Man in "Crime and Consequence"; Bionic Legs Makes a Difference for Wheelchair-Bound Individuals

Aired August 02, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Randi, thank you so much and so great to see you here in Atlanta.

I'll be here with you for the rest of the afternoon. I'm Ali Velshi, as Randi says.

Here's what I've got on the rundown:

Static kill -- it is the first step in a two-part strategy that could plug the Gulf oil leak once and for all. They hope to start it tomorrow. We're going to go deeper into that.

We're also going deep near WikiLeaks, the investigation. The soldier accused of leaking U.S. military secrets may have had some outside help -- some very smart outside help.

And a human disaster unfolds in Pakistan. Monsoon floods have claimed more than 1,100 lives so far.

We've got that and a lot more this afternoon.

But, first, I want to tell you about what is going on under the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, it's a new method, it's called "static kill."

Let me first show you what's going on under the ocean right now. Let me show you that camera. As you can see, no oil flowing. This cap that has been on there since July 15th has actually been working quite effectively. But they're getting ready to try something called "static kill" -- a little bit different than the top kill method that didn't work well over a month ago.

The difference right now, of course, is when they went in to do top kill, there was still oil flowing. There isn't oil flowing right now, so what they're going to do is put that mud and cement, run it through a bunch of twisted wires, all of these things that are going on right there, they're pumping it through. And basically, when it gets into that well, it's going to solidify, it's going to block that well, and it can go right down into the well itself.

Now, let me tell you that the ultimate fix for this well is still going to be the relief well that is being drilled. There are two relief wells being drilled into the main well. One of them, as you can see on the right, is almost there. In fact, they're just about ready. They're casing and cementing the liner into that.

And then what they're going to try and do is they're going to do something called bottom kill. They're going to pump things into the -- into one of those pipes that they've dug and push it up. And that should be the end of this well, we hope, once and for all.

Now, one of BP's biggest critics in Congress, Congressman Ed Markey, has continued his claims that BP went overboard in its use of dispersants, vastly exceeding the amount that they were supposed to use. BP denies this. So does Thad Allen, who is the national incident commander.

I want you to listen to these two people talking. The first one is Ed Markey, he's the chairman of Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and then you'll hear the response from Doug Suttles, who's the chief operating officer of BP. Listen to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Even though there was an agreement in late may that the EPA led that it would be used only rarely, as the weeks and months went by, it turned out that it was used on an almost daily basis. And that's why we have to ensure that internal bleeding inside of this ocean is monitored very closely, to make sure that we understand what the ramifications are of having this unprecedented scientific experiment being conducted.

DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: There were very, very rigorous protocols we had to follow. We had to apply for permission to apply 'em. It was based on surveillance data. The federal on-scene coordinator, the Coast Guard, has to formally approve those. Some days, they approved our requests, other days they didn't, and they reduced our requests.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

VELSHI: OK. So that's the issue of the dispersants. I kind of rushed through the description of the static kill method, partially because I'm a fast talker, but really because I knew Chad is here. He's the expert on this, and it deserves a little more time and attention.

So, Chad, tell us what this, and how it's going to work.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Two words, and there are four terms. Top --

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: -- kill. Bottom kill. They are completely different.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: One, 18,000 feet in the bottom of the ocean.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: The other one on top where the blowout preventer is.

Two, different -- and I'm going to make a familiar three tree here, just like we do at CNN. There was the dynamic part of the static kill that they tried to do earlier.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: And now, they're going to do a static kill. They are both -- they are both still top kills.

VELSHI: I got it, OK.

MYERS: They are both still pump mud down into and into the blowout preventer, or in this case, there's even the secondary part they can pump it in, and it will probably go into the BOP, because it's just easier, and the valve is already there, the choke and the kill end (ph) of it. And then this mud, this very heavy mud.

VELSHI: Right. We call it mud, but it's drilling mud.

MYERS: It's a chemical.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: It is -- it is a heavy almost mercury-like fluid.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: I mean -- and it's so heavy that it will push -- literally, it will push the oil back down into the well, all the way down into the reservoir.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: Problem is, you've got 7,000 almost PSI right now in this BOP.

VELSHI: That's pressure going up. That's 7,000 pounds per square in.

MYERS: Seven thousand pounds per square in this thing.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: So then you've got to have at least 7,010 PSI to get in it to make it go down. And I'm worried that you're starting to raise the pressure even more. I say leave this darn thing alone and kill it on the bottom.

VELSHI: It seems to be working, right?

MYERS: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's like my Alfa Romeo, I don't fix it if it's not broken, right? It just it doesn't work all the time.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: I've got to find some guy named Tony. I don't want to do that.

So, here's what they're going to do today. They're going to try, they're going to fill in with mud. They're going to see what happens, because there's a certain benefit for this when they go down to do the static kill, if there is literally no upward pressure. That's when they would do it.

VELSHI: Right. And that's why they're waiting for that other well to be drilled, the reserve well that's almost there, because that will help. If they push this down and the pressure starts building to the point that it becomes dangerous, if they've got that relief well dug, they can use that as a release.

MYERS: There are probably eight to 10 days from getting the relief well and making that little pin point -- literally, they have this big, they have -- 18,000 feet down, they have to find a hole in the ground that's this big so they can get their little new drill popping.

VELSHI: Well, it's day 105, and this is necessary to understand that most people are not considering this a done deal yet, which is why we're still talking about this, even though since July 15th, there hasn't been oil leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.

MYERS: I don't know how many times -- why do we call it dynamic, why do we call it dynamic? Because there was oil shooting out.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: And now, there is not oil shooting out. So, it's static. That's why they didn't get to do, but OK.

VELSHI: All right. We'll continue on this, testing goes on today, they're hoping they're going to start maybe tomorrow?

MYERS: Yes, 12 hours.

VELSHI: All right. We'll stay on top of this.

All right. This story you've got to hear. This guy is American-born and educated. He is also the man that some say is Osama bin Laden's heir apparent. We're going to tell you about him and how important and how dangerous he could be right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. You've probably seen this guy's picture over my shoulder. His name is Anwar al-Awlaki. He is a Yemeni and U.S. citizen. He's a joint citizen. He's born in New Mexico.

And his major goal is to wage war against the United States and the West. In fact, there are a lot of people who think this man is the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden. He is fluent in English. He's fluent in Arabic. He's fluent on the Internet and in social media.

Deb joins us now. Deborah Feyerick joins us now from New York with more on who this man is, and whether or not we should be particularly worried about him -- Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, and, Ali, we should be worried about him.

What makes him so dangerous is that young men who are predisposed to violence are looking to this self-taught cleric to legitimize their acts of terror against the U.S. in places like Canada and Great Britain. And his knowledge of the West comes not simply because he was born here in the United States, but he studied for more than a decade. He went for his PhD, what he learned, who he met, all of that, authorities are fearful, make him incredibly dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, RADICAL CLERIC: Well, that's what they're doing today. They're plotting to kill this religion.

FEYERICK (voice-over): From the safety of his hideout in Yemen, American Anwar al-Awlaki poses a threat to the United States unlike any other.

LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER, CENTER FOR ADVANCED DEFENSE STUDIES: I believe Anwar Awlaki represents the heir apparent to the overall al Qaeda global effort.

FEYERICK: Al-Awlaki, not yet 40, has vowed to bring America to its knees, one terrorist at a time -- an army of lone wolf insurgents.

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: He is the individual that is continuing the doctrine that people like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri started.

FEYERICK: His credentials as an American citizen, fluent in English and Arabic, give him the unique authority among social media- savvy wannabe jihadists.

AL-AWLAKI: And I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself -- just as it is binding on every other able Muslim.

GOHEL: He, unlike others, has been able to recruit --

FEYERICK: Counterterrorism expert Sajjan Gohel --

GOHEL: Al-Awlaki, through his Internet sermon, is praying on these young people, encouraging them to go off to far-away lands, which they have no real relationship with, to link up with terrorist outfits.

AL-AWLAKI: The simple answer is: America cannot and will not win.

FEYERICK: As a spiritual guide, ideologically condoning violent acts, this YouTube jihadist has inspired dozens of young men.

In the last few years, alleged plotters include the Times Square bomber, the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jet liner over Detroit, the alleged Fort Hood shooter, young American- Somalis bent on jihad and others -- all following a man born 39 years ago in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Awlaki spent his teen years in Yemen before returning to study in the United States.

(on camera): Anwar al-Awlaki was 19 years old when he came here to Colorado State University to study engineering. He received a $20,000 federal grant, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Applying for a student visa to come here, he lied and told authorities he was born in Yemen, not here in the United States.

(voice-over): Years later, that lie almost got him arrested. He was investigated for passport fraud following 9/11. But the arrest warrant was rescinded and al-Awlaki left America in 2002, never to return.

YUSUF SIDDIQUI, FORMER AWLAKI CLASSMATE: I got the feeling --

FEYERICK: Yusuf Siddiqui and Awlaki were good friends, taking the same classes, and sharing a love of Islam.

SIDDIQUI: We were both passionate about being part of the Muslim Student Association, and, you know, just combating stereotypes, and misunderstanding and ignorance.

FEYERICK: But there was another side to the young al-Awlaki, rooted in the years spent in Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland.

SIDDIQUI: I think he was proud of the fact that he had been to Afghanistan, and, you know, learned something about, you know, the mujahidin and maybe trained a little bit.

FEYERICK: Trained to fight Soviets in a guerrilla war bankrolled by the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: You know, it's unclear whether that training actually sparked Awlaki's radical path. However, his studies in leadership and human nature really are giving him these tools to develop a very powerful message, which is this global jihad online. I mean, here's somebody who has a Facebook page.

And, you know, one thing that's interesting -- I spoke to a number of very prominent clerics, and they say that people listen to him, but something happened. He spent time in a prison in Yemen, and he turned against the United States after that. And even if he were to say, you know what, I made a mistake, the United States isn't so bad, these experts say that really, people are going to follow him regardless because they're predisposed to committing these acts.

VELSHI: And this is interesting. You and I were following the underwear bomber in Detroit on Christmas Day, the 9/11 bombers, Fort Hood bombers -- all roads lead to this guy. And often, the first question that comes up when there's an attempted terrorist attack is whether this is somebody who's working under instructions or it's a lone wolf. This guy seems to be attracting a lot of lone wolves.

FEYERICK: Well, that's exactly right. And that's what makes this so fascinating, is that all of these people seem to be finding him one by one by one.

VELSHI: Right.

FEYERICK: And that's really what he's advocating, is simply this lone wolf insurgency. Let's all rise up, wherever you are, do what you need to do, but do it.

VELSHI: Potentially much of harder to fight, you can't -- hard to have a counter insurgency when you've got a bunch of lone wolves all over the place.

FEYERICK: Well, it's exactly right. You need a much larger army just to find a single lone wolf.

VELSHI: Yes. All right, well, you've got another part we're going to be showing tomorrow?

FEYERICK: Yes, absolutely. Tomorrow afternoon.

VELSHI: Excellent. Thanks very much -- Deborah Feyerick in New York, our expert on these matters. We'll see more of this tomorrow. We'll follow up with who this guy is, and why we need to be concerned about him.

We are up close and personal for today's stakeout -- Ed Henry gracing us with his presence, tagging along on President Obama's trip to Atlanta. We're going to talk about what he was doing here, the president, and, of course, what our good friend Ed is doing here. He'll be with us in the -- the steak house is right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Special treat today. Not only is Ed Henry -- not only do we get an extra, a bonus addition of the stakeout, but Ed is right here with us in Atlanta. We had had a lovely time last night. We got a chance to hang out a little bit.

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The plane was delayed.

VELSHI: I know.

HENRY: It seemed cranky that I was late, but it wasn't my fault.

VELSHI: Wouldn't you be cranky? If somebody were waiting for you and you were late, wouldn't you be cranky?

HENRY: It happened to me last week actually.

(CROSSTALK)

HENRY: You were late, I waited for you, and then I wanted to go to bed. So you kind of blew me off.

VELSHI: I waited for you last night.

HENRY: You waited for me last night.

VELSHI: I did eat dinner.

HENRY: Without me.

VELSHI: You were very late.

HENRY: You went to the steak house.

VELSHI: I went to the steak house.

You're here, and it occurred to me as I'm driving into work today and I see all these police cars randomly stopped in the middle of the street with their lights on in Atlanta. Oh, yes --

HENRY: That was not for me.

VELSHI: -- the president was here. I was trying to bring the two together. The president is here in Atlanta, he was speaking not too far from here at --

HENRY: Disabled American Veterans.

VELSHI: -- Disabled American Veterans. And he made some interesting comments about Iraq.

HENRY: Yes. This is a pivotal moment of the war in Iraq. We haven't talked about it a lot in recent months. A lot of the focus now is on Afghanistan, but by the end of this month, all U.S. combat troops are going to be out. There are still going to be tens of thousands of troops there.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: We should -- we should remember that. And technically, they're still in combat, even though they're not combat troops --

VELSHI: They're going to be called advisers.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: And there are tens of thousands of them. But the president -- take a listen to how he sort of laid out how he sees it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq, and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010, America's combat mission in Iraq would end.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And that is exactly what we are doing -- as promised, and on schedule.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: I mean, look, every other week, this president is hammered by one interest group or another for not fulfilling a campaign promise.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: He said -- and this is really the thing that fueled his campaign, we forget that. But early on in 2007, it was differentiating himself from Senator Clinton on the war in Iraq --

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: -- that really sort of fueled the sort of push on the left, the momentum that he got, if you will, and then started attacking toward the center. But he is fulfilling this campaign promise. But the challenge in the months ahead is going to be, when you talk to Arwa Damon, our correspondent who's been in Iraq since 2003, on and off, basically, she says the situation on the ground is much worse than U.S. officials are saying.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: And Iraqi officials in recent days have put out statistics saying July was actually one of the worst months, one of the deadliest months in two years.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: The administration is pushing back hard and saying they don't believe those Iraqi numbers, but it does raise the question, there's going to be some celebrating now, but six months, a year from now, is the Iraqi government going to be stable?

VELSHI: So, we're down -- we'll be down, according to President Obama, to 50,000 troops by the end of August left in Afghanistan, as you said --

HENRY: In Iraq.

VELSHI: In Iraq, I'm sorry.

HENRY: There's 100,000 U.S. troops pretty soon in Afghanistan.

Now, interesting, the White House doesn't want to sort of declare victory, because I asked Robert Gibbs --

VELSHI: Well, that's what I was going to say, is there going to be a banner "Mission Accomplished" --

HENRY: Well, that's why they don't want -- when I asked Robert Gibbs this in the briefing a few months ago, he said, look, we're not putting a banner up. They learned that lesson from the Bush administration.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: But it does raise a fair question, which is: if the president is going to tout this now as his campaign promise, did the U.S. win this war or not?

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: And I think that is a question that they're going to continue to get, and they're not going to necessarily want to answer, number one. But I think, number two, when you mentioned Afghanistan, so now, we're about to have 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, 100,000 U.S. troops --

VELSHI: And the same questions are being asked about Afghanistan, why are we here, are we fulfilling the mandate, what is it going to look like? And there are questions about when the U.S. troops are going to leave Afghanistan?

HENRY: The president is saying next summer, we'll start pulling some, he won't say how many out of Afghanistan, but you got the same idea, as you said, will the Afghan government --

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: -- be stable enough once the U.S. starts pulling out?

VELSHI: So, it's possible that we could be pulling our troops out of everywhere and no one is left substantially more stable than when we started.

HENRY: We shall see.

VELSHI: In the case of Afghanistan, almost 10 years ago.

HENRY: You know, I was just talking to Arwa about this very point when I was covering the end of the Bush administration -- you know, all the criticism from the Obama campaign, for example, in 2008 was that the Bush administration took their eye off of Afghanistan after 9/11 and put all of it on Iraq.

VELSHI: On Iraq, yes.

HENRY: You have to wonder now whether the pendulum is going to shift, and all of a sudden, because we're in a bit of a rush to fulfill this deadline to get out of Iraq --

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: -- all of the attention is focusing on Afghanistan, and the U.S., in recent years, has had a tough time finding that balance.

VELSHI: By the way, you notice, I'm wearing --

HENRY: I like your vest. You know, I don't -- I don't wear a vest well. By the way, I wore this ties, I brought two ties. One, the World Cup tie you got me.

VELSHI: Yes.

HENRY: I was thinking about wearing. And this morning, I chance it, because this is the tie from last week you said looked fetching.

VELSHI: It is a fetching tie, there's no question.

HENRY: I appreciate it. But it kind of threw --

VELSHI: Fetching?

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: You never heard anyone say that.

HENRY: And not -- not from you.

VELSHI: Maybe we should do that as a "Wordplay." Good to see you. We're going to have an extra --

HENRY: You don't really want to get into that.

VELSHI: We're going to do an extra stakeout, right?

HENRY: We're going to double. I'm here.

VELSHI: Double steak house.

HENRY: I'll be here all hour.

VELSHI: Like a Porterhouse steak.

HENRY: As long as you want, I'll be here.

VELSHI: Very good. We'll talk to you in a little bit.

HENRY: It seems like you're trying to get rid of me.

VELSHI: I'm not -- no, I just have to do another story.

HENRY: All right. You want me to stay or not? I'm here in Atlanta.

VELSHI: Please stick around.

All right. Am I doing my stuff here or am I going to do it over here?

All right. When we come back, we're going to take a break and get Ed out of the scene and then I'm going to come back and bring you up to speed on some of the big stories that we're following right here on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I want to give you a quick look at what the Dow is doing right now. Good strong start to the day. It was up right from the beginning, 185 points right now, to 10,650.

Ben Bernanke gave a bit of a speech in which he said that the -- you know, the recovery is going to be long and bumpy, but he thinks there are some bright spots in the economy. That's helped the market right now.

Hard to tell what drives these markets these days. You've been seeing these triple digit gains and triple-digit losses back and forth for a while. But for today, we'll take this one.

Let me bring you up to speed with stories we're following here in -- at CNN.

There was more rain today in Pakistan, already suffering from its worst floods in 80 years. More than 1,100 people have died so far. Tens of thousands more are stranded.

Iran's President Ahmadinejad is again calling for one-on-one talks with President Obama. He's proposed a meeting during the U.N. General Assembly session in September. There's no reply yet from the White House. The U.S. has ignored similar offers in the past.

Military secrets on the Internet means motives, opportunity, it's all part of the equation. But it also takes know-how -- and the worldwide probe about those WikiLeaks takes us live to the Pentagon when we come back for some new developments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Let me give you a quick rundown of the hour's headlines.

Another tropical depression has formed in the Atlantic Ocean -- that's the fourth one this year. It's located more than 1,300 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and forecasters say that it poses no immediate threat to land.

BP says it hopes to begin the "static kill" procedure tomorrow. Crews will pump mud and cement into BP's crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico in a bid to seal it permanently, and we're hearing that the knowledge of whether it worked will be -- come to us in about hours, not days. Final tests are being completed today to allow that to happen.

All right. I want to tell you a little bit about the WikiLeaks investigation. We're going to talk to Barbara Starr in just a moment. But the man who tipped off the federal government about the WikiLeaks suspect in custody, a U.S. Army private called Bradley Manning, he now says that two MIT students claim to have given Manning the encryption software and showed him how to use it.

Now, before we go to Barbara, let me just spell out who's involved in this thing. First of all, these are the players in the WikiLeaks release of the war logs. The first one is Julian Assange, he's sort of the founder or the editor of WikiLeaks. He calls himself the whistleblower.

Then there's the intel analyst I just told you about, jailed Army PFC Bradley Manning who is in the Army's custody at the moment, right now.

And then there's the tipster, the one I was telling you about, who has told the government about how this happened. He's a former hacker named Adrian Lamo. And then he has said that there were two guys, we'll call them the "brains," who are MIT students who advised Bradley Manning on how to get access to this information.

It's a bit tough to follow. But they're getting to the bottom of it. And our person on the job is our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who has the latest information. Barbara, what do we know?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, look, let's say first, right off the bat, innocent until proven guilty. All of these are, indeed, allegations being investigated. But the investigation is broadening.

In fact, of course, late last week, the FBI and the Justice Department called in, and you see right there on the wall, broadening out to the civilian world. It will be the FBI and the Justice Department that will look at people outside the U.S. military to see if they were accomplices. The army's criminal investigation division looking at it here inside the U.S. military here the in Pentagon in the U.S. Army.

Both sides are cooperating, but now you really begin to see how this is broadening out. And that allegation that two people who attend M.I.T. were possibly involved. Defense Secretary Robert Gates still looking at how did this happen? How did one soldier in the Army download tens of thousands of documents? He is beginning to offer some hints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: One of the changes that has happened as we have fought these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been an effort to put as much information and intelligence as far forward to the soldiers as we possibly can. So that at a forward operating base, they know what the security risks are to them, and they -- and they also have information to help them accomplish their missions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: So, Manning was out at one of those forward operating bases, most likely knew that the security measures on the computer systems wouldn't catch the fact that he was downloading a large amount of material. That, at least, is the worry. Gates wants to figure out how to control the information, Ali, but still get the soldiers what they need in terms of intelligence so they can do their jobs.

VELSHI: Manning is the guy who is suspected of being involved in the release of those videos that showed U.S. Army -- U.S. military helicopters and the killing of civilians. Has anybody got any ideas as to what -- if he was behind this, and as you said, they're allegations, what his motivations might be?

STARR: If they do, they are not saying. And clearly, that's one of the things they want to know. What motivated him to do this, who might he have been working with? Because it's those kinds of questions and answers that will help the military try and prevent this from ever happening again.

VELSHI: Barbara, you've got a series starting today at 5:00 Eastern on "THE SITUATION ROOM" where you have been traveling with some wounded soldiers on their journey home. Tell us about this.

STARR: Ali, I cannot tell you. I just don't know what to say except how proud I was, really, to meet some of these soldiers, real honored to see these young Americans.

We did something very different. We went and flew the evacuation flight home from the war zone with some of the most badly wounded troops. You know, usually when we see them here at Walter Reid, at Bethesda, they're already, thankfully, well on their way to recovery. But what we saw was soldiers right off the battlefield, still in pain, still on morphine, still trying to make their way home.

It's going to be a three-part series, we hope everybody takes a look at it.

VELSHI: All right, we definitely will, starting today, 5:00 p.m. Eastern on "THE SITUATION ROOM." Barbara Starr, Pentagon correspondent, great to see you as always. Looking forward to the series.

In Pakistan, people stranded by widespread flooding. Entire communities devastated. More than 1,100 people are dead. Our first stop when we go "Globe Trekking" as soon as we come back from this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Okay. Time now for "Globe Trekking," which we do every day, taking you around the world.

First, deadly widespread flooding in Pakistan. The death toll has just gone up; as many as 1,500 people have died, and the death toll expected to continue to rise. Nearly 2.5 million people have been affected by this. Monsoon rains continue to fall today, adding to the devastation and misery for millions of people. CNN's Reza Sayah flew over some hard-hit areas in a government helicopter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is our first look at some of the flood-ravaged areas in northwest Pakistan from up above. The Pakistani military taking us on a helicopter tour of some of the hardest-hit areas, and what we saw down below was widespread devastation. Village after village, especially those next to rivers and waterways, underwater. We saw thousands of homes destroyed. If they weren't destroyed, they were buried in mud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And in these pictures, you'll see some elderly survivors being evacuated from flood areas by Pakistani army helicopters. U.N. officials say thousands of other people are stranded on their rooftops or on higher ground. These are pictures I was telling you about, trying to get people out from harm's way.

Hundreds of survivors have expressed outrage over what they say has been the government's slow response to this. Officials say they're doing the best they can, considering all the roads and bridges were washed out by the flooding. Food and drinking water are in short supply. Fear is growing of outbreaks of cholera and other diseases. And the heavy rain is expected to continue through the week.

OK, next, we go to Russia. Vast areas of this country are burning, as well. The pictures actually will say it best. Let me show you some of those. Nearly 700 wildfires laying waste to about 450 square miles. At least 34 people have been killed in these wildfires. Thousands of people have had to flee their homes. Firefighters have their hands full battling those blazes. Homes have been burnt to the ground in 14 different regions in Russia.

The cause, of course, are these record temperatures and a drought. Those record temperatures all the way through Europe. And there is no relief in sight. Oppressive heat is expected throughout the week for central and southern parts of Russia.

And let's just take this over to the Emirates right now. If you're a BlackBerry user, be glad that you don't live in the United Arab Emirates. The government, citing security concerns, is suspending BlackBerry service. Stan Grant is our man there. He's in Dubai with details on the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the offending article right here, the BlackBerry. According to local media, there are around about half a million users throughout the United Arab Emirates.

But as of October 11, you won't be able to use the BlackBerry for instant messaging or e-mailing or web browsing. It comes down to the way the information is encrypted and sent to servers outside the country. The United Arab Emirates government says that creates a security problem. They simply won't be able to monitor this information. And they say that users will be able to use it without the proper legal accountability.

Now, there is criticism, of course, that this cuts into freedom of speech and civil liberties. But the UAE government says they have been trying to negotiate for the past three years to bring about a proper resolution to this. They want to be able to bring BlackBerry use within their own legal framework.

So, as of October 11, BlackBerrys such as this one simply won't be able to be used the same way in the UAE.

Stan Grant, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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VELSHI: All right. He was jailed at 18, freed at 45 when they realized he didn't do it. DNA to the rescue in Texas. "Crime and Consequence," coming up next.

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VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed on some of the top stories we're following here at CNN.

It's Day 105 of the Gulf oil disaster. Won't you be relieved when we don't have to talk about that anymore? Officials have their fingers crossed. They're making an attempt tomorrow to seal that ruptured BP oil well once and for all. It's called static kill. It involves pouring mud and possibly cement into the well from above, pushing that oil back into the reservoir.

In about 20 minutes, Chad will join me. We will describe it to you, and hopefully you won't have to hear more about it once the well is sealed. Hopefully.

Warning alarms sounded on the international space station over the weekend. That would freak me out. A circuit breaker tripped, shutting off power to a pump that connected to the station's cooling system. NASA says the crew isn't in danger, but a space walk may be necessary to fix the problem.

When I'm too cold in my apartment, I don't even want to get up and adjust the air conditioner. Can you imagine going out into space to fix it? Former vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care following heart surgery last month. But remains in the hospital. Cheney's daughter Liz says he could return home this week.

All right. I want to bring you up to speed on "Crime and Consequence." We do this every day, and I want to tell you about a story that absolutely fascinated me. Fascinated me.

It's about a man named Michael Green. He was convicted at the age of 18 for a 1983 rape, and he was convicted -- he was given 75 years in jail. Spent 27 of them in jail. And he was freed, being the second person last week in Harris County to be freed because he was wrongfully convicted.

DNA testing is what got him off the hook. The only remaining evidence in the case were the victim's clothes. They were found and analyzed, and compared to his. And guess what? They didn't match. The D.A.'s office now has identified three new suspects in that 1983 case, thanks to DNA. None of them can be prosecuted, however, because there is a statute of limitations.

Texas, by the way, leads the country in prisoner exonerations. About one-fiftieth of the country's prisoners tend to be exonerated. But Texas is about 20 percent of those overturned convictions.

Michael Green was convicted solely on the victim's identification of him as the rapist. And per The Innocence Project, he was one of the first DNA exonerations in this country. Victims -- in terms of the DNA exonerations that take place, victim and witness misidentification was a factor in 75 percent of the cases, so it's the leading course -- the leading cause of incorrect convictions. Unvalidated or improper forensic science is a factor in half the cases. False confessions and incriminating statements are a quarter, and jailhouse informants and snitches are a factor in about 19 percent of wrongful convictions.

I should tell you, the thing about Michael Green that caught my attention is he got into a verbal scuffle with one of the guards on his way out as he was being released, and as a result, they delayed his release for another day. So, 27 years wrongfully convicted, and they didn't let him out of prison because he got into it with one of the guards.

VELSHI: -- as he was being released and as a result they delayed his release for another day. So 27 years wrongfully convicted and they didn't let him out of prison because he got into it with one of the guards. Wow, interesting story.

OK. What if there were a way for those in wheelchairs to be able t able to stand up, walk upright, go upstairs? Sounds too good to be true but two high school friends have invented a robot that can do just that. I'm serious about that. Check out our Big I, right after the break.

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VELSHI: OK. In today's Big I, which we do every day, a new idea that could change the world. A remarkable invention that gives people in wheelchairs the ability to walk.

Now, check this out. This is Rex. It stands for, what is it, Robotic Exoskeleton. It's basically a pair of robotic legs that allows you to stand up, walk, go up and down stairs. The creators say that if you can use a motorized wheelchair, you can actually use Rex. You can see the picture of the wheelchair in the back.

The creators of Rex, Richard Little and Robert Irving from Rex Bionics join me now. They are from Auckland, New Zealand, joining me via Skype.

Guys, this is exactly what we're thinking about when we think about big ideas.

First of all, how did you even come about this idea? How did you guys get together and start working on this?

RICHARD LITTLE, FOUNDER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FOR REX BIONICS: Morning, Ali. Well, seven years ago, Robby (ph) here was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had therefore had a reasonable chance of requiring a wheelchair. Both of our mothers were in tears and so we knew some of the physical action required that peple in chairs experience and we thought that we'd do things differently. It was a big idea.

VELSHI: Well, brilliant. Robby, let's talk a little bit about how this works. Tell me how this works. It almost seems simple. I know it can't be that simple. So tell me what happens.

ROBERT IRVING, CO-FOUNDER OF REX BIONICS: Well, what happens. That could take a long time to describe. Basically, it's electro mechanical, the way it works. User tells it what to do, it does it.

VELSHI: And this is available as you guys have said, Richard, to people who can otherwise use a motorized wheelchair? So if you have the ability to move that wheelchair, you can do this.

Let's just talk about what -- you know, who this is for.

LITTLE: It's more for created for somebody who uses a manual wheelchair who has the ability to self transfer. We don't discriminate by injury or illness or anything like that. So to say that somebody uses a manual chair, they can self transfer so they can get themselves in and out of the chair (INAUDIBLE) or into Rex. You have the ability to use a joystick and have some sort of trunk control and upper body balance. Then, you're probably good to go with Rex, as long as you don't have no other (INAUDIBLE). Someone with spinal cord injuries - really high spinal cord injuries, mid-chest level somebody like that could use Rex and get the most benefit out of it.

VELSHI: All right. Obviously people are going to want to get their hands on this. Is it available yet and has it got approval from the necessary authorities?

LITTLE: We're just completing approval for Europe and we're going through the process with the FDA so that we can release in the states next year.

VELSHI: What is the likelihood that someone who can use this? What's it going to cost them and is it the kind of thing you get insurance to pay for, Robby?

IRVING: Not too sure on that but we hope so eventually.

LITTLE: Right now the insurance situation is, there's an insurance reimbursement code for a set of robotic legs. That's something we'll be working on when we release next year in the states.

VELSHI: What are we talking about cost-wise and how does it compare to a wheelchair that that person might be using?

LITTLE: It's a lot more expensive than a wheelchair. There's a lot more technology crammed in there. So it's more expensive to that. But it's comparable to other things such as the bionic legs that an amputee might wear. It's $150,000.

VELSHI: Robby, what would you say the biggest advance is here over the other exoskeletal type of legs we may have seen?

IRVING: The biggest advantage - I'm not sure -

LITTLE: The biggest advantage with Rex is that you don't require to use your shoulders of your own strength or balance to use Rex. The other exoskeleton systems that you see out there, you either have to have something to belance, you need to be able to walk, you have to have some kind of straength, and some of you need the upper body strength to support yourself using crutches. Whereas Rex is completely autonomous. You tell it to stand, it stands up. You push walk and it walks. It takes care of everything from there.

VELSHI: We're watching some of the video from that. I sort of see, I get the walking part fairly easily. But you can get up and down stairs with this. That worries me in terms of balance.

How does this compensate for your ability to balance on your way up and down stairs?

LITTLE: It's a complicated robotic system that has its own electronic system. You still have a user in it so they still have some influence over their balance (AUDIO GAP) as well. Users like to be able to do some of that work themselves, as to some of the exercises they do while they're in the machine.

The biggest thing about it, the mobility is fantastic. You can get up and down stairs, slopes and generally walk around. The biggest thing is that when people come out and they see just how great it feels, you know? They feel really good. They feel like they're back is better. They feel like their skin is better. They're using their bowel and bladder functions and spinal cord and (INAUDIBLE) to feel great. So the biggest thing about Rex is that you feel great.

VELSHI: Right. And that's an important thing when you've got spinal cord injuries, the bowel and bladder functions are always compromised, can lead to higher blood pressure and those types of incidents. It's not just a convenience thing, this is a big improvement for people who are wheelchair-bound.

I hope to you guys that it gets approved and that lots of people start using it. Hopefully the price comes down and insurance pays for it and all these great things happen. Good luck to both of you and congratulations on a lot of hard work that's led to this.

Thanks very much, guys.

LITTLE: Thanks, Ali. Pleasure talking to you.

VELSHI: Pleasure. Robert Irving and Richard Little, co-founders of Rex Bionics from Auckland, New Zealand, via Skype.

To find out more on these bionic legs, they really do look fascinating, check out their web site rexbionics.com.

OK. Forecasters I told you a little about this earlier. They're watching a new tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean. Chad Myers is going to tell us whether or not this is a threat right after the break. Stay with us.

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