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Supplies Delivered to Trapped Miners in Chile; Research in Limbo after Stem-Cell Ruling; New Home Sales Down; State Programs Offering Incentives for Recycling; Analysis of Last Night's Primaries; WikiLeaks Releases New CIA Documents; Families of Nine Patients Seek Justice for Loved Ones from NOLA Hospital; Saving Fuel, Cutting Emissions
Aired August 25, 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: As Tony said, I'm Ali Velshi. I'm going to be with you for the next two hours today and every weekday, taking every important topic we cover a step further. I'll try and give you a level of detail that's going to help you put your world into context. So let's get started right now. Here's what I've got on the rundown. There's been a lot of news on the housing market this week. It might make you think the economy is heading into the tank again. But hold on. I'm going to take a step back, a deep breath, and put it all into perspective for you.
Plus, it is one of the most tragic and enduring mysteries of Hurricane Katrina. Nine patients die the same day, in the same way, at the same hospital. And to this day, their families call it murder. We've been investigating for years, and we're going to show you what we found out.
And it's an auto part that can boost your fuel mileage, cut your emissions, and it's available. NASCAR racer Kenny Wallace joins us live for a test drive later in the show.
But our top story right now. This continues to draw the world's attention, 20 days into their ordeal, and it is only the very beginning. We are following developments in Chile, where these 33 trapped miners are finally getting some of the supplies and the mental stimulation that they'll need to stay healthy and sane.
Now, they have not been told that it could be months before they're out. Maybe as long as Christmas. Authorities are really trying to prevent both psychological and social breakdowns.
So let's zoom out. Big picture for a second. These 33 men are in an emergency shelter of sorts at the bottom of the mine. You can see it there. You can see one hole going down to that mine, but it's only 6 inches in diameter. They can put food and some water. They can get communication with the miners, but they're trying to drill that other hole on the right, and that could take months. That's the big picture.
Now, that area that they're in down there, it's a shelter. It's about the size of your living room. It's 90 or 95 degrees down there, and that's almost half a mile deeper than the Empire State Building is tall.
Now, these guys have already been trapped under ground for longer than all but a handful of miners have ever been trapped underground, or at least in recent history.
Let's go right to Chile where Karl Penhaul is there with the latest developments on the ground.
Karl, it's amazing that they're alive. It's amazing that there's a plan to get them out. But we really could be months from a rescue. What's happening right now?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And that's what the experts are keeping repeating this morning. And that is because the new drill that has been brought in, the drill that is going to make a hole about 35 inches wide, I guess, about as wide as a man's shoulders, it's the speed that that drill moves.
And so they're building a concrete platform now on top of one of the hills just by the mine, and then that drill cannot advance any more than about 60 feet a day. And so when we're talking about 2,300 feet, then you'll appreciate, it is going to take a long time.
Also, what one of the rescue experts told me, in addition to the technical aspects, of course, they've got to look after the men, make sure they keep fit in body and in mind. And over the course of the next few days and few weeks, the idea of giving them these nutritional and vitamin supplements in liquid form is to make sure they stay healthy, but also that some of them, in fact, even slim down so they can fit through that hole. Because one of the rescue workers told me today, miners tend to be a bit portly, a bit thick-set, and he says a few of them might have too large a belly to fit easily through that hole. So everything has to be done to make sure they're in shape so they can actually fit through that hole, Ali.
VELSHI: Karl, the miners, as we just said, have not been told how long it will take. Clearly, their families have. That's got to be affecting them and traumatizing them. And I can just see over your shoulder what appears to be a makeshift memorial that's been set up. How are the families dealing with this?
PENHAUL: Well, I just want to take you to those makeshift memorials. As you can see there on all the rocks around this area, the families have put photos of loved ones. They've put prayers for loved ones. This one here for Jimmy Sanchez, he's the youngest miner, 19 years old, and today I was talking to his young wife, as she has a 2-month-old baby.
And she said quite amazingly, Jimmy does not like going down the mine. He never did. He was a miner for six months before this cave- in, and he said he's frightened of the dark. He doesn't particularly like enclosed spaces. And she said also that he's frightened of spirits. I said, "What spirits?" Chilean miners are very superstitious, and they believe that under the ground are the spirits of other miners who have died in the past. So she believes that her man, her husband, Jimmy, is going to be very frightened right now.
And what we've also seen from some of the letters that have come up to the surface, because last night, the first kind of bulk mail shot came up from the miners to their family members on the surface. Some of them quite clearly say, you know, "Thanks for standing by us. Now, please -- now that you've found us, get us out quick." It is really quite apparent that they seem to have no concept that this could take three or four months.
It could be that only the most experienced miners do have some idea that this is going to be a long haul, and they simply, for the mental well-being of the others, aren't spilling the beans just yet, Ali.
VELSHI: A drama unfolding underneath a half mile under the ground. What a remarkable story. You're on it. We'll stay on it. Karl Penhaul, thanks very much.
Karl talking about both the physical and the psychological that needs to be dealt with right now. There's the physical. There's food. There's water that needs to be had. They've got to get fresh air. And then there's the psychological. How long are they going to be there? And do those miners, as Karl said, who have been underground for a long time, know that this could be months?
Let me talk to somebody who knows about this. Joining me on the phone is Bob Ferriter. He's a senior mine safety and health specialist with Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. Obviously, some of the finest mining experts in the world are in Colorado.
Bob, let's address both of those. Let's address the physical, first of all. What is the issue here? They know where these guys are. They know exactly where they are, but they've got to start drilling a hole from scratch. Is it just that it's going to take three or four months to do that?
BOB FERRITER, SENIOR MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SPECIALIST, COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES (via phone): It will take that long, yes. They're down about 700 meters, and that, of course, is a gold and copper mine, so you would expect the rocks probably to be metamorphics, which are pretty hard. So it's not going to be an easy task to drill another -- a hole that big down there real quickly. It's going to take time.
VELSHI: One of the problems -- I mean, to those of us who don't understand mining all that well, it seems like they know where they are, they know how to drills holes, obviously. It's a mining company. What are the issues with drilling a hole straight down there and doing it fast?
FERRITER: Well, the problem is, you know, drilling is subject to -- it's kind of a slippery slope. Things can happen. You can hit a fault that you don't anticipate. You can get your drill bit stuck. You might break the drill rod. So even though you're expecting a rather quick pass in and out, it could take a lot longer than that. Those -- those problems do occur in drilling. And, you know, down in Chile is no different than drilling here in the United States. So hopefully, they can just go right on down. I don't know how long it took for that 6-inch hole to be put down there. But a bigger hole like that is going to be a real -- a real task.
VELSHI: What do you know about these shelters? Are they fairly standard, the type of place that these guys would be in? We know the size of it, but is that the kind of place that, if they had to and they were supplied with food and medication and things like that, that they could exist for a few months?
FERRITER: Well, they could if they have -- you know, the things you have to worry about, you have to worry about the quantity and the quality of the air in those shelters, and that doesn't appear to be a problem in this case. There's no fire or smoke or carbon monoxide.
In this country, anyway, the shelters have to be provided with food and water and communications. So that -- now with this hole in this, of course, they can put a limited amount of food and a limited amount of water. But I understand that they are using some of the mine water for drinking water, so that helps on that situation. So food is probably the big thing.
And, of course, you know, in a survival situation like that, if you have water and air, you can survive for quite a while, even on a very limited amount of food, because you're not doing any physical work. I think the biggest problem you're going to encounter here is the psychological effect on the miners. Being in that -- obviously, they don't have the creature comforts that we have on the -- on the surface. So you know, it's going to be an uncomfortable situation.
VELSHI: Let's -- let's examine that a little more. Stand by, Bob, for a second. I want to show you this picture that we've got here, which is a picture captured by a camera that was sent down that hole. That is the look in the eye of one of the miners. That's the fear of one of the 33 men who are two and a -- or a half a mile underground.
I want to talk to Jerry Linenger now. He's a former NASA astronaut joining me on the phone.
Jerry, are you there?
JERRY LINENGER, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT (via telephone): Yes, and I agree that, psychologically, it is a very tough ordeal.
VELSHI: Well, you're as close as we've come to talking to somebody in something -- in a similar situation. You were in space. Tell us about this. Thirteen years ago, you were one month into a four-month mission. What happened?
LINENGER: We had a big fire. Oxygen generator started on fire, big flame, three or four feet, sparks flying, smoke, can't see the fingers in front of your face. My crew mates and myself worked methodically through it, survived. And pretty much from that day forward, I think I had the confidence that, hopefully, the miners are feeling. They've survived down there for 17 days, trapped, and they probably have a lot of confidence in each other. You know, methodically work through it. Used a backhoe to scrape up some water, ration that tuna fish. Did everything right.
And when that peephole came through, the bore hole --
VELSHI: Yes.
LINENGER: And hope from above, it's sort of like Mission Control calling me up and saying, "Jerry, the shuttle is coming up four months from now." And I was fine with that. As long as there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and you know the people down on earth are working as hard as you're working to stay alive, and in our case to get the mission accomplished, you know, there's hope. And hope is a thing that keeps you going and keeps you out of that psychological hole that you don't want to go into.
VELSHI: What's the thing, Jerry, that they need the most? They're going to get the water that they need. It's hot down there. They're going to get gel food, and as an astronaut, you know that you can survive on -- on very basic food. They may have cravings for some things, but they'll get that. This -- this -- what has to happen to keep them sane, to keep them from having anxiety attacks?
LINENGER: You know, that's the biggest surprise I had up there, is how cut off from mankind I felt. I was with two Russians. They spoke no English. Only talked to mission control in Moscow, only in Russian language for that entire time.
And that, you know, I'm an old Navy guy, been out on submarines, but that was a different form of isolation, being cut off.
These guys, 2,200 feet under the earth, very similar. You know, it's both in the extremes. But the key is to keep yourself on an even keel, and to see that light at the end of the tunnel. And that's why I really warn, when they finally get the message down to them and the news is not going to be good that, you know, we're not going to be there tomorrow, we're going to be there in three or four months, they better be very precise about that, and frame it in a sense of, worst case is, you know, five months from now. Best case is three months from now. We expect four months from now.
They will go into a depression at that point. They will sink down. Their spirits will be exhausted. But they will rise up. You know, man can rise up from that. But trying to rise up a second time, if you overpromise and under deliver, that is a very tough proposition.
VELSHI: Jerry, I wish they could hear your voice, of course, once they learn that they're going to be down there for a while. But that really sort of reaffirms our -- our sense of the human spirit.
Jerry Linenger is a former NASA astronaut. Bob Ferriter is a senior mine safety and health specialist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. Thanks to both of you. We'll, of course, keep following this story very closely.
Another story that we are following very closely is a judge's ruling that temporarily blocked funding for embryonic stem-cell research. Actually, might permanently block that funding. Who does this actually affect? We keep hearing from scientists that critical research isn't getting done. Well, what research got stopped because of this decision? We are going to talk about it with Elizabeth Cohen when we come back.
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VELSHI: Sometimes our graphics say it all: "Stem Cell Decision: What Now?" We heard about this. A judge striking down the Obama administration's order, allowing hundreds of lines of stem cells to be used in medical research. We've heard from scientists, federally- funded scientists, saying there is a great deal of funding for research that is in jeopardy now. And some of that research itself is in jeopardy.
So we've asked Elizabeth Cohen to come on and tell us, what research is in jeopardy as a result of this decision?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. We're going to look at the present and the future.
Right now, there are about 22 projects that are going on for stem-cell research that are up for renewal soon.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: And it is unclear whether they will get renewed, because of this recent decision. As a matter of fact, it's not looking great for them.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: And these are people who are doing research that could help people with Parkinson's, people with Alzheimer's Disease, people who have spinal cord injuries, which is why the late Christopher Reeve --
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: -- was so active in this before his death. And there is a lot of concern that, when they come up for renewal, that they will not be given any federal funding.
Plus, there are about 50 new applications that are in the works that kind of have to be put to a halt.
VELSHI: Well, what's your sense of it? A lot of scientists have really described stem-cell research as the Holy Grail. I've had other people posting on my Facebook page, and you know, I don't know anything about this sort of thing. And they said, well, can't you use cord blood for this sort of thing? What's the sense of how many further off we are, if we are to be able to research using stem cells?
COHEN: I think it's important to remember that, while embryonic stem-cell research -- it could be the Holy Grail, that we're still talking years and years away. They're still doing relatively basic research right now. Parkinson's will not be cured tomorrow --
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: -- because of embryonic stem-cell research. Even without this judicial opinion --
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: -- it wouldn't get -- it wouldn't be cured tomorrow.
Now, the question you ask is a great one, which is, can cord blood, you know, cells from newborn babies --
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: -- or cells from placentas, or there are all sorts of other kinds of sources, are they as good as the one from embryos? It would be great if they were, because you wouldn't have to destroy an embryo.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: And that's the whole problem. But a lot of researchers say they're not quite as good. They're different.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: They're good for other things and that the embryonic ones have their own special properties.
VELSHI: All right. Well, what's the buzz in the research world right now? I mean, does everybody just have to wait and see what happens now? Are there projects being shut down and people being laid off and research being stopped?
COHEN: Well, first of all, they were shocked by this. They feel like it came out of the blue. I don't know why they felt it came out of the blue, but they did. But they are definitely nervous that some of their projects might have to be ended. It hasn't happened yet. The NIH says keep going, but they're nervous in the future it could happen.
VELSHI: And the NIH said that they're having the Justice Department trying to interpret this for them to try and make -- so we're still in that sort of understanding what it means.
COHEN: There's more than one way to interpret this decision.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: I think that's the important -- you're absolutely right. VELSHI: All right. Elizabeth, thanks very much for being with us on that.
COHEN: Thank you.
VELSHI: Listen, new home sales took a big dip last month. We just got those numbers. They're brand-new. We're going to tell you where it's happening, what it means for the price of your home, when I come back. Stay with us.
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VELSHI: You may have thought you heard this story yesterday about home sales dropping. That was existing home sales. When we talk about homes in America, there are two kinds. There's existing or used homes. The kind somebody lives in and sells to you, and then there are new homes.
New homes have always been a much smaller part of the economy than existing homes. They make up about 8 to 10 percent. But yesterday we got existing homes, and we saw that the numbers had dropped in July compared to a year earlier. Today we get new homes.
Take a look. Same picture. They've dropped. I'll tell you why. The peak there, that peak on the top of that map, that is -- that's the end of the -- those homebuyers' credits, the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit. That ended, and boy, that was like a free coupon to buy a house, or an $8,000 coupon to buy a house, and when that disappeared, you can see that home sales dropped fairly dramatically.
New home sales are important, because if you're building homes, that means you've got jobs for construction workers and cabinet makers and you've got appliances being sold and things like that.
Let's take a look at how this pans out across the country, first of all. You'll see that the biggest drop in the sales of new homes has been in the west, a 25 percent drop. Well, that's because the west is the part of the country that was the most overbuilt. You'll remember, Nevada, Arizona, California. That's where all that building was going out. Less so in other parts of the country. Still, a fairly big drop in the northeast.
Now, let's talk about prices. These are the number of homes being sold. How does it affect the prices of those homes? Well, you can see that three years ago, the median price -- that's the price at which half of all new homes were sold for more, half for less -- median price is about $240,000 three years ago, just before the recession.
A year ago, it had dropped to $210,000. Now it's $204,000. So we're down a little bit on new homes.
Existing homes, by the way, are worth a little bit more than they were a year ago. Sky is not falling, but there's some bad trends on housing. We'll keep you posted on all of it. And if you want to know more about this, tune in on the weekends every Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern and every Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern. I'll talk about a lot more having to do with your money on "YOUR $$$$$," right here at CNN.
Now, don't recycle, and you could get hit with a fine in some places. In fact, there are some places in the U.S. using a chip to trash [SIC] your recycling trends. It's not just about being green; it's a way to earn more green. I'll tell you about it, right ahead.
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VELSHI: It's really remarkable, when you think about how much we throw out, that if you start recycling or you get efficient at recycling, how much garbage can be saved, and how much can be reused and how much energy can be saved.
Now, I'd heard about all sorts of programs where municipalities were sort of encouraging citizens, sometimes even fining them, to make sure that they separated all their trash and got the most out of recycling.
But then I heard about this one, which is fascinating to me. In Cleveland, they had a pilot project, which they are expanding now, where they actually use radio frequency I.D. tags to make sure people are doing the right thing with their trash. The program has been working, and they're expanding it.
Now I will tell you that it's not the only place doing this. Cleveland has got this program. Charlotte, North Carolina, has got something similar. Alexandra, Virginia, and Laurel, Maryland, these are all places that use some sort of high-tech or some kind of technology to trash -- track your trash. Other places do it using plastic bags that are clear, so they can see what you're throwing out or different kinds of bins.
I want to tell you a bit about the program in Cleveland, however. It began in 2007 with about 15,000 households. It expanded to about 27,000 -- 25,000 more households every year. And basically, every household gets two city-issued carts. One is for regular trash, and one is for recyclables.
Violators will start getting fined next year. They're only going to start enforcing it in 2011. So for now, they're letting people get used to the system.
I want to talk to the commissioner of Cleveland's Division of Waste Collection, Ronnie Owens, joining me now from Cleveland, Ohio. How's the system working, Ronnie?
RONNIE OWENS, COMMISSIONER, CLEVELAND'S DIVISION OF WASTE COLLECTION: Actually, the system is working great for us. It's been proven to save us some funds, as well as be operationally efficient for us.
VELSHI: What's the -- what's the money-saving part of it? OWENS: Well, we look at it from a number of aspects. As it relates to worker's comp claims. Every other day in the Division of Waste Collection, one of my employees is being injured. But with this new program, that went to every six days.
So, again, that will reduce some of our worker's comp claims and the injuries to our employees.
The other savings come into play when you look at recycling, and landfill cost avoidance. The beauty of this program for the city of Cleveland, that we are currently in the position where we are being paid for our recyclables. Therefore, the more we recycle, the better off the city of Cleveland will be.
VELSHI: So you're -- you're saving about $30 a ton for everything that isn't dumped into a landfill, and you're -- you can sell some of these recyclable products for about $26 a ton?
OWENS: Correct. And that's based on the current market that fluctuates up and down. We actually have been as high as $30 per ton. But right now, we've been averaging about $26 per ton for the sale of our recyclables.
And when you add that to the landfill savings of $30 per ton that you mentioned, the city of Cleveland is actually saving $56 per ton on each ton of recyclables that we keep out of the landfill.
VELSHI: Right. And as we know --
OWENS: The reason why I mention that --
VELSHI: Go ahead.
OWENS: -- figure is because of the fact that we dispose of some 220,000 tons of material each year. So you can see the more we're able to pull out of the waste stream, the better off we will be and the more money we can generate.
VELSHI: Ronnie, tell me very quickly, what the technology is. We know it's radio frequency I.D., which is the same thing as the tags we use or the toll tags we use. How does this work in the world of trash collection?
OWENS: Well, it's used very simply. I mean, it's just a tag that we're going to have inside of the container. And it will basically show where the container is supposed to be at. It will be assigned to a particular address. It will also show how quickly my workers are performing this service. It will show -- as often as -- how often the container is picked up, or if it wasn't picked up at all. So it's basically a performance measure that we're using with this technology.
VELSHI: OK. Ronnie Owens, good to talk to you. Thanks very much for being with us.
OWENS: Great, thank you. Enjoyed being on your show. VELSHI: Ronnie Owens is a commissioner of Cleveland's Division of Waste Collection, joining me from Cleveland, Ohio.
All right. There was some big primary wins last night. And there was one race that was still too close to call. I'm going to tell you about it when we come back.
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VELSHI: Take a look at the map. There are a bunch of primaries last night. We got some in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, all sorts of places. Some interesting wins, some very interesting challenges. One as yet undecided.
Let's go straight to Paul Steinhauser, our man on the primaries, to talk about that. First of all, let's go to the undecided race.
What's going on in Alaska, Paul?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: This is a fabulous story here, Ali. You've got Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Republican incumbent up in Alaska. She may become the second Republican to become ousted in the primary process by a Tea Party-backed candidate.
Right now she trails her opponent, Joe Miller, the guy there on the right. She trails him by about just under 2,000 votes. But listen, Ali, they still haven't counted at least 7,600 absentee ballots and there may be 15,000 to 16,000 absentee ballots that are outstanding. They may not count those for at least a week. This thing's going well into next week.
Joe Miller was basically an unknown until a couple months ago when Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, endorsed him, and contained for him a couple times. And he got backing by the Tea Party Express, as well. They pumped a half a million dollars into his campaign. They say Murkowski is not conservative enough for Alaskans.
VELSHI: And that's a theme they're we've been hearing a lot.
Let's go to Florida. That theme is played out a little bit, too. A number of interesting races there. Let's start with the Florida Republican primary for the governor.
STEINHAUSER: Yes. Here's another case where the outsider with some big, big bucks beat out the party insider. The outsider on the right, Rick Scott. He beat out Bill McCollum, the Attorney General down there and a former Congressman, who was the party favorite.
Scott and his wife spent, gosh, 30, maybe $40 million of their own money on the campaign. It was a bitter primary. McCollum, in his concession address last night or in his statement, had nothing nice to say about Scott. And even party insiders here in Washington not so crazy about Scott. Great race, Ali.
VELSHI: And then there is the Senate race, both Democrats and Republicans had primaries for that. STEINHAUSER: Yes. And this is the case, the Democratic Senate race in Florida where the outsider didn't win. The outsider with big bucks was a guy called Jeff Greene, a billionaire real estate investor. But Kendrick Meek, the Congressman from south Florida who had the backing of the White House, former President Bill Clinton, he won pretty easily when the night was over there in Florida.
VELSHI: But that doesn't tell you who's going to win that Senate race, because you've got a Tea Party-backed Republican, you've got a Democratically backed Democrat, and is then you have Charlie Crist.
STEINHAUSER: Oh, my gosh. What a three-way this is going to be in Florida. This is going to be an amazing Senate race. We are going to spend so much time between now and November 2nd talking about Florida for the Senate race, and now a governor's race which also has an Independent, as well. All eyes on Florida, Ali.
VELSHI: Always seems to be that way doesn't it, Paul?
Let's look at Arizona. Interesting race there. Senator John McCain got his nomination back. He beat his challenger.
STEINHAUSER: Yes. And his challenger - the most serious challenger -- was the guy on the right there, former Congressman J.D. Hayworth who was also a conservative radio talk show host. Hayworth was saying, you know what, John McCain was not conservative enough for Arizonans. But McCain took it seriously, and he took it seriously a while ago, spent a lot of money on his re-election in the primary and won pretty convincingly last night. So there you go, the party favorite, the insider has a win.
Also, other interesting races, Ali, in Arizona. The governor there, Jan Brewer, she was involved in a very tough primary battle until a couple of months ago when she signed that immigration law. And you know what? She won convincingly.
VELSHI: Yes. That helped her out a lot.
What about that Arizona third congressional direct?
STEINHAUSER: Ben Quayle, the son of the former vice president, won a primary contest in the third congressional district. The Republican was retiring so it was an open seat. There were 10 candidates. A lot of controversy surrounding Quayle because of a pretty tough ad where he called Barack Obama the worst president in U.S. history. Well, his father's name and connections, and that and some other controversies helped him out. He eked out a victory over nine other candidates. The district is heavily Republican so you expect Ben Quayle probably to win in November.
VELSHI: Man, you know a lot of stuff, which is very handy because we're going to need to talk about a lot of it as we get into these midterm elections.
Paul Steinhauser, always a pleasure seeing you, my friend.
You can always see Paul on CNN.com/politics. His stuff is really worth reading.
We're going to take a quick break. We have a lot of news for you. I'll be back on the other side.
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VELSHI: We were sort of expecting this to happen. It has happened now. WikiLeaks has released more documents.
Let's go straight to London. Atika Shubert joins us live there with the initial look at this.
Atika, what have we got?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it appears to be one document, a CIA document, according to WikiLeaks. Again, we can't independently confirm this yet. But it's nowhere near the scale of the Afghan war diary came out earlier this month with tens of thousands of documents.
This is simply a three-page document that discusses kind of a theoretical internal discussion within the CIA apparently saying, quote, "What if foreigners see the United States as an exporter of terrorism."
So it just seems to be sort of an internal discussion about the CIA about foreign opinion of the United States. So nothing really ground-breaking in this. What's perhaps just interesting is that WikiLeaks is able to release these documents, despite the legal pressure.
VELSHI: Right. It almost looks like a thumb in the nose at this point, though, because if there is nothing that dramatic in there, it just seems to be the ability for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to be able to say we can still keep doing this.
SHUBERT: That definitely seems to be the case. WikiLeaks has said they're going to continue putting out documents. And remember, it's still holding those 15,000 documents that are a continuation of the Afghan war diary. They're still working on those and they do say they will release them within a month.
VELSHI: All right. I know you're looking over it. If you see anything that strikes you, let us know. We'll talk to you again about it.
Atika, thanks very much.
All right. It's one of the biggest mysteries of Hurricane Katrina. What is behind the deaths of nine patients who were left behind at a New Orleans' hospital? Their families say they were murdered. A CNN special investigation just ahead.
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In today's Crime and Consequence, five years after Hurricane Katrina, the families of nine patients at New Orleans Memorial Hospital are still seeking justice. They believe their loved ones were murdered. Top forensic experts also call it a homicide. All nine died the same day in the same way as the hospital staff evacuated. Why hasn't anyone been prosecuted?
Well, that's what our special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin has been trying to find out for all these years.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATION UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no mystery for Lou Ann Jacobs. She knows what happened to her 90-year-old mother, Rose Savoy (ph), on the seventh floor of the New Orleans Memorial Hospital.
LOU ANN JACOB, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: She was definitely murdered.
GRIFFIN: Her mother, one of nine patients found dead in the hospital that were part of an extensive attorney general investigation concluding they were literally sedated to death by the last remaining hospital staff and a doctor named Anna Pou.
JACOB: I still feel it was premeditated murder because they planned it. They got medicine together, mixed the cocktail, put it in the syringes and gave it to the patients.
GRIFFIN: It's not just Jacobs' feelings that point to premeditation. CNN was the first to obtain this report from the Louisiana State Attorney General's investigation revealing on September 1st, the day the hospital was to be evacuated, Dr. Anna Pou told staff, "lethal doses were going to be administered to the nine patients who could not be evacuated".
The pharmacist told investigators he was instructed to bring morphine. Others told investigators they witnessed Dr. Pou administering drugs through IVs and a tray of syringes. And within just a few hours, every single one of the nine patients died. One patient awake and alert when given the lethal dose, openly complained. Jacobs said that patient was her mom.
JACOB: But I know in my heart that woman that got the shot that said "Oh! That burned!" That was my mom.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Is that not killing a person?
ART CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: That is homicide.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Art Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also one of five forensic and ethical experts consulted on the Memorial Hospital deaths by New Orleans coroner. All five concluded the hospital staff euthanized the nine patients.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Is this a case, though, where doctors did their best and failed? CAPLAN: We don't know whether doctors did their best and failed. All I can say in reading the record is that I think they assisted the death involuntarily of these patients. If you ask them if they talked about it, they just said, "We better put these people to sleep."
GRIFFIN (voice-over): A grand jury was convened to investigate, but neither Caplan nor the other four experts were asked to testify. That grand jury failed to indict anyone.
Five years later, despite all the evidence, the New Orleans coroner still classifies the deaths as "unknown."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want justice.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Relatives of these victims have good reason to be frustrated with the law enforcement community here in New Orleans. Their cases, the cases of their loved ones, remain unsolved homicides.
And guess what else? Nobody seems to want to solve them, including the district attorney in open court last month. Leon Cannizzaro, the new district attorney of New Orleans, called what happened at memorial hospital a homicide. "I do believe human beings were killed as a result of actions of doctors."
That's what he said in court. Then he went on to say that he has no intention of pursuing the case unless new evidence shows up at his door.
(voice-over): Like the coroner, Cannizzaro said in court he just doesn't feel he has enough evidence.
(on camera): And get this -- the new district, Leon Cannizzaro, he won't even come out and tell us why. After weeks of asking and one day of waiting, the district attorney, we were told, slipped out a side door. Through her attorney, Dr. Anna Pou has consistently refused requests for interviews with CNN. But she has told other media outlets that, while she did inject some patients with the potent drug combination, it was for palliative care, comfort, not murder.
In the ensuing years, the state, which employs Dr. Pou, has paid out hundreds of thousands in legal fees to settle cases against her.
Drew Griffin, CNN, New Orleans.
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VELSHI: Wow, what a story.
All right, CNN's Anderson Cooper heading back to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to see how the region is holding up five years after Hurricane Katrina. Check out "IN KATRINA'S WAKE" a "BUILDING UP AMERICA" and "AC 360" special tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern.
All right, we've got a celebrity in the house today. NASCAR racer Kenny Wallace joins me next to talk about the Liberator. What's a Liberator? Well, it's something that could make your car more fuel efficient. I'll tell you all about it when I come back.
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VELSHI: Every day, we bring you a "Big 'I'," a big idea that could help actually change things in your world. Now, I like that anyway, and I found this idea that I thought was really neat. But I liked it extra because Kenny Wallace, NASCAR driver -- NASCAR star, is involved in it.
And I like talking to guys like you, so what a pleasure to have you here.
KENNY WALLACE, 9-TIME NASCAR NATIONWIDE WINNER: Good to see you, Ali. Awesome.
VELSHI: You're talking about something called the Liberator. Now, I'm standing here because I've thrown Chad out of the building for this. Chad is actually down here, and I'll get to him in just a second because he's outside the building with a car that has this thing called the Liberator in it. It's an inexpensive device, very simple looking.
Tell me about the Liberator.
WALLACE: You know, we're all trying to save fuel, Ali. So the Liberator Fuel Saver is a device that goes behind the throttle body, it changes the airflow that comes into your motor. We call it a swumble technique. That's something -- that's a word we designed --
VELSHI: Swirl and tumble.
WALLACE: Yes, swumble technique, exactly. So it changes the airflow and it does three things that we're really excited about. It gives you more torque, your motor will run better.
VELSHI: Let's show our viewers that.
WALLACE: Yes. It goes in behind here, here we are.
VELSHI: This is you installing this this morning.
WALLACE: Yes, this morning right out in front of the CNN studios. It does three things, it gives you torque in your motor, better fuel emissions and absolutely saves gas.
VELSHI: OK, so here's my rudimentary knowledge. We know that the colder your air going in, the better it is, and the more air that goes into your engine, the better it's likely to run. What's different about this?
WALLACE: What's different about this is that it's behind the throttle body. Here's the throttle body, right here. It's the first one ever to go behind the throttle body.
All the other ones you've seen, they disrupt the air flow. When the air comes in and it goes through the Liberator --
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VELSHI This is the part that gets me. It's this little thing.
WALLACE: Right. It's a nice piece. It's brass. And it's so easy, I mean, you could do it in ten minutes. A shade-tree mechanic could do it.
VELSHI: You might be able to do it in 10 minutes, I don't know about me.
WALLACE: You could do it. A shade-tree mechanic could do I, anybody could really do it. But if you're comfortable under the hood, it goes in in less than 10 minutes.
VELSHI: What kind of improvement on mileage do you get out of this sort of thing?
WALLACE: One to two in the city, two to four on the highway. You will notice the difference at the pumps.
VELSHI: All right, Michael, are we able to go down to see what's going on out there?
So I'm just going to -- see this is the problem with sending Chad out here. I have to learn how to use his wall. There we go, there's Chad.
Chad, this is crazy. I can manipulate you on your own wall.
Chad is standing next to Leslie Gray who's a VP with Global Sustainability Technologies which makes the Liberator.
And, Leslie, I know you know a lot of the technical stuff about this. I'm going to get a whole bunch of people telling me about it, but tell me what you guys have learned down there.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What have we learned down here? And what have you learned about inside this engine that this little piece of brass does?
LESLIE GRAY, GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY TECHNOLOGIES: Oh, this little piece of brass is an amazing device. It increases your fuel mileage, it reduces your tailpipe emissions and increase your low-end torque all in one simple product. Now that's impressive.
MYERS: Now, I have to admit, this looks like something I've already seen on TV. But, Ali, how is this different than something else you've seen?
The others would go inside this hose. Well, guess what. By the time all this swumble got back through the throttle body and into your engine, it wasn't swumbling anymore.
So what these people have done -- this is how easy this is. You take off this hose, you get to your throttle body, you pull it off, you put this inside, literally inside your intake manifold and put your throttle body back on. And you can do it, I know you can do it in three minutes. I have three bolts, one minute per bolt.
It's in there, it's already running and then you put everything back together and it will run smoother, quieter.
And if you get more torque, if more horsepower, if you get more miles per gallon, what does that do to the economy of the car? What does that do to the fuel efficiency? And also, the air quality coming out of the tailpipe?
GRAY: You can save hundreds of dollars each year, hundreds of dollars. You can save up to four miles per gallon on the interstate driving down the highway, and that puts money back in your wallet.
MYERS: And it's also a CO2 thing, too. If you don't have to use so much gas to get one mile, you're using less CO2, putting less CO2 in the atmosphere.
GRAY: That's correct. You can check out the EPA's calculator, and if you increase your fuel mileage by only two miles per gallon, you will decrease your output into the environment of hydrocarbons by 1,159 pounds per year.
MYERS: We have to put this car back together, Ali. So give us a couple of minutes, I'll be back.
VELSHI: I'm glad it's you down there. I'm glad it's you down there because if I were there, you would've taken three bolts and I'd have been --
WALLACE: Looks like he's sweating. He's cracking a bit of a sweat there.
VELSHI: All right, Leslie and Chad, you hang on there. I'll be back here with Kenny Wallace.
Kenny Wallace is a nine-time NASCAR Nationwide winner. What a pleasure to have you here. I know a lot of our viewers are very excited that you're here.
WALLACE: Thank you.
VELSHI: I'll be back to talk to Kenny a little bit more. I want to talk to him a bit about the world of racing, too.
Head to my blog, by the way, and I've got some information on Kenny. I'll tell you about that after the break as well.
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VELSHI: I'm here --
(LAUGHTER) VELSHI: I'm here with Kenny Wallace. And I'm wondering -- I thought this was a really innovative idea, and what do I see first thing today? I see this picture of Kenny and Robin Meade. What happened?
WALLACE: What happens is I get a cab from the airport and I jump out of the cab and I'm just acting silly. I'm in front of the CNN studios and I'm like, where's Robin Meade? Just acting silly. She's right in front of me. I'm like, a star like that is walking right out. And she's good-looking, you know.
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VELSHI: Do you say that about me, too?
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WALLACE: You're a good-looking guy.
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VELSHI: I got to bring in these guys from outside a second, but want to talk to you -- you said a big star like her, a lot of people -- you're a big star to a lot of people. You're a NASCAR racer, NASCAR winner.
But I want to take you back to that race in 2000, Talladega. The nine races you've won, your more famous in some cases for the race you didn't win.
WALLACE: Yes, true. You know, Dale Earnhardt, the very last race he ever won was in 2000 in Talladega. With about five laps to go, me and Dale Earnhardt Sr., the black number three, we had a bad pit stop and we both came from the back; I passed him, he passed me. One lap to go, here me and Dale Earnhardt are fighting it out for the win.
And all these fans, Ali, they come up to me, man, we love you, Kenny Wallace, you pushed Dale Earnhardt to his last win of his life. It's sad for me, but isn't it crazy that of all the races I've won, the one that all the fans remember is the one I run second.
VELSHI: You said something to me in the commercial break, that the sport is safer because of Dale Earnhardt's death?
WALLACE: Yes, Dale Earnhardt did not die in vain. NASCAR is a great group, a great association. They went to work and made our sport way safer.
You know, used to be where we would hit a concrete wall -- so barbaric, run into a concrete wall. Now we have safer walls.
And you know, we're still -- it's dangerous out there still, but it's so much better because of the death of Dale Earnhardt. We have Hans (ph) devices, so many safety things in our sport now because of Dale's death, and he didn't die in vain. It's made our sport better VELSHI: Hey, Chad, not just you are a gadget guy who knows a lot about a lot of things, but you've actually got some connection to NASCAR.
MYERS: I did a little bit of NASCAR. I did some ASA pit reporting, and I also wanted to give a shout-out to the University of Nebraska that made those safer walls, Kenny. And the Hans device is actually developed right here in Atlanta, Georgia.
So this is the hotbed of NASCAR. No one knew this about CNN, how up to date we are on NASCAR.
VELSHI: That's exactly true.
WALLACE: And I did note, I raced in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and he was a reporter back in the day. All of you, I tell everybody comes from somewhere. So it was really -- I think he made $300 one time in about two weeks. But yes, it was really great.
VELSHI: The Liberator, theirs is not one unit. There's different ones for different makes of cars, because I noticed how well it fit into that whole thing. How many of these are made?
WALLACE: The Liberator Fuel Saver, there's about 10,000 different ones made. And the reason that is, is because you've got a different make, different model, different year. So we make them for everything.
VELSHI: Kenny, good to see you guys. Thank you very much for being here.
WALLACE: Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: And thanks to our team outside for the little demonstration, nice work being done, Chad. You're welcome to come back up again.
Chad Myers outside the center.
Hey, for more information on the Liberator and Kenny, head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali.
What a treat to have you around. Thanks very much.
WALLACE: Thanks, Ali.
VELSHI: And I won't tell Robin that you like your picture with her more than you like your picture with me.
