Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

New York City Tests Organ Donation Pilot Program; WikiLeaks Targets Russia; Leaks Hurt Problematic Ally?; Obama, Powell Meet at the White House

Aired December 01, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Brooke Baldwin a little under the weather, so I will take you through the next two hours here in the NEWSROOM.

And we're beginning with breaking news. This is coming out of suburban Detroit. There is an office building, apparently, on fire. This is tape we're showing you. Don't know if anybody was inside or what the extent of any injuries there are there.

But you can see roads around the building shut down due to heavy smoke. Our affiliates are reporting that you can see that smoke for several miles. This is again happening in suburban Detroit.

And "The Detroit Free Press" newspaper reporting that that building there on fire is listed as for sale.

More breaking news right now on the WikiLeaks, the muckraking Web site that's been posting secret U.S. governments from all across the world for everybody to see. At this hour, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is setting his sights on Russia for his newest document dump.

Let's get right to our man in Moscow, Matthew Chance.

Matthew, WikiLeaks is down here in the United States, but you apparently still have access to the site and have access to newly posted material there.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm surprised. But, yes, here in -- in Moscow, the Russian capital, I'm not having any trouble at all looking at the site and seeing the -- the latest dump of classified, in this case, secret cables from the -- the embassy in Russia, the U.S. Embassy, about the political situation here in Russia.

What -- what the latest cables talk about, predominantly, is the situation regarding corruption in the country. And it's absolutely condemning about the level of corruption in Russia.

The cable that I have been reading has been dumped on to the Internet within the past few minutes, actually. It is dated from February of this year, and so it's relatively recent compared to the other cables. And it was written by the -- the U.S. ambassador to -- to Russia, John Beyrle. It talks about the involvement of -- with corruption and organized crime of the Moscow city government, and that the former mayor of the -- of the city -- he was the mayor at this time this was written. He's the former mayor now, Yuri Luzhkov.

It says the Moscow city government operates like a -- a kleptocracy, with Yuri Luzhkov on the top of the pyramid, with the security services, like the -- the old KGB, the FSB, forming a second tier, and then ordinary criminals and corrupt government inspectors at the bottom.

The cable says that the businesses in this country, in this city increasingly turn to the corrupt security services, like the police and like the Interior Ministry, instead of criminal gangs, to pay their bribes and to get protection, because, in the words of the cable, they have more guns and they are protected by the law.

A source that is quoted in this -- this secret cable says that the FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, is considered to provide the best protection. And so it -- there's much more detail. But, as you can hear, it's pretty condemning about the situation.

Here's -- here's the last point. And it's quite a long cable, so forgive me.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CHANCE: I'm sort of struggling coming to terms with -- with all the details in it. But here's the -- here's the crucial point in it, I think.

The cable quotes a source which has been deleted in the version on the -- that's appeared on the WikiLeaks site saying that all of this, everything, depends on the Kremlin. Luzhkov, as well as other mayors and governors, it says, pay off key Kremlin insiders. People pay bribes all the way to the top. And that, I think, is issuing. It's the closest this cable comes to implicating the country's top leadership in corruption --

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: You know, Matthew, I'm -- I'm reading, I believe, the same cable you are. And -- and -- and this is from the -- the ambassador, the U.S. ambassador, I guess. And he says that the government operates more as a kleptocracy than a government.

To -- to people who do business in Russia, and those that I have talked to, this is nothing new. I'm wondering what the fallout you believe this will be, now that we have this kind of out in the open.

CHANCE: No, I think that's interesting. Of course, that's been sort of characteristic of a lot of the -- the documents, the cables that we have seen dumped on the WikiLeaks site. And people who observe the various situations around the world and in this case who observe the Russian situation will not at all be surprised by this rather frank description of, you know, how it works and, you know, how the situation works in Russia. It is, you know, corrupt from top to bottom. I think anybody who knows anything about Russia today in the 21st century knows that to be the case. But to see it set out like this, in such a matter-of-fact way, and to see the extent to which it's been accepted by the State Department, by the U.S. department, presumably, by other diplomatic missions as well, that -- that Russia is just, in the words of the cable, just a pyramid of corruption, is -- is quite interesting and quite stark.

And I think the Russian leadership are going to be wincing when they see the words that are put out in this cable.

GRIFFIN: All right, Matthew Chance in Moscow, thanks.

And, Matthew, we have this just in from the White House here in the U.S., the White House announcing Wednesday that Russell Travers has been named to oversee government-wide efforts to fix security gaps, in light of these WikiLeaks publications of classified documents.

The Obama administration releasing a statement that indicates the Pentagon and the State Department will work on security concerns as well, of course, trying to stop these kind of document dumps in the future.

Well, New York City started a controversial program today aimed at increasing the number of organ donations. This is probably going to surprise you. The test program allows doctors to approach families who have just lost a loved one, and approach them right in their homes, not later at the hospital.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is following this story. She joins us from New York.

And, Susan, at first blush, this almost sounds barbaric to me. But why don't you explain what's behind all this?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a remarkable test program; that's for sure, Drew. And that's what needs to be emphasized. This is being tried out for five months only.

And, if it works, it could widen the pool for people in need of kidney transplants. Now, here's how it's supposed to work. If someone dies at home of cardiac arrest -- your heart stops -- well, someone, of course, will call 911, and an ambulance rushes to the scene. That is the same as always.

But, under this program, a donor network will also be notified. But there are a lot of qualifications here. The deceased must already be an organ donor on New York's registry. And calls are required to the family. Relatives must agree to it. If they don't, that's the end of it. Doctors can only wait 20 minute for a decision. But, if the family agrees, a transplant team will go to work. A specially trained crew will preserve the kidney. And, within four to six hours, the kidney could be removed for transplant.

GRIFFIN: And -- and how many of these kind of teams will be out there, Susan? Do you -- do -- do you know yet? Is it just going to be one team in one certain area of the city?

CANDIOTTI: I think they only described one team at this time, although they're training a lot of -- a lot of individuals. There's only one vehicle, as far as we know, and there are only certain parts that are in the geographic area, only certain parts of Manhattan, for example. It doesn't include the entire New York City area.

But, if this test program does work, thousands could benefit nationwide, eventually, because, right now, in the United States, organ donors can only donate if they die in hospitals, as you said, under certain circumstances -- circumstances.

GRIFFIN: Mm-hmm.

CANDIOTTI: And they have 8,000 organ donors a year. This, they project, could expand donations throughout the United States to 22,000 organ donations a year, if it works.

But, as we said, there are a lot of requirements. The donor has to be registered. The family must agree. You can only be between the ages of 18 to 60. You cannot have cancer or an infectious disease. You cannot be a victim of violence. Police have to sign off on this. And, for now, this only involves kidneys.

GRIFFIN: All right, Susan Candiotti in New York -- thanks, Susan. We will be watching that with you.

CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: That's a nice audition, today, World AIDS Day. And there are some 17 million children orphaned by AIDS worldwide.

Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys dropped by the NEWSROOM to share how she's trying to make a difference. She told that to Brooke Baldwin earlier today. And that's ahead.

And months after the cleanup of the BP oil spill, the president announcing that ban on oil drilling in the Eastern Gulf, it is going to go on for at least seven years. We will have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Here's a quick look at three of our top stories.

No new oil drilling in parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Senior White House officials say President Obama will not allow drilling in the Eastern Gulf for at least seven years, this after last spring's explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, which led to one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

The founder of WikiLeaks makes Interpol's most-wanted list. Julian Assange is accused of sex crimes in Sweden. He has been in hiding since his Web site started releasing hundreds of thousands of these confidential State Department documents. The Justice Department and Pentagon have launched criminal investigations of their own. Assange's attorney calls the international arrest warrant -- quote -- "bizarre and irregular," comparing it to tactics of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Unemployment benefits running out for nearly two million Americans. Senate Republicans and Democrats aren't seeing eye to eye over how to fund the continuing payouts. Congress had already extended the deadline for filing four times in the past year.

Well, have you ever wondered why you may crave fattening foods after a stressful day? There's new research on mice that may explain why. That's ahead.

And how to trim the nation's enormous debt. The president's bipartisan commission assigned to answer that question now sharing recommendations. Where do they come together? Where are they apart? Gloria Borger is going to explain it all.

Gloria, can't wait to hear from you. You're next.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Let's fill you in on what is happening in Washington right now during this lame-duck session.

Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner leading compromise talks on the tax cut. We told you about this yesterday, bipartisan tax talks arranged at that meeting at the White House between the president and Republicans. They said the talks would start right away, and they have.

Geithner gathered the group this morning and said they would meet again this afternoon.

We're also watching this, the debt commission, its recommendations out today. Let's give a listen to the commission's two leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERSKINE BOWLES, CO-CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM: Together, I think we have started an adult conversation that will dominate the debate until the elected leadership here in Washington does something real.

ALAN SIMPSON, CO-CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM: Things in this world have dramatically shifted, shifted on this planet that we all survive on. Things are very different than they were two to three years ago. We all know the figures and we all know the math. And the fact really is, this is it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Well, before I talk to Gloria Borger, I want to hit on the tax recommendations, because the commission is essentially calling for a tax increase to help bring down the debt.

Here it is, essentially. There's going to be three tax rates, if they get their way, no write-offs. For incomes of up to $75,000, you've got a tax rate of 8 percent. From $70,000 to $210,000, it's 14 percent. And above $210,000, the rate is 23 percent.

So, lower tax rates, but the popular write-offs would be gone. And for a lot of folks, that could mean or will mean higher taxes. They are also recommending across-the-board spending cuts, including military, federal health care spending, farm subsidies, the arts, the post office, the Holy Grail, Gloria Borger.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: There's so much not to like.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: There's no guarantee that the commission --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

GRIFFIN: -- can even approve its own recommendations, right?

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: I mean, what's going to --

BORGER: No.

GRIFFIN: -- happen here?

BORGER: -- not at all.

Well, it -- I think, if you were to take a bet, you would have to bet right now that it wouldn't get the requisite 14 out of 18 votes it needs by statute to get this to the floor of the Congress. You have got to convince members who are up for reelection to vote for this.

Now, they had some good news today. They had the two ranking senators on the Budget Committee, Judd Gregg and Kent Conrad, signing on to this. But Judd Gregg is not running for reelection to the Senate. He's a -- he's a Republican.

But the politicians have trouble with this, of course, because, as you just pointed out, lots of people don't want to raise taxes, and lots of people don't want to cut spending, and they don't want to go to the voters and say, you know what? We really, really need to do this.

And that's the problem with leadership right now in the Congress. There just isn't any.

GRIFFIN: But -- but, Gloria, wasn't that somewhat the message of the election, that we want --

BORGER: Oh.

GRIFFIN: -- tough cuts, we want budgets under control?

BORGER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: We want our finances back in order?

BORGER: Yes. Yes, it was the message of the election.

And that's kind of one of the hopes here, which is that I believe political will is a moving target.

GRIFFIN: Uh-huh.

BORGER: And, if you're not going to have people who are going to lead in the Congress, maybe the Congress will be the lagging indicator, which it usually is.

And if the political will is there to pass some kind of deficit reduction, maybe they will do it.

But there is one problem, which is, when you ask the American public in general, do you want to reduce the deficit, are you worried about deficit spending, the answer is, of course, yes. It's a big issue, particularly for those Tea Party voters.

But when you ask them specifically about budget cuts, do you want to lose your home mortgage deduction, do you want to reduce Social Security, could you stand some cutbacks in Medicare, the answers are always, no, no.

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER: Please don't do that to me. It's unfair to the seniors. You know, it's unfair to those of us who have bought houses.

So, people want to do it in general, but, when you get very specific, that's where the difficulty comes in. And that's why members of Congress generally run scared when it comes to matters of -- of cuts. GRIFFIN: Yes.

BORGER: It's tough.

GRIFFIN: Cut -- cut -- cut the other guy's funding and increase the other guy's taxes.

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: You know, dead on arrival --

BORGER: Sure.

GRIFFIN: -- is what Jan Schakowsky, the Illinois congressman, who is -- congresswoman -- who is on this panel said.

Let's take a listen to what she said.

BORGER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: She's a -- she's a -- she's an appointee by President Obama. Let's hear what she says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D), ILLINOIS: I do agree that we are on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that can be defined, though, in a couple of ways.

One, of course, is the deficit and the -- and the debt. But the other way, I think, that we can measure unsustainability is the growing disparity in income in the United States of America, which I think is equally a problem that we face, a problem for our democracy, as well as our economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: And, Gloria, I think she's speaking to what we just talked about. Basically, soak the rich.

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: Soak somebody else. Leave me and my troop alone.

BORGER: Yes. And -- and I think, you know, she speaks for a certain wing, the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

And that's why, when -- when you talk to members of Congress, sometimes, they like to propose across-the-board cuts, because, that way, they don't have to make the argument --

GRIFFIN: Right.

BORGER: -- that we're hurting one person more than we're hurting -- than we're hurting another person. I think, right now, honestly, Drew, is a moment for the president of the United States to come in. And I think back to 1995, when Bill Clinton delivered his State of the Union speech to Congress, and he realized that things had changed, and he spoke to the American public and said, oh, yes, this is why you elected me. You elected me to get these things done and I'm going to do it.

And it took him a year or so, but he passed welfare reform on a bipartisan basis. He did cut the budget. He did reduce the deficit. And so it will be very interesting as we watch President Obama. We have never seen him defeated by conservatives, as he was in this -- in this last election. It will be interesting to see what path he decides to take.

GRIFFIN: All right. We will watch it with you, Gloria Borger in Washington.

BORGER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Thanks, Gloria. Appreciate it.

Hey, private memos revealing America's concern over who has access to Pakistan's nuclear material. How much damage did WikiLeaks do to the relationship between these two countries? A former operative for the CIA is weighing in. We're going to have that for you ahead.

And researchers find that, when dieting mice get stressed out or depressed, man, they are just like us. They head straight for that the little mice fridge. The news may help us understand our cravings. Elizabeth Cohen going to talk us through this one next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: If you overindulged during the Thanksgiving holidays -- who didn't, right?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: Come on.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: You may be considering a diet. Who is not, right?

COHEN: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Exactly. But a new study on diet and stress might change your mind. It explains why yo-yo dieters crave high-fat foods.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here.

Elizabeth, this has to do with, what, stress, cravings?

COHEN: Stress, eating, food, mice, the whole thing.

GRIFFIN: Right.

COHEN: It's got everything. All right. So, you want --

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: It kind of confirms what a lot of people --

COHEN: Right.

This confirms sort of what you always feel, right? If you're stressed out, you're probably not reaching for a stalk of broccoli, right?

(LAUGHTER)

COHEN: You're probably reaching for the high-fat food.

GRIFFIN: You bet.

COHEN: So, these researchers took these mice and they put them on a crash diet for three weeks. They didn't let them eat very much at all. They lost 15 percent of their little tiny body weight.

And you know what happened? These mice displayed what they call depressive-like behaviors. The mice were depressed. They saw them acting depressed. They kind of lulled around. They didn't have an interest in their usual activities. They were just kind of like hanging out there.

And then they could actually look inside their brains and see that they had a lot of stress hormones going on in their brains. So, they were depressed and they were stressed out. So, then what they did is then they gave them an opportunity to eat again, and they ate high-fat food like crazy. They just couldn't get enough of it.

GRIFFIN: And did that relieve the stress or did that just make them --

COHEN: Yes. And then they felt --

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: -- feel bad about being fat?

(LAUGHTER)

COHEN: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

COHEN: And they said, do I look fat in this?

No, it -- it did. It relieved the stress. The mice stopped looking depressed. I mean, there's actually ways to measure depression in mice --

GRIFFIN: Uh-huh.

COHEN: -- believe it or not. I mean, interesting job. And they actually could measure it and see that these mice weren't as depressed once they ate that high-fat food.

GRIFFIN: So, what does this tell us about dieting, people who binge both ways; "I'm going to eat a lot during Thanksgiving and I'm not going to eat the rest of the week"?

COHEN: What it tells us is that, when we go on a diet where we really restrict the number of -- of calories we're eating, there are things that are going on in the brains, not just of mice -- but they have seen this in people, too -- that it actually really can make you feel kind of bummed out and kind of stressed out.

It is a natural reaction. You're not crazy if you feel that way.

GRIFFIN: Mm-hmm. And does it -- I mean, is there any way that that works? Or do you gain more weight than you would if you -- if you just stayed on a regular diet?

COHEN: Right. Well, that's, I think, why experts say, when you go on a diet, don't go on a huge crash diet --

GRIFFIN: Yes.

COHEN: -- because it might make you feel this way. So, try to do something a little bit more gradual than, you know, cutting your calories way, way down.

GRIFFIN: So, what can we do to avoid stress if we're trying to cut calories, right?

COHEN: Right. A couple of things you can do.

When you're going into a diet, tell yourself, this may make me feel kind of cruddy. I may not feel great as I'm -- as I'm restricting my calories. And so do yoga or do something that is going to address that stress. Otherwise, you're going to want to eat to relieve that stress. So, just go into it knowing that this is a possibility.

GRIFFIN: All right.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks a lot.

COHEN: Thanks.

GRIFFIN: And I hope we can avoid the yo-yos --

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: -- at least this Christmas season.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Thank you.

A teenage boy -- this is a terrible story -- chained and tortured for a year is seen on this video, appearing emaciated and staggering into a gymnasium. This is right after his escape. We're going to have that disturbing story ahead.

And what's the fallout between the U.S. and Pakistan over sensitive memos released by WikiLeaks? They reveal U.S. concern that extremists might get access to Pakistan's nuclear material. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: All the brouhaha aside, the Internet leak of State Department cables actually includes some encouraging revelations, including one about the U.S.'s lukewarm ally, Pakistan.

Last fall, an American diplomat cabled back to Washington that the Pakistani government was finally allowing American Special Forces to embed with Pakistani troops. The cable portrays Pakistan's decision as a sea change in Washington's favor in the fight against extremists.

That said, the leaked cable served to highlight ongoing problems with a nuclear-armed ally that's not really all that stable. In fact, one cable reported that Pakistani President Zardari had told our own vice president, Joe Biden, that he feared he'd be, quote, "taken out." Those are the words in the cable -- "taken out" by his own military.

Joining me is Mike Baker, a former CIA covert ops officer.

Mike, there's an issue raised in the cables about Pakistan's nuclear program. I'll get to that in a moment. But what do these cables say about the state of our relationship with Pakistan?

MIKE BAKER, FORMER CIA COVERT OPS OFFICER: Well, I think, you know, first and foremost, it points to how difficult it is to be a Pakistani government official. I mean, there's a great deal of machination that goes on between the ruling party and the opposition party -- and you see that in a lot of these cables -- and the difficulties that they have in dealing with each other.

And then, also, the difficulty that the Pakistani government, the current administration, has in walking this very fine line between working with the U.S. and the West, and working too much with the U.S. and the West for the Pakistani public's liking. And that part of it, that concern that if they are too close or perceived as too close to the West, that concern over what that would do to their stability and the reaction from the Pakistani population, that factors into everything that the government does out there.

GRIFFIN: Boy, that is absolutely correct. And when I read some of this other stuff, it points directly to that. You know, the United States, they had a deal with Pakistan to remove nuclear fuel that might be used to make nuclear bombs if it landed in the wrong hands. But this cable from the U.S. ambassador dated May 27th of last year states if word of this operation leaked out, the Pakistani media would "portray it as the United States taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons."

I mean, this just shows you how difficult it must be to, one, try to cooperate with the U.S. and do the right thing in Pakistan, and also stay in power without looking like -- let's call it like it is -- like a U.S. patsy.

BAKER: Exactly. And that's been a problem that we've been dealing with, that they've been dealing with for years now. And, I mean, on the nuclear issue, we've been trying to work with them to remove some of this nuclear material from the country for several years. And it always comes back around to this fear that if the general population found out that they did this, if they acquiesced, then they would be seen as essentially a puppet and the U.S. would be taking control of the -- you know, the Pakistani nuclear program, which is a great point of honor for that country.

But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, you look at what sort of damage can these cables do. And early on, in some of the coverage of this, it seemed as if it was kind of pushed aside. No, it's not that big a deal. Oh, so what? We read some salacious reporting from the State Department.

You know, I've had a chance to read over the years State Department traffic back when I was with the government and there's some very sensitive information in there. And part of this problem is it's tough enough trying to work with the Pakistanis to promote our agenda in private, trying to do it in public is extremely difficult. And you pointed out a very good issue at the very beginning in terms of the Special Forces that have been allowed to operate there on limited opportunities on their turf -- a hugely sensitive issue and now, it's right out there in public.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Which leads to my final question, which is how can these Pakistani government officials really feel comfortable about dealing with Washington if they must have fear that more leaks could occur in the future?

BAKER: Right. Well, and that is kind of at the root of this whole problem with Julian Assange and why sometimes it can make your head spin people just discount the whole thing and say, ah, transparency is great. Well, you know, in the real world, we have to rely on sources and contacts who are willing to talk to us, provide us with inside information and candid observation, whether we're talking about State Department personnel or whether we're talking about within the intel community.

And if don't have that information, if we can't get those comments and insight because, ultimately, people overseas think we can't keep a secret anymore, then it actually puts our interests much more at risk because we're not getting that assistance, we're not getting that information in which we can use to make our plans and our policies and procedures. It becomes a very serious issue. But I'm afraid it gets overlooked sometimes in talking about this whole WikiLeaks issue.

GRIFFIN: Yes, because it's so huge.

Mike Baker, thanks a lot. Appreciate that perspective.

BAKER: Sure.

GRIFFIN: Disturbing images released of a 16-year-old boy chained up, abused for more than over a year. We'll show that to you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: New images of the shocking torture of a 16-year-old who was chained up, abused for more than a year. For the first time, we have new video revealing the horrible shape that he was in when he made a desperate bid for freedom -- this is from two years ago now. You can see the emaciated teen staggers into a health club in Tracy, California, wearing just boxer shorts and a chain around his ankle.

The health club manager describes what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, KRON)

CHUCK ELLIS, HEALTH CLUB MANAGER: As he walked into the club, he walked up to the front desk and was talking to our assistant manager, Leah. And at that point was asking for his help -- for her to help him. And she told him to come on back behind the desk. He went immediately back behind the desk and crouched down so that nobody could see him.

He just knew somebody was coming in that door behind him. There was -- you know, that's all he kept saying. And when I walked out and came up to talk to him, he was saying, "They're coming for me. I know they are." And he was very panicked.

As you can see here, our person was talking to him and they gave him a towel to cover him up. This is where I came in to go down and see what was -- what was happening with the young man.

REPORTER: What was going through your mind at that moment?

ELLIS: At that time, we just saw that he was dirty and thought that he was lost, you know? We didn't really know the full extent of what had -- was transpiring at that moment in time. So, what we thought or what I thought was to take him and take him back to the office in here where we're at right now. As you can see, we're walking. You can see he almost falls there. He had to pick up the chain on his foot. Then we knew we had more than a lost child.

At that point of time when we took the towel off, he had -- the towel had actually stuck to his body where he -- the blood was that he had on his back.

REPORTER: Have you talked to him since then?

ELLIS: Talked to him once. Talked to him about -- I guess it was six, eight months after the fact. He was telling me that he's in a good home and, you know, it's working out really well for him. He's doing a lot better. And so, I was very happy to see that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Three people who lived with that boy, including his guardian at the time, have accepted plea deals and a neighbor has been convicted of torturing him. All four awaiting sentence which could range from 30 years to life in prison.

Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys has organized a number of other artists and actors to stay away from Twitter and Facebook until $1 million is raised for the fight against AIDS. Today is World AIDS Day.

How did she do? We'll ask her. That's ahead.

And General Colin Powell at the White House this hour with the president and the vice president. Why? We'll hear from the president shortly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Today is World AIDS Day, a global project to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. And there are some interesting new developments. More than 200,000 Americans -- they may be HIV positive and not even know it. That means they won't be getting any treatment to protect themselves or others. And according to the CDC, 11 million more adults have tested positive between 2006 and 2009. And that we're told represents a progressive move in people getting tested.

And there's been a major advance in HIV prevention. According to the National Institutes of Health, a once daily pill containing an HIV drug cocktail is 73 percent effective at preventing new HIV infections in men. A gel formula of that same drug is showing some promise for women.

Did you know that 17 million children have been orphaned by AIDS worldwide? Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys thinks that number is way too high. She teamed up with Leigh Blake to create the Keep a Child Alive Foundation.

And earlier, our Brooke Baldwin spoke with them about the foundation and a special project involving a number of celebrities today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Alicia Keys, I want to begin with you. We know you as the singer, songwriter, actress, new mom. But not a lot of people may realize that you're an HIV/AIDS philanthropist. Why this cause? Why is this so near and dear to your heart?

ALICIA KEYS, SINGER, SONGWRITER: I hope that people absolutely do know that this is a part of me as a whole human being. Myself and Leigh Blake, we were co-founding Keep a Child Alive over seven years ago now. And we've been able to go to Africa and really be able to meet and see the people who are able to live when provided the treatment, when able to have access to the treatment to AIDS.

And to be able to meet people and see one who has maybe been at death's door on the floor of their tin hut and then provided with the access to treatment are alive and strong and able to live a beautiful life --

BALDWIN: And --

KEYS: -- is more than enough motivation for me to do this work every day. And Leigh --

BALDWIN: Right.

KEYS: -- does an incredible job of making sure that Keep a Child Alive is one of the most innovative organizations alive.

BALDWIN: Will you give me some specifics? We know you all help fund AIDS clinics not only in Africa but India as well. Where specifically does that money go? Talk to me about your programs.

KEYS: The program is incredible. I'd love for both Leigh and I to speak on it.

BALDWIN: Sure.

KEYS: We're able to really fund organizations that are really of the people, on the ground, there in India, there in Africa. And we're able to help to scale them up. In Uganda, in South Africa --

LEIGH BLAKE, FOUNDER, PRES., KEEP A CHILD ALIVE: Rwanda.

KEYS: Rwanda.

BALDWIN: Leigh, you go ahead.

BLAKE: Uganda, Kenya, South Africa.

Our mission is to keep people alive. But life is more than just dropping two pills a day. It's about the dignity that there is life. So we care about the little things that we take for granted in our lives -- a book, a roof, a meal, education.

KEYS: Shoes.

BLAKE: A roof, shoes -- all of those things that give life human dignity.

And our other mission is for as many of the AIDS orphans that we can reach, to care for them so they're not abandoned, they're not living in child-headed households or by themselves, pray to God knows what. You know, child being swiped up as child soldiers, or even to end up in prostitution or be raped or abused.

So, our -- the other major part of our mission is caring for those kids.

BALDWIN: What is -- in caring for the kids, in mentioning all the things, you know, perhaps the three of us take for granted -- what is the biggest challenge in this fight?

BLAKE: Money. It's all about the money. You can't do anything without money. You can't feed a child. You can't re-house them.

You can't give treatment to people. You can't hire doctors. You can't buy them the various things that are absolutely necessary to living with human dignity without money. It's all about the money.

Thirty-six percent of people who need treatment today are getting it, which leaves 10 million more who will die without our help. So, this is a fantastic opportunity that we're at now for Keep a Child Alive and for our new campaign Buy Life, where we can really galvanize the public to give life in this season of giving.

KEYS: Yes.

BLAKE: Buy Life.

BALDWIN: In this season of giving, Alicia, explain this whole Digital Death campaign. We see people like Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams in caskets. What is the point of this campaign? How does that work?

KEYS: The point of the -- the point of the Buy Life campaign is that we have decided as artists, our whole artistic community that we've been able to reach to and they've been so incredible to donate their time and decided to all have digital deaths. So, we decided to sacrifice our digital lives on Twitter, on Facebook, no more tweets, no more posts, until our lives bought back.

And so, our fans and followers are able to help to buy our lives back. And by doing that, they either text the name of the artist. So, Kim, at 90999, they text that name. Or Alicia at 90999, they donate $10 by doing that. You reply "yes," once you've done that, and you're on the way to buying our life back.

And what will buy our life back is when we collectively raise $1 million. So, each artist has decided to not engage in social media until our lives are bought back. And we've done that in solidarity, to all people who live their life if we're not able to help them and take this time to do that.

BALDWIN: Now, Alicia, be honest. Giving up Twitter, being a new mom, I imagine that wasn't too tough for you, I don't know how much sleep you're getting at night -- how is being a new mom, and also, though, being an HIV/AIDS philanthropist, and going to Africa, and seeing these orphans -- I imagine, being a mother, this takes on a whole new level for you.

KEYS: Absolutely. I've always been a very empathetic person. And that's one of the things you ask, what's one of the toughest things. Yes, you know, to raise the money is extremely important because that's what allows us to do the work.

But to see these kids who are having to raise their own brothers and sisters, they are 10, they are 15, they are 13, and they are the head of childhood households -- it's painful. And you don't want to see any kid in that circumstance. You don't want anyone to have the opportunity to go to school to have a chance to really have a life, you know, to have to see their parents disintegrate in front of themselves.

And being a mother, I mean, that makes it more powerful, more meaningful, and makes me even engage more, because we can't allow that. We can't let it happen.

So, every artist is a part of this Buy Life campaign, you for talking to us today is contributing in that way to help history.

BALDWIN: Ladies, I thank you for your work. I thank you for talking to me today. Thank you.

KEYS: Thank you.

BLAKE: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: And, again, if you like to help the BuyLife.org campaign, you text "Buy Life" to 90999 to donate.

Spain has arrested seven alleged Islamist extremists. They're accused of providing stolen travel documents to terror groups. That disturbing story is ahead.

And we're waiting to hear from President Obama. He and the vice president were meeting this afternoon with General Colin Powell at the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)