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Terror Trials at Gitmo; Syria: Anti-Government Protests Grow; Beating Victim Fights for Life; Rhetoric and Deadly Results; Can This Man's Actions Be Stopped?; Missteps Spell Doom

Aired April 04, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now, hour two, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

BALDWIN: The suspects behind the 9/11 attacks will be tried at Gitmo -- not in New York -- Gitmo, the place President Obama has wanted to close since he was elected.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

On Friday, this Internet CEO defended killing an elephant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB PARSONS, GODADDY.COM: The crops are safe and people have a valuable source of protein.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But a prominent elephant expert says shoot to kill is not the answer. He tells me what could work.

The Muslim radical response in Afghanistan to a hate-filled Christian pastor in Florida. Can the law intervene?

And as President Obama's 2012 campaign gets rolling, so does a look at our contenders. Candy Crowley reminds us what obstacles some candidates couldn't overcome.

A baseball fan beaten within an inch of life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They began to kick him at times to make clear of the scene (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What do we know about these missing suspects? Sunny Hostin is on the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's continue on, shall we?

Beginning in Washington, a developing story there. Attorney General Eric Holder announces top 9/11 suspects will go on trial at Guantanamo Bay. That is the prison for terrorism suspects the president has vowed to close. Keep in mind here, we're talking about this guy, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind. And there was a massive public outcry and a huge political battle when the administration said they would try this guy in New York.

Here is Attorney General Eric Holder. He said he has made his decision reluctantly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Too many people, many of whom should know better, many of whom certainly do know better, have expressed doubts about our time honored and time tested system of justice. That's not only misguided, it is simply wrong. The fact is that federal courts have proven to be on unparallel instrument for bringing terrorists to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now on the phone from Washington, Carol Rosenberg, the "Miami Herald's" Guantanamo Bay correspondent.

Carol, I jotted some note while I was listening to Holder's news conference a little while ago, pulling a total 180. He said the decision is not an easy one to make. He used the word "reluctant," though -- and he also still stands by wanting those five witnesses to be prosecuted in federal court. Yet, they are going to Guantanamo Bay. Why?

CAROL ROSENBERG, MIAMI HERALD (via telephone): Well, they are still at Guantanamo Bay. First of all, Congress thwarted the president's ambition to close the prison and move people to the United States. They limited and refused funding and blocked funding that would allow anyone at Guantanamo to come to the U.S. at trial.

But in addition to this, there has been a large chorus of support for the idea of a military jury and a military trial of these five men accused of the September 11th attacks. They are the alleged mastermind, the financiers, the plotters, and there has always been a large chorus that said, keep them at Gitmo, try them at Gitmo, give them justice at Gitmo.

Now, Eric Holder said pointedly in '09 that he wanted them to go to trial --

BALDWIN: Right.

ROSENBERG: Sorry. Go ahead, Brooke.

BALDWIN: No, no, I'm just saying right. It was November of '09 when he made that point. I want to bring you back to your point about the legislation in Congress, and he specifically was -- you know, Holder today is saying, unfortunately, Congress intervened. It was unwise and unwarranted.

Take us back, remind us Carol when Congress did this. How long ago?

ROSENBERG: There have been a series of cascading measures to prevent funding, to prevent trials, to block the closure. In fact, someone called the attorney general on this. There was a period when he could have moved him to New York for trial. In fact, he showed us today in a surprise grand jury indictment that had enabled a federal prosecution in December 2009. But they withdrew it today.

And what happened was, first he said there were objections on security accounts, or there were objections on venue accounts or there was concern that Manhattan couldn't handle it. And there was a series of cascading concerns and oppositions by both the political camp and some strong advocates of military trials.

So, at the beginning, in fact, Brooke, you're right. There wasn't legislation that blocked it but there was great concern. And you were also right in noting that the attorney general really said he supported the idea of a federal trial and he believed a civilian court could handle this case.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this quickly. I stumped unintentionally our senior legal analyst, and I want to want ask you the same question with regard to a death penalty. In a military trial, can the death penalty be sought if someone pleads guilty? Yes or no? Do we know?

ROSENBERG: We don't know. We know that they can plead guilty and there can be a death penalty. The question here will be, need they bring in a military commission to hear the facts, a military jury to decide whether to impose the death penalty or whether the judge, the military judge can unilaterally without a jury decide the death penalty. That's the issue, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I see. Carol Rosenberg, Gitmo correspondent for "Miami- Herald" -- Carol, thank you.

And I want to move on and if it's interesting, if it's happening right now, you're about to see it. "Rapid Fire" -- let's go.

Beginning with severe weather across the country, take a look at this. This is a weather phenomenon. This a word I learned today. The gustnado. This is a gusty, swirly cloud captured over Kansas, not quite strong enough to be classified as a tornado, thus a gustnado. They are definitely powerful enough to do a little damage.

We're also seeing severe storms in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky this hour. A tornado hit a manufacturing plant near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, injured a dozen people there.

NASA is delaying launch of space shuttle Endeavour. It is now set to take off on April 29th, pushing it 10 days back. There's nothing wrong. Apparently, it's just a little bit of a scheduling conflict. A Russian cargo ship is due to dock on the International Space Station near the shuttle original launch date of April 19th.

And take a look at this painting. Does this painting at all bother you? It apparently very much so bothered one woman, got on her nerves. This is Gauguin's "Two Tahitian Women."

And witnessed at the National Gallery in Washington say women tried to rip off this painting off the wall on Friday afternoon. She was pounding it on her fist, yelling to it, that the painting was evil. Unfortunately, this Gauguin is protected by plastic covering.

Could Gilbert Gottfried's loss be your gain? If you live in Atlanta, Georgia, it just might be. Folks turned up in droves to become the new voice of the infamous duck and apparently they dance along with it as well, just a month after Aflac fired Gilbert Gottfried for tweet about the Japan's tsunami. Auditions will be held nationwide. Good luck. Practice your Aflac.

Now to this -- we will have a men's basketball championship tonight if you have been following March Madness. Eight seed Butler's second straight trip to the finals here and three seed UConn, a perennial powerhouse. Tip off in Houston, 9:23 Eastern tonight. I'll be watching. Maybe you will be as well.

Now to this, plane off the runway. This is New Orleans this morning. A United Airlines airbus skidded on the grass while making this emergency landing. And just as a precaution, all 100 passengers left the plane, popped out on those emergency slides. The FAA says the pilots took of from New Orleans, reported smoke in the cockpit and turned right back around. No one was hurt there.

Now, this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARSONS: When the herd is there, isolate a bull, shoot the bull, and the rest lived immediately, they don't return, and so, the crops are safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was a tough talk from GoDaddy's CEO to me this past Friday. Got a lot of you talking, lot of you tweeting me over the weekend, all about him and my interview. Was his killing of an elephant in Zimbabwe was justified? He seems to think so. But, obviously, there is an elephant expert who begs to differ. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The woman who accused Moammar Gadhafi's forces of raping her says she is now out of government custody but cannot leave the country. CNN has new details from Eman al-Obeidy herself. She tells CNN she was questioned relentlessly by Gadhafi's forces after being forcibly taken away from that hotel there in Tripoli just last month and that it didn't stop until a doctor examined her and determined she had, in fact, been raped and tortured. She says she still has bruises from her alleged abduction and rape.

You can hear much more of her interview with CNN. Watch "A.C. 360" tonight at 10:00 Eastern.

Angry people in the streets fighting police. They want change. I could be talking -- I know about a number of countries these days in the Middle East but this is Syria here. Protesters have laid out essentially an ultimatum to the government. We go "Globe Trekking" live to the Middle East -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK. This next story is something that got a lot of you very, very upset, in particular with Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, after he came on this show Friday. So, while he was in Zimbabwe, on vacation, Parsons shot and killed an elephant that was trampling the crops of a local village. Now, I have to warn you, some of the images here -- they are tough to look at.

So, later Parsons posted this video of him killing the elephant. This is him after the kill. Needless to say, this video he posted, it's on his Twitter, if you want to watch it. It's four minutes long, you can go and do that.

Joining me today is conservationist and Columbus Zoo elephant manager, Harry Peachey.

And, Harry, you were our go-to guy on Friday in terms of, you know, expertise and background before my interview with Bob Parsons. We brought you in today so you can weigh in on what you said.

But if you can stand for me because I want you and I want our viewers at home to hear from Bob Parsons himself. And when I asked him -- I asked him why did you kill the elephant, here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARSONS: To go into the field at night and to -- when a herd is there, isolate a bull, shoot a bull, the rest leave immediately, they don't return, and so, the crops are safe and then the people have a very valuable source of protein. I learned that by going over there and talking to the villagers and watching what they are dealing with and watching the aftermath and watching when it doesn't happen and also when it does happen. I mean, you know, the one voice that's not being heard in all this, Brooke, is the people that live over there. I mean, the villagers, they, if you talk to them, they would say, please comeback and please do this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. Harry, and I know both you and Bob Parsons agree on one thing, and that is fact that there is a huge elephant problem in Zimbabwe and that it is legal

HARRY PEACHEY, THE COLUMBUS ZOO: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: -- it is legal to hunt and kill elephant if a crop or human is threatened, correct?

PEACHEY: That's correct. And actually, there is a problem with elephants and people wherever elephants happen to range. So, this is a global problem.

BALDWIN: All right. Elephants in this part of the world, are they endangered?

PEACHEY: Elephants are endangered throughout Africa, but there is a large population in Zimbabwe. Just to put in perspective, in 1979, there were about 1.2 million elephants in Africa. Now, there are probably less than 400,000 and that has a lot to do primarily with poaching. It does not have to do with habitat loss.

But when these populations started to recede and to protect areas to avoid poachers, people moved in to the area where elephants used to range, set up at cultural sites and that has increased the problem with human conflict exponentially in Africa and particularly in Zimbabwe.

BALDWIN: Now, I know you say shooting and killing an elephant, despite this problem, is not the answer. So, give me some solutions. What can be done?

PEACHEY: Well, there are a number of solutions that can be tried. None of the solutions are fool-proof, but shooting the elephant is actually the least effective way to go. Electric fences can be utilized. There's actually an innovative project that has been going on in East Africa that involves honey bees.

BALDWIN: Well, let me ask you actually with the electric fences. And, you know, Bob Parsons made to the point to me Friday, Brooke, how in the world can you get -- you can't even get electricity into some of these villages. How are you going to bring an electronic fence? So, to his point, what would you say?

PEACHEY: Well, you set up the opportunity to -- you set up the opportunity to provide electricity and you can do it with solar power. There are a number of opportunities to bring electricity into these rural sites, these distant sites. It's being done throughout the world and it can be done there. A generator is one option.

BALDWIN: OK. So, that's one option. Explain to me the bee swarm. How does that work?

PEACHEY: African elephants will consume honey and in the process, they'll tear up the tree. They have come across bees in pursuit of trees and pursuit of honey. They've had negative experience with bees.

The tip of an elephant trunk is a bundle of nerves. If they get stick that after honey and they get stung several times, then that's going to be a tremendously negative experience for them. So, they've learned to avoid bees and, in fact, they teach it to other members of the group. They teach it to younger elephants in these matriarchal kinship-based groups and elephants begin to avoid bees. Researcher Lucy King did some work, actually, it's first proposed in 2002, but she's been working on it in the last few years where she has played recordings of honey bee swarms for groups of elephants. They have put up commercial beehives that don't contain bees at the time, but had contain bees at one time and they found that even that is effective at keeping elephants from entering agricultural sites.

BALDWIN: Honey bees and elephants, I had no idea.

One more question for you, Harry, and that is with regard to any kind of fee. Now, I know I said in Zimbabwe, it is legal to shoot and kill an elephant if it poses a threat to humans or crops. But Parsons told me, he said he did not pay to do this. My question to you is, can someone -- let's say someone who wants to hunt go into Zimbabwe with a gun and track down a problem elephant and do it all for free? Is that possible?

PEACHEY: It seems highly unlikely. There are programs set up in Zimbabwe, there's a program called the Campfire program, which is designed to take revenue that's generated by elephant hunts, be them problem elephants or just trophy elephants and distribute that back to the community.

How will it work is up debate. I mean, Zimbabwe is recognized as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. I doubt very much that the entire fee that is paid goes to the village.

But I would have to assume that Bob Parsons or anybody else that went into Zimbabwe to kill an elephant, trophy elephant or problem elephant would contract with a concessionaire, that concessionaire would have paid the government. That money, hopefully some of it, would have ended up back in the village. But, again, we're talking about Zimbabwe.

BALDWIN: Right. So, either it ends in Robert Mugabe's hands or perhaps the village. You don't really know.

PEACHEY: And I would say that probably, there is somebody that goes to the villagers, but how much of that money, what percentage of that fee that was initially paid makes it that far, you have to assume that it's probably very, very low.

BALDWIN: Harry Peachey, our elephant expert, good talking to you on Friday. We're glad we had you on today to just sort of set the record straight. Thanks, sir. Appreciate it, from the Columbus Zoo. Thank you.

PEACHEY: Brooke, thank you very much. Good to talk with you.

BALDWIN: Thanks.

Still to come here: huge bonuses for top executives at Transocean. The owner of that oil rig that exploded in the Gulf last April killed 11 workers. Those bonuses are not sitting very well with some. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Time to go "Globe Tracking" and let's first go overseas.

First piece of video, this is from Yemen. Protesters there are demanding the end of the president's long, long rule. They clashed again today with security forces in the capital and several other cities. Witnesses tell CNN police fired rubber coated and tear gas to try to break up some of the crowds there. In total, we're hearing 14 people are reported killed, about 500 hurt.

Please keep this in mind. This is an amateur video. So, we cannot independently verify its authenticity. So, that is Yemen.

New, we want to take you to the Ivory Coast. This is West Africa. A United Nation's attack helicopter today fired on the camp controlled by the country's incumbent president who refuses to go, refuses to leave office. A U.N. spokesperson says the camp was a base used for attacks against civilians and U.N. peacekeepers. The International Red Cross is investigating a reported massacre of civilians in the western Ivory Coast. They say, as many as 800 people were killed by forces loyal to both sides of the violent election dispute there.

And now to Syria, these are people tearing down pictures of the president, Bashar al-Assad, a nationwide movement protesting the government growing increasingly violent there. Fifteen demonstrators were killed just a couple days ago, sending even more people into the street to mourn them.

I was hoping to talk to Hala Gorani live from Syria today but it looks like Hala has gotten as far as Amman, Jordan.

Hala, when do you expect to hopefully get into Syria?

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is a very good question, Brooke. I wish I had the answer to that one. Right now, we haven't been granted access yet to Syria. We hope to be able to get in at some point to report directly for ourselves on what's going on in that country.

You mentioned those protests last Friday. We understand up to nine or 10 people killed. But again, it's very difficult for us, Brooke, to independently verify these numbers because we're not able to assess on the grounds ourselves exactly what is going on.

We had some interesting non-demonstration-related developments this day. The government has announced through state television that it will come to a decision on whether or not to lift the emergency law. Now, that is one of the key demands of protesters that said that it will come to that decision on Friday. And the thinking is that if it will make that announcement on Friday, the traditional day of protests in the last few months of the Middle East, that it will probably come close to meeting protesters demands.

So, that's a very much wait and see situation. We've seen a few political prisoners released today and but then reports of hundreds of others detained in mass arrests in order to try to sort of quite the demonstrations and perhaps put some of the organizers behind bars, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, you mentioned something that many of these demonstrators have been calling for, what you and I have been talking about in recent weeks, this 50-year emergency rule, they want that gone. How likely, from what you're hearing, might that happen? What else do these demonstrators want? Will they be satisfied if that happens, but President al-Assad doesn't go?

GORANI: Well, many of the protesters are skeptical because they say, fine, you can lift the emergency law. It's been in effect for almost half a century, but then there's a network of other laws that prevent people from criticizing the government publicly, that prevent people from assembling and demonstrating and calling for more freedom. So, of course, these demands that we've seen in Tunisia and Egypt and across the Arab world is the same demands that we're hearing from the protesters.

But Syria is a very different country. It's not a U.S. ally. It doesn't have a strategic partnership with the United States. So, it won't be as responsive, for instance, to anything coming out of Washington, in the same way Egypt was, for instance.

So, there are many different things about Syria that set it apart from other countries in the Arab world. And the big question is going to be: on Friday, will we see more demonstrations? And tomorrow, activists are calling for a day of mourning for those who were killed last week. What will the numbers look like? We're going to keep our eye on that as well because it's also a numbers game, Brooke, at this point.

BALDWIN: Well, Hala Gorani, you know Syria better than a lot of people here at CNN. So, hopefully, they will grant you that visa and you can report on Syria in Syria. Hala Gorani, thank you so much.

And it had a role in the world's most worst oil spill in U.S. history. Now, Transocean is handing out big bonuses to its top executives.

Alison Kosik live at the New York Stock Exchange for us this afternoon.

And, Alison, we understand that the company is actually praising its safety record, is that right?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's doing a little bit of backpedaling. But overall, it did say, look at this, that it recorded the best year in safety performance in our company's history. So, to reward them, of course, not just boosting salaries of top execs, they are giving bonuses to those top execs.

Hello? You know, did we forget about the worst oil spill in U.S. history? You know, Transocean, Brooke, as you know, owned the right that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. Now, there's an SEC filing that shows that the CEO is going to get a bonus of 374,000 bucks. Safety accounts for about a quarter of that bonus, by the way. And getting a $200,000 bump in his salary as well. So, that brings his salary to just over $1 million. I got to be fair, though, about this. Transocean didn't award the total possible safety bonus, only two-thirds of it and it also came out with this apology. This is where it's kind of back-stepping, apologizing for being insensitive, in the proxy statement saying that it deeply regrets any pain that it caused, that it didn't intend to minimize the tragedy, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A tragedy that happened, what, 12 months ago? Alison Kosik in New York --

KOSIK: Exactly.

BALDWIN: -- Alison, thank you.

KOSIK: Sure.

BALDWIN: The government shuts down on Friday, that's the deadline here, if lawmakers cannot agree on a budget.

Wreckage and bodies are finally found nearly two years after an Air France crash over the Atlantic Ocean. They are lining up now. "Reporter Roulette" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, I've got four stories coming at you here. We have the budget shutdown, an airliner crash slight (ph) discovered, and another gruesome discovery here. Time for "Reporter Roulette." I want to begin with you, Dana Bash, on Capitol Hill. Dana, we're talking a lot about the federal government shutdown. We know the deadline is this Friday. If they don't come to some sort of an agreement there in Washington -- what are you hearing today on the Hill?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That they are working but they are not there yet, Brooke. And they are getting very close to that deadline that you talked about. Both sides have been working behind closed doors all weekend tentatively, tentatively, on a plan to cut about $33 billion. Emphasize, tentative.

But the big question is, what exactly are they going to cut? What programs? What agencies? And that I'm told from sources on both sides of this, that is where they really are at odds. I won't get into the details, into the weeds, on what parts of the budget that they are working on now, but here's what people need to know.

If they don't come to that agreement at midnight on Friday night, people who are trying to go to national parks, people who are going to try to go to the Statue of Liberty, or even the Smithsonian here in Washington, they would be closed if there isn't some kind of an agreement in the next four days.

And both sides insist they really don't want the government to shut down, or at least parts of it. They are trying very hard to avoid that. But they are having trouble coming to an agreement to avoid that. And it's so urgent, Brooke, that I should tell you that President Obama invited top leaders, Democratic and Republican to the White House tomorrow for the first time in a very long time to hash this out.

BALDWIN: And I think it's always important to remind people, you know, it's April 4. We're talking still 2011 spending. But as they are going over the 2011 budget, we also know the House Republicans are already thinking about solutions for next year? What are you hearing about 2012?

BASH: It's interesting, that part of the subplot about the rub on this year's spending is that conservatives in the House say, wait a minute. We're talking about basically peanuts and we want to cut more. House Republicans are planning to unveil tomorrow something that they believe will answer those questions from their fellow conservatives. This is going to be a proposal for a huge overhaul, cutting trillions and trillions of dollars in spending.

But specifically the programs that I think our viewers will be interested in hearing. The proposals are Medicare, for example. Obviously, that is the health care program for seniors. Now the government pays the bills directly to doctors and otherwise. That won't happen anymore. That will be completely changed so that people will be able to go out and basically get a sum of money and that money will be paid for privately and also major changes in Medicaid as well.

BALDWIN: OK. So, Dana mentions Medicare. Dana Bash, thank you, by the way.

I want to talk military here. So, continuing with "Reporter Roulette," I want to go to Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon. Chris, I understand that you're getting new information, disturbing new information about how the military will be compensated if the government was shut down. What do you hear?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke. A senior defense official tells us that if the government were to shut down for an extended period of time, troops will not get paid on time, and that includes those troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

The threat really adds to the pressure that the Pentagon has been trying to put on Congress to pass a proper defense budget. Now, this doesn't mean we stop fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn't mean that the military stops helping Japan. This doesn't have so much of an effect on national security operations, but it could certainly have a big effect on military families back home.

BALDWIN: So, not paying troops on time. How is that sitting with members of Congress who are still trying to hash this thing out?

LAWRENCE: Yes, we spoke with John Boehner's spokeman who said this really brings home how serious this issue is. But the chairman of the House Armed Services committee said, wait a minute. We may be getting ahead of ourselves here. Buck McKeon said, look, they are still going to get paid, just not when they would expect to get paid. He's talking about that they would get back paid to compensate for whatever they missed.

But he said, look, the idea of troops on the front lines in Afghanistan and their families sitting back home with bills to pay, missing a paycheck, he said that that is too much to contemplate and he says, look, we're mature enough to get this done.

BALDWIN: Well, they have four more days to do it. Chris Lawrence, thank you so much, sir. "Reporter Roulette" moving on. Let's go to Richard Quest in London on the discovery of that Air France wreckage in the Atlantic. The flight crashed some two years ago.

Richard, we know at the time, the crash was a total mystery. A, how did they finds the wreckage and, B, what did they find?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they found the wreckage by widening the area to 10,000 square kilometers and going down deep, as much as 10,000 feet using three remote-controlled submarine drones. They were able to look at the bottom of the ocean, take thousands of pictures and then, of course, compare to see where the ocean was and whether there was any debris down there.

Finally they did realize that they found debris field that's described as quite small and compact. But they found the engines of the aircraft, they found parts of the fuselage and, of course, they found bodies of those who were on board.

Now, what they haven't found yet though, Brooke, was the black box, the flight data recorders, the cockpit voice recorders. Those instruments, those crucially important pieces of equipment that will unlock the key to what happened to 447.

BALDWIN: So, Richard, are they going back down there? Will they be looking for that black box? I imagine a lot of families, they need some kind of closure here.

QUEST: Yes. And that's really the point because what the authorities now say is because they have an idea of the debris field, they will be able to work out where the black boxes should be, and then they can continue looking for them. They will start to bring up the ocean floor, that part of the equipment deemed necessary in that search. And, of course, the bodies will be repatriated in a dignified way as well.

But at the moment, Brooke, the fact still remains, whichever way -- it is a mystery what brought 447 down. Lots of rumors, lots of speculation, very few facts.

BALDWIN: Hopefully those families will get some of their questions answered two years later. Richard Quest in London. Richard, thank you.

And now to a shocking story out of New York today. We're getting some new information here. Three more sets of human remains found along a beach on Long Island. This is the same general area where four sets of remains -- you remember, they were found last fall in these burlap bags. Then another body was found last week. So, the first four all were identified as prostitutes. And now here, do the quick math, that's eight deaths. '

Allan Chernoff working the story for us out of New York. Allan, what do you have? What are you learning?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, this story does become more gruesome every time we get an update. As you mentioned, this afternoon, the police found three more bodies. This brings the count to eight. They don't really know exactly what has happened here but they do believe they are looking for a serial killer who has been preying upon women who were advertising online and working as prostitutes.

Now, as you mentioned, we had four initially back in December, four bodies that were found. A fifth body last week, and now the count is at eight. So, just really a tragic story. They've been looking to identify one of these women. They haven't been able to make a DNA match, so the search is continuing. It'll happen tomorrow, more searching. So, hopefully we won't have any more bodies, but this is just a horribly, horribly gruesome story.

BALDWIN: And remind me, because we had done this story several times, and some of these young women were identified. They had been missing for what, several years, had they not?

CHERNOFF: Correct. Back to 2009, there was -- the only clue -- the only clue that's really been made public is that one of the women, apparently had come to a home in the community of Oak Beach, which is right next to Gilgo Beach, the pictures that we're seeing right now -- had one night, come to a home there, screaming for help. The man called the police. By the time he came back, the woman was gone, and he reported to the police that a man was driving after her.

So, that's about it. This has just been a mystery for a very long time. Again, women who had been working online as prostitutes.

BALDWIN: Yes. And an investigator with his canine just so happened to come upon some of these bodies last fall, as you mentioned.

Allan Chernoff, thanks for the update. I appreciate it.

That is your "Reporter Roulette" for this Monday.

Coming up next, it started off as a fight after a baseball game. Now a father of two is in a coma, and police are being looking for the guys who beat him. Sunny Hostin is "On the Case," next.

And breaking news just in to CNN from Boeing. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Got some breaking news here out of Boeing and also the FAA. This is all a result of that Southwest flight, it was a 737 Boeing -- a 737 that had a hole in the roof because of a crack. We're getting some information here from Boeing. Boeing is specifically saying, "Based on the information from NTSB, an investigation into the Southwest inspection, Boeing preparing a service protection that would recommend lap-joint (ph) inspections on certain - certain --737-300 series 400 and 500 airplanes." And also, if I can open my e-mail to the FAA, "Issuing an emergency directive tomorrow that will require operators to specific 737 models to conduct initial and repetitive electromagnetic inspections for fatigue damage." So, that's a total of 175 aircraft affected." All because of this one plane with the hole in the ceiling from Friday.

Now to this. A young man, husband and father of two, lies in a coma right now, fighting for his life. Police are looking for the guys who savagely beat him, but guess where this beating happened? Outside the Dodger's Giants opening home game in L.A. last week.

Sunny Hostin is on the case here with me. Sunny, let's start with the beating case and let's put up the sketches. They are looking for these two guys, two Dodgers fans expected of beating, Brain Stow, a Giants fan.

His brother-in-law says the guys came out of nowhere, attacked Brian from behind and now he's in medically induced a coma and part of his skull had to be removed from how I understand it to relieve some pressure. L.A., San Francisco leaders, they got together with the Dodgers and Giants to respond to the beating.

So Sunny, let's look at this with me and then let's talk about what will come next for these guys when and if they are caught. So they say, "this attack is unconscionable behavior that will not be tolerated in either of our ballparks or in either of our cities.

Once apprehended, the attackers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim, Brian Stow and his family." So, Sunny, what charges could these guys face?

SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, "IN SESSION" ON TRUTV: Well, you know, Mr. Stow is critically injured. My understanding of the facts of this case is that they came up from behind. They attacked him and they kicked him in the head.

If I were the prosecutor looking at this case, Brooke, just by those facts alone I would charged with attempted murder. Because I think when you kick someone in the head and they become critically injured as a result of that, the top count has to be attempted murder.

BALDWIN: Well, what if he, heaven forbid, what if he dies? Then how does that change --

HOSTIN: And certainly then they are looking at murder charges. No question about it. You know, you go to a game to root on your team and you don't expect to be critically injured or hurt in this way.

And then this is something that, unfortunately, seems to be happening more and more in a lot of these venues and I think the question now has to be, are the venues prepared for security? Are they prepared for these types of things to be happening?

These sort of -- I guess San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers rivalry has been going on in the stand for decades and if that is the case, some are wondering should the venues be more secure when people are going to these games?

BALDWIN: I think a lot of people will be looking for them to heavily secure them, given the fact that this has happened outside of the game. Sunny Hostin, thank you so much.

HOSTIN: That's right.

BALDWIN: In Florida, pastors hate here in the U.S. fuels deadly violence in Afghanistan, but are the pastors actions protected by law? We're going to tackle that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A radical pastor in Florida claims he's burned the Koran after putting the Muslim holy book on trial and convicting it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): But thousands of miles away, this is what happened. Days of protests in Afghanistan, more than 20 people are dead. Seven of them United Nation employees. President Obama trying to calm the fury.

He says the desecration of holy text, I'm quoting, "is an act of extreme intolerance in bigotry," end quote, but adds that killing innocent people in response is outrageous and an upfront to human decency and dignity.

General David Petraeus who heads the U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan is also speaking out against this Koran burning saying it was hateful. It was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful.

So we wondered this. Is there any legal way to get Pastor Terry Jones to stop? You remember he's the guy who threatened to burn the Koran last September on 9/11. That's what he wanted to do and then eventually decided not to.

So we actually checked in with our legal analyst, our senior guy, Jeffrey Toobin. Basically the answer, in short, is no. He says there is no chance Jones could be ever charged. He is completely protected under the constitution. Just wanted you to know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: We have just a couple of minutes until THE SITUATION ROOM. Wolf Blitzer joining me as always from Washington. Wolf, we have seen Obama's re-election campaign kicked off bright and early today and I'm hearing that they maybe want to raise a billion dollars, with a B?

WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM: Yes, we're going to get into that extensively over the next two hours in THE SITUATION ROOM, but let me say one thing about what happened in Afghanistan because I totally agree with our Fareed Zakaria.

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, the U.S. great ally, the friend U.S. has been supporting him now for 10 years. I've met with him on many occasions.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BLITZER: He did something so irresponsible. He publicized what this pastor in Florida did. Everyone was ignoring it, not paying attention. He went on Afghanis State television, spoke about it and whipped up the crowd. Those U.N. officials are now dead and others are dying because in part of what Hamid Karzai recklessly did in going forward and making that speech giving prominence to what this pastor of Florida who's got maybe a dozen or so followers.

It was totally, totally irresponsible. Fareed made an excellent point. Hamid Karzai lived in the United States. He understands freedom of speech. He understands all of that. It was totally irresponsible for him to go do that, whipping up the people especially those Taliban supporters in Afghanistan and are dead United Nations.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, well said.

BLITZER: I'm upset because the people who work for the United Nations in Afghanistan, they want to work for a cause. They want to help out and they go there and all of a sudden a crowd attacks them for no reason whatsoever.

They really wanted to kill Americans. There were no Americans so the United Nations personnel were the closest to Americans and those folks are dead. I'm pretty outraged by what has happened, as you can probably tell.

BALDWIN: I can tell. I respect everything you said, Wolf Blitzer. We're going to have to leave it there. We're going to watch you as always, 5:00 in seven minutes in THE SITUATION ROOM. I appreciate your words.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So President Obama is now a candidate again. His 2012 campaign announced in a web video that culminates with the passing of the proverbial collection plate and more Republicans will follow suit as well here.

But a misstep here, a twisted phrase there could trip up any one of these candidates at any point in time. Candy Crowley looks at what has spelled trouble in the campaign past as part of the 2012 contender series.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You cannot win a campaign with a one liner, but sometimes you can save it.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.

CROWLEY: Then 73-year-old President Ronald Reagan broke the age barrier in the oval office. He was re-elected for a lot of reasons, but his humorous dismissal of the age issue counts as a winning moment.

If some things can be dismissed with a light hearted quip others --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One little bit on the end. Potato --

CROWLEY: Hang like an anvil. Eight years later, in a brief unsuccessful presidential bid, Dan Quayle was still haunted by the, is he smart enough question.

The enduring nature of the 18-year-old potato moment was best illustrated in a dinner speech last week by Congressman Ben Quayle, son of the former vice president.

REP. BEN QUAYLE (R), ARIZONA: So he misspelled potato and the words of another vice president, big deal.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not a vote for pre-emptive war.

CROWLEY: Of all the baggage candidates carry the heaviest, the hardest to dump is a paper trail.

CLINTON: I said that we should not go to war unless we have allies. CROWLEY: Explanations of her vote for the Iraq war resolution factored heavily into Hillary Clinton's Iowa caucus days.

CLINTON: He took the authority that I and others gave him, he misused it and I regret that deeply.

CROWLEY: Her explanations were continuous, not sufficient, and arguably gave candidate Barack Obama an opening.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only mission that was ever accomplished was to use fear and falsehood into a war that should never have been authorized or should have never been waged.

CROWLEY: The future president who was not serving in the Senate during the Iraq war vote put together a victory in Iowa a first foot hold on route to the White House. Campaigns die from 1,000 cuts. The ones that bleed the most tap into pre-existing perceptions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very important. I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

CROWLEY: In Senate speak this made sense. In campaign talk, not so much. The image of Carey as a flip-flopper took hold. It's not the reason that Carey lost to George Bush, but it is a reason.

Politicians say clumsy things all the time. They make decisions that look wrong in hind sight. They make mistakes. They do stupid stuff. HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House.

CROWLEY: And that is widely thought to have been the moment Howard Dean's campaign ended. But the scream came only after he ran a dismal third in the Iowa caucus. Some mistakes are survivable. Some are not. Some just hasten the inevitable. And more often than not, you can't predict, which way they will fall. Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What a great look back, Candy Crowley. Thank you and thank you for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta. Time to turn things over to my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, in Washington - Wolf.