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Tropical Storm Lee Slams Gulf Coast; Secret CIA-Libya Connection; Palin Fires up the Faithful; Nurse's Kind Words for Gadhafi
Aired September 03, 2011 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now.
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That is Tropical Storm Lee battering the Gulf Coast. Powerful winds, heavy rain threatening the very same area that was ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people are calling and yelling at us and worse. And other people are calling and wanting to buy a ticket.
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HENDRICKS: An uproar in Arizona. A county Republican Party looks to raffle off a handgun very similar to the one used in the mass shooting that wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Also, a CNN exclusive. Documents found in Libya that could prove damaging to the U.S.
And speaking of Libya --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Instead of saying Gadhafi, Gadhafi all the time especially to avoid attracting attention from local Libyan, between ourselves, we called him "Daddy."
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HENDRICKS: One of Moammar Gadhafi's former nurses shares details about her life with the deposed leader only to CNN.
And this --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's something anti-Mexican about what I said, then I apologize for the anti-Mexican-ness of it.
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HENDRICKS: Was that an apology? Comedienne Katt Williams tries to explain his rant targeting Mexicans.
I'm Susan Hendricks at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta in tonight for Don Lemon.
Great to see you. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Wow, look at that. This is Tropical Storm Lee as it slams into the Mississippi coast. A group of people tried to keep that boat from being battered to pieces against the pier. It was a no-go losing battle. The waves were just too rough, too big. By morning the vessel was like this, upside down with huge holes in the bottom but the men are OK. The men who tried to save that boat.
Tropical Storm Lee is slightly weaker tonight. Top winds about 50 miles per hour. It is packing a lot of rain. Hardly moving at all. Slow going. Right now, it's hovering over the coastline of Louisiana and Mississippi. Nearly 40,000 customers were without power earlier on Saturday. But about two-thirds of them have electricity again. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency for several parishes and counties.
Parts of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans are under a mandatory evacuation order because of the flooding threat. The mayor of New Orleans has warned residents to brace for a long ordeal from this storm, up to 20 inches of rain could overwhelm the area.
An iReporter who lives on Lake Ponchartrain sent us this video as the storm engulfed that area.
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GERARD BRAUD, IREPORTER: Here on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and Mandeville Louisiana, as you take a look out, you can see that the water is overtopping the seawall and the yards are starting to flood, especially in the low-lying areas. Of course, everybody along this stretch of lake anticipates flooding of this kind. So all the houses are raised about 15 feet above sea level. The houses will be safe but the yards and streets are starting to flood.
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HENDRICKS: Yes, that is what we expect to hear a lot of over the next day or so. Water and lots of it flooding.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has been tracking the storm's impact in a place that was almost wiped off the map six years ago by Hurricane Katrina.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Residents along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi where we are here in Waveland, Mississippi, kind of feel like they have taken on the worst of Tropical Storm Lee.
We're here on the beachfront. This is the Gulf of Mexico. You can see just how choppy and churned up tropical storm Lee has made to this gulf waters. That's obviously still a very dangerous and treacherous situation out there in those waters so emergency officials urging people to stay out of the water. Don't get on the boats. No reason to do that. But you can see just how powerful the storm surge was just a few hours ago.
This is the beachfront road here. All of this sand, you see here, was on the beach pushed up by the storm tide here just several hours ago. But one of the good things that we've seen in various parts of the low-lying areas where we've seen floodwater gathering is that the waters are quickly dissipating. We were just a few blocks away or a few miles away in the town of bay St. Louis where we saw -- we were told thigh-high water had reached in some places under some people's homes. But over the course of several hours, that dissipated. So that is the good news.
But this is still very much a slow-moving storm. And, of course, anytime you talk about these storms coming through the Gulf Coast, it's a very emotional thing. This is Waveland, Mississippi, where we were was absolutely devastated almost six years ago to the day Hurricane Katrina threw through here. It changed this town forever. In fact several residents here are telling us that only about a third of the population has ever returned back here to Waveland after Hurricane Katrina.
In the grand scheme of things, they also know that this storm is nowhere close to the power and fury that Hurricane Katrina had brought here. So they're kind of taking all of this in stride. They made their preparations but really they are just considering this storm just a big rainmaker, and that rain continues to push its way inland.
And emergency officials say that the threat for more flash flooding still very much exists over the course of the next 24 hours further inland, north, not just along the Gulf Coast shore but up further north into the Louisiana and Mississippi, as well. Susan?
HENDRICKS: All right. Ed Lavandera in Mississippi, thanks so much.
Jacqui Jeras at the CNN Weather Center with what this is expected to do overnight.
And as Ed said, it's a big rainmaker.
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JERAS: They certainly don't need it there. President Obama will be in New Jersey tomorrow because of Irene.
Jacqui, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Now a CNN exclusive. The collapse of Moammar Gadhafi's regime is revealing Libya's secrets to the world, including supposed agreements to accept prisoners from the U.S. and the U.K. for interrogation.
Libyan authorities left stacks of files behind when rebels forced them out of Tripoli. Our Ben Wedeman has looked at these documents. He explains what he saw.
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BEN WEDEMAN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They didn't have the much time to shred many documents in the headquarters of Libya's main spy agency. In fact, most of the contents of the building are intact. It all amounts to a treasure trove of information about the shadowy world of cooperation between the world's spies.
(on-camera): We're in the basement of the Libyan External Intelligence Agency. It's like being in the basement of the CIA. And here we've got access to all sorts of documents. Letters, faxes and other communications between the CIA and its Libyan counterparts. Top secret documents, secret documents with names and dates and all sort of details that some people probably don't want to be made public.
(voice-over): And that relationship was, it appears, cozy. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights watch photographed hundreds of documents from external intelligence run for years by Moussa Koussa who fled Libya last spring.
PETER BOUCKAERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Moussa Koussa was on a first name basis with the CIA and MI-6. There's Christmas greetings in here. There's documents saying thanks for the oranges you sent.
WEDEMAN: The U.S. and Libya were at odds for years, but relations warmed dramatically after Libya renounced its program for weapons of mass destruction in late 2003. When Koussa started corresponding with then CIA Director Porter Goss. Libya eagerly signed up for the U.S. Global War on Terror, but just how eager is made clear by the documents uncovered in Tripoli.
BOUCKAERT: They established conclusively what we've been saying for a long time, that the CIA was capturing and rendering people to Libya so they could be interrogated by Libyan security. We even have the CIA questions they send to be asked to these suspects that they rendered to Libya.
WEDEMAN: One of those sent by U.S. officials to Libya was alleged Libyan Islamic militant Abdelhakim Belhadj, also known by his (INAUDIBLE) Abdullah Assadaq. According to documents provided by Human Rights Watch, in 2004, the U.S. detained Belhadj and handed him over to Libya. Belhadj now heads the rebel military council Tripoli.
Rights groups and the U.S. State Department regularly accused Libyan security services of the systemic use of torture. Bashir Shareef was not part of the extraordinary rendition program, but he experienced that torture firsthand.
He showed us how he was beaten to his knees in Tripoli's infamous Abu Salim prison where he was held from 1984 to 2001. A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the documents in Tripoli but did add that, quote, "It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats." Among spies there's no such thing, it seems, as a strange bedfellow.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Tripoli.
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HENDRICKS: And our thanks to Ben Wedeman for that exclusive report.
Coming up, GOP presidential contenders hit the trail this weekend, along with a former governor who is not officially in the race but sure knows how to draw a crowd. Yes, we're talking Sarah Palin.
But first, a handgun raffled that has a lot of people upset. We'll tell you why. That's next.
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HENDRICKS: Welcome back.
An uproar in Arizona over the raffle of a handgun. It is very similar to the model used in the mass shooting that killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl, and wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 12 other people. The Glock handgun rifle is at a fundraiser to raffle for Pima County Republicans, but Democrats and others call the idea sensitive.
A GOP leader told our Randi Kaye that people should be focused on the accused gunman and not on the weapon.
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MIKE SHAW, CHAIRMAN, PRO. TEM, PIMA COUNTY GOP: First of all, it was the actions of Jared Loughner that happened on during the Tucson shootings. So it's Jared, the one who is responsible. He could have used any type of weapon, and he chose to use a Glock. I think it was a Glock 19. We're raffling a Glock 23, which is a slightly different weapon.
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HENDRICKS: But they look very similar.
The same Republican official insists the raffle will go forward as planned. But he also told our affiliate KGUN that if he had known the event would stir such a strong reaction, he would have taken that into consideration before holding that raffle.
The last time we saw Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, she made a surprise appearance at that important House vote to keep the government from defaulting. Remember this? Getting a standing ovation. Much deserved. Now she is traveling some more, spending the Labor Day weekend at home with family in Tucson. Gabby Giffords has been living in Houston while recovering from the near fatal shooting in January.
Let's talk presidential politics. New Republican front-runner Rick Perry is forging ahead with his surging campaign. The Texas governor spoke to potential supporters at a House Party today in Manchester, New Hampshire. The latest CNN poll gives Perry the lead among the GOP hopefuls. He told listeners that a match-up between himself and President Obama would offer voters an obvious choice.
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GOV. RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As we consider this economic misery that spread across this country by the Obama administration, we don't need a nominee who's going to blur the differences between themselves and Barack Obama. We're going to have a nominee who draws a clear contrast.
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HENDRICKS: Republican Jon Huntsman is also in New Hampshire trying to light a fire under his campaign, so to speak, in the state that hosts the first presidential primary. That is him in Concord this morning working the crowd at a gun show.
CNN's poll shows the former Utah governor trails Rick Perry and most other GOP hopefuls by a wide margin.
And that brings us to the Republican with the real star power, and she's not even a presidential candidate. At least not yet. Sarah Palin was the main attraction today at an Iowa Tea Party rally. She went after some familiar political targets, but she also took a veiled shot at her own party's new front-runner.
CNN political reporter Peter Hamby was there. Peter?
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PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin delivered a series of sharp attacks against President Barack Obama and her potential Republican presidential rivals here at a tea party rally in Iowa on Saturday. And while Palin did not declare a presidential bid and is not expected to until the end of September, she did draw a sharp line in the sand against one potential opponent, Republican front-runner Texas Governor Rick Perry.
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SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Some GOP candidates, they also raise mammoth amounts of cash and we need to ask them too, what, if anything, do their donors expect in return for their investments. We need to know this because our country can't afford more trillion dollar thank you notes to campaign backers.
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HAMBY: Perry is a prolific fund-raiser who has long been criticized by his political opponents of rewarding campaign donors and political allies with government jobs and contracts.
Palin repeatedly attacked, quote unquote, "crony capitalism," throughout her speech, making clear that she's not going to cede any ground to Republican rivals if she does decide to run for president.
She tried to position herself as a populist outsider, a leader of the tea party movement. So we'll be watching her today as we campaigns in New Hampshire and speaks to another tea party rally and possibly drops more clues about what her message might be if she does decide to run for president.
Peter Hamby, CNN, Indianola, Iowa.
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HENDRICKS: If she does, we don't know. When we do know, we'll let you know.
All right. There is no question former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi lived a life of luxury. Now we are hearing from a former nurse about her time working for the ousted leader. The story in her own words -- next.
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HENDRICKS: Moammar Gadhafi is now in hiding as his regime collapses in Libya. Much has been said about the fallen leader's odd tendencies including surrounding himself with all female teams of bodyguards and nurses. Now one of those nurses is revealing details about her life with Gadhafi. In an exclusive conversation with CNN's Maxim Tkachenko.
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OKSANA BALINSKAYA, GADHAFI'S FORMER NURSE (through translator): We were the personal nurses of Gadhafi and his large family with all his children and grandchildren, and we always accompanied him on his foreign trips.
We would regularly measure his blood pressure, take blood samples and treat him. We gave him pills and vitamins. We were divided in shifts, the five of us. We drew our timetable ourselves and decided who worked when, as well as who traveled with him.
Everyone gets sick once in awhile, but generally he was in excellent health. I wish everyone had the kind of health that Gadhafi had. I don't know who created this image of his nurses and his female bodyguards. How could anyone in their right mind assume that we could have any intimate relationship with Gadhafi? His wife, children, grandchildren, officials, they were around him all the time. None of us had ever been one-on-one with him.
Rules were strict. We dressed formally and wore no flashy makeup or lipstick going to his house. Likewise, he never made any passes at us. Gadhafi was quite considerate. I don't know much about how the nannies were treated in his family, but as for us, he treated us very well. He never shouted at us, was always calm and friendly.
Every year on September 1st, Gadhafi presented us with souvenirs like this medallion with his picture and this watch with his picture, too. He gave those kinds of presents not only to his nurses but to everyone who worked in his inner circle.
Instead of saying Gadhafi, Gadhafi all the time, especially to avoid attracting attention from local Libyans, between ourselves, we called him "daddy." Daddy gave us jobs, money, a good life.
We would love to be able to return to Libya whether it's ruled by Gadhafi or someone else. But we were there for one reason and one reason only, simply to make money. Compared with Libya, life here in Ukraine is very difficult.
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HENDRICKS: Coming up, with sexual assault charges against him dropped, Dominique Strauss-Kahn takes flight. Where is he headed now?
And rumors of a new iPhone wouldn't be complete without the prototype being left in a bar. Yes, it happened again. We're back in two minutes.
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HENDRICKS: Checking the headlines now.
President Barack Obama will travel to New Jersey tomorrow to see firsthand the damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Irene. The president will visit Paterson, New Jersey, which was slammed by the storm. The Passaic River which runs through the city reached the highest level in more than a century. The mayor says 6,000 residents were affected by the flood. He wants to hear how the White House will help.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is headed home to Paris, two months after he was hauled off a plane and charged with attempted rape. The former IMF director's flight comes just days after New York prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against him. Strauss-Khan has denied those allegations which may have ended his ambitions of becoming France's next president.
A minor league baseball team is paying tribute to service members killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6th. They wore ties, wore camouflage uniforms yesterday with each jersey bearing the name of a fallen soldier, sailor or airmen.
The jerseys were later given to the families in appreciation of their loved one's sacrifice. 38 American and Afghan service members died in the crash.
Police now admit they allowed Apple investigators to join the search of a private home and rumor has it they were looking for the lost prototype for the new iPhone 5. They came away empty handed from this home in San Francisco. C-NET reports that an Apple employee apparently left the prototype in a bar. And get this, it's not the first time this has happened. Last year, an Apple employee accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype in another California bar. Sounds like a joke? It is not.
Tropical Storm Lee is slightly weaker tonight. Top winds about 50 miles per hour.
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Wow, look at that. Don't be fooled. This is what it looks like as the storm is slamming into the Mississippi Coast. Several people tried to keep that boat from being battered to pieces against the pier. A no-go. The storm won that tug of war. By morning, the vessel looked like this, upside down with holes in the bottom. The folks who tried to save it are OK.
Lee is hardly moving as it hovers over the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Both governors have declared states of emergency for several parishes and counties. Nearly 40,000 customers have lost electricity. Power has been restored to about two-thirds of them.
Parts of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans are under a mandatory evacuation order because of the flooding threats. The major of New Orleans warned residents to brace for a long ordeal. Up to 20 inches of rain could overwhelm that area.
And Mother Nature was in no mood to play nice on college football's opening weekend. Iowa's game against Tennessee Tech was just one game delayed by foul weather today. The threat of lightning led officials to clear the stadium. The story was the same in South Bend, Indiana, for Notre Dame, South Florida, and in Knoxville, for Tennessee-Montana. Fans in Arbor didn't even get to see the fourth quarter.
Michigan's match-up with western Michigan was called off because of lightning. The teams agreed to end the game with the Wolverines up 34-10. All right, not something fans want to see.
Jacqui Jeras is at the weather center. We know how football fans are. They are into the game. This is opening weekend. But better to be safe, Jacqui, right?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And it was great to see that they actually evacuated some of these stadiums to keep people safe throughout the storm. So that's what I know. Former football fans, right?
Tomorrow is another day. And hopefully, you know, next weekend we'll get some great games in. We are tracking those storms which are still moving across the Midwest at this hour. In fact, we still have a sliver here of a severe thunderstorm watch which still includes the Detroit metro area. You guys have been pounded for the last couple of hours with heavy rain, lots of lightning. We've seen some of those strong gusty winds to go along with it. This is the big cauldron that is helping to kind of drive all of our weather systems right now across the U.S. This is going to be heading into the eastern Great Lakes by tomorrow and could be having somewhat of an impact on Tropical Storm Lee. I know a lot of you are trying to get out there and enjoy the holiday weekend, but showers and thunderstorms are going to be the rule again across parts of the east from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Severe thunderstorms expected here, and then as well into that right quadrant from Tropical Storm Lee. Windy conditions across Texas means the fire threat increases once again. But if you're looking for a great place to enjoy the holiday weekend, that's going to be out west.
The one good thing I can say about this cold front, it's bringing in much cooler temperatures. Look at the high tomorrow -- in Minneapolis it will be only 68 degrees. Even Dallas feeling much better, staying below 90, looking for a high around 81 in Washington, D.C. And our frontal system kind of stalling out here as we head into Monday, your Labor Day. So expecting a lot of wet weather once again. We will see some showers and thundershowers pop up in the four corners. But most of the rest of the west looks OK. And then you can see those temperatures, that cool air advancing further to the east by Monday. How about 77 for you in the Memphis area?
The latest on Tropical Storm Lee, in case you missed it earlier, 50 miles per hour maximum sustained winds. We've had dry air moving into this storm all day long, and that's been weakening it down a little bit. But we still have had an incredible amount of rain with this, as much as 10 inches in some areas. And that storm will slowly track up towards the north and east. That's going to be sticking with us right through the middle probably even the latter part of the east. And we'll have to watch what's going to happen with the impact of Lee and that cold front and all the systems moving into the northeast with all the flooding that had been ongoing there from Irene.
HENDRICKS: Moving very slow as you mentioned, bringing a lot of rain. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much.
We mentioned football as Jacqui did. Speaking of, remember the tornadoes that ripped through Alabama a few months ago? It left many communities in shambles. Next, how the University of Alabama's football team is helping its hometown of Tuscaloosa bounce back.
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HENDRICKS: The University of Alabama football team opened the season today with a victory over Kent State. The game meant more than usual to the school and to the town of Tuscaloosa. It was the first since the tornado ripped through on April 27th, killing 50 people, including six students. As Lars Anderson reports, one player saw his life change forever in a few moments.
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LARS ANDERSON, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: A deadly tornado twisted and turned through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 27th and changed things forever. The destruction left behind was unfathomable and touched nearly every resident in this town of 90,000. Four months later, the community continues to rebuild.
MAYOR WALTER MADDOX, TUSCALOOSA: In layman's terms, it's like taking the Bryant-Denny stadium and filling up debris from the football field to the top of the lights three times. And we still have another Bryant-Denny stadium left to go before we're finally cleared of what happened on April 27th.
ANDERSON: That afternoon, Carson was in his house with his girlfriend, Ashley Harrison. The house was in the direct line of the tornado. When the tornado hit the house, both Ashley and Carson were thrown 50 yards into a field across the street. That field happened to be one of Carson's favorite places in Tuscaloosa. Just hours earlier, he had been hitting golf balls in that field. Ashley did not survive. Carson suffered minor injuries.
CARSON TINKER, ALABAMA LONG SNAPPER: I woke up that morning, it was just another day. And I mean, it wasn't even raining outside. You know? And just like that, I mean, everything changed.
BRENDAN GIBSON, ALABAMA WIDE RECEIVER: Just being in his presence is just, you know, it gets you through tough times, because I mean, you definitely could experience worse things, and he definitely did. And he's kind of an example of, you know, coming back and being strong and having a positive attitude every day.
ANDERSON: Since April 27th, the football players have been on the front lines helping to rebuild the community, rebuilding houses, picking up debris, and they have also been there really to listen to people tell their stories, their stories of loss, their stories of tragedy. This has had a positive, uplifting psychological impact on Tuscaloosa.
NICK SABAN, COACH: We have to be a team, not just in the best of times when we're playing games and there's 100,000 people supporting us, but in the worst of times when the people who support us need our help. And I was really, really pleased with the way our players have responded to that and continue to respond to it.
ANDERSON: The images don't do justice to the breadth and scope that the damage and destruction the tornado left behind in its wake. So when people come here for the first time for the home opener against Kent State, Nick Saban is hoping that it will generate awareness and therefore, more resources will pour into Tuscaloosa to help rebuild the city.
GIBSON: We've got a lot of weight on our shoulders. I think, you know, by us being a huge part of this community, they're looking for us to come out and kind of give a little more back to the town of Tuscaloosa. So I can't wait. It's a long time coming.
TINKER: We are coming back and it is very exciting and very uplifting for those who come and, you know, they look at this town and the Forest Lake community over on 15st Street, I mean, there is nothing there. And there's just banners that say we're coming back. We're coming back. For me, I mean, I just got a chill right now talking about it. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HENDRICKS: They certainly came back with a win over Kent State. That football game meant so much to so many.
If you live in Baltimore, don't be alarmed if you hear a lot of noise and see cars speeding through your streets on Sunday. Racing toward an economic boost for the city in two minutes.
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HENDRICKS: Baltimore is like so many U.S. cities, struggling with a sagging economy and rising unemployment. But tomorrow, the city hopes to get a boost from an auto race and the money spent by fans who come to watch it. CNN's Athena Jones has the story.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Baltimore is about to get noisy. This Labor Day weekend, the place affectionately known as Charm City is hosting a fast-paced race through the streets, with hairpin turns and 90-degree angles, reaching speeds of up to 160 miles per hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They run exactly the place your car is running on every day from 9:00 to 5:00, you're going downtown to work, but you're going 35- to 40 mile-an-hour. We're going the same place 160 mile-an-hour. So that's why it's so cool.
JONES: It's the Baltimore Grand Prix, the inaugural event in a five-year Indy Car series the mayor expects to bring more than $11 million into city coffers.
(on camera): What about the larger impact? We're talking about hotels, restaurants, any idea in terms of an estimate of how much money it has brought in in a larger way?
MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE: We don't have an exact figure, but we're hoping it will be well over $100 million.
JONES: Organizers expect more than 100,000 people to descend on the two-mile downtown loop this weekend.
The city of Baltimore is hoping this event will put it on the map for racing fans worldwide, attracting tourists and giving the economy a much needed boost. Unemployment in Baltimore is above the national average at about 11 percent. Spectators can watch the Indy cars race as well as the Lemans series races of sports cars like Ferraris and Jaguars. We went to watch preparations, practice runs and qualifying rounds, and to talk to participants like Lemans driver Chris Dyson.
So you're in here, you're flipping all these things while you're driving, what are you -- you're pushing all these buttons, you're reading things?
CHRIS DYSON, DRIVER: Yes, you've got to be a human computer when you're out there driving. You have to be completely clinical about what you're doing.
JONES: Both the city and race sponsors have a lot riding on the event.
RANDY BERNARD, CEO, INDYCAR: It's very important for us to build our brand and our exposure by bringing on new cities like this.
JONES: And drivers like Brazil's Helio Cassaroneves (ph), who has been racing for Team Penske for 12 years, are excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a good show.
JONES: Athena Jones, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENDRICKS: Comedian Katt Williams, already in hot water for a recent rant about Mexicans, creates more controversy during his remarks to us. It's a CNN exclusive you don't want to miss.
But first, as millions of Americans braced for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, this week's CNN hero was standing by to help out, to help the victims. 77-year-old Wilma Melville and her search dog organization have helped save lives at major disasters for the past 15 years. Take a look.
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WILMA MELVILLE: When the Oklahoma city bombing happened, I saw the size of that building on television. I had a hobby of learning to train a disaster search dog.
I was deployed to Oklahoma City. I did wonder, can we really do this? Can we really find live people?
When I got home, I said, what is this nation doing? With approximately 15 FEMA certified dogs? This one building alone requires far more than 15.
My name is Wilma Melville. Our organization trains rescue dogs and firefighter handlers to save lives after a disaster.
Right turn.
We like to use shelter dogs. It's a humane thing to do. There is nothing better than a dog's nose to find a live human.
Attaboy. Get out of there, search dog.
We've been to the World Trade Center, Japan, Joplin, Missouri, and Haiti.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Haiti, on the fourth day there, we made contact with a 10-year-old girl. We would ask her to acknowledge us with a tap. And around the sixth or seventh hour, she stopped tapping. MELVILLE: Finding live people is our goal. But providing hope for the onlooker and a place to begin work for the firefighter, those are meaningful, meaningful objectives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENDRICKS: She is doing amazing things. Placing shelter dogs with firefighters, Wilma and her organization have trained 131 rescue teams for free. You can learn more about the Search Dog Foundation or make a donation at CNNheroes.com. Be sure to join the conversation on CNN heroes Facebook and Twitter pages. Stay with us.
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HENDRICKS: Comedian Katt Williams is backtracking a bit on an apology for a recent on-stage rant. Here's part of what he said in Phoenix.
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KATT WILLIAMS: Do you remember when white people used to say, go back to Africa? And we had to tell them we don't want to. So if you love Mexico [ bleep ], get the [ bleep ] over there.
We were slaves. You all just work like that at the landscapers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENDRICKS: Katt Williams got into it with a Mexican member of his audience after the man heckled him as you just saw. The comedian angered many in the Hispanic community with those comments. Williams' publicist released an apology. But the comedian now says I didn't approve it and I'm not sorry. Here's what he said exclusively to CNN's T.J. Holmes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: If a person starts their heckling with "f America," then that gives me the right to defend my country. I couldn't be anti-Mexican. My Mexican fan base is largely responsible for me even existing. So between them and the black community, it's really all I have.
But I don't think I need to apologize for being pro-American. The guy said that all of this is still Mexico, and I was just giving him geography. This is America, greatest country in the world.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, help us understand. So do you not apologize for anything? We only showed like a 50-second clip there. It's like seven or eight minutes. But -- go ahead.
WILLIAMS: No, sir, I apologize for the fact that the word anti- Mexican is being said to a black guy in America.
HOLMES: But you don't apologize for what you said in that standup? WILLIAMS: I'm not allowed to as a standup, the only thing that I sell is uncensored thought. So I'm only selling them the way I think, uncensored. So I'm not allowed to then come back the next day and apologize. That's for the Tracy Morgans of the world. I meant what I said and I said what I meant. I'm apologizing if somebody thought I was trying to be anti-Mexican. Mexicans are my friends.
HOLMES: So, Katt, why is somebody allowed to put out a statement apologizing on your behalf then?
WILLIAMS: Sir, they put out a DVD called "Katt Williams: Nine Lives" while I was in jail without my permission. If there's something anti-Mexican about what I said, then I apologize for the anti-Mexicanness of it. I was talking to one individual.
HOLMES: Do you understand at least some people hearing that, and you were talking to one guy. It's clear that other people in the crowd were laughing at what you were saying to him, even as you were going off on the one guy.
WILLIAMS: If I had disrespected Mexicans, I wouldn't have been able to get out of there alive, sir, with all due respect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENDRICKS: Again, Katt Williams saying I'm not sorry. At least one activist is trying to organize a boycott of his standup act.
Next, Tropical Storm Lee dumps heavy rain over the Gulf states. We are getting new info on Lee's strength and path.
And attention all geeks. Dragoncon is here. It is your favorites after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HENDRICKS: Tropical Storm Lee is tearing up the Gulf Coast tonight with drenching rain. Let's go back to meteorologist Jacqui Jeras at the CNN weather center for an update on this. Hi, Jacqui.
JERAS: Hey there, Susan. We just got the 11:00 advisory in a little bit early. And Lee is basically holding status quo in terms of intensity. Maximum winds 50 miles per hour. It's really just kind of been meandering here off the Louisiana coast all day long and having a hard time forming and reforming that center of circulation.
This is an updated track for you now. And really no big changes here. Still very slowly making its way through the lower Mississippi River Valley through Monday, and then it won't be until late Tuesday when this starts to move into Tennessee and across parts of the Appalachians.
We also have a new tornado watch which has been issued and extended. It's basically the same area that's been under a watch all day, but now this goes until early tomorrow morning. So that threat of tornadoes will be ongoing tonight. And we do have one warning right now in effect that includes Waveland, Mississippi and Bay St. Louis. You folks need to be taking cover now and should be in an interior room at the lowest level of your home. We'll continue to see these little spinners. Flooding rain will be a problem through the overnight hours, and all throughout the day tomorrow. This is a slow- moving storm that isn't going away any time soon.
We also have an update on Tropical Storm Katia, looking at winds of 70 miles per hour here. It's out in the middle of the Atlantic, not bothering anybody. It is going to be bringing in some waves though to the Leeward and Windward Islands. The forecast track brings it towards the U.S. This will be late in the week. And still too soon to tell whether or not we're going to get that perfect curve up to the north with a miss or this is going to get guided in and hug along that coast. So we'll continue to track both of those storms, Susan. This is going to be a busy hurricane season.
HENDRICKS: It really is. Lee slow-moving but very powerful. Jacqui Jeras, thank you.
And you would think maybe Lee might bring some relief for the fires in Texas or Oklahoma. Not so. Wildfires in those two states have left a trail of misery as you know. Fires in Oklahoma City has destroyed more than two dozen homes. In Texas, the state forest service reports 14 large fires have burned more than 20,000 acres. Winds from Tropical Storm Lee would make it harder to fight the fires. It is the wind.
Nearly four months after he was accused of attempted rape, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is heading home. The former IMF chief boarded a plane to Paris tonight. Sexual assault charges have all but ended his ambition to become France's next president. Prosecutors were forced to drop the charges because of questions about his accuser's credibility.
Southwest Airlines apparently doesn't care if you are a big rock star. Pull up your pants or get off the plane. It happened to Billy Joe Armstrong, front man from Green Day. Armstrong tweeted after the fact he couldn't believe he got the boot from the plane. According to Time.com, once news spread about the diss, Southwest quickly apologized, said we're sorry and booked him on the next flight.
If you are going to celebrate hot wings, you have to do it in Buffalo. The city is hosting the 10th annual national buffalo wing festival this weekend. With more than 35 restaurants serving up their best wings seasoned in more than 100 different flavors. Makes you hungry, right? Get this, more than 200 tons of wings have been consumed at the event over the last decade, 200 tons. Who's counting. And it has brought in over $200,000 for charity. A great thing.
I'm Susan Hendricks at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here tomorrow night, 6:00, 7:00 and 10:00 Eastern. Before we go, we have your all-access pass to the event where all the Trekkies, Wookees and superheroes are gathering this weekend. It is the annual sci-fi and fantasy celebration Dragoncon happening in Atlanta. Check out this crazy parade.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, I'm on camera.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dragoncon is the nerd super bowl and the parade is the shining event of the nerd super bowl. It is the most fun a nerd could have all year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's so special about Dragoncon, is that it is the largest fan-based run science fiction multimedia convention in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please stand back. We need to make sure you're safe. This will not hurt. This one.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Comic-con is bigger, but it's all corporate. This is fan-based run. So you have a lot more interaction with the fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dangerous to play in the streets, sonny (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my first Dragoncon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my eighth year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been coming for four years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my first time at Dragoncon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One weekend where you just be what you want to be and do what you want to do and not have to worry about anybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you're into any of this at all, no matter what genre, you got to make the mecca of Dragoncon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no filming here, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
