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Is China Hiding Nuclear Weapons in Tunnels?; U.S. Forces to Exit Iraq; Afghan Rape Victim Close to Freedom; Al Qaeda Claims Abduction of American; Boomers: A Political Force
Aired December 01, 2011 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's go and get you caught up on everything making news this hour, "Rapid Fire."
Let's go, beginning with stocks losing their steam right now. Right now, if we can take look at the Dow, it's up just a smidgen, five points, right above that 12,000 level.
Keep your eye on the numbers. Obviously, this is quite the difference than we saw with regard to yesterday's rally. Fears today are over the Europe debt, and that's really driving the market right now. And it doesn't exactly help much that the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits is up compared to last week. They're actually at their highest level in a month.
In southern California, Santa Ana winds are causing quite a mess. Thirty-to-50-mile-per-hour winds knocking down trees and power lines, as well, hitting a number of cars. As I've seen, more than 80,000 customers lost power overnight, including parts of LAX, the airport in L.A. More than 20 flights were diverted because of the wind, which also blew debris onto two different runways. And as you can imagine, the threat of fire is high because of the windy and dry conditions there.
And I want to take you to Tennessee. This is a tough one.
This has been a deadly multi-car pileup north of Nashville blamed on the heavy fog. A hundred seventy-six vehicles were involved in this chain collision. Seven ambulances were sent to the scene. One person was killed and more than a dozen others were injured. Police say there were actually three separate chain reaction incidents, and at least 50 cars had severe damage and had to be towed away.
A lawyer for Jerry Sandusky says the former Penn State coach is not considering a plea deal. Attorney Joe Amendola -- that's him there on the right side of your screen -- responded to a "Harrisburg Patriot" news article quoting him as saying he might have to talk with Sandusky about a possible plea if more sex abuse allegations are made. Amendola says he was responding to a "What if?" question. He says Sandusky still maintains his innocence and there has been no discussion of any kind of plea deal.
Near Baghdad today, at least 13 people were killed by a car bomb at a fruit and vegetable market. Another 31 others were injured. And against this violent backdrop there, the continued withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Nearly all American troops will be out of that country by the end of this year. And just in a couple of minutes, we're going to take you live to Baghdad for today's ceremony marking the end of the U.S. military involvement in Iraq.
And the man at the center of a missing woman case in Aruba back in the United States. Gary Giordano's first stop, an interview this morning on ABC's "Good Morning America." Giordano denies having anything to do with the disappearance of his traveling companion, Robyn Gardner. He also explains the big life insurance policy he bought for himself and Gardner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY GIORDANO, TRAVEL COMPANION DISAPPEARED IN ARUBA: I can't unselect (ph) Robyn. OK? And when it came down to the accident insurance, you can't unselect (ph) her. So when I selected that, I was selecting it for me and she got the same thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: If he had to do it all over again, Giordano says he would not have gone to Aruba.
And the man who shot President Ronald Reagan wants to spend more time outside a mental hospital. Hearings are actually under way to decide if he will get that.
Lawyers for John Hinckley, Jr. say he is not dangerous, but prosecutors say he used one outing to search out books about Ronald Reagan and presidential assassins. A federal judge will decide if Hinckley's unsupervised outings can be lengthened, and the eventual goal would be releasing Hinckley from the hospital to live near his mother.
And some frightening moments. Have you seen this video during this timeout?
This was during last night's Michigan State basketball game. You see the girl fall there.
MSU cheerleader Taylor Young, she falls during this routine, lands flat on her face. She was carried out -- there she is. She was carried out on a stretcher. She did give the two thumbs-up to the crowd -- there it is -- and reportedly, she is doing OK today.
And we are just getting started here. A number of stories coming at you in two minutes. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: At the end of this year, just one month from now, the U.S. military will be out of Iraq. Only 13,000 American troops still remain in country, and that's down from the high of 170,000 during the surge. In Baghdad, at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces, Vice President Joe Biden today paid tribute to the contributions and the sacrifices of both U.S. and Iraqi troops over the eight and a half years of war. More than 4,000 U.S. service members lost their lives. Another 30,000 were wounded.
But, as we mentioned at the top of the hour, the situation in Iraq remains dangerous and very volatile. A car bomb today at this market just north of Baghdad killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens of others. Other violence throughout the country today claimed another seven lives.
I want to go live to Baghdad, to CNN's Martin Savidge.
OK. We're going to work on getting Martin in just a moment. We'll talk about the sense from a number of these members of our military men and women, their feelings as they are leaving Iraq.
But we'll move on to some pretty terrifying news about China. A new study suggests that that country may have thousands of secret nuclear warheads, and what's even more interesting is where they're being hidden.
Also, are you wearing your red today? It is World AIDS Day. And President Obama has pledged an additional $50 million to help fight the AIDS virus. We're going to show you exactly how that chunk of money will be used.
Those stories and more, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Think nuclear arms race. And if you think Cold War, as in Russia and the U.S., that is so last century. In fact, if this new study is correct, it is China now that has been putting all kinds of new wealth into a huge nuclear arsenal, an arsenal many fear could trigger the next arms race, an arsenal so big -- well, let me let CNN Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence show you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While the Chinese were building these tunnels, a Georgetown professor was digging into China.
PROF. PHILLIP KARBER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Students downloaded 200 hours of Chinese video.
LAWRENCE: Dr. Phillip Karber and his team of students have produced the world's largest report on China's tunnels. China admits they were dug by a secretive branch of its military responsible for deploying ballistic missiles in nuclear warheads.
KARBER: They had 3,000 miles of these tunnels -- 3,000 miles.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Can you put that in any perspective? KARBER: Imagine a tunnel 30 feet by 20 feet high running from Nova Scotia to Tijuana.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Karber is a former Pentagon strategist who used to look for weaknesses in the old Soviet Union. Based on the size of these tunnels, he says China could have as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads.
LAICIE OLSON, CENTER FOR ARMS CONTROL & NON-PROLIFERATION: The problem with the study and the way that it comes to this estimate is that the students and their professor make the assumption that because China is working on this system of underground tunnels, this must automatically mean that they have a far -- that they're working on nuclear weapons.
LAWRENCE: Policy analyst Laicie Olson and others working on arms control question the Georgetown team's methods. Olson says suggesting that China has 3,000 weapons is a huge jump from the current estimate of a few hundred warheads and could lead rival Asian nations to start an arms race.
OLSON: These all lead us to estimates that could potentially impact foreign policy in a very negative way.
LAWRENCE: But students who slogged through 200 hours of video and translated more than a million words disagree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeing hundreds of thousands of Chinese men who worked to build these things and hearing their stories, and seeing how much effort they put into this is another issue, and it shows how important it is to the Chinese military.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They may provoke an arms race, even unintentionally.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Well, no matter how many nuclear weapons you believe China has, the team's research did yield some fascinating revelations, including how China would use disguised railcars to transport some of its long-range missiles in secret.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Chris, thank you.
It is World AIDS Day, and it's an event so huge, it is bringing two presidents, a rock star, and our very own chief medical correspondent, also a neurosurgeon, all together. Bono joined Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Washington to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.
All around the world today, people are uniting in the fight against the disease. And today, President Obama pledged an additional $50 million to combat the epidemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But the fight's not over, not by a long shot. The rate of new infections may be going down elsewhere, but it's not going down here in America.
The infection rate here has been holding steady for over a decade. There are communities in this country being devastated still by this disease.
When new infections among young black gay men increased by nearly 50 percent in three years, we need to do more to show them that their lives matter. When Latinos are dying sooner than other groups, and when black women feel forgotten even though they account for most of the new cases among women --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: In addition to our current president, also former president George W. Bush joined the discussion via satellite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And there's no greater priority. And this is something our American citizens must understand and our government must understand. There is no greater priority than living out the admonition, "To whom much is given, much is required." We're a blessed nation in the United States of America, and I believe we are required to support effective programs that save lives.
God bless you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Activists say this is the beginning of the end of AIDS. Here is Bono.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, MUSICIAN AND ACTIVIST: What we're actually talking about when we say the beginning of the end of AIDS is a sort of -- is a mathematical point you get, a point of infection in the disease, where it's possible to lower infection rates to less than the people that you're treating. It used to be that for every one person you treated, two people became infected. Now, with the combination of getting people these antiretroviral drugs as soon as they're diagnosed -- male circumcision was another breakthrough -- and getting pregnant women those drugs very early, you can actually cut those infections right down and begin the end of this disease.
And as I say it, it's really -- I can't even believe the words are coming out of my mouth. Thirty years, 30 million funerals later, on the 30th anniversary, we just have the end in sight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Big picture here, more than one million people in the United States are currently living with HIV, 50,000 more become infected each and every year.
A woman is raped by a relative, impregnated, imprisoned for adultery, and is now raising her daughter in jail. This is happening in Afghanistan.
We have been telling you the story of a woman we're calling Gulnaz. We now have her attorney live from Kabul after this short break.
But first, today's list, the top five most corrupt countries in the world. This is based on perception only, so this is the 2011 Corruption Perception Index by the Transparency International Coalition. They gather information on surveys based upon bribery, embezzlement, anti-corruption efforts.
So, number five, Uzbekistan.
Number four, Afghanistan.
Number three, Myanmar.
What are the top two most corrupt countries in the world? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We have been giving you this list of the most corrupt countries in the world. This is taken from the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index by the Transparency International Coalition.
So, again, to revisit number 5, Uzbekistan.
Number four, Afghanistan.
Three, Myanmar.
Number two, North Korea.
And the number one most corrupt country in the world is Somalia. Somalia, at the top of that list.
Now back to Iraq, where as you know, thousands of American troops will be leaving by the end of next month, one convoy, one soldier at a time. And our own Martin Savidge is there.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the war in Iraq has a finish line, then Camp Virginia is it. In the last six weeks, as many as 350 vehicles a day have been rolling in to this remote base in the Kuwaiti desert, delivering soldiers and equipment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No water, no MREs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No water, no MREs. No brass, no ammo. SAVIDGE: Here, teams work day and night guiding convoys through a series of stops. Each one, like an assembly line in reverse, taking off, or, as they say, downloading equipment accumulated over years of war.
(on camera): And so what sort of stuff are they getting out at this particular point?
SERGEANT VALERIE CARTER, U.S. ARMY: They're getting any fuel, any kind of oil, fuel, batteries. Anything that was not issued to them or that they bought, they've downloaded in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Throw it all out?
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Everything is sorted and collected to be thrown out, recycled, or put back in service.
(on camera): We brought you to this motor pool because, really, it's one of the few places where you can go to get a sense of just how much we're talking about -- how many vehicles, how many trucks, how much stuff. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
(voice-over): Camp Virginia has the capacity to house close to 7,000 troops and more than 5,000 vehicles. And even though officials say they're below those levels, they admit it's been challenging keeping up with what's coming out of Iraq.
LT. COLONEL BRYAN BOBO, U.S. ARMY: It's very busy. And I will say that we're making use of every available cot we have, all the space that we have. But it's going really well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At ease. Listen up. And welcome to Camp Virginia.
SAVIDGE: But there are signs of strain. The base has had to greatly increase housing and office space, and the dining hall now remains open 24 hours a day, just to keep everyone fed. The goal is to move the soldiers from convoy to a flight back to the U.S. within five to eight days, but officers admit it can sometimes take longer.
Yet, despite such problems, morale remains high, because as every soldier who makes it here knows, the next stop is home.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Camp Virginia, Kuwait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Martin, thank you.
And from Iraq, we're going to take to you a developing story out of Afghanistan. An American lawyer connected to this story, she is standing by live to tell me the latest. But here is what we know as of right now.
So, today, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered the release of a 19- year-old woman, this woman here. If you watch this enough, we have told you her story, we have been following up on her.
She was accused of adultery and imprisoned after a married man raped her. As I said, we followed her plight very closely. I want to take you back to our original reporting. This is an unbelievable story. It was filed by our own Nick Paton Walsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gulnaz remembers clearly the smell of her rapist's clothes.
GULNAZ, RAPE VICTIM (through translator): He had filthy clothes on, as he does metal and construction work. When my mother went out, he came into my house and he closed the doors and windows. I started screaming, but he shut me up by putting his hand on my mouth.
WALSH: Her rapist was the husband of her cousin. But in Afghanistan's Draconian society, this 19-year old was also blamed. Her rape, sex with a married man, was seen as adultery by the courts, and she was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
To her, there's only one way out -- a dreadful choice.
GULNAZ (through translator): I was asked if I wanted to start a new life by getting released by marrying this man. My answer was that one man dishonored me, and I want to stay with that man.
WALSH: Inside the prison walls, she agreed to be interviewed with her face hidden. Here, she can't escape her attacker. Her daughter is the child of the rape.
GULNAZ (through translator): My daughter is a little innocent child. Who knew I would have a child in this way? A lot of people told me that, "After your daughter is born, give it to someone else," but my aunt told me to keep her as proof of my innocence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Since that report first aired, we have had a huge outcry here at CNN. The U.S. State Department even took a stand, and Afghan authorities reduced the woman's sentence from 12 years down to three years. But that still did not quiet the critics. And today, came the announcement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the victim may go free, but apparently on conditions.
So, with more, let's go live to Kabul, to the rape victim's attorney. She is Kim Motley. She is actually an American from Milwaukee, a former Miss Wisconsin who finds herself in Kabul.
Kim Motley, if you can, what is your client's situation right now?
KIMBERLY MOTLEY, INTERNATIONAL ATTORNEY, MOTLEY CONSULTING INTERNATIONAL: Well, right now -- and thank you, Brooke, for having me. Right now, Gulnaz is still locked up at the Kabul women's prison, Badam Bagh prison. She has been informed today by at least the ministry of justice that -- and the attorney general's office and the supreme court -- that they're looking into her case.
She spoke with them. They asked her questions. Unfortunately, I was not allowed into the prison to be present for that questioning.
But her situation right now is that the judiciary committee has agreed that she should be released and that she should be pardoned so that -- with no conditions. From what I understand, they did ask whether or not she wants to marry the guy. But whether or not that happens is not a condition of her release.
BALDWIN: So, if Gulnaz would like to walk free conditionless, she can.
MOTLEY: Absolutely. I mean, I can say with 100 percent insurance that she has told me on Tuesday, which was actually the last time that I talked to her, that she -- if she was given a free choice, that she does be want to marry this guy. And she has told me also that she would like to marry an educated man.
So, Gulnaz does want to be released. She wants to be released without conditions. And it looks like that is what the presidential palace has also agreed to do.
BALDWIN: So, if that is what happens, Kim, if she is released, should she return to her village in Afghanistan? Obviously, there's the issue of safety. You know the situation better than I. Might her life be in danger because she was raped?
MOTLEY: Well, Gulnaz and I have talked about her being released and where she will go. And so there is a place that she is going to go.
I know where that location is. We've talked about it. We're not going to share that with the public for her safety, but she does have a safe place to go, she has a safe place to be, to get there. And so it's all ready and waiting for her.
BALDWIN: So she is not going home. Understandably, you don't want to give away the safe location, but she is not going back to her home village?
MOTLEY: Unfortunately, I can't disclose that. She is just going to a safe place. I've agreed to personally take her there. And it's a safe place.
BALDWIN: Kim, in terms of the --
MOTLEY: I have no intentions of putting her in that situation.
BALDWIN: I am not even going to push it anymore, so I'm going to move on and just ask you about the justice situation. I don't want to put her in danger whatsoever.
Do the authorities in Afghanistan, Kim, do they accept that your client was raped? Number one. Number two, does Afghan law allow for putting rape victims in prison simply based upon the fact that they were raped? Is that how it works? MOTLEY: Well, I think that definitely is how it has worked with Gulnaz's case, at least with the first and second court. According to the Elimination of Violence Against Women Act, it describes rape as a person who has been dishonored. And in the interview that she did with CNN, clearly Gulnaz indicated that she was dishonored woman.
Now, whether or not the government officials agree that she was raped according to Western standards is irrelevant. According to Afghan law, the legal definition of rape includes women that have been dishonored.
BALDWIN: Been dishonored. I want to get back to --
MOTLEY: I believe, frankly, that she was raped.
BALDWIN: Yes.
MOTLEY: I believe, frankly, that she was raped according to Western standards. I believe she was raped, frankly, according to Western standards.
BALDWIN: I understand. And I want to move off Gulnaz just for a moment, because we are also just curious about your own story, Kim, because, you know, how did you wind up in Afghanistan? And how does a former Miss Wisconsin find herself working as an attorney in Kabul which clearly has a system of justice, as you point out, the Western versus what you're experiencing there in Afghanistan, so, so totally different from ours?
MOTLEY: Well, I just came here originally with a justice program that was funded by the U.S. Department of State. And while I was here, I went to visit many prisons and got to know and meet a lot of accused people and hear their stories.
And I was hearing especially from foreign people some of the human rights and, frankly, due process violations that were being repeated over and over and over again. And so, from that experience, and also based on my experience prior of six years prior to being here, being a defense attorney, a combination of missing court, a combination of wanting to help out, and a combination of wanting a challenge is pretty much what has kept me here.
And for cases such as Gulnaz's, frankly, which is a case setting precedent for Afghan women, which I think is extremely important especially knowing that the bond conference is coming soon.
You know, it is really a strong statement by the presidential palace to release her and to offer her clemency. I think it is a statement against women that are in her situation that perhaps they should not be treated in the legal system the way that Gulnaz has been treated.
BALDWIN: So, Kim, to be clear, it's precedent setting not because she was raped and thus the courts considered it adultery. Therefore she wound up in jail. It is precedent setting because now she is being given this condition less choice to leave.
MOTLEY: It's precedent for that because she has been given this condition with choice. It is also presidential frankly because the president, President Karzai, as I understand it, has granted her clemency is granting her to be released in addition to judicial, the judicial committee that went to go see her today.
And also, frankly, while I was standing outside the walls of the prison today trying to get in to see her, I was told that the Judicial Committee has also been ordered to look at all the women's cases that are in the prison and to talk to all the women. So this has been a huge, huge case.
Not just for Gulnaz and her daughter, but frankly for Afghan women to, you know, protect their rights here for adultery cases in similar type circumstances.
BALDWIN: That is tremendous that this case of Gulnaz, your client, this 19-year-old woman, is serving as a catalyst for other women in this jail. How many other women, Kim, are like Gulnaz, women raped and imprisoned as adulterers?
MOTLEY: Well, what I can say. I don't know the exact figures, unfortunately. But what I can say from the prison that Gulnaz, almost a third of the women are in for moral crimes.
And moral crimes here are adultery type cases, kidnapping cases, things like that. Kidnapping and running away cases and often the kidnapping cases include women that are trying to run away from home from their own protection.
So from what I've seen, a third of those cases are for moral crimes such as adultery, running away, and kidnapping. And again, I'm encouraged that the Presidential Judiciary Committee is reviewing cases of different women and talking to different women that are locked up within the Afghan justice system.
And I do want to offer my, you know, assistance in pointing out cases to them where women have been mistreated by the justice system. There is another woman, Farita, that was in par one also unfairly treated. So that is what I know.
BALDWIN: Kim, quickly, I know you're frustrated and you can't get inside that prison, this jail. But what's the time frame? Do you know any kind of idea when Gulnaz might be released?
MOTLEY: Unfortunately at this time, I don't know the time frame. But I hope it will be, obviously, very soon. We'll see.
BALDWIN: Well, thank you so much. Kim Motley for us from Kabul and kudos to Nick Payton Walsh, our CNN correspondent, in Kabul for finding this story in the first place. Thanks to both of you.
And here's what else we have coming up over the course of the next 90 minutes.
Hurricane force winds, cars lifted up, planes unable to land and it is not letting up. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
The ban on horse meat in America, lifted. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to see it in the grocery store or on menus.
And we know you're fired up about this one. Now the news, a 103-year- old homeowner has been waiting for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love this place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Will she keep her home?
Then, nothing gets New Yorkers red-faced like traffic. President Obama's campaign collision with -- 2, 1!
Christmas in today's "Political Pop."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Some new information just in to us here at CNN. It pertains to the case of that 70-year-old American who was kidnapped in Pakistan. The leader of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the capture of Warren Weinstein.
That's according to the web site that monitors terrorist activity. You may remember our reporting on the disappearance of Weinstein. He was and living in Lahore, Pakistan when three men entered him home.
Post as neighbors posed as delivering food. They pistol whipped him and his driver and tied up his guards. As soon as we get any more information, obviously we'll share it with you here on CNN.
Boomers, depending on when your birthday is, this one word can mean something different. It is a person between born between 1946 and 1964. For some of you that translates into a bunch of if not old or older, more mature as my mother prefers, people.
But here's the thing. Boomers are this country's largest generation. And as Joe Johns reports, while the youth folk captured the day of the last presidential election, this go-around it could be the boomers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The baby boom generation had its causes like the Vietnam Car and civil rights. Now as the boomers start turning 65, aging could be next on the agenda.
Judy Lear with the Gray Panthers activist group is hoping boomers join her movement.
JUDY LEAR, GRAY PANTHERS ACTIVIST: We will fight. We will definitely fight for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and we will fight by writing letters, by marching, by telling the people who have to make those decisions, listen to us, too. Listen to us.
JOHNS: The politicians may already be getting the message. MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because we have a lot of people that are baby boomers that are retiring now.
JOHNS: Almost every Republican presidential candidate has a place in the stump speech to talk about aging baby boomers.
REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have baby boomers in their peak earning years.
JOHNS: Given all the lip service, it is pretty clear, issues affecting the boomers are front and center this election year. Things like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, long term health care options for senior citizens.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we can get the right breakthroughs in Alzheimer's, we would save for the federal government something on the order of $20 trillion over the life span of the baby boom generation.
JOHNS: Seventy eight million people or so born between 1946 and 1964 could be a powerful voting bloc for the politician with the right message. Aging activist and researcher Fernando Torres-Gil sees a sleeping giant.
FERNANDO TORRES-GIL, ACTIVIST FOR THE AGING: I predict that the concerns about whether or not they will have a decent retirement, whether or not they will have a pension or savings and whether or not Medicare and health care will be there for them, I believe that may sway baby boomers to put age above most of their other particular concerns.
JOHNS: But CNN polling director, Keating Holland says the jury is still out on whether baby boomers might start voting in lock step on aging issues and even if they do, it won't happen overnight.
KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: Remember that even for senior citizens, the number one issue is not Social Security. The number one issue is the economy.
JOHNS: Still, age groups do form voting blocs. Young voters turned on out in droves for Barack Obama in 2008 and he's got to appeal to both old and young.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As the baby boomers start to retire in greater numbers, and health care costs continue to rise, the situation will get even worse.
JOHNS: What no one wants to see is a battle of the ages in the voting booth, pitting old against young, generational warfare. Judy Lear of Gray Panthers is optimistic.
LEAR: I think we're smarter than that. I think the American public is smarter. I think younger people and older people are smarter.
JOHNS: Though in some ways the writing is already on the wall. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: A 103-year-old Georgia woman and her 83-year-old daughter get saved by strangers right before being evicted from their home. When I say right before, I mean right before.
I'm talking moving vans, law enforcement were at her door. There is a twist to the story now. You will see what I mean after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: This next story here is just kind that restores a little bit of faith in the system during this troubled times. Vinia Hall turns 104 in all of three weeks. She lives in this little red house in Atlanta with her 83-year-old daughter.
She's been in this home, mind you, for more than half her life and she has been battling for two years with the bank that wants to take this home away from her. So this week, the sheriff's deputies movers were hired by the bank, sent to evict this 103-year-old and her daughter.
But when they got to the house, and saw her, they couldn't go through with it. The deputies and the movers actually turned out and left. Hall said she never worried about being kicked out of her home that she calls a mansion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VINIA HALL, 103 YEARS OLD: God don't let you do wrong. Cheat folks. The Bible said once a man, I'm a child, 104 years old going to put me outdoors at 104.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long has this been your home?
HALL: For 53 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much do you love this community and this house?
HALL: I love it. It's a mansion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Also, our affiliate WSB reports the bank has agreed to work with Hall and her family to help her keep her home.
Now to politics, presidential candidate Ron Paul unleashing this new ad painting a fellow Republican candidate as a flip-flopper. Wolf Blitzer has the American Choice 2012 politics update.
Mr. Blitzer, good to see you.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Nice to see you, Brooke. Thanks very much. It is a tough ad. Ron Paul who is doing relatively well in the Republican race for the White House, he is beginning to lash out now at arguably the new frontrunner, Newt Gingrich, calling him a flip-flopper. He released a web ad earlier in the day. Let me play a little clip for you and our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do you want to put people in jail? Let's look at the politicians who created from the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Newt Gingrich on the defense for taking $1.5 million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After he left Congress -- at least $1.6 million.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's $1.6 million. Some of it just before the housing market collapsed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Newt Gingrich can ridicule Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publicly while privately pocketing millions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's hard core lobbying. That's what Newt Gingrich was doing.
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BLITZER: And the Republican candidate Ron Paul goes after the news media as well, suggesting the news media is giving Newt Gingrich right now a free pass, if you will.
He also said it is a waste of time to be talking so much about Herman Cain and the sexual allegations against them. Instead, everybody should be railing he said against Herman Cain for his position on the Federal Reserve the fact that he once worked for the Federal Reserve.
That's a serious issue. All of these others, tangential, if you will so Ron Paul getting tough. By the way, Brooke, he will be in THE SITUATION ROOM with me tomorrow. Ron Paul, we'll have a chance to discuss this and a lot of other issues as well.
Meanwhile, unrelated, totally different part of the world, in Baghdad, right now, the U.S. getting ready to withdraw the remaining 13,000 troops from Iraq by the end of this year.
The Vice President Joe Biden is there. At the height of the U.S. involvement, military involvement in Iraq, there were 170,000 U.S. troops going back to the war starting in March 2003. I was in Kuwait when those troops began going in to remove Saddam Hussein.
Now it's about to end. It is not exactly the way a lot of folks wanted it to end. They wanted U.S. troops to remain at least a relatively small number to train, to help the Iraqis get through what will probably be a difficult period.
But the Iraqi government of Nuri Al-Maliki flatly refused to grant immunity to any U.S. troops staying in Iraq. As a result, all U.S. troops are going to be out by Christmas. They'll be happy. We'll see what happens in Iraq on the long run though. That still remains an open question.
BALDWIN: To be determined. Wolf Blitzer, thank you. We'll chat next hour about what else you have coming up on THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll talk about that little Kermit the frog moment as well. You can bet on it.
Also coming up here, Tracy Gold on the show. Remember her from her days, of course, in the '80s hit "Growing Pains?" You might also remember though that she had struggles with anorexia.
But she has now forced it out of the shadows into this new light. A brave light with this new reality TV show. Tracey Gold, good enough to stand by live. We're going to talk about this new show that starts tomorrow. Stay here.
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BALDWIN: You know her best as the child star who grew up on the TV show "Growing Pains." Actress Tracey Gold playing Carol Seever in the 80s hit sitcom.
On screen, she was a bubbly kid, but behind the scenes, she had a dark secret. Gold had a very brave, very personal battle against the eating disorder anorexia. It began at 19. It consumed her.
The disease almost took her life. In fact, at one point in time, she weighed all of 80 pounds. She had to be hospitalized. She recovered. She is now an advocate for others who suffer from the same problem.
In fact, she now has a new series. It debuts tomorrow on Lifetime Television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACEY GOLD, ACTRESS, HOST, "STARVING SECRETS": My name is Tracy Gold. I'm one of the lucky ones. I recovered. Twenty years ago, my obsession with food, my anorexia nearly took my life. Now my mission is to help others battle their own eating disorders.
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BALDWIN: Wow! Tracy Gold live in Los Angeles to talk about your new series. You're calling it "Starving Secrets." Tracy, it's great to see you and to hear how you've come out of all this.
But in order for I think us to understand where you are today, right, if you can, just take me back to where it all began. I know you said you were 19. You were on the show. So I was reading that some of the producers were comments about your weight?
GOLD: Yes. There became jokes in the script about my weight. You know, like Kirk Cameron's character would say, fat jokes about Carol Seever. And they were hurtful and all of that.
But then, at one point they wanted me to lose weight. They put me on a diet. They did. I went on a diet and I lost a lot of weight. I lost about 20 pounds and the accolades, the comments that I got and everybody was just saying you look so great.
That kind of spiralled me into this pattern of, I never want to go back to that girl that everybody was making fun of. I want to stay this way.
And it was really a diet that went out of control. And it escalated to a point where I got so sick that I had to leave the show and go into a hospital. And it was a long, long journey back to health.
BALDWIN: And you're healthy and you've said in that clip, that you've recovered. You're a wife. You're a mom of four boys. But Tracey, is this something that, you know, is this something that you're very cognizant of, you're aware of each and every day?
GOLD: You know, I consider myself recovered. It is a big discussion in the eating disorder world whether you can be in recovery or recovered.
But I am on the side of recovered because I believe that you need to live your life as a healthy full person. But I am also aware that it is my Achilles' heel and I keep that in mind and try to stay healthy and I try to skip meals and all of that.
BALDWIN: So given your past and where you are today, on the side of recovered, let me set up this TV show. You're calling it "Starving Secrets."
So you and this group of specialists, you're helping these women confront - whether it's anorexia and bulimia as well. You follow them through this treatment process. We've pulled a clip. We're going to see Melissa. One of the girls you're trying to help. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA: I go to bed at 7:00 because I don't want to deal with the fact that I'm hungry. I'm just scared to feel things. I don't know how to deal with them. And I've been dealing with it by using food for so long that I'm scared I will always feel like this.
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BALDWIN: So Tracey, who is Melissa? Who are these girls that you found?
GOLD: These girls are struggling. They're at a cross roads in their life. Melissa is a girl from New Jersey who had moved to Los Angeles. She had bulimic. She was at a food bank there because she was so, she was having trouble with money and she would get the food from the food bank.
And she would purge. She was in a horrible, horrible cycle. They're desperate for help and they need to do something different. And I'm a believer that sometimes, the journey that I took, I became so public with my disease.
I think it helped me stay recovered and stay strong because I've been able to get strength from helping other people. And I'm hoping that they gain the same thing that they'll get from this show that people look to them as like an inspiration. And that is my hope and goal for them in doing this show.
BALDWIN: To be an inspiration. But my other question, all of us have known someone, right? So my other question is, what is the message to those, not who suffer from anorexia and bulimia, but those with family members and friends who suffer?
GOLD: Well, that's why I feel like this show can resonate for everybody. I think that whether you are suffering or you know somebody, and also, everybody in our society at some point or another has had body image issues, has had food issues.
And I think everybody can relate to it and I think that if you have somebody that you love who is suffering from it, I think it kind of helps you get into their head watching this show. You get to have a better understanding.
And these women are, this is not a glamorous disease. These women are suffering. And they're showing the face of eating disorders in a way that I don't think main stream society looks at it. I think they think it is this skinny girl on the red carpet and the beautiful dress. And these girls and these women are from 19 to 43. All walks of life.
BALDWIN: -- regular gals.
GOLD: They are. They really show that you it can be the person next to you. That you would have no idea is suffering from this.
BALDWIN: I hope it resonates with people out there. I really wish you the best of luck. In this moment if I can say, if you out there know someone suffering from an eating disorder, we wanted to put this number on the screen here.
This is toll-free. This is National Eating Disorders helpline 1-800- 931-2237. Tracey Gold, thank you, so, so much. Again, best of luck to you. Again, everyone her show, "Starving Secrets." It debuts tomorrow 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Lifetime Television. Tracey, thank you.
A small country church has voted to keep interracial couples out of its congregation.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's racist.
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BALDWIN: That man's daughter is involved in one such relationship. You'll want to hear the family's story and what has been going on in this house of worship to keep some people out.
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