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Missing American's Family Posts Video; Interview With Eman al- Obeidi; New Video Surfaces in Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case; Trump Debate Losing Candidates; A Look At The Payroll Tax; Footage From Afghanistan

Aired December 09, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Want to get you up to speed for this Friday, December 9th.

So, a deal to save the euro driving U.S. stocks higher today. Want to check out the Dow.

The Big Board there, up 136 points now. Analysts say it is a positive, yet lukewarm reception to today's news from Europe. All 17 eurozone nations, those that use the euro as their currency, agreed to tightly integrate their economies.

So what does this mean? Britain is staying on the sidelines, keeping some anxiety in those markets. We're going to have full details in just a minute.

We also have new details about yesterday's Virginia Tech shootings. Now, police say the apparent gunman and victim did not know each other.

A university spokesman says the suspected shooter was not a student there. And ballistics tests confirm that the same gun was used to kill the suspect and a campus police officer. The suspect apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Well, Virginia Tech police identified the slain officer as Deriek Crouse. He was 39, married, with five children and stepchildren. Police say that the gunman walked right up to him and fired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE FLEMING, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: They opened his car door, and when they opened it, he just fell out towards the ground. And then they immediately started reviving him. And then two cops took off with some sort of automatic weapons, I guess. They started running the opposite direction after the gunman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That's so sad. A small vigil was held on the Blacksburg campus last night and another one is scheduled for tonight. Well, Dottie Sandusky, she's telling CNN now it is absolutely untrue. An updated grand jury report says that she ignored a boy's screams for help as her husband, Jerry Sandusky, sexually assaulted the boy in Sandusky's basement. Well, Mrs. Sandusky says she's shocked by this allegation, and she adds, "I continue to believe in Jerry's innocence and all the good things that he's done."

Well, Jerry Sandusky, he is out now on bail following his second arrest on new child molestation charges. Now, the former Penn State coach, he is now under house arrest. He's required to wear an electronic monitor.

A lot of doubts now being raised about the drone that Iran has been parading around on TV. Now, Iran claims that it's an American drone shot down over its own territory. Well, there are some officials in the United States who say it could be a fake.

But as CNN's Chris Lawrence tells us, there is even a bigger question. If the drone is American, what was it doing when it went down?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A U.S. official says it was a CIA mission strictly to search for insurgents in Afghanistan near the border. But several sources point out the Sentinel is a stealth drone designed to penetrate areas with air defenses. They say it's hard to believe the drone was strictly operating over Afghanistan, which has none.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER (RET.): So it could have been used in Iran and could have been deliberately used in Iran. And it's very likely, in fact, that it was a reconnaissance platform of choice to do precisely that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: A midnight deadline for Occupy protesters to leave a city square in Boston, it's come, it's gone, but most are actually staying put in their tents. More than 100 tents have been set up in Dewey Square since September protesting the country's growing gap between the rich and the poor.

Well, a judge ruled the First Amendment rights do not include seizing the park. The mayor says he is giving them a chance to leave at their own will for now.

One protester says the protest does not end because of eviction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't evict an idea. Just because the tents are gone, doesn't mean the Occupy movement is even going to slow down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, a woman accused of dousing fellow Black Friday shoppers with pepper spray at the California Wal-Mart not facing felony charges. Firefighters had to treat 10 people who had been sprayed, and the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office says it may consider misdemeanor charges.

So, take a look at this incredible video. Oh, my goodness. Red-hot lava rushing down the side of the Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's big island, flowing into an abandoned -- that's a good thing -- abandoned neighborhood. Authorities have closed off that section very popular to tourists until they consider it safe.

So, now highlights of this deal to save Europe from a deepening financial crisis. Seventeen countries that use the euro, along with five other EU countries, they're going to submit their yearly budgets to a central body for approval. The deficits, the root of the debt crisis, that's going to be capped off at half a percent of economic output, and automatic penalties now would kick in for any country that overspends.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

MALVEAUX: Well, next, as Europe deals with this financial crisis, Americans now are getting poorer. We're going to find out what is actually causing that.

And then, we're seeing video for the first time now of a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran nearly five years ago, and his family is pleading for help.

Plus, there is a new development in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case. Both sides now say it supports their case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reloading!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And rare dramatic video of a Marine firefight inside Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hear about people being battle-tested. This one tested the voice (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: There are new pleas for help today from a family of a former FBI agent who is now missing and has been missing. He's been held captive for almost five years.

Now, for the first time we are seeing this video of Robert Levinson. You can see how different he actually looks from when he disappeared in Iran. That was back in March of 2007. The family posted the video on their Web site today. It is difficult to watch, we want to warn you, as this 59-year-old pleads for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT LEVINSON, RETIRED FBI AGENT: I am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine. I have been treated well. I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for 3.5 years. Thirty-three years of service to the United States deserves something. Please help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: It is difficult to see that man in that state.

I want to go to the State Department, with our own Jill Dougherty, to explain why we are seeing this videotape now.

Why is the family making this tape public now? Have they had it for a little while?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They have had it for a while, Suzanne. We understand that they probably got it back about a year ago, in November of last year.

And then, if you remember, in March of this year Secretary Clinton mentioned that they had what they were calling proof of life. It was undefined. Nobody was saying precisely what it was, but this appears to be it. And it's that videotape. And you're right, it's pretty hard to look at it.

Unclear who made it, but in that videotape, Mr. Levinson is talking about his health. He said that he's being treated well, but that he's running out of medicine for diabetes.

And again, if that tape was made, let's say a year ago, we do not know the condition -- or at least we don't think we know the condition of Mr. Levinson. You know, he is 6'4, 250 pounds when he was back in the United States. He's looking very gaunt.

MALVEAUX: Do we know, does the family suspect and does the State Department suspect that he is still alive?

DOUGHERTY: I cannot answer this right now. We are hoping that we will speak with the family today and get that information.

I think, Suzanne, you'd have to say that this case has been so murky since the beginning, and so many false leads, and nobody really able to pin down precisely who is holding him, where they're holding him. You know, the U.S. government, now for years -- it's going to be five years in February since he disappeared -- has been talking to the Iranian government directly, indirectly, trying to get information, and all along the Iranian government has been saying, we don't know anything, we don't know where he is, we can't give you any information.

So it's been a very frustrating thing for this family.

MALVEAUX: And Jill, in just watching that tape, you can also hear in the background there some kind of music that's being played. Can they use that information to try to figure out where that tape was made and if, in fact, he still is in Iran?

DOUGHERTY: Absolutely no question that they could analyze that. It's been described as kind of Middle Eastern music.

Of course, you know, who knows where that was coming from, exactly where it was taken. But he did disappear, remember, on an Kish Island, which is kind of an economic zone in Iran. Where he went, nobody quite knows. He was flying out, but then suddenly disappeared.

He is a career -- as you heard that, 33.5 years as an FBI agent. Then he retired and he became an investigator.

So he was investigating cigarette smuggling, from what we understand, and that is when he disappeared. Was there a connection to what he was doing? Is it just because he was an American? Nobody knows.

MALVEAUX: All right. Well, Jill, we certainly hope that this helps find him and brings some sort of resolution for his family. Thank you, Jill.

A new video now is prompting some questions, new questions about the sex scandal involving this man, you may recall, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. We're going to explain why both sides now say that this video shows why they were telling the truth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, she borrowed money for a one-way ticket to Washington, and when I met Eman al-Obeidi at the Libyan Embassy, she just had $40 in her pocket. She said she was desperate. Her journey has been a difficult one.

How can you forget this? You may recall in the middle of Libya's violent civil war, Eman's story came to embody the cruelty of the Gadhafi regime.

Now, back in March, Eman burst into a crowded Tripoli hotel room screaming she had been raped by Gadhafi soldiers. Government security forces dragged her out of the hotel to an unknown destination and attacked the journalists who tried to help her. She was called a drunk, a whore, by Gadhafi's government. But, for others, she was the face of defiance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMAN AL-OBEIDI, ALLEGED LIBYAN RAPE VICTIM: I usually get harassed when I have to show my identification card to government officials somewhere. And they find out who I am and that I've put complaints forward against Gadhafi's people. They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it's shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way. It is the same thing every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And so she fled, bouncing from country to country. And finally, she found asylum here in the United States. But her journey is not over.

This is the first time that we've heard from her since she arrived in the United States, and in our exclusive interview, Eman al-Obeidi tells me about her life here, her struggles to recover from the brutalities of the attack in Libya, and her efforts to move on here in the states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL-OBEIDI (through translator): When I came, I never imagined life would be this hard. There's nothing easy. You have to work. You have to work.

I mean, as we say in Libya, you have to kill yourself working just to survive. And I wish there even was work. The state I'm in seems cut off. There are no work opportunities. I have been going to the employment office for four months.

MALVEAUX: Do you have any support from your family?

AL-OBEIDI: My family supports me. I've been here for four months, and without the aid they send me every month, I could not have survived. Three hundred dollars a month can do nothing.

MALVEAUX: What would you like to do? Would you like to go back to your family in Libya?

AL-OBEIDI: I am sure everyone wants to return back to their own country, but I'm not mentally ready for that. I also feel personally I'm not ready to integrate back into the society. I feel life for me is hard because everything is so different, from culture to language.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Eman says that the pain right now is too great to go back to Libya. But this is not her home either. And I asked her a number of things, including about Gadhafi's death and what she's going to do next.

We're going to bring you more of my exclusive conversation with Eman al-Obeidi. That is on Monday, only in the CNN NEWSROOM.

So, if you thought you had heard the last of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's sexual assault case, think again. New video now turning up from New York's Sofitel hotel. And prosecutors in New York dropped the case against the former International Monetary Fund chief when they determined that his accuser wasn't a credible witness.

Jim Bittermann reports that both sides now claim that these new images support their version of what really happened. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The security camera video from the Sofitel hotel was obtained by French broadcaster BFM Television and has not been seen in public before. It appears to show the rather casual departure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the hotel about 20 minutes after he is alleged to have sexually assaulted a room maid, Nafissatou Diallo, in contrast to the description used by the authorities at the time that the former director of the International Monetary Fund fled the scene.

BFM will not say where it obtained the footage, but the alleged victim, Diallo, is seen in several sequences very clearly. In one before the police arrived, she is rather passively sitting in a hotel corridor with two men described by BFM as her boss and a hotel security officer. In another, almost an hour after the alleged assault, she is more animated. Her lawyers say she is describing what happened. Thereafter, the two men are seen in another room doing a 12-second hand-slapping routine, although without audio it's impossible to say what they're celebrating.

Finally, the police arrive to take charge of the affair.

As you can imagine, there have been a number of reactions to the release of the video, with lawyers for Diallo claiming it supports their case, while Strauss-Kahn's attorneys have already said that the so-called "celebration dance" raises serious questions about what was going on at the hotel.

The Accor Group, the owners of the Sofitel, says that their release of the video extracts, as it calls them, unnecessarily exposes employees to media curiosity, and that any idea that the hotel was involved in the plot is nonsense.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Americans are actually getting poorer. We're going to tell you why households across the country are not worth as much as they were just months ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.

Next, Americans' bank accounts get hit harder this time than any time since the start of the recession. We're going to tell you how much we actually lost.

And then, we're going to show you this rare, amazing video of a Marine firefight inside Afghanistan.

And later, how to own a piece of Elizabeth Taylor's world from her diamonds to the gowns. Americans have gotten a lot poorer since the financial meltdown back in 2008, and a new report proves it. It shows a big drop in the third quarter in how much money each household is actually worth.

Our Felicia Taylor, she is with us at the New York Stock Exchange.

So, how much of a loss are we talking about here? What does this mean for us?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a whopping $2 trillion in total household net worth. And that's what fell in the third quarter. That's a four percent decline, and this is information that comes from the Federal Reserve.

It's the biggest hit since the 2008 financial crisis, so it's pretty severe. It measures the value of assets like your house and investments, minus your debts, like a mortgage that you might have, or whatever credit card debt you might have as well.

Pretty much, driving the big decline is the value of the stock market. We've seen stocks tumble about 17 percent during the summer sell-off.

Now, that's when the U.S. credit rating was downgraded, and obviously we still have all those worries about possibly another recession and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe and, frankly, our own problems here in the United States. Another factor, the value of real estate continued to decline in the third quarter.

So, all of that coupled together, and it's no wonder that total household net worth declined.

MALVEAUX: And this report shows that there's a jump in consumer spending in the third quarter. So, does that help counter that at all? Is that a good thing?

TAYLOR: Not really. I mean, that all sounds like the antithesis of what you'd expect to see, but what happened is that people actually spent by using money out of their savings accounts. And that's really never something that you want to see. That could mean that people don't have money now to buy any more in the consumer sector or actually pay off any other debts.

Analysts, however, do expect that net worth is going to rise in this present quarter. The stock market has regained some ground in actually all of its third quarter losses. And the job market is getting a little bit better.

So, there are things out there that are beginning to feel like things are moving in the right direction. And that means that people are bringing home the bacon once again, they're earning an income, it's all good news. Not enough, but at least it's going in the right direction.

We haven't recouped all of what we lost in the recession, so we're slowly beginning to recover. And that's the operative word, is "slowly." MALVEAUX: OK. I'll take even slowly at this point. Thanks, Felicia.

TAYLOR: Me, too, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes, absolutely.

There are two plans for both Democrats, Republicans to find money to extend the very popular payroll tax cut. Well, they are dead on arrival. That is right.

The Senate shot down the Democrats' plan that would have added a tax to those making more than a million dollars a year. The failed Republican proposal sought to freeze federal pay and reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent.

So, what's actually going to happen to your paycheck if the tax cuts expire? Christine Romans explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: If these tax cuts are not extended by the end of the year, your paycheck will get smaller.

TEXT: Explain it to me: payroll tax cuts.

ROMANS: Well, in your paycheck, you pay a part of your earnings to the government in a payroll tax. And that tax, among other things, goes to fund Social Security, right? 6.2 percent of your income is what you pay to the government in that particular payroll tax. Well, in the stimulus, last year, there was a holiday, a reprieve for one year that you would only pay 4.2 percent. That extra little tiny bit, that extra little 2 percent of your paycheck, on average, comes out to I think $50 a pay period. It comes out to somewhere between $900 or $1,000 a year extra in your paycheck.

The tax cut applies for 160 million working Americans and it applies to the first $106,000 of your income. That means somebody who is making more than $106,000 is not going to get a bigger tax break than everybody else, quite frankly.

Some economists say, yes, it did stimulate some spending. There's no question, when you have so many workers living right on the edge, they're spending every dollar of their paycheck. If you have put a few more dollars in their paycheck, they'll spend it in the economy. It's one reason why now you're seeing bipartisan support for extending this holiday another year, because Republicans and Democrats have agreed that a little more money in the average worker's pocket is probably something that they'll spend.

Why does anyone want to end it? Because it doesn't come for free. Because it costs about $200 billion and we live in a world where we can't spend money we don't have anymore.

Democrats and Republicans finally agree on something. That is that the payroll tax holiday should be extended. They disagree pretty strongly on how to pay for it. Republicans don't want to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for lower taxes for working Americans. They say there are too many small business owners and small businesses and job creators who don't want to see higher taxes so that you can keep this temporary payroll tax going. Democrats would like to see a surtax of almost 2 percent of millionaires. They'd like to roll back tax breaks for the oil industry to help pay for it as well.

They have until the end of the year. And there's another measure that goes along with this and a lot of people are talking about it. It's the extension of emergency unemployment benefits. That's something else that expires. So if Congress does nothing, if Congress is stalemated and there is no extension of this or some of these other provisions that were meant to help families over the last year, you'll see potentially five million people lose their unemployment benefits by the end of the year and another 160 million people will not have the little extra money in their paycheck come January 1st.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: This year's annual "CNN Heroes" special takes place Sunday night.

Coming up, we'll take you behind the scenes at the legendary Shrine Auditorium.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All year we've been introducing you to everyday folks who are changing the world. We call them "CNN Heroes." You voted on the best of the best. This weekend, you're going to get a chance to see the top-10 "CNN Hero" honorees, their causes on CNN's "All-Star Tribute." We're going to find out who has been voted "CNN Hero" of the year.

A.J. Hammer is in the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. That is where this big event is being held.

A.J., set the scene for us.

A.J. HAMMER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a crisp morning here in southern California, downtown Los Angeles, Suzanne. Crowds are already hard at work inside and outside of the Shrine auditorium, getting ready for our live broadcast on Sunday night at 8:00 eastern. We had our cameras rolling inside the Shrine yesterday. They're working hard getting the cameras in place, working on staging and lighting. We want everything to be perfect when we honor these incredible individuals who are making such a difference in the lives of others.

Now just a short time ago, I spoke with the great actor, Hill Harper, from "CSI, New York." Hill has made an incredible difference in other peoples' lives through his Manifest Your Destiny Foundation. He's back. He's officially a "CNN Heroes" alum, who was with us last year.

I asked him why this event is so important to him. Watch what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILL HARPER, ACTOR: "CNN Heroes," to me -- and when I got asked to be on the Blue Room panel last year, I was so honored. You're talking about celebrating individuals that you otherwise wouldn't know about. People who are doing great work, doing inspirational work. When you hear the stories of all the people that are being honored, it makes you want to be a better person. In news, we hear so much negative stuff, so it's great that CNN is doing something like this.

HAMMER: And to that end, I hear from so many people, there are not enough family TV programs. We can get the kids together, get the parents together, whomever is in the family, sit down and watch something and feel inspired. And I challenge anybody to but feel inspired after watching this.

HARPER: There's no way you can't. It encourages all of us to get involved and do something. What's so beautiful about it, is that you have such a diversity of individuals that are doing great work. It's telling you that there's a way any of us can get involved and make a difference, make a change. You know this. Award season in L.A. and Hollywood is about to kick off. What better way to begin having awards in Los Angeles than celebrating people on the ground doing work, helping other people live better lives.

HAMMER: So much dedication. That's where I think you can really relate to our honorees. You have so much dedication to your foundation, the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, empowering youth. These are individuals who aren't doing what they do because they're supposed to. They're doing it because it's as if they have no choice.

HARPER: Absolutely. One of my favorite words is the word "courage." The root of that word is "cour," which means heart. If there's one thing that links all of these heroes -- and they all are heroes, even the people that got submitted and didn't get chosen in this final panel. You talk about amazing people, and what links them all is their heart. Their hearts are so big. To be encouraging and to go out and say, you know what, I can make a difference. It's not about how much money I have, it's not about how much celebrity I have, where I come from, I can make a difference right now, today. That's what these people represent.

HAMMER: Great having you here. We'll see you on Sunday.

HARPER: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Now, Suzanne, on Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern, I'm going to be standing over here. There will be a massive red carpet and a sea of heroes, honorees, as well as celebrities.

For "Showbiz Tonight," at "CNN Heroes," it's going to be a one-hour live pre-show. My co-host for the evening, I'm so proud to say, is J.R. Martinez, "Dancing with the Stars" champ an Iraq War veteran. How cool is that?

MALVEAUX: Wow. That's amazing. Such a great group, too. It's an extraordinary group of people we're honoring.

So have fun. Thanks. We'll be watching very closely.

Great group. We've interviewed a lot of them here.

A reminder, top-10 "CNN Hero" nominees, their causes. Tune in to CNN live Sunday evening, 8:00 eastern, for "CNN Heroes, an All-Star Tribute."

A group of U.S. Marines now putting their lives on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're going to take you to the battle zone inside Afghanistan for a rare look at combat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: OK, Donald Trump, he might not have a lot of company for the presidential debate that he's trying to host. Another candidate said no.

Joe Johns, live from the political desk in Washington.

Joe, somebody else turned him down, yes?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Rick Perry, Suzanne, is the latest to say he's got too much retail politics to do, if you will, in the last days before the Iowa caucuses when this thing would occur.

The question is becoming, when is a debate not a debate? What type of forum is it going to take? Is it going to happen at all? This thing was supposed to be on the 27th of December, starring Donald Trump as a moderator. So far, only two presidential candidates say they will attend that debate. That would be former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Senator Rick Santorum. For the record, the candidates who have said they're not coming have given a variety of excuses, saying, for example, their schedules are already booked. Donald Trump claims the big problem is that he is signaling he might mount a third-party run for president, which makes him a potential competitor for the Republican nomination.

Trump is making it clear he's not backing down. He put out a statement today saying, "It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the Obama administration." But if that Republican, in his opinion, is not the right candidate, he says he is unwilling to give up his right to run as an Independent. The chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, himself, has said Trump's position on running is clearly an issue. So a lot of drama there. There always is whenever you talk about Donald Trump.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: You have to wonder what was the thinking behind that decision in the first place, but, OK, we'll see what happens.

JOHNS: Ratings.

MALVEAUX: All right, Herman Cain -- Ratings. That's the answer. Herman Cain, right, suspended his presidential bid. But I think he's still in the spotlight. What is he up to?

JOHNS: Yes. Now that he's suspended his campaign, he says the doors to radio and TV are open. He made this comment on FOX News, which, of course, has put a lot of Republican politicians on TV as contributors and paid them, by the way.

By the way, his campaign has made a big deal, before he suspended it, that he wasn't trying to do this to give himself a boost in the media, going as far as to say he didn't want a TV show. By the way, he's had a lot of experience, of course. He had radio. He was a host on radio as well as a syndicated columnist in the newspapers. We all know about the book that he wrote, which he was promoting while he was running for president. A lot of experience in the media. Question whether it's going to turn into something else for Herman Cain.

MALVEAUX: Yes. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of Herman Cain in whatever fashion or forum.

(LAUGHTER)

He's not going away.

JOHNS: That's right.

MALVEAUX: Thanks, Joe.

JOHNS: You bet.

MALVEAUX: For the latest political news you know where to go, CNNpolitics.com.

Each week we introduce you to somebody who has achieved remarkable things despite having to overcome remarkable challenges. For Georgia Tech baseball player, Colby Wren, just figuring out what was wrong with this player was half the battle. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has this week's "Human Factor."

(HUMAN FACTOR)

MALVEAUX: She had a jewelry box full of them. Now you can own one of Elizabeth Taylor's exquisite diamonds.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The wonderful Elizabeth Taylor had eight husbands, hundreds of dresses and a treasure trove of diamonds. Well, now you can own a piece of her life and history.

Jeanne Moos looks ahead to Tuesday's bidding.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Liz Taylor is eyeing her own auction. She's eyeing her jewels. She's eyeing the line of people waiting to get in at Christie's. She's watching your back, as the clothes off her back go up for bid. From the beaded Versaces to --

MEREDITH ETHERINGTON-SMITH, FASHION COLLECTION CURATOR: I do like the chorus line of caftans.

MALVEAUX: Or maybe you'd prefer to own the tiara given to her by husband number three, film director, Mike Todd, who said --

MIKE TODD, FILM DIRECTOR: Elizabeth, you are my queen. You must have a crown.

MOOS: You can even bid on her wedding dresses. She wore yellow the first time she married Richard Burton. A hippie caftan the second time she married him. Her fifth husband --

ETHERINGTON-SMITH: By that time, she'd run out of the white.

MOOS: But she never ran out of diamonds.

RAHUL KADAKIA, HEAD OF JEWELRY, CHRISTIE'S AUCTION HOUSE: It is the size of a cherry.

MOOS: Richard Burton gave it to her.

KADAKIA: She would call it her baby because she wore it every single day.

MOOS: She even wiggled it at Larry King.

(on camera): Most people had a jewelry box. What did she have?

KADAKIA: She had a jewelry room.

MOOS: Christie's created a mock-up, featuring all her jewelry boxes with her labels. For instance, her ping-pong diamonds from a match she played with Burton --

KADAKIA: He said, Elizabeth, if you beat me by 10 points or more, I'll buy you a diamond.

MOOS: She won, he bought her three. Looking for something a little cheaper? Imagine slipping into Elizabeth Taylor's Daisy hot pants. She wore this outfit at the age of 39, the day she first became a grandmother. They're not just hot pants.

ETHERINGTON-SMITH: They're kind of like, where's the fire engine.

MOOS: You can even bid on her size-10 shoes.

The very feet -- that stomped on a fellow who insulted her in "Butterfield 8."

The auction includes her portrait by Andy Warhol and a monkey necklace Michael Jackson gave here.

KADAKIA: She said they're great. These monkeys are like Michael and myself. We have such a great friendship.

MOOS: So close, that her bolo once got stuck in his sequin jacket.

If your neck is starting to feel weighed down --

(on camera): This is for those who can't quite afford the real thing?

KADAKIA: It is a great Christmas gift.

MOOS (voice-over): -- Christie's is selling paper cutouts of Liz Taylor's jewels for 25 bucks.

It seems as if every possession, like this 500-year-old pearl, comes with a great Liz Taylor story attached.

KADAKIA: And she almost lost it and they found it in her puppy's mouth.

MOOS: The only thing more glittery than her diamonds were the flash bulbs.

(CROSSTALK)

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: U.S. Marines in a firefight for their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're going to take you to the battle zone inside Afghanistan for a rare look at combat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It is a rare look at war that's gone on now for a decade. U.S. Marines have released their own personal footage of a firefight inside Afghanistan. This is one they did not see coming and one that they were determined not to lose.

Here's what they encountered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: (INAUDIBLE). I'm in a sleeping bag still, so I was angry to here the player (ph) going off. RPGs and fire just started going off.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: Just to the northwest of us, across the Helmand River, they have a ridge line up there. And there's caves in the ridge line that they'll crawl into. And they engage us from there.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: It was guns and ammo. By the time they dropped a couple hours, we probably had 100 still left and that was it.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: It just got really bad, real quick.

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: Get down!

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: A 30 millimeter grenades inside the compound, getting close, getting real close. Couple of casualties. Couple of casualties. You hear about people being battle tested. This one tested the boys.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: We have to get him on the birth (ph) as fast as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: Been one hell of a day. You're thinking, man, regular patrol, any day, it ain't happening that way.

I definitely teach our people, everyone's got to be ready from now on. You never know what's going to happen from now on. We lost one person to injuries. Who knows what's going to happen next.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: Another day, man. Another day.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. MARINE: Hopefully, whoever receives this will actually know this is what actually happens. At the end of the day, we're the ones out here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: This was a three-hour firefight.

Our own Barbara Starr has word that all of the wounded are now recovering.