Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Scores Dead in Syria; Sex, Politics and the Church; The Day Josh Powell Killed his Boys; Mogul's Kids Fight Girlfriend Adoption; Trying to End "Killadelphia"

Aired February 10, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Just about the top of the hour here on CNN. Thanks for joining us. I'm Hala Gorani, in for Brooke Baldwin.

Scores more people have died today in Syria's descent into chaos, and the world is watching. Today's dead include an unknown number of soldiers and police killed by explosions in the major Syrian city Aleppo, separate blasts occurring near a military intelligence post and a police headquarters building.

State-run Syrian television is saying 28 people were killed and 235 wounded. This is significant. This is the first time bloodshed has reached Aleppo. The Syrian state television is blaming this all on terrorists.

The opposition in Syria, though, is saying the government is killing its people, and that 52 individuals died today, including 16 in the besieged city of Homs.

CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the crisis in Syria from neighboring Turkey.

Let's first, Ivan, talk about Aleppo and why this is significant. So many analysts over the last few months, Ivan, have said once bloodshed instability and bloodshed hits the city centers of Aleppo and Damascus, that means things have changed. Have they?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

We have not seen violence this that town, which has not been a stronghold of the opposition. And the violence has pretty much for the most part been focused on those towns and cities where people have dared to say no to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

And for whatever reason, that has -- Aleppo has not been one of those centers. However, while Aleppo had this violence while Homs and other cities are still facing siege-like conditions, with hundreds of people, civilians killed over the course of last week, in other cities and towns across the state, Hala, we saw another waves of protests.

Friday is protest day for nearly 11 months now. And the theme of these protests, Hala, was the Russians are killing our children. Why are Syrian opposition activists saying that? Well, they are accusing Russia of providing the Syrian government with the diplomatic cover to intensify its attacks against the Syrian opposition just over the course of the last week.

And an important American voice is added to that. The U.S. ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, just closed the doors to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus a few days ago, Hala, and he published a satellite photo of the besieged city of Homs highlighting damage in there from days of relentless Syrian shelling of that city, highlighting also columns of tanks in that city, and went one step further to basically criticize Russia and China, which vetoed a resolution to put more pressure on the Syrian government.

He said -- quote -- "It's odd to me that anyone would try to equate the actions of the Syrian army and armed opposition groups, since the Syrian government consistently initiates the attacks on civilian areas and it's using its heaviest weapons."

Russia's position is that you have to treat the opposition and the Syrian government as equal players in this struggle, when it's very evident that the Syrian army has attack jets, helicopters and tanks, and has not been afraid to use them against its own citizens.

GORANI: Let me quickly ask you then about what the options are for the international community, including Turkey, where you are. Many people here in the United States are watching these images out of Homs, and they are shocked by what they're seeing.

What are the options now that Russia has blocked this resolution at the U.N. to try to put a stop to this bloodshed?

I have been asking diplomats that and trying to get a straight answer, and very few of them have one. The Turks, who are clearly Syria's most powerful neighbor, are calling for a new international grouping, perhaps the friends of Syria, to further isolate the Syrian regime politically, economically, diplomatically, to send a message, the Turkish foreign minister says, that the Syrian people are not alone.

And a critical foreign policy adviser to the government here wrote in an op-ed piece today that it's time to step up support to the Syrian opposition. Many are asking here, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean weapons? Does that mean more financing? Does that mean opening up humanitarian corridors or some kind of buffer zone, and perhaps we will see that as different world powers meet on this crisis in the days and weeks to come.

GORANI: All right, and the world is certainly watching what's unfolding in Syria. Thanks very much. Ivan Watson is live in Istanbul.

What about the man at the center of Syria's crisis, President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited power from his father? The elder Assad was a giant of the Middle East.

But, as Jim Clancy shows us, Bashar is cut from perhaps a more modest mold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The gangly, smiling man who has defied the West, the Arab street and the odds with his ferocious death grip on power, Bashar Assad is Syria's accidental president. A high-speed car crash killed reckless older brother and heir apparent, Bassel.

Former Assad family insiders say Bashar was always considered to weak to steer the Syrian ship of state. His brother Bassel bullied him as a child, and his father never gave him as much attention as Bassel. When Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, Syria's elite pushed Bashar into the successor role, keeping 30 years of their own wealth, power and position intact.

Bashar's uncle Rifaat, exiled after a failed coup attempt in 1984, says Bashar was never cut out for the top job.

"He's very different than his father. Hafez al-Assad was a leader, the head of the entire regime, while Bashar," he says, "never came close to that. He may be seen as the leader," he says, "but really he just follows what the regime decides for him."

Pundits and the public thought Bashar al-Assad was telling blatant lies when he denied that he had control of the military in a recent interview. It was worse than that. He was telling the truth.

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA: They are not my forces. They are military forces that belong to the government. I don't own them. I'm president.

CLANCY: The real Bashar al-Assad is now standing up. The relentless crackdown on opponents of the Assad family dynasty isn't only being steered by the meek ophthalmologist who studied in the West.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the Baathist regime and the military that is under him that ultimately drives policy and ultimately is responsible for a lot of the murder and mayhem that we're seeing right now on the streets of Syria.

CLANCY: While that may be true, Bashar Assad is still the lynchpin of a wealth, powerful clique at the top.

SUSAN RICE, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Your days are numbered, and it is time and past time for you to transfer power responsibly and peacefully. The longer you hang on, the more damage you do yourself, your family, your interests, and indeed, your country.

CLANCY: Regime change means not just an end to the Assad dynasty, but to the military and political clique around it. The view from the top is almost certainly that is in their interests to hold onto the power they have at all costs.

For years, Western diplomats and Syrians themselves have heard Bashar al-Assad speak of modernization and reform. Dissidents were released from prison and some media freedoms allowed, but those actions fell far short of expectations.

As the battle rages on the streets, Syria's accidental president is unquestionably driven by those around him. But just as clear, he has chosen a side, and it is his own.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: When we come back, Republicans are calling it a war on religion. Catholic groups say President Obama has crossed the line. Now in the heated fight over birth control, the president is offering a solution. Not everyone is happy about it. Jessica Yellin is standing by live. She's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back.

(NEWS BREAK)

GORANI: Opponents will say they caved, but the White House prefers the term accommodation. Call it whatever you like, but the Obama administration is changing its mandate requiring religiously affiliated institutions to provide birth control under employee insurance plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Women will still have access to free, preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where they work. So that core principle remains.

But if a woman's employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -- not the hospital, not the charity -- will be required to reach out and offer the woman the contraceptive care free of charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: President Obama.

Well, I want to bring in chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin.

Jessica, explain how this change is going to work. Who ends up paying for this change in the end?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Insurance companies, bottom line, Hala.

It's designed so that it takes the employer out of the equation, so that the objecting religious institutions don't actually have to pay for birth control. The way it's designed now, it will allow women to still get their birth control, but the insurance companies will be required to provide it to the women free of charge, so that neither the woman nor the religious institution is paying. This isn't still making all Catholics happy.

Religious Catholics are OK with it, but some conservative Catholics are still outraged.

GORANI: All right, so let's talk then, politically, what kind of impact that might have, because if the change is being offered, what the White House is calling an accommodation, and still you have religiously affiliated groups saying it's not enough, could the White House go further, or is this it?

YELLIN: I don't predict the White House will go further. To be clear, again, the concern was that the liberal Catholics who are often with the White House on many issues were against them on this one. And so they had to make an accommodation politically to win those groups back.

They don't expect to win over Catholic groups that are consistently objecting to the White House's position. And that's where they stand now. So the people who are usually against the White House are now against the White House, and what are they going to do in their view to win them over. But they now have won back many of the liberal Catholics who are also with the White House and that was their main goal here.

GORANI: All right. So it seems as though that goal, politically speaking, has been achieved, Jessica?

YELLIN: So far. It's early, and also, Hala, they really botched this one, so they are still going to be licking their wounds a little bit and have to wait and see if they can quiet this one down. It really was a bad P.R. rollout and a bad policy -- they just mishandled this issue.

GORANI: Right. We will see if it turns out to be a blip in the grand scheme of things.

YELLIN: Exactly.

GORANI: Thanks, Jessica Yellin.

Take a look at this plane. It's light, cheap and it can avoid radar. So what's inside it? I will tell you that and why the government is taking big steps to track them.

Also, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ABUSING CHILDREN: "The only thing I want for my birthday is to be able to see pop," I'm sensitive to that."

(END VIDEO CLIP) GORANI: The former Penn State assistant coach accused of raping children stands before the microphones, then gets candid. You will hear what happened today outside court with Jerry Sandusky next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back, everyone.

It could be about to get harder to smuggle drugs in America. Also, Jerry Sandusky talks to the media before walking into court.

Let's play "Reporter Roulette."

And we begin with a new crackdown on drug smugglers in the ultralight planes that they use.

Lizzie O'Leary is live in Washington.

Now, Lizzie, President Obama just signed this bill which is actually Gabby Giffords' last piece of legislation. Tell us about it and how it might make it a whole lot harder to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is about a problem that was taking place in Gabby Giffords' home state, in Arizona, where essentially you're thinking of ultralight aircraft.

Think of a souped-up hang glider almost with like sort of a motor engine on the top of it. And what is going on in this is, they closed a loophole. Those really weren't classified as planes, so the laws that applied to smuggling drugs in them weren't as tight.

Now you could get up to 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine for smuggling drugs across the border in one of these planes. You can see them. They're very small. And it's something that Customs and Border Patrol officials say is an increasing problem in states like Arizona, Hala.

GORANI: So how were drug smugglers specifically using these small planes?

YELLIN: Yes. They don't even have to land.

What they do is put a small load, 200, 250 pounds of drugs. It's usually marijuana in these very small planes, fly across the border and just drop them off. It's happened about 220 times, CBP officials think, in the past year. Sometimes they crash. That's a way that folks have been arrested. There have been some fatalities. And drug mules generally get paid $1,000 to $2,000 to do this.

It's certainly not the biggest part of the international drug trade, but it's a small place and it's a place where CBP thinks they can make some headway.

GORANI: All right, Lizzie O'Leary, thanks very much. Next, let's talk about the Sandusky hearings. Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach, spoke to reporters after his court hearing today in Pennsylvania. Sandusky is charged with 52 offenses against children.

CNN's Jason Carroll is live in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Now, Sandusky is saying essentially that his treatment is unfair, that he wants to ease the restrictions of his house arrest. Tell us more.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct, Hala, and here's the reason why. Because under the conditions of his house arrest, Jerry Sandusky is not permitted to have any contact with anyone under the age of 18, which effectively means he cannot have contact with his grandchildren.

He wants that changed. And in a surprise move, at the very end of the hearing, Hala, he came right down the steps behind me, spoke to reporters for the first time and addressed that very issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ABUSING CHILDREN: Friends who call me and who want to be with me, who want to see me, and I have to say, no, I can't, and they ask why, so I asked Joe why. And that's why he brought it up.

Or when I had a wife who came home after visiting with grandchildren or who is sitting there when grandchildren call on my birthday and they ask to talk to me and she has to tell them that they can't, I'm sensitive to that.

Or when she comes home from visiting with grandchildren and tells me that one of them said that, "The only thing I want for my birthday is to be able to see pop," I'm sensitive to that."

And that's why I came today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And, Hala, you heard Jerry Sandusky refer to Joe. That would be Joe Amendola, his attorney.

And Amendola says that even if Jerry Sandusky was incarcerated, he still would be able to have visits, albeit supervised visits. And that's what he's asking for now.

The prosecution says that house arrest is a privilege. It is not a house party. A man charged with such serious allegations should not have access to children under any circumstances, so that is what the argument is here today, at least one of the arguments.

The judge is expected to rule on this and other legal issues on Monday -- Hala.

GORANI: OK, Jason Carroll, thanks very much.

That's today's "Reporter Roulette."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A conservative, a liberal and a moderate walked into the bar. The bartender says, hi, Mitt.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: That's a Rick Santorum supporter getting mixed reaction after a joke about Mitt Romney. Both candidates making their cases to conservatives today, but did Romney say enough to convince voters still on the fence? We will take you like to CPAC next.

Plus, Newt Gingrich is expected to address the crowd soon, and introducing him, his wife, Callista, who we rarely hear from. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back.

Mitt Romney had a tough job ahead of him this afternoon, prove to a massive crowd of conservatives, of the conservative base that he should their choice for presidential candidate, even though some of them haven't been buying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This election really is about a battle for the soul of America. And it's going to come down to a choice, a choice between whether we want a nation to be of and by Washington or a nation of and by a free people. And we conservatives believe in freedom and free people and free enterprises.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Our Jim Acosta was in the room when Romney spoke.

Let me ask you this, first of all. We are hearing from the three candidates, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich a little bit, Mitt Romney just a few minutes ago. Why is CPAC so important for them, this specific conference?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, this is basically the conservative wing of the Republican Party in force, and that is why this conference is so important year after year.

And it seems to become more of a spectacle as every year goes by. And this year is no exception. To have all three of the top Republican contenders at this conference on the same day, you can't really underscore enough the importance of what we're seeing today.

And you were just talking about Mitt Romney's task at hand today. It was a difficult job that he had to really take on today, because he has been really under assault by Rick Santorum all week. And, to be fair, Mitt Romney has been giving Rick Santorum all he can give all week, going after the former Pennsylvania senators' record on earmarks in Congress when he was in the Senate.

And we heard Rick Santorum give a very tough speech earlier today. Santorum got to go first. He described Mitt Romney's health care plan when he was governor of Massachusetts, what's known as Romneycare, as the stepchild, he called, of Obamacare.

And Mitt Romney, he did not talk about Rick Santorum that much in his speech, but there was no mistaking who he was talking at one point during his speech, when he was talking about politicians who claim to hate Washington, but yet still profit off of Washington.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: And let me tell you, any politician that tries to convince you that they hated Washington so much that they just couldn't leave...

(LAUGHTER)

ROMNEY: ... well, that's the same politician who will try and sell you a bridge to nowhere.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So make no mistake, that was a jab at Rick Santorum, who supported that bridge to nowhere project, who supported a lot of earmarks as congressional pet projects when he was in Congress.

But it was interesting, Hala, to see Mitt Romney really not talk about Rick Santorum by name. He also didn't talk about Newt Gingrich. He aimed much of his speech at President Obama -- Hala.

GORANI: But he needs, Mitt Romney needs to convince the conservative base that he's a true conservative. Now it's a big contest between all these Republican presidential hopefuls who is the most conservative of all? Is he going to manage to achieve that, Romney, at a conference like CPAC?

ACOSTA: I don't think one speech is going to take care of that problem for Mitt Romney.

I think at the end of the day, his argument is that he is the most electable candidate. And you heard a lot of Republicans talking about that today, Ann Coulter first among them. She is a very conservative commentator, as you know. And at the CPAC conference that was here last year, she said that, if we don't nominate Chris Christie, Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee and we will lose.

Well, today, she was saying good things about Mitt Romney, saying, well, he may be kind of a square, as she put it, but that's better than somebody who was hip and can't run the country. Ann Coulter referring to President Obama.

So I think he is starting to win over some conservatives, but I talk to some folks out in the crowds here at CPAC. There are still some misgivings about Mitt Romney. His record back in Massachusetts. They haven't been won over just yet, so he's got some work to do.

GORANI: Jim Acosta, thanks very much.

Up next, a new twist in the case of the millionaire who adopted his adult girlfriend as he fights a deadly, drunken lawsuit. His real kids aren't too happy about all this, and wait until you hear what they're doing about it. Joey Jackson is on the case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back. We're hearing for the first time from the social worker who was supposed to supervise Josh Powell's last visit with his young sons. She watched in horror as Powell locked her out of the house and burned it down and killing himself and the two little kids. Social worker Elizabeth Griffin-Hall tells ABCs Chris Cuomo she never saw this tragedy coming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH GRIFFIN-HALL, SOCIAL WORKER WHO DROPPED OFF POWELL BOYS: There were no indicators. I never saw any suicidal indicators from him. I never saw anything other than tender loving care towards the boys. He didn't look like a monster. He didn't look like somebody who was going to kill his children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Joey Jackson is "On the Case."

Joey, the social worker also disclosed new details about what she heard going on inside the Powell home. What did we learn from that?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Awful situation. Now, you know there is a couple things that we can learn from this. There were a number of breakdowns in the system, of course, you know.

Should they have been allowed to see the father in the first place? Should the father had been in jail based upon his suspicion of being involved with the killing of his wife? But in terms of what she actually heard, I mean, it was bad, you know.

The door closes. She hears noises. She's trying to convince a 911 operator to take it seriously. They don't, and what do you know, the children are dead and he's dead, too. And so, it's a horrific matter. I mean, it really comes down to whether it could have been prevented, you know. We don't know. I mean, we know that Josh Powell was of the mindset to inflict harm upon the children, and if it wasn't that day, it certainly would have been some another day.

GORANI: Well, if it would have been a supervised visit somewhere else, I guess, some would argue, yes, it could have been prevented. You mention the 911 call. There has been a lot of talk about the emergency response when Griffin-Hall called emergency services to report she'd been locked out. Now let's listen to part of that call and then I'll ask you to comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN-HALL: How long will it be?

911 OPERATOR: I don't know, ma'am. We have to respond to emergency, life-threatening situations first. The first available deputy --

GRIFFIN-HALL: Well, this could be life-threatening. He went to court on Wednesday, and he didn't get his kids back. And this is really -- I'm afraid for their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN-HALL: I'm getting -- who is your supervisor? Who are you? Where are you? I'm not getting an emergency response. They're not responding to me at the level that I'm telling them that this is a life-threatening emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, Joey, of course, with hindsight now, it just does appear perhaps that there should have been more urgency there. That call lasted seven minutes. The sheriff has said he is not happy with the, quote, "etiquette and manner," unquote, but he said the response time to the emergency was not affected.

Now, do the response times in this case sound typical to you in your professional experience?

JACKSON: I mean, you know, it takes a while to get to any scenario, but I think ultimately any 911 operator has to handle a matter with care and has to handle it under the presumption that the call is valid and that this is, indeed, a life-saving situation that you're sending people to.

So the response times we could look at. I think they're within the norms of when the police could respond. Would it have made a difference? Presumably it could have, and certainly the 911 operator -- don't mean to bash them too much -- but certainly should be disciplined and should be made to know that everything is serious. GORANI: Right. You know, it's always the case in hindsight, you look at something and then you're able to judge that happened before the tragedy, which is a luxury you don't have when you're in the heat of the moment. So as you said, we need to sort of sometimes take a deep breath.

Let's talk about case number two, an update now on the millionaire polo club founder who adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend. Some legal expert are considering the adoption as sham to shelter his wealth from a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit. Now it turns out his children are not too happy about their new 42-year-old sister. What are they doing about it?

JACKSON: Well, what they're doing is the guardian ad litem, in which represents the children is going to court to take corrective actions to say, look, this is a sham. It needs to be overturned. But the interesting thing, though, is that their argument is that, you know what, he is trying to take all of this money, he is trying to take money when the reality is by not letting him have the money, they are keeping money for themselves.

It comes down to when a court evaluates it, whether you look at the statute itself or whether you look at the public policy considerations of statutes. The statute says it's lawful. You can adopt an adult in Florida and multiple other jurisdictions around the country.

However, can you do it for this reason? That's the question. The argument could be made that, look, people take advantage of the tax codes all the time. There are loopholes in them, and if they're favorable to you, why not use them? So the argument here is that if it was lawful and if it was proper, you know what, I followed the law. But courts do not like when you act in a way that will be called repugnant to public policy, and that's where the problem lies then and the court may very well say, you know what, I know what you were trying to do but it's not in the court with the intent of the law so we're not going to let it happen.

GORANI: So they have that kind of lead to that kind of interpretation sort of leeway in terms of whether or not he can go ahead, in terms of whether or not this will be thrown out.

JACKSON: They do. There's been searches by these lawyers across the country, and apparently there are five other cases where a person attempted to adopt their lover or their girlfriend, and those cases have been thrown out. But every case is a distinction. You know, were those cases similar here? Perhaps they were, perhaps they were not. So the fight will continue. What if the courts deemed it repugnant and against public policy, it will be deem to sham, a fraud and courts don't like fraud.

GORANI: Joey Jackson, thanks very much.

Sometimes you can see rare qualities in adults and children like courage and determination. Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with today's "Human Factor." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDIAL CORRESPONDENT: He can hit, field the ball, even slide into home plate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job, but it's too fast.

REECE HOLLOWAY: All the way around the bases.

GUPTA: Six-year-old Reece Holloway wants to play in the big leagues someday, just like his favorite player, Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves. When Reece was born, his parents were shocked to discover that he didn't have a left hand. And baseball was the furthest thing from their minds.

BRYAN HOLLOWAY, REECE'S FATHER: Thousand things went through my mind. You know, how is he going to tie shoes? How is he going to do this? How is he going to do everything?

MALOU HOLLOWAY, REECE'S MOTHER: It was a hard, hard thing.

GUPTA: They weren't sure if he would learn to crawl without a second hand so they got a prosthesis. But little Reece didn't want it.

B. HOLLOWAY: He didn't love it.

M. HOLLOWAY: He didn't love it at all. He cried and cried and cried. It was not a good thing.

GUPTA: He did learn to crawl. And walk. And then something remarkable happened. Reece taught himself how to hit a ball when he was just two years old.

M. HOLLOWAY: He got plastic balls and he would hold it under his chin and drop it and swing the bat. And he would hit the ball, no problem.

GUPTA: Reece is a fan of all sports, but baseball is still his favorite.

B. HOLLOWAY: He loves playing baseball. That's all he does 24/7.

Use your other hand, too.

GUPTA: On or off the field, Reece doesn't get any special treatment.

M. HOLLOWAY: We make him make his bed, or we make him pick this up or hold this. We make it a fun thing.

B. HOLLOWAY: We don't hold anything back.

GUPTA: And as far as the Holloways are concerned, Reece doesn't have a disability. R. HOLLOWAY: I was born like that.

GUPTA: Like other boys his age, he can do lots of things. He does flips on the family trampoline. He can break dance. And even though snaps are a bit of a challenge, he gets dressed by himself.

B. HOLLOWAY: The only thing he can't do is tie his shoe.

GUPTA: Nothing stands in the way of baseball for Reece. He's a natural talent. And his parents believe children like their son should never be held back.

M. HOLLOWAY: Let them do everything.

B. HOLLOWAY: If they want to try it, let them try it.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: It gotten so bad in one of America's biggest cities, it's being called Killadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to act like an idiot, if you want to be a (EXPLETIVE DELETED), if you want to be a low life in this town, we will track you down like the dog that you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Murders this year? Through the roof. And even the mayor is getting frustrated. We've got an inside look. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: The city of brotherly love is earning an ugly and unwanted title, Killadelphia. The murder rate has gotten so bad in Philadelphia, the city is offering up to $20,000 in reward money for homicide cases. CNN's Sara Hoye has more on the frustration and also on the fear in this city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH HOYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stuffed teddy bears, balloons and flowers mark the spot where a store clerk was gunned down. Rosemary Reyna Fernandez-Rivera was murdered because police say she witnessed a murder in north Philadelphia at the same spot a couple months earlier.

The Curb Side Memorial is a stark reminder of her execution- style murder that sent fear ricocheting through Kensington, one of the city's toughest neighborhoods.

DIANA ARCE, RESIDENT: I'm afraid from being a neighbor to becoming a victim. HOYE: Only one month since the year, Philadelphia has already been hit with a series of killings. A man opened fire on a car filled with teens killing three of them. Another man was beaten to death hailing a cab on a busy downtown street. Then Reyna, shot multiple times standing behind a store counter.

There were 34 homicides in January. One more than last January's count. Dr. Chuck Williams, an education professor at Drexel University, says what sets this January apart is how heinous the killings are.

DR. CHUCK WILLIAMS, CENTER FOR PREVENTION OF SCHOOL-AGED VIOLENCE: I think that that's what when they come from a culture where they learn that the way to handle an argument is with a gun.

HOYE: Williams who specializes in violence prevention said this is going to be a tough year with many more like it if Philadelphians don't stand up to the violence.

WILLIAMS: So, although, the streets don't offer anything positive, a lot of the young people, a lot of the young boys, a young black male, it's consistent. They know where they stand.

HOYE: Philadelphia had 324 homicides last year with blacks making up 84 of the victims. The leading motive for murder was arguments. City officials say it's too early to predict the death toll for the year, but the recent mayhem didn't stop Mayor Michael Nutter from expressing his frustration.

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: If you want to act like an idiot, if you want to be (EXPLETIVE DELETED), if you want to be a low life in this town, we will track you down like the dog that you are.

HOYE: To help combat the violence, the mayor and other city officials unveiled new crime fighting measures from cash rewards for crime tips to increasing police presence.

EVERETT GILLISON, DEPUTY MAYOR FOR PUBLIC SAFETY: Prevention a key portion of what we're doing, but also just getting the community to act as one and come forward and say, enough is enough, this stuff has got to stop.

HOYE: Back in North Philadelphia, the gifts left behind in memory of Reyna join the collection of memorials honoring shooting victims around the neighborhood. Despite the city's call for change, victim's advocate Stephanie Mayweather says something has got to give.

(on camera): Where do we go from here? How do we help curb some of this violence?

STEPHANIE MAYWEATHER, EAST DIVISION CRIME VICTIM SERVICES: I don't know. I don't know the answer. I have been here for 13 years and I have watched the crime escalates, I have watched the neighborhood deteriorate. I have watched the police presence decline here. I don't know what the answer is.

HOYE: Sarah Hoye, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: We are just getting in some disturbing new video showing the horror unfolding in Syria, including what happened inside one family's home. We'll be right back. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back.

We have some new video out of Syria, and it's extremely graphic, so I'd like to warn you of that. And you might want to look away, but we do think that seeing the images of some of the shelling that's going on in Homs and the siege of that city is important to tell the story. Take a look.

This video shows what appears to be a teenager, bloody and lifeless. We never see him move in the clip, so we can assume that perhaps he has lost his life. Blood is covering his sweater and jeans. And we have blurred his face, because we don't know of his condition and we have no confirmation of course of the authenticity of the video, but based on our knowledge of what is going on in Homs, it certainly appears to be authentic.

This particular video was shot in Daraa in Syria. This is in the southern part of the country where all protests began. We also don't know how the young man was hurt or if he survived. And, of course, everyday, more and more of these graphic videos are surfacing out of Syria just as the international community asks itself, what can be done?

Should intervention now being an option. Should arming the opposition be an option? Well, Wolf Blitzer, of course, is coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at the top of the hour.

And, Wolf, you have two big interviews. And one of your guests might be able to answer that question as to what should be done to stop the bloodshed. Ambassador Robert Ford.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": He is the U.S. ambassador to Syria who just the other today, together with the entire embassy staff, they evacuated, the U.S. embassy in Damascus. He's a very courageous U.S. Foreign Service officer, a career diplomat.

I spoke to him a little while ago. He's in Paris right now. He's got very strong views on what's going on, just posted on his own Facebook page some satellite imagery of Homs and the Syrian artillery that is now pouring in, going after civilians. Hundreds of people the last few days he says have been killed. A very revealing interview with Robert Ford. That's coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Also, my interview with Rick Santorum. The Republican presidential candidate. We have a separate interview with him. That's coming up. And we're going to listen to both of the Gingrich's, Callista Gingrich is going to introduce her husband, Newt Gingrich at the CPAC conference. We're going to hear both of them, that's coming up at the top of the hour as well. So Hala, political news, international news coming up, right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

GORANI: All right. I'll certainly tune in. Very much looking forward to it, Wolf. Thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's killing entire cities. He's trying to banish these cities and to destroy it into the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, we are calling him Abu Abdul. He goes on to say for the people still alive inside the City of Homs, hunger is starting to spread. There are entire neighborhoods that have been closed off, sealed off. How do you even get bread? Now as the killing gets worse, the State Department has released declassified pictures of the situation on the ground in Syria. Don't miss this. It's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Well, the U.S. government appears to be taking an incremental step to pressure the Syrian government to stop attacks against its people. Jill Dougherty has more on that development from the State Department.

Hi, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Hala. Well, Hala, these are the photographs now that we heard about this morning at the briefing here at the State Department. They are declassified reconnaissance photos taken over Syria, and the State Department is making a pretty big deal about it, saying that they were taken and they show major military operations in civilian areas.

And spokesperson for the State Department Victoria Nuland in fact used the word "gruesome." Now they're appearing on a couple sites. One is the Facebook page for the embassy in Damascus, which is now shuttered after the ambassador Robert Ford was pulled out and his staff.

And on that site which I checked a few minutes ago, he does talk about the equipment that's being used, the military equipment and arms, including mortars artillery. And he went out of his way in that statement to say I've never seen the opposition using anything like artillery. So we can tell you that a senior U.S. official is telling CNN that indeed the U.S. is stepping up surveillance and reconnaissance over Syria. And then, Hala, may be it would be interesting to talk about why they would want to release this right about now.

GORANI: Yes. And that was going to be my next question. I mean, presumably they've had these photographs and reconnaissance material for months, so why now that the embassy shuttered in Damascus? Are they releasing them to the world?

DOUGHERTY: Well, there are some but there are also some newer ones. They will be coming out on the site of the ambassador, that embassy in Damascus site. And also another State Department site.

And one reason could be over and over again, they are pointing out that this is military action against civilians. And you could read that. In fact, a senior official is telling CNN that essentially it showing those who might have doubts about who was carrying out these operations. Who indeed is doing it? Now who has doubts? Russia -- Russia and China, and especially, Russia. So obviously, what they are trying to do is show the Russians as well as the world that this is, they would say, the government, the Syrian government against its own people.

GORANI: Right. And showing Russian weaponry in many cases is used in the shelling of cities like Homs.

DOUGHERTY: Yes. I think there are a lot of layers here. And it also shows that this is, as they've been saying, very highly sophisticated armaments. And you could almost read a comparison with Libya, because after all, Syria is a much more sophisticated military place and a more complex place to carry out let's say any outside military action.

GORANI: All right, Jill Dougherty live at the State Department with the very latest on Syria. The U.S. is watching and the world is watching the carnage and the deteriorating situation there.

"THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer starts now.