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US Airways Plane Diverted And Jets Scrambled; Search Over For Missing Boaters; The Anti-Ocean's Eleven Gang; A Rocket Launch Unlike Any Other; Private Industry In Space; Booker: I've Been Taken Out Of Context; Aesha's Nose, Ears Were Cut Off; Time Magazine Profiled Aesha's Struggle; U.S. Airways Incident "Not Terror Related"; Tsunami Debris Litters Alaska Shores

Aired May 22, 2012 - 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: Top of the hour. More on our breaking news.

The military, we're hearing now, scrambling two fighter jets after an incident on board a U.S. air flight. So here's what we know at this hour. The flight, it was heading from Paris to Charlotte when word broke of a suspicious passenger onboard. That plane landed safely in Bangor, Maine. And I want to go straight to Lizzie O'Leary. She's been all over this for us today live in Washington.

And so, Lizzie, we are now hearing that this passenger on this flight made some sort of threat. What more do you know?

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION & REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we can tell you, Brooke, is that a senior federal law enforcement official says authorities determined there was no evidence of a bomb involved in the incident that prompted all of this. Now according to this official, a female passenger, who was a native of Cameroon, handed a note to the flight crew indicating that she had some kind of device implanted inside her body, but she did not say it was a bomb. She didn't indicate that the device was a threat or that she was threatening the flight. She was traveling alone.

It's a little unclear as to what has happened to this woman. The passengers are now off this flight. One hundred and seventy-nine people were on this flight from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina. They diverted to Bangor, Maine. You can see pictures there of the plane. The plane was on a remote runway.

Now, separately, Peter King, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN, our Capitol Hill team, that doctors onboard the flight checked this woman out, did not see any evidence of recent scars on her body. The FBI led joint terrorism task force is coordinating some of this. They are looking into it. But that's essentially a matter of routine procedure when something like this happens. It doesn't necessarily mean that there was any terror- related incident on this flight. And certainly as the details come out, that seems to point that way, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So I've got to ask, and I know it's fresh and you probably don't have an answer. My question really is, do we know why? Why this woman handed this flight to this -- note to this flight attendant saying she had some sort of device implanted in her body? It doesn't make sense.

O'LEARY: Well, we don't know why yet and that's certainly what law enforcement is going to be looking at, trying to figure out what was going on. Certainly on a transatlantic flight, there are a lot of things that one wants to be aware of. And, you know, when you look at the flight path of this flight, Bangor actually isn't all that far of a diversion for it to make. It would have come over from Paris and then essentially turned and gone down the eastern seaboard.

We do know that law enforcement met the plane and presumably they will be questioning this woman as to why she did that. I would point out that if she did in any way interfere with the flight crew, that is a federal crime. So there will be a number of things that they're looking at, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, so possible charges for her and hopefully everyone else on that flight gets to Charlotte. Obviously not on time, but soon enough.

Lizzie O'Leary, thank you so much. If you learn any more, just let us know.

Also just into us here at CNN, a rush to save lives in the heart of the Gulf of Mexico halted. Six people right now believed to be missing after abandoning their fishing boat. A boat that had been reported sinking near Galveston, Texas. But this story is becoming an even bigger mystery. This all started with this distress call. It's sound we've just gotten in. I want to play it for you. This is from Sunday afternoon. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE). We have an onboard emergency. We are taking on water, sir.

LT. JULIO GONZALEZ, U.S. COAST GUARD SEARCH & RESCUE (voice- over): How many persons onboard? And I need a description of your vessel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And nothing. That was it. The transmission cut off before the captain could answer. But here's the thing. Search crews, they haven't found any debris whatsoever.

I want to bring in Lieutenant Julio Gonzalez with the U.S. Coast Guard.

And, Lieutenant, my first question is, first off, I know you just called off this search. Can you tell me why?

GONZALEZ: Yes, Brooke. The search was actually suspended at 11:50 local time this morning. And the reason for that is, since the call -- initial call came in on Sunday afternoon, we have conducted an extensive search of the off shore Galveston and the Galveston Bay. Overall we have covered 2,855 square nautical miles in the Gulf. We have conducted 21 searches and 10 of those were conduct with aircrafts, 11 of those were surface assets and with no -- and we haven't found any indication that a vessel was actually -- that actually went under the water.

BALDWIN: Well, how rare is that? If you mention 2,855 square nautical miles, that's a tremendous area. The fact that you haven't seen anything. No debris, no wreckage, no life boats. How rare is that?

GONZALEZ: It is -- it is pretty rare. Normally with this type of cases, in the event that a vessel actually sinks, we normally find debris, fishing gear or find oil in the water that comes off the vessel when it goes down. At this point, I mean, we base our search area, taken a range from our towers, our communication towers and from the description, geographical description that the naser (ph) was able to pass over the radio to us. And it's very rare that we haven't found no indications that a boat went down.

BALDWIN: And, thus, obviously, you have found no one. The fact that this search is halted, that it's suspended, is that basically you telling me that there is no way anyone could be clinging on to life anywhere? That this is essentially going to be a recovery?

GONZALEZ: Well, at this point, we're not sure. The information we have right now -- with the information that we have, we have done everything we could do at this point. This case (ph) has been out in the media for two days now, since yesterday morning, and we have not received any information, additional information from the public, from family members. The name of the fishing vessel was -- it's either the fishing vessel Skalywag (ph) or Skylark (ph). And we have been -- local media has been putting the name of the vessel out there to see if we could get the public to provide us information.

BALDWIN: To help.

GONZALEZ: We don't know the vessel, how big it is, who were the people onboard, what were -- what they were doing. Were they engaging in commercial fishing or did they call themselves a fishing vessel, recreational type?

BALDWIN: So let me ask you this. This could be a crazy thought, but I'm going to throw it at you anyway. Might this possibly be a hoax since you have found nothing and you've been searching for days? Is that at all in the realm of possibilities?

GONZALEZ: The Coast Guard takes all distress calls very seriously. At this time, we're not considering this case a hoax. There is a possibility that this case is real. But right now, with the information that we have and all the efforts that we have conducted over the last two days, there's nothing else we can do at this point.

BALDWIN: OK.

GONZALEZ: Only if we get any further information, any developments, any family members coming forward and saying, hey, yes, this is -- I know one of the persons onboard. Here's where they normally go fishing and that kind of information.

BALDWIN: Until then -- until then, you have nothing. You have nothing. But you have searched and searched. Lieutenant Julio Gonzalez, thank you. We'll stay on it.

Got a lot more for you in the next two hours. Watch.

The Bellagio in Las Vegas. Really it's one of the toughest places to rob in the whole country and a bunch of geniuses botched a heist using pepper spray and blackjack. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

If you ever dreamed of going to space without working for NASA, this could be the first step. Behind the launch of SpaceX.

Plus, the Taliban tortured her and cut off her nose. Now a young woman is in the U.S. but life in America isn't exactly what she thought.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just a quick update for you. We were just talking at the top of the show with Lizzie O'Leary out of Washington about that flight that was diverted. It went from Paris. It was diverted to Bangor, Maine, instead of heading to Charlotte. She talked about this woman who, apparently, offered up this note to a flight attendant saying she had something inserted in her body. Basically now what we're hearing from this federal law source, I'm just going to read this for you. "The incident on board a US Airways jet from Paris does not appear to be terror related." That's the headline there, according to this source briefed on the situation. Quote, "there is no national security threat and basically no threat," end quote.

We're on it. We're making calls. We're trying to find out why this woman would have handed this note to this flight attendant in the first place. And we'll get that to you as soon as we get that news.

Meantime, when it comes to robbing a Las Vegas casino, there are these guys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR, "OCEAN'S ELEVEN": This place houses a security system that rivals most nuclear missile silos (ph).

MATT DAMON, ACTOR, "OCEAN'S ELEVEN": A smash and grab job, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "OCEAN'S ELEVEN": Slightly more complicated than that.

DAMON: Oh, yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And then there's the opposite. Look at the picture. You see the guy kissing the floor in the picture. Yes, that's Michael Belton. Police say Belton tried to rip off $115,000 in chips from, of all places, the Bellagio. So what was this brilliant plan you ask? According to investigators, he was walking in wearing a wig and sunglasses and then an accomplice sprayed a blackjack dealer in the face with some kind of chemical. Belton grabbed the chips, got as far as the floor.

Want to bring in David Schwartz. He is the director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

David, welcome back, as we talk about another thwarted heist. Let me ask you this. What kind of security was this suspect up against at the Bellagio? I imagine there are cameras everywhere.

DAVID SCHWARTZ, DIR., UNLV CENTER FOR GAMING RESEARCH: Number one, there's cameras everywhere. There's also uniform security on the floor. And there may be undercover people out there, too. And you've got a lot of the employees who are also standing guard for this kind of thing. So it's definitely long odds.

BALDWIN: OK. Long odds and a lot of eyes. But the guy who allegedly sprayed this dealer, he actually did get away. How did security let that happen? Do more casino robbers get away than we actually hear about?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think most of them get caught. The number one priority is going to be the safety of the guests and the safety of the employees. After that it's recovering property. I think once that guy had done his thing, it was no longer an immediate threat. They were more focused on getting the chips back, which is why (INAUDIBLE) there.

BALDWIN: With the long odds, why in the world do you think people even try to walk into places like the Bellagio and get away with money or chips? Why are they thinking they're going to pull it off?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think you see people doing it in movies -- you know "Ocean's Eleven" -- and they think, hey, look, that looks pretty glamorous, that looks pretty easy. They've got so much money lying around, it will be easy to grab it. But in fact it's very difficult. And I think a little bit of it is also the fact that they say, well, we know how the last guy who tried it messed up. I'm going to do something different. And I think I can beat the house.

BALDWIN: Now, I'm no gambler, but I do know this. If you're going to walk in, you're going to try to grab a bunch of chips and walk away, don't these chips have serial numbers or something on them to identify them, because you've got to go back in and cash them in and they're going to bust you?

SCHWARTZ: It's difficult to talk about the exact procedures that they have at a specific casino, but many of them do have serial numbers or RFID chips embedded in them. Also, there's only a select number of people who are going to be playing $5,000 chips. So you can imagine if a bunch of them start coming back in, security is going to be looking right at that. BALDWIN: You know, the last time I remember we talked, David, it was two years ago and that guy ran off with $1.5 million in chips. Again, it was the Bellagio. I remember the video. He had that motorcycle helmet on. He was heading out to his motorcycle. They did catch him. Here he was. They caught him something like two months later. So, has anyone, movies aside, actually pulled something like this off and not gotten caught?

SCHWARTZ: Well, there's been a couple of cases where people have just held up change booths, have just grabbed money and ran out and they might have gotten away with it a couple of times. Eventually they get caught. But in general, if you do this, there's so much surveillance and there's so many people around, you'll probably get caught.

BALDWIN: Come on now. "Ocean's Eleven" was a movie. It's not real life, David Schwartz. Appreciate it. From UNLV. Always good to see you.

And now some video you have to see today. This small child rides his toy bike -- look in the middle of your screen -- rides the toy bike in a busy city street. If you're like me, you're holding your breath watching this. But we've got the rest of the video. Look at that, the bus. Is he OK? We'll show you.

Plus, a young boy slips in the water, gets stuck under a waterfall. Eight hours later, his mom gets quite the phone call.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: More news unfolding right now. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

A vaccine may one day help people with pancreatic cancer hopefully live longer. Doctors at this conference today in San Diego presented their findings on a study of the vaccine. It involved 70 patients. And here's what they say. That this vaccine is designed to trigger the patient's own immune system to then kill the cancer cells. Though it's still very early in the testing process, they say, but doctors believe the vaccine improves the pancreatic cancer survival rate when used with a regular treatment.

And now to some video that's just downright frightening. Watch this with me. See the little boy on his motor bike right in the middle of traffic. Zigzagging through busy traffic. This is China yesterday. And you watch this and you can't help but wonder, why aren't they stopping? Don't they see him? Fortunately, a police officer sees this little boy, helps him to the other side of the street. The boy's grandfather was apparently looking for him and finally found him safe and sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the people.

CROWD: We are the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mighty, mighty people.

CROWD: Mighty, mighty people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fighting for children.

CROWD: Fighting for children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hundreds of moms and their strollers, along with nurses and cancer survivors demonstrating in Washington today. They say toxic chemicals are used in everyday items they have -- bedding, pajamas, furniture. They are supporting the Safe Chemicals Act, which would update laws governing the use of toxic chemicals in products.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is now praising the latest round of nuclear talks with Iran, although no definite agreement has been reached for Iran to allow greater access to nuclear inspections. Iran state-run TV is reporting the IAEA chief says the talks will have a quote/unquote "positive impact" on negotiations with world powers. Iranian officials plan to meet with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany this coming Wednesday.

A 13-year-old boy had to hold on for dear life as he was nearly swept away over this waterfall -- 270 feet, by the way. This is Washington state. This is William Hickman I'm talking about. Huddled there on the right. Here, crouched in this narrow steep ledge, barely above Wallace Falls. The trouble started during a hiking adventure when he decided to test the waters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM HICKMAN, RESCUED FROM RAGING WATERS: I was pretty determined to go swimming. I noticed the water level was rising and that scared me. So I was able to push my body and crawl up there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Several hours later, rescuers were able to drop that ladder down, bring William up to safety. And in the next hour here on this show, we're going to talk to William and one of those rescuers when they join us live at 3:00 p.m.

A man tries killing himself but fails. And now he is just the third person to ever survive a jump over Niagara Falls without a safety device. That's 200 feet in very, very frigid waters. It took rescue crews about an hour to reach him, but he wouldn't grab on to the harness. So they eventually got close enough to grab him. A couple of witnesses, they saw it. They couldn't believe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He did not. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he did. Oh, my goodness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He went over the falls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't fall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I assumed that he was on the back of the falls tour and just left the group and slipped on the rocks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We're told that jumper is now in the hospital with hypothermia.

And take a look at this view of Tokyo. We are looking down. This is nearly 2,100 feet from the Sky Tree. It is the world's tallest tower, for now. It took nearly four years to build. It's twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower. And besides this jaw-dropping view, Sky Tree will provide broadcast transmissions. Inside this tower there are shops, restaurants and an aquarium as well.

With this simple launch in the middle of the night, America's space program gets a huge boost from the private sector. I'm going to talk to a man who once worked with this company, whether this was now just setting off a race within private enterprise.

Plus, think the Cory Booker fire storm is over? Nope. He is not only livid at Republicans, but now the Obama campaign is sending out mixed messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Mark this day. Private industry has now officially entered the final frontier. The Falcon 9 rocket is right this moment traveling through space. Final destination, the International Space Station. And this is huge because this is the first commercial mission to the ISS. The launch this morning was flawless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two, one, zero. Liftoff Falcon 9.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, keep in mind that the U.S. has to rely right now on Russian space teams to send astronauts up to the ISS and also cargo. Remember, that's one of the results of shutting down the space shuttle program that happened last summer. So now the private company, SpaceX, they're going to do the work. That is if all goes well as planned. And we're paying a lot for it to make it happen. So far SpaceX has received more than $380 million from NASA. And NASA's head, chief administrator, says today is not just a day really for private industry, but he says also for American independence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHARLES BOLDEN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: The United States will, once again, be in the lead. We'll be providing our own vehicles to take our own astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. It's fine to rely on partners, but that's not where the greatest nation in the world wants to be. We want to be taking astronauts and cargo on our own vehicles. Today was a huge day in the step to getting there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was NASA's perspective. Let's get SpaceX's here. Lawrence Williams, former vice president of strategic relations for SpaceX.

Lawrence, good to see you. Welcome.

LAWRENCE WILLIAMS, EX-VP FOR STRATEGIC RELATIONS, SPACEX: Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We just heard how huge this is for really independence and ultimately I know I talked to Charlie Bolden recently and he's hoping, you know, NASA can think, you know, further out as in, like, you know, a rocket launch to Mars. And in the meantime, SpaceX can perhaps end up ferrying astronauts. But today, this morning, seeing this rocket go up, what was that like for you? Why is this so significant for SpaceX?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think it was a huge moment both for the United States as well as for the industry. And I definitely was holding my breath, I think like a lot of people at SpaceX. So it was quite exciting.

BALDWIN: It was probably a collective breath holding moment. I want to play a little video here of several SpaceX employees this morning at the launch. Take a look. So after holding their breath, the cheers came obviously once that rocket launch was successful. Here's my question, because I was down covering the Atlantis launch, the final STS 135 last summer, and I talked to a lot of tearful, you know, NASA employees because a lot of folks along the space coast, Lawrence, were frustrated they were losing jobs. I'm just curious, how many of those employees are absorbed by private enterprise like SpaceX?

WILLIAMS: I think increasingly a number of private companies are picking up the former NASA employees. And I think a few things have been lost in the wake of the retirement of the space shuttle. First of all, the impression that the administration and that NASA was getting out of the space transportation business I think is incorrect.

BALDWIN: Right.

WILLIAMS: And, secondly, that it was -- the private sector really wasn't heavily involved to begin with as it was with the space shuttle. So it is a transition. I think it's an exciting time. I think we stand on the verge of opening up space for a lot of new enterprises. Since I've left SpaceX, I've been working with a number of companies that are being enabled by the lower cost access to space that SpaceX is enabling. So I really think it, you know, it is like the early days of the Internet or the cellular telephone and that we're going to -- with lower cost access, we'll really see tremendous amount of job creation and new opportunities across the board.

BALDWIN: What about, ultimately, though, in space looking into the future, what will private enterprise be able to accomplish? I know SpaceX ultimately would like to be able to ferry astronauts to the ISS and not rely on the Russian Soyuz. What else?

WILLIAMS: Yes, that's true. And in addition, we've got this space station that's up there. It's $100 billion asset and it's a national laboratory. Therefore, a national asset, which we hope to be able to utilize with lower cost, more frequent access to the space station.

I can tell you that a lot of companies I just got back from Silicon Valley and there are a lot of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs there that are already well on their way in developing new technologies that they want to prove out on space.

The manufacturing and to develop new drugs and medicine and biomedical devices so, it's really -- we don't yet know at this point all the things it will enable, but quite an exciting opportunity.

BALDWIN: Right. Lawrence Williams, I appreciate it. You mention entrepreneurs we are going to be talking to Richard Branson coming up next hour.

Who is making it pretty much his mission to get you to space, if you can fork over 200 grand, it is. He is the chairman of Virgin Group, the founder of Virgin Galactic Space Lime. We're going to talk space and space tourism coming up next hour.

Cory Booker is fuming. The mayor of Newark, New Jersey says Republicans are twisting his words to attack the Obama campaign. In fact, here is what he told MSNBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR CORY BOOKER (D), NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: I am upset and this is why I'm on your show that I've been taken out of context. So, here they are plucking sound bites out of that interview to be -- to manipulate them in a cynical manner and to use them for their own purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, this all started when Booker was on "Meet the Press" this past Sunday. He criticized the attack strategies of both the Obama and the Romney campaigns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But Booker is a surrogate for the Obama campaign and just hours after he was on "Meet the Press," Booker released video, about a 4-minute video explaining his comments further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: I was very frustrated this past week when I saw people dredging up the Reverend Wright and already discussed issue from many, many years ago and try to bring it to the center stage as a way to undermine and attack our president. I've also expressed some frustration of attacks in other areas, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Those other areas he just mentioned, it's a reference to Obama ads attacking Bain Capital. Booker claims Republicans are now cherry picking that part it make it look like he just went after the president, Republicans, i.e., Sarah Palin on Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Dog gone it, it was a shame to see Cory kind of back down from what his answer was, which was so candid, Sean. He was the antithesis of the typical politician because he didn't do this before he spewed his answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, Booker says he was never pressured by the Obama campaign to walk back his comment. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: They have never pressured me to do anything. They've done nothing but encourage me and in this case, in particular, I certainly did talk with campaign officials. But they didn't force me to do anything. They had good conversations with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, you just heard him. He said he did talk to campaign officials, but does that line-up with what the campaign is saying? Ben Labolt, the press secretary for Obama 2012 told me that no one from the White House or the campaign contacted Booker after his "Meet the Press" appearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN LABOLT, PRESS SECRETARY, OBAMA 2012: We did not. These are his own views in the video, as he himself says in the video. He made absolutely clear, that a discussion of Mitt Romney's private sector tenure was legitimate.

BALDWIN: You are telling me that no one within the Obama 2012 campaign in any way reached out to Cory Booker to fix this?

LABOLT: He released that video of his own volition.

BALDWIN: Just yes or no.

LABOLT: Did not ask him to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, did they talk to him or not? Ben Labolt issued this statement today and I, quote, "As Mayor Cory Booker has said the campaign did not reach out and ask him to record a video."

Campaign officials also had not reached out directly to Mayor Booker yesterday. He spoke with a DNC official who also did not ask him to record a video. So, will that put all this to bed? Don't bet on it.

A young woman seeks refuge in the United States after her husband cuts off her nose and her ears. Aesha moved from Afghanistan. Who could forget the cover of "Time" magazine in 2010, but life in America now isn't all what she thought. Why doctors say she's not yet ready for a much-needed surgery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Hers is the face of tragedy and struggle, but it's also one of incredible inspiration. The 22-year-old Aesha's nose and ears were cut off by her Taliban husband and his family.

All of this happened after she tried to escape after years of abuse endured by her in-laws. Her story became an awakening about a culture a world away.

Her picture seen across the globe on this cover of "Time" magazine. CNN's Jessica Ravitz spoke with her exclusively.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think all the time, why this thing happens to me and why they cut my ears and nose. If I had my nose, I could have my life now.

JESSICA RAVITZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Born in a village in Southern Afghanistan, Aesha was forced into marriage at a young age. She was given as pay back for a crime committed by someone else in her family.

After years of abuse from her in-laws, Aesha ran away, but was caught. She spent months in prison. Her father-in-law retrieved her and with her Taliban husband and others, brutally cut off her nose and ears.

She appeared on the cover of "Time" and was brought to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery. But she was deemed too emotionally fragile to undergo the procedures.

Almost two years later, she has settled with an Afghan family who wants to give her the life she never had and the tools to become independent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wants to be a police officer. That's what she wants to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She loves justice and she thinks she found it by police and the officers and soldiers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love police officer.

RAVITZ: Aesha had arrived in America more traumatized than anyone had anticipated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody wants to kill me or somebody following me. Every second night, she has this kind of dreams.

RAVITZ: For more than a year, a strong support system of women surrounded her. But, still, Aesha struggled to find a sense of belonging.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in Jessica Rabbit. Truly I want it commend you, incredible reporting and the fact that you have worked for many, many month to have access to Aesha. Talk to me about that because I know even Oprah hasn't been able to do that.

RAVITZ: Yes, well, everyone had heard that she had gone to California for reconstructive surgery and as far as everyone knew, the story ended there.

But we found out that she hadn't had the surgery and had ended up in New York and I knew she was under the care of an organization called "Women for Afghan Women." And so kind of on a lark and a fishing expedition I went to their offices to speak to the head of the organization.

And shockingly she just literally blew into the office where I was sitting and in seeing her for 5 minutes and her behavior in those 5 minutes, it was just clear that this story was just so much deeper and so much more complex and profound.

And so it became this journey of just trying to speak to Aesha, but I couldn't do that for a year.

BALDWIN: Well, you finally got this access and several pieces that are on cnn.com. You can see how she lives now with parents she calls her mom. How did she find this family and, also, what is she doing now? She's learning English and she's going to school.

RAVITZ: Yes, so, for a year, she was under the care of this organization in New York --

BALDWIN: Women for Afghan women. RAVITZ: Yes, and they didn't allow me to talk to her, but they allowed me to observe her and talk to people who were caring for her. So it's kind of this anthropological field work where I was watching Aesha.

And then what happened was last summer she met this Afghan family. She was away for a week just they thought it would be good for her to get out of Queens for a week. So, she was with a woman that they have known for a long time and she took her to visit her relatives in Maryland.

And Aesha just fell in love with this couple and so she started her own personal campaign where she was calling them every other night in the middle of the night for months asking to come live with them.

And it was just a very interesting move and it was really a lot of people described it as, you know, a sign of progress for her because it was the first time she was going after something on her own and she did it.

BALDWIN: You write about the progress in your piece, but you also write about how the media really wants this nice, happy ending and it's not there yet.

Because clearly, you know, this family wants her to have her independence, but she has these night terrors who could blame her after everything happened to her.

So she can't get the surgery, really final question, she can't get the surgery until they deem her psychologically ready for it.

RAVITZ: That's right. And she's come a long way. It used to be that she would have these violent tantrums and seizures and there was no way in the world she was going to be able to withstand this process, which will be really long.

BALDWIN: Two or three years.

RAVITZ: Up to two years. Multiple procedures and she's going to look a lot worse before she looks better. And, so, but she's getting there and the family that has her now has her meeting with the team of surgeons and they actually think they might be able to stop the process this summer.

BALDWIN: Her story is tremendous and that of this mother and father who have taken her in with their own family. Jessica Ravitz, thank you so much. Again, you can read the story and see more of the video, just go to cnn.com. Appreciate it.

RAVITZ: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Now, coming up next, we have just gotten a hold of someone on board this plane I've been told. The U.S. Airways flight that was diverted from Paris that was supposed to Charlotte and now it's sitting there in Bangor, Maine. The passenger sat near the woman who was escorted off that plane and he is about to tell me exactly what he saw.

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BALDWIN: All right, we are learning that there was not a terror threat on board this U.S. Airways jet that was diverted to Bangor, Maine earlier today. The flight initiated from Paris and was supposed to go to charlotte and it's now sitting on the tarmac in Maine.

Word broke of a suspicious passenger onboard. I want to bring in someone who was not too far from that suspicious passenger. He is Andrew Kobayahsi. He joins me by phone.

And, Andrew, first things first, let me just ask you. Are you still in Bangor? Are you in the airport?

ANDREW KOBAYASHI, PASSENGER (via telephone): We are on the plane, on the tarmac. We just got back on the plane and we're just waiting to get back off.

BALDWIN: OK, take me back. I don't know how many hours ago it was. I understand this woman. This suspicious passenger was about five rows behind you?

KOBAYASHI: Yes. About five rows behind me. I want to say this has probably been about two hours since we got the -- we're probably 5 1/2 and 6 hours into the flight and make an on schedule landing due to unexpected, unprecedented head wind.

Then we landed very shortly after, maybe ten minutes thereafter and authorities and border patrol got aboard the plane and very quickly got this woman and took her off the back of the plane.

BALDWIN: You mentioned somebody got on the loud speaker and there was fuel or head wind issue and that's why you had to divert to Bangor, Maine, when you said, in fact, it was because of this suspicious passenger.

What did you see onboard? Because from what we understand, from our reporting, she had handed a note to a flight attendant and this note basically said that she had some sort of device implanted in her. Did you -- what did you see?

KOBAYASHI: I mean, all that I saw of the woman was, I mean, this was a couple rows behind me and I saw a woman sitting by herself looking nervous and jittery, but I just kind of accounted that to a person being very nervous and jittery and flying, flying by themselves.

I did not see her and anybody I know. It seemed like not many people had any awareness of the actual situation when the announcement was made to land.

BALDWIN: So, when the announcement was made, you were landing and the announcement said something about fuel and head wind issues. There was no panic on the plane and everyone believed that announcement? KOBAYASHI: There was, you know, there was some grumbling. My girlfriend sitting next to me, said, is there something it be worried about that they didn't take caution to properly fuel the plane to which I just kind of shrug and said these things happen.

It was slightly strange, but certainly didn't seem out of the ordinary. Throughout the entire thing, people did not need to be panicking.

People just seemed to be, this is interesting on what's going on. It was, even when the authorities got on the plane. It was like it was very quick and it was very quiet.

BALDWIN: I would imagine that is precisely what, you know, U.S. Airways would want, no panic and now we know this woman is in custody being questioned.

And they're going to try to figure out why in the world she would have handed this note to the flight attendant in the first place and possibly could face charges here.

Andrew Kobayashi, glad you are a OK. You and girlfriend safe travels to wherever that final destination is for you. We appreciate it.

It has taken now more than a year, but all that debris from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami is reaching America. And CNN is there seeing containers, styrofoam, much more washing up on shore.

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BALDWIN: The second annual CNN I-Report Awards are underway. You can participate. So we have scoured through really thousands of I-Reports submitted in 2011 and selected the most compelling examples. In fact, it was honored to be one of seven judges here for these I- Report awards.

So now we want to give you the chance to vote for the nominee you think that represents CNN I-Report in 2011. This is for the Community Choice Award and every Tuesday and every Thursday, we're going to highlight the top notch I-Reporters. We thank you for submitting, by the way.

I want you to watch and then go to cnnireportawards.com to vote. Here are the nominees for compelling imagery.

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BALDWIN: CNN is going in depth this week on the Fukushima fallout. The tsunami from Japan's 9.0 magnitude quake swallowed parts of Fukushima and really beyond. Who can forget these images? This was from last March.

The water pulled entire towns from their foundations and turned the Pacific Ocean into a colossal garbage dump. Japan's government says 70 percent of the debris sank. The other 30 percent, it's about 1.5 million tons. It is floating and more and more, some believe is churning up on American shores.

Some 4,000 to 5,000 miles away, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has even created a model just to track this debris. People fear the toxic chemicals the trash may bring.

CNN's Casey Wian is now in Alaska where some of this debris has landed. Casey, what are you seeing and how can they tell it is definitely from Japan?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good question, Brooke. Where I am is just outside the remote Alaskan fishing village about 15 miles outside of Yakata.

And across this waterway here is what is known as the "Black Sand Spit" and we took a trip over there the other day to get a sense of what the debris is like. And this beach over there faces the Pacific Ocean and look what we found in a relatively short period of time, a lot of various kinds of debris.

Now, the question you asked, how do we know whether this debris is from the Japanese tsunami or regular debris that has been washing up here for years?

Here's what the locals tell us, things like this. These big black buoys they've never seen before. They say they're being used by oyster farms in Japan or were being used by oyster farms in Japan, this kind of stuff.

It's foam insulation that is used in construction industry and construction of buildings that they say have collapsed. It is very light weight and blown over here by the wind. Big concern, this is a piece of a styrofoam buoy.

You can see probably these little pieces that have broken off and this is a real concern and a real danger to the wildlife in this area. We spoke with a couple of experts about what the impact is going to be.

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BILL LUCEY, YAKUTAT SALMON BOARD: Birds are going to consume it, filter feeders. Fish are going to consume it.

ROBERT JOHNSON, BIOLOGIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER: The birds mistake it for feed or something they can ingest and they feel full and they don't eat and we are on a major fly away in the spring and they just run out of energy and also make them easier prey for raptors.

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WIAN: So you can see why there's a real rush to try and get this stuff cleaned up. There are volunteers going out to do it. This is a very sparsely populated area and very remote area. They haven't quite figured out how they're going to get all of this stuff that is just beginning to show up on these beaches out of here -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Look at that pile you have. Of course, one question would be, might there be any radioactive material because of what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant?

I know you've got answer and we'll see on "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. Casey Wian, I appreciate it, reporting live from Alaska.

Coming up next, Richard Branson, he's going to join me live as to whether this private race to space could come at a cost. Plus, why the heck is he cutting off people's neck ties?

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