Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Middle Class Worse Off after Recession; Police Crack Down on Human Trafficking for Sex in the U.S.; Children in Syria Hurt by Both Sides in Conflict; U.S. Nuns Scolded by Vatican

Aired June 12, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, ""CNN NEWSROOM": Thank you, Carol Costello. Appreciate that.

Hi, everybody. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West Coast.

Let's start with this, shall we? The second day of testimony in the child rape trial of Jerry Sandusky and it centers on the very first young man to come forward and claim that Sandusky molested him over and over again.

Victim Number One is what he is referred to in court. He was befriended by the former Penn State assistant football coach at the charity that Mr. Sandusky founded for troubled kids.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is live at courthouse in Pennsylvania. As I understand it, there has been a last-minute filing of some information that is a bit of a bombshell with regards to what's happening in the courtroom. Somewhat related but somewhat not related, right?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It has to do with two other people who are charged in connection with the case against Jerry Sandusky.

You remember that two, now former Penn State officials are currently charged with perjury in connection with allegedly lying to the grand jury about what they did or didn't know about allegations involving Jerry Sandusky.

That trial has not happened yet, but those two former officials are Tim Curley, the former athletic director, and Gary Schultz, who was a former vice president at Penn State who was also in charge of police investigations on campus.

CNN has obtained court documents that were filed late yesterday that indicate the possible existence of what you could call a secret file of information not previously known to anyone until now.

And now it has been obtained by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office looking into the perjury case about what Penn State officials knew or didn't know about Jerry Sandusky.

This court document, Ashleigh, indicates that the attorney general has now obtained a file relating to incidents involving Jerry Sandusky. Specifically, it says, the file was created, maintained and possessed by Gary Schultz, documents that are inconsistent with statements made to the grand jury.

And it also talks about they have now obtained and found computer data and e-mails between Schultz, Curley and others at Penn State University that appears to contradict statements made to the grand jury.

So this could be big information about possible information that Penn State officials may have known and not previously reported about previous incidents involving Jerry Sandusky.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right, Susan Candiotti, keep an eye on things as testimony continues there in the court. We'll check in with you throughout the program to see what's happening on the stand.

Victim Number One expected to testify, tell his story, this after Victim Number Four yesterday. We will check back in in a moment with Susan Candiotti.

In the meantime, Eric Holder on the hot seat today. Our attorney general appearing before the Senate judiciary committee as we speak. It was supposed to be a pretty simple oversight hearing, one of those regularly scheduled events.

Not so much the simple thing with the White House leak story out there, the "Fast and Furious" scandal out there. This could be a real barn-burner.

Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, joins me live now from Capitol Hill. I guess you could say pretty ill-timing, to say the very least, with regard to Eric Holder.

But talk to me a little bit about the White House leaks. There's a menu. There's a menu to talk to you about. I'll suggest the White House leaks and you tell me if you have something even hotter that's come off the press.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think we might and that is perhaps a little bit of news on the whole issue of, at least Congress, the House Republicans threatening to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress because of the fact that they are trying to get documents on so-called "Fast and Furious," this gun- walking program on the border with Mexico, that was completely botched.

Again, the issue here is Congress demanding documents from the Justice Department and the attorney general seemed to put out an olive branch. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: On what legal ground are you withholding that e-mail? The president can't claim executive privilege to hold that e-mail. Is that correct?

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: Let me just say this. We have reached out to Chairman Issa, members of the leadership on the House side to try to work our way through these issues.

We've had, I think, sporadic contacts and we are prepared to make - I am prepared to make compromises with regard to the documents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And what he said, Ashleigh, is that he wants to avoid a constitutional crisis and that's why he wants to sit down with Republican leaders.

But he also says he needs a partner in this and right now the House Republicans have set this vote to hold him in contempt for next week, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Very exciting stuff. Like we say, timing is everything. It is in our business.

Dana Bash, thank you very much for that.

The White House is now saying that the commerce secretary of this country, John Bryson, is going to take a medical leave of absence. We told you yesterday about a pretty surprising story. He is under investigation for a possible hit-and-run accident over the weekend.

The police say he was involved in two different car accidents, three hits involving two different cars in the Los Angeles area. The Commerce Department says he suffered a seizure somewhere around those accidents, not exactly sure of the exact timing.

Officials say it does not appear that alcohol or drugs were involved. He was treated and released from a hospital and he's now back in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Just a quick note for those of you heading out the door. You can take us with you. Continue watching CNN from your mobile phone or, if you're headed to work, you can also watch us from your desktop. Don't tell your boss. Just go to CNN.com/TV. All the instructions are there for what you need to know.

In the meantime, speaking of the news, an intensive manhunt underway right now in Alabama for Desmonte Leonard, who is wanted for allegedly murdering three people near Auburn University, including two former Auburn football players.

A small army of law enforcement officers swarmed a house in Montgomery about 50 miles west of Auburn where the shooting took place, but they scoured the attic, they say. They looked through the ducts, the chimneys, inch by inch, but the search may have been nothing more than a dead end. You are looking at a live news conference of the Auburn police answering to why they pulled out without any explanations at all after spending about six hours there, as well.

A bit of a surprise for many because the intel was supposed to be pretty good that there was a suspect in the house. In fact, they have two other people they're holding in the meantime. Should we listen in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It appears he was not there. Can you explain what happened?

CHIEF TOMMY DAWSON, AUBURN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, Montgomery police department received a 911 call that Mr. Leonard was in that residence and went to great lengths to clear the house, make sure everyone was safe.

I would like to personally thank them this morning for their efforts last night. I think that goes to show just how concerned not only Auburn police division, but this entire area of Alabama is concerned over this, how much determination we have to bring this case to a conclusion with an arrest.

They did exactly as they should have done, they worked very hard and I want to personally thank them this morning for their efforts. They had a lot of manpower down there last night.

BANFIELD: That's the police chief, Thomas Dawson, of the Auburn police department.

Let me dip in with David Mattingly, our correspondent, who has been following this throughout the night and all morning long, as well.

So, David, this was a big surprise to many of us. It broke on our airwaves about 5:00, 6:00 this morning. They just pulled out. Everybody suspected this would result in a suspect being arrested, but no go.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You can probably read that in the demeanor of the police chief there in Auburn. They really thought they had the guy last night and it turns out he wasn't there.

We got a statement from the Montgomery police just a short while ago. They explained they had two very credible calls about this. One from someone who claimed that they dropped the suspect, Desmonte Leonard, off at that house and then another call from someone who said that that was her house and Leonard was inside.

So when officers got there, they said they were able to detect signs of human movement inside the house, they heard some coughing, so they lobbed a couple of rounds of tear gas in there.

This all took place over the course of hours and well into the night. They stormed the house, went in there, couldn't find him. And then after raising expectations, speaking to the media that they believed that he was inside and all the tactics they were using, they abruptly left in the middle of the night and with no explanation.

So here, we are hearing the first person stepping in front of the cameras today in Auburn saying that they don't have their man now. You can see just how disappointed they are because they believe that Leonard is very dangerous.

He opened fire at a pool party, an off-campus party at Auburn University. This was on Saturday. He shot six people. He killed three. Among the dead were two former Auburn football players.

So this striking very deeply in that community and everyone right now from Auburn to Montgomery, which is a little less than an hour away, very intensely looking for this guy, hoping that there is not more violence before he is apprehended.

BANFIELD: All right. David, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on that news conference to see if they release information about their next move. Obviously, that was a real disappointment to them to not have results from that standoff.

David Mattingly live for us in Atlanta.

By the way, the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward, also, the U.S. marshal service offering a $5,000 reward, all of it for information that will lead to this man's arrest, Desmonte Leonard. Remember, he is considered very dangerous.

Floridians speaking out today about "stand your ground." It's not exactly new, but today, state officials are really starting to listen and listen up.

The first public hearing on the task force created to revisit Florida's self-defense law is underway now in Longwood, very near Sanford where the killing of Trayvon Martin set off a nationwide outcry.

Trayvon's parents are expected to deliver a petition with 300,000 signatures on it demanding that the law be reformed or repealed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Want to bring you this very light moment at the White House. Between high-level briefings, President Obama welcomed a special guest. There she is, Betty White, 90 years young.

She was in town to speak at the Smithsonian. She also got to walk around the grounds of the White House, pet the first dog, Bo, and just a couple of weeks ago, you might remember, this normally pretty politically quiet actress decided to endorse the president's re- election bid.

So some nice inside shots of a hero in comedy.

Voters in Southern Arizona heading to the polls today to pick a successor to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. You might remember that Miss Giffords stepped down in January a year after being injured in a near assassination.

She has been on the campaign trail in recent days supporting that man on her left. His name is Ron Barber. He was an aide to her while she was in office. He was also shot that day in Tucson, Arizona.

He appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan last night with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, who described how Barber is carrying on Gabby's message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KELLY, HUSBAND OF GABBY GIFFORDS: I think he has a good message. When Gabby first entered Congress, the first time she was on the floor of the House, one of the first times, one of the first things she did was walk across from the left to the right side of the aisle to greet the Republicans that she had not met before. These are people she was able to establish a relationship and work to get things done for this country.

And we have an election here on Tuesday and Ron plans to carry on with that attitude of bipartisanship and working together to solve the problems here in Southern Arizona and around this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And running against Barber is Marine Jesse Kelly, a successful area businessman and a tea party favorite. Kelly actually lost to Gabby Giffords by just 5,000 votes in 2010.

Joining me now from Tucson is Steve Nunez from CNN affiliate, KGUN. So, listen, that is a very emotional race, obviously, with what's happened with Gabby Giffords, but emotions aside, this thing is pretty close, isn't it?

STEVE NUNEZ, REPORTER, KGUN: It is a very close race. Right now, as you just mentioned, it's not only hot here in Tucson, but this race is very hotly contested because it is a very close race.

However, some polls right now are indicating that Barber has a 12-point lead against Kelly, but of course, Kelly's camp would dispute that. As we saw two years ago when Kelly ran against Giffords, it was extremely close race and nobody expected Kelly to contend and give Giffords a run for her money, so to speak.

But we are live out here at St. Cyril Elementary School and, later on this morning at about 10:00 which is about an hour and 45 minutes from now, the former congresswoman is expected to walk through those doors right there and personally hand-deliver her mail-in ballot.

Also expected to be by her side? Her former district director, Ron Barber, and, as you mentioned, of course, he is facing off against Republican challenger, Jesse Kelly. He is a former Marine, a former Iraq war veteran and he's a businessman. Also challenging Barber and Kelly is Charlie Manolakis. Now, Manolakis is representing the Green Party. However, he admits he is a Democrat, but only switched to the Green Party so that he could be on this ballot.

Now, whoever wins today's election, obviously, will take over Giffords' seat and serve out her term through the end of January and right now we are expecting record numbers. We're talking about participation that we normally see in presidential elections, at about 60 percent, 65 percent voter participation.

But right now don't expect to see a whole lot of action out here. This is one of 250 polling places throughout Pima County, but check this out, Ashleigh. Seventy percent of all registered Democrats and 70 percent of all registered Republicans have already turned in their ballot.

BANFIELD: Wow, that's pretty eager voting. All right, Steve, thank you.

NUNEZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: All right, thank you. We will keep an eye on this vote as it goes throughout today. Obviously, this is a close race. We'll want to know exactly how things turn out. Steve Nunez joining us live.

Florida firing the latest salvo in a fight with the federal government over who can vote. Yes, who can vote. They're suing the Department of Homeland Security over access to the federal citizenship database. You thought you had access to it, did you?

They say that information is key to knowing who can legally vote in the state of Florida. The Republican governor of that state, Rick Scott, talked about it on CNN's "Starting Point" this morning. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Homeland Security has been stonewalling to give us a database that we're entitled to. We've been asking for it for months, making sure we can do it the right way.

And so we were put in a position where we had no choice but to sue Homeland Security to get that database to make sure that your right as a citizen is not diluted by somebody that's a non-U.S. citizen illegally voting in our state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: This all started with Florida's purging of voter roles. Governor Scott says it is an effort to get rid of non-citizens who registered illegally.

The Justice Department sued to stop it, saying that Florida was using outdated records for the purge. So it's a process thing that's not right. They would likely be excluding legal voters, so the battle continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We're keeping an eye on two different weather extremes that are unfolding now. Explosive - there's really no other way to explain this other than explosive wildfires out west.

And the rain, where it needs to be, isn't. It's over there on the Southeast Coast.

The big concern is the fast-moving wildfire. It's called the High Park fire. It's raging in Northern Colorado, just 15 miles west of Fort Collins. So far, bad news to report here. One person has already been reportedly killed. It has burned 43,000 acres.

Think about that for a minute, 43,000 acres. It's destroyed more than 100 buildings, all of this in a few days. Five hundred firefighters are now on the ground trying to get this monster under control.

Chad Myers monitoring all of this. You would have to work 48 hours straight to really get the story of this fire, but 48 hours, Chad, that's not a lot of time to get to the size it is now.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. Forty-eight hours ago to 24 hours ago, the fire doubled in size. It went from 18,000 all the way up to 36,000 acres. That was one night, a 24-hour period, 18,000 acres.

Last night, the 24-hour period starting from now over to about this point in time, it was only 7,000 acres worth of growth. So it's slowed in growth, but that's only because the wind died off a bit.

It is still growing. It is relatively not contained. They're saying some containment, which means they have probably put out some of the fires around some of the buildings. That's it. The fires in the forest, not contained at all. Making fire breaks right now.

But look at those pictures. They are stunning. Me and Colorado go way back because I lived in Nebraska for so long. There are beetles in these mountains in Colorado and Utah and New Mexico that are literally killing the forests and these dead trees are fuel to the fire.

It hasn't rained for a long time there and, when you get winds to blow like we had over the weekend at 40 or 50 miles per hour, there simply was nothing the firefighters could do.

It's called a Type One fire, which means Larimer County - and I talked to Larimer County, Colorado, yesterday, last night around 8:00 - they said that they asked for federal assistance. It's almost like a flood area asking for FEMA. When ask you for federal assistance, you get federal firefighters, you get federal planes, you get some money.

You also get men and women on the ground that really know what they're doing, fighting these fires. They are specialized fire jumpers and that's what you get. Forty-three-thousand acres, as you said, divide that by 640, that's about 70 square miles.

The wind shifted yesterday. That was some good news, but take a look at this. This is what the fire looks like. This is the fire line from Fort Collins right here, Denver way down below here.

Look at how ragged it is. Think about how many miles it must be to try to fight all of that fire, all the way up and down all these relatively rugged mountains here.

So you have fires in the valleys, you have fires going downhill, you have fires going uphill and then you have wind blowing the fires back on the firefighters. What a dangerous situation.

Not as bad today as it was yesterday, not as bad yesterday as it was over the weekend, so we're getting better, but I don't see any rain in the forecast. In fact, this lightning that caused this fire could actually maybe have a partner later on in the week as more dry lightning occurs with more thunderstorms possible.

What that means is that there's so much lightning coming down that it can't rain enough to put those fires out and so it's called dry lightning. It could cause more fires.

BANFIELD: Yet, Chad, all of that rain is deluging the Southeast.

MYERS: That's right.

BANFIELD: They're really suffering.

MYERS: That's a secondary story, isn't it? We talked about this yesterday. Get rid of this. There we go. All the way down to New Orleans, it was ...

BANFIELD: What a mess.

MYERS: ... across parts of Florida over the weekend, they had 20 inches of rain. Now, it hasn't rained there in 48 hours, so that flooding is essentially gone. Damage is still there, but the flooding, the waters are gone.

It's the water, it's the rain, it's the heavy wind. Three hundred wind reports of damage yesterday from Arkansas through Missouri and Louisiana and now that damage is heading down into Louisiana, Baton Rouge, all the way down to about Sulfur, maybe even towards Beaumont, Texas. We'll have to see.

BANFIELD: All right. Chad, keep an eye on things. Obviously, that fire story seems to change by the hour. If there's a change in that, make sure you bring it to us, if you would.

Thank you, Chad Myers.

OK, so, if you feel like you're a bit poorer than you used to be, you are, more than likely. This is just one of those unfortunate stories. Federal Reserve saying the average American's net worth has fallen sharply since the 1990s. Ready for this?

Alison Kosik reporting from New York. We are way behind where we should be. So if we feel that it's true, tell me what the actual numbers are, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is what is interesting. We feel it, right? But these are the numbers that are so stunning that the typical American family, Ashleigh, lost almost 40 percent of its wealth between 2007 and 2010.

This was during the recession, so that means a family's median net worth, meaning what the family owns minus the debt, in 2007, was somewhere around $126,000. Guess what? By 2010, it fell to $77,000, back to a level we have not seen since the 1990s.

So guess what? The recession managed to wipe out almost decades of savings and investments for families. And this is because we've watched home values tumble, massive layoffs took away our income and this affected everybody from the young to the old, whether you were educated or weren't educated.

But here's a little bit of good news. It is getting a little better. Americans net worth has recovered a bit since 2010 because people are finding work again. Housing prices, housing values are bouncing back just a little bit.

But any way you look at it, Ashleigh, a typical American family is poorer than before the recession.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: So, Alison, most of this having to do with houses, which makes me wonder, those people in the southeast and Nevada, California, where they got hit hardest, some people are doing well in housing, but how bad is the lag for those who suffered worst?

KOSIK: And income factors into this a great deal, not just housing. This fed survey shows the decline was biggest among the highly educated families in the south and the west regions of the country. What causes income to go down? Unemployment does. The jobless rate was 5 percent at end of 2007. It was 9.4 percent at the end of 2010. Today, it's at 8.2 percent. The fed also saying incomes fell for families who run farms or small businesses or who are self employed. This is a result of the economic downturn we are still recovering from -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: One of these days, you and I will be on the air together laughing and enjoying the good times, won't we?

KOSIK: One day.

BANFIELD: I'm tired of this.

(LAUGHTER)

Thank you. Alison Kosik. Want to give you a check of the markets now, speaking of better news. The Dow is up 114. There you go.

That's Alison for you. I'm sure she brought the good luck. That's the stock market update.

I have other news for you, too. If you're doing summer travel, a transatlantic flight on United Airlines -- here's some good advice -- pack real, real light. United just decided to raise its fee for the second bag you bring aboard or try to check. Used to be 70 bucks, now it's 100. You're welcome. Delta did the same in January. The other big carriers all expected to fall in line. They generally don't charge for the first bag, generally. Some do. That could end up changing across the board, too.

In case you are waking up out on the west coast, good morning. There's a brand new hockey king in town. Did you see? Take a look. Yes. Sweet sounds out in California. L.A. Kings beat the Devils last night. Is my Canadian showing? Yes, hoist it, baby. The Kings won 6-1. 6-1. That's a score. Get this. they barely made it into the playoffs. These guys barely made it into the playoffs and he's hoisting the cup. The first time the Kings won this cup in its 45- year history. That hockey club super excited to say the least. The goalie, Jonathan Quick, named MVP, playoff MVP. Nice beard. That will be gone by tonight. L.A. Kings fans have a chance to see the Stanley Cup Thursday. There's a rally and a parade planned for downtown L.A. Congratulations, guys. You deserve it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Cracking down on a modern form of slavery, human trafficking for sex. It's happened across the globe. How much did you know it was happening here in the USA? There's a dedicated group of specialized police squads on a mission to help women entangled in this mess, to catch the men behind the misery of it.

Our Martin Savidge went out on patrol in Anaheim, California, of all places, to see how they are trying to break this ugly cycle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: I hop in my car.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: She's on the east side of the street. This is where a lot of people get picked up. Deals are negotiated.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The vice unit for the Anaheim Police Department is hunting for pimps. This is the unit's goal as a member of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, and today's operation is taking investigators to the streets. It's a slightly didn't scenario than what we saw when we first met the unit last year.

Shane contacted a woman offering services online. In the delicate dance over the phone, he got her to provide sex for money. UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: How much for an hour? 160? That's full service, right?

SAVIDGE: One way he made sure he knew was being offered is to ask for one thing that would be need if sex were taking place.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Do I have to bring condoms or do you have them? You have them? OK.

SAVIDGE: This is Anaheim's way of making sure a criminal violation is occurring before contact is made.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Investigator (NAME DELETED), I will be calling back a female.

SAVIDGE: Shane then got a hotel room and told the girl he would wait for him there. What she doesn't know is she's not meeting a client but six undercover investigators, an FBI agent, patrol officers and a victim service's representative.

In that operation, a 17-year-old girl showed up for Shane's date. The unit put her in touch with victim services and tracked down the man that they believe was forcing her into prostitution, making it human trafficking. He's currently facing a three-year sentence for pimping and pandering.

Today's operation takes the team directly to the source.

SGT. CRAIG FRIESEN, ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT: We will have a couple of my officers posing as undercover Johns, and we'll try to contact some girls that are out working the street, and hopefully turn them to find their pimps.

And we'll just try and get a couple right off the bat.

SAVIDGE: The unit is split up into five undercover vehicles, and they're patrolling one of two streets they call prostitution tracks. We are riding along with Sergeant Craig Freisen, the head of the vice unit, and the only one whose face we can show you.

(on camera): Are they tell-tale signs you look for?

FRIESEN: Girls walking up and down the street with no real purpose to where they're walking. For the most part, we are looking for them flagging down other cars. Is she getting hit up by other cars?

I've got her now. She's walking southbound, past the Moonlight, towards the covered wagon now, Johnny. Black purse, pick shirt and black shorts.

SAVIDGE: Is there something in the way they look or act?

FRIESEN: It's just by going by your training, experience and gut feeling. The guy in the red car, for instance. Don't now for sure that he was out here looking for prostitutes, but everything he's doing is mirroring what we're doing. And we're looking for prostitutes.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): After about an hour of searching, the undercover officer posing as a client has found a potential date.

FRIESEN: We have units set up for all the directions that he can leave from. We'll follow him while he works his negotiation with the girl in the car, and then get them pulled over and begin our investigation.

SAVIDGE: It all seems pretty clear. But as this team knows well, you never know where an investigation may lead.

For the CNN Freedom Project, I'm Martin Savidge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: All right, Martin Savidge reporting for us.

And part two of his report is coming tomorrow. Tune in. You can see what happens after that task force swings into action and gets that arrest, because there is so much more to the story. See more on the CNN Freedom Project on our web site, CNN.com/freedom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Syrian children, some of them as young as eight, tortured, sexually abused, and then used as human shields by pro- government forces. These are not allegations coming from the other side. They are part of an alarming report released by the United Nations. The report says some rebel groups have recruited and used children as well. Their roles in medical and service-oriented jobs as opposed to trucking into a city with kids planted on your tank. The developments are being monitored from Abu Dhabi by Rima Maktabi.

We have been hearing these allegations nonstop for 15, 16 months that the kids have been tortured, targeted, collateral damage. And now this, it's coming from the U.N.

RIMA MAKTABI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Ashleigh. All of us, though we see these videos, and horrifying videos, but yet, we have some hope that this probably didn't happen in Syria, or it's not true or accurate. But coming from the U.N., this confirms what's happening on the ground. Another report from Human Rights Watch said 1,137 children have been killed over the past year. And the U.N. report specifically noted some practices against children. The report talks about torture, about kids being beaten, blindfolded, subjected to stress positions, whipped by heavy electrical cables, and scared by cigarette burns. There's one case where a kid was subjected to electrical shock to the genitals. Really horrifying -- Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Yes. You know, I need to tell viewers, I should have said this before, Rima, and I apologize. Here at CNN, we have a specific policy about the kind of video that we air. And as a company, we have decided this is critical, the edited versions -- and by the way, very edited. It's so much worse in raw form. The edited versions of this video are critical so people understand how terrible the atrocities are. It's not just a repeated refrain. It's something that becomes white noise after a while. We should have told people, if they have kids in the room, in advance. I apologize for that.

As we continue this conversation, we should also mention that it's not over. We had this U.N. report today, Rima. Yet, an additional report that helicopter run ships being used by the Syrian army against his people.

MAKTABI: We're hearing reports about gunfire, relentless shelling taking place. Today, only 30 people were killed across Syria. On Monday, 93 people were killed, according to activists. This video that we just showed is just -- was issued today. And it shows how horrifying the shelling is -- Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Rima, it's hard to hear you say, "Today only 30 people." But you're right. Relative to the other days, that is ironically a good day.

Rima Maktabi, thank you for following that for us. Do appreciate that. It's taken more than 30 years, but an Australian woman has now been completely cleared in the death of her infant daughter. Why is this story different than others? Because it's the story of Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. It was the subject of the movie "A Cry in the Dark," staring Meryl Streep. It began with the disappearance of her 2-year-old daughter, Azaria, in the 1980s on a camping trip. Lindy always maintained it was a wild dog, a dingo, that grabbed her child and carried her into the bush and then killed her daughter. But very few people believed her. She was convicted of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. That conviction was overturned in '88. But the stain and doubt of this case remained until today, 32 years. The court ruled that a dingo, in fact, did kill Lindy Chamberlain's baby.

Here's what the mother said about the ruling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDY CHAMBERLAIN-CREIGHTON, DAUGHTER KILLED BY DINGO: No parent, no child, no relative gets over the loss of someone else. It doesn't matter whether you're expecting it and whether the person is in the 90s or 100, or whether it's a small child or a stillborn, we all have to deal with it day by day. And it doesn't make it any easier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: By the way, that baby, Azaria Chamberlain, would have turned 32 years old on Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In wartime, there are countless dangers, including being hit with a live rocket-propelled grenade. Those are the big guns. And it happened to one Marine. Somehow, he lived to tell about this.

Here's Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marine Corporal Winder Perez knew the rocket-propelled grenade was coming right at him.

CPL. WINDER PEREZ, U.S. MARINE CORPS: All of a sudden just, I just saw the RPG coming toward me and hit me and, you know, I was hit and my boys, they knew exactly what to do and they came down. No hesitation, no nothing. They picked me up. They got me to safety.

STARR: Winder Perez had a live foot-long rocket-propelled grenade embedded in his left side. But even so, he kept his cool.

PEREZ: I tried to call in my own medevac, but I couldn't because my radio -- the RPG had struck the battery in my radio.

STARR: Plain words from this baseball-loving, 23-year-old native of Dominican Republic. Perez and fellow Marines knew the RPG could explode at any minute, but they also knew he needed medical help as soon as possible. It would become a journey of courage and even humor by so many.

PEREZ: We were just joking around. While they were tending to me, we were there, like, like it was nothing. You know? We were just talking.

STARR: Captain Kevin Duece's (ph) helicopter crew immediately agreed to take on the dangerous anything.

CAPT. KEVIN DUECE (ph), U.S. MARINE CORPS: There was quite a bit of alarm amongst the crew at the time, as you can imagine.

STARR: Perez and that live rocket were just inches from 300 gallons of aviation fuel. When the Hilo landed, Navy trauma nurse, Lieutenant Commander James Gennari, ordered his staff to stay away.

LT. COMDR. JAMES GENNARI, U.S. NAVY NURSE: I decided that I was going to go, because, quite frankly, I'm not going to ask somebody to do what I'm not going to do. It's just not going to happen.

STARR: Look at this video, Gennari, in the helmet, made a vow to Perez.

GENNARI: And I promise you, I will not leave you until that thing is out of your leg. He said, cool.

STARR: Gennari and an explosives expert struggled to pull the rocket out. Remember, it could have exploded at any moment. Surgeons say, just a few millimeters to the left or right, and the RPG would have cut an artery. Perez would be dead. As it is, he's hanging out again with his Marine buddies. PEREZ: We went out to baseball games. We did stuff buddies do back home. You know, didn't really talk much about -- we were over there, kind of just forgot about it, moved on with our lives. Hung out, you know, drank a little. Just did man stuff.

STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Wow. Wow. You cannot watch that and not be affected.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with Lieutenant Commander James Gennari, the guy you just saw, the hero, the U.S. Navy nurse, responsible for saving Perez's life, risking his own. Sanjay asked him what those risks were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENNARI: The choices were two. One, we would pull it out, see if we could control the bleeding and carry on from there or, two, we would send out the one general surgeon we had with an O.R. tech and a nurse or anesthesiologist and see if they'd surgically remove it. It seemed prudent to try plan "A" first because, quite frankly, one of two things was going to happen. It was either going to come out or going to blow up. If it didn't blow up, we could get it out or at least dislodge it enough that surgical intervention could be used.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Wow. A lot of Lieutenant Commander Gennari's friends and family are calling him a hero. But I can tell you this. Everybody behind me here, everybody at this network, probably beyond, calling him a hero, too.

Back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: You ever hear that whole thing, say it to my face? All right. Maybe the U.S. nuns who are meeting today with the Vatican higher ups aren't going to use those exact words. It's more or less the message they're bringing. Leadership Conference of Women Religious is responding in private to a rare public scolding they got from the Vatican enforcers back in April. After a long investigation, the church accused its American sisters of, quote, "serious doctrinal problems" stemming from, quote, "radical feminist themes, incompatible with the Catholic faith." The church is scolding the nuns for not campaigning against abortion and same-sex marriage as vocally as the bishops might like them to. This morning, on CNN's "Starting Point," a U.S. nun and broadcaster said the Vatican is living in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SISTER MAUREEN FIEDLER, U.S. NUN & HOST, INTERFAITH VOICES: Unfortunately, I think that the officials at the Vatican seem entrenched in what I would call a pre-Vatican model of church, which is really dictatorial, non-collaborative and so forth. I think the American church, by and large, has embraced the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which puts emphasis, which we do, as nuns, on social justice, on the needs of the poor, on relieving the plight of the oppressed or helping victims of violence around the world. Those are the kinds of concerns we bring to this church.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That's that. She said it. The sisters met among themselves before the sent their leaders off to Rome. The called the Vatican's processes, quote, "flawed," its findings, quote --