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Tennessee Mosque Finally Opens; Army Debuts All-Seeing Blimp

Aired August 10, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everyone. It is the top of the hour right now. I'm Don Lemon. Brooke is off this afternoon.

In Louisiana's bayou country, a giant sink hole is getting so big and so dangerous, 150 houses had to be evacuated. Let's take a look at this thing now. While you look, consider this. Those trees that you see there, those trees that surround the hole those are 100-foot cypress trees, giant trees. Here are some of the numbers for you.

The hole is 324-feet across, 50-feet deep. But in one corner it goes down more than 400 feet. This is not something you want sneaking up on your backyard.

I want to bring in now retired Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He help us understand these potential disasters. He's in Baton Rouge now.

OK, general, any idea what is causing this thing to suddenly start growing?

LIEUTENANT GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, Don, that is the big question.

This has turned out from curiosity and concern by the people in the community there to seeing bubbles and having tremors going back two to three months ago to now you what is a sinkhole. And from a point of curiosity, this thing has now turned into a major science problem to figure out using good science what's causing this sinkhole to occur.

LEMON: OK. You know, it's easy for as you said the lookie loos and people going out to check it out and it's easy and maybe some people are joking about it. But there's serious concern here. I want you to here from a couple of the evacuees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS LANDRY, BUSINESS OWNER: So (INAUDIBLE) come and knock at your house forced you to leave. It was a little bit alarming, a little bit upsetting.

BETTY THIBODAUX, RESIDENT OF LOUISIANA: They are worried about their belongings and their housing. Nobody really knows what's happening. It stays on your mind. You don't rest.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Absolutely, General. They still don't know. What do you tell what's causing this? What do you tell these people?

HONORE: That's a lack of confidence right now that the local people are having with the information or information they have not received from Texas Brine, the company that is responsible for the nearest salt dome to this incident.

The other piece they don't know is there are about 12 wells, some of them active, some of them inactive within the vicinity of this sinkhole. They are having to use science with support of USGS to try and figure out few is it the Texas Brine salt dome has been violated, has lost its integrity and it's causing the problem or is it an old well?

The problem we have in Louisiana, we have got about 13,000 of these abandoned wells throughout the state that still need to be mitigated because they are polluted parts of the state of Louisiana. And that is between big oil, our biggest employee here in Louisiana, and the government of Louisiana working through legislation and working through legal channels.

That's a bigger issue. But this indicative of what the problem really is in South Louisiana now. It's for DEQ, Department of Environmental Quality, and the DNR, Director of Natural Resources, to figure out what's going on.

Strangely enough, our director of natural resources resigned yesterday.

LEMON: Oh, my goodness. The official who is calling this is a potential catastrophe not exaggerating, General?

HONORE: Not exaggerating. And the statement from the DNR office is that his resignation is not related to the incident.

This is causing confidence in the people -- and these are good people. They are survivors of Katrina, Rita, as well as the BP oil spill affected area. They are well trained in that parish. They have a strong leadership in the parish.

And I can tell you at the state level they know the routine and how to deal with disasters, to include the river flooding last year, but the people there have lack of confidence now in that company, as well as the DNR office, which is a state agency that covers policy. Right now the DEQ, Environmental Quality, has put out sensors and has established a red zone around this sinkhole because they are concerned about the quality of air that is coming out of that sinkhole.

LEMON: All right, General, thank you very much, 320 feet across, 50 feet deep and 400 feet down from one corner. Amazing. General, thanks again. We will check back with you.

For two years, some people in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, had bitterly fought plans to build a mosque in their community. But, today, the Islamic center in Murfreesboro, it opens. The first prayer was held there just moments ago. There's been lawsuits, bomb threats, protests and vandalism saying, not welcome. But in spite of it all, county officials decided to grant a temporary occupancy permit.

Bond has been set for the man accused of taking weapons into a theater in northern Ohio. Investigators believe Scott Smith was planning a copycat movie massacre on Saturday night. He allegedly had a loaded .9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun, two loaded magazine clips, and three knives in a bag he carried to a theater where the latest Batman movie was showing. Smith pleaded not to 21 counts, including carrying a concealed weapon and having weapons under disability. He says he was carrying the weapons for protection.

Stunning video of a bin Laden-style raid on a mansion. You will hear who was inside.

Plus, take a look at the Army's newest piece of technology. They are calling it the all-seeing blimp. Find out what it's designed to do coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It's longer than a football field, taller than a seven story building. It's the U.S. Army's newest piece of military technology.

This is the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV. The massive surveillance blimp had its debut flight over New Jersey. That was earlier this week. It's pretty-looking.

National security correspondent Suzanne Kelly in Washington.

I can't get my eyes off of that thing.

SUZANNE KELLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I know. Yes.

LEMON: What do you know about this all-seeing blimp, Suzanne?

KELLY: I know that it's a really good tool against bad guys.

That's what the military is saying. I just spoke with them a few minutes ago actually on another story with Admiral William Fallon who oversaw CENTCOM. He said these things are really, really effective because they give you such a wide range of things you can see on the ground.

When bad guys comes in and bad guys leave you can actually track their movements. That's what makes this so effective for the military. So far there's a contract to build three of these things for just over $500 million, something like that. But if you think about the fact that they can actually hang out in the air for 21 days straight, they don't have to come down and refuel, 21 days of constant surveillance, you can see why in a place like Afghanistan something like that might be really helpful.

LEMON: You have got to admit, that's pretty sexy. I like that. I like that thing a lot, just looking at it. KELLY: It is. It's cool.

LEMON: Yes. Yes. Yes.

Any clues as to when they will deploy first, Suzanne?

KELLY: Not yet. They are still doing their testing in New Jersey right now, which might be freaking out the people in New Jersey just a little bit because of the size and the pictures you saw. But they're not quite sure when it's going to be deployed yet. We will follow up on that for you.

But the idea, they had this first 90-minute test flight. The idea was to go up with two pilots initially. But they would like for this thing to be unmanned. Of course, if you're up there for 21 days, doesn't sound like a great assignment to me. Unmanned might be a better route.

LEMON: I wonder how much UFO calls they got?

KELLY: Oh, yes, that's a good question.

LEMON: Look at you, you're perfect, security -- you look like you're computer generated right now.

KELLY: This is so cool. You have seen our Web site, right, Security Clearance, CNN.com/securityclearance. Coolest thing ever.

You can real more about this story, all of the different technology. There's another story that one of our producers, Jennifer Rizzo, put up that's got a new robotic thing that is testing for IEDs. If you're into national security, like I am, a little geeky about it, it's the place to be.

LEMON: Rap on. Pretty cool stuff. Thank you. Like that bling.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: All right, Suzanne Kelly.

Moving on now, a bin Laden-style raid goes down at mansion of a sought-after Internet kingpin. And it's all caught on video, this video we're going to show you right now. The target of the raid, this man, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. The FBI accuses him of orchestrating the biggest copyright infringement in U.S. history, accusations that he denies as authorities shut down his Web site.

But as far as the raid is concerned, a high court is listening to arguments today on whether New Zealand police went too far when they used a special tactics force.

I want you to watch this now from Donna-Marie Lever of ONE News.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground units, gates are open. DONNA-MARIE LEVER, ONE NEWS REPORTER (voice-over): For the first time, we can show you the police assault from the air and moments later how they closed in on the mansion from the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Dotcom has been shown the warrant to search that property.

LEVER: The Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group backed by dog handlers and armed with fire rounds and Tasers made their way inside. You hear the moment they found their target, Kim Dotcom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Located target, safe room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saying located target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger.

LEVER: But today police were pushed on whether the decision to use the top police response teams was appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had concerns about security staff and the motivation to resist the police executing the warrant, in motivation to protect Mr. Dotcom. And then in addition, it's the firearms, et cetera.

LEVER: The court has heard when Kim Dotcom was eventually found in the manage, police asked him to show them his hands, but that he didn't. They say it took several officers to push him to the ground, but they deny he was kicked and punched, as he claims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did one of the officers in your presence strike him in the face?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to my knowledge. There was no time for that to happen.

LEVER: Police say one officer wearing boots did stand on Dotcom's hand once they had him on the ground, but said it wasn't intentional. More police officers are expected to give evidence.

Donna-Marie Lever, ONE News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. In that raid, police seized computers, hard drives, phones, nearly everything that can store digital information. Also note here that the high court ruled the search warrants in the raid invalid.

But take a look at this video. It's from John Campbell of News 3 New Zealand. That's the button that Dotcom used when he realized that someone was barging into his room. The button opens a door to this hideout that he calls the red room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It still took 13 minutes for the police to find Dotcom here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: On the day of that raid, Dotcom's pregnant wife was inside the home along with their three children and other guests. News 3 reports the commotion caused her to have contractions, which sent her to the hospital.

You know about Google Earth, but how about Google Mars? NASA showing off how close they got to landing the Mars rover on a bullseye from 350 million miles away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It's definitely one of NASA's ambitious missions in years. The Mars Curiosity rover sending back impressive images, impressive. I keep saying that because those images are impressive.

What's also been impressive, John Zarrella's reporting and just how he geeked up he is about this. He's a space geek. He's at JPL in Pasadena, California, right now.

John, we have heard of Google Earth. Now they are talking about Google Mars. You're standing in front of the rover. Is that the same size as the one they sent up?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, that's it. It's an exact duplicate as far as the size goes.

The one we showed everybody a couple of days ago was the actual engineering model which they used to test everything out. This is just a model. It doesn't do anything. It just kind of looks pretty and sits here. You were talking about that Google Mars that they showed today.

That was at the press conference here where all of the entry, descent and landing team, EDL team, showed up. They talked about the fact that they traveled 350 million miles, halfway around the sun almost to get to Mars. Then they literally were within one mile of the entry point into the atmosphere.

And then all the way down through the atmosphere, that so-called seven minutes of terror, they hit every one of their marks, the parachute deploying nearing exactly on time, the heat shield coming off exactly on time, the rate of descent slowed by the parachute exactly how much they wanted it slowed.

They showed that all as well using that Google Mars image, showed them descending down. Here is something that, Don, I want you to pay close attention.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I'm looking. ZARRELLA: I want you to look at this wheel.

LEMON: We're watching.

ZARRELLA: Look at this wheel. You see dot, dot, you see dot, dot, and then the dash and then the dot.

LEMON: Yes. Yes.

ZARRELLA: NASA was a little bit -- was reluctant to let the folks at JPL put JPL stickers all over the vehicle up there.

This is Morse code. That's Morse code for JPL. I know that's going to be the next thing...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You know what?

ZARRELLA: ... Twitter is what we just talked about. I guarantee it.

LEMON: Not even on Twitter. People will be ordering tires like that now. People will want that on the soles of their shoe, their beach sandals, all of that.

Hey..

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Go ahead. Finish your thought. Sorry.

ZARRELLA: No, no. I was just going to say, every time the wheel turns it's JPL, JPL, JPL, JPL. It's pretty cool.

LEMON: When I tossed to you, I mentioned Google Mars. What this? Are they streaming images back through Google Mars?

ZARRELLA: No, no, what they were doing is they were using the Google Mars image and they were tracing the descent and exactly how they hit on the surface of Mars and they use that whole Google Mars imagery, which is spectacular stuff, really good high resolution as you saw in the animation that we showed.

So, that's what they were using it for, to show that they landed, Don, actually within a mile-and-a-half of the exact point on Mars where they hoped to land. That's pretty good.

LEMON: Pretty cool. John Zarrella, the new thing, rims are out. Spinners are out. It's going to be imprinted -- it's going to be tire prints, personalized tire prints. I predict that.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Thank you, sir. A community demanding answers after a man handcuffed in the back of a police car dies from a gunshot. Police say he shot himself, but the feds are now investigating that claim. CNN has done some digging of our own on that mystery just facts. That comes up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, now, a lot of people are demanding answers. They want to know how a bullet ended up in this young man's right temple while he was handcuffed in the back of a police car.

Chavis Carter was 21 years old. Hundreds of people came to a candlelight vigil this week to honor him and show support for his family. Some people carried signs. One sign said, "Justice for Chavis Carter. What really happened?"

What really happened? It's a question the FBI is now investigating.

Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No one is disputing that Chavis Carter died from a gunshot to the head while in the back seat of a police car in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The question is who pulled the trigger. Police say he committed suicide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quite frankly, I have seen some of our people in custody do some amazing things.

KAYE: But Carter's mother doesn't buy it. She believes Jonesboro police killed her son.

THERESA CARTER, VICTIM'S MOTHER: I think they killed him. I mean, my son wasn't suicidal.

KAYE (on camera): At this point, it's still debatable and still under investigation. Here's why. The 21-year-old Chavis Carter was handcuffed at the time the fatal shot was fired. Double locked behind his back.

Is it even possible physically to be handcuffed behind your back and somehow pull the trigger on a gun you weren't holding when you were handcuffed?

CHIEF MICHAEL YATES, JONESBORO, ARKANSAS POLICE: For the average person that's never been in handcuffs, that's never been around inmates and people in custody, would react exactly the same way that you just did, about how can that be possible? Well, the fact of it is, it's very possible and it's quite easy.

KAYE (voice-over): Chavis Carter and two others were pulled over July 29 just before 10:00 p.m. for driving suspiciously. The first officer called for backup. Then the two of them questioned and searched the three men in the truck.

(on camera): When officers first searched Carter, they say they found a small amount of marijuana and some small plastic bags. They did not find a gun. According to the officers, Carter was then placed in the back seat of one of the police vehicles.

At that point, they say, he was not handcuffed. It wasn't until later when the officers searched the suspect's vehicle and found drug paraphernalia like electronic scales and a large bag of white powder that they patted down Carter again.

They placed him once again, they say, in the same police vehicle's back seat, only this time, he was handcuffed.

(voice-over): How Carter managed to shoot himself while handcuffed using a concealed weapon police missed during not one, but two searches is a mystery to many including the FBI who was looking into it.

(on camera): In their searching, they find a small bag, $10 worth of marijuana, but they miss a gun?

YATES: Apparently.

KAYE: Is that disappointing to you?

YATES: Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): The chief says the two men with Carter who were white were released. But Carter was held back after the officers who are also white discovered he'd given them a fake name and there was a warrant for his arrest in Mississippi, where he'd skipped out on a drug diversion program.

The chief says his officers don't know exactly when the fatal shot was fired even though they were just feet away. According to this incident report, one of the officers heard, quote, "a loud thump with a metallic sound." But thought it came from a vehicle that ran over a piece of metal on the roadway.

(on camera): Don't your officers know the sound of a gun being fired?

YATES: One would think. But when those guns are in a confined space like the rear of a police car it could be very, very different.

KAYE (voice-over): It wasn't till the officers were about to leave when police say one of them smelled something burning in his vehicle. The chief says it was likely gun smoke.

That's when police say the officer found Chavis Carter bloodied and slumped over into the back seat. The officers say they called an ambulance and tried to revive Carter. He died at the hospital. Carter's mother says it just doesn't add up. She told reporters her son was shot in the right side of the head. But she points out, he was left handed. Police would only say he was shot in the head.

CARTER: They searched him twice. I mean, I just want to know what really happened.

KAYE: Theresa Carter says her son called his girlfriend from the scene to tell her he'd phone her from jail, which to her raises the question, does that sound like someone planning to commit suicide?

In Jonesboro, supporters have held vigils. Like many, they wonder what motive carter had to kill himself, a $10 bag of marijuana, white powder that hasn't tested positive for drugs and it's like sugar? An outstanding warrant?

We asked the chief about Theresa Carter's allegations. That one of his officers pulled the trigger.

(on camera): Can you safely say you've ruled that out in your investigation?

YATES: Not at this stage in the investigation and certainly a remote possibility. Like I say, we haven't excluded everything. But I feel confident that that's not what it is. But I certainly understand how she might feel that way.

KAYE: There is dash-cam video from that night, but the trouble is, the chief says, it doesn't show the moment the gun was fired. That's because the two police cars were parked, trunk-to-trunk, so the dash-cam didn't capture Carter sitting in the backseat.

Police have not released the video, but have already reconstructed what happened using a duplicate vehicle. They are waiting for the autopsy to be finished to see if what they visualize happened is consistent with the autopsy results.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Jonesboro, Arkansas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, Randi, thank you very much.

It is a trade most people wouldn't make, a kidney for an iPad. Now, nine people are waiting to hear their faith after being accused of helping one teenager sell his kidney. You've got to hear this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Nine people are awaiting their verdict after allegedly helping a teenager sell one of his kidneys to buy an iPad and an iPhone.

China's state news agency reports that only a fraction of the proceeds went to the 17-year-old and that after last year's surgery, the teenager suffered from kidney failure.

Criminal defense attorney Midwin Charles is "On the Case" for us. So, Midwin, do prosecutors believe doctors and nurses took advantage of this teen?

MIDWIN CHARLES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That's what they're saying. They're believing that doctors and nurses, which we all know are sworn to protect life and do no harm, took advantage of this young boy at 18-years old and, basically, encouraged him to undergo this procedure, which was illegal for the chance or the opportunity, rather, to offer this organ to someone else.

And, unfortunately, he went into renal failure, just as you said.

LEMON: So, we know the likelihood of them being found guilty is high because, according to the U.S. State Department, 99.9 percent, Midwin, of people who stood trial in China in 2010 were found guilty.

So, do we know what kind of sentence they could face?

CHARLES: Well, in increasing years China's sentences have become more and more harsh. At least, that's the trend that we've seen.

They could be looking at anywhere from three to ten years. But as I've said, given the fact that their prison sentences have become a lot more harsher, they may be given more.

LEMON: All right, Midwin Charles, thank you. We really appreciate it.

CHARLES: You're welcome.

LEMON: You know, Spike Lee's new movie premieres today in New York and it deals with a subject that's more than controversial. In fact, it's chilling.

But he summed it up with a few blunt words for critics of 16- year-old gold medal winner, Gabby Douglas. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: I made a film in 1998 called "School Daze."

Why are people slamming Gabby today? The first African-American woman to ever win a gold medal in gymnastics and what are people focusing on?

LEMON: In the overall, yes.

LEE: What are they -- I'm asking you a question.

LEMON: Her hair.

LEE: When did "School Daze" come out? '88. What year is this?

LEMON: Yeah, 2012.

LEE: What year is this?

LEMON: 2012.

LEE: And we're still talking about this stuff?

LEMON: You're right.

LEMON: Come on, man. The first African-American woman to win a gold medal in Olympics.

LEE: Not in Olympics. Not in Olympics. Not in gymnastics, but in the overall. In that particular -- as an individual in overall.

LEMON: All right, we can play semantics, but the fact remains is that she won a gold medal. How old is she? Sixteen-years old. And what are focusing on? Her kitchen? Her naps? Why doesn't she have a weave?

Come on, now. Please. Come on. Looks like we're going backwards.

LEMON: And the people who don't want to talk about it are black women. Don't talk about that because that's not important. She's a 16-year-old girl, but those are the people ...

LEE: Who are the people -- who are the people put on full blast for that? It's not white women. It ain't the brothers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Since he went there, I did too. Next, I asked Spike Lee whether he is what his critics say, a racist and a race-baiter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Here on "Help Desk" today, we are talking about buying a home. And with me are Liz Miller and Doug Flynn.

Doug, listen to your question.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: If your rent is taking up a good chunk of your salary, how in the world do you save for a house?

KOSIK: How do you save? Isn't that the age-old question?

DOUG FLYNN, FLYNN ZITO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: I think it's great that someone who is renting wants to buy a home. Interest rates are low. Prices are good.

The average home in the U.S. is around $200,000 and, with having to put down 20 percent now, back like the old days, and closing cost, you probably need 50 grand on an average home.

So, how do you do that and rent? Well, you really have to look at taking a roommate, taking a second job, moving back in, whatever you need to do to save up the money for a down payment because, likely you can afford the monthly payment to own a home, it's the down payment that gets in your way. So, you really need to do anything that you can to get there.

The other thing I like is, when you're looking for a home, look for perhaps like a legal two-family. You can use that income towards qualifying and then rent out half the house and cover a lot of the expenses. A lot of people don't look at that the route as their first way to get in.

If you don't have a big family, you can sort of share that house. So, that's great way to sort of get started, but the trick is you need a down payment and you need to do anything you can to get that.

KOSIK: Liz, anything you want to add?

LIZ MILLER, PRESIDENT, SUMMIT PLACE FINANCIAL ADVISORS: Similar thoughts, but when you're in that rental situation, if you're handling the current rent, then you have to think to yourself, this is the number I can afford in a mortgage.

So, when the rent comes up, we also suggest maybe downsizing for a little while so that you can put that extra aside to start saving.

And, of course, any good savings plan should start with eking out $5, $10 out of every paycheck into a savings account.

KOSIK: OK, it's all about savings.

All right, if you have an issue you want our experts to tackle, upload 30-second video with your "Help Desk" question to iReport.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You could argue there may not be a more prominent, outspoken and direct filmmaker than Spike Lee, the man behind movies like "Malcolm X," "Do the Right Thing" and, now, his new release is called "Red Hook Summer," which opens today in New York.

And he's got an opinion on everything, especially on race in America. It's a topic he addresses in a lot of his films and one he isn't shy about confronting in a very candid conversation about everything, including race.

Spike Lee talks about why we won't live in a post-racial society and whether or not he is a race-baiter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There are people who say -- I've heard a number of people say this -- I think Bill Maher has said it and a number of other people, that the new racism is a denial of racism.

LEE: Here is the best way I can answer this question to what I've known, I've seen. This country made a great, one of the biggest steps in its history when President Barack Hussein Obama put his right hand on Abraham Lincoln's Bible.

But I didn't go for the okey doke. I didn't drink the Kool-Aid because there were a ton of people, black and white, brown and yellow, who thought, at that moment, racism would disappear. It would be like abracadabra, presto change-o, alakazam, poof.

It -- why would it just disappear? I never thought that. A lot of people did, though, that this was going to be the defining moment and then we enter the post-racial -- what's that word even mean? Post-racial era where race does not matter anymore because we have an African-American president.

Come on, now.

LEMON: So, what are you saying?

LEE: That it's still here with us. Now, it might be in different shapes, different forms, different disguises, different configurations, but it's still here.

LEMON: One of the harshest things I've heard about you recently is that -- and you haven't been the only one they've said it about -- is that you're a racist. You're a race-baiter. What do you say about that?

LEE: My ancestors were enslaved for 400 years. They called Martin Luther King, Martin Luther "Coon." We can go down the line where people who were -- and, also, I'm not trying to put myself on their level, but any time -- the quickest way, this is an old trick. The quickest way, a lot people feel to negate someone talks about racism is to call them a racist. That thing is old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The entire interview tomorrow night, Spike Lee, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Speaking of race in America, now, CNN takes you inside hatred. You'll hear from a former skinhead who's candid about why he left the supremacist movement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hundreds of mourners pay tribute to the victims gunned down in Wisconsin's Sikh temple. People sobbed as they passed six wooden caskets containing the five men and one woman killed in Sunday's rampage.

Today's public memorial took place in a high school gym. Sikh musicians played a slow drum beat as people walked in. Victims' friends and families talked about the tragedy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like, I would request, I would plead, all the Sikhs in India, that they should not be angry. Do not give in to the temptation of revenge.

Remember this tragedy was caused by one, misguided individual. The actions don't represent the view of any groups. We are all children of God, no matter what color or religion. Please don't burn the American flags.

America is not one person. America is not of only one race, people or one color and type make this country great.

I'm American Sikh and I'm very proud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: An American flag hung in a gym. Attorney General Eric Holder talked about the tragedy's impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: To our nation's law enforcement community, our resolve to prevent acts of terrorism and to combat crime's motivated by hatred has never been stronger.

And that is precisely what happened here, an act of terrorism, an act of hatred, a hate crime that is anathema to the founding principles of our nation and to who we are as an American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And, today, police officers and Sikhs hugged each other. Remember, an officer was wounded in the firefight with the gunman.

Earlier -- here's the video, CNN got an exclusive look inside the damaged temple. There is a lone bullet right there. A bullet hole remains in a metal door frame. Members say they won't repair that bullet hole.

You know, the FBI says the gunman was 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, a former singer for a white supremacist rock band. CNN's Brian Todd talked with a former skinhead about life inside a white supremacist group.

The former skinhead changed his racist views after a chance encounter at McDonald's.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Arno Michaelis never met Wade Michael Page, but says he can identify with him.

ARNO MICHAELIS, FORMER SKINHEAD: I can identify with him because I was there. If it wasn't for things that -- very fortunate things that happened to me along the way and help I got from other people, many of whom I had claimed to hate, I could have very easily ended up where Wade Page ended up on Sunday.

TODD: You could have done those killings?

MICHAELIS: Well, it's important to understand that Wade Page was living in this reality of terror that he had created.

TODD: A similar reality, Michaelis says, that he'd created for himself for seven years as a white supremacist skinhead, remnants of that life inked on his left arm.

MICHAELIS: The runes below here are Norse runes and it says "RaHoWa," which is a sort of a contraction of "racial holy war."

TODD: Like Page, Michaelis fronted a supremacist band. His was called Centurion.

There wasn't a single episode that drove him into that life, Michaelis says. He says his parents were not racist, but that there was alcoholism and verbal abuse in his family, which made him want to lash out.

By age 16, he was moving in skinhead circles in Milwaukee. He estimates he violently attacked people of other races or religions about once a week for four or five years.

What was the worst thing you did?

MICHAELIS: I've beaten people and left them for dead.

TODD: Michaelis believes that if Wade Michael Page was anything like how he was, Page was suffering in his final days.

MICHAELIS: His day-to-day life was nothing, but terror. Everywhere he looked in the world around him, going to work, at work, getting home from work, everything threatened him.

And when you are in that environment, there is no room for happiness. There's no room for joy.

TODD: Michaelis says he attempted suicide twice.

But in what can only be described as a twist in life, a seed was planted in Arno Michaelis to change. It came in a place he wouldn't have figured from someone he never could have imagined.

He'd started going to McDonald's on paydays. He says he came upon an older, kindly African-American woman working behind the counter who greeted him warmly as she took his order.

MICHAELIS: I was really kind of disconcerted. It was hard when black people were very kind to me when I was trying to hate them.

TODD: Once, after getting a swastika tattooed on his middle finger, Michaelis went back into that McDonald's. He found himself trying to hide the swastika from that lady, but she saw it.

MICHAELIS: She looked me right in the eye and she said, I know you're a better person than that. That's not who you are.

And I was just like, could I please have my Big Mac? And I got my food and I went and ate it and I never went back to that McDonald's.

TODD: You never saw her again?

MICHAELIS: Never saw her again, but 20 years later, I haven't forgotten that moment.

TODD: It led him to move away from those groups and start his own, an organization called Life After Hate, dedicated to helping people transition out of that existence.

I asked Michaelis what he'd say if a supremacist was sitting across from him now, contemplating a similar, horrific act.

MICHAELIS: I would challenge them to think about what happens after that. And to think about someone in their life who they love.

TODD: Michaelis says his real slap-in-the-face moment came after a friend of his was murdered in a street fight.

He's convinced the temple shootings in Wisconsin were a slap-in- the-face moment for at least one person in a hate group somewhere. He says he desperately wants to help them start to climb out of that hole.

Brian Todd, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Brian. Interesting report, there.

So, how good are your job benefits? I bet they don't compare to what employees at Google are getting, even after they die. You'll want to hear this next story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: How well does your company, your job, take care of your family when you're long gone? I know it's not something we necessarily want to think about, but we probably should.

And you may want to rethink that after Alison Kosik tells you what Google offers in its death benefit plan. Alison, lay this all out for us.

KOSIK: Yeah, it's hard to think of any company comparing to this. So, Google's always been known for its great benefits, Don. It's got that on-site dry cleaning, free haircuts, help with party planning. The list goes on and on. But it turns out those perks just keep coming after the workers dies. In an interview with "Forbes," the chief people officer -- yes, Google has one of those -- laid out Google's unusual death benefits.

This is the first time this information is coming out, so hold onto your hat. The deceased person's spouse gets 50 percent of their salary, every year for the next decade, plus, all of the deceased's stock vests immediately. And each child of the worker gets $1,000 a month until they're 19 or 23, if they're going to school, full-time.

The company says that death is one of the most reliable facts in life. It wants to make things easier on surviving family members. Don?

LEMON: Only things that are certain, taxes and death.

KOSIK: And death, yes. Too bad, right?

LEMON: Yeah. Most companies make you wait a certain amount of time. You have to work there a certain amount of time before you're eligible. What about here? How long do you have to work for the company?

KOSIK: And that's another great advantage because everybody who works there, all 34,000 U.S. workers, qualify. They're eligible right away.

No financial benefit to Google, of course. They're just being nice, but you know, it probably does help them retain their employees, to say the least.

One executive tells Forbes that it's important to help families through these terrible and inevitable events.

And it's not just death. The company also has great birth benefits. Moms can take 18 weeks after the birth of a child. Guys get six.

LEMON: All right. Alison Kosik, thank you very much.

That applause you hear, not only for the closing bell, but for Mr. Wolf Blitzer. Take it away.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Don, thanks very much.