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CNN Live Saturday

Operation Spear in Iraq; Trial of Former Klan Member; Hacker Strikes Credit Card Processor; Fort Detrick to House Bio-terrorism Response Facility

Aired June 18, 2005 - 18:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Marines free four men who were tortured by insurgents in Iraq, a CNN exclusive straight ahead.
And are you among the 44 million credit card holders whose accounts were breached? Our privacy rights expert tells us what you can do about it.

And can diet and exercise reverse multiple scoliosis, diabetes and other diseases? Meet the author who says she is living proof.

It is June 18th and you are watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

Good afternoon from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin. Our top story in just a moment but first, stories making news right now.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is out to reenergize the Middle East peace process. She was with the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas today and said Israeli and Palestinian leaders should begin ironing out differences over Israeli's planned pullout from Gaza.

The defense has called three witnesses to the stand, including a victim's mother in the murder trial of an 80-year-old former Klansman. Edgar Ray Killen is charged with killing three civil rights workers 41 years ago. Closing arguments will likely take place next week.

And Natalee Holloway's mother is frustrated with police in Aruba. Beth Holloway Twitty says she is losing patience with the pace of the investigation and she is vowing the find her daughter on her own. I'll be talking with the stepmother of the missing teen in just a moment.

But our top story right now, a house of horrors in Iraq. Men bound and tortured, U.S. forces come to the rescue and CNN's Jane Arraf is there. She is embedded with U.S. troops in the region and has this exclusive report. Now, please, listen carefully because of the extreme conditions under which Jane is working, the audio is a little difficult to understand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): This is the worst of the rooms, very heavy ropes hanging here from the ceiling. They say they were hung here by their feet. One of them tells us that as he was hung, he was dipped in water. His head dipped first in the bucket of water. They would bring him up again and then they would give him electric shock. These people's wounds are absolutely horrendous, much too grave for us to even show their feet or their hands on television. They even say someone would recognize their voices and would come and kill them.

They've been absolutely terrorized. The man who seems to have gotten the worst of the beatings is a member of the border police. He was seized about two weeks ago. And he said that they whipped him with electric cables and electrocuted him on his back. He is absolutely covered with welts and crisscross pattern. They've been trying to get the handcuff off of his hand and they managed to succeed on all the rest of them. Their feet and their hands were bound. But his hand is so swollen, the wrist seems to be broken that they've tried wire cutters, bolt cutters; everything and they can't get it off without causing him intense pain.

All of them say they don't know why they were held. One Marine official tells us it's believed that it might be partly because they're from a tribe that has been opposed to the insurgents and particularly foreign fighters here. They were two young men who didn't have a job at all. They said they were just taken here, threatened with death. They said people barely spoke to them, their captors, except to whisper in their ears that they would be killed. The two others were border policemen. They had identification on them and they suffered the worst of the beatings.

They still say that they don't know who was that held them. They don't know if they were Iraqi. They don't know if they were foreign. The only thing they know is that they were horribly, horribly treated.

This was the original reason that they were interested in this compound. It's a neighborhood that is known, they say, to be a hot bed of insurgents and foreign fighters and here they thought they might find a car bomb factory. They fired rockets and other ammunition at these cars. This one, they say, would have been a potential car bomb or even a suicide bomb. It had that many explosives in it, judging by the secondary explosion.

This whole compound, they found ammunition. They found things that indicate to them that there were serious insurgents or foreign fighters located here but they didn't know until they actually arrived, the Marines and the Iraqi forces, that they'd find something even worse.

Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from Karabila, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Our thanks to Jane Arraf who is working in some pretty tough conditions.

In the meantime, back in this country, a battle of a very different kind. The enemy, hackers and thieves and what's at stake is your money, your privacy and your good name. In the past few months, thousands of people learned their personal information was stolen or misplaced. And suddenly, that number has now grown into the millions. If you use plastic, you may be at risk. CNN's Chris Huntington explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI is investigating what may be the biggest criminal security breach of credit card information, ever. The names and numbers on some 40 million credit card accounts appear to have been stolen from the computers of CardSystems Solutions, a processor of credit card transactions in Tucson, Arizona. Twenty-two million Visa card accounts and nearly 14 million MasterCard accounts were compromised, according to the companies.

CHRIS HOOFNAGLE, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFO. CTR.: This one is looking more and more like an Exxon Valdez privacy, where literally tens of millions of accounts have been compromised. The big risk here is massive amounts of credit card fraud.

HUNTINGTON: Massive indeed. The number of accounts breached at CardSystems Solutions is nearly 10 times that of the previous five biggest reported data losses combined. From a unit of CitiGroup, Bank of America, CNN's parent company Time Warner, Ameritrade and ChoicePoint.

How could CardSystems lose control of 40 million accounts? Dan Clements, a data security professional and expert at retrieving stolen computer files, says thieves on the inside could have dumped data on to disks, hacked in from the outside with a virus, or most likely, exploited well known weak spots in the company's computer system using access codes that can be found on the Internet.

DAN CLEMENTS, CORDCOPS.COM: They scan the server of the bank or the processor for known vulnerabilities, files that are unprotected. And what they do is they load in 1,000 different files into a scanner and they just hit submit. And it goes to that server, looks for a hole and if they find the hole, bingo, they're in the server and they have access to 40 million records. It's that simple.

HUNTINGTON: Both Visa and MasterCard tell CNN that CardSystems Solutions was not in compliance with their security requirements. CardSystems says it discovered the quote -- "potential security incident" on May 22, told the FBI the next day, then told Visa and MasterCard.

LINDA FORD, CARDSYSTEMS SOLUTIONS: We called in a third party forensics investigator that happens to actually be certified with MasterCard, to come in here and to do a complete investigation, scan of everything, to actually image systems and to go back and do a research on what was going on.

HUNTINGTON: MasterCard tells CNN that it has detected only a small amount of fraudulent activity in the accounts lost from CardSystems and that because the data did not contain social security numbers nor addresses, identity theft would be highly unlikely. Chris Huntington, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. I want to talk more about this with an expert on privacy and information law. Evans Hendricks, the editor and publisher of "Privacy Times" and the author of "Credit Scores and Credit Reports: How The System Works and What You Can Do," joins me right now.

Evan, all right, so, a small amount of fraud detected so far. What do you think the thieves are doing right now with this massive amount of information?

EVAN HENDRICKS, "PRIVACY TIMES": Well, the first problem is we don't know exactly and it would be nice to let the public in on what the investigations find out but they can be using the cards to make fraudulent purchases. They can be selling the information through fences because there's an underground of carders that traffic in credit card data or they can be using the information to leverage out the other information so they can use that to track down your social security number and commit identity theft.

LIN: All right. So not much comfort when you hear Chris Huntington reporting that social security numbers and addresses didn't go out, so the credit card company says this should not be a big problem of identity theft.

HENDRICKS: No. This is a dangerous game of can you top this. And the real problem is the shrewd identity thieves, which it appears was at work here, are going to wait an amount of time to go by before they might start to leveraging the information. So in terms of what individuals can do, you have to understand that the credit report is at the epicenter of identity theft and that we have to begin checking our credit reports the way we change the batteries in our smoke detectors.

LIN: Seasonally...

HENDRICKS: Yes.

LIN: ...four times a year.

HENDRICKS: Basically.

LIN: All right. So, what's the best way to do that? But what's the fastest way to do that?

HENDRICKS: Well, you can go online. Almost everyone in the country now under a new law has a right to a free credit report. That's at annualcreditreport.com. Some of us think it's better to call it on the phone or even order it by mail. But you can -- take your choice which way you want to do it. Then, you look at your credit report. Look at the inquiry section. That shows who's pulled your credit report and why. So if you live here in Washington and some car dealer in Texas pulls your credit report, that's a problem. You look for other strange accounts and strange information. And then you have the choice of canceling your credit card or having them send you a new number so that if you're worried about this don't let that credit card be live anymore.

LIN: Right. Try to cancel the credit card; get a new credit card is what you're saying with a different account number.

HENDRICKS: That's right.

LIN: All right. Evan, doesn't this say that some extreme measures should be taken by the credit card companies and merchants in particular? I mean, here's what I want after I hear this. I want eye scan. I want fingerprinting. I want to know that when I'm making a purchase that that merchant cares that I am, in fact, the owner of that credit card. What is -- what's going to be done about this? What can I expect?

HENDRICKS: Well, there's a debate raging in Congress but right now, the burden is going to remain on the individual because the Financial Services Lobby is still making money off granting credit and I'm afraid off of identity theft. So we need stronger measures to put a stronger duty on those companies to protect the information and to give individuals more rights in relation to the information. Eventually, we're going to get there but I'm afraid with this Congress and this Federal Trade Commission, we're not going to get there anytime soon. So it's very important that people understand the system and know what they can do to protect themselves.

LIN: All right, seasonal credit card...

HENDRICKS: Credit report.

LIN: I mean credit report checking, annualcreditreport.com.

HENDRICKS: Yes.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Evan Hendricks.

HENDRICKS: Thanks, Carol.

LIN: In the meantime, battling bioterrorism. That's on the agenda of our "CNN Security Watch" today. Homeland Security officials are planning a new, high-tech lab outside Washington to study and respond to such threats but some local residents aren't pleased. Here's our Kathleen Koch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ebola, anthrax, Marburg, some of the deadly pathogens experts fear terrorists could unleash, killing thousands of Americans. So in three years, this field on a military base 48 miles north of Washington will become a huge facility to do testing and detective work to prevent or respond to an attack.

DR. MAUREEN MCCARTHY, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE: We will actually work with pathogens that are of concern. We will test their virulence. We will test how they behave in animal models. We will test how they behave against our current defense strategies.

KOCH: Homeland Security's director of research and development says the facility will even genetically engineer new pathogens to study their potency and how to stop them.

MCCARTHY: Yes, absolutely. If we knew for a fact that somebody was looking at a particular modification, we would have to validate that.

KOCH (on camera): But Fort Detrick, the home of the new biodefense center is no island. It's surrounded on virtually ever side by neighborhoods.

(voice-over): And though the fort is the biggest employer in the city, even the mayor is concerned the new facility could endanger citizens.

MAYOR JENNIFER DOUGHERTY, FREDERICK, MARYLAND: My greatest fear is that our -- somehow, there will be some sort of accident and then we just won't know.

KOCH: Sally Famelton and her family live a quarter mile from Fort Detrick. She worries about accidents or worse.

SALLY FAMELTON, FREDERICK RESIDENT: It increases the chances of problems with some of these dangerous materials, things being stolen, perhaps, sabotage, theft by someone, an employee getting bribed to smuggle something out.

KOCH: Activists who recently protested against the expansion also fear bio defense will lead to bio weapons.

BARRY KISSIN, ATTORNEY, OPPONENT: The things that they are telling us that they're going to do at the facilities, certainly, appear to contradict the promises we have made in the Biological Weapons Convention.

KOCH: But the base commander insists they will not develop biological weapons and will ensure safety.

COL. JOHN BALL, COMMANDER, FORT DETRICK: We have done it safe for many years. We have multiple safety layers in effect. The possibility that something adverse may happen, we have reduced to the absolute minimum that's possible.

KOCH: Homeland Security officials warn the 2001 anthrax attacks proved the greater risk is being unprepared to fight lethal, unseen weapons.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Frederick, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: "CNN Security Watch" keeps you up-to-date on safety so stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Straight ahead, a fourth arrest in the case of an American teen missing in Aruba. The mother of Natalee Holloway vows to find her daughter. We are going to go live to Aruba to talk with her father and stepmother.

And he's the hero of yesterday's chopper crash in New York. Meet the fireman or actually the fisherman whose catch saved the lives of passengers who wound up in the East River.

And does this book have the secret of reversing symptoms of diseases like MS? I'm going to talk to the woman who swears it worked for her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In Aruba, the case of missing teenager Natalee Holloway has led to a fourth person being taken into custody. But it remains a frustratingly slow investigation and the 18-year-old's whereabouts still remain a mystery. Natalee's father, Dave, and her stepmother, Robin Holloway, join me now from Aruba to talk about the latest in this arrest.

Good afternoon to both of you. Let me begin with you, Mr. Holloway. What is your reaction to this fourth arrest? Do you know why the police arrested this young man, Steve Crues, and what his connection may be to your missing daughter?

DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: No, I don't. In any police investigation, the police is -- they're not going to allow any information to be let out that may compromise their investigation. I do know that the witness was brought in earlier in the week and then, brought in again upon the arrest but any further details, I'm not privileged to.

LIN: Dave, do you have any theories at this point as to what happened to Natalee?

D. HOLLOWAY: Excuse me?

LIN: Do you have any theories as to what happened to Natalee?

D. HOLLOWAY: Well, we don't know, you know. No one knows where she is. And until they find her, you know, it's just wide open.

LIN: Robin, what about you? What's going through your mind? I mean, you're trying to put the pieces together out. You're trying to find your stepdaughter. What do you think might have happened?

ROBIN HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S STEPMOTHER: I don't know. The answer to me still lies with the three boys. Just 20 days and they -- until they talk, I don't know if they'll ever find her, I mean if they know where... LIN: What do you mean until they talk? I mean Mr. Holloway, what do you think the police should do to extract information from these young men?

D. HOLLOWAY: Well, you would think at some point in time one of them is going to talk, and we're hopeful that will happen soon.

LIN: Well, are they just letting them sit in a jail cell or talk with their attorneys? I mean are they even trying to extract information and if so, what are their methods?

R. HOLLOWAY: We have no idea the methods. We're sure they're working 24 hours, around the clock, being interrogating until I don't know what time. But I mean they're trying. But just until the boys tell truth, I don't know -- I don't know what the outcome will be but they need to just tell us where she is.

LIN: Do you believe that these three if not four young men were the last people to see your daughter alive, Mr. Holloway?

D. HOLLOWAY: Well, I don't know. There again, you know, we had several other people brought into the case and released. So, you know, this -- who knows? It's kind of frustrating. And the fact that, you know, you don't have the information the police do but there again, you still got to understand that they're conducting the investigation and they will not allow any information out.

LIN: So what more do you think they should be doing? I mean what's your opinion here in this case?

D. HOLLOWAY: You know I'm perplexed at this point. We have searched the island by foot, four wheelers, helicopters. You know, I don't know what's next.

LIN: What's your gut feeling? Do you think she's still alive?

D. HOLLOWAY: We still hold hope that she is.

LIN: Your ex-wife, Natalee's mother, apparently had an encounter with one of these men. She described one of these men as being very arrogant. Do you know who she's talking about and what that encounter was about?

D. HOLLOWAY: You would have to talk to her about that but I -- it may have been the...

R. HOLLOWAY: It would have to be Joran if that happened.

D. HOLLOWAY: Yes, it would be the son of the judge.

LIN: The son of the judge, Joran Van Der Sloot.

R. HOLLOWAY: You'd have to ask her about that.

D. HOLLOWAY: But you would have to ask her to confirm that. LIN: Right. All right, well, I hope the two of you are holding up. And we're following the story very closely and we hope for sure a break in this case very soon. Thank you very much, Robin and Dave Holloway.

Turning now to your "Health Watch" -- well, they're crunchy, salty and pretty tasty but should they come with a warning? A California consumer group thinks so and it wants warning labels on potato chips saying they contain a chemical known to cause cancer. It's formed when starchy foods are baked or fried at high temperatures. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it's not clear whether the chemical is harmful to humans at the low levels found in food.

Also in our "Health Watch," British researchers say they hope a new study relieves some parents' fears. It found routine teen- childhood immunizations don't increase the likelihood that kids will develop hay fever.

And what a difference a counseling session can make. Researchers studied people taken to the hospital after an alcohol- related car crash. And they found those who received a brief E.R. counseling session about the impact of drinking on their lives experienced a benefit. They were much less likely to have more alcohol-related injuries during the following year. The finding suggests car crashes can make people particularly open to advice about cutting back on alcohol.

And we know that diet and exercise can keep you healthy but can they actually reverse the symptoms of disease? Well, the author of "The Gold Coast Cure" joins me to talk about that a little later in this program, so stick around for that.

In the meantime, he was hoping to catch some fish but what he fished out of the waters of the East River has people calling him hero today. You're going to meet him on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

And next, the greatest golfers having the toughest time at the famed Pinehurst No. 2. We're going to take you there live to the U.S Open.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In Pinehurst, North Carolina, at the U.S. Open, the headline this afternoon, defending champion Retief Goosen is back in first place for now, anyway. Mark McKay is keeping tabs on the leader board for us.

Hey there, Mark.

MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Yes, I think you put it well, for now. In fact, Goosen, he was struggling just a bit. He came in tied for the lead really with two lesser known players, Olin Browne and Jason Gore. Goosen, the defending champion, though, has pulled ahead here at Pinehurst No. 2. He is two under par currently and heading home with his third round. Everyone else in the tournament is even par.

Pinehurst has literally and figuratively brought these players, many of the world's best players, to their knees. Phil Mickelson, his woes have been well documented. He goes into Sunday's final round eight over par for the championship. He's still holding his head high. Another guy here at Pinehurst holding his head high is the reigning U.S. Senior Open champion, Peter Jacobson, hanging around the leader board. He is age 51, plus four for the tournament. Plus four means he's well within striking range and wants to win one for the senior set.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fans, they all want (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the other side of 18.

PETER JACOBSON, SENIOR OPEN CHAMPION: Oh, he said, strike a blow for the old folks, you know, and I'm right there with him. I've got my AARP card.

PHIL MICKELSON, 2004 MASTERS CHAMPION: I'm not going to go into tomorrow's round feeling as though I don't have a shot. I just feel like, you know, that I can shoot a low score out there even though I'll have to make 30, 40-footers to do it. I'm not going to go in the final round defeated. I feel that I'm going to give it everything that I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKAY: And that's the attitude we want to see going into the final round of a major, Carol, but the defending champion, the guy who won at Shinicock (ph) on Long Island, New York last year, Retief Goosen of South Africa, he's going to be a tough guy to knock off the top of that leader board.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Mark with the very latest. And it looks like a beautiful day behind you, so we'll look forward to forward play.

In the meantime, in terms of sheer numbers, few American families are sacrificing as much for their as the Pruetts of Pocatello. They are a family that plays together but they cannot stay together because four of the Pruett boys are currently serving in Iraq. You are going to meet this band of brothers when CNN LIVE SATURDAY takes you to our "On The Front Lines" segment.

And the ghost of Mississippi, the mother of a murdered civil rights worker, provides an emotional ending to the prosecution's case against a man charged with one of America's most notorious hate crimes.

And later, you're going to meet the man who was in the right place at the right time when lives depended on it.

You're watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news.

Forty million credit card accounts have been exposed to fraud because of a security breach at a payment processing company. MasterCard says its customers hold almost 14 million of the accounts. It says among those, only about 68,000 are at higher levels of risk.

And as Operation Spear enters its second day in Iraq, U.S. Marines have liberated four hostages from a bunker where they were apparently being tortured. About a thousand U.S. and Iraqi forces are fighting multinational insurgents near the Syrian border. Fifty insurgent fighters have been killed and 100 have been captured.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a West Bank meeting today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. And Rice told Abbas it's time to solve problems relating to the upcoming Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. She says she will take the same message to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tomorrow.

The top two vote getters in Iran's presidential election will face each other in a run-off. Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who has called for better ties between Iran and the U.S. And hard-line mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a surprise contender. The run-off election is set for next Friday.

Now, in Philadelphia, Mississippi, an infamous murder case could wrap up exactly 41 years after it happened. The 1964 shooting death of three civil rights workers were the basis for the film "Mississippi Burning." Now in real life, former Klan leader, Edgar Ray Killen, is now on trial for their murders. CNN's Catherine Callaway is covering the case where the defense today began its case.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, Carol. That's right. The case against Edgar Ray Killen has moved rather quickly this morning. In fact, the court recessed around noon today, the judge deciding to give the jury Father's Day off. They are expected back in the courtroom on Monday morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY (voice-over): And the third day of testimony in the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, the state continued with its efforts to make the victims of this 41-year-old case seem real to the jury.

FANNIE LEE CHANEY, JAMES CHANEY'S MOTHER: He's my son.

CALLAWAY: The mother of slain civil rights worker James Chaney took the stand Saturday. Eighty-two-year-old Fannie Lee Chaney wept several times as she recalled the day her son died back in 1964. Chaney said after the son's murder, she moved from her home because she feared for her and her family's lives.

CHANEY: They told me they were going to put dynamite under the house. Blow us to bits and everything and I better get on away from there because I wasn't going to be there long before they be -- I be put in a hole like James was.

CALLAWAY: James Chaney and fellow civil rights workers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were found shot to death and buried under 15 feet of dirt. The state rested its case after Chaney's testimony. The defense began by calling Killen's siblings to the stand.

OSCAR KILLEN, EDGAR RAY KILLEN'S BROTHER: You don't want to hear what I say to you.

CALLAWAY: District Attorney, Marc Duncan, a native of Neshoba (ph) County found himself in the line of fire when he asked Oscar Killen if he was aware of his brother's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.

KILLEN: I've heard more talk that your daddy and granddaddy was in the Klan more than I have him, sure have. That's honest. I swore on the Bible, gentlemen, that that's the way I've heard it all these years.

CALLAWAY: Duncan ignored the comment but responded outside the courtroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you?

MARK DUNCAN, PROSECUTOR: Well, I had to restrain myself little bit, I suppose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you respond to it?

DUNCAN: I don't. I just consider the source.

CALLAWAY: The defense is expected to call at least one more witness when court resumes on Monday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: And on Monday, the judge will rule on if the jury will also be allowed to consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter. Closing arguments in this case could begin as early as beginning of next week, a case that began more than 40 years ago, Carol.

LIN: Thank you very much for the very latest from there, Catherine Callaway.

And in our "World Wrap" tonight, dozens are recovering from injuries sustained in a riot in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Catholics attacked Protestant marchers and police, throwing bottles, bricks, and gasoline bombs. Protestant militants later vandalized five homes in a Catholic neighborhood.

Taliban rebels have occupied a government building in Southern Afghanistan. They say they plan to put captured police officers on trial for supporting the U.S.-backed government. Afghan and American- led military forces killed several guerrillas in the district this week. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened a trip to the Middle East with a stop in the West Bank. She praised the planned withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip. Rice called on the Palestinian government to do much more against terrorism. And she encouraged Israelis and Palestinians to work together to solve their problems. Rice will appear on CNN's "LATE EDITION" at noon Eastern tomorrow.

Every week, we like to bring you the more personal stories from the front lines and today we're going to tell you about the Pruett family. Four brothers are serving in Iraq. Two other family members just returned and they're all aware that with so many serving on the front lines, the odds are against them, all will be staying safe. Here's our Alex Quaid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): Oil pipeline attacks, suicide car bombs, mortars, mass graves, improvised explosive devices and ethnic tensions. This is Kirkuk Province, Northern Iraq where nearly 5,000 U.S. Army National Guardsmen serve, among them, Eric, an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here. We're armed. We are ready for business.

QUADE: Jeff, a grocery store clerk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to protect our backs.

QUADE: Evan, a bartender.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope nothing bad happens.

QUADE: And Greg, a missionary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just kind of hope and pray that everything is OK.

QUADE: Four citizen soldiers with something in common, their last name, Pruett. Four brothers deployed with different units in Kirkuk. On patrol with Eric, the eldest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here with some bullet-proof vests and weapons everywhere we go and guys pulling security even as we talk now. I mean at any moment, anything could happen and we need to be ready for that.

QUADE (on camera): What was it like for you the first time when you came under fire?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty intense.

QUADE (voice-over): An understatement. His platoon has survived five gun fights, three IEDs, improvised explosive devices, three rocket and nine mortar attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they check in this canister thing right here?

QUADE: On the other side of town, I joined brother Jeff.

SPEC. JEFF PRUETT, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: We had that rocket fired at our pod yesterday. This is where they traced it to.

QUADE: He hunts for insurgents and weapons.

J. PRUETT: Tell them to check in between all the pillows and all the mattresses.

QUADE: The dangers Jeff and Eric face are the same for brothers Greg and Evan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get all your gear on and stay in your little bunker and just wait until they tell you everything's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very real and it's something that we have to contend with every single day.

QUADE: The four Pruetts have been away from home for a year, living under constant threat and worry for each other.

J. PRUETT: I was worried, you know, what's the chances of four of us coming over to Iraq where it's combat and all of us making it home. So it kind of scared me at first and I didn't like the idea.

QUADE: I met the Pruetts a year ago at their home in Pocatello, Idaho. Among these teens playing volleyball, four soldiers about to go to war the next day and two just back. Yes, six members of one family serving their country.

LEE PRUETT, FATHER: We never thought that all of us would go.

QUADE: Lee Pruett or dad and son, Aaron, just returned from serving in Fallujah when the others were called up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was kind of weird to think that my brothers are going over there now that I've been there and back. And you know I just kind of -- just, you know, offer as much support and love as I can.

L. PRUETT: We've had close calls just with Aaron and I over there. The big helicopter crash in Mosul, we actually went out and did the extrication and recovered the bodies of those soldiers in those helicopters.

QUADE: In uniform for family photos...

TAMMY PRUETT, MOTHER: All right, look over here, you two.

QUADE: ...the brothers are excited for their chance to experience what dad and Aaron had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soldiers are dying but that's war, and you know, we're willing to take that risk. We love our country. You know, we're a very patriotic family. I'm sure you saw my brother's car over there. He painted it red, white and blue. And we're all willing to go over there and do what we have to do.

QUADE: Their mom, Tammy Pruett, puts on a brave face.

T. PRUETT: Our odds are a lot higher than most families and, yes, it would be horrible to lose one of my sons. They're all, I think, prepared to make that sacrifice. And sure, it'd be horrible. You know I'm not going to kid and say, I could really get through that easily because I couldn't.

QUADE: The next day...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to go with me?

QUADE: The brothers say their good-byes...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would if you could, right?

QUADE: ...and report for duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you people to think about the innocent people that was burned to death in buildings in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in charge of 16 guys, four tanks, and that's my first priority. But at the same time, you know, my brothers are going to be there and I'm going to be just worried about them and trying to check up on them just as much as I can and as much as I'm allowed to.

QUADE: They'll be away from home for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand down, ease. All right, guys. It's good to be back, good to see you all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: God bless them.

So can the right diet and exercise help you reverse the symptoms of diseases like M.S.? Well, you're going to meet a couple who say they have living proof. There they are. I'm going to be talking to them about "The Gold Coast Cure" when CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In our "Fountain of Youth" segment today, two authors are deconstructing the negative connotation behind the old adage, you are what you eat. In their book, "The Gold Coast Cure," Dr. Andrew Larson and his wife, Ivy, contend that diet can play a role in reversing diseases. In fact, Ivy Larson diagnosed with multiple scoliosis, says this diet and exercise reversed it, at least some of the symptoms. Dr. and Mrs. Larson joining me now from West Palm Beach, Florida. And viewers, by the way, grab a pen and paper because you're going to find some useful information right on the screen during this interview that you're going to want to write down. Let me welcome my guests and let me start with you, actually, Doctor. This contention about this Gold Coast Cure, I mean, the claim in the book that in five weeks, people can actually lose weight, can actually lessen their chance of having heart problems or reverse symptoms of diabetes, that's pretty dramatic. I mean what is involved in this?

DR. ANDREW LARSON, AUTHOR, "THE GOLD COAST CURE": Well, that's about all the time that it takes to start reducing the amount of inflammation in your body. And a properly designed, balanced, anti- inflammatory diet can work its wonders in as little as five weeks.

LIN: Like what? What should people be eating?

A. LARSON: Well, people should be eating foods that contain high amounts of fiber as opposed to empty carbohydrate foods such as refined flour and sugar. And people should concentrate on eating good quality fats such as extra virgin olive oil and the fats found in fatty fish instead of bad quality fats such as saturated fat and those trans fats you've heard so much about.

LIN: I mean if you could eat five things every day, what would they be?

A. LARSON: Well, I would eat a lot of fatty fish. I eat about four servings of fatty fish, such as salmon, a week. I eat a lot of other fishes too, like trout and halibut. I eat nuts, seeds, a lot of whole grains and of course, tons of fruits and vegetables.

LIN: And look at your wife. Ivy Larson, I mean, you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Are you saying that this Gold Coast diet actually cured you?

IVY LARSON, AUTHOR, "THE GOLD COAST CURE": Well, I don't want to use the word "cure." I'd rather use the word -- it put me into remission. And I think it's important also to point out that this is a lifestyle plan that can work in combination with any exercise or any medications that you may be taking, so nutritional therapy and exercise therapy can work in combination.

LIN: Well, you look great. I mean what changed? You were diagnosed and then -- what were you doing before and then what were you doing after that you think reversed these symptoms?

I. LARSON: Well, when I was diagnosed I was 22 years old and I was living and eating the way a lot of 22-year-olds eat. I was eating a lot of saturated fat, a lot of processed foods, packaged foods, high sugar diet. And, I completely overhauled the way I eat and I now eat a lot of unrefined, whole grains. I eat a high anti-inflammatory diet, which is a lot of essential fats, fish like Andy talked about, black seeds, fruits, vegetables, just a nutritious diet. And it's a balanced diet based on foods packaged the way nature intended.

LIN: Dr. Larson, I mean the cool thing about this, I think, is that you say that carbs are OK, you know, because society has gone on this high protein, you know, no carb, low carb thing. But pastas are OK under your diet, for example?

A. LARSON: Well, I've done the research. I've seen that a high carbohydrate diet can actually cause people to lose weight and can actually put Type II diabetes on the path towards cure. A key is just to eat high fiber, good quality all natural carbohydrates instead of empty carbohydrates that contain refined flour and sugar.

LIN: What about exercise? What kind of exercise should people do?

A. LARSON: Well, resistance circuit training is the exercise that we recommend.

LIN: What's that?

A.LARSON: It's where you use dumbbells and combined anaerobic and aerobic segments into a fast-paced 30-miunute workout that you can do as little as three times a week and really see muscle gain and weight loss.

LIN: And why that, for example, instead of taking like a 45- minute aerobics class where you're jumping around?

A. LARSON: Well, you want to build muscle strength as much as possible and if you don't use resistance such as the dumbbells and the weights, then you just don't do quite as good a job doing that as if you do purely aerobics.

LIN: But Doctor, how does all of this -- it's practical advice, but how does it actually reverse the symptoms of disease?

A. LARSON: Well, many of the conditions that we target such as fibromalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease and even multiple scoliosis involve excess inflammation in your body. So if you eat the types of foods that actively reduce inflammation and avoid the types of foods that actively increase inflammation, you --well, I suppose, you haven't cured these conditions. You've certainly made it so that your body feels their symptoms a heck of a lot less.

LIN: All right, Dr. Larson, thank you very much. Mrs. Larson, good -- lucky you, you have a doctor right in the house.

I. LARSON: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: All right, thanks for the great advice. And folks, you can learn more about this on the website, www.goldcoastcure.com.

In the meantime, a terrifying accident does have a happy ending thanks to a fisherman who made a life-saving catch, but first here's Al Hunt to tell what's ahead on "THE CAPITAL GANG."

AL HUNT, CO-HOST, "THE CAPITAL GANG": "THE CAPITAL GANG" joins the debate on Guantanamo, Hillary Clinton in 2008, is she off and running, and a look back at some names and faces who have been part of "THE CAPITAL GANG" history. All that and more next on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, one of the executives who survived yesterday's commercial helicopter crash into New York's East River says it was -- quote -- "a bit of a surreal experience." Well, two fishermen on the scene would probably agree with that. They told their side of their story to our Alina Cho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just another day on the water for fishermen Charlie Stamm and Joe Curvino except for the catch.

CHARLIE STAMM, FISHERMAN: We got six striped bass and four blue fish and three humans, three homosapiens.

CHO: Stamm and Curvino were there Friday when a helicopter carrying six bank executives and two pilots crashed tail first into New York's East River.

STAMM: And we hear a thump thump on the water right out in front of our boat. And I realized right away it was a helicopter down in the water.

CHO (on camera): At that point, what did you think?

JOE CURVINO, FISHERMAN: At that point I thought, time to go.

CHO (voice-over): Curvino and Stamm raced toward the downed chopper and hoped for the best.

CURVINO: We started to see heads coming up and that was like heaven.

CHO (on camera): A big relief?

CURVINO: A big relief to see humans and see people swimming.

CHO (voice-over): With Stamm at the helm, Curvino threw out the life preservers and pulled three of the men to safety.

CURVINO: They were in great shape. They were walking, looking for their cell phones. That's the first thing they did, is look for their cell phones. I said, guys, they don't work anymore.

CHO: The other five were rescued by trained professionals.

STAMM: It's not my job. I wouldn't want to do it every day. We did the best we can with what we had. We had a boat that was floating. They didn't. They were in the water. We were out of the water. We needed to get them with us because we were safe. They weren't.

CHO: This is the second close call in the area in just four days. Another helicopter carrying six tourists and one pilot crashed in the East River on Tuesday. Everyone in that accident survived, too.

(on camera): What you thinking the next time you go out to fish?

STAMM: We're going to be watching helicopters; I think of that, you know.

CHO (voice-over): Stamm and Curvino say they're happy to be heroes for the day but what they're really trained to do is fish for fish.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, that's all the time we have for this hour but coming up next, "THE CAPITAL GANG" and then at 8:00 Eastern, a CNN 25th anniversary special, "DEFINING MOMENTS." And at 9:00, Larry King, Bob Costas is the guest host and he's going to be talking with actress Vanessa Redgrave. And I'll be back at 10:00 Eastern for our primetime show, "CNN SATURDAY NIGHT," and our talk tonight, a look at preschoolers getting expelled. Who's at fault and why are the numbers climbing? I'm going to talk to two experts, including the mom of a toddler.

A check of the hour's headlines and then "THE CAPITAL GANG."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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