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CNN Tonight
Obama's Big Decision; Afghanistan's Surge Challenges; United States and India; BRIC Bloc; New Taxes; Eminent Domain
Aired November 24, 2009 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight, a monumental decision on Afghanistan. President Obama's plan to escalate a war most Americans do not support.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's my intention to finish the job.
ROBERTS: Will a troop surge work? What will the consequences be if it does not?
And India takes center stage, snags the first state dinner in the Obama administration. Why is this emerging economic power so important to the United States?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: India is going to be central to what we want to do in the world.
ROBERTS: Also, a disturbing new trend. Police say they can't keep track of all of the registered sex offenders. There are just too many to keep an eye on. The Internet provides easy prey. How can you keep your family safe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN TONIGHT live from New York. Here now John Roberts.
ROBERTS: Good evening, and thanks for joining us. At this hour, we're waiting for the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh (ph), to arrive at the White House. President Obama and the first lady will play host to their first state dinner, an invitation was not easy to come by.
The guest list includes a who's who of Washington heavy hitters, Hollywood stars and business chiefs. Three hundred and twenty people will gather under a White House tent in the south lawn. Singer Jennifer Hudson will headline the event.
The National Symphony Orchestra and the United States Marine Band will also perform. Earlier today, President Obama met with the Indian prime minister and described the two countries as quote "natural allies" -- topping the agenda, a range of global issues including climate change and trade. The United States is India's largest trading partner. President Obama has promised to visit India next year.
Now to President Obama's big decision on the war in Afghanistan -- the president said today that he plans on finishing the job there. We will find out exactly what that means on December 1st, when a formal announcement on a troop surge will be made. It has been almost three months since General Stanley McChrystal reported that the United States risked failure in Afghanistan without 40,000 additional troops.
Word is the president has agreed to some kind of middle ground. The lackluster public support for the eight-year long war, our Dan Lothian reports on what could be a defining moment in the Obama presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama has publicly condemned leaks from his closed door Afghanistan deliberations, so at a brief press event, that was used to try to pry the president decision loose.
MARK KNOLLER, CBS NEWS: Mr. President, I suspect you don't want my colleagues and I to rely on leaks until next week, so I'd like to ask you about...
OBAMA: Why stop now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well...
LOTHIAN: Mr. Obama didn't give an inch, providing no details on his new strategy. And even though most Americans are uneasy with the war in Afghanistan, the president didn't appear concerned.
OBAMA: I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supported.
LOTHIAN: After his ninth and most likely final war council meeting before making an announcement, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president has the information he wants and needs to make his decision. With India's prime minister at his side and almost a year after the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai, President Obama said the threat of al Qaeda and other extremists is a global problem, something the two leaders agree on.
MANMOHAN SINGH, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER: The forces of terrorism in our region cause great threat to the entire civilized world, and have to be defeated.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: Now President Obama did take a swipe at the Bush administration's Afghanistan policy, saying that at times over the past eight years they did not have the resources or the right strategy to get the job done, and the president saying that it his intention to quote, "finish the job" -- John.
ROBERTS: Dan, did the president's advisers reach a consensus on the way forward in Afghanistan?
LOTHIAN: Well it's unclear at this point, but what I will tell us is that I spoke with a senior administration official and said while the president really did sort of try to get as many differing opinions during this drawn-out process that when it came down to it, and the president did make his decision on the strategy going forward, that everyone would get behind it to make sure that the strategy rather is successful.
ROBERTS: If not consensus then, there is consensus now. Dan Lothian for us at the White House -- Dan, thanks so much.
LOTHIAN: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Americans remain sharply divided over the war in Afghanistan. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, more than half, 52 percent of Americans are opposed to the war. Forty-five percent support it. But when asked how they feel about sending in 34,000 more troops as President Obama is reportedly prepared to do, the picture changes somewhat. Fifty percent say they would support that plan while 49 percent oppose it.
Deciding whether to send more than 30,000 new troops into Afghanistan is one thing. Getting the boots on the ground there is an entirely different matter. Elaine Quijano explains the practical challenges of any troop surge and how even if the president gives the order next week, new forces won't get to Afghanistan until well into the New Year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the heels of the president's last scheduled war council meeting to review Afghanistan's strategy, Pentagon planners are now expecting orders to send about 34,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, according to a defense official. The planning calls for Army and Marine brigades as well as support troops, but top military officials have made clear getting any additional forces into the country will take months because of a lack of roads and other infrastructure.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I anticipate that as soon as the president makes his decision, we can probably begin flowing some forces in quickly after that. But it is a bigger challenge than certainly was the case in Iraq.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIR: We had in Iraq a place, a staging base in Kuwait. We don't have that in Afghanistan.
QUIJANO: The 34,000 additional troops would be less than the 40,000 sources say General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, wants. But one official says NATO allies would be asked to help fill in that gap.
GEOFF MORRELL, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: If the president decides to commit additional forces to Afghanistan, there would be an expectation that our allies would also commit additional forces. QUIJANO: For his part, the president vowed the Afghanistan war will end on his watch.
OBAMA: It is my intention to finish the job.
QUIJANO: But questions persist about Afghanistan's shaky government and the ability of Afghanistan forces to take over security responsibilities.
(on camera): Can one realistically put a date certain on finishing the job in Afghanistan?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's unknowable how long it will take, but I think we all have to work with the idea that we have goals, landmarks, things to shoot for to get this done.
QUIJANO: So where would the additional troops for Afghanistan come from? Two likely spot are Fort Drum (ph), New York, where one Army brigade was recently held back from going to Iraq. The other is Fort Campbell (ph), Kentucky, which also has troops that could be deployed -- John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Elaine Quijano reporting for us from the Pentagon. In a live picture now the (INAUDIBLE) of the White House -- President Obama and the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh just walking in the front door there. Moments ago, the president and the first lady greeted the prime minister and his wife, Gur Shurron Kaur (ph).
They will now make their way through the White House out the back to the south lawn to that massive tent that has been erected there. Typically, but not always, the state dinners are held in the state dining room, which is not too far away from that door. But today, because of the number of guests and there, the president -- this is a tape moments ago -- the president and Mrs. Obama waiting out front for the prime minister to arrive.
Because of the number of guests at this state dinner, some 400 of them, they have decided to forego having dinner in the state dining room, which is limited to a little more than 100 people and they have gone out the back. Some of the notable guests who will be attending, Mayor Michael Bloomberg from the city of New York, our own Sanjay Gupta and Fareed Shakeri (ph) and Deepak Chopra (ph) will be there as well.
Super agent Ari Emanuel (ph), who many of you might recognize his character from the show "Entourage" (ph). He's also the brother of the chief of staff, Colin Powell, and Knight Shamalawn (ph) and Steven Spielberg (ph) of the film world will both be there as well and we'll have full coverage of this. The menu, kind of interesting, a combination of India and southern cooking, cheek peas (ph) and okra, green curry prawns (ph) with smoked collard greens. We'll have more on the U.S. relationship with India when foreign affairs expert Ambassador Nicolas Burns (ph) joins me here a little bit later on this hour. And how is the government planning to pay for the increased cost of the war in Afghanistan and a health care overhaul? It's a one word answer, "taxes."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: The state visit by the Indian prime minister has been full of the usual pomp and circumstance, but there's far more than parties and ceremonies on the agenda. President Obama described the partnership between India and the United States as a defining relationship, a reflection of India's emerging political and economic clout. Our Jill Dougherty explains why India has become such an important ally and a real player on the world stage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the world's largest democracy, population almost 1.2 billion. It's a nuclear power, a major trading partner with the U.S. Now President Barack Obama puts India center stage, hosting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his first state dinner. So large, the White House has constructed a massive tent on the back lawn.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is a very important relationship with a very important country that we have in the world. That's why India was chosen to be the first visit.
DOUGHERTY: The relationship started with economics and trade. President George W. Bush reached a landmark civil nuclear deal which allowed the U.S. to do business with India on nuclear technology. Now, no matter what the issue, India's importance is growing -- Counterterrorism, nonproliferation, climate change, the conflict in Afghanistan.
SINGH: I sincerely hope that the world community will have the wisdom to stay engaged in that process and any premature thought of exit will only embolden the terrorists (INAUDIBLE) who are out to destabilize not only our part of the world but civilized worlds everywhere.
DOUGHERTY: President Obama's recent trip to China and his attention to Beijing makes India nervous. So does his focus on India's neighbor and rival, Pakistan. This visit is one way Mr. Obama will try to alleviate those concerns, but long-term India's burgeoning economy and its effect on global warming says one expert could be a key issue between the U.S. and India.
TERESITA C. SCHAFFER, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTL STUDIES: I will also be listening for what if anything they say about climate change, where India and the United States are actually both having a little difficulty taming this issue domestically. They both have serious domestic problems with what we would like to do.
DOUGHERTY (on camera): The two countries are pledging to work together on everything from food security to green technology to counterterrorism, proof President Obama says of India's indispensable role in the world today.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: India is not alone as an emerging power seeking a louder voice on global affairs. India along with three of the other fastest growing economies make up a powerful bloc of countries now commonly referred to as BRIC -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Combined BRIC maintains an impressive amount of financial prowess (ph) and as Kitty Pilgrim reports, could help shape the world economy in the decades to come.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Teaming with people, on the brink of leading the world economy in terms of growth are the countries known as BRIC -- Brazil, Russia, India and China. Together 40 percent of the world's population, a quarter of the land mass. Together, their GDP is two-thirds that of the United States.
ESWAR PRASAD, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: This is the fastest growing group of countries among the emerging markets. They have withstood the financial crisis very well and they are contributing a great deal to world growth.
PILGRIM: Brazil's (INAUDIBLE), Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, India's Manmohan Singh (ph), and China's Hu Jintao met at a BRIC summit last June in (INAUDIBLE) Russia. According to the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, which coined the term BRIC, these will be the fastest growing emerging markets. China already is the world's manufacturing center and holds some $800 billion in U.S. debt.
India's economy is expected to surpass the U.S. by 2050 as its population grows by an estimated 700 million people. Russia and Brazil have important commodities such as oil. Yet some experts point out their differences, casting doubt on their ability to coordinate policy. For example, Russia is diminishing in economic power while China and India are gaining. Brazil and Russia benefit from high commodity prices while China and India, manufacturing countries, do not.
DEREK SCISSORS, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: The countries don't perform the same way and they don't do the same things, their economic structure is completely different. It's not a very good grouping. That said, if you want to talk about important countries, China is about as important a partner of the U.S. on economic terms as there is, and India is rising in importance as a U.S. economic partner, so there are important countries within the BRIC grouping, but the BRIC grouping itself doesn't mean anything.
PILGRIM: Eswar Prasad of Brookings agrees the differences are important in terms of shaping policy. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of them are key to engage with the U.S. but on their own terms. They certainly do have very different goals and objectives so the U.S. is going to have to have a strategy of engaging with each of them individually, not just as a group.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, one thing is apparent. While you can quibble about the different objectives of the four countries, it's clear that in terms of dealing with the economic future, the U.S. strategy will have to take this entire group into account -- John.
ROBERTS: As Derek Scissors pointed out in your report there, these countries are so different. What do they want in terms of common policy?
PILGRIM: You know it's hard to sort of find a common thread, but you know in terms of the economic crisis, they're quite critical of U.S. policy and they want economic -- they want financial reforms. Also, they argue strenuously for open markets obviously as emerging economies.
ROBERTS: Kitty Pilgrim tonight -- Kitty, thanks so much.
We'll have much more on the importance of the relationship between the United States and India. We'll be joined by Ambassador Nicolas Burns (ph), a leading expert on the region.
And lost in New York -- how a teenage runaway stayed underground on the subways for nearly two weeks without anyone noticing and a massive health care plan, two wars, we'll tell you how the government plans to pay for it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: The tab for the federal government's health care overhaul could be around $850 billion. As the White House plans its strategy for Afghanistan, the cost of that war will almost certainly climb. Now the White House and Congress are looking for ways to pay the bill. And as Lisa Sylvester reports, that may mean new taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congress is proposing a heap of new taxes -- a 5.4 percent health care tax for individuals earning $500,000 a year, a proposed tax on so-called Cadillac insurance plans, which is opposed by labor unions, a quarter percent tax on each stock transaction known as the Wall Street tax, and possibly, if the war in Afghanistan goes on, a new five percent tax on the rich.
REP. DAVID OBEY (D), WISCONSIN: What we're suggesting is a war surtax, a graduated tax so that -- so that we -- we don't devour with that war cost every other priority that we have in the economy.
SYLVESTER: President Obama is also prepared to let the Bush tax cuts expire in January 2011 for those making more than $250,000 a year.
GERALD PRANTE, TAX FOUNDATION: One of his concerns is just to more evenly -- is to use tax policy to make a more even distribution of the economic pie.
SYLVESTER: According to a study by the Tax Foundation high income earners in some states could see their marginal tax rate increase more than 60 percent. Democratic Representative Ed Perlmutter (ph) who has proposed a Wall Street tax sees nothing wrong with getting the rich to pitch in more.
Quote "taxpayers helped stabilize Wall Street last year and now Wall Street needs to help Main Street". But those new taxes could stall an economic recovery says the National Taxpayers Union, which favors lower taxes and smaller government.
PETE SEPP, NATL. TAXPAYERS UNION: The more we keep ratcheting up taxes on individuals and small business owners, the greater potential we have to do damage to any future economic recovery. That's especially true of these new income and payroll tax proposals in the health care bill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: At least one tax that has already been implemented does impacts families in all income brackets, the federal cigarette tax passed earlier this year, it increased from 39 cents to just over $1 -- John.
ROBERTS: A lot of new taxes in a lot of different places -- Lisa Sylvester for us tonight -- Lisa thanks.
A major stumbling block to a proposed multibillion dollar development in Brooklyn has been removed by a state court. The ruling dismissed a challenge to the states use of eminent domain. Critics argue that the state's use of eminent domain on behalf of a private developer was a violation of the state's Constitution. The court, however, disagreed. Ines Ferre reported on this case last week and she's here with me now.
So tell us a little bit more about this. Do opponents of this development think that they can still block what is going on or do they think they have lost?
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well they're hoping to. I mean they're saying that they're still fighting this. And Daniel Goldstein is the lead opponent of the project. He and his family have been fighting to stay in their three-bedroom Brooklyn condo since 2006. There home sits on the site for a plan (INAUDIBLE) that would house the NBA's Nets.
New York's court of appeals said the state could use eminent domain given that the area was deemed blighted. Despite the ruling Goldstein points out that there are still pending lawsuits involving the project and his team plans to file yet another suit next week to try and stop the project. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL GOLDSTEIN, DEVELOPEDONTDESTROY.ORG: So we invite the governor to come see our blighted neighborhood and tell us how it's different than any other neighborhood in this country that isn't being seized for a private developer and tell us how they should seize a blighted neighborhood so-called for a money losing arena in a financial crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FERRE: Now the developer Bruce Ratner (ph) said the project will be a public benefit and create thousands of jobs. And in a statement today, the state agency that overseas development said quote "we can now move forward with development which will accomplish its goals of eliminated blight, and bringing transportation improvements, an arena, open space, affordable housing and thousands of jobs to the people of Brooklyn and the state of New York."
And in the court's majority opinion, the chief judge noted however that the bar may have been set too low. That what will now pass as blight shouldn't be a predicate for the invasion of property rights and he went on to say that that is a matter for the legislator, John, not the courts now.
ROBERTS: So Daniel Goldstein had been offered a certain sum of money for his property. Now the court has ruled in the favor of the developer, is he going to take that money and go away?
FERRE: Well he said that he had been offered -- that the tenants -- or the residents had been offered something like $850 a square foot years ago, and now the city has told him what they plan to offer, and that's less than half of that. So what he can do is challenge that price if it gets to that point, but they're really hoping to fight this with several lawsuits.
ROBERTS: So he's losing lots of money. What about the cost of just fighting this lawsuit?
FERRE: Oh it's cost him over $1 million. He said that it cost over $1 million just to fight this lawsuit and that all of these lawsuits, and that they have taken donations from the neighbors, from the neighborhood.
ROBERTS: I am sure he's hoping he's going to win in the appeals court. Ines Ferre, thanks so much.
In economic news tonight, home prices rose 3.1 percent last quarter. It is the second quarterly increase, according to the S&B Kay Schiller (ph) index, but compared to a year ago prices are down nine percent. And there's even more disturbing news about foreclosures. A new report says 23 percent of homeowners owe more on their mortgages than what their property is worth, 10.7 million borrowers are underwater.
Meanwhile, the consumer confidence index came in higher than expected. The Conference Board (ph) reported a November rating of 49.5. October's revised figure was 48.7. While the news was better than economists had predicted, it still shows that consumers are feeling pretty cautious ahead of this holiday season.
Coming up, an explosion in the number of registered sex offenders -- it's got police and investigators scrambling to track them. What does it mean for your child's safety? We'll have the very latest information.
And President Obama's first state dinner is starting right now at the White House. As the president hosts India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh (ph), we'll examine why that is such an important relationship.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN TONIGHT live from New York.
ROBERTS: President Obama tonight hosting a state dinner for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (ph). Earlier in the day, the president declared U.S. ties with India would be one of the defining relationships of the 21st Century. But why is the relationship between the two countries so critical? Joining me now to discuss all of this Ambassador Nicholas Burns. Ambassador Burns, currently a professor of diplomacy in international politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He's a former ambassador at the NATO in Greece and has served in both republican and democratic administrations.
Mr. Ambassador, good to see you tonight. Thanks for taking the time.
AMB. NICHOLAS BURNS, PROF. AT THE KENNEDY SCHOOL AT HARVARD UNIV.: Nice to see you, John.
ROBERTS: Of all of the countries that loom large on the foreign policy radar screen, why India as the first state visit and state dinner?
BURNS: I think because India is the world's largest democracy, and its interests both in south Asia where we have the war in Afghanistan and globally are pretty much consistent with those of the United States. In south Asia, India is going to be critical in helping stabilize Afghanistan through its economic aid of the Karzai government, and we also want India to reduce its problems and its misunderstandings with Pakistan so Pakistan can turn their full attention to fight the al Qaeda and the Taliban on the Afghan/Pakistan border. I think that is probably now the most critical American foreign policy objective, success in Pakistan and Afghanistan. India is critical to that and in a larger sense, as we negotiate the rise of China in the world and watch China come to world power, it's going to be important to have a Democratic country like India alongside us helping to manage China's rise so that it can be done in a peaceful way. So I think that in the next 40 to 50 years we'll look upon India as one of our two or three most important friends in the world. I think the potential is that great in this relationship. ROBERTS: Let's drill down just a little bit on the issue of Afghanistan because it is front and center with the president making an announcement about a troop surge next Tuesday and how big that troop surge will be. Pakistan has appealed to the White House to get Indian troops off its doorstep. Of course there is the decades old dispute about Kazmir. They have gone to war several times over that. Pakistan is saying all of our forces or many of our forces at the very least are tied up on the front border with India because of the threat from India. We could divert those forces and put them to work fighting the Taliban in the northwest frontier provinces if you could just get India to dial down the tensions and remove its troops. Is that likely to figure prominently in the discussions of the president and the prime minister?
BURNS: I'm sure that issue of India's relations with Pakistan was front and center in the talks today. My own view, and I try to be objective about these things, is that I think it's really Pakistani paranoia about India that fuels a lot of this misunderstanding. It does take two to tango. The two countries have made mistakes in the past. The Pakistanis see India as a mortal threat to them, and frankly, I think the Indian government has been remarkably restrained over the past year. You remember John, a year ago this week, a terrorist hit the hotels in Mumbai, horrific terrorist attacks killed countless people. The Indian government, the Prime Minister Singh didn't respond militarily. In fact, they tried to resolve the differences peacefully. And Pakistan hasn't even arrested the people suspected in their country of having masterminded those attacks. So I really think that it's a question of trying to reduce tensions between the two so that Pakistan can take the bulk of its troops that on the Indian border, transfer them to the Afghan/Pakistan border so we can have a more effective fight against the terrorist groups on that border.
ROBERTS: Let's turn to the relationship between the U.S. and India. You wrote about this in an op ed in the Boston Globe today in which you said, "Influential Indians complain the Obama administration is diminishing America's prior strategic priority on India to avoid antagonizing regional rivals Pakistan and China. They worried the Obama team doesn't embrace the core conviction that India's dramatic rise to global power is clearly in the U.S. interest." Is India feeling neglected?
BURNS: I think in some ways it is. You know India had so much attention by President Clinton and especially President Bush, that when the Obama team came in, you know by necessity they were focused on these terrible problems in the Middle East and south Asia and Afghanistan and so I think they really didn't find their voice, the Obama administration, on India until recently. So there is a barrier to overcome there but frankly, President Obama now is literally rolling out the red carpet for Prime Minister Singh. This is the first state visit of the Obama administration, so it's a dramatic gesture and a very strong one by President Obama to signal that India is a priority. I hope this week the attention given to India will convince Indians the United States is interested in its rise to power and wants to be a partner with India for the future. ROBERTS: Mr. Ambassador, many Americans look at India and they see outsourcing, they see customer service call centers in Mumbai, they see American jobs going away. They're frustrated by all of this. What do you say to the American worker about why they should embrace the idea of a tight relationship between the United States and India? What are they going to get out of it?
BURNS: Well I can certainly - I think everybody can certainly understand the sentiment that people don't want to see jobs leave the United States needlessly. We have to insist on fair play in trade. India, like every other country, has to meet its international obligations to trade fairly. That's an important point.
Secondly, I think it's important for Americans also to remember that we do derive a benefit from American investment in India. There are tremendous sales opportunities for American firms and nuclear power plant construction with the civil nuclear energy deal about to be completed and also the modernization of India's military infrastructure and there's also a tremendous Indian investment in the high-tech sectors in the United States, right here in Boston, Massachusetts in the life sciences and in high tech and particularly in Silicon Valley. So the investment goes both way. There is job creation in the United States from Indian investment, but I'm sympathetic to American workers. They have a right to expect that their government, our government, will be very tough-minded on trade, and insist that every country including India meet their commitments to us.
ROBERTS: Ambassador Nicholas Burns, great to talk to you. As always, thanks for joining us.
BURNS: Thanks John.
ROBERTS: Coming up, the trouble tracking sex offenders. Why your children may be more vulnerable than ever.
And an autistic run away survived 11 days in the New York subway system. Why it took police so long to find him despite his family's frantic pleas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A remarkable story of survival to tell you about tonight out of New York City. A teenage run away is back home after he said he spent 11 straight days riding the city's vast subway system. Francisco Hernandez, Jr. has Asberger Syndrome. It's a form of autism. Now, many are questioning how he went undetected for so long despite a search from police, family, friends, even the Mexican consulate. Mary Snow with the story of how Francisco vanished underground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marisela Garcia rummages through her 13-year-old's backpack, showing what Francisco lived on for 11 days riding New York City subways. Along with potato chip wrappers and a Coke can is his sweatshirt he worn seen on his missing person's posters. Francisco Hernandez, Jr. has offered new words. He has Asberger Syndrome, a form of autism. Because of that, his mother says exactly what happened to him remains a mystery.
MARISELA GARCIA, MOTHER OF RUNAWAY TEEN: He's never explained what happened in these days.
SNOW: He still hasn't been able to tell you what happened.
GARCIA: No. Look at him now. He doesn't express nothing.
SNOW: Francisco says he didn't ask for help or communicate with anyone, which experts say is not uncommon for people with Asberger Syndrome. His mother said Francisco never came home from school October 15th, fearing he would get in trouble for something that happened at school. While she and her husband searched frantically and made up posters, the teen disappeared among the millions of people who ride the subways every day.
How did you live, what did you eat?
FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ, JR., RUNAWAY TEEN: A sandwich and mostly whatever I could find.
SNOW: He had $11 with him, slept on the trains and used bathrooms in the stations. Here in Brooklyn's Coney Island, this is it last stop for several train lines. Eleven days after Francisco disappeared, a police officer found him on his platform. He said he recognized him after seeing a poster. His mother says he looked skinny and was dirty. While she's relieved he's finally home, she expressed frustration with the police saying they didn't do enough to help initially so she turned to the Mexican consulate for help
GARCIA: Because I'm Mexican, I try to -- somebody else help me because the police don't do nothing. I tried to find somebody else to help me. And the Mexican consulate come to the police.
SNOW: The city's police commissioner was asked about the criticism and how the boy could have gone undetected for so long.
RAYMOND KELLY, NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER: Obviously this search was not only focused on the subway system early on in the 11-day period. In my judgment, based on the information I have, I think we did everything that was appropriate.
SNOW: Francisco's mother said she worries her son may take off again and said she doesn't know where to turn to for help. She said her son did run away once before in January for a few hours before returning home. At that point, he also ran away to the subway system. Why the subways? For some reason, he seems to feel safe there.
Mary Snow, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Amazing story. Turning now to a troubling new trend. A stunning rise in registered sex offenders. Two recent crimes, the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping and the serial murders of 11 women in Cleveland have shown a new spotlight on the difficulties of tracking of sex offenders. And the explosion of internet technology has given sex offenders a vast landscape on how to ply their perversions. How to keep your kids safe, joining me now former sex crimes prosecutor Courtney Pilchman and Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Seven hundred sixteen thousand registered sex offenders in this country this year. So 78 percent increase since 2001. Earnie, why the dramatic increase? Are there actually more sex offenders in the United States than there ever was, or are we just better at prosecuting and identifying them?
ERNIE ALLEN, NATL. CTR. FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: John, I think the answer is a little bit of both. First, the sex offender registry system in the United States is relatively new. The act passed in the mid-90s, so today, every state has a registry, but secondly, the internet has changed everything. It's provided the ability for abusers to target children online. There were 50 prosecutions, federal prosecutions, for child pornography in 1995. There were 2500 last year. And that's impacting prison populations and sex offender registries.
ROBERTS: I want to talk more about the impact of the internet and all of the new devices and how it's making it easier for sex offender to apply their perversions. Let's talk about enforcement here. With that number of registered sex offenders in the United States, are authorities just overwhelmed trying to keep track of them? Prosecutions are up, more people are sentences, but at the same time in this economic climate, states are slashing the budget of their parole departments.
COURTNEY PILCHMAN, FMR. SEX CRIMES PROSECUTOR: That's exactly the case, John, that they're overburden and they can't watch anybody. And the truth is there are more crimes than need be that registration. You see the high school kids are doing that, urinating in public, that's a registerable offense. Sometimes people do crimes that don't require registration. We need to come up with a system that establishes a hierarchy and has an elevated status for those who are serious offenders who we want to keep a close eye on and maybe those who are going to require a lot of attention, maybe an annual check-in with your local law enforcement agency.
ROBERTS: Can parents be assured if there's a sex offender living in their area, particularly one out on parole, that he or she is being adequately monitored?
PILCHMAN: No, absolutely not. They can't, John. There's too many of them. First of all, you have to rely on the fact that the person who is the sex offender is actually registering. I'm in California. We have people who are not even residents of the country who have committed a sex offense that would require registration, but they're not going to work into their local law enforcement agency and register. So there's no way that they can be assured. ROBERTS: Let's go back to the internet. This is a particularly important aspect of all of this that we want to talk about because it seems to be making it easier for sex offenders to find prey. When we look at the social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook, they do have controls, they do try to keep sex offenders out but they can't cover everybody, can they?
ALLEN: They can't, and they have made dramatic progress, dramatic strides in keeping kids safer and keeping sex offenders off. The big challenge is that sex offenders today can be anonymous. Ten years ago, they were aberrant. They were viewed as outcasts. Suddenly, they discover there are lots of people like them around the world. They could network and trade information. They can target kids with little risk of apprehension. It's a more complex problem than it's been before.
ROBERTS: Courtney, the Washington Post took a look at this the other day, in particular, how the technology explosion is giving sex predators free reign. They said in the article, listen to this, "A man on probation in Iowa for molesting a 9-year-old girl was recently caught downloading pornographic images of a young girl on his Playstation portable while walking to his probation appointment." That's incredible.
PILCHMAN: It's totally incredible and you have all these hot spots and places where you can get free internet access and all you need to do is get a non-service provider piece of equipment like an iPhone or an I touch and you go to your local Starbucks and download all of the child pornography you want without anybody even knowing. You could go to public libraries. We've got cases here where people have gone into the public libraries to get computer access. It's unbelievable how real true criminals can circumvent the law and continue committing criminal acts and very serious criminal acts.
ROBERTS: Ernie bottom line here, we're good at prosecuting sex offenders, but do we need to be better at the back end, after they get out, after they're on probation or if they're on probation, do we need to get better at that?
ALLEN: John we really do. We don't have enough resources. We know the numbers of convicted offenders are climbing. We need to put more attention on the back end, more monitoring, more supervision, and we also need to target the most serious offenders. All sex offers are not alike. All sex offenders do not represent the same degree of risk to the community, so we need to engage in the kind of triage. We need to measure and evaluate who represents the greatest threat and make sure we use technology and personnel to monitor, supervise, do follow up. It's not only the right thing for society; it's the best thing for these offenders. The last thing they need is anonymity.
ROBERTS: A big challenge out there. Ernie Allen and Courtney Pilchman, thank you for being with us tonight. Good to see you.
ALLEN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Still ahead tonight, CNN hero, Andrea Ivory, and a breast cancer survivor, bringing early detection to the doorsteps of uninsured Florida women.
And bison taking over Catalina Island. Is buffalo birth control the answer? These stories and more when CNN Tonight continues.
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ROBERTS: We've all heard stories of bears, deer, coyotes, even pythons making their way into suburban neighborhoods. Now add bison to the list. While most communities turn to hunting and killing to control pesky populations, scientists in one southern California community are taking a much kinder, gentler approach. Casey Wian has our story.
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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bison roaming free -- not on the American plain but within sight of the southern California coastline. Many of the hundreds of thousands of tourists each year who make the short trip to Catalina Island are drawn by the chance to see a bison in the wild. But in recent years bison overpopulation has threatened the island's ecosystem. 14 bison were originally brought to Catalina Island for a 1920s movie shoot. By the 1960s they had multiplied to 600. The conservancy that operates most has tried to ship some back to Native American reservations in South Dakota. Now it has settled or a more humane, cost-effective experiment, bison birth control.
ANN MUSCAT, CATALINA ISLAND CONSERVANCY: We are trying to find a balance between ecological, cultural, social and economic values. We could keep a small number of animals on the island. We could continue to monitor their impacts and manage for their impacts on the environment, but they will still be here for people to enjoy.
WIAN: Scientists, animal rights activists, conservancy workers and volunteers helped lure Catalina's bison into pens. Females were injected with an animal contraceptive called PZP which has never been tried on bison in the wild. The hope is it will reduce births by about 90 percent by thickening the walls of female bison eggs. The injections are expected to have no impact on bison behavior while eliminating the need for expensive and potentially harmful relocation. It may take two years to determine whether the plan will work but seeing it in action brought one longtime animal activist to tears.
BILL DYER, IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS: I would like to thank the Catalina Island for taking this unique step that will save the lives - I'm sorry.
WIAN: Catalina bison were then re-released to roam the island to be a link to America's past.
Casey Wian, CNN, Catalina Island, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Ultimately Catalina locals tell us they hope to stabilize it to 150 to 200 bison.
Coming up at the top of the hour Campbell Brown. She's here now. Can you top that?
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I can't. It was very moving, John.
We do have a little breaking news at this hour, as you probably know. Guests arriving for President Obama's first state dinner, and we are going to have live pictures, all the latest details from the dinner coming up.
And also tonight, what does your DNA reveal? We had a woman who uncovered Michelle Obama's family roots. She's here to tell us how you can look into yours. John?
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. See you at the top of the hour.
Still ahead this evening, one woman suffering from breast cancer refuses to give up and instead helps more than 600 others. Her story is next.
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ROBERTS: On thanksgiving night Anderson Cooper and an all-star cast will announce your CNN hero of the year. From now until then we will be profiling each of the ten finalists. Tonight Andrea Ivory. Andrea had breast cancer. Even while she was suffering, her thoughts were on how she could help others. Here is her story.
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ANDREA IVORY, CNN HERO: I had cancer. I have health insurance, but throughout my treatment and recovery I was thinking about those women who didn't have health insurance and I thought about those women who were dying from breast cancer because they lacked access to available treatment and awareness. It was right then and there throughout my recovery, I just knew I had to make a difference in their lives.
Good morning, everyone. Every woman, regardless of her ability to pay, has a right to benefit from the early detection of breast cancer.
CHARLENE THOMAS, VOLUNTEER: The first thing they notice is probably her hair. It's always perfectly done.
IVORY: The Florida breast health initiative.
THOMAS: The second thing you notice about Andrea, she's very stubborn.
IVORY: Please let me make an appointment for you. It's so convenient. If they don't have health insurance, we can get them free screenings, OK? I knew we had to have an unconventional approach. If we could bring the services to them in their neighborhood, that makes all the difference in the world. If we go to neighborhoods, that are forgotten. Anybody in your family have breast cancer?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mother.
IVORY: And how is she doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She passed away when I was seven.
IVORY: One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer over their lifetime.
JESSICA ORTIZ, VOLUNTEER: We went through a lot with when we found out about the lump she had in her breasts. My mom went into the hospital and they didn't accept her because she didn't have insurance.
NEREIDA AGUAYO, JESSICA'S MOTHER: That was very scary. If I have to go through chemotherapy or anything else, how do I afford that?
ORTIZ: I introduced Andrea to my mom. She got us the free mammogram. When we got the phone call the mammogram came back negative, that was one of the best moments of my life.
AGUAYO: I'm just happy.
IVORY: Yes! If you could tell me that we would be visiting 20,000 homes or we would have helped over 600 women, I would have told you I wasn't part of that. How many appointments did you make? Oh, great. Get out of here. Good girl. When I talk to my volunteers or when I go knock on the door and talk to a woman, it's almost hike an out-of-body experience. It's not really me. It's someone else that's speaking to them because I would have never done this years ago. Coming back next week?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
IVORY: Do you feel the power?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yep.
IVORY: I feel the power.
AGUAYO: Andrea put faith in me, in people. Now today I have faith in people. We need more people that care for other people.
IVORY: When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I never asked why me. Instead I asked what for?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And be sure to tune into CNN on thanksgiving night when we will announce the CNN hero of the year for 2009.
Thanks for being with us tonight. I will see you back here again at 6:00 a.m. eastern on "AMERICAN MORNING." Kind of hurts just to say it.
Coming up next, Campbell Brown.
