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Campbell Brown

Times Square Scare; Civil Liberties Vs. National Security; Oil Spill Disaster

Aired May 07, 2010 - 20:00   ET

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

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Campbell is off tonight. I'm Candy Crowley.

Here in New York, the city was just starting to let its guards down, but Times Square went right back into panic mode today. The crossroads of the world blocked off yet again. This time, a false alarm. But after Saturday's very real bomb plot, allegedly at the hands of an American, serious questions are now being asked across the country. Questions that speak to the very values that make us American. How can we balance our fundamental freedoms with the need to keep our country safe.

Plus, a revealing look at the wife of suspect Faisal Shahzad. She too is an American. But while authorities have her husband, no one can find her.

Also tonight, we're getting our first look inside a damaged national treasure. Nashville's Grand Ole Opry hit hard by this week's devastating floods. You'll see what's being done to save this country music shrine.

And breaking news in the oil spill disaster, a giant metal dome could be placed over the leak tonight, a crucial step in trying to save the gulf waters. But now, we're learning survivors of that initial explosion were pressured to sign legal waivers right after the tragedy. Was that legal? Was it right? Experts on both sides are here to talk about it.

We start tonight with our cheat sheet of the top stories, our "Mash-Up."

Our top domestic story, the Wall Street mystery deepens. The Dow was down again today by only 139 points. A trickle compared to yesterday's terrifying thousand-point plunge. And tonight, analysts are still trying to piece together exactly what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's been emerging is a man versus machine debate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Early reports suggested someone who meant to execute a trade in the millions mistakenly typed in billions. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Firms that use computers to trade huge numbers of stock shut down during the plunge which may have made things worse. Many traders simply frozen with fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because 60 percent of trading is now done out in the digital ether. Human beings the old-fashioned stock exchange had no way to stop it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The New York Stock Exchange canceled 4,000 transactions on its electronic trading platform they say were erroneous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, if you woke up this morning, guys, like wow, I made a ton of money when that thing was down 900 points. Maybe you didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: The SEC promises to make public whatever it learns about the glitch felt around the world.

In Great Britain, the winner of the race for Prime Minister is none of the above. The vote was split, and now the scramble is on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Cameron's conservatives won the most seats in parliament, but fell short of the majority Cameron needs to govern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it is already clear that the labor government has lost its mandate to govern our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two main party leaders have had time to reflect and regroup, and they both realize that they need the Lib Dems on side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For my part, I should make clear that I would be willing to see any of the party leaders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The liberal Democrats leader, Nick Clegg, whose 57 seats puts him third, but makes him the new king-maker. While he decides who to back, Gordon Brown clings on at number 10 downing street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Brown will remain in power until his party is defeated in parliament or he tenders his resignation to the queen.

Today's top political story in this country, new job numbers out today. The good news, nearly 300,000 new jobs were added in April. The not so good news, unemployment inched back up to 9.9 percent. President Obama cautiously optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to be mindful that today's job numbers while welcome leave us with a lot of work to do. It's going to take time to achieve the strong and sustained job growth that is necessary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In almost every area, American business was generating jobs in April. In all, the economy has now added well over a half of million jobs since December.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But with April's new jobs, why then did the unemployment rate actually go up? Economists explain it this way. With the job market picking up now, many who had given up or who had run out of benefits are now back in the hunt for a job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Republicans not so rosy about today's numbers. House Minority Leader John Boehner saying President Obama promised to keep unemployment under 8 percent.

Our number one buzz story, TV legend Betty White, thanks to pressure for more than half a million Facebook users. The golden girl takes on her biggest role yet, co-hosting this weekend's "Saturday Night Live," appearing alongside musical guest hip-hop icon Jay-Z. White's getting ready for her big night with a little help from "SNL" vet, Jimmy Fallon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST: Are you going to do any sketches with Jay-Z?

BETTY WHITE, ENTERTAINER: I think we have a couple. But you know, Jay-Z has 99 problems. (EXPLETIVE WORD) one of them.

FALLON: This ain't one of them.

My advice is to trust everyone because I know they have the best, you know, wardrobe and hair and makeup. They're going to be pulling you in between sketches and taking off your clothes and putting on wigs.

WHITE: I hear that they manhandle you pretty good. It's been a long time since I've been manhandled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: White will be tag-teaming the hosting duties with six former female cast members.

And that brings us to tonight's punch line courtesy of Jon Stewart, who doesn't think the Times Square terror suspect is all that bright.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST: He's not just a terrorist, he is a moron. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say he left the getaway keys hanging in the rear hatch door of the bomb-carrying SUV. He also left behind the keys to his home. He gets to Connecticut, tells his landlord, I need your help getting into my apartment.

STEWART: Then he gets into his apartment and realizes I left the tub running. He slips on the water, lands on a cactus, and falls right into his bear trap collection. That rattles his bookcase and his bowling ball falls right on top of his head. What are we going to do in this country when we get attacked by someone who is not one of the home alone burglars?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Jon Stewart, everybody, and that is the "Mash-Up."

Coming up, America on edge. Another scare in New York City. And calls for even stronger anti-terror laws. Can we protect the country and our freedoms?

Also, where in the world is this woman? She's an American, and she is married to the Times Square bombing suspect. So, did she know anything?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: It was another chaotic and scary day in midtown Manhattan. Police locked down and swarmed Times Square to investigate a suspicious package. It all happened just one block from the spot where a bomb-filled SUV was found just days ago. Here's how the drama unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hearing a suspicious package. Parts of Times Square are evacuated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is all about a cooler that has been left in front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel that's on Broadway between 45th and 46th streets, right smack in the middle of Times Square.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm right in the middle of Broadway. This is 47th Street right behind me. You can still see that there are cars going behind me, but beyond that, you can see that Times Square is entirely empty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've confirmed with the New York police department that the bomb squad has deployed its robot that is doing an x-ray of that cooler.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An all-clear is about to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, we know what was inside the cooler, and the answer is water bottles.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CROWLEY: New York City has been on high alert since the botched terror attack Saturday. Investigators are looking into a possible conspiracy. The hunt is on for a money man believed to have funneled overseas cash to Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square suspect. Officials are in Pakistan to question members of an al Qaeda-linked group.

Shahzad claims he spent five months at a terrorist training camp there, but the foreign connection is still a big question mark. And just today, General David Petraeus said he believes Faisal Shahzad was a, quote, "lone wolf."

The scare in Times Square today in the foiled terror attack last weekend has the country doing some serious soul-searching. Americans are facing a new round of debate. How much are people willing to give up in the name of security? Some lawmakers in Congress have rolled out a highly controversial bill to strip the citizenship of Americans suspected of having terror ties.

Joining us are Joan Walsh, the editor of salon.com and Richard Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you both for being here. Richard, let me ask you first. If such a law were to go into effect, if someone gave money to one of these many institutions that are out there, let's say Hamas or Hezbollah, would you be okay with that person making a contribution to either of those groups being stripped of their citizenship?

RICHARD PERLE, FMR. ASST. SEC. OF DEFENSE: Well, of course, it would depend on the circumstances and whether this was done with the knowledge that the contribution was intended to support terrorist activity. I believe the statute as it's drafted deals only with deliberate acts associated with terror and not with accidental or inadvertent ones, or acts made in ignorance. So, there's a pretty serious burden to demonstrate that the action is justified.

CROWLEY: But Joan, there are a lot of people have some serious problems with this, wondering whether it's constitutional or not. When you take a look at this, does the language seem a little fuzzy to you?

JOAN WALSH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SALON.COM: I don't know how they prove, Candy, that this person is, indeed, engaged in terrorism or has joined a terrorist group. Look, I think this bill is clearly unconstitutional the way it's written. I think the case law and the precedents are very strong. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled on behalf of a Jewish man who actually took a trip to Israel, and while he was there, he voted in the Knesset. And the United States tried to strip him of his citizenship. They ruled very strongly that this right is almost, almost impossible to take away from us. But let me say one more thing that's more relevant.

This is a dumb law because let's say this law passed and was in effect now, Eric Holder, instead of getting every shred of information, preventing another attack, Eric Holder and his lawyers would be in a courtroom trying to prove that in some fashion -- because you'd have to have some kind of evidentiary rules, basis for making this determination, that's what we would be doing. That's what our lawyers would be doing would be proving that he should have his citizenship taken away. How would that make us safer?

CROWLEY: Richard, what is the point do you think here like from an investigative or a counterterrorism perspective, what do you get if you strip somebody of their citizenship before a trial?

PERLE: Well, presumably, the only illegal act committed by an individual subjected to this would be joining a terrorist organization or engaging in activity, which if it came to fruition would result in an act of terror. The issue partly is whether we're going to wait until the attack takes place or whether we're going to attempt to act before.

And given the dangers that we face, given the possibility that the future act of terror will involve a weapon of mass destruction, it seems to me if we get on to someone who is working with terrorists, we ought to take some action first.

WALSH: Well we do. We do take some action. We come after them. There are laws, existing laws on the books. They don't take away someone's citizenship. But they do make it possible to try them, to convict them, and to sentence them to very long, long prison sentences, even for collaborating, planning, giving money, joining a group. Many of those things are already crimes.

So, I don't see, A, what this gets us in terms of safety, and B, what would the standard of proof be? It couldn't simply be that I say that Richard Perle is a terrorist. He joined a terrorist group. So, what would the standard of proof be that would be sufficient to take away my citizenship?

PERLE: Ultimately, that would presumably be up to the courts because an individual so affected would have a right to appeal to the federal courts.

WALSH: Right.

PERLE: And I have some confidence that it would be properly adjudicated. But the statute that's being amended here to include actions of terror is a statute that exists today, and it takes citizenship away from people who, for example, join an army in combat with the United States. I haven't heard anyone object to that. But the nature of warfare has changed.

We're a lot less concerned now about people who join an army, battling the army of the United States than we are about people who join, say, an al Qaeda and prepare or commit acts of terror. And that's what this is intended to deal with.

CROWLEY: Richard, I got to stop right here. I'm sorry. I know on 24-hour TV, you ought to be able to go longer, but we've got to run. Richard Perle, Joan Walsh, thank you so much for joining us.

PERLE: My pleasure.

WALSH: Thanks, Candy.

CROWLEY: Coming up, the Times Square suspect is behind bars tonight, but his American wife is nowhere to be found. Was Huma Mian aware of the deadly scheme? Tonight, we have new details on who she is and what she may know.

And then the massive containment dome being lowered right now to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The big question tonight, will it be able to stop the oil from gushing into the water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Tonight, we are getting a fuller picture of the man at the center of the Times Square bomb investigation. Look at this just released picture of Faisal Shahzad on his wedding day. Sitting next to him, his American-born wife, Huma Mian. Tonight, her whereabouts are unknown. She is not a suspect, and it's unclear what, if anything she knew about her husband's alleged plot. Could she really have been in the dark the whole time?

Asra Nomani, a contributor to The Daily Beast and author of "Standing Alone, an American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam." She's been investigating Huma Mian's life. Also, with us, Irshad Manji, author of "The Trouble with Islam Today."

Asra, let me begin with you. You follow the trail online. Tell us what you learned about Huma Mian.

ASRA NOMANI, CONTRIBUTOR, THE DAILY BEAST: You know, Huma could be any one of us. She is the good immigrant girl next door. She grew up in Colorado, went to college there. She loved friends. She loved the show "Everybody Loves Raymond." One of her passions she wrote was shopping. And she also loved 1980s music Pakistani style. She loved one of the classics which is sort of like Phil Collins, Just One More Night. And unfortunately, one of the great tragedies in this story is her and the story of her and her children.

She got married to someone that I would consider a jihadi wannabe, somebody who wanted to make headlines and to do the kind of damage he was attempting at Times Square. One of the really poignant moments that I saw when I was watching her cybertrail, so to speak, was when she posted this photo of her and her husband standing in front of the St. Patrick's Cathedral, and she wrote, "what can I say, he is my everything." And that was her life.

CROWLEY: So, he was her life. And you've been looking at this as well, Irshad. You find her sort of entirely consistent with American-born women of Pakistani descent?

IRSHAD MANJI, AUTHOR, "THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM TODAY": Very much so. I mean, she seems to be thoroughly secular, and as us for pointed out, you know, loves the finer things in life. You know, almost like an all American girl. Now, I say almost, because she did have an arranged marriage. And it's amazing, Candy, as an activist, how many times I hear from young Muslim women right here in America, even right here in New York, who tell me how distraught they are that their parents are insisting that they marry men who they don't even know, much less like.

And so, they're really caught between two different worlds. And they live the lives of bifurcated identities where they really want to live the life of integrity. Big difference.

CROWLEY: And Asra, let me ask you, is it possible that she could not have known what her husband was up to? Because we hear these sort of anecdotal things from people who knew them saying I could tell he was different, he seemed more serious, he wasn't talking as much. He got very religious. Could his wife not have known this?

NOMANI: I think that, you know, one of the questions that the Pakistani community has to answer, the Muslim community has to examine deep in our hearts is exactly the dilemma that Huma Mian probably found herself in. Is that we know inside of our community who becomes sympathizers towards militancy, toward al Qaeda, toward the Taliban, and Huma probably knew. She probably saw a creeping conservatism. Conservatism does not mean militancy. But inside of our own communities, we can find the cues, people who become much more dogmatic about ritual. People who become much more serious and strict in their interpretation of Islam. And she probably over the course of her marriage of six years saw this in her husband.

And I would argue that inside of our own community, we can see it. And the larger situation is that Huma basically personifies our conscience, you know. To me, she represents exactly the question that we have to face inside of our own Muslim communities. When we have these, Faisal Shahzad, what do we do about them? What can we do? And we must try to curb this tendency in this bifurcated identity that so many western Muslims have toward militancy.

CROWLEY: Asra, let me stop you right there and just real quickly because I don't have much time. Is there something -- there was this question in the article like is there something the U.S., in general, can be doing to reach out to some of these men and women who seem to get disaffected even though they're American citizens?

MANJI: First of all, you know, the United States, like every country in the west needs to have a very clear social contract with new citizens. And in fact, that's what Faisal Shahzad was. He was a new citizen, a naturalized citizen. Let's make it very, very clear that when you are here, you are here not just for the material wealth that America affords you, you are also here for the values that allow you to practice your religion, but that also allow other people to practice their religion or lack of it in peace and in civility. He was attempting to take that freedom away from all sorts of people. That is simply not acceptable in the United States.

CROWLEY: Irshad Manji, thank you so much. Asra Nomani, thank you so much as well. I appreciate both of you.

Straight ahead, the latest on the high-tech fix to stop the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Plus, were survivors of the explosion pushed to sign legal waivers even before they got home to their families?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: Tonight, the 100-ton metal and concrete dome that's supposed to contain most of the oil from the massive Gulf spill is inching closer to its target. It could arrive as soon as this evening, but success is far from certain. This method has never been tried so far down, so deep under water. David Mattingly is in Venice, Louisiana tonight. David, bring us up to date on the process so far.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Candy, the containment vessel is not on the ocean floor just yet. It made the journey down fairly quickly. The last 200 feet have been very slow and meticulous. They have to land this in exactly the right spot to hope to not to do any more damage to the pipe that is down there and to contain that leak so that they can then connect up their pipes and everything and siphon this off to a containment vessel on the surface of the water.

At the moment, there are no promises that this is going to work, but they're going to make a lot of care to make sure they get this placed just right, and they hope to have that done tonight.

CROWLEY: What an amazing operation. David, you talked to BP's CEO today and asked him about a plan B. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: We have something ready to go just in case this fails.

TONY HAYWARD, BP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Well, the ready to go is, of course, containing the spill to the maximum extent possible. And then there is a further operation on the blowout preventer, which will probably take two to three weeks to bring into place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: I guess the question is so what if that doesn't work? Is there a plan C?

MATTINGLY: Well, they have ideas. Excuse me. They have ideas, but none of these have been tried before, so there is a lot of theory involved, a lot of guesswork. They're trying to bring some great engineering minds to bear on this, some that involves simple things like putting material into the pipe to clog up the pipe so the oil won't come out. But again, none of this has ever been tried before. This containment vessel seemed to make the most sense and seemed to be able in theory to capture the most oil.

So if you're talking about plan B and plan C, any other plan besides the one they have in play right now is going to take up a lot more time, and more oil is going to leak into the Gulf.

CROWLEY: David Mattingly in Louisiana for us tonight. Thanks, David.

In the meantime, tonight, there are troubling new questions about what happened in the hours after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. One hundred fifty men survived the blast on April 20th. Another 11 are presumed dead. Now some of the survivors claim the company essentially coerced them into signing legal waivers after they were rescued.

Tonight, we're joined by Kurt Arnold who is representing five crewmembers. We're also joined by Kelly Saindon, a corporate lawyer who has dealt with maritime incidents before. I also want to point out Transocean, the company that owns the rig, admits that they did give these waivers out but had no further comment.

First of all, I want to show our viewers the document that we're talking about, particularly these two lines, crew members initialed. Quote, "I was not a witness to the incident requiring the evacuation and have no firsthand or personal knowledge regarding the incident. And I was not injured as a result of the incident or the evacuation."

Kurt, I want to start with you. You're representing some of the survivors who signed this. When in the course of this whole rescue operations did your clients get this form?

KURT ARNOLD, ATTORNEY: Sure. It's important. Good evening. It's important to remember that right after the explosion, once these men were put on a vessel that could take them to shore, they refused to take them to shore for over 12 hours. They literally kept them there while the rig was burning. And so, then, they took them into shore and they didn't get in for nearly 40 hours later. They took them to a hotel.

At that point, before they were allowed to go home, before they were allowed to go see their own doctors, claims men for the company are trying to get them to initial and say that they're not hurt before they've even been allowed to see their own physician. And so and since that time, claims men within days of these guys getting home are calling them, trying to set up meetings for releases. And if they won't sign a release, they want to offer them just a little bit of money in an effort to try and get them to --

CROWLEY: Well, so they didn't have to sign this release is what you're telling me since they're still trying to get others to sign it. They could have walked away. Is that so?

ARNOLD: Well, in fact, a few of my clients did walk away. But the reality is that that's not the way you're supposed to act after maybe the biggest disaster in the gulf where --

CROWLEY: Let me just ask Kelly and bring him in on that. Is that the way you're supposed to act? I mean, is this to some, a certain sense, is this sort of standard operating procedure? I know that you were on the other side of a somewhat similar circumstance, a barge explosion a few years ago. So is this -- is this SOP?

KELLY SAINDON, ATTORNEY: It absolutely is. You have to lock down who the relevant witnesses are, and you need to minimize and contain who is injured, what do they know, who are the key players, and let the other people move on with their claims. They didn't have to sign this, but you have to acknowledge at the time were you injured, yes or no. If they sign no, you don't have to worry about getting them medical treatment. If they were in fact injured, they don't sign the form, and they get treatment.

Were you a witness? Yes or no. That is very critical information when they're piecing together what happened, who was hurt, what did they see, how were they injured, if at all.

CROWLEY: But, Kelly, what about the fact that some of these men -- you know, they hadn't had sleep, some of them for 40 hours. They just watched this huge explosion. They hadn't seen their families. Some of their fellow rig people died. And yet they're sort of saying, OK, sign this, do this. Doesn't that look like coercion?

SAINDON: No, it looks like to me good investigation skills. They didn't have to sign it. And they can explain it away. As any attorney will tell you, there's always potentially problems with a waiver. And as the gentleman and my counterpart, this other attorney is going to tell you, some of his clients did sign a waiver and they're going to seek to go around that and seek damages for to be compensated for being injured if they were in fact were. So it's good procedure for the company to try to minimize liability. And yes, it's a huge disaster. Does it look bad from a PR perspective? Possibly. But were they doing the right thing? Yes.

CROWLEY: Kurt, did you have any of your clients see something and then swear that they didn't see? Did some of them sort of falsely fill in anything?

ARNOLD: Well, sure. I mean, I had clients that were knocked unconscious that had to go to the ER immediately after they got back for smoke inhalation, then lung problems. And who actually saw the accident, saw their friends die, but because the company man is sitting there saying here, you need to initial this before you go get your counseling, they signed it. Particularly the younger guys who are scared and probably haven't had as many years and been around. I mean, that's pretty intimidating, particularly when you haven't had sleep in nearly 60 hours.

And so -- and one other point. The big problem here is I keep hearing on TV, oh, we're taking responsibility, we're taking responsibility. But then privately, they're going around trying to, before guys could even see their doctors or kind of get a hold of what's going on in their life before they lost many of their friends, get them to sign releases. And it's just not right.

CROWLEY: Kurt Arnold, and I'm so sorry, Kelly Saindon, I promise next time I'll start with you. But we have run out of time. But I appreciate you so much.

SAINDON: Thanks, Candy.

CROWLEY: Kelly Saindon, Kurt Arnold, thank you.

ARNOLD: Thank you. CROWLEY: Up next, the price tag for the flooding in Nashville climbs to more than a billion dollars. That's in property damage alone. Some say it will cripple the economy of the country music capital. You'll see what the disaster has done to the Grand Ole Opry alone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CROWLEY: As the floodwaters recede tonight in Nashville, the destruction is being revealed for everyone to see. It is absolutely devastating. CNN's Martin Savidge gives us a look at the damage to the Grand Ole Opry, the beloved home of country music.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I'm shocked about is the speed at which this stuff came over the levee. That's the thing that I find very, very hard to comprehend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pete, I think -- I think most of these benches are going to have to go, man. I mean, they're wet and warped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you see here are a lot of the costumes that the artists that have been removed from their lockers. And bagged, ready to take out and be cleaned. Dry-cleaned and cleaned.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To many country fans, this is almost hallowed ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I would say this is the Ryman is probably -- if this is sort of nine out of ten on hallowed ground by measurement of the country fans, the Ryman will be 10-A. But everybody that's been here, you know, has a very fond memory of the Opry House, and so they should.

SAVIDGE: Does it deepen the sense of responsibility for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I think if you listen to Peter and Steve Buchanan, the president of the Opry, we all believe that, you know, we're the custodians of this business. We're not the owners of it. We're the custodians of it. So we do have a responsibility to, you know, restore this incredible institution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: And Martin Savidge joins us now. Martin, you know, I've been watching this whole week. And first we had the Times Square would-be bomber, then we had this oil slick down in Florida. And it feels as though somehow Nashville, Tennessee, got squeezed out. And yet in very real terms, this could also be said to be a catastrophe, this flooding.

SAVIDGE: It is. In fact, it may turn out to be one of the most costly natural disasters in the United States. The governor has already said the financial amount is over a billion and a half dollars. You had 21 people that died in the state alone. And they feared that that death toll may continue to climb. On top of that, you have the devastation that took place in the city of Nashville. There are also many other communities along the Cumberland River that suffered damage.

Take a look at the Opryland Hotel here. This has got almost 3,000 rooms. This is the way it works here. Nashville obviously a big tourist town, suffers 10 percent of its hotel rooms wiped out here, because this place is closed. Twenty-five percent of the tax revenues from the hotel tax for the city also gone until this place reopens, and that won't be towards the end of the year, Candy.

CROWLEY: The pictures are amazing. I also know that security all week long has been really tight down there. And you finally found out why today.

SAVIDGE: Well, why it's been very tight, yes. Here at the Opryland and around the Grand Ole Opry, it's taken us a week to get in here. It turns out that there were 1,500 guests in this hotel when they evacuated it. Eight hundred of them were members that were associated with the military. Not all military, but it was a Department of Defense group that was gathering here. They, of course, had to leave with the evacuation, but they left apparently a lot of sensitive material and sensitive equipment behind, which is carefully being guarded at this time until it can be retrieved and returned to those people. So that's why the security is so tight, Candy.

CROWLEY: Martin Savidge in Nashville for us. It is really good to see you. Thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: Thank you, Candy.

CROWLEY: The oil spill in the gulf is bringing back awful memories of the Exxon Valdez. That disaster is still haunting some coastline communities of Alaska more than two decades later. We will take you to Alaska for a firsthand look later in the show.

But first, Tom Foreman has tonight's "Download" -- Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Candy. Once again, the New York City bomb squad went into action in Times Square today. Police cleared the streets after finding a shopping bag and a cooler left on the sidewalk. It turned out to be a false alarm. The cooler and bag contained only water bottles, books and gifts. NYPD says the public is just being more vigilant since last weekend's attempted car bombing.

President Obama calls the latest jobs report another sign the U.S. economy is on the rebound. Employers added 290,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That's the largest increase in the nation's labor force in four years. The unemployment rate, however, actually rose to 9.9 percent. Economists say that's because so many out-of- work people are now getting back on to the job hunt.

Tonight, they're wheeling and dealing to form a government in Great Britain. For the first time in more than three decades, no party has a majority in the parliament. So who's the next prime minister? Who knows. The Conservative Party won the most seats in last night's election, but not enough to form a majority. The Labour Party and the Tories are now courting the third place Liberal Democrats who could become the kingmakers in all this -- Candy.

CROWLEY: Got to love it, Tom. They even have great politics in Great Britain.

FOREMAN: Indeed, they do.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

Coming up, the U.S. military has the only government-sanctioned religious program. And tonight, we'll tell you why some are criticizing the Army's chaplains.

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CROWLEY: Big controversy this week over a usually low-key event, the National Day of Prayer. Evangelist Franklin Graham didn't take well to being not so cordially disinvited from a service at the Pentagon yesterday. The reason was his outspoken criticism of Islam, which he has called evil and wicked. This week Graham accused President Obama of giving Islam a pass. And yesterday, the reverend came to the Pentagon to pray outside.

As it happens, the U.S. military has the only government- sanctioned religious program. It involves chaplains, and now they too are under serious scrutiny. Here's our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Carleton Birch, war is a spiritual mission. He spent a year in Afghanistan. Not as a fighter, but as a chaplain, ministering to the troops.

CARLETON BIRCH, U.S. ARMY CHAPLAIN: When a soldier comes to me with a problem, I never ask them what faith group they are.

STARR: Chaplain Birch is a member of the Baptist General Conference. He says he never tried to force his beliefs on soldiers who come to him seeking support. It's a sensitive issue in the wake of a number of high profile incidents of evangelical officers preaching to their subordinates.

MIKEY WEINSTEIN, MILITARY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOUNDATION: It's a terrible, terrible cancer eating away at the very core of our military.

STARR: Mikey Weinstein heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group that monitors these cases. He's an Air Force veteran who claims officers often try to preach to him while he was in the service. WEINSTEIN: The chaplains are almost the least of our problem. We're far more concerned with the platoon sergeants and the battalion commanders, the squadron commanders, the wing commanders.

STARR: At the Air Force Academy, there have been dozens of complaints of religious discrimination going back a decade, allegations that cadets were pressured to become evangelical Christians. In 2004, Lieutenant General William Boykin, a top operative in commando warfare, was criticized for speaking in uniform at religious events talking about his God being the real God. Weinstein says that's just the beginning.

WEINSTEIN: It's not just that it's going on. It is being -- and it's not that the Pentagon is turning a blind eye. It is being tremendously enthusiastically pushed down upon our junior members of the -- subordinate members of the military. It is as ubiquitous as gravity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I read from the 23rd Psalm, we're all very familiar with it.

STARR: Chaplain Birch has heard the stories too. He says chaplains are careful to walk the line.

BIRCH: They need to be about all soldiers. And if they're not, then there's no long-term room for them in the military.

STARR: Now more than ever, religious diversity is the name of the game.

(on camera): No better example than here at the Pentagon chapel. Jews, Muslims and Christians all worship here. But it's a delicate balance. For example, a Christian chaplain would not say Jewish or Muslim prayers.

BIRCH: I'm not qualified to do that. And I don't think those of other faiths want me to do their services.

STARR (voice-over): Charles Haynes directs the Religious Freedom Education Project at the museum. He says it's a tricky balance.

CHARLES HAYNES, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EDUCATION PROJECT: It's tough. Any time you have government religion, entanglement with religion, it's going to be complicated to get it right. It's always going to sound as though it may be veering toward promoting one religion over another.

STARR: Chaplain Birch says it's a challenge he willingly accepts.

BIRCH: When they come to me asking for bread, I don't give them water. I help them at their point of need. And I think most all chaplains do that. Or else soldiers wouldn't come to us.

STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

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CROWLEY: Coming up, a remarkable story of hope from a ruined country. A rescue mission to save the children, when we come back.

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CROWLEY: By some estimates, there were more than 300,000 Haitian children living as slaves before the earthquake. In the wake of that disaster, while reporting from an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, CNN's Soledad O'Brien met one young man with a remarkable story.

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SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marc Kenson Olibris works in the guest house here at the Maison de Lumiere (ph) orphanage in Haiti. He is helping raise abandoned children, just like himself.

Marc Kenson was born in a rural Haitian village called Cap- Haitien, a place with wrenching poverty. Life was so desperate that his father sold him and his sister to a stranger. They became child slaves, restavecs (ph), literally the Creole words for "stay with."

O'BRIEN: Were you a restavec?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arrested (ph).

O'BRIEN: A restavec? A child --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, OK.

MARC KENSON OLIBRIS, QUAKE SURVIVOR: We.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

OLIBRIS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And your sister?

OLIBRIS (through translator): The same.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Marc Kenson was nine, and his sister was six.

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CROWLEY: Soledad joins us now. Is this a typical story out of Haiti?

O'BRIEN: Sadly it is. Yes, child slavery is legal. Marc Kenson and his sister were sold for $12 U.S. to a stranger by their own father because the poverty is so severe, the desperation so intense. And that's why we wanted to do a documentary to really investigate the plight of Haiti's orphaned children in the wake of the earthquake.

CROWLEY: Faces so sad. You can watch Soledad's report "Rescued: The Children Haiti" tomorrow, 8:00 p.m. here on CNN.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. But up next, the cleanup after the big oil spill. We've been here before. The Exxon Valdez catastrophe continues to haunt Alaska. We'll show you how people are coping 21 years later.

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CROWLEY: Experts predict the oil spill in the gulf could end up eclipsing the damage done by the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. We wanted to find out how communities there are doing today, 21 years later. We sent Dan Simon to one of the hardest hit towns, Cordova, Alaska.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Platt is a commercial fisherman here in Cordova, Alaska, ground zero for the Exxon Valdez catastrophe two decades ago. It's been hard times ever since.

JOHN PLATT, CORDOVA, ALASKA FISHERMAN: I love to fish. I'm a third generation fisherman. But this other crap that's beyond my control, I wasted 20 years of my life.

SIMON: About 3,400 miles from here, the BP accident in the gulf has leaked an estimated $4 million gallons of oil. Up here, the Exxon Valdez leaked 11 million gallons of crude and left 1,500 miles of Alaska coastline blackened. Birds, sea mammals, fisheries, and people were devastated.

PLATT: We got hosed here in Cordova. And nobody cares.

SIMON: Platt says his story is typical. The spill caused such stress, it practically ruined his marriage.

(on camera): You're just one fisherman in this community, but you speak for many.

PLATT: People's lives were ruined. I mean, there were damn good fishermen, damn good fishermen here in the sound, that just said screw it.

SIMON (voice-over): They left because the fish disappeared. The herring industry alone lost $400 million. Three years after the spill, they vanished and never returned. Exxon says it had nothing to do with the spill, but no one here is buying it.

MIKE WEBBER, CORDOVA, ALASKA FISHERMAN: People went bankrupt. People lost things.

SIMON: Mike Webber lost his marriage. With the fishing industry in ruins, he says he began drinking heavily.

WEBBER: I blame my divorce on Exxon and the oil spill. SIMON: Sociologists spent years here since the disaster. They concluded a fifth of all commercial fishermen had severe anxiety, and as many as 40 percent had severe depression. Divorces, alcoholism, and even suicides went up.

(on camera): The spill occurred about 60 miles away from where we are on Prince William Sound. And even after all these years, oil residue can still be found on the shore. As a matter of fact, the local science center here keeps bottles of it on hand.

RJ KOPCHACK, PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND SCIENCE CENTER: You can take a look at it. And it's still heavy oil. And if you smell it, highly aromatic. Still hydrocarbons flowing right out of that poison yuck.

SIMON (on camera): It definitely smells like oil.

KOPCHACK: It actually does.

PLATT: It's been expect the worst and hope for the best.

SIMON (voice-over): Money has not made the problems go away. John Platt got his final payment from Exxon last year, nearly a half million dollars. But fishing is not what it was. So he used it to pay off debts on his fishing permits and boats.

PLATT: I think the general perception is that we were compensated a long time ago, everything is rosy, and that's not the case.

SIMON (on camera): It's a much deeper story?

PLATT: Big time. Much deeper.

SIMON (voice-over): So what do things look like 21 years later? The oil stains may no longer be as evident, but they're still here, just below the surface.

Dan Simon, CNN, Cordova, Alaska.

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CROWLEY: Exxon Mobil responded to our investigation, quoting now, "The 1989 Valdez accident is one of the lowest points in Exxon Mobil's 125 year history. As a result of the accident, Exxon undertook significant operational reforms and implemented an exceptionally thorough operational management system to prevent future accidents."

That's all for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure to join me Sunday for "STATE OF THE UNION" beginning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Larry King starts right now.