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Lead Guitarist, Four Others Killed in Nightclub Shooting; Immigration Reform Could Affect Thousands; Prosecution Gives Closing Statement in Peterson Penalty Phase
Aired December 09, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ran on stage and just started shooting people. I mean, we -- a lot of people thought it was just, you know, just a hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Searching for a motive in a deadly shooting as a gunman jumps on stage and starts firing at a heavy metal concert. We're LIVE FROM the scene.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CO-HOST: Scott Peterson, the question of life and death will soon be up to the jury. We're LIVE FROM the California courthouse.
PHILLIPS: Saving Social Security. President Bush says he won't increase payroll taxes, but what will he be able to do to bring -- bring it from the brink of bankruptcy?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't want to leave my parents because that's going to make me, like, so sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And a downside to intelligence reform that could affect thousands of families in America.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Damage is done, but the motive still a mystery in Columbus, Ohio. Among the five people killed in last night's rampage at a heavy metal nightclub are the lead guitarist of the band Damageplan and the suspect who police say was targeting band members for reasons known only to him.
We get the latest now from CNN's Keith Oppenheim -- Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. And police have identified the gunman as 25-year-old Nathan Gale, a resident of Columbus. This is what they say happened around 10 p.m. last night at the Alrosa nightclub behind me.
They say that the band, Damageplan, a heavy metal band, started its first set. And perhaps a half minute after the music began, that's when they say Nathan Gale jumped onto the stage. And he took a handgun and he fired several shots at the band's lead guitarist, Darrell Abbott.
And as you can imagine, that caused a wild scene. There were about 250 people inside. And many of them scattered. Witnesses said that the gunman grabbed a hostage and fired into the crowd.
Darrell Abbott, the guitarist, is one of four victims shot and killed. The gunman became the fifth person to die. And this is why. There was a Columbus police officer by the name of James Niggemeyer, who responded alone to the crime scene.
And here, now, from the Columbus police spokesperson about the life and death decision that the officer made in the middle of the chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. BRENT MULL, COLUMBUS, OHIO, POLICE: The officer was forced to engage in gunfire with this suspect. From what we understand, he did have a hostage. The officer was able to strategically gun this guy down before he was able to kill his hostage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPENHEIM: Now, a little more about Darrell Abbott, the lead guitarist in Damageplan. He was 38 years old and known as Dimebag Darrell in the music world. He and his older brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, formed Damageplan after their previous band, Pantera, broke up last year.
Pantera had recorded four albums in the 1990s and was nominated for a Grammy.
As for Nathan Gale, you said it yourself, Kyra, police still aren't sure even whether he was a fan. They don't know what his motive was so trying to get a better sense of what his background is.
What might help them, perhaps, is some amateur video that they believe that was shot inside the nightclub during the incident. They are also putting a lot of manpower on this case, some 60 detectives in what's clearly a massive investigation.
Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Keith, you know when we go to concerts, depending on what type of concerts you go to, a lot of people are checked at the door. They're frisked pretty heavily. Do you know if that happened at this concert, if it was a requirement? OPPENHEIM: No, there were no metal detectors at the door. There was security. And sometimes it's the case with this club, Kyra, that they will hire off-duty Columbus police officers to work the scene. That was not the case last night here. There was the response from the Columbus police officer to the scene, but he wasn't working security.
PHILLIPS: Keith Oppenheim, working the story for us there. Thank you so much -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Kyra, with the historic overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system now in the president's in-box, the focus turns to loose ends that may trip up the new Congress that comes to town in January. Foremost among those is a move to bar illegal immigrants from holding driver's licenses.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa met some New Yorkers who fear immigration reform will be their tickets to poverty or deportation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like a lot of mothers, Fiorina Perez (ph) drives her daughter to school to keep her safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bring my daughter every day because I hear in the news a lot of drugs.
HINOJOSA: But 14-year-old daughter Nancy, who wants to be a doctor, has a new worry. Her mother is an illegal immigrant. And New York is about to take away the driver's license she got using a fake Social Security number.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just hard because -- the thought of having to leave here, if they lose their job or anything. I don't want to.
HINOJOSA: Nancy and her sisters were born here, U.S. citizens. They're afraid that if their mother gets stopped driving without a license, their parents will be deported to Mexico, which they left 20 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that if they get deported to Mexico, we're never going come back, because they don't have their papers yet. And we can come back, of course, because we were born here. And we're -- but I don't want to leave my parents because that's -- because that's going to make me, like, so sad.
HINOJOSA: Fiorina (ph) says she uses her license to chauffer disabled people and to get to her job as a domestic, not to commit acts of terrorism like the 9/11 hijackers. They legally entered the United States and then obtained 63 driver's licenses around the country.
"We are decent people," Fiorina (ph) says, "tranquil. We would never think of wanting to hurt anyone." But Brian Decell, who lost his son-in-law on September 11, says without immigration reform, terrorists can use a driver's license to board plane, rent cars, and open bank accounts.
BRIAN DECELL, FATHER-IN-LAW OF 9/11 VICTIM: Somebody who's undocumented, it's a person that you don't know who they are, gets a driver's license. That gives them the keys to the city. That was the terrorists' favorite tool.
HINOJOSA: In New York state alone, an estimated half million people have legal driver's licenses but are suspected of having entered this country illegally. This taxi driver is one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm driving very stressed. I can't concentrate any more, because I'm really worried.
HINOJOSA: They drive trucks and taxis, care for children and clean homes. I asked some of them how the U.S. can protect its borders if it provides them with a valid I.D., even if they entered this country illegally?
"This country definitely has to control its borders, because it's dangerous to not know who is coming in," this man told me. "But by giving us an I.D. or license, then they would have a lot more control over who we are and what we do."
Rosalind Kennedy Lewis employs Fiorina (ph) to care for her family home. She says she can't afford a legal worker.
ROSALIND KENNEDY LEWIS, EMPLOYER OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: I understand that they're illegal. But they should take into consideration how they've lived their life, what they've accomplished with their life and what their children are like. And it should be done on a case-by-case basis. Those people that are motivated do belong here. That's what America's about.
HINOJOSA: Losing their licenses means these workers will fade completely into the underground economy.
"We're not terrorists," this man said to me. "Many people say we'll lose these licenses to do harm and we aren't going to use them to do that. We're using them to work."
Then he said, "In the same way a lot of people from here died in those towers on September 11, many immigrants died in those towers, as well."
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Newburgh, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Life spared or not? Almost two years after Laci Peterson's murder, jurors will now decide whether her husband will be sentenced to death.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is following the developments in Redwood City, California.
What's happening out there right now, Ted?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, right now we're about one hour into an expected two-hour closing argument from the prosecution in this case. It's their final interaction with this jury.
They're asking this jury to put Scott Peterson to death. And for the first hour it has been a very compelling presentation by prosecutor Dave Harris, who is handling this last piece of the puzzle for the prosecution.
He has gone over the defense case to spare Scott Peterson. He's going over the high points of their case. And he is hitting on the emotion of the case in total.
He's talking about Scott Peterson, the liar, the manipulative person. He said he's the worst of the worst. At one point, he brought up the fact that the defense has spent the last week talking about Scott Peterson as a young boy, showing photos of him growing up in San Diego. His family saying that he was a perfect child and a perfect adult.
Well, Harris walked over to this table where Scott Peterson was and said, "You've been hearing about how putting Scott Peterson to death would hurt his family, would kill his mother and his father," basically. Then he turned and he pointed at Scott Peterson and said, "This is the reason why. He's the one responsible. He's the one responsible." Pointing his finger at Peterson's face.
Harris then played excerpts from the "Good Morning America" interview with Diane Sawyer where he broke down and stopped the tape and said, "This is Scott Peterson lying. He's manipulating everybody. He's playing the part of a grieving husband."
He then played audiotapes of Scott and Amber Frey talking, Peterson lying, saying he was in France for New Year's Eve. A very compelling closing argument by the prosecution as they try to convince this jury to kill Scott Peterson and sentence him to death.
The defense will have their opportunity to address the jury after the noon break at 1 p.m., Pacific Time -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Ted, you know, yesterday, when Jackie was speaking, Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, apparently there were a couple of tears shed from the jurors.
As they were listening to these closing statements, what was the reaction? Was there a readable reaction from any of those jurors?
ROWLANDS: They were riveted; the entire courtroom was riveted. One juror, juror No. 7, seemed to break down a little bit and weep as Dave Harris was talking about the pain that Laci's mother went through, waiting 116 days for word about her daughter, worrying at night because it was cold out. All the while, Peterson knew the truth and let his family suffer. That really struck a chord with at least one juror.
Fair to say that the prosecution's doing an excellent job of bringing this jury in and folk focusing them. They have a big decision to make, obviously, and they'll start their deliberation, most likely, this afternoon.
WHITFIELD: Ted Rowlands in Redwood City, California, thanks so much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's trillions of dollars in the red. What else can be done to save Social Security? President Bush talks about it. We're LIVE FROM the White House straight ahead.
And later, athlete doping scandal allegations against track star Marion Jones. We'll go in depth on the International Olympic Committee's investigation.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Concerns expressed are being addressed, so says President Bush a day after Donald Rumsfeld found himself on the firing line among U.S. forces in Kuwait.
Speaking to reporters today at the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said if he were one of those troops, he'd want to ask the same pointed question Specialist Thomas Wilson asked to cheers from his comrades. Wilson wanted Rumsfeld to tell him why many troops bound for Iraq are forced to scavenge scrap metal to use as makeshift armor for their vehicle.
Back in Tennessee, the give and take is, well, a given.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNDON WILSON, SPEC. THOMAS WILSON'S FATHER: You know if you don't know, you ask. And when you have a chance to ask the top guy, ask him. If he's not prepared, that's his problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Rumsfeld today visiting India says the Army has greatly stepped up its production of armored Humvees. He also promises somebody's going to sit down with Specialist Wilson and find out what he knows that maybe he doesn't know.
WHITFIELD: Politics and religion join forces in Iraq today with the nation's senior Shiite cleric throwing his blessing behind the United Iraqi Alliance. That's an umbrella group comprising 18 parties and movements, fielding 228 candidates from across the political spectrum for next month's scheduled elections.
From Baghdad now, CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us, along -- to talk a little bit more about this, along with an optimistic security outlook from the interim president -- Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka.
This new alliance was a pretty somber unveiling. None of the razzamatazz that you would normally associate with politics, especially taking into account that this is the first alliance of its type that has been permitted since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Of course in more than 50 years, under Saddam Hussein, a one party dictatorship. This kind of political activity would never have been allowed. In fact, most of the leaders of this new alliance have spent much of the time operating in secrecy or working in exile.
Now, the important thing -- there are a couple of important things about this new alliance. One, of course, the most important name doesn't appear on any of these lists, and that's the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He's spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority.
He's really the architect of this alliance. He's said to these political leaders, "Look, come together; put forward a united front." Because it's really as a united front that the Shia majority stand to benefit the most.
That way, they can probably take a majority of the seats in the national assembly, come the January 30 elections. That way, they'll have a major say in naming the new prime minister, naming a new president, and shaping a new constitution.
What the members of the alliance were at pains to point out today, though, was that this would be a political alliance and it wasn't in favor of setting up a religious state in terms of an Iranian-style theocracy, for example.
But there are some doubts as to how Iran may seek to influence this Shia Muslim alliance, because, of course, Iran is a Shiite Muslim majority like Iraq. And some of the parties that are involved in this alliance have, in the past, been based in Iran and in some cases are militia-based organizations that have received funding and training from Iran in the past.
So Prime Minister Ghazi al-Yawar have voiced concern that Iran could have an undue influence in Iraqi politics, as has King Abdullah of neighboring Jordan -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul, thanks so much for that report from Baghdad -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Want to take you to a two-way videoconference right now between the Pentagon and Baghdad. You'll remember yesterday when troops addressed Donald Rumsfeld about questions regarding lack of resources and armored vehicles. That subject matter on how armor is placed on vehicles for protection is being talked about right now.
LT. GEN. STEVEN WHITCOMB, COMMANDER, COALITION FORCES LAND COMPONENT: ... had some level of armored protection on them. The level one, the level two, or the level three. Those wheeled vehicles that did not have some level of protection were loaded on military trucks and they were trucked up into -- into Iraq. So were not driven by soldiers.
That is our objective for units that are preparing to deploy. The 278th Brigade combat team out of Tennessee and the 116th Infantry out of Idaho and a couple of states in that area.
Our goal, and what we're working towards, is that no wheeled vehicle that leaves Kuwait, going into Iraq, is driven by a soldier that does not have some level of armored protection on it.
Now, some of these units are, in fact, going up and replacing units already in Iraq, already operating. And those units that are already forward have level one and level two vehicles. They will -- those vehicles will stay in Iraq. They will not come back to Kuwait. And so what we're doing is we're providing vehicles going forward.
They will fall in on the better armor that's already there. In addition to what we've provided them before they've gone forward. Does that get to your question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. Just -- just a brief follow-up. You said that 45 -- I believe you said 4,500 -- you suggested 4,500 trucks have been fixed so far. Our figures released by the House Armed Services Committee suggest that's only about half of the trucks in Iraq. Is that true?
WHITCOMB: We've got about -- and I'm not going to get down into the sevens and eights, because I would be wrong, surely. But I'll give you some pretty close approximations.
We've got about 30,000 wheeled vehicles in our theater, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and other areas that CFLIC (ph) and Central Command operate. Of that 30,000 vehicles, around -- a little less than 8,000 of them do not have some type of armor protection on them, level one, two, or three.
Of those vehicles that don't, some number of them are things like tool trucks, communications vans or vehicles that don't leave the base camps. In other words, they're trucked up into Iraq. Or in cases before, what we're doing now, were driven up into Iraq, and they go onto a base camp and that's where they spend most of their time.
Now who makes the decision what goes off that base camp? That becomes the commander's, the tactical commander's call. And I can tell you -- while I'm not a tactical commander in Iraq or Afghanistan, I know them, and I know what they do. They do an assessment every time that they've got a combat mission in which their forces go off -- off the base.
And they assess what type of vehicle goes, who leads it, whether it's got track vehicles with it, has protection, or helicopters. Those are all, as you know, the types of things that go into those kinds of tactical decisions.
So I said about 4,500 -- yes, I think that's right in the neighborhood. But the more important figure is the approximate 30,000 and the numbers that we have up-armored, and that continues to -- continues to climb.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant General Steven Whitcomb. He's the commander of the 3rd U.S. Army and Coalition Forces Land Component Command. He's conducting this two-way video conference between the Pentagon, reporters there, and with him in Kuwait.
The question that was raised by the soldiers in front of Donald Rumsfeld in Kuwait just a couple of days ago, questioned the secretary of defense about vehicles and that they didn't have enough armor and that soldiers were having to go to landfills for scrap armor to protect their vehicles.
Well, now, lieutenant general coming forward, saying there are 30,000 vehicles in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And of those 30,000, there are 8,000 that don't have the armor protection.
But he's saying not all those vehicles go into combat situations. A number of those trucks are tool trucks, for example, that don't even leave the base camp.
So he's briefing reporters about the types of vehicles, how many do have armor and continuing to take questions and answers, both reporters and the commander. We'll follow it throughout the day.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM --
STANLEY BOIM, VICTIM'S FATHER: A verdict has been made, but it just may be the beginning of something else.
PHILLIPS: A landmark court ruling against Islamic charities accused of bankrolling terrorists. Is it justice or anti-Muslim hysteria?
Later on LIVE FROM, President Bush taps a new man to help America's veterans. Next hour, we'll go in depth with the unique challenges presented by thousands of veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And later, "American Idol" Diana DeGarmo, she's got a new CD, and she can now add cover girl to her resume. The LIVE FROM interview.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Families who are victimized by terrorism often learn there is no legal recourse. But a landmark decision by a federal court in Illinois could change that.
The court has ordered three Islamic charitable organizations that allegedly raise money for terrorists to cough up a hefty settlement to one family seeking justice.
Reporter Paul Meincke of CNN affiliate WLS has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOIM: There is a feeling of relief. A weight has been lifted. A verdict has been made, but it just may be the beginning of something else.
PAUL MEINCKE, WLF REPORTER (voice-over): The beginning that Stanley Boim and his wife, Joyce, speak of is the crippling of Mideast terrorist groups by choking off their financial support.
When their 17-year-old son David was shot and killed in a terrorist act outside Jerusalem eight years ago, the Boims later chose to a Bridgeview man, Mohammed Salah, and three Islamic charitable organizations, contending that in reality, they were financing the militant group Hamas.
Federal Judge Arlander Keys had already concluded that two of the organizations and Salah were, in part, responsible for David Boim's death. The jury found that the Oak Lawn based Quranic Literacy Institute was also responsible. The four are now liable for damages of $156 million.
STEPHEN LANDES, BOIM ATTORNEY: This is an important judgment, because it sends a message that people who pay for terrorism are going to wind up paying the victims of terrorism.
AMEH HALEEM, QURANIC LITERACY INSTITUTE: What happened here today is a travesty of justice. And if we don't begin to stand against it, pretty soon none of us will be able to have -- to raise any voice without this persecution.
MEINCKE: The Quranic Literacy Institute did not put on a defense during the trial, contending that the U.S. justice system wouldn't allow enough preparation time and is biased by an anti-Islamic hysteria. But there will be an appeal.
HALEEM: They had not one bit of evidence, not one shred of evidence against us. All they had was the fact that we were Muslims, and they used the word "terror."
JOYCE BOIM, VICTIM'S MOTHER: I see now, finally, justice for David. David I'll never have again. But at least I see justice for him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Both sides expect an appeal in this case.
WHITFIELD: Out of cash when you pass by the Salvation Army bell ringers? Well, guess what, no problem. Now they're accepting plastic.
Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange for that story.
Rhonda, there's no excuse any more.
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 9, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ran on stage and just started shooting people. I mean, we -- a lot of people thought it was just, you know, just a hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Searching for a motive in a deadly shooting as a gunman jumps on stage and starts firing at a heavy metal concert. We're LIVE FROM the scene.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CO-HOST: Scott Peterson, the question of life and death will soon be up to the jury. We're LIVE FROM the California courthouse.
PHILLIPS: Saving Social Security. President Bush says he won't increase payroll taxes, but what will he be able to do to bring -- bring it from the brink of bankruptcy?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't want to leave my parents because that's going to make me, like, so sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And a downside to intelligence reform that could affect thousands of families in America.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Damage is done, but the motive still a mystery in Columbus, Ohio. Among the five people killed in last night's rampage at a heavy metal nightclub are the lead guitarist of the band Damageplan and the suspect who police say was targeting band members for reasons known only to him.
We get the latest now from CNN's Keith Oppenheim -- Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. And police have identified the gunman as 25-year-old Nathan Gale, a resident of Columbus. This is what they say happened around 10 p.m. last night at the Alrosa nightclub behind me.
They say that the band, Damageplan, a heavy metal band, started its first set. And perhaps a half minute after the music began, that's when they say Nathan Gale jumped onto the stage. And he took a handgun and he fired several shots at the band's lead guitarist, Darrell Abbott.
And as you can imagine, that caused a wild scene. There were about 250 people inside. And many of them scattered. Witnesses said that the gunman grabbed a hostage and fired into the crowd.
Darrell Abbott, the guitarist, is one of four victims shot and killed. The gunman became the fifth person to die. And this is why. There was a Columbus police officer by the name of James Niggemeyer, who responded alone to the crime scene.
And here, now, from the Columbus police spokesperson about the life and death decision that the officer made in the middle of the chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. BRENT MULL, COLUMBUS, OHIO, POLICE: The officer was forced to engage in gunfire with this suspect. From what we understand, he did have a hostage. The officer was able to strategically gun this guy down before he was able to kill his hostage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPENHEIM: Now, a little more about Darrell Abbott, the lead guitarist in Damageplan. He was 38 years old and known as Dimebag Darrell in the music world. He and his older brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, formed Damageplan after their previous band, Pantera, broke up last year.
Pantera had recorded four albums in the 1990s and was nominated for a Grammy.
As for Nathan Gale, you said it yourself, Kyra, police still aren't sure even whether he was a fan. They don't know what his motive was so trying to get a better sense of what his background is.
What might help them, perhaps, is some amateur video that they believe that was shot inside the nightclub during the incident. They are also putting a lot of manpower on this case, some 60 detectives in what's clearly a massive investigation.
Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Keith, you know when we go to concerts, depending on what type of concerts you go to, a lot of people are checked at the door. They're frisked pretty heavily. Do you know if that happened at this concert, if it was a requirement? OPPENHEIM: No, there were no metal detectors at the door. There was security. And sometimes it's the case with this club, Kyra, that they will hire off-duty Columbus police officers to work the scene. That was not the case last night here. There was the response from the Columbus police officer to the scene, but he wasn't working security.
PHILLIPS: Keith Oppenheim, working the story for us there. Thank you so much -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Kyra, with the historic overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system now in the president's in-box, the focus turns to loose ends that may trip up the new Congress that comes to town in January. Foremost among those is a move to bar illegal immigrants from holding driver's licenses.
CNN's Maria Hinojosa met some New Yorkers who fear immigration reform will be their tickets to poverty or deportation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like a lot of mothers, Fiorina Perez (ph) drives her daughter to school to keep her safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bring my daughter every day because I hear in the news a lot of drugs.
HINOJOSA: But 14-year-old daughter Nancy, who wants to be a doctor, has a new worry. Her mother is an illegal immigrant. And New York is about to take away the driver's license she got using a fake Social Security number.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just hard because -- the thought of having to leave here, if they lose their job or anything. I don't want to.
HINOJOSA: Nancy and her sisters were born here, U.S. citizens. They're afraid that if their mother gets stopped driving without a license, their parents will be deported to Mexico, which they left 20 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that if they get deported to Mexico, we're never going come back, because they don't have their papers yet. And we can come back, of course, because we were born here. And we're -- but I don't want to leave my parents because that's -- because that's going to make me, like, so sad.
HINOJOSA: Fiorina (ph) says she uses her license to chauffer disabled people and to get to her job as a domestic, not to commit acts of terrorism like the 9/11 hijackers. They legally entered the United States and then obtained 63 driver's licenses around the country.
"We are decent people," Fiorina (ph) says, "tranquil. We would never think of wanting to hurt anyone." But Brian Decell, who lost his son-in-law on September 11, says without immigration reform, terrorists can use a driver's license to board plane, rent cars, and open bank accounts.
BRIAN DECELL, FATHER-IN-LAW OF 9/11 VICTIM: Somebody who's undocumented, it's a person that you don't know who they are, gets a driver's license. That gives them the keys to the city. That was the terrorists' favorite tool.
HINOJOSA: In New York state alone, an estimated half million people have legal driver's licenses but are suspected of having entered this country illegally. This taxi driver is one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm driving very stressed. I can't concentrate any more, because I'm really worried.
HINOJOSA: They drive trucks and taxis, care for children and clean homes. I asked some of them how the U.S. can protect its borders if it provides them with a valid I.D., even if they entered this country illegally?
"This country definitely has to control its borders, because it's dangerous to not know who is coming in," this man told me. "But by giving us an I.D. or license, then they would have a lot more control over who we are and what we do."
Rosalind Kennedy Lewis employs Fiorina (ph) to care for her family home. She says she can't afford a legal worker.
ROSALIND KENNEDY LEWIS, EMPLOYER OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: I understand that they're illegal. But they should take into consideration how they've lived their life, what they've accomplished with their life and what their children are like. And it should be done on a case-by-case basis. Those people that are motivated do belong here. That's what America's about.
HINOJOSA: Losing their licenses means these workers will fade completely into the underground economy.
"We're not terrorists," this man said to me. "Many people say we'll lose these licenses to do harm and we aren't going to use them to do that. We're using them to work."
Then he said, "In the same way a lot of people from here died in those towers on September 11, many immigrants died in those towers, as well."
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Newburgh, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Life spared or not? Almost two years after Laci Peterson's murder, jurors will now decide whether her husband will be sentenced to death.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is following the developments in Redwood City, California.
What's happening out there right now, Ted?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, right now we're about one hour into an expected two-hour closing argument from the prosecution in this case. It's their final interaction with this jury.
They're asking this jury to put Scott Peterson to death. And for the first hour it has been a very compelling presentation by prosecutor Dave Harris, who is handling this last piece of the puzzle for the prosecution.
He has gone over the defense case to spare Scott Peterson. He's going over the high points of their case. And he is hitting on the emotion of the case in total.
He's talking about Scott Peterson, the liar, the manipulative person. He said he's the worst of the worst. At one point, he brought up the fact that the defense has spent the last week talking about Scott Peterson as a young boy, showing photos of him growing up in San Diego. His family saying that he was a perfect child and a perfect adult.
Well, Harris walked over to this table where Scott Peterson was and said, "You've been hearing about how putting Scott Peterson to death would hurt his family, would kill his mother and his father," basically. Then he turned and he pointed at Scott Peterson and said, "This is the reason why. He's the one responsible. He's the one responsible." Pointing his finger at Peterson's face.
Harris then played excerpts from the "Good Morning America" interview with Diane Sawyer where he broke down and stopped the tape and said, "This is Scott Peterson lying. He's manipulating everybody. He's playing the part of a grieving husband."
He then played audiotapes of Scott and Amber Frey talking, Peterson lying, saying he was in France for New Year's Eve. A very compelling closing argument by the prosecution as they try to convince this jury to kill Scott Peterson and sentence him to death.
The defense will have their opportunity to address the jury after the noon break at 1 p.m., Pacific Time -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Ted, you know, yesterday, when Jackie was speaking, Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, apparently there were a couple of tears shed from the jurors.
As they were listening to these closing statements, what was the reaction? Was there a readable reaction from any of those jurors?
ROWLANDS: They were riveted; the entire courtroom was riveted. One juror, juror No. 7, seemed to break down a little bit and weep as Dave Harris was talking about the pain that Laci's mother went through, waiting 116 days for word about her daughter, worrying at night because it was cold out. All the while, Peterson knew the truth and let his family suffer. That really struck a chord with at least one juror.
Fair to say that the prosecution's doing an excellent job of bringing this jury in and folk focusing them. They have a big decision to make, obviously, and they'll start their deliberation, most likely, this afternoon.
WHITFIELD: Ted Rowlands in Redwood City, California, thanks so much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's trillions of dollars in the red. What else can be done to save Social Security? President Bush talks about it. We're LIVE FROM the White House straight ahead.
And later, athlete doping scandal allegations against track star Marion Jones. We'll go in depth on the International Olympic Committee's investigation.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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PHILLIPS: Concerns expressed are being addressed, so says President Bush a day after Donald Rumsfeld found himself on the firing line among U.S. forces in Kuwait.
Speaking to reporters today at the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said if he were one of those troops, he'd want to ask the same pointed question Specialist Thomas Wilson asked to cheers from his comrades. Wilson wanted Rumsfeld to tell him why many troops bound for Iraq are forced to scavenge scrap metal to use as makeshift armor for their vehicle.
Back in Tennessee, the give and take is, well, a given.
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LYNDON WILSON, SPEC. THOMAS WILSON'S FATHER: You know if you don't know, you ask. And when you have a chance to ask the top guy, ask him. If he's not prepared, that's his problem.
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PHILLIPS: Rumsfeld today visiting India says the Army has greatly stepped up its production of armored Humvees. He also promises somebody's going to sit down with Specialist Wilson and find out what he knows that maybe he doesn't know.
WHITFIELD: Politics and religion join forces in Iraq today with the nation's senior Shiite cleric throwing his blessing behind the United Iraqi Alliance. That's an umbrella group comprising 18 parties and movements, fielding 228 candidates from across the political spectrum for next month's scheduled elections.
From Baghdad now, CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us, along -- to talk a little bit more about this, along with an optimistic security outlook from the interim president -- Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka.
This new alliance was a pretty somber unveiling. None of the razzamatazz that you would normally associate with politics, especially taking into account that this is the first alliance of its type that has been permitted since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Of course in more than 50 years, under Saddam Hussein, a one party dictatorship. This kind of political activity would never have been allowed. In fact, most of the leaders of this new alliance have spent much of the time operating in secrecy or working in exile.
Now, the important thing -- there are a couple of important things about this new alliance. One, of course, the most important name doesn't appear on any of these lists, and that's the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He's spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority.
He's really the architect of this alliance. He's said to these political leaders, "Look, come together; put forward a united front." Because it's really as a united front that the Shia majority stand to benefit the most.
That way, they can probably take a majority of the seats in the national assembly, come the January 30 elections. That way, they'll have a major say in naming the new prime minister, naming a new president, and shaping a new constitution.
What the members of the alliance were at pains to point out today, though, was that this would be a political alliance and it wasn't in favor of setting up a religious state in terms of an Iranian-style theocracy, for example.
But there are some doubts as to how Iran may seek to influence this Shia Muslim alliance, because, of course, Iran is a Shiite Muslim majority like Iraq. And some of the parties that are involved in this alliance have, in the past, been based in Iran and in some cases are militia-based organizations that have received funding and training from Iran in the past.
So Prime Minister Ghazi al-Yawar have voiced concern that Iran could have an undue influence in Iraqi politics, as has King Abdullah of neighboring Jordan -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul, thanks so much for that report from Baghdad -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Want to take you to a two-way videoconference right now between the Pentagon and Baghdad. You'll remember yesterday when troops addressed Donald Rumsfeld about questions regarding lack of resources and armored vehicles. That subject matter on how armor is placed on vehicles for protection is being talked about right now.
LT. GEN. STEVEN WHITCOMB, COMMANDER, COALITION FORCES LAND COMPONENT: ... had some level of armored protection on them. The level one, the level two, or the level three. Those wheeled vehicles that did not have some level of protection were loaded on military trucks and they were trucked up into -- into Iraq. So were not driven by soldiers.
That is our objective for units that are preparing to deploy. The 278th Brigade combat team out of Tennessee and the 116th Infantry out of Idaho and a couple of states in that area.
Our goal, and what we're working towards, is that no wheeled vehicle that leaves Kuwait, going into Iraq, is driven by a soldier that does not have some level of armored protection on it.
Now, some of these units are, in fact, going up and replacing units already in Iraq, already operating. And those units that are already forward have level one and level two vehicles. They will -- those vehicles will stay in Iraq. They will not come back to Kuwait. And so what we're doing is we're providing vehicles going forward.
They will fall in on the better armor that's already there. In addition to what we've provided them before they've gone forward. Does that get to your question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. Just -- just a brief follow-up. You said that 45 -- I believe you said 4,500 -- you suggested 4,500 trucks have been fixed so far. Our figures released by the House Armed Services Committee suggest that's only about half of the trucks in Iraq. Is that true?
WHITCOMB: We've got about -- and I'm not going to get down into the sevens and eights, because I would be wrong, surely. But I'll give you some pretty close approximations.
We've got about 30,000 wheeled vehicles in our theater, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and other areas that CFLIC (ph) and Central Command operate. Of that 30,000 vehicles, around -- a little less than 8,000 of them do not have some type of armor protection on them, level one, two, or three.
Of those vehicles that don't, some number of them are things like tool trucks, communications vans or vehicles that don't leave the base camps. In other words, they're trucked up into Iraq. Or in cases before, what we're doing now, were driven up into Iraq, and they go onto a base camp and that's where they spend most of their time.
Now who makes the decision what goes off that base camp? That becomes the commander's, the tactical commander's call. And I can tell you -- while I'm not a tactical commander in Iraq or Afghanistan, I know them, and I know what they do. They do an assessment every time that they've got a combat mission in which their forces go off -- off the base.
And they assess what type of vehicle goes, who leads it, whether it's got track vehicles with it, has protection, or helicopters. Those are all, as you know, the types of things that go into those kinds of tactical decisions.
So I said about 4,500 -- yes, I think that's right in the neighborhood. But the more important figure is the approximate 30,000 and the numbers that we have up-armored, and that continues to -- continues to climb.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant General Steven Whitcomb. He's the commander of the 3rd U.S. Army and Coalition Forces Land Component Command. He's conducting this two-way video conference between the Pentagon, reporters there, and with him in Kuwait.
The question that was raised by the soldiers in front of Donald Rumsfeld in Kuwait just a couple of days ago, questioned the secretary of defense about vehicles and that they didn't have enough armor and that soldiers were having to go to landfills for scrap armor to protect their vehicles.
Well, now, lieutenant general coming forward, saying there are 30,000 vehicles in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And of those 30,000, there are 8,000 that don't have the armor protection.
But he's saying not all those vehicles go into combat situations. A number of those trucks are tool trucks, for example, that don't even leave the base camp.
So he's briefing reporters about the types of vehicles, how many do have armor and continuing to take questions and answers, both reporters and the commander. We'll follow it throughout the day.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
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PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM --
STANLEY BOIM, VICTIM'S FATHER: A verdict has been made, but it just may be the beginning of something else.
PHILLIPS: A landmark court ruling against Islamic charities accused of bankrolling terrorists. Is it justice or anti-Muslim hysteria?
Later on LIVE FROM, President Bush taps a new man to help America's veterans. Next hour, we'll go in depth with the unique challenges presented by thousands of veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And later, "American Idol" Diana DeGarmo, she's got a new CD, and she can now add cover girl to her resume. The LIVE FROM interview.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Families who are victimized by terrorism often learn there is no legal recourse. But a landmark decision by a federal court in Illinois could change that.
The court has ordered three Islamic charitable organizations that allegedly raise money for terrorists to cough up a hefty settlement to one family seeking justice.
Reporter Paul Meincke of CNN affiliate WLS has the story.
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BOIM: There is a feeling of relief. A weight has been lifted. A verdict has been made, but it just may be the beginning of something else.
PAUL MEINCKE, WLF REPORTER (voice-over): The beginning that Stanley Boim and his wife, Joyce, speak of is the crippling of Mideast terrorist groups by choking off their financial support.
When their 17-year-old son David was shot and killed in a terrorist act outside Jerusalem eight years ago, the Boims later chose to a Bridgeview man, Mohammed Salah, and three Islamic charitable organizations, contending that in reality, they were financing the militant group Hamas.
Federal Judge Arlander Keys had already concluded that two of the organizations and Salah were, in part, responsible for David Boim's death. The jury found that the Oak Lawn based Quranic Literacy Institute was also responsible. The four are now liable for damages of $156 million.
STEPHEN LANDES, BOIM ATTORNEY: This is an important judgment, because it sends a message that people who pay for terrorism are going to wind up paying the victims of terrorism.
AMEH HALEEM, QURANIC LITERACY INSTITUTE: What happened here today is a travesty of justice. And if we don't begin to stand against it, pretty soon none of us will be able to have -- to raise any voice without this persecution.
MEINCKE: The Quranic Literacy Institute did not put on a defense during the trial, contending that the U.S. justice system wouldn't allow enough preparation time and is biased by an anti-Islamic hysteria. But there will be an appeal.
HALEEM: They had not one bit of evidence, not one shred of evidence against us. All they had was the fact that we were Muslims, and they used the word "terror."
JOYCE BOIM, VICTIM'S MOTHER: I see now, finally, justice for David. David I'll never have again. But at least I see justice for him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Both sides expect an appeal in this case.
WHITFIELD: Out of cash when you pass by the Salvation Army bell ringers? Well, guess what, no problem. Now they're accepting plastic.
Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange for that story.
Rhonda, there's no excuse any more.
(STOCK REPORT)
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