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Mosul Bomber Wore Iraqi Uniform?; Journey of the Wounded Warrior

Aired December 23, 2004 - 15:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi military uniform, that's who U.S. military officials believe is responsible for Tuesday's attack on a base in Mosul. We'll have a live report from the Pentagon straight ahead.
Fighting has flared in Fallujah today between U.S. Marines and insurgents, three Marines reportedly killed after coming under fire. The American called in airstrikes and tank support in the heaviest fighting in weeks in that city.

Staying warm and getting around town, a major challenge in parts of the Midwest and the south, up to two feet of snow on the ground in some areas, making travel extremely hazardous. One ugly mess is how a dispatcher describes roads in Kentucky, which saw record snowfall.

Hundreds of motorists in southern Indiana are stranded in the snow. A 25-mile stretch of Interstate 64 is closed. Some have been trapped in their cars since yesterday afternoon. And the National Guard has been called in to help. We'll have the forecast for you straight ahead.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, more details emerging today about the mess hall blast in Mosul. In a CNN interview, the U.S. commander in Mosul says the suspected suicide bomber may have been wearing an Iraqi military uniform.

For more on the story, we turn to the Pentagon and CNN's Kathleen Koch.

Kathleen, what else do you know?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, what we're told by a spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq is that, after the explosion, investigators found in the mess hall there at Camp Marez the remains of a torso wearing an Iraqi National Guard uniform. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan says that the assumption the military is going on now is that this was indeed the bomber.

But Colonel Boylan says they don't yet know whether or not he was actually a member of the Iraqi military. He explains that those uniforms are sometimes stolen, that they can be obtained from deserters, and that they are also readily available on the Iraqi black market.

Meanwhile, the colonel in charge of U.S. troops in the Mosul area says the military also believes the bomber was not acting alone. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: It is very difficult to conceive that this would be the act of a lone individual. It would seem to me reasonable to assume that this was a mission perhaps some time in the planning, days, perhaps, that the -- that this particular group and Ansar Al-Sunna has claimed responsibility. I have no reason to doubt that.

They are a very vicious terrorist organization. So I think it is probably a very -- a well coordinated action, rather than the actions of one particular individual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, the two problems that the multinational forces are having right now in establishing the bomber's identity are, first of all, that one military official says that the Iraqi National Guard does not have a tracking system in place similar to the one used by the U.S. military to keep a reliable count of its soldiers. So, they simply aren't sure yet whether anyone is missing.

And Colonel Boylan also says it's unclear whether any of the Iraqi workers at Camp Marez are missing, because he says it's simply not a consistent work force. He says, on any day, people show up to work or they don't. So, they haven't yet established whether any of those workers are missing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kathleen Koch live from the Pentagon, thank you -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: As of today, the Pentagon puts the number of Americans wounded in Iraq at nearly 10,000. Slightly less than half of those have since returned to duty in Iraq.

CNN producer Alex Quade followed what happens step by step when an American fighter goes down. Here's her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): The journey of the wounded warrior usually begins like this. Amid the chaos, the pain, Army medics or Naval Corpsmen take life-saving action while lethal combat continues around them.

They bandage them up, carry them out. If it's too hot for a medevac helicopter to land, it's into vehicles near the battle site and on to the next level of care, a fallback position outside the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, lift.

QUADE: This is triage. Navy shock and trauma platoon members collect and clear the wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, go. QUADE: Stabilize and back to battle or on to the next level of care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Urgent. Urgent. Urgent.

QUADE: Urgent means medical evacuation. Get them to a combat field hospital within one hour of being wounded, what's called the golden hour, odds are, they'll survive.

It's time for the medicine man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Currently (INAUDIBLE)

QUADE: Medicine man, that's the call sign of the U.S. Army medevac unit.

C.W. 2 HARLEY MAST, MEDEVAC PILOT: Guys in the field would get injured during their battles. And their EMTs or their medics on the scene can only treat them to a certain extent. And our job is to grab them and pick them up and bring them to a hospital or wherever further care is needed for the patient.

QUADE: They pick up the freshly wounded, care for them in flight, bring them to the CSH, combat support hospital, or to a forward surgical team. It's a handover to the surgeons.

There are four combat hospitals in Iraq in Tikrit, Mosul, Balad, and here in Baghdad, the former private hospital for Saddam Hussein and his family, now run by the U.S. Army. The medical work here is raw, dirty, emotionally wrenching.

CPT. SUDIP BOSE, U.S. ARMY: A lot of blood and guts. You're kind of trained for that as a doctor and you're ready for it. But what's different here is, there's another level of detachment to your patients, which are the soldiers, because they're like all of us. They left the states. They're hoping to go back. And some of them in the process aren't expecting it and they get badly injured or, god forbid, even killed. And that's what makes it different. There's a level of attachment here to the patients.

QUADE: After the patients have been stabilized, it's on to the next level, to Balad Air Base. A series of tents make up an Air Force theater hospital, E.R., O.R. and an ICU. Here, too, the medical staff work in conditions just as dangerous as Mosul. In fact, this is the most frequently attacked base in Iraq. A loudspeaker announces alarm red when it's happening.

LT. COL. DON JENKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: When you're in the operating room, there's really nothing more that we can do than keep operating. We've built up as best we can around those operating theaters with concrete barriers and sandbags and that sort of thing. So -- still an alarm there.

Those folks that aren't scrubbed in sterile gear do have the opportunity, if they can get to their gear safely, put on their helmet or flak vest. We don't stop what we're doing just because this attack is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lower. Lower.

QUADE: When the patients are stabilized, it's on to what's called the CASF, contingency aeromedical staging facility.

TECH. SGT. GEORGE DENBY, U.S. AIR FORCE: It's more like a medical air terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On my command, prepare to lift. Lift.

DENBY: Our patients when they come here, they're pretty much knowing, this is my last step before I go back to the states or before I go to Germany and then go back to the states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, one, two, three.

DENBY: We get them here. We get them medicated and get them comfortable.

QUADE: And then time to load the patients on to a C-141, converted from cargo plane to flying hospital. Patients are racked onto hanging litters inside the plane. Then the plane goes dark for tactical takeoff. This is light discipline, only low red light until we clear Iraqi airspace.

The flight medics go to work. Using chemical glow sticks for tiny lights, they squeeze between patients in litters.

CAPT. ASSY YACOUB, PHYSICIAN: Whatever care they were getting, we continue that care. We continue mechanical ventilation on them to keep their respiratory status in check. We continue drips, etcetera. Like they need to be sedated. They need something for pain.

QUADE: After clearing Iraqi airspace, lights on. Six hours later, the plane lands at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to move. Move.

QUADE: The patients are off-loaded.

SR. MASTER SGT. TERRY KENNEDY, U.S. AIR FORCE: But I'll never forget any of their faces. And you just want to hug every one of them for what they do.

QUADE: Then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. There, usually, it's more surgery. From battlefield to this hospital in Germany, it's precision, speed, and care every step of the way, which is saving lives.

MAJ. TIM WOODS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Our airvac system right now is unbelievable. We hear what happens on the news pretty much. And within 24 to 48 hours, these guys are hitting getting into our hospital. And we're having to take care of them. And, usually, within a couple of days after that, we're trying to get them back to the states, so they can be closer to their family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any pain right now? Yes?

QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, protecting the privacy of priests and the confidentiality of the church.

O'BRIEN: But is the Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles going too far? Prosecutors investigating allegations of child sex abuse think so. We'll tell you about the legal battle next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

Lisa Montgomery awaiting transfer to Missouri. She's the Kansas woman charged with killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett and then extracting the victim's child from her womb. Montgomery is to appear in federal court in Kansas city next Tuesday.

On a busy, busy travel day, new pat-down procedures going into effect at the nation's major airports. Hundreds of women have complained of being groped during security screenings. Screeners are to remain from touching female travelers' breasts, absent demonstrated suspicion.

And General Motors recalling hundreds of thousands of GM minivans. Passengers face a possible risk of injury from the vehicle's sliding door. The vans affected, Chevrolet Venture and Pontiac Montana, model years 1997-2005 , Oldsmobile Silhouette, '97 to 2004, and the Pontiac Transport, '97 to '99.

PHILLIPS: Now to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Church lawyers in Los Angeles are invoking an unusual defense in refusing to turn over documents that prosecutors say contain damaging information about Catholic priests.

CNN's Drew Griffin has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The secrets are contained here, archival records inside the Los Angeles Archdiocese, records of 17 priests under investigation by a Los Angeles County grand jury.

BILL HODGMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It is my office's position that these documents in the possession of the archdiocese contain evidence of child sexual abuse. GRIFFIN: The church says it must keep bishop-priest communications confidential to protect the privacy of priests, including those who may have committed crimes. And at the center is a cardinal asserting that he has a constitutional right as a religious leader not to expose those records that may detail his own knowledge of what those priests did.

HODGMAN: And this is an argument that has been rejected in Massachusetts and other states and most recently by Judge Nuss in our litigation here in California.

GRIFFIN: Michael Hennigan is the lead attorney for Cardinal Roger Mahony.

MICHAEL HENNIGAN, ATTORNEY FOR MAHONY: The cardinal believed and we believe that, in terms of his relationship with the bishops that he -- his bishop relationship with the priests that he is obligated to protect, counsel, advise, assign and administer, that he needs to have confidential communications with them on a variety of intimate personal topics.

GRIFFIN: In court, the church presented the novel argument that those contacts between a cardinal and his priests are protected by the First Amendment.

Tom Doyle, a former Catholic priest and church law expert, was asked by the court if the privilege exists.

TOM DOYLE, CANON LAW EXPERT: I researched it thoroughly into canon law, which is the church's legal system, and civil law, and there seems to be no such thing in existence.

GRIFFIN: Doyle, who has testified against the church in several abuse cases, says the archdiocese is making up its own rules.

DOYLE: I suspect that what is in the files that would be so secretive would be evidence that the present cardinal and his predecessors had full knowledge of the fact that certain priests were sexually abusing people and that they covered it up.

GRIFFIN: The church insists it isn't hiding anything. It's offered the DA a deal, allowing prosecutors to screen material on the 17 accused priests, as long as those documents are not used in court and as long as the documents remain with the church. Hodgman calls that offer unacceptable. The church's attorney calls that response politics.

HENNIGAN: The district attorney, remember, runs for public office. And although we've offered the same kind of access to the district attorney that was satisfying to the plaintiffs in the civil litigation, he has chosen instead to fight it out in court. It's been a disappointment to us as well.

HODGMAN: Well, Mr. Hennigan's comments are disappointing, because I, too, have a client to represent, just as he does. My client is the people of the state of California. From the very beginning, the district attorney's office has been interested in three things, the pursuit of truth, protecting children and holding accountable those who have sexually abused children, both past and present.

GRIFFIN: In a most recent ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Nuss ruled that the cardinal-priest privilege does not exist and ordered the archdiocese to hand over most of its secret files. The archdiocese has decided to instead file for appeal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin here with more on his exclusive report.

You know, we're talking about these secret documents. Let's talk money and settlement. This was a tremendous amount of money. You wonder, who is next? Could it be bigger?

GRIFFIN: And this is coming to a head in Los Angeles, which has the -- we just had the Orange County settlement, which was near $100 million for 87 victims. Now comes the L.A. case, which is going on, 490 complaints involved. It's all in kind of a group settlement thing. That's going on, despite the fact that there's a criminal grand jury investigating criminal charges not just against individual priests, Kyra, but the L.A. Archdiocese is being investigated for possible criminal violations.

PHILLIPS: All right, we've talked about the settlements and the documents and you've been reporting on this. But I kind of want to look into the future and ask you sort of a bigger picture, because I know you've been talking with a lot of different people about this, as well as reporting on it.

But, when you look at the Catholic Church and the Vatican, is anything being done to study or look deeper into why this even happened? I mean, you and I have talked about how the church has come out and said, yes, it's attracted homosexuals. That doesn't necessarily mean that they commit sexual abuse, but there's got to be something deeper that they've got to look into.

GRIFFIN: Right.

And I asked this to Cardinal Mahony, the Conference of Catholic Bishops. They want to find out, at least that's what they are telling us, what was the root cause of this problem, which they now acknowledge was a huge problem. The Vatican in the coming year is sending 100 priests and 75 bishops into U.S. seminaries to do a study to find out, was there something that attracted pedophiles into the system that went unnoticed?

Was there some elementary problem in how the Catholic Church was recruiting people and not being able to screen out potential problems? This is something the church is going to address and is acknowledging the fact that there was a problem over the past 30-odd years. So, this is going to be a study of, actually, the seminaries in 2005, that the Vatican, the pope, wants to find out what happened to the U.S. Catholic Church that created this scandalous situation that is just ripping across the diocese.

PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, Drew Griffin, thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: Up next, going nowhere fast, travelers stranded on Interstate 64. We'll talk live with one of them in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, from Mississippi, across Texas, the Ohio Valley, it's a winter wonderland, meaning many people wondering when it will all be over.

It's not breaking news for Tom Hemmer. Yes, he's a member of the CNN extended family. He's Bill's uncle. And that's Bill there. And he is sitting -- he looks just like him, from what I understand. He's sitting still on Interstate 64 right now, going precisely nowhere. He's on the phone with us.

Tom, how you doing?

TOM HEMMER, UNCLE OF BILL HEMMER: I'm doing fine, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, tell us the story. How did you end up trapped on an interstate?

HEMMER: Well, my daughter got a flight canceled out of Detroit. And they rerouted her to Saint Louis. And she needed a ride home. So, me and my wife went over to pick her up.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you were going from where to Saint Louis, then?

HEMMER: Yes. We went from Evansville, Indiana, which is where we live, to Saint Louis, Missouri.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Normally, how long a drive would that be?

HEMMER: Oh, it's about 160 miles, so, two, 2 1/2, two-hour drive, maybe three.

O'BRIEN: And you have been there for how long now?

HEMMER: OK. We stopped last night at 5:00 on the highway. And now it's 2:21 here. So that's, what, seven, 14, 21, going on 21 1/2 hours.

O'BRIEN: All right. And is -- and are you cold? Do you have any gas in the tank still? How are things going?

HEMMER: Luckily, I filled up. And no thanks to anybody in the government, we have some fresh fruit and some soft drinks and some water. A guy from Madisonville, Kentucky, which is quite a ways from here, drove up to pick up his son, who was in three cars in front of us. And he made it through and got his son and they went up and they bought all this fresh food and water and came down the road and passed it out to people.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

HEMMER: And bought gas for some people, and gave quite a few people a ride. And if I can mention their name, because, well, they deserve a pat on the back, Ben and Gary Hall (ph) from Madisonville, Kentucky, did an excellent job for us, saved the day.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's good to hear that folks are taking care of each other out there.

And, Tom, I hope you get off the road soon and are able -- I assume your daughter is just waiting at the airport, you are in touch with her.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Oh, no, no. We picked her up and we're on our way back.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Oh, you're on the way back. She's with you.

HEMMER: She's with us.

O'BRIEN: Well, good. You are having a nice bit of family time.

HEMMER: Well, not only a good -- I am getting ticked off at our state of Indiana that is supposed to be doing all this good stuff for us.

They called out the National Guard. And I understand that consisted of three Humvees to serve 50 miles of back-to-back-to-back cars and vehicles and we haven't seen them for the last five hours.

O'BRIEN: All right, well, stay in touch. I hope they come soon, Tom Hemmer and family. And stay warm. And...

HEMMER: Oh, we'll try.

O'BRIEN: All right. We'll check in with you a little later.

HEMMER: One other thing, quick.

O'BRIEN: Yes, sure.

HEMMER: We have got volunteers now down here from the fire department and everybody else trying to clear the road that the state can't evidently clear.

O'BRIEN: They can't clear it.

HEMMER: Well, the state hasn't sent anybody around. But we've got volunteer farmers and firemen down here trying to clear the road and get us off this road and back home.

O'BRIEN: All right. If the government won't do it...

HEMMER: People have to.

O'BRIEN: ... ingenious Americans will step in.

Tom Hemmer.

HEMMER: That's right. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: His nephew, Bill Hemmer, needs to get an interview with the governor, put some pressure on...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: You know what? I think he's -- I think that's probably in work even as we speak.

PHILLIPS: Tomorrow morning on "AMERICAN MORNING."

O'BRIEN: He's on the phone right now.

Bill Hemmer, if you are watching, you've got a mad uncle there in Indiana.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: That wraps up LIVE FROM today. I'm sure glad we're not in the snow.

O'BRIEN: I am, too.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired December 23, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, a suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi military uniform, that's who U.S. military officials believe is responsible for Tuesday's attack on a base in Mosul. We'll have a live report from the Pentagon straight ahead.
Fighting has flared in Fallujah today between U.S. Marines and insurgents, three Marines reportedly killed after coming under fire. The American called in airstrikes and tank support in the heaviest fighting in weeks in that city.

Staying warm and getting around town, a major challenge in parts of the Midwest and the south, up to two feet of snow on the ground in some areas, making travel extremely hazardous. One ugly mess is how a dispatcher describes roads in Kentucky, which saw record snowfall.

Hundreds of motorists in southern Indiana are stranded in the snow. A 25-mile stretch of Interstate 64 is closed. Some have been trapped in their cars since yesterday afternoon. And the National Guard has been called in to help. We'll have the forecast for you straight ahead.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, more details emerging today about the mess hall blast in Mosul. In a CNN interview, the U.S. commander in Mosul says the suspected suicide bomber may have been wearing an Iraqi military uniform.

For more on the story, we turn to the Pentagon and CNN's Kathleen Koch.

Kathleen, what else do you know?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, what we're told by a spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq is that, after the explosion, investigators found in the mess hall there at Camp Marez the remains of a torso wearing an Iraqi National Guard uniform. Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan says that the assumption the military is going on now is that this was indeed the bomber.

But Colonel Boylan says they don't yet know whether or not he was actually a member of the Iraqi military. He explains that those uniforms are sometimes stolen, that they can be obtained from deserters, and that they are also readily available on the Iraqi black market.

Meanwhile, the colonel in charge of U.S. troops in the Mosul area says the military also believes the bomber was not acting alone. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: It is very difficult to conceive that this would be the act of a lone individual. It would seem to me reasonable to assume that this was a mission perhaps some time in the planning, days, perhaps, that the -- that this particular group and Ansar Al-Sunna has claimed responsibility. I have no reason to doubt that.

They are a very vicious terrorist organization. So I think it is probably a very -- a well coordinated action, rather than the actions of one particular individual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, the two problems that the multinational forces are having right now in establishing the bomber's identity are, first of all, that one military official says that the Iraqi National Guard does not have a tracking system in place similar to the one used by the U.S. military to keep a reliable count of its soldiers. So, they simply aren't sure yet whether anyone is missing.

And Colonel Boylan also says it's unclear whether any of the Iraqi workers at Camp Marez are missing, because he says it's simply not a consistent work force. He says, on any day, people show up to work or they don't. So, they haven't yet established whether any of those workers are missing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kathleen Koch live from the Pentagon, thank you -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: As of today, the Pentagon puts the number of Americans wounded in Iraq at nearly 10,000. Slightly less than half of those have since returned to duty in Iraq.

CNN producer Alex Quade followed what happens step by step when an American fighter goes down. Here's her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): The journey of the wounded warrior usually begins like this. Amid the chaos, the pain, Army medics or Naval Corpsmen take life-saving action while lethal combat continues around them.

They bandage them up, carry them out. If it's too hot for a medevac helicopter to land, it's into vehicles near the battle site and on to the next level of care, a fallback position outside the kill zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, lift.

QUADE: This is triage. Navy shock and trauma platoon members collect and clear the wounded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, go. QUADE: Stabilize and back to battle or on to the next level of care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Urgent. Urgent. Urgent.

QUADE: Urgent means medical evacuation. Get them to a combat field hospital within one hour of being wounded, what's called the golden hour, odds are, they'll survive.

It's time for the medicine man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Currently (INAUDIBLE)

QUADE: Medicine man, that's the call sign of the U.S. Army medevac unit.

C.W. 2 HARLEY MAST, MEDEVAC PILOT: Guys in the field would get injured during their battles. And their EMTs or their medics on the scene can only treat them to a certain extent. And our job is to grab them and pick them up and bring them to a hospital or wherever further care is needed for the patient.

QUADE: They pick up the freshly wounded, care for them in flight, bring them to the CSH, combat support hospital, or to a forward surgical team. It's a handover to the surgeons.

There are four combat hospitals in Iraq in Tikrit, Mosul, Balad, and here in Baghdad, the former private hospital for Saddam Hussein and his family, now run by the U.S. Army. The medical work here is raw, dirty, emotionally wrenching.

CPT. SUDIP BOSE, U.S. ARMY: A lot of blood and guts. You're kind of trained for that as a doctor and you're ready for it. But what's different here is, there's another level of detachment to your patients, which are the soldiers, because they're like all of us. They left the states. They're hoping to go back. And some of them in the process aren't expecting it and they get badly injured or, god forbid, even killed. And that's what makes it different. There's a level of attachment here to the patients.

QUADE: After the patients have been stabilized, it's on to the next level, to Balad Air Base. A series of tents make up an Air Force theater hospital, E.R., O.R. and an ICU. Here, too, the medical staff work in conditions just as dangerous as Mosul. In fact, this is the most frequently attacked base in Iraq. A loudspeaker announces alarm red when it's happening.

LT. COL. DON JENKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: When you're in the operating room, there's really nothing more that we can do than keep operating. We've built up as best we can around those operating theaters with concrete barriers and sandbags and that sort of thing. So -- still an alarm there.

Those folks that aren't scrubbed in sterile gear do have the opportunity, if they can get to their gear safely, put on their helmet or flak vest. We don't stop what we're doing just because this attack is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lower. Lower.

QUADE: When the patients are stabilized, it's on to what's called the CASF, contingency aeromedical staging facility.

TECH. SGT. GEORGE DENBY, U.S. AIR FORCE: It's more like a medical air terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On my command, prepare to lift. Lift.

DENBY: Our patients when they come here, they're pretty much knowing, this is my last step before I go back to the states or before I go to Germany and then go back to the states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, one, two, three.

DENBY: We get them here. We get them medicated and get them comfortable.

QUADE: And then time to load the patients on to a C-141, converted from cargo plane to flying hospital. Patients are racked onto hanging litters inside the plane. Then the plane goes dark for tactical takeoff. This is light discipline, only low red light until we clear Iraqi airspace.

The flight medics go to work. Using chemical glow sticks for tiny lights, they squeeze between patients in litters.

CAPT. ASSY YACOUB, PHYSICIAN: Whatever care they were getting, we continue that care. We continue mechanical ventilation on them to keep their respiratory status in check. We continue drips, etcetera. Like they need to be sedated. They need something for pain.

QUADE: After clearing Iraqi airspace, lights on. Six hours later, the plane lands at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to move. Move.

QUADE: The patients are off-loaded.

SR. MASTER SGT. TERRY KENNEDY, U.S. AIR FORCE: But I'll never forget any of their faces. And you just want to hug every one of them for what they do.

QUADE: Then on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. There, usually, it's more surgery. From battlefield to this hospital in Germany, it's precision, speed, and care every step of the way, which is saving lives.

MAJ. TIM WOODS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Our airvac system right now is unbelievable. We hear what happens on the news pretty much. And within 24 to 48 hours, these guys are hitting getting into our hospital. And we're having to take care of them. And, usually, within a couple of days after that, we're trying to get them back to the states, so they can be closer to their family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any pain right now? Yes?

QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, protecting the privacy of priests and the confidentiality of the church.

O'BRIEN: But is the Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles going too far? Prosecutors investigating allegations of child sex abuse think so. We'll tell you about the legal battle next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

Lisa Montgomery awaiting transfer to Missouri. She's the Kansas woman charged with killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett and then extracting the victim's child from her womb. Montgomery is to appear in federal court in Kansas city next Tuesday.

On a busy, busy travel day, new pat-down procedures going into effect at the nation's major airports. Hundreds of women have complained of being groped during security screenings. Screeners are to remain from touching female travelers' breasts, absent demonstrated suspicion.

And General Motors recalling hundreds of thousands of GM minivans. Passengers face a possible risk of injury from the vehicle's sliding door. The vans affected, Chevrolet Venture and Pontiac Montana, model years 1997-2005 , Oldsmobile Silhouette, '97 to 2004, and the Pontiac Transport, '97 to '99.

PHILLIPS: Now to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Church lawyers in Los Angeles are invoking an unusual defense in refusing to turn over documents that prosecutors say contain damaging information about Catholic priests.

CNN's Drew Griffin has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The secrets are contained here, archival records inside the Los Angeles Archdiocese, records of 17 priests under investigation by a Los Angeles County grand jury.

BILL HODGMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It is my office's position that these documents in the possession of the archdiocese contain evidence of child sexual abuse. GRIFFIN: The church says it must keep bishop-priest communications confidential to protect the privacy of priests, including those who may have committed crimes. And at the center is a cardinal asserting that he has a constitutional right as a religious leader not to expose those records that may detail his own knowledge of what those priests did.

HODGMAN: And this is an argument that has been rejected in Massachusetts and other states and most recently by Judge Nuss in our litigation here in California.

GRIFFIN: Michael Hennigan is the lead attorney for Cardinal Roger Mahony.

MICHAEL HENNIGAN, ATTORNEY FOR MAHONY: The cardinal believed and we believe that, in terms of his relationship with the bishops that he -- his bishop relationship with the priests that he is obligated to protect, counsel, advise, assign and administer, that he needs to have confidential communications with them on a variety of intimate personal topics.

GRIFFIN: In court, the church presented the novel argument that those contacts between a cardinal and his priests are protected by the First Amendment.

Tom Doyle, a former Catholic priest and church law expert, was asked by the court if the privilege exists.

TOM DOYLE, CANON LAW EXPERT: I researched it thoroughly into canon law, which is the church's legal system, and civil law, and there seems to be no such thing in existence.

GRIFFIN: Doyle, who has testified against the church in several abuse cases, says the archdiocese is making up its own rules.

DOYLE: I suspect that what is in the files that would be so secretive would be evidence that the present cardinal and his predecessors had full knowledge of the fact that certain priests were sexually abusing people and that they covered it up.

GRIFFIN: The church insists it isn't hiding anything. It's offered the DA a deal, allowing prosecutors to screen material on the 17 accused priests, as long as those documents are not used in court and as long as the documents remain with the church. Hodgman calls that offer unacceptable. The church's attorney calls that response politics.

HENNIGAN: The district attorney, remember, runs for public office. And although we've offered the same kind of access to the district attorney that was satisfying to the plaintiffs in the civil litigation, he has chosen instead to fight it out in court. It's been a disappointment to us as well.

HODGMAN: Well, Mr. Hennigan's comments are disappointing, because I, too, have a client to represent, just as he does. My client is the people of the state of California. From the very beginning, the district attorney's office has been interested in three things, the pursuit of truth, protecting children and holding accountable those who have sexually abused children, both past and present.

GRIFFIN: In a most recent ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Nuss ruled that the cardinal-priest privilege does not exist and ordered the archdiocese to hand over most of its secret files. The archdiocese has decided to instead file for appeal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin here with more on his exclusive report.

You know, we're talking about these secret documents. Let's talk money and settlement. This was a tremendous amount of money. You wonder, who is next? Could it be bigger?

GRIFFIN: And this is coming to a head in Los Angeles, which has the -- we just had the Orange County settlement, which was near $100 million for 87 victims. Now comes the L.A. case, which is going on, 490 complaints involved. It's all in kind of a group settlement thing. That's going on, despite the fact that there's a criminal grand jury investigating criminal charges not just against individual priests, Kyra, but the L.A. Archdiocese is being investigated for possible criminal violations.

PHILLIPS: All right, we've talked about the settlements and the documents and you've been reporting on this. But I kind of want to look into the future and ask you sort of a bigger picture, because I know you've been talking with a lot of different people about this, as well as reporting on it.

But, when you look at the Catholic Church and the Vatican, is anything being done to study or look deeper into why this even happened? I mean, you and I have talked about how the church has come out and said, yes, it's attracted homosexuals. That doesn't necessarily mean that they commit sexual abuse, but there's got to be something deeper that they've got to look into.

GRIFFIN: Right.

And I asked this to Cardinal Mahony, the Conference of Catholic Bishops. They want to find out, at least that's what they are telling us, what was the root cause of this problem, which they now acknowledge was a huge problem. The Vatican in the coming year is sending 100 priests and 75 bishops into U.S. seminaries to do a study to find out, was there something that attracted pedophiles into the system that went unnoticed?

Was there some elementary problem in how the Catholic Church was recruiting people and not being able to screen out potential problems? This is something the church is going to address and is acknowledging the fact that there was a problem over the past 30-odd years. So, this is going to be a study of, actually, the seminaries in 2005, that the Vatican, the pope, wants to find out what happened to the U.S. Catholic Church that created this scandalous situation that is just ripping across the diocese.

PHILLIPS: Wow. All right, Drew Griffin, thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: Up next, going nowhere fast, travelers stranded on Interstate 64. We'll talk live with one of them in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, from Mississippi, across Texas, the Ohio Valley, it's a winter wonderland, meaning many people wondering when it will all be over.

It's not breaking news for Tom Hemmer. Yes, he's a member of the CNN extended family. He's Bill's uncle. And that's Bill there. And he is sitting -- he looks just like him, from what I understand. He's sitting still on Interstate 64 right now, going precisely nowhere. He's on the phone with us.

Tom, how you doing?

TOM HEMMER, UNCLE OF BILL HEMMER: I'm doing fine, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, tell us the story. How did you end up trapped on an interstate?

HEMMER: Well, my daughter got a flight canceled out of Detroit. And they rerouted her to Saint Louis. And she needed a ride home. So, me and my wife went over to pick her up.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you were going from where to Saint Louis, then?

HEMMER: Yes. We went from Evansville, Indiana, which is where we live, to Saint Louis, Missouri.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Normally, how long a drive would that be?

HEMMER: Oh, it's about 160 miles, so, two, 2 1/2, two-hour drive, maybe three.

O'BRIEN: And you have been there for how long now?

HEMMER: OK. We stopped last night at 5:00 on the highway. And now it's 2:21 here. So that's, what, seven, 14, 21, going on 21 1/2 hours.

O'BRIEN: All right. And is -- and are you cold? Do you have any gas in the tank still? How are things going?

HEMMER: Luckily, I filled up. And no thanks to anybody in the government, we have some fresh fruit and some soft drinks and some water. A guy from Madisonville, Kentucky, which is quite a ways from here, drove up to pick up his son, who was in three cars in front of us. And he made it through and got his son and they went up and they bought all this fresh food and water and came down the road and passed it out to people.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

HEMMER: And bought gas for some people, and gave quite a few people a ride. And if I can mention their name, because, well, they deserve a pat on the back, Ben and Gary Hall (ph) from Madisonville, Kentucky, did an excellent job for us, saved the day.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's good to hear that folks are taking care of each other out there.

And, Tom, I hope you get off the road soon and are able -- I assume your daughter is just waiting at the airport, you are in touch with her.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Oh, no, no. We picked her up and we're on our way back.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Oh, you're on the way back. She's with you.

HEMMER: She's with us.

O'BRIEN: Well, good. You are having a nice bit of family time.

HEMMER: Well, not only a good -- I am getting ticked off at our state of Indiana that is supposed to be doing all this good stuff for us.

They called out the National Guard. And I understand that consisted of three Humvees to serve 50 miles of back-to-back-to-back cars and vehicles and we haven't seen them for the last five hours.

O'BRIEN: All right, well, stay in touch. I hope they come soon, Tom Hemmer and family. And stay warm. And...

HEMMER: Oh, we'll try.

O'BRIEN: All right. We'll check in with you a little later.

HEMMER: One other thing, quick.

O'BRIEN: Yes, sure.

HEMMER: We have got volunteers now down here from the fire department and everybody else trying to clear the road that the state can't evidently clear.

O'BRIEN: They can't clear it.

HEMMER: Well, the state hasn't sent anybody around. But we've got volunteer farmers and firemen down here trying to clear the road and get us off this road and back home.

O'BRIEN: All right. If the government won't do it...

HEMMER: People have to.

O'BRIEN: ... ingenious Americans will step in.

Tom Hemmer.

HEMMER: That's right. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: His nephew, Bill Hemmer, needs to get an interview with the governor, put some pressure on...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: You know what? I think he's -- I think that's probably in work even as we speak.

PHILLIPS: Tomorrow morning on "AMERICAN MORNING."

O'BRIEN: He's on the phone right now.

Bill Hemmer, if you are watching, you've got a mad uncle there in Indiana.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: That wraps up LIVE FROM today. I'm sure glad we're not in the snow.

O'BRIEN: I am, too.

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