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Escape Tunnel Discovered in Iraq Prison; Soldiers Transition Home

Aired March 25, 2005 - 14:30   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," Terri Schiavo's father says she is in her last hours. Her parents are scrambling on another appeal aimed at keeping her alive. It was filed at the 11th Circuit Court here in Atlanta, which turned down the Schindlers' earlier request in the week. CNN, of course, will bring you the ruling the moment it happens.
Prayers to the pope this Good Friday at the Vatican. John Paul II skipped services and did not hear confessions, another tradition normally. He suffered a number of health problems recently, of course. This is the first time in his pontificate that he has missed Holy Week events.

As we told you moments ago, police are questioning a suspect in the case of a missing Iowa girl. They say Roger Bentley, a registered sex offender, was working on the family's van when 10-year-old Jetseta Gage disappeared last night. Bentley has not been charged.

And the U.S. could find itself selling fighter jets to rivals India and Pakistan. Today senior officials announced they will send F-16s, as you see here, to Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the war on terror. The U.S. will bid on contracts to sell the planes to India.

Word is just coming in to CNN of a possible attempted elaborate jailbreak at Camp Bucca in Iraq. CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with details on what has transpired and what might have happened -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles. Well, let's say right off the top that no Iraqi detainees did escape from Camp Bucca, but it's a tale right out of what could be a feature- length movie. In fact, yesterday, at Camp Bucca in southeastern Iraq, U.S. military troops got information that the Iraqis might have dug an escape tunnel. They started looking around and they found one. Inside an Iraqi detainee housing area, they found the entrance point.

They went down it. They found a 600-foot tunnel had been dug and it had been dug to an exit point all the way outside the concertina (ph) wire fence line. 600 feet long. The tunnel was 10 to 12 feet deep and an estimated width of two to three feet, something any number of detainees might have been able to crawl through and escape, although they did not. The tunnel appeared, of course, to have been pretty much finished since it had an entry point and an exit point.

The working theory of the military officials at Camp Bucca is the detainees were waiting for the evening fog to roll in when visibility is quite low and then they might have made their escape. Now, what they also believe is all the dirt, all that excess dirt that came from this tunnel, was disposed of down the latrines, some indication now that they had problems with those latrines being plugged up and it may have been the dirt from this escape tunnel.

They are continuing their investigation, but they tell us they've done a head count. Everybody that was there before the tunnel was found is still there at Camp Bucca -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, as you tell this story, it sounds like something out of Hollywood, this elaborate scheme in hiding the dirt. I guess it "Stalag 17" (ph), or whatever it was, that famous movie of the great escape. Do we have any idea of the timeframe, how long this has been going on?

STARR: Well, that's what they're looking at right now. We've asked that question and that is something that certainly does concern military investigators because, the fact is, the tunnel is 600 feet long. That is not insubstantial, you could say. So this had to have been going on for some time.

One of the other things they're looking at is whether there were support structures inside that tunnel. The dirt, of course, is relatively soft, relatively sandy. It should have collapsed. Apparently, it did not. What was the type of breathing mechanism, the ability to get air into those tunnels, as those detainees might have made their way through it?

What we can tell you is some U.S. soldiers have been down the tunnel. They have looked around. They've taken some pictures. Those pictures are still classified at this hour. The military is not releasing them yet, but they're having a very close look at this. They do believe that the detainees dug it out with make-shift tools, if you will. They're trying to figure out what they used to dig it, how they constructed it and how a 600 hundred-foot tunnel could have existed without anybody knowing about it. It's something that's a mystery.

O'BRIEN: And just to put it up, in case people just dropped in -- as far as we know, nobody got out. This was, elaborate as it may have been, they nipped it in the bud?

STARR: A U.S. military official tells CNN today everybody that was there before the tunnel was found is still there, everybody that came in after the tunnel was found is still there. And he describes it to us as a big worm hole, but really questions how long this all might have been going on before investigators got the tip yesterday that it was there, went out and found it -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Boy, how would you like to be the soldier that was ordered to go down there and check it out? I'm not sure I'd want to do that one.

STARR: Me neither!

O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. They are brave young men and women -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in the Atlanta courthouse shootings of exactly two weeks ago, there's new evidence the sheriff's department could have known suspect Brian Nichols was planning something if deputies had been more vigilant just a couple days before. Dale Cardwell of affiliate WSB has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF MYRON FREEMAN, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: Obviously there was something that happened here that was wrong.

DALE CARDWELL, WSB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the very first time since Brian Nichols' assault, the Fulton County sheriff discusses what went wrong.

FREEMAN: We've had extra security in the courtroom. We've got our SWAT team escorting high profile inmates now. We separate them from the general population.

CARDWELL: The problems exploded early March 11. Three deputies were assigned to this monitoring room. But no one saw Brian Nichols escape because two of the three were gone.

CHIEF DEPUTY MICHAEL COOKE, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: One of the officers who was assigned in central control to assist monitoring had left to go to one of his courtroom assignments, to the courtroom assignment. Another individual who was assigned in there was sent on an errand, frankly.

CARDWELL: To get breakfast for their captain, Shalisha Lee (ph). But why was Cynthia Hall alone with Brian Nichols after the judge asked for more security?

COOKE: It is not unusual for any deputy sheriff, female, male, to escort an inmate, regardless of their classification -- murderer, rapist, armed robbery, aggrieved assault. That's their job. It's a deadly job. It's dangerous.

QUESTION: In retrospect, chief, was that a mistake?

COOKE: It was not a mistake. It was a policy issue. Certainly we're going to look at policy to see if we need to change it.

CARDWELL (voice-over): But this could be the biggest mistake of them all.

FREEMAN: Well, there's three pieces of paper. It has names on them, but I don't know where they were found.

CARDWELL: But the chief knows what they are -- escape plans hidden in Brian Nichols' cell that could have been discovered two days before the shooting, when deputies found these weapons in Brian Nichols' shoes. But Brian Nichols' cell was never searched.

COOKE: I mean, you hate to speculate. Let me tell you, Dale, contraband is found on inmates daily. It's part of the job. Does finding contraband on an individual immediately require that we shake down their cell? No, it does not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Once again, that was Dale Cardwell of our affiliate here, WSB.

O'BRIEN: Well, is it getting a little warm in here, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: It's always warm in here.

O'BRIEN: Rising temperatures could wipe an entire South Pacific island chain off the map. I was just there a little while ago for our special report on global warming and I'm here to give you a preview today.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brooke Anderson. Sandra Bullock and Queen Latifah hope personality and good hair go a long way at the box office. Plus, Steven Spielberg gives us the scoop on this summer's war of the worlds.

O'BRIEN: And to be or not to be at the baseball game? A swarm of trouble at spring training. We're going to try to pollinate Kyra at the break and get her to kick back in gear.

PHILLIPS: I'm in my hive!

(COMMERCIAL BREAKS)

O'BRIEN: The tide is high, but they are holding on. At least for now. In some low-lying countries all across our planet, sea levels are steadily rising, as our global climate becomes hotter. Recently, I traveled to one place in the South Pacific you may never have heard of Tuvalu. People there are facing the very real prospect that their nation will be swallowed up by the sea and will cease to exist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's not so much a nation as it is an extended family, living in many layers of harmony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our culture is unique. The way we live our lives, the way we look after our children, the way we dance, the way we sing.

O'BRIEN: But beneath the unbridled joy of this community crescendo they call a patelle (ph), the people of Tuvalu are tugged by an undertow of fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel anxious. Where are we going to go? How are we going to survive in a totally new environment?

O'BRIEN: The very sea they celebrate in song and dance, out of the clear blue, now threatens everything they know and love.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are coming to the realization that this is not going to last forever.

O'BRIEN: Miles from nowhere, halfway between the Solomons and the Samoas, the islands of Tuvalu are little more than nine coral heads barely treading water in the South Pacific.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot stand the tide, really. There's no way you can stand the tide.

O'BRIEN: And therein lies the problem. A changing climate means a rising sea, and there is now way to rise above global warming here. Most of Tuvalu sits little more than six feet above mean sea level. In a few generations, the islands may sink beneath the waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So high ground, move to. And for us, it's a matter of survival.

O'BRIEN (on camera): Well, you grow up here.

(voice-over): Ponny Lou Papa (ph) is the nation's assistant secretary of foreign affairs. Like most everyone here, he has lived in Tuvalu, by the sea, nearly all his life. He doubts his four young children will be able to the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eventually, we will be forced to move from this place. We'll be forced to move through no fault of our own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You can see our entire one-hour documentary on global warming on Sunday, when CNN presents "MELTING POINT: TRACKING THE GLOBAL WARMING THREAT." It's the first of four special reports that investigate critical issues confronting our world over the next 25 years. Melting point, Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, right here on CNN. Don't forget. TiVo it, now.

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now. The Utah Department of Transportation admits it missed a Howitzer round. Fired to dislodge dangerous snow-pack, it went over a hill and exploded in the back of a home in Pleasant Grove earlier this week. No injuries, thank goodness, but extensive shrapnel damage to the home.

A swarm of bees. The winters of a spring training game in Arizona. The game between the Rockies and the Diamondbacks was canceled after five innings yesterday. The bees chased Rockies' pitcher Darren Oliver off the field. He says it was his coconut-oiled hair cream.

O'BRIEN: You know, when players used to use Vitalis, that never happened. What happened to Vitalis?

PHILLIPS: Let me talk about the gorilla...

O'BRIEN: Coconut oil hair cream? PHILLIPS: They don't have coconut oil in their hair...

O'BRIEN: What kind of sissy stuff is that?

PHILLIPS: ... but they're getting into the Easter spirit. Unlike the elephants, who were fed fake eggs from the honeydew melons, the gorillas got to enjoy the real thing.

O'BRIEN: I mean, that never happened in DiMaggio. Coconut oil hair tonic.

PHILLIPS: Wasn't it dippity do (ph)?

O'BRIEN: OK, let's press on.

PHILLIPS: Sorry.

O'BRIEN: Actress Sandra Bullock shows off her star power and Queen Latifah conquers new territory, holding court in the beauty shop, where of course, they have coconut oil tonic.

CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson, who is well- coiffed, of course, joining us from Los Angeles with that and more. Hello, Brooke.

BROOKE ANDERSON: Hello, Miles. They have more than the coconut flavor in this beauty shop. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Let me start by saying superstar Sandra Bullock is ready to let people walk all over her. At least in Hollywood, she is. No, Sandy's no pushover. She's been given a star on the Walk of Fame. Hundreds of fans braved the rain to see Bullock's star revealed, next to that of her "Speed" co-star, Keanu Reeves. Yesterday's honor coincides with the release of "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous." It's is in theaters now.

And rain or no rain, great hair, with coconut oil or not, was to be had at last night's world premiere of "Beauty Shop." Headliner Queen Latifah combed the red carpet, alongside co-stars Kevin Bacon and Alicia Silverstone. A female spin on the "Barber Shop" franchise, Latifah's beauty shop hopes to be a lock at the box office starting next Wednesday. Did you get that? Lock?

All right. Just around the corner in Beverly Hills, Steven Spielberg was honored by the Star Light, Star Bright Children's Foundation. The famed filmmaker cofounded the organization 15 years ago to help kids with serious illnesses. Hosted by Chris Rock, the night also welcomed "Desperate Housewife" Teri Hatcher and "American Idol" favorite Tamyra Gray. Last night's honor was a break for Spielberg, who was in final production on his latest project. You see it here. A remake of the H.D. Wells' classic, "War of the worlds."

SPIELBERG: The risk for me mainly is, I'm the guy that made people look up in the sky and think friendly thoughts. I'm making the first movie of my career where people are going to be looking up into the sky and they're going to realize it's not so friendly, maybe, up there. But just remember, it's all make believe.

ANDERSON: "War of the Worlds" stars Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. Miles, the battle begins June 29th. Should be a big one. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Putting in the palm pilot right now. Brooke Anderson, thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Well, coming up next, the moment that they've been waiting for.

O'BRIEN: We'll catch up with some marines in Iraq, just days away from seeing their families again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In the waning days of their deployment, many U.S. troops in Iraq mentally already have one foot stateside, but what can they really expect to find when they come back home? CNN's Jane Arraf looks at how the marines try to ease that transition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are only so many things marines can do to pass the time. Time seems to pass more slowly when they're only days from home. These young men, like Victor Rosales, are veterans of Falluja and other lesser-known battles.

PFC VICTOR ROSALES, U.S. MARINE CORP: The seven months we've been mortared, bombed, shot at, ambushed, attacked. It was kind of hard over there.

ARRAF (voice-over): Over there was Haseiba (ph), near the Syrian border, where even on the base, marines have to wear helmets and body armor any time they go outdoors. They've been in Iraq for seven months. Some have been here for 14. At this base in al Anbar province and in Kuwait, they wait for a series of flights that will, days from now, take them back to California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight days to Kuwait. 36 hours to Kuwait. And then a 23-hour flight home.

(on camera): For the marines, this is one of the final steps in their long journey home, back to a world that may have changed while they've been gone.

(voice-over): The regimental psychiatrist holds classes on how to recognize post-traumatic stress disorder and on problems marines might face when they get back, like very young children not remembering them. Perfectly natural. And dealing with suspicions of infidelity. They call the course warrior transition.

LT. WILLIAM SUAVE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: When they come home and they accuse, you know, their girlfriend or their wife or they ask them the question, you know, did you do whatever while I was gone? That's probably the biggest mistake a person can make. That's an accusation you can never, ever take back. You'll be paying for that accusation potentially for the rest of your relationship. And the vast majority of the time, A, the statistics show that probably nothing bad will happen.

ARRAF: A lot of marines are concentrating on leaving the bad language and the bad habits behind. Gunner Jeff Eby is one of the countless men here under orders from their families to quit smoking or chewing tobacco before they go home.

C.W.O JEFF EBY, U.S. MARINES CORPS: Flight is about three days before I go so that the 15 weeks in system before I go.

ARRAF: It's been a year of intense highs and lows and little in between.

COL. CRAIG TUCKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Yes. You never forget them. I mean, I could probably right now recite all of their names to you.

ARRAF: Colonel Craig Tucker (ph) has commanded 13 battalions over 13 months here. He's lost 102 marines and soldiers in that time.

TUCKER: I know where all of them died, I know how all of them died. I also think that they gave their life for their country and the corps and for a cause that they believed in. Can't restore those lives, but you can remember them. That's what we do.

ARRAF: For a year, their fellow marines have been their families. They tell each other things their real families will never know. They'll tell their loved ones about the camaraderie, the jokes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't believe I had three aces!

ARRAF: The friendships that offset the terror and the tedium of war and keep some things to themselves.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Camp Al Asad (ph), Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: "Now in the News." Marking the death of Jesus without the pope. For the first time in his papacy, Pope John Paul II unable to preside over Holy Week services. He missed today's Good Friday observances at St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican saying he is still recovering from throat surgery late last month.

Registered sex offender Roger Paul Bentley now in police custody in Johnson County, Iowa, being questioned about the whereabouts of 10- year-old Jetseta Marrie Gage. An amber alert was issued late yesterday, after police say Bentley abducted Jetseta from her Cedar Rapids home. The little girl is still missing.

And President Bush is offering condolences to members of the Red Lake Indian reservation in Minnesota. Mr. Bush phoned the reservation's tribal chairman today, promising more federal aid in the wake of Monday's high school shootings. Police say a 16-year-old shot and killed himself after a deadly rampage that left nine others dead.

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 March 25, 2005 - 14:30   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," Terri Schiavo's father says she is in her last hours. Her parents are scrambling on another appeal aimed at keeping her alive. It was filed at the 11th Circuit Court here in Atlanta, which turned down the Schindlers' earlier request in the week. CNN, of course, will bring you the ruling the moment it happens.
Prayers to the pope this Good Friday at the Vatican. John Paul II skipped services and did not hear confessions, another tradition normally. He suffered a number of health problems recently, of course. This is the first time in his pontificate that he has missed Holy Week events.

As we told you moments ago, police are questioning a suspect in the case of a missing Iowa girl. They say Roger Bentley, a registered sex offender, was working on the family's van when 10-year-old Jetseta Gage disappeared last night. Bentley has not been charged.

And the U.S. could find itself selling fighter jets to rivals India and Pakistan. Today senior officials announced they will send F-16s, as you see here, to Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the war on terror. The U.S. will bid on contracts to sell the planes to India.

Word is just coming in to CNN of a possible attempted elaborate jailbreak at Camp Bucca in Iraq. CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with details on what has transpired and what might have happened -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles. Well, let's say right off the top that no Iraqi detainees did escape from Camp Bucca, but it's a tale right out of what could be a feature- length movie. In fact, yesterday, at Camp Bucca in southeastern Iraq, U.S. military troops got information that the Iraqis might have dug an escape tunnel. They started looking around and they found one. Inside an Iraqi detainee housing area, they found the entrance point.

They went down it. They found a 600-foot tunnel had been dug and it had been dug to an exit point all the way outside the concertina (ph) wire fence line. 600 feet long. The tunnel was 10 to 12 feet deep and an estimated width of two to three feet, something any number of detainees might have been able to crawl through and escape, although they did not. The tunnel appeared, of course, to have been pretty much finished since it had an entry point and an exit point.

The working theory of the military officials at Camp Bucca is the detainees were waiting for the evening fog to roll in when visibility is quite low and then they might have made their escape. Now, what they also believe is all the dirt, all that excess dirt that came from this tunnel, was disposed of down the latrines, some indication now that they had problems with those latrines being plugged up and it may have been the dirt from this escape tunnel.

They are continuing their investigation, but they tell us they've done a head count. Everybody that was there before the tunnel was found is still there at Camp Bucca -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, as you tell this story, it sounds like something out of Hollywood, this elaborate scheme in hiding the dirt. I guess it "Stalag 17" (ph), or whatever it was, that famous movie of the great escape. Do we have any idea of the timeframe, how long this has been going on?

STARR: Well, that's what they're looking at right now. We've asked that question and that is something that certainly does concern military investigators because, the fact is, the tunnel is 600 feet long. That is not insubstantial, you could say. So this had to have been going on for some time.

One of the other things they're looking at is whether there were support structures inside that tunnel. The dirt, of course, is relatively soft, relatively sandy. It should have collapsed. Apparently, it did not. What was the type of breathing mechanism, the ability to get air into those tunnels, as those detainees might have made their way through it?

What we can tell you is some U.S. soldiers have been down the tunnel. They have looked around. They've taken some pictures. Those pictures are still classified at this hour. The military is not releasing them yet, but they're having a very close look at this. They do believe that the detainees dug it out with make-shift tools, if you will. They're trying to figure out what they used to dig it, how they constructed it and how a 600 hundred-foot tunnel could have existed without anybody knowing about it. It's something that's a mystery.

O'BRIEN: And just to put it up, in case people just dropped in -- as far as we know, nobody got out. This was, elaborate as it may have been, they nipped it in the bud?

STARR: A U.S. military official tells CNN today everybody that was there before the tunnel was found is still there, everybody that came in after the tunnel was found is still there. And he describes it to us as a big worm hole, but really questions how long this all might have been going on before investigators got the tip yesterday that it was there, went out and found it -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Boy, how would you like to be the soldier that was ordered to go down there and check it out? I'm not sure I'd want to do that one.

STARR: Me neither!

O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. They are brave young men and women -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in the Atlanta courthouse shootings of exactly two weeks ago, there's new evidence the sheriff's department could have known suspect Brian Nichols was planning something if deputies had been more vigilant just a couple days before. Dale Cardwell of affiliate WSB has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF MYRON FREEMAN, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: Obviously there was something that happened here that was wrong.

DALE CARDWELL, WSB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the very first time since Brian Nichols' assault, the Fulton County sheriff discusses what went wrong.

FREEMAN: We've had extra security in the courtroom. We've got our SWAT team escorting high profile inmates now. We separate them from the general population.

CARDWELL: The problems exploded early March 11. Three deputies were assigned to this monitoring room. But no one saw Brian Nichols escape because two of the three were gone.

CHIEF DEPUTY MICHAEL COOKE, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: One of the officers who was assigned in central control to assist monitoring had left to go to one of his courtroom assignments, to the courtroom assignment. Another individual who was assigned in there was sent on an errand, frankly.

CARDWELL: To get breakfast for their captain, Shalisha Lee (ph). But why was Cynthia Hall alone with Brian Nichols after the judge asked for more security?

COOKE: It is not unusual for any deputy sheriff, female, male, to escort an inmate, regardless of their classification -- murderer, rapist, armed robbery, aggrieved assault. That's their job. It's a deadly job. It's dangerous.

QUESTION: In retrospect, chief, was that a mistake?

COOKE: It was not a mistake. It was a policy issue. Certainly we're going to look at policy to see if we need to change it.

CARDWELL (voice-over): But this could be the biggest mistake of them all.

FREEMAN: Well, there's three pieces of paper. It has names on them, but I don't know where they were found.

CARDWELL: But the chief knows what they are -- escape plans hidden in Brian Nichols' cell that could have been discovered two days before the shooting, when deputies found these weapons in Brian Nichols' shoes. But Brian Nichols' cell was never searched.

COOKE: I mean, you hate to speculate. Let me tell you, Dale, contraband is found on inmates daily. It's part of the job. Does finding contraband on an individual immediately require that we shake down their cell? No, it does not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Once again, that was Dale Cardwell of our affiliate here, WSB.

O'BRIEN: Well, is it getting a little warm in here, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: It's always warm in here.

O'BRIEN: Rising temperatures could wipe an entire South Pacific island chain off the map. I was just there a little while ago for our special report on global warming and I'm here to give you a preview today.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brooke Anderson. Sandra Bullock and Queen Latifah hope personality and good hair go a long way at the box office. Plus, Steven Spielberg gives us the scoop on this summer's war of the worlds.

O'BRIEN: And to be or not to be at the baseball game? A swarm of trouble at spring training. We're going to try to pollinate Kyra at the break and get her to kick back in gear.

PHILLIPS: I'm in my hive!

(COMMERCIAL BREAKS)

O'BRIEN: The tide is high, but they are holding on. At least for now. In some low-lying countries all across our planet, sea levels are steadily rising, as our global climate becomes hotter. Recently, I traveled to one place in the South Pacific you may never have heard of Tuvalu. People there are facing the very real prospect that their nation will be swallowed up by the sea and will cease to exist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's not so much a nation as it is an extended family, living in many layers of harmony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our culture is unique. The way we live our lives, the way we look after our children, the way we dance, the way we sing.

O'BRIEN: But beneath the unbridled joy of this community crescendo they call a patelle (ph), the people of Tuvalu are tugged by an undertow of fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel anxious. Where are we going to go? How are we going to survive in a totally new environment?

O'BRIEN: The very sea they celebrate in song and dance, out of the clear blue, now threatens everything they know and love.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are coming to the realization that this is not going to last forever.

O'BRIEN: Miles from nowhere, halfway between the Solomons and the Samoas, the islands of Tuvalu are little more than nine coral heads barely treading water in the South Pacific.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot stand the tide, really. There's no way you can stand the tide.

O'BRIEN: And therein lies the problem. A changing climate means a rising sea, and there is now way to rise above global warming here. Most of Tuvalu sits little more than six feet above mean sea level. In a few generations, the islands may sink beneath the waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So high ground, move to. And for us, it's a matter of survival.

O'BRIEN (on camera): Well, you grow up here.

(voice-over): Ponny Lou Papa (ph) is the nation's assistant secretary of foreign affairs. Like most everyone here, he has lived in Tuvalu, by the sea, nearly all his life. He doubts his four young children will be able to the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eventually, we will be forced to move from this place. We'll be forced to move through no fault of our own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You can see our entire one-hour documentary on global warming on Sunday, when CNN presents "MELTING POINT: TRACKING THE GLOBAL WARMING THREAT." It's the first of four special reports that investigate critical issues confronting our world over the next 25 years. Melting point, Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, right here on CNN. Don't forget. TiVo it, now.

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now. The Utah Department of Transportation admits it missed a Howitzer round. Fired to dislodge dangerous snow-pack, it went over a hill and exploded in the back of a home in Pleasant Grove earlier this week. No injuries, thank goodness, but extensive shrapnel damage to the home.

A swarm of bees. The winters of a spring training game in Arizona. The game between the Rockies and the Diamondbacks was canceled after five innings yesterday. The bees chased Rockies' pitcher Darren Oliver off the field. He says it was his coconut-oiled hair cream.

O'BRIEN: You know, when players used to use Vitalis, that never happened. What happened to Vitalis?

PHILLIPS: Let me talk about the gorilla...

O'BRIEN: Coconut oil hair cream? PHILLIPS: They don't have coconut oil in their hair...

O'BRIEN: What kind of sissy stuff is that?

PHILLIPS: ... but they're getting into the Easter spirit. Unlike the elephants, who were fed fake eggs from the honeydew melons, the gorillas got to enjoy the real thing.

O'BRIEN: I mean, that never happened in DiMaggio. Coconut oil hair tonic.

PHILLIPS: Wasn't it dippity do (ph)?

O'BRIEN: OK, let's press on.

PHILLIPS: Sorry.

O'BRIEN: Actress Sandra Bullock shows off her star power and Queen Latifah conquers new territory, holding court in the beauty shop, where of course, they have coconut oil tonic.

CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson, who is well- coiffed, of course, joining us from Los Angeles with that and more. Hello, Brooke.

BROOKE ANDERSON: Hello, Miles. They have more than the coconut flavor in this beauty shop. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Let me start by saying superstar Sandra Bullock is ready to let people walk all over her. At least in Hollywood, she is. No, Sandy's no pushover. She's been given a star on the Walk of Fame. Hundreds of fans braved the rain to see Bullock's star revealed, next to that of her "Speed" co-star, Keanu Reeves. Yesterday's honor coincides with the release of "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous." It's is in theaters now.

And rain or no rain, great hair, with coconut oil or not, was to be had at last night's world premiere of "Beauty Shop." Headliner Queen Latifah combed the red carpet, alongside co-stars Kevin Bacon and Alicia Silverstone. A female spin on the "Barber Shop" franchise, Latifah's beauty shop hopes to be a lock at the box office starting next Wednesday. Did you get that? Lock?

All right. Just around the corner in Beverly Hills, Steven Spielberg was honored by the Star Light, Star Bright Children's Foundation. The famed filmmaker cofounded the organization 15 years ago to help kids with serious illnesses. Hosted by Chris Rock, the night also welcomed "Desperate Housewife" Teri Hatcher and "American Idol" favorite Tamyra Gray. Last night's honor was a break for Spielberg, who was in final production on his latest project. You see it here. A remake of the H.D. Wells' classic, "War of the worlds."

SPIELBERG: The risk for me mainly is, I'm the guy that made people look up in the sky and think friendly thoughts. I'm making the first movie of my career where people are going to be looking up into the sky and they're going to realize it's not so friendly, maybe, up there. But just remember, it's all make believe.

ANDERSON: "War of the Worlds" stars Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. Miles, the battle begins June 29th. Should be a big one. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Putting in the palm pilot right now. Brooke Anderson, thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Well, coming up next, the moment that they've been waiting for.

O'BRIEN: We'll catch up with some marines in Iraq, just days away from seeing their families again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In the waning days of their deployment, many U.S. troops in Iraq mentally already have one foot stateside, but what can they really expect to find when they come back home? CNN's Jane Arraf looks at how the marines try to ease that transition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are only so many things marines can do to pass the time. Time seems to pass more slowly when they're only days from home. These young men, like Victor Rosales, are veterans of Falluja and other lesser-known battles.

PFC VICTOR ROSALES, U.S. MARINE CORP: The seven months we've been mortared, bombed, shot at, ambushed, attacked. It was kind of hard over there.

ARRAF (voice-over): Over there was Haseiba (ph), near the Syrian border, where even on the base, marines have to wear helmets and body armor any time they go outdoors. They've been in Iraq for seven months. Some have been here for 14. At this base in al Anbar province and in Kuwait, they wait for a series of flights that will, days from now, take them back to California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight days to Kuwait. 36 hours to Kuwait. And then a 23-hour flight home.

(on camera): For the marines, this is one of the final steps in their long journey home, back to a world that may have changed while they've been gone.

(voice-over): The regimental psychiatrist holds classes on how to recognize post-traumatic stress disorder and on problems marines might face when they get back, like very young children not remembering them. Perfectly natural. And dealing with suspicions of infidelity. They call the course warrior transition.

LT. WILLIAM SUAVE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: When they come home and they accuse, you know, their girlfriend or their wife or they ask them the question, you know, did you do whatever while I was gone? That's probably the biggest mistake a person can make. That's an accusation you can never, ever take back. You'll be paying for that accusation potentially for the rest of your relationship. And the vast majority of the time, A, the statistics show that probably nothing bad will happen.

ARRAF: A lot of marines are concentrating on leaving the bad language and the bad habits behind. Gunner Jeff Eby is one of the countless men here under orders from their families to quit smoking or chewing tobacco before they go home.

C.W.O JEFF EBY, U.S. MARINES CORPS: Flight is about three days before I go so that the 15 weeks in system before I go.

ARRAF: It's been a year of intense highs and lows and little in between.

COL. CRAIG TUCKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Yes. You never forget them. I mean, I could probably right now recite all of their names to you.

ARRAF: Colonel Craig Tucker (ph) has commanded 13 battalions over 13 months here. He's lost 102 marines and soldiers in that time.

TUCKER: I know where all of them died, I know how all of them died. I also think that they gave their life for their country and the corps and for a cause that they believed in. Can't restore those lives, but you can remember them. That's what we do.

ARRAF: For a year, their fellow marines have been their families. They tell each other things their real families will never know. They'll tell their loved ones about the camaraderie, the jokes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't believe I had three aces!

ARRAF: The friendships that offset the terror and the tedium of war and keep some things to themselves.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Camp Al Asad (ph), Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: "Now in the News." Marking the death of Jesus without the pope. For the first time in his papacy, Pope John Paul II unable to preside over Holy Week services. He missed today's Good Friday observances at St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican saying he is still recovering from throat surgery late last month.

Registered sex offender Roger Paul Bentley now in police custody in Johnson County, Iowa, being questioned about the whereabouts of 10- year-old Jetseta Marrie Gage. An amber alert was issued late yesterday, after police say Bentley abducted Jetseta from her Cedar Rapids home. The little girl is still missing.

And President Bush is offering condolences to members of the Red Lake Indian reservation in Minnesota. Mr. Bush phoned the reservation's tribal chairman today, promising more federal aid in the wake of Monday's high school shootings. Police say a 16-year-old shot and killed himself after a deadly rampage that left nine others dead.

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