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U.S. Helping Iraqis to Rebuild Sadr City; Suspects in Teen Disappearance to be Held Longer; International Prosecutor to Investigate Sudan War Crimes; Fugitive Task Force Makes Dent in Camden Crime

Aired June 08, 2005 - 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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Out of the blue, more death in the desert, insurgent style. The latest suicide car bombing took the lives of three Iraqi civilians, today near Baqubah just north of Baghdad.
And on the western front, meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi troops are still moving house to house, street by street in Tal Afar. These are pictures you'll only see on CNN, from our crew and correspondent embedded with the 3rd U.S. Armored Cavalry, not far from the Syrian border.

CNN's Jane Arraf says locals are eager to point troops toward insurgents who've taken over Tal Afar, who still pose a threat from hideouts and alleyways. We know of one U.S. soldier and three insurgents killed since the operation started early yesterday.

Not so long ago a big chunk of Baghdad was every bit the flash point Tal Afar is now. And Fallujah and Mosul and Najaf were before it. Sadr City was and is a slum filled with hardline disciples of a militant Shiite cleric. But CNN's Jennifer Eccleston discovered it's not just the place, it's -- it's not the place it was just one year ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Americans are coming to Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite enclave in eastern Baghdad.

The Americans were here a year ago, too, when the place was a battlefield, U.S. forces fighting street by street with militiamen loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The conflict left scores dead and the local population deeply suspicious of the liberators, come to free them from the subjugation of the mainly Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein.

What made the dynamic shift so dramatically? It's a case of turning swords into plowshares.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By putting shovels and hammers in their hands that they will build for their future rather than building vehicle- born improvised explosive devices and fight against us.

ECCLESTON: Shovels and hammers, an investment of mere pennies in the multibillion dollar effort to rebuild Iraq. But what a payoff. Electricity, water, trash disposal and a sewage system for desperately poor neighborhoods where such things never existed.

In Sadr City, rebuilding an infrastructure neglected for decades. The gratitude of the people matched by the enthusiasm of the donors.

COL. JAMIE GAYTON, U.S. ARMY: I love this aspect of it. Getting out and talking with the people and hearing their concerns and then taking those concerns and turning it into a reality on the ground.

When we go into neighborhoods, and they've never had any kind of sewer system other than just a sewer that runs down the street in an open slit trench. And if you talk to them about ideas, we get with the Iraqi engineers and discuss how we can solve these problems. It is a wonderful thing.

ECCLESTON: Sadr City is a city within a city. Over two million people, Baghdad's biggest slum. Any infrastructure development at all translates into vast improvement in the quality of life of a lot of people.

Even so, there are complaints. Things move too slowly this man says.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Each time he says we will build a network to supply us with water. It's been like this since last year. Whenever we go to ask them they say tomorrow, the day after, and so on. And nothing yet.

ECCLESTON: The Army Corps of Engineers' Col. Dick Thompson says frustration is only natural. But he says there's a good reason for the slow pace of progress.

COL. DICK THOMPSON, U.S. ARMY: Here we're going to opt for a manual labor, people with picks and shovels digging trenches that we would normally use a backhoe to do. It may take a little longer, but we can employ several hundreds more people on an individual project site by doing it that way.

ECCLESTON: A battle for hearts and minds. Bilge pumps succeeding where bullets failed. Winning over some of Iraq's most suspicious citizens, at least for now.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: In Lodi, California, arrests and searches after federal agents expose and alleged terror planning -- training plot, rather, potentially targeting hospitals and large food stores.

Two prominent local imams are charged with visa violations. Two other men, a father and a son, are charged with lying to the FBI about the son's alleged two-year stint at an al Qaeda linked training camp in Pakistan.

Adil Khan, a local Islamic leader and 25-year resident of Lodi, defended the community today at a news conference. He told reporters, "We have never done anything to violate the laws of the United States. And we don't intend to."

Lost in translation. Well, many people in Congress fear that's a clear and present danger at the CIA nowadays, with scads of apparently qualified Arab linguists being rejected for scads of open jobs. The problem is the agency's long-standing requirement that recruits be American citizens with top secret security clearance. Many young applicants who are fluent in Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, even Chinese, don't measure up.

The House Intelligence Committee has complained about the unfilled jobs and unmet targets. And now the agency is reportedly promising, quote, "a fresh look at the process." We'll keep you posted.

And we expect to hear that May make -- that May makes four months in a row that the Army has fallen short of its recruiting goal. Officials quoted in "The New York Times" say they signed just over 5,000 new soldiers out of 6,700 they were aiming for. And that figure reportedly represents a cut in the original goal of more than 8,000.

An Army spokesperson says it's typical to relocate monthly goals during the year -- reallocate, rather, monthly goals during the year. Recruiting figures for all the branches are officially released on Friday.

Go to CNN.com to an interactive guide to the state of U.S. security. Find out what the government is doing to fight terror. And check out the guide to terror alert levels and a list of ways you can protect yourself. All of it at CNN.com/SecurityWatch.

CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.

Well, two suspects held in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in Aruba appeared before a judge just hours ago. CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us from the phone -- or on the phone, rather, from Aruba to tell us exactly what happened -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the two suspects have been ordered to stay in custody for a further eight days. That will give police and prosecutors some more time to investigate and to gather evidence.

Now, none of the evidence against them was presented publicly in the court or in the hearing, so we don't know exactly what basis the prosecutors are operating.

But talking to the defense attorneys for the two men, both are security guards one by the name of Abraham Jones and the other by the name of Nicky John. Both are security guards.

And defense attorneys for them say that the only evidence that they have seen presented by the prosecution is merely hearsay and circumstantial evidence from witnesses, none of whom defense attorneys say ever report having seen the two men in the company or anywhere near Natalee Holloway.

We also in the course of the morning and afternoon, Kyra, have been talking to the families of both suspects, and in the case of Abraham Jones, his wife says that they both went out in the evening and partied a little bit at a music festival and then went home together.

And we've been talking to the other suspect's mother. And she says he was a smart student at school, held down a job for a number of years. And she has said very categorically that she doesn't believe her son is involved in any way, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Karl Penhaul, joining us live from Aruba, thank you.

Well, straight ahead, hot on the trail of criminal suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police! Get down! Get down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: ... crime has been reduced. Our Deborah Feyerick goes in depth with the patrol. A fugitive task force making a difference.

Also ahead, dedicated deliveryman. A pizza man goes above and beyond the call of duty after he takes a bullet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: What's widely regarded as the most dire humanitarian crisis on earth today, Western Sudan. Two hundred thousand people dead, millions more driven from their homes out of fear. And now the international criminal court starting a probe into who individually is responsible.

CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth following these first moves of a war crimes investigation. Richard, what can you tell us?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Luis Moreno-Ocampo is the prosecutor. He's been in office now almost two years. We're coming up to his anniversary. But now he's got a high profile case on the world stage: Darfur, Sudan, who's responsible for the widespread violence, looting, starvation that has taken place inside Sudan?

The prosecutor will be appearing before the Security Council later this month. It's still early in his investigation. He's got a lot of experience in Argentina going after human rights violations committed by government officials there.

I asked him in New York today just what is his timetable? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO, ICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR: We are trained to do as fast as you can. Our speed depends on the cooperation. We are like a boat: without water we cannot sail.

In Uganda, for instance, we are collecting evidence for one year, but with a very strong cooperation from the Ugandan authorities and even the local communities. So it depends how we interact with them. That's why we are promoting the idea of what we are doing. And we are asking for cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: This week Ocampo formally opened the inquiry by his International Criminal Court prosecution team into Darfur. He says he's going to need cooperation, but so far Sudan has indicated it doesn't want any of its citizens facing a trial outside of the country in the Hague. Sudan says it's going to do their own trials.

The prosecutor says he's going after the big fish, the people who are most responsible. And there's a lot of reason for that, but that's what he's targeting.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Richard, let's talk about those big fish and who he's targeting. Can we get specific? Can we talk -- can we sort of layout the levels here, a number of them, that he's going to have to go after?

ROTH: Well, some of the names and the big fish may be on a secret list which was held in the safe of Secretary-General Kofi Annan before it was turned over to Ocampo a few months ago. That list was compiled by a special U.N. commission of inquiry. It's believed to have suspected government leaders, Janjaweed militia leaders who carried out the violence, and even some rebel leaders.

However, the prosecutor today declining to name the names on that list and even saying he sees that list as just an advisory sort of information. He wants to stay impartial, see where the evidence goes.

But at one point he's got to know things may get a little tense when the prosecutors want to go high up in the Sudanese government, because there will be a lot of pressure to get a peace agreement in Darfur. And possibly there will be some political tradeoffs, perhaps justice in exchange for peace on the ground. We'll have to see what happens.

PHILLIPS: Richard, what about Ocampo, just from a personal perspective? Is he concerned about his security? And does he have to carry on in a different way with regard to his security while taking on such a big case?

ROTH: He appears very unruffled about that. He has vast experience in a very precarious environment in his native Argentina. When he went after the military junta leaders there, the police weren't cooperating. He has said he's now a global -- he's a global prosecutor, the first ever for this new court. But he doesn't have much of a staff or resources.

He still says he's going to be persistent and keep going. He declined to say when he intends to visit Sudan.

PHILLIPS: Richard Roth, thank you so much.

Well, think of one of the most dangerous places to live in America and Camden, New Jersey, may come to mind. The crime rate is plummeting there, thanks to a new strategy undertaken to hunt down fugitives.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick shows us what it's all about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It begins at 4 in the morning, a warrant on a guy wanted for armed robbery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police! Open the door. Police! Get down! Get down!

FEYERICK: The suspect's not home. At midnight he went gambling in Atlantic City. The manhunters will wait and get him later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand over here. Keep your hands up. Better open the door.

FEYERICK: The regional fugitive task force is an elite team of U.S. marshals. They have deputized police, sheriffs, prosecutors and others who know the local areas very, very well.

(on camera) The kind of guys you're arresting, what have they done?

RICK COPE, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL: Violent offenders, anything from aggravated assault, armed robbery, attempted murder, murder, sexual assault.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Since January Camden, New Jersey, the most dangerous city in the nation last year, has been their combat zone.

James Plousis is New Jersey's U.S. marshal.

(on camera) Even last summer you had somebody who was raping people in broad daylight.

JAMES PLOUSIS, U.S. MARSHAL: Yes, there was a series of four rapes on one of the main streets in town.

FEYERICK: Isn't that really brazen, the main streets?

PLOUSIS: Yes. FEYERICK: But they thought they could get away with it.

PLOUSIS: Yes.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Camden wasn't always this way. Just ask Gwendolyn Faison, the city's 80-year-old mayor.

GWENDOLYN FAISON, CAMDEN MAYOR: When I arrived in Camden, Camden was the place to be.

FEYERICK: She's spent three quarters of her life here and remembers how it was before the shipbuilders and other industries pulled out.

FAISON: It was just a beautiful town. And then unfortunately in the '70s when the riots came and all the unpleasant stuff.

FEYERICK: Edwin Figueroa was a rookie cop then; now he's chief of police.

(on camera) Did you ever think that crime would reach the levels that it did here in Camden when you first began?

EDWIN FIGUEROA, CAMDEN POLICE CHIEF: When I first began, no, not really.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Camden police made 10,000 arrests last year. The problem, it barely made a dent, because police didn't have the manpower or training to go after the most violent fugitives.

FIGUEROA: It's a frustration not only for me. It's a frustration for the police officers that are out on the street and the community knowing that individuals have committed serious crimes, and are not arrested.

FEYERICK: When the U.S. marshals' New York/New Jersey fugitive task force was assigned here, the mayor was thrilled.

FAISON: We need all the help we can get.

FEYERICK: In seven hours one morning the fugitive hunters hit 10 locations. And rounded up five suspects, this one an escaped convict.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell my mom? Don't tell her where. Just tell her they got me.

FEYERICK: In just five months these man hunters made 181 arrests. And crime in Camden dropped nearly 30 percent.

MICHAEL SCHROEDER, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL: It's one step at a time. One fugitive at a time. One street at a time.

FEYERICK: Even long-time residents like Sharon Miller feel a difference. Prostitutes and drug dealers no longer camped outside her home. SHARON MILLER, CAMDEN RESIDENT: That corner is empty, as opposed to having a bunch of dark shirt wearing folks doing whatever they were doing any time of the day or evening.

FEYERICK: That's not to say the job is finished.

(on camera) Do you still sometime feel you're swimming upstream?

PLOUSIS: No, I think we're going to get a handle on it. I really do. We have the bad guys on the run.

FEYERICK (voice-over): And companies are coming back. The mayor's office lined with groundbreaking shovels to prove it.

(on camera) Are they concerned it's not safe here?

FAISON: Well, evidently they know, even though we have had some problems, but they know that we're doing something about it. That's what's important. And it's working, because crime has been reduced.

FEYERICK: Reduced enough to almost certainly take Camden off the nation's most dangerous list. Reduced enough to finally give people here hope that the bad guys are no longer in control.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Camden, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now. Broadway dims its lights tonight in tribute to the late Anne Bancroft. Bancroft, who earned honors on stage, screen, and television, is perhaps best known as the sultry Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate." Bancroft, age 73, died Monday of cancer.

A tiny miracle thanks to medical technology and a twin sister. Stephanie Yarber gave birth to a healthy baby girl after the first known successful ovary transplant. The tissue came from Yarber's twin and the baby's happy aunt, Melanie Morgan.

Shot in the line of duty but it didn't stop Tom Stefanelli from finishing his appointed rounds as a pizza deliveryman. Four pies got to their intended destinations before he stopped to get help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM STEFANELLI, PIZZA DELIVERY DRIVER: I didn't go to the hospital right away. I was on my last delivery. I went back to the shop and called 911.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": OK. Eventually, you ended up at the hospital, though, and the doctors found the bullet, right?

STEFANELLI: The police found the bullet on me at the shop in my back pocket.

O'BRIEN: How did it get in your back pocket?

STEFANELLI: Because it ended up hitting my wallet and stopping and fell in my back pocket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the government lets tobacco companies breathe a little easier. A new twist in a government lawsuit against cigarette makers. We're going to light that one up, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a big break for big tobacco. Susan Lisovicz has the story live from the New York Stock Exchange.

Hi, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Lisovicz, thank you so much. We'll see you tomorrow.

That wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM. Now with a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS," Dana Bash.

Hi, Dana.

DANA BASH, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Thank you.

And you know, Howard Dean is at it again. The Democratic chairman took another jab at Republicans, this time about race. His comments are rippling through Washington. We'll tell you what his friends and foes have to say.

And the U.S. Senate is counting down a vote to Janice Rogers Brown, President Bush's nominee for the federal court of appeals. We'll get the latest from Capitol Hill.

"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Now in the news, terror arrests on the west coast, four in all since Sunday. Federal agents in Lodi, California, have in custody two Islamic leaders, also a young man who allegedly lied about attending an al Qaeda training camp, and his father. The FBI calls the investigation in Lodi ongoing.

And this just coming in from the Associated Press. Former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson expected to plea guilty today to killing his former teammate, Patrick Dennehy. The A.P. going on to say that Dotson is scheduled to appear before a judge in Waco in a plea agreement.

You remember Dennehy had been missing about six weeks when his body was found back in 2003 in a field just a few miles away from Baylor campus. Autopsy reports indicated that Dennehy had been shot in the head. Now his former teammate at Baylor is expected to plead guilty today.

And a car bomb blew up at an Iraqi service station this morning just north of Baghdad. Three civilians were killed, another was wounded. It happened near Baqubah. Witnesses say a long line of cars was waiting for gas when a car parked near that line exploded.

Authorities have shut down north-south running Amtrak lines in northern California and evacuated a rail station outside San Francisco. That happened after police arrested a commuter train passenger who made threatening comments and scattered about several suspicious packages. The FBI is questioning that man and checking those packages right now.

"INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

END

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Aired June 8, 2005 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Out of the blue, more death in the desert, insurgent style. The latest suicide car bombing took the lives of three Iraqi civilians, today near Baqubah just north of Baghdad.
And on the western front, meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi troops are still moving house to house, street by street in Tal Afar. These are pictures you'll only see on CNN, from our crew and correspondent embedded with the 3rd U.S. Armored Cavalry, not far from the Syrian border.

CNN's Jane Arraf says locals are eager to point troops toward insurgents who've taken over Tal Afar, who still pose a threat from hideouts and alleyways. We know of one U.S. soldier and three insurgents killed since the operation started early yesterday.

Not so long ago a big chunk of Baghdad was every bit the flash point Tal Afar is now. And Fallujah and Mosul and Najaf were before it. Sadr City was and is a slum filled with hardline disciples of a militant Shiite cleric. But CNN's Jennifer Eccleston discovered it's not just the place, it's -- it's not the place it was just one year ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Americans are coming to Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite enclave in eastern Baghdad.

The Americans were here a year ago, too, when the place was a battlefield, U.S. forces fighting street by street with militiamen loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The conflict left scores dead and the local population deeply suspicious of the liberators, come to free them from the subjugation of the mainly Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein.

What made the dynamic shift so dramatically? It's a case of turning swords into plowshares.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By putting shovels and hammers in their hands that they will build for their future rather than building vehicle- born improvised explosive devices and fight against us.

ECCLESTON: Shovels and hammers, an investment of mere pennies in the multibillion dollar effort to rebuild Iraq. But what a payoff. Electricity, water, trash disposal and a sewage system for desperately poor neighborhoods where such things never existed.

In Sadr City, rebuilding an infrastructure neglected for decades. The gratitude of the people matched by the enthusiasm of the donors.

COL. JAMIE GAYTON, U.S. ARMY: I love this aspect of it. Getting out and talking with the people and hearing their concerns and then taking those concerns and turning it into a reality on the ground.

When we go into neighborhoods, and they've never had any kind of sewer system other than just a sewer that runs down the street in an open slit trench. And if you talk to them about ideas, we get with the Iraqi engineers and discuss how we can solve these problems. It is a wonderful thing.

ECCLESTON: Sadr City is a city within a city. Over two million people, Baghdad's biggest slum. Any infrastructure development at all translates into vast improvement in the quality of life of a lot of people.

Even so, there are complaints. Things move too slowly this man says.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Each time he says we will build a network to supply us with water. It's been like this since last year. Whenever we go to ask them they say tomorrow, the day after, and so on. And nothing yet.

ECCLESTON: The Army Corps of Engineers' Col. Dick Thompson says frustration is only natural. But he says there's a good reason for the slow pace of progress.

COL. DICK THOMPSON, U.S. ARMY: Here we're going to opt for a manual labor, people with picks and shovels digging trenches that we would normally use a backhoe to do. It may take a little longer, but we can employ several hundreds more people on an individual project site by doing it that way.

ECCLESTON: A battle for hearts and minds. Bilge pumps succeeding where bullets failed. Winning over some of Iraq's most suspicious citizens, at least for now.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: In Lodi, California, arrests and searches after federal agents expose and alleged terror planning -- training plot, rather, potentially targeting hospitals and large food stores.

Two prominent local imams are charged with visa violations. Two other men, a father and a son, are charged with lying to the FBI about the son's alleged two-year stint at an al Qaeda linked training camp in Pakistan.

Adil Khan, a local Islamic leader and 25-year resident of Lodi, defended the community today at a news conference. He told reporters, "We have never done anything to violate the laws of the United States. And we don't intend to."

Lost in translation. Well, many people in Congress fear that's a clear and present danger at the CIA nowadays, with scads of apparently qualified Arab linguists being rejected for scads of open jobs. The problem is the agency's long-standing requirement that recruits be American citizens with top secret security clearance. Many young applicants who are fluent in Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, even Chinese, don't measure up.

The House Intelligence Committee has complained about the unfilled jobs and unmet targets. And now the agency is reportedly promising, quote, "a fresh look at the process." We'll keep you posted.

And we expect to hear that May make -- that May makes four months in a row that the Army has fallen short of its recruiting goal. Officials quoted in "The New York Times" say they signed just over 5,000 new soldiers out of 6,700 they were aiming for. And that figure reportedly represents a cut in the original goal of more than 8,000.

An Army spokesperson says it's typical to relocate monthly goals during the year -- reallocate, rather, monthly goals during the year. Recruiting figures for all the branches are officially released on Friday.

Go to CNN.com to an interactive guide to the state of U.S. security. Find out what the government is doing to fight terror. And check out the guide to terror alert levels and a list of ways you can protect yourself. All of it at CNN.com/SecurityWatch.

CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.

Well, two suspects held in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in Aruba appeared before a judge just hours ago. CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us from the phone -- or on the phone, rather, from Aruba to tell us exactly what happened -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the two suspects have been ordered to stay in custody for a further eight days. That will give police and prosecutors some more time to investigate and to gather evidence.

Now, none of the evidence against them was presented publicly in the court or in the hearing, so we don't know exactly what basis the prosecutors are operating.

But talking to the defense attorneys for the two men, both are security guards one by the name of Abraham Jones and the other by the name of Nicky John. Both are security guards.

And defense attorneys for them say that the only evidence that they have seen presented by the prosecution is merely hearsay and circumstantial evidence from witnesses, none of whom defense attorneys say ever report having seen the two men in the company or anywhere near Natalee Holloway.

We also in the course of the morning and afternoon, Kyra, have been talking to the families of both suspects, and in the case of Abraham Jones, his wife says that they both went out in the evening and partied a little bit at a music festival and then went home together.

And we've been talking to the other suspect's mother. And she says he was a smart student at school, held down a job for a number of years. And she has said very categorically that she doesn't believe her son is involved in any way, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Karl Penhaul, joining us live from Aruba, thank you.

Well, straight ahead, hot on the trail of criminal suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police! Get down! Get down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: ... crime has been reduced. Our Deborah Feyerick goes in depth with the patrol. A fugitive task force making a difference.

Also ahead, dedicated deliveryman. A pizza man goes above and beyond the call of duty after he takes a bullet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: What's widely regarded as the most dire humanitarian crisis on earth today, Western Sudan. Two hundred thousand people dead, millions more driven from their homes out of fear. And now the international criminal court starting a probe into who individually is responsible.

CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth following these first moves of a war crimes investigation. Richard, what can you tell us?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Luis Moreno-Ocampo is the prosecutor. He's been in office now almost two years. We're coming up to his anniversary. But now he's got a high profile case on the world stage: Darfur, Sudan, who's responsible for the widespread violence, looting, starvation that has taken place inside Sudan?

The prosecutor will be appearing before the Security Council later this month. It's still early in his investigation. He's got a lot of experience in Argentina going after human rights violations committed by government officials there.

I asked him in New York today just what is his timetable? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO, ICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR: We are trained to do as fast as you can. Our speed depends on the cooperation. We are like a boat: without water we cannot sail.

In Uganda, for instance, we are collecting evidence for one year, but with a very strong cooperation from the Ugandan authorities and even the local communities. So it depends how we interact with them. That's why we are promoting the idea of what we are doing. And we are asking for cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: This week Ocampo formally opened the inquiry by his International Criminal Court prosecution team into Darfur. He says he's going to need cooperation, but so far Sudan has indicated it doesn't want any of its citizens facing a trial outside of the country in the Hague. Sudan says it's going to do their own trials.

The prosecutor says he's going after the big fish, the people who are most responsible. And there's a lot of reason for that, but that's what he's targeting.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Richard, let's talk about those big fish and who he's targeting. Can we get specific? Can we talk -- can we sort of layout the levels here, a number of them, that he's going to have to go after?

ROTH: Well, some of the names and the big fish may be on a secret list which was held in the safe of Secretary-General Kofi Annan before it was turned over to Ocampo a few months ago. That list was compiled by a special U.N. commission of inquiry. It's believed to have suspected government leaders, Janjaweed militia leaders who carried out the violence, and even some rebel leaders.

However, the prosecutor today declining to name the names on that list and even saying he sees that list as just an advisory sort of information. He wants to stay impartial, see where the evidence goes.

But at one point he's got to know things may get a little tense when the prosecutors want to go high up in the Sudanese government, because there will be a lot of pressure to get a peace agreement in Darfur. And possibly there will be some political tradeoffs, perhaps justice in exchange for peace on the ground. We'll have to see what happens.

PHILLIPS: Richard, what about Ocampo, just from a personal perspective? Is he concerned about his security? And does he have to carry on in a different way with regard to his security while taking on such a big case?

ROTH: He appears very unruffled about that. He has vast experience in a very precarious environment in his native Argentina. When he went after the military junta leaders there, the police weren't cooperating. He has said he's now a global -- he's a global prosecutor, the first ever for this new court. But he doesn't have much of a staff or resources.

He still says he's going to be persistent and keep going. He declined to say when he intends to visit Sudan.

PHILLIPS: Richard Roth, thank you so much.

Well, think of one of the most dangerous places to live in America and Camden, New Jersey, may come to mind. The crime rate is plummeting there, thanks to a new strategy undertaken to hunt down fugitives.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick shows us what it's all about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It begins at 4 in the morning, a warrant on a guy wanted for armed robbery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police! Open the door. Police! Get down! Get down!

FEYERICK: The suspect's not home. At midnight he went gambling in Atlantic City. The manhunters will wait and get him later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand over here. Keep your hands up. Better open the door.

FEYERICK: The regional fugitive task force is an elite team of U.S. marshals. They have deputized police, sheriffs, prosecutors and others who know the local areas very, very well.

(on camera) The kind of guys you're arresting, what have they done?

RICK COPE, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL: Violent offenders, anything from aggravated assault, armed robbery, attempted murder, murder, sexual assault.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Since January Camden, New Jersey, the most dangerous city in the nation last year, has been their combat zone.

James Plousis is New Jersey's U.S. marshal.

(on camera) Even last summer you had somebody who was raping people in broad daylight.

JAMES PLOUSIS, U.S. MARSHAL: Yes, there was a series of four rapes on one of the main streets in town.

FEYERICK: Isn't that really brazen, the main streets?

PLOUSIS: Yes. FEYERICK: But they thought they could get away with it.

PLOUSIS: Yes.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Camden wasn't always this way. Just ask Gwendolyn Faison, the city's 80-year-old mayor.

GWENDOLYN FAISON, CAMDEN MAYOR: When I arrived in Camden, Camden was the place to be.

FEYERICK: She's spent three quarters of her life here and remembers how it was before the shipbuilders and other industries pulled out.

FAISON: It was just a beautiful town. And then unfortunately in the '70s when the riots came and all the unpleasant stuff.

FEYERICK: Edwin Figueroa was a rookie cop then; now he's chief of police.

(on camera) Did you ever think that crime would reach the levels that it did here in Camden when you first began?

EDWIN FIGUEROA, CAMDEN POLICE CHIEF: When I first began, no, not really.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Camden police made 10,000 arrests last year. The problem, it barely made a dent, because police didn't have the manpower or training to go after the most violent fugitives.

FIGUEROA: It's a frustration not only for me. It's a frustration for the police officers that are out on the street and the community knowing that individuals have committed serious crimes, and are not arrested.

FEYERICK: When the U.S. marshals' New York/New Jersey fugitive task force was assigned here, the mayor was thrilled.

FAISON: We need all the help we can get.

FEYERICK: In seven hours one morning the fugitive hunters hit 10 locations. And rounded up five suspects, this one an escaped convict.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell my mom? Don't tell her where. Just tell her they got me.

FEYERICK: In just five months these man hunters made 181 arrests. And crime in Camden dropped nearly 30 percent.

MICHAEL SCHROEDER, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL: It's one step at a time. One fugitive at a time. One street at a time.

FEYERICK: Even long-time residents like Sharon Miller feel a difference. Prostitutes and drug dealers no longer camped outside her home. SHARON MILLER, CAMDEN RESIDENT: That corner is empty, as opposed to having a bunch of dark shirt wearing folks doing whatever they were doing any time of the day or evening.

FEYERICK: That's not to say the job is finished.

(on camera) Do you still sometime feel you're swimming upstream?

PLOUSIS: No, I think we're going to get a handle on it. I really do. We have the bad guys on the run.

FEYERICK (voice-over): And companies are coming back. The mayor's office lined with groundbreaking shovels to prove it.

(on camera) Are they concerned it's not safe here?

FAISON: Well, evidently they know, even though we have had some problems, but they know that we're doing something about it. That's what's important. And it's working, because crime has been reduced.

FEYERICK: Reduced enough to almost certainly take Camden off the nation's most dangerous list. Reduced enough to finally give people here hope that the bad guys are no longer in control.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Camden, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Other news across America now. Broadway dims its lights tonight in tribute to the late Anne Bancroft. Bancroft, who earned honors on stage, screen, and television, is perhaps best known as the sultry Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate." Bancroft, age 73, died Monday of cancer.

A tiny miracle thanks to medical technology and a twin sister. Stephanie Yarber gave birth to a healthy baby girl after the first known successful ovary transplant. The tissue came from Yarber's twin and the baby's happy aunt, Melanie Morgan.

Shot in the line of duty but it didn't stop Tom Stefanelli from finishing his appointed rounds as a pizza deliveryman. Four pies got to their intended destinations before he stopped to get help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM STEFANELLI, PIZZA DELIVERY DRIVER: I didn't go to the hospital right away. I was on my last delivery. I went back to the shop and called 911.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": OK. Eventually, you ended up at the hospital, though, and the doctors found the bullet, right?

STEFANELLI: The police found the bullet on me at the shop in my back pocket.

O'BRIEN: How did it get in your back pocket?

STEFANELLI: Because it ended up hitting my wallet and stopping and fell in my back pocket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the government lets tobacco companies breathe a little easier. A new twist in a government lawsuit against cigarette makers. We're going to light that one up, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a big break for big tobacco. Susan Lisovicz has the story live from the New York Stock Exchange.

Hi, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Lisovicz, thank you so much. We'll see you tomorrow.

That wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM. Now with a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS," Dana Bash.

Hi, Dana.

DANA BASH, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Thank you.

And you know, Howard Dean is at it again. The Democratic chairman took another jab at Republicans, this time about race. His comments are rippling through Washington. We'll tell you what his friends and foes have to say.

And the U.S. Senate is counting down a vote to Janice Rogers Brown, President Bush's nominee for the federal court of appeals. We'll get the latest from Capitol Hill.

"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Now in the news, terror arrests on the west coast, four in all since Sunday. Federal agents in Lodi, California, have in custody two Islamic leaders, also a young man who allegedly lied about attending an al Qaeda training camp, and his father. The FBI calls the investigation in Lodi ongoing.

And this just coming in from the Associated Press. Former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson expected to plea guilty today to killing his former teammate, Patrick Dennehy. The A.P. going on to say that Dotson is scheduled to appear before a judge in Waco in a plea agreement.

You remember Dennehy had been missing about six weeks when his body was found back in 2003 in a field just a few miles away from Baylor campus. Autopsy reports indicated that Dennehy had been shot in the head. Now his former teammate at Baylor is expected to plead guilty today.

And a car bomb blew up at an Iraqi service station this morning just north of Baghdad. Three civilians were killed, another was wounded. It happened near Baqubah. Witnesses say a long line of cars was waiting for gas when a car parked near that line exploded.

Authorities have shut down north-south running Amtrak lines in northern California and evacuated a rail station outside San Francisco. That happened after police arrested a commuter train passenger who made threatening comments and scattered about several suspicious packages. The FBI is questioning that man and checking those packages right now.

"INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

END

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