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Autopsy Reveals Terri Schiavo Beyond Help; Suspects in Aruba Disappearance Appear in Court; California Town Evacuates for Tsunami
Aired June 15, 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, HOST: The results are in, but we still don't have all the answers in the case of Terri Schiavo. Her fate was at the center of a bitter battle between her husband and her parents. Spilled over into churches, courts, even Congress. Schiavo died at the end of March, of course, as you know.
Now medical experts say no amount of therapy could have helped her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. STEVEN NELSON, CONSULTING NEUROPATHOLOGIST: The findings of Terri Schiavo are very consistent with persistent vegetative state. I made the comparison in my report to Karyn Ann Quinlan. Karen Ann Quinlan died 10 years after being in a persistent vegetative state. Her brain, Karen Ann Quinlan, weighed more than Terri Schiavo's brain weighed.
The typical things associated with persistent vegetative state are those normal functions of beating heart and breathing and no other types of cognitive function that occurs in the higher portions of the brain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Now the brain damage resulted from Schiavo's collapse and heart failure 15 years earlier. The autopsy did not pinpoint what caused that collapse. The medical examiner, though, found no signs of abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JON THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within one hour of her initial hospital admission, she received a radiograph of her cervical spine which was negative for trauma. So the doctors were thinking at that time of neck trauma and ruled it out by radiograph.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: As you might expect, Terri Schiavo's parents are not accepting the medical findings. To this day their attorney says they believe she would have gotten better with proper treatment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GIBBS, SCHINDLERS' ATTORNEY: If Terri Schiavo wanted to die, she had a lot of opportunities to die. Laying there all that time without blood flow and oxygen to her brain with her husband for whatever the reason not getting her any assistance, clearly, raises the specter that this lady, if she did not want to live, if she didn't have a desire to live, was demonstrating, in addition to strong organs and life, a will to live.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Moments ago right here on CNN, you probably saw it, the attorney representing Terri Schiavo's widower, Michael, said the client feels a sense of relief and, to a degree, vindication.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE FELOS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: One of Mr. Schiavo's initial reactions to the report, I guess the right word is, he was very pleased to hear the results. You have to understand for years he feels that he's been talking in the wind. For years he's alleged, and we've proved in court, that Terri could not be sustained by mouth. And the medical examiner found that to be the case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Attorney George Felos. Felos also says at the appropriate time and in the proper context, his client will release certain autopsy photos showing just how atrophied Terri Schiavo's brain was.
New developments for you in Aruba. Police have cordoned off the home of one of the three men detained in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
CNN's John Zarrella has been following developments for us from Palm Beach, Aruba.
John, yesterday we were focused on that search on the beach. Now it appears to be a search at the home of one of these young men.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And of course, that search on the beach eventually, after about six or seven hours, turning up, police say, nothing that would help them in the investigation into what happened to Natalee Holloway.
But it is getting increasingly clear that the investigation is certainly focusing on the three young men who were reportedly the last three people to see Natalee Holloway, having met her at a local watering hole and then left with her from there on May 30, the night that she disappeared.
Now, investigators did return today to the home of Joran Van Der Sloot. And Joran Van Der Sloot is the Dutch boy, the 17-year-old, one of the three who has been detained by authorities here in connection with her disappearance. They did tape off a portion of the house where he lived and did apparently search the house. What they were looking for is not clear at this particular point in time.
All three of these young men were also in court today, somewhat of a surprise, not expected to be in court. But what we have learned is that two motions were, in fact, filed by attorneys today: one motion from Van Der Sloot's attorney that would allow his father to go visit him. He has not been able to visit his son since his son was arrested.
And the second motion was filed by the attorney representing one of the two Surinamese youths who are being held. And that motion filed was for release of documents and release of evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY OOMEN, DEEPAK KALPOE'S ATTORNEY: We had a brief hearing here about the withholding of certain documents regarding my client, and tomorrow the judge is going to decide on that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of documents?
OOMEN: Documents related to the case. If I knew, I would tell you. I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Documents from the prosecution?
OOMEN: That's what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you say to the security guards who are out and telling stories about your client?
OOMEN: I'm not saying anything else. I'm just saying that my client maintains his innocence to any crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: What we are hearing from law enforcement sources is that the two Surinamese youths have been telling a different story, apparently, than what is being told by Joran Van Der Sloot. Although, all we are hearing, of course, is what we heard yesterday from one of the two security guards released, again, saying that they had dropped Natalee Holloway off with Joran Van Der Sloot near the Marriott Hotel. And of course, that's the area that was searched.
No one knows at this point exactly what Joran Van Der Sloot is saying. None of that information has been released by police authorities here -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: And John, just to make this crystal clear, these three men have not been charged, and that's not unusual to hold people without charges in Aruba, correct?
ZARRELLA: That -- that's correct. They have not been charged. What has happened is they have been formally accused of murder, manslaughter and the kidnapping with fatal results of Natalee Holloway. But they have not been formally charged with any crimes. No one has. But the two security guards, when they were picked up, the first two picked up, they were charged with the same -- or not charged, formally accused of those same crimes. And then, of course, they have been released.
So, no, not -- not unusual for those things to be the accusations to be made, but charges have not been filed against anyone yet -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: An important semantic distinction, though, which we may not be familiar with between accused and charged, correct?
ZARRELLA: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: All right. John Zarrella in Aruba, thank you very much.
Californians no strangers to the occasional earthquake, of course. And they are usually unruffled by the seismic kafuffles. When the tsunami alarm went off in Crescent City, people sprang into action last night.
CNN's Rusty Dornin has more on the evacuation that at least served as good practice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were definitely moments of panic in Crescent City when the sirens began wailing about 8:14 local time. That gave the town only 15 minutes to evacuate. They estimated the wave would get here at 8:29.
Now, when the first sirens went off, the commercial fishing boats here fired up their engines about 30 of them and headed out to sea, trying to escape any tsunami that might be coming into port, because their boats would have been crushed. Now, they headed out to sea.
Meantime, emergency crews were trying to evacuate the hotels, the businesses, the restaurants. Four thousand people ended up leaving the area by the time they called off the tsunami alert one hour after the earthquake.
There were no injuries. There were a couple of minor fender benders. Now, this all comes to a town that experienced tragedy in 1964. After the Alaska earthquake went, 11 people were killed here. They have a very powerful memory of how dangerous tsunamis could be. And most people here are breathing a sigh of relief today.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Crescent City, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, the trial is over, but the postmortem continues in the Michael Jackson case. Prosecutor Tom Sneddon saying he had no choice about putting the mother of Jackson's teenage accuser on the stand, even though he knew she was, in his words, "a difficult person."
As far as defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau is concerned, the prosecution came up short, because zeal for pursuing Jackson clouded their ability to accurately assess the strength of their case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS MESEREAU, MICHAEL JACKSON'S ATTORNEY: They never thoroughly investigated the accusers and the accuser's family, in my opinion. And if you look at the early interviews with the accusers, you'll see the police basically accepting their story before they even investigated who they are.
It was really us that found all the problems with these witnesses, with their history, with their backgrounds. The prosecution almost turned a blind eye to what was really going on. And I think even in the middle of a trial they were trying to deny reality. And it caught up with them.
TOM SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY D.A.: We take people that we get with what -- when they walk through the door. And you have to do what you have to do with what's given to you.
And, frankly, I find it very difficult to visit the sins of a mother on a young boy who's 13 years old when somebody does something that -- like he described in the courtroom.
I mean, you would think that people would be discerning enough to allow his credibility to be judged individually and let her credibility be judged on her basis and be discerning enough to realize it doesn't necessarily have to be a connection between the two.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Concerns about attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan after a new report that Osama bin Laden and a top Taliban leader are alive and well. We'll have details on that straight ahead.
Plus, is it a case of deja flu? A vaccine maker says it's going to come up short again this flu season.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDY QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Aaron.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many cops do we have, Franko?
QUADE: Jeff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to school.
QUADE: Evan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope nothing bad happens.
QUADE: And Greg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a little edgy here sometime.
QUADE: Four U.S. Army National Guardsmen serving in Kirkuk, Iraq. Weekend warriors with something in common. They're brothers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, what's the chances of four of us coming over to Iraq where it's combat and all of us making home.
QUADE: I met them a year ago in Pocatello, Idaho.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love our country, and we're a very patriotic family.
QUADE: Followed them on their 18 months' deployment, from the home front to the front lines. From call-up to training. From Fort Bliss, Texas, to Kirkuk in Iraq where they fight a war against insurgents.
(on camera) What was it like for you the first time when you came under fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty intense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tough. The whole thought of being gone away from your family.
QUADE: The Pruitts, four brothers in arms.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That was Alex Quade. And that was just a preview of a program you want to make plans to see the entire segment of, "Four Brothers in Arms." "PAULA ZAHN NOW" tonight 8 Eastern, only on CNN. We invite you to check that piece out.
Little change of pattern in insurgent violence in Iraq, meanwhile. More suicide bombings to tell you about today. One in eastern Baghdad. Largely Shiite neighborhood there. The bomber crashed an explosives filled car into a convoy of police vehicles. Four Iraqi police officers killed there.
North of the capital, in Khalis, a man wearing a bomb on his body detonated himself inside an Iraqi military dining hall. At least 23 perished there.
Spanish authorities arrested at least 16 suspected Islamic terrorists across the country. They say 11 of the suspects are linked to al Qaeda and were trying to recruit radicals for suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq. The other five suspects are linked to last year's Madrid train bombings. Speaking of the al Qaeda network, that group's leader, Osama bin Laden, and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar are alive and in good health, according to a purported senior Taliban military commander interviewed last week by a Pakistani TV station.
Now he did not give out bin Laden's location, and it's not possible to confirm whether he had real access to information about bin Laden.
A little bit of sad news to report to you now from the United Kingdom. Remember a very warm interview we did here on LIVE FROM a couple of weeks ago. Florence and Percy Arrowsmith joined us on the occasion of their 80th wedding anniversary, a world record marriage certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Well, we have sad news to tell you. Percy Arrowsmith has passed away at home in Hereford, northwest of London. He was 105 years young. We're told Florence, age 100, was there by his side.
Stay with us, more LIVE FROM in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine it: you take a person that you love and then dip them in chocolate. What could be better than that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Dipped in chocolate? Well, looks that way. Sir Elton John, singer, song writer. Sweet tooth, quite literally. Unveiled in Londontown, made entirely of Cadbury's milk chocolate. Life size, 227 pounds. I thought he'd lost a little weight.
Anyway, why? Well, who cares? It's a statue made of chocolate. Therefore, it makes LIVE FROM's program, of course.
Elton, to keep from melting, is being kept in an air conditioned tent. No snacking, please.
Oh, yes. Waka, waka, waka, waka. Yes, that hungry yellow thing, Pacman, those pesty ghosts, Blinky, whatever they were called. I don't know. We were trying to think of all their names. And then the cherries, that maddening music.
Kids, ask Mom and Dad where they spent their quarters back in the 1980s. And you can bet most of them went right down the coin slot of a Pacman machine. Pacman was the most successful coin-operated game ever. It turns 25 years old ago -- years old today.
The object, kids, is to avoid the ghosts and to navigate your way through the maze, chewing up the power pills and then, when they appear, the fabulous fruit items. Thus giving you the high score.
It may seem a little antiquated to you kids now, those of you who are used to Halo, Murrah (ph), but this was great fun back in the 1980s for those of us who thought Pong was kind of cool.
Well, one of the biggest makers of flu vaccine is warning that it won't be able to make as much as expected this year. Boy, deja vu all over again, Susan Lisovicz. I guess this is a shot of bad news.
(STOCK REPORT)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know our colleagues in Atlanta are sorry to lose you, but we here in New York are happy to have you. And I will take you to a power lunch of our own at the Park Cafe, which is a fancy name for the CNN cafeteria.
O'BRIEN: The CNN cafeteria. There could be no better place to have lunch. Beautiful view of the park. I will enjoy having that meal with you, Susan.
LISOVICZ: Good luck and welcome.
O'BRIEN: See you there soon.
And that does lead me to a quick personal note before I go today. This was my last day on LIVE FROM. Clearly, I was getting way too much sleep. And as of Monday I will be arising long before you do to report from my new assignment on "AMERICAN MORNING."
And while I look forward to that new challenge, I will also savor all the challenges we rose to here on LIVE FROM these past few years. This is a program with a small staff, a big heart, and a great sense of humor. We never ducked the serious stories, but we also never took ourselves too seriously, either.
And my thanks go to Mike Topo (ph) for setting that tone, and to all the LIVE FROM-ers who made this job such a treat -- just a few of them there. There's Mike in the purple on the right there. They made me look good. And it is, after all, all about me.
If it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing. And by that measure -- there's Sonia Houston (ph), thank you. By that measure, it was well worth being here. I will miss working with you all. And see you bright and early Monday morning.
That's all the time we have for LIVE FROM. Suzanne Malveaux, with "INSIDE POLITICS" -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Miles, congratulations. Join the rest of us early in the morning.
O'BRIEN: We'll see you.
MALVEAUX: You'll see plenty of us early in the morning.
O'BRIEN: We'll be chatting.
MALVEAUX: Well, the Senate opens hearings on prisoners being held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I'll ask two senators what they think should be done at the facility. And newly released financial records give a clearer picture of how life has changed for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
And just how does the Senate majority leader's bank account stack up to those he leads?
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
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 June 15, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, HOST: The results are in, but we still don't have all the answers in the case of Terri Schiavo. Her fate was at the center of a bitter battle between her husband and her parents. Spilled over into churches, courts, even Congress. Schiavo died at the end of March, of course, as you know.
Now medical experts say no amount of therapy could have helped her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. STEVEN NELSON, CONSULTING NEUROPATHOLOGIST: The findings of Terri Schiavo are very consistent with persistent vegetative state. I made the comparison in my report to Karyn Ann Quinlan. Karen Ann Quinlan died 10 years after being in a persistent vegetative state. Her brain, Karen Ann Quinlan, weighed more than Terri Schiavo's brain weighed.
The typical things associated with persistent vegetative state are those normal functions of beating heart and breathing and no other types of cognitive function that occurs in the higher portions of the brain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Now the brain damage resulted from Schiavo's collapse and heart failure 15 years earlier. The autopsy did not pinpoint what caused that collapse. The medical examiner, though, found no signs of abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JON THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: No trauma was noted on any of the numerous physical exams or radiographs performed on Mrs. Schiavo on the day of, in the days after, or in the months after her initial collapse. Indeed, within one hour of her initial hospital admission, she received a radiograph of her cervical spine which was negative for trauma. So the doctors were thinking at that time of neck trauma and ruled it out by radiograph.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: As you might expect, Terri Schiavo's parents are not accepting the medical findings. To this day their attorney says they believe she would have gotten better with proper treatment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GIBBS, SCHINDLERS' ATTORNEY: If Terri Schiavo wanted to die, she had a lot of opportunities to die. Laying there all that time without blood flow and oxygen to her brain with her husband for whatever the reason not getting her any assistance, clearly, raises the specter that this lady, if she did not want to live, if she didn't have a desire to live, was demonstrating, in addition to strong organs and life, a will to live.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Moments ago right here on CNN, you probably saw it, the attorney representing Terri Schiavo's widower, Michael, said the client feels a sense of relief and, to a degree, vindication.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE FELOS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: One of Mr. Schiavo's initial reactions to the report, I guess the right word is, he was very pleased to hear the results. You have to understand for years he feels that he's been talking in the wind. For years he's alleged, and we've proved in court, that Terri could not be sustained by mouth. And the medical examiner found that to be the case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Attorney George Felos. Felos also says at the appropriate time and in the proper context, his client will release certain autopsy photos showing just how atrophied Terri Schiavo's brain was.
New developments for you in Aruba. Police have cordoned off the home of one of the three men detained in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
CNN's John Zarrella has been following developments for us from Palm Beach, Aruba.
John, yesterday we were focused on that search on the beach. Now it appears to be a search at the home of one of these young men.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And of course, that search on the beach eventually, after about six or seven hours, turning up, police say, nothing that would help them in the investigation into what happened to Natalee Holloway.
But it is getting increasingly clear that the investigation is certainly focusing on the three young men who were reportedly the last three people to see Natalee Holloway, having met her at a local watering hole and then left with her from there on May 30, the night that she disappeared.
Now, investigators did return today to the home of Joran Van Der Sloot. And Joran Van Der Sloot is the Dutch boy, the 17-year-old, one of the three who has been detained by authorities here in connection with her disappearance. They did tape off a portion of the house where he lived and did apparently search the house. What they were looking for is not clear at this particular point in time.
All three of these young men were also in court today, somewhat of a surprise, not expected to be in court. But what we have learned is that two motions were, in fact, filed by attorneys today: one motion from Van Der Sloot's attorney that would allow his father to go visit him. He has not been able to visit his son since his son was arrested.
And the second motion was filed by the attorney representing one of the two Surinamese youths who are being held. And that motion filed was for release of documents and release of evidence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY OOMEN, DEEPAK KALPOE'S ATTORNEY: We had a brief hearing here about the withholding of certain documents regarding my client, and tomorrow the judge is going to decide on that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of documents?
OOMEN: Documents related to the case. If I knew, I would tell you. I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Documents from the prosecution?
OOMEN: That's what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you say to the security guards who are out and telling stories about your client?
OOMEN: I'm not saying anything else. I'm just saying that my client maintains his innocence to any crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: What we are hearing from law enforcement sources is that the two Surinamese youths have been telling a different story, apparently, than what is being told by Joran Van Der Sloot. Although, all we are hearing, of course, is what we heard yesterday from one of the two security guards released, again, saying that they had dropped Natalee Holloway off with Joran Van Der Sloot near the Marriott Hotel. And of course, that's the area that was searched.
No one knows at this point exactly what Joran Van Der Sloot is saying. None of that information has been released by police authorities here -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: And John, just to make this crystal clear, these three men have not been charged, and that's not unusual to hold people without charges in Aruba, correct?
ZARRELLA: That -- that's correct. They have not been charged. What has happened is they have been formally accused of murder, manslaughter and the kidnapping with fatal results of Natalee Holloway. But they have not been formally charged with any crimes. No one has. But the two security guards, when they were picked up, the first two picked up, they were charged with the same -- or not charged, formally accused of those same crimes. And then, of course, they have been released.
So, no, not -- not unusual for those things to be the accusations to be made, but charges have not been filed against anyone yet -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: An important semantic distinction, though, which we may not be familiar with between accused and charged, correct?
ZARRELLA: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: All right. John Zarrella in Aruba, thank you very much.
Californians no strangers to the occasional earthquake, of course. And they are usually unruffled by the seismic kafuffles. When the tsunami alarm went off in Crescent City, people sprang into action last night.
CNN's Rusty Dornin has more on the evacuation that at least served as good practice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were definitely moments of panic in Crescent City when the sirens began wailing about 8:14 local time. That gave the town only 15 minutes to evacuate. They estimated the wave would get here at 8:29.
Now, when the first sirens went off, the commercial fishing boats here fired up their engines about 30 of them and headed out to sea, trying to escape any tsunami that might be coming into port, because their boats would have been crushed. Now, they headed out to sea.
Meantime, emergency crews were trying to evacuate the hotels, the businesses, the restaurants. Four thousand people ended up leaving the area by the time they called off the tsunami alert one hour after the earthquake.
There were no injuries. There were a couple of minor fender benders. Now, this all comes to a town that experienced tragedy in 1964. After the Alaska earthquake went, 11 people were killed here. They have a very powerful memory of how dangerous tsunamis could be. And most people here are breathing a sigh of relief today.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Crescent City, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, the trial is over, but the postmortem continues in the Michael Jackson case. Prosecutor Tom Sneddon saying he had no choice about putting the mother of Jackson's teenage accuser on the stand, even though he knew she was, in his words, "a difficult person."
As far as defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau is concerned, the prosecution came up short, because zeal for pursuing Jackson clouded their ability to accurately assess the strength of their case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS MESEREAU, MICHAEL JACKSON'S ATTORNEY: They never thoroughly investigated the accusers and the accuser's family, in my opinion. And if you look at the early interviews with the accusers, you'll see the police basically accepting their story before they even investigated who they are.
It was really us that found all the problems with these witnesses, with their history, with their backgrounds. The prosecution almost turned a blind eye to what was really going on. And I think even in the middle of a trial they were trying to deny reality. And it caught up with them.
TOM SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY D.A.: We take people that we get with what -- when they walk through the door. And you have to do what you have to do with what's given to you.
And, frankly, I find it very difficult to visit the sins of a mother on a young boy who's 13 years old when somebody does something that -- like he described in the courtroom.
I mean, you would think that people would be discerning enough to allow his credibility to be judged individually and let her credibility be judged on her basis and be discerning enough to realize it doesn't necessarily have to be a connection between the two.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Concerns about attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan after a new report that Osama bin Laden and a top Taliban leader are alive and well. We'll have details on that straight ahead.
Plus, is it a case of deja flu? A vaccine maker says it's going to come up short again this flu season.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDY QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Aaron.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many cops do we have, Franko?
QUADE: Jeff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to school.
QUADE: Evan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope nothing bad happens.
QUADE: And Greg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a little edgy here sometime.
QUADE: Four U.S. Army National Guardsmen serving in Kirkuk, Iraq. Weekend warriors with something in common. They're brothers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, what's the chances of four of us coming over to Iraq where it's combat and all of us making home.
QUADE: I met them a year ago in Pocatello, Idaho.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love our country, and we're a very patriotic family.
QUADE: Followed them on their 18 months' deployment, from the home front to the front lines. From call-up to training. From Fort Bliss, Texas, to Kirkuk in Iraq where they fight a war against insurgents.
(on camera) What was it like for you the first time when you came under fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty intense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tough. The whole thought of being gone away from your family.
QUADE: The Pruitts, four brothers in arms.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That was Alex Quade. And that was just a preview of a program you want to make plans to see the entire segment of, "Four Brothers in Arms." "PAULA ZAHN NOW" tonight 8 Eastern, only on CNN. We invite you to check that piece out.
Little change of pattern in insurgent violence in Iraq, meanwhile. More suicide bombings to tell you about today. One in eastern Baghdad. Largely Shiite neighborhood there. The bomber crashed an explosives filled car into a convoy of police vehicles. Four Iraqi police officers killed there.
North of the capital, in Khalis, a man wearing a bomb on his body detonated himself inside an Iraqi military dining hall. At least 23 perished there.
Spanish authorities arrested at least 16 suspected Islamic terrorists across the country. They say 11 of the suspects are linked to al Qaeda and were trying to recruit radicals for suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq. The other five suspects are linked to last year's Madrid train bombings. Speaking of the al Qaeda network, that group's leader, Osama bin Laden, and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar are alive and in good health, according to a purported senior Taliban military commander interviewed last week by a Pakistani TV station.
Now he did not give out bin Laden's location, and it's not possible to confirm whether he had real access to information about bin Laden.
A little bit of sad news to report to you now from the United Kingdom. Remember a very warm interview we did here on LIVE FROM a couple of weeks ago. Florence and Percy Arrowsmith joined us on the occasion of their 80th wedding anniversary, a world record marriage certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Well, we have sad news to tell you. Percy Arrowsmith has passed away at home in Hereford, northwest of London. He was 105 years young. We're told Florence, age 100, was there by his side.
Stay with us, more LIVE FROM in a moment.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine it: you take a person that you love and then dip them in chocolate. What could be better than that?
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O'BRIEN: Dipped in chocolate? Well, looks that way. Sir Elton John, singer, song writer. Sweet tooth, quite literally. Unveiled in Londontown, made entirely of Cadbury's milk chocolate. Life size, 227 pounds. I thought he'd lost a little weight.
Anyway, why? Well, who cares? It's a statue made of chocolate. Therefore, it makes LIVE FROM's program, of course.
Elton, to keep from melting, is being kept in an air conditioned tent. No snacking, please.
Oh, yes. Waka, waka, waka, waka. Yes, that hungry yellow thing, Pacman, those pesty ghosts, Blinky, whatever they were called. I don't know. We were trying to think of all their names. And then the cherries, that maddening music.
Kids, ask Mom and Dad where they spent their quarters back in the 1980s. And you can bet most of them went right down the coin slot of a Pacman machine. Pacman was the most successful coin-operated game ever. It turns 25 years old ago -- years old today.
The object, kids, is to avoid the ghosts and to navigate your way through the maze, chewing up the power pills and then, when they appear, the fabulous fruit items. Thus giving you the high score.
It may seem a little antiquated to you kids now, those of you who are used to Halo, Murrah (ph), but this was great fun back in the 1980s for those of us who thought Pong was kind of cool.
Well, one of the biggest makers of flu vaccine is warning that it won't be able to make as much as expected this year. Boy, deja vu all over again, Susan Lisovicz. I guess this is a shot of bad news.
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SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know our colleagues in Atlanta are sorry to lose you, but we here in New York are happy to have you. And I will take you to a power lunch of our own at the Park Cafe, which is a fancy name for the CNN cafeteria.
O'BRIEN: The CNN cafeteria. There could be no better place to have lunch. Beautiful view of the park. I will enjoy having that meal with you, Susan.
LISOVICZ: Good luck and welcome.
O'BRIEN: See you there soon.
And that does lead me to a quick personal note before I go today. This was my last day on LIVE FROM. Clearly, I was getting way too much sleep. And as of Monday I will be arising long before you do to report from my new assignment on "AMERICAN MORNING."
And while I look forward to that new challenge, I will also savor all the challenges we rose to here on LIVE FROM these past few years. This is a program with a small staff, a big heart, and a great sense of humor. We never ducked the serious stories, but we also never took ourselves too seriously, either.
And my thanks go to Mike Topo (ph) for setting that tone, and to all the LIVE FROM-ers who made this job such a treat -- just a few of them there. There's Mike in the purple on the right there. They made me look good. And it is, after all, all about me.
If it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing. And by that measure -- there's Sonia Houston (ph), thank you. By that measure, it was well worth being here. I will miss working with you all. And see you bright and early Monday morning.
That's all the time we have for LIVE FROM. Suzanne Malveaux, with "INSIDE POLITICS" -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Miles, congratulations. Join the rest of us early in the morning.
O'BRIEN: We'll see you.
MALVEAUX: You'll see plenty of us early in the morning.
O'BRIEN: We'll be chatting.
MALVEAUX: Well, the Senate opens hearings on prisoners being held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I'll ask two senators what they think should be done at the facility. And newly released financial records give a clearer picture of how life has changed for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
And just how does the Senate majority leader's bank account stack up to those he leads?
"INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.
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