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Pat Foote Interview; BTK Killer Gives Details; Aruban Judge Released; Another Florida Shark Attack

Aired June 27, 2005 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN HOST: Now in the news, an adjournment but no announcement of a retirement. The U.S. Supreme Court justices end their term with all nine still on the bench. There had been speculation that Chief Justice William Rehnquist might step down because of ill health.
A chilling description of murder. Dennis Rader took almost everyone by surprise today, admitting he was notorious BTK serial killer. He detailed how he killed each one of his ten victims. You'll hear from him in just a moment.

Reining in Internet pharmacies. A published report indicates that Canada soon will ban the bulk sale of prescription drugs to the United States. The "Winnipeg Free Press" reports that Canada also will monitor which drugs are being shipped out of the country so its supplies don't run out.

Going up, gas prices are nearing record levels again. Analysts say that self-serve regular has climbed eight cents to an average $2.21 a gallon. Another eight cents, and we'll pass the record set in April.

Now CNN.com is offering a whole new way to get the headlines. Just log onto our Web site and click on "Watch." You can check out the most popular stories, everything from politics and sports to entertainment. It's free on CNN.com.

It's happened again. In Florida, authorities are confirming another serious shark attack just a couple of hours ago. That attack occurred at Cape San Blas, Florida, about 96 miles southeast of Miramar Beach, that site of Saturday's fatal attack. A local official described what happened as a group of teens were fishing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF LES HALLMAN, SOUTH WALTON FIRE DISTRICT: Approximately 16- year-old males, they were in an area called Cape San Blas in Gulf County. The three males were fishing, and they were in what's been described as chest-deep water. So they weren't that far from shore. But they were fishing with shrimp. And the victim was struck unexpectedly. They did not see the shark before the shark attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And we're getting a bit of developing news right now. As you see this videotape that we just got in a few minutes ago of the victim, that 16-year-old boy that was out fishing.

A spokeswoman at Bay Medical Center reports that he arrived in critical condition -- as you can see here -- with severe injuries and was taken straight to the operating room. Now we're being told his condition has been upgraded to stable. So that's very good news. We'll continue to follow what happens to this young boy.

Well, as this latest story develops, we're still following Saturday's brutal and fatal shark attack on a 14-year-old girl. Jamie Marie Daigle was boogey boarding with a friend. They were an estimated 200 yards off Miramar Beach on Florida's gulf coast. And witnesses say that they heard screaming and saw Daigle's friend heading towards shore for help.

One man swam directly into the bloody waters in a desperate bid to save Jamie's life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM DICUS, SHARK ATTACK WITNESS: That was the worst part of the whole experience, was going into the blood pool. Because I knew he knew where I was, but I couldn't tell where the shark was, so it really put me at a disadvantage.

As soon as I got into the blood pool and got to her, she was face down in the water and appeared to be unconscious. As I reached for her, the shark surfaced right next to her. And I could see it was about four, four-and-a-half feet between his dorsal and his tailfin, so that would probably making him about eight feet long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Although it's impossible to identify what's making that dark image seen in amateur tape shot the day after the attack, the mere sight of it chased beachgoers straight out of the water.

Well, within the past hour, autopsy reports released in Florida indicate that Jamie Marie Daigle was killed by a bull shark estimated to be six feet in length. Scientists who study various species of sharks say that bull sharks are notoriously aggressive towards human. An average male is about seven feet long and weighs about 200 pounds, just to put it in perspective there.

Well, at a time like this, statistics might not lure you back into open water, but the numbers bear out a decline in unprovoked shake attacks in the U.S. over the past two years. Starting with the year 2004, 30 recorded shark attacks. In 2003, there were 41 recorded attacks and 47 recorded U.S. attacks in 2002.

Florida, with its lengthy coastlines, have averaged more than 30 shark attacks a year from 2000 to 2003, but there were only 12 attacks off the state's coast last year, according to figures compiled by shark researchers.

Our other top story today, today we have some resolution. That's the D.A.'s reaction to the BTK Killer's bone-chilling confession in a Wichita courtroom. Dennis Rader, by name, former church elder, former Boy Scout leader, long-time code compliance officer, pleading guilty to ten counts of first-degree murder.

But it was the dispassionate details, not just the pleas, that captivated that courtroom and a nationwide TV audience. Thirty-plus years after BTK first terrorized his own hometown, we now warn you that some of what you are about to hear -- you may find it disturbing.

CNN's Jonathan Freed has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Four months after he was arrested, Dennis Rader ended the speculation today and told this community, "Yes, I am the BTK strangler. Yes, I am the person that has terrorized this community for the past three decades."

Mr. Rader pleaded guilty to the ten counts of first-degree murder that he is facing, murders that happened between 1974 and 1991. After he did that, Judge Gregory Waller, District Judge Greg Waller engaged Mr. Rader in about an hour's worth of conversation, trying to, first of all, determine, one, that Mr. Rader fully understood what he was doing in pleading guilty to all ten charges and waiving -- in the way that he was waiving his various rights that would have otherwise be afforded to him, such as the right to the jury trial.

And then afterwards, he wanted to make sure -- the judge wanted to satisfy himself that Dennis Rader was responsible for all of the acts that he was pleading guilty to. And that involved a lot of graphic detail of a number of the murders. And let's listen to some of that now.

DENNIS RADER, CONFESSED BTK KILLER: Well, I manually strangled her when she started to scream.

JUDGE GREGORY WALLER, SEDGWICK COUNTY DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: So you used your hands?

RADER: Yes, sir.

WALLER: And you strangled her? Did she die?

RADER: Yes.

WALLER: All right. What did you do then?

RADER: After that, since I was in the sexual fantasy, I went ahead and stripped her, and probably went ahead and -- I'm not sure if I tied her up at that point in time. But anyway, she was nude. I put her on a blanket, went through some personal items in the house, figured out how I was going to get her out of there.

FREED: At the end of the proceeding today, the judge set a sentencing hearing for the 17th of August, at which point we expect to hear testimony from the family members of various victims, as well as from Mr. Rader, himself. In Wichita, Kansas, Jonathan Freed, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And this video just coming in we want to show you out of Indianapolis -- Indiana, rather, not far -- video coming in from our affiliate WTHR. This is Westfield, Indiana, not far from Indianapolis. There we go.

Two people, we're told, have been injured in this fiery collision between a tractor-trailer and a tanker truck that was transporting fuel on U.S. 31. We're told that this crash has now closed U.S. 31 in Hamilton County, as we continue to monitor these live pictures from our affiliate there.

This crash, of course, has prompted authorities to evacuate this entire area, about a half-mile radius of the crash site on U.S. 31. It happened about 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. And then, of course, prompted authorities to head to this side immediately, close it off, evacuate the area.

We're told that the truck drivers suffered burns, and that one of the individuals was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Once, again, Westfield, Indiana, two people injured in a collision between a tractor-trailer and a tanker truck.

We'll keep you updated on how long this area on U.S. 31 will be evacuated and if, indeed, there are any more injuries. We'll keep you updated.

Well, two suspects in two days go free in the month-long investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. A couple of hours ago, a deejay held in the case was released in Aruba. So are authorities back at square one?

CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us from Palm Beach, Aruba -- Chris?

CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, that depends on who you ask. The police commissioner says this investigation is still moving forward, and he also tells us that, if more evidence comes in down the road, he could always go back and re- arrest them.

But some family members say the key was the arrest and then release of Judge Paul Van Der Sloot. They had suspected Judge Van Der Sloot of having something to do with Natalee's disappearance through his son, Joran, the teenager who was one of the last people to see Natalee Holloway on the night she disappeared.

But a judge ruled yesterday that there simply wasn't enough evidence to hold the judge. In Aruba, you only need reasonable suspicion to arrest someone, not probable cause, like the United States. But prosecutors have to come back in a couple of days and prove why they should be able to keep that person in custody. That judge ruled that they were not able to do so, and the family was definitely disappointed by that development. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE HOLLOWAY, FATHER OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: My focus has always been the search-and-rescue efforts. Basically, what I have seen in the investigative side of it has been what has been portrayed on TV and through Natalee's mother. So my role in this has always been, you know, to find Natalee. And if we find her, that will resolve the entire case. That's where I stand on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Yes, Mr. Holloway talked about search effort. Now, what's happened in the courtroom hasn't slowed that down at all. A volunteer team from Texas has been here all weekend. They have search dogs. They have sonar equipment. And they have been out literally before the sun rises and after the sun sets trying to find any piece of evidence that may have been missed the first time around -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Chris Lawrence, live from Aruba, thank you.

Other news across America now. Autopsies are planned today on the bodies of six people found shot to death in Yuma, Arizona. A 30- year-old woman, her boyfriend, and her four children were discovered dead at their home on Friday. Police are still searching for a man who was seen running from that area.

Search efforts have been scaled back for a boy missing in Wyoming. The 13-year-old fell into the fast-moving Yellowstone River where he was playing with other scouts on Friday. Tennis shoes believed to belong to the boy were found over the weekend. Authorities say the chances of finding him alive are very slim.

Firefighters hope to have Utah's largest wildfire contained as early as tonight. The 68,000-acre fire was sparked by lightning on Wednesday. Residents in nearby Gunlock were evacuated Saturday but have since returned to their homes.

Well, a flurry of rulings on this, the final day of the Supreme Court's term. Among them, conflicting decision on the Ten Commandments. Justices rules 5-4 against displaying them inside two Kentucky courthouses. They also ruled in favor of placing a commandments monuments on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. That ruling, also, was 5-4.

In both cases, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the swing vote. And the court decided companies that sell file-sharing software can be held liable for copyright infringement. A lower court had barred the entertainment industry from suing Internet services used by some people to swap songs and movies for free.

Now the latest on the war in Iraq. Tomorrow marks one year since sovereignty was returned to the Iraqi people. U.S. officials say that much progress has been made in that time, by the tide of violence from insurgents shows no signs of ebbing.

The two U.S. helicopter pilots were killed today when their chopper went down northwest of Baghdad. A witness says that it was hit by a rocket. There's been a spate of other violence around that capital. The commander of multinational forces in Iraq says that there's a perception that the violence is out of control, but he says that's not the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GEORGE CASEY, IRAQ MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE: Today, we just completed a six-month assessment that my staff did. This is the second one that we've done. And we went through all of the different lines of operations. And the conclusion of the staff was that we remain broadly on track to accomplish our strategic objectives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is meeting with his British counterpart in London today. He's setting a timeframe for sorts for establishing security in Iraq. Al-Jaafari believes that it can be achieved in two year's time if certain conditions are indeed met.

Well, straight ahead, women in war. Should they fight on the front-lines? Last week, we saw the bloodiest attack so far on female troops in Iraq, but were they targets? I'm going to talk about those issues with a woman who's a former Army general.

And a sad time in the cartoon world. The people behind two of the most well-known and beloved characters have passed away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Mothers, wives and sisters, all women who have given their lives in the war in Iraq. Now their role in combat is being questioned after a bloody attack. Military sources say that three women were among those killed in an attack on Fallujah last Thursday.

The military will only confirm that three men and one woman was killed. Lance Corporal Holly Charette was only 21-years-old.

Our guest is an advocate, of course, of women in ground combat. Pat Foote is a retired Army brigadier general. She's currently president for the Alliance for National Defense.

General, it's an honor to have you with us.

BRIG. GEN. PAT FOOTE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Thank you, Kyra, delighted to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, let's have a reality check here. These women are in combat. There are no front-lines with insurgents. I mean, they are right there in the middle of all these firefights.

FOOTE: And they have been for many years. In fact, one of the things that we've been trying to tell the public and everyone for years is that there is no discrimination between front- and rear-lines in a theatre such as Iraq or Afghanistan. We saw it in Desert Storm, and we saw it in Vietnam. The combat zone is 360 degrees around every man and woman serving in that arena.

PHILLIPS: So my next question is, are these women getting the same hazard pay, combat pay -- correct my language if I am not saying it correctly -- that all the men that are out there?

FOOTE: I certainly hope they are. Now, the rule is still in place, the regulation -- it's not a law -- but the Army regulation, Marine regulation that women will not serve in direct combat positions in the infantry, the cannon field artillery, and the armor, is still in place.

This is direct combat. But what we have are women in combat- support roles which are supporting the combat units. They're the logisticians. They are the ones supplying the beans, the bullets, the cloths, everything the combat troops need. And as a consequence, in delivering their goods, they are frequently right in the line of fire and firing back.

PHILLIPS: So let's define direct combat then. I guess the legal verbiage is, "Women cannot be involved in direct combat." But let's look at Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester who just received the Silver Star, the first woman to receive the Silver Star since World War II. She was in a gun battle with insurgents. She killed insurgents. Isn't that direct combat?

FOOTE: That is combat. But people will say it's defensive combat because she was part of the Raven 42 Military Police Force of the 617th MPs, out of Kentucky who reacted to an attack by insurgents on a convoy.

Leigh Ann Hester is a magnificent soldier. She's a military police sergeant. I'm very proud of that. I am an MP. I don't say former. I am an MP. And to have this young woman so wonderfully trained and in a leadership role take the position she did and lead with the other sergeant, is, to me, very rewarding.

It seems to justify what we've been trying to say for a long time: give the woman a chance to do the job, and let her do it. And this is what Hester did.

PHILLIPS: And if you look at someone like Hester, and many of these other women that are out there braving the elements, is there a difference? Obviously, there's a difference in training and a difference in missions.

But I'm thinking special forces, special operations, naval special warfare, the SEALS. I mean, can we say that, look, this is a time when we're seeing people like a Sergeant Hester getting a Silver Star. This is a time -- and when there's a shortage on time, let's start having a fair and balanced battlefield?

FOOTE: Well, I'll tell you one thing. I don't think the battlefield should ever be a test ground for whether women can serve in these roles. But perhaps now is the time for all of the Armed Forces to look at every role that is supposedly combat and see if there is not a place for qualified, competent women to serve in those roles.

We need on the ground, in the air, at sea, every qualified man and woman trained to the equal level of competence and each meeting what the demands of the job have to offer. But I would say right now is, what we're seeing is the result of integrated basic training, men and women of the combat service forces, training together from the first day, becoming team members, and going out and getting the job done.

They are really surprised that there's any uproar whatsoever about the roles that women are playing in Iraq and Afghanistan now.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely, considering the circumstances of what we're seeing overseas, there's no room for discrimination. General Pat Foote, what a pleasure to have you.

FOOTE: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

A check of the markets straight ahead. Plus, just when we thought it couldn't go any higher, oil prices reaching a new peak -- Susan?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, break out your mountain bike. Oil prices closed above $60 a barrel today. We'll tell you about the latest worries that are pushing crude sky high, next on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Oil prices continue to sore. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details why -- Susan?

LISOVICZ: Hi, again, Kyra. Another day, another record high price for oil. Crude just settled at $60.54 a barrel. This is the first time we have ever closed above the $60 mark. Oil actually came within a nickel of $61 before pulling back somewhat.

So what was behind the surge today? Topping the list, the usual suspects, supply and demand worries. In addition, there are new concerns that already strained relations between Iran and the U.S. could get worse after Iran elected a nationalistic government over the weekend. Iran is a major OPEC oil producer.

Reports that Saudi Prince Bandar, a long-time U.S. ally, is set to resign also adding to those fears.

And how is this playing out on Wall Street? Well, stocks are struggling. The Dow Industrials, at least on the plus side, up nearly five points. The Dow closed down every day last week because of the recent spike in oil prices, but energy stocks, not surprisingly, making some nice gains, including Exxon-Mobil, the best gainer among the Dow 30. It's shares rising 2 percent. In addition to oil concerns, investors are also waiting on the Federal Reserve, which meets on interest rates later this week. With about 35 minutes left in the trading day, the Dow up 7 points and NASDAQ lower, however, by about a third of a percent.

And that is the latest from the New York Stock Exchange. Kyra, back to you.

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

Well, sad news today from the Hundred Acre Wood and the beloved world of Winnie the Pooh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINNIE THE POOH, CARTOON CHARACTER: Oh, dear. Oh, my.

TIGGER, WINNIE THE POOH CARTOON CHARACTER: Why? That's what tiggers do best. The wonderful thing about tiggers is tiggers are a wonderful thing. Their tops are made out of rubber; their bottoms are made out of spring. Their bouncy, trouncy, flouncy...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Oh, alas. For fans of Disney's animated version of Winnie the Pooh, the actors who lent their voices to the characters of Piglet and Tigger have died, after John Fiedler, who appeared Broadway, and films, and TV series, in addition to voicing Piglet, reportedly died Saturday at the age of 80.

And Paul Winchell, a gifted ventriloquist, likewise gave Tigger his imitable style and spark. He died Friday at the age of 82. Fond farewells to both from fans everywhere.

Well, that wraps up this Monday edition of LIVE FROM. Now here's Candy Crowley with a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."

Hi, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Kyra.

We had lights, camera, but no action. The Supreme Court closes for the summer without any announcement of a retirement. That didn't stop demonstrators from taking to the steps of the high court. We will spotlight the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court and today's major decisions.

Plus, the president and Iraq: What will Mr. Bush tell the nation tomorrow night? We will go live to the White House when I go "INSIDE POLITICS" in three minutes.

END

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