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Got Trouble?; Missing in Aruba
Aired June 29, 2005 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Trouble erupts on the border between Lebanon and Israel, after guerrillas for the Shiite militant group Hezbollah attacked Israeli outposts. Israeli warplanes retaliated with attacks on two Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has vowed to liberate the Sheva (ph) Farms area and has sporadically attacked Israeli posts there since Israeli forces officially withdrew five years ago.
And you can check out CNN's most popular video of the day at CNN.com. Just click on the video link at our Web site. Watch it as many times as you want, whenever you want. It's a whole new way to experience the power of CNN video. Hey, and it's free.
A cold glass of milk, an easy target for terror? Well, the National Academy of Sciences publishes its report on how the U.S. milk supply could be contaminated, and government officials are not happy.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve with more on the controversy, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the department of Health and Human Services characterizes the study as a road map for terrorists and is not happy with the National Academy of Sciences' decision to publish it. The study, written by a Stanford University Professor Lawrence Wein theorizes that hundreds of thousands of people could be poisoned if terrorists exploited vulnerabilities in production and processing to contaminate the milk supply with botulinum toxin. He gives details on doses, the toxins sensitivity to heat, pasteurization and more.
The National Academy of Sciences had intended to publish the study sooner, but got a letter from HSS asking it not to do so for security reasons. The academy postponed publication and met with government officials to hear concerns, but after the review, the decision was made to publish.
In an editorial, Bruce Alberts, the president of the National Academy of Sciences writes, "The information in this study is immediately accessible on the World Wide Web through a simple Google search and won't assist terrorists.
A spokesman for Health and Human Services, however, says the academy is wrong, and the consequences of publishing could be dire. And it will be HHS and not the academy that will have to deal with the consequences. Questions are already being raised about the study. One critique suggests a successful botulinum attack on milk would be much more difficult than one suggests, but the academy says that alone is constructive. It says the scientific debate which results from publication of a paper like this can lead to solutions that ultimately make the nation more safe, not less so -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jeanne Meserve, live from Washington, thank you.
Another security scrutiny today on passports. The Senate Homeland Security Committee held hearing today on the current system and where it could be exploited by criminals and terrorist. The hearing comes as a new governmental audit highlights alleged screening gaps in passport processing. Well, a General Accounting Office investigation revealed that the State Department's name-check system does not have the names of many federal and state fugitives.
And redrawing the blueprint in lower Manhattan. The newest design for the Freedom Tower unveiled today. The tower will retain its symbolic height of 1,776 feet, but it will be slimmer and occupy a smaller footprint. The new tower will be located in the northwest corner of the site originally occupied by the Twin Towers, but it won't be completed until 2010, two years later than the original plan.
CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information, day and night.
We all know, to get a diamond Super Bowl ring, you have to win the Super Bowl, right? Wrong. How did the Russian president end up in possession of the Super Bowl bobbles (ph)? We'll get the full story later on LIVE FROM.
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PHILLIPS: In Aruba, Natalee Holloway's mother is repeating her intention to stay on the island until some results emerge in the frustrating search for her daughter. And today, the Aruban government got a response to its request for more military help.
CNN's Chris Lawrence is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We've now learned the Netherlands has authorized an approved sending more of the Dutch marines here to Aruba to help with the search. Now they haven't worked out how exactly how many and when, but they will come to supplement the efforts of the Aruban investigators, and a volunteer team from Texas that has been here for the last five days. They've had search dogs, they've had sonar in the water, trying to find any evidence that may have been missed.
But Natalee Holloway's family feels the real keys to this case are already in custody. Three suspects are still being detained, Joran Van Der Sloot, whose father, Paul, was also in jail for a few days before he was released, and two brothers, Depak and Satish Kalpoe. They were all some of the last to see Natalee Holloway on the night she disappeared.
Now the three boys have been changing their stories. First, they said they all dropped off Natalee back here at the hotel. But one of their own attorneys now says Joran was on the beach with Natalee, he spent some time with her, she feel asleep, and at some point Joran said forget it, and walked home alone.
Now all three of them will be back in court, we expect, early next week for a hearing in which prosecutors will have to prove why they should be detained up to another 60 days. That requires a higher burden of proof, and their attorneys are telling us that they're optimistic one or more of them could be released. The family will be watching closely because they felt after Paul Van Der Sloot was released from prison that the investigation had moved back to square one.
Reporting from Palm Beach Aruba, I'm Chris Lawrence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: A word of caution now from the FDA, to you -- or your child take a certain type of medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. Well, federal regulators plan to add information about possible side effects to labels of a class of drugs that includes Concerta and Ritalin. The new labeling involves warnings about possible cardiovascular and psychiatric side effects, hallucinations and sudden violent behavior. Concerta and Ritalin are two of the most prescribed ADHD treatments, and no comment yet from the manufacturers.
Well, it's not exactly new that teens like to play pranks, but some apparently haven't figured out that Instant Messaging isn't as fleeting as those old, is your refrigerator running phone calls. And these days, Scaring a classmate can have consequences.
CNN's Kelly Wallace has a cautionary tale.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was like any other night, 14-year-old Anna instant messaging with her friends in Arlington, Virginia, when all of a sudden, she received a series of messages that startled her.
ANNA, RECEIVED INSTANT MESSAGE THREAT: I was really scared because I didn't know who it was, and I've gotten like pranks played on me before.
WALLACE: Her mother Felicia showed us a transcript of the messages. The anonymous sender says of Anna's Yorktown high school, "YHS is going to be very different tomorrow, Anna. Tons of chaos. The bodies to be found, the flesh to be seen, the blood to be discovered, the bones to be matched. Well, I'm just telling you this because I'm saving you for my last murder."
Anna says she tried to find out who it was, not intending to tell her mom, but Felicia overheard her talking with friends.
FELICIA, ANNA'S MOTHER: This is the area that concerned me. WALLACE: She thought about Columbine and the recent school shooting on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. After spending an hour on the phone with computer companies trying unsuccessfully to learn the identity of the sender, Felicia says she called the police.
FELICIA: And pretty much in my heart I knew it was probably a prank, but I didn't want to take that risk, not when you're talking about people's lives.
WALLACE: The next day, shortly after classes began, police evacuated Yorktown and that, Anna said, prompted a confession from a friend of hers who then turned himself in.
ANNA: He was like shaking. He was really scared ad in shock.
WALLACE: The 15-year-old, a popular boy at Yorktown, was placed in juvenile detention for two weeks, facing a felony charge. That outraged some in the community.
More than 300 students signed an online petition calling for leniency, including Anna. However, some targeted Anna and her mom.
Said one, "The parents of that girl had so many options. They could have talked to their daughter. Instead, they acted impulsively and called the police and the FBI." Anna said the criticism online and at school was tough.
ANNA: And then the next day when I came to school, like, people were just really mean and, like, yelling at me, like, "You're just doing this for attention."
WALLACE: Richard Trodden, Arlington's chief prosecutor, said the family and his attorneys did not overreact.
RICHARD TRODDEN, ARLINGTON COUNTY COMMONWEALTH'S ATTORNEY: When I was a kid, I was told you don't pull the fire box. And I think that youngsters have to know that about IM. You don't threaten bodily harm or crimes of violence on a school through IMs.
WALLACE: Six weeks later, the online prank and the serious controversy it unleashed remain painful for Felicia and Anna. They've since moved from Arlington. All that happened here playing a role in their decision to leave.
FELICIA: We need to as parents, and teenagers and kids, we need to realize it's not ratting on people. First of all, people shouldn't be doing that. And secondly, if you report it, it's your moral obligation, your civic responsibility to protect other people when you can.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now a statement released by the family's attorney says, "Our son's Instant Message to his friend was an act of poor judgment intended as a joke. He never meant to harm anyone. He had no idea that his action would have the consequences that it did. We also hope that other young people will learn that irresponsible use of the computer, even as a prank, can have severe life-changing consequences."
And this just in to CNN, coming to us from an Iraqi police source out of Baghdad. A suicide car bomb has exploded at the Babylon Hotel. That's in south central Baghdad. It happened about 9:15 p.m. local time there in Iraq. Police units, we are told, have been dispatched to the bomb site, Iraqi police units. The number of casualties not yet known. Once again, we are following a suicide car bomb that exploded at the Babylon Hotel in south central Baghdad.
We'll have more news for you straight ahead after a quick break.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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PHILLIPS: Today's LIVE FROM bonus story is an object lesson, if you ever meet Vladimir Putin. The object in this case is Robert Kraft most recent Super Bowl ring. And the lesson, keep it on your finger. The owner of the New England Patriots and several other U.S. business leaders met the Russian president on Saturday, at which point Kraft either showed off or presented as a gift his hugely valuable rock of a ring, encrusted with 124 diamonds.
Well, the Kremlin says it was a gift and now resides in a Moscow library. Well, a spokesperson for the Pats says it isn't sure, since Kraft hasn't called in to comment. But we do know Kraft still has two other Super Bowl rings.
And LIVE FROM will return right after a break.
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PHILLIPS: Well, a man waiting for a new heart learns his old one is just fine and he walks away from more surgery. So what happened? Reporter Denise Jackson with our affiliate WEEK in Peoria, Illinois, has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENISE JACKSON, WEEK REPORTER (voice-over): Last fall, Ted Gibson spent weeks visiting doctors, trying to find out what was wrong with him.
TED GIBSON, HEART TRANSPLANT PATIENT: I couldn't walk 25 feet without having to stop, take a breath. I was going, seeing the doctor since October until November. And you know, I was having some stomach problems, so I thought. T. JACKSON: Doctors at OSF Saint Joseph in Bloomington found a blood clot in heart and said the left chamber was only functioning at 15 percent capacity. Gibson says medicine to try to make his heart stronger didn't help his situation.
GIBSON: I went from 215 pounds all the way down to 175 during that time period, which was less than two months. And I went just from where the doctor was at, you know, telling me that and then taking it back. They were trying to prepare me for an actual heart transplant.
T. JACKSON: Ted's wife Susan wife says she turned to her faith and church community for help.
SUSAN GIBSON, TED GIBSON'S WIFE: There was a service, a Sunday service, and that word came across the pulpit. A word that I received, you know, for him, that it wasn't over.
T. JACKSON: Gibson was transferred to OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where heart transplants are performed. But before it could be done, Ted needed a special pump called ventricular assisted device, until a heart donor could be found.
DR. FRANK HOY, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: Because he was so sick, we had no choice but to put him on an artificial heart, or an artificial pump, to take over the function of his own heart to keep him alive.
JACKSON: Ted spent more than a month in the hospital before being sent home with the pump, that required a special power pack that had to be pushed around.
T. GIBSON: I was -- I felt better and was getting stronger.
JACKSON: This spring, during follow up visits, St. Francis staff noticed an improvement in Ted's heart.
HOY: The -- his heart, when we first put the pump in, was very much enlarged. This is a much bigger heart than normal. And after a few months of the pump, you can see this heart is now back down to normal size.
JACKSON: Earlier this month, Ted went in for surgery to have tubes removed, connecting the pump that had been keeping him alive.
HOY: It improves the conditions under which the heart has to pump. And in his case, it was a very fortunate recovery.
JACKSON: Dr. Hoy says he's never seen a case where a patient who needed a transplant recovered like Ted. Ted attributes his recovery to his faith.
T. GIBSON: You hear about stories like this and, you know, I believe in healings and miraculous healings. But now I know about healings.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: Can you even imagine life without the Internet? Well, the next time you shoot off an e-mail at Google or log on to CNN.com, here's who you should thank. Before former vice president Al Gore called himself the father of the Internet, there was J.R.R. Licklider, a psychologist who was the driving force behind the Defense Department's investigation of computers as communication devices.
While you're online, check out the folks who dreamed this impossible dream. We'll also take you through the glory days of the dot-com boom and the history of the dot-com bust. See the carnage as we remember fallen dot-com companies like pets.com, Cosmo and Web Van. We also look at how the Internet changed the world on a global scale, from Europe to Asia, and gave birth to technologies like instant- messaging, MP3s, file-swapping, wifi, and yes, broadband.
CNN.com/online shows you what it was like before a period became the dot in dot-com, before you had to lick a stamp to send a note and when spam was just a canned pink pork product instead of that junk e- mail that hits your inbox. CNN.com welcomes you to a brave new world -- wide web, that is.
I'm Christina Park reporting from the dot-com desk. See you online.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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PHILLIPS: Somewhere in these rugged Afghan mountains, an American chopper is down and the fate of those on board -- we're live from the Pentagon.
Is an American passport a free pass for terrorists? Red flags raised about how easy it is to get one.
And what will it take to get you to hit the road this summer? Resorts coming up with new incentives to get you to get out of town.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
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