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Bird Flu Fears; Louisiana Criminals Hiding in Plain Sight?; Boot Camp Death Reexamined
Aired March 14, 2006 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh.
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PHILLIPS: Otis, all right, bumping it up with the music.
Ladies, when does your man -- well, when your man does your wrong, is it right to post his bad behavior on a Web site? We all think it's a good idea.
CNN's Jeanne Moos logs on to a cheater's worst nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before you caress him, maybe you had better caress the keys of your computer. Don't date him, girl.
TASHA JOSEPH, CREATOR, DONTDATEHIMGIRL.COM: Sort of how the FBI has their most-wanted criminals in a database, I wanted to put all of the cheating men of the world in a database. And that's how it started.
MOOS: We can't show their faces, but there are nearly 1,200 alleged cheaters posted at dontdatehimgirl.com, with warnings like, "Ladies, watch out; there's a dog on the loose," or, "Run, run, as fast as you can."
(on camera): Think of it as a dating credit report. Just type in the name of any suspected cheater, say Jude Law.
(voice-over): And, if he has been reported, up pops a profile. But celebs like Jude and Kobe aren't the norm. Regular guys are, turned in by the women they supposedly wronged.
"I caught him on my computer looking up other chicks."
"Found text-messages to another girl about how he loved her and needed her, and, ewwww, puke. "
Former journalist Tasha Joseph came up with the Web site.
JOSEPH: Well, I have been cheated on twice in my life. MOOS (voice-over): Web site visitors can add a cheater or check out the 'Cheater of the Day" feature: "I caught this man on many swinger sites."
Another warned, "Danger, controlling psycho. He may be hot and well-endowed, but don't be next on his growing list of women scorned."
A Montana woman posted her guy on the Web site, only after first trying what Samantha did on "Sex and the City." The target of the Montana woman's flyers went to court and got them stopped. Samantha had better luck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SEX AND THE CITY")
CHANDRA WILSON, ACTRESS: Ma'am, it's against city law to deface public property.
KIM CATTRALL, ACTRESS: This man said he loved me, and I caught him (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
WILSON: Carry on, ma'am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: Men are invited to tell their side of the story, but only a few do. One said his accuser developed a crush and stalked him. Another claimed his tormentor was a psychotic neighbor who first tried to lure him into a threesome. So far, no one has sued the Web site, though some irate men have set up a protest Web site, classaction- dontdatehimgirl.
In a few weeks, cheating women will get a taste of their own medicine.
JOSEPH: We're in development with a Web site called dontdateherman.com.
MOOS: The one whose hand you're holding could hand you over to the dating police.
JOSEPH: I'm in a great relationship with a great guy, and he knows exactly what's going to happen with him if he were to be caught cheating. He would be, like, the featured cheater on the home page.
MOOS: A home page for home-wreckers, bless your cheating heart.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: It's the top of the hour.
He took a beating at a boot camp for teens. And he died soon afterward. At first, an autopsy blamed natural causes. Now a second look suggests that Martin Anderson's death was anything but natural.
Let's get the latest from our John Zarrella in Miami. He's working this story.
John, what are you hearing now?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, Kyra.
Well, here in Tampa, that second autopsy was performed yesterday, the second in two months. It lasted more than 12 hours. And, today, some preliminary findings coming out -- the special prosecutor appointed by Governor Bush to investigate the case, his office issuing a statement today on Martin Anderson's death and on that -- on that autopsy, saying that it was not the result of complications from sickle-cell trait, and that the boy did not die, the 14-year-old teenager, did not die of natural causes.
Now, back on January 5, Anderson was at a Florida Panhandle boot camp. And captured on videotape, on a video surveillance camera, an incident where Martin, who was in the process of conducting a run, is restrained and struck by workers at that boot camp. Now, Martin later -- Anderson, later that evening, died at a hospital.
Now, he again said at one point that he was not able to breathe well enough to continue. And, repeatedly, during the course of about 25 minutes, he was forced to the ground at various occasions during that 25-minute period. Now, a forensic expert who was representing the family and who attended the autopsy yesterday, says that this videotape tells a lot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL BADEN, FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: When you look at that video, what impressed me most was how he was almost a rag doll while he was being -- somebody should have known that this big fellow, with bigger people, eight bigger people, around him, there was something wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: Now, it's very clear that it's still going to take weeks before the final results of the autopsy are in, toxicology, etcetera. And, at this point, it is still not clear exactly what caused Anderson's death -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: John, the deputies that we see in that videotape and that nurse, what do we know about them? Have any of them been held accountable? And, also, you see on the videotape that they're banging on this boy's wrists continually. I know that, as the tape rolls, we will see it. They're hitting his wrists here, and hitting his wrists.
What can -- can you answer any of those questions?
ZARRELLA: Yes. There are some takedown maneuvers that they used during the course of restraining him, which they themselves talk about in a report that was issued by the -- by them after the -- the incident, how they restrained him and why they did. They said he was repeatedly asked to do things, and he did not comply with them. So, those were takedown maneuvers that they used. And we do know that the mother was there. She was present today at this press briefing. And she says that, now, she wants justice to be done.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINA JONES, MOTHER OF MARTIN ANDERSON: I'm glad that I did make the right decision to pull my baby up, and which I didn't want to, just to get the truth out. Now the truth is out. And I want justice. I want the guards and the nurse to be arrested. It's time now.
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ZARRELLA: At this point -- at this point, no charges have been filed against anyone. And, again, the special prosecutor will, at some point, get the results of the entire autopsy, complete his investigation. That could take months, Kyra, before there is any determination from the special prosecutor appointed by Governor Jeb Bush -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So, right now, the nurse and deputy, still on the job?
ZARRELLA: No, they are not on the job. That boot camp has been closed.
And a report from the sheriff's office in Bay County indicated that while the boot camp has been -- been closed and that some workers who were there have been given other jobs, the -- the eight employees, those workers, have not been offered other positions.
PHILLIPS: John Zarrella, thanks.
Now a modern-day battle of Jericho, and prison walls came tumbling down. Israel is holding six Palestinian prison inmates, after a 10-hour siege that triggered violent Palestinian protests.
CNN's John Vause has the story.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With tanks, bulldozers and attack helicopters, the I will military moved in with full force. Tank rounds were fired repeatedly into the prison compound. Palestinian guards and prisoners returned fire with automatic weapons, while the Israelis used heavy machinery to demolish the outer walls.
Over loudspeakers, the Israeli soldiers ordered those inside to surrender. Many did. Some emerged in their underwear, were blindfolded, and taken away. But Israel had come for six Palestinian militants, and one in particular, Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who Israel says ordered the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister more than four years ago.
From inside the jail, he telephoned Arabic television, vowing to fight on.
AHMED SAADAT, LEADER, POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (through translator): We're aware that the Palestinian people support us and are right behind us, he said.
VAUSE: In 2002, Saadat was sent to this Jericho prison under Palestinian control, after a deal was brokered by the U.S. and Britain. They would provide a small team of security officials.
(on camera): In recent months, the U.S. and British guards had repeatedly complained about poor security here at the prison. And, according to the British government, the Palestinian Authority was warned just last week that, if nothing was done, the guards would have to leave.
JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: For obvious security reasons, namely, the safety of the monitors as they withdrew, we could not give precise timings of the withdrawal, but the phrase with immediate effects was, I think, absolutely clear.
VAUSE (voice-over): That sparked outrage across the Palestinian territories.
In Gaza, masked gunmen set a British cultural center on fire. An American private school was ransacked. There was a kidnapping spree of foreigners. Some were held for just a few hours and released, but with a warning, that American and British citizens would continue to be targets.
"Starting from this moment, they are not safe, and they should leave," he said. "We will chase them if we find them on Palestinian land."
And many Palestinians believe the timing of this raid has more to do with the upcoming Israeli elections two weeks away, an attempt to bolster the security credentials of the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
MARK REGEV, ISRAELI EMBASSY SPOKESPERSON: The reason we acted the way we did was precisely not to allow these prisoners to be released and to scatter around the territories, forcing us to do a much more comprehensive, larger military operation.
VAUSE: By nightfall, the Israeli operation was over. All six wanted men, including Ahmed Saadat, gave up and were on their way to an Israeli prison.
John Vause, CNN, Jericho, in the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, as John mentioned, at least six people were kidnapped today across the Palestinian territories, including an American professor at the Arab-American University near Jenin. Douglas Johnson was freed hours later and discussed his ordeal with CNN. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGLAS JOHNSON, FORMER HOSTAGE OF PALESTINIANS: We were told earlier in day that there had been threats made, due to the situation in Jericho, that Ahmed Saadat was in the prison and that there was a fight going on, and that the Americans and the British had basically walked out and left the prisoners for the Israelis.
So, we were warned that the Palestinians were angry, not to leave the university. And I was actually taking a cat with a broken leg to a neighboring village to be treated. And, outside, they were waiting, and they forced me into a car, and took me to Jenin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the other kidnap victims include two French women working for a humanitarian group, and a Swiss Red Cross worker -- no word yet on those two.
Ash covers the ground. Firefighters are exhausted, but the wildfires that have scorched nearly 700,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle are still burning and now blamed for 11 deaths.
Our Ed Lavandera has the latest.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some people like to say that the ground in this part of the Texas Panhandle is as hard and flat as a skillet. And this is what it looks like when the heat of the wildfires is turned on the ground here.
This portion of this field has been charred by the wildfire. It butts up right against a field that hasn't been burned. So, you can see the contrast of what firefighters have been battling here, as these wildfires quickly move through many of the fields and the wide open spaces of the Texas Panhandle.
And authorities hear say that only about 50 percent of the wildfires have been contained so far. Fortunately, much of this is burning in remote areas that aren't near populated areas.
So, the main concern is protecting the small towns that dot the Texas Panhandle, and making sure that those towns and the residents who live there are safe. But authorities who had forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people in seven counties have allowed those people to come back home. The worst appears to be over for now.
The winds have died down, so they're hoping they get a little bit of a respite and be able to continue battling some of the -- the flames that -- that are still raging throughout portions of the Texas Panhandle today.
But, of course, the concern will be in the coming days, where the winds are expected to pick back up, lower humidity. And they say that, even though these fields might already look like they have been burned, that any of these fields can -- can reignite and cause more problems for the firefighters that are already exhausted on the ground here.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, near Groom, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, hot, dry and windy, a combination that turn the slightest spark into a wall of fire. Is there any relief in sight?
Let's check in again with meteorologist Bonnie Schneider. She's at the CNN Weather Center.
What do you think, Bonnie?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, I -- I don't think the situation is so good for today, especially for Amarillo.
It is going to be much worse tomorrow. But, right now, as you mentioned, any kind of wind gust can spark things to get going there.
Look at the winds. They are out of the south at 13. Gusts are slightly, then, higher than that, about 23 miles per hour, but throughout the afternoon, the winds will be on the increase. And they will be out of the south. So, it's that warm, dry breeze that really can ignite any kind of brush that has been pretty dry over the past few days. We really haven't seen any rain.
So, Amarillo right now has a current temperature of 54 degrees. Temperatures will start to warm up throughout much of the afternoon, about -- highs around 70 degrees, especially for Dallas, into areas in central Texas as well. So, we're not looking at the super-hot conditions, what we saw earlier in the season. But we're certainly looking at dry conditions -- no rain in sight for today, no rain in sight for tomorrow.
The reason why it will be so dry today is, this area of high pressure is really drying things out. So, you see bright sunshine all the way from New, Mexico back out towards Louisiana -- so, really, perfectly clear skies, making for a pretty day, but, unfortunately, a dangerous one.
Now, the situation will get worse for tomorrow. This is tomorrow's map. And, as we zoom in onto critical area, you can see, we're watching out for some very strong winds. That, combined with the low humidity and the warm temperatures, will cause an area to be critical, including the Oklahoma Panhandle, parts of western Texas, and on into southern and more eastern of New Mexico. So, tomorrow will be a worse day than today, but today, certainly, it's very dry there and warm as well -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Bonnie, thanks so much.
Let's get straight to Tony Harris in the newsroom -- more on that illegal immigrant -- immigrant sting that you have been talking about.... TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
PHILLIPS: ... right, within the last hour. What do we know?
HARRIS: Yes, new information, just trying to keep you updated on the story of the alleged illegal immigrant smuggling house. This is in Houston, the scene of a shooting this morning about 9:00 a.m., local time, Kyra.
Luisa Deason of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on the line with us.
Luisa, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
LUISA DEASON, SPOKESWOMAN, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: Thank you.
HARRIS: Well, give us a -- a sense of where the investigation is at this time. You have had some -- some time now to talk to the people who were arrested. I understand 21 people in custody; is that correct?
DEASON: That is correct.
At this time, we have 21 male individuals in custody. Two are in the hospital, which makes it a total of 23. We don't know at this time whether we have principals amongst the group that we have in custody or not. It will be a process of several hours of interviewing, trying to determine nationalities. They will all be fingerprinted. They will be run through a variety of databases.
We will make sure that they're not individuals with criminal records or previously deported records. And, of course, they will all go through the process of repat -- repatriation.
HARRIS: Yes. Luisa, what do you mean when you say principals?
DEASON: Principal, meaning, is the guy a smuggler? Is the guy a part of a criminal enterprise? Is he part of a load of individuals...
HARRIS: I see.
DEASON: ... that work together to bring in illegal aliens into the United States?
HARRIS: And -- and, Luisa, describe this -- this house where they were found. You described it a little earlier as a -- as a drop house.
DEASON: Yes. That's usually how we prefer to them as.
You know, we don't -- we no longer deal with these types of mom- and-pop operations, where it's one or two individuals. These are highly organized criminal enterprises. And what we normally see is, they use or rent homes that are in very deplorable conditions, sometimes. This is a house that was in a not-so-bad residential area, but kind of a -- an area where there may be a lot of crime. It was not unusual to see the conditions inside, the way they were. The windows were boarded up with wood. There were door handles off the insides of some of the bedroom, which a were clear indication that the immigrants, the illegal aliens, who are being held were there, not at liberty to leave.
HARRIS: Yes.
Luisa, are you getting a story about what happened inside? Because our understanding, at least to this point, is that the shooting may have occurred inside the house itself?
DEASON: Certainly.
We have a pretty good idea that there may have been a shooting inside the home between two or three, maybe more, individuals. There was a woman who had contacted the Houston Police Department at around 9:00 this morning, saying people were being shot at. And, for that information, I believe Lieutenant Monzo (ph) may have more updates on that.
HARRIS: Right.
DEASON: We arrived at 10:30.
HARRIS: Any -- any weapons, to your knowledge, recovered?
DEASON: HPD did recover a Chinese version of what they call an AK-47.
HARRIS: Wow. Any -- any luck in identifying the homeowner?
DEASON: Well, that's all part of our ongoing investigation.
Right now, our concern is to make sure that we process all the individuals that are in ICE custody, and make sure that, if they are in need of medical attention, that they receive that, also make sure that those criminals are not released, and, of course, make sure that, if there are others that are being sought by other law enforcement in other states, are also, you know, processed correctly.
HARRIS: And, Luisa, one final question -- were these folks waiting for someone to pick them up in the house to sort of finish this transaction?
DEASON: We have a pretty good idea of how this usually takes place.
You make it harder, depending on the nationality of individuals, is usually the determining factor as to what they pay. Mexican nationals can pay anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 or $3,000. Central Americans may pay higher, maybe $5,000 or $10,000. It just depends on where you're from and how difficult it is to get in. Usually, smugglers are threatened -- or -- or, rather, smugglers threaten their -- the aliens that they hold, and they also threaten their families. And that's why there is such a -- it's -- they're difficult cases, in the -- in the sense that, usually, the illegal immigrants are not truthful...
HARRIS: I see.
DEASON: ... right away.
HARRIS: I see.
Boy, it sounds like quite a scene. Luisa Deason of Immigration and Custom Enforcement -- Luisa, thanks for your time.
DEASON: Thank you.
HARRIS: OK.
Kyra, we will keep watching it -- back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Tony, thanks so much. Sure.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, two words that will either scare you or make you roll your eyes: bird flu. Are you ready? Are you worried? We are going to talk about the threat coming up.
The news keeps coming. We will keep bringing it to you -- more LIVE FROM after this.
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PHILLIPS: Ready or not, here it comes: bird flu. The feds say it will arrive in the U.S. in the next several months. Although the virus still poses very little threat to humans, the worst-case scenario involves mutation and then a global pandemic.
Dr. Eric Toner joins me now from Baltimore at the Center For Biosecurity, where he specializes in worst-case scenarios.
Sorry that we are talking about this, but we need your expertise, Eric.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: It's interesting. We're seeing a lot of studies now on the migratory patterns. We actually have a graphic that we put together. Is this the way, the best way, to try and figure out when it's going to hit the U.S.?
DR. ERIC TONER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR BIOSECURITY: Well, we don't know for sure when this virus is going to hit the U.S.
But there's certainly no reason to think that it won't be here within the next six months, to a year. The virus seems to be spread through several mechanisms. Migratory birds is one of them. And we know that migratory patterns in birds overlap. And there's every reason to think that the virus will make itself -- make its way to the United States.
PHILLIPS: Secretary Leavitt even saying yesterday: "Let me be very clear. It is only a matter of time before we discover H5N1 in America."
But it doesn't seem like a lot of people are paying attention to this. It -- it's not the sort of thing that we're really talking about, unless you're in the media or you're in your business. It's not the talk on the street. Why? No -- do you think that not enough people are taking this seriously?
TONER: Well, I think people suffer from disaster fatigue. I think there are threats all the time.
And, you know, after tsunamis and hurricanes and whatever, people are thinking that this is just another threat. But I think they need to understand that we have never seen a -- a disease quite like this. And there is a pandemic going on among birds, not yet among people. But this is unprecedented. We have never seen an outbreak of avian influenza like this. So, this is a real threat.
PHILLIPS: Well, and Leavitt even came forward and said: "If we have person-to-person transmission and enter the pandemic condition, we will be operating without a vaccine for the first six months. We will be dependent upon traditional public health measures to contain and limit it."
TONER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Can -- is -- is that a -- I guess what I'm saying is, if we do not have this vaccine, just depending on what we have now, is that enough?
TONER: No.
We are horribly unprepared. If a pandemic were to happen any time in the next couple of year, we will not have vaccine in sufficient quantities, anything like sufficient quantities. We will not have antivirals in sufficient quantities. Our public health system has been decimated over the last several decades, and our hospitals are not prepared.
If we have a pandemic in the next couple of years, we are in deep trouble.
PHILLIPS: All right.
Yesterday, Secretary Leavitt released this pandemic planning update from the Department of Health and Human Services. And it lays out this five-point plan, talking about all the money that's going to be put towards these various goals. Monitoring and surveillance is one of them. What do we have right now, with regard to detection products. Or do we -- do we not have any advanced detection products at this time? TONER: Well, the -- the United States has pretty -- pretty good surveillance of diseases like this in poultry. We -- we survey all of our poultry, essentially. So, we will know when the disease arrives in this country. We monitor migratory birds as well.
But that will give us relatively little warning. And these -- you know, we are tracking the virus as it passes from country to country in birds. But a pandemic among people can happen very quickly, literally almost overnight. We will not have a lot of warning when the pandemic starts.
PHILLIPS: And we touched a little bit on the vaccines. That's mentioned in here. Antivirals, it says here, in March, HHS purchased more than 14 million courses of Tamiflu and Relenza, which will increase the inventory to nearly 20 million courses. The total targeted stockpile is 81 million courses by the end of 208.
Well, if we're looking at a problem within six months, possibly, that's pretty scary to think we have to wait until 2008 until we are prepared with regard to antivirals?
TONER: Yes. That's true. And you have to remember that that -- those calculations are based on the dosage that we now know is too low for this virus and also for the course of treatment, which we know is too short.
So, actually, the amount of courses of treatment we will have is -- is a half to a third of that.
PHILLIPS: State and local preparedness, another point made in this report. Let's say that we got word that there was something -- it was confirmed here.
Can you sort of help me visualize what we would have to do as Americans? Do all of a sudden, nobody can leave the house? Does the military step in and start setting up a quarantine? I mean, kind of tell me what will happen as soon as we get the word.
TONER: Well, we need to realize there's no way to control this, a pandemic, with either quarantine or the military. It can't be done.
Once influenza starts to spread, it will spread. The only thing we can hope to do is to slow it down a bit. And only that -- and that is only, you know, a relatively small gain.
We need to be working very hard right now to prepare, because, once a pandemic starts, there is not a whole lot we can do. We cannot contain this virus either overseas or once it reaches this country.
PHILLIPS: And a final point: communications -- apparently, checklists will be made available through the CDC. We will keep our eyes out for those.
TONER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Dr. Eric Toner with the Center of Biosecurity, sure appreciate your time. I have a feeling we will be talking a lot in the coming months.
Thanks, Eric.
TONER: I think so. Bye.
PHILLIPS: More than six months after Katrina, thousands of evacuees are still in hotels or shelters, because they can't return home. Some may actually belong in jail cells, but FEMA won't say who.
Now local police are going around the law to protect and defend -- that story straight ahead on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Talk about timing. One of the biggest home insurers in Florida will drop thousands of customers in June, a week into hurricane season.
Poe Financial Group blames the $2 billion it has had to pay on 125,000 claims from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Forty-three thousand customers will be cut. And the company said its subsidiaries won't issue any new policies. Residential insurance companies have lost more than $24 billion after eight hurricanes in Florida in two years.
Hiding in plain sight, without even trying to. Some crime suspects or fugitives from areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina may be blending into their new communities, with local police not only unaware, but blocked from getting information. Who is doing the blocking? One guess.
Here's CNN's Gulf Coast correspondent Susan Roesgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERIFF STEVE PRATOR, CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA: You know, if your daddy tells you he's going to follow you on your date, you are going to act a lot different than if you know daddy's not watching.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sheriff Steve Prator wants the criminals in Caddo Parish, Louisiana to know he's got his eye on them, but the sheriff is worried about the newcomers in his parish in and around Shreveport.
Since the hurricane, more than a thousand evacuees have moved in, some have left, but there are still hundreds the sheriff says he knows nothing about. FEMA says privacy laws won't allow the agency to release the information the sheriff could use to do background checks.
PRATOR: Don't keep the shovel from me and expect me to go dig a ditch and the background checks are the shovels. I mean that is the tools that we need. In law enforcement we work on intelligence and information and that's what we're not being provided. And then you have all these criminal records right there.
ROESGEN: Frustrated by FEMA, the sheriff got the names and Social Security numbers of 37 evacuees from his confidential source. Out of those 37 names the sheriff says 33 had criminal records with a combined total of 340 prior arrests.
Armed with the informant's information, Sheriff Prator went to one of the shelters last week and rounded up two parole violators, but the sheriff says he wants to know the backgrounds of all 638 evacuees still in hotels and shelters in his parish, especially the backgrounds of any sex offenders.
PRATOR: We want to know with the kids that are staying here that there's not a sex offender that lives right next door that decides he'll leave in New Orleans and nobody knows where he is and he might take advantage of some kids or something like that.
ROESGEN: Helen Pierce has three young children in this shelter. She says she welcomes the sheriff's push for background checks to keep her kids safe.
HELEN PIERCE, EVACUEE: He should have the right to know who's living here and we have the right to know as people.
ROESGEN: But FEMA says no one has the right to know the evacuees backgrounds, unless the evacuees volunteer the information.
FEMA representative Steve Deblasio told me, "it's a privacy issue that ties our hands with a $2,000 penalty per violation." But he also says, "I believe law enforcement has a right to know who the FEMA evacuees are and I'm trying to do what I can." Deblasio says he's trying to help, but the sheriff says he still doesn't know who is in FEMA paid hotel rooms and shelters.
PRATOR: I lay awake at night frustrated sometimes and wondering, what else do I need to do to try to convince people that this is what we need to keep our parish safe?
ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, Shreveport, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, it was a page-one scoop in "The New York Times," the identity of the hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner. But is he who he says he is? The controversy coming up on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Contest in cruelty, that's the latest testimony in the court marshal of a U.S. army dog handler charged with abusing Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. Today, an army interrogator says that Sergeant Michael Smith told him he was competing with another dog team to frighten prisoners into soiling themselves. Smith faces up to 24 and a half years in prison if convicted of all 13 counts against him. For its part, the defense persuaded the judge not to show jurors a photograph of Smith's dog lunging at a naked detainee.
Eight hundred Brits are going home. U.K. Defense Secretary John Reid says his 8,000-strong force in southern Iraq will soon be cut by 10 percent or 800 troops. Despite the recent violence, Reid says Iraqi forces are becoming more capable of handling security in the South. Still, Brits believe Shiite militias have heavily infiltrated Iraqi police.
It's one of the most enduring, most terrifying images from Abu Ghraib, a hooded man standing on a box with wires running from his hands. The man was identified in a page-one story on "The New York Times" on Saturday. Or was he? "The Times" is investigating questions raised by the online magazine "Salon.com." Reporter Julian Manyon spoke with the man profiled in "The Times" report.
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JULIAN MANYON, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the image that horrified the world, a hooded Iraqi prisoner forced to stand on a box with electrodes attached to the fingers of his outstretched hands. That man was Ali Shalal Qaissi, now free in Amman, Jordan. In his dingy flat, Ali relived with me his terrible days at Abu Ghraib prison. His story is harrowing. The American guards, he says, tried to break him with exhaustion and electric shocks.
ALI SHALAL QAISSI, IRAQ PRISONER (through translator): They made me stand like that for hours until my arms got tired and then they would electrocute me. I felt my eyes popping out. Once I bit my tongue and blood started coming out of my mouth.
MANYON: It's the deformed left hand that confirms that Ali was the prisoner on the box. The original damage was from a previous injury, but according to Ali, the wound became infected after an American soldier deliberately stamped on it.
In the hell of Abu Ghraib, prisoners were routinely humiliated and abused, while guards took pictures. The images stir Ali's memories. He says that this female guard called Sabrina (ph) told him that she was under orders to make the prisoners lives hell. This prisoner, he says, was a student from the Yemen held for months until he could prove his innocence.
At the time of his arrest, Ali was the mayor of a small village near Baghdad. The best evidence that he was not a terrorist is that he was released after six months. Now he is working with American Human Rights lawyers to sue two U.S. companies involved with Abu Ghraib. For the lawyers, Ali is a symbol.
JUDITH CHOMSKY, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: He has become iconic for the shame that the United States has in front of the world and in particular in front of the Muslim world.
MANYON (on camera): Ali Shalal Qaissi is now touring the Arab countries with his story. He is trying to raise public consciousness of what happened to the prisoners in Abu Ghraib. But above all, he says, he's trying to do something to help end the violence in Iraq. Julian Manyon, ITV News, Amman.
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PHILLIPS: But is Ali the man he says he is? Joining me now, Michael Scherer, the "Salon.com" writer whose article questioned the identity of that man you just saw in the piece and in "The New York Times." Michael, good to see you.
MICHAEL SCHERER, WRITER, SALON.COM: Good to see you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So tell me about the evidence that you were able to obtain suggesting this man is not who he says he is.
SCHERER: Today we at "Salon" published an extensive photo archive, some 279 photos that were annotated by the army's criminal investigation command, CID. These are the people who are charged with figuring out what had happened in these photos, with figuring out which of the guards should be referred for prosecution.
That investigation concluded that the person in the photo that "The New York Times" ran on their front page was not Qaissi, but somebody else. Now that said, we do know from the photo archives that someone fitting Qaissi's description was photographed within minutes of these photographs and there's now some debate over whether -- there's five photographs -- over whether there's actually two detainees who've been pictured in these photographs.
PHILLIPS: So how did you confirm that the man we're seeing right now is not the man in that infamous picture? What was it? What was it that CID and you and salon.com -- those there -- were able to decipher?
SCHERER: Well, I am using the CID materials, which we were able to obtain. I have no independent way of verifying this, but CID interviewed detainee who were one of the -- that detainee who was nicknamed Gilligan, who CID believes to be the person on that box. He describes the abuse that was done to him.
CID also interviewed a number of the guards who described this person. Then there was investigation into why this detainee, Gilligan, was being abused that night, which came to conclusions that actually found the same agency, the Army Criminal Investigative Command, had actually asked for or may have asked for that abuse.
Now again, I'm just talking about the photos on the front page of the "Times." It is possible -- and this is something that's being debated right now by the "New York Times," we're looking at it, the Army criminal investigators are looking at it -- whether Qaissi is one of the other photographs that was represented -- you know, one of the other photographs that was taken at that same time during that same night.
PHILLIPS: All right. Mike, stay with me for a second here. We've got some developing news. It's a story that we've been talking about. Zacarias Moussaoui wondering if the -- because there have allegations of or proof, I guess now, that we're learning that witnesses have been coached in this trial. There was talk that the judge would throw out the death penalty phase of this case. We've been going back and forth with our legal analysts. Would that be possible when you're talking about the only man being held accountable for the attacks on 9/11? Could a decision like that be made in such a big case?
Jeanne Meserve joining us now, just getting word -- OK, she's actually getting ready to talk to us. She's just been getting word that it looks like the death penalty will stay a part of this case, it will not be thrown out.
You may know within the past two days we were talking about the lawyer that had come through -- we actually named that lawyer today, we'll get the specifics from Jeanne in just a second -- actually was pointed out as someone that was coaching the witnesses, actually letting witnesses see pretrial transcripts before they were coming into court.
I'm being told now Jeanne Meserve is hooked up, ready to go. Jeanne, I was trying to vamp as much as I could about the new developments here as you were getting in front of the camera. I hope I got it all right, but it looks like the bottom line, death penalty is going it stay a part of this case?
JEANNE MESERVE:, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The death penalty is going to stay a part of this case, but a big part of the prosecution's case has just evaporated. They said earlier this week that the aviation testimony consisted about half of their case here.
Now those witnesses are going to be excluded. That testimony is going to be excluded. This is going to make it, in the view of many legal experts, exceedingly difficult for the government to make its case here.
The issue in question, the question of issue, of course, whether Zacarias Moussaoui will get the death penalty or whether he'll serve the rest of his life in prison.
This all came about because of a Transportation Security Administration lawyer by the name of Carla Martin. Martin, it was revealed, had shared e-mails with seven of the potential aviation witnesses, some of those e-mails discussing strategy, some of them including transcripts of court proceedings that had gone on, all of that in violation of a court order from this judge that witnesses not be coached and that one witness not be made aware of the testimony of others.
But it also came to light today that she had in her possession a briefing book that was put together by government lawyers. She had that in her hands and, according to some of the testimony, was using this to prepare some of these witnesses for testimony in this trial.
For all these reasons, Judge Leonie Brinkema decided today that those witnesses should not be heard from because it simply was impossible for her to determine exactly how tainted they are. To quote her exactly, "whether these witnesses have been tainted or not is impossible to tell."
And so she decided come down on the side of caution here and not let them testify. As I said, a major blow here for the government prosecution of Moussaoui -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And Jeanne -- let me ask you, Jeanne -- Carla Martin, because we were talking about this yesterday trying to figure out did she realize there were these pretrial rules? And did she know that she wasn't supposed to do this? Some were saying oh, it was a mistake, there's so many attorneys involved in this case. Do we know if she, in fact, knew she wasn't supposed to be do this?
MESERVE: Well, we haven't heard from her. She did make an appearance here in court today, but she didn't have legal representation so she left and they were going to bring her back for questioning but there was a call from an attorney who is now representing her late this afternoon. He said he was not going to make her available to testify at this point in time.
We do know that the prosecution informed the judge that she had sent these e-mails last Friday. In their letter to the court, they called this reprehensible, something they could not fathom.
They were certainly well aware of the restrictions. Whether she was or not, we don't know exactly know, although one gathers from the testimony in the courtroom today that this is sort of standard operating procedure in a trial of this sort that there not be those sorts of communications with witnesses -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much, Jeanne.
MESERVE: You bet.
Let's get back to Michael Scherer with salon.com. Quickly here, we obviously had the developing news.
Michael, bring our viewers up to date that we were talking about these pictures. You now broke this story. Apparently this picture that we have been seeing, this infamous picture about this hooded man with the wires attached to his hands, the "New York Times" had interviewed a man that they said -- that they believe is the individual that was in this picture.
Now you're coming forward saying no. The man is not Ali Shalal Qaissi. It is somebody else. You're also going to be coming out, I understand, possibly within in this hour, right, with more pictures on salon.com being released to you through the Army's criminal investigation. Is that right? There are going to be more pictures now?
SCHERER: That's right. I think it should be up on the Web site right now. But, more importantly, in the pictures we actually try and bring context to these photographs, which hasn't been done yet. So far, pictures have just sort of been thrown out there onto news networks, onto newspaper pages. We've actually tried to go back and we were able, through the information we obtained from a source, to reconstruct a lot of unknown things about these pictures -- who is being abused, why they're being abused, were these abuses ordered by people higher up or were they just the ideas of military police who were working there on the ground? This is the sort of stuff that this package is trying to answer.
PHILLIPS: And just finally, this man that's saying he is the one that was in this picture, you're saying that is not true. He's actually got that picture on his business card. I mean, are these prisoners trying to capitalize on these pictures? Are they looking for opportunities to make money? Or have you been able to get a sense for why he's doing that?
SCHERER: I should say I don't doubt that Qaissi was there at the time. And I would never suggest that, you know, anyone who's been through the sort of ordeal he's been through, you know, might be trying to capitalize on this. I just don't think that's true.
He does have a picture on his business card. It is actually a different picture from the picture that was run on the front page of the "New York Times," and we're trying to figure out if that picture is of him.
I mean, two years later we still know so little about what actually happened in that prison, and I think that's why it's important, you know, as this dog (ph) trial goes forward, as the criminal investigation actually continues, the Army is continuing its investigation.
I think it's really for us to actually try and get to the bottom of what happened during these three awful months in 2003.
PHILLIPS: Mike Scherer, salon.com, appreciate your time. Thanks, Mike.
SCHERER: Thanks a lot for having me.
PHILLIPS: The news keeps coming and we'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.
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PHILLIPS: Well, here's something you've probably noticed in your office this week, the NCAA bracket. It's not exactly legal, but that doesn't stop some people like Jen Bernstein (ph), my producer there, to place her bets. We're going to have more on that. You better pick the Aztecs. Do you have the Aztecs picked, Jen? My mom and dad will be very upset. That's their team, their college. Indiana's not going to win. See them over there? Left side. There you go. Aztecs, baby. Appreciate it. I'm telling them right now. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, businesses are braking for a serious slump in productivity because of basketball. So why is March Madness basketball such a bone of contention for bosses around the country?
Our Ali Velshi is on Wall Street with that and that the closing bell. Ali, hold on a second.
Mom, I'm going to call you back, I'm going to tell Ali the information, OK? OK, bye. OK, I got it. Bye. So, my mom and dad, OK, professors at San Diego State...
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do say hello to your mom for me.
PHILLIPS: All right, I'll tell her you say hello. Both professors at San Diego State. All they can talk about is the fact that the Aztecs are in the big dance.
VELSHI: Yes.
PHILLIPS: So they're going to beat they're going to beat Indiana, my mom's saying, by five points. What do you think?
VELSHI: Well, you know, Jen Bernstein, who was there filling out her bets, her tracking sheet, like many people, are taking these kinds of pieces of information you're getting from your mom and are filling out those forms. And the...
PHILLIPS: From people that really know.
VELSHI: People who really -- from people who really know. March Madness starting in two days, going until April 3rd. And businesses across America are estimating that they are going lose $3.5 billion into wages paid to people like Jen Bernstein and you, getting calls from your mother, when they should be working, betting on NCAA. Those people who don't follow college basketball, according to the study, also get wrapped up in the madness, and a result, will also be taking time off. Like I am, for instance, talking about it.
PHILLIPS: Yes, but we're multi-tasking.
VELSHI: Yes, that's true.
PHILLIPS: Yes, we're still doing what we need to do while talking about the importance of college basketball.
VELSHI: And that's productivity.
PHILLIPS: It brings in a lot of revenue for the colleges, right?
VELSHI: Yes. No, it's big money in NCAA, and the fact is that this is kind of thing -- very few things that get people away from their work, but this is one of them.
Kyra, I think you should complete your conversation with your mother. I'll...
PHILLIPS: I'm calling her now. I'll tell her you said hi, and I'll see you tomorrow.
VELSHI: Absolutely. I hope she wins some good money on this stuff, even though that would be illegal to say on TV.
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