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Live From...
Missing Boys In Milwaukee; U.S. Indicts 50 Colombian Rebel Leaders For Drug Trafficking; Interview With Tornado Survivor Matt Suter
Aired March 22, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the search for two boys intensifies. Everyone from police to schoolmates keeping their eyes open for these two young boys in Milwaukee. They were last seen playing outside Sunday afternoon, and police have been going door to door, checking everywhere they can think of, including the homes of registered sex offenders.
Relatives are handing out flyers, hoping someone has seen something. And so far, nothing. One boy's mother says that -- said on CNN, rather, last hour, that just incase they could here her, this is what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA VIRGINIA, MOTHER OF MISSING BOY: I said, boys, please come home. You've got everybody worried about you guys. You know, not alone. You know, my son -- I need some more artwork, I need some more pictures.
Your school did so many brochures. And they said they miss you. You've got close friends. You've got your teachers. You've got your family. You've got everybody -- your grandmother.
You've got everybody out here just wanting you home. And you know we love you. And I know if you hear me and you hear my voice, that's all it takes for you to come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: CNN's Jonathan Freed joins me now live from Milwaukee.
Jonathan, we're talking about two boys who are said to be very good students, well-mannered and have no history of running away.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Kyra. And that's what has both families here baffled. We're talking about 11-year-old Purvis Virginia Parker and 12-year-old Quadrevion Henning who goes by the name "Dre."
We visited with both their families within the hour, and they're trying to manage their grief, but they're shaking their heads at the same time because they just do not understand why neither child hasn't been heard from. Both kids are good in school. One of them, Purvis Parker, loves to draw. We even saw some of his sketches. And Dre Henning goes to a military school, comes from a military family. His grandfather and his father say that he's a "yes, sir, no, sir" kind of child. And they say that these are kids that aren't even up to taking the city bus on their own. That these are kids that stick around the house and they don't stray too far, and they know that they're supposed to stay in contact with family -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So there are a number -- let me get this right, there are a number of various searches taking place, right? There's divers in a nearby lagoon, then you've got various volunteers and authorities in another park. From what I'm reading, it looks like two different parks, a McGovern Park and a Havens Wood Park (ph).
FREED: They're checking the area, generally speaking. The kids' houses are just up the street, maybe about a quarter of a mile away from where we are, and there's a creek that we're standing next to as well.
We talked to police a short while ago. We're expecting a briefing in about a half an hour from now. And they said that there's nothing exceptional about why they have divers and people checking the water.
They say that they're just trying to do everything they can to rule out anything that they can, and they point out at this point that this is still a search. They are not classifying this as an investigation at this point because they say that there has been absolutely no evidence of foul play whatsoever.
Of course, from the parents' point of view, the kids are missing. But there is no evidence at this point to make them change the tenor or reclassify the investigation.
We're also told that at the news conference that's coming up here shortly, that there's nothing "exceptional," to use their words, that they're going to be reporting. They're simply trying to stay in the news, get the faces and the names of the missing children out there, and to ask for people's help -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Jonathan Freed, we'll stay on top of that story. Thanks so much.
Milwaukee police are expected to talk about the case this hour. CNN does plan to bring that news conference live. It's now set for 2:30 p.m. Eastern, 11:30 a.m. Pacific.
A change of course, a slight one for federal prosecutors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. Today they're giving jurors a look at Moussaoui's flight training, drawing parallels to that of the 9/11 hijackers.
Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in connection with the September 11 attacks. He pleaded guilty to some counts and could face the death penalty.
A change of heart and an attempted change of plea from Lionel Tate. Earlier this month, Tate pleaded guilty to robbing a pizza delivery man, but now he says he can prove he didn't do it.
Tate, now 19, was the youngest person ever sentenced to life in prison in America. He was 12 when he killed a 6-year-old playmate during what he said was a wrestling match. That conviction was later overturned.
Along with the war on terror, there's a war on narco-terror, and a major U.S. offensive. Fifty leaders of a Colombian rebel group allege narco-terrorists are being charged in Washington with sending this country $25 billion worth of cocaine. The rebel group, called FARC, is designed -- is a designated terror organization, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says both countries will benefit by bringing it down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: A federal indictment was unsealed today in Washington, D.C., charging 50 members of FARC's policymaking and operational leadership with importing more than $25 billion worth of cocaine into the United States and other countries. This is the largest narcotics trafficking indictment ever filed in U.S. history and fuels our hope to reduce narco violence in Colombia and stem the tide of illegal drugs entering our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Only three of the 50 indicted leaders are in custody. Gonzales says he will try to bring them into the U.S. for trial.
Thousands of GM workers will soon be cashing in and clocking out. CNN's Susan Lisovicz joins me now from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, no bans yet on duck, duck, goose, but bird flue is getting serious at a school near you. Coming up, school leaders are asked to put on their thinking caps about what might happen in a pandemic.
You'll get an A for effort if you sit quietly until LIVE FROM returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Fredricka Whitfield working a story for us in the newsroom -- Fred.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, downtown Pittsburgh, apparently a number of streets are blocked because of reports of police investigating a man in camouflage toting a weapon and on top of a building. The area is blocked off, Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Avenue. People are not allowed to exit buildings, some of the downtown buildings in that area, nor are elevators in many of those buildings working as police investigate these reports of a man in camouflage walking around a top of a building, allegedly toting a gun -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred. We'll stay on top of that story. Thanks so much.
A lot happening there in the newsroom today.
Also, he says it sounded like 10 jets coming at him while the floor was moving like Jell-O, but that was just the beginning of a wild ride for Matt Suter. The Missouri teen survived being flung more than 1,300 feet by a tornado. That's 10 times longer than the Wright brothers' first flight, and a strange sort of record, no doubt.
Matt joins me now by phone.
It's good to hear your voice, Matt.
MATT SUTER, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Hi.
PHILLIPS: Well, take me back. I mean, what do you remember from that moment? What it felt like, what you heard -- kind of take me through minute by minute of what you remember.
SUTER: Well, it felt like -- I don't know. It was just really crazy how it all was.
I can remember the -- my part of the trailer that I was in flipping over and everything. I remember getting hit in the head, and then after that I woke up in the middle of a field 1,307 feet.
PHILLIPS: So you don't even -- you don't even remember getting pulled out or sucked out or being airborne or going through the air, none of that?
SUTER: No, I sure don't. The lamp that hit me in the head knocked me unconscious.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So you were in a trailer at the time. We're actually looking at pictures right now. Has it just completely been destroyed?
SUTER: Yes, everything has been totaled.
PHILLIPS: And Matt, was anybody in that trailer with you?
SUTER: My grandmother and my uncle.
PHILLIPS: So, now, from what I understand, they're OK, right?
SUTER: Yes. Everybody is OK.
PHILLIPS: So, do they remember seeing you get sucked out of that trailer?
SUTER: My grandmother said before it destroyed her part of the trailer that she was in -- she was in the kitchen -- she -- when she opened her eyes, she looked back at my part that I was in, and the lightning hit, and my part was gone.
PHILLIPS: So she didn't even see you out the window?
SUTER: No.
PHILLIPS: Wow. And your uncle didn't either?
SUTER: No.
PHILLIPS: So, when you woke up, how many hours later was it, and what do you -- what was the first thing that you saw when you woke up?
SUTER: The tornado hit and destroyed everything about 11:00. I didn't wake up until probably about 11:05, 11:10. And I was kind of confused.
I didn't know what happened. And I stood up, and then the lightning hit off in the distance, and it lit up everything.
So I assumed that -- where my grandmother's trailer usually sits, it was gone. So I knew something bad happened. And I only had my boxer shorts on. So I got up, took off, ran to the next-door neighbor's house, jumping barbed-wire fences and running as fast as I can on a dirt road.
PHILLIPS: So you got -- you got sucked out and thrown literally that far and just stood up with no injuries? You didn't feel any pain?
SUTER: No. Well, see, when I got sucked out, the walls, the ceiling, everything got destroyed. And I think that's how I got sucked out.
PHILLIPS: That is unbelievable. Are you just absolutely amazed that you are alive and are you healthy and you didn't have any injuries?
SUTER: Yes, I'm grateful that I'm alive, and the only injuries I had was abrasions to my feet from running on the gravel and a laceration on top of my head that -- which caused me to get five staples, which I got out this morning.
PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh. I bet everybody is calling you a true miracle, yes?
SUTER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Are you looking at life any differently now?
SUTER: I just -- I believe in god and I'm starting to go to church and whatnot. And I'm just grateful to be alive after this.
PHILLIPS: Well, I can just imagine. Matt Suter, what an incredible story. Are you living -- where are you living now?
SUTER: I'm living with family. We're trying to get up enough money from insurance and whatnot. We're going to build a house right -- right back where all that stuff happened at.
PHILLIPS: Well, I hope that your room is going to be in the basement.
SUTER: We're going to build a storm cellar under the house.
PHILLIPS: That's what I want to hear. All right, Matt. You give our best to your grandmother and your uncle. Thanks for calling in. We appreciate it.
SUTER: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: OK.
SUTER: Bye.
PHILLIPS: Any parent can tell you schools aren't just centers of learning, they're also excellent incubators for just about every kind of germ that comes down the pike. So what would happen if bird flu ever becomes a human pandemic?
Remember, it's still not.
Like businesses, churches and other gathering places, schools have been told to start planning. One big question, how to hold classes in quarantines? Schools might also have to pinch-hit as hospitals or vaccine centers.
And if you've got a wing, you haven't got a prayer of freedom in France. Since the arrival of bird flu, the French have ordered all domestic birds be kept indoors. That includes formerly foot-loose, free-range flocks.
CNN's Jim Bitterman reports from Loue, France.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If you didn't already know, there are a number of clues that chickens put Loue, France, on the map.
There's a restaurant dedicated to the hardy rooster, a bronze statue dedicated to a great chicken chef, a huge grain elevator dedicated to making chicken feed. And then, of course, there is the market here, as across the country, all those birds branded "Loue," a brand belonging to an agricultural cooperative that sells about a quarter of the poultry consumed in this country. In part, because it maintains strict rules about feeding and free-range farming.
(on camera): Every chicken, turkey or duck worthy of the name also bears the slogan "Raised in Freedom," reflecting the method and mystique of the poultry production. Now, though, bird flu has changed that.
"From the moment of government said put them inside, we followed the letter of the law," says Alan Alinau (ph), in the farm near Loue where he and his son raise turkeys and chickens. Their birds used to run free in the fields and pens near the barns, but the government ordered all domestic birds inside out of fear wild birds might infect the domestic ones.
Loue's staff veterinarian says it's the only way to make sure the infection doesn't spread. She knows many of the cooperative's 1,000 poultry producers and says everyone reacted quickly to fight the disease. And while it's no doubt better to raise poultry outdoors, she says farmers can probably get almost identical birds indoors as long as they follow the other rules of the cooperative.
The wild birds peacefully feeding on the River Vagre (ph) in downtown Loue hardly seem like the enemy, but few in town could not take notice of the bird flu threat when the mayor posted signs in every shop window warning that all domestic birds of any sort have to be reported and kept indoors.
At a Loue restaurant famous for its chicken dishes, the cook says local producers are plenty worried even if they don't admit it and that there have been layoffs on some farms because consumer demand falls every time there is another outbreak of bird flu.
Meanwhile, back at the Alinaus (ph), son Flurant (ph) says it's just plain sad that his turkeys are not allowed run free. One of his great pleasures, he says, was to watch his birds go flapping out of the barn each morning, something that is now impossible. But his family has been in farming for at least 10 generations, and his father says through drought, flood, or disease, they've always managed the crises and they'll get through this one.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Loue, France.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, the search for two young boys intensifies. Milwaukee police are expected to talk about that case this hour.
CNN plans to bring you that news conference live. It's now set for 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, 11:30 a.m. Pacific.
More LIVE FROM after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE, RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION: When I'm speaking to people overseas, it certainly slows down communication to go through a translator. And I work for a relief and development organization. In a relief situation, lives are at stake, communication is key and a little bit might be lost in translation.
It would be great to have some type of speech technology that would allow relief workers to speak directly with the people that they are serving so they can understand their needs as quickly as possible. MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Quick and easy communication in a foreign language is essential for relief workers, like Katie. And for the rest of us, it sure would make traveling overseas more fulfilling and enjoyable. Wouldn't it be great if you could speak any language effortlessly?
(voice-over): Director of the Interact Center at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Alex Waibel, is in the business of breaking language barriers. In Waibel's lab, you'll find portable PDA translators for tourists, goggles that project translated subtitles, even a speaker that can send a beam of translated audio to a single listener.
DR. ALEX WAIBEL, DIRECTOR, INTERACT CENTER: We can have a personalized translation for one listener in Spanish, for another one in German, for a third one yet another language.
O'BRIEN: Even more amazing, electrodes that when attached to the cheek and throat can turn a person's native tongue into a language they have never spoken before.
WAIBEL: Then these electrodes can capture the movement, recognize the words that could have been spoken that way and translate them into another language and send them out the mouth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: We're going to get straight to Fredricka Whitfield. She's working a number of stories for us right now in the newsroom.
Fred, what are you working on right now?
WHITFIELD: Well, we want to get an update on what's taking place in downtown Pittsburgh, where there are reports of police investigating a man in camouflage walking around a rooftop with a gun. A number of people have been evacuated from the buildings, and at the same time, in some of those buildings the elevators are now forced to stop.
Gus Rosendale, of our affiliate WTAE, filed this report just a short while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUS ROSENDALE, REPORTER, WTAE: Do you give you an idea, we're in front of 2 Gateway Center. What you see right now, these are cars sort of coming along just off the parkway, and you can see them just being detoured at this point. There is absolutely no traffic moving at all through the triangle, and that has changed quite a bit over the last 30 minutes.
When we first arrived, there were still cars moving around, but at this point absolutely nothing. You'll see -- perhaps other than over there, you see a bus turning away, going down, police flagging the cars out. Essentially, they're trying to get as many people and vehicles out of the downtown as possible. And again, we have just heard from state police that there is no access into the city. No one is being allowed in. They're trying to get people out at this point.
Now, talking about those witnesses, before what we heard from them was that a man was spotted on top of the Six and Penn Building (ph). You know that's a restaurant right across from Heinz Hall. It is also a parking garage for a lot of people there.
A man was seen on top of that structure walking around, and those people say they heard from police directly that that man was armed.
And since then -- and we're talking about an hour now since that initial situation began -- traffic being shut down into the city. Police here doing their best to get cars away from the Golden Triangle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So that report coming from WTAE's Gus Rosendale.
So a good number of the downtown Pittsburgh streets are blocked off all around that Six and Penn building that Gus was talking about -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred. Thanks.
Well, it looks like consumers may have to wait a bit longer for the next version of Microsoft Windows.
Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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