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DHS Official Cops to Internet Porn Charges; High-Tech Investigations Help Nab Child Pornographer; Saddam Hussein Cross- Examined; Katie Couric to Anchor CBS News

Aired April 05, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Kyra Phillips is off today. LIVE FROM begins right now.
Extraordinary and graphic, that's how police described online chats between a 55-year-old man and the person he thought was a 14- year-old girl, but there's something even more extraordinary about this child sex sting. The man arrested is a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. He is set to appear in court at this hour.

CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is on the story -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, Brian Doyle, deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland -- Homeland Security, is now in non-pay status, and his security clearance, employee badge and facility access permissions have been suspended, according to DHS spokesman Russ Knocke.

Doyle has confessed to trying to seduce what he was a 14-year-old girl on the Internet, according to the Polk County, Florida, sheriff. The girl was actually an undercover detective.

The sheriff says Doyle had been trying to persuade the girl to get a web cam so he could see live pictures of her nude, and that played a part in his arrest at his Maryland home last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, GEORGIA: He was obsessed with this 14-year-old having a web cam and sending photographs of herself. So we told him yesterday at work that we had a web cam, Mom wasn't going to be home. And he said, "Well, that's great. I'll rush home about 7 p.m."

At 7:45 when we knocked on his front door he was chatting with our undercover detectives on the computer. He was shocked, to say the least.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Doyle's conversations with the so-called girl allegedly began on March 12th and the sheriff says Doyle immediately identified himself and his position, sent the girl a photo of himself, wearing his Department of Homeland Security I.D. and gave her his office and government-issued cell phone numbers.

Doyle allegedly sent the decoy pornographic video clips and held conversations that the sheriff calls hard core, perverse, explicit. The sheriff believes he was grooming her for a sexual encounter. At this hour, as you mentioned, Fredricka, a bond hearing is scheduled in Montgomery County, Maryland. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: And Jeanne, this is astounding all the way around. What about your interaction with this man? He's a deputy spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. You've interacted with him quite a few times. What was he like?

MESERVE: Delightful guy. Couldn't have been nicer; was always extraordinarily professional. I talked to him as recently as Monday this week when there was a blackout on Capitol Hill. I know he was in the office yesterday and working, because a call of mine was referred to him.

I've talked to a number of his co-workers today, people who worked with him at the department and in previous jobs. They all love the guy, saying he was an extraordinarily nice fellow, and this just came out of the blue. Everybody is shocked; everybody is stunned at these developments.

WHITFIELD: Family man?

MESERVE: He had been married, and he was divorced back in 1987. A couple of people had told me that he had a long-term girlfriend. That relationship had ended, but he had a lot of friends.

WHITFIELD: All right, and in court at this hour, Montgomery County, Maryland. We'll be following those developments. Jeanne Meserve, thank you.

MESERVE: You bet.

Well, proof now that the long arm of the law reaches across oceans. Federal agents tracked a California man to the Philippines and back and built their case against a suspected child pornographer. Authorities got their man and uncovered the high-tech methods of the modern sex criminal.

Thelma Gutierrez brought you this story first on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER 360".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cebu City, the Philippines, a favorite destination for American tourists.

For one California man, it was the perfect place to tour the city's Catholic churches and practice his religious devotion. But 61- year-old retired auditor Edilberto Datan (ph) had a dark secret, and U.S. agents knew all about it.

JORGE GUZMAN, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, ICE: Mr. Datan went to the Philippines for the sole purpose of engaging in sex with minors.

GUTIERREZ: Agents with ICE, the Immigration Customs Enforcement Bureau, in Long Beach California mobilized to try to catch Datan coming into the country with child pornography.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ICE investigations.

GUTIERREZ: This is a rare look inside the forensic lab where ICE agents, child porn trackers, conduct their investigations.

DAVID DRASIN, SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT, ICE: The hardest part of this job is looking into their eyes and trying to imagine the pain that they must be going through.

GUTIERREZ: Assistant special agent in charge, Jorge Guzman, says after ICE agents were tipped off of Datan's trip to Cebu City, they began tracking his movements.

GUZMAN: He was engaged in sexual misconduct with these -- with these young boys, as young as 14 years old from what we've learned. They could be younger.

GUTIERREZ: According to federal authorities, Edilberto Datan (ph) enticed young boys to his room.

RUPA GOSWAMI, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: He would take them for food. He would offer them T-shirts and backpacks, not -- not huge amounts of money for access to them.

GUTIERREZ: For as little as $2 Datan took pictures of the kids with his digital camera.

GUZMAN: It also showed other young males in very disturbing scenes, including very -- very detailed close-ups of the genital area of these young boys.

GUTIERREZ: Datan would lure as many as 18 boys to his room during his trip.

GOSWAMI: There's images of him naked with a naked child on top of him. There's also a series of photographs of the children sort of splayed out.

GUTIERREZ: The images would be stored on small devices called memory cards or memory sticks, which he would then smuggle out of the Philippines and trade with his friend.

As Datan returned to Los Angeles from the Philippines and made his way through customs, an officer ran his passport through the database. His name was flagged. Datan was pulled aside and searched.

GUZMAN: He had three memory sticks from a camera that were taped inside the pocket of his jeans.

GUTIERREZ: A fourth stick was found in his camera. A federal search warrant turned up more than a dozen boxes of child pornography in his San Diego home. The boxes and his computer were seized, but to lock up their case, agents still needed to prove that Datan took the photos.

Just as investigators at a crime scene take special care with physical evidence like blood and fingerprints...

GUZMAN: We're using both databases.

GUTIERREZ: ... forensic agents would have to take special care in analyzing Datan's camera, memory sticks and computer hard drive without contaminating the original electronic evidence.

DRASIN: What we do at that point is we will make an exact duplicate copy, some people would call it a mirror image.

GUTIERREZ: When Datan's memory sticks were accessed, agents found more than 100 photos of Filipino boys.

GUZMAN: The memory sticks was the most important piece of evidence against Mr. Datan, because it basically showed him in the act of exploiting children and basically working as a predator.

GUTIERREZ: Each photo would have to be analyzed.

DRASIN: Each child pornographic image has one digital fingerprint, just like people that only have one fingerprint.

GUTIERREZ: The evidence is run through a sophisticated software program, where crucial information begins to emerge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes they'll find the camera make, model, date the picture was taken, other internal data that the user won't see when they look at the picture.

GUTIERREZ: In addition to tying the perpetrator's camera to the crime, the digital fingerprints can also help identify the child. This digital information is run against a database in Washington of known victims of child pornography. If a match is found, investigators can identify the child.

GOSWAMI: The images are really -- they're of a crime scene. We just didn't get there time.

GUTIERREZ: Forensic agents were able to match Edilberto Datan's (ph) camera to the images on the memory sticks he was carrying, and authorities in the Philippines were able to identify eight of Datan's victims.

GUZMAN: He never thought he was going to get caught, and what's -- what's equally disturbing is that Mr. Datan exhibited a lackadaisical attitude after being apprehended or arrested for his crime. He, basically, thought he had done nothing wrong.

GUTIERREZ: In the end, Datan pled guilty to engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors and producing child pornography and is now serving a 17-year sentence in a federal prison. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And get a fresh perspective on the day's top stories from Anderson Cooper. Join "AC 360" weeknights at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Well, it's happened again, this time in Claymont, Delaware, a teacher arrested for very un-teacher-like behavior: sex with a student. Police say Rachel Holt had sex with a 13-year-old boy from her science class 28 times during the last week of March. She is also charged with giving him alcohol. Holt is jailed under a half million dollar bail, facing multiple count of rape.

Saddam Hussein was in the hot seat today, but he was the one throwing off sparks. The former Iraqi dictator faced off with prosecutors, who cross-examined him for the first time in his war crimes trial.

Our Aneesh Raman has been following the action. He joins us live from Baghdad. Aneesh, another day of antics in the courtroom.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was, Fredricka. At one point one of Saddam Hussein's defense lawyers was thrown out, this after she raised photos on of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the detainees that suffered abuse at the hands of U.S. troops in 2004.

I asked her afterwards why she brought the photos out. Earlier in the day we had a video that was presented by the prosecution that showed Saddam Hussein on camera, essentially saying that if thousands of traitors of Iraq were executed, he wouldn't mind. The problem is the video was from the late-'70s, well before any of the incidents that are part of the case at hand took place. She said if that is admissible, this is admissible, as well.

Earlier, though, it was a somber atmosphere in the court as the names were read and faces shown of children that were allegedly executed by Saddam Hussein's regime after the failed assassination attempt on the former dictator back in 1982. One of them as young as 12 years old.

Saddam Hussein somberly watched as these photos were put forward but then stood up and said that he did not condone executions of children. He never would have killed an Iraqi child. It was simply impossible.

Saddam Hussein also lashed out at the country's interior minister, saying that the Shia government is responsible for the death of thousands of Iraqis and as usual, he had some choice words for America, saying that they are the ones who are behind this entire process -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And meantime, Aneesh, outside the courtroom, the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim Al-Jafari, being asked to step down. Is he standing his ground? RAMAN: He is. In an interview with the London newspaper, "The Guardian", Al-Jafari says that he has no plans to step aside, that he is seeking a second term as prime minister. This amid a political deadlock in the country.

We've also heard from the Iraqi vice president, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, in a television interview. He was the one who lost to Jafari. He is now calling for Jafari to resign.

And in a larger sense, it seems from politicians we're talking to, that the trip from Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and her British counterpart just days ago, might have hurt the situation because now Ibrahim Al-Jafari, they suggested he should step aside as the anti-American candidate. That is perhaps rallying some support about those who don't want the U.S. interfering at all in Iraqi politics -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So are we saying as a whole that perhaps the pursuit for this unity government is not likely to happen?

RAMAN: Well, something will have to give. This deadlock will have to end. Ibrahim Al-Jafari, though, seems intent on staying as a candidate for prime minister. The opposition seems intent on not working with him.

There are any numbers of possible political scenarios that could play out. The parliament could convene. New groupings of coalitions could form wherein the Shia alliance is a minority, not the majority and someone else is named as prime minister.

But the hope for unity government remains, at least in rhetoric, from all of the Iraqi politicians, but it's now about this one man, Ibrahim Al-Jafari, his unwillingness to step aside and the opposition's unwillingness to work with him. So no end in sight on that, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Aneesh Raman in Baghdad. Thanks so much for the update.

Meantime, 15 years as a morning person are coming to an end for Katie Couric. After months of speculation, rumors and gossip, "The Today Show" co-host made it official this morning. She's leaving for a new assignment, a new day part and a new network altogether. And she's making history.

A.J. Hammer of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT joins us live from the New York area with details on that. No longer standing outside in the snow.

A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": No. There were, like, four-foot flakes of snow coming down.

WHITFIELD: I noticed. They were pummeling you.

HAMMER: What's interesting, after the announcement was made this morning, Fred, they went to Al Roker for the weather. He came back and he said apparently hell has frozen over. So I don't know if that was some inside reference to a comment that Katie may have made about her ever leaving NBC or going over to CBS.

But, yes, it is a done deal. This morning just after 7:30 on the East Coast Katie did confirm what she even termed as the worst-kept secret in television, that she is leaving "The Today Show". And this is on her 15th anniversary of being in that "Today Show" position. And she's heading over to CBS. Here's how it went this morning when she made the announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE COURIC, CO-HOST, NBC'S "THE TODAY SHOW": I wanted to tell all of you out there who have watched the show for the past 15 years that, after listening to my heart and my gut, two things that have served me pretty well in the past, I've decided I'll be leaving "Today" at the end of May.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Now, as you noticed she did not make any mention of the fact that she was going over to CBS. She really wanted to make the announcement to her viewers and to her colleagues there at NBC, who obviously already knew.

But after a little poking and prodding from "Today Show" co-host Matt Lauer, when he said, "Isn't there something else you'd like to tell us?" Sort of as an aside, Katie did, in fact, say, "Well, yes, I'm going to work on the 'CBS Evening News'. I'm going to be working on '60 Minutes'."

What we know, in fact, is that Katie will become the anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" in September, and she will also be a contributor to "60 Minutes", Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so what about all those new colleagues over at CBS? We know that upper management is very excited that she's going to be joining, climbing onboard. What about the rest of the crew?

HAMMER: Well, was there an interesting vibe as I was leaving. Clearly, something was happening when I was leaving the CBS broadcast center just a short time ago. The troops were all moving towards the set. I was actually on the "CBS Evening News" set as it currently exists, the set that -- where Bob Schieffer is working every night, hosting that evening newscast, which has been doing very well in the ratings over the last year, but everybody was moving in that direction. There was a lot of buzz.

Obviously, everybody knew that this was coming, and I think the executive producer of the evening newscast was going to be rallying the troops now that the announcement has been made official, letting them know what to be expecting in the coming months. Because for certain we'll be seeing a different "CBS Evening News" when Katie takes it over.

WHITFIELD: Sure. And now what about the rumblings over at NBC with "The Today Show"? Somebody has got to fill her shoes, big shoes to fill. HAMMER: Very big shoes to fill, indeed. Of course, Meredith Vieira has been the front-runner for Katie's job. Her name has been tossed around ever since it was revealed that Katie would probably be leaving for CBS. Meredith Vieira, of course, formerly of "60 Minutes", currently on "The View" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

And I can tell you that there have been reports buzzing around in the last couple of hours that she is close to signing a deal. Nothing confirmed yet. There are some reasons that Meredith might not want the job, because of the lifestyle change and not being so interested in waking up at that early hour.

Of course, Campbell Brown, who is the weekend anchor of "The Today Show", is another front-runner, as is -- who else do we have? Natalie Morales, of course, who is sometimes a news reader. And Anne Curry's name has been tossed around, who is the daily news reader on "The Today Show".

We're going to have to wait and see on that one. They may be leaving this to be Katie's day.

WHITFIELD: I think so. At least for another month, even.

HAMMER: For certain.

WHITFIELD: Until the transition is made. All right. Thanks so much, A.J.

HAMMER: All right, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Well, Katie Couric's friends and colleagues react to her announcement tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE". The program starts at 9 Eastern, 6 Pacific right here on CNN.

Katie Couric is a superstar today, but 15 years ago she was a replacement for another high-profile morning show host. Deborah Norville knows all about the pressures and the demands of television. She joins us live coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So far so good. Communities along the fast-rising rivers in North Dakota and Minnesota seem to be holding their own. Flood fighters have been spending every waking moment sandbagging homes and pumping away any water that seeps through the levees. The Red River has crested about 19 feet above flood stage, and Fargo, Grand Folks, is next -- Forks, rather, is next. That city is counting on its new dike system to keep it dry.

Well, CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is keeping an eye on those rivers and a belated winter surprise for the New Yorkers as well.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You bet.

WHITFIELD: If you didn't get enough sleep last night, you are not alone. You're not the only one yawning.

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy says as many as 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleeping problems. The report says longer work days are part of the problem, but it says we can blame ourselves, too, because we're spending more time on computers, and we're spending more time watching television.

Researchers are saying that sleeping problems cost the nation billions in medical expenses, accidents and lost productivity, and they say medical students should get more training on how to help.

American kids are getting bigger: more than a third considered overweight. American men are getting bigger, too. While the Centers for Disease Control finds the percentage of overweight and obese men is up over the same period, the percentage of overweight and obese women has held steady. That's got experts wondering whether that means the nation's obesity epidemic may level off soon.

Well, do you have health insurance? If the answer is no, wait until what they're doing in Massachusetts.

The news keeps coming, and we'll bring it to you. More LIVE FROM, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So drivers in many states are required to carry auto insurance, so why shouldn't everyone be forced to have health insurance? Well, that's exactly what's about to happen in Massachusetts.

Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with more on that, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

It's a huge problem, obviously, nationwide: 46 million Americans who are uninsured, and it's something that the federal government has not been able to deal with effectively yet. So Massachusetts may be on the verge of doing something completely, radically different.

Its lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved a bill which requires all residents to carry health insurance. It also chargers employers nearly $300 per person, per year if they don't provide it. There will be penalties on businesses that don't.

The goal is to reduce the number of uninsured in Massachusetts from 550,000 to near zero within three years. That's a pretty tall order.

WHITFIELD: It sure is. But what about if you can't afford it. Because isn't that why a lot of people don't have health insurance? They just can't afford it. LISOVICZ: That's exactly right. And they -- what they tend to do is then go to the emergency room and rack up all of these and basically have their healthcare performed there.

What Massachusetts, what this law will do, what this proposal will do, is provide free coverage to people at or below the federal poverty line, which is about $9,600 a year. It will subsidize coverage for those up to three times the poverty level.

It will cost $316 million for the state the first year, up to $1 billion per year after that, but most of that money is already earmarked for healthcare in the state and federal budgets.

By the way, Hawaii has a similar plan, Fred, but it only requires businesses to provide coverage for their employees. It doesn't cover unemployed people, for instance, and that's one of the differences with Massachusetts.

WHITFIELD: So interesting, so why Massachusetts? Do they have more uninsured people compared to other states?

LISOVICZ: Actually, they don't. Massachusetts' latest numbers that we have is that it shows 10.8 percent uninsured. Now that sounds like a pretty high number compared to the unemployed rate nationally is 4.8 percent. That's one of the lowest levels in the country, 500,000 uninsured out of 6.4 million people.

And if you take a look we have some numbers that we can show you, the states with the highest percentage of uninsured people. Take a look at Texas there. It's got a rate of 25 percent. New Mexico, right underneath at 21.4 percent and Nevada, Oklahoma, Louisiana, filling out the bill.

And by the way, several other state legislators are considering similar proposals and, Fred, one reason why is that they're facing deadlines that they could miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars of federal aid, Medicaid. And so it's a good thing for them to try to come to grips with them and solve the problem from within. The governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, is expected to sign this bill.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right. What else is happening on Wall Street?

(STOCK REPORT)

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