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Great Work for Former White House Insiders; Inside Look at Joint U.S.-Iraqi Operation; Duke Rape Case; Huge Explosion Hits Kabul, Afghanistan

Aired April 19, 2006 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: On the job in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq. CNN takes you inside a joint U.S.-Iraqi mission in Ramadi.
The second hour of LIVE FROM begins right now.

It may be the most visible job at the White House, except the presidency itself, and the man who has held it during some of the most turbulent times of the Bush administration is now leaving. Press Secretary Scott McClellan is resigning after almost three years on the job. It's part of a White House shake-up that also means fewer duties for senior presidential adviser Karl Rove. Rove will give up his policy development role and concentrate more on politics with the midterm elections coming up.

Here's how McClellan made his announcement earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm here to announce that I will be resigning as White House press secretary.

Mr. President, it has been an extraordinary honor and privilege to have served you for more than seven years now, the last two years and nine months at your press secretary.

The White House is going through a period of transition. Change can be helpful, and this is a good time and good position to help bring about change.

I'm ready to move on. I've been in this position a long time, and my wife and I are excited about beginning the next chapter in our life together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, he may be out of the White House, but McClellan won't be out of a job very long. And there is a good chance this may be the best time of his career, at least financially.

CNN's Tom Foreman explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've decided to step down. TOM RIDGE, FMR. HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT SECRETARY: It was obviously a very difficult decision.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Washington insiders have quite legally been making out like bandits for years, especially insiders who are getting out.

ANDREW CARD, FMR. WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I was a staffer. And now I look forward to being your friend.

Thank you, Mr. President.

FOREMAN: Andy Card made $161,000 a year in the White House, but he could rake in a bundle if he becomes a consultant for big business, according to CNN political analyst Bill Schneider.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: As a private consultant, your income will go into the millions, probably a couple of million dollars, maybe more.

FOREMAN: That's the price tag business will pay for two things, inside knowledge of plans being considered at the highest levels of government, and connections that only a recent insider can deliver.

SCHNEIDER: They grease the wheels. They make things happen. They are the interface between the private sector and government.

FOREMAN: Jennifer Palmieri worked in the Clinton White House and can still call her old boss.

JENNIFER PALMIERI, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Oh, yes, I could get Bill Clinton on the phone. Do you want me to call him now?

FOREMAN (on camera): That's cool. Yes, give him a call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call him.

FOREMAN: But, she says the value of being an ex-insider is stronger if your connection or your party is still in power, or if you've built a sustainable worldwide reputation like Henry Kissinger, out of office for many years, still a high-priced player.

PALMIERI: My sense is that businesses are getting a little more savvy. And they're not particularly impressed about who you can get on the phone. They want to know -- you know, they're very -- business is very bottom line.

FOREMAN (on camera): Can you produce results?

PALMIERI: Can you produce -- can you produce results? And that's tougher to do.

FOREMAN (voice over): Still, ex-insiders can find plenty of other work in TV, giving speeches. Want Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski at your next convention? That will be $25,000 to $40,000, according to his agency. And on it goes for the ex-insiders, writing books, think tanks and political punditry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Democrats are going to lose the dog (ph) vote.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: That's not going to happen.

FOREMAN (on camera): Hi. I'm a consultant. Can I offer you some advice?

(voice over): Advice is hard to even give away in the nation's capital, because there's so much competition.

(on camera): Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a consultant, too.

FOREMAN: You're a consultant, too!

(voice over): But, for ex-insiders, Washington is always a seller's market.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Some of the worst fighting of the Iraq war has taken place in Iraq's wild west, the Anbar province. And it's in the provincial capital of Ramadi that U.S. and Iraqi troops are working together to keep the insurgency in check.

CNN's Arwa Damon has an inside look at a joint operation. It's a story you'll only see on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It's hard to imagine that people still live here among the devastated buildings in the heart of Ramadi. Each building bears the scars of the daily pitched battles. Like the one we experienced earlier this week between Marines guarding the governor's compound and insurgents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're bugging out.

DAMON: But on a joint Iraqi/American military operation, we met some of the families who have no choice but to stick it out right near the compound.

Ahmed (ph), who was also a soldier under Saddam, tries to tell Joaheda (ph) that they won't leave until there is stability. Her son, Mohamed (ph), shows the bullet holes that scar their walls.

Mohamed's house is right in the crossfire. He and his family are caught between the Marines at the government center and the insurgent who are trying to fire at them. This operation is to look for weapons caches used by insurgents who frequently launch their attacks from this area. The actual searches are carried out by Iraqis and a small number of American advisers. U.S. Marines set up a protective parameter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it's also important at my level because we're training Jundi (ph) to do this, the Iraqi army, and we train with them and they see how we do it and they do it like we do it in the future.

DAMON: For the Iraqi army here, it's more like learning on the job. Of course there's no confusing these troops with Americans. Some things remain ala Iraqi. Taking a break to buy candy after searching this store. They are a light hearted bunch, as Sied (ph) puts it.

"Despite everything that we go through," he says, "we like to joke and laugh."

But this group takes its job seriously. They're operating in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq. Dangerous that are very real to 12-year-old Haned (ph) who says that she is scared all the time, a sentiment echoed by her younger sister. Their mother, Helud (ph), says that she is helpless to protect her children. It's these men's jobs to convince the people of Ramadi that they can keep them safe and to be able to keep that promise. The process of training the Iraqi army moves forward, one small step at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an operation that's driven by intelligence. The Iraqi army goes through that process with their staff and they plan this thing. And when we go back today, we'll sit down and we'll say, how did the planning go? And we'll say, how did the execution go? And we'll say, what can we do better, you know, next time?

DAMON: The weapons they are looking for today are still out there, but at least they all made it back alive. Slightly better prepared to deal with the next time.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Ramadi, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: An 18-hour curfew will go into effect in a couple of hours in Nepal's capital city of Katmandu. Protests have grown against Nepal's king, and pro-democracy demonstrators had hoped to stage a major rally tomorrow. Weeks of street rallies and violent clashes have virtually paralyzed the city.

Nepal's king took absolute power last year. His opponents and many nations are urging him to step down and allow free elections.

Families of Holocaust victims could soon learn more about how they suffered and died. The German government is now supporting an effort to open Nazi records on 17 million Jews and slave laborers killed before and during World War II. Until now, Germany had cited privacy concerns for keeping the records closed, and the U.S. and other countries have long argued to make 30 to 50 million documents available. Eleven nations that oversee the records will vote next month on whether to open them.

Back in the U.S., people in the southeast are bracing for some pretty severe weather.

Let's check in with CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Fredricka, it's been a couple of hours now that we've been enduring some large hail and also some damaging winds across northern parts of Alabama, into southern Tennessee, and into northern Georgia.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

The third man. Two suspects charged in the Duke rape investigation, and now the D.A. has another in his sights. We'll bring you the very latest on the case and talk strategy coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Two arrests already, and a third might be on the way. Police in Durham, North Carolina, have searched the dorm rooms of two Duke University lacrosse players accused of rape at a team party last month. The D.A. says he's working to identify a third suspect, and sources tell CNN he's targeting another lacrosse player.

Lawyers for the two named defendants, meantime, say they have alibis and the evidence to prove their clients' innocence. But are those lawyers revealing too much, too soon, and are they trying their case in the media before they set foot in a court?

Let's talk strategy with some legal experts. University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt joins us from Durham.

Good to see you.

MICHAEL GERHARDT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LAW PROFESSOR: Hi.

WHITFIELD: And from Seattle, Karen Russell, a legal analyst and contributor to The Huffington Report -- Post, rather, Web site.

Good to see you, Karen.

KAREN RUSSELL, THE HUFFINGTON POST: Nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, Professor, let me begin with you, because certainly a lot of information is flooding the air waves, the newspapers, whether it be locally there in Durham or across the nation. How much is that influencing some pretty hard and fast opinions in the Durham community? GERHARDT: Well, clearly, the publicity about these -- about this affair is having effects throughout the community. There's no doubt that it has ripple effects all over the place here. It really has come -- hit us hard, sort of hit us close to home, so to speak.

And at the same time, I think the defense is reacting to what the prosecutor is leaking about his case. And they're trying to, in a sense, kind of leak a little bit about their case and to dominate the public relations involved here.

WHITFIELD: Oh, and Karen, do you see it that way, the defense is reacting to the information that the prosecution has divulged? Or is this typical defense strategy to try to do what you can to influence the potential jury pool?

RUSSELL: I think both sides have been pretty aggressive with trying their cases in the media. I mean, I think if you look at the prosecutor early on, and when he was gathering the DNA evidence, you sort of had the impression that, based on his charging documents, in fact, the DNA would actually -- would link someone to an actual suspect. And I think that the defense also has been sort of showing their hand by today talking about the ATM receipts and about the restaurant receipts with one of the suspects.

So, both of them are trying to get favorable information into the air waves.

WHITFIELD: So, Professor, how you might see this potentially harming the defendants, that their attorneys are divulging so much information before either side does have a trial date?

GERHARDT: Well, the first thing is we don't know exactly how much they're divulging about what they know. They actually might know more than what they're saying. But, in any event, the publicity about this case, including what the defense is saying, might well taint the jury pool here in this particular area, might lead to a change of venue.

And at the same time, each side has to be careful about not getting too far ahead of the evidence that's been presented. Neither wants to lose credibility publicly with respect to its case.

WHITFIELD: So, on to your point, then, if there is more information that the defense has and they're being selective about the kind of information they're distributing publicly right now, the kind of information we're hearing so far, is that smart strategy in your opinion right now?

GERHARDT: It's hard to say whether it's smart or not. For one thing, the defense right now knows pretty much everything the prosecution knows.

Under North Carolina law, the law requires the defense to be told everything pretty much that the prosecution knows now. It doesn't necessarily go the other way. So, the defense actually probably now has more information in its hands than the prosecution does. That gives it an advantage, and it can use that advantage publicly to try and characterize the defendants a certain way.

WHITFIELD: And so, Karen, the flip side is, while we're hearing a lot of information from the defense attorneys about their clients, we don't know a whole lot publicly about the alleged rape victim. But, perhaps, is this rather typical of a rape case?

RUSSELL: Well, yes. You know, there are rape shield laws. We don't identify her by name. The outlets that have shown the photos of her face blacked out, so, yes, that's fairly common.

I think the other interesting twist here, Fredricka, is also the evidence that the defense is talking about. I mean, we really are sort of in a CSI world.

We have ATM receipts and photos and cell phone photos and e- mails. And I think it's another reason why the media is so interested in this. They're able to sort of create a timeline based on these photos and the 911 calls. And you don't really always necessarily have that in a case.

WHITFIELD: So, just like the professor was just mentioning, we don't know, you know, what kind of information -- all of the information that the defense might have, but this might be a portion of. So if that were the case, is this the kind of information that is smartly implanted in the minds of those potential jurors? Did they make good decisions about being selective, if they were?

RUSSELL: Well, you know, you kind of -- people are so wanting to judge this very quickly. You would hope that the facts would be presented in a forum where both sides can present it fairly. And, you know, it is tough.

When they think they have the smoking gun and smoking ATM, they want to say, you know what, my client is innocent now. But it may be to their technical advantage to wait and not show their hand and wait to hear what the other side has to say.

WHITFIELD: And so, Karen, would there be another round of DNA testing, since we already heard from the district attorney's office that the DNA tests that were taken came back inconclusive, they didn't show a match? So, might there be a reason to have another round of DNA testing?

RUSSELL: Yes. I mean, I think one of the interesting other twists in this case is actually the DNA -- the fact that there was no DNA under the fingernails. You know, she's saying that she was assaulted and that her nails -- you know, as part of the assault the nails came off. And so, I would be curious to know if there's any more to that story.

But, yes -- I mean, and the other thing that the district attorney has pointed out is that most rape cases actually don't have DNA as a determining factor.

WHITFIELD: Right. RUSSELL: It's about -- you know, it's going to be about her credibility or the witnesses' credibility, other eyewitnesses. So, I think -- again, in the CSI world, we think you have to have DNA, but that's not necessarily true.

WHITFIELD: All right. Karen Russell out of Seattle, and Professor Michael Gerhardt out of Durham, thank you so much to both of you for joining us.

GERHARDT: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: A horrible crime and suffocating fear. Twenty-one years after this girl was raped, an unexpected phone call gives her life new purpose. Her incredible story coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All this week, CNN continues it's year-long look into the future, your future. And this month we're looking at the future of transportation. You may have cringed when you heard about the record high oil and gas prices that made headlines yesterday, but CNN's Miles O'Brien shows us a promising alternative for fueling our future.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On my daily commute, it's not so much what I see, it's what I smell of the pollutants. Riding my bicycle changed my perspective on the environment. Automobiles are a very large source of our pollution. We really need to make a big step in improving our overall fuel economy standards.

My wish for the future is that we balance our existence on Earth. We have all of the tools available to us today. And if we don't do something to change it, we're not going to have a world to change.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to transportation, oil has become a dirty word. National security concerns, high gas prices and threats to the environment have us all scrambling for alternatives.

(voice-over): By now you've probably heard of alternative fuels. From hydrogen gas to biodiesels, the list of energy sources is long.

Nathaniel Greene of the Natural Resources Defense Council says his money is on ethanol, an earth-friendly fuel that's cost effective, too.

NATHANIEL GREENE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: There are so many ways that we can make it, switchgrass, corn kernels, wood chips. One of the exiting things about this next generation of ethanol technology is that they have the potential to be not just cost competitive with gasoline but actually cheaper.

O'BRIEN: Something Brazil is already embracing. In fact, 75 percent of Brazil's new cars burn both gasoline and ethanol. And Greene says it can happen here, too.

GREENE: Ethanol is great, but it's not a silver bullet. We need to have more efficient vehicles as well that we're putting this fuel in. We need a government commitment to do this and do it in a smart way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Help wanted in New York City schools. The teacher shortage is so bad, the city plans to offer almost $15,000 in housing subsidies to lure new math, science and special education teachers. School officials say they'll need about 100 extra teachers by September. Teachers who accept the housing deal can live anywhere they choose, but they'll have to teach at one of the city's middle or high schools for at least three years.

Good news for minority-owned business. The U.S. Census Bureau says the number of all businesses grew 10 percent between 1997 and 2002 to about 23 million, but black-owned businesses grew 45 percent to 1.2 million, more than four times the overall rate. Businesses owned by women grew 20 percent to 6.5 million. Hispanic-owned businesses grew 31 percent to almost 1.6 million.

McDonald's has been adding healthy items to its menu to try to turn things around. But, is it working?

Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with the answer.

I bet the Big Mac is still a hot seller no matter what.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a hot seller. You know, the answer to the question is really yes and no, Fred.

A few years ago we were talking about Mickey D's all the time because of these obesity lawsuits, books like "Fast Food Nation," movies like "Super Size Me." So, McDonald's responded by introducing salads, fruit, and other healthy options.

And what's happened? Well, it's had three straight years of sales growth, revenue has increased by a third, and the stock price is up 170 percent. But, the two things may not be related, because analysts are saying the recent success for McDonald's is due more to McDonald's dollar menu.

And guess what that's all about? The basics: double cheeseburgers, McChicken sandwiches, McFlurry shakes.

The dollar menu saves money, but it's the kind of thing that makes health advocates crazy, because it's, of course, high in fats, high in sugar, high in salt. The nutrient value is debatable. And, of course, it's targeted to people who don't have a lot of money. And this is a time when obesity and health-related items like diabetes are on the rise -- Fred. WHITFIELD: And Susan, I, for one, can never resist the two apple pies for $1 either.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, what about coffee? That apparently has been a big part of the push for this new marketing at McDonald's.

LISOVICZ: And that's what it's all about, perhaps, Fred. McDonald's has really been pushing its coffee as a premium blend, but McDonald's admits that it really didn't change the formula that much. It's just marketing as a premium quality beverage to compete with Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts for the breakfast business.

It's charging more for it. And guess what? It's working. The company says that it's been doing really well with this premium beverage that kind of sort of tastes like the old coffee.

WHITFIELD: OK. Well, that's good news. And what else is McDonald's doing to try and boost its imagine?

LISOVICZ: Well, you know, McDonald's is all about, you know, giving away things, you know, promotional campaigns. It's been very successful over the years, whether it's movies, or, in this case, with health. It's actually giving out exercise DVDs.

No, not for the dollar menu. If you get the adult Happy Meal, which is one of the healthier choices, you get a premium salad and a bottle of water. With the Happy Meal, you will get an exercise DVD. It's a special that will run for four weeks.

This DVD will feature a virtual personal trainer and 15-minute workouts in yoga, cardio, core strengthening and strength training. The DVD will be offered starting next Tuesday, but perhaps they should, you know, broaden it out a little bit and offer it to some of its other customers as well, Fred.

WHITFIELD: I am impressed, though. That's really innovative.

LISOVICZ: Yes, and again, you know, customers often respond to something that you get as an extra. It's worked very well for them in the past.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Susan Lisovicz.

Well, they're meant to protect your children, but did one state's online registry of sex offenders cost two men their lives? We'll explore a case from Maine when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Let's go straight to the newsroom and check in with Carol Lin who's working on a developing story.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fred, we want to show you live pictures out of the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Right now there's an explosives team heading to the main checkpoint area, the security checkpoint area, at that airport.

A TSA worker detected some sort of an item. They're not saying exactly what this is, but it looks suspicious, suspicious enough, Fred, that that giant security area where all of us go through and line up has been shut down as they wait for this explosives team to arrive.

All these passengers are being diverted to what's called the T- gate area. That's that first gate that you hit if you're walking the terminal. But that's hardly just a fraction of screening machines that they have at the main terminal.

So far they haven't canceled any flights. Flights are still going, but pretty soon that airport area is going to get backed up as people try to go through the smaller area to get to their flight, virtually one at a time, while they try to find out if there's an explosive device at the main part of the security terminal. That's what we know right now. We're highlighting the T-gates for you. That's just the first gate area before the rest of the gates.

Fred, that's all we know.

WHITFIELD: And clearly that's going to be a real big mess because, as you said, there are only a couple of check through areas there in the T-gate area. So it means while none of the planes have been grounded as of yet, there are going to be a lot of passengers who perhaps aren't going to be able to make their planes, make their departures because they'll be standing in those long lines.

LIN: Right. The next two hours are going to be really telling, because this just happened in the last hour. So we'll keep track of it and try to give people an idea of what the situation is on the ground because we know folks watch CNN at that airport. So as soon as we get it, we'll let the folks know.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Carol.

Well, they did their time and they warned their neighbors that they were living among them. That was through an online registry of convicted sex offenders, which a young man from Canada apparently used to track the men down and then kill them. It's a double-homicide followed by suicide that has shaken the state of Maine as CNN's Keith Oppenheim reported for "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Milo is a small town in the middle of the state of Maine. At 3:00 in the morning on Easter Sunday, Janice Gray didn't expect any visitors and saw someone outside her door.

JANICE GRAY, WIDOW: All I noticed was a black jacket and I realized someone was standing there.

OPPENHEIM: Police believe that someone was Stephen Marshall, a 20-year-old from Nova Scotia. Janice Gray says her husband Joseph was lying on the couch.

GRAY: I said Joe, somebody's out there. He stood up and I saw the spark right outside the window and he was shot. He sat back down on the couch, told me to call an ambulance and I saw another spark and he was shot again.

OPPENHEIM: Joseph Gray died. Then five hours later, 30 miles away in the small town of Corinth, it happened again. Police say Stephen Marshall came to this mobile home, shot and killed 24-year-old William Elliott.

CARL MITCHELL, CORINTH RESIDENT: There's got to be something wrong to have somebody come here in your house and shoot you, you know? You know, we ain't used to that kind of stuff around here.

OPPENHEIM: Gray and Elliott had something in common. They were both registered sex offenders. Gray was convicted of a rape of a minor in 1992, Elliott convicted of sexual abuse in 2002. Their names and addresses were listed online on Maine's sex offender registry.

Police say electronic records indicate Stephen Marshall had recently looked at 34 names on this registry. Investigators believe he targeted two of them, but don't know why.

MICHAEL CANTARA, MAINE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: We are trying our best to find out what was in his mind, what was his plan.

OPPENHEIM: Police say the plan started when Marshall visited his father in Northern Maine, stole a pickup and three guns.

(on camera): And then here at a bus station in Bangor, a major clue surfaced. Police tell us that a maintenance man noticed that a toilet in the men's room kept running. He looked inside the tank and found a bunch of 22-caliber bullets, a caliber that matched a gun taken by Marshall.

Police then got a description of a man matching Stephen Marshall boarding a bus to Boston.

(voice-over): By Sunday evening, authorities in Boston pulled over this Vermont Bus Lines coach. Police say as officers approached, Stephen Marshall pulled out a handgun and fatally shot himself. This is not the first time sex offenders on a public registry have been targeted.

MICHAEL VAUGHAN, MAINE STATE HOUSE: It sets them up. It makes them sitting ducks. They have their name and their face on the Internet.

OPPENHEIM: Still, police in Maine say the online registry gives the public important information.

CANTARA: Human being, on occasion, behave unlawfully, behave violently, but that's not the fault of information. That's the fault of the individual.

OPPENHEIM: For Janice Gray, the attack has left bullet holes in her window and an emptier home.

GRAY: My husband and I lived for each other. He was my protector. They took my husband.

OPPENHEIM: And left her without a clear understanding as to why Stephen Marshall ended three lives.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Milo, Maine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And be sure to join Paula Zahn weeknights at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific here on CNN.

Some camera work on wheels leads to an arrest of an alleged flasher on an Arkansas roadway. A woman says this same man exposed himself repeatedly along state highway 41 near the town of Horatio. She finally took along a camera and was able to take police a picture of the man wearing nothing but a shirt covering his face. 37-year-old Robert Ernst Valley (ph) faces charges of indecent exposure and harassment in two counties. Police say he also flashed a 17-year-old girl.

A rape victim finally feels safe 21 years after being attacked. Her cold case is finally solved, and her story is next on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Let's go straight to the newsroom to get another check on another breaking story taking place. Carol Lin.

LIN: Fred, it's 9:45 in Baghdad right now, and we're getting reports of a huge explosion that has rocked the diplomatic area where the U.S. embassy is located. All we can tell you right now is that there are reports of white smoke emanating from that area. We are checking on in the report, but it's getting to be late at night there. So the investigation is ongoing and as soon as we get more on that, we'll let you know, especially if there are any injuries to report, especially at the U.S. embassy.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Carol.

Awakened from sleep, raped at knife point and warned not to tell or she'd be killed. It was a real life nightmare for Lavinia Masters, and she was just 13 years old at the time. Fast forward now 21 years to a phone call revealing her attacker's name. For Masters, that's not the end of the story but a new beginning, at least for now. She joins me from Dallas to talk about the cold case solved.

Good to see you, Lavinia.

LAVINIA MASTERS, RAPE SURVIVOR: Hi. Great to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So shortly after the rape occurred, you were threatened with your life to keep this a secret. So much time elapsed. Did you ever think that anyone would learn of who your attacker was? Because you did not recognize or know this person at the time, right?

MASTERS: No, I did not.

WHITFIELD: You were never able to identify him?

MASTERS: No, I did not. No, I did not. He was a stranger in the night. He entered our home, and he left just as he entered, quickly, you know. So, no, I didn't get a chance.

WHITFIELD: So then, 21 years later you get a phone call from someone who says they have identified your attacker...

MASTERS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: ... who turned out to be 16 years old at the time. You were 13 years old at the time.

MASTERS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What was your reaction to that?

MASTERS: My reaction was -- it was -- I can't even explain my reaction because I was in shock. If I wanted to put something to that, but I believe I went into shock. And when I got off the phone with the sergeant, I just cried uncontrollably because I never thought that this moment would ever happen.

WHITFIELD: Why were they so certain that this was the person?

MASTERS: Because they had a DNA match that they had in storage for the 21 years.

WHITFIELD: And so you'd been living in fear all these years...

MASTERS: All these years.

WHITFIELD: ... not knowing whether this person was going to come back into your life in some way?

MASTERS: Exactly, exactly. And when they showed me the photo of the young guy that assaulted me, I knew without a doubt that that was the one that had did this to me.

WHITFIELD: And so now all this time has elapsed. Officials say they're certain through DNA testing this is the rapist.

MASTERS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: But then is there any way of pursuing him in a prosecutional way, or is it just too late?

MASTERS: I think it's just too late, because at this point, I've learned that the statute of limitations was five years after the assault. Over time -- time has changed, and it was ten years after I turned 18, Which I've also passed that. But I have written to the parole board because he goes up for parole March of 2007, to hopefully deny that parole. And I am working with TASA, the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, so hopefully make some kind of changes through legislation on next year.

WHITFIELD: So what a roller coaster ride you've been on. You're living in fear...

MASTERS: Yes, I have.

WHITFIELD: Then you get relief, OK, here's a name, here's a face, only to find out now that he may be paroled very soon.

MASTERS: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: Are you worried that now that you've made this story, your plight, public, his mug shot public, that you're in danger once again?

MASTERS: No. I have no fear of this young man anymore, especially now that I know without a doubt who he is. I've lived in fear for so long, and it took me a while to get to this -- you know, a journey to get to this point in my life, and I refuse to go back. So no, I no longer fear him, But I will do everything that I can to fight his parole and everything else that I can do.

WHITFIELD: So I wonder if, Lavinia, you can talk to me in general about what a rape victim goes through at the onset -- the victimization for one, and then why there's so much apprehension on the part of many rape victims to even go forward, because of this fear of being victimized all over again. Was that ever a feeling you had?

MASTERS: Yes, that was a feeling that I had. I don't understand -- honestly, I don't understand the feelings, but I had them. I was afraid. I felt that it was my fault, although I did nothing. I just slept in our home, but I felt it was my fault, that I brought it upon myself. And I just went through so much psychologically, things I didn't understand, the fear of men, the fear of almost anyone. Everyone that I encountered I feared them, because I didn't understand the mind of men and for someone to do this to me, especially as a child, it was sickening. And I just -- I couldn't comprehend it.

WHITFIELD: Well, how courageous you've been all this time, and courageously sharing your story publicly again.

MASTERS: Thank you. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Lavinia Masters, thank you so much for being with us.

MASTERS: It's been my pleasure. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And now we want to go back to Carol Lin in the newsroom for more on a breaking story.

LIN: Fred, we want to find out more about this explosion in Kabul in the diplomatic quarters. With me on the telephone is Tom Coghlan. He's a freelance journalist out there. Tom, do you know what happened?

THOMAS COGHLAN, FREELANCE JOURNALIST IN AFGHANISTAN: Well, at the moment, things are very unclear. About 15 minutes ago, we had a very large explosion here in Kabul. Windows rattled across the city. It appears to be in the diplomatic area very close to the U.S. embassy.

Now, rocket attacks are what we're suspecting at the moment. They haven't been common in Kabul for about a year and a half now, but in the last few weeks, we've seen actually I think two rocket attacks in the last two weeks. The first ones we've seen for many months. And this appears to be another one close to the U.S. embassy. And according to first reports, a very large explosion.

LIN: Thomas, what about injuries?

COGHLAN: We don't know anything at this stage. I mean, the war journalists are working on it, I'm working on it. We're not actually hearing any reports as yet of injuries. The U.N. traffic, U.N. radio traffic, which I've been listening to, is reporting that this was probably a rocket, that it hit in an area very close to where the U.S. embassy is, where a number of embassies are and a number of military facilities, both international and Afghan National Army. It's -- I suppose what you'd call a target-rich environment within Kabul itself. But at this stage there were no reports of casualties.

LIN: Tom, if there was one place that there was consensus that Karzai and the government and the United States may have some control and influence, it would be Kabul. Why has that city, the city's center, the diplomatic headquarters, become so vulnerable?

COGHLAN: Well, this is an interesting thing, because at this point we're looking at what we think is the biggest Taliban effort since 2001. The spring offensive that they've been promising for some months now, they've been saying that they're really going to turn the screws on the Karzai government and on its international supporters.

The U.S. government intelligence services have been putting out assessments of Taliban strength saying that its the strongest it's been since 2001. We've seen a wave of suicide bombings across the south of the country, but really thus far Kabul has been relatively secure. There have been a couple of suicide bombings, two or three in the last three months or so compared to the south really nothing.

And Kabul has really -- the community in Kabul has really begun to believe that this is quite the secure place. Now the last couple of weeks that sense of security has begun to be challenged, and this is another sort of chip way that sense of security that the international community has had here. And certainly we can expect probably to see more attacks of this type in the weeks and months to come.

LIN: Tom Coghlan, thank you very much. It's getting late night there. We're going to still try to get a firmer handle on whether there are were injuries, Fred. This is a diplomatic community, this is the place in Kabul that was to be the very safest. Clearly the insurgents sending a message. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Carol, thank you so much.

The other developing story we're continuing to keep a close watch on taking place right here at Atlanta at Hartsville-Jackson Airport (sic), reported security problems there. An update when we come right back.

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WHITFIELD: More now on reported security concerns at Atlanta's Hartsville-Jackson Airport (sic). Let's go straight to Washington D.C. where we find our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this is still an unfolding situation. We do not have all the details. However a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration tells us that an X-Ray operator at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport saw what they thought was an improvised explosive device in a carry-on bag.

And so the Atlanta bomb squad has been called. I'm told by the TSA they are on the scene. They have established a perimeter around this checkpoint which has understandably been closed. Passengers, we're told, are being diverted to the "T" checkpoint. The terminal has not been closed or evacuated at this point in time.

But still an unfolding situation. I will tell you that the TSA has put increasing emphasis on identifying possible improvised explosive devices. That is the thing they have regarded as being the biggest potential threat. That is why a few months ago they changed some of the rules and are now allowing some small scissors and knives on aircrafts. It's so the screeners could spend more time looks for IEDs or parts of IEDs. And today, one screener apparently thought they saw one. They're still checking it out. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: And so Jeanne, when you say they have detected something suspicious at the checkpoint, does that also mean that there's a passenger that is being attached to that item or that baggage? Have they talked to anyone? Have they detained anyone?

MESERVE: I have asked that very specific question of the TSA. The TSA did not have that information. However because it is a carry- on bag, there's a chance that happened. It doesn't always happen. There have been other instances where suspicious things are detected at checkpoints and the individual associated with the item has absconded, have made their way away. We don't know at this point in time whether they found an individual or not. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: OK, and just while you're reporting Jeanne, that people are being diverted to the "T" gate area for the security checkpoints because they've closed down the others. Now we're being told they have now closed the "T" gate security area there at Atlanta's Hartsville-Jackson Airport (sic). And meantime one of the our producers who happens to be on a plane that has not quite left the gate area there in the Atlanta airport is now telling us that they have been instructed, all the passengers on that plane, have been instructed that that plane will not be taking off until the security issue at the checkpoints have been resolved.

So, of course, when we get any more information, we'll be able to pass that along to you. And thanks very much Jeanne Meserve out of Washington now. And we'll continue to stay on this story. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More of LIVE FROM next.

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