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President Bush Nominates General Michael Hayden to be CIA Director; Iran's President Writes to President Bush; Incident in Darfur
Aired May 08, 2006 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: He's military brass, but does Michael Hayden have the metal to lead a civilian spy agency? This morning, President Bush nominated the Air Force general to the suddenly vacant post of CIA director.
Let's head straight to the White House and our Kathleen Koch -- Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the president lavished praise on his new nominee for the top post over at the CIA, Air Force General Michael Hayden. He called him supremely qualified, described him as someone who "... knows the intelligence community from the ground up." But clearly, this nominee has gotten a lot of criticism early on, even before the nomination was announced this morning, from -- for a couple of reasons.
Lawmakers up on Capitol Hill concerned about Hayden's involvement in the domestic surveillance program that he helped start when he was head of the National Security Agency right after 9/11. Also, a lot of concerns about putting a military man at the head of the nation's civilian spy agency.
So, President Bush made a direct plea to Congress this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mike Hayden was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last year for his current post, and I call on the Senate to confirm him promptly as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The work of the CIA has never been more important to the security of the American people. America faces determined enemies who struck our nation on September the 11th, 2001, and who intend to attack our country again. To stop them we must have the best possible intelligence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Now, Hayden, in accepting the nomination this morning, praised the men and women of the CIA whose loyalty he is certainly going to need if he is confirmed and takes on the very difficult job of rebuilding that agency. He said of the men and women, he praised their achievements, saying that they are "... frequently underappreciated and hidden from the p public eye."
And interestingly, he made no mention of considering retiring from the military. That is something that some members of Congress have suggested as a way of removing that concern that, as a member of the military establishment, he might have difficulty giving the president frank and really independent advice -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen, was the White House thrown off guard at all about some of the Republicans coming forward opposing this?
KOCH: Well, the president is used to criticism, but it certainly did come awfully fast. And again, from normally friendly quarters on this one. So, part of the reason, obviously, that the president -- the White House authorized this preemptive move this morning, having the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, come out and make the announcement before the president, to get out there sort of a defensive move and really put a positive spin on this nomination.
PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch at the White House.
Thanks so much.
KOCH: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Military man, intelligence expert, Washington insider, no doubt Michael Hayden has got a long resume. But is it the right for the head of the CIA?
Sumi Das takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As former director of the National Security Agency and current number two for National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, Air Force General Michael Hayden is no stranger to the CIA.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: General Hayden is a down to earth guy. He grew up in working class circumstances in Pittsburgh., went to Duquesne University, worked his way up in the military, has held positions at all levels.
DAS: Former interim CIA director John McLaughlin has known Hayden for six years.
MCLAUGHLIN: One of the CIA's core missions, of course, is supporting our military forces. It's the core mission of any intelligence agency. And General Hayden has vast experience at doing that. And also, as NSA director, he has had plenty of contact with human intelligence as well.
DAS: But the very experience that qualifies Hayden to head the agency could create obstacles during any confirmation process. Hayden has faithfully defended the NSA's domestic wiretapping program conducted without warrants, calling it successful.
HAYDEN: Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States.
DAS: At least one Democratic senator says he would vigorously question the general's endorsement of the intercepts during any confirmation hearings. Senate Intelligence Committee member Russ Feingold says he's concerned by Hayden's potential nomination. "General Hayden directed and subsequently defended the president's illegal wiretapping program. Neither he nor the rest of the administration informed the congressional intelligence committees about this program, as required by law."
CAROLINE FREDERICKSON, ACLU: It's going to be under a huge amount of scrutiny. It's going to be under a microscope, basically.
DAS: Also likely to resurface, past intelligence mistakes such as untranslated intercepts pertaining to 9/11.
HAYDEN: In the hours just prior to the attacks, NSA did obtain two pieces of information suggesting that individuals with terrorist connections believed something significant would happen on September 11th.
DAS: The intercepts were translated September 12th. Hayden said timely translation of all the information collected by the government was impossible.
(on camera): Both parties may be motivated to avoid a drown out and contentious confirmation process. Many agree it's a dangerous time for the nation's Central Intelligence Agency to have no leader at its helm.
Sumi Das, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And this is not just a bureaucratic turf war. It's a matter of intelligence reform and making the nation safer. Can Michael Hayden do that? At the bottom of the hour I'll talk with a former member of the 9/11 Commission and former Republican senator Slade Gorton.
It's believed to be the first letter from an Iranian president to an American president in 26 years. An Iranian government spokesperson says it proposes new solutions to what it calls the current critical situation, that being Iran's nuclear research and international resistance.
Joining us on the phone from Tehran, CNN's Aneesh Raman.
Aneesh, first, I want you to hear what the director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, said earlier today about this letter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NEGROPONTE, NATIONAL INTEL. DIRECTOR: Certainly, given the fact that the issue of Iran is before the United Nations at this time, certainly one of the hypotheses you'd have to examine is whether and in what way the timing of the dispatch of that letter is connected with trying in some manner to influence the debate before the Security Council.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Aneesh, what do you think about the timing of the letter?
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it seems it's not just one of but the main hypothesis as to why this letter is emerging now, because of the potential U.N. action that Iran could face. This is really an about-face for Iran's president, who in recent weeks has warned against U.S. military action, has condemned the U.S. for fueling the international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.
This letter, we're being told, is conciliatory in tone. Again, no specifics so far. Iranian officials say they won't give any out until President Bush has the letter in hand, but the letter offers, they say, new ways to deal with the current crisis in the world.
So, a number of analysts we've talked to here say this letter could be, all of it, really vague, and just a way for Iran to say, look, we tried, we're trying to have dialogue. And an out, really, for China and Russia in the U.N. debate to say, look, I think there should be direct talks between the U.S. and Iran and prolong any action -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Aneesh, why a letter?
RAMAN: Well, we really have never had any suggestion that there was going to be a phone call, direct talks. It seems the letter was the best way that they could do it in the diplomatic sense. The U.S. hasn't had any presence here since 1980, when it cut ties amid the hostage crisis. The Swiss Embassy has been representing U.S. interests here. So the letter was officially handed to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, to then be given to the U.S. down the line.
So, it could be really that this is part of the diplomatic dance that Iran is doing to affect the debate among the U.N. nations. It's leaving now in suspense what exactly is in the letter, whereas if there was a call, we would know immediately. And right now it's forcing the debate to be about how Iran is striking a conciliatory tone without really putting out there what Iran is willing to do -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So we don't know anything about these alleged new solutions that are in this letter?
RAMAN: None. The government spokesman really only saying new ways to deal with the current crisis. We don't know how it affects, if at all, specifically the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West and the U.S.
But keep in mind, there's been no direct evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran. What has really been fueling the international pressure on the country has been statements by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, about Israel, about the U.S. And it could be that he is now seeing the severity of the situation, the fact that the U.N. is now likely to take action, and he himself has decided to tone down his rhetoric -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So the last letter, Aneesh, 26 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini. Did we ever find out what was in that letter?
RAMAN: No. I mean, really, we've had no contact since Khomeini came in and the revolution was announced was over and having been successful. At that point, we then soon after went into that hostage crisis, and soon after that the U.S. cut off diplomatic ties.
So, it's really the first direct contact we're knowing of between Iran's president and the U.S. counterpart in the past 26 years since the revolution came to Iran. It is a historic first, and clearly a sense here is that it's a sign of how sensitive and serious this issue is -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman live from Tehran.
Thanks, Aneesh.
Murderous rage sparked by misunderstanding in one of the most desolate spots on earth. It's a refugee camp in the Darfur region of Sudan, where a mob today tried to kill an aid group's interpreter who they thought was a government spy.
CNN's Nic Robertson and photographer Neil Bennett (ph) were right there in the middle of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Go, go, go, go! Keep driving! Keep driving!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's happening?
ROBERTSON: I don't know. Are you OK?
Driver, quickly, just get out of here! Keep driving! Just drive.
Get out! Get out!
Go. Go. Just go.
We've got to get out of the car.
Go, go, go, go! Quickly now, go! Go, go, go! Quickly! Quickly.
That was scary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They're running after us, so we do have to keep going.
ROBERTSON: We've got to keep going. Let's keep going. Just keep driving.
Really quickly, as fast as you can. Are you OK?
Let's go back to Nala (ph)!
(on camera): I don't know exactly what happened back there, but suddenly the crowd got very angry with the man sitting next to me in this car now. They came out to the car, they came after him with knives. They were beating the car with sticks, throwing rocks at it.
The only thing we were able to do was drive out. And we eventually drove out through some of the people's houses there. We're trying to get back now, where we hope we can find some safety.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Luckily there were no injuries in that incident. Our Nic Robertson will continue to bring us reports from the Darfur region.
Back here in the United States, two car crashes in three weeks, two stints of drug rehab in less than five months. Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is back at the Mayo Clinic for treatment of addiction to painkillers and depression. Police say Kennedy appeared drunk when he slammed his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill last week. The congressman denies that he was drinking, but says he did take two prescribed medications and doesn't remember the crash.
The son of Senator Edward Kennedy says that he also was treated at the Mayo Clinic over Christmas.
Another guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. At a hearing in Washington today, a former chief of staff to Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney admitted to a conspiracy to corrupt Ney and other members of Congress.
Neil Bowles (ph) worked for convicted lobbyist Abramoff after leaving his office in 2002. The hearing is part of an influence- pedaling and corruption probe surrounding Abramoff, lawmakers, and their aides. Abramoff has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the prosecutor. Ney's office issued a statement saying it's more confident ever that he will be -- they are more confident now that he will be vindicated.
Well, the things that kids do when they're away at college.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My parents are going to see me on TV smoking weed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Will students rat on their friends for getting high? We'll have that story when LIVE FROM continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Campus police take on tokers using technology. At the University of Colorado at Boulder's annual 420 event, participants fired up joints, pipes and bongs of marijuana. But the school is not called CU -- CU for nothing.
Chris Vanderveen of CNN affiliate KUSA explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, we're just up here celebrating 420.
CHRIS VANDERVEEN, REPORTER, KUSA (voice over): Police will tell them...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4:20 is the time you're supposed to smoke pot.
VANDERVEEN: Hey...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fourth month of the year, 20th day.
VANDERVEEN: ... it's not as if we didn't warn you, although you did have to read the relatively fine print.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, dude, come get out with it, bro.
LT. TIM MCGRAW, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO POLICE: You know, it wouldn't break my heart if it went away.
VANDERVEEN: Lieutenant Tim McGraw isn't about to apologize for this, or for this, or for this.
MCGRAW: Frankly, we're going to use any lawful means we can in order to help discourage this.
VANDERVEEN: As far as he's concerned, what he did or what she did was illegal, and, therefore, what CU did in return, placing photographers in the unsuspecting crowd, was quite all right.
MCGRAW: They came from a variety of different sources.
VANDERVEEN (on camera): Like who?
MCGRAW: I'm not going to tell you.
VANDERVEEN: Why not?
MCGRAW: Because they'll be out there again next year if they're secure.
MASON TVERT, MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION ADVOCATE: Why did they say people there if they had a problem? Why is it that they waited until now? In our opinion, this is a very cowardly gesture by the police department.
VANDERVEEN (voice over): Marijuana legalization advocate Mason Tvert says, hold on a second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on camera smoking weed!
TVERT: It's gotten to the point where they're now treating them like by child molesters by putting their pictures on the Internet and offering rewards for information about them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excellent.
VANDERVEEN: Of course, we were there as well, and we didn't have a hard time getting pictures either.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My parents are going to see me on TV smoking weed.
VANDERVEEN: It's just that now those parents may also see them smoking weed on the Internet as well.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, the University of Colorado police sent us this statement about their efforts: "We want to enforce the law that is possible to us, and in this case we're taking a judicial approach and referring them to the Office of Judicial Affairs at the university rather than charging them. The overall objective is to discourage people in hopes for them to not break the law."
Well, he's the most wanted fugitive with a following.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was excommunicated by the prophet Warren Jeffs at the age of 16 because I decided that I wanted to go to public school.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Ahead on LIVE FROM, inside a secretive sect whose leader is on the run.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a judge in a big trademark battle rules in favor of Apple, but which Apple? Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange to explain.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, can he make the nation safer? Amid all the politics and punditry, that's the real question surrounding Air Force General Michael Hayden, who President Bush wants to make the next CIA chief.
Let's bring in Slade Gorton, a former senator and member of the 9/11 Commission.
Great to have you, sir.
SLADE GORTON, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: You've had a lot of issues with the CIA.
GORTON: The CIA has been a substantial failure. It failed with both President Clinton and President Bush with respect to predicting 9/11. It failed with both of those presidents with respect to Iraq. It needs the kind of shake-up and reorientation away from the Cold War that General Hayden provided to the National Security Agency as its director.
PHILLIPS: Here's what is interesting. The 9/11 Commission, of course, talked a lot about the lack of communication among agencies. Hayden has come forward and said, hey, look, if the NSA would have been in business and we would have been able to eavesdrop prior to 9/11, it's very possible we would have intercepted certain communications. Who knows? 9/11 could have been prevented.
Do you think that this is the right man for the job when it comes to repairing the communication problem and making sure messages such as al Qaeda messages don't slip through the cracks?
GORTON: That's exactly what General Hayden has been doing as number two with the new director of National Intelligence. He's a committed -- I'm convinced that that kind of communication should take place, and I think he will facilitate it. But most of all, I think -- because that's already started.
But the fact is that the CIA has really not moved away from its Cold War focus. It's got to do so. I think General Hayden is the man to do it.
PHILLIPS: How are you going to be involved in communicating with Michael Hayden, if, indeed, he's the man and he's confirmed? Are you going to sit down with him? Are you going to talk to him? Are you going to advise him? Are you going to attempt to?
GORTON: Well, remember, that we 9/11 commissioners are purely civilian now. We don't have any security clearance whatsoever. If General Hayden wants my advice, he would be able to find me, and I'd be glad to provide it to him. But I don't think I'm going to play a major role.
PHILLIPS: But you have a pretty hefty report. You came to a lot of pretty revealing conclusions.
GORTON: We did, and the part of our conclusions that was most completely adopted by Congress certainly was the creation of a director of National Intelligence and a creation of a National Counterterrorism Center. And General Hayden has been working for more than the last year as a part of that new organization.
PHILLIPS: So anything in that 9/11 Commission report that you can think of that you felt maybe got blown off, it was ignored, Porter Goss didn't pay attention to -- and now you're thinking, Michael Hayden, he's the one. He's going to attack this, this and this.
GORTON: Well, unfortunately, there were a number of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that were not adopted by Congress itself. With respect to the CIA itself, I think Porter Goss tried. I think he tried to move it there from its 50-year history toward a fight against terrorism. But Porter Goss had never run an agency before, and he just simply failed to do what he wanted to do. I think General Hayden, having run a large intelligence agency, will be able to succeed.
PHILLIPS: So tell me, if you were able to sit down with him face to face, what would be, say, your top three points that you would like to make? Sir, I would like you to attempt this and this and this?
GORTON: First, of course, I would want him to bring the CIA into the 21st century, to lose its Cold War mentality. Second, I would want him to have the full confidence of the president of the United States, based both on personal familiarity, but even more important, by providing good and accurate advice. Remember, the primary goal of the CIA itself is to provide intelligence advice, information, to the president of the United States that he can't get anywhere else and it's got to be accurate. In the past, it hasn't been.
PHILLIPS: So when you say that pulling out of that Cold War mentality, can you be specific for me?
GORTON: Well, the CIA was very successful in the Cold War. It found out a great deal about what was going on in the Soviet Union. It gave presidents of the United States, for 40 or 45 years, good advice, you know, about a major power who's structurally understood, who was hard to defeat but not all that difficult to understand. Now we're dealing with people who, once you find them, we can certainly eliminate them. But we're having a very difficult time finding them, and the CIA just hasn't moved as far as it ought to move toward this extremely new and very different challenge.
PHILLIPS: 9/11 Commission member Slade Gorton. Thanks for your time, sir.
And just in, new polls on the president. Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider breaks down the numbers for us next.
And there's a new name on the FBI's most wanted list and the man hunt is heating up. An accused polygamist facing criminal charges. Now he's on the run.
The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.
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PHILLIPS: The president of the United States boarding Air Force One as he's headed to Florida for a campaign fundraiser. Perfect time to talk about the CNN new poll numbers on President Bush. CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider is joining us now from Washington. Boy, these are pretty tough numbers.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Very tough numbers. The latest CNN poll, just out, shows Bush at 34 percent. Not significantly different from the 32 percent that Bush registered just a couple of weeks ago. But a new Gallup poll with "USA Today" shows his numbers dropping to 31 percent. That would be an all-time low ever reported for this president.
Those two figures, 31 and 34, are statistically compatible because each poll has a 3 percent margin of error. But what they've indicated is there's no evidence that this president is really seriously recovering. His poll numbers actually may be dropping.
Bill, we see numbers like this and then of course we see so much shuffling going on in the administration, whether it's the new head of the CIA or a new chief of staff or a new White House spokesperson. All these changes going on because of these numbers?
SCHNEIDER: Oh, yes. The president's in serious political trouble. His party, the Republicans, remind him of that every day. Karl Rove is now in charge of the Republican campaign because they're very worried about losing control of Congress. That now looks like a serious possibility, and if that happens, there could be investigations. There would be new initiatives coming out of either House of Congress that turns Democratic, and you would have, effectively, the end of any major new policy initiatives for the remainder of the Bush presidency.
PHILLIPS: How does he bounce back? Can he bounce back?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I'll put it this way. There have been four presidents with lower numbers, believe it or not. Harry Truman had lower numbers, down into the 20s. So did his father and Jimmy Carter -- that is Bush's father. Jimmy Carter had numbers in the 20s. And of course Richard Nixon. In the case of Carter and Bush's father, they, of course, lost their bids for re-election, and we know what happened to Richard Nixon. It's interesting to note that when they dip below 35 percent, they never, in the remainder of their presidency, ever got above 40 percent again.
So it looks very, very tough. Of course, history has lots of unforeseen events and developments. I mean, there could be positive developments in Iraq, gas prices could suddenly drop. Maybe they'll capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Things can happen, and they can have a very pronounced effect.
PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, thanks so much. Well, Bill, of course, is best -- part of the best political team on television. Is that right, Bill?
SCHNEIDER: That's indeed right.
PHILLIPS: More on these new polls later this afternoon. You can join Bill, Wolf Blitzer, in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and for the live primetime edition at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
To his followers, he's a prophet. To his trackers, he's something else entirely. Warren Jeffs is the latest fugitive on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He's the leader of polygamist sect once linked to the Mormon Church, now accused of arranging marriages involving underaged girls.
Sean Callebs is following the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the edge of the desert, straddling the Utah and Arizona border, a community of break away Mormon fundamentalists lives in shuttered houses behind walls and gates. Miles from other towns, in Utah it's called Hildale. And in Arizona, Colorado City. For generations this group of about 7,000 people has shunned the rest of America and the opinions of outsiders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They put these walls up for privacy.
CALLEBS: County investigator Gary Engels has come to know a lot about this secretive group.
(on camera): Do they really believe they are the chosen one?
GARY ENGELS, DETECTIVE, MOJAVE COUNTY, ARIZONA: Yes.
CALLEBS: When judgment day comes what happens to these chosen people?
ENGELS: These chosen people believe that they'll be lifted up while God sweeps the earth clean of the wicked people and then they'll be sent back down to rebuild the earth and replenish it.
CALLEBS (voice-over): Engels has been sent to this town to investigate a variety of disturbing allegations and criminal charges ranging from child neglect to rape and theft.
ENGELS: And I came to be here because of all the different types of accusations and rumors that have been coming out of this place for some time.
CALLEBS: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or FLDS has been here since the 1930s. It broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church more than a century ago. The breakaway sect wanted to pursue polygamy, a practice renounced by mainstream Mormons for more than 100 years and outlawed in every state.
The group considers its leader Warren Jeffs a prophet to be obeyed without question. Former members say Jeffs has several dozen wives. He selects multiple wives for other church elders, sometimes reassigning wives from one man to another and imposes rigid rules.
SAM BROWARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Warren Jeffs does need to be stopped. He has to be reined in and stopped.
CALLEBS: Sam Broward is a local private investigator.
BROWARD: If they argue with him or voice any dissension they are kicked out.
CALLEBS: Broward has been hired by some of those who have been kicked out. A group of adolescent boys. Over the last seven years investigators like Sam and Gary estimate as many as 400 boys, some as young as 13 years old, have been banished by Warren Jeffs for seemingly trivial infractions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was excommunicated by the prophet Warren Jeffs at the age of 16 because I decided that I wanted to go to public school.
CALLEBS: Author John Krakauer wrote about this community in his book, "Under the Banner of Heaven." At a news conference, he warned about Jeffs.
JOHN KRAKAUER, AUTHOR: An absolute tyrant who rules the lives of 10,000 people and seems to take pleasure in destroying families.
CALLEBS: Alongside Krakauer, some of the so-called lost boys, all banished by Jeffs told their stories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had nowhere to go, food to eat.
CALLEBS: Tommy Steed (ph) committed the crime he says of watching movies. Each of these boys has his own story. Having a girlfriend, using curse words, going to beer parties, refusing religious instruction, all causes for excommunication for these and so many other boys.
GIDEON BARLOW, EXCOMMUNICATED TEEN: I used to love my little my little brother. He was always on my mind. I was thinking about him 24/7.
CALLEBS: Seventeen year-old Gideon Barlow was banished by his family from this same community.
BARLOW: Now I just try to push him out, because it hurts to think about them.
CALLEBS: Gideon was reluctant to talk about his family in Colorado City, but authorities and his adoptive family told us he was kicked out of his home for wearing short sleeved shirts and listening to popular music. Gideon, then only 16, was sent packing with little more than the clothes he was wearing.
BROWARD: Imagine what it's like to be told get out. He's done to St. George looking for some place to live. None of his family will take him in down there. Fortunately, he was able to make contact with some good individuals and ended up where he is today.
CALLEBS: Through an informal network of concerned people, he arrived less than a year ago at the home of Stacea and Neil Glauser family. They adopted him after reading about the plight of these young boys.
STACEA GLAUSER, GIDEON'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER: Being a mother, just hearing about a boy being out on the streets.
CALLEBS: She remembers how frightened he was.
GLAUSER: He said I'm dead to my mother, so I might as well be dead myself.
CALLEBS: When he left, Gideon was forced to live hand-to-mouth on the streets, sleeping on the floors and couches of people he met along the way.
GLAUSER: When he first came, he'd been two months in that world of drugs, alcohol.
BARLOW: I hate my past. I want to take my mind off of it. I don't want to be a lost boy, because so many of them have drug problems and addictions that they have to be get over.
CALLEBS (on camera): There's also speculation that the boys are kind of drummed out because they're competition for these young brides.
ENGLES: Right. And that's -- I mean that can't help but be true, mathematics alone would dictate that there has to be a lot more hens THEN and roosters in the community.
CALLEBS (voice-over): The prophet who investigators say created this situation, Warren Jeffs, is now on the run. He faces an arrest warrant issued by the state of Arizona which alleges a series of abuses including engaging in sex with a minor.
(on camera): Where is Warren Jeffs today?
ENGELS: I have no idea.
CALLEBS: Is he dangerous?
ENGELS: Well when you have a radical person like he is that has the control over the people he has, I think he's unstable.
CALLEBS (voice-over): As for Gideon Barlow, he's determined to put his past behind him.
BARLOW: Nobody was sent to earth to be a nothing. There's got to be a plan for everyone here. So I'm just trying to make the best out of mine. I'm not a lost boy.
CALLEBS (on camera): As for what the FLDS community in Colorado City has to say about all of this, it's hard to tell. We spoke with the mayor of Colorado City, David Zitting, and he says people in his community are content and that they don't want to speak with the media. He says people in Colorado City have had dealings with the press in the past and it's been a bad experience. That from the mayor of Colorado City. Sean Callebs, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Hold the rice. A judge is more likely to throw the back at this serial bride. Kelly McConnell (ph) will stand trial on felony polygamy charges. Detroit police say the 46 year old woman was married to three men at once. Doesn't sound like it was for love. She's already severing 22 months and ten years for defrauding one man and detectives say she may have conned many more, leaving as many as 14 poorer but wiser men in her wake. McConnell's lawyer will only say their are two sides to every story.
We told you about our correspondent's harrowing experience in Darfur today. Nic Robertson, travelling with a U.N. team had a run in with some angry refugees and he caught the whole thing on his camera using his cell phone. We'll show you that video when CNN's LIVE FROM continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, I'll take you back to some pretty powerful images from our Nic Robertson that happened in Darfur. Take a look at this videotape. Do you remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep driving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now while I explain what's going on inside the van, you can see that Nic is actually holding up a small device in his hand. Believe it or not, that's his cell phone. While the cameraman inside the van was capturing this outraged crowd of Sudanese refugees -- they were all trying to kill an interpreter for the Oxfam Relief Organization, who they thought was a government spy.
It happened during Nic's visit here with the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, who also had to flee for his life. Take a look at the video now that Nic captured on his cell phone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's happening? Stop, stop, stop. Stop, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening? What is happening? Shut the door. Shut the door. Go, go, go. Drive, drive, drive. Let's go. Let's go. Drive. You have to drive. Drive. Drive quickly. Drive, drive quickly. Shut the door. Shut the doors. I can't. I can't get to the door. Go, go, go. Keep driving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is happening?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. They are suspecting him to be a government spy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out. Get out. Get out. Go, go. All right. We've got to get out of this car. We've got to get out of the car. Who's in the car?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just keep going. Go quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: It's absolutely unbelievable what Nic was able to capture it on his cell phone -- actually that videotape. I don't know if we can roll it once again, but in case you just came in and you were seeing these pictures, you could actually see there in the van, where Nic Robertson was with these outraged Sudanese refugees in this camp.
They were trying -- they thought -- they were actually going after what they thought was an interpreter for the Oxfam Relief Organization, who they thought was a government spy. I believe that's this man here, where the confusion was. And you can actually see them pulling over -- pulling open rather the doors of the van and trying to grab him and pull him out. Nic was holding onto him and telling the driver to continue to go.
But this is just -- I mean, this is just one inside glimpse to what we've been seeing over the past three years, and that's thousands of Sudanese who have been killed in the Darfur region. Millions of people have been forced from their homes. And the issue of starvation and trying to get food to this region has been an absolutely unbearable mission for many people trying to help.
We're going to continue to bring you more of this exclusive video and reports from that region. We are going to take a quick break.
More LIVE FROM right after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's happening?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. They are suspecting him to be a government spy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out. Get out. Get out. Go. All right, we've got to get out of this car. We have to get out of this car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Tom Cruise decided to accept his latest mission, but are movie-goers just as accepting?
Sibila Vargas in Hollywood has a look at the returns from "Mission Impossible III."
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You are going to get me to want to dance with this tune in the background.
PHILLIPS: You can't sing to this one. So how did it do?
VARGAS: Well, it proved once again -- or Tom Cruise proved once again that he can command our attention on the big screen, Kyra, but did the movie live up to its expectations?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS (voice-over): Call it mission accomplished, Tom Cruise's new flick brought in an estimated $48 million in its opening weekend. Answering a key question on many minds, can the 43-year-old actor still carry a movie?
MICHAEL FLEEMAN, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Right now as we sit here, Tom Cruise is the most bankable star in the world. If you put Tom Cruise in an action movie, it can't fail.
VARGAS: But while MI:III enjoyed one of the biggest box office openings of the year so far, it fell just short of industry expectation and far behind the numbers generated by last year's "War of the Worlds" and "Mission Impossible: II."
FLEEMAN: Any time you are up to the third movie, the second sequel, that's going to be a problem.
VARGAS: Just as he did for last year's "War of the Worlds," Cruise went on a whirlwind worldwide promotional tour.
FLEEMAN: This is the kind of publicity with him globe trotting, the staged events with the fire truck and the motorcycle, him leaping on the car and, you know, climbing the scaffolding -- this is the kind of stuff you don't see as much in Hollywood anymore because studios don't want to spend the money.
VARGAS: For the past year, Cruise's biggest problem has been managing his personal image, his relationship with Katie Holmes, his public rants against the use of antidepressants, his very vocal support of Scientology and the hype surrounding the recent birth of his daughter, Suri. But none of that seemed to matter this past weekend.
FLEEMAN: Once the action starts, whether people think Tom Cruise is crazy or not, is going to have no impact on the success of this movie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS: And last week's No. 1 film "RV" slipped to second, adding another $11 million dollars to its first. While the real life ghost story, an "American Haunting," debuted in third with about $6.5 million.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Just about $6.5 million. All right, what's on tap for tonight?
VARGAS: Well, tonight on "Showbiz Tonight" at 11:00 p.m. Eastern, one on one with the king of reality TV. You know who I am talking about. It's no holds barred with the man who created shows like "Survivor" and "The Apprentice." It's the revealing interview you will only see on "Showbiz Tonight," 11 p.m. Eastern on CNN Headline Prime.
Back to you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Sibila...
VARGAS: Nice to see you.
PHILLIPS: Good to see you too.
All right, the next hour of LIVE FROM...
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