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Suicide Attempts, Detainees Lash Out In Guantanamo Bay; San Ysidro Checkpoint Busy Again After Shooting; No Freedom For Illegal Immigrants Who End Up As Slaves; Indications High Gas Prices Taking Toll On Whole Economy

Aired May 19, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR Suicide attempts, detainees lash out, U.S. troops on the defensive. It happened at the prison on Guantanamo Bay yesterday -- late yesterday and we're still learning more about it. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre is standing by with the latest.
Did you get involved in another briefing, Jamie? Did we find out more?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, actually I'm just listening in my other ear, here, to a conference call that U.S. Southern Command officials who are going to telling us the latest they have on what happened at Guantanamo Bay.

But, let me tell you what we know so far. That is most of this happened yesterday. There were three suicide attempts. Apparently from detainees who had hoarded prescription drugs that they had hoarded them so they could take them all at one time in an attempt to apparently kill themselves by a drug overdose.

And then there was a fourth incident in which one of the detainees tried to hang himself when the U.S. military guards went in to try to prevent that there was a confrontation with some of the detainees who used improvised weapons including, we're told, some fan blades and other parts of a light fixture to attack the U.S. guards, the U.S. military personnel. No one was injured. They did prevent the suicide from being successful.

But this is an indication of the growing frustration of the detainees at Guantanamo who are hearing from their attorneys, in particular, have become particularly frustrated by the -- what they see as indeterminate captivity with no opportunity to get access to lawyers or a military review of their cases.

Now, just earlier this month Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was asked about the calls to shut down Guantanamo he said the Pentagon would like to close Guantanamo but he said they've been frustrated by the defense attorneys using the U.S. courts to stop the military commission process. They're still waiting a supreme court ruling on that.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is continuing to try to reduce the population by returning some prisoners to their home countries just this week, 15 went to Saudi Arabia, but they are hesitant to do that unless they get assurances that when they return them that A, they won't be tortured or mistreated in their home country; and B, they won't be let go to pose a threat against the Untied States again -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jamie, were they saying anything on the conference call about one or more of these detainees trying to overdose on pills? Am I getting that story right? Because, from what I understand if anybody's taking any type of medication a corps man is always there, always present watching if indeed that medication is taken.

MCINTYRE: Yes, and -- you know, apparently -- and again we're waiting to get some more details about how they think this happened, but apparently some of them were able to make it appear that they were taking the medication, but were in fact hoarding them and how they were able to do that we're not sure. That's probably something that U.S. Authority will be looking into. But that's the initial indication of what happened here.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jamie McIntyre, thanks so much. Talk to us after the call is over.

Well, the world's busiest border crossing is busy again after a deadly shooting. Federal agents shot and killed a driver of an SUV at the San Ysidro checkpoint on the Mexican border, last night. They say the driver was carrying illegal immigrants. Our Peter Viles joins us now live with more details -- Peter.

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, some new details today on exactly what provoked the shooting and exactly who was in the vehicle. First what caused the shooting, what provoked it. San Diego police who are heading the investigation say they had this guy cornered; they followed him toward the border. Border patrol agents called ahead to shut down the border.

So, there was a big gridlock here when he arrived at the border and he was cornered. Border patrol agents surrounded his car on foot. What provoked the shooting was he put his car into gear and drove at five agents. According to San Diego Police, two of those agents shot and killed the driver of the car.

No as to the other question, who was in the car? We knew it was all five passengers. All morning we had said they were suspected illegal aliens who were being smuggled. Now San Diego police are saying, in fact, four of them are undocumented males, illegal aliens, who will be deported and those four admitted that they arranged to pay someone to take them deeper into the Untied States, that someone was the driver who was shot.

The fifth person in the car, according to San Diego police was a partner of the driver, he has been charged with smuggling. So this morning we said it was a suspected smuggler, now the law enforcement officials are saying they believe it was, in fact, a smuggling ring -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You know what's interesting, peter, is just in the heat of the whole immigration battle and this talk of National Guard troops going to the border and there are still a lot of questions about rules of engagement and how will they be able to assist law enforcement. It's just interesting the timing of this. It shows how dangerous these borders can be. Possibly even deadly. Is anybody talking about that? Is the issue of the National Guard even coming up in light of this incident?

VILES: Well, I haven't heard the Guard related to this incident. It's hard to see how the Guard might have helped because the Border Patrol in this instance worked very well with its partner agency, which is the agency that has security at border crossings, and called ahead to have the border crossing closed and that is how they cornered this guy.

I haven't heard people talking about the Guard. But a lot of people walking by here. This is a very heavily traveled border crossing on foot. And a lot of people are calling out, they don't believe the story, they don't believe he actually charged at these border guards. So there is some tension, a lot of the people walking across to Mexico here are Mexicans. So, there's some tension about the issue of security. But I haven't heard this one related back to the need for the guard, here.

PHILLIPS: So, why is the San Diego Police Department involved? Isn't it just a Border Patrol issue?

VILES: The federal government in San Diego has a prior agreement that in a case where a federal law officer is involved in a shooting, the federal government will turn that over to San Diego police to investigate, so they won't have the appearance after conflict of investigating themselves.

A lot of law enforcement agencies around the country have agreements like this that if there's a shooting on their force, they will let a different force investigate it to avoid the appearance of a conflict. So the Border Petrol is not talking publicly on this, they are essentially speaking through the San Diego police on this.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Peter Viles there in San Yisdro, California. Thanks, Peter.

Common and unifying language is often alien to Capitol Hill, but it turned up in a Senate amendment which passed making English the common and unifying language of the Untied States. Hispanic groups objected to the term "National Language." In its immigration reform debate, to date, the Senate has also approved a 370 mile fence on the border with Mexico. Much more talking and voting to come.

Land of opportunity, of course, but America isn't quite the land of the free for those illegal immigrants who wind up as slaves of the people who brought them here. CNN's Tom Foreman investigated for "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Against the 5:00 rush in Los Angeles, this woman named Flor thinks about how the worst trip of her life began.

When a friend in a sewing class told her recruiters in her Mexican town were looking for tailors to work in America.

FLOR, VICTIM OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING: She was a teacher. She was a sewing teacher.

FOREMAN (on camera): She knew that you had children, you needed the money and you had skill?

FLOR: And she said they were going to pay for everything.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But after Flor was smuggled in, she says she was taken to a sweatshop, forced to sew 18 hours a day and sleep in a storage room while her boss demanded $2,600 for bringing her here.

FLOR: She threatened me, she said that if I tried to escape, if I tried to do something that wasn't right, somebody who I love will pay the consequences.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Human trafficking, the modern slave trade, closely watched by the federal government in recent years is believed to bring 18,000 people across the border into America annually -- half for the sex trade; half for forced labor as domestic help, farm, factory, and construction workers, according to Wade Horn with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

DR. WADE HORN, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I would be a mistake to believe that this is a crime that is only occurring in border towns, only occurring in big cities.

FOREMAN (on camera): This is happening along Main street, U.S.A., everywhere.

HORN: It is happening everywhere in the United States, unfortunately.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The victims are lured by promises of good jobs, education, free housing. And traffickers then often prevent their victims from ever telling the families back home that those dreams have been lost.

KAY BUCK, COALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY AND TORTURE: The one thing that people don't realize is most traffickers have pretty strong ties to the communities where they traffic and what that means is there's some trust.

FOREMAN: This month a massive campaign was launched by the Inter-American Development Bank to warn people in Latin American countries.

HORN: Traffickers see human beings as commodities, and as commodities, they see them as dispensable and disposable.

FOREMAN (on camera): As for Flor, she says she escaped her prison after a month and a half and is now living here under a special visa, trying to bring her children in too. But a memory of her trafficker haunts her.

FLOR: She said dogs have more rights in this country than we have.

FOREMAN: She said dogs had more right than you?

FLOR: Yes, than I had.

FOREMAN: What did you think?

FLOR: In some way, she was saying the truth.

FOREMAN: For her, the truth is, thousands of people living secretly in the land of the free are not free at all.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A tale from the dark side of immigration. First seen on "A.C. 360." Join Anderson weeknights at 10:00 Eastern.

Let's go straight to Carol Lin with a developing story right now -- Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I want to show you a commuters' nightmare on this Friday afternoon, Kyra. Take a look at the pictures we're about to show you. Apparently what happened here, this is 495 in Hopkinton near Boston, it's about South -- it's South and West of Boston on the 495.

This tanker truck apparently plowed into a car and both the driver of that truck and the car are in the hospital with minor injuries, but this is blocking the road and officials are saying that they may not be able to move it in time for the rush hour. So, all that is shut down.

Apparently the truck carrying liquid methane, which is the fuel, you know, one of those alternative fuels that they were trying to transport, apparently contained in that double-walled container, so hopefully it's not going to leak. It was designed to not leak. But, obviously if that did happen it would certainly complicate the situation there. On 495 just, what? About two hours away from rush hour -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Not a good scene. All right, we'll keep our eyes on it. Thanks Carol.

Well, bit autos, big bosses drive up to Capitol Hill in hybrids, but what can they do for your pain at the pump? We're going to find out when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Energy may be tight and prices may be high, but we still don't want to see oil rigs from the beach. That's the word from Washington where the House refused to lift long standing bands on offshore drilling. The bands apply to 85 percent of U.S. coastal waters and representatives from California and Florida fought to maintain them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people of Florida do not support drilling in Florida. And the people in Florida are united against any drilling in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Energy is the mother's milk of our country. We will never balance the budget without a growing economy and our economy will stop growing if we don't have affordable clean natural gas to fuel it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In the end, the House voted to keep prohibitions on the offshore drilling and oil and natural gas.

Well, as gas prices hover in the $3 range new indications they're taking a toll on the whole U.S. economy. Are U.S. automakers doing anything to help? CNN's Brian Todd went to Capitol Hill to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): five separate photo ops within five and a half hours. The CEOs of Ford, Chrysler, and GM make the rounds on Capitol Hill pressing lawmakers to give drivers more incentive to buy fuel-efficient cars. And help provide more pumps like ethanol.

(on camera): For the automakers, this blitz was just as much about showing the American that they care about gas prices as was about furthering their own agenda or business interests. They made a big splash by arriving in these biodiesel and ethanol fueled vehicles.

(voice-over): But, are automakers doing their part in tackling America's addiction to gasoline?

JON LINKOV, CONSUMER REPORTS: Right now they just say they're building what they want to build and customers are buying large SUVs. But what we've seen in sales numbers and such, is that smaller vehicles such as raised wagons and small SUVs and small cars are doing quite well. People are gravitating towards them because they give a good mix of both fuel economy as well as cargo space and usability.

TODD: At the end of the day, the CEOs found time to answer our questions.

(on camera): We speak to a lot of oil and auto industry analyst whose say that the big three could be doing a lot more to make cheaper fuel-efficient cars or flex fuel cars, that you should be doing more to develop hydrogen technology. What do any of you say to those criticisms?

RICK WAGONER, CEO, GENERAL MOTORS: Yes, I think it's -- you know, we need to pursue all options. We're moving quite rapidly in advancing the technology on fuel cells, so any criticism of that really is out of place.

TODD: Any of your companies be willing to foot the bill to make ethanol more available at these gas stations. You want them in more gas stations, the blends, the e85. Would you be willing to pay for it?

WAGONER: We're footing the bill right now on equipping, that up to now five million vehicles and a million more this year.

TODD (voice-over): The CEOs believe gas distributors should pay most of the cost of getting ethanol to more pumps. Analysts say the automakers are moving toward better fuel technology, slowly. And they certainly shouldn't get all the blame for high gas prices, but the bottom line these events were only about public shows of concern and we'll be paying about $3 a gallon at the pump this summer.

Brian Todd. CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Brian Todd, part of the best political team on television. See more of his stories on "The Situation Room." Tune in this afternoon at 4:00 Eastern and live prime edition airs at 7:00.

Unforgiving waters, unrelenting misery across New England. About 14,000 homes in Massachusetts alone are damaged after this week's record flooding. Some of these streets are still underwater and the city of Lawrence has a dust to dawn curfew. Until the rivers drop there's no way to add up the damage an to make matters worse, experts are predicting a bumper crop of mosquitoes. Add to that more rain today through the weekend. CNN's meteorologist Bonnie Schneider has the forecast -- Bonnie.

(WEATHER REPORT)

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're just 13 days away from the start of hurricane season. Getting closer and closer to that beginning. And every day this month on CNN we're helping you prepare your "Hurricane 101" for this hour has to do with evacuation kits. You're probably thinking when you're packing an evacuation kit you need food and water, that's true, too.

But here's some other items you might not immediately think of, you've want to have handy this hurricane season. Including clothing, a first aid kit, prescription medicines, flashlights and batteries, personal hygiene items, and of course, moisture wipes and battery operated radio.

And you may want to also have a NOAA weather radio, too. That's really important because often when we're talking about hurricanes one of the byproducts of them coming onshore are tornadoes. And if you have a weather radio like this, you can stay up to date in case there's a tornado warning or a tornado watch for your county, specifically. Do that's something to keep in mind.

If you would like more information on "Hurricane 101" just good right to our Web site at CNN.com/weather and CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

Kyra, do you have one of these?

PHILLIPS: Actually I don't.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, I have one in my car. It's very, very useful.

PHILLIPS: Now is that what -- tell me exactly what it does for you?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it gives you the actual band. You an always tune in at any time and it'll actually go off an alarm if there's a warning in your area, specifically a tornado warning or tornado watch. And it's very important because people lose power very quickly when a hurricane comes onshore. So, having one of these, at least, you can be prepared or if you're evacuating, you'll have it with you in your car so you know which direction to head in.

PHILLIPS: OK, you are a true weather geek. I'm just telling you right now.

SCHNEIDER: I always kit in my car, yes.

PHILLIPS: How do you buy -- where do you get them?

SCHNEIDER: Oh, really any electronics store and, of course, you can find them on line as well. And it doesn't matter, you know, what brand as long as you get one that works and you have the batteries handy. A lot of people just forget that, but it's so important.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bonnie, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Well there are twisters then there are dust devils. Take a look at this. A massive cloud of dust whipping into a frenzy and swirling through the streets of New Mexico. It happened last evening and proved just as powerful as a tornado. Witnesses say the swirling dust cloud ripped away sides of buildings, blew sheet metal through windows, and snapped power lines. As far as we know people managed to steer clear.

A life saving surgery for a little Afghan boy. He flew all the way to the U.S. for an operation to fix a heart defect. We're going to tell you how he's doing right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stocks are struggling to break their recent losing streak. For an update let's get over to Susan Lisovicz in the New York Stock Exchange.

Hey, Susan.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, there's a little uncertainty about how successful the grand finale of "Will and Grace" was last night, but there is definite certainty that there was a lot of fun down on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange. And I know you were there. We actually, Susan, as you know, had the chance to interview, well two of the four, but we saw all four. We want to share a little moment with our viewers in case they missed it and then I want to ask you what it was like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So Sean and Megan, we've only got two guys on IFB, right?

MEGAN MULLALLY, "WILL AND GRACE": That's all that matter.

PHILLIPS: You guys are that stars of the show anyway, right.

MULLALLY: Yes, that's right.

PHILLIPS: You know what's great. We can totally talk smack about them and they'll have no idea.

SEAN HAYES, "WILL AND GRACE": That's right, we're talking smack about you.

PHILLIPS: Oh yes, what do you think of Debra's dress?

MULLALLY: What?

HAYES: Wait, what?

MULLALLY: What? She said what do you think of Debra's breasts?

HAYES: This isn't awkward at all.

PHILLIPS: No, What do you think of Debra's breasts, her dress.

MULLALLY: Oh!

(LAUGHTER)

HAYES: Her dress. I think it's beautiful. It's Channel, right. It's a Channel dress.

DEBRA MESSING, "WILL AND GRACE": Yes.

HAYES: She's very proud of it.

PHILLIPS: Although the other parts look great, too.

MULLALLY: We're over stimulated because this is a very grown-up venue for us to be in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: I'm still convinced she knew that I said dress, Susan. And I know you were right down there on the floor next to them. You heard the question.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN ANCHOR: I heard the questions. And I heard the interview and I enjoyed every second. And I have to say the traders and I, the reporters, we all needed some comic relief yesterday afternoon, because the market was selling off, that was the final hour of trading and the market was really turning even more negative and you know when that cast came out on the floor, there were just such big cheers. And it's not like celebrities or professional athletes are a rare thing here at the New York Stock Exchange, plenty of them have come down here. It was such a cheer.

PHILLIPS: The cowbells started ringing; Debra Messing started to shake things up with her high heels. Sean Hayes ahead of his reception on the floor was actually body surfing in the boardroom which was a sight to behold. And it just really sort of broke it up. A much needed time, I have to say.

It was great. They really were well received. They were extremely generous with signing autographs, talking into cell phones, signing magazines and it was really funny because it was such a throng. When I'm standing on the floor talking to you, Kyra, there's no crowd around. That crowd, it was gridlocked.

PHILLIPS: What are you talking about? I heard all the NBC executives were crowding around you. Oh, you're Susan Lisovicz, we remember you.

LISOVICZ: No. You know what? This was funny, Kyra. I was standing there and just amid and I saw traders and Jeff Zucker was standing there like 10 people back like he was a nobody, and here he is the head of NBC Entertainment. It was that thick and it was that fun, and you did a great interview. We really enjoyed it.

PHILLIPS: Well, we were glad you were there. By the way, Jeff probably remembered you from your days on CNBC, and of course he watches you on CNN. So, you know, it doesn't surprise me, you were quite the celeb in the group, Susan.

LISOVICZ: Well, I think he watches the world's most trusted network and that would be CNN. And I think that's what he acknowledged -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, very well put. Susan, we'll talk to you as we get closer to the closing bell, OK?

LISOVICZ: I hope so. All right, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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