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Bomb Explodes in Baghdad Mosque; Police Searching for Millionaire Fugitive; Bus Beating Caught on Tape; Human Rights Activists Criticize China for Organ Harvesting
Aired June 16, 2006 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: No ways, no means, no fair? Well, the House voted unanimously today to remove William Jefferson from Louisiana from an all important ways and means committee, at least until he's out from under a bribery investigation.
Hours earlier, Jefferson's fellow Democrats came to the same conclusion, over his protests.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D), LOUISIANA: I simply ask the members of the caucus to put themselves in my shoes, to imagine themselves standing where I was standing and to ask whether it would be deemed by them to be fair in a case where a member has had allegations, nonetheless serious allegations made against him by third parties and perhaps by some in the press, whether that is going to be the rule by which we operate here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the feds are investigating whether Jefferson accepted bribes involving business interests in Africa. He denies wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime.
They warned us there would be days like this, despite the death of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, despite a monumental security crackdown in Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up a Shiite mosque today, killing 11 worshippers at Friday prayers.
CNN's Cal Perry has the story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAL PERRY, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): This was the Iraqi capital at midday. Streets deserted with Baghdad in the middle of a security crackdown. A ban on vehicles between 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., around noon prayers, was supposed to thwart attacks on mosques. But it didn't.
At a Shia mosque in northwestern Baghdad, a suicide bomber slips past security and into the mosque itself. The explosion killing at least 11, wounding more than 25 others. It's the second time in 10 weeks that the Buratha mosque has been attacked.
In April, more than 80 people were killed when three suicide bombers got inside the mosque. That attack, one of the bloodiest to date, led Shia politicians to accuse Sunni extremists of trying to drag Iraq into civil war.
After this latest attack, Shia-owned al-Farrah (ph) TV took calls from enraged viewers. "How could this happen?" the viewer cries. "How could he manage to get inside the mosque? Where are the people who are responsible for searching people?"
Another caller predicted dark days ahead. "The fight will not happen this year," he says. "It will happen next year. They want to eliminate us. They want to destroy us."
(on camera) As the tit-for-tat violence along sectarian lines the question remains, will the prime minister's security plan for Baghdad stop revenge attacks and bridge the growing divide between Sunni and Shia?
Cal Perry, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Another day, another congressional debate on Iraq. Today it was the House's turn. By a 256-153 vote, Republicans prevailed on a resolution supporting the war and opposing an early pullout of U.S. troops.
Before the vote, the depth of the disagreement was obvious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PATRICK MCHENRY (R), NORTH CAROLINA: They're advocating a policy called cut and run. They're advocating a policy of waving the white flag to our enemies. It is a policy, Mr. Speaker -- make no mistake about it -- that the left in this country are advocating. But we are fighting a war. We are fighting a war against Islamic extremists that hate the very fiber of our being as Americans.
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: When I hear somebody standing here sanctimoniously saying we're going to fight this out, we're not fighting at all. The troops are doing the fighting. The families are doing the sacrificing. A small proportion of families in this country are doing the sacrificing. And that's why I get so upset when they stand here sanctimoniously saying we're fighting this thing. It's the troops who are doing the fighting, not the members of Congress who are doing the fighting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Today's resolution is non-binding, but with midterm elections just five months away, the vote puts members on record for or against the war.
Is a coal mining company stonewalling the federal government? The Mine Safety and Health Administration is suing Aracoma coal, claiming it's hindering an investigation into a fire that killed two miners. That was back in January just two weeks after 12 miners died in the Sago disaster elsewhere in West Virginia.
The feds say Aracoma is the first mine operator ever to refuse to hand over documents and other evidence requested in an accident case. The company has indicated that some of the material is being withheld, but some may be missing or never existed.
One dead, one wounded and one on the run. Police in Reno, Nevada, believe that Darren Mack may be in Sacramento, California. This man, he's a millionaire. He's a pawn broker. And he's charged with killing his estranged wife. He's suspected with taking aim at a judge also. That happened on Monday. Family court Judge Chuck Weller is recuperating under guard in a secret location now.
Reporter Brad Whitman (ph) of CNN affiliate KTVN delves into the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRAD WHITMAN (PH), KTVN REPORTER (voice-over): The day started quietly enough, with Charla Mack taking her 7-year-old daughter to see her dad, Darren Mack. Shortly after 9 a.m., they arrived at the Fleur De Lis (ph) condo building. Murder, say police, came a few minutes later.
LT. RON DONNELLY, RENO, NEVADA, POLICE: Darren Mack asked the roommate, Mr. Osborne, to care -- accompany the child into a second- floor portion of the apartment while he converses with Charla in the garage area.
WHITMAN (ph): That's when Darren Mack's roommate says he heard his dog barking wildly downstairs.
DONNELLY: His dog that followed Mr. Mack into the house had blood on its face and on its chest.
WHITMAN (ph): Police say Osborne got worried and left the apartment, taking the daughter with him. Sometime after 9:30 Darren Mack called his roommate and asked to meet at a coffee shop in South Reno.
DONNELLY: It's my understanding it was for him to see his daughter.
WHITMAN (ph): After that meeting at 11:05 the calls came into 911.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there was a gunshot from the parking garage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be advised that our computer is down. I've just been advised that we have shots fired. Apparently a sniper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, I think there's going to be a sniper in a parking garage just north of the family court building.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's been a gunshot. One of the judges has been shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the third floor of Judge Weller's chambers, he has been shot.
WHITMAN (ph): Five minutes later, Mack's roommate called police, worried for Charla Mack's safety. As SWAT teams swept the area downtown, around 11:30 investigators made the connection.
DONNELLY: Mr. Mack's name comes up as a possible suspect due to the pending divorce.
WHITMAN (ph): Police went to Fleur de Lis (ph). Nobody answered. Without probable cause, police left the condos. Evidence belonging to Charla Mack was found on I-80 near Rob Drive (ph), suggesting sometime after 11 that day...
DONNELLY: We believe that Mr. Mack probably disposed of some evidentiary items as he drove westbound out of town.
WHITMAN (ph): Around 1:30 police met with Osborne. Detectives went back to the condo.
DONNELLY: As the officers opened up the garage door they could see Charla Mack lying dead in the garage.
WHITMAN (ph): At 2:30 someone used Mack's corporate credit card at the Sacramento International Airport. It's the last lead police get.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Right after the shooting Mack phoned his cousin, Jeffrey Donner, who lives in Moraga, California. Donner tells reporters that Mack had complained for months about Judge Weller, who was handling his divorce case. He says if his cousin did what he's accused of, it would be an example of, quote, somebody that just snapped.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY DONNER, DARREN MACK'S COUSIN: My gut instinct is that he is somewhere in the area, meaning in either the northern California area, Reno area. I believe that. And he's obviously -- he's on the run. I'm begging him that if he hears this, if he's listening to this, please contact us. He knows he can trust us. We'd do anything to help him. We want to save his life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The Justice Department has charged Mack with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, making him a federal fugitive.
A missing person escape in Alabama. And this one's getting a lot of attention. Birmingham cops, the FBI, the ATF and U.S. marshals joining in the hunt for a retired couple and their teenage grandson, none of whom have been seen for several days. Police arrested a man yesterday without publicly saying why. They also recovered the couple's car. John and Evelyn Martin are both in their 80s. Their grandson is 19, and a family member, unable to reach them by phone, alerted police on Wednesday.
Boys will be boys, right? Well, mischief and bound to get into trouble at some point, but when child's play turns violent, grownups take notice. A school bus beating captured on videotape has one Detroit area dad seeing red.
Kevin Dietz from our affiliate WDIV reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN DIETZ, WDIV REPORTER (voice-over): You are looking at a 10-year-old boy being beaten up on a school bus in New Baltimore. A violent attack by an older boy. But let's back up and take a look how it all begins.
CHESTER GALA, VICTIM: He would just, like, tease me and, like, just call me names and stuff.
DIETZ: Ten-year-old Chester Gala is minding his own business when two older kids start messing with him on the bus. The boy in the back says he'll beat up Chester. And Chester says, "What, you'll beat me up with that fro?"
The boy in the front laughs but then gets mad and starts pointing his finger as if it's a gun right in Chester's face. Watch for yourself how it all plays out.
Chester tells Local 4 how it all went down.
C. GALA: He just started pointing fingers at me, and I knocked it out of my face. And he just, like, started punching me.
DIETZ: Eric is Chester's father. He's upset the bus driver lets her bus get so unruly. But what really makes him bad is that the driver never separates the boys after the fight.
ERIC GALA, FATHER OF VICTIM: For the next ten minutes, my son had to be ridiculed and humiliated after he had just gotten beat up.
DIETZ: The two older kids are being charged with assault, but Chester's father says kids still aren't safe on school buses.
E. GALA: I had to do a lot of cajoling to get the school to take the other kid off of my son's bus. I don't think I should have had to do all that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, we're told the boys who did the beating have a court date the first week of July. They'll likely be charged as juveniles with assault. An overwhelming vote for changes that may overwhelm America's Catholics. U.S. bishops voted 173-29 yesterday to revise a number of prayers and responses in the mass. The current wording has been in place for more than 30 years, ever since Catholics were allowed to give up Latin. But the Vatican has long wanted to make the English translations closer to the originals. It's expected to take a year or more for the changes to take full effect.
A life or death decision for a father of six who desperately needs a new liver. Coming up, how far he'll go to stay alive and who may have died because of his choice.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: So how far would you go to save your own life medically, financially, psychologically, geographically? None of us really knows until we're face-to-face with death. And we do know there are more options than ever before, some of them outlandish or far-fetched, even unsavory. But each offering some glint of hope to the desperately ill.
You're about to meet a desperately ill California man, a husband and father, who found hope in a practice SOME call organ tourism.
CNN's Randi Kaye reported for "ANDERSON COOPER 350".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC DE LEON, NEEDED LIVER TRANSPLANT: Take it down. Take it down.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eric De Leon of California, a father of six, desperately needs a liver transplant, but he was so sick, with nine tumors on his liver, doctors concluded even with a new liver his chances for survival were low. So they removed him from the U.S. transplant list.
E. DE LEON: I just knew that cancer was going to grow and spread throughout my body, and I would be another statistic. And I just thought I got to get it out of me.
KAYE: But Eric would not give up. Online he found web sites offering transplants in China. Many advertised kidney, liver and other transplant surgeries for as much as $200,000. He would have only weeks to make a life or death decision.
E. DE LEON: I didn't want my kids to watch me wither away and die in front of them. So this was either -- it works or it doesn't, and then it's cut and dry and done.
KAYE: In fact, people who cannot get transplants travel to China from all over the world.
REP. CHRIS SMITH (R), NEW JERSEY: They house these people in hotels. You know, the dictatorship makes an enormous amount of money.
KAYE: Chris Smith chairs the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights. With tens of thousands of foreigners paying for transplant surgery in China, he says many do not know the terrible truth about the program. Those organs may be surgically cut from an executed Death Row prisoner without consent. Even worse: to keep the organs as fresh as possible, some organs are said to have been removed before the prisoner even took a last breath.
Human rights activist Harry Wu testified before Congress about a doctor who told him he removed an organ from a prisoner who was still alive.
HARRY WU, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Of course, he's warm. He's breathing. The blood is still moving out. We just push very hard, take the organ, keep it fresh.
KAYE: Other gruesome tales come from this doctor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The prisoner had not yet died but instead lay convulsing on the ground. We were ordered to take him to the ambulance anyway, where urologists extracted his kidney quickly and precisely.
KAYE: Critics say some prisoners in China, both men and women, are actually executed for petty crimes such as tax fraud, embezzlement and bribery. The practice provides an endless supply of organs for needy foreigners willing to pay top dollar.
Amnesty International says China executes more prisoners than all other nations combined, more than 4,700 in the last two years.
According to human rights experts, a single shot to the head, if chest organs are needed, a shot to the body if the brain or eyes are needed. And recently China started using what's called death vans, mobile execution vans where lethal execution is administered inside. Death by injection leaves the whole body intact and, according to Amnesty International, allows for a speedier and more effective extraction of organs.
SMITH: You can't take prisoners who are on Death Row, destroy them, murder them and then take their organs. I mean, that -- that smacks of Nazism. When people were reduced to mere commodities that were wanted only for the organs they could provide.
KAYE: Chinese law details the procedure. Transplant surgeons are actually poised at the execution site. Once shot, the prisoner's body is quickly placed inside an unmarked blue van like this one. Inside, doctors quickly and secretly remove the organs needed.
(on camera) Just last year, in a move that shocked the transplant world, China's deputy health minister acknowledged harvesting organs from Chinese prisoners but said the organs come only from those who give consent. But what constitutes consent?
In the United States, Death Row prisoners aren't allowed to donate their organs. The government believes they can't truly give consent while behind bars.
(voice-over) Still, the Chinese government, by law, considers a signed piece of paper, a fingerprint on a donor form or unclaimed body consent. Though that sounds straightforward, death notices like these are often posted not immediately but days after an execution, so families have no time to collect the bodies of loved ones.
Regardless, the Chinese government maintains they are not doing anything wrong and are merely performing transplants in accordance with their laws.
E. DE LEON: Good job, Dominic.
KAYE: Back in California with two small children, the tumors on his liver growing, Eric De Leon was getting weaker and weaker.
E. DE LEON: My feeling, my gut feeling was I wouldn't live that long.
KAYE: But what did he really know about what seems like his last best opportunity to survive? How much did it matter where his liver came from? What would you do?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, Eric De Leon is running out of time. The hope that China offers is irresistibly tempting, but inextricably entangled with moral issues and questions. Part II of Randi Kaye's report next on LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Before the break we met Eric De Leon, a cancer patient determined to survive, even if it meant going to China for a high- cost, high-risk transplant of dubious origins. Why China? Plenty of donors, willing or otherwise, and a government happy that's happy to provide them, if the price is right.
Here, again, CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE (voice-over): For Eric De Leon, it is a race against the clock. Nine cancerous tumors are eating away at his liver. Chemotherapy hardly made a dent. And because his cancer will likely come back, doctors in the United States have taken Eric off the transplant list. But Eric is refusing to give up, refusing to die.
E. DE LEON: I said I'm going to beat this. I am going to do whatever it takes to get this done. I'm not going to leave my family behind.
KAYE: Eric's doctors aren't nearly as confident. A transplant coordinator at Eric's California hospital wrote this note, "I guess he is toast and he is looking to get transplant in China. Oh, well, life is sweet." A world away, after mortgaging his home, Eric finds hope. China is offering organ transplants to foreign patients willing to pay whatever it costs. It's called organ tourism. Eric finds a Chinese transplant service. Two weeks later, Eric and his wife are in Shanghai.
(on camera) You were never given any indication that your husband's new liver may come from a prisoner?
LORI DE LEON, WIFE: Not -- no, we weren't told beforehand that this is where it's coming from. We weren't told after.
KAYE (voice-over): With more than 4,700 prisoners executed in China over the last two years, according to Amnesty International, there is no shortage of organs, but the organs may be coming from prisoners who did not provide consent.
Critics say some organs in China are even taken before the prisoner is actually dead.
(on camera) Remember, not any donor is suitable because of the risk of rejection. Blood and tissue types must match as closely as possible. In China, Eric and other would-be recipients provide a blood sample. Then Chinese doctors find a match. But for some activists and physicians, that raises the question about the timing of certain executions.
E. DE LEON: Somebody was killed for me? Yes, I'd feel bad, but there's no way of knowing that.
KAYE (voice-over): The Chinese hospital gave Eric a cell phone and instructions. He and his wife should enjoy the sites until the cell phone rang. That would signal a matching organ was available.
Though nervous, a new liver seemed all but certain. They did enjoy being tourists. Then, just two weeks later the phone rang. After five and a half hours in the operating room, Eric had a healthy new liver, a second chance at life.
U.S. doctors are seeing more and more transplant patients who have returned from China.
DR. THOMAS DIFLO, TRANSPLANT SURGEON, NYU MEDICAL CENTER: Whatever that source might be one can speculate about. However, there is significant correlation between the actual number of executions that are done at any particular time and the number of transplants that are done.
KAYE: Some doctors, like New York transplant surgeon Thomas Diflo, believe what may be happening to prisoners in China is a gross violation of human rights. He refuses to treat people who have had surgery in China.
Dr. Diflo recalls the first time he heard about it. It was a female patient.
I said, "Where did you get your organ?"
And she said, "From an executed prisoner."
Dr. Diflo was horrified.
So what is the United States doing to stop organ tourism? Chris Smith and more than a dozen other congressmen wrote this letter to the president of China, demanding the practice be changed. No response.
SMITH: The Chinese government, unfortunately, is largely tone- deaf when it has come to human rights.
KAYE: The Chinese government refused our request for an interview but issued this statement to CNN. "The reports about China's random transplant of organs from executed criminals are untrue and a malicious slander against the Chinese judiciary system," adding "in China it is very prudent to use organs from death penalty criminals."
SMITH: The bigger the lie, the better people will swallow it. And this is a big lie.
KAYE: As for Eric De Leon, he says the answer is more donors in the U.S. More than 90,000 people are on the transplant waiting list in the United States today. Last year, 6,268 people died while waiting.
Still, Dr. Diflo calls Eric's decision ethically irresponsible and unacceptable. Eric has no regrets.
(on camera) What if they didn't consent?
E. DE LEON: If they didn't consent, that's a hard question.
KAYE: Would you still want that liver?
E. DE LEON: I don't think I would, but I don't think we'll ever know that.
L. DE LEON: Everybody has the right to their own opinion. If you're not in the shoes that my husband was in, or my position where, you know, you're so close to home with it, it's very hard for you to even judge somebody or state what you would or wouldn't do.
KAYE (voice-over): So while the foreign powers figure out how to come to terms on organ tourism, Eric's children celebrate their dad's recovery.
DOMINIC DE LEON, SON: I looked there and felt the liver.
KAYE (on camera): You felt the liver in his shirt? Did you hug him and tell him you loved him?
D. DE LEON: Yes.
KAYE: What did you say to him? D. DE LEON: I love you.
KAYE (voice-over): With a 90 percent chance his cancer will return and no spot on the transplant list, Eric is making the most of his time with family and quietly thanking the stranger who saved him, whether he did so willingly or not.
Randi Kaye, CNN, San Mateo, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And you can see more stories from Randi Kaye on Anderson Cooper's show. Catch "AC 360" weeknights, 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific.
More than 30 years and billions of dollars later, Bill Gates is giving up the helm of Microsoft. The company's mega-rich co-founder is opting for a more philanthropic role starting in 2008. He believes with great wealth comes great responsibility, so he plans to oversee full time the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In light of that announcement, we wondered who benefits from that Gates Foundation and by how much? The answer is in today's "Fact Check".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is said to be the world's largest philanthropic organization, supporting work in more than 100 countries, they say, with an endowment of more than $29 billion.
The foundation focuses on improving the lives of the disadvantaged through health and education initiatives. Roughly 70 percent of the foundation grants last year were directed toward global causes. The rest spent on initiatives here in the United States.
According to the organization's web site, last year's total grant payments were a little more than $1.3 billion. Some of the foundation's biggest commitments, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations at $1.5 billion.
Another $1 billion is directed toward the United Negro College Fund. On the local level, the Adult United Way of King County is getting $55 million from the foundation.
In all, Bill and Melinda Gates say in the last 12 years they have given more than $1 billion to charitable causes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: World Cup fever may finally be catching on in the United States, but that may not be such a good thing for employers. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock exchange with that story. Hey, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.
You know, a lot of kids who played soccer are now entrenched in the workforce and so more Americans than before are watching the World Cup, and that means workers everywhere are sneaking peeks at TV screens and Web sites, faking cigarette breaks, even calling in sick to keep up with the tournament action. You know who you are.
Experts are expecting a huge increase over the 3.9 million Americans who watched Brazil beat Germany in final of the 2002 World Cup. That's leading many U.S. companies, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald's, Yahoo!, Coke, and MasterCard to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on official partnerships.
But it could also lead to decreased productivity in many workplaces. For example, more than half of the TV monitors on some trading floors of Deutsche Bank's New York offices were tuned to the first U.S. game on Monday, which, unfortunately, the America squad lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic.
Some employers are taking measures to keep workers focused. According to St. Bernard Software, 15 percent of companies are blocking Internet content related to the World Cup, but other companies are pandering, buying plasma TVs and throwing World Cup parties to boost morale and get employees to come to work. In any case, it's probably a good that the American team's next game against Italy is being played during the weekend. Tomorrow, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: They'll be a lot of people watching.
LISOVICZ: Doing it on your own time.
PHILLIPS: Oh yes. Well, you know, the World Cup is always a huge event for betters. Which teams do you think are the popular picks on Wall Street?
LISOVICZ: Well, you know, that is intriguing. There is this whole theory of stock picking for the Super Bowl. We report on that each year. Well, Goldman Sachs has come up with a method for picking the World Cup winners based on stock market performance, the index ranking the top team's based on how well their country's stock markets have performed since the last World Cup.
Their pick -- Ukraine followed by Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. Argentina, the Czech Republic and especially Brazil and all are expected to do well in this year's tournament. But Goldman's pick for the winner may be a bit off target. Ukraine to Spain 4-0 in its first match on Wednesday -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Susan. Let's talk about all the other stocks there on Wall Street. How is it looking?
(MARKET REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Susan.
Well, eat your veggies and watch your waistline shrink. "Fit Nation" is just ahead on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD CUTTER, WOODWORKER: My business uniform.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventy-two- year-old Howard Cutter spends the days of his retirement exactly as he hoped he would, fine-tuning his craft as an accomplished woodworker. He built his dream workshop after a 37-year career with IBM.
CUTTER: So I began maybe 10 years before I retired to say, what can I do if I could do whatever I wanted to do? And I'd always had a love of fine art and of design.
Once I got the notion that I was doing pretty well, I decided I was going to build something a little more difficult. I tackled a rocking chair, which turned out to be a real challenge. And from beginning to end, it took me about three years to finish it.
I started entering juried competitions and when I began to win ribbons, I started making things and putting them in several galleries. There's nothing that's quite as nice as when somebody sees something you've done and say I love it and can you do one like that for me?
Absolutely I'm living my dream. It's a thrill to get up and come out here every day.
MORRIS: Valerie Morris, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, back in March, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta kicked off a "Fit Nation" tour, seven cities, one purpose, to help Americans find their way to health and fitness. It's time for an update. So what do you think? How have things progressed?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's really remarkable, because you go around the country, what you realize is that there's clearly an obesity problem out there, but people are anxious to do something about it. I mean, they get that there's a problem.
But you actually find some real-life stories, you find celebrities as well who are lending their voices, their passion, their energy, to try and fight what we think is a very fixable problem, which is why we are dedicating so much energy to this. Here's a short preview of what we saw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): We began as a country of open spaces and big places, a land of plenty. Americans lived off the land, working with their hands. Gathering around the dinner table was expected. Welcome to modern life. All you can eat. Abundance of choice. Work and recreation has moved from the fields in the front yards to the couch and the computer.
Now childhood obesity rates are exploding. Diabetes, heart disease, even death now coming at a young age.
Where will we find the answer to this contemporary health crisis? From government? From doctors? From big business?
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It costs a lot more to watch this obesity epidemic develop and then pay for the consequences of it.
GUPTA: Is there something you can do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are looking for this magic bullet. There is no magic bullet. There is common sense.
GUPTA: How did we get here? And what can we do to create a fit nation?
(on camera): Hello. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
The information you're about to hear may actually alarm you, cause you to worry about your children's health, force you to rethink how you use your free time. But as a nation we're facing a crisis. We're at a tipping point, literally tipping the scales and endangering our own health and the health and future of our children.
With obesity, with the problems of overweight, it's fixable. What do you say about that? And how do we actually get it done?
CLINTON: We need to eat less, exercise more, and watch the foods that change our metabolism for the worse.
LANCE ARMSTRONG, CYCLIST: But it all comes down to math. I mean, what you put out is what you can put in.
MARIA SHRIVER, REPORTER: I exercise, exercise every day. And I think a lot of the studies have shown that if you also have kids, it's not enough to say to them go out and exercise. You have to actually model it for them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right. What to do about it? That's what I want to know, and do you address that, of course, in your special?
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, there are some pretty simple things to do, and when people ask me, as a doctor going around the country, like how do I lose weight or how do I become more healthy, what I realized is what they're really asking me is how do I take a shortcut? Because people fundamentally know how to get more healthy and to lose weight. But we came up with a 10-point checklist of some -- we think are some of the best tips to try and actually accomplish some of these things. You have to watch the special to hear all of them, but let me give you a few for sure.
One is just eat breakfast every day. There's been a lot studies showing if you eat breakfast, you tend to eat healthier throughout the day, you tend to eat less, and you subsequently lose weight.
Take stairs. Now that's a bit of a metaphor for just how you live your life in terms of exercise overall. If you can find opportunities to incorporate some level of exercise, some level of activity into your life, do it. I mean, do it starting today.
And the final thing, and Lance Armstrong talks about this, is do the math. If you didn't exercise on a particular day, you probably don't want to be eating a big meal that night. Do the math on every single day, figure out what you can do in terms of calories in and calories out. That's probably going to be some good tips, in terms of overall losing weight.
PHILLIPS: Yes, Lance, who bikes, what, hundreds of miles a day, he could probably eat whatever the heck he wanted.
GUPTA: And now he's running. Yes, absolutely.
PHILLIPS: So working on this special, did you find yourself actually taking a look at how you eat and your health and all that?
GUPTA: You know, I learned a lot of things. Because, you know, again, we talk about fitness and obesity. A lot of the information is already out there. You know, what struck me was, we went from being a country that was a vibrant, healthy, robust, energetic, fit country, the most in the world, actually, to a country that's become one of the most obese in the world. So we've evolved into this country, and we can evolve back.
And for example, myself, one thing I do every day is try and eat seven fruits and vegetables every single day. You know, whether it be some oranges, apples. I get vegetables in my dinner. I try and do that every single day. And if I really focus on that, I find that I eat more of that and less of the other garbage.
PHILLIPS: That's because your mother trained you well. Let's just get it out in the open, Sanjay.
GUPTA: If you're watching, she did, for sure.
PHILLIPS: That's right. I know she's proud. Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And if you're worried about your health or your children's, be sure to watch Sanjay's special "Fit Nation," Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. You can get more information about Sanjay's "Fit Nation" tour by going to CNN.com/fitnation.
Well, we all know where they're going to end up, but how they're treated before they go from the tank to your tummy, well, that's a whole different story. And one grocery store chain plans to change it. More LIVE FROM next.
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PHILLIPS: Well, not all of the Americans in Iraq are U.S. troops or government workers. An estimated 25,000 of them are private security workers facing the same risks as military personnel. One of the biggest private security providers is Blackwater USA.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson took a rare behind-the-scenes tour at Blackwater's North Carolina headquarters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company has never let a TV crew in like this before. Blackwater Vice President Chris Taylor escorts us around. He shows us police officers shooting on a practice range. On mock ships, Blackwater trains sailors in force protection after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, the RPG when the vehicle...
ROBERTSON: Would-be private military contractors train to defeat insurgents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accomplish the tasks
CHRIS TAYLOR, VICE PRESIDENT, BLACKWATER USA: What we're on now is the country's largest tactical driving track.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): 2.6 miles. Custom built. Training here matches daily realities in Baghdad.
TAYLOR: We're going to do a little slalom work here. Again, imagine that you've been attacked and now you're weaving in and out of traffic to get your principal off the X, to get to a safe zone.
ROBERTSON: Blackwater is the brainchild of camera-shy multi- millionaire Eric Prince.
After 9/11, business boomed. They've just built a brand new headquarters.
(on camera): I see the gun-barrels on the doors.
TAYLOR: Yes.
ROBERTSON: That's a nice touch.
TAYLOR: A little bit of the Blackwater motif.
ROBERTSON: And here it is, as well, Blackwater.
(voice-over): War time demands allowed them to expand. They're now the second largest employer in northeastern North Carolina.
TAYLOR: Right -- 8,000 square feet in the original building ; 64,000 square feet here.
ROBERTSON (on camera): That's a big expansion.
TAYLOR: It's a rather big expansion, but it's needed. Certainly we've left room for growth.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Growth, because Taylor believes Blackwater has a bright future.
TAYLOR: There's opportunities all over the world. Where we think that we can make a very big impact immediately is in peacekeeping operations.
ROBERTSON: The protection of innocents in Darfur, Sudan is just one of the global hot issues the company says it is ready to tackle. It's so committed to expansion in new markets, Blackwater hired 30- year CIA veteran Cofer Black, who for years headed the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden.
COFER BLACK, VICE-CHAIRMAN, BLACKWATER USA: My company could deploy a reasonably small force under the guidance and leadership of any established national authority and do a terrific job.
ROBERTSON: As vice-chairman of Blackwater, he's using his global contacts to search out new, lucrative contracts. And not just in the realm of peacekeeping. The company is developing airships for surveillance.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, heavily armed Blackwater protection teams were among the first on the scene.
TAYLOR: If you notice, the hull is in a V-shape.
ROBERTSON: And, frustrated by the high U.S. troop death toll from roadside bombs, Blackwater has built a prototype for an armored alternative to the Humvee.
The company says it can assemble hundreds of battle ready men, a small private army, at a moment's notice.
TAYLOR: Those companies that limit themselves particularly to providing only security services will be increasingly challenged over time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, it's dangerous work, but it pays very, very well. One Blackhawk employee told -- or a Blackwater employee told Nic Robertson it would take a year of work in America to earn what he makes in three months in Iraq.
An uprising that reshaped a movement. It was 30 years ago hundreds of black students took to the street of Soweto, protesting apartheid in South Africa. Police opened fire, killing at least 500 people and wounding thousands more. Today, a much more peaceful scene as students, government leaders and survivors of the '76 uprising paid tribute to the fallen, marching down the same Soweto streets.
Charles Taylor, one-time African warlord, soon to be prisoner of the Hague. The U.N. Security Council just voted to transfer him there, and the details are being worked out as we speak. The former Liberian leader has been in jail in Sierra Leone for almost three months on war crimes charges, all involving his role in Sierra Leone's bloody civil war. He was caught trying to flee Nigeria, where he'd lived in exile. Taylor is the first African leader to face a war crimes tribunal.
The news keeps coming, we'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.
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PHILLIPS: Sure, they will be scalded, ripped apart and consumed with melted butter, but that doesn't mean lobsters warrant inhumane treatment at supermarkets. So decides the organic grocery chain Whole Foods, which no longer will stock live lobsters or, for that matter, soft shelled crabs. The chain will, however, keep selling frozen lobsters, but only from suppliers that Whole Foods will hold to higher standards.
Time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, standing by in THE SITUATION ROOM to tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour.
Are you going to have lobster tonight, Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Not tonight, going to a ballgame later tonight, Kyra. Thanks, very much.
PHILLIPS: Oh, you're going to have a hot dog.
BLITZER: Is America happier with the job the president is doing these days? He made a surprise trip to Iraq, kept a very busy schedule all week. We will unveil a brand new CNN poll right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Plus, we are standing by live in New Orleans -- Congressman William Jefferson is on his way back to Louisiana, just hours after fellow lawmakers kicked him off a key congressional committee. Will he speak out?
And on the front lines with coalition troops in Afghanistan, hunting insurgents. We will take you along with U.S. troops from Task Force Night Hawk.
All that, Kyra, coming up right at the top of the hour. I know you would like to be on Task Force Night Hawk yourself.
PHILLIPS: You know me so well, any time to put on boots and jump out of a helo. Hey, who is playing the baseball game tonight?
BLITZER: The Yankees and the Washington Nationals.
PHILLIPS: You got box seats, special seats? BLITZER: I got very good sets.
PHILLIPS: You're connected.
BLITZER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: They're not your usual lapdogs -- in fact, some people wouldn't want these pups anywhere near their laps. And yet, one town in California puts out that welcome mat for these mangy mutts every year. What's all the barking about? We will tell you, when LIVE FROM continues.
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PHILLIPS: Man's best friend with a face only an owner could love. One week left to vote in the world's ugliest dog contest, sponsored every year by the Sonoma-Marin Fair in California. This year's competition has had its share of canine controversy, though. Voting had to start over after organizers suspected on-line fraud. They want to make sure that every pup has a fair shake, from Munchkin to PeeWee to Lucille Bald.
Speaking of bald, hi, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You mean the judge's don't actually see these dogs? You submit a photo?
PHILLIPS: From what I understand, these photos are on this website and you vote.
VELSHI: I see. There's some fiercely ugly dogs on that thing.
PHILLIPS: But they are so lovable.
VELSHI: Remember that one that died, Sam -- do you remember that story, Sam, who won this contest?
PHILLIPS: The ugliest dog -- yes, and he died. Remember? We had a little shout out to him.
VELSHI: It was very sad. That was the ugliest dog in the world. It was kind of quaint, or sweet.
PHILLIPS: Do you like the Snoop Dogg music?
VELSHI: I think it makes the story. Clearly you knew that there wasn't much going on in the market today, so you figured we could --
PHILLIPS: We can just talk about ugly dogs.
VELSHI: Nothing going on in the market.
PHILLIPS: So should we just wrap it up, since we've got about 25 seconds? I'll just let you ramble.
VELSHI: I have thought about this a lot; it is an interesting relationship we have. I say hello to you, and you leave -- every day.
PHILLIPS: But I always come back.
VELSHI: That's true.
PHILLIPS: Have a great weekend.
VELSHI: I will see you Monday. That's the closing bell.
(MARKET REPORT)
VELSHI: We'll get you the closing numbers in a bit, but first, here's Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
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