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New Orleans Killings; Soldiers' Bodies Found; High-Tech Machine May Help L.A. County Sheriff's Department

Aired June 20, 2006 - 13:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Law and order in New Orleans. It was a problem long before Katrina, and almost ten months later it's a problem again. Over the weekend, the city saw its worst mass killing in more than a decade. And now the mayor and Louisiana's governor are fighting back in a big way.
CNN's Sean Callebs filed this report for "ANDERSON COOPER 360".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Orleans police say one of the teens was the target in a drug related revenge killing. The other four died because they were with him at 4:00 a.m., Saturday.

Reflecting the cycle of violence here, Bennie Radcliff, himself shot and paralyzed from the neck down in a drug deal gone bad 17 years ago, is the father of one of them.

BENNIE RADCLIFF, VICTIM'S FATHER: I just wanted him to have a better life and go to school and do some of the things that I didn't get a chance to do.

CALLEBS: The mayor said the slaughter was too much for this city to bear.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: The things that happened pre- Katrina are definitely no longer acceptable.

CALLEBS: Now, Governor Blanco is heeding the city's plea, rushing 300 National Guard troops and up to 60 state troopers to New Orleans. The first time troops will be deployed since the weeks after the storm.

GOVERNOR KATHLEEN BLANCO LOUISIANA: There must be law and order in New Orleans. And we are going to work to bring it about.

SUPERINTENDENT WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: New Orleans, I am sure is safer than a lot of other urban cities right now. I'm sure we are.

CALLEBS: The city's police superintendent says his force has crime under control. But there were 16 murders from January through March, and 40 since then.

RILEY: It's not a crime spree. It's not denial. It's a strategy. CALLEBS: Riley says he asked for the National Guard back in March. Most of them will patrol flooded-out, abandoned neighborhoods in east New Orleans, freeing up city cops for other jobs.

NAGIN: We will take our NOPD officers and increase their visibility in our heavily populated areas, to where you will see a police officer almost on every corner.

CALLEBS: Frustrated residents say, even a cop on every corner wouldn't fix New Orleans.

ZONTHIA DAVENPORT, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: You could do something about crime, but you have to have something for people to do. You know, they have these 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds outside, late at night. They're supposed to be inside.

CALLEBS: The city has been struggling to bring people, jobs and business back. But at this point, there's a growing concern that drug dealers and thugs are the ones gaining a toe hold.

Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We're going to stay on this story. I'll speak with retired New Orleans Police Major and former SWAT Commander Howard Robertson just a little bit later on LIVE FROM.

Their bodies were mutilated and rigged with booby traps, an unholy end to the search for two American soldiers nice manage in Iraq since Friday.

CNN's Arwa Damon has the latest now from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday are believed to have been recovered, according to the U.S. military. This coming in a press briefing given by Major General William Caldwell, spokesman for multinational forces in Iraq. He said that the U.S. military believed that it had recovered the bodies of Private First Class Thomas Tucker and Private First Class Christian Menchaca. He said where the bodies were found was not based on their own movement. The two have been missing since their checkpoint came under attack, and the U.S. military has launched a massive search operation over the last few days to try to recover two of its own.

Those operations involved some 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi security forces, and as they have swept through this area, known as the Triangle of Death. There have been clashes with insurgents. So far, the U.S. military says that since Friday one U.S. soldier has been killed and another 12 have been wounded as they searched for the bodies of these two soldiers. Major General Caldwell also asking everyone to keep the families of these two men in their prayers.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, their presence is small, but symbolic. And soon it'll end. Six-hundred Japanese ground troops leaving Iraq by order of Japan's prime minister. He hasn't set a date, but says the troops fulfilled their humanitarian and reconstruction mission in the southern province of Musana (ph). This was the first time Japan had sent soldiers to a combat zone since World War II.

Not even retirement homes are safe from Iraqi insurgents. A home for elderly women in Basra was hit today by a suicide bomber and two people were killed.

Back in Baghdad, an explosion in a crowded market killed two people and wounded 28. You may recall that tens of thousands of Iraqi and coalition forces are still on expanded security detail in the Iraqi capital. U.S. and Iraqi troops also making their presence felt in Ramadi, even more than Baghdad. Ramadi and Anbar province has long been a cauldron of insurgent violence and terror. Still Iraqi leaders say there's no plan for a large-scale military offensive.

Her fame helped shine a spotlight on the world's refugees. And today, Angelina Jolie talks about her role with the U.N.'s Refugee Agency.

Coming up, Anderson Cooper gives us a preview of his exclusive interview with the actress and activist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, from Myanmar to Thailand to the Bronx, Mo Nom Tee Kham was just 12 years old when her odyssey began. Now she goes by the name of "Daisy," appropriate, considering how she's blossomed in her new home. Daisy graduates from a Manhattan high school this month, bound for Dickinson college in Pennsylvania on a four-year, merit-based scholarship.

Daisy, we all want to know how you picked your name.

MO NOM "DAISY" TEE KHAM, BURMESE REFUGEE: Well, I got this name from my English-speaking teacher from Tawnjee (ph). So she's an old lady. She comes from India. She has Indian family, so she look in my face and she said, I'll give you name daisy, because it's easy for me to call you.

PHILLIPS: And it's a beautiful bright flower so it fits you perfectly.

KHAM: Yes, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Take me back to when you were 12 years old. I know your parents had been working on your escape for seven months. What do you remember?

KHAM: When I was 12 years old, I don't really remember anything at all. My -- I was a normal child, grew up every day, wake up in the morning, go to school, you know, do homework and stuff. So it's not really -- I don't understand anything was going on. So I'm just happy.

But when I reached 12 years old, my dad told me we are going to Thailand to -- for a vacation. But the (INAUDIBLE) -- he had been active for quite a long time, since in 1970, because of the elections and stuff. So because of that, we are not safe to live anymore, so we have to escape to Thailand.

PHILLIPS: Well, your dad -- Daisy, your dad was a property amazing man. I mean, he was a lawyer and he actually formed the Shown (ph) Nationality League, which was necessary for all of you to fight for all of your rights, right?

KHAM: Yes, yes. My dad, he'd been active since he's in college. He'd been active outside his college. I mean, as everyone know, in political situation, Burma is worse. You cannot compare to any country right now. It's just -- nothing is happening. Nothing is changing. Nothing is moving forward to Democratic reforms. So my dad been fighting a lot. That's why is really -- get our family in trouble, so we had to escape.

PHILLIPS: And he actually told you that you were going on vacation and that you had won the Lottery, and that's why you had -- and that's why you were leaving. Did you believe him?

KHAM: I was a child, you know, 12 years old. Whatever your dad say, you're going to believe it. Lottery, Thailand, yes, you know? And, plus, at that time, it's final -- my final for grade seven. I was then, you know, so focused on education. But why would you go to vacation when my spinal test is coming up? So it is -- I am a little bit curious, but I don't question my dad because I believe him, so...

PHILLIPS: Sure, he's your father. And so you got out of there, but you had to live in an orphanage because they couldn't afford to care for you at that time. He was trying to make a better life for you. What was it like in the orphanage?

KHAM: I was 12 years old when I got there. I mean, it's the first time I had to separate from my parents and stuff. So it was a tough time for a couple months. And then I start to learn how to speak Thai and English, because at the orphanage, you know, visitors come, they want to talk to the children, but they don't know how to communicate.

So I put myself in the position that, OK, I want to help my -- because the children are Shan like me. The -- we speak same language, we are same nationality. So I try to speak -- I learn English, Thai, Burmese and Shan so I can translate more. So I learn English. I help them out. It's was a great moment for a year right at the orphanage.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know that they did so much for you there, in addition to your parents. And finally when you got to the United States -- I mean, my gosh, you're 19. You had to grow up so fast. You've been working jobs as a janitor since you were a younger teenager. I mean, you just knew you had to do whatever it was going to take to survive, didn't you?

KHAM: Yes. Become a refugee is not easy. I mean, everyone might have difficulty in their life. But for me, I feel I have to three different kind of life. I grew up inside -- in Burma Shan state, I grew up as a normal life, I had my childhood. But when I come to Thailand, it's -- everything is gone. I mean, I was 13, 14, 15 and 16 when I believe I supposed to go to school and have friends and have fun, but it's not happening.

I see what my country's been struggling, what happened to my country, why am I not allow to speak my language and write my language in Burma? What is going on? You know, it's a lot of questions -- I learned a lot in Thailand because I know -- my dad start to explain and teach me more about my history about my country.

So I feel like, wow this is -- this is opening for me. I have a lot of hard time in Thailand, but I don't regret at all. Because things happen -- because of -- everything that I pass through, right now, I'm right here. I learned a lot so I can adapt pretty well. So I am happy with whatever happened to me.

PHILLIPS: And now you're on your way to college, Dickinson College. Had you had that conversation with your dad yet, where you've looked him in the eyes and said, now I see why you did everything you did? And has he looked at you and said, you have become everything I've dreamed about?

KHAM: Well, I don't know what I want to say. I mean, he is such -- he make decision for us, you know. He made the right choice. He never give up. Even -- we struggled in Thailand for like five or six years. But he never gave up. He was there with us. And every time we tried to back off, he's the one who leading us. And he's the one who applied for us to get the refugee status from UNHCR. So after we got there, we start a new life, say, OK, we're moving forward. We don't know where we're moving, but we're moving somewhere. So finally, we got the chance to resettlement in U.S., which is amazing. And we meet nice staff from IRC, which help us resettlement everything -- find job and home and apply to school, everything.

PHILLIPS: Well, you're giving your parents the greatest gift now, and that's going on to college and doing something very special with your life, Daisy. Congratulations.

KHAM: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, she's a Hollywood star who's eager to share the spotlight with people who are all too easily ignored. Angelina Jolie is the goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency. And for her, that's not an honorary title. Jolie has travelled to more than 20 countries and given more than $3 million to refugee causes.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, she talks about her drive to bring hope and help to millions who have nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Since the late '90s, I mean, more than 3 million people have died. A thousand, they say, die a day from war-related conditions, malnutrition and things like that.

ANGELINA JOLIE: And there's all the rapes in Congo and (INAUDIBLE) that thing...

COOPER: Oh, the rapes.

JOLIE: ... which is -- and from Rwanda, which, you know...

COOPER: Right. Right.

JOLIE: That shocked me. I didn't realize how that was still in -- I mean, that's the thing you realize, and I think why people worried about Darfur now. You -- one area of Africa falls apart and then how it just destabilizes as a region. And you can see from Rwanda, still affecting Congo, from these, you know...

COOPER: It's also so often women and children who are the ones bearing the brunt of all this. I mean, in the Congo, it's women being raped, tens of thousands of women. I mean, I read that you saw children who had been, you know, macheted. And what is that like to see that? I mean, to see that being done to kids?

JOLIE: It's just -- well, I mean, how do you possibly explain that? It's like, being in Sierra Leone, I saw a 3-year-old who had her arms cut off? And you just think, you know, what kind of a human being -- you try to imagine, it must be drugs, it must be -- but what kind of a person could do that?

And the rapes in the Congo are so brutal. I mean, for the people that don't know about it, there's so much. And even recently, I had a baby in Africa, and people talking about the surgeries and the different types of surgeries. But they talk so much about Congo and having to sew the kids back together because they've been just ripped completely open.

And, you know, that's -- how do you make sense of any of that? It doesn't make any sense. It's disgusting and it's horrible and it needs -- you start to wonder, with all of these things, when does it take us as an international community to just get together and say, OK, that just has to stop. Joseph Kony has to stop. And it has to stop now. How long does it have to take for us to start to enforce an international law on these kind of situations and deal with it immediately?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And you can watch all of Anderson Cooper's exclusive interview with Angelina Jolie tonight at 10:00 Eastern on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

New accommodations for a one-time Liberian warlord, Charles Taylor. He's just arrived in Netherlands, where he'll be tried on war crimes charges. The former strongman is accused of everything from inciting murder and torture to looting and burning homes during the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor was arrested about four months ago as he tried to escape his home in exile, Nigeria. He's the first former African leader to face a war crimes prosecution.

Still soaked a day later. We're going to see how Houston's recovering from these floodwaters. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, another dreary day in rain-soaked Southeast Texas, and that brings more flooding, this time just southwest of Houston. Governor Rick Perry dropped by earlier to see for himself all the damage that the downpours are causing. He's also sent in the National Guard to try and help.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, better late than never? Tell that to a judge in Ohio who dismissed 6-year-old rape charges because the prosecutor was late to her courtroom.

Reporter Dawn Kendrick has this outrage story from CNN affiliate WOIO in Cleveland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAWN KENDRICK, WOIO REPORTER (voice-over): The 22-year-old from North Ridgeville is accused of molesting his 9-year-old neighbor, who's now 16. The prosecutor, Mark Schneider, wanted Judge Eileen Gallagher to recuse herself because she had quote, "questioned the young victim's credibility," citing details in a Department of Children and Family Services report.

When Gallagher refused to recuse herself and then reset the trial for later that afternoon, Schneider starts putting together a motion to have her dismissed. When Schneider comes back,a half hour late, Gallagher had already dismissed the entire case.

EILEEN GALLAGHER, CUYAHOGA CO. COMMON PLEAS JUDGE: His behavior was absolutely unprofessional. They never called. And had they called, it certainly would have been a different situation.

MARK SCHNEIDER, ASST. COUNTRY PROSECUTOR: Make no mistake about it, this case will be reinstated, whether it's through appeal or us refiling the case. This little girl is going to get her justice.

GALLAGHER: I firmly believe I did nothing inappropriate and I am prepared to hear the case and render a verdict on the evidence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Gallagher says that her decision had nothing to do with the credibility of the alleged victim, but everything to do with Schneider's tardiness. Quote, "you don't show up, too bad. Don't treat me like a punk and not show up in court without giving us the courtesy of notifying us where you are." Well, the prosecutor's office says calls were made to advise the judge that Schneider was running late.

A different kind of Robo-Cop. We're going to show you how police in Los Angeles plan to use some sophisticated military technology to fight crime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Take a look, up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane. No, it's not the guy with the cape, but plane is pretty darn close, actually. It's a no-frills, high-tech machine that's giving the L.A. County Sheriff's Department a whole new perspective on crime.

CNN's Chris Lawrence got an eyeful for "THE SITUATION ROOM."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's no bigger than a model airplane and launched with a good hard throw.

SAM DE LA TORRE, SKY SEER INVENTOR: It flies about 21 knots. We've proven it in altitudes up to 8,000 feet.

LAWRENCE: It takes one man five minutes to get the Sky Seer airborne. And when the mission is done, he can pack it up and toss it over his shoulder. It's cheaper than a helicopter, and can hover silently over a crime scene with no risk to a pilot.

COMMANDER SID HILL, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: And so as a result we have the vertical perspective without the ambient noise.

LAWRENCE: Sky Seer's two cameras will give the L.A. County Sheriffs real-time images from the air, while suspects may have no idea they're even under surveillance.

HILL: Well, I can tell you we're already being watched.

LAWRENCE: Commander Sid Hill says every ATM, grocery store and parking garage is using some kind of camera.

HILL: And interestingly enough, no one has really objected to that, because it's intended to be safer for the public.

JODY ARMOUR, USC LAW PROFESSOR: The problem is we don't have surveillance cameras over our backyards.

LAWRENCE: USC law professor Jody Armour says Sky Seer tilts the balance in favor of security over privacy.

ARMOUR: Certainly, initially, it may be for emergency situations, SWAT activities and the like, but it may be irresistible when you're fighting crime and doing a good job of it, as our sheriff's department does, not to be tempted to take it a step further. LAWRENCE: "Terminator 3" showed us a filmmaker's vision of futuristic drones, but sheriffs say unlike the movies, Sky Seer has serious limitations on what it can do.

(on camera): For example, the picture from its camera is almost unusable above 300 feet. And at least to start, the Sky Seer won't look at anything that the sheriff's aren't already allowed to see with conventional aircraft.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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