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Colorado Man Says Killed 48 People; Pictures from the War Zone; Deja Vu in Lebanon From 1983 Attacks

Aired July 28, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy -- if the claims of a Colorado man are true, his name, Robert Charles Browne, could soon join that gruesome pantheon of notorious serial killers.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Already serving life without parole for one murder, 53-year-old Robert Charles Browne tells Colorado authorities he's killed 48 people in the U.S. and overseas. Browne claims his killing spree began in 1970 in South Korea, and continued with dozens of murders in nine U.S. states, until his arrest in 1995.

SHERIFF TERRY MAKETA, EL PASO COUNTY, COLORADO: Robert is what I would consider a very intelligent individual, and he knew exactly what he was doing with his taunting.

O'BRIEN: During four years of correspondence and interviews with cold-case detectives, Browne slowly revealed the grisly details of the crimes, things that only the killer and investigators would know.

CHARLES HESS, COLD CASE DETECTIVE: It became obvious that with Robert, most things were a negotiation. I can have a single cell, I'll tell you this. If I can have this, I can give you three murders, or whatever. All of the things that he asked for were reasonable, within the law, within the rules of DOC, and little by little, over a four-year the period, that's where it is.

O'BRIEN: Authorities so far have been able to confirm details of eight of those killings. Browne went to prison for life in 1995 for one of them, pleading guilty kidnapping and murdering 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church. On Thursday, Browne pleaded guilty to killing another Colorado teenager, Rocio Sperry.

Soledad O'Brien, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Start your morning off right with Soledad and Miles on "AMERICAN MORNING," 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Well, we've heard a lot about politics and the diplomacy and the strategies and the statistics. Coming up on LIVE FROM, a unique look at the human side of this the crisis in the Middle East.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight to the newsroom and Carol Lin working details on a developing story. Hi, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. This garage collapsed in Jamaica, Queens. Let's take a look at some of the pictures that we just got in from CNN affiliate WABC. Kyra, what you're seeing is a frantic -- well, actual recovery effort right now. There's a body underneath that rubble.

One worker, apparently died underneath that rubble and they're trying to get his body. But firefighters there had to rescue several workers at this garage collapse. CNN confirming that one is dead on arrival.

Now, apparently one trapped and one taken to a local hospital in Queens. That's different reporting than our local affiliates on the ground. They're saying, according to the fire department in New York, could be a garage collapse. But, clearly something catastrophic happened at that scene.

So CNN reporting now one dead on arrival, one still trapped and one being taken to a local hospital in Queens. So, obviously, the urgency is -- if there is someone still trapped and alive under there, Kyra, they have got to get to them. This is a critical rescue operation now that you're watching right here, new video from WABC.

PHILLIPS: Every second counts in a situation like this. All right, Carol, we'll follow it. Appreciate it.

A Bush-Blair plan on the Middle East. Here's what we know right now. Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair seek a U.N. push to end the deadly fighting. They say cease-fire terms cannot ignore long-term problems such as Hezbollah's presence in Southern Lebanon.

Five rockets hit south of Haifa today. Israel says three of the weapons carried 100-kilogram explosives, which would make them the biggest rockets to land on Israel yet. No reports of injuries.

And this just in: Reuters News Service reports that the head of U.N. relief has asked Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting for 72 hours to let relief workers evacuate people in danger and allow the emergency supplies in. We're going to keep our eye on that and keep you updated.

Cal Perry, a CNN producer, he's been working with Karl Penhaul in Tyre, Lebanon, and writing a blog that offers some unique insights into the human side of the crisis. Here's just one example of what Cal wrote on CNN.com.

"Standing in front of this 8-year-old boy lying in a hospital bed, the 'conflict in the Middle East' and the 'cost of war' seem endless and suffocating. His pain cannot possibly be imagined as he shakes uncontrollably in and out of shock. He has blood coming from his eyes." Still quoting now, "His name is Mahmood Monsoor, and he's horribly burned," as you can see by the pictures.

"In the hospital bed next to him is his 8-month-old sister, Maria -- also burned. Screaming at the top of her lungs is the children's mother, Nuhader Monsoor. She is standing over her baby, looking at her son and probably thinking of her dead husband. The smell of burned flesh is overwhelming," end quote.

Cal Perry joins us now from Tyre.

Cal, we had to talk to you. What you've been writing has really been unbelievable and eye-opening because we can't really cover every aspect of what is happening overseas. And if you don't mind, I just want to go back to those pictures for a second from your blog and from our Web site. Let's talk about the mom and her kids, the Monsoors. Tell us about this family and why you became attached to them.

CAL PERRY, CNN PRODUCER: Well, this was a family of six that were headed north like thousands of other Lebanese fleeing the fighting, and ironically enough, they're from Lebanon but they live in Germany and they were here on vacation. This family of six was headed north when they were hit by some sort of Israeli ordinance. It blew up the car, the father was killed.

Karl Penhaul and I were actually standing in the hospital room when she was notified that her husband was dead. The other five were all very badly wounded, including the boy and the baby. The mother was absolutely horribly upset for obvious reasons. The son was so badly burned, doctors said that he was hallucinating.

I think that the thing that you can do in a written piece that you can't do in a television piece is you can show certain violence, and we sort of are restricted, and oftentimes by our video, because we don't want to show how violent sometimes it really is. In a written piece, you're able to sort of describe that.

Also, I think we have the ability in a written piece to really get deeper and talk about the feeling and the mood in the town, the mood, what this did to the family. I'm working with two of the best correspondents in the world in Ben Wedeman and Karl Penhaul, but at the end of the day, they have three, maybe four minutes to tell a story. And in a written piece and with photos you can sort of give a broader picture on both sides of the border.

PHILLIPS: Well, and those guys are so lucky to have you as a producer working with them, as well, Cal. And you've been able to capture additional stories in addition to theirs, to bring us even better coverage.

I want to talk about another picture that you took, a 13-year-old girl that really grabbed our attention as well, Zainab Haidar (ph). Tell us about this young teen. PERRY: Well, she was traveling, again, with her family to the north and she was in a convoy of cars that were all waving white flags. Again, some kind of Israeli ordinance hit that convoy. This family got out of the car, they took cover in an orange grove under some orange trees. Israeli jets, she says, circled back and hit them a second time, wounding her. She had shrapnel wounds all along the side of her body.

The thing that really struck me about her is oftentimes here I'm affected by a language barrier. My Arabic is quite poor, actually. And she spoke perfect English. Karl Penhaul and I were able to come up to her bedside and just ask her what she thought about was going on. And she looked straight into the camera, and in excellent English, she said, please, tell them to stop the bombing, tell them to stop the killing. We're not all terrorists, and children are dying -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Other pictures of you and Karl within the rubble. You also took one shot of a Hezbollah banner. Can you tell us what it says on this banner and why this caught your attention?

PERRY: Well, the banner says, "We'll stay and fight." And we met a little boy, I think he was 10 or 11 years old. He came out of his house when we arrived. And that's the other thing about working down here, is people down here are totally open to talking to you, and they're willing to come up and tell you their story. And he said to us we cleared out my family from the south, we cleared out of our house to leave room for Hezbollah to fight. We support Hezbollah. And If I was old enough, if they would take me, I could fight for them, too.

PHILLIPS: We're getting live pictures, Cal, now, out of Tyre. I'm being told this is a U.N. aid convoy that's coming in. Of course, the roads have been really dangerous. This hasn't been able to happen for quite some time. But, now, finally, we're seeing the U.N. able to get to some of these areas.

Have you been able to catch up with any of these guys yet? And do you know anything about what has been able to get into what areas as we watch these live pictures come in?

PERRY: Well, we did. We were with -- we saw a U.N. aid convoy come in about three days ago. They brought thousands of pounds of flour to feed people in the city. Another interesting thing about Tyre is, while people are leaving the city of Tyre. Others are coming in from the south. So you sort of have this interesting refugee situation where Tyre has people leaving, but also people coming.

The U.N. has been desperate to get aid down here. As you said, the roads are horribly damaged from Israeli bombardment. It's a drive that would normally take about an hour and a half, and it takes up to five hours for simple cars to get down here.

When you talk about U.N. convoys, you're talking about huge trucks, tons of food, on very, very narrow roads. And a quite dangerous drive, as well. We've heard reports, of course, down south in the past few days of U.N. compounds being hit. So this is obviously one of their concerns, is getting safe passage, getting that aid down here. And as you said, an aid convoy has just arrived in Tyre.

PHILLIPS: What do you think the biggest difference -- the last time we talked, you were doing reports for us out of Iraq, Cal. What do you think the biggest difference is between what you dealt with in Iraq and what you're dealing with with this crisis in the Middle East, specifically Tyre and other parts that you've been able to get into?

PERRY: Well, in Iraq, I think the danger is really in your face. And you have more information at your fingertips available to you. You wake up in the morning and you can find out which neighborhoods are bad, where the fighting is. When you go out with U.S. troops, they give a great indication of where the danger is coming from, which direction the firing is coming from, where are the best places to take cover here.

Here, it's really the unknown danger. You can't see it. We can hear jets overhead, but we don't know when that bomb is going to come, we don't know when that bomb is going to land. A lot of civilians simply are finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The thing that I relish most about being able to cover this story -- and the biggest difference from Baghdad -- is the access to people. All of us down here, journalists, we want to be as big a microphone as we can to tell the stories about people whose lives are really being affected. And here you can interact with people, you can talk to them.

Karl and I yesterday were visiting the site of an Israeli air strike that happened the day before, and there was a man clearing glass out of his shop. And unlike in Baghdad, we were able to walk up right up to that man and just ask him, what do you think about the situation? What does it make you feel to see your shop be destroyed like this? That's something you don't have in Baghdad. You don't have the interaction with people whose lives are really being affected -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Cal Perry, great insight. You're doing a remarkable job. You can see Cal's -- he's producing for us, working with our correspondents, doing live shots, obviously. You can go to CNN.com. He's blogging, he's writing columns. Cal, really appreciate it.

Well, the year is 1983; the place, Lebanon.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sunday, 23, October, 0620. Truck bomb destroys BLT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The marine barracks bombing in Beirut and the dreaded feeling of deja vu. Coming up.

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PHILLIPS: Lebanon, 1983: U.S. marines evacuate Americans and deliver aid. The scene is dramatically different from when they left more than 20 years ago and, yet, some who experienced it have an odd sense of history repeating itself.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has more in this report from AMERICAN MORNING.

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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the first battalion of the 8th Marines was sent in to rescue Americans escaping bombs in Beirut, it brought back unimaginable horror to a group of retired vets.

(on camera): When you saw that your unit was going over there, it must have floored you, in a way.

MAJ. ROBERT JORDAN (RET.), BEIRUT VETERANS OF NORTH AMERICA: Well, like Yogi Berra said, it's just deja vu all over again.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Retired Major Bob Jordan was the Marine spokesman in Beirut in 1983, when a suicide terrorist drove a truck bomb into their four story barracks. Two hundred-forty-one servicemen were killed.

Jordan is proud his historic unit is back on Lebanon's shores, but also frustrated.

JORDAN: Within their ranks are our sons and our daughters and our grandsons and granddaughters completing the mission that we should have done 23 years ago. That's not right.

CANDIOTTI: Back then, Marines were part of a multinational peacekeeping force.

JORDAN: Our mission is still one of presence.

CANDIOTTI: That was Major Jordan doing an interview in 1983. And here's what he says about the mission now that he couldn't say then.

JORDAN: Unfortunately, it was very naive and the factions who did not want Lebanon to succeed and to have stability and freedom took advantage of it.

WARRANT OFFICER RANDY GADOO (RET.), BEIRUT VETERANS OF NORTH AMERICA: That was the first explosion that...

CANDIOTTI: Fellow Marine vet, Staff Sergeant Randy Gadoo served with Jordan and agrees the Marines practically were sitting ducks for groups like Hezbollah.

GADOO: Our rules of engagement that we were given were very restrictive and didn't allow us to do the things that Marines would normally do, in a tactical situation, to protect themselves.

CANDIOTTI: Before the attack, Gadoo took these pictures of the Marine compound -- virtually open access and only sandbags in front of their barracks.

At 6:20 on a quiet Sunday morning, Gadoo and Jordan barely escaped death. Jordan slept in that day, in a building near the barracks.

JORDAN: I had never heard a noise that loud in my car -- my whole career.

CANDIOTTI: A door that had been welded shut blew out and just missed Jordan. Gadoo was drinking coffee nearby.

GADOO: There was this enormous thud and about three seconds later, I could feel this heat drawing by face back. And a couple of seconds after that, the concussions from the blast just picked me up and threw me backwards about six feet.

CANDIOTTI: Jordan ran outside and saw Gadoo.

JORDAN: His eyes were like saucers. And I said, "Sergeant Gadoo, what's going on?"

GADOO: And I said the BLT is gone.

CANDIOTTI: The barracks pancaked top to bottom.

GADOO: And I looked and what had been four stories of building was now about a story-and-a-half of just, you know, rubble.

CANDIOTTI: The bomber had hit his target. In his log book that bloody chaotic day, Marine Spokesman Jordan had time only to write a simple entry.

JORDAN: Sunday, 23 October, 0620. Truck bomb destroys BLT.

CANDIOTTI: After about six months, the Marines were pulled out of Lebanon, to many vets' chagrin.

JORDAN: They were testing us and guess what? We didn't fail militarily, we failed politically and culturally.

CANDIOTTI: That mission began the same way the current one has.

GADOO: Doing the job that we're trained to do, non-combat evacuations. But when they start talking about sending them in as peacekeepers again in that area, we just don't think that that's a very good idea.

JORDAN: Until the Hezbollah is forced to disarm, we're going to have to -- we're going to continue having this over and over again.

CANDIOTTI: The U.S. insists its forces will not join any possible multinational force. If things change, Marine vets of the Beirut bombing want the rules of engagement to be completely different.

JORDAN: They remember what happened to the Marines in Beirut and they're not going to let that happen again.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, this weekend, "CNN Presents" takes a dramatic look at lessens learned from the 1983 attack in Lebanon, plus how this war-torn country's political atmosphere has changed over the years. "The Marine Barracks Bombing," a special "CNN PRESENTS," airs Saturday and Sunday nights, 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

More "LIVE FROM" in just a moment.

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PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush welcomed some real talent into the White House today. And Harry Potter bearing it all? Some of the entertainment headlines this Friday.

CNN's Brooke Anderson joins us with the latest. Hey, Brooke.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra.

You know, it's the American way. You win the popular vote, you go to the White House. Well, "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks and his fellow finalists won't be there long today. They will get to spend some time with President Bush in the Oval Office. And it all started with a personal connection Hicks has with the White House. His ninth grade teacher in Birmingham, Alabama, just happens to be Laura Bush's press secretary. Now, she was the first person to suggest a White House visit from the finalist.

Hicks collected 63 million votes when he won "Idol," a slightly higher number of ballots than the president received in 2004. The president, who has not said if he's a fan of the show, only that he's aware of it, will greet the top ten finishers from the program. They will then take the stage tonight in D.C. as part of their concert tour.

Now, second place finisher Katharine McPhee will also be on hand in the West Wing after recovering from an illness. McPhee had missed some stops on the "American Idol" tour, due to a nasty bout of bronchitis and laryngitis. Her health actually made national news after she admitted to battling bulimia and anorexia for years before getting help.

The "American Idol" tour continues around the country through the end of September.

Daniel Radcliffe, the actor many know as Harry Potter, is shedding his Hogwarts robes, literally, for a new role. The 17-year- old actor is taking his clothes for his London stage debut. Radcliffe will play a disturbed boy in "Equus." The role calls for him, in one scene, to be naked and on a horse. Radcliffe's spokeswoman says he is looking forward to the role. Also, Tony Award-winning actor Richard Griffiths, who plays Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon in the Potter movies, will co-star. The production is reportedly said to open in late February. Harry Potter, all grown up.

All right, tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," scary skinny. Why some of Hollywood's biggest stars are obsessed with being incredibly thin. But have they gone too far? A special look at Hollywood's obsession with body image. That's on TV's most provocative entertainment news show, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," 11:00 p.m. Eastern. That's 8:00 Pacific. CNN Headline Prime, we hope to see you then.

Kyra, back it you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Brooke.

Well, Tour de France champ Floyd Landis speaks out. How does he explain his alleged high levels of testosterone during the turning point of the race? LIVE FROM returns right after this.

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