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Colorado Paper Prints E-mails John Mark Karr Traded With Professor; Screening Teachers; Lebanon's Transition

Aired August 18, 2006 - 13:59   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More twists and some twisted e-mails, but did John Mark Karr really kill JonBenet Ramsey? For investigators in Boulder, Colorado, Karr's confession compounds confusion in a case that's stymied cops for almost 10 years.
Our Ed Lavandera is in Boulder.

Ed, it just seems like it's getting more and more difficult.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is, and I hope people will bear with us as we sift through all of these -- all of these e- mails and information.

You know, we talked a lot yesterday about this journalism professor at the University of Colorado who had been exchanging e- mails with John Karr over the last two years. We believe he was -- he turned those e-mails over to authorities. And because of that, authorities were able to track him down in Thailand.

Now, yesterday, the professor wouldn't really give out any of the details of the contents of those e-mails, but the "Rocky Mountain News" newspaper obtaining several of them and publishing some of those excerpt this morning in the newspaper. I want to read a couple of them to you.

This is an e-mail that John Karr had sent to that professor, Michael Tracey, talking about the movie called "Finding Neverland," which is about the author of "Peter Pan."

In it, he writes, "I can only say," Karr wrote, "that I can relate very well to children and the way they think and feel. I think you are asking if I am much a Peter Pan. In many ways, the answer is yes. In other ways, I suppose it is no because I am trapped in a world that does not understand."

So, hard to make sense of exactly what all of this is about. But, you know, we throw it out there and people can kind of get a sense of what was going on behind the scenes over the -- over the last couple years.

Another e-mail is from Professor Tracey, and asks John Karr if -- about the way he was raised, about the way his developments sexually and the role his mother might have -- might have played in that.

Karr responded, "Michael, I will not discuss my sexuality as if it is a psychological disorder from the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.' In my case, I disagree with that totally, and if this is to be the way we progress in discussing it, I might as well stop while I am ahead."

In another e-mail, Karr is sort of getting a little bit suspicious of what this professor was asking him. In fact, he was at one point worried about whether or not the professor husband had gotten a picture of him, clearly perhaps wondering if the professor was going to turn that information over to authorities, which also plays in well to what a prosecutor said here yesterday, that one of the reasons this came out perhaps sooner that they had hoped was that this flight risk, that perhaps John Karr had found out that they were on to his trail might have tried to leave Thailand or they might lose track of him.

So that's some of the information we're sifting through today. And it is, you know, on the surface, yes, even more confusing, I think, to what we've heard over the last 24 hours now.

PHILLIPS: Ed, is anybody saying to you this might be the wrong guy? You know there's been a lot of criticism within the past couple days that something's not right. His mannerisms, what he's saying, how he's confessing, this obsession that he has with JonBenet, anybody coming to you saying, "You know what? It's very, very possible this is not the guy"? He's not an innocent guy, by all means, but he may not be involved with JonBenet's murder.

LAVANDERA: Well, no one from the prosecutor's office. They have been extremely tight-lipped.

I think you got a good indication of how they're handling this situation, if anyone saw that press conference yesterday from the district attorney, where they basically repeatedly said over and over that they weren't going to answer any questions about the details of this. So, we haven't heard this, but there's definitely a sense in that cautious approach that they have taken publicly to this case and saying that they're still investigating this, that there's still a lot of work to do, that they have an investigator on the ground in Thailand.

You definitely get the sense that, you know, weeding out what is truth and what is not truth is definitely what is going on right now behind the scenes.

PHILLIPS: Ed Lavandera in Boulder.

Thanks, Ed.

Regardless of Karr's role in the Ramsey case, his emerging portrait is unnerving, even in Bangkok, Thailand, notorious for its sex trade. Karr worked as a teacher there in at least two elementary schools.

CNN's Stan Grant has the latest now from there.

Stan, what do we know about if he possibly could have been tied into that sex trade? STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, well, we know looking at the past here of John Karr that there were these allegations of being involved with child pornography, we also know that there is a thriving child sex trade here in Asia, and particularly in Thailand. More and more detail coming to light of the movements of John Karr over the past couple of years.

He had been traveling extensively throughout the area and had come into Bangkok in June from Malaysia. He applied for jobs in two separate schools.

I have the application here, his application for employment. It lists things such as his qualifications, his experience. It also lists references (ph).

Now, he did not get a job at one of these private Catholic schools. The other one hired him on what they call a two-week trial.

They describe him as being clean cut and polite. But they also saw him as being too strict with discipline and prone to outbursts, and they did not employ him fully after that two-week trial.

Now, in the meantime, there are questions being raised about the caliber of teachers, the type of people who can slip through the knit. Most questions are being raised by the general, the head of the police force here in Thailand.

This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many international (INAUDIBLE), you know, coming up. And then they try to hire cheap teachers, you know? Maybe sometime tourist. You know, just drop by and then apply to be a teacher, and then they didn't check for the background, their background. So they are accepted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: That was the general of police here in Thailand raising questions about the background checks of the teachers who come here, teachers like John Karr.

Now, what we know of John Karr at the moment is he's being held here in a cell here behind me. We know that his visa has been revoked. He will be sent from Thailand.

In the meantime, negotiations are going on as to when that will happen. Ann Hurst (ph), an Immigration and Customs official here, had visited Karr a little bit earlier in the day. She left about an hour or so ago.

Upon leaving, she said that she found him to be doing fine. She said that he will be moved out of here by "the end of the week." She didn't say whether or not that would be in a commercial flight. But she did say he will be moved out of here at the end of the week. She wouldn't be drawn on some of these new accusations, allegations, some of the holes that are being punched into Karr's story, but she did say that he'll be moved out of here on his way back to the United States by the end of the week -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Stan Grant, thanks.

Well, we assume our schools check the backgrounds of the people who want to be teachers, but do they?

Susan Candiotti found out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before Rafael Serrano can be a substitute teacher in Miami.

RAFAEL SERRANO: I just hadn't never given much thought.

CANDIOTTI: He learns this lesson. No fingerprints, no criminal background check, no job. His prints will be cross checked with databases in all 50 states, 10 percent of all teacher job candidates come back with positive hits.

SERRANO: Especially in my case, I'm going to be working with young children, I think it's very important that they do a background check. I don't feel in any way violated in any way.

CANDIOTTI: No system is fool proof. For example, in Miami, once teachers pass, there is no required follow-up unless they leave and want their job back.

JOHN SCHUSTER, MIAMI-DADE SCHOOL DISTRICT: People must self- report any crime that they are accused of, so that if someone after employment is actually involved in a crime, they must report it to their supervisor or they risk losing their job.

CANDIOTTI: Despite all the attention on child predators, there's no single way school districts check teacher's backgrounds. Thirty- nine states require or authorize state and FBI background checks of teachers including fingerprinting. Nine states provide for state background checks. However Indiana, Massachusetts and Tennessee have no policy on fingerprinting, according to a national certification group.

President Bush recently signed the Adam Walsh Act allowing fingerprint checks of national crime databases, but only if individual state education agencies ask for it.

It's a crime not to make sure that our kids are safe, and for these school districts, for these states that aren't doing it, they should be accountable for allowing this to happen without doing background checks. It's unacceptable.

CANDIOTTI: One study done for the U.S. Department of Education says nearly one of every ten students reports some form of sexual misconduct by teachers, administrators, or coaches during their high school years. But that misconduct doesn't necessarily show up in a database.

CHAROL SHAKESHAFT, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: The problem that most teachers have never been charged or convicted of sexual based crimes so that if you did a background check on them, you wouldn't necessarily turn anybody up.

CANDIOTTI: Some schools have gone beyond checking teachers. Example: Florida's Jessica Lunsford Act, named after a little girl kidnapped, raped, and killed by a sex predator.

(on camera): The law requires criminal background checks of anyone who works at schools, even those who don't come in close contact with children including construction workers and those who restock vending machines.

(voice-over): One more way to make schools safer from those looking for any opportunity to get closer to children and do them harm.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Susan is going to join me live next hour with some new details on John Mark Karr. Catch more of her reports on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," weeknights at 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

Transition time for Beirut and points south. Just a few weeks ago, who would have predicted the state of the city of Lebanon today, the need to recover from a devastating conflict. They call it a new reality.

CNN's Jim Clancy is with me now.

Hey, Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A new reality, perhaps, in Beirut. But when we look at the south of Lebanon, it was memories and pain recalled.

The town of Qana, a biblical town of great significance, a town of sorrow today in Lebanon. Funerals held for some 29 people killed in an Israeli bombing raid at the end of July. Fifteen children and 14 adults laid to rest. Also buried today, at least two Hezbollah fighters.

Some of the coffins were draped in the Hezbollah flag, other in the Lebanese flag. Pictures of the victims all shown there. Qana, of course, in the words of one of the residents in that village, became a symbol for the world of what was seen as excessive force being used by Israel and its bombing raids against Lebanon after the kidnapping of two of its soldiers inside Israeli earlier in July.

All of the victims were buried in a mass grave. Meantime, back in Beirut, Hezbollah working hard to win back the trust of the people whose homes were damaged or destroyed during that conflict that many say it started. And Hezbollah going straight to the source, relying on cold cash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY (voice over): Counting it out: 120 not exactly crisp $100 bills. That's $12,000 being handed out by Hezbollah to every household in Beirut's southern suburbs whose home was destroyed in the war with Israel. And yes, Hezbollah prefers working in U.S. dollars.

"I registered one day, and two days later they called me to come and get paid," said a smiling resident. Adding, "This is something really nice. God bless them, and long live Sayed Hassan and the guys," referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his followers.

If the damage was widespread and devastating, Hezbollah's grassroots organization is damage control with uncommon efficiency everywhere. Aid groups report that when they reached stranded villagers in southern Lebanon for the first time this week, they found Hezbollah had already been there. Residents were happy to take more handouts, but flatly said Hezbollah had already met their needs.

As Lebanese sign up for the $12,000 payout, nobody asks, where is the money coming from? Political sources here tell CNN Iran furnished between $600 million and $700 million for Hezbollah's immediate use. Some see the avalanche of cash as evidence Iran and Hezbollah are going overboard to erase the bad memories of a conflict they ignited.

In Lebanon, $12,000 is a huge sum, more than most workers even make in a year, and far beyond the actual cost of rent and furniture. Hezbollah's opponents also complain that the handouts further undermine the elected government. More than humanitarian aid, it's political subterfuge.

"I don't believe that if the money went to the Lebanese government the suburbs would be rebuilt," this man said. There's more confidence in the Hezbollah than in the government.

Another told us, "The money might be coming from other countries, but as long as Hezbollah aims to help people, there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all."

That may be fodder for debate, but Hezbollah is pulling the carpet out from under its critics, not with promises, but with cold cash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now, an interesting note, Kyra. Down in the south of Lebanon, I am told that U.S. aid is worthless. Why? Aid groups won't accept it.

They say that the U.S. can't pay for the bombs for Israel to bomb them on the one hand and then buy back their affection on the other with its cash donations. So a very disturbing, some would say, situation now facing the people of Lebanon are being really played out here in what is increasingly seen as a global or at least regional power play between the U.S. and Iran.

PHILLIPS: Jim Clancy in Beirut.

Jim, thanks.

Well, no matter how cluttered the political radar, Pyongyang is always on it. The Pentagon pinpoints a new nuclear development.

We'll have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Nuclear worries and North Korea. Here we go again.

LIVE FROM goes to the Pentagon and CNN's Barbara Starr.

Barbara, what's the latest from there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, about a week ago, U.S. intelligence analysts were poring over a piece of imagery taken from either a satellite or a U-2 type aircraft of North Korea and they saw something that caught them by surprise. At a suspected underground North Korean nuclear test site, they saw some new materials, some new activity on the ground.

What sources are telling CNN is that they saw that there were a number of piles of cables and wires and also some suspicious vehicle activity. What it all means, however, and what the North Koreans might actually be up to is another matter.

Analysts say those cables and wires could be used to wire a site, so if there is an underground nuclear test, the North Korean technicians, of course, could monitor it from some distance away. But it's always the same issue with North Korea. No one can really be certain of what their intentions are.

So, while this has caught analysts by surprise, while they are watching it very, very carefully, they aren't yet drawing any firm conclusions about whether these signs mean that North Korea is actually preparing for its first nuclear test -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So, how worried is the Pentagon?

STARR: Well, you know, when it comes to North Korea, they are always concerned. You'll recall just around the July 4th weekend, North Korea somewhat unexpectedly had quite a series of missile launches. The U.S. had been watching carefully for those, wasn't sure when North Korea would do it, and then they suddenly did. So, there is a track record here.

One of the theories in the intelligence community is those missile tests didn't go well for North Korea, so this is sort of their last card to play to get world attention for themselves. So there is concern now that that might be their motivation, but, again, nobody can really say.

PHILLIPS: Barbara, thanks.

Stopping the traffic, not yet stopping the violence. A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad just as a two-day ban on vehicles and motorcycles went into effect. One person is dead, five wounded. This weekend marks an annual pilgrimage for Shiite Muslims, and Iraqi leaders are trying to keep the bombings and shootings to a minimum.

Well, the daily, deadly out-of-control violence would have you believe that all of Iraq is divided on religious lines, but that isn't entirely true.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports from a mixed neighborhood where the differences disappear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Under a portrait of one of the most revered holy men in his faith, Imam Hussein Sadoon Munjid (ph) cradles his newborn grandson. His family gathered around to celebrate a joyful moment.

It is a respite from the tension that comes from living in a city racked by suicide bombings and kidnappings. His home a cocoon of safety in times of war.

Sadoon and his wife Mulkia (ph) are Shia Muslims. They have lived for 22 years in this apartment complex in Baghdad, sharing moments of happiness and sorrow with their neighbors. Neighbors like Amira, one of Mulkia's (ph) closest friends, and her husband, Mujit (ph), who are Sunni.

The sectarian differences that have racked Iraq, pitting Sunnis against Shias, are nowhere to be found here. The two women have seen each other's children grow up and they share the same fears about their futures.

A few months ago, Amira had to change her oldest son Omar's (ph) name to the Shia name Ahmed (ph). His Sunni name made him a potential target for Shia death squads.

AMIRA, SUNNI NEIGHBOR (through translator): He travels through many checkpoints. We don't know if they're real or fake. That's why I changed his name to Ahmed (ph).

WHITBECK: Next door, Sadoon and Mulkia (ph) understand their neighbor's fears, but they don't really understand the sectarian violence.

SADOON, SHIA NEIGHBOR (through translator): This is something new. I never heard problems between Shias and Sunnis. My father used to make tea outside the house and invite all the neighbors, and I never heard anyone ask the other if he was a Sunni or a Shia.

WHITBECK: Munjid (ph) says religious differences are no reason for war.

AL NAEIB, SUNNI NEIGHBOR: We are Muslims. And any kind of Muslim doesn't believe in these things, killing or trying to kidnap people or doing harm to another Muslim.

WHITBECK: In these two homes, even if for just a short while, the war seems far away.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, if it seems no place on earth is safe from the shadow of terrorism, here is more proof that you're right.

Security is tight today at the seemingly serene Taj Mahal. Indians say they received a letter purportedly from al Qaeda threatening to blow up the 17th century landmark. Similar letters have turned out to be hoaxes, but police aren't taking any chances. A series of train bombings in India last month killed 207 people.

In our CNN "Security Watch," another scare in the sky. An airliner en route from London to Egypt landed in Italy today amid fears that there might be a bomb on board. It seems that a bomb threat was written on an air sick bag that turned up in the passenger cabin of an Excel Airways 767. The plane landed safely in Brindisi, no explosives were found, and authorities signaled the all clear.

All clear on the bottled water and the face of lotion, both from the carry-on bag from a woman who tried to board a plane at Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia. This time yesterday we were telling you that the airport was closed because the water and lotion had initially tested positive for explosives. The terminal was empty for hours, eight flights were canceled, but later tests came back negative.

The woman's bag was returned and she boarded a later flight.

Creepy, no doubt, but guilty of killing JonBenet? John Mark Karr, his statements and e-mails interpreted by two private investigators who have been on the case for years straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, finally a decision in a landmark tobacco lawsuit. Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange to answer a question that's not as easy as it seems.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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