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Paula Zahn Now
Terror Attacks Strike London; Crime Pits Neighbor Against Neighbor; Miracle Baby; Bounty Hunter Error; Judge Roberts' Son
Aired July 21, 2005 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Glad to have you with us tonight.
Exactly two weeks after a series of deadly attacks, once again, terror takes aim at London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): In London, explosions and fear, a second wave of subways attacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, suddenly, I saw a guy running from the stairs and then people chasing him.
ZAHN: And troubling new questions. Will we just have to learn with terror?
Plus, this could happen where you were live. A shocking crime pits neighbor against neighbor.
CHARLES DUNAWAY, RESIDENT: If the borders had been tightened up a long time ago, this wouldn't have happened.
ZAHN: And brings in the Ku Klux Klan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And hoping against hope for a miracle to help this woman give birth to the child she'll never know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And we begin tonight with the new attacks in London, four attempted bombings, seemingly a carbon copy of what happened exactly two weeks ago, except, fortunately, for the results, bombs in three subway stations and one double-decker bus.
As you can see on this map, today's attacks were much more spread out than the bombings two weeks ago, much less deadly. No one was killed this time.
Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to reassure his people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We know why these things are done. They're done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried. I think we have just got to react calmly and continue with our business as much as possible as normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: So, the critical question tonight is whether what happened today is in way connected to the attacks just two weeks ago.
Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One bus and three underground trains, this attack strikingly similar to the multiple bombings exactly two weeks ago. London is again left struggling with an attack in the heart of their city. It began at lunchtime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It started to smell like rubber or wire. And it got a bit worse. And then, suddenly, people were -- started screaming and shouting and running to get -- to get to the -- to the second carriage.
ROBERTSON: An incident was reported at the Oval Underground station south of the river. Seven minutes later, ambulances were called to Warren Street station in the city center. And soon after that, the police responded to an incident at Shepherd's Bush station. Within minutes, a bus in East London had its windows blown out in an explosion the bus driver described as small.
SIR IAN BLAIR, LONDON METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER: In each of these scenes, attempts have been made to set off explosive devices.
ROBERTSON: The striking difference between these attacks and two weeks ago, no one killed, no one seriously injured, but no doubt the intent of the attack.
BLAIR: Clearly, the intention must have been to kill. You don't do this with -- with any other intention.
ROBERTSON: Also, unlike the attacks of two weeks ago, the bombers appear to have survived and are even now on the run.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, suddenly, I saw a guy running from the stairs and then people chasing him, really. And I was carrying two bags, so I couldn't really do anything.
ROBERTSON: And not only did the terrorists survive; some of their bombs failed to fully detonate, leaving police critical evidence about the explosives they didn't get last time.
RICHARD BRYAN, ASSISTANT POLICE COMMISSIONER: It looks as though we've got some forensic recovery from this series of events today. And that's a very important breakthrough for us.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Should I read into that, then, that some of the bombs didn't explode, therefore, your forensic evidence?
BRYAN: I wouldn't read anything into it. But if we have unexploded devices, clearly, that's an important breakthrough for us.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): What sort of explosives or why the bombs didn't go off, they won't say.
(on camera): If the two attacks are related, it could radically reshape and refocus the police investigation.
(voice-over): As one source told me, if the same bombs were used in both attacks and it was homemade TATP, which has a limited shelf life, and if the explosives in both attacks were brewed in the same batch, it's quite conceivable that these bombs were too old to detonate. The police appear far from jumping to that conclusion just yet. But any similarity will help their investigation.
BLAIR: There's a resonance here, isn't there? I mean, these are four attacks. There were four attacks before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And, of course, the other big clue for police here are those bombers who are on the run. Now, the police do think that perhaps they can get them, that their investigation is going quite quickly, Paula.
ZAHN: So, Nic, they made a couple of arrests today. Are they directly connected to these attempted bombings?
ROBERTSON: They're not saying.
In fact, in the last half-an-hour, we've heard that one of the people arrested, arrested close to one of the tube stations, the Warren Street tube station, where one of the bombs went off, he has been released in the last hour or so.
The other man who was arrested outside of Downing Street, very close to Tony Blair's office, the prime minister, he is still in police detention. But police won't say -- they're saying it's unclear if he's linked to the bombings. But it does seem unlikely, because Downing Street is not close to any of those sites where the bombs went off, Paula.
ZAHN: I was surprised to hear what you said and some of the investigators about the pace of this investigation, because often investigators like to tamp down expectations. But they seem to be moving quickly on this.
ROBERTSON: Indeed. They -- they gave us the impression this afternoon at a press conference about 6:00 p.m. London time that, maybe even by the end of the evening, they might have pictures taken from close-circuit security camera, from security cameras. They might have pictures of the bombers that they could release. They do want to get those images out.
But it's the very fact that there's much more information that was preserved, because the bombs didn't go off, that they feel is really going to propel this particular investigation forward more quickly, an advantage that they didn't have with those attacks two weeks ago, Paula.
ZAHN: I guess, at this point, as we can tell from your reporting, that we have to do a lot of reading between the lines. They wouldn't confirm even in your last interview, would they, whether these were in fact unexploded devices?
ROBERTSON: They were -- the police really play this very, very close to their chest. The principle they're operating under is, they will release information if they think it helps them, that is, if they think it will assuage people's fears there could be more attacks.
They won't release information if they can use that against the bombers that they're trying to catch. They won't say, for example, if they had arrested one of the bombers, because they want -- they don't want to let the other bombers know that. So, there's a lot of information they will play very, very close to their chest, Paula.
ZAHN: How much help, briefly, in closing here, are they getting from the public?
ROBERTSON: They say that they have had thousands of calls on the hot line, at least from the attacks two weeks ago. They were making a major part of their press conference today focused on their new Web site appealing to people to -- to provide them video, provide them photographs from telephones and such like -- they -- they said that it's been very, very good so far. Vigilance has been good, they've said, and response from the public very good so far, Paula.
ZAHN: Well, you've been on the story for almost 12 hours now. Thank you so much for this latest update. It's been a long day for everyone there in London. Thanks, Nic.
Time to see now what the second round of attacks in two weeks has done to the mental state of people in London.
Joining me now, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
We have seen that some Londoners are just beginning the process of reclaiming their lives after the bombings of two weeks ago. How did they react to this second blow?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can imagine, in the actual areas that were affected and certainly underground, there was fear, there was panic, there was confusion.
But, again, people have gotten on with it again. And people who we have talked to have said, look, this is our life. This is our city. We have got to carry on, whether we like it or not.
I think people are wondering what the last two weeks meant. With all this police presence, with all this surveillance, with all this attention, how did these would-be bombers get through? And I think also people are also thinking that they were very, very lucky. If it transpires, as the police are suggesting, that these were faulty devices or that they did not explode, that means a really bad situation was avoided.
ZAHN: And, in spite of arrests made today, did you see any palpable sense of fear that perhaps other suspects are still on the loose tonight?
AMANPOUR: Well, that is obviously the fear.
If these were not suicide bombers, as the police have suggested, because there were no deaths, then where are they? And people are really concerned about where these people might be. And obviously, the police are concerned about where they might be, because it may mean that there may be more attacks.
And people have already told us, analysts, our own security consultants here, that perhaps London may have to live with another round of these kinds of attacks, as London did during the IRA bombings. I mean, it seems incredible to say, but people are already saying, maybe this is something that is going to be part of Londoners' lives for a while.
ZAHN: Just as the endless sound of sirens behind you tonight.
Let's talk about a little bit -- any perceived backlash against the Muslim community here in the wake of a second round of attacks? Have you seen that?
AMANPOUR: Not yet. And there wasn't that much last time, although there were a few incidents. But the fact of the matter is that the police, that the mayor, that the prime minister, they need the Muslim community and they have called on the Muslim community to kill this ideology from within. It simply isn't going to work unless they do it, unless they deny these people sanctuary from within their own communities. And that is what they hope will happen.
But that is, I think, going to be a very long-term process.
ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it.
And, as you probably expect, it took very little time for the fear caused by the attempted bombings in London to cross over here from the Atlantic. Just a few hours after they happened, the military increased security at the Pentagon. And the police in New York announced they would start randomly searching bags and backpacks on the city subways.
Here's Deborah Feyerick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Within minutes of the London attacks, New York City's top cop was already in the loop. And that mean the mayor was, too.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: The police commissioner has talked to our police officer in London. They're just getting information.
FEYERICK: And it's not just in London, but in Israel and Iraq and Spain. New York City cops overseas on the ground and gathering intelligence vital to a city that has been attacked or targeted at least half-a-dozen times in the last 15 years.
Security expert Brian Jenkins says intelligence, especially for police, is critical in the age of terror.
BRIAN JENKINS, RAND CORPORATION: The ability to transfer information from one part of the world to another very rapidly is extremely important in dealing with a fast-moving enemy.
FEYERICK: It's the kind of information that affects how many police are deployed, where they're stationed and what kind of threat they're facing -- New York cops talking to other cops in other countries, just like they did in Spain.
RAYMOND KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: We had our investigator in Madrid that day. He responded from the Middle East. We had additional investigators there the next day. So, they were very cooperative, the Spanish authorities, with the New York City detectives. And it helped us.
FEYERICK: In some cases, the NYPD even helping on international cases, like the arrest of London Sheik Abu Hamza al-Masri last year.
KELLY: The detective and special agent developed an excellent working relationship with cooperative sources. That was essential in breaking this case.
FEYERICK: It's a police strategy with an ever-changing game plan based on the latest intelligence, like this newest security measure for New York subways and trains stemming from the London attacks, random bag checks.
KELLY: Every certain number of people will be checked. It won't be done on a -- certainly, no racial profiling will be allowed. It is against our policies. But it will be a systemized approach to checking bags.
FEYERICK: Since 9/11, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, a former Marine, has revamped the NYPD. Counterterrorism and intelligence units that had never existed before are now key. Teams of investigators scour city businesses, gathering intelligence, anything out of the ordinary. And heavily armed teams often patrol sensitive areas and potential targets -- a city safer, though, admittedly, not invulnerable.
KELLY: No guarantee. There are no guarantees in the post-9/11 world. But we're very proactive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Chilling thought that none of us really likes to think about, that there are no guarantees. Deborah Feyerick reporting. Let's get more now on the security situation from CNN security analyst Pat D'Amuro, a former FBI assistant director who has led several terror investigations, including the 9/11 attacks. He's now chairman and CEO of Giuliani Security and Safety.
Welcome.
PAT D'AMURO, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: And welcome to the CNN team.
We know that our intelligence has improved. We know that security has been beefed up across the country. There might still be some remaining vulnerabilities. But the picture is much I -- I -- I would suspect you would agree, safer now than...
D'AMURO: Yes.
ZAHN: Than pre-9/11.
But if some guy wants to blow himself up and a lot of people with him, you can't really stop him, can you?
D'AMURO: It's very difficult. The lone wolf, as we call him, would be the most difficult person to try to prevent from carrying out that type of attack.
In fact, you can go back to 1997. There was just such a situation in New York, where an individual was going to strap pipe bombs to himself and go into the subway system and blow himself up. That was prevented by a source that made a call to law enforcement and that event was actually precluded from happening.
ZAHN: So, what are the lessons the United States can learn from studying what happened today in London and what happened exactly two weeks ago?
D'AMURO: Well, I think the first thing we have to understand is that this isn't something that is going to be dealt with in the short term. This is going to be with us for some time to come.
The United States has taken tremendous efforts to try to improve security. We still have a long way to go. I think technology is going to be an important key to improving that type of security in all modes of transportation.
ZAHN: But we knew that this problem was -- is a problem we had to live with.
D'AMURO: Right.
ZAHN: The startling thing about today, the amount of time that is invested In doing profiles on potential terrorist suspects out there, or people who -- who may do harm down the road and knowing, like today, they don't seem to fit any kind of pattern. D'AMURO: Well, they didn't. And the bombers two weeks ago were outside of the pattern of what a suicide bomber would be profiled as. But I think the important thing to -- to realize is that this is a changing evolution for al Qaeda and for other terrorists groups that have really appeared on the scene since 9/11.
When we look at what's occurred since 9/11, with the number of different terrorist organizations popping up, you look at Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, Ansar Al-Islam in the northern Kurdish areas, all these groups had one thing in common. Those were the training camps in Afghanistan.
And they're all Sunni extremists, and they all wish to do harm to the United States.
ZAHN: The question is, is al Qaeda here in some form, perhaps even a sleeper cell form, in the United States?
D'AMURO: The number one mission of the FBI today is to identify those sleeper cells in the United States and prevent the next attack. Are there individuals here that have an affiliation with al Qaeda? I believe there probably are. There are numerous investigations still under way to try to determine if there's connectivity to individuals that may be affiliated with al Qaeda and are these individual here to cause us harm?
ZAHN: In the meantime, you hear a great debate in Washington right now that, while we have improved airline security, it has been at the expense of perhaps railroad security. Do you believe -- with that assessment?
D'AMURO: I think they need to pay more attention to some other modes of transportation, yes.
And al Qaeda has made it very clear that the -- the sectors they wish to attack in the United States are the financial sectors and the transportation nodes. That's not just airlines. And it will also be subways, trains and other modes of transportation in this country. Go back to the threats of blowing up the tunnels in New York back after the first World Trade Center.
ZAHN: So, let's talk about some of the new security precautions being taken in New York. Is that going to make any difference at all, where backpacks now will be randomly searched?
D'AMURO: Any change you have to security, to increase it and change it at different times will throw al Qaeda or other terrorist groups off. They will see those changes. They will be concerned and they may delay an event.
ZAHN: You're a guy who has spent almost every minute of the last 15, 20 years worried about this subject. How concerned are you that the U.S. gets hit again?
D'AMURO: I'm very concerned. I think -- it's a matter of time. We know that al Qaeda and other groups wish to attack the United States. We can see that they're now attacking in Europe. And they'll continue their efforts to try to attack us here.
ZAHN: Not pleasant things to talk about, but important for all us to confront.
Pat D'Amuro, thank you very much.
D'AMURO: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: And, once again, glad to have you part of our team.
Still ahead, suspicion and fear in the U.S. heartland, but not because of terrorism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Racial integration has always caused racial tension, no matter throughout history, throughout every country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Coming up, the Ku Klux Klan moves into a Midwestern town, and the shocking reason some people don't mind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Coming up, a father's heartbreak, his brain-dead wife and a race against time to save their unborn child.
We're going to get to that story right after Erica Hill at HEADLINE NEWS, who updates today's other top stories right now.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula.
We're going to start off actually in Washington. The Pentagon's first mandatory report to Congress painting a picture of how things are going in Iraq. It does find progress is being made, but not nearly enough Iraqis have been trained to take on the job done by U.S. troops. The report says, of the 171,000 Iraqi security forces, just 2,500 are fit to fight the insurgents are their own.
Meantime, some griping from Saddam Hussein today. At a court hearing, the former dictator complained he hasn't been allowed enough meetings with his lawyers. He also called his arrest and detention -- quote -- "a game" and ridiculed the new Iraqi government.
Pakistan's president not too happy about reports linking London's terrorist bombings to his country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTANI PRESIDENT: We certainly have a problem here, which we're trying to address very strongly. But may I say that England also has a problem which needs to be addressed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: General Musharraf says Britain should have banned Islamic extremist groups.
Back stateside, a well-built tunnel, more than three footballs fields long and complete with lighting, was discovered in Lynden, Washington, near the Canadian border. Government agents from both sides actually watched as the alleged marijuana smugglers finished their digging and swooped in for the arrests.
Just what would you say for a Ted Kaczynski souvenir? Seems like an odd question, but we're learning it is a legal one. A federal court has cleared the way for the government to sell the Unabomber's books, clothing and other belongings, as long as money from those sales goes into a fund for his victims. Kaczynski is in prison for life, after a 20-year bombing spree.
And if you love Paris when it sizzles, my friends, this is the time for you. France, like the most of U.S., in the grip of a heat wave that has triggered water restrictions with a few exceptions here and there, but a little toasty in the City of Lights, Paula.
ZAHN: So, you know what I saw today in New York that I haven't seen since I left the Chicago area as a kid? I actually saw someone a block away from CNN frying an egg on the sidewalk today.
HILL: You actually -- see, I've never seen it. I've only heard about it.
ZAHN: Wasn't fully cooked by the time I got to it, but that's how miserable it's been.
HILL: Interesting. Maybe you can go back tomorrow for lunch.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: No, thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: I'll just watch.
HILL: There you go.
ZAHN: Check out his skill. See you in about a half-hour or so.
Still ahead, what would you say if a Ku Klux Klansman moved into your town?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Are you a little scared?
RAMONA RAMIREZ, RESIDENT: Well, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Coming up, a town has to cope with a horrible crime and now racial tension. Could it happen where you live?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: You may be shocked to learn that, in 2005, the Ku Klux Klan still exists, still stoking fear and racism, but adapting to some new circumstances and focusing on new targets.
Well, now a community in Ohio is experiencing the Klan's hate firsthand. And Alina Cho went there to find out why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): In Hamilton, Ohio, population 70,000, around 10 percent Hispanic, race was never an issue, say residents, until one incident, one rape, changed everything.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PHILLIP SAULS, FATHER: This man just raped my daughter. She's only 9 years old.
911 OPERATOR: OK, where are you?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CHO: The little girl who was raped is white, the alleged perpetrator Hispanic.
SAULS: It used to be that blacks and whites didn't like each other. Now it's the whites and blacks who don't like the Mexicans.
CHO: Phillip Sauls is the victim's father.
SAULS: Not all of them did it. You know, I blame one man individually.
CHO: But after talking with many people in Hamilton, Sauls may be in the minority. Days after the attack, the home where the alleged rapist lived, across the street from the young girl, went up in flames. Vandals spray-painted this on the front.
Then the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity, passing out flyers like these, along with a photo of the suspect, these inflammatory words: "The time is now to stand against this and cleanse our country of this brown flood."
JARRED HENSLEY, IMPERIAL KLANS OF AMERICA: I mean, all the Hispanics and the nonwhites in general are just coming in and -- things like this happen and stuff. So, it needs to be taken care of before it is really too late and then happens a whole lot more.
CHO: The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors the Klan, says Jarred Hensley is with the Imperial Klans of America, one of the KKK's largest factions. He is 23, been a Klansman for five years, and says the only way to achieve peace is to keep America white.
Residents say part of what's fueling the racial tension here is that the alleged rapist is still at large. Hensley makes no bones about using that to target every Hispanic in the city.
HENSLEY: And if your child is raped or murdered, you're going to want -- and there's a group of people that's hiding them or sitting there and keeping them and he's being able to blend in, you are going to have to go after every single person until you find that one person.
CHO: At Los Pinos (ph), a grocery store in Hamilton, owner Ramona Ramirez says the city has changed since the rape. Streets that used to be full of people are now empty. Ramirez has lived in the United States for 19 years. All seven of her sons are American citizens.
(on camera): Are you a little scared?
R. RAMIREZ: Well, yes.
CHO: Even her 9-year-old son, Abel, is worried.
ABEL RAMIREZ, 9 YEARS OLD: This Mexican guy told me that -- that they're going to send us all back to Mexico.
DUNAWAY: If the borders have been tightened up a long time ago, this wouldn't happened.
CHO: Charles Dunaway (ph) lives down the street from where the 9- year-old girl was raped. He is friendly with the victim's family. Nevertheless, he's taking his family and moving out of the neighborhood.
(on camera): Why?
DUNAWAY: The community just went downhill.
CHO (voice-over): Dunaway says he doesn't blame the KKK for getting involved in a community he believes is becoming too much like a foreign country.
DUNAWAY: There was an ad in the paper here a while back wanting us to learn Spanish. I don't feel that's right. This is our community, you know. They should learn our language in order to be here.
CHO (on camera): But you think this whole thing is overblown?
LT. SCOTT SCRIMIZZI, HAMILTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes, I do, personally.
CHO (voice-over): Lieutenant Scott Scrimizzi of the Hamilton Police Department says the rape suspect is in the U.S. illegally, but he does not believe the community's anger is racially motivated.
SCRIMIZZI: I'm saying this is an isolated incident, that this is a sexual predator who just happened to be of Hispanic descent. CHO: Scrimizzi says there have been no incidents involving racism in the weeks since the rape, and that the KKK represents no one but itself.
(on camera): Then how do you explain this flyer?
SCRIMIZZI: That flyer is out of Amelia, Ohio.
CHO: OK.
SCRIMIZZI: Not anywhere locally.
CHO: But they've come here.
SCRIMIZZI: They have come here. Right.
CHO: So...
SCRIMIZZI: And the people in this neighborhood that I have talked to are outraged with this -- that someone who doesn't live in this city is trying to make something out of nothing.
CHO (voice-over): But ask the KKK's Jarred Hensley, and he'll say the problems are just beginning.
HENSLEY: I'll say that racial integration has always caused racial tension, throughout history, throughout every country. When one race stays with each other, most of the time it's a lot easier and a lot more peaceful.
CHO: As long as there are whites in this country, Hensley says, and in Hamilton, Ohio, there will always be the Klan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And that was Alina Cho reporting. If you were surprised that the Ku Klux Klan still exists -- consider this, you might even be more surprised by this next number. The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are now 762 active hate groups in the U.S. last year.
In a world where hatred, violence and death are so common, we found an extraordinary story about a man's determination to save the unborn child inside his brain-dead wife's body.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON TORRES, HUSBAND: I know for a fact that Susan would do whatever she needed to do just to give her child a chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Coming up next, the complication that might interfere with a medical miracle.
And a little bit later on -- we change our focus quite a bit, to the story of a bounty hunter's terrible but perfectly legal mistake. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Having a baby is supposed to be a time of great joy, great anticipation. But for one family in Virginia, it is a time of fear and anguish as they reach a critical milestone, hoping against the odds that their baby will survive.
Here's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susan and Jason Torres weren't too worried that in May, when she was three months pregnant with their second child, she started getting headaches.
JASON TORRES: We had gone around and gone to a couple of doctors and tried to figure stuff out. She was, you know, dehydrated and things like that. And so they said, you know, go home, feed her, you know, drink juice.
COHEN: So Jason took care of his wife, told her to lay down and rest. When he brought her something to eat...
JASON TORRES: She was laying in bed, and I was talking to her, trying to get her to eat some more, and then just, all of a sudden, she just stopped.
COHEN: On May 7, Susan had a massive stroke. The stroke and the headaches were caused by cancer, which had attacked her brain. The stroke left her brain-dead, with no chance of survival. But doctors could try to keep her body functioning on a ventilator to let her baby develop. The risk: The melanoma that attacked her brain could attack her baby.
DR. DAVID LAWSON, ONCOLOGIST: Once it's in the bloodstream, it can go almost anywhere, melanoma.
COHEN: Doctors had told Jason and his family about the risks facing his unborn child.
JUSTIN TORRES, JASON'S BROTHER: They were pretty frank, that, you know, that this is a very aggressive cancer, and that there are some outcomes here that are pretty bad.
COHEN: But he's willing to take those risks.
JASON TORRES: If you have a chance to save your child's life, you're going to do it. And I know for a fact that Susan would do whatever she needed to do just to give her child a chance.
COHEN: Doctors say making it this far is a crucial milestone, just past the 24th week, the earliest point the doctors think the baby could survive outside the womb. But they're hoping that if they can keep Susan pregnant until she's reached her seventh month, which would be early September, the baby will have a much better chance of survival.
JASON TORRES: Sounds kind of hackneyed, but one day at a time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So much for this family to have to endure here, Elizabeth. So on one hand, they say this baby could survive outside the mother's womb. On the other hand, the doctors say they would like to keep her pregnant for at least another eight weeks. If they successfully do that, does that increase this embryo's chances of contracting cancer?
COHEN: It absolutely does, Paula. A fetus at the gestational age of 24, 25 weeks has approximately a 70 percent chance of survival. If they can get the fetus up to 32 weeks, they've got more than a 95 percent chance of survival. That is, of course, a huge difference. Plus, babies that are born at 24, 25 weeks gestation often have lung problems and also often have long-term developmental problems. That doesn't usually happen when the baby is born after 32 weeks gestational age.
Now, of course the issue here is the cancer. It's a race against the cancer. The more time the baby is in her mother, the longer time that that cancer has a chance of crossing the placenta.
However, fortunately, studies show that when a mom has melanoma, which is the kind of cancer that Susan has, that usually it does not cross the placenta, and the baby's fine. So they are checking, they are doing different kinds of studies to see if indeed that melanoma is getting to the placenta, but chances are, if you look at the history of what's happened with other women, it won't.
ZAHN: I guess the most amazing thing to me is that Susan's, even in her brain-dead state, body is able to give life to this baby. It's extraordinary.
COHEN: It is extraordinary, because when we think about brain- dead in any other situation, to put it in sort of layman's terms, the plug would be pulled. You don't keep a brain-dead person alive, except in extremely unusual cases like this one, where the woman's body is gestating a baby. They can keep that baby going by putting the mom on a ventilator and keeping her lungs working, keeping blood circulating, getting oxygen to that baby.
However, there are some problems that are inherent in this situation. Early labor is sometimes a problem, as well as other issues. But what they can do, and they've done in several cases, is they give the mom, if she goes into early labor, drugs to keep the labor at bay, and that really has worked in many cases, and they have managed to get the baby quite far along.
ZAHN: But you've made it so clear, so cruel what this family faces. On one hand, what they hope will be the ultimate joy of holding a baby down the road, but at the same time, knowing that their going to have to say goodbye to Susan.
COHEN: That's right. They know that at the end of this Susan will not survive. We have talked to family members. They say that the family is really doing amazingly well under these circumstances.
They've recently done an ultrasound that shows that this baby is a girl and they are just taking it day by day. But we -- the family members say that they're really doing pretty well considering everything that's going well.
ZAHN: What a story. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for bringing it to us.
Coming up, a truly frightening case of mistaken identity. It was perfectly legal. Could it happen to you? Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Imagine answering the door late one night and finding a man there ready to handcuff you, haul you in for a crime you didn't even commit. And the guy at the door isn't even a police officer. Well, it happened to a woman in Rutherford, New Jersey and now she's suing her local police department and filing a civil rights complaint.
Jason Carroll has her frightening story in tonight's "People in the News."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their nightmare began with a knock at the front door.
JUAN CARLOS SANTANA, HUSBAND OF CLAUDIA: I walk downstairs and I see a flashing light thinking: Who could it be?
CLAUDIA SANTANA, VICTIM OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY: He was with a flashlight at my face. He said, are you Claudia Santana? And I said, yes.
CARROLL: Claudia Santana and her husband Juan Carlos say standing at the door, asking questions that night was William Whitaker.
WILLIAM WHITAKER, BOUNTY HUNTER: We're coming to the house for a reason. It's not we just pick your house out of the blue. It's not like we just picked you up out of the blue.
CARROLL: Whitaker is a bail enforcement agent; a bounty hunter. He showed up at Santana's home in Rutherford, New Jersey, armed with a gun and a mug shot of a woman who had skipped bail.
C. SANTANA: Enlarged in black and white.
J. SANTANA: Black and white.
C. SANTANA: So, it's grainy.
CARROLL (on camera): So, they were thinking that, that woman...
C. SANTANA: Is me.
J. SANTANA: Does not look anything like my wife.
C. SANTANA: I have a mark. A specific...
J. SANTANA: She has a mole. This person doesn't have it.
C. SANTANA: I was born with it.
CARROLL (voice-over): Whitaker was persistent. There were too many similarities between Santana and the woman in the picture who he identified as Claudia Rencone (ph), an alleged embezzler who often went by the name Claudia Santana.
WHITAKER: We asked her, how many children? She said she had two. Our defendant had two children. You follow what I'm saying. On our paperwork she matched the height, the weight.
CARROLL: Both women were also immigrants from Columbia. Santana was terrified and quickly called 9-1-1, thinking police would protect her.
C. SANTANA: I calmed down a little bit. I got the confidence of the police officers, which are heroes to me and I -- it was like a relief for me.
CARROLL: That relief would not last. Once police arrived, she says things got worse.
C. SANTANA: The police officer said, yes, that's her. When this guy said that's her, I thought it was like, a joke and I was asking my husband, what is going on? And he was telling me, they're going to take you? They're going to take me where?
CARROLL: Whitaker handcuffed Santana and took her to be fingerprinted. No one could do it that late at the local police department, but while there, Whitaker and police got a better look at Rencone's mug shot.
WHITAKER: I said, well, the person I have I saw had a distinctive mole. We couldn't find the mole in the picture. I said, OK.
CARROLL: At that point, Whitaker suspected he may have the wrong Santana and let her go.
C. SANTANA: He told me, you know what, I'm going to be good to you. But if you keep crying, you're going to make me change my mind.
J. SANTANA: He didn't apologize. He didn't tell me, no, we've made a mistake.
CARROLL: No one apologized to Santana -- not the Rutherford Police Department, which wouldn't talk to us because of an ongoing investigation into the incident or Whitaker, who says he has no reason to be sorry.
WHITAKER: For doing my job? No. For being respectful to her? No, because I was very respectful. CARROLL: This Colombian immigrant sees it a different way.
C. SANTANA: I come from a country where they kidnap you every minute; where you're in constant fear. I know how fear -- it feels like to be in fear.
CARROLL: The Santana's still proudly hang an American flag outside their home, but now question just how free they really are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Jason Carroll reporting for us tonight. We should note that bounty hunters perform an important service, catching thousands of bail-jumpers in the U.S. every year.
Still ahead, this week's big announcement at the White House and a little distraction you may not have seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The signers of this letter included a former counsel to a Republican president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: I saw him, all right. Coming up, big political moments and the little scene-stealers who liven them up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Still to come, my favorite story of the night, the hazards of bringing your family along to important political events.
Right now, at nine minutes before the hour, let's go back to Erica Hill of HEADLINE NEWS to update the top stories.
HILL: Thanks, Paula.
A new tropical depression is spinning tonight in the Caribbean. This is number six, if you're keeping track, in a storm season that is off to a running start. The depression does not yet have a name yet, but strengthening winds could make is a tropical storm by tomorrow. And if that happens, it will be known as Tropical Storm Franklin.
The military says it has a hunger strike on its hands at the Guantanamo. Fifty-two inmates, about 10 percent of the terrorist suspects being held there, are protesting their indefinite detention. Some of them have been held for three years without being charged.
CNN has learned a State Department memo marked "Secret" mentions Valerie Plame, the outed CIA agent, by name. And that could lead to a grand jury investigation to whoever leaked her name to reporters. Plame and her husband claim it was done by the White House to punish their criticism of the president's reasons for going to war in Iraq.
Some jail time for two former America West pilots found guilty of operating their plane while drunk. Today, in Miami, a judge sentenced Thomas Cloud to five years. Co-pilot Christopher Hughes got two-and-a- half years, plus house arrest. And they both got an ear full. They were arrested just before takeoff after a night of heavy drinking.
In southern California, a warning, possible black-outs tonight. The state's independent systems operator says the heat wave, heavy demand and some power plant problems, might make rolling blackouts a possibility. Southern California Edison reported record usage yesterday.
And speaking of that unbearable heat, take a look at the eyes of this polar bear at Albuquerque's Rio Grande Zoo -- 100 degrees, talk about bad news for this bear. Above normal temperatures expected to last until October. The bear is seeing summer and fall.
And Paula, that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS. We'll hand it back to you in New York where I hope you are staying cool.
ZAHN: Only because we're inside, Erica. Thank you. Forget about it. I wonder who wrote that? One of the few puns I've actually liked.
Coming up, something all of us parents have been through, but fortunately we don't have to do it on camera and not at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: After he was nominated for the Court of Appeals in 2001, a bipartisan group of more than 150 lawyers sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Did you notice that little guy in the seersucker suit, did you? Jeanne Moos looks back at more of political life's little distractions, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: So how embarrassed have you been over the years when your family pulls out those old snapshots and home movies of you as a kid and you're doing something spectacularly ridiculous? Well, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' 4-year-old son has probably topped us all.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Only 4-years-old, and already he's got a tabloid nickname on his debut on "The Daily Show."
BUSH: Good evening.
MOOS: Young Jack Roberts lasted a mere 48 seconds into the president's introduction of his dad before he started getting antsy. Next thing you know, he's fiddling with the furniture, eluding his mother's grasp. And then, gasp, crawling on the floor.
BUSH: He's an honors graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
MOOS: But even degrees from Harvard don't help control a 4 year old. In his shorts and saddle shoes, he took us back four decades to another kid who tended to steal the show. John John's dad may have been president, but at that age, it doesn't go to your head. And if you want to suck your thumb, even a wanna-be first lady can't deter you.
All it takes is one kid in the background to upstage the leader of the free world.
BUSH: ...is with us today. You're worried about the quality -- we stand for the fair treatment of faith-based groups. They will receive federal support for their work.
This will not happen on my watch!
MOOS: Oh yes. Watch this. Not the president, not the wife of a potential Supreme Court justice can establish order in this court.
JON STEWART, DAILY SHOW: Jack, of course, is the one who appears to be the first to lose the case of Family v. Ritalin.
MOOS: You know, controlling kids is impossible. And even a tough former prosecutor like Rudy Giuliani is powerless. When Rudy was sworn in as mayor, son Andrew was blowing kisses, talking during his dad's speech, repeating the oath of office, horning in on the handshake. But even Andrew Giuliani has grown up into a poised, well-mannered 19- year-old golfing fanatic, though occasionally even older kids like Jenna Bush regress.
Young Jack Roberts eventually had to be shuffled off stage. And though some say...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They shouldn't have brought him.
MOOS: Most were entertained.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He made it interesting and intriguing.
MOOS: Can you remember an instance when your kids have mortified or humiliated you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want like just one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would I remember? I'm the one embarrassing her.
MOOS: This lady remembered a time in the grocery store when her 3-year-old daughter demanded chocolate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said no. She proceeded to strip down to nothing... MOOS: She just started stripping off her clothes?
(voice-over): At least Jack didn't do that. He's not Jumping Jack Flasher.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: I was charmed by it. Of course my children have done that over the years as well, but not at the White House.
Jeanne Moos reporting for us tonight.
Appreciate you dropping by. We'll be back same time, same place tomorrow night. LARRY KING LIVE starts right now. Again, thanks for joining us tonight. Good night.
END
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