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Paula Zahn Now

Suicide Truck Bomb Kills Two U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad; FDA Warns of E. coli Outbreak in Bagged Spinach

Aired September 14, 2006 - 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: And thank you all for joining us tonight.
Some very important breaking news in health and medicine -- that is our "Top Story" tonight.

The government has just issued a very urgent warning for all of us: Do not eat bagged fresh spinach. Just minutes ago, the federal Food and Drug Administration announced that there has been one death and at least 50 cases of people getting sick because of E. coli bacteria in tainted spinach. Now, the cases of sickness from the tainted fresh spinach are reported in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin.

The only death reported so far is in Wisconsin. Again, the FDA says none of us in any state should be eating bagged fresh spinach right now.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is working the story. He is going to bring us some new late details as soon as they become available.

There's also a lot of breaking news today in the war on terrorism. We're going in-depth on all of it, starting in Iraq tonight.

A few hours ago, a suicide truck bomb hit a U.S. Army outpost in western Baghdad this afternoon, killing two soldiers, wounding 25.

Let's get right to the story in Iraq.

Cal Perry joins me live from Baghdad -- Cal.

CAL PERRY, CNN PRODUCER: Well, good evening to you, Paula.

In the four weeks that I have been filming at this combat hospital, this was the most unbelievable scene I have witnessed, 25 U.S. soldiers all coming in at once, doctors going into what they call a triage mode, meaning they treated the most heavily wounded first, waiting to treat the walking wounded second -- and a very emotional moment, too.

The commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, General James Thurman, he visited his own troops there in the hospital, spending time consoling each one individually. He leaned over one soldier in particular, whispered something into his ear, took a step back, and asked a question, Paula, that I felt like any of us would ask any family member of ours laying in a hospital: Is he going to be OK?

Doctors quickly responded: Sir, he's going to be just fine.

Switching gears a little bit, another grisly discovery overnight by Baghdad police: 49 bodies found strewn across the capital, bringing the total in the last 48 hours to 110 bodies found, police believe, all of them victims of sectarian violence -- Paula.

ZAHN: Let's come back to the suicide truck bombing for a moment. The fact that an Army outpost was hit suggests what?

PERRY: Well, it suggests two things. It is a little bit more of a brazen attack than we're used to seeing from insurgents. This really is a guerrilla war here on the ground.

Insurgents tend to lay back, hit soldiers when they're not ready. This is what they did at this outpost. Many of the wounded who came into the CSH were still in sneakers. They were in their P.T. gear, that is, their physical training gear. They were getting ready to go on patrol, but many were resting. So, it was a brazen attack, striking at a combat outpost, hitting it with a very massive bomb, right at the blast walls of this compound -- Paula.

ZAHN: And then back to that horrible count that you mentioned a little bit earlier on of some 100 bodies found in just the last 48 hours alone. What does that say about the continuing sectarian violence there?

PERRY: Well, when you look at the figures, Paula, it says it's getting worse. In the past two months, here in Iraq, we have seen the worst sectarian violence figures to date this year.

And, last month, we heard from Baghdad police, 1,500 bodies found strewn across the capital -- one of the major problems faced here on the ground are two major Shia militias, that is, Mahdi army and the Badr Brigade, these two militias, Shia-run, are blamed for much of the sectarian violence.

The prime minister is trying to bring these militias into the fold, get them to lay down their arms, join the Iraqi security forces. If he can do this, it may go a long way in bringing down sectarian violence.

ZAHN: Cal Perry, thanks so much for the update.

Our "Top Story" coverage moves on now to the "Security Watch" and moving -- closing a major gap in airline security that we have been warning you about for many months.

You may not realize that, when you fly, the plane you're in also carries commercial freight in the baggage hold right under your feet. Now, until now, almost none of that cargo has been screened. But, at Boston's Logan Airport today, Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said that the chief of the Transportation Security Administration has signed an order requiring more of that cargo be inspected. The new rule covers packages dropped at airline cargo counters for express delivery. Now, Logan Airport is considered a leader in security measures. And one technique used there to screen passengers is cutting-edge and very controversial. It is called behavior recognition.

And we sent Allan Chernoff off to find out how it works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything in the bag that's sharp or fragile...

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Security officials scanning passengers for possible weapons -- some airports are going a step further. They're searching for thoughts of terrorism, trying to determine what may be inside a person's head by observing behavior.

THOMAS KINTON, CEO, MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY: It's a tool, and a very important tool, in -- in the day and age where we're in a battle against terrorism. Clearly, people are what defeated us on 9/11, not weapons.

CHERNOFF: Boston's Logan Airport, the departure point for the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center, turned to this training known as behavioral observation, after 9/11 by hiring Israeli expert Rafi Ron.

RAFI RON, CEO, NEW AGE SECURITY SOLUTIONS: It is an extremely violent agenda. There -- it's something that affects the mental situation of the person. And they -- we're trying to look for that.

CHERNOFF: Among the indicators are micro-expressions, facial movements that can be very difficult to control during a high-stress attempt at deception.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the purpose of your visit today?

CHERNOFF: The Communications Science Center at the University at Buffalo, funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security, uses a simulated security checkpoint to study micro-expressions, small movements among 44 different muscles in the face that can reveal fear, distress, and other emotions tied to deception.

MARK FRANK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO: You get this tug of war over control of the face. And, so, the emotion is sending one signal, saying, be afraid, and the other part of the brain is saying, be poker-faced; don't show anything. And what happens, as a function of this tug of war, is, occasionally, bits of the emotion leak out. And they happen very quickly.

CHERNOFF: Director Mark Frank began studying behavior when he was a bar bouncer during college.

(on camera): No, I wouldn't do that. I'm an honest person. (voice-over): He could see that I'm a lousy liar.

FRANK: You are seeing a configuration of distress in the eyebrows. So, they're sort of being pulled up and together a little bit in response to this question. And you're also sort of shaking your head, saying, no, when you say, I am an honest person.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Behavioral observation worked well enough at Logan Airport that the Transportation Security Administration is now embracing the approach at more than a dozen airports around the country and plans to expand the program by training 500 officers in the technique over the next two years.

But even advocates of behavioral observation concede, it's far from failsafe.

FRANK: There is no Pinocchio response. There's no behavior in all people in all situations that guarantees that somebody's lying.

CHERNOFF: Still, proper training might have prevented attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid from getting on to the plane he tried to blow up. A private security officer in Paris questioned Reid, found him suspicious, and called in the police. But French police with no behavioral observation training let him go, another reason, experts say, the best way to improve airport security is to combine technology with human analysis, to spot potential terrorists before they have an opportunity to act.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Buffalo, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And joining me now, Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the Transportation Department, and Rafi Ron, the gentleman you just saw in our piece. He is the former head of security at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, who helped create the behavior screening program at Logan Airport in Boston. He's now CEO of New Age Security Solutions.

Good to have both of you with us.

So, bottom line, Mary, here, we know that this program worked in Israel -- El-Al, one of the safest airlines in the world. Why wouldn't it work here?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER TRANSPORTATION INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, because the scale is different.

We have 50,000, 60,000 flights a day. We have tens of thousands of security personnel. And, on 9/11, we had lax security, because, in part, we were looking for the magic bullet in the computer-assisted passenger pre-screening program, which is passenger behavioral and intent profiling.

We have to have a combination of programs, and we dare not trust profiling. ZAHN: You also think there would be so many training problems associated with this that it simply isn't worth doing it independently.

SCHIAVO: Well, that's the -- that's the problem.

It -- it fails the three eye test. And, you know, some of this is illegal, certain kinds of profiling. Some of it is just simply impractical. And the reason is, is -- and we learned this on 9/11 -- what they did on 9/11 is basically had a -- a profiling system with additional screening to get rid of weapons, and the profiling system turned into the least common denominator.

No one was properly trained. And, on 9/11, had they gotten the weapons, the -- and they should have, under the law -- the attacks would have been thwarted. And, so, the profiling became a crunch which thwarted the real security, which is keeping weapons off of planes.

ZAHN: Well, Rafi, what about that? We have trouble training screeners to be able to spot even concealed weapons. How is it, then, that, overnight, you will be able to train these people to be, as some have described, behavioral scientists?

RON: Well, first of all, it's not overnight. But the -- it does take a couple days, or a little bit more than that,.

But I think we have proven at Logan Airport that this is possible. We started this program with the Massachusetts State Police officers at the airport. And the program immediately became very successful. The officers show a lot of capability in using the program within the framework, the legal framework of what the law allows them, and avoiding racial profiling, which was the main concern at the time.

ZAHN: OK. That's a -- a huge concern to address now, Mary, because you know that the ACLU is very concerned about it. It has said, this is way too subjective, and individual screeners' prejudices can be used as a basis to stop anyone.

SCHIAVO: Yes. Well, and they have a good point.

ZAHN: What's your concern?

SCHIAVO: Well, they have a good point.

What people don't realize is, is, if you start profiling kinds of individuals, if you look, for example, at the Muslims in the United States, there are between 2.5 and eight million, and one-third of them are black. Now, so, where's our profiling going to work there? And, besides, by the way, this has been successfully proven at Logan Airport.

I was through Logan Airport today for some of the unveiling of the new puffer equipment. How many terrorists have they caught? You have to prove... RON: Well...

SCHIAVO: ... a behavioral profiling program on catching terrorists. Israel can. I doubt that we can.

ZAHN: Rafi Ron, you get the last word.

RON: Yes. I think that the -- yes, I think the techniques, they are measured not by the number of terrorists that we manage to actually arrest, but the -- our ability to deter terrorists from actually launching an attack.

And the Israeli model has proven to be very, very effective in deterring these attacks for the last 30 years. What we have started at Logan is a good beginning. It's an American program. It's within the law. And it is avoiding racial profiling.

ZAHN: Rafi Ron, Mary Schiavo, thank you for both...

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... of your opinions tonight.

And still ahead: what may be the next step in airport screening, machines that will sniff out the physical signs of terror.

And we have got other top stories we're following tonight, including a revolutionary device under the hood of your next new car.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Big news on a life-saving device that could prevent deadly rollover accidents, like these, and save up to 10,000 lives a year. Will your next car have stability control? We will show you how it works.

And a cyber-mystery solved, an elaborate hoax exposed -- just who is Lonelygirl15, and who was really behind her wildly popular video diary? The answers and more just ahead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Tonight's "Top Story" in politics right now: President Bush goes to Capitol Hill, does not get exactly what he wants. Coming up: why some top Republicans are fighting him.

Our "Top Story" "Security Watch" coverage continues. We are tackling airport security tonight. Now, before the break, we saw how airport screeners are being trained to spot suspected terrorists based on their physical behavior.

But the next big advance in airport security may take that a giant leap forward. Instead of people identifying risky passengers, a machine will do it. It's already been tested in Israel. And John Vause has the details from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When an alleged terror plot to blow up U.S.-bound commercial flights brought Britain's airports almost to a standstill, security staff knew just what they were looking for, anything which could make a liquid-based explosive, common everyday items like lotions and gels. But they had no idea who among the hundreds of thousands of travelers may have intended to carry out an attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you carrying explosive components?

VAUSE: And that's where this machine may come in.

AMIRAM LEVIN, SUSPECT DETECTION SYSTEMS: We're not looking if you're telling us true or false. We're looking is if you have some special subjects to hide.

VAUSE: Amiram Levin, a former deputy head of Israel's secret security service, the Mossad, is one of the developers behind Cogito, a high-tech passenger screener. But it's not trying to see inside your clothes to see if you have a bomb. It's trying to get inside your mind and find out if you have hostile intentions, to do what human screeners currently do in the renowned Israeli screening process, assess whether a passenger plans to do harm on board a plane by observing their involuntary responses.

LEVIN: All what we are looking, that you are -- belong to a terrorism group, and you are intend to -- to participate in an activity, in a terrorism activity.

VAUSE: Levin says, long before terrorists, like the September 11 hijackers, get on an airplane, they go through months, if not years, of recruitment and training. And that leaves an emotional imprint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you on an undercover mission?

VAUSE: This machine, he says, can tap into that emotion, and it all comes down to sweaty palms.

(on camera): Right now, there's a pressure pad putting down on my left hand. And the sensors are monitoring not just the rate and amount of perspiration, but also the type of perspiration, which minerals and salts are being secreted, for example.

(voice-over): Because different situations produce different types of sweat.

MARK FRANK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO: It's about looking at people, understanding, by looking at their outsides and how they're expressing themselves and carrying themselves, what's going on, on the insides, and, then from there, based on the context, the setting, other sorts of variables, make a decision. Is -- is this person worth talking to a little bit, or are they not? LEVIN: If you are afraid, it is different. If you are -- want to hide something, and different. If you're tired, it's different. And that is what we are checking.

VAUSE: At some airports across the U.S., authorities have already started behavioral profiling, looking for passengers who are nervous or showing signs of stress.

Cogito, says Levin, is another step down that road. In June, it was tested at Tennessee's Knoxville Airport. Those results have not been made public, but a more recent trial at Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv stopped 85 percent of those posing as terrorists -- good, but not good enough. The goal is around 96 percent. And, with some modifications, Levin says Cogito will be ready within a year, a three-minute computer Q&A which might sort passenger...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, what's the result?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The results are that you're a non-suspect.

VAUSE: ... from terrorist.

John Vause, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And we're going to get back to our "Top Story" coverage in just a moment.

First, let's check in with Melissa Long, who joins us from Atlanta in our Pipeline studio with the day's top 10 stories on CNN.com.

Hi, Melissa.

MELISSA LONG, CNN PIPELINE: Good evening, Paula.

Eighteen million readers logged on to the Web site, CNN.com, today.

And a story about an amazing advancement ranks number 10. It's about the first woman to be fitted with what many call a bionic arm. The 26-year-old's electronic prosthesis is powered by her own thoughts. Claudia Mitchell lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident back in '04.

Number nine -- an update on a story that has made national headlines, two elderly women charged with killing two homeless men in Los Angeles and collecting millions of dollars from their life insurance. They have pleaded not guilty.

And millions wanted to hear from Debra Lafave. She's the former Tampa middle school teacher who is serving three years under house arrest for having sex with a 14-year-old student. Lafave now admits she -- and I quote -- crossed a line that should never have been crossed -- Paula. ZAHN: To put it mildly.

Melissa, thanks so much.

LONG: Mmm-hmm.

ZAHN: Coming up: an important consumer story about cars and saving lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG HUNTER, CNN CONSUMER CORRESPONDENT: The government is going to force carmakers to install technology that could save thousands of lives a year.

I'm Greg Hunter. I will tell you all about it -- coming up on PAULA ZAHN NOW.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: I want to go back now to tonight's breaking news: the Food and Drug Administration's announcement of a deadly bacterial outbreak in bagged fresh spinach.

The FDA is saying none of us anywhere in this country can eat it right now. There has been at least one death so far and some 60 cases of people getting very sick because of E. coli bacteria found in tainted spinach.

Now, the cases of sickness are reported in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin. The one death that we have heard about so far comes out of Wisconsin.

Let's get the very latest now from our Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who joins us on the telephone.

I think the scariest thing about this, Sanjay, once again, is, this warning goes beyond the eight states where people are getting really, really sick.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is remarkable. And it is one of the largest sort of areas that the -- they're talking specifically about bagged spinach in such a large area -- that I have heard of in some time.

We have heard of meat recalls in the past from meat that might be contaminated. I -- I think that they're going to zero it down, sort of narrow down some of the areas of most interest over the next several hours, probably a day or so.

But, you know, E. coli can be a very -- a very difficult bacteria to deal with. It can be very problematic, sometimes deadly, as you hear here. That's not often the case. But, as you have heard, there are several different strains of bacteria. This particular strain of E. coli appears to be pretty -- pretty problematic.

ZAHN: And the symptoms aren't too pleasant to talk about during the dinner hour in some parts of the country. But why don't you run through them quickly, so, if somebody's feeling any of these, they should take it seriously?

GUPTA: Yes.

Sometimes, the symptoms can be quite vague, Paula. But there are some discrete things to look out for, keeping in mind that E. coli is a bacterial infection, oftentimes, again, coming from undercooked meat. But it can come from lettuce, sprouts, things like that as well.

Bloody diarrhea can be a symptom, vomiting, low-grade fever -- and we're talking about 101, 101.5 -- anemia, which isn't something you know yourself, but someone looking very pale, because they don't have enough red blood cells, abdominal cramping, and tiredness, which, again, is a vague symptom.

Sometimes, these are hard to sort of pinpoint. But, if you have eaten some of this -- some fresh bagged spinach, and you have suddenly -- or relatively suddenly -- developed any of these symptoms, it might be some cause for concern. You may want to talk to your doctor about it. Again, statistically, it's unlikely that any given individual who is watching right now will have actually have the E. coli infection, but it is something to think about.

ZAHN: But the federal government, Sanjay, so worried about this, nevertheless, that they're saying any of you that has bagged spinach like this -- it comes packed like at most grocery stores across the country -- shouldn't even think about cooking it to make it safe. Just pitch it out.

So, there you have it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for the house call tonight.

Once again, at least one death so far in the state of Wisconsin has been associated with this outbreak in some eight states so far.

We move along now to our "Top Story" in politics, something that's even more unusual than a presidential visit to Capitol Hill. It's the president's fellow Republicans refusing to do what he wants them to do.

Well, both of those things happened today. And it involves a fight over the treatment of suspected terrorists.

Here's congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president's rare Capitol Hill visit was part of an all-out offensive to quiet a Republican rebellion over how to treat terror detainees.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland.

BASH: But, hours later, Senate Republicans defied the president. The Armed Service Committee passed a measure, supporters say, better protects the rights of those in U.S. custody.

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: We have tried, those of us that have put this draft together, to provide language which in no way reflects a basis for anyone to say that the United States is still not observing the Geneva Convention.

BASH: The biggest issue is Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which sets international standards for treating prisoners of war. The White House and its allies says it's too broad. For example, the treaty prohibits outrages upon personal dignity.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: If you interrogate a Muslim, with a female U.S. interrogator wearing the uniform of the United States, you're going to have arguments by counsel that, in their culture, you have degraded them.

BASH: The administration wants to narrow the rules, so the U.S. has greater leeway interrogating suspects, while protecting interrogators from charges of war crimes.

But three top Republicans, Armed Services Chairman John Warner, Senator Lindsey Graham, and former prisoner of war John McCain, insist the White House plan would undermine U.S. credibility around the world.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Suppose that we amend the Geneva Conventions to our interpretation of it. Then, another country that is not quite as democratic as ours decides they will amend their version.

BASH: And, McCain warns, that could mean trouble for an American captured by the enemy.

All day long, a stunning public display of Republican division over national security -- adding to the drama, the president's own former Secretary of State Colin Powell threw his support behind a Senate measure, warning in this letter, the president's plan for trying terrorist suspects would "put our own troops at risk."

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Powell wrote.

Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fired back with her own letter, insisting, the president's proposal would "add meaningful definition and clarification to vague terms in the treaties."

Back at the White House, Mr. Bush dug in, saying a program to get information from so-called high-value terrorists could be shut down, unless his proposal passes.

BUSH: And I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to be -- go forward with legal clarity. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, an internal party struggle over national security is the last thing any Republican wants, especially less than two months before an election where that is their top issue. But, in this case, Paula, both sides say that it's a matter of principle, and both sides say they're right.

ZAHN: Dana Bash, thanks so much. Thanks for cutting to the chase for us tonight -- Dana, one of the members of our best political team on TV.

More "Top Story" coverage in just a moment.

First, let's go back to Melissa, who continues our countdown -- Melissa.

LONG: Paula, a story about a bombing in Iraq ranks number seven. You have covered this yourself. A suicide truck bombing at a U.S. army outpost in Baghdad has killed two U.S. soldiers and injured 25 others.

Number six this evening Whitney Houston filing papers asking for a legal separation from husband Bobby Brown. The couple have been married 14 years and have a daughter.

And number five, an idea to make madonna a space tourist has been quashed. The Russian lawmaker wanted to book a seat for the pop diva on a flight to the International Space Station. But, you know what, the Russian parliament said no way. Considering the physical demands for someone that needs to go into space, I wonder how much training Madonna would even need, considering how she looks.

ZAHN: Yes, I was wondering if it was all about her music on her judge's part there. I guess they didn't tell us.

LONG: No, no. She certainly has the cash for it.

ZAHN: But she's in pretty darned good shape, compared to most of us her age. Thanks, Melissa. We'll talk to you again in a few minutes.

A big development in our top safety story tonight, our consumer story, is a brand new technology that prevents roll overs and saves lives. Coming up when you'll be able to buy it.

And then a little bit later on a high tech sob story that's turned into a top story because millions of people have been deceived.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Our top consumer story for you tonight, a major life saving development in car safety. It's supposed to protect against tragedies like this, an SUV spinning out of control into a deadly rollover, an accident that kills thousands every year. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today says that starting with the 2012 model year an amazing new technology will be standard equipment on every new car and SUV sold.

Consumer correspondent Greg Hunter actually got a chance to test what might be the biggest car safety advance since the seat belt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREG HUNTER, CNN CONSUMER CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four years ago Amy Ecker was a 20-year-old pre-med student. She left church and was on her way back to school one Sunday. Her friend, Jennifer, was driving her home. Amy called her mother from the road.

SYNDIE ECKER, DAUGHTER KILLED IN ROLLOVER ACCIDENT: She said "Jennifer, watch out," and then she said "oh my god" and then "oh crap," and it went dead. And at that point I knew that there was something, but I didn't know what.

HUNTER: Amy was killed in that instant. It was a rollover accident. According to the government, up to 10,000 people, like Amy, die in rollover accidents every year, but technology may have been able to prevent many of those deaths.

NICOLE NASON, NAT'L. HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMIN.: It's the biggest innovation in safety since the seat belt.

HUNTER: It's called Electronic Stability Control or ESC, and the government will require every new 2012 vehicle to have it. ESC uses the car's anti-lock breaks and throttle to keep the car from rolling over.

DAVID CHAMPION, CONSUMER REPORTS: The cars going down the road. It starts to make a maneuver and the car starts to slide. It applies a brake to the front wheel and brings it back into line. The car's going down the line, you're steering and it's just plowing straight ahead, it will apply a brake to the rear wheel, forcing the vehicle to turn.

HUNTER: "Consumer Reports" auto test center director David Champion took us on a test drive on a rainy day.

First he showed us how this car would handle emergency turning conditions with the ESC system off.

(on camera): And you're a professional driver.

CHAMPION: And that's working very hard to try and keep it within the lane. So if there were cars around you, you'd be banging off them all over the place.

HUNTER (voice-over): Even an experienced driver like Champion repeatedly lost control. To demonstrate the difference, we took the same car, under the same conditions, at the same speed, on another ride. This time with the ESC turned on.

CHAMPION: Did you feel it?

HUNTER (on camera): One wheel locking and one wheel locking to bring it back.

CHAMPION: Yes, stops your sliding.

HUNTER: Not all road accidents result in rollovers like this one but a third of all occupant deaths happen in such crashes. The woman who was driving this SUV amazingly survived. Government, the experts, insurance companies, and consumers advocates all agree that Electronic Stability Control is one of the most important safety features to be introduced in years.

CHAMPION: It has the possibility to save many more lives than air bags.

HUNTER: It can help prevent accidents before they happen. It's too late for Amy Ecker, but her mother hopes that mandating this technology in all vehicles will save thousands of lives in the future.

ECKER: I am so thankful that they've come this far.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTER: I'm in East Hanom (ph), Connecticut at the Consumer Reports Automotive Testing Facility. You've already met David Champion. David, some cars do have this new technology, but how do consumers know if they have it?

CHAMPION: All these cars here have Vehicle Stability Control, but they're all called something different. It's so confusing to the consumer. Some are DSC, VSA, PSG. There's all different names. The consumer has no clue.

HUNTER: This one behind us is called Electronic Stability Control. Sometimes there's a dash or a light or something like that?

CHAMPION: Yes, usually there's a button on the dash, and this one actually says ESC, so they actually know that this is the ESC, and you can turn it off. There's usually a little light on the dashboard, but it's so confusing for consumers.

HUNTER: It's all called something else. This new regulation by the government also standardized the term, Electronic Stability Control, ESC.

CHAMPION: Just like ABS, people go in, they know what ABS brakes are. ESC will actually allow the consumer to know what they're buying.

HUNTER: OK, everybody knows it's good for SUV, but why is it good for smaller cars as well?

CHAMPION: Well it's good for all vehicles, but smaller cars tend to be driven by younger people. Their driving skills aren't that good, and they have many more crashes and in the prime of the life. ESC could help those people tremendously.

HUNTER: Great, it's going to save lives. All right back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: That's what it's all about, trying to save some lives, 10,000 people a year. I didn't realize the numbers were that high for rollover accidents. Greg, appreciate it. We're going to take a quick Biz Break right now.

(MARKET REPORT)

ZAHN: We're going to return to our top story coverage in a moment. Right now though, here's Melissa with our countdown.

LONG: Thank you, Paula. Nice trend to be seeing with the gas prices.

And focusing on the top 10, we're at No. 4. The Senate Armed Services today approved legislation that it says protects the rights of terror suspects. The president has promised to block the measure.

No. 3, the funeral for former Texas Governor Ann Richards will be held on Monday. Richard died at her home in Austin last night after a battle with cancer. She's probably best remembered for her speech at the '88 Democratic National Convention in which she described then GOP presidential nominee George H.W. Bush as, quote, "born with a silver foot in his mouth." Outspoken and a trail blazer, Ann Richards was 73 -- Paula.

ZAHN: She didn't mince any words, did she? A towering figure in politics. Melissa, thanks so much. We'll all miss her.

Tonight's top story in entertainment was surprised and has angered millions of people. They've been following a lonely girl's video diary on the Internet, but she wasn't telling them everything. Coming up, the truth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Our top story in entertainment tonight, the Internet mystery of lonelygirl15, as she's known. Now, this young teenager won a following on the Web site YouTube this summer with her story of life in a sheltered religious family, but it turns out none of that was true. It's really a wildly successful promotion for would-be filmmakers. Well, how the story caught on to tens of millions of people and unraveled now from Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA ROSE, ACTRESS: Hi, guys. So this is my first video blog.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mystery of the lonely girl started in June on YouTube, an Internet site where people submit video clips, often of themselves, for the world to see.

ROSE: My name is Bree. I'm 16.

ROWLANDS: Thousands of YouTube surfers were immediately attracted to Bree, a home schooled teenager who sat in front of her bedroom computer talking about her sheltered and sometimes mysterious life.

ROSE: The only friend I made the entire time was a dog.

MATT FOREMSKI, YOUTUBE VIEWER: It was just a lonely girl's confessional to the world.

ROWLANDS: People like 18-year-old Matt Foremski were drawn in by Bree, hearing that her parents were overbearing and followers of a bizarre, unconventional religion. Then a friend named Daniel started to appear with Bree. He took her swimming and even coaxed her to sneak out to a party.

ROSE: Oh my God. I've never been to a party before.

ROWLANDS: Within weeks, Bree had become an Internet video star. Her videos have been seen more than 2 million times on the Internet, and fans were now analyzing every detail of her video blogs.

ROSE: I guess this whole putting personal videos up on the Internet thing wasn't such a good idea.

ROWLANDS: But as more of her story unfolded, people started to wonder if Bree was really who she said she was.

FOREMSKI: That's when the whole "she's a fake" thing got rolling.

ROWLANDS: Matt and many others started investigating, and last week it came out that sure enough, Bree was an actress. Matt was the one that actually confirmed her identity, finding this photo on the Internet. Her name is Jessica Rose, a 19-year-old from New Zealand, who now lives in Southern California.

GREG GOODFRIED, CO-CREATOR, "LONELYGIRL15": She's compelling. She's a character people really can relate to.

ROWLANDS: Greg Goodfried, Miles Beckett (ph) and Mash Flanders (ph) are the co-creators of lonely girl. They say their goal was to create an ongoing series using the Internet. They found Jessica through a want ad on Web-based Craigslist.

ROSE: Just didn't seem, you know, the conventional way to get into the acting business.

ROWLANDS: Jessica, who has never done any professional acting, says now she's getting a stream of calls from Hollywood agents.

ROSE: I don't really want to tell you where I live, because you could, like, stalk me.

ROWLANDS: But what about the thousands of people who thought they were watching a real 16-year-old girl pouring her heart out on camera? Fans on YouTube have posted a lot of reaction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a waste of my time. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't really matter if you're a fake or not.

ROSE: They shouldn't feel upset. Bree is going to continue, and the story is going to continue. So in a way, it's still real if they just believe in it, if they just -- like, you know, if they let it be.

ROWLANDS: The creators, along with Jessica, hope the thousands of people that have been following lonelygirl's every word, will stay tuned even if she isn't real.

ROSE: I hope you guys enjoyed that. Bye.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: You all out there are going to decide that.

Coming up next, the latest on the hour's breaking news, the FDA's urgent warning about the safety of bagged spinach because of a deadly outbreak of e.coli. The states in red are where you see a lot of sick people tonight. One person has actually died in the state of Wisconsin. We'll have more for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And we're going back to tonight's top story, the breaking news that the FDA is warning all of us consumers to not eat bagged fresh Spinach because of a deadly bacterial outbreak. There has been at least one death so far and some 60 cases of people getting sick because of Spinach tainted with e. Coli bacteria. Now the cases of sickness are reported in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin. The one death reported so far has been in that state of Wisconsin.

Joining me now on the phone is Dr. David Acheson. He is the chief medical officer of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Thanks for joining us tonight. How much worse might this outbreak get, sir?

DR. DAVID ACHESON, FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION: Well that's a great question, Paula, and at this stage we just don't know. We're in the early stages, but we thought it was critical to let the public know what we know and what we don't know and we're watching this very carefully and we'll be doing updates as we learn more.

ZAHN: So you're saying, if we want to protect ourselves, under no circumstances should we eat any bagged Spinach. We shouldn't cook it, we should just pitch it out?

ACHESON: Let me tell you what we do know. We've implicated bagged Spinach and currently we don't know a particular brand. We don't know a particular supplier or where it may have been grown, but the bagged Spinach has certainly come out as an implicated product in these cases. What the agency's recommending is that you don't eat bagged Spinach.

ZAHN: And do we know what the source of the contamination is?

ACHESON: At this stage we don't. The investigation is on going and active, involving the states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we'll learn more tomorrow I hope.

ZAHN: And sir, we have up on the screen, I don't know if you have the benefit of seeing this, some of the symptoms associated with the infection. If you want to just quickly run through your own checklist just so if folks out there are experiencing something that doesn't seem quite right, what should they look out for?

ACHESON: Well, you've got those. You've basically got the key ones up there. Usually begins with Diarrhea, that may become bloody, vomiting, low grade fever, you generally feel lethargic, and certainly if get any of those symptoms and you've eaten bagged Spinach within the last seven days you should definitely go and seek medical attention.

ZAHN: And once again, the hardest thing right now is to establish linkages here, right, between suppliers and packagers?

ACHESON: Exactly. We thought this was so important, in view of the numbers of cases, which is approximately 50 that have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control, which, as you said, one death, that we needed to get the word out about the bagged Spinach. As we learn more in terms of specifics, we'll be sure to let the public know that.

ZAHN: And what has been your experience, sir? Do people take these warnings pretty seriously or not seriously enough?

ACHESON: They generally take them seriously, particularly ones involving e. Coli 0157 because of its capacity to cause serious illness, kidney failure and, obviously, in some cases death.

ZAHN: That will certainly frighten a lot of people when they saw that there's already been one death in the state of Wisconsin. Dr., I know you're going to be working overtime tonight. Dr. David Acheson thank you for helping us understand the story better.

ACHESON: Great to be with you.

ZAHN: Thank you, why it is so important.

Let's go back to Melissa Long right now to quickly wrap up our countdown.

LONG: Paula, at number two tonight, the judge at the trial of Saddam Hussein telling the defendant that he was, quote, not a dictator. The former Iraqi leader is facing charges for carrying out a military campaign in the late 1980s that killed 100,000 Iraqi Kurds.

And number one tonight Montreal police say the man accused of killing one woman and wounding 19 people at a college campus had no criminal record, but authorities do say Kimveer Gill described his hatred of people and his love of guns on a website. Police say Gill took his own life. Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Melissa, that wraps up our countdown. Thank you.

We're going to switch gears right now. You're about to meet a couple guys who started a whole new career thanks to an incredible genie and millions of bottles. Here's Andy Serwer with Life After Work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim Stevens and Bruce Nevins have uncorked the secret of youth, living their dream as winery owners in Sonoma County, California.

JIM STEVENS, CO-FOUNDER, PERRIER NORTH AMERICA: I don't feel like I'm 59. I feel I'm 39 or maybe 29. Really what's exciting is when you see people in the tasting room who love those wines. That really makes it all worthwhile.

SERWER: Friends and business partners for over 30 years, Nevins and Stevens co-founded Perrier North America and built a foundation for the bottled water business in the United States.

BRUCE NEVINS, CO-OWNER, PERRIER NORTH AMERICA: The passion for wine really evolved by being in France a good deal of the time with Perrier and having the opportunity to visit some of the wine country out there.

SERWER: Dutcher Crossing opened in 2005. It's a boutique winery that the duo is committed to keeping small and personal, showcasing the award winning wine and breathtaking landscape.

STEVENS: I just love wine country living, love the passion for wines, people say when are you going to retire? I don't think I'll ever retire.

NEVINS: This is a real windfall. I mean it's a real wonderful segue into another life.

SERWER: Andy Sewer, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Cheers. We're just minutes away from what promises to be a very emotional hour on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. Actor Sean Penn talks to Larry about his brother Chris, who died earlier this year. That unfolds just about four minutes from now. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Tonight's top story a very important medical story, the FDA is warning all consumers all over the country, don't even think about eating bagged fresh Spinach. That would be either raw or cooked. Tainted Spinach has now been linked to an outbreak of e-Coli bacteria. We were just on the phone with the chief medical officer at the FDA and he said it's not even clear yet what the source of this tainted Spinach is, but so far dozens of people in eight separate states have gotten sick.

One person in Wisconsin has died. The first case was reported back on August 23rd. The most recent case was just last week and the chief medical officer, Mr. Acheson, telling us that there's no way of knowing at this hour just how widespread this outbreak will become. So please be careful, don't eat Spinach. He says throw it away if you've got in your refrigerator tonight.

Thanks for being with us tonight. Appreciate your dropping by, good night.

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