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Paula Zahn Now
Increased Risk of Terrorism Over Summer?; Nurses Under Attack; Presidential Candidate Debate; Pizza Bomb Bank Robbery; Professors Politically Bias; Emergency Room Nurses Attacked; Lady Bird Johnson Passes Away
Aired July 11, 2007 - 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, everybody. Glad to have you with us tonight.
Is there really an increased risk of terrorism this summer? And is an al Qaeda terror cell already on its way here?
Who put a bomb around a pizza deliveryman's neck? Tonight, investigators' surprising, controversial answer to a four-year-old mystery.
And are some schools giving Muslims students special privileges? Whatever happened to that ban on prayer in school?
On to our top story tonight: The coast-to-coast threat of terrorism is just that. Listen to this. Tonight, we are learning that the U.S. government has concluded that al Qaeda has regained strength and in fact its operational level may rival what it had in the summer of 2001.
That may be behind what Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff had to say, his controversial claim that we are at an increased risk of summer terrorism. He says he feels it in his gut. But, since he isn't offering any proof, some people are accusing him of scare tactics and playing the terror card.
Still, there's no doubt terrorists are very active right now, Iraq, of course, a bloody mess. In the past few weeks, we have seen an attack on the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as two failed car bombings in London. Are we next? Are terrorists already on their way? Are they already here?
Justice correspondent Kelli Arena caught up with Secretary Chertoff just a few hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We strike at them. We degrade them. But they rebuild. So, all these things give me a kind of a gut feeling that we are in period -- not that I have a specific threat that I have in mind right now, but that we are entering a period of increased vulnerability.
SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: I would hope that someone who is the director of homeland security would have something else to offer us if he is going to be talking like that.
ARENA (voice-over): So, Chertoff had to spend time today explaining what he meant.
CHERTOFF: We don't currently have specific, credible information about a particular threat against the homeland in the near future.
ARENA: Chertoff says recent attacks in the U.K. and history itself prove that summer is an especially attractive time for terrorists to attack. And he's urging Americans to remain vigilant. Critics suggest, it's all a political ploy.
CHERTOFF: If people think the threat has evaporated, they think that somehow all of Zawahri's statements reflect a changing attitude and he doesn't want to carry out attacks, they are welcome to make that case. I have the basis of the facts to support what I'm saying here.
ARENA: The intelligence community and outside experts, though, back him up. They say al Qaeda has been able to find safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan and is regrouping.
JOHN KRINGEN, CIA DIRECTOR FOR INTELLIGENCE: We see more training. We see more money, and we see more communications. So, we see that activity rising.
ARENA: Some additional proof, the volume of messages from al Qaeda leaders threatening the West, another released just today.
DANIEL BENJAMIN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: What it does tell us is that al Qaeda feels that it's in a pretty safe place for recording messages and distributing them. They certainly don't look like they are on the run.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA: Paula, you should also know that the FBI has put together a special group of agents and analysts to comb through current threat information and any leads to supplement work that is already being done in the field, just to make sure they're not missing anything.
ZAHN: Now, you are also getting more information about some new ties being an alliance in North Africa and al Qaeda. Why is that important? And what is it we need to know about that?
ARENA: Well, al Qaeda has recently allied with a terrorist group in Algeria, Paula. And it's just further proof, according to officials, that this organization is networking, that it's creating more global alliances, and just growing stronger.
ZAHN: So, because of all of this that we're learning, is there any shot that the Department of Homeland Security is going to raise our threat level?
ARENA: They're not planning to just yet. Michael Chertoff said that there's no credible or specific information that there's any threat, specific threat, to the homeland. And, until he sees that, the threat level will remain where it is.
ZAHN: In the meantime, no matter whether that is the case or not, people are certainly frightened by this latest news they have heard.
Kelli Arena, thanks.
So, is the U.S. really at an increased risk of terrorism this summer?
With me now, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. And Clark Kent Ervin is a former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security.
Good to see both of you. Welcome.
CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Thank you.
ZAHN: All right.
So, Peter, you have got these counterterrorism officials about ready to reveal this report that Kelli says will show that al Qaeda's stronger now and perhaps at the same operational level it was on September 11 of 2001. How scared should Americans be about that?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, al Qaeda has definitely regrouped. There are several pieces of evidences for that. The attack in London in July 7, 2005, which killed 52 people was an al Qaeda plot.
The plot to bring down 10 American airlines in the summer of 2006, which would have been a 9/11-style event, was an al Qaeda plot. Al Qaeda is regrouping in the tribal areas in Pakistan. Al Qaeda has a strong presence in Lebanon. Al Qaeda has a strong presence in Iraq. It's influencing very much what's happening in Afghanistan with the suicide attacks and IEDS.
There's no doubt it's regrouping. But does that mean that there's a direct threat to the United States over the course of this summer? I'm quite skeptical of that idea.
ZAHN: Why?
BERGEN: You know, counterterrorism -- well, because al Qaeda, when they tried to bring down 10 American airliners in the summer of 2006, they did it in the United Kingdom. I don't believe that there are al Qaeda sleeper cells in the United States waiting to strike. If they exist, they are so asleep, they are effectively dead.
They have had six years. We haven't seen this kind of activity. Very few members al Qaeda members have been arrested in the United States since the 9/11 attacks. It's a very different situation in Europe. American interests being attacked in Europe, that's a very plausible scenario, somewhere like in Britain or Italy or these sorts of countries where there is a much larger dissatisfied Muslim population. Luckily, the United States is somewhat insulated from this problem, because American Muslims are better educated than most Americans. They have higher incomes. They are very well integrated. They don't live in ghettos. So, in short, the problem is much, much greater in Europe than it is in the United States.
ZAHN: Peter -- or, Clark, if what Peter is saying is true, then we should all breathe a sigh of relief here in the United States.
Are you convinced we are not at any greater risk of attack here on American soil this summer?
ERVIN: Actually, I am not, Paula. I have to respectfully disagree with my friend Peter on this score.
You know, Secretary Chertoff is a very cautious and conservative man. He is not given to hyperbole. It is very significant that he, of all people, said that we are at increased risk this summer. And the factors that he's citing, the increased number of videotapes from bin Laden and from Zawahri, the fact that there's this pattern of summer plots -- and, also, it's certainly true that the Muslim community here in the United States is better integrated and more prosperous.
But, in this recent Pew poll, it showed that there are about 27 percent of Muslims in this country who refused to answer the question as to whether they were favorably disposed toward al Qaeda. That's very troubling to me. The politically correct answer to that, of course, would be that they aren't favorably disposed. And if you add to that the 5 percent who said that they are favorably disposed toward al Qaeda, that means that one out of three Muslims in this country may be sympathetic.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Come back to the point Peter was making, though, that, if there are sleeper cells here, that they are asleep. They haven't done anything since the 2001 attacks. Do you think sleeper cells are here and ready to activate a plan?
ERVIN: I do, Paula. I think we have to operate on that assumption. I think it's dangerous pre-9/11 thinking to assume that we are safe from attack.
You know, the FBI, according to reports that I saw as recently as a year or so ago, have about 1,000 people here in the United States they consider to be potential terrorists. And about 200 of them apparently are serious enough that the FBI has them under constant surveillance.
If you add to that what...
(CROSSTALK)
BERGEN: Let me respond to that for a second.
(CROSSTALK)
BERGEN: When we have been attacked by jihadist terrorists in the past, we have always been attacked by people who come from outside.
The 9/11 attackers, all 19 hijackers, came from outside the country. No one helped them in the United States in the 9/11 plot. When we were attacked by -- the first time the World Trade Center was attacked in February of 1993, Ramzi Yousef, the man who planned it, came from Pakistan. He came from outside.
When there was a plan to blow up Los Angeles International Airport in December of '99, it was an Algerian who came from Canada. The problem has always been people coming from outside. And I can't prove negatives to you. I can't prove that there are no al Qaeda sleeper cells.
It's much easier to say, oh, this is a huge problem. There are these sleeper cells who are planning, waiting to strike.
But I think that's really hyperbole. And it's not been the problem that we have had in the past. The problem has always been people coming in from the outside. There has not been a problem of jihadist terrorist cells buried deeply in this country.
ERVIN: And, Paula, if I might...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Quick final thought, Clark.
ERVIN: Precisely because terrorists haven't come from outside, I think that puts a premium on people who are already in this country.
It's marginally harder to get into the United States today than it was before 9/11, so there is a premium on homegrown terrorism, which we are increasingly seeing in Britain and throughout the rest of the world. No reason to think that that doesn't exist also here in the United States.
BERGEN: But let me also respond to that for a second.
The homegrown terrorist problem that we have seen in the United States are basically just a bunch of wannabes, who, for instance, in Miami, had this absurd idea to attack federal buildings. I mean, these weren't serious terrorists.
What we're concerned -- homegrown terrorists might blow but a bomb, kill a few people. It's a problem, but it's not a major national security problem. What we need to be concerned about, is al Qaeda capable of a 9/11-style attack on the United States? For that moment, I'm extremely skeptical about that idea.
Looking forward five to 10 years, I think that's quite plausible. But, for the moment, the United States' government has made us safer. The United States' citizens are more vigilant. Al Qaeda itself is weakened, But they showed with the London attack that they can now reach out thousands of miles from their base on the Afghan-Pakistan border and conduct an attack in a major European city. They're certainly capable of that.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: You have both given us a lot to think about and analyze in advance of some very important business going on in Washington tomorrow.
Peter Bergen, Clark Kent Ervin, thank you both.
We're going to move on to a different kind of terrorism now. Some people say it isn't terrorism at all, but a desperate effort to protect the environment. Are they being unfairly singled out?
And, later, if you think students aren't allowed to pray in school, wait until you see what's happening in San Diego. And it's making a lot of people very upset.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We're bringing a health care crisis out in the open tonight.
As if dealing with illness and death aren't tough enough, why are more and more nurses being attacked by their patients?
On to another story now: The threat of terrorism by Islamic radicals get all the attention, it seems, these days. So, you might be surprised to hear that, according to the FBI, the number-one domestic terror target in the U.S. comes from environmental groups. And they haven't taken a single human life.
Ted Rowlands has more tonight on this rarely seen front on the war on terrorism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chelsea Gerlach doesn't think it's fair, but, in the eyes of the federal government and the law, she is a convicted terrorist.
CHELSEA GERLACH, CONVICTED OF ARSON: To lump us in with mass murderers just is ridiculous.
ROWLANDS: Gerlach and nine other defendants were members of the Earth and Animal Liberation Fronts. Each took part in setting one or more of a series of destructive fires in five Western states. The fires caused more than $40 million in damage, including a development project in Vail, Colorado, a car dealership in Eugene, Oregon, a meat processing business, office buildings, and other targets.
In most cases, they left messages, taking responsibility and warning of more attacks.
GERLACH: We were defending life by destroying property, so defending animals, defending ecosystems, and people, who need a healthy environment.
ROWLANDS: But the federal government classified the attacks specifically as terrorism, which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales echoed two years ago while announcing an indictment in the case.
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today's indictment is a significant step in bringing these terrorists to justice.
ROWLANDS: And, as such, Chelsea Gerlach and the other defendants face sentences much longer than if they weren't classified as terrorists. Plus, they could be sent to maximum-security prisons, putting their actions almost on the same level as the bombings of the 1993 World Trade Center, Atlanta's Olympic Park, and Oklahoma City's Federal Building.
CRAIG WEINERMAN, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER: The Ramzi Yousefs, the Eric Rudolphs, the Timothy McVeighs, that's what the term is designed to cover, not people who intend to damage property.
ROWLANDS: Craig Weinerman is the federal public defender representing Chelsea Gerlach. He argues that terrorism implies an intent to kill or harm, and this group of mainly 20-something environmentalists never meant to the hurt anyone. Even though nobody was injured in any of the fires, Weinerman lost his argument in court that terrorism should not apply in this case.
WEINERMAN: The punishment should fit the crime in the end. And labeling them terrorists, increasing their sentences significantly, throwing them away in these gulag type of terrorism prisons, it's just not the appreciate way to treat people whose misguided effort was to make a political statement by damaging property.
ROWLANDS (on camera): Do you think that they are terrorists?
HANK HOGSTROM, CHILDERS MEAT CO.: Definitely, they are terrorists.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): Hank Hogstrom was called out of bed on Mother's Day when the family meat business was torched by Chelsea Gerlach and four of her friends. After the fire, which caused more than $1 million in damage, the Animal Liberation Front left a note which promised more attacks, as long as -- quote -- "companies continue to operate and profit off of Mother Earth."
HOGSTROM: We're afraid of them, because we don't want them to harm not only us, but we don't want them to harm our employees or firemen that might be involved in suppressing the damage. So, yes, they should be terrorists, and they should be treated as such.
GERLACH: It was never our intention to frighten anyone.
ROWLANDS: Chelsea Gerlach apologized for her role in the fires as part of a guilty plea. She maintains that she's not a terrorist, in part because she and the others went to great lengths, she says, to make sure nobody was hurt in any of the fires. GERLACH: Yes, we did. And I think our record speaks for itself. There's been over 1,200 ELF-ALF actions, and no one has ever been injured.
HOGSTROM: They were just lucky in our case that nobody was injured or nobody was killed. But they didn't know. That building could have been filled with people. They had no idea.
ROWLANDS: In an agreement with the government for reduced sentences, all 10 of the defendants pleaded guilty. Their sentences range from three to 13 years. Chelsea Gerlach received nine years for her part in seven fires. She may be sent to a maximum-security prison, because, no matter what she thinks, in the eyes of the government, she is a convicted terrorist.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Eugene, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: We change our focus now.
For years, some people have complained that students aren't allowed to pray in public schools. Now they are complaining because some students are.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like these Muslim students are getting something that we have been, as Christians or Jews or Hindus or whoever, forbidden from having in the public schools.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Coming up next, so, what is going on in San Diego schools? Are Muslim students getting special treatment?
And then a little bit later on, you have never seen anything quite like this, actual questions for a presidential debate from some of the most creative minds on the Internet.
Also, the incredible mystery that a pizza deliveryman took to his grave. Was he an innocent victim or part of a bank robbery plot? You have got to see this one to believe it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: So, how would you feel if your children came home from their public school and said their Muslim classmates were praying in school, and, not only are school officials allowing it; they are setting aside a special period for it?
Well, that's exactly what some people say is going on in San Diego. And it has set off a fiery debate over religion in the classroom. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): While some of the students at Carver Elementary School play outside in the San Diego sun, the Muslim children stay inside and pray. And that period of prayer is now a hot topic in the local paper and on conservative radio stations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand that they're Arabic, and it is OK to teach them Arabic. But it is not OK to initiate, engage, be biased, persuade these children into prayer.
ZAHN: In April, a substitute teacher at the Carver School called a radio show to say she was directed to set aside an hour, so a teacher's aide could lead Muslim children in prayer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At 1:00, according to -- as per Mr. (NAME DELETED) direction, Ms. (NAME DELETED) comes in, district employee, students. These seventh and eighth grade kids, without direction, closed the blinds, without direction -- that was the real flag, if you will, that went up -- closed the blinds. At that point, I became extremely uncomfortable, felt intimidated. And I left.
ZAHN: The San Diego Unified School District investigated the incident. It says it found no evidence that students were instructed to pray by a district employee, or that the prayer happened during instructional time.
The district maintains that all 400 Carver students are allowed a 15-minute recess each afternoon. During that time, some of the 100 Muslim students do pray on their own, but they pray without guidance from the school.
Edgar Hopida is a Muslim and spokesman for San Diego's Council on American-Islamic Relations.
EDGAR HOPIDA, SAN DIEGO COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS: I think that substitute teacher, along with others, should go and look into more about Islamic practices, and see that we're not a threat to the society. We are American, just like apple pie, and we want to be part of society.
ZAHN: But Muslim students have to pray at specific times each day.
Critics, like radio host Roger Hedgecock, claim they get special treatment.
ROGER HEDGECOCK, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: No classrooms are being set aside for Christian prayer. No classrooms are being set aside for practices of the Christian religion. We shouldn't do it in the public schools. And we sure shouldn't do it for the Muslims.
ZAHN: The irony is that religious conservatives and others have complained for years about a lack of organized prayer in schools.
But, now that non-instructional time has been set aside in schools like Carver Elementary, they complain that it's the Muslim students who use it for prayer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So, let's go straight to tonight's panel, Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus, Ibrahim Hooper, the national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Air America radio host Laura Flanders, author of "Blue Grit."
Great to have all of you with us tonight.
So, Cheri, the U.S. Department of Education says all Americans can pray in school, but those prayers cannot be led by a teacher. And, at this school, Muslims, Christians, or whatever faith you follow are allowed to pray at the same time these Muslim kids did.
So, why is this such a problem for you?
(CROSSTALK)
CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, the substitute teacher that was there said there was an assistant there who was working for this school who did come in and pretty much lead the students in this. And I have seen different reports on this.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Yes, the school denies that, of course.
JACOBUS: And this is -- so, basically, they are calling this woman a liar.
What they did, they didn't quite deny it. They just had a lengthy explanation that is pretty well parsed in terms of what the participation was for the teacher's assistant that was there.
That is not enough to satisfy people looking into this. It's also -- this is special treatment. I saw a report where these kids came into the room, were led into the room. We heard where they closed the blinds. They shut the door. And, in one report, I saw where they rolled up the American flag.
When this stuff starts getting out, and to think that it's not a reasonable expectation that Americans are going to question this? This is special treatment. I can just imagine what would happen and where the ACLU would be on this if a bunch of Catholic students decided that they were going to come in and have it written down on the curriculum, on the schedule for the substitute teacher that they were going to take a half-hour and say the rosary.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: OK, Ibrahim, a lot of the facts that Cheri just mentioned are not facts that we can corroborate here at CNN.
But let's get to the core point she was making, that she does believe that special treatment was offered these Muslim kids. We don't even know if the recess time was adjusted to accommodate the time of the day these kids needed to pray.
IBRAHIM HOOPER, NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS: Well, the bottom line is that existing law says that students of all faiths have the right to pray in schools, as long as it's student-led, student-initiated, voluntary and not coerced by anybody.
And that's what you are seeing here. The only difference is Muslims have certainly logistical constraints that say we pray during a specific window of opportunity. And that is what is being accommodated.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: All right, Ibrahim, hang on, before you go any further, because I want to put up on the screen something that a conservative blogger had to say about this issue.
"Islam is getting more leeway. There is no assimilation or exceptions in Islam in the area of diet or how they pray or even when they pray. They don't really want to assimilate, and they are hoping to convert the entire United States."
Is that the issue here, that Muslims don't want to assimilate?
HOOPER: It may be the issue for some Muslim bashers on the Internet. They love this kind of thing. But it's not the issue here.
You have Muslim students who want to pray. They have a minor accommodation of 15 minutes during a non-instructional time when they can pray, if they so choose.
ZAHN: OK.
HOOPER: And that's all there is to it. If you are Christian, if you are Jewish, if you are Hindu, you can have the same accommodation.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: All right.
Laura, what is the harm of any child of any faith praying during recess?
LAURA FLANDERS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, I think the point here is, you have a story that has been whipped up into a frenzy. And there's nothing easier than to whip up into a frenzy this country with the word Muslim these days.
We don't have the facts. As you said, the facts are very unclear. And the facts in these kinds of cases are all-important, because it's complicated. We take Christmas off generally, not for religious reasons, but because it's practical. Most kids wouldn't show up.
This is maybe a similar situation in an Arabic program. We don't know. What the courts have said over time -- and I called the ACLU, and I called the Americans For Separation of Church and State. What they have said is, it's OK to make the time available for students to pray or not pray in the name of religious liberty. What's not allowed is to endorse one particular practice over another.
If the teacher really led this prayer, that would be a problem. But we have only got one source on that.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Real quickly here, Cheri.
JACOBUS: You know, the whole practice of this is endorsing one over another.
And that is, when have seen the attacks on Christianity, the attacks on the nativity scene at Christmastime -- you can't even have Christmas celebrations in the public school -- and now we are going to such great lengths to accommodate Muslims. And I think it's political correctness gone mad. And everybody has every right to look into this. And they shouldn't have to be so sensitive about it just because it's Muslims.
HOOPER: It's a political freak-out without the facts.
And what we need to do is take this stuff seriously and get the facts, because this is a classroom trying to cater to the population that we have got in our schools that we are going to have to embrace more as we become a more multiracial, multicultural society. This is America at is best.
ZAHN: OK, we got to leave it there. Stay right there, we have a lot more to talk with you all about, tonight.
We're going to shift gears to presidential politics, now. In less than two weeks, on Monday July 23, we'll be bringing you a kind of presidential candidate's debate that you've never seen before. It's an absolute first. All of the questions for the Democratic candidates will come from ordinary people who are already posting them on the Internet Website, YouTube. And the creativity they are putting into their questions is blowing us away. So we asked Jeanne Moos to give you a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When a professional moderator is not posing the question, the questions tend to be less moderate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Greetings, I am Bjorn Svenson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, how's it going? Groucho from Los Angeles.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is...
MOOS: Oh, they have questions all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About aliens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this question here is for old John Edwards.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you're cute? Would you allow us to be married to each other?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going for it.
MOOS: These YouTubers are whispering, they're leering...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello Hillary.
MOOS: They're whining.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you answer my question?
MOOS: They're eating while they ask.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never envisioned 52 states...
MOOS: Imagine addressing potential presidents like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, yo, yo, my name is D. Wizzo...
MOOS: CNN and YouTube are asking to you submit videotaped questions, questions each candidate will watch on a monitor built into his or her podium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know what you think is, I don't know, the greatest invention you've heard of.
MOOS: Tooth picks and visual aids are encouraged. To make a point about healthcare...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This scarf...
MOOS: One woman flashed her heart surgery scar.
This guy waved around his Social Security statement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bit seeing that Social Security is going to be extinct in the near future, why am I still getting this?
MOOS: That's the kind of serous question CNN honchos probably will choose to include. The ones we're highlighting are you probably won't see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN will never use that.
MOOS: There's no such thing as a dress code among those submitting questions for this debate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I call myself the Anonymous American. Will you, right then and there, sign an executive order beginning the withdrawal of troops from Iraq?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How will you plan to deal with illegal immigration?
MOOS: This guy tried a little show and tell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's science.
MOOS: Demonstrating how little money goes to science compared to weapons research.
Some are question candidates don't normally get asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have donated blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In God we trust. What do those words mean to you?
MOOS: And then there was the do ask and do tell teddy bear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to keep my name and hometown anonymous because I'm in the military and I am gay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a middle-of-the-road (INAUDIBLE), I am a registered nut -- I mean, Democrat. Do you feel the terrorist -- feel the terrorists will come here? Oh my god, there is one here right now. HHH. Stop, please.
MOOS (on camera): My question to you candidates, do you regret agreeing to this debate yet?
(voice-over): Even a real cat submitted a question.
"How can you protect my food in the future?"
(INAUDIBLE) the contaminated pet food scare.
A pair of comedians had a question for John Edwards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you're better looking than Barack Obama? Tell you what, shirts off, we're going to have an abs. Going to have a ab-counting contest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want nobody taking off their shirt.
MOOS: Especially not any female candidates.
Some even sang to the contenders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This here is a two-part question: Pay taxes on my clothes and food...
MOOS: And after a tax question:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also, I got a parking ticket last week, could one of you all pardon me? MOOS: Pardon the questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take that, CNN.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Yeah, we took that, CNN. The debate you've got to see. We're going to preview -- that was a look at all the submitted questions on a special coming up this Monday at 8:00 p.m.
A bizarre mystery was supposed to be cleared up today, but the big announcement turned into an angry confrontation. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At this point, if the people in the back of the room do not respect this press conference, we're going to have to ask that you leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Who was shouting and who's right? Is the man on the ground a murder victim or part of a bank robbery plot? It's a really bizarre story you got to see. We're still scratching our heads trying to figure this one out, tonight.
And later, are colleges just too liberal and our professors biased against conservative students? Do they get bad grades because of that?
Also, you're not going to believe how many nurses are being attacked everyday by their own patients. Look at this nurse's face, unfortunately those kinds of injuries are repeated over and over again, all over the country. It's a shocking story that we are bringing "out in the open," tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Tonight we may finally have the answer to a 4-year-old mystery. It started with a bank robbery in Erie, Pennsylvania and with a man being blown up in front of police officers and television cameras. He claimed he had been forced to rob the bank by gunmen who had chained a bomb to his neck. Well today, investigator gave us their solution to the mystery and Allan Chernoff was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As bank robber Brian Wells sat surrounded by police officers with a bomb around his neck, four years ago, he insisted he had been forced to rob the PNC bank, forced to wear the explosive that was ticking away. Minutes later the bomb exploded, killing Wells. Despite that tragic outcome, prosecutors have concluded wells, in fact, was one of the conspirators who planned the robbery. MARY BETH BUCHANAN, U.S. ATTORNEY: It was the participant's intentions to have it seem as thought the person wearing the explosive device was a hostage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Liar.
CHERNOFF: Brian Wells' mother and siblings heckled the U.S. attorney during her news conference arguing prosecutors are mistaken.
JOHN WELLS, BROTHER OF BRIAN WELLS: Brian was a complete innocent murder victim in this case. There is no evidence suggesting otherwise or you would have heard that evidence today.
CHERNOFF (on camera): That evidence, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation, includes an eyewitness who saw Brian Wells at a meeting with the conspirators where the plot was discussed.
(voice-over): CNN has also learned that the original plot called for Wells to wear a fake bomb, and that just before the robbery his co-conspirators forced to wear a real one.
MARK POTTER, BUR OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO & FIREARMS: The brutality and utter lack of respect for life displayed by the indicted is rarely are seen outside a movie script.
CHERNOFF: The master mind, prosecutors say, was Marjorie Diehl- Armstrong, who allegedly recruited another participant, Kenneth Barnes, to kill her father and wanted to pay him with the proceeds from the bank robbery. Both are in prison for unrelated crimes.
Armstrong for murdering a boyfriend and Barnes for trafficking drugs. Now they face three new criminal charges for the bank robbery that could result in life sentences.
POTTER: Greed was their inspiration; death was just another byproduct of an evil scheme.
CHERNOFF: An attorney for Diehl-Armstrong says she will plead not guilty. CNN was unable to reach the attorney for Barnes.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Erie, Pennsylvania.
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ZAHN: Tough on to make sense of.
We're about to move on now and explore what some people consider to be the biggest problem on every college campus in the country. Are college professors too liberal and taking out their biases on conservative students?
We'll also bring in a very serious healthcare crisis "out in the open." You're not going to believe how many nurses are being attacked every day by their patients. Stay with us, it's an important story that you shouldn't miss.
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ZAHN: A new survey out tonight points to the fear that college teachers are politically biased. I think we've been hearing that for a long time now. Take a look at the result of an online survey by Zogby Interactive. Fifty-eight percent say they believe that bias among college professors is a serious problem; 37 percent say it's not so serious. So, exactly who's worried about this?
It's a clear split among liberals and conservatives. Ninety-one percent of people who call themselves very conservative say it is a serious problem compared to just three percent of liberals.
The poll was done online, so its results may not be dead on, but the numbers are still pretty striking. So, let's check this out with our panel, tonight. David Horowitz, who's trying to get state lawmakers to pass laws protecting conservative students from reprisals by liberal teachers, he also happens to be the author of "Indoctrination: The Left's War against Academic Freedom." And back with me now Ibrahim Hooper and Laura Flanders. Laura, who is also an author.
So, are you troubled by this? And what are the consequences of having too many liberal professors?
FLANDERS: This is so ridiculous. I mean, these right-wingers, like David, are really a trip. They have locked progressives out of most of the media, talk radio, and a whole lot of Congress. The one part of our country they do actually -- people actually encourage open debate, and research and respect for the facts, progressive views rise -- as a progressive I'm not surprised by that -- and these right- wingers, who are normally talking about meritocracy and good things rising to the top, instead want -- well, they finally found a form of affirmative action they like. They want the government to act.
ZAHN: David.
DAVID HOROWITZ, AUTHOR: Well, I'm not seeking laws to impose conservatism on universities, I never complained about professors being too liberal. I defended Ward Churchill for embarrassing himself on the Internet with his extremist views. The issue is very simple, you have leftists, and they're not liberals, if these professors were liberal, they would have no problem with presenting two sides to controversial issues and they would not have instituted a blacklist against conservatives. Conservatives are as rare as unicorns on university liberal arts campuses.
FLANDERS: David is the king of blacklist. I want to know why am I not on your laptop?
HOROWITZ: You know Laura, look, you know, I never been a leftist who wasn't a witch-hunter and you're a witch-hunter...
FLANDERS: I want to know why I'm not on your most recent list. I'm offended.
ZAHN: After tonight. After tonight, you've earned your place. A spot at the top.
Unfortunately Mr. Horowitz...
ZAHN: Ibrahim, do you think this is such a big deal?
(CROSSTALK)
HOROWITZ: Why do liberals always result to name calling?
IBRAHIM HOOPER, COUN OF AMER-ISLAMIC RELATIONS: The problem with Mr. Horowitz's analysis and attacks on professors, that the vast majority of the time he attacks them for activities outside the classroom. He doesn't attack for bias inside the classroom, he attacks their political views outside the classroom.
HOROWITZ: That is totally false. It's a talking point with the teacher unions. I have written a book called "The Professors..."
HOOPER: Well, people might want to check out a Website mediamatters.org, they do an analysis of this.
HOROWITZ: Look, the show is so stacked, the presentation is false to what I stand for and I got two leftists attacking me. Let me finish a sentence.
What I have...my book...
HOOPER: That's the first time I've been called a leftist, but go ahead.
ZAHN: All right, David, let me...
HOROWITZ: Enough. I mean, my book is about...
ZAHN: Let me -- I want the three of you to address this -- David, David -- take a -- David, hang on. Take a look at this opinion piece in the "Boston Globe" where it is response to some of these recent studies that found U.S. colleges are too liberal.
"Some academic liberals earnestly explain that conservatives are scarce in the universities because -- well, they're just not good enough...
Another variation on this theme is that liberals are better suited to academic life because, unlike those closed-minded, intolerant conservatives, they are open-minded and willing to allow the free expression of ideas they find disagreeable."
HOROWITZ: Now, Paula, why don't you do, you know, an investigative report and see if that's the case. I'm engaged now at Penn State University. I mean, just as an example, an English teacher shows Al Gore "Inconvenient Truth" in class, no presentation of a critical view. The same class has to texts on poverty, both of them by leftists, the...
HOOPER: Mr. Horowitz must be in favor of the Fairness Doctrine to bring none conservative viewpoints to radio -- talk radio.
(CROSSTALK)
FLANDERS: Where are the six states of legislation to combat bias in radio? I'm with Ibriham, I want to see it from David. I'll look forward to it, tomorrow.
ZAHN: All right, got to stop it there. David Horowitz, Ibriham Hooper, Laura Flanders. Thank you all.
You probably know it's a pretty big night for "Harry Potter" fans. The latest movie is just out today. In a minute Larry King is going to find out the secret to being Harry.
I got to admit, Larry, I was a groupie, today. I ran into Daniel Radcliff in the lobby, not only got an autograph for my son, but a picture of the two of them together. And I just got a review on my Blackberry from my 10-year-old son, said it was awesome.
LARRY KING, LARRY KING LIVE: The movie was -- I loved it. I took my 8-year-old and my 7-year-old. No normally you'd think it for a little older than that. They loved it!
ZAHN: And they weren't terrified?
KING: No, they were not terrified. You know what? It's really not terrifying. It's more about mystical things. I found a lot of -- I never got scared. They didn't get scared, either. It's more about magic and wands and birds flying and animals and it's wild. I loved it.
ZAHN: You're going to spend the whole hour with Harry Potter himself, tonight?
KING: No, we're doing a half-hour with Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliff. His first live primetime interview on the same night, as you said, that the movie opens, we're live. and we're going to find out what it's like to play a character who's an icon to millions.
Plus, former lady Barbara Bush to remember Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who passed away today. Some other items too, all at the top of the hour, Paula.
ZAHN: We will see you then. Thanks Larry, have a good show.
We are brining important healthcare crisis "out in the open," now. You're not going to believe what is happening in some hospitals around the country. Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd had a patient grab my hand and dig her nails in and say to me: If you have children I'll find them and I'll kill them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Why are so many nurses being attacked by patients? Find out next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Tonight, we're bringing "out in the open," a socking statistic. Almost nine out of 10 emergency room nurses say they've been attacked at work. That is right, nine out of 10. The people we depend on to save lives are increasingly targets for violence. Dan Lothian has tonight's "Vital Signs."
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DAN LOTHIAN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They save lives and help nurses heal, but this is the thank you some nurses get.
KAREN COUGHLIN, PSYCHIATRIC ER NURSE: I've been punched, I've been kicked, I've been spit at.
ELLEN MACINNIS, EMERGENCY ROOM NURSE: I had a patient grab my hand and dig her nails in me and say to me: If you have children, I'll find them and I'll kill them.
LOTHIAN: It gets worse for Boston emergency room nurse, Ellen MacInnis. Last summer as she was drawing blood from an intoxicated HIV positive patient.
MACINNIS: She just exploded and tried to hit me. And I was covered with blood. Well, I knew that I was in danger.
LOTHIAN (on camera): It doesn't cause much to spark rage: Slow service, frustration, mental illness, or the pain from whatever landed them at the hospital in the first place.
(voice-over): One survey conducted last year by the Emergency Nurse's Association, found 86 percent of its nurses nationwide reported being a victim of workplace violence during the prior three years. Nineteen percent said it happened frequently.
(on camera): You're supposed to be helping people heal, get better, and your life is being threatened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
LOTHIAN: It became so routine that Boston area psychiatric emergency room nurse, Karen Coughlin says her family began to worry for her safety.
COUGHLIN: My son asked me: did anyone threaten you today, mom. And I was just, I was so taken aback because my kids shouldn't have to ask me that.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): The Massachusetts Nurse's Association blames the sometimes hostile hospital environment, in part on staffing levels, cut by shrinking budgets. EVELYN BAIN, MASSACHUSETTS NURSES ASSN: There aren't enough people to address the patients.
LOTHIAN (on camera): Do you see that, a shortage of nurses, as part a problem?
KAREN NELSON, MASSACHUSETTS HOSPITAL ASSN: I see that, actually, as more of a knee-jerk reaction to a -- and a solution that's not really the answer to a -- what's really a societal problem.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): In other words, and increasingly violent society that it's spilling over into America's hospitals. In a state where some of the nation's leading healthcare facilities are located, some Massachusetts hospital officials say they are focused on more effective safety solutions, like stepped up security and training for nurses.
But Ellen MacInnis is backing a state bill that would put more pressure on hospitals to safeguard their worker.
MACINNIS: I'm in my 19th year of nursing.
LOTHIAN: Testifying at a hearing last month, she told her story of being covered splashed with HIV infected blood and enduring a rigorous cocktail treatment. Of being physically and mentally unstable and off the job for about two months. A dramatic account, but not everyone thinks a new safety law is the answer.
NELSON: Is that it's pretty much exactly redundant with existing rules, regulations, standards...
LOTHIAN: Both of these veteran nurses continue work at local hospitals. MacInnis pressed charges against her attacker.
MACINNIS: I felt my life had been threatened.
BAIN: It's one of the things that we really encourage nurses to do, because perpetrators should be held accountable for acts of violence.
LOTHIAN: It's what other nurse haves done too, as they fight for a safer environment to do what they love.
MACINNIS: Nurses aren't made, we're born. It's what we do, we take care of people.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So, as you've just seen, in spite of the dangers, most ER nurses seem to like what they do.
The Emergency Nurse's Association says it survey indicated that nearly 2/3 of nurses are satisfied with their jobs and 3/4 expect to stay nursing for at least 10 years. Minutes away from LARRY KING LIVE. Tonight, Harry Potter, himself. Actor Daniel Radcliff joins Larry at the top of the hour. I met him a little bit earlier today. A very nice and charming young man. And the movie's supposed to be great, too. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Before we go tonight, I want to acknowledge the passing of a remarkable woman. Lady Bird Johnson died today. She was 94 years old. Her husband, former President Lyndon Johnson, served from 1963 to 1969. But, as first lady she was the driving force behind the national effort to beautify our roads and highways. Think of her every time you drive past wildflowers instead of road signs. What a legacy. That's it for us. Goodnight, everybody.
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