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CNN Sunday Morning

Five Iraqi Police Officers Killed in Gun Battle; Wilbanks Back Home in Georgia

Aired May 01, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

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


TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is May 1st. And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy May. I'm Betty Nguyen. It is 8:00 a.m. here at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, 5:00 a.m. very early on the West Coast. We want to thank you for being with us today.

Now in the news, a deadly battle at a police checkpoint in Baghdad this morning. Five Iraqi police officers have been killed in a gun fight with about 30 insurgents.

Also in Baghdad this morning, a car bomber targeting a U.S. military convoy, killed at least five civilians and wounded 12 others.

Beefed up security, it seems to be working. Intelligence officials say the U.S. is seeing a drop in terrorist threats. They tell "The Washington Post" that reports of credible threats are at their lowest levels since 9/11. They say al Qaeda and other groups are now turning their sights on Iraq and Europe.

Well, she's gotten a lot of attention, but she does not want to be seen, as you can see here. Jennifer Wilbanks behind that little blanket there on her head is back home in Georgia this morning, leaving New Mexico with as you can see, a towel over head. Wilbanks had turned up in Albuquerque three days ago, after she disappeared -- or three days after she disappeared from her metro Atlanta home. Police say she just got cold feet about her wedding.

Well, we will have a live report straight ahead on all of this.

HARRIS: And much more to come this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Law enforcers take some unprecedented steps to fight child porn. And they're taking an unprecedented way of asking for your help. We'll explain.

Also, children born of war and the people who save them. We'll take you on a 30 year journey. And he was wounded in war, but this soldier is back on his feet. We'll bring you his story.

NGUYEN: But first, from Georgia to Mexico (sic), and back again, Jennifer Wilbanks has taken a long and winding road over the past few days. The bride to be is back home with her loved ones now, but she might not be out of the woods just yet. Let's go straight to her hometown in Duluth, Georgia, and CNN' Charles Molineaux, who is at the church where Wilbanks was to be married yesterday. But of course, we know that didn't happen, Charles.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It did not happen, Betty, yes. This is the Duluth First United Methodist Church, where the wedding was supposed to have been last night. Instead, the congregation's going to be coming in this morning shortly for Sunday services with a lesson instead being the one about the bride who took off.

Now this prodigal daughter flew into Atlanta last night. A flight attendant says she was escorted from the plane by police, and that she won't be making any public statements for a few days.

Jennifer Wilbanks flew out of Albuquerque last night, instead of walking down the aisle, which she was supposed to be doing right about that time, with her veil on. She was walking through the airport, escorted by police and the media with a towel over her head.

Albuquerque was where she turned herself in late Friday night with a story of being kidnapped until police and the FBI got to the truth of the matter that she had hopped a boss Tuesday night in a fight or pre-wedding anxiety, which left two families and a whole community first terrified, then overjoyed, then confused and angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN JONES, REV., WILBANKS' MINISTER: We feel betrayed, but nobody's talked to Jennifer. We don't know, you know, we don't know what she was feeling, what kind of emotions she has. And you know, I'm just amazed at the response of John Mason. He's calm. He's peaceful. And he wants to see her. He wants to talk to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, Delta Airlines flight attendant passed around a statement from Wilbanks that said, "She has spoken to her fiance. He cannot wait to see her. She says the wedding is not called off, just postponed."

Although at this point, any big happy plans will come under a conflicted cloud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY LASSITER, MAYOR, DULUTH, GEORGIA: There are many, many emotions. We're absolutely delighted to know this young lady is alive, and has not been hurt, and the worst has not happened.

But everyone is very emotional and has many different emotions about the deception, the untruths, and just the thought of her mother and what her mother has gone through for these last three days makes me want to cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, police in Albuquerque and here in Duluth, Georgia say they don't have any plans to file criminal charges for Jennifer Wilbanks' misadventure, but actually the district attorney here in Gwinnett County, Georgia not so fast. There's still questions to be answered.

For example, "The Atlanta Journal Constitution" reports that Jennifer actually bought the bus ticket from here to Las Vegas, the original one, a week ago. OK? Some questions still do remain to be answered. And she may yet have to face the music for what turned out to be a very big search involving an awful lot of people -- Betty?

NGUYEN: That's a very important detail. A week ago, huh? All right, Charles, we'll be checking in with you. Thanks -- Tony?

HARRIS: A tearful and frantic 911 call, that's what Jennifer Wilbanks made late Friday night from an Albuquerque convenience store. In it, she claims to be a victim. Here's a portion of the 911 tape.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

911: Albuquerque 911 operator. What is your emergency?

J. WILBANKS: I'm at the -- I don't know where I am. I'm right here at the 7-Eleven.

911: OK, what's going on?

J. WILBANKS: I've got my family and the police on the phone. I was kidnapped earlier this week and I'm here now and...

911: What is your name, ma'am?

J. WILBANKS: Jennifer.

911: Were you hurt, Jennifer? Do you need any medical attention?

J. WILBANKS: No, I don't need any medical attention. I told them my name.

911: Do you know who did this to you?

J. WILBANKS: No.

911: And did they just drop you off at that location?

J. WILBANKS: No, at some street -- I mean I don't know. I don't even know where I am. And I just walked in here.

911: Did they hurt you in any way, Jennifer? Do you need any medical attention?

J. WILBANKS: No, they didn't hurt me.

911: What happened?

J. WILBANKS: I was kidnapped from Atlanta, Georgia. I don't know. My parents said it's been on the news. I don't know.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, after all that's happened, how does Jennifer Wilbanks and her family heal from this ordeal? We'll bring you some insights from a man who helps families in crisis. Family psychologist Frank Batkins joins us in 10 minutes.

NGUYEN: Other news now. Florida is cracking down on child molesters. Governor Jeb Bush will sign a new law tomorrow. It requires sex offenders who molest kids under 12 to spend more time in jail. It also will force them to wear satellite tracking devices for life once they leave prison.

Now the measure comes on the heels of two high profile cases. Sex offender John Couey is charged in the death of Jessica Lunsford in March and another sexual offender in the death of Sarah Lunde, which happened last month.

All day today, CNN is focusing on the issues of child molestation and child pornography. Our continuing coverage includes lots of useful information and special reports to help you protect your children.

HARRIS: We've been talking about police often turn to the public for help. But in these cases, investigators are often hampered by their own rules, not identifying the victims.

As CNN's David Mattingly reports, investigators think they may have a workable alternative.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He face remains hidden to the public, but she is well known to child porn investigators around the world who are desperately trying to find her in ways they've never dare before.

PAUL GILLESPIE, DET. SGT., TORONTO POLICE SEX CRIMES UNIT: We are releasing the photograph of the material witness, and hope that if a citizen can identify her, it will greatly increase the chances of successfully identifying the perpetrator and recovering the victim.

MATTINGLY: Orlando police now take the extraordinary step of going public with a child they believe is a material witness in the case. About nine years old in this picture when it was taken a couple of years ago, investigators have no evidence she is a victim or witnessed any acts of abuse. But they believe she is sitting on the same couch in the same room where this highly sought after girl was photographed being sexually abused.

A tip line has been set up in central Florida to take calls from anywhere. 1-866-635-HELP. Find the girl on the couch, investigators hope, and they will find their victim.

GILLESPIE: I'm confident that the victim perhaps knows this person and this witness might be able to help us out with that.

MATTINGLY: On the trail of this case for years, Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police child exploitation unit has been hampered, he says, by secrecy. It's been the rule in law enforcement to never reveal the faces of child pornography victims, out of fear that it could place the child in danger from the abuser.

But according to Gillespie, it's a rule, he says, that needs to be changed.

GILLESPIE: I think we have to take into account that we have to start taking perhaps a little more aggressive measures to get in and break this cycle.

MATTINGLY: Using computers earlier this year, Toronto detectives remove the victim girl from her own pictures and recreated the rooms behind her, pictures they could then show to the public.

And it paid off. Someone recognized a bedspread from an Orlando resort. It was an unheard of break, but the hotel records with thousands of names didn't take them very far.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think those records are going to prove valuable from a historical standpoint, but at this point, we have no idea who we're looking for. So one name means nothing more than the next name at this point.

MATTINGLY: Investigators believe this potential witness photograph is their last best hope. Years spent scouring more than 200 photographs of the unknown victim have yielded few usable clues.

If this girl's photograph doesn't help find their victim, more extreme measures, they say, may be taken.

How close are you to releasing this girl's picture?

GILLESPIE: Well, that's always going to be an option, to be quite honest with you.

MATTINGLY (on camera): If that comes to pass, it would be a landmark step in the fight against child pornography. But for now, investigators in two countries wait, hoping the next phone call brings the break they've been looking for.

David Mattingly, CNN, Orlando, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And as we mentioned today, CNN will take an extensive look at what else you and authorities can do to help break this and other child molestation cases. That coverage includes a live interview with the sex crime investigator leading the search for the missing Toronto girl. And he's using non-traditional methods to do it. Detective Paul Gillespie live this morning on CNN SUNDAY. That's 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

And that brings us to today's e-mail question. What should be done to protect America's children? Send us your thoughts. Here's the address. Wam@cnn.com. We'll read your responses throughout the morning.

NGUYEN: The family of Jennifer Wilbanks is no doubt dealing with a flood of mixed emotions this morning. Relief that she is unharmed, anger that she ran from her problems, rather than face them head on.

Well up next, a mental health expert sheds some light on what the family faces.

HARRIS: Then later, we'll journey back 30 years to a remarkable story about survival and success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Other stories across America now. Police in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma are looking for two young Caucasian males. Now witnesses say they were walking along the turnpike around the time four cars were hit with bullets. All four cars were SUV type vehicles, hit with 22 caliber bullets in the hood or the radiator.

A controversial civilian border patrol project wraps up two hours from now. Volunteers with the Minuteman project have spent the last month observing the Arizona-Mexico border. Leaders say that nearly 900 volunteers reported 335 cases of illegal aliens trying to cross into the U.S.

In Nebraska, U.S. representative Tom Osborne says he will give up his seat in Congress to run for governor. Republican left his spot as head of football coach at the University of Nebraska to run for Congress back in 1997. Osborne is currently in his third term as congressman.

HARRIS: Well, he has been an emotional ride for the fiance and family of Jennifer Wilbanks. The runaway bride, as we're calling her, first feared that she had been kidnapped or killed, then relief that she was alive and well. Not perhaps sadness, betrayal and concern about what's to come.

How does the family heal and move on? And here to talk about that is family psychologist Dr. Frank Batkins.

Doctor, good to see you this morning.

FRANK BATKINS, DR., FAMILY PSYCHOLOGIST: Good to see you. Thank you.

HARRIS: You said something a few moments ago in the break. You said, "Feel and heal."

BATKINS: Yes. How people feel about this event has a lot to do with the resources they bring to bear on it, and their emotional involvement. For instance, the emotional involvement of a parent is going to be much more deep then the emotional involvement of an uncle, cousin, or even one of us watching us this event play out on national television.

HARRIS: Well, doctor, she, it seems to me, and I wonder if you will agree with this, that at some point, Jennifer has to sit down with the key people here. We're talking about John, we're talking about the families, both sides of this.

And it seems to me she has to tell the unvarnished truth about what happened here. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Or?

BATKINS: No, I think you're right in a place that you ought to be. What makes this so difficult is let's put it in context. This is a young woman...

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: ...how would you feel if one of your loved ones acted in isolation to avoid one of the most important events of your life, and then lied about it...

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: ...involved a minority in the lie, and basically said a federal crime has been committed. In that context, which is highly emotional charged for her in terms of legal implications, for the family in terms of betrayal, it needs to be understood how they're going to approach this.

Now what we know about this situation is we have an all -- by all appearances, two loving Christian families. Now they are validly Christian. They have prayed. And openly, their prayers have been answered.

And that's one of the places where this takes off from.

HARRIS: Ah.

BATKINS: That's one of the places where however this is mediated, however it's facilitated for this family, that they can move forward towards that repair, that reconciliation.

And of course, one of the things that Ms. Wilbanks clearly needs is she needs remorse and assiduously understanding the truth and presenting it to those main principals.

HARRIS: When the truth is told, from your experience, what are we likely to hear about the circumstances? Why she came to this dramatic, drastic a decision?

BATKINS: OK.

HARRIS: To act as you mentioned, in isolation this morning.

BATKINS: Well, you're asking me to evaluate her psychologically without seeing her. I can't do that. And in fact, I'll brush over it.

HARRIS: OK.

BATKINS: Two issues are important. One, her character. Character logically is there an issue there that needs to be addressed in terms of her moral values.

HARRIS: I see.

BATKINS: All right. Did she understand right from wrong and that process. And that's where the psychological aspect comes in.

HARRIS: Well, we have to assume she does understand right from wrong. She's a 32-year old woman. She's lived a full life to this point, we can assume that, right?

BATKINS: Yes. We hope that's the issue.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: When I say character logically, I mean, are there other factors driving that? For instance, is she anxious? And did she avoid this situation out of anxiety? Or did she avoid the situation out of narcissism or other issues?

For me to speculate on that at this point is unfair to her...

HARRIS: Oh, I was hoping you could give us just a little bit from your experience.

BATKINS: I understand. I will go a little bit more there. Just let me say this one thing.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: It is unfair in terms of her attempts to reconcile, because all we'll do is we'll speculate.

HARRIS: Got you.

BATKINS: Let me...

HARRIS: As quickly as you can.

BATKINS: OK. Socrates. Man came up with Socrates. Said, you know, oh, Socrates, have you heard? Socrates, away, my friend. And he said just what about -- are you going to tell me something that's good, that I need to know for the public or the individual good?

He said, "No, no, quite contrary. It might hurt someone."

He said, well, is it something beautiful, something I should see? Is it rare? Is it something I should look at? And no, not particularly. It's kind of ugly.

Well, is it the truth? Is something I should seek because I need to know?

And he says, oh, I'm not even sure it's the truth. He says, well my friend, if it's not good, if it's not beautiful, it's not the truth, I don't need to hear it.

So the key here is seeking the truth.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: That's what CNN acts. That's what the family wants. And that's what Jennifer Wilbanks needs to say.

HARRIS: And doctor, let's leave it there. We're flat out of time. Thanks for taking the time this morning. We appreciate it.

BATKINS: Thank you, sir.

HARRIS: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Still to come on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, mother-in-law jokes, well they are standard for comedians. Make that most comedians and a first lady. Yes, that's right. Stick around to hear from one very funny Laura Bush.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: The first lady had some fun at the White House correspondents dinner last night. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: George and I are complete opposites. I'm quiet. He's talkative. I'm introverted. He's extroverted. I can pronounce nuclear.

(APPLAUSE)

The amazing thing, however, is that George and I were just meant to be. I was a librarian, who spent 12 hours a day in the library. Yet somehow, I met George.

People often wonder what my mother-in-law's really like. People think she's a sweet, grandmotherly Aunt Bea type. She's actually more like Don Corleone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well...

NGUYEN: Yikes, Laura Bush. Well, we will share more punch lines. So hold on to your seats from the first lady's speech throughout CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HARRIS: There's more?

NGUYEN: Yes, there is more, I hear. I haven't heard all of it, so I can't wait to see.

HARRIS: Wow, all right, let's get our first check of the nation's weather with Jill Brown in the CNN Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Thirty years after Saigon fell, a look back at the children who escaped communism by boarding flights to freedom. Find out where one of them is today. I'll have that story ahead.

HARRIS: And later on, we'll meet an American hero who's concern for his men nearly cost him his own life. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is back home safe and sound in Georgia. Now she has to face the music. Duluth police have said she won't face criminal charges in her kidnapped hoax, but the Gwinnett County prosecutor says not so fast. He has some questions for her.

Two teenage boys who had been missing for a week have been found off the North Carolina coast. The boys ages 15 and 17 disappeared after launching their boat off Sullivan's Island for a short sail, but high winds took them to sea. The teens are said to be sun burned and dehydrated but otherwise OK.

Turning to Iraq, some arrests overnight in the kidnapping and killing of a humanitarian worker. Two raids by U.S. and Iraqi forces outside Baghdad netted six suspects in last year's murder of Care official Margaret Hassan. The raid turned up her ID card, handbag and clothing as well as a cache of weapons. Those raids are just part of another busy day in Iraq.

NGUYEN: Insurgents have also made their presence known today. For the details on that and the rest of the big international developments, let's hand it over to Anand Naidoo at the CNN international desk. Hi Anand.

ANAND NAIDOO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning from me. Yes, another wave of attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At least 11 people are killed. Insurgents targeted a checkpoint in a Baghdad neighborhood killing five policemen. The attack by about 30 insurgents occurred near a military college now used as a U.S. military camp. The guerrillas stole the dead officers' weapons and fled the scene. A late morning car bombing in southeast Baghdad killed five Iraqi civilians and among them a five-year-old child.

News coming just a short while ago, one of the officials working at a Baghdad sewage treatment plant was killed and so were two of his bodyguards.

Moving on to Israel, more diplomatic moves there. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Jerusalem, a significant visit because his justice and development party has strong roots in political Islam. Notwithstanding that, Turkey has had relatively good relations with Israel, although those relations have been strained recently by comments that Erdogan has made about Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Catholic faithful flock to St. Peter's Square to witness Pope Benedict XVI make his first Sunday window appearance since being elected pope. The pontiff took formal possession of the official papal resident yesterday and the appearance of course at the window is a long tradition, a tradition practiced by Pope John Paul II.

That is all from me for now. Back to Tony and Betty.

HARRIS: Anand, thank you. See you a little later.

NGUYEN: Well, 30 years ago this weekend, Saigon was falling to communism as the Vietnam war came to an end. Among those fleeing the country, orphans born of war and placed on flights headed to the land of the free. But did they ever find their American dream? Well, I caught up with one of those children. Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): April, 1975, thousands of Vietnamese swarm the U.S. embassy frantically trying to flee the country as communist forces surrounded Saigon. Among the refugees were countless children, born of war, to Vietnamese mothers and American fathers. Huang Van Long was one of them. His mother was dead and he remembers his grandmother taking him to an orphanage. She worried the communists would kill these mixed race children.

HUANG VAN LONG/MATT STEINER, ORPHAN: It was on my birthday when I was eight years old, so I remember her telling me that, you know, that she is going to give me up for adoption and that it was very hard for her to do that but despite of that, she wanted to see if I would have an opportunity to succeed in life and you know, have a family that I could call my own.

NGUYEN: Jim and Mary Steiner had spent time in Vietnam, traveling to Asia in the 1950s as medical missionaries. Then they moved back to the U.S. to raise their three children.

MARY STEINER PSOLLA, MOTHER: Rather than having another child of our own, we adopted a child that was already in the world and experiencing difficulty in the country that he was living in, so that was all part of the motivation I think for helping another child.

NGUYEN: Back in Saigon, the Americans organized a last-minute orphan evacuation called "operation baby lift." And the little boy who had witnessed so much loss had finally won a ticket to a new life. He was on the first baby lift plane to make it to America.

STEINER: We had over 400 kids on the flight and we had two or three kids to a seat, if not more. There wasn't any rules, it was probably broken, every rule was probably broken that day.

NGUYEN: Placed in seats, on the floor, wherever possible, these flights were packed with children headed to homes all across America. On that 20-hour journey, Huang Van Long stared at a picture of his new parents, preparing for the moment when they'd meet.

STEINER: I wanted to find my mom and dad so badly, and then, you know as soon as I saw my mom, I recognized her picture right away, and I can just -- only thing I can remember is running as fast as I can and jumping into her arms and just saying, you know, here I am. I made it.

NGUYEN: That day on April 6th, 1975, he became Matt Steiner.

PSOLLA: To see this child walk out with this smile on his face and he was so happy to see us and it was like he says, here I am you lucky people. Just like he knew he wanted to be there.

NGUYEN: You say your dream was to become an all-American boy. This picture you pretty well fit in.

STEINER: Well, looks like I'm having fun anyways. Like I say, I never seen what a basketball looks like, but here they are showing me how to play basketball.

NGUYEN: These are your brothers?

STEINER: These are my brothers, yes. This is Dan who is the oldest and Doug, who's the next oldest and then Jeff.

NGUYEN: He went on to play just about every sport that involved a ball and became valedictorian of his 1984 graduating class at West Liberty Salem High in Ohio. Today, Matt has a family of his own, and has become a father, something he never had before stepping on American soil. Do you ever wonder what life would be like had Matt not made it out?

PSOLLA: It's hard to imagine, yeah. We think about it, but, you know it's difficult to even think what it would be like. But I'm sure it would not be the success story that he has made it today.

NGUYEN: In 1995, Matt wanted to see his birth country and the place where his luck turned around, the (INAUDIBLE) orphanage in Saigon. This balcony where he watched the sky light up with explosions and the wall where he stood to take this picture 30 years ago.

STEINER: Just coming back, just kind of brought up a lot of feelings about my grandmother and my mother and finding out just talking to different people there that they -- you know, how much they really loved me to have to give me up.

NGUYEN: Still, he can't help but wonder why me, why is he one of the lucky ones?

STEINER: I do feel like that there was so many people over there that didn't make it out that had to suffer.

NGUYEN: Which is part of the reason why he's followed his adoptive father's footsteps and became an emergency room physician. STEINER: I definitely think of myself and all the other adoptees that had an opportunity for a family and another life. That was the one thing that was good that came out of the Vietnam War.

NGUYEN: A sacrifice was made to save his life and now Matt works to save the lives of others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: What a story.

NGUYEN: It's amazing journey for him and all the other folks who came out in 1975, including my family.

HARRIS: Well, Betty, that's where we're going next. That's Matt's story. But take a moment here and share some of your personal stories.

NGUYEN: My family and I came out on April 19th, 1975. Unlike Matt, we didn't board a commercial flight. We had to board a cargo plane. There were no seats. My mother had never even been on a plane before, Tony. You just imagine the fear. You're heading to this country that you don't know anything about. Your country has fallen to communism and in fact, we had to go to three refugee camps before we finally made it to America. It was in those refugee camps, the one in the Philippines where we learned that Saigon had fallen to communism and my mother remembers it so vividly. She says that day everyone in the camp just cried. It was as if they were lost without a country because they hadn't reached their new home just yet. But I tell you, this new home, America, it is a wonderful place. I'm so proud to be a Vietnamese American.

HARRIS: Great story. Your mom on that flight, has she told you about her hopes for you in this country?

NGUYEN: She just wanted me to become the best that I could be. I mean there was a huge sacrifice that was made in 1975. It marked the beginning and an end. It marked the old country and new country. So with that sacrifice, it's all about just achieving that American dream and doing the best that you can because we've been given a blessing and an opportunity.

HARRIS: How proud she must be.

NGUYEN: She is pretty proud. I'm proud of her for what she's done.

All right. We're going to move on now. We're going to talk about a lesson in leadership and loyalty from an army sergeant wounded in Afghanistan. That is next in this week's hero story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: This week's hero, Sergeant First Class John Setzer. Under fire and trying to save some of his fellow soldiers, Sergeant Setzer was severely wounded while serving in Afghanistan two years ago this week. CNN's Bill Tucker has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 06:00 at Ft. Bragg. For Sergeant First Class John Setzer's paratroopers, today it's a six-mile march carrying 55 pounds of gear. In early 2003, the sergeant was in Afghanistan with a platoon he had just trained, securing an area known to be occupied by insurgents.

SGT. 1ST CLASS JOHN SETZER, U.S. ARMY: The company commander wanted to move ahead and look at an old stage area.

TUCKER: Insurgents attacked the first group and radio contact was lost. Sergeant Setzer moved his group of 10 soldiers forward.

SETZER: Once we got to the top of the hill, we heard leaders yelling to one another for the soldiers to engage and get down. You could smell the blood from the wounded.

TUCKER: The sergeant took shrapnel in the neck. Disregarding his own injuries, he evacuated a wounded airman to safer ground who would later die. He returned to evacuate more men, but was attacked again.

SETZER: The machine gun opened up about 25 meters away, about 30, 40 feet. And two rounds hit the "T" and the "Z" and one round hit the "E", cut through the body armor, hit the tip of the plate, and it bounced up right here and broke my jaw, shattered my teeth, and went and just on the right-hand side, I have shrapnel all up in my face and they pulled the pieces that were in my eye out. My young PFC was wounded, covered me out of the vehicle.

TUCKER: The sergeant and Private Dennis were airlifted to Bagram Air Force Base. Sergeant Setzer was in surgery 4 1/2 hours. When he came to, his first question was about Private Dennis.

SETZER: That's all that matters. It didn't matter about anything else. You have a young 18, 19-year-old man. He's got a lot to live for. They told me that they did everything they could for Dennis but he lost too much blood and he didn't make it.

TUCKER: Sergeant Setzer was awarded the purple heart, the bronze and the silver star.

SETZER: I would give up all those awards if I could have those two young men back.

TUCKER: The sergeant is now recovered and is able to return to combat. He has no intention of leaving the military.

SETZER: As long as I breathe and as long as, you know, I can still do it, I love to train, I love to lead.

TUCKER: Bill Tucker, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And we bring you hero stories every week on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

NGUYEN: Updating you on our top stories today. The wave of violence continues in Iraq for the third day in a row. This morning five Iraqi police died in a gun battle with insurgents in Baghdad and five civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb.

The runaway bride, she is back in Georgia. Jennifer Wilbanks returned last night from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wilbanks initially said she had been kidnapped, but hours later admitted she got cold feet and left on her own.

The Treasury duck becomes a mom. The brown mallard has been living outside the Treasury Department and her ducklings began hatching yesterday. Look at them. They could be moved to a nearby park and set free today.

HARRIS: They don't call it the net for nothing. Si.com is going courtside now that the NBA playoffs are off and running. From schedules to blogs to break out stars. Everything you need to know at your finger tips. Impress your friends with your NBA know how next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And time now to take a look at some of the stories we'll be covering in the week to come. Monday at Fort Hood, Texas, Army Private First Class Lynndie England will plead guilty to reduced charges for her alleged role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. England's picture was taken alongside naked Iraqi prisoners and holding one Iraqi detainee on a leash.

Friday, President Bush begins a four day trip to Latvia, the Netherlands, Russia and Georgia. In Russia, he will take part in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Saturday the drink of choice will be mint juleps as the 131st Kentucky Derby gets under way. All eyes will be on the track but they'll also be checking out the new digs. The historic Churchill Downs just underwent a massive renovation to the tune of $121 million.

All right. Go inside all the action of the NBA playoffs. Si.com tracks the players and the play by play. Christina Park has all those details from the cnn.com desk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drive right by those scalpers and the ticket lines. We've got your virtual courtside seats to the NBA playoffs at si.com. Get up close and personal with the post- season's most important players in our photo gallery. Fellows like the Heat's Shaquille O'Neal and the Bulls' Ben Gordon will have to kick it into high gear to push their teams deep into the playoffs.

If you're looking for a champion to root for, six out of eight experts at si.com think the San Antonio Spurs will win it all. Don't count out the defending champs, the Detroit Pistons. And if you're more interested in the post-season personalities, si.com/nba peers into the crystal ball to separate the champs from the chumps. Among the champs, the (INAUDIBLE) the very versatile Tayshaun Prince. Among the chumps, Detroit coach Larry Brown for beating his play the right way mantra into the ground. Before you log off, be sure to scroll down for the complete series schedule from now until May. You're in a whole new league at si.com/nba. Reporting for the dot-com desk, I'm Christina Park.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Remember, the difference between champ and chump is ...

NGUYEN: What is the difference there, Tony, can you elaborate on that?

HARRIS: You.

NGUYEN: Me? You calling me a chump?

HARRIS: The difference between champ and chump is you. And yes, I'm very afraid because you will take me out. It might be one more victory for a world champion. We'll have an update on Scott Hamilton's fight against a brain tumor that is next. Stay with us. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues.

JILL BROWN, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I'm Jill Brown at the CNN weather center. Time for your fairway forecast. Not just a pleasant day for golf yesterday. Big thunderstorms until about 1:00 in the afternoon so it was kind of a late start yesterday. Making up today in New Orleans for the classic. Take a look at forecast. Sunny and 75. It's a little bit breezy but after yesterday I don't think anyone will be complaining as they finish up here in New Orleans today.

Stick around. We'll talk about the nation's weather coming up as CNN SUNDAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And we want to update you on the story you first heard on CNN SUNDAY MORNING about two months ago. Legendary Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton, who was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor last November, this week has received positive results after a radiation treatment and two MRI scans. The tumor near his pituitary gland had shrunk in size and the surrounding brain tissue had returned to a more normal appearance. Hamilton says his condition has improved and he is now back to full activity.

NGUYEN: Oh, good for him. Yes, very happy to hear that. Best of luck to him.

Well, this morning if you're waking up on the east coast, tired of the rain? Yeah, me too. But it looks like we'll have to talk to Jill to find out when it's going to go away. Hi Jill.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Thanks Jill. As we mentioned, CNN all day long is going to be taking an extensive look at what law enforcement and you can do to better protect America's children. Here's our e-mail question this morning. What should be done to protect America's children?

Our first response comes from Steven in San Jose, California, who writes, there is no rehabilitation of someone sick enough to sexually molest a child. They maliciously prey on the most innocent, helpless and weakest members of our society. Much like predatory animals in the wild, they should be permanently removed from society for their conviction. Back to you.

NGUYEN: Well, John says anyone convicted on child molestation abuse or pornography charges on children less than 16 years of age should get a 10-year Federal charge and this should be a mandatory sentence without parole.

We still want to know what the rest of you think as well out there. Send us your thoughts on what should be done to protect America's children, wam@cnn.com.

HARRIS: In the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING begins right now.

(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)

911: OK, what's going on?

WILBANKS: I've got my family and the police on the phone. I was kidnapped earlier this week and I'm here now.

911: What's your name, ma'am?

WILBANKS: Jennifer.

(END AUDIO TAPE)

NGUYEN: The frantic 911 call that turned out to be a hoax. The bride to be with the cold feet wakes up back in Georgia this morning after three days on the run. We'll have the latest on that.

From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING the first day of May. Can you believe it already?

HARRIS: May Day, May Day.

NGUYEN: I'm Betty Nguyen.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Let's get you started with today's top stories. Now in the news, Jennifer Wilbanks wore a towel instead of a veil on what was supposed to be her wedding day. The "Atlanta Journal Constitution" reports she may have purchased her bus ticket out west up to a week ago. She's back home in suburban Atlanta, where a local prosecutor says she could face charges. A live report on this developing story is just ahead.

In Baghdad another wave of deadly attacks today. Five Iraqis civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb apparently intended for a U.S. military convoy. Five Iraqi police were killed when gun men ambushed their check point. And a manager of Baghdad's sewage facility was assassinated along with two body guards in a drive by shooting.

At the Vatican a new pope in a familiar scene. For the first time in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI delivered the Sunday angelus prayer from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

And in Major League Baseball, the commissioner wants tough sanctions for steroid use. In a letter to the players association Bud Selig proposes a 50 game suspension for a first offense. A second offense would trigger a 100 game suspension and a third offense would result in a lifetime ban from the game. The players association has not yet responded to the proposal.

NGUYEN: Straight ahead this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, why did this sex offender do what he did. We can't show you his face, but we can take you inside his mind. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta ask, "Should he be treated as a criminal or a patient."

And on a lighter note, hurrah for Bollywood. India hands out its versions of the Oscars, but who was honored. Well, you might be surprised. And boy, do we mean surprised.

Also ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And so the city slugger asked the old guy how to get to the nearest town...

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Not that old joke. Not again.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow! That's good. That's good stuff.

NGUYEN: She stepped up to it didn't she. The first lady upstages her husband and steals the show. We will take you live to Washington in just a few minutes.

HARRIS: Quality entertainment.

Let me begin this hour with the latest in the saga of the runaway bride. Jennifer Wilbanks three days on the lamb, which triggered a huge manhunt ended some 1500 miles away in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

She is back home now, but many in the community that had been praying for her safe return are now angry about the deception. There are reports her actions may have been premeditated.

CNN's Charles Molineaux is at the church where Wilbanks and her fiance were to have been married yesterday in a large and lavish wedding. Good morning, Charles. MOLINEAUX: Good morning, Tony. This is the Duluth First United Methodist Church a place big enough to hold the 600 people expected for that wedding that didn't come off last night. Instead the congregation is coming in for normal Sunday services and the pastor here says that as far as this place is concerned that story is over.

Jennifer Wilbanks flew home last night. Her arrival in Atlanta was actually stealthy. She got off her plane and was whisked away under a police escort without coming out with the rest of the passengers.

She did a much more public non-wedding march with a towel over her head when she flew out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Police in Albuquerque say she took a bus there after coming down with intense wedding jitters and for a while told them a bogus story about being kidnapped and taken there.

Her disappearance Tuesday night touched off a frantic search here in Duluth. It got nationwide attention. Well, when word got that she's OK and that she ran off and concocted a tale about what happened that tarnished a lot of the excitement about her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SHIRLEY FANNING LASSITER, DULUTH, GEORGIA: I probably received 25 e-mails from people all over the United States and one from England, who have actually gone on to the Web site and e-mailed the mayor of Duluth to let me know that, you know, this is a travesty and we're so glad to know that she's alive and everyone is heart felt about that but that they feel like there needs to be a reaction for her action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, actually there was a statement passed around by a flight attendant on Jennifer's flight that said that she had spoken to her fiance John Mason, that he was very excited to see her and that this wedding is being merely postponed.

But an awful lot of complications endure, reaction for her action including from the Gwinnett County district attorney who says that there is still a possibility she could be prosecuted for what happened. And we have word from the Atlanta Journal Constitution that she may, in fact, have bought the bus ticket that took her from here originally to Los Vegas as long ago as a week back.

Many complications and many questions endure, but Jennifer Wilbanks is now back home this morning.

Tony.

HARRIS: And Charles, we're not expecting to hear anything directly from Jennifer any time soon are we?

MOLINEAUX; What the statement passed around by the flight attendant said was that she was too tired to do any public speaking but that she may be saying something within the next few days. Certainly or very probably not today, but perhaps in the not too distant future.

HARRIS: OK. Charles Molineaux in Duluth for us this morning. Charles, thank you.

NGUYEN: Across America now two teenage boys missing for a week have been found off the North Carolina coast. Seventeen year old Josh Long and 15 year old Troy Driscoll were last seen launching a boat from Sullivan's Island South Carolina. Authorities say fishermen found the teens yesterday. They were sun burned, dehydrated and hungry, but otherwise OK.

Investigators want to question two people following a string of shootings along the Oklahoma highway or an Oklahoma highway. Four vehicles were hit by bullets while traveling along the Creek Turnpike in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Now callers to police reported seeing two white males walking along that turnpike along the time of the shootings.

HARRIS: Visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the war. A Vietnam veterans group held a special ceremony near the wall yesterday. People from around the country paid tribute to those who died in the war.

The latest NBA playoff action for you now. San Antonio, the Spurs a two games to one lead against Denver after beating the Nuggets 86 to 78. Boston has evened up its series with Indiana at two games a piece. The Celtics routed, routed the Pacers 110 to 79.

Also Betty's Mavs...

NGUYEN: Yes, yes.

HARRIS: Yes...

NGUYEN: Bring it on.

HARRIS: ...came from behind...

NGUYEN: That's right.

HARRIS: ...to beat Houston.

NGUYEN: That's how we do it in Dallas.

HARRIS: You claim everything in Texas. Now you don't any part of Houston. All right. They beat Houston 97 to 93.

NGUYEN: I didn't say that.

HARRIS: The series is also even and the Washington Wizards have their first NBA playoff in more than 17 years beating Chicago 117 to 99. The Bulls still lead that series two games to one.

NGUYEN: Yes they do. Hey I'm going to claim San Antonio and Dallas because they both won. That's the way it goes. I'm not a fair weather fan. They just won, right?

All right, moving on. It was a dinner and a show Washington style. We're talking about a show here folks with journalists, politicians and Hollywood celebrities rubbing elbows and it was First Lady Laura Bush, who stole the show.

CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us with a few highlights and punch lines of course from the annual White House correspondence dinner. Boy she was on fire.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She was. I have to say though, Betty, also raised a lot of eyebrows at some point during her performance, I guess is the best way to put it. But this is a tradition, Betty, that dates back to 1920. It's an event that's put on every year by the White House Correspondents Association.

All manner of celebrities, Hollywood and Washington types attend this dinner. Last night, of course, it was President Bush, the first lady, the Cheneys, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, all in attendance. The comedian was Cedric the Entertainer. The president himself got some laughs, but as you see right there it was Laura Bush who surprised a lot of people.

She got a standing ovation. At one point she interrupted her husband mid joke, proceeded to poke fun letting lose at her husband, her mother-in-and telling stories about the vice president at the Bush's Texas ranch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. BUSH: It's always very interesting to see how the ranch air invigorates people when they come down from Washington. Recently when Vice President Cheney was down he got up early one morning, he put on his hiking boots and he went on a brisk 20 to 30 foot walk.

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Two people though, you know, the name is broken down. It's the Condi who's the -- that's the person you see on television with the nice hair and very professional. Then there's the Dolezza she the one with her hair wrapped up on the phone with her girl friend watching BET talking about...

(LAUGHTER)

...girl ain't that Usher fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: So you see there everyone having a good time. But many people don't realize there's actually a philanthropic component to all of this. A couple of scholarships, journalism scholarships are awarded every year. But it was fun last night.

Today though back to business. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card making the rounds today on the Sunday talk shows, talking up, of course, the president's domestic agenda item of his second term and that is trying to get Social Security reform passed.

Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, Elaine, I've got to ask you, Laura Bush, Cedric the Entertainer, which one do you think outshined the other?

QUIJANO: Well, I have to say the first lady by all means really took people by surprise., yes. She, you know, the thing about her is everybody of course has the image of her as the librarian, who is very much at her husband's side quietly sitting there. In fact she said herself, you know, the next time you see me sitting up there you'll really know what I'm thinking. And you know, she let lose.

And in some respects I think for some folks it was a little shocking because she kind of crossed the line a little bit in some peoples minds. She poked fun at her husband and I won't go into detail here but she did raise some eyebrows and at the same time. At the same time other people I talked to said they found it refreshing. They felt very much at east. And you know what, Betty, she has an 85 percent approval rating, so how can you argue with that.

NGUYEN: There you have it. She was real and that was funny.

Thanks, Elaine.

HARRIS: Hey maybe she can -- Elaine an e-mail us some oft he off-color stuff, the good stuff, more of the good stuff.

The stormy weather that started the weekend off seems to have passed a bit. Meteorologist Joe Brown has more on that in just a moment.

NGUYEN: Plus all day long, CNN is offering tips on battling a terrible trend in child abuse. Coming up what goes on the mind of a pedophile. That's ahead on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: People who prey on innocent children will soon get stiffer punishment in Florida. The law, which governor Jeb Bush plans to sign tomorrow, will require those who molest children under 12 to wear satellite tracking devices for life once they leave prison. It will also force offenders to stay in prison longer with minimum sentences of 25 years.

Now that's about three times the average sentence currently imposed in the state.

HARRIS: We are focusing on the growing issue of children exploited and molested all day long here on CNN. This hour we take a look at pedophiles. They can be anybody from the trustworthy school teacher to the dirty old man in the part, that stereotype. There's no clear sign that allows us to pick them out of a crowd.

Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with a glimpse into the mind of a pedophile in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN, PEDOPHILE IN TREATMENT: It involves several young, male boys over a period of time from the time I was about 20 to 47, 48 years old and it wasn't a continuous thing. It was something that went like a broken tire, flat tire in a car. You go along it seems to be OK and then you'd hit the flat spot and you would abuse.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no doubt this 52 year old man is a pedophile. The bigger question is he a criminal or a patient.

STEVEN: I'm the guy that's going to take the long way around a group of kids in a shopping mall.

GUPTA: Stephen, who asked for his name to be changed and to be interviewed in silhouette spent three years in prison after being convicted for acts of pedophilia as a crime. Today he's being treated for pedophilia as an illness.

Admittedly, it is blurry. Increasingly we medicalize bad behavior, alcoholism, violence, even murder may all be due to imbalances of chemicals in the brain. But the risk is we may let criminals pay a lesser price for monstrous deeds or punish patients for whom treatment could prevent future crimes.

STEVEN: It's not a disease as it's not a bacteria or virus. It is a mental illness. OK, it's a cognitive dysfunction that people can get. Some people are born with it. Some people might be born with it.

GUPTA: As for Steven himself, he's not quite sure whether he was born with it. He is sure that for almost 30 years he molested more than a dozen children. It was only the combined efforts of the police, court and prison that could break Stephen's cycle of abuse.

Pedophilia has been a diagnosable mental illness for decades. Simply defined as an a normal sexual attraction for children. And while there are no brain scans or blood test to confirm the diagnosis, there is a battery of treatments ranging from psychotherapy to antidepressants to forms of chemical castration with anti-adrogens, aimed at reducing testosterone and sex drive.

DR. PAUL FEDOROFF, PSYCHIATRIST TREATING STEVE: The aim of treatment in pedophilia is not for people to stop having sex, but rather to modify their sexual interest so that they become non criminal.

GUPTA: Steven's course involves two strategies, anti depressants to curb sex drive and psycho therapy to understand why he was abused Now six years after being convinced he says he no longer thinks of children sexually. STEVEN: I don't spend enough time thinking about them to have fantasies. So it's like a guillotine coming down. If there's a child I remember terrible things happened.. I don't want to go there, clank done, out of it. Let's change our thought pattern and go someplace else.

GUPTA: But can treatment work for everyone? Can pedophilia ever really be cured. Many are cautious including Dr. Jean Abel, director of behavioral medicine at Emory University.

DR. GENE ABEL, BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE INSTITUTE: Rheumatoid arthritis never goes away, congestive heart failure is never, ever cured, diabetes is never cured. This behavior, inappropriate behavior is not cured. We just help the person stop this behavior.

STEVEN: I would say when you get to the definition of cured being I don't want to, I don't feel like it and I have no interest, if that's your definition of cured then you've got a lot of people out there that have been cured. Yet if your definition of to be cured never ever had a pedophilic thought in your life, then there is no cure. An alcoholic isn't a drunk if he never drinks again, right? Is he cured? No. Might as well be.

GUPTA: As far as pedophiles go though for now at least they will be treated as both patients and criminals.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: We continue our in-depth coverage of child molestation and pornography in our next hour. We'll talk with David Gillespie who heads the child exploitation unit of the Toronto police department and John Walsh,. Host of "America's Most Wanted" will talk about tracking child porn victims. That's tonight at 10:00 Eastern on CNN.

NGUYEN: But what do you think about this issue. That leads us to our e-mail question today, what should be done to protect America's children. We've gotten a lot of very interesting responses.

Barett, Mr. Barrett from Florida says since it has been acknowledge that once a sex offender always a sex offender and since it's becoming a national epidemic I suggest I suggest the punishment that in all the rhetoric recently on this subject I've heard only once castration at the first conviction.

HARRIS: And this from a B.J.M. from Largo, Florida. In order to protect America's children we need to stop protecting sex offenders. They should be put in general population when they go to jail or prison. Perhaps if they knew they have a chance of being put in general population with lifers that have nothing to lose if they kill them then maybe they would be a bit hesitant about harming an innocent child.

Thank you for the e-mail so far. Once again here's our question of the day, What should be done to protect America's children. Here's the address, wam@cnn.com and we'll read more of your responses in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

The glitz and glam of the Oscars, but overseas.

NGUYEN: OK. So what does that have to do with David Hasselhoff? The mystery unsolved right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: "Bay Watch" in Bollywood? Well some surprising honorees at the Indian Film Industry's version of the Oscars. The ceremony was held, believe it or not, in Atlantic City, New Jersey of all places. Former "Bay Watch" hunk as many would say, David Hasselhoff was named international star of the year. His show was one of the most popular on Indian television.

Also some names you might be less familiar with like Rani Mukherjee won best actress for her role in the film, "Hum Tum." And veteran actor Shammi Kapour got the lifetime achievement award for his decades of work in the Bollywood silver screen.

HARRIS: Appearing on screens in your home right now, Jill Brown as we check in again in the CNN weather center.

Good morning, Jill.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: It is a reunion you don't want to miss. A child left abandoned during the Vietnam war meets one of his rescuers three decades later.

NGUYEN: It is one of many chapters in the emotional story of Operation Baby Lift coming up next hour. "HOUSE CALL" is next.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 1, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is May 1st. And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy May. I'm Betty Nguyen. It is 8:00 a.m. here at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, 5:00 a.m. very early on the West Coast. We want to thank you for being with us today.

Now in the news, a deadly battle at a police checkpoint in Baghdad this morning. Five Iraqi police officers have been killed in a gun fight with about 30 insurgents.

Also in Baghdad this morning, a car bomber targeting a U.S. military convoy, killed at least five civilians and wounded 12 others.

Beefed up security, it seems to be working. Intelligence officials say the U.S. is seeing a drop in terrorist threats. They tell "The Washington Post" that reports of credible threats are at their lowest levels since 9/11. They say al Qaeda and other groups are now turning their sights on Iraq and Europe.

Well, she's gotten a lot of attention, but she does not want to be seen, as you can see here. Jennifer Wilbanks behind that little blanket there on her head is back home in Georgia this morning, leaving New Mexico with as you can see, a towel over head. Wilbanks had turned up in Albuquerque three days ago, after she disappeared -- or three days after she disappeared from her metro Atlanta home. Police say she just got cold feet about her wedding.

Well, we will have a live report straight ahead on all of this.

HARRIS: And much more to come this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Law enforcers take some unprecedented steps to fight child porn. And they're taking an unprecedented way of asking for your help. We'll explain.

Also, children born of war and the people who save them. We'll take you on a 30 year journey. And he was wounded in war, but this soldier is back on his feet. We'll bring you his story.

NGUYEN: But first, from Georgia to Mexico (sic), and back again, Jennifer Wilbanks has taken a long and winding road over the past few days. The bride to be is back home with her loved ones now, but she might not be out of the woods just yet. Let's go straight to her hometown in Duluth, Georgia, and CNN' Charles Molineaux, who is at the church where Wilbanks was to be married yesterday. But of course, we know that didn't happen, Charles.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It did not happen, Betty, yes. This is the Duluth First United Methodist Church, where the wedding was supposed to have been last night. Instead, the congregation's going to be coming in this morning shortly for Sunday services with a lesson instead being the one about the bride who took off.

Now this prodigal daughter flew into Atlanta last night. A flight attendant says she was escorted from the plane by police, and that she won't be making any public statements for a few days.

Jennifer Wilbanks flew out of Albuquerque last night, instead of walking down the aisle, which she was supposed to be doing right about that time, with her veil on. She was walking through the airport, escorted by police and the media with a towel over her head.

Albuquerque was where she turned herself in late Friday night with a story of being kidnapped until police and the FBI got to the truth of the matter that she had hopped a boss Tuesday night in a fight or pre-wedding anxiety, which left two families and a whole community first terrified, then overjoyed, then confused and angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN JONES, REV., WILBANKS' MINISTER: We feel betrayed, but nobody's talked to Jennifer. We don't know, you know, we don't know what she was feeling, what kind of emotions she has. And you know, I'm just amazed at the response of John Mason. He's calm. He's peaceful. And he wants to see her. He wants to talk to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, Delta Airlines flight attendant passed around a statement from Wilbanks that said, "She has spoken to her fiance. He cannot wait to see her. She says the wedding is not called off, just postponed."

Although at this point, any big happy plans will come under a conflicted cloud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY LASSITER, MAYOR, DULUTH, GEORGIA: There are many, many emotions. We're absolutely delighted to know this young lady is alive, and has not been hurt, and the worst has not happened.

But everyone is very emotional and has many different emotions about the deception, the untruths, and just the thought of her mother and what her mother has gone through for these last three days makes me want to cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, police in Albuquerque and here in Duluth, Georgia say they don't have any plans to file criminal charges for Jennifer Wilbanks' misadventure, but actually the district attorney here in Gwinnett County, Georgia not so fast. There's still questions to be answered.

For example, "The Atlanta Journal Constitution" reports that Jennifer actually bought the bus ticket from here to Las Vegas, the original one, a week ago. OK? Some questions still do remain to be answered. And she may yet have to face the music for what turned out to be a very big search involving an awful lot of people -- Betty?

NGUYEN: That's a very important detail. A week ago, huh? All right, Charles, we'll be checking in with you. Thanks -- Tony?

HARRIS: A tearful and frantic 911 call, that's what Jennifer Wilbanks made late Friday night from an Albuquerque convenience store. In it, she claims to be a victim. Here's a portion of the 911 tape.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

911: Albuquerque 911 operator. What is your emergency?

J. WILBANKS: I'm at the -- I don't know where I am. I'm right here at the 7-Eleven.

911: OK, what's going on?

J. WILBANKS: I've got my family and the police on the phone. I was kidnapped earlier this week and I'm here now and...

911: What is your name, ma'am?

J. WILBANKS: Jennifer.

911: Were you hurt, Jennifer? Do you need any medical attention?

J. WILBANKS: No, I don't need any medical attention. I told them my name.

911: Do you know who did this to you?

J. WILBANKS: No.

911: And did they just drop you off at that location?

J. WILBANKS: No, at some street -- I mean I don't know. I don't even know where I am. And I just walked in here.

911: Did they hurt you in any way, Jennifer? Do you need any medical attention?

J. WILBANKS: No, they didn't hurt me.

911: What happened?

J. WILBANKS: I was kidnapped from Atlanta, Georgia. I don't know. My parents said it's been on the news. I don't know.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, after all that's happened, how does Jennifer Wilbanks and her family heal from this ordeal? We'll bring you some insights from a man who helps families in crisis. Family psychologist Frank Batkins joins us in 10 minutes.

NGUYEN: Other news now. Florida is cracking down on child molesters. Governor Jeb Bush will sign a new law tomorrow. It requires sex offenders who molest kids under 12 to spend more time in jail. It also will force them to wear satellite tracking devices for life once they leave prison.

Now the measure comes on the heels of two high profile cases. Sex offender John Couey is charged in the death of Jessica Lunsford in March and another sexual offender in the death of Sarah Lunde, which happened last month.

All day today, CNN is focusing on the issues of child molestation and child pornography. Our continuing coverage includes lots of useful information and special reports to help you protect your children.

HARRIS: We've been talking about police often turn to the public for help. But in these cases, investigators are often hampered by their own rules, not identifying the victims.

As CNN's David Mattingly reports, investigators think they may have a workable alternative.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He face remains hidden to the public, but she is well known to child porn investigators around the world who are desperately trying to find her in ways they've never dare before.

PAUL GILLESPIE, DET. SGT., TORONTO POLICE SEX CRIMES UNIT: We are releasing the photograph of the material witness, and hope that if a citizen can identify her, it will greatly increase the chances of successfully identifying the perpetrator and recovering the victim.

MATTINGLY: Orlando police now take the extraordinary step of going public with a child they believe is a material witness in the case. About nine years old in this picture when it was taken a couple of years ago, investigators have no evidence she is a victim or witnessed any acts of abuse. But they believe she is sitting on the same couch in the same room where this highly sought after girl was photographed being sexually abused.

A tip line has been set up in central Florida to take calls from anywhere. 1-866-635-HELP. Find the girl on the couch, investigators hope, and they will find their victim.

GILLESPIE: I'm confident that the victim perhaps knows this person and this witness might be able to help us out with that.

MATTINGLY: On the trail of this case for years, Paul Gillespie of the Toronto police child exploitation unit has been hampered, he says, by secrecy. It's been the rule in law enforcement to never reveal the faces of child pornography victims, out of fear that it could place the child in danger from the abuser.

But according to Gillespie, it's a rule, he says, that needs to be changed.

GILLESPIE: I think we have to take into account that we have to start taking perhaps a little more aggressive measures to get in and break this cycle.

MATTINGLY: Using computers earlier this year, Toronto detectives remove the victim girl from her own pictures and recreated the rooms behind her, pictures they could then show to the public.

And it paid off. Someone recognized a bedspread from an Orlando resort. It was an unheard of break, but the hotel records with thousands of names didn't take them very far.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think those records are going to prove valuable from a historical standpoint, but at this point, we have no idea who we're looking for. So one name means nothing more than the next name at this point.

MATTINGLY: Investigators believe this potential witness photograph is their last best hope. Years spent scouring more than 200 photographs of the unknown victim have yielded few usable clues.

If this girl's photograph doesn't help find their victim, more extreme measures, they say, may be taken.

How close are you to releasing this girl's picture?

GILLESPIE: Well, that's always going to be an option, to be quite honest with you.

MATTINGLY (on camera): If that comes to pass, it would be a landmark step in the fight against child pornography. But for now, investigators in two countries wait, hoping the next phone call brings the break they've been looking for.

David Mattingly, CNN, Orlando, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And as we mentioned today, CNN will take an extensive look at what else you and authorities can do to help break this and other child molestation cases. That coverage includes a live interview with the sex crime investigator leading the search for the missing Toronto girl. And he's using non-traditional methods to do it. Detective Paul Gillespie live this morning on CNN SUNDAY. That's 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

And that brings us to today's e-mail question. What should be done to protect America's children? Send us your thoughts. Here's the address. Wam@cnn.com. We'll read your responses throughout the morning.

NGUYEN: The family of Jennifer Wilbanks is no doubt dealing with a flood of mixed emotions this morning. Relief that she is unharmed, anger that she ran from her problems, rather than face them head on.

Well up next, a mental health expert sheds some light on what the family faces.

HARRIS: Then later, we'll journey back 30 years to a remarkable story about survival and success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Other stories across America now. Police in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma are looking for two young Caucasian males. Now witnesses say they were walking along the turnpike around the time four cars were hit with bullets. All four cars were SUV type vehicles, hit with 22 caliber bullets in the hood or the radiator.

A controversial civilian border patrol project wraps up two hours from now. Volunteers with the Minuteman project have spent the last month observing the Arizona-Mexico border. Leaders say that nearly 900 volunteers reported 335 cases of illegal aliens trying to cross into the U.S.

In Nebraska, U.S. representative Tom Osborne says he will give up his seat in Congress to run for governor. Republican left his spot as head of football coach at the University of Nebraska to run for Congress back in 1997. Osborne is currently in his third term as congressman.

HARRIS: Well, he has been an emotional ride for the fiance and family of Jennifer Wilbanks. The runaway bride, as we're calling her, first feared that she had been kidnapped or killed, then relief that she was alive and well. Not perhaps sadness, betrayal and concern about what's to come.

How does the family heal and move on? And here to talk about that is family psychologist Dr. Frank Batkins.

Doctor, good to see you this morning.

FRANK BATKINS, DR., FAMILY PSYCHOLOGIST: Good to see you. Thank you.

HARRIS: You said something a few moments ago in the break. You said, "Feel and heal."

BATKINS: Yes. How people feel about this event has a lot to do with the resources they bring to bear on it, and their emotional involvement. For instance, the emotional involvement of a parent is going to be much more deep then the emotional involvement of an uncle, cousin, or even one of us watching us this event play out on national television.

HARRIS: Well, doctor, she, it seems to me, and I wonder if you will agree with this, that at some point, Jennifer has to sit down with the key people here. We're talking about John, we're talking about the families, both sides of this.

And it seems to me she has to tell the unvarnished truth about what happened here. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Or?

BATKINS: No, I think you're right in a place that you ought to be. What makes this so difficult is let's put it in context. This is a young woman...

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: ...how would you feel if one of your loved ones acted in isolation to avoid one of the most important events of your life, and then lied about it...

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: ...involved a minority in the lie, and basically said a federal crime has been committed. In that context, which is highly emotional charged for her in terms of legal implications, for the family in terms of betrayal, it needs to be understood how they're going to approach this.

Now what we know about this situation is we have an all -- by all appearances, two loving Christian families. Now they are validly Christian. They have prayed. And openly, their prayers have been answered.

And that's one of the places where this takes off from.

HARRIS: Ah.

BATKINS: That's one of the places where however this is mediated, however it's facilitated for this family, that they can move forward towards that repair, that reconciliation.

And of course, one of the things that Ms. Wilbanks clearly needs is she needs remorse and assiduously understanding the truth and presenting it to those main principals.

HARRIS: When the truth is told, from your experience, what are we likely to hear about the circumstances? Why she came to this dramatic, drastic a decision?

BATKINS: OK.

HARRIS: To act as you mentioned, in isolation this morning.

BATKINS: Well, you're asking me to evaluate her psychologically without seeing her. I can't do that. And in fact, I'll brush over it.

HARRIS: OK.

BATKINS: Two issues are important. One, her character. Character logically is there an issue there that needs to be addressed in terms of her moral values.

HARRIS: I see.

BATKINS: All right. Did she understand right from wrong and that process. And that's where the psychological aspect comes in.

HARRIS: Well, we have to assume she does understand right from wrong. She's a 32-year old woman. She's lived a full life to this point, we can assume that, right?

BATKINS: Yes. We hope that's the issue.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: When I say character logically, I mean, are there other factors driving that? For instance, is she anxious? And did she avoid this situation out of anxiety? Or did she avoid the situation out of narcissism or other issues?

For me to speculate on that at this point is unfair to her...

HARRIS: Oh, I was hoping you could give us just a little bit from your experience.

BATKINS: I understand. I will go a little bit more there. Just let me say this one thing.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: It is unfair in terms of her attempts to reconcile, because all we'll do is we'll speculate.

HARRIS: Got you.

BATKINS: Let me...

HARRIS: As quickly as you can.

BATKINS: OK. Socrates. Man came up with Socrates. Said, you know, oh, Socrates, have you heard? Socrates, away, my friend. And he said just what about -- are you going to tell me something that's good, that I need to know for the public or the individual good?

He said, "No, no, quite contrary. It might hurt someone."

He said, well, is it something beautiful, something I should see? Is it rare? Is it something I should look at? And no, not particularly. It's kind of ugly.

Well, is it the truth? Is something I should seek because I need to know?

And he says, oh, I'm not even sure it's the truth. He says, well my friend, if it's not good, if it's not beautiful, it's not the truth, I don't need to hear it.

So the key here is seeking the truth.

HARRIS: Yes.

BATKINS: That's what CNN acts. That's what the family wants. And that's what Jennifer Wilbanks needs to say.

HARRIS: And doctor, let's leave it there. We're flat out of time. Thanks for taking the time this morning. We appreciate it.

BATKINS: Thank you, sir.

HARRIS: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Still to come on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, mother-in-law jokes, well they are standard for comedians. Make that most comedians and a first lady. Yes, that's right. Stick around to hear from one very funny Laura Bush.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: The first lady had some fun at the White House correspondents dinner last night. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: George and I are complete opposites. I'm quiet. He's talkative. I'm introverted. He's extroverted. I can pronounce nuclear.

(APPLAUSE)

The amazing thing, however, is that George and I were just meant to be. I was a librarian, who spent 12 hours a day in the library. Yet somehow, I met George.

People often wonder what my mother-in-law's really like. People think she's a sweet, grandmotherly Aunt Bea type. She's actually more like Don Corleone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well...

NGUYEN: Yikes, Laura Bush. Well, we will share more punch lines. So hold on to your seats from the first lady's speech throughout CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HARRIS: There's more?

NGUYEN: Yes, there is more, I hear. I haven't heard all of it, so I can't wait to see.

HARRIS: Wow, all right, let's get our first check of the nation's weather with Jill Brown in the CNN Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Thirty years after Saigon fell, a look back at the children who escaped communism by boarding flights to freedom. Find out where one of them is today. I'll have that story ahead.

HARRIS: And later on, we'll meet an American hero who's concern for his men nearly cost him his own life. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is back home safe and sound in Georgia. Now she has to face the music. Duluth police have said she won't face criminal charges in her kidnapped hoax, but the Gwinnett County prosecutor says not so fast. He has some questions for her.

Two teenage boys who had been missing for a week have been found off the North Carolina coast. The boys ages 15 and 17 disappeared after launching their boat off Sullivan's Island for a short sail, but high winds took them to sea. The teens are said to be sun burned and dehydrated but otherwise OK.

Turning to Iraq, some arrests overnight in the kidnapping and killing of a humanitarian worker. Two raids by U.S. and Iraqi forces outside Baghdad netted six suspects in last year's murder of Care official Margaret Hassan. The raid turned up her ID card, handbag and clothing as well as a cache of weapons. Those raids are just part of another busy day in Iraq.

NGUYEN: Insurgents have also made their presence known today. For the details on that and the rest of the big international developments, let's hand it over to Anand Naidoo at the CNN international desk. Hi Anand.

ANAND NAIDOO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning from me. Yes, another wave of attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At least 11 people are killed. Insurgents targeted a checkpoint in a Baghdad neighborhood killing five policemen. The attack by about 30 insurgents occurred near a military college now used as a U.S. military camp. The guerrillas stole the dead officers' weapons and fled the scene. A late morning car bombing in southeast Baghdad killed five Iraqi civilians and among them a five-year-old child.

News coming just a short while ago, one of the officials working at a Baghdad sewage treatment plant was killed and so were two of his bodyguards.

Moving on to Israel, more diplomatic moves there. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Jerusalem, a significant visit because his justice and development party has strong roots in political Islam. Notwithstanding that, Turkey has had relatively good relations with Israel, although those relations have been strained recently by comments that Erdogan has made about Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Catholic faithful flock to St. Peter's Square to witness Pope Benedict XVI make his first Sunday window appearance since being elected pope. The pontiff took formal possession of the official papal resident yesterday and the appearance of course at the window is a long tradition, a tradition practiced by Pope John Paul II.

That is all from me for now. Back to Tony and Betty.

HARRIS: Anand, thank you. See you a little later.

NGUYEN: Well, 30 years ago this weekend, Saigon was falling to communism as the Vietnam war came to an end. Among those fleeing the country, orphans born of war and placed on flights headed to the land of the free. But did they ever find their American dream? Well, I caught up with one of those children. Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): April, 1975, thousands of Vietnamese swarm the U.S. embassy frantically trying to flee the country as communist forces surrounded Saigon. Among the refugees were countless children, born of war, to Vietnamese mothers and American fathers. Huang Van Long was one of them. His mother was dead and he remembers his grandmother taking him to an orphanage. She worried the communists would kill these mixed race children.

HUANG VAN LONG/MATT STEINER, ORPHAN: It was on my birthday when I was eight years old, so I remember her telling me that, you know, that she is going to give me up for adoption and that it was very hard for her to do that but despite of that, she wanted to see if I would have an opportunity to succeed in life and you know, have a family that I could call my own.

NGUYEN: Jim and Mary Steiner had spent time in Vietnam, traveling to Asia in the 1950s as medical missionaries. Then they moved back to the U.S. to raise their three children.

MARY STEINER PSOLLA, MOTHER: Rather than having another child of our own, we adopted a child that was already in the world and experiencing difficulty in the country that he was living in, so that was all part of the motivation I think for helping another child.

NGUYEN: Back in Saigon, the Americans organized a last-minute orphan evacuation called "operation baby lift." And the little boy who had witnessed so much loss had finally won a ticket to a new life. He was on the first baby lift plane to make it to America.

STEINER: We had over 400 kids on the flight and we had two or three kids to a seat, if not more. There wasn't any rules, it was probably broken, every rule was probably broken that day.

NGUYEN: Placed in seats, on the floor, wherever possible, these flights were packed with children headed to homes all across America. On that 20-hour journey, Huang Van Long stared at a picture of his new parents, preparing for the moment when they'd meet.

STEINER: I wanted to find my mom and dad so badly, and then, you know as soon as I saw my mom, I recognized her picture right away, and I can just -- only thing I can remember is running as fast as I can and jumping into her arms and just saying, you know, here I am. I made it.

NGUYEN: That day on April 6th, 1975, he became Matt Steiner.

PSOLLA: To see this child walk out with this smile on his face and he was so happy to see us and it was like he says, here I am you lucky people. Just like he knew he wanted to be there.

NGUYEN: You say your dream was to become an all-American boy. This picture you pretty well fit in.

STEINER: Well, looks like I'm having fun anyways. Like I say, I never seen what a basketball looks like, but here they are showing me how to play basketball.

NGUYEN: These are your brothers?

STEINER: These are my brothers, yes. This is Dan who is the oldest and Doug, who's the next oldest and then Jeff.

NGUYEN: He went on to play just about every sport that involved a ball and became valedictorian of his 1984 graduating class at West Liberty Salem High in Ohio. Today, Matt has a family of his own, and has become a father, something he never had before stepping on American soil. Do you ever wonder what life would be like had Matt not made it out?

PSOLLA: It's hard to imagine, yeah. We think about it, but, you know it's difficult to even think what it would be like. But I'm sure it would not be the success story that he has made it today.

NGUYEN: In 1995, Matt wanted to see his birth country and the place where his luck turned around, the (INAUDIBLE) orphanage in Saigon. This balcony where he watched the sky light up with explosions and the wall where he stood to take this picture 30 years ago.

STEINER: Just coming back, just kind of brought up a lot of feelings about my grandmother and my mother and finding out just talking to different people there that they -- you know, how much they really loved me to have to give me up.

NGUYEN: Still, he can't help but wonder why me, why is he one of the lucky ones?

STEINER: I do feel like that there was so many people over there that didn't make it out that had to suffer.

NGUYEN: Which is part of the reason why he's followed his adoptive father's footsteps and became an emergency room physician. STEINER: I definitely think of myself and all the other adoptees that had an opportunity for a family and another life. That was the one thing that was good that came out of the Vietnam War.

NGUYEN: A sacrifice was made to save his life and now Matt works to save the lives of others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: What a story.

NGUYEN: It's amazing journey for him and all the other folks who came out in 1975, including my family.

HARRIS: Well, Betty, that's where we're going next. That's Matt's story. But take a moment here and share some of your personal stories.

NGUYEN: My family and I came out on April 19th, 1975. Unlike Matt, we didn't board a commercial flight. We had to board a cargo plane. There were no seats. My mother had never even been on a plane before, Tony. You just imagine the fear. You're heading to this country that you don't know anything about. Your country has fallen to communism and in fact, we had to go to three refugee camps before we finally made it to America. It was in those refugee camps, the one in the Philippines where we learned that Saigon had fallen to communism and my mother remembers it so vividly. She says that day everyone in the camp just cried. It was as if they were lost without a country because they hadn't reached their new home just yet. But I tell you, this new home, America, it is a wonderful place. I'm so proud to be a Vietnamese American.

HARRIS: Great story. Your mom on that flight, has she told you about her hopes for you in this country?

NGUYEN: She just wanted me to become the best that I could be. I mean there was a huge sacrifice that was made in 1975. It marked the beginning and an end. It marked the old country and new country. So with that sacrifice, it's all about just achieving that American dream and doing the best that you can because we've been given a blessing and an opportunity.

HARRIS: How proud she must be.

NGUYEN: She is pretty proud. I'm proud of her for what she's done.

All right. We're going to move on now. We're going to talk about a lesson in leadership and loyalty from an army sergeant wounded in Afghanistan. That is next in this week's hero story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: This week's hero, Sergeant First Class John Setzer. Under fire and trying to save some of his fellow soldiers, Sergeant Setzer was severely wounded while serving in Afghanistan two years ago this week. CNN's Bill Tucker has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 06:00 at Ft. Bragg. For Sergeant First Class John Setzer's paratroopers, today it's a six-mile march carrying 55 pounds of gear. In early 2003, the sergeant was in Afghanistan with a platoon he had just trained, securing an area known to be occupied by insurgents.

SGT. 1ST CLASS JOHN SETZER, U.S. ARMY: The company commander wanted to move ahead and look at an old stage area.

TUCKER: Insurgents attacked the first group and radio contact was lost. Sergeant Setzer moved his group of 10 soldiers forward.

SETZER: Once we got to the top of the hill, we heard leaders yelling to one another for the soldiers to engage and get down. You could smell the blood from the wounded.

TUCKER: The sergeant took shrapnel in the neck. Disregarding his own injuries, he evacuated a wounded airman to safer ground who would later die. He returned to evacuate more men, but was attacked again.

SETZER: The machine gun opened up about 25 meters away, about 30, 40 feet. And two rounds hit the "T" and the "Z" and one round hit the "E", cut through the body armor, hit the tip of the plate, and it bounced up right here and broke my jaw, shattered my teeth, and went and just on the right-hand side, I have shrapnel all up in my face and they pulled the pieces that were in my eye out. My young PFC was wounded, covered me out of the vehicle.

TUCKER: The sergeant and Private Dennis were airlifted to Bagram Air Force Base. Sergeant Setzer was in surgery 4 1/2 hours. When he came to, his first question was about Private Dennis.

SETZER: That's all that matters. It didn't matter about anything else. You have a young 18, 19-year-old man. He's got a lot to live for. They told me that they did everything they could for Dennis but he lost too much blood and he didn't make it.

TUCKER: Sergeant Setzer was awarded the purple heart, the bronze and the silver star.

SETZER: I would give up all those awards if I could have those two young men back.

TUCKER: The sergeant is now recovered and is able to return to combat. He has no intention of leaving the military.

SETZER: As long as I breathe and as long as, you know, I can still do it, I love to train, I love to lead.

TUCKER: Bill Tucker, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And we bring you hero stories every week on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

NGUYEN: Updating you on our top stories today. The wave of violence continues in Iraq for the third day in a row. This morning five Iraqi police died in a gun battle with insurgents in Baghdad and five civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb.

The runaway bride, she is back in Georgia. Jennifer Wilbanks returned last night from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wilbanks initially said she had been kidnapped, but hours later admitted she got cold feet and left on her own.

The Treasury duck becomes a mom. The brown mallard has been living outside the Treasury Department and her ducklings began hatching yesterday. Look at them. They could be moved to a nearby park and set free today.

HARRIS: They don't call it the net for nothing. Si.com is going courtside now that the NBA playoffs are off and running. From schedules to blogs to break out stars. Everything you need to know at your finger tips. Impress your friends with your NBA know how next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And time now to take a look at some of the stories we'll be covering in the week to come. Monday at Fort Hood, Texas, Army Private First Class Lynndie England will plead guilty to reduced charges for her alleged role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. England's picture was taken alongside naked Iraqi prisoners and holding one Iraqi detainee on a leash.

Friday, President Bush begins a four day trip to Latvia, the Netherlands, Russia and Georgia. In Russia, he will take part in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Saturday the drink of choice will be mint juleps as the 131st Kentucky Derby gets under way. All eyes will be on the track but they'll also be checking out the new digs. The historic Churchill Downs just underwent a massive renovation to the tune of $121 million.

All right. Go inside all the action of the NBA playoffs. Si.com tracks the players and the play by play. Christina Park has all those details from the cnn.com desk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drive right by those scalpers and the ticket lines. We've got your virtual courtside seats to the NBA playoffs at si.com. Get up close and personal with the post- season's most important players in our photo gallery. Fellows like the Heat's Shaquille O'Neal and the Bulls' Ben Gordon will have to kick it into high gear to push their teams deep into the playoffs.

If you're looking for a champion to root for, six out of eight experts at si.com think the San Antonio Spurs will win it all. Don't count out the defending champs, the Detroit Pistons. And if you're more interested in the post-season personalities, si.com/nba peers into the crystal ball to separate the champs from the chumps. Among the champs, the (INAUDIBLE) the very versatile Tayshaun Prince. Among the chumps, Detroit coach Larry Brown for beating his play the right way mantra into the ground. Before you log off, be sure to scroll down for the complete series schedule from now until May. You're in a whole new league at si.com/nba. Reporting for the dot-com desk, I'm Christina Park.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Remember, the difference between champ and chump is ...

NGUYEN: What is the difference there, Tony, can you elaborate on that?

HARRIS: You.

NGUYEN: Me? You calling me a chump?

HARRIS: The difference between champ and chump is you. And yes, I'm very afraid because you will take me out. It might be one more victory for a world champion. We'll have an update on Scott Hamilton's fight against a brain tumor that is next. Stay with us. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues.

JILL BROWN, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. I'm Jill Brown at the CNN weather center. Time for your fairway forecast. Not just a pleasant day for golf yesterday. Big thunderstorms until about 1:00 in the afternoon so it was kind of a late start yesterday. Making up today in New Orleans for the classic. Take a look at forecast. Sunny and 75. It's a little bit breezy but after yesterday I don't think anyone will be complaining as they finish up here in New Orleans today.

Stick around. We'll talk about the nation's weather coming up as CNN SUNDAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And we want to update you on the story you first heard on CNN SUNDAY MORNING about two months ago. Legendary Olympic figure skater Scott Hamilton, who was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor last November, this week has received positive results after a radiation treatment and two MRI scans. The tumor near his pituitary gland had shrunk in size and the surrounding brain tissue had returned to a more normal appearance. Hamilton says his condition has improved and he is now back to full activity.

NGUYEN: Oh, good for him. Yes, very happy to hear that. Best of luck to him.

Well, this morning if you're waking up on the east coast, tired of the rain? Yeah, me too. But it looks like we'll have to talk to Jill to find out when it's going to go away. Hi Jill.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Thanks Jill. As we mentioned, CNN all day long is going to be taking an extensive look at what law enforcement and you can do to better protect America's children. Here's our e-mail question this morning. What should be done to protect America's children?

Our first response comes from Steven in San Jose, California, who writes, there is no rehabilitation of someone sick enough to sexually molest a child. They maliciously prey on the most innocent, helpless and weakest members of our society. Much like predatory animals in the wild, they should be permanently removed from society for their conviction. Back to you.

NGUYEN: Well, John says anyone convicted on child molestation abuse or pornography charges on children less than 16 years of age should get a 10-year Federal charge and this should be a mandatory sentence without parole.

We still want to know what the rest of you think as well out there. Send us your thoughts on what should be done to protect America's children, wam@cnn.com.

HARRIS: In the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING begins right now.

(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)

911: OK, what's going on?

WILBANKS: I've got my family and the police on the phone. I was kidnapped earlier this week and I'm here now.

911: What's your name, ma'am?

WILBANKS: Jennifer.

(END AUDIO TAPE)

NGUYEN: The frantic 911 call that turned out to be a hoax. The bride to be with the cold feet wakes up back in Georgia this morning after three days on the run. We'll have the latest on that.

From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING the first day of May. Can you believe it already?

HARRIS: May Day, May Day.

NGUYEN: I'm Betty Nguyen.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Let's get you started with today's top stories. Now in the news, Jennifer Wilbanks wore a towel instead of a veil on what was supposed to be her wedding day. The "Atlanta Journal Constitution" reports she may have purchased her bus ticket out west up to a week ago. She's back home in suburban Atlanta, where a local prosecutor says she could face charges. A live report on this developing story is just ahead.

In Baghdad another wave of deadly attacks today. Five Iraqis civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb apparently intended for a U.S. military convoy. Five Iraqi police were killed when gun men ambushed their check point. And a manager of Baghdad's sewage facility was assassinated along with two body guards in a drive by shooting.

At the Vatican a new pope in a familiar scene. For the first time in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI delivered the Sunday angelus prayer from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

And in Major League Baseball, the commissioner wants tough sanctions for steroid use. In a letter to the players association Bud Selig proposes a 50 game suspension for a first offense. A second offense would trigger a 100 game suspension and a third offense would result in a lifetime ban from the game. The players association has not yet responded to the proposal.

NGUYEN: Straight ahead this hour on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, why did this sex offender do what he did. We can't show you his face, but we can take you inside his mind. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta ask, "Should he be treated as a criminal or a patient."

And on a lighter note, hurrah for Bollywood. India hands out its versions of the Oscars, but who was honored. Well, you might be surprised. And boy, do we mean surprised.

Also ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And so the city slugger asked the old guy how to get to the nearest town...

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Not that old joke. Not again.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow! That's good. That's good stuff.

NGUYEN: She stepped up to it didn't she. The first lady upstages her husband and steals the show. We will take you live to Washington in just a few minutes.

HARRIS: Quality entertainment.

Let me begin this hour with the latest in the saga of the runaway bride. Jennifer Wilbanks three days on the lamb, which triggered a huge manhunt ended some 1500 miles away in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

She is back home now, but many in the community that had been praying for her safe return are now angry about the deception. There are reports her actions may have been premeditated.

CNN's Charles Molineaux is at the church where Wilbanks and her fiance were to have been married yesterday in a large and lavish wedding. Good morning, Charles. MOLINEAUX: Good morning, Tony. This is the Duluth First United Methodist Church a place big enough to hold the 600 people expected for that wedding that didn't come off last night. Instead the congregation is coming in for normal Sunday services and the pastor here says that as far as this place is concerned that story is over.

Jennifer Wilbanks flew home last night. Her arrival in Atlanta was actually stealthy. She got off her plane and was whisked away under a police escort without coming out with the rest of the passengers.

She did a much more public non-wedding march with a towel over her head when she flew out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Police in Albuquerque say she took a bus there after coming down with intense wedding jitters and for a while told them a bogus story about being kidnapped and taken there.

Her disappearance Tuesday night touched off a frantic search here in Duluth. It got nationwide attention. Well, when word got that she's OK and that she ran off and concocted a tale about what happened that tarnished a lot of the excitement about her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SHIRLEY FANNING LASSITER, DULUTH, GEORGIA: I probably received 25 e-mails from people all over the United States and one from England, who have actually gone on to the Web site and e-mailed the mayor of Duluth to let me know that, you know, this is a travesty and we're so glad to know that she's alive and everyone is heart felt about that but that they feel like there needs to be a reaction for her action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOLINEAUX: Well, actually there was a statement passed around by a flight attendant on Jennifer's flight that said that she had spoken to her fiance John Mason, that he was very excited to see her and that this wedding is being merely postponed.

But an awful lot of complications endure, reaction for her action including from the Gwinnett County district attorney who says that there is still a possibility she could be prosecuted for what happened. And we have word from the Atlanta Journal Constitution that she may, in fact, have bought the bus ticket that took her from here originally to Los Vegas as long ago as a week back.

Many complications and many questions endure, but Jennifer Wilbanks is now back home this morning.

Tony.

HARRIS: And Charles, we're not expecting to hear anything directly from Jennifer any time soon are we?

MOLINEAUX; What the statement passed around by the flight attendant said was that she was too tired to do any public speaking but that she may be saying something within the next few days. Certainly or very probably not today, but perhaps in the not too distant future.

HARRIS: OK. Charles Molineaux in Duluth for us this morning. Charles, thank you.

NGUYEN: Across America now two teenage boys missing for a week have been found off the North Carolina coast. Seventeen year old Josh Long and 15 year old Troy Driscoll were last seen launching a boat from Sullivan's Island South Carolina. Authorities say fishermen found the teens yesterday. They were sun burned, dehydrated and hungry, but otherwise OK.

Investigators want to question two people following a string of shootings along the Oklahoma highway or an Oklahoma highway. Four vehicles were hit by bullets while traveling along the Creek Turnpike in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Now callers to police reported seeing two white males walking along that turnpike along the time of the shootings.

HARRIS: Visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the war. A Vietnam veterans group held a special ceremony near the wall yesterday. People from around the country paid tribute to those who died in the war.

The latest NBA playoff action for you now. San Antonio, the Spurs a two games to one lead against Denver after beating the Nuggets 86 to 78. Boston has evened up its series with Indiana at two games a piece. The Celtics routed, routed the Pacers 110 to 79.

Also Betty's Mavs...

NGUYEN: Yes, yes.

HARRIS: Yes...

NGUYEN: Bring it on.

HARRIS: ...came from behind...

NGUYEN: That's right.

HARRIS: ...to beat Houston.

NGUYEN: That's how we do it in Dallas.

HARRIS: You claim everything in Texas. Now you don't any part of Houston. All right. They beat Houston 97 to 93.

NGUYEN: I didn't say that.

HARRIS: The series is also even and the Washington Wizards have their first NBA playoff in more than 17 years beating Chicago 117 to 99. The Bulls still lead that series two games to one.

NGUYEN: Yes they do. Hey I'm going to claim San Antonio and Dallas because they both won. That's the way it goes. I'm not a fair weather fan. They just won, right?

All right, moving on. It was a dinner and a show Washington style. We're talking about a show here folks with journalists, politicians and Hollywood celebrities rubbing elbows and it was First Lady Laura Bush, who stole the show.

CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us with a few highlights and punch lines of course from the annual White House correspondence dinner. Boy she was on fire.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She was. I have to say though, Betty, also raised a lot of eyebrows at some point during her performance, I guess is the best way to put it. But this is a tradition, Betty, that dates back to 1920. It's an event that's put on every year by the White House Correspondents Association.

All manner of celebrities, Hollywood and Washington types attend this dinner. Last night, of course, it was President Bush, the first lady, the Cheneys, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, all in attendance. The comedian was Cedric the Entertainer. The president himself got some laughs, but as you see right there it was Laura Bush who surprised a lot of people.

She got a standing ovation. At one point she interrupted her husband mid joke, proceeded to poke fun letting lose at her husband, her mother-in-and telling stories about the vice president at the Bush's Texas ranch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. BUSH: It's always very interesting to see how the ranch air invigorates people when they come down from Washington. Recently when Vice President Cheney was down he got up early one morning, he put on his hiking boots and he went on a brisk 20 to 30 foot walk.

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Two people though, you know, the name is broken down. It's the Condi who's the -- that's the person you see on television with the nice hair and very professional. Then there's the Dolezza she the one with her hair wrapped up on the phone with her girl friend watching BET talking about...

(LAUGHTER)

...girl ain't that Usher fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: So you see there everyone having a good time. But many people don't realize there's actually a philanthropic component to all of this. A couple of scholarships, journalism scholarships are awarded every year. But it was fun last night.

Today though back to business. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card making the rounds today on the Sunday talk shows, talking up, of course, the president's domestic agenda item of his second term and that is trying to get Social Security reform passed.

Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, Elaine, I've got to ask you, Laura Bush, Cedric the Entertainer, which one do you think outshined the other?

QUIJANO: Well, I have to say the first lady by all means really took people by surprise., yes. She, you know, the thing about her is everybody of course has the image of her as the librarian, who is very much at her husband's side quietly sitting there. In fact she said herself, you know, the next time you see me sitting up there you'll really know what I'm thinking. And you know, she let lose.

And in some respects I think for some folks it was a little shocking because she kind of crossed the line a little bit in some peoples minds. She poked fun at her husband and I won't go into detail here but she did raise some eyebrows and at the same time. At the same time other people I talked to said they found it refreshing. They felt very much at east. And you know what, Betty, she has an 85 percent approval rating, so how can you argue with that.

NGUYEN: There you have it. She was real and that was funny.

Thanks, Elaine.

HARRIS: Hey maybe she can -- Elaine an e-mail us some oft he off-color stuff, the good stuff, more of the good stuff.

The stormy weather that started the weekend off seems to have passed a bit. Meteorologist Joe Brown has more on that in just a moment.

NGUYEN: Plus all day long, CNN is offering tips on battling a terrible trend in child abuse. Coming up what goes on the mind of a pedophile. That's ahead on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: People who prey on innocent children will soon get stiffer punishment in Florida. The law, which governor Jeb Bush plans to sign tomorrow, will require those who molest children under 12 to wear satellite tracking devices for life once they leave prison. It will also force offenders to stay in prison longer with minimum sentences of 25 years.

Now that's about three times the average sentence currently imposed in the state.

HARRIS: We are focusing on the growing issue of children exploited and molested all day long here on CNN. This hour we take a look at pedophiles. They can be anybody from the trustworthy school teacher to the dirty old man in the part, that stereotype. There's no clear sign that allows us to pick them out of a crowd.

Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with a glimpse into the mind of a pedophile in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN, PEDOPHILE IN TREATMENT: It involves several young, male boys over a period of time from the time I was about 20 to 47, 48 years old and it wasn't a continuous thing. It was something that went like a broken tire, flat tire in a car. You go along it seems to be OK and then you'd hit the flat spot and you would abuse.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no doubt this 52 year old man is a pedophile. The bigger question is he a criminal or a patient.

STEVEN: I'm the guy that's going to take the long way around a group of kids in a shopping mall.

GUPTA: Stephen, who asked for his name to be changed and to be interviewed in silhouette spent three years in prison after being convicted for acts of pedophilia as a crime. Today he's being treated for pedophilia as an illness.

Admittedly, it is blurry. Increasingly we medicalize bad behavior, alcoholism, violence, even murder may all be due to imbalances of chemicals in the brain. But the risk is we may let criminals pay a lesser price for monstrous deeds or punish patients for whom treatment could prevent future crimes.

STEVEN: It's not a disease as it's not a bacteria or virus. It is a mental illness. OK, it's a cognitive dysfunction that people can get. Some people are born with it. Some people might be born with it.

GUPTA: As for Steven himself, he's not quite sure whether he was born with it. He is sure that for almost 30 years he molested more than a dozen children. It was only the combined efforts of the police, court and prison that could break Stephen's cycle of abuse.

Pedophilia has been a diagnosable mental illness for decades. Simply defined as an a normal sexual attraction for children. And while there are no brain scans or blood test to confirm the diagnosis, there is a battery of treatments ranging from psychotherapy to antidepressants to forms of chemical castration with anti-adrogens, aimed at reducing testosterone and sex drive.

DR. PAUL FEDOROFF, PSYCHIATRIST TREATING STEVE: The aim of treatment in pedophilia is not for people to stop having sex, but rather to modify their sexual interest so that they become non criminal.

GUPTA: Steven's course involves two strategies, anti depressants to curb sex drive and psycho therapy to understand why he was abused Now six years after being convinced he says he no longer thinks of children sexually. STEVEN: I don't spend enough time thinking about them to have fantasies. So it's like a guillotine coming down. If there's a child I remember terrible things happened.. I don't want to go there, clank done, out of it. Let's change our thought pattern and go someplace else.

GUPTA: But can treatment work for everyone? Can pedophilia ever really be cured. Many are cautious including Dr. Jean Abel, director of behavioral medicine at Emory University.

DR. GENE ABEL, BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE INSTITUTE: Rheumatoid arthritis never goes away, congestive heart failure is never, ever cured, diabetes is never cured. This behavior, inappropriate behavior is not cured. We just help the person stop this behavior.

STEVEN: I would say when you get to the definition of cured being I don't want to, I don't feel like it and I have no interest, if that's your definition of cured then you've got a lot of people out there that have been cured. Yet if your definition of to be cured never ever had a pedophilic thought in your life, then there is no cure. An alcoholic isn't a drunk if he never drinks again, right? Is he cured? No. Might as well be.

GUPTA: As far as pedophiles go though for now at least they will be treated as both patients and criminals.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: We continue our in-depth coverage of child molestation and pornography in our next hour. We'll talk with David Gillespie who heads the child exploitation unit of the Toronto police department and John Walsh,. Host of "America's Most Wanted" will talk about tracking child porn victims. That's tonight at 10:00 Eastern on CNN.

NGUYEN: But what do you think about this issue. That leads us to our e-mail question today, what should be done to protect America's children. We've gotten a lot of very interesting responses.

Barett, Mr. Barrett from Florida says since it has been acknowledge that once a sex offender always a sex offender and since it's becoming a national epidemic I suggest I suggest the punishment that in all the rhetoric recently on this subject I've heard only once castration at the first conviction.

HARRIS: And this from a B.J.M. from Largo, Florida. In order to protect America's children we need to stop protecting sex offenders. They should be put in general population when they go to jail or prison. Perhaps if they knew they have a chance of being put in general population with lifers that have nothing to lose if they kill them then maybe they would be a bit hesitant about harming an innocent child.

Thank you for the e-mail so far. Once again here's our question of the day, What should be done to protect America's children. Here's the address, wam@cnn.com and we'll read more of your responses in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

The glitz and glam of the Oscars, but overseas.

NGUYEN: OK. So what does that have to do with David Hasselhoff? The mystery unsolved right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: "Bay Watch" in Bollywood? Well some surprising honorees at the Indian Film Industry's version of the Oscars. The ceremony was held, believe it or not, in Atlantic City, New Jersey of all places. Former "Bay Watch" hunk as many would say, David Hasselhoff was named international star of the year. His show was one of the most popular on Indian television.

Also some names you might be less familiar with like Rani Mukherjee won best actress for her role in the film, "Hum Tum." And veteran actor Shammi Kapour got the lifetime achievement award for his decades of work in the Bollywood silver screen.

HARRIS: Appearing on screens in your home right now, Jill Brown as we check in again in the CNN weather center.

Good morning, Jill.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: It is a reunion you don't want to miss. A child left abandoned during the Vietnam war meets one of his rescuers three decades later.

NGUYEN: It is one of many chapters in the emotional story of Operation Baby Lift coming up next hour. "HOUSE CALL" is next.

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