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CNN Sunday Morning
L.A. Wildfire Threatens 10,000 Homes; Afghan Election Dispute; Universal Health Care is Cause of Kennedy's Life
Aired August 30, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is August 30th. Eight a.m. here at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, 5:00 a.m. in Los Angeles.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could be here with us.
And we have a great story we can share with you this morning.
NGUYEN: Yes.
HOLMES: The coast guard had given up on a week-long search for three men who were lost at sea. Well, they have been found and they are OK. We've got that story coming up this morning.
NGUYEN: Yes. But, first, we are following a developing story. Those wildfires out in California -- they are sweeping through thousands of acres, threatening thousands of homes. We're going to get the latest on what is called the station fire in Los Angeles County.
And just to give you an indication of how much this fire has grown just overnight -- yesterday it was at 5,000 acres, today it has quadrupled to 20,000 acres.
And on the phone with us is Jennifer Sanchez. She's a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Jennifer, can you give me a better idea as to how much of this has been contained at this hour?
Jennifer Sanchez, are you there?
All right. We've lost that interview right there. We'll try to get it back, a little technical difficulty out there with Jennifer Sanchez.
But we are continuing to follow those fires. Not only has it burned some 20,000 acres, but some 10,000 homes have been threatened. We're following it very closely for you and will bring you the latest.
HOLMES: And so far, all we're hearing about, are three injuries, don't know the severity of them, to the local residents, not fire personnel. But again, as Betty mentioned, this thing just kind of ballooned overnight. We were right here yesterday, Betty...
NGUYEN: Right.
HOLMES: ... reporting 5,000-acre fire. This morning, we're here telling folks it's 20,000-acre fire.
Our Reynolds Wolf is keeping an eye on this.
And, I guess, Reynolds, you can kind of explain why this thing has exploded the way it has and why really -- it's really tough for the firefighters to get a handle on this thing.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. The number one reason, it all goes back to climate of what you expect in parts of southern California. We refer to it as a Mediterranean style climate because the conditions you can find in parts of southern California and central California are identical to what you'd find in parts of southern France, parts of Italy, even into Greece where you have very dry conditions for at least nine months out of the year.
Also, the foliage tends to burn very quickly, if flames are -- they happen to pop out, you're going to see things go up very quickly. You got the dry chaparral, you got the California oaks, you also have bristle cone pines, all of these things that tend to burn very quickly. And when you have very dry conditions, very low humidity, temperatures going up into triple digits and winds that will be topping 20, maybe 30 miles an hour into the afternoon -- well, that helps fan the flames.
Now, when it comes to the emotional impact of what happens with families, people who live in this region, you think of about people that live on the gulf coast during hurricane, just people that want to stay there until the last second and stay near homes. Same rule applies with people here in parts of southern California. Yes, they know that these fires are part of the climate, they know it's part of life in southern California. But still, it doesn't make it any easier to leave their homes and just be curious what is behind.
Now, to give you an idea of the weather situation, we've talked about the climate, the weather situation today. You'll notice a couple of counties, including, let's see, back in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, even Monterey County, all have areas that are shaded in red. These happen to be red flag warnings and that's when you have that low humidity, those high temperatures, and those winds that are going to pick up.
That means that when you have issues or conditions that are similar to what you'll find in the stage fire with nearly 20,000 acres burned and with the wind conditions beginning to pick up in the afternoon, you can see the scene play out many, many times in the afternoon.
In fact, scenes like, well, these iReports we're going to show you in mere moments. These iReports show people that are out there battling the flames, we're talking about the firefighters. Of course, they're going to be out in the ground, they're going to battle the flames, not only by on foot but also with say bulldozers and tractors and whatnot, but also in the skies above.
As we go to the iReport, you're going to see with the iReports, some of the efforts they have in the skies above with fixed-wing aircraft, also roadway aircraft, you'll notice that it appears like red dust that's popping up on the trail of that particular plane you see there, that twin prop. What you have there is actually a flame retardant, the idea is to have that fall on some of the flames, knock out some of the oxygen that's fueling that fire and have these flames go out.
Another issue that you're not going to see here is, of course, and they have these big tractors and they go and actually carve fire lanes, breaks in the foliage that prevent the fires from spreading.
Let's go very quickly to weather map. As we do so, as we wrap things up, it's getting very dry conditions in parts of the desert southwest. You're going to notice an area of low pressure, sometimes we associate lows with rain. Well, with this, we're going to have that counterclockwise spin of winds, spinning around and it through this mountain passes. That wind is going to accelerate and actually the air's going to heat up a bit -- that certain is not going to help matters.
In parts of the Ohio Valley, cool and dry, scattered showers along parts of the gulf coast. Texas very warm for you today and dry, and scattered showers b possible in parts of New England.
That is a wrap on your fire weather and, of course, got some issues in the tropics we're going to keep you posted on. That coming up later. Let's pass it back to you guys.
NGUYEN: All right. We want to get some more details on that fire right now and going to go on the phone to Jennifer Sanchez.
All right. I'm being told by our director that we've lost her again. She's with the U.S. Forest Service. We've been trying to get her on the phone today to give us some additional details. And she is there on the ground, out in southern California where some 20,000 acres are burning. We'll try to get her back, but if not, then, of course, we will continue to keep you updated on this story.
HOLMES: And, of course, it's certainly busy out there and trying to keep us updated and trying to keep the people out there updated. But a lot of people getting warnings to possibly get out of there, and some of those evacuations are in place and people starting to get out. We will continue to follow that developing story out in California.
Also a developing story in Afghanistan -- they voted now almost a week and a half ago, but still, they're waiting on results of the election, still might have to wait a little longer. The commission overseeing the election reports a rising number of voter fraud accusations.
Our Atia Abawi in Kabul for us.
Atia, this is really bad for a government that's desperate to have these elections seen as legitimate. They do not need the number of complaints to be going up.
ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It's pretty bad for everyone involved, including all 41 coalition countries in this country, who was hoping that these elections could be successful to actually show the people back home why they continue to stay in the mission in Afghanistan, why they need more money and why need more troops.
Right now, we're hearing about 35 percent of those votes that have come in, President Karzai in the lead, beating his rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.
President of Afghanistan needs at least 50 percent of the vote to actually win. The problem is to make it credible. It has been an election marred with fraud. The Electoral Complaints Commission, as you mentioned, receiving over 2,000 complaints already, nearly 600 of them so severe that it could affect the outcome of the elections.
And the reason that this matters, the reason it matters to the Afghan people is because they're already disenchanted by their government. They don't believe in the political process at the moment. But you still saw millions of Afghans go out and vote. And if they see that their new government is actually voted in by fraud, they will turn away from the government, even more than they already have, turning into warlords, turning to criminal elements, turning to even the insurgency because they will, in the end, trust them more than they trust their own government.
As for the American people, why should they care? It's because the American government wants them to care. It's been eight years since the coalition countries have been in Afghanistan, eight years it has been deteriorating, especially recently and what they want to show is that this could be a successful election, that the Afghan people can do it. And then, by doing that, they have enough initiative to go to the Congress, to go to the American people and say, "We need to stay a little bit longer, we need to finish the mission here," because the war in Afghanistan has not been popular with the American public recently. And what they want to show is there can be a successful election.
But we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens with the ECC, what they rule, and if this election does go off to a run-off -- T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Atia Abawi for us in Kabul, again, still waiting on word of those election results -- Atia, thank you so much.
NGUYEN: Well, they got in their beach time and their tea time on Martha's Vineyard, but today, that vacation, over. Yes, first family headed back to Washington where there is plenty of work waiting for the president.
White House correspondent Dan Lothian joins me now live from Martha's Vineyard.
And, you know, Dan, the president returned to Martha's Vineyard after the mass yesterday. What do we expect him to do before he actually returns to Washington today?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and look at what welcomes him now. You know, see the rains...
NGUYEN: Yes.
LOTHIAN: ... coming down here. We don't have the fires here, but we have a lot of rain.
The president not expected to make any public comments today that we know of. Just wrapping up the last few hours of his vacation and then later this afternoon will be headed back to Washington, of course, this follows what was an emotional day, but in somewhat of an uplifting day, as well, as the life of Senator Ted Kennedy was remembered and honored yesterday in Boston. The president, of course, was at that funeral mass with the first lady delivering the eulogy.
And one of the moments I thought that stood out in the president's 15 minutes remark, when he talked about how Senator Ted Kennedy after 9/11 reached out to all of the family members of the victims from Massachusetts, personally calling them, but he didn't stop there. He kept talking to them on a regular basis and he really cut through a lot of the red tape to make sure that these family members could get the counseling that they needed or any other kind of assistance.
And President Obama pointing out this was the kind of person that Senator Ted Kennedy was. He was always looking out for the people who were hurting the most, the people who were the neediest, that really defined his time in the Senate.
So, the president, after making those remarks, again, returned here to Martha's Vineyard and again getting prepared to head back to Washington -- after what I guess you could call this a very busy working vacation.
But what was interesting is that the president on his way to Martha's Vineyard had said that this was going to be a news-free vacation and he really urged reporters to go out on the beach and take a walk. They weren't going to be really talking to us a whole lot. They were going to stay behind the walls, if you will, of their 28 1/2 acre farm. Instead out of the gate, it really was a news-packed vacation. I mean, initially, there was the story of the interrogations and terrorist suspects followed by the reappointment announcement of Ben Bernanke as Fed chair, and then, of course, the death of Senator Kennedy.
So, the president did get in a few rounds of golf, did go biking with his family. They played some tennis. So they did have some fun. But very, very busy, not the way that they intended to spend this vacation, Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, not at all. But, you know, hey, he's the president, there's a lot on his plate. Dan, thank you so much for that report.
LOTHIAN: That's right.
NGUYEN: And we'll be checking in with you.
LOTHIAN: OK.
HOLMES: Well, as we watch this week or last week and certainly yesterday, and the country saying farewell to Senator Ted Kennedy.
NGUYEN: Yes. His burial yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery marks the end of an era in American politics. But his idea of universal health care, that lives on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Welcome back, everybody.
You know, he was the last surviving brother of a political dynasty. Now, Senator Edward Kennedy is in his final resting place near his brothers, John and Robert, at Arlington National Cemetery. Top political leaders -- they paid their last respects at a service in Boston. But perhaps the most emotional tributes came from the family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED KENNEDY JR., SENATOR KENNEDY'S SON: He lived to be a grandfather. And knowing what my cousins have been through, I feel grateful that I have had my father as long as I did. He even taught me some of life's harder lessons -- such as how to like Republicans.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: A little bit of humor there. Well, Senator Kennedy died on Tuesday, more than 15 months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
So, the idea of universal health care was Senator Kennedy's dream. When he died, Democrats lost a powerful player in that debate.
But chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, explains why the issue went beyond politics for Kennedy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1964, less than a year after his brother was assassinated, Senator Kennedy had his own brush with death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Edward M. Kennedy was seriously injured when his plane crashed in the woods near Southampton, Massachusetts.
GUPTA: The crash killed the pilot and a close aide. Kennedy was in the hospital for months. KAREN TUMULTY, TIME MAGAZINE: This was, I think, the first -- one of his first experiences of how completely vulnerable and helpless he could be. He had back problems for the rest of his life.
GUPTA: And that was just one piece of an excruciating family medical chart. The senator's father had a bad stroke, but lingered on for seven years. Sister Rosemary spent most of her life in an institution. Senator Kennedy helped write the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. His son Patrick, later a congressman, had severe asthma and more recently talked openly about his depression and his substance abuse.
And there was cancer. In 1973, the senator's son, Teddy Jr., then 12, was diagnosed with bone cancer. He survived but only after losing a leg to amputation.
JOE TRIPPI, FORMER KENNEDY CAMPAIGN AIDE: He really felt that everybody should have the health care that his son had. That he was privileged to be able to provide that health care for his son, but that everybody should have that right. And I think that definitely motivated Senator Kennedy.
TUMULTY: They got to know a lot of the other families that were worried about their own children in the hospital. They heard a lot of stories about people who were not only worrying about whether their loved ones would get well, but whether they were going to be able to pay for that.
GUPTA: The senator himself recently wrote this, quote, "My family has had the care it needed. Other families have not, simply because they could not afford it."
Daughter Kara fought off cancer, as well, beating a lung tumor that was diagnosed in 2002.
SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There's one news (ph) of, a parent of two children.
TUMULTY: As many things as he had worked on, nothing that struck quite as close to his heart as health care reform. He one time said that universal health care was an issue that burned in his soul.
GUPTA: Through disappointments, a failed presidential run in 1980, the collapse of the Clinton health plan, Kennedy kept chasing that dream.
In 1997, he and Republican Orrin hatch were behind the SCHIP bill, expanding health coverage for children. And in 2006, he worked with Republican Governor Mitt Romney to push through a ground-breaking system of universal care in his home state of Massachusetts.
TUMULTY: Ted Kennedy did something he never had done before, he went to the floor of a Massachusetts state legislature and he argued, we failed in Washington, but just because we failed in Washington doesn't mean that Massachusetts should blow its opportunity. KENNEDY: We worked and worked together with the business and health community and Massachusetts has a program that is committed to assuring all of its residents will get coverage.
GUPTA: At a crucial point in last year's presidential campaign, the senator threw himself behind Barack Obama, and the push for universal health care.
KENNEDY: This is the cause of my life. New hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American -- north, south, east, west, young, old -- will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.
GUPTA: Whether the fight over health reform turns out to be Senator Kennedy's crowning legacy or a final bitter loss is yet to be seen. But even in death, he's a big part of the debate.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And like you said, it was the cause of his life. Just so passionate about it.
Well, today, we want to talk about southern California, because it is in flames, literally, thousands of homes in the line of fire. We have the latest on efforts to control a raging wildfire -- 20,000 acres, in fact, near Los Angeles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And developing story we are following this morning. A massive wildfire in Los Angeles County threatening some 10,000 homes, forcing a lot of families to get out of there. This is called the station fire.
We were reporting to you yesterday the latest was 5,000-acre fire. This morning, we wake up and it's a 20,000-acre fire. It has quadrupled, 20,000 acres burned. And right now, it is burning as one fire official said at will, just about 5 percent contained now. We're keeping an eye on it.
NGUYEN: Also watching this, seven people found dead at a mobile home park in rural Georgia. Police are releasing very little information about those deaths.
But here's what we know. Autopsies are being done today to find out how the victims died. Now, two other people also found alive, but they are in critical condition. The police chief of Glynn County calls it the worst mass slaying in his 25 years on the job.
HOLMES: And not a day off on this Sunday morning for the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery, taking a look at the liftoff we saw just the other night. The crew working towards the night schedule docking with the International Space Station; they'll also continue their customary inspection now of any possible damage from Friday's launch. So far, they have not found any problems.
NGUYEN: Well, there's one person we found today, that being John King. He is coming up at the top of the hour with "STATE OF THE UNION."
HOLMES: Good morning to you, kind sir.
JOHN KING, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Good morning.
HOLMES: We'll start, I guess, with Ted Kennedy. A lot -- a week of remembrances we saw last week. But now, there's a big policy discussion that needs to take place.
How is this going to change the game as far as health care reform? Are people going to use, I guess, take his death and galvanize the issue? Or are they missing that guy that could push it forward now?
KING: It's a fascinating question -- and good morning, Betty and T.J., out there watching -- because there's no question the passing of Senator Kennedy, all of these remarkable bipartisan tributes have changed the tone about the conversation about health care. But the big question is, will they change the substance of the political conversation about health care?
And if you call the key Republicans, there's no sense, at least in the short-term that anybody's willing to say, "Sure, I'm OK now with that $1 trillion price tag" or "I'm ready to support the public option, the president wants it." We see no evidence of that on the Republican side.
And the bigger question is, will we see a bigger move for compromise within the Democratic Party? Because that's where the president's big problem is right now, the more liberal approach in the House, a more conservative version in the Senate, just among the Democrats. Teddy Kennedy's great gift in his 47 years in the Senate was bringing those things together, and sometimes, you know, smoothing over rough relationships within the family. He's not there.
And most people would tell you if this is going to be worked out, it is the president who is going to have to step in and be the big broker here.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, you know, talking about stepping in, who is going to step in to replace him? There's a lot of rumblings as to who maybe interested in that, a lot of political maneuvers. What are you hearing on your end?
KING: I was up in Boston for several days, and that's where I'm from. And I spent some time covering politics back there many years ago. And I was told around the time of the funeral that it is increasingly likely now, all of them -- all sources up there in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, that it's increasingly likely the legislature will pass, the change in the law that allows the governor to first name an interim senator for three or four months, then you would have a special election down the road in January.
So, as to the who, we know there are several people who want to run in the long-term for the seat permanently. There's a big drama that will play out if there is an interim senator. If the law passes, say, near the end of September and the governor then can appoint somebody in late September or early October to fill out that seat until the special election is held, who would that be? And Vicki Kennedy, the senator's widow, has said flatly through family spokesman, no, no, no.
But there are many who think if that interim senator job becomes a reality, that there would be a lot of people who would go to her, and say, why wouldn't you go to Washington, cast your husband's final votes on the big health care debate and other issues? Again, she says no. But if that law passes, this questioning line, this story line will bubble back up again.
HOLMES: All right. And, of course, with what we saw with the passing of Senator Kennedy, it certainly is something unpredictable there, kind of brought President Obama out during his vacation. But we anticipated not seeing the president much this week while he was in Martha's Vineyard, but he made some news almost immediately with Ben Bernanke there.
NGUYEN: Right.
HOLMES: So, I don't know how much of a vacation it really seemed to be. So, what does he have ahead now? What's the first thing he really needs to get back to when he gets back to Washington?
KING: I don't remember the last time the president had an entire vacation without some news intervening. What is the big challenge, of course, is to try to somehow referee this health care debate. That is the biggest domestic challenge for the president.
But also, a lot of questions about things going on overseas. You have seen the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Big questions about whether this violence in Iraq could somehow throw the deadline off. There are a whole host of issues on the president's plate.
Health care will be the number one thing. As Congress comes back from the recess, all these town halls, the death of Senator Kennedy, how has the turmoil and big events of August changed the debate? The president says he will get it done this year. It is a defining promise of his first year, that will be the big challenge when he comes back to work.
NGUYEN: All right. And coming up on "STATE OF THE UNION," I know you got a lot on tap, give us an idea.
KING: Well, we're going to spend some time with Orrin Hatch and Chris Dodd, the senator's closest friends in the Senate, to talk. They helped eulogize Senator Kennedy. We'll ask them about the personal moment there and ask these very questions about what comes next. We'll also have Senator Maria Cantwell in here. She's one of the members of the finance committee that is trying to figure out if you can get this health care thing done. And at the end of the program, we'll have James Carville and Mary Matalin here, and then Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana -- remember, it's four years since the devastation of Katrina and we want to talk to the folks who live right there in Louisiana about how things are going.
NGUYEN: Yes. It's kind of hard to believe it's already been four years. All right, John King, looking forward to it.
As always, John King and "STATE OF THE UNION" -- coming up at the top of the hour, 9:00 a.m. Eastern. You don't want to miss it.
HOLMES: All right. Quick break and we'll be right back with a story about some missing boaters that the coast guard had given up on but they have been found and they are OK.
Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Hello, everybody, welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is 8:31 eastern, I'm Betty Nguyen.
HOLMES: And hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes.
We are -- have been talking a lot, of course, about Ted Kennedy today and over the past week or so, of course with his passing. But he always had a bit of an internal conflict with his church, the Catholic Church. Of course, he was a devout Catholic; however, he had some conflicts. He was a man who was divorced. Also he was a supporter of abortion rights.
Our Dana Bash takes a look now at this conflict with the senator.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ted Kennedy's family chose this church for his funeral mass because he prayed here every day when daughter Kara was diagnosed with cancer; an example of his quiet, but deep Catholic faith.
(on camera): Did you consider him a religious man?
REV. GERRY CREEDON, ST. CHARLES BORROMEO CATHOLIC CHURCH: Very much so.
BASH (voice-over): Father Gerry Creedon Kennedy for more than 30 years.
REV. CREEDON: This is an old picture; it probably goes back to 1980.
BASH: He says Kennedy not only attended Sunday mass but sought him out to discuss the tenets of Catholicism. REV. CREEDON: Most people sat there either disagreeing with me or sleeping. I'd walk out of church and Ted Kennedy would come up to me and continue the theme I was preaching on.
BASH: Kennedy often said it was his mother's Catholic faith that guided his famous family's political agenda. He used scripture in his push to end poverty and discrimination.
SEN. TED KENNEDY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: My favorite parts of the Bible are always Matthew 25 through 35. When I was hungry, you gave me to eat, and thirsty you gave me to drink.
BASH: But Kennedy's support for abortion rights flew in the face of Catholic credo.
KENNEDY: The Roe v. Wade made it a very clear declaration that is the law of the land, I support that law of the land.
BASH (on camera): Senator Kennedy once told me he had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church because he was for abortion rights.
REV. CREEDON: I think he would wish that he could've found a middle ground, a common ground with our church institution. I prayed for him yesterday morning and I got an e-mail saying you scandalized the faithful by praying for Kennedy.
BASH (voice-over): Father Creedon says Kennedy often came to him for spiritual guidance during well-publicized low points in his life. And in the last year, too ill to go to church, Kennedy asked him to come give communion at home and never asked others to pray for him.
REV. CREEDON: When it came to the prayers of the faithful, it's the time normally people make petitions. And often his wife would make a petition for his health and so forth, but he never made a petition. But he always said two or three prayers of thanksgiving, gratitude.
BASH: Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We want to bring you this survival story now. Three fishermen who have been missing for more than eight days at sea have been found alive and there they are: Curtis Hall, James Phillips, Tressel Hawkins. They were found a day after the Coast Guard had actually suspended searching the Gulf of Mexico for them.
Let's get more on this story with a happy ending. The Coast Guard petty officer Renee Aiello joins us now from Houston.
Ma'am, thank you for being here. First, can you tell us what kind of shape these men are in?
RENEE AIELLO, U.S. COAST GUARD: Well, when the gentlemen were dropped off earlier this morning, obviously they were suffering from some dehydration. We had EMS crews waiting for them in Port Aransas. But they refused any care; they were just so looking forward to getting reunited with their family.
HOLMES: They refused care -- a couple of some tough guys out there, I suppose. What, I guess, happened to them in the first place? How did they end up in trouble?
AIELLO: Well, last Friday they had set out on a fishing trip. They were due to report in on Saturday, August 22nd at 2:00 p.m. And when they failed to do so by 9:00 p.m. that last Saturday, one of the wives of the fishermen had called the Matagorda County Police Department and they in turn called the Coast Guard. And we launched a search for them last Saturday.
HOLMES: Now, how -- I know it's not easy, that's a lot of water out there to be searching for these guys, but you all were going at it for a good week there; so it's pretty exhaustive search there. Did you just not have a good idea of what their last position was when they got in trouble? And that made it tricky? You just had such a wide area to try to search for?
AIELLO: Well, you have to take into consideration it's three people and you're searching the Gulf of Mexico, that's like finding a needle in a hay stack. We had called in resources from as far away as Clearwater, Florida and Mobile, Alabama and we put seven days into searching for these three gentlemen.
HOLMES: And the boat had capsized? Did I hear that correctly?
AIELLO: Correct. This morning they were found by a Good Samaritan and the Good Samaritan reportedly found the gentlemen sitting on top of their vessel that had capsized.
HOLMES: And that is interesting to hear these three guys have been out there for some eight days needing some help, but refused any kind of medical attention. Just wanted to get home.
Renee Aiello, we appreciate you hopping on the phone with us here for a minute. But I'm glad this story had a happy ending. Thank you so much.
NGUYEN: Finally a story with a happy ending. Eight days, can you imagine? Forget about it, look, I just want to go home.
HOLMES: And the Coast Guard they do, sometimes they call them off earlier or later, but giving it a good seven or eight days, that's an exhaustive search.
NGUYEN: Eight days is a long time.
HOLMES: And then the day after...
NGUYEN: You think they would have been dehydrated; they would have needed some medical attention.
HOLMES: They wanted to go home. NGUYEN: Sometimes that's just the best remedy.
All right, we got this other story to tell you about.
HOLMES: Yes, 1991 child abduction case, apparently it's been solved. The child that was snatched 18 years ago found alive last week, sure you heard about this. It really got a lot of people...
NGUYEN: Oh, yes, definitely. And now police say the suspects could be linked to other crimes. Yes, we're going to tell you why police say they have expanded their search of the crime scene.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: I'm going to keep you posted here on a developing story out in California today. We have at least four major fires that are burning in central and southern California. The biggest one we're keeping an eye on as what they're referring to as the station fire. That's in L.A. County; it has ballooned overnight from a 5,000-acre fire to a 20,000-acre fire.
People are being told to evacuate. At least 10,000 homes being threatened, at least 900 we know of were evacuated yesterday, but more and more are being urged to get out of there.
Weather conditions not helping at all. Firefighters were calling this the perfect storm of bad weather conditions that help this spread.
NGUYEN: Well, accusations of fraud could delay the official results from Afghan's national elections. Election officials tell our correspondent in Kabul that more than 550 complaints are serious enough to affect the outcome of the August 20th vote in Afghanistan. Preliminary results show incumbent President Hamid Karzai with a wide lead over his closest rival.
HOLMES: A new development in this bizarre case of 11-year-old girl who had been held hostage since 1991. Police now searching the neighboring property of Phillip and Nancy Garrido, the couple charged in the case.
Authorities say it's a crime scene, but not quite elaborating on what they're looking for over there. Investigators looking for evidence linking them to other open cases though in the area, including unsolved murders of prostitutes.
NGUYEN: A lot of people are really interested in this case and also its shocking nature as well. So I want to turn to the victim now who spent more than half her life in a secret compound in the couple's backyard. How will she cope with her new freedom and what about her two daughters who will experience so many things for the first time?
CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After 18 years, Jaycee Lee Dugard reenters the world. Readjusting, experts say, will likely be overwhelming.
First, they say there's a strong possibility she'll miss part of her life in captivity, including the people who allegedly held her in their backyard.
DR. HELEN MORRISON, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: That's what she knew, that's the only thing she had. It's a little variant of what we call the Stockholm Syndrome when you become identified with your kidnappers and in many ways you become attached to them.
TODD: Reintegrating with her biological family will have its own serious challenges. One clinical psychologist says her family will likely become very distressed if she starts revealing any physical or emotional abuse, and that's just the beginning.
JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: They may be upset that she may not be moving quickly enough emotionally to integrate herself back into the family. She may feel that they're strangers and may look at her as being somewhat of a stranger.
TODD: Dugard's parents will have to acclimate to grandchildren, girls 11 and 15 years old, allegedly the offspring of Jaycee Dugard and suspect Phillip Garrido. Authorities say the girls have never been to a school or the doctor.
And in a jailhouse interview, Garrido said this.
PHILLIP GARRIDO, ACCUSED KIDNAPPER: Having those two children, those two girls, they slept in my arms every single night from birth. And never did I harm them. I never touched them.
TODD: One expert says those children because of their ages may still have an easier time to acclimate to normal settings than Jaycee Dugard will.
GARDERE: This is a woman now who will have trust issues with others.
TODD: Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped and held for nine months has this advice for Dugard.
ELIZABETH SMART, FORMER KIDNAP VICTIM: Set goals for yourself to continually be moving forward. And to continuing on with your life and not letting like this horrible event just take over and consume the rest of your life.
TODD: Experts tell us the key for any therapist working with Jaycee Dugard is to move very, very slowly.
(on camera): Psychologist Jeff Gardere even recommends putting her at first in a place that may be similar to that backyard because he says you don't want to shock her by placing her in an environment she can't handle yet. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: That's kind of interesting that they would put her in a place similar to where she's been spending her time.
HOLMES: You know -- who knows what's going on after going through all of that. And who knows, after 18 years she probably identifies those people as part of her family now in a lot of ways.
So it's just a horrible story. We keep getting weird details about it.
NGUYEN: This story I want to tell you about, it's, in fact, Election Day in Japan. And the nation could be poised for a new era.
HOLMES: Exit poll numbers are not looking good for ruling party. We're live in Tokyo with a look at the possible implications to Asia as well as the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, at least 15 police officers dead after a suicide attack in Mengora, Pakistan. Apparently the bomber jumped over a police wall, detonated his device as dozens of new recruits were training.
CNN's Cal Perry on the phone with us from Islamabad. I guess give us the latest here. Is that number still at 15? And what do we know about this bomber?
CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, the number's still at 15, although local media is reporting that the number is likely to go up. As the suicide bomber actually climbed over the wall of this training center, T.J. and then exploded his vest among a group of recruits that were training at the time.
The attack came in the city of Mengora which is the largest city in the Swat Valley, that's where we've seen over the past four months the army here in Pakistan actually facing off against the Taliban has been the front line recently between these two sides.
This is just the second attack in 72 hours. It was Thursday evening when we saw a similar type of attack; a suicide bomber getting in a barracks, killing at least 21 security personnel.
These are exactly the type of attacks that the Taliban has said they will carry out on security personnel, even though there's been no claim of responsibility. Certainly all eyes are looking at the Taliban for these attacks.
HOLMES: Okay, you mentioned -- I just want to ask and bring one thing up here. On these rumors, I guess being denied, though, but any talk there about this attacker who was possibly wearing a police uniform? PERRY: There is talk of that. And we've seen the Taliban use various ways to get past security. We understand the attack on Thursday evening was actually a teenage boy who was bringing water into the barracks where the security personnel were breaking fast. And he was bringing them water, turned out the water jugs were perhaps filled with explosives.
That bomb went off killing 21. It would not be surprising if the attacker in this case was wearing a police uniform. The Taliban uses just about every means they have to their ability including children suicide bombers to get access to these security facilities, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Cal Perry for us this morning in Islamabad; Cal always good to talk to you. Thank you so much buddy.
NGUYEN: It looks like a record number of voters in elections today will dramatically change Japan's political landscape. CNN's Kyung Lah joins us now live from Tokyo where exit polls show it appears to be an opposition party landslide, is that correct?
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what it looks like at this point. Good morning to you, Betty.
Here it is evening in Tokyo and throughout the space of this one day we have really witnessed a seismic shift in Japanese politic. A landslide: according to media projections; our affiliate TV Asahi (ph) reporting in its exit polls that the opposition party has won Japan's parliament by 3-1. Those are seats in parliament.
It is a stunning defeat for the incumbent party. It is a wide margin, and the incumbent party has been in charge of Japanese politics since 1955, except for 10 months in 1993 to 1994.
What was the big game changer? Well, a couple of factors: voter frustration over some domestic scandals, but it was the economy, the global economic slowdown that Japan has been struggling to recover from.
The opposition party has been touting an Obama-style change of politics. A message of change and that has really found traction with voters who are feeling this recession, the recession Japan has been in and is just starting to come out of. They've really been feeling it in their wallets.
This evening, Japan is counting the votes. The official results expected sometime overnight here in Tokyo, and we're expecting to wake up tomorrow morning, Betty, to a new day of politics here in Tokyo -- Betty.
NGUYEN: And they're betting on change, it seems. Ok, Kyung Lah, joining us live. As always, we do appreciate it. Thank you.
HOLMES: Critics of big government here are taking their show on the road.
NGUYEN: Yes, and it's called the "Tea Party Express," and it is making stops in 33 cities to protest everything from health care reform to the bailout in just 16 days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, opponents of big government taking their show on the road, embarking on a series of planned protests across the country calling the Tea Party Protest Tour.
Our all-platform journalist, Jim Spellman caught up with them in Nevada. He joins us from there this morning. All right, I guess essentially (AUDIO GAP). What is the message they're trying to get out?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALIST: Well, basically the message is they don't like President Obama. It's really as simple as that. Some people here are about health care. A lot of people here are just about taxes in general, big spending. What they've done though is they're trying to harness all these little grass roots tea party protests and try to kind of take it to the next level and make it more of a political force.
What they've done is this caravan of a couple of tour buses heading cross country. It started Friday in Sacramento. They're going to end up in Washington D.C. on September 12th with what they hope is going to be a really big rally that Saturday.
A lot of people I spoke to, it's almost hard to fathom how they're so upset with President Obama. But it's been loud and clear. Here's what a few of them told me when I spoke to them yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLYN ROWE, TEA PARTY PARTICIPANT: I believe he's trouncing the Constitution and taking control of our country in a direction that we don't want.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to make us a socialist state.
BARBARA JONES, TEA PARTY PARTICIPANT: We're the sleeping giant that has been awakened. We're the silent majority that is no longer silent.
MIKE BRYANT, TEA PARTY PARTICIPANT: I think we're not an unruly mob. I think most of us are just average citizens and we're trying to make a difference and we're trying to make our feelings known.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SPELLMAN: So what they want to do is take that passion that you're seeing there on the grass roots level, take it to the next level -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. We will see them across the country on the tour and meet up with them in September, I'm sure, in D.C.
Jim Spellman for us in Nevada. Thank you so much, good to see you. NGUYEN: Right now, we want to turn to the CIA controversial interrogation tactics. For months, former Vice President Dick Cheney has been calling for the release of CIA documents. And he says they would prove the tough tactics paid off with good intelligence.
Well, now he has the documents and what he says is a rock solid defense of the techniques.
CNN's Brian Todd explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): The former vice president claims vindication over how terrorist suspects were treated in U.S. custody. A statement from Dick Cheney says, quote, "the documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks."
But Cheney never says the techniques themselves like water- boarding ever led to those suspects giving up key information. A Cheney aide was not able to comment further on his statement.
The techniques Cheney defends were authorized at the time and are not the methods now being investigated by the Justice Department. The CIA documents released Monday including two sets Cheney had pressed the agency to disclose do indicate that alleged 9/11 master mind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, didn't give much information before enhanced techniques were used on him.
And a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the interrogation program who would not talk on the on the record because he was not authorized to, tells CNN, "Had it not been for the conditioning technique, he would not have been as forthcoming. Prior to the use of those conditioning techniques, he tried to dodge everything or lie." Cheney had previously alluded to that.
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts had failed.
TODD: The documents say Mohammed did eventually give up valuable information. He shed light on plots and possible targets leading to the disruption of several plots against the United States. But there's never a link saying water-boarding or any other enhanced technique led directly to a certain piece of intelligence.
Cheney says the intelligence from enhanced techniques saved lives, but when we ask CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen whether American lives were saved....
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: The kinds of information that was given up by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after being interrogated were about various plots they had on the drawing board to attack the United States a second time. But most of these plots were not serious. TODD: For one of the water-boarded suspects, Abu Zubaydah, the CIA Inspector General's Report says it is not possible to say definitively that the water-board is the reason for Abu Zubaydah's increased production. One former CIA agent who was present for at least one water-boarding of Zubaydah told us more than a year ago it produced results.
JOHN KIRIAKOU, FORMER CIA AGENT: They did. With Abu Zubaydah they worked very well. We were able to corroborate the information he provided after the water-boarding and it turned out to be accurate.
TODD: But the documents indicate Abu Zubaydah also gave up substantial information before being water-boarded.
(on camera): And one FBI interrogator once said the rough stuff wasn't even necessary, saying there was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced techniques on Zubaydah that couldn't have been obtained from using regular tactics.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And of course, we're just a minute away from John King with "STATE OF THE UNION."
NGUYEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, but in the meantime, we want to get you the latest news that's happening at this hour.
Low humidity, high temperatures and dry conditions leading to that, well, you saw a picture of it just a second ago. These really are wildfires -- there you go, you can see more of them right now -- taking place in southern California. In fact, one fire threatens about 10,000 homes. You can see how close they are getting to those homes in L.A. County. 1,800 firefighters trying to contain this blaze but the problem is this, it has quadrupled overnight. It went from 5,000 acres to 20,000 acres and it is burning out of control at this hour.
We'll continue to follow it for you.
Also this in California, as well: police now searching the neighboring property of Phillip and Nancy Garrido. They're the couple charged with abducting a girl in 1991. She was discovered alive just this past week. Investigators, they are looking for evidence linking the couple to other open cases in the area. We'll have more on that.
But John King starts right now with "STATE OF THE UNION."
