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CNN Saturday Morning News
Accused Soldier Arrives at Ft. Leavenworth; An Unbelievable Basketball Shot; Bank of America Gives Homeowners a Break
Aired March 17, 2012 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Randi Kaye. It's 7:0 a.m. in the East, 4:00 a.m. in the West, where we have learned the alleged Afghanistan shooter arrives in Kansas. We know more about his identity, his service in Iraq and what his friends are saying.
(BEING VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BERLING, SAYS HE KNEW SGT. ROBERT BALES: He has a big heart, too, because he was in the financial world as a financial adviser. I know, he couldn't even take that, losing people's money when the market went down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: How Bank of America plans to give homeowners a break on mortgages by as much as 30 percent.
And what is Hollywood hunk George Clooney doing in handcuffs in D.C.? Well, we'll tell you.
ANNOUNCER: From CNN's world headquarters bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe. Live from Studio 7, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
KAYE: New developments surrounding that soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting spree. He is back in the U.S. and we now know his name. Officials tell CNN he is Staff Sergeant Robert Bales and he is a decorated combat veteran. Those sources spoke citing an Army policy that waits until he is charged before publically releasing a name.
Bales arrived in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas last night. He's being held in his own cell in pretrial confinement. Athena Jones is in Washington and she has reaction from those who knew him before the controversy.
Good morning, Athena.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Randi.
As you mentioned, we are learning about Staff Sergeant Bales, a 38- year-old father with two children. His lawyer describes him as a loving husband. We've talked to his neighbor who describes the Bales family as a normal, happy family. We know that he has served three tours in Iraq and this was his first tour to Afghanistan; his fourth tour overall. We know that his family did not expect him to be redeployed. They were sad to find out he had to be deployed to Afghanistan where he went in December of last year.
We know that he joined the service in late 2001, in November that year. So just a couple months after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
And we spoke with -- CNN spoke with a high school friend of his. We heard a little bit from him earlier, but let's hear more from him right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERLING: He has a big heart, too, because he was in the financial world as a financial adviser. I know, he couldn't even take that, losing people's money when the market went down. So, he felt that he needed something bigger in his heart, in his mind, in his soul. That's why he went into the military, in general, to help people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: So, we hear from this friend. We have also heard from him talking about the importance during his tour in Iraq, the importance there during battle of separating combatants from non-combatants. And so, we're learning he previously didn't show animosity toward civilians.
We'll learn more about what triggered this incident. But as of right now, we are beginning to put all the pieces together.
KAYE: Athena Jones from Washington, thank you for the latest on that.
And stay with us here on CNN. We'll take a look back at this shooting and the aftermath. Plus, Sara Sidner will join me live from Afghanistan from the capital of Kabul to talk about what U.S. officials are doing now to ease the tensions there.
Syria's health minister says at least 27 people have been killed in the country's capital Damascus. He says nearly 100 people have been wounded. Several explosions rocked the city today. Targets included government facilities and the Air Force intelligence headquarters. Syria's state TV is blaming terrorists for the attacks.
The family of Jason Russell says he does not have a drinking or drug problem. Russell has been hospitalized after he was spotted running through the streets of San Diego running in his underwear. He directed the "Kony 2012" film about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. He got nearly 80 million views on YouTube. He's suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition.
Hollywood heavyweight George Clooney is out of jail. Police took Clooney, his father and others into custody during a protest outside the embassy in Washington. He recently returned from Sudan and blamed them for killing their own men, women and children. Clooney paid a $100 fine and was later released.
Take a look at the time for you this morning, it's five minutes past the hour. Reynolds Wolf is back with a check of the St. Paddy's day forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAYE: Up next, Sara Sidner explains what the U.S. is doing to mend it's broken relationship with Afghanistan after last week's massacre.
You're watching CNN's SATURDAY MORNING where news does not take the weekend off.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Back to the main story, the attacks in Afghanistan.
A senior Defense official has identified the suspect as 38-year-old Robert Bales. Last hour, we spoke to Sara about how President Karzai is questioning the U.S. account as to what happened. Now she's back live with us from Kabul to drill down on what the U.S. is doing for the families of the victims.
But first, we want you to hear from a villager and what they want.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I don't want any compensation, not from the Americans, not from the government. I don't want any money. I just want the Americans to be punished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Sara is with us now.
What restitution is the U.S. offering to the victims' families and this village?
SARA SIDER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this point and time, we are not hearing they have been able to greet them and go and offer restitution or do that through officials. Afghan officials paid for certain things like the funerals and offered up money to the villagers.
But the villagers were pretty adamant when they sat in front of President Karzai and said we don't want your restitution, we don't want money from the government, we don't want money from the Americans; we want justice. So angry words from the villagers. And these are the people that family members. As you can imagine, they are upset, they are extremely upset.
It is standard practice the international security assistance forces would try to compensate victims in a case like this. They have even compensated people when the Taliban, for example, goes into a village and destroys things making life very, very difficult. They have given $1.4 million over a four month period in one case where Taliban destroyed parts of a village and helped people with the way they are going about their daily lives.
It's standard practice. People here call it blood money, but it's standard practice the international security would do something for the victims. When you look at these villages, you see that people live simply. When one thing goes wrong, a well dries up or there's an issue in the village making it harder for the people to make a living or get food or water, the U.S. tries to step in and tries give some kind of compensation.
But a lot of frustration, Randi. A lot of frustration, anger, sadness. It's very raw, as you might imagine for the victims and the people of this country.
KAYE: And how are the U.S. troops doing? You look at the tension that's taking place there right now even with the battle over restitution. What's the mood there among the troops?
SIDER: I think when you talk to some of the troops that are here, there's always worry whenever something happens like this. Then you have this follow two other things, the picture that came out of U.S. soldiers urinating on dead members of the Taliban and then you had the Koran burnings which the U.S. troops say was done mistakenly. You see a reaction. It puts people in danger when this happens.
We have noticed online, the picture of this Army staff sergeant accused made it online. People are writing very pointed, very angry notes here in Afghanistan. So, I think it just makes people feel a little nervous and of course, there's heightened security at the bases, as you can imagine.
KAYE: Thanks so much, Sara Sidner from Kabul for us this morning.
Could the Afghanistan soldier's brain injury played a part in this? We'll talk to a doctor who specializes in brain trauma and a patient being treated for brain injury.
Shooting hoops from a helicopter. We're going to show you the shot that has many talking and a group of friends bragging.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back.
We want to show you this video coming to us. Katherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is on her first solo military engagement today. She presented sprigs of shamrock -- there she is. These are live pictures. She is presenting them to the Irish Guard. It's a wonderful tradition to watch. The origin of presenting shamrock dates back to 1901. Queen Alexandra continued the custom. She did it herself in 1925. And the queen mother continued the tradition for 32 years. There's Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge, doing it herself.
From that to March Madness. We have a video you must see. It is an insane basketball shot made from a helicopter.
Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Most basketball players are tall. Sinking one from this height is ridiculous. But we have seen basketball trick shots from a Ferris Wheel and a trampoline. A trio of Michigan guys --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Scott? Can you bring us some basketballs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep.
MOOS: -- took it to new heights that shot the switch from three angles.
(on camera): The question everyone wants answered is how many tries did it take?
(voice-over): Let's crunch the numbers.
(on camera): How many basketballs did you take up in the chopper?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took about 25 up in the chopper with us.
MOOS: They made dozens and dozens of trips dropping 25 balls each time.
(on camera): Freeze it. You can see the ones that missed scattered all over the place. One, two, three, four.
(voice-over): Finally nailed this one from 192 feet, which is not the highest shot ever made. Guinness says this one is. 212 feet five inches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! Yes!
MOOS: An Australian trick shooting group called How Ridiculous got one from over a cricket field after more than two and a half hours of trying.
So the Michigan guys think bombarding the net from a chopper is still pretty cool. Their last viral video hit was almost a year ago. It was a 10-minute rendition of American Pie of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan to be closed down as they did one continuous tape. Thousands of experts lip synced, they used a chopper for the last shot of this one, too. They are dedicating the video to march madness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the altitude we were shooting at, the velocity of the ball was around 100 miles per hour.
MOOS: It could be terminal to living creatures.
(on camera): Did you hit any cows?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No cows were hit during the filming.
MOOS: They did hit a few cow patties. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we kept letting him use them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Oh, boy. Got to love that, cow patties.
March Madness is taking over America. Watch every game live on TBS, TNT, truTV and CBS. Catch it on ncaa.com/marchmadness.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back. Good news for some homeowner this is morning. If you have a home loan with bank of America, the loan could be reduced up to $100,000. Clyde Anderson is here to tell us about this.
Good morning. Why is bank of America doing this?
CLYDE ANDERSON, CNN FINANCIAL EXPERT: It's a settlement. They have worked a deal out. They can reduce the mortgages. The $26 billion lawsuit for doing fraudulent things that relate to foreclosures, robo- signing and a lot of things were going on to move the foreclosures on. They got slapped on the wrist for it. This is a way to pull back and have resolution.
KAYE: It's a side deal?
ANDERSON: Exactly.
KAYE: It's not out of the kindness of their heart. It's good news for some people. How is it going to work?
ANDERSON: They can reduce mortgages. Everybody is under water in their mortgage. They can reduce their mortgage down to the appraised value of the home. If you have a $250,000 home, but it's appraised at $100,000 it reduces it if you want to sell the house or do something different. You are not so much under water or owe money.
KAYE: We have a graphic. If you owe $200,000 on a home worth $150,000.
ANDERSON: It will go down almost $200, really, with the difference. The same $100,000 with the 4 percent interest rate. It's saving on the payment side and not being so far under water.
KAYE: How do you qualify?
ANDERSON: You have to be behind on the mortgage, owner occupied residence at the time you took it out. It has to be on or before January 1, 2009. You have to be current on your mortgage payment. And you have to be underwater. You have to owe more on the house than it's worth.
KAYE: There are plenty of those people. It's designed to help motivate those under water to keep paying, right?
ANDERSON: Right. They don't want foreclosures on the market and people walking away. A lot of people are walking away. Hopefully, it's an incentive to get them home.
KAYE: Will this make a dent?
ANDERSON: There's 11 million foreclosures out there. This should help 1 million. Anything helps.
KAYE: I like your positive attitude. Thank you. Nice to see you. Thank you very much.
Join us every Saturday at this time as Clyde Anderson gives his later tips on saving money.
"SANJAY GUPTA MD" is coming up. Here is a preview of what's ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We are looking at medical errors and simple things you can do to protect yourself and your family. There are things we talk about as doctors that I want to share with everyone else. We have tips on how to eliminate toxic substances in your kitchen and eliminate sports injuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Thousands of owners of Honda Civics say their car fell short on mileage. You are watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING, where news doesn't take the morning off.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Checking top stories.
The U.S. soldier accused of going on a house-to-house rampage in Afghanistan is Army Staff Sergeant Bales. He's held in pre-trial confinement in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in a roadside bombing.
At least 27 people dead after several explosions tore through Damascus. They are blaming terrorists for the attacks. Government facilities were the apparent targets.
Nearly 250,000 Honda Civic owners will get $200,000 in a class-action settlement. Drivers say their cars did not get promised gas mileage.
More top stories at the top of the hour when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues. First, Sanjay Gupta explores medical mistakes and how they don't happen to you.
