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CNN Saturday Morning News

GOP Candidates Campaign in Ohio; Investigation into Lab Associated With Meningitis Cases; Examining Voter ID Laws; Robotic Cockroaches; Update on Pakistani Shooting Victim; Obama Office Hit by Bullet; Gang Member or Terrorist?; Sexual Assaults in the Military

Aired October 13, 2012 - 08:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell.

It's 8:00 on the East Coast, 5:00 out West. Thanks for starting your day with us.

We start with the scenes of the streets of Los Angeles. You can see here, this space shuttle Endeavour. It's been making its way to the streets of L.A. for most of the morning. It is quite a site. Imagine seeing this just kind of rolling down your street. "Endeavour" is being moved to the California science center where it will be on permanent display. The trip should take until about midnight tonight.

KAYE: A former top ranked cyclist and team mate of Lance Armstrong is speaking out against him. Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times and Tyler Hamilton road with him on the U.S. Postal Service team for four years. He's one of 10 former teammates who testified to the U.S. anti-doping agency that Armstrong had doped.

The agency released its damaging report this week showing that it had uncovered quote, "overwhelming evidence of Armstrong's illegal drug use."

Hamilton told Anderson Cooper there was no question why Armstrong's team members doped for the big race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER HAMILTON, FORMER PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST: The first time I ever blood doped was with Lance and it was certainly for Lance basically. I had blood doped myself. It was done by the team but it was done for the Tour de France so I could be a good teammate for Lance Armstrong. Yes, a lot of it, you know, he wanted you to be riding at your best when in the biggest races, and for Lance, it was all about winning the Tour de France.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Armstrong has always denied doping. His attorney calls the report a quote, witch hunt.

In Denver, police are investigating a shooting aimed at the Obama campaign headquarters there. They're checking video surveillance videotapes for clues. Right now there's a vehicle of interest but no motive or no suspect. It was a single shot right into the window. There were people inside the office, but luckily, nobody was injured.

Now to the campaign, the candidates are splitting their focus right now between campaign stops and debate preps. CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser is in Washington this morning.

Paul, good morning to you. What is the schedule today? I'm sure it is a busy one.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It sure is for Mitt Romney. He is spending a second straight day in Ohio, of course 18 electoral votes up for grabs in the Buckeye State. It was just yesterday that Mitt Romney was campaigning in Ohio with his running mate Paul Ryan at a rally last night.

Today, Mitt Romney, two events in Ohio and Paul Ryan has a separate event as well. But then here's what happens. Romney goes home tonight and he starts going under lock I think you can say tomorrow, getting ready for Tuesday's debate, the second presidential debate.

The same thing for President Obama, Randi. He is going to Virginia today, Williamsburg, Virginia, but he is not really going there to campaign in that crucial swing state. Instead, the president will be doing basically debate prep between now and Tuesday.

Here is the thing about Tuesday's debate. It's going to be very different from the first presidential debate. That one was a week and a half ago in Denver. This one will be a town hall format and so it's going to be a different kind of feel. There will be questions from some people in the audience and the moderator by this one by the way, is our own CNN Candy Crowley.

I think it's fair to say a lot at stake at this second presidential debate coming up on Tuesday night at Hofstra University in New York -- Randi.

KAYE: No. doubt. I think it will have a whole different energy as well, which probably the candidates will feed off of with that town hall feel, but we are going to be talking a bit about Florida a little bit later on in the show this morning, Paul, certainly one of the big swing states.

Do you have any new numbers on that race by the way?

STEINHAUSER: I sure do. Take a look at this. This is our CNN poll of polls. We took three polls that were conducted after that first presidential debate in Florida. Among the likely voters, you average them all together and you can see Mitt Romney with a slight advantage here, 49 percent of likely voters supporting Romney, 46 percent supporting the president. It is kind of just the opposite before the first debate with the president with the slight advantage.

It is close in Florida, but yes. It's true at least in the polls of Florida and a few other places, it seems like Mitt Romney has gotten a little bit of a boost from that first debate. That is why this second debate is so important. And in Florida just like Ohio and Virginia two other very important battleground states, you are seeing so many visits from the candidates and so much money being spent on ads -- Randi.

KAYE: Very interesting stuff to watch those polls go up and down and all around. Paul Steinhauser, thank you. Nice to see you.

BLACKWELL: Another big story this week, the drug facility at the center of the fungal meningitis outbreak was implicated in another death eight years ago and that case also had to do with contaminated medication. And it's raising questions about whether the current outbreak which has killed 14 people could have been prevented.

CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned the fatalities linked to the current meningitis outbreak are not the first deaths alleged to be caused by drugs made by the New England Compounding Center.

Ten years ago, a man from upstate New York named William Koch got an injection of the steroid Depo-Medrol. That's according to documents from a lawsuit filed by Koch's family documents CNN has obtained. The complaint says the drug was made by NECC, which is identified in the papers as New England Compounding Pharmacy. The suit seeking $2.5 million from the company says that the Depo-Medrol Koch received was contaminated, that he got bacterial meningitis from it and that he died from that. Koch passed away in February 2004.

The suit was later settled out of court. Because of confidentiality agreements, we do not know if the company admitted wrongdoing. Still some experts have questions about NECC's practices.

STEPHEN HOAG, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF PHARMACY: It raises issues with their quality systems.

TODD: Steven Hoy is an expert on compounding drugs and the manufacture of them at the University of Maryland's school of pharmacy. He says compounding pharmacies are traditionally supposed to work with doctors to make specific drugs for individual patients, but some compounding facilities like NECC crossed over.

HOAG: You can obviously see when they're doing tens of thousands of units that they have crossed over from an individual prescription and individual pharmacist and patient to manufacturing where they are distributing that widely to all of these different states.

TODD: At this point Hoag says those facilities are supposed to be regulated by the FDA, but NECC never got Federal approval to manufacture those drugs. That provoked some important questions.

After William Koch's death, couldn't regulators have stepped in, investigated NECC and shut it down at least temporarily? If regulators had done that, could the deaths in the current meningitis outbreak, including at least one here in Maryland, have been prevented?

The FDA doesn't have jurisdiction over compounding pharmacies until there's a problem. FDA officials say they have been fighting to change that.

An official with the health department of Massachusetts where NECC is based, tells us that after complaints about injections received on the same day Koch got his shot, the state health department and the FDA did a joint investigation of NECC.

It is not clear if those agencies were made aware of Koch's specific case. They did not shut down the company, but the official says after an investigation of more than three years, they gave NECC a list of several things it needed to fix, put the company on probation for a year, but suspended that probation, he says, because the company did fix the problems. In Hoag's view, it never should have gotten that far.

(on camera): Could it all have been prevented?

HOAG: I feel that they should have stuck to their original business of compounding and they should not have crossed the line.

TODD: We could not get a NECC representative to comment on that. When asked about the Koch case, the company declined to comment citing confidentiality provisions.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And we've got much more ahead this hour.

BLACKWELL: Here is a look at what is coming up.

KAYE: Playing politics with voter IDs, both parties are fighting it out in battleground states about who gets to vote and how. All morning we are putting voter ID laws in focus.

Gang member or home grown terrorist? That is the question in one New York murder case. Legal analyst Paul Callan breaks it down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That is a bunk of malarkey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Debate zingers, Benghazi politics and the EU has a Nobel peace prize. We will look at the week that was.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back, 11 minutes past the hour now and there are just 24 days left until Election Day, but still there's some confusion over the actual process. New voter ID laws in several states have changed the rules while other states have seen their laws knocked down or delayed by the courts. So we are focusing on those voter ID laws this morning and right now we are focusing on Florida.

Joining me now is Florida conservative talk show host Burnie Thompson and I wanted to ask you -- good morning to you first of all.

BURNIE THOMPSON, HOST OF THE BURNIE THOMPSON SHOW IN FLORIDA: Good morning.

KAYE: I want to ask you first about these -- I would call them tougher voter ID laws and I know I'm going to get a snarky response from you on that one, but are they really necessary?

THOMPSON: Not snarky, cheery. I came to bring you good news. Here is the deal, first of all, early voter began in 2004 and now voters have a chance to vote absentee, early or on November 6th. So what the legislature did last time around is the shortened the number of days but they extended the hours. So now instead of not being able to vote after 5:00, we could go vote at 9:00 all the way up until 10:00. So in many ways now all voters have a greater chance to go cast their vote early, because the polls are opener later.

KAYE: That is the most positive I've heard on that.

THOMPSON: That is the truth. And I'll tell you, there are a lot of people who are excited, because especially military members and by the way, did you know that today is the navy's birthday, so happy birthday to the navy. But a lot of the folks in the military in Florida are very excited about it because they can go cast their vote after they get off work. It gives us more opportunities to go vote.

KAYE: I want to talk to you a little bit more about the early voting issue. But first, when you look at the voter ID laws, a lot of people look at them and say well, a couple of dozen cases of fraud might happen, but then you are also putting thousands of votes at risk and thousands of people might be left out of the process. So what is your explanation of that?

THOMPSON: I don't know who could possibly be left out of the process.

KAYE: Those who can't vote.

THOMPSON: Why would they not be able to vote?

KAYE: If they don't have the proper ID.

THOMPSON: I one time voted and I did not have the proper information. I had moved and I voted a provisional ballot and the next day I had to go and prove who I was and those laws apply to everybody. I think it's so important, don't you?

There are two things in America, you must be an American to do, serve on jury duty and vote. The only thing my liberal friends have a problem with showing ID for is to vote. I think we should show that we are who we say we are when we go to cast our vote. I don't see a problem with that.

KAYE: You have actually said that the new voter ID laws could actually help African-Americans which is interesting, because the Democrats are very concerned that these new voter ID laws will leave African- Americans, Latinos and many others, many other minorities out of the process.

THOMPSON: Well, you're going to have Democrats say one thing and Republicans say another thing, but common sense ought to prevail. If people have more hours to vote in the day - let's say you and I - it's a Tuesday and we know that early voting ends on Saturday.

I think you and I are responsible enough to figure out when to go cast our vote. This has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with responsibility and I can assure you that black Floridians and black Americans are resourceful enough and smart enough and not befuddled. They can get an ID. We can all go vote. We all know the rules and we are all responsible enough to go cast our vote.

KAYE: Let me get back to that early voting issue, because it started October 27th. It starts October 27th in most counties, but for the first time, people won't be able to vote on that last Sunday before the election. We talked about this earlier actually on the program this morning with Reverend Richard Dunn. I want you to hear what he said.

THOMPSON: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. RICHARD DUNN, PASTOR, FAITH COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH: I believe it is a diversionary tactic. It's a detrimental tactic. It's even a demonic tactic that's being used to suppress the voter turnout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Those are some pretty strong words.

THOMPSON: They sure are and I agree with the first adjective. It is diversionary, because I guarantee you, if the reverend and I know and it is a Tuesday know that it closes on Saturday and we got to vote last Sunday after church, we are all smart enough and responsible enough to cast our vote and be counted.

KAYE: Why get rid of the Sunday though?

THOMPSON: Well, the reason they say, the legislature said was to help gear up for the actual voting day. I don't know the answer to that. I don't know what their motives are. I can only tell you that it is not going to stop anybody who is determined to vote to vote.

As a matter of fact, as I said, we have three ways to vote, absentee, early and on November 6th. And I'm telling you, Floridians who care are going to go cast their vote.

KAYE: Just 24 days left, hard to believe until the election. There is a new poll that I want to share with you and our viewers showing Romney ahead in Florida. We can take a look at that. You see it there, 51 percent to 44 percent.

THOMPSON: Amazing.

KAYE: Why do you think that is and is this what you expected?

THOMPSON: I did not expect it quite like this. I didn't expect President Obama to fumble and he did fumble. So let's be honest. It is not that Mitt Romney did so well. It's that Barack Obama, our president, fumbled in the first debate. Tuesday I expect for President Obama to come out gangbusters in a different format and do very well.

But here is the important thing. As I said last time in Florida, 24 percent of the voters - they're not Republican, they're not Democrat, -- they're independents and independents are now paying attention and they care a lot about reality, not just rhetoric. The economy means a lot to them and I think they are leaning toward Mitt Romney for one reason, he doesn't scare independents. He is not that right wing conservative that Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum is. He's considered a moderate to independents. That 24 percent in Florida I think are the most important voters in the United States.

KAYE: Well, he is certainly making himself sound a lot more moderate as he moves toward the center these days.

THOMPSON: He does that, doesn't he?

KAYE: He sure does. I am glad you agree with me on that one.

THOMPSON: Absolutely and I'm glad I was able to cheer you up on the voter situation.

KAYE: You did. Thank you for coming in from Florida this morning. We appreciate it Burnie. Thank you.

We will have much more on the voter ID controversy coming up in our 10:00 hour Eastern time this morning. Will these laws be the determining factor in key swing states? Stay with us for that.

BLACKWELL: A raft filled with refugees leaving Cuba capsizes off Mexico's coast. The latest on the search for survivors. That's next.

But first, it is something you might see in a sci-fi film or if you're like me, a horror movie. Researchers are using robotics to try and turn cockroaches into a useful tool. It is today's start small, think big.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: They thrive in the dark. They can hide anywhere and are an unwelcome site to most. But this lab at North Carolina State University is trying to cast cockroaches in a new light.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I say it did not gross me out a little, I would be lying.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Professor (INAUDIBLE) and his students are taking control of their fear and the roaches, literally. They are attaching tiny electronic backpacks to roaches that stimulate their antennas with electric signals making them turn left or right depending on which antenna the signal is sent to, almost like a remote control car.

ALEXANDER VERDERBER, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY: The (INAUDIBLE) is to get up to that point where we can develop a system where there is very consistent control of the inspect.

TAHMID LATIF, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY: It would be (INAUDIBLE) to use the cockroaches with the backpacks in search and rescue missions like looking for survivors, heart attack victims, those type of missions.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Amazingly the hope down the road is to attach tiny video cameras to cockroaches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very robust. They can stand a lot of radioactivity, can get into small hole.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: And it's a benefit to have a search robot that can think on its own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are trapped in that corner, they can run away. If there's a danger, they can avoid it.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: A face that could be a welcome sight in the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Ten refugees from Cuba are fortunate to be alive because their raft capsized off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. At least two people drowned, 11 others are still missing. Nine men and one woman survived. They are now in custody. Officials say the Yucatan peninsula has become a popular area with Cuban smugglers, because it is not as heavily patrolled.

Egypt's capital remains tens after violent clashes yesterday. Pro- and anti-government supporters fought in the streets.

Remember this scene? Horse and camel riders charge into a crowd of demonstrators during last year's Arab spring protesters there in Tahrir Square in Cairo were beaten. Well, the officials who ordered that charge have now been acquitted. That helped trigger yesterday's fury.

And tensions between war-torn Syria and Turkey are getting worse, Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is now diverting its civilian airplanes from Syrian air space. That's after Turkish fighter jets reportedly forced a Syrian airliner to land in the Turkish capital on Wednesday and searched it for weapons. The joint UN/Arab League envoy is due in Turkey today to calm the tensions or at least try.

Just months ago, a brave Pakistani teen told CNN that she has the right to an education, the right to sing and the right to speak out. Well, now, 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai is clinging to life on a hospital ventilator. Gunmen shot her as she was going home from school last week. What happened to Malala has ignited shock and grief and outrage across Pakistan and the world.

CNN's Reza Sayah joins me now from Islamabad.

Reza, this is an amazing story that has not only impacted the people in Pakistan and you see the pictures of the children there with the photos and the candles and thoughts all around the world for this girl. Can you give us the latest on her condition and what doctors are saying?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor. We just got back from an interview with a top government official who is monitoring the emergency care. He says that Malala is still in critical condition. Some might say she has been in critical condition for four days now. That can't be good.

The doctors say that is not so unusual. She was shot in the head. She had brain surgery. She has swelling in the brain. Swelling is always a concern after brain surgery. Of course, the brain is an enclosed casing, the skull and unlike other parts of the body when it swells, it has nowhere else to go. So they're monitoring that. They want to keep it under control.

The good news they say is her vitals, her pulse, blood pressure and looking good so increasingly you get the impression that they are optimistic, but they still say she is in some danger, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Of course the first concern is her well-being, her recovery, but the second concern is finding the people who did this. What can you tell us about any arrests that have been made in this investigation?

SAYAH: Yes. We are getting some conflicting accounts from government officials who I get the sense are feeling the pressure to apprehend the culprits. This morning a police chief in a district about 100 miles south of where she was shot said that they have three suspects in custody. It is not clear how they were linked to this particular incident, but again, the government is under a lot of pressure to apprehend people. Of course, this is a young lady that inspired a lot of people. She's a remarkable woman and the best way to understand why she inspired much of Pakistan is to simply listen to her speak.

Late last year we got a chance to sit down and listen to her. Here is a portion of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALALA YOUSUFZAI, TEEN ACTIVIST: I would like to build so many schools in this country, because education is a must thing. If you don't have educated people, the Taliban will come to your area, but if you have educated people, they will not come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAYAH: Just a remarkable girl. She was half child, half ferocious human rights activist who wouldn't back down to any of the questions we put to her, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Reza Sayah in Islamabad. She says she has the right to sing, the right to speak out, the right to an education.

All right thank you. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his latest attempt to fight obesity in New York City may end up going down the drain. We will tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The bottom of the hour now. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thanks for staying with us this morning.

And here are five stories we're watching this morning.

KAYE: With the second presidential debate just a few days away, Mitt Romney will be back to debate prep tonight but not before he and Paul Ryan stomp in the key battleground of Ohio. Today Romney has stops planned in Portsmouth and Lebanon, Ohio, while Paul Ryan will be in Youngstown. Both are hoping to capitalize on their momentum from the first presidential debate.

And speaking of momentum well, check out this new CNN poll of polls, and you can see that Mitt Romney has a two-point lead now over President Obama in the national poll, but as far as the story goes in Ohio where President Obama holds a three-point lead there now.

BLACKWELL: Twelve miles, two days at two miles an hour -- that pretty much sums up the space shuttle "Endeavour's" final journey. The retired shuttle is inching along through the streets and highways of Los Angeles to its new home at the California Science Center. Once there, "Endeavour" will go on display on October 30th.

KAYE: Shocking allegations for a Zumba instructor accused of using her fitness studio to run a prostitution ring in Kennebunk, Maine. Prosecutors say 29-year-old Alexis Wright had sex with dozens of men with the help of her business partner. She faces 106 counts of various prostitution charges. Both Wright and her business partner have pleaded not guilty.

BLACKWELL: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's upcoming ban on those large sugary drinks may be in for a super-sized legal battle. Soft drink makers and a restaurant group are suing to stop the ban from taking effect in March. They cite a technicality saying only the city council has the power to impose such a ban. They also argue that the law infringes upon personal -- personal freedom and unfairly targets certain businesses. In Georgia, the body of a Florida journalist who went missing in August was found encased in concrete, buried in a backyard. Investigators used dental records and CT scans to identify 30-year-old Sean Dugas. He was a former crime reporter at the Pensacola News Journal. Twin brothers William and Christopher Cormier are charged with Dugas's murder.

In Denver, police are investigating a shooting at the Obama campaign headquarters. It was a single shot right into the window. And earlier we talked with Vida Urbosa from our affiliate KUSA about the investigation and what police are focusing on this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIDA URBOSA, KUSA (voice-over): The focus really is shifting to who shot out that window. Police do say they are saying that someone fired one shot, at least one shot at that Obama campaign field office in Denver yesterday afternoon. Now that office is near Ninth Avenue and Acoma Street. To give you an idea where that is it's just on the south end of downtown Denver.

Now, police are telling us that question you asked that they do have a description of a possible vehicle of interest. They are talking about a vehicle only, but they have not released any information to us just yet. We just put a call in again to the public information officer, and haven't heard back.

But detectives tell us that they are reviewing any available video footage of the incident and they are pursuing the leads. However, they have not released a vehicle description or a suspect description or even any video at this time.

Now, we did hear from an Obama campaign spokesperson who declined to comment on the incident and of course diverted it back to the police, the Denver police and we are also hearing reports this morning that the Secret Service also diverted the questions to Denver police.

So they really haven't heard of any threats against the Obama headquarters at this time and this incident as we are talking happened around 3:00 in the afternoon, Friday afternoon, yesterday and one shot fired into the structure. People were inside of the office when the shooting happened, luckily nobody was hurt and by early evening they had replaced that window and it's all back to normal, but again, this morning, that's what we're waiting for this weekend.

Are Denver police going to release a vehicle description, perhaps surveillance footage of that area there? So of course, we'll keep you posted as we learn more.

BLACKWELL: President Obama says he was too polite in the first debate, Mitt Romney walks into and then out of another contradiction and the two number twos go at it. Here is a quick look back at the busy week that was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There are not enough rich people and small businesses to tax to pay for all of their spending.

BIDEN: With all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, what I am saying is that what words that came out were not what I meant.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: Wow. Here's old moderate Mitt.

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: With more assets and more resources we could have and should have saved the life of Ambassador Stevens.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Is it true that you voted to -- to cut the funding for embassy security?

CHAFFETZ: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: Politics rules this week it was but the VP showdown that took the cake -- of course sprinkled with a few zingers.

RYAN: I think the Vice President very well knows that sometimes words don't come out of your mouth the right way.

He actually lowered tax rates increase, Ronald Reagan.

BIDEN: Now you're Jack Kennedy.

RYAN: Ronald Reagan.

BIDEN: This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here is the deal --

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS: What does that mean a bunch of stuff?

BIDEN: Well it means it's simply inaccurate.

RYAN: It's Irish.

BLACKWELL: As for the first debate --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's fair to say I was just too polite.

BLACKWELL: Yes not an issue with these guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It then turned into a sparring and it was very, very personal.

BLACKWELL: Personal and partisan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to be kidding me.

BLACKWELL: In fact the congressional hearing on the attack in Benghazi got downright testy. CHAFFETZ: It was a terrorist attack on a U.S. asset in Libya and it was never exposed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I certainly hope that today's hearing is not going to be received as an effort to exploit the tragedy for political purposes only 27 days from the election.

BLACKWELL: Yes, about the election, the polls have been good to Romney this week but the contradictions, that's another story.

ROMNEY: There is no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that -- that -- that would become part of my agenda.

CLINTON: Wow. Here is old moderate, Mitt. Where have you been, boy? I missed you all of these last three years.

BLACKWELL: A day later he clarified that.

ROMNEY: The actions I'll take immediately are to remove funding for Planned Parenthood and will not be part of my budget.

BLACKWELL: And as unemployment at the 25 percent jobless people are rioting in Greece. But hey, the European Union got a Nobel Peace prize.

And that's the week that was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Was it gang violence or domestic terrorism? The fate of a New York man hangs in the balance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What if I told you that some of the best tacos you'll find not just in Dallas, Texas, but the entire state of Texas are hidden in this gas station, Fuel City.

You're not going to find this place in some fancy photo spread with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, it's off of the beaten path, you've got to drive past a bunch of bail bond stores, some liquor stores, even a couple of closed up strip joints, but it's worth the drive.

All right, we're going to take you inside where the magic is made. Como esta, senoritas. So check it out, you've got beef, you've got chicken, peccadillo (ph), you've got pork, you've got barbacoa, check out their jalapenos and the grilled onions, delicious.

Now Fuel City is kind of like Texas on steroids if you will, there are not many car washes where you can actually look at real longhorns, some donkeys, car washes, windmills, it's like Texas over the top really. One of my favorite things about this place it's open 24 hours. They got breakfast tacos, you can come here any time and it was just $1.40 for a taco.

All right now it's time for us to order. I'm ordering for everybody. We have a feast ready for everybody to enjoy.

Heaven, it's all good and beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gracias. Can I help you?

LAVANDERA: Now, after you've enjoyed your tacos and you are full, take a moment and feel sorry for the poor animals that don't get to enjoy them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back, 42 minute past the hour.

My next guest is a perfectly healthy 29-year-old woman. She is a wife and a mother of two, and we're actually going the speak to her in -- in just a little bit, but first, I want to talk with our legal expert on a completely different issue. Once we get ourselves together here.

It was late August in 2002 when a shootout occurred between rival gangs in a New York City suburb killing a 10-year-old girl and paralyzing a man, who were both caught in the crossfire. Gang member Edgar Morales was convicted of manslaughter and attempted murder for pulling the trigger and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, but in addition to those charges he was also prosecuted under the state's new anti-terrorism law created just after the 9/11 attacks.

So is Morales a home grown terrorist as the prosecutor claims or is the terrorism charge unwarranted for his defense? That's what an appeals court will consider next month. His sentence could be reduced if terror charges are dropped.

So let's bring in my next guest, CNN legal contributor Paul Callan for some analysis on this one. Paul, good morning.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning Randi.

KAYE: So the attorney who prosecuted Morales argues that the goal of gang's violence is to establish street credentials as the toughest gang in the neighborhood designed to intimidate a civilian population so therefore, he says that's terrorism.

Now what do you think, I mean, is that a stretch, would judges buy that argument?

CALLAN: Well, he makes a very strong case, because he just relies on the wording of the statute. You know this statute was enacted six weeks after 9/11 and New York like a lot of other states looked at their laws and they said, hey we don't have anything that deals with terrorism, we need a terrorism statute apparently in fear that the feds maybe would not have the manpower to prosecute.

So the wording of the statute says basically, if you use violence to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, that's terrorism. The Bronx district attorney said, well, this is a Mexican gang and what they do is they kill and they use violence to intimidate local business people to get money out of them and to put them in fear so technically the statute applies. And that's the argument they made in front of judges, but you know something, the judges so far have said it's a stretch. It wasn't intended for that purpose.

KAYE: Yes. And in addition to terrorism, Morales was sentenced from 40 years to life for murder, attempted murder, weapons possession as well as conspiracy. If the terrorism charges are dropped, I mean, how much of a reduction do you think that we could be talking about here?

CALLAN: Well, you could be talking about a huge reduction here. Now this is a shooting that took place at a church -- you know, at a church celebration in the aftermath of a christening. It was a terrible case. A young girl got killed. Another gang member was paralyzed. So he gets 40 to life under this sentence.

If the terrorism part of it was thrown out, he might have less than half of that amount of time in jail, so the terrorism thing can have the effect of almost doubling the sentence where you are charged with manslaughter or attempted murder, and it is a very, very serious bump in the sentence if you are found to be a terrorist.

KAYE: I mean when you look at this though under this law, I mean wouldn't that make every gang member a terrorist?

CALLAN: Not only would it make every gang member a terrorist, but I think you should argue that maybe every criminal is a terrorist of sorts --

KAYE: Yes.

CALLAN: -- I mean when you think about somebody who goes into the subway or on a bus and pulls out a gun and robs people --

KAYE: Right, all of a sudden --

CALLAN: -- they are trying to put civilians in fear and to intimidate and coerce them. You know, it is kind of an example of unintended consequences when legislators do what they think is the right thing. Let's do a terrorism law. But unless you are really careful about the way you draft the law, you are handing the prosecutor a new weapon and the prosecutor is going to use it against the bad guys. And then the judges are here to try to sort it out and say, you know, is that really what they intended.

And I think in New York, basically, the answer is going to be "no". This was not intended for this kind of crime --

KAYE: So then --

CALLAN: -- and I suspect -- yes, this is going to -- the New York court of appeals, I think, Randi, will probably throw it out and reduce the charges against Morales.

KAYE: So he will be resentenced it sounds like in your opinion? CALLAN: Well, he might be resentenced but he might also get a new trial you know because his lawyer has come up with a very good argument. The lawyer said, you know something, the prosecutor was calling him a terrorist throughout the trial, the judge opened in picking the jury by referring to 9/11 so the lawyer is saying, you know, that jury was so poisoned thinking about terrorism that he didn't get a fair trial. All of the charges should be thrown out and he should get granted a brand new trial.

So we'll see what the court of appeals does. They could throw out everything on the basis of a misuse of this statute.

KAYE: Paul Callan nice to see you. Nice to chat with you.

CALLAN: Nice to see you, Randi, as always.

KAYE: Thank you.

A growing epidemic among our troops and both men and women are victims. One former soldier joins me next with his story -- how he suffered the ultimate betrayal by his superior.

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KAYE: 3,192 -- that's the number of sexual assaults reported in the military in the last year, a number according to the Department of Defense that has skyrocketed in the last ten years. And what's more frightening, by the Pentagon's own estimates, there were more like 19,000 assaults last year, but most went unreported and unpunished.

And in case you are wondering, women aren't the only ones at risk. Men, both gay and straight, make up 12 percent of all reported victims. Former army cadet Kole Welsh and Attorney Susan Burke joining me now this morning -- good morning to both of you.

Kole, I would like the start with you.

KOLE WELSH, FORMER ARMY CADET: Good morning.

KAYE: You, along with 18 other men and women have filed a lawsuit against current and former members of the military like Leon Panetta, and Donald Rumsfeld. You say that you and your partner were raped by your staff sergeant and infected with HIV. Tell me briefly if you can what happened that night.

WELSH: Those details are very personal to me. And I had --

KAYE: I mean, where were you?

WELSH: Basically I went over to have a beer with a buddy that was introduced to me through mutual friends. And unfortunately this person had an ulterior motive, and it led to some really awful consequences.

KAYE: And you say that the military has betrayed you as a result of this. How so? WELSH: Well, for over nearly two years they ignored repeated pleas that I made to bring attention to this soldier who was actively and purposefully and intentionally infecting people in the community with HIV.

KAYE: And you, yourself, were infected, correct?

WELSH: Yes, unfortunately, it is a very -- yes.

KAYE: I am sorry to hear that. Why didn't you though report it right away after it happened?

WELSH: Well, I did report it to -- to the local police department actually.

KAYE: And did you report it to the military or higher up?

WELSH: I reported it. I told the public health services that the military has there on Fort Lewis. I told the central investigative division. I told -- I called the headquarters there. There is -- I did everything I possibly could. I mean everything possibly that I possibly could over a two-year period in order to make sure that my assailant could not do this to anybody else.

KAYE: And did you -- how did you feel about the response you got from the military?

WELSH: Well, I felt that they -- they felt -- I can't say what they felt, but my feeling of what happened is that they felt it was easier to sweep the matter under the rug. That they were not comfortable with the fact that it was a gay man involved and that it was one of their staff sergeants that had done this, and you know, it's -- it was just, they just ignored it.

KAYE: I want to bring in Susan. Susan, explain for us. I mean just how bad is the problem of rape and assault in the military -- as bad as the 19,000 cases estimated by the Pentagon?

SUSAN BURKE, ATTORNEY: It is. And the problem is that the military has a huge embedded sexual predation problem, because they have a decades' long history of ignoring the issue. We all know those of us old enough to remember will remember Tailhook in 1991. You had the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in '96 and then you had the Air Force Academy. So from time to time the media will focus on it.

The Department of Defense will wring its hands and say, oh, yes, we have a problem. But then when the media stops paying attention, nothing is done; there's been no structural reforms. And it's the structure, the way in which they have people report that is the problem. They allow the chain of command -- now that sounds like a hierarchy and sounds like that is a lot of people, but what you are actually talking about is empowering one human being, one individual to unilaterally shut down the investigation and prosecution of rape.

Because of that structure, there is a series under-prosecution. You know, only a fraction, less than 10 percent, ever get prosecuted and convicted, and of that, far less are actually convicted of rape. They reduce the charges to things like adultery.

KAYE: Susan, we did reach out to the Department of Defense and we were told that "Secretary Panetta has repeatedly stated that there is no place for sexual assault at the military or at the Department of Defense. Sexual assault is an affront to basic human values. It is a crime that hurts survivors, their families, their friends and your unit. In turn, sexual assault reduces overall military readiness."

I'm curious, because we have been told of course that they are taking some steps to fight the problem, I with include all sorts of things, including establishing a special victims' unit, but is all of this enough, do you think?

BURKE: No, sadly. I don't question Secretary Panetta's good faith, and I'm sure he is appalled as I am once he actually looked at the issue. The problem is that what they're doing is the same thing that has been done in the past. They haven't tackled the core issue, the structure.

And so we as Americans are al entitled to an impartial adjudicatory process, but the men and women like Kole and others who are brave enough to defend us, they don't get that. What they get is a system that is slanted.

KAYE: And Kole, I just want to ask you very quickly. First of all how are you and your partner doing? And also whatever happened to the man who did this to you?

WELSH: Well, to -- we pursued a criminal conviction, and he is now in prison. Right -- just to show you how bad the issue is with the military -- right before, two years after the event happened, right before he was about ready to be sentenced, a reporter asked general officer spokesperson for the base, and they still denied his existence.

KAYE: Well, now he has been removed, and as you said, is serving some time in prison.

Kole, thank you very much. I know it is difficult to talk about and I certainly appreciate your sharing your story with us, and giving this issue some attention. And Susan, thank you to you, as well.

BURKE: Thank you. Thank you.

KAYE: We will be right back.

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