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CNN Live Sunday

Details Released on Gitmo Interrogations; U.S., Iraqis Fight Insurgents in Tal Afar; Five Children Dead in Philadelphia Fire; Police Search for Clues in Natalee Holloway Disappearance; Task Force Hunts Down Child Predators on Internet; G-8 Agree to Forgive Debts to Poorest Nations

Aired June 12, 2005 - 17:00 ET

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

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Southern California was shaken early today by a moderate earthquake. Seismologists say it measured magnitude 5.6 and was centered 20 miles about south of Palm Springs. No injuries or damage were reported.
Voters in central and eastern Lebanon are at the polls today. This is the third round of voting. The process ends with one more round next Sunday. Parliamentary elections mark the first Democratic test since Syrian forces withdrew from the country earlier this year.

And in Iran, a series of bombs today in the southern city of Ahvaz killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more. Another blast in Tehran killed one person, though the cause was unclear. There have been no claims of responsibility.

We begin this hour with a secret revealed. How are suspected terrorists interrogated by their U.S. captors? The techniques used at Guantanamo Bay on the so-called 20th hijacker are disclosed in the new issue of "TIME" magazine.

CNN's Joe Johns joins us from Washington with the details on how this more fuel more debate on Gitmo -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, Guantanamo Bay and its prison camp for 500 detainees is now attracting unwanted attention on Capitol Hill. Even some members of the president's own party asking out loud how this thing is supposed to end?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): Spotlight on the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where government designated enemy combatants are taken and interrogated. The question, should the place be closed? Even some congressional Republicans are starting to wonder.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: This can't be a situation where we just hold them forever and ever until they just die of old age. What are our plans here?

JOHNS: Republican Senator Mel Martinez asked of Florida also asked over the weekend whether the political costs of the camp are starting to outweigh the benefits.

But the view of many in the party controlling the Congress is that a prisoner at Gitmo gets pretty good treatment.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: We're going to serve him rice pilaf. We're going to serve him oven fried chicken. We're going to serve him three types of fruit and pita bread, and he's going top that all off with a glass of tea.

JOHNS: Among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed al- Kahtani, a suspected 20th hijacker who never made it to the plane on September 11.

A new report in "TIME," magazine, citing a secret interrogation diary, says the government used stress strategies on him like standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on individual phobias, such as dogs." Interrogation techniques that are not new and some say are not over the line.

REP. PETE KING (D), NEW YORK: Quite frankly if it's going to save American lives just by shaving someone's hair or by holding him in isolation, I think we have to keep this in context and not be so quick to criticize the military.

JOHNS: A Pentagon statement said Guantanamo provides valuable intelligence information and said al-Kahtani's interrogation "was guided by a very detailed plan and conducted by trained professionals." The administration has been clear on its views of the Guantanamo detainees.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They're enemy combatants for a reason, because they seek to do harm to the American people.

JOHNS: But the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee calls Guantanamo a legal black hole.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: I think Guantanamo Bay has become a black eye for the United States. We have people there held under dubious reasons. We won't -- we are unwilling to follow even our own rules in holding them. We ought to either charge these people or release them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Problem is there's no clear alternative to Guantanamo right now, and as long as that's true, many Republicans say it's a waste of time to talk about shutting the place down -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Joe, is there any kind of scheduled debate on the Hill?

JOHNS: Well, there will be a hearing, we're told, in the middle of the week, and they do expect to talk about Guantanamo Bay on the Senate side, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Johns from Washington. Thanks so much. Well, CNN's "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

A grisly mystery unfolding in Iraq, where piles of bodies continue to turn up in various locations. At least 28 bodies have been found over the past several days in and around Baghdad. Iraqi police say the bodies show signs of torture. The victims were apparently blindfolded and shot.

Another 21 bodies were discovered Friday dumped near the Syrian border.

About 90 miles from the Syrian border, U.S. and Iraqi troops are keeping up the pressure on entrenched insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.

CNN's Jane Arraf is embedded with U.S. troops there and reports on the operation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major operation here in Tal Afar is over. But the effort and the fight to find, capture and kill insurgents in the city, which has essentially been held hostage, is continuing.

This is a city where people are afraid to go to the hospital, where mothers have been afraid to send their children to school. U.S. forces say that they are rounding, along with their Iraqi army counterparts, insurgents throughout town, working with tribal leaders to reestablish the police force.

And southwest of this area in western al-Anbar province, that fight as well continues. We spoke to the Marine commander in charge of that area, Colonel Stephen Davis, who tells us that an air strike has killed what he says are at least 40 insurgents was a matter of getting lucky and finding a safe house where they believe they were hiding.

COL. STEPHEN DAVIS, U.S. MARINE CORPS: You have a fairly elusive enemy and we spend a lot of our time trying to find out where he is, and our efforts were successful. Yesterday we were able to find a gathering of them and were able to bring the combined arms effects available in the joint inventory out here to pretty good effect.

ARRAF: This is a huge stretch of territory, fully one-third of Iraq with very few U.S. forces, very few Iraqi forces, and the Syrian border where officials say insurgents and foreign fighters are still coming through. A lot of efforts are focused on that border, but it continues to be porous and continues to have insurgents throughout the area to towns like.

Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from near Tal Afar, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for five months is back n Paris this hour. Florence Aubenas was released early today along with her driver. She was welcomed home by French President Jacques Chirac. The French ambassador says securing the release was a dangerous operation.

More details are surfacing on the British document known as the Downing Street memo. The "Washington Post" reports staff advisers to British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned him eight months before the invasion of Iraq that Americans were not ready for the consequences.

According to the "Post," the memo says, quote, "a post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation- building exercise," unquote. It reportedly says U.S. military plans were, quote, "virtually silent" on that point.

U.S. officials and Blair have previously denied allegations in the memo that intelligence and facts were fixed to support the policy of invasion.

Coming up next, news from across America. A killer fire rips through a Philadelphia row house, claiming the lives of five young kids.

Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MIKE BROWN, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: They are out there constantly on the Internet. They are constantly trolling. They are constantly out there looking for their next victim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Police on patrol combing the Internet, looking for the next possible child predator. We'll profile one task force getting the job done in Virginia.

And later, overcoming the most difficult of odds. An Iraqi woman pushes -- pushes on despite overwhelming personal loss she endured in her native land. It's a story you won't want to miss, later on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some rough weather this weekend. The first named storm of the hurricane season came ashore and fizzled out. Tropical Storm Arlene hit the Gulf Coast yesterday with winds up to 70 miles an hour. Utility crews are still working on restoring power to customers who've had outages.

The American Red Cross is accommodating two dozen Wisconsin families driven from their homes by tornado damage. A twister tore across two miles of land yesterday in Hammond, east of St. Paul, Minnesota. No injuries were reported.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The fire commissioner of Philadelphia says many things came together to spell disaster in a blaze that killed five young children. Security bars on the windows of the row house were one of the problems, and two adults who escaped were hospitalized in critical condition.

Amy Buckman has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LLOYD AYERS, PHILADELPHIA FIRE COMMISSIONER: And it's a very sad day, again, here in Philadelphia.

AMY BUCKMAN, WPVI REPORTER (voice-over): Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers assessing the tragedy that occurred in the 2800 block of Amber Street this morning.

A fire broke out shortly before 8 and was under control in just 9 minutes, but it cost five children their lives. Three sisters, ages 5, 4 and 2, and their visiting cousins, a 5-year-old girl and 9-month- old boy, all dead.

The parents of the three little girls are hospitalized, the mother in critical condition with burns on more than 65 percent of her body.

IRENE WEAL, NEIGHBOR: I saw the flames coming out of the front door and stuff, and him and her jumping out the windows. But I didn't see no children. They was in a back room, all of them.

BUCKMAN: Police officers assisted firefighters at the scene, but they were hampered by security bars on the back windows, and the blaze, fueled by paneling inside the home, moved too quickly for the children to be saved.

DENISE FLYNN, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: We pulled up with Engine 25. The flames were shooting out the front door, the downstairs. The mother screaming, "My babies are inside. My babies are inside."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Amy Buckman with CNN affiliate WPVI. Investigators will be looking for code violations in the home.

In other news across America, we begin in Daytona Beach, Florida. A judge has refused to release two 15-year-old boys charged in last month's beating death of a homeless man. The two are among five teens charged in the brutal assault. The youngest is just 14.

Warming up a 50-year-old cold case. Illinois examiners say they found what appears to be bullet fragments during an autopsy on Chicago teenager Emmett Till. Prosecutors are hoping to uncover how the boy died and who might have killed him. Till's death in Mississippi in 1955 helped fuel the civil rights movement.

And Mike Tyson might have danced his final round in a boxing ring. Last night's sixth round loss against Kevin McBride put him on the losing side in three out of his last four fights. Tyson said he doesn't have the stomach for it anymore.

Investigators in Aruba are tight-lipped today as they continue their probe into the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. She's been missing now for nearly two weeks.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has uncovered new developments in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Law enforcement source close to the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway have told CNN a sample resembling blood and taken from one of the cars of the suspects confiscated on Thursday was sent to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis. Those sources also told CNN that the sample has proved negative. It wasn't blood as first suspected.

On Saturday, a judge ordered three suspects detained on Thursday to be held in custody for a further eight days while police and prosecutors gather more evidence to find out clues about the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway and what happened to her.

Those three suspects are the three young men last seen in Natalee Holloway's company on May the 30th, the day she disappeared two weeks ago now.

Defense lawyers for the three had to this to say.

DAVID KOCK, SATESH BROTHERS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My client states -- keeps on saying that he's not guilty, and he hasn't -- he is not the one that I've been reading in the press that has confessed. Up to now that I know, nobody has.

PENHAUL: Despite all the searches, despite all the interrogations, though, there's still no clue as to the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway or her possible remains. And this week, the police and prosecutors will continue those interrogations. A total of five suspects now and continue to hunt for evidence as to what happened to Natalee Holloway.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, gone but never forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an agent, you're not there to be his friend, but you couldn't be around him very long without becoming his friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The Secret Service's not so secret love of a president they once protected. That story a bit later.

And up next, Bono and others asked for it; the G-8 granted it. No more debt for 18 nations. I'll talk with a communication director for DATA, an organization dedicated to this important cause. That's as CNN LIVE SUNDAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Catching sexual predators on the Internet may seem an impossible task. In fact, it can be incredibly easy because many alleged perpetrators are so brazen. The sheriff of a small Virginia town found that out when he launched Operation Blue Ridge Thunder.

CNN's J.J. Ramberg explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's a guy. I'm 47. I'm in Indiana. I'm 13, Female, and I'm in Virginia. Haven't been with an older guy.

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the dark side of the Internet; message boards and chat rooms where sexual predators go to stalk children and swap child pornography.

BROWN: They are out there. They're constantly on the Internet. They're constantly trolling. They're constantly out there looking for their next victim.

RAMBERG: Sheriff Mike Brown has made it his mission to stop them. From this modest office in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and his staff of three agents, under the guise of unwitting children, join discussion groups and web sites, hoping to catch these predators.

In just two minutes of being online as a 13-year-old girl in this chatroom, Officer Rodney Thompson was approached by nine older men.

OFFICER RODNEY THOMPSON, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: I tell him I'm 13.

He goes, "Wow, younger than I expected." I communicate back to him, "Sorry."

He goes, "It's cool. Do you have a pic?"

RAMBERG: Since this task force they call Operation Blue Ridge Thunder began in 1997, Brown has given leads on 2,500 cases of possible child pornography or molestation to law enforcement agencies around the country.

In Bedford County alone, he successfully charged and convicted 71 people, including the chief of staff to a former West Virginia governor and a Charlotte, North Carolina, man who used the screen name Dr. Evil. Both had set up sexual rendezvous with what they thought were teenagers.

(on camera) There are 46 task forces like this around the country. Operation Blue Ridge Thunder receives about $400,000 a year in federal funding, but it's fighting an uphill battle. Child pornography is a multibillion dollar a year industry.

(voice-over) And it's hard on the officers. Sheriff Brown's team couples with work counseling to help them deal with the trauma of seeing child pornography -- brutal, sexually explicit photos that we could not show on air --day after day.

LT. MICHAEL HARMONY, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: I mean it's -- there's so many -- there's so many visuals. There's so many images. There's so many movies. And those are images that -- that haunt you for the rest of your life.

BROWN: It just -- it breaks your heart. I mean, you cannot look at these images and not become incensed. And in this particular arena, as far as I'm concerned, you're either with us or you're against us.

RAMBERG: Operation Blue Ridge Thunder has had a 100 percent conviction rate of those it's charged. It's those statistics that keep the officers going when the job itself seems too hard to handle.

J.J. Ramberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: For more information on how to protect your children from Internet predators, you can go to the website set up by Operation Blue Ridge Thunder. That address is www.SafeSurfinCentral.org. Again, that's SafeSurfinCentral -- one word -- dot org.

News around the world new.

Emergency workers in China are searching through the ruins of a school that was hit by a flash flood with tragic results. Eighty- eight children and four adults died and 17 kids are missing. Heavy rain on a mountain sent the torrent gushing into Shalan, a remote town in the far northeast.

And another victory for women in Kuwait. A university teacher has been named the first female cabinet minister in that country that gave women the right to vote and run for parliament one month ago. Women can now vote in all Middle Eastern countries that hold elections except Saudi Arabia.

And in Britain, four members of the rock band Pink Floyd have announced they will play together for the first time in 24 years. They're reuniting for the Live 8 charity concert for Africa in London. And that's set for July 2.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, MUSICIAN/ACTIVIST: A hundred and twenty thousand people lose their life ever month in Africa. And it's not a natural calamity. These are avoidable catastrophes. So that's my motivation, is the chance that we can do this. It's not wide-eyed, misty eyed Irish nonsense. It's -- these are achievable goals. And I'm excited by that; that's what turns me on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And talk about aid for Africa. U2 front man and human rights activist Bono urging European leaders, in his words, not to blow it in their African aid policies. Bono addressed the European Commission in Brussels this past week. He told ministers it's stupid that so many Africans die from poverty each day.

The Group of 8 finance ministers yesterday agreed to write off more than $40 billion in debt owed by the world's poorest nations. The deal is part of a British-led effort to lift Africa out of poverty.

It's a mission near and dear to Seth Amgott, communications director for DATA, which stands for Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa. Seth joins us now from London.

Good to see you, Seth.

SETH AMGOTT, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DATA: Hi, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, it would seem that the expectations would be low for a wealthy nation to expect that a poorer nation would be able to pay back its debt. But why does it seem that there were wealthy nation, including the U.S., who seemed to be somewhat hesitant about forgiving these debts?

AMGOTT: Well, the U.S. actually came around on this. These were loans that went to poor countries when they were ruled, in many cases by corrupt dictators in the '70s and '80s.

There's now a new generation of African leaders, many of them elected in multiparty elections, who are using their resources to fight poverty, put kids in school, train more nurses. And they need more resources. They need not to be paying back bad loans that they owe to the IMF and the World Bank.

And that's what the Group of 8 finance ministers agreed yesterday, to cancel those loans to the poorest countries.

WHITFIELD: And so how does forgiving -- and how do you see that forgiving these debts is going to help free up some resources or moneys for a lot of these countries or perhaps even put them in a better position to maybe get another grant or two along the way?

AMGOTT: Well, it's a billion dollars a year that the 18 countries directly affected by the decision yesterday are going to be saving this year. A billion dollars, which they are required to use to put kids in school, get clean water into more communities, build farm to market roads, do things that fight poverty and invest in their own people. WHITFIELD: So...

AMGOTT: And that's 18 countries to start with. It's going to go up to 38 over time.

WHITFIELD: And does this in any way, this forgiving of debt, set any precedents that some wealthy nations have expressed concern, that perhaps if they forgive the debt that this kind of sets the tone, the ground that perhaps some of these poor nations may once again have the expectations of borrowing or asking for money and never having to repay it?

AMGOTT: Well, you just heard Bono saying this isn't misty eyed Irish nonsense, and it's not. It's something the Bush administration supports and the Blair administration in Britain supports, because it's a concrete way of getting more resources to fight poverty in the poorest countries.

WHITFIELD: Do you...

AMGOTT: And countries like the U.S. now don't loan to the poorest countries anymore. We give them the money so that they can get out of poverty and be able to earn their own way.

WHITFIELD: Do you believe this agreement is sort of a springboard for some of the other G-8 expectations, that this might help?

AMGOTT: I sure do. I believe that this is the down payment on a comprehensive breakthrough in making poverty history in Africa.

The G-8 heads of state are meeting in Scotland in three weeks' time. President Bush will be there, and he keeps hearing from Americans as part of the One Campaign that we would like him to make poverty history, to not just cancel the debts but to increase assistance to Africa and to make trade rules fair so that African countries can earn their way out of poverty.

WHITFIELD: Well, is this all a coincidence...

AMGOTT: He's hearing from people like Pat Robertson...

WHITFIELD: I'm sorry.

AMGOTT: Go ahead.

WHITFIELD: No, you go ahead.

AMGOTT: He's hearing from Pat Robertson and Rick Warren on the right, from Brad Pitt and George Clooney on America's left coast and a lot of people in between, 900,000 who have joined the One Campaign to get the president to lead in the fight against poverty.

WHITFIELD: And sorry about that. We've got this great delay.

Now you have to wonder if all of this is coincidence? You've got the G-8 summit. You've got the Live 8 concert and now this debt relief, all of this coinciding at the same time. A coincidence, or was this part of a master plan?

AMGOTT: I don't know about a master plan, but Bob Geldof, who we work with, put together the Live 8 concerts to tell the G-8 leaders it's not about charity. It's about justice. It's about you doing right for the poor people in the world and about your voters telling you, that you've go to go there and make poverty history.

So there's a lot of planning that went into these coincidences. It's -- there are 900,000 Americans who have signed up to ask the president to go to Scotland and do a good deal for the world's poor.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Seth Amgott, communications director for DATA, Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa. Thanks so much for joining us from London.

AMGOTT: Hey, thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Coming up next, a life in Iraq filled with loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you see your father again?

RANIA ATAR, AL HURA ANCHOR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. You know, I not seen my father -- not my father nor my brother after this. This is the last thing. This is why the image stick in my mind forever because I didn't see them after that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: One woman's story about the personal struggles she endured thanks to the politics of her homeland.

And one year after the world said good-bye to president Ronald Reagan, one of his closest friends pays another visit. A touching story straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Top of the news now. Islanders, tourists and relatives of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway prayed together in Aruba for her. She remains missing as police question three young men who were with her on May 30, the last day she was seen. Two former security guards are also being interrogated.

In Southern California, a store surveillance camera captures an earthquake this morning. It was centered 20 miles south of Palm Springs and had a magnitude of 5.6. No structural injuries or damage reported.

In Iraq, 20 bodies were found east of Baghdad, all were men who had been blindfolded and shot from behind with their hands tied. Eight more bodies were found shot in the head. In suburban Baghdad, the military announced the deaths of four U.S. soldiers as well, putting the American death toll to 1700.

Many Iraqis who suffered under the old regime are thrilled that Saddam Hussein is gone. But liberation has been a painful two edged sword. Last week, CNN's Frank Sesno brought us the hear-breaking tale of Rania Atar, a young Iraqi woman given an opportunity of a lifetime in America. It's a powerful story that deserves an encore presentation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. In five, four, three, two, one.

FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a television studio in suburban Virginia, Rania Atar (ph) is getting a fresh start. Working for Al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television channel funded by the U.S. government, this 22-year-old soon will read the news back to her native Iraq.

This was her first screen test. Like her country, Rania has experienced a wrenching journey and she's uncertain of what to expect from life in America.

ATAR: I fear this big country, maybe it's going to be too big for me.

SESNO (on camera): And you felt you would be alone here?

ATAR: Yes. I felt like I am alone at first, first day I am there.

SESNO (voice-over): There is an emptiness, filled by sounds of the street, haunting and all too familiar.

ATAR: You know, when you live in a war zone and always you hear this, you will know there are some people dying there, or some people injured or there is someone who has pain and it's not a pleasant feeling for you.

SESNO: Rania feels safe now, but she's scarred by a painful past.

ATAR: I say it's a crazy life. Things choose me. I never choose things.

SESNO: She grew up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, at first, unaware and untouched by his rule. Her father, Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer and a successful businessman. Rania, the third of four children, remembers a playful man.

ATAR: I remember him always young, because I never see him old. This is my father for me.

SESNO: A memory frozen in time because of what happened one night in 1992.

(on camera): Do you remember that night? ATAR: Yes, I do.

SESNO: What was it like?

ATAR: It's -- I think it's the darkest night in my life. We just heard like the door knocked after midnight. And my mother, she's scared, you know. And someone starts shouting, said, open the door. And she wait for a while. And then people jump from the roof to enter the house. And they, like, break the door to enter the house.

SESNO (voice-over): Armed security men seized Rania's father.

ATAR: They didn't ask him, who is your name, whatever. They just took him away.

SESNO: Next, they went upstairs, grabbed her teenage brother, Alex (ph), and marched him right past Rania, then a terrified and very confused 10-year-old.

(on camera): When did you see your father again?

ATAR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. I didn't see my father, not my father, not my brother after this. is the last thing. This is why this image stick in my mind forever, because I didn't see them after that.

SESNO (voice-over): The next day, Rania's mother asked everyone she could about her husband, but no one, certainly not the police, would offer any information.

ATAR: We felt the answer from the neighbors' act, from friends' act, because there no one come to ask, what's happened to our father, you know? And this is -- you know, we felt that we are in trouble.

SESNO: Finally, Rania heard about a friend's uncle who had spent time in prison. He told her about the torture in Saddam's jails, about prisoners having their fingernails pulled out, being forced to sit on a bottle overnight, having hot olive oil poured down their legs, all this told to a 10-year-old girl.

ATAR: He said to me, I think just forget about it and try to forget it.

SESNO (on camera): He told you to forget about your father?

ATAR: Yes, yes.

SESNO (voice-over): Forty days after Rania's father was taken, Saddam's security forces returned to the Atar (ph) home, this time with her father's death certificate. He had been executed for inciting revolution. Rania insists he had never went near politics.

(on camera): Did your father ever have a trial?

ATAR: No, no trial, nothing. No, my father, he just disappeared. We don't know where is he. SESNO (voice-over): Rania says her father's only crime was refusing to join the Baath Party and turning down a job with Saddam's Foreign Ministry. For this, she believes he was killed, the family house and money taken away.

(on camera): What happens to a 10-year-old girl who goes through this? What happens to your childhood?

ATAR: What childhood? The things that people -- kids are interested about is not interesting for me anymore. The joy of life, it died in my eyes in this time.

SESNO: As for brother Alex, arrested when he was just 16, five years later, the family was told he had joined the army and died in a mine field in northern Iraq. Rania says, in Saddam's Iraq, it was widely believed prisoners were used to clear mine fields.

Still, Rania had her younger sister, Rita (ph). Together, they dreamed of a better life, but their plans would be tragically interrupted, just as they were beginning to take shape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we'll have more of Rania's story and the story of her sister Rita right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Rania Atar's chance to begin a new life in America is an inevitable one. She'll gladly give it up, though, to have her family back. Here's part two, now, of CNN's Frank Sesno's encore presentation of Rania's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SESNO (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to be like this. Rania Atar (ph), this 22-year-old Iraqi woman, wasn't supposed to be all alone in America. She had planned to be here with her soul mate, with her sister, Rita.

ATAR: She look here so -- so innocent and so pretty, you know.

SESNO: It was Rita who kept Rania going after they lost their father and brother to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

ATAR: She's full of energy, full of dreams.

SESNO: They shared everything. Rita followed Rania through school. And when Rania began working for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Rita expressed an interest in journalism, too.

(on camera): How was her English?

ATAR: She's fluent in English. She's better, much better than me. SESNO: For the Atar (ph) sisters, the toppling of Saddam, the arrival of the Americans, the prospect of democracy meant opportunity. But things went horribly wrong.

On October 25, 2003, Rita was working as a translator, traveling with American and British contractors, 50 miles west of Baghdad. A CBS camera crew wasn't far away. Rita's vehicle was near a U.S. military convoy when insurgents set off a roadside bomb.

ATAR: There is small explosions happening in front of the American convoys. And so they stopped. So, the security in the car that she is in, they talked to the American commander, told him, can we pass this way, which is safer, not go forward? He said to him, OK. He gives him thumbs up that he can do it.

SESNO: But others in the convoy saw the vehicle's erratic movements and thought it was part of the attack.

ATAR: The convoy behind start shooting the car or they shoot -- they opened fire on her car. And she is the first one to be shot in this car. One of the shots, they just shot the gas tank. All this car just burned and my sister in.

SESNO: Three other Iraqis were killed and three of the contractors were injured. In Baghdad, Rania learned the details of the innocent from a BBC colleague.

ATAR: I said to him: "You are a liar. You are lying to me. You're saying lies.:

I mean, he said -- he said to me, "I wish I am a liar."

SESNO: It was true. Rita was dead.

ATAR: Anyway, so we tried to find out what's happened. (INAUDIBLE) they said we just suspect this car. We weren't sure who is in this car. And we didn't know that they are civilian, and they feel sorry.

SESNO: Two months later, Rania received an e-mail from the U.S. military, offering condolences for what was described as a very unfortunate incident and $2,500. Rania says she didn't take the money.

ATAR: Really, I felt my soul died with her, you know? The pleasure of life died with her, the happiness gone with her.

SESNO: As her mother, devastated, prepared for Rita's (ph) funeral, Rania said goodbye.

ATAR: And I opened the coffin, and I see my sister. And I kissed her. And there is not actually -- just burned body, you know. But you can't tell from her body that she is sleeping or she wasn't sleeping.

SESNO (on-screen): You lost your brother and your father to Saddam and your sister to the Americans?

ATAR: Yes.

SESNO: How do you make sense of that?

ATAR: You know, they are just in my soul, in my eyes, all the time. Sometimes I ask God to not make me crazy after this, because sometimes I feel like I'm really -- I need them.

SESNO (voice-over): While her story is dramatic, Rania recognizes it's not unique. After all, she's from Iraq, a country of stories.

ATAR: I am symbol of my country. Most of my country, they have these problems. And some of them, they still have these problems.

SESNO: Rania's new life is difficult, but promising. She wishes she could say the same about the lives of her countrymen back home.

ATAR: They cannot survive like this. If they want to live, they have to change themselves.

SESNO: For Rania, change begins right here, right now, remembering the past, but determined to move beyond it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We've got more news to take you into the next hour. And here's Carol Lin. What's on tap?

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we've got a regular segment now called "The Fountain Of Youth," because everybody wants to be healthier and look younger. So, I'm going to be talking with these doctors who are also the best selling authors of "The Real Age Theory" about frankly how can you stay younger and healthier. We're going to be talking about the No. 1 anti-age food. And if you could only buy one skin care product, what would it be? And also, how did you cut your chances of death and disability by 90 percent. Very simple lifestyle changes that I'm sure you probably do already.

At 10:00 in our prime-time show, I'm going to be talking with a representative of the government of Aruba about the investigation into Natalee Holloway, what leaks we can believe and what we can't believe and where the status of that investigation is right now.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, it's a tough one, because of lots of conflicting reports.

LIN: Yeah. You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right, Carol, thanks so much.

LIN: Sure. WHITFIELD: Well, former first lady Nancy Reagan paid a surprise visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum yesterday. It's been a year since former President Ronald Reagan was laid to rest. And the library was filled with retired Secret Service agents eager to express their admiration for Reagan and pay their respects.

CNN's Peter Viles was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): : A year after Nancy Reagan said that final good-bye to her husband, a big group of old friends came to visit her. Nearly 200 retired Secret Service agents, many of the men who once protected Mrs. Reagan and her husband.

GARRICK NEWMAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE (RET): This is just a show of respect and wanting to pay their regards to him, visit his graveside.

VILES: Among that number, a retired agent named John Barletta.

JOHN BARLETTA, U.S. SECRET SERVICE (RET): It was just that he was so loved. These agents from all over the world, paying their own money, they want to do a tribute to Ronald Reagan.

VILES: Few agents knew the reagans better. He rode horse back with the president. The day her husband was shot, he tried and failed to keep Mrs. Reagan away from the hospital.

BARLETTA: We said, Mrs. Reagan, we'd rather you stay here, we don't know what's going on, we'd rather have control here. And she just looked and said, either you take me or I'm walking. I went, yes!

VILES: Now retired, John trains guide dogs. He likes to bring them to a favorite spot on a hillside to tell them about his old friend.

BARLETTA: He was a good man, Astro.

VILES: Shares memories with the book "Riding with Reagan," memories that still touch his heart.

You miss him?

BARLETTA: I miss him a lot.

VILES: It's been a year.

BARLETTA: It's OK. He knows I'm having trouble.

VILES: I didn't mean to shake you up like that.

BARLETTA: We were very close. Honored to be so, it's just amazing. We had hundreds of hours of one on one conversation, and as an agent, you're not there to be his friend, but you couldn't be around him very long without becoming his friend.

VILES: An old friend gonem, but not forgotten.

BARLETTA: We'll be back.

VILES: Peter Viles, for CNN, Simi Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that's going to do it this hour. Straight ahead, inside the mafia, Carol Lin talks with an FBI agent who was undercover for more than 20 years.

Then at 7:00, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," takes a look at Oscar winning -- Oscar award-winning actress Angelina Jolie, plus inside the life of Michael Jackson as he awaits verdict in his child molestation trial.

And at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS: Pursuing the Perfect Ten." Have children's sports gone too far? More of CNN LIVE SUNDAY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Aired June 12, 2005 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Southern California was shaken early today by a moderate earthquake. Seismologists say it measured magnitude 5.6 and was centered 20 miles about south of Palm Springs. No injuries or damage were reported.
Voters in central and eastern Lebanon are at the polls today. This is the third round of voting. The process ends with one more round next Sunday. Parliamentary elections mark the first Democratic test since Syrian forces withdrew from the country earlier this year.

And in Iran, a series of bombs today in the southern city of Ahvaz killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more. Another blast in Tehran killed one person, though the cause was unclear. There have been no claims of responsibility.

We begin this hour with a secret revealed. How are suspected terrorists interrogated by their U.S. captors? The techniques used at Guantanamo Bay on the so-called 20th hijacker are disclosed in the new issue of "TIME" magazine.

CNN's Joe Johns joins us from Washington with the details on how this more fuel more debate on Gitmo -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, Guantanamo Bay and its prison camp for 500 detainees is now attracting unwanted attention on Capitol Hill. Even some members of the president's own party asking out loud how this thing is supposed to end?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): Spotlight on the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where government designated enemy combatants are taken and interrogated. The question, should the place be closed? Even some congressional Republicans are starting to wonder.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: This can't be a situation where we just hold them forever and ever until they just die of old age. What are our plans here?

JOHNS: Republican Senator Mel Martinez asked of Florida also asked over the weekend whether the political costs of the camp are starting to outweigh the benefits.

But the view of many in the party controlling the Congress is that a prisoner at Gitmo gets pretty good treatment.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: We're going to serve him rice pilaf. We're going to serve him oven fried chicken. We're going to serve him three types of fruit and pita bread, and he's going top that all off with a glass of tea.

JOHNS: Among the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed al- Kahtani, a suspected 20th hijacker who never made it to the plane on September 11.

A new report in "TIME," magazine, citing a secret interrogation diary, says the government used stress strategies on him like standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on individual phobias, such as dogs." Interrogation techniques that are not new and some say are not over the line.

REP. PETE KING (D), NEW YORK: Quite frankly if it's going to save American lives just by shaving someone's hair or by holding him in isolation, I think we have to keep this in context and not be so quick to criticize the military.

JOHNS: A Pentagon statement said Guantanamo provides valuable intelligence information and said al-Kahtani's interrogation "was guided by a very detailed plan and conducted by trained professionals." The administration has been clear on its views of the Guantanamo detainees.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They're enemy combatants for a reason, because they seek to do harm to the American people.

JOHNS: But the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee calls Guantanamo a legal black hole.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: I think Guantanamo Bay has become a black eye for the United States. We have people there held under dubious reasons. We won't -- we are unwilling to follow even our own rules in holding them. We ought to either charge these people or release them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Problem is there's no clear alternative to Guantanamo right now, and as long as that's true, many Republicans say it's a waste of time to talk about shutting the place down -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Joe, is there any kind of scheduled debate on the Hill?

JOHNS: Well, there will be a hearing, we're told, in the middle of the week, and they do expect to talk about Guantanamo Bay on the Senate side, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Johns from Washington. Thanks so much. Well, CNN's "Security Watch" keeps you up to date on safety. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

A grisly mystery unfolding in Iraq, where piles of bodies continue to turn up in various locations. At least 28 bodies have been found over the past several days in and around Baghdad. Iraqi police say the bodies show signs of torture. The victims were apparently blindfolded and shot.

Another 21 bodies were discovered Friday dumped near the Syrian border.

About 90 miles from the Syrian border, U.S. and Iraqi troops are keeping up the pressure on entrenched insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.

CNN's Jane Arraf is embedded with U.S. troops there and reports on the operation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major operation here in Tal Afar is over. But the effort and the fight to find, capture and kill insurgents in the city, which has essentially been held hostage, is continuing.

This is a city where people are afraid to go to the hospital, where mothers have been afraid to send their children to school. U.S. forces say that they are rounding, along with their Iraqi army counterparts, insurgents throughout town, working with tribal leaders to reestablish the police force.

And southwest of this area in western al-Anbar province, that fight as well continues. We spoke to the Marine commander in charge of that area, Colonel Stephen Davis, who tells us that an air strike has killed what he says are at least 40 insurgents was a matter of getting lucky and finding a safe house where they believe they were hiding.

COL. STEPHEN DAVIS, U.S. MARINE CORPS: You have a fairly elusive enemy and we spend a lot of our time trying to find out where he is, and our efforts were successful. Yesterday we were able to find a gathering of them and were able to bring the combined arms effects available in the joint inventory out here to pretty good effect.

ARRAF: This is a huge stretch of territory, fully one-third of Iraq with very few U.S. forces, very few Iraqi forces, and the Syrian border where officials say insurgents and foreign fighters are still coming through. A lot of efforts are focused on that border, but it continues to be porous and continues to have insurgents throughout the area to towns like.

Jane Arraf, CNN, reporting from near Tal Afar, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for five months is back n Paris this hour. Florence Aubenas was released early today along with her driver. She was welcomed home by French President Jacques Chirac. The French ambassador says securing the release was a dangerous operation.

More details are surfacing on the British document known as the Downing Street memo. The "Washington Post" reports staff advisers to British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned him eight months before the invasion of Iraq that Americans were not ready for the consequences.

According to the "Post," the memo says, quote, "a post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation- building exercise," unquote. It reportedly says U.S. military plans were, quote, "virtually silent" on that point.

U.S. officials and Blair have previously denied allegations in the memo that intelligence and facts were fixed to support the policy of invasion.

Coming up next, news from across America. A killer fire rips through a Philadelphia row house, claiming the lives of five young kids.

Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MIKE BROWN, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: They are out there constantly on the Internet. They are constantly trolling. They are constantly out there looking for their next victim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Police on patrol combing the Internet, looking for the next possible child predator. We'll profile one task force getting the job done in Virginia.

And later, overcoming the most difficult of odds. An Iraqi woman pushes -- pushes on despite overwhelming personal loss she endured in her native land. It's a story you won't want to miss, later on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some rough weather this weekend. The first named storm of the hurricane season came ashore and fizzled out. Tropical Storm Arlene hit the Gulf Coast yesterday with winds up to 70 miles an hour. Utility crews are still working on restoring power to customers who've had outages.

The American Red Cross is accommodating two dozen Wisconsin families driven from their homes by tornado damage. A twister tore across two miles of land yesterday in Hammond, east of St. Paul, Minnesota. No injuries were reported.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The fire commissioner of Philadelphia says many things came together to spell disaster in a blaze that killed five young children. Security bars on the windows of the row house were one of the problems, and two adults who escaped were hospitalized in critical condition.

Amy Buckman has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LLOYD AYERS, PHILADELPHIA FIRE COMMISSIONER: And it's a very sad day, again, here in Philadelphia.

AMY BUCKMAN, WPVI REPORTER (voice-over): Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers assessing the tragedy that occurred in the 2800 block of Amber Street this morning.

A fire broke out shortly before 8 and was under control in just 9 minutes, but it cost five children their lives. Three sisters, ages 5, 4 and 2, and their visiting cousins, a 5-year-old girl and 9-month- old boy, all dead.

The parents of the three little girls are hospitalized, the mother in critical condition with burns on more than 65 percent of her body.

IRENE WEAL, NEIGHBOR: I saw the flames coming out of the front door and stuff, and him and her jumping out the windows. But I didn't see no children. They was in a back room, all of them.

BUCKMAN: Police officers assisted firefighters at the scene, but they were hampered by security bars on the back windows, and the blaze, fueled by paneling inside the home, moved too quickly for the children to be saved.

DENISE FLYNN, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: We pulled up with Engine 25. The flames were shooting out the front door, the downstairs. The mother screaming, "My babies are inside. My babies are inside."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Amy Buckman with CNN affiliate WPVI. Investigators will be looking for code violations in the home.

In other news across America, we begin in Daytona Beach, Florida. A judge has refused to release two 15-year-old boys charged in last month's beating death of a homeless man. The two are among five teens charged in the brutal assault. The youngest is just 14.

Warming up a 50-year-old cold case. Illinois examiners say they found what appears to be bullet fragments during an autopsy on Chicago teenager Emmett Till. Prosecutors are hoping to uncover how the boy died and who might have killed him. Till's death in Mississippi in 1955 helped fuel the civil rights movement.

And Mike Tyson might have danced his final round in a boxing ring. Last night's sixth round loss against Kevin McBride put him on the losing side in three out of his last four fights. Tyson said he doesn't have the stomach for it anymore.

Investigators in Aruba are tight-lipped today as they continue their probe into the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. She's been missing now for nearly two weeks.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has uncovered new developments in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Law enforcement source close to the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway have told CNN a sample resembling blood and taken from one of the cars of the suspects confiscated on Thursday was sent to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis. Those sources also told CNN that the sample has proved negative. It wasn't blood as first suspected.

On Saturday, a judge ordered three suspects detained on Thursday to be held in custody for a further eight days while police and prosecutors gather more evidence to find out clues about the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway and what happened to her.

Those three suspects are the three young men last seen in Natalee Holloway's company on May the 30th, the day she disappeared two weeks ago now.

Defense lawyers for the three had to this to say.

DAVID KOCK, SATESH BROTHERS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My client states -- keeps on saying that he's not guilty, and he hasn't -- he is not the one that I've been reading in the press that has confessed. Up to now that I know, nobody has.

PENHAUL: Despite all the searches, despite all the interrogations, though, there's still no clue as to the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway or her possible remains. And this week, the police and prosecutors will continue those interrogations. A total of five suspects now and continue to hunt for evidence as to what happened to Natalee Holloway.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Palm Beach, Aruba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, gone but never forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an agent, you're not there to be his friend, but you couldn't be around him very long without becoming his friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The Secret Service's not so secret love of a president they once protected. That story a bit later.

And up next, Bono and others asked for it; the G-8 granted it. No more debt for 18 nations. I'll talk with a communication director for DATA, an organization dedicated to this important cause. That's as CNN LIVE SUNDAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Catching sexual predators on the Internet may seem an impossible task. In fact, it can be incredibly easy because many alleged perpetrators are so brazen. The sheriff of a small Virginia town found that out when he launched Operation Blue Ridge Thunder.

CNN's J.J. Ramberg explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's a guy. I'm 47. I'm in Indiana. I'm 13, Female, and I'm in Virginia. Haven't been with an older guy.

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the dark side of the Internet; message boards and chat rooms where sexual predators go to stalk children and swap child pornography.

BROWN: They are out there. They're constantly on the Internet. They're constantly trolling. They're constantly out there looking for their next victim.

RAMBERG: Sheriff Mike Brown has made it his mission to stop them. From this modest office in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and his staff of three agents, under the guise of unwitting children, join discussion groups and web sites, hoping to catch these predators.

In just two minutes of being online as a 13-year-old girl in this chatroom, Officer Rodney Thompson was approached by nine older men.

OFFICER RODNEY THOMPSON, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: I tell him I'm 13.

He goes, "Wow, younger than I expected." I communicate back to him, "Sorry."

He goes, "It's cool. Do you have a pic?"

RAMBERG: Since this task force they call Operation Blue Ridge Thunder began in 1997, Brown has given leads on 2,500 cases of possible child pornography or molestation to law enforcement agencies around the country.

In Bedford County alone, he successfully charged and convicted 71 people, including the chief of staff to a former West Virginia governor and a Charlotte, North Carolina, man who used the screen name Dr. Evil. Both had set up sexual rendezvous with what they thought were teenagers.

(on camera) There are 46 task forces like this around the country. Operation Blue Ridge Thunder receives about $400,000 a year in federal funding, but it's fighting an uphill battle. Child pornography is a multibillion dollar a year industry.

(voice-over) And it's hard on the officers. Sheriff Brown's team couples with work counseling to help them deal with the trauma of seeing child pornography -- brutal, sexually explicit photos that we could not show on air --day after day.

LT. MICHAEL HARMONY, OPERATION BLUE RIDGE THUNDER: I mean it's -- there's so many -- there's so many visuals. There's so many images. There's so many movies. And those are images that -- that haunt you for the rest of your life.

BROWN: It just -- it breaks your heart. I mean, you cannot look at these images and not become incensed. And in this particular arena, as far as I'm concerned, you're either with us or you're against us.

RAMBERG: Operation Blue Ridge Thunder has had a 100 percent conviction rate of those it's charged. It's those statistics that keep the officers going when the job itself seems too hard to handle.

J.J. Ramberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: For more information on how to protect your children from Internet predators, you can go to the website set up by Operation Blue Ridge Thunder. That address is www.SafeSurfinCentral.org. Again, that's SafeSurfinCentral -- one word -- dot org.

News around the world new.

Emergency workers in China are searching through the ruins of a school that was hit by a flash flood with tragic results. Eighty- eight children and four adults died and 17 kids are missing. Heavy rain on a mountain sent the torrent gushing into Shalan, a remote town in the far northeast.

And another victory for women in Kuwait. A university teacher has been named the first female cabinet minister in that country that gave women the right to vote and run for parliament one month ago. Women can now vote in all Middle Eastern countries that hold elections except Saudi Arabia.

And in Britain, four members of the rock band Pink Floyd have announced they will play together for the first time in 24 years. They're reuniting for the Live 8 charity concert for Africa in London. And that's set for July 2.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, MUSICIAN/ACTIVIST: A hundred and twenty thousand people lose their life ever month in Africa. And it's not a natural calamity. These are avoidable catastrophes. So that's my motivation, is the chance that we can do this. It's not wide-eyed, misty eyed Irish nonsense. It's -- these are achievable goals. And I'm excited by that; that's what turns me on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And talk about aid for Africa. U2 front man and human rights activist Bono urging European leaders, in his words, not to blow it in their African aid policies. Bono addressed the European Commission in Brussels this past week. He told ministers it's stupid that so many Africans die from poverty each day.

The Group of 8 finance ministers yesterday agreed to write off more than $40 billion in debt owed by the world's poorest nations. The deal is part of a British-led effort to lift Africa out of poverty.

It's a mission near and dear to Seth Amgott, communications director for DATA, which stands for Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa. Seth joins us now from London.

Good to see you, Seth.

SETH AMGOTT, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DATA: Hi, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, it would seem that the expectations would be low for a wealthy nation to expect that a poorer nation would be able to pay back its debt. But why does it seem that there were wealthy nation, including the U.S., who seemed to be somewhat hesitant about forgiving these debts?

AMGOTT: Well, the U.S. actually came around on this. These were loans that went to poor countries when they were ruled, in many cases by corrupt dictators in the '70s and '80s.

There's now a new generation of African leaders, many of them elected in multiparty elections, who are using their resources to fight poverty, put kids in school, train more nurses. And they need more resources. They need not to be paying back bad loans that they owe to the IMF and the World Bank.

And that's what the Group of 8 finance ministers agreed yesterday, to cancel those loans to the poorest countries.

WHITFIELD: And so how does forgiving -- and how do you see that forgiving these debts is going to help free up some resources or moneys for a lot of these countries or perhaps even put them in a better position to maybe get another grant or two along the way?

AMGOTT: Well, it's a billion dollars a year that the 18 countries directly affected by the decision yesterday are going to be saving this year. A billion dollars, which they are required to use to put kids in school, get clean water into more communities, build farm to market roads, do things that fight poverty and invest in their own people. WHITFIELD: So...

AMGOTT: And that's 18 countries to start with. It's going to go up to 38 over time.

WHITFIELD: And does this in any way, this forgiving of debt, set any precedents that some wealthy nations have expressed concern, that perhaps if they forgive the debt that this kind of sets the tone, the ground that perhaps some of these poor nations may once again have the expectations of borrowing or asking for money and never having to repay it?

AMGOTT: Well, you just heard Bono saying this isn't misty eyed Irish nonsense, and it's not. It's something the Bush administration supports and the Blair administration in Britain supports, because it's a concrete way of getting more resources to fight poverty in the poorest countries.

WHITFIELD: Do you...

AMGOTT: And countries like the U.S. now don't loan to the poorest countries anymore. We give them the money so that they can get out of poverty and be able to earn their own way.

WHITFIELD: Do you believe this agreement is sort of a springboard for some of the other G-8 expectations, that this might help?

AMGOTT: I sure do. I believe that this is the down payment on a comprehensive breakthrough in making poverty history in Africa.

The G-8 heads of state are meeting in Scotland in three weeks' time. President Bush will be there, and he keeps hearing from Americans as part of the One Campaign that we would like him to make poverty history, to not just cancel the debts but to increase assistance to Africa and to make trade rules fair so that African countries can earn their way out of poverty.

WHITFIELD: Well, is this all a coincidence...

AMGOTT: He's hearing from people like Pat Robertson...

WHITFIELD: I'm sorry.

AMGOTT: Go ahead.

WHITFIELD: No, you go ahead.

AMGOTT: He's hearing from Pat Robertson and Rick Warren on the right, from Brad Pitt and George Clooney on America's left coast and a lot of people in between, 900,000 who have joined the One Campaign to get the president to lead in the fight against poverty.

WHITFIELD: And sorry about that. We've got this great delay.

Now you have to wonder if all of this is coincidence? You've got the G-8 summit. You've got the Live 8 concert and now this debt relief, all of this coinciding at the same time. A coincidence, or was this part of a master plan?

AMGOTT: I don't know about a master plan, but Bob Geldof, who we work with, put together the Live 8 concerts to tell the G-8 leaders it's not about charity. It's about justice. It's about you doing right for the poor people in the world and about your voters telling you, that you've go to go there and make poverty history.

So there's a lot of planning that went into these coincidences. It's -- there are 900,000 Americans who have signed up to ask the president to go to Scotland and do a good deal for the world's poor.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Seth Amgott, communications director for DATA, Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa. Thanks so much for joining us from London.

AMGOTT: Hey, thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Coming up next, a life in Iraq filled with loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did you see your father again?

RANIA ATAR, AL HURA ANCHOR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. You know, I not seen my father -- not my father nor my brother after this. This is the last thing. This is why the image stick in my mind forever because I didn't see them after that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: One woman's story about the personal struggles she endured thanks to the politics of her homeland.

And one year after the world said good-bye to president Ronald Reagan, one of his closest friends pays another visit. A touching story straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Top of the news now. Islanders, tourists and relatives of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway prayed together in Aruba for her. She remains missing as police question three young men who were with her on May 30, the last day she was seen. Two former security guards are also being interrogated.

In Southern California, a store surveillance camera captures an earthquake this morning. It was centered 20 miles south of Palm Springs and had a magnitude of 5.6. No structural injuries or damage reported.

In Iraq, 20 bodies were found east of Baghdad, all were men who had been blindfolded and shot from behind with their hands tied. Eight more bodies were found shot in the head. In suburban Baghdad, the military announced the deaths of four U.S. soldiers as well, putting the American death toll to 1700.

Many Iraqis who suffered under the old regime are thrilled that Saddam Hussein is gone. But liberation has been a painful two edged sword. Last week, CNN's Frank Sesno brought us the hear-breaking tale of Rania Atar, a young Iraqi woman given an opportunity of a lifetime in America. It's a powerful story that deserves an encore presentation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. In five, four, three, two, one.

FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a television studio in suburban Virginia, Rania Atar (ph) is getting a fresh start. Working for Al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television channel funded by the U.S. government, this 22-year-old soon will read the news back to her native Iraq.

This was her first screen test. Like her country, Rania has experienced a wrenching journey and she's uncertain of what to expect from life in America.

ATAR: I fear this big country, maybe it's going to be too big for me.

SESNO (on camera): And you felt you would be alone here?

ATAR: Yes. I felt like I am alone at first, first day I am there.

SESNO (voice-over): There is an emptiness, filled by sounds of the street, haunting and all too familiar.

ATAR: You know, when you live in a war zone and always you hear this, you will know there are some people dying there, or some people injured or there is someone who has pain and it's not a pleasant feeling for you.

SESNO: Rania feels safe now, but she's scarred by a painful past.

ATAR: I say it's a crazy life. Things choose me. I never choose things.

SESNO: She grew up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, at first, unaware and untouched by his rule. Her father, Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer and a successful businessman. Rania, the third of four children, remembers a playful man.

ATAR: I remember him always young, because I never see him old. This is my father for me.

SESNO: A memory frozen in time because of what happened one night in 1992.

(on camera): Do you remember that night? ATAR: Yes, I do.

SESNO: What was it like?

ATAR: It's -- I think it's the darkest night in my life. We just heard like the door knocked after midnight. And my mother, she's scared, you know. And someone starts shouting, said, open the door. And she wait for a while. And then people jump from the roof to enter the house. And they, like, break the door to enter the house.

SESNO (voice-over): Armed security men seized Rania's father.

ATAR: They didn't ask him, who is your name, whatever. They just took him away.

SESNO: Next, they went upstairs, grabbed her teenage brother, Alex (ph), and marched him right past Rania, then a terrified and very confused 10-year-old.

(on camera): When did you see your father again?

ATAR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. I didn't see my father, not my father, not my brother after this. is the last thing. This is why this image stick in my mind forever, because I didn't see them after that.

SESNO (voice-over): The next day, Rania's mother asked everyone she could about her husband, but no one, certainly not the police, would offer any information.

ATAR: We felt the answer from the neighbors' act, from friends' act, because there no one come to ask, what's happened to our father, you know? And this is -- you know, we felt that we are in trouble.

SESNO: Finally, Rania heard about a friend's uncle who had spent time in prison. He told her about the torture in Saddam's jails, about prisoners having their fingernails pulled out, being forced to sit on a bottle overnight, having hot olive oil poured down their legs, all this told to a 10-year-old girl.

ATAR: He said to me, I think just forget about it and try to forget it.

SESNO (on camera): He told you to forget about your father?

ATAR: Yes, yes.

SESNO (voice-over): Forty days after Rania's father was taken, Saddam's security forces returned to the Atar (ph) home, this time with her father's death certificate. He had been executed for inciting revolution. Rania insists he had never went near politics.

(on camera): Did your father ever have a trial?

ATAR: No, no trial, nothing. No, my father, he just disappeared. We don't know where is he. SESNO (voice-over): Rania says her father's only crime was refusing to join the Baath Party and turning down a job with Saddam's Foreign Ministry. For this, she believes he was killed, the family house and money taken away.

(on camera): What happens to a 10-year-old girl who goes through this? What happens to your childhood?

ATAR: What childhood? The things that people -- kids are interested about is not interesting for me anymore. The joy of life, it died in my eyes in this time.

SESNO: As for brother Alex, arrested when he was just 16, five years later, the family was told he had joined the army and died in a mine field in northern Iraq. Rania says, in Saddam's Iraq, it was widely believed prisoners were used to clear mine fields.

Still, Rania had her younger sister, Rita (ph). Together, they dreamed of a better life, but their plans would be tragically interrupted, just as they were beginning to take shape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we'll have more of Rania's story and the story of her sister Rita right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Rania Atar's chance to begin a new life in America is an inevitable one. She'll gladly give it up, though, to have her family back. Here's part two, now, of CNN's Frank Sesno's encore presentation of Rania's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SESNO (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to be like this. Rania Atar (ph), this 22-year-old Iraqi woman, wasn't supposed to be all alone in America. She had planned to be here with her soul mate, with her sister, Rita.

ATAR: She look here so -- so innocent and so pretty, you know.

SESNO: It was Rita who kept Rania going after they lost their father and brother to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

ATAR: She's full of energy, full of dreams.

SESNO: They shared everything. Rita followed Rania through school. And when Rania began working for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Rita expressed an interest in journalism, too.

(on camera): How was her English?

ATAR: She's fluent in English. She's better, much better than me. SESNO: For the Atar (ph) sisters, the toppling of Saddam, the arrival of the Americans, the prospect of democracy meant opportunity. But things went horribly wrong.

On October 25, 2003, Rita was working as a translator, traveling with American and British contractors, 50 miles west of Baghdad. A CBS camera crew wasn't far away. Rita's vehicle was near a U.S. military convoy when insurgents set off a roadside bomb.

ATAR: There is small explosions happening in front of the American convoys. And so they stopped. So, the security in the car that she is in, they talked to the American commander, told him, can we pass this way, which is safer, not go forward? He said to him, OK. He gives him thumbs up that he can do it.

SESNO: But others in the convoy saw the vehicle's erratic movements and thought it was part of the attack.

ATAR: The convoy behind start shooting the car or they shoot -- they opened fire on her car. And she is the first one to be shot in this car. One of the shots, they just shot the gas tank. All this car just burned and my sister in.

SESNO: Three other Iraqis were killed and three of the contractors were injured. In Baghdad, Rania learned the details of the innocent from a BBC colleague.

ATAR: I said to him: "You are a liar. You are lying to me. You're saying lies.:

I mean, he said -- he said to me, "I wish I am a liar."

SESNO: It was true. Rita was dead.

ATAR: Anyway, so we tried to find out what's happened. (INAUDIBLE) they said we just suspect this car. We weren't sure who is in this car. And we didn't know that they are civilian, and they feel sorry.

SESNO: Two months later, Rania received an e-mail from the U.S. military, offering condolences for what was described as a very unfortunate incident and $2,500. Rania says she didn't take the money.

ATAR: Really, I felt my soul died with her, you know? The pleasure of life died with her, the happiness gone with her.

SESNO: As her mother, devastated, prepared for Rita's (ph) funeral, Rania said goodbye.

ATAR: And I opened the coffin, and I see my sister. And I kissed her. And there is not actually -- just burned body, you know. But you can't tell from her body that she is sleeping or she wasn't sleeping.

SESNO (on-screen): You lost your brother and your father to Saddam and your sister to the Americans?

ATAR: Yes.

SESNO: How do you make sense of that?

ATAR: You know, they are just in my soul, in my eyes, all the time. Sometimes I ask God to not make me crazy after this, because sometimes I feel like I'm really -- I need them.

SESNO (voice-over): While her story is dramatic, Rania recognizes it's not unique. After all, she's from Iraq, a country of stories.

ATAR: I am symbol of my country. Most of my country, they have these problems. And some of them, they still have these problems.

SESNO: Rania's new life is difficult, but promising. She wishes she could say the same about the lives of her countrymen back home.

ATAR: They cannot survive like this. If they want to live, they have to change themselves.

SESNO: For Rania, change begins right here, right now, remembering the past, but determined to move beyond it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We've got more news to take you into the next hour. And here's Carol Lin. What's on tap?

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we've got a regular segment now called "The Fountain Of Youth," because everybody wants to be healthier and look younger. So, I'm going to be talking with these doctors who are also the best selling authors of "The Real Age Theory" about frankly how can you stay younger and healthier. We're going to be talking about the No. 1 anti-age food. And if you could only buy one skin care product, what would it be? And also, how did you cut your chances of death and disability by 90 percent. Very simple lifestyle changes that I'm sure you probably do already.

At 10:00 in our prime-time show, I'm going to be talking with a representative of the government of Aruba about the investigation into Natalee Holloway, what leaks we can believe and what we can't believe and where the status of that investigation is right now.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, it's a tough one, because of lots of conflicting reports.

LIN: Yeah. You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right, Carol, thanks so much.

LIN: Sure. WHITFIELD: Well, former first lady Nancy Reagan paid a surprise visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum yesterday. It's been a year since former President Ronald Reagan was laid to rest. And the library was filled with retired Secret Service agents eager to express their admiration for Reagan and pay their respects.

CNN's Peter Viles was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): : A year after Nancy Reagan said that final good-bye to her husband, a big group of old friends came to visit her. Nearly 200 retired Secret Service agents, many of the men who once protected Mrs. Reagan and her husband.

GARRICK NEWMAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE (RET): This is just a show of respect and wanting to pay their regards to him, visit his graveside.

VILES: Among that number, a retired agent named John Barletta.

JOHN BARLETTA, U.S. SECRET SERVICE (RET): It was just that he was so loved. These agents from all over the world, paying their own money, they want to do a tribute to Ronald Reagan.

VILES: Few agents knew the reagans better. He rode horse back with the president. The day her husband was shot, he tried and failed to keep Mrs. Reagan away from the hospital.

BARLETTA: We said, Mrs. Reagan, we'd rather you stay here, we don't know what's going on, we'd rather have control here. And she just looked and said, either you take me or I'm walking. I went, yes!

VILES: Now retired, John trains guide dogs. He likes to bring them to a favorite spot on a hillside to tell them about his old friend.

BARLETTA: He was a good man, Astro.

VILES: Shares memories with the book "Riding with Reagan," memories that still touch his heart.

You miss him?

BARLETTA: I miss him a lot.

VILES: It's been a year.

BARLETTA: It's OK. He knows I'm having trouble.

VILES: I didn't mean to shake you up like that.

BARLETTA: We were very close. Honored to be so, it's just amazing. We had hundreds of hours of one on one conversation, and as an agent, you're not there to be his friend, but you couldn't be around him very long without becoming his friend.

VILES: An old friend gonem, but not forgotten.

BARLETTA: We'll be back.

VILES: Peter Viles, for CNN, Simi Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that's going to do it this hour. Straight ahead, inside the mafia, Carol Lin talks with an FBI agent who was undercover for more than 20 years.

Then at 7:00, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," takes a look at Oscar winning -- Oscar award-winning actress Angelina Jolie, plus inside the life of Michael Jackson as he awaits verdict in his child molestation trial.

And at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS: Pursuing the Perfect Ten." Have children's sports gone too far? More of CNN LIVE SUNDAY after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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