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ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES Interview With George Clooney;
Total of U.S. Soldiers Wounded
in Iraq Reaches 20,000
Aired September 14, 2006 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL
FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening again, everyone. I'm John Roberts.
Another grim milestone in Iraq, another grim day -- tonight, how that
day looked through
the eyes of the people trying to save lives in one of the deadliest spots
on Earth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Twenty thousand wounded, another day of bombings
-- on the front lines at the
busiest combat hospital in Iraq.
Mr. Clooney goes to the U.N. and sits down with us.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Of course it's complex, but, when
you see entire villages raped and
killed, all complexities disappear, and it comes down to simply right
and wrong.
ANNOUNCER: Using star power to try and stop a genocide --
our extended interview with
George Clooney and his dad.
Also, he called himself the angel of death -- from the dark
and gory corners of the
Internet, a picture emerges of fatality666, AKA, the young man accused
of turning a school
into a shooting gallery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Across the country and around the world, this
is ANDERSON COOPER 360 -- sitting
in tonight for Anderson and reporting from the CNN studios in New York,
here is John
Roberts.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And thanks for joining us.
We begin tonight with Iraq and the "Raw Data,"
because, from time to time -- and this is
one of those times -- the Iraq story becomes all about the "Raw Data."
So, here it is.
The total number of American troops wounded in Iraq has
now reached 20,000. That's right,
20,000. And, of that 20,000, more than 9,000 have sustained injuries serious
enough to
prevent their returning to active duty or even returning to life as they
once knew it.
In addition, 2,678 American service men and women have been
killed, nearly all since the
president declared major combat over more than three years ago. That's
the "Raw Data." Now
CNN's Cal Perry with the brave and talented and tired heroes who see it
nearly every moment
of every day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAL PERRY, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): A mass casualty situation,
many wounded on the way.
We had gone to the busiest combat hospital in Iraq with a plan to cover
the U.S.
military's grim milestone.
We had been at the hospital only about an hour. Bloodied
and screaming, U.S. soldiers
stream into the combat hospital, 25 in total, many fighting for their
lives. It had been a
truck bomb attack on a 4th Infantry Division fixed position in Baghdad.
The U.S. soldiers
had apparently been caught off guard. Some of the wounded arrived wearing
sneakers, rather
than their usual combat gear.
Even as the casualties were still coming, Major General
James Thurman slips in. He's the
commander of the 4th Infantry Division, here to comfort and console his
men.
MAJOR GENERAL JAMES THURMAN, COMMANDER, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION:
Is he going to be OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to be fine, sir. He's got...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's going to be fine, sir.
PERRY: In this war, it's a question: Is he or she going
to be OK? That has been asked
nearly 23,000 times. The answers have not always been what families wanted
to hear, close
to 2,700 U.S. soldiers killed, 20,000 wounded, with more than 9,000 unable
to return to
duty.
Many of those unable to return to their units head home,
with devastating injuries.
(on camera): Without the quick medical response already
in place by the U.S. military, the
death toll would be far higher. This landing zone at the 10th CSH in Baghdad,
on any given
day, is literally buzzing with activity.
(voice-over): All over Iraq, from Baghdad to Ramadi, Fallujah
to the Triangle of Death,
these three years prove, the U.S. is in the grips of a bloody fight.
Of the 25 casualties brought in from the attack on the 4th
Infantry Division, one later
succumbed to his wounds. Another soldier died at the scene of the attack
-- through the
day, a tense struggle to keep the death toll from growing higher, many
soldiers sent to
surgery to get them stable enough to fly out to hospitals in Germany,
and then to the U.S.
(on camera): It's all in the hands of these doctors, medics and nurses,
to ensure that
more U.S. soldiers return home to their families than those that die here
in Iraq.
Cal Perry, CNN, Baghdad. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Also in Baghdad, CNN's Michael Ware, who has been
face to face with an awful lot
of heartache, too, over the last three years.
Michael, more troops were brought into Baghdad. They're
still not stopping the violence
out in Anbar Province and Ramadi, where you were embedded with U.S. forces.
There's not
enough troops to quell the insurgency. What's going on there?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I mean, all
of these things are bringing to
head a point that has been very, very clear here on the ground for quite
some time.
I mean, it's what a lot of American officers will say in
their private moments. There
simply are not enough troops in Iraq to do the job. I mean, we saw the
American Marine
general who controls al-Anbar Province admit that he does not have enough
troops right
now, American or Iraqi, to defeat the al Qaeda-led insurgency in that
province.
We have seen this massive operation under way in Baghdad,
the battle of Baghdad, Operation
Together Forward. It's now striking into new regions, touching on the
power base of
anti-American rebel cleric Muqtada la-Sadr. Yet, in the last three days,
we have still
seen over 100 bodies of the executed and tortured show up in the capital
streets.
So, it really brings into question the whole strategy. The
strategy has been economy of
force, just enough American troops to hold the line, while they build
up the Iraqi
security forces. What now comes into question is, what's the price of
that policy? How
long will it take to develop these Iraqi security forces? How many will
die in the
meantime, American and Iraqi? How close will this country come to civil
war? And how much
stronger will al Qaeda get in that time? -- John.
ROBERTS: It's an interesting juxtaposition, Michael, that
President Bush says, this is the
central front in the war on terror; it is so important to win this battle;
and, yet, as you
said, there don't appear to be enough troops to do it.
How -- how important is this cap -- or this capture of the
top aide to al-Masri, the al
Qaeda leader there in Iraq, in terms of how it might affect the violence
in Baghdad,
because he was a big operative in the Baghdad area, wasn't he?
WARE: Well, that's according to U.S. military intelligence.
I mean, this is one of the things about al Qaeda in Iraq.
They are a very, very shadowy
organization. Their operational security, or their secrecy, is very strong.
It's hard to
penetrate them publicly. It's very hard to know exactly who's who.
Now, this organization, this al Qaeda organization, when
it's had big losses, it's quite
often come out and admitted that. So, we have not heard the response from
them yet. We
don't know exactly who this man is.
One thing we do know, John, this al Qaeda organization is
one that is built for loss. We
saw, with the death of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they barely skipped
a beat. This
is a -- this is a structure that is ready to replace and soon as it loses
people -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. It's making the battle very, very difficult.
Michael Ware, in Baghdad, thanks very much.
Moving on, I was talking With George Clooney today.
Got your attention? George Clooney would be happy to hear
that, happy, even though it
reaffirms a somewhat sad fact of human nature, that celebrity trumps,
if not all, than
much -- happy, because there is an upside. Celebrities can sometimes trump
indifference.
It certainly does goes a long way.
In this case, it goes all the way to Darfur in Sudan, where
government-backed militias
have slaughtered more than 250,000 people, perhaps a whole lot more than
that. It's
difficult to count. It goes all the way to a special session of the United
Nations
Security Council, where, today, George Clooney pleaded with members to
send more
peacekeepers and step up the pressure on Sudan's ruler.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLOONEY: This genocide will be on your watch. How you deal
with it will be your legacy,
your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz.
We were brought up to believe that the U.N. was formed to
ensure that the Holocaust could
never happen again. We believe in you so strongly. We need you so badly.
We have come so
far. We're -- we're one yes away from ending this. And, if not the U.N.,
then who?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: George Clooney and his father, journalist Nick
Clooney, have seen the suffering
firsthand in a trip to the region last spring.
I sat down with them earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: You were here on April 28, or at least you were
out in public on April 28, after
your experiences in Sudan and -- and Darfur. You were urging the world
to take action.
Here you are before the United Nations, four months later. Nothing has
happened since the
last time you came out, substantially, at least, in -- in the area.
Is it frustrating?
G. CLOONEY: Well, I think that a lot happened. I mean, I
really think a lot happened. The
problem is that a lot happened happening, without finishing it, feels
like nothing
happened. There were an awful lot of movement. There was an awful lot
of movement. The
government of Sudan actually agreed to a peace agreement. There is a --
there is a --
there is a great opening here to do it. The problem is that it wasn't
completed.
ROBERTS: How is it that it cannot be a high-priority story,
when you have got that many
people dying, that many people at risk of dying?
G. CLOONEY: Well, there's a couple of reasons.
I mean, one of them, they're -- they are very smart, which
happens in almost every --
certainly in every genocide, but almost every time there is a pretty terrible
police
action, is, you get rid of all the newsmen. You get out all the information
as quickly as
possible.
There's a pretty -- it's very difficult to get any news
from out of there. You just had a
reporter from "The Chicago Tribune" arrested, and Governor Richardson
had to get him
released. So, the first thing you do is, you shut down the -- the resources,
so that
people can't see it and hear it.
ROBERTS: The United Nations has authorized a U.N. peacekeeping
force to go in. Omar Hassan
Bashir, the president of Sudan, has said no.
What do you want the U.N. to do?
NICK CLOONEY, JOURNALIST: Oh, he can be rolled. He has been
before, back in the 1990s.
When the pressure is applied -- and, usually, it's economic
pressure -- and if it can be
personal economic pressure, if you can start thinking in terms of doing
sanctions on
individuals within that country, when they want to travel out to their
beautiful places at
Cap Antibes, and suddenly find out that they have no account, I think
we would all be
surprised.
(CROSSTALK)
G. CLOONEY: ... maybe the ICC picking him up along the way.
There's a lot of things you
can do.
I think that, also, the -- the one issue, the one thing
that sort of is the elephant in
the room that no one really talks about is that we can't really do anything
about
sanctions with a government that we have already decided we have no trade
with, because
they are a terrorist organization. We have said we won't.
So, we need the people who do have trade with them, Russia,
and particularly China, to
take the lead in the negotiating with him, to say, we will actually use
sanctions against
you.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROBERTS: And, so far, China is resisting
that call.
Some might say what is happening in Darfur is unspeakable.
But the danger, many others
warn, is in not speaking about it.
Coming up: what Nicholas Kristof of "The New York Times"
calls one of the most shocking
things he witnessed in Darfur, and how the crisis got to where it is.
Plus, this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. CLOONEY: You do it because you are part of the human
race and because, you know, if you
had the opportunity, I think anyone who has the opportunity would do it.
I'm terrified of
not actually contributing, when I'm in the position to contribute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: More of my interview with George Clooney and his
life- changing journey from
Hollywood to Darfur -- when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Your stances on certain issues have made you a
-- a lovely punching bag for
people on the right.
G. CLOONEY: Sure.
ROBERTS: They have gone so far a to say that you're -- you
are hypocritical for wanting
the United Nations to intervene in Sudan, whereas, at the same time, you're
against the
Iraq war, when Saddam Hussein was guilty of some of the same crimes against
humanity that
the Sudanese government is being accused of now.
G. CLOONEY: Mmm-hmm.
ROBERTS: How do you respond to that criticism?
G. CLOONEY: Well, I mean, I'm -- I'm an American citizen,
first of all. And I can make my
own decisions on what I think are right or wrong. And I will either --
I will let history
sort of judge them.
You know, I feel as if this is an overwhelming group of
international community. It's not
just America and London -- and England and Poland that are saying, OK,
let's go in.
This is an entire group of people saying, there's things
we should do. And, by the way,
again, I'm not saying send in the U.N. I think that that's the -- I --
I can't tell you
how far down the road I think that should be, because, I think, no matter
what happens,
just trying to get -- they're trying to get a troop -- troops together
for Lebanon, and
they are having trouble. It's not going to -- it's not going to be an
easy process to get
people to go in there. And, certainly, they can't be American troops,
because it would
cause more problems than ever.
However, I do believe that sanctions are the way to go.
And I think that we need -- that's
why we really need the U.N.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Complicated issue. The rest of my interview with
George Clooney continues in just
a moment.
It's not sheer chance that Clooney was at the United Nations
today. The crisis in Darfur
is about to hit a deadline. Right now, 7,000 peacekeepers from the African
Union are on
the ground in Sudan. But their mission expires on September the 30th.
The U.N. Security
Council has voted to send more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to
replace them.
Sudan's president, though, is doing everything he can to
keep the U.N. peacekeepers out,
even warning that his army would fight them. The crisis in Darfur is as
complicated as it
is deadly.
Here's Anderson Cooper with some background.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Though
there's been fighting in Sudan for
many years, the battle in Darfur is relatively young. It started in 2003,
a fight between
black Africans and an Arab militia group known as the janjaweed, recruited,
many believe,
by the Arab-Sudanese government -- although the government denies it.
It is, in part, a fight for resources, access to land and
water, control of the region's
rich oil reserves, but it's already being called the world's worst humanitarian
crisis and
labeled a genocide by the U.S. government.
If the conflict is new, it's also been incredibly deadly.
Depending on the source, between
180,000 and 300,000 people have died, many from starvation and disease;
the rest from
horrific and relentlessly violent attacks. The main weapons of the janjaweed,
slaughter
and rape.
This woman told CNN that, like many in her camp, she's been
repeatedly raped, simply
because she's black.
She says, "Sometimes, if you go to collect grass or
firewood, you'll be beaten or chased
away, or, sometimes, they'll just take turns raping you, leaving you for
dead."
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES":
When you ask these people in these
refugee camps, why do the women go out, when they know that they're vulnerable
to being
raped?
COOPER (on camera): Right.
KRISTOF: And they say, look, when the women go out, they're
raped and beaten up. But, when
the men go out, they're killed.
COOPER (voice-over): "New York Times" Reporter
Nicholas Kristof has made several visits to
the region and talked to many who have witnessed the horror firsthand.
KRISTOF: One of the stories that just I think affected me
the most was talking to this
woman called Fatnah (ph), who was in a village that I visited.
And, early one morning, the janjaweed came. She heard the
gunfire. She ran out of her hut
with her youngest child, a 2-year-old daughter, on her back. The janjaweed
grabbed the
baby from her back, threw it to the ground, and beat it to death in front
of her.
COOPER: Darfur is a region in western Sudan. It's more than
half the size of Texas. But
the people caught up in the conflict say the Sudanese government's support
for the
janjaweed leaves them helpless to fight back. And, so, they're forced
to flee.
Anderson Cooper, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: One of the world's most famous actors talks about
his most important role yet --
George Clooney's public and personal mission to help stop the genocide
in Darfur -- part
two of my interview with Clooney and his father is next.
And later on: clues to a shooting spree, the Internet postings
and pictures of a college
gunman. That's coming up on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: More of my revealing interview with George Clooney
in his fight to save thousands
of lives -- next on 360.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. CLOONEY: ... Ambassador Bolton and all of you for inviting
us here today, and taking
the time to talk with us.
I will make you two promises. The first is that I will be
brief. And the second is that I
won't try to educate you on the issues of Darfur and the regions around
it. There is
nothing I can say that you don't already know. You know the numbers. You
know the urgency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: George Clooney addressing the United Nations Security
Council today on the horror
and the shame of Darfur. He is urging the world to stop the genocide in
Sudan, before
hundreds of thousands more innocent lives are lost.
I sat down with George Clooney and his father, Nick, earlier.
Here is the second part of
my interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Can you, as a well-known figure worldwide, really
do anything?
G. CLOONEY: Mmm-hmm.
ROBERTS: Can you really make a difference?
G. CLOONEY: Well, here's the difference. And, no, I can't
make a difference, because I'm
not a policy-maker, and I have been elected to no office, and I'm not
in -- I'm not a
politician.
What I can do is -- you know, Kofi Annan got up and gave
a great speech, and nobody saw
it. And, if I stand next to him, the cameras follow. So, if that's what
I can do to help
move that along, I will do it as often as possible.
ROBERTS: Nick, are we reaching crunch time here with the
situation in Darfur?
(CROSSTALK)
N. CLOONEY: We're on the clock.
We're down to the 30th of September. That's when the A.U.
goes. You know, that's when the
African Union gets out of there, or at least are scheduled to do so far.
And, if that
happens, they are twisting in the wind on a gossamer thread, and they're
-- Jan Egeland
has said they will lose 100,000 people a month if the non-governmental
organizations get
out of there because of lack of security, which, of course, they would
do.
ROBERTS: Mmm-hmm.
Has President Bush done enough on this, George?
G. CLOONEY: Here's what I feel like with President Bush.
He has certainly taken the lead
on this, and he has -- much more so than most members of the Security
Council done that.
There is a lot more you can do. You can start by naming
an envoy, a big one, and go get
Colin Powell or -- I don't know -- Al Gore, whoever it is, that can go
in there and have
some real heft to sit down with Bashir and have the conversation.
ROBERTS: How was your first experience at the Security Council?
G. CLOONEY: Really fun.
(LAUGHTER)
G. CLOONEY: I say do it every day.
ROBERTS: Is it frustrating when you sit down in that room
and it kind of keeps going
around and around in circles?
G. CLOONEY: It is, because we have stood in -- we have stood
on the border of Darfur, and
we have stood in Oure Cassoni and Abeche and in south Sudan in towns like
Jacques (ph),
and seen people laying there dead, and seen absolutely no reason at all
for it to happen.
And then to have a bunch of people sitting in a room saying, we understand
it's bad, that
we will get back to you, and you go, no, getting back to us isn't an option.
ROBERTS: George, you have said before -- you said when you
came back that you were kind of
late coming to this particular issue.
G. CLOONEY: Sure.
ROBERTS: But, when you reflect back on your -- on the trip
that you made to Sudan and to
Chad to see the refugee camps, how were you struck by what you saw?
G. CLOONEY: I think everybody gets the idea of us saying,
it's the most horrific thing
that a human being could do to another human being, for very -- for absolutely
no reason
at all.
Having said that, if you see it yourself, it is -- it's
-- I mean, it takes your breath
away, that kind of cruelty. I have never seen anything like it.
ROBERTS: What were you struck most by, Nick?
N. CLOONEY: They are the loneliest people I ever saw, John.
They are all alone. They got
no government, got no money, got no property, got no cattle, got no goats,
got no donkeys
-- got no children, in some cases. They are the loneliest folks. They're
all by
themselves.
All they got is us.
ROBERTS: Not particularly speaking to this issue, but why
do you take up causes? Angelina
Jolie told us in a recent interview -- she said that, I get paid a silly
amount of money
for what I do.
G. CLOONEY: Sure.
ROBERTS: I would like to give something back.
What is it for you?
G. CLOONEY: I like getting paid a lot of money, as well.
No, you know, I -- you do it because you are part of the
human race and because, you know,
if you had the opportunity -- I think anyone who has the opportunity would
do it. So, I'm
in the position to do it. And I think I don't know would be -- I think
I would be a real
failure as a human being if I don't. You know, I'm terrified of not actually
contributing,
when I'm in the position to contribute.
ROBERTS: And you contribute not only through charities,
but also in some of the work that
you have done on pieces like "Syriana," "Good Night, and
Good Luck." What give you more
satisfaction, doing a film that or -- or doing, you know, the "Ocean's"
films, other stuff
like that?
G. CLOONEY: The "Ocean's" films pay me. I got
paid $1 for the other films. So, the "Ocean"
films pay very nicely. And, then, those make you feel good. So, you know,
you sort of --
although I -- I like doing the "Ocean's" films a lot, too.
But, you know, what makes you feel good is that all of them
make -- put me in the position
that I can somehow, for some reason, get in front of the National Security
Council and ask
them to do whatever they can to help people.
ROBERTS: Good luck with your work, gentlemen. Good to talk
with you.
(CROSSTALK)
G. CLOONEY: We really appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: If would you like to donate food, money or contribute
in any other way to the
humanitarian efforts in Sudan, contact the United Nations high commissioner
for refugees.
The Web site is unhcr.org. That's dot-org -- O-R-G.
Links to that Web site and other agencies can be found on
our blog at CNN.com/360blog.
A diary of hate for a college gunman -- police searching
for a motive behind his rampage
and finding plenty of evidence on the Internet. That's coming up.
And later: Are they split-second decisions or cold-blooded
plans? We will take you inside
the mind of a spree killer -- when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A couple of breaking stories right now, the first
out of Washington.
CNN has learned that Bob Ney, a six-term Republican congressman
from Ohio, will become the
first lawmaker to admit to criminal wrongdoing in connection with the
Jack Abramoff
lobbying scandal. The specifics could be disclosed as soon as tomorrow.
But the charges
are expected to include conspiracy and making false statements. Jack Abramoff,
you will
recall, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to corrupt members
of Congress and
other public officials.
Another developing story tonight, the Food and Drug is
Administration
advising people to
stop eating all types of fresh bagged spinach because of an E. Coli bacteria
outbreak
linked to it. At least 50 people in nine states have become sick.
Wisconsin has reported the most cases, including one death.
The other states affected
include Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Washington
and Utah. The
victims have been as young as 9 years old and as old as 78. The majority
have been women
over the age of 20. No specific brand or manufacturer has been implicated.
Live short, died young, that is reportedly one of the Web
postings from the gunman who
went on a deadly rampage at a college in Montreal yesterday. Tonight,
we're learning more
about his dark life, and the details are coming from his very own words
and pictures.
CNN's Allan Chernoff reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was this
man, police say, Kimveer Gill,
a 25-year-old from a Montreal suburb, who went on a shooting spree at
Dawson College
Wednesday that ended with him taking his own life.
As students ran for their lives, witnesses say Gill, dressed
in black, his hair in a
Mohawk, appeared emotionless.
DANIEL MIGHTLEY, DAWSON COLLEGE STUDENT: The look on his
face is what I see over and over
again. It's the look of he didn't -- it was like no care in his face.
There's no emotion
in his face at all.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Blank stare?
MIGHTLEY: Pretty much, more or less.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): But cyber investigators at Quebec
police headquarters say Gill
expressed strong feelings on his profile at VampireFreaks.com, a page
filled with Goth
images. He's found under the screen name Fatality666 and says, "Anger
and hatred simmers
within me." His dislikes: "the world and everything."
(on camera) One item on his web page that perhaps foreshadows
what happened is his answer
to the question, how do you want to die? "Like Romeo and Juliet or
in a hail of gunfire."
(voice-over) As disturbing as the web page is, investigators say it's
not all that unusual
and in no way could have predicted the attack.
JOCELYN APRIL, INVESTIGATOR, QUEBEC PROVINCIAL POLICE: If
you look at all the profiles
that you get on there, you always see the same thing or similar. There's
nothing really
that stands out.
CHERNOFF: As police Thursday combed Gill's house in Laval,
north of Montreal, neighbors
said he pretty much stayed to himself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was very odd, you know. Very odd,
I guess. But I didn't think of
anything.
CHERNOFF: Kimveer Gill had no criminal record, investigators
say, and no apparent
connection to Dawson College. Never studied there.
(on camera) Do you think this could be just entirely random?
He just happened to show up
at a college, he resented the fact that these young students were educating
themselves?
FRANCOIS DORE, QUEBEC PROVINCIAL POLICE: This is what we
believe. It was an isolated
incident.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): So far police say they have no motive
for the shooting spree that
left one woman dead and 19 injured, but they continue searching for an
answer to the
question of why.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Montreal, Quebec.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Another deadly shooting spree, the so-called zombie
rave killings early this year
in Seattle, seven people killed including the gunman. What turned 28-year-old
quiet pizza
delivery man into a cold-blooded killer? We take you inside the investigation.
360 next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: The shooting spree this week at a college in Montreal
left many people asking how
could anyone simply open fire in a murderous rage?
The same question is asked at most crime scenes, like the
one on March 25 of this year in
a quiet Seattle neighborhood. Seven people were killed, including the
gunman. It was
Seattle's worse mass killing in more than 20 years.
Even though the gunman was dead, Seattle's police chief
didn't let the case rest. He
wanted answers. He wanted to know why the gunman snapped.
CNN's Randi Kaye reports on the search to understand a gruesome
crime.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even at 6'5",
280 pounds Kyle Huff was often
described as invisible, but on a cool Seattle morning in March, this unassuming,
unremarkable, unemployed pizza deliver guy opened fire on a house full
of party goers,
shooting them one after another with a shotgun at point blank range.
(on camera) Is it possible that Kyle Huff just snapped?
JAMES ALAN FOX, CRIMINOLOGIST: No. People don't just snap
and go berserk and they just
happen to have three AK-47s and 5,000 rounds of ammunition in the car
just for such an
occasion. No. These are well-planned executions.
The challenge from the very beginning was to try to understand
what was Kyle Huff
thinking? What issues was he dealing with?
KAYE (voice-over): It is mystery renowned criminologist
James Alan Fox was hired to solve.
Marc Verebely and his housemates had invited Huff back to their home following
a rave.
Raves are popular in Seattle and sometimes associated with drugs like
Ecstasy, which can
lead to open sex.
These pictures are from the rave that night. There was a
zombie theme. "Undead" they
called it. All except Kyle Huff were dressed as ghouls. They wore fake
blood which, after
the shooting, would only add to the confusion.
Huff didn't know anyone. So Marc and his friends invited
the awkward stranger to join
them.
(on camera) What was it like on the inside when he was firing?
MARC VEREBELY, WITNESS: Oh, it was really mechanical, I
guess. It just didn't seem like he
was processing what was going on, kind of like, you know, target, target,
target, sort of
thing.
KAYE: Some time after 6:30 in the morning Kyle Huff quietly
snuck outside to go to his
pickup truck, where he had guns and ammunition. On his way back, he stopped,
and on the
sidewalk three times using spray paint wrote the word "Now."
Then he began to climb the stairs to the front porch, and
on the front porch was Jeremy
Martin, the young musician who had invited Huff to the party. He was outside
smoking a
cigarette. By the time Huff reached him, he was right here at the front
door. Huff aimed
his shotgun at Jeremy Martin's chest and fired, killing him.
Then Huff went inside.
(voice-over) Huff killed again, then came at Marc, armed
with a 12 gauge pistol grip
shotgun and .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol.
VEREBELY: I'd just seen him shoot two people at pretty close
range and kill them. So when
he started to move towards me and point the gun at me, I jumped off of
the couch and
pushed his arm towards the wall and then, you know, ran past him.
KAYE: As Marc ran out, Huff cranked up the music, then continued
the rampage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are people that are shot here
please. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:
Ma'am, you told me these are fireworks. Are these fireworks or gunshots?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they're gunshots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see anyone injured, ma'am, or...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is the person who did the shootings
still there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hiding.
KAYE: The caller didn't know Kyle Huff was still inside
the home, making his way upstairs.
Investigators say he fired at a locked bathroom door where a couple was
hiding. Then he
moved, firing from room to room.
By the time it was over, six were dead. So much blood, the
floor boards would need
replacing.
When Seattle police officer Steve Leonard arrived, Huff
was on the front porch.
FOX: Leonard told him to "Drop your gun immediately."
Huff, even before (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
took his shotgun, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
KAYE: For 25 years Fox has studied mass murderers. He knows
what drives them. He's known
as the dean of death. That's why Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske
called him.
(on camera) Your suspect was dead, so why not close the
books on this case?
GIL KERLIKOWSKE, SEATTLE POLICE CHIEF: Well, I think that's
the common thing, is to close
the books and try to move on and help the community move on. But I'm not
so sure in some
of these situations that it isn't almost a scab over a wound and that
the wound never
really heals until you look deeply enough.
KAYE (voice-over): So the chief hired Fox to provide an
explanation to the victim's
families. Since March, James Fox has made three trips to Seattle, one
to Whitefish,
Montana, where Huff grew up. He's interviewed dozens of witnesses, family
members and
friends to try to get inside the mind of a killer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So what has criminologist James Fox uncovered?
Coming up, he shares his case file
on Kyle Huff. What made the 28-year-old open fire, killing six others
on that fateful
night? Find out when 36o continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Before the break we told you about the shooting
spree in Seattle earlier this
year, the so-called zombie rave killings. What led a 28-year-old to open
fire on a crowd
of party goers?
Seattle's police chief hired a criminologist to find out
the killer's motive. He traveled
hundreds of miles seeking answers. In the end, what he found in a trash
bin just miles
from the crime scene offered the most clues.
Again, here's CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE (voice-over): By the time the sun came up March 25,
seven people had died inside the
Seattle home. But why? The murderer, Kyle Huff, would never tell, because
he had also
killed himself.
KERLIKOWSKE: I've been in this business now 34 years. I've
gone to a lot of crime scenes,
and this was clearly one of the most horrific.
KAYE: Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske wanted to know
why this shy, quiet guy ended up
as one of Seattle's worst mass murderers. So did the grieving families.
Police knew Huff shared an apartment with his identical
twin brother, Kane.
REGINA GRAY, MANAGER, TOWN & COUNTRY APARTMENTS: I had
a nickname for them, the Teddy Bear
Twins. That's kind of how I see him, helpful. They helped everyone. They
did everything
they could for anybody. They carried groceries up. They fixed flat tires.
KAYE: Hardly the image of a mass murderer. So Seattle P.D.
hired long-time criminologist
James Alan Fox to retrace the roots of Huff's rage.
FOX: It wasn't because of a tumor, or it wasn't because
of the drug. It wasn't because of
the video games. It wasn't because of lyrics in some song that drove him
to kill. It was
an individual who was a failure, who was a loser, lonely and isolated.
KAYE: That isolation, Fox says, caused Huff to deteriorate.
He had moved from his
hometown, Whitefish, Montana, to Seattle to be with his brother. That
meant he lost his
circle of friends, a big loss says Fox, that left him too much time to
obsess on his
despair.
He'd never been more than a career pizza delivery guy.
(on camera) There are a lot of people in life that don't
have a network that feel that
they don't belong, that are lonely, that don't have friends and don't
go out and shoot up
a house full of people.
FOX: Well, maybe they don't have a sense of the enemy. Kyle
Huff did have the sense that
there's an enemy. Enemy of the people.
KAYE (voice-over): An enemy. Remember, Kyle Huff was at
a rave party just hours before the
killings.
FOX: It wasn't a random spot. It wouldn't have happened
at a shopping mall or it wouldn't
have happened at a supermarket. It would happen at some event where ravers
were present.
KAYE: Fox says Huff had grown obsessed with ravers, had
parked his truck to watch them in
the dark.
FOX: Frequently mass killers will take their own life because
life so is miserable, but to
them it's important that they do something first.
KAYE: A grand statement with his own exit. Computer forensics
show Huff researched rave
parties and the drug Ecstasy online. What he found, Fox says, would eventually
enrage him.
(on camera) What was it about the rave community that bugged him so much?
FOX: Part of it was the promiscuity, the sexuality that
he saw. Kyle Huff was a guy who
didn't have a lot of girlfriends. In fact, he never really had a longterm
relationship
with a woman.
And in the rave community he saw the affection and the hugging
and the kissing and the
touching, and he was disgusted by it.
KAYE (voice-over): But was that really enough to drive someone
to kill? Validation of
Fox's suspicion soon came from the most unlikely witness, the murderer
himself.
(on camera) A month after the shooting a letter was found
crumpled up inside this dumpster
about a mile from where Huff lived. The letter was dated March 23, just
two days before the
shooting.
Crime lab officials determined it is highly probable Huff
wrote the note, which included
both a good-bye to his twin brother and a rant against the rave community.
(voice-over) The letter was addressed to Kane, his brother,
from Kyle. It read, "I hate
leaving you by yourself, but this is something I feel I have to do. I
can't let them get
away with what they're doing. I hate this world of sex that they are striving
to make.
This is a revolution, brother. The things they say and do are just too
disturbing to me to
just ignore and try to live my life with."
It's signed, "Bye, Kane. I love you."
FOX: As he was obsessing and going deeper and deeper into
his depression and isolation, he
truly believed he was a revolutionary and he had to take one small step
for society, at
thwarting this evil that he saw approaching.
KAYE: Huff had never harmed anyone before. His life, until
his death, had been totally
unremarkable. In high school, the two brothers were voted "least
spirited."
(on camera) Does Kyle Huff fit the profile of a mass murderer?
FOX: Yes, in many ways he does.
KAYE: How so?
FOX: Well, he has a long history of frustration, didn't
do well in school, never really
had a job that gave him any success or satisfaction. He was someone who
tended to
externalize blame.
KAYE: If there was something more, we'll never know. Huff's
self-inflicted shot to the
head prevented an autopsy. Any signs of mental illness were obliterated.
FOX: Those sorts of answers are permanently hidden and permanently
buried.
KAYE: So it's a conclusion of sorts. Perhaps the best we'll
ever have of what destroyed
Kyle Huff and those he took with him.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Seattle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Intriguing and tragic story.
In a moment our "Shot of the Day" but first, Erica
Hill from Headline News joins us now
with a 360 bulletin.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, John.
A Senate panel approved terror detainee legislation that
President Bush has vowed to
block. The proposal does not include provisions Mr. Bush is pressing for,
including one to
withhold evidence from detainees in terror trials.
Four Republicans voted for the less restrictive Senate bill,
deepening the rift among
Republicans just weeks before the midterm elections. And adding to the
backlash today,
former Secretary of State Colin Powell publicly criticized his former
boss, saying it
would hurt the country and put our troops at risk.
Ford Motor Company is offering buyout or early retirement
to 75,000 union workers, part of
an effort for the company to slash costs and to rein in growing losses.
The troubled No. 2
auto maker is under intense pressure from Wall Street. Ford's new CEO,
Alan Mulally is
expected to unveil details of its previously announced turnaround plan
tomorrow.
And a farm in Wisconsin is celebrating the birth of its
third white buffalo. Now the white
buffalo are extremely rare. They're considered sacred by many native American
tribes. Over
the weekend, dozens of American Indians held a drum ceremony to honor
the calf, which has
yet to be named. The odds of a buffalo being white, by the way, at least
one in a million,
John.
ROBERTS: What a cute little buffalo. You don't often get
a chance to say that either.
HILL: No, you don't.
ROBERTS: Hey, Erica, stick around. It's time for our "Shot
of the Day", and this one is
just for you. Move over, firefighters. Calendar cops are here.
HILL: Oh, my.
ROBERTS: These officers are New Jersey's finest, and they
don't look like they've been
eating many donuts, either.
HILL: I don't think so.
ROBERTS: All we can say about a couple of fellows are "nice
guns", and that's also quite a
weapon you've got there, as well. Twelve cops posed for the project. They
were chosen out
of 60 applicants, which seems to suggest these guys aren't really shy
about showing off
their walkie-talkies.
HILL: You know, they don't look so shy, do they? Not half
bad.
ROBERTS: I wonder -- I wonder how many of our female viewers
out there just said, "Arrest
me, please."
HILL: I'm on my way to Bergen County. Yes.
ROBERTS: Erica, thanks.
HILL: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: See you next hour. Bye.
We began the night in Iraq. Coming up, Afghanistan. Anderson
Cooper on the state of play
in the country, still very much up for grabs. Afghanistan, the unfinished
war, a 360
special report, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): It all started with a
homesick kindergartner. Four years
ago Kristi Thomas doodled and scribbled inspirational messages on her
daughter's lunch back
to get her through the school day.
MADISON THOMAS, STUDENT: It was like she was there, because
it sometimes says, "I'll see
you at 3. Make it a great day."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Madison's classmates started digging
the home decorated bags out
of the trash, Thomas realized she might be on to something. Today, the
former child
psychologist's creations are sold online and at 250 stores nationwide.
KRISTI THOMAS, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT: Lunchology manufactures
educational, entertaining and
inspirational lunch bags. We have 1,000 theme sets, from foreign languages
to every kind
of sport genre imaginable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want this one.
K. THOMAS: Lunchology lunch bags are for children and for
adults. Adults, they're buying
themes such as TV trivia, blast from the past, which they love, because
it connects them
to their childhood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lunchology sales are expected to reach
$150,000 this year. But the
icing on the cake is the support Thomas gets from her family.
M. THOMAS: Some people thought this company's going to go
nowhere, but me and my dad
believed in her, and this company has just taken off in stores.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Five years after 9/11, here in Afghanistan, America's
war on terror is far from
over. Five years later, Osama bin Laden is still out there, and to make
matters worse,
here in Afghanistan, attacks by the Taliban and al Qaeda are on the rise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is what led America to war in Afghanistan.
Terror on the home front: 2,749
people killed on September 11, 2001. And the mastermind of it all, Osama
bin Laden, is
still out there.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Realizing
bin Laden has more than gone
underground; he's slipped off the radar.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight an exclusive look at the manhunt and
bin Laden's last known home.
Dying to kill. A terror tape titled "The American Inferno
in Afghanistan".
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (speaking foreign language)
GRAPHIC: I pray to Allah that this operation will be vengeance
upon the American pigs and
their apostate collaborator dogs.
ANNOUNCER: But is it propaganda for troops?
Plus, clash of culture, Afghan style. From music to prostitution
in a modern shopping
mall, once banned under the Taliban, now thriving. But the vice and virtue
cops may strike
again.
This is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, "Afghanistan:
The Unfinished War".
Here's Anderson Cooper.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Thanks for joining us on this special edition of
360. Five years after the 9/11
attacks, the war here in Eastern Afghanistan is raging. Al Qaeda fighters,
Taliban
militants and common criminals linked to a growing drug trade are threatening
the
stability of the Karzai government and threatening U.S. forces on a daily
basis.
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