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CNN NEWSROOM

FBI Returns to Seymour Avenue; Anguish in Cleveland; Kidnapped Women Face Long Recovery; Brutal Kidnapping Case Hits a Nerve; Cleveland Community Asking Why; Rock Star Facing Murder-for-Hire Charge; Mark Sanford's Political Comeback and Chris Christie's Weight Loss Surgery; Prince Harry in Colorado; E-Mails Raise New Questioning on Benghazi; Best Places to Retire

Aired May 11, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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


ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Alison Kosik.

Here are the top stories we're following in the CNN newsroom.

The man accused of unspeakable crimes against three women is spending his first weekend under lockup. This, as an FBI teams seals sites on his Cleveland street.

People in that neighborhood are shocked to the point of tears that this happened just yards away from their homes. The emotional reaction from one man who can't believe the charges his neighbor faces.

Prince Harry is in Colorado today. He'll be talking to wounded servicemen and women competing in the paralympic=style Warrior Games.

First, to Cleveland, where FBI investigators are back out on Seymour Avenue hunting for clues into a decade of horror. Our national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, is following developments from the scene.

Susan, what is happening there today?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison. Well, for the past couple of days, the FBI and other authorities have been working to seal up this house, to board it up, to put a fence around it, sealed in cement so that no one can get inside and bother this area, this house. Keep it away from anyone who wants to try to get inside, for example.

And it's important for them to maintain that site. Of course, if they later need it if this case should come to trial. So that's what they've been working on for the past couple of days as Ariel Castro sits in a jail cell measuring about 9-foot-9, waiting for the next legal step for him, and that would be a grand jury. He will face a number of charges in an indictment.

KOSIK: Susan, now that sort of this has had time to settle in with the neighborhood there, what are they saying to you? Are they coming out -- you know, it's the weekend, it's Saturday, are they coming out and talking to you about how this happened so close to where they live?

CANDIOTTI: They are. And it's been, obviously, difficult for them to come to grips to what happened on their street. And they're waiting to try to get their lives back to normal, again. But after all, they acknowledged this will always be known as that house. If it remains there, if it isn't torn down eventually, possibly, by the city.

And then you also have people who have come here from miles away and also from different neighborhoods just to see for themselves what happened here. They feel drawn to this. And talking about what they will tell their children and are telling their children. An important lesson from this to never, never get into a car with strangers.

KOSIK: Exactly. All right, Susan Candiotti in Cleveland, thank you.

Russia knew about sinister texts between Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother but didn't tell the U.S. A law enforcement official tells CNN that Tsarnaev told his mother in 2011 he was interested in joining a militant group carrying out attacks against Russia. Moscow warned the U.S. about Tsarnaev's possible extremism but didn't reveal the text.

The attorney for First Responder Bryce Reed says his client will plead not guilty to having materials to make a bomb. Reed was one of the emergency workers at last month's deadly fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas. There's still no word what caused the blast which claimed 14 lives.

And these pictures you're looking at are live pictures from outer space. NASA astronauts are working to repair a leak at the International Space Station. They've been at it just about -- just before 9:00 this morning. The repairs may take six hours or more.

The discovery of three young women allegedly locked up, beaten and tortured for years is difficult for anybody to comprehend. It's especially hard for the people who lived in that neighborhood in Cleveland.

Dan DeRoos is a reporter for WOIO in Cleveland.

Dan, I know you've been covering this story -- the story right from the very beginning. How are people in the community dealing with the horrifying details of what's happened? I mean, I talked to Susan Candiotti about this. What are you hearing on this?

DAN DEROOS, WOIO ANCHOR/REPORTER: Alison, it's been interesting to follow this through the course of the week. Obviously, on Monday, when the announcement was made and in this neighborhood when we got the word, was pure jubilation. But we've seen sort of a shift in that to the questions, the anger behind why did this go on for so long, could there have been anything else done to find these girls?

And then we're seeing these makeshift rallies pop up in show of support. I covered one on Thursday night -- Wednesday night of people marching across the Veterans Memorial Bridge here in Cleveland. Really no significance to that area but it was a -- it was a chance for about 300 to 400 people that say -- they all said, I felt like I had to do something. I wanted to show some form of support for --

KOSIK: OK. Dan DeRoos, are you still there? I think we may be having --

DEROOS: Yes, I got you. I do have you.

KOSIK: OK. You're still there. OK. My audio dropped out. So let me ask you this. What new developments are you hearing today from your law enforcement sources?

DEROOS: From some of our sources it really comes down to what's happening to Castro in his jail cell. We know he's on what they call suicide prevention. That's more or less a suicide watch. But in this case, he's no -- he's made no indications in -- while he's been in and being held in jail that he's going to commit suicide, but it's one of those issues that they're going to take every precaution. They literally got a guard standing outside of his cell that that's that person's job is to look through a tiny window into a cell to make sure he's not doing anything to harm himself.

As far as the investigation is concerned, they are poring over those 200 pieces of evidence that were taken out of Castro's home. We know for a fact that his DNA has been tested against other crimes here in the state of Ohio. We talked to the attorney general and he said at this point Castro has cleared any connection to any other unsolved crimes in Ohio. Now that doesn't mean he didn't commit any other crimes here, any other crimes. It just means of the evidence that's been collected for all the crimes and all the unsolved cases, he's not a match at this point.

KOSIK: OK, Dan, one -- one last question for you. We know that Michelle Knight is in seclusion right now. She's not speaking to her family. Do you know what Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry have been doing since they got home?

DEROOS: Well, we know they're trying to -- and you put this in relative terms. They're trying to live a normal life. Trying to get re-acclimated with their family. Just spending time at home. We know that Gina DeJesus' family, they've hung up a tarp around the back side of their yard so that Gina can feel like she can come and go when she pleases to get outside.

Keep in mind, these women haven't spend any time outside in a period of 10 years. So to be able to have the ability to get up from bed, to get up off of the couch and open a door to freely go outside. Just try and picture and imagine what that would do to your mental state. So they're just trying to do the little things, the tiny things to get back to a normal life. Don't know that either of them have made any trips really beyond their front door and their backyards.

KOSIK: OK. Dan DeRoos, thank you so much.

DEROOS: Thank you.

KOSIK: Ariel Castro is now behind bars accused of kidnapping and rape, but for these three women, there's a long road ahead. John Walsh is the former host of "America's Most Wanted." He joins me now.

Thanks for joining us, John.

JOHN WALSH, FORMER HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Thank you, Alison, for having me.

KOSIK: How does this case compare to other kidnapping cases that you've seen?

WALSH: Well, the magnitude of it is that -- is that three women came back alive. It's incredible. It's probably the best result that I've seen in years. Of course, Elizabeth Smart was a girl that we looked for long and hard for eight months. She's done an incredible job. She -- you know, coming back from that eight months. She walked the halls of Congress with me to help get the Adam Walsh Act passed that creates a national sex offender registry.

And this week I got to see Jaycee Dugard in Washington, D.C., at the annual Hope Awards. How appropriate, coincidence. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children gave Jaycee Dugard an award for her heroic comeback and fight and bravery and she of course has two children by her kidnapper.

But this is three women. Three women who will be home for Mother's Day. I mean, Nancy DeJesus gets to see little Gina. Amanda Berry, can you imagine this, she's going to -- she's going to celebrate her first Mother's Day without this monster looking over her shoulder. She's free for Mother's Day with her beautiful daughter. And, of course, Michelle Knight probably had the worst of it and I recommend that the media go home, leave these families alone. Talk to them when they feel like it and when they're ready. And it's going to be a wonderful Mother's Day.

KOSIK: Yes, it's obviously very hard. I mean, we're hearing how these tarps have been put up at Gina's house just so she can go -- she can go outside. I mean, they were captive for 10 years and now they go home and they're captive because, well, the media is trying to do their job. But I mean that's frustrating. I mean, so how do these women even begin to heal after this kind of ordeal?

WALSH: Well, they need counseling. I mean, they need full-time professional counseling and that was provided to Elizabeth Smart by her family and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And I talked to Jaycee Dugard the other night. She said the road back is a very tough one. The euphoria is over in a couple days and then the reality comes that they have to bond again with their families.

They have lots of concerns and fears and anxiety and they've been through holy hell and these women were in the house of a monster. He wasn't just a kidnapper and a pedophile and a sexual abuser, he was a physical abuser. He is the -- he's the ultimate coward. So these families need professional counseling, they need to be left alone so that they can get used to being free and bond with their loved ones. So I say I'm in the media and when Elizabeth Smart was recovered, lots of people in the media and FOX said, well, you know the smarts. You went and met Elizabeth. How about getting Elizabeth on "America's Most Wanted." And I said, no, I'm not going to -- I'm advising the family to get professional help. Look at Elizabeth. She got married three months ago, I got an invitation to the wedding.

But these people need to try to assume a normal life and the next big hurdle is going to be what happens to the perpetrator.

KOSIK: OK --

WALSH: Is there going to be a real rough trial?

KOSIK: Go ahead, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you there. You want to finish your thoughts.

WALSH: That's all right. I said, you know, people are all celebrating, but think about this. This monster is going to have to come to trial, unless he makes a deal. And I hope this prosecutor throws the book at him. He needs to spend every day of the rest of his life in a jail. And these women are going to have to put up with it. That was -- that was Elizabeth Smart's biggest fear and she did incredibly well two days on the witness stand.

I talked to her one day. She said my biggest fear, John, is that the jury, they'll find this guy insane and he'll be put into a mental institution and released in four or five years. But thank god that jury -- I said that jury will realize that he's just a horrible, coward pedophile. And they sentenced him for life without, and Elizabeth got her justice. But those couple of days she was on the witness stand were hell for her. So these women are going to have to go through this. They're going to have to get prepared mentally for this -- for this trial.

KOSIK: OK, John Walsh, don't go anywhere. We're going to be right back after the break because I want to get your take on how these cases were handled and a neighbor cried tears of shock and horror after hearing what police say happened just a few doors down. We're going to have that emotional reaction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Back to our continuing coverage of the horrific kidnapping case in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm joined again by John Walsh, the former host of "America's Most Wanted."

And, John, your passion to help missing children, that began when tragedy stuck your own family. Your 6-year-old son Adam, he was abducted and murdered in 1981. And I happen to remember that like it was yesterday. I have -- I was close in age when Adam disappeared. I went and shopped at that Sears in Hollywood, Florida, a lot. So when you hear about these women in Ohio, how much -- how much does it bring back those painful memories and how are you doing?

WALSH: Well, it brings back lots of memories because I walked in their parents' shoes. You know, I searched for Adam for two weeks and then we got the worst news that he had been decapitated. All we ever got of Adam's was his severed head, and it took 27 years to solve Adam's case. I had to continually go back to the Hollywood Police and then a beautiful, young chief, Chad Wagner, had the guts to reopen Adam's case, and I had two friends of mine, Joe Matthews, a retired homicide detective, and Kelly Hancock, a Broward prosecutor who won 300 cases.

They both, pro bono, for free, worked on Adam's case and proved unequivocally that the guy we thought Adam, Ottis Toole, who has died in prison eight years before they opened the case, that he was the guy. And they closed the case and apologized to us on CNN and FOX News Live and "USA Today," and it was -- it's all about justice. It's not about -- not revenge, it's not about closure.

These women will never have closure, it's about justice. So their next hurdle will be waiting to see what happens to this alleged monster and that will be part of their healing process. You know, we waited 27 years to close that chapter of our lives to know who killed Adam.

KOSIK: How concerned are you about investigations, John, into other missing person's cases in that Cleveland area?

WALSH: Well, first of all, I've got to say I'm the biggest supporter of law enforcement. It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. Hindsight is always 20/20. And I've worked with cops for years. I mean, they're my biggest supporters. We're on the same team. And -- but they do make mistakes and the chief, Chad Wagner, in Hollywood said, John, we owe it to you to open this case. And they admitted they've made mistakes.

Cops are human. They have very limited resources. They have very limited funds. But I look back and it really troubles me and it troubled Amanda Berry's family. I talked to her mother, we profiled her three times on "America's Most Wanted," and her mother said to me it's breaking her heart. And lots of people say Amanda Berry's mother died of a broken heart. That she was listed as a runaway. Vital, vital hours and weeks and days are lost when police arbitrarily say someone's a runaway.

And the Amber alert. I walked the halls of Congress three years to try to get National Emergency Broadcasting System to do the Amber alerts and Gina DeJesus wasn't listed in an Amber alert. Really tough, should have been.

KOSIK: All right. Thank you, John Walsh.

And still ahead, how could Castro have kept these women captive for almost a decade? And the big question we all want to know was why? A former FBI behavioral science agent, his unique perspective on the mind of an abductor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JUAN PEREZ, NEIGHBOR OF ARIEL CASTRO: We feel lied to and we're ashamed. Because we couldn't -- we couldn't help earlier.

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, PIERS MORGAN LIVE: Do you feel guilty, Juan, that you were so close to these girls and you weren't able to help them, even though you knew nothing about what was happening?

PEREZ: Yes. Yes.

MORGAN: It's obviously not -- it's obviously your fault, Juan. And everyone knows that. But I can see the feeling in you and it must be one that many people in the area share, which is this appalling atrocity was happening right under your noses and there is this man that you all think is this incredibly nice guy and actually it turns out he is a -- he's a monster.

PEREZ: Yes. Just I think that all the times that, you know, we shared laughing outside and joking around and having people over. And to know that just two doors down was women there that, you know -- you know, were being taken from the families and were living, you know, in a house of horrors, as I heard.

Just to think that, you know, what could have happened to one of my nephews or niece. What could have happened maybe to my mother when I wasn't home, or I just -- I just can't really put it altogether. Still I'm very happy -- let me get that out. I'm very happy and excited for the girls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: And that was a neighbor of Ariel Castro who had described him as a nice guy. But that changed quickly after Castro was arrested for the kidnapping of three women.

There are still so many questions about this case and a lot of these questions begin with why.

I'm joined now by Ken Lanning. He's a former FBI special agent in the Behavioral Science Unit.

Ken, these women were kept for a decade. A decade. What happens in these cases that keep people who were abducted from trying to escape sooner?

KENNETH LANNING, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT, FBI BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE UNIT: You know, I can't say whether these women even tried to escape earlier, maybe they did, I can't say. But generally speaking my experience with these types of cases is that offenders in these long- term cases tend to control their victims with a variety of techniques that involve, number one, particularly at the beginning, threats and violence.

Number two, they sometimes use restraining devices and secure rooms. Number three, sometimes they have accomplices who assist in watching the victims. But more importantly in those cases that go on for a really long time, more than a year or so, it usually involves a changing and evolving of the relationship between the offender and the victim.

They move from a stranger relationship to an acquaintance relationship to almost a domestic relationship. And in essence, each of these victims has to find a way to survive that works for them. And that's going to depend on their personality and the personality and the behavior of the offender.

KOSIK: And you have studied a lot of suspects in abduction cases. Is there anything that could indicate why this guy abducted three women and held them for so long? And, you know, I think he's a human being. I think. But, I mean, how does someone like this keep this up like this for so long?

LANNING: Yes, once again I can't say about this specific guy, but in my experience your question really involves three parts that I'll take quickly one at a time. Number one, why do these sex offenders abduct their victims? We know that most sex offenders don't abduct their victims particularly those who victimize children.

What we found from our research and study of those who do abduct, they usually have many characteristics, but the most significant one seems to be a lack of interpersonal skill. They abduct children because they lack the ability to do otherwise. They tend to in varying degrees to be sexually and socially inadequate.

The second part of that question is, why three victims? It's an interesting issue. Why he abducted three victims and kept all three of them is hard to know with certainty, but it may very well be that one of the earlier victims or the victims were not meeting his expectations or his sexual fantasies. Things were going well and so he decided to abduct additional victims.

But the last part is the one that's most fascinating and we don't really know for sure because there's not a lot of these cases. And that is, why did he hold them for so long? And my speculation would be that basically it usually involves a desire for some kind of relationship with his victim other than just a one-time sexual assault. Maybe even in a few cases wanting to have children with them.

Also could involve the idea of wanting to fulfill certain sexual fantasies that he had that can't be fulfilled in a one-time contact. Also in some cases they want to totally control their victims, that is very important. And also in other cases, they actually want to torture and hurt and inflict pain and that victim has to be living for them to get some enjoyment from that.

But the bottom line is after abducting a child, you only have a couple of choices. You either release the child, which is what happens most of the time, or you kill the child, which is the horrible outcome, or the victim is kept alive. And then the big problem we'll have at that point is how long do you continue with that and still get away with your crime, and what is your long-range plan. And I don't know whether some of these guys even know what their long-range plan is.

KOSIK: What is it that makes finding an alleged abductor like Ariel Castro or finding these women is so darn difficult for investigators? It's -- we're all hearing about the proximity of these victims and the proximity of their homes. What is it about that?

LANNING: One of the things that makes these cases difficult is something that John Walsh just mentioned in his interview is that, usually what happens in these cases that people don't realize, what gets reported to the police is this child is missing. Most missing children have not been abducted. And children can be abducted for a wide variety of reasons. So it is simply not reasonable or realistic for the police to respond to every single case as if it's a stranger abduction.

They usually have to do a multi-track investigation and consider varying possibilities. So for a long time, they don't even know with some degree of certainty that these children are, in fact, abducted. And they may be missing for other reasons.

Also, there are legal differences between the missing status of adults and children. And here we have one of the victims as an adult and so adults kind of have a right to be missing whereas children may not.

And maybe the last issue I've heard several people today and I certainly understand why refer to this guy as a monster. But one of the problems is if society keeps looking for monsters, very often they don't see the guy that's right in front of them and begin to suspect him because he doesn't look or seem to be a monster. So it's hard to know. Ted Bundy abducted children and yet he seemed like a very nice guy.

KOSIK: They all seemed very normal, don't they?

LANNING: Not all of them, but many of them.

KOSIK: All right, Ken Lanning, thanks so much. And we're actually going to see you later again this afternoon.

Plus --

The lead singer of a popular metal band is accused of hiring a hit- man. You'll never believe who the police say he wanted dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alison Kosik. And if you're just tuning in, thanks for joining us.

We've been following crime stories all week with the Cleveland kidnappings and the Boston bombing dominating the headlines. But our next story is one you may have missed. The subject, a religious heavy metal rock star with a big following who's now in big trouble. He's been arrested and charged with trying to have his wife killed.

CNN's Nischelle Turner has the story from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tim Lambises is best known as the front man for the Grammy nominated Christian heavy metal band "As I lay Dying." He's a full fledge rock star with a big following.

BRANDON GEIST, EDITOR, REVOLVER MAGAZINE: You know, they've been on the biggest tours. They've toured with the biggest bands. The perception of Tim and of "As I lay Dying" as a band were just that they're the nicest, coolest, chillest dudes.

TURNER: So when San Diego authorities arrested and charged the singer this week for attempting to hire a hitman for $1,000 to kill his estranged wife, no one could believe it was the same guy.

GEIST: This is the absolute shock.

TURNER: The 32-year-old father of three appeared in San Diego County Superior Court Thursday to face the felony count and hear the allegations against him.

CLAUDIA GRASSO, SAN DIEGO COUNTY PROSECUTOR: He sent an e-mail to Mrs. Lambises telling her that he doesn't love her and does not want to be with her any more. He also told her that he no longer believes in God.

TURNER: Megan Murphy Lambesis, with whom he shares three adopted children, filed for divorce in September after eight years of marriage. According to the "L.A. Times" she alleged he was emotionally distant, preoccupied with body building and touring, and said he spends money irresponsibly, including on numerous tattoos. The prosecution claims he asked members of his gym if they knew anyone who could murder his wife. Police were tipped off to the request and set up a sting operation.

GRASSO: He gave the hitman posing -- you know, our undercover agent an envelope with $1,000 for expenses, pictures of his wife, the address where she is living, including gate codes on how to get in and wrote down specific dates where he could go kill her.

TURNER: Lambesis pleaded not guilty. His band mates seemingly as stunned as everyone posted a statement on their Web site. Reading in part, "The legal process is taking its course and we have no more information than you do. There are many unanswered questions and the situation will become clearer in the coming days and weeks."

Nischelle Turner, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has cemented his political comeback and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has confessed to having had a medical procedure to helping him lose weight.

Political editor Paul Steinhauser is here with a look at why these two Republicans were topics of conversation this week. PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Alison.

Chris Christie says his weight loss operation had nothing to do with politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I did this for myself, my wife and my children. It has nothing to do with running for governor this year, with running for president at any time in my life, if I ever decided to do that. It may sound odd to some people, but this is a hell of a lot more important to me than running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: But regardless of his motivation, news this week that New Jersey's heavyweight Republican governor have the procedure will have an effect on him if he decides to run for the White House in 2016.

You know, it's plain and simple, a lot of people care about a presidential candidate's health and appearance and losing weight is almost a prerequisite for Christie should he launch a White House bid.

From weight loss to political gain. Mark Sanford is living proof that life can be about second chances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK SANFORD, SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: I just want to acknowledge a God, not just of second chances but third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chances because that is the reality of our shared humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: But after winning a special election Tuesday for a congressional seat he once held, a race that captured national attention, Sanford received political redemption -- Alison.

KOSIK: Thanks, Paul.

Prince Harry, he's the Warrior Games in Colorado today. He's also talking to wounded service members. We're going to go live to Colorado Springs, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Prince Harry is in Colorado today attending the Warrior Games. The event features wounded veterans in athletic competition. The third in line to the British crown is in the military himself. Harry is a captain in Britain's Army Air Corps and has been deployed to Afghanistan twice.

Royal correspondent Max Foster, he's live in Colorado Springs.

Hi, Max. So why did Harry choose to attend this event?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison. Well, he's -- it combines two of his great interests. Sports and wounded service men. He's a serving officer himself and he's very involved in the cause of helping war veterans, war heroes who've really done a great job and he feels that they should have proper recognition.

We show you pictures of -- some pictures just coming into us now. They're not live pictures, but they're very recent. Prince Harry playing sitting volleyball with a pretty skilled team, at least they looked skilled compared to him. Rolling around on the floor there. It's a very hard sport to play, I'm told. And certainly Prince Harry is making it look quite difficult but he's throwing himself in and this is what Prince Harry does so well. You know, he gets involved in royal events. He's not just standing around talking to people. He throws himself in.

And then shortly, Alison, he'll come out here to start the Warrior Games. A formal opening ceremony. So a few days of what's described, Alison, as the paralympics for wounded veterans.

KOSIK: How are those veterans reacting to Prince Harry being there and being so involved?

FOSTER: Well, if you saw the amount of press that have come here to highlight these games because of Prince Harry. I think they're quite grateful, actually. And also he is a soldier's soldier as this private secretary describes him. So they relate to him, many of the war veterans here. And many of them got their injuries, of course, from Afghanistan, which is where he served recently.

So he's on a level with them and he's wearing military fatigues, as well. So he looks like a soldier. He is a soldier. So yes, they react really well to him. And over the next couple of days you're going to see him throwing himself to various sports, supporting that cause. He's going to be adopting this cause for years to come. That's the impression we get, Alison. So you're going to -- he's going to get a higher profile because he's here and that's great for them.

KOSIK: OK. So tell me some of his next stops on this U.S. trip for Prince Harry.

FOSTER: Well, he's going to be coming your way, Alison. He's going to be heading to New York. He'll be a fund-raiser there. He's also going to be getting involved in a game of baseball. We'll see how good he is at that and, also, crucially going along to an area of New Jersey affected by Hurricane Sandy and meeting many of the victims of that storm.

So that will be a very serious point and part of his role to really represent the UK showing their sympathy for what happened there. And then it all ends up on Wednesday with a polo match. A very glamorous affair in Connecticut. Billionaires playing polo with Prince Harry. Him raising money for his charity, an African orphanage.

KOSIK: You know, Prince Harry picking up these causes and really getting involved is really changing his reputation, isn't it, Max?

FOSTER: Yes. Well, his reputation, of course, in the U.S. was largely defined last year by his episode in Las Vegas where he got caught taking all his clothes off in a hotel suite. And he's trying to correct that, I think. He is trying to come here as a professional royal. His grandmother stepping back a bit. So he's being elevated having to get involved in more serious royal stuff. So representing the queen abroad more, a more senior role, and he's having to be more serious and I think he's embracing that.

He wants to be seen as a more serious player. But we don't want him to lose that character. You know, he does do royal tours like no one else. And he does offer great TV pictures when he gets involved in things. So hopefully he'll still be doing a bit more of that.

KOSIK: OK, Max Foster, thanks very much.

If you need a little inspiration to change your life, look no further. Six people are training to race the Nautical Malibu Triathlon along with our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And they're not just tri-athletes. They're actually average people hoping to reset their lives and the training is hard. Sanjay is here now with a "Fit Nation" update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: So if you need a little inspiration to change your life, look no further. Sanjay Gupta is here now with a "Fit Nation" update.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alison, I spent a good part of this week in Florida training with our "Fit Nation" six-pack. Now we're less than four months away from our big triathlon in Malibu. I got to tell you, after what I saw this week, I am positive they're all going to be ready.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready, go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: So as you can see, they're all looking pretty good. I got a little of my own training in, as well. If you want to see more of how our training week went in Florida, check out CNN.com/fitnation or now the featured "Fit Nation" section of the CNN iPad app -- Alison.

KOSIK: Thanks, Sanjay.

Sanjay, now an amazing story out of survival out of Bangladesh. More than 16 days after a garment factory collapsed, a woman was pulled from the rubble alive. She told rescuers she survived on biscuits and water. The 19-year-old woman is known only as Reshma. She apparently used an iron rod to get workers' attention. The death toll from the collapse has passed 1,000.

And from Bangladesh to Benghazi. The deadly attack on the U.S. compound in Libya there has opened up the field for a host of attacks on the Obama administration. CNN sources say e-mails show the White House and the State Department were more involved than they first said in the decision to remove an initial CIA assessment that a group with ties to al Qaeda was involved.

Our Athena Jones is live at the White House.

Athena, tell us more about these e-mails. What do they say?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison. Well, what we're discovering is that there's a lot of discussion going on behind the scenes before. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was given the talking points that she was given to go on those Sunday shows just a few days after the attacks. There were discussions going on between the White House, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and Justice Department officials about just what should be revealed.

And the big issue now is that we understand that they decided to remove two key points from those talking points. One is that the CIA had delivered multiple warnings about the potential for a terrorist attack in that area in Benghazi, Libya. And the other is an initial CIA assessment that it was a group that was linked to al Qaeda that was responsible for carrying out this attack.

Now of course as you remember Ambassador Rice said on the Sunday talk shows that this attack grew out of violence surrounding videos that had insulted Islam. And so Republican critics in Congress are saying that's not the full story, that the administration sanitized those remarks, took out those key points from the talking points in order to give the administration cover because this was a president who was just a couple of months away from an election.

Someone who had celebrated having found and killed Osama bin Laden and an administration that had been saying that al Qaeda was decimated and on the run, and then here you have this attack in Benghazi on September 11th, no less, that looked as though it had terrorist -- extremist links to it -- Alison.

KOSIK: Athena, was the change in language of Susan Rice's talking points, was that an attempt to hide al Qaeda involvement in the run-up to the presidential vote?

JONES: Well, that's certainly what some of these Republican critics are alleging. They believe this was political. The administration has said that al Qaeda is on the run. And so that doesn't really square with the idea that you're going to have an attack probably by a terrorist group on September 11th in Benghazi.

And so they're saying that the White House scrubbed that kind of information, those references from Susan Rice's talking points, not just the White House. But other administration officials, as well, to try to downplay that point.

Now the White House says, look, this was an ongoing investigation and so they didn't want to get ahead of themselves. They didn't want to prejudice this ongoing investigation by talking about links to al Qaeda. I should mention, too, that this group they're talking about, Ansar al Sharia, at first said that they were responsible for this attack and then later on retracted that. And so the White House argues that they wanted to give talking points that were accurate and not say too much and get ahead of the investigation -- Alison.

KOSIK: OK. Athena Jones in Washington, thanks.

JONES: Thanks.

KOSIK: When many of us think of retiring, we think of Arizona or Florida, well, think again. We'll run down the best places to retire in style.

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KOSIK: Are you ready to just pack it in and retire? Maybe the sunny shores of Florida are calling. Well, not so fast. The new study by Bankrate ranks the best places in the country to retire and neither Florida nor Arizona even cracked the top 10. My goodness.

Chris Kahn, you're Bankrate's research editor, you're joining me from New York. Hi.

CHRIS KAHN, BANKRATE.COM: Thanks for having me.

KOSIK: I guess Florida and Arizona didn't make the top of the list because of the way you added up the factors?

KAHN: Yes.

KOSIK: How did Bank Rates make the calculations and which state actually came out on top?

KAHN: Yes. Well, first, it's important to kind of talk about how we did the ranking to understand. I was really surprised myself. I grew up in Arizona, and I would have thought it would have ranked a little bit higher. It didn't do so well. So it's important to understand why we did what we did. The -- everyone has their own idea of where they'd like to retire. Some people absolutely need to be near the beach. Some want to live in a brown stone in the city. Some want to be near their grandkids.

So it's important -- it is hard to really try to account for all those different kinds of choices. So we wanted to ask at Bank Rate some very specific kind of questions that we thought that retirees should be asking themselves. For example, if you were going to make a move, maybe you'd want to ask yourself which state had the lowest taxes, which state had the lowest cost of living, as you can imagine if you're living on a pension or on Social Security, you're going to have to have a fixed income and that's really important.

We also asked ourselves which states had the best access to medical care. Crime was a factor. And of course weather. And when we ranked all of those, we did get some surprising numbers as you said. Tennessee was the top of our list and in fact Appalachian states did incredibly well. They all have that sweet spot of being relatively warm if you take the national average. They all had relatively low state and local taxes, relatively good cost of living, and good access to medical care.

KOSIK: So with this new criteria that you're using, is this kind of a wakeup call to the usual retiree states like Arizona and Florida to maybe get their act together in these new areas that you're looking at?

KAHN: Well, you know, I think you need to understand why people are making their choices to retire. We're looking at some very practical questions and I think it's important to understand that most people when they're deciding to go somewhere they've been thinking about this for decades probably. And the places like Arizona, Florida, this is where they've been dreaming to go to for a long time, and I wouldn't say that this ranking should tell people that this is -- you need to get your act together.

I wouldn't say that this is telling people they shouldn't go there. I think what we're saying is that if you do go to some of these places with the higher cost of living, higher taxes, prepare yourself. It is important to have a financial plan in place when you are planning to live somewhere for 10, 20, 30 years.

KOSIK: OK. Chris Kahn of Bankrate, thank you very much.

KAHN: Thank you.

KOSIK: They put their lives on the line every day and today some of America's top cops got a presidential thank you. We're going to take you to Washington next.

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KOSIK: FBI investigators are in Cleveland filling up a home next door to the one where three women were allegedly held captive, beaten and tortured. The abandoned home and garage were searched Thursday, days after the kidnapping victims were freed from some 10 years in captivity.

SWAT teams are still at the scene of a tense and lengthy standoff at a home in Trenton, New Jersey. The ordeal began yesterday afternoon. Authorities say a gunman barricaded himself and three children inside the house. We don't know the children's conditions.

At the White House this morning President Obama honors some of the nation's leading police officers. They are called Top Cops. The 43 officers were selected by the National Association of Police Organizations and represent departments from across the nation.

That's going to wrap it up for us this hour. I am Alison Kosik, and I'll see you again in an hour with the latest breaking stories hitting the CNN NEWSROOM.

But first another week, another record for stocks, so why are you not feeling any richer. Christine Romans has the answers. "YOUR MONEY" starts now.