Manhunt in Yellowstone National Park
LEMON: Ok. Are two suspected killers using Yellowstone National Park as their hiding ground? Police and federal authorities certainly think so. They're on the hunt for two escaped inmates, John McCluskey and Tracy Province. They fled an Arizona prison last week along with a third man who has been recaptured, by the way. McCluskey and Province are now suspected in the brutal killing of a couple in New Mexico. The two are considered armed and extremely dangerous. Major Robert Shilling of the New Mexico state police joins us now from Albuquerque. Thank you, sir. Armed and extremely dangerous -- what are you telling people in Yellowstone National Park?</s>MAJOR ROBERT SHILLING, NEW MEXICO STATE POLICE (via telephone): Well, Yellowstone included, but anywhere else in the southwest, we're telling people that, you know, "Please be aware of your surroundings and if you see anything that may be remotely associated with this investigation and with these three individuals on the run to call the local law enforcement." We're extremely concerned about the continued threat to public safety that these three pose.</s>LEMON: Yes. And you know what Mr. Shilling, you bring up a very good point. You know, we're focused on Yellowstone because that's where law enforcements believe they could be right now but the entire southwest. Can you take us a little bit deeper into the New Mexico couple? Why are they suspects in that? What happened? Give us the circumstances.</s>SHILLING: Well, beginning Wednesday with the discovery of a burned- out camp trailer, agents were able to piece together the trailer belonged to a couple from Oklahoma who routinely from year to year take a trip to New Mexico on their way to Colorado. Within hours of determining who that trailer belonged to, Albuquerque authorities located the husband's (ph) pickup truck for us in Albuquerque. That was kind of the genesis of getting the investigation off the ground as far as collecting forensic evidence and beginning to try and piece this together. We didn't have a lot to go on until such time as some evidence was processed by our crime lab. And we were able to forensically link McCluskey to the crime scene.</s>LEMON: Major Robert Shilling of New Mexico state police. Thank you very much sir. Good luck to you. Keep us updated, ok?</s>SHILLING: Thank you sir. You're welcome.</s>LEMON: All right. We're going to continue on with the story now -- U.S. Marshals from Arizona are on the ground in Yellowstone National Park. They're teaming up with their counter parts in Montana and Wyoming. Under arrest right now, fugitive John McCluskey's mother -- 68-year- old Claudia Washburn is suspected of aiding her son's escape from prison. Washburn's husband tells CNN he would shoot his stepson McCluskey if he ever saw him again, never mind the consequences.</s>JACK WASHBURN, HUSBAND OF CLAUDIA WASHBURN: I know what you guys have done. You think you're Bonnie and Clyde. You're not. You're no</s>LEMON: Boy, those are pretty strong words. Lou Palumbo -- there he is right there -- we're going to dig a little deeper. He's a security expert. He joins me now from New York. Those are pretty strong words and he seems to mean it. What are they doing, Lou, to find these guys? I mean, this is a crime spree that has gone throughout the southwest.</s>LOU PALUMBO, DIRECTOR, ELITE GROUP: Well, basically, Don, what they've done is they've summoned the troops and they're creating this massive canvas with as many resources from law enforcement as they could possibly accumulate in an attempt to, simply state, locate them before they carry out any other crimes or, in their instances, homicides before they're apprehended.</s>LEMON: Hey, so listen, it was believed early on when they escaped that they may be on their way to Mexico. It looked like that's the path that they were taking. Why haven't they gone into Mexico yet?</s>PALUMBO: Because the borders are probably -- the border patrol is probably looking for them -- ICE. It's just not that easy to slip out of the country anymore. As you know, the borders aren't completely sealed, but there's a larger concentration of law enforcement agents there in an attempt to address the immigration problem, which conversely is going to help address anybody attempting to leave the country. So it's just not that easy anymore. And the reason they probably would go to Yellowstone is because it will take them out of the mainstream of America. One of the things you need to do, Don, is look into the backgrounds of the individuals to find out exactly how familiar they might be with that type of terrain. In other words, someone like myself born and raised in New York City, I'm not the guy you want to drop in Yellowstone National Park. Saying that, individuals who are from areas similar to that, a bit more rural, they cut their teeth on hunting and fishing and can survive in areas similar to Yellowstone are more likely to go in there, regroup, and try to figure out and create a strategy as to how they're going to evade the authorities. And quite frankly I think their only option would be to leave this country. And as I said, it just isn't that easy anymore.</s>LEMON: And, Lou, you know, I've got to ask you this as we were talking about it today in the Newsroom. You know, Yellowstone National Park, everyone feels safe there. That's where you go with your family. You fish, you camp -- all of these things. And then, you know, to have two people who are suspected of killing someone and escape prisons, that's not a safe place to be. And not all -- not everyone there has no communications because you go there to kind of get away.</s>PALUMBO: That's absolutely correct, Don. But I mean, part of the methodology, the mechanism I would implement if I was in law enforcement leading this, I would call on the resources of the National Guard. If I really thought that there was a significant amount of information supporting the presence in Yellowstone, for example, I would bring in the National Guard, spearheaded by the U.S. Marshals, augmented by the local jurisdictions. And I would just saturate that place and literally do tent-by-tent searches. Because there are people, as you know, who are in there in campers, who are in there in tents, that are out there trying to enjoy outdoor life.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>PALUMBO: I mean, they really need to saturate this region at this point, with as much resource or assets as they possibly can.</s>LEMON: Security expert Lou Palumbo. He is the director of the Elite Group and a retired police officer. Lou, thank you. Always good to see you, my friend.</s>PALUMBO: You too, Don.</s>LEMON: Demonstrators gathered today outside the prison holding that's holding Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking tens of thousands of military secrets to WikiLeak. But this demonstration may surprise you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If indeed, he was the whistle blower, that we are proud of him.</s>LEMON: That's right. This demonstration is in support of Manning. That's next. Plus this.</s>SHARIF EL-GAMAL, REAL ESTATE INVESTOR DEVELOPER: This is not about the World Trade Center. This is not about - this is not about a particular location.</s>LEMON: You're going to meet the man behind the so-called Ground Zero mosque. Why did he choose that location? And what does he think about the controversy it has created? His exclusive interview with CNN, straight ahead.