'Operation Spear'; Serial Child Molester by in San Jose, California
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, June 17. Police believe one man could be responsible for tens of thousands of molestation cases. What police say about this man will shock families across the country, maybe in your neighborhood. Also ahead, will the White House set a date for getting out of Iraq? The debate is really heating up now. And we'll mark this Father's Day with a soldier serving in Afghanistan. His daughter is so moved by the people there, she is helping change lives long distance.</s>ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.</s>COSTELLO: Good morning, everyone. We'll have more on those stories in just a moment. Also ahead, could the popularity of Internet stocks be building again? See if it's in your best interests to buy. But first, this just in to CNN. And we don't know much about it, but I'll give you what we have. The United States has closed its Nigerian embassy in Abuja and consulate in Lagos due to a security incident which is now being investigated by Nigerian police. This is according to an embassy spokesman. A diplomatic source says intelligence indicated that foreign militants posed a specific threat to the U.S. presence in Nigeria, which is the world's eighth largest oil exporter, which was named by Osama bin Laden as a candidate for liberation. We do not know what that security incident involved and when we get word, of course, we'll pass it along to you. There's a whole lot of shaking going on in California. Another earthquake rumbled off the coast of northern California about four hours ago. The 6.6 magnitude quake was centered some 125 miles west of Eureka. It is the second quake to hit northern California this week. A rare meeting in North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met today with South Korea's unification minister. The meeting raises hopes of a possible breakthrough in the crisis concerning North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Guess what? Actor Tom Cruise said he proposed to girlfriend Katie Holmes early Friday at the Eiffel Tower. The actor spoke at a Paris news conference and Holmes was wearing an outsized ring. So -- Chad, I guess she said yes.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A what? An outsized ring? A what?</s>COSTELLO: That means a big old ring.</s>MYERS: Oh.</s>COSTELLO: That means bigger than my ring and your wife's ring combined and maybe a few other rings out there.</s>MYERS: Cubic zirconia, do you think?</s>COSTELLO: No.</s>MYERS: No.</s>COSTELLO: There is a new U.S. military operation going on right now in Iraq near the Syrian border. Let's get details on Operation Spear from Jane Arraf. She is embedded with U.S. troops there -- hello, Jane.</s>JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we've been driving in a Humvee through the desert on our way to Karbala. We're on the outskirts, where the sound of explosions can be heard. Helicopters firing on the city and the target, according to Marine officials, are insurgents and firefighters. They believe, Carol, that at least 100 foreign fighters have taken refuge in this city near the Syrian border. This is the same city where they launched asks last week, killing, they said, 40 suspected insurgents. It's a new operation meant to deny the insurgents and the firefighters what they call safe havens in the city all the way along the border, as well -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: There are 1,000 U.S. troops involved in this mission, Jane. Any word of injuries? Can you tell us more about that?</s>ARRAF: We've had word of a couple of slight injuries. One of the armored vehicles, a mine, a landmine. This area is heavily mined, as well as heavily place with roadside bombs. The Marine commander here tells us that this morning his forces destroyed, blew up several car bombs which had been set near the town and going into the town. He believes that the city itself is relatively heavily rigged with roadside bombs, mines and other forms of explosives, sort of what we saw in Falluja, and a tactic we've seen throughout this area -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: I know they're just going in now by helicopter and, of course, by tank and armored personnel carrier. But will they go door-to-door eventually, Jane?</s>ARRAF: They will. They actually started off with searches, house to house searches in some areas. What they're doing is trying to find exactly how many insurgents or firefighters they might encounter. But judging by the frequency and the sound of the</s>COSTELLO: Jane Arraf, you be careful out there. Jane Arraf reporting from the Syrian border in Iraq this morning. A disturbing discovery in San Jose, California. Police believe they have found evidence linking one local man to the abuse of possibly thousands of children. And the proof may lie in detailed descriptions written down by the suspect himself. We get more on this story from Robert Handa of CNN affiliate KTVU in San Jose.</s>LT. SCOTT CORNFIELD, SAN JOSE POLICE: Well, on the surface, this appears to be monumental.</s>ROBERT HANDA, KTVU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say 63- year-old Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller may have molested thousands of children, mostly boys, in five states, as well as in Brazil and Mexico. Police displayed numerous pictures of the convicted child molester taken since 1999. Schwartzmiller is being held without bail for a total of seven counts of child molestation in San Jose. Police said officers seized numerous records from the suspect's home that showed 36,720 names of possible victims. The pages also have codes that police say indicate certain sex acts Schwartzmiller engaged in with the child listed.</s>CORNFIELD: If a small percentage of the numbers that we see here are accurate, that would still probably make him the most active child molester we have ever seen in San Jose. And he may well be one of the most active child molesters across the country.</s>HANDA: Schwartzmiller has a companion, Fred Everts, who has been charged with seven counts of child molestation. But investigators still aren't sure if those cases are connected with Schwartzmiller. The two men shared a home in South San Jose under the name of Dean and Fred Harman. Some neighbors said they never trusted the man, who turned out to be Schwartzmiller.</s>LISA THORNBURG, SUSPECT'S NEIGHBOR: I was suspicious of him the very first weekend that we moved in here because he was out in the front yard talking to my kids and bought them ice cream from the ice cream man. And when they came home and told me that the man who lived there by himself with another man bought them ice cream, I just immediately said no, there is just something not right here. You need to stay away.</s>COSTELLO: That report came from Robert Handa of CNN affiliate KTVU. San Jose police are asking victims or any of you with information to step forward. If you have information, please call police, and call them at this number. This is the child exploitation division. The number is 408-277-4102. Anonymous calls can be made to Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP. That's 408-947-7867. In other "Stories Across America" this Friday, no one was injured when this Goodyear blimp crashed several miles from its home base in Pompano Beach, Florida. Bad weather may be to blame. The pilot of the Stars & Strips air ship was trying to make an emergency landing when the blimp crashed into some power lines. Court records released show the jury in the Michael Jackson trial were hung up on two of the lesser alcohol charges. Those charges could have put Jackson in jail for up to six months, but just after a few hours of telling the judge they were stuck, the jury announced they had reached a verdict. The murder trial of a former Klansman in Mississippi has been suspended. Defendant Edgar Ray Killen was taken to a hospital on a stretcher. Killen is charged in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers. And more than a year after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the governor says he will support a new proposal to ban it. The proposal is spearheaded by a citizens group that purposes a constitutional amendment to make same sex marriage illegal.</s>GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: I'm pleased that the new amendment has been brought forward that's quite clear. It defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman and it therefore would provide to the legislature the opportunity from time to time to provide benefits and rights associated with same sex couples as the legislature and the administration felt appropriate.</s>COSTELLO: The legislature is already working on a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage, but also allow for civil unions. The new citizen proposal makes no mention of civil unions, meaning they would remain illegal in the state. Some Republicans are hammering at a Democratic senator for comparing interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis. Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat, took to the Senate floor Tuesday and compared the interrogation tactics at Guantanamo to those used by the Nazis, the Soviets and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Republican Senator John Warner accused Durbin of spouting loose comments that have no basis in fact. Durbin is still defending his comments.</s>SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I was attributing this form of interrogation to repressive regimes such as those that I noted. And I honestly believe the senator from Virginia, whom I respect very, very much, would have to say if this indeed occurred, it does not represent American values. It doesn't represent what our country stands for. It is not the sort of conduct we would ever condone. I would hope the senator from Virginia would agree with that. That was the point I was making.</s>COSTELLO: The cost of fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan keeps going up. On Monday, the House plans to vote on a spending bill that will provide an additional $45 billion for wars. Congress has already given President Bush $350 billion for fighting the two wars and rebuilding the countries. Some House members want to know when President Bush plans to withdraw the troops from Iraq. A bipartisan group is pushing for a resolution, calling for a time line.</s>REP. WALTER JONES (R), NORTH CAROLINA: After 1,700 deaths, over 12,000 wounded and $200 billion spent, we believe it is time to have this debate and this discussion on this resolution.</s>COSTELLO: The supporters of the bill also say they want troops to begin coming home as early as October of next year. But the Bush administration says setting a timetable sends the wrong message to troops and to the insurgents.</s>LT. GEN. JAMES CONWAY, JOINT CHIEFS OPERATIONS MANAGER: If you look at it from the insurgents' perspective, they know our history, just like we study them. And they see where we have withdrawn previously, in Vietnam, in Beirut, in soma. And nothing would make them happier, I suppose, than to think that there is a deadline out there.</s>COSTELLO: There are currently around 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The murky depths of Memogate get even deeper. House Democrats held a hearing on a British government memo that says intelligence was manipulated before the U.S. invaded Iraq. They heard allegations that President Bush and his administration deceived Congress about going to war. Charles Rangel's House colleague, Representative John Conyers, led the Democrats' forum on Memogate. Conyers also led several other members of Congress to the White House gate to personally deliver petitions demanding Bush's response to the British memo. The petitions are signed by 122 congressional Democrats and more than a million citizens. A U.S. soldier in Iraq faces serious charges in the deaths of two officers. Sergeant Alberto Martinez is charged with killing Lieutenant Louis Allen and Captain Philip Esposito. Esposito was Martinez's company commander. You're looking at pictures of his final. Allen was the company's operations officer. The deaths of the two officers in Tikrit, Iraq initially was believed to have been from a mortar attack. A female soldier from Tennessee is being cited with the nation's third highest medal for valor, the first for a woman since World War 2. Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester of the Kentucky National Guard has received the Silver Star for her actions during an ambush in March. The citation says Hester and two other soldiers counter-attacked, saving the lives of several convoy members. And another female armed services member is in the spotlight, as well. The Air Force has named Captain Nicole Malachowski to the famous Thunderbirds flying team. Malachowski is a 1996 graduate of the Air Force Academy. She makes her debut with the Thunderbirds next March. Have you heard? It's official, straight from the mouth of Tom Cruise. We're just getting this tape in and we thought we should show it to you as soon as we possibly could. Yes, he has asked Katie Holmes to become his bride. He proposed to her at the Eiffel Tower. I guess Tom Cruise is in Paris to promote his movie, "War of the Worlds." Oh, we have a sound bite, too. So let's listen.</s>TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: The premier we wanted here in France because it's beautiful and it's romantic. And, yes, I proposed to Kate last night.</s>COSTELLO: And she did say yes, because she was wearing a big old ring. Of course, you're going to hear about this for days and months and years to come. Still to come this hour, though, is the Internet boom coming back? We'll let you know just ahead. And one drug for one race -- is marketing drugs segregating patients or enhancing treatment? We'll take a look at one specialized prescription medication. And we'll get a sneak peak at a very special Father's Day gift for an Army officer in Afghanistan. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday.