Should Police Use Tasers?; Iraq's Milestone Election
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- five minutes past the hour right now. There's a legal case in California that's reigniting the controversy over police using Tasers. Back in 2006, Steve Butler was arrested. A police officer used a Taser on him three times. Doctors say that Butler immediately went into cardiac arrest and that his brain may have been deprived of oxygen for as long as 18 minutes. Our Dan Simon has the breakdown in this "A.M. Original."</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We met Steve Butler on a Tuesday afternoon.</s>SIMON (on camera): Do you know what day of the week it is?</s>STEVE BUTLER, HAS CARDIAC ARREST BECAUSE OF TASER: No. Monday?</s>SIMON: I can tell you, today is Tuesday.</s>BUTLER: Oh, Tuesday. OK.</s>SIMON: This is 2010.</s>SIMON (voice-over): Doctors say Butler has almost no short-term memory. It wasn't always like this, until October 7th, 2006. That's when Butler took a bus ride through Watsonville in Northern California.</s>SIMON (on camera): The ride was anything but smooth. When the bus pulled into the station, the cops were called. According to police, Butler was drunk and belligerent and refused to get off. He even challenged the responding officer to a fight.</s>SIMON (voice-over): And that's when it happened.</s>BUTLER: It had to be something for me to get Tased.</s>SIMON: To bring Butler under control, the police officer indeed fired his Taser, striking him in the chest. According to the police report, three separate jolts of electricity went through Butler's body. When it was all over, he was in full cardiac arrest, not breathing. Paramedics revived Butler, but his brain was deprived of oxygen, leaving him permanently disabled. Steve Butler and his family filed a lawsuit, not against the police, but against the maker of the weapon, TASER International. It's the first time the company has been listed as the sole defendant in an injury case.</s>SIMON (on camera): Can a Taser cause cardiac arrest?</s>JOHN BURTON, BUTLER FAMILY ATTORNEY: Oh, absolutely. No question about it.</s>SIMON (voice-over): Attorney John Burton says he has data showing that Tasers, when fired at the chest, can cause fatal heart injuries, and he says the company has known about it for several years.</s>BURTON: We can prove that they must have known by early 2006, but we suspect that they had all the necessary data in 2005, since they were funding the study.</s>SIMON: Published in early 2006, the study, funded by TASER, focused on Tasered pigs, with the conclusions, quote, "generalized to humans." The authors wrote that being Tasered is unlikely to cause cardiac arrest, but recommended Taser darts not be fired near the heart to, quote, "greatly reduce any concern for induction of ventricular arrhythmias." In plain English, says heart expert Dr. Douglas Zipes, who is being paid to testify against TASER, it means there was concern about Tasers causing cardiac arrest in some cases.</s>DR. DOUGLAS ZIPES, CARDIOLOGIST: I think Taser has been disingenuous, and certainly up to 2006, the case we're talking about, TASER said in their educational materials that there was no cardiac risk whatsoever.</s>SIMON: A TASER spokesman e-mailed CNN saying it would not comment on any ongoing litigation. But in a court filing seeking to dismiss the suit, the firm said the Taser devices, quote, "are repeatedly proven safe through testing, including on human volunteers in controlled, medically approved studies, and there's no evidence Tasering of people induces cardiac arrest." But the company has significantly changed its recommendations for how Tasers should be used.</s>SIMON (on camera): TASER put out a directive last year telling the tens of thousands of police officers who use the device to no longer aim for the chest area. Instead, they should go for the back, the legs or the lower pelvis.</s>SIMON (voice-over): TASER says the reason, in its words, "has less to do with safety and more to do with risk management for law enforcement agencies." As for Steve Butler --</s>SIMON:  (on camera): What's up? How are we doing?</s>BUTLER: Pretty good.</s>SIMON (voice-over): He doesn't dispute that he was drunk, but he blames TASER for what happened to him. He says he's not frustrated or even angry, just resigned trying to spend the rest of his life trying to remember what happened. Dan Simon, CNN, Watsonville, California.</s>CHETRY: When CNN first reported this story, TASER International refused to comment, but then the company sent us what it called a fact sheet about Steven Butler's case. The company said that the 2006 study we quoted produced no cardiac arrest in animals, and while the company says cardiac arrest in people is rare, TASER International insists it does not claim a zero possibility of cardiac arrest. Now, Taser also claims that Steven Butler had a preexisting heart condition and his blood alcohol level also made him vulnerable to cardiac arrest. Butler's medical and legal team told CNN that he had no documented heart problems and that his alcohol level played no role in his cardiac arrest.</s>ROBERTS: Well, that brings us to the half-hour and means it's time for this morning's top stories. Confusion this morning over whether an American member of al Qaeda has been arrested in Pakistan -- Pakistani officials had first said Adam Gadahn was captured yesterday. Gadahn grew up in California, and since 2004, has appeared in numerous videos calling for the destruction of America. But this morning, there are reports that it was actually another American who was arrested. We're working our sources at this hour. We'll bring you the very latest just as soon as we get them.</s>CHETRY: Well, President Obama wants a health care reform bill passed and on his desk by the end of the month, and he'll be trying to close the deal when he hosts town hall meetings in Philadelphia and St. Louis this week. The president says 15,000 people a day are losing health care in this country. He insists that waiting any longer to get a measure passed is not an option.</s>ROBERTS: And the Oscar goes to "The Hurt Locker." The small budget war film with a big upset over "Avatar" for Best Picture at the Oscars last night, and Director Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director in the Academy's 82-year history. President Obama says the responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq will continue. That commitment coming yesterday after the polls closed in Iraq and despite a wave of violence, Iraqis turned out for the second national election since 2003. So, what does it all mean for the future of Iraq? Joining us now from Baghdad, General Ray Odierno, he's the commanding general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq; and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill. Gentlemen, great to see you this morning. Ambassador Hill, more than 30 people killed in violence yesterday, but turnout higher than expected. It's certainly higher than it was in 2005. What does that say about the Iraqis' desire for representative government?</s>AMB. CHRISTOPHER HILL, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, I will leave some of those issues to General Odierno to answer. But let me tell you that we had 26 monitoring teams all over the country, reporting in from 18 provinces. We're looking at some 8,300 polling centers. And we would say the vote went really very well. It was very orderly. People knew what the rules were. We had very few problems, and we think it was a very good election. We have to wait for the results of the election. And after that, we will move on to something called government formation where the Iraqis will need to sit down and figure out how to piece together a new government from this. But, you know, overall, this was a very successful election. The Iraqi people deserve a lot of congratulations for this.</s>ROBERTS: General Odierno, Ayad Allawi, who is the candidate for president, accused the government during yesterday's election of the inability to provide safety and security which led to the bloodshed that we saw, including more than 20 people killed when insurgents brought down an entire apartment building. What do you think about the Iraqi security agency and their ability to keep the peace in the country, particularly after U.S. forces leave?</s>GEN. RAY ODIERNO, COMMANDING GENERAL, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE- IRAQ: I think, first off, I believe the Iraqi security forces did a very good job yesterday. Across the country, there are very few effective incidents. There's one that you mentioned. There was one building that fell which was responsible for most of the casualties. But frankly, in the rest of Iraq, it was extremely peaceful. Many people are able to go to the polls. And I was very impressed with the coordination and work done by the Iraqi security forces. It shows their continued improvement as we move forward.</s>ROBERTS: So, do you have confidence that when U.S. combat forces leave and the schedule drawdown date is August 31st of this year, that Iraqi forces will be able to fill in?</s>ODIERNO: I think, over time, we've been naturally moving towards this point. Iraqis have been taking more and more control for security. I think, over the next several months, we'll drawdown to 50,000. We'll end combat operations. We'll go to a train and advise mission. And I think they are ready to do that. And I think the election and the security they were able to provide proves that.</s>ROBERTS: Ambassador Hill, you said going into the election, quote, "If this goes well and the government formation goes well, it could usher in a whole new beginning for this country, and also U.S. relations with Iraq." It's unclear at this point who's going to lead the country, because it was very close between the incumbent President Nouri al-Maliki and the challenger, Ayad Allawi. Both coalitions fared very well. The government formation in 2005 following the election was fairly problematic. What do you expect this time around?</s>HILL: Well, I think the first thing to understand is: this election was supported by the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people. There were no boycotts from any political parties, any political coalitions. So, there's a great deal of support for this political process. And I would say more so now in 2010, a very different era, from 2005. Now, obviously, they're going to have to get on with the task of government formation. You mentioned a couple of the coalitions, but actually, there are three other coalitions as well. We're prepared to do business with any coalition, democratically-elected. We know all the main actors here. We have worked very closely with them over the years. And so, we would look forward to seeing the Iraqis form up a new government and we would like to develop this broad relationship with this key country in the Middle East, a country that will have economic significance, security significance, political significance in the rest of the region. So, we look forward to a longstanding, broad relationship with this country for many decades to come.</s>ROBERTS: General Odierno, in 2005, it took 156 days to put together a government. There was a power vacuum, sectarian violence filled that void. Do you expect that there could be a similar result in whatever time it takes from the election yesterday to put a government together?</s>ODIERNO: Well, obviously, we're very aware of what happened in 2005. We've been working very hard with the government of Iraq and their caretaker government in order to ensure that security will continue during this time. And I think they have a good plan in place. We're working closely with the Iraqi security forces in order to sustain security during this key piece of time as they form the government.</s>ROBERTS: Right. And one more question to you, General Odierno, and then we'll let you go because I know that you got a number of interviews to do this morning. You recently signaled to President Obama that you may have to leave one combat brigade in the northern part of the country past the August 31st deadline. Where are you with that?</s>ODIERNO: Well, first off, we run many different scenarios. And that's -- there's different scenarios that are presented if there are some sort of catastrophic problems that we would have to react to. The bottom line is: we're planning on being at 50,000 by September. We're planning on ending combat operations. We do much contingency planning, but that's all that it is, it's contingency planning in case. My thoughts are, we'll be at 50,000 by the 1st of September.</s>ROBERTS: All right. General Ray Odierno and U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill -- thanks for joining us this morning, gentlemen. We appreciate your time.</s>ODIERNO: Thank you so much.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, we've talked about the White House considering switching gears and having military trials for suspected 9/11 attackers. But now, a plea from an unusual source to keep these cases in federal civilian court -- details ahead. It's 37 minutes past the hour.