to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. okay, it is go time. cnn continues right now with don lemon. >> we're going to follow up with breaking news from just moments ago. we'll start with breaking news out of philadelphia, at the airport right now, that's where bomb-sniffing dogs are searching the bermuda-bound plane. the passengers and five crew members were evacuated after a handler on the plane failed to submit i.d. and then disappeared. apparently the two other baggage handlers didn't recognize the third guy, and he didn't have a badge when they confronted him and he paeapparently left the scene.

the plane has been towed to a secure area, and they're se searching there and searching the plane. the passengers had to be rescreened, and we're bringing you new details as we get them. i want to turn now to the war in afghanistan. today america begins its tenth year fighting a determined enemy that shows no concrete signs that they are throwing down their arms and surrendering any time soon. for the taliban, this is a fight to the finish. last man standing wins. they are fighting the best trained, best force in the world, american servicemen and women and their allies. this map you're looking at right now, it's really a two-front war. in pakistan, some taliban forces and elements of al-qaeda use this mountainous border area as safe havens and points to launch attacks against u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan.

officials complain the pakistani government is not doing enough to stop these raids. there has been fierce fighting and mounting casualties, i should say. as this graphic shows you, 100,215 have been killed in that war. fighting in the taliban right now are about 1,000 american troops and some 20,000 nato troops from 46 countries. these pictures serve as good examples of the immense problems facing iran and nato forces. they're blowing up the trucks bound for afghanistan. pakistan closed a major border crossing point and has given no indication when it will reopen. one major campaign is in the taliban birthplace of the southern kandahar province. the taliban threatened to defend this area despite the cost.

the taliban's presence is felt over vast parts of the country. and in some areas, they're much stronger than in others. critics arg eue that a key turng point in the war occurred very early in the process when the u.s. ip vnvaded there and theres no troops in iraq. simply because that invasion did not happen until two years later. this graphic shows what happens next, when the u.s. did invade iraq in 2003. the bush administration turned its full attention on that war. that provided the taliban to regroup. this is a war that recent polls show a majority of americans really oppose, and president obama said he doesn't want to fight this war any longer than necessary. in that vaein, he already announced a troop withdrawal will begin next summer. our heroes, brave men and women,

who for the past nine years have put themselves in harm's way and they do it every day. one young man served 12 tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan. today he finally did return home, and cnn martin savage joins us now at hunter airfield in georgia with the story. martin? >> hello, don. actually, we're outside the funeral home where sergeant lance vogeler has now been brought and lays in rest. he will be buried in the savannah cemetary, which is a very beautiful place. he died last friday in afghanistan, and yesterday we had the opportunity to talk to his family, and you can imagine, it's an extremely emotional time for them. they are so full of pride about their young soldier, but their hearts are breaking at the very same time. >> my heart breaks. >> ask tim vogeler what kind of person his son was and his hands

begin to move while his younger son chris translates. >> i wish the world could meet him. it's just amazing. >> he thipnks his son is really awesome. >> he and his wife donna are deaf. they may not be able to speak about how proud they are, but they certainly can still tell you. >> loved to help people. very joyful man. great son. >> 29-year-old sergeant first class lance vogeler was an army ranger, a special breed of soldier. nothing proved that more than the number of times he put himself in harm's way. vogeler did four rotations in iraq and eight in afghanistan. a dozen combat tours overall. hugh williams served alongside him for four years. >> he led by example. the man led by example.

he was not going to ask you to do something he himself was not willing to do. >> growing up, vogeler was a boy scout. he loved rollerblading, soccer, golf and god. it's the latter that has helped his family through sips hnce hi death in combat last friday. >> it's very hard. very hard. >> we cope because of our faith. god's blessed us a lot. >> but along with the grief comes moments of laughter as chris vogeler remembers. >> both being children of death parents, we got away with a lot. >> but there was no escaping the danger of so many rotations, even aft ev. even after being wounded in the leg, he came home, healed and went back. i asked his mom if she thought

he went back too many times. >> yes, he went back a lot, but that was his wish. >> did you ever think this day would come? >> no. >> and that's when our conversation ended. you didn't need words or hands to understand why. martin savage, cnn, thunderbolt, georgia. in addition, of course, to his mother and father and younger brother chris, sergeant vogeler is also survived by his wife and two children, and there is a third child on the way. here in this particular town, when the casket arrived, it was published in the paper at the route the hearse was going to take. people came outlined the entire way, all way to the funeral home here to pay their respects. this is a military town. don? >> martin, sadly, so many stories just like it all over our country. thank you, martin savage. we're going to take a closer

look at the state of the war and the state of the enemy. a live report from the afghan capital, coming up straight ahead here on cnn. amazing right, but you think home filters can be a pain in the tucus. well check this out... boo-yah! shazam! h2...o! hydrolicious! look what i can do! magic bananas! adios contaminos! introducing the first faucet filter that installs with just one click and removes 99% of lead and microbial cysts. check it out at purwater.com. ♪ check it out at purwater.com. but now i see the splash., ♪ i wanted love, i needed love ♪

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we've been talking a lot about afghanistan. we'll get you there live in just a moment. i want to catch you up on other day's news before going there. president karzai is trying to find a way to end the conflict. karzai has con veened a peace council. the peace council is filled with war lords and lacking civilian business leaders. in chile, rescuers are getting closer by the day to reach 33 trapped miners. here's what a source close to the rescue operation said the plan b drill is less than 33 feet from its target. it's possible they could break through to the underground chamber in the next few days or so if there aren't any delays. if that happens, the first miner could be pulled out by early next week. time now for your money. allied financial and its

subsidiary, jc mortgage, is being sued. in a normal foreclosure, when you can't pay your mortgage anymore, the bank reviews all your loan information to make sure it is correct. if it is, the bank takes it over. that sounds, you know, like what should happen, right? but we thipg -- what we think has been happening with a few banks, not just gmac, is not a pretty picture to tell you about. they may have been rubber stamping those documents without reviewing the documents to make sure everything is right. those banks have frozen foreclosures in 21 states. poppy harlow joins me from new york to give us some perspective. poppy, what's going on? >> it's interesting, this thing has been developing for a few weeks. as you said, the attorney general is accusing ally of fraud. it's a massive charge here. ally is going to fight it in

court. but they suspended eviction in ohio and 22 other states, but only evictions that they think may have been impacted by that robo signing, signing off without properly reading and verifying any of them. you've still got foreclosures happening in the other states as normal, but they're saying, no, we want to stop them. this is fraud here. they're also talking about a penalty for each violation, so for ally's part, they say, look, and i want to show you the statement so you can get fully what they said, but they say, look, there was nothing fra fraudulent or deceitful about our foreclosining practices, th say they fixed the document problem, but they're going to be vindicated in court. you've got the ac saying, halt all foreclosures in my state. i think something is terribly wrong here, don.

sdplz is th >> is this just the beginning? is there going to be a domino effect and we'll find out this happened a lot more? >> one of the lawyers in maine, one of the 23 states, he's representing some of these homeowners who got foreclosed on because of ally. he's representing them pro bono. he said this is a tip of the iceberg. he said he's had a lot of paperwork coming across his desk with a ton of errors on it. ally is saying, we think they should have been foreclosed on, but we'll check on it, anyway. you've got this she said/she said. we also j.p. morgan, chase, bnkg of america have taken similar action. so it could very well be the tip of the iceberg in what could be a huge nationwide issue, don. >> you said they believe most of these people should be

foreclosed on. they didn't say all of them, because there's a definite possibility that someone who was kicked out of their home and been foreclosed on maybe shouldn't have been. >> and can you imagine the mess that could cause, if that home has already been sold and someone else lives there? we're talking about a huge volume here. it's funny, i've talked to some experts on this, some who say, look, this is the inevitable. most of these people should have been foreclosed on. others could say this could be a paradigm shift in the housing crisis. it could mean people will get back into their homes. it just depends if robo signed off on all those documents. it's whether or not those people were justified in getting kicked out of their home or not. i also want to clarify why 27 states are not included in this. 27 sdatates in this country don require judicial review for this

process, but guess what? california democrats, including house speaker nancy pelosi, taking action on this. a few days ago they called for a federal investigation into this. texas's attorney general wants 30 loan servicers to halt their loan foreclosures as well. you've got a lot of states ablgting ablgt i acting on all this. >> financial overhaul and all that, something definitely needs to be done about this. poppy harlow, thank you. poppy is part of the special financial team on television. you can catch more of them on "your money" at 7:00 p.m. eastern and sunday at 3:00 p.m. ! check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. onstar. live on.

as we mentioned at the beginning of this show, the war

in afghanistan enters its tenth year today. the battle rages all over the country. no end is in sight. so the question is, what happens next? what does the year '10 look like? we're joined now from the afghan capital. what does the tenth year look like, ivan? >> reporter: it's dramatically different from what it was nine years ago, don. nine years ago, the first shots of the u.s. war on terror was here in afghanistan, and the beginning of air strikes in the taliban. the taliban ruled 90% of the territory in this country. within a month, the combination of u.s. air strikes, a fair amount of dollars to buy off commanders and a red tag army of alliance troops were able to peschar shatter the taliban government.

fast forward to today. there are nearly 1,000 u.s. soldiers on the ground here. this has been the most bloody year of the u.s. conflict with more than 300 meamerican soldie killed over the course of this year but the nato forces as well. the afghan government is once again trying to give in to the taliban to sit down for peace talks. it launched what it calls a high peace council, a council for elders, and they are being assigned the task of trying to find somebody within the taliban movement who is willing to sit down at the negotiating table with them and trying to reach an end to this bloody conflict. don? >> here's the question. there are many people in this country who believe, whether it is true or not, that the u.s. and nato forces can't trust, really, the afghan government or the pakistani government, because they believe in some way they are harboring the taliban and other insurgents. so even after nine years that

there is no progress because of this, or little progress. >> well, certainly there are a lot of accusations thrown against the pakistani government. and if you need evidence, afghan and western officials will say, well, we know serious taliban commanders have been captured on pakistani territory. the afghan government, it's lost a lot of lives due to insurgent attacks. there are governors and high-level officials who are assassinated every week here, so it's unlikely that they are actually harboring any taliban militants or taliban commanders. i think there is some distrust also from the side of the afghans toward the u.s. government, believe it or not, which is providing a lot of money here, because of some criticism of u.s. policies to supply money and/or weapons to certain war lords which are viewed to subvert the authority of the central afghan government as well.

what we can point out are a couple of trends here, don. as we've ramped up the number of u.s. troops, international troops and international aid coming to afghanistan, for some reason the violence has only continued to spread. and i don't have an answer for why that is happening. don? >> ivan watson, thank you very much. we appreciate your reporting. straight ahead on cnn, what women are not telling their gynecologist could end up hurting them. elizabeth cohen what you should never keep secret. pearblossom h? it's just outside of lancaster. sure, i can download directions for you now. we got it. thank you very much! check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. onstar. live on.

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. you would think you would hear this story about men, right, when they go to the doctor, but many of the nation's

gynecologists say women aren't as open about their sexual relationships as they should be. elizabeth cohen joins me now with secrets you should never keep. i would think it would be guys saying that. because we hate to go to the doctor. >> women don't hate to go to the doctor, but women are people pleasers. they don't want to disappoint the doctor. they don't want to tell people, i drink heavily, i had sex with a lot of people and i've had five abortions. maybe it not quite that bad. >> i see what you're saying. it's how we view women in this era. ladies. >> so gynecologists say women go on facebook and twitter and share all these different things but they don't often tell us and that's a problem. so i wrote my column this week on five secrets you should never keep from your gynecologist and

here are three of them. drum roll, please. number three, the number of sexual partners you have. you need to be open about it because you want to prevent sexual diseases. also you need to say the amount of abortions you've had, and the reason for that, later that could be involved with infertility, that could be ramifications for other surgeries you have. the doctor needs to know if you've had that done for physical reasons. and thirdly, the number one -- i should say firstly, what you don't want to hide is who is the baby's daddy. if it's not your husband, a woman will come in with her husband, she's pregnant, everybody is happy, and they don't find out until much later that the husband is not actually the father. >> i understand the father, i understand the number of abortions, but do you really know -- wait, there was jason, there was rob, there was -- do you know what i mean? die real do you really keep a count?

>> not so much historically, but currently. the reason why it's so important to know who the father of the baby is that if the father has a certain blood type, that could be a problem for you. if the father is a certain ethnicity, you might need certain genetic testing, you don't want to keep that a secret. you may want to wait until your husband is out of the room before you say, hey, i had an affair a couple weeks ago. >> okay. i'm glad that conversation is over. the women in the control room are saying, you can breathe now. talking about gynecologists with liz cohen. appreciate it. okay. on the trail of christine o'donnell, the delaware senate hopeful has been lying low after some bad press. our jim la costa tracked her down. see what she told him, after this. [ male announcer ] there's a big idea happening in health care called the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan. it's a medicare prescription drug plan that saves you an average of over $450 a year,

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really, just 26 days from the mid-term elections and four new polls are giving both parties reasons for hope and alarm. these are senate races, 37 of which will be settled by the voters come november 2nd. in connecticut, the democratic attorney general, richard blumenthal, has a 13-point lead over republican linda mcmann in our latest poll of likely voters. to missouri now. the parties' fortunes are flipped there. roy blunt has a double-digit lead over democratic attorney general robin kacarnahan. vermont, though, is the nail

birt. there harry reid is neck and neck with angle. third party candidate ashjian is actually running urnder the tea party banner, but they're saying he is not one of them. gillibrand is likely to win her poll. and christine o'donnell today picked up the support of a gun rights group, but several polls indicate she is still a long shot for joe biden's old seat. jim la costa has been trying to snag an interview. >> any chance you could answer a couple questions? >> with that, christine o'donnell blew past our camera and into what was billed as a public forum.

the event was stanged in a shopping mall and just two doors down from a halloween shop. it started out as a softball and ended up with a curveball. >> where did you grow up? i thought i was going to share some remarks and then take audience questions. are we not doing that? >> no, we're not doing that. >> but the evening did get into specifics and mcdonnell repeated her vow to make the tax cuts permanent. >> make sure the tax increases that are coming in january, do not have them. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> o'donnell, whose past statements about dabbling in witchcraft have come back to haunt her is in damage control these days. her events are tightly controlled. >> any chance you could answer questions from the press for just a few moments? >> she rarely takes questions from the national news media,

but chris says he's taking nothing for granted. >> do you take her seriously? >> i take her seriously. she is the republican nominee. she is my opponent. she's raised i think 2.8 million over the internet in the last few weeks. >> she seems to have a commanding 8.9 lead. >> there are unknown voters, still, and this is across all three counties. >> one volunteer says she's sticking with o'donnell despite her missteps. >> doesn't concern you at all? >> not at all. if anything, i support her even more. >> i put my name on the line, and i've tape a lot of the hits, a lot of slander, a lot of character assassination. >> then she headed out the back door where she said she would give us an interview soon. >> call dave and we'll set

something up. >> promise? >> yes. yes. >> cnnpolitics.com update less than 15 minutes away. this is really like a real life version, not a fictional version of "the blob." remember that movie. toxic disaster could soon be spreading to other countries. we're going globe-trekking, next. ♪ ♪ [ engine revs, tires screeching ]

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let's go globe-trekking right now because we are witnessing something we haven't seen before except in the movies in a fictional way. this is a toxic disaster in

hungary that has the potential to grow in leaps and bounds. now that the dangerous chemical sludge has reached the denube river. earlier this week, a wave of highly toxic mud broke out in an aluminum plant, devastating the area. four people are dead, and it is so bad that this one town they aren't just evacuating, they are abandoning it. the nearby markol river is already ruined. disaster officials say the fish there are all dead. let's look at the danube. if the sludge isn't neutralized, it could float all the way to the black sea. mr. nick robinson joins us from the disaster zone in western hungary. i don't remember seeing anything like this, nick roberts. take us inside. >> it's all too real for the people here. we've been inside some of the houses today, the houses hardest hit by this tide of red sludge

that slammed into that building. the tide is over my head height. that's over six feet. people can't salvage stuff. anything that's been touched by this sludge, they've just thrown it away. and i talked to people trying to pull stuff out, and they showed me their hands. their hands have blisters and burns on them. that's from these toxic, toxic floods. you can't avoid it. the contaminants are getting into their systems. >> do they even know the ramifications of this, what long-term health effects this might have on people, for generations, maybe? >> they don't know. and the prime minister today admits he didn't know how bad all this was going to be. the people here are sort of putting a bit of bravado on it. they say, oh, it's just a couple small scabs, it's nothing to worry about, but nobody here is telling them what this is doing

to them in five years time, ten years time, what it's doing to them. the houses are are all coming d. >> most natural disasters, most of the world knows how to respond unless they're overwhelmed by floods or a most natural disaster. but when you have sludge like this and just stuck to everything you own, is there a precedent for this at all, nick? >> well, what we're seeing with the army here seems to be the army has whatever sort of chemical disaster contingency put into place. they've got chemical decontamination teams coming in and out of those zones that are affected. as far as hungary is concerned, they haven't had anything like this before. as far as toxic spills in the region, they've had some before that have gone into the major rivers. this one getting into the danube with ramifications nobody really

knows, heavy metals, such as chromium toxic, there are far more economic questions than there are answers for. >> we're short on time. number one, i want to know what the smell is like, and number two, who is being held responsible? >> that's the strange thing. there is no smell. i thought there would be an awful smell. we don't smell anything. the people we talked to in houses, they hold the bosses of the aluminum company responsible. they said they should have known the pit wasn't working, they should have done something about it before. but the government is investigating and so far no one is holding the aluminum bosses accountable as of yet. there is pressure on them to reopen the plant and get it working again, don. >> i just can't imagine. thank you, sir. we'll be following this story for you, trust me, until it's over there in hungary. in the meantime, crashing the tea party.

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how many shopping days until the mid-term elections? i don't know how many shopping days but i know there are 26 critical days before the critical mid-term election. let's get your cnnpolitics.com update right now. wow. to what do we owe the pleasure of this honor? or something like that. our senior white house correspondent not at the white house right now but he's at the cnnpolitics.com desk. you've got your sleeves rolled up and ready to go. >> only 26 more days to get shirts and ties for election

night. christine o'donnell has been urpd fire in recent days and she's blaming her recent struggles on what she calls the liberal media. she says she's put her name on the line, taken a lot of hits, character assassination. next wednesday night, there will be a debate. charlie crist, the independent governor, spent a lot of debate on this attack and determined that his opponent a member of the tea party. meg whitman shatter iing that number on campaigns. she has now spent $140 million

of her own money on her campaign. after spending that much, she is in a dead heat with jerry brown. if you're going to spend $140 million, you better win. because if you lose, it's a heck of a lot of money. >> it a he's a heck of a lot of money, anyway. who has that laying around? >> maybe she does. what's worse, to win or lose? you spend $140 million to win a job that is going to be pretty tough. a lot of these governors facing huge budget crisis. same thing with robert emanuel. when i was there last week, a lot of people on the ground saying who wants to be mayor of chicago right now? rob emanuel saying he wants to serve. >> it would be nice to have that money and have a nice, comfortable life without everybody digging into your business.

>> some of us would run to antigua, and others would use it for public service. >> i don't see spending that kind of money. the key races and key issues heading into the critical mid-term elections. your next cnnpolitics.com update just an hour ago. the commander in chief back on the road today. president obama stomping for democrats in maryland and illinois. one of his main topics on the trail is the economy, but some question whether he can deliver a compelling argument. that was one of the topics they tackled last night on cnn's "parker-spitzer." >> people expect a president who is willing to have something that tells you it's something you're willing to side for. >> it is so true.

the defining moment was when the president had the ceos of wall street ask they were all happy together. they were saying, you are the enemy, and barack obama said we are all in this together. >> obama wants to be liked, ultimately. he is a pleaser, and i think that's the problem. >> he's a pleaser, but it's also empathy. where he had george bush and president clinton who could show empathy. the movie "av avatar broke office records. we're talking about the future of films, but just remember, you haven't seen anything yet. it's the big i.

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object. if you're a movie buff, or even if you're not, you watch the occasional movie, you'll want to know about this. so it's time for today's big eye. the i stands for, of course, idea and there's no denying that the movie "avatar" and the technology behind it have broadened the idea of what films can do, can be and can become. james cameron shattered box office records crossing over two -- grossing over, i should say, $2.7 billion. boy, i didn't even know that was possible. add to that nearly $150 million in u.s. dvd sales alone. it was nominated for nine academy awards and brought home three. then there are the golden globes, critics choice awards,

and you get the picture, on and on and on. these two gentlemen helped bring "avatar" to life. this is richie benam and matt madden was emotion capture supervision and the vp of production and development for giant studios whose technology helped birth the navi, right? >> not easy to see, not easy to do. >> if anyone knows about the next big things, it's these two guys. "avatar" was a game changer, i want to say. i think one day, you tell me if you believe this, that movies will be interactive. like you won't know -- you can sort of put yourself in the process one day. is that the goal? >> i don't know if it's the goal. you think it's somewhat -- it's the future. i mean, the interactive nature of the film process is already somewhat -- we have what's can all called a virtual production.

so a virtual experience in the audience, i think, is a relatively, i hope, the next step, you know? >> so this goes way beyond 3d because 3d is the next process. you're looking beyond 3d, obviously, with what avatar did. >> yeah. we're looking to leverage advancements in computer graphics, too, not just a three dimensional space. >> what does that mean? >> the photo real elements that don't really exist, like the world pandora. they don't exist in real life. it's the technology to allow you to interact and be immersed with that level of graphics and, like you said, feel like you're in the matrix. that's something where i think it's headed. but it also, in terms of story telling, there's the camera aspect. that's a critical component to movies like avatar. if you take that away, then it affects the story. immersive technologies and story telling, they're related, but

they are separate. what do us the camera is so important for that? >> well, the camera frames the action and helps tell the story and really dictates the composition of the actors, their relationship. and so we have a tie to that. that dictates how we respond to the information that's being presented. and jim is very perceptive to that. so if we remove that and move people into an immersive world, it's very exciting, but it's a different experience than just, say, a passive movie making experience. >> i'm going the play devil's advocate. for one, i'm not opposed to virtual technology. but when it comes to what i see visually on the screen, whether it's in television or the movie, i prefer simplicity and i prefer old time story telling and character development. i haven't seen avatar. it's not something i would be interesting in seeing.

i'm sure i would enjoy the experience. for the most part, i would not be interested in going out and seeing "avatar." >> we've made a specific effort to not allow the technology to get in the way of the art. the foundation of the movie, it's the story. sci-fi may not be the thing, but there's a love story, there's a lot for everyone. we literally came across hundreds of thousands of people online or who say they wouldn't have necessarily gone to see "avatar" and have responded very, very well. whether you go for the movie or the experience, if you see it in 3d, it's very much an immersive experience. but at the forefront of the film making is the story. >> tell me to give it a chance. >> it's not about the technology at the end of the day, right? that helps the visual and allows you to create worlds that don't exist. but if the story and characters aren't there, you're not going

to get the films. >> 2 basic premise hasn't changed. it's just some of the tools now have evolved. >> i think it looks amazing. obviously you guys are successful and you know where it's going pop thank you so much for coming in and best of luck to you. then you can take me to the movie and explain what's going on. thank you, guys. richie bainem and matt madden. thank you. >> thank you. bullying in its form has been a network focus right here on cnn all this week. we have been following the story of a young man who knows more than anyone what it's like to be bullied, cyber bullying. straight ahead, we'll hear from an openly gay michigan college student who has been the target of a top state official. when i was 16, i was hired as a cashier

at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin. that first job launched my career. since i've been with the company, i've been promoted ten times over the span of 11 years. today, i'm a divisional learning and development manager. we can actually help people develop in their own careers. my job allows me to make a difference in the lives of almost 100,000 associates in the northeast. if you think about it, that's almost 8 times the size of my hometown. my name is nick and i work at walmart. ♪

ed. the stoovent assembly president of the university of michigan says kids who are bullied should know they can find support and things can get much better. chris armstrong should know. we have told you his story. he's the first openly gay student to hold his position and for months, he has been the target of a venomous blog by an assistant attorney general. his name is andrew shervell. he's claiming armstrong is pushing radical sexual agenda and calls the student a racist, elitist liar. through it all, armstrong has kept silent, at least in public until now. last night, he sat down for an interview with cnn's anderson cooper. >> it's been a personal issue in a lot of ways. i've dealt with it. given what's happened in the past week and given the suicides that have happened in the past

few weeks, it's been, i think -- it's hard not to say something. >> that's what is motivating you to speak out now, the suicides that we've all been witnessing and reporting on. >> honestly, i didn't ask to be put into this position in a lot of ways. >> in just about all ways you didn't ask to be put into this position. >> but, you know, i felt that, you know, seeing these kids like feeling like they needed to take their life. it's important to understand that things can get better and it's important to know that you can reach out in your community, you can reach out to friends and they can support you. >> well, servell is now on voluntary leave of absence and armstrong is seek ago restraining order in the courts. finally, a programming note for you, all this week on ac 360, a special report on bullying, no escape, anderson cooper will conclude hits coverage tomorrow night with a town hall talking about bullying. . we're going to start at the top of the hour with developing

news. this breaking news is out of philadelphia. and philadelphia's airport. that is where bomb sniffing dogs have been searching a bermuda-bound passenger plane. the 102 passengers and five crew members were evacuated after one of three people loading the plane failed to produce i.d. and then disappeared. apparently two of the baggage handlers didn't recognize the third guy who didn't have a badge. now, when they confronted him, he left the scene. the us airways plane has been towed to a secure spot while authorities search the luggage and they search for the man in question. the passengers were rescreened. nothing suspicious has been found so far and we're going to keep a close eye on this story. as a matter of fact, now, we want to go to cnn's deb fw errick who is following this story for you. deb, what did you find out? >> we're being told by the fbi that this is not terrorism related. they did test the plane for explosives.

the plane came up negative for any kind of explosives. they're expecting so far a press conference shortly to brief everybody on what happened and who this person is and whether or not he's still at large or whether they know who they're talking about right now. i did speak to somebody, a source who is familiar with federal aviation who says, really, now the culture of airports is that anybody working on any part of the airport, including what they call the aeronautical area, that's the tarmac area, that they are trained to challenge anyone who is not displaying proper identification. that, in fact, if they don't calling them, that they risk federal fines. so the two people who challenged the third baggage handler who does not appear to have identification were doing the right thing. the question, how did this person get to that area? well, i asked and they said, you know, there are multiple access points at all airports throughout the country. you're supposed to be swiping your badge, swiping your

identification. but it does happen, for example, that somebody may piggyback and enter a door or enter a particular area just by walking in with a group. so all of that right now under investigation. but just to reiterate, we are being told this is not terrorism related. the plane tested negative for any kinds of explosives. and hopefully we'll know more in just a little bit. >> but still, we don't know where the unidentified man is. >> we are still waiting on information. no confirmation on whether they know who this person is or where this person is. so that's sort of an unknown. we'll get back to you when we have more information on that. >> obviously, this is a very important story, happening at the philadelphia airport. deb, thank you. we're going to continue to follow that and get more information. we want to move on now and talk about the war in afghanistan. today, america gibbs its 10th year fighting a determined enemy that shows no concrete sign of throwing down their arms and

surrendering anytime soon. to the taliban, this is a fight to the finish. last man standing wins. they are fighting the best trained, best equipped fighting force in the world. american service men and women and their nato allies. aas this map shows you right here, it is a two-front war in pakistan. some taliban forces and elements of al qaeda use the mountainous borders as safe havens and staging points to launch attacks against u.s. forces in afghanistan. officials complain that the pakistani government is not doing enough to stop these cross border raids. the past knife years have been witness to a fierce fighting and mountain casualties there. as this graphic shows you, 1,215 american troops have been killed. 2,1219 nato soldiers have died in that war. fighting the taliban right now are some 95,000 troops and about 48,000 troops from 46 countries. these pictures serve as an

immense problems facing u.s. and nato forces. the taliban and can pakistan blowing up vital trucks bound for pakistan. one major campaign under way right now is the taliban birthplace of southern kandahar province. the taliban vowed to defend this area, regardless of the cost. a key strategic issue for the coalition is the fact that the taliban's press eps is felt over vast parts of the country. in some areas, they're much stronger than in others. critics argue that a key turning point in the war occurred very early on when the u.s. invaded, there were no american troops in iran. that invasion didn't happen until two years later. this graphic gives you an idea of what happens next. when the u.s. did invade iraq in 2003, the bush administration

turned virtually its full attention to that war, shifting mover troops to iraq. analysts say that provided an opening for the taliban. the key question right now is what happens next? this is a war that recent polls show the majority of americans oenz and president obama said he doesn't want to fight this war any longer than necessary. in that vein, he has announced that a troop withdrawal will begin next summer. this long afghan war has produced its share of american heroes, brave men and women who for the past nine years have put themselves in harm's way more than 1200 have paid the ultimate sacrifice. one of these remarkable soldiers was a young man who served a total of 12 tours of duty in both iraq and afghanistan. today, he returned home. martin savage joins us now from savannah, georgia, with their story. >> reporter: well, the young man is 29-year-old lance vogler. he is an army ranger. and he died in afghanistan last friday. today his body returned here to

savannah. it was a remarkable scene at hunter army airfield. you have the honor guards and then you had several what appear to be maybe 100 or more rangers that were on hand to also be there and, of course, the young fallen soldier's family, as well. and it's a very difficult time for that family. i had the opportunity to speak with them. their heart is full of pride, but it's also breaking at the same time. >> heartbreak. >> heartbreak. >> ask tim vogler what kind of person his son was and his hands begin to move while his younger son, chris, translates. >> i wish the world could meet him. he's amazing. he thinks his son is really awesome. >> reporter: he and his wife, donna, are deaf. they may not be able to speak about how proud they are, but they certainly can still tell

you. >> love to help people. very joyful man. he's a great son. >> reporter: 29-year-old sergeant first class lance vogler was an army ranger, a special breed of soldier. nothing proved that more than the number of times he put himself in harm's way. vogler did four rotation necessary iraq and eight in afghanistan. a dozen combat tours overall. hugh williams served alongside him for four years. >> he led by example. the man led by example. he was not going to ask you to do something he himself was not willing to do. >> growing up, vogler was a boy scout. he loved roller blading, soccer and god that brought him through. it's the latter that helped his family through since last saturday. >> it's very hard, very hard. we cope because of our faith.

god has blessed us a lot. >> reporter: but along with the grief comes moments of laughter as chris vogler remembers. >> both being children of death parents we got away with a lot. >> but there was no escaping the danger of so many rotations, even after being wounded in the leg, vogler came home, healed and went back. i asked him mom if she ever thought he went back too many times. >> yes. she felt it was a lot. and yet she expected more, too. that was his wish. >> did you ever think this day would come? >> no. >> reporter: and that's when our conversation ended. you didn't need words or hands to understand why. in addition to his mother and father and younger brother,

chris, lance vogler is survived by his wife and two children and there is another baby on the way. >> martin, even as a veteran in this business, you can't even help by not being moved on this story. it just gives you a lump in your throat to hear their words. >> reporter: a very powerful story, without a doubt. there are many of them. often they don't all get reported. we're fortunate in this case we had an opportunity to focus on this young man and his faem and there are many more stories we wish we could tell. >> thank you very much for that, martin. the physical toll on our troops, it can be obvious. but what about these warriors' emotional wounds? dr. sanjay gupta is hered in and he's going to talk about our ptsd problem we're having in this country with the military. [ male announcer ] the everyday things we depend on are simple.

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your work in your home office or if you're at home, i really want you to pay attention to this story. it really shows you what our men and women in uniform are dealing with. dr. sanjay gupta has spent a lot of time on the front lines in iraq and afghanistan with u.s. military personnel. for years, he has reported on the physical and mental toll our troops endure. he joins me live right now. so sanjay, we're now nine years into this war in afghanistan.

the suicide raid rate, ptsd rates continue to rise. have the mental wounds of this war turned into the elephant in the room here? >> inge it was for a long time. it was exactly that. no one talked very much about it because in part it was a vague diagnosis. you don't have a blood test or a specific imaging test that can diagnose ptsd. >> and i'm sure people didn't want to let on that it was happening. >> they didn't want to let on. but i think now it's inescapable when you look at the numbers and the impact this has happened. i think it's staggering to sort of think about numbers like how many people have been hospitalized as a result of mental illness as compared to physical wounds? take a look there. i think these numbers here, they say it all. more people now in the past year were hospitalized for mental health issue as compared to physical injuries. these are u.s. troops. keep in mind, don, as you well known, a lot of people, they never come forward. so that 17,000 number is a gross

estimation of how high this number is. suicide rate, four times higher among u.s. troops than the civilian population. it's no longer the elephant in the room. >> and there are a lot of things here, mutually, even in civilian life people don't like to talk about it. then when you're in a group, you're a guy that's mostly men in the military, they would have the bravado and they don't want to talk about this. we did the story on the young men, some people redeployed 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 times. the redy employments, what does that do? >> there's no question we have real objective data. it's not guesswork any more among people who are deployed more than once. the likelihood of developing mental illness is 2 1/2 times higher in someone who is deployed twice versus just once. as you mentioned, people are deployed many, many times. i think the most striking thing, don, besides being on the ground in these place webs i have been to the va hospitals. i've been to a lot of places where these troops are treated

when they come home. and a lot of times, they don't know exactly when to be able to send someone back into afghanistan or iraq. there's not strict criteria to say, you know what? you shouldn't go back in. it's somewhat vague. sometimes they'll have them fill out a question heir saying, did you see -- were you part of the battlefield injury, did you see some horrific thing? and that determined whether they could go back in. so it was sort of a vague thing. >> even like pilots, three or four days off, longer stretches between deployments. i want to go to this because there are some commanders who are calling it an emergency situation. has it gotten to the crisis level, though? if it's an emergency situation or crisis or whatever, what's being done? >> i think it has. and that's the good news in all this. i think top military commanders have recognized what was the elephant in the room for so long and said we have to squarely deal with this. the repercussions of this down

the line are going to be enormous, the mental health injuries that people are suffering and it is an injury. they're not saying this is a disorder any more. they're saying this is an injury. let's treat it as such. resources, front door ft. hood, 4,000 mental health visits a month. most big hospitals in this country could not handle that volume. how can ft. hood possibly handle it? they need more resources. they need to allow people to go off the base to get resources, they understood to have confidential phone counseling. i can if the top military commanders talk about it, it goes towards addressing most of those things. >> i almost wonder if there's something our men and women at war should be given. joey, he's standing right there and he's like, what's wrong with his car? he's used to driving a big humvee. >> a lot of people have no idea how pro found that can be.

simple things, like what you just mentioned, but even the way that the memories of what you saw are seared into your brain and the way they come out and express themselves as a result of ptsd, it's phenomenal and scary, i think, and how exactly to treat it i think is being developed still, the best way to treat it. so someone can go on to live a functional life. i think that will come about as a result of this attention. >> i think that's the best way to respect the people who made sacrifices like joey, to make sure that they're okay and have the services that they need. >> and not stigmatize us any more. >> thank you. appreciate it, sir. >> sure. sxwloobs. next up on cnn, how to keep food fresh in your home where owning a refrigerator used to be more than a dream. it is one simple thing. [ commentator ] lindsey vonn! she stays tough! earlier, she had an all-over achy cold...

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on this 9th anniversary of the war in afghanistan, president hamid karzai is trying to find a way to end the conflict. its aim to try to broker peace with the taliban. rescuers can reach the area where those 33 chilean miners are trapped and they can do it by saturday. the country's mine minister now says crews have fewer than 300 feet to drill. it could be anywhere from 2 to 10 days after the break through before they are pulleled out, but they have been trapped since early august. it's happened once before in major league baseball's history. the phillies roy halollodaal ha

pitched a perfect no-hitter. how can clay and mud help keep pour people from starving? an ingenious inventor in india can answer that question for you. >> reporter: summer heat in india brings people outdoors, fetching water and going to the local markets to buy food. it's a daily routine for people who can't afford refrigerators to store water and to keep food from spoiling. sflt the milk is to go bad. the vegetables did not stay fresh and we did not get cold water. this is troublesome for us. >> buying a refrigerator is a luxury for many in india, saying the electric bill is impossible. entrepreneur munsat is trying to change that. for years, he made clay pots that kept water cool. but during the 2001 earthquake

in his home state, 90% of his clay pots that were ready for sale ended up as rubble. >> translator: a local reporter wrote that the poor man fridge has gotten destroyed. it was then that it struck me a poor man's pot is a clay fridge. why not make a pot out of clay? >> it's taken years to design them. most importantly, it had to be cheap. so no shiny plastic or complicated wiring. >> translator: i made a refrigerator out of clay which works without electricity. it does not require any gas or air that will pollute the environment. >> it starts with a simple mixture of dirt and water that's churned until it's smooth. it is then poured into large outdoor pools and left to separate. after the raw clay drys, the pieces go through several mixing processes. the employees use their own

hands to mold the clay into the shape of a fridge, even using their nails for the finer details. after it's baked, they fix the door. he calls it the mehti cooler. mehti means mud. the cool water cools the entire refrigerator. the mehti pool costs $52. >> translator: now, life is good. vegetables stay fresh for six to eight days and milk stays fresh for two days. >> reporter: the mehti cool has exceeded his expectations. >> when people saw my product on tv, they got to know that there was a fridge made out of clay which does not require maintenance, did not need electricity to function and is eo friendly. since then, we have been selling this fridge to everybody,

whether rich or poor. they buy it and appreciate it. >> so appreciate it that even the president of india recognizes him. but his innovation hasn't stopped with the mehti cool 37 cnn, mumbai. >> so the nobel prizes are being handed out this week. and it's for some stuff we have never heard of. i mean, do you know what carbon coupling is? maybe you do. i don't. we've got the answer. it's off the radar, next. ♪ [ male announcer ] there is nothing more profound than hope. it is the promise that compels us to make the journey from wonder to discovery. the science of chemistry, our guide.

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what do us, do you want to go off the radar? >> let's go. >> i never know how they decide these things. we had literature and chemistry yesterday and we didn't get to it. >> i say you should be a professor the. >> when all of my air falls out. anyway, this is nobel prize for literature for today. this is a peruvian guy who ran for president of peru years ago. marceau gosha for his cartography structures of power

and his images of the individuals. >> this one maybe we can do. and thanks to jessica king for putting these together. >> carbon pup put them together leak two of the wrong sides of velc velcros. they don't go together all by thimz themselves. most of the way, made an awful lot of things like by-products that we didn't want in putting carbon to cash con. carbon is life. we burn carbon in our cars and in our pool, but if you take pala did i um, it becomes the other side of velcro. >> oh, that things. >> that's the chemistry. >> and now you know. >> and then we get peace and economics the next couple of days. i think you'll know those two days. >> are you running for mr. america? >> nobel. world peace. >> it's always world peace, right? >> good to see you. >> thank you. it's good to see you.

>> you know, we've been talking about coupling. this is supposed to turn aluminum into something they could use. we're talking about the devastation that toxic sludge is happening in hungary. we're going to take you inside this disaster where emergency crews are trying to head off an even greater chemical strategidy. ♪ [ e. clark ] i'm an engineer. i love my job. i can see what it's doing for the community on a day-to-day basis. natural gas is cleaner burning than most fossil fuels and it's vital to our energy needs. increasingly we're finding gas in hard to reach areas,

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all right. let's go globe trekking right now here on "cnn headline news." because in western hungary, they're trying to head off a toxic nightmare. right now, chemical sludge is seeping into the massive danube river. here is what it looks like just a few days ago when the wave of highly toxic mud broke out of a

reservoir. four people sadly have died. senior national correspondent nic robertson shows us what it's like inside this toxic zone. >> reporter: this is one of the villages affected. you can see where the red kinds of sludge got to. right here, a yard that's green and further downhill, you have the red sludge. right behind me, you can see these cleaning trucks going through the village, cleaning off the road, trying to keep the roads clean. but that's only a small part of the cleaning process. if you come down the hill further into the area, the red sludge, this toxic sludge hit, you can begin to see how the level rises against the side of the building. over here, everywhere you look in the village, the cleanup is going on. people coming out, gathering whatever possessions they can get. this stuff here looks like flooring from inside the house right here. and look at the line, the red

lines of the house right here, way above me. this is how high the red, toxic sludge came through here. people literally taking up their flooring, taking it out, trying to salvage whatever they can. everything is being decontaminated here. the army has set up a decontamination zone. that's the car right there. this is right on the edge of the contamination area. this is what the military is doing. they're trying to keep their service personnel healthy and safe as they do their job. but also keeping the vehicles clean, keeping down the amount of contaminants in the area, stopping it from spreading outside. that's one of the key parts of the containment here. people doing anything they can to get back into their properties, wooden pallets laid down here. somebody has a dump truck here, got this trying to clean out their yard. but you can see when you look at the yard, this red toxic sludge mixes in with the dirt

underneath. it's very hard to separate the two. coming in, when you come around here, take a look at it. you get an idea of how devastated this village is. look at the yards here. look at that red sludge. sitting in there. just completely contaminating the whole area. when you come up here a little more, these are the police lines. right here, the police have set up lines so looters can't get in. they're patrolling them on policemen, patrolling the village, keeping out anyone that wants to come in and steal things. it's hard to imagine, thou, how anyone would want to come into this village to take anything away. it's all so contaminated. >> unbelievable. thank you, nic. you know, one family member going to war can be a lot to handle. but imagine if your spouse and four children after the call of

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as we mark the ninth anniversary of the war in afghanistan, a south carolina family has appearsed the call to duty over and over and over again. i want to introduce you now to bonnie hogland. she has seen her husband and sons ranging in age from 21 to 25 rotate in and out of war zones. she joins me now live via skype. first of all, thank you for doing this. how is your family doing? >> everybody's doing well. as good as can be expected.

just ready to be home. >> so over and over and over again. i'm sure at some point you know it's going to happen, but did you ever get used to it? does it ever get any easier to go to see your family members go offñno to war? >> in my instance, as far as i'm concerned, it's never any easier from the start of it back in 2003 until now. it hasn't gotten any easier. it's just as tiresome and worrisome each and every time. >> i just spoke a short time ago to dr. sanjay gupta and he talked about posttraumatic stress disorder. one factor in this might be the short amount of time our soldiers have to spend at home. do you have anything to say about that? >> i believe the amount of time that they are there and returning over and over again,

that it works on them. it works on their mentality, their mind-set and i believe each and every soldier that comes home from over there has some type or a little bit of them stay and that has to be the posttraumatic stress. >> we have begun letting the troops in iraq, the people in iraq deal with their own security. the president said he is going to start bringing members home of afghanistan. what's your feeling? >> my feeling on that is we need to bring all our troops home. we've lost enough american soldiers and this war will continue long after we come home, so i mean, i believe, you know, we tried to help and it's just a war that we're not going to be able to fix.

and -- uh-huh? >> go ahead. i'm sorry. please finish your thoughts. >> i just believe that we need to come home and it's time to make a definite time limit on when we're coming home and we don't need to let everybody know the dates we're coming home. when we're ready to pull identity, pull identity out. >> bonnie, you had the i.d. tags or what they call the dog tags. you wear them, yeah. >> you keep them close to your evy one of them returns, i'll wear them every day. >> bonnie,your

promise. but this is for a really good

organization called mr. holland's opis foundation. there's a lot of kids in d.c. schools who don't have musical instruments. the schools can't afford them. so literally, the money that was raised goes towards making sure that they have musical instruments. >> i think that's a good cause and i think they need new trophies. because mine is already broken. >> i guess maybe mine is better. >> was that your daughter, really, ed? that's your daughter? >> yeah, it was really my daughter. i didn't rent some kids. >> your daughter is the ringer and i have to say the only karaoke song i ever do, because it's easy because all you have to have to do is scream is white wedding. we have key races heading into the november elections. updates right after the break. t♪ ♪ sally, i'm gonna need 40 copies, obviously collated ♪ what's going on? when we're crunched for time, brad combines office celebrations

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midterm elections. paul, what are you working on? >> don, a lot of brand new things. henry is not singing right now. this is pure journalism. let's talk about a couple of things. ed was talking to you a few minutes ago about president obama on the campaign trail. let's talk about joe biden. he has become already the democratic party guy. he was in madison, wisconsin, campaigning, helping out the gubernatorial nominee there. later today he goes to missouri and the did the democrat's fed nominee. tomorrow, washington state will be teaming up with washington who will face a challenging election this year. monday, he was in ohio helping out ted strickland, the democratic governor. tuesday, he was in minnesota with the democrats dub na toral nominee. it's kind of like an average week right now for joe biden as we are just 26 days away. he's become the go-to guy to help out democrats running for re-election this year.

the other thing i want to show you, right here, jane mcmichael. it's election day already, don. it's not november 2nd. we're talking about today. arizona today became the 10th state where early voting is under way. it all kicked off back with vermont on september 20th. they were the first and don, in the next two weeks, another 17 states plus the district of columbia will have early voting. it's blossoms over the last couple of election cycles and changed a lot of things for voters and also people running these campaigns. it's changed their strategy. finally, don, one other thing i want to show you is our brand new time magazine research polls. nevada, this is the big senate race out there. harry reid, fighting for re-election. it's a tough one for him. it shows that sharron angle backed by tea party activists, two-point advantage over reid with john ashjian and in nevada,

you also get to vote for none of them. how about connecticut? here is another state that where in the republicans win back the majority in the senate, it could be connecticut. chris dodd is not running for re-election. richard blumenthal up by 13 points over linda mcmahon. that's what i've got, don. back to you. >> thank you, paul. and the president is heading to chicago for a campaign stop. one of his main topics on the trail is the economy, of course. but some question whether he can deliver a compelling argument. that was one of the topics they tackled last night on cnn's parker spitzer. >> people respect a president who is willing to have enough -- that he tells you not the draw blood. it is so true. the defining moment i think is when president obama had the ceos down at the white house and

they were all happy together. fdr in that context was saying, you are the enemy. and barack obama said, we are all in this together. >> obama wants to be liked, ultimately. he is a pleaser and i think that's a problem. >> he's a pleaser, but it's not just toughness. it's also empathy. we have had two immediate presidents, george w. bush and bill clinton who could show public empathy very effectively. it's not a skill obama has. >> new edition, parker/spitzer tonight here at 8:00 p.m. eastern. hello, mr. president. i've got a message for you and i'm going to deliver it. >> my xyz. ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes [ dogs barking ] ♪ i'm on my way ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day

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of it. we have given much of our sometime here on cnn to the elections. who will take over, important stuff. equally as important is president obama's midterm, the halfway mark in his presidency. mr. president, 2012 will be here before you know it. obviously, i don't sit where you are, so i don't pretend to know the enormous challenges you face every single day. but from where i sit, from where many americans who look up and see you every day on the tv, we want to see a president who is confident about the direction in which he is leading our country. regardless of our political affiliations. this isn't about republican or democrat. it's about being an american. you said that you would boost the economy. reduce unemployment. abolish don't ask, don't tell. reform immigration and change the hyper partisan atmosphere in washington. sure, you have accomplished a lot and you have met with some resistance. all presidents do. but honestly, if you don't