we're going to have live reports from asia, from london, as all of these markets are open to give us an idea of what could be in store for the u.s. "cnn presents" is next. don lemon will be here in the newsroom at 10:00. wolf? >> for our international viewers "your money" starts right now. thanks for watching. tonight "cnn presents," addicted at birth. >> what's she going through because she's just a little baby and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels. >> narrator: america's pain pill epidemic. the youngest generation. >> we're seeing more babies being born addicted to drugs. >> reporter: beast of war. >> next thing you know i was staring a for poise right in the face. just got me again. >> reporter: a once top secret military program, enlisting animals to protect the country.

but first, inside a polygamist sect. >> we're dealing with the exploitation of children of young girls for sexual purposes. >> narrator: gary tuchman thaks you where most people never go, exposing polygamy's dirty secrets. the scenery is spectacular, and the polygamous families who live here along the entire border have been able to live their lives with little interference for generations. stepping into their world is both jarring and surreal. >> how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> i have 18. >> and, albert, how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> 22. >> i am the oldest of 32. >> reporter: these are not members of the salt lake city-based mormon church known as church of latter day saints. they belong instead to a splinter group who believe in

polygamy and call themselves the fund mentalists church of latter day saints, or flds. their spiritual leader, warren jeffs, has been found guilty this week of sexual assaulting two children. still faces trial on a count of big my, to which he's pled not guilty. the people of the flds are convinced there is nobody on earth closer to god than warren jeffs. they believe that jeffs, even behind bars, is the mouthpiece of god, that words he utters are devinely inspired. law enforcement authorities have long been worried what would happen if jeffs told his followers to do something violent and dangerous. >> i've never seen it like this before. i've been here for seven years and i've never seen things so unstable. and so lawless. i consider this the most lawless town in the country.

>> reporter: sam braugher is a private investigator and writer who has been following the polygamous sect closely for nearly a decade and has written a book about the flds called "prophet's prey." >> do you think they are similar to the taliban or the mafia? >> absolutely. even the attorney general has stated that the flds in this community is run taliban style. that's really all the flds church is, in my opinion, is a organized crime family. >> reporter: tones for the break-away sect said that kind of assertion is nonsense. that the polygamist leaders and followers who live here simply want to be left alone to practice their religion as they see fit. but real violence, according to some neighbors, have crept into

the community. this burned out patch of grass in the town of colorado city, arizona, is evidence of what authorities say is a very disturbing example. arizona state investigators cia flds leaders burned dozens of books here, rather than let an open library be built because they believe those books were collected by infidels. >> they burnt things that didn't belong to them. they broke into the building. >> reporter: former flds member said she worked for more than two years to collect books for the new library, a library independent of the church. >> and what did they do with the books? >> they held them out of the building. >> then what did they do with them? >> we assumed they were burnt. we saw a massive bomb fire and assumed all of this was on the pile because we saw books in the burning pile. >> this is the remnants of one of the charred books. looks like a medical textbook.

>> reporter: county investigators say the local police in colorado city are all members of the flds and have ignored the arson. those local police have not returned our calls. it's the county authorities who have worked to crack down on the church. >> so you're with the county and they're the local police, and normally 99.9% of the time police all work together? you don't work with these guys, do you? >> not at all. can't even get them to talk to me most of the time. >> reporter: that's because according to mojave county chief investigators gary engels police believe leaders here first, civilian leaders second. >> in your eyes is their allegiance more to the constitution of the united states or to warren jeffs, their prophet. >> i believe their allegiance is probably more to the church. i know they were required to swear allegiance to warren in one of their church meetings here not too long ago.

>> reporter: some say if you do not side with warren jeffs, there could be trouble. >> so are you afraid for your safety sometimes? >> well, yeah, sometimes you get a little worried. they've killed some of my animals. >> reporter: isaac wyler has lived here for years. and until he split from warren jeffs, life was more or less tranquil. not now. >> one time there was six dead cats in my window wells, thrown in there. a lot of times you would go out there and there would be a dead cat or a dead pigeon or a dead duck or something. >> they intimidate you? >> yeah, definitely for intimidation. but i don't intimidate that easy. >> reporter: attorneys for the flds did not return calls for comment, on either the book burning or the alleged intimidation. during my frequent reporting trips to colorado city, we were often made to feel unwelcome.

>> put your cameras out of here. sorry, this is private property. >> reporter: most of the people here will do what it takes to protect warren jeffs. >> tell me what war roaren jeff means to you. >> i don't know what you mean by that. >> how important is he to you? >> everything. >> he's everything to you? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: and there's still a great deal of allegiance to the leader who has long been in jail, but that may be changing. just ahead, a man who was once one of warren jeffs most loyal toe toe followers now tells a very different story. >> he said he's a very wicked man and he confessed to doing some very terrible things. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c300 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears. the mercedes-benz summer event ends august 31st.

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♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh we take it on ours. this summer put your family in an exceptionally engineered mercedes-benz now for an exceptional price during the summer event. but hurry, this offer ends august 31st. even though he's just been found guilty by a texas children of sexual assaulting two children, there seems little doubt warren jeffs remains firmly in charge of his break away polygamist sect. while he was away on trial in jail, he did one thing, he was on the phone.

>> in this past month, how much money would you spend he spent on phone cards make phone calls. >> $3,000. >> reporter: and a similar pattern when he was for a time in a exodus jail a few miles away. >> i would say probably in excess of $10,000. >> is it unusual to spend that much money? have you ever had an inmate spend that much money on phone cards? >> no. >> reporter: authorities tell cnn jeffs has been given cash by his loyal followers to pay for the calls. and they say they monitor what is said. mostly lengthy sermons and detailed instructions to his followers a few miles away at his isolated yearning for zion ranch, as well as to his followers in the twin polygamous towns of colorado city, arizona, and haildale, utah. if that sounds like he's still running the church from jail, he is. insiders say he's even been excommunicating those who disagree with him. but what it hasn't done is stop a growing feud between those who still believe in him and those who now believe he's a child

mole molester. >> i would like all of you to think if he was standing here today -- >> reporter: three years ago willie jessup was one of jeffs' most entrusted lieutenants. even showed me around the compound in west texas that was raided by texas rake jers to show cnn that nothing inherently bad was taking place. >> where are the parents? >> that's it? >> reporter: today, jessups says warren jeffs has betrayed his church. >> he said he's a very wicked man and he confessed to doing some very terrible things, including molesting his daughter and sister and others. and i think he's own words describe himself. >> reporter: jessop is talking about diaries submitted by evidence that he said was left by warren jeffs after his arrest in las vegas five years ago. he's talking about these. pictures showing jeffs embracing and kissing young girls no more than 12 or children years old,

jessop says. >> his conduct will never be sanctioned by me. i don't think there's anyone at my church that will ever sanction what he has done. it's just a matter of time until they come to terms and figure out how to cope with what he has done. >> reporter: according to authorities in both texas and canada, jeffs orchestrated what canadian police have called a child trafficking ring. sending as many as 30 young girls ages 12 or 13 from a polygamous compound from columbia to the u.s. border to utah, arizona, and texas. >> and this is very serious allegations here where essentially in laymen's terms we're dealing with the exploitation of children, of young girls, for sexual purposes and the procurement of sex with girls under the ages of 18. >> reporter: and here is that canadian compound. now it's self split into

factions. one faction loyal to jeffs, the other loyal to this man, winston blackmore. he is a long-tim polygamous leader who does not want to believe accounts of child brides moving away from canada into the united states. >> i've heard those stories. just different stories like you come to tell me but i would be disappointed if they were actually true. >> reporter: a woman who did not want her face shown told us it is true. she says she has first-hand knowledge. three of her nieces were among those sent away to be married to older men in the u.s. >> it angers me that 12 and 13-year-olds would be taken away and given to an older man. and that he would consummate their marriage vows. it angers me. i mean, they're just children, you know? it's not right.

>> reporter: many girls investigators say, ends up here at this flds compound in west texas where we tried to get some answers. >> hello. >> it's gary tuchman with cnn. we're doing a story about warren jeffs. >> reporter: cars and trucks pass in and out, but no one came out to answer questions. >> can i ask you a quick question? >> reporter: warren jeffs' attorney declined to comment. the people who live on this ranch and one of the most isolated parts of texas, are not only loyal to warren jeffs, they're the most loyal of the loyal. you're only invited to live here if the prophet himself approves. and it is spite his long stay in jails in utah, arizona, and texas, jail time amounts to more than five years so far, that's what warren jeffs is to people who believe in him, a leader to

be followed and obeyed, despite his conviction this week on two charges of sexual assault. he will also soon stand trial on a big my charge to which he's pled not guilty. officials of the mainstream mormon church reject jeffs and his practices. but within the flds, there seems to be more people supporting warren jeffs than those trying to unseat him. how long that will last is anyone's guess. warren jeffs was his own attorney during his texas trial, where prosecutors played aud audiotapes of his sexual encounters with unlg age girls. even so, he is still controlling the destiny of his polygamist followers. just listen to this young believer in arizona. >> tell me what warren jeffs means to you. >> i don't know what you mean by that. >> i mean, how important is he to you? >> everything? >> he's everything to you? >> uh-huh. >> and are you married yet? >> i'm not. >> do you want to be married some day? >> of course i do. >> and do you want to have sister wives, too? >> of course i do. >> how many sister wives would

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from the outside they look more like nightclubs than doctors offices. and they're not too happy to see our cameras. we're here in the parking lot of one of these pain clinics. >> get out of here. get out of here. leave them the [ bleep ] alone. >> reporter: broward county, florida, is filled with pain clinics. doctors making millions doling out prescription heroin in a pill, like candy. oxycodo oxycodone, roxies, blues. >> hundreds and hundreds of pills in one day from just going from one doctor to the next and then taking them on the street and selling them. >> reporter: authorities are struggling to shut down these

pill mills, but not fast enough. >> more and more people keep dying from prescription drug overdoses. >> these doctors are slaughtering our children every single day. look at us, we're desperate. we're begging you. >> reporter: as one generation succumbs to prescription opiods, a new generation of addicts is being born. >> as we saw the number of crack babies that died, and this is just another version of that. we all need to be concerned. >> good morning, ladies. i'm jessica. i feel good today. casey goes for her follow-up appointment at the doctors, so hopefully they'll say she's doing better, and i hope everybody has a blessed day. >> thank you. >> this is casey's bed. like i said, she's a princess, so -- >> that is right after she was born?

>> that was right after she was born, about a weeks after she was born. >> this is her nebulizer. just put that on her face and turn it on. it's kind of loud. this is why we're going to the doctor, is that nasty cough. nasty cough. >> reporter: for most of her pregnancy jessica flooded her body and, therefore, casey's, with the prescription painkiller oxycodo oxycodone, a synthetic version of her win. these prescription pills have emerged as the nation's fastest growing drug problem. jessica fears the drug use is responsible for casey's frequent respiratory infections. >> with my other two kids, they were never sick this young. so it's kind of new to me. god comforts us in a way a loving parent comforts a flightened child. >> reporter: two years ago jessica's husband died. a friend gave jessica a couple oxycodone pills to numb the

pain. >> when i started, i was taking like one to two, and within a six-month period i was taking 30, 30, 30 milligrams. >> 30 30 milligrams? >> exactly, snorting them. >> reporter: jessica was getting her pills from florida's numerous pill mills. and then, she got pregnant. >> if you are pregnant and you know that it's harming the baby and you know it could possibly cause birth defects, why don't you just quit using the pills? >> it's just not that easy. you feel like you're going to die. >> reporter: this recovery center used to be filled with pregnant women who had abused crack cocaine. now it's pills. >> when did the first patient coming in addicted to pills? >> okay, in 2000 this is all cocaine right here. >> the blue line. >> the blue line. versus primary drug of choice prescription. the crossover was sometime in 2009. >> reporter: pregnant women addicted to crack are encouraged

to quit. but with opiods, babies get just ased a dited as the mother. if she quits cold turkey, the baby could die in utero from withdrawal. >> when you were going through withdrawal did you feel that casey was going through withdrawal, also? >> absolutely. >> how is that? >> she would like curl up like in a -- because it was, you know, in the latter part of the pregnancy, she would curl up in a ball and my stomach would get rock solid and she wouldn't move. you could feel it. you could just feel that she was -- she was in torment. it's really sad. you know? to know that your baby is in pain, you're in pain, and then you just feel horrible because you did it. you know, you did it. you put yourself there. >> reporter: jessica was weaned off the pills before casey was born. those that aren't give birth to babies who begin to suffer with their first breath. >> so you actually have to detox

babies. >> right. they go through their withdrawal symptoms, yes. they start out by having feeding intolerances, diarrhea, cramping, miserable, irritable, they have -- they sweat, they can have rapid breathing. sometimes they can even have seizur seizures. >> reporter: according to state health records, during the first half of 2010 alone, 635 florida babies were born addicted. you were saying that the number of babies you have seen addicted to prescription drugs doubled past year. >> yes. there are some situations where we have three or four babies at a time. it just makes everybody a little reflective and a little sad about the whole situation. >> reporter: even more troubling, researchers still don't know what the long-term effects of opiod use will be on infants. >> yes, princess. >> reporter: and neither does jessica. >> because i know that i'm going

through stuff getting off of the pills, so what is she going through because she's just a little baby and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels. i want to make sure that she doesn't want for anything, that she doesn't have to hurt any more than i already put her through. she didn't deserve that. she's a princess. coming up, we're going to see her drug dealer. he's got teardrops tattooed on his eyes. >> get 12 for later. >> we see firsthand how the pill trade works.sm th wrinkles with ? wait a second... with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay.

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i've tried it. yeah, this is pretty good. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. with two children and no way to support them. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu.

. i'm don lemon live at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. u.s. troops in afghanistan have suffered their deadliest single incident since the war began. 30 american troops died early today when their helicopter crashed during a mission. the twin motor chinook was shot down by the taliban. 25 of the dead were special forces. most members of the navy s.e.a.ls. the credit rating has dropped for the u.s. standard & poor's downgraded the u.s. from a aaa to a aa plus

rating. that could mean higher interest rates on things like credit cards, loans, insurance. you name it. as blame congress and the obama administration for the downgrade. the announcement came just days after a mush criticized deal to raise the debt ceiling. texas jury heard testimony today that warren jeffs raped his then 5-year-old nephew more than a decade ago. prosecutors call 28-year-old brent jeffs to the stand as part of the penalty phase for the convicted religious leader. brent jeffs testified his uncle removed him from sunday school to violate him while warren jeffs' brother stood guard. jeffs was convicted this week on two counts of sexual assault of a minominor. he faces possible life in prison although prosecutors say it could be several days before the penalty phase is over. i'm don lemon. now back to "cnn presents." we came to broward county a year ago to do an investigation on pill mills.

now we're back and a. year later and there's still rows and rows of pain clinics. we're seeing more babies being born addicted to drugs. >> more people died last year from prescription drug overdoses than car accidents. >> our children are dying. and it's all young people. it's all the young people. >> what age were you when you started using pills? >> i was 18. that's me, my dad, my brother. that's me and my mom before drugs. i used to be so pristine and proper in all my pictures, you know. i cared about my hair, my makeup. i don't give a [ bleep ] anymore. >> reporter: brie's as diction to oxycodone is killing her. >> there's five of the oxycodone and a bar and a half of xanax. >> reporter: she allowed us to

film this because she wanted to show us what a rut the pills have made of her life. >> i mean i love my family, but this is the only thing that i care about, because i feel like i'm going, my vein is not popping up. i need more pills. i don't feel anything. i'm not satisfied. just leave the door open. >> is that hard for you to see her like this right now? >> i hate it. i hate it. >> reporter: brie's mother joy is a nurse, but this one patient she's not been able to help.

>> she's dropped cigarettes in between her chest, holes in her, you know -- i mean, it's amazing that our house hasn't burned down. >> your daughter lives with you. she's around you all the time. how come you can't keep her from doing the pills? >> she's tried. tried everything. i say a prayer to god before i leave for work and say, please, god, keep my daughter okay while i'm gone. the first thing i do is walk in and check on her and make sure she's still breathing. not a fun way to live. >> reporter: joy joins other south florida parents in protest against the pill mills that feed addiction. >> i saw the majority of people out here, have they lost family members to pills? >> a lot of them have, yeah. >> this is my precious son. his name is jay. he died at age 36 on his birth day. >> blayne died december 2009. >> you're home at night and the phone rings and you're afraid to

answer it because you don't know whether it's the sheriff, the morgue, or the hospital. >> bree is driving us right now to go pick up more pills. how much money is this? >> $175. >> this will just get you one hit? she spends thousands of dollars a week. >> a week. >> just to get high. we're going to see her drug dealer. he's got teardrops tattooed on his eyes and gold teeth. you're not scare of this guy? >> no, he's a sweetheart. >> ignore me, okay? if you see me on the street, ignore me. >> our producer is getting out of the car because it might look suspicious having him in the car. >> let me get 12 until later. one, two, three. >> reporter: the dealer admits he gets his stash after visiting multiple pill mill doctors. >> i'm going to stop at four, five, six, seven even. >> what did he give you? >> 11 of them.

>> 11. what are they? >> oxycodone. >> reporter: to put this into perspective, the recommended starting dose for oxycodone is ten pimilligrams in 12 hours. b bree just bought 30 times that and that's just enough to get her through one afternoon. today a multi-agency task force busts 22 pill mills, arresting doctors for trafficking an illegal prescriptions. >> it's not uncommon to see doctors make up wards of a million dollars a year. >> reporter: but not nothing compared to what some of the clinic owners make. dea agents seized more than two dozen luxury cars from the garage of one pill mill entrepreneur. >> this individual was making $150,000 a day. >> viper, porsche, a nice blue

bentley. i don't even know what kind of car this is. why does it take so long to bust these clinics? why can't you just go in and knock them down one by one. >> well, they're doing it under the cover of their medical license. you have to prove that the doctor knew that they were over-prescribing. >> these people are addicted. i mean, these people are suffering and these pill mill clinic owners and some of these doctors, they're just preying on that suffering. for the cash, for the profit. ♪ >> reporter: these are the faces of that suffering. >> i remember when i first started doing these occasionally. everybody, all my friends, none of us were drug addicts. now the whole town is. >> reporter: one mother who has already lost her child -- >> yes, princess. >> reporter: -- another mother who is hoping her past hasn't ruined her child's future.

>> because i don't want to ever forget how bad i felt. i don't want to ever forget what it could have done to her. it's never okay to do a pill again. ever. up next, animals trained to take on terrorists. >> oh, yeah. get ready for an episode of man versus dolphin. >> he tries to beat a dolphin at its own game. >> he got me again. the rare, t. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice.

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the tools of war, planes, ships, bombs, and boats. but since ancient times there's been another tool, animals, beasts of war. for hannibal in the third century b.c. it was elephants. his version of a tank to break through enemy lines. in world war i, carrier pigeons. one bird flying 25 miles and delivering its message before dying of its injuries. today, we're driving in to go see a very unique navy program that's been around for about 40 years, but it's only been declassified since the '90s.

and this is a really rare opportunity. it was extremely hard to set up. the navy understandably is very sensitive about access to this program. >> reporter: the navy says what you're about to see is the best protection for a ship or a harbor against an attack. it has the finest sonar in the world, and you can't see it coming. the dolphin, what the navy calls the mark 6 weapon system, trained to find and identify a hostile swimmer. the navy has seen firsthand how vulnerable their ships can be at anchor. 17 sailors were killed when the "uss cole" was attacked in 2,000. two years later u.s. intelligence warned of possible al qaeda attacks by terrorist scuba divers. divers these dolphins are trained to detect. today as part of the navy's

marine mammal program dolphins are actively deployed to detect nuclear submarine tons east and west coasts and can be sent anywhere in the world in 72 hours, wherever the enemy threatens. now i'll be that enemy diver. i've come to the point low manned naval base to see if i can beat the dolphin at its own game. my om poen nent will be more of the 75 dolphins stationed here. but before i can december this dolphin's skills in the water, a little care and feeding. i got to feed the animal that's going to hit me. >> yeah. >> full service. >> we're looking at calories. the energy the animal needs to be able to be healthy and do his job real well. this animal is getting probably 9,000 calories per day compared to you and i it might be 1800 to 200 calorie. >> reporter: 9,000 calories adds up to a lot of restaurant quality fish. >> usually takes a good sailor two minutes to make a good bucket. you're going to have to pick up the pace. >> pick up the pace here.

>> reporter: the mammal program is comprised of hundreds of trainers, veterinarians, and navy sailors dedicated to keeping the animal in optimal shape. like any other combat system in the navy, prior to deployment, they're subject to maintenance and inspections. >> before we get out to get to work what we're going to do is what's called a body check. we're looking for attitude, appetite and appearance. let's go take a look. so the handler is taking a look inside the mouth and the animal's eyes while he does that. making sure that this dolphin is real clean. now this dolphin is looking good and ready to go, we can go ahead and beach him up in the boat and get out and get to work. >> reporter: dolphins have been working for the navy since the 1960s, when military researchers first started investigating how their sonar capabilities could help naval missions. >> we may be able to train this animal to assist us in various ways in the sea.

>> reporter: the navy quickly realized they could train mammals to perform missions. they've zered in vietnam and the persian gulf. today the u.s. is one of a handful of countries in the world which acknowledges having an anti-swimmer marine mammal program. this was something i was aware of from my time in the active duty navy, but now i'm about to experience it firsthand. it's unprecedented for the navy to allow what i'm about to do. now we're going to actually get in the water and put this thing to work. so today i'm the bad guy simulating that i'm a combat swimmer trying to attack a port in a harbor or a ship and they're going to release the mark 6, the dolphin, and see if it can find me in the water. essentially i'm the crash test dummy for the dolphin. oh, yeah, get ready for an

episode of man versus dolphin. a swimmer sbra diction dolphin catches a ride from its pen to the patrol area and it's ready to go to work. hundreds of yards away, armed with an inert mind, i'm getting ready to face-off. here's the mission, i'm about to enter the water. i'm going to attempt to head to that ship right over there as if i was going to make a combat swimmer attack on that ship. the dolphin is out patrolling. we'll see if it intercepts me between here and the ship. >> good to go? >> good 230 go. >> reporter: utilizing a low-profile combat side stroke i'm on my way to the ship. but the dolphin is on its way to me. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet,

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playing the role of a terrorist in san diego bay i'm trying to invade a dolphin who is trained to find hostile swimmers. >> he's not going to make it. he's going to get him.

>> reporter: out of nowhere -- >> she's got him. >> i got about, say, 50 meters from the ship behind me, and then, boom, came and hit me right here. the dolphin hits me with a marker that alerts armed security of my presence. >> there's a second where i thought i was going to make it through. the next thing you know i was staring a porpoise right in the face. whoa, just got me again. whoa. >> reporter: in a minute she's back on her boat and getting some tlc. >> i guess my combat ship attack foiled again. undaunted i try underwater with my scuba gear on. here's what the camera on the

dolphin saw. underwater or on the surface, the dolphin finds me every time. how does she compare to say, if you had a side scam sonar on the boat. >> she's able to pick out details about an object that we could only dream of having. she can go it at great ranges with 100% reliability. >> the dolphin is looking for a swimmer like me. >> once she's sure that's a swimmer, there she goes, so she just touched that ball right there. at this point, kaj, we're going to have to get out of the way aft handler. he's going to get in there and say, hey, good girl, thanks for keeping your eye out for us. he's going to let her know she's done a good job, and he's giving her the marker and there goes the marker. now she's on her way like a shot, as you know. it's a pretty good little bump. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> that's one way to put it.

>> dolphins' jobs go i don't what the navy swal swimmer inetrdiction. she finds not only people in the water but also things. things like mines. >> using the echo location looking out in front of the boat. >> reporter: supervises operations for the marine mammal program and works with the navy's explosive ordinance explosive unit. >> overtime we have to train the animals and discriminate between, you know, it could be a lobster trap -- sorry, got a positive. right now the animal just went positive. >> what's she doing now? >> right now she's carrying the marker down to the mine shape that she's told us she found. that means the marker has deployed. the diver is going to go to that anchor and do a surpluser and verify the animal found the target. >> reporter: in 2003 the navy performed this operation in wartime, deploying mine

detecting dolphins to iraq. some dolphins are iraq war veterans. what about danger to the animal? you're asking them to go get close to explosive devices under water. >> mines are very complicated, high-grade machinery. they're not set off to go on dolphins. they're set off to go on ships. >> reporter: even if the animals are safe, the marine mammal program has been criticized by animal rights groups claiming the work is putting them in undue stress. >> how do you respond to people who say the animals shouldn't be confined, they should be in the wild? >> we recognize that people have concerns and we're happy that people are concerned with the welfare of animals, as we are, too. everyone who works on this project in any capacity is an advocate for animals. that's their top priority or they wouldn't be here. it's -- it's something that --

it never leaves our mind. >> reporter: the program's first dolphins were captured in the 1960s. now, though, dolphins are raised from birth. today, the program also uses sea lions that were abandoned in the wild or bought. both animals receive top notch medical care. in return, the sea mammals cannot only save lives but can save millions of dollars. the navy does a lot of training for war fighting and one of the things they do is they shoot torpedos, they drop sensors. sometimes those end up at the bottom of the ocean during those training exercises. so the question is, how do you recover them? >> all right. so we have gus here. he is almost 10 years old. he's a trained mark 5 animal. he can dive up to depths of 1,000 feet. but right now we're just going to do a little deck demo over here and show you what we actually do under water. >> reporter: gus is taught to pull on the cable to make sure he's made a secure connection. >> and then you guys will reel

in whatever -- >> yep. go get it. >> reporter: he can recover up to 40 items per day. >> water, and his buddy joe is so well trained that even i could recover a test object. out. joe just made me look good. he did everything we talked about. now he gets a little reward. the navy has also trained sea lions to remove clamps to recover just not objects but people. i got in the water one last time to see how sea lions as well as dolphins can conduct swimmer intervention. the result, the same as the dolphin. caught but with a twist, a clamp that attaches to my leg. caught me like a bear in a bear trap. hook bs right on to your leg.

but, there's no hard feelings. good job. thanks not for hitting me too hard. thanks for being gentle. for the dolphins and sea lions it all seems like a game. just got me again. find the target, get some fish. but for their handlers, it's much more. an unlikely partner ship between humans and animals that, right now, is the most effective way to guard our nation's top maritime assets. it's a tradition in the navy for sailors to salute each other as a sign of respect. as i close my time with the navy marine mammals, i was saluted by this unlikely warrior. working every day to keep the nation safe. on the next "cnn presents," a pizza delivery man robs a bank with a bomb around his neck. >> he is s