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tv   CBS Overnight News  CBS  November 30, 2015 3:35am-4:01am EST

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that was very eye-opening. asking them what is their desire, what is their main desire. and their main desire is to be repatriated in their homeland. and i said what kinds of things could a nation like the united states do to help? and there was a pretty uniform answer on that. and that was they can support the efforts of the jordanians. the jordanians have done a yeoman's job in terms of putting up these camps but the reason the camps are not full is because they are not supported by the international community. it seems like everybody in the international community is spending more time saying how can we bring refugees here rather than how can we support a facility that is already in place that the refugees are finding perfectly fine when it's adequately funded. >> so your assessment visiting there is that jordan could take all the refugees, it's just a
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matter of getting more financial resources? >> i think jordan could take a lot more of the refugees than they're taking right now. i don't see any reason, quite frankly, that some of the other nations in the area shouldn't also be asked to do it so that you don't have to go through a big cultural change with them. and in terms of money, you know, when i looked at the refugee camps in jordan there's about a $3 billion shortfall. annually. that's how much money we spent last year on halloween candy. i mean, is it something that can be done? you know, if we bring 10,000 or 25,000 of them to the united states, that's not solving the problem. that's a little band-aid that makes a few people say hey, we're good guys. that's not what we want to do.
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we want to actually solve the problem. >> shooting at a planned parenthood location in colorado springs. some abortion rights supporters have said that the rhetoric has led to that kind of violence. what's your view on that? >> there is no question that, you know, hateful rhetoric, no matter which side it comes from, right or left, is something that is detrimental to our society. this has been a big problem. you know, our strength in this country has traditionally been in our unity. and we are allowing all kinds of circumstances to divide us and make us hateful toward each other. and the rhetoric is extremely immature, divisive and is not helpful when you have outside forces, global islamic radical jihadists who want to destroy us. why would we be doing that to ourselves? we at some point have got to become more mature. no question the hateful rhetoric exacerbates the situation and we should be doing all we can to engage in intelligent civil discussion about our differences. that's how we solve problems. we don't ever solve them with
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heart healthy snack, try a meta health bar. he has been called the final prisoner of the cold war. american alan gross was recently released after spending five years in a cuban jail. his crime -- bringing internet service to havana. scott pelley reports for "60 minutes." >> they threatened to hang me. they threatened to pull out my fingernails. they said i'd never see the light of day. i had to do three things in order to survive. three things. every day. i thought about my family that survived the holocaust. every day. and i found something every day to laugh at. >> did you think in those early days, boy, the u.s. government's
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going to get me out of here in the next week or so? >> oh, i absolutely did for the first two weeks. and then i said to myself, where the hell are they? where are they? you know, i figured -- i didn't have any idea i'd be there for five years. i knew i was in trouble. i knew i was in trouble. >> reporter: alan gross was attracted to trouble. he's 66, a native of maryland, an electronics specialist who spent 20 years making the rounds of war and disaster, setting up communications for relief agencies. >> and that's why we say when we would connect -- when we'd align the antenna and connect to the satellite we'd be lighting the candle. we'd light her up. and we did that in a lot of places. >> reporter: in 2008 the place was cuba. gross was hired by the u.s.
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agency for international development. u.s.a.i.d. is america's charity, delivering aid all around the world. but in cuba its mission was different. u.s.a.i.d. asked gross to set up independent internet connections for the jewish community. only 5% of cubans were online. but bypassing government censorship was illegal. still, gross put together an equipment list that would do just that. the key was a device called a bgan satellite modem that made a direct connection to a satellite. on his first trip to havana he put a piece of tape over the hughes 9201 model number and walked his equipment through the airport. >> so once cuban customs had cleared your equipment through on that very first trip, you concluded what from that? >> that bringing equipment into cuba wasn't that difficult. they had every opportunity to
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stop me from bringing that equipment in. they knew what that equipment was. and if they didn't, that's -- you know, shame on them. >> reporter: in the spring of 2009 he set up two systems at synagogues. but the people he was helping warned him about getting caught. gross wrote to his supervisors that the project was "playing with fire." it was on his third trip that he spotted trouble. >> i saw a van rolling down the street, and the gentleman was walking next to it with a whip antenna and what looked like a voltage meter. and essentially he was checking for radio transmissions. and he rolled right by the synagogue. >> reporter: after that gross proposed to u.s.a.i.d. that he add sophisticated equipment that could mask the bgan location. he wrote, "discovery of bgan usage would be catastrophic." you recognized the danger at that point.
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why did you go back two more times? >> well, the danger didn't seem so dangerous because i came home and i still had a contract to fulfill. >> look, you keep saying you had a contract to fulfill. that's not all that's going on here. >> no, that's it. >> you believed in the work. >> i do believe that access to information is a right for everyone, but i have never interfered or participated in any kind of political activity overseas. >> you were bringing free speech to an oppressed people under the nose of a government that did not want that to happen. >> 3 billion people every day log on to the internet around the world. how could that be circumventing the government? now, it might sound a little bit naive. so i'm naive. >> mr. gross, you can tell me that -- >> you can call me alan.
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>> alan, you can tell me that you believed in what you were doing, but you can't tell me you didn't know what you were doing. >> i knew exactly what i was doing. i was setting up internet connectivity for the jewish community in cuba. it was very simple. get them connected. that was it. >> reporter: but it ceased to be simple on his fifth trip, when four men pulled him out of his havana hotel. he was driven to a police station, where a man who seemed to be a doctor ordered him to take a pill he said was a sedative. >> so i took the pill. he gave me a juice box. and as i'm drinking the juice box, swallowing the pill, he said, "that's it. that's right. drink. drink." and i thought i was in an old humphrey bogart movie. and then they took me to a hospital. they took my clothes. they gave me these striped pajamas. >> you spent the night where? >> i spent the first night and most of the next five years at
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the carlos finlay military hospital. >> reporter: here in havana gross was held in a room 18 feet by 18 with two other prisoners. every day for the first year he was interrogated. >> it was terrible. it was a time of sensory deprivation for me. especially that first year. the place was infested with ants and roaches. i didn't have any meat really for five years. >> you lost 100 pounds. >> actually, i lost 110 pounds. >> reporter: this is gross with his lawyer during his imprisonment. he lost five teeth to lack of nutrition. and yet he says he forced himself to walk 10,000 steps a day in circles. it turned out his legal case was on the same path. it was more than a year before he went to trial for subverting the government. >> i call it the kangaroo court. >> reporter: his wife, judy, was in the court. >> the prosecutor went on for
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over an hour talking about the united states. never mentioned alan's name. he started i think with the eisenhower administration. >> the united states was on trial, and alan was uncle sam. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> reporter: the sentence -- 15 years. >> my heart sunk. then i thought, you know, we have to start moving seriously and do everything we can. >> reporter: judy gross held a rally every tuesday outside cuba's unofficial embassy in washington. and she protested at the white house. >> the worst thing that could happen would be for people to forget his name. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> and you made sure that didn't happen. >> and i was afraid that the government had already forgotten his name. >> reporter: the government that sent alan gross on his mission seemed helpless. years stretched on. judy gross lost their home. unable to make the mortgage. there was a time in this
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imprisonment that you stopped eating. >> i decided that i would go on a hunger strike to protest both governments' lack of leadership and lack of effort to resolve this situation. it was ridiculous. i wasn't a spy. i wasn't a smuggler. i wasn't a criminal. this is absolutely ridiculous. >> you can see scott's full report on our website, cbsnews.com. the overnight news will be right back. phil! oh no... (under his breath) hey man! hey peter. (unenthusiastic) oh... ha ha ha! joanne? is that you? it's me... you don't look a day over 70. am i right? jingle jingle. if you're peter pan, you stay young forever. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. ♪ you make me feel so young... it's what you do. ♪ you make me feel ♪ so spring has sprung. ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece
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the book series "the dork diaries" continues to inspire kids around the world. the latest book debuted at number 1 on the "new york times" best-seller list for children. in all, the series has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. chip reid spent some time with the family behind the books. ♪ >> that's for sarah. >> reporter: rachel renee russell and her daughters erin and nikki call themselves team dork, and they have millions of tweens wrapped around their fingers with the diary of nikki maxwell. nikki turns dork into something to be proud of as she navigates the trials of middle school with her bffs, zoe and chloe. spending most of her time trying to outsmart mckenzie hollister,
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her arch-nemesis and bully. >> raise your hand if you are a dork. >> can i raise two hands? >> can i do jazz hands? >> double dork? >> yes. >> what is a dork? >> a dork is a person who may be considered unusual to others. they're very independent. >> dork was a very derogatory term and when kids -- your feelings were hurt if you were called a dork. but since 2009 and the "dork diaries" coming on the scene a term of empowerment and it's good to be a dork. >> reporter: it's not just the word dork. there's also dorkalicious, adorkable, and dorkify. >> ooh, that's my favorite. that's when i get to draw people in dork diaries style. >> you dorkify them. >> and it's all a huge hit with their young fans. >> can you all guess who it is? this is you. come on up and get your dorkification. >> reporter: who see themselves as dorks. >> a dork is someone who has a lot of life problems.
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>> people call me weird, but i think -- i just go with the flow. >> you're helping middle school girls. >> we both thought we were just freaks but turns out there were a lot of kids who feel that way, and if i can help them through my trauma i'll do it. >> reporter: as kids erin and nikki were both bullied by their own real mckenzie, and the books are loosely based on their experiences. >> this is middle school. so this is the inspiration for "dork diaries." we made lemonade out of lemons. >> reporter: those lemons include the event that convinced rachel to put pen to paper. >> i was married 25 years, and i went through a divorce, and it was pretty traumatic. i basically lost everything, house, cars. part of my motivation for wanting to write the book was to try to launch into another career and generate some cash. >> reporter: and it paid off.
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big-time. >> so this is the house that dork built. >> yes, it is. and sometimes i pinch myself to make sure i'm not dreaming. >> reporter: the writing is collaborative, but nikki is trusted with her namesake's image. >> what do her eyes tell you about her? >> i think these eyes tell you that she is funny and that she is outgoing and she is also warm. >> reporter: rachel says she made nikki white simply because that's how she imagined her when she started writing her. nikki's best friends are african-american and latina. all of the books have one big thing in common. >> you should treat people the way you would want to be treated. >> reporter: the golden rule. >> exactly. and if you are treated poorly or bullied, number one, it's not your fault. number two, seek help from an adult. and number three, do not let it get under your skin because you should always let your inner dork shine through. >> reporter: in other words, always believe in yourself.
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chip reid, chantilly, virginia. over the years, i have played some characters
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over the years, i have played you could call controlling. but the truth is, there is so much in life we can't control. but here's something we can: colorectal cancer. it affects men and women, and it's the second leading cancer killer in the u.s., which is astouing, considering it's almost entirely preventable! here's how: most colon cancers start as polyps, and screening helps find polyps, so they can be removed before they even turn into cancer. screening also finds this cancer early, when treatment works best. for me, screening was simple and quick. it was no big deal, except for the huge sense of relief you feel afterwards. there are several tests that you can choose from. if you're 50 or older, you should talk to your doctor. decide which one is right for you. but take control. do everything you can to prevent colon cancer. screening saves lives. it could really save your life.
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nfc, afc, offensive lineman, defensive tackles, quarterbacks and cornerbacks are all working with united way. for a million little reasons. the kids of our communities. to ensure their academic success, all the way to graduation day. it takes about 12 years to create a graduate. it takes the same time to create a dropout. and the difference between a kid becoming one or the other could be professional athlete. or it could be you. studies show, the earlier we get to kids, the better their chances. so become a united way volunteer reader, tutor or mentor. make a difference in the life of a child. for the life of that child. give. advocate. volunteer. live. united. join your favorite nfl players. take the pledge. go to unitedway.org.
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captioning funded by cbs it's monday, november 30th, 2015. this is the "cbs morning news." the gunman accused of killing three people during a standoff at a colorado planned parenthood clinic makes its first appearance in court while the shooting puts the organization in the middle of a new debate. world leaders converge on paris, hopeful to reach a historic agreement to head off climate change. more dangerous weather is in the forecast after a deadly holiday weekend. rain, snow, and ice fall as millions return from thanksgiving travel. and one of the nba's all-time greats is calling it a

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