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CNN NEWSROOM

Rising GOP Star in Deportation Scandal; Gauging Israel's Appetite for a Strike; Syria's "Orphan Revolution"; Remembering Whitney Houston; "Slavery by Another Name"; Re-enslavement of African- Americans

Aired February 19, 2012 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A rising star in the Republican Party holding a news conference to tell the world he's gay. But that's only half the surprise.

In one fell swoop, Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu publicly came out, left his role as state co-chair for the Mitt Romney campaign and denied claims that he threatened to deport a former boyfriend. Babeu has become nationally known for his tough stance on illegal immigration and he's running for Congress from Arizona's 4th District.

But the "Phoenix New Times" reports that Babeu wanted his ex to sign a confidentiality agreement to keep their relationship a secret. The ex, a Mexican immigrant identified only as Jose, refused and said Babeu then threatened to get him deported back to Mexico.

These are photos that Jose gave the "New Times" and Babeu's attorney is accusing Jose of accessing campaign computers without permission. The sheriff himself denies any wrongdoing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: I'm here to say that all these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely, completely false, except for the issues that refer to my being gay, because that's the truth. I am gay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I spoke with Monica Alonzo, the reporter for the "New Times" who broke this story, and I asked her how this all came to life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA ALONZO, REPORTER, "PHOENIX NEW TIMES": All right. Part of the intimidation came from -- they both agreed that they would not contact each other. Through their attorneys -- they would just cease all contact with them. After Jose moved, he got a Christmas card from Paul Babeu even though he had moved to an apartment, didn't have any -- leave any forwarding address. So he felt that was Babeu's way of letting him know, I know where you're at. And there was pressure there for him to sign something that he wouldn't disclose any details about the relationship.

LEMON: OK. So -- and Paul to your knowledge, Paul Babeu in the community is not out.

ALONZO: No. Not before the story, no.

LEMON: OK. Is there -- what is the evidence that Babeu was going to threaten to deport him if he made their relationship public?

ALONZO: The evidence comes from the attorney who received those threats from Paul Babeu's attorney. As they were discussing this document, they wanted Jose to sign and she made it clear that her client wasn't interested in doing that. That's when they started raising questions about his visa, saying that it had expired, saying that he was in the country illegally -- that legally he was not here.

LEMON: So that's where the threats and the accusations of abuse of power are coming from that.

ALONZO: Right.

LEMON: So listen. So you're saying he's not out in public. He's saying he is gay and he said it in front of cameras. He's not out. There are pictures of him there with -- allegedly with Jose. There is a shirtless picture that's online with him that he's taking in a mirror. There's also a --

ALONZO: Right.

LEMON: -- a profile from a gay Web site of him and his personal information and shirtless that's allegedly him. Why is any of that important?

ALONZO: Well, it's important because it goes to judgment. Here you have a sheriff of Pinal County, somebody who's made himself the face of Arizona when it comes to border security and illegal immigration. And he's also making a run for Congress also.

So I think the reason that those picture are important is because it talks a lot about the credibility or the judgment that somebody has in posting photos like that or e-mailing photos like that of themselves. And those were the more tame ones. The other ones are maybe a little more explicit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Monica Alonzo, the reporter who broke the story. And I talked about this with L.Z. Granderson, a contributor to CNN.com and senior writer at ESPN, and CNN contributor Will Cain. They just don't see eye to eye on this one in the slightest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: The thing that I find most interesting and I don't want to get into whether or not Jose's story is correct or not. What I find most interesting is that he resigned from Mitt Romney's campaign but he is still running for Congress.

So I'm trying to figure out why would you resign from Mitt's campaign but still have your own. Either you are qualified to continue on as a co-chair for Mitt Romney or you're not.

LEMON: Wait, hold on. Hold on.

GRANDERSON: Because the same qualifications, I think, will lead you to be able to run for Congress.

LEMON: Why isn't the Jose part important to you? Because he could be making this up. We don't know. I mean, if we're going to take, you know, Jose at his word, we have to take Mr. Babeu at his word, as well. Why isn't it important to you that Jose -- Jose's side of the story?

GRANDERSON: It's not important to me because right now it's all rumor and conjecture that he said-he said sort of story. And so I think it's important that we concentrate on what are the real facts. And that is he has elected to resign from Mitt Romney's campaign, and I'm curious as to why.

Does he feel that coming out all of a sudden now disqualifies him from being able to serve with the Republican candidate? Because if that's the case, then we have a much larger issue to be talking about besides a lovers' quarrel.

LEMON: If he was out in the first place, would this be an issue, do you think?

GRANDERSON: If he was out in the first place, would Mitt Romney have him as a co-chair for his state? His state campaign? You know, I think that's like the real question, right?

Why is he resigning? Did he feel he had to resign because he couldn't continue on as an openly gay volunteer? And if that's the case, that says something really horrible about Mitt Romney's campaign.

LEMON: OK. Will, before I ask you my question, do you want to respond to anything that L.Z. has said here?

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I do want to respond to one thing. You know, L.Z. and I are friends and the viewers should know that. We've had a lot of conversations offline and on T.V. about generalizations, and L.Z. almost invariably opposes generalizations about stereotypes when it comes to sexuality and stereotypes when it comes to race. But he made a broad sweeping generalization about the GOP and its hypocrisy with sexuality.

I think this story should be looked at as individual circumstance and judged as individual circumstances.

L.Z., by your own standard, I just don't know how you apply a broad generalization to entire party, an entire ideology and apply hypocrisy to it. I just don't know how you can do that by your own standard.

GRANDERSON: Well, I could give you a long list of examples but I don't know if we can take up Don's show like that. We certainly have plenty of examples of both people in the religious front as well as in the political front who happen to be GOP candidates who happen to be anti-gay or linked to anti-gay organizations, then we find out later that they are somehow either wrestling with sexual orientation themselves or involved with this kind of --

CAIN: I just don't know what --

GRANDERSON: You're right.

CAIN: I just don't know what broader conclusion we're trying to reach with that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Will Cain and L.Z. Granderson.

Tomorrow night, Anderson Cooper has an exclusive interview with Sheriff Paul Babeu, 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Other news to tell you about tonight. President Barack Obama's top security aide is visiting Israel through tomorrow, gauging our ally's appetite for preemptive attack on Iran. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon's visit comes as U.S. and European officials are hopeful that Iran will renew talks on its nuclear program.

That might not be enough for Israel. There is talk that top Israeli officials are pushing for a strike to destroy Iran's capacity to build a nuclear weapon. As CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney explains, whether Israel would actually dare to launch such a strike is the million dollar question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIONNUALA SWENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to one Israeli newspaper, Tom Donilon expected to urge the Israeli government over the last couple of days to wait and see if the newly recently applied tougher sanctions on Iran will work by the European Union and the United States.

Of course, Israel is saying that the time for sanctions in a sense is over, although Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, yesterday speaking in Tokyo said that only crippling sanctions could now bring Tehran to the negotiating table.

So it really is, as far as Israel is concerned, really a question of timing. We don't know if any decision has been taken as such formally or otherwise to launch any kind of strike against Iran, but certainly it is the topic on anyone's minds here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was Fionnuala Sweeney reporting from Jerusalem.

In Syria, opposition forces maybe outgun but they aren't backing down. In the north, rebels are slowly coming together, learning the discipline they'll need to win their country. And as our Ivan Watson learned, many feel that they don't have any other choice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The commander is a former Syrian army general who defected six months ago. Like many of his fighters, he covers his face for safety. He calls Syria's 11-month-old uprising "the Orphan Revolution" because unlike the revolts in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, he says, the Syrian rebels haven't received any foreign support.

With no outside help, the men of this community turn to a higher power. Friday prayers in a packed mosque in the rebel-held town of Binnish.

Condolences for a man killed by a sniper's bullet in the nearby city of Idlib turn into a full-throated roar of "Allahuh Akbar" - "God is great." The crowd marches into the town square and performs a weekly ritual of defiance against Bashar al-Assad. There's no Syrian government presence in this town but Assad's tanks are never far away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One kilometer away from here.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Syrian army?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the Syrian army.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Will you fight if the Syrian army comes here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because we were for 10 months peaceful but now there is no other solution.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You have to fight?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have to fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was CNN's Ivan Watson reporting from northern Syria.

Rick Santorum is in the spotlight this weekend. He is lashing out not at just his GOP opponents but the man he wants to battle this fall, President Barack Obama. We'll talk about it straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has the political world abuzz with his remarks that President Obama believes in a, quote, "phony theology." Santorum said today that he wasn't referring to religion, he was talking values and he said he doesn't doubt the president's Christian faith but it was a curious choice of words.

I talked about it with CNN.com contributor L.Z. Granderson and CNN contributor Will Cain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Will, Rick Santorum said this morning that he wasn't questioning the president's Christianity, so why did he use the word theology? He's been around for awhile. He knows what he's doing.

CAIN: It's inappropriate. I don't know why he used it, Don, but I do think it's an inappropriate use of verbiage, I mean, because whether or not it's intended or not, it is going to have those implications for a broad range of people out there.

Did he know that? I just can't get inside his mind. I can't be that strategic about it. I don't know but the bottom line is people are going to hear someone invoking religion and in a way that is a non-Christian religious context to say -- to suggest President Obama isn't a Christian. That's the bottom line. It's going to imply that President Obama is not a Christian. I think that's inappropriate.

LEMON: And I think that's the way most people are reading it.

So L.Z., do you think it was strategic? Will said he's not sure if it was.

LEMON: Well, I tend to think that it was strategic. It was just another code word that he's using to remind people that he is not like us. Or he is different from us.

LEMON: I got it. I got it. So, L.Z., Santorum said today that insurance companies shouldn't be required to cover prenatal testing because certain tests often lead to abortions. Are comments like these calculated moves on his part as well?

GRANDERSON: You know, whenever he says things like this, I just wish that people in the area would just ask themselves or ask Santorum where do you base this on? What facts are you using? Did you interview a bunch of doctors and this is what they told you? Did you interview patients and this is what they told you? Why are you saying these things?

You know, he says a lot of things like this to challenge President Obama. He doesn't get challenged himself on the facts and I think that's really disturbing and it skews away from the larger conversation about health care.

LEMON: OK. L.Z., if you want to -- I mean, Will, if you want to weigh in quickly.

CAIN: Yes. I just love to kind of put that, these comments about prenatal care, in context. Rick Santorum is opposed to amniocentesis and prenatal screening for some reason. Whatever reason he has, he is opposed to it. Call him a knuckle-dragger, call him backwards, whatever you want. It's his dig. He doesn't want the government to ban prenatal testing. He's not trying to seek that out.

But what he is opposed is the government forcing private employers to include it for free in their health plans. I and many conservatives are opposed to the government forcing employers to provide many things in their health care plans. This should be a matter of choice and volunteerism between an employer and an employee. This is a broader problem with Obamacare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: The Obama re-election team, as you might imagine, isn't buying Santorum's critique of the president's so-called theology. Santorum's comments, in the words of Robert Gibbs, quote, "don't belong in our politics."

Three people are dead in Washington State after an avalanche roars through a ski area and it could have been much, much worse. The story is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, three people were killed in an avalanche near Seattle, Washington. It happened in a remote part of the Steven's Pass ski area in the Cascade Mountains. The area received 19 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. King County Sheriff officials say that all skiers have now been accounted for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. KATY LARSON, KING COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Typically, you're going to have the more experienced skiers, if they choose to ski this area which they do so at their own risk, they're skiing, the avalanche happens, at this point, almost all of them probably up to 12 at some point are buried in the snow. Then they manage to dig themselves out of the snow. At that point and they look and they find that three of these skiers are suffering from medical issues. They begin CPR and unfortunately they were not able to resuscitate the victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Steven's Pass ski patrol dealt with a second avalanche at roughly the same time. No one was injured there.

If you live in the western half of the U.S., brace for a double dose of winter. Two strong storms may make your morning commute a really big mess. Jacqui Jeras here with outlook for Monday.

Hey, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Don.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: I can tell you the live shot looks like Atlanta where Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN severe weather center. Am I right?

JERAS: Well, it was of the Bay Bridge.

LEMON: All right, Jacqui.

JERAS: We'll get it for you another time.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

LEMON: Coming up, we take a look back at our week as we said goodbye to Whitney Houston from when the terrible news broke to when she was finally laid to rest. That's next.

But first, the president's big announcement on reforming the corporate tax code comes out in the next few weeks, but it does contain a fix the current code, does it? CNN's Ali Velshi takes a look at this in this week's "Mastering Your Money."

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: David Cay Johnston is a columnist at Thomson Reuters and he's an author. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for enterprise reporting that uncovered loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code.

So, David, you recently wrote that our individual income tax system is, quote, "out of touch with our era as digital music is with hand-cranked Victrola music players of 1912."

Now, if the current tax code is unfair and, again, I don't want you caught with language whether under or not pro-growth, what would you do to change it?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, COLUMNIST, THOMSON REUTERS: Well, fundamentally, I think we need to recognize we have a tax system that is allowing companies to earn profits in America and then siphon those profits out of the country as tax deductible expenses and hold the money offshore untaxed. That's what that 1.4 trillion offshore is. although, by the way, it's invested here in the U.S. It's just owned offshore.

Companies shouldn't be able to take money out of their American pocket that's profit and put it into a Liechtenstein or Cayman Islands pockets and pay no taxes on it. We need to have a system that encourages investment and that encourages especially investment in manufacturing, in creating things.

And there's something we can do outside the tax system that would be far more profitable than taxes and that would be lowering the value of the dollar relative to other currencies, which would lead to more exporting and less importing and would have a dramatically positive effect on our economy.

VELSHI: Thanks. I'm Ali Velshi with this week's "Mastering Your Money."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It was a little more than a week ago when we got word that Whitney Houston had died in a Beverly Hills hotel. She was buried next to her father today at a cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, bringing an end to a week full of pain, grief, inspiration and at times even joy. I covered this story from start to finish from this newsroom to Los Angeles and then New Jersey. It's a week that none of us will likely ever forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNDER: This is CNN breaking news.

LEMON: You know, every once in a while, you have to report something that you thought would be the worst thing that could happen and it was going to happen and now it has.

Singer Whitney Houston, one of the greatest voices of our generation, CNN has gotten confirmation from a representative, has died. Whitney Houston has died. Grammy-winning entertainer, 48 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was found in the bathtub and that was put out by Beverly Hills PD, I believe somebody removed her from the bathtub and the paramedics did CPR on her.

LEMON: When I spoke to the coroner not long ago he said there weren't that many prescription drugs found. It wasn't really that out of the ordinary. He said, I have more prescription drugs at my house than were found in that room. So let's take a big step back about all of this.

And they said they don't know as of yet if it was death by drowning, so they're waiting for the toxicology report, six to eight weeks, Piers, and that's what we know right now.

According to the Wing Funeral Home, which is handling the body and handling the arrangements, it's going to be a private service at New Hope Baptist Church, which is Whitney Houston's childhood church, which is where she grew up singing in the choir.

This is the latest information, that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says he intends to order the state's flags flown at half- staff during Whitney Houston's funeral.

They're saying she was seen ordering and consuming considerable quantities of alcohol before 10:00 a.m. Guests on both days overheard Houston loudly complaining that her drinks were being, quote, "watered down."

Investigators are confirming that they are aware that Whitney Houston was partying the night before she died.

The source also confirming that Xanax found in her hotel room. There were other prescription medications found in that hotel room.

From coast to coast, from east to west, they've subpoenaed pharmacies and doctors to try to figure out. It's a death investigation. They don't believe there is anything criminal about it now. No one official ever saw her in the bathtub or in the bathroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one at all?

LEMON: No. The person who found her and the person who tried to pulled her out of the tub, the staff member and the person tried to revive her in the beginning saw her. The fire department didn't see her. The coroner's office didn't see her in the room. When they got there, she was face up on her back in the hotel room. There's vast amounts of information that they are dealing with.

According to our police sources who we spoke to, they said that Bobby came in, he came in with an entourage of people and he could not be accommodated. And so when he couldn't be accommodated, he chose to leave.

(MUSIC PLAYING HOUSTON'S SONG "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) that Whitney left us about this time a week ago but her music will last a long time and she has had an impact I think far beyond her (INAUDIBLE) when she was alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Remembering Whitney Houston. What a week. What a week.

Coming up, what you can expect in your week ahead from the White House to Wall Street and Hollywood. That's next.

Also, a Romney campaign leader in Arizona resigns, embroiled in controversy. We're going to take the gloves off in our "No Talking Points" segment coming up next. You don't want to miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Now to the big stories in the week ahead. From the White House to Tinseltown, our correspondents tell you what you need to know. We begin tonight with the president's plans for the week.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian traveling with the president in Everett, Washington. Fast forward to the end of this week. On Friday, President Obama welcomes the prime minister of Denmark. They'll talk about a number of issues including the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago. On Thursday, the president will hit the road to Miami, Florida, for what the White House describes as an official event. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, the president and the first lady will focus on Black History Month including a blues concert at the White House.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: I'm Elise Labott in Washington. This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a global business conference with over 100 organizations and top executives from American companies. They'll be discussing ways to promote U.S. business overseas, attract investment here in the U.S. and create American jobs. Later in the week, she'll travel to Tunisia where she'll meet with over 64 ministers as part of the "Friends of Syria" group. They'll be trying to stop the violence in Syria, put pressure on the Assad regime and deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Well, markets are closed Monday for Presidents' Day but investors will still be keeping a close eye on Greece as European leaders are set to vote on a $170 billion bailout package for that debt-ridden country. Later in the week, housing will be in focus with reports on both new and existing home sales coming out for the month of January. And on the earnings front, retailers like Wal-Mart, Macy, Target and Sears will all report their numbers. We'll see how the market responds and we'll track it all on CNN Money.

A.J. HAMMER, ANCHOR, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer. Here's what we're watching this week. Music legend Roberta Flack will bring us her personal account of Whitney Houston's funeral. And showbiz road to gold. The Oscars next weekend Hollywood's "A" list goes head-to-head. "Showbiz" investigates the biggest Oscar showdowns. That's "Showbiz Tonight" exclusively weeknights at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on HLN.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, guys.

Time now for "No Talking Points." All right, tonight, gay skeletons in the conservative closet. Who knew there was any room left in there? And I don't mean that in a snarky way. Here are a few examples of many. First, a high-profile denial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: Let me be clear. I am not gay. I never have been gay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was former Republican Senator Larry Craig denying wide stance allegations of soliciting an undercover cop in a Minneapolis airport men's room.

Now, a high-profile rationalization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK FOLEY (R), FORMER FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN: It's an innocent thing going back and forth. You know, I wasn't out soliciting people on the Internet. I mean, this is not that kind of arrangement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Former Republican Congressman Mark Foley admitting he was gay only after he was exposed for improperly flirting with young male congressional pages in person and through racy text messages. He resigned and went to sex rehab.

So you've seen the denial and the rationalization. Time now for the high-profile admission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: I'm here to say that all these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely completely false except for the issues that refer to my being gay, because that's the truth, I am gay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So to be fair to Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu, to our knowledge, he has never denied being gay or to our knowledge has he ever pushed for anti-gay measures. But he's now a congressional candidate with a tough stance on illegal immigration and he only came out after becoming the subject of an abuse of power scandal involving an ex-lover, who just happens to be a former staffer and who just happens to be a Mexican national named Jose, who says the sheriff and congressional hopeful threatened to deport him -- Jose, if he made their relationship public. Babeu denies it all.

But here's the "No Talking Points" point. None of this would be necessary or even scandalous if Sheriff Babeu had just acknowledged he was gay in the first place. If he had just come out, there would no need to allegedly coerce Jose into signing a nondisclosure agreement to keep a gay relationship quiet. This picture and other more revealing ones might never have become public. Just ask former conservative Puerto Rico Senator Robert Arango. He said he didn't remember taking these pictures that ended up on a gay sex site. But he resigned just because.

To be fair, there are Democrats like Jim McGreevey who were pushed out of the closet. But there question is, why are there so many more examples of gay conservative closet cases?

Perhaps the GOP's own repressive platform is the very thing that forces gay members to live a lie. And wouldn't it be easier and a whole lot less embarrassing to just come out? And that's tonight's "No Talking Points."

Straight ahead here on CNN, a powerful report about slavery in America and it may not have ended when you think it did right after the Civil War. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist explains.

But first, jobless claims reached a four-year low but home foreclosures are still a big problem. Here's Alison Kosik with this week's "Getting Down to Business."

KOSIK: Unemployment claims fell last week as strong signs the sluggish job market may be improving. The number of Americans filing for first time unemployment claims dropped to 348,000, the lowest level in almost four years. Economists say this could mark a turning point for job seekers. Watch for another initial claims report on Thursday. It's a mixed bag for the housing sector. More new homes were built in January, up 1.5 percent, but the number of foreclosures is also on the rise. According to Realty Trac, foreclosures jumped 3 percent since December, but it's still significantly lower than a year ago. Look for a report on existing home sales Wednesday.

And Hollywood's biggest stars are getting ready for the Academy Awards but a new survey shows that Americans don't go to the movies as much as they used to. According to couponcabinh.com, more than half of moviegoers admit to going less often since the start of the recession and six in ten adults say they rarely or never go.

That's this week's "Getting Down to Business." I'm Alison Kosik.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Does slavery in America really end in 1865 with the 13th Amendment? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Douglas Blackmon says there was re-enslavement of African-American that continued well into the 20th century ending as recently as 50 or 60 years ago.

Blackmon's book is titled "Slavery by Another Name" and it was turned into a feature documentary and shown at the Sundance Film Festival. I had a chance to talk with him about his book in tonight's "What Matters" segment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Why would you, quite honestly a white man from the South, take on this particular topic?

DOUGLAS BLACKMON, AUTHOR, "SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME": Well, I grew up in a place in Mississippi that was -- where there were more black people than there were white. I went to schools that were overwhelmingly black in public school in the 1970s primarily.

And for whatever reason from really early on in life, I was sort of possessed with trying to understand why were things the way they were. Why were all the black people I knew facing such greater difficulty in their lives than I faced in mine? And so I began to write about civil rights and write about these questions of race at a very early age and have been doing it for a long, long time now.

LEMON: Your book is an investigation of American corporations using slave labor after slaves were free. What did you learn?

BLACKMON: Well, I learned that after the Civil War, after a period of time right after the Civil War, when the emancipated slaves were indeed free for a period of time, they were in tough times but they were authentically free. But then began this great campaign all across the Southern states to essentially re-enslave large numbers of African-Americans.

And over the ensuing decades, a whole new system of slavery emerged partly through the criminal justice system but also just through the terrible means of economic exploitation of African- Americans in the rural areas of the deep, Deep South but it was a return of slavery and a very real kind of slavery in which people were being bought and sold and abused terribly.

LEMON: OK. So people are going to say, what does that mean -- what does that mean today?

BLACKMON: Well, what it means is that slavery didn't end 150 years ago and so that any time you're in a conversation when somebody says to you, why are we still talking about all this stuff, why are we still having conversations -- why are black people still complaining about disparities? It's been 150 years since slavery ended. Why can't they just get over it?

Well, that fundamentally untrue. Slavery didn't really begin to recede from American life on a big scale until more like 50 or 60 years ago. In many respects, there were vestiges of this that continued right up into the '60s, right up to the -- our lifetimes. And for sure, there are thousands of elderly African-Americans alive today who were born on farms in South Georgia or South Alabama or South Carolina who were born into slavery in their childhoods and for us to deny that is to deny one of the most important aspects of American history in the past 100 years.

LEMON: Tell us about a couple of descendants named Tonya Groomes and Susan Burnore. Who are they and what was your influence on them?

BLACKMON: In the case of Tonya Groomes, it was that she is a descendant of the main character in the book and the main character in the film that -- whose name was Green Cottenham, and he was an African-American -- young African-American man who was arrested on a specious charge in 1908. He was sold into slavery in a coal mine in Alabama operated by U.S. Steel Corporation and he died there under terrible circumstances a few months later.

Susan Burnore is a white woman and she's the great granddaughter of a man named John Williams who lived in Georgia and who in 1921 after there was a brief investigation into that he was holding large numbers of African-American men as slaves to try to avoid prosecution, he murdered all of the black men who were on his farm and there were at least 11 bodies found.

And so these two women who come from -- whose ancestry goes back to the opposite sides of this terrible chapter of American history both came forward and they both have these beautiful perspectives and wonderful ways of discussing exactly what you've been asking about and that is what does this matter in modern life.

LEMON: It's fascinating. The documentary, fascinating. The book, fascinating. Thank you, Douglas Blackmon.

BLACKMON: Thanks for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Up next, those two women we just spoke about join me in the studio and you'll hear their compelling stories in their own words.

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LEMON: Before the break, we told you about a powerful book called "Slavery by Another Name" that was recently turned into a documentary. It looks at African-Americans who were freed after the Civil War but later re-enslaved. Two women share emotional stories about their relatives on opposing sides of the slavery controversy.

Susan Burnore is the great granddaughter of a slave owner who murdered 11 slaves to hide evidence of slavery. Tonya Groomes discovered her great grandfather was a free man falsely arrested on a trumped up charge of vagrancy and made a slave until he died.

We begin with Tonya talking about her great grandfather.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONYA GROOMES, DESCENDANT OF SLAVE: Green Cottenham represents these people who but for the detailed research they would have disappeared completely. But we didn't realize is that people were being re-enslaved on a large scale, that they were working for companies as leased labor but their crimes, as in the case of my ancestor, vagrancy, which means, I can't prove I have a job.

So, if you couldn't prove you had a job and you're an African- American male, you could be picked up at any time, forced into labor, where the Sheriff's department or the courts may receive payment for your worth but you never do. And then oftentimes, it was brutal and, unfortunately, in the case of Green Cunningham, he does not survive.

LEMON: Susan now. Your great grandfather John Williams murdered 11 black workers. He was essentially using them as slaves, the 11 black workers, and their bodies to avoid prosecution, right?

SUSAN BURNORE, DESCENDANT OF SLAVE OWNER: Yes.

LEMON: I want to play a very powerful moment from you in the film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNORE: I just got so emotional when I think about not just the fact that these men were murdered but the cruelty which it was carried out. That's what's hardest for me to imagine and hardest to accept.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Susan, it's decades later. Do you have any guilt about that at all? How do you feel about that?

BURNORE: I can't say that it's guilt because it was 90 years ago, long before I was born, before even my father was born. Still it's just -- it's a horrible thing to know about your family. However, I've known this about my family for white a while.

LEMON: And people shouldn't be guilty because as we said this is American history.

BURNORE: Yes.

LEMON: If there's any shame in it, it's not to know it and accept it and talk about it.

BURNORE: And that's what was so remarkable about this book and this film that I already knew my family's history, but I didn't know how widespread this problem was. I didn't know that it really is a big part of American history.

LEMON: Yes. So what do you want people to get out of this, Susan? Because there are many people who would say, why dredge this up, we know this is so painful, why do this to yourself and to us?

BURNORE: Well, we don't dredge it up or I don't dredge it up because of anything good for my family. It is very painful to read about these things and talk about these things. But I think it's important for the country. I think it's important for our education system that they include this information because all of us growing up never knew this, never knew this problem that existed for so many years for thousands and thousands of people.

LEMON: And ignorance is not bliss, right?

GROOMES: No, it is not. It is not. And I think what we do is we sort of rehabilitate the reputation of the, you know, 20th century African-American because these people worked extremely hard. You know, the choice was to work hard or die. And people didn't even know what happened. A lot of times these people would disappear and you wouldn't know what happened to your relatives. And that's how they were lost in our own family history.

And in the course of those book, you know, our family is not only -- we discover this ancestor who probably disappeared. He was the first cousin of my great grandfather. And you can imagine even though he was one person how horrifying it would be to live under that fact, but the beauty of it is that these people and I did talk to a lot of my older ancestors, they weren't broken, they weren't pitiful. So, I guess instead of me seeing them as victims, I kind of see them as survivors.

LEMON: Wow. Did you guys ever have a chance to talk to each other before this project at all?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

LEMON: Did you even know each other? You didn't know each other?

BURNORE: No. We met through the project.

LEMON: And then what happened? Tell me what happened.

GROOMES: It's funny but it seems like we met and immediately had a connection. We have a lot of things in common even though our stories about this particular project come from totally different positions. But we just hit it off and we've been hanging out so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Thank you, ladies. I appreciate that.

Coming up here on CNN, Iran says Britain and France will be cut off from that country's oil supplies. No sign yet that prices in the U.S. will be affected.

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LEMON: Here are the headlines at this hour.

Iran says it is cutting off oil sales to Britain and France. Its oil ministry says it won't have any problem disposing of the excess oil. The EU has approved a ban on crude from Iran, but it won't take effect for sever4al months. Oil provides for half of Iran's revenue, more than a third of its oil exports go to China and India.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass today with 22 freshmen cardinals, among them Timothy Dolan of New York and Edmund O'Brien of Baltimore. The 22 new princes of the Church, as they're known to Catholics, will be eligible to vote for a new pope when Benedict dies. They're also eligible to become the next pope.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Thank you for watching. We're going to leave you tonight with a look back at some of Saturday's most poignant moments from the memorial services for Whitney Houston. Good night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): She was born in Newark. Oooh, she was heaven sent.

MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: We are here to mourn our loss, but to celebrate her life. One of our angels, Whitney Houston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): A long time coming, oh, but a change had to come.

TYLER PERRY, ACTOR/FILMMAKER: So what I know about her is that she loved the Lord and if there was a grace that carried her all the way through it was the same grace that carried her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): But I know she wasn't afraid to die.

PERRY: So say whatever you want, God was for her and she is resting singing with the angels. God bless you, family. God bless you, God bless you, Whitney. We loved you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): Whitney understood, ooh, somebody is waiting beyond the sky. It's been all along.

KEVIN COSTNER, ACTOR: A lot of leading men could have played my part. A lot of guys -- a lot of guys could have filled that role. But you, Whitney, I truly believe that you were the only one that could have played Rachel Marion at that time.

She told God that she was going to be like Aretha, like her famous cousin Dionne, like her beautiful mother Cissy. There could be little doubt in this room that she has joined their ranks and as the debate heats up this century and it surely will about the greatest singer of the last century, as the lists are drawn, it will have little meaning to me if her name is not on it.

CLIVE DAVIS, MUSIC EXECUTIVE, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S MENTOR: Without knowing of her love of music, her passion and her absolutely natural genius in interpreting songs, you certainly don't know all of Whitney Houston. Personally, all I can say is that I loved her very much. Everyone in heaven including God is waiting and I just know you're going to raise the roof like no one else has done before.

STEVIE WONDER, SINGER (SINGING): And no more Whitney, no more do you have to cry. You'll always be a ribbon in the sky.

DIONNE WARWICK, SINGER, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S COUSIN: Don't grieve for me. For now I'm free. I'm following the path God laid for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): And do I hear a song. I look to you.

WARWICK: God wanted me now. He set me free.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): Yes Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so. I love you, Whitney.

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