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Syrian Troops Struggle In Aleppo; Syria's Fake First Family; Campaigning Overseas Then & Now; Journalist Suspended By Twitter; Journalist's Twitter Account Reinstated; Deal Reached To Fund Government For Six Months; India Blackout Affects 600 Million; Ex- Foster Child Helps Create Policy; Ebola: How The Virus Spreads; Selling Your Eggs Or Sperm To Survive

Aired July 31, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.

Hey, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, thank you so much.

Hello and welcome here. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we want to start once again today with the civil war in Syria, because the Syrian government forces have hit really this brick wall in the wars most decisive battle yet. We're about to show you again, talking about this battle here in Aleppo, this is the commercial hub, the largest city in this country, where government forces were expected to win in that route. That has yet to happen.

In fact, as we told you yesterday, rebel forces captured an army base and today here they have captured two, possibly three police stations in various parts here within the city of Aleppo. And we have video of one of those battles. Just watch.

As you can see, this battle here raging on. These are the Syrian rebels in the process of capturing this police station in this crucial battle for Aleppo, as I mentioned, Syria's largest city. Now, in the process of capturing this military base and these police stations, the rebels have also taken scores of prisoners, we're learning. CNN's Ivan Watson has just gotten this exclusive access to some of these captives. He joins me live just outside of Aleppo.

And, Ivan, tell me about these prisoners and tell me about what you see.

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, we were brought to a school that had been turned into a makeshift prison, Brooke, within probably 25 miles drive of Aleppo, this key city. And there the rebels had about 112 prisoners they told us. And they ushered us into two classrooms. Instead of school kids, there were about 40 men crowded on the floor on cushions. All of their heads were shaved.

One of the classrooms, these 40 plus men were described as Shabiha militia. That's the pro-regime militia that terrifying anybody who supports the opposition in this country.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WATSON: The other room had soldiers and army officers. And a lot of these people had been captured just in the last week or so.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, hearing about the Shabiha, hearing about these troops being captured, this makes me wonder, the rebels, it sound like, they still have the upper hand here in this fight over Aleppo. Is that -- is that what you're seeing?

WATSON: I think it may be a stretch to say they have the upper hand. I think something like a --

BALDWIN: How would you qualify it?

WATSON: I think the fact that they feel safe enough to hold a prison with that prisoners that close to Aleppo signifies that they feel they have complete control of the countryside. They're not afraid of Syrian government forces coming in to liberate those fighters. And it shows how long they have controlled that area that they can establish a permanent prison type place where they put bars up over the windows of classrooms and set up a rebel prison system.

BALDWIN: But in the meantime, Ivan, as we look again at this map and we've been talking really this last week, this is, you know, so many people, arguably, Aleppo is the cradle of civilization. You have all these people who live in what has been known as a really beautiful city. Ruins. A World UNESCO Heritage site there. The Citadel. I mean there are people who live there. They have to be incredibly frightened. Are you seeing many of these people fleeing?

WATSON: Absolutely. The villages and towns in the countryside are chock full of refugees, of displaced Syrians who have fled Aleppo. And they are overflowing the rural communities that surround Aleppo and they're streaming across the border to neighboring countries like Turkey. The village I'm staying in, it's power grid was blown last night because there are so many people staying in this tiny little farming village that the power grid couldn't support all the electricity that these refugees are consuming.

BALDWIN: Wow.

WATSON: On top of that, the price of fuel has skyrocketed. Fuel for cooking even. So people were relying on electricity to cook. They can't buy fuel to drive around in. And the descriptions that I got from one of the displaced people who fled Aleppo, he described to me saying that the bakeries couldn't even make bread anymore. That there hadn't been electricity in Aleppo neighborhoods in days. That, on top of the fighting that's taking place there, paints a dire, dire, grim picture. And just about an hour or two ago, we saw an ambulance drive past in our village carrying the body, we were told, of another fighter killed, a rebel fighter, killed in the battle for Aleppo.

BALDWIN: Ivan Watson near Aleppo. Ivan, we're going to continue talking to you. But -- and thank you very much, live within Syria.

But I want to talk about the Assads. These are the folks who have run Syria for really as long as anyone with remember. First came Hafez Assad. Ruled Syria for 30 years. Led a war against Israel. All but annexed Lebanon. Supported international terror. So he left power to Bashar, but only because his more favorite son had died in car crash. Bashar was plan b.

A trained eye doctor, he was summoned home from a cushy life in London where he met the woman he would go on to marry. Syrian born Asma Assad now. They -- here they are in happier times.

And joining me from New York, a writer who wrote a controversial profile on Asma Assad, she is Joan Juliet Buck. She wrote the piece in "Vogue" magazine that, in journalist circles, you know, we refer it to as a puff piece. And she writes now about the back story of that piece in the current edition of "Newsweek." Here's the headline, "Syria's Fake First Family." So my notorious interview with Mrs. Assad, she says -- she describes her as the first lady of hell.

So, Joan, welcome and thank you for joining me.

JOAN JULIET BUCK, WROTE "VOGUE" PROFILE OF SYRIA'S FIRST LADY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: You write, it is crystal clear at the top of this piece in "Newsweek" that when "Vogue" reached out to you back in December of 2010, just about four months before those uprisings started, you very clearly had misgivings. So why didn't you say to them, "Vogue," thanks but no thanks. I don't want to go?

BUCK: You've said it yourself just a couple of minutes ago, it's the cradle of civilization. Mrs. Assad had just made an accord with the Louve (ph) to take a look at the antiquities. There are 5,000 unexploited (ph) sites in Syria. And I thought that her main interest was archaeology. This is what I was told. That's what hooked me. I had misgivings, but I thought, field trip, field trip to the ancient past.

BALDWIN: You thought field trip. It turned out to be different. I do want to point out, Joan, the timing of your trip. Because you land in Damascus. This is five days before the beginning of the Arab Spring. And that was when -- that was December 17th. That was when that street vendor set himself on fire in Tunisia. And at the time you're told, there's no crime in Damascus. But then in this piece you describe what you call a mysterious metal box on wheels.

BUCK: Audio's just gone.

BALDWIN: Joan, are you with me? Can you hear me?

BUCK: I've just lost the audio.

BALDWIN: Sounds like we lost the audio. We're going to get her on the other side of the break, because it's so important to keep talking about this.

But now this. We are also tackling the biggest news, the biggest talkers, live during the show. Watch this.

More and more men and women strapped for cash selling their eggs and sperm trying to make ends meet. And you're about to meet them. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Barack Obama, 2008, versus Mitt Romney, 2012. We compare each candidate's very first overseas trip.

Black out across India. Six hundred million people, the equivalent of two United States without power, as crews race to fix the crisis.

Plus, booted from Twitter after complaining about the Olympic coverage. Our question. Is it fair or foul?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We're back. Apologies, Joan Juliet Buck. We are live here. There you are in New York. Apologies. Audio issues. It's live TV. It happens. Let's continue.

So, you land in Damascus. I wanted to talk about the timing of the trip. You land in Damascus to do this piece on Asma Assad, the first lady of Syria. This is five days before the beginning of Tunisia happened when the street vendor set himself on fire at the time. Again you're told, there's no crime in Damascus. I want you to tell me about this mysterious metal box on wheels you describe. What was this?

BUCK: Again, I have no idea. I have no way of knowing what it really was. It was one day when I managed to get away from the people who were watching me. But there was a driver. And it was parked outside the suk (ph). I had been told, oh, there's no crime anywhere in the streets in Damascus. It was a big metal box. And -- like seven feet long, six feet high, on wheels. And it was the kind of metal you don't want to touch because it looked like if you touched it, you would actually scrape your hand. And it had a barbed window in the back. And there it was. And I figured, just by the look of it, oh, if they catch anybody doing anything, they throw them in this box and haul them off somewhere.

BALDWIN: So you never really knew, but perhaps that was part of the toxic aura. That's how you described Syria.

BUCK: Yes. And when I asked about it afterwards, I was told, what box? What do you mean? Outside the suk (ph). No, never seen that. So there was a lot of, you know, everything is fine.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you, when you first met Asma Assad, here you are, this assignment. "Vogue" had been wanting her for two years. What was your first impression?

BUCK: Yes. Somebody British. Born and raised in England, educated in England. She sounded English. And she was very kind of present. She was very on as people are when they're being interviewed. She was on. She was getting her message across. She was friendly, but, you know. I didn't make anything of that. She seemed sincere. And she seemed sincere about her mission to empower the children of Syria to have the courage and the confidence to build a civil society. But she talked --

BALDWIN: Yet, as you focus in your -- as you focus in your piece about, you know, she talked so much about the next generation and the youth.

BUCK: Yes.

BALDWIN: We see the youth being slaughtered in Syria. How can this woman, who, you know, was about to go to Harvard for her MBA, stand by her husband and watch this happen?

BUCK: Well, this is the personal question I've been living with since we found out about the slaughter, since everything began in March. I believed her when she talked about empower the youth of Syria. I believed -- I actually believed her and I saw the way she was with the kids. She was a little weird with the kids, but still she cared.

From the moment the 15 boys were arrested for doing the graffiti and then tortured, from the moment her husband's forces began not only killing mourners at funerals, but arresting and torturing -- deliberating torturing and castrating children, I wondered how this English woman I had met, who so believed in the youth of Syria, could stand by and not do anything. I really wondered about it all day long.

BALDWIN: Joan, to her husband, you met Bashar Assad. As we mentioned, he wasn't supposed to be president, but his brother died, therefore he had to come home and become the president of this country. He, you know, was an ophthalmologist. And you asked him why he wanted to be an eye doctor. And his response to you was, because it's never an emergency, it's very precise and there is very little blood. Very little blood. How tragically ironic.

BUCK: How tragically ironic. And when I heard that, I thought, innocently, maybe he's trying to tell me that his regime is very precise and there is very little blood. But I didn't actually really infer that. I just thought, this is a really weird thing to be telling me. But it sounds like he's trying to tell me he's a good guy.

BALDWIN: Were you duped? Do you feel like a fool?

BUCK: I feel like a fool vis-a-vis Asma Assad, because I believed her. I believed her engagement with the Syrian children. Before I met Asma Assad, I hasn't thought about Syrian children once in my life. She talked to me about them. She introduced me to them. She showed me things they had done. She was so proud of them, it seemed, and so excited about what they were learning to do for their country. And now, as they are getting not only slaughtered, but tortured by her husband's forces, I'm telling myself, of course, I was duped. I fell for the line this woman fed me.

BALDWIN: Joan Juliet Buck, your piece is in "Newsweek." We appreciate it. Thank you.

BUCK: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Barack Obama, 2008, versus Mitt Romney, 2012. We are comparing their first overseas trips as presidential candidates, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Mitt Romney is heading home after his week-long trip to Britain, to Israel and then to Poland. Romney held talks this morning with Poland's foreign minister. And in his public remarks, he praised the Polish people for their dedication to freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our nations belong to the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice. We uphold the right of every person to live at peace. I believe it's critical to stand by those who have stood by America. Solidarity was a great movement that freed a nation. And it's with solidarity that America and Poland face the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Romney also placed a wreath at the Poland's tomb of the unknown soldier, but it was his exit that was marred by an exchange between his traveling press secretary, Rick Gorka (ph), and reporters who were shouting questions. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) some of the mishaps on your trip?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Romney, do you have a statement for the Palestinians?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about your gaffe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Romney, do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?

RICK GORKA, MITT ROMNEY'S PRESS SECRETARY: This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney, just a few questions.

GORKA: Show some respect, Jim.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't had another chance to ask him questions.

GORKA: Kiss my (EXPLETIVE DELETED). This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's Jim Acosta reports Rick Gorka later called reporters and offered an apology. Mitt Romney's multination travels definitely revive memories of a similar trip by then Senator Barack Obama in the summer of 2008. And our White House correspondent Brianna Keilar joins me live.

So, Brianna, looking at these two trips here side by side, how do they compare?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, when you're looking at it in terms of political liabilities, then Senator Barack Obama's trip went more smoothly for sure. He didn't have the level of unforced errors that you're seeing in Mitt Romney's trip.

And I have to tell you that the campaign, the Obama campaign, as well as the White House, have just jumped all over this. In fact, the campaign had a conference call for reporters a short time ago where Robert Gibbs, former press secretary here at the White House, who's now a senior advisor to the campaign, and he was on President Obama's trip in 2008, he said about Mitt Romney, that he certainly didn't convince anyone, I'm paraphrasing, that he past the commander in chief test.

Now, I will tell you, if you look at the itinerary, President Obama, then Senator Obama, went to eight countries. Mitt Romney has gone to three. But on the flip side of that, Obama faced criticism because -- from the other side saying that he was running to be president of the world instead of president of the U.S., Brooke.

BALDWIN: I remember the pictures that came out in 2008. I especially remember all the crowds, right, in Berlin.

KEILAR: Yes.

BALDWIN: And the overwhelm positive reception that then Senator Obama received. Do you think if he were there let's say in Berlin today, would the reception be the same?

KEILAR: He's still pretty popular overseas. You know, I've traveled overseas with the president. And when I just talk to normal, everyday people, especially people who are very excited about the prospect of him becoming president of the U.S., they still like him. I think there's still some disappointment. It's more muted then you see with some of the president's supporters in the U.S. But certainly there is, I think, a lot of positive, good will towards him.

On the flip side, when you're talking about that gathering in Berlin, you had 300,000 people coming out to see him and that looked, you know, pretty amazing, the turnout. But at the same time, I spoke with one expert, Brooke, who said that when you're trying to curry favor with voters in the Midwest, it does not always help to have a lot of support in eastern Europe. So that wasn't necessarily a good thing for him domestically. It was kind of a double-edged sword.

BALDWIN: With Mitt Romney, and we've covered this the last couple of days, the gaffes, right, beginning in London.

KEILAR: Yes. BALDWIN: And this, you know, what -- the comments he made about security and not being prepared, et cetera. Palestinians -- you could hear one of the reporters, you know, yelling this question when he was walking away, you know, complaining about his speech in Israel and now we just heard this (INAUDIBLE) press guy kind of losing his cool. To be fair, did anything like that, I mean major gaffe, happen in 2008 with then Senator Obama?

KEILAR: One of the things that made news during then Senator Obama's trip was that when he was in Germany, he had -- his campaign had set up for him to go to Lonstool (ph), which is the army medical center there, where he would have visited with troops. And this is a medical center, as you know, that (INAUDIBLE) a lot of members of the military who are getting treatment there. But it was Iraq and Afghanistan at the time. And they canceled that. Aides said that it was (INAUDIBLE) out of it. But at the same time, President Obama was criticized for not visiting the troops. So he did make a little news himself, but not as much as Mitt Romney (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) how it goes on the trail.

Brianna Keilar for us at the White House. Bri, thank you so much.

We do have one major development here in the story of this journalist who got the boot from Twitter for criticizing NBC's Olympic coverage. Guess what? He's about to join me live about what Twitter has just done to his account. You will only see it on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I have to laugh, I heard about this graphic and that's the first time I'm seeing it. Spoiler alert. We are getting results here in from this afternoon's Olympic events. So if you don't want to hear them, put your television on mute right now. But a friendly reminder, you actually can't watch the Olympics live on television because the network airing it will broadcast the competition tonight in prime time. But you can watch the events streaming live online.

All of that said, here's the deal. Right now we now know the U.S. women's gymnastics team won gold in the team final, claiming their first Olympic gold medal in the event since 1996. That is fantastic. Also, history could happen this hour. Swimming phenom Michael Phelps has the opportunity to become the most decorated Olympian in history. He will be competing in not just one but these two races, the 200 meter butterfly. And then in just over an hour after that, the men's 200 freestyle relay. And just one more medal will actually tie him for the most ever. A second medal would then break the record. So we're watching for that.

Now, to this. When Twitter shuts down the account of one of its members, it's not exactly national news. But, get this. A journalist got the boot for criticizing NBC's Olympic coverage and then it went a step further here. He tweeted out the e-mail address of an NBC sports executive. Apparently at Twitter, that is a no-no. And now there has been a major development here in this story. So let me bring him right in. Here's Guy Adams, a journalist for the British newspaper, "The Independent," live with me in Los Angeles.

And, Guy, I'm sure you're frustration. I see you are all smiles now because the news has just broken. You've gotten your Twitter account back. Tell me how this happened.

GUY ADAMS, LOS ANGELES CORRESPONDENT, "THE TELEGRAPH": Sure, Brooke. Yes, I feel delighted and relieved. I was -- I received an e- mail about half an hour ago from Twitter telling me that, after further consideration -- or in fact their actual words were, after NBC dropped its complaint against me, I was going to be allowed back onto their site. So I'm a -- I'm a working journalist. I need Twitter to do my job properly. So I'm just very pleased to be able to get back on with things.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So I'm hearing you correctly. NBC dropped the complaint and they winked at Twitter and Twitter came back to you and said you can tweet again?

ADAMS: Yes. I mean, what's happened here isn't entirely clear. NBC issued, allegedly issued a complaint against me sometime over the weekend. Twitter immediately suspended my account saying I have breached their rules.

I don't think I had breached their rules. I don't think any reasonable person reading their rules think I did. Twitter hadn't commented on whether they think I breached their rules or not.

They have just unfrozen my account. I think I'm hoping I'll just carry on tweeting about my very boring life from now on.

BALDWIN: Let me say this because here is what NBC, I guess, apparently had said, Guy. Quote, "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives.

That's a violation of Twitter's privacy policy. How did you get, I know you're a journalist, but how did you get this executive's e-mail address, sir?

ADAMS: Well, it's very easy. I took his name and used a web site, which I think even NBC should be aware of. A web site called Google which is useful for finding things out. I found his e-mail address there.

His e-mail address was identical to every single other employee of NBC. It was first name, last name, at organization.com. It wasn't a private e-mail address. It was his work e-mail address. It wasn't hard to find.

It was in fact already on the Internet that had been published on at least one web site. Twitter's own rules say that if you are sharing a piece of information that is already on the Internet, then you have not broken their privacy policy.

So I'm still waiting. I've been trying for the last 24 hours to speak to someone from Twitter. They won't return my calls. I'm waiting to find out on what basis I was suspended and whether they think if NBC hadn't dropped their complaint that I should still be suspended.

BALDWIN: OK, well, Twitter did take our call. I will tell you this, Guy. Basically they didn't tell us very much. What they did share is they don't comment on individual users for privacy reasons, but terms on their site do forbid posting, you know, other people's personal information, i.e., an e-mail address even though you Googled it.

Here is my question. This is something I just wanted to chew on with you. You know, one example I came up with this morning because we remember after the Trayvon Martin shooting down in Florida, Spike Lee tweeted out this address to a home that he thought belonged to George Zimmerman.

It wasn't George Zimmerman's home, right? So personal information, private couple, are we not talking about the same thing here except, you know, Spike Lee was never booted off Twitter. That's the big difference.

ADAMS: Well, you've raised two quite interesting issues here. First of all, yes, why was I targeted for suspension and Spike Lee wasn't. I suspect, I have no way of proving, but I have quite good reason to suspect that the reason took me, that Twitter took the complaint against me seriously is because they have a commercial relationship with NBC.

They wanted to give NBC if you like special treatment. I think Twitter needs to clarify whether that did happen. Secondly, I didn't share someone's private e-mail address. I didn't share the address of their house. I didn't share their phone number.

Of course, you know, online bullying is a very serious thing and I wouldn't want to share any information that could lead to anything that might represent a physical threat to anyone, at least of all an executive for NBC.

I shared an e-mail address. E-mail is very different from a phone call from sharing someone's physical address. It's a very un- invasive means of communication -- carry on.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this. This is my final question for you and even though you are back on Twitter, do you think in your opinion this is precedent setting?

ADAMS: I'd like to say that it isn't. I'd like to think that Twitter can't at the behest of commercial organizations can't shut down a journalist without warning them and take them out of circulation for 48 hours.

I think it could be precedent unless Twitter explains exactly why I was suspended in the first place and explanations what its rules are and how they should be applied in future.

BALDWIN: Guy Adams, we're trying to reach out to get that precise explanation as are you. We appreciate it. Welcome back to Twitter. Thanks for joining me.

ADAMS: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Miners stuck underground. Trains at a standstill. This massive power grid failure leaves up to 600 million people without electricity.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This just in. Agreement in Washington between the Senate majority leader, the speaker of the House and the president announcing they agree to fund the government for the next six months.

Basically the news in that is that the government will not be shutting down at the end of September. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: We'll fund the government for the next six months through the first quarter of 2013. It will provide stability for the coming months. It will be free of riders. This is very good because we can resolve these critical issues that affect the country soon as the election is over and move on to do good things. It puts this out of way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash, she is working the story. She's going to join me live next hour. Again, this is all happening before Congress goes on vacation until September.

More than half of India's 1.2 billion people are in a blackout suffering through second huge power outages in just two days. It's stranded train passengers, snarling traffic, cutting power to New Delhi.

Take a look at this map with me because the power grid failure covers a huge section of the country. This is 600 million people affected, maybe more. No official word on the cause.

A young girl and her brother are shuffled around really from foster home to foster home. Years of abuse and then they are separated. Fast forward to now.

She is still looking for her brother. You're about to hear her story live including the inspiring reason she's in Washington, D.C. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A lot of times on this show we often talk about how we can do better. We talk about stories of kids who have been neglected and forgotten subjected to abuse so cruel it proves monsters are real.

But today, you will see what happens after the abuse, how one former foster child, Kim in New Jersey, is choosing to do better. Marchelle Roberts, she was taken from her family when he was 7-years- old along with her brother, Sean who was about three or four at the time.

Now she is 22. She's a senior at Temple University in Philadelphia. She's joining me on Capitol Hill. She's actually one of about 15 in this special program called the "Foster Youth Internship."

And what it is, is kids want the foster system to helping to create policy to improve life for young people currently in the system. One of those kids could possibly be her brother. She has not seen him in 12 years.

She is Marchelle Roberts joining me live from Washington. Marchelle, welcome. We're going to get to your brother here in a second. I want to help you.

But first, to your story, I know you with shuffled from family to family. You talk about being a victim of sex abuse. You talk about your brother being a victim of emotional abuse. Can you share as much as you can about that experience?

MARCHELLE ROBERTS, FOSTER YOUTH INTERN: Absolutely. I was very young when it started out. So I didn't really know what was right or what was wrong. It began happening so much that I didn't realize it was as negative as it was.

So I would expect it to happen. It wasn't until I was taken away from that situation and placed my adoptive mother that I realized there was better for me and I realized that people who love you don't treat you that way.

BALDWIN: I hate to hear that you expected it to happen. I hate to read about how you would go home to hopefully stop it from happening to your brother. When you talk about your experience and talking to other former foster kids, do you think that experience is the exception or the norm, Marchelle?

ROBERTS: You know, unfortunately, I think it's the norm in the foster care system. Countless amounts of times you can read reports that show that there is neglect going on in foster homes. It's crazy to me because it seems these are the reasons we're being ripped away from our families.

We're placed with people half of the time we don't know and we suffer from the same abuse and sometimes it's the first time that people have experienced such abuse in foster care. It's really a travesty.

BALDWIN: It is. We report on stories like this when they are happening. I wonder could they, could you have picked up the phone and called someone for help? Did you know you had that power?

ROBERTS: I didn't know I had that power. Honestly, I didn't know that I should have done it. It wasn't, like I said, that I was taken out of that situation and placed in stable environment that I realized that everything that was going on was wrong.

I had counseling and I talked to my mother and talk to my grandmother and they would explain to me those kinds of things aren't supposed to happen to children especially young children and that was what helped me come through it.

And encourage myself to become an advocate for youth just knowing I had a support system there. I knew it was wrong after the fact. The important thing is to instill in children that it's wrong when it's happening.

BALDWIN: You survived the system. You talk about how you found stability with an adoptive mother. You know, but during that whole process, Marchelle, you're separated from your little brother who you are looking for now 12 years later.

I'm going to ask you about that in a minute. I want to talk about why you're there on Capitol Hill. You're part of this amazing internship. It's a highly coveted position so that, you know, young people like yourself can help.

She really shaped public policy and I want you to rattle off one, two changes you would make to the system if you were talking to Congress.

ROBERTS: Well, as a part of our internship we write policy reports. My report is on establishing federal database for all the services that are provided for youth that are in the system. We do have many services. We have counseling services and mentor services.

I think a lot of the times youth don't know these exist. I didn't know they existed when I was being abused. For other youth they need to know these are out there. They need to know they can pick up the phone and call for help.

They need know. And so if we establish a federal database into one place, I think it will be better suited for the youth that need it, that thrive off of these services that are provided to us.

BALDWIN: Marchelle, we'll talk about your brother here. The first thing I said to my team, let's get his picture because if she hasn't seen him in 12 years, let's throw his picture up on CNN and hopefully someone can recognize him. You do not have a single photo. Help us help you find him.

ROBERTS: I wish I had a picture of him. I've always wished I had pair of him. Right now, the way I picture him is three or four years old. I was nine, ten, 11 years old wishing I had a picture of my brother.

I do have faith I'll be able to find him without it. I think there are resources out there available to me that I have now been familiarized being on Capitol Hill with. I think I can find him.

I'm sure it will be a struggle and I'm sure it won't happen overnight, but I have faith I'll be able to find him. My mother taught me to have faith.

BALDWIN: Marchelle, I hope you find him. Let us know when you do. Best of luck to you.

ROBERTS: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: A deadly flu-like virus killing people in Africa. Could it come to the United States? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to talk to me about Ebola, next.

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BALDWIN: Even a handshake can be deadly. That's the warning from the president of Uganda to his people amid this Ebola outbreak that's killed 14 people.

And this afternoon, there are more suspected cases. This virus is moving so quickly here through this African country, the affected district. It's in the western portion of the Uganda.

Ebola has already killed nine members of one family. It's spreading. A health care worker has now died as well. As many as 36 people are sick.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here. Sanjay, I know you've been in Africa and the jungles of the Congo. That's where this originates from?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, it was named after a river in Africa because that's where they first saw it in 1976. It is deadly, deadly virus. I mean, people know that generally speaking, but this is a virus can have up to 90 percent mortality, nine out of ten people getting it dying. It starts off as the flu.

BALDWIN: That simple?

GUPTA: That simple. It's a bad flu and you start to get joint pain. But the thing that's very characteristic about Ebola is that it's not as a hemorrhagic fever, which means that you start to bleed.

The body is clotting system is interfered. So people just start to spontaneously bleed and it's very horrific. It's part of the reason it's gotten so much attention.

BALDWIN: It sounds horrible. The president of Uganda, he came out. He gave a warning about how to avoid the disease. Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOWERI MUSEVENI, PRESIDENT OF UGANDA: To be vigilant. Avoid shaking of hands. Avoid promiscuity because the sickness can go through sex.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What jumped out at me there is avoid shaking hands.

GUPTA: I know. It did to me as well. First of all, this is not airborne. There's been a lot of movies and fictional depictions of the Ebola suggesting its airborne. It is transmitted through bodily fluid so saliva, for example.

Typically it's from an animal's blood. People have touched that for some reason. It happens in people that are bush meat hunters, for example, and then if they touch somebody else you can transmit it.

I think the casual shaking of hands is not that dangerous, but you can see the heightened concern. I mean, you have this many people dying, 14 out of 36, that's obviously something they're paying attention to.

BALDWIN: It's concerning there. Should we be concerned here?

GUPTA: I don't think so. You know, part of the reason is if you look throughout history and look at Ebola, it typically doesn't spread, you know, quote/unquote, "like wildfire through the region or through the country."

BALDWIN: Good.

GUPTA: In part it's because of, sad reasons is the patient just die. The ones that don't die are so sick they don't travel. That's how a lot of the diseases are transmitted. People get on plane and go somewhere else. In this case that's probably not going to happen. Nine people as you mentioned in one household. Other people that died were healthcare workers or families of those healthcare workers. So you very quickly see the pattern in this case.

BALDWIN: OK, we'll watch. Hopefully the numbers do not go up. Sanjay, thank you.

Easy money. No skill needed. One attempting option is drawing in more and more women during these tough times. Just how much can they get for selling their eggs?

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BALDWIN: Just how bad is it in Spain? Nearly one out of four people is out of work almost triple the U.S. unemployment rate. So what are people doing there for money?

They are selling pieces of themselves to try to survive. I'm talking about egg and sperm donations. They are up by a lot. CNN's Isa Soares has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This female donor doesn't want to be identified for fear of being stigmatized. She's here to Tambrick Clinic in Central Madrid to donate her eggs. A process she's been through four times before. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The first (inaudible) I made when I came to the clinic. I was accompanied by my mother.

SOARES: Today she's come alone. She knows that while donating will help others start a family. It will also help her family survive financially.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I work at a house and I do manicures and work as a cleaner.

SOARES: Her husband works as a taxi driver, but the economic crisis here in Spain has severely impacted their income. So she made a decision to begin donating her eggs for cash, a process that requires a series of hormone injections and surgical remove of the eggs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Once I made two donations and I got 3,000 euros.

SOARES (on camera): The process is long, painful and carries risks. Once accepted as donors, men can give sperm once a week over a period of three months and receive 50 euros every time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When you don't have enough money you take the donation money and pay the bills.

SOARES: But this is her fifth donation and it will be her last.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They only recommend a maximum of six donations so it doesn't affect your health.

SOARES: She's surprised by the number of donors walking to her clinic. However, the industry is closely regulated. They don't take everyone who comes through the door. Apart from physical testing potential donors must also undergo psychological evaluations.

DR. ROCIO NUNEZ, TAMBRE CLINIC: The number of donors increased because there are more people that need money to survive.

SOARES: According to the body that monitors reproduction clinic in Spain. In the last year alone, there's been an almost 30 percent increase in egg and sperm donations.

And once finished here, some go elsewhere, selling their hair or even breast milk. Either way you look at it, look closer. These are signs of hardship, desperation and need.

Isa Soares, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)