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CNN CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT
United States Prepares for War Games; Interview With Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal
Aired December 4, 2002 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST: Good evening. I'm Connie Chung.
Tonight: The U.S. prepares for unprecedented war games right on Saddam's doorstep.
ANNOUNCER: The war games are about to begin. The U.S. sets up shop in Qatar. Might this be a precursor to war with Iraq? CNN's Wolf Blitzer is there.
Accusations of a link between al Qaeda and the Saudi royal family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TURKI AL-FAISAL, SAUDI PRINCE: Any allegations about money from my sister reaching these hijackers is allegation and half-truths and totally untrue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Is Saudi Arabia a trusted ally caught up in U.S. politics or a major financier of terror? Tonight, the prince responds.
How concerned should Americans be about bioterrorism? The man who was one of the first in years to get the smallpox vaccine tells us why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN BEARY, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF: I don't have time to play games and have mass casualties for my people, because, if that happens, then we're not properly protecting the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: And along came a spider: another weird twist in the courtroom drama starring Michael Jackson.
And who will be our "Person of the Day"?
This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT. Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York: Connie Chung.
CHUNG: Good evening. Tonight: several developments in the war on terror. It is five days until Internal Look gets under way in Qatar. That's the name for war games involving thousands of U.S. and allied troops. We'll have a live report in just a moment.
It's also four days until the official U.N. deadline for Saddam Hussein to submit his report on every possible weapons-related activity in the country. Iraqi officials say they will file the report Saturday, a day early, with no mention of weapons of mass destruction. We'll have a report from Baghdad on today's inspections.
Iraq's neighbor, Saudi Arabia, continued to dismiss ongoing accusations that royal family members are funneling money to terrorist organizations. We have an exclusive interview with a Saudi prince about whether he made payoffs to terrorists.
And, on the home front, some of America's law enforcement officials concerned about bioterrorism have begun getting smallpox vaccinations on their own. We'll meet the sheriff who took the plunge first.
Right now, we go to Qatar, where CNN's Wolf Blitzer is covering the preparations for the Internal Look war games kicking off on Monday.
Wolf, tell us exactly where you are. Are you near the U.S. command center that's being installed?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're a few miles away. The whole nation of Qatar, the country here is pretty small to begin with, the whole country, roughly the size of Connecticut.
Doha, the capital, where I am, is not that far away from the air base, from the military facilities where General Tommy Franks, the commander of Central Command, will establish this temporary headquarters, moving the facilities from the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, where the Central Command is headquartered, moving them here in the coming days so they can simulate a war game, a war game that could become very real if the Iraqis, of course, don't comply with that United Nations resolution.
CHUNG: And, Wolf, how many U.S. troops are there now?
BLITZER: There will be about 1,000 troops supporting General Franks here. This is not going to be a traditional kind of war game, where there will be combat forces going out and simulating actual activity.
This is a high-tech war game. They are going to be using computer simulations mostly to see if he can come here, Tommy Franks, establish a headquarters in the Persian Gulf, right where we are right now, to launch a war, if necessary, against Saddam Hussein or any other potential enemy in this part of the world. It's the first time they've basically transported, airlifted modular computerized units to set up that kind of headquarters capability and be able to monitor a war, a multifront war, have troops simulated in Kuwait and Bahrain, in Turkey, Jordan, elsewhere, to see how it would go air, naval, ground, the whole nine yards.
CHUNG: Now, all of this equipment has been shipped to Qatar, in part because we haven't gotten a firm commitment from Saudi Arabia.
Strategically, do you think that Qatar is the best place for the United States military to be, to have the command center there?
BLITZER: Well, I'm sure the U.S. military would have preferred to have repeated what they did a dozen years ago during the first Gulf War. The Prince Sultan Air Base right out of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, it's very sophisticated, high-tech. That's where General Norman Schwarzkopf, General Tommy Franks' predecessor, established his headquarters during the Gulf War.
If the Saudi government would have allowed Central Command to establish a headquarters there, to participate visibly right now in this kind of war game, this kind of military exercise, I'm sure the military would have preferred it. But Qatar is a good second choice. Strategically, it's well located. It's a very high-tech country. And I think things are going to go pretty smoothly over the next few days.
CHUNG: And I know you mentioned this before, but, just to clarify, how many other countries are we holding some kind of military operations?
BLITZER: Well, right now in Kuwait, there are thousands of U.S. ground forces. If there's going to be a land invasion from the south into Iraq, they will go in from the northern part of Kuwait. In fact, about 25 percent of the northern part of Kuwait right now, if you look at a map, is already sealed off. That's a sensitive security area. Civilians can't even get anywhere close to there.
But there are a lot of naval facilities in Bahrain, some of the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, Turkey, of course, at the Incirlik Air Base, which is a NATO air base, patrolling the no-fly zones in the northern part of Iraq. And Saudi Arabia is still intimately involved, deeply involved, even though, publicly right now, they are a little bit lukewarm because of the sensitivity, the political sensitivity, of plotting or planning a war against Iraq.
CHUNG: All right, Wolf Blitzer in Qatar, thank you.
Tomorrow, we'll meet family members of the crew from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman's battle group. The Truman is shipping out from Norfolk tomorrow to replace the George Washington. Her battle group includes a cruiser equipped with Tomahawk missiles and three destroyers.
Today, a top Iraqi official accused the U.S. and Israel of planting spies among the U.N. weapons inspectors. Well, it certainly isn't the first time we've heard such accusations. But this time, it apparently stems from Iraqi anger over yesterday's search of a presidential palace.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has been trailing the inspectors and he filed this report on today's hunt. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Numbered and tagged, rows of rusting chemical warfare equipment lie in a rotting warehouse. The site al-Muthanna, the birth place of Iraq's biowarfare program and heart of its chemical research and production in the 1980's. Apparently left in ruin. What Gulf war bombing didn't destroy in 1991, U.N. weapons inspectors did in the mid 1990's. Filling containers like this with cement and putting U.N. tags on them.
This day, chemical, biological and missile inspectors returned to review the site, spending five hours, searching the sprawling desert complex 120 kilometers Northwest of Baghdad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you happy with the cooperation you've received so far today?
ROBERTSON: Apparently getting good cooperation. An indication of that, getting a mobile crane into the site to move some containers. According to site officials, however, the chemical and biological warfare programs stopped a long time ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It stopped working at 1991. Before the war.
ROBERTSON: The sheer scale of this site, 25 square kilometers is an indication to Iraq's previous commitment to weapons of mass destruction. Now containers like these are put across the door to stop it continuing. In Baghdad, Iraqi officials upset about the presidential palace inspection the previous day blaming the visit on pressure by the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We consider the entry of the presidential sites as unjustified and really unnecessary.
ROBERTSON: Inspectors for their part saying they feel caught in the middle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iraqi side would have liked us to be very light. The U.S. side, as from what I heard from you, wants us to be extremely severe.
ROBERTSON: Hard to gauge what the inspectors were thinking when they left Al Muthanna. It is, however, one less site to visit and to the untrained eye at least possibly one they won't be coming back to soon.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Al-Muthanna, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: America continues to push allies for support against Iraq and in the war on terror. One of the nation's most important to both efforts is Saudi Arabia.
Two U.S. senators today renewed suspicions about the Saudi royal family's role as an alleged bankroller of terror. Earlier, I spoke with the former head of Saudi intelligence and likely future ambassador to the U.K., Prince Turki al-Faisal, about his nation's position as a U.S. ally.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Prince Turki, thank you so much for being with us again. It's good to see you.
AL-FAISAL: It's a pleasure to be back with you, Ms. Chung.
CHUNG: Prince Turki, there are many people here in the United States who are skeptical that Saudi Arabia is doing everything it can to help combat terrorism and also prevent the financing of terrorism.
Do you believe that Saudi Arabia is extending itself greatly in this area?
AL-FAISAL: Absolutely, Ms. Chung. And the facts point that out.
You must have seen the paper that was presented yesterday at the Saudi Embassy in response to all of these questions about Saudi Arabia's role in combating terror. And that paper I think fills all of the bills that have been extended towards the kingdom and answers all of the questions, whether it is in terms of what we are doing to arrest and apprehend members of al Qaeda, whether it is in terms of what is being done in the financial and the money trail, as it is called now.
And all of these things are very comprehensive and very well dealt with by the kingdom.
CHUNG: Last night, I interviewed a man named Matthew Levitt. And he's a terrorist specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He had some very harsh words for the royal family.
I'd like you to listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW LEVITT, FORMER FBI TERRORISM ANALYST: Senior U.S. officials and many others continue to make statements that we do in fact have evidence, contrary to what al-Jubeir said, that senior members of the royal family have strong connections to some of these suspected group and front organizations, and, even more so, that as much as $100 million a year from wealthy Saudis who are closely connected to the royal family, according to a senior Treasury official, is going to terrorist groups annually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Prince Turki, has any member of the royal family ever given any money to terrorist groups or funneled money through another organization that led to terrorist groups?
AL-FAISAL: Absolutely not. And Mr. Levitt quotes a senior Treasury official. I am quoting the secretary of the Treasury, Mr. O'Neill. And what he says is that he's very happy with what Saudi Arabia is doing, that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with the United States, and that it is doing all it can to arrest these money trails and prevent them.
CHUNG: Sir, you were head of intelligence from 1977 until just 10 days before September 11. There have been reports that part of your job was to make payoffs to prevent problems in Saudi Arabia. Did you at any time provide payoffs to al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden or the Taliban to prevent problems in Saudi Arabia?
AL-FAISAL: Ms. Chung, that is a very demeaning question.
The kingdom has always stood by its principles. And its principles are the safeguarding of innocent lives, wherever they are and whoever they are. And, definitely, terrorists, we have fought them. We have brought some of them to justice and executed them. We have suffered at the hands of terrorists. And we have never paid anybody blood money, as it is sometimes called.
CHUNG: There are those who claim that the interior minister and the defense minister have provided money to Osama bin Laden to prevent problems in Saudi Arabia. Do you also deny that any member of the Cabinet has done so?
AL-FAISAL: I'd say to these people, "Put up or shut up," because there is nothing they can put up. Nobody in the kingdom has paid blackmail money, if that is what it is.
CHUNG: Prince Turki, do you believe that Saudi Arabia should provide access to bases if the United States does go to war with Iraq?
AL-FAISAL: I am not in a position to specify, whether they be air bases or overflights or whatever, but I would definitely urge my government and my people to extend their fullest support to any U.N. action vis-a-vis Iraq.
CHUNG: Would you support the United States if it invaded Iraq without going back to the United Nations?
AL-FAISAL: No, definitely not, because the United Nations is the world body that oversees all of these matters, and has done so quite equitably and quite reasonably in the past and hopefully in the future.
CHUNG: Prince Turki al-Faisal, I thank you so much.
AL-FAISAL: Thank you, Ms. Chung. It's a pleasure to see you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And still ahead, we resume our look at strongmen on America's bad side, with a focus Fidel Castro. How do Castro and Saddam compare?
Plus: A massive wintry storm blankets the Plains and the Southwest. It's a big one.
Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: Next: Smallpox, is the U.S. ready for a bioterror attack? One local sheriff's department is taking no chances.
CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: The prospect that Saddam Hussein might use the smallpox virus as a weapon of death has the Bush administration ready to announce a vaccine plan for U.S. military and emergency workers, such as police officers. President Bush is expected to detail the plan sometime this week.
But Orange County, Florida, Sheriff Kevin Beary has taken the issue into his own hands. He's one of the first local law enforcement officers to get people in his community vaccinated.
And he joins us now from Orlando, along with Dr. Ronald Brown, principal investigator at Mid-Florida Biologicals, which is working on a smallpox vaccination program.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being with us.
BEARY: Thank you.
DR. RONALD BROWN, MID-FLORIDA BIOLOGICALS: Thank you.
CHUNG: Sheriff, do you seriously believe that there is a threat?
BEARY: No, there's really no threat at this time.
But, at the same, it's kind of like a bullet-resistant vest. This is just another opportunity to protect my people and get citizen involvement in getting this vaccination to the numbers we need to in this country.
CHUNG: Why did you decide to do so before the federal government?
BEARY: Well, first of all, we're a very busy region for domestic security in the state of Florida.
And Dr. Brown came to me and my executive staff and put out a plan that said we could do first-responders and also get community involvement. And we made the executive decision to do it. So, we are very pleased to be on the forefront of this operation.
CHUNG: Dr. Brown, most of us believe that the vaccine itself is dangerous. So, have you been having a hard time finding people who aren't afraid to take, to have the vaccination?
BROWN: Well, Connie, that is one of the problems that we're facing. I think the media has done a good job at spreading the information about the vaccine. But I think one of the problems is, is that we're looking at 1968 data, which is where all these complication rates come from. And I think what we should be focusing on is the success that we've had through a number of clinical trials in this country, and also in the recent Israeli experience, where they vaccinated 12,000 of their first-responders, without any adverse effect.
So, no, we are really not having a problem recruiting people into the study.
CHUNG: And, so, basically, you're saying that it isn't dangerous? It causes one fatality out of a million?
BROWN: Well, again, remember where those statistics came from. That was 1968 data. And the whole process was different then.
We lined up every school child. They rolled up their sleeve. They got a vaccination. There was no selection, no screening process. So, just statistically, you are going to hit some child that has some underlying immune problem that might make him have a complication of the vaccine, just like any other vaccine. But it's been our experience that, if you properly screen the individuals and don't give it to the wrong group, then it's a very safe and very effective vaccine.
CHUNG: You know, a lot of people believe that this covers a great number of people, but, in fact, the vaccinations are only for military and for emergency workers. Are we prepared for a potential attack, because it doesn't cover your average citizen?
BROWN: Well, there's been a tremendous amount of planning undertaken by the CDC and the federal government, as well as -- we're blessed in Florida to have a governor who is very proactive, been on this thing from day one. So, there's been a lot of planning done.
Are we prepared if it happened tomorrow? Probably not, because we don't have very many people vaccinated in this country. And most of my contemporaries who are currently practicing medicine have never seen a case of smallpox and never vaccinated anybody against smallpox.
CHUNG: All right, Sheriff Beary and Dr. Brown, thank you so much for being with us.
BROWN: Thank you.
BEARY: Thank you.
CHUNG: In much of the Plains and the Southwest, officials are grappling with a more immediate threat, a powerful storm dumping up to a foot of snow on Oklahoma and reaching eastward all the way to Virginia and the Carolinas.
In a dozen states in between, the story is a similar one: schools closings, flights grounded, travel skidding to a halt, and tens of thousands of people without power.
Joining us now from Charlotte, North Carolina, is CNN's Jeff Flock.
I know it's getting pretty bad out there, isn't it? Are you OK?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wish you were here, Connie. It's a beautiful night in Charlotte, I'll tell you. Maybe you can tell. I don't know if you can tell.
But the story out here is the ice. And we're in about the worst place you can be, which is a bridge overpass. And I don't know if you know how these things work, but it's the first place to freeze up. And maybe you see the kind of sheet of ice. I got a little screwdriver here that kind of gives you a sense for how deep the ice is, about a third of an inch or a maybe even a half an inch of ice so far.
And they're worried about it getting much worse overnight, because they say it's going to continue to go, so, bad already and perhaps, Connie, the worst of it to come. That's I-77 out there behind me, still moving along. They say as long as the traffic moves on it, it's good. But, once overnight, the traffic tapers down and the rain continues to fall and freeze, it could be a real mess by morning -- Connie.
CHUNG: No question about it.
Now, I understand that certain states were hit harder than others. Can you give us a rundown?
FLOCK: Absolutely.
I don't know if it's the worst, but to the west of us, of course, is where it all started. And I believe it was a place -- let me make sure I get the county right -- it was in Warren County, Kentucky. That is what we believe to be the first and, at this point, only fatality so far from this storm. A man driving a propane tanker truck flipped it on icy roads and he was killed, so far the only one.
Even farther to the West, in Oklahoma, they tell us that, in the Panhandle, they got as much in some parts of the Panhandle as a foot of snow in the Oklahoma Panhandle, about 37,000 people out of power there. Farther to the East, then, in Arkansas, they are looking to try and restore power as well. Crews are out there.
And that's the same problem that they're facing here. That's what happened there. They think it's going to happen here. That is this rain that maybe you can tell is continuing to fall here. It gets on these bridge decks and builds up on the power lines. And I don't know if you see. Again, it's just fascinating to see how deep this is.
But you see how deep -- you can imagine how thick this ice is. When it gets on those power lines, it weighs them down. And, of course, boom, then they come down. So, that is their biggest fear here, because, when you knock out the power, then you really put people in a world of hurt, Connie.
CHUNG: Oh, my gosh. Jeff, thank you so much. I want you to stay warm and also drive safely. It's so slick out there. It's unbelievable.
FLOCK: You said it. Goodbye.
CHUNG: OK.
CNN will be tracking this storm all night and tomorrow.
And still ahead: You want warmth? Well, wait until you hear what our "Person of the Day" did. It's great.
Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: Next: While all eyes are on Saddam Hussein, we'll take a look at another man who, for decades, has held an island nation in the grip of an iron fist: Fidel Castro -- when CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Iraq today said its report to the U.N. will not list any of the weapons of mass destruction it is forbidden to have. The White House, though, has been skeptical, suggesting that Saddam Hussein is playing yet another cat-and-mouse game again, as he did dealing with the first Bush president.
Saddam is hardly the first dictator to outlast a U.S. president. The champion in that regard is Cuba's Fidel Castro, which is why we've chosen him as part of our weeklong series, "The Iron Fist," looking at other rulers who have clashed with the U.S. How has Castro outlasted 10 presidents?
CNN's Garrick Utley explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He might have become a successful lawyer, which is what the young Fidel Castro had trained for when he strolled through Central Park in 1955. Instead, he became a young revolutionary and then an aging dictator. Of all Castro's accomplishments, one of the most successful has been to challenge, irritate and defy the American giant to the north.
JULIA SWEIG, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: He has stuck his fingers in the eye, repeatedly, of the great superpower. And that hurts.
UTLEY: What do we know about the private man behind one of the most public faces in the world? Not much, except that he has been married twice and has had a female companion for 30 years. He's believed to have seven children. But perhaps the greatest love in his life has been the revolution that began in the jungle of Cuba and then swept into Havana in 1959 to overthrow a corrupt tyrant who had been supported by the United States.
From the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the nuclear missile crisis 40 years ago, through the passions raised by the struggle over Elian Gonzalez, Cuba and the United States have remained the closest of enemies, or perhaps enemy is no longer the right word.
SWEIG: So, what's happened is, the Cuban economy has begun to open to the United States. There is the beginning of trade. They're paying cash for American agricultural goods. American tourists are beginning to go.
UTLEY: What they will see is that Castro has built schools and hospitals with the same determination he has used to prevent private enterprise and jail opponents.
It may be too much to expect the 76-year-old leader to change his ways. Those who hold absolute power tend to believe in themselves absolutely. And few dictators have survived as long as has Fidel Castro. His place in history, for better or worse, is assured. How will it end and when?
SWEIG: He may live for another 10 to 15, 20 years. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't eat meat. He exercises every day.
UTLEY: That's one way for a dictator to survive. In the nearly 44 years since Fidel Castro seized power, there have been 10 American presidents and one ruler of Cuba.
Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And joining me now to help us understand how Castro has kept his control of Cuba for more than four decades is Jane Franklin, author of "Cuba and the United States."
Thank you so much for being with us.
JANE FRANKLIN, AUTHOR, "CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES": I am very happy to be here.
CHUNG: Jane, how has he survived and outlasted 10 presidents?
FRANKLIN: Well, Connie, first of all, the United States turned Cuba into a neo-colony in 1902, as I'm sure you know. And so there was constant resistance to that U.S. control of Cuba.
Castro himself was born while there was the worst of the dictatorships, perhaps, the Machado dictatorship. He was born in '26. And he grew up in that resistance of U.S. neo-colonialism. In 1952, he was running for Congress.
CHUNG: Right.
FRANKLIN: There were elections every four years. People hoped that there would be sort of a peaceful transition to some kind of democracy. Batista came in, supported by the CIA, and overthrew the government.
CHUNG: Right.
FRANKLIN: Canceled the election.
CHUNG: So let's fast-forward.
FRANKLIN: Yes.
CHUNG: Fast-forward for us, Jane. How is it possible that this man has been able to sustain his leadership there?
FRANKLIN: Well, he immediately -- he and the revolution that he was part of the leadership of and became the primary leader of established a program of basic human rights: free medical care, free education, jobs for everybody.
And the people -- it was a popular revolution, in the first place, against the dictatorship of Batista. And the programs that they instituted kept the people's support and still keep the people's support.
CHUNG: Now, here's a man who did execute his opposition in those early years. How do the people view him today?
FRANKLIN: Well, most Cubans are very proud of the fact that he does keep Cuba independent of the United States. And, internationally, whenever he goes abroad, he's welcomed as a hero in Third World countries.
For instance, most people around the globe, in the Third World country, anyway, especially in Africa, know that Cuba's troops in Africa were responsible for defeating apartheid at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1988, when white South Africans went home for the first time in body bags. And that led to the independent (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the freedom of Nelson Mandela.
CHUNG: Mandela.
FRANKLIN: Right.
CHUNG: Yes.
FRANKLIN: So, people appreciate that and look to Cuba as a beacon. And, also, the health and education systems in Cuba are a model for the rest of the world.
CHUNG: OK, we're running out of time.
So, this last question, I think, is probably the most important one. And that is that the Bay of Pigs was such a miscalculation on the part of the United States. Now, there was the hope, on the United States' part, that there would be an insurrection. However, of course, it was a disaster.
Now, as we look at Iraq -- the United States, there have been several reports that the United States is hoping that there might be some sort of insurrection. Is the United States overestimating the opposition groups in Iraq, do you think?
FRANKLIN: Well, like in Cuba, they may not have any idea what is coming. They thought that, in Cuba, there would be an uprising in favor of the exiles led by the CIA. Instead, the uprising was in favor of the Cuban government and the revolution.
The same kind of law of unintentional consequences could pertain in Iraq now, if they were to invade. There are many groups and many differences among those groups. And, also, as you know, Iraq is not even just one unified country. There's the autonomous region in the north of Kurds. And there are the Shiites in the south.
And Saddam himself is a Sunni. So, there are these divisions. Some people think that the United States might stay there as an occupying army. Some of the exiles want that. Others don't want that. And who knows what will happen if the United States invades.
CHUNG: Jane Franklin, I wish we could talk to you longer, because it's very educational and enlightening as well.
But thank you. We have to go.
FRANKLIN: Thank you.
CHUNG: Before we go to the break, though: a quick look at several developments around the globe in tonight's "World in: 60."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): A federal judge says the president may detain enemy combatants, even if they are U.S. citizens. The judge is allowing the government to hold Jose Padilla, who is accused of involvement in a dirty bomb plot.
Police in Kenya are holding three people in the probe of last week's terrorist attacks. One detainee says a vehicle he sold to two men of Arab descent was the one used in the hotel bombing.
Meanwhile, Indonesian police report nabbing one of the leaders of the militant Islamic group blamed for the Bali nightclub bombing and other terrorist attacks.
Japan wants the U.S. military to crack down on crimes by its service personnel there. Yesterday, police ordered the arrest of a U.S. Marine for attempted rape in Okinawa, where most U.S. troops are stationed.
It really was the heart of darkness. Hundreds of thousands of people in Southern Africa today watched and cheered a total eclipse of the sun.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And don't say we never report any good news. We're happy to say that the sun came back.
And we will, too, with the deadline facing Manhattan's district attorney over the infamous Central Park jogger case.
Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, why the gloved one now is only wearing one shoe: Michael Jackson and the story of the spider.
CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Manhattan's district attorney has until tomorrow to decide whether to drop the charges in the infamous Central Park jogger rape case of 1989. The five men convicted of the attack have all served their sentences. Police want the convictions upheld, but new DNA evidence supports another man's claim that he raped the victim.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick has more on the crime that shook the city and shocked the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is where it all began on a cool April night almost 14 years ago. Prosecutors believe a group of teenaged boys entered the northern end of Manhattan's Central Park. It was 9:00 p.m. And what happened next would traumatize the entire city for years.
(voice-over): The teenagers were out for what would come to be known as a night of wilding, the pack of boys attacking runners and bike riders.
(on camera): By the time it was over, several people had been assaulted and a female jogger was dragged from this path into the woods, where she was savagely beaten and raped.
(voice-over): Five teenagers were taken into custody. Several confessed to police detectives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did it twice.
FEYERICK: Implicating themselves in the attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was my first rape.
FEYERICK: One teen even described how the jogger screamed for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was just hollering, like, "Help, help."
FEYERICK (on camera): But now those confessions are under question, because somebody else was in the park that night, somebody who, earlier this year, confessed to the rape. (voice-over): Matias Reyes. His semen was found on the jogger. His pubic hair was on her sock. It's the only DNA evidence tying anyone to the attack. Reyes, serving 33 years for murder and rape, told prison guards this year he alone raped the Central Park jogger. His former lawyer believes him.
RICHARD SIRACUSA, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR MATIAS REYES: He's a person that does things like that and just doesn't care, doesn't care whether the person lives, dies, nothing. And nothing bothers him emotionally. I'm sure he lost no sleep over this.
FEYERICK: The Manhattan district attorney reopened the case, reanalyzing physical evidence.
ROBERT MORGENTHAU, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Senior prosecutors and investigators have been conducting a thorough and complete investigation of Reyes' account.
FEYERICK: Lawyers and families of four of the five men say they're innocent, the video confessions coerced.
SHARONNA SALAAM, MOTHER OF DEFENDANT: Our children have paid a heavy price and so have our families.
FEYERICK: They want a judge to toss out all convictions.
MICHAEL WARREN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When you examine the course of what took place during the trial, none of those witnesses who came forward were able -- as Ms. Salaam has indicated, were able to identify any of those young boys.
FEYERICK: But the Detectives Union tells CNN the convictions should stand, saying Reyes' DNA evidence doesn't eliminate the other five. A doctor who treated the jogger says there's no way Reyes acted alone.
DR. ROBERT KURTZ, JOGGER'S PHYSICIAN: The lacerations in the scalp were sharply inflicted and not bluntly inflicted. So, to me, that means that more than one person has to be involved in this.
FEYERICK: The DA now facing a tough choice: fight for the hard- won verdict or clear the young men of the jogger rape and the other assaults they were convicted of committing that night.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: So what to do?
Our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, is with us.
Jeffrey, what do you think? What do you think the DA is going to do? Is he going to throw out these convictions?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think the rape convictions are gone. They're very hard to sustain at this point, because you had a theory of the case that these five kids were the rapists. And you have DNA evidence that, at the very least, someone else was there. So, I think you have to throw out those convictions.
CHUNG: Do you think the original prosecutor did not share enough of that DNA evidence or sort of misrepresented it?
TOOBIN: Well, I think you have to remember, this trial, which took place in 1990, the DNA state of the art in science was very different then. There wasn't a bank of DNA that you could just sort of test an unknown sample against.
I don't think there was any misleading that went on, certainly nothing intentional, but just the science was not at a stage where they could know conclusively as much as they do now.
CHUNG: And that's why the prosecutors said that those bits of information were inconclusive at that time.
TOOBIN: That's right.
And this evidence was all shared with the defense during the trial. It's just that there was no known sample to test it against. So, the identity of the person who deposited that semen was simply unknown. And it was something known to everyone at the trial.
CHUNG: So, what do you think? Wouldn't it take the former prosecutor and the police department to say, "We were wrong"? That's very hard.
TOOBIN: It's very hard for them to do, especially when they're being accused of intentionally planting a false story with these kids.
CHUNG: Coercing them.
TOOBIN: Coercing them. They deeply believe -- and I've interviewed some of them -- they didn't do that.
But what's really interesting here is that this may be a symptom of something we see in more and more cases, where people confess to things, seemingly voluntarily, but, in fact, they didn't do it. And that appears to be what may have happened with the rape, if not the assaults as well.
CHUNG: Actually, we are going to do a story tomorrow about a California case that was quite celebrated in which someone was coerced. And then all of that was turned over, so maybe in this case as well.
TOOBIN: As DNA evidence gets better, we are seeing more and more people exonerated from death row who confessed. Confessions are not the end of the story. In many cases, they're only the beginning.
CHUNG: All right, Jeffrey Toobin, thank you.
TOOBIN: All right. CHUNG: Still ahead: a much lighter legal situation: Michael Jackson back in court, back in the spotlight, back acting weird. You'll find out why he's in the headlines again in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: OK, let's face it. Except for the principals, not really many people care about the legal issues in Michael Jackson's breach- of-contract trial. It just gives us a rare chance to see the notorious recluse in action.
He's been showing up to court with a foot swollen by a spider bite. And he was also asked about Gloria Allred. That's the lawyer calling for an investigation about his baby-dangling stunt last month.
Well, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, "CELEBRITY JUSTICE": What do you have to say about Gloria Allred?
MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: Who's that?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: She an attorney who's calling for an investigation by children's services as a result of the
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: Ah, tell her to go to hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Oh. He's the one under the umbrella.
All the fuss has celebrity watchers in heaven. And we have got the reporter you just heard Jackson talking to, "Celebrity Justice" correspondent Jane Velez-Mitchell, to fill us in.
Jane, thank you so much for joining us.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks for having me.
CHUNG: Tell us, he's got this one shoe on, right, and that bandage around a foot that he claims was bitten by a spider?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I have to tell you, Connie, the second that Michael Jackson shows up at this normally sleepy town of Santa Maria in the courthouse, the bizarre meter just goes off the scale.
First of all, an umbrella pops up. He's three feet to the courtroom. What does he need an umbrella for? And then he comes out and he's got one shoe on and one white sock. And, of course, a ripple goes through the crowd: Does this have any symbolic significance? What's the hidden message here? Later, we find out from an assistant that he had a spider bite. But, three weeks ago, or a couple of weeks ago, in his first round of testimony, he said he had gotten a spider bite on his hand. Coincidence? Two spider bites? Now, we know at, Neverland Ranch, he has a zoo. And he does have spider or spider-like creatures there. But, apparently, it was not one of his pets.
CHUNG: He has been acting quite strangely on the stand, right, hand gestures, whatever? Tell us about those.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It's wild.
I mean, literally, we were all just doing double-takes. As the jury is filing in yesterday, he begins to make -- right there, you're looking at it. Words do not describe. And this is as the jury is filing in. So, in essence, he's kind of making a mockery of the court system.
Today, I'm told by our "Celebrity Justice" producer who was in the courtroom today -- I was in there yesterday -- he ate candy on the witness stand during testimony. And he also wrote a song while he was on the witness stand, while the attorneys were talking to the judge. We don't know what the name of the song is. Perhaps he'll name it "Celebrity Justice." I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: I don't think so.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.
CHUNG: He seems so out of touch with reality. I mean, what was he acting like today?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, it's interesting.
A lot of people say that Michael Jackson is crazy like a fox. Yesterday, when he was being examined by the attorney for the man who's suing, he couldn't remember anything. In fact, those in the opposing camp said that Michael Jackson has ingeniously invented a new way to take the Fifth, by giving answers that are so disjointed and filled with so many pauses that you really have no idea what he said by the time he's done.
But today, when he was being questioned by his own attorney, he was, according to our producer, remarkably lucid and answered questions and had a memory and a recollection. So, it's going to be up to the jury to decide what to make of all this. Are they going to punish him for his behavior in court? We don't know.
CHUNG: You know, I'm looking at these pictures of him coming in and out of his car. Does he have a big entourage?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He has a huge entourage.
And, by the way, you saw in that earlier picture he was wearing a blue armband. And, in this picture, he is dressed up in formal wear. A lot of times, the entourage -- not that lady, but the gentlemen right behind her. You could see him getting out. He's dressed in a similar outfit. So, his entourage -- which some say is filled with hangers-on or people who are yes-men. We don't know that about the people you are looking at there, of course.
But they dress in a similar fashion. What does that tell you? What can you extrapolate from that? And today, he was wearing a blue armband. And they asked, "Why the blue armband, Michael?"
And he said, "For power."
And they said, "Your power?"
And he said, "No, power for the world."
Now, I know what world peace means, but I don't know what power for the world means. Do you have any idea what that means?
CHUNG: Not a clue, Jane.
Thanks so much for being with us, Jane Velez-Mitchell, "Celebrity Justice" correspondent.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks, Connie.
CHUNG: All right.
Legal woes and unusual child-rearing situations aren't unique to Michael Jackson, as you'll see in tonight's "Snapshot."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): "Martha Stewart Living" gets a go-ahead for another season. Stewart's legal problems apparently, haven't affected the ratings for her television show.
"The New York Post" has exclusive photos of Rosie O'Donnell's new baby. Vivienne Rose was born to Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend five days ago.
Among the nominees for the People's Choice Awards: favorite TV drama series, "CSI," "ER," "Law & Order"; TV comedy, "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Friends," "Will & Grace"; favorite movie, "Lord of the Rings," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and "Spider-Man." The awards ceremony is January 12.
London newspapers say British royals have quietly and routinely given away luxury items to servants or tried to sell them for extra cash. Among the loot: a gold wedding ring, a jewel-encrusted model ship, pricey earrings, and a diamond broach. This story follows yesterday's collapse of the case against Harold Brown, a second royal butler accused of theft. The other butler, Paul Burrell, also beat his rap.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Such a nice hat on the queen.
And coming up: Who's our "Person of the Day"? Well, we honestly can't tell you, but we can tell you what he did.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: So, who is our "Person of the Day"?
Well, today, he's a no-name, literally. He's remaining anonymous. But we know he's a first-year law student at George Mason University Law School in Virginia.
According to "The Washington Post," when he heard that state funding cuts would cost students an extra $192 in tuition, he did something about it. He gave the school $19,200 to cover the increase for 100 of the school's neediest students. His generosity prompted others to pony up, too. The ironic thing, of course, is, if everyone had the same spirit of generosity, the state probably wouldn't have had to cut funds and our anonymous law student wouldn't have become our "Person of the Day."
Now, tomorrow, you'll meet a man who says his doctor left in the middle of his operation to go to the bank. Can you believe it?
"LARRY KING LIVE" is next with Paula Poundstone.
Thanks for watching. Have a good night. See you tomorrow.
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