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American Morning

Interview With John Lehman; Fight for Iraq; Jayson Williams Trial

Aired April 13, 2004 - 07:30   ET

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

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


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, it seems like yesterday we were talking about this Jayson Williams matter. We were supposed to get a ruling yesterday -- so we thought.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HEMMER: A key hearing resumes today in that manslaughter case with Jayson Williams. Jeff Toobin in a moment here tells us why the defense attorneys are so convinced the charges should be dropped and dismissed. And we may get a decision from the judge today, so stay tuned. More on that in a moment here.

O'BRIEN: And the case has more twists and turns.

HEMMER: That it does.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

All right, let's get to our top stories, though, first this morning.

More U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and Fallujah. At least two Marines were killed in heavy fighting last night. Eight others were wounded. Insurgents attacked a building housing the Marines with either mortar or rocket fire. The strike was followed by a firefight that lasted about an hour. The Associated Press reports a U.S. Apache helicopter went down outside Fallujah this morning. Witnesses say it was hit by a rocket. There's no word yet on any casualties. We've got a live report on this that's coming up out of Iraq in just a few moments.

Tonight, President Bush will focus on the increased violence in Iraq during a primetime news conference from the White House. Mr. Bush announced the event yesterday. Aides say that he is also preparing to discuss the declassified presidential briefing from August 6, 2001, which had information about al Qaeda. Of course, CNN will carry the news conference live, and that begins at 8:00 p.m. -- 8:30 p.m., rather, Eastern Time tonight.

A Fresno, California, man will stand trial in the deaths of nine his children. A judge ruled yesterday that there is enough evidence to try Marcus Wesson. Wesson has pleaded not guilty to murder and sexual abuse charges. Police found a pile of bodies at Wesson's home last month.

More older Americans are going blind; this, from a new study published in the archives of ophthalmology. And it says that more than three million Americans over 40 can't drive or perform other tacks -- tasks, rather, because of impaired vision. The study says that that number will likely jump to 5.5 million by the year 2020. Researchers also found that blacks over 40 are three times more likely to go blind than whites.

The baseball season is only a week old and already we have a first major milestone. Yesterday, Barry Bonds tied Willie Mays for third place on the all-time homerun list. Bonds hit his 660th homerun in front of the home fans in San Francisco. Mays, who is Bonds' godfather, congratulated the slugger, and then presented him with a torch covered in diamonds.

That's a nice little gift.

HEMMER: And that wasn't just a homerun. That was a shot straight out of the stadium into the water there in San Francisco.

O'BRIEN: Nice to do it in front of the home team, too.

HEMMER: I'm telling you.

O'BRIEN: That was pretty nice.

HEMMER: All in the family, too. I like it.

(WEATHER BREAK)

HEMMER: Two hours away now, the 9/11 Commission begins the first of two days of questioning of America's leading law enforcement officials. The current and the former directors of the FBI and attorneys general are expected to come under heavy questioning today for what they did not do prior to 9/11.

One person asking the questions is John Lehman, former secretary of the Navy, now a 9/11 commissioner, with us from Washington.

Mr. Secretary, good morning to you. Nice to see you.

JOHN LEHMAN, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Good morning.

HEMMER: I appreciate your time here. The single most important question for you is what in the next two days?

LEHMAN: Well, the single most important question, I think, was set up very well by the release of the president's daily brief. There, it gave a recounting of all of the reports over the prior several years, and especially the prior several months.

But the key line in that PDB is, we cannot corroborate the more alarmist reports. That's what the president was told. But the more alarmist reports turned out to be true. So, we spend $40 billion on our internal and external intelligence. Why did it fail? Why could it not corroborate these more alarmist reports?

That's what the focus is going to be, because our purpose is not pointing fingers. It's really to come up with a very major set of reforms that fixes the dysfunctions and fixes the holes in our internal intelligence, our internal security and, of course, our foreign security.

HEMMER: Mr. Secretary, you said a lot in that. Is that also what you consider the most critical piece of evidence thus far as well?

LEHMAN: Well, I think, we've been pushing for the release of that, even though those have been protected by executive privilege for decades. But this, I think, distills for the American people almost perfectly a picture of what our problems are, because every American can now read what was the best that the intelligence community could come up with, internal community, because it draws on the FBI, CIA, NSA, all of the agencies.

The president asked after all of this reporting, what Dick Clarke called the summer of the spike of alarmist reporting, the president said, what's going on? This was prepared in response to that. And what they came up with was something that did not provide a good insight into what was happening, because it turns out the FBI was really unable to penetrate the al Qaeda cells in this country, despite assuring the president that they had 70 full field investigations going on.

HEMMER: And there are continuing questions that came out of the Cole attack in October of 2000 when at least two of the hijackers were linked in some ways to that attack as to why they were not tracked down, not just overseas in places like Malaysia, but also in this country.

A third point to get to, quickly, Mr. Secretary. The biggest surprise so far of the hearings for you is what?

LEHMAN: Well, I -- you know, I hate to sound jaded, but there haven't been any big surprises. Those of us who have been in the national security field over the last several decades have known that we have a system that doesn't really work. It was pretty good at counting missiles abroad and not so great, frankly, in catching spies here in the United States during the Cold War. And there have been commission after commission recommending that this be reformed.

But now, we have a real threat that is very different from the Cold War threat, and we have a more dysfunctional intelligence community than ever. So, now we are really focused, and why these hearings should be very interesting on fixing it, not just pointing fingers.

HEMMER: I don't have much time for this. Is the commission prepared to say that these attacks could have been stopped, could have been prevented, could have been disrupted?

LEHMAN: I think you'll find a consensus is emerging that it could have been, but not in the sense that if somebody had just done something different in the months leading up to it. Then it was too late. The pilots were already here by January. The plot was almost on automatic. But there were such failures, such glaring failures in our internal security and air security, immigration and so forth, that had those institutions been doing the jobs the American people thought they were doing, it could have been avoided.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. John Lehman there from D.C. We will certainly be watching less than two hours from now. Appreciate your time today. Live coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. They will fill the room at 9:00 a.m. The hearings are expected, though, with the first witness today, former FBI Director Louie Freeh, starting at 9:30. We'll be there live -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: U.S. military commanders in Iraq are hoping to stiffen the spines of some members of the new Iraqi security forces, and they are taking an orthodox step to try to make that happen.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is at the White House this morning for more on this story.

Hey -- Barbara. Good morning to you.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

And indeed, a disturbing now assessment from the top U.S. military commander about the willingness of Iraqi forces to fight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): In Mosul, a group of Iraqi police chased this car, killing three suspected insurgents inside, after a police station came under attack. It is what the new Iraqi security forces are supposed to be doing.

But as U.S. troops have fought the insurgents, the question: Where are the Iraqi security forces? The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps? The ICDC? The Iraqi army and police? Some of the 200,000 Iraqi security troops have simply refused to fight.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The fact of the matter is that some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south, a number of units, both in the police force and also in the ICDC, did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr's militia.

STARR: Some police left their post, defecting to the other side.

ABIZAID: Clearly, we know that some of the police did not stay with their post.

STARR: The 600-man 2nd battalion of the new Iraqi army was supposed to go to Fallujah to fight with the Marines. U.S. military sources tell CNN there was a leadership failure by the Iraqis. They never arrived, despite having U.S. special forces as advisers.

Abizaid will now review the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. His initial assessment? Put more Iraqi officers in key positions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And, Soledad, we may hear as soon as later today about plans to keep some U.S. forces, perhaps as many as 10,000, in place in Iraq for several weeks to deal with the insurgency -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, I want to ask you a quick question about Muqtada al-Sadr. The mission now, is it a mission to capture him or is it a mission to kill him?

STARR: Very interesting question, Soledad. As of yesterday, the U.S. military says their mission is to capture or kill him -- the first time yesterday they really spoke about that. But they also said that the Iraqis had a mission to bring him to justice. So, it's actually not very clear at the moment whether the U.S. military and the Iraq Governing Council are on two different paths.

O'BRIEN: Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who's at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, thanks a lot -- Bill.

HEMMER: A bird caused a brief but major headache at the Los Angeles airport yesterday. Perched on a power pole, it caused a two- second power outage. Yesterday morning the jolt led to problems in the control tower, and it affected about 100 flights in L.A. Officials described the disruption in flight traffic as minimal. Backup power came on quickly.

Another major blackout, at one of the largest casinos in Vegas, Sunday morning, the Bellagio, that blackout blamed on a mechanical glitch. The outage closed the hotel. Guests in the 3,000-room place had to go to other places, other hotels. The Bellagio may reopen, we are told, a bit later today on Tuesday, which means a lot of folks probably saved a lot of money...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Or are spending it at other hotels.

HEMMER: That could be, too.

O'BRIEN: But not at the Bellagio today.

HEMMER: Right.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, lawyers argue over evidence in the manslaughter trial of former basketball star Jayson Williams. An all-important ruling is expected today.

HEMMER: Also, a powerful pesticide is still threatening the American eagle in California. See how some experts are giving the majestic birds a helping hand this morning when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A judge is expected to rule today on whether manslaughter charges against former NBA star Jayson Williams should be dismissed. The defense charges that the prosecution intentionally withheld crucial evidence.

Here to look at the case is CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeff Toobin.

Good morning to you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: You know, the case -- you and Bill were talking about it yesterday -- it seemed like maybe a simple mistake made by the prosecution not handing over documents is getting a little more complicated this morning. Larry Nelson, a gun expert for the prosecution, testified that the prosecutor, Steve Lember, suggested that he actually change part of his testimony, which he did. How significant is this testimony from Larry Nelson in this case?

TOOBIN: Well, what the expert did is he gave a draft report. He was an expert on the gun, on whether the gun could accidentally discharge or the trigger had to be pulled -- a crucial piece of evidence in the case.

O'BRIEN: It's the whole $64,000 question.

TOOBIN: It's a big issue in the case. And the expert testified outside the presence of the jury yesterday that the prosecutor kind of encouraged him to take out from his report, the draft that he had seen, to take out that the gun could have discharged accidentally -- the crucial issue in the case.

Now, the prosecution, in their defense said, no, we weren't trying to get him to change his conclusions. We were just trying to clarify what he said.

O'BRIEN: Focus his testimony a little bit more.

TOOBIN: Focus his testimony. But, I mean, that is the kind of thing. You know, I said -- when Bill and I were talking yesterday, I said that it's extremely unlikely that this case would be thrown out, that the judge would simply let Jayson Williams go. But if the judge really thought that the prosecutors were cooking the books, were trying to distort the evidence, that's the kind of thing that could get this case thrown out.

O'BRIEN: Now, the gun expert says, frankly, that the change wasn't substantive and that the prosecutor, in fact, did not force him in any way. And he sort of made what I thought was sort of a strange joke. The prosecutor didn't hold a gun to my head.

TOOBIN: Oh, those gun experts, they're really a hoot. Right, yes.

O'BRIEN: Yes, kind of a little bit of misplaced humor considering the kind of trial you are looking at here. Is this typical at all that experts tailor their findings to the prosecution or, conversely, to the defense?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, there is always the claim with expert witnesses. You know, he who pays the piper calls the tune, that, you know, you hire an expert to reach...

O'BRIEN: Because you want a certain...

TOOBIN: Because you want to get a certain set of conclusions. And the experts are no dummies. They know what side their evidence will help.

You know, when I practiced law, you know, I didn't do this and lawyers I know didn't do this, but, yes, it does happen. And certainly, the government is under a particular responsibility to play straight with this sort of thing.

O'BRIEN: The prosecutors would say it was a simple mistake, an honest mistake not turning over the documents. Also, at the end of the day, it's about harm to the case. And this did no harm to the case. Therefore, there's no remedy -- the remedy being check it all out.

TOOBIN: Right. Well, the prosecution is saying, look, if you think we did something wrong, if you think these experts' testimony was tainted in some way, let the defense call them all back to the witness stand in front of the jury, air all of these issues out in front of the jury, let the jury decide whether any of this is significant.

O'BRIEN: But would the jury hear that the prosecutors had this conversation?

TOOBIN: They may well. I mean, that's the kind of remedy that the judge might allow. The judge might allow all of these issues to open up in front of the jury. That is probably a more likely remedy than throwing the case out.

O'BRIEN: Which could, of course, really wreck the prosecution's case.

TOOBIN: Well, if you throw out the evidence, it's -- you know, the case is pretty much over. And if you decide that the prosecutorial misconduct took place and is really terrible, then the case gets thrown out. But we are promised a decision today, this afternoon. So, we'll have to wait it out.

O'BRIEN: Jeff, I've been promised things in the past.

TOOBIN: I know. And the legal system tends to sort of move a little more slowly.

O'BRIEN: And then we continue to talk about it, don't we?

TOOBIN: Yes, we do.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, I know you'll fill us in when it happens. We appreciate it -- Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad, in a moment here, meet a biologist dangling in midair so that eagles can soar. Back in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty has the question of the day. Hello.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning.

President Bush tonight will hold his 12th news conference since taking office. Iraq, September 11, likely high on the list of topics to be discussed.

In Iraq, this has been the deadliest month yet for U.S. troops. The president said yesterday that he is considering overhauling the national intelligence services, which have been criticized for their pre-9/11 failures. And then there's the economy and health care and prescriptions and jobs and the election and on and on and on.

Here's the question: What would you like to ask the president if you had a chance there tonight?

Sam in Saint Louis: "I'd like to ask him why he's only now considering overhauling our system of intelligence-gathering. What's he been doing in the last two and a half years since September 11?"

M.R. in Madison, West Virginia: "Why, unlike any other person who has testified before the 9/11 Commission, do you need to have Vice President Cheney with you?

Tim in Tyler, Texas: "Mr. President, when will your daughters, Jenna and Barbara, be serving in Iraq?"

None of this stuff will get asked tonight.

John in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: "I'd like to ask him what I can do for my country. No matter what, we need to support our country."

And Dan writes: "When does he intend to pay as much attention to rebuilding America's schools as he does to Iraqi schools?"

And Mike in Worcester, Massachusetts: "What the hell is that smirk all about?"

See, they should let...

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: That's definitely not going to be get asked.

CAFFERTY: They should let our viewers do the news conference.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I was actually thinking that sometimes, I think, reporters in these news conferences go on and on, on all of these sort of intellectual questions.

HEMMER: And those were nice and piffy (ph), weren't they?

O'BRIEN: And those are short and they're very smart.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: You know, I'll tell you what. There are 75 days and counting now until that June 30 handover date. And that date is going to come and go like that. And these continuing questions about who is going to take power, who do you give the keys to over to come June 30?

O'BRIEN: Right, you know, there is no one to hand it over to yet.

HEMMER: Well, not only that, but there hasn't been a clear answer, whether it's from Washington or whether it's from Baghdad. Paul Bremer was on all of the talk shows on Sunday. He did not have a clear answer as to who would get those keys.

CAFFERTY: No clear answers are coming out of Washington. That's for sure.

HEMMER: I think the other thing, I was -- it's my hunch that there will be more questions about Iraq tonight than there will be 9/11. We shall see.

O'BRIEN: Really?

HEMMER: Well, yes, because the commission has basically...

O'BRIEN: I think it's going to be 50/50.

HEMMER: ... come out and said there's a lot of blame to go around about the 9/11 Commission. You're going to have the FBI directors from both administrations on today and again tomorrow. I think Iraq is the pressing issue. So we shall see.

Shall we go here?

O'BRIEN: Sure.

HEMMER: How the amazing story off the coast of California? Catalina Island off the coast of L.A. and San Diego, the bald eagle population there is almost disappearing, in part because of the now banned pesticide DDT. Millions of pounds of it flushed in the ocean from 1947 through the early 1970s. And now bald eagles there are getting help from some friends and the help of a little thievery, too.

Rusty Dornin was there for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These two bald eagles chicks were stolen from their nest on Catalina Island off the coast of southern California in February. Bald eagle eggs here are contaminated with the now banned pesticide DDT. So, the eggs were snatched and brought to the San Francisco Zoo in a program to help them survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have thinner areas of the shell, not the whole shell, but thinner areas so that they dry out very quickly and the embryo dies. So, we have to put them in very high humidity incubators.

DORNIN: Bird keeper Cathy Hobson (ph) has spent many a sleepless night tending the eggs until they hatch. Now it's time to send the chicks home.

Wildlife biologist Peter Sharpe will put the chicks back in the nest, pick up the dummy eggs he put there in February, and hope the eagles will be none the wiser. First, he feeds the chicks.

PETER SHARPE, INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE STUDIES: So, I really don't want to feed it too much.

DORNIN: Then it's a safety check with the helicopter crew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, OK.

DORNIN: And liftoff with Sharpe, birds in hand, dangling 100 feet below the helicopter.

In this bird's-eye view of the descent from a camera on Sharpe's helmet, you can see the nest perched high above the Pacific. After landing in the nest, while the exchange is being made, the female eagle, angry at the intrusion, dive bombs within a few feet of Sharpe.

SHARPE: And she was circling around pretty closely the whole time.

DORNIN: Even the airlift helicopter pilot, who donated the flights, was a little worried.

GLENN SMITH, AIRLIFT HELICOPTER: The male was up about where we were in the helicopter, and he got awfully close.

DORNIN: Then the second chick is dropped at a nest on the other side of the island. All goes smoothly.

(on camera): They took 10 fertile eggs from the nest this year. Three hatched, two survived, and that's a good success rate.

How long are you going to have to do this?

SHARPE: It's really unknown how long this project will have to go on. Right now, it could be another 50 to 100 years before the DDT contamination degrades naturally.

DORNIN (voice-over): Without the breeding program, there would be no bald eagles on Catalina Island. There were 15. Now two more eaglets have landed.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Catalina Island, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Wow! That's a heck of a job, huh?

O'BRIEN: And I think you're right. I think they are so ugly they're cute.

CAFFERTY: Where do they take them for the makeovers from those funny looking little babies...

O'BRIEN: A reality show.

CAFFERTY: ... to the magnificent adults that we see flying around on our coins.

O'BRIEN: I bet when that biologist got his degree, he never figured he'd be strapped to a helicopter dangling.

HEMMER: He's got a great view.

CAFFERTY: It must be great work, though.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it must be great work. That's nice.

Still to come this morning, more Marines are killed in the city of Fallujah, despite a cease-fire with the insurgents there. Lots of details coming up right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.


Aired April 13, 2004 - 07:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, it seems like yesterday we were talking about this Jayson Williams matter. We were supposed to get a ruling yesterday -- so we thought.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HEMMER: A key hearing resumes today in that manslaughter case with Jayson Williams. Jeff Toobin in a moment here tells us why the defense attorneys are so convinced the charges should be dropped and dismissed. And we may get a decision from the judge today, so stay tuned. More on that in a moment here.

O'BRIEN: And the case has more twists and turns.

HEMMER: That it does.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

All right, let's get to our top stories, though, first this morning.

More U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and Fallujah. At least two Marines were killed in heavy fighting last night. Eight others were wounded. Insurgents attacked a building housing the Marines with either mortar or rocket fire. The strike was followed by a firefight that lasted about an hour. The Associated Press reports a U.S. Apache helicopter went down outside Fallujah this morning. Witnesses say it was hit by a rocket. There's no word yet on any casualties. We've got a live report on this that's coming up out of Iraq in just a few moments.

Tonight, President Bush will focus on the increased violence in Iraq during a primetime news conference from the White House. Mr. Bush announced the event yesterday. Aides say that he is also preparing to discuss the declassified presidential briefing from August 6, 2001, which had information about al Qaeda. Of course, CNN will carry the news conference live, and that begins at 8:00 p.m. -- 8:30 p.m., rather, Eastern Time tonight.

A Fresno, California, man will stand trial in the deaths of nine his children. A judge ruled yesterday that there is enough evidence to try Marcus Wesson. Wesson has pleaded not guilty to murder and sexual abuse charges. Police found a pile of bodies at Wesson's home last month.

More older Americans are going blind; this, from a new study published in the archives of ophthalmology. And it says that more than three million Americans over 40 can't drive or perform other tacks -- tasks, rather, because of impaired vision. The study says that that number will likely jump to 5.5 million by the year 2020. Researchers also found that blacks over 40 are three times more likely to go blind than whites.

The baseball season is only a week old and already we have a first major milestone. Yesterday, Barry Bonds tied Willie Mays for third place on the all-time homerun list. Bonds hit his 660th homerun in front of the home fans in San Francisco. Mays, who is Bonds' godfather, congratulated the slugger, and then presented him with a torch covered in diamonds.

That's a nice little gift.

HEMMER: And that wasn't just a homerun. That was a shot straight out of the stadium into the water there in San Francisco.

O'BRIEN: Nice to do it in front of the home team, too.

HEMMER: I'm telling you.

O'BRIEN: That was pretty nice.

HEMMER: All in the family, too. I like it.

(WEATHER BREAK)

HEMMER: Two hours away now, the 9/11 Commission begins the first of two days of questioning of America's leading law enforcement officials. The current and the former directors of the FBI and attorneys general are expected to come under heavy questioning today for what they did not do prior to 9/11.

One person asking the questions is John Lehman, former secretary of the Navy, now a 9/11 commissioner, with us from Washington.

Mr. Secretary, good morning to you. Nice to see you.

JOHN LEHMAN, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Good morning.

HEMMER: I appreciate your time here. The single most important question for you is what in the next two days?

LEHMAN: Well, the single most important question, I think, was set up very well by the release of the president's daily brief. There, it gave a recounting of all of the reports over the prior several years, and especially the prior several months.

But the key line in that PDB is, we cannot corroborate the more alarmist reports. That's what the president was told. But the more alarmist reports turned out to be true. So, we spend $40 billion on our internal and external intelligence. Why did it fail? Why could it not corroborate these more alarmist reports?

That's what the focus is going to be, because our purpose is not pointing fingers. It's really to come up with a very major set of reforms that fixes the dysfunctions and fixes the holes in our internal intelligence, our internal security and, of course, our foreign security.

HEMMER: Mr. Secretary, you said a lot in that. Is that also what you consider the most critical piece of evidence thus far as well?

LEHMAN: Well, I think, we've been pushing for the release of that, even though those have been protected by executive privilege for decades. But this, I think, distills for the American people almost perfectly a picture of what our problems are, because every American can now read what was the best that the intelligence community could come up with, internal community, because it draws on the FBI, CIA, NSA, all of the agencies.

The president asked after all of this reporting, what Dick Clarke called the summer of the spike of alarmist reporting, the president said, what's going on? This was prepared in response to that. And what they came up with was something that did not provide a good insight into what was happening, because it turns out the FBI was really unable to penetrate the al Qaeda cells in this country, despite assuring the president that they had 70 full field investigations going on.

HEMMER: And there are continuing questions that came out of the Cole attack in October of 2000 when at least two of the hijackers were linked in some ways to that attack as to why they were not tracked down, not just overseas in places like Malaysia, but also in this country.

A third point to get to, quickly, Mr. Secretary. The biggest surprise so far of the hearings for you is what?

LEHMAN: Well, I -- you know, I hate to sound jaded, but there haven't been any big surprises. Those of us who have been in the national security field over the last several decades have known that we have a system that doesn't really work. It was pretty good at counting missiles abroad and not so great, frankly, in catching spies here in the United States during the Cold War. And there have been commission after commission recommending that this be reformed.

But now, we have a real threat that is very different from the Cold War threat, and we have a more dysfunctional intelligence community than ever. So, now we are really focused, and why these hearings should be very interesting on fixing it, not just pointing fingers.

HEMMER: I don't have much time for this. Is the commission prepared to say that these attacks could have been stopped, could have been prevented, could have been disrupted?

LEHMAN: I think you'll find a consensus is emerging that it could have been, but not in the sense that if somebody had just done something different in the months leading up to it. Then it was too late. The pilots were already here by January. The plot was almost on automatic. But there were such failures, such glaring failures in our internal security and air security, immigration and so forth, that had those institutions been doing the jobs the American people thought they were doing, it could have been avoided.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. John Lehman there from D.C. We will certainly be watching less than two hours from now. Appreciate your time today. Live coverage starts at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. They will fill the room at 9:00 a.m. The hearings are expected, though, with the first witness today, former FBI Director Louie Freeh, starting at 9:30. We'll be there live -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: U.S. military commanders in Iraq are hoping to stiffen the spines of some members of the new Iraqi security forces, and they are taking an orthodox step to try to make that happen.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is at the White House this morning for more on this story.

Hey -- Barbara. Good morning to you.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

And indeed, a disturbing now assessment from the top U.S. military commander about the willingness of Iraqi forces to fight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): In Mosul, a group of Iraqi police chased this car, killing three suspected insurgents inside, after a police station came under attack. It is what the new Iraqi security forces are supposed to be doing.

But as U.S. troops have fought the insurgents, the question: Where are the Iraqi security forces? The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps? The ICDC? The Iraqi army and police? Some of the 200,000 Iraqi security troops have simply refused to fight.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The fact of the matter is that some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south, a number of units, both in the police force and also in the ICDC, did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr's militia.

STARR: Some police left their post, defecting to the other side.

ABIZAID: Clearly, we know that some of the police did not stay with their post.

STARR: The 600-man 2nd battalion of the new Iraqi army was supposed to go to Fallujah to fight with the Marines. U.S. military sources tell CNN there was a leadership failure by the Iraqis. They never arrived, despite having U.S. special forces as advisers.

Abizaid will now review the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces. His initial assessment? Put more Iraqi officers in key positions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And, Soledad, we may hear as soon as later today about plans to keep some U.S. forces, perhaps as many as 10,000, in place in Iraq for several weeks to deal with the insurgency -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Barbara, I want to ask you a quick question about Muqtada al-Sadr. The mission now, is it a mission to capture him or is it a mission to kill him?

STARR: Very interesting question, Soledad. As of yesterday, the U.S. military says their mission is to capture or kill him -- the first time yesterday they really spoke about that. But they also said that the Iraqis had a mission to bring him to justice. So, it's actually not very clear at the moment whether the U.S. military and the Iraq Governing Council are on two different paths.

O'BRIEN: Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who's at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, thanks a lot -- Bill.

HEMMER: A bird caused a brief but major headache at the Los Angeles airport yesterday. Perched on a power pole, it caused a two- second power outage. Yesterday morning the jolt led to problems in the control tower, and it affected about 100 flights in L.A. Officials described the disruption in flight traffic as minimal. Backup power came on quickly.

Another major blackout, at one of the largest casinos in Vegas, Sunday morning, the Bellagio, that blackout blamed on a mechanical glitch. The outage closed the hotel. Guests in the 3,000-room place had to go to other places, other hotels. The Bellagio may reopen, we are told, a bit later today on Tuesday, which means a lot of folks probably saved a lot of money...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Or are spending it at other hotels.

HEMMER: That could be, too.

O'BRIEN: But not at the Bellagio today.

HEMMER: Right.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, lawyers argue over evidence in the manslaughter trial of former basketball star Jayson Williams. An all-important ruling is expected today.

HEMMER: Also, a powerful pesticide is still threatening the American eagle in California. See how some experts are giving the majestic birds a helping hand this morning when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A judge is expected to rule today on whether manslaughter charges against former NBA star Jayson Williams should be dismissed. The defense charges that the prosecution intentionally withheld crucial evidence.

Here to look at the case is CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeff Toobin.

Good morning to you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: You know, the case -- you and Bill were talking about it yesterday -- it seemed like maybe a simple mistake made by the prosecution not handing over documents is getting a little more complicated this morning. Larry Nelson, a gun expert for the prosecution, testified that the prosecutor, Steve Lember, suggested that he actually change part of his testimony, which he did. How significant is this testimony from Larry Nelson in this case?

TOOBIN: Well, what the expert did is he gave a draft report. He was an expert on the gun, on whether the gun could accidentally discharge or the trigger had to be pulled -- a crucial piece of evidence in the case.

O'BRIEN: It's the whole $64,000 question.

TOOBIN: It's a big issue in the case. And the expert testified outside the presence of the jury yesterday that the prosecutor kind of encouraged him to take out from his report, the draft that he had seen, to take out that the gun could have discharged accidentally -- the crucial issue in the case.

Now, the prosecution, in their defense said, no, we weren't trying to get him to change his conclusions. We were just trying to clarify what he said.

O'BRIEN: Focus his testimony a little bit more.

TOOBIN: Focus his testimony. But, I mean, that is the kind of thing. You know, I said -- when Bill and I were talking yesterday, I said that it's extremely unlikely that this case would be thrown out, that the judge would simply let Jayson Williams go. But if the judge really thought that the prosecutors were cooking the books, were trying to distort the evidence, that's the kind of thing that could get this case thrown out.

O'BRIEN: Now, the gun expert says, frankly, that the change wasn't substantive and that the prosecutor, in fact, did not force him in any way. And he sort of made what I thought was sort of a strange joke. The prosecutor didn't hold a gun to my head.

TOOBIN: Oh, those gun experts, they're really a hoot. Right, yes.

O'BRIEN: Yes, kind of a little bit of misplaced humor considering the kind of trial you are looking at here. Is this typical at all that experts tailor their findings to the prosecution or, conversely, to the defense?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, there is always the claim with expert witnesses. You know, he who pays the piper calls the tune, that, you know, you hire an expert to reach...

O'BRIEN: Because you want a certain...

TOOBIN: Because you want to get a certain set of conclusions. And the experts are no dummies. They know what side their evidence will help.

You know, when I practiced law, you know, I didn't do this and lawyers I know didn't do this, but, yes, it does happen. And certainly, the government is under a particular responsibility to play straight with this sort of thing.

O'BRIEN: The prosecutors would say it was a simple mistake, an honest mistake not turning over the documents. Also, at the end of the day, it's about harm to the case. And this did no harm to the case. Therefore, there's no remedy -- the remedy being check it all out.

TOOBIN: Right. Well, the prosecution is saying, look, if you think we did something wrong, if you think these experts' testimony was tainted in some way, let the defense call them all back to the witness stand in front of the jury, air all of these issues out in front of the jury, let the jury decide whether any of this is significant.

O'BRIEN: But would the jury hear that the prosecutors had this conversation?

TOOBIN: They may well. I mean, that's the kind of remedy that the judge might allow. The judge might allow all of these issues to open up in front of the jury. That is probably a more likely remedy than throwing the case out.

O'BRIEN: Which could, of course, really wreck the prosecution's case.

TOOBIN: Well, if you throw out the evidence, it's -- you know, the case is pretty much over. And if you decide that the prosecutorial misconduct took place and is really terrible, then the case gets thrown out. But we are promised a decision today, this afternoon. So, we'll have to wait it out.

O'BRIEN: Jeff, I've been promised things in the past.

TOOBIN: I know. And the legal system tends to sort of move a little more slowly.

O'BRIEN: And then we continue to talk about it, don't we?

TOOBIN: Yes, we do.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, I know you'll fill us in when it happens. We appreciate it -- Bill.

HEMMER: Soledad, in a moment here, meet a biologist dangling in midair so that eagles can soar. Back in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty has the question of the day. Hello.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning.

President Bush tonight will hold his 12th news conference since taking office. Iraq, September 11, likely high on the list of topics to be discussed.

In Iraq, this has been the deadliest month yet for U.S. troops. The president said yesterday that he is considering overhauling the national intelligence services, which have been criticized for their pre-9/11 failures. And then there's the economy and health care and prescriptions and jobs and the election and on and on and on.

Here's the question: What would you like to ask the president if you had a chance there tonight?

Sam in Saint Louis: "I'd like to ask him why he's only now considering overhauling our system of intelligence-gathering. What's he been doing in the last two and a half years since September 11?"

M.R. in Madison, West Virginia: "Why, unlike any other person who has testified before the 9/11 Commission, do you need to have Vice President Cheney with you?

Tim in Tyler, Texas: "Mr. President, when will your daughters, Jenna and Barbara, be serving in Iraq?"

None of this stuff will get asked tonight.

John in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: "I'd like to ask him what I can do for my country. No matter what, we need to support our country."

And Dan writes: "When does he intend to pay as much attention to rebuilding America's schools as he does to Iraqi schools?"

And Mike in Worcester, Massachusetts: "What the hell is that smirk all about?"

See, they should let...

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: That's definitely not going to be get asked.

CAFFERTY: They should let our viewers do the news conference.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I was actually thinking that sometimes, I think, reporters in these news conferences go on and on, on all of these sort of intellectual questions.

HEMMER: And those were nice and piffy (ph), weren't they?

O'BRIEN: And those are short and they're very smart.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: You know, I'll tell you what. There are 75 days and counting now until that June 30 handover date. And that date is going to come and go like that. And these continuing questions about who is going to take power, who do you give the keys to over to come June 30?

O'BRIEN: Right, you know, there is no one to hand it over to yet.

HEMMER: Well, not only that, but there hasn't been a clear answer, whether it's from Washington or whether it's from Baghdad. Paul Bremer was on all of the talk shows on Sunday. He did not have a clear answer as to who would get those keys.

CAFFERTY: No clear answers are coming out of Washington. That's for sure.

HEMMER: I think the other thing, I was -- it's my hunch that there will be more questions about Iraq tonight than there will be 9/11. We shall see.

O'BRIEN: Really?

HEMMER: Well, yes, because the commission has basically...

O'BRIEN: I think it's going to be 50/50.

HEMMER: ... come out and said there's a lot of blame to go around about the 9/11 Commission. You're going to have the FBI directors from both administrations on today and again tomorrow. I think Iraq is the pressing issue. So we shall see.

Shall we go here?

O'BRIEN: Sure.

HEMMER: How the amazing story off the coast of California? Catalina Island off the coast of L.A. and San Diego, the bald eagle population there is almost disappearing, in part because of the now banned pesticide DDT. Millions of pounds of it flushed in the ocean from 1947 through the early 1970s. And now bald eagles there are getting help from some friends and the help of a little thievery, too.

Rusty Dornin was there for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These two bald eagles chicks were stolen from their nest on Catalina Island off the coast of southern California in February. Bald eagle eggs here are contaminated with the now banned pesticide DDT. So, the eggs were snatched and brought to the San Francisco Zoo in a program to help them survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have thinner areas of the shell, not the whole shell, but thinner areas so that they dry out very quickly and the embryo dies. So, we have to put them in very high humidity incubators.

DORNIN: Bird keeper Cathy Hobson (ph) has spent many a sleepless night tending the eggs until they hatch. Now it's time to send the chicks home.

Wildlife biologist Peter Sharpe will put the chicks back in the nest, pick up the dummy eggs he put there in February, and hope the eagles will be none the wiser. First, he feeds the chicks.

PETER SHARPE, INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE STUDIES: So, I really don't want to feed it too much.

DORNIN: Then it's a safety check with the helicopter crew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, OK.

DORNIN: And liftoff with Sharpe, birds in hand, dangling 100 feet below the helicopter.

In this bird's-eye view of the descent from a camera on Sharpe's helmet, you can see the nest perched high above the Pacific. After landing in the nest, while the exchange is being made, the female eagle, angry at the intrusion, dive bombs within a few feet of Sharpe.

SHARPE: And she was circling around pretty closely the whole time.

DORNIN: Even the airlift helicopter pilot, who donated the flights, was a little worried.

GLENN SMITH, AIRLIFT HELICOPTER: The male was up about where we were in the helicopter, and he got awfully close.

DORNIN: Then the second chick is dropped at a nest on the other side of the island. All goes smoothly.

(on camera): They took 10 fertile eggs from the nest this year. Three hatched, two survived, and that's a good success rate.

How long are you going to have to do this?

SHARPE: It's really unknown how long this project will have to go on. Right now, it could be another 50 to 100 years before the DDT contamination degrades naturally.

DORNIN (voice-over): Without the breeding program, there would be no bald eagles on Catalina Island. There were 15. Now two more eaglets have landed.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Catalina Island, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Wow! That's a heck of a job, huh?

O'BRIEN: And I think you're right. I think they are so ugly they're cute.

CAFFERTY: Where do they take them for the makeovers from those funny looking little babies...

O'BRIEN: A reality show.

CAFFERTY: ... to the magnificent adults that we see flying around on our coins.

O'BRIEN: I bet when that biologist got his degree, he never figured he'd be strapped to a helicopter dangling.

HEMMER: He's got a great view.

CAFFERTY: It must be great work, though.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it must be great work. That's nice.

Still to come this morning, more Marines are killed in the city of Fallujah, despite a cease-fire with the insurgents there. Lots of details coming up right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

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