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CNN Live Today
Washington's Best Kept Secret; What's his Motive?; Pentagon Briefing
Aired June 01, 2005 - 10:59 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. ""Now in the News," we're expecting to learn new details this hour on that house fire in Cleveland, Ohio, that killed nine people. A news conference is set to start in just a few minutes. Authorities first called the May 21 blaze an accident, but now say it was arson.
In Texas, police say they're looking for a woman who disappeared with her 2-year-old son. The woman is suspected of abusing the boy. Her mother had custody of the child.
Authorities say Stephanie and Dylan Rios have not been seen since she went to her mother's home on Sunday, demanding to see the child. An Amber Alert has been issued.
In Georgia, the so-called runaway bride is paying up. Her lawyer has delivered a check for more than $13,000 to the city of Duluth. The settlement covers overtime and out-of-pocket expenses the city incurred during the search for Wilbanks. She still faces criminal charges stemming from the cross-country trip.
And muddy matters in Troutdale, Oregon. The clean-up continues this morning after heavy rain caused several mudslides Tuesday. The Columbia River Highway has been shut down, and official says the highway will remain closed until the slide areas can be cleared.
It's 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Daryn Kagan, who is on assignment.
Moments from now we hope to hear from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld out of the Pentagon there, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers. They will be addressing reporters there from the Pentagon, talking about Operation Lightning taking place in Iraq. That operation to weed out insurgents already involving some door-to-door searches.
On now to politics and Washington's best-kept secret. Now that former FBI official Mark Felt has revealed himself as the mystery source, Deep Throat, Watergate veterans are labeling him everything from hero to traitor.
CNN correspondent Sean Callebs joins us now from Santa Rosa, California, where Felt lives -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. Today, like many others here in this quiet neighborhood in northern California, I can tell you that Joan Felt, Mark Felt's daughter, left apparently for work a short time ago with her son. She started the day by heading out, taking a look at the morning newspaper, seeing how her father's newfound fame is indeed playing out in this area and indeed all around the world.
Now, first part, yesterday, 91-year-old Mark Felt did make a brief appearance at the door, coming out, just basically acknowledging the media who had gathered here yesterday for this somewhat shocking news. Now, how is the neighborhood taking all of this? Well, really in stride.
We can tell you the Dillon family, who lived just down the road, came out early this morning with some sodas and indeed some coffee for the media. Indeed, the neighborhood seems to be embracing this newfound fame. But you know what? There are so many amateur sleuths simply crawling out of the woodwork.
And, of course, everybody knew. They just kept it to themselves, including one man who actually cut the lawn for Mr. Felt several years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARIN DILLON, FELT'S NEIGHBOR: About five years ago, I used to mow their lawn. And been good friends of the family, go swimming in their pool and stuff like that. And I just heard about it. You know, stuff gets out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE DILLON, FELT'S NEIGHBOR: Well, I guess I was a little surprised that -- that they -- who it was. And I don't know, I just -- I just thought they were regular people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Indeed, Felt's name one of many bantered around all of these years possibly being that deep connection, Deep Throat.
What about "The Washington Post"? How did they handle all this? Well, believe it or not, caught flat-footed when the "Vanity Fair" article came out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID VON DREHLE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": We had no idea the story was coming. We learned of it yesterday morning.
Our top editors were at a corporate retreat. They had to rush back to "The Post." Bob Woodward had to read the story, figure out what was in it. He had been in contact with the Felt family for the past several years, trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Felt's wishes were and whether he was lucid enough at his advanced age to undo the agreement that had -- that they both had kept for so many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Indeed. Now what about this neighborhood, this quiet neighborhood? Actually, it is called Redford Place. Remember, Robert Redford starred in the movie "All the President's Men," Bob Woodward and the whole Deep Throat saga coming to the big screen.
What do you think, is it a coincidence, Fredricka, or do you think something more?
WHITFIELD: That's pretty clever stuff. I don't know. That's a strange coincidence indeed. All right. Sean Callebs, thanks so much, coming from Santa Rosa, California.
Well, one question on practically everyone's minds today, why did Mark Felt do it? Senior analyst Jeff Greenfield looks at a few possible reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR ANALYST (voice-over): Now that we finally really know who he is...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Vanity Fair" reports that former law enforcement official Mark Felt is the mysterious source known as Deep Throat.
GREENFIELD: ...we can get to the really interesting question: why did he do it? Why did a top official of the FBI risk his career and maybe even criminal prosecution by leaking clues to the Watergate story to "The Washington Post's" Bob Woodward, a covert partnership immortalized on the silver screen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN": Follow the money.
GREENFIELD (on camera): The reason may be a lot easier to figure out than was the identity of Deep Throat. Over the years, journalists and Mark Felt himself had painted a portrait of a career FBI official who had come to believe that the Nixon administration was threatening the agency's position and corrupting its role as well.
(voice-over): In one sense, this story begins with a death, just six weeks before the Watergate break-in, the death of J. Edgar Hoover, who had run the FBI with a near-dictatorial hand for almost 50 years. The insular FBI was startled when President Nixon appointed an outsider, L. Patrick Gray, to run the department. It was a choice that did not sit well with veterans like Mark Felt.
Ron Kessler, author of "The Bureau: A Look Inside the FBI."
RON KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE BUREAU": Mark Felt, you know, absolutely detested Gray. So if you want to come up with a motive, you know, for Mark Felt cooperating with Woodward, that would certainly be one; namely, that Mark Felt would hope that Nixon would be kicked out and that Mark Felt would be appointed.
GREENFIELD: But tensions between the FBI and the Nixon White House went back further to the mass arrests of antiwar demonstrators in 1971 and to the administration's efforts to spy on and disrupt the activities of its political opponents. But with the Watergate break- in, the clash between FBI veterans and the Nixon White House intensified. As the so-called smoking gun tape of June 23, 1972 showed, less than a week after the break-in, President Nixon was suggesting that the CIA be used to ward off FBI probes into the source of the Watergate money.
Indeed, in his memoir, published in 1979, Mark Felt recounts how he told Director Gray, "The reputation of the FBI is at stake," and that he would not shut down an investigation into the source of the Watergate money unless specifically asked to do so by the CIA. And Mark Felt added, "That's not all. We must do something about the complete lack of cooperation from John Dean and also the Committee to Re-Elect the president. It's obvious they're holding back."
In other words, Mark Felt believed from the beginning that his FBI was being corrupted by political influence.
KESSLER: It was important to get the truth out, and even though the FBI was investigating this, and they weren't going to go away, they were worried that something might happen so that this investigation would be suppressed.
GREENFIELD (on camera): The story is getting all this play for the most obvious of reasons. Any secret kept this long merits a "gee whiz" response. But the reason why this happened is a much more significant story, even if the explanation has been out there for decades.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, it's been no secret we've been waiting for the Pentagon briefing to begin in Washington with Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers. They are soon to be emerging. And there they are right there to begin this Pentagon briefing to explain a little bit more about how Operation Lightning in Iraq is going.
Let's listen in.
DONALD H. RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good morning.
On Monday, Americans honored all of the men and women who have fought for our country's security and our freedom.
Throughout our history, many millions of Americans have come to the country's defense. The United States certainly could not have survived or succeeded without their service.
Defending one's country is not, of course, a uniquely American idea. Yet some still seem to wonder why tens of thousands of Iraqis volunteer for their security forces when it is known that doing so makes them targets of attacks by violent extremists. Or why Afghans in growing numbers risk their lives, and often the lives of their families, to defy the terrorists in their country. Or why millions in Lebanon, Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere dare to demonstrate against dictatorships when the penalty is known to be imprisonment or death.
They do it because they want to build better futures for themselves and their families and are willing to pay the cost. Those privileged to live in free countries are forever in the debt of those who make our freedom possible.
And no force in the world has done more to liberate people that they have never met than the men and women of the United States military.
Indeed, that's why the recent allegation that the U.S. military is running a gulag at Guantanamo Bay is so reprehensible.
Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps, or I suppose some might say where Saddam Hussein mutilated and murdered untold numbers because they held views unacceptable to his regime.
To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused.
Free societies depend on oversight and they welcome informed criticism, particularly on human rights issues. But those who make such outlandish charges lose any claim to objectivity or seriousness.
The Washington Post, to its credit, rejected the comparison between Guantanamo and a gulag in a recent editorial.
Unfortunately, efforts to bring the detainee issue into proper context have been somewhat rare.
Two of the country's largest newspapers, for example, have devoted more than 80 editorials combined since March of 2004 to Abu Ghraib and detainee issues, often repeating the same erroneous assertions and recycling the same stories.
By comparison, precious little has been written by those editorial boards about the beheading of innocent civilians by terrorists, the thousands of bodies found in mass graves in Iraq, the allegations of rape of women and girls by U.N. workers in the Congo.
Yes, there have been instances where detainees have been mistreated while in U.S. custody, sometimes grievously, but consider these facts.
To date there have been approximately 370 criminal investigations into the charges of misconduct involving detainees out of 68,000 detainees that have been in U.S. custody over the period since September 11th. And of some 525,000 servicemembers, men and women of the various services, who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, less than 0.1 percent have been found to have committed illegal acts against detainees.
It's also important to remember that the people being detained at Guantanamo are, with good reason, suspected terrorists. Many, if not most, have been systematically trained to lie and to claim torture.
At least a dozen of the 200 already released from Gitmo have already been caught back on the battlefield involved in efforts to kidnap and kill Americans.
Much was made recently of a news story falsely accusing servicemembers of flushing a Koran down the toilet, but little has been said about the great lengths that the military go to at Guantanamo Bay to accommodate the religious practices of detainees in their care.
There are specific instructions as to how those involved in the custody of detainees should handle themselves with respect to religious matters. Special meals are provided to meet cultural dietary requirements. Schedules are respectful of prayer. Indications of the direction to pray are provided. Detailed guidelines are provided to the service people which govern the handling of the Koran.
Copies of these instructions have been publicly available but they have received comparatively little media attention. I have not yet seen a complete printing of those instructions in any journal.
This lack of media attention to U.S. policy guidance to treat detainees humanely creates misperceptions. But to try to equate the military's record on detainee treatment to some of the worst atrocities of the past century is a disservice to those who have sacrificed so much to bring freedom to others.
So to the men and women who wear our country's uniforms and to the families who support them, I want you to know how proud we are of all of your able service. We're in your debt.
And to those who may be considering serving our nation, know that there is no finer calling, no nobler cause and no greater act of patriotism.
General Myers?
GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And good morning.
This past Memorial Day weekend was truly a moving several days. We spent the weekend remembering those who demonstrated tremendous acts of bravery, sacrifice and selfless service for their country.
And, as we always do, we remember the servicemembers and their families and friends who have lost their lives or been wounded throughout this effort in conflict with violent extremism. On Saturday, I had the honor of addressing the future Army leaders as they graduated from West Point. This 9/11 class represents a new generation who has dedicated themselves to protect our citizens from those who threaten our freedom and our way of life.
The secretary and I also had the honor to join thousands of Vietnam veterans and others at Rolling Thunder and recognize their service and remember those who haven't come back.
And I also had a chance to participate in the concert on the lawn of the Capitol, which paid tribute to World War II veterans on this 60th anniversary of the end of that war.
And we honored those who are currently fighting the war on terrorism and continue the tradition of service with courage.
Their sacrifices have not been in vain. We have seen the insurgents in Iraq change their tactics and switch their centers of gravity because of the perseverance and commitment of coalition forces; and not only coalition forces, but the Iraqi people, all aimed at a free Iraq.
Let me tell you what I mean by centers of gravity.
MYERS: First, the insurgents tried to drive out the coalition from Iraq, but we're still there.
Next, they focused on Iraqi security force, but they continue to sign up in record numbers.
And then they attempted to intimidate the Iraqi people, but they went to the polls and voted for a representative government.
And a recent poll in Iraq shows that 85 percent of the Iraqis who responded said that they would likely vote in the October constitutional referendum.
Political progress is key, of course, to success in Iraq.
And with that, we'll take your questions.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the lull in the months after the January election in Iraq has resoundingly and explosively, I guess you'd say, ended in past weeks with hundreds of Iraqis killed and growing number of attacks, and at least 77 U.S. troops killed last month.
Are you gentleman concerned and frustrated with U.S. and Iraqi efforts, not just to end this, but to curb it?
RUMSFELD: I think I'd put it quite differently, myself.
The period after the elections, that you called a lull, I think, I would characterize it as a period where a country that has little or no experience with democracy or with representative government undertook the difficult task of voting successfully, and then forming a transitional government, which they have since done.
It took them a period of weeks, to be sure. It takes most countries a period of weeks or months to do that. And they've done it in good style. They have selected their government. And they are beginning that process of preparing a constitution to be voted on by the people of Iraq.
We have seen from the beginning ups and downs in terms of the number of attacks that take place.
RUMSFELD: There certainly have been attacks that have taken place in recent weeks, and a number of Iraqis have been killed particularly. Americans have been killed. Coalition forces have been killed. And that's always deeply regrettable.
Is it conceivable that there is some relationship between that and the fact that it took them a period of time to select a government? I don't know. I don't think anyone is wise enough to know the answer to that.
What we do know is that it's hard to -- democracy's hard. It's tough stuff and it takes time. And they invested that time. And now they are investing their time on a constitution.
And the closer they get to success of having a constitution and having an election under that constitution, the greater the loss for the insurgents. And the insurgents now see the Sunnis reaching forward and trying to participate in the constitutional process even though they bypassed for the most part the election process -- and they recognize that as a mistake.
The Shia are reaching out to the Sunnis and allowing them to come into the constitutional drafting process in a very constructive and healthy way.
So there's an awful lot good that's happening in that country, as well as the periodic attacks that take place and the regrettable deaths that occur.
QUESTION: But aside from the political progress or political moves in the country, doesn't something more need to be done by security forces, both U.S. and Iraqi, to curb this?
MYERS: First of all, the number of incidents is actually down over 20 percent depending on what you measured against from last November or the January elections.
So incidents are down overall, albeit more lethal because of the increase in the number of folks that they are putting in there that are willing to commit suicide and the move to these vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.
MYERS: I think you should be encouraged, though, by the number of independent Iraqi operations that are going on there. There are currently -- some of them may have ended over the last couple of weeks -- five operations that were independent Iraqi operations, 30 that were combined with coalition forces, which is a much different mixture than we had just several months ago.
So what I'd be encouraged by is that Iraqi security forces are more and more coming to the front.
Then if you go to Operation Lightning, which was announced by the minister of defense and minister of interior of Iraq, which is an Iraqi initiative to put more Iraqis out front in Baghdad to try to quell this violence, it's the first time they could do something like this; it's the first time they've had the capability to do it.
So I think we should be encouraged by that. I think we should also be encouraged by the political progress which is no doubt frustrating those that want to divide Iraq, either through sectarian violence or a civil war, and that's not happening.
The Iraqi people aren't buying this. I mean, that's the -- the Iraqi people are not buying the insurgents' line, which is actually no line. It's just violence, it's murder, it's mayhem.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, as someone who has complained or expressed concern in the past about the use of anonymous sources by the press and someone who was also around at the time of Watergate, I'm curious about your reaction to the news that Mark Felt was identified as Deep Throat.
In your opinion, do you think he's a hero, as his family and some people believe, or did he abuse his position as some of his critics say?
RUMSFELD: Oh, goodness. I was in Belgium as an ambassador to NATO during that period, and...
QUESTION: You're not going to get off that easy.
(LAUGHTER)
RUMSFELD: Pretty near.
(LAUGHTER)
And I have not followed what's been -- I have not read these articles.
I think that anytime wrongdoing occurs, it's important that that wrongdoing be reported. And I think that's appropriate.
Now, who one reports that to -- the authorities -- is one thing or somebody else is another. But I'm not knowledgeable enough to be in a position to judge it.
QUESTION: I have a question for General Myers, but if you'll indulge me: You've been very tough on leaks from that podium and elsewhere, and it would seem to me that if you have somebody here, number two in the FBI, who is leaking, you would feel very strongly one way or the other that he's either a hero or a criminal. But you, kind of, are ducking this the way it sounds. RUMSFELD: Well, I'm not in any judgmental mood.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: What happened this morning?
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: General Myers, did the Iraqi government make a mistake by telegraphing Operation Lightning, say, up to 48 hours, giving some of the insurgents time to get out of Dodge? Was that a tactical mistake, you think?
MYERS: Gee, I don't know. We'll probably analyze that later, or we'll help the Iraqis analyze that later.
I think the encouraging thing is that this is an Iraqi initiative. It's an important concept. It's their country. They are eventually going to have to be the ones that take the fight to these extremists.
And I think that overshadows any tactical issue of whether they telegraphed or not. I think the important thing is that they are working as a sovereign country to solve their problems.
QUESTION: General Myers, with all the back and forth on Islamic Web sites about the health of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and then this new audio tape that surfaced in which he said that he's not seriously injured, can you give us the military assessment of Zarqawi now and where you think he may be and his status as far as operationally?
MYERS: I don't know that we know where he is.
Our assessment is that he has been wounded. The severity, I don't know that we know that. So we won't make a judgment on that.
Clearly, he leads one of the most dangerous factions not only in Iraq, but in the region; perhaps in the world, because he's part of the Al Qaida network now. He has operated in other places before, up in the continent. Certainly in Iraq before. So he's not a stranger to violence. And we know that he has no regard for human life at all, fellow Muslim or whomever, man, woman and child. So he's a dangerous character.
Having said that -- and another thing I would say is that we've kept the pressure on him, and we will 24 and seven. As you know, we've wrapped up a number of his lieutenants, either captured or killed them, and lots of folks that work with and for him, into the hundreds.
We will continue that pressure, and we're getting better at it. We're better this week than we were last week. And so the pressure will mount on that organization. We do not know where he is right now.
RUMSFELD: And I would add one thing. The current assumption is that he's in Iraq. Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the Al Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands.
QUESTION: You've spoken out many times on this podium about Syria and Iran, but the counterterrorism group site just came out with a report saying that some 40 percent of the suicide bombers Zarqawi has enlisted in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia. Do you feel that the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia is also a problem with suicide bombers coming across there?
RUMSFELD: I think that it is not clear how people are getting in to Iraq, although every border is a problem just as borders for our country are a problem.
And it may very well be that people from one country go into another country to enter Iraq. We've seen that people from a variety of different countries entering from Syria, for example -- buses that have been captured.
QUESTION: What about Saudi Arabia?
RUMSFELD: There's no question but that there have been a number of Saudis involved that have been captured throughout the entire activity. I mean, 9/11 had a number of Saudis involved.
The violent extremism has generated in that region from a number of locations and is today. And it's a very dangerous thing to civilized societies.
QUESTION: I wasn't sure you'd finished your thought when you talked about another country giving aid and comfort to Zarqawi. Would there be consequences for another country if they did that?
RUMSFELD: Well, I think what I said was fairly clear: that any country that decides it wants to provide medical assistance or haven to a leading Al Qaida terrorist is obviously associating themselves with Al Qaida and contributing to a great many Iraqis being killed, as well as coalition forces in Iraq.
RUMSFELD: And that's something that people would want to take note of.
QUESTION: General Myers, on what do you base your assessment that Zarqawi appears to have at least been wounded? And can you tell us where that might have occurred?
And has the U.S. military discounted the previous speculation that all of this may have been part of a disinformation campaign to throw the U.S. military off his trail?
MYERS: I don't know about the disinformation campaign. I know we worked that very, very hard, and we have folks that are pretty knowledgeable about their tactics, their techniques and their procedures.
The best guess is that he was injured out in western Iraq near the Syrian border. And we believe it, because the postings on the Web site, on their Web pages, seem to be consistent with other things we've seen that were true.
And so the conclusion is that it's most likely that he is injured. The severity, we do not know.
RUMSFELD: I still don't want to be judgmental, but I also wouldn't want to send the wrong signal to people in the Department of Defense.
Anyone who sees wrongdoing who works for the United States government has an obligation to report that wrongdoing to the Department of Justice or to the proper authorities in the department. That is -- I wouldn't want to leave any ambiguity about that.
QUESTION: Not The Washington Post?
MYERS: Well, it's so easy to do today -- the number of hotlines, the fraud, waste and abuse hotlines, and...
RUMSFELD: Whistleblowers.
MYERS: ... and other avenues and whistleblower laws.
RUMSFELD: It's an easy thing.
MYERS: It's an easy thing to do.
QUESTION: Speaking of accountability, can you talk about the tanker accountability report that I.G. just finished? Speaking of wrongdoing that was reported, did that report conclude more Defense officials committed crimes against the United States in crafting an ill-conceived tanker deal?
RUMSFELD: Has the report been released?
LAWRENCE DI RITA, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: It's not been released and there's no public version of it yet. So we've provided it to the Congress.
RUMSFELD: Apparently, the report is finished.
DI RITA: It is completed.
RUMSFELD: And it's been given to the Congress. And at some point...
DI RITA: And we'll be able to provide details, but we're not...
(CROSSTALK)
RUMSFELD: Details will be provided by the department. I don't have any insight into it. QUESTION: General Myers, can I ask you -- you've got new units going back into Iraq that have served there before -- the 131st Airborne and the 4th I.D. Can you talk about how their experience there is likely to affect the battle against the insurgency coming up?
MYERS: Well, I think the first thing that comes to mind is that, given that there will be somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent, maybe 60 percent, it's the same personnel that were there last time -- or have experience in Afghanistan or Iraq -- that their spin-up time will be a lot less and their learning curve won't be as steep as units sent for the first time are going into that very challenging environment.
So I think from that standpoint, it'll benefit them and make us more effective against violent extremists and more familiar with the Iraqi culture and more able to help and mentor Iraqi units, which is one of our primary goals.
QUESTION: OK, is there a downside to that, because they fought an entirely different war the first time they were there?
MYERS: No. Personally, I don't think so.
MYERS: I think what we've seen is the U.S. military is a military that, as we go into the 21st century, was set up to do convention warfare, basically. And the thought had been given to the kind of challenges we face today was not near as great as how we conduct a more conventional conflict.
And so, no, I think they'll adapt very quickly. And they've been adapting -- they've had to adapt, as you know, throughout this whole conflict, and they'll continue to adapt.
I don't see that as an issue.
RUMSFELD: I must be in a reflective mood today, because I've reflected on an earlier comment that involved Saudi Arabia, and I think it's very important to draw distinction between a country such as Saudi Arabia, that's been attacked by Al Qaida, that is aggressively going after Al Qaida and capturing and killing terrorists in their country, and a country that is not doing that.
And that, to me, is a very important distinction.
QUESTION: But if its border is just as porous, isn't it also just as much a problem as Syria or Iran?
RUMSFELD: As I indicated earlier, I think there is a good question as to exactly how people are coming in through which countries.
MYERS: And I think Saudi Arabia -- in my last visit there -- would indicate what officials there worry about are any border violations going one way or the other, about their own internal security or about the security of Iraq. They worry about both of those. And it's a reasonably well-protected border from the Saudi perspective for sure.
QUESTION: Can I take you back to your opening statement?
What would you say to the idea that's been talked about in the press that the White House decision not to apply the Geneva Conventions to the global war on terror -- I'm not talking about Iraq -- has opened up a Pandora's box, because it puts the Defense Department in particular, from a starting point, where, if it had been under Geneva Conventions, that human rights were paramount, and the opposite assumption is true, then, if Geneva Conventions are not applied, that you're, sort of, starting out behind the eight ball?
RUMSFELD: Well, I personally think that's a stretch, in this sense.
When the White House made that decision -- which they made, and announced -- they made it with the conviction that it would have been wrong to have treated people as an organized military, because they didn't have uniforms, they didn't carry weapons publicly, they made a practice of killing innocent civilians, and that to accord them the same arrangement under the Geneva Convention as qualified militaries would have diminished the value of the Geneva Convention.
Second, when the president and the White House made the announcement, it was very explicit that detainees were to be treated humanely. He said it, I said it, it was communicated directly. And the implication that because you characterize them -- correctly, in my view, the White House did -- that that means that you should not treat them in a humane way is simply not an accurate characterization.
QUESTION: But it seems to me this is maybe a double-edged sword. On the one hand you talk about the treatment and the application of Geneva Convention to the prisoners, then on the other hand you have the Geneva Convention's effects on the U.S. military and that it's always reflected honor on the military. And I wonder if taking that out, the military's been put into a position where they have to, sort of, prove themselves double.
RUMSFELD: I don't know. Do you?
MYERS: I'm not sure...
RUMSFELD: I don't know quite how to respond.
MYERS: You know, you're always concerned about how your own military's going to be treated. And that is why, despite the atrocious behavior and the savage behavior of this particular adversary, the U.S. military has conducted itself in accordance with Geneva Conventions, in accordance with the laws of warfare. And we've worked that very hard.
I mean, going back to Afghanistan, but certainly major combat in Iraq, I mean, there's never been a more humane, if you can put humane right next to war, there's never been a more humane war as we looked and tried to manage the impact on the civilian population. And that continues today. I mean, that's how they have to operate.
RUMSFELD: And Iraq has always been under the Geneva Conventions because it was a war against a country, and the Geneva Conventions applied from the outset.
Obviously, what took place on one shift in Abu Ghraib, not the shift before, not the shift after, but on one shift what took place was not consistent with the Geneva Convention, and as a result, dozens of people have been prosecuted and are being punished, as they should be.
QUESTION: Have you considered moving the Gitmo, the terrorist prison in Cuba, to America given the criticism and given the Supreme Court decision that says there is some review there? Have you ever considered that?
RUMSFELD: I haven't, no.
QUESTION: Would it give any advantages of some transparency or better oversight?
RUMSFELD: Oh my goodness, there's so much transparency in Gitmo and so much oversight. The reforms...
(CROSSTALK)
RUMSFELD: Let me finish answering your question. There have been so many reforms instituted -- and the list is available from Mr. Di Rita -- in the Army, in the Navy, in the Air Force, in the Department of Defense.
RUMSFELD: And the oversight and the attention that's given to what's taking place at Gitmo is extensive. And the implication that it's a gulag is what's wrong -- not what's going on at Gitmo.
QUESTION: Sir, on Friday 14 senators wrote to Chairman Principi of BRAC saying that the Pentagon's, quote, "failure to release the underpinning information -- justification for the BRAC decisions -- was putting them behind the eight ball," as far as preparing for their regional hearings. And they asked for delays in them.
Then, yesterday, Senator Bond met with Chairman Principi and demanded that the St. Louis regional hearing, set for a week from today, be postponed, and Principi agreed and postponed it to sometime indefinite because, supposedly, the Pentagon's not supplying the proper information.
RUMSFELD: The Pentagon is supplying the proper information. The department has made a mountain of material available to the BRAC Commission. They, as of yesterday, made, I believe, what could be properly characterized as all information on this subject available to the BRAC Commission on a classified basis -- a portion of it on a classified basis.
So there's no difficulty with anyone in the BRAC Commission or in the Congress who has clearance for classified information going and doing whatever research or finding any information they may want.
The task of going through that enormous digital database and determining what's classified and what isn't is something that will take a few more days.
RUMSFELD: I don't know how much longer...
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
RUMSFELD: They hope to be able to finish it by June 4th, at which point another large trove of this material will be made available to the public. And as I say, all the remainder is available to the BRAC Commission and the Congress at the...
QUESTION: What's going on (inaudible)? Why was the hearing postponed? Is this taking longer than you thought?
RUMSFELD: Well, it isn't taking longer. It's a great deal more information than ever before.
The previous BRAC Commissions did roughly the same thing. They made what was clearly unclassified available. They then made what was clearly classified available only on a classified basis. And as new information evolved they were able to increase the amount of information that was available.
And as you go through that process, it -- let me just -- I don't think I want to discuss one aspect of why things are classified.
MYERS: A couple of things we thought about, though.
RUMSFELD: There is real reasons.
MYERS: The date are comprehensive, as the secretary said. The second thing is it's now all on electronic media. So you take a comprehensive database that is on disk and it can be transferred very, very easily. So all of that had to be considered.
But they have what they're supposed to have and they'll get more and we'll keep working on the classified piece of it.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, in an interview with the Associated Press, Iraq's foreign minister expressed concern that the U.S. may pull out before Iraqi forces are ready. I imagine you probably haven't read that interview yet, but what sort of assurances can you give to Iraqi people, to the American people what the bar is for when -- how do you know how ready the Iraqi forces will be? What are you looking for when you come up with these sorts of assessments?
RUMSFELD: It's interesting, one day someone says that they might stay longer than they're needed. And the other is they might leave while they're still needed. And I suppose it's an imperfect world.
RUMSFELD: The president has answered that question repeatedly. He said we have committed a great deal to this effort, 25 million people have been liberated, a transitional government is in place, our desire is to assist the Iraqi people in fashioning Iraqi security forces that can assume responsibility for their security and pass over responsibility for their security as rapidly as they're capable of assuming it.
That process is well under way. We're now over 165,000 Iraqi security forces. There are a number that are operating independently. There are a number that are operating semi-independently but need logistic or lift or other types of quick reaction force assistance. And each day it gets better.
I mean, you ask, "How can you know?" The important thing to realize is it's their country. It's the Iraqi people's country. And they're going to have to provide for their own security.
QUESTION: But you said that the U.S. will not pull out forces before the Iraqi...
RUMSFELD: The president said we'd stay as long as we're needed, and that is as long as they're not capable of handling their own security needs.
The progress is significant that's been made, and they are doing an increasingly good job.
And there have been some metrics developed that look at how one ought to determine their capabilities and their capacities. And part of it involves the strength of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior in terms of its competence; the chains of command, how effective they are; their ability to be equipped and have the kind of mobility that they're going to need to function. And we have typical DOD metrics where we look at each unit and try to assess that, and then try to accelerate as rapidly as possible what it will take to get them to that point.
And the number is going to be going up into the 200,000 range of total people. And, again, quantity isn't just the whole thing, it's quality, as you suggest.
But good progress is being made, and the United States has indicated, and the coalition has indicated they intend to stay and complete the job in proper order.
Thank you, folks.
WHITFIELD: All right, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, along with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, talking about a host of issues coming out of that Pentagon briefing today, everything from paying homage to the military men and women, sacrificing their lives in war, to the encouragement in Iraq, and as well as talking about the responsibility of reporting wrongdoing, all this coming in light of the revealing of Deep Throat, all from the Pentagon this hour.
Let's take you now to another domestic issue taking place out West. In California, as if the folks in California have not been through enough, because of earlier mudslides being reported and huge rainfalls, now look at this, an inexplicable landslide taking place in Laguna Beach, California. These are some pictures we are just now getting in.
Houses apparently just breaking up, sliding, and running into one another. No reports as of yet as to whether any injuries have taken place. We're still trying to gather the facts out there in Laguna Beach, California. But emergency crews there there are on the scene and responding to these what seem to be inexplicable landslides.
(WEATHER REPORT)
And once again, we want to show you some of those pictures coming in out of Laguna Beach California, even though Rob was describing that it's dry there now. But Southern California has experienced an awful lot of rain during the winter. You remember those colossal mudslides, et cetera, well now landslides.
You're looking at homes, portions of homes, just literally washing off the land, crashing into one another. But as of yet, we haven't heard about any reports of injuries. But emergency crews are on the scene there responding there in Laguna Beach, California.
CNN is celebrating its 25th anniversary today and all day we're showing you pictures -- and look at that guy right there. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. What does he have to say two and a half later since the beginning of his network? We'll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Again, some live pictures now of this developing story out of Laguna Beach, California. A landslide taking place there. Inexplicably, some of these homes intact are just sliding down the hill, crashing into one another. Other homes are breaking up as they go. All taking place in the Bluebird Canyon Road area near the Pacific Coast Highway.
It's a fairly dry day, but we know this past winter, a lot of this area has experienced an awful lot of rain, mudslides, et cetera. And now emergency crews are on the scene, responding to these landslides involving many sizable homes there just breaking up. No reports, however, as of yet, of any injuries.
WHITFIELD: Now, this was a big weekend in the race car driving world. How's this for achieving a dream? At four years old, he started racing go-carts. 20 years later, he became car racing's rookie of the year.
Now just 26 years old, Dan Wheldon is the winner of this year's Indianapolis 500 and he joins us now from New York. Hello to you. Congratulations.
DAN WHELDON, INDIANAPOLIS 500 WINNER: Thank you very much. It's probably the proudest moment of my life, so I'm on top of the world right now.
WHITFIELD: I know you are. Something that you dreamed of all your life?
WHELDON: Yes, absolutely. I mean, you certainly know about the Indianapolis 500. I'm originally from England, and you see it in magazines. But I came here in 1999, and that was the first year I watched the race and realized the magnitude of it. And from that point on, just wanted to be a part of it and wanted to win it.
WHITFIELD: So, unbelievably, here you are, you know, four years old, starting your go-cart racing. You grew up in Emberton, England, and you end up winning this historic Indy 500, becoming really the first British racer to win in some 40 years. What an incredible honor this must be for you, as well.
WHELDON: Yes, I mean, obviously, drinking the milk, which is a tradition of the Indianapolis 500, was very, very special to me. But to have my face on that (INAUDIBLE) trophy, like the likes of Graham Hill, who was the last Englishman to win it, is very, very special. But there's some great names on there and I'm very proud to join them. It's a great trophy, too, which makes it extra special.
WHITFIELD: Wow, and special, too, to be associated with the Andretti family. The team owner, Michael Andretti, this is a first win for his team, you being part of that team. You know, this must be an incredible event for you and for the Andretti family. And what an owner that you would be associated with the Andretti name.
WHELDON: Well, obviously the Indianapolis 500's the biggest race in the world. And it was one that eluded Michael. I mean, he was desperate to try and win it, and unfortunately -- he has a fact that he hates me telling people, but he led four less laps than Rick Mears, but unfortunately, you know, he didn't win any Indianapolis 500s, and Rick Mears has four, but you now, it's a pleasure to do it for him. I know he was desperate to do it, and there was a lot of pressure honest for this race to make sure we brought it home for him. But he's very happy right now, I know that for a fact.
WHITFIELD: Do you feel like there was a lot of added pressure for you as well, knowing that car racing is becoming hugely popular every year, more popular with each year? And this particular Indy 500, there was an awful lot of attention being played on it particular because of that female rider, Danica Patrick. Did you go into this, you know, feeling like, you know what, I'm feeling rather nervous about this particular because of all this attention, or more so, you really want to win because, Heaven forbid, a girl win the Indy 500.
WHELDON: Well, obviously the race is very special, and I was desperate to win it for myself, and for the team and Michael. But Danica created a lot of media attention for the race and for the Indy car racers. And you know, personally, the Indy car series, I think, is the best in the world right now as far as a motorsport championship is concerned.
And with the pressure that she piled on me, I think she impressed a lot of people. But she is certainly very talented. And you know, she's done well for the Indianapolis 500 this year. And it's going to continue to get better though. The race that we put on was fiercely competitive.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and so what's next for the Indy winner Dan Wheldon?
WHELDON: You know, we're doing a lot of media right now, and I'm certainly enjoying every minute of it. We have a race June 11th at the Texas Motor Speedway, and that's very intense also. We run around that place at 220-mile-an-hour plus side by side. So it's going to be an entertaining one. But I'd like to try and get the double now. I'd definitely like to try and not only the Indianapolis 500, but the championship, too.
WHITFIELD: All right, fantastic. Well, congrats to you, and best of luck on your future endeavors.
WHELDON: Thank you. Thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Dan Wheldon, thanks for joining us from New York.
Well, 25 years ago today CNN became the pioneer in 24-hour news. The visionary behind CNN, Ted Turner. Launched the operation on a shoestring in 1980. The network would help make him a billionaire. Well, two years ago, Turner left the company he founded, but we asked him back on this special day to remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: I started thinking about it about three years before I decided to do it, and I knew someone would do it, and I thought, one of the networks would do it. They had all the raw material, they had bureaus. They had affiliates that get them the footage they had. The footage all sitting there. All they had to do was hire a couple of announcers, and set them in front of a table and get a few tape machines and they could go into business. But they didn't do it, because they wanted to fight cable. So I saw an opening. And even though I didn't have enough money, I could see that cable advertising was going to make it, because I had the Superstation already.
And I said, this is going to work, it's going to require a gamble of everything I have, but I didn't really do it to make money. I wanted to make money, and I knew I would, but Rotary's (ph) motto, who profits most who serves the best, but I just wanted to see if we could do it. It was an adventure more than anything else, like Christopher Columbus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And over the past quarter century our goal has been to report the realities and accurate facts of the world around us without bias or emotion. That's not to say the stories we cover don't impact us personally.
Here's CNN's Daryn Kagan revisiting some of the stories that meant the most to her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It sure does seem like Kordell Stewart can do anything.
July 1994, CNN made my dream come true. I was a local news reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, but I wanted to do sports. From Super Bowls to world champion figure skating in Russia, I had a front-row seat.
I am standing on the frozen Nyeva (ph) River.
But I really began to spread my wings when I switched back over to news in '98. There is nothing like going into a war zone. Kuwait City was my posting for the Gulf War in spring of 2003.
Carol, we arrived here about 22 hours ago. I want to give you a couple of numbers on the troops we were talking about.
My reporter tools expanded from pad and paper to flak jacket, helmet and gas mask.
Being in Kuwait during the war meant evacuating to a shelter as many as eight times a day as missiles hit the city.
The mission of these units protect these ports.
We don't want to help Iraq with more information.
The Kuwaiti (INAUDIBLE) is packing up some of the first supplies that should make it into southern Iraq.
You hear a lot about anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, but in Kuwait City, at least, during the war, there were welcome signs as obvious as the city buses. They still remember the early '90s, and how the United States helped liberate the country after Saddam Hussein invaded.
As the sign read, we will not forget. The amazing thing about CNN is the range. One spring it's war, the next, doing battle on the red carpet of the Academy Awards.
I'm going to stay here, I'm not going anywhere, because all the big stars are making their way down.
The red carpet is the ultimate pop quiz. Go live, ready to ask a good question to any of the major movie stars you happen to snag.
Hi, Catherine, Daryn Kagan, from CNN.
Clint Eastwood, nominated for best director.
Hi. Hi, Nicole, Daryn Kagan from CNN.
The most fun, the candid moments that even the stars can't even anticipate. We're back down here on the red carpet. I'm Daryn Kagan, making the most interesting introduction. We have Adrian Brody, best actor, winner for last year, and Scarlet Johansson. We're doing this together. Do you guys -- are you just meeting each other now?
SCARLET JOHANSSON, ACTRESS: Right for the very first time, yes.
ADRIAN BRODY, ACTOR: This is where it all began, folks.
KAGAN: By the way, you have to capture it all while wearing an evening gown and three-inch heels.
Thanks for being with us.
BONO, MUSICIAN: I love being in Africa because no one knows who I am here.
My name's Bono, I'm a rock star.
KAGAN: Africa 2002 was my biggest trip. Two weeks, four countries, with then-U.S. Secretary Paul O'Neill and rock star Bono. The focus, development and AIDS. I'll never forget the orphans of Ethiopia, hundreds and thousands who lost both parents to AIDS, and some who would soon lose their own battle against the.
What do you tell them? What can you tell you child?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I tell them you are going to (INAUDIBLE).
KAGAN: But there were encouraging moments as well, like witnessing the impact that a single clean water well can make on a village: healthy babies, school children, adults producing goods.
CNN is a chance to see the world through the most interesting lenses.
Happy anniversary, CNN, Daryn Kagan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, "CNN 25: DEFINING," moments begins tonight at 8:00 Eastern. We mark our anniversary as the 24-hour news pioneer with a primetime event. CNN highlights 25 stories that have touched people across the world over the last quarter century. And here are some other famous faces who share our birthday. We'll show that to you next hour.
Well, for now let's take another peek at Laguna Beach, California. And see these incredible pictures coming in with landslides, these rather sizable homes just coming off their foundations, crashing into one another.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: That's going to do it for today. On now to Wolf Blitzer who takes us into the next hour of more news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired June 1, 2005 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. ""Now in the News," we're expecting to learn new details this hour on that house fire in Cleveland, Ohio, that killed nine people. A news conference is set to start in just a few minutes. Authorities first called the May 21 blaze an accident, but now say it was arson.
In Texas, police say they're looking for a woman who disappeared with her 2-year-old son. The woman is suspected of abusing the boy. Her mother had custody of the child.
Authorities say Stephanie and Dylan Rios have not been seen since she went to her mother's home on Sunday, demanding to see the child. An Amber Alert has been issued.
In Georgia, the so-called runaway bride is paying up. Her lawyer has delivered a check for more than $13,000 to the city of Duluth. The settlement covers overtime and out-of-pocket expenses the city incurred during the search for Wilbanks. She still faces criminal charges stemming from the cross-country trip.
And muddy matters in Troutdale, Oregon. The clean-up continues this morning after heavy rain caused several mudslides Tuesday. The Columbia River Highway has been shut down, and official says the highway will remain closed until the slide areas can be cleared.
It's 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Daryn Kagan, who is on assignment.
Moments from now we hope to hear from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld out of the Pentagon there, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers. They will be addressing reporters there from the Pentagon, talking about Operation Lightning taking place in Iraq. That operation to weed out insurgents already involving some door-to-door searches.
On now to politics and Washington's best-kept secret. Now that former FBI official Mark Felt has revealed himself as the mystery source, Deep Throat, Watergate veterans are labeling him everything from hero to traitor.
CNN correspondent Sean Callebs joins us now from Santa Rosa, California, where Felt lives -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. Today, like many others here in this quiet neighborhood in northern California, I can tell you that Joan Felt, Mark Felt's daughter, left apparently for work a short time ago with her son. She started the day by heading out, taking a look at the morning newspaper, seeing how her father's newfound fame is indeed playing out in this area and indeed all around the world.
Now, first part, yesterday, 91-year-old Mark Felt did make a brief appearance at the door, coming out, just basically acknowledging the media who had gathered here yesterday for this somewhat shocking news. Now, how is the neighborhood taking all of this? Well, really in stride.
We can tell you the Dillon family, who lived just down the road, came out early this morning with some sodas and indeed some coffee for the media. Indeed, the neighborhood seems to be embracing this newfound fame. But you know what? There are so many amateur sleuths simply crawling out of the woodwork.
And, of course, everybody knew. They just kept it to themselves, including one man who actually cut the lawn for Mr. Felt several years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARIN DILLON, FELT'S NEIGHBOR: About five years ago, I used to mow their lawn. And been good friends of the family, go swimming in their pool and stuff like that. And I just heard about it. You know, stuff gets out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE DILLON, FELT'S NEIGHBOR: Well, I guess I was a little surprised that -- that they -- who it was. And I don't know, I just -- I just thought they were regular people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Indeed, Felt's name one of many bantered around all of these years possibly being that deep connection, Deep Throat.
What about "The Washington Post"? How did they handle all this? Well, believe it or not, caught flat-footed when the "Vanity Fair" article came out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID VON DREHLE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": We had no idea the story was coming. We learned of it yesterday morning.
Our top editors were at a corporate retreat. They had to rush back to "The Post." Bob Woodward had to read the story, figure out what was in it. He had been in contact with the Felt family for the past several years, trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Felt's wishes were and whether he was lucid enough at his advanced age to undo the agreement that had -- that they both had kept for so many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Indeed. Now what about this neighborhood, this quiet neighborhood? Actually, it is called Redford Place. Remember, Robert Redford starred in the movie "All the President's Men," Bob Woodward and the whole Deep Throat saga coming to the big screen.
What do you think, is it a coincidence, Fredricka, or do you think something more?
WHITFIELD: That's pretty clever stuff. I don't know. That's a strange coincidence indeed. All right. Sean Callebs, thanks so much, coming from Santa Rosa, California.
Well, one question on practically everyone's minds today, why did Mark Felt do it? Senior analyst Jeff Greenfield looks at a few possible reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR ANALYST (voice-over): Now that we finally really know who he is...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Vanity Fair" reports that former law enforcement official Mark Felt is the mysterious source known as Deep Throat.
GREENFIELD: ...we can get to the really interesting question: why did he do it? Why did a top official of the FBI risk his career and maybe even criminal prosecution by leaking clues to the Watergate story to "The Washington Post's" Bob Woodward, a covert partnership immortalized on the silver screen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN": Follow the money.
GREENFIELD (on camera): The reason may be a lot easier to figure out than was the identity of Deep Throat. Over the years, journalists and Mark Felt himself had painted a portrait of a career FBI official who had come to believe that the Nixon administration was threatening the agency's position and corrupting its role as well.
(voice-over): In one sense, this story begins with a death, just six weeks before the Watergate break-in, the death of J. Edgar Hoover, who had run the FBI with a near-dictatorial hand for almost 50 years. The insular FBI was startled when President Nixon appointed an outsider, L. Patrick Gray, to run the department. It was a choice that did not sit well with veterans like Mark Felt.
Ron Kessler, author of "The Bureau: A Look Inside the FBI."
RON KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE BUREAU": Mark Felt, you know, absolutely detested Gray. So if you want to come up with a motive, you know, for Mark Felt cooperating with Woodward, that would certainly be one; namely, that Mark Felt would hope that Nixon would be kicked out and that Mark Felt would be appointed.
GREENFIELD: But tensions between the FBI and the Nixon White House went back further to the mass arrests of antiwar demonstrators in 1971 and to the administration's efforts to spy on and disrupt the activities of its political opponents. But with the Watergate break- in, the clash between FBI veterans and the Nixon White House intensified. As the so-called smoking gun tape of June 23, 1972 showed, less than a week after the break-in, President Nixon was suggesting that the CIA be used to ward off FBI probes into the source of the Watergate money.
Indeed, in his memoir, published in 1979, Mark Felt recounts how he told Director Gray, "The reputation of the FBI is at stake," and that he would not shut down an investigation into the source of the Watergate money unless specifically asked to do so by the CIA. And Mark Felt added, "That's not all. We must do something about the complete lack of cooperation from John Dean and also the Committee to Re-Elect the president. It's obvious they're holding back."
In other words, Mark Felt believed from the beginning that his FBI was being corrupted by political influence.
KESSLER: It was important to get the truth out, and even though the FBI was investigating this, and they weren't going to go away, they were worried that something might happen so that this investigation would be suppressed.
GREENFIELD (on camera): The story is getting all this play for the most obvious of reasons. Any secret kept this long merits a "gee whiz" response. But the reason why this happened is a much more significant story, even if the explanation has been out there for decades.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, it's been no secret we've been waiting for the Pentagon briefing to begin in Washington with Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers. They are soon to be emerging. And there they are right there to begin this Pentagon briefing to explain a little bit more about how Operation Lightning in Iraq is going.
Let's listen in.
DONALD H. RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good morning.
On Monday, Americans honored all of the men and women who have fought for our country's security and our freedom.
Throughout our history, many millions of Americans have come to the country's defense. The United States certainly could not have survived or succeeded without their service.
Defending one's country is not, of course, a uniquely American idea. Yet some still seem to wonder why tens of thousands of Iraqis volunteer for their security forces when it is known that doing so makes them targets of attacks by violent extremists. Or why Afghans in growing numbers risk their lives, and often the lives of their families, to defy the terrorists in their country. Or why millions in Lebanon, Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere dare to demonstrate against dictatorships when the penalty is known to be imprisonment or death.
They do it because they want to build better futures for themselves and their families and are willing to pay the cost. Those privileged to live in free countries are forever in the debt of those who make our freedom possible.
And no force in the world has done more to liberate people that they have never met than the men and women of the United States military.
Indeed, that's why the recent allegation that the U.S. military is running a gulag at Guantanamo Bay is so reprehensible.
Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps, or I suppose some might say where Saddam Hussein mutilated and murdered untold numbers because they held views unacceptable to his regime.
To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused.
Free societies depend on oversight and they welcome informed criticism, particularly on human rights issues. But those who make such outlandish charges lose any claim to objectivity or seriousness.
The Washington Post, to its credit, rejected the comparison between Guantanamo and a gulag in a recent editorial.
Unfortunately, efforts to bring the detainee issue into proper context have been somewhat rare.
Two of the country's largest newspapers, for example, have devoted more than 80 editorials combined since March of 2004 to Abu Ghraib and detainee issues, often repeating the same erroneous assertions and recycling the same stories.
By comparison, precious little has been written by those editorial boards about the beheading of innocent civilians by terrorists, the thousands of bodies found in mass graves in Iraq, the allegations of rape of women and girls by U.N. workers in the Congo.
Yes, there have been instances where detainees have been mistreated while in U.S. custody, sometimes grievously, but consider these facts.
To date there have been approximately 370 criminal investigations into the charges of misconduct involving detainees out of 68,000 detainees that have been in U.S. custody over the period since September 11th. And of some 525,000 servicemembers, men and women of the various services, who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, less than 0.1 percent have been found to have committed illegal acts against detainees.
It's also important to remember that the people being detained at Guantanamo are, with good reason, suspected terrorists. Many, if not most, have been systematically trained to lie and to claim torture.
At least a dozen of the 200 already released from Gitmo have already been caught back on the battlefield involved in efforts to kidnap and kill Americans.
Much was made recently of a news story falsely accusing servicemembers of flushing a Koran down the toilet, but little has been said about the great lengths that the military go to at Guantanamo Bay to accommodate the religious practices of detainees in their care.
There are specific instructions as to how those involved in the custody of detainees should handle themselves with respect to religious matters. Special meals are provided to meet cultural dietary requirements. Schedules are respectful of prayer. Indications of the direction to pray are provided. Detailed guidelines are provided to the service people which govern the handling of the Koran.
Copies of these instructions have been publicly available but they have received comparatively little media attention. I have not yet seen a complete printing of those instructions in any journal.
This lack of media attention to U.S. policy guidance to treat detainees humanely creates misperceptions. But to try to equate the military's record on detainee treatment to some of the worst atrocities of the past century is a disservice to those who have sacrificed so much to bring freedom to others.
So to the men and women who wear our country's uniforms and to the families who support them, I want you to know how proud we are of all of your able service. We're in your debt.
And to those who may be considering serving our nation, know that there is no finer calling, no nobler cause and no greater act of patriotism.
General Myers?
GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And good morning.
This past Memorial Day weekend was truly a moving several days. We spent the weekend remembering those who demonstrated tremendous acts of bravery, sacrifice and selfless service for their country.
And, as we always do, we remember the servicemembers and their families and friends who have lost their lives or been wounded throughout this effort in conflict with violent extremism. On Saturday, I had the honor of addressing the future Army leaders as they graduated from West Point. This 9/11 class represents a new generation who has dedicated themselves to protect our citizens from those who threaten our freedom and our way of life.
The secretary and I also had the honor to join thousands of Vietnam veterans and others at Rolling Thunder and recognize their service and remember those who haven't come back.
And I also had a chance to participate in the concert on the lawn of the Capitol, which paid tribute to World War II veterans on this 60th anniversary of the end of that war.
And we honored those who are currently fighting the war on terrorism and continue the tradition of service with courage.
Their sacrifices have not been in vain. We have seen the insurgents in Iraq change their tactics and switch their centers of gravity because of the perseverance and commitment of coalition forces; and not only coalition forces, but the Iraqi people, all aimed at a free Iraq.
Let me tell you what I mean by centers of gravity.
MYERS: First, the insurgents tried to drive out the coalition from Iraq, but we're still there.
Next, they focused on Iraqi security force, but they continue to sign up in record numbers.
And then they attempted to intimidate the Iraqi people, but they went to the polls and voted for a representative government.
And a recent poll in Iraq shows that 85 percent of the Iraqis who responded said that they would likely vote in the October constitutional referendum.
Political progress is key, of course, to success in Iraq.
And with that, we'll take your questions.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the lull in the months after the January election in Iraq has resoundingly and explosively, I guess you'd say, ended in past weeks with hundreds of Iraqis killed and growing number of attacks, and at least 77 U.S. troops killed last month.
Are you gentleman concerned and frustrated with U.S. and Iraqi efforts, not just to end this, but to curb it?
RUMSFELD: I think I'd put it quite differently, myself.
The period after the elections, that you called a lull, I think, I would characterize it as a period where a country that has little or no experience with democracy or with representative government undertook the difficult task of voting successfully, and then forming a transitional government, which they have since done.
It took them a period of weeks, to be sure. It takes most countries a period of weeks or months to do that. And they've done it in good style. They have selected their government. And they are beginning that process of preparing a constitution to be voted on by the people of Iraq.
We have seen from the beginning ups and downs in terms of the number of attacks that take place.
RUMSFELD: There certainly have been attacks that have taken place in recent weeks, and a number of Iraqis have been killed particularly. Americans have been killed. Coalition forces have been killed. And that's always deeply regrettable.
Is it conceivable that there is some relationship between that and the fact that it took them a period of time to select a government? I don't know. I don't think anyone is wise enough to know the answer to that.
What we do know is that it's hard to -- democracy's hard. It's tough stuff and it takes time. And they invested that time. And now they are investing their time on a constitution.
And the closer they get to success of having a constitution and having an election under that constitution, the greater the loss for the insurgents. And the insurgents now see the Sunnis reaching forward and trying to participate in the constitutional process even though they bypassed for the most part the election process -- and they recognize that as a mistake.
The Shia are reaching out to the Sunnis and allowing them to come into the constitutional drafting process in a very constructive and healthy way.
So there's an awful lot good that's happening in that country, as well as the periodic attacks that take place and the regrettable deaths that occur.
QUESTION: But aside from the political progress or political moves in the country, doesn't something more need to be done by security forces, both U.S. and Iraqi, to curb this?
MYERS: First of all, the number of incidents is actually down over 20 percent depending on what you measured against from last November or the January elections.
So incidents are down overall, albeit more lethal because of the increase in the number of folks that they are putting in there that are willing to commit suicide and the move to these vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.
MYERS: I think you should be encouraged, though, by the number of independent Iraqi operations that are going on there. There are currently -- some of them may have ended over the last couple of weeks -- five operations that were independent Iraqi operations, 30 that were combined with coalition forces, which is a much different mixture than we had just several months ago.
So what I'd be encouraged by is that Iraqi security forces are more and more coming to the front.
Then if you go to Operation Lightning, which was announced by the minister of defense and minister of interior of Iraq, which is an Iraqi initiative to put more Iraqis out front in Baghdad to try to quell this violence, it's the first time they could do something like this; it's the first time they've had the capability to do it.
So I think we should be encouraged by that. I think we should also be encouraged by the political progress which is no doubt frustrating those that want to divide Iraq, either through sectarian violence or a civil war, and that's not happening.
The Iraqi people aren't buying this. I mean, that's the -- the Iraqi people are not buying the insurgents' line, which is actually no line. It's just violence, it's murder, it's mayhem.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, as someone who has complained or expressed concern in the past about the use of anonymous sources by the press and someone who was also around at the time of Watergate, I'm curious about your reaction to the news that Mark Felt was identified as Deep Throat.
In your opinion, do you think he's a hero, as his family and some people believe, or did he abuse his position as some of his critics say?
RUMSFELD: Oh, goodness. I was in Belgium as an ambassador to NATO during that period, and...
QUESTION: You're not going to get off that easy.
(LAUGHTER)
RUMSFELD: Pretty near.
(LAUGHTER)
And I have not followed what's been -- I have not read these articles.
I think that anytime wrongdoing occurs, it's important that that wrongdoing be reported. And I think that's appropriate.
Now, who one reports that to -- the authorities -- is one thing or somebody else is another. But I'm not knowledgeable enough to be in a position to judge it.
QUESTION: I have a question for General Myers, but if you'll indulge me: You've been very tough on leaks from that podium and elsewhere, and it would seem to me that if you have somebody here, number two in the FBI, who is leaking, you would feel very strongly one way or the other that he's either a hero or a criminal. But you, kind of, are ducking this the way it sounds. RUMSFELD: Well, I'm not in any judgmental mood.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: What happened this morning?
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: General Myers, did the Iraqi government make a mistake by telegraphing Operation Lightning, say, up to 48 hours, giving some of the insurgents time to get out of Dodge? Was that a tactical mistake, you think?
MYERS: Gee, I don't know. We'll probably analyze that later, or we'll help the Iraqis analyze that later.
I think the encouraging thing is that this is an Iraqi initiative. It's an important concept. It's their country. They are eventually going to have to be the ones that take the fight to these extremists.
And I think that overshadows any tactical issue of whether they telegraphed or not. I think the important thing is that they are working as a sovereign country to solve their problems.
QUESTION: General Myers, with all the back and forth on Islamic Web sites about the health of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and then this new audio tape that surfaced in which he said that he's not seriously injured, can you give us the military assessment of Zarqawi now and where you think he may be and his status as far as operationally?
MYERS: I don't know that we know where he is.
Our assessment is that he has been wounded. The severity, I don't know that we know that. So we won't make a judgment on that.
Clearly, he leads one of the most dangerous factions not only in Iraq, but in the region; perhaps in the world, because he's part of the Al Qaida network now. He has operated in other places before, up in the continent. Certainly in Iraq before. So he's not a stranger to violence. And we know that he has no regard for human life at all, fellow Muslim or whomever, man, woman and child. So he's a dangerous character.
Having said that -- and another thing I would say is that we've kept the pressure on him, and we will 24 and seven. As you know, we've wrapped up a number of his lieutenants, either captured or killed them, and lots of folks that work with and for him, into the hundreds.
We will continue that pressure, and we're getting better at it. We're better this week than we were last week. And so the pressure will mount on that organization. We do not know where he is right now.
RUMSFELD: And I would add one thing. The current assumption is that he's in Iraq. Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the Al Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands.
QUESTION: You've spoken out many times on this podium about Syria and Iran, but the counterterrorism group site just came out with a report saying that some 40 percent of the suicide bombers Zarqawi has enlisted in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia. Do you feel that the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia is also a problem with suicide bombers coming across there?
RUMSFELD: I think that it is not clear how people are getting in to Iraq, although every border is a problem just as borders for our country are a problem.
And it may very well be that people from one country go into another country to enter Iraq. We've seen that people from a variety of different countries entering from Syria, for example -- buses that have been captured.
QUESTION: What about Saudi Arabia?
RUMSFELD: There's no question but that there have been a number of Saudis involved that have been captured throughout the entire activity. I mean, 9/11 had a number of Saudis involved.
The violent extremism has generated in that region from a number of locations and is today. And it's a very dangerous thing to civilized societies.
QUESTION: I wasn't sure you'd finished your thought when you talked about another country giving aid and comfort to Zarqawi. Would there be consequences for another country if they did that?
RUMSFELD: Well, I think what I said was fairly clear: that any country that decides it wants to provide medical assistance or haven to a leading Al Qaida terrorist is obviously associating themselves with Al Qaida and contributing to a great many Iraqis being killed, as well as coalition forces in Iraq.
RUMSFELD: And that's something that people would want to take note of.
QUESTION: General Myers, on what do you base your assessment that Zarqawi appears to have at least been wounded? And can you tell us where that might have occurred?
And has the U.S. military discounted the previous speculation that all of this may have been part of a disinformation campaign to throw the U.S. military off his trail?
MYERS: I don't know about the disinformation campaign. I know we worked that very, very hard, and we have folks that are pretty knowledgeable about their tactics, their techniques and their procedures.
The best guess is that he was injured out in western Iraq near the Syrian border. And we believe it, because the postings on the Web site, on their Web pages, seem to be consistent with other things we've seen that were true.
And so the conclusion is that it's most likely that he is injured. The severity, we do not know.
RUMSFELD: I still don't want to be judgmental, but I also wouldn't want to send the wrong signal to people in the Department of Defense.
Anyone who sees wrongdoing who works for the United States government has an obligation to report that wrongdoing to the Department of Justice or to the proper authorities in the department. That is -- I wouldn't want to leave any ambiguity about that.
QUESTION: Not The Washington Post?
MYERS: Well, it's so easy to do today -- the number of hotlines, the fraud, waste and abuse hotlines, and...
RUMSFELD: Whistleblowers.
MYERS: ... and other avenues and whistleblower laws.
RUMSFELD: It's an easy thing.
MYERS: It's an easy thing to do.
QUESTION: Speaking of accountability, can you talk about the tanker accountability report that I.G. just finished? Speaking of wrongdoing that was reported, did that report conclude more Defense officials committed crimes against the United States in crafting an ill-conceived tanker deal?
RUMSFELD: Has the report been released?
LAWRENCE DI RITA, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: It's not been released and there's no public version of it yet. So we've provided it to the Congress.
RUMSFELD: Apparently, the report is finished.
DI RITA: It is completed.
RUMSFELD: And it's been given to the Congress. And at some point...
DI RITA: And we'll be able to provide details, but we're not...
(CROSSTALK)
RUMSFELD: Details will be provided by the department. I don't have any insight into it. QUESTION: General Myers, can I ask you -- you've got new units going back into Iraq that have served there before -- the 131st Airborne and the 4th I.D. Can you talk about how their experience there is likely to affect the battle against the insurgency coming up?
MYERS: Well, I think the first thing that comes to mind is that, given that there will be somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent, maybe 60 percent, it's the same personnel that were there last time -- or have experience in Afghanistan or Iraq -- that their spin-up time will be a lot less and their learning curve won't be as steep as units sent for the first time are going into that very challenging environment.
So I think from that standpoint, it'll benefit them and make us more effective against violent extremists and more familiar with the Iraqi culture and more able to help and mentor Iraqi units, which is one of our primary goals.
QUESTION: OK, is there a downside to that, because they fought an entirely different war the first time they were there?
MYERS: No. Personally, I don't think so.
MYERS: I think what we've seen is the U.S. military is a military that, as we go into the 21st century, was set up to do convention warfare, basically. And the thought had been given to the kind of challenges we face today was not near as great as how we conduct a more conventional conflict.
And so, no, I think they'll adapt very quickly. And they've been adapting -- they've had to adapt, as you know, throughout this whole conflict, and they'll continue to adapt.
I don't see that as an issue.
RUMSFELD: I must be in a reflective mood today, because I've reflected on an earlier comment that involved Saudi Arabia, and I think it's very important to draw distinction between a country such as Saudi Arabia, that's been attacked by Al Qaida, that is aggressively going after Al Qaida and capturing and killing terrorists in their country, and a country that is not doing that.
And that, to me, is a very important distinction.
QUESTION: But if its border is just as porous, isn't it also just as much a problem as Syria or Iran?
RUMSFELD: As I indicated earlier, I think there is a good question as to exactly how people are coming in through which countries.
MYERS: And I think Saudi Arabia -- in my last visit there -- would indicate what officials there worry about are any border violations going one way or the other, about their own internal security or about the security of Iraq. They worry about both of those. And it's a reasonably well-protected border from the Saudi perspective for sure.
QUESTION: Can I take you back to your opening statement?
What would you say to the idea that's been talked about in the press that the White House decision not to apply the Geneva Conventions to the global war on terror -- I'm not talking about Iraq -- has opened up a Pandora's box, because it puts the Defense Department in particular, from a starting point, where, if it had been under Geneva Conventions, that human rights were paramount, and the opposite assumption is true, then, if Geneva Conventions are not applied, that you're, sort of, starting out behind the eight ball?
RUMSFELD: Well, I personally think that's a stretch, in this sense.
When the White House made that decision -- which they made, and announced -- they made it with the conviction that it would have been wrong to have treated people as an organized military, because they didn't have uniforms, they didn't carry weapons publicly, they made a practice of killing innocent civilians, and that to accord them the same arrangement under the Geneva Convention as qualified militaries would have diminished the value of the Geneva Convention.
Second, when the president and the White House made the announcement, it was very explicit that detainees were to be treated humanely. He said it, I said it, it was communicated directly. And the implication that because you characterize them -- correctly, in my view, the White House did -- that that means that you should not treat them in a humane way is simply not an accurate characterization.
QUESTION: But it seems to me this is maybe a double-edged sword. On the one hand you talk about the treatment and the application of Geneva Convention to the prisoners, then on the other hand you have the Geneva Convention's effects on the U.S. military and that it's always reflected honor on the military. And I wonder if taking that out, the military's been put into a position where they have to, sort of, prove themselves double.
RUMSFELD: I don't know. Do you?
MYERS: I'm not sure...
RUMSFELD: I don't know quite how to respond.
MYERS: You know, you're always concerned about how your own military's going to be treated. And that is why, despite the atrocious behavior and the savage behavior of this particular adversary, the U.S. military has conducted itself in accordance with Geneva Conventions, in accordance with the laws of warfare. And we've worked that very hard.
I mean, going back to Afghanistan, but certainly major combat in Iraq, I mean, there's never been a more humane, if you can put humane right next to war, there's never been a more humane war as we looked and tried to manage the impact on the civilian population. And that continues today. I mean, that's how they have to operate.
RUMSFELD: And Iraq has always been under the Geneva Conventions because it was a war against a country, and the Geneva Conventions applied from the outset.
Obviously, what took place on one shift in Abu Ghraib, not the shift before, not the shift after, but on one shift what took place was not consistent with the Geneva Convention, and as a result, dozens of people have been prosecuted and are being punished, as they should be.
QUESTION: Have you considered moving the Gitmo, the terrorist prison in Cuba, to America given the criticism and given the Supreme Court decision that says there is some review there? Have you ever considered that?
RUMSFELD: I haven't, no.
QUESTION: Would it give any advantages of some transparency or better oversight?
RUMSFELD: Oh my goodness, there's so much transparency in Gitmo and so much oversight. The reforms...
(CROSSTALK)
RUMSFELD: Let me finish answering your question. There have been so many reforms instituted -- and the list is available from Mr. Di Rita -- in the Army, in the Navy, in the Air Force, in the Department of Defense.
RUMSFELD: And the oversight and the attention that's given to what's taking place at Gitmo is extensive. And the implication that it's a gulag is what's wrong -- not what's going on at Gitmo.
QUESTION: Sir, on Friday 14 senators wrote to Chairman Principi of BRAC saying that the Pentagon's, quote, "failure to release the underpinning information -- justification for the BRAC decisions -- was putting them behind the eight ball," as far as preparing for their regional hearings. And they asked for delays in them.
Then, yesterday, Senator Bond met with Chairman Principi and demanded that the St. Louis regional hearing, set for a week from today, be postponed, and Principi agreed and postponed it to sometime indefinite because, supposedly, the Pentagon's not supplying the proper information.
RUMSFELD: The Pentagon is supplying the proper information. The department has made a mountain of material available to the BRAC Commission. They, as of yesterday, made, I believe, what could be properly characterized as all information on this subject available to the BRAC Commission on a classified basis -- a portion of it on a classified basis.
So there's no difficulty with anyone in the BRAC Commission or in the Congress who has clearance for classified information going and doing whatever research or finding any information they may want.
The task of going through that enormous digital database and determining what's classified and what isn't is something that will take a few more days.
RUMSFELD: I don't know how much longer...
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
RUMSFELD: They hope to be able to finish it by June 4th, at which point another large trove of this material will be made available to the public. And as I say, all the remainder is available to the BRAC Commission and the Congress at the...
QUESTION: What's going on (inaudible)? Why was the hearing postponed? Is this taking longer than you thought?
RUMSFELD: Well, it isn't taking longer. It's a great deal more information than ever before.
The previous BRAC Commissions did roughly the same thing. They made what was clearly unclassified available. They then made what was clearly classified available only on a classified basis. And as new information evolved they were able to increase the amount of information that was available.
And as you go through that process, it -- let me just -- I don't think I want to discuss one aspect of why things are classified.
MYERS: A couple of things we thought about, though.
RUMSFELD: There is real reasons.
MYERS: The date are comprehensive, as the secretary said. The second thing is it's now all on electronic media. So you take a comprehensive database that is on disk and it can be transferred very, very easily. So all of that had to be considered.
But they have what they're supposed to have and they'll get more and we'll keep working on the classified piece of it.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, in an interview with the Associated Press, Iraq's foreign minister expressed concern that the U.S. may pull out before Iraqi forces are ready. I imagine you probably haven't read that interview yet, but what sort of assurances can you give to Iraqi people, to the American people what the bar is for when -- how do you know how ready the Iraqi forces will be? What are you looking for when you come up with these sorts of assessments?
RUMSFELD: It's interesting, one day someone says that they might stay longer than they're needed. And the other is they might leave while they're still needed. And I suppose it's an imperfect world.
RUMSFELD: The president has answered that question repeatedly. He said we have committed a great deal to this effort, 25 million people have been liberated, a transitional government is in place, our desire is to assist the Iraqi people in fashioning Iraqi security forces that can assume responsibility for their security and pass over responsibility for their security as rapidly as they're capable of assuming it.
That process is well under way. We're now over 165,000 Iraqi security forces. There are a number that are operating independently. There are a number that are operating semi-independently but need logistic or lift or other types of quick reaction force assistance. And each day it gets better.
I mean, you ask, "How can you know?" The important thing to realize is it's their country. It's the Iraqi people's country. And they're going to have to provide for their own security.
QUESTION: But you said that the U.S. will not pull out forces before the Iraqi...
RUMSFELD: The president said we'd stay as long as we're needed, and that is as long as they're not capable of handling their own security needs.
The progress is significant that's been made, and they are doing an increasingly good job.
And there have been some metrics developed that look at how one ought to determine their capabilities and their capacities. And part of it involves the strength of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior in terms of its competence; the chains of command, how effective they are; their ability to be equipped and have the kind of mobility that they're going to need to function. And we have typical DOD metrics where we look at each unit and try to assess that, and then try to accelerate as rapidly as possible what it will take to get them to that point.
And the number is going to be going up into the 200,000 range of total people. And, again, quantity isn't just the whole thing, it's quality, as you suggest.
But good progress is being made, and the United States has indicated, and the coalition has indicated they intend to stay and complete the job in proper order.
Thank you, folks.
WHITFIELD: All right, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, along with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, talking about a host of issues coming out of that Pentagon briefing today, everything from paying homage to the military men and women, sacrificing their lives in war, to the encouragement in Iraq, and as well as talking about the responsibility of reporting wrongdoing, all this coming in light of the revealing of Deep Throat, all from the Pentagon this hour.
Let's take you now to another domestic issue taking place out West. In California, as if the folks in California have not been through enough, because of earlier mudslides being reported and huge rainfalls, now look at this, an inexplicable landslide taking place in Laguna Beach, California. These are some pictures we are just now getting in.
Houses apparently just breaking up, sliding, and running into one another. No reports as of yet as to whether any injuries have taken place. We're still trying to gather the facts out there in Laguna Beach, California. But emergency crews there there are on the scene and responding to these what seem to be inexplicable landslides.
(WEATHER REPORT)
And once again, we want to show you some of those pictures coming in out of Laguna Beach California, even though Rob was describing that it's dry there now. But Southern California has experienced an awful lot of rain during the winter. You remember those colossal mudslides, et cetera, well now landslides.
You're looking at homes, portions of homes, just literally washing off the land, crashing into one another. But as of yet, we haven't heard about any reports of injuries. But emergency crews are on the scene there responding there in Laguna Beach, California.
CNN is celebrating its 25th anniversary today and all day we're showing you pictures -- and look at that guy right there. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. What does he have to say two and a half later since the beginning of his network? We'll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Again, some live pictures now of this developing story out of Laguna Beach, California. A landslide taking place there. Inexplicably, some of these homes intact are just sliding down the hill, crashing into one another. Other homes are breaking up as they go. All taking place in the Bluebird Canyon Road area near the Pacific Coast Highway.
It's a fairly dry day, but we know this past winter, a lot of this area has experienced an awful lot of rain, mudslides, et cetera. And now emergency crews are on the scene, responding to these landslides involving many sizable homes there just breaking up. No reports, however, as of yet, of any injuries.
WHITFIELD: Now, this was a big weekend in the race car driving world. How's this for achieving a dream? At four years old, he started racing go-carts. 20 years later, he became car racing's rookie of the year.
Now just 26 years old, Dan Wheldon is the winner of this year's Indianapolis 500 and he joins us now from New York. Hello to you. Congratulations.
DAN WHELDON, INDIANAPOLIS 500 WINNER: Thank you very much. It's probably the proudest moment of my life, so I'm on top of the world right now.
WHITFIELD: I know you are. Something that you dreamed of all your life?
WHELDON: Yes, absolutely. I mean, you certainly know about the Indianapolis 500. I'm originally from England, and you see it in magazines. But I came here in 1999, and that was the first year I watched the race and realized the magnitude of it. And from that point on, just wanted to be a part of it and wanted to win it.
WHITFIELD: So, unbelievably, here you are, you know, four years old, starting your go-cart racing. You grew up in Emberton, England, and you end up winning this historic Indy 500, becoming really the first British racer to win in some 40 years. What an incredible honor this must be for you, as well.
WHELDON: Yes, I mean, obviously, drinking the milk, which is a tradition of the Indianapolis 500, was very, very special to me. But to have my face on that (INAUDIBLE) trophy, like the likes of Graham Hill, who was the last Englishman to win it, is very, very special. But there's some great names on there and I'm very proud to join them. It's a great trophy, too, which makes it extra special.
WHITFIELD: Wow, and special, too, to be associated with the Andretti family. The team owner, Michael Andretti, this is a first win for his team, you being part of that team. You know, this must be an incredible event for you and for the Andretti family. And what an owner that you would be associated with the Andretti name.
WHELDON: Well, obviously the Indianapolis 500's the biggest race in the world. And it was one that eluded Michael. I mean, he was desperate to try and win it, and unfortunately -- he has a fact that he hates me telling people, but he led four less laps than Rick Mears, but unfortunately, you know, he didn't win any Indianapolis 500s, and Rick Mears has four, but you now, it's a pleasure to do it for him. I know he was desperate to do it, and there was a lot of pressure honest for this race to make sure we brought it home for him. But he's very happy right now, I know that for a fact.
WHITFIELD: Do you feel like there was a lot of added pressure for you as well, knowing that car racing is becoming hugely popular every year, more popular with each year? And this particular Indy 500, there was an awful lot of attention being played on it particular because of that female rider, Danica Patrick. Did you go into this, you know, feeling like, you know what, I'm feeling rather nervous about this particular because of all this attention, or more so, you really want to win because, Heaven forbid, a girl win the Indy 500.
WHELDON: Well, obviously the race is very special, and I was desperate to win it for myself, and for the team and Michael. But Danica created a lot of media attention for the race and for the Indy car racers. And you know, personally, the Indy car series, I think, is the best in the world right now as far as a motorsport championship is concerned.
And with the pressure that she piled on me, I think she impressed a lot of people. But she is certainly very talented. And you know, she's done well for the Indianapolis 500 this year. And it's going to continue to get better though. The race that we put on was fiercely competitive.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and so what's next for the Indy winner Dan Wheldon?
WHELDON: You know, we're doing a lot of media right now, and I'm certainly enjoying every minute of it. We have a race June 11th at the Texas Motor Speedway, and that's very intense also. We run around that place at 220-mile-an-hour plus side by side. So it's going to be an entertaining one. But I'd like to try and get the double now. I'd definitely like to try and not only the Indianapolis 500, but the championship, too.
WHITFIELD: All right, fantastic. Well, congrats to you, and best of luck on your future endeavors.
WHELDON: Thank you. Thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Dan Wheldon, thanks for joining us from New York.
Well, 25 years ago today CNN became the pioneer in 24-hour news. The visionary behind CNN, Ted Turner. Launched the operation on a shoestring in 1980. The network would help make him a billionaire. Well, two years ago, Turner left the company he founded, but we asked him back on this special day to remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: I started thinking about it about three years before I decided to do it, and I knew someone would do it, and I thought, one of the networks would do it. They had all the raw material, they had bureaus. They had affiliates that get them the footage they had. The footage all sitting there. All they had to do was hire a couple of announcers, and set them in front of a table and get a few tape machines and they could go into business. But they didn't do it, because they wanted to fight cable. So I saw an opening. And even though I didn't have enough money, I could see that cable advertising was going to make it, because I had the Superstation already.
And I said, this is going to work, it's going to require a gamble of everything I have, but I didn't really do it to make money. I wanted to make money, and I knew I would, but Rotary's (ph) motto, who profits most who serves the best, but I just wanted to see if we could do it. It was an adventure more than anything else, like Christopher Columbus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And over the past quarter century our goal has been to report the realities and accurate facts of the world around us without bias or emotion. That's not to say the stories we cover don't impact us personally.
Here's CNN's Daryn Kagan revisiting some of the stories that meant the most to her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It sure does seem like Kordell Stewart can do anything.
July 1994, CNN made my dream come true. I was a local news reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, but I wanted to do sports. From Super Bowls to world champion figure skating in Russia, I had a front-row seat.
I am standing on the frozen Nyeva (ph) River.
But I really began to spread my wings when I switched back over to news in '98. There is nothing like going into a war zone. Kuwait City was my posting for the Gulf War in spring of 2003.
Carol, we arrived here about 22 hours ago. I want to give you a couple of numbers on the troops we were talking about.
My reporter tools expanded from pad and paper to flak jacket, helmet and gas mask.
Being in Kuwait during the war meant evacuating to a shelter as many as eight times a day as missiles hit the city.
The mission of these units protect these ports.
We don't want to help Iraq with more information.
The Kuwaiti (INAUDIBLE) is packing up some of the first supplies that should make it into southern Iraq.
You hear a lot about anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, but in Kuwait City, at least, during the war, there were welcome signs as obvious as the city buses. They still remember the early '90s, and how the United States helped liberate the country after Saddam Hussein invaded.
As the sign read, we will not forget. The amazing thing about CNN is the range. One spring it's war, the next, doing battle on the red carpet of the Academy Awards.
I'm going to stay here, I'm not going anywhere, because all the big stars are making their way down.
The red carpet is the ultimate pop quiz. Go live, ready to ask a good question to any of the major movie stars you happen to snag.
Hi, Catherine, Daryn Kagan, from CNN.
Clint Eastwood, nominated for best director.
Hi. Hi, Nicole, Daryn Kagan from CNN.
The most fun, the candid moments that even the stars can't even anticipate. We're back down here on the red carpet. I'm Daryn Kagan, making the most interesting introduction. We have Adrian Brody, best actor, winner for last year, and Scarlet Johansson. We're doing this together. Do you guys -- are you just meeting each other now?
SCARLET JOHANSSON, ACTRESS: Right for the very first time, yes.
ADRIAN BRODY, ACTOR: This is where it all began, folks.
KAGAN: By the way, you have to capture it all while wearing an evening gown and three-inch heels.
Thanks for being with us.
BONO, MUSICIAN: I love being in Africa because no one knows who I am here.
My name's Bono, I'm a rock star.
KAGAN: Africa 2002 was my biggest trip. Two weeks, four countries, with then-U.S. Secretary Paul O'Neill and rock star Bono. The focus, development and AIDS. I'll never forget the orphans of Ethiopia, hundreds and thousands who lost both parents to AIDS, and some who would soon lose their own battle against the.
What do you tell them? What can you tell you child?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I tell them you are going to (INAUDIBLE).
KAGAN: But there were encouraging moments as well, like witnessing the impact that a single clean water well can make on a village: healthy babies, school children, adults producing goods.
CNN is a chance to see the world through the most interesting lenses.
Happy anniversary, CNN, Daryn Kagan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, "CNN 25: DEFINING," moments begins tonight at 8:00 Eastern. We mark our anniversary as the 24-hour news pioneer with a primetime event. CNN highlights 25 stories that have touched people across the world over the last quarter century. And here are some other famous faces who share our birthday. We'll show that to you next hour.
Well, for now let's take another peek at Laguna Beach, California. And see these incredible pictures coming in with landslides, these rather sizable homes just coming off their foundations, crashing into one another.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: That's going to do it for today. On now to Wolf Blitzer who takes us into the next hour of more news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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