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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Is "Group Think" to Blame for Iraq WMD Intelligence Failure? Philippine Government Agrees To Pull Troops Out of Iraq
Aired July 12, 2004 - 19:00 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper.
In the face of terror, a U.S. ally blinks, giving in to hostage- takers' demands. Will we all now pay the price?
360 starts now.
A stunning concession to terrorists. The Philippines government promises to pull its troops out of Iraq as soon as possible to save the life of a hostage.
President Bush defends the war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were right to go into Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And he offers praise for the CIA.
The web of terror. Intelligence officials say it was Internet chatter that led to the latest warning.
A U.S. Marine insists he was abducted in Iraq, but how did Wassef Hassoun show up safe and sound in Lebanon?
Scott Peterson's defense has yet another theory. A drug addict found with Laci's checks. Or does she have any bearing on the case?
ANNOUNCER: Live from New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
Good evening again.
We begin tonight with what many will call a terrorist victory. Not another murder of a civilian, but capitulation, plain and simple, by the Philippine government to hostage-takers. Their demand, to pull Filipino troops out of Iraq, or have a captured Filipino citizen murdered.
On Sunday the Philippine government said they would stand firm. Today it appears they've changed their mind.
Late developments at this hour in the story. We go right to Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Jane, what's the latest?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Anderson, the latest appears to be that this hostage, truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, will be released on Tuesday, according to the captors. Now, this is from a source at Philippine embassy, who tells us that linked with the statement by the Philippine undersecretary, that the Philippines will indeed withdraw their troops from here.
The captors have said that they will, in exchange, release the hostage on Tuesday.
Now, the family of this truck driver, the wife and perhaps some of the eight children, have been flown to Jordan. They're not expected to come here, but they are expected to release a statement praising the kidnappers for releasing their husband and father.
Again, release expected on Tuesday of this Philippine truck driver after the Philippine government has made clear, that, yes, it will reverse its decision and pull out some 50 troops here, Anderson.
COOPER: Jane, do we know anything about how this negotiation? I mean, I guess there was some sort of negotiation. Any of the details of it at this point. or is it still not known?
ARRAF: It's been done through intermediaries, Anderson. And as you can imagine, it's quite murky here. No one really knows who they're speaking with and whether those people are indeed qualified to talk for the group that's holding these people. Now, this is just one of several cases that's going on.
But you can imagine the quandary that the government was in. This is a political uproar, and here's a truck driver, one of thousands of Filipinos who have come here to support the U.S. military and to do jobs like driving trucks on dangerous highways for not very much money, who was threatened publicly with beheading.
In the end, they seem to have decided that, yes, they did have to save the life of this man, and that it was worth the cost to them of possible whatever consequences there might be with the United States over this, Anderson.
COOPER: All right, CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf. Thanks very much, Jane, appreciate it.
In the current edition of "U.S. News and World Report," editor in chief Mort Zuckerman has written a strongly worded essay on the subject of acceding to terrorist demands. He joins me now.
Welcome. Thanks for being with us.
Were you stunned when you heard this late-breaking news?
MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": Yes, I was astonished, when you think of the fact that the United States has been helping the Philippine government combat their own Muslim terrorists in that country (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... COOPER: Because they had a big problem with that at home.
ZUCKERMAN: Absolutely. And we have been critical to their efforts to try and suppress the kind of terrorist activities in their own country. And now for them to abandon us, in effect, on doing this, I think is just astonishing, and very, very dangerous, because it's going to set a precedent that other people and other countries are going to be able to use and say, If the Philippines did it, why in the world don't you do it as well?
COOPER: Well, the, some people, I guess, will say, Well, look, there are only 50 humanitarian forces by the Philippines in Iraq. You're saying, though, it's not a question of numbers.
ZUCKERMAN: It's not a question of numbers. It's a question, it's another government that capitulates to the terrorists. All it does is create incentives for them to do it again. If it succeeds here, they're going to be able to say, Well, maybe it will succeed elsewhere.
There are all kinds of people all over the Muslim world who are susceptible to being kidnapped. There's no way of controlling that. And it puts everybody in jeopardy. So what they are doing, they may have saved this particular individual, they put God knows how many other people in jeopardy.
COOPER: Does it say that terror works? I mean, you know, people say terror is theater, and we have seen a variety of reactions. In Madrid, Spain, we saw, you know, a change in government. There have been any place that happens in South Korea, certainly demonstrations, people calling for change in policy. This seems to be the first time, at least recently, the Philippines has actually capitulated.
ZUCKERMAN: Right. They have capitulated. And this, unlike Madrid and Spain, wasn't the situation where a public was voting. The new president of the Philippines has just been installed, so the, her, that, that administration is not under threat, and it's just pure capitulation. It's really, it's a very sad day for the Philippines and for us.
COOPER: Very briefly, is there an alternative? In your essay, you write about possibly some sort of U.N. resolution which would make it possible for governments to, to, to...
ZUCKERMAN: Right. I...
COOPER: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ZUCKERMAN: The idea is to have the U.N. basically pass some kind of resolution that would say to the governments around the world, You must not negotiate with these terrorists. At least it will give democratic governments who are susceptible to pressure from public opinion and from the media to say, Look, we are just conforming to a U.N. resolution. It'll give them some cover so that they have some ability to withstand the pressures that we know are going to exist when this kind of thing happens. And it's now going to happen even more frequently...
COOPER: And those are internal pressures...
ZUCKERMAN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: ... from (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
ZUCKERMAN: Absolutely, absolutely.
COOPER: All right, fascinating. Mort Zuckerman, thanks very much.
ZUCKERMAN: You're welcome.
COOPER: It's a great article in this edition of "U.S. News and World Report."
ZUCKERMAN: Thank you.
COOPER: Today's buzz is this. What do you think? Should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Philippine hostage? Vote now, CNN.com/360. We will have results at the end of the program tonight.
Well, for a tense time last week, American authorities knew almost nothing about Corporal Wassef Hassoun's situation, not even where he was. Now, at least, they know that much. He's at the U.S. medical center in Landstuhl, Germany. But all the other questions -- how did he get to Lebanon? What really happened to him? -- well, those questions remain unanswered tonight.
CNN's Chris Burns reports via videophone.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on videophone): U.S. military officials say that since his arrival Friday, Corporal Wassef Hassoun has explained he was abducted. But Hassoun's disappearance remains a mystery to many, and a military investigation is continuing.
While those who spoke with Corporal Hassoun aren't allowed to divulge specifics, they at least provided character references.
HAMZA AL-MUBARAK, U.S. AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN: He served diligently, and he served with honor and continues to.
BURNS: Air Force Captain Hamza al-Mubarak is Hassoun's Muslim chaplain.
AL-MUBARAK: He is well. You know, looks forward to that time, the appropriate time after, you know, the debrief and any impending investigation afterwards, to, to -- for everyone to hear the story, and they'll understand completely, you know, his situation.
BURNS: Do you think he'll fully recover?
ARMY LTC SALLY HARVEY, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Absolutely.
BURNS: Why?
HARVEY: He's a strong young man. He has his head on straight, he has his feet on the ground. He has a good sense of perspective. I think all of -- he is very much like all of our other sailors, airmen, Marines that we've seen here. He's gone through a very traumatic experience, done very well in that event.
BURNS: Part of that experience, a video during his disappearance showing a sword over Corporal Hassoun's head. One Web site claimed he had been beheaded, and another claimed he was spared for agreeing not to return to his unit.
Why he was released, how he ended up in Lebanon, among many questions military investigators will have back in the United States.
COOPER: Clearly, we're having trouble with Chris Burns's videophone. He was live in Landstuhl, Germany.
The Senate Intelligence Committee had its say on Friday, and the 9/11 commission report is still to come, of course. Between those rather negative parentheses, President Bush gave his assessment today of what his administration has done where terrorism is concerned.
Not surprisingly his view doesn't have much in common either with that of the commission or the committee.
CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president's unmistakable message, uttered some half-dozen times in his 32-minute speech...
BUSH: And the American people are safer.
BASH: Under pressure for invading Iraq based on faulty intelligence, Mr. Bush dug in, saying war was about more than Saddam Hussein's elusive weapons.
BUSH: Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq.
BASH: The president has his work cut out for him. A recent poll shows 55 percent of Americans feel less safe from terror because of the war in Iraq, up 22 points in six months.
Mr. Bush spoke at this Tennessee site, where officials are studying nuclear materials surrendered by Libya.
BUSH: The Libyan government saw the seriousness of the civilized world and correctly judged its own interests.
BASH: Some weapons experts say it's not that simple.
ROSE GOTTEMOELLER, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: I don't really agree that it was Iraq that pushed Moammar Gadhafi into making the decision to give up his weapons of mass destruction. This has been a long diplomatic process.
BASH: Mr. Bush insisted Americans are more secure than they were three years ago. He made this sweeping claim.
BUSH: The world changed on September 11, and since that day we have changed the world.
BASH: His Democratic opponent pointed to hot spots like North Korea, saying he begs to differ.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not enough just to give speeches. America will only be safer when we get results.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Most of Mrs. -- Mr. Bush's arguments were not new, but simply repackaged, part of a coordinated White House effort to try to revive support for the president on an issue advisers thought would be an easy sell on the campaign trail, and that's his leadership on terrorism, Anderson.
COOPER: Dana, I want to talk about this decision by the Philippines, or apparent decision by the Philippines, to withdraw their personnel from Iraq, in basically acceding to demand of hostage- takers. This was a statement made by a deputy foreign minister in the Philippines. What is the White House saying about it at this point?
BASH: Well, they're noting exactly that, Anderson. I talked to a senior administration official who says it was a deputy foreign minister who made this claim, not the leader of the country. And at this point, the White House says that they still believe that the Philippines will not pull its very minimal force out of Iraq until August 20. That is when they were planning on doing it.
They do point out that it wasn't, for example, President Gloria Arroyo. She has been somebody who has been very close with the president in fighting the war on terrorism. They're still waiting to figure out what the final story is. But they point out that it was not the leader, it was simply a deputy, and they still think that they are not giving in to terrorists at this point.
COOPER: And just to remind our viewers, CNN's Jane Arraf, reporting live from Baghdad just a short time ago that this hostage apparently may be released as early as tomorrow. So the question of how that release was obtained, still to be answered tonight. It will be fascinating to watch these developments closely.
Dana Bash, thanks for that from the White House.
BASH: Thank you.
COOPER: Let's go back to politics now. John Kerry on his home turf, Boston, Mass., took (UNINTELLIGIBLE), took some swipes at what President Bush said today. No great surprise there. Senator Kerry says America is not safer because of the president's decisions since the September 11 terrorist attacks. He says America will only be safer when there are results.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Bush broke a trust with the American people with his decision to invade Iraq.
After John Edwards was picked by Senator Kerry as his running mate, some had predicted a major bounce in the polls. Well, new numbers out today do show a blip, but not much of a bounce. A new CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll shows the Kerry-Edwards leading Bush and Cheney by 4 points. But in fact, it is a statistical dead heat when you factor in the margin of error.
Some improvement over last month, however. Before Edwards joined the Democratic ticket, Kerry had just a 1-point advantage.
And on the Nader effect, that may be thinning out. Just 2 percent of likely voters say they'll pick him, down 1 percentage point since last month.
An Enron figure goes to the Big House, and not the kind she's used to living in. That story tops our look at what's going on cross- country tonight.
Former Enron assistant treasurer Lea Fastow getting used to an eight-by-10-foot cell in downtown Houston tonight, where she'll serve a year-long sentence for filing a false tax return on her husband's behalf. She turned herself in six hours earlier, early today, accompanied by a few relatives, but not her husband, Andrew. He'll be beginning serving his jail term when his wife finishes hers. They do have children.
New York City, last-minute settlement. Morgan Stanley agrees to fork over $54 million to settle more than 300 allegations of sexual discrimination, ranging from lewd behavior in the workplace to glass ceilings. The deal was announced just before opening statements were set to begin in a lawsuit.
Mount, Mount Holy, or Holly, New Jersey, intent to kill. This woman, a lawyer for Marianne Meborg (ph), says his client admits putting antifreeze in a drink she gave to her brother-in-law, but only wanted to sicken him so she could take control of his money. You see? She pleaded not guilty to murder today, but her attorney says manslaughter would be more appropriate.
Los Angeles, good-bye to Weezie. Actress Isabel Sanford, who played one-half of "The Jeffersons" in the long-running sitcom, has died at the age of 86. In 1981, she became the first African-American woman to win the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series.
And that's a look at stories cross-country tonight.
360 next, Terror.com, the latest terror warning and its connections to the Internet. Also, thanks, but no thanks. President Bush turns down an offer to speak at the NAACP convention. Its leaders are fired up and pulling no punches tonight.
And a strange twist in the Laci Peterson murder investigation. Does a meth addict linked to a gang have anything to do with the case? Or is this just a red herring?
All that ahead. But first, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the current anxiety over what this country's enemies may be planning is not based so much on esoteric knowledge, intercepts, clandestine chatter, messages from moles, that kind of thing. This time, the frightening signs are increasingly being posted right out in plain electronic sight.
CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Web site reads in part, "oh, Allah, destroy America and shake it." This one says, "The decisive battle is approaching."
Such threats are not new to terror experts, who scan hundreds of al Qaeda-related Web sites daily. But recently, some say there is more reason to worry. Experts say threats are coming with greater frequency and from more reliable sources.
EVAN KOHLMANN, GLOBALTERRORALERT.COM: A lot of the chatter that we're seeing is not coming from unidentified, unspecified sources on Internet chat boards. It's coming from the same sources that have predicted before terrorist acts that have actually occurred.
ARENA: One such source warned of attacks in Spain three months before the bombings there in March and distributed video of the beheading of American Nick Berg. It's called Global Islamic Media.
KOHLMANN: Is now saying that the death blows in the approaching battles are coming, that the death blows are upon us, and that these death blows will not only be horrible, but that they are sure to happen.
ARENA: Some of the potential targets mentioned include hospitals, parks, airports, and houses of worship.
GABRIEL WEIMANN, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: You see many targets mentioned. And if you are involved in psychological warfare, you know that the more targets you mention, the more panic you cause, and it will be harder to defend against the attacks.
ARENA: What's more, Weimann says, even if the postings are pure propaganda, they help terrorists accomplish their goal. WEIMANN: I think al Qaeda knows that one of the most important values of terrorism is the psychological impact.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA: Officials are taking the Web chatter very seriously, and have reached out to a variety of experts for assistance. Many are convinced that al Qaeda is prepared to strike and are intent on not missing any clues, Anderson.
COOPER: Kelli Arena, thanks from Washington tonight.
Some bare-knuckle election politics in Israel tops our look at what's going on around the world. Let's take a look at the uplink right now.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is threatening to call snap elections if rebellious members of his Likud Party try to block his efforts at a deal with the Labor Party. Sharon's efforts at a unity government face some stiff resistance from inside his own party. But the rival Labor Party is expected to accept his offer.
In Moscow, the U.S. embassy is offering Russian authorities assistance from the FBI to try and track down the killers of this man, American Paul Khlebnikov. Khlebnikov was the editor of "Forbes" magazine's Russian edition. He was shot by someone from a passing car as he left his office on Friday night.
In London, Bill Clinton seems to be a big hit. Over 1,200 people lined up to shake the former president's hand and give him -- have him sign a copy of his memoirs. Book sales of his autobiography have also exceeded all prerelease estimates in Germany.
On Left-hander's Beach in western Australia, the brother of a man who was killed in a shark attack -- look that the board -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the man's brother says, Please don't try to find the shark and kill it. Surfer Bradley Adriann (ph) Smith died on Saturday after fighting off at least one, possibly as many as two sharks. Smith's brother, Stefan (ph), says killing the shark would not avenge his brother's death.
That's a quick look at what's going on in the uplink tonight.
360 next, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and intel failures. All the blame is being put on groupthink. How common is that, and could it actually happen where you work?
First, President Bush isn't going to show up at the NAACP convention. Smart politics, or a bad mistake? All the angles, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: President Bush is the first president since the 1930s to skip an opportunity to speak at the annual NAACP convention, the fourth year in a row that the president's taken a pass. The blood has been bad in the past, and it is not getting better tonight. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If what the president calls a "nonexistent relationship" with leaders of the nation's largest civil rights group could actually get worse, then that's apparently what's happening. Leaders of the NAACP say they're furious with the president for refusing to address their convention this week.
KWEISI MFUME, NAACP PRESIDENT: If the president's new mantle and measurement for dialogue is to only talk and to only meet with those individuals or organizations that agree with him, then we are getting closer to the previous regime in Baghdad than we are to a democracy here in America.
TODD: Now, the bitterness turns to a full-bore attack on the administration on the issues, a pledge of political enmity from NAACP chairman Julian Bond. African-Americans are, quote, "ready to turn anger into action, to work for regime change here at home." Bond said the GOP appeals to, quote, "the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality. They preach neutrality and practice racial division."
The White House cited a scheduling conflict as the reason for the president's absence this year, but Mr. Bush, who did speak to the NAACP during the 2000 campaign, seemed to go further, describing his current relationship with the group's leadership as, quote, "basically nonexistent," adding, "You've heard the rhetoric and the names they've called me."
John Kerry, who will speak to the NAACP on Thursday, seized on the divide.
KERRY: Friends, I will be a president who meets with the leadership of the civil rights congress, who meets with the NAACP.
TODD: But Democrats have had their own problems with what they've traditionally seen as one of their key constituencies. Last summer, then-candidates Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, and Dennis Kucinich initially skipped the NAACP convention, then all three showed up and apologized.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In not coming Monday, I was wrong.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thank you, and I honor you for letting me be here today, and I am sorry that I was not here the other night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TODD (on camera): And Julian Bond himself added to the fire on the Democrats, complaining this week that they are, in his words, "not an opposition, they're an amen corner."
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Julian Bond's now calling for regime change, in his words, here at home, and the President Bush's spokesman insisting Bush is, quote, "reaching out to the African-American community in other ways." Clearly there's a difference in opinion here.
To talk about it, I'm joined by syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams, and author and commentator Julianne Malveaux. They are both in Washington.
And I appreciate you being on the program with us tonight. Thanks very much.
JULIANNE MALVEAUX, AUTHOR AND COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.
COOPER: Julianne, let me start off with you. I want to read to you a few comments made by the NAACP leadership in reference to President Bush. This, by the way, the organization says they are nonpartisan. And yet they refer to Bush and the Republican Party as, quote, "a crazed swarm of right-wing locusts," as neofascists, and, quote, "They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics."
Why should President Bush speak to them if this is the way they feel?
MALVEAUX: First of all, the NAACP is our nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, founded in 1909. It represents nearly a million African-American people. Its 64-member board includes some Republicans. Certainly I'd acknowledge that Democrats are in the majority. But then Democrats are in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: But it doesn't sound very nonpartisan to be calling, you know, President Bush "a crazed swarm of right wing locusts" and neofascist.
MALVEAUX: Yes, but Anderson, Anderson, this is a response to a number of policies and things that people disagree with. But here's the point. This president said he's going to reach out to everyone. He says he wants African-American votes. I understand his antipathy, but I think he's missing a golden opportunity.
If you look at African-American people under age 30, they're more likely to register as independents than Democrat or Republican. It's an opportunity for him. As you see in the state of Maryland, where Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, African-American, helped get Bob Ehrlich into the governor's house with predominantly...
COOPER: OK.
MALVEAUX: Black Prince George's County going for the Republicans. There are opportunities there. Instead of taking...
COOPER: You're saying he's missing out a big opportunity.
MALVEAUX: ... the high road. Yes...
COOPER: All right.
MALVEAUX: ... instead of taking the high road, the president is sounding like a 6-year-old. Oh, they called me names.
COOPER: Well, let me bring in Armstrong here. Armstrong, President Bush did visit the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 2000 NAACP convention, he wasn't president then, and he said this, "The NAACP and the GOP have not always been allies. I know that. But recognizing our past and confronting the future with a common vision, by doing that I believe we can find common ground." Now, if those words were sincere, why not go and talk to them now?
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, he also said the very same thing to Morial, who's president of the National Urban League, who was very harshly critical of the president. But Morial, since becoming president of the Urban League, has shown civility. He's shown fairness, and he's shown that he's not in either camp of either political party.
It is clear that the NAACP, since Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume has taken over, has become an extension of the Democratic Party. When Julian Bond can stand up and just totally mislead and manipulate its audience by saying that he would not be surprised if this president were to repeal the 14th Amendment, they're disingenuous.
I think the president would be a hypocrite if he showed up. The NAACP is not interested in having the president. This is political grandstanding. They want to do all they can to help John Kerry, help the Democratic Party. They're not trying to hide it.
And it's a sad, it's sad moment, because the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- NAACP, as Julianne once said, did have the leadership and the moral authority. But since this regime, which needs a regime change, has taken over, they've lost the moral authority. They've (UNINTELLIGIBLE) organization into a political organization.
They don't represent the masses of black people in that organization. There are many people in the grass roots who do not like what Kweisi and Julian says. But they're the ones who have the bully pulpit. They're the ones that get the video coverage.
They've abandoned the moral authority, the moral movement that this country which once had, which gave the NAACP purpose. And so...
COOPER: Very...
ARMSTRONG: ... the president is absolutely correct not so show up.
COOPER: Very briefly, final thought, Julianne.
MALVEAUX: Well, you know, Anderson, if you go, there are 2,500 NAACP chapters around the country. There are NAACP chapters on some of our military installations abroad. There are people who are NAACP members who do support President Bush, and there are those who are open to him.
The president is missing an opportunity, simply missing an opportunity, and disrespecting the oldest and largest civil rights organization.
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: He is...
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: ... the number one person in the United States. He has the opportunity...
COOPER: Just want to give Armstrong...
MALVEAUX: ... to take the high road.
COOPER: ... equal time.
MALVEAUX: He refuses to take-...
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: ... the high road.
COOPER: We're almost out of time, Armstrong.
ARMSTRONG: I don't think, I don't think any American listening to this debate would be disappointed and could not understand why President Bush, in a principled way, will not attend the NAACP convention.
I think they need a regime change, and I think if they continue down this road, they should have their tax-exempt status rejected, because they're violating every regulation against their 501-C3 organization. And that is the organization that need a regime change, not a regime change in the White House.
COOPER: Tough words. We're going to have to leave it there. Armstrong Williams, Julianne Malveaux, fascinating discussion. Thanks for being on.
MALVEAUX: Thank you.
ARMSTRONG: Thank you.
COOPER: 360 next, a Filipino held hostage in the face of a threat. The Philippines says it will withdraw its troops from Iraq. What message does it send to terrorists? We'll talk about that. Plus, the Scott Peterson trial. Will a meth addict and a gang member help put a hold on the prosecution's case?
That and more tonight. 360, while the angle's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The Philippines yield, agreeing to pull out troops in exchange for the release of a hostage held by terrorists. Is it a major blow to the war on terror?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In the next half hour on "360": A meth addict and gang connection to the Laci Peterson's investigation. Is that possible? That ahead on justice served.
Also, "group think" getting blamed for intel failures: Could the same thing happen at your company? First, let's check our top stories in tonight's "Reset."
In Manila, the Philippine deputy foreign minister has told the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera that his government will be pulling its troops out of Iraq, quote, "as soon as possible." This is apparently in response to a demand by the kidnappers of Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, who has been threatened with death if his government's troops remain in the country.
In Washington, a new CNN/"USA TODAY"/GALLUP poll shows the Kerry- Edwards ticket leading Bush and Cheney by four points. When you factor in the margin of error, the race is almost a dead heat. The general trend of the poll does show since last month, though, a rise in the fortunes to Kerry campaign, but not much of the so-called Edwards bounce.
In Boston, Senator Kerry said today that Ron Reagan will have a place at the podium during the Democratic National Convention. The younger son of President Ronald Reagan will speak in prime time on the importance of stem-cell research. The Reagan family has pressed both parties to embrace the signs behind stem-cell research saying it might provide a possible cure in the future for Alzheimer's disease.
Well, to talk further about the decision of the Philippine government to pull out of Iraq as terrorists have demanded, we are joined now in Washington by Samer Shehata of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. I want to let you know we've also contacted the Philippine Embassy for more details, but were enable to get more information from them. This is a late developing story.
Samer, it's good to see you again.
SAMER SHEHATA, CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARAB STUDIES, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Thanks, Anderson. COOPER: What kind of a reaction do you think this will have in the Arab world and Iraq?
SHEHATA: Well, I don't -- I think we shouldn't overemphasize what the reaction will be. I don't think this is necessarily going to encourage more terrorism. I think...
COOPER: Why not?
SHEHATA: ... people in the -- well, for a couple of reasons. I think we need to re-examine the logic. I mean, terrorists don't always commit terrorist acts simply because it's easy. You know, that's not the only logic. You have to kind of want to be a terrorist and want to do these kinds of things and have underlying grievances.
Now, I'm not -- I'm not encouraging states to negotiate with terrorists, but I think sometimes we just take that logic for granted, as it were.
COOPER: But doesn't it -- doesn't it send -- I mean, what others will say is that it sends the message that taking hostages works if you want to alter policy, if you want to change policy.
SHEHATA: Right. Well, terrorists are going to resort to terrorism if they have no other means to address their grievances. Unfortunately, that's the sad reality, regardless of whether states negotiate with them or not. I'm not encouraging states to negotiate with them.
And we have to remember that the United States itself -- although it's stated it has a policy of no negotiations with terrorists -- has negotiated with terrorists in the past. You'll remember the 1986 Iran-Contra scandal under the Reagan administration, in which we basically sold arms to Iran to hopefully secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon.
So, I think that -- you know, of course this isn't something that should occur, but nevertheless, you have to remember -- regularly, that is -- we have to remember there were only about 50 Filipinos representing the government in Iraq to begin with. And certainly, their absence is a symbolic blow to the Bush administration and its war in Iraq, war effort, but certainly on the ground it makes very, very little difference.
COOPER: Interesting opinion there, Samer. Samer Shehata, appreciate you being on the program tonight. Thank you.
SHEHATA: You're welcome.
COOPER: Today's "Buzz" is this: What do you think? Should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Filipino hostage? Vote now, CNN.COM/360. We'll have results at the end of the program tonight.
Buzz word from the weekend: "group think." You heard it on all the Sunday news talk shows in connection to the intel failures leading up to September 11th, but it's a concept that really dates back even further than that.
CNN's Adaora Udoji takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: The intelligence community was suffering from what we call a collective "group think." This "group think" also extended to our allies and to the United Nations and several other nations, as well.
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Group think," the name inspired by George Orwell's famed book "1984," is getting the blame for U.S. intelligence failures leading to war in Iraq. Author James Surowiecki says it helps explain the gaps -- why evidence Iraq did not have a weapons arsenal according to the Senate Intelligence Committee was committed.
JAMES SUROWIECKI, "THE NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE, AUTHOR, "THE WISDOM OF CROWDS": "Group think" is used to describe what happens when a small group of tightly knit, ideologically coherent decision makers get together and, because they all agree on certain assumptions, those assumptions basically blind them.
UDOJI: The human phenomenon works like this: Though many people are involved, they think like one; someone who believes he's morally correct and subconsciously ignores contrary evidence.
PROF. STEVEN WALT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: The fact that it was pretty clear all along that the Bush administration, particularly senior officials there, were very interested in finding evidence that might support a decision for war is the kind of thing that's going to subtly influence...
UDOJI: "Group think's" been blamed before. In 1961, Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs, expecting no resistance from Cuba's Communist army. They were defeated, historians say, because President Kennedy's planners missed all the signs.
In 1986, concerns about launching the Challenger shuttle in cold weather were not shared. It exploded.
STEVE NESBIT, MISSION CONTROL SPOKESMAN: Obviously a major malfunction.
SUROWIECKI: There was a sense that the group at the top knew what was best and basically they just looked for evidence that it was OK to launch and, of course, with terrible results.
UDOJI (on camera): Analysts say the anecdote is a systematic process for including opposing views, that this is one of the challenges for the intelligence community in a post-9/11 world. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And joining me to talk more about the concept of "group think" is James Surowiecki. He is with "The New Yorker." He is also the author of the book, "The Wisdom of Crowds." We appreciate you being with us.
SUROWIECKI: Thanks for having me on.
COOPER: What are the conditions that you think led to this "group think" within the intelligence community?
SUROWIECKI: Well, I think there are two things to keep in mind: one is within the intelligence community as a whole; and the second one is within the Bush administration and sort of the White House.
I think one of the things is that you had a relatively coherent group of people who had an idea going in about what they knew was true. So, they sort of assumed to begin with that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Makes sense; we know he did have them at one point. And there was very little reason to believe that he didn't.
And so, I think you begin with that, and then you sort of go from the top down and you recognize that people in organizations are likely to try to give the people at top the information they want.
COOPER: It's interesting, though, because if there was "group think" in this, it was "group think" that existed over the course of several administrations and also internationally, because there were -- you know, foreign country had this "group think," if that's really what it was.
SUROWIECKI: Right. Well, that's one of the more dubious or maybe audacious aspects of the Senate intelligence committee report. It's the idea, the extension of group think to sort of the global community as a whole because group think has traditionally been defined as being involved with a relatively small group of decision makers so the Kennedy administration and the Bay of Pigs, the team that decided to launch the Challenger and I think the Bush administration would work in that way as well, the White House. But once you start to go beyond that I think it's probably better to think of group think as applying to the top levels of the intelligence community and then that attitude filtering down.
COOPER: It's also something you see in corporations. People talk about media bias. Often they would talk about group think as being behind some of that bias, not really a conscious effort to slant the news, but sort of you get a lot of like-minded people together...
SUROWIECKI: Yes, I think that's a great point. The idea that it's not necessarily always conscious. And, in fact, most of the time it's unconscious that you sort of have these people who are like- minded. A lot of times they're personally connected to each other, they're tightly knit. We like to work with people who we agree with, we like to work with people who we get along with and the problem in that environment is alternative points of view are very hard to come by and even when they're raised they start to seem somehow utterly improbable.
COOPER: I actually like to work with people I don't agree with to be honest. How do you get around group think? Is it by just trying to have as much diversity on your staff as possible?
SUROWIECKI: Yes, I think that's cognitive diversity, some knowledge. The irony here is that we know, or at least I would argue that groups under the right circumstances can be incredibly smart but they're only smart when they really are diverse and when people are relatively independent of each other in terms of the way they make decisions. So they get to be very conscious of doing that.
And I think the other thing is if you're a decisionmaker, the one thing I would say is you have to be humble and recognize that you might be wrong. Start from that assumption and then figure out what you think is actually right. No, very difficult.
COOPER: James, thanks for being with us.
SUROWIECKI: Thanks for having me, Anderson.
COOPER: 360 next. The Scott Peterson trial. Will a meth addict damage the prosecution's case or is this just a red herring?
Plus a little later. Notes on a missing weapon in the U.S. arsenal. We're going to take that to the "Nth Degree." 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A new twist tonight in the Scott Peterson case. Two months after Laci Peterson disappeared, a woman was caught carrying stolen checks that had belonged to Laci and Scott Peterson. Court TV broke the news saying the woman was a methamphetamine addict with links to an Asian crime gang. The woman admitted stealing the checks, but denied murdering Laci Peterson and her unborn son. Scott Peterson told police that he believed the people who took the checks may also be responsible for abducting his wife. Covering the case for us 360's legal analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Good to see you again.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE NEWSOM, 360 LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Anderson.
COOPER: Let's go through sort of all the many defense theories that have sort of been thrown out there to see what sticks. There's the Satanic cult idea, there's the mystery woman, there's a brown van, there's a neighbor who stole from the Petersons, and now this woman who apparently is a meth addict and had stolen some checks.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Right.
COOPER: Is this for real?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, that's what you want to begin to wonder. This whole thing looks like a Stephen King novel. It's unbelievable from the surreal to the ridiculous to the sublime. But bottom line is this is a woman who volunteered to take a lie detector test. She's in possession of these checks, decides not to use them because the family's been victimized. But think about it. These checks are mailed after Laci's disappearance. So it's interesting that Scott Peterson latches on to the idea. Because it doesn't make a lot of logical sense that she would be tied in. She's a methamphetamine addict, does some petty crimes, would do burglaries of mailboxes, et cetera and take checks. Identity theft.
COOPER: The checks were stolen from a warehouse, apparently?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Correct. And so there are Peterson checks and they were recovered in her backpack along with some methamphetamine paraphernalia. Now this woman now is working at a pizza parlor, she's 20 years old. She says she's trying to move on with her life.
COOPER: So according to this report, and again the story is broken by Court TV, this woman had no connection or no relationship or no interaction with Laci Peterson as far as we know.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: None whatsoever. What's interesting is in her backpack along with the methamphetamine paraphernalia is a Laci Peterson flyer. So she was aware of course, of what was going to in the massive search for Laci Peterson, but these items never came into her possession, the check until after Laci disappeared. So it wasn't that Laci had on her possession, checks at the time...
COOPER: So this hasn't even gone into court yet. Is this something you think Geragos is going to bring up?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, it's one thing he -- of course, they'd love it that it's out in the media, that people are talking about it. He can have a very high threshold from an evidentiary standpoint to be able to introduce this into trial. It's called third-party culpability. He has to show a direct nexus, a logical connection to the crime itself. So so far, it's not going to wash with the Satanic cult, the brown van, the burglary across the street, the burglary at his house and now this.
COOPER: But now all of those things have not been entered -- have not been talked about.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: They have not. The only thing that was brought up was Kim McGregor who entered into the house, seemed to have an obsession with Scott Peterson, took a video camera and some other items. She has been brought up. But you know what this kind of shows us is that the police really were following all possible leads to determine whether or not someone else could have been responsible.
COOPER: So you think the prosecution can actually use this to their advantage.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Think about it, to their advantage. Of course, it also benefits the defense because if you get one juror who is going to believe this, and look, it's not impossible. Look at Juror Number 5 who was kicked off, Justin Falconer. He believes some of these defense theories and thought Scott was a great guy who maybe went a little sideways on his wife, but that's about it.
COOPER: A cynic would say, if you throw enough stuff up, something is going to stick. GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Ultimately what I think on balance, they're going to lose credibility because too many of these ideas become so illogical, so, you know, nonsensical that you lose credibility with this jury and they're going to say, come on, where's the beef, Mark Geragos? What are you showing us here? None of this seems possible and the prosecution if they're smart will use it to their advantage.
COOPER: All right. Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, thanks.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Thank you.
COOPER: 360, next. Going for the record on "Jeopardy?" No, not me, but I wish it was.
Also tonight. U.S. troops looking for a new tune. We take that to the "Nth Degree." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well it has been long since some creative engineer with little fashion sense brought up the light up bow tie, remember those?
Yes, good times.
Or how about the tennis shoes with the blinking lights in the heel?
I hated those.
Brace yourself for the latest collision between apparel and high tech and the T-shirt may never be the same. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Please stay tuned for T-shirt TV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What in heaven's name?
MOOS: An 11-inch screen four built-in speakers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like I shouldn't be looking at their chest.
MOOS: That's not what guys say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill two birds with one stone, you know. Get to watch a movie and a thrill at the same time.
MOOS: Must see TV, but must not touch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's on the and off switch. (LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Just like with any TV, you can do to manually or with a remote. But only creator Adam Hollander of Brand Marketers, is allowed to fine-tune the T-shirts. The models are used to the jokes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the boob tube.
MOOS: Then there's the line actor Tom Hanks used when he crossed paths with the T-shirt TV-wearing model.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you're attractive for a flat-chested girl.
MOOS: Right now, T-shirt TV is being used to promote the movie "I, Robot." It plays digitized media and it played a live feed from a video camera shooting us.
ADAM HOLLANDER, BRAND MARKETERS: Every time we wear it out people ask where can I buy it? They offer us money for it.
MOOS: This is no $10 T-shirt, until the technology gets cheaper, a T-shirt TV would run several thousand dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it hurt to wear that?
MOOS: No, the models say it feels like a push-up bra, though even the pushiest bra doesn't weigh seven pounds and take 10 minutes to put on.
MOOS (on camera): I mean, it really is, it's a Teletubby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.
MOOS: Well, Teleboobies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Teleboobies, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to cleavage?
MOOS: Cleavage is out.
(voice-over): This is a set men can't resist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better than boobs!
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Where does Jeanne find these people?
Anyway, time to check in on pop news in tonight's "Current." Let's take a news at what's going on in the world of ridiculous.
Descendants of Aaron Burn, Alexander Hamilton marked the 200 anniversary of their ancestors infamous duel with a reenactment. The ceremonies harked back to a kinder, gentler time when VPs were far too busy gunning political rivals to be swearing at anyone on the floor of the Senate. Good times.
Wrapping a 10 day sentence for drunk driving, Country star Glen Campbell gave a 30-minute concert at Maricopa County's outdoor jail. Campbell delighted the crowd of nearly a thousand inmates with his hits "Gentle on my Mind" and "Rhinestone Cowboy," as well as his new single prison, "Shows, ain't as bad as "Oz" makes you think. And I don't know what that means.
Ken Jennings, the current "Jeopardy" champion during a run that started June 22nd has won $920,960. Jennings, admits to a vague sense of, what he calls, vague collective guilt for the players who had the misfortune of facing him.
We think Jennings is simply uncomfortable living in the shadow of my Jeopardy triumph. Let me go on record, right here, right now, Ken, I'm calling you out, mano-a-mano anywhere, any time, you and me one last, final "Jeopardy" we'll see who really is the "Jeopardy" champion.
Wow! I've been working out.
"360" next, the Air Force band looking for a new weapon. Yes, I said the band, we're going to take that to "The Nth Degree."
Plus tomorrow, one teacher's affair with her young student shocked America. Now eight years later she's about to be released from prison. Mary Kate Letourneau, we'll take you inside this strange story of obsession, and love and rape. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Earlier we asked you, should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Filipino hostage, 75 percent of you said, no, 25 percent of you, yes. Not scientific, but it is your "Buzz."
In the arsenal to the American military, but one of them, you'll be shocked to hear is currently not in use at all, is in fact collecting dust for lack of someone to deploy it. When we say deploy, we actually mean, play it. The weapon we're talking about is the accordion.
Yes, that's right, the Air Force band has had no accordionist since its last one retired 2-years-ago. The strolling strings as they're known have been reduced to recruiting this weekend at the Boston area where the American Accordionists Association is having its annual festival. The strings are looking for someone under 35, fit enough for boot camp, but with flying fingers in addition to six pack abs and iron man biceps, you know, a cross between Rambo and Laurence Welk.
You say the accordion is not a weapon, really, is morale not important, and is music not critical to morale? Also in terms of making detainees talk now that water boarding is out, you don't think 20 or 30 repetitions of "Lady of Spain" might do the job?
I'm Anderson Cooper, thanks for watching. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 12, 2004 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper.
In the face of terror, a U.S. ally blinks, giving in to hostage- takers' demands. Will we all now pay the price?
360 starts now.
A stunning concession to terrorists. The Philippines government promises to pull its troops out of Iraq as soon as possible to save the life of a hostage.
President Bush defends the war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were right to go into Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And he offers praise for the CIA.
The web of terror. Intelligence officials say it was Internet chatter that led to the latest warning.
A U.S. Marine insists he was abducted in Iraq, but how did Wassef Hassoun show up safe and sound in Lebanon?
Scott Peterson's defense has yet another theory. A drug addict found with Laci's checks. Or does she have any bearing on the case?
ANNOUNCER: Live from New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
Good evening again.
We begin tonight with what many will call a terrorist victory. Not another murder of a civilian, but capitulation, plain and simple, by the Philippine government to hostage-takers. Their demand, to pull Filipino troops out of Iraq, or have a captured Filipino citizen murdered.
On Sunday the Philippine government said they would stand firm. Today it appears they've changed their mind.
Late developments at this hour in the story. We go right to Jane Arraf in Baghdad. Jane, what's the latest?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Anderson, the latest appears to be that this hostage, truck driver Angelo de la Cruz, will be released on Tuesday, according to the captors. Now, this is from a source at Philippine embassy, who tells us that linked with the statement by the Philippine undersecretary, that the Philippines will indeed withdraw their troops from here.
The captors have said that they will, in exchange, release the hostage on Tuesday.
Now, the family of this truck driver, the wife and perhaps some of the eight children, have been flown to Jordan. They're not expected to come here, but they are expected to release a statement praising the kidnappers for releasing their husband and father.
Again, release expected on Tuesday of this Philippine truck driver after the Philippine government has made clear, that, yes, it will reverse its decision and pull out some 50 troops here, Anderson.
COOPER: Jane, do we know anything about how this negotiation? I mean, I guess there was some sort of negotiation. Any of the details of it at this point. or is it still not known?
ARRAF: It's been done through intermediaries, Anderson. And as you can imagine, it's quite murky here. No one really knows who they're speaking with and whether those people are indeed qualified to talk for the group that's holding these people. Now, this is just one of several cases that's going on.
But you can imagine the quandary that the government was in. This is a political uproar, and here's a truck driver, one of thousands of Filipinos who have come here to support the U.S. military and to do jobs like driving trucks on dangerous highways for not very much money, who was threatened publicly with beheading.
In the end, they seem to have decided that, yes, they did have to save the life of this man, and that it was worth the cost to them of possible whatever consequences there might be with the United States over this, Anderson.
COOPER: All right, CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf. Thanks very much, Jane, appreciate it.
In the current edition of "U.S. News and World Report," editor in chief Mort Zuckerman has written a strongly worded essay on the subject of acceding to terrorist demands. He joins me now.
Welcome. Thanks for being with us.
Were you stunned when you heard this late-breaking news?
MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": Yes, I was astonished, when you think of the fact that the United States has been helping the Philippine government combat their own Muslim terrorists in that country (UNINTELLIGIBLE)... COOPER: Because they had a big problem with that at home.
ZUCKERMAN: Absolutely. And we have been critical to their efforts to try and suppress the kind of terrorist activities in their own country. And now for them to abandon us, in effect, on doing this, I think is just astonishing, and very, very dangerous, because it's going to set a precedent that other people and other countries are going to be able to use and say, If the Philippines did it, why in the world don't you do it as well?
COOPER: Well, the, some people, I guess, will say, Well, look, there are only 50 humanitarian forces by the Philippines in Iraq. You're saying, though, it's not a question of numbers.
ZUCKERMAN: It's not a question of numbers. It's a question, it's another government that capitulates to the terrorists. All it does is create incentives for them to do it again. If it succeeds here, they're going to be able to say, Well, maybe it will succeed elsewhere.
There are all kinds of people all over the Muslim world who are susceptible to being kidnapped. There's no way of controlling that. And it puts everybody in jeopardy. So what they are doing, they may have saved this particular individual, they put God knows how many other people in jeopardy.
COOPER: Does it say that terror works? I mean, you know, people say terror is theater, and we have seen a variety of reactions. In Madrid, Spain, we saw, you know, a change in government. There have been any place that happens in South Korea, certainly demonstrations, people calling for change in policy. This seems to be the first time, at least recently, the Philippines has actually capitulated.
ZUCKERMAN: Right. They have capitulated. And this, unlike Madrid and Spain, wasn't the situation where a public was voting. The new president of the Philippines has just been installed, so the, her, that, that administration is not under threat, and it's just pure capitulation. It's really, it's a very sad day for the Philippines and for us.
COOPER: Very briefly, is there an alternative? In your essay, you write about possibly some sort of U.N. resolution which would make it possible for governments to, to, to...
ZUCKERMAN: Right. I...
COOPER: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ZUCKERMAN: The idea is to have the U.N. basically pass some kind of resolution that would say to the governments around the world, You must not negotiate with these terrorists. At least it will give democratic governments who are susceptible to pressure from public opinion and from the media to say, Look, we are just conforming to a U.N. resolution. It'll give them some cover so that they have some ability to withstand the pressures that we know are going to exist when this kind of thing happens. And it's now going to happen even more frequently...
COOPER: And those are internal pressures...
ZUCKERMAN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: ... from (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
ZUCKERMAN: Absolutely, absolutely.
COOPER: All right, fascinating. Mort Zuckerman, thanks very much.
ZUCKERMAN: You're welcome.
COOPER: It's a great article in this edition of "U.S. News and World Report."
ZUCKERMAN: Thank you.
COOPER: Today's buzz is this. What do you think? Should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Philippine hostage? Vote now, CNN.com/360. We will have results at the end of the program tonight.
Well, for a tense time last week, American authorities knew almost nothing about Corporal Wassef Hassoun's situation, not even where he was. Now, at least, they know that much. He's at the U.S. medical center in Landstuhl, Germany. But all the other questions -- how did he get to Lebanon? What really happened to him? -- well, those questions remain unanswered tonight.
CNN's Chris Burns reports via videophone.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on videophone): U.S. military officials say that since his arrival Friday, Corporal Wassef Hassoun has explained he was abducted. But Hassoun's disappearance remains a mystery to many, and a military investigation is continuing.
While those who spoke with Corporal Hassoun aren't allowed to divulge specifics, they at least provided character references.
HAMZA AL-MUBARAK, U.S. AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN: He served diligently, and he served with honor and continues to.
BURNS: Air Force Captain Hamza al-Mubarak is Hassoun's Muslim chaplain.
AL-MUBARAK: He is well. You know, looks forward to that time, the appropriate time after, you know, the debrief and any impending investigation afterwards, to, to -- for everyone to hear the story, and they'll understand completely, you know, his situation.
BURNS: Do you think he'll fully recover?
ARMY LTC SALLY HARVEY, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Absolutely.
BURNS: Why?
HARVEY: He's a strong young man. He has his head on straight, he has his feet on the ground. He has a good sense of perspective. I think all of -- he is very much like all of our other sailors, airmen, Marines that we've seen here. He's gone through a very traumatic experience, done very well in that event.
BURNS: Part of that experience, a video during his disappearance showing a sword over Corporal Hassoun's head. One Web site claimed he had been beheaded, and another claimed he was spared for agreeing not to return to his unit.
Why he was released, how he ended up in Lebanon, among many questions military investigators will have back in the United States.
COOPER: Clearly, we're having trouble with Chris Burns's videophone. He was live in Landstuhl, Germany.
The Senate Intelligence Committee had its say on Friday, and the 9/11 commission report is still to come, of course. Between those rather negative parentheses, President Bush gave his assessment today of what his administration has done where terrorism is concerned.
Not surprisingly his view doesn't have much in common either with that of the commission or the committee.
CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president's unmistakable message, uttered some half-dozen times in his 32-minute speech...
BUSH: And the American people are safer.
BASH: Under pressure for invading Iraq based on faulty intelligence, Mr. Bush dug in, saying war was about more than Saddam Hussein's elusive weapons.
BUSH: Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq.
BASH: The president has his work cut out for him. A recent poll shows 55 percent of Americans feel less safe from terror because of the war in Iraq, up 22 points in six months.
Mr. Bush spoke at this Tennessee site, where officials are studying nuclear materials surrendered by Libya.
BUSH: The Libyan government saw the seriousness of the civilized world and correctly judged its own interests.
BASH: Some weapons experts say it's not that simple.
ROSE GOTTEMOELLER, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: I don't really agree that it was Iraq that pushed Moammar Gadhafi into making the decision to give up his weapons of mass destruction. This has been a long diplomatic process.
BASH: Mr. Bush insisted Americans are more secure than they were three years ago. He made this sweeping claim.
BUSH: The world changed on September 11, and since that day we have changed the world.
BASH: His Democratic opponent pointed to hot spots like North Korea, saying he begs to differ.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not enough just to give speeches. America will only be safer when we get results.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Most of Mrs. -- Mr. Bush's arguments were not new, but simply repackaged, part of a coordinated White House effort to try to revive support for the president on an issue advisers thought would be an easy sell on the campaign trail, and that's his leadership on terrorism, Anderson.
COOPER: Dana, I want to talk about this decision by the Philippines, or apparent decision by the Philippines, to withdraw their personnel from Iraq, in basically acceding to demand of hostage- takers. This was a statement made by a deputy foreign minister in the Philippines. What is the White House saying about it at this point?
BASH: Well, they're noting exactly that, Anderson. I talked to a senior administration official who says it was a deputy foreign minister who made this claim, not the leader of the country. And at this point, the White House says that they still believe that the Philippines will not pull its very minimal force out of Iraq until August 20. That is when they were planning on doing it.
They do point out that it wasn't, for example, President Gloria Arroyo. She has been somebody who has been very close with the president in fighting the war on terrorism. They're still waiting to figure out what the final story is. But they point out that it was not the leader, it was simply a deputy, and they still think that they are not giving in to terrorists at this point.
COOPER: And just to remind our viewers, CNN's Jane Arraf, reporting live from Baghdad just a short time ago that this hostage apparently may be released as early as tomorrow. So the question of how that release was obtained, still to be answered tonight. It will be fascinating to watch these developments closely.
Dana Bash, thanks for that from the White House.
BASH: Thank you.
COOPER: Let's go back to politics now. John Kerry on his home turf, Boston, Mass., took (UNINTELLIGIBLE), took some swipes at what President Bush said today. No great surprise there. Senator Kerry says America is not safer because of the president's decisions since the September 11 terrorist attacks. He says America will only be safer when there are results.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Bush broke a trust with the American people with his decision to invade Iraq.
After John Edwards was picked by Senator Kerry as his running mate, some had predicted a major bounce in the polls. Well, new numbers out today do show a blip, but not much of a bounce. A new CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll shows the Kerry-Edwards leading Bush and Cheney by 4 points. But in fact, it is a statistical dead heat when you factor in the margin of error.
Some improvement over last month, however. Before Edwards joined the Democratic ticket, Kerry had just a 1-point advantage.
And on the Nader effect, that may be thinning out. Just 2 percent of likely voters say they'll pick him, down 1 percentage point since last month.
An Enron figure goes to the Big House, and not the kind she's used to living in. That story tops our look at what's going on cross- country tonight.
Former Enron assistant treasurer Lea Fastow getting used to an eight-by-10-foot cell in downtown Houston tonight, where she'll serve a year-long sentence for filing a false tax return on her husband's behalf. She turned herself in six hours earlier, early today, accompanied by a few relatives, but not her husband, Andrew. He'll be beginning serving his jail term when his wife finishes hers. They do have children.
New York City, last-minute settlement. Morgan Stanley agrees to fork over $54 million to settle more than 300 allegations of sexual discrimination, ranging from lewd behavior in the workplace to glass ceilings. The deal was announced just before opening statements were set to begin in a lawsuit.
Mount, Mount Holy, or Holly, New Jersey, intent to kill. This woman, a lawyer for Marianne Meborg (ph), says his client admits putting antifreeze in a drink she gave to her brother-in-law, but only wanted to sicken him so she could take control of his money. You see? She pleaded not guilty to murder today, but her attorney says manslaughter would be more appropriate.
Los Angeles, good-bye to Weezie. Actress Isabel Sanford, who played one-half of "The Jeffersons" in the long-running sitcom, has died at the age of 86. In 1981, she became the first African-American woman to win the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series.
And that's a look at stories cross-country tonight.
360 next, Terror.com, the latest terror warning and its connections to the Internet. Also, thanks, but no thanks. President Bush turns down an offer to speak at the NAACP convention. Its leaders are fired up and pulling no punches tonight.
And a strange twist in the Laci Peterson murder investigation. Does a meth addict linked to a gang have anything to do with the case? Or is this just a red herring?
All that ahead. But first, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the current anxiety over what this country's enemies may be planning is not based so much on esoteric knowledge, intercepts, clandestine chatter, messages from moles, that kind of thing. This time, the frightening signs are increasingly being posted right out in plain electronic sight.
CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Web site reads in part, "oh, Allah, destroy America and shake it." This one says, "The decisive battle is approaching."
Such threats are not new to terror experts, who scan hundreds of al Qaeda-related Web sites daily. But recently, some say there is more reason to worry. Experts say threats are coming with greater frequency and from more reliable sources.
EVAN KOHLMANN, GLOBALTERRORALERT.COM: A lot of the chatter that we're seeing is not coming from unidentified, unspecified sources on Internet chat boards. It's coming from the same sources that have predicted before terrorist acts that have actually occurred.
ARENA: One such source warned of attacks in Spain three months before the bombings there in March and distributed video of the beheading of American Nick Berg. It's called Global Islamic Media.
KOHLMANN: Is now saying that the death blows in the approaching battles are coming, that the death blows are upon us, and that these death blows will not only be horrible, but that they are sure to happen.
ARENA: Some of the potential targets mentioned include hospitals, parks, airports, and houses of worship.
GABRIEL WEIMANN, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: You see many targets mentioned. And if you are involved in psychological warfare, you know that the more targets you mention, the more panic you cause, and it will be harder to defend against the attacks.
ARENA: What's more, Weimann says, even if the postings are pure propaganda, they help terrorists accomplish their goal. WEIMANN: I think al Qaeda knows that one of the most important values of terrorism is the psychological impact.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA: Officials are taking the Web chatter very seriously, and have reached out to a variety of experts for assistance. Many are convinced that al Qaeda is prepared to strike and are intent on not missing any clues, Anderson.
COOPER: Kelli Arena, thanks from Washington tonight.
Some bare-knuckle election politics in Israel tops our look at what's going on around the world. Let's take a look at the uplink right now.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is threatening to call snap elections if rebellious members of his Likud Party try to block his efforts at a deal with the Labor Party. Sharon's efforts at a unity government face some stiff resistance from inside his own party. But the rival Labor Party is expected to accept his offer.
In Moscow, the U.S. embassy is offering Russian authorities assistance from the FBI to try and track down the killers of this man, American Paul Khlebnikov. Khlebnikov was the editor of "Forbes" magazine's Russian edition. He was shot by someone from a passing car as he left his office on Friday night.
In London, Bill Clinton seems to be a big hit. Over 1,200 people lined up to shake the former president's hand and give him -- have him sign a copy of his memoirs. Book sales of his autobiography have also exceeded all prerelease estimates in Germany.
On Left-hander's Beach in western Australia, the brother of a man who was killed in a shark attack -- look that the board -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the man's brother says, Please don't try to find the shark and kill it. Surfer Bradley Adriann (ph) Smith died on Saturday after fighting off at least one, possibly as many as two sharks. Smith's brother, Stefan (ph), says killing the shark would not avenge his brother's death.
That's a quick look at what's going on in the uplink tonight.
360 next, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and intel failures. All the blame is being put on groupthink. How common is that, and could it actually happen where you work?
First, President Bush isn't going to show up at the NAACP convention. Smart politics, or a bad mistake? All the angles, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: President Bush is the first president since the 1930s to skip an opportunity to speak at the annual NAACP convention, the fourth year in a row that the president's taken a pass. The blood has been bad in the past, and it is not getting better tonight. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If what the president calls a "nonexistent relationship" with leaders of the nation's largest civil rights group could actually get worse, then that's apparently what's happening. Leaders of the NAACP say they're furious with the president for refusing to address their convention this week.
KWEISI MFUME, NAACP PRESIDENT: If the president's new mantle and measurement for dialogue is to only talk and to only meet with those individuals or organizations that agree with him, then we are getting closer to the previous regime in Baghdad than we are to a democracy here in America.
TODD: Now, the bitterness turns to a full-bore attack on the administration on the issues, a pledge of political enmity from NAACP chairman Julian Bond. African-Americans are, quote, "ready to turn anger into action, to work for regime change here at home." Bond said the GOP appeals to, quote, "the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality. They preach neutrality and practice racial division."
The White House cited a scheduling conflict as the reason for the president's absence this year, but Mr. Bush, who did speak to the NAACP during the 2000 campaign, seemed to go further, describing his current relationship with the group's leadership as, quote, "basically nonexistent," adding, "You've heard the rhetoric and the names they've called me."
John Kerry, who will speak to the NAACP on Thursday, seized on the divide.
KERRY: Friends, I will be a president who meets with the leadership of the civil rights congress, who meets with the NAACP.
TODD: But Democrats have had their own problems with what they've traditionally seen as one of their key constituencies. Last summer, then-candidates Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, and Dennis Kucinich initially skipped the NAACP convention, then all three showed up and apologized.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In not coming Monday, I was wrong.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thank you, and I honor you for letting me be here today, and I am sorry that I was not here the other night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TODD (on camera): And Julian Bond himself added to the fire on the Democrats, complaining this week that they are, in his words, "not an opposition, they're an amen corner."
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Julian Bond's now calling for regime change, in his words, here at home, and the President Bush's spokesman insisting Bush is, quote, "reaching out to the African-American community in other ways." Clearly there's a difference in opinion here.
To talk about it, I'm joined by syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams, and author and commentator Julianne Malveaux. They are both in Washington.
And I appreciate you being on the program with us tonight. Thanks very much.
JULIANNE MALVEAUX, AUTHOR AND COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.
COOPER: Julianne, let me start off with you. I want to read to you a few comments made by the NAACP leadership in reference to President Bush. This, by the way, the organization says they are nonpartisan. And yet they refer to Bush and the Republican Party as, quote, "a crazed swarm of right-wing locusts," as neofascists, and, quote, "They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics."
Why should President Bush speak to them if this is the way they feel?
MALVEAUX: First of all, the NAACP is our nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, founded in 1909. It represents nearly a million African-American people. Its 64-member board includes some Republicans. Certainly I'd acknowledge that Democrats are in the majority. But then Democrats are in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: But it doesn't sound very nonpartisan to be calling, you know, President Bush "a crazed swarm of right wing locusts" and neofascist.
MALVEAUX: Yes, but Anderson, Anderson, this is a response to a number of policies and things that people disagree with. But here's the point. This president said he's going to reach out to everyone. He says he wants African-American votes. I understand his antipathy, but I think he's missing a golden opportunity.
If you look at African-American people under age 30, they're more likely to register as independents than Democrat or Republican. It's an opportunity for him. As you see in the state of Maryland, where Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, African-American, helped get Bob Ehrlich into the governor's house with predominantly...
COOPER: OK.
MALVEAUX: Black Prince George's County going for the Republicans. There are opportunities there. Instead of taking...
COOPER: You're saying he's missing out a big opportunity.
MALVEAUX: ... the high road. Yes...
COOPER: All right.
MALVEAUX: ... instead of taking the high road, the president is sounding like a 6-year-old. Oh, they called me names.
COOPER: Well, let me bring in Armstrong here. Armstrong, President Bush did visit the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 2000 NAACP convention, he wasn't president then, and he said this, "The NAACP and the GOP have not always been allies. I know that. But recognizing our past and confronting the future with a common vision, by doing that I believe we can find common ground." Now, if those words were sincere, why not go and talk to them now?
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, he also said the very same thing to Morial, who's president of the National Urban League, who was very harshly critical of the president. But Morial, since becoming president of the Urban League, has shown civility. He's shown fairness, and he's shown that he's not in either camp of either political party.
It is clear that the NAACP, since Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume has taken over, has become an extension of the Democratic Party. When Julian Bond can stand up and just totally mislead and manipulate its audience by saying that he would not be surprised if this president were to repeal the 14th Amendment, they're disingenuous.
I think the president would be a hypocrite if he showed up. The NAACP is not interested in having the president. This is political grandstanding. They want to do all they can to help John Kerry, help the Democratic Party. They're not trying to hide it.
And it's a sad, it's sad moment, because the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- NAACP, as Julianne once said, did have the leadership and the moral authority. But since this regime, which needs a regime change, has taken over, they've lost the moral authority. They've (UNINTELLIGIBLE) organization into a political organization.
They don't represent the masses of black people in that organization. There are many people in the grass roots who do not like what Kweisi and Julian says. But they're the ones who have the bully pulpit. They're the ones that get the video coverage.
They've abandoned the moral authority, the moral movement that this country which once had, which gave the NAACP purpose. And so...
COOPER: Very...
ARMSTRONG: ... the president is absolutely correct not so show up.
COOPER: Very briefly, final thought, Julianne.
MALVEAUX: Well, you know, Anderson, if you go, there are 2,500 NAACP chapters around the country. There are NAACP chapters on some of our military installations abroad. There are people who are NAACP members who do support President Bush, and there are those who are open to him.
The president is missing an opportunity, simply missing an opportunity, and disrespecting the oldest and largest civil rights organization.
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: He is...
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: ... the number one person in the United States. He has the opportunity...
COOPER: Just want to give Armstrong...
MALVEAUX: ... to take the high road.
COOPER: ... equal time.
MALVEAUX: He refuses to take-...
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
MALVEAUX: ... the high road.
COOPER: We're almost out of time, Armstrong.
ARMSTRONG: I don't think, I don't think any American listening to this debate would be disappointed and could not understand why President Bush, in a principled way, will not attend the NAACP convention.
I think they need a regime change, and I think if they continue down this road, they should have their tax-exempt status rejected, because they're violating every regulation against their 501-C3 organization. And that is the organization that need a regime change, not a regime change in the White House.
COOPER: Tough words. We're going to have to leave it there. Armstrong Williams, Julianne Malveaux, fascinating discussion. Thanks for being on.
MALVEAUX: Thank you.
ARMSTRONG: Thank you.
COOPER: 360 next, a Filipino held hostage in the face of a threat. The Philippines says it will withdraw its troops from Iraq. What message does it send to terrorists? We'll talk about that. Plus, the Scott Peterson trial. Will a meth addict and a gang member help put a hold on the prosecution's case?
That and more tonight. 360, while the angle's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The Philippines yield, agreeing to pull out troops in exchange for the release of a hostage held by terrorists. Is it a major blow to the war on terror?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In the next half hour on "360": A meth addict and gang connection to the Laci Peterson's investigation. Is that possible? That ahead on justice served.
Also, "group think" getting blamed for intel failures: Could the same thing happen at your company? First, let's check our top stories in tonight's "Reset."
In Manila, the Philippine deputy foreign minister has told the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera that his government will be pulling its troops out of Iraq, quote, "as soon as possible." This is apparently in response to a demand by the kidnappers of Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, who has been threatened with death if his government's troops remain in the country.
In Washington, a new CNN/"USA TODAY"/GALLUP poll shows the Kerry- Edwards ticket leading Bush and Cheney by four points. When you factor in the margin of error, the race is almost a dead heat. The general trend of the poll does show since last month, though, a rise in the fortunes to Kerry campaign, but not much of the so-called Edwards bounce.
In Boston, Senator Kerry said today that Ron Reagan will have a place at the podium during the Democratic National Convention. The younger son of President Ronald Reagan will speak in prime time on the importance of stem-cell research. The Reagan family has pressed both parties to embrace the signs behind stem-cell research saying it might provide a possible cure in the future for Alzheimer's disease.
Well, to talk further about the decision of the Philippine government to pull out of Iraq as terrorists have demanded, we are joined now in Washington by Samer Shehata of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. I want to let you know we've also contacted the Philippine Embassy for more details, but were enable to get more information from them. This is a late developing story.
Samer, it's good to see you again.
SAMER SHEHATA, CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARAB STUDIES, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Thanks, Anderson. COOPER: What kind of a reaction do you think this will have in the Arab world and Iraq?
SHEHATA: Well, I don't -- I think we shouldn't overemphasize what the reaction will be. I don't think this is necessarily going to encourage more terrorism. I think...
COOPER: Why not?
SHEHATA: ... people in the -- well, for a couple of reasons. I think we need to re-examine the logic. I mean, terrorists don't always commit terrorist acts simply because it's easy. You know, that's not the only logic. You have to kind of want to be a terrorist and want to do these kinds of things and have underlying grievances.
Now, I'm not -- I'm not encouraging states to negotiate with terrorists, but I think sometimes we just take that logic for granted, as it were.
COOPER: But doesn't it -- doesn't it send -- I mean, what others will say is that it sends the message that taking hostages works if you want to alter policy, if you want to change policy.
SHEHATA: Right. Well, terrorists are going to resort to terrorism if they have no other means to address their grievances. Unfortunately, that's the sad reality, regardless of whether states negotiate with them or not. I'm not encouraging states to negotiate with them.
And we have to remember that the United States itself -- although it's stated it has a policy of no negotiations with terrorists -- has negotiated with terrorists in the past. You'll remember the 1986 Iran-Contra scandal under the Reagan administration, in which we basically sold arms to Iran to hopefully secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon.
So, I think that -- you know, of course this isn't something that should occur, but nevertheless, you have to remember -- regularly, that is -- we have to remember there were only about 50 Filipinos representing the government in Iraq to begin with. And certainly, their absence is a symbolic blow to the Bush administration and its war in Iraq, war effort, but certainly on the ground it makes very, very little difference.
COOPER: Interesting opinion there, Samer. Samer Shehata, appreciate you being on the program tonight. Thank you.
SHEHATA: You're welcome.
COOPER: Today's "Buzz" is this: What do you think? Should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Filipino hostage? Vote now, CNN.COM/360. We'll have results at the end of the program tonight.
Buzz word from the weekend: "group think." You heard it on all the Sunday news talk shows in connection to the intel failures leading up to September 11th, but it's a concept that really dates back even further than that.
CNN's Adaora Udoji takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: The intelligence community was suffering from what we call a collective "group think." This "group think" also extended to our allies and to the United Nations and several other nations, as well.
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Group think," the name inspired by George Orwell's famed book "1984," is getting the blame for U.S. intelligence failures leading to war in Iraq. Author James Surowiecki says it helps explain the gaps -- why evidence Iraq did not have a weapons arsenal according to the Senate Intelligence Committee was committed.
JAMES SUROWIECKI, "THE NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE, AUTHOR, "THE WISDOM OF CROWDS": "Group think" is used to describe what happens when a small group of tightly knit, ideologically coherent decision makers get together and, because they all agree on certain assumptions, those assumptions basically blind them.
UDOJI: The human phenomenon works like this: Though many people are involved, they think like one; someone who believes he's morally correct and subconsciously ignores contrary evidence.
PROF. STEVEN WALT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: The fact that it was pretty clear all along that the Bush administration, particularly senior officials there, were very interested in finding evidence that might support a decision for war is the kind of thing that's going to subtly influence...
UDOJI: "Group think's" been blamed before. In 1961, Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs, expecting no resistance from Cuba's Communist army. They were defeated, historians say, because President Kennedy's planners missed all the signs.
In 1986, concerns about launching the Challenger shuttle in cold weather were not shared. It exploded.
STEVE NESBIT, MISSION CONTROL SPOKESMAN: Obviously a major malfunction.
SUROWIECKI: There was a sense that the group at the top knew what was best and basically they just looked for evidence that it was OK to launch and, of course, with terrible results.
UDOJI (on camera): Analysts say the anecdote is a systematic process for including opposing views, that this is one of the challenges for the intelligence community in a post-9/11 world. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And joining me to talk more about the concept of "group think" is James Surowiecki. He is with "The New Yorker." He is also the author of the book, "The Wisdom of Crowds." We appreciate you being with us.
SUROWIECKI: Thanks for having me on.
COOPER: What are the conditions that you think led to this "group think" within the intelligence community?
SUROWIECKI: Well, I think there are two things to keep in mind: one is within the intelligence community as a whole; and the second one is within the Bush administration and sort of the White House.
I think one of the things is that you had a relatively coherent group of people who had an idea going in about what they knew was true. So, they sort of assumed to begin with that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Makes sense; we know he did have them at one point. And there was very little reason to believe that he didn't.
And so, I think you begin with that, and then you sort of go from the top down and you recognize that people in organizations are likely to try to give the people at top the information they want.
COOPER: It's interesting, though, because if there was "group think" in this, it was "group think" that existed over the course of several administrations and also internationally, because there were -- you know, foreign country had this "group think," if that's really what it was.
SUROWIECKI: Right. Well, that's one of the more dubious or maybe audacious aspects of the Senate intelligence committee report. It's the idea, the extension of group think to sort of the global community as a whole because group think has traditionally been defined as being involved with a relatively small group of decision makers so the Kennedy administration and the Bay of Pigs, the team that decided to launch the Challenger and I think the Bush administration would work in that way as well, the White House. But once you start to go beyond that I think it's probably better to think of group think as applying to the top levels of the intelligence community and then that attitude filtering down.
COOPER: It's also something you see in corporations. People talk about media bias. Often they would talk about group think as being behind some of that bias, not really a conscious effort to slant the news, but sort of you get a lot of like-minded people together...
SUROWIECKI: Yes, I think that's a great point. The idea that it's not necessarily always conscious. And, in fact, most of the time it's unconscious that you sort of have these people who are like- minded. A lot of times they're personally connected to each other, they're tightly knit. We like to work with people who we agree with, we like to work with people who we get along with and the problem in that environment is alternative points of view are very hard to come by and even when they're raised they start to seem somehow utterly improbable.
COOPER: I actually like to work with people I don't agree with to be honest. How do you get around group think? Is it by just trying to have as much diversity on your staff as possible?
SUROWIECKI: Yes, I think that's cognitive diversity, some knowledge. The irony here is that we know, or at least I would argue that groups under the right circumstances can be incredibly smart but they're only smart when they really are diverse and when people are relatively independent of each other in terms of the way they make decisions. So they get to be very conscious of doing that.
And I think the other thing is if you're a decisionmaker, the one thing I would say is you have to be humble and recognize that you might be wrong. Start from that assumption and then figure out what you think is actually right. No, very difficult.
COOPER: James, thanks for being with us.
SUROWIECKI: Thanks for having me, Anderson.
COOPER: 360 next. The Scott Peterson trial. Will a meth addict damage the prosecution's case or is this just a red herring?
Plus a little later. Notes on a missing weapon in the U.S. arsenal. We're going to take that to the "Nth Degree." 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A new twist tonight in the Scott Peterson case. Two months after Laci Peterson disappeared, a woman was caught carrying stolen checks that had belonged to Laci and Scott Peterson. Court TV broke the news saying the woman was a methamphetamine addict with links to an Asian crime gang. The woman admitted stealing the checks, but denied murdering Laci Peterson and her unborn son. Scott Peterson told police that he believed the people who took the checks may also be responsible for abducting his wife. Covering the case for us 360's legal analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Good to see you again.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE NEWSOM, 360 LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Anderson.
COOPER: Let's go through sort of all the many defense theories that have sort of been thrown out there to see what sticks. There's the Satanic cult idea, there's the mystery woman, there's a brown van, there's a neighbor who stole from the Petersons, and now this woman who apparently is a meth addict and had stolen some checks.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Right.
COOPER: Is this for real?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, that's what you want to begin to wonder. This whole thing looks like a Stephen King novel. It's unbelievable from the surreal to the ridiculous to the sublime. But bottom line is this is a woman who volunteered to take a lie detector test. She's in possession of these checks, decides not to use them because the family's been victimized. But think about it. These checks are mailed after Laci's disappearance. So it's interesting that Scott Peterson latches on to the idea. Because it doesn't make a lot of logical sense that she would be tied in. She's a methamphetamine addict, does some petty crimes, would do burglaries of mailboxes, et cetera and take checks. Identity theft.
COOPER: The checks were stolen from a warehouse, apparently?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Correct. And so there are Peterson checks and they were recovered in her backpack along with some methamphetamine paraphernalia. Now this woman now is working at a pizza parlor, she's 20 years old. She says she's trying to move on with her life.
COOPER: So according to this report, and again the story is broken by Court TV, this woman had no connection or no relationship or no interaction with Laci Peterson as far as we know.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: None whatsoever. What's interesting is in her backpack along with the methamphetamine paraphernalia is a Laci Peterson flyer. So she was aware of course, of what was going to in the massive search for Laci Peterson, but these items never came into her possession, the check until after Laci disappeared. So it wasn't that Laci had on her possession, checks at the time...
COOPER: So this hasn't even gone into court yet. Is this something you think Geragos is going to bring up?
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, it's one thing he -- of course, they'd love it that it's out in the media, that people are talking about it. He can have a very high threshold from an evidentiary standpoint to be able to introduce this into trial. It's called third-party culpability. He has to show a direct nexus, a logical connection to the crime itself. So so far, it's not going to wash with the Satanic cult, the brown van, the burglary across the street, the burglary at his house and now this.
COOPER: But now all of those things have not been entered -- have not been talked about.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: They have not. The only thing that was brought up was Kim McGregor who entered into the house, seemed to have an obsession with Scott Peterson, took a video camera and some other items. She has been brought up. But you know what this kind of shows us is that the police really were following all possible leads to determine whether or not someone else could have been responsible.
COOPER: So you think the prosecution can actually use this to their advantage.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Think about it, to their advantage. Of course, it also benefits the defense because if you get one juror who is going to believe this, and look, it's not impossible. Look at Juror Number 5 who was kicked off, Justin Falconer. He believes some of these defense theories and thought Scott was a great guy who maybe went a little sideways on his wife, but that's about it.
COOPER: A cynic would say, if you throw enough stuff up, something is going to stick. GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Ultimately what I think on balance, they're going to lose credibility because too many of these ideas become so illogical, so, you know, nonsensical that you lose credibility with this jury and they're going to say, come on, where's the beef, Mark Geragos? What are you showing us here? None of this seems possible and the prosecution if they're smart will use it to their advantage.
COOPER: All right. Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, thanks.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Thank you.
COOPER: 360, next. Going for the record on "Jeopardy?" No, not me, but I wish it was.
Also tonight. U.S. troops looking for a new tune. We take that to the "Nth Degree." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well it has been long since some creative engineer with little fashion sense brought up the light up bow tie, remember those?
Yes, good times.
Or how about the tennis shoes with the blinking lights in the heel?
I hated those.
Brace yourself for the latest collision between apparel and high tech and the T-shirt may never be the same. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Please stay tuned for T-shirt TV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What in heaven's name?
MOOS: An 11-inch screen four built-in speakers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like I shouldn't be looking at their chest.
MOOS: That's not what guys say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill two birds with one stone, you know. Get to watch a movie and a thrill at the same time.
MOOS: Must see TV, but must not touch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's on the and off switch. (LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Just like with any TV, you can do to manually or with a remote. But only creator Adam Hollander of Brand Marketers, is allowed to fine-tune the T-shirts. The models are used to the jokes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the boob tube.
MOOS: Then there's the line actor Tom Hanks used when he crossed paths with the T-shirt TV-wearing model.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you're attractive for a flat-chested girl.
MOOS: Right now, T-shirt TV is being used to promote the movie "I, Robot." It plays digitized media and it played a live feed from a video camera shooting us.
ADAM HOLLANDER, BRAND MARKETERS: Every time we wear it out people ask where can I buy it? They offer us money for it.
MOOS: This is no $10 T-shirt, until the technology gets cheaper, a T-shirt TV would run several thousand dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it hurt to wear that?
MOOS: No, the models say it feels like a push-up bra, though even the pushiest bra doesn't weigh seven pounds and take 10 minutes to put on.
MOOS (on camera): I mean, it really is, it's a Teletubby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.
MOOS: Well, Teleboobies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Teleboobies, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to cleavage?
MOOS: Cleavage is out.
(voice-over): This is a set men can't resist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better than boobs!
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Where does Jeanne find these people?
Anyway, time to check in on pop news in tonight's "Current." Let's take a news at what's going on in the world of ridiculous.
Descendants of Aaron Burn, Alexander Hamilton marked the 200 anniversary of their ancestors infamous duel with a reenactment. The ceremonies harked back to a kinder, gentler time when VPs were far too busy gunning political rivals to be swearing at anyone on the floor of the Senate. Good times.
Wrapping a 10 day sentence for drunk driving, Country star Glen Campbell gave a 30-minute concert at Maricopa County's outdoor jail. Campbell delighted the crowd of nearly a thousand inmates with his hits "Gentle on my Mind" and "Rhinestone Cowboy," as well as his new single prison, "Shows, ain't as bad as "Oz" makes you think. And I don't know what that means.
Ken Jennings, the current "Jeopardy" champion during a run that started June 22nd has won $920,960. Jennings, admits to a vague sense of, what he calls, vague collective guilt for the players who had the misfortune of facing him.
We think Jennings is simply uncomfortable living in the shadow of my Jeopardy triumph. Let me go on record, right here, right now, Ken, I'm calling you out, mano-a-mano anywhere, any time, you and me one last, final "Jeopardy" we'll see who really is the "Jeopardy" champion.
Wow! I've been working out.
"360" next, the Air Force band looking for a new weapon. Yes, I said the band, we're going to take that to "The Nth Degree."
Plus tomorrow, one teacher's affair with her young student shocked America. Now eight years later she's about to be released from prison. Mary Kate Letourneau, we'll take you inside this strange story of obsession, and love and rape. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Earlier we asked you, should the Philippines agree to remove troops in exchange for the release of a Filipino hostage, 75 percent of you said, no, 25 percent of you, yes. Not scientific, but it is your "Buzz."
In the arsenal to the American military, but one of them, you'll be shocked to hear is currently not in use at all, is in fact collecting dust for lack of someone to deploy it. When we say deploy, we actually mean, play it. The weapon we're talking about is the accordion.
Yes, that's right, the Air Force band has had no accordionist since its last one retired 2-years-ago. The strolling strings as they're known have been reduced to recruiting this weekend at the Boston area where the American Accordionists Association is having its annual festival. The strings are looking for someone under 35, fit enough for boot camp, but with flying fingers in addition to six pack abs and iron man biceps, you know, a cross between Rambo and Laurence Welk.
You say the accordion is not a weapon, really, is morale not important, and is music not critical to morale? Also in terms of making detainees talk now that water boarding is out, you don't think 20 or 30 repetitions of "Lady of Spain" might do the job?
I'm Anderson Cooper, thanks for watching. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
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