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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Insurgents Step Up Attacks Across Iraq; Presidential Race Tied In Pennsylvania; Interview with Kristin Gore
Aired September 08, 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 from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
U.S. warplanes strike insurgents after a bloody week of attacks in Iraq.
360 starts now.
Insurgents step up attacks across Iraq. Bloody clashes and ambushes. We'll take you to the front lines.
John Kerry plays the Iraq card, charging President Bush made wrong choices. But how much do their Iraq policies really differ?
Conflicting claims over President Bush's military service. Did he or didn't he meet his obligations?
A poor man accused of killing a rich man. The twisted tale of money, murder, and love.
How did a homecoming queen wind up dead in a Colorado State University fraternity? Police search for answers.
And Al Gore's daughter pens a political novel. Tonight we go 360 with Kristin Gore.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
COOPER: Good evening to you.
It's hard to tell from this distance whether things are getting better or worse in Iraq. It's even hard to tell up close. A new, comprehensive report, however, released today by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in many important respects things are getting worse, and the very fact that Americans are there at all is part of the problem, at least as far as Iraqis perceive it.
Much of the talk in the presidential campaign, which we'll get to in a bit, concerns Iraq and what to do there. Increasingly, though, it seems you have to ask, which Iraq, ours or theirs?
CNN's Walter Rodgers reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An American fighter-bomber targeting a suspected Islamist insurgent command and control headquarters in Fallujah. For those at ground zero, it was an angel of death.
Fallujah is currently the epicenter of resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, home as well to several thousand foreign fighters eager to spill American blood.
On Monday they succeeded, killing seven U.S. Marines in a suicide car bomb that blew up the Marines' transport vehicle. Now, in the Fallujah attacks, U.S. forces estimate they killed as many as 100 insurgents.
After bitter fighting in Fallujah last spring, the American military has opted to bypass it now, instead encircling the insurgents, locking them down, thus minimizing U.S. casualties. Some generals acknowledge much of Iraq is less stable now than when U.S. forces first arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's fair to say that in certain areas, it's more hostile than it was right after the fall of Baghdad. I think that is fair to say. And those areas are primarily in the Fallujah-Ramadi area.
RODGERS: Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad, was quiet after savage fighting Monday and Tuesday. Iraqis paused to bury their dead. Dozens died in the past few days.
Few expect the quiet to last, witness this graffiti, "Death to the enemies of Muqtada al-Sadr." Dead Iraqis, now more than 1,000 dead Americans. Back in the United States, a mourning American mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're killing off our young. We're killing off our future.
RODGERS: Still unknown at this point is the fate of these two 29-year-old Italian aid workers helping in a hospital, kidnapped yesterday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, as for the two men who are competing to deal with whatever lies ahead in Iraq and in this country, we begin in the challenger's corner, which was in Cincinnati today, as was senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think this looks a lot like this, then you've got the picture.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We need a new direction. We need statesmanship. We need leadership. CROWLEY: Twenty-three months after George Bush came to Cincinnati to make his case for a war in Iraq, John Kerry returned to the same spot to make his case for a new president in the United States.
KERRY: ...new credibility to open up the channels of communication. We need to do a whole bunch of things in Iraq that this president could have done and hasn't even tried to do. We need to really bring our allies to our side.
CROWLEY: It was little more than Kerry's latest stump speech in teleprompter form in a symbolic setting. It is part of an ongoing effort by strategists to keep the candidate on message and on offense, which basically means less Iraq, more everything else.
George Bush currently holds a double-digit edge when voters are asked who can best handle Iraq or the terror threat. The playing field advantage falls to Kerry on the economy. So the senator is trying to bring home the war.
KERRY: Two hundred billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children. Two hundred billion dollars for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans.
CROWLEY (on camera): The Bush campaign quickly pointed out a year-old interview in which Kerry said the U.S. should spend whatever billions are necessary to win the war. Said a Bush spokesman, John Kerry has gone from a candidate on both sides of Iraq to a candidate who is completely incoherent on Iraq.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Rochester, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, the latest CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll shows that President Bush may have the edge in a couple of showdown states. Here's a 360 news note. Among both likely and registered voters in Missouri, Bush has a double-digit lead in Ohio. Bush also seems to have the advantage with likely voters.
But when you factor in the sampling error, too close to call among registered voters.
Pennsylvania racing's neck and neck, just 1 percentage point difference with likely voters, and a tie with registered, while in Washington it is Senator Kerry with the lead. President Bush is at least 8 percentage points behind.
In Russia, details emerging about the meticulous and sadistic planning terrorists took before killing at least 335 people. Authorities today said the 32 militants, two of them women, gathered in the woods not far from the school just before making their deadly move. After piling into two cars and a truck, the gunmen actually got into a firefight with police before arriving at the school. As the country continues to grieve, Russia's top general threatened today to carry out a preemptive strike against any terror bases around the globe.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Beslan, the search for answers is overshadowed by grief. But one question was asked from the start. How did this hostage crisis turn into a massacre?
The explanation has taken days. But a government investigation now suggests some of the militants were at first reluctant to kill children. It took extreme violence by the group's leader, known as the Colonel, to enforce his will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) blew up two female suicide bombers in order to threaten the terrorists and hostages. He pressed the button on a remote control, and they were exploded. The aim was to threaten.
CHANCE: The tactic worked.
But poor planning on the part of the Russian authorities may have contributed to even greater loss of life. Eyewitnesses say local militias led the firefight to end the siege. Highly trained special forces were stood down to allow for negotiations. Uncontrolled fire killed government troops, perhaps even some of the hostages themselves.
The people of Beslan still grieve their loss. Drinks are among the tributes. Many of the children were denied water for days. They starved while the militants ate chocolate.
But it seems this callous terrorism may have combined with bad crisis management to allow such disaster in a small town.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, according to this government investigation as well, it seems that this hostage siege was well organized and well planned. The militants, 32 of them, as you mentioned, organized in a forest close by before getting into cars, getting into a gunfight before taking this school. They came in with many weapons and many explosives.
In response, the Russian government and Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that he is putting a $10 million reward on the top two Chechen rebel leaders, and also vowing to strike anywhere in the world if necessary to prevent any further terrorist acts, Anderson.
COOPER: Matthew, I read that there weren't enough ambulances standing by. How can that be? Because that was a similar problem with the standoff when terrorists took over the Nord Ost Theater back in Moscow.
CHANCE: Right, it was. There was a big problem down here as well, because the medical facilities in this part of Russia are very scant, indeed. In fact, that many of the injured hostages had to be taken to hospitals many, many miles away from here.
The government reserved 1,000 beds in hospitals all over the region, because, you know, the hospitals here just don't have the equipment, don't have the facilities to deal with such casualties on such a large scale.
COOPER: Yes. Thanks very much, Matthew Chance. Appreciate it.
Upbeat feedback on the U.S. economy. That story tops our look at what's going around cross-country.
Washington, D.C., Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told a House committee today the economy has, quote, "regained some traction" after hitting a soft spot this summer. Analysts say Greenspan's comments likely to mean a third hike in interest rates at the Fed's policy meeting in two weeks.
Redwood City, California, now, Scott Peterson trial. An FBI expert testified today that two strands of hair found on a pair of pliers on Peterson's boat are consistent with strands taken from his slain wife's hairbrush. The prosecution contends the boat was used to dispose of Laci Peterson's body.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Lionel Tate arrested again. The teen, who was convicted of killing a playmate in 2001 while wrestling -- remember that case? He is now charged with violating his probation. Sheriff deputies say they caught Tate Friday in a park with a knife. Tate's life sentence for murder was overturned, and he was placed under house arrest. At the time, the judge said Tate could be sent back to prison if he violated his probation.
Aiken, South Carolina, now, a pitchfork used to rob a bank. That's right, a pitchfork. Security cameras caught the masked robber in the act. Police are trying to track down the suspect, who took off on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. Not sure if he left the pitchfork behind.
That's a quick look at stories cross-country tonight.
A frat house death, a horrible story in Colorado. A college campus in mourning tonight. How did a former homecoming queen wind up dead?
Plus, NASA's latest nightmare, a crash-landing in a Utah desert. What went wrong? It is for NASA a midweek crisis.
And a little later, Al Gore's daughter pens a political book. I'll talk with Kristin Gore ahead.
First let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Samantha Spadey (ph) was a former homecoming queen, a 19-year-old student at Colorado State University. She told friends she needed a ride home. That was on Saturday. By Sunday, Samantha Spadey was dead, her body found inside a fraternity house.
Tonight, police think they know how she died, but what remains a mystery is why.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was 19 years old. She had just started her second year of college at Colorado State University, and now Samantha Spadey is dead, found in a university fraternity house.
SANDI HOFFMAN, FORMER TEACHER: She was always smiling. She was always friendly. It's hard to lose a student like that.
MARQUEZ: Fort Collins police say Spadey's body was found in a bedroom converted into a lounge at the Sigma Pi fraternity house, her death possibly caused by drinking too much alcohol. A spokesman for the fraternity says the charter has been temporarily suspended pending the investigation. He says there was no official party at the house last Saturday night, but said Spadey was there with several friends. She was not reported dead until 6:22 p.m. the next day.
MARK BRISCOE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SIGMA PI: She was a very good friend with many of the brothers in this house. She felt very comfortable over here, and there is a lot of brothers going through grief right now.
MARQUEZ: Fort Collins police say based upon the preliminary toxicology results, it is believed alcohol may have been a factor in her death. And "The Rocky Mountain News" reports that Spadey's initial blood alcohol count was 0.43, more than five times the legal limit for Colorado drivers.
At a candlelight vigil, students grieved for the former high school homecoming queen, senior class president, and head cheerleader from Beatrice (ph), Nebraska.
(on camera): Fort Collins police say there was no signs of sexual assault or trauma to Spadey's body. Investigators are now trying to piece together the last hours of Spadey's life and trying to determine if anyone was responsible for providing her with alcohol.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Hurricane Ivan hammers Grenada. That tops our look at what's happening around the world in the uplink. The hurricane struck the island hard yesterday, killing at least three people, destroying many buildings, including the prime minister's home. Forecasters say the storm, now category four, will likely enter the Gulf of Mexico early next week, but it is not certain whether it will hit hurricane-battered Florida. Let's hope not.
North central Turkey, miners trapped and killed by fire. At least 19 workers died when a fire swept through a Turkish copper mine. Now, it's believed to have started when welding equipment ignited other materials.
Near the Black Sea, Romania, looking at the stars A Romanian team of engineers, chemists, physicists, and space buffs has unveiled a prototype space rocket that runs on hydrogen peroxide. The team plans to launch a manned version in January. Romanians are hoping to win an international spaceflight competition and get a $10 million prize. And they can dye their hair while they're at it.
That's tonight's uplink.
COOPER: If you were standing in the Utah desert today, you may have seen what looked like a whirling top spinning out of the sky. This was no toy. It was a spaceship, a very expensive one, that held the very building blocks of the universe. It was supposed to glide to earth, but in just a few fleeting rotations, it went from smooth sailing to a big midweek crisis for NASA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Snatching the solar wind, learning the secrets of the sun's evolution, answering some of life's most obscure questions, one atom at a time. This was the mission of Genesis, NASA's $260 million space exploration project.
NASA had high hopes for a dramatic and triumphant return to earth. Helicopter stuntmen from Hollywood were going to hook the capsule and help guide it as it floated down to earth. The purpose of the midair retrieval, to avoid a ground impact that could shatter the delicate equipment holding the solar particles.
Ouch! Unfortunately, a smooth landing wasn't, shall we say, in the stars. The high-tech space probe was foiled by a low-tech failure. The capsule, that looks like a 1957 hubcap, came to a crashing 100-mile-an-hour thud in a Utah desert after its parachute failed to open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look for an impact.
COOPER: The impact drove the capsule halfway underground, burying the secrets of outer space, with scientists left wondering if anything can be salvaged. Perhaps NASA can learn something from the legend of Icarus about flying too close to the sun.
And amidst the ruined mission, some say there is good news. Asteroid tracking scientists say the tumbling Genesis may have perfectly replicated the path of a potentially lethal asteroid heading to earth. Good news?
Meanwhile, America's space agency is left with a midweek crisis on its hands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I don't know who put that music there.
360 next, a millionaire murdered, and his ex-wife's husband stands accused. The Danny Flosey (ph) murder trial in justice served.
Also tonight, the politics of fear. The Bush cam's tough talk on terror. Could it spell doom for Kerry?
And Al Gore's daughter, a new author of political comedy. I'll go 360 with Kristin Gore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The political name-calling continued today with Vice President Cheney's suggestion that Americans had better reelect the president or else. John Edwards, calling for the president to repudiate that comment. Using fear, of course, is nothing new in politics. In fact, it's a time-honored tradition.
CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider looks at why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: A presidential race can be a choice between fear of the unknown and fear of the known. John Kerry, like all challengers, is running on fear of the known.
KERRY: This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care.
SCHNEIDER: The Republicans' answer, fear of the unknown.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again.
SCHNEIDER: Democrats were outraged and quick to respond.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line. This is un-American.
SCHNEIDER: But not unheard-of. Fear tactics usually work best against a challenger, someone largely unknown, like Barry Goldwater in 1964.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JOHNSON-HUMPHREY CAMPAIGN AD, 1964)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Jimmy Carter tried the same thing against an unknown and scary challenger in 1980, Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, August 15, 1980)
JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This radical and irresponsible course would threaten our security and could put the whole world in peril.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: In 1984, the Reagan campaign turned the argument against the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, REAGAN-BUSH CAMPAIGN AD, 1984)
ANNOUNCER: Isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Notice how fears had shifted, from Republican recklessness to Democratic weakness, a fear Republicans exploited again in 1988.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-QUAYLE CAMPAIGN AD, 1988)
ANNOUNCER: And now he wants to be our commander in chief. America can't afford that risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Scare tactics work if they're based on real concerns about a candidate, Goldwater as trigger happy, Dukakis as weak.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: And what about Kerry? Half the public said the chances of another terrorist attack would be the same whether Bush won or Kerry won, but 31 percent said they felt safer with Bush. Only 16 percent said they felt safer with Kerry, Anderson.
COOPER: The politics of fear. Bill Schneider, thanks for that.
It was the great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, quote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." That might explain why we remember him as a great American thinker and not as President Emerson. Not that you can't be inconsistent as a candidate, as long as you don't flip-flop. What's the difference? Raw politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The Democrats say he is the flip-flopper in chief. Among other things, they point to last month's comment from President Bush on the war on terror. On a Monday, he said this.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think you can win it.
COOPER: The day after, he said that.
BUSH: We are winning, and we will win.
COOPER: No way, say Republicans. The flip-flop master is John Kerry. Didn't he vote for the war in Iraq, then against, and admitted it? they ask.
KERRY: I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.
COOPER: Call it the flip-flop war. And in this presidential election, everybody takes part in it. Each camp sends e-mails to the media unveiling their opponents' alleged flip-flops. Advisers fight on TV over whose candidate is more wishy-washy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's flip-flopped on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, look, if we're going to talk about flip-flops...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to talk, talk about flip-flops...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then it's going to be pretty hard for the...
COOPER: At the Republicans' convention, some delegates even held flip-flops, and candidate now routinely use the double f-word in public.
BUSH: Look, no matter how it many times my opponent flip- flops...
KERRY: Is that a flip-flop? I mean, you tell me, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get real here.
COOPER: Polls show Americans want a president who is resolute and consistent and can make tough choices. That's why you're going to continue to hear so much flip-flop flap in this campaign of raw politics.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: No doubt about that.
When we come back, both candidates on the trail, talking about Iraq. But specifics are hard to come by. We'll try to get some answers about what each candidate would do and would not do. Is there really any difference? We'll try to find out. We'll talk with Dan Senor from the Bush campaign and Jamie Rubin from the Kerry camp, just ahead. John Kerry plays the Iraq card, charging President Bush made wrong choices. But how much do their Iraq policies really differ?
A poor man accused of killing a rich man. The twisted tale of money, murder, and love.
And Al Gore's daughter pens a political novel. Tonight we go 360 with Kristin Gore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Want to keep our focus politics now. For his part, President Bush himself was not out campaigning today. He spent his morning in Washington, holding a meeting at the White House on intelligence reform. Mr. Bush then headed down to Florida to inspect the hurricane damage there, which left those holding down the fort for him to inspect damage of another kind in the wake of new reports about the president's service, or lack of it, in the National Guard.
CNN senior White House correspondent John King has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New questions about the president's National Guard service are shifting the campaign focus on Vietnam-era conduct his way, and drawing an aggressive White House response.
Mr. Bush in 1973 signed this promise to associate with a new Guard unit when he moved from Texas to enroll at Harvard Business School. If not, he could face possible "involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months."
"The Boston Globe" says its investigation found Mr. Bush did not keep that commitment.
But the White House cited documents released months ago that show Mr. Bush was reassigned in October 1973 to inactive reserve status with a unit in Denver, Colorado, and listed Harvard as his address.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: He met his requirements. And that's why he was honorably discharged. I can't speak to the abstract nature of the Guard at the time, but the official documents speak to the record, and the record shows that President Bush met his requirements.
KING: A former head of the Air National Guard who reviewed the records for CNN backs the White House.
GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He did everything right, everything in accordance with what he was supposed to do.
KING: The Pentagon says it recently discovered these records detailing Mr. Bush's early flight training in the Texas Air National Guard. Critics say still missing are logs of what, if any, drills Mr. Bush performed during a four- to six-month period in 1972 after he transferred to the Alabama Guard A group calling itself Texans for Truth and funded by liberal Bush critics launched a new ad campaign suggesting Mr. Bush never showed up.
LT. COL. ROBERT MIRTZ (RET.), 187TH TACTICAL SQUADRON, AIR NATIONAL GUARD, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: That was my unit, and I don't remember seeing you there. So I called friends, you know, and, Did you know that George served in our unit? No, I never saw him there.
KING: The White House says dental and pay records prove Mr. Bush did report for duty. And that it was routine for Guard members in those days to have irregular training schedules, because of their civilian jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And their strategy is now, is President Bush is ahead in the polls, and we're going to try to bring him down. So let's recycle old charges.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Old charges, the White House says, but some Democrats say there are answered questions. And they go as much to the president's credibility now, then as to his conduct some 30 years ago. So, while the White House says this is all old news, Anderson, they also expect more charges and more allegations in the days to come.
COOPER: All right. John king, thanks for that.
While the debate about an old war lingers, we want to focus on the war at hand. A new study, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies released today, has some pretty alarming findings. In areas of security, healthcare, education and economic opportunities, the study found that not only were things getting worse in Iraq, but they're not only getting worse, but part of the problem was the very fact that Americans were there at all.
We want to talk more about Iraq and the campaign. We are joined in Washington by Kerry's foreign policy adviser, Jamie Rubin, and a former coalition spokesman Dan Senor who is supporting the Bush campaign. Gentlemen, thanks for being with us.
Dan, let me start off with you, CSIS, the group which wrote this report, which I assume you think is legitimate. I think Ambassador Bremer, who you worked for once asked them to do a study about a year or so ago in Iraq. Their report today is pretty alarming. They say that in all key areas they studied, they said the situation in Iraq is going backwards. Does President Bush actually believe the policy is working?
DAN SENOR, FRM. COALITION SPOKESMAN: Well, I can tell you what I know from the ground there. There are certainly areas that are problem attic and we certainly are having some tough days, and we'll have tough days ahead, but if you look at the undercurrents and the macrotrends, rather than the minute-to-minute developments that tend to furnish the daily headlines, things are moving forward. When you think about the part of the world where countries and governments harbor terrorists. Where there's no democracy to be found.
COOPER: That's not what this report is saying, they're not looking at macrotrends. They're interviewing hundreds of Iraqis, their looking at hundreds of press reports, and they're saying it's not moving forward.
SENOR: Right. So, what I'm saying that while there are some problem areas that the CSIS has looked into, and I haven't seen the report, I think if you'd spend time in Iraq, the macrotrends are positive. You have in the heart in that part of the world, we're building a democracy along with the Iraqi people that is a very strong and real viable alternative to some of these terrorist-supporting regimes there.
We've done the same in Afghanistan, where 10 million people are registered to vote in the upcoming elections. We have consolidated -- we are consolidating those 2 victories there. We have 2 allies now in the war on terrorism based in that part of the world. And again, building foundations for democracy that are unheard of.
COOPER: Wait, wait. So Iraq is now an ally in the war on terror.
SENOR: Well. We are certainly standing side by side with the Iraqi people. The Iraqi prime minister, the Iraqi security forces are working with us in defeating members of the al Qaeda network that have come into Iraq, against whom we are fighting.
COOPER: Jamie, does this make sense to you? Is the policy moving forward?
JAMIE RUBIN, KERRY FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: I wish what Dan were saying were true. The fact is that 16 months after the fall of Saddam, the United States' military, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and others admitted yesterday, there are huge parts of Iraq that are controlled by terrorists and insurgence, casualties have been mounting month after month. Mission accomplished was declared, you know, more than a year ago.
COOPER: So what would John Kerry do that's different? I know, beyond talking about what he would have done long ago, today in the next month, two months, what would he do differently?
RUBIN: Well, I was just referring to the current situation, because without a new realism about the current situation, we're not going to get the job done. During World War II George Bush likes to refer to Churchill. Churchill told the British people the truth. He told them about the problems they were facing, the difficulties they were facing. All of this happy talk from the White House is not going to fix the problem in Iraq.
COOPER: Right, but we're not hearing specifics.
RUBIN: Well, I'm about to give you that, Anderson. The way to go about it is to bring a new realism to it. To go to our allies with a fresh start, none the baggage of the Bush administration, none of the fights over treaties, fights over Iraq, fights over the war on terrorism, fights over the preemptive strike. All of that would be behind us in a Kerry administration. And he would persuade them with what's in their interest.
We should have NATO troops taking this on as a global mission, including guarding the borders where terrorists and insurgents are going back and forth. We should have NATO training in their own countries, Iraqi forces until the Iraqi forces are up to speed. We're going to have to be there a long time.
And finally and importantly Anderson, we have to give a stake to Europeans and other countries around the world in the reconstruction. They should be helping us coordinate reconstruction, sharing in contracts, so that the United States isn't bearing 90 percent of the burden, 90 percent of the cost. That's the way to do it.
COOPER: So Dan, how does U.S. policy, how does President Bush's policy differ from what Senator Kerry is saying.
SENOR: Well, certainly what Jamie is describing is certainly disconnected with the reality on the ground. There are over 30 nations with troops on the ground, 17 nations have civilian contributions. I went to work every day with Japanese colleagues, people from the UK, Australia, Poland, Italy the Czech Republic, I can go on. Most of the NATO countries have...
COOPER: But Dan, come on, in talking about numbers of troops, you're talking about a couple hundred here or there. Obviously with the British...
SENOR: No, no, sure. Anderson, look, each country there is making contributions proportionate to the size of their economy, their resources, the size of the military, the size of the population. That's understandable.
I think what's dangerous is what Senator Kerry has been doing, which is belittling the contributions of these coalition countries. I worked with some members of the coalition countries who actually lost their lives in Iraq. And I don't think their families would appreciate being referred to as the bribed and the coerced, window dressing. This is not...
COOPER: Jamie, how does Senator Kerry get NATO involved when President Bush has been trying to do that in the last couple of months, arguably, and it hasn't happened.
RUBIN: Well first of all, to point out that the United States is bearing 90 percent of the cost and 90 percent of the burden compared to previous exercises like the Gulf War where 95 percent of the costs were paid for by somebody else, that's not belittling the important contributions of our countries there, it's speaking truth to the American people.
The way John Kerry will get other countries to help us in a way that Bush won't is there will be a fresh start. All the poisoned well of the Bush era, at the time when the United States went around the world and told everybody what to do, of Donald Rumsfeld was going to Germany and telling them they're just like the Libyans and Cubans. All of that baggage has hurt us. It makes it hard for countries in Europe and around the world to do something...
COOPER: Right. So you're saying, basically a fresh start.
RUBIN: ...it's in their own interest. John Kerry will persuade them. And we'll have a far better chance to get that kind of help with a Kerry administration in that fresh start.
COOPER: OK. I want to leave it there. Jamie Rubin, appreciate you joining us. Dan Senor, good to talk to you as always. Thanks.
Today's Buzz is this. What do you think? Do you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or No. Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote. Results at the end of the program tonight.
Well coming up, it is a mystery and a tale of murder, sex, money and death. Next on 360, jury selection begins in the trial of an electrician who may be caught in a deadly love triangle.
Also tonight, the daughter of Al Gore stops by for why she's choosing a career of comedy and writing over politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight, "Justice Served." Murder, marriage and money from the heart of a chilling mystery here in New York. And at that center is a messy divorce, a dead millionaire and an electrician who today stands accused of a vicious crime that sent shockwaves through one very tiny town. CNN's Adaora Udoji has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Long Island electrician, Danny Pelosi's troubles began in 2001 while working in East Hampton, a playground for the rich. Among the privileged his alleged victim, Ted Ammon, a financier worth an estimated $80 million. Ammon and his wife of 14 years Generosa were going through a bitter divorce. She started dating Pelosi after hiring him on a project.
DANNY PELOSI, ACCUSED OF MURDER: The truth will come out and I'm coming home.
UDOJI: The Ammons who had adopted two children share this Hampton mansion. In October 2001 Ted's body was found naked and viciously beaten in his bedroom. Fueling speculation, Ammon died just days before signing divorce papers. His will still named Generosa as the main benefactor. Three months later she married Pelosi.
From the beginning he vehemently denied any wrongdoing as he told CNN last fall.
PELOSI: For the record, I did not murder Ted Ammon nor did I have any involvement in what happened to Ted Ammon. UDOJI: Prosecutors have taken the case to trial. They've argued Ammon was subdued by a stun gun, that Pelosi had recently bought one, that a surveillance system Pelosi set up in the mansion unbeknownst to Ammon was turned off during the attack.
JANET ALBERTSON, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: With all the media and all the hype and all the circus everyone forgets that this man was brutally murder and this trial is about Ted and finding Ted's killer.
UDOJI: Last year, Generosa and Pelosi divorced not long before she died of cancer. The story continues as Pelosi faces a single charge of second-degree murder. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Covering the case for us, 360 legal analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Good to see you, Kimberly.
There is no witness, no forensic evidence. Where's the case?
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE NEWSOM, 360 LEGAL ANALYST: It's like a nightmare. It's like the Scott Peterson case all over again. We're dealing with a circumstantial evidence case and I don't think jurors are going to be fooled by this man. Sure he's gone out and made denials, again, not the first murder suspect to deny involvement in a crime.
What you've got is some compelling common sense evidence here. You have got motive. You have opportunity and you have a man here who marries this woman three months later. It's all very suspicious. She has a lot of money. He cons her into doing the work at the house and then days before this bitter divorce is supposed to be settled, the husband, Ted is murdered. And who's going to get the money? The wife. And who is going to be the benefactor of that? You're going to get this guy, the defendant.
COOPER: The motive that he was having an affair with her. I mean, there are a lot of suspicious things. He installed a security system that was disabled and he owned a stun gun.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: He says he had the stun gun because he used it to stun and shock, ward off raccoons. Nice guy, right?
COOPER: Really, wow. That's interesting.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Fascinating tidbit.
COOPER: I've got raccoons. Maybe I should try that.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, we won't go into that. But the thing is here, you're looking at a man who clearly had this motive and had the opportunity. He's the one that installed that security system. Who else could have and would from have done it and who stood to benefit from this man's very timely demise just days prior to this divorce settlement becoming finalized? That's what's going to speak to this jury. Now the defense says, hey, they've got a weak case because you don't have any eyewitnesses, no smoking gun so to speak. I think the stun gun evidence, I think the vicious brutal nature of this killing suggests something that's personal, something that's passionate, someone who was dead set on their objective which was to get this man out of the way.
COOPER: Wow. Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Thanks. We'll watch the case.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: All right.
COOPER: Being the daughter of a vice president can be pretty amusing apparently. Next on 360 from her days at "SNL," and the hard lampoon, Kristin Gore stops by to tell us why there's so much comedy in politics.
Also tonight if you thought it was impossible think again. Paris Hilton is baring more as an author. We have excerpts from her new book ahead in the "Current."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: For eight years her dad was vice president of the United States. Four years ago she helped in his presidential bid. Today Kristin Gore's re-entering the realm of Washington politics not by running for office. Instead the former "Saturday Night Live" writer has penned a fiction novel, her first about a young person working on the Capitol called "Sammy's Hill."
Earlier I talked to Kristin Gore about the book.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: What is it about the world of politics that made you want to write about it?
KRISTIN GORE, AUTHOR, "SAMMY'S HILL": Well, I think because I knew it so well and everyone says to write what you know and I finally listened to that advice.
COOPER: It is a very funny book. And yet, one doesn't really think about politics necessarily as being intentionally funny.
GORE: Right. I guess if you grow up in it then you see all different sides of it. You know, I mean, you think about D.C. as a boring stuffy place. That's kind of its image. But if you grow up in that you see all these energetic, fun people and crazy stuff that happens behind the scenes that no one knows about.
COOPER: That's what's so amazing. In the book, it's all about this young woman who works on Capitol Hill. She's 26. All the people who work in Capitol Hill are really young. I think a lot of people in the rest of the country don't realize that people who are running the country are really young. It's a little scary at times. GORE: It's alarming. I know. They might want to tune into that. Because you don't want policy being shaped by all incredibly young people, but hopefully Sammy's smart and hard-working enough that you feel comfortable with her having a hand in it.
COOPER: In it you write she's attracted to this guy and she describes him as undeniably hot and not just D.C. hot but real world hot. Is there a different hotness in D.C.? What is D.C. "hot?"
GORE: Well, I think that goes along with its reputation of just it's not necessarily considered the sexpot capital of the world.
COOPER: So it's a lower standard.
GORE: Yes.
COOPER: So what passes for hot in D.C. in the real world...
GORE: According to some people, yes.
COOPER: I see. All right. And yet it's -- I mean, obviously, there are going to be inevitable comparisons. Your character works for a person who is a vice presidential candidate. Does that annoy you? I know you're on this book tour and you'll be going to get asked that question a million times.
GORE: I understand why because Sammy has a behind-the-scenes perspective. I obviously had that growing up and experiencing it, but I really think she's a pretty original character, you know.
COOPER: And people describe it like a "Bridget Jones' Diary" like on Capitol Hill.
GORE: I've heard that, yes. And I'm not going to complain with any comparison to a best-selling sensation. I'm, like, sure, go ahead and think that. That's wasn't really what I was setting out for, but great.
COOPER: The movie rights have already been sold. I think I read you're writing the screenplay right now.
GORE: I am, yes. Red Wagon and Columbia Pictures bought the screen play and I'm adapting it.
COOPER: It's heavy stuff.
GORE: Very, have yes.
COOPER: For a first novel, it's incredible.
GORE: I know. I can't believe it. It really is still, I'm waiting for someone to tell me -- to wake me, basically.
COOPER: You were saying that you were riding in an elevator -- with the book, and someone asked you about it? GORE: Yes. I was thumbing through today, actually and they said, oh how is that book, I've been wondering. And I said, it's really great. It's really smart and funny and then felt really terrible like I should confess and sort of ran away.
COOPER: You should not confess. You should push this as much as possible.
GORE: I'll just be running around town with it and trying new disguises.
COOPER: Do you want to write again?
GORE: Yes.
COOPER: You're a writer. No politics for you.
GORE: No. I've always wanted to be a writer from age 7, my mom remembers me saying -- there was a brief moment when I wanted to be a wide receiver for the Redskins, also around third grade, but other than that, it was always a writer.
COOPER: We all go through that in the 3rd grade.
GORE: Yeah. Sure, you know: Gary Clark, Art Monk, they stick with you. But, yes I just really wanted to be a writer. And so that was always my goal.
COOPER: You worked for your dad on the campaign trail. Do you have any desire to be in this race? Hoping on Senator Kerry?
GORE: Well, sure. I mean, I'm definitely hoping that there will be a huge voter turnout, particularly among younger people who, I understand why they're cynical and detached about politics, you know? But I think it would be great if people realize what's at stake and go out in more more force, because we're the generation that's supposed to be taking over and shaping the future. So, it would be great if they knew what's going on and actually played a role in it.
COOPER: As a comedy writer, any advice for the Bush twins?
GORE: Oh. No, I think they're doing just fine.
COOPER: OK. We'll leave it at that.
It's a great book. "Sammy's Hill" it's your first novel. Congratulations.
GORE: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Time now for "The Current." And we'll talk about another writer/ Tonight, we bring you a very special "Current." We call it "Story Time." We you'll see why in a moment. In the tradition of Winston Churchill, Gandhi and St. Augustine comes the next great autobiography. Yes, we're talking about Paris Hilton. Her 179-page "Confessions of an Heiress" is finally, finally for sale. As a celebrity socialite, she's legendary, but as a writer, Miss Hilton is quite simply a revelation. Earlier, the 360 crew got together for story time with a reading of Paris Hilton's "Confessions."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Confession of an Heiress" by Paris Hilton.
When it comes to keeping a year round St. Tropez looking tan, Mystique Tan is key. It give you a great glow that you can't get from bronzer. By the way, have you ever seen a pale heiress? I think not.
If you were going to be an heiress, you can't have a normal name unless you're British. All British people have plain names. And that works pretty well over there, but in America you have got to have a name that stands out.
Fear nothing except insects and sweaty guy who insist on kissing you when they come up to say hello. There's nothing worse than a sweaty guy who kisses you on both cheeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's a reading.
It is spring time in New York, at least in one small corner of New York, Fashion Week began today, where thousands gather to set the stylish rules for Spring 2005. Fashionistas fall over each other for a seat inside the tents, but for those of us left out on the hottest shows to whom can we turn for interpretation and illumination. We turn to the those intrepid souls known as fashion reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): They are the truly dedicated followers of fashion, and schmooze with celebs, watch walk after walk and air kiss the artistes. They are the fashion reporters. The runways are their war zones where they study the styles and talk endlessly about clothes, color and style.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Denim will always be in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everything was way too black.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sexy and hot and fabulous.
COOPER: This breed of reporters sure can get haughty about haute couture. Sometimes even fellow fashionistas don't quite get what they're talking about.
JANE PRATT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JANE MAGAZINE: I don't know what they're doing when they do that. They just like to hear themselves talk. I don't know. It's meaningless.
COOPER: Jane Pratt, editor-in-chief of "Jane" magazine has spent years in the trenches trudging from show to show with the rest of the fashion press. But... PRATT: I still don't know thou do that thing where I walk around and go, think pink or glasses are the new socks or, you know, everything's the new black.
COOPER: Not so, these intrepid reporters who try their best to turn us into slaves to style.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are fashion trends that people will cling to forever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of coral, lots of turquoise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about that nonchalant chic.
COOPER: And perhaps we'd gladly comply, if only we knew what precisely they're talking about.
To be fair, the fashion reporter's lot is not always an easy one. Just try explaining how you can be style savvy in a dress made of string. But, give fashion reporters a minute, and we're sure they'll come up with something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Sure they will.
360 next, our first anniversary to the "Nth Degree." We're celebrating with you. But first today's "Buzz," "Do you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or no." Log on to CNN.com/360, cast your vote, results at the end of show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Time now for "The Buzz." Earlier we asked you if you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or No. Over 26,000 of you voted. 59 percent of you said yes, 41 percent said no. Not a scientific poll, but it is your "Buzz". And we appreciate you voting.
Finally tonight, taking anniversaries to the "Nth Degree." Tonight marks the first anniversary of this program. I remember back when we started, milk was what? About 2 bucks a gallon? Hard to believe.
But, of course, in those days you could buy a Hummer in 60 grand, which was real money in 2003.
We actually didn't realize it was our anniversary today, until some of our dedicated viewers sent us this scrapbook of the entire year. It's really quite amazing.
There's September, with pictures of our premiere, reviews from critics and headlines of the stories we covered. October features cute pumpkin decorations. November has turkeys and a picture of my mom. December, a Christmas Tree and a little snowmen. Month after month, a detailed look of what we were doing, even including shots of the staff who have appeared on the show. We also got some balloons from viewers today.
Frankly, we don't know what to say, except as always, thanks for watching 360.
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 September 8, 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 from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
U.S. warplanes strike insurgents after a bloody week of attacks in Iraq.
360 starts now.
Insurgents step up attacks across Iraq. Bloody clashes and ambushes. We'll take you to the front lines.
John Kerry plays the Iraq card, charging President Bush made wrong choices. But how much do their Iraq policies really differ?
Conflicting claims over President Bush's military service. Did he or didn't he meet his obligations?
A poor man accused of killing a rich man. The twisted tale of money, murder, and love.
How did a homecoming queen wind up dead in a Colorado State University fraternity? Police search for answers.
And Al Gore's daughter pens a political novel. Tonight we go 360 with Kristin Gore.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
COOPER: Good evening to you.
It's hard to tell from this distance whether things are getting better or worse in Iraq. It's even hard to tell up close. A new, comprehensive report, however, released today by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in many important respects things are getting worse, and the very fact that Americans are there at all is part of the problem, at least as far as Iraqis perceive it.
Much of the talk in the presidential campaign, which we'll get to in a bit, concerns Iraq and what to do there. Increasingly, though, it seems you have to ask, which Iraq, ours or theirs?
CNN's Walter Rodgers reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An American fighter-bomber targeting a suspected Islamist insurgent command and control headquarters in Fallujah. For those at ground zero, it was an angel of death.
Fallujah is currently the epicenter of resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, home as well to several thousand foreign fighters eager to spill American blood.
On Monday they succeeded, killing seven U.S. Marines in a suicide car bomb that blew up the Marines' transport vehicle. Now, in the Fallujah attacks, U.S. forces estimate they killed as many as 100 insurgents.
After bitter fighting in Fallujah last spring, the American military has opted to bypass it now, instead encircling the insurgents, locking them down, thus minimizing U.S. casualties. Some generals acknowledge much of Iraq is less stable now than when U.S. forces first arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's fair to say that in certain areas, it's more hostile than it was right after the fall of Baghdad. I think that is fair to say. And those areas are primarily in the Fallujah-Ramadi area.
RODGERS: Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad, was quiet after savage fighting Monday and Tuesday. Iraqis paused to bury their dead. Dozens died in the past few days.
Few expect the quiet to last, witness this graffiti, "Death to the enemies of Muqtada al-Sadr." Dead Iraqis, now more than 1,000 dead Americans. Back in the United States, a mourning American mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're killing off our young. We're killing off our future.
RODGERS: Still unknown at this point is the fate of these two 29-year-old Italian aid workers helping in a hospital, kidnapped yesterday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, as for the two men who are competing to deal with whatever lies ahead in Iraq and in this country, we begin in the challenger's corner, which was in Cincinnati today, as was senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think this looks a lot like this, then you've got the picture.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We need a new direction. We need statesmanship. We need leadership. CROWLEY: Twenty-three months after George Bush came to Cincinnati to make his case for a war in Iraq, John Kerry returned to the same spot to make his case for a new president in the United States.
KERRY: ...new credibility to open up the channels of communication. We need to do a whole bunch of things in Iraq that this president could have done and hasn't even tried to do. We need to really bring our allies to our side.
CROWLEY: It was little more than Kerry's latest stump speech in teleprompter form in a symbolic setting. It is part of an ongoing effort by strategists to keep the candidate on message and on offense, which basically means less Iraq, more everything else.
George Bush currently holds a double-digit edge when voters are asked who can best handle Iraq or the terror threat. The playing field advantage falls to Kerry on the economy. So the senator is trying to bring home the war.
KERRY: Two hundred billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children. Two hundred billion dollars for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans.
CROWLEY (on camera): The Bush campaign quickly pointed out a year-old interview in which Kerry said the U.S. should spend whatever billions are necessary to win the war. Said a Bush spokesman, John Kerry has gone from a candidate on both sides of Iraq to a candidate who is completely incoherent on Iraq.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Rochester, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, the latest CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup poll shows that President Bush may have the edge in a couple of showdown states. Here's a 360 news note. Among both likely and registered voters in Missouri, Bush has a double-digit lead in Ohio. Bush also seems to have the advantage with likely voters.
But when you factor in the sampling error, too close to call among registered voters.
Pennsylvania racing's neck and neck, just 1 percentage point difference with likely voters, and a tie with registered, while in Washington it is Senator Kerry with the lead. President Bush is at least 8 percentage points behind.
In Russia, details emerging about the meticulous and sadistic planning terrorists took before killing at least 335 people. Authorities today said the 32 militants, two of them women, gathered in the woods not far from the school just before making their deadly move. After piling into two cars and a truck, the gunmen actually got into a firefight with police before arriving at the school. As the country continues to grieve, Russia's top general threatened today to carry out a preemptive strike against any terror bases around the globe.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Beslan, the search for answers is overshadowed by grief. But one question was asked from the start. How did this hostage crisis turn into a massacre?
The explanation has taken days. But a government investigation now suggests some of the militants were at first reluctant to kill children. It took extreme violence by the group's leader, known as the Colonel, to enforce his will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) blew up two female suicide bombers in order to threaten the terrorists and hostages. He pressed the button on a remote control, and they were exploded. The aim was to threaten.
CHANCE: The tactic worked.
But poor planning on the part of the Russian authorities may have contributed to even greater loss of life. Eyewitnesses say local militias led the firefight to end the siege. Highly trained special forces were stood down to allow for negotiations. Uncontrolled fire killed government troops, perhaps even some of the hostages themselves.
The people of Beslan still grieve their loss. Drinks are among the tributes. Many of the children were denied water for days. They starved while the militants ate chocolate.
But it seems this callous terrorism may have combined with bad crisis management to allow such disaster in a small town.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, according to this government investigation as well, it seems that this hostage siege was well organized and well planned. The militants, 32 of them, as you mentioned, organized in a forest close by before getting into cars, getting into a gunfight before taking this school. They came in with many weapons and many explosives.
In response, the Russian government and Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that he is putting a $10 million reward on the top two Chechen rebel leaders, and also vowing to strike anywhere in the world if necessary to prevent any further terrorist acts, Anderson.
COOPER: Matthew, I read that there weren't enough ambulances standing by. How can that be? Because that was a similar problem with the standoff when terrorists took over the Nord Ost Theater back in Moscow.
CHANCE: Right, it was. There was a big problem down here as well, because the medical facilities in this part of Russia are very scant, indeed. In fact, that many of the injured hostages had to be taken to hospitals many, many miles away from here.
The government reserved 1,000 beds in hospitals all over the region, because, you know, the hospitals here just don't have the equipment, don't have the facilities to deal with such casualties on such a large scale.
COOPER: Yes. Thanks very much, Matthew Chance. Appreciate it.
Upbeat feedback on the U.S. economy. That story tops our look at what's going around cross-country.
Washington, D.C., Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told a House committee today the economy has, quote, "regained some traction" after hitting a soft spot this summer. Analysts say Greenspan's comments likely to mean a third hike in interest rates at the Fed's policy meeting in two weeks.
Redwood City, California, now, Scott Peterson trial. An FBI expert testified today that two strands of hair found on a pair of pliers on Peterson's boat are consistent with strands taken from his slain wife's hairbrush. The prosecution contends the boat was used to dispose of Laci Peterson's body.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Lionel Tate arrested again. The teen, who was convicted of killing a playmate in 2001 while wrestling -- remember that case? He is now charged with violating his probation. Sheriff deputies say they caught Tate Friday in a park with a knife. Tate's life sentence for murder was overturned, and he was placed under house arrest. At the time, the judge said Tate could be sent back to prison if he violated his probation.
Aiken, South Carolina, now, a pitchfork used to rob a bank. That's right, a pitchfork. Security cameras caught the masked robber in the act. Police are trying to track down the suspect, who took off on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. Not sure if he left the pitchfork behind.
That's a quick look at stories cross-country tonight.
A frat house death, a horrible story in Colorado. A college campus in mourning tonight. How did a former homecoming queen wind up dead?
Plus, NASA's latest nightmare, a crash-landing in a Utah desert. What went wrong? It is for NASA a midweek crisis.
And a little later, Al Gore's daughter pens a political book. I'll talk with Kristin Gore ahead.
First let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Samantha Spadey (ph) was a former homecoming queen, a 19-year-old student at Colorado State University. She told friends she needed a ride home. That was on Saturday. By Sunday, Samantha Spadey was dead, her body found inside a fraternity house.
Tonight, police think they know how she died, but what remains a mystery is why.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was 19 years old. She had just started her second year of college at Colorado State University, and now Samantha Spadey is dead, found in a university fraternity house.
SANDI HOFFMAN, FORMER TEACHER: She was always smiling. She was always friendly. It's hard to lose a student like that.
MARQUEZ: Fort Collins police say Spadey's body was found in a bedroom converted into a lounge at the Sigma Pi fraternity house, her death possibly caused by drinking too much alcohol. A spokesman for the fraternity says the charter has been temporarily suspended pending the investigation. He says there was no official party at the house last Saturday night, but said Spadey was there with several friends. She was not reported dead until 6:22 p.m. the next day.
MARK BRISCOE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SIGMA PI: She was a very good friend with many of the brothers in this house. She felt very comfortable over here, and there is a lot of brothers going through grief right now.
MARQUEZ: Fort Collins police say based upon the preliminary toxicology results, it is believed alcohol may have been a factor in her death. And "The Rocky Mountain News" reports that Spadey's initial blood alcohol count was 0.43, more than five times the legal limit for Colorado drivers.
At a candlelight vigil, students grieved for the former high school homecoming queen, senior class president, and head cheerleader from Beatrice (ph), Nebraska.
(on camera): Fort Collins police say there was no signs of sexual assault or trauma to Spadey's body. Investigators are now trying to piece together the last hours of Spadey's life and trying to determine if anyone was responsible for providing her with alcohol.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Hurricane Ivan hammers Grenada. That tops our look at what's happening around the world in the uplink. The hurricane struck the island hard yesterday, killing at least three people, destroying many buildings, including the prime minister's home. Forecasters say the storm, now category four, will likely enter the Gulf of Mexico early next week, but it is not certain whether it will hit hurricane-battered Florida. Let's hope not.
North central Turkey, miners trapped and killed by fire. At least 19 workers died when a fire swept through a Turkish copper mine. Now, it's believed to have started when welding equipment ignited other materials.
Near the Black Sea, Romania, looking at the stars A Romanian team of engineers, chemists, physicists, and space buffs has unveiled a prototype space rocket that runs on hydrogen peroxide. The team plans to launch a manned version in January. Romanians are hoping to win an international spaceflight competition and get a $10 million prize. And they can dye their hair while they're at it.
That's tonight's uplink.
COOPER: If you were standing in the Utah desert today, you may have seen what looked like a whirling top spinning out of the sky. This was no toy. It was a spaceship, a very expensive one, that held the very building blocks of the universe. It was supposed to glide to earth, but in just a few fleeting rotations, it went from smooth sailing to a big midweek crisis for NASA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Snatching the solar wind, learning the secrets of the sun's evolution, answering some of life's most obscure questions, one atom at a time. This was the mission of Genesis, NASA's $260 million space exploration project.
NASA had high hopes for a dramatic and triumphant return to earth. Helicopter stuntmen from Hollywood were going to hook the capsule and help guide it as it floated down to earth. The purpose of the midair retrieval, to avoid a ground impact that could shatter the delicate equipment holding the solar particles.
Ouch! Unfortunately, a smooth landing wasn't, shall we say, in the stars. The high-tech space probe was foiled by a low-tech failure. The capsule, that looks like a 1957 hubcap, came to a crashing 100-mile-an-hour thud in a Utah desert after its parachute failed to open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look for an impact.
COOPER: The impact drove the capsule halfway underground, burying the secrets of outer space, with scientists left wondering if anything can be salvaged. Perhaps NASA can learn something from the legend of Icarus about flying too close to the sun.
And amidst the ruined mission, some say there is good news. Asteroid tracking scientists say the tumbling Genesis may have perfectly replicated the path of a potentially lethal asteroid heading to earth. Good news?
Meanwhile, America's space agency is left with a midweek crisis on its hands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I don't know who put that music there.
360 next, a millionaire murdered, and his ex-wife's husband stands accused. The Danny Flosey (ph) murder trial in justice served.
Also tonight, the politics of fear. The Bush cam's tough talk on terror. Could it spell doom for Kerry?
And Al Gore's daughter, a new author of political comedy. I'll go 360 with Kristin Gore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The political name-calling continued today with Vice President Cheney's suggestion that Americans had better reelect the president or else. John Edwards, calling for the president to repudiate that comment. Using fear, of course, is nothing new in politics. In fact, it's a time-honored tradition.
CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider looks at why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: A presidential race can be a choice between fear of the unknown and fear of the known. John Kerry, like all challengers, is running on fear of the known.
KERRY: This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care.
SCHNEIDER: The Republicans' answer, fear of the unknown.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again.
SCHNEIDER: Democrats were outraged and quick to respond.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line. This is un-American.
SCHNEIDER: But not unheard-of. Fear tactics usually work best against a challenger, someone largely unknown, like Barry Goldwater in 1964.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JOHNSON-HUMPHREY CAMPAIGN AD, 1964)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Jimmy Carter tried the same thing against an unknown and scary challenger in 1980, Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, August 15, 1980)
JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This radical and irresponsible course would threaten our security and could put the whole world in peril.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: In 1984, the Reagan campaign turned the argument against the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, REAGAN-BUSH CAMPAIGN AD, 1984)
ANNOUNCER: Isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Notice how fears had shifted, from Republican recklessness to Democratic weakness, a fear Republicans exploited again in 1988.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-QUAYLE CAMPAIGN AD, 1988)
ANNOUNCER: And now he wants to be our commander in chief. America can't afford that risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Scare tactics work if they're based on real concerns about a candidate, Goldwater as trigger happy, Dukakis as weak.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: And what about Kerry? Half the public said the chances of another terrorist attack would be the same whether Bush won or Kerry won, but 31 percent said they felt safer with Bush. Only 16 percent said they felt safer with Kerry, Anderson.
COOPER: The politics of fear. Bill Schneider, thanks for that.
It was the great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, quote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." That might explain why we remember him as a great American thinker and not as President Emerson. Not that you can't be inconsistent as a candidate, as long as you don't flip-flop. What's the difference? Raw politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The Democrats say he is the flip-flopper in chief. Among other things, they point to last month's comment from President Bush on the war on terror. On a Monday, he said this.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think you can win it.
COOPER: The day after, he said that.
BUSH: We are winning, and we will win.
COOPER: No way, say Republicans. The flip-flop master is John Kerry. Didn't he vote for the war in Iraq, then against, and admitted it? they ask.
KERRY: I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.
COOPER: Call it the flip-flop war. And in this presidential election, everybody takes part in it. Each camp sends e-mails to the media unveiling their opponents' alleged flip-flops. Advisers fight on TV over whose candidate is more wishy-washy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's flip-flopped on that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, look, if we're going to talk about flip-flops...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to talk, talk about flip-flops...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then it's going to be pretty hard for the...
COOPER: At the Republicans' convention, some delegates even held flip-flops, and candidate now routinely use the double f-word in public.
BUSH: Look, no matter how it many times my opponent flip- flops...
KERRY: Is that a flip-flop? I mean, you tell me, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get real here.
COOPER: Polls show Americans want a president who is resolute and consistent and can make tough choices. That's why you're going to continue to hear so much flip-flop flap in this campaign of raw politics.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: No doubt about that.
When we come back, both candidates on the trail, talking about Iraq. But specifics are hard to come by. We'll try to get some answers about what each candidate would do and would not do. Is there really any difference? We'll try to find out. We'll talk with Dan Senor from the Bush campaign and Jamie Rubin from the Kerry camp, just ahead. John Kerry plays the Iraq card, charging President Bush made wrong choices. But how much do their Iraq policies really differ?
A poor man accused of killing a rich man. The twisted tale of money, murder, and love.
And Al Gore's daughter pens a political novel. Tonight we go 360 with Kristin Gore.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Want to keep our focus politics now. For his part, President Bush himself was not out campaigning today. He spent his morning in Washington, holding a meeting at the White House on intelligence reform. Mr. Bush then headed down to Florida to inspect the hurricane damage there, which left those holding down the fort for him to inspect damage of another kind in the wake of new reports about the president's service, or lack of it, in the National Guard.
CNN senior White House correspondent John King has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New questions about the president's National Guard service are shifting the campaign focus on Vietnam-era conduct his way, and drawing an aggressive White House response.
Mr. Bush in 1973 signed this promise to associate with a new Guard unit when he moved from Texas to enroll at Harvard Business School. If not, he could face possible "involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months."
"The Boston Globe" says its investigation found Mr. Bush did not keep that commitment.
But the White House cited documents released months ago that show Mr. Bush was reassigned in October 1973 to inactive reserve status with a unit in Denver, Colorado, and listed Harvard as his address.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: He met his requirements. And that's why he was honorably discharged. I can't speak to the abstract nature of the Guard at the time, but the official documents speak to the record, and the record shows that President Bush met his requirements.
KING: A former head of the Air National Guard who reviewed the records for CNN backs the White House.
GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He did everything right, everything in accordance with what he was supposed to do.
KING: The Pentagon says it recently discovered these records detailing Mr. Bush's early flight training in the Texas Air National Guard. Critics say still missing are logs of what, if any, drills Mr. Bush performed during a four- to six-month period in 1972 after he transferred to the Alabama Guard A group calling itself Texans for Truth and funded by liberal Bush critics launched a new ad campaign suggesting Mr. Bush never showed up.
LT. COL. ROBERT MIRTZ (RET.), 187TH TACTICAL SQUADRON, AIR NATIONAL GUARD, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: That was my unit, and I don't remember seeing you there. So I called friends, you know, and, Did you know that George served in our unit? No, I never saw him there.
KING: The White House says dental and pay records prove Mr. Bush did report for duty. And that it was routine for Guard members in those days to have irregular training schedules, because of their civilian jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And their strategy is now, is President Bush is ahead in the polls, and we're going to try to bring him down. So let's recycle old charges.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Old charges, the White House says, but some Democrats say there are answered questions. And they go as much to the president's credibility now, then as to his conduct some 30 years ago. So, while the White House says this is all old news, Anderson, they also expect more charges and more allegations in the days to come.
COOPER: All right. John king, thanks for that.
While the debate about an old war lingers, we want to focus on the war at hand. A new study, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies released today, has some pretty alarming findings. In areas of security, healthcare, education and economic opportunities, the study found that not only were things getting worse in Iraq, but they're not only getting worse, but part of the problem was the very fact that Americans were there at all.
We want to talk more about Iraq and the campaign. We are joined in Washington by Kerry's foreign policy adviser, Jamie Rubin, and a former coalition spokesman Dan Senor who is supporting the Bush campaign. Gentlemen, thanks for being with us.
Dan, let me start off with you, CSIS, the group which wrote this report, which I assume you think is legitimate. I think Ambassador Bremer, who you worked for once asked them to do a study about a year or so ago in Iraq. Their report today is pretty alarming. They say that in all key areas they studied, they said the situation in Iraq is going backwards. Does President Bush actually believe the policy is working?
DAN SENOR, FRM. COALITION SPOKESMAN: Well, I can tell you what I know from the ground there. There are certainly areas that are problem attic and we certainly are having some tough days, and we'll have tough days ahead, but if you look at the undercurrents and the macrotrends, rather than the minute-to-minute developments that tend to furnish the daily headlines, things are moving forward. When you think about the part of the world where countries and governments harbor terrorists. Where there's no democracy to be found.
COOPER: That's not what this report is saying, they're not looking at macrotrends. They're interviewing hundreds of Iraqis, their looking at hundreds of press reports, and they're saying it's not moving forward.
SENOR: Right. So, what I'm saying that while there are some problem areas that the CSIS has looked into, and I haven't seen the report, I think if you'd spend time in Iraq, the macrotrends are positive. You have in the heart in that part of the world, we're building a democracy along with the Iraqi people that is a very strong and real viable alternative to some of these terrorist-supporting regimes there.
We've done the same in Afghanistan, where 10 million people are registered to vote in the upcoming elections. We have consolidated -- we are consolidating those 2 victories there. We have 2 allies now in the war on terrorism based in that part of the world. And again, building foundations for democracy that are unheard of.
COOPER: Wait, wait. So Iraq is now an ally in the war on terror.
SENOR: Well. We are certainly standing side by side with the Iraqi people. The Iraqi prime minister, the Iraqi security forces are working with us in defeating members of the al Qaeda network that have come into Iraq, against whom we are fighting.
COOPER: Jamie, does this make sense to you? Is the policy moving forward?
JAMIE RUBIN, KERRY FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: I wish what Dan were saying were true. The fact is that 16 months after the fall of Saddam, the United States' military, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and others admitted yesterday, there are huge parts of Iraq that are controlled by terrorists and insurgence, casualties have been mounting month after month. Mission accomplished was declared, you know, more than a year ago.
COOPER: So what would John Kerry do that's different? I know, beyond talking about what he would have done long ago, today in the next month, two months, what would he do differently?
RUBIN: Well, I was just referring to the current situation, because without a new realism about the current situation, we're not going to get the job done. During World War II George Bush likes to refer to Churchill. Churchill told the British people the truth. He told them about the problems they were facing, the difficulties they were facing. All of this happy talk from the White House is not going to fix the problem in Iraq.
COOPER: Right, but we're not hearing specifics.
RUBIN: Well, I'm about to give you that, Anderson. The way to go about it is to bring a new realism to it. To go to our allies with a fresh start, none the baggage of the Bush administration, none of the fights over treaties, fights over Iraq, fights over the war on terrorism, fights over the preemptive strike. All of that would be behind us in a Kerry administration. And he would persuade them with what's in their interest.
We should have NATO troops taking this on as a global mission, including guarding the borders where terrorists and insurgents are going back and forth. We should have NATO training in their own countries, Iraqi forces until the Iraqi forces are up to speed. We're going to have to be there a long time.
And finally and importantly Anderson, we have to give a stake to Europeans and other countries around the world in the reconstruction. They should be helping us coordinate reconstruction, sharing in contracts, so that the United States isn't bearing 90 percent of the burden, 90 percent of the cost. That's the way to do it.
COOPER: So Dan, how does U.S. policy, how does President Bush's policy differ from what Senator Kerry is saying.
SENOR: Well, certainly what Jamie is describing is certainly disconnected with the reality on the ground. There are over 30 nations with troops on the ground, 17 nations have civilian contributions. I went to work every day with Japanese colleagues, people from the UK, Australia, Poland, Italy the Czech Republic, I can go on. Most of the NATO countries have...
COOPER: But Dan, come on, in talking about numbers of troops, you're talking about a couple hundred here or there. Obviously with the British...
SENOR: No, no, sure. Anderson, look, each country there is making contributions proportionate to the size of their economy, their resources, the size of the military, the size of the population. That's understandable.
I think what's dangerous is what Senator Kerry has been doing, which is belittling the contributions of these coalition countries. I worked with some members of the coalition countries who actually lost their lives in Iraq. And I don't think their families would appreciate being referred to as the bribed and the coerced, window dressing. This is not...
COOPER: Jamie, how does Senator Kerry get NATO involved when President Bush has been trying to do that in the last couple of months, arguably, and it hasn't happened.
RUBIN: Well first of all, to point out that the United States is bearing 90 percent of the cost and 90 percent of the burden compared to previous exercises like the Gulf War where 95 percent of the costs were paid for by somebody else, that's not belittling the important contributions of our countries there, it's speaking truth to the American people.
The way John Kerry will get other countries to help us in a way that Bush won't is there will be a fresh start. All the poisoned well of the Bush era, at the time when the United States went around the world and told everybody what to do, of Donald Rumsfeld was going to Germany and telling them they're just like the Libyans and Cubans. All of that baggage has hurt us. It makes it hard for countries in Europe and around the world to do something...
COOPER: Right. So you're saying, basically a fresh start.
RUBIN: ...it's in their own interest. John Kerry will persuade them. And we'll have a far better chance to get that kind of help with a Kerry administration in that fresh start.
COOPER: OK. I want to leave it there. Jamie Rubin, appreciate you joining us. Dan Senor, good to talk to you as always. Thanks.
Today's Buzz is this. What do you think? Do you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or No. Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote. Results at the end of the program tonight.
Well coming up, it is a mystery and a tale of murder, sex, money and death. Next on 360, jury selection begins in the trial of an electrician who may be caught in a deadly love triangle.
Also tonight, the daughter of Al Gore stops by for why she's choosing a career of comedy and writing over politics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight, "Justice Served." Murder, marriage and money from the heart of a chilling mystery here in New York. And at that center is a messy divorce, a dead millionaire and an electrician who today stands accused of a vicious crime that sent shockwaves through one very tiny town. CNN's Adaora Udoji has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Long Island electrician, Danny Pelosi's troubles began in 2001 while working in East Hampton, a playground for the rich. Among the privileged his alleged victim, Ted Ammon, a financier worth an estimated $80 million. Ammon and his wife of 14 years Generosa were going through a bitter divorce. She started dating Pelosi after hiring him on a project.
DANNY PELOSI, ACCUSED OF MURDER: The truth will come out and I'm coming home.
UDOJI: The Ammons who had adopted two children share this Hampton mansion. In October 2001 Ted's body was found naked and viciously beaten in his bedroom. Fueling speculation, Ammon died just days before signing divorce papers. His will still named Generosa as the main benefactor. Three months later she married Pelosi.
From the beginning he vehemently denied any wrongdoing as he told CNN last fall.
PELOSI: For the record, I did not murder Ted Ammon nor did I have any involvement in what happened to Ted Ammon. UDOJI: Prosecutors have taken the case to trial. They've argued Ammon was subdued by a stun gun, that Pelosi had recently bought one, that a surveillance system Pelosi set up in the mansion unbeknownst to Ammon was turned off during the attack.
JANET ALBERTSON, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: With all the media and all the hype and all the circus everyone forgets that this man was brutally murder and this trial is about Ted and finding Ted's killer.
UDOJI: Last year, Generosa and Pelosi divorced not long before she died of cancer. The story continues as Pelosi faces a single charge of second-degree murder. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Covering the case for us, 360 legal analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Good to see you, Kimberly.
There is no witness, no forensic evidence. Where's the case?
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE NEWSOM, 360 LEGAL ANALYST: It's like a nightmare. It's like the Scott Peterson case all over again. We're dealing with a circumstantial evidence case and I don't think jurors are going to be fooled by this man. Sure he's gone out and made denials, again, not the first murder suspect to deny involvement in a crime.
What you've got is some compelling common sense evidence here. You have got motive. You have opportunity and you have a man here who marries this woman three months later. It's all very suspicious. She has a lot of money. He cons her into doing the work at the house and then days before this bitter divorce is supposed to be settled, the husband, Ted is murdered. And who's going to get the money? The wife. And who is going to be the benefactor of that? You're going to get this guy, the defendant.
COOPER: The motive that he was having an affair with her. I mean, there are a lot of suspicious things. He installed a security system that was disabled and he owned a stun gun.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: He says he had the stun gun because he used it to stun and shock, ward off raccoons. Nice guy, right?
COOPER: Really, wow. That's interesting.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Fascinating tidbit.
COOPER: I've got raccoons. Maybe I should try that.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: Well, we won't go into that. But the thing is here, you're looking at a man who clearly had this motive and had the opportunity. He's the one that installed that security system. Who else could have and would from have done it and who stood to benefit from this man's very timely demise just days prior to this divorce settlement becoming finalized? That's what's going to speak to this jury. Now the defense says, hey, they've got a weak case because you don't have any eyewitnesses, no smoking gun so to speak. I think the stun gun evidence, I think the vicious brutal nature of this killing suggests something that's personal, something that's passionate, someone who was dead set on their objective which was to get this man out of the way.
COOPER: Wow. Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. Thanks. We'll watch the case.
GUILFOYLE NEWSOM: All right.
COOPER: Being the daughter of a vice president can be pretty amusing apparently. Next on 360 from her days at "SNL," and the hard lampoon, Kristin Gore stops by to tell us why there's so much comedy in politics.
Also tonight if you thought it was impossible think again. Paris Hilton is baring more as an author. We have excerpts from her new book ahead in the "Current."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: For eight years her dad was vice president of the United States. Four years ago she helped in his presidential bid. Today Kristin Gore's re-entering the realm of Washington politics not by running for office. Instead the former "Saturday Night Live" writer has penned a fiction novel, her first about a young person working on the Capitol called "Sammy's Hill."
Earlier I talked to Kristin Gore about the book.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: What is it about the world of politics that made you want to write about it?
KRISTIN GORE, AUTHOR, "SAMMY'S HILL": Well, I think because I knew it so well and everyone says to write what you know and I finally listened to that advice.
COOPER: It is a very funny book. And yet, one doesn't really think about politics necessarily as being intentionally funny.
GORE: Right. I guess if you grow up in it then you see all different sides of it. You know, I mean, you think about D.C. as a boring stuffy place. That's kind of its image. But if you grow up in that you see all these energetic, fun people and crazy stuff that happens behind the scenes that no one knows about.
COOPER: That's what's so amazing. In the book, it's all about this young woman who works on Capitol Hill. She's 26. All the people who work in Capitol Hill are really young. I think a lot of people in the rest of the country don't realize that people who are running the country are really young. It's a little scary at times. GORE: It's alarming. I know. They might want to tune into that. Because you don't want policy being shaped by all incredibly young people, but hopefully Sammy's smart and hard-working enough that you feel comfortable with her having a hand in it.
COOPER: In it you write she's attracted to this guy and she describes him as undeniably hot and not just D.C. hot but real world hot. Is there a different hotness in D.C.? What is D.C. "hot?"
GORE: Well, I think that goes along with its reputation of just it's not necessarily considered the sexpot capital of the world.
COOPER: So it's a lower standard.
GORE: Yes.
COOPER: So what passes for hot in D.C. in the real world...
GORE: According to some people, yes.
COOPER: I see. All right. And yet it's -- I mean, obviously, there are going to be inevitable comparisons. Your character works for a person who is a vice presidential candidate. Does that annoy you? I know you're on this book tour and you'll be going to get asked that question a million times.
GORE: I understand why because Sammy has a behind-the-scenes perspective. I obviously had that growing up and experiencing it, but I really think she's a pretty original character, you know.
COOPER: And people describe it like a "Bridget Jones' Diary" like on Capitol Hill.
GORE: I've heard that, yes. And I'm not going to complain with any comparison to a best-selling sensation. I'm, like, sure, go ahead and think that. That's wasn't really what I was setting out for, but great.
COOPER: The movie rights have already been sold. I think I read you're writing the screenplay right now.
GORE: I am, yes. Red Wagon and Columbia Pictures bought the screen play and I'm adapting it.
COOPER: It's heavy stuff.
GORE: Very, have yes.
COOPER: For a first novel, it's incredible.
GORE: I know. I can't believe it. It really is still, I'm waiting for someone to tell me -- to wake me, basically.
COOPER: You were saying that you were riding in an elevator -- with the book, and someone asked you about it? GORE: Yes. I was thumbing through today, actually and they said, oh how is that book, I've been wondering. And I said, it's really great. It's really smart and funny and then felt really terrible like I should confess and sort of ran away.
COOPER: You should not confess. You should push this as much as possible.
GORE: I'll just be running around town with it and trying new disguises.
COOPER: Do you want to write again?
GORE: Yes.
COOPER: You're a writer. No politics for you.
GORE: No. I've always wanted to be a writer from age 7, my mom remembers me saying -- there was a brief moment when I wanted to be a wide receiver for the Redskins, also around third grade, but other than that, it was always a writer.
COOPER: We all go through that in the 3rd grade.
GORE: Yeah. Sure, you know: Gary Clark, Art Monk, they stick with you. But, yes I just really wanted to be a writer. And so that was always my goal.
COOPER: You worked for your dad on the campaign trail. Do you have any desire to be in this race? Hoping on Senator Kerry?
GORE: Well, sure. I mean, I'm definitely hoping that there will be a huge voter turnout, particularly among younger people who, I understand why they're cynical and detached about politics, you know? But I think it would be great if people realize what's at stake and go out in more more force, because we're the generation that's supposed to be taking over and shaping the future. So, it would be great if they knew what's going on and actually played a role in it.
COOPER: As a comedy writer, any advice for the Bush twins?
GORE: Oh. No, I think they're doing just fine.
COOPER: OK. We'll leave it at that.
It's a great book. "Sammy's Hill" it's your first novel. Congratulations.
GORE: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Time now for "The Current." And we'll talk about another writer/ Tonight, we bring you a very special "Current." We call it "Story Time." We you'll see why in a moment. In the tradition of Winston Churchill, Gandhi and St. Augustine comes the next great autobiography. Yes, we're talking about Paris Hilton. Her 179-page "Confessions of an Heiress" is finally, finally for sale. As a celebrity socialite, she's legendary, but as a writer, Miss Hilton is quite simply a revelation. Earlier, the 360 crew got together for story time with a reading of Paris Hilton's "Confessions."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Confession of an Heiress" by Paris Hilton.
When it comes to keeping a year round St. Tropez looking tan, Mystique Tan is key. It give you a great glow that you can't get from bronzer. By the way, have you ever seen a pale heiress? I think not.
If you were going to be an heiress, you can't have a normal name unless you're British. All British people have plain names. And that works pretty well over there, but in America you have got to have a name that stands out.
Fear nothing except insects and sweaty guy who insist on kissing you when they come up to say hello. There's nothing worse than a sweaty guy who kisses you on both cheeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's a reading.
It is spring time in New York, at least in one small corner of New York, Fashion Week began today, where thousands gather to set the stylish rules for Spring 2005. Fashionistas fall over each other for a seat inside the tents, but for those of us left out on the hottest shows to whom can we turn for interpretation and illumination. We turn to the those intrepid souls known as fashion reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): They are the truly dedicated followers of fashion, and schmooze with celebs, watch walk after walk and air kiss the artistes. They are the fashion reporters. The runways are their war zones where they study the styles and talk endlessly about clothes, color and style.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Denim will always be in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everything was way too black.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sexy and hot and fabulous.
COOPER: This breed of reporters sure can get haughty about haute couture. Sometimes even fellow fashionistas don't quite get what they're talking about.
JANE PRATT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JANE MAGAZINE: I don't know what they're doing when they do that. They just like to hear themselves talk. I don't know. It's meaningless.
COOPER: Jane Pratt, editor-in-chief of "Jane" magazine has spent years in the trenches trudging from show to show with the rest of the fashion press. But... PRATT: I still don't know thou do that thing where I walk around and go, think pink or glasses are the new socks or, you know, everything's the new black.
COOPER: Not so, these intrepid reporters who try their best to turn us into slaves to style.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are fashion trends that people will cling to forever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of coral, lots of turquoise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about that nonchalant chic.
COOPER: And perhaps we'd gladly comply, if only we knew what precisely they're talking about.
To be fair, the fashion reporter's lot is not always an easy one. Just try explaining how you can be style savvy in a dress made of string. But, give fashion reporters a minute, and we're sure they'll come up with something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Sure they will.
360 next, our first anniversary to the "Nth Degree." We're celebrating with you. But first today's "Buzz," "Do you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or no." Log on to CNN.com/360, cast your vote, results at the end of show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Time now for "The Buzz." Earlier we asked you if you think a candidate's military history should be a campaign issue? Yes or No. Over 26,000 of you voted. 59 percent of you said yes, 41 percent said no. Not a scientific poll, but it is your "Buzz". And we appreciate you voting.
Finally tonight, taking anniversaries to the "Nth Degree." Tonight marks the first anniversary of this program. I remember back when we started, milk was what? About 2 bucks a gallon? Hard to believe.
But, of course, in those days you could buy a Hummer in 60 grand, which was real money in 2003.
We actually didn't realize it was our anniversary today, until some of our dedicated viewers sent us this scrapbook of the entire year. It's really quite amazing.
There's September, with pictures of our premiere, reviews from critics and headlines of the stories we covered. October features cute pumpkin decorations. November has turkeys and a picture of my mom. December, a Christmas Tree and a little snowmen. Month after month, a detailed look of what we were doing, even including shots of the staff who have appeared on the show. We also got some balloons from viewers today.
Frankly, we don't know what to say, except as always, thanks for watching 360.
Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
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