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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

California Hit With Rain, Floods; Four CBS Producers Fired Over National Guard Controversy

Aired January 10, 2005 - 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.
California hammered. Blinding rain, massive floods. At least nine or dead. And the rain just keeps coming.

360 starts now.

Torrential rains, flash floods. California battles a deadly winter storm. Tonight, the story behind this dramatic rescue caught on tape. A man and two children saved moments before they're swept away.

Nine are dead, hundreds fall ill from a South Carolina train wreck and a toxic cloud of chlorine gas. Tonight, cleaning up the deadly mess. And could something like this happen near you?

The tsunami like you've never seen it before. A new video, a new angle, the wall of water sweeping everything in its path.

A bombshell at CBS. Four fired for the flawed expose questioning President Bush's military service. Tonight, when getting the scoop goes too far.

And beauty and the breakup. Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt call it quits. Tonight, the tabloids on a feeding frenzy, and why so many of us seem to care.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening again.

You know, we've become used these last difficult weeks to seeing walls of water and moving earth. But what you are about to see did not take place two weeks ago half a world away. It took place here at home in Southern California, just a few hours ago, a massive mountain of mud crashing down along the 101 Freeway northwest of Los Angeles. At least one person was killed in this landslide you are about to witness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm not! it's coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I want to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, over here! It's falling...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: As you see, the entire hillside giving away. Numerous injuries also reported. People running. There were shouts and cries. Fifteen homes were also damaged in La Conchita, a small Ventura County town. Now, authorities were already in the midst of evacuating the area when the slide occurred. So if there is any silver lining tonight, it is this. It could have been much worse.

Also north of Los Angeles, in the town of Santa Clarita, another example just how much rain that area has seen. A creek overflowing, breaching an eight-foot retaining wall, taking out at least one mobile home.

Southeast of L.A., a man and two children rescued, and it is only because of the dramatic efforts by firefighters that tragedy was prevented.

CNN's Miguel Marquez reports now from Cerritos, California, on an amazing rescue that was all caught on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on now, come on now, come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a rescue that almost didn't happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, no, no, he's coming fast. He's coming faster. He's coming faster. Tell him to get ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The minutes leading up to the rescue are an example of training, ingenuity, sweat, and pure luck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got him I think we got him. I think we got him. He's out. Whoo hoo!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The man on top of the BMW is William McRee (ph), an eye surgeon from central California. He and his Beamer are floating down a rain-swollen drainage canal called Coyote Creek in suburban Los Angeles. How he got there is a story in itself.

CAPT. THOMAS MCGAULEY, SANTA FE SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had a vehicle that was traveling northbound on one of our local freeways that had gone through the barricade and had fallen into the Coyote Creek Reservoir.

MARQUEZ: The car stayed still just long enough for McRee's 11- year-old daughter and her 12-year-old friend to be hoisted to safety by people passing by and firefighters, who only had seconds to act.

CAPT. MARK TUBBS, SANTA FE SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT: There was a bunch of people up top holding onto an old piece of nylon rope, and another line that they had fastened together with just tying knots into straps that normally would be used for normally tying down furniture in a moving van. And I didn't have a lot of faith in that equipment.

MARQUEZ: The equipment held, but now McRee was headed south, his car now a boat.

TUBBS: Yes, I didn't have a lot of hope for him at that point. I felt that he would be lost in the vehicle going down the river.

MARQUEZ: As they're trained to do, firefighters set up a secondary position at the next bridge about a mile down the creek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he? Can you see him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the center. In the center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in the center of the pylon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in the center, Thomas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUBBS: We've done a lot of rescues, but I don't think any of us in this department have ever seen anything like this before. We've trained for swift-water rescue, but the typical scenario is that you know you have someone in the river and they're coming downstream. You get there ahead of them. You follow prescribed procedures.

MARQUEZ: With minutes to act, they only had time to improvise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab the rope! Grab it tight! Grab it tight!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over here, over here!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, dude!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got him over here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Firefighters set lines on the bridge's front and back side in case the man fell. He held tightly to the first rope, the water rushing so fast, it pulled his pants down around his ankles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to pull you up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull it, pull it, pull it. We got him, keep coming. Keep pulling. Don't let go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he drop it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: For a moment, firefighters think they lost him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he's hanging on for dear life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on back! We got him, we got him! Jesus Christ! Keep -- everybody...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on now, come on now, come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: And then they do lose him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water. A vest!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab a vest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there you go. Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, hold on!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: A closer view shows McRee literally at the end of the rope. As firefighters try desperately to pull him to waiting hands, the rope runs out.

TUBBS: Right about the time that we were attempting to stop the pull on the rope and go -- and grab him was when he let go. He just didn't have the strength any longer.

MARQUEZ: McRee is able to grab a life vest tethered to a rope on the far side of the bridge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job. Put that other vest behind him. Float it behind him, in case he (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: McRee rides the river as though he were on a boogie board. Rescuers inch him to the side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! Yes! Right on!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: McRee asks first about his daughter and her friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The girls are OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUBBS: We'll be talking about this for a long time. We'll critique our actions. We'll try to better, we'll improve. But it was just a great day. It's a once-in-a-lifetime career incident. And I can't wait to go home and, you know, kiss my wife and the kids and tell them, You know what? We did a great job today. MCGAULEY: It's an unusual feeling. I mean, that's not something we feel in this line of work a lot. You know, even now, I feel a little emotional about it, you know. But it's a joy that you can't really describe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, this is the bridge where Santa Fe Springs Fire Department did that rescue job, an amazing rescue job. It's another day of rush-hour traffic. Coyote Creek, the wash a little lower today, but it give you an idea of just how hard firefighters are working, these swift-water crews are working. Los Angeles County Fire Department tells me that in the last two days, they have done 20 swift-water rescues. That is a record, Anderson.

COOPER: It's amazing work. Miguel, I don't quite understand how that guy's vehicle got into the creek behind you. Was it swept off the highway by the water?

MARQUEZ: Yes. About a mile up the way here, the Santa Ana Freeway goes over this creek. His car literally went over the freeway, through a guardrail, into the creek, and he and the three passengers got up on the roof. It stayed there for a bit. They got the girls, and then he ended up right down here, Anderson.

COOPER: And how was it the police were able to get ahead of him like that? I mean, I guess, I, just, sort of geographically, how were they able to get so far ahead that they could set this whole scenario up?

MARQUEZ: Yes. They certainly didn't have a lot of time. The first bridge that firefighters and police came to, they only had about 60 seconds, they said, to help pull the girls off the car. The second bridge, they thought they had 10, maybe 15 minutes as his BMW was floating down the river.

But apparently BMWs float about as fast as they drive, because it got down here in just a couple of minutes. And you saw what they did. They had ropes hanging off this side, ropes with life vests hanging off that side. And that's as best as they could do, and it worked, Anderson.

COOPER: A heroic rescue effort. Miguel Marquez, thanks very much for that.

Up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, snow has been falling by the foot every day. On the ground right now, we're told a dozen or so feet of snow. Of course, the record for that area is more than 40 feet, and that happened almost a century ago.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is in Lake Tahoe, where the skiing may be nice if you can actually get there. Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anderson, that's the problem. Roads have been closed on and off through the entire weekend, and folks trying to get here have had a hard time doing so. We've been here for three days now, and it's virtually snowed nonstop.

But it's really the past two weeks, two monster, slow-moving storms have peppered this area with, in some cases, 19 feet of snow. The Sierra Nevada is known for a lot of snow, Lake Tahoe included. So we wanted to put things in perspective, grabbed a couple of locals today, and went out to chat with them.

First up is longtime local businessman Ron Trevis (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Tell me what this storm looks like in comparison to what you've seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. The -- this is a good one. And I think the main reason it's a good one is that we've had two and with the potential here of a three that are back to back, and without a lot of time to clean out in between.

MARCIANO: The locals are concerned about not only for folks visiting, but yourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, when you have this kind of weather, of course, which is highly unpredictable as to what the outcome will be, it's just not safe driving. It's not even safe walking sometimes. And then you start getting some potential of the avalanche danger. The snow is always a lot more up the mountain than it is down here in town. And you can see we have quite a bit here in town.

MARCIANO (voice-over): You can bet there's a lot me snow on the mountain. So we hit the hill and caught a ride with a snow expert, Will Payton (ph). He's a ski patroller and avalanche forecaster at Squaw Valley.

How much more snow do you get here at the mountain than you do down at the lake?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, every storm is different. But typically, I would say, if we get a foot of snow down at the lake level, I mean, you might see as much as four feet of snow underneath the ridge lines.

MARCIANO: What are your main concerns, both for you, your staff, and the guests here, when you get a dump like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, obviously, when we go out to do avalanche control, our biggest concern is just our safety. And above and beyond that, we won't open up terrain unless we think it's safe for our guests.

MARCIANO: Give me a couple of things that you would tell somebody if they were caught in an avalanche. What should they do when they're getting tossed around at 60 miles an hour?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, obviously, every avalanche is a different size. But you want to fight for your life and try to swim to the surface. And should you get -- feel like you're going to get buried, try to cover your mouth to give yourself a little bit of an airway to breathe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Well, as you can see, they take the danger of avalanches very seriously here, and they should. They're going to have to be real careful for the next couple of days as this storm slowly moves out.

Wind an issue also. Over the weekend, we had 163 mile-an-hour gusts at the top of Squaw Peak, and that is a category five hurricane- strength gust. We could see similar winds tonight. And on top of that, at least three feet of snow expected right here by this time tomorrow night. Winter storm warnings up through Tuesday.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Rob Marciano, live from Lake Tahoe. Thanks, Rob.

A great river of the east is giving trouble as well right now. Now, take a look. This is the engorged Ohio River in Industry, Pennsylvania, where a tugboat pushing something -- that's a tugboat right there pushing some coal barges -- struck a dam. It foundered. Three members of their crew were killed. Three others were injured.

And this is what the Ohio has done to the town of Marietta, which right now is a smaller place than it was even a day ago, because, as you can see, so much of it is under water.

Police in Massachusetts are hunting a killer in a very unusual way. That tops our look at stories happening right now cross-country.

Take a look. In Truro, police are trying to solve the murder of a three- year -- of this woman, Christa Worthington. It happened three years ago. She was killed. They've asked nearly 800 men now who live in the Cape Cod community to give DNA samples. The ACLU calls the DNA dragnet a "serious intrusion on personal privacy."

Selma, North Carolina, a tractor-trailer crashes, bursts into flames. Some northbound lanes of I-95 will be closed until at least tomorrow afternoon while crews try to resurface the highway. Now, the truck's driver is in critical condition right now with severe burns. Police say he lost control of the vehicle when merging onto the highway.

We take you now to Fort Hood, Texas, and a quote, "We're going to find out what kind of monster I am." That man right there said it, Specialist Charles Graner, as he walked into his court-martial. He's accused of leading the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today, a witness testified Graner was laughing while he made the naked prisoners pose in photographs.

Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court refuses to consider a Ku Klux Klan adopt-a-highway case. The state of Missouri had banned the Klan from the litter cleanup program. The Klan sued, and an appeals court ruled in their favor. The higher court's rejection of the case means that ruling will stand.

And today, justices also steered clear of a dispute over gay adoptions. They won't accept an appeal by four Florida men who challenge the state ban on adoption by gay couples.

That's a quick look at stories right now cross-country.

Coming up next on 360, we take you into the heart of the tsunami. A new video, a new angle, showing you the water surge like you haven't seen it before. Some remarkable images.

Also tonight, a small town poisoned by a toxic chemical after two trains collide. Nine people dead, and the danger is not yet over.

Also, a little later tonight, CBS News blames its producers. Heads roll. But did the right people lose their jobs? We're covering all the angles.

First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Just looking at that, it's hard to wrap your mind around what you're actually seeing. You know, we thought we had seen all the images of the tsunami disaster. But then today, we got a look at that tape. It was taken by a wedding photographer in Banda Aceh.

You know, in some places, the water seemed to come out of nowhere so fast. If you blinked, you missed it. But in this video that you're about to see, notice how the water starts slowly at first, and then becomes a deluge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): They have no idea the water is coming. The tape begins after the earthquake has ended, the streets in Banda Aceh crowded with stunned Indonesians. They dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings and care for the wounded, unaware a greater disaster is yet to come.

Almost 20 minutes after the quake, the water appears. People run, scream, try to warn others of the incoming sea. A blue van tries to make it across the street in time. The water simply overwhelms it. As it's hit by another van, it flips on its side. A tree caught in the wave flows right in its direction, and the van disappears. No word on what happened to the driver.

The screaming continues above the voice of the sea, a nonstop rumble, a chaotic clatter of everything taken in its path. Twisted pieces of metal, wood, furniture, vehicles, people swept up, the saltwater river some 10 feet deep, doesn't look like water anymore. It's just a moving force of destruction and death.

Some people make it above the flow, huddling on the roof of a mosque complex. They are spared. There's no telling how many people are caught beneath the water.

Soon, the saltwater river slows, and the survivors stand on the roofs that saved them, looking down, stunned at how a whole city and the ones they loved could be taken away so quickly, so ruthlessly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that video, as we said, was taken by a wedding photographer, his camera usually recording happy moments. On that day, he recorded a horrible wave of history.

The number of Americans unaccounted for right now is down drastically. That's some good news. Here's a fast fact for you. Today, the State Department reported that it still has to sort through 812 inquiries concerning U.S. citizens who might have been hit by the tsunami. But consider, that number is way down from the 6,000 inquiries a week ago, 30,000 inquiries at the beginning of the disaster.

U.S. death toll has changed little since last week. Eighteen Americans now confirmed dead, another 18 who are missing are presumed dead.

360 next, a nuclear submarine crashes into an underwater mountain. Find out how the deadly accident could happen.

Also, a toxic train crash, killing nine people, shutting down a small town. We'll take a closer look at the danger that hasn't gone away.

Also tonight, an iceberg on a collision course. Find out why NASA is calling it the largest demolition derby on earth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, it's rare that submarines make headlines. After all, they're designed to go unnoticed, gliding silently under the seas. But the nuclear submarine U.S.S. "San Francisco" has been noticed in a big way these last few days. It ran into an underwater mountain at full speed last Friday.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been investigating how it could happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite what appears to be a freak collision with an uncharted undersea mountain, the nuclear submarine U.S.S. "San Francisco" was able to return to its home port of Guam under its own power Monday, its nuclear reactor and inner hull undamaged.

Navy officials say the accident occurred Friday in open ocean about 350 miles southeast of Guam as the submarine was en route from Guam to Brisbane, Australia. Sources say the fast-attack submarine was cruising at high speed, 33 knots, or 38 miles per hour, at a depth of between 400 and 500 feet, where the ocean was thought to be 1,000 feet deep.

Suddenly, violently, the submarine collided with what Navy officials say may have been an uncharted undersea mountain. The impact brought the submarine to an almost dead stop and tossed the 137 crew members around the cramped vessel. Twenty-four-year-old Machinist's Mate Second Class Joseph Ashley was killed when he was slammed against a bulkhead, sources say. And 23 other crew members suffered cuts, bruises, sprains, and broken bones.

The damage to the submarine was substantial. The section of the bow containing the sonar dome was flooded. But officials say the inner hull was not breached, so no water entered the crew area, and the sub's design, with two hulls and watertight compartments, kept it from sinking.

U.S. submarines normally run silent and deep, blind to objects ahead of them unless they make noise and can be heard on passive sonar.

(on camera): While it is in the long tradition of the Navy to hold a captain responsible for whatever happens to his ship, if it turns out the underwater obstruction was not on a chart, and no navigational error was made, the skipper could face no disciplinary action.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Palestinians have elected a new leader. That tops our look at what's happening right now around the world in the uplink.

Ramallah, West Bank, former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas won more than 62 percent of the vote, beating his closest opponent by 42 points. He dedicated his win to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Abbas has said he wants to resume peace talks with Israel.

In Khartoum, singing and dancing for joy after hearing Africa's longest-running civil war is over, at least on paper. Sudanese government and rebel leaders signed a peace deal Sunday ending the country's 21-year-old conflict. But the pact does not cover a separate battle in the western Darfur region that has left millions of refugees dead due to famine and disease.

In Antarctica, a massive iceberg on a collision course with a glacier. This video is from NASA now. The iceberg so large, about 100 miles long. But the best seat to see it is in motion is actually in space. NASA scientists expect a collision no later than Saturday and say we could see one of the, in their words, "best demolition derbies on the planet." Not sure that's a technical NASA term, but we'll take it for what it is.

Manila, the Philippines, now. Faith proved stronger than fear. Police say a record crowd of at least 500,000 people turned out for the Roman Catholic Feast of the Black Nazarene. That's even after police foiled an alleged plan by suspected Islamic militants to bomb the procession. Power of faith.

Santiago, Chile, nay, that loving feeling. About 30,000 people partied in the streets on Saturday for Latin America's first Love Parade. The celebration of techno music was based on the infamous Love Parade held in Berlin, Germany. Wasn't familiar with that one either, but there you go. A lot of love.

That's tonight's uplink.

Nine are dead. Hundreds fall ill from a South Carolina train wreck and a toxic cloud of chlorine gas. Tonight, cleaning up the deadly mess. And could something like this happen near you?

A bombshell at CBS for the flawed expose questioning President Bush's military service. Tonight, when getting the scoop goes too far.

And beauty and the breakup. Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt call it quits. Tonight, the tabloids on a feeding frenzy, and why so many of us seem to care.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Toxic train crash leaving 9 people dead and a small town in lock down. 360 Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: After a train wreck last week in South Carolina, a cloud of chlorine rose offensive the town of Graniteville. A man named Mike Griff (ph) saw a green mist envelope him. He thought his life was over. I could just feel my life slipping away, he said. Craig survived, though others were not so lucky. In the beginning nobody knew it was chlorine, they just knew people were dying. CNN's Heidi Collins reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my family and my friends that are displaced. Our community went through the other night, it's like a ghost town. I haven't seen that in 53 years.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If anyone can speak for his friends, family and an entire town, for that matter, it would be Graniteville Fire Chief Phil Natier. He's been reelected as chief every year for the past 24 years.

CHIEF BILL NATIER, GRANITEVILLE, SC FIRE DEPT.: I've got to be tough and I've got to stand up. I'm not too proud to cry for them, and I have.

COLLINS: There have been many tears since 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning. A 42-car Norfolk Southern freight train slammed into another train parked in the siding of the tracks. Three cars on the larger train were carrying deadly liquid chlorine. Four of Chief Natier's men who lived close by the accident headed directly in to ground zero. They had no idea that chlorine was leaking and rushed in, to a cloud concealing a toxic enemy with no protection at all. The Chief Natier heard it on his radio.

NATIER: One of men started screaming, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. I need help. And I started hollering for him to get out of there. And I proceeded on around the block in the opposite direction and not knowing that I was going right to the accident. There was two men standing there. One was laying on the ground. And I stopped and I rolled my window down and the gentleman says, we've had a head-on collision with the train. We've got a chemical leak. I can't breathe. And he went down. And about the same time, it hit me. I couldn't breathe. And it was just like -- all I remember from that point was just like my life ended. I made a U-turn. And I don't know where I went or how I got there. I mean, it's just like there's a blank in my life, like I was dead. And found out at a later time that the men I talked to was the engineer and the conductor of the train.

COLLINS: The 28-year-old engineer of West Columbia, South Carolina, died moments after the Chief Natier watched him fall to the ground. Leaving the men behind is not something the chief handles well.

NATIER: It's rewarding to be able to help people. But it's bad when there's incidence that you can't.

COLLINS: But in a community like this, help comes in many ways. Shelters for the more than 5,000 people ordered to leave their homes. Food for hundreds of law enforcement officials. And even financial help directly from Norfolk Southern Railroad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's my little 9-year-old's dog. And we love her and we want her to be alive.

COLLINS: Laurie brown lives on the outskirts of the mandatory evacuation zone. She didn't expect to be gone so long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we would have never left our dog. I feel so guilty for leaving her. I shouldn't have left her. I didn't know this was going to happen.

COLLINS: Many pets were left stranded in their homes. Others ran free through parts of town, happy to stop for food that sheriff's deputies started leaving out in fields.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry, sir. I haven't slept in several days. I just want to take her home.

COLLINS: Sheriff's deputies put the health rules aside and decided to go beyond the barricades. No one knew if the dog had survived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's alive! Oh, my God! Thank you. Oh, God. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome. You're welcome.

NATIER: Our community will recover. We have a strong community. We've got good people. We will pull together. And we will be back where we were, as strong, if not stronger. All this is going to be worked out. Material things don't matter. Life is what we're worried about. And that's the main focus, is to protect life, to get this hazard cleaned up and out of our community so we can get on with our lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Chief Natier also owns a business in town and, like so many other people, he is not drawing a paycheck from that tonight. And In Fact, there are still at this time upwards of 5,000 people displaced from their homes. There are three schools, including a college that are out right now with absolutely no idea of when people will be going either back to their homes or back to school. So at this point, the town of Graniteville still in a complete standstill.

Anderson back to you.

COOPER: For them -- for them the disaster continues. Heidi Collins, thanks very much for that report.

You know, if you look under your kitchen sink, and you'll probably find a cleaner containing chlorine. Now, the products you have there use only a small amount of chlorine, but in larger concentrations it can be deadly. In fact chlorine was used as a weapon during World War I. Now, we wanted to look at exactly what makes chlorine such an insidious killer and how concerned you should be about.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Early Thursday morning, Curtis Mitchell (ph) was managing the graveyard shift at the local textile mill when suddenly he was fighting the urge to breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My eyes were burning insatiable. And my throat felt like something just pulling at it. You know, you wanted to breathe but it was like you didn't want to breathe. You know, it's like you try to take breaths but you don't want to take a breath because it hurts so bad.

GUPTA: Curtis was at the end of the factory farthest away from the cloud of chlorine gas. Six of his co-workers died. One of them when he opened the door for fresh air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the odor came, I guess he thought there was some relief outside, and he went out the back door. And when he went out the back door, that's where he was when we came back. He couldn't move. I mean, he was -- just like he was just paralyzed.

GUPTA: two hundred and 40 other people were sickened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chlorine is an irritant. It is corrosive. And as such, it will be corrosive not only to the skin, but to the internal tissues, primarily the lungs, also the eyes, the bronchial tubes. It is an immediate effect. And you will feel the impact within a matter of moments.

GUPTA: While chlorine's effects are immediately caustic, the ease of its detection may have kept the number of casualties relatively low. Chlorine gas has a yellowish-green color. It has a pungent odor similar to bleach that you can't miss. There are basic measures to take during a chlorine gas leak. If you're in an exposed area, run far to it, preferably to higher ground because chlorine vapor will stay low to the ground. During the day, wind and sunlight can help break down the deadly gas. The stakes are high because if you inhale enough chlorine gas, there is no antidote. Health officials continue to clean and contain the site of the train wreck, but they say the worst is over. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

360 next. CBS News blames its producers. Should they have taken the heat for a "60 Minutes" report questioning President Bush's National Guard service? Take a look inside the box.

Also tonight Jen and Brad calling it quits. Have you noticed how just about everyone you talk to seems to think they know the real reason? Even if they don't that won't stop them from yammering about it on TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: The failure of CBS News to do just that, to properly fully scrutinize the documents and their source, led to our airing the documents when we should not have done so. It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The other shoe dropped at CBS News today. An independent report was released. One producer was fired, an executive producer was forced to resign as was another producer and a senior vice president. The conclusion, inside the box, mistakes there were made. CNN's Adaora Udoji takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RATHER: President Bush has been criticized for avoiding Vietnam.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 8, the heat of the presidential campaign and Dan Rather reports on "60 Minutes Wednesday" a young George Bush may have used preferential treat to get in the Texas Air National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam. CBS's proof, 30-year-old documents allegedly penned by Bush's squadron commander. Those documents quickly attacked as fakes and CBS found itself at the center of controversy. For 12 days, CBS defended its story before this.

RATHER: It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

UDOJI: After the apology, Rather announced he's stepping down from the anchor chair at CBS News in March. The network faulted its star anchor for his overenthusiasm, but didn't announce any disciplinary action until today. CBS News had news for four of his colleagues. You're gone.

LES MOONVES, CBS PRESIDENT & CEO: It's not a great day for CBS News but it is an opportunity to re-examine ourselves and hopefully move on and do better in the future.

UDOJI: Out are Mary Mapes, the producer of the segment and Emmy Award winner who last year broke the story of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. Josh Howard, executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" and his deputy, Mary Murphy, were asked to step down along with CBS News executive Betsy West. Their firings the result of an independent panel CBS commissioned which faulted the network for a, quote, "myopic zeal to break the story" and found ten serious defects in its reporting, including failure to authenticate the documents and a failure to investigate the man who supplied the material, Retired Texas National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett.

And as for Mapes calling Joe Lockhart, a senior official in the Kerry campaign before the CBS piece aired, investigators deemed that a clear conflict of interest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we know is there are some things done here that look really bad when you're looking at this question of bias.

UDOJI: Survivors of the scandal, CBS News president Andrew Heyward, applauded by the panel for sounding an alarm before the report aired. And according to Moonves, CBS will continue its tradition of investigative journalism. CBS is appointing a special overseer to thoroughly vet its sensitive investigative material to avoid a repeat scandal inside the box. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: In the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you I'm doing a little bit of work for CBS News for "60 Minutes Wednesday." In fact I'm still working on the story. Hasn't yet aired and will at some point. Just so you know.

A short time ago Mary Mapes, the producer of the Dan Rather report that we've been talking about and one of those dismissed today released a statement of her own in which she said among other things -- and I quote -- "it is noteworthy the panel did not conclude that these documents were false. Indeed, in the end all the panel did conclude was that there were many red flags that counseled against going to air quickly. I never had control of the timing of any airing of a "60 Minutes" segment. That has always been a decision made by my superiors including Andrew Heyward. If there was a journalistic crime committed here it was not by me."

Joining us now to talk about all of this is ethicist Bruce Weinstein. Appreciate you being with us. Andrew Heyward, should he have been reprimanded or worse?

BRUCE WEINSTEIN, THE ETHICS GUY: Yes. The principle of justice requires that we treat like cases alike and unalike cases unalike. So it seems from an ethical perspective to be unfair to single a few people out, the worker bees, if you will, for punishment and not the people ultimately who had control to green light the story.

COOPER: But now this commission raises the idea that -- in fact what they say is Heyward cautioned Betsy West and Josh Howard in an e- mail September 7 not to be stampeded. They're saying he raised red flags and they praised him for that.

WEINSTEIN: But he's the president of CBS News and ultimately he had the authority to say let's go forward with the story or not. When something goes awry in the Bush administration, when something goes amiss there, we blame President Bush, not just the subordinates underneath Bush. The buck has to stop at the president.

COOPER: It was interesting. The panel says, quote, "the panel cannot conclude that political agenda at "60 Minutes Wednesday" drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or its content." Does it matter, in terms of the ethics of this, whether or not this was politically motivated or ratings-driven?

WEINSTEIN: For one thing it's difficult to know what anyone's intentions are. I think more importantly from an ethical perspective what is less important is the motivation, the intention behind it and what's really important is the effect of those actions on other people. Whether it was politically motivated or commercially motivated or motivated by pure and simple greed or pride, the end result is that someone's reputation was besmirched. From President Bush's perspective the motivation doesn't matter, what matters is that this story smearing his reputation was aired. Whether or not there's evidence to support that is a separate matter but it turns out there wasn't good evidence.

COOPER: Let's talk about Dan Rather. Les Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS said this today, quote, "Dan Rather has already apologized for the segment, and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast. He voluntarily moved to set a date to step down from "CBS Evening News" anchor chair in March of 2005 which will give him more time to concentrate on his reporting for CBS News. After examining the report, and thinking about its implications we believe any further action would not be appropriate." Do you agree with that?

WEINSTEIN: No, I don't because as matter of historical record he too should have been reprimanded since all along Dan Rather has said he's more than an anchor, more than a reporter. He has more responsibility for things that come out of his mouth and so you know the phrase he used in introducing the pieces, that mistakes were made, that puts it in the passive voice. If we put it in the active voice, who made the mistake? Ultimately Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather made the mistake. Now this is kind of like -- to quote Michael Corleone another moral philosopher, no, "this is business, this is not personal." I have nothing against these folks personally. And Dan Rather has had a fine journalistic reputation. But here this was a very serious mistake and he too should have shared some of the blame.

COOPER: I never heard an ethicist quoting Michael Corleone. You're the first. Bruce Weinstein, thanks very much.

Just so you know, directly after 360 this evening, Paula Zahn will be talking with CBS president and CEO Les Moonves about the story that shouldn't have aired and about new safeguards that are now in place they say to keep such a thing from happening again. We shall see.

360 next, it is over for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Something really important. Bruce, I know you want to stay with us for this one. Hollywood's hottest couple is calling it quits. What went so very very wrong? And why do so many people seem to care and think they know? Take a look at that in "The Current."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Every time I hear Neil Diamond, it gets me. I hear, "Love on The Rocks" ain't no big surprise. I play that a lot at home. If you read the tabloid press lately, it wasn't a big surprise that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are breaking up. And I don't know if you noticed this around like your office today, but it seems like just about everybody we talked to has an opinion about why they broke up, as if they really know. I don't know why so many people feel they know these two, but they do. There it is. Let's take a look at the story in "The Current."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brad and Jen are finished.

CHARLES GIBSON, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": But first, the break-up of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt split.

COOPER (voice-over): It was the talk of the tube this morning. That's exactly what you would expect when Hollywood's golden couple say they're calling it quits, at least for now. They made their big announcement on Friday night and it was all the buzz on Hollywood's boulevard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know I just -- I'm not surprised at all that they broke up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought they were a cute couple.

COOPER: And on the red carpet.

JESSICA SIMPSON, ENTERTAINER: We're sad about the Brad and Jen thing, but you know, we wish them the best.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know they really took a beating with the press. Being a public person already is hard enough on a relationship.

COOPER: Those that run the tabloids will tell you they've been seeing the signs for month.

LARRY HACKETT, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "PEOPLE": We for the past several months, you know, photographs can say a lot and there have been photographs of them both together and separate where they just don't look terribly happy.

COOPER: The break-up is "People's" cover story this week, complete with pictures of Brad's and Jen's last bittersweet holiday together, which oddly enough, they were actually on when they announced their separation. "Us Weekly," on the other hand has what they say are exclusive photos of the same vacation previewed in some papers today and said to be released tomorrow. But why oh, oh why would this shining duo split after seven years?

Brad and Jen issued a statement saying, "we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media." But of course, that didn't stop the media from -- well, from speculating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Jennifer did not want to go down being remembered as a ditsy, fashionable sitcom star. She wants to be a movie star.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there was a bit of difference that they had about starting a family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angelina Jolie did get under his skin and Jennifer -- and that bothered Jennifer.

HACKETT: And people find that sad. Why couldn't these two do it?

You know, what kind of pressures are upon them that they can't make this work?

COOPER: Everybody it seems has an opinion. Of course, only two people really do know why Brad and Jen couldn't make it. All we know is, it is too bad and maybe time for the speculation to stop.

(END VIDEOTAPE)e

COOPER: We don't think it will.

360 tomorrow, remember all those reports about children abducted after the tsunami -- were any of them really true?

We're going to take a look at one family's story, try to track down two missing children to find out what really happened to them. We're covering all the angles stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking an old truth to "The Nth Degree." To hear people talk about it, you'd think globalization had been invented a couple -- three years ago as if interconnectedness was the very latest thing, a bright idea at the new millennium. Then comes a great wave in the Indian Ocean to remind us otherwise. We've always been interconnected touched by the same wind and washed by the same seas. From Somalia in Africa on the western edge of the Indian Ocean to Sumatra in the east is a distance of about 4,000 miles. The wave caused by the quake below the ocean floor near Sumatra traveled those thousands of miles to destroy most of the buildings on Hafun, a tiny Somalian island off the Horn of Africa. It took a few lives on Hafun as well. In other words, people on two continents, speaking different languages, living different lives, separated by an entire ocean, people who never would have known of one another's existence were killed by the very same monstrous splash. The poet John Dunne had it right 400 years ago in that famous poem of his about no man being an island.

He wrote, "Everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clog be washed away by sea," he said, "we are all diminished.

PAULA ZAHN NOW is next -- Paula.

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 January 10, 2005 - 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.
California hammered. Blinding rain, massive floods. At least nine or dead. And the rain just keeps coming.

360 starts now.

Torrential rains, flash floods. California battles a deadly winter storm. Tonight, the story behind this dramatic rescue caught on tape. A man and two children saved moments before they're swept away.

Nine are dead, hundreds fall ill from a South Carolina train wreck and a toxic cloud of chlorine gas. Tonight, cleaning up the deadly mess. And could something like this happen near you?

The tsunami like you've never seen it before. A new video, a new angle, the wall of water sweeping everything in its path.

A bombshell at CBS. Four fired for the flawed expose questioning President Bush's military service. Tonight, when getting the scoop goes too far.

And beauty and the breakup. Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt call it quits. Tonight, the tabloids on a feeding frenzy, and why so many of us seem to care.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening again.

You know, we've become used these last difficult weeks to seeing walls of water and moving earth. But what you are about to see did not take place two weeks ago half a world away. It took place here at home in Southern California, just a few hours ago, a massive mountain of mud crashing down along the 101 Freeway northwest of Los Angeles. At least one person was killed in this landslide you are about to witness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm not! it's coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I want to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, over here! It's falling...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: As you see, the entire hillside giving away. Numerous injuries also reported. People running. There were shouts and cries. Fifteen homes were also damaged in La Conchita, a small Ventura County town. Now, authorities were already in the midst of evacuating the area when the slide occurred. So if there is any silver lining tonight, it is this. It could have been much worse.

Also north of Los Angeles, in the town of Santa Clarita, another example just how much rain that area has seen. A creek overflowing, breaching an eight-foot retaining wall, taking out at least one mobile home.

Southeast of L.A., a man and two children rescued, and it is only because of the dramatic efforts by firefighters that tragedy was prevented.

CNN's Miguel Marquez reports now from Cerritos, California, on an amazing rescue that was all caught on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on now, come on now, come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a rescue that almost didn't happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, no, no, he's coming fast. He's coming faster. He's coming faster. Tell him to get ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The minutes leading up to the rescue are an example of training, ingenuity, sweat, and pure luck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got him I think we got him. I think we got him. He's out. Whoo hoo!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The man on top of the BMW is William McRee (ph), an eye surgeon from central California. He and his Beamer are floating down a rain-swollen drainage canal called Coyote Creek in suburban Los Angeles. How he got there is a story in itself.

CAPT. THOMAS MCGAULEY, SANTA FE SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had a vehicle that was traveling northbound on one of our local freeways that had gone through the barricade and had fallen into the Coyote Creek Reservoir.

MARQUEZ: The car stayed still just long enough for McRee's 11- year-old daughter and her 12-year-old friend to be hoisted to safety by people passing by and firefighters, who only had seconds to act.

CAPT. MARK TUBBS, SANTA FE SPRINGS FIRE DEPARTMENT: There was a bunch of people up top holding onto an old piece of nylon rope, and another line that they had fastened together with just tying knots into straps that normally would be used for normally tying down furniture in a moving van. And I didn't have a lot of faith in that equipment.

MARQUEZ: The equipment held, but now McRee was headed south, his car now a boat.

TUBBS: Yes, I didn't have a lot of hope for him at that point. I felt that he would be lost in the vehicle going down the river.

MARQUEZ: As they're trained to do, firefighters set up a secondary position at the next bridge about a mile down the creek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he? Can you see him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the center. In the center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in the center of the pylon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in the center, Thomas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUBBS: We've done a lot of rescues, but I don't think any of us in this department have ever seen anything like this before. We've trained for swift-water rescue, but the typical scenario is that you know you have someone in the river and they're coming downstream. You get there ahead of them. You follow prescribed procedures.

MARQUEZ: With minutes to act, they only had time to improvise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab the rope! Grab it tight! Grab it tight!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over here, over here!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, dude!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got him over here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Firefighters set lines on the bridge's front and back side in case the man fell. He held tightly to the first rope, the water rushing so fast, it pulled his pants down around his ankles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to pull you up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull it, pull it, pull it. We got him, keep coming. Keep pulling. Don't let go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he drop it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: For a moment, firefighters think they lost him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he's hanging on for dear life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on back! We got him, we got him! Jesus Christ! Keep -- everybody...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on now, come on now, come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: And then they do lose him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit the water. A vest!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab a vest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there you go. Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, hold on!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: A closer view shows McRee literally at the end of the rope. As firefighters try desperately to pull him to waiting hands, the rope runs out.

TUBBS: Right about the time that we were attempting to stop the pull on the rope and go -- and grab him was when he let go. He just didn't have the strength any longer.

MARQUEZ: McRee is able to grab a life vest tethered to a rope on the far side of the bridge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job. Put that other vest behind him. Float it behind him, in case he (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: McRee rides the river as though he were on a boogie board. Rescuers inch him to the side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! Yes! Right on!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: McRee asks first about his daughter and her friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The girls are OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUBBS: We'll be talking about this for a long time. We'll critique our actions. We'll try to better, we'll improve. But it was just a great day. It's a once-in-a-lifetime career incident. And I can't wait to go home and, you know, kiss my wife and the kids and tell them, You know what? We did a great job today. MCGAULEY: It's an unusual feeling. I mean, that's not something we feel in this line of work a lot. You know, even now, I feel a little emotional about it, you know. But it's a joy that you can't really describe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, this is the bridge where Santa Fe Springs Fire Department did that rescue job, an amazing rescue job. It's another day of rush-hour traffic. Coyote Creek, the wash a little lower today, but it give you an idea of just how hard firefighters are working, these swift-water crews are working. Los Angeles County Fire Department tells me that in the last two days, they have done 20 swift-water rescues. That is a record, Anderson.

COOPER: It's amazing work. Miguel, I don't quite understand how that guy's vehicle got into the creek behind you. Was it swept off the highway by the water?

MARQUEZ: Yes. About a mile up the way here, the Santa Ana Freeway goes over this creek. His car literally went over the freeway, through a guardrail, into the creek, and he and the three passengers got up on the roof. It stayed there for a bit. They got the girls, and then he ended up right down here, Anderson.

COOPER: And how was it the police were able to get ahead of him like that? I mean, I guess, I, just, sort of geographically, how were they able to get so far ahead that they could set this whole scenario up?

MARQUEZ: Yes. They certainly didn't have a lot of time. The first bridge that firefighters and police came to, they only had about 60 seconds, they said, to help pull the girls off the car. The second bridge, they thought they had 10, maybe 15 minutes as his BMW was floating down the river.

But apparently BMWs float about as fast as they drive, because it got down here in just a couple of minutes. And you saw what they did. They had ropes hanging off this side, ropes with life vests hanging off that side. And that's as best as they could do, and it worked, Anderson.

COOPER: A heroic rescue effort. Miguel Marquez, thanks very much for that.

Up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, snow has been falling by the foot every day. On the ground right now, we're told a dozen or so feet of snow. Of course, the record for that area is more than 40 feet, and that happened almost a century ago.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is in Lake Tahoe, where the skiing may be nice if you can actually get there. Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anderson, that's the problem. Roads have been closed on and off through the entire weekend, and folks trying to get here have had a hard time doing so. We've been here for three days now, and it's virtually snowed nonstop.

But it's really the past two weeks, two monster, slow-moving storms have peppered this area with, in some cases, 19 feet of snow. The Sierra Nevada is known for a lot of snow, Lake Tahoe included. So we wanted to put things in perspective, grabbed a couple of locals today, and went out to chat with them.

First up is longtime local businessman Ron Trevis (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Tell me what this storm looks like in comparison to what you've seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. The -- this is a good one. And I think the main reason it's a good one is that we've had two and with the potential here of a three that are back to back, and without a lot of time to clean out in between.

MARCIANO: The locals are concerned about not only for folks visiting, but yourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, when you have this kind of weather, of course, which is highly unpredictable as to what the outcome will be, it's just not safe driving. It's not even safe walking sometimes. And then you start getting some potential of the avalanche danger. The snow is always a lot more up the mountain than it is down here in town. And you can see we have quite a bit here in town.

MARCIANO (voice-over): You can bet there's a lot me snow on the mountain. So we hit the hill and caught a ride with a snow expert, Will Payton (ph). He's a ski patroller and avalanche forecaster at Squaw Valley.

How much more snow do you get here at the mountain than you do down at the lake?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, every storm is different. But typically, I would say, if we get a foot of snow down at the lake level, I mean, you might see as much as four feet of snow underneath the ridge lines.

MARCIANO: What are your main concerns, both for you, your staff, and the guests here, when you get a dump like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, obviously, when we go out to do avalanche control, our biggest concern is just our safety. And above and beyond that, we won't open up terrain unless we think it's safe for our guests.

MARCIANO: Give me a couple of things that you would tell somebody if they were caught in an avalanche. What should they do when they're getting tossed around at 60 miles an hour?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, obviously, every avalanche is a different size. But you want to fight for your life and try to swim to the surface. And should you get -- feel like you're going to get buried, try to cover your mouth to give yourself a little bit of an airway to breathe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Well, as you can see, they take the danger of avalanches very seriously here, and they should. They're going to have to be real careful for the next couple of days as this storm slowly moves out.

Wind an issue also. Over the weekend, we had 163 mile-an-hour gusts at the top of Squaw Peak, and that is a category five hurricane- strength gust. We could see similar winds tonight. And on top of that, at least three feet of snow expected right here by this time tomorrow night. Winter storm warnings up through Tuesday.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Rob Marciano, live from Lake Tahoe. Thanks, Rob.

A great river of the east is giving trouble as well right now. Now, take a look. This is the engorged Ohio River in Industry, Pennsylvania, where a tugboat pushing something -- that's a tugboat right there pushing some coal barges -- struck a dam. It foundered. Three members of their crew were killed. Three others were injured.

And this is what the Ohio has done to the town of Marietta, which right now is a smaller place than it was even a day ago, because, as you can see, so much of it is under water.

Police in Massachusetts are hunting a killer in a very unusual way. That tops our look at stories happening right now cross-country.

Take a look. In Truro, police are trying to solve the murder of a three- year -- of this woman, Christa Worthington. It happened three years ago. She was killed. They've asked nearly 800 men now who live in the Cape Cod community to give DNA samples. The ACLU calls the DNA dragnet a "serious intrusion on personal privacy."

Selma, North Carolina, a tractor-trailer crashes, bursts into flames. Some northbound lanes of I-95 will be closed until at least tomorrow afternoon while crews try to resurface the highway. Now, the truck's driver is in critical condition right now with severe burns. Police say he lost control of the vehicle when merging onto the highway.

We take you now to Fort Hood, Texas, and a quote, "We're going to find out what kind of monster I am." That man right there said it, Specialist Charles Graner, as he walked into his court-martial. He's accused of leading the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today, a witness testified Graner was laughing while he made the naked prisoners pose in photographs.

Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court refuses to consider a Ku Klux Klan adopt-a-highway case. The state of Missouri had banned the Klan from the litter cleanup program. The Klan sued, and an appeals court ruled in their favor. The higher court's rejection of the case means that ruling will stand.

And today, justices also steered clear of a dispute over gay adoptions. They won't accept an appeal by four Florida men who challenge the state ban on adoption by gay couples.

That's a quick look at stories right now cross-country.

Coming up next on 360, we take you into the heart of the tsunami. A new video, a new angle, showing you the water surge like you haven't seen it before. Some remarkable images.

Also tonight, a small town poisoned by a toxic chemical after two trains collide. Nine people dead, and the danger is not yet over.

Also, a little later tonight, CBS News blames its producers. Heads roll. But did the right people lose their jobs? We're covering all the angles.

First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Just looking at that, it's hard to wrap your mind around what you're actually seeing. You know, we thought we had seen all the images of the tsunami disaster. But then today, we got a look at that tape. It was taken by a wedding photographer in Banda Aceh.

You know, in some places, the water seemed to come out of nowhere so fast. If you blinked, you missed it. But in this video that you're about to see, notice how the water starts slowly at first, and then becomes a deluge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): They have no idea the water is coming. The tape begins after the earthquake has ended, the streets in Banda Aceh crowded with stunned Indonesians. They dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings and care for the wounded, unaware a greater disaster is yet to come.

Almost 20 minutes after the quake, the water appears. People run, scream, try to warn others of the incoming sea. A blue van tries to make it across the street in time. The water simply overwhelms it. As it's hit by another van, it flips on its side. A tree caught in the wave flows right in its direction, and the van disappears. No word on what happened to the driver.

The screaming continues above the voice of the sea, a nonstop rumble, a chaotic clatter of everything taken in its path. Twisted pieces of metal, wood, furniture, vehicles, people swept up, the saltwater river some 10 feet deep, doesn't look like water anymore. It's just a moving force of destruction and death.

Some people make it above the flow, huddling on the roof of a mosque complex. They are spared. There's no telling how many people are caught beneath the water.

Soon, the saltwater river slows, and the survivors stand on the roofs that saved them, looking down, stunned at how a whole city and the ones they loved could be taken away so quickly, so ruthlessly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that video, as we said, was taken by a wedding photographer, his camera usually recording happy moments. On that day, he recorded a horrible wave of history.

The number of Americans unaccounted for right now is down drastically. That's some good news. Here's a fast fact for you. Today, the State Department reported that it still has to sort through 812 inquiries concerning U.S. citizens who might have been hit by the tsunami. But consider, that number is way down from the 6,000 inquiries a week ago, 30,000 inquiries at the beginning of the disaster.

U.S. death toll has changed little since last week. Eighteen Americans now confirmed dead, another 18 who are missing are presumed dead.

360 next, a nuclear submarine crashes into an underwater mountain. Find out how the deadly accident could happen.

Also, a toxic train crash, killing nine people, shutting down a small town. We'll take a closer look at the danger that hasn't gone away.

Also tonight, an iceberg on a collision course. Find out why NASA is calling it the largest demolition derby on earth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, it's rare that submarines make headlines. After all, they're designed to go unnoticed, gliding silently under the seas. But the nuclear submarine U.S.S. "San Francisco" has been noticed in a big way these last few days. It ran into an underwater mountain at full speed last Friday.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been investigating how it could happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite what appears to be a freak collision with an uncharted undersea mountain, the nuclear submarine U.S.S. "San Francisco" was able to return to its home port of Guam under its own power Monday, its nuclear reactor and inner hull undamaged.

Navy officials say the accident occurred Friday in open ocean about 350 miles southeast of Guam as the submarine was en route from Guam to Brisbane, Australia. Sources say the fast-attack submarine was cruising at high speed, 33 knots, or 38 miles per hour, at a depth of between 400 and 500 feet, where the ocean was thought to be 1,000 feet deep.

Suddenly, violently, the submarine collided with what Navy officials say may have been an uncharted undersea mountain. The impact brought the submarine to an almost dead stop and tossed the 137 crew members around the cramped vessel. Twenty-four-year-old Machinist's Mate Second Class Joseph Ashley was killed when he was slammed against a bulkhead, sources say. And 23 other crew members suffered cuts, bruises, sprains, and broken bones.

The damage to the submarine was substantial. The section of the bow containing the sonar dome was flooded. But officials say the inner hull was not breached, so no water entered the crew area, and the sub's design, with two hulls and watertight compartments, kept it from sinking.

U.S. submarines normally run silent and deep, blind to objects ahead of them unless they make noise and can be heard on passive sonar.

(on camera): While it is in the long tradition of the Navy to hold a captain responsible for whatever happens to his ship, if it turns out the underwater obstruction was not on a chart, and no navigational error was made, the skipper could face no disciplinary action.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Palestinians have elected a new leader. That tops our look at what's happening right now around the world in the uplink.

Ramallah, West Bank, former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas won more than 62 percent of the vote, beating his closest opponent by 42 points. He dedicated his win to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Abbas has said he wants to resume peace talks with Israel.

In Khartoum, singing and dancing for joy after hearing Africa's longest-running civil war is over, at least on paper. Sudanese government and rebel leaders signed a peace deal Sunday ending the country's 21-year-old conflict. But the pact does not cover a separate battle in the western Darfur region that has left millions of refugees dead due to famine and disease.

In Antarctica, a massive iceberg on a collision course with a glacier. This video is from NASA now. The iceberg so large, about 100 miles long. But the best seat to see it is in motion is actually in space. NASA scientists expect a collision no later than Saturday and say we could see one of the, in their words, "best demolition derbies on the planet." Not sure that's a technical NASA term, but we'll take it for what it is.

Manila, the Philippines, now. Faith proved stronger than fear. Police say a record crowd of at least 500,000 people turned out for the Roman Catholic Feast of the Black Nazarene. That's even after police foiled an alleged plan by suspected Islamic militants to bomb the procession. Power of faith.

Santiago, Chile, nay, that loving feeling. About 30,000 people partied in the streets on Saturday for Latin America's first Love Parade. The celebration of techno music was based on the infamous Love Parade held in Berlin, Germany. Wasn't familiar with that one either, but there you go. A lot of love.

That's tonight's uplink.

Nine are dead. Hundreds fall ill from a South Carolina train wreck and a toxic cloud of chlorine gas. Tonight, cleaning up the deadly mess. And could something like this happen near you?

A bombshell at CBS for the flawed expose questioning President Bush's military service. Tonight, when getting the scoop goes too far.

And beauty and the breakup. Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt call it quits. Tonight, the tabloids on a feeding frenzy, and why so many of us seem to care.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Toxic train crash leaving 9 people dead and a small town in lock down. 360 Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: After a train wreck last week in South Carolina, a cloud of chlorine rose offensive the town of Graniteville. A man named Mike Griff (ph) saw a green mist envelope him. He thought his life was over. I could just feel my life slipping away, he said. Craig survived, though others were not so lucky. In the beginning nobody knew it was chlorine, they just knew people were dying. CNN's Heidi Collins reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my family and my friends that are displaced. Our community went through the other night, it's like a ghost town. I haven't seen that in 53 years.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If anyone can speak for his friends, family and an entire town, for that matter, it would be Graniteville Fire Chief Phil Natier. He's been reelected as chief every year for the past 24 years.

CHIEF BILL NATIER, GRANITEVILLE, SC FIRE DEPT.: I've got to be tough and I've got to stand up. I'm not too proud to cry for them, and I have.

COLLINS: There have been many tears since 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning. A 42-car Norfolk Southern freight train slammed into another train parked in the siding of the tracks. Three cars on the larger train were carrying deadly liquid chlorine. Four of Chief Natier's men who lived close by the accident headed directly in to ground zero. They had no idea that chlorine was leaking and rushed in, to a cloud concealing a toxic enemy with no protection at all. The Chief Natier heard it on his radio.

NATIER: One of men started screaming, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. I need help. And I started hollering for him to get out of there. And I proceeded on around the block in the opposite direction and not knowing that I was going right to the accident. There was two men standing there. One was laying on the ground. And I stopped and I rolled my window down and the gentleman says, we've had a head-on collision with the train. We've got a chemical leak. I can't breathe. And he went down. And about the same time, it hit me. I couldn't breathe. And it was just like -- all I remember from that point was just like my life ended. I made a U-turn. And I don't know where I went or how I got there. I mean, it's just like there's a blank in my life, like I was dead. And found out at a later time that the men I talked to was the engineer and the conductor of the train.

COLLINS: The 28-year-old engineer of West Columbia, South Carolina, died moments after the Chief Natier watched him fall to the ground. Leaving the men behind is not something the chief handles well.

NATIER: It's rewarding to be able to help people. But it's bad when there's incidence that you can't.

COLLINS: But in a community like this, help comes in many ways. Shelters for the more than 5,000 people ordered to leave their homes. Food for hundreds of law enforcement officials. And even financial help directly from Norfolk Southern Railroad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's my little 9-year-old's dog. And we love her and we want her to be alive.

COLLINS: Laurie brown lives on the outskirts of the mandatory evacuation zone. She didn't expect to be gone so long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we would have never left our dog. I feel so guilty for leaving her. I shouldn't have left her. I didn't know this was going to happen.

COLLINS: Many pets were left stranded in their homes. Others ran free through parts of town, happy to stop for food that sheriff's deputies started leaving out in fields.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry, sir. I haven't slept in several days. I just want to take her home.

COLLINS: Sheriff's deputies put the health rules aside and decided to go beyond the barricades. No one knew if the dog had survived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's alive! Oh, my God! Thank you. Oh, God. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome. You're welcome.

NATIER: Our community will recover. We have a strong community. We've got good people. We will pull together. And we will be back where we were, as strong, if not stronger. All this is going to be worked out. Material things don't matter. Life is what we're worried about. And that's the main focus, is to protect life, to get this hazard cleaned up and out of our community so we can get on with our lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Chief Natier also owns a business in town and, like so many other people, he is not drawing a paycheck from that tonight. And In Fact, there are still at this time upwards of 5,000 people displaced from their homes. There are three schools, including a college that are out right now with absolutely no idea of when people will be going either back to their homes or back to school. So at this point, the town of Graniteville still in a complete standstill.

Anderson back to you.

COOPER: For them -- for them the disaster continues. Heidi Collins, thanks very much for that report.

You know, if you look under your kitchen sink, and you'll probably find a cleaner containing chlorine. Now, the products you have there use only a small amount of chlorine, but in larger concentrations it can be deadly. In fact chlorine was used as a weapon during World War I. Now, we wanted to look at exactly what makes chlorine such an insidious killer and how concerned you should be about.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Early Thursday morning, Curtis Mitchell (ph) was managing the graveyard shift at the local textile mill when suddenly he was fighting the urge to breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My eyes were burning insatiable. And my throat felt like something just pulling at it. You know, you wanted to breathe but it was like you didn't want to breathe. You know, it's like you try to take breaths but you don't want to take a breath because it hurts so bad.

GUPTA: Curtis was at the end of the factory farthest away from the cloud of chlorine gas. Six of his co-workers died. One of them when he opened the door for fresh air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the odor came, I guess he thought there was some relief outside, and he went out the back door. And when he went out the back door, that's where he was when we came back. He couldn't move. I mean, he was -- just like he was just paralyzed.

GUPTA: two hundred and 40 other people were sickened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chlorine is an irritant. It is corrosive. And as such, it will be corrosive not only to the skin, but to the internal tissues, primarily the lungs, also the eyes, the bronchial tubes. It is an immediate effect. And you will feel the impact within a matter of moments.

GUPTA: While chlorine's effects are immediately caustic, the ease of its detection may have kept the number of casualties relatively low. Chlorine gas has a yellowish-green color. It has a pungent odor similar to bleach that you can't miss. There are basic measures to take during a chlorine gas leak. If you're in an exposed area, run far to it, preferably to higher ground because chlorine vapor will stay low to the ground. During the day, wind and sunlight can help break down the deadly gas. The stakes are high because if you inhale enough chlorine gas, there is no antidote. Health officials continue to clean and contain the site of the train wreck, but they say the worst is over. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

360 next. CBS News blames its producers. Should they have taken the heat for a "60 Minutes" report questioning President Bush's National Guard service? Take a look inside the box.

Also tonight Jen and Brad calling it quits. Have you noticed how just about everyone you talk to seems to think they know the real reason? Even if they don't that won't stop them from yammering about it on TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: The failure of CBS News to do just that, to properly fully scrutinize the documents and their source, led to our airing the documents when we should not have done so. It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The other shoe dropped at CBS News today. An independent report was released. One producer was fired, an executive producer was forced to resign as was another producer and a senior vice president. The conclusion, inside the box, mistakes there were made. CNN's Adaora Udoji takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RATHER: President Bush has been criticized for avoiding Vietnam.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 8, the heat of the presidential campaign and Dan Rather reports on "60 Minutes Wednesday" a young George Bush may have used preferential treat to get in the Texas Air National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam. CBS's proof, 30-year-old documents allegedly penned by Bush's squadron commander. Those documents quickly attacked as fakes and CBS found itself at the center of controversy. For 12 days, CBS defended its story before this.

RATHER: It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

UDOJI: After the apology, Rather announced he's stepping down from the anchor chair at CBS News in March. The network faulted its star anchor for his overenthusiasm, but didn't announce any disciplinary action until today. CBS News had news for four of his colleagues. You're gone.

LES MOONVES, CBS PRESIDENT & CEO: It's not a great day for CBS News but it is an opportunity to re-examine ourselves and hopefully move on and do better in the future.

UDOJI: Out are Mary Mapes, the producer of the segment and Emmy Award winner who last year broke the story of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. Josh Howard, executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" and his deputy, Mary Murphy, were asked to step down along with CBS News executive Betsy West. Their firings the result of an independent panel CBS commissioned which faulted the network for a, quote, "myopic zeal to break the story" and found ten serious defects in its reporting, including failure to authenticate the documents and a failure to investigate the man who supplied the material, Retired Texas National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett.

And as for Mapes calling Joe Lockhart, a senior official in the Kerry campaign before the CBS piece aired, investigators deemed that a clear conflict of interest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we know is there are some things done here that look really bad when you're looking at this question of bias.

UDOJI: Survivors of the scandal, CBS News president Andrew Heyward, applauded by the panel for sounding an alarm before the report aired. And according to Moonves, CBS will continue its tradition of investigative journalism. CBS is appointing a special overseer to thoroughly vet its sensitive investigative material to avoid a repeat scandal inside the box. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: In the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you I'm doing a little bit of work for CBS News for "60 Minutes Wednesday." In fact I'm still working on the story. Hasn't yet aired and will at some point. Just so you know.

A short time ago Mary Mapes, the producer of the Dan Rather report that we've been talking about and one of those dismissed today released a statement of her own in which she said among other things -- and I quote -- "it is noteworthy the panel did not conclude that these documents were false. Indeed, in the end all the panel did conclude was that there were many red flags that counseled against going to air quickly. I never had control of the timing of any airing of a "60 Minutes" segment. That has always been a decision made by my superiors including Andrew Heyward. If there was a journalistic crime committed here it was not by me."

Joining us now to talk about all of this is ethicist Bruce Weinstein. Appreciate you being with us. Andrew Heyward, should he have been reprimanded or worse?

BRUCE WEINSTEIN, THE ETHICS GUY: Yes. The principle of justice requires that we treat like cases alike and unalike cases unalike. So it seems from an ethical perspective to be unfair to single a few people out, the worker bees, if you will, for punishment and not the people ultimately who had control to green light the story.

COOPER: But now this commission raises the idea that -- in fact what they say is Heyward cautioned Betsy West and Josh Howard in an e- mail September 7 not to be stampeded. They're saying he raised red flags and they praised him for that.

WEINSTEIN: But he's the president of CBS News and ultimately he had the authority to say let's go forward with the story or not. When something goes awry in the Bush administration, when something goes amiss there, we blame President Bush, not just the subordinates underneath Bush. The buck has to stop at the president.

COOPER: It was interesting. The panel says, quote, "the panel cannot conclude that political agenda at "60 Minutes Wednesday" drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or its content." Does it matter, in terms of the ethics of this, whether or not this was politically motivated or ratings-driven?

WEINSTEIN: For one thing it's difficult to know what anyone's intentions are. I think more importantly from an ethical perspective what is less important is the motivation, the intention behind it and what's really important is the effect of those actions on other people. Whether it was politically motivated or commercially motivated or motivated by pure and simple greed or pride, the end result is that someone's reputation was besmirched. From President Bush's perspective the motivation doesn't matter, what matters is that this story smearing his reputation was aired. Whether or not there's evidence to support that is a separate matter but it turns out there wasn't good evidence.

COOPER: Let's talk about Dan Rather. Les Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS said this today, quote, "Dan Rather has already apologized for the segment, and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast. He voluntarily moved to set a date to step down from "CBS Evening News" anchor chair in March of 2005 which will give him more time to concentrate on his reporting for CBS News. After examining the report, and thinking about its implications we believe any further action would not be appropriate." Do you agree with that?

WEINSTEIN: No, I don't because as matter of historical record he too should have been reprimanded since all along Dan Rather has said he's more than an anchor, more than a reporter. He has more responsibility for things that come out of his mouth and so you know the phrase he used in introducing the pieces, that mistakes were made, that puts it in the passive voice. If we put it in the active voice, who made the mistake? Ultimately Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather made the mistake. Now this is kind of like -- to quote Michael Corleone another moral philosopher, no, "this is business, this is not personal." I have nothing against these folks personally. And Dan Rather has had a fine journalistic reputation. But here this was a very serious mistake and he too should have shared some of the blame.

COOPER: I never heard an ethicist quoting Michael Corleone. You're the first. Bruce Weinstein, thanks very much.

Just so you know, directly after 360 this evening, Paula Zahn will be talking with CBS president and CEO Les Moonves about the story that shouldn't have aired and about new safeguards that are now in place they say to keep such a thing from happening again. We shall see.

360 next, it is over for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Something really important. Bruce, I know you want to stay with us for this one. Hollywood's hottest couple is calling it quits. What went so very very wrong? And why do so many people seem to care and think they know? Take a look at that in "The Current."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Every time I hear Neil Diamond, it gets me. I hear, "Love on The Rocks" ain't no big surprise. I play that a lot at home. If you read the tabloid press lately, it wasn't a big surprise that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are breaking up. And I don't know if you noticed this around like your office today, but it seems like just about everybody we talked to has an opinion about why they broke up, as if they really know. I don't know why so many people feel they know these two, but they do. There it is. Let's take a look at the story in "The Current."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brad and Jen are finished.

CHARLES GIBSON, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": But first, the break-up of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt split.

COOPER (voice-over): It was the talk of the tube this morning. That's exactly what you would expect when Hollywood's golden couple say they're calling it quits, at least for now. They made their big announcement on Friday night and it was all the buzz on Hollywood's boulevard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know I just -- I'm not surprised at all that they broke up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought they were a cute couple.

COOPER: And on the red carpet.

JESSICA SIMPSON, ENTERTAINER: We're sad about the Brad and Jen thing, but you know, we wish them the best.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know they really took a beating with the press. Being a public person already is hard enough on a relationship.

COOPER: Those that run the tabloids will tell you they've been seeing the signs for month.

LARRY HACKETT, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "PEOPLE": We for the past several months, you know, photographs can say a lot and there have been photographs of them both together and separate where they just don't look terribly happy.

COOPER: The break-up is "People's" cover story this week, complete with pictures of Brad's and Jen's last bittersweet holiday together, which oddly enough, they were actually on when they announced their separation. "Us Weekly," on the other hand has what they say are exclusive photos of the same vacation previewed in some papers today and said to be released tomorrow. But why oh, oh why would this shining duo split after seven years?

Brad and Jen issued a statement saying, "we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media." But of course, that didn't stop the media from -- well, from speculating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Jennifer did not want to go down being remembered as a ditsy, fashionable sitcom star. She wants to be a movie star.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there was a bit of difference that they had about starting a family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angelina Jolie did get under his skin and Jennifer -- and that bothered Jennifer.

HACKETT: And people find that sad. Why couldn't these two do it?

You know, what kind of pressures are upon them that they can't make this work?

COOPER: Everybody it seems has an opinion. Of course, only two people really do know why Brad and Jen couldn't make it. All we know is, it is too bad and maybe time for the speculation to stop.

(END VIDEOTAPE)e

COOPER: We don't think it will.

360 tomorrow, remember all those reports about children abducted after the tsunami -- were any of them really true?

We're going to take a look at one family's story, try to track down two missing children to find out what really happened to them. We're covering all the angles stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking an old truth to "The Nth Degree." To hear people talk about it, you'd think globalization had been invented a couple -- three years ago as if interconnectedness was the very latest thing, a bright idea at the new millennium. Then comes a great wave in the Indian Ocean to remind us otherwise. We've always been interconnected touched by the same wind and washed by the same seas. From Somalia in Africa on the western edge of the Indian Ocean to Sumatra in the east is a distance of about 4,000 miles. The wave caused by the quake below the ocean floor near Sumatra traveled those thousands of miles to destroy most of the buildings on Hafun, a tiny Somalian island off the Horn of Africa. It took a few lives on Hafun as well. In other words, people on two continents, speaking different languages, living different lives, separated by an entire ocean, people who never would have known of one another's existence were killed by the very same monstrous splash. The poet John Dunne had it right 400 years ago in that famous poem of his about no man being an island.

He wrote, "Everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clog be washed away by sea," he said, "we are all diminished.

PAULA ZAHN NOW is next -- Paula.

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