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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Florida Congressman Resigns; New al Qaeda Videotape Released
Aired September 29, 2006 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening.
We have breaking news for you tonight: a shocking scandal on Capitol Hill involving graphic e-mails and other messages sent to teenagers. A lawmaker has abruptly quit. We have got some breaking news on that coming your way right now. And it could not have happened at a worse time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Election-year bombshell -- less than six weeks before the vote, a scandal involving a Republican congressman and a 16-year- old male page. Could this help Democrats take control in November?
Potshots at President Bush from al Qaeda's number two...
AYMAN AL-ZAWAHRI, AL QAEDA LEADER (through translator): Can't you be honest at least once in your life and admit that you are a deceitful liar?
ANNOUNCER: Tonight: a new tape blasting the president and the pope -- but what messages lie beneath the rhetoric? We investigate.
And two school shootings in one week -- first Colorado, now Wisconsin, where a 15-year-old has killed a principal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This can't be happening here.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight: Why is it happening again?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Across the country and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
Sitting in tonight for Anderson, and reporting from the CNN studios in Washington, here's John Roberts.
ROBERTS: And thanks very for joining us.
We begin tonight with breaking news -- new details that we are just getting now concerning the scandal on Capitol Hill that has brought down a congressman.
Today, Representative Mark Foley of Florida suddenly resigned, after he was accused of sending explicit e-mails and instant messages to male teenagers who were working as pages in the House. Tonight, we're learning that these alleged acts could have been stopped nearly a year ago.
For more on that, we turn now to CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash, who has just been working her sources.
Dana, what do you got for us?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.
Well, the news this evening is a statement that we just got from Congressman John Shimkus. Now, he in charge of the House Page Board.
And what he says is that he was made aware of the e-mail exchange between Congressman Mark Foley and the former page about a year ago. Late last year, he was made aware of it. And then he investigated. And, in the statement, Congressman Shimkus says that he and another member of the board confronted and met with Congressman Foley. He assured them that nothing inappropriate had gone down, that, nevertheless, he was told -- Congressman Foley was told explicitly by the members of the Page Board that he should cease all contact with this former House page to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
But Congressman Shimkus says in this statement it is clear now to him the Congressman Foley was not honest about his conduct.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FLORIDA: ... living in the United States...
BASH: Congressman Mark Foley's resignation was abrupt.
"I am deeply sorry, and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," said Foley in a short written statement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida rise?
BASH: The six-term Republican and member of the GOP leadership made no mention of his e-mails with a former male congressional page or concerns, according to GOP sources close to Foley, that devastating information was about to become public.
Hours later, it did. ABC News reported a number of sexually graphic instant-messages between Foley and male congressional pages, using his personal screen name, MAF54.
"What are you wearing?" he asked in one.
"T-shirts and shorts," the teen replied.
"Love to slip them off you," Foley allegedly said.
And, in another, Foley asked, "Do I make you a little horny?"
"A little," said the teen.
"Cool," replied Foley.
A GOP leadership aide tells CNN, as soon as ABC confronted Foley's office with the explicit messages, he knew he had to quit.
There was no immediate response from Foley's office to those alleged message.s But a spokesman confirmed to CNN that Foley did have five e-mail exchanges last year with a 16-year-old page, asking him, "How old are you?" in one. And, in another, he asks the young man to "Send me a pic of you as well."
The young man forwarded that e-mail, according a government watchdog group that posted it online, to a congressional staffer, writing the word "sick" 13 times.
The group's director got it from a Hill staffer and sent it to the House Ethics Committee and the FBI.
MELANIE SLOAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: Because Representative Foley was using a personal e-mail account to send the page e-mails, the former page e- mails, and the -- and the young man was clearly made very uncomfortable by the e-mails, we thought it was a matter appropriate for the House Ethics Committee to investigate.
BASH: Law enforcement sources won't comment, but there is no indication at this point of any criminal probe. And it is unclear how the House Ethics Committee proceeded.
Foley's resignation sent shockwaves through the Capitol. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was visibly angry.
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: ... resigned from the House.
QUESTION: As of now?
HASTERT: He's done. As of now. He's done the right thing. I have asked John Shimkus, who is the head of the Page Board, to look into this issue regarding Congressman Foley. We want to make sure that all our pages are safe and the page system is safe -- safe.
QUESTION: How -- how disturbing is this?
HASTERT: Well, none of us are very happy about it.
BASH: And another GOP colleague said he was worried about other congressional pages.
REP. ROY BLUNT (R-MO), HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: I hope that he can solve this problem for himself. And I wish him well. And I'm particularly concerned about any pages who may have been involved.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So, just to be clear about this, Dana, did Congressman Shimkus, he -- he told -- he told Foley a year ago to stop doing this. Do we know if Foley did stop, or did he continue to send thee messages?
BASH: You know, that is one of the many unanswered questions, John, because what the -- the Page Board knew about, we understand at the time, were those five e-mails that -- that we have confirmed -- or that Congressman Foley's office has confirmed with the -- the 16-year- old former page.
It is our understanding that nobody knew about the -- the -- the more explicit message exchanges that came out just today until today, until it was reported by ABC.
ROBERTS: What's -- what's so ironic about this whole thing, too, Dana, is that Foley was the co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.
BASH: It -- it is ironic, and perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of this -- of this story, especially for -- for folks around here, because, as you said, he was the co-chair of that caucus.
Not only that -- he really helped write some of the most recent legislation to try to crack down on Internet predators. So, that is one of the many things that has a lot of people here sort of scratching their heads about this really remarkable story -- John.
ROBERTS: It -- it really is just an extraordinary story. Good work tonight breaking that news.
BASH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, thanks very much.
A scandal like this could end up helping the Democrats win more seats in November. So, you can be sure that Republican lawmakers are working hard right now to distance themselves from Foley, especially Republicans in the Senate, who suddenly find themselves in a very tough fight to stay in power.
Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In planes, trains and automobiles, the nation's lawmakers are pouring out of Washington and into the home stretch for midterm elections. And there's a dramatic shift in the political wind.
Some analysts watching polls around the country say the Democrats might take control of the Senate.
JOHN MERCURIO, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE HOTLINE": A few months ago, it looked like it was more than likely that Republicans were going to hold on to the Senate.
FOREMAN: And now?
MERCURIO: And now it's really anybody's guess. FOREMAN: The Democrats need to take six more of the Senate's 100 seats to run the most exclusive club in Washington, and seven states are giving Republicans nightmares.
Political analysts say the worst cases are Republican incumbents Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Conrad Burns of Montana, both facing very tough fights to stay in office.
In less trouble, but still being tested, are three more Republican incumbents, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and Jim Talent of Missouri.
Political analysts say public concern about the war in Iraq is undermining Republican support, no matter how much the president tells voters to stick with him.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second- guessing.
FOREMAN (on camera): But the tipping point for control of the Senate may rest with other issues and events far beyond the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, Senator.
FOREMAN (voice-over): A battle has broken out in Tennessee for the seat being given up by Republican Bill Frist, whom some expect to run for president. And, in Virginia, there is Republican Senator George Allen.
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R), VIRGINIA: So, welcome. Let's give a welcome to macaca here.
(APPLAUSE)
ALLEN: Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.
FOREMAN: Analysts considered a very strong runner for reelection. But his recent behavior has produced a series of negative headlines.
MERCURIO: Democrats have a lot of hope going into the last 40 days. But Republicans have something that is equally, if not more important, and that's a lot more money.
FOREMAN: That could prove an equalizer, with six weeks of campaigning ahead, and the Democrats facing their own trouble spots. So, taking the Senate from the Republicans is still a long shot. But, at least now, many say they have a shot.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Joining me now to crystal-ball a little bit more of this is our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. Bill, six weeks left to go, it looked like there only five competitive Senate seats up until recently. Now there's another couple thrown in the mix.
What are the chances that the Democrats can do this; they can overturn control of the Senate by winning six seats?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you have to say increasing, as Tom just reported.
I don't think anyone would say it's likely that the Democrats will gain control in the Senate. They're -- those are the seven seats, including Rhode Island up there in the upper corner.
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Montana, those are seven Republican-held Senate seats that could go Democratic. Democrats would need to gain six of those seven, which is kind of a tall order.
ROBERTS: All right. Possible -- possible that the Democrats could lose one, New Jersey?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. New Jersey is the one that might be in trouble for Democrats.
ROBERTS: Mmm-hmm.
SCHNEIDER: The appointed senator, Bob Menendez, is in a very close race with Tom Kean Jr., the Republican candidate with a very famous name and pedigree.
ROBERTS: Right. So, now the -- the Republicans have to block in two states to keep the Democrats out, correct?
SCHNEIDER: Yes, that's right, yes.
ROBERTS: Right.
ROBERTS: Fifteen states in the House would overturn control. However, people are saying, now, with Mark Foley gone, maybe that number is down to 14, because there's not really anybody at this point...
SCHNEIDER: Right.
ROBERTS: ... to run against the Democrat. Can they do it in the House?
SCHNEIDER: Well, the House is a little bit better prospect for the Democrats. Right now, there are 22 House districts -- those are those dots around the map -- where it looks like Republican incumbents or Republican-held seats in trouble and could fall to the Democrats, 22.
And you see there's two dots down there on the right in Florida. One of those is Mark Foley's seat. Mark Foley's name will remain on the ballot in Florida. They will have a substitute Republican candidate, to be named in a few days, but it is Mark Foley that people will have to vote for in order...
ROBERTS: Right.
SCHNEIDER: ... to vote for the Republican candidate -- so, 22. They need 15 out of 22.
ROBERTS: Right.
Bill, you visited some more of the heated races across the country. How are both parties running their campaigns? What's the difference between the two?
SCHNEIDER: The difference is this. Democrats are running a national campaign, especially in the Northeast.
They're saying: You may like Lincoln Chafee or Christopher Shays, but the fact is, if you vote for them, you will be empowering the Republican Congress. And I discovered that issue has some traction.
Republicans, of course, it depends on whether they're an incumbent or not. If they're an incumbent in Congress, they're trying to make it all about their challenger, the Democrat, local issues.
If they are not an incumbent, in an open race, like the one I went to in Colorado, a lot of them running are aggressively anti- Washington, anti-Congress, because they're not members of Congress, even though Congress is controlled by their own party.
ROBERTS: Of course, the issues are important, Bill, but everybody loves a horse race.
Bill Schneider, thanks. Appreciate it.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
ROBERTS: Turning now to another issue that's becoming a sore spot for the Republicans, the war in Iraq -- since the fighting began, 2,711 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq. More than 2,100 of them were killed by enemy fire.
It's not easy hearing numbers like that or hearing about the daily attacks, but renowned journalist Bob Woodward says the reality here in Washington is far worse than what we have been told. He makes those claims in his new book, "State of Denial," that is due out next week.
And he talked about them today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "60 MINUTES")
BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, "STATE OF DENIAL": There is public, and then there's private. But what do they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one is supposed to know. Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they're doing. They know the level of violence, and how effective they are. Who doesn't know? The American public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Joining me now from Durham, North Carolina, is former presidential adviser David Gergen.
David, some of the allegations in this book are that the president is stubborn; he's misled the public about the level of violence in Iraq. That all echoes Democratic criticism. Could this book have an impact on the midterm elections?
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Absolutely.
There have been a number books, as you know, excellent books, like "Fiasco" by Rick Atkins (ph) of "The Washington Post," which have been quite critical. But when Bob Woodward writes a book, with the insider account, it has more of a blockbuster kind of quality to it.
He's going to be doing "60 Minutes," as you know, on Sunday night. People are already writing about it all over the place. "The Washington Post" is going to be doing excerpts on Sunday and Monday.
And, as you know, when Woodward writes, it -- it has a currency in the political discourse and the conversation of the country. And the press covers it as a national event. So, this book is going to have a lot of impact.
And this book is extremely critical of the administration. It says the administration may not have been misleading us on going into the war intentionally, but they have intentionally been misleading us during the war -- then during the course of the war, that the violence against American troops, the attacks are coming on a rate of about one every 15 minutes, and the administration isn't facing up to this, and, just as interestingly, that the administration is riven by deep disagreements inside, personality conflicts, a lot of scuffling in the wheelhouse, as they say in politics.
ROBERTS: Or dysfunctional White House...
GERGEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... I guess would be putting it in more stark terms.
GERGEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: Does the White House have a problem? They're trying to push back against this book by saying, look it, you can't believe everything that you write in the book. There's a lot of errors in this book.
Just two years ago, David, they had his other book, "Plan of Attack," on the Bush-Cheney campaign Web site, saying...
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: ... if you want to hear the truth about the administration...
GERGEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... you got to listen to Bob Woodward.
Now they're saying, oh, I don't know. don't listen to Bob Woodward.
GERGEN: Well, that is a -- that is a very interesting point, because the arc of Woodward's -- Bob Woodward's three books on the -- on the Bush administration really follows the arc of public opinion about the administration.
The first book was very flattering, very positive about the early days, response to 9/11. Then, the next book about the -- about the going-in to Iraq, more questioning, a little more skeptical. And now this book, extremely critical. That's the arc that the administration has been going on.
And from the administration's standpoint, Bob Woodward carries a lot of credibility on these issues, and especially because he wrote those flattering -- that flattering book to start with. I think this is real -- a real problem for the administration.
You know, you can't keep saying, we just put out a national intelligence estimate, or we have one inside, but that really isn't -- doesn't really give us the true picture. Bob Woodward's book doesn't give us the true picture.
After a while, people say, you know, maybe you're not giving us the true picture. And that's the political problem the administration has.
But, of course, it -- for the country, it means we have got a much more serious problem in Iraq.
ROBERTS: Yes.
GERGEN: I mean, Bob Woodward's book is saying next year is going to be more violent than this year.
ROBERTS: Yes.
Is -- is there a cumulative effect here, David, that you have the national intelligence estimate that you alluded to that was leaked...
GERGEN: Right.
ROBERTS: ... that had some bad news for the White House? Now here's Woodward coming out on Monday with more bad news for the White House. Does it all tend to add up?
GERGEN: Yes, it does. And I think that this is exactly what the administration has feared going into the -- the midterm elections, that Iraq would come back into the news, begin to dominate, and really shape the -- the national environment.
There is already some indications that the generic differences between the preference for Democrats over Republicans going in to the House races has shifted over the last few days a little more in the favor of Democrats.
But, you know, the other thing about this is, there is a -- a conversation now in Washington behind the mid -- behind closed doors that, after the -- that -- that they're -- the administration is now waiting until after the elections to shift gears in Iraq, that they may come up with Plan B after the elections.
And there's a lot of talk about the possibility that the administration want -- may want as many as three more divisions in Iraq.
ROBERTS: Wow. That would be amazing, if they waited until after the election...
(CROSSTALK)
GERGEN: It would be. There's a lot of -- yes, it's a lot of private talk. But, you know, this is a tough situation in Iraq. And it has gotten worse.
ROBERTS: David, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
GERGEN: Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Thanks for taking time out of your Friday night.
GERGEN: Right. All right.
ROBERTS: Today, the Senate unanimously approved more money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's the "Raw Data."
The Pentagon will be getting another $70 billion as part of its new record budget. Since the 9/11 attacks, Congress has approved a half-a-trillion dollars for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and heightened security at overseas military bases.
So far, the U.S. has spent nearly four times more cash in Iraq than in Afghanistan, where problems are mounting again.
On the same day that more war funding comes through, a taunting message from al Qaeda -- bin Laden's right-hand man issues a new tape and delivers some heated words to President Bush over the war in Iraq.
And another deadly school shooting, the second one this week -- the latest on the investigation coming up.
Plus: inside the mind of a school shooter. Evan Ramsey killed two people at his high school in Alaska more than nine years ago. He talked to Anderson about that awful day, why he pulled the trigger -- when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Osama bin Laden's second in command has issued a new terror tape. In the nearly 18-minute-long message posted on the Internet, Ayman al-Zawahri accuses President Bush of lying to Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL-ZAWAHRI (through translator): Can't you be honest at least once in your life and admit that you are a deceitful liar, who intentionally deceived your nation when you drove them to war in Iraq?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's terror analyst, Peter Bergen, joins us for more on the new message of hate.
Peter, this is Zawahri's third taped message just this month, the 14th this year. Why so prolific in producing these tapes?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, maybe Zawahri has a lot of time on his hands. He certainly doesn't seem to be feeling the heat of the war on terrorism, since, as you point out, he has released 14 of these already this year.
In fact, he's releasing so many that, if he were smart, he would release fewer, because I think they're becoming less newsworthy the more time -- the more -- the more we hear from him. He seems to want to comment on almost, you know, every kind of news development that is out there, whether it's Darfur or the pope's comments about the Prophet Mohammed.
ROBERTS: Right.
And -- and, also, the -- the more tapes he releases, does he potentially expose himself to agents who might be trying to track -- back -- back -- backtrack the -- the handoff of the tape from courier to courier?
BERGEN: Yes.
I mean, both him and bin Laden are in sort of a catch-22. Every time they release a tape, there is a possibility that the courier who gets these tapes, either to jihadist Web sites in Pakistan or to Al- Jazeera bureaus, can be detected.
So, they face a sort of interesting catch-22. If they say nothing, they become irrelevant. If they continue to say things, it opens them to -- to exposure.
ROBERTS: Want to play another excerpt from this tape, Peter, in which Zawahri attacks President Bush for, as he says, misleading Americans. Let's take a quick listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL-ZAWAHRI (through translator): And I tell him, you foolhardy charlatan, if the arrest of Khalid al-Shaikh Mohammed -- may Allah free him -- has helped you in the war on terror, why, then, are your forces retreating in secret from the south and east of Afghanistan, and being replaced by the forces of NATO, which are screaming for help, due to the horribleness of what his happening to them at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Peter, Zawahri talks about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed more than once on this tape. To my knowledge, it's the first time he's ever referred to him. What is he trying to achieve by bringing up the sheik's name?
BERGEN: Well, I'm not quite sure.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the operational commander of 9/11, the military commander of al Qaeda at one point. President Bush, you know, has transferred him from a secret CIA facility to Guantanamo, as a result of the Supreme Court ruling in the Hamdan case.
Quite why, you know, Zawahri is bringing up Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at this time, I -- I don't really know. It -- it is -- you know, the president has said that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has offered up important information. And that's partly true, is probably the case that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed offered up a -- a guy called Faris, an Ohio trucker who was planning to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge, and was definitely an associate of al Qaeda living in the United States.
So, other than that, I can't really think of why he would be bringing him up at that time.
ROBERTS: Zawahri also talks about Darfur. He talks about the pope. Yet, he does not talk about Osama bin Laden, despite all of those rumors a couple of weekends ago about his death. Do you think it just might be that the tape was recorded before that happened, or would he have a particular reason for not bringing up bin Laden's name?
BERGEN: I think the tape might have been -- the -- the -- the usual time lag on the Zawahri tapes is something like two weeks.
And this tape could have been made some point before the story, the erroneous story, that bin Laden was dead came out. So, you know, if we don't hear from bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri relatively soon on the question of the status of bin Laden, I think that would indicate some kind of problem.
Surely, they're aware of the -- the story that bin Laden was dead or had some kind of waterborne disease. And I think they would want to respond to that. ROBERTS: Right.
And I think you were -- you were saying back on the anniversary of September 11 that, if we didn't hear from him, then something might be afoot.
Peter Bergen, thanks very much. Always good to talk to you.
BERGEN: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: On to terror at school -- a beloved leader shot to death today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think of our principal as a real hero and someone that we're extremely proud of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Coming up: why police say a student became a killer in a Wisconsin school.
Plus, "Donald Rumsfeld: Man of War," an in-depth look at the defense secretary and his surprising admission about the battle in Iraq -- when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Another school shooting today -- this time in Wisconsin, the victim, the school principal, 49-year-old John Klang.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): It was supposed to be the start of homecoming weekend for the students of Weston High School in Cazenovia, Wisconsin.
But the annual celebration in this rural town 70 miles northwest of Madison was over before it even began.
CAPTAIN RICHARD MEISTER, SAUK COUNTY, WISCONSIN, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: A Weston High School custodian observed a 15-year-old student enter the high school carrying a shotgun.
ROBERTS: It was doing homeroom, just after 8:00 in the morning, that police say ninth-grader Eric Hainstock came down the main corridor.
The custodian saw him, grabbed the shotgun, and, all on his own, wrestled Hainstock to the ground. The custodian got the gun, but Hainstock got away with a concealed pistol. That's when the principal, John Klang, a popular 20-year veteran, confronted him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard about three gun firings happening.
ROBERTS: Hainstock allegedly shot Klang in the head, chest and leg.
TERRY MILFRED, WESTON SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: He was injured because he was trying to maintain -- maintain control and protect the students and staff at Weston, all of whom are -- who are grateful and safe as a result of his efforts.
ROBERTS: Hainstock was facing probable suspension for having tobacco at school, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
But he also told police after the shooting that other students had been bullying and ridiculing him, and said teachers did nothing about it. So, he told police he decided to confront the students and teachers and principals with the guns, and make them listen to him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he went there to get their attention.
ROBERTS: It was the second tragedy of the day at this tiny rural school with just about 100 students. Earlier, another student had been killed in a car wreck on the way to school. That was upsetting enough. But the shooting, well, that was something students in this quiet community couldn't even conceive of.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just can't believe some kid would do that to a teacher or the principal. It was a troubled kid, and he just didn't have a right to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it wasn't for Mr. Klang, we don't how many people would have been shot.
ROBERTS: Klang gave his life for protecting the students, and for that, he is being hailed as a hero.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Authorities say Eric Hainstock pried open the family's gun cabinet to get at the weapons.
Earlier, I talked with Melissa Nigh. She is the Weston High School dean of students, and Terry Milford, who's the school district superintendent. By the way, we spoke before the principal passed away.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Cazenovia, Melissa, is a very small town, rural area of Wisconsin. It's beautiful country there. Did you ever expect that anything like this could ever happen at your school? We see it other places in the country, but right there?
MELISSA NIGH, DEAN OF STUDENTS, WESTON HIGH SCHOOL: No. We certainly never did expect something like this to happen at all. I think everybody thinks that that -- that that can't happen to us. And, you know, then reality -- reality hits. And unfortunately, it occurred at Weston.
ROBERTS: Melissa Nigh, you're the dean of students there at the school. How has this affected the students?
NIGH: Obviously, it's a tragedy. And students are very, very upset. We have given grief counselors to talk to and this is going to take quite some time for them to refocus again.
ROBERTS: And the school had already suffered a tragedy on this day, correct?
TERRY MILFORD, SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: That's correct. One of our students was killed this morning in an auto wreck on his way to school.
ROBERTS: Melissa, one tragedy at a school is bad enough and then to put this one on top of it, how long is it going to take for people there to get a sense that maybe things might get back to normal?
NIGH: Well, I'm sure it's going to take some time for these students and, you know, we'll need our counselors there for a period of time. This isn't something that will pass within the week. This is something that, you know hasn't occurred at Weston ever and, you know, it's definitely going to be -- it's going to be quite a long time, I'm sure.
MILFORD: We do want to mention that we think of our principal as a real hero and someone that we're extremely proud of. A wonderful person and as I say, he -- he has everyone's gratitude for -- for today's heroic efforts.
ROBERTS: It is obviously a very tightly knit community there.
MILFORD: It is. It's small and consequently, everyone knows everyone. And everyone is very accessible.
ROBERTS: And when something like this happens, it touches you very personally?
MILFORD: Oh, yes.
ROBERTS: Terrible things have happened there today in Cazenovia. Certainly our thoughts are with you. Terry Milford and Melissa Nigh, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And we should point out that the two were asked by the police not to talk about the alleged shooter, but some students have been giving some details about this young fellow. We expect to hear more about that in the coming days.
This is the second deadly school shooting in as many days. Coming up, new and disturbing details about what happened inside a Colorado classroom held hostage by a gunman.
Plus, a generation of children growing up without parents: 12 million orphans. Twelve million. Where have all the parents gone? A special edition of 360 featuring Christiane Amanpour, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Today's deadly school shooting in Wisconsin happened 48 hours after a bloody siege at a Colorado high school. In Colorado, the shooter hadn't been bullied by fellow students or punished by a principal or a coach. He was a middle aged man who burst into a classroom, held six teenage girls hostage for hours, sexually assaulted a couple of them and then finally killed himself and one of the girls.
Why he did this remains a mystery, even as new and disturbing details emerge about what happened before and during siege.
CNN's Jonathan Freed has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story behind the attack on Platte Canyon High School started before the gunman, Duane Morrison, even entered the building. The county sheriff says the 53-year-old man mailed a letter to a relative in Colorado that day: 14 handwritten pages described as part suicide note.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The letter also clearly acknowledges his pending death. It also apologizes to his family for his actions that will occur.
FREED: Police say Morrison made no references to the school or about intending to harm anyone other than himself.
But at 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday, Morrison simply walked into the building, entered Room 206 and, according to a local newspaper account, from a student who was there, ordered everyone to line up and face a blackboard. And then fired a shot in to the ceiling to show he was serious.
Morrison then told the teacher and all the male students to leave, leaving behind six teenage girls.
By this time, police had been called, a SWAT team activated and the school evacuated. Between 12:15 and 3:30 p.m., Morrison released four of the girls. But investigators say some, and possibly all of them, were molested first.
The girl who spoke to the media described what she heard as she was facing the wall. "You could hear the rustling of clothes and elastic being snapped and zippers being opened and closed."
Morrison had the hostages talk to police and claimed he had a bomb in a backpack. At 3:30, he stopped communicating. His last message: something will happen at 4 p.m. That's when the SWAT team moved in.
One of the two remaining girls managed to get away, but police say Morrison shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to escape and then, turned the gun on himself. The next day, family and friends clung to each other, looking for support and answers.
(on camera) What frame of mind are you in today?
SHERIFF FRED WEGENER, BAILEY, COLORADO: Today, I'm just grieving with my community. My -- you know, my son was in that building, too.
FREED: The sheriff believes his county will never be the same again. A friend of Emily's, who says she was in a classroom directly below Room 206, believes grief counselors will only be able to do so much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you just have to just go with your friends and just kind of work it out.
FREED: Emily's parents say the last word they got from her was a text message that she sent during the ordeal. It said, "I love you guys."
The sheriff says Morrison's last message, the suicide letter, confirmed his worst fear.
WEGENER: That he probably intended to kill both the young ladies and then kill himself. Or have us shoot him.
FREED: Still, Sheriff Wegener says he believes ordering the SWAT team to move in was the right decision.
Jonathan Freed, CNN, Bailey, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Duane Morrison is not the typical school shooter. They tend to be young, on average just 18 1/2 years old. Evan Ramsey was just 16 when he took a gun to school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVAN RAMSEY, SCHOOL SHOOTER: I said to myself, this is where it all ends. This is where people picking on me stops. Nobody will have anything bad to say about me anymore. All -- all of my problems will go away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Of course, his problems only got worse. He killed two people and now is serving a 210-year prison sentence. Anderson talks with him next on 360.
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ROBERTS: The school shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin are the latest, but they have been going on for an awfully long time. Since 1927, at least 105 children and teenagers have died in shootings and other school violence. At least 43 adults have been killed. At least 25 of the killers are currently in prison.
One of them is Evan Ramsey. More than nine years ago, when he was 16, he walked into his high school in Bethel, Alaska, pulled out a .12 gauge shotgun and murdered two people: another student and the principal of the school.
He was convicted of both killings and sentenced to 210 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole when he is 75 years old.
After every school shooting, we all ask ourselves the same question: what could go through the mind of a young killer in the moments before he pulls the trigger on his fellow students? A few months back, Anderson met with Evan Ramsey face to face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's just start from the day, how long in -- how long did you start to plan it? How long in advance of the shooting did you actually seriously start planning it?
RAMSEY: About two weeks.
COOPER: What was the initial thought? When you first thought of it, what was the idea?
RAMSEY: I told myself I have to do something to get everybody to leave me alone. The first -- the first thought that came to mind, I took it and ran with it.
COOPER: To leave you alone because they were picking on you?
RAMSEY: Yes.
COOPER: How were they picking on you?
RAMSEY: I got beat up. I've been spit on and I've been called names. I've had things thrown at me.
COOPER: So the morning it happened, you got up. What was that -- what went through your mind?
RAMSEY: One of the things I told myself is that this is where it all ends. This is where people picking on me stops. Nobody will have anything bad to say about me anymore. I will -- all of my problems will go away.
COOPER: And did you really think it would end your problems?
RAMSEY: Yes, I did. Back then I would have been willing to bet all of the money I would ever make in my whole lifetime, that that was when my problems were going to end.
COOPER: When you walked in the school in the morning with that gun, did you have a list in your head of who you wanted to get? Who you wanted to kill? RAMSEY: There was a list of people that I would -- I wanted to shoot at. Keep in mind that I didn't understand how life worked at the time. I didn't know that when you shoot somebody, they don't just get back up.
COOPER: What do you mean?
RAMSEY: I did not understand that if I -- like using myself and using an example. If I pull out a gun and shoot you, there's a good chance that you're not getting back up. You're going to bleed to death and die either right there or on the way to the hospital. It -- that part of reality didn't click for whatever reason.
COOPER: I think just probably hard for some to believe that you didn't know, you know, dead is dead.
RAMSEY: I -- I based a lot of my knowledge solely on video games. You shoot a guy in Doom and he gets back up. Got to shoot the things in Doom eight or nine times before it dies.
And I went with that concept on -- from the video game and added it to life. A lot of people can see that it's a cop out, but they don't stop and think about, well, I was 16 at the time. And although a 16-year-old is supposed to know right -- they know right from wrong but they don't know it completely.
COOPER: What did it feel like to pull the trigger?
RAMSEY: I'm going to get what I want. These people -- I'm going to scare these people away. Nobody's going to pick on me. There won't be any more verbal or physical abuse from anybody.
COOPER: So it felt like relief?
RAMSEY: Yes. There was great relief.
COOPER: What do you want people to know?
RAMSEY: What kids are going through. It's not that bad. I saw my treatment as so bad and if I would have had somebody sit down and say, "It's not that bad. You don't have to react this way. There's other means" that it might help somebody. It can always be worse and it's always going to get better.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Inside the mind of a killer. A frightening place to be.
To Iraq now and the top man at the Pentagon. Donald Rumsfeld believes history shows the critics will come around and realize that war is the right thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Over time the American people have been right. If they're not, they would have tossed in the towel on the Revolutionary War. We wouldn't have had a country. Think of the people who were telling Abraham Lincoln not to even have a civil war. We wouldn't have had the United States of America today if he'd believed that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: During that tough talk, in a one on one interview with CNN, Donald Rumsfeld made a surprising admission. Don't miss it when 360 continues.
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ROBERTS: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Perhaps only the name George W. Bush provokes as much partisan division. And a new CNN poll this week shows that Rumsfeld's support keeps dropping. Half of all Americans now have an unfavorable view. That's 30 points more than in the year 2003.
A revealing new CNN documentary takes an unprecedented, up close look at the secretary of defense.
CNN's Frank Sesno reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUMSFELD: This is mine.
FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When I meet with him on a late summer morning in his spacious Pentagon office, this man of war constantly under fire is notably relaxed and gracious.
RUMSFELD: Found that in a flea market in Michigan.
SESNO: He points to history, which he invokes again and again.
RUMSFELD: "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords."
SESNO (on camera): That's Teddy Roosevelt.
RUMSFELD: Yes.
SESNO (voice-over): He knows that America doesn't like long wars, and he knows that this one is increasingly unpopular.
(on camera) A lot of people say, "When you get in there with Donald Rumsfeld, give him hell. Why didn't we have more troops? If he is so tough, why wasn't he doing that?" What do you say to those people?
RUMSFELD: Well, you know, it is awfully easy to be on the outside and to opine on this and that and opine on that and critique this. If you go back and the check the people who have been offering opinions, they've been wrong as many times as they've been right.
SESNO (voice-over): But he betrays no doubt about its wisdom or the need to prevail.
RUMSFELD: I do enjoy competition.
SESNO: He was a collegiate wrestler and at 74, he still means to win. He believes he's right and that Iraq and the American people will come around.
RUMSFELD: When people are writing the history books, you're going to be in it.
SESNO: History again.
RUMSFELD: On big things over time the American people have been right. If they're not, they would have tossed in the towel on the Revolutionary War. We wouldn't have had a country. Think of the people who were telling Abraham Lincoln not to even have a civil war. We wouldn't have had the United States of America today if he'd believed that.
SESNO: But Donald Rumsfeld, who has acknowledged few mistakes and is not one to second guess, now says something that seems obvious but, from him, is surprising.
RUMSFELD: Well, I think that anyone who looks at it with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight has to say that there was not an anticipation that the level of insurgency would be anything approximating what it is.
SESNO: It is a remarkable admission, a statement that begs the question, why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
SESNO: Why didn't Rumsfeld and his generals anticipate this? Was it inevitable? What was Rumsfeld's role?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And the answers to those questions this weekend on "Rumsfeld, Man of War", a new "CNN Presents" Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Some breaking news to tell you about tonight out of Brazil. A Boeing 747 passenger jet with 155 people on board has reportedly crashed on a farm near a remote town. The plane reportedly had collided with a smaller corporate jet. No word yet on any survivors.
Now, Erica Hill with some other headlines in our "360 Bulletin".
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: John, Baghdad is through a curfew tonight. It lasts through Sunday morning. That means no cars and no pedestrians allowed on city streets. The only movement allowed is for military vehicles. The unusual move comes as violence has spiked in the city. This week, at least 147 bodies have been found in Baghdad. And today, the brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein's new judge was shot and killed.
To Rhode Island where relatives of some of the 100 people killed in a 2003 nightclub fire asked a judge to reject a plea deal for the club owners, but the judge did not and sentenced one owner to four years behind bars. The other is facing only probation.
In Central Vietnam, tropical trouble. Thousands of people preparing now to evacuate as a typhoon nears land, packing winds of at least 75 miles per hour. The storm killed at least 48 people and left millions without power in the Philippines.
And the first female space tourist back on Earth now. The Soyuz capsule carrying Iranian-born American, Anousheh Ansari, landed in Kazakhstan. She made the voyage from the International Space Station with a Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronauts. She reportedly paid $20 million to become the fourth tourist to visit the space station.
John, I think we can definitely expense that and get that passed through accounting.
ROBERTS: Call it cab fare or a local gratuity? Twenty million dollars.
HILL: Maybe half and half.
ROBERTS: And another successful landed on the territory of Kazakhstan. Remember, last night, "The Shot" we had Borat outside of the White House.
HILL: Yes, our good friend.
ROBERTS: Well, this morning, I woke up and turned on CNN this at 6 a.m. in the morning. What was the first thing I saw? A commercial for Kazakhstan.
HILL: Apparently, this is part of their thing. They want people to know that not all Kazakhs are like Borat.
ROBERTS: They are trying to counter the negative publicity. They should just leave the guy alone.
Anyways, here's our "Shot of the Day" today. Look at this. A wild -- you could really call it a wild competition. Two years before the human Olympics are held in China, the national animal Olympics were held this week in Shanghai.
HILL: Animal Olympics?
ROBERTS: Animal Olympics. More than 300 athletes, a.k.a. animals, competed in everything from the monkey bicycle race to boxing bears.
HILL: Poor bears. ROBERTS: And a whole lot more.
But not everybody loves this event, because some critics say it's just cruel to put the bear on a bicycle, even though the bear seems to enjoy it.
HILL: The bear seems to -- I'm more worried about the boxing bears.
ROBERTS: And they had boxing kangaroos, too. And they looked like they were really going at it.
HILL: They do that naturally, though, right?
ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.
HILL: So it's fine.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Erica. Have a great weekend.
HILL: Thanks, John. You, too.
ROBERTS: And that's going to do it for us for tonight from Washington. For Anderson Cooper, I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us.
Just ahead, a special edition of 360: "Where Have All the Parents Gone?" Christiane Amanpour takes us to a place where 12 million children are now living as orphans. They're stories that you won't see anywhere else, stories that you simply will not forget. Stay tuned; 360 next.
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