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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Immigration Battle; New Frontrunner; Billionaires and Your Money; Diana Revealed;
Aired June 12, 2007 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: But does he have enough clout to close the deal?
Also tonight, tax dollars intended for struggling farmers going to billionaires. We're keeping them honest.
And new insight into the life and death of Princess Diana -- her troubled marriage, her battle to carve out her own identity, and how it rocked the royal family.
All that and more this hours, starting with lame ducks and immigrants.
No one disputes the fact that any president late in his second term with an election campaign approaching simply doesn't have much juice. The question now, does this president enough to get lawmakers to ram through the kind of legislation that they couldn't agree on just last week.
We're talking, of course, about immigration reform. And President Bush today went to great lengths trying to sell it, showing up for a rare lunch on Capitol Hill.
CNN's Ed Henry, part of our reporting, Ed, did the president accomplish anything?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's hard to tell, but I can tell you the stark assessment from one senior Republican close to the White House tonight told me basically he doesn't think the president changed a single vote today by going up to the Hill.
But the president basically had no choice, but to go up there. He has to get 15 Senators to change their minds. That's not easy for any president, but it's even harder for a president who's inching closer and closer to lame duck status.
And it was a stark reminder that when this president had to go hat in hand. You remember the first six years, seven years of this administration the president has gotten pretty much anything he wanted from a Republican Congress. Now the Democrats are running the show and the president had to make the case, once again, not just to Democrats but he was making it directly to Senate Republicans behind closed doors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But those of us standing here believe now is the time to move a comprehensive bill that enforces our borders and has good workplace enforcement that doesn't grant automatic citizenship, that addresses this problem in a comprehensive way.
I would hope that the Senate majority leader has that same sense of desire to move the product as I do -- or the bill that I do -- and these Senators do because now is the time to get it done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: But even before this meeting, you had the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell trying to ratchet down expectations by saying he didn't think the president was likely to move anybody.
And you also had before this meeting a conservative Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama frankly telling the president on CNN this morning, back off. Those are fighting words, especially from a Republican. And it shows you just how this really is an uphill battle at this point -- John.
KING: An uphill battle. And because of that Republican criticism, you just mentioned, I'm struck by the strategy here. This is a president who knows he is aggravating his own conservative base and yet he's going up to Capitol Hill and both he and his press secretary publicly talking confidently that there will be a signing ceremony.
Peal back the curtain for us. Why are they doing this when they know they're aggravating Republicans?
HENRY: They have no other choice. This is the key legacy item. They see it going down in flames. The president has to try to at least put out some bravado, as he did yesterday as you noted, with this talk about I'll see you at the signing ceremony. And he also has to face the reality that he has to do something to try to shake this up.
Those 15 votes are going to have to come from Republicans because if you listen to the Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, he rightly points out the Democrats have already given a lot of the votes. The Republicans are not with the president. He has to do something to shake it up.
Take a listen to Reid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY RIED (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Eighty percent of the Democrats support this immigration bill. We've done our job. I don't have to twist an arm, I don't have to pull anybody into a room to get them to try to agree to something. We've done our job -- 80 percent of the Democrats. We've done our job. It's not a question of Democrats doing anything. It's a question of Republicans supporting their own president. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So the president basically had 38 Democrats last week voting to move forward on this immigration reform debate; 38 Republicans voting against. It gives you an idea of how difficult this struggle is going to be.
And the only option for the president ultimately, if immigration reform goes down and he has to move on to other things like energy reform, might be trying to do what Bill Clinton did, triangulate and start reaching out to Democrats more because frankly right now reaching out to Republicans is not working -- John.
KING: And the clock is ticking.
Ed Henry for us tonight. Ed, thank you very much.
HENRY: Thank you.
KING: And George Bush might not be loving his job right now, but an awful lot of people seem to want it.
Tonight, fresh numbers from New Hampshire on how the 10 Republicans shake out. New numbers and a new frontrunner.
Here's CNN's Bill Schneider.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In early April, there were two frontrunners in the New Hampshire Republican primary -- John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.
Now after the debate, things have changed. Mitt Romney is the new frontrunner by a narrow margin. Fred Thompson did not participate in the debate. He has not officially declared yet, but Thompson also made gains.
New Hampshire Republicans are certainly familiar with Romney. He was governor of neighboring Massachusetts for four years. But Romney did not start out as the frontrunner.
Maybe it's his optimistic vision.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a party of the future and we have to stop worrying about the problems and thinking we can't deal with those. We have to focus on the future.
SCHNEIDER: Romney was rated most likable by New Hampshire Republicans.
McCain may have won the New Hampshire primary in 2000, but Republicans today there don't seem to find him very likable anymore.
Do they think Romney is the most electable? That distinction goes narrowly to Giuliani who proposes to rerun the 2004 campaign. RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Being on offense against terrorism, unlike the Democrats who are on defense against terrorism.
SCHNEIDER: Romney's goal is to rally conservatives.
ROMNEY: They know that I've got conservative credentials, and that's one of the things that brings me to this race.
SCHNEIDER: It's working. Romney has a strong lead among conservative Republicans. He does less well with moderates, where McCain and Giuliani do better.
Conservatives are fuelling the Romney surge. But notice that undeclared candidate Fred Thompson also does better with conservatives.
Once Thompson becomes an active candidate, we could see a real battle with Romney for the conservative vote.
(on camera): The New Hampshire primary is crucial for both Romney and McCain. Romney is from a neighboring state, McCain won the New Hampshire primary once before. Only one of them is likely to come out of the New Hampshire primary alive.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Joining me now for more on the latest Republican polls and all things political are Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley and Former Presidential Adviser David Gergen.
Candy, let's start with you. This new poll -- obviously good news to the Romney campaign. He is now in first place in the state of New Hampshire. This can't just be because of a solid performance in the CNN debate, can it?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it can't. And one of the things we need to look at is that since the end of February, around the 21st of February, Romney has poured more than $700,000 worth of ads into the state of New Hampshire. So he is getting to be known out there for those who didn't know him from neighboring New Hampshire -- I mean from neighboring Massachusetts.
What you also need to take into this play is that neither Giuliani nor McCain have any ads up in the state. They both think it's too early. They may rethink that after this poll. But they have thought all along it's way too early to be going up with ads. But he has a lot of money and has been able to pour some of it into New Hampshire and Iowa, as a matter of fact.
KING: And David Gergen, let's follow in on that point. John McCain has now slipped to third in our latest New Hampshire poll. That's where he was at this point back in 1999 and he went on to win the New Hampshire primary, but he was the underdog maverick back in those days. This has to be troubling for McCain's campaign, knowing how he will be perceived if he doesn't do well in New Hampshire, a state he has won before.
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Oh, absolutely. This could really be -- if he were to lose Iowa and New Hampshire, it's hard to see how he John McCain comes back. It has been sad to see this campaign, a man of such character suffering the way he is.
But to go back to Romney, Romney is a shrewd businessman. And I think what he has done is he's raised a ton of money and he is now spending it both in Iowa and New Hampshire. As Candy says, on advertising. It's got his numbers up. And suddenly now he is a -- he is a -- we're all talking about him. And that's exactly what he wants at this stage in the campaign. Maybe it's too early, but you know, money can speak in these things and he's spending it wisely.
And it also suggests if Fred Thompson is going to get into this, he better raise a lot of money, too. Just getting in may not be enough. He's going to have to go head to head with Romney on the advertising.
KING: Candy, jump in on that. Fred Thompson, looking at this race a month ago, would be looking at Rudy Giuliani on top nationally, which he still is. But Governor Romney down at 9 percent and 10 percent. Governor Romney, obviously an added factor for Senator Thompson as he gets in. How does that change the angles, if you will, on what he needs to do from the get-go?
CROWLEY: Well, what he needs to from the get-go is go straight for those conservatives because that's where Romney is drawing most of his support. Two to one conservatives in New Hampshire prefer Romney over anybody else in the campaign at this point.
Fred Thompson's numbers also show that he draws from conservatives, so that's where the battle is going to be and that's where Fred Thompson has to aim his sights very early on.
KING: And David, I want to come back to the John McCain factor in these polls. If you look at our latest poll, they view John McCain as very believable. They view him as the candidate who is willing to take on popular positions. They give him good grades on leadership. But 14 percent, when asked which candidate has the best chance of beating the Democratic nominee in November, only 14 percent think John McCain is the toughest candidate to go up against what most Republicans at this early stage believe will be Senator Hillary Clinton.
What does that tell you about how Republicans are looking at a man who some would say it was the early establishment favorite?
GERGEN: Well, you know, he's lost his inevitability. That's gone. But I think there's a sense that the John McCain campaign, he's just, he's not the same candidate that he was before. He doesn't have the vitality. He doesn't have the freshness. And of course, he's now associated with two causes which are pretty unpopular. Immigration, very unpopular among Republican base and the war itself.
But what I find interesting, to go to Candy's point back again on McCain, is while Romney is winning the conservatives, McCain is doing the third place among conservatives, but winning the moderates in New Hampshire. You know, that's what he's able to get. But you know, there are not enough moderates in a Republican Party to nominate anybody.
KING: And Candy, David just mentioned the issue of immigration. It has doubled in importance in the eyes of New Hampshire voters. McCain's position obviously cost him there. You have the president going to Capitol Hill today, pushing Republicans to try to act on this issue. I assume most Republicans would think could we just box this one up and put it away, please.
CROWLEY: Oh, they really -- they really wish he would. I mean, and this is what Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to do. They went back home, they heard from their constituents and they know very well that their constituents are against this bill. Republicans really want and have said quite publicly, I really wish he would stop pushing this. They have enough hurdles, if you will, between now and 2008, essentially the war at this point. To add immigration on to it is the last thing they need. They really wish that this issue would go away.
KING: And David, it's only 11 percent when you ask which issue is more important to you. But when we asked New Hampshire Republicans this back in April, immigration was 5 percent. It is 11 percent now. Is this simply all the attention of the debate here in Washington? New Hampshire, obviously, doesn't have a huge illegal immigration problem.
So is this an issue that's here to stay or could this just be a passing fad, if you will?
GERGEN: It will probably be a passing fad with a lot of the public, but this has become a lose/lose issue for the Republicans.
I mean, here the president is -- this is his last big domestic card. And if this goes badly on him, I don't know where else he goes domestically for victory.
But secondly, it will fade for a lot of voters, but not with Hispanics. And Democrats could make even bigger inroads with Hispanics in the '08 election. That's why it's a lose/lose for Republicans. This has not been a helpful season for them on this issue.
KING: David Gergen, Candy Crowley, thank you both very much.
GERGEN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KING: You might want to check your wallet. Here's a political item you're paying billions for. And wait until you see who's getting some of your money.
Federal farm subsidies. The idea came out of the Great Depression, to help farmers get by -- not the very rich get even richer. But today, that's precisely what's happening.
CNN's Joe Johns is keeping them honest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So that's where your federal farm subsidy dollars are going. Not just to the little guys.
Small-time family farmers like Chuck McGhee.
CHUCK MCGHEE, VIRGINIA FARMER: I don't think I would probably be as profitable today without them, without the government payments. I might not even be in business.
JOHNS: And you're the guy that these programs were set up to help?
MCGHEE: I would think so, yes.
JOHNS: You would think so. But the subsidies are also going to the big guys like a real estate developer from Clearwater, Florida, who got $3.2 million over three years; a Texas oil baron, who qualified to get $243,000. A former NBA star who made tens of millions of dollars over his career also got $79,000 in so-called conservation subsidies.
CNN tried to contact all of them, but they weren't available for comment. And no one is accusing them of doing anything wrong. It's all legal. Hundreds of millions of dollars of your money going to people who apparently don't need it.
KEN COOK, ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP: You can get a farm subsidy check for growing a crop. You can get a farm subsidy check for not growing a crop. You can get a farm subsidy check if you live on the farm, if you work on the farm; or if you're not even alive, you can get a subsidy check. In estate, a dead farmer can get a payment.
JOHNS: And who gets the money has been a big secret in Washington for years, but Congress changed the rules and pulled back the curtain to reveal who gets precisely how much from the agriculture trough. So now we have it -- 358,000 names of subsidy payments, a staggering $9.8 billion of your tax dollars.
And of that, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee says he would like to cut that amount by up to $1 billion or about 10 percent a year that he says taxpayers should not get stuck with.
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: Quite frankly, this is a bad use of taxpayers' dollars. It's inefficient. It hurts smaller farmers. We could use money to go out to help young farmers get started in agriculture.
JOHNS (on camera): The federal crop subsidy program is supposed to prop up farmers, especially in times of trouble, but it's also morphed into a cash cow.
(voice-over): Keeping them honest, we went to Capitol Hill to try to find someone to explain the latest numbers. Even the staunchest defenders of subsidies didn't try to defend the excesses.
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: We design every farm bill in a way where we try to ensure that the men and women who drive the tractors, who get dirt under their fingernails are the beneficiaries of the payments that do come from Washington.
Unfortunately, in spite of everything we try to do to make sure that happens, oftentimes it doesn't.
JOHNS: The new chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said things have to change, though in Washington things have a habit of changing very slowly. But who knows, lightning could strike.
Joe Johns, CNN, Mechanicsville, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: We'll wait for that lightning.
From the people's business to the people's princess. New details on the woman few people really knew perhaps until now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING (voice-over): Diana revealed. What led to her failed marriage to the prince.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She played her own self-destructive role. Everything she did really alienated Charles.
KING: What happened the night she died. Inside stories you've never heard from the author of a new book on Diana's life and death, when 360 continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: It has been almost 26 years since Prince Charles and Diana Spencer married. Their storybook wedding wrapped in all the royal trappings was beamed around the world. And from the outside, it seemed like a perfect beginning. But the reality was far more complicated, as Tina Brown writes in her new book, "The Diana Chronicles."
More now from Anderson's interview with the former New Yorker editor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You write that really from a very early time, and certainly from her courtship with Charles, there was a high level of manipulation involved.
TINA BROWN, AUTHOR, "THE DIANA CHRONICLES": Everything that she did during the courtship was really perfect. She went to Balmoral with Charles and she said how much she loved hunting, shooting and fishing. And of course she hated doing those things is the truth. I mean, she couldn't stand it.
You know, she was incredibly nice to the media. She always was. I mean, she knew their names, she knew where they lived even in fact. One photographer said that he once found her outside his house checking out where she lived. She knew everything about those photographers and she knew everything about the reporters.
COOPER: Did Charles love her? Did she love Charles?
BROWN: She absolutely was crazy about Charles. I don't think she ever really got over Charles. Though she had many love affairs during the course of that -- sort of the broken part of their marriage. But none of those lovers assuaged her feelings about Charles.
And Diana, who had been raised as a Spencer, in the shadows of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), their great country house, had been raised to feel that prince charming was the one.
And she always saw the monarchy as a very sort of romantic, you know, institution which she was a stone's throw from being a part of.
So for her, having the king-to-be marry her was her ultimate fairy story.
COOPER: Her wedding -- in the Andrew Morton book, which she cooperated with, which she gave interviews for later on, she says that basically it was like being -- a lamb being led to the slaughter, that it was the worst day of her life. That's not what you found out?
BROWN: I think it's not entirely true to say she felt like a lamb to the slaughter. I think she felt like a dazzlingly happy young girl who was about to achieve her dream. Sadly, the dream became the scream. Because, you know, within days of that honeymoon, it was like she woke up and found herself in a sealed tomb. I mean, she finally realized when all the kind of -- you know, the bells of the cathedral had stopped chiming, and all the people of the streets had stopped waving and throwing confetti over her glass coach, literally, that this was going to be her life, you know. In a very, you know, cold, misogynistic, old-fashioned, you know, confined, no freedom, and with a husband who it became abidingly clear really wasn't in love with her. He was charmed and beguiled, but he wasn't in love with her really.
COOPER: She had said that on the honeymoon there were three people on the honeymoon. Camilla Parker-Bowles being the third person.
BROWN: yes.
COOPER: Is that true or is that -- she became convinced that he had already restarted the affair with her?
BROWN: Well, Diana was always haunted by the shadow of Camilla and definitely believed that he was still in love with her, if not seeing her.
My research has basically showed, what I think was happening was, I do think that Prince Charles did get in the first year or two really did try to be faithful to his vows. You know, I don't think -- he's a decent man. And I think he really wanted it to work. But very quickly, it became clear to him, I think, that he had married the wrong girl. And as soon as that really began to happen, he began to reconnect with his old mistress.
And in fairness to Diana, I think there was never a time during their marriage when they weren't in constant communication. So, you know, although he might not have actually been unfaithful, the fact was he was still calling her regularly, he was still writing her, he was emotionally committed elsewhere.
COOPER: In the myth that Diana helped create in the Andrew Morton book, the blame goes to Charles for the marriage not working out. Is that fair? Or did she play a role?
BROWN: He was a man who was used to be being pampered, served, low maintenance woman who put him at the forefront of their lives. Unfortunately, Diana was very needy, very young, very insecure. She had her eating disorder which was extraordinarily disruptive. You know, it made her emotional, it made her moody. She had postpartum depression, which made her very moody and very difficult. And Charles just wasn't used to a wife or a woman he had to console and support and worry about and I mean he was the guy. He was used to being numero uno, you know.
COOPER: Walking on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BROWN: Well, yes, absolutely. He just wanted to go off and do his shooting and come back to a wife who would just amuse him. I mean, that's exactly what he wanted. And Diana couldn't do any of that really. And so it drove him more and more towards, you know, his old mistress who frankly was that woman, who was somebody who said things like oh, darling, read me your speech again, you know, all of that.
COOPER: In terms of her knowledge of the media and how it works, that famous photo of her standing alone in front of the Taj Mahal. I mean she -- that wasn't coincidence. She knew that picture would be taken. She knew what that picture would mean.
BROWN: Yes, Diana sort of had this sense of how to come up with the winning image. And she knew exactly what the Taj Mahal picture would do for her. I mean, she knew that Charles had said before he was married when he went to visit the Taj Mahal, he said one day I'm going come back here and bring my wife, bring the woman I love. So that was a famous quote that Charles had made when he was a single man.
So when she stood in front of the Taj Mahal alone, mournfully looking out on it, she knew what the captions were going to be. She really did. And of course, it blew Charles off -- you know, I mean, it was a picture that kind of came to haunt him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Still ahead on 360, more of Anderson's interview with Tina Brown about Diana's life after Prince Charles, an inside look at the last night Diana was alive, when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCESS DIANA: Long after conflict had ended, its innocent victims die or are maimed in countries of which we hear little, their lonely fate is never reported.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That was Princess Diana at a benefit for the American Red Cross in June 1997, shortly before her death.
She had been divorced from Prince Charles for 10 months and was devoting more of her time to humanitarian causes.
The next month she would turn 36 and begin a romance with Dodi Fayed. She was at a turning point.
That's where we pick up Anderson's interview with Tina Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Dodi Fayed, was she in love with him? What was that about?
BROWN: Dodi Fayed -- I see Dodi Fayed as very much what I call a relapse. You know, Diana, at the time that she got involved with Dodi, she was totally on the rebound. I mean, the love of her life doctor has not come, the Pakistani doctor who she really was in love with in the last two years of her life gave her up. He basically said I can't handle the publicity. I don't want to marry you. It's over. Then...
COOPER: And that was the love of her life?
BROWN: That was the love of her life. I mean, certainly the love of the '90s. I mean, she really loved Hasnat Khan. And she had a fantasy as usual that he was going to give up his life at the hospital and they were going to travel the world, you know he with his doctor's bag, she with her big heart. I mean, you know, it was very unrealistic dream, particularly with all the publicity. And Kahn was a serious man, a serious doctor, and he didn't want to be Di's new guy. He just didn't.
So the love affair was always conducted in secret. So he had just given her up in July.
And then Charles did something which hurt her desperately. He gave a 50th birthday party for Camilla at Highgrove, in his home, which was their married home, in a sense. And that really hurt her and angered her.
So the two things came together and she was distraught. And everyone she knew was going off on vacation. Her boys were at Balmoral with their father. So she was alone. She was very vulnerable.
And Mohammad al-Fayed came at her always, you know, importunately saying, you know, showering her with flowers and gifts and come and stay in my villa in the south of France.
She went because she thought ironically that there was all this protection around Fayed. She would be protected from the press. She would be protected from, you know, all the hassles of her life.
When, of course, Dodi came to stay, they connected. Dodi was really a holiday romance and a romance of retaliation. In fact, amazingly, the famous picture which was known the kiss, which was Diana kissing Dodi al-Fayed on the deck of the Jonikal yacht where they were. That picture she tipped off the press to do, far from it being a stolen picture as it looks. It was a picture that Diana arranged to have taken. Because she wanted the picture out. She wanted her -- the lover Hasmat Khan to see it and be jealous. And she was still making her statements to the men at home. She really wasn't doing this for Fayed, she was doing it to make a statement to the guys who had spurned her.
COOPER: You write also that she basically wanted a guy with a Gulfstream jet.
BROWN: She was at that place in her life, yes, where she needed a man who was going to be rich enough with enough protection to give her the lifestyle that she had as a princess of Wales.
COOPER: An American billionaire Teddy Forsman (ph).
BROWN: Sure. He was one candidate.
COOPER: Literally, he owned the company I think then.
BROWN: Yes.
COOPER: That made the Gulfstream jets.
BROWN: Yes, indeed. That was handy.
COOPER: And she -- you talk to him. She had this fantasy that she might become the first lady? Is that...
BROWN: Yes, I mean she thought, you know, she said to Teddy Forsman, you know, well, what if we got married and I was -- you know, we became -- I became the first lady.
COOPER: Was that a serious thing or was it sort of a...
BROWN: She was semiserious. I mean, you know, Diana -- Diana wanted to replace Kensington Palace with something else. You know, she -- she -- in that sense, she was like, a bit like Jackie Onassis. You know, when Jackie Onassis, after the presidency, she went out with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on his boat, on his yacht, because she saw all those toys and planes and all things that Onassis could offer, had some kind of resonance of the life of the presidency.
And I think that Diana was very much in her Jackie and Ari stage at that moment. But I do believe that like Jackie, she would have moved on from that stage. And I think she was definitely making better things of her life. You know, she was doing at that time her famous landmines campaign.
COOPER: If she hadn't died that night, where do you think she would be?
BROWN: I'd like to think that Diana was on a good -- she had a relapse with this Dodi on happiness, but I believe that by the turning of the leaves, Diana would have continued to build on what she had been doing with her landmine campaign just that same couple of months before, where she went to -- you know, she took on a course that was controversial, that was important, and she raised the level of everybody's attention towards it. I mean, she really was a precursor to the Bonos and Angelina Jolies and the whole idea of leveraging your celebrity for something more important. And she was doing that with great talent and with great sort of increasing skill.
You know, when she did her landmines campaign, the head of the mission that went with her said she was very well briefed. She knew what she was doing. She was extremely impressive. She walked through an uncleared landmine, which was a field which was an extraordinarily brave thing to do. And she did it because she really cared.
And the way she was with the victims was inspiring, even to the most hard bitten journalist. You know, so she had this immensely humanitarian side. And I think she would have built on that. I believe she would have gone in that direction.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: The story of Diana was cut tragically and mysteriously short.
Just ahead, the death of a princess. What we know now about what really happened to her, next on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We'll have more on Princess Diana's life and death in just a moment.
But first, Erica Hill joins us now with a 360 bulletin.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, tensions between the U.S. and Iran could soon be even more strained with American civilians caught in the middle. Iran's news agency, saying the Iranian government will soon decide whether to indict four Iranian-Americans it has in captivity. The civilians were arrested over the past month. They are accused of trying to build a network to topple the government. Iran is also pressuring the U.S. to release five Iranians who were captured in Iraq this past January.
Meantime, in Afghanistan, friendly fire, killing at least eight police officers and wounding five. U.S. military says coalition forces mistakenly exchanged fire with police as the troops were en route to a suspected Taliban safe house. The Afghan government is investigating the incident.
And back stateside, an update on the story we're closely following. Genarlow Wilson will have to stay behind bars a bit longer. A Georgia judge has set his bond hearing now for July 5th. You may remember Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex he had when he was a teen. Yesterday a judge overturned that conviction. Prosecutors, though, are appealing the decision.
And while hotel heiress Paris Hilton has apparently found God in jail, she has lost her agent of two years. The Endeavor Talent Agency saying Hilton is no longer their client, but not saying exactly why. Hilton is behind bars for violating probation in a reckless driving case -- John.
KING: So much I could say about finding God in jail, but I think the best policy is to just button them shut on that one.
HILL: I think you're right. We'll leave it at that.
KING: We'll see you tomorrow, Erica. Thank you.
And don't miss the day's headlines with the 360 daily podcast. And you don't need an iPod. You can watch it on your computer at CNN.com/AC360podcast or you can go to iTunes.
Coming up, Diana's final hours. New insights into what happened on that fateful night in the Paris tunnel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some very sad news to bring you. We are just getting word that the French government has informed all of us that Princess Diana has died. The 36-year-old princess is -- has succumbed to her injuries. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That announcement 10 years ago this August sparked an outpouring of grief around the world. In the days and weeks that followed, it would become clear just how popular Diana had been as details of her final hours emerged, the paparazzi who chased her car into the tunnel caught the blame.
But again, the reality was more complicated. As former "New Yorker" editor Tina Brown describes in her new book, "The Diana Chronicles."
More now from Anderson's interview with Tina Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: A lot of people blame the press for her death, whatever the, you know, the facts are. We now know Henri Paul was drunk when -- and driving. It's much more complicated. I mean, it wasn't just that she was a victim of the press. I mean, she used the press. She knew them. She manipulated them almost as much at times as they manipulated her.
BROWN: It was complicated. I mean, in the end, you see what happened really was that, you know, Diana who had always been able to have a good relationship with the press also a canny relationship with the press began to think she was in control, and of course she wasn't.
She had reached a level of global celebrity that meant that she was out of control. There's no way that these people can control the press when they're at that level of fame. They're going to pursue her everywhere, at all times, when she does want it and when she doesn't want it.
Furthermore, she had lost that royal protection. I mean, she hadn't realized how different her life would be when those palace walls were beginning to just be, you know, I mean, the place she lived, but without that whole apparatus around her.
COOPER: Did she have money of her own?
BROWN: She had won 17 million pounds in the divorce. So she was certainly well off. And she was allowed to stay living in Kensington Palace, but she did no longer have the apparatus of complete, you know, press flunkies kind of doing her bidding anymore. So she really had to fend for herself at that moment.
And she thought that in Paris that she could still play the press, that she could tip them off for a picture and then go, you know, then withdraw. Well, of course, you can't. And it became bedlam. It went out of control.
And Mohammad al-Fayed, meanwhile, was also ramping up the press because he wanted all the pictures of his son with Diana and he wanted the press, too, for his own, you know, social ambitions. So between the two of them, you know, they created this kind of craziness around this romance. And of course, you know, when they were pursued into the tunnel, it had -- by that time it had become out of control.
but I will say that Diana herself was never really anxious that night in a sense. I mean the person who was really anxious was Dodi because he was inexperienced. I mean, she was pretty cool when the press usually followed her. She really wasn't that cool. And her bodyguard -- wasn't that scared. And her bodyguard said to me, you know, why were they driving so fast? He said no one was ever killed by a camera. He said, you know, you drive like that away from bullets, not from cameras.
I mean, she was quite used to the paparazzi following her. So it was really the inexperience of Dodi and this drunk driver that couldn't handle it at all. And she didn't have any more -- the royal bodyguard and she didn't have the royal escort. So that was the problem. It all came together.
COOPER: You had lunch with her shortly before she died. Is that correct?
BROWN: I did. Yes, in the July before she died, yes, in August.
COOPER: How was the woman you knew then different from the woman that you discovered after interviewing hundreds of people?
BROWN: Well, it was interesting because that day she was immensely -- what I liked to feel of the snapshot of the Diana that she was becoming. She was a woman of enormous self-possession and poise. A sense that she was moving into a new act, that she was very excited that day about Tony Blair having just got in and how he might possibly make her some kind of ambassador for England, you know, of that portfolio, like a roving ambassador.
She talked a lot about William and Harry, about how she wanted them to be, you know, equipped to face the media. She was tremendously happy and confident that day.
And it saddens me that I can't leave her story there. That, you know, in a way that this was not the path that she was on.
But she had this relapse. Always Diana was torpedoed by her hunger for love. And once again, her insecurity kicked in and took her down. And I find that very poignant. But it also makes her, of course, a very, very appealing heroine because she was fallible, but she also a woman of importance.
COOPER: The book has received great reviews in the "New York Times." It's received also a lot of criticism in Great Britain.
I want to read you something in 2004 that you wrote in a column in the "Washington Post." You said, you were talking about how with every book about Diana, our perceptions of her change. And you wrote, quote, "The only thing that stays the same is the revolving cast of clapto (ph) courtiers, posh lowlifes and fleabag turncoats who continue to cash in on her memory."
You knew her, you were a friend of hers. Why is it acceptable for you to write this book?
BROWN: I wasn't actually a friend of Diana's. I was an acquaintance of Diana's. I was someone who knew her. I wasn't a person who had been -- who'd taken her, you know, her coin to look after her. I wasn't a person who was in her household.
COOPER: How was she different than you had first thought? I mean, what did you learn? What surprised you?
BROWN: What I learned was that she was more important, more formidable, had been up against more than I kind of understood. And was far more sophisticated in the way she handled it than I ever dreamed.
COOPER: It's a fascinating book. I'm just starting it right now, "The Diana Chronicles."
Tina Brown, thank you.
BROWN: Thank you, Anderson. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Just ahead, a closer look at the death of Diana. Was it really an accident? Anderson talks with someone who's done her own extensive investigation. Hear what she has to say, 360 next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Millions of people watched the televised funeral for Princess Diana 16 years after tuning in to see her fairy tale wedding.
By the time of her funeral, the conspiracy theories were flying. Many people refused to believe her death was an accident, the sad result of bad judgment, bad luck, high speed and drunk driving. They saw darker motives.
Bestselling Crime Novelist and Forensic Expert Patricia Cornwell spent months investigating Diana's death.
Anderson talked to her recently.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You've investigated this. What do you believe now? Do you believe Diana's death was an accident?
PATRICIA CORNWELL, CRIME NOVELIST: You know, after asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of investigation in that case, at the end of it, my conclusion was a big question mark.
I'm suspicious that there may have been some things that went on that might justify some of the so-called conspiracy theories. I will say that one thing I am sure of is that the case, if it had been handled a little bit more pristinely from a forensic point of view, from an investigative point of view, that maybe we wouldn't have the sorts of doubts we do. And as it is, it will be cloaked in mystery forever.
COOPER: After investigating it yourself, you came out with more questions than you had going into it?
CORNWELL: I really did it. For example, I mean, everybody talks about the weird carbon monoxide level in Henri Paul's blood. And it's a very good point to make. Why? Why did he have this in is blood or was it even his blood? You know, that 20 percent or whatever saturation.
COOPER: Right. 20.7 percent.
CORNWELL: That's right. And that's not normal. Although some of the reports said it's enough that he would have been unconscious and all that. That's really not true. But he would have possibly had impaired judgment. He could have had a bad headache from that. But the point is why. And because they didn't get blood samples and test them in the other passengers in the car, we don't know if they did. And so that again, you will never answer that question.
COOPER: We've all seen the images of Henri Paul going through those, you know, the revolving door outside the Ritz Hotel. The Trevor Rees-Jones, the bodyguard said that he didn't think Henri Paul was intoxicated at all.
CORNWELL: It's hard to know. Because if someone is a chronic drinker, they may hold it very well, and you don't know what their blood level is. But I'm not -- you know, we've all gotten so fixated on the alcohol, the possible carbon monoxide. I think the bigger question is, why did he have all that money in his bank account? Is it true he was really, you know, working for British intelligence, which is not unusual in these high, high dollar hotels that they might have somebody who does keep a check on some of the high-level and political figures who stay there. So we don't know.
I would not be at all surprised if they were being spied on. In fact, I would fully expect that. She was dating Dodi al-Fayed. I mean, think of all the consequences and ramifications of that. I don't think we'll ever really fully answer the questions of what happened. Why did he seem to speed up? He didn't necessarily put on his brakes.
One of the things that I asked Mohammad al-Fayed when I was doing this investigation, I said, what happened to Henri Paul's shoes? He says what do you mean what happened to his shoes? I said, well, if you could get a hold of his right shoe or his left shoe, you could tell on impact, using light sources usually, what foot was on -- was his foot on the brake or on the accelerator? Because that's an interesting detail to know. Was he speeding up or suddenly slamming on his brakes? There's a lot of things that are not that sophisticated that could have been done that weren't done and that's a shame. COOPER: You spoke to a witness also who saw a flash of light inside that tunnel. What's the significance of that if it's true?
CORNWELL: Well, there are these flashlights that security companies sell. I think they're called security blankets and have other names. And these big flashlights, and they have extremely high powered flash of light that when you push a button and it explodes in somebody's face, so to speak, it temporarily blinds them. And it's a protection device.
And the theory was that one of these big huge flashlights that does this might have been used in that tunnel which would have blinded him temporarily. He would not have been able to see, absolutely not, if that were used. And there would be absolutely no physical evidence of it. So that was one theory.
Now, to try to cause an automobile accident is not the neatest way to try to cause somebody's death. And we don't -- you know, that's one thing that has always bothered me a little bit. With a figure of this type of international celebrity, you are going to raise questions and cause people to think conspiracy. Now, whether there was or there wasn't, there was a lot of what we call in the south backing and filling, trying to get rid of things and covering up things that have created a problem that's never going to go away.
COOPER: Yes. Still to this day.
Patricia Cornwell, thanks.
CORNWELL: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Diana was considered a heroine to many people and before we leave you tonight, we want to introduce you to a present day hero.
Our CNN hero and his accomplishments, literally changing the face of Afghanistan, next.
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KING: We've done a lot of stories on Afghanistan here at 360, taking you to the frontlines and behind them.
Tonight we want to tell you the story of one man who has returned to the country on the brink to help women build a future for themselves.
Matin Maulawizada is tonight's CNN hero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And explain to me everything you want to explain.
MATIN MAULAWIZADA, CNN HERO: Afghanistan offered me a lot and I wanted to bring a little something back.
It's a tiny project, but I wanted to really make sure to bring something.
Afghan women have survived years of war, years of suppression. Still they do. And they prevail. So to me, the strength of Afghan women are just remarkable and I wanted to work with them.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
In Kabul, Afghanistan, there are an estimated 50,000 war widows.
Many need to support their families. Yet four out of five Afghan women cannot read or write.
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MAULAWIZADA: Widows, in particular, rely on the mercy of their families, so they kind of become servants to them. And I wanted to kind of change that one person at a time, if I could.
My entire point was to make sure that widows and women will be able to proudly work and be proud of their work and work outside their house. And provide well for their families.
It's just amazing. It sells itself, really.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Matin founded Afghan Hands which hires women to embroider shawls and scarves for sale abroad.
Women in the program make about 50 percent more than the average Afghani government official. And receive tutoring.
Source: Afghan Hands.
(END GRAPHIC)
MAULAWIZADA: They read and write equivalent of fourth grader now.
Mentally, they're prepared to go to work. They know how to take measurements. They know how to do, to write measurements. Once they learn enough, they will basically be business women. And look at the embroidery on this.
I'm hoping that I will send them to courses that they can actually manage a business, grow a business. My whole dream is for them to basically have the confidence to see beautiful objects that they're making and know that people are enjoying and appreciating them.
They are doing the work. And all I am offering is basically an opportunity for them to show what they have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: If you'd like to learn more about this remarkable story or how to make a contribution, you'll find all the information you need at CNN.com/heroes.
Now here's Kiran Chetry with a look on what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY: The parents of children who vanish without a trace and their agonizing wait for answers. You know, there are about 100,000 missing persons cases around the country. Could the answer to the mystery lay in the police morgue?
We're going to meet parents who are pushing police departments to do more to find out. Tomorrow, on "AMERICAN MORNING." It all begins at 6:00 a.m., Eastern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: That's it for us tonight. Hope you come back and see us tomorrow.
For our international viewers, "CNN TODAY" is next.
Here in the states, "LARRY KING" is coming up.
Have a great night.
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