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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Red Cross Reviews Prisoner Conditions at Guantanamo Bay

Aired January 17, 2002 - 22:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, NEWSNIGHT CORRESPONDENT: Good evening again from Los Angeles. I'm Aaron Brown. We spent much of today trapped in another time, in the '60s, which in truth were also the first half of the '70s, and the arrests yesterday in the 1975 robbery/murder that was very much front page news out here and around the country today.

This is the second night in a row we're going to spend some time on this on NEWSNIGHT, talking about the Symbionese Liberation Army, the story of the five former radicals being charged now in a murder committed a quarter of a century ago.

Times change but oddly storylines do not. The SLA in the '70s, as we'll see tonight, had an ideology that was a complete perversion of anything noble. They may have believed in what was good about the '60s, but what they did represented much of the worst. In a way, it's a bit like those who find their view of Islam justifies the killing of innocents, of smashing planes into skyscrapers.

Today, we saw the faces of SLA members in the papers when they were young, side-by-side with their pictures now, and we thought of another Californian, John Walker, the American Taliban, another young person pulled into a radical and violent movement.

What will become of him and them? It will be interesting to see. And how will John Walker feel when he's the age of the SLA veterans, when he is wiser, maybe even free? How will he feel about the cause he embraced and the death that resulted?

There was news today about five other suspected terrorists, not from the SLA, but from al Qaeda, and today we got to see their faces. Susan Candiotti is covering that story, and that's where we begin our whip around the world, and the correspondents covering it. Susan, a headline from you, please.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. They could be dead or alive. Five suspected Osama bin Laden devotees, captured on videotape, declassified for the world to see, but not hear, Justice officials trying to find them to prevent terrorist attacks. Aaron.

BROWN: Susan, back to you shortly. Now to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a different arrival today, the Red Cross on the scene. Bob Franken is too. Bob's on the videophone, a headline from you sir. BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, as you know the international community designates the International Red Cross to determine the proper treatment for prisoners of war, or whatever the United States chooses to call them this time. The Red Cross is here trying to see if the proper balance is being struck between tough enough and humane enough.

BROWN: Bob, thank you very much. The latest on Enron and the collapse there. Some important developments today. Tim O'Brien's been covering the story and so, Tim, a headline from you sir.

TIM O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The gloves are off in the Enron scandal. The company fired Arthur Andersen, its accounting firm, tonight accusing it of misconduct. The two companies are at one another's throat. So are the White House and Congressional Democrats over possibly influence peddling, and the investigations. There could be a dozen of them. They're just getting started. Aaron.

BROWN: Tim, thank you, back with all of you shortly, a big mix of things tonight. It's an interesting program. We'll talk with John Opsahl, the son of the woman killed in that long ago bank robbery. Former SLA members are charged with that. Dr, Opsahl never gave up on seeing justice done.

Also tonight, Nic Robertson joins us for Segment 7. You know him as the unflappable correspondent covering the war in Afghanistan from the beginning. Tonight, Nic goes back to the very root of the war he has been covering. Nic visits Ground Zero and that's Segment 7.

And if you never experienced it, you can't really understand. No, we're not talking about anything important, other than the bluelight special at Kmart. The bluelight and Kmart itself are in trouble, the story of an American institution.

So there's a lot to do in the hour ahead. We begin with the al Qaeda tape, the five men saying their last words before heading off to become martyrs and killers. Four of the men are known to authorities but one is not, and even though the tape was released without sound, it's pretty clear what all five have in mind. Watching one of them embracing his AK-47 says a lot.

How the tape came out, came to be found, is a story in and of itself. What to make of the tape is a little bit harder. But once again, we begin the broadcast with CNN's Susan Candiotti who joins us from Washington. Susan, good evening.

CANDIOTTI: Hello, Aaron. You've heard about journalists, including our own, digging up al Qaeda documents in bombed out buildings around Afghanistan. Well tonight, a tape acquired by U.S. forces or operatives is released.

Among what FBI Director Robert Mueller calls a trove of valuable information, five tapes, five men, the U.S. desperate to find them, all suspected Osama bin Laden followers who have murder on their mind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CANDIOTTI (voice over): They could be anywhere worldwide. They may even be dead. But U.S. officials are taking no chances, releasing videotapes of suspected al Qaeda operatives, allegedly bent on becoming martyrs for Osama bin Laden.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The videotapes depict young men delivering what appear to be martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists, trained and prepared to commit future suicide terrorist acts.

CANDIOTTI: Authorities say they won't let the public hear what the men say, insisting analysis is still underway. The tapes were discovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, found in the Kabul house of Mohammed Atef, one of bin Laden's top lieutenants killed last November during U.S. bombing raids.

The FBI calls the release of the tapes unique, encouraging people around the world to stop these men before any future attack.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: We hope that no one hesitates to surface anything that could be of interest to us. The principle is simple, an informed and alert public works.

CANDIOTTI: One of the men on the tapes is seen holding a weapon with writing on the strap. The meaning, if there is one, is unclear.

ASHCROFT: Often we're accustomed to wanted posters that give you a static view of individuals. This happens to be a superior sort of basis for people to make identification.

CANDIOTTI: Because of technical problems, only freeze frames of two others were made available. One of them, international fugitive Ramzi Benalchieb, an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against suspected terrorist Zacarius Moussaoui.

Benalchieb failed at least three times to enter the U.S. before the September 11th attacks. Authorities suggest he was probably meant to be on one of the hijacked planes. Instead, they say, he helped funnel money to the men. The tapes may be even more useful in the hands of the public overseas where these suspected terrorists may be hiding.

DAVID ISBY, DEFENSE ANALYST: As bin Laden has demonstrated over the years, those who live by the video will perish by the video.

CANDIOTTI: In one excerpt, one man appears close to kissing his rifle. Authorities say the portions they released don't appear to contain any coded messages. Aaron.

BROWN: Susan quickly, do we expect that at some point we will hear or at least see the translation of what is said in those tapes?

CANDIOTTI: We sure hope so. Authorities say they are working to complete those translations, but they're not promising that they'll release them to us.

BROWN: We sure hope so. Susan, thank you. Susan Candiotti in Washington tonight.

We said last night that the e-mail on the treatment of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been very much one-sided, and we summed it up in one line. Why should we care about them?

When we came into the office today, we saw another batch of e- mails had arrived with an answer. Their treatment is not about them, it's about us, what it says about the country that imprisons these men. We'll leave that debate to you and your computers and the e- mail, but the issue has the attention of the International Red Cross tonight.

So we head back to CNN's Bob Franken, who joins us again on the videophone. Bob, good evening.

FRANKEN: Good evening, Aaron. It was about five hours ago that the four-person delegation from the International Red Cross arrived in Guantanamo Bay. They're going to get a close-up access, a lot closer than we've gotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice over): Reporters were kept over 100 yards away from Camp X-Ray, but the cameras could see from a distance the telltale orange jumpsuits of the detainees, through the many layers of prison fence.

The International Red Cross officials are supposed to see the detainees close up and talk to them, amid charges their treatment is less than humane.

URS BOEGLI, SENIOR ICRC WASHINGTON, D.C.: We will look at treatment and conditions and we will share (UNINTELLIGIBLE) part with the press. We will share our findings confidentially with the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) authorities.

BRIGADIER GENERAL MICHAEL LEHNERT, U.S. MARINES CHIEF OF SECURITY: I want to reemphasize something. We are committed to treating the detainees in a humane manner, consistent with international laws.

FRANKEN: But the effort to provide humane treatment, even the medical treatment, is superceded by one other concern, security.

CAPTAIN AL SHIMKUS, U.S. NAVY MEDICAL DIRECTOR: Two MPs with the provider, as he's being examined. There are more in the camp protecting the medical camp as a whole, and the detainees are brought in singularly.

FRANKEN: Still, another 30 arrive. The population is now 110. Each detainee spends almost all of his day in these outdoor cubicles, 8 X 8 feet. The military revised the previous description of 8 X 6. Critics have been calling them cages, even kennels.

Still, according to the guards, even minor incidents have been few and far between. MARC COUDRIET, GUNNERY SERGEANT, PRISON GUARD: They've been very cooperative. A couple incidences have occurred, minor outbursts. It's mainly due to them being scared.

FRANKEN: But even here, the prisoners seem to settle into their routine, barely reacting to their captors, even though some of the guards are women.

PFC TINA COSTA, U.S. ARMY PRISON GUARD: Before they got here, I thought that the detainees would be a lot more intense than they actually were. They were actually a lot calmer than I expected them to be, and I did expect to get treated extremely differently, but it's been the complete opposite.

FRANKEN: By the end of the month, there will be 320 cells here. Officers say they could put two in each if they have to.

COLONEL TERRY CARRICO, U.S. ARMY HEAD OF PRISON SECURITY: I don't think these are very nice people. They're bad individuals, and we have developed a system of positive control, multi-layered security, as we can point out to you, to insure that we maintain the control of the detainees and to insure that nobody escapes from Camp X-Ray.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (on camera): But even the calm, even the calm causes quite a bit, the calm cause quite a bit of tension in the prison camp. Many of the guards said they were wondering just exactly what it was that these detainees were thinking. Right now, the focus is on what that Red Cross inspection is thinking. Aaron.

BROWN: Bob, one question. The viewer's may have heard this a little better than I did. This may have been an earpiece problem at my end. Is the Red Cross going to make its findings public?

FRANKEN: They went to quite a great display of saying no. This is confidential. It is not something the Red Cross likes to do. As a matter of fact, you can consider it a journalistic coup tonight that we were even allowed to get some video of their arrival.

BROWN: We'll note that as well. Bob Franken who's got duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba tonight. Bob, thank you very much.

We had a bit of fun last night behind the scenes on Secretary of State Powell's airplane. Tonight, however, this is all business. The Secretary is in New Delhi, in India.

In just a few hours, he'll meet with the Indian President. He's expected to repeat what he told Pakistan's President yesterday, that both sides, both these countries need to take a step back from their confrontation over Kashmir.

Earlier today, the Secretary was in Kabul. He met with Hamid Karzai, the Chairman of the new interim government of Afghanistan. He promised U.S. aid to rebuild the country. Details to come at a conference next week of international donors. Chairman Karzai, meantime, is scheduled to visit the White House and the president at the end of the month.

In Israel today, another spasm of violence, this one targeting a celebration of a young girl's coming of age, a bar mitzvah. It happened at a banquet hall in Hartera in the northern part of the country on the coast.

Police say a Palestinian gunmen burst into the hall, firing an automatic weapons and throwing grenades. The crowd fought back, pushed him onto the street. Police there shot him to death. Six Israelis died in the attack. More than 30 were wounded.

The military wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement is taking credit for this. The Palestinian Authority, however, the government in the territories, Palestinian-controlled territories at least, condemn the attack and then also blamed Israel for provoking it.

On to Enron we go. Are you seated? This one may shock you. The company fired its accounting firm today, Arthur Andersen, questions about document shredding it seeMs. Enron's lead lawyer, Bob Bennett, adding that "we're very concerned about what the accounting advice was." Those are his words and it is in the running for the understatement of the century, at least so far. It's early.

Also today, we got word that Enron managed to avoid paying Federal income taxes in four of the last five years. That is not uncommon for big companies with smart accountants.

There is also a political story to this developing, and for that we turn, once again, to CNN's Tim O'Brien who joins us from Washington. Tim, good evening.

O'BRIEN: Good evening, Aaron. The ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, Henry Waxman has just issued a report alleging that 17 policies in President Bush's new energy plan either benefit Enron or were even proposed by Enron, a report the White House angrily dismissed as a waste of the taxpayer's money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The allegation by Congressman Waxman that anything was put in that plan for political purposes is, of itself, a partisan waste of taxpayer money.

REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN (D) CALIFORNIA: I have made no accusations of any wrongdoing by anybody in the Bush Administration, and I think it would be unfair to do so until we have a thorough investigation and we get all the facts.

O'BRIEN: The administration, citing separation of powers, has made it clear however Congress won't be given any facts about meetings with Enron officials at the White House. That clash could end up in court, as could the developing clash between Enron and its former accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Congressional investigators have uncovered an e-mail, indicating Andersen decided to retain Enron as a client only after a significant discussion of Enron's earning, which it characterized as "intelligent gambling."

Enron struck back, firing Arthur Andersen. In an exclusive interview with Lou Dobbs MONEYLINE, the CEO of Arthur Andersen said that was to be expected.

JOSEPH BERARDINO, CEO, ANDERSEN: Well, Lou, technically and I hate to be technical but I think it is an important point, when a company goes in bankruptcy, all its relationships are severed.

O'BRIEN: No, that's not it at all, said Enron CEO Kenneth Lay. The Andersen firm was fired because it improperly destroyed documents. And then there's Harvey Pitt, the Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, who earlier in the day proposed that accounting firms, like Arthur Andersen, be held more accountable.

But what's he doing in all this? As a lawyer in private practice, Pitt used to represent Arthur Andersen. Democrats charge conflict of interest.

HARVEY PITT, CHAIRMAN, SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION: I will not only adhere to the letter of my ethics obligations. I will adhere to the spirit.

O'BRIEN: Translation, Pitt will not recuse himself from the case, but he will keep his distance from the investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (on camera): To many, perhaps most the scandal is and may always be more about business than about politics, unless of course you live in Washington where business and just about everything else is politics. Aaron.

BROWN: Tim, thank you. Tim O'Brien in Washington on Enron tonight. In a moment, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the ghosts of 1975, and the events that haunt a lot of people today. We'll revisit the SLA's violent demise and talk to a son who remembers the SLA as people who murdered his mother. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles on a Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It's always a mistake to put a firm end on a decade in terms of history, and a good example of that is the '60s and the '70s. There was something that happened in that strange time between the late '60s and the very early '70s, liberal thought. The good intentions of many in the late '60s, turned into something sinister, acts committed by a few.

The bridge for some was Charles Manson, and the Manson family murders out here in Los Angeles in August of '69. And then somewhere out of all of this grew the Symbionese Liberation Army, a group that was started by a prison escapee in the spring of '73. Their agenda is still hard to comprehend. Their slogan "death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people." That's what they said, and what the SLA did remains with us today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice over): It is just another LA duplex now, with a playground across the street. But on this lot, ghosts still live. It was Friday afternoon, the 22nd of May, 1974. According to the official account, more than 400 police officers converged, along with agents of the FBI and California State Troopers.

Their goal, to end the reign of terror of the radical group with the strangely violent name, the Symbionese Liberation Army, a group that had already kidnapped an heir to a great newspaper fortune, Patricia Hearst.

CAPTAIN MERVIN KING, LAPD (RET): They had already committed crimes the day before, and that vans were found that they had been using, so we set up down in the area where the vans were found, and then developed information as to what we considered the target house, out of several houses.

BROWN: Mervin King is 87 now and long retired. Back then, he was a commander in charge of all the LAPD officers on the scene that day.

KING: Eighteen separate bullhorn notices were put out, at which time the SWAT leader told the Sergeant, "fire teargas into the house." And at that moment, automatic gunfire came out of the house, came out the window and the doorway, and it was directed at the officers and was hitting the houses across the street.

BROWN: The house burned to the ground, six people inside were killed. Patty Hearst was not among them. The whole scene televised across southern California and across much of the country too.

RICK ORLOFF, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS: If you remember back, the whole situation involving the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the food giveaway, had this whole bizarre aspect to it.