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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

President Musharraf Vows to Liquidate Killers of Pearl; Neighbor Arrested in Van Dam Case

Aired February 22, 2002 - 22:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone. It's Friday. It's the last time we have to do our David and Goliath battle with the Winter Olympic Games and trust me, David got help we never received. Divine intervention would have been nice here.

So what happened? As we were leaving last night, producer David Borman and I wanting to get out, after a long and difficult day. The TV caught our eye, and what did we see? The women's figure skating. We sat down and watched. It may only be sport, but it's compelling stuff.

Next time, I'll do this differently. I'll take the two weeks of the Olympics off, watch them on TV, it seems to have work for most of you. Any further whining about the games will come later in the program, and be delivered in Russian.

So now on to the news of the day and none of it's fun and there are no games at all. The investigation into the murder of journalist Danny Pearl, Andrea Koppel had our coverage last night. She does again now. Andrea the headline today please.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. For the last month, U.S. and Pakistani officials said their top priority was rescuing Danny Pearl. Now that he's dead, they have a much less lofty goal, recovering his body and finding those who kidnapped and then killed him.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you, back with you shortly. The story tonight as seen from Karachi, Pakistan where Danny Pearl was kidnapped, Chris Burns is covering that for us. Chris, a headline from you.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a vow by President Pervez Musharraf to liquidate the terrorists, a vow by authorities here to track down those who kidnapped Daniel Pearl. However, no major breakthroughs in the last 24 hours.

BROWN: Chris, thank you. A major development in a very different kidnapping case, this one involving a child, a girl in San Diego, Thelma Gutierrez is following that. Thelma, the headline from you tonight.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the man at the center of the Danielle Van Dam investigation is under arrest tonight. Police say they now have DNA evidence to tie him to her disappearance. We'll have the latest.

BROWN: Thank you, and quite a showdown between the White House and the GAO, the investigative branch of Congress. At the White House for us, Major Garrett. Major, a headline from you now.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. For the first time in U.S. history, the investigative arm of Congress has sued the White House over access to information about government policy. It's a clash over two very important American principles, the public's right to know and a president's ability to obtain private and candid information and keep it private -- Aaron.

BROWN: Major, thank you, back with all of you shortly. As we said, we'll get you up to date on all the controversies at the Olympic Games, but we'll also look at one the great stories, and underdog who made good this week. Sarah Hughes joined that long list of American darlings on ice. Her performance last night spectacular, and she seems like a pretty cool kid too. So all that is coming up in the hour ahead.

We begin with the search for the killers of Daniel Pearl, and a depressing theory that began to emerge about his disappearance and his death. This was never just a kidnapping. It was always about murder. An investigator today saying that killing Danny Pearl as barbarically as possible was always the top of the kidnappers priorities.

Two reports tonight, from here and in Pakistan. First CNN's Andrea Koppel from the State Department.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (voice over): Pakistani officials say they know the names of the militants who kidnapped and killed Daniel Pearl. Several suspects, including the alleged ringleader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, are already in Pakistani custody. And U.S. officials tell CNN there are some good leads, but readily admit they're trying not to say too much.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: But there's also a lot of caution about what we say in public to make sure that we're not inadvertently divulging information or tipping our hand.

KOPPEL: The immediate goals of both the United States and Pakistan, to find Pearl's kidnappers, and to find Pearl's body.

GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTANI PRESIDENT: I express my shock and my grief at this tragic murder.

KOPPEL: For Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, Pearl's cold- blooded murder is an embarrassment.

MUSHARRAF: If the objective of these terrorists or those who perpetrated this murder was to move us away from our resolve, let me tell then that they are sadly mistaken. KOPPEL: Just last month, Musharraf pledged to rid Pakistan of Islamic extremism, groups with close ties to Pakistan's intelligence service, called the ISI. That won't be easy and some have wondered whether there might be an ISI connection to Pearl's kidnapping. Sidestepping the issue, the State Department insisted its cooperation with Pakistan is excellent.

BOUCHER: We have seen a full-fledged, full-bore investigation. We would expect to continue to see that. That's what President Musharraf has promised again, and we would expect that to continue.

KOPPEL: Breaking her silence, Pearl's pregnant wife, Marianne, shared (UNINTELLIGIBLE) murder.

"What terrorists forget is that they may seize the life of an innocent man or the lives of many innocent people as they did on September 11th, but the can not claim the spirit or faith of individual human beings" she said in a statement. "The terrorists who say they killed my husband may have taken his life, but they did not take his spirit. Danny is my life. They may have taken my life, but they did not take my spirit."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (on camera): U.S. officials say it is premature to discuss next steps, like extraditing suspects to the United States. "Pearl was the victim of some very nasty people," a senior State Department official told me. He added that this is why the U.S. needs and wants the support of governments all over the world in its War against Terrorism, Aaron, before it is too late for the next victim or the next target.

BROWN: Andrea, thank you. Andrea Koppel at the State Department that's been working the Danny Pearl story as we said. This story is playing out at a number of different levels, and in a number of different places.

Karachi is the next stop. Once again, CNN's Chris Burns. Chris.

BURNS: Aaron, the newspapers this morning, the headlines, Musharraf as we heard him make his statement earlier with Andrea Koppel's piece, ordering the arrest of the killers. He's vowed to crack down on the terrorists. He says that he will liquidate the terrorists.

The other headline that we've noticed this morning is in the Dawn, where they say a man carrying Pearl's murder tape was arrested. It's a bit of an exaggeration. He was a man who was with a newspaper marketing person with a newspaper who said he received the tape. He's been detained for questioning. The authorities say that he provided the descriptions of the men who gave him that tape, and that is the lead that police are trying to track down.

There was a press release by the police late last night. They said that all the field units of the Sind Province police here have been given the orders to look for the dead body of Mr. Pearl. The investigation teams are also coordinating with the agencies for input and assistance. Further efforts to arrest the identified accused have been redoubled.

Some important clues have been developed to identify more members of the criminal network, and that's as far as they'll go. So very, very little new information, new evidence coming out in the last few hours; however, authorities at least are saying they're trying their level best and intensifying their efforts to try to find those who kidnapped and killed Daniel Pearl. Aaron.

BROWN: When you walk the street, when you talk to people, is there a sense of outrage at what happened, or is the reaction somewhat mixed?

BURNS: I have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a few hours we have attempted not to stray too far from where we're based because one can understand that. However, there have been statements by even religious groups here, Islamic groups that have condemned what happened.

There is a sense of outrage among, at least religious leaders here that they're saying this is not an Islamic thing to do, to kidnap and kill somebody, that in fact it defeats the purpose of what they're trying to do. So and there certainly isn't any expression of support for the kidnapping and slaying of Daniel Pearl.

BROWN: Chris, thank you. Chris Burns in Karachi. A little later in the hour, we'll talk with the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain about the Danny Pearl situation. That's coming up still.

This story might well, this next story might well have led the broadcast most nights. It's already certain to get some space in the history books. Today, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, filed a lawsuit against the Vice President of the United States.

It's the first time anything like this has ever happened. This battle is intriguing because it goes to the heart of the separation of powers, the Constitution. Does the administration have an absolute right to foreign policy to get advice in secret? The Congress wants to know who Vice President Cheney talked to, who helped him shape the President's energy policy, which critics believe is tilted heavily toward the energy industry.

That was a good story two months ago. It is a great story in the wake of Enron, and its connection to so many people in the administration. So again, we turn to CNN's Major Garrett who is at the White House. Major, good evening.

GARRETT: Good evening, Aaron. The first thing you need to know about this lawsuit is the White House has absolutely been spoiling for the General Accounting Office to file it, almost daring this institutional power here in Washington, the investigative arm of Congress, to follow through with its month-long threats to take it to court. Why, might you ask, is the White House so aggressive in its posture? Well, because the White House believes: a) it is on fundamentally sound legal footing. It also sees this conflict, this clash as an ability of this White House to restore some of the protective privileges it believes have been eroded since Watergate, privileges they believe Congress has taken advantage of.

Those are the two core issues. You've laid out the case very well. There is an Enron connection here. The administration says there is nothing, nothing at all unusual about the administration sitting down with top energy lobbyists. They say they sat down with lobbyists from labor unions and environmental groups for that matter, as it developed its policy.

Congressional Democrats are not so sure, don't believe those meetings were so benign as the White House describes. The General Accounting Office says it simply wants to find out who the administration met with, when, and how much it all cost. But the administration says no, no.

GAO's aims are much broader. What they really want to know is what the administration did in those meetings, what were the deliberations, what were the notes exchanged, what were the policies discussed? And that, they say, is an area of government policy, government activism, that the GAO simply can not trespass upon and they're willing to go to court to prove that point. Aaron.

BROWN: Well now there are, I assume - is anybody talking to anybody about this? Is anyone trying to find a middle ground here that the administration can live with, or is that simply out of the question?

GARRETT: Aaron, what you have in this situation is two Washington power institutions talking right past one another. In the filing today, the General Accounting Office said it just wants to know "who you sat down with, how much it cost, and what were the dates."

The White House says, "oh no. What you want is much broader." Have they talked to each other about resolving this difference, this misunderstanding? Absolutely not. Perfunctory telephone conversations, many of them detailed in the GAO's lawsuit filed today, there is a potential exit ramp for all of this. If the General Accounting Office were to re-file, and it's a technical term, but it's an important one.

The original demand letter, given to the White House last July about all the things it wanted to, if it narrows that focus just to people it met with, how much it cost, what were the dates of the meetings, the White House has hinted it might comply. But first, the GAO has to take that step, and until it does, the White House very viscerally will say, "I'll meet you in court, and I'll defeat you in court." Aaron.

BROWN: Major, thank you. Major Garrett at the White House tonight. Have a good weekend. Thank you. To the West Coast next, something happened in the days after Danielle Van Dam was kidnapped, something strange, the media frenzy, something this little program tries to avoid, got a bit sidetracked.

The story seemed to move from the tragedy of a child's abduction to a discussion about the lifestyle of her parents. All of us were brought back to the real issue today when a neighbor of Van Dams was arrested. He's in custody charged with Kidnapping, but there's still no sign of the girl and the neighbor isn't talking. All of this leaves Danielle's parents halfway between not knowing and knowing the worst, which is an awful place to be. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez filed for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUTIERREZ (voice over): David Westerfield is described as a friendly neighbor, an intelligent man who let local kids swim in his pool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as I knew, Dave was a perfectly fine guy.

GUTIERREZ: Now the mechanical engineer, with two grown kids of his own, is in handcuffs for the disappearance of the little girl two doors away, seven-year-old Danielle Van Dam.

CHIEF DAVID BEJARANO, SAN DIEGO POLICE: We arrested David Westerfield, 49 years of age, for the kidnapping of Danielle.

GUTIERREZ: Westerfield has been at the center of the investigation since Danielle's disappearance three weeks ago. All the while, he made comments to the media.

DAVID WESTERFIELD: This isn't going to be on TV. Can I put my hat on at least?

GUTIERREZ: Last with police and allowed them into his home, while his vehicles were impounded and boxes of potential evidence taken away.

BEJARANO: At this point, we don't have a motive.

GUTIERREZ: Friday morning, DNA lab results came in and police say they got their big break.

BEJARANO: Danielle's blood was found on an article of clothing which belongs to Mr. Westerfield, and also in his motorhome.

GUTIERREZ: Investigators say Danielle's DNA found on the clothing in her bedroom, confirms the match. The parents, Damon and Brenda Van Dam, say they only want their daughter back.

BRENDA VAN DAM: We are very happy that the police have made an arrest. We were forewarned that it was going to happen, but the fact still remains that we don't have our daughter. We need to continue searching for Danielle. That's the most important thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE) GUTIERREZ (on camera): David Westerfield is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday, charged with Kidnapping. His attorney, Steven Feldman (ph) released a written statement earlier today in which he says, "we are very concerned about the media publicity surrounding this case. We do not wish to, nor will we try this case in the media. We will certainly mount a vigorous defense."

The defense also is likely to request a gag order on this case, and Aaron, tomorrow the friends of the Van Dams will continue the search for her somewhere in the east desert. Back to you.

BROWN: Thelma, thank you. Thelma Gutierrez on the Van Dam kidnapping tonight. A couple of other stories out of courtrooms today, in Houston, the defense got underway in the Murder trial of Andrea Yates. The prosecution is done for now. Defense lawyers calling the first of a string of witnesses the defense hopes will make the case that Andrea Yates was criminally insane when she drowned her five children.

A jail psychiatrist took the witness stand today. She said Ms. Yates was emotional, unfocused, and had to be sedated when she saw her the mornings after the killings. Of greater importance to the defense, her state of mind earlier on. So expect in the coming days to see witnesses testifying to suicidal depression Andrea Yates suffered, the treatment she got for it, and the negligence, the defense will argue, that contributed to the tragedy. The case expected to take several more weeks.

And this one appears to be a first, a bond hearing where the state argues against bail on the grounds the defendant might not live to see his day in court. Brent Marsh is the man, Ray Brent Marsh. He entered the court with a bulletproof vest on today. He runs the crematory in Georgia where 289 bodies were dumped instead of cremated.

There are a lot of angry families in the community, and today the sheriff opposed bail saying, he feared for Marsh's safety. The magistrate in the case said he'll think about, give his ruling in a few days. As of now, Mr. Marsh is charged with 16 counts of Theft by Deception.

Up next, justice for a small town shut down by pollution, and the company that knew.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I want to go back to the Danny Pearl case for just a few moments here. Danny Pearl's abduction, even before it happened the situation in Pakistan was quite delicate, despite a government crackdown on Islamic radicals since the war in Afghanistan, the War on Terror began.

Anti-American sentiment has certainly not gone away. There is some sympathy for the other side on the streets, and some would argue even in General Musharraf's government. It is a challenge both for the investigation and for the diplomats. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain has to deal with a bit of both. She was kind enough to come in quite early in the morning in Islamabad to spend a few minutes with us. Ambassador Chamberlain, thank you for joining us.

WENDY CHAMBERLAIN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO PAKISTAN: Thank you.

BROWN: Do you expect that the killers will be caught and they will be extradited to the United States to face trial, or do you imagine they'll be tried in Pakistan?

CHAMBERLAIN: I think that's all part of the investigation, and we have to see how it plays out. I can tell you that there is enormous resolve for tracking down and killing, and catching those terrorists. We will get them. There is enormous effort, both on our government and within the embassy here, in close cooperation with the Pakistani government.

BROWN: I assume that it is not so much an investigative question as it is a diplomatic question, where these people stand trial eventually. Has the State Department communicated to you at all its preference on where it would like a trial to be held, if there is a trial?

CHAMBERLAIN: I think it's premature at this point. That is one of the issues that will certainly be dealt with as we progress in this investigation, but a lot will depend on how it plays out. But I can tell you that - pledge to you that the perpetrators of this brutal, brutal crime will be brought to justice.

BROWN: Do you have any concerns that some people, as I know you know here in the United Stated do and elsewhere do, that perhaps within the Musharraf government and perhaps within the intelligence service, there are people who know more about what happened to Danny Pearl than are saying?

CHAMBERLAIN: You know, I keep getting this question and I find it a little baffling, given the recent history that we have had with our cooperation with the Pakistani government. After September 11, there was a very fundamental switch in the Pakistani government's policy to support the attack on terrorism within Afghanistan.

On January 12th, there was an equally important pronouncement by President Musharraf in which he dedicated the government here to a campaign against terrorism anywhere in the world, and that has certainly been our experience, very close cooperation with the Pakistani officials at all levels in investigating, capturing, bringing to justice terrorists.

You know, we have scores of officials within our embassy now, working 24/7 on the campaign against terrorism, not just the Danny Pearl case, but also many of the al Qaeda cases that stem from the campaign in Afghanistan.

BROWN: In the minute we have, let me ask one more thing, if I may. After the bombing of the USS Cole, after the Kobar Towers bombing, the governments in those countries promised full cooperation, and yet at critical moments in those investigations, that cooperation, I think everyone acknowledges, was something less than total. Are you confident that will not be the case here?

CHAMBERLAIN: President Musharraf spoke to President Bush just yesterday, and renewed his pledge for full cooperation. We speak often. President Musharraf was just back in Washington and discussed with President Bush and Secretary Powell, and President Musharraf has talked to FBI Director Mueller.

No, I'm quite confident that this government from the top to the bottom has the political will, and we're seeing that. We're seeing that in results. We're seeing that in people who are being apprehended and brought to justice.

BROWN: Ambassador Chamberlain, thank you very much for you time. I know it's very early there. We appreciate your coming in. Thank you. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain, who is the American Ambassador to Pakistan, this morning. We have more on a Friday night from New York. NEWSNIGHT continues after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Anniston, Alabama used to be called the model city of the south, one of those places where people had vegetable gardens in their yards and fish in their streams. But that was more than 30 years ago, before the Monsanto Corporation started dumping PCBs into the town.

Today, a jury found Monsanto liable for contaminating Anniston, not just contaminating, but knowing exactly what it was doing and what it would do to the town. Here's CNN's Natalie Pawelski.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Smiles of relief in an Alabama courthouse, after a jury found Monsanto, and its spin off company, Solutia, polluted the town of Anniston with toxic chemicals called PCBs.

CATHY JACKSON, PLAINTIFF: I think they made a very good verdict, and now I feel that justice has been served.

PAWELSKI: Justice for more than 30 years of corporation actions the jury found added up to negligence, and even outrage.

SALLY FRANKLIN, PLAINTIFF: We told the truth, and the truth will set you free, and we won.

PAWELSKI: The truth as the neighbors see it is a community in ruins, a street sign where there are no streets anymore, a playground with no children, and fields where houses used to stand, now fenced off and labeled "danger."

THOMAS LONG, PLAINTIFF: Since our community has been contaminated by PCB, our community has been utterly destroyed. PAWELSKI: For decades, Anniston's Monsanto plant made PCBs, the chemicals whose production is now banned in the U.S. were widely used to keep electrical equipment from catching fire.

ROBERT KALEY, SOLUTIA, INC.: We need to realize that we're talking about behaviors and activities that went on in the mid 1960s and we're sitting here in 2002 and have a much different view of how things were held. But Monsanto behaved very responsibly.

PAWELSKI (on camera): Monsanto's critics charge that for decades, the company knew its plant was polluting land and water, but didn't tell the neighbors. Here at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Creek, for example, one company study back in 1969 turned up one fish that had PCB levels 7,000 times the legal limit.

DONALD STEWART, PALINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: The internal documents indicate that they knew this stuff was harmful. Their warning labels indicate that they knew this product was harmful, that PCBs were harmful.

PAWELSKI (voice over): The jury agreed. It ruled Monsanto and it's Solutia spin-off liable in the cases of 16 plaintiffs.

ADAM PECK, MONSANTO ATTORNEY: Well, we're obviously disappointed with this result. We would have preferred a different result, but this is an interim step in a long process. We look forward to the next phase of that process.

PAWELSKI: That next phase looks at how much money this first group of plaintiffs gets, and that the claims of the rest of the people suing in this case, a list of more than 3,000 names. Natalie Pawelski, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, we asked a representative of Monsanto to join us on the broadcast tonight to talk about the case and the company declined. Joining us now, someone who knows all too well the effects of the PCBs, and what they had on Anniston.

David Baker's brother died of a brain tumor, lung cancer, and hardening of the arteries when he was 16 years old. The Bakers grew up a mile or so from the Monsanto plant. David founded a group called Community Against Pollution, and he's been fighting Monsanto ever since. Nice to see you and welcome to the program.

DAVID BAKER, FOUNDER, COMMUNITY AGAINST POLLUTION: Thank you for inviting me.

BROWN: Thank you. What was it like in the town when you were growing up? Was there a sense that something was wrong?

BAKER: Well back in those days, we knew that there was a widespread odor that would run us inside the house in the evening, and it didn't do any good much because of the fact that most of us didn't have air conditioners anyway. So the windows and the fans that were in the windows, we continued to smell the stink that was coming from the plant. But we did not realize at the point that it was causing any harmful health problems at that time, was causing any problems at all. But now after so many years, we done found out that this stuff have really done a job on our city. Not only have it genocide generations of people, it is continuously doing it today.

BROWN: Monsanto, or at least the subsidiary that now runs that side of the business, said today that it will do whatever it can to make things right, that it wants to do right by the people of the city. Do you believe that?

BAKER: No. You know, really, if you believe that, why are they in court now fighting with the people that they know they have contaminated? There could have been back some years ago in '95 when Monsanto realized at the point that the people had recognized that there was a major problem.

They did try to buy out some homes that was near the plant, which they stopped right after doing so. ADEM, which is Alabama Department of Environmental Management, who gave them permits to dumping or either a permit for someone to bring a company into our state, allowed Monsanto for years to get away with what they had done.

So Monsanto, for the last four years, have not done anything in terms of showing the people of Anniston that they was ready to do anything of what magnitude problem. They try to put a band-aid on the elephant. And the people was insulted by that. And that's why we are so angry now. But today showed them that they must come to justice.

BROWN: Well, we'll see what happens. These trials tended to play out over a long period of time. Obviously this is an important first stage for your side. We appreciate your time today, Mr. Baker. Thank you for joining us.

BAKER: All right. Thank you for inviting me.

BROWN: Thank you. When we come back, the Olympics in Russian. Their news on NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, here's everything you need to know about the Winter Olympics today. The Russians did not pack up and leave. They threatened to last night, but they didn't. Now had they left, they would have avoided yet another bad moment. Their men lost to the Americans in ice hockey. It wasn't exactly Lake Placid and the miracle on ice. The Russians, after all, are not the old Soviets. And the Americans aren't college kids these days. They're pros.

But hey, a win is a win. Anyway, the Russians aren't happy. Cross country skier of theirs failed a drug test. It was that pair skating deal early in the Games. And then last night, only a silver medal for skater Irina Slutskaya. The Russians said she deserved gold. They lodged a protest with the International Skating Union. And tonight that protest was turned down. OK, now that's our take, the straight, largely unbiased American cable news network take. The Russian news casters take a bit more liberty with the story. Nothing so subtle as a raised eyebrow here or a slight smirk there. No, no, no. Here is how Russian TV is covering the politics of the Winter Games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [translated] Today, the scandal around judges at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City has crossed the line dividing sports from politics. The Western press is talking about returning to the days of the Cold War.

A few events led to the new tensions, banning the Russian team from relay and skiing, giving figure skater Irinia Slutskay a silver medal, and the press conference of the leader of the Russian delegation.

Dmitri Kolochenko (ph) is following this story.

DMITRI KOLOCHENKO: A few days ago, American journalists covering the Winter Olympics have confessed that their understanding of the idea of journalism was deliver more hot scandals, get more popularity, and Russia as a historical competitor of the United States, the main target.

They are beating us, but it makes us only to get stronger. This is Russian positive answer. Olympic Games have never been so popular in Russia, even in the times of harsh Soviet propaganda. We haven't heard anything like this for a long time.

We can leave the Olympic village and share our highest achievements in sport, but those people who really want to compete own the clean sport arena with a good judgment. First scandals were only warming up the interest of the public. The gold medal was not taken away from Russian Yelena Verishnaya (ph) and Anton Sikriliza (ph). They only made the duplicate for Canadian athletes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Events in Salt Lake City had everyone in the Russian government talking. President Putin used the word "surprised." Patriarch Alexei the II talked about injustice in the cabinet. Deputy head of the government Alexei Bolan (ph) called the events around our team revenge for success of the Russian team.

PUTIN, PRESIDENT, RUSSIA: I am not an expert in every sport and I can't judge everything that is going on there, but certain things are, putting it mildly "surprising." And that doesn't just concern the Russian team, but athletes from other countries as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever is happening in Salt Lake City has nothing to do with either the Olympics or the spirit of sports in general. We are, in fact, witnessing mockery of Russian athletes, attempts to discredit Russian sports, attempts to squeeze Russia out of the system of international sports.

President of the Olympic Committee of Russia asked for the blessing for the whole team. So I'm very interested in our athletes winning at the Olympics. So we feel any violations in ethics, any violations by the judges with great pain. And the fact that our women were deprived of the chance to participate and win is very unjust.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Russian TV's take on the events in Salt Lake City, the Winter Games.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the performance of a lifetime. She's just 16.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Segment 7 tonight, the first crush I think ever had was on Donna Divorona. She was an Olympic swimmer, very good, very pretty and totally inaccessible. I have no doubt that out there somewhere tonight is an equally geeky kid in some small town, who is dreaming of Sarah Hughes. And to that young man I can only say, I understand the heartbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Sometimes Sarah Hughes really seems to be 16. But on the ice last night with courage and poise beyond her years, she earned a gold medal, coming back from fourth place against skaters older and far more experienced. But the gold was not won in four minutes last night.

SARAH HUGHES: I started skating when I was four, between four and five. At the Olympics, I get a gold medal. I can't wait for that to happen.

BROWN: A child of Great Neck, Long Island, New York, 30 minutes from the city if you're lucky. A straight "A" student at high school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need doubles.

BROWN: And don't even think of trying to beat her at Monopoly. Skating was a family event. And from early on, Sarah was in love.

AMY HUGHES, SARAH'S MOTHER: And I'd line them up and tie their skates. And I tied hers first, the first time I took her. And when I went to the next one, who was the five-year-old, I looked and Sarah was gone. I don't even know how she could do it.

S. HUGHES: When I skate, I feel a sense of freedom. Like I can do anything. And when you have days when you feel really good, you feel, I feel like I'm unstoppable and I can just do anything.

BROWN: There were little events. A skate at Rockefeller Center or Madison Square Garden. Lots of kids get to do that, but few kids have that special talent. The talent coach, Robin Wagner, saw in 1994, the talent to be a champion.

ROBIN WAGNER, COACH: It wasn't easy at first, because she was a little jumping bean. And all she wanted to do is jump. And when I first started working with her, my job was to, you know, do connecting steps, make her start to look like, you know, a young, developing skater.

BROWN: Six days a week, Robin and Sarah travel together more often than not, stuck in traffic. They go to Icehouse in Hackensack, New Jersey, a place to train, a prestigious training ground for budding skaters. The daily ride, a time to talk, for the coach to teach, and for the child to grow.

JOHN HUGHES, SARAH'S FATHER: Robin and Sarah have really got a bond between them. And I think the time they spent driving back and forth had something to do with that. They listen to music. They talk about skating. And they talk about a lot of other things. Overall, I think the travel time has contributed to Sarah's growth.

S. HUGHES: Sometimes I do get lonely by myself, but I don't really get to go and hang out at the mall for a whole weekend or go and see movie whenever I feel like it. But it's really a choice I made. And what I'm doing so much outweighs getting to do that. I get to go to the rink and I get to skate and be the best I can be at something and know I've given it my all.

BROWN: There are moments that children dream of and those dreams start early and often fade. But sometimes, and last night was one of those times, a child's dream was lived as perfectly and as exactly as intended.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

We have more. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: New development tonight in a case from Canada. We talked about a couple weeks back, the disappearance of dozens of women, most of them coming from Vancouver's red light district. When we left it, police had begun searching a pig farm in rural British Columbia.

Well, tonight, they've made an arrest. One man in custody. No details yet. It comes 20 years after the first woman vanished. It is a story heard before, particularly in the West. In Seattle, in Spokane and San Diego. Perhaps other places, too. Women missing, presumed dead. Complaints from relatives that is no one cared because the victims were from the wrong side of the tracks.

Our story's from CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were not model citizens, the women in the missing posters. Most of them, drug addicts or prostitutes. But they were also mothers and daughters and sisters, who were missing, who deserved the attention of authorities. And for nearly 20 years in this picturesque city, say critics, they didn't get it. SUZANNE JAY, DIRECTOR, VANCOUVER RAPE RELIEF AND WOMEN'S SHELTER: Police didn't take these disappearances very seriously, did not take the lives of these women very seriously.

BUCKLEY: But the loved ones did. People like Dixi Purcell and Valerie Hughes.

VALERIE HUGHES, SISTER OF MISSING WOMAN: My sister just out partying. She's just another junkie.

BUCKLEY: Her sister, Carrie Cosky, who was also a mother of three, disappeared four years ago. HUGHES: I promised my sister's youngest that I would never stop looking.

BUCKLEY: Dixi Purcell tells a similar story. Her daughter, Tanya, a mother of a baby boy, was a recovering addict, who went missing five years ago. Ms. Purcell can't forget the phone call to police who told her they weren't worried.

DIXI PURCELL, MOTHER OF MISSING WOMAN: Tanya was just out having fun. Don't bother us. Don't waste our time and hung up on me. I just stood there with the phone in my hand for 10 minutes, just looking at it.

BUCKLEY (on camera): Authorities here say most of the women went missing from this part of Vancouver, downtown east side Vancouver, an area notorious for its open drug sales and prostitution.

MORRIS BATES, VICTIM ADVOCATE: Skid row.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): Victim advocate Morris Bates showed us the alleys and doorways where drug use and prostitution are partners. Women selling their bodies, using the money to buy more drugs.

BATES: When the person goes missing, who do you go to? We don't have any family here.

BUCKLEY: But people did know they were missing. Wayne Leng was not a family member. He was a john, but also a friend of Sarah Debris who went missing in 1998. Lang created a web site on the plight of the missing women years before police did.

WAYNE LENG, FRIEND OF MISSING WOMAN: I just couldn't not do it. I needed to know what happened to Sarah. And I just -- I don't know. I was driven.

BUCKLEY: So were Ms. Purcell, Mrs. Hughes and others who publicly protested and pressured police to focus on their missing loved ones.

HUGHES: We went and said, stood on the street corner. And all I said to people was, "Do you know that there are this many missing women?" And most of them said, "No." I said, "Phone Vancouver city police and tell them that you care." BUCKLEY: Finally, last spring, nearly two decades after the first woman on the missing list disappeared, Vancouver police formed a joint missing women task force with the Royal Canadian Mountain police. And this month, investigators began focusing their attention on this pig farm. Police are removing evidence that may be linked to the missing women. On why it took so long, police say they did the best they could with the information they had.

SCOTT DRIEMEL, VANCOUVER POLICE DEPT.: When you look at the fact that we've got some people of course that are involved in various activities, that put them them in a high risk category to begin with, those reports are taken as seriously as possible by the police department.

BUCKLEY: Now some 80 people are attached to the task force, that is gaining the confidence of these two women who believe their loved ones are dead. Their only remaining hope, to find and bury them with respect.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Vancouver, British Columbia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And again, tonight an arrest, one man in custody. Details to come.

Coming from NEWSNIGHT on a Friday, the sound of music at the Great Wall of China. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today a Kennedy turned 70. In a way, that statement in and of itself is worth thinking about. President Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, Jack and Bobby, they died so young. They never aged in our memories.

It was the little brother who would grow older, along with the rest of us, Senator Edward Kennedy. Easily, one of the most powerful and hardest working Democrats of the past four decades. And the one who's carried on the Kennedy name in all its complexity and controversy. He's been known to joke that he could run three more times and still not be as old as Strom Thurman. Edward Kennedy at 70.

We leave you tonight and for the week sort of sweetly. It always seems there are these moments when a president goes overseas, the ones that you just sort of had to be there to believe it. Well, there were no cameras earlier in the week to catch the Chinese president serenading the Bushes with "O Solo Mio," which is apparently standard for him. He broke out in the same tune when Paverotti visited last summer. What a whacky guy is he.

But cameras aplenty today at the Great Wall. Chinese kids singing what they considered a very American classic to the president and First Lady. You might not know the language at first. You'll know the tune, "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music." In Mandarin first, and then in English. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[SINGING]

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Say cheese. Everybody wave. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We said sweet. We meant sweet. Actually, they weren't far off in terms of choosing their Americana. Edelweiss is an American classic, no matter what you may think. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote it in the 50's, not some Austrian national or for goodness sake, the Von Trappe family singers.

That's our report for the night and for the weekend. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday at 10:00. Good- night.

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