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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Arafat and Mubarak Will Not Attend Arab Summit; Arthur Andersen CEO Resigns
Aired March 26, 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.
CONNIE CHUNG, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, and welcome to NEWSNIGHT. I'm Connie Chung, sitting in for Aaron Brown. It's good to see you again. Don't tell me I can't see you. I can see you.
So in my continuing effort to get you to really know Aaron Brown better, I snooped around his office a little more. By the way, his office is bigger than mine. Hey, I'm not complaining, it's just an observation, OK?
He's got lots of beautiful photographs of his wife and daughter just lining a -- two wide windowsills, and he's got a coat tree in his office that has a tie and a shirt and then a navy blazer on it and then a pinstripe jacket. It's obviously part of a suit. And it's just layer upon layer of more clothes.
I have the feeling that he's kind of like my husband, sort of a sock-thrower. He throws the socks across the room and hopes they land on a chair or something.
Well, enough about that. I have to tell you just one more thing. You're not going to believe it. My husband and I got our son a fish tank a few months ago. Every morning my son and I go to the tank and we say hello to the fish. And this morning, what do we find? One of them jumped out of the tank and landed on the floor. It was gone.
I mean, wish! I swear to you, this is a true story. Have you ever heard of such a thing? You can e-mail me.
Time for the whip, beginning in the Middle East. First off is Beirut, Lebanon, site of tomorrow's Arab summit.
Christiane Amanpour is there. Christiane, will you give us a headline?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Connie, not only is Yasser Arafat apparently not coming to this summit, a summit that is devoted mostly to the Palestinian issue, but also one of the main leaders in this region, President Hosni Mubarak, is also saying that he's not coming.
Nonetheless, the organizers here say that the 22 Arab nations, as one bloc, will vote for a final resolution that pledges them to remain in the 1967 lines of the Israeli-Palestinian lines, not an inch less, but not an inch more.
CHUNG: Christiane, we'll be back to you later.
On to Jerusalem, and John Vause -- John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Connie, as you just heard from Christiane, Yasser Arafat will not be at the summit. That's because the Israelis say he has not earned his ticket to Beirut. The Palestinians, though, say the Israeli demands were humiliating, immoral, and illegal, and it was Mr. Arafat's decision to stay at home -- Connie.
CHUNG: Curious reports about Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon responded today, and Jamie McIntyre is following that tonight. Jamie, tell us.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Connie, the Pentagon is not paying too much attention to the latest purported sightings of Osama bin Laden and his number two man in the area of Khowst, Afghanistan. These came by way of "The Christian Science Monitor" from a second-hand account. The Pentagon says if it took all of these kind of sightings seriously, it would be chasing shadows -- Connie.
CHUNG: Thank you, Jamie.
And documents have been released, and many more held back, involving last year's controversial energy task force.
Kelly Wallace poring over all of that for us tonight from the White House. Kelly, the headline.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Connie. Well, the administration thought the release of these documents would put an end to the controversy. It was sorely mistaken. Environmentalists say the information shows that big energy companies had undue influence, and now some of those environmentalists are headed back to court as early as tomorrow to force the Energy Department to release some of those documents it held back -- Connie.
CHUNG: Thank you, Kelly.
Back with all of you in just a moment.
Also coming up on NEWSNIGHT, a report from the country where the only thing that seems to be in abundance is suffering. Afghanistan is hit with a deadly earthquake in an area so hard to get to, we can't bring you pictures yet.
And then Andersen employees protest what they call a corporate death penalty, the government's decision to charge the Enron auditor with obstructing justice. Andersen still standing, barely, but today the CEO bowed out. We'll be looking at that tonight.
And contributor Keith Olberman on those little green strips, sort of like your tastebuds are taking a bungee jump. Breath-freshening as an extreme sport. We begin with the Middle East, and the summit of Arab nations about to get under way. Yasser Arafat was supposed to be the guest of honor, the summit devoted in a large part to a Saudi plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and normalizing relations with Israel.
In a moment, we'll take up the question of what that really means. What are normal relations?
But first, Arafat, the summit, and the conflict with Ariel Sharon that's keeping him at home.
For that, we go back to Jerusalem and CNN's John Vause. John?
VAUSE: Connie, the Israeli prime minister outlined his case against Yasser Arafat on Israeli television overnight. He said quite simply conditions were not right to allow Mr. Arafat to travel to Beirut for that summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (voice of translator): Two things would make it easier for me and for the cabinet to take a decision concerning Chairman Arafat's departure for Beirut.
One would be the declaration by Chairman Arafat, in his own language, to his people, concerning a ceasefire and a call for an end to violence.
The other thing, which is no less important, would be the providing to Israel of a possibility of considering the possibility of his return here if, in his absence, there were acts of terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Now, the Palestinians reportedly found that last (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the most objectionable, that is, the Israelis' demand that they stop Mr. Arafat returning from Beirut should there be any acts of violence in his absence. But overall, they said that the demands were just simply humiliating.
And at the end of the day, it was Mr. Arafat's decision not to attend that summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAEB EREKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: The past days of two weeks, the Israeli government handled this issue in the most despicable fashion, humiliating, an attempt to humiliate, the Palestinian leader and the Palestinian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Now, of course, all these negotiations continue against a backdrop of continuing violence here. Overnight, two observers from the temporary international presence in Hebron were shot and killed while driving north of Hebron on the West Bank. A third observer was wounded. He later told Israeli radio that a gunman dressed in a Palestinian police uniform, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, opened fire.
He says their car was clearly marked and that they were unarmed. Despite that, the gunman still opened fire.
Now, the observers are based in Hebron. They monitor truce violations in that city, a city which is divided between Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled zones -- Connie.
CHUNG: Thank you, John.
To Beirut now. Arab League summits have traditionally aimed for Arab unity, but often fall short. Now with two controversies on the table, the Saudi plan and the nonappearance of Yasser Arafat, there's bound to be real differences about what to do next.
So there's a lot to talk about in Beirut and a lot for us to talk about with Christiane Amanpour -- Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Well, Connie, the Arab leaders here are trying to put the best face on it and insisting that despite the absences of two of the highest-ranking members of the Arab League, this summit will go forward, and it will endorse the plan.
Now, first on the Arafat issue, obviously everybody here was hoping that he would come. But they told us yesterday, when it appeared that the Israelis were continuing to put the kind of restrictions that you heard from John Vause just now on the table, they said that while Arafat would obviously be most welcome and his presence here would be most constructive, they were now advising him not to come, because they said those conditions, quote, "were humiliating and untenable, and he should not come under those circumstances."
Now, as for President Hosni Mubarak, we don't know exactly why he is not coming. Is it because of Arafat? Is it because of the potential disagreements over this final communique? We don't know.
But what we do know is, having spoken to several foreign ministers, also to the prime minister of Lebanon, the host of this summit, they are telling us that all the Arab countries, the 22 members of the Arab League and the Palestinians and Egyptians, are represented here by a high-level delegation. They will all for the first time in history come together as a bloc and announce their, quote, "strategic vision and their strategic position."
And that is, they say, to offer full normalization to Israel in return to Israel returning to the 1967 borders.
Now, substantively, this may be important, not because it's a new initiative, but because it's the first time the Arab countries as a bloc will agree to not a penny less, if you like, than the 1967 borders, but they will not make any further claims beyond those 1967 borders. So that is significant. In terms of normalization, they say that they are trying to reach out to the Israelis, that this summit is aimed at sort of reaching out to Israeli public opinion. And they want the Israelis to know that they are ready for peace.
That is their strategic position, if Israel agrees to the U.N. resolutions that call for a withdrawal, and that normalization should mean and will mean, they say, everything from diplomatic to trade to communications to media to all the kinds of relations one has when there is an end to a state of war and a beginning to the positive steps needed for future peace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It was the handshake felt around the Middle East, at Camp David in 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Israeli prime minister, Menachim Begin, and the U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, sealed the peace between Israel and Egypt. They were the first to exchange ambassadors and normalize relations.
It would take another 25 years for the next Arab nation to make peace with Israel, which Jordan's King Hussein did with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
A year earlier, a handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat heralded the possibility that the whole Arab world would eventually recognize Israel and live in peace.
But it's a new millennium now, and it hasn't turned out that way. And yet, with Saudi Arabia's new proposal for the Arab world, normal relations with Israel in return for a withdrawal to its 1967 borders, fragile hope has again resurfaced.
SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Normal, it would mean normalization. I mean, commerce, open borders and open gates as far as economy is concerned, fighting together the dangers which are regional, like terror, narcotics, pollution, AIDS. Either they want to join in a world that has potentials, or remain in a world that has only dangers.
AMANPOUR: Israel exchanged ambassadors with Egypt and Jordan, their flags fly in each other's capitals, and there have been exchanges of commerce and tourism. But more than just a state of peace between two nations, normalization implies a binding together of peoples, and that has not yet happened, even in the two Arab countries at peace with Israel, where the Palestinian intifada has hardened an already skeptical public opinion.
HABIB KAMHAWAI, JORDANIAN ANALYST: After 17 or 18 months of devastation to land, people, and infrastructure, every single Arab and even every single Muslim looks at Israel as the enemy, looks at Israelis as the enemy, as the killers.
And this is a very bad time to ask about normalization or even to try to measure it. AMANPOUR: A measure of normalization may one day show up on maps like these. In Lebanon and other Arab countries, maps don't even show Israel existing on the land that was once called Palestine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now, despite all the bitterness and hatred that has emerged on both sides over the last 18 months of the intifada, the Israelis are saying, or rather the Arab leaders here are saying that they really do want to reach out to Israeli public opinion. They really do want to convince Israel that the Arabs are strategically committed to peace in return for these -- for a withdrawal to those 1967 borders.
Of course, it's not clear what is going to happen, although the resolution, we're told, will remain forever on the table. It's not clear what will happen if indeed the current ceasefire negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians break down, and another cycle of violence, even greater than the one we witnessed over the last couple of weeks, may ensue -- Connie.
CHUNG: Thank you, Christiane Amanpour.
Joining us now, Daniel Pipes. He's chairman of the Middle East Forum, a syndicated columnist, and author of many books on the region. He's in Philadelphia tonight.
Thank you so much for being with us, Mr. Pipes.
What do you think is the best-case scenario that could emerge from this Arab summit?
DANIEL PIPES, "NEW YORK POST": Oh, Connie, I'm not very optimistic. I think the best thing that could happen would be that the aggressiveness that one sees in the Arab world towards Israel would be reduced. As Christiane Amanpour just put it, Israel's not on the map. We just heard a spokesman say how every Arab and every Muslim sees Israel as its enemy.
This sort of temperament needs to be reduced, and...
CHUNG: But Christiane was indicating that she believes that the Arab countries will present a united position.
PIPES: United position, perhaps, but the problem is, what we've seen now for 25 years, since the original Egyptian-Israeli diplomacy, is that leaders can come to an agreement between them, but it doesn't translate into something that's real for the countries.
CHUNG: Now, do you think that Arafat's decision not to come will affect the summit?
PIPES: Not much. As Christiane and you and others pointed out, he is part of a consensus that this is a time to make an offer to Israel, an offer that Israel pretty much for sure cannot accept.
Look, you know, basically I think what's going on here is posturing on everyone's side. The Israelis are saying, OK, we will offer things to the Arabs that they don't really intend to do. The Arabs are offering things to is it doesn't -- they don't really intend to offer. We are trying to have this theater quiet because our real interest is Iraq.
I see a lot of posing going on now...
CHUNG: Well, you're giving us a very...
PIPES: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
CHUNG: ... very pessimistic view of this Arab summit.
PIPES: Well, do you have any reason to be optimistic? I mean, we have seen 10 years of degeneration in Arab-Israeli relations, and it's going to be hard to turn around on a dime here.
CHUNG: But what's wrong with the Saudi plan, then? I mean, the whole idea is that this could very well be a breakthrough.
PIPES: Connie, I can't see it. The Saudi plan calls for the Israelis to return to their 1967 boundaries. These are boundaries which one Israeli leader, Abba Eban, once called the Auschwitz boundaries. These are boundaries that Israel finds untenable. At its smallest point, narrowest point, it's nine kilometers wide, Israel would be under that plan.
I see it really as posing. I mean, nobody really expects Israel to go back to boundaries which it left in 1967 and said it would never return to. Nobody expects Israel to give up its holiest places. They -- these are not tenable, these are not tenable...
CHUNG: Let me ask you...
PIPES: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
CHUNG: ... this, then. This was something that Christiane mentioned. No one seems to know why Mubarak pulled out of attending this summit. Do you have any idea why?
PIPES: No better than she does. It could be that he didn't think it's a good idea for him to go when Arafat doesn't go. It could be that he has more pressing business. It's hard for me to speculate.
But my bet with you would be that should we come back a year from today and discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict, I suspect we will not be discussing the Arab summit coming up. This is a small event, not something memorable.
CHUNG: Now, the United States is playing down the fact that Arafat is not going to the summit, and it's still putting on the table this possibility of Vice President Cheney meeting with Arafat. Do you think that's realistic?
PIPES: It's certainly realistic if we decide to have the vice president meet him. The question is, what will it lead to? Again, my view is a skeptical one. I think that what is needed now is addressing the basic issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict and what the Tenant plan and the Mitchell plan and the Abdullah plan address are not the basics.
The basics have to do with the existence of Israel. That has been the issue since 1948. Israel, of course, wants to exist, and most of its neighbors most of the time say no to it. And that is still the question that is still on the table. And whether the vice president meets Mr. Arafat or not is not going to further than question along.
What really is at issue now, and what I'm watching, rather than this diplomacy, which you can see I'm not all that impressed by, I'm watching the war that's taking place between Israel and the Palestinians. There is a war. Both sides have declared it.
CHUNG: I think there's no question about it, the violence has been awful.
PIPES: And the question then is, who's winning, who's losing, where is it going?
CHUNG: Do you have an answer...
PIPES: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
CHUNG: ... to that?
PIPES: I would say a year and a half ago, when this war began, the Palestinians were winning it. I would say today, despite appearances, the Israelis are winning it. I mean, I may be wrong in my assessment. But I think this is what is really the critical thing now. If Israel is winning, then that could lead to a major turning point. If I'm wrong and the Israelis are losing, then that too could lead to a turning point.
But the key question is, is Israel going to be accepted by its neighbors, or are its neighbors going to destroy it? That's the issue on the table at all times.
CHUNG: Daniel Pipes, thank you so much for being with us. Remind me not to talk to you about optimism and life (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
PIPES: Oh, I'm optimistic on other issues.
CHUNG: Are you? Thank goodness. Thank you again for being with us tonight.
A lot more to come. Fresh documents on the role big oil played in the Bush energy plan. Keith Olberman on fresh breath. And some serious information -- fresh reports that Osama bin Laden is alive and well and living in eastern Afghanistan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHUNG: At just about every Pentagon briefing, some reporter asks the same question, and each time the person at the podium gives the same answer. Where is Osama bin Laden? We just don't know.
The official line hasn't changed, and if the folks at the Pentagon do know, they're not telling.
What's different today, though, there were some fascinating reports from people who say they've seen Osama bin Laden within the last few days.
Let's go to CNN's Jamie McIntyre, who spent the day chasing down the story -- Jamie.
MCINTYRE: Well, Connie, sometimes I'm the reporter asking that question. But we do always get the same answer, they don't really know.
This latest report comes by way of "The Christian Science Monitor," which quotes Afghan forces working with the U.S. military as saying that some informers have told an Afghan commander that both Osama bin Laden and his number two man were seen in the area of Khowst in southern Afghanistan in the past eight days or so, a sighting both of bin Laden and his number two man, Aman Awa (ph) Zawahiri.
Now, the Pentagon points out that these reports are second-hand, and they put them basically in the same category as dozens of other reputed Osama sightings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: It is almost a weekly occurrence, though, that there seem to be a couple reports. But what has stayed very, very consistent is, we get reports that they're here, we get reports that they're there, we get reports that he's alive, and we get reports that he's dead. But we just don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, the Pentagon points out that a lot of the intelligence they get is conflicting and inconclusive, and in particular, they don't put a whole lot of stock in some of the reports about where Osama bin Laden is. What they do say is they really don't know where he is, and as soon as they get good information, they will move against him.
Now, they are -- the U.S. military is preparing to move against pockets of al Qaeda in the Khowst region, south of Khowst and southeast -- west of Khowst. And it's possible that Osama bin Laden is in that area. They say if they don't find him there, they'll just keep looking -- Connie.
CHUNG: All right, Jamie. Tell me one more thing before I let you go. We heard a report today that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Hugh Shelton, had been -- had an accident over the weekend. What -- do you know his condition, his latest condition? MCINTYRE: Well, the latest reports are somewhat optimistic. You know, this is just one of those crazy things that happens. Here's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 38-year career in the military, survives Vietnam, leads the invasion into Haiti, Persian Gulf War, was here at the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks during his last month as Joint Chiefs chairman.
He retires, goes home to his house in Fairfax County, and falls off a ladder doing some work around the house, injures his spine. And initially, when he was brought to the hospital, couldn't move his arms or legs.
Now, this happened on Saturday. The latest update from Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he was transferred is that he's sitting up, he's able to talk, he's regained quite a bit of movement. He still has a loss of feeling in one leg and two of his arms, but the prognosis is that with time, he may get most of his range of movement back.
He's said to be in good spirits, and he's accompanied by his wife, Carolyn.
So just one of those things that can happen to you.
CHUNG: Oh. Jamie, thank you so much. Good news.
When we heard this next story today from Afghanistan, the question kept coming into our minds, when will it ever end?
Twenty years of war, the harsh rule of the Taliban, four years of drought, and now this, a massive earthquake in the northeast part of the country. Thousands are feared dead.
And what about those who survived? One Afghan official summed up their situation well, "They lost everything, they need everything."
A story that's even more tragic when you consider what we saw over the weekend, Afghan kids returning to school after years of Taliban rule.
We have the latest on the earthquake now from Walter Rodgers in Kabul -- Walter.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Connie.
Thousands of Afghans, perhaps tens of thousands, are homeless in the northeastern province of Bagwan (ph) in the provincial city of Nahrin. They spent a very cold night last night sleeping on the streets. There was a tremor again, an aftershock as recently as just an hour or so ago.
The earthquake hit Monday evening when most Afghans were inside their homes. The latest death toll now is about 1,800. There had been earlier reports coming from the United Nations and other Afghan officials suggesting that death toll may go as high as 4,800. Fortunately, that turns out not to be the case. However, there is no limit to the grief and devastation in that northeastern corner of Afghanistan.
Actually, it was a double-barreled earthquake. The first quake hit, and it was about a magnitude of about 6.0 or 6.2. Then there was an aftershock, a second quake, which was about 5.0.
And, of course, all the homes in this part of the world are built by the same construction and building codes that were used 3,000 years ago. They're just adobe bricks set on no foundation on the ground, and when you get a major earthquake like this in a very active earthquake zone in the Hindu Kush, those homes just collapse. Anyone inside is faced with a death trap -- Connie.
CHUNG: Walter Rodgers, thank you. Will anybody be able to get there to help rescue these people?
RODGERS: Yes, the help is indeed on the way from Mazar-e Sharif, the United Nations relief agencies are moving in. It's a difficult area to get to because it's been devastated by over 20 years of war.
Nonetheless, most of the aid is coming from the north. The United Nations relief agencies are moving in. I just read that the Russians are flying in 20 tons of aid, and American officials at the Bagram Air Base are surveying the area to see what, if anything, they could do, remembering the United States has several thousand troops in this area.
The difficulty, of course, is that the Afghan government has only been in existence three months. It is ill equipped for this sort of major disaster relief effort, and it's going to have a very difficult time getting organized -- Connie.
CHUNG: All right, thank you, Walter.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, was White House energy policy dictated by energy companies, companies that gave big to the Bush campaign? What thousands of newly released documents show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: The White House and its connection with the energy business was a hot issue before any of us knew much about that Houston company called Enron. Critics want to know just how much energy companies, most of them big campaign contributors, helped shape energy policy. That policy was drafted last year by a task force, headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. Well, thousands of documents released last evening are only making a hot issue even hotter. Kelly Wallace has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As Vice President Cheney arrived at the White House, his aides braced for questions about the more than 11,000 pages the Energy Department made public, about industry access to a key member of Cheney's Energy Task Force. The information showed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham held eight meetings with industry officials, some of their companies large contributors to the Republican Party, but Abraham held no meetings with consumer or environmental groups. Environmentalists say the documents prove that big energy had the most influence over Cheney's plan.
SHARON BUCCINO, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: The plan benefits big energy companies at the expense of the public's health and the environment, and it is payback to polluters.
WALLACE: The Bush Administration counters that EPA administrator, Christie Whitman, met with environmental groups and that pro environmental policies made it into the final plan.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You'll see that of the recommendations that are in here, there are many in here that were supported by the environmental community.
WALLACE: Critics charge large portions of the documents were omitted and that another 15,000 pages were not released. Administration officials argue the law allows internal policy deliberations to be held back, but the conservative group, Judicial Watch, is not satisfied, suing the administration for access to more information.
LARRY KLAYMAN, JUDICIAL WATCH: If nothing has been done incorrectly here, and the very fact that the administration is fighting us tooth and nail suggests that perhaps it has, then there's nothing to hide and all these documents should be produced.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE (on camera): The administration still refuses to release details about the secret meetings of the Vice President's Energy Task Force, but critics think these new documents could put political pressure on the White House to make more information public to prove that big contributors did not have undue influence.
And, Connie, I can tell you one environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, is planning to head back to court, as early as tomorrow, to get access to all those pages it says the Energy Department was under court order to make public. Connie.
CHUNG: All right, thank you Kelly Wallace. And did contributors have undue influence on the making of energy policy? That's the key question at the heart of all of this, and we want to get another read on the documents to help answer it. Joining us now, Washington Post reporter, Dana Milbank, who's been pouring over the documents since they were released. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Milbank.
DANA MILBANK, "WASHINGTON POST": Good evening, Connie.
CHUNG: Tell me, do these documents confirm the worst suspicions of influence peddling? MILBANK: Well, no I think the worst suspicions would say that somebody was passing a suitcase full of money across the table, and of course there's nothing of the sort in here.
What we do have is 36 industry officials who met with Secretary Abraham. Twenty-nine of them were campaign contributors or their organizations were. They have more than $4.5 million.
CHUNG: Once again, 29 out of 36.
MILBANK: That's a pretty good record, so.
CHUNG: Go ahead.
MILBANK: Well, I mean it does indicate that it at least - donations at least purchase access which, of course, is nothing new to any of us who are following the political system, and it is something that we see over and over again.
CHUNG: Now the Bush Administration had repeatedly said that it had a commitment to conservation. Do these documents support that?
MILBANK: Well, it throws a little bit of doubt on that. You see the issue is from the beginning and they were saying it was sort of half and half, half conservation, half energy production. Now here we have something coming out in late March of last year, two months after the energy policy thing began, that said that in fact that we're just beginning now to look at the whole environmental situation. We have a new chapter. This would seem to contradict.
CHUNG: So does that mean - forgive me for interrupting you. Does that mean that environmental groups were caressed, that in fact there was a flurry of activity, and that it was not because the administration clearly did want to include environmental groups?
MILBANK: Well, Connie, this is where it's a little difficult because of all the information that's been deleted, so we're trying to piece together and make inferences. But it all happened around March 22nd of last year. Suddenly, we see this new chapter on environmental concerns appear, and suddenly that's when all these calls go out to the environmental groups saying, please give us some information.
CHUNG: So, they are justified in saying that they weren't considered until sort of the last minute?
MILBANK: It would seem from this amount of information that it does, but again this is from the energy department, which is one agency. We've gotten a little bit more from the EPA and some others. There's just a voluminous amount of information out there. The real question is what was going on in the White House, and none of these lawsuits even address that. That's something that Congress is trying to get in its own lawsuits.
CHUNG: I see. So there were - you poured over 11,000 pages of documents, but much of it was redacted, blocked out. Do you know why and what was in there? MILBANK: No. It's sort of - it's entertaining to read in a way, because you'll see an entire thing, an entire page blank and then it says, "just kidding, Mona." You sort of wonder what Mona had to say for the previous several hundred words, references to going to the dentist, this sort of thing.
So it's a bit entertaining when you'll just see a line that says, "FYI - and then a blank page." But, we have no idea what's really in there, but we can piece together, we know who the players are. We know some of the outside groups now. We know the chronology. So you can begin to sort of puzzle it together.
CHUNG: All right, and there are about what, 15,000 more to come that weren't submitted?
MILBANK: Connie, I believe that's just from the Energy Department, so I'm going to need a lot of eye drops before it's over.
CHUNG: Now what effect is this going to have on the Enron investigation?
MILBANK: Well, it's hard to tell. I mean Senator Lieberman's committee in the Senate has issued subpoenas to Enron and to Arthur Andersen asking them about their contacts with the White House. So this begins to get into the political contact issue.
So, we've learned yesterday that Secretary Abraham did not meet with Enron officials they say about the energy plan. However, he met with them on other subjects, and apparently there were several meetings with other officials in the Energy Department. Each time you get another layer of this, there is obviously more Enron there. No smoking gun at all, but it might validate questions of people who want to go further.
CHUNG: All right. Dana Milbank, thank you so much for being with us tonight.
MILBANK: Thank you.
CHUNG: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, one casualty of the Enron mess, the man at the top of Arthur Andersen, why he thinks stepping down could help the company survive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LOU DOBBS, MONEYLINE ANCHOR: I'm Lou Dobbs with this MONEYLINE update. Stocks today rebounded. The Dow gained 71 points, while the NASDAQ gave back most of the days gains, but nonetheless managed a gain of 11 points at the close. Andersen's CEO Joseph Berardino has announced he's resigning, Berardino leaving Andersen after 30 years at the firm. Watch MONEYLINE weeknights, 6:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.
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CHUNG: The understatement of the day might have come from the CEO of Andersen, once the auditor for Enron: "We're in deep stress." The company lost five clients just today. More employees took to the streets, angry that the government is charging the entire firm with Obstruction of Justice in the Enron investigation, and this evening, the biggest development of all.
CNN's MONEYLINE broke the story that CEO Joseph Berardino would try to help the company get out of that deep stress by stepping aside. Allan Chernoff reports.
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ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Joseph Berardino says he'll step down in the hope that it will help his company survive. He made the announcement in an exclusive interview with Lou Dobbs MONEYLINE.
JOSEPH BERARDINO, FORMER CEO, ANDERSEN: I felt I had to take this step today to put an exclamation point behind the voices of our people to say that we are serious and we're a serious firm that deserves to continue here in the United States.
CHERNOFF: Berardino told CNN he was following through on suggestions that he and other Andersen leaders had presented to Paul Volcker, head of Andersen's independent oversight committee. Last Friday, Volcker called for a change in management.
PAUL VOLCKER, ANDERSEN OVERSIGHT BOARD: We're willing to take control of the firm if some very serious conditions are met that will certainly involve changes in leadership.
CHERNOFF: Berardino has been the public face of Andersen since the Enron scandal broke, testifying before Congress, firing chief Enron auditor David Duncan, and pleading Andersen's case before the media. But the Justice Department's Obstruction of Justice lawsuit has proven to be a crushing blow, triggering dozens of long time clients to jump ship.
Berardino tells CNN, Andersen intends to follow through on the Volcker plan. Volcker's group will become the de facto board for Andersen U.S. Top Andersen managers will step down, and Andersen will split its auditing and consulting businesses, that is if Andersen can stay above water.
ARTHUR BOWMAN, BOWMAN'S ACCOUNTING REPORT: The organization we know as Arthur Andersen will probably take bankruptcy and definitely go through a dissolution of the partnership.
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CHERNOFF (on camera): Next Tuesday and Wednesday, Andersen's worldwide board plans to meet in London, where a successor to Berardino is likely to be picked. Among the top candidates the head of Andersen in France, Aldo Cardoso(ph), but, much more critical to the company's future, a showdown at Federal Court in Houston.
A judge is to decide by Thursday whether federal prosecutors may interview Andersen employees before a Grand Jury in that document shredding case. If successful, the Obstruction of Justice suit certainly could force the company into bankruptcy. Connie.
CHUNG: Allan, just a couple of quick questions. Wasn't it inevitable that the CEO would go?
CHERNOFF: Certainly somebody at Andersen had to take a big fall. Initially, they wanted David Duncan, the head of the Enron auditing to take that fall. That didn't fly.
CHUNG: So what is going on with the negotiations between Paul Volcker - I mean actually Andersen, Volcker isn't actually doing the negotiations, and the feds?
CHERNOFF: Volcker was hoping that his suggestion would get the federal prosecutors to pull back and save Andersen. So far, we understand those negotiations really are going nowhere. The prosecutors are standing pat.
CHUNG: All right. Thank you, Allan Chernoff. Up next, winning over hearts and minds in Central Asia. This is NEWSNIGHT for Tuesday.
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CHUNG: You could say the only thing good about going off to war is coming home. The families of those in uniform don't need to be reminded of that. Today was homecoming day in Norfolk, Virginia for part of the air wing of the USS Roosevelt, a heroes welcome that, in a way, was just a preview of what's to come. The Roosevelt itself returns tomorrow with more than 7,000 sailors and marines. The carrier left one week and one day after September 11th, to be part of Enduring Freedom.
And a very different homecoming today, one just as moving, the Roosevelt today returned a U.S. flag to the firefighters who raised it in the ruins of the Trade Center. It became one of the most memorable images from the disaster and the flag was given to the Roosevelt to serve as inspiration.
Now inspiring the troops is always an important part of fighting a war, and so is inspiring support overseas from those who will assist the fight, not often an easy task. And in parts of Central Asia, there's distrust among those who see the U.S. as nothing more than a fair weather friend.
NEWSNIGHT recently got a chance to see the efforts to win over hearts and minds in one of the stars - in one of the sands I should say. For those of you who miss Aaron, here's your chance to at least hear him.
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CHAD BICKLEY, STAFF SERGEANT: We're going to plan in case we come under attack, everybody knows what the other person's going to do, and this should happen like that.
AARON BROWN, NEWSNIGHT ANCHOR (voice over): In his makeshift command center, there is no question that Staff Sergeant Chad Bickley is the man in charge.
BICKLEY: We're going to continue to go due north. The road that goes east to October Sky will be our third checkpoint.
BROWN: He's about to lead his Air Force security squadron through the streets of a small village, a former Soviet village, not far from a brand new American air base in the newly independent nation of Krygzstan. There's almost no chance of trouble, but Sergeant Bickley and his commanders aren't taking anything for granted, just in case. They rehearse as if they were under fire.
BICKLEY: Same thing goes. When you find a spot to rally. You will all rally on me.
BROWN: This is where they're going, a village called Voztoshni (ph). In Russian, it means eastern, a place where strangers rarely appear, especially American strangers in uniform, armed with automatic weapons. But the idea here isn't to intimidate. It is to make friends, an extension if you will of the hearts and minds, policies of a different war.
BICKLEY: Does he know why the Americans are here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know the reason.
BICKLEY: Our government has allowed - your government has allowed us in their country to use this air base as a staging area in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
BROWN: The odds are that none of these villagers even knows what that means, but the military feels patrols like this are critical, even though at times the local leaders become a bit irritated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I'm sure your guns are loaded and how sure can you be that your weapons won't fire because kids are likely to touch your weapons, play with it, you know. How confident can you be that your weapons won't fire accidentally?
BICKLEY: Tell him, I'm very confident they won't fire. Our weapons are loaded; however, there's not a round in the chamber.
BROWN: The answer seems to satisfy, and yes some of the kids were fascinated by the guns.
BICKLEY: You answer those questions to the best of your knowledge, answer them honestly and that's what these patrols - we want to get out here and establish friendships because when we're establishing friendships, we're establishing friendships represented from the U.S. and we want to portray the U.S. as people that we are.
BROWN: In places like this until now, so far away from the modern world and modern problems, time for a long while seemed to stand still. But like nearly everything else since September 11th, that too is now changing.
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CHUNG: That Aaron Brown report was prepared by NEWSNIGHT producer David Fitzpatrick, and ahead on NEWSNIGHT, so small, so powerful, fresh breath but only for those that can handle it. Keith Olberman, only for you if you can handle him, next.
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CHUNG: And finally from us, the latest must have. It may be the strangest too. They gave it out at the Oscars and the Emmy's and media mogul Barry Diller (ph) is known to like it. Teenagers are swapping stories online about the first time they tried it.
Hard to imagine when you hear how the company describes it, a micro think starch based film impregnated with germ killing ingredients. It is the Listerine of the Listerine Power Pack, filled with little green tabs, where the motto for fresh breath seems to be, no pain, no gain. Contributor Keith Olberman is looking at that tonight.
KEITH OLBERMAN, NEWSNIGHT CONTRIBUTOR: It's the word impregnated that throws everybody, Connie. It is only about 35 years since bad breath was considered too touchy a subject even to be mentioned in a TV commercial. Then came the marketing of Scope, then of Tic Tac, then of breath freshening gum.
And now we have moved to so-called power mints, the generation beyond the Altoid, little specs of mouthwash on a strip that claim to give you the refreshening equivalent of Mexican hallucination peppers done Cajun style, and they permit their manufacturers to make a mint.
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OLBERMAN (voice over): The Style Network designates them a new trend. "They are in," says Entertainment Weekly. They are part of a $380 million industry, but for true read, we need the reaction of the proverbial man in the street.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I smell it. You can smell it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear to God, I just got a whiff of it. Wow, pretty intense.
OLBERMAN: Sorry, my mistake. That's a woman in the street.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's sticking to the roof of my mouth definitely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I didn't get it stuck to the roof of my mouth, definitely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's stuck to the back. I'll cover my mouth.
OLBERMAN: So that's a problem. Small, powerful and like a lioness clinging to her cub.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little bit annoying now it's stuck to the top of my mouth but it's OK. I won't have it much longer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes you feel all tingly inside, right out here.
OLBERMAN: It's supposed to, sir, all tingly. That's the selling point. It can also apparently induce infomercial speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm renewed. I wouldn't say reborn. I'd say renewed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's annoying me now because it's stuck to the roof of my mouth and it won't go. I'm trying to get rid of it.
OLBERMAN: You won't get rid of it. Nabisco Breath Savers begat Tic Tac Silvers which begat Certs Powerful Mints which begat Listerine Power Packs. Call the authorities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's still there now and now it's gone between my teeth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's something that I think you want to do, because it feels so good, and it's probably good for your mouth too, so, you know it's a dual wakes up.
OLBERMAN: But that's only provided you use it as originally intended.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It should taste like a mint or cigarette now?
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OLBERMAN (on camera): Who knew it's a power mint and a tobacco additive. And don't take this the wrong way, but I got some for you. It's my welcome to you to CNN.
CHUNG: Thank you.
OLBERMAN: And it's also your signing bonus.
CHUNG: I guess the only way I can find out if you have used one is to kiss you.
OLBERMAN: That will be coming up in the next half hour.
CHUNG: Good night.
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