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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Pope Strongly Condemns Sexual Abuse Within the Priesthood; Israel Delays Jenin Investigation
Aired April 23, 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, CNN ANCHOR: That's one way to start the program. Good evening, again. At the risk of being sacrilegious or just respectful, and I hope I am neither tonight. The Pope finally got it.
For the Catholic Church, there is no more pretending, no more playing with words. It's not as the Pope said in an earlier statement about the mysteries of evil. It is about the victims. It's not about embarrassment for the church or celibacy or marriage. It's not about gays. It's not about the millions of dollars the church has already paid out. Those things are the other things in the scandal that engulfs the church tonight. It is, as the Pope said today, about the victims.
Some years ago, I sat in a courtroom in Fall River, Massachusetts and listened to one man after another, there must have been a dozen of them, talk about the abuse they had suffered at the hands of a priest. They never healed.
They were as miserable as adults as they had become as children. They used drugs or drank too much. They led abusive lives or no lives at all. What lives they had were full of misery and failure and that is often the pattern in cases of abuse, whether the abuser is a priest or a father or an uncle, and whether the victim is male or female.
But the Pope made clear today, first and foremost, it is about the victims. Had others figured this out years ago, there would be fewer victims and a small scandal, but protecting the image became more important than protecting the victims.
The notion of openness comes slowly to an institution that has over generations equated the mystery of the church with the majesty of it. If nothing else, today's papal message is at least an acknowledgement that protecting the church's majesty has harmed the church's message and at the end of the day, it is the message after all that counts.
On to the whip, first stop Rome. CNN's Connie Chung has been following the developments at this extraordinary event at the Vatican. Connie the headline from you tonight please.
CONNIE CHUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, Pope John Paul using his strongest language yet, condemned sexual abuse of children, but there were ambiguities in his speech to the American cardinals who were looking to the Pontiff for guidance on what to do about pedophile priests -- Aaron.
BROWN: Connie back to you shortly. Next Jerusalem, the U.N. mission to Jenin, some complications to say the least. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has that. Christiane a headline please.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, after all along and still saying that Israel has nothing to hide over what happened in Jenin, the Israeli government has asked the U.N. now to delay the fact-finding mission. We'll have that report.
BROWN: Thank you. Kelli Arena is in Washington, where dozens of airport security workers have been arrested. Kelli the headline from there tonight.
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, fake Social Security numbers, immigration fraud, various lies to gain access to secure areas. Now those are the charges and they're leveled against the very people who are supposed to safeguard us from terrorism. The Attorney General calls it a wakeup call for America's airports.
BROWN: And one of the day's bigger events comes out of Washington. Our view comes from New York because the reporter's work is never done and Candy Crowley's covering it from here tonight. Candy a headline please.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, as you know, people in Washington rarely walk away from power on a voluntary basis, but that appears to be exactly what happened today at the White House, as the President loses his closes confidante -- Aaron.
BROWN: Candy, thank you, back to all of you shortly. We said we'll be devoting a considerable amount of time to the developments at the Vatican today.
We'll be joined by a noted reporter on for want of a better phrase, someone who works the church beat. We'll also speak with someone who's made a career out of educating priests to be. He's just written a book on the state of the clergy today.
We'll also see where things stand in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity. Negotiators there have begun trying to resolve the standoff. Conditions inside the church appear to be getting worse by the day.
And Sarah Hughes tonight, the Olympic gold winner as well, all of that in the hour ahead. But we begin at the Vatican, where 12 American cardinals had come to confer with the mother church and confront the sex abuse scandal at home.
There is, as we said earlier, a certain mystery about the church and while we will know at some point what was decided, we may never know for certain exactly what it felt like to be in that room in such an important place, the Vatican, dealing with not just the reality of the abuse, bad enough, but dealing with the failure to deal with the abuse, which has made it all so much worse.
We'll look at this from a number of angles tonight. We set the stage by going back to Rome and CNN's Connie Chung. Connie.
CHUNG: Aaron, good evening. I talked with some of the cardinals who were in that room and they did give me a bit of a hint of what it felt like. One said he had never seen the Pope speak in such strong terms, as he did when he condemned sexual abuse of children.
Another said, gee the Holy Father is frail, but his delivery was clear and his message was unmistakable, although one part of the Pope's speech left the cardinals with questions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG (voice over): The extraordinary two-day meeting at the Vatican began with prayer. Then it moved to the strongest statement by Pope John Paul since the allegations of sexual abuse by priests rocked the American Catholic Church.
Not just a sin, but the abuse that caused this crisis, the Pope called, a crime. And while the Pope said there is no place in the priesthood for those who would harm children, he also spoke about conversion, confusing some cardinals.
CHUNG (on camera): Did you see a conflict there?
CARDINAL ADAM JOSEPH MAIDA, ARCHBISHOP OF DETROIT: Well, I looked at that too, and the same question rose in my mind and I think we'll be reflecting on just what he meant.
CHUNG (voice over): Another hot button issue emerged, not only for a reflection, but debate, homosexuality.
BISHOP WILLIAM GREGORY, U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: It is most importantly a struggle, to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men. Not only is it not dominated by homosexual men, but that the candidates that we receive are healthy in every possible way, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. That is the ongoing concern of seminaries, and I do believe that most seminaries throughout the United States are working vigorously to make sure that they provide a healthy environment.
CHUNG: Calls for Boston's Cardinal Law to resign did not come up at the meeting, but on Monday night, Law did make an admission.
CARDINAL FRANCIS EUGENE GEORGE, ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO: He started out saying that in a sense if he had not made some terrible mistakes, we probably would not be here, and he apologized for that. He's facing it very clearly. He didn't speak about a possible resignation and nobody asked him about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG (on camera): The cardinals now appear to be unified in support of Cardinal Law. Tomorrow this meeting ends. We'll talk with the man who is the catalyst for this unusual summit, Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Bishops. Aaron. BROWN: Connie, talk about decisions to be made. Will they make them at the Vatican or is that something that will have to wait until a couple of months from now in Dallas at the big meeting then?
CHUNG: I don't think it's clear, Aaron. They want to emerge with a consensus, with some definitive guidelines, but we won't know until tomorrow.
BROWN: Connie, thank you. Connie Chung handling the duty in Rome tonight. Needless to say, an extraordinary meeting of this sort requires a bit of reading between the lines. After all, the Vatican is the place where the selection of a new Pope is signaled by a puff of smoke of a certain color. We're joined from Rome now by John Allen. John covers the Vatican for the "National Catholic Reporter." John, welcome to NEWSNIGHT. It's good to see you again.
JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Thank you, good evening.
BROWN: You know, I think as I mentioned to someone earlier today, for all the seriousness of today's meeting, there is a sense, at least in this country, that Rome has come, to use an expression, a little late to the party. Is there a feeling there that they got it too late?
ALLEN: Well, I think the feeling here -
BROWN: Yes.
ALLEN: I don't know that too late. I think the feeling actually is that they got it. I mean I think there's a sense of relief, especially among the American cardinals and bishops who are here in Rome, because I think these guys had to do a real process of education with their brother prelates in the Vatican to make them understand the depth and the gravity of the crisis in the American church.
And I think certainly the sudden and very high profile way the Vatican decided to call the summit, because remember, Aaron, they could have brought these guys over here much more quietly. But they chose to do this in a very big, dramatic way. I think that, in part, was an attempt on the part of the Vatican and the Pope to communicate that at last they do get it.
BROWN: I'm not sure what the value of bringing them, well perhaps this is unfair, the value of bringing them over in a quiet way, they're trying in part to make a statement, aren't they?
ALLEN: Yes, of course. I mean in part what's going on here is an exercise in symbolism, or if you like in public relations, it's a way of quieting those critics in the American Catholic Church who have been complaining since this crisis broke in late December and January.
But the Pope, either because of his physical limits or because he thinks it's an American problem, has not been engaged on this question, and clearly, of course, today you can't write that story anymore. You can't say the Pope, you can't say the cardinals in the Vatican are not engaged.
But there also is some real substance that's at stake here. As you know, the U.S. bishops are going to meet in Dallas in June. They are expected to adopt some very tough new policies on these sex abuse cases, and I think the Vatican realizes that the moment they do so, the blueprint they come up with is going to be widely studied, widely imitated all around the world, and therefore it's going to become in effect a global document, a document for the global church, and so they're trying to make sure that everyone is on the same page, ahead of that June meeting.
BROWN: I want to talk a little more about the June meeting. Let me ask you one more question before that. Is there more quietly any sense that this is being fueled by either anti-Catholic bias, by anti- Catholic bias in the media, by dissident liberals in the church, or is there not simply a public recognition but a private recognition that this is a real substantive problem?
ALLEN: Well, I think the sort of mainstream opinion in the Vatican has accepted that this is a crisis, in other words, that the American Catholic Church is in serious trouble.
Now, I think there are a number of people in the Vatican who would still analyze that crisis as one part genuine emergency, created by the incidence of sexual abuse, and created by the failure of the bishops to respond to those incidents appropriately, but also created by the factors you just mentioned.
I mean, I know one American cardinal who confided that, in a private session with the Pope in mid-April, he advised him that a large part of this crisis was an aggressively anti-Catholic U.S. media that doesn't like the positions of the Catholic Church on things like abortion and birth control.
So I think that analysis in terms of what's fueling, what's stoking this crisis, is still there but I think that the sea change has been everyone has accepted now there is a crisis, and whether you like it or not, something has to be done about it.
BROWN: Will we, John let's talk about Dallas and tomorrow because they're interrelated, will we have a pretty good sense tomorrow what the American bishops will do in Dallas in June?
ALLEN: It's too early to say. We don't know yet what the American cardinals and bishops and what the Vatican cardinals are going to tell us at the end of their deliberations. But, I mean you can bet your bottom dollar that whether they communicate the full extent of their agreements or not, they are going to have done some work here.
Because there are certain points of difference between the U.S. Bishops Conference, the sort of mainstream of opinion in the U.S. Bishops Conference, and the Vatican over how you handle these cases, ranging from things like a one strike and you're out policy to how much disclosure is enough, to whether or not bishops ought to become the so-called automatic reporters, that is having to automatically disclose to police credible allegations of criminal misconduct against a priest.
These are all things, these are all points on which U.S. bishops and Rome have differed over the years and I am quite confident they are moving heaven and earth to try to resolve these differences, because the nightmare scenario here would be that the U.S. bishops meet in June, adopt a new policy to great media fanfare, and then it would get vetoed in Rome.
I think everyone recognizes that that would be a public relations nightmare of the first order. So I anticipate that they are going to be coming up with some concrete, some concrete details. How much they choose to share with us tomorrow remains to be seen.
BROWN: So we shall watch and see. John it's good to talk to you again. Thank you very much. John Allen of the "National Catholic Reporter" with us this evening.
Long before most of us were talking about this, Father Donald Cozzens was thinking and writing about issues of sex and the priesthood. We met him first, I believe it was a year ago, but if he said it was two, I'll buy that too, while he was the President Rector and Professor of Pastoral Theology at St. Mary's Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland.
Father Cozzens is now a pastoral psychologist and resident scholar at St. John's University - I think St. Joseph's University in St. Joseph's, Minnesota. In any case, he's currently the author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood, a Reflection on a Priest Crisis of Soul." We are glad to see him again, albeit electronically tonight. Sir, it's nice to see you.
When we talked back then, we talked a lot about gays in the priesthood, and it seems at least as of last Sunday here in New York, that that issue was prominently put back on the table. So, is it your view, you've thought a lot about this, that this is a problem of gays in the priesthood or is that another issue which, in a sense, disguises the real problems here?
FATHER DONALD COZZENS, ST. JOSEPH'S UNIVERSITY: Aaron, I wouldn't talk about it as a problem of gays in the priesthood. I think we have an issue here of formation. I raised the issue in "The Changing Face of the Priesthood" because it has an impact on seminary formation and the presence of gays in the priesthood, I think has an impact on morale.
What concerns me most right now is the large number of celibate gay priests. They're as celibate as straight priests. Are there gay priests that are not celibate? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The same can be said for the straight priest.
What I fear today is the link that's being made between the abusive minors and orientation can be seen as somehow scapegoating the celibate chaste gay priests that we have in the priesthood and there's a good number of them.
BROWN: Does the church, in your view, need to rethink both the issue of homosexuality and celibacy?
COZZENS: Well, I think that for the gay priest, as well as the gay Catholic, they carry about with them a teaching from the Vatican that their orientation is objectively disordered. That's a hard thing to carry around with you, especially if you're leading a celibate chaste life.
I think some gay priests feel that they have a double burden. First of all, their orientation is objectively disordered, and now people are looking upon them with a certain amount of suspicion that they are the root cause of the problem that we're having today.
We do need to admit that the majority of teenagers abused by priests appear to be young men, in fact the vast majority. But if you look at the broader picture of victims of clergy misconduct, and include women and young women, then we have a different picture. And so, I'd like to frame it as fairly as we can with gay priests who are celibate pretty much in mind. They're hurting today a great deal.
BROWN: Yes, and the question of celibacy, gay or straight, would you like the church to rethink that?
COZZENS: Well, absolutely. A number of people feel that the time is right to put a number of issues, such as mandatory celibacy on the table. We lived well. It's a wonderful life, but I think it takes a great deal of maturity and integrity and spiritual depth to lead a healthy celibate life. I think the time is here in which we need to revisit the issue of mandatory celibacy.
BROWN: Father, I remember when I read the book back then, one of the things that you talked about was that when you did work in talking to priests accused of abuse, you came away with a sense that, I think this is the right word, they were sociopaths?
COZZENS: Well, I called them focused sociopaths. In terms of the abuse of the young boys or young girls, many of them didn't seem to show the kind of compunction or concern that you would expect from clergymen. I think today, we join with the Holy Father in saying again and again the healing and the welfare of the victims needs to be our primary focus.
BROWN: Father Cozzens, it's nice to see you again. It's good to talk to you. Thank you, sir.
COZZENS: Thank you.
BROWN: Father Donald Cozzens joining us tonight. As NEWSNIGHT continues, we'll hear what fame and fortune has meant to Olympic goal medallist Sarah Hughes. She's just a kid. Coming up next, a continuing standoff in the Middle East. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: If the average recent day in the Middle East has been a matter of no steps forward and many steps back, then this day in the Middle East might actually be called better than average, if only by a bit.
A couple of steps in place, which we'll get to in a moment, and then one step back, a step taken by the Israeli government, which today asked for a delay in the arrival of a U.N. fact-finding mission to Jenin. Prime Minister Sharon and his ministers reportedly concluding that the U.N. mission was being staffed in such a way as to set up Israel.
The U.N. will be meeting to reconstitute its team, to meet the Israeli objections, and we'll deal with that in a bit. So whatever truth is to be dug out of the rubble in Jenin is going to have to wait for a while. Other digging, however, is not waiting there. Here again, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Christiane good evening.
AMANPOUR: Well, Aaron, of course here in Israel that fact- finding mission had been accepted, and in Jenin they, as you say, have been continuing the digging. The troops have now been pulled out for several days from that tank, and people are not just digging, but they're also trying to get back to their normal life.
They are trying to restore utilities and all sorts of things there. Of course, the people in that particular camp itself can't actually live there. They're waiting for tents and other things, as they're trying to be re-housed. But they are also waiting for any kind of mission and any kind of international help to come there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (voice over): Water tankers and utility workers replace Israeli tanks and troops, trying to navigate Jenin's small streets and side alleys. Still no running water or electricity, but plenty of people coming from villages all around, drawn by a morbid fascination with what's been wrought.
Around this destroyed section of Jenin's refugee camp, groups here and there peer into deep holes and climb into recesses in the rubble, still searching for relatives dead or alive.
But many here are cynical about the U.N.'s new fact-finding mission. "They'll say we were fighting Israel," says Ahmed, who's missing two sons. "They won't say Israel was fighting us."
But Palestinian officials welcomed the U.N. mission. They wanted to prove their allegations of a massacre by Israeli forces. Israel categorically denies that. Only 40 bodies have so far been removed from here, and Israel says they were mostly Palestinian fighters, not civilians.
Reserve soldier David Zangen was chief medical officer for the Jenin combat units. Like all Israeli soldiers, he could only talk to us with an IDF spokesman present.
MAJOR DAVID ZANGEN, ISRAELI RESERVIST: You have to remember we could in one hour basically destroy the camp by air bombing or by artillery, and we didn't do it because we didn't want to harm any civilians. AMANPOUR: The previous day, the IDF had made Tabaatt Mardawi available to the press, a senior Islamic Jihad activist in Jenin, who is now in prison, and in the presence of his interrogators confirm the dead had fallen in fierce fighting.
"Of course by my own standard, what happened there was a massacre" he says, "but if you want to ask whether I saw tens of people killed, I would say frankly I did not."
The battle of Jenin remains a public relations nightmare for Israel, which is nonetheless convinced the truth will win in the end. For Palestinians, Jenin has already reached a place in the pantheon of national mythology.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (on camera): Now the war of words over Jenin continues to heat up in this war of trying to come out with the conclusion that each side wants continues. Here they're still waiting to see whether this fact-finding mission will come and when, and remember of course that the United States also backed this fact-finding mission.
The President of the U.S. said that there should be a fact- finding mission. So we're waiting to see just how any new team may be reconstituted to get it here within its timeframe that the U.N. had prescribed. Aaron.
BROWN: Christiane, we're waiting to see that too, so, if I could quickly go over to the United Nations now and get some quick reaction to the Israeli decision. Richard Roth is there. We sometimes kid Richard that he virtually lives there. He's there tonight. Richard, what's the news?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, at this point, it seems that we might need a fact-finding commission to investigate the forming of this fact-finding panel, supposed to go to Jenin. For the United Nations tonight, they are saying that this team is still going.
It might be a 24-hour delay, but the Secretary General of the U.N. wants this panel there. He may make some changes to the team that was announced earlier this week, but he's not giving in to Israel's demands regarding the composition of the team.
Secretary General Annan says the judgment on who this team was made of was his. Israel says it was not consulted by Secretary General Annan. The Security Council met this evening, rather quickly, following Israel's objection to the Jenin investigation panel, and it told Israel to live up to its promise that it made Friday, when it announced it would be accepting the team. The Palestinian representative said Israel is in effect practicing blackmail. Aaron.
BROWN: Richard, thank you. Richard Roth over at the U.N. tonight. I mentioned a little earlier there were a couple of steps in place and that counts as good news in the Middle East these days, when the two sides exchange words instead of shots, and today they did exchange some words. There's no agreement yet, but Palestinian and Israeli negotiators actually met, sat down twice, to discuss how to end this standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and they will be at it again tomorrow.
Meantime, there's a kind of stillness in Bethlehem tonight, though hardly the kind they sing about in the carol. Jerrold Kessel is there for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It has the trappings of a medieval siege, this Holy Land standoff. The Church of the Nativity itself appears largely unscarred, but there are scars all around, scars of desolation, of the lengthy and occasionally bloody standoff, and fear of an unyielding struggle that's not yet over.
The tiny entrance to the first century basilica to which pilgrims down the ages have passed, shut tight. A tank squats where tourists wandered past the long shut souvenir stores. Ladders left by Israeli soldiers await monks who choose to get out. Fourteen have done so.
The Palestinian flag flutters above the abandoned (UNINTELLIGIBLE) municipal building, snipers at the ready, a real siege.
KESSEL (on camera): Despite the almost complete absence of movement here in Manger Square, there does seem to be now a distinct sense of momentum towards resolving this conflict at last.
KESSEL (voice over): Palestinian negotiators arrived for a second set of talks with Israeli officers, handshakes. "At least we're talking and also listening to each other," they say. Antoine Sellman (ph), the Palestinian lay leader of the Orthodox Church emerges from inside the basilica to join the other negotiators.
An army jeep carries him the short distance to a nearby building, its name now ironic, the Peace Center. After the first round of talks here, Sellman had returned to those besieged in the church. Now, he has no comment. Other negotiators admit the complexity of the situation.
From both sides, they tell us the same thing. There could be an agreement within an hour, if only the other side would accept their position. Otherwise they add glumly, the standoff could continue for three more weeks.
CNN's team and another news crew are the first cameras to reach Manger Square since the start of the siege 22 days ago. Specific instructions from the Israeli commanders, keep under cover of the armored jeep. Palestinian snipers are in position to fire, they warn.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to starve the wanted men out. Israel says dozens of young Palestinian boys are essentially hostage to the gunmen, so too 30 odd clergymen, monks and nuns.
To make their point, the soldiers call out the Abbott of the Armenian Monastery. Father Rumzig (ph) says he and his 88-year-old monk are the only two members of his eight strong community left behind. He's angry with everyone.
FATHER RUMZIG: I don't know what is going on in my convent, you see. It's all robbed, all looted. They broke it. They took the chain and the crown.
KESSEL: They, he explains, are the Palestinian gunmen. They scare him, he says. Then he turns on the Israeli officers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are not helping me. Until now, you are not helping me, no. Look, I'm very angry, why? My deacon, this room, he was shot by you.
KESSEL (on camera): Father, what will your prayers be tonight for ending this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, please, I don't know what to say.
KESSEL: Father Ramzig (ph) retreats into the gloom of his monastery, preparing to face the test of another dark and fearful night. A forlorn bell rings out from a church farther off in Bethlehem. Here, the bells are silent.
Jerrold Kessel, CNN, in Manger Square, Bethlehem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Man, sometimes you just shake your head, don't you?
Coming up later on NEWSNIGHT, a major roundup of airport workers accused of crimes. This is one of those stories that will make you think. Up next, President Bush loses his right-hand woman. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In the White House, the ultimate measure of power is access, and the ultimate kind of access is drop-in-ability, the clout to drop in on the president at any hour of the day. It trumps all. You can have the biggest title, but without drop-in-ability, you are still the smallest dog.
So it was with Karen Hughes, who said today she's leaving the White House. Her title, counselor to the president, was low key. Her access and influence and power was anything but. Her story tonight from CNN's Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Andy Card knows more about the ways of Washington. Carl Rove knows more about politics. But Karen Hughes knows the most about George Bush.
HUGHES: I have worked for him for long enough that I hear -- I'm not sure I have my own voice any more. I hear his voice in my head.
CROWLEY: She signed on for the first governor's campaign, stayed through for the second and was there when it began.
HUGHES: I went in and said governor, we have been called and asked our reaction to a poll. What poll? This is not an election year. The poll that shows you are the front-runner for president. We both laughed.
CROWLEY: A wife and mother, Hughes was an intense but reluctant road warrior, eventually deciding by the fall to bring her son along on the campaign. She proved the steeliest member of the so-called iron triangle the then-governor's most protective, most loyal staffers who signed on early and stayed late.
BUSH: I have known Karen for a long, long time. I -- we knew each other when the definition of a motorcade was one car. She has been at my side and I trust her a lot.
CROWLEY: We finish each other's sentences, the president once said of Hughes. She wrote some of them too. Hughes penned the president's obligatory campaign autobiography in a month's time. When it became clear that candidate Bush's beautiful but flowery speeches were out of sync with his own voice, Hughes rewrote them. Speech writer, strategist, adviser, she listens to George Bush and George Bush listens to her.
HUGHES: He sometimes doesn't like what I have to tell him. But I consider it part of my job to tell him.
CROWLEY: But what problems she had were relayed in private, while it frustrated reporters, Hughes saw her primary task as the promotion and protection of George Bush and his agenda. Critics question whether Hughes was loyal to a fault, whether her admiration of the boss blinded her to missteps that might have been avoided if her perspective were broader. Still, Hughes was not just a spinner but a true believer.
HUGHES: I wouldn't be doing this for anyone else. This is not -- my life ambition was to go out and work for someone who was going to be running for president.
CROWLEY: In the end she is leaving him for another man, two in fact, her husband and her now 15-year-old son. Both have had trouble adjusting to life inside the Beltway and under the microscope.
After the move to D.C., Hughes' son complained, we came here because of you, mom. No, she told him, we came here for the president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): After Hughes told reporters she would be headed home for Texas, President said she's not leaving his inner circle. She's only changing addresses -- Aaron.
BROWN: And does someone, can someone fill the slot?
CROWLEY: No. I don't think anybody fills that slot. And, look, she's not going to be by his side, but she still has his ear. I think that's very clearly watching the relationship between the two of them.
Nobody is as tight with him as Karen has been. And no one understands him better. It's sort of beyond friends. There is just sort of -- the president saying, look, we finished each others' sentences. That's pretty much what it's like.
BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) there's no question here necessarily, rarely in life does someone walk away from a big job, from power. It's just not something people do. And it's interesting to watch someone do it.
CROWLEY: And it's also a recognition that there's a lot of power in motherhood.
BROWN: Yes, there is. Thank you. Nice to see you.
NEWSNIGHT a little bit later, we'll talk to the author of a book on sexuality. To say this book has created a firestorm is to understate it. Up next though, the roundup of airport workers at airports in Washington, D.C. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: This is one of those stories you can take a number of different ways. It is, perhaps, an encouraging sign that authorities have identified dozens of airport workers who ought not be allowed to work in secure areas. On the other hand, you might be terrified there are dozens of airport workers who ought not be working in secure areas, but have been since September 11, and of course long before. Cup half full or half empty, the eternal question. Once again, CNN's Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA (voice-over): More than 100 workers at Dulles and Reagan National Airports, just minutes flying time from the White House, had access to almost every secure area, including planes, and shouldn't have.
The arrested employees are all accused of widespread fraud in obtaining security passes. Charges include falsifying criminal records, Social Security and immigration fraud, and ducking deportation.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: What this investigation uncovered should be a wake-up call for every airport in America.
ARENA: Those arrested worked for more than 60 different employers, in jobs ranging from construction to food service to baggage screeners.
JOHN MCGRAW, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Airlines are doing some of their background investigations. Others are being done by the airport, but it hasn't been one consistent package.
ARENA: In an ongoing sweep, more than 300 people have been arrested at 13 airports since September 11. But, seven months later, problems persist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just shows this was the tip of the iceberg. This is a massive deficiency in our security. And this is just one the many problems that now have to be fixed in quick time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ARENA: Law enforcement officials say that none of the people arrested today have any connection to the September 11 attacks or any known links to terrorism. But as one U.S. attorney put it, the potential for harm is very real -- Aaron.
BROWN: Kelli, it'll be interesting to see who shows up for work at airports around the country tomorrow and who does not. Thank you, Kelli Arena in Washington.
If you believe bad things happen in threes, you might want to cancel your train reservation tomorrow. There was a deadly accident today. That would be the second in a week. It happened at rush hour this morning in Orange County, California, south of L.A. Two passengers killed, scores hurt. The question now, how did these two trains wind up on the same track? Here's CNN's Anne McDermott.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mile-long freight train hit a small commuter train in Placentia, California this morning, throwing passengers around the cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a loud crash. I had never heard anything like it before.
MCDERMOTT: This local resident saw it all.
JACKIE BISESI, EYEWITNESS: Started screaming, oh, my god, they're on the same track. They're going to hit. They're going to hit. Then, right when I got there, they hit, and the force of the hit through me backwards.
MCDERMOTT: Besides the dead, there were dozens of people injured seriously enough to go to the hospital, and at least 100 others on the Metrolink train were classified as walking wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two months pregnant.
MCDERMOTT: Pregnant but OK, she said.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm fine. I'm OK.
MCDERMOTT: And these women were simply shaken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you? You OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I'm fine. Thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all right? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm fine.
MCDERMOTT: As dazed passengers waited while some 30 ambulances pulled up at the scene, investigators were trying to figure out what happened. An NTSB team member said, as they do at plane crashes, they'll look at the so-called black boxes.
TED TURPIN, NTSB: OK, a black box from an engine would show the speed, would show the position of the throttle, would show the position of the brakes.
MCDERMOTT: And maybe show a bit of the horror of a sunny morning rush hour gone terribly wrong.
Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Scene from Orange County tonight.
Later on NEWSNIGHT, Sarah Hughes, the gold medalist. Up next though, Judith Levine talking about her very controversial book "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex." That's next on NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK, so far tonight, religion, politics, and now comes sex. Well, OK, there was sex in the religion part, but this is just about sex. Congress votes tomorrow on whether to spend $250 million on sex education, which where federal dollars are concerned is mostly no sex education, that is to say it is abstinence education.
The vote comes at a time when perhaps the biggest controversy in the book world is over Judith Levine's book "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex", a book that argues that kids are sexual, have always been sexual and always will be, and that we do them a disservice by not acknowledging that. Well, in truth, the book argues a bit more than that. We talked with Ms. Levine yesterday, which explains why I magically will appear in a different suit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
I don't think I've ever started an interview this way. Why are people saying such terrible things about you?
JUDITH LEVINE, AUTHOR: It's a good question and it's a big question. My book, "Harmful to Minors," says that sexuality is a part of life, it is a fact of life for everybody starting from the very earliest ages. Of course, in order for it to be a good part of growing up, kids need certain things. They need sexuality education. They need an open and positive atmosphere around sex.
But I think people who are attacking me are doing so because, No. 1, either they believe that kids are not sexual or they wish that they would not be sexual. And they think somehow that kids become sexual because of propaganda, media, advertising or because some adult is forcing them to be sexual.
BROWN: I want to deal with some of the questions, but I want to deal -- get this one out of the way first. What is it that you're saying that is making people believe that you believe it's OK for kids to have sex with adults?
Do you think that's OK, sometimes?
LEVINE: I have a chapter in my book that talks about teenagers who have sex with adults. A lot of teenagers actually do this. And I'm talking about like a 16, 17-year-old with say a 22, 23-year-old. It's not uncommon at all.
Most teenagers have their first sexual experiences with somebody who is a year to three years older than them. That's heterosexual girls and gay boys. And about 10 percent of kids do it with somebody who is five years older or more. So this is a fact, it seems to have always been a fact.
My point there is that criminalizing those kinds of relationships, while they may be troublesome say to the parents of those kids, is not the best way to protect the kids. Rather, if the parents are troubled, if there's something bad going on with the kids, it would make much more sense to deal with what's going on in those kids' lives rather than to set the kid up to have to testify against her own lover, for instance.
BROWN: Tell me if I'm getting something wrong here. What would concern me -- let's just say that we're talking about two 16-year-old kids for a second, boy and a girl -- is that whether they have these feelings or not, no one is going to argue that they don't, maybe someone is going to, but I'm not going to make that argument.
But I'm going to make the argument that maybe they're not mature enough to make the kind of decisions and accept the kinds of consequences, and I don't mean pregnancy here at all. I mean emotional consequences, that they would be better able to make later in life, at 20?
LEVINE: I think, you know, that's true of every single social relationship in a child's life or in a teenager's life. You don't grow up except by trying and failing. Now what can we do to make sure that if a kid makes a mistake, it's not going to be the end of the world? They need excellent sexuality education which includes how to negotiate in social relations.
BROWN: That's a fair point. But isn't part of parenting or part of being an adult to try and make sure exactly that, that kids don't have to make every decision in life through trial and error?
LEVINE: Yes, of course. You know, you as a parent are going to talk to your kids. You are going to transmit your values about sexuality and then they also live in the world. They have peers. They watch TV and so on.
They are -- the fact is 16-year-olds have sexual lives. They're seems to be nothing we can do about that. We are trying our damndest to stop it. And so, maybe the realistic thing to do would be to really prepare them to make the kinds of decisions that they can make. And I actually -- I had a sexual life. I wasn't having intercourse when I was 16. My heart was broken. I got up. I went on with life, and, look, I'm here to tell the tale.
BROWN: It's nice to meet you. Good luck. It's an interesting book and obviously not without controversy as you expected. Thank you.
LEVINE: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Judith Levine, imagine what the radio talk shows are going to do with that one.
Up next, America's golden girl, no controversy here, Sarah Hughes. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Peggy Fleming, the Olympic gold medalist, once said that winning the gold made life speed up a little bit. And she appears to have been on to something. Today was anything but slow for American Olympic athletes. They met with the president on the South Lawn of the White House for a ceremony to honor their accomplishments.
They got an official photo taken with the president, which they will cherish, no doubt, and a White House tour as well. The celebration all began last night with a black-tie dinner that will air on network television. You'll miss that because you have the good sense to watch cable.
One of the brightest stars, young Sarah Hughes, a kid from Long Island, New York, who, in a magical four minutes, dazzled the world on ice and changed her own life forever. She talked with us a bit about life as an Olympic gold medalist.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARAH HUGHES, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: The hardest part about being me? Oh, you know, I've learned everything is relative. And so, I feel silly sometimes saying -- I always feel silly if I say: "Oh, I don't want to take another picture," because one day, no one will even want a picture with me.
And so I can't really say that -- I'm really lucky to be able to say that I'm really enjoying my life and I'm really at -- I'm having the greatest time.
The parade was a great moment. I never believed I'd have that much that much support just locally. I was able to sit and wave to everybody. And it was nice because it was -- it was an effort by everybody that I was able to go to Salt Lake, even, not -- forget about even winning or skating great, but just to get there, to make the team. So many people had helped me. And so many people had put so much into me that it was our medal; it was our parade.
Yes, well, I realized no one has ever won from fourth place before. It was possible. And I knew it. But it was unlikely, highly improbable. And so that's what made it even more remarkable to me, because I was just sitting there. And when -- and I just wanted to move up one spot. I just wanted to have a bronze. But when I went out to skate, it's kind of like I forgot everything. And I just -- I knew this might be my only shot at the Olympics. And that's how I skated.
And I went out and -- I couldn't believe it. It was kind of like it wasn't me skating. My life has just been -- it's been a wonderful merry-go-round.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me present you with the key to the city.
HUGHES: Things have been happening very quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sarah Hughes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sarah, come over here.
HUGHES: I'm able to appreciate things, because every once in a while, you get caught up in it.
But when you step back and see just how fortunate you are, then it's -- it just makes me so happy. I want to continue with my education. And my parents have always stressed a lot of importance on always being educated, because that's something no one can ever take away. And so, I am trying to finish up 11th grade right now. I did miss a lot of school. And when I won, it kind of -- it positively disrupted my life.
It's hard to make a lot of decisions, because I see that now I might be able to do things that I am not going to be able to do in five years. But I'm trying to find -- trying to do everything and not get stressed out about it.
You know what? A gold medal doesn't bring happiness. Before the gold medal, I was very happy. I am very -- like I said, I am very fortunate to have a such a wonderful family and such a wonderful coach, and be able to go to school, and be able to skate and practice and perform in front of people. And the gold medal just opened a lot of doors for me, but it didn't really create happiness, because it's not -- if you don't have something else, then a gold medal really means nothing, if you just look at it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Sarah Hughes: "I'm just trying to finish the 11th grade."
I hope you do, in more ways than one.
That's the program for tonight. We are back here tomorrow. We hope you'll join us, too. I'm Aaron Brown in New York. Good night for all of us at "NEWSNIGHT."
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