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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Florida Girl Remains Missing; Israeli Considers Retaliatory Strikes in Gaza
Aired May 10, 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, NEWSNIGHT ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
We don't expect to find good news very often on the front page of the paper, but we found some today in a wonderful piece of reporting by Edward Coty (ph) of the "Washington Post." It seems the most radical forces in Gaza, those who organize, support, and execute suicide bombings, are having some second thoughts. Why, you ask?
Because the children of Gaza seeing all these posters honoring the suicide bombers, the martyrs as they're called, see all the attention they are getting, the way they're called heroes, seeing all that they'd come to think it would be pretty cool to be a suicide bomber too. Kill a few Israelis. Get yourself honored with a big poster and a lot of fuss.
So there are these three kids. They were 15, honor students it turns out, bought themselves a pipe bomb or two on sale on the streets of Gaza for two bucks each, then grabbed a couple of knives, left notes for their families saying they were going off to become heroes, and raced towards an Israeli settlement, knives and bombs in hand.
It turns out they were shot dead by Israeli security guards, who could not have known they were just silly little boys, because no boy armed with knives and pipe bombs can be considered silly and these boys, had they had the chance, would have become killers.
This is the sad part of the story, of course. Their deaths reports Coty, shocked the people of Gaza, shocked even Hamas, and this time it wasn't anger directed at the Israelis, but anger directed towards themselves. "What have we created" they are asking in Gaza.
So now, Hamas is running ads telling children not to do such stupid things and to turn in any friends who might be planning, to the extent that kids can plan, an attack so foolish. A dozen other kids have been stopped, their lives spared for the moment.
We were struck by this little bit of sanity in the insane Middle East. We would feel even better if Hamas should show just some concern, just a bit, for the children, the adults for that matter, who are the victims of the attacks they do sanction. That has not happened yet. We have a fair amount to cover in the Middle East tonight, but it is not the lead. Rilya Wilson is, the five-year-old lost in the system in the State of Florida, an infuriating story and it's where we begin the whip. Susan Candiotti is in Miami tonight, Susan a headline from you please.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, lie detector tests, one of two headlines this night. Two women who were very close to Rilya Wilson didn't do well on part of the test, and police make a startling announcement about other witnesses. And Part Two, no DNA match between Rilya Wilson and Precious Doe in Kansas City. Aaron.
BROWN: Susan back with you in a moment. America's worst spy sent off to prison, somewhat lucky that that's all Robert Hanssen is getting. David Ensor covered the sentencing, but the sentencing is just a small part of David's reporting, David a headline.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, Aaron. For the kind of treason Hanssen committed, he could easily have been sentenced to death, but the government made a deal for a life sentence if he would tell all.
Not everyone in the intelligence community is satisfied he's done that yet. Still, he was given the best sentence he could hope for. I'll tell you what Hanssen said today in court, and we'll take a look inside his head.
BROWN: David, thank you, and to the Middle East, of course, where one story ended, another seems poised to begin. Wolf Blitzer has the duty again in Jerusalem tonight, Wolf the headline from you please.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the end of the standoff in Bethlehem, but the Israelis must now make a major decision, whether to launch a military strike against targets in Gaza. There is now a huge debate that's raging in Israel, and that debate has enormous stakes for a lot of people involved. Aaron.
BROWN: Wolf, thank you, back with all of you shortly. Also ahead in the hour, their news tonight comes tonight from Cyprus, temporary home for more than a dozen Palestinian militants or terrorists, depending on how you want to frame it, how the media there is covering their story.
Also tonight Kyra Phillips on the savage legacy of lynchings in the south, a very powerful exhibit on display in Atlanta; we'll take a look at this tragic era of American life. Beth Nissen tonight, a cliffhanger that's operatic in more ways than one.
Will Pavarotti be a no-show at what was thought to be his farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera? As one tabloid put it, there are fears of a Pava-riot.
And a true Wall Street original, in a sometimes colorless business, you can't get more colorful than Jim Cramer. Don't adjust your sets. This is how he talks or at least you'll hear how he talks. Mr. Cramer joins us in a little bit. We've got a good hour ahead. We hope you'll stay with us. We begin it all in Miami, with what has become, for lack of a better phrase, the perfect Florida storm. The disappearance of Rilya Wilson has become a campaign issue. It is the focus of a criminal investigation, the latest outrage in a scandal over child welfare and the story nearly everyone in the State of Florida is talking about these days, as well they might.
The state lost this child. It is the failure of adults, of individuals and of a system. They lost her. They can't find her, and they seem to have a number of people who know more than they are saying. Again, here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice over): More than three weeks after Rilya Wilson was reported missing, police say there's no sign of foul play except that -
CARLOS ALVAREZ, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY POLICE DIRECTOR: Everybody that we've talked to doesn't seem to be telling the truth.
CANDIOTTI: Including the sisters taking care of the five-year- old. They showed deception on voluntary lie detectors tests on questions that did not deal significantly with the girl's whereabouts.
ALVAREZ: We've talked to this lady for a number of hours and we really don't know what's true and what's not.
CANDIOTTI: Self described grandmother Geralyn Graham told police she turned over Rilya to a woman who called herself a social worker, who wanted to run some tests. Graham denies any involvement.
GERALYN GRAHAM, GRANDMOTHER: I've never done anything violent in my life. I have never been involved in anything violent in my life. I would never hurt her.
CANDIOTTI: Graham's attorney says when both women voluntarily took the lie detector test; they had just been briefed about a possible link to a murder case in Kansas City.
EDARD SNOHAT, GRAHAM FAMILY ATTORNEY: She was extraordinarily upset, and I question the reliability of any polygraph test administered at or about the time that that news was delivered.
CANDIOTTI: For now, no one's being called a suspect. Kansas City police have now ruled out any link between the unsolved murder of Precious Doe and Rilya Wilson. DNA tests comparing the two cases prove negative; in Kansas City, disappointment.
There's not much I can say today that's going to bring anybody's spirits up. But like I said, the investigation still goes on.
CANDIOTTI: In Florida, renewed hope Rilya Wilson is still alive, but police are frustrated over a number of witnesses, including child welfare workers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have found out that they haven't been quite honest with us, and you know, are withholding some information and maybe telling us some things that really didn't happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Police are now offering a $25,000 reward to try to shake loose some new leads. In the meantime they say they are restarting their investigation from the time Rilya Wilson was born to the five years she has spent in Florida's troubled child welfare system. Aaron.
BROWN: Susan, thank you, Susan Candiotti on the Rilya Wilson story in Miami tonight. Implied in all of this is the question of who spoke for Rilya Wilson before she went missing and perhaps just as important, who now speaks for the 4,200 other Rilya Wilsons who are currently in Florida's child welfare system.
We're joined by Robert Steinback, a columnist from the "Miami Herald," who has an answer to those questions, though it is not an especially encouraging one as you can imagine. He joins us from Miami. It's nice to see you.
ROBERT STEINBACK, COLUMNIST, "MIAMI HERALD": Thank you.
BROWN: I guess the answer is if you're a five-year-old African- American kid in foster care, no one speaks for you.
STEINBACK: Yes, it's very difficult and one of the difficult things about this story is that there really are no good guys from the public's perspective. You have a troubled mother, who has a drug problem. You have a father who's in jail. You have child care workers who weren't doing their jobs properly. You have a family situation that was not good. Even the guardian had problems with her criminal past. So, there's no one really, there's no natural constituency that Rilya Wilson has.
BROWN: Would you guess that there are other Rilya Wilsons out there that the state perhaps is trying to locate some other lost children these days?
STEINBACK: I wouldn't be surprised. I would like to think that it wouldn't be a high number in any case. Hopefully, there weren't that many caseworkers who were doing what Ms. Maskeli (ph) was doing, which was not even showing up to do her job. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few others.
BROWN: Has it been known down there for a while that the child welfare system was something less than perfect?
STEINBACK: This has been a contentious issue in this state for as long as I've been here and that's 18 years now. In fact, I even think that that probably has something to do with what probably appears to a lot of people to be a rather muted public response. I mean you would expect there would be outrage, people in the streets almost about this sort of thing, losing a five-year-old child, but I think the perception is that this is an agency that is capable of doing that. And so, I think in some ways, I think that we're numb perhaps to a certain degree to the flaws of the Department of Children and Families.
BROWN: That is a more charitable explanation, I think, than the alternative which is, hey who really cares? It's not my kid. It's a poor kid, however else you want to frame it, and when we go back to the first thing we talked about is that this is not a child with any natural constituency at all.
STEINBACK: Well, I think that takes -- I think to put that interpretation on it would really require the public to be extremely cold to say "it's not my child and I don't care." I really don't think it's that people don't care.
I think people do care but I don't think they know who to blame yet, and keep in mind that I think some of the response is probably muted by the fact that we don't really know whether she's dead. There is still some hope, I think, that maybe she'll turn up some place and that might be holding down the response right now.
But I don't think it's that people don't care. I think they don't know who to blame. I don't think they know exactly how to correct the problem.
This is a very low taxed state. People are very proud of the fact that people don't pay a lot of taxes here, and any solution that would involve enhancing the Department of Children and Families would probably require more money.
So you have the politicians on one side, I would presume saying, "well we'd like to fix this but am I going to be the one to go in front of the public and say we need to spend more money?" Probably not.
And then you have on the other side, Jeb Bush who has been pushing in favor of privatizing many of these services, and yet there have been problems even with some of the private contractors that have been hired to handle some of these child welfare cases. So I think the public is really kind of confused. They don't know which way to turn.
BROWN: About a half a minute left. Do you expect it will be much of a political issue in the gubernatorial campaign down there?
STEINBACK: I'm sure it's going to come up but again I think there are political liabilities either way you go. I think the Democrats would run a risk of being considered heartless, trying to make political hay out of a tragedy, and I also think they'd be in a bind because probably any solution they would come up with would involve more money and they're very hesitant to challenge a popular Republican governor by suggesting more taxation. So it will be a political issue but it's not very clear how that issue's going to play out.
BROWN: I thought your piece the other day was terrific. Thanks for joining us tonight.
STEINBACK: Thank you so much for saying so.
BROWN: You bet, Robert Steinback, the Miami Herald on Rilya Wilson. On we go. A long journey today for the accused pipe bomber, Luke Helder, he left Reno, Nevada jail and arrived tonight to face charges in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; one of those charges, using bombs to maliciously destroy property, and the other to commit a crime of violence.
Helder turned 21 while authorities say he was planting 18 pipe bombs in five states. Six of them exploded wounding four postal workers and two residents of the State of Iowa.
Robert Hanssen blew up nothing. He planted no bombs and fired no shots, but in his quiet career, he may have done more to damage his country than many bombers, an army of them. Robert Hanssen's job was to catch spies. His crime, of course, was being one, and he learned today he'll spend the rest of his life in prison.
There are those, particularly in the CIA, who believe that it's too good for Hanssen, but then they can be a bit sensitive when their agents and their contacts get murdered because of a traitor.
We like here to avoid cycle babble, but here we must say Mr. Hanssen is not an easy guy to figure. Who is he? Which in Hanssen's case may be better said as, who are they? Once again, CNN's David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice over): Standing pale and gaunt in a green jailhouse jumpsuit, Robert Hanssen, Russia's 20-year mole inside the FBI, asked to speak.
"I apologize for my behavior" he said. "I am shamed by it. Beyond its illegality, I have torn the trust of so many. Worse, I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and our children."
No member of Hanssen's family was in the room, officials said, when the judge sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole. Later, Hanssen's lawyer was asked for many the central question about his espionage, why?
PLATO CACHERIS, HANSSEN ATTORNEY: There are a lot of complex reasons as to why he did it. I don't know that I want to get into them. What has been said is they were monetary reasons. They were ego reasons. There's a whole panoply of reasons. None of them are valid; otherwise, he wouldn't be here today.
ENSOR: Certainly, Robert Hanssen is complex. In fact, experts say, there is not one, but at least two Robert Hanssens, two entirely compartmentalized personalities, often with opposite views on any given subject.
Take espionage, Hanssen now tells interrogators: "I could have been a devastating spy I think, but I didn't want to be a devastating spy. I wanted to get a little money and to get out of it."
A little money? More than $600,000. Not a devastating spy? Not even his friends like former FBI colleague Paul Moore believe that one.
PAUL MOORE, CENTER FOR COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY STUDIES: His ambition is to play the spy game better than anybody's ever played it before. He wants to be the best spy ever.
ENSOR: Sex is another area where there are two Robert Hanssens, one who spent some of his spying money from the Russians on a stripper he picked up here, another churchgoing, devout, opus (inaudible) Catholic who spoke up when fellow FBI agents were planning a farewell for a colleague at a nude dancing bar.
MOORE: He was just tremendously against that, absolutely sincere. "You should not go to these places. It's wrong if you go to the places. It's a sin if you go to the places."
DAVID VISE, AUTHOR "THE BUREAU AND THE MOLE": Robert Hanssen put a secret spy camera in the bedroom of his home so that his best friend, Jack Hoshower (ph) could sit in the den and watch on the big screen TV, while Robert Hanssen had sex with his wife Bonnie.
ENSOR: A new book by Lawrence Schiller and Norman Mailer quotes Hanssen's friend Jack Hoshower saying: "The spy even suggested giving his wife Bonnie an illegal date rape drug, then letting his friend rape her. The friend demurred.
MOORE: There's a psychology that drove the whole thing and it's a sickness. It's a sick psychology.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (on camera): The Hanssen who apologized today, Hanssen the family man and patriot, understands only too well, friends and experts say, why the other Hanssen twisted sexual adventure and master traitor now faces life in prison -- Aaron.
BROWN: It is so bizarre. His family stands by him, do we know?
ENSOR: His wife visits him every week. They do stand by him.
BROWN: And...
ENSOR: They think he's ill.
BROWN: Well, an argument could be made. And, with the government, there is this debate within the government whether he has, in fact, told all.
ENSOR: There is indeed. There are those in the CIA and other agencies who do not think he has. They've now -- they've lost the big stick they had of threatening him with the death penalty, but nonetheless there will be lots more interrogations yet to come for him. Aaron.
BROWN: Well one must imagine that prison will not be a very pleasant experience all tolled. Thank you, David, David Ensor, National Security Correspondent in Washington tonight.
Later on NEWSNIGHT, we'll look at what might be an end in the arias. I love when we do these little word things. Also inside scoop on market ups and down. Commentator Jim Cramer is with us. Up next, the end of the standoff in Bethlehem, no word plays there tonight. It really did end. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We're right in the middle of yet another one of those uncomfortable pauses in the Middle East. The standoff in Bethlehem is over, the next Israeli military operation not yet begun. The delay apparently hinges on figuring out how to send forces into refugee camps that would make Jenin look safe by comparison, and it's not exactly going to be a surprise assault. So in Gaza today, there was more time to prepare, even a little time to celebrate; again CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice over): They received a hero's welcome when they arrived in Gaza, the 26 Palestinians who had been holed up inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity for more than five weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Thankfully, we left one of our own cities and came to one of our own cities, and hopefully we will return during better times when the circumstances are best.
BLITZER: But that joy in Gaza could quickly disappear if the Israeli army, as promised, launches a major strike in the coming hours or days. In Rome, for meetings with Italian officials, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres promised the operation would be limited in scope.
SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: We didn't have any intention to conquer Gaza or something like it, but really to reach a point where we have centers of terror.
BLITZER: But there's already some debate within the Israeli military and intelligence establishment over the expected Gaza operation. For one thing, critics say there's still no conclusive evidence the Palestinian suicide bomber who killed 15 Israelis Tuesday night and injured dozens of others, came from Gaza.
There is some indication he may actually have come from the West Bank, where the Israeli military recently wrapped up a month-long incursion. There's also concern that any Israeli operation in Gaza could result in numerous civilian casualties, given that the Palestinian refugee camps there have some of the highest concentrations of people anywhere in the world.
Beyond that, Palestinians in Gaza are clearly prepared to fight. They've had time to establish strong defenses including, Palestinian sources say, an extensive complex of explosives and booby traps. Israeli military planners fear heavy Israeli casualties.
Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat meantime attended Friday prayers in Ramallah, even as he's come under enormous pressure from the Bush Administration to clamp down on terrorism and corruption in his Palestinian Authority and impose democratic reforms. Arafat welcomed the end of the Bethlehem standoff.
YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: But what had been achieved is a very important step.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (on camera): And tonight, the Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Israeli television that Israel has decided to delay the start of any military action in Gaza. He cited all the news leaks by Israel cabinet members, but other Israeli officials are telling me that delay does not necessarily mean a cancellation. Aaron.
BROWN: Well, and in one respect, it's hard to imagine given all the build-up that they can cancel it. I mean what is the message there, if they don't go in at this point?
BLITZER: Well there's one of the issues is if they go in and Israel loses a lot of soldiers in the course of going into Gaza, that would be a huge, huge blow obviously for the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and one thing hovering over all of this current decision making process on his mind, this Sunday his Likud Party holds its big convention, the Central Committee. They meet in Tel Aviv, and he's facing a serious challenge from the former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and others with Italy are trying to embarrass Sharon by passing a resolution saying there will never be any Palestinian State on the West Bank of the Jordan. So, there's domestic politics beginning to play seriously on this decision making process.
BROWN: And, those in Israel who are not in Likud and who are not a members of political parties, is that their sentiment also that there should be no Palestinian State?
Or is there still that large body of Israeli society that's schizophrenic on this, that they'd like to see peace and the peace means a Palestinians state, but they recognize they have serious security issues.
BLITZER: There's a wide majority, according to all the public opinion polls in Israel, Aaron that would support what president Bush supports, namely a two state solution, Israeli living alongside a new state of Palestine, provided that the Israelis are guaranteed security. Right now at the same time, they don't have a whole lot of confidence. All the polls also showed they don't have a whole lot of confidence in Yasser Arafat as the leader of that new Palestinian state.
BROWN: Terrific job, Wolf, Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem again tonight. Thank you. It is a place where people are divided, ethnically and religiously, competing histories and claims to land, land about the size of Connecticut. Decades of violence that poisoned any hope for peace.
This time we're not talking about Israel. We're talking about Cyprus, the Mediterranean island torn between the Greeks and the Turks, the one serving as a way station for the 13 Palestinian militants, the Israelis call them senior terrorists, you can call them what you want, exiled from Bethlehem.
There's a certain amount of irony in the people of Cyprus, helping to end this kind of fight for someone else that routinely occurs in their own land. Irony to us, perhaps, but for the Cypriots, there is also pride, at least that's what we got out of watching some of their news today, as it aired in Nicosia, translated tonight from Greek.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT, CYPRUS TV (through translator): Cyprus becomes a bridge towards Europe and freedom for 13 Palestinians after the end of the siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Thirteen will remain in Cyprus for a few days. Nicosia's role was also important to the final resolution of the problem, strict security measures at Larnaca Airport and worldwide interest.
Five weeks and 35 minutes was the length of the journey of the 13 Palestinians towards freedom. Five weeks of confinement in awful conditions in the Church of the Nativity, and with the danger of the worst happening, both day and night, and 35 minutes from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to Larnaca Airport, the first stop in both their freedom and exile. Cyprus becomes a bridge to Europe.
The thirteen freed Palestinians arrived at Larnaca Airport a little after lunchtime on a British RAF Hercules C-130 aircraft, which had flown especially for this reason to Tel Aviv from the (inaudible) base. Cyprus found itself at the epicenter of global interest.
The arrival of 13 Palestinians on the island incited the interest of all the major news services all over the world. EUTV, CNN and Greek TV connected live to Cypriot TV and rebroadcast our station's program.
The hotel in Larnaca, in which 12 of the 13 Palestinians are staying, has been transformed into a fortress. For their safety, 100 policemen were recruited. The 13th Palestinian is being treated at a Larnaca hospital. He underwent surgery for the removal of a bullet in his leg, which he had had for 40 days. The Palestinian ambassador in Nicosia stated that all 13 have a high morale and believe that soon, they will return to their homeland.
Under unbelievable measures of security, the 13 Palestinians were transported to the Flamingo Hotel in Larnaca. The 13th was transported to Larnaca Hospital. For their protection 100 policemen were recruited. At the hotel where the Palestinians were staying, all the necessary security measures have been taken for their safe stay there.
As you can see, all the necessary security measures have been taken for their safety, and from our side, we'll try to make their stay as pleasant as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our job is to make their stay pleasant, while always taking into consideration their security. A whole floor had been cleared for the Palestinians. No one is allowed to approach unless they've been cleared.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: That is their news tonight from Cyprus. On Sunday, we'll have a contest to see if you can identify which NEWSNIGHT staffers are providing the translations here. Next on NEWSNIGHT, we'll go inside the Church of the Nativity. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A key part of the drama that went on in Bethlehem was the symbolism of the Church of the Nativity, that something like this could happen in such a sacred place.
Well, the truth is, the church has seen its share of turbulence and violence many times before. For centuries it was seized and defended by a succession of armies including Muslim and Crusader forces.
But knowing that doesn't make it one bit easier, seeing a place so holy to so many millions in the condition that it's in now.
We take a look inside with CNN's Walter Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This venerable old church, which has seen more than a few battles over the years between crusaders and Muslims, and between warring elements here in the Holy Land, has survived another onslaught -- this time surprisingly with little damage.
We had heard reports of bullet holes in the walls, but if you look at those frescos up there, there is no evidence that the Israelis fired in, and no evidence at all of Palestinian vandalism here as was previously reported.
Obviously, the Palestinians who lived in this church for 5.5 weeks -- and there were 200 of them at one point -- commandeered some stoves from the rectories and the priories next door, those being owned by the Franciscans and by the Orthodox priests. And you can see that cooking vats were brought in here.
Over here you can see a very large area, again, turned into sleeping quarters by the Palestinians.
But while it's messy, while it's trashy, while it's untidy and full of debris, again, we see no evidence at all of damage.
There's a crucifix there. If someone was going to be an iconoclast here, any of these icons along the walls might have been smashed. Again, that does not appear to have been the case.
In the grotto, where many Christians believe Jesus was born, a place revered, not a tile out of order. The sanctity of this shrine was also maintained.
Unfortunately, other buildings adjacent to the church did not fare so well.
This is the Franciscan priory adjacent to the Church of the Nativity just next door over there. This is where the fire was about a week ago when there was a sharp firefight between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
This is where we see the most of damage in the Church of the Nativity compound. You can see it was so hot, there's molten metal here on the floor. The walls are badly, badly scorched.
All the windows are shattered, and you can see just how very, very close this fire was to the Church of the Nativity -- about 40 or 50 feet over there, no more than a few meters.
That's how close we came to seeing a tragedy here in this ancient church.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Bethlehem.
BROWN: When NEWSNIGHT continues, memories of a terrible period in American history caught in black and white. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Thought the other day we were starting a bull market again. So much for that.
Later on NEWSNIGHT, has Pavarotti sung his last aria?
Also tonight, well, speaking of Wall Street -- I love how we do this -- I will talk with market commentator Jim Cramer about riding the highs and lows of Wall Street, not to mention his book.
Up next, a compelling portrait of an awful time in America's racial history. A terrific piece coming up as NEWSNIGHT continues after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: It's without a doubt one of the most haunting songs ever recorded, the strange -- do this right, Aaron -- the "Strange Fruit" of the South, immortalized by Billie Holiday.
A man lynched for no other reason than for being black. The imagery of the song is graphic -- but nowhere close to the reality of what actually happened in the South over so many decades.
That reality can be seen in a photo exhibit that has now opened in Atlanta. The strange and bitter crop that Lady Day once sang about. The pictures here -- we warn you now -- are not easy to take.
Here is CNN's Kyra Phillips.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILLIE HOLIDAY (SINGING): Southern trees bear a strange fruit, ...
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are images that will haunt you, teach you and remind you about a time where some of America's worst crimes against humanity took place.
MARY LOMAX (ph): What changed my mind was the Jewish Holocaust, where people say, oh it's not true there. It's propaganda.
I thought the same thing when I saw this. I said ...
PHILLIPS: Leon and Mary Lomax (ph) can relate to these brutal photos and post cards of lynching victims. They grew up around it. Their parents survived it.
LEON LOMAX (ph): It reminds of why my parents told me certain things about how to conduct my life. I didn't know it then, as a boy. But I can understand now what they were attempting to tell me, without saying what the consequences could be.
MARY LOMAX (ph): It's a part of our history, and it should be seen, and it's an emotional experience when you see, you know, to see what happened to so many people. A lesson to be learned from it.
PHILLIPS: "Without Sanctuary" will call you to witness a legacy of human cruelty and prejudice. It will move you and it will anger you, no matter what your color, no matter what your background.
Shaken and disturbed, England's Prince Andrew toured this exhibit with Martin Luther King Jr.'s family. He couldn't finish the tour. Neither could a number of other visitors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was very disturbing. It was -- some of it was hard to look at. Some of the stories were very hard to read.
But once again, it's necessary to educate yourself on this subject to, once again, to keep things like this from ever happening again. PHILLIPS: There was controversy about bringing these photos to Atlanta. The arts community battled over that decision for a year.
Some people thought these pictures were too graphic. Others worried it would open up old wounds by bringing people face to face with the dark side of the South.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the story of this country, and it must be told. To really understand the struggle for civil rights in the United States, you have to understand issues like lynching, segregation, slavery.
PHILLIPS: After the Civil War, this illegal mob violence of lynching became a party. Historians say it became a weapon of social control wielded against America's immigrant populations.
But as you can see by these horrific photographs, it became a way to terrorize black people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you go through the exhibition, it's really difficult not to examine yourself and to see, you know, how do I treat other people?
PHILLIPS: When you look at these pictures, you'll see the dignity of men like Frank Embry (ph), the pride of George Hughes (ph).
You will come to terms with a painful past, history and faces meant to provoke and to inspire -- inspire justice and reconciliation.
BILLIE HOLIDAY: ... Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can't help but get you thinking about your own attitudes toward your fellow man.
BILLIE HOLIDAY: ... Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: "Without Sanctuary" -- not easy to look at that. The exhibit is generating lots of discussions, as you can imagine.
Some controversy, as Kyra noted. You can hear from the owner of the photographs, why he decided to put this disturbing era on display.
Also meet one of the men who survived an attempted lynching -- this one in 1964. Goodness.
Tomorrow morning starting at seven o'clock on CNN, Saturday morning.
NEWSNIGHT will continue in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We went eight months in this program without doing any business stories, and we've done three in three nights. I'm not sure what's happening to us.
We'll back into this one a little bit. It started in New Jersey.
One of our producers is a dad who also happens to be an amateur expert in girl's soccer, and one day he happened upon another father whose coaching style involved shattering decibels turbo-charged, but still all in good fun.
It does seem Jim Cramer is the same at play as he is at work. Cramer is a legendary money manager and financial commentator. He is now also the author of a new book, "Confessions of a Street Addict."
And it is always nice to see him, and it is again tonight. Nice to see you, sir.
JAMES CRAMER, CO-FOUNDER, THESTREET.COM: Well, first, I have to just say, OK. Yes. There was one game where we ...
BROWN: Sure. It's always just one game.
CRAMER: ... yeah, where we -- where they scored -- New Providence scored three goals against us very fast like that. And I took the girls aside and said, you're letting me down. And three of them starting crying.
And I said, oh, no, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean like a Wall Street letting me down.
You know, you have to switch. I had to transition. Not easy. But anyway, ...
BROWN: I don't know. Did I ask you a question? Or did you just go off?
CRAMER: No, I just felt like, you know, it's true.
BROWN: OK.
CRAMER: I was screaming on the sideline. A lot of people thought that was wrong. But, we were four, four and one.
BROWN: Here's -- I have one book question, and then I want to talk about other things. OK.
Did you do an audio tape of the book?
CRAMER: Yeah, I did.
BROWN: Did you?
CRAMER: It was really a blast. I got to -- yeah, they try to make you do it in one sitting.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: It took me a couple of sittings. But it's really funny. Especially because, what they do is, they take a 320-page like I wrote, and they pick your 140 best pages.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: It's like, well, what happened to the other pages? Well, they weren't good enough to be in the audio book. They're only good enough to be in a regular book.
BROWN: And you do the audio in -- as Jim Cramer.
CRAMER: Right. But sometimes I have to play my wife's voice, you know, ...
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: ... and it's kind of awkward. It'd be like -- they would stop it and they would say, Jim, you are reading a quote that's from your wife. So you should be a little bit more lady-like.
And I said, well, that's just perfect. That's really my reputation. But you know, people like the audio stuff, so I do it.
BROWN: You see something in the pre-interview, and someone on the staff talked to you and asked you why you wrote the book. And you had this really interesting.
He said, the difference between, I think, success and failure was a millionth of an inch. What did you mean?
CRAMER: Well, what happened. There's a night when my firm's about to fail. And I'm like this legendary guy, you know, who doesn't think he's a clown. But of course thinks he's a clown, because anybody who's legendary should be as equally insecure as I was at the Pinnacle.
And it was '98. I had just had 11 straight years of just shooting the legs out of the market. And now everything's falling apart.
And I know that the only person who can really bail me out is my wife, because she traded with me for seven years, and she's the best there is, and she's steel when I can be rubber.
So I to her -- it's 2:40 at night -- and she says, why are you still awake? Because I can't -- I just fall asleep. I'm losing too much money. It's horrible.
And she says, do you need my help? I said, I need your help. You got to come in. You got to come in. I don't know what to do.
And she goes, I can't come in tomorrow. You see, I can't get a sitter.
And I said, well, you know, it could be over by then. She says, I can get a sitter on Wednesday. I'll come in. I'll come in. I'll bail you out. It'll be fine.
And she did. She did. And that's why I say, you know, like people think I'm a real successful hedge fund manager.
If the sitter hadn't come that day, who knows? Could have been wiped out.
BROWN: Did you -- did you like the money or did you like the action?
CRAMER: Oh, I like the action. But, you know, I liked it -- I like the action at the horses.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: I like the action in cards.
BROWN: And I saw you earlier watching the ball game. And I was just going to ask if you had ...
CRAMER: I had no money on that ball game.
BROWN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at the ball game.
CRAMER: I had no money on that ball game because Philadelphia teams aren't involved.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: And the one thing I'm -- the only games that I'm willing to bet on, you know, where I don't mind losing, is for Philadelphia, because that's where I'm from.
Otherwise no, because I have no ...
BROWN: Well, then, you've actually had quite a bit of experience losing.
CRAMER: I've been a consistent loser.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: Yes, because it just -- and it breaks my heart every time. I mean it really does. I mean last Friday night when I should have been watching your show, I was watching us lose to Boston, and it was very unnerving.
BROWN: Well I'm sure you TeVo-ed the program, and we appreciate that.
CRAMER: Well, yeah. TeVo is my middle name.
BROWN: What's your take on the Merrill Lynch research scandals?
CRAMER: OK. This is like the tobacco guys who for years, they would stand in front of Congress, say, listen man. We have no idea what you're talking about with that cancer stuff.
These guys would constantly say, look. We have no idea what you're talking about -- the taint (ph). This is honest, independent research meant for the retail customer to make you the most money.
Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general who understands the game as it's really played, found the smoking guns. I mean, he found these memos which just say, if you don't -- you don't pressuring me, I'm going to tell the truth about how bad these stocks are.
Those didn't -- you couldn't even sugarcoat them. I mean, like, I imagine the general counsel, when he met with the CEO of Merrill, he said, you know, I don't even have a way to spin this one.
BROWN: Yeah.
CRAMER: And the CEO didn't either.
BROWN: One quick question. We've got about 30 seconds.
Should a guy -- average person out there -- be buying individual stocks at all these days? Do they...
CRAMER: You have to have an hour a week that they can study, and they have to understand balance sheets, because all the bad stocks have crummy balance sheets.
The vast majority of people can't do that. I thought otherwise till a few years when the democratized the thing. My mistake. And I do the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in bulk.
BROWN: You know what I've always wanted to ask you?
CRAMER: Fire away, man.
BROWN: Did you read bedtime stories to your children? And do you do them in your voice? Or do you do them in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) voice?
CRAMER: OK. For my eldest ...
BROWN: Twenty seconds.
CRAMER: ... all right -- my eldest, I did it with a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ring (ph) book (ph) kind of talk.
My youngest, though, she's very wise, and it's the three things, man, bing -- really bad house, made of straw, see you later. Bricks -- can't beat it.
BROWN: What's the name of the book?
CRAMER: "Confessions of a Street Addict."
BROWN: Nice to see you.
CRAMER: OK. Good to see you.
BROWN: Come back again. CRAMER: Absolutely, my pleasure.
BROWN: A terrific closer for the night. Stay with us for another minute or so. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: All right. We're a little tight on time, so I want to show you something really quickly.
Here is the headline from the "New York Post" today -- "Fat Man Won't Sing."
Here's the story behind the headline. There is some controversy over whether Luciano Pavarotti will show up for his own farewell performance.
That is essentially the story. We could stop there. But why do that when we are blessed with Beth Nissen. And here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Luciano Pavarotti rehearsed this week at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he was accompanied by a chorus of rumors that his two scheduled performances of the opera "Tosca" would be the last of the aging and often ailing tenor's opera career.
Those rumors only increased when Pavarotti cancelled his first performance Wednesday due to the flu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beth Nissen from CNN.
NISSEN: All week, Pavarotti has been shrugging off questions from reports about his retirement. He is now 66. That's fairly old in opera years.
LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, SINGER: My father is 90, and he's still singing. Same voice.
NISSEN: His long-time manager repeated that refrain.
HERBERT BRESLIN, PAVAROTTI'S MANAGER: His voice will tell him when he -- when the time is for him to retire.
His voice will say, OK, Mr. P. You've had it. You can't sing anymore. But that's not the case.
NISSEN: Pavarotti can still sing, although critics say his legendary voice has dulled, weakened.
ANTHONY TOMMASINI, CHIEF CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC, NY TIMES: When he became the most famous tenor in the world, he started coasting on his fame.
The main thing he didn't do was just take care of himself and work hard all the time, just to keep himself and his voice in shape. He let himself go.
NISSEN: Pavarotti has struggled with his weight, with his health, with crippling knee and hip problems, that even after surgery have limited his movement.
On stage he sits and leans as often as possible. The tenor himself readily admits there is a body-voice connection.
PAVAROTTI: You wake up in good shape physically, you are going to sing well. If you are not in good shape physically, then it's trouble.
NISSEN: In recent years, Pavarotti has been doing fewer physically demanding staged operas, and more Three Tenors tours and popular concerts.
Next season, for the first time in more than 30 years, Pavarotti is not scheduled to perform an opera at the Met, or any major opera house.
His manager says that means nothing. If Luciano decides he wants to do another opera, he will.
BRESLIN: Opera houses, they tear up their schedule. If they -- they will find a place for him, because he is Mr. Opera of the 20th century, and even beginning of the 21st century.
NISSEN: Others question that.
TOMMASINI: I think at this point, major opera companies would be hesitant to clear their schedule for a performance by Luciano Pavarotti when he may very well not show up.
At best, at best he's unreliable. That looks like, you know, the de facto end of his stage career.
NISSEN: Many music insiders see an almost operatic tragedy in how the great tenor's career is playing out.
TOMMASINI: It's sad to see somebody stay too long and fade so publicly.
Some of the great nights in the opera house that I've had, you know, have been nights when Luciano Pavarotti was singing.
NISSEN: Similar memories are shared and will be cherished by millions worldwide, whether Luciano Pavarotti sings in one more opera or several -- or never again.
Beth Nissen, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We don't do enough opera on the program, do we.
Have a great weekend, a wonderful Mother's Day. That's our report for tonight. Good night for all of us.
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