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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Violence in Afghanistan Underscores Country's Instability; Defense, Prosecution in King Trial Rest, Teens Face Life in Prison

Aired September 05, 2002 - 22:00   ET

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

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. I am Aaron Brown.
Quite a story out of Afghanistan today, and we think, in a way, it is about Iraq, as well. It began in Kabul, powerful blasts that killed dozens of people. Soon after that, an assassination attempt on the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. Christiane Amanpour is covering the stories for us tonight. She will be along in a minute.

But we thought we would mention first a story she filed earlier this week that got a lot less attention. A story about international aid to Afghanistan, and how it is not getting to Afghanistan.

In January, the U.S. and the rest of the world promised nearly $5 billion over five years to rebuild that country. Just over a third of this year's portion has gotten there. But not one big development project, not a one has started yet.

Do not misunderstand. We believe Afghanistan is better and freer than it was before the United States and the allies took out the Taliban, in more ways than we could count. But clearly this job is far from over. Afghanistan was used and abandoned by the West more than once in the past, and we know what happened because of it: a poor, broken, chaotic nation became a launching pad for al Qaeda. And while Afghanistan today is freer, it remains poor and broken and chaotic, and the signs that it is getting better are hard to find.

It seems like the whole mess speaks to the Iraq debate in a way none of us should ignore: what would come after a war in Iraq. Who would take over, and how much are we willing to commit to making it, as some say, an oasis of democracy in the Arab world. How much "blood and treasure," as senator John McCain put it earlier this week. The United States does not have a great track record in going in and staying in for the long haul, and we have seen how it can hurt us later on.

We are not sure the question of what comes after a war was talked about at great length at a meeting today with the vice president and leaders of congress. We just hope it was.

We begin tonight, in Afghanistan. That is where the whip starts, and Christiane Amanpour is in Kabul. Christiane, it has been a while. Give us a headline, please.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, as you have just said, nothing less than the United States' entire strategy for the war on terror and stability in Afghanistan depends on Hamid Karzai and his government. On Thursday, today, it got a huge blow.

BROWN: Christiane thanks, good to have you back in the program. And we will be back with you shortly.

A troubling story tonight out of Utah: a possible intruder at a chemical weapons depot. Frank Buckley is in the Utah desert. Frank, a headline from you.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Aaron, that search for that possible intruder here at the Deseret Chemical Depot in the Utah desert continues. It prompted the sounding of a terrorist alert warning system here for the first time. In just a few moments, we are going to be speaking live to the depot commander, for an update on the situations -- Aaron?

BROWN: Frank, thank you. And the fate of two young brothers charged with murder is in the hands of a Florida jury tonight. The second trial held for the same crime, but different theories of the prosecution.

David Mattingly is in Pensacola covering that for us. So David, a headline from you please.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is sad, sad story. In closing arguments in this case, it all comes down to the confessions of two young brothers. Were they lying when they told police that they killed their father, or are they lying now when they say they did not? It is up to the jury now to decide.

BROWN: David, thank you. Back with you -- all of you, shortly.

Also coming up in the program tonight, from the 104th floor. A young filmmaker who collaborated with a 14-year-old writer to imagine the fate of a woman trapped high in one of the towers. This is very nice, but very difficult piece of work.

A question of faith for a nation shaken to the core a year ago. We will look at it religions through the eyes after woman who worked down at Ground Zero and finds herself deeply ambivalent about what to believe, what church and God mean to her now.

And they are eulogies more than they are obituaries. Ones written with great warmth, but also with a reporter's eye. Portraits of grief in the "New York Times" remembering the dead of September 11. Tonight, we talk with executive editor of the "Times" Howell Raines about a new book, and a remarkable year for the paper.

All of that in the hour ahead.

We begin with a day that underscored just how delicate things in Afghanistan; how shaky the peace, how plentiful the armed opposition, and how close the danger still is to the Afghan government and the American special forces who are still there protecting it. This is nation-building in a nation where things often come undone. And today, they very nearly did.

Here again, CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): President Hamid Karzai was in the Taliban's former stronghold of Kandahar to attend his brother's wedding. As he was leaving the governor's mansion, an Afghan in military uniform opened fire, wounding the governor but missing Karzai.

DR. ABDULLAH, AFGHAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Of course, this was clearly an assassination attempt on his life, and -- which we had unfortunately injured, other wounded and killed people in the spot. But, the assassination attempt on the president himself failed.

AMANPOUR: One of Karzai's Afghan bodyguards was killed in the shoot-out with the gunman, who was also killed. Shortly afterwards the U.S. airlifted president Karzai back to Kabul.

Karzai is protected by U.S. Special Forces. His survival and that of his government are considered vital to the U.S. war on terrorism, and the future stability of Afghanistan. The assassination attempt came after a massive car bomb rocked downtown Kabul Thursday afternoon. It happened in a crowded commercial area and caused heavy casualties.

Kabul's security chief said that first a cyclist set off a small explosion that quickly attracted onlookers. A few minutes later, once a large crowd had gathered, there was a second, much bigger and deadly explosion. Casualties were ferried to three hospitals in Kabul. Outside one, people, some splattered with blood, waited for news of their relatives, while a list of more than 40 wounded was posted on walls across the street.

(on camera): This is the worst incident in Kabul since the defeat of the Taliban last November. Officials had warned to be on the alert for any disturbances in the days leading up to the anniversary of September 11th. And already, some angry Afghan security officials are blaming Taliban and al-Qaeda elements, and a rival factional warlord who has promised to drive foreign forces out of Afghanistan.

AMANPOUR: Pending a full investigation, the government believes both the bombing and the attempt on the president's life are linked to Osama bin Laden.

ABDULLAH: Terrorists in these region are led by Osama and his associates. It would be right for me to say that the main suspects are terrorists led by Osama.

AMANPOUR: International peacekeeping forces rushed to the scene of the car bomb. Some 5,000 patrol Kabul. But, for months now, president Karzai and his government have been demanding the force be enlarged, and expanded around the country, to give Afghanistan a fighting chance at security and stability. (END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now Dr. Abdullah, the foreign minister, when he was holding his press conference said, that while they believe this is the work of remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda they do not think that these groups regrouped and pose a massive threat -- a long strategic threat. They are out there, saying we are still here, we can do these isolated incidents. That is why this government, again, will ask the United States, and the rest of the world, to help it bring proper security here, to stabilize this country, and also to allow reconstruction to start because reconstruction and security go hand in hand -- Aaron.

BROWN: Christiane, how much of the country does the government in Kabul actually control?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know the popular wisdom is that the government in Kabul does not control much beyond Kabul. However, that is not entirely true. They are going -- beginning to collect taxes, for instance, from Herat, other places. There is greater stability around the country than perhaps today's incident highlighted.

But what is really necessary here is to provide a guarantee of peace. And what the government here is saying is that it needs these stabilization forces, the peacekeeping forces, to provide a blanket sort of, security, a psychological security, to make sure these warlords do not come out of the woodwork again, to protect things just like roads. But to make sure that they guarantee the massive investment that the United States has made, and the massive investment that the Afghan people have now made, in peace and their pro-Western stance.

BROWN: Christiane, thank you. Christiane Amanpour in Kabul for us today.

President Bush's reaction to the chaos and the violence in Afghanistan was simple. "We are not leaving," he said. He was on the road when he said it, on a trip to raise money for republican candidates, but a trip also devoted to foreign policy, and especially what to do about Iraq. With polls showing many Americans do not yet have a clear picture of the administration's rationale for a war, the president came to educate and persuade.

Here is our chief White House correspondent, John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president led the administration's newly-aggressive sales pitch. First, in Kentucky, saying his views toward Saddam Hussein and Iraq are shaped by the painful lessons of September 11.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must anticipate problems before they occur. We must deal with threats it our security today, before it is too late.

KING: At his next stop, Indiana, Mr. Bush outlined the case he will make Friday when he calls three key voices on the United Nations security council -- the presidents of China, Russia and France.

BUSH: The world, cannot allow the world's worst leaders to hold America blackmail, to threaten America, to threaten our peace and friends and allies, with the world's worst weapons.

KING: But, in Cairo, more evidence of the administration's steep diplomatic challenge. Arab league ministers promised Iraq to oppose any U.S. military campaign.

AMRE MOUSSA, ARAB LEAGUE PRESIDENT: We believe it would open the gates of hell in the Middle East.

KING: At the pentagon, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and CIA director George Tenet discussed Iraq's weapons programs with about two dozen senators. Cheney and Tenet later traveled to Capitol Hill to brief the congressional leadership. Before that meeting, the senate's top democrat said he was not convinced the threat was urgent enough to justify preemptive military strikes.

SEN TOM DASCHLE, (D) MAJORITY LEADER: That is why I say, give us the facts, give us a far better appreciation of the circumstance involving Iraq. And that may be one of them. But that case has not been made so far.

KING (voice over): But, after, Senator Daschle called the briefing very helpful, and said many of his questions were answered. The senate's top republican says lawmakers already are discussing language of a resolution backing the president.

(on camera): Administration officials involved in those talks say it will take perhaps two more weeks to settle on language addressing potential military strikes, and these officials say, are open to a suggestion from some lawmakers. That, if Mr. Bush does decide on the military option, that he schedule a speech to a joint session of congress to make his case.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: One other quick and somewhat peculiar note on Iraq tonight. Scott Ritter, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, is planning to go to Baghdad. He tells CNN tonight, that while there, he will address the Iraqi parliament and meet with Iraqi officials. Ridder has been opposing an attack on Iraq, saying there is not now enough evidence to warrant it.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the latest on a possible intruder at a chemical weapons depot in Utah. That and much more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)

BUCKLEY: ... sir, give us an update on the situation.

COL. PETER COOPER, DEPOT COMMANDER: Just recently we just finished our sweep of the depot, looking for this individual. We swept the entire depot and did not find anything. So, tonight we will continue to be vigilant, and in the morning we will probably transition back to normal operations.

BUCKLEY: How concerned should people be? You have thousands and tons of mustard, blister agents, nerve agents here, that you are in the process of destroying? How concerned should people be about what has happened here, the breach at least in the outside perimeter of the security?

COOPER: They should not be concerned at all. The outside perimeter is actually a boundary. It is the demarcation of federal property. The real security is inside. That was -- this individual never got closer than about a kilometer and a half from that area. And the fact that we found him, and the fact that we chased him that means our security system was working well.

BUCKLEY: And important to get to the point, that none the agents then were compromised. Is that correct.

COOPER: No, he never even gotten close to the chemical storage area at all, so nothing at all.

BUCKLEY: As we approach 9/11, people are on edge, some people are. You have instituted new systems like this terrorist alert warning system since 9/11, is that something that will stay in place, will security continue to be beefed up, or beefed up even more as we approach this anniversary date.

COOPER: The security system as we saw today is that our security system worked, the alert system worked. And I think we will continue what we will doing.

BUCKLEY: OK. Colonel Peter Cooper, thanks very much for your time this evening. Aaron, that is the latest, they have ended the search here, in the Utah desert. Expect to return to normal operations some time in the morning. Aaron

BROWN: Frank, thank you. Frank Buckley out in the Utah desert tonight.

Onto Pensacola now. And the story of one murder, two trials, two theories of the case. A jury now has the case of two very young brothers on trial for murdering their father. A man accused of molesting at least one of them, actually went on trial last week for the same crime, not charged as an accomplice, but under a different theory of the case. Prosecutors said he was the actual murderer. The only simple thing in this all is that prosecutors are wrong about one case or the other, both cannot be guilty.

But one jury has already reached a verdict, it is sealed, and the other now has the case, and it is possible that we could get two guilty verdicts, which means one jury got it wrong. Once again, CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID RIMMER, ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: You should judge them by their actions, not their ages. By their intent, not by your emotions. I am asking you to find them both guilty as charged.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Point at closing arguments in an emotionally conflicting case. Did the boys, Derek and Alex, as prosecution describes, become so desperate to leave home, that they killed their father to escape what one described as prison. Or, was it family friend and convicted child molester, Ricky Chavis, driven, according to the defense, to strike the killing blow, so he and young Alex could continue a sexual and emotional relationship.

JAMES STOKES, ALEX KING'S ATTORNEY: He was seduced by Ricky Chavis.

MATTINGLY: One big question for the jury, what about the compelling confession from the boys, full of astonishing detail. Orchestrated by Chavis, argues the defense, to protect himself.

STOKES: He convinced them, that because they were juveniles, and because they were so abused, that they would get off.

MATTINGLY: But the graphic detail in the brother's confession, argues the prosecution, reveal things only the true killer could know and recall.

RIMMER: If in fact, he was the killer, as defense counsel would have you to believe. Why would he give all those gory, grisly details. All he has to do is say, there was fighting. I killed your dad. I did it for you. As a matter of the fact, since he loved Alex, he would spare Alex. He would spare Alex that trauma of all those details.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: The jury begins deliberating in the morning. That is one week to the day that another jury in this same courthouse reached a verdict in the murder trial of Ricky Chavis. As you said earlier, Aaron, that verdict has been sealed. We will find out what happened there after we find out what happens to the brothers.

BROWN: And just to be clear here, the jury in this case, the current case, the case of the two boys, does not know, at least in the context of the trial, does not know of this other case, correct?

MATTINGLY: That is correct. They are operating in the dark of what happened with the other jury, and they are operating independently. They are going to make up their own mind at whether or not these brothers are guilty of this murder.

BROWN: David, thank you. And we say in the context of the trial, because it is certainly conceivable that they know about the case. Those things happen. David Mattingly, thank you.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight, their stories. The "New York Times" portraits on grief collected into a single book. We will talk with the executive editor of the "New York Times," Howell Raines. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Two weeks after September 11, the Sunday afternoon, there was memorial service at Yankee stadium. And one the speakers that afternoon, Rabbi Mark Gelman (ph) said one those simple sentences that lived in our brain ever since. In speaking of those who died, rabbi Gelman said, do not think of this as 3,000 people who have died. Think of one person who has died 3,000 times.

We were reminded of that today as we sat down with Howell Raines, the executive editor of the "New York Times." The paper over the months since the attack, profiled every victim, not 2800 deaths, but one death, 2800 times. These were all individuals, each with a story, a life, a family, hopes, and dreams. The "Times" is now assembled all of this in a book, "Portraits 9/11/01." And we talk with Mr. Raines about this wonderful piece of reporting this afternoon.

How did you decide that you wanted to take these 2800 names and give them life?

HOWELL RAINES, EDITOR, "NEW YORK TIMES": It was not a decision, Aaron. It was a process that grew organically from the journalistic problems of dealing with the loss of life and the number of missing people after the events of 9/11. In the first couple of days, we indeed could not get confirmed deaths because so many were missing and unaccounted for. And the last thing we wanted to do was to carry someone as dead who might be in the hospital somewhere, unable to contact.

So it started out as portraits of the missing, and two or three days we were running up into this terrible problem of getting confirmed information. So we sent our reporters out, Christine Kay (ph), one editors and Johnny Scott (ph), one of the reporters, had idea of going into the city around Manhattan, and looking at the posters calling the numbers on the posters, and writing little snapshots of the individual. Not as obituary, because at that time we still had hope that many of these people were alive.

And so that -- from that approach of trying to cope with the information problem of finding people who were lost, came the idea of writing something that was not a formal obituary, but a snapshot of a person living their life up to this moment of abrupt change that we all experienced.

BROWN: And at what one point did you come to realize -- first of all, how many people over the course of the year worked on it?

RAINES: We calculated about 150. It became, in fact, kind of emblem of pride in our staff. That even our senior correspondents who probably had not written this kind of journalism in 10, 20, 30 years wanted to be part of this effort.

BROWN: Because it was the story of our lives?

RAINES: I think so.

BROWN: And everybody -- I do not mean this any crass way -- everybody wanted a piece of it. And that was an important piece?

RAINES: I think also it was cathartic for the journalist. This was -- as you and I have discussed before, this is story unlike many others we have dealt with. Not only was it in New York, in our own yard. But also it was the first time our country has been attacked directly in over half a century. I think it was a way of participating in both the journalistic and emotional side. And one of the things I will never forget is seeing our reporters sitting at telephones interviewing people with tears rolling down their cheeks.

BROWN: Do you worry about them when they were -- when they got that emotional? Did you have concerns about that?

RAINES: In terms of their journalistic distance from the subject?

BROWN: Yeah.

RAINES: Not really. I would have been more concerned if they were kind of, clinically unreactive. And as you and I know, and as our viewers and readers know, part of our job is to have professional attachment. But there is difference between being detached and being out of touch with the emotional content of a great event like this, a horrible event, but a huge event.

BROWN: One or two more things on the book and idea. At what point did it become clear to you that this was something that your readers almost demanded of you?

RAINES: That was gradual. Looking back, it is hard to put a specific time on anything that happened last fall, because it was such a blur for all of us in our profession. It became clear early on, that we were getting a tremendous national response and local response.

John Landsman, our metro editor who was a key figure in developing this, like to say that, to our surprise, these portraits became a kind of national shrine, where people, I think, were able to get information, but also to release emotion and experience emotion that was difficult to deal with. The clues came pretty quickly then. For example, the Portland paper ran our exact page every day in their paper, and their ombudsman, about a month in, wrote a column that said, this is a New York event, after all, and while these are touching, do we here in Portland want to devote this much space to a New York story. And they were inundated with letters of protest saying, do not stop running them. And they ran the entire series.

BROWN: It is a reminder, I guess, for those of us here, and in other places too. That this is not a New York story. RAINES: Yeah.

BROWN: This was -- this is the great national...

RAINES: Yeah.

BROWN: ... no matter where you lived, you were moved by this. Has 9/11 changed The "New York Times"?

RAINES: Interesting question. Not fundamentally. I mean, I think what we do, the kind of journalism we do, the information journalism aimed at a quality information audience, is fundamentally the same. I think it has brought us into closer contact with our readers, and I think it has made us more a national paper, at the same time that we're more deeply routed in our New York community.

BROWN: Give me 20 more seconds on this. Tell me how that could be so. Because it seems contradictory?

RAINES: Yes, it does, I suppose. I think one thing that happened, one, 45 percent of our circulation was already national, that is, outside tri-state area, before this, and remain so to this day.

But I think something had happened as a consequence of 9/11, was that the country began to see New Yorkers as not separate, as not the other, as not different. As people who went through what I like to call the subtle nobility of daily life, going to work, taking the kids to school, coaching Little League, having backyard barbecues.

And I think it really impressed upon the nation how much like the rest of the States New York and our area is. I think it impressed New Yorkers how much feeling Americans have for this place, and this city.

BROWN: You don't need to tell you the paper, over the last year, has been extraordinary in how it's reported all of this. It's always a joy to read the paper, but it's been something else for the last year.

RAINES: Thanks you very much.

BROWN: Thanks for coming in.

RAINES: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you.

Howell Raines, executive editor of "The New York Times".

It is, you know, we're talking so much about 9/11 this week. This is just this just one of those special little books. We'll say no more about it.

We have more tonight, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: One of the blessings of this program has been to introduce the work of some very talented people struggling to come to terms with the 11 of September. A blessing, I suppose, but also a curse, because it tears your heart out each and every time. This is one of those times.

Next Monday at 8, Showtime will present a series of films called "Reflections From Ground Zero." It's the work of students, past and present, at New York University's School of Arts. Here's an excerpt of one of the pieces called, "From The 104th Floor".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): You have to believe that I tried. I'm not the one to give up.

Back at my desk I rescue the rolling pen, stare at the black screen, and hold my picture of you. I look out at the blue morning, I expect to see God there, but what I see is another plane. And I know what it means. But I don't know why.

I always thought that life was full of choices. It always has been, what to wear, what to eat? Who to love? And you know who I choose.

Now my choices have been taken away from me. The men in the planes have narrowed them down to two, death by fire, or death by fall. I see the smoke rising, filling the room, it's hard to breathe.

I look out the open window. What would falling feel like? I remember the roller coaster at Coney Island, the wind tugging on my hair. How good it felt to scream. The feeling in my stomach and how all the way down, I was with you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The filmmaker, Serguei Bassine is with us, so is Matthew Blank, who is the chairman and CEO of Showtime.

We have a lot to cover and not much time. There's great and interesting back story to how this came to be. This child, this 14- year-old who wrote the poem, that you made this film, is the friend of a friend, right?

SERGUEI BASSINE, DIRECTOR, "FROM THE 104TH FLOOR": Yes.

BROWN: And you and she essentially watched this unfold together back in September?

BASSINE: Yes, well, actually I was not with her on the day it happened. I was helping a friend of mine in his garage when it happened. When I came home and I saw her. And we saw this thing unfolding on TV. She actually refused to watch TV that day.

BROWN: No, stupid child that. And at some point, thereafter, she sent you the poem. You said I'm going to take these words. Now, why did you decide to animate? What was your thinking?

BASSINE: A lot of people ask me that question. But, you know, she was 13 when she wrote it. And then I imagine that the best way to deal with that material is to -- is through animation, because, you know, she's kind of a little bit immature. You know, she's a child.

BROWN: That's such a terribly mature thing that she's dealing with. Not just the tragedy of 9/11. But specific tragedy of being trapped, and knowing you're trapped, and how she imagined that, and the words she wrote. It's hard to imagine a 14 year old processing that.

BASSINE: Well, you know, she has a great imagination. I guess, some images she saw made her, you know, think about those people. Because you know, also the exterior of those towers, I never would have imagined how the interior looked. Taking animation as a tool to show that tragedy from inside, I think was the only way.

BROWN: Just one or two more quick questions. Have a couple things for Matthew. How long was the film in total that you did?

BASSINE: It's about three minutes.

BROWN: About three minutes. How long did it take you to work on those three minutes?

BASSINE: Four months.

BROWN: You didn't do the drawing? Someone else do the drawing?

BASSINE: No, I hired people to do the drawing. I present them with some storyboards and we worked around it.

BROWN: Matthew, how many films did you get in this project? You had several...

MATTHEW BLANK, CHRMN & CEO, SHOWTIME NETWORKS: We had several proposals and we actually produced nine films.

BROWN: And so, it's in an hour, or half hour?

BLANK: It's a two-hour show.

BROWN: Two-hour show.

BLANK: Two-hour show. Serguei's film is a short film, but there are some much longer films.

BROWN: Tell me why in the -- I mean, look, we're all doing 9/11 stuff, and there's ton of stuff out there. Why does Showtime spend the money and think this is the right thing to do?

BLANK: I think you said it. So many people are doing it. We're all doing it. And we were approached with an opportunity, from the Tisch (ph) School, at NYU, of course, for film students, and recent graduates of Tisch, to make films, which expressed their feelings.

And remember, these are students in a school, in a well-known university, in Lower Manhattan. So, we felt it was part of their lives, and the experience was part of their lives, it was terrific opportunity to see how they felt and how they expressed those events.

Serguei's film is particularly interesting piece of film. But also, you know, the reveal on the film is the girl is 14 years old. I think the animation pays that off. In each of these films we saw something special. Some sort of reveal that expressed someone's emotion about September 11.

BROWN: We have probably a little bit less than a minute. How does a network like Showtime look at a project like this? Is it in - does it matter if it's -- I don't know how you measure commercial success, here. But does it matter if it's commercially successful?

BLANK: No, and I think the great thing about a lot of the work, beyond for 9/11 in general, is for an industry that's, you know, fairly commercial, you're seeing a lot of work that maybe commercial success was not first thought. That was certainly the case with us.

We thought this was an opportunity to see some very, very special pieces of work from some filmmakers who would take risks, that others might not take. And I think we saw that in every one of the films: Someone took a risk. And in most cases that risk really paid off.

BROWN: Are you happy with the way film turned out? Does it touch you in the way that you wanted it to?

BASSINE: Yes. I think the film works. Next time, I could have done better, of course.

BROWN: We all say that, all the time. I thank you for coming in. Congratulations, a really interesting piece of work.

This is a terrific project for you guys.

BLANK: Thank you.

BROWN: It's on Showtime, on Monday?

BLANK: September 9, at 8 p.m., and then again on the 11th at 5:45.

BROWN: Thanks again, for coming in, very much.

BLANK: Thank you.

BROWN: Before we go to break: A couple of quick items from around the country, we need to get in tonight. Starting with tighter airline security for the 11th. Passengers on flights in and out of New York and Washington will have to stay seated for a half hour after takeoff and also before landing The 30-minute rule was already in effect year-round on flights out of and into Reagan National in Washington, D.C.

The Senate today, approved a plan allowing pilots to carry guns, the vote 87 to six. Lawmakers in the House approved a similar measure in July. Then earlier this week, White House dropped opposition to idea. Six months ago this did not seem like it had a chance of passing; it sailed through today.

The president is smarting tonight over the rejection of one of his nominees for federal appeals court seat, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owens. Mr. Bush called the Senate Judiciary Committee's party lines vote shameful. Democrats objected to what they called Judge Owens record of anti-abortion and pro-business activism from the bench.

Senator Phil Graham, a Republican from Texas, called her the most qualified person who has ever been turned down. And this, he said, isn't the last word on the subject.

Tough day in Washington. Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, trying to keep the faith when you've lived through the worst. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We've been struggling a little bit, this week, with trying to balance looking forward and looking back. And the pictures you're about to see from Ground Zero help us out in that regards. They are clearly forward looking. The Winter Garden was one of those rare architectural survivors in the are of Lower Manhattan. Damaged badly after the North Tower collapsed, but it remains standing. And, today, the atrium was declared fully restored.

Doesn't that look pretty today. A great thing to see, though it's hard not to notice one difference: so much light without the shadows of the Trade Center Towers blocking the sunlight.

Ground Zero, these days, could be mistaken for a construction site, until you come across something constructed by workers out at the two beams. You've seen this very often over the year, a cross.

The question of faith is fascinating one for us to follow in the last year. In broad way and in an intensely personal way. People like Lisa Beamer have leaned on their faith, even gained strength through it. Others say that they have literally yelled at God. Most of the rest of us, it seems, live somewhere in the middle.

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BROWN (voice over): It was the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson who once wrote: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." And, what lies within us was one of the things tested by the tragedy of September 11.

RABBI HAROLD KUSHNER, AUTHOR, "LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS": What we have gone through, as a nation, is very similar to what an individual goes through when trauma happens in his or her life. I do not believe that what happened on September 11, was the will of God. I believe it was the action of some very evil people who choose death over life, and who distort religion to fanaticism.

KIM IRVING, Ground Zero EMS WORKER Maybe God was there and put me there for a reason. He put me there to help other people and to take some of their pain.

BROWN: Kim Irving is 38, a mother of four, a rescue worker from Cranberry, New Jersey.

IRVING: We didn't realize we were going into the city until we were going through the tunnel. And it was like a cold rush that went through my body. We ended right at Ground Zero.

BROWN: For the next 48 hours, she worked in a place that was surely hell on earth.

IRVING: I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with what we had seen, and the smell, and the noise. It's just too much to take in at one time. It was almost surreal. You know, it was dark when we were there. They had big lights up. And you could see all the smoke in the background. And it was like a movie set. It was just so big. It just didn't seem real.

BROWN: A year later, and for reasons she cannot yet explain, she struggles with issues of God and church, giving up one, while trying desperately to hold on to the other.

IRVING: It's hard to explain. I'm just not comfortable being in a -- being in public and being in church right now. I'm much more comfortable reading scripture on my own, doing prayer on my own. I've had many conversations with my pastor. I'm just not comfortable being in that setting with the services at this time.

ROB IRVING, HUSBAND: It's affected the kids, because the kids question why she's not going. And the kids think it's OK not to go, so that part has affected them. But, I think, with her not going I would rather her be away than have more of a negative affect, because she's unhappy being there, and the kids seeing that.

REV. RICHARD KUNZ, KIM IRVING'S PASTOR: When that faith gets shaken, it's a difficult thing, because it's thought out. It's something that's been proven over many generations, and how you get back to it? I think you just try different things, and if the faith is legitimate, eventually you'll find it.

BROWN: Sometimes, though, not always, the changes wrought by 9/11 can be quantified.

ANDREW KOHUT, DIRECTOR, PEW RESEARCH CENTER: The poll conducted on September 12, the national poll, 67 percent of Americans said that 9/11 was more serious than Pearl Harbor. One year later, we have the same numbers saying it was either as serious, or more serious.

BROWN: And sometimes, though, not always, numbers also tell us that life is returning to the way it once was.

KUSHNER: I would have expected we go back to normal. There was a need to be with other people at worship in the weeks following 9/11, the way there was a need on that Friday evening in 1963, after John F. Kennedy was killed.

BROWN: But numbers, while useful, tell us only so much. How do you quantify a broken heart, or one person's shaken faith?

IRVING: I keep saying I'm going to go back. I just haven't, yet. I'll know when the time is right. I feel like I built these walls up, I don't want anybody too far in, because I just don't want any more hurt. I don't want any more pain.

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BROWN: From the many changes in our lives. Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a great character and some great photographs, "Segment Seven" when we come back.

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BROWN: Finally from us tonight, we have dozens and dozens of e- mails last night and today, thanking us for piece that brought together the sounds of 9/11 and the extraordinary still photos from Reuters. Many of you said you were moved to tears. And clearly, you were not alone.

Tonight some more photographs, in this case, a small slice of American history. And this case they should make you smile and so should the guy who took them. A photograph's story tonight, from CNN's Bruce Morton.

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BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marion Warren has been taking pictures for more than 60 years. Started in the Midwest, shot everything. These waitresses taking some time off in the water. Realized he might be special when world famous photographer, Edward Stipend (ph) looked at these dancers, 1941, and said, Shoot like this and you could be great.

MARION WARREN, PHOTOGRAPHER: Wow, boy, did that light me up! But then, I had to figure out what he saw in the picture.

MORTON: The secret, Warren decided, was in catching a moment, a flash of reality, not a subject staring in a camera. These folks waiting for a parade, for instance.

WARREN: When the first band came over the hill, their attention wasn't on me anymore. They were looking at the band.

MORTON: After World War II, Warren settled in Annapolis, Maryland. And he's been shooting the town, the water, the watermen, ever since. Well, one shot of the Eiffel Tower on a day when the light was odd. But mostly stuff here, a man crabbing, a man cooking crabs, tobacco, boats and sky, children and grown-ups. Real things.

WARREN: Photography, is the only form that can really record life as it is.

MORTON: His favorite photograph? He doesn't say. His most famous, no doubt about it, is this one of Chesapeake Bay Bridge back in 1953, when there was just a single span.

WARREN: It took me seven different trips out to that bridge to get the lighting that I wanted.

MORTON: He had to learn which months the moon was right. His daughter and collaborator thinks he should be more famous, but knows why he isn't.

WARREN'S DAUGHTER: To be really a well-known photographer you need somebody to promote you. And he's just too busy taking photographs and enjoying himself.

MORTON: He's 82 now, had colon cancer, had heart problems, is facing throat cancer surgery, full of life and joy.

WARREN: I don't get out as much as I used to, but I still get quite a bit done.

MORTON (on camera) And you still love it?

WARREN: Oh, I love it.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Annapolis, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night from all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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