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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

D.C. Area Sniper May Have Struck Again; Simon, Davis Stumble in California Gubernatorial Race; Remembering Cuban Missile Crisis

Aired October 11, 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, HOST: Good evening, again. I'm Aaron Brown.
One last night in Los Angeles for us, and a couple of good California stories along the way. There is, of course, Iraq and the sniper story, too, to report tonight. And they will take their rightful places at the top of the program.

But it's another story that is rich with both history and contemporary meaning that has been on our minds some today. Forty years ago, we as a country stood on the brink of nuclear war. It is just that simple. The Cuban missile crisis is being remembered in Havana this weekend and on this program tonight.

In our mind, it all played out in black and white. The president's speech, Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations, shots of U.S. ships blockading Cuba, all in black and white. As black and white as the issues seemed to a 13-year-old in small-town Minnesota.

What struck us today is how blindly we believed that the young president of the United States would somehow solve this short of nuclear war with the Russians. Today, those 13-year-olds in small towns have seen far more than we could have imagined or wanted. They have seen September 11, for one, in vivid horrible color.

Then it was Cuba and the Russians and the Cold War. Today, it is Iraq and terror.

Then we were so absurdly innocent, we believed in happy endings. Today, we know there is little innocence left in 13-year-olds and happy endings are the things of fairy tales. As terrifying as things were 40 years ago, we liked it better then.

We begin with the top of the news tonight, and the top of the new is, again, the sniper, the person out there or people out there killing in the Washington, D.C. area. And they did so again.

Ed Lavandera is on the story. He is in Virginia tonight. Ed, a headline please.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, ATF analysts are working on ballistic evidence taking from this crime scene at another gas station. The scene of a shooting this morning. And in about 12 hours, we could know for sure if, again, this has been the work of the D.C. area sniper -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ed, thank you. We'll be back to you at the top.

More on the investigation and how life has changed on the East Coast. Kathleen Koch is on that for us again, as she has been all week. She's in Rockville, Maryland. Kathleen, a headline from you, please.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, new graphic details on the case that were due out from the FBI have now been delayed. That, while going to buy gasoline now has suddenly become something very frightening. Back to you.

BROWN: Kathleen, thank you. Back to L.A. now and a bit of politics. All the stumbles in the race for a governor here; plenty of those. Jeff Greenfield on that. Jeff, your headline, please.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Aaron, this should be the biggest prize of all this fall, who gets to govern the most populous state in the nation. But with less than a month to go, it seems to being come down to a case of which of these candidates the voters will dislike less.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you.

And, remembering the Cuban missile crisis. Lucia Newman is in Havana. Lucia, the headline from you, please.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, 40 years after that Cuban missile crisis, the surviving protagonists are here in Havana to discuss what happened and what lessons can be learned from that experience, at a time when war drums are again beating around the world.

BROWN: Lucia, thank you. Back to you and the rest in just a moment.

And coming up on the program tonight, a former president is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on a day when the current president gets the formal go-ahead from Congress to take action in Iraq, if necessary. The timing intriguing, but the award itself for former President Jimmy Carter may also be long overdue.

And a visit to a California ghost town. The town, if you can call it that, is Manzanar. And the ghosts are thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans confined there during World War II. A story that speaks to the past and, perhaps in some ways, to the present, as well. It is a busy hour this last night in Southern California.

We begin tonight with the immediate present. With the sniper still out there, and the death toll still growing. Last night we asked how police could catch him or her if all of a sudden the shootings just came to a stop.

Tonight, it is tempting to hope for just that tradeoff. No killer, but no more killings either. Just the same, we're reasonably certain police will not give into that temptation. We have two reports tonight. We begin with CNN's Ed Lavandera at the scene of what may well be the latest shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): A 53-year-old man was killed as he stood at an Exxon gas station in Fredericksburg, Virginia around 9:30 a.m. The killing took place as a Virginia state trooper was working a traffic accident across the street.

MAJ. HOWARD SMITH, SPOTSYLVANIA SHERIFF'S DEPT.: I don't think he saw anything. He was working the traffic accident. He heard the shot. He was directly across the street.

So it probably took him less than a minute to get to the victim. He came directly across the street to the victim and assisted the victim until the rescue squad arrived on the scene.

LAVANDERA: Two major roadways were shut down as police launched an intensive search for a white Chevrolet Astro minivan, like this one with a ladder rack.

SMITH: We are looking for a white van that may have had a ladder rack on top of it. We do not know -- and I stress -- we do not know if it was involved in the shooting or not. It was seen in the area by several people. And we do want to talk to those people in the van.

LAVANDERA: This attack, like the last three sniper shootings, took place less than a mile from a major highway. Dozens of people were in the area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see the guy who got shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we didn't see the guy who got shot. We heard the noise, a loud banging noise, like a rifle noise.

LAVANDERA: Around the gas station, investigative teams hunted for clues and evidence, at one point putting a piece of paper in a plastic bag, although police won't talk about its significance.

SMITH: Any time we get a shooting right now, we're going to treat it as if it's connected to this case until it's ruled differently.

LAVANDERA: Ballistic evidence from the Exxon gas station was taken by helicopter to an ATF lab in Rockville, Maryland, to determine whether the shooting was the work of the D.C. area sniper. Every hour, about a thousand tips poured into the FBI hotline. Authorities are considering beefing up the operation. More than 60 phone lines sometimes haven't been enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: You saw the video images of Virginia authorities pulling over people driving white minivans. And authorities here in Virginia can say that will continue to happen in the days ahead as they continue to look for this killer. Now, of course, it's the sniper that's been getting so much attention. But, of course, it's important to remember that behind all of these shootings there are victims and victim's families. In this case, 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges of Philadelphia. And a family spokesperson saying today that they hope the killer is brought to justice quickly and that it brings an end to these horrendous acts.

So behind all of these tragic stories are families that are left devastated, quite frankly -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ed, thank you. Ed Lavandera.

For those of us 3,000 miles away tonight, it's been hard to grasp how abnormal life is back in the Washington, D.C. area, the suburbs that surround Washington, Maryland and Virginia. It is especially true for school kids, but not only school kids.

Kathleen Koch tonight on that. And, also, the latest on trying to pinpoint just which county the sniper might live in -- Kathleen.

KOCH: Aaron, police here tell me that they really still believe that Montgomery County remains the base of operations for this killer. That, despite the fact that the killer hasn't struck in this county in over a week.

They said they believe the focus should remain here because, again, the first cluster of killings that occurred last Wednesday and Thursday were in a tightly limited geographic area within Montgomery County, where the killer or killers had to know their way around.

The killings that have occurred since then have been, again, off of major interstates. An officer here told me if it weren't for the killings at the gander (ph), they would be calling this the interstate killer.

Now we were waiting for an important bit of new evidence today that was coming out from the FBI. They were promising us something called a graphic aid, which law enforcement sources told CNN would be some sort of composite sketch of the vehicle. They were hoping this would jog people's memories who might have been on one of these crime scenes. But now that is delayed until tomorrow.

So hopefully we'll have it at some point. They really want to get it out to the public as soon as possible to help in this investigation. And, again, this was supposed to be the weekend where life began to get back to whatever normal is around here. There were going to be homecoming games. There were going to be homecoming dances and parties.

But now, with the latest shooting, so many events, dozens across the area have been canceled. What goes on has heightened security. And I spoke to the county executive here, Doug Duncan, and he said life does go on, but it's different now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DOUG DUNCAN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY EXECUTIVE: People are still sending their children to school. They are still going to work, they're still going shopping. They're still doing things.

They're doing it differently. They are looking around them. They are hurrying. They are hustling. They are doing whatever.

But they are still getting those basic things done. And it just shows a lot of determination, it shows a lot of resolve. And I think -- to me it shows a lot of strength. I mean I was at my fifth funeral this morning in six days. And it was very, very sad occasion, but also a very uplifting one, where this gentleman, Mr. Buchanan (ph), just had a wonderful testimony about his life and how he had helped others.

But also you could just see the community come together, hold each other, hug each other and say, we're stronger than this. We're stronger than whoever is doing this to us. Our strength with our family, our strength with our faith, we're going to rely on that to get us through this and finally come to peace when we catch whoever is doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: A bit of an audio problem. Kathleen, thank you. We will move along here.

There was a point here this week -- and we're not sure exactly when it happened -- that this story went from being a string of horrible, senseless crimes to something that was bigger, even more ominous in our minds. Maybe it was the shooting of a child earlier in the week. The discovery of a calling card the next day. The moment when names like Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam became not just memories, but case studies that might help guide us as we go.

We are joined tonight by former New York City homicide detective who worked the Son of Sam case, countless others, Bill Clark, who these days finds himself as an executive producer at "NYPD Blue." Nice to see you.

BILL CLARK, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "NYPD BLUE": Nice to see you.

BROWN: Let's assume for a second this shooting today is related. Does it mean anything that a state trooper was in the area?

CLARK: If he knew that state trooper was there, then he's being very defiant and will stop at nothing. And he is basically doing it in the face of the police. There is a possibility that he didn't see the police. If that's the case, I think he'll slow down, because he will now realize how close he came to getting killed -- I'm sorry, caught.

BROWN: Getting caught. And they do worry about getting caught.

CLARK: Every one that I worked -- I've worked with quite a few of them -- they work very hard at staying out of the hands of the police.

BROWN: Do they believe that they are better, smarter than the police?

CLARK: I don't know if they think they're smarter. They think they're smart enough to at least stay out of the hands of the police until somewhere down the road -- because they do eventually want to take credit for what they have done. I interviewed David Berkowitz, and he...

BROWN: David Berkowitz being the Son of Sam.

CLARK: And he couldn't be happier about telling me every detail of every crime. He had total recall of every incident, why he did what he did. And he was very much at ease. He had lived with this for this period of type, nine, ten months, and now he could finally tell somebody about it.

BROWN: And this conversation with Berkowitz, this was a first interrogation, an early interrogation of him?

CLARK: It was a few hours after he had been arrested.

BROWN: Was it bragging or was it unburdening himself? Was he glad it was over?

CLARK: Well, I have taken a lot of homicide interviews. And this was one where he just wanted to tell somebody. He was real proud, basically, of what he had done and why he did it. And he was doing it for all the craziest of reasons. But there was gratification involved with his case.

BROWN: Do you see parallels -- there are a lot of things about this that are different, it seems to me.

CLARK: Absolutely.

BROWN: The Son of Sam, as I recall, basically walked up to his victims and shot them.

CLARK: Yes, he wanted to see the look on their face. He wanted to see the blood. It was an entirely different incident.

BROWN: Given that, are there parallels beyond the most obvious that someone is out there killing people?

CLARK: Well, it appears that this is more of a spree-type thing. And, for that reason, I do believe that there is a possibility there's more than one person involved.

BROWN: Why?

CLARK: Well, because it's not your normal type serial killer who is doing this for his own gratification. This is something like, any of the spree killings that I know of in history have usually been a couple of people doing this for -- under alcohol or drugs or under some...

BROWN: It seems to me this is a long spree. I think of spree crimes as maybe a day, two days, a series of crimes over a short period of time. We're now past the one-week mark and there's no sign of stopping him.

CLARK: Right, but hasn't been caught either. And, today, the incident that happened, where he almost did get caught, could be the one that slows him down a little bit. With the zodiac in New York, he was shooting helpless people. The last shooting he did which stopped him for a long period of time, when he shot the guy, the guy jumped up and ran and that slowed him down, because he realized how close he came to getting caught.

BROWN: Thirty seconds. I want to try to get two things in. You got a bit lucky with the Son of Sam, as I recall. There was a traffic ticket, right?

CLARK: Tremendously lucky, yeah.

BROWN: And is that what has to happen here? They need a stroke of really good luck.

CLARK: Yes, but I had an old homicide boss who used to tell me luck is the residue of hard work. And if those cops are out there doing what they have to do, they will come up with this guy. But there's always an element of luck with any successful case.

BROWN: We've asked this question before in the last week. Do you think they'll take this guy alive? Do you think this guy or guys will allow themselves to be taken alive if it comes to that?

CLARK: Absolutely. I mean this is a guy who has fired from 140 yards away. He is a coward. You know, depending on the circumstances, but certainly if there is an opportunity for him to surrender, he will definitely surrender.

BROWN: Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in tonight. Appreciate it.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT -- stick with me just a second -- we'll have a couple of special California stories, including a look at the comedy of errors (UNINTELLIGIBLE) known as the California governors race.

Up next, former President Jimmy Carter talks about winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the phone rings at 4:00 AM, chances are it isn't good news. For Jimmy Carter, former President Carter, an early morning phone call usually means election monitoring here, a hostage crisis there. A dictator to flatter, guerrillas to disarm, a house to build. Such were the days for a man a lot of people, even those who voted against him, called the best ex-president in recent memory. But when the phone rang very early this morning in Georgia, it wasn't a job to do. Just a reward for a job well done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUNNAR BERGE, CHAIRMAN, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE COMMITTEE: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter.

JIMMY CARTER, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At first I had a feeling of disbelief. I was obviously grateful. And, as I said, already humbled and honored. The last 20 years of my life have been, I would say, the most gratifying of all, after I left the White House.

BROWN (voice-over): If his presidency is viewed as mixed at best, Jimmy Carter has spent the years since redefining the role of former president. There is hardly a troubled place in the world he hasn't visited, worked in, in a quest to bring peace and spread democratic values.

In Haiti, to monitor free elections. To North Korea to try to open a closed country to the ideals of basic human rights. To Africa, hoping to raise awareness and action in the fight against AIDS and poverty. To Cuba, and dozens more.

The Nobel Committee noted this as especially important and many believed long overdue. The Camp David Accords, which ended the state of war and brought real peace between Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, won the peace prize that year. But both acknowledged Carter's work as essential.

Carter's Nobel Peace Prize selection came just hours after Congress gave President Bush the green light to use force against Iraq if necessary.

CARTER: I would have voted no, had I been in the Senate. I think that there's no way we can avoid the obligation to work through the United Nations Security Council.

BROWN: Jimmy Carter told Larry King today he is slowing down some, cutting back. Age makes globe-trotting especially hard. But in many places, dusty and difficult places, James Earl Carter has brought hope and dispelled, as well as anyone alive these days, the vision of the ugly American.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories to fit in tonight, all of them to do with Iraq in one way or another.

Overnight, the Senate joined the House in approving a resolution that gives President Bush the authority for military action in Iraq. The vote was 77 to 23. The vote divided Democrats; 29 voting in support of the resolution, 21 against. All Republican senators, except for Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island voted for passage.

Today, the White House played down a detailed report in today's "New York Times" that it was considering an occupation of Iraq, in the model of the occupation of Japan after World War II if Saddam Hussein is ousted. The White House Spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said U.S. forces would have a shorter-term role. He didn't say what that men precisely. Possibly as part of an international coalition aimed at keeping the peace or restoring Iraq's infrastructure.

And the Navy has changed the status of Gulf War pilot Scott Speicher from missing in action to missing/captured. Speicher was shot down over Iraq in January 1999. Since then, there has been no solid evidence as to what happened to him. Earlier this year, Pentagon officials said that Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, waned the status changed to missing/captured, because according to one military officer, it would help give momentum to launching a military campaign against Iraq.

Later on NEWSNIGHT, we will meet some Americans who know what it's like to be singled out as enemies, because of the way they look.

Up next, back to the early 60s and the confrontation that brought the world to the brink, the very brink of nuclear war. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What you have to understand about the way things were in this country 40 years ago this month, is that people here, and people in the Soviet Union, people everywhere, really, believed, actually believed that Armageddon was at hand.

The Soviet army chief of operations later said of that time that became known as the Cuban missile crisis, "We weren't counting days or hours, but minutes." The counting began at 7:00 in the evening Eastern Standard Time on the 22nd of October, 1962, with the presidential address to the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN F. KENNEDY, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening, my fellow citizens. This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba.

BROWN (voice-over): At breakfast on October 16, the president is told that spy plane photographs taken the day before show the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. There are nuclear warheads 90 miles from the American mainland.

KENNEDY: Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution, as endorsed by the resolution of the Congress, I directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately. BROWN: The country will not know for a few more days, but JFK and his generals and his advisers talk of little else. Preemptive air strikes against Cuba are considered. But they fears that the Soviets will move on Berlin in retaliation. The president says what is left is "a hell of an alternative to begin a nuclear exchange."

But another way is found. On Monday, October 23, one day after the president's speech to the nation, the U.S. Navy blockades Cuba and the world waits. On the 25, at the U.N., America's ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, boldly challenges his Russian counterpart before the general assembly before the world.

ADLAI STEVENSON, AMBASSADOR: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will have your answer in due course.

STEVENSON: I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision.

BROWN: John Kennedy of the United States and Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union had been standing toe to toe for ten days now. Each has nuclear weapons enough to destroy the other many times over. For people everywhere, every breath comes hard.

Finally, on Sunday, October 28, Nikita Khrushchev capitulates. The soviet missiles will be dismantled and removed. The most appallingly dangerous fuse ever lit has been extinguished.

KENNEDY: Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right. Not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom here in this hemisphere. And we hope around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ted Sorenson wrote those words, one of two speeches Mr. Sorenson wrote for the occasion. The second, if events had gone differently.

Mr. Sorenson joins us tonight from Havana, where he is participating in this 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. Nice to see you again, sir.

What is sit you'd like to know about those events that you don't know?

THEODORE SORENSON, FMR. SPEECH WRITER FOR PRESIDENT KENNEDY: I think we know almost too much now, how close we came to war, how close we came to the destruction of the world. There are a few new bits and pieces of information coming out even in today's conference. And no doubt some more tomorrow.

BROWN: But it is the small detail that you learned now as oppose to any part of the larger picture? SORENSON: That's exactly right. The larger picture we already know, that Khrushchev on his own gambled and put medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba thinking that the U.S. would never find out, and we didn't find out. And Kennedy, through his very cool leadership, steered the country to a peaceful resolution and the missiles were withdrawn without the U.S. ever firing a shot.

BROWN: You and the president and many of the people around the president were young men at the time. Was there a lack of confidence in the White House in how you were dealing with this? Or did the president and his staff seem quite confident?

SORENSON: It's hard to say we were confident, because no one had ever dealt with a nuclear confrontation before. This is what historians have since called the most dangerous crisis in human history. If we made a misstep, if we precipitated World War III, that's the end of the world.

On the other hand, if we were too passive, if we let Khrushchev get away with this, then who would ever believe again that the United States would stand up for its allies when they were threatened.

BROWN: Do you remember if you slept much during those two weeks?

SORENSEN: Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night during that first week, wondering what was the right answer? An air strike? A preemptive strike was likely to lead to a violent war throughout the world and a retaliatory strike by the Soviets.

On the other hand, what kind of diplomatic note could persuade Khrushchev to take the missiles out? But there wasn't much time for sleep anyway, because we were meeting morning, noon and night.

BROWN: When you talked to the Russians who were involved at the time, and even the Cubans who were involved at the time, do you find that their experiences were similar to the experiences that you were having in Washington?

SORENSEN: Well, the Russians, very much so. I still remember the Russian lawyer who walked into my office in New York 20 years ago and introduced himself and said, We've correspond. I said, No, I don't think we have. He said, Didn't you write Kennedy's letters to Khrushchev during the crisis? I wrote Khrushchev's letters to Kennedy.

So, yes, there were some reciprocal and common experiences including the late night work.

BROWN: Do you, we have a half...

SORENSEN: And the tension.

BROWN: I'm sorry. Just, in 20 seconds or so, when you go to these conferences, do you -- this may sound odd, Do you enjoy them? Do you enjoy the exchange between people who participated in this extraordinary historical moment? SORENSEN: Yes, I said this morning to the group, It's not only a conference of recollection and reflection, it's also a conference of reconciliation. And the mere fact of it being held here in Havana sends a message of hope to a world that's teetering, once again, on the brink of war.

BROWN: Mr. Sorensen, I remember saying this to you 10 years ago too, it's wonderful to see you. It's nice to see you looking well.

Have an interesting weekend and a safe trip home. Thank you.

Ted Sorensen, who was an important player 40 years ago in the events at the White House and in the Kremlin and in Havana too.

Next on NEWSNIGHT, we will go back to the place in Cuba where the missiles were and see the jungle and a couple of generations can make.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In all the tourist information for Pinar del Rio in Cuba, you can reads about the natural splendor, an ideal place for walking and hiking. "The land of the best tobacco in the world" is how its billed by one travel agency.

What you don't see in the write-ups is that Pinar del Rio was the center of the Cuban missile crisis, literally the center. A spot of history that's been forgotten by most of the world, and many of the people who live right on top of it.

The story tonight from CNN's Lucia Newman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jardines del aspiro in Pinar del Rio, a lush, peaceful, portion of the western Cuban countryside. A place where nothing much ever happens.

Forty years ago, though, the eyes of the world were focused here. Maxima Martinez lives on a small farm near a former Soviet military base. It's a 10-minute walk, she says, you have to go through the sugar cane fields.

This concrete block is all that's left of the monument built in honor of the Soviet engineers that, in October of 1962, in this very spot, were arming their nuclear warheads. A monument that today is as forgotten as it is hidden, in the hills of Pinar del Rio.

Back then, it was the missiles that were supposed to be hidden, camouflaged as palm trees.

In the closest town, young people don't seem to have any idea that Soviet nuclear missiles, stationed here, almost brought the world to the brink of catastrophe.

We supported the Soviets, and vice versa in those days, says this 28-year-old.

But nuclear wars and missiles, I've never heard of that.

The older folks, though, remember too well when President John Kennedy imposed a naval blockade around Cuba, after reconnaissance photos discovered the missiles.

We felt we were going to war. It seemed like the end. We were terrified, says Maura Semora.

Today, Havana's Malicon Seaside Drive is a place for friends and lovers to stroll. But, back in 1962, it was lined with anti-aircraft artillery, poised for what seemed like an imminent American invasion.

Ruben Jimenez was a student in his early 20s then.

It's hard to understand now, but I was actually happy, because with the Soviet missiles here, the Americans couldn't just keep attacking us, as they had been.

Bartolo Sivas, a retired farmer, also remembers feeling protected. rather than threatened, by the presence of the Soviet missiles at the height of the Cold War.

Did he realize that that could have men the obliteration of Cuba?

We would have disappeared from the face of the Earth, he responds. We would have been incinerated. But they, the Americans, would have disappeared too.

That was long ago. The Soviet Union is gone. And so are its faces. Cubans no longer live in fear of an imminent U.S. military invasion.

Yet, most will tell you, one thing hasn't changed: the Cold War, between their Communist government and the United States. As alive today as it was 40 years ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: Of course, each side continues to blame the other for keeping that Cold War alive. Now, there has been numerous attempts by various U.S. administrations over the years to try and ease tensions between the United States and Cuba, two countries that are only 90 miles away but, so far, nothing really has worked -- Aaron.

BROWN: Lucia, thank you. Lucia Newman in Havana on what is an important and historic weekend there.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the story of some Americans who know what it's like to be singled out by the government.

Up next: the ups and downs of the California governor's race.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the comedy routine otherwise known as the California governors race. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick look at a couple of other stories making news tonight. Starting with a terrible scene north of Milwaukee today. Ten people died, dozens hurt in a car pile-up on a stretch of the interstate close to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The highway was covered in fog. What had happened, at least 38 vehicles involved in the pile-up.

Tropical Storm Kyle hit the South Carolina coast today. Brought lots of rain up and down the coast, too. Streets flooded homes with up to eight inches of rain. The center of the storm passed across Charleston harbor, the first tropical storm to do that since Hurricane Hugo in 1989. No one hurt or killed that we know of at this point, we are pleased to say.

Here in California this week, we have been getting a lesson in how not to run a political campaign. Republican candidate for governor, Bill Simon, has spent most of the week trying to get his foot out of his mouth, and getting blasted not just by his opponent, Gray Davis, but by virtually all of the political press here. For Simon, it was another tough week in a campaign that has been not just short on money, but according to many people here, short on competence as well.

Simon is the candidate the White House did not want running in the state Republicans would love to control. But this week, it is hard to be hopeful from that point of view. Here is CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): It has more people, more cars, more political clout than any other state, and its problems are just as big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All members vote who desire to vote.

GREENFIELD: A $24 billion budget deficit. Jam-packed roads. A school system in crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do I spell "discover?"

GREENFIELD: And a future where everything from the quality of it water to the reliable of its energy is in doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to go on record.

GREENFIELD: So you might think that the race for governor of California, the biggest prize of the fall campaign, would be dominated by big ideas, by clashing visions about the state's future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't answer my question. GREENFIELD: You might think that, but you'd be wrong.

(on camera): In fact, this is a race where, to repeat an oft- heard cliche, the leading candidate, if the voters had that choice, might well be none of the above. It's a race where both candidates' principle liabilities are themselves.

CARLA MARINUCCI, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: This has been a case of an ad campaign run on TV in California where according to the ads, it's a corrupt governor versus a corrupt businessman.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): Carla Marinucci covers politics for the "San Francisco Chronicle."

MARINUCCI: We have heard lots of charges, and all those charges have brought down the voters' enthusiasm for the candidates. They're just not excited about this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "DAVIS CAMPAIGN AD")

NARRATOR: Bill Simon. If we can't trust him in his business practices, how can we trust him in the governor's office?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SIMON CAMPAIGN AD")

BILL SIMON (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You know me. I've survived millions of dollars of Gray Davis' lies and distortions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But Democratic Governor Gray Davis, with a combination of fund-raising zealotry and a personally grating style, has alienated a fair chunk of voters. Consider this question for Monday's first and likely only debate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Davis, many people simply do not like you.

GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: Would I like to be liked? Sure. Is it essential for me to do my job? No. I think under the circumstances, we have done a pretty good job.

GREENFIELD: Then there is Republican nominee Bill Simon, who has suffered enough wounds to wipe out a platoon. This week's disaster, photo gate.

SIMON: The evidence is a photograph...

GREENFIELD: The Simon campaign believed they had a smoking gun, this photo, proving that Davis had accepted an illegal campaign contribution in his lieutenant governor's office. But the charge was flat out wrong. The office was a private home. And Simon faced the wrath of the media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know if you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) take full responsibility...

GREENFIELD: Simon says neither the mistake nor his conservative views on social issues should decide this election.

SIMON: He goes around talking about symbols. This person stands for this. That's not going to fix -- that's not going to put people back to work. It's not going to make sure that our two million kids trapped in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) schools get an education.

GREENFIELD: For his part, Governor Davis says this about his barely disguised ambition for a higher office, should he win.

DAVIS: My goal is to be the best governor I can for the next four years. If my health is good, and God smiles and it's the right thing to do something down the road after that, fine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Now, Aaron, when you consider the tilt of the state toward the Democrats -- they control virtually every important office -- and the fumbles and stumbles of the Simon campaign, you'd think Gray Davis would have put it away. Not so, Republicans says. Their private polls show that Simon is still within reach. No, say the Democrats, our polls show Davis pulling away.

So, Aaron, when the next independent polls come out, we actually are going to know whether or not the Simon campaign has still got a chance, or whether it's so far behind that Dick Riordan, the former L.A. mayor who Simon beat in the primary might yet stick his toe in the water with a write-in campaign.

BROWN: And quickly, it's a little far-fetched to think that he could actually win that way, but he does have money.

GREENFIELD: Independently wealthy.

BROWN: And he was the choice, the White House's choice.

GREENFIELD: Yes, and you hear many people say, if Riordan ran the race today, it would look very different. Of course, given Davis' money and his ability to attack his opponents with commercials, who knows.

BROWN: And he was going -- Gray Davis was going after Riordan before Riordan was even -- before the primary.

GREENFIELD: The Davis campaign spent millions of dollars attacking Riordan, hoping to get Bill Simon. They have him. They are saying, see, that's why we did it.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you. Travel safely back home.

Next on NEWSNIGHT, some Americans who remember what it was like to be singled out as potential enemies. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: We end the program and our time in Los Angeles tonight about 200 miles northeast of here, just short of Independence, and a mile west of Reward. There you find a spot in a valley with a Spanish name that means "apple orchard." But to thousands of Americans who arrived there 60 years ago, the name Manzanar meant something else. Sixty years ago, those same Americans were taken from their homes on the West Coast. They were shipped to Manzanar and places like it because they looked like the enemy and this was war. Tonight the country is once again at war, and to some people at least, an awful lot of Americans look like the enemy. So we are revisiting Manzanar tonight with three Americans who once lived there, a not-so-gentle reminder that 60 years ago feels a lot closer now than it did a year ago, and Manzanar is still just short of Independence and not that far down the road.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAS OKUI, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 10. I was in fifth grade.

BO SAKAGUCHI, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 16 in 11th grade.

SUE EMBREY, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 19. The U.S. Army came around into the area and posted notices on telephone poles and store fronts. They just said you've got to go and go. If you didn't go, they would probably arrest you and put you in jail. So what alternative did you have?

SAKAGUCHI: There was a caravan of several buses leaving from Burbank.

OKUI: Yeah.

SAKAGUCHI: And it rained that morning.

OKUI: All I know is when we got there, it was really gray and dark.

SAKAGUCHI: And the lady who was boarding the bus said, look, even the sky is crying for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The time: Spring and summer of 1942. The relocation centers are supervised by the War Relocation Authority, which assumed responsibility for the people after they had been evacuated and cared for temporarily by the Army. The entire community bounded by a wire fence and guarded by military police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAKAGUCHI: Well, you know, you're an American, though you're of a different color and features from those from Europe. And so though you know you're an American and you're an American citizen, here we were being herded away into a desolate camp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Naturally, the newcomers looked about with some curiosity. They were in a new area, on land that was raw, untamed, but full of opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAKAGUCHI: Manzanar -- those who have lived here had experienced all sorts of emotions and experiences. It was very significant; 220,000 people who lived in the United States.

OKUI: Anyone who was here, two things that they were denied were privacy and protection from the wind. It was always windy and there was never any privacy.

EMBREY: The lights used to follow us at night, remember that? As soon as you opened your door and you started out, the lights would follow you, either to the latrine or to a neighbor or wherever you were going, and then they would follow you back again. And I think that's what most people remember the most about camp, the searchlight at night (ph). And people keep saying that there were no guard towers, but there were eight of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are protecting ourselves without violating the principles of Christian decency. We won't change this fundamental decency no matter what our enemies do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMBREY: We got our three meals a day...

OKUI: Three meals a day...

(CROSSTALK)

EMBREY: ... but we had no freedom. We had no rights. We were there without any charge. Without a trial.

SAKAGUCHI: I don't remember these trees here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What department number were you in?

SAKAGUCHI: 11-7-4. It would be right about here.

OKUI: I remember the whole place was absolutely barren when we got here. Everything was bulldozed. There was nothing here.

EMBREY: The first night is kind of blanked out of my mind. We were lucky, because the others had to go out and, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mattress (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with hey. But my brother had already done it for us, so when we got there my mother kind of sat down and said, oh, my, what a place. And that was it. She told me years later that she used to walk up to the apple orchards from block 20, which is quite a ways, every day, and cry under the trees. SAKAGUCHI: September 11, I watched it on TV. I wasn't aware who had caused it. And then once we found out, I think, then we worried, because those were only special people who are brought into this country to try to destroy this country. And the average Muslim is probably a very loyal to this country.

EMBREY: I had heard FBI had gone into Detroit, where there is a large Middle Eastern population and had talked to people. And I thought, well, that's what happened on the night of December 7.

SAKAGUCHI: The Arab-Americans -- or the Muslims were lucky. At least the president...

EMBREY: He did say that we have to not make them scapegoats, right.

SAKAGUCHI: That every Muslim is not a terrorist. I wish they would have said that about us.

EMBREY: No, not that president.

SAKAGUCHI: Emotions are emotions. And time changes people. And time tends to people forget.

EMBREY: But I hope, you know, Americans have learned -- at least those who know about it have learned from the experience.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Manzanar.

That's all for tonight. We will head back to New York. We'll see you from there on Monday, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us for that. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT from L.A.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

Stumble in California Gubernatorial Race; Remembering Cuban Missile Crisis>

Aired October 11, 2002 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening, again. I'm Aaron Brown.
One last night in Los Angeles for us, and a couple of good California stories along the way. There is, of course, Iraq and the sniper story, too, to report tonight. And they will take their rightful places at the top of the program.

But it's another story that is rich with both history and contemporary meaning that has been on our minds some today. Forty years ago, we as a country stood on the brink of nuclear war. It is just that simple. The Cuban missile crisis is being remembered in Havana this weekend and on this program tonight.

In our mind, it all played out in black and white. The president's speech, Adlai Stevenson at the United Nations, shots of U.S. ships blockading Cuba, all in black and white. As black and white as the issues seemed to a 13-year-old in small-town Minnesota.

What struck us today is how blindly we believed that the young president of the United States would somehow solve this short of nuclear war with the Russians. Today, those 13-year-olds in small towns have seen far more than we could have imagined or wanted. They have seen September 11, for one, in vivid horrible color.

Then it was Cuba and the Russians and the Cold War. Today, it is Iraq and terror.

Then we were so absurdly innocent, we believed in happy endings. Today, we know there is little innocence left in 13-year-olds and happy endings are the things of fairy tales. As terrifying as things were 40 years ago, we liked it better then.

We begin with the top of the news tonight, and the top of the new is, again, the sniper, the person out there or people out there killing in the Washington, D.C. area. And they did so again.

Ed Lavandera is on the story. He is in Virginia tonight. Ed, a headline please.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, ATF analysts are working on ballistic evidence taking from this crime scene at another gas station. The scene of a shooting this morning. And in about 12 hours, we could know for sure if, again, this has been the work of the D.C. area sniper -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ed, thank you. We'll be back to you at the top.

More on the investigation and how life has changed on the East Coast. Kathleen Koch is on that for us again, as she has been all week. She's in Rockville, Maryland. Kathleen, a headline from you, please.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, new graphic details on the case that were due out from the FBI have now been delayed. That, while going to buy gasoline now has suddenly become something very frightening. Back to you.

BROWN: Kathleen, thank you. Back to L.A. now and a bit of politics. All the stumbles in the race for a governor here; plenty of those. Jeff Greenfield on that. Jeff, your headline, please.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Aaron, this should be the biggest prize of all this fall, who gets to govern the most populous state in the nation. But with less than a month to go, it seems to being come down to a case of which of these candidates the voters will dislike less.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you.

And, remembering the Cuban missile crisis. Lucia Newman is in Havana. Lucia, the headline from you, please.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, 40 years after that Cuban missile crisis, the surviving protagonists are here in Havana to discuss what happened and what lessons can be learned from that experience, at a time when war drums are again beating around the world.

BROWN: Lucia, thank you. Back to you and the rest in just a moment.

And coming up on the program tonight, a former president is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on a day when the current president gets the formal go-ahead from Congress to take action in Iraq, if necessary. The timing intriguing, but the award itself for former President Jimmy Carter may also be long overdue.

And a visit to a California ghost town. The town, if you can call it that, is Manzanar. And the ghosts are thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans confined there during World War II. A story that speaks to the past and, perhaps in some ways, to the present, as well. It is a busy hour this last night in Southern California.

We begin tonight with the immediate present. With the sniper still out there, and the death toll still growing. Last night we asked how police could catch him or her if all of a sudden the shootings just came to a stop.

Tonight, it is tempting to hope for just that tradeoff. No killer, but no more killings either. Just the same, we're reasonably certain police will not give into that temptation. We have two reports tonight. We begin with CNN's Ed Lavandera at the scene of what may well be the latest shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): A 53-year-old man was killed as he stood at an Exxon gas station in Fredericksburg, Virginia around 9:30 a.m. The killing took place as a Virginia state trooper was working a traffic accident across the street.

MAJ. HOWARD SMITH, SPOTSYLVANIA SHERIFF'S DEPT.: I don't think he saw anything. He was working the traffic accident. He heard the shot. He was directly across the street.

So it probably took him less than a minute to get to the victim. He came directly across the street to the victim and assisted the victim until the rescue squad arrived on the scene.

LAVANDERA: Two major roadways were shut down as police launched an intensive search for a white Chevrolet Astro minivan, like this one with a ladder rack.

SMITH: We are looking for a white van that may have had a ladder rack on top of it. We do not know -- and I stress -- we do not know if it was involved in the shooting or not. It was seen in the area by several people. And we do want to talk to those people in the van.

LAVANDERA: This attack, like the last three sniper shootings, took place less than a mile from a major highway. Dozens of people were in the area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you see the guy who got shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we didn't see the guy who got shot. We heard the noise, a loud banging noise, like a rifle noise.

LAVANDERA: Around the gas station, investigative teams hunted for clues and evidence, at one point putting a piece of paper in a plastic bag, although police won't talk about its significance.

SMITH: Any time we get a shooting right now, we're going to treat it as if it's connected to this case until it's ruled differently.

LAVANDERA: Ballistic evidence from the Exxon gas station was taken by helicopter to an ATF lab in Rockville, Maryland, to determine whether the shooting was the work of the D.C. area sniper. Every hour, about a thousand tips poured into the FBI hotline. Authorities are considering beefing up the operation. More than 60 phone lines sometimes haven't been enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: You saw the video images of Virginia authorities pulling over people driving white minivans. And authorities here in Virginia can say that will continue to happen in the days ahead as they continue to look for this killer. Now, of course, it's the sniper that's been getting so much attention. But, of course, it's important to remember that behind all of these shootings there are victims and victim's families. In this case, 53-year-old Kenneth Bridges of Philadelphia. And a family spokesperson saying today that they hope the killer is brought to justice quickly and that it brings an end to these horrendous acts.

So behind all of these tragic stories are families that are left devastated, quite frankly -- Aaron.

BROWN: Ed, thank you. Ed Lavandera.

For those of us 3,000 miles away tonight, it's been hard to grasp how abnormal life is back in the Washington, D.C. area, the suburbs that surround Washington, Maryland and Virginia. It is especially true for school kids, but not only school kids.

Kathleen Koch tonight on that. And, also, the latest on trying to pinpoint just which county the sniper might live in -- Kathleen.

KOCH: Aaron, police here tell me that they really still believe that Montgomery County remains the base of operations for this killer. That, despite the fact that the killer hasn't struck in this county in over a week.

They said they believe the focus should remain here because, again, the first cluster of killings that occurred last Wednesday and Thursday were in a tightly limited geographic area within Montgomery County, where the killer or killers had to know their way around.

The killings that have occurred since then have been, again, off of major interstates. An officer here told me if it weren't for the killings at the gander (ph), they would be calling this the interstate killer.

Now we were waiting for an important bit of new evidence today that was coming out from the FBI. They were promising us something called a graphic aid, which law enforcement sources told CNN would be some sort of composite sketch of the vehicle. They were hoping this would jog people's memories who might have been on one of these crime scenes. But now that is delayed until tomorrow.

So hopefully we'll have it at some point. They really want to get it out to the public as soon as possible to help in this investigation. And, again, this was supposed to be the weekend where life began to get back to whatever normal is around here. There were going to be homecoming games. There were going to be homecoming dances and parties.

But now, with the latest shooting, so many events, dozens across the area have been canceled. What goes on has heightened security. And I spoke to the county executive here, Doug Duncan, and he said life does go on, but it's different now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DOUG DUNCAN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY EXECUTIVE: People are still sending their children to school. They are still going to work, they're still going shopping. They're still doing things.

They're doing it differently. They are looking around them. They are hurrying. They are hustling. They are doing whatever.

But they are still getting those basic things done. And it just shows a lot of determination, it shows a lot of resolve. And I think -- to me it shows a lot of strength. I mean I was at my fifth funeral this morning in six days. And it was very, very sad occasion, but also a very uplifting one, where this gentleman, Mr. Buchanan (ph), just had a wonderful testimony about his life and how he had helped others.

But also you could just see the community come together, hold each other, hug each other and say, we're stronger than this. We're stronger than whoever is doing this to us. Our strength with our family, our strength with our faith, we're going to rely on that to get us through this and finally come to peace when we catch whoever is doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: A bit of an audio problem. Kathleen, thank you. We will move along here.

There was a point here this week -- and we're not sure exactly when it happened -- that this story went from being a string of horrible, senseless crimes to something that was bigger, even more ominous in our minds. Maybe it was the shooting of a child earlier in the week. The discovery of a calling card the next day. The moment when names like Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam became not just memories, but case studies that might help guide us as we go.

We are joined tonight by former New York City homicide detective who worked the Son of Sam case, countless others, Bill Clark, who these days finds himself as an executive producer at "NYPD Blue." Nice to see you.

BILL CLARK, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "NYPD BLUE": Nice to see you.

BROWN: Let's assume for a second this shooting today is related. Does it mean anything that a state trooper was in the area?

CLARK: If he knew that state trooper was there, then he's being very defiant and will stop at nothing. And he is basically doing it in the face of the police. There is a possibility that he didn't see the police. If that's the case, I think he'll slow down, because he will now realize how close he came to getting killed -- I'm sorry, caught.

BROWN: Getting caught. And they do worry about getting caught.

CLARK: Every one that I worked -- I've worked with quite a few of them -- they work very hard at staying out of the hands of the police.

BROWN: Do they believe that they are better, smarter than the police?

CLARK: I don't know if they think they're smarter. They think they're smart enough to at least stay out of the hands of the police until somewhere down the road -- because they do eventually want to take credit for what they have done. I interviewed David Berkowitz, and he...

BROWN: David Berkowitz being the Son of Sam.

CLARK: And he couldn't be happier about telling me every detail of every crime. He had total recall of every incident, why he did what he did. And he was very much at ease. He had lived with this for this period of type, nine, ten months, and now he could finally tell somebody about it.

BROWN: And this conversation with Berkowitz, this was a first interrogation, an early interrogation of him?

CLARK: It was a few hours after he had been arrested.

BROWN: Was it bragging or was it unburdening himself? Was he glad it was over?

CLARK: Well, I have taken a lot of homicide interviews. And this was one where he just wanted to tell somebody. He was real proud, basically, of what he had done and why he did it. And he was doing it for all the craziest of reasons. But there was gratification involved with his case.

BROWN: Do you see parallels -- there are a lot of things about this that are different, it seems to me.

CLARK: Absolutely.

BROWN: The Son of Sam, as I recall, basically walked up to his victims and shot them.

CLARK: Yes, he wanted to see the look on their face. He wanted to see the blood. It was an entirely different incident.

BROWN: Given that, are there parallels beyond the most obvious that someone is out there killing people?

CLARK: Well, it appears that this is more of a spree-type thing. And, for that reason, I do believe that there is a possibility there's more than one person involved.

BROWN: Why?

CLARK: Well, because it's not your normal type serial killer who is doing this for his own gratification. This is something like, any of the spree killings that I know of in history have usually been a couple of people doing this for -- under alcohol or drugs or under some...

BROWN: It seems to me this is a long spree. I think of spree crimes as maybe a day, two days, a series of crimes over a short period of time. We're now past the one-week mark and there's no sign of stopping him.

CLARK: Right, but hasn't been caught either. And, today, the incident that happened, where he almost did get caught, could be the one that slows him down a little bit. With the zodiac in New York, he was shooting helpless people. The last shooting he did which stopped him for a long period of time, when he shot the guy, the guy jumped up and ran and that slowed him down, because he realized how close he came to getting caught.

BROWN: Thirty seconds. I want to try to get two things in. You got a bit lucky with the Son of Sam, as I recall. There was a traffic ticket, right?

CLARK: Tremendously lucky, yeah.

BROWN: And is that what has to happen here? They need a stroke of really good luck.

CLARK: Yes, but I had an old homicide boss who used to tell me luck is the residue of hard work. And if those cops are out there doing what they have to do, they will come up with this guy. But there's always an element of luck with any successful case.

BROWN: We've asked this question before in the last week. Do you think they'll take this guy alive? Do you think this guy or guys will allow themselves to be taken alive if it comes to that?

CLARK: Absolutely. I mean this is a guy who has fired from 140 yards away. He is a coward. You know, depending on the circumstances, but certainly if there is an opportunity for him to surrender, he will definitely surrender.

BROWN: Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in tonight. Appreciate it.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT -- stick with me just a second -- we'll have a couple of special California stories, including a look at the comedy of errors (UNINTELLIGIBLE) known as the California governors race.

Up next, former President Jimmy Carter talks about winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the phone rings at 4:00 AM, chances are it isn't good news. For Jimmy Carter, former President Carter, an early morning phone call usually means election monitoring here, a hostage crisis there. A dictator to flatter, guerrillas to disarm, a house to build. Such were the days for a man a lot of people, even those who voted against him, called the best ex-president in recent memory. But when the phone rang very early this morning in Georgia, it wasn't a job to do. Just a reward for a job well done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUNNAR BERGE, CHAIRMAN, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE COMMITTEE: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter.

JIMMY CARTER, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At first I had a feeling of disbelief. I was obviously grateful. And, as I said, already humbled and honored. The last 20 years of my life have been, I would say, the most gratifying of all, after I left the White House.

BROWN (voice-over): If his presidency is viewed as mixed at best, Jimmy Carter has spent the years since redefining the role of former president. There is hardly a troubled place in the world he hasn't visited, worked in, in a quest to bring peace and spread democratic values.

In Haiti, to monitor free elections. To North Korea to try to open a closed country to the ideals of basic human rights. To Africa, hoping to raise awareness and action in the fight against AIDS and poverty. To Cuba, and dozens more.

The Nobel Committee noted this as especially important and many believed long overdue. The Camp David Accords, which ended the state of war and brought real peace between Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, won the peace prize that year. But both acknowledged Carter's work as essential.

Carter's Nobel Peace Prize selection came just hours after Congress gave President Bush the green light to use force against Iraq if necessary.

CARTER: I would have voted no, had I been in the Senate. I think that there's no way we can avoid the obligation to work through the United Nations Security Council.

BROWN: Jimmy Carter told Larry King today he is slowing down some, cutting back. Age makes globe-trotting especially hard. But in many places, dusty and difficult places, James Earl Carter has brought hope and dispelled, as well as anyone alive these days, the vision of the ugly American.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories to fit in tonight, all of them to do with Iraq in one way or another.

Overnight, the Senate joined the House in approving a resolution that gives President Bush the authority for military action in Iraq. The vote was 77 to 23. The vote divided Democrats; 29 voting in support of the resolution, 21 against. All Republican senators, except for Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island voted for passage.

Today, the White House played down a detailed report in today's "New York Times" that it was considering an occupation of Iraq, in the model of the occupation of Japan after World War II if Saddam Hussein is ousted. The White House Spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said U.S. forces would have a shorter-term role. He didn't say what that men precisely. Possibly as part of an international coalition aimed at keeping the peace or restoring Iraq's infrastructure.

And the Navy has changed the status of Gulf War pilot Scott Speicher from missing in action to missing/captured. Speicher was shot down over Iraq in January 1999. Since then, there has been no solid evidence as to what happened to him. Earlier this year, Pentagon officials said that Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, waned the status changed to missing/captured, because according to one military officer, it would help give momentum to launching a military campaign against Iraq.

Later on NEWSNIGHT, we will meet some Americans who know what it's like to be singled out as enemies, because of the way they look.

Up next, back to the early 60s and the confrontation that brought the world to the brink, the very brink of nuclear war. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What you have to understand about the way things were in this country 40 years ago this month, is that people here, and people in the Soviet Union, people everywhere, really, believed, actually believed that Armageddon was at hand.

The Soviet army chief of operations later said of that time that became known as the Cuban missile crisis, "We weren't counting days or hours, but minutes." The counting began at 7:00 in the evening Eastern Standard Time on the 22nd of October, 1962, with the presidential address to the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN F. KENNEDY, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening, my fellow citizens. This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba.

BROWN (voice-over): At breakfast on October 16, the president is told that spy plane photographs taken the day before show the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. There are nuclear warheads 90 miles from the American mainland.

KENNEDY: Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western hemisphere, and under the authority entrusted to me by the Constitution, as endorsed by the resolution of the Congress, I directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately. BROWN: The country will not know for a few more days, but JFK and his generals and his advisers talk of little else. Preemptive air strikes against Cuba are considered. But they fears that the Soviets will move on Berlin in retaliation. The president says what is left is "a hell of an alternative to begin a nuclear exchange."

But another way is found. On Monday, October 23, one day after the president's speech to the nation, the U.S. Navy blockades Cuba and the world waits. On the 25, at the U.N., America's ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, boldly challenges his Russian counterpart before the general assembly before the world.

ADLAI STEVENSON, AMBASSADOR: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will have your answer in due course.

STEVENSON: I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision.

BROWN: John Kennedy of the United States and Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union had been standing toe to toe for ten days now. Each has nuclear weapons enough to destroy the other many times over. For people everywhere, every breath comes hard.

Finally, on Sunday, October 28, Nikita Khrushchev capitulates. The soviet missiles will be dismantled and removed. The most appallingly dangerous fuse ever lit has been extinguished.

KENNEDY: Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right. Not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom here in this hemisphere. And we hope around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ted Sorenson wrote those words, one of two speeches Mr. Sorenson wrote for the occasion. The second, if events had gone differently.

Mr. Sorenson joins us tonight from Havana, where he is participating in this 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. Nice to see you again, sir.

What is sit you'd like to know about those events that you don't know?

THEODORE SORENSON, FMR. SPEECH WRITER FOR PRESIDENT KENNEDY: I think we know almost too much now, how close we came to war, how close we came to the destruction of the world. There are a few new bits and pieces of information coming out even in today's conference. And no doubt some more tomorrow.

BROWN: But it is the small detail that you learned now as oppose to any part of the larger picture? SORENSON: That's exactly right. The larger picture we already know, that Khrushchev on his own gambled and put medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba thinking that the U.S. would never find out, and we didn't find out. And Kennedy, through his very cool leadership, steered the country to a peaceful resolution and the missiles were withdrawn without the U.S. ever firing a shot.

BROWN: You and the president and many of the people around the president were young men at the time. Was there a lack of confidence in the White House in how you were dealing with this? Or did the president and his staff seem quite confident?

SORENSON: It's hard to say we were confident, because no one had ever dealt with a nuclear confrontation before. This is what historians have since called the most dangerous crisis in human history. If we made a misstep, if we precipitated World War III, that's the end of the world.

On the other hand, if we were too passive, if we let Khrushchev get away with this, then who would ever believe again that the United States would stand up for its allies when they were threatened.

BROWN: Do you remember if you slept much during those two weeks?

SORENSEN: Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night during that first week, wondering what was the right answer? An air strike? A preemptive strike was likely to lead to a violent war throughout the world and a retaliatory strike by the Soviets.

On the other hand, what kind of diplomatic note could persuade Khrushchev to take the missiles out? But there wasn't much time for sleep anyway, because we were meeting morning, noon and night.

BROWN: When you talked to the Russians who were involved at the time, and even the Cubans who were involved at the time, do you find that their experiences were similar to the experiences that you were having in Washington?

SORENSEN: Well, the Russians, very much so. I still remember the Russian lawyer who walked into my office in New York 20 years ago and introduced himself and said, We've correspond. I said, No, I don't think we have. He said, Didn't you write Kennedy's letters to Khrushchev during the crisis? I wrote Khrushchev's letters to Kennedy.

So, yes, there were some reciprocal and common experiences including the late night work.

BROWN: Do you, we have a half...

SORENSEN: And the tension.

BROWN: I'm sorry. Just, in 20 seconds or so, when you go to these conferences, do you -- this may sound odd, Do you enjoy them? Do you enjoy the exchange between people who participated in this extraordinary historical moment? SORENSEN: Yes, I said this morning to the group, It's not only a conference of recollection and reflection, it's also a conference of reconciliation. And the mere fact of it being held here in Havana sends a message of hope to a world that's teetering, once again, on the brink of war.

BROWN: Mr. Sorensen, I remember saying this to you 10 years ago too, it's wonderful to see you. It's nice to see you looking well.

Have an interesting weekend and a safe trip home. Thank you.

Ted Sorensen, who was an important player 40 years ago in the events at the White House and in the Kremlin and in Havana too.

Next on NEWSNIGHT, we will go back to the place in Cuba where the missiles were and see the jungle and a couple of generations can make.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In all the tourist information for Pinar del Rio in Cuba, you can reads about the natural splendor, an ideal place for walking and hiking. "The land of the best tobacco in the world" is how its billed by one travel agency.

What you don't see in the write-ups is that Pinar del Rio was the center of the Cuban missile crisis, literally the center. A spot of history that's been forgotten by most of the world, and many of the people who live right on top of it.

The story tonight from CNN's Lucia Newman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jardines del aspiro in Pinar del Rio, a lush, peaceful, portion of the western Cuban countryside. A place where nothing much ever happens.

Forty years ago, though, the eyes of the world were focused here. Maxima Martinez lives on a small farm near a former Soviet military base. It's a 10-minute walk, she says, you have to go through the sugar cane fields.

This concrete block is all that's left of the monument built in honor of the Soviet engineers that, in October of 1962, in this very spot, were arming their nuclear warheads. A monument that today is as forgotten as it is hidden, in the hills of Pinar del Rio.

Back then, it was the missiles that were supposed to be hidden, camouflaged as palm trees.

In the closest town, young people don't seem to have any idea that Soviet nuclear missiles, stationed here, almost brought the world to the brink of catastrophe.

We supported the Soviets, and vice versa in those days, says this 28-year-old.

But nuclear wars and missiles, I've never heard of that.

The older folks, though, remember too well when President John Kennedy imposed a naval blockade around Cuba, after reconnaissance photos discovered the missiles.

We felt we were going to war. It seemed like the end. We were terrified, says Maura Semora.

Today, Havana's Malicon Seaside Drive is a place for friends and lovers to stroll. But, back in 1962, it was lined with anti-aircraft artillery, poised for what seemed like an imminent American invasion.

Ruben Jimenez was a student in his early 20s then.

It's hard to understand now, but I was actually happy, because with the Soviet missiles here, the Americans couldn't just keep attacking us, as they had been.

Bartolo Sivas, a retired farmer, also remembers feeling protected. rather than threatened, by the presence of the Soviet missiles at the height of the Cold War.

Did he realize that that could have men the obliteration of Cuba?

We would have disappeared from the face of the Earth, he responds. We would have been incinerated. But they, the Americans, would have disappeared too.

That was long ago. The Soviet Union is gone. And so are its faces. Cubans no longer live in fear of an imminent U.S. military invasion.

Yet, most will tell you, one thing hasn't changed: the Cold War, between their Communist government and the United States. As alive today as it was 40 years ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWMAN: Of course, each side continues to blame the other for keeping that Cold War alive. Now, there has been numerous attempts by various U.S. administrations over the years to try and ease tensions between the United States and Cuba, two countries that are only 90 miles away but, so far, nothing really has worked -- Aaron.

BROWN: Lucia, thank you. Lucia Newman in Havana on what is an important and historic weekend there.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the story of some Americans who know what it's like to be singled out by the government.

Up next: the ups and downs of the California governor's race.

This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the comedy routine otherwise known as the California governors race. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A quick look at a couple of other stories making news tonight. Starting with a terrible scene north of Milwaukee today. Ten people died, dozens hurt in a car pile-up on a stretch of the interstate close to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The highway was covered in fog. What had happened, at least 38 vehicles involved in the pile-up.

Tropical Storm Kyle hit the South Carolina coast today. Brought lots of rain up and down the coast, too. Streets flooded homes with up to eight inches of rain. The center of the storm passed across Charleston harbor, the first tropical storm to do that since Hurricane Hugo in 1989. No one hurt or killed that we know of at this point, we are pleased to say.

Here in California this week, we have been getting a lesson in how not to run a political campaign. Republican candidate for governor, Bill Simon, has spent most of the week trying to get his foot out of his mouth, and getting blasted not just by his opponent, Gray Davis, but by virtually all of the political press here. For Simon, it was another tough week in a campaign that has been not just short on money, but according to many people here, short on competence as well.

Simon is the candidate the White House did not want running in the state Republicans would love to control. But this week, it is hard to be hopeful from that point of view. Here is CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): It has more people, more cars, more political clout than any other state, and its problems are just as big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All members vote who desire to vote.

GREENFIELD: A $24 billion budget deficit. Jam-packed roads. A school system in crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do I spell "discover?"

GREENFIELD: And a future where everything from the quality of it water to the reliable of its energy is in doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to go on record.

GREENFIELD: So you might think that the race for governor of California, the biggest prize of the fall campaign, would be dominated by big ideas, by clashing visions about the state's future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't answer my question. GREENFIELD: You might think that, but you'd be wrong.

(on camera): In fact, this is a race where, to repeat an oft- heard cliche, the leading candidate, if the voters had that choice, might well be none of the above. It's a race where both candidates' principle liabilities are themselves.

CARLA MARINUCCI, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: This has been a case of an ad campaign run on TV in California where according to the ads, it's a corrupt governor versus a corrupt businessman.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): Carla Marinucci covers politics for the "San Francisco Chronicle."

MARINUCCI: We have heard lots of charges, and all those charges have brought down the voters' enthusiasm for the candidates. They're just not excited about this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "DAVIS CAMPAIGN AD")

NARRATOR: Bill Simon. If we can't trust him in his business practices, how can we trust him in the governor's office?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SIMON CAMPAIGN AD")

BILL SIMON (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You know me. I've survived millions of dollars of Gray Davis' lies and distortions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: But Democratic Governor Gray Davis, with a combination of fund-raising zealotry and a personally grating style, has alienated a fair chunk of voters. Consider this question for Monday's first and likely only debate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Davis, many people simply do not like you.

GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: Would I like to be liked? Sure. Is it essential for me to do my job? No. I think under the circumstances, we have done a pretty good job.

GREENFIELD: Then there is Republican nominee Bill Simon, who has suffered enough wounds to wipe out a platoon. This week's disaster, photo gate.

SIMON: The evidence is a photograph...

GREENFIELD: The Simon campaign believed they had a smoking gun, this photo, proving that Davis had accepted an illegal campaign contribution in his lieutenant governor's office. But the charge was flat out wrong. The office was a private home. And Simon faced the wrath of the media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know if you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) take full responsibility...

GREENFIELD: Simon says neither the mistake nor his conservative views on social issues should decide this election.

SIMON: He goes around talking about symbols. This person stands for this. That's not going to fix -- that's not going to put people back to work. It's not going to make sure that our two million kids trapped in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) schools get an education.

GREENFIELD: For his part, Governor Davis says this about his barely disguised ambition for a higher office, should he win.

DAVIS: My goal is to be the best governor I can for the next four years. If my health is good, and God smiles and it's the right thing to do something down the road after that, fine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Now, Aaron, when you consider the tilt of the state toward the Democrats -- they control virtually every important office -- and the fumbles and stumbles of the Simon campaign, you'd think Gray Davis would have put it away. Not so, Republicans says. Their private polls show that Simon is still within reach. No, say the Democrats, our polls show Davis pulling away.

So, Aaron, when the next independent polls come out, we actually are going to know whether or not the Simon campaign has still got a chance, or whether it's so far behind that Dick Riordan, the former L.A. mayor who Simon beat in the primary might yet stick his toe in the water with a write-in campaign.

BROWN: And quickly, it's a little far-fetched to think that he could actually win that way, but he does have money.

GREENFIELD: Independently wealthy.

BROWN: And he was the choice, the White House's choice.

GREENFIELD: Yes, and you hear many people say, if Riordan ran the race today, it would look very different. Of course, given Davis' money and his ability to attack his opponents with commercials, who knows.

BROWN: And he was going -- Gray Davis was going after Riordan before Riordan was even -- before the primary.

GREENFIELD: The Davis campaign spent millions of dollars attacking Riordan, hoping to get Bill Simon. They have him. They are saying, see, that's why we did it.

BROWN: Jeff, thank you. Travel safely back home.

Next on NEWSNIGHT, some Americans who remember what it was like to be singled out as potential enemies. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: We end the program and our time in Los Angeles tonight about 200 miles northeast of here, just short of Independence, and a mile west of Reward. There you find a spot in a valley with a Spanish name that means "apple orchard." But to thousands of Americans who arrived there 60 years ago, the name Manzanar meant something else. Sixty years ago, those same Americans were taken from their homes on the West Coast. They were shipped to Manzanar and places like it because they looked like the enemy and this was war. Tonight the country is once again at war, and to some people at least, an awful lot of Americans look like the enemy. So we are revisiting Manzanar tonight with three Americans who once lived there, a not-so-gentle reminder that 60 years ago feels a lot closer now than it did a year ago, and Manzanar is still just short of Independence and not that far down the road.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAS OKUI, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 10. I was in fifth grade.

BO SAKAGUCHI, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 16 in 11th grade.

SUE EMBREY, MANZANAR RESIDENT: I was 19. The U.S. Army came around into the area and posted notices on telephone poles and store fronts. They just said you've got to go and go. If you didn't go, they would probably arrest you and put you in jail. So what alternative did you have?

SAKAGUCHI: There was a caravan of several buses leaving from Burbank.

OKUI: Yeah.

SAKAGUCHI: And it rained that morning.

OKUI: All I know is when we got there, it was really gray and dark.

SAKAGUCHI: And the lady who was boarding the bus said, look, even the sky is crying for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The time: Spring and summer of 1942. The relocation centers are supervised by the War Relocation Authority, which assumed responsibility for the people after they had been evacuated and cared for temporarily by the Army. The entire community bounded by a wire fence and guarded by military police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAKAGUCHI: Well, you know, you're an American, though you're of a different color and features from those from Europe. And so though you know you're an American and you're an American citizen, here we were being herded away into a desolate camp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Naturally, the newcomers looked about with some curiosity. They were in a new area, on land that was raw, untamed, but full of opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAKAGUCHI: Manzanar -- those who have lived here had experienced all sorts of emotions and experiences. It was very significant; 220,000 people who lived in the United States.

OKUI: Anyone who was here, two things that they were denied were privacy and protection from the wind. It was always windy and there was never any privacy.

EMBREY: The lights used to follow us at night, remember that? As soon as you opened your door and you started out, the lights would follow you, either to the latrine or to a neighbor or wherever you were going, and then they would follow you back again. And I think that's what most people remember the most about camp, the searchlight at night (ph). And people keep saying that there were no guard towers, but there were eight of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are protecting ourselves without violating the principles of Christian decency. We won't change this fundamental decency no matter what our enemies do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMBREY: We got our three meals a day...

OKUI: Three meals a day...

(CROSSTALK)

EMBREY: ... but we had no freedom. We had no rights. We were there without any charge. Without a trial.

SAKAGUCHI: I don't remember these trees here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What department number were you in?

SAKAGUCHI: 11-7-4. It would be right about here.

OKUI: I remember the whole place was absolutely barren when we got here. Everything was bulldozed. There was nothing here.

EMBREY: The first night is kind of blanked out of my mind. We were lucky, because the others had to go out and, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mattress (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with hey. But my brother had already done it for us, so when we got there my mother kind of sat down and said, oh, my, what a place. And that was it. She told me years later that she used to walk up to the apple orchards from block 20, which is quite a ways, every day, and cry under the trees. SAKAGUCHI: September 11, I watched it on TV. I wasn't aware who had caused it. And then once we found out, I think, then we worried, because those were only special people who are brought into this country to try to destroy this country. And the average Muslim is probably a very loyal to this country.

EMBREY: I had heard FBI had gone into Detroit, where there is a large Middle Eastern population and had talked to people. And I thought, well, that's what happened on the night of December 7.

SAKAGUCHI: The Arab-Americans -- or the Muslims were lucky. At least the president...

EMBREY: He did say that we have to not make them scapegoats, right.

SAKAGUCHI: That every Muslim is not a terrorist. I wish they would have said that about us.

EMBREY: No, not that president.

SAKAGUCHI: Emotions are emotions. And time changes people. And time tends to people forget.

EMBREY: But I hope, you know, Americans have learned -- at least those who know about it have learned from the experience.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Manzanar.

That's all for tonight. We will head back to New York. We'll see you from there on Monday, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us for that. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT from L.A.

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Stumble in California Gubernatorial Race; Remembering Cuban Missile Crisis>