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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

More States Lining Up to Prosecute Sniper Suspects; Mondale Begins Vigorous Senate Campaign; SEC Chairman Pitt Under Fire Again

Aired October 31, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again. I'm Aaron Brown.
We're reminded tonight of something a young child in the Washington, D.C. area said last week to his mom. As soon as he heard the sniper suspects had been caught. "Can we go trick-or-treating now," the child said. We think of it on this Halloween night in part because of just how scary, really scary the real world is for kids. And it's been that way now for several years.

For years, we adults scared our children for no particular reason, worrying out loud about LSD and candy bars and razor blades and apples, things that never, ever happened, urban myths. Now they have real things to be frightened of all the time.

It didn't start with Columbine, but that still seems like an important marker. And then there was September 11 and then anthrax, which we were dealing with a year ago. And then around D.C., and no doubt in the minds of many children everywhere, there was the sniper.

But tonight, kids all over the country went out into the dark, going house to house crunching through the leaves. Happy to get their Halloween chills and thrills because this is the only kind of fear that kids deserve. The kind that doesn't exist in a real world, one that can be neatly tucked away at the end of an autumn night. We trust yours got home safely and are sorting through their bite-size Butterfingers and Three Musketeers and a popcorn ball, if they are really lucky.

On to the day's news. We go beginning with the sniper story and a new crime, another state. David Mattingly on that for us -- David, start us out with a headline please.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a sniper's weapon has now been matched at three more shootings. But the question coming out of one state tonight, just how many killers were there? Investigators at one crime scene looking into the possibility that suspects Muhammad and Malvo were not alone -- Aaron.

BROWN: David thank you. Back to you at the top tonight.

On to Minneapolis now, and again, all the complexities of adding a new candidate to the ballot. The former Vice President Walter Mondale, in this case. Jonathan Karl still out in the Midwest -- Jon, a headline from you tonight.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this race is about to change again. The tone of it anyway. I've got the details of a new Republican ad that attacks Walter Mondale by reminding voters of the dark side of the Carter-Mondale years.

BROWN: Jon, thank you very much. We'll be getting to you shortly, as well.

It's been a very rough week in Italy in terms of natural disasters. Today a terrible earthquake. Chris Burns is following that for us and Chris will join us in a little while as well.

Also coming up tonight, some insight on the sniper case as it expands. We're joined again by former deputy director of the FBI, Weldon Kennedy. We'll take a look and report from human rights watch on what they see as war crimes, suicide bombings against the Israelis and the people behind those attacks.

The legacy of a rap legend who helped take rap music mainstream, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC shot to death last night. We'll take a look at that and we'll talk with rapper Chuck D as well.

And a public service from our Jeff Greenfield. Oh yeah, right. The greatest hits of political advertising from across the country. And he does it all in just about three minutes. That is to say it takes him about three minutes to do it all. All of that coming up in the hour ahead.

We begin with the sniper case, which seems to be growing a little bit each and every day. Police all across the country now are trying match their unsolved killings with Malvo and Muhammad and the rifle. So today the case took on several more dimensions. New charges, new crime scenes, new theories about a third gunman at one of the killings, and no sign, not a one, that we've seen the end of it.

We begin tonight with CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The deeper investigators dig, the longer the murder trail appears to grow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Baton Rouge Police Department today issued warrants for the arrest of John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17.

MATTINGLY: Investigators say 11 days before a deadly sniper spree hit the suburbs of Washington, D.C., 45-year-old Hong Ballenger (ph) was killed by the same Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle outside her shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballistics comparisons by the Louisiana State Police crime lab have now positively linked the .223 caliber bullet used to murder Ms. Ballenger (ph) with the weapon used in several of the D.C.-area sniper killings.

MATTINGLY: And new suspicions now in Montgomery, Alabama, where the same Bushmaster .223 has also been linked to the shooting of two women outside a liquor store. Witnesses placed Muhammad and Malvo at the scene, Muhammad wielding a handgun. If this is the case, who pulled the trigger on the Bushmaster?

Police Chief John Wilson saying he has a gut feeling a third gunman may have been involved. And telling CNN, "I know where two of the players were. So we have to figure out where the other bullets were fired from." Attorney General John Ashcroft also releasing a similar statement, raising the possibility of more suspects and more crimes, saying, we continue to gather evidence and follow leads in an effort to determine the full extent of criminal activity.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Maryland's Prince George's County join the rush to prosecute, filing attempted first degree murder charges against Muhammad and Malvo for the shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a local middle school.

JACK JOHNSON, MARYLAND STATE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: The attempted murder charges carry a life sentence, as well as a conspiracy, a life sentence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And the investigation continues internationally as well. Authorities in Antigua are looking into possible criminal activity during John Muhammad's stay there in 2000 and 2001. Investigators want to know if Muhammad was running a lucrative passport forgery business.

BROWN: I gather they have some reason to believe that may be the case?

MATTINGLY: They were tipped off to that when they realized that Muhammad may have forged some documents in order to get a passport for himself from that country. So that's why they are looking into it.

BROWN: David, thank you. It sounds like these guys are going to spend a long time standing trial, if nothing else. Thank you, David Mattingly, in Washington.

Politics now, briefly. Five days before the election. Five busy days for the president, who plans to spend every day from now until next Tuesday on the campaign trail. Today, Indiana, West Virginia and South Dakota. The president's day began in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where Republican Jim Thune is in a very tight race against the incumbent Senator, Democrat Tim Johnson. But in many ways this sometimes seems to be a battle between the president and South Dakota's other Senator, Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

And while the president's approval ratings have slipped a tad of late, they are still sky-high. And so visits like this around the country may help Republicans come Tuesday.

On Sunday, Mr. Bush travels to Minnesota to campaign for Norm Coleman in his race for the Senate against Walter Mondale. Mr. Mondale kicked off his abbreviated campaign today, a quick campaign. But there's more to it than just a sprint to the finish. There's a race to reprogram voting machines and literally get Mr. Mondale's name on to supplemental ballots. A race also to send out new absentee ballots to voters who want them.

Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled on that today and said new ballots could be sent out. All in all today, a state and candidate known for nice showed they could also do fast. Here again Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best of luck to you.

WALTER MONDALE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you so much.

KARL (voice-over): Democrats call it the Fritz blitz. A five- day campaign to get Walter Mondale back in the Senate. Day one included some old-fashioned pressing of the flesh and a town hall meeting at McCallister (ph) College in St. Paul.

MONDALE: I think somebody had to carry Paul's torch. Somebody had to make certain that this tragedy didn't end in futility.

KARL: Mondale start on safe turf. This is a liberal campus, and it's a place that counts Walter Mondale among its graduates.

The new Mondale campaign already has a TV commercial.

MONDALE: I know our state. I know our country. I've worked around the world. And I know the Senate.

KARL: Facing reporters for the first time since becoming a candidate, Mondale talked up an emerging campaign theme: his extensive experience.

MONDALE: I've been there. I know the rules. I helped shape them.

KARL: Mondale hasn't always put such faith in experience. He decided against running 13 years ago, telling reporters he worried about the appropriateness of yet another Senate campaign.

"I've watched too many friends who stay there too long. I vowed when I was in the Senate that I would never be among them. I just don't want to make a fool out of myself."

Now a candidate yet again, Mondale announced a couple decisions. Yes, he will debate Republican Norm Coleman once. No, he won't actively raise any money for his campaign.

MONDALE: I tell you what my approach is. I'm not going to make one phone call for money. And I guarantee you this, we'll have a lot less money.

KARL: Republican Norm Coleman is sprinting to every corner of Minnesota on his final push. He's not directly attacking Mondale, but he repeatedly says his campaign is about the future, suggesting his opponent's is about the past.

NORM COLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE: Our challenge now is to move forward. Our challenge is to build on it. This race, this race is about the future.

KARL: Coleman is back on the airwaves. One ad features a testimonial from his daughter. In another, he talks about wellstone.

COLEMAN: The prayers of Laurie (ph) and I go out to the families of Paul and Sheila and Marcia and all those who lost loved ones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: Now you're going to have a much different tone coming from the Republican Party, not from the Coleman campaign, but from the party. This we have learned -- CNN has learned the Republicans have made a new ad. They've shipped it out to television stations. They have not decided do to run it yet, but they are expected to make that decision at noon tomorrow.

The ad, Aaron, opens with pictures of Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter. No sound in the top of the ad. It just reminds people of what was going on in the Carter years: the grain embargo, the 18 percent mortgage rates, high taxes, and then it will close. The only words you will actually hear in the ad are, "Times have changed. Has Walter Mondale?"

So if that ad goes as expected tomorrow, it will be the first negative ad of this campaign by either of the major parties or the candidates since Paul Wellstone died on Friday.

BROWN: Well, it's an interesting ad, from where I sit, because when then Vice President Mondale ran for the presidency, the only state he carried was his home state, Minnesota. This tremendous affection for him there, historically. Now it's been a long time, but it certainly was true 20 years ago, 15 years ago. And I suspect 10 years ago.

KARL: Yes. The Republicans will point out that when he won Minnesota as the only state he won in 1984 when he was running for president, he won by only 4,000 votes. So they still think they can pull it off here. And, as you can see, with this ad, the national party has decided to still pump money into Minnesota. They're not writing it off yet.

BROWN: Jon, thank you. Jonathan Karl in the twin cities tonight on a campaign that is unfolding in a most interesting way.

Now on to business behaving badly. Grand jury in Houston, Texas today indicted Enron's former Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fastow. He was hit with a 78-count indictment. Charges including wire fraud, conspiracy, two kinds of money laundering -- both bad, both of them -- all of this accusing Fastow of using off-the-book partnerships with bogus companies to hide about $1 billion in debt before Enron went under. Mr. Fastow faces hundreds of years in prison potentially if he is convicted on all of those charges. Harvey Pitt hasn't had many good days as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And that didn't change today. Mr. Pitt, his opponents say, caved into the accounting industry that used to employ him by refusing to name a tough reform minded chairman of the new accounting oversight committee.

It turns out the man he did name, William Webster, who once ran the CIA and FBI, warned Mr. Pitt that there were some accounting questions at a company he used to serve. He was on the board and the head of the auditing company. It seems Chairman Pitt never bothered to mention that to other commission members. Now an investigation is on and again there are calls for Pitt's resignation.

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Bush administration's most embattled appointee, SEC chair Harvey Pitt, once again confronts a congressional chorus calling for him to step down.

SEN. PAUL SARBANES (D), MARYLAND: The public has, I think, long lost confidence in the chairman.

CHERNOFF: The latest revolution? Pitt failed to tell fellow SEC commissioners that William Webster, his choice to lead the new accounting oversight board had led the audit committee of a struggling company facing fraud charges, U.S. Technologies.

SEN. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: It's certainly relevant information. And in my view, it is grounds to ask for Chairman Pitt's resignation.

CHERNOFF: The SEC commissioners approved Webster last Friday in a 3-2 vote. Webster, former head of the CIA and FBI, has little accounting background, while the other lead candidate, John Biggs, head of a huge pension fund, is widely respected as a harsh critic of accountants. In a battle of the Harveys, Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid chastised Pitt for caving into the accounting industry.

HARVEY GOLDSCHMID, SEC COMMISSIONER: I'm deeply saddened by the harm the commission selection process for the oversight board has done to this great agency. As a whole, this selection process has been inept.

CHERNOFF: Pitt responded in self-defense.

HARVEY PITT, SEC CHAIRMANN: I am fiercely independent. I am beholden to no one.

CHERNOFF: Pitt is now calling on the SEC's inspector general to investigate the accounting board selection process. And Congress' general accounting office will also conduct a probe. SEC veterans say the unprecedented rift within the commission threatens to further damage investor confidence at a time when Washington is desperate to have it restored. LYNN TURNER, FMR. CHIEF ACCOUNTANT, SEC: Foreign investors who are important to our market are starting to ask what's going on. They think we're starting to look like a bunch of amateurs that are running the world's largest capital markets. That can't be good.

CHERNOFF: Pitt has represented accounting and securities firm as a private attorney and he's faced charges of being slow to address conflicts in those industries. Still, the White House today is saying the president stands behind Harvey Pitt.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, what this year's political candidates wants you to know. That's coming up later. When we return, an earthquake in Italy. We'll have the latest on the efforts to rescue students trapped in a collapsed school building. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The earth opened up today in Italy. But unlike this week's eruption on Mt. Etna, today's disaster did not come with strangely beautiful pictures of flowing lava. Just the ugliness of homes and buildings shaken to rubble, a schoolhouse in ruins, and far too many children dead in a small town. For the latest on this terrible earthquake, we go to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Italy and CNN's Chris Burns -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, good evening. One of those grim pictures is right over my shoulder. It's the gymnasium here in San Juliano De Pulia (ph), where the bodies are being kept after they have been taken out of that school. Grieving families outside as well.

The rescuers are desperately trying to get to the 15 people still in the rubble. 21 people altogether dead. All but two of them children between three and five years of age. Preschoolers who were trapped and killed when the roof and the second floor collapsed onto the first floor at about noon today with about 60 people inside, 60 children inside.

They were trapped. Some of them managed to get out alive. Some 32 people were pulled out alive, their students and their teachers and workers there. But the rescue effort goes on right now. The relief crew is in there using their bare hands to try to get in and under the rubble. It's too delicate a situation, officials say, to move in with a crane and pull things out.

A very painstaking operation. Now the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, came earlier and visited the site. He was booed. This being part of the sort of grief and intense anger by a lot of people here who believe that the school was shoddily built. Because if you look around here in town, all of the buildings are still standing.

So people do believe that it is the government's fault for this building to have collapsed, not because of a 5.4 richter earthquake. A state of emergency has been declared in this area. Some 2,500 people are homeless.

One other woman was killed by her collapsing house. There are more after shocks, but probably one of the biggest after shocks are going to be those that hit the government officials because of this school collapse -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, is there any hope that these children who are still trapped inside the building are in fact alive?

BURNS: Well, in fact, officials are talking, rescuers are talking with a young boy named Angelo who says that his feet are stuck somehow inside the rubble. He can't get out, but his voice is one of the few that continue to be talking right now. So hopes are fading for some of those inside -- Aaron.

BROWN: At least we know of one who is still alive. Hopefully more. Chris, thank you. Chris Burns in Italy tonight. It was an awful earthquake there.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, linking the sniper suspects to unsolved murders and other crimes around the country. More charges were filed tonight, and more (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll talk with the former deputy director of the FBI, Weldon Kennedy, when we continue from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Back now to the sniper story and the scope of the investigation that continues to get bigger, involves more states, more crimes and, most importantly, more victims. Where it might all go from here and how it will get there, we're joined by Weldon Kennedy again, the former deputy director of the FBI. Good to see you again.

I don't know if law enforcement types ever talk like this, but reporters in moments like this go -- I bet every police department in the country is trying to clear their books of something right now. Is there some truth in that? That they're all looking at the...

WELDON KENNEDY, CHAIRMAN, GUARDSMARK: Certainly. There's an element of truth to that. Because now the widespread use, and they're finding that .223 caliber weapon was used in many parts of the country. So I would be pretty well assured that every police department in the country that has an unsolved murder case involving a high caliber rifle are going to be submitting those pieces of evidence for comparison.

BROWN: I want to come back to that point in a second. Is it also possible or even likely that as they know more about the movements of the two suspects that they'll say, wait a second. They were in Cleveland or Phoenix or wherever and we've got this robbery homicide. And I wonder.

KENNEDY: That happens, Aaron. But then also other things come into play, too. For example, there's a program been in existence for a number of years called VICAP (ph), the violent offenders program, where police departments for many years submit a complete profile of an unsolved murder case or rape case or other violent crime in their jurisdiction. And that's all in a computer base, so that when an unsolved case is submitted to match against that computer base, many instances, there are hits.

It will find that, while it doesn't identify the person who is responsible, it will tell the investigator this individual who committed this crime in my jurisdiction has also committed a crime in another jurisdiction of similar nature.

BROWN: All right. Now back to this ballistics question. So down in Baton Rouge today, they deduced that the gun that was used in the sniper killings was also used in one of theirs. They obviously had a suspicion. They knew these guys were down there at some point and they had this crime.

And they had this fragment of a bullet, I guess. Did they send it to Washington? Does Washington send them a picture? How does this work?

KENNEDY: There's a computer system that has now been brought into play where the profile of that bullet fragment can be matched against a computer analysis to determine, is there some similarity. Now if they are going to get to the point where there's an exact match and some expert is going to testify in court, then that expert is going to actually have to examine the real bullet fragment and the real bullets it's being matched against.

The computer match would not be sufficient for him or her to go into court with that kind of evidence. They're going to have to have the direct evidence. But it would certainly be a strong lead and would cause, in this case, if they discovered that there was probably a match, then that fragment would have been sent to Washington for analysis and comparison to the actual bullet.

BROWN: And how precise is this ballistics science?

KENNEDY: It's very, very precise, because each bullet fired leaves a very distinct marking on a bullet.

BROWN: So it's a fingerprint?

KENNEDY: It's a fingerprint.

BROWN: And when the expert goes into court, the expert testifies with the same degree of certainty that a fingerprint expert testifies with?

KENNEDY: To be quite specific, not quite with that degree of certainty, but very, very close.

BROWN: Is there -- from a law enforcement point of view, is it important to try every case that a suspect is accused of? You've got six in Maryland, one in Washington, D.C., and a number over here in Virginia and now you have one in Alabama and another one in Louisiana. And at some point, is it worth the money to try these cases?

KENNEDY: In most cases, particularly in multiple homicides of that nature, there rarely would be a prosecution for every single one of those cases. For example, in the Atlanta child murders, I think he was only prosecuted for three or four of the total of 19 or whatever the total number was. In the case of the Oklahoma City bomber, he was tried initially for the six federal officers that were killed in that explosion and not the other 162 people.

BROWN: Which is the -- correct me, I think is the underlying issue that Oklahoma and the former district attorney in Oklahoma City whose name I now forget wanted to try those cases as state cases ultimately.

KENNEDY: Correct.

BROWN: Nice to see you again. Thank you for walking me through police procedure and evidence and the like.

KENNEDY: I'm glad to be here. We have some concern these days about the fact that after 9/11 and after some of these other terrible incidents like the sniper we see a brief spike in concern about people's security, but then very quickly apathy sets in and we see that happening around the country, where people are now relaxed. There are security steps and procedures significantly.

BROWN: I don't think that was true in Washington, D.C., though.

KENNEDY: Not in the last month or so around Washington, D.C.

BROWN: Thank you again, sir. It's good to see you.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

BROWN: Still ahead on the program, a little name calling. And CNN's Jeff Greenfield joins us a little bit later. That combination can mean only one thing, it's time to bring out the campaign ads.

Also coming up, this time right around the corner suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Some say the attacks should be considered war crimes. We'll take a look at the issue as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A couple of quick ones from around the world. Starting in Russia, first. Authorities in Moscow, today, showed off the explosives recovered from the theater where Chechen rebels held more than 700 hostages. Sixteen army grenades, 89 homemade bombs scattered around the theater, enough, say the experts, to bring the whole building down.

Explosions today in the Middle East. They ripped through the garage of a house in Gaza city, killing three members of Hamas. A senior official said, the cause of the blast is under investigation. And in his words, it may have been an internal explosion. In other words, not the work of Israel.

There are so many examples of injustice in the middle east it's hard to know precisely where to start. But one we often think of involves the suicide bombers. The fact that very young people, some in desperate situations are encouraged by their elders and their leaders to become ruthless killers. They pay the ultimate price, killing themselves, murdering the innocent, while the leaders often go untouched.

A new report from Human Rights Watch looks at those leaders and their involvement in the bombings. But in this report, they're not thought of as leaders, exactly, more like war criminals.

Here's CNN's Alessio Vinci.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suicide bombing, the deadliest method used by Palestinian militants fighting Israel. According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, the crimes against humanity were systematic and, in many cases, sanctioned by Palestinian leaders who now should be held accountable for war crimes.

HANNY MEGALLY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: These are deliberate policies, you know. People are sitting down deciding we are going to go and attack civilians for political aims. We're going to send people to carry out these attacks, and the result is civilians are dying and being injured.

VINCI: In a detailed 170-page report titled erased in a moment, human rights watch analyzed suicide attacks carried out by four major Palestinian militant groups, concluding that within two of them, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, their leaders have, at times, openly espoused, authorized, encouraged or endorsed suicide attacks against civilians and had the authority to imitate or halt such attacks, even if they did not play a role in selecting the targets.

MEGALLY: Militarying of Hamas is subordinate to the political authority. And for us, that's clear enough to say that if they said to the military wing, stop these attacks, they would stop. That's a commander subordinate control.

VINCI: Hamas leaders called the report one-sided because, they say, it failed to take into account Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces.

MAHMOUD EL ZAHAR, HAMAS POLITICAL LEADER: This report is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all the Arab Muslims (UNINTELLIGIBLE) who are not recognizing these operations as a suicide, and he is accepting the term of Israel, describing such operation as suicide operation. These operation is not suicide. These are martyr operation.

VINCI: The report says Yasser Arafat personally approved payments to militants belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group linked to his Fatah movement, at the time he knew or should have known such individuals were alleged to have been involved in planning or carrying out attacks on civilians.

But Human Rights Watch says, there is no evidence that Arafat ordered or planned such attacks.

MEGALLY: With Arafat, he could say to the al-Aqsa Brigade, stop these attacks, and he has publicly condemned the attacks. You know, we didn't find that he would have enough control and even less, now, to bring this to an end.

VINCI: The report, however, assesses that the Palestinian Authority failed to prevent or deter suicide attacks and did not bring those responsible to justice. A failure, the report concludes, which contributed to an atmosphere of impunity for crimes against humanity.

GHASSAN KHATTIB, CABINET MINISTER, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: The PA did everything they could. They were arresting some of those activists, but politically speaking, we have to understand that at the situations what Israel was committing all these crimes against Palestinian civilians, the persons we are talking about, who were responding by suicide activities, were unfortunately perceived as heroes in the eyes of 80 percent of the Palestinian population.

VINCI: Human rights activists say under Israeli military occupation, it is difficult to find large numbers of Palestinians ready to speak up against suicide attacks.

MEGALLY: Our hope is, at least, with our report, we may be able to strengthen those people who recognize, and many of them do, that deliberate attacks on citizens, by any side, is a mistake. And it's actually prohibited under international law and should stop immediately. And that applies to Israel, as well as to Palestinians.

VINCI: In the past, Human Rights Watch has strongly criticized the Israeli military for its actions against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. And Israeli officials have long called for a similar Human Rights Watch examination of Palestinian tactics.

This very tough report also includes recommendation for the Israeli government. Among them, that Israel should not target Palestinian security services in reprisal for suicide attacks. Saying that Palestinian police should be given an opportunity to do its job to stop the attacks. Alessio Vinci, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another election year, another round of ads. The good, bad and the downright ugly from Jeff Greenfield, a little later.

And the musical and non-musical impact on the loss of Run DMC's Jam Master Jay. We'll talk with hip-hop legend, Chuck D.

That, after this short break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: You only need to type six letters, rundmc, in any search engine, today, and you'll find a sprawling online eulogy. The eulogy for Jam Master Jay, the DJ part of the pioneering rap trio. He was shot and killed last night in a recording studio near where he grew up, in the borough of Queens in New York.

There's a reason this tragedy from the music world comes up on our radar screen, when the sudden stars of other stars did not. Here's what one grieving fan said today. Run DMC helped bring the melting pot of America together. A group from the '80s that helped rap music cross over from the inner city to suburban America, not to mention suburban Japan and a whole lot of other places around the globe.

We'll talk with another rap legend, Chuck D, in a moment. But first, some background from Jason Bellini.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF FOX, DISC JOCKEY: It's Jeff Fox, and we've all heard the news, and everybody's very saddened about our good friend Jam Master Jay.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jam Master Jay was from what hip-hop fans call, old school. A man on the scene in the early days of rap, when the genre was still new and untested.

FOX: This music was joyous. It brought communities and the world together, and one unity. You had to experience what that music was like and be a part of it. That music was about love. It was about energy. It was about hope and dreams.

BELLINI: His real name was Jason Mizell, born and raised in the New York city borough of Queens. He began to be noticed in the early '80s as a disc jockey for the group Run DMC. On stage, the turntable was his instrument, using it in ways never seen or heard before.

FOX: He was a part of invention and surprise, all at the same time. It was something that was about to happen. If you were to go back to the beginning of rock n roll and how that took over, that was hip-hop, how it was for especially the black community.

ROB PRINCIPE, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) DJ SCHOOL: He spoke with his turntables, and he pioneered an art form and opened the doors for millions of people around the world to learn and study under him.

BELLINI: Jay Master Jay's greatest success, though, came in what the music industry calls, crossover appeal. Essentially because of Run DMC, hip-hop and rap music was accepted and purchased, not only by urban blacks, but by teenagers of all races, all across the country, and all across the world.

While rap music earned a violent reputation, Tupac Shakur was killed on the streets. So was Notorious B.I.G. Jay called for a peace between gangs and an end to the murders that gave rap and hip- hop a bad name.

DAMON DASH, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ROC-A-FELLA RECORDS: When Versace got killed (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because of fashion. So I'm hoping that this doesn't make us go two steps back as far as the way hip-hop is perceived just because a hip-hop person got murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought, like out of anyone, he'd be like the one that got killed, you know. It's like usually the people that get killed or like guttered (ph), they all like into that kind of stuff and they like, they're not relating to violence and stuff, you know.

BELLINI: The people close to him say that Jam Master Jay wanted hip-hop to be a force of hope, not a harbinger of death.

Jason Bellini, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: Chuck D from another pioneering rock group, rap group rather, Public Enemy, said this after the death of Jam Master Jay, Run DMC are our Beatles. It is a very dark day for the hip-hop community.

Chuck D joins us, now, from Roosevelt, Long Island.

It's good to see you, again. Sorry for the circumstance. Our Beatles, your description of them. Does it strike you as odd that when the Beatles came over, everyone in America really didn't know the Beatles were here, but I would guess that there's a huge segment of America's population that did not know of him at all. Is that surprising to you?

CHUCK D, RECORDING ARTIST: Well, I think if you check into music history, if you are sort of a person that is a musicologist, you would evidently know that the facts that Run DMC has gelled all musics around the world, and it made, you know, influenced the people of the '90s, as well as the '80s and even music now. That fact cannot be forgotten. So the casual fan, a lot of black music unfortunately is treated like here and now.

But unfortunately, an incident like this, you know, illuminates the fact that Run DMC is possibly the group that defines the genre of rap music and hip-hop. They truly have wonderfully, in a way, used the genre to bring people together across the world of different ages, different backgrounds, and I, for a fact, had traveled the world with this man.

You know, I was discovered by this man, and he passed the tape on to Rick Reuben, and, like I said, it's not a good day for the music, because this guy epitomized what the music should do. You feel good about a song. Run DMC epitomizes that.

BROWN: How did it happen, and when did it happen that there was this crossover, when all of a sudden suburban kids, white kids started to listen and get rap music?

CHUCK D: Well, in 1979 when the first rap record came out, there was already a groundswell in the New York city area. By 1983, Run DMC had taken the baton and done more things musically on top of the platform that was laid down by the groups, like Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. With their management team around them and the record company around them that was managed by the team of Russell Simmons, Rick Rueben, Leo Cohen, they was able to go into America and say, this is rap music. This is what you've heard about and be able to be the first group to use different types of music, to use rock, to go in arenas like the rock groups were doing and bring this music across.

And that later got exemplified by the fact that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) MTV raps. Run DMC was the first group to actually bring that across the television screen (UNINTELLIGIBLE) households.

BROWN: Did the music have to change for the appeal to be broader, or is the music essentially the same?

CHUCK D: You talk about Run DMC, you got to draw a parallel to the rock n roll of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Bo Diddly.

It's that same vibe and that same purity that Run DMC did for rap music. They brought it across, uncut, no chaser. And really, if you check out Run DMC's music, all their music was about love, harmony. Yes, it had a street edge to it, but it's nothing like what you see as far as the play or the street brawl and gun play. They never -- they never dipped into that.

And that's what makes Run DMC such a icon, a legend, that they presented rap and its tough image, but you also just join hands and sing together in harmony and feel good about us all.

It was about the music. It was about the music. Jam Master Jay, he's the blood, guts, the heart and soul that orchestrated the two brilliant MCs in Run and DMC. You could say it no better.

BROWN: Just a quick final question, I think. One of the things I noticed today was how much attention this crime got on TV and newspapers, too. Does it surprise you in a sense that this is -- this has been a very mainstream news story?

CHUCK D: It hurts me the fact that Run DMC is probably the greatest aspect this genre has ever offered to the world. And two or three weeks ago, you know, well, two months ago, they were virtually being ignored by the video music awards on the red carpet, as everybody clamored for the current artist and these guys are just as important as Pete Townsend, Don Henley, Ringo Starr, and does it take a death to make one wonder and just look at the achievement and accomplishment that these guys have done. I mean, they're irreplaceable.

BROWN: Chuck, thanks for joining us.

CHUCK D: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Tough night.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we'll look at political advertising after a short break. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Here we go. Got to do this quickly.

A quick update on the Minnesota Senate race. Jonathan Karl reported earlier in the hour, the Republican party, the national party, was prepared to air a negative campaign ad against the new Democratic candidate, in Minnesota, Walter Mondale. John is now reporting to us, that just moments ago, the Republican candidate, Norm Coleman, released a statement asking that no negative ads be run in the campaign on his behalf, and we'll see if the national party withdraws its ad.

Finally, from us tonight, an important public service. We know that by now you've already tuned out most of these political ads anyway which means come Tuesday, you may find yourselves a bit confused over which lever to pull. So pay attention. In the next three minutes, you will hear every important point Jeff Greenfield could synthesize from this year's political ads.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: You know, Wayne Alec votes against tougher standards for arsenic and drinking water.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: I hunt cause my Daddy hunted. Lost billions.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're spending a billion dollars on this midterm election, and they're spending most of it 30 second at a time on thousands, no, tens of thousands of TV ads. After awhile, they all seem to blend into a handful of messages and themes.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: His father was the son of a share cropper.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Her father was a plumber.

GREENFIELD: All the candidates are salt of the earth people, boot-strapped from humble circumstances through hard work. If anybody grew up rich, you sure can't tell it from these ads, and they all embrace this year's magic word. Values.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Mark Pryor. Arkansas values...

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: New Hampshire's values.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: The rock solid Georgia values.

GREENFIELD: Curiously, we haven't found any candidate running on New Jersey values or New York values or California values. I think if anyone tried it, the voters in those states would just laugh out loud.

Another trend. If you are in trouble, find someone more popular than you to stand with you. In New Hampshire, Senator Judd Greg appears with John Sununu, who's locked in a very tight Senate race.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Zell voted to support the Boy Scouts of America. Max voted against the Boy Scouts.

GREENFIELD: In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambliss runs ads that claims he's actually closer to Democrat Zell Miller than Democratic Senator Max Cleland is.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Replace Max with Sax.

GREENFIELD: So Miller went on TV and cut an ad saying, no, that's not right.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Max's opponent should be ashamed.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: To hide her record...

GREENFIELD: And when it's time to go negative, the arguments are the same from one end of the country the other. The Democrats? They're weak on defense.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Voted against the president's vital homeland security efforts.

GREENFIELD: If you are a Republican, you're out to undermine Social Security. But sometimes, it gets downright personal. In Texas, Republican Governor Rick Perry charges opponent Tony Sanchez with links to money laundering murders.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: A federal judge confirmed Sanchez's bank wired millions of laundered drug money to Manuel Noriega's Panama.

GREENFIELD: While the Sanchez campaign has this police video showing Governor Perry in a nasty spat with Texas cops.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Why don't you let us get on down the road?

GREENFIELD: There's another curious thing about these ads. Most of them don't ask you to actually vote for a candidate. Instead, they ask you to do something else.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Tell Erskine Bowles, his Clinton-style attacks have no place in North Carolina.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Tell Tim Hutchinson his change hasn't been good for Arkansas.

GREENFIELD: Why all these calls? Because these ads are paid for with soft money. Those unlimited contributions that are supposed to end after this year. And those ads, by law, are not allowed to explicitly ask for a vote. But of all the negative ads I've seen, this one is in a class by itself.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Liz Krueger voted against restrictions on public urination and aggressive panhandling. Urinating in public? That's disgusting.

GREENFIELD: And just what is it we're supposed to decide? Depends. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York. BROWN: We'll see you next on Sunday night from Atlanta, as we begin on election coverage heading towards Tuesday night. Until then, good night from all of us at "NEWSNIGHT."

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





Mondale Begins Vigorous Senate Campaign; SEC Chairman Pitt Under Fire Again>


Aired October 31, 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'm Aaron Brown.
We're reminded tonight of something a young child in the Washington, D.C. area said last week to his mom. As soon as he heard the sniper suspects had been caught. "Can we go trick-or-treating now," the child said. We think of it on this Halloween night in part because of just how scary, really scary the real world is for kids. And it's been that way now for several years.

For years, we adults scared our children for no particular reason, worrying out loud about LSD and candy bars and razor blades and apples, things that never, ever happened, urban myths. Now they have real things to be frightened of all the time.

It didn't start with Columbine, but that still seems like an important marker. And then there was September 11 and then anthrax, which we were dealing with a year ago. And then around D.C., and no doubt in the minds of many children everywhere, there was the sniper.

But tonight, kids all over the country went out into the dark, going house to house crunching through the leaves. Happy to get their Halloween chills and thrills because this is the only kind of fear that kids deserve. The kind that doesn't exist in a real world, one that can be neatly tucked away at the end of an autumn night. We trust yours got home safely and are sorting through their bite-size Butterfingers and Three Musketeers and a popcorn ball, if they are really lucky.

On to the day's news. We go beginning with the sniper story and a new crime, another state. David Mattingly on that for us -- David, start us out with a headline please.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a sniper's weapon has now been matched at three more shootings. But the question coming out of one state tonight, just how many killers were there? Investigators at one crime scene looking into the possibility that suspects Muhammad and Malvo were not alone -- Aaron.

BROWN: David thank you. Back to you at the top tonight.

On to Minneapolis now, and again, all the complexities of adding a new candidate to the ballot. The former Vice President Walter Mondale, in this case. Jonathan Karl still out in the Midwest -- Jon, a headline from you tonight.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this race is about to change again. The tone of it anyway. I've got the details of a new Republican ad that attacks Walter Mondale by reminding voters of the dark side of the Carter-Mondale years.

BROWN: Jon, thank you very much. We'll be getting to you shortly, as well.

It's been a very rough week in Italy in terms of natural disasters. Today a terrible earthquake. Chris Burns is following that for us and Chris will join us in a little while as well.

Also coming up tonight, some insight on the sniper case as it expands. We're joined again by former deputy director of the FBI, Weldon Kennedy. We'll take a look and report from human rights watch on what they see as war crimes, suicide bombings against the Israelis and the people behind those attacks.

The legacy of a rap legend who helped take rap music mainstream, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC shot to death last night. We'll take a look at that and we'll talk with rapper Chuck D as well.

And a public service from our Jeff Greenfield. Oh yeah, right. The greatest hits of political advertising from across the country. And he does it all in just about three minutes. That is to say it takes him about three minutes to do it all. All of that coming up in the hour ahead.

We begin with the sniper case, which seems to be growing a little bit each and every day. Police all across the country now are trying match their unsolved killings with Malvo and Muhammad and the rifle. So today the case took on several more dimensions. New charges, new crime scenes, new theories about a third gunman at one of the killings, and no sign, not a one, that we've seen the end of it.

We begin tonight with CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The deeper investigators dig, the longer the murder trail appears to grow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Baton Rouge Police Department today issued warrants for the arrest of John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17.

MATTINGLY: Investigators say 11 days before a deadly sniper spree hit the suburbs of Washington, D.C., 45-year-old Hong Ballenger (ph) was killed by the same Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle outside her shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballistics comparisons by the Louisiana State Police crime lab have now positively linked the .223 caliber bullet used to murder Ms. Ballenger (ph) with the weapon used in several of the D.C.-area sniper killings.

MATTINGLY: And new suspicions now in Montgomery, Alabama, where the same Bushmaster .223 has also been linked to the shooting of two women outside a liquor store. Witnesses placed Muhammad and Malvo at the scene, Muhammad wielding a handgun. If this is the case, who pulled the trigger on the Bushmaster?

Police Chief John Wilson saying he has a gut feeling a third gunman may have been involved. And telling CNN, "I know where two of the players were. So we have to figure out where the other bullets were fired from." Attorney General John Ashcroft also releasing a similar statement, raising the possibility of more suspects and more crimes, saying, we continue to gather evidence and follow leads in an effort to determine the full extent of criminal activity.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Maryland's Prince George's County join the rush to prosecute, filing attempted first degree murder charges against Muhammad and Malvo for the shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a local middle school.

JACK JOHNSON, MARYLAND STATE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: The attempted murder charges carry a life sentence, as well as a conspiracy, a life sentence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And the investigation continues internationally as well. Authorities in Antigua are looking into possible criminal activity during John Muhammad's stay there in 2000 and 2001. Investigators want to know if Muhammad was running a lucrative passport forgery business.

BROWN: I gather they have some reason to believe that may be the case?

MATTINGLY: They were tipped off to that when they realized that Muhammad may have forged some documents in order to get a passport for himself from that country. So that's why they are looking into it.

BROWN: David, thank you. It sounds like these guys are going to spend a long time standing trial, if nothing else. Thank you, David Mattingly, in Washington.

Politics now, briefly. Five days before the election. Five busy days for the president, who plans to spend every day from now until next Tuesday on the campaign trail. Today, Indiana, West Virginia and South Dakota. The president's day began in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where Republican Jim Thune is in a very tight race against the incumbent Senator, Democrat Tim Johnson. But in many ways this sometimes seems to be a battle between the president and South Dakota's other Senator, Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

And while the president's approval ratings have slipped a tad of late, they are still sky-high. And so visits like this around the country may help Republicans come Tuesday.

On Sunday, Mr. Bush travels to Minnesota to campaign for Norm Coleman in his race for the Senate against Walter Mondale. Mr. Mondale kicked off his abbreviated campaign today, a quick campaign. But there's more to it than just a sprint to the finish. There's a race to reprogram voting machines and literally get Mr. Mondale's name on to supplemental ballots. A race also to send out new absentee ballots to voters who want them.

Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled on that today and said new ballots could be sent out. All in all today, a state and candidate known for nice showed they could also do fast. Here again Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best of luck to you.

WALTER MONDALE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you so much.

KARL (voice-over): Democrats call it the Fritz blitz. A five- day campaign to get Walter Mondale back in the Senate. Day one included some old-fashioned pressing of the flesh and a town hall meeting at McCallister (ph) College in St. Paul.

MONDALE: I think somebody had to carry Paul's torch. Somebody had to make certain that this tragedy didn't end in futility.

KARL: Mondale start on safe turf. This is a liberal campus, and it's a place that counts Walter Mondale among its graduates.

The new Mondale campaign already has a TV commercial.

MONDALE: I know our state. I know our country. I've worked around the world. And I know the Senate.

KARL: Facing reporters for the first time since becoming a candidate, Mondale talked up an emerging campaign theme: his extensive experience.

MONDALE: I've been there. I know the rules. I helped shape them.

KARL: Mondale hasn't always put such faith in experience. He decided against running 13 years ago, telling reporters he worried about the appropriateness of yet another Senate campaign.

"I've watched too many friends who stay there too long. I vowed when I was in the Senate that I would never be among them. I just don't want to make a fool out of myself."

Now a candidate yet again, Mondale announced a couple decisions. Yes, he will debate Republican Norm Coleman once. No, he won't actively raise any money for his campaign.

MONDALE: I tell you what my approach is. I'm not going to make one phone call for money. And I guarantee you this, we'll have a lot less money.

KARL: Republican Norm Coleman is sprinting to every corner of Minnesota on his final push. He's not directly attacking Mondale, but he repeatedly says his campaign is about the future, suggesting his opponent's is about the past.

NORM COLEMAN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE: Our challenge now is to move forward. Our challenge is to build on it. This race, this race is about the future.

KARL: Coleman is back on the airwaves. One ad features a testimonial from his daughter. In another, he talks about wellstone.

COLEMAN: The prayers of Laurie (ph) and I go out to the families of Paul and Sheila and Marcia and all those who lost loved ones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: Now you're going to have a much different tone coming from the Republican Party, not from the Coleman campaign, but from the party. This we have learned -- CNN has learned the Republicans have made a new ad. They've shipped it out to television stations. They have not decided do to run it yet, but they are expected to make that decision at noon tomorrow.

The ad, Aaron, opens with pictures of Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter. No sound in the top of the ad. It just reminds people of what was going on in the Carter years: the grain embargo, the 18 percent mortgage rates, high taxes, and then it will close. The only words you will actually hear in the ad are, "Times have changed. Has Walter Mondale?"

So if that ad goes as expected tomorrow, it will be the first negative ad of this campaign by either of the major parties or the candidates since Paul Wellstone died on Friday.

BROWN: Well, it's an interesting ad, from where I sit, because when then Vice President Mondale ran for the presidency, the only state he carried was his home state, Minnesota. This tremendous affection for him there, historically. Now it's been a long time, but it certainly was true 20 years ago, 15 years ago. And I suspect 10 years ago.

KARL: Yes. The Republicans will point out that when he won Minnesota as the only state he won in 1984 when he was running for president, he won by only 4,000 votes. So they still think they can pull it off here. And, as you can see, with this ad, the national party has decided to still pump money into Minnesota. They're not writing it off yet.

BROWN: Jon, thank you. Jonathan Karl in the twin cities tonight on a campaign that is unfolding in a most interesting way.

Now on to business behaving badly. Grand jury in Houston, Texas today indicted Enron's former Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fastow. He was hit with a 78-count indictment. Charges including wire fraud, conspiracy, two kinds of money laundering -- both bad, both of them -- all of this accusing Fastow of using off-the-book partnerships with bogus companies to hide about $1 billion in debt before Enron went under. Mr. Fastow faces hundreds of years in prison potentially if he is convicted on all of those charges. Harvey Pitt hasn't had many good days as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And that didn't change today. Mr. Pitt, his opponents say, caved into the accounting industry that used to employ him by refusing to name a tough reform minded chairman of the new accounting oversight committee.

It turns out the man he did name, William Webster, who once ran the CIA and FBI, warned Mr. Pitt that there were some accounting questions at a company he used to serve. He was on the board and the head of the auditing company. It seems Chairman Pitt never bothered to mention that to other commission members. Now an investigation is on and again there are calls for Pitt's resignation.

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Bush administration's most embattled appointee, SEC chair Harvey Pitt, once again confronts a congressional chorus calling for him to step down.

SEN. PAUL SARBANES (D), MARYLAND: The public has, I think, long lost confidence in the chairman.

CHERNOFF: The latest revolution? Pitt failed to tell fellow SEC commissioners that William Webster, his choice to lead the new accounting oversight board had led the audit committee of a struggling company facing fraud charges, U.S. Technologies.

SEN. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: It's certainly relevant information. And in my view, it is grounds to ask for Chairman Pitt's resignation.

CHERNOFF: The SEC commissioners approved Webster last Friday in a 3-2 vote. Webster, former head of the CIA and FBI, has little accounting background, while the other lead candidate, John Biggs, head of a huge pension fund, is widely respected as a harsh critic of accountants. In a battle of the Harveys, Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid chastised Pitt for caving into the accounting industry.

HARVEY GOLDSCHMID, SEC COMMISSIONER: I'm deeply saddened by the harm the commission selection process for the oversight board has done to this great agency. As a whole, this selection process has been inept.

CHERNOFF: Pitt responded in self-defense.

HARVEY PITT, SEC CHAIRMANN: I am fiercely independent. I am beholden to no one.

CHERNOFF: Pitt is now calling on the SEC's inspector general to investigate the accounting board selection process. And Congress' general accounting office will also conduct a probe. SEC veterans say the unprecedented rift within the commission threatens to further damage investor confidence at a time when Washington is desperate to have it restored. LYNN TURNER, FMR. CHIEF ACCOUNTANT, SEC: Foreign investors who are important to our market are starting to ask what's going on. They think we're starting to look like a bunch of amateurs that are running the world's largest capital markets. That can't be good.

CHERNOFF: Pitt has represented accounting and securities firm as a private attorney and he's faced charges of being slow to address conflicts in those industries. Still, the White House today is saying the president stands behind Harvey Pitt.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, what this year's political candidates wants you to know. That's coming up later. When we return, an earthquake in Italy. We'll have the latest on the efforts to rescue students trapped in a collapsed school building. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The earth opened up today in Italy. But unlike this week's eruption on Mt. Etna, today's disaster did not come with strangely beautiful pictures of flowing lava. Just the ugliness of homes and buildings shaken to rubble, a schoolhouse in ruins, and far too many children dead in a small town. For the latest on this terrible earthquake, we go to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Italy and CNN's Chris Burns -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, good evening. One of those grim pictures is right over my shoulder. It's the gymnasium here in San Juliano De Pulia (ph), where the bodies are being kept after they have been taken out of that school. Grieving families outside as well.

The rescuers are desperately trying to get to the 15 people still in the rubble. 21 people altogether dead. All but two of them children between three and five years of age. Preschoolers who were trapped and killed when the roof and the second floor collapsed onto the first floor at about noon today with about 60 people inside, 60 children inside.

They were trapped. Some of them managed to get out alive. Some 32 people were pulled out alive, their students and their teachers and workers there. But the rescue effort goes on right now. The relief crew is in there using their bare hands to try to get in and under the rubble. It's too delicate a situation, officials say, to move in with a crane and pull things out.

A very painstaking operation. Now the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, came earlier and visited the site. He was booed. This being part of the sort of grief and intense anger by a lot of people here who believe that the school was shoddily built. Because if you look around here in town, all of the buildings are still standing.

So people do believe that it is the government's fault for this building to have collapsed, not because of a 5.4 richter earthquake. A state of emergency has been declared in this area. Some 2,500 people are homeless.

One other woman was killed by her collapsing house. There are more after shocks, but probably one of the biggest after shocks are going to be those that hit the government officials because of this school collapse -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, is there any hope that these children who are still trapped inside the building are in fact alive?

BURNS: Well, in fact, officials are talking, rescuers are talking with a young boy named Angelo who says that his feet are stuck somehow inside the rubble. He can't get out, but his voice is one of the few that continue to be talking right now. So hopes are fading for some of those inside -- Aaron.

BROWN: At least we know of one who is still alive. Hopefully more. Chris, thank you. Chris Burns in Italy tonight. It was an awful earthquake there.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, linking the sniper suspects to unsolved murders and other crimes around the country. More charges were filed tonight, and more (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll talk with the former deputy director of the FBI, Weldon Kennedy, when we continue from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Back now to the sniper story and the scope of the investigation that continues to get bigger, involves more states, more crimes and, most importantly, more victims. Where it might all go from here and how it will get there, we're joined by Weldon Kennedy again, the former deputy director of the FBI. Good to see you again.

I don't know if law enforcement types ever talk like this, but reporters in moments like this go -- I bet every police department in the country is trying to clear their books of something right now. Is there some truth in that? That they're all looking at the...

WELDON KENNEDY, CHAIRMAN, GUARDSMARK: Certainly. There's an element of truth to that. Because now the widespread use, and they're finding that .223 caliber weapon was used in many parts of the country. So I would be pretty well assured that every police department in the country that has an unsolved murder case involving a high caliber rifle are going to be submitting those pieces of evidence for comparison.

BROWN: I want to come back to that point in a second. Is it also possible or even likely that as they know more about the movements of the two suspects that they'll say, wait a second. They were in Cleveland or Phoenix or wherever and we've got this robbery homicide. And I wonder.

KENNEDY: That happens, Aaron. But then also other things come into play, too. For example, there's a program been in existence for a number of years called VICAP (ph), the violent offenders program, where police departments for many years submit a complete profile of an unsolved murder case or rape case or other violent crime in their jurisdiction. And that's all in a computer base, so that when an unsolved case is submitted to match against that computer base, many instances, there are hits.

It will find that, while it doesn't identify the person who is responsible, it will tell the investigator this individual who committed this crime in my jurisdiction has also committed a crime in another jurisdiction of similar nature.

BROWN: All right. Now back to this ballistics question. So down in Baton Rouge today, they deduced that the gun that was used in the sniper killings was also used in one of theirs. They obviously had a suspicion. They knew these guys were down there at some point and they had this crime.

And they had this fragment of a bullet, I guess. Did they send it to Washington? Does Washington send them a picture? How does this work?

KENNEDY: There's a computer system that has now been brought into play where the profile of that bullet fragment can be matched against a computer analysis to determine, is there some similarity. Now if they are going to get to the point where there's an exact match and some expert is going to testify in court, then that expert is going to actually have to examine the real bullet fragment and the real bullets it's being matched against.

The computer match would not be sufficient for him or her to go into court with that kind of evidence. They're going to have to have the direct evidence. But it would certainly be a strong lead and would cause, in this case, if they discovered that there was probably a match, then that fragment would have been sent to Washington for analysis and comparison to the actual bullet.

BROWN: And how precise is this ballistics science?

KENNEDY: It's very, very precise, because each bullet fired leaves a very distinct marking on a bullet.

BROWN: So it's a fingerprint?

KENNEDY: It's a fingerprint.

BROWN: And when the expert goes into court, the expert testifies with the same degree of certainty that a fingerprint expert testifies with?

KENNEDY: To be quite specific, not quite with that degree of certainty, but very, very close.

BROWN: Is there -- from a law enforcement point of view, is it important to try every case that a suspect is accused of? You've got six in Maryland, one in Washington, D.C., and a number over here in Virginia and now you have one in Alabama and another one in Louisiana. And at some point, is it worth the money to try these cases?

KENNEDY: In most cases, particularly in multiple homicides of that nature, there rarely would be a prosecution for every single one of those cases. For example, in the Atlanta child murders, I think he was only prosecuted for three or four of the total of 19 or whatever the total number was. In the case of the Oklahoma City bomber, he was tried initially for the six federal officers that were killed in that explosion and not the other 162 people.

BROWN: Which is the -- correct me, I think is the underlying issue that Oklahoma and the former district attorney in Oklahoma City whose name I now forget wanted to try those cases as state cases ultimately.

KENNEDY: Correct.

BROWN: Nice to see you again. Thank you for walking me through police procedure and evidence and the like.

KENNEDY: I'm glad to be here. We have some concern these days about the fact that after 9/11 and after some of these other terrible incidents like the sniper we see a brief spike in concern about people's security, but then very quickly apathy sets in and we see that happening around the country, where people are now relaxed. There are security steps and procedures significantly.

BROWN: I don't think that was true in Washington, D.C., though.

KENNEDY: Not in the last month or so around Washington, D.C.

BROWN: Thank you again, sir. It's good to see you.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

BROWN: Still ahead on the program, a little name calling. And CNN's Jeff Greenfield joins us a little bit later. That combination can mean only one thing, it's time to bring out the campaign ads.

Also coming up, this time right around the corner suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Some say the attacks should be considered war crimes. We'll take a look at the issue as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A couple of quick ones from around the world. Starting in Russia, first. Authorities in Moscow, today, showed off the explosives recovered from the theater where Chechen rebels held more than 700 hostages. Sixteen army grenades, 89 homemade bombs scattered around the theater, enough, say the experts, to bring the whole building down.

Explosions today in the Middle East. They ripped through the garage of a house in Gaza city, killing three members of Hamas. A senior official said, the cause of the blast is under investigation. And in his words, it may have been an internal explosion. In other words, not the work of Israel.

There are so many examples of injustice in the middle east it's hard to know precisely where to start. But one we often think of involves the suicide bombers. The fact that very young people, some in desperate situations are encouraged by their elders and their leaders to become ruthless killers. They pay the ultimate price, killing themselves, murdering the innocent, while the leaders often go untouched.

A new report from Human Rights Watch looks at those leaders and their involvement in the bombings. But in this report, they're not thought of as leaders, exactly, more like war criminals.

Here's CNN's Alessio Vinci.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suicide bombing, the deadliest method used by Palestinian militants fighting Israel. According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, the crimes against humanity were systematic and, in many cases, sanctioned by Palestinian leaders who now should be held accountable for war crimes.

HANNY MEGALLY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: These are deliberate policies, you know. People are sitting down deciding we are going to go and attack civilians for political aims. We're going to send people to carry out these attacks, and the result is civilians are dying and being injured.

VINCI: In a detailed 170-page report titled erased in a moment, human rights watch analyzed suicide attacks carried out by four major Palestinian militant groups, concluding that within two of them, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, their leaders have, at times, openly espoused, authorized, encouraged or endorsed suicide attacks against civilians and had the authority to imitate or halt such attacks, even if they did not play a role in selecting the targets.

MEGALLY: Militarying of Hamas is subordinate to the political authority. And for us, that's clear enough to say that if they said to the military wing, stop these attacks, they would stop. That's a commander subordinate control.

VINCI: Hamas leaders called the report one-sided because, they say, it failed to take into account Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces.

MAHMOUD EL ZAHAR, HAMAS POLITICAL LEADER: This report is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all the Arab Muslims (UNINTELLIGIBLE) who are not recognizing these operations as a suicide, and he is accepting the term of Israel, describing such operation as suicide operation. These operation is not suicide. These are martyr operation.

VINCI: The report says Yasser Arafat personally approved payments to militants belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group linked to his Fatah movement, at the time he knew or should have known such individuals were alleged to have been involved in planning or carrying out attacks on civilians.

But Human Rights Watch says, there is no evidence that Arafat ordered or planned such attacks.

MEGALLY: With Arafat, he could say to the al-Aqsa Brigade, stop these attacks, and he has publicly condemned the attacks. You know, we didn't find that he would have enough control and even less, now, to bring this to an end.

VINCI: The report, however, assesses that the Palestinian Authority failed to prevent or deter suicide attacks and did not bring those responsible to justice. A failure, the report concludes, which contributed to an atmosphere of impunity for crimes against humanity.

GHASSAN KHATTIB, CABINET MINISTER, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: The PA did everything they could. They were arresting some of those activists, but politically speaking, we have to understand that at the situations what Israel was committing all these crimes against Palestinian civilians, the persons we are talking about, who were responding by suicide activities, were unfortunately perceived as heroes in the eyes of 80 percent of the Palestinian population.

VINCI: Human rights activists say under Israeli military occupation, it is difficult to find large numbers of Palestinians ready to speak up against suicide attacks.

MEGALLY: Our hope is, at least, with our report, we may be able to strengthen those people who recognize, and many of them do, that deliberate attacks on citizens, by any side, is a mistake. And it's actually prohibited under international law and should stop immediately. And that applies to Israel, as well as to Palestinians.

VINCI: In the past, Human Rights Watch has strongly criticized the Israeli military for its actions against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. And Israeli officials have long called for a similar Human Rights Watch examination of Palestinian tactics.

This very tough report also includes recommendation for the Israeli government. Among them, that Israel should not target Palestinian security services in reprisal for suicide attacks. Saying that Palestinian police should be given an opportunity to do its job to stop the attacks. Alessio Vinci, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another election year, another round of ads. The good, bad and the downright ugly from Jeff Greenfield, a little later.

And the musical and non-musical impact on the loss of Run DMC's Jam Master Jay. We'll talk with hip-hop legend, Chuck D.

That, after this short break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: You only need to type six letters, rundmc, in any search engine, today, and you'll find a sprawling online eulogy. The eulogy for Jam Master Jay, the DJ part of the pioneering rap trio. He was shot and killed last night in a recording studio near where he grew up, in the borough of Queens in New York.

There's a reason this tragedy from the music world comes up on our radar screen, when the sudden stars of other stars did not. Here's what one grieving fan said today. Run DMC helped bring the melting pot of America together. A group from the '80s that helped rap music cross over from the inner city to suburban America, not to mention suburban Japan and a whole lot of other places around the globe.

We'll talk with another rap legend, Chuck D, in a moment. But first, some background from Jason Bellini.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF FOX, DISC JOCKEY: It's Jeff Fox, and we've all heard the news, and everybody's very saddened about our good friend Jam Master Jay.

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jam Master Jay was from what hip-hop fans call, old school. A man on the scene in the early days of rap, when the genre was still new and untested.

FOX: This music was joyous. It brought communities and the world together, and one unity. You had to experience what that music was like and be a part of it. That music was about love. It was about energy. It was about hope and dreams.

BELLINI: His real name was Jason Mizell, born and raised in the New York city borough of Queens. He began to be noticed in the early '80s as a disc jockey for the group Run DMC. On stage, the turntable was his instrument, using it in ways never seen or heard before.

FOX: He was a part of invention and surprise, all at the same time. It was something that was about to happen. If you were to go back to the beginning of rock n roll and how that took over, that was hip-hop, how it was for especially the black community.

ROB PRINCIPE, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) DJ SCHOOL: He spoke with his turntables, and he pioneered an art form and opened the doors for millions of people around the world to learn and study under him.

BELLINI: Jay Master Jay's greatest success, though, came in what the music industry calls, crossover appeal. Essentially because of Run DMC, hip-hop and rap music was accepted and purchased, not only by urban blacks, but by teenagers of all races, all across the country, and all across the world.

While rap music earned a violent reputation, Tupac Shakur was killed on the streets. So was Notorious B.I.G. Jay called for a peace between gangs and an end to the murders that gave rap and hip- hop a bad name.

DAMON DASH, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ROC-A-FELLA RECORDS: When Versace got killed (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because of fashion. So I'm hoping that this doesn't make us go two steps back as far as the way hip-hop is perceived just because a hip-hop person got murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought, like out of anyone, he'd be like the one that got killed, you know. It's like usually the people that get killed or like guttered (ph), they all like into that kind of stuff and they like, they're not relating to violence and stuff, you know.

BELLINI: The people close to him say that Jam Master Jay wanted hip-hop to be a force of hope, not a harbinger of death.

Jason Bellini, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: Chuck D from another pioneering rock group, rap group rather, Public Enemy, said this after the death of Jam Master Jay, Run DMC are our Beatles. It is a very dark day for the hip-hop community.

Chuck D joins us, now, from Roosevelt, Long Island.

It's good to see you, again. Sorry for the circumstance. Our Beatles, your description of them. Does it strike you as odd that when the Beatles came over, everyone in America really didn't know the Beatles were here, but I would guess that there's a huge segment of America's population that did not know of him at all. Is that surprising to you?

CHUCK D, RECORDING ARTIST: Well, I think if you check into music history, if you are sort of a person that is a musicologist, you would evidently know that the facts that Run DMC has gelled all musics around the world, and it made, you know, influenced the people of the '90s, as well as the '80s and even music now. That fact cannot be forgotten. So the casual fan, a lot of black music unfortunately is treated like here and now.

But unfortunately, an incident like this, you know, illuminates the fact that Run DMC is possibly the group that defines the genre of rap music and hip-hop. They truly have wonderfully, in a way, used the genre to bring people together across the world of different ages, different backgrounds, and I, for a fact, had traveled the world with this man.

You know, I was discovered by this man, and he passed the tape on to Rick Reuben, and, like I said, it's not a good day for the music, because this guy epitomized what the music should do. You feel good about a song. Run DMC epitomizes that.

BROWN: How did it happen, and when did it happen that there was this crossover, when all of a sudden suburban kids, white kids started to listen and get rap music?

CHUCK D: Well, in 1979 when the first rap record came out, there was already a groundswell in the New York city area. By 1983, Run DMC had taken the baton and done more things musically on top of the platform that was laid down by the groups, like Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. With their management team around them and the record company around them that was managed by the team of Russell Simmons, Rick Rueben, Leo Cohen, they was able to go into America and say, this is rap music. This is what you've heard about and be able to be the first group to use different types of music, to use rock, to go in arenas like the rock groups were doing and bring this music across.

And that later got exemplified by the fact that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) MTV raps. Run DMC was the first group to actually bring that across the television screen (UNINTELLIGIBLE) households.

BROWN: Did the music have to change for the appeal to be broader, or is the music essentially the same?

CHUCK D: You talk about Run DMC, you got to draw a parallel to the rock n roll of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Bo Diddly.

It's that same vibe and that same purity that Run DMC did for rap music. They brought it across, uncut, no chaser. And really, if you check out Run DMC's music, all their music was about love, harmony. Yes, it had a street edge to it, but it's nothing like what you see as far as the play or the street brawl and gun play. They never -- they never dipped into that.

And that's what makes Run DMC such a icon, a legend, that they presented rap and its tough image, but you also just join hands and sing together in harmony and feel good about us all.

It was about the music. It was about the music. Jam Master Jay, he's the blood, guts, the heart and soul that orchestrated the two brilliant MCs in Run and DMC. You could say it no better.

BROWN: Just a quick final question, I think. One of the things I noticed today was how much attention this crime got on TV and newspapers, too. Does it surprise you in a sense that this is -- this has been a very mainstream news story?

CHUCK D: It hurts me the fact that Run DMC is probably the greatest aspect this genre has ever offered to the world. And two or three weeks ago, you know, well, two months ago, they were virtually being ignored by the video music awards on the red carpet, as everybody clamored for the current artist and these guys are just as important as Pete Townsend, Don Henley, Ringo Starr, and does it take a death to make one wonder and just look at the achievement and accomplishment that these guys have done. I mean, they're irreplaceable.

BROWN: Chuck, thanks for joining us.

CHUCK D: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Tough night.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we'll look at political advertising after a short break. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Here we go. Got to do this quickly.

A quick update on the Minnesota Senate race. Jonathan Karl reported earlier in the hour, the Republican party, the national party, was prepared to air a negative campaign ad against the new Democratic candidate, in Minnesota, Walter Mondale. John is now reporting to us, that just moments ago, the Republican candidate, Norm Coleman, released a statement asking that no negative ads be run in the campaign on his behalf, and we'll see if the national party withdraws its ad.

Finally, from us tonight, an important public service. We know that by now you've already tuned out most of these political ads anyway which means come Tuesday, you may find yourselves a bit confused over which lever to pull. So pay attention. In the next three minutes, you will hear every important point Jeff Greenfield could synthesize from this year's political ads.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: You know, Wayne Alec votes against tougher standards for arsenic and drinking water.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: I hunt cause my Daddy hunted. Lost billions.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're spending a billion dollars on this midterm election, and they're spending most of it 30 second at a time on thousands, no, tens of thousands of TV ads. After awhile, they all seem to blend into a handful of messages and themes.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: His father was the son of a share cropper.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Her father was a plumber.

GREENFIELD: All the candidates are salt of the earth people, boot-strapped from humble circumstances through hard work. If anybody grew up rich, you sure can't tell it from these ads, and they all embrace this year's magic word. Values.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Mark Pryor. Arkansas values...

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: New Hampshire's values.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: The rock solid Georgia values.

GREENFIELD: Curiously, we haven't found any candidate running on New Jersey values or New York values or California values. I think if anyone tried it, the voters in those states would just laugh out loud.

Another trend. If you are in trouble, find someone more popular than you to stand with you. In New Hampshire, Senator Judd Greg appears with John Sununu, who's locked in a very tight Senate race.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Zell voted to support the Boy Scouts of America. Max voted against the Boy Scouts.

GREENFIELD: In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambliss runs ads that claims he's actually closer to Democrat Zell Miller than Democratic Senator Max Cleland is.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Replace Max with Sax.

GREENFIELD: So Miller went on TV and cut an ad saying, no, that's not right.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Max's opponent should be ashamed.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: To hide her record...

GREENFIELD: And when it's time to go negative, the arguments are the same from one end of the country the other. The Democrats? They're weak on defense.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Voted against the president's vital homeland security efforts.

GREENFIELD: If you are a Republican, you're out to undermine Social Security. But sometimes, it gets downright personal. In Texas, Republican Governor Rick Perry charges opponent Tony Sanchez with links to money laundering murders.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: A federal judge confirmed Sanchez's bank wired millions of laundered drug money to Manuel Noriega's Panama.

GREENFIELD: While the Sanchez campaign has this police video showing Governor Perry in a nasty spat with Texas cops.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Why don't you let us get on down the road?

GREENFIELD: There's another curious thing about these ads. Most of them don't ask you to actually vote for a candidate. Instead, they ask you to do something else.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Tell Erskine Bowles, his Clinton-style attacks have no place in North Carolina.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Tell Tim Hutchinson his change hasn't been good for Arkansas.

GREENFIELD: Why all these calls? Because these ads are paid for with soft money. Those unlimited contributions that are supposed to end after this year. And those ads, by law, are not allowed to explicitly ask for a vote. But of all the negative ads I've seen, this one is in a class by itself.

COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER: Liz Krueger voted against restrictions on public urination and aggressive panhandling. Urinating in public? That's disgusting.

GREENFIELD: And just what is it we're supposed to decide? Depends. Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York. BROWN: We'll see you next on Sunday night from Atlanta, as we begin on election coverage heading towards Tuesday night. Until then, good night from all of us at "NEWSNIGHT."

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