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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Iraq's Document Has Yet to Answer Many Questions on Weapons, War; John Snow Named New Nominee to Treasury Department
Aired December 09, 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: And good evening, again, everyone. We're in Atlanta tonight and for the week. A program here all week at night, and at war school all day long.
War school is a course in how to survive in a hostile situation. Or, to put it another way, how not to get shot and what to do if you are. It is a week's worth of information you hope you will never need, but CNN will not allow us to go to the war without attending; hence, we are in Atlanta this week.
The passing of the weekend deadline and Iraq's submission of thousands of pages on its weapons program to the U.N. has done little to answer the two questions people care most about: were the Iraqis honest and are we closer to a war? The analysts are just starting their work, and even if the documents are less than complete and honest, there are questions whether that, in and of itself, is enough to trigger a war.
There are still the inspectors on the ground, and their work has just started. So, with luck, war school will be a waste of time. And luck seems to be the right word.
On to "The Whip" and the news of the day. It begins with the White House, where a new treasury secretary was named today, who at least to some seems an awful lot like the one who was fired on Friday. John King is at the White House for us. John, a headline from you.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it was just three days ago that the president fired Paul O'Neill. Today, he rushed to introduce corporate CEO John Snow as his new choice for treasury secretary. The Democrats were in a rush too. They said, nice guy, bad policy. If you needed any proof the economy is issue number one, as the president and his critics start to think about reelection.
BROWN: John, thank you. Back to you at the top tonight.
To Iraq and another day of inspections. Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Nic, a headline from you, please.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the resolution empowers U.N. inspectors to take Iraqi officials out of the country to interview them. Iraqi officials and scientists we've talked to in the last couple of days, however, say that's not necessary. Quite happy to be interviewed here, thank you, but they won't be leaving soon -- Aaron.
BROWN: Nic, thank you.
We go south now to Qatar, where the United States is conducting war games. Anderson Cooper is there. Anderson, a headline from you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, the U.S. military's massive command and control exercise, Internal Look, as they're calling it, is about to enter its second day. The war game is underway amid tight security and a complete press blackout -- Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, thank you.
And "The Whip" ends tonight back in the United States. People still suffering after those horrible storms in the southeast last week. David Mattingly in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight. David, a headline.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRSPONDENT: Aaron, the aftermath of last week's winter storm still claiming lives here in the Carolinas and still disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have now had to spend too many nights in the cold and the dark -- Aaron.
BROWN: David, thank you. Back with you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, we'll talk more about Iraq, the documents, the inspection, what's next with Robin Wright of the "L.A. Times." We'll also talk with a Boston area priest who says it is time now for Cardinal Bernard Law to resign. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) joins us. We expect this to be a very compelling interview a little bit later in the program.
And Segment 7 tonight on the monarchs making their way back home, millions of them. And their extraordinary journey to Mexico. All that to come in the hour ahead.
We begin with the president's choice to run the Treasury Department. In many ways, more than just another cabinet appointment, it seems. This is the president's first high-level shakeup, the first admission of an administration failure. Add to that it comes in an area of exquisite importance, the economic plan and message. It did his father in and this president is said to be determined it doesn't do the same to him.
The first reaction to the appointment of John Snow came from Wall Street, and it was, at best, a yawn. He seems a lot like a guy they fired last Friday it seemed to say. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King gets us started.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The quick decision on a new treasury secretary underscores the president's number one domestic priority.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look forward to working with John Snow as we move forward on a growth and jobs package.
KING: Snow is a railroad executive, outspoken on the issue of corporate ethics, and an old Washington hand who knows not to veer from the president's script.
JOHN SNOW, TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE: I strongly share your view that we cannot be satisfied until every one, every single person who is unemployed and seeking a job has an opportunity to work.
KING: This was installment one of a two-round shakeup. Wall Street veteran Steven Friedman will be named within days to replace Larry Lindsey as chairman of the White House's National Economic Council.
GROVER NORQUIST, AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: As George Bush, Sr. found out, the economy can be growing on the day you're running for reelection, but if people haven't figured that out, they vote against you.
KING: The economy is growing now, but the recovery is fragile. A major worry for a president who faces reelection in 23 months. The unemployment rate was 4.2 percent when Mr. Bush took office, six percent now. The economy has lost 1.7 million jobs during the Bush presidency, and the Dow Jones industrial average has gone from 10,588 to its Monday close of 8,474.
Leading Democrats, including Mr. Bush's past and perhaps future rival, blame the president's policies and say a new team won't be enough.
AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: I don't see a prospect of President Bush changing that course, and I think that within two years' time he is going to be extremely vulnerable and should be because this is not good for our country.
KING: A new administration stimulus plan is now on hold until January. Sources tell CNN it is likely to call for accelerating parts of the 10-year Bush tax cut enacted last year. Reduced taxes on stock dividends and new incentives for companies to invest in new equipment and production.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: The focus now is on winning quick and easy Senate confirmation. White House officials believe that will be the case. Just in case, though, today his first official day as Mr. Bush's choice. John Snow placed calls to some two dozen key members of Congress and also he resigned from the all-male Augusta National Golf Club -- Aaron.
BROWN: That's an interesting kicker in all of this, though I won't take the bate on it yet. Of all the names that were kicked around, I, at least, had not heard Snow's. Somewhat of a surprise. Why?
KING: Well, he's a friend, just like Paul O'Neill of Vice President Dick Cheney, who not only led the search for a successor, but was one of only a few people in the White House who could have told you, if he would have told you a month ago, that Paul O'Neill would be fired. Vice President Cheney also taking the lead in shaping that economic policy.
You noted Wall Street's reaction today, sort of muted. They didn't know what to make of this. In time, administration officials say they will like this man. Most important to this White House, they say when he speaks, you will know. Unlike the case of Secretary O'Neill, that when this new treasury secretary speaks, what he says is the president's opinion.
BROWN: John, thank you. Senior White House Correspondent John King tonight.
You can call this a quick civics lesson. A federal judge today threw out a lawsuit by the investigative arm of Congress. It was aimed at learning what was said during confidential meetings involving Vice President Cheney's energy task force and people who came to give advice, apparently many from the oil industry.
The judge said a lawsuit would violate the separation of powers. The White House said the ruling reaffirms the notion a president or a vice president deserves the kind of unvarnished advice that it will not get if it's going to appear in the paper the next day. This isn't the absolute end of this. There is another lawsuit out there on the same subject, but for now the White House (UNINTELLIGIBLE) keep the right, rather to keep the details secret.
An apology tonight from Trent Lott, the senator from Mississippi and soon to be again majority leader. An apology for remarks he made last week at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond. Thurmond you know, I suspect, is 100 years old. He was once a fiery segregationist who ran for president on a policy of racial division.
He led the Dixiecrat walkout of the Democratic convention in 1948, which split the party. Flash forward now to last Thursday. And here's what Senator Lott said about Senator Thurmond and those times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY LEADER: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That touched off a storm over the weekend that continued throughout the day today. Earlier this evening, Al Gore stopped just short of calling his former Senate colleague a racist, but said the statement itself was racist. Tonight, Senator Lott's office issued an apology, saying, "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing the statement says could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by the statement." Story over for now.
On to United Airlines, which formally declared bankruptcy today. The airline is hemorrhaging cash. No other word for it. As much as $15,000 lost each minute. Today's bankruptcy filing became inevitable, after the government last week said no to a request for nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees. And the impact will be enormous, not as much for United passengers, but certainly for United employees, and there are tens and thousands of them.
Here's CNN's Allan chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While United flights are continuing without interruption, the pain of bankruptcy is immediate for many employees. Company officers are taking pay cuts averaging 11 percent. Managers are losing three to 11 percent of their salaries. And forget about bonuses. Talks to squeeze more concessions from union workers begin this week.
GLENN TILTON, UNITED CEO: We're going to look at the entire business really soup to nuts, everything. We're going to examine every element of the business.
CHERNOFF: Union members stand to lose the most. As the airline cuts routes, it will cut jobs. Management will demand give-backs on wages and work rules, targeting at least $9 billion in savings. And the 55 percent of United stock that employees got for prior concessions will almost certainly be wiped out in the bankruptcy.
DAWN RIBATER, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: They're concerned that they will continue to have a paycheck is their number one concern. Their second concern is also that they would have medical and dental benefits.
HERB HUNTER, AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: There's going to be some pain in this for the employees and for the stockholders. But we've worked real well with Mr. Tilton.
CHERNOFF: The pain spreads beyond United. Companies holding leases on United aircraft will take hits, ranging from General Electric to Disney. And airports will suffer when United pulls back.
A top rating agency today issued a warning on airport bonds from Chicago's O'Hare, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles International, all United hubs. The cuts need to come quickly, because United is burning through cash, losing as much as $22 million a day this month, according to the airline's estimate. And United warns losses could be an extra $15 million a day next month. Added up, United could lose $1.1 billion by the end of next month.
(on camera): That means the company will have to dip into the new $1.5 billion loan it arranged just before filing for Chapter 11 protection. Management is hoping that will be enough to allow United to restructure, cut its losses and get out of bankruptcy within a year and a half. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The latest now on the impact of last week's storms, which claimed the lives of at least 30 people. Most of those were traffic accidents, but a handful of people in North Carolina died over the weekend from carbon monoxide poisoning. Hundreds of thousands of people in the state are still without power tonight, and some of them are doing things to stay warm that could kill them.
The state wants to make sure no one else dies. And it's even brought in the National Guard to help. The story now from CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The ice disappeared days ago, but after four nights of no heat and no lights, it's patience that may now be melting in the Carolinas. Hundreds of thousands remain in the dark despite repair crews working nonstop double shifts.
GOV. MIKE EASLEY (D), NORTH CAROLINA: They are working in very dangerous conditions, and many of them are leaving their families at home with no power so that they can come out and restore power for us.
MATTINGLY: North Carolina Governor Michael Easley urging the more than 400,000 customers without electricity to hold on. Calling on President Bush to declare a federal disaster. In some areas, dangerous conditions still exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kids were picking icicles off the power lines and we're like get away from there.
MATTINGLY: This Raleigh neighborhood completely cut off, roads still blocked by downed trees. National Guardsmen are going door to door in some counties offering material and medical assistance. In North Carolina, two deaths have been officially attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, and hundreds reportedly sent to hospitals after burning charcoal or running generators inside houses for warmth.
1,700 are also still in North Carolina shelters. Angela Smith (ph) and her two children facing a fourth night away from their Charlotte home.
ANGELA SMITH: It's very stressful because you're use to going into every room of your house whenever you want to.
MATTINGLY: They check on the house periodically and walk away disappointed.
SMITH: This is messed up.
MATTINGLY: The food they left in the freezer still thawed, the lights that were strung on the Christmas tree when the storm hit still waiting to be lit.
MATTINGLY (on camera): How much longer can you do this? SMITH: Not long. As of now, I'm ready to go home. I've been ready to go home, but I'm really ready now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: And, needless to say, everyone we've talked to really ready for all of this to be over. Some good news tonight. The local power company says they expect at least 90 percent of their customers to be back on line by Wednesday afternoon. And that means things are going to start happening pretty quickly.
In fact, on this street, these lights back here just came on in the last hour, Aaron. But I can't say the same for the people across the street. This house still in the dark, along with hundreds of thousands of others here in the Carolinas -- Aaron.
BROWN: David, thank you. That would be a week for many of those people without power. Went out last Wednesday, as I recall. Thank you. David Mattingly in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, inspections continue in Iraq. Preparations continue for war in Qatar. And later, from Boston, the priests who think the Boston cardinal ought to step down. This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN. Imagine reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" 10 times in a row, and you'll great some idea of what the experts in the U.S. government and at the United Nations are up against. After demanding that Iraq declare the details of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program, they now have got nearly 12,000 pages worth to get through.
We've now seen the table of contents. It runs nine pages. The executive summary tops 100. How much of this is new is very much in question tonight. Some experts today said portions of it look like recycled versions of previous Iraqi declarations. Bottom line, according to the Iraqis, this is it. Or, more accurately, this was it. Iraq is out of the weapons of mass destruction business, they say.
The Bush administration of course has great doubts, but has yet to reveal the basis for those doubts. And until it does, it falls on the inspectors now in Baghdad to catch the Iraqis in a lie. Here again, CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The now familiar early morning handshake. Iraqi officials greeting the U.N. experts before chasing them through Baghdad's rundown suburbs, past the new shepherds (ph) in the country to the day's inspection site. This day, Paluga (ph) military industrial complex, 60 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Day ten of the inspections. A day of possible discovery for the chemical, biological and missile experts examining the partially destroyed chemical complex. A day also of expectation for the U.S. and other governments pressing the inspectors ever harder to show progress. According to site officials, the inspectors questioning them for three and a half hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They repeat all the questions they are asking before. There is not any new questions, like how many numbers here, how much do you produce, where do you send your production?
ROBERTSON: These officials happy to talk privately, but only on site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they want to speak with us they can speak with us here. We are Iraqi and we don't leave Iraq.
ROBERTSON: Much of this chlorine and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) production facility bombed in '91 and '98, rebuilt each time. Much of the equipment now producing detergent and water purifiers, according to site officials, has been under U.N. monitoring since the early 1990's. All such equipment recorded in Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We put all the information from '91 to '98 and all the information from '98, what is the movement, what did we do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Now another 20 or 30 inspectors are expected to arrive in Baghdad. They'll join the 42 already here. The numbers ramping up significantly in the last few days, but very much the pressure on them, Aaron, as you say, to come up with some results -- Aaron.
BROWN: And are they getting through more than one site a day?
ROBERTSON: Three yesterday. Generally it's been two. We're told to expect as many as eight teams going out in the coming days.
That will significantly increase. At least it would seem likely to get to maybe eight sites a day. Still, 700 at least, plus whatever comes out of the -- whatever can be read into the declaration and what the experts now say, OK, choose these new sites as well. A lot to go.
BROWN: We await tomorrow's installment. Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson in Baghdad tonight.
Not far from the Iraqi border, an American soldier is leading a mortar (ph) platoon through the Kuwaiti desert. "We're close enough," he says, "for that man in Baghdad to see the United States," which is likely the point. Thousands of soldiers are on maneuvers in Kuwait. So are news crews and reporters; a message being sent.
Meanwhile, in Qatar, another exercise began today in case the message isn't heard. This one is taking place in secret, in part on computers, and it aims to model the command and communications that would go into an invasion of Iraq. In the last Gulf War, this sort of business was done in Saudi Arabia. Now it's Qatar, and you'll be seeing a lot more of it.
We go back to CNN's Anderson Cooper who is there. Anderson, good evening.
COOPER: Good evening, Aaron. It's ironic. We are actually close enough to see the U.S. military, but we have gotten no sign of them at all. They are on these very hidden bases near where we are right now doing this command and control exercise, as you mentioned, called Internal Look.
We know it's begun, the second day of Internal Look, but that's about all we know. There is a complete press blackout on this. All CENTCOM officials would tell us yesterday was that the first day of the exercise began, and that's it. So what most of us have been doing here is training our cameras on Qatar, this small emirate that most of us didn't know much about a few weeks ago, perhaps more than a fe months ago. A country that has undergone enormous changes in the last seven years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Qatar may seem like many other Persian Gulf kingdoms. Rich in oil and natural gas, modern capital, conservative culture. Five times a day you hear the familiar calls to prayer, echoing across Doha's sleepy streets.
But Qatar is different. Proud of its progress and pragmatism. The emir (ph), Sheikh Hamid bin Kalifa al Tunni (ph), overthrew his father in 1995 and single-handedly began pushing Qatar toward the West.
He welcomed U.S. businesses and U.S. military. Qatar had no air force of its own, but the emir (ph) spent hundreds of millions of dollars building the Aludade (ph) base to be used by U.S. planes. In 1996, the emir (ph) started Al Jazeera, an Arab language news channel, controversial in America, for what many say is biased reporting in the war on terror. But controversial in the Arab world as well for critical coverage of slow changing Islamic regimes.
Islam is strong here, but it's a more moderate strain that permits greater equality for women. They can go out in public with men and can even vote, but there's only been one election.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's better than before, than our mother's day or grandmother's or the generation before our generation, yes.
COOPER (on camera): How is it different?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Different in their mind and their look and how do they think for future. Everything has changed.
COOPER: Qatar's educational system has also undergone major changes. The Koran used to be the main course of study. Now it's business and engineering. Cornell University has opened a branch here. American teachers are welcome.
Karen Janky (ph) and Sara Stubbins (ph) teach high school here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They definitely want to train their people to be engineers or doctors or have those high quality jobs. Whereas, they're kind of trying to pull away from the Islamic studies conservative, but being right next door to Saudi in a way is sometimes very difficult.
COOPER: Qatar is by no means a democracy. Criticism of the U.S. is common, criticism of the emir (ph) nonexistent. But The U.S. seems pleased with its new ally, relieved perhaps to find an Arab emirate where the people are given an alternative to extremism.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well the U.S. military exercise is supposed to go on all week, we are told. We will get a media day, as they call it, in about two days. Sort of a dog and pony show. We're not sure how much of the dog or the pony they're actually going show us, but we are all eager to see -- Aaron.
BROWN: But by then we'll take as much dog or pony as we can get. Thank you, Anderson. Anderson Cooper in Qatar tonight.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, so what to make of the Iraqi documents and the U.S. preparations for war. We'll be joined by Robin Wright of "Los Angeles Times" in just a moment.
Later in the program, is it time for Boston's embattled cardinal to resign? We'll talk with one of a number of Boston area priests who think so. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More now on Iraq and the Iraqi declaration. And it just may be all the things we'd like to know but don't, at least not yet. It's a long list of questions, and we're joined tonight from Washington by Robin Wright, the chief diplomatic correspondent for the "Los Angeles Times," who is just back from the region as well.
It's good to see you again. What are you hearing about the declaration, the submission? Anything?
ROBIN WRIGHT, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, I think that there is a little bit of disappointment that the Iraqis obviously are not coming at all forward with any information at all. The initial reaction is that the declaration holds no new evidence at all. I think that you will find in the next few weeks that the focus will shift from the kind of paper declaration to the human resources in Iraq, that the administration is going to press the United Nations to engage some of the scientists and the engineers and technicians who have been involved in the projects, which, of course, is going to be I think a lot more difficult than it seems. BROWN: I don't know if you were able to hear Nic Robertson's piece that aired shortly before you joined us, but Nic talked to at least one scientist who said, look, we're not leaving the country. We'll answer all these questions, but we're doing it here in Iraq. It's a complicated question for a variety of reasons.
WRIGHT: Absolutely. First of all, there are a lot of Iraqi scientists who may be willing, in fact, to talk to the United Nations and provide the kind of evidence, who may not be happy with the programs that Saddam Hussein has been engaged in for, you know, two decades, but they also don't want to be seen betraying their very own country and they don't want to be forced to give up their family and friends and/or extended family anyway, and leave the country.
They want if they end up cooperating with the United Nations to be seen to be helping, not hurting their country. And of course, in the past all defectors have come to the United States, and talked to the CIA. They have been the channel to get the information out of the defectors and use it for the weapons inspectors.
It's a very complicated process. And it's not going to be easy for anybody to, first of all, make the connection with the scientists and then convince them that it's in their best interests to leave.
BROWN: Do they not seem to make a separation between a betrayal of the government of Saddam and a betrayal of the country, Iraq?
WRIGHT: I think there is to a certain degree that differentiation. But I think there is also the fear that if even if they do something in the interest of the country, that it will be seen as betraying society, and that, you know, I think one of the biggest problems is actually going to be making that initial link. Saddam Hussein has very cleverly arranged it so that most of the meetings are groups of Iraqi scientists with their U.N. counterparts. And no one's going to stand up in the middle of a session and say, look, I'm willing to spill the beans, you know, I'll talk to you.
So making the connection is going to be difficult. And then Saddam Hussein has also in the past been very effective when there has been a defection in sanitizing an area in the immediate aftermath -- cleaning up a facility, moving records, moving stockpiles so that when weapons inspectors went back, they can't prove what the defector told them or what a scientist told, what intelligence they've had from a scientist.
So it's a very complicated process. And it's no miracle cure. It's not going to provide very easily the smoking gun. It's going to take a lot of tremendous finesse by the U.N. inspectors to make the connection and then to be able to use any information they do get before Saddam cleans up behind them.
BROWN: I am going to try to get one question in, maybe two, across the border in Iran. What do you make of the protests going on there? Last time I recall any serious student protests there, they were harshly dealt with. WRIGHT: Absolutely. Iran is going through a very interesting period right now, in which you see the students taking a very strong but a very peaceful stand. It's a campaign of civil disobedience on the campuses. And they are defying orders from the top religious leaders to go back to their classrooms, and they're demanding that the regime be accountable and to also release political prisoners and not hang a very popular professor, who has been sentenced to death merely for suggesting that the regime is not perfect.
BROWN: Are there differences in the way this one is playing out from the last time the students protested?
WRIGHT: Very much so. The biggest demonstration since the 1979 revolution was three years ago when the students actually started on campus but then moved the demonstrations to the street. This time around, you see the students staying on campus. They know that there will be a fierce reaction, and I think that they are trying to keep this as low key, to say we don't want trouble, we're not trying to create riots on the streets, but we do insist that there has to be some kind of transformation. And with a society that's 65 percent under the age of 25, that's got at some point to put enormous pressure on the regime in Tehran.
BROWN: Robin, thanks for joining us. Robin Wright, the chief diplomatic correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times" with us from Washington.
A few more stories now from around the world before we go to break here. We begin in Brazil. Mudslides there in the coastal town of Angra. Two months of rain came down in just a couple of days. The earth gave ground. At least 21 people lost their lives.
Fire tore through a row of buildings in a historic part of Edinburgh, Scotland. It started in a night club. No casualties, but the fire took more than 12 hours to put out, get under control. It threatened a number of other historic buildings on the block.
And in London, proof of that old show business maxim: Exploit enough midgets, overweight alcoholics and the like and they'll name an opera after you. It's the Jerry Springer opera. Casting call going on now. It opens next spring in London's National Theater, and it ain't over until the fat lady pulls out her teeth and sings.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta, the crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal Law goes to Rome, while some priests call for his resignation. We'll talk with one of them in a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It occurred to us that we risk overlooking some of those who have been badly hurt in the priest abuse scandal -- the priests themselves, the innocent ones, most of them, who now get the suspicious glances, who have to deal with the anger and the disgust of the people they serve. Priests, of course, take a vow of obedience, so it's a testament to just how bad it's gotten in Boston, that dozens of them are now calling on their cardinal to resign. That would be Cardinal Bernard Law, who is talking about it right now in Rome, we presume, along with the possibility that the archdiocese may file for bankruptcy protection.
We wanted to talk about all of that with one of the priests who thinks it is time for the cardinal to resign. Father Bob Bowers joins us now from Watertown, Massachusetts. Good evening, sir. It's nice to have you with us.
FATHER ROBERT BOWERS, PASTOR, ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA PARISH: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: What got you to this point? Was this -- was there a straw that broke the back or is this just one piece on top of another on top of another?
BOWERS: Kind of both. I think our colleagues -- my colleagues and myself after a long period of keeping silent and just enduring the process of watching our church come to pieces, endured last week all sorts of revelations about what the cardinal knew, what his predecessor knew, what the administration knew, and it came to a point where we just simply had to listen to our parishioners and listen to our own hearts and souls and say it's time that we remove a very difficult and painful moment in our church which is embodied in the cardinal.
BROWN: Within your parish and to the extent that you're comfortable about talking about other parishes, how strong is that sentiment?
BOWERS: In Boston the anger is almost palpable. You can fell how people are reacting.
My own parish is extremely supportive, has actually asked me over and over to make a statement, which I have resisted doing because of what you know, the vow of obedience is strong for us and we are extensions of the bishop's role and the parishes so to make a statement about one's bishop is a very powerful thing to do and not an easy statement to make.
But the parish itself, my own parish has stood there with me and now I want to stand with them. I want to support what they feel.
BROWN: Where in this, if at all, does the prospect, the possibility of a bankruptcy filing fit in?
BOWERS: Well, many of us believe, myself especially, that that is not an ethical way to resolve this issue. We feel that due process of the cases needs to be so completely worked out so that we know the whole story and the victims are compensated adequately and that there is accountability with our bishops.
I feel the bankruptcy will take the accountability away and there'll be simply the silence and the continued cover up so we'd like to see that not happen.
BROWN: The problem here it seems to me is, setting aside for a second the question of accountability, which is not an easy one to argue against, is that conceivably the church could -- the damages to the church could be so extensive that schools would close, important buildings would have to be sold off and the like.
And so is it not possible to look at the bankruptcy question as not so much an ethical question but a purely practical way to deal with a problem that otherwise cannot possibly be resolved?
BOWERS: I think the larger issue is a moral bankruptcy that can result from all this. We have a duty to the victims, survivors of this terrible, horrible crime and the lack of information, the lack of due process, the incomplete story by letting there be settled by a bankruptcy court would be a disservice to them so really the issue lies there.
It's our first duty -- is to be interested in how well thing, resolved with the victim survivors. Beyond all that, buildings of property come and go, people's lives don't. The damage to the church is already enormous just for rank and file Catholics. It's just very difficult to remain faithful to the church in this time of crisis.
BROWN: Just a final question. Is there anything -- because the cardinal to this point has shown no particular it in resigning -- is there anything the church can do between demanding its resignation and nothing that would rectify the problem?
BOWERS: Well, I'm a person of faith and deep belief that our God is with us and prayer will be the solution in the long run anyway.
But I do think strong voices, people expressing their opinion, dialogue, people being open when make things happen and it's a time- honored tradition in our church to be in dialogue.
BROWN: It's good to talk to you. I know this is a difficult step for to you take. We appreciate you talking with us tonight. Father Robert Bowers from the Boston area tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the media stars turn out to say farewell to a media icon. This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with former President Jimmy Carter in Oslo. Well, sort of in the country. Ready to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow. Former President Carter said the United States should work with the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to the crisis with Iraq. He added that if the U.N. Security Counsel ultimately found that Iraq was complying and he saw no reason, quote, "for armed conflict."
A different kind of honor for another former president today. The Navy has named an aircraft carrier after the first President Bush. Construction of the carrier expected to be completed in the year 2009. George Herbert Walker Bush says he is overwhelmed and grateful.
On the streets of Baltimore, friends, family and admirers came out to remember the peace activist Philip Berrigan. Berrigan staged some of the most dramatic anti-war protests of the '60s. he was arrested at least 100 times. Berrigan died of cancer last week. He was 79.
And Bobby Jo Hill has died, he died of a heart attack. Bobby Jo was the leading scorer for Texas Western, the team that won the National Championship of Basketball in 1966. Coach Don Haskin started Hill and four other black players in a game against then top rank Kentucky, unbeatable, super-star which started five white players the way they played it those days.
One teammate said this: "Bobby Jo was the steering wheel to our Mack Truck. He was our leader, a warrior." Bobby Jo Hill was just 59.
In New York today they said farewell to Roone Arledge. Mr. Arledge died last week of cancer. He was 71. Of the service, he would have liked it. The turnout was wonderful. All the big names in the business were there, all paying respects to a kid from Long Island who grew into the most important TV executive of our time. Here's some of what was said at the service in New York this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED KOPPEL, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: When Roone took over ABC News he often came to work wearing an open neck safari jacket set off by a gold chain. He dressed like an impresario, and worse he largely ignored the sage advice that we news veterans gently offered. He was clearly a dangerous man.
I once noted that something didn't bode well. That I later learned confirmed Roone's first impression of me of a pompous pseudo- intellectual who looked like Howdy Doody. We were clearly made for one another.
Three weeks after my resignation, Roone invited me out to New York to join him for lunch. It was a three and a half hour affair, good food, excellent wine, wonderful conversation and when we emerged from Nani's East Side establishment, I was in love.
All in all, it was a stormy affair that lasted 25 years, lots of quarrels, plenty of ups and downs but ultimately dominated by mutual respect and affection.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: I never noticed that for so many of us in this room he was the global positioning system whereby we always tried to fathom what path we were on, asking did Roone smile? Did he really smile? And was it good enough for him? Really good enough for him?
In any room, he always had the youngest dreams, and I learned a little more about those dreams thanks to Gigi, who has allowed me to read to you what Roone said about himself and the dream of entering television. These are a few fragments from the opening chapter of the memoir he was writing.
"The more that I could, I snuck away to television, to the studios where there was something magical. The countdown to air, live to audience, bright lights, studio hush, taking me back to the earliest memory -- being huddled around a living room radio, a kind of mini-cathedral in dark wood with a dial at the bottom, a doorway to the world."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Memorial for Roone Arledge today in New York. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Finally from us tonight, a little something to warm you up. It's a sight that will remind you of summer, though even on the best of summer days, you'll probably not see as many monarch butterflies as you're about to see. The writer Rachel Carson talked about the unhurried drift of one small wing form after another, each drawn by some invisible force. Here's where the drift ends.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just look around. It's magic.
BROWN (voice-over): They were a little late this year. Hurricanes and other bad weather held them up for more than a month. Ordinarily, the monarchs arrive in Mexico on the Day of the Dead early in November, which is why the natives of Michoacan state believe that these golden shadows as thick on the trees as leaves are their ancestors, returning home for a visit in the form of butterflies.
They weigh nearly nothing, 300th to 400th of an ounce. Consider how easily even a gentle breeze might dash them against a cliff or blow them off course, and yet they make this trip by the tens of millions, some of them from 300,000 miles away, to the same few mountaintop sanctuaries each and every year.
No one knows how they find their way, or how their offspring, as yet unborn, then return to exactly the same roost from which these butterflies came here, all over America, east of the Rockies and up into Canada.
These monarchs will end their lives here after they reproduce, but their grandchildren will come back to these same few forests in their turn, finding with pinpoint accuracy a place they have never seen before.
The migration is something of a miracle, really, but then so is the monarch butterfly, a weightless traveler over thousands of miles.
Think of the monarchs as flowers that fly from one continent to another.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: I've loved that story since I first heard of it about 30 years ago.
Quickly, Paula Zahn with a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING" tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.
Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," the United States gets what it wants, an unedited look at the Iraqi weapons declaration, all 12,000 pages worth. Will it find a smoking gun that could lead the U.S. to war in Iraq? That debate tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Eastern -- Aaron,
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Paula, good to see you back there. And we hope you'll come back here tomorrow at 10:00. We're back in Atlanta, tomorrow and the rest of the week. Join us then. Good night for 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
Weapons, War; John Snow Named New Nominee to Treasury Department>
Aired December 9, 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: And good evening, again, everyone. We're in Atlanta tonight and for the week. A program here all week at night, and at war school all day long.
War school is a course in how to survive in a hostile situation. Or, to put it another way, how not to get shot and what to do if you are. It is a week's worth of information you hope you will never need, but CNN will not allow us to go to the war without attending; hence, we are in Atlanta this week.
The passing of the weekend deadline and Iraq's submission of thousands of pages on its weapons program to the U.N. has done little to answer the two questions people care most about: were the Iraqis honest and are we closer to a war? The analysts are just starting their work, and even if the documents are less than complete and honest, there are questions whether that, in and of itself, is enough to trigger a war.
There are still the inspectors on the ground, and their work has just started. So, with luck, war school will be a waste of time. And luck seems to be the right word.
On to "The Whip" and the news of the day. It begins with the White House, where a new treasury secretary was named today, who at least to some seems an awful lot like the one who was fired on Friday. John King is at the White House for us. John, a headline from you.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, it was just three days ago that the president fired Paul O'Neill. Today, he rushed to introduce corporate CEO John Snow as his new choice for treasury secretary. The Democrats were in a rush too. They said, nice guy, bad policy. If you needed any proof the economy is issue number one, as the president and his critics start to think about reelection.
BROWN: John, thank you. Back to you at the top tonight.
To Iraq and another day of inspections. Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Nic, a headline from you, please.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the resolution empowers U.N. inspectors to take Iraqi officials out of the country to interview them. Iraqi officials and scientists we've talked to in the last couple of days, however, say that's not necessary. Quite happy to be interviewed here, thank you, but they won't be leaving soon -- Aaron.
BROWN: Nic, thank you.
We go south now to Qatar, where the United States is conducting war games. Anderson Cooper is there. Anderson, a headline from you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, the U.S. military's massive command and control exercise, Internal Look, as they're calling it, is about to enter its second day. The war game is underway amid tight security and a complete press blackout -- Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, thank you.
And "The Whip" ends tonight back in the United States. People still suffering after those horrible storms in the southeast last week. David Mattingly in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight. David, a headline.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRSPONDENT: Aaron, the aftermath of last week's winter storm still claiming lives here in the Carolinas and still disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have now had to spend too many nights in the cold and the dark -- Aaron.
BROWN: David, thank you. Back with you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up on the program tonight, we'll talk more about Iraq, the documents, the inspection, what's next with Robin Wright of the "L.A. Times." We'll also talk with a Boston area priest who says it is time now for Cardinal Bernard Law to resign. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) joins us. We expect this to be a very compelling interview a little bit later in the program.
And Segment 7 tonight on the monarchs making their way back home, millions of them. And their extraordinary journey to Mexico. All that to come in the hour ahead.
We begin with the president's choice to run the Treasury Department. In many ways, more than just another cabinet appointment, it seems. This is the president's first high-level shakeup, the first admission of an administration failure. Add to that it comes in an area of exquisite importance, the economic plan and message. It did his father in and this president is said to be determined it doesn't do the same to him.
The first reaction to the appointment of John Snow came from Wall Street, and it was, at best, a yawn. He seems a lot like a guy they fired last Friday it seemed to say. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King gets us started.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The quick decision on a new treasury secretary underscores the president's number one domestic priority.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look forward to working with John Snow as we move forward on a growth and jobs package.
KING: Snow is a railroad executive, outspoken on the issue of corporate ethics, and an old Washington hand who knows not to veer from the president's script.
JOHN SNOW, TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE: I strongly share your view that we cannot be satisfied until every one, every single person who is unemployed and seeking a job has an opportunity to work.
KING: This was installment one of a two-round shakeup. Wall Street veteran Steven Friedman will be named within days to replace Larry Lindsey as chairman of the White House's National Economic Council.
GROVER NORQUIST, AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: As George Bush, Sr. found out, the economy can be growing on the day you're running for reelection, but if people haven't figured that out, they vote against you.
KING: The economy is growing now, but the recovery is fragile. A major worry for a president who faces reelection in 23 months. The unemployment rate was 4.2 percent when Mr. Bush took office, six percent now. The economy has lost 1.7 million jobs during the Bush presidency, and the Dow Jones industrial average has gone from 10,588 to its Monday close of 8,474.
Leading Democrats, including Mr. Bush's past and perhaps future rival, blame the president's policies and say a new team won't be enough.
AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: I don't see a prospect of President Bush changing that course, and I think that within two years' time he is going to be extremely vulnerable and should be because this is not good for our country.
KING: A new administration stimulus plan is now on hold until January. Sources tell CNN it is likely to call for accelerating parts of the 10-year Bush tax cut enacted last year. Reduced taxes on stock dividends and new incentives for companies to invest in new equipment and production.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: The focus now is on winning quick and easy Senate confirmation. White House officials believe that will be the case. Just in case, though, today his first official day as Mr. Bush's choice. John Snow placed calls to some two dozen key members of Congress and also he resigned from the all-male Augusta National Golf Club -- Aaron.
BROWN: That's an interesting kicker in all of this, though I won't take the bate on it yet. Of all the names that were kicked around, I, at least, had not heard Snow's. Somewhat of a surprise. Why?
KING: Well, he's a friend, just like Paul O'Neill of Vice President Dick Cheney, who not only led the search for a successor, but was one of only a few people in the White House who could have told you, if he would have told you a month ago, that Paul O'Neill would be fired. Vice President Cheney also taking the lead in shaping that economic policy.
You noted Wall Street's reaction today, sort of muted. They didn't know what to make of this. In time, administration officials say they will like this man. Most important to this White House, they say when he speaks, you will know. Unlike the case of Secretary O'Neill, that when this new treasury secretary speaks, what he says is the president's opinion.
BROWN: John, thank you. Senior White House Correspondent John King tonight.
You can call this a quick civics lesson. A federal judge today threw out a lawsuit by the investigative arm of Congress. It was aimed at learning what was said during confidential meetings involving Vice President Cheney's energy task force and people who came to give advice, apparently many from the oil industry.
The judge said a lawsuit would violate the separation of powers. The White House said the ruling reaffirms the notion a president or a vice president deserves the kind of unvarnished advice that it will not get if it's going to appear in the paper the next day. This isn't the absolute end of this. There is another lawsuit out there on the same subject, but for now the White House (UNINTELLIGIBLE) keep the right, rather to keep the details secret.
An apology tonight from Trent Lott, the senator from Mississippi and soon to be again majority leader. An apology for remarks he made last week at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond. Thurmond you know, I suspect, is 100 years old. He was once a fiery segregationist who ran for president on a policy of racial division.
He led the Dixiecrat walkout of the Democratic convention in 1948, which split the party. Flash forward now to last Thursday. And here's what Senator Lott said about Senator Thurmond and those times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY LEADER: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That touched off a storm over the weekend that continued throughout the day today. Earlier this evening, Al Gore stopped just short of calling his former Senate colleague a racist, but said the statement itself was racist. Tonight, Senator Lott's office issued an apology, saying, "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing the statement says could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by the statement." Story over for now.
On to United Airlines, which formally declared bankruptcy today. The airline is hemorrhaging cash. No other word for it. As much as $15,000 lost each minute. Today's bankruptcy filing became inevitable, after the government last week said no to a request for nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees. And the impact will be enormous, not as much for United passengers, but certainly for United employees, and there are tens and thousands of them.
Here's CNN's Allan chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While United flights are continuing without interruption, the pain of bankruptcy is immediate for many employees. Company officers are taking pay cuts averaging 11 percent. Managers are losing three to 11 percent of their salaries. And forget about bonuses. Talks to squeeze more concessions from union workers begin this week.
GLENN TILTON, UNITED CEO: We're going to look at the entire business really soup to nuts, everything. We're going to examine every element of the business.
CHERNOFF: Union members stand to lose the most. As the airline cuts routes, it will cut jobs. Management will demand give-backs on wages and work rules, targeting at least $9 billion in savings. And the 55 percent of United stock that employees got for prior concessions will almost certainly be wiped out in the bankruptcy.
DAWN RIBATER, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: They're concerned that they will continue to have a paycheck is their number one concern. Their second concern is also that they would have medical and dental benefits.
HERB HUNTER, AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: There's going to be some pain in this for the employees and for the stockholders. But we've worked real well with Mr. Tilton.
CHERNOFF: The pain spreads beyond United. Companies holding leases on United aircraft will take hits, ranging from General Electric to Disney. And airports will suffer when United pulls back.
A top rating agency today issued a warning on airport bonds from Chicago's O'Hare, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles International, all United hubs. The cuts need to come quickly, because United is burning through cash, losing as much as $22 million a day this month, according to the airline's estimate. And United warns losses could be an extra $15 million a day next month. Added up, United could lose $1.1 billion by the end of next month.
(on camera): That means the company will have to dip into the new $1.5 billion loan it arranged just before filing for Chapter 11 protection. Management is hoping that will be enough to allow United to restructure, cut its losses and get out of bankruptcy within a year and a half. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The latest now on the impact of last week's storms, which claimed the lives of at least 30 people. Most of those were traffic accidents, but a handful of people in North Carolina died over the weekend from carbon monoxide poisoning. Hundreds of thousands of people in the state are still without power tonight, and some of them are doing things to stay warm that could kill them.
The state wants to make sure no one else dies. And it's even brought in the National Guard to help. The story now from CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The ice disappeared days ago, but after four nights of no heat and no lights, it's patience that may now be melting in the Carolinas. Hundreds of thousands remain in the dark despite repair crews working nonstop double shifts.
GOV. MIKE EASLEY (D), NORTH CAROLINA: They are working in very dangerous conditions, and many of them are leaving their families at home with no power so that they can come out and restore power for us.
MATTINGLY: North Carolina Governor Michael Easley urging the more than 400,000 customers without electricity to hold on. Calling on President Bush to declare a federal disaster. In some areas, dangerous conditions still exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kids were picking icicles off the power lines and we're like get away from there.
MATTINGLY: This Raleigh neighborhood completely cut off, roads still blocked by downed trees. National Guardsmen are going door to door in some counties offering material and medical assistance. In North Carolina, two deaths have been officially attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, and hundreds reportedly sent to hospitals after burning charcoal or running generators inside houses for warmth.
1,700 are also still in North Carolina shelters. Angela Smith (ph) and her two children facing a fourth night away from their Charlotte home.
ANGELA SMITH: It's very stressful because you're use to going into every room of your house whenever you want to.
MATTINGLY: They check on the house periodically and walk away disappointed.
SMITH: This is messed up.
MATTINGLY: The food they left in the freezer still thawed, the lights that were strung on the Christmas tree when the storm hit still waiting to be lit.
MATTINGLY (on camera): How much longer can you do this? SMITH: Not long. As of now, I'm ready to go home. I've been ready to go home, but I'm really ready now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: And, needless to say, everyone we've talked to really ready for all of this to be over. Some good news tonight. The local power company says they expect at least 90 percent of their customers to be back on line by Wednesday afternoon. And that means things are going to start happening pretty quickly.
In fact, on this street, these lights back here just came on in the last hour, Aaron. But I can't say the same for the people across the street. This house still in the dark, along with hundreds of thousands of others here in the Carolinas -- Aaron.
BROWN: David, thank you. That would be a week for many of those people without power. Went out last Wednesday, as I recall. Thank you. David Mattingly in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, inspections continue in Iraq. Preparations continue for war in Qatar. And later, from Boston, the priests who think the Boston cardinal ought to step down. This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN. Imagine reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" 10 times in a row, and you'll great some idea of what the experts in the U.S. government and at the United Nations are up against. After demanding that Iraq declare the details of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program, they now have got nearly 12,000 pages worth to get through.
We've now seen the table of contents. It runs nine pages. The executive summary tops 100. How much of this is new is very much in question tonight. Some experts today said portions of it look like recycled versions of previous Iraqi declarations. Bottom line, according to the Iraqis, this is it. Or, more accurately, this was it. Iraq is out of the weapons of mass destruction business, they say.
The Bush administration of course has great doubts, but has yet to reveal the basis for those doubts. And until it does, it falls on the inspectors now in Baghdad to catch the Iraqis in a lie. Here again, CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The now familiar early morning handshake. Iraqi officials greeting the U.N. experts before chasing them through Baghdad's rundown suburbs, past the new shepherds (ph) in the country to the day's inspection site. This day, Paluga (ph) military industrial complex, 60 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Day ten of the inspections. A day of possible discovery for the chemical, biological and missile experts examining the partially destroyed chemical complex. A day also of expectation for the U.S. and other governments pressing the inspectors ever harder to show progress. According to site officials, the inspectors questioning them for three and a half hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They repeat all the questions they are asking before. There is not any new questions, like how many numbers here, how much do you produce, where do you send your production?
ROBERTSON: These officials happy to talk privately, but only on site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they want to speak with us they can speak with us here. We are Iraqi and we don't leave Iraq.
ROBERTSON: Much of this chlorine and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) production facility bombed in '91 and '98, rebuilt each time. Much of the equipment now producing detergent and water purifiers, according to site officials, has been under U.N. monitoring since the early 1990's. All such equipment recorded in Iraq's declaration of weapons of mass destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We put all the information from '91 to '98 and all the information from '98, what is the movement, what did we do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Now another 20 or 30 inspectors are expected to arrive in Baghdad. They'll join the 42 already here. The numbers ramping up significantly in the last few days, but very much the pressure on them, Aaron, as you say, to come up with some results -- Aaron.
BROWN: And are they getting through more than one site a day?
ROBERTSON: Three yesterday. Generally it's been two. We're told to expect as many as eight teams going out in the coming days.
That will significantly increase. At least it would seem likely to get to maybe eight sites a day. Still, 700 at least, plus whatever comes out of the -- whatever can be read into the declaration and what the experts now say, OK, choose these new sites as well. A lot to go.
BROWN: We await tomorrow's installment. Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson in Baghdad tonight.
Not far from the Iraqi border, an American soldier is leading a mortar (ph) platoon through the Kuwaiti desert. "We're close enough," he says, "for that man in Baghdad to see the United States," which is likely the point. Thousands of soldiers are on maneuvers in Kuwait. So are news crews and reporters; a message being sent.
Meanwhile, in Qatar, another exercise began today in case the message isn't heard. This one is taking place in secret, in part on computers, and it aims to model the command and communications that would go into an invasion of Iraq. In the last Gulf War, this sort of business was done in Saudi Arabia. Now it's Qatar, and you'll be seeing a lot more of it.
We go back to CNN's Anderson Cooper who is there. Anderson, good evening.
COOPER: Good evening, Aaron. It's ironic. We are actually close enough to see the U.S. military, but we have gotten no sign of them at all. They are on these very hidden bases near where we are right now doing this command and control exercise, as you mentioned, called Internal Look.
We know it's begun, the second day of Internal Look, but that's about all we know. There is a complete press blackout on this. All CENTCOM officials would tell us yesterday was that the first day of the exercise began, and that's it. So what most of us have been doing here is training our cameras on Qatar, this small emirate that most of us didn't know much about a few weeks ago, perhaps more than a fe months ago. A country that has undergone enormous changes in the last seven years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Qatar may seem like many other Persian Gulf kingdoms. Rich in oil and natural gas, modern capital, conservative culture. Five times a day you hear the familiar calls to prayer, echoing across Doha's sleepy streets.
But Qatar is different. Proud of its progress and pragmatism. The emir (ph), Sheikh Hamid bin Kalifa al Tunni (ph), overthrew his father in 1995 and single-handedly began pushing Qatar toward the West.
He welcomed U.S. businesses and U.S. military. Qatar had no air force of its own, but the emir (ph) spent hundreds of millions of dollars building the Aludade (ph) base to be used by U.S. planes. In 1996, the emir (ph) started Al Jazeera, an Arab language news channel, controversial in America, for what many say is biased reporting in the war on terror. But controversial in the Arab world as well for critical coverage of slow changing Islamic regimes.
Islam is strong here, but it's a more moderate strain that permits greater equality for women. They can go out in public with men and can even vote, but there's only been one election.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's better than before, than our mother's day or grandmother's or the generation before our generation, yes.
COOPER (on camera): How is it different?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Different in their mind and their look and how do they think for future. Everything has changed.
COOPER: Qatar's educational system has also undergone major changes. The Koran used to be the main course of study. Now it's business and engineering. Cornell University has opened a branch here. American teachers are welcome.
Karen Janky (ph) and Sara Stubbins (ph) teach high school here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They definitely want to train their people to be engineers or doctors or have those high quality jobs. Whereas, they're kind of trying to pull away from the Islamic studies conservative, but being right next door to Saudi in a way is sometimes very difficult.
COOPER: Qatar is by no means a democracy. Criticism of the U.S. is common, criticism of the emir (ph) nonexistent. But The U.S. seems pleased with its new ally, relieved perhaps to find an Arab emirate where the people are given an alternative to extremism.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well the U.S. military exercise is supposed to go on all week, we are told. We will get a media day, as they call it, in about two days. Sort of a dog and pony show. We're not sure how much of the dog or the pony they're actually going show us, but we are all eager to see -- Aaron.
BROWN: But by then we'll take as much dog or pony as we can get. Thank you, Anderson. Anderson Cooper in Qatar tonight.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, so what to make of the Iraqi documents and the U.S. preparations for war. We'll be joined by Robin Wright of "Los Angeles Times" in just a moment.
Later in the program, is it time for Boston's embattled cardinal to resign? We'll talk with one of a number of Boston area priests who think so. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More now on Iraq and the Iraqi declaration. And it just may be all the things we'd like to know but don't, at least not yet. It's a long list of questions, and we're joined tonight from Washington by Robin Wright, the chief diplomatic correspondent for the "Los Angeles Times," who is just back from the region as well.
It's good to see you again. What are you hearing about the declaration, the submission? Anything?
ROBIN WRIGHT, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, I think that there is a little bit of disappointment that the Iraqis obviously are not coming at all forward with any information at all. The initial reaction is that the declaration holds no new evidence at all. I think that you will find in the next few weeks that the focus will shift from the kind of paper declaration to the human resources in Iraq, that the administration is going to press the United Nations to engage some of the scientists and the engineers and technicians who have been involved in the projects, which, of course, is going to be I think a lot more difficult than it seems. BROWN: I don't know if you were able to hear Nic Robertson's piece that aired shortly before you joined us, but Nic talked to at least one scientist who said, look, we're not leaving the country. We'll answer all these questions, but we're doing it here in Iraq. It's a complicated question for a variety of reasons.
WRIGHT: Absolutely. First of all, there are a lot of Iraqi scientists who may be willing, in fact, to talk to the United Nations and provide the kind of evidence, who may not be happy with the programs that Saddam Hussein has been engaged in for, you know, two decades, but they also don't want to be seen betraying their very own country and they don't want to be forced to give up their family and friends and/or extended family anyway, and leave the country.
They want if they end up cooperating with the United Nations to be seen to be helping, not hurting their country. And of course, in the past all defectors have come to the United States, and talked to the CIA. They have been the channel to get the information out of the defectors and use it for the weapons inspectors.
It's a very complicated process. And it's not going to be easy for anybody to, first of all, make the connection with the scientists and then convince them that it's in their best interests to leave.
BROWN: Do they not seem to make a separation between a betrayal of the government of Saddam and a betrayal of the country, Iraq?
WRIGHT: I think there is to a certain degree that differentiation. But I think there is also the fear that if even if they do something in the interest of the country, that it will be seen as betraying society, and that, you know, I think one of the biggest problems is actually going to be making that initial link. Saddam Hussein has very cleverly arranged it so that most of the meetings are groups of Iraqi scientists with their U.N. counterparts. And no one's going to stand up in the middle of a session and say, look, I'm willing to spill the beans, you know, I'll talk to you.
So making the connection is going to be difficult. And then Saddam Hussein has also in the past been very effective when there has been a defection in sanitizing an area in the immediate aftermath -- cleaning up a facility, moving records, moving stockpiles so that when weapons inspectors went back, they can't prove what the defector told them or what a scientist told, what intelligence they've had from a scientist.
So it's a very complicated process. And it's no miracle cure. It's not going to provide very easily the smoking gun. It's going to take a lot of tremendous finesse by the U.N. inspectors to make the connection and then to be able to use any information they do get before Saddam cleans up behind them.
BROWN: I am going to try to get one question in, maybe two, across the border in Iran. What do you make of the protests going on there? Last time I recall any serious student protests there, they were harshly dealt with. WRIGHT: Absolutely. Iran is going through a very interesting period right now, in which you see the students taking a very strong but a very peaceful stand. It's a campaign of civil disobedience on the campuses. And they are defying orders from the top religious leaders to go back to their classrooms, and they're demanding that the regime be accountable and to also release political prisoners and not hang a very popular professor, who has been sentenced to death merely for suggesting that the regime is not perfect.
BROWN: Are there differences in the way this one is playing out from the last time the students protested?
WRIGHT: Very much so. The biggest demonstration since the 1979 revolution was three years ago when the students actually started on campus but then moved the demonstrations to the street. This time around, you see the students staying on campus. They know that there will be a fierce reaction, and I think that they are trying to keep this as low key, to say we don't want trouble, we're not trying to create riots on the streets, but we do insist that there has to be some kind of transformation. And with a society that's 65 percent under the age of 25, that's got at some point to put enormous pressure on the regime in Tehran.
BROWN: Robin, thanks for joining us. Robin Wright, the chief diplomatic correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times" with us from Washington.
A few more stories now from around the world before we go to break here. We begin in Brazil. Mudslides there in the coastal town of Angra. Two months of rain came down in just a couple of days. The earth gave ground. At least 21 people lost their lives.
Fire tore through a row of buildings in a historic part of Edinburgh, Scotland. It started in a night club. No casualties, but the fire took more than 12 hours to put out, get under control. It threatened a number of other historic buildings on the block.
And in London, proof of that old show business maxim: Exploit enough midgets, overweight alcoholics and the like and they'll name an opera after you. It's the Jerry Springer opera. Casting call going on now. It opens next spring in London's National Theater, and it ain't over until the fat lady pulls out her teeth and sings.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta, the crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal Law goes to Rome, while some priests call for his resignation. We'll talk with one of them in a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It occurred to us that we risk overlooking some of those who have been badly hurt in the priest abuse scandal -- the priests themselves, the innocent ones, most of them, who now get the suspicious glances, who have to deal with the anger and the disgust of the people they serve. Priests, of course, take a vow of obedience, so it's a testament to just how bad it's gotten in Boston, that dozens of them are now calling on their cardinal to resign. That would be Cardinal Bernard Law, who is talking about it right now in Rome, we presume, along with the possibility that the archdiocese may file for bankruptcy protection.
We wanted to talk about all of that with one of the priests who thinks it is time for the cardinal to resign. Father Bob Bowers joins us now from Watertown, Massachusetts. Good evening, sir. It's nice to have you with us.
FATHER ROBERT BOWERS, PASTOR, ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA PARISH: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: What got you to this point? Was this -- was there a straw that broke the back or is this just one piece on top of another on top of another?
BOWERS: Kind of both. I think our colleagues -- my colleagues and myself after a long period of keeping silent and just enduring the process of watching our church come to pieces, endured last week all sorts of revelations about what the cardinal knew, what his predecessor knew, what the administration knew, and it came to a point where we just simply had to listen to our parishioners and listen to our own hearts and souls and say it's time that we remove a very difficult and painful moment in our church which is embodied in the cardinal.
BROWN: Within your parish and to the extent that you're comfortable about talking about other parishes, how strong is that sentiment?
BOWERS: In Boston the anger is almost palpable. You can fell how people are reacting.
My own parish is extremely supportive, has actually asked me over and over to make a statement, which I have resisted doing because of what you know, the vow of obedience is strong for us and we are extensions of the bishop's role and the parishes so to make a statement about one's bishop is a very powerful thing to do and not an easy statement to make.
But the parish itself, my own parish has stood there with me and now I want to stand with them. I want to support what they feel.
BROWN: Where in this, if at all, does the prospect, the possibility of a bankruptcy filing fit in?
BOWERS: Well, many of us believe, myself especially, that that is not an ethical way to resolve this issue. We feel that due process of the cases needs to be so completely worked out so that we know the whole story and the victims are compensated adequately and that there is accountability with our bishops.
I feel the bankruptcy will take the accountability away and there'll be simply the silence and the continued cover up so we'd like to see that not happen.
BROWN: The problem here it seems to me is, setting aside for a second the question of accountability, which is not an easy one to argue against, is that conceivably the church could -- the damages to the church could be so extensive that schools would close, important buildings would have to be sold off and the like.
And so is it not possible to look at the bankruptcy question as not so much an ethical question but a purely practical way to deal with a problem that otherwise cannot possibly be resolved?
BOWERS: I think the larger issue is a moral bankruptcy that can result from all this. We have a duty to the victims, survivors of this terrible, horrible crime and the lack of information, the lack of due process, the incomplete story by letting there be settled by a bankruptcy court would be a disservice to them so really the issue lies there.
It's our first duty -- is to be interested in how well thing, resolved with the victim survivors. Beyond all that, buildings of property come and go, people's lives don't. The damage to the church is already enormous just for rank and file Catholics. It's just very difficult to remain faithful to the church in this time of crisis.
BROWN: Just a final question. Is there anything -- because the cardinal to this point has shown no particular it in resigning -- is there anything the church can do between demanding its resignation and nothing that would rectify the problem?
BOWERS: Well, I'm a person of faith and deep belief that our God is with us and prayer will be the solution in the long run anyway.
But I do think strong voices, people expressing their opinion, dialogue, people being open when make things happen and it's a time- honored tradition in our church to be in dialogue.
BROWN: It's good to talk to you. I know this is a difficult step for to you take. We appreciate you talking with us tonight. Father Robert Bowers from the Boston area tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the media stars turn out to say farewell to a media icon. This is NEWSNIGHT from Atlanta.
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BROWN: A few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with former President Jimmy Carter in Oslo. Well, sort of in the country. Ready to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow. Former President Carter said the United States should work with the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to the crisis with Iraq. He added that if the U.N. Security Counsel ultimately found that Iraq was complying and he saw no reason, quote, "for armed conflict."
A different kind of honor for another former president today. The Navy has named an aircraft carrier after the first President Bush. Construction of the carrier expected to be completed in the year 2009. George Herbert Walker Bush says he is overwhelmed and grateful.
On the streets of Baltimore, friends, family and admirers came out to remember the peace activist Philip Berrigan. Berrigan staged some of the most dramatic anti-war protests of the '60s. he was arrested at least 100 times. Berrigan died of cancer last week. He was 79.
And Bobby Jo Hill has died, he died of a heart attack. Bobby Jo was the leading scorer for Texas Western, the team that won the National Championship of Basketball in 1966. Coach Don Haskin started Hill and four other black players in a game against then top rank Kentucky, unbeatable, super-star which started five white players the way they played it those days.
One teammate said this: "Bobby Jo was the steering wheel to our Mack Truck. He was our leader, a warrior." Bobby Jo Hill was just 59.
In New York today they said farewell to Roone Arledge. Mr. Arledge died last week of cancer. He was 71. Of the service, he would have liked it. The turnout was wonderful. All the big names in the business were there, all paying respects to a kid from Long Island who grew into the most important TV executive of our time. Here's some of what was said at the service in New York this morning.
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TED KOPPEL, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: When Roone took over ABC News he often came to work wearing an open neck safari jacket set off by a gold chain. He dressed like an impresario, and worse he largely ignored the sage advice that we news veterans gently offered. He was clearly a dangerous man.
I once noted that something didn't bode well. That I later learned confirmed Roone's first impression of me of a pompous pseudo- intellectual who looked like Howdy Doody. We were clearly made for one another.
Three weeks after my resignation, Roone invited me out to New York to join him for lunch. It was a three and a half hour affair, good food, excellent wine, wonderful conversation and when we emerged from Nani's East Side establishment, I was in love.
All in all, it was a stormy affair that lasted 25 years, lots of quarrels, plenty of ups and downs but ultimately dominated by mutual respect and affection.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: I never noticed that for so many of us in this room he was the global positioning system whereby we always tried to fathom what path we were on, asking did Roone smile? Did he really smile? And was it good enough for him? Really good enough for him?
In any room, he always had the youngest dreams, and I learned a little more about those dreams thanks to Gigi, who has allowed me to read to you what Roone said about himself and the dream of entering television. These are a few fragments from the opening chapter of the memoir he was writing.
"The more that I could, I snuck away to television, to the studios where there was something magical. The countdown to air, live to audience, bright lights, studio hush, taking me back to the earliest memory -- being huddled around a living room radio, a kind of mini-cathedral in dark wood with a dial at the bottom, a doorway to the world."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Memorial for Roone Arledge today in New York. We'll be right back.
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BROWN: Finally from us tonight, a little something to warm you up. It's a sight that will remind you of summer, though even on the best of summer days, you'll probably not see as many monarch butterflies as you're about to see. The writer Rachel Carson talked about the unhurried drift of one small wing form after another, each drawn by some invisible force. Here's where the drift ends.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just look around. It's magic.
BROWN (voice-over): They were a little late this year. Hurricanes and other bad weather held them up for more than a month. Ordinarily, the monarchs arrive in Mexico on the Day of the Dead early in November, which is why the natives of Michoacan state believe that these golden shadows as thick on the trees as leaves are their ancestors, returning home for a visit in the form of butterflies.
They weigh nearly nothing, 300th to 400th of an ounce. Consider how easily even a gentle breeze might dash them against a cliff or blow them off course, and yet they make this trip by the tens of millions, some of them from 300,000 miles away, to the same few mountaintop sanctuaries each and every year.
No one knows how they find their way, or how their offspring, as yet unborn, then return to exactly the same roost from which these butterflies came here, all over America, east of the Rockies and up into Canada.
These monarchs will end their lives here after they reproduce, but their grandchildren will come back to these same few forests in their turn, finding with pinpoint accuracy a place they have never seen before.
The migration is something of a miracle, really, but then so is the monarch butterfly, a weightless traveler over thousands of miles.
Think of the monarchs as flowers that fly from one continent to another.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: I've loved that story since I first heard of it about 30 years ago.
Quickly, Paula Zahn with a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING" tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron.
Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," the United States gets what it wants, an unedited look at the Iraqi weapons declaration, all 12,000 pages worth. Will it find a smoking gun that could lead the U.S. to war in Iraq? That debate tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Eastern -- Aaron,
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Paula, good to see you back there. And we hope you'll come back here tomorrow at 10:00. We're back in Atlanta, tomorrow and the rest of the week. Join us then. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
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Weapons, War; John Snow Named New Nominee to Treasury Department>
