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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Nationwide Manhunt for Illegal Immigrants Under Way; Americans Killed in Yemen

Aired December 30, 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, everyone. I'm Aaron Brown.
It didn't used to be this way. The two weeks around Christmas and New Year's used to be remarkably boring in the news business. Oh, for the good old days. Now, we admit that Trent Lott's story that dominated the week before Christmas, while important and interesting, hardly caused a loss of sleep, unless, of course, you were Senator Lott.

But then this last week and now this one, we find ourselves sitting around trying to decide who we'll wage war on next. Will it be Iraq, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, but may well have lots of chemical agents we can't yet find? Or perhaps it will be North Korea, which probably does have two nuclear weapons and, unless something changes, will have a few more by summer.

North Korea is not a crisis, we're told. Good. I feel better. It's not a crisis because they've had these weapons for a while and they haven't used them. OK. I feel less secure with that reasoning. Consistency here seems to be an issue. And, as we sat through all the administration's explanations, we're not quite sure we understand why Iraq today is more of a threat than North Korea is today. You may well understand it better.

This is the problem with being the world's lone superpower and perhaps even the world's policeman. You say, here is the policy. We're not going to let a country develop weapons, so it can blackmail us and our friends. And then, all of a sudden, the policy, which seemed clear and unambiguous, becomes less clear and pretty ambiguous.

In the days ahead, the administration will have to explain all of this. To our ear, they'll have to explain it better than they have so far. In any case, it makes it all seem like we're missing the good old days when the holidays were quiet, even in the news business, which clearly they aren't anymore.

On to "The Whip" we go, "The Whip" and the search for five men who slipped into the country, it seems, intentions unknown. Kelli Arena has been following that.

Kelli, start us off with a headline.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, there's a lot that the FBI does not know about the five men. But in this age of terrorism, not knowing is sometimes more frightening than having all the answers. A nationwide manhunt continues tonight.

BROWN: Kelli, thank you -- back to you at the top.

North Korea now and the latest in trying to contain the tension. Suzanne Malveaux is at Crawford, Texas, the White House there.

Suzanne, a headline from you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House is downplaying any apparent differences with its allies over how to deal with North Korea. South Korea's Kim Dae-jung is saying that it is dialogue, not isolation, that is the best way to go. A White House spokesman, however, is saying that it's North Korea that is bringing the isolation upon itself.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you.

On to the sniper case. It's been a while since we reported on that. One of suspects was in court today.

Patty Davis is following the story -- Patty, a headline, please.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A judge orders prosecutors in Fairfax County, Virginia, to hand over allegedly incriminating statements made by 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo, statements that could land him on death row.

BROWN: Patty, thank you -- back with you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight: another kind of a manhunt for whoever is behind the murder of four women in Louisiana. We'll talk with a reporter who has been working that story since the killings began more than a year ago.

The story out of Pennsylvania tonight: doctors who say they can't afford to continue being doctors. It has to do with malpractice insurance. And we'll talk about the situation with the governor-elect of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell.

And rummaging through America's attic, that's segment seven. And with any luck, it should leave you smiling by the end of the program. Starting there would be nice for a change, but toys in the attack will have to take a back seat, at least, to monsters in the dark at the top.

It's been that kind of year, that kind of a day, so that's where we start, with another development that brings a chill, even if no one knows for sure yet what it means. And there's not a lot to go on, just a handful of mights and a few maybes and, oh, five wanted men.

Here again, CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARENA (voice over): The nationwide manhunt is still on for these five men. The FBI and its 18,000 state and local law enforcement partners have made finding them a top priority. Intelligence suggests that on or about December 24 they illegally entered the United States through Canada.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, CSIS: We used to boast that that was the longer unfortified border in the world. Now it's not something we're quite as happy about.

ARENA: The FBI was alerted in the course of a separate investigation which indicates the five men obtained fake passports. Agents then received additional intelligence from Pakistan. The FBI is not sure where the men come from or whether the names they are using are legitimate. They are not in any terror databases. The only thing the FBI is sure of is what the men look like.

BENJAMIN: It's a perfect example of life in the age of terrorism. It tells us very little. There's relatively little likelihood that the public will be able to turn much up. It will be complete happenstance and it gives us no idea of the importance of these people.

ARENA: Still, law enforcement sources say their level of concern is high. That's because intelligence sources refer to the five as a group, as one source said a possible terror cell.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: We're going into the New Year's Eve season and it looks like they came in the northeast. You know you've got New York, one of the biggest New Year's celebrations going.

ARENA: Officials say New York's Governor George Pataki was immediately brought in to the loop.

GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R), NEW YORK: We have some reasonable basis to believe that they came across the Canadian border into New York State. We don't know where they are now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Now, even without a great deal of information, the FBI says that it can't take any chances as intelligence continues to pour in suggesting that al Qaeda is planning more attacks -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right. I'm sorry. That one threw me a bit. Is there reason to believe that they are al Qaeda?

ARENA: They don't have any information on these individuals whatsoever, Aaron. All they know is that they obtained fake passports, that they talked about trying to get into the United States illegally by Christmas Eve, December 24. Beyond that, there simply is no concrete intelligence either way.

BROWN: So, as far as we know, the government does not know for certain that they in fact came into the country, only that they at some point said they wanted to come into the country.

ARENA: That's right, that the intelligence suggested that that was their plan. But they don't have any evidence at any of the checkpoints that they used those fake passports, that they came in at any of those ports of entry. They just simply don't have the answers.

BROWN: Well that is as disquieting, I guess, as having the answers.

Kelli, thank you -- Kelli Arena in Washington tonight.

To Yemen now and the shooting at a Baptist hospital in the town of Jibla. The victims were American missionaries, the suspect a Muslim fanatic, possibly with connections to a terrorist cell targeting foreigners. The White House says it's too soon to tell. But, if so, it wouldn't be a first for Yemen.

Two years ago, suicide bombers hit the USS Cole. Earlier this year, a French oil tanker came under attack. The State Department routinely warns American citizens against even setting foot in Yemen, let alone living there. The people who died knew all that, but came and stayed because they had a job to do.

Here's CNN's Brian Cabell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Authorities say the gunmen entered the Baptist Missionary Hospital cradling a rifle in his jacket as though it were a baby. He then opened fire and killed three Americans, all of whom had been working there several years Dr. Martha Myers, an obstetrician; William Koehn, the hospital administrator; and Kathleen Gariety, the hospital business manager whose family had warned her of the danger of working in Yemen.

JERRY GARIETY, BROTHER OF VICTIM: In July we did not want her to go back but she did. She was devoted to the word, you know, so she's up there.

PHIL REEKER, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: There can be no justification for an attack such as this on an institution providing critical humanitarian services to the Yemeni people.

CABELL: The full service hospital in Jibla, Yemen has been operating for 35 years, treating more than 40,000 patients a year according to officials. The facility was considered particularly dangerous because Yemen was the sight of the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in 2000. It's also the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

RANKIN: Our personnel as Americans and Christians are well aware of the risk of living and serving in a place like Yemen, yet their love for the Yemeni people and obedience to the conviction of God's leadership has been expressed in a willingness to take that risk and give of their lives. CABELL: Yemeni officials have a suspect in custody, Abid Abdulrazzaq al-Kamil (ph), described as an Islamic extremist who according to one local journalist told authorities he "wanted to get closer to God."

For the family of Dr. Myers, the obstetrician who was killed, her work in Yemen was not about politics or a particular religion. It was about helping people and putting her beliefs into action.

IRA MYERS, FATHER OF VICTIM: People learn more by how you live in your attitude and whether you are truthful than they do about what you say.

CABELL: A fourth American worker was wounded in the attack. He's expected to recover.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Back home now and the latest on the sniper case and something that occurred to us today, the fact that two teenagers are at the heart of the sniper story, a victim and an accused killer.

The victim is the 13-year-old who spent his Christmas on a special trip to Disney World and who wants nothing more than to get healthy again and to get back to school again. The other is the 17- year-old who's one of those charged in these terrible crimes who may well face the death penalty.

John Lee Malvo was in court today, his lawyers wanting to know exactly what he told investigators after his arrest. Prosecutors say, no, this is why there are judges.

Here's CNN's Patty Davis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS (voice-over): Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo allegedly made incriminating statements to police about his involvement in the sniper shooting spree. But defense attorneys complained the prosecution wouldn't turn them over.

MICHAEL ARIF, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Everybody in the world seems to know what Mr. Malvo has said, except the defense team.

DAVIS: Sources tell CNN that Malvo told police he fired the shot that killed 47-year-old FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside this Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia, October 14. That alleged admission could help prosecutors win a death penalty conviction against Malvo. Prosecutors argued they had no obligation to turn the statements over at this point in the case.

ROBERT HORAN, FAIRFAX COUNTY COMMONWEALTH ATTORNEY: Since we have no intention of getting into the issue of statements at preliminary hearing, under the rule, we did not believe that there was any requirement to provide it.

DAVIS: But Fairfax County Judge Kimberly Daniel didn't agree and ordered the prosecution to give defense lawyers Malvo's statements about Franklin's murder and a murder in a neighboring county. Under Virginia law, prosecutors must prove Malvo committed two murders in a three-year period to get the death penalty.

ARIF: I don't know that we have any victories at this point. We are just getting what we're entitled to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS: Today's skirmish set the stage for Malvo's next big court appearance in mid-January. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to mover forward with a trial.

Malvo's alleged accomplice, John Muhammad, meanwhile, will stand trial next October for the murder of Dean Meyers. He was killed at a Virginia gas station. And Muhammad could also get the death penalty if he's convicted -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, the Muhammad trial is scheduled for October. We don't really know yet when or even where, I guess, the first Malvo trial will be.

DAVIS: Well, we know, unless there's a change of venue requested, that it will take place in Fairfax County. But a date hasn't been set yet. Prosecutors must show probable cause. That will happen at the preliminary hearing January 14 and 15. If they do show probable cause, then a trial date presumably would be set at that point -- Aaron.

BROWN: Patty, thank you -- Patty Davis in Washington tonight.

And ahead on NEWSNIGHT, later in the program, we'll rummage through a unique collection of American classics. Also coming up tonight, we'll talk to the incoming governor of Pennsylvania about his first big problem. He's not even in office yet.

And up next: the search for potential terrorists in the United States.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In New York and the rest of the country today, you could sort much of the day's news into a pair of categories: New Year's preparations and New Year's precautions, setting up fireworks and sniffing out bombs, New Year's Day and the new normal.

The search for five men who might have slipped into the country fits right into the scheme of things. We're reminded of three Decembers ago when a terrorist was caught trying to bring a carload of explosives over the border from Canada into Washington state. And it's not impossible to suspect something similar has happened again. With us tonight: former Ambassador Paul Bremer, who served as ambassador at large for counterterrorism during the Reagan administration. And, currently, he is a member of this president's Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Mr. Ambassador, it's good to see you.

AMBASSADOR PAUL BREMER, PRESIDENT'S HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL: It's nice to be with you.

BROWN: I gather we have to do some reading between the lines here. Help me with this a little bit. Why are we so aggressively searching for these five? We must know something.

BREMER: Well, I think the FBI has got some confidence in the intelligence that led them to these five guys. We don't know in the public exactly what that is.

But, clearly, they have some confidence that whoever fingered these guys must know what he's talking about. So, they took the unusual step -- it's really the first time since September 11 -- of putting out, in effect, an all-points bulletin on these guys, put out their pictures, and said, if you see them, please let us know.

BROWN: And is there a special significance to the fact that they went public with this? How ought we read that?

BREMER: I think what we have to read is, it means that they had enough confidence in what they'd heard to take it seriously, but they didn't have enough precise information to know how to get ahold of these guys or track them themselves, so they've enlisted the public.

This, of course, is a technique which has been used by law enforcement agencies for years. The FBI has always had its 10 most wanted, with pictures in every post office. It does actually work. From time to time, members of the public in fact can help solve a crime. And I think the FBI figured: We'd better find out some way to get after these guys.

And that seems to be the best way they had.

BROWN: Answer this honestly for me. I'm sure you will. If any one of those five walked by you right now, would you recognize them?

BREMER: I haven't studied the pictures well enough to be able to.

BROWN: And would you agree that most people have not?

BREMER: Almost certainly that's true, although we're still early. This has only been up on the Web for 24 hours. And the news has only been covering it for a day. So, we'll see.

BROWN: There's always talk in moments like this -- and there was again today -- about chatter. What sort of chatter do you know are we hearing these days that would make us particularly wary as we approach the New Year's?

BREMER: I think it's not just the chatter. The chatter has been up. And people have been talking about it really since the early summer.

What we've seen since September is al Qaeda trying to reconstitute its operational command-and-control, which was obviously severely damaged in the attacks in Afghanistan. And we've seen al Qaeda conducting more sophisticated attacks in the last two months, the attack in Bali and in Mombasa. So, al Qaeda is beginning to reconstitute.

And I think what's disturbing here, is we are coming up on the millennium -- or at least on the turn of the year, reminding us, as you did. Al Qaeda has a habit of going back and attacking targets a second time if they don't get them the first time, the World Trade Center, for example. And we should be concerned. We're certainly in a higher-threat environment than was the case, say, six months ago.

BROWN: Does the fact that the government put this out, put their pictures out, does that, in and of itself, make it less likely, if these people are involved in something, they'll try and execute it?

BREMER: Well, it's possible that one of the FBI's motivations in putting the faces out was exactly that, was to disrupt any operation these guys might be planning, because they now can turn on the television and see their pictures there.

And they may have to say to themselves: We need to be a little bit more cautious. We may have to change our identification, whatever they're traveling with. That means they've got to take some risks. So, it may very well be that one of the motivations was to disrupt a potential operation.

BROWN: Does it stand to reason that there was a breakdown at the border? Or might they have gotten in perfectly -- I don't mean legally, but in such a way that, no matter how well the surveillance was done, they'd have gotten in anyway?

BREMER: Well, I think, at the moment, we don't know enough about when the FBI actually got this intelligence. So, we don't know if they got it before they allegedly came in or after. We don't know if they were ever posted on the lookout list. Even if they had been, the fact of the matter is, we have a lot of problems with our border security, as September 11 brought home rather dramatically to all of us.

BROWN: The fact they came in as a group allegedly tell us one thing or another?

BREMER: Well, if they came as a group, that would surprise me, if they are terrorists. That would not be very good tradecraft. You would expect them to infiltrate separately.

So, I don't think the FBI, as least so far as I know, is saying they came as a group. They're saying they were identified as a group. And there may be more members of that group as well. We may not have heard the whole story yet.

BROWN: Well, I hope they get them.

BREMER: So do I.

BROWN: I hope they get them.

Thanks for joining us, Ambassador. Thank you.

BREMER: Nice to be with you.

BROWN: Paul Bremer, giving us a little more perspective on that.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight: the latest on the situation with North Korea, what the White House plans to do about that -- that and more as we continue on a Monday night from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived in Beijing tonight. Their work in North Korea is over for now, and perhaps for good. This weekend, the North Korean government hinted it might pull out of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty altogether.

Neither development would seem to leading any place good in this confrontation between North Korea the United States. But if the tone out of North Korea has not changed, the signals coming from Washington are changing.

Here again: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice over): As North Korea continues to defy the world's pleas to abandon its nuclear ambitions the Bush administration is vowing to isolate the communist country through diplomatic and economic means. But senior administration officials acknowledge the key to the policy's success will depend on the cooperation of North Korea's neighbors, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia, each with an agenda of their own.

China, North Korea's largest trading partner supplies 70 percent of North Korea's crude oil and is a major exporter of food and goods is reluctant to take a hard line against its long time ally. South Korea is committed to its sunshine policy of engagement with Pyongyang. Its new regime is eager to establish new railroad links and free trade zones.

BALBINA HWANG, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: There is, I think, about $500 million of trade going back and forth so certainly if South Korea were to cut that off that would also be an important impact on North Korea.

MALVEAUX: Japan was set to give North Korea $10 billion in aid but the nuclear scare and kidnapping controversy with Pyongyang has soured their relationship. Russia signed a trade and economic accord with North Korea in 2001. The countries trade $100 million worth of goods a year. Publicly it has denounced North Korea's posturing but continues to speak to Pyongyang directly. But despite reservations from some of North Korea's neighbors, the Bush administration is convinced its isolationist policy will work.

REEKER: North Korea can change course and get themselves out of this position and they have the power to do that. That's what will bring them benefits by working, engaging in a positive way with the international community.

MALVEAUX: But the Bush administration's policy is getting mixed reviews.

BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: To isolate North Korea in the region I'm not sure is going to produce the results that we need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Now, today, the White House downplayed any role that it may have in encouraging bringing North Korea's case before the U.N. Security Council, which could lead to economic sanctions. The White House says it's up to the International Atomic Energy Agency to decide what course to take and that the administration would support that decision either way -- Aaron.

BROWN: Is the administration trying to make sure that the Security Council is not dealing with both North Korea and Iraq at the same time?

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, the U.N. Security Council has its plate full. And, yes, they're going to be dealing with Iraq in the month of January, a very critical deadline coming up, January 27, when those inspectors will report back to the U.N. Security Council to say how things have been going.

It is really up to the U.N. Security Council and whether or not the IAEA makes the recommendation. But, of course, the administration is saying it will allow diplomacy to play out for months. The one thing that the administration really is counting on is fear, fear from North Korea that, with the upcoming winter, with perhaps the starvation of its people, that it will, out of desperation, comply and change its course.

The other component of this is fear of North Korea's neighbors -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia -- the realization that perhaps North Korea is more of a threat to them than it is to the administration.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you -- Suzanne Malveaux in Crawford, Texas, tonight.

Last week, the defense secretary, Rumsfeld, said the United States would have no trouble fighting a two-front war, meaning fighting Iraq and North Korea at the same time. But it is becoming clear that would be a stretch and the main event remains Iraq. Over the last few days, orders have been going out and a major force is being marshalled.

From the Pentagon tonight: CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pentagon sources say this week between 50 and 100 warplanes will begin moving from bases in the United States and Europe to the Persian Gulf region.

Among the deployments: F-15 Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina and B-1 Bombers from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Also getting orders this week, F-16s based in Germany and AC-130 gun ships and MH-53 Special Operations Helicopters from Hurlburt Field, Florida. And it's just a first wave of a methodical buildup that Pentagon sources say could stretch into March.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHMN. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We're continuing our deliberate and steady force buildup in the region. It's important to posture forces appropriately to complement our diplomatic efforts. We want to ensure we can act quickly, should it be necessary.

MCINTYRE: Even as it insists war with Iraq is not a certainty the Pentagon is dispatching between 20 and 30,000 troops to the region in January, and calling up a slightly lesser number of reservists to fill in for them while they're deployed. That will bring the number of U.S. troops in the Gulf close to 100,000 by the end of the month. And by the end of February as many as six aircraft carriers could be within strike distance of Iraq. Two carriers there now, two getting ready to go, and two like the USS George Washington that had finished a Gulf tour and could be sent back.

REAR ADM. JOSEPH SESTAK, USS GEORGE WASHINGTON: It is a contingency, they are ready to return and they know that. Six months of a great deployment happy to be home, but if asked they are ready to return.

MCINTYRE: One ship deploying this week is the hospital ship Comfort which will steam from Baltimore to the British Island of Diego Garcia without its Medical staff. They'll be flown to the ship later if the U.S. goes war.

(on camera): Pentagon sources say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not immediately approve all of the troop movements requested by Persian Gulf commander General Tommy Franks, apparently preferring to spread the deployments out over a longer period of time.

But that doesn't mean the war couldn't start sooner. Pentagon sources say the U.S. military strategy is for a rolling start, meaning the war could begin even as the deployments continue, in order to preserve the element of surprise.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick look at some other stories making news around the world tonight, beginning in Iraq. U.N. weapons inspectors are quickening their pace, it seems. They visited several sites today including a nuclear facility outside of Baghdad. The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, announced today he'll return to Iraq on the 19th of January, a week before he's scheduled to present his findings on Iraq to the full U.N. Security Council.

In France today, police questioned an airport baggage handler who was arrested over the weekend after he was found with plastic explosives, a machine gun and a machine pistol at Charles de Gaul International Airport. The parking lot there.

In Kenya victory declared today for both Mwai Kibaki and democracy in Friday's presidential election. The election ended President Daniel Moi's 24-year rule.

And another tough day in Venezuela. Clashes between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez. The national strike continues. The strike continues to paralyze the country and in particular the oil industry there.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT will some Pennsylvania doctors stop practicing in a dispute over malpractice insurance? This is NEWSNIGHT ON CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And up next on NEWSNIGHT, to Pennsylvania for the doctor crisis. We're right back.

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BROWN: For years doctor have complained about the cost of malpractice insurance. In two days some doctors in Pennsylvania say they are ready to do something about it: stop seeing patients.

Faced with premiums increasing 50 percent, the doctors say they would rather quit or move than pay the insurer. There's nothing simple about this, though politicians try sometimes to make it seem so. It is a complicated and expensive problem and in Pennsylvania at least, the problem has landed on the doorstep of governor-elect Ed Rendell who takes office next month and joins us tonight.

Nice to see you, sir. I want to talk about solutions, but I want to talk about the problem for a second. Why Pennsylvania?

ED RENDELL (D), GOVERNOR-ELECT, PENNSYLVANIA: Well, a couple of reasons. We've gone from 17 -- about a half decade ago, 17 private companies ensuring doctors to three.

One because we up until this year have had no tort reform at all and that's a part of the issue. Second, we have a very high requirement of coverage, up until this year, $1.25 million each doctor had to have -- had to have the coverage. We have a catastrophic loan fund that the doctors have to pay into in addition to having private insurance, it's not very well administered.

Fourthly, the insurance department did not do a good job overseeing insurance companies. In the late '80s and '90s, as hard as it is to believe, Aaron, they made pricing mistakes and they were low- bidding to sign up doctors in Pennsylvania and the insurance company did a very poor job in overseeing that situation.

And fifthly, I believe we have the best hospitals and best doctors in America in Pennsylvania, particularly in Southeast and Southwest and because of that, we do a lot of complex procedures and surgeries, which drive up those premiums.

BROWN: Part of at least a short-term solution you've put out there today deals with this state fund which if I understand it makes payments where individuals cannot. Is that about right?

RENDELL: A doctor is required to have half a million dollars of coverage from private insurance and then up until this year, three quarters of a million dollars in coverage to the Cat Fund for catastrophic injuries.

And what we did today is announce that I'm going to ask the legislature the day after I get inaugurated for the four most challenged specialties, which is obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, general surgery and orthopedics to eliminate their requirement to pay in that money this year. We're finding another way to pay the fund so it doesn't lose financial stability. For all other doctors reduce it 50 percent.

We have trauma centers, three of which out of 26 in the state have already closed. We're going to subsidize those trauma centers to get them reopened and to keep the other ones stable.

BROWN: Where does this money come from that the doctors then aren't paying in?

RENDELL: Well, our health insurance providers all have significant reserves, some more than others, and we're assessing for one year and one year only those reserves on a sliding scale.

The ones that have the sliding reserves that aren't actually needed to cover outstanding claims, those get the greatest assessment. We'll be able to assess I think about $220 million worth of one-time charges which will cover the pay-ins to the Catastrophic Loan Fund.

BROWN: Now long term, this is a -- this seems like a short-term solution to a problem. Long term where do the answers lie here?

RENDELL: Our present governor, Mark Schweiker, and present legislature have done a good job throughout 2002 enacting some significant tort reform measures. Reducing the statute of limitations, amending the collateral source rule, joint and several liability, prohibition against venue shopping. Those things are going to start to kick in soon.

In fact a new insurance company was just certified about a week ago. Since they're only insuring prospective cases, they're already showing the effects of those tort reforms, offering 15, 20 percent lower premiums.

We've got to go further and pass a certificate of merit rule that no malpractice action can be filed without an accompanying affidavit from a certified medical expert. We also have to look at reducing the total amount of coverage and somehow getting rid of this catastrophic load fund which is a disaster and making all of the coverage be required to be handled privately.

If we can do those things, I think by summer of next year we can see a significant reduction in premiums and a return of insurance companies to Pennsylvania. But it is a significant problem.

And I know it's easy -- I thought your lead-in was very good because it is not an easy problem to solve. For those who blame -- put the entire blame on the tort system, they're missing the point. We had no tort reform in Pennsylvania in the early '90s and insurance companies were low balling each other to sign up doctors. It's a very complex problem.

BROWN: We'll look forward to watching how this plays out. In the meantime I hope by Wednesday you get something solved.

RENDELL: Well I'm hopeful that what we've done is a good faith enough act to keep the doctors practicing and waiting to see in the long run.

BROWN: Governor-elect, it's good to see you. Best of luck to you.

RENDELL: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Thanks, sir. Ed Rendell, tonight.

A few quick stories to get in before we go to break here. Beginning with a jail break in Puerto Rico. Five prisoners broke out of a maximum security prison, getting on to a roof where a helicopter landed to scoop them up and spirit them away. They're described as very dangerous. They were all serving sentences of more than 100 years for murder and other crimes.

No solid lead yet in the search for a woman in Modesto, California who went for a walk on Christmas Eve and never returned. Laci Peterson (ph) is 8 1/2 months pregnant with her first child. Detectives questioning about 50 sex offenders who live in the area.

And a fascinating discovery that brings together two eras of Cold War bomb shelter was found in the basement of an old Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same Woolworth's store where black students were refused service at the lunch counter back in 1960 in one of the storied movement of the Civil Rights era.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, some other artifacts from America's past. That's later.

Up next, trying to solve a series of murders in the state of Louisiana. This NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Up next, is there a serial killer on the loose in Louisiana? Short break and we're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There was a time last fall when the alleged snipers had just been caught that police agencies around the country were checking their own homicide files hoping to find a link.

They did exactly that in Baton Rouge and it turned out the sniper suspects were not the serial killer who has believed to have killed at least four women in and around the Louisiana capital. So as the New Year approaches, the fear that has been present there for more than a year goes on.

The latest on the case in a moment from a local reporter who has been covering it since the beginning.

First, some background.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Truneisha Colomb was only 23-years-old. She poke four language, attended a local community college, planned on joining the Marines in February. It is believed her final moments alive were spent visiting her mother's grave, her abandoned car discovered last month near the cemetery.

STERLING COLOMB, TRUNEISHA COLOMB'S FATHER: You never think that it will happen to you. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Now you kind of wonder is, you know, this luck of the draw or wrong place at the wrong time?

BROWN: Authorities confirmed last case that Colomb case in Lafayette was connected to a series of murders in Baton Rouge, 60 miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's happened so fast, these women are disappearing right out of their own homes. The last person that disappeared, from what I understand there were no signs of a struggle or anything.

BROWN: It has been more than a year since the serial killer first struck. On September 24, 2001, 41-year-old Gina Green was found strangled at her home.

Eight months later, 22-year-old Charlotte Pace was found in her home stabbed to death.

On July 16, 44-year-old Pam Kinimore was discovered with her throat slashed.

And now Truneisha Colomb, beaten to death last month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.

BROWN: More than 7,000 tips have come in, including several sightings of the killer's vehicle, described as a white pickup truck with a partial license plate.

MIKE NEUSTROM, LAFAYETTE PARISH SHERIFF: There's an element of surprise. There's a quick movement, either the female is preoccupied with something else and then all of a sudden he's there.

BROWN: Police say so far there is no apparent link between the four victims other than gender and death.

TOMMY RICE, BATON ROUGE POLICE DETECTIVE: We're really under a lot of pressure to solve this.

Tommy Rice is a Baton Rouge homicide detective.

RICE: You know, and people ask me what should we do? I just simply tell them, This isn't Mayberry anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few developments in the case today. The sheriff of Lafayette Parish said he has up to 100 potential suspects that police want to take DNA samples from. And the FBI released a new profile on the serial killer, suggesting the killer he be 25 to 35 years old, strong, struggling financially and someone who has probably spent some time picking his victims.

More on this from Melissa Moore. She's been reporting the story for the "Baton Rouge Advocate." It's nice to see you. Thanks for coming in.

Can you explain to me why they are certain this is one killer? Because in many ways it is an unusual serial killing.

MELISSA MOORE, REPORTER, "BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE": It is unusual. They've only established connections where they have DNA evidence to do so. There was DNA evidence at all of the crime scenes that point to a single killer.

BROWN: And there may be other unsolved cases out there that they're looking at that they have not yet linked?

MOORE: The police tell us that they're looking at a number of other cases, but they're not going to publicly link any cases without DNA and it doesn't appear that they have found any DNA in any matching cases.

BROWN: I'm sorry, were the victims sexually assaulted?

MOORE: We know based on a search warrant that was filed that the three Baton Rouge victims were sexually assaulted to some degree. The police have not been willing to discuss what that means. But it was described that way in a search warrant for a man's DNA.

BROWN: The hundred people, potential suspects the police want to gather DNA from, what do you know about them? Anything?

MOORE: We don't know anything about them. In fact, the Baton Rouge police, during their investigation, have DNA tested 800 people to eliminate them from suspicion.

BROWN: And these are people -- you can't obviously show probable cause on 800 people, so I gather these are 800 people asked to voluntarily supply a DNA sample and they agreed to do that?

MOORE: Almost all of them have consented. Only one search warrant has been filed in court, so our information on that is limited. But it said at that time that only 15 people had refused and that the investigators had sought court orders in those cases.

BROWN: And did the warrant indicate what the evidence was that allowed them to get the court order?

MOORE: In the one case that was filed, it was pretty tenuous. The man in question had been reported as suspicious by two different people and he once worked at a business on the same street where one of the victims' cellphones was found after her death.

BROWN: Has there been -- well, before I get to that --- There is another missing woman in the area, isn't that not correct?

MOORE: There is. The wife of our former elections commissioner, Jerry Fowler, Marianne Fowler, was apparently abducted Christmas Eve and has not been found.

BROWN: And there's no way of knowing at this point obviously whether that's linked or not linked, but obviously that's the concern, that it's somehow linked.

MOORE: That's the concern, but no one can say one way or the other at this point.

BROWN: Can you again just run down the sequence, the pattern, how much time between each killing?

MOORE: Well, Gina Wilson Green was killed in September of 2001. The next killing that's been conclusively linked to the same killer was when Charlotte Marie Pace was killed the following May.

The police announced in mid July that they'd linked the DNA in those two cases and just a couple of days later -- a couple of days after they made that link, Pam Kinimore was kidnapped.

That was the last killing until the one that was most recently announced. It occurred in late November, but police didn't confirm that the DNA connected it to the serial killer until last week.

BROWN: Are rumors and theories rampant down in Baton Rouge?

MOORE: Oh, definitely.

BROWN: And what are you hearing from people? MOORE: We've heard everything from it's the meter man to it's a police officer. People have pulled guns on florists making deliveries. People have been pretty frightened.

BROWN: And while there's been a lot of sightings apparently of the car or what might be the car or the truck, nobody yet has said they have seen the person or people?

MOORE: No, no one has -- as far as we know, no one has actually seen the killer. The description that investigators have of the truck is fairly general. It's a white pickup truck that could be anywhere from a late '80s model to a late '90s model, and the descriptions varied on it.

BROWN: Melissa, thanks for your help on this. Good luck on the story. Melissa Moore from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tonight.

And next on NEWSNIGHT, you think you've got junk in your attic -- just you wait.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally from us tonight, think for a moment about your attic, the stuff that's piled up that you have wanted out of sight but for one reason or another couldn't bear to throw out. Maybe it's a beat-up monopoly game or some favorite handbag that's way out of style. May seem like junk to some, but stuff has a way of telling a story, your story. You don't have to explain this to David Shayt of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. His job is to collect a lot of your stuff to tell a larger story, the story of American pop culture.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SHAYT, CURATOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY: Every object tends to have one or more stories. And that's really what we're after.

Lunch boxes. Children's metal lunch boxes. They tell stories of metal manufacture, stories of entertainment history, the history of cartoons, lunch, of course. I had one when I was a kid that I lost, of course. Everybody loses their lunch box, or it gets thrown out, and I was -- I managed to get it back as a collector item, the submarine box. There's nothing quite like the golden age of the metal lunch box.

Just last year the Dunkin family retired their yoseum (ph) in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. A couple of us went to Oklahoma and made a careful selection, documented the rise of the yo-yo from a primitive Filipino toy to something very sophisticated and high-tech today.

We've been studying crayons in response to their approaching centennial. We can see how they're packaged, how the evolution of the color yellow and green has evolved in these packages. We stopped at crayons in chalkville, we didn't get into a lot of other products, except silly putty. Now, how can you not collect silly putty? We have about 150 different eggs of silly putty. Excuse me while I take my gloves off. Silly putty is one of these timeless objects -- the smell of it, the taste. It's supposed to be nontoxic. Tastes nontoxic. Silly putty does not rank with, say, George Washington's sword, we're fully aware of that, but the Smithsonian is a large place. Silly putty matters.

We acquire things that most museums may not have room or time for. But we look in the bedroom closets, we look in the cupboards, we look in the basement, in the attic, the kitchen, the living room, for the windows on our past. Pocket windows on our past.

This is one of the Smithsonian's jukeboxes. It's a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the late 1940s, acquired just in the last couple of years from a New York collector. The old mechanical jukeboxes are beloved especially because of what happens when the lights go out.

American history is not just battles and politics and wars and the history of the great events. It's things like this that mix music with entertainment, with food, with dance, with life itself. So for the National Museum of American History, this is one of our core missions, to explain all of those rituals and rites, lifestyles, through the artifacts that we all remember.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That's all for tonight. Special program tomorrow. Have a great new year. Good night for all of us.

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





Americans Killed in Yemen>


Aired December 30, 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, everyone. I'm Aaron Brown.
It didn't used to be this way. The two weeks around Christmas and New Year's used to be remarkably boring in the news business. Oh, for the good old days. Now, we admit that Trent Lott's story that dominated the week before Christmas, while important and interesting, hardly caused a loss of sleep, unless, of course, you were Senator Lott.

But then this last week and now this one, we find ourselves sitting around trying to decide who we'll wage war on next. Will it be Iraq, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, but may well have lots of chemical agents we can't yet find? Or perhaps it will be North Korea, which probably does have two nuclear weapons and, unless something changes, will have a few more by summer.

North Korea is not a crisis, we're told. Good. I feel better. It's not a crisis because they've had these weapons for a while and they haven't used them. OK. I feel less secure with that reasoning. Consistency here seems to be an issue. And, as we sat through all the administration's explanations, we're not quite sure we understand why Iraq today is more of a threat than North Korea is today. You may well understand it better.

This is the problem with being the world's lone superpower and perhaps even the world's policeman. You say, here is the policy. We're not going to let a country develop weapons, so it can blackmail us and our friends. And then, all of a sudden, the policy, which seemed clear and unambiguous, becomes less clear and pretty ambiguous.

In the days ahead, the administration will have to explain all of this. To our ear, they'll have to explain it better than they have so far. In any case, it makes it all seem like we're missing the good old days when the holidays were quiet, even in the news business, which clearly they aren't anymore.

On to "The Whip" we go, "The Whip" and the search for five men who slipped into the country, it seems, intentions unknown. Kelli Arena has been following that.

Kelli, start us off with a headline.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, there's a lot that the FBI does not know about the five men. But in this age of terrorism, not knowing is sometimes more frightening than having all the answers. A nationwide manhunt continues tonight.

BROWN: Kelli, thank you -- back to you at the top.

North Korea now and the latest in trying to contain the tension. Suzanne Malveaux is at Crawford, Texas, the White House there.

Suzanne, a headline from you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House is downplaying any apparent differences with its allies over how to deal with North Korea. South Korea's Kim Dae-jung is saying that it is dialogue, not isolation, that is the best way to go. A White House spokesman, however, is saying that it's North Korea that is bringing the isolation upon itself.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you.

On to the sniper case. It's been a while since we reported on that. One of suspects was in court today.

Patty Davis is following the story -- Patty, a headline, please.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A judge orders prosecutors in Fairfax County, Virginia, to hand over allegedly incriminating statements made by 17-year-old sniper suspect John Lee Malvo, statements that could land him on death row.

BROWN: Patty, thank you -- back with you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight: another kind of a manhunt for whoever is behind the murder of four women in Louisiana. We'll talk with a reporter who has been working that story since the killings began more than a year ago.

The story out of Pennsylvania tonight: doctors who say they can't afford to continue being doctors. It has to do with malpractice insurance. And we'll talk about the situation with the governor-elect of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell.

And rummaging through America's attic, that's segment seven. And with any luck, it should leave you smiling by the end of the program. Starting there would be nice for a change, but toys in the attack will have to take a back seat, at least, to monsters in the dark at the top.

It's been that kind of year, that kind of a day, so that's where we start, with another development that brings a chill, even if no one knows for sure yet what it means. And there's not a lot to go on, just a handful of mights and a few maybes and, oh, five wanted men.

Here again, CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARENA (voice over): The nationwide manhunt is still on for these five men. The FBI and its 18,000 state and local law enforcement partners have made finding them a top priority. Intelligence suggests that on or about December 24 they illegally entered the United States through Canada.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, CSIS: We used to boast that that was the longer unfortified border in the world. Now it's not something we're quite as happy about.

ARENA: The FBI was alerted in the course of a separate investigation which indicates the five men obtained fake passports. Agents then received additional intelligence from Pakistan. The FBI is not sure where the men come from or whether the names they are using are legitimate. They are not in any terror databases. The only thing the FBI is sure of is what the men look like.

BENJAMIN: It's a perfect example of life in the age of terrorism. It tells us very little. There's relatively little likelihood that the public will be able to turn much up. It will be complete happenstance and it gives us no idea of the importance of these people.

ARENA: Still, law enforcement sources say their level of concern is high. That's because intelligence sources refer to the five as a group, as one source said a possible terror cell.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: We're going into the New Year's Eve season and it looks like they came in the northeast. You know you've got New York, one of the biggest New Year's celebrations going.

ARENA: Officials say New York's Governor George Pataki was immediately brought in to the loop.

GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R), NEW YORK: We have some reasonable basis to believe that they came across the Canadian border into New York State. We don't know where they are now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Now, even without a great deal of information, the FBI says that it can't take any chances as intelligence continues to pour in suggesting that al Qaeda is planning more attacks -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right. I'm sorry. That one threw me a bit. Is there reason to believe that they are al Qaeda?

ARENA: They don't have any information on these individuals whatsoever, Aaron. All they know is that they obtained fake passports, that they talked about trying to get into the United States illegally by Christmas Eve, December 24. Beyond that, there simply is no concrete intelligence either way.

BROWN: So, as far as we know, the government does not know for certain that they in fact came into the country, only that they at some point said they wanted to come into the country.

ARENA: That's right, that the intelligence suggested that that was their plan. But they don't have any evidence at any of the checkpoints that they used those fake passports, that they came in at any of those ports of entry. They just simply don't have the answers.

BROWN: Well that is as disquieting, I guess, as having the answers.

Kelli, thank you -- Kelli Arena in Washington tonight.

To Yemen now and the shooting at a Baptist hospital in the town of Jibla. The victims were American missionaries, the suspect a Muslim fanatic, possibly with connections to a terrorist cell targeting foreigners. The White House says it's too soon to tell. But, if so, it wouldn't be a first for Yemen.

Two years ago, suicide bombers hit the USS Cole. Earlier this year, a French oil tanker came under attack. The State Department routinely warns American citizens against even setting foot in Yemen, let alone living there. The people who died knew all that, but came and stayed because they had a job to do.

Here's CNN's Brian Cabell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Authorities say the gunmen entered the Baptist Missionary Hospital cradling a rifle in his jacket as though it were a baby. He then opened fire and killed three Americans, all of whom had been working there several years Dr. Martha Myers, an obstetrician; William Koehn, the hospital administrator; and Kathleen Gariety, the hospital business manager whose family had warned her of the danger of working in Yemen.

JERRY GARIETY, BROTHER OF VICTIM: In July we did not want her to go back but she did. She was devoted to the word, you know, so she's up there.

PHIL REEKER, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: There can be no justification for an attack such as this on an institution providing critical humanitarian services to the Yemeni people.

CABELL: The full service hospital in Jibla, Yemen has been operating for 35 years, treating more than 40,000 patients a year according to officials. The facility was considered particularly dangerous because Yemen was the sight of the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in 2000. It's also the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

RANKIN: Our personnel as Americans and Christians are well aware of the risk of living and serving in a place like Yemen, yet their love for the Yemeni people and obedience to the conviction of God's leadership has been expressed in a willingness to take that risk and give of their lives. CABELL: Yemeni officials have a suspect in custody, Abid Abdulrazzaq al-Kamil (ph), described as an Islamic extremist who according to one local journalist told authorities he "wanted to get closer to God."

For the family of Dr. Myers, the obstetrician who was killed, her work in Yemen was not about politics or a particular religion. It was about helping people and putting her beliefs into action.

IRA MYERS, FATHER OF VICTIM: People learn more by how you live in your attitude and whether you are truthful than they do about what you say.

CABELL: A fourth American worker was wounded in the attack. He's expected to recover.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Back home now and the latest on the sniper case and something that occurred to us today, the fact that two teenagers are at the heart of the sniper story, a victim and an accused killer.

The victim is the 13-year-old who spent his Christmas on a special trip to Disney World and who wants nothing more than to get healthy again and to get back to school again. The other is the 17- year-old who's one of those charged in these terrible crimes who may well face the death penalty.

John Lee Malvo was in court today, his lawyers wanting to know exactly what he told investigators after his arrest. Prosecutors say, no, this is why there are judges.

Here's CNN's Patty Davis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS (voice-over): Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo allegedly made incriminating statements to police about his involvement in the sniper shooting spree. But defense attorneys complained the prosecution wouldn't turn them over.

MICHAEL ARIF, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Everybody in the world seems to know what Mr. Malvo has said, except the defense team.

DAVIS: Sources tell CNN that Malvo told police he fired the shot that killed 47-year-old FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside this Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia, October 14. That alleged admission could help prosecutors win a death penalty conviction against Malvo. Prosecutors argued they had no obligation to turn the statements over at this point in the case.

ROBERT HORAN, FAIRFAX COUNTY COMMONWEALTH ATTORNEY: Since we have no intention of getting into the issue of statements at preliminary hearing, under the rule, we did not believe that there was any requirement to provide it.

DAVIS: But Fairfax County Judge Kimberly Daniel didn't agree and ordered the prosecution to give defense lawyers Malvo's statements about Franklin's murder and a murder in a neighboring county. Under Virginia law, prosecutors must prove Malvo committed two murders in a three-year period to get the death penalty.

ARIF: I don't know that we have any victories at this point. We are just getting what we're entitled to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS: Today's skirmish set the stage for Malvo's next big court appearance in mid-January. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to mover forward with a trial.

Malvo's alleged accomplice, John Muhammad, meanwhile, will stand trial next October for the murder of Dean Meyers. He was killed at a Virginia gas station. And Muhammad could also get the death penalty if he's convicted -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, the Muhammad trial is scheduled for October. We don't really know yet when or even where, I guess, the first Malvo trial will be.

DAVIS: Well, we know, unless there's a change of venue requested, that it will take place in Fairfax County. But a date hasn't been set yet. Prosecutors must show probable cause. That will happen at the preliminary hearing January 14 and 15. If they do show probable cause, then a trial date presumably would be set at that point -- Aaron.

BROWN: Patty, thank you -- Patty Davis in Washington tonight.

And ahead on NEWSNIGHT, later in the program, we'll rummage through a unique collection of American classics. Also coming up tonight, we'll talk to the incoming governor of Pennsylvania about his first big problem. He's not even in office yet.

And up next: the search for potential terrorists in the United States.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In New York and the rest of the country today, you could sort much of the day's news into a pair of categories: New Year's preparations and New Year's precautions, setting up fireworks and sniffing out bombs, New Year's Day and the new normal.

The search for five men who might have slipped into the country fits right into the scheme of things. We're reminded of three Decembers ago when a terrorist was caught trying to bring a carload of explosives over the border from Canada into Washington state. And it's not impossible to suspect something similar has happened again. With us tonight: former Ambassador Paul Bremer, who served as ambassador at large for counterterrorism during the Reagan administration. And, currently, he is a member of this president's Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Mr. Ambassador, it's good to see you.

AMBASSADOR PAUL BREMER, PRESIDENT'S HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISORY COUNCIL: It's nice to be with you.

BROWN: I gather we have to do some reading between the lines here. Help me with this a little bit. Why are we so aggressively searching for these five? We must know something.

BREMER: Well, I think the FBI has got some confidence in the intelligence that led them to these five guys. We don't know in the public exactly what that is.

But, clearly, they have some confidence that whoever fingered these guys must know what he's talking about. So, they took the unusual step -- it's really the first time since September 11 -- of putting out, in effect, an all-points bulletin on these guys, put out their pictures, and said, if you see them, please let us know.

BROWN: And is there a special significance to the fact that they went public with this? How ought we read that?

BREMER: I think what we have to read is, it means that they had enough confidence in what they'd heard to take it seriously, but they didn't have enough precise information to know how to get ahold of these guys or track them themselves, so they've enlisted the public.

This, of course, is a technique which has been used by law enforcement agencies for years. The FBI has always had its 10 most wanted, with pictures in every post office. It does actually work. From time to time, members of the public in fact can help solve a crime. And I think the FBI figured: We'd better find out some way to get after these guys.

And that seems to be the best way they had.

BROWN: Answer this honestly for me. I'm sure you will. If any one of those five walked by you right now, would you recognize them?

BREMER: I haven't studied the pictures well enough to be able to.

BROWN: And would you agree that most people have not?

BREMER: Almost certainly that's true, although we're still early. This has only been up on the Web for 24 hours. And the news has only been covering it for a day. So, we'll see.

BROWN: There's always talk in moments like this -- and there was again today -- about chatter. What sort of chatter do you know are we hearing these days that would make us particularly wary as we approach the New Year's?

BREMER: I think it's not just the chatter. The chatter has been up. And people have been talking about it really since the early summer.

What we've seen since September is al Qaeda trying to reconstitute its operational command-and-control, which was obviously severely damaged in the attacks in Afghanistan. And we've seen al Qaeda conducting more sophisticated attacks in the last two months, the attack in Bali and in Mombasa. So, al Qaeda is beginning to reconstitute.

And I think what's disturbing here, is we are coming up on the millennium -- or at least on the turn of the year, reminding us, as you did. Al Qaeda has a habit of going back and attacking targets a second time if they don't get them the first time, the World Trade Center, for example. And we should be concerned. We're certainly in a higher-threat environment than was the case, say, six months ago.

BROWN: Does the fact that the government put this out, put their pictures out, does that, in and of itself, make it less likely, if these people are involved in something, they'll try and execute it?

BREMER: Well, it's possible that one of the FBI's motivations in putting the faces out was exactly that, was to disrupt any operation these guys might be planning, because they now can turn on the television and see their pictures there.

And they may have to say to themselves: We need to be a little bit more cautious. We may have to change our identification, whatever they're traveling with. That means they've got to take some risks. So, it may very well be that one of the motivations was to disrupt a potential operation.

BROWN: Does it stand to reason that there was a breakdown at the border? Or might they have gotten in perfectly -- I don't mean legally, but in such a way that, no matter how well the surveillance was done, they'd have gotten in anyway?

BREMER: Well, I think, at the moment, we don't know enough about when the FBI actually got this intelligence. So, we don't know if they got it before they allegedly came in or after. We don't know if they were ever posted on the lookout list. Even if they had been, the fact of the matter is, we have a lot of problems with our border security, as September 11 brought home rather dramatically to all of us.

BROWN: The fact they came in as a group allegedly tell us one thing or another?

BREMER: Well, if they came as a group, that would surprise me, if they are terrorists. That would not be very good tradecraft. You would expect them to infiltrate separately.

So, I don't think the FBI, as least so far as I know, is saying they came as a group. They're saying they were identified as a group. And there may be more members of that group as well. We may not have heard the whole story yet.

BROWN: Well, I hope they get them.

BREMER: So do I.

BROWN: I hope they get them.

Thanks for joining us, Ambassador. Thank you.

BREMER: Nice to be with you.

BROWN: Paul Bremer, giving us a little more perspective on that.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight: the latest on the situation with North Korea, what the White House plans to do about that -- that and more as we continue on a Monday night from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived in Beijing tonight. Their work in North Korea is over for now, and perhaps for good. This weekend, the North Korean government hinted it might pull out of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty altogether.

Neither development would seem to leading any place good in this confrontation between North Korea the United States. But if the tone out of North Korea has not changed, the signals coming from Washington are changing.

Here again: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice over): As North Korea continues to defy the world's pleas to abandon its nuclear ambitions the Bush administration is vowing to isolate the communist country through diplomatic and economic means. But senior administration officials acknowledge the key to the policy's success will depend on the cooperation of North Korea's neighbors, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia, each with an agenda of their own.

China, North Korea's largest trading partner supplies 70 percent of North Korea's crude oil and is a major exporter of food and goods is reluctant to take a hard line against its long time ally. South Korea is committed to its sunshine policy of engagement with Pyongyang. Its new regime is eager to establish new railroad links and free trade zones.

BALBINA HWANG, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: There is, I think, about $500 million of trade going back and forth so certainly if South Korea were to cut that off that would also be an important impact on North Korea.

MALVEAUX: Japan was set to give North Korea $10 billion in aid but the nuclear scare and kidnapping controversy with Pyongyang has soured their relationship. Russia signed a trade and economic accord with North Korea in 2001. The countries trade $100 million worth of goods a year. Publicly it has denounced North Korea's posturing but continues to speak to Pyongyang directly. But despite reservations from some of North Korea's neighbors, the Bush administration is convinced its isolationist policy will work.

REEKER: North Korea can change course and get themselves out of this position and they have the power to do that. That's what will bring them benefits by working, engaging in a positive way with the international community.

MALVEAUX: But the Bush administration's policy is getting mixed reviews.

BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: To isolate North Korea in the region I'm not sure is going to produce the results that we need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Now, today, the White House downplayed any role that it may have in encouraging bringing North Korea's case before the U.N. Security Council, which could lead to economic sanctions. The White House says it's up to the International Atomic Energy Agency to decide what course to take and that the administration would support that decision either way -- Aaron.

BROWN: Is the administration trying to make sure that the Security Council is not dealing with both North Korea and Iraq at the same time?

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, the U.N. Security Council has its plate full. And, yes, they're going to be dealing with Iraq in the month of January, a very critical deadline coming up, January 27, when those inspectors will report back to the U.N. Security Council to say how things have been going.

It is really up to the U.N. Security Council and whether or not the IAEA makes the recommendation. But, of course, the administration is saying it will allow diplomacy to play out for months. The one thing that the administration really is counting on is fear, fear from North Korea that, with the upcoming winter, with perhaps the starvation of its people, that it will, out of desperation, comply and change its course.

The other component of this is fear of North Korea's neighbors -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia -- the realization that perhaps North Korea is more of a threat to them than it is to the administration.

BROWN: Suzanne, thank you -- Suzanne Malveaux in Crawford, Texas, tonight.

Last week, the defense secretary, Rumsfeld, said the United States would have no trouble fighting a two-front war, meaning fighting Iraq and North Korea at the same time. But it is becoming clear that would be a stretch and the main event remains Iraq. Over the last few days, orders have been going out and a major force is being marshalled.

From the Pentagon tonight: CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pentagon sources say this week between 50 and 100 warplanes will begin moving from bases in the United States and Europe to the Persian Gulf region.

Among the deployments: F-15 Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina and B-1 Bombers from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Also getting orders this week, F-16s based in Germany and AC-130 gun ships and MH-53 Special Operations Helicopters from Hurlburt Field, Florida. And it's just a first wave of a methodical buildup that Pentagon sources say could stretch into March.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHMN. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We're continuing our deliberate and steady force buildup in the region. It's important to posture forces appropriately to complement our diplomatic efforts. We want to ensure we can act quickly, should it be necessary.

MCINTYRE: Even as it insists war with Iraq is not a certainty the Pentagon is dispatching between 20 and 30,000 troops to the region in January, and calling up a slightly lesser number of reservists to fill in for them while they're deployed. That will bring the number of U.S. troops in the Gulf close to 100,000 by the end of the month. And by the end of February as many as six aircraft carriers could be within strike distance of Iraq. Two carriers there now, two getting ready to go, and two like the USS George Washington that had finished a Gulf tour and could be sent back.

REAR ADM. JOSEPH SESTAK, USS GEORGE WASHINGTON: It is a contingency, they are ready to return and they know that. Six months of a great deployment happy to be home, but if asked they are ready to return.

MCINTYRE: One ship deploying this week is the hospital ship Comfort which will steam from Baltimore to the British Island of Diego Garcia without its Medical staff. They'll be flown to the ship later if the U.S. goes war.

(on camera): Pentagon sources say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not immediately approve all of the troop movements requested by Persian Gulf commander General Tommy Franks, apparently preferring to spread the deployments out over a longer period of time.

But that doesn't mean the war couldn't start sooner. Pentagon sources say the U.S. military strategy is for a rolling start, meaning the war could begin even as the deployments continue, in order to preserve the element of surprise.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick look at some other stories making news around the world tonight, beginning in Iraq. U.N. weapons inspectors are quickening their pace, it seems. They visited several sites today including a nuclear facility outside of Baghdad. The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, announced today he'll return to Iraq on the 19th of January, a week before he's scheduled to present his findings on Iraq to the full U.N. Security Council.

In France today, police questioned an airport baggage handler who was arrested over the weekend after he was found with plastic explosives, a machine gun and a machine pistol at Charles de Gaul International Airport. The parking lot there.

In Kenya victory declared today for both Mwai Kibaki and democracy in Friday's presidential election. The election ended President Daniel Moi's 24-year rule.

And another tough day in Venezuela. Clashes between supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez. The national strike continues. The strike continues to paralyze the country and in particular the oil industry there.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT will some Pennsylvania doctors stop practicing in a dispute over malpractice insurance? This is NEWSNIGHT ON CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And up next on NEWSNIGHT, to Pennsylvania for the doctor crisis. We're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For years doctor have complained about the cost of malpractice insurance. In two days some doctors in Pennsylvania say they are ready to do something about it: stop seeing patients.

Faced with premiums increasing 50 percent, the doctors say they would rather quit or move than pay the insurer. There's nothing simple about this, though politicians try sometimes to make it seem so. It is a complicated and expensive problem and in Pennsylvania at least, the problem has landed on the doorstep of governor-elect Ed Rendell who takes office next month and joins us tonight.

Nice to see you, sir. I want to talk about solutions, but I want to talk about the problem for a second. Why Pennsylvania?

ED RENDELL (D), GOVERNOR-ELECT, PENNSYLVANIA: Well, a couple of reasons. We've gone from 17 -- about a half decade ago, 17 private companies ensuring doctors to three.

One because we up until this year have had no tort reform at all and that's a part of the issue. Second, we have a very high requirement of coverage, up until this year, $1.25 million each doctor had to have -- had to have the coverage. We have a catastrophic loan fund that the doctors have to pay into in addition to having private insurance, it's not very well administered.

Fourthly, the insurance department did not do a good job overseeing insurance companies. In the late '80s and '90s, as hard as it is to believe, Aaron, they made pricing mistakes and they were low- bidding to sign up doctors in Pennsylvania and the insurance company did a very poor job in overseeing that situation.

And fifthly, I believe we have the best hospitals and best doctors in America in Pennsylvania, particularly in Southeast and Southwest and because of that, we do a lot of complex procedures and surgeries, which drive up those premiums.

BROWN: Part of at least a short-term solution you've put out there today deals with this state fund which if I understand it makes payments where individuals cannot. Is that about right?

RENDELL: A doctor is required to have half a million dollars of coverage from private insurance and then up until this year, three quarters of a million dollars in coverage to the Cat Fund for catastrophic injuries.

And what we did today is announce that I'm going to ask the legislature the day after I get inaugurated for the four most challenged specialties, which is obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, general surgery and orthopedics to eliminate their requirement to pay in that money this year. We're finding another way to pay the fund so it doesn't lose financial stability. For all other doctors reduce it 50 percent.

We have trauma centers, three of which out of 26 in the state have already closed. We're going to subsidize those trauma centers to get them reopened and to keep the other ones stable.

BROWN: Where does this money come from that the doctors then aren't paying in?

RENDELL: Well, our health insurance providers all have significant reserves, some more than others, and we're assessing for one year and one year only those reserves on a sliding scale.

The ones that have the sliding reserves that aren't actually needed to cover outstanding claims, those get the greatest assessment. We'll be able to assess I think about $220 million worth of one-time charges which will cover the pay-ins to the Catastrophic Loan Fund.

BROWN: Now long term, this is a -- this seems like a short-term solution to a problem. Long term where do the answers lie here?

RENDELL: Our present governor, Mark Schweiker, and present legislature have done a good job throughout 2002 enacting some significant tort reform measures. Reducing the statute of limitations, amending the collateral source rule, joint and several liability, prohibition against venue shopping. Those things are going to start to kick in soon.

In fact a new insurance company was just certified about a week ago. Since they're only insuring prospective cases, they're already showing the effects of those tort reforms, offering 15, 20 percent lower premiums.

We've got to go further and pass a certificate of merit rule that no malpractice action can be filed without an accompanying affidavit from a certified medical expert. We also have to look at reducing the total amount of coverage and somehow getting rid of this catastrophic load fund which is a disaster and making all of the coverage be required to be handled privately.

If we can do those things, I think by summer of next year we can see a significant reduction in premiums and a return of insurance companies to Pennsylvania. But it is a significant problem.

And I know it's easy -- I thought your lead-in was very good because it is not an easy problem to solve. For those who blame -- put the entire blame on the tort system, they're missing the point. We had no tort reform in Pennsylvania in the early '90s and insurance companies were low balling each other to sign up doctors. It's a very complex problem.

BROWN: We'll look forward to watching how this plays out. In the meantime I hope by Wednesday you get something solved.

RENDELL: Well I'm hopeful that what we've done is a good faith enough act to keep the doctors practicing and waiting to see in the long run.

BROWN: Governor-elect, it's good to see you. Best of luck to you.

RENDELL: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Thanks, sir. Ed Rendell, tonight.

A few quick stories to get in before we go to break here. Beginning with a jail break in Puerto Rico. Five prisoners broke out of a maximum security prison, getting on to a roof where a helicopter landed to scoop them up and spirit them away. They're described as very dangerous. They were all serving sentences of more than 100 years for murder and other crimes.

No solid lead yet in the search for a woman in Modesto, California who went for a walk on Christmas Eve and never returned. Laci Peterson (ph) is 8 1/2 months pregnant with her first child. Detectives questioning about 50 sex offenders who live in the area.

And a fascinating discovery that brings together two eras of Cold War bomb shelter was found in the basement of an old Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same Woolworth's store where black students were refused service at the lunch counter back in 1960 in one of the storied movement of the Civil Rights era.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, some other artifacts from America's past. That's later.

Up next, trying to solve a series of murders in the state of Louisiana. This NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Up next, is there a serial killer on the loose in Louisiana? Short break and we're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There was a time last fall when the alleged snipers had just been caught that police agencies around the country were checking their own homicide files hoping to find a link.

They did exactly that in Baton Rouge and it turned out the sniper suspects were not the serial killer who has believed to have killed at least four women in and around the Louisiana capital. So as the New Year approaches, the fear that has been present there for more than a year goes on.

The latest on the case in a moment from a local reporter who has been covering it since the beginning.

First, some background.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Truneisha Colomb was only 23-years-old. She poke four language, attended a local community college, planned on joining the Marines in February. It is believed her final moments alive were spent visiting her mother's grave, her abandoned car discovered last month near the cemetery.

STERLING COLOMB, TRUNEISHA COLOMB'S FATHER: You never think that it will happen to you. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Now you kind of wonder is, you know, this luck of the draw or wrong place at the wrong time?

BROWN: Authorities confirmed last case that Colomb case in Lafayette was connected to a series of murders in Baton Rouge, 60 miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's happened so fast, these women are disappearing right out of their own homes. The last person that disappeared, from what I understand there were no signs of a struggle or anything.

BROWN: It has been more than a year since the serial killer first struck. On September 24, 2001, 41-year-old Gina Green was found strangled at her home.

Eight months later, 22-year-old Charlotte Pace was found in her home stabbed to death.

On July 16, 44-year-old Pam Kinimore was discovered with her throat slashed.

And now Truneisha Colomb, beaten to death last month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.

BROWN: More than 7,000 tips have come in, including several sightings of the killer's vehicle, described as a white pickup truck with a partial license plate.

MIKE NEUSTROM, LAFAYETTE PARISH SHERIFF: There's an element of surprise. There's a quick movement, either the female is preoccupied with something else and then all of a sudden he's there.

BROWN: Police say so far there is no apparent link between the four victims other than gender and death.

TOMMY RICE, BATON ROUGE POLICE DETECTIVE: We're really under a lot of pressure to solve this.

Tommy Rice is a Baton Rouge homicide detective.

RICE: You know, and people ask me what should we do? I just simply tell them, This isn't Mayberry anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few developments in the case today. The sheriff of Lafayette Parish said he has up to 100 potential suspects that police want to take DNA samples from. And the FBI released a new profile on the serial killer, suggesting the killer he be 25 to 35 years old, strong, struggling financially and someone who has probably spent some time picking his victims.

More on this from Melissa Moore. She's been reporting the story for the "Baton Rouge Advocate." It's nice to see you. Thanks for coming in.

Can you explain to me why they are certain this is one killer? Because in many ways it is an unusual serial killing.

MELISSA MOORE, REPORTER, "BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE": It is unusual. They've only established connections where they have DNA evidence to do so. There was DNA evidence at all of the crime scenes that point to a single killer.

BROWN: And there may be other unsolved cases out there that they're looking at that they have not yet linked?

MOORE: The police tell us that they're looking at a number of other cases, but they're not going to publicly link any cases without DNA and it doesn't appear that they have found any DNA in any matching cases.

BROWN: I'm sorry, were the victims sexually assaulted?

MOORE: We know based on a search warrant that was filed that the three Baton Rouge victims were sexually assaulted to some degree. The police have not been willing to discuss what that means. But it was described that way in a search warrant for a man's DNA.

BROWN: The hundred people, potential suspects the police want to gather DNA from, what do you know about them? Anything?

MOORE: We don't know anything about them. In fact, the Baton Rouge police, during their investigation, have DNA tested 800 people to eliminate them from suspicion.

BROWN: And these are people -- you can't obviously show probable cause on 800 people, so I gather these are 800 people asked to voluntarily supply a DNA sample and they agreed to do that?

MOORE: Almost all of them have consented. Only one search warrant has been filed in court, so our information on that is limited. But it said at that time that only 15 people had refused and that the investigators had sought court orders in those cases.

BROWN: And did the warrant indicate what the evidence was that allowed them to get the court order?

MOORE: In the one case that was filed, it was pretty tenuous. The man in question had been reported as suspicious by two different people and he once worked at a business on the same street where one of the victims' cellphones was found after her death.

BROWN: Has there been -- well, before I get to that --- There is another missing woman in the area, isn't that not correct?

MOORE: There is. The wife of our former elections commissioner, Jerry Fowler, Marianne Fowler, was apparently abducted Christmas Eve and has not been found.

BROWN: And there's no way of knowing at this point obviously whether that's linked or not linked, but obviously that's the concern, that it's somehow linked.

MOORE: That's the concern, but no one can say one way or the other at this point.

BROWN: Can you again just run down the sequence, the pattern, how much time between each killing?

MOORE: Well, Gina Wilson Green was killed in September of 2001. The next killing that's been conclusively linked to the same killer was when Charlotte Marie Pace was killed the following May.

The police announced in mid July that they'd linked the DNA in those two cases and just a couple of days later -- a couple of days after they made that link, Pam Kinimore was kidnapped.

That was the last killing until the one that was most recently announced. It occurred in late November, but police didn't confirm that the DNA connected it to the serial killer until last week.

BROWN: Are rumors and theories rampant down in Baton Rouge?

MOORE: Oh, definitely.

BROWN: And what are you hearing from people? MOORE: We've heard everything from it's the meter man to it's a police officer. People have pulled guns on florists making deliveries. People have been pretty frightened.

BROWN: And while there's been a lot of sightings apparently of the car or what might be the car or the truck, nobody yet has said they have seen the person or people?

MOORE: No, no one has -- as far as we know, no one has actually seen the killer. The description that investigators have of the truck is fairly general. It's a white pickup truck that could be anywhere from a late '80s model to a late '90s model, and the descriptions varied on it.

BROWN: Melissa, thanks for your help on this. Good luck on the story. Melissa Moore from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tonight.

And next on NEWSNIGHT, you think you've got junk in your attic -- just you wait.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Finally from us tonight, think for a moment about your attic, the stuff that's piled up that you have wanted out of sight but for one reason or another couldn't bear to throw out. Maybe it's a beat-up monopoly game or some favorite handbag that's way out of style. May seem like junk to some, but stuff has a way of telling a story, your story. You don't have to explain this to David Shayt of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. His job is to collect a lot of your stuff to tell a larger story, the story of American pop culture.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SHAYT, CURATOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY: Every object tends to have one or more stories. And that's really what we're after.

Lunch boxes. Children's metal lunch boxes. They tell stories of metal manufacture, stories of entertainment history, the history of cartoons, lunch, of course. I had one when I was a kid that I lost, of course. Everybody loses their lunch box, or it gets thrown out, and I was -- I managed to get it back as a collector item, the submarine box. There's nothing quite like the golden age of the metal lunch box.

Just last year the Dunkin family retired their yoseum (ph) in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. A couple of us went to Oklahoma and made a careful selection, documented the rise of the yo-yo from a primitive Filipino toy to something very sophisticated and high-tech today.

We've been studying crayons in response to their approaching centennial. We can see how they're packaged, how the evolution of the color yellow and green has evolved in these packages. We stopped at crayons in chalkville, we didn't get into a lot of other products, except silly putty. Now, how can you not collect silly putty? We have about 150 different eggs of silly putty. Excuse me while I take my gloves off. Silly putty is one of these timeless objects -- the smell of it, the taste. It's supposed to be nontoxic. Tastes nontoxic. Silly putty does not rank with, say, George Washington's sword, we're fully aware of that, but the Smithsonian is a large place. Silly putty matters.

We acquire things that most museums may not have room or time for. But we look in the bedroom closets, we look in the cupboards, we look in the basement, in the attic, the kitchen, the living room, for the windows on our past. Pocket windows on our past.

This is one of the Smithsonian's jukeboxes. It's a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the late 1940s, acquired just in the last couple of years from a New York collector. The old mechanical jukeboxes are beloved especially because of what happens when the lights go out.

American history is not just battles and politics and wars and the history of the great events. It's things like this that mix music with entertainment, with food, with dance, with life itself. So for the National Museum of American History, this is one of our core missions, to explain all of those rituals and rites, lifestyles, through the artifacts that we all remember.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That's all for tonight. Special program tomorrow. Have a great new year. Good night for all of us.

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