Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
WHO Adds Beijing To List of No-Go Areas
Aired April 23, 2003 - 23:00 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: Those are some of the big stories of the night. And we begin the second hour of NEWSNIGHT with the second whip of the evening. And we start off the second whip of the evening with the latest on SARS.
Andrew Brown is in Hong Kong for us tonight. Andrew, a headline, please.
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the World Health Organization has added Beijing to its list of no-go areas. It's telling travelers you can stay away from Beijing, to stay away if they can at all. This, one of the latest measures to battle SARS in China, which, of course, is one of the places that's been most affected by the outbreak.
AARON BROWN: Andrew, thank you.
And the reaction at the White House to the deal involving the leadership of the Palestinians. Our senior White House correspondent John King on that. John, a headline.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the deal that makes Abu Mazen the new Palestinian prime minister now clears the way for the Bush administration to release the long-awaited road map for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is a daunting challenge for the president anyway. He is well aware now that in the wake of the war in Iraq, it is also viewed as a major test of U.S. credibility across the Arab world, Aaron.
AARON BROWN: John, thank you. Back to you and Andrew in a moment.
Also coming up in our second hour of NEWSNIGHT tonight, the latest on the mystery of what brought down the shuttle Columbia. Maybe not so much of a mystery any more. Investigators are all but certain they know the cause. Miles O'Brien has that for us in a bit.
And she became a symbol of a legendary scary time in New York City, Known only then as the Central Park jogger. But she was never just a symbol, she was a real person, and she has now, all these years later, come forward. Her story in Segment Seven tonight.
All that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin here. Most things in Baghdad these days, very slowly coming back, more electricity today. A newspaper was back in circulation as well. There are still plenty of American troops on the streets, and they're certain to be there for some time to come. The city is still unsafe in parts.
But as CNN's Rula Amin reports, people are free to say what they think, and optimism, real optimism, is creeping back as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm reception for Jay Garner in the Kurdish-controlled part of the country. The Kurds remember Garner from 1991 when he led U.S. forces in Operation Provide Comfort and helped the Kurds to set up their autonomous region.
Garner praised the Kurds for the system they have established here. "It's marvelous," he told them, and said he hoped it would be a model for the rest of Iraq.
The man in charge of running Iraq outlined his vision for the country, starting with reconstruction.
LT. GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.): The first is the physical reconstruction, is turn on the lights, turn on the water, turn on the electricity, get the bridges repaired, get the roads repaired, put the children back in school, make sure the health system is good.
The second one, type of reconstruction, is the political reconstruction. And in that framework, our goal and our purpose here is to create an environment in Iraq where we can have a democratic process, where Iraqis can choose their own leaders and Iraqis can choose their own type of government, and we put together a democratic process so at the end of that, Iraq has a government that represents the freely elected will of the Iraqi people.
AMIN: Some of these Shi'a pilgrims are demonstrating their free will in Karbala. The streets packed with faithful commemorating the killing of the revered Imamin (ph) Hussein more than 13 centuries ago. And they used the occasion to make a political statement. Thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims chanted, "No to America, no to Israel, yes to Islam."
The Shi'ite community, flexing its muscle with the religious establishment, seeking a say in the future of Iraq.
(on camera): Other Iraqis are more concerned with a different kind of power struggle. Despite efforts to restore electricity to the capital, most of Baghdad's 5 million residents remain in the dark.
(voice-over): This butcher complains, "Without electricity, business is dead. Without electricity, it's hard to store meat." His customers can only buy for one day. They can't run their refrigerators.
And it has become too expensive to buy ice blocks, he says. Each ice block now costs 5,000 dinars. That is almost the same price for one kilogram of meat. This movie theater is open again, dependent on a generator. Two movies showing, one Italian and one French, and even in the morning hours, there were those looking for the escape.
"This is my first day out of the house since the war started," says this man. "And I want to watch a movie."
And in Baghdad, a few houses now do have lights, giving hope to the rest of the capital.
Rula Amin, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Latest now on SARS, and a bit of perspective. Numbers were released today on how many people were killed on the road last year. More people died this way, in a span of just three days, than have died of SARS around the world.
Perspective was a key issue in the SARS story today. Charges that the World Health Organization has lost perspective in telling travelers to avoid Toronto.
Here's Melissa Fung of the CBC.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA FUNG, CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION REPORTER (voice- over): The World Health Organization is now telling the world to stay away from Toronto unless absolutely necessary.
ISABEL NUTTALL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The disease is being transmitted mostly what we've seen in most of the places is that it's through local chain of transmission when a person who is sick is infected health care workers in close family.
FUNG: It's a blow to a city already suffering economic consequences of isolation, and it's angering officials, who say they're containing the spread of SARS.
MAYOR MEL LASTMAN, TORONTO: I can't believe they're not coming. They issued a press release saying that they're not coming back for three weeks. I want them here tomorrow. I want them to investigate Toronto tomorrow. I think they're doing this city and this country a disservice.
ANNE MCLELLAN, FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER: We are going to work very strenuously with the WHO to see if we can get this travel advisory issue clarified in the coming hours.
FUNG: The WHO says it is warranted, because it believes the disease has already been exported out of Toronto to another country, although they would not say where.
DR. DONALD LOW, MICROBIOLOGIST, MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL: The export, I mean, that's an individual case, and that could happen in any city, going to another city, never mind, that's no reason to shut down a city. The number of cases in the community that they're referring to, that was an unusual circumstance.
FUNG: Provincial health ministers held a conference call today, and they agreed.
SINDI HAWKINS, B.C. HEALTH PLANNING MINISTER: There is no uncontrolled spread of SARS in the community. It appears that WHO did not have the evidence it needed to make that decision, and Canada will take that up with WHO in the very near future.
FUNG: But people around the world, and even around Canada, are starting to stay away from the country's largest city.
ALAN PINK, VISION 2000 TRAVEL: They're delaying the plans depending on what's going to be with the SARS thing. They're either canceling or they've gotten notification that a meeting that they were going to has officially been canceled.
FUNG: These British tourists are being moved from Toronto to Niagara Falls after today's warning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we're moving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They changed their advice from the time that we left U.K., because we run you -- them from U.K....
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... on Monday, and they said there was no concern, but obviously there is now.
FUNG: Even major league baseball is warning its teams to take precautions when playing in Toronto, advising players not to sign autographs, visit hospitals, or take public transportations.
(on camera): Still, officials in Toronto are confident they're controlling the spread of the disease. But what they can't control is how confident others are that SARS is actually being contained.
Melissa Fung, CBC News, Toronto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: On to China now, and a good example of why it's crucial for governments to deal with a crisis, any crisis, openly, decisively, and quickly.
China has now taken aggressive steps to open up on the SARS situation, but the efforts did not come fast enough. Many in China now seem unwilling to trust what they are hearing.
Here's CNN's Andrew Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANDREW BROWN (voice-over): After playing down SARS for months, authorities in China are now introducing high-profile measures to combat the disease, even if they cause disruption.
LUO WEN, STUDENT (through translator): My classes were suspended from today. The school won't reopen until May 6.
ANDREW BROWN: Schools in Beijing's Hidan (ph) District have already shut down as officials order closure of primary and secondary institutions across the capital and cancellation of midterm exams. More than a million students are affected.
Hundreds of people have caught SARS in Beijing, and even though the government's now providing more information about SARS victims, worried residents are circulating their own reports on the outbreak.
One text message making the rounds Wednesday warned people to stay at home, because, the message claims, hospitals are moving patients around the city, increasing the risk of exposure.
YANG HUA, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): Rumors are getting passed down very quickly, but the real situation's also serious.
ANDREW BROWN: Serious enough to trigger an exodus of both locals and visitors.
WILL BARRETT, AUSTRALIAN RETURNEE: We originally had intended to stay in China for at least another week, possibly up to another month, longer than we are going to stay. Our main concern is SARS. In particular, we're concerned that our children, if they happen to get sick, might have to go into a hospital in Beijing, and as far as we know, many of the hospitals here are dangerous places to be at the moment because of the possibility of getting SARS.
ANDREW BROWN: Some residents aren't waiting to be sent to hospital. They're lining up to buy herbal medicine they hope will protect them from the deadly disease that has everybody in the Chinese capital on edge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN: The World Health Organization has now added Beijing to a list of destinations it says travelers should avoid, if they can. Southern Chinese province of Guandong and Hong Kong were already on that list, Aaron.
AARON BROWN: Government responded to the WHO advisory?
ANDREW BROWN: As far as I know, Aaron, the government hasn't responded to the WHO advisory yet. It won't come as any great surprise. As I say, the southern Chinese province of Guandong, where the outbreak has been very, very bad, that has already been on the list. And China is taking a lot of measures now in response to recommendations by the World Health Organization.
AARON BROWN: Andrew, thank you very much. Andrew Brown in Hong Kong.
More now on the spread of SARS and the government response in China, which really is a separate story in all of this. Susan Jakes is the Beijing correspondent for "TIME" magazine.
Was this a battle in some ways between old China and new China?
SUSAN JAKES, BEIJING CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: I think in a way it was. Certainly the government here's initial response to the outbreak was very characteristic of the way they've tended to treat all sorts of embarrassing crises in the past. There was a cover-up, doctors were encouraged not to share information with people outside of their hospitals.
So I think that that was -- that was the kind of reaction that many people come -- have come to expect of China's communist leaders.
What we've seen in the past week, the dismissal of two prominent officials and apparently more honest reporting of the numbers might signal some sort of change in the leadership's attempts to deal with problems like this.
AARON BROWN: Does it also, in your mind, suggest a realization that China is not an isolated country any more, that it is a major international player?
JAKES: Absolutely, Aaron. You know, China has been for the past few years working very, very, very hard to have itself acknowledged as a key player in all sorts of international matters, and I think that Chinese leaders have tended to think that they could still keep domestic problems, or problems that they saw as domestic problems, secret from the rest of the world.
And what they're learning now is that with an active international media and with organizations, international organizations, like the World Health Organization, it's really impossible for what goes on in China not to affect the rest of the world.
AARON BROWN: Is it any longer possible for what goes on in China not to be known by the Chinese themselves? There's this vast country, it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- can they keep what happens in Beijing secret from what happens in outlying provinces?
JAKES: I don't think so. I mean, there's certainly a delay in the release of information. For instance, the international media was already reporting two weeks ago cases of hospitals deliberately covering up the number of patients that they were treating.
These were not, obviously, these reports were not reported in the official Chinese media, but they were eventually translated into Chinese and ran on Web sites and were passed around on SMS messages on people's mobile phones.
So I think it's harder and harder for Beijing to suppress information, although the government is still, to a certain extent, interested in doing that.
AARON BROWN: How did this all come out? Was the, was in a sense the government forced to acknowledge a reality, assuming they have now acknowledged a reality, because of whistleblowers, or just because of a change of heart?
JAKES: I think it primarily had to do with the whistleblowers and with the attention that the problem was getting from the international media, and then the pressure that that created on the World Health Organization to speak more frankly with the Chinese leadership and, indeed, with the public about how profound the problem was here.
So it really all started a little over two weeks ago when a senior retired military doctor sent out a signed statement to "TIME" and to some Chinese media organizations and some friends saying that there were hospitals in the city that he knew were failing to disclose the number of patients they had.
AARON BROWN: And...
JAKES: And so that created...
AARON BROWN: I'm sorry, go ahead.
JAKES: Go ahead.
AARON BROWN: No, please.
JAKES: Yes, that created an enormous amount of pressure on the government here, questions at press conferences from the international press and even from some Chinese reporters were very, very aggressive. And I think the government realized that if they wanted to maintain a shred of legitimacy, they had to come clean on this.
AARON BROWN: And just a final question, do you think that they -- the government of China has, in fact, come clean at this point?
JAKES: It's very hard to say. Certainly the numbers in Beijing of confirmed and suspected patients now seem to be according more with what we're hearing from doctors. Yesterday there were about 700, 682, I believe, confirmed cases, and another 700 or so suspected cases.
The real question now is Shanghai, where there have only been two cases reported, and, you know, that remains the mystery, unless Shanghai people have some sort of special immunity, a lot of people are questioning whether those numbers are honest.
AARON BROWN: Susan, thanks a lot. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Nice job.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT on this Wednesday the 23rd of April, the head of the space shuttle program stepped down as new information emerges about what may have doomed "Columbia."
Then later, the dramatic story of the woman who became known as the Central Park jogger.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: With all that's happened in the war, it seems like a long time ago, doesn't it, that the space shuttle Columbia broke apart and disintegrated over Texas. But the disaster took place almost three months ago, and now the man who was in charge of the shuttle program then has decided to leave.
Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eighty-one days after Columbia disintegrated, with investigators all but certain they know the cause, Ron Dittemore, the calm face of NASA in the chaotic days just after the tragedy made it official. He announced he will step down as the shuttle program manager once the investigation is complete, probably in a few months.
Dittemore is a 26-year NASA veteran, four of them spent running the shuttle program. He and his boss, Mike Castelnik (ph), say the resignation talks actually began last fall but were shelved when the accident happened on February 1.
RON DITTEMORE, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: There's a lot of activities that are starting to progress more and beyond the investigation. And as I looked at that, it seemed to me it was appropriate to talk with Mike again and pick this time to make a transition in leadership.
O'BRIEN: NASA says it could begin flying shuttles again within a year, depending on the final recommendations of the Columbia accident investigation board. Investigators there believe it is likely foam that fell off Columbia's external fuel tank 80 seconds after launch mortally wounded the spacecraft's heat shield, exposing the wing to the intense heat of reentry, killing the crew of seven.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once a generation in a space vehicle.
O'BRIEN: The board is still hard at work, hearing on this day in Houston from some shuttle pioneers, people like Bob Thompson, who ran the program in the '70s before Columbia got off the drawing board, much less the launch pad.
BOB THOMPSON, SHUTTLE PROJECT MANAGER (RET).: Kinetic energy of a two and a half or three pound hunk of tile when it's traveling 700 feet per second, that's high school physics, and there should not be anyone in a key management position in a shuttle program who doesn't understand those things in considerably more depth than it would take to make a good decision on them.
O'BRIEN (on camera): No one is openly questioning Ron Dittemore's decisions during Columbia's last flight, nor are they suggesting he was forced out. But as the space agency begins making its case for a return to flight, it won't hurt to have a new boss in charge.
Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: It was 14 years ago that a woman with no name became famous across the country. She was called the Central Park jogger, viciously attacked and raped in New York City's Central Park by one or perhaps a group of teenagers while jogging.
For a while, it was described as wilding. There may have been many twists and turns since then in the criminal cases that followed, but only now has the victim herself begun to speak out.
Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For years, people knew only a few facts about her. She was white, 28 years old, an investment banker, attacked on a nighttime run in Central Park, beaten literally almost to death, one side of her skull crushed in. Because she had also been raped, her name was not published.
Now, 14 years later, her story has been, under her own name, Trisha Meili.
TRISHA MEILI, CENTRAL PARK JOGGER: I just can't believe that that was me.
NISSEN: Now 42, Meili is talking about her painful, painstaking physical recovery.
MEILI: I still have some balance problems. I'm -- you know, I'm not going to stand up and fall over, but I veer off to one side, from the surgery to repair my eye that was crushed, and I have a scar that goes from, you know, one ear to the other.
NISSEN: After 12 days in a coma, she struggled to recover the ability to walk, read, remember what she read. She didn't know for years if her brain would ever work right again.
MEILI: Oh, no, you know, are people going to consider me stupid? And so, you know, that was difficult to, you know, to say -- the feeling that I was always going to have to prove myself.
NISSEN: Meili's damaged memory was a blessing in terms of psychological trauma. She has no memory of the attack, which affected what she calls the camera in her brain.
MEILI: So it's as if the film never got developed. The pictures were taken, but they're not there.
NISSEN: She was never able to identify those sent to prison for attacking her, five teenagers from Harlem, convicted largely on the basis of videotaped confessions in which they seem almost nonchalant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grabbed one arm, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grabbed one arm, we grabbed her legs and stuff. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Last year, in a twist usually reserved for TV movies, another man, convicted murderer and rapist Mattias Reyes (ph) claimed that he alone had raped and beaten the Central Park jogger. After DNA tests confirmed his involvement, a court overturned the convictions of the five men who had already served terms ranging from seven to 13 years for the crime. They were released.
Meili was confused.
MEILI: I thought, Wait, you know, how can this be? Because there were these videotaped confessions with these men describing what they had done.
I've had to come to peace with it by saying, You know what? I'm just not going to know.
NISSEN: Meili says the one thing she does know is that she owes her life to thousands of strangers.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Why didn't you die that day?
MEILI: You know, I think -- whoo! I think a big part of it is all the prayers that I got, you know, that...
KING: From?
MEILI: From all over the world. I know, I mean, I know that that, that that had an effect on me. I've come to learn that there are a lot of studies out there that are investigating the connection between prayer and healing.
NISSEN: Meili says she hopes her story is an inspiration to all those who are trying to recover from the worst the thought could happen.
MEILI: You can go on, you can go on.
NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with Hanan Ashrawi about the leadership struggle among the Palestinians.
And John King reports on what the Bush administration plans to do now about a peace plan for the region.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: The White House, as you can imagine, has taken an abiding interest in the drama that has been playing out on the West Bank in Gaza about who will be the next point man, replacing Yasser Arafat and why it's so important to see him, if not leave the stage altogether, share the stage with someone else.
CNN's senior White House correspondent John King has a look tonight at a forecast of sorts of the days that lie ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): Administration officials say the president's roadmap for Israeli-Palestinian peace could be made public within the next week or so. Drafted in consultation with Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, Mr. Bush would not release it until the Palestinians installed a new prime minister and removed Yasser Arafat from day to day decision making.
It calls on the Palestinians to quickly confirm a new cabinet and adopt security reforms that further marginalize Arafat's influence. And it calls on Israel to lift curfews and travel bans in the Palestinian territories, and to halt the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian homes and property.
Arab resentment at the war in Iraq runs deep and the roadmap is now viewed as a major test of U.S. credibility.
HISHAM MELHEM, AS-SAFIN NEWSPAPER: The United States is interested seriously in addressing Arab grievances and Arab anger and Arab resentment. They have to be very firm with the Ariel Sharon government.
KING: The next phase, in theory, to be completed this year envisions additional Palestinian political economic and security reforms, both a freeze in Israeli settlements and an Israeli pullback from territory occupied since September 2000 and a major regional peace conference.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: None of this is easy, but it's certainly much easier than the violence that has taken place and the loss of life that has taken place between the Israelis and the Palestinians for the last several years.
KING: The final phase calls for establishing borders for a provisional Palestinian state in early 2004, then launching negotiations aimed at a final resolution, and a new Palestinian state by the end of 2005, and for Arab nations in turn to accept normal relations with Israel.
Aids say Mr. Bush is well aware of setting goals. And timelines won't be enough.
MARTIN INDYK, FMR. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: It has to be another check, I think, that the president himself has to introduce, which is a way of raising Palestinian and Israeli eyes out of the weeds and towards a brighter horizon.
KING: The next step is for Secretary of State Powell to head to the Middle East perhaps in the next week or so.
(on camera): And barring a setback on that trip, the new Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen should soon have in hand something never offered to Mr. Arafat, an invitation to visit the Bush White House.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: She's one of the most recognized faces of the Middle East, and for good reason. Hanan Ashwari has supported the Palestinian cause for decades and in many ways has been the voice of the cause to much of the world. She joins us tonight from Ramallah.
It's good to see you again. How significant is what appears now at least to be an agreement on a cabinet? And will it be approved?
HANAN ASHWARI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Well, it is quite significant because it signals a transition from a presidential system to a parliamentary democracy. It's not complete yet, but it's going to be a transition. And therefore, it's going to have its problems.
We will receive the full list within a few days in the legislative council. And of course, we have to examine the agenda. It has to be an agenda that is based on genuine reform, adopting the legislative council's reform agenda, as well as one based on separation of powers, activating a genuine inclusive democracy, ensuring the independence of the judiciary, and of course, based on power sharing.
These are things that the Palestinians are looking forward to, and are looking forward to having a credible, honest and accountable system of government or governance that will be based on professional institutions.
AARON BROWN: With all respect, do you believe that essentially a practitioner of the old guard can institute the kinds of reforms that you and so many others in the Palestinian movement feel are necessary?
ASHWARI: Well, in a way, the fact that he is a member of the old guard was supposed to make the transition easier, the transition to power shedding. And it wouldn't be very threatening to President Arafat. Unfortunately, the real test, actually, depends on whether he can put together a cabinet of professionals and of credible people.
The problem was that he played the game according to the rules of Arafat, which is my guys versus your guys, personal loyalties, factional affiliation and so on, rather than efficiency, meritocracy, and credibility. That remains to be seen. And I think that the real transition will take place after this phase. I look at this as a phase. And hopefully in the future, you will have a new and younger generation more committed to real democracy. And the only way to do that, I feel, is to have elections. And elections have to take place as soon possible, once Israel lifts it siege, its curfews, and its stranglehold on the Palestinians.
AARON BROWN: Presumably now, once this government is approved, the Bush administration releases the road map and the process starts again. Do you believe it will happen? And do you believe it will lead somewhere?
ASHWARI: Well, actually, the road map has been postponed at least for a time at the behest of Israel with no complaints from the U.S. Right now, it hinges upon the gaining a vote of confidence for the new cabinet and the prime minister in Palestine.
The real test is whether the U.S. will actually stand by the road map to implement it and will have the political will to stand up to Israel. This is the real question. So far Israel has had the full sway of the political arena, as well as of conditions on the ground, and has led to very serious military escalation and deterioration of conditions.
What we need is to reverse this process and to begin a whole new dynamic that will legitimize the voices of peace. That depends genuinely on an American role and commitment, as well as on the willingness to curb Israeli excesses and violations.
AARON BROWN: In the two years of the Bush administration, have you seen anything that suggests that that -- that President Bush and that administration will actively engage in a way that you think it must?
ASHWARI: Well, I'm glad you asked that question, Aaron, because we're trying to do is urge the U.S. to actually move the young position of passivity of observer, of crisis management, and of allowing at least the dynamic to run its course. This is time to intervene positively.
The U.S. has intervened in the region in a way which was viewed as negative intervention, military intervention, wars and so on. And to regain its standing, it has to demonstrate that it is capable of intervening in a positive way to bring about peace, not just war.
And this conflict in itself is the real acid test, not just for the U.S. standing and credibility and influence, but also for the future of the region, if there is a genuine commitment to democratization, a genuine commitment to real progress, then it has to be based on a just peace on solving the Palestinian question, which is the most emotive question to the Arabs, to the Muslims, to all people of good conscience.
This pain, this injustice has been allowed to go on too long, to fester in the region and to cause all sorts of ripple effects and problems that destabilize the region. Now we need the U.S. stand up to Israel. Can it uphold international law? Can it implement U.N. resolutions? Can it be seen as an upholder of justice, and not just as war maker?
AARON BROWN: Hanan, it's good to talk to you again on an important day in your part of the world. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
The Palestinian view of the events of the day. Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check tomorrow's news. Thank goodness we are good, aren't we? Headlines from tomorrow morning's papers in just a moment.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: OK, time to check tomorrow morning's newspapers, tomorrow morning's papers from around the country and around the world, beginning with "The New York Times," because we're in New York, I guess.
It's great front page, but it lacks that big selling headline, you know, that would really make this bit work better than it does. Anyway, I like this story a lot in the middle. "Detainees from Afghan War Remain in Legal Limbo in Cuba." We don't talk much about all the people down in Guantanamo and whether they're going to get out, and who's going to get out. The story today that some of them are 15 and 14-years old caught my eye.
All right, everybody, just about everybody else, not "The Times," but everybody else has the obesity and cancer story on the front page. "Study Finds Obesity a Major Cause of Cancer." 90,000 Americans die annually of cancer because of excess weight.
Anyway, that's a great story, but the story I like best in "The Oregonian" of Portland, Oregon, the rose city down at the bottom. Excuse me. "Lawsuits Seek to Force Markets to Label Artificially Colored Farm Raised Salmon." Well of course you should do that. Your farm raised salmon is like a dull gray. Okay? And then they put this coloring in it. And they don't want to tell you that. They should, though, shouldn't they? It's like when they -- the chicken producers didn't want to -- they want to label fresh -- frozen chicken fresh. What is that about?
"USA Today," "Being Overweight Linked to Dying of Cancer." That had to be in "USA Today." I mean, you knew they would put that on the front page. And here's a story -- I don't really get this at all. "Carmen's out, Utah teen just misses America Idol's Final Five." If you work the shift we work, these reality shows mean nothing.
"The Miami Herald," pretty good -- how are we doing on time? Pretty good example, thank you, of localizing the front page of the paper. "Pressured Arafat Cedes Some Power." Not on a lot of front pages, but a large Jewish community in Miami. So that's a big story to them. "Cubans Receiving Fewer Visas This Year," big Cuban community. "Obesity..." well I don't know, but the cancer story is there. And is Chemical Ali still alive? Witnesses say he is. So just to throw that one in there.
Now "The San Francisco Chronicle," down at the bottom, I'll be this is the last one we do. "Deserts Allure May Replace Mustang Ranch Charm." What to do with the Mustang Ranch, which is a famous brothel in Nevada.
"The Chicago Sun-Times," which today at least is my second favorite newspaper in Chicago, I'm big on "The Tribune" today. "City Puts Brakes on Police Chases." And the weather in Chicago tomorrow is "ticklish." Beats me.
Coming up next, Segment 7. And this is what it's going to be. There it is. An embedded journal and the story of what life is like on board an aircraft carrier. Sounds like CNN's Frank Buckley. Must be. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: Covering a war up close has been a dream for journalists for decades. The embedding process allowed them to do that in Iraq.
CNN's Frank Buckley spent the war on the U.S.S. Constellation, the giant carrier. And tonight, looks at how close he really was allowed to get.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The people on the Constellation have been here since mid December. They've been operating as part of Operation Southern Watch, of course in the no-fly zone. So they've been very active flying into Iraq ever since mid December.
(on camera): The mood was starting to get such when we came on, that they just wanted to know what was going to happen. They were about to rotate home that this was a normal deployment. And they wanted to know if they were going to be into war with Iraq, if they were going to be going home. They just wanted some sense of something.
And when the president finally issued a deadline, we could see that the morale noticeably lifted.
Our living situation, it's certainly not a five star hotel, but it's not as bad as some of our colleagues have it, who are having to sleep on the ground and move with the ground troops.
The living space is actually four decks below the flight deck. And then where we actually sleep is one deck below that. So five decks below the flight deck, down this hole called the Scuttle is where we live. And this is what it looks like from below that hole. This is engineering berthing, where the enlisted men from the engineering department live. And they're actually on that side over there. And what they did is they separated it for us, and they put those of us in the news media on this side. And I'll take you over here.
They even put together a little curtain for us that says "media." That's us. Come on inside and I'll show you what it looks like in here. These are the racks that are all occupied by reporters. You've got Jim Ryan from ABC Radio right there enjoying a nice book. And come back this way, and you'll find my state room, as it were.
We've got these little individual curtains that you can pull back and forth for a little bit of privacy. And when you reveal it, there's the state room with the lovely U.S. government issue all wool blanket. And underneath that a little closet. There are not real closets. So you store all your stuff underneath your rack.
One of the most memorable moments that we've experienced on the ship was the first night of air strikes into Iraq, into Baghdad itself, the beginning of "A" day. We were given extraordinary access to go into the ready room of one of the squadrons here, when the cag (ph), the commander of the air wing actually briefed the men as they were about to go into Baghdad for the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a package now that's going to be going downtown here. And it's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity here gentlemen. I'll don't think any of us will ever step away from this and not remember this particular day.
BUCKLEY: And when he said that, I really had a sense that this was it. They were about to go in. It was a difficult thing for us that night because we knew that they were going into Baghdad. And we couldn't report it yet.
A lot of people have raised questions about the embedding process and was it difficult for us to remain impartial? I mean the truth is that when you live with these people, you do create friendships. I feel like I'm leaving the ship with some new friends. It is at times a challenge to remain impartial. But it's like being on any beat as a reporter. You develop friendships, relationships, but at times, you have to be able to step back and do your job.
I feel like that's what we were able to do here. It was like covering a beat, covering a campaign. While you may develop the friendships and the relationships, you bring your years of experience to bear, and you learn how to separate that when you have to.
I don't think that it was breach of reporting objectivity, though, when I always hoped that the aviators would come back safely. When we saw those guys leaving the deck, all of us, I think, hoped, prayed that they would return safely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Frank Buckley. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. 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
Aired April 23, 2003 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Those are some of the big stories of the night. And we begin the second hour of NEWSNIGHT with the second whip of the evening. And we start off the second whip of the evening with the latest on SARS.
Andrew Brown is in Hong Kong for us tonight. Andrew, a headline, please.
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the World Health Organization has added Beijing to its list of no-go areas. It's telling travelers you can stay away from Beijing, to stay away if they can at all. This, one of the latest measures to battle SARS in China, which, of course, is one of the places that's been most affected by the outbreak.
AARON BROWN: Andrew, thank you.
And the reaction at the White House to the deal involving the leadership of the Palestinians. Our senior White House correspondent John King on that. John, a headline.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the deal that makes Abu Mazen the new Palestinian prime minister now clears the way for the Bush administration to release the long-awaited road map for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is a daunting challenge for the president anyway. He is well aware now that in the wake of the war in Iraq, it is also viewed as a major test of U.S. credibility across the Arab world, Aaron.
AARON BROWN: John, thank you. Back to you and Andrew in a moment.
Also coming up in our second hour of NEWSNIGHT tonight, the latest on the mystery of what brought down the shuttle Columbia. Maybe not so much of a mystery any more. Investigators are all but certain they know the cause. Miles O'Brien has that for us in a bit.
And she became a symbol of a legendary scary time in New York City, Known only then as the Central Park jogger. But she was never just a symbol, she was a real person, and she has now, all these years later, come forward. Her story in Segment Seven tonight.
All that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin here. Most things in Baghdad these days, very slowly coming back, more electricity today. A newspaper was back in circulation as well. There are still plenty of American troops on the streets, and they're certain to be there for some time to come. The city is still unsafe in parts.
But as CNN's Rula Amin reports, people are free to say what they think, and optimism, real optimism, is creeping back as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm reception for Jay Garner in the Kurdish-controlled part of the country. The Kurds remember Garner from 1991 when he led U.S. forces in Operation Provide Comfort and helped the Kurds to set up their autonomous region.
Garner praised the Kurds for the system they have established here. "It's marvelous," he told them, and said he hoped it would be a model for the rest of Iraq.
The man in charge of running Iraq outlined his vision for the country, starting with reconstruction.
LT. GEN. JAY GARNER (RET.): The first is the physical reconstruction, is turn on the lights, turn on the water, turn on the electricity, get the bridges repaired, get the roads repaired, put the children back in school, make sure the health system is good.
The second one, type of reconstruction, is the political reconstruction. And in that framework, our goal and our purpose here is to create an environment in Iraq where we can have a democratic process, where Iraqis can choose their own leaders and Iraqis can choose their own type of government, and we put together a democratic process so at the end of that, Iraq has a government that represents the freely elected will of the Iraqi people.
AMIN: Some of these Shi'a pilgrims are demonstrating their free will in Karbala. The streets packed with faithful commemorating the killing of the revered Imamin (ph) Hussein more than 13 centuries ago. And they used the occasion to make a political statement. Thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims chanted, "No to America, no to Israel, yes to Islam."
The Shi'ite community, flexing its muscle with the religious establishment, seeking a say in the future of Iraq.
(on camera): Other Iraqis are more concerned with a different kind of power struggle. Despite efforts to restore electricity to the capital, most of Baghdad's 5 million residents remain in the dark.
(voice-over): This butcher complains, "Without electricity, business is dead. Without electricity, it's hard to store meat." His customers can only buy for one day. They can't run their refrigerators.
And it has become too expensive to buy ice blocks, he says. Each ice block now costs 5,000 dinars. That is almost the same price for one kilogram of meat. This movie theater is open again, dependent on a generator. Two movies showing, one Italian and one French, and even in the morning hours, there were those looking for the escape.
"This is my first day out of the house since the war started," says this man. "And I want to watch a movie."
And in Baghdad, a few houses now do have lights, giving hope to the rest of the capital.
Rula Amin, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Latest now on SARS, and a bit of perspective. Numbers were released today on how many people were killed on the road last year. More people died this way, in a span of just three days, than have died of SARS around the world.
Perspective was a key issue in the SARS story today. Charges that the World Health Organization has lost perspective in telling travelers to avoid Toronto.
Here's Melissa Fung of the CBC.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA FUNG, CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION REPORTER (voice- over): The World Health Organization is now telling the world to stay away from Toronto unless absolutely necessary.
ISABEL NUTTALL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The disease is being transmitted mostly what we've seen in most of the places is that it's through local chain of transmission when a person who is sick is infected health care workers in close family.
FUNG: It's a blow to a city already suffering economic consequences of isolation, and it's angering officials, who say they're containing the spread of SARS.
MAYOR MEL LASTMAN, TORONTO: I can't believe they're not coming. They issued a press release saying that they're not coming back for three weeks. I want them here tomorrow. I want them to investigate Toronto tomorrow. I think they're doing this city and this country a disservice.
ANNE MCLELLAN, FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER: We are going to work very strenuously with the WHO to see if we can get this travel advisory issue clarified in the coming hours.
FUNG: The WHO says it is warranted, because it believes the disease has already been exported out of Toronto to another country, although they would not say where.
DR. DONALD LOW, MICROBIOLOGIST, MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL: The export, I mean, that's an individual case, and that could happen in any city, going to another city, never mind, that's no reason to shut down a city. The number of cases in the community that they're referring to, that was an unusual circumstance.
FUNG: Provincial health ministers held a conference call today, and they agreed.
SINDI HAWKINS, B.C. HEALTH PLANNING MINISTER: There is no uncontrolled spread of SARS in the community. It appears that WHO did not have the evidence it needed to make that decision, and Canada will take that up with WHO in the very near future.
FUNG: But people around the world, and even around Canada, are starting to stay away from the country's largest city.
ALAN PINK, VISION 2000 TRAVEL: They're delaying the plans depending on what's going to be with the SARS thing. They're either canceling or they've gotten notification that a meeting that they were going to has officially been canceled.
FUNG: These British tourists are being moved from Toronto to Niagara Falls after today's warning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we're moving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They changed their advice from the time that we left U.K., because we run you -- them from U.K....
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... on Monday, and they said there was no concern, but obviously there is now.
FUNG: Even major league baseball is warning its teams to take precautions when playing in Toronto, advising players not to sign autographs, visit hospitals, or take public transportations.
(on camera): Still, officials in Toronto are confident they're controlling the spread of the disease. But what they can't control is how confident others are that SARS is actually being contained.
Melissa Fung, CBC News, Toronto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: On to China now, and a good example of why it's crucial for governments to deal with a crisis, any crisis, openly, decisively, and quickly.
China has now taken aggressive steps to open up on the SARS situation, but the efforts did not come fast enough. Many in China now seem unwilling to trust what they are hearing.
Here's CNN's Andrew Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANDREW BROWN (voice-over): After playing down SARS for months, authorities in China are now introducing high-profile measures to combat the disease, even if they cause disruption.
LUO WEN, STUDENT (through translator): My classes were suspended from today. The school won't reopen until May 6.
ANDREW BROWN: Schools in Beijing's Hidan (ph) District have already shut down as officials order closure of primary and secondary institutions across the capital and cancellation of midterm exams. More than a million students are affected.
Hundreds of people have caught SARS in Beijing, and even though the government's now providing more information about SARS victims, worried residents are circulating their own reports on the outbreak.
One text message making the rounds Wednesday warned people to stay at home, because, the message claims, hospitals are moving patients around the city, increasing the risk of exposure.
YANG HUA, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): Rumors are getting passed down very quickly, but the real situation's also serious.
ANDREW BROWN: Serious enough to trigger an exodus of both locals and visitors.
WILL BARRETT, AUSTRALIAN RETURNEE: We originally had intended to stay in China for at least another week, possibly up to another month, longer than we are going to stay. Our main concern is SARS. In particular, we're concerned that our children, if they happen to get sick, might have to go into a hospital in Beijing, and as far as we know, many of the hospitals here are dangerous places to be at the moment because of the possibility of getting SARS.
ANDREW BROWN: Some residents aren't waiting to be sent to hospital. They're lining up to buy herbal medicine they hope will protect them from the deadly disease that has everybody in the Chinese capital on edge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN: The World Health Organization has now added Beijing to a list of destinations it says travelers should avoid, if they can. Southern Chinese province of Guandong and Hong Kong were already on that list, Aaron.
AARON BROWN: Government responded to the WHO advisory?
ANDREW BROWN: As far as I know, Aaron, the government hasn't responded to the WHO advisory yet. It won't come as any great surprise. As I say, the southern Chinese province of Guandong, where the outbreak has been very, very bad, that has already been on the list. And China is taking a lot of measures now in response to recommendations by the World Health Organization.
AARON BROWN: Andrew, thank you very much. Andrew Brown in Hong Kong.
More now on the spread of SARS and the government response in China, which really is a separate story in all of this. Susan Jakes is the Beijing correspondent for "TIME" magazine.
Was this a battle in some ways between old China and new China?
SUSAN JAKES, BEIJING CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: I think in a way it was. Certainly the government here's initial response to the outbreak was very characteristic of the way they've tended to treat all sorts of embarrassing crises in the past. There was a cover-up, doctors were encouraged not to share information with people outside of their hospitals.
So I think that that was -- that was the kind of reaction that many people come -- have come to expect of China's communist leaders.
What we've seen in the past week, the dismissal of two prominent officials and apparently more honest reporting of the numbers might signal some sort of change in the leadership's attempts to deal with problems like this.
AARON BROWN: Does it also, in your mind, suggest a realization that China is not an isolated country any more, that it is a major international player?
JAKES: Absolutely, Aaron. You know, China has been for the past few years working very, very, very hard to have itself acknowledged as a key player in all sorts of international matters, and I think that Chinese leaders have tended to think that they could still keep domestic problems, or problems that they saw as domestic problems, secret from the rest of the world.
And what they're learning now is that with an active international media and with organizations, international organizations, like the World Health Organization, it's really impossible for what goes on in China not to affect the rest of the world.
AARON BROWN: Is it any longer possible for what goes on in China not to be known by the Chinese themselves? There's this vast country, it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- can they keep what happens in Beijing secret from what happens in outlying provinces?
JAKES: I don't think so. I mean, there's certainly a delay in the release of information. For instance, the international media was already reporting two weeks ago cases of hospitals deliberately covering up the number of patients that they were treating.
These were not, obviously, these reports were not reported in the official Chinese media, but they were eventually translated into Chinese and ran on Web sites and were passed around on SMS messages on people's mobile phones.
So I think it's harder and harder for Beijing to suppress information, although the government is still, to a certain extent, interested in doing that.
AARON BROWN: How did this all come out? Was the, was in a sense the government forced to acknowledge a reality, assuming they have now acknowledged a reality, because of whistleblowers, or just because of a change of heart?
JAKES: I think it primarily had to do with the whistleblowers and with the attention that the problem was getting from the international media, and then the pressure that that created on the World Health Organization to speak more frankly with the Chinese leadership and, indeed, with the public about how profound the problem was here.
So it really all started a little over two weeks ago when a senior retired military doctor sent out a signed statement to "TIME" and to some Chinese media organizations and some friends saying that there were hospitals in the city that he knew were failing to disclose the number of patients they had.
AARON BROWN: And...
JAKES: And so that created...
AARON BROWN: I'm sorry, go ahead.
JAKES: Go ahead.
AARON BROWN: No, please.
JAKES: Yes, that created an enormous amount of pressure on the government here, questions at press conferences from the international press and even from some Chinese reporters were very, very aggressive. And I think the government realized that if they wanted to maintain a shred of legitimacy, they had to come clean on this.
AARON BROWN: And just a final question, do you think that they -- the government of China has, in fact, come clean at this point?
JAKES: It's very hard to say. Certainly the numbers in Beijing of confirmed and suspected patients now seem to be according more with what we're hearing from doctors. Yesterday there were about 700, 682, I believe, confirmed cases, and another 700 or so suspected cases.
The real question now is Shanghai, where there have only been two cases reported, and, you know, that remains the mystery, unless Shanghai people have some sort of special immunity, a lot of people are questioning whether those numbers are honest.
AARON BROWN: Susan, thanks a lot. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Nice job.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT on this Wednesday the 23rd of April, the head of the space shuttle program stepped down as new information emerges about what may have doomed "Columbia."
Then later, the dramatic story of the woman who became known as the Central Park jogger.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: With all that's happened in the war, it seems like a long time ago, doesn't it, that the space shuttle Columbia broke apart and disintegrated over Texas. But the disaster took place almost three months ago, and now the man who was in charge of the shuttle program then has decided to leave.
Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eighty-one days after Columbia disintegrated, with investigators all but certain they know the cause, Ron Dittemore, the calm face of NASA in the chaotic days just after the tragedy made it official. He announced he will step down as the shuttle program manager once the investigation is complete, probably in a few months.
Dittemore is a 26-year NASA veteran, four of them spent running the shuttle program. He and his boss, Mike Castelnik (ph), say the resignation talks actually began last fall but were shelved when the accident happened on February 1.
RON DITTEMORE, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: There's a lot of activities that are starting to progress more and beyond the investigation. And as I looked at that, it seemed to me it was appropriate to talk with Mike again and pick this time to make a transition in leadership.
O'BRIEN: NASA says it could begin flying shuttles again within a year, depending on the final recommendations of the Columbia accident investigation board. Investigators there believe it is likely foam that fell off Columbia's external fuel tank 80 seconds after launch mortally wounded the spacecraft's heat shield, exposing the wing to the intense heat of reentry, killing the crew of seven.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once a generation in a space vehicle.
O'BRIEN: The board is still hard at work, hearing on this day in Houston from some shuttle pioneers, people like Bob Thompson, who ran the program in the '70s before Columbia got off the drawing board, much less the launch pad.
BOB THOMPSON, SHUTTLE PROJECT MANAGER (RET).: Kinetic energy of a two and a half or three pound hunk of tile when it's traveling 700 feet per second, that's high school physics, and there should not be anyone in a key management position in a shuttle program who doesn't understand those things in considerably more depth than it would take to make a good decision on them.
O'BRIEN (on camera): No one is openly questioning Ron Dittemore's decisions during Columbia's last flight, nor are they suggesting he was forced out. But as the space agency begins making its case for a return to flight, it won't hurt to have a new boss in charge.
Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: It was 14 years ago that a woman with no name became famous across the country. She was called the Central Park jogger, viciously attacked and raped in New York City's Central Park by one or perhaps a group of teenagers while jogging.
For a while, it was described as wilding. There may have been many twists and turns since then in the criminal cases that followed, but only now has the victim herself begun to speak out.
Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For years, people knew only a few facts about her. She was white, 28 years old, an investment banker, attacked on a nighttime run in Central Park, beaten literally almost to death, one side of her skull crushed in. Because she had also been raped, her name was not published.
Now, 14 years later, her story has been, under her own name, Trisha Meili.
TRISHA MEILI, CENTRAL PARK JOGGER: I just can't believe that that was me.
NISSEN: Now 42, Meili is talking about her painful, painstaking physical recovery.
MEILI: I still have some balance problems. I'm -- you know, I'm not going to stand up and fall over, but I veer off to one side, from the surgery to repair my eye that was crushed, and I have a scar that goes from, you know, one ear to the other.
NISSEN: After 12 days in a coma, she struggled to recover the ability to walk, read, remember what she read. She didn't know for years if her brain would ever work right again.
MEILI: Oh, no, you know, are people going to consider me stupid? And so, you know, that was difficult to, you know, to say -- the feeling that I was always going to have to prove myself.
NISSEN: Meili's damaged memory was a blessing in terms of psychological trauma. She has no memory of the attack, which affected what she calls the camera in her brain.
MEILI: So it's as if the film never got developed. The pictures were taken, but they're not there.
NISSEN: She was never able to identify those sent to prison for attacking her, five teenagers from Harlem, convicted largely on the basis of videotaped confessions in which they seem almost nonchalant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grabbed one arm, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grabbed one arm, we grabbed her legs and stuff. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NISSEN: Last year, in a twist usually reserved for TV movies, another man, convicted murderer and rapist Mattias Reyes (ph) claimed that he alone had raped and beaten the Central Park jogger. After DNA tests confirmed his involvement, a court overturned the convictions of the five men who had already served terms ranging from seven to 13 years for the crime. They were released.
Meili was confused.
MEILI: I thought, Wait, you know, how can this be? Because there were these videotaped confessions with these men describing what they had done.
I've had to come to peace with it by saying, You know what? I'm just not going to know.
NISSEN: Meili says the one thing she does know is that she owes her life to thousands of strangers.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Why didn't you die that day?
MEILI: You know, I think -- whoo! I think a big part of it is all the prayers that I got, you know, that...
KING: From?
MEILI: From all over the world. I know, I mean, I know that that, that that had an effect on me. I've come to learn that there are a lot of studies out there that are investigating the connection between prayer and healing.
NISSEN: Meili says she hopes her story is an inspiration to all those who are trying to recover from the worst the thought could happen.
MEILI: You can go on, you can go on.
NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with Hanan Ashrawi about the leadership struggle among the Palestinians.
And John King reports on what the Bush administration plans to do now about a peace plan for the region.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: The White House, as you can imagine, has taken an abiding interest in the drama that has been playing out on the West Bank in Gaza about who will be the next point man, replacing Yasser Arafat and why it's so important to see him, if not leave the stage altogether, share the stage with someone else.
CNN's senior White House correspondent John King has a look tonight at a forecast of sorts of the days that lie ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): Administration officials say the president's roadmap for Israeli-Palestinian peace could be made public within the next week or so. Drafted in consultation with Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, Mr. Bush would not release it until the Palestinians installed a new prime minister and removed Yasser Arafat from day to day decision making.
It calls on the Palestinians to quickly confirm a new cabinet and adopt security reforms that further marginalize Arafat's influence. And it calls on Israel to lift curfews and travel bans in the Palestinian territories, and to halt the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian homes and property.
Arab resentment at the war in Iraq runs deep and the roadmap is now viewed as a major test of U.S. credibility.
HISHAM MELHEM, AS-SAFIN NEWSPAPER: The United States is interested seriously in addressing Arab grievances and Arab anger and Arab resentment. They have to be very firm with the Ariel Sharon government.
KING: The next phase, in theory, to be completed this year envisions additional Palestinian political economic and security reforms, both a freeze in Israeli settlements and an Israeli pullback from territory occupied since September 2000 and a major regional peace conference.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: None of this is easy, but it's certainly much easier than the violence that has taken place and the loss of life that has taken place between the Israelis and the Palestinians for the last several years.
KING: The final phase calls for establishing borders for a provisional Palestinian state in early 2004, then launching negotiations aimed at a final resolution, and a new Palestinian state by the end of 2005, and for Arab nations in turn to accept normal relations with Israel.
Aids say Mr. Bush is well aware of setting goals. And timelines won't be enough.
MARTIN INDYK, FMR. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: It has to be another check, I think, that the president himself has to introduce, which is a way of raising Palestinian and Israeli eyes out of the weeds and towards a brighter horizon.
KING: The next step is for Secretary of State Powell to head to the Middle East perhaps in the next week or so.
(on camera): And barring a setback on that trip, the new Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen should soon have in hand something never offered to Mr. Arafat, an invitation to visit the Bush White House.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: She's one of the most recognized faces of the Middle East, and for good reason. Hanan Ashwari has supported the Palestinian cause for decades and in many ways has been the voice of the cause to much of the world. She joins us tonight from Ramallah.
It's good to see you again. How significant is what appears now at least to be an agreement on a cabinet? And will it be approved?
HANAN ASHWARI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Well, it is quite significant because it signals a transition from a presidential system to a parliamentary democracy. It's not complete yet, but it's going to be a transition. And therefore, it's going to have its problems.
We will receive the full list within a few days in the legislative council. And of course, we have to examine the agenda. It has to be an agenda that is based on genuine reform, adopting the legislative council's reform agenda, as well as one based on separation of powers, activating a genuine inclusive democracy, ensuring the independence of the judiciary, and of course, based on power sharing.
These are things that the Palestinians are looking forward to, and are looking forward to having a credible, honest and accountable system of government or governance that will be based on professional institutions.
AARON BROWN: With all respect, do you believe that essentially a practitioner of the old guard can institute the kinds of reforms that you and so many others in the Palestinian movement feel are necessary?
ASHWARI: Well, in a way, the fact that he is a member of the old guard was supposed to make the transition easier, the transition to power shedding. And it wouldn't be very threatening to President Arafat. Unfortunately, the real test, actually, depends on whether he can put together a cabinet of professionals and of credible people.
The problem was that he played the game according to the rules of Arafat, which is my guys versus your guys, personal loyalties, factional affiliation and so on, rather than efficiency, meritocracy, and credibility. That remains to be seen. And I think that the real transition will take place after this phase. I look at this as a phase. And hopefully in the future, you will have a new and younger generation more committed to real democracy. And the only way to do that, I feel, is to have elections. And elections have to take place as soon possible, once Israel lifts it siege, its curfews, and its stranglehold on the Palestinians.
AARON BROWN: Presumably now, once this government is approved, the Bush administration releases the road map and the process starts again. Do you believe it will happen? And do you believe it will lead somewhere?
ASHWARI: Well, actually, the road map has been postponed at least for a time at the behest of Israel with no complaints from the U.S. Right now, it hinges upon the gaining a vote of confidence for the new cabinet and the prime minister in Palestine.
The real test is whether the U.S. will actually stand by the road map to implement it and will have the political will to stand up to Israel. This is the real question. So far Israel has had the full sway of the political arena, as well as of conditions on the ground, and has led to very serious military escalation and deterioration of conditions.
What we need is to reverse this process and to begin a whole new dynamic that will legitimize the voices of peace. That depends genuinely on an American role and commitment, as well as on the willingness to curb Israeli excesses and violations.
AARON BROWN: In the two years of the Bush administration, have you seen anything that suggests that that -- that President Bush and that administration will actively engage in a way that you think it must?
ASHWARI: Well, I'm glad you asked that question, Aaron, because we're trying to do is urge the U.S. to actually move the young position of passivity of observer, of crisis management, and of allowing at least the dynamic to run its course. This is time to intervene positively.
The U.S. has intervened in the region in a way which was viewed as negative intervention, military intervention, wars and so on. And to regain its standing, it has to demonstrate that it is capable of intervening in a positive way to bring about peace, not just war.
And this conflict in itself is the real acid test, not just for the U.S. standing and credibility and influence, but also for the future of the region, if there is a genuine commitment to democratization, a genuine commitment to real progress, then it has to be based on a just peace on solving the Palestinian question, which is the most emotive question to the Arabs, to the Muslims, to all people of good conscience.
This pain, this injustice has been allowed to go on too long, to fester in the region and to cause all sorts of ripple effects and problems that destabilize the region. Now we need the U.S. stand up to Israel. Can it uphold international law? Can it implement U.N. resolutions? Can it be seen as an upholder of justice, and not just as war maker?
AARON BROWN: Hanan, it's good to talk to you again on an important day in your part of the world. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
The Palestinian view of the events of the day. Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check tomorrow's news. Thank goodness we are good, aren't we? Headlines from tomorrow morning's papers in just a moment.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: OK, time to check tomorrow morning's newspapers, tomorrow morning's papers from around the country and around the world, beginning with "The New York Times," because we're in New York, I guess.
It's great front page, but it lacks that big selling headline, you know, that would really make this bit work better than it does. Anyway, I like this story a lot in the middle. "Detainees from Afghan War Remain in Legal Limbo in Cuba." We don't talk much about all the people down in Guantanamo and whether they're going to get out, and who's going to get out. The story today that some of them are 15 and 14-years old caught my eye.
All right, everybody, just about everybody else, not "The Times," but everybody else has the obesity and cancer story on the front page. "Study Finds Obesity a Major Cause of Cancer." 90,000 Americans die annually of cancer because of excess weight.
Anyway, that's a great story, but the story I like best in "The Oregonian" of Portland, Oregon, the rose city down at the bottom. Excuse me. "Lawsuits Seek to Force Markets to Label Artificially Colored Farm Raised Salmon." Well of course you should do that. Your farm raised salmon is like a dull gray. Okay? And then they put this coloring in it. And they don't want to tell you that. They should, though, shouldn't they? It's like when they -- the chicken producers didn't want to -- they want to label fresh -- frozen chicken fresh. What is that about?
"USA Today," "Being Overweight Linked to Dying of Cancer." That had to be in "USA Today." I mean, you knew they would put that on the front page. And here's a story -- I don't really get this at all. "Carmen's out, Utah teen just misses America Idol's Final Five." If you work the shift we work, these reality shows mean nothing.
"The Miami Herald," pretty good -- how are we doing on time? Pretty good example, thank you, of localizing the front page of the paper. "Pressured Arafat Cedes Some Power." Not on a lot of front pages, but a large Jewish community in Miami. So that's a big story to them. "Cubans Receiving Fewer Visas This Year," big Cuban community. "Obesity..." well I don't know, but the cancer story is there. And is Chemical Ali still alive? Witnesses say he is. So just to throw that one in there.
Now "The San Francisco Chronicle," down at the bottom, I'll be this is the last one we do. "Deserts Allure May Replace Mustang Ranch Charm." What to do with the Mustang Ranch, which is a famous brothel in Nevada.
"The Chicago Sun-Times," which today at least is my second favorite newspaper in Chicago, I'm big on "The Tribune" today. "City Puts Brakes on Police Chases." And the weather in Chicago tomorrow is "ticklish." Beats me.
Coming up next, Segment 7. And this is what it's going to be. There it is. An embedded journal and the story of what life is like on board an aircraft carrier. Sounds like CNN's Frank Buckley. Must be. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AARON BROWN: Covering a war up close has been a dream for journalists for decades. The embedding process allowed them to do that in Iraq.
CNN's Frank Buckley spent the war on the U.S.S. Constellation, the giant carrier. And tonight, looks at how close he really was allowed to get.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The people on the Constellation have been here since mid December. They've been operating as part of Operation Southern Watch, of course in the no-fly zone. So they've been very active flying into Iraq ever since mid December.
(on camera): The mood was starting to get such when we came on, that they just wanted to know what was going to happen. They were about to rotate home that this was a normal deployment. And they wanted to know if they were going to be into war with Iraq, if they were going to be going home. They just wanted some sense of something.
And when the president finally issued a deadline, we could see that the morale noticeably lifted.
Our living situation, it's certainly not a five star hotel, but it's not as bad as some of our colleagues have it, who are having to sleep on the ground and move with the ground troops.
The living space is actually four decks below the flight deck. And then where we actually sleep is one deck below that. So five decks below the flight deck, down this hole called the Scuttle is where we live. And this is what it looks like from below that hole. This is engineering berthing, where the enlisted men from the engineering department live. And they're actually on that side over there. And what they did is they separated it for us, and they put those of us in the news media on this side. And I'll take you over here.
They even put together a little curtain for us that says "media." That's us. Come on inside and I'll show you what it looks like in here. These are the racks that are all occupied by reporters. You've got Jim Ryan from ABC Radio right there enjoying a nice book. And come back this way, and you'll find my state room, as it were.
We've got these little individual curtains that you can pull back and forth for a little bit of privacy. And when you reveal it, there's the state room with the lovely U.S. government issue all wool blanket. And underneath that a little closet. There are not real closets. So you store all your stuff underneath your rack.
One of the most memorable moments that we've experienced on the ship was the first night of air strikes into Iraq, into Baghdad itself, the beginning of "A" day. We were given extraordinary access to go into the ready room of one of the squadrons here, when the cag (ph), the commander of the air wing actually briefed the men as they were about to go into Baghdad for the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a package now that's going to be going downtown here. And it's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity here gentlemen. I'll don't think any of us will ever step away from this and not remember this particular day.
BUCKLEY: And when he said that, I really had a sense that this was it. They were about to go in. It was a difficult thing for us that night because we knew that they were going into Baghdad. And we couldn't report it yet.
A lot of people have raised questions about the embedding process and was it difficult for us to remain impartial? I mean the truth is that when you live with these people, you do create friendships. I feel like I'm leaving the ship with some new friends. It is at times a challenge to remain impartial. But it's like being on any beat as a reporter. You develop friendships, relationships, but at times, you have to be able to step back and do your job.
I feel like that's what we were able to do here. It was like covering a beat, covering a campaign. While you may develop the friendships and the relationships, you bring your years of experience to bear, and you learn how to separate that when you have to.
I don't think that it was breach of reporting objectivity, though, when I always hoped that the aviators would come back safely. When we saw those guys leaving the deck, all of us, I think, hoped, prayed that they would return safely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN: Frank Buckley. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. 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
