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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Supreme Court Declares Anti-Sodomy Laws Unconstitutional; Two Soldiers Missing in Iraq; Strom Thurmond Dies

Aired June 26, 2003 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
It wasn't that long ago, the mid-'60s, that a case called Griswold v. Connecticut was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Connecticut had made birth control illegal, not birth control for unmarried couples or teenagers, birth control for anyone and everyone. This seems pretty silly now but it was the law back then and back then wasn't that long ago.

Anyway, the court said the state can't do that and what we now know as the right to privacy was born. That right took a significant step forward today. People will differ on whether that is good or bad but they can't argue that a leap was taken and it's where we start the whip tonight.

Bob Franken covered the court's ruling on gay sex, Bob a headline please.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is supposed to be a conservative Supreme Court but they've gone against that in the last couple of days. First there was affirmative action and now sex. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

BROWN: Bob, thank you.

Another deadly day for U.S. troops in Iraq. Our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been doing the reporting, Jamie a headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, two U.S. Special Operations forces have been killed in action in Iraq, an Army Ranger the victim of the latest attack against U.S. forces and in that forgotten war in Afghanistan a Navy SEAL killed today on a manhunt for the remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda. Also in Iraq, two soldiers missing; their fate unknown, foul play suspected.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you, we'll get the details there in a moment or two.

And, a follow-up from last night's story from David Ensor on the discovery of some nuclear technology components in Iraq, David the headline tonight.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, while some politicians in Washington question whether there are any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the CIA's new man in charge of the search is optimistic they will be found and possibly sooner than you might think.

BROWN: David, thank you, back to you shortly, back to all of you.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, more perspective on what's going on in Iraq with someone just back from is travels there, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

A terrible crime story a bizarre one too from Texas that's become known as the windshield murder case, a verdict there today.

One mans' response to the attacks of September 11, his own handcrafted memento to honor America's fallen and the families they've left behind.

And, 40 years ago today a watershed moment in the history of the Cold War, the moment President Kennedy said "I am a Berliner."

Plus, our patented trademark worldwide exclusive look at tomorrow morning's papers tonight, my goodness, all of that in the hour ahead.

We begin with the Supreme Court's decision today on sodomy. The case began on a September evening in Houston, Texas in 1998 when police burst into an apartment and arrested two men for no other reason than having sex.

It ended today, the court deciding that what happens behind closed doors between consenting adults is not a matter for the law, an enormous victory for gay rights activists and a travesty to people like the head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama who said this today: "God have mercy on America."

Once again, here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Those who fought the Texas law banning gay sodomy had ample reason to celebrate with the court declaring all such laws unconstitutional.

RUTH HARLOW, LAMBDA LEGAL: What the court said is that all of us as adults have the liberty to choose how we're going to express our love for one another in the privacy of our own bedrooms.

FRANKEN: The court said the Texas statute discriminates against homosexuals and that the government has no right with any law against sodomy to intrude in what the justices said was a matter of personal liberty and privacy.

Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the 6-3 majority: "The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."

JOHN GEDDESLAWRENCE, PLAINTIFF: We never chose to be public figures or to take on this fight but we also never thought we could be arrested this way.

FRANKEN: John Lawrence and Tyrone Garner became reluctant legal pioneers in 1998 after police crashed into their Texas apartment. They were caught in a homosexual act, arrested, jailed, and fined $200.

In repudiating the Texas law against homosexual sodomy, the court took the extraordinary step of emphatically overruling its own 1986 decision upholding such laws saying times and attitudes have changed. And, the ruling invalidates all prohibitions against sodomy, heterosexual as well in the 13 states that still outlaw it.

The decision drew a stinging dissent from Justice Antonin Scalia writing for Justices Rehnquist and Thomas. Scalia contended that the majority in saying moral disapproval did not justify sodomy laws had "taken sides in the culture war and largely signed on with the so- called homosexual agenda." And, he warned: "State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality and obscenity are called into question by today's decision."

REV. ROB SCHENCK, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: The court has said today that morality, matters of right and wrong behavior do not matter in the law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: The court now has given sexual practices the same privacy protection afforded other personal decisions about contraception, marriage, child, child rearing, and even education -- Aaron.

BROWN: Bob, is the court now done for the year?

FRANKEN: Done for the year. There is a bench conference. They're going to have one more meeting tomorrow. They're going to say goodbye tomorrow and, of course, that raises the question is anybody going to make any decisions about his or her future on the court? We could find out tomorrow. The betting is that there will be no changes.

BROWN: Bob, thank you very much, Bob Franken in Washington tonight.

The Supreme Court seems like a rarefied place where the messiness of the real world doesn't often intrude on the law but in a new book, Justice O'Connor says that courts are mainly reactive to changing values. She writes, "rare is the legal victory in court or legislature but is not the careful byproduct of emerging social consensus."

So, it's worth considering the consensus as best we can about gay people and whether their lives should be legislated or regulated. Some thoughts on that and the legal matters decided today from CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: The Supreme Court's ruling striking down sodomy laws was delivered from this imposing marble building, issued by men and women cloaked literally and symbolically in the garments of Olympian detachment.

The opinion that was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy located the core of his finding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "Government" he argued "has no power to prohibit this kind of private sexual intimacy between consenting adults."

In this sense, the ruling on sodomy goes back to the court's 1965 decision that struck down a Connecticut law outlawing birth control even among married couples. That was the case that first found three was a constitutional right of privacy. That finding was the key to one of the court's most contentious rulings 1973's Roe v. Wade that found or created a women's constitutional right to abortion.

(on camera): But there's more here than weighty constitutional analysis. The undeniable fact is that American attitudes toward homosexuality and toward sex in general have changed radically over the last two generations and this case clearly reflects those changes.

(voice-over): Look back to 1961, the year Kennedy was inaugurated, every state made sodomy between gays or straights, marrieds or singles a crime. In some states, sodomy, that's oral or anal sex, wasn't even defined, was instead simply labeled a crime against nature.

Condoms weren't sold for birth control but to prevent venereal disease. It was also a time when sex in general was not really a matter for public conversation, when married couples on TV slept in twin beds. As for homosexuality, it was still the love that dared not speak its name, labeled by the psychiatric profession as a disorder.

To say that things have changed may set a new record for understatement. Sexuality of every sort is the stuff that's promoted on prime time television. On cable, pretty much anything goes. Mainstream women's magazines now openly discuss topics that the sodomy laws once deemed criminal.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That I am profoundly sorry.

GREENFIELD: Indeed, even a recent president of the United States might have fallen afoul of such laws were they rigorously enforced. Condoms are now distributed in schools, advertised on television, the better to protect the health of sexually active teenagers and adults.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As someone who wants to see an end to homophobia and racism...

GREENFIELD: As for homosexuality, there are gay and lesbian members of Congress and the love that dare not speak its name is now played for laughs on prime time television.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you fellows having sex?

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: No, we're not.

GREENFIELD (on camera): Decades ago, Mr. Dooley, the famous barroom philosopher said: "The Supreme Court follows the election returns." Today's decision may illustrate a broader point that the very meaning of what constitutes a fundamental constitutional right may change along with the broader culture.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Of other matters now we turn to Iraq, an intriguing report late tonight from the "Financial Times." The paper is reporting that the Pentagon has sent an outside team of policy experts to do an independent review of post-war operations in Iraq.

The paper also talks about an intelligence report by the corporate security firm Kroll which is telling its clients who might want to do business in Iraq there is a "even chance of an open revolt in the country."

What the troops on the ground are facing now may not be an open revolt but it is dangerous and deadly stuff nonetheless. Another American died today and that was just one attack today too.

We go back to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, Jamie good evening.

MCINTYRE: Good evening, Aaron.

Well, there's no evidence that the anti-American forces knew who they were targeting but nevertheless they killed apparently a U.S. Army Ranger assigned to Task Force 20. That's the elite U.S. commando group that's hunting down Saddam Hussein and other senior Iraqi leaders.

According to the initial reports that we have seen back at the Pentagon, it appears that the U.S. Special Operations forces were in a vehicle traveling by a point where they passed a truck laden with explosives that was detonated as they passed. One U.S. Special Operations soldier killed, eight others wounded in that attack.

Also today in Iraq, two American soldiers are missing. They failed to check in with a communications check. They were at a checkpoint about 40 kilometers north of Baghdad. No one can find them. Foul play is suspected.

Despite this continued unrest in Iraq, U.S. officials, including senior Bush administration officials, insist it's only a matter of time before they bring things under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a dangerous situation still. We are working hard to improve security, security for the population as well as security for our troops, but we always knew that it would be dangerous and it would take time and I'm confident in the ability of our military authorities to do everything they can to wipe out these pockets of resistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now, contrast that to some of the comments I got from a senior military official who was not going to be identified today. In talking to him about the situation he told me that there was no doubt that this was an organized ambush, an organized attack, and he said it represents an increasing level of organization and sophistication.

He said that this was an example of an urban guerrilla force acting in a way a classic phase of insurgency, and he pointed out that during the regime of Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein was able to use is secret police to keep this kind of activity down but the U.S. has no equivalent coercive action so they're at a disadvantage and he predicted there would be many more attacks to come.

And, by the way, before we stop the forgotten war in Afghanistan, U.S. Special Forces are operating there as well in a manhunt for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, other members of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed there today, shot in the face, and two of his comrades were wounded -- Aaron.

BROWN: Afghanistan. Back to Iraq, two quick ones, Jamie, first on these two missing soldiers, were they, do we know, were they basically operating on their own? They were just two guys stuck at a checkpoint?

MCINTYRE: We're not sure. We know that they were last seen at a checkpoint. There was some description from some of the local Iraqis there that they had had some sort of interaction, we're told, with some local Iraqis. That was the last that was seen of them. They didn't check in when they were supposed to. They went looking for them. They haven't found them.

BROWN: And on this question of organization and guerrilla insurgency, is there evidence that the insurgents have sophisticated communications? Do we have any idea how they're able to organize these attacks?

MCINTYRE: Well, there's not evidence that they have sophisticated communications but they obviously have some means of communication and there is evidence that the sophistication of the attacks is increasing along with the number according to military officials who sat in on some of the recent briefings that have been given on the security situation in Iraq.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre tonight.

The British are still trying to sort out how six of their soldiers died on Tuesday in Iraq. Each day seems to bring another version, perhaps a little more detail. British papers are running headlines like, "Executed" and "No Mercy." The story is reported for us tonight by Neil Connery of ITN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEIL CONNERY, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): British troops in southern Iraqi on a heightened state of alert. Tuesday's attacks have dramatically changed the environment they're having to work in. Today, the army began explaining just what went wrong in al-Meja (ph).

MAJ. GEN. PETER WALL, COMMANDING OFFICER, 1ST ARMORED DIVISION: The current violence appears to have stemmed from a misunderstanding. The townspeople expected searches for weapons to be conducted by our patrols on that morning. However, that was never our intent and this had been explained to the town council at length.

CONNERY: A picture is now beginning to emerge about the sequence of events, together with questions about how British forces responded.

(on camera): This is where the trouble first started on Tuesday morning. The military police were on a routine patrol when they came under attack in this marketplace. Shots are believed to have been exchanged. Two of the officers were killed here while the other four managed to escape to a police station about half a mile away.

When they managed to get here, this police compound was soon surrounded by hundreds of men. A firefight ensued lasting anything up to an hour. Throughout that whole time, the British were unable to get any backup forces here. It's understood the four British military police officers were then brought into these rooms where they spent their final moments before being killed.

After the situation had calmed down, some of the Iraqi civilian policemen were able to take their bodies from these rooms and hand them over to an army checkpoint.

(voice-over): Imad Halid (ph) is one of the Iraqi policemen who witnessed the attack. He told me the British had radioed for backup.

"As they were defending themselves they called on the radio asking for help and were convinced it would come but it never came in time."

The army says it did respond quickly as best it could given the intensity of the resistance it was meeting throughout the town. British forces are still trying to establish the full facts of the horror which unfolded here. They're determined to do everything they can to protect those in the front line.

Neil Connery, ITV News, al-Meja, southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Last night, CNN's David Ensor and Mike Boettcher presented a series of exclusive reports on secret components and notes from the 1991 Iraqi nuclear weapons program, components and notes that were buried under a rosebush in a garden in Baghdad.

They were found because the scientist who buried them dug them up and brought them to U.S. officials and it may turn out to be the first step in uncovering how extensive or how limited the Iraqi weapons program was.

Here again, CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): In his first interview since starting work in Baghdad, the CIA's top man on weapons in Iraq told CNN over a secure teleconference between Baghdad and CIA headquarters that Americans searching for weapons of mass destruction are now making rapid progress. David Kay said the world can expect surprises soon.

DAVID KAY, CIA CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: My suspicions are that we'll find in the chemical and biological areas, in fact I think there may be some surprises coming rather quickly in that area.

ENSOR: Kay declined to be more specific but progress is being made insists CIA officials because key Iraqis are finally beginning to open up, men like Dr. Mahdi Obeidi who turned over documents and parts of an Iraqi gas centrifuge system for developing nuclear weapons fuel. Obeidi and his family have finally been moved out of Iraq at the scientist's request.

(on camera): Senior CIA officials say the key to finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is not searches but scientists. They are hoping doing right by Dr. Obeidi and making that public will bring in other Iraqi scientists ready to tell what they know.

KAY: So we're actually being inundated with Iraqis who want to cooperate with us and that's how we'll get it and I think we'll get it rather quickly, real breakthroughs in all of these areas.

ENSOR (voice-over): The breakthrough with Obeidi has nuclear experts at the CIA excited. Mike, not his real name and we can't show you his face, talked to us about the gas centrifuge parts the scientist gave them.

MIKE: This is the first evidence we have from an Iraqi that he was told to hold it for reconstitution.

ENSOR: So, this is fairly significant?

MIKE: Yes. We believe it's very significant.

ENSOR: It doesn't look like much.

MIKE: I understand it doesn't look like much. It's very thin and very round and very strong and very difficult to manufacture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: There is no smoking gun, weapons of mass destruction evidence yet but clearly the new man in charge of looking for it is optimistic that he's going to find some -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, the administration has always been optimistic that the evidence would turn up. It's always argued its intelligence was sound. Is there anything in David Kay's comments today that we should note here as being different from the optimism the administration has expressed all along?

ENSOR: Well, he said that the job is not going to be easy. He noted that when we heard about the pieces of equipment being buried under a rosebush for 12 years, he noted that no international inspectors would have found those and he's not sure that he could have found them without being told by the scientists. So, the key is to get the scientists talking. They say they think they're beginning to have some results in that area and that's the key.

BROWN: Thank you, David, David Ensor our National Security Correspondent.

One more note from Iraq here, the man who was the face of the Iraqi regime before and during the war has resurfaced after apparently being given a clean bill of health, if you will, by the Americans.

Former Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf appeared on two Arab news networks (unintelligible) he had been questioned and released by U.S. forces. Sahaf says he has no information on the whereabouts of other top officials in the regime of Saddam Hussein. He looks different, doesn't he?

Sahaf, you may recall, gained a note of celebrity during the war because of his wild claims that Saddam's forces were in control and repelling the coalition. He disappeared the day U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on the aftermath of the war on Iraq, we'll talk with Senator Chuck Hagel just back from there about the situation, the continuing search for weapons of mass destruction, other matters too.

And later, the woman who ran down a homeless man takes the stand to tell her story in Texas.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We received a note from a long time viewer today, a viewer with a point of view asserting with the absolute certainty she often writes with that life for Iraqis is worse today than it was under Saddam.

That reminded us that some of the statements by administration officials downplaying the problems that are now all too obvious in post-war Iraq. Truth as is often the case lies somewhere in between.

Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel is just back from a quick trip to Iraq, the sort of dog and pony show a Senator gets, but the Senator is in our experience a straight shooter and we talked with him about the state of play in Iraq earlier tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator, I gather you saw some things that you feel good about and some things that are troubling. Take a brief time on both.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: Well, let's start with the positives. First, I think the United States has as good a team as you can put together leading our reconstruction efforts in Iraq, beginning with Ambassador Bremer. You've got Assistant Secretary of State Brian Crocker, the former chairman and CEO of Shell Oil Phil Carroll, and I think it just goes on and on from there, a real first class group of leaders. Now, that's some of the good news.

Another, I think, good news item was you're seeing some normalcy in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq, normalcy meaning that there's traffic, there's a flow. Shops are open. They're starting to get back to a daily life and I think that's good.

Now, I then on the other side of the ledger start with this observation. What is before us, what Ambassador Bremer has before him and all of us is an immense task. They are trying to rebuild a country. That means rebuild an economy, rebuild infrastructure, put 80,000 Iraqi policemen on the streets after they train them. Even before that they have to find them.

They're going to have to build an army, say 40,000, three divisions of Iraqi soldiers, re-indoctrinate them, retrain them. They're going to have to come together with a political group to govern the country and all of this is occurring at a time, Aaron, when the country is still very hostile.

We are losing men every day. The sabotage that's going on, Americans are marked in every way and so this environment is a very difficult environment to restructure a country. So, the challenge is immense. The problems get deeper every day but the fact is America owns Iraq and the expectations for us to turn that country around are very high.

BROWN: All right, let's talk about a few other things you just mentioned. Are you surprised by the degree of hostility towards the Americans that you saw there and is this in effect a guerrilla war being waged against the U.S. Army?

HAGEL: Aaron, I think it's some of all of the above. I think there is an organized guerrilla effort going on across Iraq. It probably gets stronger every day. Some of these incidents are sporadic incidents.

We've got to remember that Iraq is probably the most armed nation in the world. For example, one of the generals told us that there are over five million AK-47 assault weapons in the society that are unaccounted for. There are weapons everywhere. Everyone has weapons. They're not just little pop pistols.

I mean machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, RPGs, AK-47s, so it is a combination of all of the above and that's what is so difficult for Bremer and his team and out soldiers because you never know where the next event is coming from, the next assault is coming from because it can come anywhere at any time. If you are an American or a Brit and you have a uniform on you are marked and no matter where.

BROWN: Senator, do you believe the administration was straight with the American people about the cost, the length of time, the complexity of the task of rebuilding, recreating Iraq?

HAGEL: No, I do not and part of that I suspect is just the nature of what we are dealing with and that is we have never been into anything quite as complicated as this. If the American people think of it this way, a nation the size of California with essentially 25 million Iraqis, that's what we're trying to deal with here.

Now, should the Bush administration have planned better? Absolutely, in fact it was astounding how little they planned. Have they been direct on even giving us some universe of costs in the terms of dollars, manpower, and a continuation of the loss of American lives? No, I don't think they have. But part of this is a matter of making it up as we go along. Part of it is just by the nature of it very imperfect.

BROWN: Yes.

HAGEL: No one can gauge it completely but I think the president is going to have to come to the American public and lay it out for the long term because it's going to be the American public that makes the decision whether they are willing to sustain the kind of effort that is going to be required in order to rebuild Iraq. We are in for a long haul.

BROWN: Senator, it's always good to have you on the program.

HAGEL: Aaron, thank you.

BROWN: Good again tonight, thank you sir very much.

HAGEL: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska. We talked with him earlier tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the Texas hit-and-run case and the woman who drove off with a homeless man embedded in her windshield tells her story.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are few crime stories that make folks in our newsroom blanch. We are a pretty jaded bunch. But this crime story out of Fort Worth, Texas, today did the trick. It was something so shocking and strange that it would seem like something dreamed up by a guest earlier this week, Stephen King.

But the windshield murder case wasn't fiction, it was real, the victim all too real, and the real defendant faced judgment today for killing him.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANTE MALLARD, DEFENDANT: As I was going around the curve, I hit Mr. Biggs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And when you hit Mr. Biggs, did you see him before you hit him, that you remember?

MALLARD: No, sir, I did not.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From that moment on October 26, 2001, Chante Mallard's life would never be the same. On the witness stand, she told the story of how a night of drinking and doing drugs ended in the death of a 37-year-old homeless man.

Mallard took the stand hours after a Fort Worth jury found her guilty of murder, an attempt to explain why she didn't call for help after driving into Greg Biggs.

MALLARD: I was scared. And I didn't know what to do. And I was -- I was asking God to tell me what to do. I didn't know what to do.

LAVANDERA: Not knowing what to do, that was the consistent theme through Mallard's testimony. She talked about how drugs had been destroying her life and clouded her ability to make good decisions the night she killed Greg Biggs.

Prosecutors attacked the excuse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a decision to get in the car and drive, right?

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made the decision on take the ecstasy.

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a decision -- the decisions involved in driving that got you to the point where you hit Gregory Biggs.

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And after hitting him, your ability to decide was gone?

LAVANDERA: Biggs' son, Brandon, was in the courtroom listening to Mallard describe how his father was killed.

MALLARD: And I am so truly sorry. I am so sorry, Brandon. I am so sorry for what I have caused your family. And I am sorry for the pain that I have put my family through.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Mallard does say she deserves to be punished, and most of her family appears to have accepted the possibility that she'll spend time in prison. Punishment based testimony will likely end Friday, then the jury decides Chante Mallard's future.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Fort Worth, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Quick check of some other stories from around the country now, beginning with the case against the alleged terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Federal appeals court today said it lacked jurisdiction, for now, at least, to rule on whether the alleged terrorist could interview another alleged terrorist, who is also in U.S. custody, as part of his defense.

Three-judge panel said a lower court ruling granting the interview wasn't final, and so it cannot now overturn it if it's so inclined. The government is reportedly considering moving the Moussaoui case to a military tribunal, in an effort to avoid this issue altogether.

William Bulger, the president of the University of Massachusetts system, will apparently remain in that job. Mr. Bulger has been under fire for allegedly not helping authorities track down his brother, Whitey, a mobster, who's on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

At a meeting today, the university's board of trustees declined to take any action against Mr. Bulger, saying he'd committed no crime and was doing a good job.

And the richest 18-year-old we know, high school basketball star LeBron James, got a little richer tonight. Doesn't it always work that way? James was picked first in the NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, which will now, no doubt, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) give him a multimillion-dollar contract. Mr. James already signed a $90 million promotional deal with Nike.

If my kid was only taller.

Still on come on NEWSNIGHT, honoring America's war dead through the simple act of woodworking. The story of a patriot's act a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And we right now are working on a developing story. We hope to get to that right after the break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Well, we have learned just in the last few moments that an American political legend, whether you liked him or not, former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, has died. Senator Thurmond went to the Senate in 1956. He ran for the presidency too, a move that was the source of some controversy when Trent Lott made some remarks last year about that run in 1948.

Here's more on Thurmond's life from CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The hallmark of Strom Thurmond's political career, survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. STROM THURMOND (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: No matter how tough the going gets, I don't give in. And don't give up. After all, they don't call me Thurmonator for nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Thurmond could have not enjoyed such political longevity without the evolution of his viewpoints on race and party. Segregation was the defining issue of Thurmond's early political career. He was a Democratic governor of South Carolina in 1948 when he erupted onto the national scene, running for president against Harry Truman as a third party segregationist Dixiecrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the part of the president to dominate this country by force and to put into effect these uncalled- for and these damnable proposals he has recommended under the guise of so-called civil rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Thurmond won four states, but lost that race.

But after waging and winning a write-in campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1954, he continued his crusade. In 1957, he conducted the longest filibuster on record to block civil rights legislation. He talked for more than 24 hours.

But after years of opposing and obstructing civil rights legislation, Thurmond's approach changed in the early '80s. He supported the renewal of the Voting Rights Act and establishment of the Martin Luther King national holiday. In 1971, he became the first Southern senator to hire a black staff member.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was able to make a transformation in his public life to make himself appealing enough to white voters and also not stoke the ire of black voters that they would turn out to vote against him. MESERVE: Disagreement with the Democratic Party's approach to race contributed to Thurmond's 1964 decision to become a Republican and support the presidential bid of Barry Goldwater. Thurmond's party switch broke the Democrats' long-time lock on the South and set the stage for Republican ascendance in the region.

A veteran of D-Day, Thurmond devoted much of his Senate career to defense issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: The committee will come to order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: A member of the Armed Services Committee since 1959, he wielded the chairman's gavel from 1995 to 1999.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you still deliver the goods for South Carolina?

THURMOND: Well, I suggest you ask my constituents.

I haven't seen you lately. Where you been?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: If there are no grand visionary pieces of legislation bearing Thurmond's name, it is in part because his eyes and efforts had a narrower focus, his home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: I'm in positions of leadership where I can help you. I have helped you, I will keep on helping you, and God bless you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no one better at the retail politics, at constituent service, and a lot of money for projects, and all kinds of things that could be taken care of from Washington, Senator Thurmond attended to. And he was -- was really one of a kind in that regard.

MESERVE: South Carolinians returned the favors by electing Thurmond over and over again to his Senate seat, even after critics said able was a liability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: At his 100th birthday party in December of 2002, just prior to his retirement after eight terms in the Senate, then-majority leader Trent Lott said some of the nation's problems would have been avoided if Thurmond's Dixiecrat bid for president had been successful.

The ensuing furor over the racial implications of the comment resulted in Lott's ouster from leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Though over the years, Thurmond's role became more ceremonial than substantive, though his stride became a shuffle, Thurmond soldiered on and survived longer than any member of the Senate, ever.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: According to his son, Senator Thurmond died at 9:45, about an hour ago, in a hospital in South Carolina, and in his home state. Senator Thurmond was 100 years old.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another bit of history, the moment an American president stood before the world and said, I am a Berliner.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Through the course of cold war, it often seemed that Berlin was the center of the universe. There was the blockade and the airlift shortly after World War II ended. There was the building of the Wall and the murders of those trying to escape the East across it or over it or under it.

The scenes of the Wall coming down were as dramatic as any in the last half of the 20th century, and it was also the scene of two of the most famous political speeches of the cold war as well, Ronald Reagan's speech there, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and JFK's Berlin speech, which was 40 years ago today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1963)

JOHN F. KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace with goodwill to all people.

You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the Wall, to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves, to all mankind.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we look (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country, and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe.

When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All, all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: JFK, 40 years ago today.

Before we go to break, a little bit of urban legend that has grown up around the speech. If you look up the speech on the Internet, you'll learn that in its most famous phrase, the president actually declared himself a jelly doughnut, "ein Berliner," and not a citizen of Berlin.

The story is so prevalent that the Kennedy Library put out a statement explaining it in their release about the speech itself. Bottom line, it's both. To quote the library, "In spite of the fact that it is also the correct way to say, I am a jelly doughnut, no adult German speaker could possibly have misunderstood President Kennedy's meaning in context."

We'll buy that.

Morning papers in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Now, how soon before that gets really old, huh? That won't stop us, but how soon before it gets really old?

Time to check morning papers from around the country. Some interesting stuff here, but there's no order to it tonight. I like when there's order in my life. Mostly the Supreme Court on sodomy is on almost all the front pages. "The Washington Times" puts it right up there, "Sodomy Law Struck Down, Decision Sparks Marriage Worries." But what I liked about "The Washington Times," two pictures down at the bottom -- can you get that one down at the bottom? This is the new X-ray screening they want to put in airports, which leaves little to the imagination. You got to get tighter on this next one, if you will.

And this picture, "Balancing Act," these are a Palestinian police recruits demonstrating his skills at a training session on the West Bank. I don't know how often this actually comes up, the need to do handstands while looking for Hamas terrorists, but should it come up, he's your guy.

"USA Today," "Gay Sex Ban Struck Down, Supreme Court Majority Says Such Laws Violate Privacy." Also the "Medicare Set for Overhaul," the drug benefit thing, nobody understands what's in this law, believe me.

San Francisco -- How are we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little less than one.

BROWN: OK. Little less than one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness.

"Gay Rights Affirmed in Historic Court Ruling," "San Francisco Chronicle" plays it very high. Also played another decision the court made today striking down a California law that essentially eliminated the statute of limitations, or extended it, for some sex crimes, court said no to that. "Justices Strike Down Ban on Gay Sex," "Chicago Sun Times," "Perfecto" is the weather.

You're rushing me. Don't rush me, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty.

BROWN: Thank you.

See, that's the kind of sway I have.

OK, "The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon. This is just great if you know basketball. Up at top, "Blazers Pick Outlaw in Draft." This is a basketball team, half the guys are in jail for one reason or another or suspended. Anyway, that's "The Oregonian."

That's morning papers. I had one more I wanted to do, but all that crosstalk interferes with my train of thought.

See you tomorrow. 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





Two Soldiers Missing in Iraq; Strom Thurmond Dies>


Aired June 26, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
It wasn't that long ago, the mid-'60s, that a case called Griswold v. Connecticut was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Connecticut had made birth control illegal, not birth control for unmarried couples or teenagers, birth control for anyone and everyone. This seems pretty silly now but it was the law back then and back then wasn't that long ago.

Anyway, the court said the state can't do that and what we now know as the right to privacy was born. That right took a significant step forward today. People will differ on whether that is good or bad but they can't argue that a leap was taken and it's where we start the whip tonight.

Bob Franken covered the court's ruling on gay sex, Bob a headline please.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is supposed to be a conservative Supreme Court but they've gone against that in the last couple of days. First there was affirmative action and now sex. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

BROWN: Bob, thank you.

Another deadly day for U.S. troops in Iraq. Our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been doing the reporting, Jamie a headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, two U.S. Special Operations forces have been killed in action in Iraq, an Army Ranger the victim of the latest attack against U.S. forces and in that forgotten war in Afghanistan a Navy SEAL killed today on a manhunt for the remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda. Also in Iraq, two soldiers missing; their fate unknown, foul play suspected.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you, we'll get the details there in a moment or two.

And, a follow-up from last night's story from David Ensor on the discovery of some nuclear technology components in Iraq, David the headline tonight.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, while some politicians in Washington question whether there are any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the CIA's new man in charge of the search is optimistic they will be found and possibly sooner than you might think.

BROWN: David, thank you, back to you shortly, back to all of you.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, more perspective on what's going on in Iraq with someone just back from is travels there, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

A terrible crime story a bizarre one too from Texas that's become known as the windshield murder case, a verdict there today.

One mans' response to the attacks of September 11, his own handcrafted memento to honor America's fallen and the families they've left behind.

And, 40 years ago today a watershed moment in the history of the Cold War, the moment President Kennedy said "I am a Berliner."

Plus, our patented trademark worldwide exclusive look at tomorrow morning's papers tonight, my goodness, all of that in the hour ahead.

We begin with the Supreme Court's decision today on sodomy. The case began on a September evening in Houston, Texas in 1998 when police burst into an apartment and arrested two men for no other reason than having sex.

It ended today, the court deciding that what happens behind closed doors between consenting adults is not a matter for the law, an enormous victory for gay rights activists and a travesty to people like the head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama who said this today: "God have mercy on America."

Once again, here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Those who fought the Texas law banning gay sodomy had ample reason to celebrate with the court declaring all such laws unconstitutional.

RUTH HARLOW, LAMBDA LEGAL: What the court said is that all of us as adults have the liberty to choose how we're going to express our love for one another in the privacy of our own bedrooms.

FRANKEN: The court said the Texas statute discriminates against homosexuals and that the government has no right with any law against sodomy to intrude in what the justices said was a matter of personal liberty and privacy.

Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the 6-3 majority: "The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."

JOHN GEDDESLAWRENCE, PLAINTIFF: We never chose to be public figures or to take on this fight but we also never thought we could be arrested this way.

FRANKEN: John Lawrence and Tyrone Garner became reluctant legal pioneers in 1998 after police crashed into their Texas apartment. They were caught in a homosexual act, arrested, jailed, and fined $200.

In repudiating the Texas law against homosexual sodomy, the court took the extraordinary step of emphatically overruling its own 1986 decision upholding such laws saying times and attitudes have changed. And, the ruling invalidates all prohibitions against sodomy, heterosexual as well in the 13 states that still outlaw it.

The decision drew a stinging dissent from Justice Antonin Scalia writing for Justices Rehnquist and Thomas. Scalia contended that the majority in saying moral disapproval did not justify sodomy laws had "taken sides in the culture war and largely signed on with the so- called homosexual agenda." And, he warned: "State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality and obscenity are called into question by today's decision."

REV. ROB SCHENCK, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: The court has said today that morality, matters of right and wrong behavior do not matter in the law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: The court now has given sexual practices the same privacy protection afforded other personal decisions about contraception, marriage, child, child rearing, and even education -- Aaron.

BROWN: Bob, is the court now done for the year?

FRANKEN: Done for the year. There is a bench conference. They're going to have one more meeting tomorrow. They're going to say goodbye tomorrow and, of course, that raises the question is anybody going to make any decisions about his or her future on the court? We could find out tomorrow. The betting is that there will be no changes.

BROWN: Bob, thank you very much, Bob Franken in Washington tonight.

The Supreme Court seems like a rarefied place where the messiness of the real world doesn't often intrude on the law but in a new book, Justice O'Connor says that courts are mainly reactive to changing values. She writes, "rare is the legal victory in court or legislature but is not the careful byproduct of emerging social consensus."

So, it's worth considering the consensus as best we can about gay people and whether their lives should be legislated or regulated. Some thoughts on that and the legal matters decided today from CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: The Supreme Court's ruling striking down sodomy laws was delivered from this imposing marble building, issued by men and women cloaked literally and symbolically in the garments of Olympian detachment.

The opinion that was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy located the core of his finding in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "Government" he argued "has no power to prohibit this kind of private sexual intimacy between consenting adults."

In this sense, the ruling on sodomy goes back to the court's 1965 decision that struck down a Connecticut law outlawing birth control even among married couples. That was the case that first found three was a constitutional right of privacy. That finding was the key to one of the court's most contentious rulings 1973's Roe v. Wade that found or created a women's constitutional right to abortion.

(on camera): But there's more here than weighty constitutional analysis. The undeniable fact is that American attitudes toward homosexuality and toward sex in general have changed radically over the last two generations and this case clearly reflects those changes.

(voice-over): Look back to 1961, the year Kennedy was inaugurated, every state made sodomy between gays or straights, marrieds or singles a crime. In some states, sodomy, that's oral or anal sex, wasn't even defined, was instead simply labeled a crime against nature.

Condoms weren't sold for birth control but to prevent venereal disease. It was also a time when sex in general was not really a matter for public conversation, when married couples on TV slept in twin beds. As for homosexuality, it was still the love that dared not speak its name, labeled by the psychiatric profession as a disorder.

To say that things have changed may set a new record for understatement. Sexuality of every sort is the stuff that's promoted on prime time television. On cable, pretty much anything goes. Mainstream women's magazines now openly discuss topics that the sodomy laws once deemed criminal.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That I am profoundly sorry.

GREENFIELD: Indeed, even a recent president of the United States might have fallen afoul of such laws were they rigorously enforced. Condoms are now distributed in schools, advertised on television, the better to protect the health of sexually active teenagers and adults.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As someone who wants to see an end to homophobia and racism...

GREENFIELD: As for homosexuality, there are gay and lesbian members of Congress and the love that dare not speak its name is now played for laughs on prime time television.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you fellows having sex?

UNIDENTIFIED MALES: No, we're not.

GREENFIELD (on camera): Decades ago, Mr. Dooley, the famous barroom philosopher said: "The Supreme Court follows the election returns." Today's decision may illustrate a broader point that the very meaning of what constitutes a fundamental constitutional right may change along with the broader culture.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Of other matters now we turn to Iraq, an intriguing report late tonight from the "Financial Times." The paper is reporting that the Pentagon has sent an outside team of policy experts to do an independent review of post-war operations in Iraq.

The paper also talks about an intelligence report by the corporate security firm Kroll which is telling its clients who might want to do business in Iraq there is a "even chance of an open revolt in the country."

What the troops on the ground are facing now may not be an open revolt but it is dangerous and deadly stuff nonetheless. Another American died today and that was just one attack today too.

We go back to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, Jamie good evening.

MCINTYRE: Good evening, Aaron.

Well, there's no evidence that the anti-American forces knew who they were targeting but nevertheless they killed apparently a U.S. Army Ranger assigned to Task Force 20. That's the elite U.S. commando group that's hunting down Saddam Hussein and other senior Iraqi leaders.

According to the initial reports that we have seen back at the Pentagon, it appears that the U.S. Special Operations forces were in a vehicle traveling by a point where they passed a truck laden with explosives that was detonated as they passed. One U.S. Special Operations soldier killed, eight others wounded in that attack.

Also today in Iraq, two American soldiers are missing. They failed to check in with a communications check. They were at a checkpoint about 40 kilometers north of Baghdad. No one can find them. Foul play is suspected.

Despite this continued unrest in Iraq, U.S. officials, including senior Bush administration officials, insist it's only a matter of time before they bring things under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a dangerous situation still. We are working hard to improve security, security for the population as well as security for our troops, but we always knew that it would be dangerous and it would take time and I'm confident in the ability of our military authorities to do everything they can to wipe out these pockets of resistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now, contrast that to some of the comments I got from a senior military official who was not going to be identified today. In talking to him about the situation he told me that there was no doubt that this was an organized ambush, an organized attack, and he said it represents an increasing level of organization and sophistication.

He said that this was an example of an urban guerrilla force acting in a way a classic phase of insurgency, and he pointed out that during the regime of Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein was able to use is secret police to keep this kind of activity down but the U.S. has no equivalent coercive action so they're at a disadvantage and he predicted there would be many more attacks to come.

And, by the way, before we stop the forgotten war in Afghanistan, U.S. Special Forces are operating there as well in a manhunt for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, other members of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed there today, shot in the face, and two of his comrades were wounded -- Aaron.

BROWN: Afghanistan. Back to Iraq, two quick ones, Jamie, first on these two missing soldiers, were they, do we know, were they basically operating on their own? They were just two guys stuck at a checkpoint?

MCINTYRE: We're not sure. We know that they were last seen at a checkpoint. There was some description from some of the local Iraqis there that they had had some sort of interaction, we're told, with some local Iraqis. That was the last that was seen of them. They didn't check in when they were supposed to. They went looking for them. They haven't found them.

BROWN: And on this question of organization and guerrilla insurgency, is there evidence that the insurgents have sophisticated communications? Do we have any idea how they're able to organize these attacks?

MCINTYRE: Well, there's not evidence that they have sophisticated communications but they obviously have some means of communication and there is evidence that the sophistication of the attacks is increasing along with the number according to military officials who sat in on some of the recent briefings that have been given on the security situation in Iraq.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre tonight.

The British are still trying to sort out how six of their soldiers died on Tuesday in Iraq. Each day seems to bring another version, perhaps a little more detail. British papers are running headlines like, "Executed" and "No Mercy." The story is reported for us tonight by Neil Connery of ITN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEIL CONNERY, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): British troops in southern Iraqi on a heightened state of alert. Tuesday's attacks have dramatically changed the environment they're having to work in. Today, the army began explaining just what went wrong in al-Meja (ph).

MAJ. GEN. PETER WALL, COMMANDING OFFICER, 1ST ARMORED DIVISION: The current violence appears to have stemmed from a misunderstanding. The townspeople expected searches for weapons to be conducted by our patrols on that morning. However, that was never our intent and this had been explained to the town council at length.

CONNERY: A picture is now beginning to emerge about the sequence of events, together with questions about how British forces responded.

(on camera): This is where the trouble first started on Tuesday morning. The military police were on a routine patrol when they came under attack in this marketplace. Shots are believed to have been exchanged. Two of the officers were killed here while the other four managed to escape to a police station about half a mile away.

When they managed to get here, this police compound was soon surrounded by hundreds of men. A firefight ensued lasting anything up to an hour. Throughout that whole time, the British were unable to get any backup forces here. It's understood the four British military police officers were then brought into these rooms where they spent their final moments before being killed.

After the situation had calmed down, some of the Iraqi civilian policemen were able to take their bodies from these rooms and hand them over to an army checkpoint.

(voice-over): Imad Halid (ph) is one of the Iraqi policemen who witnessed the attack. He told me the British had radioed for backup.

"As they were defending themselves they called on the radio asking for help and were convinced it would come but it never came in time."

The army says it did respond quickly as best it could given the intensity of the resistance it was meeting throughout the town. British forces are still trying to establish the full facts of the horror which unfolded here. They're determined to do everything they can to protect those in the front line.

Neil Connery, ITV News, al-Meja, southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Last night, CNN's David Ensor and Mike Boettcher presented a series of exclusive reports on secret components and notes from the 1991 Iraqi nuclear weapons program, components and notes that were buried under a rosebush in a garden in Baghdad.

They were found because the scientist who buried them dug them up and brought them to U.S. officials and it may turn out to be the first step in uncovering how extensive or how limited the Iraqi weapons program was.

Here again, CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): In his first interview since starting work in Baghdad, the CIA's top man on weapons in Iraq told CNN over a secure teleconference between Baghdad and CIA headquarters that Americans searching for weapons of mass destruction are now making rapid progress. David Kay said the world can expect surprises soon.

DAVID KAY, CIA CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: My suspicions are that we'll find in the chemical and biological areas, in fact I think there may be some surprises coming rather quickly in that area.

ENSOR: Kay declined to be more specific but progress is being made insists CIA officials because key Iraqis are finally beginning to open up, men like Dr. Mahdi Obeidi who turned over documents and parts of an Iraqi gas centrifuge system for developing nuclear weapons fuel. Obeidi and his family have finally been moved out of Iraq at the scientist's request.

(on camera): Senior CIA officials say the key to finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is not searches but scientists. They are hoping doing right by Dr. Obeidi and making that public will bring in other Iraqi scientists ready to tell what they know.

KAY: So we're actually being inundated with Iraqis who want to cooperate with us and that's how we'll get it and I think we'll get it rather quickly, real breakthroughs in all of these areas.

ENSOR (voice-over): The breakthrough with Obeidi has nuclear experts at the CIA excited. Mike, not his real name and we can't show you his face, talked to us about the gas centrifuge parts the scientist gave them.

MIKE: This is the first evidence we have from an Iraqi that he was told to hold it for reconstitution.

ENSOR: So, this is fairly significant?

MIKE: Yes. We believe it's very significant.

ENSOR: It doesn't look like much.

MIKE: I understand it doesn't look like much. It's very thin and very round and very strong and very difficult to manufacture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: There is no smoking gun, weapons of mass destruction evidence yet but clearly the new man in charge of looking for it is optimistic that he's going to find some -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, the administration has always been optimistic that the evidence would turn up. It's always argued its intelligence was sound. Is there anything in David Kay's comments today that we should note here as being different from the optimism the administration has expressed all along?

ENSOR: Well, he said that the job is not going to be easy. He noted that when we heard about the pieces of equipment being buried under a rosebush for 12 years, he noted that no international inspectors would have found those and he's not sure that he could have found them without being told by the scientists. So, the key is to get the scientists talking. They say they think they're beginning to have some results in that area and that's the key.

BROWN: Thank you, David, David Ensor our National Security Correspondent.

One more note from Iraq here, the man who was the face of the Iraqi regime before and during the war has resurfaced after apparently being given a clean bill of health, if you will, by the Americans.

Former Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf appeared on two Arab news networks (unintelligible) he had been questioned and released by U.S. forces. Sahaf says he has no information on the whereabouts of other top officials in the regime of Saddam Hussein. He looks different, doesn't he?

Sahaf, you may recall, gained a note of celebrity during the war because of his wild claims that Saddam's forces were in control and repelling the coalition. He disappeared the day U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on the aftermath of the war on Iraq, we'll talk with Senator Chuck Hagel just back from there about the situation, the continuing search for weapons of mass destruction, other matters too.

And later, the woman who ran down a homeless man takes the stand to tell her story in Texas.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We received a note from a long time viewer today, a viewer with a point of view asserting with the absolute certainty she often writes with that life for Iraqis is worse today than it was under Saddam.

That reminded us that some of the statements by administration officials downplaying the problems that are now all too obvious in post-war Iraq. Truth as is often the case lies somewhere in between.

Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel is just back from a quick trip to Iraq, the sort of dog and pony show a Senator gets, but the Senator is in our experience a straight shooter and we talked with him about the state of play in Iraq earlier tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator, I gather you saw some things that you feel good about and some things that are troubling. Take a brief time on both.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: Well, let's start with the positives. First, I think the United States has as good a team as you can put together leading our reconstruction efforts in Iraq, beginning with Ambassador Bremer. You've got Assistant Secretary of State Brian Crocker, the former chairman and CEO of Shell Oil Phil Carroll, and I think it just goes on and on from there, a real first class group of leaders. Now, that's some of the good news.

Another, I think, good news item was you're seeing some normalcy in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq, normalcy meaning that there's traffic, there's a flow. Shops are open. They're starting to get back to a daily life and I think that's good.

Now, I then on the other side of the ledger start with this observation. What is before us, what Ambassador Bremer has before him and all of us is an immense task. They are trying to rebuild a country. That means rebuild an economy, rebuild infrastructure, put 80,000 Iraqi policemen on the streets after they train them. Even before that they have to find them.

They're going to have to build an army, say 40,000, three divisions of Iraqi soldiers, re-indoctrinate them, retrain them. They're going to have to come together with a political group to govern the country and all of this is occurring at a time, Aaron, when the country is still very hostile.

We are losing men every day. The sabotage that's going on, Americans are marked in every way and so this environment is a very difficult environment to restructure a country. So, the challenge is immense. The problems get deeper every day but the fact is America owns Iraq and the expectations for us to turn that country around are very high.

BROWN: All right, let's talk about a few other things you just mentioned. Are you surprised by the degree of hostility towards the Americans that you saw there and is this in effect a guerrilla war being waged against the U.S. Army?

HAGEL: Aaron, I think it's some of all of the above. I think there is an organized guerrilla effort going on across Iraq. It probably gets stronger every day. Some of these incidents are sporadic incidents.

We've got to remember that Iraq is probably the most armed nation in the world. For example, one of the generals told us that there are over five million AK-47 assault weapons in the society that are unaccounted for. There are weapons everywhere. Everyone has weapons. They're not just little pop pistols.

I mean machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, RPGs, AK-47s, so it is a combination of all of the above and that's what is so difficult for Bremer and his team and out soldiers because you never know where the next event is coming from, the next assault is coming from because it can come anywhere at any time. If you are an American or a Brit and you have a uniform on you are marked and no matter where.

BROWN: Senator, do you believe the administration was straight with the American people about the cost, the length of time, the complexity of the task of rebuilding, recreating Iraq?

HAGEL: No, I do not and part of that I suspect is just the nature of what we are dealing with and that is we have never been into anything quite as complicated as this. If the American people think of it this way, a nation the size of California with essentially 25 million Iraqis, that's what we're trying to deal with here.

Now, should the Bush administration have planned better? Absolutely, in fact it was astounding how little they planned. Have they been direct on even giving us some universe of costs in the terms of dollars, manpower, and a continuation of the loss of American lives? No, I don't think they have. But part of this is a matter of making it up as we go along. Part of it is just by the nature of it very imperfect.

BROWN: Yes.

HAGEL: No one can gauge it completely but I think the president is going to have to come to the American public and lay it out for the long term because it's going to be the American public that makes the decision whether they are willing to sustain the kind of effort that is going to be required in order to rebuild Iraq. We are in for a long haul.

BROWN: Senator, it's always good to have you on the program.

HAGEL: Aaron, thank you.

BROWN: Good again tonight, thank you sir very much.

HAGEL: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska. We talked with him earlier tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the Texas hit-and-run case and the woman who drove off with a homeless man embedded in her windshield tells her story.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are few crime stories that make folks in our newsroom blanch. We are a pretty jaded bunch. But this crime story out of Fort Worth, Texas, today did the trick. It was something so shocking and strange that it would seem like something dreamed up by a guest earlier this week, Stephen King.

But the windshield murder case wasn't fiction, it was real, the victim all too real, and the real defendant faced judgment today for killing him.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANTE MALLARD, DEFENDANT: As I was going around the curve, I hit Mr. Biggs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And when you hit Mr. Biggs, did you see him before you hit him, that you remember?

MALLARD: No, sir, I did not.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From that moment on October 26, 2001, Chante Mallard's life would never be the same. On the witness stand, she told the story of how a night of drinking and doing drugs ended in the death of a 37-year-old homeless man.

Mallard took the stand hours after a Fort Worth jury found her guilty of murder, an attempt to explain why she didn't call for help after driving into Greg Biggs.

MALLARD: I was scared. And I didn't know what to do. And I was -- I was asking God to tell me what to do. I didn't know what to do.

LAVANDERA: Not knowing what to do, that was the consistent theme through Mallard's testimony. She talked about how drugs had been destroying her life and clouded her ability to make good decisions the night she killed Greg Biggs.

Prosecutors attacked the excuse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a decision to get in the car and drive, right?

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made the decision on take the ecstasy.

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a decision -- the decisions involved in driving that got you to the point where you hit Gregory Biggs.

MALLARD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And after hitting him, your ability to decide was gone?

LAVANDERA: Biggs' son, Brandon, was in the courtroom listening to Mallard describe how his father was killed.

MALLARD: And I am so truly sorry. I am so sorry, Brandon. I am so sorry for what I have caused your family. And I am sorry for the pain that I have put my family through.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Mallard does say she deserves to be punished, and most of her family appears to have accepted the possibility that she'll spend time in prison. Punishment based testimony will likely end Friday, then the jury decides Chante Mallard's future.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Fort Worth, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Quick check of some other stories from around the country now, beginning with the case against the alleged terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Federal appeals court today said it lacked jurisdiction, for now, at least, to rule on whether the alleged terrorist could interview another alleged terrorist, who is also in U.S. custody, as part of his defense.

Three-judge panel said a lower court ruling granting the interview wasn't final, and so it cannot now overturn it if it's so inclined. The government is reportedly considering moving the Moussaoui case to a military tribunal, in an effort to avoid this issue altogether.

William Bulger, the president of the University of Massachusetts system, will apparently remain in that job. Mr. Bulger has been under fire for allegedly not helping authorities track down his brother, Whitey, a mobster, who's on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

At a meeting today, the university's board of trustees declined to take any action against Mr. Bulger, saying he'd committed no crime and was doing a good job.

And the richest 18-year-old we know, high school basketball star LeBron James, got a little richer tonight. Doesn't it always work that way? James was picked first in the NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, which will now, no doubt, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) give him a multimillion-dollar contract. Mr. James already signed a $90 million promotional deal with Nike.

If my kid was only taller.

Still on come on NEWSNIGHT, honoring America's war dead through the simple act of woodworking. The story of a patriot's act a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And we right now are working on a developing story. We hope to get to that right after the break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Well, we have learned just in the last few moments that an American political legend, whether you liked him or not, former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, has died. Senator Thurmond went to the Senate in 1956. He ran for the presidency too, a move that was the source of some controversy when Trent Lott made some remarks last year about that run in 1948.

Here's more on Thurmond's life from CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The hallmark of Strom Thurmond's political career, survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. STROM THURMOND (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: No matter how tough the going gets, I don't give in. And don't give up. After all, they don't call me Thurmonator for nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Thurmond could have not enjoyed such political longevity without the evolution of his viewpoints on race and party. Segregation was the defining issue of Thurmond's early political career. He was a Democratic governor of South Carolina in 1948 when he erupted onto the national scene, running for president against Harry Truman as a third party segregationist Dixiecrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the part of the president to dominate this country by force and to put into effect these uncalled- for and these damnable proposals he has recommended under the guise of so-called civil rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Thurmond won four states, but lost that race.

But after waging and winning a write-in campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1954, he continued his crusade. In 1957, he conducted the longest filibuster on record to block civil rights legislation. He talked for more than 24 hours.

But after years of opposing and obstructing civil rights legislation, Thurmond's approach changed in the early '80s. He supported the renewal of the Voting Rights Act and establishment of the Martin Luther King national holiday. In 1971, he became the first Southern senator to hire a black staff member.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was able to make a transformation in his public life to make himself appealing enough to white voters and also not stoke the ire of black voters that they would turn out to vote against him. MESERVE: Disagreement with the Democratic Party's approach to race contributed to Thurmond's 1964 decision to become a Republican and support the presidential bid of Barry Goldwater. Thurmond's party switch broke the Democrats' long-time lock on the South and set the stage for Republican ascendance in the region.

A veteran of D-Day, Thurmond devoted much of his Senate career to defense issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: The committee will come to order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: A member of the Armed Services Committee since 1959, he wielded the chairman's gavel from 1995 to 1999.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you still deliver the goods for South Carolina?

THURMOND: Well, I suggest you ask my constituents.

I haven't seen you lately. Where you been?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: If there are no grand visionary pieces of legislation bearing Thurmond's name, it is in part because his eyes and efforts had a narrower focus, his home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: I'm in positions of leadership where I can help you. I have helped you, I will keep on helping you, and God bless you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no one better at the retail politics, at constituent service, and a lot of money for projects, and all kinds of things that could be taken care of from Washington, Senator Thurmond attended to. And he was -- was really one of a kind in that regard.

MESERVE: South Carolinians returned the favors by electing Thurmond over and over again to his Senate seat, even after critics said able was a liability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday, dear Strom...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: At his 100th birthday party in December of 2002, just prior to his retirement after eight terms in the Senate, then-majority leader Trent Lott said some of the nation's problems would have been avoided if Thurmond's Dixiecrat bid for president had been successful.

The ensuing furor over the racial implications of the comment resulted in Lott's ouster from leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THURMOND: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Though over the years, Thurmond's role became more ceremonial than substantive, though his stride became a shuffle, Thurmond soldiered on and survived longer than any member of the Senate, ever.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: According to his son, Senator Thurmond died at 9:45, about an hour ago, in a hospital in South Carolina, and in his home state. Senator Thurmond was 100 years old.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, another bit of history, the moment an American president stood before the world and said, I am a Berliner.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Through the course of cold war, it often seemed that Berlin was the center of the universe. There was the blockade and the airlift shortly after World War II ended. There was the building of the Wall and the murders of those trying to escape the East across it or over it or under it.

The scenes of the Wall coming down were as dramatic as any in the last half of the 20th century, and it was also the scene of two of the most famous political speeches of the cold war as well, Ronald Reagan's speech there, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and JFK's Berlin speech, which was 40 years ago today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1963)

JOHN F. KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace with goodwill to all people.

You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the Wall, to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves, to all mankind.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we look (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country, and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe.

When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All, all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: JFK, 40 years ago today.

Before we go to break, a little bit of urban legend that has grown up around the speech. If you look up the speech on the Internet, you'll learn that in its most famous phrase, the president actually declared himself a jelly doughnut, "ein Berliner," and not a citizen of Berlin.

The story is so prevalent that the Kennedy Library put out a statement explaining it in their release about the speech itself. Bottom line, it's both. To quote the library, "In spite of the fact that it is also the correct way to say, I am a jelly doughnut, no adult German speaker could possibly have misunderstood President Kennedy's meaning in context."

We'll buy that.

Morning papers in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Now, how soon before that gets really old, huh? That won't stop us, but how soon before it gets really old?

Time to check morning papers from around the country. Some interesting stuff here, but there's no order to it tonight. I like when there's order in my life. Mostly the Supreme Court on sodomy is on almost all the front pages. "The Washington Times" puts it right up there, "Sodomy Law Struck Down, Decision Sparks Marriage Worries." But what I liked about "The Washington Times," two pictures down at the bottom -- can you get that one down at the bottom? This is the new X-ray screening they want to put in airports, which leaves little to the imagination. You got to get tighter on this next one, if you will.

And this picture, "Balancing Act," these are a Palestinian police recruits demonstrating his skills at a training session on the West Bank. I don't know how often this actually comes up, the need to do handstands while looking for Hamas terrorists, but should it come up, he's your guy.

"USA Today," "Gay Sex Ban Struck Down, Supreme Court Majority Says Such Laws Violate Privacy." Also the "Medicare Set for Overhaul," the drug benefit thing, nobody understands what's in this law, believe me.

San Francisco -- How are we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little less than one.

BROWN: OK. Little less than one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness.

"Gay Rights Affirmed in Historic Court Ruling," "San Francisco Chronicle" plays it very high. Also played another decision the court made today striking down a California law that essentially eliminated the statute of limitations, or extended it, for some sex crimes, court said no to that. "Justices Strike Down Ban on Gay Sex," "Chicago Sun Times," "Perfecto" is the weather.

You're rushing me. Don't rush me, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty.

BROWN: Thank you.

See, that's the kind of sway I have.

OK, "The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon. This is just great if you know basketball. Up at top, "Blazers Pick Outlaw in Draft." This is a basketball team, half the guys are in jail for one reason or another or suspended. Anyway, that's "The Oregonian."

That's morning papers. I had one more I wanted to do, but all that crosstalk interferes with my train of thought.

See you tomorrow. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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Two Soldiers Missing in Iraq; Strom Thurmond Dies>