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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

American Combat Deaths in Iraq Exceeds Number of Deaths in First Gulf War; Abizaid Calls Iraqi Campaign 'Guerrilla War'; Driver Kills 8 in Santa Monica

Aired July 16, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Two important milestones were reached today in Iraq. You could see them both coming. Today the number of American combat deaths exceeded the number of combat deaths in the first Gulf War and this war clearly is a long ways from over which leads to the second milestone.

The general now in charge of Central Command acknowledged what has seemed clear, though aggressively denied, for weeks. This is a guerrilla war. It is organized. It is getting more sophisticated by the day.

Iraq is not our lead story tonight but it's right there at the top and General John Abizaid's words are a reminder it's going to stay at the top for some time to come.

We begin the whip tonight with a terrible car accident in Santa Monica, California. Dan Lothian is there for us tonight, Dan a headline.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, the street behind me was packed with vendors and shoppers this afternoon for the weekly farmers' market when a car came barreling through. Eight people are dead, dozens of others are injured -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, back to you at the top tonight.

On to the war in Iraq, more violence aimed at U.S. troops today, Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre tonight, Jamie the headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, the top general in charge isn't mincing words any more. This is, he said, a classic guerrilla war and the prospect of surface-to- air missiles fired at U.S. aircraft landing at Baghdad International means that that airport won't be reopening anytime soon -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you.

On to the controversy over Iraq, the claim about uranium from one African country. Bob Franken today following the trail of documents that led to the charge, Bob the headline from you. BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Aaron, if the latest explanations are to be believed then one has to wonder if the handling of the intelligence was intelligent.

BROWN: Bob, thank you, we'll get details coming up.

And, the fallout from the controversy continued today on Capitol Hill. The CIA director questioned behind closed doors. Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl trying to figure out what's going on in that room, Jon a headline.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, sources familiar with the hearing, familiar with George Tenet's testimony, say that the CIA director was contrite, that he took full responsibility saying that although he had been given a copy of the president's speech he never actually read it, but still Democrats on the committee were saying the responsibility lies not with the Central Intelligence Agency but with the White House.

BROWN: Jon, thank you, good to see you again, back to all of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, an update on rebuilding Lower Manhattan, a compromise reached in a clash that pits the architect's vision of Ground Zero against the demands of the developer.

The story of a great American pioneer whose name is not Lewis or Clark, Horatio Nelson Jackson the man behind the first cross-country road trip. He's the focus of Ken Burns' latest documentary. We'll talk with Ken tonight about Horatio's drive.

We'll also remember the "Queen of Salsa," Celia Cruz, the voice, the look, and one remarkable smile.

And, for those of you who absolutely, positively have to have their morning news tonight, we'll have our usual look through tomorrow morning's papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with devastation tonight in Santa Monica, California, a sad bit of proof, not that we needed any, that it doesn't necessarily take a terrorist to create moments of terror. It doesn't take a dirty bomb or even a deliberate act from all we are learning, just an elderly man, a Buick, and a street crowded with shoppers.

We begin tonight with CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): The weekly Santa Monica farmers' market, just minutes from closing, suddenly erupts into chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw a triage going on, probably about 40 people got all the way down to the other end where the car was. The car was racked up pretty bad, a dead body in the front covered. I've never seen anything like it. It's totally incredible. LOTHIAN: Police say an 86-year-old man behind the wheel of a fast-moving 1992 Buick, he claims he couldn't stop, plows through three and a half blocks of a crowded street closed to traffic.

LORE CAULFIELD, WITNESS: It looked like a Sherman tank barreling through, hitting everything, just going right over people.

ERIC LEONARD, POOL REPORTER: There's fruits and vegetables jammed into some of the broken pieces of the car, shoes laying on the top of the car, and the airbags went off. There's also a dead body laying right in front of the car and that's where the police say the driver finally stopped.

LOTHIAN: Vendors and shoppers became victims, a trail of death, destruction, and disturbing scenes, even difficult for the city's police chief to talk about.

CHIEF JAMES BUTTS, SANTA MONICA POLICE DEPARTMENT: They were confronted with the single most devastating accident scene that I've ever witnessed in 30 years of law enforcement.

LOTHIAN: At least 100 emergency crews and police responded. Some victims were treated on the scene. Others were rushed immediately to area hospitals, an overwhelming task in a beachside community stunned by the damage caused by one fast-moving car.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: And, Aaron, the latest numbers we have now, eight people confirmed dead, 15 people are hospitalized in critical condition. Some 40 others also have been hospitalized are being treated for what we are told are moderate to minor injuries.

Now, some additional information we're getting about the driver of the car, officials telling us that he told them in an interview that he saw the market but he simply couldn't stop, apparently pressing the gas pedal instead of the brakes. He has been released by police after being questioned. So far, no charges pending but there could be charged in the future -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, he was not -- obviously he was not seriously hurt. Is there any suggestion -- does he suggest there was a mechanical problem with the car?

LOTHIAN: At this point we simply don't know.

BROWN: OK.

LOTHIAN: All he is telling police is that he tried to hit the brakes and apparently hit the gas pedal.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, tough day down in Santa Monica, California, thank you.

On to Iraq now, in his first news conference today, the commander of the American coalition forces, General John Abizaid signaled an about face on the war. First of all, he called what's going on there now a war, a guerrilla war, an organized effort, he said.

As a matter of fact, the general conceded most of the points his civilian bosses have soft pedaled up until now, including the fact that morale is suffering there and, as he spoke, the facts on the ground bore him out.

Here again, our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Another convoy attack in Baghdad and U.S. soldiers cover the body of a dead comrade by the side of the road, the latest victim in what the Pentagon no longer denies is a deadly guerrilla war.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: What I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us.

MCINTYRE: It's a war that has now claimed at least 148 American lives in combat, surpassing the number of hostile deaths in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and new threats abound.

Plans to reopen the Baghdad International Airport have been delayed after a C-130 crew reported a shoulder-fired missile fired at its plane as it was landing. So, the U.S. is digging in for the long haul, working out a rotation plan to maintain a force of about 160,000 U.S. and coalition troops and considering one year tours of duty for American forces.

As for the war weary 3rd Infantry Division it has a new promise that it will be on its way home by September, a year after it deployed. Even as the top commander expressed his displeasure with some of the griping, especially a TV report in which a soldier said if Donald Rumsfeld was there he would ask for his resignation.

ABIZAID: None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense or the president of the United States. We're not free to do that. It's our professional code.

MCINTYRE: Complaining soldiers could be reprimanded but not much will happen to them. They are doing dirty, dangerous work and the Pentagon admits it owes all U.S. troops in Iraq a better idea of when they are coming home.

ABIZAID: We will insist upon ensuring that every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine know what their end dates are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Now, General Abizaid did say that some al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists are involved in the attacks against U.S. troops but he says the main enemy remains what he called midlevel Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein, and while he said their tactics are getting more sophisticated the U.S. military, he says, is adapting and will prevail -- Aaron. BROWN: Jamie, actually two questions. When they talk about the 160,000 and however many of those are American, perhaps 140,000 or so, are these going to be reserves or active duty soldiers?

MCINTYRE: Well, most of these are going to be active duty soldiers, although there's quite a few reserves mobilized as part of this already but they're going to replace, for instance, the 3rd Infantry Division with American troops from the Army, most likely from active duty forces.

But they do have to -- they are concerned about reorganizing the reserves because they need more of the specialties that are in the reserves than the active duty force and they've got a long term plan to rebalance the forces they call it.

BROWN: And, on the other point, the importance today of the general acknowledging, if you will, that this is a guerrilla war when you had a memorable exchange just a couple of weeks ago with the defense secretary on this very subject.

MCINTYRE: Well, at the time we were raising that point military experts and, as I said, many people in the building conceded that this had all the earmarks of a classic guerrilla insurgency. My question to Secretary Rumsfeld at the time was why was he so reluctant to concede that point.

And, once again, we got in an argument about the premise of the question but, you know, the point the Pentagon makes is no matter what you call it the war is not over yet. The fighting is not over and they claim they've never disputed that, that when President Bush back on May 1 declared an end to the major combat that he never said the war was over.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon tonight.

No sign of a let up to the other side of this story, the controversy over the justification for the war or at least a part of the justification for the war. Today, the president's new spokesman was peppered with questions on the subject of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. The White House today much more aggressive in responding calling this all politics, these attacks on the president's credibility.

And, today, we also learned that the FBI is looking into who forged the documents. Those 16 words in the State of the Union speech were based on these documents. They want to know who forged them and why. And, we got a look at those documents themselves.

With that, here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Part of the controversy over the Bush administration's effort to sell the war with Iraq has been a reliance on the Niger documents. REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: Big questions remain about who forged the documents and the paper trail that followed.

FRANKEN: The Italian newspaper "La Republica" provided CNN copies of those documents. They indicate Niger was going to supply uranium to Iraq. One section calls it a: "protocol of agreement between the government of Niger and the government of Iraq related to supply of uranium signed on July 5 and 6, 2000 in Niamey."

According to sources, the information but not the documents themselves was given to the CIA by a foreign intelligence service in February, 2002. The CIA sent envoy Joe Wilson to Niger to investigate. He reported back the allegations were most likely false.

Senior administration officials say the U.S. Embassy in Rome received a copy of the documents in October, 2002, and passed them on to the State Department and to the CIA station chief at the embassy.

FBI investigators have been told the station chief never forwarded them to CIA headquarters and, even though sources insist the State Department offered the documents to all relevant agencies, intelligence officials say the Central Intelligence Agency did not get a copy until four months later in February, 2003, after the State of the Union address. The documents were turned over to the International Atomic Energy Agency which quickly dismissed them as phonies.

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: We have, therefore, concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded.

FRANKEN: Experts cite a number of mistakes in the papers. The president of Niger's signature is apparently fake. One document, dated October 2000, contains the signature of a foreign minister who left office in 1989, and a 1999 document referred to events in 2000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: The U.S. government and, in particular, the British insist that the documents are not their only evidence. Publicly, however, they've been unable or unwilling to describe their sources -- Aaron.

BROWN: Now, tell us things you can and to the extent you know about the FBI and what the FBI is looking at and the extent to which there is a federal crime or there might have been a federal crime committed here.

FRANKEN: Well, they may be looking at -- in fact, we are told that they're looking at the possibility of fraud, that somebody in fact under false pretenses affected U.S. policy. That would be the extent of their investigation and, of course, they're looking to see if there was something that was criminally mishandled but probably more of the former.

BROWN: Bob, thank you very much, Bob Franken in Washington tonight. A moment ago we heard a bit from Saxby Chambliss, the Republican Senator from Georgia. For the Senator and his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee it was a long day at the office today, longer still for the Director of the CIA George Tenet who came to answer their questions. The focus was on the intelligence leading up to the war but also how that intelligence was used or, as some have said, misused.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice-over): CIA Director George Tenet did not look like a man under fire as he emerged from five hours of closed door testimony.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: The director was very contrite. He was very candid. He was very forthcoming and accepted full responsibility.

KARL: According to sources familiar with his testimony, Tenet said he had been given a copy of the president's State of the Union speech but never actually read it before it was delivered.

Democrats emerged from the hearing saying the CIA director may have been negligent but he does not bear full responsibility for the faulty intelligence that made it into the speech.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Director Tenet took the blame, was terrific about it. In my mind there remains the question of whether, in fact, that's where it should stop. I tend to think not and I think we have to face up to that.

KARL: The lone presidential candidate on the committee came out of the hearing blaming George Bush, not George Tenet.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's enormously important for the president himself and the White House to take responsibility for what the president himself says.

KARL: Earlier at the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan accused Democrats of playing politics with national security.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: The last thing anyone should do is politicize this issue by rewriting history. There are some where the present rhetoric does not match their past record.

KARL: As Tenet faced the Intelligence Committee, a verbal firestorm erupted on the Senate floor over an amendment pushed by Ted Kennedy to require the president to set a time table for getting international support to rebuild Iraq. Alaska's Ted Stevens accused Kennedy of trying to micro manage the president's foreign policy.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R), ALASKA: The president of the United States is the president of the United States. I really can't believe anyone would vote for this amendment.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We have American servicemen that are like a shooting gallery over there and the Senator from Alaska is rejecting our request from the president of the United States to tell us what our policy is? We don't have a post-war policy for development in Iraq. We have failed intelligence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: This was George Tenet's first appearance before Congress on the issue of questionable intelligence but it will not be his last. He is expected to be back up here again, both for more closed door inquiries and for public hearings that are expected to start in September just as that presidential campaign, at least on the Democratic side, is really heating up -- Aaron.

BROWN: And the public hearings in the early fall, they'll be before the Intelligence Committee or would that be a different committee in the Congress?

KARL: At the very least it will be before the Intelligence Committee, possibly other committees as well. The Armed Services Committee is planning hearings and there are others under consideration but certainly before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.

BROWN: So, August may be quiet but this is hardly going away?

KARL: That's right.

BROWN: Thank you, Jon, Jonathan Karl in Washington as well tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll have more on this flap over intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. We'll talk to Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden from the Intelligence Committee. He was there when George Tenet, the CIA Director, testified today.

And, later, America's first true road trip, we'll talk with filmmaker Ken Burns about his new project called "Horatio's Drive," a terrific story that.

We continue in a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We concede at the outset here there are certain limitations to interviewing a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee about hearings that take place behind closed doors. That said, we also like a good challenge, so we're pleased to have Senator Ron Wyden with us, Democrat, from the state of Oregon. He's in our Washington Bureau. Senator, good to see you.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Thank you.

BROWN: Anything said in that hearing today in your view that could not have been said in an open public hearing?

WYDEN: I do think it was appropriate to have this first session one behind closed doors. The public hearings are going to be even more important to get the most accountability with Sunshine but I think it was appropriate to begin the way we did today.

BROWN: Because?

WYDEN: Because this was fact finding. Certainly, the challenge now is to not politicize this. I will tell you, Aaron, I've been hearing all day about people saying that this is political. I'd be asking the tough question now, the questions that the American people deserve to have asked no matter who is involved in this.

BROWN: We heard a few moments ago Senator Roberts describe the director's testimony today as contrite, candid, and forthcoming. Would you agree with all of that?

WYDEN: Well, I feel a bit badly for George Tenet tonight. I've got to tell you I don't think I know anybody who doesn't feel that he fell on a sword on this. You kind of get the sense a little bit that the truth seems to belong to the administration. If there were factual problems, misrepresentations, now they're being put at George Tenet's door. So, I feel a little bad for him tonight.

BROWN: Have you lost confidence in him as the director of the CIA based on this whole episode?

WYDEN: Well, I think we've got a long way to go before we say that we have confidence given the way this has been handled. Clearly, the truth didn't get to all of the relevant agencies and my own sense is some of the parties who got the truth didn't like it and wouldn't accept it. So, it's important that the committee continue the hearings and that's what's ahead.

BROWN: You believe that, if I understood that answer, let me play it back and make sure I understand it. You are suggesting at the very least that somebody in the administration was trying to politicize, if you will, intelligence, trying to get the answer it wanted, whether it was the truthful answer or not, are you saying that?

WYDEN: I do believe that there were some in the administration who made the judgment at the very beginning that they wanted to go to war and, in effect, they went on something of a scavenger hunt to try to get any possible information that would justify it. Now, we've got to follow the details, dig into exactly who said what when and get to the bottom of this.

BROWN: Do you think you know who?

WYDEN: Right now we're a long way from being able to determine that. You look, for example, at this matter of the uranium from Africa. Clearly, there were many in the intelligence branch who were very skeptical about this. They didn't think that this idea had any credence but the second the British got involved in it they jumped on it sort of like a duck on a June bug and those kinds of matters trouble me.

BROWN: So, where in terms of the facts of this, the administration has argued essentially that it was a mistake -- that it was a mistake that this got into the State of the Union speech but I think there's another argument that says it wasn't a mistake. Somebody wanted it in there. It didn't just happen to be in there. Somebody wanted it in there. Do you think we will ever know who wanted it in there?

WYDEN: We're going to continue to examine that. I will tell you I'm convinced that George Tenet and the CIA were not out there exactly battling to have this information in the State of the Union speech. I think they doubted the quality of the intelligence and my sense is that there were others in the administration who pushed very hard for it.

They prevailed and that's why we're going to continue this inquiry to find out exactly how it happened. The American people have got to have intelligence that is accurate and objective. They need to know, for example, whether the threat of war was as serious as was portrayed.

BROWN: Do you think this is the 16 words, if you will, if it was an isolated incident or the tip of an iceberg?

WYDEN: We're going to look at other issues, for example the question of the aluminum tubes, the question of these trucks on which bio weapons may have been placed. There are differing opinions with respect to how these materials might be used and we have to inquire further but, certainly at this point, I will tell you I'm concerned that there may here be a pattern of shading of the facts and that is not what the American people have a right to expect.

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

WYDEN: Thank you.

BROWN: Senator Wyden, Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon tonight.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Washington tomorrow for a meeting with President Bush. He got a pretty rough sendoff today during question time as they call it in the parliament. It begins our roundup. (Unintelligible) grilling him on weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, and what is known in Britain as the dodgy dossier. One lawmaker asking if the real problem is the prime minister.

The remains of three American servicemen have been recovered in Sicily, four still missing tonight. They were onboard a Navy helicopter that crashed this morning on its way back to a base nearby. Why it went down still not know, still under investigation.

And, American peacekeepers have yet to arrive in Liberia but aid workers from the Red Cross now have. The first shipment of food arrived today along with blankets and clothing for about 30,000 people made homeless by the fighting there.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, rebuilding the World Trade Center and a new agreement between the developer and the architect to make nice, details in a moment.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When a plan was picked for rebuilding Ground Zero back in February, it was tempting to imagine that this singular vision would somehow leap from the drafting table to the streets of Lower Manhattan.

The fact is it was never going to be simply one man's design. Big projects never are and we can't imagine a project bigger than this or one with more competing interests.

So, it's no surprise that the architect, Daniel Libeskind, has been in a contest of wills with developers and, no surprise, that he's been forced to compromise either.

Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was what is called in journalism circles a photo-op.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to get to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If body language says anything, this is the picture.

CARROLL: Architect Daniel Libeskind smiled as he posed with the men who may change his version of what to build at ground zero.

DAVID CHILDS, ARCHITECT: We're working together. It's going to be the best building in the world. And it's going to be...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spectacular.

CHILDS: Spectacular.

CARROLL: No longer taking the designing lead alone, Libeskind will now be working with David Childs, an architect for the man who, for months, Libeskind was at odds with, developer Larry Silverstein, who is already rebuilding an office tower next to the site.

DANIEL LIBESKIND, ARCHITECT: It is going to be a collaboration. It's going to be something really dramatic. And it's going to restore the skyline of New York.

CARROLL: In February, Libeskind's design was chosen during an international competition, one where he actually beat Childs' firm. Libeskind's plan: the world's tallest building, a spire-like tower, 1,776 feet, open space for a memorial. The problem? Silverstein, who holds the lease to the Trade Center, wants more commercial space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to put back $6.7 billion worth of buildings.

CARROLL: The two argued. Silverstein now has the upper hand on the signature tower.

(on camera): Silverstein's critics are concerned, the developer's desire to build as much commercial space as possible will end up encroaching on Libeskind's artistic vision for the site.

ROBERT YARO, PRESIDENT, REGIONAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION: The danger is always that we don't sustain the integrity of the plan, and for selfish, commercial or economic reasons, that the integrity is undercut.

CARROLL: Yaro commissioned a rendition of a worst-case outcome. It's a World Trade Center site cluttered with buildings and stores overshadowing the memorial. When pressed on how much Libeskind's plan, which many in the public supported, will be altered, the new team remained positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our team. You see how well we

(CROSSTALK)

CARROLL: The new team will be under pressure to meet an aggressive deadline set by New York Governor George Pataki. He wants the tower done by 2008. The city, as well as the world, will be watching.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with the cleanup after Hurricane Claudette. Officials along the Gulf Coast of Texas say that Claudette caused more property damage than expected. Thousands remain without power. Texas Governor Rick Perry asked President Bush to declare 15 counties disaster area, but the real loss, of course, as it always is, is the human loss. Two people in the hurricane, killed by falling tree limbs.

The latest now on the sniper case: The trial for sniper suspect John Muhammad will be moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, out of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The judge said it had to be moved to ensure a fair trial. The decision means that the murder trials of both Muhammad and the teenage suspect, Lee Malvo, will be held in neighboring towns this fall. The judge moved Malvo's trial to Chesapeake earlier this month.

And a development of sorts in one of the great American mysteries of the last three decades: What ever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? The Teamsters leader disappeared in July of '75 outside Detroit. And today, police in suburban Detroit were digging up a backyard and draining a swimming pool. They were working on a tip from a convicted killer, who told them they would find a briefcase buried there with information related to the case. The police found nothing, ensuring, at least for now, the Hoffa mystery remains unsolved.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: time for a road trip, as filmmaker Ken Burns looks at the first cross-country car trip a century ago. This is a fascinating story. We'll tell it to you and show it to you after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And coming up next on NEWSNIGHT: author Ken Burns. And later: what surely is his favorite segment of the program, morning papers.

We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If you've seen the 1956 movie "Around the World in 80 Days," based on the novel by Jules Verne, you can imagine the scene: turn of the century, gentlemen in a gentlemen's club discussing the latest inventions of the day, scoffing at a horseless carriage as just a passing fad, and then making, as gentlemen did in those days, a small wager. But, in this case, it's all true.

"Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" is the latest work of Ken Burns' considerable energy, producing both a film and a book. We'll talk with Ken in a moment.

First, a bit of Horatio's Drive," which will debut this fall on PBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HORATIO'S DRIVE")

NARRATOR: On the evening of May 19, 1903, in the oak-paneled game room of the exclusive University Club in San Francisco, a group of well-to-do men were sharing drinks and conversation.

The talk centered on President Theodore Roosevelt's political fortunes and the chances that the Boston Pilgrims might take the pennant in the brand-new American League. Then the discussion turned to another topic, the future of a new machine that only recently had been showing up on the streets of major American cities, the horseless carriage.

A debate broke out. And one man, a stranger to the club, soon found himself completely outnumbered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The majority opinion was that, say, for short distances, the automobile was an unreliable novelty, a passing mechanical fancy which thinking men could do no other than discard. The horse, they said, continued to demonstrate his proper place as the dependable servant of mankind for travel" -- Horatio Nelson Jackson. NARRATOR: Horatio Nelson Jackson was a 31-year-old doctor from Burlington, Vermont. Three years earlier, after a mild case of tuberculosis, Jackson had given up his medical practice, but he was still energetic, optimistic, and brimming with new ideas.

That evening, Jackson argued that the automobile was more than a rich man's toy, suitable only for short drives on city boulevards. And he disagreed when most of the other men declared that one would never be driven across the continent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he heard some people in the next table talking about the horseless carriage, and how it was not going to last. It wasn't like the horse.

And he couldn't stand it. And he, I guess, got up from the table, went over and started talking to them about it. And, eventually, within a few short minutes, he took out his wallet, put $50 on the table, and said, I'll bet I can drive across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there was no turning back after that.

NARRATOR: Under the terms of the bet, Jackson would win the $50 if he made it all the way to New York City, something no one else had ever done before, in less than three months.

Only four days later, Horatio Nelson Jackson would set off from San Francisco on the greatest adventure of his life, an adventure that would mark the beginning of a new era in America and the end of another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: One of the great joys, actually, with Ken is watching Ken Burns watch a clip from his work.

You look like a proud papa. It's nice to see you again.

KEN BURNS, FILMMAKER: It's nice to see you, too.

BROWN: It's a movie. It's a book, "Horatio's Drive." It's the whole package, as you -- there we go -- as you often do. Where did the story come from? Had you known about the story?

BURNS: My partner, Dayton Duncan, who I've made a lot of films with, "Lewis & Clark," "The West," "Mark Twain" most recently, came to me with this story 12 years ago. And I said, this is great, the first cross-country, a bet. He ends up buying a dog. And they all wear goggles. And they are pictures.

BROWN: Yes.

BURNS: But it wasn't together. And, finally, he and his wife, Dianne, hunted down all the letters and telegrams that Horatio Nelson Jackson wrote. And we finally had a real person and real story and this wonderful arc across the country and across the generations. And we had a film. BROWN: I haven't watched it all yet. But what I saw, it's actually -- it's an interesting -- it's several things to me. It's an American story. I want to talk about that.

BURNS: Right. Yes.

BROWN: But it's also a character story. It's Horatio. It's the fellow he rides with. It's the dog. And it's Horatio's wife, who becomes an important character, in her own way.

BURNS: Right, an off-stage character.

BROWN: Yes.

BURNS: We don't have her letters to him, because, undoubtedly, they bounced off the car. But she kept all the letters that he sent to her. And they're fabulous.

And we were fortunate enough to have Tom Hanks bring them to life. And he's the American everyman. And this is a story of character, of indomitable American courage and basically sticking with something when everything is going wrong.

BROWN: He had foresight in a lot of ways. No. 1, he obviously had a vision of the car. But he was smart enough to take a camera with him.

BURNS: He was. He took a little Kodak camera. He took more than 100 photographs. We got them all. And we then went to the various Podunk Western towns who had never seen a car before and went to their historical societies and got the photographs that they took of him. And then we mounted a camera on our car and went across the country and retraced his steps.

BROWN: There's a wonderful little scene early in the film where they're trying to get from here to there. I'm not sure where they're going. And a woman says, well, no, go down this fork in the road.

BURNS: They're trying to go to Marysville, California. And he says, which way to Marysville? And this woman on a horse says, down this road. They go 50 miles down the road, comes to a complete dead end. There's a farm there. Everyone piles out at the farm. And they say, no, no, no, no. Marysville, you have to go back another 50 miles. They head back. And they ask the woman, why did you send us back there?

And she goes: Pa had never seen a car before.

BROWN: What is it about, do you think, a car trip? I think we're roughly the same age, maybe a little younger, but there were a time when we were all driving across the country. We were going from Minneapolis or New York to California and back. People -- Americans have been doing that -- I don't know. Maybe the French kids do this, too. But I think there's something American about this.

BURNS: It's totally American, because it intersects with the availability of a thing called the car, a big continent that we can cross, and a whole country that's been configured with the idea that: I can move.

We can move up in class. We can move in space. We don't have to follow the timetable of a railroad, which is the European tradition, or the stage. We're not required by our government to stay in one place. We can travel. And so, when you get an automobile that offers personal freedom, you're able to get in that car and move and go where you want to go. And then, all of a sudden, people have experiences with friends, with loved ones.

They travel across the country. They drink in the country. And a road trip works itself on to our hard drive as something every American has some sort of experience with, good and bad, positive road trips, negative road trips, whatever it is. There's something wonderful about being on a road you've never been on before and wondering what it was like the first time it was seen by a human being.

BROWN: Was there anything in Horatio's life to that point that suggested he would be this great adventurer?

BURNS: Well, not really. He was a 31-year-old doctor. You heard, he retired.

BROWN: You would have to be someone of stature who had some money.

BURNS: He married rich.

BROWN: There you go.

BURNS: His wife was the daughter of the richest man in Vermont. He was the founder of Paine's Celery Compound, 20 percent grain alcohol, and, of course, a great 19th century cure-all that probably didn't cure anything, except made you happy.

BROWN: That cured something.

BURNS: Exactly.

And I think he had an adventurous spirit. He was always trying something new. This is an age when the automobile industry is like the computer industry. Everybody is in their garage trying to figure out something. It hadn't been shaking out

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: And the car is what? We haven't mentioned that, I don't think.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNS: It's a 1903 cherry red Winton. We like to say, this is a great story and the histories that we do are running on all cylinders. This is a story running on two cylinders. BROWN: Quickly, this is not one of those 26-part deals, right?

BURNS: No, no. It's actually one part.

BROWN: One hour

(CROSSTALK)

BURNS: I don't know what happened.

BROWN: I don't either.

BURNS: Well, I'll try to make it longer.

BROWN: You're running out of steam. Nice to see you. It's great fun.

BURNS: Thank you. It is fun.

BROWN: Thank you, Ken Burns.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the queen of salsa. We'll look back at the life of late Celia Cruz.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Lead story right now on "The Miami Herald"'s Web site is not about Iraq. It's a story that's intensely personal for the readers there with their roots in Cuba. It's a tribute to Celia Cruz, the queen of salsa, who embodied the spirit and the music of the land they loved and left behind, music she brought to millions around the world. Celia Cruz died today.

And CNN's Maria Hinojosa has a remembrance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around the world, she was known as la rena de la salsa, the queen of salsa. There were so many Celia Cruz trademarks, "Azucar," or "Sugar," was her signature chant.

Her outfits, one more outrageous, more outlandish than the next. Her hair color, unpredictable, hairstyles that broke ground. That fabulous, unforgettable, gap-toothed smile. And her decades-old inseparable relationship with her musician husband, Pedro Knight.

Celia Cruz, La Guarachera del Mundo, was an international music star.

AURORA FLORES, MUSICOLOGIST: American audiences, when they first saw her, she was already a senior person. So with Celia, when American audience saw this elderly woman on stage, with these very voluptuous outfits that showed off her zaftig, curved body, and then dancing up a storm, and these very sensual movements while she's singing at this rapid-fire taka-taka-taka pace, with words, she was incredible.

HINOJOSA: Celia Cruz was a groundbreaker, one of the first female singers to headline a salsa band, one of the first black Latina women to achieve worldwide recognition. She won seven Grammys, three honorary doctorates, including one from Yale University. Salsa star Johnny Pacheco called her the Ella Fitzgerald of Latin music.

JOHNNY PACHECO, MUSICIAN: One of a kind. There will never be another Celia, I don't think so. I think it's going to take about 100 years. She is the queen and one of the greatest human beings ever.

HINOJOSA: A singer who breathed life into old standards and always pushed salsa to its limits. A final trademark, Celia Cruz always said she would die on-stage singing. It was the one dream that didn't come la gran Celia Cruz.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. And that's about how much voice I have left. Two minutes, here we go.

"The New York Times," all the news that fits. Or, actually, that's all the news fits print, but -- well. "U.S. Commander in Iraq says new troops may be needed to combat guerrilla war. A shift in tactics. Year-long tours, double the normal duration, could be ordered." That's the big front-page story in "The Times." A good feature in "The Times," they sent a reporter to Cincinnati, Ohio. "In Ohio, Iraq questions shake even some of the Bush's faithful." That's an important state for the president in a reelection, the state of Ohio. That's a nice story idea by "The New York Times."

"Boston Herald" basically runs the same story, but it's tabloid, so it runs it a little more directly on the front page, doesn't it? "It's War. Critics rip Iraq as more soldiers die." But the headline, "It's War." And a very -- just a nice picture there on the front page of "The Boston Herald." We haven't seen that for a while.

"The Chicago Sun-Times" leads local: "City Finds Flaws in Hundreds of Porches." They started checking porches after that terrible accident in Chicago. They do a nice picture on the front page, too. And the weather tomorrow is Chicago is knockout. Well, I assume that's really good, right, unless you're on the receiving end.

What did I like? Oh, "The Detroit Free Press." Every now and then, I forget what I'm doing in this segment: "No Hoffa Clues Turn Up During Bay County Dig." I knew that would be on the front page. I actually thought it would be a bigger story in Detroit than it was, but it's not.

In "The San Francisco Chronicle" -- we haven't seen this one in a while. A lot of the predictable stories: "Bush Popularity Plummets in the State." It tends to be a Democratic state, the state of California. But down at the bottom, man, is this a San Francisco story or what? "Crystal Ball Crackdown: New San Francisco Fortune Teller Law." Gypsy Sensitivities taken into account. Well, yes, I would hope so.

Time for one more? I guess so. How much time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four.

BROWN: Twenty-four and counting, I guess.

"The Washington Times," the other paper in Washington -- or this paper in Washington -- "Enemy Force Uses Guerrilla Tactics in Iraq." "Assessment Differs From Rumsfeld." On the front page, they note that.

That's morning papers. That's the program. We are all back here tomorrow, including me, 10:00 Eastern time. Join us.

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





First Gulf War; Abizaid Calls Iraqi Campaign 'Guerrilla War'; Driver Kills 8 in Santa Monica>


Aired July 16, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Two important milestones were reached today in Iraq. You could see them both coming. Today the number of American combat deaths exceeded the number of combat deaths in the first Gulf War and this war clearly is a long ways from over which leads to the second milestone.

The general now in charge of Central Command acknowledged what has seemed clear, though aggressively denied, for weeks. This is a guerrilla war. It is organized. It is getting more sophisticated by the day.

Iraq is not our lead story tonight but it's right there at the top and General John Abizaid's words are a reminder it's going to stay at the top for some time to come.

We begin the whip tonight with a terrible car accident in Santa Monica, California. Dan Lothian is there for us tonight, Dan a headline.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, the street behind me was packed with vendors and shoppers this afternoon for the weekly farmers' market when a car came barreling through. Eight people are dead, dozens of others are injured -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, back to you at the top tonight.

On to the war in Iraq, more violence aimed at U.S. troops today, Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre tonight, Jamie the headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you said, the top general in charge isn't mincing words any more. This is, he said, a classic guerrilla war and the prospect of surface-to- air missiles fired at U.S. aircraft landing at Baghdad International means that that airport won't be reopening anytime soon -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you.

On to the controversy over Iraq, the claim about uranium from one African country. Bob Franken today following the trail of documents that led to the charge, Bob the headline from you. BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Aaron, if the latest explanations are to be believed then one has to wonder if the handling of the intelligence was intelligent.

BROWN: Bob, thank you, we'll get details coming up.

And, the fallout from the controversy continued today on Capitol Hill. The CIA director questioned behind closed doors. Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl trying to figure out what's going on in that room, Jon a headline.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, sources familiar with the hearing, familiar with George Tenet's testimony, say that the CIA director was contrite, that he took full responsibility saying that although he had been given a copy of the president's speech he never actually read it, but still Democrats on the committee were saying the responsibility lies not with the Central Intelligence Agency but with the White House.

BROWN: Jon, thank you, good to see you again, back to all of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, an update on rebuilding Lower Manhattan, a compromise reached in a clash that pits the architect's vision of Ground Zero against the demands of the developer.

The story of a great American pioneer whose name is not Lewis or Clark, Horatio Nelson Jackson the man behind the first cross-country road trip. He's the focus of Ken Burns' latest documentary. We'll talk with Ken tonight about Horatio's drive.

We'll also remember the "Queen of Salsa," Celia Cruz, the voice, the look, and one remarkable smile.

And, for those of you who absolutely, positively have to have their morning news tonight, we'll have our usual look through tomorrow morning's papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with devastation tonight in Santa Monica, California, a sad bit of proof, not that we needed any, that it doesn't necessarily take a terrorist to create moments of terror. It doesn't take a dirty bomb or even a deliberate act from all we are learning, just an elderly man, a Buick, and a street crowded with shoppers.

We begin tonight with CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): The weekly Santa Monica farmers' market, just minutes from closing, suddenly erupts into chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw a triage going on, probably about 40 people got all the way down to the other end where the car was. The car was racked up pretty bad, a dead body in the front covered. I've never seen anything like it. It's totally incredible. LOTHIAN: Police say an 86-year-old man behind the wheel of a fast-moving 1992 Buick, he claims he couldn't stop, plows through three and a half blocks of a crowded street closed to traffic.

LORE CAULFIELD, WITNESS: It looked like a Sherman tank barreling through, hitting everything, just going right over people.

ERIC LEONARD, POOL REPORTER: There's fruits and vegetables jammed into some of the broken pieces of the car, shoes laying on the top of the car, and the airbags went off. There's also a dead body laying right in front of the car and that's where the police say the driver finally stopped.

LOTHIAN: Vendors and shoppers became victims, a trail of death, destruction, and disturbing scenes, even difficult for the city's police chief to talk about.

CHIEF JAMES BUTTS, SANTA MONICA POLICE DEPARTMENT: They were confronted with the single most devastating accident scene that I've ever witnessed in 30 years of law enforcement.

LOTHIAN: At least 100 emergency crews and police responded. Some victims were treated on the scene. Others were rushed immediately to area hospitals, an overwhelming task in a beachside community stunned by the damage caused by one fast-moving car.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: And, Aaron, the latest numbers we have now, eight people confirmed dead, 15 people are hospitalized in critical condition. Some 40 others also have been hospitalized are being treated for what we are told are moderate to minor injuries.

Now, some additional information we're getting about the driver of the car, officials telling us that he told them in an interview that he saw the market but he simply couldn't stop, apparently pressing the gas pedal instead of the brakes. He has been released by police after being questioned. So far, no charges pending but there could be charged in the future -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, he was not -- obviously he was not seriously hurt. Is there any suggestion -- does he suggest there was a mechanical problem with the car?

LOTHIAN: At this point we simply don't know.

BROWN: OK.

LOTHIAN: All he is telling police is that he tried to hit the brakes and apparently hit the gas pedal.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, tough day down in Santa Monica, California, thank you.

On to Iraq now, in his first news conference today, the commander of the American coalition forces, General John Abizaid signaled an about face on the war. First of all, he called what's going on there now a war, a guerrilla war, an organized effort, he said.

As a matter of fact, the general conceded most of the points his civilian bosses have soft pedaled up until now, including the fact that morale is suffering there and, as he spoke, the facts on the ground bore him out.

Here again, our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Another convoy attack in Baghdad and U.S. soldiers cover the body of a dead comrade by the side of the road, the latest victim in what the Pentagon no longer denies is a deadly guerrilla war.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: What I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us.

MCINTYRE: It's a war that has now claimed at least 148 American lives in combat, surpassing the number of hostile deaths in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and new threats abound.

Plans to reopen the Baghdad International Airport have been delayed after a C-130 crew reported a shoulder-fired missile fired at its plane as it was landing. So, the U.S. is digging in for the long haul, working out a rotation plan to maintain a force of about 160,000 U.S. and coalition troops and considering one year tours of duty for American forces.

As for the war weary 3rd Infantry Division it has a new promise that it will be on its way home by September, a year after it deployed. Even as the top commander expressed his displeasure with some of the griping, especially a TV report in which a soldier said if Donald Rumsfeld was there he would ask for his resignation.

ABIZAID: None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense or the president of the United States. We're not free to do that. It's our professional code.

MCINTYRE: Complaining soldiers could be reprimanded but not much will happen to them. They are doing dirty, dangerous work and the Pentagon admits it owes all U.S. troops in Iraq a better idea of when they are coming home.

ABIZAID: We will insist upon ensuring that every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine know what their end dates are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Now, General Abizaid did say that some al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists are involved in the attacks against U.S. troops but he says the main enemy remains what he called midlevel Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein, and while he said their tactics are getting more sophisticated the U.S. military, he says, is adapting and will prevail -- Aaron. BROWN: Jamie, actually two questions. When they talk about the 160,000 and however many of those are American, perhaps 140,000 or so, are these going to be reserves or active duty soldiers?

MCINTYRE: Well, most of these are going to be active duty soldiers, although there's quite a few reserves mobilized as part of this already but they're going to replace, for instance, the 3rd Infantry Division with American troops from the Army, most likely from active duty forces.

But they do have to -- they are concerned about reorganizing the reserves because they need more of the specialties that are in the reserves than the active duty force and they've got a long term plan to rebalance the forces they call it.

BROWN: And, on the other point, the importance today of the general acknowledging, if you will, that this is a guerrilla war when you had a memorable exchange just a couple of weeks ago with the defense secretary on this very subject.

MCINTYRE: Well, at the time we were raising that point military experts and, as I said, many people in the building conceded that this had all the earmarks of a classic guerrilla insurgency. My question to Secretary Rumsfeld at the time was why was he so reluctant to concede that point.

And, once again, we got in an argument about the premise of the question but, you know, the point the Pentagon makes is no matter what you call it the war is not over yet. The fighting is not over and they claim they've never disputed that, that when President Bush back on May 1 declared an end to the major combat that he never said the war was over.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon tonight.

No sign of a let up to the other side of this story, the controversy over the justification for the war or at least a part of the justification for the war. Today, the president's new spokesman was peppered with questions on the subject of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. The White House today much more aggressive in responding calling this all politics, these attacks on the president's credibility.

And, today, we also learned that the FBI is looking into who forged the documents. Those 16 words in the State of the Union speech were based on these documents. They want to know who forged them and why. And, we got a look at those documents themselves.

With that, here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Part of the controversy over the Bush administration's effort to sell the war with Iraq has been a reliance on the Niger documents. REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: Big questions remain about who forged the documents and the paper trail that followed.

FRANKEN: The Italian newspaper "La Republica" provided CNN copies of those documents. They indicate Niger was going to supply uranium to Iraq. One section calls it a: "protocol of agreement between the government of Niger and the government of Iraq related to supply of uranium signed on July 5 and 6, 2000 in Niamey."

According to sources, the information but not the documents themselves was given to the CIA by a foreign intelligence service in February, 2002. The CIA sent envoy Joe Wilson to Niger to investigate. He reported back the allegations were most likely false.

Senior administration officials say the U.S. Embassy in Rome received a copy of the documents in October, 2002, and passed them on to the State Department and to the CIA station chief at the embassy.

FBI investigators have been told the station chief never forwarded them to CIA headquarters and, even though sources insist the State Department offered the documents to all relevant agencies, intelligence officials say the Central Intelligence Agency did not get a copy until four months later in February, 2003, after the State of the Union address. The documents were turned over to the International Atomic Energy Agency which quickly dismissed them as phonies.

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: We have, therefore, concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded.

FRANKEN: Experts cite a number of mistakes in the papers. The president of Niger's signature is apparently fake. One document, dated October 2000, contains the signature of a foreign minister who left office in 1989, and a 1999 document referred to events in 2000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: The U.S. government and, in particular, the British insist that the documents are not their only evidence. Publicly, however, they've been unable or unwilling to describe their sources -- Aaron.

BROWN: Now, tell us things you can and to the extent you know about the FBI and what the FBI is looking at and the extent to which there is a federal crime or there might have been a federal crime committed here.

FRANKEN: Well, they may be looking at -- in fact, we are told that they're looking at the possibility of fraud, that somebody in fact under false pretenses affected U.S. policy. That would be the extent of their investigation and, of course, they're looking to see if there was something that was criminally mishandled but probably more of the former.

BROWN: Bob, thank you very much, Bob Franken in Washington tonight. A moment ago we heard a bit from Saxby Chambliss, the Republican Senator from Georgia. For the Senator and his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee it was a long day at the office today, longer still for the Director of the CIA George Tenet who came to answer their questions. The focus was on the intelligence leading up to the war but also how that intelligence was used or, as some have said, misused.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice-over): CIA Director George Tenet did not look like a man under fire as he emerged from five hours of closed door testimony.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: The director was very contrite. He was very candid. He was very forthcoming and accepted full responsibility.

KARL: According to sources familiar with his testimony, Tenet said he had been given a copy of the president's State of the Union speech but never actually read it before it was delivered.

Democrats emerged from the hearing saying the CIA director may have been negligent but he does not bear full responsibility for the faulty intelligence that made it into the speech.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Director Tenet took the blame, was terrific about it. In my mind there remains the question of whether, in fact, that's where it should stop. I tend to think not and I think we have to face up to that.

KARL: The lone presidential candidate on the committee came out of the hearing blaming George Bush, not George Tenet.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's enormously important for the president himself and the White House to take responsibility for what the president himself says.

KARL: Earlier at the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan accused Democrats of playing politics with national security.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: The last thing anyone should do is politicize this issue by rewriting history. There are some where the present rhetoric does not match their past record.

KARL: As Tenet faced the Intelligence Committee, a verbal firestorm erupted on the Senate floor over an amendment pushed by Ted Kennedy to require the president to set a time table for getting international support to rebuild Iraq. Alaska's Ted Stevens accused Kennedy of trying to micro manage the president's foreign policy.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R), ALASKA: The president of the United States is the president of the United States. I really can't believe anyone would vote for this amendment.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We have American servicemen that are like a shooting gallery over there and the Senator from Alaska is rejecting our request from the president of the United States to tell us what our policy is? We don't have a post-war policy for development in Iraq. We have failed intelligence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: This was George Tenet's first appearance before Congress on the issue of questionable intelligence but it will not be his last. He is expected to be back up here again, both for more closed door inquiries and for public hearings that are expected to start in September just as that presidential campaign, at least on the Democratic side, is really heating up -- Aaron.

BROWN: And the public hearings in the early fall, they'll be before the Intelligence Committee or would that be a different committee in the Congress?

KARL: At the very least it will be before the Intelligence Committee, possibly other committees as well. The Armed Services Committee is planning hearings and there are others under consideration but certainly before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.

BROWN: So, August may be quiet but this is hardly going away?

KARL: That's right.

BROWN: Thank you, Jon, Jonathan Karl in Washington as well tonight.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll have more on this flap over intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. We'll talk to Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden from the Intelligence Committee. He was there when George Tenet, the CIA Director, testified today.

And, later, America's first true road trip, we'll talk with filmmaker Ken Burns about his new project called "Horatio's Drive," a terrific story that.

We continue in a moment. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We concede at the outset here there are certain limitations to interviewing a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee about hearings that take place behind closed doors. That said, we also like a good challenge, so we're pleased to have Senator Ron Wyden with us, Democrat, from the state of Oregon. He's in our Washington Bureau. Senator, good to see you.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Thank you.

BROWN: Anything said in that hearing today in your view that could not have been said in an open public hearing?

WYDEN: I do think it was appropriate to have this first session one behind closed doors. The public hearings are going to be even more important to get the most accountability with Sunshine but I think it was appropriate to begin the way we did today.

BROWN: Because?

WYDEN: Because this was fact finding. Certainly, the challenge now is to not politicize this. I will tell you, Aaron, I've been hearing all day about people saying that this is political. I'd be asking the tough question now, the questions that the American people deserve to have asked no matter who is involved in this.

BROWN: We heard a few moments ago Senator Roberts describe the director's testimony today as contrite, candid, and forthcoming. Would you agree with all of that?

WYDEN: Well, I feel a bit badly for George Tenet tonight. I've got to tell you I don't think I know anybody who doesn't feel that he fell on a sword on this. You kind of get the sense a little bit that the truth seems to belong to the administration. If there were factual problems, misrepresentations, now they're being put at George Tenet's door. So, I feel a little bad for him tonight.

BROWN: Have you lost confidence in him as the director of the CIA based on this whole episode?

WYDEN: Well, I think we've got a long way to go before we say that we have confidence given the way this has been handled. Clearly, the truth didn't get to all of the relevant agencies and my own sense is some of the parties who got the truth didn't like it and wouldn't accept it. So, it's important that the committee continue the hearings and that's what's ahead.

BROWN: You believe that, if I understood that answer, let me play it back and make sure I understand it. You are suggesting at the very least that somebody in the administration was trying to politicize, if you will, intelligence, trying to get the answer it wanted, whether it was the truthful answer or not, are you saying that?

WYDEN: I do believe that there were some in the administration who made the judgment at the very beginning that they wanted to go to war and, in effect, they went on something of a scavenger hunt to try to get any possible information that would justify it. Now, we've got to follow the details, dig into exactly who said what when and get to the bottom of this.

BROWN: Do you think you know who?

WYDEN: Right now we're a long way from being able to determine that. You look, for example, at this matter of the uranium from Africa. Clearly, there were many in the intelligence branch who were very skeptical about this. They didn't think that this idea had any credence but the second the British got involved in it they jumped on it sort of like a duck on a June bug and those kinds of matters trouble me.

BROWN: So, where in terms of the facts of this, the administration has argued essentially that it was a mistake -- that it was a mistake that this got into the State of the Union speech but I think there's another argument that says it wasn't a mistake. Somebody wanted it in there. It didn't just happen to be in there. Somebody wanted it in there. Do you think we will ever know who wanted it in there?

WYDEN: We're going to continue to examine that. I will tell you I'm convinced that George Tenet and the CIA were not out there exactly battling to have this information in the State of the Union speech. I think they doubted the quality of the intelligence and my sense is that there were others in the administration who pushed very hard for it.

They prevailed and that's why we're going to continue this inquiry to find out exactly how it happened. The American people have got to have intelligence that is accurate and objective. They need to know, for example, whether the threat of war was as serious as was portrayed.

BROWN: Do you think this is the 16 words, if you will, if it was an isolated incident or the tip of an iceberg?

WYDEN: We're going to look at other issues, for example the question of the aluminum tubes, the question of these trucks on which bio weapons may have been placed. There are differing opinions with respect to how these materials might be used and we have to inquire further but, certainly at this point, I will tell you I'm concerned that there may here be a pattern of shading of the facts and that is not what the American people have a right to expect.

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

WYDEN: Thank you.

BROWN: Senator Wyden, Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon tonight.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Washington tomorrow for a meeting with President Bush. He got a pretty rough sendoff today during question time as they call it in the parliament. It begins our roundup. (Unintelligible) grilling him on weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, and what is known in Britain as the dodgy dossier. One lawmaker asking if the real problem is the prime minister.

The remains of three American servicemen have been recovered in Sicily, four still missing tonight. They were onboard a Navy helicopter that crashed this morning on its way back to a base nearby. Why it went down still not know, still under investigation.

And, American peacekeepers have yet to arrive in Liberia but aid workers from the Red Cross now have. The first shipment of food arrived today along with blankets and clothing for about 30,000 people made homeless by the fighting there.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, rebuilding the World Trade Center and a new agreement between the developer and the architect to make nice, details in a moment.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When a plan was picked for rebuilding Ground Zero back in February, it was tempting to imagine that this singular vision would somehow leap from the drafting table to the streets of Lower Manhattan.

The fact is it was never going to be simply one man's design. Big projects never are and we can't imagine a project bigger than this or one with more competing interests.

So, it's no surprise that the architect, Daniel Libeskind, has been in a contest of wills with developers and, no surprise, that he's been forced to compromise either.

Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was what is called in journalism circles a photo-op.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to get to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If body language says anything, this is the picture.

CARROLL: Architect Daniel Libeskind smiled as he posed with the men who may change his version of what to build at ground zero.

DAVID CHILDS, ARCHITECT: We're working together. It's going to be the best building in the world. And it's going to be...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spectacular.

CHILDS: Spectacular.

CARROLL: No longer taking the designing lead alone, Libeskind will now be working with David Childs, an architect for the man who, for months, Libeskind was at odds with, developer Larry Silverstein, who is already rebuilding an office tower next to the site.

DANIEL LIBESKIND, ARCHITECT: It is going to be a collaboration. It's going to be something really dramatic. And it's going to restore the skyline of New York.

CARROLL: In February, Libeskind's design was chosen during an international competition, one where he actually beat Childs' firm. Libeskind's plan: the world's tallest building, a spire-like tower, 1,776 feet, open space for a memorial. The problem? Silverstein, who holds the lease to the Trade Center, wants more commercial space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to put back $6.7 billion worth of buildings.

CARROLL: The two argued. Silverstein now has the upper hand on the signature tower.

(on camera): Silverstein's critics are concerned, the developer's desire to build as much commercial space as possible will end up encroaching on Libeskind's artistic vision for the site.

ROBERT YARO, PRESIDENT, REGIONAL PLANNING ASSOCIATION: The danger is always that we don't sustain the integrity of the plan, and for selfish, commercial or economic reasons, that the integrity is undercut.

CARROLL: Yaro commissioned a rendition of a worst-case outcome. It's a World Trade Center site cluttered with buildings and stores overshadowing the memorial. When pressed on how much Libeskind's plan, which many in the public supported, will be altered, the new team remained positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our team. You see how well we

(CROSSTALK)

CARROLL: The new team will be under pressure to meet an aggressive deadline set by New York Governor George Pataki. He wants the tower done by 2008. The city, as well as the world, will be watching.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with the cleanup after Hurricane Claudette. Officials along the Gulf Coast of Texas say that Claudette caused more property damage than expected. Thousands remain without power. Texas Governor Rick Perry asked President Bush to declare 15 counties disaster area, but the real loss, of course, as it always is, is the human loss. Two people in the hurricane, killed by falling tree limbs.

The latest now on the sniper case: The trial for sniper suspect John Muhammad will be moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, out of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The judge said it had to be moved to ensure a fair trial. The decision means that the murder trials of both Muhammad and the teenage suspect, Lee Malvo, will be held in neighboring towns this fall. The judge moved Malvo's trial to Chesapeake earlier this month.

And a development of sorts in one of the great American mysteries of the last three decades: What ever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? The Teamsters leader disappeared in July of '75 outside Detroit. And today, police in suburban Detroit were digging up a backyard and draining a swimming pool. They were working on a tip from a convicted killer, who told them they would find a briefcase buried there with information related to the case. The police found nothing, ensuring, at least for now, the Hoffa mystery remains unsolved.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: time for a road trip, as filmmaker Ken Burns looks at the first cross-country car trip a century ago. This is a fascinating story. We'll tell it to you and show it to you after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And coming up next on NEWSNIGHT: author Ken Burns. And later: what surely is his favorite segment of the program, morning papers.

We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If you've seen the 1956 movie "Around the World in 80 Days," based on the novel by Jules Verne, you can imagine the scene: turn of the century, gentlemen in a gentlemen's club discussing the latest inventions of the day, scoffing at a horseless carriage as just a passing fad, and then making, as gentlemen did in those days, a small wager. But, in this case, it's all true.

"Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip" is the latest work of Ken Burns' considerable energy, producing both a film and a book. We'll talk with Ken in a moment.

First, a bit of Horatio's Drive," which will debut this fall on PBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HORATIO'S DRIVE")

NARRATOR: On the evening of May 19, 1903, in the oak-paneled game room of the exclusive University Club in San Francisco, a group of well-to-do men were sharing drinks and conversation.

The talk centered on President Theodore Roosevelt's political fortunes and the chances that the Boston Pilgrims might take the pennant in the brand-new American League. Then the discussion turned to another topic, the future of a new machine that only recently had been showing up on the streets of major American cities, the horseless carriage.

A debate broke out. And one man, a stranger to the club, soon found himself completely outnumbered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The majority opinion was that, say, for short distances, the automobile was an unreliable novelty, a passing mechanical fancy which thinking men could do no other than discard. The horse, they said, continued to demonstrate his proper place as the dependable servant of mankind for travel" -- Horatio Nelson Jackson. NARRATOR: Horatio Nelson Jackson was a 31-year-old doctor from Burlington, Vermont. Three years earlier, after a mild case of tuberculosis, Jackson had given up his medical practice, but he was still energetic, optimistic, and brimming with new ideas.

That evening, Jackson argued that the automobile was more than a rich man's toy, suitable only for short drives on city boulevards. And he disagreed when most of the other men declared that one would never be driven across the continent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he heard some people in the next table talking about the horseless carriage, and how it was not going to last. It wasn't like the horse.

And he couldn't stand it. And he, I guess, got up from the table, went over and started talking to them about it. And, eventually, within a few short minutes, he took out his wallet, put $50 on the table, and said, I'll bet I can drive across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there was no turning back after that.

NARRATOR: Under the terms of the bet, Jackson would win the $50 if he made it all the way to New York City, something no one else had ever done before, in less than three months.

Only four days later, Horatio Nelson Jackson would set off from San Francisco on the greatest adventure of his life, an adventure that would mark the beginning of a new era in America and the end of another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: One of the great joys, actually, with Ken is watching Ken Burns watch a clip from his work.

You look like a proud papa. It's nice to see you again.

KEN BURNS, FILMMAKER: It's nice to see you, too.

BROWN: It's a movie. It's a book, "Horatio's Drive." It's the whole package, as you -- there we go -- as you often do. Where did the story come from? Had you known about the story?

BURNS: My partner, Dayton Duncan, who I've made a lot of films with, "Lewis & Clark," "The West," "Mark Twain" most recently, came to me with this story 12 years ago. And I said, this is great, the first cross-country, a bet. He ends up buying a dog. And they all wear goggles. And they are pictures.

BROWN: Yes.

BURNS: But it wasn't together. And, finally, he and his wife, Dianne, hunted down all the letters and telegrams that Horatio Nelson Jackson wrote. And we finally had a real person and real story and this wonderful arc across the country and across the generations. And we had a film. BROWN: I haven't watched it all yet. But what I saw, it's actually -- it's an interesting -- it's several things to me. It's an American story. I want to talk about that.

BURNS: Right. Yes.

BROWN: But it's also a character story. It's Horatio. It's the fellow he rides with. It's the dog. And it's Horatio's wife, who becomes an important character, in her own way.

BURNS: Right, an off-stage character.

BROWN: Yes.

BURNS: We don't have her letters to him, because, undoubtedly, they bounced off the car. But she kept all the letters that he sent to her. And they're fabulous.

And we were fortunate enough to have Tom Hanks bring them to life. And he's the American everyman. And this is a story of character, of indomitable American courage and basically sticking with something when everything is going wrong.

BROWN: He had foresight in a lot of ways. No. 1, he obviously had a vision of the car. But he was smart enough to take a camera with him.

BURNS: He was. He took a little Kodak camera. He took more than 100 photographs. We got them all. And we then went to the various Podunk Western towns who had never seen a car before and went to their historical societies and got the photographs that they took of him. And then we mounted a camera on our car and went across the country and retraced his steps.

BROWN: There's a wonderful little scene early in the film where they're trying to get from here to there. I'm not sure where they're going. And a woman says, well, no, go down this fork in the road.

BURNS: They're trying to go to Marysville, California. And he says, which way to Marysville? And this woman on a horse says, down this road. They go 50 miles down the road, comes to a complete dead end. There's a farm there. Everyone piles out at the farm. And they say, no, no, no, no. Marysville, you have to go back another 50 miles. They head back. And they ask the woman, why did you send us back there?

And she goes: Pa had never seen a car before.

BROWN: What is it about, do you think, a car trip? I think we're roughly the same age, maybe a little younger, but there were a time when we were all driving across the country. We were going from Minneapolis or New York to California and back. People -- Americans have been doing that -- I don't know. Maybe the French kids do this, too. But I think there's something American about this.

BURNS: It's totally American, because it intersects with the availability of a thing called the car, a big continent that we can cross, and a whole country that's been configured with the idea that: I can move.

We can move up in class. We can move in space. We don't have to follow the timetable of a railroad, which is the European tradition, or the stage. We're not required by our government to stay in one place. We can travel. And so, when you get an automobile that offers personal freedom, you're able to get in that car and move and go where you want to go. And then, all of a sudden, people have experiences with friends, with loved ones.

They travel across the country. They drink in the country. And a road trip works itself on to our hard drive as something every American has some sort of experience with, good and bad, positive road trips, negative road trips, whatever it is. There's something wonderful about being on a road you've never been on before and wondering what it was like the first time it was seen by a human being.

BROWN: Was there anything in Horatio's life to that point that suggested he would be this great adventurer?

BURNS: Well, not really. He was a 31-year-old doctor. You heard, he retired.

BROWN: You would have to be someone of stature who had some money.

BURNS: He married rich.

BROWN: There you go.

BURNS: His wife was the daughter of the richest man in Vermont. He was the founder of Paine's Celery Compound, 20 percent grain alcohol, and, of course, a great 19th century cure-all that probably didn't cure anything, except made you happy.

BROWN: That cured something.

BURNS: Exactly.

And I think he had an adventurous spirit. He was always trying something new. This is an age when the automobile industry is like the computer industry. Everybody is in their garage trying to figure out something. It hadn't been shaking out

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: And the car is what? We haven't mentioned that, I don't think.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNS: It's a 1903 cherry red Winton. We like to say, this is a great story and the histories that we do are running on all cylinders. This is a story running on two cylinders. BROWN: Quickly, this is not one of those 26-part deals, right?

BURNS: No, no. It's actually one part.

BROWN: One hour

(CROSSTALK)

BURNS: I don't know what happened.

BROWN: I don't either.

BURNS: Well, I'll try to make it longer.

BROWN: You're running out of steam. Nice to see you. It's great fun.

BURNS: Thank you. It is fun.

BROWN: Thank you, Ken Burns.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the queen of salsa. We'll look back at the life of late Celia Cruz.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Lead story right now on "The Miami Herald"'s Web site is not about Iraq. It's a story that's intensely personal for the readers there with their roots in Cuba. It's a tribute to Celia Cruz, the queen of salsa, who embodied the spirit and the music of the land they loved and left behind, music she brought to millions around the world. Celia Cruz died today.

And CNN's Maria Hinojosa has a remembrance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around the world, she was known as la rena de la salsa, the queen of salsa. There were so many Celia Cruz trademarks, "Azucar," or "Sugar," was her signature chant.

Her outfits, one more outrageous, more outlandish than the next. Her hair color, unpredictable, hairstyles that broke ground. That fabulous, unforgettable, gap-toothed smile. And her decades-old inseparable relationship with her musician husband, Pedro Knight.

Celia Cruz, La Guarachera del Mundo, was an international music star.

AURORA FLORES, MUSICOLOGIST: American audiences, when they first saw her, she was already a senior person. So with Celia, when American audience saw this elderly woman on stage, with these very voluptuous outfits that showed off her zaftig, curved body, and then dancing up a storm, and these very sensual movements while she's singing at this rapid-fire taka-taka-taka pace, with words, she was incredible.

HINOJOSA: Celia Cruz was a groundbreaker, one of the first female singers to headline a salsa band, one of the first black Latina women to achieve worldwide recognition. She won seven Grammys, three honorary doctorates, including one from Yale University. Salsa star Johnny Pacheco called her the Ella Fitzgerald of Latin music.

JOHNNY PACHECO, MUSICIAN: One of a kind. There will never be another Celia, I don't think so. I think it's going to take about 100 years. She is the queen and one of the greatest human beings ever.

HINOJOSA: A singer who breathed life into old standards and always pushed salsa to its limits. A final trademark, Celia Cruz always said she would die on-stage singing. It was the one dream that didn't come la gran Celia Cruz.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. And that's about how much voice I have left. Two minutes, here we go.

"The New York Times," all the news that fits. Or, actually, that's all the news fits print, but -- well. "U.S. Commander in Iraq says new troops may be needed to combat guerrilla war. A shift in tactics. Year-long tours, double the normal duration, could be ordered." That's the big front-page story in "The Times." A good feature in "The Times," they sent a reporter to Cincinnati, Ohio. "In Ohio, Iraq questions shake even some of the Bush's faithful." That's an important state for the president in a reelection, the state of Ohio. That's a nice story idea by "The New York Times."

"Boston Herald" basically runs the same story, but it's tabloid, so it runs it a little more directly on the front page, doesn't it? "It's War. Critics rip Iraq as more soldiers die." But the headline, "It's War." And a very -- just a nice picture there on the front page of "The Boston Herald." We haven't seen that for a while.

"The Chicago Sun-Times" leads local: "City Finds Flaws in Hundreds of Porches." They started checking porches after that terrible accident in Chicago. They do a nice picture on the front page, too. And the weather tomorrow is Chicago is knockout. Well, I assume that's really good, right, unless you're on the receiving end.

What did I like? Oh, "The Detroit Free Press." Every now and then, I forget what I'm doing in this segment: "No Hoffa Clues Turn Up During Bay County Dig." I knew that would be on the front page. I actually thought it would be a bigger story in Detroit than it was, but it's not.

In "The San Francisco Chronicle" -- we haven't seen this one in a while. A lot of the predictable stories: "Bush Popularity Plummets in the State." It tends to be a Democratic state, the state of California. But down at the bottom, man, is this a San Francisco story or what? "Crystal Ball Crackdown: New San Francisco Fortune Teller Law." Gypsy Sensitivities taken into account. Well, yes, I would hope so.

Time for one more? I guess so. How much time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four.

BROWN: Twenty-four and counting, I guess.

"The Washington Times," the other paper in Washington -- or this paper in Washington -- "Enemy Force Uses Guerrilla Tactics in Iraq." "Assessment Differs From Rumsfeld." On the front page, they note that.

That's morning papers. That's the program. We are all back here tomorrow, including me, 10:00 Eastern time. Join us.

Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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First Gulf War; Abizaid Calls Iraqi Campaign 'Guerrilla War'; Driver Kills 8 in Santa Monica>