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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Interview With Roy Moore; Schwarzenegger Holds Press Conference; Investigation Into Bombing of U.N. Building in Iraq Continues

Aired August 20, 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.
I suppose if you intend to make a statement about God and government a 5,300-pound granite monument to the Ten Commandments will get the job done. As we suspect you know the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court placed such a moment at the state's courthouse and has been fighting ever since to keep it there.

The First Amendment being what it is and saying what it does presents the judge with a bit of a problem. The judge has not been deterred. So, here we are approaching the time when the monument must be removed and the judge so far, like the 5,300-pound piece of granite, is not budging. He'll explain why later in the program when he joins us.

And his story and what appears to be his defiance of the law begins the whip tonight. Fredricka Whitfield is in the capital Montgomery, Alabama, with the latest on the Ten Commandments battle, Fredricka welcome and a headline from you please.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice remains defiant and he has a lot of support here tonight as a federal court-imposed deadline to remove that granite Ten Commandments statue from this building approaches.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court today weighed in; however, the higher court decided not to intervene for now. So, will Chief Justice Roy Moore be held in contempt, that's the question and the headline tonight -- Aaron.

BROWN: Fredricka, thank you, we'll get to you at the top tonight.

On to California now the first formal news conference from candidate Schwarzenegger, Kelly Wallace in L.A. with that, Kelly the headline.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, critics of candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger accuse him of putting forward sound bytes as opposed to policy positions so today the actor broke his silence and revealed some specifics but he also said he doesn't believe voters expect any detailed plans from him right now -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you. The latest now in the investigation into yesterday's bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, David Ensor has been working that story from Washington for us, David a headline.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, they know what kind of bomb it was now and they're trying to figure out if it was a suicide attack. The answer to that question may help indicate whether it was Saddam's loyalists or Islamic extremists behind the biggest act of terrorism so far in post war Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you.

And, the response from Israel to yesterday's bombing on a bus in Jerusalem, Jim Bittermann is on location in Jerusalem tonight, Jim a headline.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, this evening the Palestinian Authority set some pretty bold goals for cracking down on terrorism. The Israeli government is warning what will happen if they are not reached -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jim, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, the South Dakota Congressman making national news not for his legislation but for his driving, a man is killed, prosecutors say it was because the Congressman ran a stop sign and he's had his share of driving problems in the past as well.

Parole granted for a '60s radical in prison for decades, supporters say long overdue. Families of the victims of the 1981 armored car robbery think it's a travesty, the latest on the fate of Kathy Boudin tonight.

And, the truly no muss, no fuss, way to keep up with what's in our morning papers, we do the dirty work for you, our nightly look through morning papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with the words of an attorney of a group fighting to keep church and state separate. It's time for Roy's rock to roll. Roy is Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore.

His rock is the Ten Commandments monument he put up in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, and the U.S. Supreme Court said today it would not stand in the way of its removal. It would not get involved yet. Already some of his supporters have been arrested and the night is still young.

We begin tonight with CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): In Montgomery at the Alabama Judicial Building gatherings for vocal prayer.

CROWD: For God is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

WHITFIELD: And passionate opposition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just upset. You can see I'm upset.

WHITFIELD: Deeply rooted feelings over this, a two and a half ton granite display of the Ten Commandments, financed by the State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who in the middle of the night two years ago helped put the monument at the center of the building rotunda.

A federal judge saying it's unconstitutional, a violation of the separation between church and state ordered it removed by midnight. Justice Moore, determined as ever.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: I have no intention of moving the monument.

WHITFIELD: Because, he says, the state's constitution supports him.

MOORE: To do my job I must acknowledge God.

WHITFIELD: Judge Moore was hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would grant his request for a stay. Wednesday, the higher court refused to intervene for now. Judge Moore could soon face a $5,000 a day fine doubling each week. Hours before the midnight deadline, over servings of fried chicken, sweet potatoes, and peas, at this table a healthy portion of debate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Judge Moore went about it wrong in relation to going to the Supreme Court instead of going through the normal appeals process.

WHITFIELD: Should Judge Moore be fined?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the law says that, yes. Is it fair that it's done that, probably not.

WHITFIELD: Has the legal battle come between neighbors?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see it as a truly divisive thing at this point.

WHITFIELD: Judge Moore's office says an independent legal defense fund is paying for his fight but taxpayers like Frank Burk (ph) wonder if other important state matters are being short changed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alabama should be more focused on moving from 48th, 49th, and 50th, to the top of the educational ladder in this country and I think kind of diverts our attention from what are the real pressing issues in Alabama are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And, if these very vocal supporters are successful and the monument remains throughout the evening, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Judge Moore say they plan to file an order of contempt and that could come as early as Thursday, a hearing would follow -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just quickly the people behind you are they all supporters of the judge or is there a mix of both supporters and opponents?

WHITFIELD: These are majority in support of the judge, in support of the granite display of the Ten Commandments inside and you can see right now behind me almost about 100 people who have turned out today, many of these folks who are here since early this morning at 8:00 a.m. Many of them were brought in by busses from as far away as California, Kansas, and throughout the deep south -- Aaron.

BROWN: Fredricka, thank you very much, still a lot of work ahead for you tonight.

And, in a few moments we'll talk about what's next in this battle. The judge himself joins us, the Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. That's coming up a little bit later in the program.

Another court now and another political football this one (unintelligible) if you will, today a federal judge in Los Angeles turned down efforts by the ACLU to delay California's recall election until next spring.

So October it will be and, as if to recognize time's a-wasting, Arnold Schwarzenegger today began getting specific, not exactly wonkish mind you but he did show a hint of policy ankle, the story from CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): Arnold Schwarzenegger started his first formal news conference since stepping into the race exactly two weeks ago with a charm offensive.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I would have wished to have this kind of a turnout when I did "Last Action Hero."

WALLACE: Criticized for being short on specifics, the actor turned politician for the first time said what he would do to try and pull California's budget out of the red.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Now, does this mean we are going to make cuts? Yes. Does this mean education is on the table? No. Does this mean I'm willing to raise taxes? No.

WALLACE: He showed some savvy as a politician refusing to make a no new taxes pledge.

SCHWARZENEGGER: We can never say never no.

WALLACE: But he refused to say what programs he would cut. SCHWARZENEGGER: (Unintelligible) may I remind you.

WALLACE: Earlier, Schwarzenegger tried to look the part meeting with his economic advisers including billionaire Warren Buffett. Buffett recently said he opposed California's voter imposed Proposition 13 which caps property taxes in the state. Schwarzenegger who supports the proposition jokingly reprimanded his top adviser.

SCHWARZENEGGER: First of all I told Warren if he mentions Prop 13 one more time he has to do 500 sit ups.

WALLACE: Some political observers say Schwarzenegger's event showed that he is the master showman and that reporters are still a bit star struck.

ARNOLD STEINBERG, GOP STRATEGIST: The Press Corps seems more interested in getting maximum coverage of a fun event than they are in asking tough probing questions.

WALLACE: Fewer reporters turned out to question another candidate, businessman Peter Ueberroth who formally kicked off his campaign unveiling a series of specific proposals including spending cuts to erase the state's budget deficit.

PETER UEBERROTH (R), CA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: California is in mess. It's in a real mess but we can get out of the mess and be great again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: The 135 candidates now have 47 days to get their messages out in what has already been a very unconventional race. Another sign of that Arnold Schwarzenegger was scheduled to do an interview tomorrow with shock jock Howard Stern.

Late tonight, though, that appearance was canceled, the Schwarzenegger campaign saying FTC requirements would call for all 135 candidates to get equal time on the Stern radio show -- Aaron.

BROWN: That would make for great radio I think. Thank you very much, Kelly, Kelly Wallace in Los Angeles tonight, all those candidates, Mr. Stern.

Now, to Governor Gray Davis, a man even his opponents concede is a master political tactician. It is largely what got him reelected last year. This time around, however, it seems to many that the circumstances call for more than good tactics. They call for a hard, driving politician. So, with support among his own party on the verge of eroding even more the governor today began campaigning hard.

CNN's Dan Lothian is covering the Democrats. He joins us tonight also from Los Angeles, Dan good evening.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.

Well, at this hour Davis is taking part in a town hall meeting in Los Angeles. It is being held at Channel 1. That's the source of news and information targeting young people. The governor is fielding questions on a number of issues, including the state's budget problems and the recall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: This recall is larger than just California. It's something that's been going on nationally for sometime. The Republicans couldn't beat President Clinton in 1996 so they tried to impeach him in '98. In 2000, it looked like Al Gore might actually win but they stopped the vote count in Florida.

Here in California I won the election fair and square last November and now nine months later the Republicans who financed this recall, through Darrell Issa, are trying to seize control just before a presidential election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, yesterday the governor promised he would crisscross the state in these few days leading up to the recall election to win over those frustrated voters. He began that journey today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): One day after vowing to fight to keep his job, Governor Gray Davis hit the campaign trail swinging, the target of one direct hit, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

DAVIS: Anyone who wants to take my job ought to have specific plans not just sound bytes or rehashed phrases from old movies.

LOTHIAN: Davis, accompanied by Senator Barbara Boxer was at the beach in Santa Monica touting a multi-million dollar grant to protect the environment. But protecting the governor's job from a recall appeared to be the overriding message.

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Californians should vote no on this recall and do it with zeal.

LOTHIAN: This campaign stop came less than two hours after a federal judge denied an ACLU lawsuit that would have delayed the recall election until spring. In a 29-page ruling, the judge concluded a delay over using the disputed punch card machines was not in the public's best interest.

RAMONA RIPSTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACLU: Needless to say we are disappointed. We brought this lawsuit not because we have an interest in the recall at all. We brought this lawsuit so that ever person's vote would be counted.

LOTHIAN: Political strategists had said more time would have benefited Davis. The governor's only response...

DAVIS: You know I have no control over what the courts do.

LOTHIAN: And there was more potential bad news for the governor, this time coming from Capitol Hill. Congressional sources tell CNN House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi plans to huddle with California's Democratic Congressional Delegation on Thursday, the agenda deciding whether to endorse Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. Governor Davis understands he faces an uphill battle but borrowing a page from a screenplay he warned not to count him out.

DAVIS: I think at the end of this, what's turned into a Hollywood movie, there's going to be a surprise ending.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: In an effort to show that he has done a lot of good for the state, the governor today pointed out that while the lights were out in other states last week there was plenty of power in California and he said that's because he's been doing a lot of work to get new power plants online -- Aaron.

BROWN: He has a lot of work to do. Dan, thank you very much.

Warren Olney is the dean of political broadcasters in California. He's been at it since 1966. Mr. Olney currently produces and anchors a public radio program "To the Point" originating from KCRW in Los Angeles. It's nice to have him on the program tonight, good to see you. Since "The Tonight Show" moment and the day or so after that what's changed in California?

WARREN OLNEY, KCRW RADIO HOST: Well, politically everything has changed in California and we now have a California media event that compares with natural disasters and O.J. Simpson in terms of international interest.

The Press Corps from all over the world is here, in addition of course to the entertainment press who are suddenly -- what was not a routine political event by any means but just a political event has been turned into something much bigger by the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

BROWN: Is Mr. Schwarzenegger a more formidable candidate today than he was a week ago?

OLNEY: That's a good question. There were those who said that after he made the appearance on "The Tonight Show" he had -- and he sort of went away, Warren Buffett made his unfortunate remark saying he was against Prop 13, which is the third de-rail of politics in California. People thought that Schwarzenegger had a bad week.

After today's appearance I would say that he's right back where he was when he started. He still hasn't told us what he thinks about much of anything. As you indicated he showed a little ankle but that was about it today and yet he got all of this media attention, enormous coverage, much more than Gray Davis did last night for example when he made a long speech, much awaited, explaining why it was that people ought to keep him in office after all. And, here is Schwarzenegger just wiping him off the charts in terms of political coverage, attention, ability to attract people to himself. I think he's right back where he was.

BROWN: Will Californians, you've been at this a while, will Californians demand policy from him?

OLNEY: Well, clearly the Schwarzenegger campaign is figuring that they won't. What he said today was that he doesn't want to raise taxes. He does, however, have to then cut the budget because we have an enormous deficit.

But he doesn't know yet exactly what he's going to cut because he says the budget is so complicated that nobody can understand it, not even these academicians and economists that he brought together today including Warren Buffett and George Schultz, the former secretary of state.

So, he's going to go to Sacramento and he's going to spend 60 days studying the budget before he tells us what he's going to cut, so the Democrats are saying wait a minute. This is Jesse Ventura II. You know you elect me now and I'll tell you later what it is that I really think. That does appear to be the strategy at the moment.

Now, he's got a debate coming up on September 17. He's negotiating to be part of it. He may have to therefore be actually in the room with other candidates. Maybe they can get some more specifics out of him but at the moment he doesn't seem willing to give any and I assume that the campaign is figuring people aren't going to demand it.

BROWN: Is the governor at this point relevant to any of this?

OLNEY: Well, of course the governor is relevant. He is, after all, the governor but it would appear, we just heard that Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Delegation are going to huddle tomorrow to decide whether or not to support Cruz Bustamante.

Barbara Boxer, our U.S. Senator, is already getting behind Bustamante and the argument is that you can be against the recall but you can just in case be in favor of this only Democrat, major Democrat who is on the ballot. It does appear that his own party is moving away from him in a very open way. Bustamante has made statements indicating that he's really not that close to Davis.

So, he's certainly relevant. He's going to sign bills when he goes back, when the legislature comes back into Sacramento before the election occurs. He's still got the enormous power of the governorship but as to whether or not he has a chance to stay in office I think the betting right now is probably not.

BROWN: And finally, and maybe I'm the only one who's intrigued by Mr. Ueberroth but I am and so tell me if he presents to Mr. Schwarzenegger any sort of problems.

OLNEY: There are a lot of people who are intrigued as you are by Peter Ueberroth. He's a very smart guy. He's the one who first made money on the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, then became the commissioner of baseball.

He's a very savvy business guy and was at one time pretty well known. Whether he has any name recognition in California at the moment remains to be seen. Whether he has the kind of resources it takes in this media nation state to get well know is really an open question at this point.

So, he's going to make a lot of proposals. He's going to be very thoughtful, has the idea that he's running pretty much as an Independent. He's going to go and not really be a Republican, which is his registration, but bring both parties together. Whether that's an argument that will work or not, I'm intrigued too. You're intrigued. We'll see what happens.

BROWN: Thanks for joining us tonight. I hope you'll come back in the next 47 days and we'll see how it all plays out, nice to have you with us.

OLNEY: Love to see you.

BROWN: Warren Olney from Los Angeles tonight.

Ahead on the program, the investigation into the Baghdad bombing, was it the work of Saddam loyalists? Did al Qaeda play a part, the latest from Baghdad coming up?

Later, tanks perched on the edge of Palestinian territory while Israeli leaders decide whether or not to retaliate or how to retaliate, lots going on there.

We'll take a break first. From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Baghdad tonight there's a ring of barbed wire around the U.N. Headquarters. Within the perimeter investigators spent the day picking through the rubble and the remains, listening to what it can tell them about what happened and who did it, reporting for us tonight CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): The FBI team leading the investigation already knows what type of bomb was used against the U.N. Headquarters in Baghdad.

TOM FUENTES, FBI AGENT, BAGHDAD: We have a large quantity, in excess of 1,000 pounds of explosive that was military grade munitions. This was not a homemade bomb.

ENSOR: But U.S. officials aren't ready to say who might be responsible since both Saddam loyalists and al Qaeda supporters, such as Ansar al-Islam, could have gotten their hands on the munitions. Agents are trying to use forensic evidence to determine whether the driver of the truck was a suicide bomber.

FUENTES: We're not certain yet whether the human remains belonged to the driver of the truck or not.

ENSOR: If FBI lab tests show it was a suicide attack many experts say that will point to Islamic terrorists, not Saddam supporters who have no history of suicide attacks for mass casualties.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORIST EXPERT: You have to look at al Qaeda as a lead suspect.

ENSOR: And, Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic extremists, says a Saudi dissident in London, particularly those fleeing the crackdown on them in Saudi Arabia.

DR. SAAD AL-FAGIH, SAUDI DISSIDENT: According to (unintelligible) Saudi security source among many missed young people reported by their families, 3,000 have clear jihad history or jihad profile in their files (unintelligible) and the regime concluded that those people most probably have fled to Iraq.

ENSOR: Saudi officials say they believe Al-Fagih's numbers are wildly exaggerated but al Qaeda's animosity towards the United Nations has been clear for years.

"The United Nations" Osama bin Laden said back in November of 2001, "is nothing but a tool of crime."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Whoever did it, this was an attack on a different sort of scale. Some defense officials are suspecting tonight that master bomb makers from al Qaeda, Hamas, or Hezbollah may have made their way into Iraq. U.S. investigators will be examining what's left of the bomb's detonator very closely to try to figure out who might have made it -- Aaron.

BROWN: I saw some reporting today that at least the Iraqis had some intelligence suggesting that something big was going to happen. Do we know what happened to the intelligence, whether it was passed down the chain or up the chain?

ENSOR: I've asked around and officials say the problem is there has been evidence suggesting that there might be something major that might come from Ansar al-Islam, that might come from al Qaeda, that might come from the Fedayeen for weeks now and what they didn't have was any kind of specifics. What was the target? When, with what kind of weapon?

So, there wasn't anything they could do about it. They still have additional intelligence now suggesting there may be additional attacks so there's a great deal of concern tonight -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, David Ensor in Washington.

Secretary of State Powell travels to New York tomorrow to pay his respects at the U.N. Tonight a candlelight vigil was held there, people remembering colleagues, friends, partners, in a job that does not get much respect at times, a mission that isn't always simple or easy ad clearly is not always safe. Today their boss said regardless the work will go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Only by carrying on with our mission can we begin to do justice to the memory of our slain colleagues. May God bless them. May their souls rest in peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Meantime in Baghdad the scene today resembled one we've all come to know, furious activity interrupted by heartbreaking moments of silence.

Here's CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rubble of Baghdad's United Nations Headquarters yields another body. American troops pause in their desperate search for survivors to pay respects.

The U.N. bombing jolted the residents of the Iraqi capital. Many Baghdadis we talked to seemed to agree with their American occupiers that a foreign hand was behind the attack.

"They want to show that the Americans can't provide security and stability in Iraq" says journalist Satar il-Husseini (ph).

"The country is now wide open to foreign groups" shopkeeper Adel (ph) tells us. "I don't think they're coming here with good intentions."

It wasn't just the U.N. that was hit. The contents of Baghdad's only hospital for paraplegics are hauled away. The massive blast next door rendered the hospital inoperable.

Investigators have recovered what they believe are parts of the vehicle used to deliver the bomb, which they say may have contained as much as half a ton of explosives. Already, Washington's experiment in regime change in Iraq is becoming part of another broader campaign against a far more elusive foe.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: It's a war we're going to have to fight where the terrorists are and unfortunately the terrorists are now here in Iraq.

WEDEMAN: Saddam's regime may be dead and gone but it seems America's attempt at creating a new order in Iraq doesn't lack for enemies.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WEDEMAN: And certainly, those enemies have struck within the last 24 hours. Aaron, two separate incidents, one around Kirkuk where a U.S. civilian interpreter working with the Army was killed in an ambush and, another ambush further south of Baghdad where a U.S. soldier was also killed -- Aaron.

BROWN: To the extent that the point of this attack yesterday was to show that the Americans cannot provide a secure environment in Baghdad do you have a sense that at least today was successful that people feel less safe, less secure?

WEDEMAN: Certainly this bombing comes, what, just two weeks after the bombing, the car bomb outside the Jordanian Embassy which really shook people and these two events have really jolted the capital into realizing that there is an attempt to really massively destabilize Iraq and, in particular, Baghdad.

People in a sense, Aaron, have become accustomed to these daily attacks on U.S. forces but when the attacks start to branch out to the United Nations, to the Jordanian Embassy, to next we don't know but it certainly does unsettle people in a way that those attacks on American forces were, in fact, not.

BROWN: Ben, thank you very much, Ben Wedeman in Baghdad now.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with Alabama's Chief Justice about his stand over the Ten Commandments.

We'll take a break first. Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is the living embodiment of the phrase "lightning rod" tonight. We have the e-mail to prove it. His fight to keep the Ten Commandments monument right where it is in the state judicial building has brought out two vastly different opinions. Some believe he is a brave defender of Christian values, others think he's a dangerous force trying to bring down the wall between church and state.

Whichever he is, we will leave that for others, he finds himself in a place no judge can possibly relish, perhaps about to defy the law.

Chief Justice Moore joins us now to talk about his next move in the Ten Commandments fight. He is, of course, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Justice Moore, it's nice to have you on the program.

Are there any circumstances, sir, under which you will remove the monument?

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: There are no circumstances, Aaron, in which I'll violate the oath of my office. And to remove the monument with be a disacknowledgment of God, and that disacknowledgment I cannot do when our justice system is founded upon acknowledging God.

BROWN: So even if the United States Supreme Court were to take the case in total, and while the court did not do that today as such, it obviously didn't side with you, and the court said it has to go, you would defy that also?

MOORE: Well, I'll take that step when I get to the United States Supreme Court. But right now, you're correct in assuming that the court has not ruled on this case. They just did not grant a stay in the district court injunction. So we still have a writ of Certiorari going to the Supreme Court in September, and we also have a writ of prohibition and mandamus (ph) before the court now to stop the federal judge from intruding his powers into the state.

BROWN: There's a number of things have been said, a goodly number of things have been said today. Let me throw a few of them at you. One is that this is, in some respects, a replay of what we saw in Alabama a generation and a half ago, when the governor defied a federal court order on segregation, which he said was unlawful.

Can you tell me why you view this as different, if in fact you view it as different, from what Governor Wallace did?

MOORE: Oh, it's far different from what Wallace did. Wallace stood in the doorway to keep people out. We're trying to keep God in. Wallace stood for division. We're standing for unity.

This is more like what Martin Luther King did in standing for rights for the people of Alabama and the people across this nation. Our rights come from God, and if we do not acknowledge God, we do not know where our rights come from.

Indeed, we stand for the proposition that all men are created equal because they're "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

BROWN: Don't we...

MOORE: So we're standing for the law.

BROWN: Don't -- Well, that's an interesting debate. Don't we also, all of us, stand for the rule of law? And, in this case, the rule of law has come from every federal court that has looked at this, and they have ruled against you. How in good conscience can a judge defy the court?

MOORE: OK, the rule of law is not what a court says. It is the written statutory law, whether it be the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," or the constitution of the state of Alabama, which acknowledges God.

Both the United States Constitution and the constitution of Alabama acknowledge God. Indeed, this judge analyzed this case not according to any law, because certainly a monument sitting on the floor is not a law, just like a chair or a desk or a picture on the wall. He is trying to be an interior decorator of the Alabama Judicial Building in saying that this is a law.

Well, this monument commands no one to do anything, nor does it forbid anyone from doing anything.

BROWN: So if...

MOORE: It simply isn't law, and it's not religion.

BROWN: Justice Moore, so if any of us disagrees with what a court rules, we should just ignore it, is that right?

MOORE: Absolutely not. Any of us are not sworn to uphold the constitution of the state in which you are. I am the chief justice, sworn to uphold the constitution of Alabama, which says, "The state justice system is established invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God." Now, this federal judge said this issue in this case is whether or not the state can acknowledge God. And he said we could not.

So by doing that, and by telling me to remove the monument, he's telling me to disacknowledge the God upon which the justice system is established. And I can't do that. It's a violation of my oath. To do it would avoid everything I'm sworn to uphold...

BROWN: Yes.

MOORE: ... and the mandate of the people for which I was elected.

BROWN: I have yet to find, honestly, sir, anybody who thinks in the end you will win. Do you actually believe you will win?

MOORE: I will believe that the fixed principle, the rule of law, will prevail. And that rule is that you interpret the First Amendment according to the meaning which the forefathers gave to it. Religion was the duties which we owe to the Creator, and the manner of discharging it. That was what Congress was not to interfere with.

That is the rule of law. And when we depart from the statute, when we depart from the written text, we can't really enforce the law or interpret the law.

BROWN: Judge -- Justice Moore, we know you've had a long day and a busy one, and we appreciate your time. Good luck, sir. Thank you very much.

MOORE: Thank you very much, sir, appreciate it.

BROWN: Chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court tonight.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, tanks, gunships at the ready, Israel trying to make a decision how to react to yesterday's bus bombing.

Break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When we spoke last night with the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, the best we could get from him was a promise to investigate the bombing that killed 20 people in Jerusalem yesterday.

Tonight, his bosses are promising something more. Measures will be taken, a spokesman says, measures not seen before, to crack down on the likes of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

Now, words are not actions, and actions right now are a whole lot more important than words. But words what are we have to work with. Words, and grief.

Here's CNN's Jim Bittermann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As if to focus minds with the full Palestinian cabinet meeting in West Bank of Ramallah, Israeli tanks pulled up at a nearby checkpoint. All day long, the focus of attention has been on the government of the Palestinian Authority and what it would do, could do, or might not do.

The Israeli government made it crystal clear they expected a crackdown on the terrorists responsible for Tuesday's bus bombing, or the road map to peace is at a dead end.

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI VICE PRIME MINISTER: This will stop. Either the Palestinians will stop it, or we will stop it. And once we will engage in stopping it, we will not stop before it's all over with.

BITTERMANN: And after Tuesday's bloody attack on a Jerusalem bus, which killed at least 20, the fledgling Palestinian government is at a turning point, needing to demonstrate to Israel clearly it will address terrorism more directly and more efficiently than its predecessors did.

Yet Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has already predicted pessimistically that if his security forces were to confront terrorist organizations directly, it could lead to a civil war among Palestinians.

And after a meeting of the Palestinian Authority, it does seem as if confrontations with militants could lie ahead. In that meeting, according to cabinet ministers, plans were accepted to arrest suspected terrorists, confiscate weapons, raid bomb-making factories, and set up Palestinian checkpoints to better prevent terrorist movements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We urge the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and American administration to help the Palestinian government and the Palestinian leadership to succeed in order to control things on the ground, hoping that the Israeli government will restrain from continuing their aggression against the Palestinian people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMANN: Still, the Palestinian Authority has put off any decision until Thursday on exactly how it's going to implement those rather bold steps, steps meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority is the only Palestinian authority.

And Aaron, one further thing. In spite or perhaps because of those decisions and nondecisions by the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government made some decisions on its own tonight, sending the military into two West Bank towns in search of militants. There was some shooting, and at least one young Palestinian man was killed, Aaron.

BROWN: Jim, thank you very much. Jim Bittermann.

Tonight ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a funeral for a motorcyclist and possible jail time for a congressman in South Dakota, what one has to do with the other, after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with the latest on the string of shootings in West Virginia. Police today released images of a full-sized Ford pickup truck, similar to a truck that witnesses described as being at the scene of two of the shootings. They're also looking to question a man spotted near the truck, described as a white male, 6 feet tall, a beard.

Ballistic tests show that two of those people killed in the three shootings were killed by the same weapon.

Two of the FBI's most wanted have been arrested in South Africa. Craig Pritchert and Nova Guthrie were wanted in connection with a series of bank robberies throughout the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest back in the late '90s. The two have been compared to Bonnie and Clyde. The FBI says they've been living it up on the lam, on the proceeds from their alleged robberies. Extradition hearing in South Africa set for tomorrow.

And Texas cowgirl Connie Reeves has died after being thrown from Dr. Pepper, her favorite horse. Her motto was, Always saddle your own horse. She gave that advice to an estimated 30,000 girls she taught to ride. Ms. Reeves was 101.

On the Web site for South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow, you can read all about his legislative record, examples of his fiscal discipline, his devotion to early childhood development, his efforts to build affordable homes for seniors.

But it's a very different record that's under scrutiny now. It's the congressman's driving record, a chronicle of troubles on the road, one that now includes a death, and the possibility of criminal charges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): It was a small-town funeral in a state of small towns, cars going to the ceremony by the dozens. What made the funeral far from ordinary was how Randy East Scott (ph) died, in a traffic accident over the weekend involving South Dakota's only congressman and its former four-term governor, Republican William Janklow.

DAVE KRANTZ, POLITICAL REPORTER, "SIOUX FALLS ARGUS LEADER": He himself sometimes characterizes himself kind of jokingly as a shoot- from-the-hip type of guy, largely because his critics have labeled him that. But he generally uses that in a positive way where he makes quick judgments.

BROWN: But prosecutors say one of those judgments was fatal. Janklow's car, they say, ran a stop sign on a county road last Saturday, and collided with a motorcycle driven by Mr. Scott. Police say his car was moving at around 70 miles an hour.

Blood alcohol tests have been taken, the prosecutor said in an e- mail to journalists, but no results have been released. And even Janklow has acknowledged his tendency toward speeding.

KRANTZ: But in 1999, during his State of the State address in January, there was actually a couple of paragraphs in that speech where he talks about his heavy foot, basically, talking about how he wished he didn't do that, but it's just one of those things that happens, and made the comment that he hoped to God he never had to go to jail because of it.

BROWN: South Dakota records indicate seven accidents for the congressman over the past decade. Among them, April 1997, his car slid into a state police command post during flooding. No injuries that time. In December of '93, he was involved in an accident with another motorist in Sioux Falls. No injuries, again. And 11 months earlier, yet another accident, one driver injured.

Because Randy Scott loved motorcycles, there were many at his funeral. As for the congressman, he is keeping quiet, waiting to see what prosecutors will do next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Up next, she was a radical during the '60s, the '70s, and the early '80s. She's about to be paroled. Twenty-two years after a deadly heist, Kathy Boudin will soon go free. Her story, more.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today, Police Sergeant Edward O'Grady of Nyack, New York, should have turned 55. His nephew mentioned the birthday as soon as he heard the news that one of the people involved in the 1981 armored car robbery that killed Sergeant O'Grady and two others was granted parole after two decades in prison.

Kathy Boudin, in a way, represents the darkness of the '60s, that young idealists could turn into monsters. Her supporters say she's done her time, realizes now the wrong that she's done, and channeled a good part of her idealism into work in prison.

Many family members of the victim still see a monster, and monsters, they say, belong in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): To many, she was the epitome of the '60s radical, a well-to-do white woman who was a member of the Weather Underground, who, more than two decades ago, took part in a deadly armed robbery.

LEONARD WEINGLASS, BOUDIN DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The judge who sentenced her 20 years ago investigated her role in the crime. And he said her role was secondary, that she didn't shoot anyone, that she was unarmed, that she had no role in the planning, and that she was a last-minute addition.

BROWN: Kathy Boudin, police say, joined forces with the Black Liberation Army, a group of radicals who said they were devoted to the armed overthrow of the American government.

In 1981, she took part in a robbery of an armored car at a shopping mall north of New York City, $1.6 million was stolen. Three people died, a Brinks guard and two Nyack, New York, police officers.

WEINGLASS: She not only behaved well in prison, she's been, by all accounts, an exemplary inmate.

BROWN: Ms. Boudin was first eligible for parole two years ago. It was denied. Just three months ago, parole was denied again. A Web site established on her behalf says she sought parole because of her, quote, "exemplary behavior and her clearly expressed remorse."

Today, her parole was approved, release date October 1. Ms. Boudin is in her 60s now. And a relative of one of the slain policemen said today, "I just hope she is sincere in her claim to be a changed woman, and no other family has to suffer like ours did."

We'll check morning papers after the break. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Somebody suggested we only use the rooster once a week. No, it's cable.

Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.

Begin with "The New York Times," just because the -- here's how -- I like this headline. Here's how they headline the Arnold Schwarzenegger press conference. Well, I guess I could show it to you, couldn't I? "Schwarzenegger Tries to Add Some Substance to Celebrity." That's their headline there. And "Former Radical Granted Parole in '81 Killings," that's a legit front-page story in New York, and a rare local story on the front page of "The New York Times."

"The San Antonio Express," man, this is an unbelievable story. "San Antonio Express News," you should use its full name in its first reference. Over here, "Book Pins the Killing of JFK on LBJ." San Antonio, "S.A. Author Is the Father of Bush's Press Secretary," Scott McClellan.

The father of the White House press secretary claims in an upcoming book, "Blood, Money, and Power," how LBJ killed JFK, the former president. Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination of President Kennedy. Yikes. Anyway, that's big news in San Antonio. Probably big news in other places too.

The "Charleston Gazette," the shootings are a big story. That's Charleston, West Virginia, the state's newspaper. "Shootings Look Drug Related, Police Mum on Whether Drugs Found on Victims." And "Residents Defend Campbell's Creek," that's a neighborhood now that's gotten a lot of nasty attention because of all of this.

Also -- How much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-nine.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness. "State Bar Panel Deny Moore," former governor Arch Moore, "His License." That would be his law license. It is West Virginia.

"The Wash" -- no, forget "The Washington Times" (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and let me do this one. This is a really sad story. I hate ending on sad stories, but I will. "United in Sorrow," "Detroit Free Press," is their big story. It's a horrible story about a father who allegedly killed three of his four children, tried to kill them all, in a dispute with his wife, called his wife and said, "Watch the news tonight."

Goodness. A tough way to end it, but end it we shall.

All back tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you are as well. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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





Conference; Investigation Into Bombing of U.N. Building in Iraq Continues>


Aired August 20, 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.
I suppose if you intend to make a statement about God and government a 5,300-pound granite monument to the Ten Commandments will get the job done. As we suspect you know the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court placed such a moment at the state's courthouse and has been fighting ever since to keep it there.

The First Amendment being what it is and saying what it does presents the judge with a bit of a problem. The judge has not been deterred. So, here we are approaching the time when the monument must be removed and the judge so far, like the 5,300-pound piece of granite, is not budging. He'll explain why later in the program when he joins us.

And his story and what appears to be his defiance of the law begins the whip tonight. Fredricka Whitfield is in the capital Montgomery, Alabama, with the latest on the Ten Commandments battle, Fredricka welcome and a headline from you please.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice remains defiant and he has a lot of support here tonight as a federal court-imposed deadline to remove that granite Ten Commandments statue from this building approaches.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court today weighed in; however, the higher court decided not to intervene for now. So, will Chief Justice Roy Moore be held in contempt, that's the question and the headline tonight -- Aaron.

BROWN: Fredricka, thank you, we'll get to you at the top tonight.

On to California now the first formal news conference from candidate Schwarzenegger, Kelly Wallace in L.A. with that, Kelly the headline.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, critics of candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger accuse him of putting forward sound bytes as opposed to policy positions so today the actor broke his silence and revealed some specifics but he also said he doesn't believe voters expect any detailed plans from him right now -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelly, thank you. The latest now in the investigation into yesterday's bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, David Ensor has been working that story from Washington for us, David a headline.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, they know what kind of bomb it was now and they're trying to figure out if it was a suicide attack. The answer to that question may help indicate whether it was Saddam's loyalists or Islamic extremists behind the biggest act of terrorism so far in post war Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you.

And, the response from Israel to yesterday's bombing on a bus in Jerusalem, Jim Bittermann is on location in Jerusalem tonight, Jim a headline.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, this evening the Palestinian Authority set some pretty bold goals for cracking down on terrorism. The Israeli government is warning what will happen if they are not reached -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jim, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, the South Dakota Congressman making national news not for his legislation but for his driving, a man is killed, prosecutors say it was because the Congressman ran a stop sign and he's had his share of driving problems in the past as well.

Parole granted for a '60s radical in prison for decades, supporters say long overdue. Families of the victims of the 1981 armored car robbery think it's a travesty, the latest on the fate of Kathy Boudin tonight.

And, the truly no muss, no fuss, way to keep up with what's in our morning papers, we do the dirty work for you, our nightly look through morning papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin with the words of an attorney of a group fighting to keep church and state separate. It's time for Roy's rock to roll. Roy is Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore.

His rock is the Ten Commandments monument he put up in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, and the U.S. Supreme Court said today it would not stand in the way of its removal. It would not get involved yet. Already some of his supporters have been arrested and the night is still young.

We begin tonight with CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): In Montgomery at the Alabama Judicial Building gatherings for vocal prayer.

CROWD: For God is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

WHITFIELD: And passionate opposition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just upset. You can see I'm upset.

WHITFIELD: Deeply rooted feelings over this, a two and a half ton granite display of the Ten Commandments, financed by the State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who in the middle of the night two years ago helped put the monument at the center of the building rotunda.

A federal judge saying it's unconstitutional, a violation of the separation between church and state ordered it removed by midnight. Justice Moore, determined as ever.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: I have no intention of moving the monument.

WHITFIELD: Because, he says, the state's constitution supports him.

MOORE: To do my job I must acknowledge God.

WHITFIELD: Judge Moore was hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would grant his request for a stay. Wednesday, the higher court refused to intervene for now. Judge Moore could soon face a $5,000 a day fine doubling each week. Hours before the midnight deadline, over servings of fried chicken, sweet potatoes, and peas, at this table a healthy portion of debate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Judge Moore went about it wrong in relation to going to the Supreme Court instead of going through the normal appeals process.

WHITFIELD: Should Judge Moore be fined?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the law says that, yes. Is it fair that it's done that, probably not.

WHITFIELD: Has the legal battle come between neighbors?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see it as a truly divisive thing at this point.

WHITFIELD: Judge Moore's office says an independent legal defense fund is paying for his fight but taxpayers like Frank Burk (ph) wonder if other important state matters are being short changed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alabama should be more focused on moving from 48th, 49th, and 50th, to the top of the educational ladder in this country and I think kind of diverts our attention from what are the real pressing issues in Alabama are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And, if these very vocal supporters are successful and the monument remains throughout the evening, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Judge Moore say they plan to file an order of contempt and that could come as early as Thursday, a hearing would follow -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just quickly the people behind you are they all supporters of the judge or is there a mix of both supporters and opponents?

WHITFIELD: These are majority in support of the judge, in support of the granite display of the Ten Commandments inside and you can see right now behind me almost about 100 people who have turned out today, many of these folks who are here since early this morning at 8:00 a.m. Many of them were brought in by busses from as far away as California, Kansas, and throughout the deep south -- Aaron.

BROWN: Fredricka, thank you very much, still a lot of work ahead for you tonight.

And, in a few moments we'll talk about what's next in this battle. The judge himself joins us, the Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. That's coming up a little bit later in the program.

Another court now and another political football this one (unintelligible) if you will, today a federal judge in Los Angeles turned down efforts by the ACLU to delay California's recall election until next spring.

So October it will be and, as if to recognize time's a-wasting, Arnold Schwarzenegger today began getting specific, not exactly wonkish mind you but he did show a hint of policy ankle, the story from CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): Arnold Schwarzenegger started his first formal news conference since stepping into the race exactly two weeks ago with a charm offensive.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I would have wished to have this kind of a turnout when I did "Last Action Hero."

WALLACE: Criticized for being short on specifics, the actor turned politician for the first time said what he would do to try and pull California's budget out of the red.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Now, does this mean we are going to make cuts? Yes. Does this mean education is on the table? No. Does this mean I'm willing to raise taxes? No.

WALLACE: He showed some savvy as a politician refusing to make a no new taxes pledge.

SCHWARZENEGGER: We can never say never no.

WALLACE: But he refused to say what programs he would cut. SCHWARZENEGGER: (Unintelligible) may I remind you.

WALLACE: Earlier, Schwarzenegger tried to look the part meeting with his economic advisers including billionaire Warren Buffett. Buffett recently said he opposed California's voter imposed Proposition 13 which caps property taxes in the state. Schwarzenegger who supports the proposition jokingly reprimanded his top adviser.

SCHWARZENEGGER: First of all I told Warren if he mentions Prop 13 one more time he has to do 500 sit ups.

WALLACE: Some political observers say Schwarzenegger's event showed that he is the master showman and that reporters are still a bit star struck.

ARNOLD STEINBERG, GOP STRATEGIST: The Press Corps seems more interested in getting maximum coverage of a fun event than they are in asking tough probing questions.

WALLACE: Fewer reporters turned out to question another candidate, businessman Peter Ueberroth who formally kicked off his campaign unveiling a series of specific proposals including spending cuts to erase the state's budget deficit.

PETER UEBERROTH (R), CA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: California is in mess. It's in a real mess but we can get out of the mess and be great again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: The 135 candidates now have 47 days to get their messages out in what has already been a very unconventional race. Another sign of that Arnold Schwarzenegger was scheduled to do an interview tomorrow with shock jock Howard Stern.

Late tonight, though, that appearance was canceled, the Schwarzenegger campaign saying FTC requirements would call for all 135 candidates to get equal time on the Stern radio show -- Aaron.

BROWN: That would make for great radio I think. Thank you very much, Kelly, Kelly Wallace in Los Angeles tonight, all those candidates, Mr. Stern.

Now, to Governor Gray Davis, a man even his opponents concede is a master political tactician. It is largely what got him reelected last year. This time around, however, it seems to many that the circumstances call for more than good tactics. They call for a hard, driving politician. So, with support among his own party on the verge of eroding even more the governor today began campaigning hard.

CNN's Dan Lothian is covering the Democrats. He joins us tonight also from Los Angeles, Dan good evening.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.

Well, at this hour Davis is taking part in a town hall meeting in Los Angeles. It is being held at Channel 1. That's the source of news and information targeting young people. The governor is fielding questions on a number of issues, including the state's budget problems and the recall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: This recall is larger than just California. It's something that's been going on nationally for sometime. The Republicans couldn't beat President Clinton in 1996 so they tried to impeach him in '98. In 2000, it looked like Al Gore might actually win but they stopped the vote count in Florida.

Here in California I won the election fair and square last November and now nine months later the Republicans who financed this recall, through Darrell Issa, are trying to seize control just before a presidential election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, yesterday the governor promised he would crisscross the state in these few days leading up to the recall election to win over those frustrated voters. He began that journey today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): One day after vowing to fight to keep his job, Governor Gray Davis hit the campaign trail swinging, the target of one direct hit, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

DAVIS: Anyone who wants to take my job ought to have specific plans not just sound bytes or rehashed phrases from old movies.

LOTHIAN: Davis, accompanied by Senator Barbara Boxer was at the beach in Santa Monica touting a multi-million dollar grant to protect the environment. But protecting the governor's job from a recall appeared to be the overriding message.

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Californians should vote no on this recall and do it with zeal.

LOTHIAN: This campaign stop came less than two hours after a federal judge denied an ACLU lawsuit that would have delayed the recall election until spring. In a 29-page ruling, the judge concluded a delay over using the disputed punch card machines was not in the public's best interest.

RAMONA RIPSTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACLU: Needless to say we are disappointed. We brought this lawsuit not because we have an interest in the recall at all. We brought this lawsuit so that ever person's vote would be counted.

LOTHIAN: Political strategists had said more time would have benefited Davis. The governor's only response...

DAVIS: You know I have no control over what the courts do.

LOTHIAN: And there was more potential bad news for the governor, this time coming from Capitol Hill. Congressional sources tell CNN House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi plans to huddle with California's Democratic Congressional Delegation on Thursday, the agenda deciding whether to endorse Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. Governor Davis understands he faces an uphill battle but borrowing a page from a screenplay he warned not to count him out.

DAVIS: I think at the end of this, what's turned into a Hollywood movie, there's going to be a surprise ending.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: In an effort to show that he has done a lot of good for the state, the governor today pointed out that while the lights were out in other states last week there was plenty of power in California and he said that's because he's been doing a lot of work to get new power plants online -- Aaron.

BROWN: He has a lot of work to do. Dan, thank you very much.

Warren Olney is the dean of political broadcasters in California. He's been at it since 1966. Mr. Olney currently produces and anchors a public radio program "To the Point" originating from KCRW in Los Angeles. It's nice to have him on the program tonight, good to see you. Since "The Tonight Show" moment and the day or so after that what's changed in California?

WARREN OLNEY, KCRW RADIO HOST: Well, politically everything has changed in California and we now have a California media event that compares with natural disasters and O.J. Simpson in terms of international interest.

The Press Corps from all over the world is here, in addition of course to the entertainment press who are suddenly -- what was not a routine political event by any means but just a political event has been turned into something much bigger by the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

BROWN: Is Mr. Schwarzenegger a more formidable candidate today than he was a week ago?

OLNEY: That's a good question. There were those who said that after he made the appearance on "The Tonight Show" he had -- and he sort of went away, Warren Buffett made his unfortunate remark saying he was against Prop 13, which is the third de-rail of politics in California. People thought that Schwarzenegger had a bad week.

After today's appearance I would say that he's right back where he was when he started. He still hasn't told us what he thinks about much of anything. As you indicated he showed a little ankle but that was about it today and yet he got all of this media attention, enormous coverage, much more than Gray Davis did last night for example when he made a long speech, much awaited, explaining why it was that people ought to keep him in office after all. And, here is Schwarzenegger just wiping him off the charts in terms of political coverage, attention, ability to attract people to himself. I think he's right back where he was.

BROWN: Will Californians, you've been at this a while, will Californians demand policy from him?

OLNEY: Well, clearly the Schwarzenegger campaign is figuring that they won't. What he said today was that he doesn't want to raise taxes. He does, however, have to then cut the budget because we have an enormous deficit.

But he doesn't know yet exactly what he's going to cut because he says the budget is so complicated that nobody can understand it, not even these academicians and economists that he brought together today including Warren Buffett and George Schultz, the former secretary of state.

So, he's going to go to Sacramento and he's going to spend 60 days studying the budget before he tells us what he's going to cut, so the Democrats are saying wait a minute. This is Jesse Ventura II. You know you elect me now and I'll tell you later what it is that I really think. That does appear to be the strategy at the moment.

Now, he's got a debate coming up on September 17. He's negotiating to be part of it. He may have to therefore be actually in the room with other candidates. Maybe they can get some more specifics out of him but at the moment he doesn't seem willing to give any and I assume that the campaign is figuring people aren't going to demand it.

BROWN: Is the governor at this point relevant to any of this?

OLNEY: Well, of course the governor is relevant. He is, after all, the governor but it would appear, we just heard that Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Delegation are going to huddle tomorrow to decide whether or not to support Cruz Bustamante.

Barbara Boxer, our U.S. Senator, is already getting behind Bustamante and the argument is that you can be against the recall but you can just in case be in favor of this only Democrat, major Democrat who is on the ballot. It does appear that his own party is moving away from him in a very open way. Bustamante has made statements indicating that he's really not that close to Davis.

So, he's certainly relevant. He's going to sign bills when he goes back, when the legislature comes back into Sacramento before the election occurs. He's still got the enormous power of the governorship but as to whether or not he has a chance to stay in office I think the betting right now is probably not.

BROWN: And finally, and maybe I'm the only one who's intrigued by Mr. Ueberroth but I am and so tell me if he presents to Mr. Schwarzenegger any sort of problems.

OLNEY: There are a lot of people who are intrigued as you are by Peter Ueberroth. He's a very smart guy. He's the one who first made money on the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, then became the commissioner of baseball.

He's a very savvy business guy and was at one time pretty well known. Whether he has any name recognition in California at the moment remains to be seen. Whether he has the kind of resources it takes in this media nation state to get well know is really an open question at this point.

So, he's going to make a lot of proposals. He's going to be very thoughtful, has the idea that he's running pretty much as an Independent. He's going to go and not really be a Republican, which is his registration, but bring both parties together. Whether that's an argument that will work or not, I'm intrigued too. You're intrigued. We'll see what happens.

BROWN: Thanks for joining us tonight. I hope you'll come back in the next 47 days and we'll see how it all plays out, nice to have you with us.

OLNEY: Love to see you.

BROWN: Warren Olney from Los Angeles tonight.

Ahead on the program, the investigation into the Baghdad bombing, was it the work of Saddam loyalists? Did al Qaeda play a part, the latest from Baghdad coming up?

Later, tanks perched on the edge of Palestinian territory while Israeli leaders decide whether or not to retaliate or how to retaliate, lots going on there.

We'll take a break first. From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Baghdad tonight there's a ring of barbed wire around the U.N. Headquarters. Within the perimeter investigators spent the day picking through the rubble and the remains, listening to what it can tell them about what happened and who did it, reporting for us tonight CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): The FBI team leading the investigation already knows what type of bomb was used against the U.N. Headquarters in Baghdad.

TOM FUENTES, FBI AGENT, BAGHDAD: We have a large quantity, in excess of 1,000 pounds of explosive that was military grade munitions. This was not a homemade bomb.

ENSOR: But U.S. officials aren't ready to say who might be responsible since both Saddam loyalists and al Qaeda supporters, such as Ansar al-Islam, could have gotten their hands on the munitions. Agents are trying to use forensic evidence to determine whether the driver of the truck was a suicide bomber.

FUENTES: We're not certain yet whether the human remains belonged to the driver of the truck or not.

ENSOR: If FBI lab tests show it was a suicide attack many experts say that will point to Islamic terrorists, not Saddam supporters who have no history of suicide attacks for mass casualties.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORIST EXPERT: You have to look at al Qaeda as a lead suspect.

ENSOR: And, Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic extremists, says a Saudi dissident in London, particularly those fleeing the crackdown on them in Saudi Arabia.

DR. SAAD AL-FAGIH, SAUDI DISSIDENT: According to (unintelligible) Saudi security source among many missed young people reported by their families, 3,000 have clear jihad history or jihad profile in their files (unintelligible) and the regime concluded that those people most probably have fled to Iraq.

ENSOR: Saudi officials say they believe Al-Fagih's numbers are wildly exaggerated but al Qaeda's animosity towards the United Nations has been clear for years.

"The United Nations" Osama bin Laden said back in November of 2001, "is nothing but a tool of crime."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Whoever did it, this was an attack on a different sort of scale. Some defense officials are suspecting tonight that master bomb makers from al Qaeda, Hamas, or Hezbollah may have made their way into Iraq. U.S. investigators will be examining what's left of the bomb's detonator very closely to try to figure out who might have made it -- Aaron.

BROWN: I saw some reporting today that at least the Iraqis had some intelligence suggesting that something big was going to happen. Do we know what happened to the intelligence, whether it was passed down the chain or up the chain?

ENSOR: I've asked around and officials say the problem is there has been evidence suggesting that there might be something major that might come from Ansar al-Islam, that might come from al Qaeda, that might come from the Fedayeen for weeks now and what they didn't have was any kind of specifics. What was the target? When, with what kind of weapon?

So, there wasn't anything they could do about it. They still have additional intelligence now suggesting there may be additional attacks so there's a great deal of concern tonight -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, David Ensor in Washington.

Secretary of State Powell travels to New York tomorrow to pay his respects at the U.N. Tonight a candlelight vigil was held there, people remembering colleagues, friends, partners, in a job that does not get much respect at times, a mission that isn't always simple or easy ad clearly is not always safe. Today their boss said regardless the work will go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Only by carrying on with our mission can we begin to do justice to the memory of our slain colleagues. May God bless them. May their souls rest in peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Meantime in Baghdad the scene today resembled one we've all come to know, furious activity interrupted by heartbreaking moments of silence.

Here's CNN's Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rubble of Baghdad's United Nations Headquarters yields another body. American troops pause in their desperate search for survivors to pay respects.

The U.N. bombing jolted the residents of the Iraqi capital. Many Baghdadis we talked to seemed to agree with their American occupiers that a foreign hand was behind the attack.

"They want to show that the Americans can't provide security and stability in Iraq" says journalist Satar il-Husseini (ph).

"The country is now wide open to foreign groups" shopkeeper Adel (ph) tells us. "I don't think they're coming here with good intentions."

It wasn't just the U.N. that was hit. The contents of Baghdad's only hospital for paraplegics are hauled away. The massive blast next door rendered the hospital inoperable.

Investigators have recovered what they believe are parts of the vehicle used to deliver the bomb, which they say may have contained as much as half a ton of explosives. Already, Washington's experiment in regime change in Iraq is becoming part of another broader campaign against a far more elusive foe.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: It's a war we're going to have to fight where the terrorists are and unfortunately the terrorists are now here in Iraq.

WEDEMAN: Saddam's regime may be dead and gone but it seems America's attempt at creating a new order in Iraq doesn't lack for enemies.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WEDEMAN: And certainly, those enemies have struck within the last 24 hours. Aaron, two separate incidents, one around Kirkuk where a U.S. civilian interpreter working with the Army was killed in an ambush and, another ambush further south of Baghdad where a U.S. soldier was also killed -- Aaron.

BROWN: To the extent that the point of this attack yesterday was to show that the Americans cannot provide a secure environment in Baghdad do you have a sense that at least today was successful that people feel less safe, less secure?

WEDEMAN: Certainly this bombing comes, what, just two weeks after the bombing, the car bomb outside the Jordanian Embassy which really shook people and these two events have really jolted the capital into realizing that there is an attempt to really massively destabilize Iraq and, in particular, Baghdad.

People in a sense, Aaron, have become accustomed to these daily attacks on U.S. forces but when the attacks start to branch out to the United Nations, to the Jordanian Embassy, to next we don't know but it certainly does unsettle people in a way that those attacks on American forces were, in fact, not.

BROWN: Ben, thank you very much, Ben Wedeman in Baghdad now.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we'll talk with Alabama's Chief Justice about his stand over the Ten Commandments.

We'll take a break first. Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is the living embodiment of the phrase "lightning rod" tonight. We have the e-mail to prove it. His fight to keep the Ten Commandments monument right where it is in the state judicial building has brought out two vastly different opinions. Some believe he is a brave defender of Christian values, others think he's a dangerous force trying to bring down the wall between church and state.

Whichever he is, we will leave that for others, he finds himself in a place no judge can possibly relish, perhaps about to defy the law.

Chief Justice Moore joins us now to talk about his next move in the Ten Commandments fight. He is, of course, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Justice Moore, it's nice to have you on the program.

Are there any circumstances, sir, under which you will remove the monument?

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: There are no circumstances, Aaron, in which I'll violate the oath of my office. And to remove the monument with be a disacknowledgment of God, and that disacknowledgment I cannot do when our justice system is founded upon acknowledging God.

BROWN: So even if the United States Supreme Court were to take the case in total, and while the court did not do that today as such, it obviously didn't side with you, and the court said it has to go, you would defy that also?

MOORE: Well, I'll take that step when I get to the United States Supreme Court. But right now, you're correct in assuming that the court has not ruled on this case. They just did not grant a stay in the district court injunction. So we still have a writ of Certiorari going to the Supreme Court in September, and we also have a writ of prohibition and mandamus (ph) before the court now to stop the federal judge from intruding his powers into the state.

BROWN: There's a number of things have been said, a goodly number of things have been said today. Let me throw a few of them at you. One is that this is, in some respects, a replay of what we saw in Alabama a generation and a half ago, when the governor defied a federal court order on segregation, which he said was unlawful.

Can you tell me why you view this as different, if in fact you view it as different, from what Governor Wallace did?

MOORE: Oh, it's far different from what Wallace did. Wallace stood in the doorway to keep people out. We're trying to keep God in. Wallace stood for division. We're standing for unity.

This is more like what Martin Luther King did in standing for rights for the people of Alabama and the people across this nation. Our rights come from God, and if we do not acknowledge God, we do not know where our rights come from.

Indeed, we stand for the proposition that all men are created equal because they're "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

BROWN: Don't we...

MOORE: So we're standing for the law.

BROWN: Don't -- Well, that's an interesting debate. Don't we also, all of us, stand for the rule of law? And, in this case, the rule of law has come from every federal court that has looked at this, and they have ruled against you. How in good conscience can a judge defy the court?

MOORE: OK, the rule of law is not what a court says. It is the written statutory law, whether it be the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," or the constitution of the state of Alabama, which acknowledges God.

Both the United States Constitution and the constitution of Alabama acknowledge God. Indeed, this judge analyzed this case not according to any law, because certainly a monument sitting on the floor is not a law, just like a chair or a desk or a picture on the wall. He is trying to be an interior decorator of the Alabama Judicial Building in saying that this is a law.

Well, this monument commands no one to do anything, nor does it forbid anyone from doing anything.

BROWN: So if...

MOORE: It simply isn't law, and it's not religion.

BROWN: Justice Moore, so if any of us disagrees with what a court rules, we should just ignore it, is that right?

MOORE: Absolutely not. Any of us are not sworn to uphold the constitution of the state in which you are. I am the chief justice, sworn to uphold the constitution of Alabama, which says, "The state justice system is established invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God." Now, this federal judge said this issue in this case is whether or not the state can acknowledge God. And he said we could not.

So by doing that, and by telling me to remove the monument, he's telling me to disacknowledge the God upon which the justice system is established. And I can't do that. It's a violation of my oath. To do it would avoid everything I'm sworn to uphold...

BROWN: Yes.

MOORE: ... and the mandate of the people for which I was elected.

BROWN: I have yet to find, honestly, sir, anybody who thinks in the end you will win. Do you actually believe you will win?

MOORE: I will believe that the fixed principle, the rule of law, will prevail. And that rule is that you interpret the First Amendment according to the meaning which the forefathers gave to it. Religion was the duties which we owe to the Creator, and the manner of discharging it. That was what Congress was not to interfere with.

That is the rule of law. And when we depart from the statute, when we depart from the written text, we can't really enforce the law or interpret the law.

BROWN: Judge -- Justice Moore, we know you've had a long day and a busy one, and we appreciate your time. Good luck, sir. Thank you very much.

MOORE: Thank you very much, sir, appreciate it.

BROWN: Chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court tonight.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, tanks, gunships at the ready, Israel trying to make a decision how to react to yesterday's bus bombing.

Break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When we spoke last night with the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, the best we could get from him was a promise to investigate the bombing that killed 20 people in Jerusalem yesterday.

Tonight, his bosses are promising something more. Measures will be taken, a spokesman says, measures not seen before, to crack down on the likes of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

Now, words are not actions, and actions right now are a whole lot more important than words. But words what are we have to work with. Words, and grief.

Here's CNN's Jim Bittermann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As if to focus minds with the full Palestinian cabinet meeting in West Bank of Ramallah, Israeli tanks pulled up at a nearby checkpoint. All day long, the focus of attention has been on the government of the Palestinian Authority and what it would do, could do, or might not do.

The Israeli government made it crystal clear they expected a crackdown on the terrorists responsible for Tuesday's bus bombing, or the road map to peace is at a dead end.

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI VICE PRIME MINISTER: This will stop. Either the Palestinians will stop it, or we will stop it. And once we will engage in stopping it, we will not stop before it's all over with.

BITTERMANN: And after Tuesday's bloody attack on a Jerusalem bus, which killed at least 20, the fledgling Palestinian government is at a turning point, needing to demonstrate to Israel clearly it will address terrorism more directly and more efficiently than its predecessors did.

Yet Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has already predicted pessimistically that if his security forces were to confront terrorist organizations directly, it could lead to a civil war among Palestinians.

And after a meeting of the Palestinian Authority, it does seem as if confrontations with militants could lie ahead. In that meeting, according to cabinet ministers, plans were accepted to arrest suspected terrorists, confiscate weapons, raid bomb-making factories, and set up Palestinian checkpoints to better prevent terrorist movements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We urge the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and American administration to help the Palestinian government and the Palestinian leadership to succeed in order to control things on the ground, hoping that the Israeli government will restrain from continuing their aggression against the Palestinian people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMANN: Still, the Palestinian Authority has put off any decision until Thursday on exactly how it's going to implement those rather bold steps, steps meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority is the only Palestinian authority.

And Aaron, one further thing. In spite or perhaps because of those decisions and nondecisions by the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government made some decisions on its own tonight, sending the military into two West Bank towns in search of militants. There was some shooting, and at least one young Palestinian man was killed, Aaron.

BROWN: Jim, thank you very much. Jim Bittermann.

Tonight ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a funeral for a motorcyclist and possible jail time for a congressman in South Dakota, what one has to do with the other, after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Few stories from around the country tonight, beginning with the latest on the string of shootings in West Virginia. Police today released images of a full-sized Ford pickup truck, similar to a truck that witnesses described as being at the scene of two of the shootings. They're also looking to question a man spotted near the truck, described as a white male, 6 feet tall, a beard.

Ballistic tests show that two of those people killed in the three shootings were killed by the same weapon.

Two of the FBI's most wanted have been arrested in South Africa. Craig Pritchert and Nova Guthrie were wanted in connection with a series of bank robberies throughout the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest back in the late '90s. The two have been compared to Bonnie and Clyde. The FBI says they've been living it up on the lam, on the proceeds from their alleged robberies. Extradition hearing in South Africa set for tomorrow.

And Texas cowgirl Connie Reeves has died after being thrown from Dr. Pepper, her favorite horse. Her motto was, Always saddle your own horse. She gave that advice to an estimated 30,000 girls she taught to ride. Ms. Reeves was 101.

On the Web site for South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow, you can read all about his legislative record, examples of his fiscal discipline, his devotion to early childhood development, his efforts to build affordable homes for seniors.

But it's a very different record that's under scrutiny now. It's the congressman's driving record, a chronicle of troubles on the road, one that now includes a death, and the possibility of criminal charges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): It was a small-town funeral in a state of small towns, cars going to the ceremony by the dozens. What made the funeral far from ordinary was how Randy East Scott (ph) died, in a traffic accident over the weekend involving South Dakota's only congressman and its former four-term governor, Republican William Janklow.

DAVE KRANTZ, POLITICAL REPORTER, "SIOUX FALLS ARGUS LEADER": He himself sometimes characterizes himself kind of jokingly as a shoot- from-the-hip type of guy, largely because his critics have labeled him that. But he generally uses that in a positive way where he makes quick judgments.

BROWN: But prosecutors say one of those judgments was fatal. Janklow's car, they say, ran a stop sign on a county road last Saturday, and collided with a motorcycle driven by Mr. Scott. Police say his car was moving at around 70 miles an hour.

Blood alcohol tests have been taken, the prosecutor said in an e- mail to journalists, but no results have been released. And even Janklow has acknowledged his tendency toward speeding.

KRANTZ: But in 1999, during his State of the State address in January, there was actually a couple of paragraphs in that speech where he talks about his heavy foot, basically, talking about how he wished he didn't do that, but it's just one of those things that happens, and made the comment that he hoped to God he never had to go to jail because of it.

BROWN: South Dakota records indicate seven accidents for the congressman over the past decade. Among them, April 1997, his car slid into a state police command post during flooding. No injuries that time. In December of '93, he was involved in an accident with another motorist in Sioux Falls. No injuries, again. And 11 months earlier, yet another accident, one driver injured.

Because Randy Scott loved motorcycles, there were many at his funeral. As for the congressman, he is keeping quiet, waiting to see what prosecutors will do next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Up next, she was a radical during the '60s, the '70s, and the early '80s. She's about to be paroled. Twenty-two years after a deadly heist, Kathy Boudin will soon go free. Her story, more.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today, Police Sergeant Edward O'Grady of Nyack, New York, should have turned 55. His nephew mentioned the birthday as soon as he heard the news that one of the people involved in the 1981 armored car robbery that killed Sergeant O'Grady and two others was granted parole after two decades in prison.

Kathy Boudin, in a way, represents the darkness of the '60s, that young idealists could turn into monsters. Her supporters say she's done her time, realizes now the wrong that she's done, and channeled a good part of her idealism into work in prison.

Many family members of the victim still see a monster, and monsters, they say, belong in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): To many, she was the epitome of the '60s radical, a well-to-do white woman who was a member of the Weather Underground, who, more than two decades ago, took part in a deadly armed robbery.

LEONARD WEINGLASS, BOUDIN DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The judge who sentenced her 20 years ago investigated her role in the crime. And he said her role was secondary, that she didn't shoot anyone, that she was unarmed, that she had no role in the planning, and that she was a last-minute addition.

BROWN: Kathy Boudin, police say, joined forces with the Black Liberation Army, a group of radicals who said they were devoted to the armed overthrow of the American government.

In 1981, she took part in a robbery of an armored car at a shopping mall north of New York City, $1.6 million was stolen. Three people died, a Brinks guard and two Nyack, New York, police officers.

WEINGLASS: She not only behaved well in prison, she's been, by all accounts, an exemplary inmate.

BROWN: Ms. Boudin was first eligible for parole two years ago. It was denied. Just three months ago, parole was denied again. A Web site established on her behalf says she sought parole because of her, quote, "exemplary behavior and her clearly expressed remorse."

Today, her parole was approved, release date October 1. Ms. Boudin is in her 60s now. And a relative of one of the slain policemen said today, "I just hope she is sincere in her claim to be a changed woman, and no other family has to suffer like ours did."

We'll check morning papers after the break. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Somebody suggested we only use the rooster once a week. No, it's cable.

Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.

Begin with "The New York Times," just because the -- here's how -- I like this headline. Here's how they headline the Arnold Schwarzenegger press conference. Well, I guess I could show it to you, couldn't I? "Schwarzenegger Tries to Add Some Substance to Celebrity." That's their headline there. And "Former Radical Granted Parole in '81 Killings," that's a legit front-page story in New York, and a rare local story on the front page of "The New York Times."

"The San Antonio Express," man, this is an unbelievable story. "San Antonio Express News," you should use its full name in its first reference. Over here, "Book Pins the Killing of JFK on LBJ." San Antonio, "S.A. Author Is the Father of Bush's Press Secretary," Scott McClellan.

The father of the White House press secretary claims in an upcoming book, "Blood, Money, and Power," how LBJ killed JFK, the former president. Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination of President Kennedy. Yikes. Anyway, that's big news in San Antonio. Probably big news in other places too.

The "Charleston Gazette," the shootings are a big story. That's Charleston, West Virginia, the state's newspaper. "Shootings Look Drug Related, Police Mum on Whether Drugs Found on Victims." And "Residents Defend Campbell's Creek," that's a neighborhood now that's gotten a lot of nasty attention because of all of this.

Also -- How much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-nine.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness. "State Bar Panel Deny Moore," former governor Arch Moore, "His License." That would be his law license. It is West Virginia.

"The Wash" -- no, forget "The Washington Times" (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and let me do this one. This is a really sad story. I hate ending on sad stories, but I will. "United in Sorrow," "Detroit Free Press," is their big story. It's a horrible story about a father who allegedly killed three of his four children, tried to kill them all, in a dispute with his wife, called his wife and said, "Watch the news tonight."

Goodness. A tough way to end it, but end it we shall.

All back tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you are as well. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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Conference; Investigation Into Bombing of U.N. Building in Iraq Continues>