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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

9/11 Remembered; Israel Threatens to Move Against Arafat;

Aired September 11, 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.
It was a beautiful day for remembering here in New York today. Much of the program tonight looks at how we've changed since that horrible day two years ago but a few words here at the top on how we haven't.

In more ways than not it seems to me we are as we were before the attacks. In the months after the attacks terrorism and national security were our highest concerns. Today, polls tell us it is the economy.

In the days and weeks after the attack as a country we went back to churches and synagogues. We talked about the importance of our marriages and our kids. We vowed to make each day special. Life is fleeting. Church attendance has settled back to pre-attack levels. Divorce rates haven't changed at all.

After 9/11 we talked of the need to end petty political bickering. Today the country seems not just politically divided 50/50, nothing wrong with that, but once again caught up again in the nastiness of our political division. Look at the books on the best seller list these days, left and right, or listen to the political debate in Congress.

The attack on 9/11 was the worst day in our national life and the days and weeks after when we seemed to care a little more, speak more gently to one another and cherish those things that really matter were some of our very best and that's what I found myself missing most today.

We begin tonight with Jason Carroll who covered the events here in New York City, so Jason in a headline sum it up.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, you look at the faces of the people who came down here today. You listen to their voices and it's clear. Even two years after the terrorist attacks the pain of what happened here is still very strong -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jason, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.

Nine-eleven as marked in Baghdad, Nic Robertson on that tonight, Nic a headline from you.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, moments through the day for the troops here to remember those who passed away on September the 11th and the announcement as well from their commander of forces here who so far he has found no ties between Saddam Hussein and those tragic events of September the 11th -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you.

On any other day what's happening in Israel and on the West Bank would have been our lead tonight. Matthew Chance is in Ramallah, Matthew a headline.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, thank you, and in a dramatic turn Israel threatens to move against the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat but is it just a tactic to pressure the Palestinian leadership or will Israel follow through? The prospect of that is provoking Palestinian fury.

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

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, spend a lot of time looking at how life has changed, our new normal, two years later beginning in a place far from Ground Zero but as American as you can get, Normal, Illinois, where Mr. Keo's (ph) class is beginning to learn about the history that was made two years ago today.

We'll look at how life has changed for one Delta Airline pilot. Her job used to be just getting people from here to there. Tonight she knows she's also the last line of defense if her plane is attacked by terrorists.

And the story of a couple who divorced last year but even that doesn't break the one bond they will have forever, the son they loved and lost, all that to come in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight where we did two years ago but at a very different Ground Zero in so many ways. In some ways, as you'll see, much has changed right down to the shoes we take off at the airport and the boots on the ground in dangerous places around the world.

In one way nothing has changed. It's still hard to think of the events of two years ago as anything but fresh and a recent wound still. So, we remember in different ways and in different places.

Tonight around the country in Major League baseball stadiums the cheering stopped, the action stopped. Fans and players took a moment to reflect to say a small prayer to take a note of 9/11 in their own way.

And, in Lower Manhattan tonight, after a day of ceremonies, there's once again a tangible reminder of the skyline of light before 9/11 and of the changing life since.

We begin with CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Twin towers of light beam into the Manhattan night, a remembrance of the 110-story buildings that dominated the skyline and of the people who died here.

At Ground Zero, thousands came to mourn. They came holding pictures, flags, and flowers pausing for moments of silence at the exact times when the twin towers were hit and then collapsed. The names of everyone who died...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother firefighter Michael Scott Carlow (ph), we love and miss you.

CARROLL: ...read by relatives mostly children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And our father Carl Martin Flickinger (ph) we miss him very much.

CARROLL: All 2,792 names.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my loving father Ronald Paul Boca (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my wonderful aunt Lorraine Leci (ph) I miss you so much.

CARROLL: The diversity of faces and names, a reminder people from more than 90 countries were killed here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our father who we deeply miss Hafmut Karmar (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our father Juan Mendez LaFuente (ph) (unintelligible).

CARROLL: It took two and a half hours to read them all.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: So many names there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

CARROLL: Vice President Dick Cheney paid his respects at a separate service at an uptown cathedral for the 84 employees lost by the Port Authority which owned the trade center but the day's focus was at Ground Zero where family members collected earth from the site another remembrance of loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the only people that know what we went through so to be around those people that is the healing part of it. It's those human interactions but, as far as getting over this, I'm never going to get over this.

CARROLL: And, a city and nation will never forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And it was a day not only to remember what happened in the past but also to look toward the future and what will be built here. Of course the world's tallest building will end up being built over to my right and the memorial for the victims who died here. The largest competition of its kind is underway right now. The winning design should be selected sometime in November -- Aaron. BROWN: Jason, thank you very much, Jason Carroll tonight.

The enormity of the attack on New York has often overshadowed the attack on the Pentagon in Washington but their grief is no less real and their remembrances today no less powerful.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a beautiful day here, sunny as it was two years ago when it all began. The president spoke leaving church.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll remember lives lost. We'll remember the heroic deeds. We'll remember the compassion, the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day.

MORTON: But mostly in a city full of people who like to talk this was a day for moments of silence at the White House, at the Justice Department. Later Solicitor General Ted Olson spoke. His wife died in the plane which hit the Pentagon.

THEODORE OLSON, SOLICITOR GENERAL: And we suffer today in different ways from those September 11 moments when the ground beneath us trembled and our lives forever changed.

MORTON: At the capitol bell and then silence. At Arlington National Cemetery they laid a wreath and remembered.

COMMANDER ROBERT BELTRAM, U.S. NAVY CHAPLAIN: Now in the stillness of this moment we look beyond this day and pledge that though they whom we remember this day are lost they shall never be forgotten.

MORTON: At the Pentagon, silence and then (unintelligible).

There is a memorial stone in the Pentagon wall. It was charred when the plane hit two years ago and, back at the capital, Congressmen sang a song they sang two years ago when it all began.

So, Washington paused and prayed and mourned and worked. Flags fly everywhere. The war goes on.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Next to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, there are seven churches in Shanksville, a scout troop and a volunteer fire department. In almost any way you might imagine the 200 or so residents of that town or any other small town for that matter wouldn't seem to have much in common with the residents of New York or Washington. Somehow it comforts us even as it saddens us to remember tonight that, yes, they do.

Here's CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Louis J. Mackey (ph), Donald Peterson (ph).

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Shanksville, Pennsylvania a bell tolled for each of the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, many of whom turned on their hijackers and met their end crashing in this abandoned field.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think of how brave they must have been and the passengers and how courageous they were and my heart breaks.

MATTINGLY: Though far from the targets of Washington and New York, the low budget temporary chain link memorial still drew tens of thousands of visitors this summer alone and shows how deeply painful memories continue to run.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole world changed. We all changed and it brings back so many memories.

MATTINGLY: At Boston's Logan Airport, for example, tears were still being shed for those who perished onboard hijacked American Flight 11 and United Flight 175. In Middletown, New Jersey, a town still grieves for 37 residents who died in the attacks after commuting into the city to work.

But there are thousands upon thousands who never knew a 9/11 victim or ever visited Ground Zero but who remember the horror and pain just the same. You could see it in song and in tears in places like Texas and in a 21-gun salute in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In Lexington, Kentucky, people left work to perform community service and communities from the Dakotas to L.A. to Austin unveiled displays of twisted steel salvaged from the Twin Towers, their own pieces of Ground Zero.

There were also displays of patriotism, acts of faith, and moments of sadness, a nation bound by a single terrible day of events that shows no signs of fading into the past.

David Mattingly CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: One of the maddening realities two years after the fact is everything we still don't know about the events of the 11th of September. There is much we've come to know that may or may not be true in fact.

Slate.com's David Plotz has been looking at the mythology, if you will, of 9/11, the reality as well and David joins us from Washington tonight, nice to see you. When I was looking at the piece the other day, one of the things that jumped out at me was that we don't know really how they took the planes. DAVID PLOTZ, SLATE.COM: That's right, Aaron. There is what I would call the box cutter myth, which is that in the days after 9/11 Americans came to think because they were told this in the media and by elected officials that the planes were hijacked using box cutters and knives but that is really a very incomplete story and almost a distorting story because, in fact, we really don't know what happened.

There are in three of the four flights we don't have anything from the voice data recorder. In the fourth flight, the voice data recorder comes on after the hijackers have already taken the plane.

Insofar as we have reports about what happened on the flights, we have reports of knives and box cutters but also of chemical sprays, bomb threats, of possibly a gun being used and we really don't have any idea how, in fact, the hijackers got from their seats into the cockpits and into control of the plane.

BROWN: And, while it is I suppose possible that because planners of the attack we believe are still alive they may know some detail, it is probably more likely that we'll never know the answer to precisely how they took control.

PLOTZ: That's right. I think we believe that probably Mohamed Atta made these plans, perhaps conspiring with other people who were still alive but there's been nothing that's come out that suggests we're ever going to have real detail about what happened on the planes and the historical record of the planes unfortunately is lost.

BROWN: Time is racing by us here. One of the myths I think people generally -- well people talk about a lot but people still believe which is the Iraqi connection which again does not exist.

PLOTZ: That's right. If you look at the most recent polling by the "Washington Post" 70 percent of Americans believe that Iraq was behind the September 11 attacks. There's simply no evidence of that. The plotters who are alive from the hijacking, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed say Iraq had nothing to do with it.

The supposed evidence, a meeting between chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence agent seems not to have taken place and I think the biggest thing is kind of the dog that didn't bark, which is that the Bush administration, which has every desire to point a smoking gun in the 9/11 attacks at Saddam Hussein has found nothing.

We would have heard about it because it's obviously so much in the administration's interest to tell us about any evidence that would link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to those attacks.

BROWN: Literally a half a minute, name one more.

PLOTZ: Another misconception is that Zacarias Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker, which was something that was all over. The federal agents were saying that and the media was saying that all the time after the attacks and, in fact, Moussaoui never met any of the 9/11 hijackers. Ramzi Binalshibh said that Moussaoui was not part of that plot. BROWN: David, thank you, David Plotz' work appears at slate.com. It's a terrific article and it's a reminder of not just what we do know but a lot that we don't. Thank you, good to have you with us tonight.

PLOTZ: Thank you.

BROWN: Later on the program a look at how things have changed in the country since 9/11.

Up ahead, though other news of the day a new worldwide terror alert and a look at a place where Americans are already the most vulnerable, if you will, Iraq.

And then the situation in the Middle East, deteriorating it would seem even more as Yasser Arafat defies Israeli threats to expel him.

A break first, on CNN this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tough night, huh.

Other news today, much of it along the lines of what we've come to expect in the last two years, the State Department today issued what it's calling a worldwide caution.

It reads like this: "We are seeing increasing indications that al Qaeda is preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad." And, it goes on to say: "We also cannot rule out the potential for al Qaeda to attempt a second catastrophic attack within the United States."

That said and it is a mouthful there are no immediate plans to raise the country's overall threat level from yellow to orange. The warning comes a day after a broadcast of an audio tape purported to be Osama bin Laden and his number two man.

Today the CIA said it believes the voice is in fact bin Laden's henchman. It is still trying to determine if the other voice belongs to bin Laden himself. The tape, as you heard last night, calls on Islamic militants to target American forces in Iraq.

It is unclear who was behind the attack today near Fallujah. A convoy was hit by RPG fire, a soldier wounded, and when other American forces arrived on the scene people inside homes nearby began shooting at them. It is against that bloody backdrop today that soldiers, when they could, took a moment to remember 9/11.

With that, here's CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Hours after al Qaeda's call for an Iraq offensive, remembrance in Baghdad of the terror group's biggest attacks, revelation too that so far there's nothing tying the former Iraqi regime to those attacks. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER, COALITION FORCES: We have not received any indicators whatsoever that that's the case.

ROBERTSON: The question here now how seriously to take the latest al Qaeda appeal for mujahadeen to come to Iraq to attack U.S. troops.

It's a very difficult issue, problem. It relies on human intelligence and the Iraqi people, along with the coalition and all the international community have to focus on eliminating that threat.

ROBERTSON: On the streets here it's not necessarily easy getting that support. This woman, a Christian, was asked what she thought about the al Qaeda to help Iraqis kill U.S. troops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said to him, OK, because the soldiers come here not to give us freedom. These soldiers come here to steal our oil.

ROBERTSON: Others are more concerned how al Qaeda attacks could hurt them.

"Al Qaeda's statement means nothing" he says. "They are using Iraq as a card to play to weaken the Iraqi people and their unity."

In solitary confinement in a Kurdish jail in northern Iraq, a supporter of Osama bin Laden, 28-year-old Iraqi-borne Qais Abu Assim was arrested last year. Speaking days before the new al Qaeda tape emerged he uncannily anticipates its message that 9/11 was nothing compared to what's to come.

QAIS ABU ASSIM, ANSAR AL ISLAM MEMBER (through translator): There are weapons which we will use to kill Americans and I mean what I say. This is not just talk, weapons that will shock the world.

ROBERTSON: He gives no indication what those weapons may be but adds al Qaeda has plenty of other U.S. targets outside of Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Among analysts there is little doubt, however, that al Qaeda will try and use the fluid security situation in Iraq to come here to try to kill U.S. soldiers. If there is a rise in terrorism as a result of that it is very likely how the Iraqi people will react will depend on how much they think the U.S. troops have done to help them at that time -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you, Nic Robertson who's in Baghdad tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the situation in the Middle East seems to worsen, Israel considering expelling Yasser Arafat, Arafat supporters rallying to his side.

We'll take a break. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Across the river the way the good people of Brooklyn, New York, are looking upon Manhattan tonight, the beams of light.

After a recent string of deadly bombings, the Israeli government security cabinet decided today to expel Yasser Arafat from the occupied territories. Exactly what that means and when this would happen, if it happens, is not clear.

But already the decision is not sitting well in either Washington or on the West Bank, reporting for us tonight from Ramallah CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): Palestinian anger even at the threat of Israeli action against their president. Imagine what could happen if Israel follows through. At his battered Ramallah compound, thousands gathered to show their support. This was Yasser Arafat's moment and he spoke with defiance.

"We are a strong people" he told them "and we will never surrender nor will we ever leave this land" he said.

In his words, the promise of independence so many still look to him to fulfill.

(on camera): Israel and Washington may not like it but Yasser Arafat is a man who millions of ordinary people see as a potent national symbol. Attempts to sideline him politically have bred resentment among many. This new Israeli threat to expel him or potentially harm him has bred absolute fury.

(voice-over): For many Palestinians, Yasser Arafat symbolizes their dreams for an independent state and much more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible) is our leader. If they want to live in peace they must deal with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's like a godfather to us like if anybody pushes him it's going to be a big mess so he means a lot other than just the president or something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Mr. Arafat killed by the Israeli soldiers here we'll form one million Mr. Arafats.

CHANCE: In Gaza and across the West Bank, Palestinians crowded the streets like this in support of their leader. He may be threatened by Israel but tonight Yasser Arafat appears as popular as ever with his own people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well, the Israeli government has yet to clarify what exactly it has in mind for Yasser Arafat, exiling him, possibly harming him in the process. It would have far reaching implications both at home and internationally. Nevertheless, Israeli officials say so long as terror attacks continue on Israeli civilians they're determined to remove a man they've already branded as the main obstacle in this region to peace -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, you wonder how those scenes that you just showed us were viewed in the ministries of government in Jerusalem. Shimon Peres on this program last night said the danger here is that Israel would make a historical mistake. Is there a fierce debate in Israel about whether this is the right thing to do?

CHANCE: There is a fierce debate and that debate has intensified over the last few days with those twin Hamas suicide bombings in two places in Israel that left 15 Israelis dead.

Increasingly vocal calls for the government to be seen to act to crack down on the people they believe are responsible for this and, of course, to go after Yasser Arafat who is repeatedly described in the Israeli media and by Israeli officials as the sort of godfather, the person behind this, the obstacle to achieving true peace.

Palestinians at the same time say if they remove Yasser Arafat it would just lead to more chaos and that the real obstacle to peace is Israel's occupation of their territory.

BROWN: Matt, thank you, Matthew Chance in Ramallah tonight.

A few other items from around the world beginning in London, a bipartisan panel there concluded that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government did not deliberately sex up, the British phrase here, an intelligence report on the Iraq weapons program. It did have some concerns about the report however.

Swedish police tonight looking for a man who stabbed Sweden's foreign minister to death. This is an incredibly shocking event in that country. Anna Lindh was attacked yesterday in a Stockholm department store. She walked around with no bodyguard. She died of her wounds today.

And Pope John Paul, looking especially frail, is in Slovakia tonight. He had difficulty talking today. Aides had to finish reading two speeches for him. Despite that, he decided to continue on his four-day visit.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Will he or won't he run for president? Retired General Wesley Clark leans closer and closer to the starting line, we think.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The Pentagon tonight, 9/11 two years later.

It is hard to think of a four-star general as coquettish, but how else are we to feel about Wesley Clark. The retired general, the former supreme NATO commander, of course, an FON, friend of NEWSNIGHT, has been flirting with a presidential run for -- well, it feels like forever. As we told him the other day in our office, Hamlet reached decisions more quickly.

"Will he or won't he?" is the $64 million question in Democratic circles these days. Friends are now saying he will. We, of course, want to hear it from the general himself and are manning the phone lines for the call.

Until we get it, here is CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wesley Clark's friends and advisers say they expect the retired general to announce next week he is running for president. For now, Clark will only say, a decision is coming.

RET. GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY: I have only one decision to make. And that's the decision whether or not to run. And that's to run for the president of the United States, not for any other office. That's the decision that's in front of me.

KARL: Clark has already begun building a campaign organization. He's approached potential campaign managers, consultants, and hired Mark Fabiani, a veteran of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, who told CNN Clark hasn't made a final decision, but he's doing what he needs to do to put himself in a position to run.

CLARK: In the military, we do parallel planning. And I -- that's the way I have always worked this. And we are going to have to make a decision soon. And if the decision is yes, then we want to be ready. And that's the way we are working.

KARL: Clark would be a late entrance in a crowded Democratic field filled with better-financed and better-organized candidates. But leading Democrats say he could shake up the race.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER GORE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: He is good on national security and foreign policy. The race is still wide open. And I think General Clark would be a great candidate, if he decides to get in the race.

KARL: Like Bill Clinton, Clark is from Arkansas. And his boosters include Clinton's top Arkansas allies, including Bruce Lindsey and Skip Rutherford, the head of the Clinton Presidential Library.

Clark is a political novice. He's never run for office and only last week did he announce he's a Democrat. But he has an impressive military resume. He's a four-star general who graduated first in his class at West Point. He was awarded the Silver Star for his service in Vietnam and was NATO commander during the 1999 Kosovo war.

(on camera): His supporters say that military resume gives Clark the credibility to challenge President Bush on national security and his handling of the Iraq war, issues Democrats now say may be central to next year's presidential campaign.

Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the new normal, three examples of how things have changed in the country since the tragedy of 9/11.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We decided to spend some time tonight looking at how things have changed in the last two years.

There's a time for the big important stories with grand sweep, things like the fate of civil liberties, America's place in the world, the status of the war on terror. We like to think we do those stories in different shapes and forms all year long. But tonight is for small stories, for people and how they've changed.

You'll meet two parents who are together in the loss of their son, even though they are no longer a couple. You'll meet a pilot who feels the weight of her new responsibility as a potential defender of her passengers and crew.

And we begin in Mr. Keogh's social studies class, learning the history of 9/11, the new normal, as seen in Normal, Illinois.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Normal, Illinois, is the kind of town often described by how far it is from someplace else, about two hours from Chicago, 30 minutes from the proverbial Peoria.

KELLY KEOGH, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER: Normal, Illinois, is, no pun intended, just that. It is your stable, just kind of generic Midwestern town.

BROWN: Here at Normal Community High School, Kelly Keogh has taught history, social studies and international relations since, as he dates it, Iraq invaded Kuwait. This September, Mr. Keogh will struggle with how to teach the events of 9/11, 2001.

KEOGH: Why were the World Trade Centers the target? What does that represent?

How do you cover it? Is it an American history event? Is it a world history event? These are issues that pop up. And you hear a varied difference of opinion concerning where it should fall.

BROWN: Those questions are being dealt with in new textbooks, but Mr. Keogh can replace his old books only every six years. So for now, he wings it as best he can.

KEOGH: Based on what happened on that horrible day, bin Laden's actions, al Qaeda's actions, terrorism or an example of revolutionary behavior?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the right to believe whatever he wants. But the point was, he violated some of the basic rules of just-war theories when he attacked, took hostages, attacked noncombatants.

KEOGH: If he's so angry with the Saudi Arabian government, if he's so angry about what's happening with the Palestinians in Israel, why is he attacking us?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, doesn't he say that the Western world has basically declared war on the Islam people?

KEOGH: On Islam?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KEOGH: So how would that, then, justify in his mind this attack?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we're a part of the Western world.

KEOGH: Good job.

Here in my central Illinois community, there aren't many Muslims. And there is an immediate threat that most of your students are going to affiliate Osama bin Laden's brand of Islam with the entire Muslim faith. One of the constant things I hear is, those people just are crazy. They hate us. They're jealous of our freedoms.

How do we address this? What do we do? What policy should we adopt, if you have such, in many ways, vitriolic hatred toward the United States?

I love my job. I love the subject matter; 9/11 just further enhanced that passion in the sense of, I now know, my God, what we do is so important. When they reflect back on 9/11, I want them to reflect back on not just what happened, but I want them to think deeper on why it happened. And for me as an educator, if I can get kids to do those things, then I feel I've done my job. And I feel good when they walk out that door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How things have changed in Mr. Keogh's social studies classes.

This is how things have changed for Delta Airlines pilot Ann Nelson. She's no longer someone who just gets people from where they need to go safely and quickly with a smile and some soothing words from the cockpit. Captain Nelson knows she could be her flight's last chance of defense. When she says she's a combatant in the war on terror, she is not wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Because she had flown 767s, those giant widebody jets, she knew more quickly than most of us what kind of plane it was that struck the second tower. ANN NELSON, DELTA AIRLINES PILOT: I can see -- as we're sitting here right now, I can see the film of that aircraft just slowly heading towards the tower. And the 767, it has a very distinct profile. And that's one of the aircraft I fly. And I saw that. And I was thinking small airplane. And I just -- my mind would not accept what I was seeing.

BROWN: Ann Nelson has been flying for Delta Airlines for more than 15 years. She's a first officer now, one of about 90 or so female pilots and co-pilots in a work force of more than 7,600 men.

A former Air Force flyer, she decided then and believes now, the attacks placed all pilots in a harsh and unexpected role.

NELSON: I just felt that we had -- we, airline pilots -- had become combatants. They had put us -- the terrorists had put us in that position. This is -- this is a war and we are combatants.

BROWN: You can sense that in the Delta pilots lounge, where Ann Nelson goes through her preflight routine with a seriousness that may not have been there years ago.

NELSON: As airline pilots, we've gotten new equipment. We've gotten new procedures. There's federal air marshals. There's reinforced doors, quite a few different things.

BROWN: And they've gotten weapons -- at least some of them have.

NELSON: Part of the program is not divulging who does and doesn't participate in the program. But I'm very comfortable with the idea. I was trained with a pistol in the military and am comfortable with the idea of crew members being armed.

BROWN: All of this, of course, is against a backdrop of severe economic problems the American airlines are facing. And Delta is no exception.

NELSON: I have friends and neighbors who have been affected by the furloughs. We've had an unusual number of early retirements.

And so it's affected certainly a lot of people. There's pilots who are in the military reserve and they've been off fighting the war. So it has had quite an effect on a lot of people.

BROWN: Ann Nelson has two lives, as a mother to her two children, Gracie (ph) and Davis (ph), and as a pilot responsible for the lives and safety of her passengers. What happened on September 11 has permanently changed her job. But, like all of us, she has no choice but to move forward.

NELSON: It's a constant process of change. And in the whole scheme of things, the operation for us, although some of these changes aren't the happiest changes, we can accept them and we can handle them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How life has changed for a Delta airlines pilot Ann Nelson.

Now to the story of the Whites of Atlanta, Georgia, a father and a stepmother still mourning the loss of a son, even though they no longer grieve as husband and wife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): As New York City prepared to commemorate the 9/11 attacks, this quiet neighborhood in Atlanta felt a million miles away. But for Georgia White, the day she lost the stepson she raised is never far away at all.

GEORGIA WHITE, STEPMOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: The loss is still so obvious and such an empty place in my heart.

BROWN: Adam White was just 27. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. And those who knew him say he was an uncontainable spirit, drawn to the energy of New York City.

SHELBY WHITE, FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: He wasn't afraid to do anything. He would do anything. A lot of people said he lived to be 80, but he only was here for 27 years.

BROWN: Adam's father, Shelby White, says he finds some comfort in knowing he is not alone in his grief. Thousands lost loved ones that day. But, in another way, the Whites are very much alone.

G. WHITE: We were one of the very few families around this area who lost someone. I'm sure we're the only ones who lost a child.

In New York, the support was for an enormous group. Here in Atlanta, it was for us. And I think that was -- of course, it was very, very helpful.

BROWN: The entire city, it seemed, showered them with support. The cards still come in.

G. WHITE: A lot of them are from people that I don't even know, people that wanted to tell me how sorry they were.

BROWN: People made flags.

G. WHITE: It says Adam White.

BROWN: Flags out of wood, flags out of stained glass, flags out of paper.

G. WHITE: I was overwhelmed. I was surprised at the telephone calls and the letters and the cards and the food and the -- just everything that people did. I was overcome.

BROWN: So overcome that, on the one-year anniversary, the Whites and their four other sons threw a party to celebrate Adam's life and to say thank you. S. WHITE: And there were maybe about 500, 600 people here. And it was just -- it felt like a big celebration of Adam's life.

BROWN: The loss of their son wasn't the family's only loss. Something else disappeared in their grief, something harder to explain and understand.

G. WHITE: It's very, very hard to have some brokenhearted feeling and want support from a person and have them feel the same way you do and not be able to give the support back. It was very sad for our relationship. But it couldn't be helped.

BROWN: The Whites divorced after a 22-year marriage last year. But they say they are still close, bound by the very grief that separated them, a grief that has remained painfully sharp since that September day two years ago.

S. WHITE: I thought it would be a lot better by now. And everybody said it would be. Things get better. And they feel like they're about the same.

BROWN: Like so many others, the Whites are hopeful that next September will be a little easier.

G. WHITE: A year from now, I hope, of course, that I'll feel better. That would be nice. You can't just stop living. Adam certainly wouldn't want that. He was such a doer. I miss him terribly. But you can't just stop. You have to keep going.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, needless to say, 9/11, the second anniversary, made the front page of every paper, perhaps none -- well, that's probably not true either. It's certainly the front page of "The Daily American," which is the newspaper in and around Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Bell Tolls For Lives Lost on Flight 93" is their headline. And their second story, "Norton:" -- Gale Norton, the interior secretary -- "Hijackers Changed This Day Forever," needless to say. That's "The Daily American."

"Dallas Morning News," the headline, "9/11 Two Years Later: Intimate Portraits, Victims' Children Take Center Stage at Ground Zero." They've picked up "The Washington Post" story. The lead reads, "The rawness of public grief and grand memory yielded to something quieter and more intimate this year, as the nation marked the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, in which more than 3,000 men and women died." I think they got that about right, too. It was a quieter day today.

"The Hartford Courant," Hartford, Connecticut. A political story. "Bush Still Defined by 9/11," a largely flattering piece written by David Lightman, their Washington bureau chief. That's the Hartford, Connecticut, paper.

"The Miami Herald" leads with 9/11. "September 11 Two Years Later: America Remembers." That's a terrific photo. A number of really nice stills in the newspapers that will land on your doorstep tomorrow. "Children Lead Moving Memorial For Victims of the Terror Attacks."

How we doing on time? One-zero-five. OK.

"The Boston Herald." "Alert Hikes Fear. They come off 9/11 a little bit to the worldwide terror alert. "U.S. Warns of Chem, Bio Attacks Bigger Than 9/11." Get a tight shot, if you can, of the picture. And this is the picture that graces the front page of "The Boston Herald." I'm not sure how well you can see that. I hope you can see it. It's a lovely shot, shot by a staff photographer for "The Boston Herald." Good for him.

"The Detroit News," lots of different things on the front page, a real mix, actually. "Children Lead Nation in Mourning" is their headline on the 9/11 story. But there is a UAW negotiation story up at the top. And it's a football story, too. "U.M.-" -- University of Michigan -- "Irish Game Equals Football Bliss." Is that -- that must be this weekend. Why else would they do that? It is. Well, of course. I figured that out. Eventually, I figure this stuff out. That's "The Detroit News."

The "Detroit Free Press": "A Time to Mourn and a Time to Live."

And the "Chicago Sun-Times," very quickly: "United We Stand."

It's always nice to be with you, seemed especially so today. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time.

Good night for all of us.

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Aired September 11, 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.
It was a beautiful day for remembering here in New York today. Much of the program tonight looks at how we've changed since that horrible day two years ago but a few words here at the top on how we haven't.

In more ways than not it seems to me we are as we were before the attacks. In the months after the attacks terrorism and national security were our highest concerns. Today, polls tell us it is the economy.

In the days and weeks after the attack as a country we went back to churches and synagogues. We talked about the importance of our marriages and our kids. We vowed to make each day special. Life is fleeting. Church attendance has settled back to pre-attack levels. Divorce rates haven't changed at all.

After 9/11 we talked of the need to end petty political bickering. Today the country seems not just politically divided 50/50, nothing wrong with that, but once again caught up again in the nastiness of our political division. Look at the books on the best seller list these days, left and right, or listen to the political debate in Congress.

The attack on 9/11 was the worst day in our national life and the days and weeks after when we seemed to care a little more, speak more gently to one another and cherish those things that really matter were some of our very best and that's what I found myself missing most today.

We begin tonight with Jason Carroll who covered the events here in New York City, so Jason in a headline sum it up.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, you look at the faces of the people who came down here today. You listen to their voices and it's clear. Even two years after the terrorist attacks the pain of what happened here is still very strong -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jason, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.

Nine-eleven as marked in Baghdad, Nic Robertson on that tonight, Nic a headline from you.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, moments through the day for the troops here to remember those who passed away on September the 11th and the announcement as well from their commander of forces here who so far he has found no ties between Saddam Hussein and those tragic events of September the 11th -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you.

On any other day what's happening in Israel and on the West Bank would have been our lead tonight. Matthew Chance is in Ramallah, Matthew a headline.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, thank you, and in a dramatic turn Israel threatens to move against the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat but is it just a tactic to pressure the Palestinian leadership or will Israel follow through? The prospect of that is provoking Palestinian fury.

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

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, spend a lot of time looking at how life has changed, our new normal, two years later beginning in a place far from Ground Zero but as American as you can get, Normal, Illinois, where Mr. Keo's (ph) class is beginning to learn about the history that was made two years ago today.

We'll look at how life has changed for one Delta Airline pilot. Her job used to be just getting people from here to there. Tonight she knows she's also the last line of defense if her plane is attacked by terrorists.

And the story of a couple who divorced last year but even that doesn't break the one bond they will have forever, the son they loved and lost, all that to come in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight where we did two years ago but at a very different Ground Zero in so many ways. In some ways, as you'll see, much has changed right down to the shoes we take off at the airport and the boots on the ground in dangerous places around the world.

In one way nothing has changed. It's still hard to think of the events of two years ago as anything but fresh and a recent wound still. So, we remember in different ways and in different places.

Tonight around the country in Major League baseball stadiums the cheering stopped, the action stopped. Fans and players took a moment to reflect to say a small prayer to take a note of 9/11 in their own way.

And, in Lower Manhattan tonight, after a day of ceremonies, there's once again a tangible reminder of the skyline of light before 9/11 and of the changing life since.

We begin with CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Twin towers of light beam into the Manhattan night, a remembrance of the 110-story buildings that dominated the skyline and of the people who died here.

At Ground Zero, thousands came to mourn. They came holding pictures, flags, and flowers pausing for moments of silence at the exact times when the twin towers were hit and then collapsed. The names of everyone who died...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother firefighter Michael Scott Carlow (ph), we love and miss you.

CARROLL: ...read by relatives mostly children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And our father Carl Martin Flickinger (ph) we miss him very much.

CARROLL: All 2,792 names.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my loving father Ronald Paul Boca (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my wonderful aunt Lorraine Leci (ph) I miss you so much.

CARROLL: The diversity of faces and names, a reminder people from more than 90 countries were killed here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our father who we deeply miss Hafmut Karmar (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our father Juan Mendez LaFuente (ph) (unintelligible).

CARROLL: It took two and a half hours to read them all.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: So many names there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

CARROLL: Vice President Dick Cheney paid his respects at a separate service at an uptown cathedral for the 84 employees lost by the Port Authority which owned the trade center but the day's focus was at Ground Zero where family members collected earth from the site another remembrance of loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the only people that know what we went through so to be around those people that is the healing part of it. It's those human interactions but, as far as getting over this, I'm never going to get over this.

CARROLL: And, a city and nation will never forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And it was a day not only to remember what happened in the past but also to look toward the future and what will be built here. Of course the world's tallest building will end up being built over to my right and the memorial for the victims who died here. The largest competition of its kind is underway right now. The winning design should be selected sometime in November -- Aaron. BROWN: Jason, thank you very much, Jason Carroll tonight.

The enormity of the attack on New York has often overshadowed the attack on the Pentagon in Washington but their grief is no less real and their remembrances today no less powerful.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a beautiful day here, sunny as it was two years ago when it all began. The president spoke leaving church.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll remember lives lost. We'll remember the heroic deeds. We'll remember the compassion, the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day.

MORTON: But mostly in a city full of people who like to talk this was a day for moments of silence at the White House, at the Justice Department. Later Solicitor General Ted Olson spoke. His wife died in the plane which hit the Pentagon.

THEODORE OLSON, SOLICITOR GENERAL: And we suffer today in different ways from those September 11 moments when the ground beneath us trembled and our lives forever changed.

MORTON: At the capitol bell and then silence. At Arlington National Cemetery they laid a wreath and remembered.

COMMANDER ROBERT BELTRAM, U.S. NAVY CHAPLAIN: Now in the stillness of this moment we look beyond this day and pledge that though they whom we remember this day are lost they shall never be forgotten.

MORTON: At the Pentagon, silence and then (unintelligible).

There is a memorial stone in the Pentagon wall. It was charred when the plane hit two years ago and, back at the capital, Congressmen sang a song they sang two years ago when it all began.

So, Washington paused and prayed and mourned and worked. Flags fly everywhere. The war goes on.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Next to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, there are seven churches in Shanksville, a scout troop and a volunteer fire department. In almost any way you might imagine the 200 or so residents of that town or any other small town for that matter wouldn't seem to have much in common with the residents of New York or Washington. Somehow it comforts us even as it saddens us to remember tonight that, yes, they do.

Here's CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Louis J. Mackey (ph), Donald Peterson (ph).

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Shanksville, Pennsylvania a bell tolled for each of the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, many of whom turned on their hijackers and met their end crashing in this abandoned field.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think of how brave they must have been and the passengers and how courageous they were and my heart breaks.

MATTINGLY: Though far from the targets of Washington and New York, the low budget temporary chain link memorial still drew tens of thousands of visitors this summer alone and shows how deeply painful memories continue to run.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole world changed. We all changed and it brings back so many memories.

MATTINGLY: At Boston's Logan Airport, for example, tears were still being shed for those who perished onboard hijacked American Flight 11 and United Flight 175. In Middletown, New Jersey, a town still grieves for 37 residents who died in the attacks after commuting into the city to work.

But there are thousands upon thousands who never knew a 9/11 victim or ever visited Ground Zero but who remember the horror and pain just the same. You could see it in song and in tears in places like Texas and in a 21-gun salute in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In Lexington, Kentucky, people left work to perform community service and communities from the Dakotas to L.A. to Austin unveiled displays of twisted steel salvaged from the Twin Towers, their own pieces of Ground Zero.

There were also displays of patriotism, acts of faith, and moments of sadness, a nation bound by a single terrible day of events that shows no signs of fading into the past.

David Mattingly CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: One of the maddening realities two years after the fact is everything we still don't know about the events of the 11th of September. There is much we've come to know that may or may not be true in fact.

Slate.com's David Plotz has been looking at the mythology, if you will, of 9/11, the reality as well and David joins us from Washington tonight, nice to see you. When I was looking at the piece the other day, one of the things that jumped out at me was that we don't know really how they took the planes. DAVID PLOTZ, SLATE.COM: That's right, Aaron. There is what I would call the box cutter myth, which is that in the days after 9/11 Americans came to think because they were told this in the media and by elected officials that the planes were hijacked using box cutters and knives but that is really a very incomplete story and almost a distorting story because, in fact, we really don't know what happened.

There are in three of the four flights we don't have anything from the voice data recorder. In the fourth flight, the voice data recorder comes on after the hijackers have already taken the plane.

Insofar as we have reports about what happened on the flights, we have reports of knives and box cutters but also of chemical sprays, bomb threats, of possibly a gun being used and we really don't have any idea how, in fact, the hijackers got from their seats into the cockpits and into control of the plane.

BROWN: And, while it is I suppose possible that because planners of the attack we believe are still alive they may know some detail, it is probably more likely that we'll never know the answer to precisely how they took control.

PLOTZ: That's right. I think we believe that probably Mohamed Atta made these plans, perhaps conspiring with other people who were still alive but there's been nothing that's come out that suggests we're ever going to have real detail about what happened on the planes and the historical record of the planes unfortunately is lost.

BROWN: Time is racing by us here. One of the myths I think people generally -- well people talk about a lot but people still believe which is the Iraqi connection which again does not exist.

PLOTZ: That's right. If you look at the most recent polling by the "Washington Post" 70 percent of Americans believe that Iraq was behind the September 11 attacks. There's simply no evidence of that. The plotters who are alive from the hijacking, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed say Iraq had nothing to do with it.

The supposed evidence, a meeting between chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence agent seems not to have taken place and I think the biggest thing is kind of the dog that didn't bark, which is that the Bush administration, which has every desire to point a smoking gun in the 9/11 attacks at Saddam Hussein has found nothing.

We would have heard about it because it's obviously so much in the administration's interest to tell us about any evidence that would link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to those attacks.

BROWN: Literally a half a minute, name one more.

PLOTZ: Another misconception is that Zacarias Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker, which was something that was all over. The federal agents were saying that and the media was saying that all the time after the attacks and, in fact, Moussaoui never met any of the 9/11 hijackers. Ramzi Binalshibh said that Moussaoui was not part of that plot. BROWN: David, thank you, David Plotz' work appears at slate.com. It's a terrific article and it's a reminder of not just what we do know but a lot that we don't. Thank you, good to have you with us tonight.

PLOTZ: Thank you.

BROWN: Later on the program a look at how things have changed in the country since 9/11.

Up ahead, though other news of the day a new worldwide terror alert and a look at a place where Americans are already the most vulnerable, if you will, Iraq.

And then the situation in the Middle East, deteriorating it would seem even more as Yasser Arafat defies Israeli threats to expel him.

A break first, on CNN this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tough night, huh.

Other news today, much of it along the lines of what we've come to expect in the last two years, the State Department today issued what it's calling a worldwide caution.

It reads like this: "We are seeing increasing indications that al Qaeda is preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad." And, it goes on to say: "We also cannot rule out the potential for al Qaeda to attempt a second catastrophic attack within the United States."

That said and it is a mouthful there are no immediate plans to raise the country's overall threat level from yellow to orange. The warning comes a day after a broadcast of an audio tape purported to be Osama bin Laden and his number two man.

Today the CIA said it believes the voice is in fact bin Laden's henchman. It is still trying to determine if the other voice belongs to bin Laden himself. The tape, as you heard last night, calls on Islamic militants to target American forces in Iraq.

It is unclear who was behind the attack today near Fallujah. A convoy was hit by RPG fire, a soldier wounded, and when other American forces arrived on the scene people inside homes nearby began shooting at them. It is against that bloody backdrop today that soldiers, when they could, took a moment to remember 9/11.

With that, here's CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Hours after al Qaeda's call for an Iraq offensive, remembrance in Baghdad of the terror group's biggest attacks, revelation too that so far there's nothing tying the former Iraqi regime to those attacks. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER, COALITION FORCES: We have not received any indicators whatsoever that that's the case.

ROBERTSON: The question here now how seriously to take the latest al Qaeda appeal for mujahadeen to come to Iraq to attack U.S. troops.

It's a very difficult issue, problem. It relies on human intelligence and the Iraqi people, along with the coalition and all the international community have to focus on eliminating that threat.

ROBERTSON: On the streets here it's not necessarily easy getting that support. This woman, a Christian, was asked what she thought about the al Qaeda to help Iraqis kill U.S. troops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said to him, OK, because the soldiers come here not to give us freedom. These soldiers come here to steal our oil.

ROBERTSON: Others are more concerned how al Qaeda attacks could hurt them.

"Al Qaeda's statement means nothing" he says. "They are using Iraq as a card to play to weaken the Iraqi people and their unity."

In solitary confinement in a Kurdish jail in northern Iraq, a supporter of Osama bin Laden, 28-year-old Iraqi-borne Qais Abu Assim was arrested last year. Speaking days before the new al Qaeda tape emerged he uncannily anticipates its message that 9/11 was nothing compared to what's to come.

QAIS ABU ASSIM, ANSAR AL ISLAM MEMBER (through translator): There are weapons which we will use to kill Americans and I mean what I say. This is not just talk, weapons that will shock the world.

ROBERTSON: He gives no indication what those weapons may be but adds al Qaeda has plenty of other U.S. targets outside of Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Among analysts there is little doubt, however, that al Qaeda will try and use the fluid security situation in Iraq to come here to try to kill U.S. soldiers. If there is a rise in terrorism as a result of that it is very likely how the Iraqi people will react will depend on how much they think the U.S. troops have done to help them at that time -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you, Nic Robertson who's in Baghdad tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the situation in the Middle East seems to worsen, Israel considering expelling Yasser Arafat, Arafat supporters rallying to his side.

We'll take a break. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Across the river the way the good people of Brooklyn, New York, are looking upon Manhattan tonight, the beams of light.

After a recent string of deadly bombings, the Israeli government security cabinet decided today to expel Yasser Arafat from the occupied territories. Exactly what that means and when this would happen, if it happens, is not clear.

But already the decision is not sitting well in either Washington or on the West Bank, reporting for us tonight from Ramallah CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): Palestinian anger even at the threat of Israeli action against their president. Imagine what could happen if Israel follows through. At his battered Ramallah compound, thousands gathered to show their support. This was Yasser Arafat's moment and he spoke with defiance.

"We are a strong people" he told them "and we will never surrender nor will we ever leave this land" he said.

In his words, the promise of independence so many still look to him to fulfill.

(on camera): Israel and Washington may not like it but Yasser Arafat is a man who millions of ordinary people see as a potent national symbol. Attempts to sideline him politically have bred resentment among many. This new Israeli threat to expel him or potentially harm him has bred absolute fury.

(voice-over): For many Palestinians, Yasser Arafat symbolizes their dreams for an independent state and much more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible) is our leader. If they want to live in peace they must deal with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's like a godfather to us like if anybody pushes him it's going to be a big mess so he means a lot other than just the president or something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Mr. Arafat killed by the Israeli soldiers here we'll form one million Mr. Arafats.

CHANCE: In Gaza and across the West Bank, Palestinians crowded the streets like this in support of their leader. He may be threatened by Israel but tonight Yasser Arafat appears as popular as ever with his own people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well, the Israeli government has yet to clarify what exactly it has in mind for Yasser Arafat, exiling him, possibly harming him in the process. It would have far reaching implications both at home and internationally. Nevertheless, Israeli officials say so long as terror attacks continue on Israeli civilians they're determined to remove a man they've already branded as the main obstacle in this region to peace -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, you wonder how those scenes that you just showed us were viewed in the ministries of government in Jerusalem. Shimon Peres on this program last night said the danger here is that Israel would make a historical mistake. Is there a fierce debate in Israel about whether this is the right thing to do?

CHANCE: There is a fierce debate and that debate has intensified over the last few days with those twin Hamas suicide bombings in two places in Israel that left 15 Israelis dead.

Increasingly vocal calls for the government to be seen to act to crack down on the people they believe are responsible for this and, of course, to go after Yasser Arafat who is repeatedly described in the Israeli media and by Israeli officials as the sort of godfather, the person behind this, the obstacle to achieving true peace.

Palestinians at the same time say if they remove Yasser Arafat it would just lead to more chaos and that the real obstacle to peace is Israel's occupation of their territory.

BROWN: Matt, thank you, Matthew Chance in Ramallah tonight.

A few other items from around the world beginning in London, a bipartisan panel there concluded that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government did not deliberately sex up, the British phrase here, an intelligence report on the Iraq weapons program. It did have some concerns about the report however.

Swedish police tonight looking for a man who stabbed Sweden's foreign minister to death. This is an incredibly shocking event in that country. Anna Lindh was attacked yesterday in a Stockholm department store. She walked around with no bodyguard. She died of her wounds today.

And Pope John Paul, looking especially frail, is in Slovakia tonight. He had difficulty talking today. Aides had to finish reading two speeches for him. Despite that, he decided to continue on his four-day visit.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Will he or won't he run for president? Retired General Wesley Clark leans closer and closer to the starting line, we think.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The Pentagon tonight, 9/11 two years later.

It is hard to think of a four-star general as coquettish, but how else are we to feel about Wesley Clark. The retired general, the former supreme NATO commander, of course, an FON, friend of NEWSNIGHT, has been flirting with a presidential run for -- well, it feels like forever. As we told him the other day in our office, Hamlet reached decisions more quickly.

"Will he or won't he?" is the $64 million question in Democratic circles these days. Friends are now saying he will. We, of course, want to hear it from the general himself and are manning the phone lines for the call.

Until we get it, here is CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wesley Clark's friends and advisers say they expect the retired general to announce next week he is running for president. For now, Clark will only say, a decision is coming.

RET. GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY: I have only one decision to make. And that's the decision whether or not to run. And that's to run for the president of the United States, not for any other office. That's the decision that's in front of me.

KARL: Clark has already begun building a campaign organization. He's approached potential campaign managers, consultants, and hired Mark Fabiani, a veteran of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, who told CNN Clark hasn't made a final decision, but he's doing what he needs to do to put himself in a position to run.

CLARK: In the military, we do parallel planning. And I -- that's the way I have always worked this. And we are going to have to make a decision soon. And if the decision is yes, then we want to be ready. And that's the way we are working.

KARL: Clark would be a late entrance in a crowded Democratic field filled with better-financed and better-organized candidates. But leading Democrats say he could shake up the race.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER GORE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: He is good on national security and foreign policy. The race is still wide open. And I think General Clark would be a great candidate, if he decides to get in the race.

KARL: Like Bill Clinton, Clark is from Arkansas. And his boosters include Clinton's top Arkansas allies, including Bruce Lindsey and Skip Rutherford, the head of the Clinton Presidential Library.

Clark is a political novice. He's never run for office and only last week did he announce he's a Democrat. But he has an impressive military resume. He's a four-star general who graduated first in his class at West Point. He was awarded the Silver Star for his service in Vietnam and was NATO commander during the 1999 Kosovo war.

(on camera): His supporters say that military resume gives Clark the credibility to challenge President Bush on national security and his handling of the Iraq war, issues Democrats now say may be central to next year's presidential campaign.

Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the new normal, three examples of how things have changed in the country since the tragedy of 9/11.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We decided to spend some time tonight looking at how things have changed in the last two years.

There's a time for the big important stories with grand sweep, things like the fate of civil liberties, America's place in the world, the status of the war on terror. We like to think we do those stories in different shapes and forms all year long. But tonight is for small stories, for people and how they've changed.

You'll meet two parents who are together in the loss of their son, even though they are no longer a couple. You'll meet a pilot who feels the weight of her new responsibility as a potential defender of her passengers and crew.

And we begin in Mr. Keogh's social studies class, learning the history of 9/11, the new normal, as seen in Normal, Illinois.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Normal, Illinois, is the kind of town often described by how far it is from someplace else, about two hours from Chicago, 30 minutes from the proverbial Peoria.

KELLY KEOGH, SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER: Normal, Illinois, is, no pun intended, just that. It is your stable, just kind of generic Midwestern town.

BROWN: Here at Normal Community High School, Kelly Keogh has taught history, social studies and international relations since, as he dates it, Iraq invaded Kuwait. This September, Mr. Keogh will struggle with how to teach the events of 9/11, 2001.

KEOGH: Why were the World Trade Centers the target? What does that represent?

How do you cover it? Is it an American history event? Is it a world history event? These are issues that pop up. And you hear a varied difference of opinion concerning where it should fall.

BROWN: Those questions are being dealt with in new textbooks, but Mr. Keogh can replace his old books only every six years. So for now, he wings it as best he can.

KEOGH: Based on what happened on that horrible day, bin Laden's actions, al Qaeda's actions, terrorism or an example of revolutionary behavior?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the right to believe whatever he wants. But the point was, he violated some of the basic rules of just-war theories when he attacked, took hostages, attacked noncombatants.

KEOGH: If he's so angry with the Saudi Arabian government, if he's so angry about what's happening with the Palestinians in Israel, why is he attacking us?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, doesn't he say that the Western world has basically declared war on the Islam people?

KEOGH: On Islam?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KEOGH: So how would that, then, justify in his mind this attack?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we're a part of the Western world.

KEOGH: Good job.

Here in my central Illinois community, there aren't many Muslims. And there is an immediate threat that most of your students are going to affiliate Osama bin Laden's brand of Islam with the entire Muslim faith. One of the constant things I hear is, those people just are crazy. They hate us. They're jealous of our freedoms.

How do we address this? What do we do? What policy should we adopt, if you have such, in many ways, vitriolic hatred toward the United States?

I love my job. I love the subject matter; 9/11 just further enhanced that passion in the sense of, I now know, my God, what we do is so important. When they reflect back on 9/11, I want them to reflect back on not just what happened, but I want them to think deeper on why it happened. And for me as an educator, if I can get kids to do those things, then I feel I've done my job. And I feel good when they walk out that door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How things have changed in Mr. Keogh's social studies classes.

This is how things have changed for Delta Airlines pilot Ann Nelson. She's no longer someone who just gets people from where they need to go safely and quickly with a smile and some soothing words from the cockpit. Captain Nelson knows she could be her flight's last chance of defense. When she says she's a combatant in the war on terror, she is not wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Because she had flown 767s, those giant widebody jets, she knew more quickly than most of us what kind of plane it was that struck the second tower. ANN NELSON, DELTA AIRLINES PILOT: I can see -- as we're sitting here right now, I can see the film of that aircraft just slowly heading towards the tower. And the 767, it has a very distinct profile. And that's one of the aircraft I fly. And I saw that. And I was thinking small airplane. And I just -- my mind would not accept what I was seeing.

BROWN: Ann Nelson has been flying for Delta Airlines for more than 15 years. She's a first officer now, one of about 90 or so female pilots and co-pilots in a work force of more than 7,600 men.

A former Air Force flyer, she decided then and believes now, the attacks placed all pilots in a harsh and unexpected role.

NELSON: I just felt that we had -- we, airline pilots -- had become combatants. They had put us -- the terrorists had put us in that position. This is -- this is a war and we are combatants.

BROWN: You can sense that in the Delta pilots lounge, where Ann Nelson goes through her preflight routine with a seriousness that may not have been there years ago.

NELSON: As airline pilots, we've gotten new equipment. We've gotten new procedures. There's federal air marshals. There's reinforced doors, quite a few different things.

BROWN: And they've gotten weapons -- at least some of them have.

NELSON: Part of the program is not divulging who does and doesn't participate in the program. But I'm very comfortable with the idea. I was trained with a pistol in the military and am comfortable with the idea of crew members being armed.

BROWN: All of this, of course, is against a backdrop of severe economic problems the American airlines are facing. And Delta is no exception.

NELSON: I have friends and neighbors who have been affected by the furloughs. We've had an unusual number of early retirements.

And so it's affected certainly a lot of people. There's pilots who are in the military reserve and they've been off fighting the war. So it has had quite an effect on a lot of people.

BROWN: Ann Nelson has two lives, as a mother to her two children, Gracie (ph) and Davis (ph), and as a pilot responsible for the lives and safety of her passengers. What happened on September 11 has permanently changed her job. But, like all of us, she has no choice but to move forward.

NELSON: It's a constant process of change. And in the whole scheme of things, the operation for us, although some of these changes aren't the happiest changes, we can accept them and we can handle them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: How life has changed for a Delta airlines pilot Ann Nelson.

Now to the story of the Whites of Atlanta, Georgia, a father and a stepmother still mourning the loss of a son, even though they no longer grieve as husband and wife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): As New York City prepared to commemorate the 9/11 attacks, this quiet neighborhood in Atlanta felt a million miles away. But for Georgia White, the day she lost the stepson she raised is never far away at all.

GEORGIA WHITE, STEPMOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: The loss is still so obvious and such an empty place in my heart.

BROWN: Adam White was just 27. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. And those who knew him say he was an uncontainable spirit, drawn to the energy of New York City.

SHELBY WHITE, FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: He wasn't afraid to do anything. He would do anything. A lot of people said he lived to be 80, but he only was here for 27 years.

BROWN: Adam's father, Shelby White, says he finds some comfort in knowing he is not alone in his grief. Thousands lost loved ones that day. But, in another way, the Whites are very much alone.

G. WHITE: We were one of the very few families around this area who lost someone. I'm sure we're the only ones who lost a child.

In New York, the support was for an enormous group. Here in Atlanta, it was for us. And I think that was -- of course, it was very, very helpful.

BROWN: The entire city, it seemed, showered them with support. The cards still come in.

G. WHITE: A lot of them are from people that I don't even know, people that wanted to tell me how sorry they were.

BROWN: People made flags.

G. WHITE: It says Adam White.

BROWN: Flags out of wood, flags out of stained glass, flags out of paper.

G. WHITE: I was overwhelmed. I was surprised at the telephone calls and the letters and the cards and the food and the -- just everything that people did. I was overcome.

BROWN: So overcome that, on the one-year anniversary, the Whites and their four other sons threw a party to celebrate Adam's life and to say thank you. S. WHITE: And there were maybe about 500, 600 people here. And it was just -- it felt like a big celebration of Adam's life.

BROWN: The loss of their son wasn't the family's only loss. Something else disappeared in their grief, something harder to explain and understand.

G. WHITE: It's very, very hard to have some brokenhearted feeling and want support from a person and have them feel the same way you do and not be able to give the support back. It was very sad for our relationship. But it couldn't be helped.

BROWN: The Whites divorced after a 22-year marriage last year. But they say they are still close, bound by the very grief that separated them, a grief that has remained painfully sharp since that September day two years ago.

S. WHITE: I thought it would be a lot better by now. And everybody said it would be. Things get better. And they feel like they're about the same.

BROWN: Like so many others, the Whites are hopeful that next September will be a little easier.

G. WHITE: A year from now, I hope, of course, that I'll feel better. That would be nice. You can't just stop living. Adam certainly wouldn't want that. He was such a doer. I miss him terribly. But you can't just stop. You have to keep going.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, needless to say, 9/11, the second anniversary, made the front page of every paper, perhaps none -- well, that's probably not true either. It's certainly the front page of "The Daily American," which is the newspaper in and around Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Bell Tolls For Lives Lost on Flight 93" is their headline. And their second story, "Norton:" -- Gale Norton, the interior secretary -- "Hijackers Changed This Day Forever," needless to say. That's "The Daily American."

"Dallas Morning News," the headline, "9/11 Two Years Later: Intimate Portraits, Victims' Children Take Center Stage at Ground Zero." They've picked up "The Washington Post" story. The lead reads, "The rawness of public grief and grand memory yielded to something quieter and more intimate this year, as the nation marked the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, in which more than 3,000 men and women died." I think they got that about right, too. It was a quieter day today.

"The Hartford Courant," Hartford, Connecticut. A political story. "Bush Still Defined by 9/11," a largely flattering piece written by David Lightman, their Washington bureau chief. That's the Hartford, Connecticut, paper.

"The Miami Herald" leads with 9/11. "September 11 Two Years Later: America Remembers." That's a terrific photo. A number of really nice stills in the newspapers that will land on your doorstep tomorrow. "Children Lead Moving Memorial For Victims of the Terror Attacks."

How we doing on time? One-zero-five. OK.

"The Boston Herald." "Alert Hikes Fear. They come off 9/11 a little bit to the worldwide terror alert. "U.S. Warns of Chem, Bio Attacks Bigger Than 9/11." Get a tight shot, if you can, of the picture. And this is the picture that graces the front page of "The Boston Herald." I'm not sure how well you can see that. I hope you can see it. It's a lovely shot, shot by a staff photographer for "The Boston Herald." Good for him.

"The Detroit News," lots of different things on the front page, a real mix, actually. "Children Lead Nation in Mourning" is their headline on the 9/11 story. But there is a UAW negotiation story up at the top. And it's a football story, too. "U.M.-" -- University of Michigan -- "Irish Game Equals Football Bliss." Is that -- that must be this weekend. Why else would they do that? It is. Well, of course. I figured that out. Eventually, I figure this stuff out. That's "The Detroit News."

The "Detroit Free Press": "A Time to Mourn and a Time to Live."

And the "Chicago Sun-Times," very quickly: "United We Stand."

It's always nice to be with you, seemed especially so today. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time.

Good night for all of us.

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