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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

White House: U.S. Troops to Stay in Iraq Until Saddam Is Found; Operation Iron Hammer Continues; Senate Talk-a-Thon Ends

Aired November 14, 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, good to see you again.
A couple of odds and ends stuck in my mind over the last couple of days off. A news agency report that 9,000 American soldiers, 9,000 have been killed, wounded, injured or treated for a variety of illnesses since the war with Iraq began. You'll meet one of those 9,000 tonight.

Then there was a report of a CIA estimate that the security situation in Iraq will get worse before it gets better. The insurgents have become emboldened by their successes.

And finally a report out of the White House that U.S. troops will stay in Iraq until Saddam is found or killed. One way or another, it seems certain that Iraq, as it does tonight, will lead the whip for a long time to come.

We stop tonight first in Baghdad. CNN's Matthew Chance on a busy day there, Matt, a headline from you tonight.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Aaron. Operation Iron Hammer ends its third night, an attempt to crack down hard on the militants who have been carrying out the attacks against U.S. forces. At the same time, though, the death toll of (AUDIO GAP) climbs by three in the past 24 hours -- Aaron.

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

Next to Washington where Republicans have been trying to talk a handful of judicial nominees onto the federal bench even if it meant talking all day and all night, CNN's Jonathan Karl with the headline -- John.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The 39 and a half hour talk-a-thon finally ended but not before tempers flared and one top Democrat called the president's judicial nominees Neanderthals -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jon, thank you.

And finally to Boston and a decision by another Democratic hopeful to go it alone when it comes to raising campaign money, our Boston Bureau Chief Dan Lothian there for us, Dan a headline. DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Aaron, John Kerry is now following in Howard Dean's lead by saying no to public funds and spending limits in the primaries. This is the first time that two Democratic presidential candidates have done that. The big question now is how will Kerry get the millions he needs -- Aaron?

BROWN: Dan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Friday night from Atlanta, a very different kind of story about a wealthy young woman, a videotape and the Internet, oh-oh, we'll get some advice on the whole mess from Dr. Ruth tonight.

And after a couple of days off the rooster has his voice back, even if I don't, so morning papers makes a triumphant return, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with American forces again on the move in Iraq some of the action taking place in Karbala troops there searching for a man they now say was responsible for a number of high profile operations, including the rocket attack on the al-Rashid Hotel and the downing of that Chinook helicopter in which 16 soldiers died.

He is number 54 on their most wanted list and the search in Karbala is just some of the work that's going on tonight, work that continues to come at a human cost.

We go back to Baghdad now and CNN's Matthew Chance.

CHANCE: Aaron, thank you.

A lot of operations underway over the course of this day to crack down on those anti-coalition insurgents but first let's talk about the U.S. soldiers who have been killed over the course, or confirmed dead over the course of the last 24 hours, another three, one of them hit by a roadside bomb here in the Iraqi capital detonated as his convoy drove past.

Another two killed in a similar way to the north of the Iraqi capital near the town of Samara. These are the kind of daily attacks and incidents that have cause the U.S. to change its strategy, to toughen its stance towards these insurgents.

Operation Iron Hammer has been continuing for three nights. There were more U.S. strikes against suspected militant targets in Baghdad, five targets hit by U.S. mortars near Baghdad Airport. They say that these are areas that have been identified as by the insurgents and used by the insurgents to carry out attacks against U.S. forces.

Also a warehouse hit elsewhere in the city by an AC-130 aerial gunship. Apparently this place was used by the insurgents to store weapons and to plan their attacks.

We've seen a number of these kinds of incidents over recent days these kinds of buildings that have been targeted all part of a campaign, say U.S. officials, to deprive these insurgents of their safe havens.

What's not clear, though, is whether it's being a success or not, whether these activities, these hits, are going to curb the activities of the militants or because of the heavy firepower that's being used whether they will anger ordinary Iraqis and perhaps drive them into the arms even more of the militants -- Aaron.

BROWN: That's one of those things I suppose could work both ways. Has there been any appreciable change in the insurgents' activities over the last three days?

CHANCE: Difficult to assess, certainly it's been slightly calmer. That's certainly the sense we get here on the streets. At the same time, you are having these U.S. soldiers being killed in much the same way as they have been over recent months and recent weeks.

I think what U.S. officials are saying behind closed doors is that maybe this change in strategy will have some kind of short term effect on the way the militants operate. They sort of calm their operations down. They watch this change of tactics and perhaps will try and change their tactics to sort of get past what the U.S. is doing here.

This has certainly been the pattern of events in recent weeks and U.S. officials are warning that, you know, once the insurgents understand what is happening more fully they could change their tactics themselves.

BROWN: Matthew, thank you, Matthew Chance in Baghdad tonight.

Back in Washington, Senators will sleep soundly in their own beds tonight. On that Democrats and Republicans do agree after nearly 40 hours of back and forth. Republicans called the marathon session to bring attention to a number of high profile and, some would say, controversial judicial nominations that are tied up in debate by the opposition and threat of filibuster. The attention they got. The votes needed to end the debate they did not get.

Here again, CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice-over): At the beginning it looked more like a snooze-a-thon than a talk-a-thon, more discussion about cots than judges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator McCain suggested we have a snoring and a non-snoring section.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: We didn't need cots. We're tougher than that. We sleep on the floor.

KARL: Democrats called it a colossal waste of time. One declared his intention to stay home and watch TV. Republicans weren't amused.

SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Go watch "The Bachelor." Go watch the continued debasement of our society. That's what you should be doing.

KARL: Democrats have used Senate rules to prevent votes on six of the president's most controversial judicial nominees even though all six have the support of more than 50 Senators.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), JUDICIARY CHAIR: If they want to vote against these people that's their right but they need to have an up or down vote.

KARL: Democrats repeatedly pointed out that most of the president's nominees have been approved.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: We confirmed 98 percent of President Bush's judges and all we got was this lousy tee shirt.

KARL: As the hours went by tempers flared.

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: I will not yield. I will not yield. I will not yield.

KARL: Conservative Democrat Zell Miller attacked fellow Democrats for blocking the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown, an African American justice currently on the California Supreme Court.

SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: They're standing in the doorway and they've got a sign, "Conservative African American Women Need not Apply" and if you have the temerity to do so your reputation will be shattered and your dignity will be shredded. Gal, you will be lynched.

KARL: That prompted a stern rebuke from Democratic leader Tom Daschle.

DASCHLE: I was offended. I think it was unfortunate. I think those within the civil rights leadership who have commented and have asked for an apology are right.

KARL: But soon Republicans were demanding an apology from Ted Kennedy who called the president's nominees right-wing turkeys and declared his determination...

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: To continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court.

KARL (on camera): In the end it was all talk and no action. After 39 and a half hours of straight debate not a single vote was changed.

Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Two pieces tonight from the intersection of money and politics, the first concerning a fund-raising effort by Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader and one of the most powerful lawmakers in the Congress today.

Fund-raising for whom? That is the question. It involves a newly-created charity set up for abused and neglected children but critics wonder if, in fact, there's another beneficiary besides.

Here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To his Democratic enemies, Tom DeLay's hard political edge was softened by his devotion to damaged children.

REP. TOM DELAY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We need to build a system that gives them a stable home.

FRANKEN: But now DeLay's critics charge he's using his charitable foundations for blatant political purposes.

FRED WERTHEIMER, PRESIDENT, DEMOCRACY 21: It's a scam.

FRANKEN: Celebrations for Children, says the brochure. It promises special VIP access at the next Republican National Convention for donations up to $500,000, special golf tournaments with DeLay, as well as yacht cruises, private dinners, charitable contributions not limited by new campaign finance laws. DeLay's associates point out he has hosted charity events for years.

WERTHEIMER: He's using this charity for his own political purposes. It's just clear as can be.

FRANKEN (on camera): Supporters of Tom DeLay say he is being singled out for the kinds of events that others in the political world sponsor like Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I think that is most appropriate. I encourage it and encourage people to come.

FRANKEN (voice-over): The IRS still has to decide whether donations to these events are tax deductible charity or too political.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

BROWN: And Senator John Kerry turned down $18.7 million today. The Democratic Senator and presidential contender said no thanks to public financing for his primary campaign the $18.7 million in federal matching money in exchange for sticking to certain spending limits. That's the law.

Senator Kerry is not alone in his decision. Howard Dean has also declined matching money raising upwards of $25 million himself so far. Neither candidate, however, coming close to raising the money that President Bush has, well over $100 million to date. Incumbency has advantages but so does Mr. Kerry or so he hopes.

Here again CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): John Kerry is now laying the financial foundation to take on Howard Dean in key battleground states like New Hampshire, foregoing public financing and spending limits for the Democratic primaries, a decision the Massachusetts Senator called difficult but necessary.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wish that Howard Dean had kept his promise to take federal matching money but he did not. He changed the rules of this race and anyone with a real shot at the nomination is going to have to play by those rules.

LOTHIAN: But those rules may give his opponents ammunition.

LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIBLE POLITICS: It's a political hit that Lieberman and others are going to say that he's opting out of the public financing system and the primaries are just set up to basically be a clean money type system.

LOTHIAN: Joe Lieberman is already calling Kerry's decision unfortunate. He and other top tier candidates are accepting public funds and spending limits. Wesley Clark, last to the race, announced his intent Thursday night.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a pragmatic decision at this point.

LOTHIAN: In the race to raise money, Kerry runs second behind Dean. He's raised a little more than $20 million so far compared to the former Vermont governor's $25 million.

So, how does Kerry plan to get a cash infusion without the government's help? He could tap some of his own personal wealth, estimated at almost $2 million. His campaign says he's also considering taking out personal loans and he's urging supporters to step up their contributions and what about his wife's wealth? Teresa Heinz' fortune is estimated at more than a half billion dollars.

NOBLE: He can use half the assets they jointly own but most of her money is in her name and he can't touch that money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: Kerry says that he is in the race to win the nomination and then go on to defeat George Bush in November. George Bush, by the way as you mentioned earlier, so far raising more than $100 million, Kerry saying that he's not going to fight with his hands tied behind his back -- Aaron.

BROWN: Has the Senator leading up to this moment said anything about his willingness to use his wife's money or not use his wife's money?

LOTHIAN: Well, he knows that he has those legal constraints that he's not able to use her money but what he most likely can do is take out loans based on some of those assets, those joint assets that they have, which include some property and also some paintings -- Aaron.

BROWN: But has he ever said, Dan, one way or another whether he would tap into that opportunity or not?

LOTHIAN: He has never said anything to my knowledge. His wife early on in the campaign did say that she would do whatever she could with her money to help him but that I believe was before it became clear that there were some legal constraints in how much of her money could be used.

BROWN: Dan, thank you very much, good to see you, Dan Lothian in Boston tonight.

Ahead on the program how to unravel a Gordian knot that is Iraq. We'll try and get some answers.

Also tonight how a Florida woman turned into a cause as another court rules in the case of Terri Schiavo. We'll look at how her case has become a cause for people on both sides of the debate.

And later another in our series of stories on the war wounded, tonight you will meet Luis Calderone (ph) a young man struggling to recover from a devastating accident.

From Atlanta tonight, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Two Senators we respect a lot, Joe Biden and John McCain, a Democrat and a Republican have almost identical warnings for the president when it comes to speeding up the transition in Iraq. Don't cut and run. Don't rush. Don't send the message that the strategy is simply to leave and leave quickly. That's one horn of the dilemma.

The other is the casualties, the possibility that going after the bad guys might be alienating some of the good guys. It's a tough place to be, a place with complicated choices.

Our next guest and his colleagues have been looking at the alternatives. Jon Alterman is the Director of Middle East Programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Jon, it's nice to see you again.

JON ALTERMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Good to see you, Aaron.

BROWN: I want to talk about the last couple of weeks for just one moment, one question. We've had this series of incidents, the al- Rashid Hotel attack, a couple, three helicopters shot down, the hit on the Italians this week. All of this has made a lot of news and has mad the situation look pretty difficult for the American side. Have we, do you think, the media, overplayed the importance of these attacks?

ALTERMAN: Certainly the attacks don't mean that any sort of Iraqi force is about to defeat the American military. The Iraqi forces aren't up to the American military but what they're -- the perception is being created that somehow it's an even match. We have to understand that what we're doing is very, very hard and what they're doing, getting lucky with a pot shot 20 percent of the time is relatively easy.

BROWN: So, give me a sense then as your group has gone over to look at the situation there what is -- where the most serious problems are, the most serious risks for the Americans are and what is positive?

ALTERMAN: The serious problem is that Americans have to create confidence among Iraqis that their lives are going to get better, that Americans there are there to help make Iraqis' lives better and they need to work with us to get to where we all want the Iraqis to be.

If the Iraqis feel the Americans are either incompetent or unwilling to do the job the right way or are going to cut and run it's going to make even being there for an interim period of time much, much harder. One of the most important things we need from Iraqis is for them to tell us how we can help them and if they don't trust us they won't.

BROWN: It seems to me that begs the question do they want our help, do they want us there or what they really want now is for us to get out?

ALTERMAN: Well, no. Iraqis are completely united on two points. The first point is all Iraqis want the Americans to leave. They don't want to see a permanent American occupation in Iraq.

The second point is that no Iraqis want the Americans to leave too soon. They remember the looting. They remember the violence. They remember everything that came after the government fell.

They're terrified of chaos. They're terrified of the old regime thugs coming back and even people who don't want the Americans there say we don't want the Americans there but don't let them pull out right away.

BROWN: There seems to be from the administration a real push these days towards the Iraqis controlling more of their own affairs, not security -- well, some of it security affairs but political affairs and others, too much too fast, just about right? It's sort of a three bears question I guess.

ALTERMAN: It is and you only get one shot to do it really and you never know if there would be a better way to do it. There are two kinds of things that have to happen.

One is to have some sort of Iraqi government. Another is to have an Iraqi Constitution and you can appoint people to do these things or you can have elections and the question has always been what sort of mixture of elections and appointed people and how we would order having an Iraqi government and an Iraqi Constitution and that's what has been shifting in American minds in the last week or so.

BROWN: And just on the subject of American minds do you think the administration is making moves with an eye towards the American political mood about all of this?

ALTERMAN: There certainly is an eye toward the American political mood and there's also an eye toward the American political calendar. The administration does want to have something where they can point to having a job done come late summer, early fall.

That's always been the intention of the CPA and the other people working in Iraq. The question is what they were going to have and how they're going to get to where they need to be. But certainly they have to keep the American public onboard. They have to keep the confidence of the American public.

I think if the American public understands the goals and thinks the administration has a good plan to get them, the administration will support the deployment of troops to Iraq. If it seems like it's all pointless then I think Americans are going to say why are our young men and women getting killed over there?

BROWN: Jon, straight and to the point tonight, thank you, Jon Alterman with us tonight. Thank you very much.

ALTERMAN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Quickly a few more -- thank you.

A few more items before we go to break starting with the tangled case of Zacarias Moussaoui. A judge in the case revoked his right to represent himself saying his latest series of motions included in her view contemptuous language that would never be tolerated from an attorney and will no longer, she said, be tolerated from this defendant. Judge Brinkema then gave Mr. Moussaoui's court-appointed legal advisers the official duty to act on his behalf to be his lawyers.

Some of the Italians wounded in the bombing of Nasiriya are back home tonight. A military transport landed in Rome with the first group, some 20 people of the more than 80 wounded and 18 killed. The dead make their final journey home back to Italy tomorrow.

And this hasn't been a great week and now he's 55. Hey, that's not so bad. Prince Charles celebrated his birthday today in part with a tour of a retirement home. You guys, I can't believe you put this here. That will take your mind off it, we are told. I should try it. The prince, as you may remember, spent much of the week at the center of a scandal. No one in the British media can mention the prince's 55.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the case of Terri Schiavo, how one woman became a cause celebre on both sides of a most difficult issue, a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A judge in Florida today gave Michael Schiavo the go- ahead in his lawsuit against Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. Mr. Schiavo, you may remember, has been trying to have a feeding tube removed from his wife who's been in a coma-like state for 13 years.

He succeeded last month, something he says his wife would have wanted, until the Florida legislature passed a law tailored precisely to her case and Governor Bush signed it so the feeding tube went back in.

Today, the judge vacated that order. Lawyers for the state will now have until Monday to submit a brief defending their new law and you can be certain they will. You can also be almost as sure that for many people, not just the Schiavo's, it won't settle the issue.

Here's CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): For 13 years, Terri Schiavo's case and the resulting bitter fight between her husband and her parents simmered just below the boiling point but the case became a cause celebre when her feeding tube was removed.

RANDALL TERRY, SOCIETY FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Morality and reality and politics all converged into one moment where it's like, no, we as a civilized people are not going to starve this woman to death. We're not going to let this happen.

ZARRELLA: Randall Terry, perhaps the nation's most recognizable anti-abortion activist, joined the fight at the request of Schiavo's parents. He organized a continuous vigil outside the hospital.

It was Terry who accompanied Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, when they met and pled with Governor Jeb Bush to save their daughter. Terry insists it was always about saving Schiavo's life but unspoken was a clear message to Republicans.

TERRY: I think that they thought that this might come back to haunt them if they did not save Terri's life.

JIM KANE, POLITICAL ANALYST: They've made it very, very clear that in cases like this if you don't support us now don't expect us to show up at the polls and support you to help you get elected.

ZARRELLA: Governor Bush bristled at the notion that political gain had anything to do with his intervention.

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I'm not a poll driven person. I did what I thought was right.

ZARRELLA: In doing so, he put Schiavo's story in the spotlight yet even the governor's considerable influence would not have been enough without what activists saw as a stroke of luck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, who's going to look out for this girl's rights? We have to.

ZARRELLA: Florida's legislators were meeting in special session and they got thousands of e-mails from right-to-life supporters urging action, among them Republican House Speaker Johnny Byrd running for U.S. Senate.

JOHNNY BYRD, FLORIDA HOUSE SPEAKER: My motto is basically to act and to lead and, you know, it was in my lap and I had the choice to make. I could have, you know, she would be dead right now if we hadn't decided to act and I think it was what we needed to do.

ZARRELLA: Whatever the motivations, that convergence of beliefs and politics and sheer luck kept Terri Schiavo alive and guaranteed her case will remain on center stage.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A report on the national test scores of elementary and middle school students was a cause for some celebration at the Department of Education this week. The National Assessment of Educational Progress test showed math scores continuing a decade-long uptick, while reading scores remain flat. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the test scores show that the president's No Child Left Behind education reform law is working.

That the law is responsible for the scores, we can't say, but it is certainly responsible for a great deal of discussion about whether it's the right way to fix America's often troubled schools.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Catherine Mitchell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE MITCHELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By some standards, Marietta High School in Atlanta is a great public school.

GORDON PRITZ, PRINCIPAL, MARIETTA HIGH SCHOOL: We were named the school of excellence in Georgia. We were named top 4 percent in the nation by "Newsweek" magazine.

MITCHELL: But by the federal government's standards, it's failing.

ROD PAIGE, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: Many people are concerned about, how could a school that has a wonderful reputation and made it on the "Newsweek" list of great schools suddenly end up on the needs- improvement list for the No Child Left Behind Act? What it means is that the rules have changed. We're not just counting schools that are successful with some children. We're counting schools that are successful with all children.

MITCHELL: Marietta is not an unusual urban school in America.

PRITZ: Our student body represents over 40 different nations of birth and speak 30 different languages.

MITCHELL: The problem for schools like Marietta is that some of these students will do well, others not so well. But under the No Child Left Behind law, they're all held to the same standard, meaning honor students, special education students, and students with limited English all have to pass the same test.

DAVID COX, LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEACHER: We get some students here that are illiterate in their native language and they're expected to pass tests in a second language, and they're not really literate in their first language.

Three, three, three.

STUDENTS: Three, three, three.

MITCHELL: But supporters say the law is designed to make sure students like this aren't forgotten.

PAIGE: Remember of the name of the law. No child is to be left behind. So this means that you must pay attention to not only the baccalaureate student, but to the student who is not. This is the one who needs your help most. That is the big change that's taking place now. No longer can we be satisfied with educating some of the children. The president's aim is educating all of the children.

MITCHELL: Detractors agree that the law sounds good on paper, but they argue that it's just not realistic.

REG WEAVER, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: This particular law puts kids in a one-size-fits-all category or a one- size-fits-all approach. And we believe that it does not take into consideration the fact that children learn at different rates, at different speeds, at different times.

MITCHELL: If Marietta finds itself on the needs-improvement list next year -- and some teachers think that's unavoidable -- the school then has to offer students the option to transfer and must pay for that transportation with some of its federal funds. That could be expensive, considering 42 percent of Georgia schools made the list, so many that the closest school not on the list is more than an hour away.

Principal Gordon Pritz says it could be cheaper to forego the federal funds altogether, meaning the school would have to give up the more than $100,000 a year that goes towards hiring additional teachers.

PRITZ: There has to be some real-world application to the rule. And you can set a rule. But unless you're on the front lines, like our teachers are every day and seeing what's going on in the real world, those arbitrary measuring sticks can be very unrealistic.

MITCHELL: Catherine Mitchell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: the forgotten wounded. He doesn't have a book deal or a made-for-TV movie, but the story of Luis Calderon is worth knowing nevertheless.

A break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Much more NEWSNIGHT ahead. Morning papers returns, and the story of an injured American soldier who deserves his moment of recognition as well.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: With hundreds of Americans wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan, chances are, nevertheless, pretty good that most of us can only name one of them, Jessica Lynch. And this week, with a made- for-TV movie, with big national interviews and a book release, her presence has been nearly unavoidable.

But our next story is about one of the many others whose name you do not know. Luis Calderon won't have a movie made about him. He won't get a book deal. Yet he will carry the scars of his service for a lifetime. And we thought he deserved some recognition, too.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The photos of Luis Calderon in the family album are like those of thousands of other young men: Luis as a star fullback in high school, Luis and his wife, Darlene, on their wedding day. The pictures change after his enlistment in the Army, his deployment to Iraq as a tank mechanic with the 4th Infantry.

Then, in one snap the image is changed from this to this. Luis's father got the phone call from Iraq May 5.

LUIS CALDERON SR., FATHER: The individual identified himself as the Army captain. So that almost killed me right there. But then he said that my son had just suffered an accident.

NISSEN: An accident involving Luis's 70-ton armored vehicles and one of the hundreds of walls in Iraq painted with the image of Saddam Hussein and systematically destroyed by U.S. troops.

SPC. LUIS CALDERON, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: We saw two murals with Saddam's picture on it. So, and then we got the permission to knock them down, because we had some heavy armored vehicles. NISSEN: But when Luis rammed into the wall, it broke in half and fell forward on his tank. A crush of debris slammed through the open hatch, breaking his neck, damaging his spinal cord near the base of the neck.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: They're saying he's a complete quadriplegic. In other words, he's not going to have full function of all four extremities.

NISSEN: After more than two months in intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Luis was finally stabilized and transferred to the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the VA Hospital in Miami. Doctors and physical therapists here are working to increase the limited movement he has in his shoulders and upper arms.

DR. ALBERTO MARTINEZ-ARIZALA, MIAMI VA HOSPITAL: The central nervous system, and specifically the spinal cord, has some inherent capacity to heal itself. But it does so poorly. We're hopeful, with time, that he'll regain function.

NISSEN: After three months of painful effort, Luis has made progress. Using an arm brace, he can now move the joystick on a motorized wheelchair, although he can not move his hands, his fingers.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: Working with my hands, really, that's the hardest thing now for me. My personal goal is just move my hands. If I move my hands, I would be the happiest guy.

NISSEN: It's a constant struggle for him, balancing hope that he'll improve, with accepting and learning to live with his injuries.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: I haven't accepted I'm a quad yet. I can't believe it. I'm in a dream still. I don't know. I'm in a big nightmare.

NISSEN: He has been depressed. He has been angry at fate, at himself for miscalculating how the wall would fall. Yet he says he has no regrets about enlisting, about serving in Iraq.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: I was just a soldier. I was just doing my job.

NISSEN: Luis' father, a retired 31-year veteran of the Air Force, is proud of his son and wishes others were, too. Operation Iraqi Freedom casualties injured in accidents, he says, are overlooked, don't qualify for Purple Hearts, don't get the media attention given to those wounded in combat.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: He was in the same danger. He was in the same danger every day. He was in the same sand, in the same heat, with the same enemy. What was different? Doesn't my son get any kind of recognition? I don't mean a parade with confetti and a national hero. No, it's just, hey, a pat on the back, job well done.

NISSEN: It matters, he says, when members of the community, like these children from a local grade school, come by with cards full of glitter and encouragement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's lot of them.

NISSEN: It would matter, he says, if more administration officials visited those injured while in service to their country.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: Give these kids some love, because they will never know that anybody cared if nobody tells them. Somebody has to tell them.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other items before we take a break tonight.

ExxonMobil is a huge company, last year, $178 billion in sales. Even so, little doubt this got the company's attention. A jury in the state of Alabama today returned an $11.9 billion judgment against the oil giant. The state had sued ExxonMobil, accusing the company of fraud in connection with gas wells in the state-owned waters off the coast of Alabama. ExxonMobil promises to appeal the judgment. I imagine so.

Two serious fires today made much worse by the high winds. First in Chicago, a warehouse gutted there. The fire spread to a couple of other buildings as well. More than 200 firefighters working to put it out. A spokesman called it the toughest fire in Chicago, the Windy City, in quite some time. The other fire, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, kept burning all evening long. Look at that. It broke out this afternoon at an abandoned mill, then spread to nearby homes. At least 11 homes have burned so far. It's been very, very windy in the east.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the Paris Hilton tapes. When we booked this segment, I thought we were talking about a hotel, but apparently not, since Dr. Ruth Westheimer will be here to explain it all to me and you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When Andy Warhol said that, in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, he couldn't have imagined the second part. Everyone will be naked for five, naked and available all over the Internet. The latest being Paris Hilton, heiress to the hotel fortune, famous, until now, mostly for being well-known.

Then the tape she made with her ex-boyfriend surfaced on the Web, as all things seem to. There's the one frame of it we can show you. Her parents threatened to sue anyone who distributed the tape. Then the ex-boyfriend sued Paris and the family. Did we mention young Paris has a TV show coming out next month?

It's enough to make you long for the days when Paris Hilton meant a good room with a view of the same and wonder why so many people, not just the heiress, homemakers, too, seem to be flirting with the camera and the Web. With us to talk about it all is one of my favorite people, Dr. Ruth.

It's nice to have you with us again.

DR. RUTH WESTHEIMER, AUTHOR, "SEX FOR DUMMIES": Thank you.

BROWN: All right, honesty, I'm about to prove I'm the country bumpkin people assume I am. Why would anyone, let alone a famous person -- why would anyone make a tape of themselves having sex?

WESTHEIMER: Well, first of all, if it's a consenting couple and they love each other, and they make a tape -- I'm not suggesting that you should do it tonight -- but if a couple makes a tape because they want to enhance their sexual feeling, their sexual encounter, to put the worries of everyday life aside, I have no problem.

What I have a problem with is that this is done these days, kind of, privacy is thrown out the window. And this is really very, very sad, because a tape like this, you can't show that, Aaron, to an ex- lover.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: You can't say, look, this guy made better love to me than you are doing.

So it's a little sad.

BROWN: OK. First of all, I'm not sure I understand. Honestly, I'm not sure I understand why people do it. But I'll accept it.

WESTHEIMER: I will explain that to you another time at length.

BROWN: OK.

WESTHEIMER: They might be doing it for fun.

BROWN: Oh, you're -- oh -- right. It's always that. OK.

Why would we -- does it matter -- thousands or millions of people, I guess, have tried to see this tape and have logged onto the Net and tried to find the tape and all that. Does it matter that it's a famous person?

WESTHEIMER: In my way of thinking, really, it ought not to matter.

But, in our society, with the way things are in the media, it does matter. So, if somebody can say tonight over a beer, I did see that, whatever her name is, naked, everybody's going to laugh and say, and everybody's going to say, you lucky man.

But I tell you something. What worries me so much is the consequences, because these days, as you know, Aaron, some of these cameras are minuscule. BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: People can hide them. They can have them in their pocket of their pajamas. They can take a tape without asking you, Aaron, for your permission. So it's really an issue that, even somebody so serious, like you, and maybe so square, like you and me, ought to discuss.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Can we not make this quite so personal with me? OK?

WESTHEIMER: I'll try.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: I thank you. I'm on the road here.

(CROSSTALK)

WESTHEIMER: I put myself in it, too, on a serious note.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: No, it's kind of sick, isn't it, making the tape and the people wanting to see the tape and the whole thing? That's kind of sick, isn't it?

WESTHEIMER: The word sick doesn't apply.

What implies is, in another 24 hours, nobody is going to talk about it anymore. Right now, you and I talk about it because it's in the news. Even "The New York Times" talks about it.

BROWN: I know, "The New York Times." It's not like -- I can't -- all right.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Well, let's stop talking about it.

WESTHEIMER: I'll tell you something.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: Aaron, what we have to tell loud and clear, people, first have a relationship before you go to bed. First, have a relationship before you have sex. First, have some trust in that other person, so that you know that nothing like this is going to happen to you. And that's what have we to talk about, be romantic, make sure that you know each other.

You know that, in the Bible, the word knowing means to have sex.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: That's not by chance. That's really the term to know each other before you engage in a sexual activity.

BROWN: Dr. Ruth, good to talk to you.

WESTHEIMER: Thank you.

BROWN: I'll see you back in New York.

WESTHEIMER: Bye. All right.

BROWN: Bye-bye. Thank you.

WESTHEIMER: Bye-bye.

BROWN: It's a little bit like talking about sex with your grandmother, though. It's just -- we'll take a break.

Morning papers when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Time to check morning papers from around the country. I was -- well, I was perspiring heavily during the Dr. Ruth segment. I don't like talking about that stuff on TV, OK? Let's not do that anymore. Why did I say yes to that?

"Cincinnati Enquirer." (AUDIO GAP) "Answers Elusive in Traffic Data. Bias Issue Left Open to Debate." I guess there's a controversy about whether some parts of town, minority parts of town, are getting the worst of the traffic deal. Their big story on the front page, though, on Saturday -- that makes sense -- is a feature, a high school football game. "Grandpa in Caught in Rivalry Between Two East -- West Side Football Powerhouses." That's the big story in "The Cincinnati Enquirer."

But the one I cared about most -- I don't know if you can see this -- I hope you can. Get a little closer to the TV. "House Casts Vote For State Fish." Apparently, they've resolved everything else in the state of Ohio, but they haven't resolved the question of a state fish. So it's come down to small-mouthed bass, which beat out the perch and the walleye.

"The Washington Times." "Bush Reassures Congress About Iraq." Another big story in "The Washington Times" is going to be a very big story next week. "Republicans Agree On Energy Package." Its front page.

Quickly -- I'm moving now, guys. No dawdling. "The San Francisco Chronicle." "GOP Readies Energy Bill in Private. Dems Get Three Days to Read 1,700 Pages Before Crucial Vote." I know people will think I'm being partisan here, but I don't. But how can people read 1,700 pages in three days? Maybe they don't want it all read. That was that.

Look at this, front page of "The Boston Herald." "Wind Burn," the big fire in Pawtucket.

And "The Chicago Sun-Times" always gets the last spot. The weather tomorrow in Chicago is "droopy." And they've added a little thing to help you figure out what that means. It looks like it's going to rain. "Teachers Say Yes to Four-Year Contract: 55 Percent Approve" -- anyway. And that's "The Chicago Sun-Times."

That's morning papers. We'll wrap it up for the night and for the week after the break.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go tonight, a quick update on our top story, continuing to be Iraq. Operation Iron Hammer continues, aimed at ferreting out insurgents in Baghdad, where again today they struck. One American soldier died, two more wounded, when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb. Also today, the Army stepped up its search in Karbala for a man they believe planned the downing of a Chinook helicopter and the rocket attack on the Al-Rashid Hotel.

On Monday on NEWSNIGHT, the beginning of a terrific week of really interesting stories about President Kennedy, leading up to the 40th anniversary of his assassination. These involves pictures that people thought were lost forever in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Thanks to a lot of electronic wizardry, they have been restored. That's Monday. Also next week, you'll hear from former President Jerry Ford on the Warren Commission and lots of other things around the president's assassination 40 years ago.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next.

Good to see you all again. We see you all Monday. Good night for all of us.

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





Found; Operation Iron Hammer Continues; Senate Talk-a-Thon Ends>


Aired November 14, 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, good to see you again.
A couple of odds and ends stuck in my mind over the last couple of days off. A news agency report that 9,000 American soldiers, 9,000 have been killed, wounded, injured or treated for a variety of illnesses since the war with Iraq began. You'll meet one of those 9,000 tonight.

Then there was a report of a CIA estimate that the security situation in Iraq will get worse before it gets better. The insurgents have become emboldened by their successes.

And finally a report out of the White House that U.S. troops will stay in Iraq until Saddam is found or killed. One way or another, it seems certain that Iraq, as it does tonight, will lead the whip for a long time to come.

We stop tonight first in Baghdad. CNN's Matthew Chance on a busy day there, Matt, a headline from you tonight.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Aaron. Operation Iron Hammer ends its third night, an attempt to crack down hard on the militants who have been carrying out the attacks against U.S. forces. At the same time, though, the death toll of (AUDIO GAP) climbs by three in the past 24 hours -- Aaron.

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

Next to Washington where Republicans have been trying to talk a handful of judicial nominees onto the federal bench even if it meant talking all day and all night, CNN's Jonathan Karl with the headline -- John.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The 39 and a half hour talk-a-thon finally ended but not before tempers flared and one top Democrat called the president's judicial nominees Neanderthals -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jon, thank you.

And finally to Boston and a decision by another Democratic hopeful to go it alone when it comes to raising campaign money, our Boston Bureau Chief Dan Lothian there for us, Dan a headline. DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Aaron, John Kerry is now following in Howard Dean's lead by saying no to public funds and spending limits in the primaries. This is the first time that two Democratic presidential candidates have done that. The big question now is how will Kerry get the millions he needs -- Aaron?

BROWN: Dan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Friday night from Atlanta, a very different kind of story about a wealthy young woman, a videotape and the Internet, oh-oh, we'll get some advice on the whole mess from Dr. Ruth tonight.

And after a couple of days off the rooster has his voice back, even if I don't, so morning papers makes a triumphant return, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with American forces again on the move in Iraq some of the action taking place in Karbala troops there searching for a man they now say was responsible for a number of high profile operations, including the rocket attack on the al-Rashid Hotel and the downing of that Chinook helicopter in which 16 soldiers died.

He is number 54 on their most wanted list and the search in Karbala is just some of the work that's going on tonight, work that continues to come at a human cost.

We go back to Baghdad now and CNN's Matthew Chance.

CHANCE: Aaron, thank you.

A lot of operations underway over the course of this day to crack down on those anti-coalition insurgents but first let's talk about the U.S. soldiers who have been killed over the course, or confirmed dead over the course of the last 24 hours, another three, one of them hit by a roadside bomb here in the Iraqi capital detonated as his convoy drove past.

Another two killed in a similar way to the north of the Iraqi capital near the town of Samara. These are the kind of daily attacks and incidents that have cause the U.S. to change its strategy, to toughen its stance towards these insurgents.

Operation Iron Hammer has been continuing for three nights. There were more U.S. strikes against suspected militant targets in Baghdad, five targets hit by U.S. mortars near Baghdad Airport. They say that these are areas that have been identified as by the insurgents and used by the insurgents to carry out attacks against U.S. forces.

Also a warehouse hit elsewhere in the city by an AC-130 aerial gunship. Apparently this place was used by the insurgents to store weapons and to plan their attacks.

We've seen a number of these kinds of incidents over recent days these kinds of buildings that have been targeted all part of a campaign, say U.S. officials, to deprive these insurgents of their safe havens.

What's not clear, though, is whether it's being a success or not, whether these activities, these hits, are going to curb the activities of the militants or because of the heavy firepower that's being used whether they will anger ordinary Iraqis and perhaps drive them into the arms even more of the militants -- Aaron.

BROWN: That's one of those things I suppose could work both ways. Has there been any appreciable change in the insurgents' activities over the last three days?

CHANCE: Difficult to assess, certainly it's been slightly calmer. That's certainly the sense we get here on the streets. At the same time, you are having these U.S. soldiers being killed in much the same way as they have been over recent months and recent weeks.

I think what U.S. officials are saying behind closed doors is that maybe this change in strategy will have some kind of short term effect on the way the militants operate. They sort of calm their operations down. They watch this change of tactics and perhaps will try and change their tactics to sort of get past what the U.S. is doing here.

This has certainly been the pattern of events in recent weeks and U.S. officials are warning that, you know, once the insurgents understand what is happening more fully they could change their tactics themselves.

BROWN: Matthew, thank you, Matthew Chance in Baghdad tonight.

Back in Washington, Senators will sleep soundly in their own beds tonight. On that Democrats and Republicans do agree after nearly 40 hours of back and forth. Republicans called the marathon session to bring attention to a number of high profile and, some would say, controversial judicial nominations that are tied up in debate by the opposition and threat of filibuster. The attention they got. The votes needed to end the debate they did not get.

Here again, CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice-over): At the beginning it looked more like a snooze-a-thon than a talk-a-thon, more discussion about cots than judges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator McCain suggested we have a snoring and a non-snoring section.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: We didn't need cots. We're tougher than that. We sleep on the floor.

KARL: Democrats called it a colossal waste of time. One declared his intention to stay home and watch TV. Republicans weren't amused.

SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Go watch "The Bachelor." Go watch the continued debasement of our society. That's what you should be doing.

KARL: Democrats have used Senate rules to prevent votes on six of the president's most controversial judicial nominees even though all six have the support of more than 50 Senators.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), JUDICIARY CHAIR: If they want to vote against these people that's their right but they need to have an up or down vote.

KARL: Democrats repeatedly pointed out that most of the president's nominees have been approved.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: We confirmed 98 percent of President Bush's judges and all we got was this lousy tee shirt.

KARL: As the hours went by tempers flared.

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: I will not yield. I will not yield. I will not yield.

KARL: Conservative Democrat Zell Miller attacked fellow Democrats for blocking the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown, an African American justice currently on the California Supreme Court.

SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: They're standing in the doorway and they've got a sign, "Conservative African American Women Need not Apply" and if you have the temerity to do so your reputation will be shattered and your dignity will be shredded. Gal, you will be lynched.

KARL: That prompted a stern rebuke from Democratic leader Tom Daschle.

DASCHLE: I was offended. I think it was unfortunate. I think those within the civil rights leadership who have commented and have asked for an apology are right.

KARL: But soon Republicans were demanding an apology from Ted Kennedy who called the president's nominees right-wing turkeys and declared his determination...

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: To continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court.

KARL (on camera): In the end it was all talk and no action. After 39 and a half hours of straight debate not a single vote was changed.

Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Two pieces tonight from the intersection of money and politics, the first concerning a fund-raising effort by Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader and one of the most powerful lawmakers in the Congress today.

Fund-raising for whom? That is the question. It involves a newly-created charity set up for abused and neglected children but critics wonder if, in fact, there's another beneficiary besides.

Here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To his Democratic enemies, Tom DeLay's hard political edge was softened by his devotion to damaged children.

REP. TOM DELAY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We need to build a system that gives them a stable home.

FRANKEN: But now DeLay's critics charge he's using his charitable foundations for blatant political purposes.

FRED WERTHEIMER, PRESIDENT, DEMOCRACY 21: It's a scam.

FRANKEN: Celebrations for Children, says the brochure. It promises special VIP access at the next Republican National Convention for donations up to $500,000, special golf tournaments with DeLay, as well as yacht cruises, private dinners, charitable contributions not limited by new campaign finance laws. DeLay's associates point out he has hosted charity events for years.

WERTHEIMER: He's using this charity for his own political purposes. It's just clear as can be.

FRANKEN (on camera): Supporters of Tom DeLay say he is being singled out for the kinds of events that others in the political world sponsor like Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I think that is most appropriate. I encourage it and encourage people to come.

FRANKEN (voice-over): The IRS still has to decide whether donations to these events are tax deductible charity or too political.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

BROWN: And Senator John Kerry turned down $18.7 million today. The Democratic Senator and presidential contender said no thanks to public financing for his primary campaign the $18.7 million in federal matching money in exchange for sticking to certain spending limits. That's the law.

Senator Kerry is not alone in his decision. Howard Dean has also declined matching money raising upwards of $25 million himself so far. Neither candidate, however, coming close to raising the money that President Bush has, well over $100 million to date. Incumbency has advantages but so does Mr. Kerry or so he hopes.

Here again CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): John Kerry is now laying the financial foundation to take on Howard Dean in key battleground states like New Hampshire, foregoing public financing and spending limits for the Democratic primaries, a decision the Massachusetts Senator called difficult but necessary.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wish that Howard Dean had kept his promise to take federal matching money but he did not. He changed the rules of this race and anyone with a real shot at the nomination is going to have to play by those rules.

LOTHIAN: But those rules may give his opponents ammunition.

LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIBLE POLITICS: It's a political hit that Lieberman and others are going to say that he's opting out of the public financing system and the primaries are just set up to basically be a clean money type system.

LOTHIAN: Joe Lieberman is already calling Kerry's decision unfortunate. He and other top tier candidates are accepting public funds and spending limits. Wesley Clark, last to the race, announced his intent Thursday night.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a pragmatic decision at this point.

LOTHIAN: In the race to raise money, Kerry runs second behind Dean. He's raised a little more than $20 million so far compared to the former Vermont governor's $25 million.

So, how does Kerry plan to get a cash infusion without the government's help? He could tap some of his own personal wealth, estimated at almost $2 million. His campaign says he's also considering taking out personal loans and he's urging supporters to step up their contributions and what about his wife's wealth? Teresa Heinz' fortune is estimated at more than a half billion dollars.

NOBLE: He can use half the assets they jointly own but most of her money is in her name and he can't touch that money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: Kerry says that he is in the race to win the nomination and then go on to defeat George Bush in November. George Bush, by the way as you mentioned earlier, so far raising more than $100 million, Kerry saying that he's not going to fight with his hands tied behind his back -- Aaron.

BROWN: Has the Senator leading up to this moment said anything about his willingness to use his wife's money or not use his wife's money?

LOTHIAN: Well, he knows that he has those legal constraints that he's not able to use her money but what he most likely can do is take out loans based on some of those assets, those joint assets that they have, which include some property and also some paintings -- Aaron.

BROWN: But has he ever said, Dan, one way or another whether he would tap into that opportunity or not?

LOTHIAN: He has never said anything to my knowledge. His wife early on in the campaign did say that she would do whatever she could with her money to help him but that I believe was before it became clear that there were some legal constraints in how much of her money could be used.

BROWN: Dan, thank you very much, good to see you, Dan Lothian in Boston tonight.

Ahead on the program how to unravel a Gordian knot that is Iraq. We'll try and get some answers.

Also tonight how a Florida woman turned into a cause as another court rules in the case of Terri Schiavo. We'll look at how her case has become a cause for people on both sides of the debate.

And later another in our series of stories on the war wounded, tonight you will meet Luis Calderone (ph) a young man struggling to recover from a devastating accident.

From Atlanta tonight, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Two Senators we respect a lot, Joe Biden and John McCain, a Democrat and a Republican have almost identical warnings for the president when it comes to speeding up the transition in Iraq. Don't cut and run. Don't rush. Don't send the message that the strategy is simply to leave and leave quickly. That's one horn of the dilemma.

The other is the casualties, the possibility that going after the bad guys might be alienating some of the good guys. It's a tough place to be, a place with complicated choices.

Our next guest and his colleagues have been looking at the alternatives. Jon Alterman is the Director of Middle East Programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Jon, it's nice to see you again.

JON ALTERMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Good to see you, Aaron.

BROWN: I want to talk about the last couple of weeks for just one moment, one question. We've had this series of incidents, the al- Rashid Hotel attack, a couple, three helicopters shot down, the hit on the Italians this week. All of this has made a lot of news and has mad the situation look pretty difficult for the American side. Have we, do you think, the media, overplayed the importance of these attacks?

ALTERMAN: Certainly the attacks don't mean that any sort of Iraqi force is about to defeat the American military. The Iraqi forces aren't up to the American military but what they're -- the perception is being created that somehow it's an even match. We have to understand that what we're doing is very, very hard and what they're doing, getting lucky with a pot shot 20 percent of the time is relatively easy.

BROWN: So, give me a sense then as your group has gone over to look at the situation there what is -- where the most serious problems are, the most serious risks for the Americans are and what is positive?

ALTERMAN: The serious problem is that Americans have to create confidence among Iraqis that their lives are going to get better, that Americans there are there to help make Iraqis' lives better and they need to work with us to get to where we all want the Iraqis to be.

If the Iraqis feel the Americans are either incompetent or unwilling to do the job the right way or are going to cut and run it's going to make even being there for an interim period of time much, much harder. One of the most important things we need from Iraqis is for them to tell us how we can help them and if they don't trust us they won't.

BROWN: It seems to me that begs the question do they want our help, do they want us there or what they really want now is for us to get out?

ALTERMAN: Well, no. Iraqis are completely united on two points. The first point is all Iraqis want the Americans to leave. They don't want to see a permanent American occupation in Iraq.

The second point is that no Iraqis want the Americans to leave too soon. They remember the looting. They remember the violence. They remember everything that came after the government fell.

They're terrified of chaos. They're terrified of the old regime thugs coming back and even people who don't want the Americans there say we don't want the Americans there but don't let them pull out right away.

BROWN: There seems to be from the administration a real push these days towards the Iraqis controlling more of their own affairs, not security -- well, some of it security affairs but political affairs and others, too much too fast, just about right? It's sort of a three bears question I guess.

ALTERMAN: It is and you only get one shot to do it really and you never know if there would be a better way to do it. There are two kinds of things that have to happen.

One is to have some sort of Iraqi government. Another is to have an Iraqi Constitution and you can appoint people to do these things or you can have elections and the question has always been what sort of mixture of elections and appointed people and how we would order having an Iraqi government and an Iraqi Constitution and that's what has been shifting in American minds in the last week or so.

BROWN: And just on the subject of American minds do you think the administration is making moves with an eye towards the American political mood about all of this?

ALTERMAN: There certainly is an eye toward the American political mood and there's also an eye toward the American political calendar. The administration does want to have something where they can point to having a job done come late summer, early fall.

That's always been the intention of the CPA and the other people working in Iraq. The question is what they were going to have and how they're going to get to where they need to be. But certainly they have to keep the American public onboard. They have to keep the confidence of the American public.

I think if the American public understands the goals and thinks the administration has a good plan to get them, the administration will support the deployment of troops to Iraq. If it seems like it's all pointless then I think Americans are going to say why are our young men and women getting killed over there?

BROWN: Jon, straight and to the point tonight, thank you, Jon Alterman with us tonight. Thank you very much.

ALTERMAN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Quickly a few more -- thank you.

A few more items before we go to break starting with the tangled case of Zacarias Moussaoui. A judge in the case revoked his right to represent himself saying his latest series of motions included in her view contemptuous language that would never be tolerated from an attorney and will no longer, she said, be tolerated from this defendant. Judge Brinkema then gave Mr. Moussaoui's court-appointed legal advisers the official duty to act on his behalf to be his lawyers.

Some of the Italians wounded in the bombing of Nasiriya are back home tonight. A military transport landed in Rome with the first group, some 20 people of the more than 80 wounded and 18 killed. The dead make their final journey home back to Italy tomorrow.

And this hasn't been a great week and now he's 55. Hey, that's not so bad. Prince Charles celebrated his birthday today in part with a tour of a retirement home. You guys, I can't believe you put this here. That will take your mind off it, we are told. I should try it. The prince, as you may remember, spent much of the week at the center of a scandal. No one in the British media can mention the prince's 55.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, the case of Terri Schiavo, how one woman became a cause celebre on both sides of a most difficult issue, a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A judge in Florida today gave Michael Schiavo the go- ahead in his lawsuit against Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. Mr. Schiavo, you may remember, has been trying to have a feeding tube removed from his wife who's been in a coma-like state for 13 years.

He succeeded last month, something he says his wife would have wanted, until the Florida legislature passed a law tailored precisely to her case and Governor Bush signed it so the feeding tube went back in.

Today, the judge vacated that order. Lawyers for the state will now have until Monday to submit a brief defending their new law and you can be certain they will. You can also be almost as sure that for many people, not just the Schiavo's, it won't settle the issue.

Here's CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): For 13 years, Terri Schiavo's case and the resulting bitter fight between her husband and her parents simmered just below the boiling point but the case became a cause celebre when her feeding tube was removed.

RANDALL TERRY, SOCIETY FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Morality and reality and politics all converged into one moment where it's like, no, we as a civilized people are not going to starve this woman to death. We're not going to let this happen.

ZARRELLA: Randall Terry, perhaps the nation's most recognizable anti-abortion activist, joined the fight at the request of Schiavo's parents. He organized a continuous vigil outside the hospital.

It was Terry who accompanied Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, when they met and pled with Governor Jeb Bush to save their daughter. Terry insists it was always about saving Schiavo's life but unspoken was a clear message to Republicans.

TERRY: I think that they thought that this might come back to haunt them if they did not save Terri's life.

JIM KANE, POLITICAL ANALYST: They've made it very, very clear that in cases like this if you don't support us now don't expect us to show up at the polls and support you to help you get elected.

ZARRELLA: Governor Bush bristled at the notion that political gain had anything to do with his intervention.

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I'm not a poll driven person. I did what I thought was right.

ZARRELLA: In doing so, he put Schiavo's story in the spotlight yet even the governor's considerable influence would not have been enough without what activists saw as a stroke of luck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, who's going to look out for this girl's rights? We have to.

ZARRELLA: Florida's legislators were meeting in special session and they got thousands of e-mails from right-to-life supporters urging action, among them Republican House Speaker Johnny Byrd running for U.S. Senate.

JOHNNY BYRD, FLORIDA HOUSE SPEAKER: My motto is basically to act and to lead and, you know, it was in my lap and I had the choice to make. I could have, you know, she would be dead right now if we hadn't decided to act and I think it was what we needed to do.

ZARRELLA: Whatever the motivations, that convergence of beliefs and politics and sheer luck kept Terri Schiavo alive and guaranteed her case will remain on center stage.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A report on the national test scores of elementary and middle school students was a cause for some celebration at the Department of Education this week. The National Assessment of Educational Progress test showed math scores continuing a decade-long uptick, while reading scores remain flat. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the test scores show that the president's No Child Left Behind education reform law is working.

That the law is responsible for the scores, we can't say, but it is certainly responsible for a great deal of discussion about whether it's the right way to fix America's often troubled schools.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Catherine Mitchell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE MITCHELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By some standards, Marietta High School in Atlanta is a great public school.

GORDON PRITZ, PRINCIPAL, MARIETTA HIGH SCHOOL: We were named the school of excellence in Georgia. We were named top 4 percent in the nation by "Newsweek" magazine.

MITCHELL: But by the federal government's standards, it's failing.

ROD PAIGE, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: Many people are concerned about, how could a school that has a wonderful reputation and made it on the "Newsweek" list of great schools suddenly end up on the needs- improvement list for the No Child Left Behind Act? What it means is that the rules have changed. We're not just counting schools that are successful with some children. We're counting schools that are successful with all children.

MITCHELL: Marietta is not an unusual urban school in America.

PRITZ: Our student body represents over 40 different nations of birth and speak 30 different languages.

MITCHELL: The problem for schools like Marietta is that some of these students will do well, others not so well. But under the No Child Left Behind law, they're all held to the same standard, meaning honor students, special education students, and students with limited English all have to pass the same test.

DAVID COX, LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEACHER: We get some students here that are illiterate in their native language and they're expected to pass tests in a second language, and they're not really literate in their first language.

Three, three, three.

STUDENTS: Three, three, three.

MITCHELL: But supporters say the law is designed to make sure students like this aren't forgotten.

PAIGE: Remember of the name of the law. No child is to be left behind. So this means that you must pay attention to not only the baccalaureate student, but to the student who is not. This is the one who needs your help most. That is the big change that's taking place now. No longer can we be satisfied with educating some of the children. The president's aim is educating all of the children.

MITCHELL: Detractors agree that the law sounds good on paper, but they argue that it's just not realistic.

REG WEAVER, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: This particular law puts kids in a one-size-fits-all category or a one- size-fits-all approach. And we believe that it does not take into consideration the fact that children learn at different rates, at different speeds, at different times.

MITCHELL: If Marietta finds itself on the needs-improvement list next year -- and some teachers think that's unavoidable -- the school then has to offer students the option to transfer and must pay for that transportation with some of its federal funds. That could be expensive, considering 42 percent of Georgia schools made the list, so many that the closest school not on the list is more than an hour away.

Principal Gordon Pritz says it could be cheaper to forego the federal funds altogether, meaning the school would have to give up the more than $100,000 a year that goes towards hiring additional teachers.

PRITZ: There has to be some real-world application to the rule. And you can set a rule. But unless you're on the front lines, like our teachers are every day and seeing what's going on in the real world, those arbitrary measuring sticks can be very unrealistic.

MITCHELL: Catherine Mitchell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: the forgotten wounded. He doesn't have a book deal or a made-for-TV movie, but the story of Luis Calderon is worth knowing nevertheless.

A break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Much more NEWSNIGHT ahead. Morning papers returns, and the story of an injured American soldier who deserves his moment of recognition as well.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: With hundreds of Americans wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan, chances are, nevertheless, pretty good that most of us can only name one of them, Jessica Lynch. And this week, with a made- for-TV movie, with big national interviews and a book release, her presence has been nearly unavoidable.

But our next story is about one of the many others whose name you do not know. Luis Calderon won't have a movie made about him. He won't get a book deal. Yet he will carry the scars of his service for a lifetime. And we thought he deserved some recognition, too.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The photos of Luis Calderon in the family album are like those of thousands of other young men: Luis as a star fullback in high school, Luis and his wife, Darlene, on their wedding day. The pictures change after his enlistment in the Army, his deployment to Iraq as a tank mechanic with the 4th Infantry.

Then, in one snap the image is changed from this to this. Luis's father got the phone call from Iraq May 5.

LUIS CALDERON SR., FATHER: The individual identified himself as the Army captain. So that almost killed me right there. But then he said that my son had just suffered an accident.

NISSEN: An accident involving Luis's 70-ton armored vehicles and one of the hundreds of walls in Iraq painted with the image of Saddam Hussein and systematically destroyed by U.S. troops.

SPC. LUIS CALDERON, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: We saw two murals with Saddam's picture on it. So, and then we got the permission to knock them down, because we had some heavy armored vehicles. NISSEN: But when Luis rammed into the wall, it broke in half and fell forward on his tank. A crush of debris slammed through the open hatch, breaking his neck, damaging his spinal cord near the base of the neck.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: They're saying he's a complete quadriplegic. In other words, he's not going to have full function of all four extremities.

NISSEN: After more than two months in intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Luis was finally stabilized and transferred to the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the VA Hospital in Miami. Doctors and physical therapists here are working to increase the limited movement he has in his shoulders and upper arms.

DR. ALBERTO MARTINEZ-ARIZALA, MIAMI VA HOSPITAL: The central nervous system, and specifically the spinal cord, has some inherent capacity to heal itself. But it does so poorly. We're hopeful, with time, that he'll regain function.

NISSEN: After three months of painful effort, Luis has made progress. Using an arm brace, he can now move the joystick on a motorized wheelchair, although he can not move his hands, his fingers.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: Working with my hands, really, that's the hardest thing now for me. My personal goal is just move my hands. If I move my hands, I would be the happiest guy.

NISSEN: It's a constant struggle for him, balancing hope that he'll improve, with accepting and learning to live with his injuries.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: I haven't accepted I'm a quad yet. I can't believe it. I'm in a dream still. I don't know. I'm in a big nightmare.

NISSEN: He has been depressed. He has been angry at fate, at himself for miscalculating how the wall would fall. Yet he says he has no regrets about enlisting, about serving in Iraq.

LUIS CALDERON JR.: I was just a soldier. I was just doing my job.

NISSEN: Luis' father, a retired 31-year veteran of the Air Force, is proud of his son and wishes others were, too. Operation Iraqi Freedom casualties injured in accidents, he says, are overlooked, don't qualify for Purple Hearts, don't get the media attention given to those wounded in combat.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: He was in the same danger. He was in the same danger every day. He was in the same sand, in the same heat, with the same enemy. What was different? Doesn't my son get any kind of recognition? I don't mean a parade with confetti and a national hero. No, it's just, hey, a pat on the back, job well done.

NISSEN: It matters, he says, when members of the community, like these children from a local grade school, come by with cards full of glitter and encouragement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's lot of them.

NISSEN: It would matter, he says, if more administration officials visited those injured while in service to their country.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: Give these kids some love, because they will never know that anybody cared if nobody tells them. Somebody has to tell them.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other items before we take a break tonight.

ExxonMobil is a huge company, last year, $178 billion in sales. Even so, little doubt this got the company's attention. A jury in the state of Alabama today returned an $11.9 billion judgment against the oil giant. The state had sued ExxonMobil, accusing the company of fraud in connection with gas wells in the state-owned waters off the coast of Alabama. ExxonMobil promises to appeal the judgment. I imagine so.

Two serious fires today made much worse by the high winds. First in Chicago, a warehouse gutted there. The fire spread to a couple of other buildings as well. More than 200 firefighters working to put it out. A spokesman called it the toughest fire in Chicago, the Windy City, in quite some time. The other fire, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, kept burning all evening long. Look at that. It broke out this afternoon at an abandoned mill, then spread to nearby homes. At least 11 homes have burned so far. It's been very, very windy in the east.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the Paris Hilton tapes. When we booked this segment, I thought we were talking about a hotel, but apparently not, since Dr. Ruth Westheimer will be here to explain it all to me and you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When Andy Warhol said that, in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, he couldn't have imagined the second part. Everyone will be naked for five, naked and available all over the Internet. The latest being Paris Hilton, heiress to the hotel fortune, famous, until now, mostly for being well-known.

Then the tape she made with her ex-boyfriend surfaced on the Web, as all things seem to. There's the one frame of it we can show you. Her parents threatened to sue anyone who distributed the tape. Then the ex-boyfriend sued Paris and the family. Did we mention young Paris has a TV show coming out next month?

It's enough to make you long for the days when Paris Hilton meant a good room with a view of the same and wonder why so many people, not just the heiress, homemakers, too, seem to be flirting with the camera and the Web. With us to talk about it all is one of my favorite people, Dr. Ruth.

It's nice to have you with us again.

DR. RUTH WESTHEIMER, AUTHOR, "SEX FOR DUMMIES": Thank you.

BROWN: All right, honesty, I'm about to prove I'm the country bumpkin people assume I am. Why would anyone, let alone a famous person -- why would anyone make a tape of themselves having sex?

WESTHEIMER: Well, first of all, if it's a consenting couple and they love each other, and they make a tape -- I'm not suggesting that you should do it tonight -- but if a couple makes a tape because they want to enhance their sexual feeling, their sexual encounter, to put the worries of everyday life aside, I have no problem.

What I have a problem with is that this is done these days, kind of, privacy is thrown out the window. And this is really very, very sad, because a tape like this, you can't show that, Aaron, to an ex- lover.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: You can't say, look, this guy made better love to me than you are doing.

So it's a little sad.

BROWN: OK. First of all, I'm not sure I understand. Honestly, I'm not sure I understand why people do it. But I'll accept it.

WESTHEIMER: I will explain that to you another time at length.

BROWN: OK.

WESTHEIMER: They might be doing it for fun.

BROWN: Oh, you're -- oh -- right. It's always that. OK.

Why would we -- does it matter -- thousands or millions of people, I guess, have tried to see this tape and have logged onto the Net and tried to find the tape and all that. Does it matter that it's a famous person?

WESTHEIMER: In my way of thinking, really, it ought not to matter.

But, in our society, with the way things are in the media, it does matter. So, if somebody can say tonight over a beer, I did see that, whatever her name is, naked, everybody's going to laugh and say, and everybody's going to say, you lucky man.

But I tell you something. What worries me so much is the consequences, because these days, as you know, Aaron, some of these cameras are minuscule. BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: People can hide them. They can have them in their pocket of their pajamas. They can take a tape without asking you, Aaron, for your permission. So it's really an issue that, even somebody so serious, like you, and maybe so square, like you and me, ought to discuss.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Can we not make this quite so personal with me? OK?

WESTHEIMER: I'll try.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: I thank you. I'm on the road here.

(CROSSTALK)

WESTHEIMER: I put myself in it, too, on a serious note.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: No, it's kind of sick, isn't it, making the tape and the people wanting to see the tape and the whole thing? That's kind of sick, isn't it?

WESTHEIMER: The word sick doesn't apply.

What implies is, in another 24 hours, nobody is going to talk about it anymore. Right now, you and I talk about it because it's in the news. Even "The New York Times" talks about it.

BROWN: I know, "The New York Times." It's not like -- I can't -- all right.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Well, let's stop talking about it.

WESTHEIMER: I'll tell you something.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: Aaron, what we have to tell loud and clear, people, first have a relationship before you go to bed. First, have a relationship before you have sex. First, have some trust in that other person, so that you know that nothing like this is going to happen to you. And that's what have we to talk about, be romantic, make sure that you know each other.

You know that, in the Bible, the word knowing means to have sex.

BROWN: Yes.

WESTHEIMER: That's not by chance. That's really the term to know each other before you engage in a sexual activity.

BROWN: Dr. Ruth, good to talk to you.

WESTHEIMER: Thank you.

BROWN: I'll see you back in New York.

WESTHEIMER: Bye. All right.

BROWN: Bye-bye. Thank you.

WESTHEIMER: Bye-bye.

BROWN: It's a little bit like talking about sex with your grandmother, though. It's just -- we'll take a break.

Morning papers when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Time to check morning papers from around the country. I was -- well, I was perspiring heavily during the Dr. Ruth segment. I don't like talking about that stuff on TV, OK? Let's not do that anymore. Why did I say yes to that?

"Cincinnati Enquirer." (AUDIO GAP) "Answers Elusive in Traffic Data. Bias Issue Left Open to Debate." I guess there's a controversy about whether some parts of town, minority parts of town, are getting the worst of the traffic deal. Their big story on the front page, though, on Saturday -- that makes sense -- is a feature, a high school football game. "Grandpa in Caught in Rivalry Between Two East -- West Side Football Powerhouses." That's the big story in "The Cincinnati Enquirer."

But the one I cared about most -- I don't know if you can see this -- I hope you can. Get a little closer to the TV. "House Casts Vote For State Fish." Apparently, they've resolved everything else in the state of Ohio, but they haven't resolved the question of a state fish. So it's come down to small-mouthed bass, which beat out the perch and the walleye.

"The Washington Times." "Bush Reassures Congress About Iraq." Another big story in "The Washington Times" is going to be a very big story next week. "Republicans Agree On Energy Package." Its front page.

Quickly -- I'm moving now, guys. No dawdling. "The San Francisco Chronicle." "GOP Readies Energy Bill in Private. Dems Get Three Days to Read 1,700 Pages Before Crucial Vote." I know people will think I'm being partisan here, but I don't. But how can people read 1,700 pages in three days? Maybe they don't want it all read. That was that.

Look at this, front page of "The Boston Herald." "Wind Burn," the big fire in Pawtucket.

And "The Chicago Sun-Times" always gets the last spot. The weather tomorrow in Chicago is "droopy." And they've added a little thing to help you figure out what that means. It looks like it's going to rain. "Teachers Say Yes to Four-Year Contract: 55 Percent Approve" -- anyway. And that's "The Chicago Sun-Times."

That's morning papers. We'll wrap it up for the night and for the week after the break.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go tonight, a quick update on our top story, continuing to be Iraq. Operation Iron Hammer continues, aimed at ferreting out insurgents in Baghdad, where again today they struck. One American soldier died, two more wounded, when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb. Also today, the Army stepped up its search in Karbala for a man they believe planned the downing of a Chinook helicopter and the rocket attack on the Al-Rashid Hotel.

On Monday on NEWSNIGHT, the beginning of a terrific week of really interesting stories about President Kennedy, leading up to the 40th anniversary of his assassination. These involves pictures that people thought were lost forever in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Thanks to a lot of electronic wizardry, they have been restored. That's Monday. Also next week, you'll hear from former President Jerry Ford on the Warren Commission and lots of other things around the president's assassination 40 years ago.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next.

Good to see you all again. We see you all Monday. Good night for all of us.

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Found; Operation Iron Hammer Continues; Senate Talk-a-Thon Ends>