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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Iraqi Insurgents Videotape Attacks; More Evidence of Economic Recovery; Jackson Sues Jet Company

Aired November 25, 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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
A columnist today compared the Bush administration to that of Richard Nixon, not to accuse the current White House of being either crooked or corrupt. The writer was really comparing how the two spent the country's money.

Well, today George W. Bush, just like Richard Nixon three decades ago, has committed to spending billions more on domestic programs while pursuing an expensive war overseas -- guns and butter.

Thirty years ago it was a recipe for crippling inflation. Thirty years later no one is sure, but the question certainly is out there and it is guns not butter that start the whip tonight.

Iraq, and a headline from CNN's David Ensor. Good evening, David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Carol. Well, tonight in Iraq there is the insurgency and there are increasing signs that some of the insurgents who are attacking American forces are videotaping those attacks and then showing them to the world. We have an example tonight.

LIN: All right, next to the White House, a pretty cheerful place today all things considered. CNN's John King has the watch and a headline -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, more evidence the economy is beginning to bounce back just in time, the White House would say heading into an election year and in the Medicare legislation the president believes he has an opportunity now to take away from the Democrats an issue they have used very successfully against Republicans before -- Carol.

LIN: On to Los Angeles and a twist in the Michael Jackson case. CNN's Frank Buckley on that. Frank, a headline please.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, Michael Jackson today sued the company that transported him to Santa Barbara last week to turn himself in. Michael Jackson says that private charter jet company secretly videotaped him on the aircraft and then tried to peddle that tape around to media outlets.

LIN: Finally a case of a finely tuned and furnished fat cat and what the jury saw today. The tycoon in question Dennis Kozlowski, the furnishings on display and CNN's Allan Chernoff on the story, Allan a headline from you.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In court today video evidence of Dennis Kozlowski's lavish spending. The question now for the jury was Kozlowski spending for himself or for company business -- Carol?

LIN: Very interesting. Thanks, Allan, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also ahead tonight on NEWSNIGHT, we'll try to sort out fact from fiction on the Medicare story.

And later, Christiane Amanpour takes us on a raid as U.S. soldiers look for insurgents in Iraq.

And, Beth Nissen continues our series of reports on war wounded. We'll meet some of the families of the injured soldiers, all that to come in the hour ahead.

Right now we begin with the attacks that have sent so many soldiers in Iraq to hospitals and morgues. The pace of those attacks may, in fact, be easing which is not the same as saying the insurgency is ending or even slowing as much as it is changing. The targets are changing too.

From Baghdad, here's CNN's Walter Rodgers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The warning sirens in Baghdad sounded only after two booming explosions here. In Arabic, loudspeakers blared, "This is an attack not a test."

At least one person was injured as those two shells fell several hours after dark. Not much earlier, this American general said the attacks on his soldiers have been reduced.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, CENTCOM: I hate to give you a metric but I would say the attacks are down by about half over the past two weeks.

RODGERS: Increasingly, U.S. soldiers now protect Iraqi civilians as more and more civilians find themselves becoming targets of guerrilla intimidation.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: If Saddam taught them nothing else he taught Iraqis how to endure the depredation of thugs. Saddam and his trained killers had no future in Iraq.

RODGERS: Tough talk but Ambassador Bremer acknowledged these attacks will get worse as insurgents try to undermine the new government here.

(on camera): Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein himself remains at large and the U.S. Army has yet to put those Iraqi guerrillas out of business.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Last night on the program Michael Keane pointed out how important it is for insurgents not only to inflict whatever damage they can but also to do it in as public a fashion as possible.

Now in that light with the international media, this network included, so heavy on the ground in Iraq it isn't surprising rebels have videotaped roadside bombings, ambushes and perhaps the attempted shoot down of a cargo jet over the weekend. Civilian flights into Baghdad were suspended as a result.

Here again, CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): On the tape what appears to be a group of insurgents, their faces concealed, some carrying rocket-propelled grenades. At one point in the distance an American Black Hawk helicopter can be seen.

Next, one of the insurgents fires off a shoulder-launched missile. There is then a video edit to a sequence that shows the insurgents escaping by car while filming a civilian jet that appears to have been hit on one wing.

There's no way to be sure but the video may show the attack Saturday near Baghdad Airport on a DHL cargo plane which turned around after takeoff and landed safely though a fire on its wing had to be extinguished.

The tape was delivered in Baghdad to journalist Sara Daniel of the French "Le Nouvel Observateur" magazine who has been contacting anti-U.S. insurgents.

SARA DANIEL, "LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR": The groups I met are Iraqis. They're small groups. They're not well organized. Sometimes they run into each other doing operations and they have a lot of weapons, lots and lots of weapons.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It doesn't take a genius to fire off a shoulder-fired missile at an airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the idea that they want to get a tape out there.

RUMSFELD: Oh, oh, oh that point. I mean they do that type of thing. People do that take credit. I mean we constantly have people after an incident call up and say we did it. Look at us. Aren't we wonderful. We killed a bunch of innocent men, women, and children.

ENSOR: Video of attacks in Chechnya are a regular feature of certain Web sites. On some Arab language Web sites in recent weeks, videos have appeared of what purport to be attacks on American soldiers in Iraq part of a cyber and media war.

DAVID BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: They could be wanting to get this out to the world's media for several reasons. First for fund-raising, secondly recruitment, thirdly propaganda value. I think all three of those things should be taken into account.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The video, the latest video appears as U.S. commanders have been saying that attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq are down. They may be down but they are becoming, it would appear from this videotape at least, rather audacious -- Carol.

LIN: David, who actually has these videotapes now? Does the journalist still have them? Does she have to turn them over to investigators?

ENSOR: I don't know the answer to that. They were given to her. They were left in her -- either in or outside her room in the hotel we are told and she has given copies of them to various television organizations including our own but where the originals are I frankly couldn't tell you.

LIN: I mean how interested are national security officials in examining these tapes to try to catch these insurgents?

ENSOR: I'm sure they're very interested in catching the insurgents. Whether or not the videotapes will help them is another question. They're pretty well concealed on the tape. I supposed fingerprints might be of interest.

There may also be some tactical intelligence that the Defense Intelligence Agency can glean from the tapes how these attacks are conducted. That's useful knowledge -- Carol.

LIN: Is it useful enough to at least be able to determine what is the next likely target?

ENSOR: I don't think so but it does show the modus operandi. For example, one of the tapes that we mentioned in the report a moment ago is a tape that was taken of attacks on Humvees in the city of Baghdad.

The fact that those attacks are being videotaped from a distance from a parked car that's useful information. That's something that the U.S. can use to try to make its soldiers more secure. They can look out for those people.

LIN: Yes. David Ensor thank you very much.

On to domestic considerations now, namely the $400 billion Medicare bill which cleared the Senate today by a 54-44 vote. It is a sweeping and hotly debated piece of legislation complicated too just not in how it delivers a prescription drug benefit to seniors. We're going to get into the nuts and bolts later in the program but first the political benefits. President Bush, who will sign the bill, is counting on it.

Here again, CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): At a hospital in Nevada, the president cast the new Medicare prescription drug benefit as long overdue and as proof he is delivering on an issue long associated with Democrats.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some said Medicare reform could never be done. For the sake of our seniors we've got something done. We're acting.

KING: An upbeat day in a state he carried by just 21,000 votes three years ago and one of many presidential battlegrounds where the elderly vote is critical. Final passage of the Medicare bill was hardly the only development that fit nicely with the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign's domestic agenda.

The economy grew at a robust 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter the strongest three months in nearly 20 years. Corporate profits rose at a nearly 11 percent annual rate in the July through September quarter, a key factor in new hiring and consumer confidence is at its highest level in more than a year.

SCOTT REED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This is about hitting stride at the right time and by next year most economists say there will be real job creation just in time for the presidential election.

KING: Democrats say there's plenty to criticize on the domestic front. They call the Medicare a giveaway to drug and insurance companies, blame Mr. Bush for giant new budget deficits and for the loss of more than two million jobs the past three years. Yet many Democrats are coming to the view that Mr. Bush's biggest weakness is in Iraq not here at home.

DENNIS KUCINICH (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't think of anything more urgent on the agenda of our country today than to end the occupation and to bring our troops home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Everyone here at the White House concedes the urgency both from a political and a policy standpoint of improving security in Iraq but, Carol, many here also say one reason the Democrats more and more and more are focusing on Iraq and criticizing the president is that even they can see with the improving economy and now this Medicare victory that the president's position on domestic issues has been strengthened.

LIN: So, John, more specifically on the issue of jobs how is the president going to be able to capitalize on these numbers and actually inspire corporations to hire more people or does he think that the economy itself just has a momentum of its own and corporations will then start hiring people next year? KING: All indications from the corporate profit reports from the investigations they have done, the surveys done before the holiday season is that for the most part the economy and employers are beginning to hire more and more now. The soft spot and the one big worry still for the White House is the manufacturing economy. That continues to lose jobs, the manufacturing sector, while the service industries and others add jobs.

If you look at a presidential battleground map you will see Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois. Those states have been hard hit because of the manufacturing losses. That is the one thing the White House is hoping comes around early next year. They're hoping, Carol, to get the unemployment rate down under six percent, perhaps even down closer to five and a half percent by the time we get close to the election.

LIN: All right what are your sources then telling you as they go into the campaign year what their strategy is going to be in terms of how they play out Iraq if these insurgents continue to attack?

The Iraqi Governing Council right now, for example, the existing council is saying well maybe we're not so interested in leaving office. Maybe we really want to keep these positions. The plan is not going according to plan in Iraq on the ground so far.

KING: It's a tough one for the president because he has to insist that the United States is continuing its mission will not leave until the mission is accomplished. At the same time, of course, they have significantly changed the plan.

They are accelerating the time table for turning power over to a new Iraqi government. At the same time, the president has said U.S. troops will stay until Saddam Hussein, for one, is either killed, captured or otherwise accounted for, until the security situation is intact so that the new government can thrive and not be under constant attack.

So, the plan is evolving almost weekly, sometimes some would say even daily but the president understands that by the middle of next year he has to be able to show the American people that the security situation has dramatically improved.

They're hoping to be able to do that by bringing some troops home, although the president has said in recent days that he will make that decision only when his commanders say it's safe to do that, reduce the troop levels.

LIN: All right, thank you very much John King live at the White House.

So if the president today was celebrating should his Democratic opponents be crying in their beer? Jeff Zeleny is a national political correspondent for the "Chicago Tribune" and he is with us tonight in Washington, good evening Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Good evening. LIN: Does it sound like the Democrats running for president have a lot to worry about now?

ZELENY: Well, essentially over the next eleven months the Democrats had hoped to convince American voters why President Bush should be fired and this week has made that job a lot more difficult.

They were hoping to have Medicare as an issue, as a campaign issue, most importantly as a 30-second sound byte for television ads. Now they don't have that.

They were hoping to have the economy as an issue. Now they may not have that. So right now it's a bit of a back to the drawing boards for some of the candidates.

LIN: So, if they don't have the issues in their pockets what do they have going for them?

ZELENY: Well, the one think I think you must keep in mind that it's very early. The first vote will not be cast in the primary campaign for 55 days from now and that's in Iowa and then the next week is New Hampshire.

So on one side, on the Democrats themselves, right now they're consumed with distinguishing themselves from one another which has proven to be a difficult task in and of itself.

Once that is over the party has to again convince Americans why President Bush should be removed from office so frankly they are partially taking a wait and see attitude to see how the war looks at that point, how the economy looks at that point.

But one thing specifically is jobs. As Senator John Edwards likes to say again and again, I don't know what a jobless recovery is and that line gets applause and a lot of attention out there on the campaign trail.

LIN: Yes. At the same time we're hearing more about the candidates' personal lives on the campaign trail. Do you think it's going to become (unintelligible) of personalities? Is that how some of these gentlemen plan on distinguishing themselves?

ZELENY: Well, as you know, there are now nine people running for president and recent surveys have showed that only about half of Americans can actually recite the names of those nine people.

So, in the middle of the health care, the Medicare plan, et cetera, the candidates are trying to distinguish themselves and many of them are turning to the written word, are writing autobiographies of their lives, of their stories and others are finding voters are learning more about them just through sad stories.

Howard Dean, for example, we're learning more about him every day as he travels to Hawaii to retrieve his brother's remains. So these are still stories being written of the candidates.

LIN: Right.

ZELENY: And voters just beginning now to pay attention are watching this closely.

LIN: You know it's worked in the past. I mean you remember that seminal moment when Al Gore was speaking at the Democratic National Convention about the death of his sister and how remarkable it was in a way that a man that we saw generally as being very reserved, maybe a little bit stodgy shared a moment before a national audience about something so deeply personal to him.

ZELENY: I think what voters are looking for, at least the ones I talk to out in Iowa and New Hampshire and other places, they're really looking to connect with someone. They're not looking for someone who is on a pedestal on a stage. They want a human being and all of these stories help flush that out.

So, I think over the next two months as the campaign gets more and more divisive and negative toward one another these autobiographical glimpses will help voters make their choice.

LIN: But still all eyes on the situation in Iraq, right?

ZELENY: Absolutely and I think that's one of the reasons that Howard Dean has been able to maintain his position either at or near the front of the pack because his position has been constant and his opposition to the war has been firm for the last year.

And right now the Democrats are just awaiting to see what the situation looks like over there but with more body bags coming back those are the numbers that some Democrats privately say they are counting.

LIN: Different numbers than the White House looking at today on the economy. Thank you very much Jeff Zeleny, "Chicago Tribune."

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, Michael Jackson on the offensive over videos that were taken of him aboard a private plane on the way to Las Vegas.

Later, we'll continue our series on war wounded and learn about the effects on family members.

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: The Michael Jackson story took a strange turn today, a detour in more ways than one. It landed before a judge not on the merits of the sex abuse allegations against Mr. Jackson.

Instead, today the judge was asked to consider a videotape allegedly made onboard a private jet that wasn't, as it turned out, as private as Mr. Jackson or his lawyer might have hoped. And as that played out the district attorney in the sex abuse case spoke out.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, criticized for the levity at this news conference last week...

THOMAS SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I thought you were going to ask me a different question. That's what I was thinking.

BUCKLEY: ...acknowledged the criticism and apologized for some of his comments in an interview with CNN's Art Harris.

SNEDDON: I think the criticism was valid. I think that to some extent that it was inappropriate. I feel bad about it. I feel bad about it because I think I should have known better.

BUCKLEY: While the DA was on the defensive, Michael Jackson's legal team was on the offensive about alleged improprieties during Jackson's private plane trip to Santa Barbara last week.

According to this lawsuit filed by Jackson and his attorney Mark Geragos the charter jet company, Extra Jet, which owns and operates the aircraft allegedly secretly videotaped them, then tried to profit from the tape.

MARK GERAGOS, JACKSON DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It was disclosed that those two video cameras which also apparently had audio on them were surreptitiously place in there, were recording attorney/client conversations and then somebody had the unmitigated gall to shop those tapes around to media outlets in order to sell them to the highest bidder.

BUCKLEY: A representative for Extra Jet told CNN the charter company did not have a statement at this time. But in a "Los Angeles Times" article one corporate officer for the company is quoted as saying that once the tapes were discovered the company "explored the opportunity as any business person would." Geragos said the alleged secret taping on the jet violated federal law and would also unleash a strong civil legal response from the Jackson team.

GERAGOS: This is not the lottery. This is this man's life. This is his family's life. These are scurrilous accusations. We are going to, and I've been given full authority, we will land on you like a ton of bricks.

BUCKLEY: One legal expert says if the videotapes on the plane also contain audio the videotaper could face criminal charges in addition to any civil damages they might have to pay.

DOUGLAS MIRELL, ATTORNEY: If any conversations were captured between Mr. Geragos and Mr. Jackson that would be enormously problematic. That would create potential criminal liability for Extra Jet in addition to the civil liability that they already face.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: And sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN that the FBI now has copies of those videotapes or at least they may have the original videotapes from that aircraft.

FBI spokesman Matt McGloughlin (ph) would not give any specifics, would not confirm or deny whether or not the FBI has the tapes but he did say that the FBI was present at Extra Jet today and that the FBI is looking into and evaluating whether any federal laws were broken -- Carol.

LIN: Frank, wouldn't somebody know by now whether there was any audio on the tape, whether anyone could hear any conversations between Michael Jackson and his lawyer?

BUCKLEY: Well that's in dispute. That "Los Angeles Times" article that I mentioned today suggested that the tapes that were shown to some of the media outlets didn't have any audio on it.

Mark Geragos today was firm in saying that it's his belief that there is audio on those videotapes and apparently the FBI has the tapes now and will be able to simply turn on the audio and listen for themselves.

LIN: All right, thank you very much Frank Buckley once again on the Michael Jackson case.

Well, a few more items from around the country tonight starting with charges against the chaplain from Guantanamo Bay only the charges aren't exactly what anyone expected. James Yee you might remember was suspected of spying at Guantanamo and was taken into custody.

Instead today after 76 days behind bars he was charged with adultery and possession of pornography and set free. He'll leave for Fort Benning, Georgia tomorrow where he'll resume his duties as chaplain.

By the time singer Glenn Campbell got to Phoenix police say he was higher than a Wichita lineman. A breath test showed he had a blood alcohol level of .2 percent more than twice the legal limit after allegedly leaving the scene of a car crash yesterday.

He was arrested, booked, and put in jail where he allegedly kneed a copy. He made bail soon after and apologized today saying even at his age he learned a valuable lesson.

And there it was kind of sad the fastest commercial airliner in the world, the Concorde, making its way through New York Harbor at about five miles an hour, mach .06. The Concorde retired from commercial service last month. This one will go to an aviation museum on New York's waterfront.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT the $8,000 shower curtain and the question of whether Tyco was taking a bath at the hands of its top executive, the story when NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Gordon Gekko said it best, greed is good. Greed works except of course when it doesn't.

Consider Dennis Kozlowski the former CEO of Tyco Industries. Mr. Kozlowski and his former chief financial officer are on trial charge more or less with using Tyco as their own private piggybank.

Today, jurors got a video tour of an $18 million New York apartment used by Mr. Kozlowski when he was in town. Even Gordon Gecko might raise an eyebrow which isn't the same as saying this is an open and shut case.

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Former Tyco Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski's lavish spending went on display for the jury in his grand larceny trial. A prosecution video featured rich French baroque furnishings in the $18 million Fifth Avenue duplex Kozlowski had arranged for his company to buy.

A Monet and Renoir, chandelier after chandelier, a commanding view of Central Park, the now famous $6,000 shower curtain and a $15,000 doggie umbrella stand. The former CEO of Tyco is fighting charges he and his chief financial officer stole $600 million from the company and its shareholders.

But testimony from housekeeper Mariola Tarnachowicz appeared to damage the prosecution's case. The shower curtain was in a staff bathroom. Kozlowski had never seen it, she testified nor had Kozlowski selected the umbrella stand.

The former chief executive of Tyco, she said, used the apartment only occasionally perhaps twice a week, sometimes merely to change his shirt and there were periods he wouldn't show for two months. The decorator, Tarnachowicz said, was there more than Kozlowski.

STEPHEN KAUFMAN, KOZLOWSKI ATTORNEY: I think she explained that the apartment was a -- belonged to the company and it was an asset of the company and he just used it for business purpose and his wife was there once or twice. It doesn't seem to me to be a place where you're living. It's a place where you're staying for business purposes which is what it was.

CHERNOFF: Earlier in the trial, prosecutors showed video of a lavish birthday party Kozlowski threw for his wife on the Italian island of Sardinia. Tyco paid half the bill, $1 million, but the defense said it was in part a business event.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: While the jury has now been exposed to Kozlowski's big-spending ways, the prosecution is still trying to make its case that Kozlowski was spending Tyco's money for his own personal benefit. Carol, the trial is due to resume on Monday.

LIN: So what sort of things does the prosecutors have in their arsenal, then? What's left?

CHERNOFF: Well, this clearly was supposed to be a very big smoking gun. But it seems that the housekeeper certainly provided some testimony to quiet that gun, let's say. So the prosecution still has plenty much of a trial. It has been going on for two months already. And it is expected to go well into January. They have many more witnesses. Some people from the Treasury Department of Tyco are scheduled to take the stand on Monday.

LIN: All right, perhaps just a taste of the evidence to come.

Thanks so much, Allan Chernoff.

In our next segment, the dollars and cents of Medicare reform.

First, our "MONEYLINE Roundup," starting with a number they're loving tonight at the White House. As John King mentioned earlier, 8.2 percent, that's how fast the economy grew in the third quarter, better than estimated. It is the best performance in nearly 20 years. And one note of caution, though. A new survey from the Consumer Federation of America shows Americans remain wary about opening their wallets. More than a third say they plan to spend less over the holidays. Only 15 percent say they'll spend more than they did last year.

The markets, meantime, mostly treaded water. The Dow Jones and the S&P rose slightly. The Nasdaq fell a hair. Investors are waiting to see a batch of economic reports tomorrow.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Does the Medicare bill actually fix anything? We're going to try to get to the bottom line of this very complex bill.

And later, Christiane Amanpour takes us along as U.S. soldiers look for insurgents in Iraq.

Stay with us as NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: More now on the Medicare bill and the bill for the Medicare bill and a somewhat complicated prescription for prescription drugs. It calls for some plain talk.

And we're going to be helped in that effort tonight by Susan Dentzer, health correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." She joins us from Washington tonight.

Susan, we're glad to have you, because this is a long and a complicated bill. And I just want to boil it down for seniors out there who just want to know if this is a good idea.

So, if you could lay it out for us, what actually has changed if this bill goes through?

SUSAN DENTZER, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER": What will have changed when the drug benefit takes effect, Carol, in 2006, is that, for the first time ever, if you walk out of the door of the hospital as a Medicare beneficiary, your drugs are covered. That has not been the case up until now.

If you're in the hospital getting your appendix removed, whatever, if you needed drugs, those drugs were included and paid for by Medicare. Once you got out of the hospital, for the most part, they weren't, with certain exceptions, like oncology drugs, cancer drugs given on an outpatient basis. So there will be significant drug coverage for people.

Just to give you a sense of things, the average Medicare beneficiary has about $3,100 a year of drug costs. If you look at what will happen under this benefit, in effect, $1,080 will actually be paid for that average beneficiary with about $3,100 in cost. So, roughly speaking, for that person, at the average, about a third now will be picked up by Medicare.

LIN: So, by this legislation, who gets helped the most and who gets hurt?

DENTZER: Well, the people who get helped the most are going to be people with very, very high drug costs.

If you took somebody with, say, $10,000 a year of drug costs, Medicare picks up almost $6,000 of those under this legislation. So that's going to be a very significant piece of help for people with very, very high drug costs. On the other hand, there are some people who may in fact be worse off. Certain low-income beneficiaries who are both elderly and disabled who are in the Medicaid program, as well as in the Medicare program, they're going to start getting their drug benefits out of the Medicare program, no longer out of Medicaid.

That could mean, for some of them, that the benefits are less generous than what they have now. So it's going to be -- it's going to depend very much on who you are, what your circumstances are, what your income is.

LIN: And the way the formula works out, Medicare pays your expenses up to a certain point. And then suddenly, there's this big black hole where they stop paying it until your drug costs exceed $5,100. So, it seems to me, with that formulation, it's hard for people to know whether this drug benefit is really going to help them.

DENTZER: That's right, because it requires you, in effect, to be able to project what your drug costs are. And not everybody, obviously, knows what that's going to be.

The best that can be said about this so-called coverage gap or the doughnut hole is that not that many people, perhaps for now, are going to fall into it. But, still, it's possible that as many as 10 million people could experience some drug costs in the range of that benefit gap. Many of them will get a lot of payment at the front end, after that $250 deductible is exceeded. But, still, they'll have some necessity of picking up their overall drug costs, as long as they have got costs in that coverage gap area.

LIN: So, if one of the goals of Medicare reform was to decrease cost and increase competition, does this bill do that? Does it lower costs for seniors in the long run?

DENTZER: It will lower many seniors' out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. There is no question about that.

And, in addition to lowering what they have to pay out-of-pocket, they will essentially be able to get lower-cost drugs, because they will join a private health plan or a so-called prescription drug plan that will be negotiating those drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. So seniors, for the first time, seniors who have not heretofore had drug coverage, will be able to capture those discounts on drugs that many of us who are working and have drug coverage through our private health insurance are now able to benefit from.

So there will be some benefit. It's not going to be perhaps as great -- and this is a criticism that is made of the bill -- as if Medicare itself, the government itself went and negotiated directly with drug companies. Perhaps if Medicare were buying on behalf of 41 million beneficiaries, it could get even better prices out of the pharmaceutical companies. But it is expressly forbidden from doing that under this law.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Susan Dentzer, at least a clearer picture as we go in to see the vote on Tuesday. Thank you very much.

DENTZER: My pleasure. Thanks.

LIN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT; guerrillas that were missed. We'll go along as U.S. troops look for Iraqi insurgents and find, it's not so easy to tell friend from foe.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: More now from around the world, starting with terror charges in Turkey: nine people charged in connection with the suicide bombings on British targets in Istanbul. They are suspected of being accomplices in the attack that killed at least 29 people. As many as seven others are being held for questioning, expected to make court appearances tomorrow, this according to our sister network CNN Turk.

Authorities in Yemen have arrested a top al Qaeda member. He is suspected of masterminding the attack on the USS Cole, as well as the suicide bombing of a French oil tanker off the Yemen coast. Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal was taken into custody after Yemeni forces surrounded his hideout west of the capital.

And on a day that saw the announcement that Iraqi oil production is approaching prewar levels, rebels once again hit an oil pipeline. It happened near Kirkuk in the north, which has been where most of the sabotage is taking place.

Finding the people who do this sort of thing has been easy. Paradoxically, the very act of searching and kicking down doors and rousting people in the middle of the night may in fact create more of them. That, at least, is what the guerrillas in Iraq are hoping. That is also what coalition forces are up against.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour went on maneuvers with some of them and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Adrenaline pumping, a company of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne starts house-to-house raids.

Acting on intelligence flushed out by the bombing phase of Operation Iron Hammer, they are after the leader of one of the guerrilla cells that's been attacking them. "Let them search. Let them search the house," screams one woman. It's half past midnight and everyone's asleep on the floor. This young woman protects her newborn. Miraculously, soldiers avoid stepping on it.

The father of the family, the supposed target, is wrestled to the ground, grabbed in a headlock, and pinned down. It's many minutes before a translator arrives. That's when they realize their mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, as far as the target that we were looking for, he is either not here or he's not at this house.

AMANPOUR: So Sergeant Shane Hutchison (ph) and company try the next house. By the time we get there, seven men are already on the ground, flexicuffed and being interrogated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, buddy, you want something to laugh at? I'm going to laugh when you are in jail, OK?

AMANPOUR: Dissatisfied with their answers, the soldiers march the Iraqis off for further questioning. They are shoved into the back of a waiting truck. Their heads are covered for the ride back to base.

Meantime, one of them avoided arrest by directing these soldiers to the house of another target, a weapons dealer suspected of supplying at least two anti-American cells. He wasn't home either, but his brother was, along with his wife, children and extended family. Here, women were deeply offended to be seen in nightdress. "Don't come in," they pleaded.

This operation is not about winning hearts and minds. And it didn't, even though this is a mostly Shiite neighborhood, oppressed under Saddam Hussein. "I used to criticize Saddam," the brother tells us, "and they do this to me? Aren't they meant to be better? They speak of freedom and democracy?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what? You're going to jail. AMANPOUR: It turns out his brother, the suspected weapons dealer, was caught in another house.

And, as these raids are going down, nine companies, 1,400 men in all, are conducting simultaneous searches on a total of 26 targets in this area.

(on camera): At first, American officials called the insurgents dead-enders, their attacks strategically insignificant. But now commanders say that they are organized in cells, they have access to money and ammunition, and they are dangerous.

COL. KURT FULLER, BRIGADE COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: Basically, the fact sheets...

AMANPOUR (voice-over): At a briefing before the raid, officers showed their brigade commander, Colonel Kurt Fuller, a 500-pound warhead rigged up as a roadside explosive to be detonated within the next two days. It would have caused massive damage.

Fuller insists that his troops have managed to preempt most attacks in his area and put the Fedayeen out of business. They say they've found no foreign fighters either. But...

FULLER: Another group emerged, which are these -- we believe they're fueled by religious extremism. They're the people who just see us as occupation forces, not as liberators. And they just want us to leave.

AMANPOUR: As their enemy evolves and shift tactics, so, too, do the Americans.

CAPT. ELDRIDGE BROWNE, COMPANY COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: We are now able to take the initiative away from them by hitting them before they can hit us. And we will continue doing this probably every night until we leave. So...

AMANPOUR: On this night, they got dozens of guns and boxes of ammunition, as well as bomb parts, and two cell leaders.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on America's war wounded -- tonight, how families suffer, too, when a wounded soldier comes back from Iraq.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Over the last months, we've brought you a number of stories on America's war wounded. And each one, well, seems to lead to yet another. Case in point, our next story. With hundreds of service men and women wounded so far, we've learned an important lesson, that the number of people affected by those injuries is far, far greater.

Here is CNN's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an under- recognized form of collateral damage, the trauma suffered by the families of the war wounded and injured, a battalion of mothers, fathers, and, with nearly half of the U.S. armed forces married, spouses and children.

Darlene Calderon was the wife of Specialist Luis Calderon, injured May 5 in Tikrit.

DARLENE CALDERON, WIFE OF WOUNDED SOLDIER: Everything has changed drastically in my life now. My whole life is centered now around the hospital. I'm here every day. I bring him food every day. Seven days a week, I'm here.

NISSEN: So are the parents of Specialist Calderon, one of the most grievously injured soldiers thus far in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Luis' neck was broken and his spinal cord damaged when a wall fell on the tank he was driving, leaving him a quadriplegic at 22.

It is hard for his father to see Luis, who was once so fast on the football field, now unable to move his hands, his legs.

LUIS CALDERON SR., FATHER: When you as a father see that, it breaks your heart. But then you gather yourself. And then you say, hey, if he's coping with it, I sure as heck have to cope with it.

NISSEN: Coping can mean upheaval for the entire family. To be with their son, Luis' parents moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. His father, an experienced facilities manager, took the first job he could find, as an electrician in the VA Hospital in Miami, where his son is being treated.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: I only have one priority in this world right now, just one. And it's Luis.

NISSEN: His family's devotion has helped steady Luis, has restored his crushed spirits.

SPC. LUIS CALDERON, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: I always used to cry every day, every day, every day. They always talked that, you're going to be all right. You're going to be all right. Don't worry about this. We're going to be there for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got therapy today?

NISSEN: Family support can help the seriously injured, medically, psychologically. DR. ALBERTO MARTINEZ-ARIZALA, MIAMI VA HOSPITAL: This is a major ordeal. It helps to have people help you get through this. Doing it alone is very, very hard.

MAJ. SANDRA WANEK, SURGEON, BROOKE ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: That support is extremely important, extremely important, to their long term, how they do.

NISSEN: Many of the wounded face long months of rehab, years of adjustment. Corporal Robert Jackson, known as B.J., is in his third month of rehab at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He lost his lower legs and was seriously burned on his hands and arms in a grenade attack in August.

CPL. ROBERT JACKSON, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I need a lot of assistance from my wife. She'll help me do anything. I can't like get up and walk to the kitchen and get something.

NISSEN: Jackson's wife, Abby, a nursing student, is now full- time nurse to her husband. She coaches him through daily physical therapy exercises. She also feeds him through his stomach tube, helps him bathe, dress, move.

ABBY JACKSON, WIFE OF WOUNDED SOLDIER: Some nights, when I get into bed, I'm like, ah. And I don't know if it's so much for me. I think it's so much more frustration for my husband, because I see how much he wants to do and things he would like to do with the kids.

NISSEN: Two little girls, one nearly 3, the other just a year old. B.J. can do little to help Abby with the children.

R. JACKSON: Can't hold them, pick them up and hold them, because my hands don't move. And I have a tube in my stomach, so it's hard to set them on my lap.

NISSEN: It's also been hard to see their reaction to his injuries. Their daughter, Brylene (ph), was distressed to see daddy so hurt.

A. JACKSON: It took her probably about two days before she would go near his wheelchair. She was really scared. And sometimes now, she's afraid she's going to hurt him. She always says, "Me no hurt you."

NISSEN: Doctors and therapists say, just being with children, with loved ones, motivates patients such as B.J. to get stronger, recover faster.

WANEK: It's important to these guys that they come back and know that they're loved, they're appreciated for what sacrifice they made, and that's acknowledged.

NISSEN: A key step in helping them move on in lives much changed.

Beth Nissen, CNN, San Antonio. (END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Next on NEWSNIGHT, we'll update our top story and preview tomorrow.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Before we go tonight, here's a quick update on our top story.

Explosions rocking Baghdad shortly after military commanders said attacks against coalition targets have declined recently. This incident notwithstanding, rebels appear to be shifting their focus from G.I.s to Iraqis who are seen as doing the work of the occupation, police, security guards and the like.

And in a sign the insurgency is looking to score a propaganda victory, a tape today surfaced. It purports to show the missile attack over the weekend on a cargo jet departing Baghdad. It is edited such that officials have their doubts about what exactly it shows. The attack was real enough, however. And civilian traffic in and out of Baghdad has been suspended pending an investigation.

Tomorrow night on the program: Some would call them brave. They say they're just getting ready to do their jobs. Miles O'Brien profiles the men and women who will fly the next space shuttle mission.

That's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'll see you again tomorrow night.

Stay tuned next for "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."

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





Economic Recovery; Jackson Sues Jet Company>


Aired November 25, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
A columnist today compared the Bush administration to that of Richard Nixon, not to accuse the current White House of being either crooked or corrupt. The writer was really comparing how the two spent the country's money.

Well, today George W. Bush, just like Richard Nixon three decades ago, has committed to spending billions more on domestic programs while pursuing an expensive war overseas -- guns and butter.

Thirty years ago it was a recipe for crippling inflation. Thirty years later no one is sure, but the question certainly is out there and it is guns not butter that start the whip tonight.

Iraq, and a headline from CNN's David Ensor. Good evening, David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Carol. Well, tonight in Iraq there is the insurgency and there are increasing signs that some of the insurgents who are attacking American forces are videotaping those attacks and then showing them to the world. We have an example tonight.

LIN: All right, next to the White House, a pretty cheerful place today all things considered. CNN's John King has the watch and a headline -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Carol, more evidence the economy is beginning to bounce back just in time, the White House would say heading into an election year and in the Medicare legislation the president believes he has an opportunity now to take away from the Democrats an issue they have used very successfully against Republicans before -- Carol.

LIN: On to Los Angeles and a twist in the Michael Jackson case. CNN's Frank Buckley on that. Frank, a headline please.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, Michael Jackson today sued the company that transported him to Santa Barbara last week to turn himself in. Michael Jackson says that private charter jet company secretly videotaped him on the aircraft and then tried to peddle that tape around to media outlets.

LIN: Finally a case of a finely tuned and furnished fat cat and what the jury saw today. The tycoon in question Dennis Kozlowski, the furnishings on display and CNN's Allan Chernoff on the story, Allan a headline from you.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In court today video evidence of Dennis Kozlowski's lavish spending. The question now for the jury was Kozlowski spending for himself or for company business -- Carol?

LIN: Very interesting. Thanks, Allan, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also ahead tonight on NEWSNIGHT, we'll try to sort out fact from fiction on the Medicare story.

And later, Christiane Amanpour takes us on a raid as U.S. soldiers look for insurgents in Iraq.

And, Beth Nissen continues our series of reports on war wounded. We'll meet some of the families of the injured soldiers, all that to come in the hour ahead.

Right now we begin with the attacks that have sent so many soldiers in Iraq to hospitals and morgues. The pace of those attacks may, in fact, be easing which is not the same as saying the insurgency is ending or even slowing as much as it is changing. The targets are changing too.

From Baghdad, here's CNN's Walter Rodgers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The warning sirens in Baghdad sounded only after two booming explosions here. In Arabic, loudspeakers blared, "This is an attack not a test."

At least one person was injured as those two shells fell several hours after dark. Not much earlier, this American general said the attacks on his soldiers have been reduced.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, CENTCOM: I hate to give you a metric but I would say the attacks are down by about half over the past two weeks.

RODGERS: Increasingly, U.S. soldiers now protect Iraqi civilians as more and more civilians find themselves becoming targets of guerrilla intimidation.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: If Saddam taught them nothing else he taught Iraqis how to endure the depredation of thugs. Saddam and his trained killers had no future in Iraq.

RODGERS: Tough talk but Ambassador Bremer acknowledged these attacks will get worse as insurgents try to undermine the new government here.

(on camera): Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein himself remains at large and the U.S. Army has yet to put those Iraqi guerrillas out of business.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Last night on the program Michael Keane pointed out how important it is for insurgents not only to inflict whatever damage they can but also to do it in as public a fashion as possible.

Now in that light with the international media, this network included, so heavy on the ground in Iraq it isn't surprising rebels have videotaped roadside bombings, ambushes and perhaps the attempted shoot down of a cargo jet over the weekend. Civilian flights into Baghdad were suspended as a result.

Here again, CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): On the tape what appears to be a group of insurgents, their faces concealed, some carrying rocket-propelled grenades. At one point in the distance an American Black Hawk helicopter can be seen.

Next, one of the insurgents fires off a shoulder-launched missile. There is then a video edit to a sequence that shows the insurgents escaping by car while filming a civilian jet that appears to have been hit on one wing.

There's no way to be sure but the video may show the attack Saturday near Baghdad Airport on a DHL cargo plane which turned around after takeoff and landed safely though a fire on its wing had to be extinguished.

The tape was delivered in Baghdad to journalist Sara Daniel of the French "Le Nouvel Observateur" magazine who has been contacting anti-U.S. insurgents.

SARA DANIEL, "LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR": The groups I met are Iraqis. They're small groups. They're not well organized. Sometimes they run into each other doing operations and they have a lot of weapons, lots and lots of weapons.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It doesn't take a genius to fire off a shoulder-fired missile at an airplane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the idea that they want to get a tape out there.

RUMSFELD: Oh, oh, oh that point. I mean they do that type of thing. People do that take credit. I mean we constantly have people after an incident call up and say we did it. Look at us. Aren't we wonderful. We killed a bunch of innocent men, women, and children.

ENSOR: Video of attacks in Chechnya are a regular feature of certain Web sites. On some Arab language Web sites in recent weeks, videos have appeared of what purport to be attacks on American soldiers in Iraq part of a cyber and media war.

DAVID BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: They could be wanting to get this out to the world's media for several reasons. First for fund-raising, secondly recruitment, thirdly propaganda value. I think all three of those things should be taken into account.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The video, the latest video appears as U.S. commanders have been saying that attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq are down. They may be down but they are becoming, it would appear from this videotape at least, rather audacious -- Carol.

LIN: David, who actually has these videotapes now? Does the journalist still have them? Does she have to turn them over to investigators?

ENSOR: I don't know the answer to that. They were given to her. They were left in her -- either in or outside her room in the hotel we are told and she has given copies of them to various television organizations including our own but where the originals are I frankly couldn't tell you.

LIN: I mean how interested are national security officials in examining these tapes to try to catch these insurgents?

ENSOR: I'm sure they're very interested in catching the insurgents. Whether or not the videotapes will help them is another question. They're pretty well concealed on the tape. I supposed fingerprints might be of interest.

There may also be some tactical intelligence that the Defense Intelligence Agency can glean from the tapes how these attacks are conducted. That's useful knowledge -- Carol.

LIN: Is it useful enough to at least be able to determine what is the next likely target?

ENSOR: I don't think so but it does show the modus operandi. For example, one of the tapes that we mentioned in the report a moment ago is a tape that was taken of attacks on Humvees in the city of Baghdad.

The fact that those attacks are being videotaped from a distance from a parked car that's useful information. That's something that the U.S. can use to try to make its soldiers more secure. They can look out for those people.

LIN: Yes. David Ensor thank you very much.

On to domestic considerations now, namely the $400 billion Medicare bill which cleared the Senate today by a 54-44 vote. It is a sweeping and hotly debated piece of legislation complicated too just not in how it delivers a prescription drug benefit to seniors. We're going to get into the nuts and bolts later in the program but first the political benefits. President Bush, who will sign the bill, is counting on it.

Here again, CNN's John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): At a hospital in Nevada, the president cast the new Medicare prescription drug benefit as long overdue and as proof he is delivering on an issue long associated with Democrats.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some said Medicare reform could never be done. For the sake of our seniors we've got something done. We're acting.

KING: An upbeat day in a state he carried by just 21,000 votes three years ago and one of many presidential battlegrounds where the elderly vote is critical. Final passage of the Medicare bill was hardly the only development that fit nicely with the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign's domestic agenda.

The economy grew at a robust 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter the strongest three months in nearly 20 years. Corporate profits rose at a nearly 11 percent annual rate in the July through September quarter, a key factor in new hiring and consumer confidence is at its highest level in more than a year.

SCOTT REED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This is about hitting stride at the right time and by next year most economists say there will be real job creation just in time for the presidential election.

KING: Democrats say there's plenty to criticize on the domestic front. They call the Medicare a giveaway to drug and insurance companies, blame Mr. Bush for giant new budget deficits and for the loss of more than two million jobs the past three years. Yet many Democrats are coming to the view that Mr. Bush's biggest weakness is in Iraq not here at home.

DENNIS KUCINICH (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't think of anything more urgent on the agenda of our country today than to end the occupation and to bring our troops home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Everyone here at the White House concedes the urgency both from a political and a policy standpoint of improving security in Iraq but, Carol, many here also say one reason the Democrats more and more and more are focusing on Iraq and criticizing the president is that even they can see with the improving economy and now this Medicare victory that the president's position on domestic issues has been strengthened.

LIN: So, John, more specifically on the issue of jobs how is the president going to be able to capitalize on these numbers and actually inspire corporations to hire more people or does he think that the economy itself just has a momentum of its own and corporations will then start hiring people next year? KING: All indications from the corporate profit reports from the investigations they have done, the surveys done before the holiday season is that for the most part the economy and employers are beginning to hire more and more now. The soft spot and the one big worry still for the White House is the manufacturing economy. That continues to lose jobs, the manufacturing sector, while the service industries and others add jobs.

If you look at a presidential battleground map you will see Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois. Those states have been hard hit because of the manufacturing losses. That is the one thing the White House is hoping comes around early next year. They're hoping, Carol, to get the unemployment rate down under six percent, perhaps even down closer to five and a half percent by the time we get close to the election.

LIN: All right what are your sources then telling you as they go into the campaign year what their strategy is going to be in terms of how they play out Iraq if these insurgents continue to attack?

The Iraqi Governing Council right now, for example, the existing council is saying well maybe we're not so interested in leaving office. Maybe we really want to keep these positions. The plan is not going according to plan in Iraq on the ground so far.

KING: It's a tough one for the president because he has to insist that the United States is continuing its mission will not leave until the mission is accomplished. At the same time, of course, they have significantly changed the plan.

They are accelerating the time table for turning power over to a new Iraqi government. At the same time, the president has said U.S. troops will stay until Saddam Hussein, for one, is either killed, captured or otherwise accounted for, until the security situation is intact so that the new government can thrive and not be under constant attack.

So, the plan is evolving almost weekly, sometimes some would say even daily but the president understands that by the middle of next year he has to be able to show the American people that the security situation has dramatically improved.

They're hoping to be able to do that by bringing some troops home, although the president has said in recent days that he will make that decision only when his commanders say it's safe to do that, reduce the troop levels.

LIN: All right, thank you very much John King live at the White House.

So if the president today was celebrating should his Democratic opponents be crying in their beer? Jeff Zeleny is a national political correspondent for the "Chicago Tribune" and he is with us tonight in Washington, good evening Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Good evening. LIN: Does it sound like the Democrats running for president have a lot to worry about now?

ZELENY: Well, essentially over the next eleven months the Democrats had hoped to convince American voters why President Bush should be fired and this week has made that job a lot more difficult.

They were hoping to have Medicare as an issue, as a campaign issue, most importantly as a 30-second sound byte for television ads. Now they don't have that.

They were hoping to have the economy as an issue. Now they may not have that. So right now it's a bit of a back to the drawing boards for some of the candidates.

LIN: So, if they don't have the issues in their pockets what do they have going for them?

ZELENY: Well, the one think I think you must keep in mind that it's very early. The first vote will not be cast in the primary campaign for 55 days from now and that's in Iowa and then the next week is New Hampshire.

So on one side, on the Democrats themselves, right now they're consumed with distinguishing themselves from one another which has proven to be a difficult task in and of itself.

Once that is over the party has to again convince Americans why President Bush should be removed from office so frankly they are partially taking a wait and see attitude to see how the war looks at that point, how the economy looks at that point.

But one thing specifically is jobs. As Senator John Edwards likes to say again and again, I don't know what a jobless recovery is and that line gets applause and a lot of attention out there on the campaign trail.

LIN: Yes. At the same time we're hearing more about the candidates' personal lives on the campaign trail. Do you think it's going to become (unintelligible) of personalities? Is that how some of these gentlemen plan on distinguishing themselves?

ZELENY: Well, as you know, there are now nine people running for president and recent surveys have showed that only about half of Americans can actually recite the names of those nine people.

So, in the middle of the health care, the Medicare plan, et cetera, the candidates are trying to distinguish themselves and many of them are turning to the written word, are writing autobiographies of their lives, of their stories and others are finding voters are learning more about them just through sad stories.

Howard Dean, for example, we're learning more about him every day as he travels to Hawaii to retrieve his brother's remains. So these are still stories being written of the candidates.

LIN: Right.

ZELENY: And voters just beginning now to pay attention are watching this closely.

LIN: You know it's worked in the past. I mean you remember that seminal moment when Al Gore was speaking at the Democratic National Convention about the death of his sister and how remarkable it was in a way that a man that we saw generally as being very reserved, maybe a little bit stodgy shared a moment before a national audience about something so deeply personal to him.

ZELENY: I think what voters are looking for, at least the ones I talk to out in Iowa and New Hampshire and other places, they're really looking to connect with someone. They're not looking for someone who is on a pedestal on a stage. They want a human being and all of these stories help flush that out.

So, I think over the next two months as the campaign gets more and more divisive and negative toward one another these autobiographical glimpses will help voters make their choice.

LIN: But still all eyes on the situation in Iraq, right?

ZELENY: Absolutely and I think that's one of the reasons that Howard Dean has been able to maintain his position either at or near the front of the pack because his position has been constant and his opposition to the war has been firm for the last year.

And right now the Democrats are just awaiting to see what the situation looks like over there but with more body bags coming back those are the numbers that some Democrats privately say they are counting.

LIN: Different numbers than the White House looking at today on the economy. Thank you very much Jeff Zeleny, "Chicago Tribune."

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, Michael Jackson on the offensive over videos that were taken of him aboard a private plane on the way to Las Vegas.

Later, we'll continue our series on war wounded and learn about the effects on family members.

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: The Michael Jackson story took a strange turn today, a detour in more ways than one. It landed before a judge not on the merits of the sex abuse allegations against Mr. Jackson.

Instead, today the judge was asked to consider a videotape allegedly made onboard a private jet that wasn't, as it turned out, as private as Mr. Jackson or his lawyer might have hoped. And as that played out the district attorney in the sex abuse case spoke out.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, criticized for the levity at this news conference last week...

THOMAS SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I thought you were going to ask me a different question. That's what I was thinking.

BUCKLEY: ...acknowledged the criticism and apologized for some of his comments in an interview with CNN's Art Harris.

SNEDDON: I think the criticism was valid. I think that to some extent that it was inappropriate. I feel bad about it. I feel bad about it because I think I should have known better.

BUCKLEY: While the DA was on the defensive, Michael Jackson's legal team was on the offensive about alleged improprieties during Jackson's private plane trip to Santa Barbara last week.

According to this lawsuit filed by Jackson and his attorney Mark Geragos the charter jet company, Extra Jet, which owns and operates the aircraft allegedly secretly videotaped them, then tried to profit from the tape.

MARK GERAGOS, JACKSON DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It was disclosed that those two video cameras which also apparently had audio on them were surreptitiously place in there, were recording attorney/client conversations and then somebody had the unmitigated gall to shop those tapes around to media outlets in order to sell them to the highest bidder.

BUCKLEY: A representative for Extra Jet told CNN the charter company did not have a statement at this time. But in a "Los Angeles Times" article one corporate officer for the company is quoted as saying that once the tapes were discovered the company "explored the opportunity as any business person would." Geragos said the alleged secret taping on the jet violated federal law and would also unleash a strong civil legal response from the Jackson team.

GERAGOS: This is not the lottery. This is this man's life. This is his family's life. These are scurrilous accusations. We are going to, and I've been given full authority, we will land on you like a ton of bricks.

BUCKLEY: One legal expert says if the videotapes on the plane also contain audio the videotaper could face criminal charges in addition to any civil damages they might have to pay.

DOUGLAS MIRELL, ATTORNEY: If any conversations were captured between Mr. Geragos and Mr. Jackson that would be enormously problematic. That would create potential criminal liability for Extra Jet in addition to the civil liability that they already face.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: And sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN that the FBI now has copies of those videotapes or at least they may have the original videotapes from that aircraft.

FBI spokesman Matt McGloughlin (ph) would not give any specifics, would not confirm or deny whether or not the FBI has the tapes but he did say that the FBI was present at Extra Jet today and that the FBI is looking into and evaluating whether any federal laws were broken -- Carol.

LIN: Frank, wouldn't somebody know by now whether there was any audio on the tape, whether anyone could hear any conversations between Michael Jackson and his lawyer?

BUCKLEY: Well that's in dispute. That "Los Angeles Times" article that I mentioned today suggested that the tapes that were shown to some of the media outlets didn't have any audio on it.

Mark Geragos today was firm in saying that it's his belief that there is audio on those videotapes and apparently the FBI has the tapes now and will be able to simply turn on the audio and listen for themselves.

LIN: All right, thank you very much Frank Buckley once again on the Michael Jackson case.

Well, a few more items from around the country tonight starting with charges against the chaplain from Guantanamo Bay only the charges aren't exactly what anyone expected. James Yee you might remember was suspected of spying at Guantanamo and was taken into custody.

Instead today after 76 days behind bars he was charged with adultery and possession of pornography and set free. He'll leave for Fort Benning, Georgia tomorrow where he'll resume his duties as chaplain.

By the time singer Glenn Campbell got to Phoenix police say he was higher than a Wichita lineman. A breath test showed he had a blood alcohol level of .2 percent more than twice the legal limit after allegedly leaving the scene of a car crash yesterday.

He was arrested, booked, and put in jail where he allegedly kneed a copy. He made bail soon after and apologized today saying even at his age he learned a valuable lesson.

And there it was kind of sad the fastest commercial airliner in the world, the Concorde, making its way through New York Harbor at about five miles an hour, mach .06. The Concorde retired from commercial service last month. This one will go to an aviation museum on New York's waterfront.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT the $8,000 shower curtain and the question of whether Tyco was taking a bath at the hands of its top executive, the story when NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Gordon Gekko said it best, greed is good. Greed works except of course when it doesn't.

Consider Dennis Kozlowski the former CEO of Tyco Industries. Mr. Kozlowski and his former chief financial officer are on trial charge more or less with using Tyco as their own private piggybank.

Today, jurors got a video tour of an $18 million New York apartment used by Mr. Kozlowski when he was in town. Even Gordon Gecko might raise an eyebrow which isn't the same as saying this is an open and shut case.

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Former Tyco Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski's lavish spending went on display for the jury in his grand larceny trial. A prosecution video featured rich French baroque furnishings in the $18 million Fifth Avenue duplex Kozlowski had arranged for his company to buy.

A Monet and Renoir, chandelier after chandelier, a commanding view of Central Park, the now famous $6,000 shower curtain and a $15,000 doggie umbrella stand. The former CEO of Tyco is fighting charges he and his chief financial officer stole $600 million from the company and its shareholders.

But testimony from housekeeper Mariola Tarnachowicz appeared to damage the prosecution's case. The shower curtain was in a staff bathroom. Kozlowski had never seen it, she testified nor had Kozlowski selected the umbrella stand.

The former chief executive of Tyco, she said, used the apartment only occasionally perhaps twice a week, sometimes merely to change his shirt and there were periods he wouldn't show for two months. The decorator, Tarnachowicz said, was there more than Kozlowski.

STEPHEN KAUFMAN, KOZLOWSKI ATTORNEY: I think she explained that the apartment was a -- belonged to the company and it was an asset of the company and he just used it for business purpose and his wife was there once or twice. It doesn't seem to me to be a place where you're living. It's a place where you're staying for business purposes which is what it was.

CHERNOFF: Earlier in the trial, prosecutors showed video of a lavish birthday party Kozlowski threw for his wife on the Italian island of Sardinia. Tyco paid half the bill, $1 million, but the defense said it was in part a business event.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: While the jury has now been exposed to Kozlowski's big-spending ways, the prosecution is still trying to make its case that Kozlowski was spending Tyco's money for his own personal benefit. Carol, the trial is due to resume on Monday.

LIN: So what sort of things does the prosecutors have in their arsenal, then? What's left?

CHERNOFF: Well, this clearly was supposed to be a very big smoking gun. But it seems that the housekeeper certainly provided some testimony to quiet that gun, let's say. So the prosecution still has plenty much of a trial. It has been going on for two months already. And it is expected to go well into January. They have many more witnesses. Some people from the Treasury Department of Tyco are scheduled to take the stand on Monday.

LIN: All right, perhaps just a taste of the evidence to come.

Thanks so much, Allan Chernoff.

In our next segment, the dollars and cents of Medicare reform.

First, our "MONEYLINE Roundup," starting with a number they're loving tonight at the White House. As John King mentioned earlier, 8.2 percent, that's how fast the economy grew in the third quarter, better than estimated. It is the best performance in nearly 20 years. And one note of caution, though. A new survey from the Consumer Federation of America shows Americans remain wary about opening their wallets. More than a third say they plan to spend less over the holidays. Only 15 percent say they'll spend more than they did last year.

The markets, meantime, mostly treaded water. The Dow Jones and the S&P rose slightly. The Nasdaq fell a hair. Investors are waiting to see a batch of economic reports tomorrow.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Does the Medicare bill actually fix anything? We're going to try to get to the bottom line of this very complex bill.

And later, Christiane Amanpour takes us along as U.S. soldiers look for insurgents in Iraq.

Stay with us as NEWSNIGHT continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: More now on the Medicare bill and the bill for the Medicare bill and a somewhat complicated prescription for prescription drugs. It calls for some plain talk.

And we're going to be helped in that effort tonight by Susan Dentzer, health correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." She joins us from Washington tonight.

Susan, we're glad to have you, because this is a long and a complicated bill. And I just want to boil it down for seniors out there who just want to know if this is a good idea.

So, if you could lay it out for us, what actually has changed if this bill goes through?

SUSAN DENTZER, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER": What will have changed when the drug benefit takes effect, Carol, in 2006, is that, for the first time ever, if you walk out of the door of the hospital as a Medicare beneficiary, your drugs are covered. That has not been the case up until now.

If you're in the hospital getting your appendix removed, whatever, if you needed drugs, those drugs were included and paid for by Medicare. Once you got out of the hospital, for the most part, they weren't, with certain exceptions, like oncology drugs, cancer drugs given on an outpatient basis. So there will be significant drug coverage for people.

Just to give you a sense of things, the average Medicare beneficiary has about $3,100 a year of drug costs. If you look at what will happen under this benefit, in effect, $1,080 will actually be paid for that average beneficiary with about $3,100 in cost. So, roughly speaking, for that person, at the average, about a third now will be picked up by Medicare.

LIN: So, by this legislation, who gets helped the most and who gets hurt?

DENTZER: Well, the people who get helped the most are going to be people with very, very high drug costs.

If you took somebody with, say, $10,000 a year of drug costs, Medicare picks up almost $6,000 of those under this legislation. So that's going to be a very significant piece of help for people with very, very high drug costs. On the other hand, there are some people who may in fact be worse off. Certain low-income beneficiaries who are both elderly and disabled who are in the Medicaid program, as well as in the Medicare program, they're going to start getting their drug benefits out of the Medicare program, no longer out of Medicaid.

That could mean, for some of them, that the benefits are less generous than what they have now. So it's going to be -- it's going to depend very much on who you are, what your circumstances are, what your income is.

LIN: And the way the formula works out, Medicare pays your expenses up to a certain point. And then suddenly, there's this big black hole where they stop paying it until your drug costs exceed $5,100. So, it seems to me, with that formulation, it's hard for people to know whether this drug benefit is really going to help them.

DENTZER: That's right, because it requires you, in effect, to be able to project what your drug costs are. And not everybody, obviously, knows what that's going to be.

The best that can be said about this so-called coverage gap or the doughnut hole is that not that many people, perhaps for now, are going to fall into it. But, still, it's possible that as many as 10 million people could experience some drug costs in the range of that benefit gap. Many of them will get a lot of payment at the front end, after that $250 deductible is exceeded. But, still, they'll have some necessity of picking up their overall drug costs, as long as they have got costs in that coverage gap area.

LIN: So, if one of the goals of Medicare reform was to decrease cost and increase competition, does this bill do that? Does it lower costs for seniors in the long run?

DENTZER: It will lower many seniors' out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. There is no question about that.

And, in addition to lowering what they have to pay out-of-pocket, they will essentially be able to get lower-cost drugs, because they will join a private health plan or a so-called prescription drug plan that will be negotiating those drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. So seniors, for the first time, seniors who have not heretofore had drug coverage, will be able to capture those discounts on drugs that many of us who are working and have drug coverage through our private health insurance are now able to benefit from.

So there will be some benefit. It's not going to be perhaps as great -- and this is a criticism that is made of the bill -- as if Medicare itself, the government itself went and negotiated directly with drug companies. Perhaps if Medicare were buying on behalf of 41 million beneficiaries, it could get even better prices out of the pharmaceutical companies. But it is expressly forbidden from doing that under this law.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Susan Dentzer, at least a clearer picture as we go in to see the vote on Tuesday. Thank you very much.

DENTZER: My pleasure. Thanks.

LIN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT; guerrillas that were missed. We'll go along as U.S. troops look for Iraqi insurgents and find, it's not so easy to tell friend from foe.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: More now from around the world, starting with terror charges in Turkey: nine people charged in connection with the suicide bombings on British targets in Istanbul. They are suspected of being accomplices in the attack that killed at least 29 people. As many as seven others are being held for questioning, expected to make court appearances tomorrow, this according to our sister network CNN Turk.

Authorities in Yemen have arrested a top al Qaeda member. He is suspected of masterminding the attack on the USS Cole, as well as the suicide bombing of a French oil tanker off the Yemen coast. Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal was taken into custody after Yemeni forces surrounded his hideout west of the capital.

And on a day that saw the announcement that Iraqi oil production is approaching prewar levels, rebels once again hit an oil pipeline. It happened near Kirkuk in the north, which has been where most of the sabotage is taking place.

Finding the people who do this sort of thing has been easy. Paradoxically, the very act of searching and kicking down doors and rousting people in the middle of the night may in fact create more of them. That, at least, is what the guerrillas in Iraq are hoping. That is also what coalition forces are up against.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour went on maneuvers with some of them and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Adrenaline pumping, a company of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne starts house-to-house raids.

Acting on intelligence flushed out by the bombing phase of Operation Iron Hammer, they are after the leader of one of the guerrilla cells that's been attacking them. "Let them search. Let them search the house," screams one woman. It's half past midnight and everyone's asleep on the floor. This young woman protects her newborn. Miraculously, soldiers avoid stepping on it.

The father of the family, the supposed target, is wrestled to the ground, grabbed in a headlock, and pinned down. It's many minutes before a translator arrives. That's when they realize their mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, as far as the target that we were looking for, he is either not here or he's not at this house.

AMANPOUR: So Sergeant Shane Hutchison (ph) and company try the next house. By the time we get there, seven men are already on the ground, flexicuffed and being interrogated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, buddy, you want something to laugh at? I'm going to laugh when you are in jail, OK?

AMANPOUR: Dissatisfied with their answers, the soldiers march the Iraqis off for further questioning. They are shoved into the back of a waiting truck. Their heads are covered for the ride back to base.

Meantime, one of them avoided arrest by directing these soldiers to the house of another target, a weapons dealer suspected of supplying at least two anti-American cells. He wasn't home either, but his brother was, along with his wife, children and extended family. Here, women were deeply offended to be seen in nightdress. "Don't come in," they pleaded.

This operation is not about winning hearts and minds. And it didn't, even though this is a mostly Shiite neighborhood, oppressed under Saddam Hussein. "I used to criticize Saddam," the brother tells us, "and they do this to me? Aren't they meant to be better? They speak of freedom and democracy?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what? You're going to jail. AMANPOUR: It turns out his brother, the suspected weapons dealer, was caught in another house.

And, as these raids are going down, nine companies, 1,400 men in all, are conducting simultaneous searches on a total of 26 targets in this area.

(on camera): At first, American officials called the insurgents dead-enders, their attacks strategically insignificant. But now commanders say that they are organized in cells, they have access to money and ammunition, and they are dangerous.

COL. KURT FULLER, BRIGADE COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: Basically, the fact sheets...

AMANPOUR (voice-over): At a briefing before the raid, officers showed their brigade commander, Colonel Kurt Fuller, a 500-pound warhead rigged up as a roadside explosive to be detonated within the next two days. It would have caused massive damage.

Fuller insists that his troops have managed to preempt most attacks in his area and put the Fedayeen out of business. They say they've found no foreign fighters either. But...

FULLER: Another group emerged, which are these -- we believe they're fueled by religious extremism. They're the people who just see us as occupation forces, not as liberators. And they just want us to leave.

AMANPOUR: As their enemy evolves and shift tactics, so, too, do the Americans.

CAPT. ELDRIDGE BROWNE, COMPANY COMMANDER, 82ND AIRBORNE: We are now able to take the initiative away from them by hitting them before they can hit us. And we will continue doing this probably every night until we leave. So...

AMANPOUR: On this night, they got dozens of guns and boxes of ammunition, as well as bomb parts, and two cell leaders.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on America's war wounded -- tonight, how families suffer, too, when a wounded soldier comes back from Iraq.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Over the last months, we've brought you a number of stories on America's war wounded. And each one, well, seems to lead to yet another. Case in point, our next story. With hundreds of service men and women wounded so far, we've learned an important lesson, that the number of people affected by those injuries is far, far greater.

Here is CNN's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an under- recognized form of collateral damage, the trauma suffered by the families of the war wounded and injured, a battalion of mothers, fathers, and, with nearly half of the U.S. armed forces married, spouses and children.

Darlene Calderon was the wife of Specialist Luis Calderon, injured May 5 in Tikrit.

DARLENE CALDERON, WIFE OF WOUNDED SOLDIER: Everything has changed drastically in my life now. My whole life is centered now around the hospital. I'm here every day. I bring him food every day. Seven days a week, I'm here.

NISSEN: So are the parents of Specialist Calderon, one of the most grievously injured soldiers thus far in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Luis' neck was broken and his spinal cord damaged when a wall fell on the tank he was driving, leaving him a quadriplegic at 22.

It is hard for his father to see Luis, who was once so fast on the football field, now unable to move his hands, his legs.

LUIS CALDERON SR., FATHER: When you as a father see that, it breaks your heart. But then you gather yourself. And then you say, hey, if he's coping with it, I sure as heck have to cope with it.

NISSEN: Coping can mean upheaval for the entire family. To be with their son, Luis' parents moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. His father, an experienced facilities manager, took the first job he could find, as an electrician in the VA Hospital in Miami, where his son is being treated.

LUIS CALDERON SR.: I only have one priority in this world right now, just one. And it's Luis.

NISSEN: His family's devotion has helped steady Luis, has restored his crushed spirits.

SPC. LUIS CALDERON, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION: I always used to cry every day, every day, every day. They always talked that, you're going to be all right. You're going to be all right. Don't worry about this. We're going to be there for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got therapy today?

NISSEN: Family support can help the seriously injured, medically, psychologically. DR. ALBERTO MARTINEZ-ARIZALA, MIAMI VA HOSPITAL: This is a major ordeal. It helps to have people help you get through this. Doing it alone is very, very hard.

MAJ. SANDRA WANEK, SURGEON, BROOKE ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: That support is extremely important, extremely important, to their long term, how they do.

NISSEN: Many of the wounded face long months of rehab, years of adjustment. Corporal Robert Jackson, known as B.J., is in his third month of rehab at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He lost his lower legs and was seriously burned on his hands and arms in a grenade attack in August.

CPL. ROBERT JACKSON, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I need a lot of assistance from my wife. She'll help me do anything. I can't like get up and walk to the kitchen and get something.

NISSEN: Jackson's wife, Abby, a nursing student, is now full- time nurse to her husband. She coaches him through daily physical therapy exercises. She also feeds him through his stomach tube, helps him bathe, dress, move.

ABBY JACKSON, WIFE OF WOUNDED SOLDIER: Some nights, when I get into bed, I'm like, ah. And I don't know if it's so much for me. I think it's so much more frustration for my husband, because I see how much he wants to do and things he would like to do with the kids.

NISSEN: Two little girls, one nearly 3, the other just a year old. B.J. can do little to help Abby with the children.

R. JACKSON: Can't hold them, pick them up and hold them, because my hands don't move. And I have a tube in my stomach, so it's hard to set them on my lap.

NISSEN: It's also been hard to see their reaction to his injuries. Their daughter, Brylene (ph), was distressed to see daddy so hurt.

A. JACKSON: It took her probably about two days before she would go near his wheelchair. She was really scared. And sometimes now, she's afraid she's going to hurt him. She always says, "Me no hurt you."

NISSEN: Doctors and therapists say, just being with children, with loved ones, motivates patients such as B.J. to get stronger, recover faster.

WANEK: It's important to these guys that they come back and know that they're loved, they're appreciated for what sacrifice they made, and that's acknowledged.

NISSEN: A key step in helping them move on in lives much changed.

Beth Nissen, CNN, San Antonio. (END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Next on NEWSNIGHT, we'll update our top story and preview tomorrow.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Before we go tonight, here's a quick update on our top story.

Explosions rocking Baghdad shortly after military commanders said attacks against coalition targets have declined recently. This incident notwithstanding, rebels appear to be shifting their focus from G.I.s to Iraqis who are seen as doing the work of the occupation, police, security guards and the like.

And in a sign the insurgency is looking to score a propaganda victory, a tape today surfaced. It purports to show the missile attack over the weekend on a cargo jet departing Baghdad. It is edited such that officials have their doubts about what exactly it shows. The attack was real enough, however. And civilian traffic in and out of Baghdad has been suspended pending an investigation.

Tomorrow night on the program: Some would call them brave. They say they're just getting ready to do their jobs. Miles O'Brien profiles the men and women who will fly the next space shuttle mission.

That's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'll see you again tomorrow night.

Stay tuned next for "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."

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Economic Recovery; Jackson Sues Jet Company>