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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Gao Zhan Pleads Guilty; New Developments in Michael Jackson Case

Aired November 26, 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 everyone.
What was probably one of the busiest travel days of the year we hope you are where you want to be on this eve of Thanksgiving 2003. However, there is one group of Americans who are not where they want to be at all more than 100,000 soldiers serving in Iraq where it is already Thanksgiving. Our best wishes go out to them all.

But it is not in Iraq that we begin the whip. We start with a Cold War style story of espionage and a tangled story it is. CNN's David Ensor has been following it and starts the whip with a headline -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tangled indeed, Carol. It's a story with a bit of a twist to it. Here's a woman known as a human rights advocate who was imprisoned by China and charged with espionage on behalf of Taiwan.

She was freed under pressure from Washington, came back home here. She's a resident here. Now she is pleading guilty under pressure from prosecutors, of course, to illegally exporting militarily sensitive materials to China, so it's a twisted tale as you say -- Carol.

LIN: Certainly indeed. Thank you very much, David. We'll see you in a bit.

Next to Iraq and a solemn moment there. CNN's Jane Arraf is in Baghdad for us, Jane a headline.

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Two deaths among many but we give you a glimpse into how soldiers here grieve when two of their comrades die under fire.

LIN: And we've been waiting for another shoe to drop in the Michael Jackson case. Today one did. CNN's Frank Buckley has the story tonight and a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, last night we told you about the alleged secret videotape of Michael Jackson on an airplane. Tonight there is an audio tape of the alleged victim in this case allegedly saying Michael Jackson didn't abuse him -- Carol.

LIN: Thanks, Frank, back to you and the rest shortly. Also coming up on NEWSNIGHT as the U.S. reduces loan guarantees for Israel we'll get reaction from the Israeli side.

And we'll hear about the life threatening kidney condition affecting basketball star Alonzo Mourning and his chances for a transplant.

In Segment 7 tonight an exclusive interview with the crew of the next space shuttle. They're practicing now even though no date has been picked for their mission.

And we'll end our night with a look at some of the new movies coming out soon with Peter Bart of "Variety," all that to come in the hour ahead.

Right now we begin with a story that reads something like a (unintelligible) novel and he might have dreamed this up. The central character is a Chinese immigrant named Gao Zhan. If the name sounds familiar that's because it is. Gao Zhan has been at the center of one international incident already but as a heroine not a defendant.

Here's CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Their appearance at Federal District Court in Virginia is a surprise twist in the story of Gao Zhan and her husband known until now in the West as critics of human rights in China.

XUE DONHUA, GAO'S HUSBAND: I can say that we love this country more than anybody else.

ENSOR: With tears in her eyes Gao Zhan pled guilty to two charges, to illegally exporting sensitive electronic components including microprocessors that can be used in missile systems to China in exchange for over half a million dollar and to tax evasion.

PAUL MCNULTY, U.S. ATTORNEY: This is an important case and a serious matter involving national security.

ENSOR: Under federal guidelines the maximum sentence for the first charge is ten years, though prosecutors say she has cooperated. They are likely to ask for much less.

MARK HULKOWER, GAO'S ATTORNEY: The parts all have civilian and commercial non-military uses and she believed that was the use to which those parts were going to be put.

ENSOR: It is an extraordinary turn of events for the U.S. resident Chinese citizen who was imprisoned in China for five months on charges of spying for Taiwan. After intense pressure from Washington, including from President Bush, she was freed to return to her husband and child and to her job as a professor at American University in Washington.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: And so it's my pleasure to welcome home an American hero.

GAO ZHAN: With America standing behind me, with these fine people standing behind me I'm not scared.

ENSOR: Now, the human rights hero lionized in Washington will do jail time in this country for illegally serving as China's buying agent.

ZHAN: Don't follow me. Give me some privacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The question many are asking if Gao Zhan was working for China was her imprisonment in China a ruse designed to fool the U.S. or was it a case of one hand in the Chinese government not knowing what the other hand was doing? That, said one official in the case today, is the $2 million question -- Carol.

LIN: David what tipped off investigators?

ENSOR: Well, one of the contractors that, this is according to the court documents, that she was approaching about trying to get material got suspicious and checked with the person that was supposedly ordering this material who turned out to be a fictitious professor working for George Mason University. This person called George Mason University, found there was no such person and then called the FBI.

LIN: All right thank you very much, David Ensor in Washington.

Well, the Bush administration's former top civilian administrator in Iraq says mistakes were made. During an interview broadcast today on the BBC, Jay Garner took some of the blame for not foreseeing the chaos after Baghdad fell.

But he also reserved criticism for his predecessor Paul Bremer, especially his decision to disband the Iraqi Army and he complained that relations between the Pentagon and the State Department were often quite chilly so much so, in fact, he says he didn't learn of a State Department plan for post-war Iraq until just a few weeks before the war began.

Meantime, the man in charge of cleaning up the mess, General John Abizaid is back in the region with CNN's Barbara Starr along for an exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): General John Abizaid flies in an armed helicopter low over Baghdad. He now spends most of his time in Iraq but he's not acting like a conquering hero. He questions commanders closely on the progress of giving Iraq back to its people.

CNN traveled with Abizaid for three days across the country. He goes everywhere with massive security but no place is off limits. He paused in Kirkuk for an exclusive interview.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMANDER: My greatest concern in Iraq is that everyone that has to do with the transitional period understand that this is not a rush to failure. It's a rush to victory.

STARR: For Abizaid victory can come only when the economic battle is won. He talks about the need to get what he calls angry young men off the streets and provide them with jobs.

ABIZAID: Well, the U.S. military is not the full answer. The full answer on how Iraq emerges from this war has to do with economic, military, political, diplomatic power all coming together at the right time and the right place.

STARR: He questions commanders constantly about what the Iraqi population is thinking and feeling key indicators of the state of the opposition. He says the recent aggressive searches have reduced attacks but now Abizaid is determined to go after what he sees as a structure of cells of opposition, tough to penetrate and destroy.

In Kirkuk, new cells of Ansar al-Islam operatives have recently been discovered. The question now do they have ties to al Qaeda although Abizaid remains convinced it's regime loyalists not foreign fighters conducting the attacks.

ABIZAID: There is some indication at the regional level that there's a level of coordination within provinces and probably between provinces but it's only anecdotal evidence that we have that there's a national level of control.

STARR: But as he moves against the opposition Abizaid remains focused on getting Iraqis ready to defend their country with new security forces.

ABIZAID: It's essential that the troops be trained that they be disciplined and that they have a respect for law and order and the dignity of the Iraqi people that hasn't necessarily been the norm in this country before.

STARR: And that, Abizaid tells his men, is not a challenge the U.S. should underestimate.

Barbara Starr CNN, Kirkuk, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Another soldier was killed today in Iraq a member of the 101st Airborne. The soldier died of a non-combat gunshot wound. No further details from the Pentagon. It won't be the only death to mourn these days for the 101st.

That story from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARRAF (voice-over): It was an ugly scene the bodies of two American soldiers fallen in ambush in Mosul, two soldiers' deaths, an entire unit's loss. In a ceremony like many since the war but not often publicly seen soldiers and officers drew together in Mosul to mourn and to honor names that will never be heard at roll call again. Jerry Wilson was a command sergeant major.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't believe it. I can't believe it, you know, but he was a great leader, great leader.

ARRAF: Wilson died along with his driver Specialist Raul Rivago (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It strikes all of us real hard because he's a real good friend of everybody.

ARRAF: At the ceremony there were no answers to their deaths in a lone vehicle which shouldn't have been alone but there was the brief comfort of shared grief, a chance to say goodbye.

General Ricardo Sanchez and other top military leaders have said American combat deaths in this war, almost 300 so far, are statistically insignificant. On the ground that's not the way it seems.

MAJ. GEN. DAVID PATRAEUS: Every death in a unit is very significant and you saw that here today and there are certainly as you look at the overall campaign whether something is significant or something is different. But for this unit, for us, for the Screaming Eagles, the loss of these two great soldiers is a very tough blow but, again, the unit will move out after this.

ARRAF: The men by all accounts were beloved, one an endlessly cheerful gunner at the beginning of his career, the other a 45-year- old leader who had risen to the highest rank a non-commissioned officer can attain.

SPC. RUYIM PHIDD: You know he had his little antics. He'd same come on now we got to pick it Up, keep going, keeping going now. I know it hurts but it's all right (unintelligible) a soldier.

ARRAF: After a two hour ceremony the men of the 101st Airborne's 2nd Brigade went back into the streets and back to being soldiers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: And out there in the streets they are dealing with an ever present danger. Now the 101st is trying to combat what had been a real spike in attacks. They say it's leveled off but still much higher than it was just after the war -- Carol.

LIN: Jane what are they doing to find the people responsible for the Mosul attack?

ARRAF: Well, they're trying to do a lot but it's not that easy. In this particular one, for instance, the next day they say they arrested two people and possibly some others in connection.

Now it's still unclear to them whether indeed they are linked to the attack. A lot of it is a matter of intelligence and they've adopted some new techniques. One is doing house-to-house searches but a kinder, gentler kind of search where they go in and try to actually talk to the people.

Another one is where they're rewarding them for not having weapons. This sort of has a ripple effect spreading that support throughout the community but so far it's very tricky. These people, these attackers seem quite well entrenched -- Carol.

LIN: All right, Jane Arraf live in Baghdad thank you.

The other side of the story plays out at home all too frequently these days something one mother from just outside New York City knows all too well. This Thanksgiving won't be easy for her. She's found a way to ease at least some of the pain for herself and for others.

Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORINE KENNEY: I knew. Oh, I knew and I just, I went into a fog.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Dorine Kenney the moment any military family fears came nearly two weeks ago when she learned her only biological child, Army Private First Class Jacob Fletcher would not be coming home from Iraq alive.

KENNEY: My life changed in that moment.

WALLACE: We met Kenney at a diner in Bayshore, Long Island, a place that has opened its heart to Kenney and her son. Private Fletcher would have turned 29 Tuesday. At the young age of eight he was already applying for the U.S. military.

KENNEY: I got a call and they asked for Private Fletcher and I said well I'm his mother and he's eight. You know call back in ten years.

WALLACE: Nearly 21 years later at the start of the war he parachuted into northern Iraq.

KENNEY: He said you have to see the children. They have nothing and that he would die for these people if he had to.

WALLACE: He did. He was killed when his bus hit a landmine. He was returning to Iraq after a three day break.

KENNEY: I would love my son back but I can't dishonor his cause and his sense of purpose and what he's doing and he had a strong sense of helping the people there.

WALLACE: And now that's become Kenney's mission. She hopes to encourage Americans to send gift boxes and letters to the U.S. troops in Iraq.

KENNEY: Support them. Keep their spirits high until they come home. What they're seeing there and what they're experiencing there is far beyond our comprehension.

WALLACE: This Thanksgiving she gives thanks for the gift of a loving son.

KENNEY: I count the blessings, the 29 years that I had with him. I had 29 blessings.

WALLACE: Kelly Wallace CNN, Bayshore, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld today approved the mobilization of more than 17,000 additional troops for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is in line with previously announced plans but adding to those numbers will be 3,000 more Marines rotating into Iraq. All this is expected to take place early next year. In the meantime, some of the troops already in Iraq have been coming home for R&R and T, turkey that is.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baltimore- Washington International Airport the day before. They wait. They all wait for their soldiers to come home.

Six-year-old Sierra Welborne (ph) is coloring a welcome sign. She knows what she wants to tell her father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love him.

MORTON: Waiting is hard. Jennifer Welborne knows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm staying at my parents' house right now. Raising my kids is the hardest just him being gone all together.

MORTON: Judy and Bill Haywood wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well he said he wanted a Corona at the first bar that he could find and then after that...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he said steak on the grill.

MORTON: The Skratts (ph) family from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania waits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The apple pie is ready. The lemon meringue pie is ready and the pumpkin pie is ready and the turkey is ready.

MORTON: And finally they come. Sergeant Frey (ph) is meeting cousins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad to see him. It's been nine months since I seen him you know so this is a blessing. This is what Thanksgiving is all about.

MORTON: This soldier had never seen his baby girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am your daddy. I am your daddy.

MORTON: And gave her a hat to prove it.

The Haywood's hugged their son and Jason Welborne came home, lots of hugs and a worry. Home is a long drive away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a two hour drive (unintelligible).

MORTON: Was there he wondered a (unintelligible) in the neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible).

MORTON: They're home or part way home that's the good news. The bad news is they have to go back.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And still to come on NEWSNIGHT the fence, it's built to separate Israelis and Palestinians but will it divide Israel from the United States?

And later, we'll check out some of the new movies coming out during the holiday season with Peter Bart from "Variety."

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: On his visit to Great Britain last week, President Bush spoke to the delicate process of achieving peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Israel, he said, should not prejudice final negotiations by building walls and fences.

He was referring to the barrier under construction right now in parts of the West Bank, a security measure says the Israeli government, a provocation says the Palestinian side.

Yesterday the Bush administration said for every dollar Israel spends building settlements and security fences it would cut that amount of international borrowing it would guarantee. It could add up to nearly $300 million, roughly what Israel spends on those activities.

With us tonight Alon Pinkas who is the Israeli Consul General here in New York. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being here tonight. ALON PINKAS, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Good to be here with you.

LIN: Do you consider this a threat by the Bush administration?

PINKAS: Well it's not a threat because they're good and they delivered on the promise to deduct whatever it is that we're investing in the West Bank and Gaza are above and beyond the green line.

The U.S. has always resisted some of our activities in the West Bank and the U.S. has also said and we concede, and we see their point that there is some kind of inconsistency between what we're doing and America's official position.

That being said I don't think it's a threat. We know what America believes in. America is dedicated, devoted and committed to the roadmap that the president himself delivered in his speech. The foundations were delivered in his speech in June of 2002 and which was published several months ago and we're committed to that road map.

The fence is a security barrier. Now we realize what America is concerned about and the Palestinians and many Israelis for that matter, not to mention the Europeans.

Everyone thinks that this is a political demarcation that by virtue of building a security fence we are for all intents and purposes demarcating a political border that, as you suggested prejudges or without prejudice to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.

LIN: So, what are you saying that it is?

PINKAS: That it is not. It is not a political demarcation line.

LIN: So are you saying -- this sounds to me, Mr. Ambassador with all due respect it sounds like what you're saying to the Bush administration is all right if that's what you want to do with the loan guarantees, a polite so what.

PINKAS: No, no, no, no, no. We take very seriously America's objections and America's criticism of some of the things we're doing and you know that this is not a deduction in the loan guarantees but just a difference in the interest rate that we pay for borrowing money out there in the market.

LIN: It's not necessarily enough to change Israel's plans. You will continue building the fence.

PINKAS: We will continue the fence.

LIN: You will continue building settlements.

PINKAS: What the U.S. -- no, no, no, no. We're not building settlements. These are two different issues. The U.S. has also objected to the building of settlements and has made its positions clear. The U.S. does not like the alignment of the fence, the exact location where it is being built. That is something that we agree to disagree on for one reason and one reason only.

LIN: So why do you think then the Bush administration chose to make this announcement about the loan guarantees if in effect it knew that it would not necessarily change what Israel is doing on the ground that it objects to?

PINKAS: Well to begin with the administration has to, a) because it's been America's policy since 1967 when Israel acquired those territories and, b) because when Congress approved the loan guarantees it stipulated that for every dollar invested in the West Bank in something that is not security a dollar will be deducted as you indicated earlier.

What I'm saying here what we've been saying that this fence is not the political border that will demarcate the division between Israelis and Palestinians.

We're building this fence as a result of two things, the failure of Camp David in July of 2000 when then President Clinton and then Prime Minister Barak put on the table, laid on the table a comprehensive peace plan that was rejected comprehensively by Mr. Arafat and two suicide bombers who crossed the seam line, who crossed this no man's land with unbearable and intolerable ease and blow themselves up in pizza parlors. That is why we're building the fence.

LIN: And the administration and the president has respected Israel's right to defend itself.

PINKAS: He still does.

LIN: But what it is saying is that the wall as it is being constructed to what they consider deep into, several miles in some portions, into the West Bank into the Palestinian territory dividing up farmlands and preventing Palestinians from getting to work, what they're saying is that it has to stop in order for the road map to peace to continue.

PINKAS: Correct. That's what they're saying. What we're saying is gentlemen you have to believe us that this is not the political border. A political border will be demarcated along demographic lines respecting the two states solution, respecting a negotiated process in which Palestinians will have territorial contiguity and economic viability.

That being said this is truly and genuinely not a political border. This is a security barrier. You would do the same if you had suicide bombers coming from either Canada or Mexico.

LIN: The key is to get to those negotiations which is I think where we are today.

PINKAS: They key is definitely.

LIN: Thank you very much Mr. Ambassador.

PINKAS: My pleasure.

LIN: Alon Pinkas.

Well coming up on NEWSNIGHT another Jackson tape this time one that could be hard for the prosecution to explain. The details in a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Stranger things have happened than a woman calling Michael Jackson a father figure to her children. Here's one such high praise coming from the mother of his latest accuser, just the latest turn in a case with many of them.

The story from CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): On the tape voices described as those of the alleged victim, his brother and their mother talk about Michael Jackson in effusive terms.

CNN Legal Analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom heard the roughly 20- minute long tape that was provided by a source close to Michael Jackson's defense team.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE-NEWSOM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They kept saying that God had blessed them to have Michael in their life that they were a family together and that at all times that he never acted inappropriately toward the son.

And just one month after these alleged tapes were made both the mother and the alleged victim in this case signed written affidavits under penalty of perjury stating that Michael Jackson never acted inappropriately towards the victim in this case.

BUCKLEY: Attorney Ira Salzman who has not heard the tape says it and the alleged affidavits could be damaging to the prosecution's case.

IRA SALZMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It depends on what the alleged victim has to say. What the mother has to say isn't terribly determinative one way or the other but if the young man says nothing happened, he never touched me in no uncertain terms that's going to be very powerful.

BUCKLEY: Jackson's attorneys claim the current allegations against the singer are financially motivated. And while the boy and his family are not suing Michael Jackson right now, court records indicate that they have sued for money before.

Four years ago, they filed this lawsuit against a J.C. Penney store after loss prevention agents accused the boy, then 8 years old, of shoplifting. Details of the incident were disputed; charges were ultimately dropped. And the family received a settlement of more than $137,000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: Now, Salzman believes that that material will probably not make it into the courtroom, if, in fact there's a trial of Michael Jackson. But it's quite possible that the tapes and the affidavit will make it into court if there is a trial.

And that could pose a problem for the prosecution, because the question will be raised, why was the alleged victim and the mother back in February and March, at about the time when the tape and the affidavits were signed, why back then were they saying that there was no abuse and now, at the time of trial, they are saying there was, indeed, abuse -- Carol.

LIN: So, Frank, considering all of this, do you think that the district attorney is still intending on filing charges against Michael Jackson? What does this do to his case?

BUCKLEY: Well, so far, we have heard That this is the case.

As you know, yesterday, it was reported that the district attorney's office was not going to be filing formal charges just after Thanksgiving, as they had previously advertised. Now they're going to be filing those formal charges after mid-December. At this point -- you heard Tom Sneddon, the district attorney, talking to Art Harris of CNN saying that: Yes, we would not have brought this case if we didn't feel that we had a solid case.

So, at this point, it appears as though the prosecution is moving forward.

LIN: We'll see what happens. Frank Buckley, thank you very much.

More hints of an improving economy top the "MONEYLINE Roundup" tonight. According to the Labor Department, first-time unemployment claims fell to 351,000 for last week. Anything lower than 400,000 is considered a sign of an improving labor market.

Also on the upswing, consumer confidence. The University of Michigan's monthly index rose to 93.7 for November. That's up from last month, but ever so slightly less than economists had expected.

And major markets made it home in positive territory, nothing spectacularly, one trader calling it a fairly wishy-washy day.

Coming up in our next half-hour here on NEWSNIGHT, the premature end to a basketball career. What's wrong with Alonzo Mourning and what are his chances of getting a kidney transplant?

And later: some hot new movies coming our way and some advice about them from "Variety"'s Peter Bart. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: The biggest story in professional basketball this week was not about the game, but rather about medicine.

The story involves New Jersey Nets center Alonzo Mourning, whose kidney ailment has gotten worse and forced his retirement. Mourning had already missed parts of two other seasons because of his illness. But doctors now say playing more could be life-threatening. It also appears that Mourning's illness and potential need for a kidney transplant have prompted dozens of calls from people offering their kidneys.

Joining us now is Mourning's doctor, Gerald Appel.

Good evening, Dr. Appel. Thanks for being here.

DR. GERALD APPEL, DOCTOR FOR MOURNING: Good evening.

LIN: Not just dozens, but really now hundreds of people have called in.

APPEL: Many hundreds.

Actually, the Kidney and Urology Foundation of America has already gotten over 300 phone calls and requests for people who want to donate. At Columbia University, where Alonzo's transplant will be, we've gotten many, many phone calls, e-mails, faxes. And I'm getting them at home as well.

LIN: Yes. How sick is he?

APPEL: Well, right now, he doesn't feel sick. And...

LIN: He doesn't look sick.

APPEL: No, he sure doesn't. He played a great game last Saturday.

LIN: Fifteen points in 16 minutes.

APPEL: You're watching the game closely. So am I.

And he feels well. But the problem is that the chemistry in his blood is so disordered now because of the kidney failure that it could lead to critically irregularities of the heartbeat. And, at this point, it's just not safe for him to play basketball.

LIN: So it's inevitable he's going to need a kidney transplant.

APPEL: It is inevitable, yes.

LIN: What are the chances he's going to get a kidney to match?

APPEL: Well, it's very good, actually.

We do over 100 transplants a year at Columbia Presbyterian in New York. Many other centers do lots of transplants. Now, the problem is, there's a huge shortage of organs for transplantation in this country; 56,000 people are waiting for kidney transplants. And we only do 12,000 or 13,000 a year in the country, because there just aren't enough organs.

But it turns out that Alonzo has family members that are being tested. He has lots of friends. He's a wonderful person, has done an unbelievable amount for charity and good causes. And he has lots of friends who are coming forward to be tested. And I'm confident, between those people and all the people who are willing to donate, that we will find a suitable donor.

LIN: Does the donor have to be in the same gene pool in order for it to be a match?

APPEL: Well, the donor has to be compatible in terms of the A-B- O blood system. Alonzo is blood type O. And the donor has to be an O. It doesn't have to be an O-positive, O-negative, but it has to be an O. He can't take an A kidney. He can't take a B or an AB kidney.

And we actually have screened some relatives and they were the wrong blood type. They were B's and they're just not suitable.

LIN: So how soon does he need the transplant to live?

APPEL: He would need a transplant within the next month or two.

LIN: That's pretty quick.

APPEL: It's is pretty quick. It's very question, and much quicker than I had expected that -- now, if he doesn't get a transplant, this doesn't mean we're going to Alonzo die. He will get dialysis.

But it's something we'd like to avoid. For Alonzo's lifestyle, to keep him completely healthy and everything, there's nothing that can match a good kidney transplant.

LIN: Yes. How's his attitude these days?

APPEL: His attitude is very good.

He was down the first day or two. The first evening after I told him, I could just tell by listening to his voice how down he was. And, in some ways, he's probably a little lost not playing, not practicing each day, because he works out and practices every day. But, on the other hand, he's a very positive person, has a wonderful, positive attitude, and is already turning around and saying to himself, look, this is the next challenge. The next challenge is a kidney transplant. How do I come across and get there?

And he will do it.

LIN: If he gets a kidney and is transplanted successfully, can he come back to play basketball? Would he?

APPEL: This is a very difficult question.

Now, I know Sean Elliott has looked -- Sean Elliott, who played for the Spurs, came back and played with a kidney transplant from his brother and played for an entire season. But there's a little difference. Alonzo has been playing a long time. He's a center. And it's very bruising. As a doctor watching him play center, it's like watching your son play in little league. You're always worried about him getting hurt.

And it's a rough sport in there. And I'd be very concerned. The transplanted kidney is not put in where the native kidneys are in the back. It's put in, in the front. And it's exposed to potential damage.

LIN: All right, so his spirits are good. He needs the work in a month. And it's good to see that hundreds of people are coming out on his behalf. And if they can't help him, certainly there may be somebody else out there.

APPEL: I certainly hope so.

One of the things is that you say, well, if there's somebody who is famous and important like this, all these people are willing to donate, well, if they're really altruistic, why not donate for anybody? If they can't give the kidney to Alonzo, if he gets another kidney, give it to somebody else. There are all those 56,000 people. Many of them are just as good people, just as charitable. They deserve it as well.

LIN: Yes, everyone with a family who needs them.

Thank you very much, Dr. Appel. Good luck. And we'll be following this story closely with you.

APPEL: Thank you.

LIN: Well, a few more items now making news around the country.

Candidate Howard Dean took time off from the campaign to attend a solemn duty. He was in Hawaii for ceremonies marking the return of the remains of his brother. Charles Dean had been missing since 1974 during the Vietnam War. He and another civilian disappeared while touring Southeast Asia. His remains were discovered in a rice patty of Laos.

The city of New York City has fired the captain of the ferry that crashed last month, killing 10 people, the reason given, not cooperating with investigators. For his part, Michael Gansas has said he remains too traumatized to talk.

Police in central Ohio are trying to figure out whether a deadly shooting yesterday is connected with eight others since May. In all of them, the gunman targeted vehicles traveling on or near a stretch of highway south of Columbus. The latest killed a 62-year-old woman inside her pickup truck.

Finally, the day before Thanksgiving seemed to go smoothly at airports around the country. The Transportation Security Administration says it set a goal of less than 10 minutes delays at checkpoints and met the target.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: They are next in line. We'll have an exclusive look at the next shuttle crew preparing to get the U.S. space program back in space.

You're watching NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: As the work of fixing the space shuttle program goes on, nobody knows for sure when the first flight since the Columbia tragedy will actually take place. But if the when isn't known, the who is, as in who will fly whenever the moment arrives.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN COLLINS, NASA ASTRONAUT: Up. I wanted to fly up.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's not sure when it will happen or what it will take to get there. But Commander Eileen Collins says she and her crew will be ready to fly the first shuttle mission after Columbia, perhaps as soon as September, 2004, more likely early 2005.

COLLINS: This is very hard. The engineering and the organizational changes that we're making are very difficult, but I have confidence that we're going to get there.

O'BRIEN: And in some areas, they're making good progress. On board NASA's plane that simulates weightlessness in brief spurts, affectionately known as the vomit comet, they're refining a technique for repairing damaged insulating tiles in space, using everything from a custom-made goo gun to a 25-cent foam paint brush.

(on camera): You feel confident, if it ever had to be done for real in orbit, it could be done?

SOICHI NOGUCHI, NASA ASTRONAUT: I think this could be done, yes. And still need a couple practice to make it most safer and easier to operate. But, right now, I think it's really a good solution.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): NASA engineers also believe they have a good solution to reduce the risk of insulating foam falling off a shuttle's external fuel tank during launch, which caused the fatal breach in Columbia's wing.

NASA's proposed fix: Remove the foam from the high-risk areas, struts that attach the orbiter and tank, using heaters to keep them from icing up. But changes like that bring a raft of new concerns for the new shuttle program manager, Bill Parsons.

BILL PARSONS, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: As we do other things to this vehicle, we have to understand how that impacts the entire vehicle and what we might have created, another hazard.

O'BRIEN: And there is still at least one engineering riddle without an answer. The foam that struck Columbia breached a carbon panel protecting the orbiter's left wing. The craft disintegrated two weeks later during the heat of reentry, killing the crew of seven.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, we have the plug concepts.

O'BRIEN: NASA is testing some on-orbit carbon-panel repair ideas, a flexible cover, a balloon to fill the void behind a panel, an adhesive patch, or an umbrella-like hole plug. The ideas are new and the engineering jury is still out.

PARSONS: It's like this. We have good days. We have bad days. So, when things don't go as planned and we have to step back and reassess it, well, then, that does take away from us. But these folks are real resilient.

O'BRIEN (on camera): As it turns out, fixing the falling foam or broken thermal tiles or carbon panels may be the easier task now facing NASA, because, along with the nuts-and-bolts recommendations, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board also suggests, NASA cannot fly safely unless it reengineers its culture.

(voice-over): The board said shuttle managers were not listening to their own people, that they ignored many warnings from mid-level engineers. Those managers say they hear the concerns loud and clear.

(on camera): Do you do things differently? Are you thinking differently than did you before?

COLLINS: Let me tell you what I'm doing. As the commander of the next mission, I'm telling my crew, we all need to listen. When people talk to us, we need to listen.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Listening to co-workers. On the voyage to space, technology itself can only take you so far.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, time to head to the movies, the blockbusters and the bombs. We'll figure out which is which with Peter Bark from "Variety' in just a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Along with the ads for Christmas Barbie, Chia Pets and the Clapper, you soon won't be able to avoid ads for the mass of new movies that will be opening in the next few weeks.

So, in order to separate blockbuster from bomb, we've brought in an expert. And while we're not sure he has any opinion about the Clapper, we're sure Peter Bart has plenty of opinions about what the movie studios have been up to. He's the editor of "Variety" and has also written a novel about Hollywood's strange ways called "Dangerous Company." He joins us now from Los Angeles.

Welcome, Peter.

PETER BART, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "VARIETY": Good evening.

LIN: What do you just love out there?

BART: Well, of course, this weekend has something for everything.

It's the start of the great Christmas sweepstakes, which are very important to the studios, getting to be as important as the summer season.

LIN: Right. So we've got some blockbusters coming up. I'm waiting to see Tom Cruise and the "Samurai." What do you think?

BART: Well, the "Samurai," "Master and Commander," of course, the third iteration of "Lord of the Rings."

It's interesting. This year, more than ever, at this time of year, the season is dominated by $100 million-plus pictures, just as summer is, with these enormous blockbuster campaigns. So the more traditional Oscar pictures, like "In America" this weekend is -- the more traditional Oscar pictures are fading from the scene, really. They're being pushed out at Christmastime.

LIN: So are you not going to see anything? Nothing impresses you out there?

BART: Well, one picture I had a good time at was "Bad Santa," which can best be described as the Christmas movie from hell.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: This is Billy Bob Thornton.

BART: Billy Bob, who plays a somewhat inebriated Santa.

But if you remember "The Miracle on 34th Street," this is sort of the nightmare on 42nd Street. I wouldn't take the children to it, but it's a lot of fun.

LIN: Yes. What about "Last Samurai"? I've got to get my Tom Cruise fix here.

(CROSSTALK)

BART: Well, absolutely. You know, that's a big saga, period Japan. Tom -- it's the ultimate movie star picture. And he's terrific in it. It's a very long and serious story. "Master and Commander" is an excellent sea picture as well. That is, again, period, 1805, great piece of filmmaking, though, a lot of good movies out there.

LIN: Yes.

Anything you hate out there? You just say, forget it, don't even bother?

BART: Well, I don't want to do that.

There's always somebody out there who will like everything. There's some very somber pictures out there. "The Missing" is a Western with Cate Blanchett, directed by Ron Howard. It's also a very somber picture, as is "21 Grams."

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: That's a movie you don't even want to see. You won't even go to see that. There's a lot of buzz about Benicio Del Toro in this film.

(CROSSTALK)

BART: It's an excellent picture. I just -- you want to drink first before you take that on. That's all.

LIN: What's it about?

BART: I'm not even going to tell what you it's about. I'll let you discover it.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: We can't even talk about it.

All right, what about "Cold Mountain," Nicole Kidman and Jude Law? This is a movie that I've been looking forward to ever since I read the book.

BART: This is sort of a throwback to "Gone With the Wind." It's a serious Civil War drama. No one has seen it yet. In the next couple of days, there will be the initial screenings. But it certainly is a major Oscar contender going in.

See, the extra little bonus that the studios have in unleashing their big pictures at this time of year, despite -- in addition to hoping for big grosses, they hope for some Oscar nominations, because, as they saw last year with "Chicago," winning an Oscar gave it another $45 to $50 million in worldwide gross. That's a nice incentive to open a movie at this time of year.

LIN: You bet. But something like "Cold Mountain" really has to meet the public's expectations. And they are pretty big at this point.

BART: And also the expectations of the Academy. And this year, all of that is tighter, because the Oscar season has been reduced in length. And, also, those famous screeners that go out to Oscar voters and to critics, they're not going out this year.

LIN: All right, well, thank you very much, Peter Bart, for the preview. Now we can spend our dollars a little more wisely.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Peter Bart of "Variety," you have a good holiday.

BART: Thank you.

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

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Before we go tonight, an update of our top story.

A Chinese immigrant pleaded guilty today to illegally exporting sensitive electronic components to China, some of which can be used in missile systems. Gao Zhan has been in the headlines before. She was at the center of an international incident not long ago, after China threw her in jail on charges of spying for Taiwan.

Tomorrow, on the program, a special hour. NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen has put together a remarkable look at the wounded and injured of Iraq and Afghanistan and the people helping them on the long road back home.

And that's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm Carol Lin.

Stay tuned 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





Jackson Case>


Aired November 26, 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 everyone.
What was probably one of the busiest travel days of the year we hope you are where you want to be on this eve of Thanksgiving 2003. However, there is one group of Americans who are not where they want to be at all more than 100,000 soldiers serving in Iraq where it is already Thanksgiving. Our best wishes go out to them all.

But it is not in Iraq that we begin the whip. We start with a Cold War style story of espionage and a tangled story it is. CNN's David Ensor has been following it and starts the whip with a headline -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tangled indeed, Carol. It's a story with a bit of a twist to it. Here's a woman known as a human rights advocate who was imprisoned by China and charged with espionage on behalf of Taiwan.

She was freed under pressure from Washington, came back home here. She's a resident here. Now she is pleading guilty under pressure from prosecutors, of course, to illegally exporting militarily sensitive materials to China, so it's a twisted tale as you say -- Carol.

LIN: Certainly indeed. Thank you very much, David. We'll see you in a bit.

Next to Iraq and a solemn moment there. CNN's Jane Arraf is in Baghdad for us, Jane a headline.

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Two deaths among many but we give you a glimpse into how soldiers here grieve when two of their comrades die under fire.

LIN: And we've been waiting for another shoe to drop in the Michael Jackson case. Today one did. CNN's Frank Buckley has the story tonight and a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, last night we told you about the alleged secret videotape of Michael Jackson on an airplane. Tonight there is an audio tape of the alleged victim in this case allegedly saying Michael Jackson didn't abuse him -- Carol.

LIN: Thanks, Frank, back to you and the rest shortly. Also coming up on NEWSNIGHT as the U.S. reduces loan guarantees for Israel we'll get reaction from the Israeli side.

And we'll hear about the life threatening kidney condition affecting basketball star Alonzo Mourning and his chances for a transplant.

In Segment 7 tonight an exclusive interview with the crew of the next space shuttle. They're practicing now even though no date has been picked for their mission.

And we'll end our night with a look at some of the new movies coming out soon with Peter Bart of "Variety," all that to come in the hour ahead.

Right now we begin with a story that reads something like a (unintelligible) novel and he might have dreamed this up. The central character is a Chinese immigrant named Gao Zhan. If the name sounds familiar that's because it is. Gao Zhan has been at the center of one international incident already but as a heroine not a defendant.

Here's CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Their appearance at Federal District Court in Virginia is a surprise twist in the story of Gao Zhan and her husband known until now in the West as critics of human rights in China.

XUE DONHUA, GAO'S HUSBAND: I can say that we love this country more than anybody else.

ENSOR: With tears in her eyes Gao Zhan pled guilty to two charges, to illegally exporting sensitive electronic components including microprocessors that can be used in missile systems to China in exchange for over half a million dollar and to tax evasion.

PAUL MCNULTY, U.S. ATTORNEY: This is an important case and a serious matter involving national security.

ENSOR: Under federal guidelines the maximum sentence for the first charge is ten years, though prosecutors say she has cooperated. They are likely to ask for much less.

MARK HULKOWER, GAO'S ATTORNEY: The parts all have civilian and commercial non-military uses and she believed that was the use to which those parts were going to be put.

ENSOR: It is an extraordinary turn of events for the U.S. resident Chinese citizen who was imprisoned in China for five months on charges of spying for Taiwan. After intense pressure from Washington, including from President Bush, she was freed to return to her husband and child and to her job as a professor at American University in Washington.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: And so it's my pleasure to welcome home an American hero.

GAO ZHAN: With America standing behind me, with these fine people standing behind me I'm not scared.

ENSOR: Now, the human rights hero lionized in Washington will do jail time in this country for illegally serving as China's buying agent.

ZHAN: Don't follow me. Give me some privacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: The question many are asking if Gao Zhan was working for China was her imprisonment in China a ruse designed to fool the U.S. or was it a case of one hand in the Chinese government not knowing what the other hand was doing? That, said one official in the case today, is the $2 million question -- Carol.

LIN: David what tipped off investigators?

ENSOR: Well, one of the contractors that, this is according to the court documents, that she was approaching about trying to get material got suspicious and checked with the person that was supposedly ordering this material who turned out to be a fictitious professor working for George Mason University. This person called George Mason University, found there was no such person and then called the FBI.

LIN: All right thank you very much, David Ensor in Washington.

Well, the Bush administration's former top civilian administrator in Iraq says mistakes were made. During an interview broadcast today on the BBC, Jay Garner took some of the blame for not foreseeing the chaos after Baghdad fell.

But he also reserved criticism for his predecessor Paul Bremer, especially his decision to disband the Iraqi Army and he complained that relations between the Pentagon and the State Department were often quite chilly so much so, in fact, he says he didn't learn of a State Department plan for post-war Iraq until just a few weeks before the war began.

Meantime, the man in charge of cleaning up the mess, General John Abizaid is back in the region with CNN's Barbara Starr along for an exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): General John Abizaid flies in an armed helicopter low over Baghdad. He now spends most of his time in Iraq but he's not acting like a conquering hero. He questions commanders closely on the progress of giving Iraq back to its people.

CNN traveled with Abizaid for three days across the country. He goes everywhere with massive security but no place is off limits. He paused in Kirkuk for an exclusive interview.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMANDER: My greatest concern in Iraq is that everyone that has to do with the transitional period understand that this is not a rush to failure. It's a rush to victory.

STARR: For Abizaid victory can come only when the economic battle is won. He talks about the need to get what he calls angry young men off the streets and provide them with jobs.

ABIZAID: Well, the U.S. military is not the full answer. The full answer on how Iraq emerges from this war has to do with economic, military, political, diplomatic power all coming together at the right time and the right place.

STARR: He questions commanders constantly about what the Iraqi population is thinking and feeling key indicators of the state of the opposition. He says the recent aggressive searches have reduced attacks but now Abizaid is determined to go after what he sees as a structure of cells of opposition, tough to penetrate and destroy.

In Kirkuk, new cells of Ansar al-Islam operatives have recently been discovered. The question now do they have ties to al Qaeda although Abizaid remains convinced it's regime loyalists not foreign fighters conducting the attacks.

ABIZAID: There is some indication at the regional level that there's a level of coordination within provinces and probably between provinces but it's only anecdotal evidence that we have that there's a national level of control.

STARR: But as he moves against the opposition Abizaid remains focused on getting Iraqis ready to defend their country with new security forces.

ABIZAID: It's essential that the troops be trained that they be disciplined and that they have a respect for law and order and the dignity of the Iraqi people that hasn't necessarily been the norm in this country before.

STARR: And that, Abizaid tells his men, is not a challenge the U.S. should underestimate.

Barbara Starr CNN, Kirkuk, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Another soldier was killed today in Iraq a member of the 101st Airborne. The soldier died of a non-combat gunshot wound. No further details from the Pentagon. It won't be the only death to mourn these days for the 101st.

That story from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARRAF (voice-over): It was an ugly scene the bodies of two American soldiers fallen in ambush in Mosul, two soldiers' deaths, an entire unit's loss. In a ceremony like many since the war but not often publicly seen soldiers and officers drew together in Mosul to mourn and to honor names that will never be heard at roll call again. Jerry Wilson was a command sergeant major.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't believe it. I can't believe it, you know, but he was a great leader, great leader.

ARRAF: Wilson died along with his driver Specialist Raul Rivago (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It strikes all of us real hard because he's a real good friend of everybody.

ARRAF: At the ceremony there were no answers to their deaths in a lone vehicle which shouldn't have been alone but there was the brief comfort of shared grief, a chance to say goodbye.

General Ricardo Sanchez and other top military leaders have said American combat deaths in this war, almost 300 so far, are statistically insignificant. On the ground that's not the way it seems.

MAJ. GEN. DAVID PATRAEUS: Every death in a unit is very significant and you saw that here today and there are certainly as you look at the overall campaign whether something is significant or something is different. But for this unit, for us, for the Screaming Eagles, the loss of these two great soldiers is a very tough blow but, again, the unit will move out after this.

ARRAF: The men by all accounts were beloved, one an endlessly cheerful gunner at the beginning of his career, the other a 45-year- old leader who had risen to the highest rank a non-commissioned officer can attain.

SPC. RUYIM PHIDD: You know he had his little antics. He'd same come on now we got to pick it Up, keep going, keeping going now. I know it hurts but it's all right (unintelligible) a soldier.

ARRAF: After a two hour ceremony the men of the 101st Airborne's 2nd Brigade went back into the streets and back to being soldiers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: And out there in the streets they are dealing with an ever present danger. Now the 101st is trying to combat what had been a real spike in attacks. They say it's leveled off but still much higher than it was just after the war -- Carol.

LIN: Jane what are they doing to find the people responsible for the Mosul attack?

ARRAF: Well, they're trying to do a lot but it's not that easy. In this particular one, for instance, the next day they say they arrested two people and possibly some others in connection.

Now it's still unclear to them whether indeed they are linked to the attack. A lot of it is a matter of intelligence and they've adopted some new techniques. One is doing house-to-house searches but a kinder, gentler kind of search where they go in and try to actually talk to the people.

Another one is where they're rewarding them for not having weapons. This sort of has a ripple effect spreading that support throughout the community but so far it's very tricky. These people, these attackers seem quite well entrenched -- Carol.

LIN: All right, Jane Arraf live in Baghdad thank you.

The other side of the story plays out at home all too frequently these days something one mother from just outside New York City knows all too well. This Thanksgiving won't be easy for her. She's found a way to ease at least some of the pain for herself and for others.

Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORINE KENNEY: I knew. Oh, I knew and I just, I went into a fog.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Dorine Kenney the moment any military family fears came nearly two weeks ago when she learned her only biological child, Army Private First Class Jacob Fletcher would not be coming home from Iraq alive.

KENNEY: My life changed in that moment.

WALLACE: We met Kenney at a diner in Bayshore, Long Island, a place that has opened its heart to Kenney and her son. Private Fletcher would have turned 29 Tuesday. At the young age of eight he was already applying for the U.S. military.

KENNEY: I got a call and they asked for Private Fletcher and I said well I'm his mother and he's eight. You know call back in ten years.

WALLACE: Nearly 21 years later at the start of the war he parachuted into northern Iraq.

KENNEY: He said you have to see the children. They have nothing and that he would die for these people if he had to.

WALLACE: He did. He was killed when his bus hit a landmine. He was returning to Iraq after a three day break.

KENNEY: I would love my son back but I can't dishonor his cause and his sense of purpose and what he's doing and he had a strong sense of helping the people there.

WALLACE: And now that's become Kenney's mission. She hopes to encourage Americans to send gift boxes and letters to the U.S. troops in Iraq.

KENNEY: Support them. Keep their spirits high until they come home. What they're seeing there and what they're experiencing there is far beyond our comprehension.

WALLACE: This Thanksgiving she gives thanks for the gift of a loving son.

KENNEY: I count the blessings, the 29 years that I had with him. I had 29 blessings.

WALLACE: Kelly Wallace CNN, Bayshore, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld today approved the mobilization of more than 17,000 additional troops for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is in line with previously announced plans but adding to those numbers will be 3,000 more Marines rotating into Iraq. All this is expected to take place early next year. In the meantime, some of the troops already in Iraq have been coming home for R&R and T, turkey that is.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baltimore- Washington International Airport the day before. They wait. They all wait for their soldiers to come home.

Six-year-old Sierra Welborne (ph) is coloring a welcome sign. She knows what she wants to tell her father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love him.

MORTON: Waiting is hard. Jennifer Welborne knows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm staying at my parents' house right now. Raising my kids is the hardest just him being gone all together.

MORTON: Judy and Bill Haywood wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well he said he wanted a Corona at the first bar that he could find and then after that...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he said steak on the grill.

MORTON: The Skratts (ph) family from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania waits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The apple pie is ready. The lemon meringue pie is ready and the pumpkin pie is ready and the turkey is ready.

MORTON: And finally they come. Sergeant Frey (ph) is meeting cousins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad to see him. It's been nine months since I seen him you know so this is a blessing. This is what Thanksgiving is all about.

MORTON: This soldier had never seen his baby girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am your daddy. I am your daddy.

MORTON: And gave her a hat to prove it.

The Haywood's hugged their son and Jason Welborne came home, lots of hugs and a worry. Home is a long drive away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a two hour drive (unintelligible).

MORTON: Was there he wondered a (unintelligible) in the neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible).

MORTON: They're home or part way home that's the good news. The bad news is they have to go back.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And still to come on NEWSNIGHT the fence, it's built to separate Israelis and Palestinians but will it divide Israel from the United States?

And later, we'll check out some of the new movies coming out during the holiday season with Peter Bart from "Variety."

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: On his visit to Great Britain last week, President Bush spoke to the delicate process of achieving peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Israel, he said, should not prejudice final negotiations by building walls and fences.

He was referring to the barrier under construction right now in parts of the West Bank, a security measure says the Israeli government, a provocation says the Palestinian side.

Yesterday the Bush administration said for every dollar Israel spends building settlements and security fences it would cut that amount of international borrowing it would guarantee. It could add up to nearly $300 million, roughly what Israel spends on those activities.

With us tonight Alon Pinkas who is the Israeli Consul General here in New York. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being here tonight. ALON PINKAS, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Good to be here with you.

LIN: Do you consider this a threat by the Bush administration?

PINKAS: Well it's not a threat because they're good and they delivered on the promise to deduct whatever it is that we're investing in the West Bank and Gaza are above and beyond the green line.

The U.S. has always resisted some of our activities in the West Bank and the U.S. has also said and we concede, and we see their point that there is some kind of inconsistency between what we're doing and America's official position.

That being said I don't think it's a threat. We know what America believes in. America is dedicated, devoted and committed to the roadmap that the president himself delivered in his speech. The foundations were delivered in his speech in June of 2002 and which was published several months ago and we're committed to that road map.

The fence is a security barrier. Now we realize what America is concerned about and the Palestinians and many Israelis for that matter, not to mention the Europeans.

Everyone thinks that this is a political demarcation that by virtue of building a security fence we are for all intents and purposes demarcating a political border that, as you suggested prejudges or without prejudice to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.

LIN: So, what are you saying that it is?

PINKAS: That it is not. It is not a political demarcation line.

LIN: So are you saying -- this sounds to me, Mr. Ambassador with all due respect it sounds like what you're saying to the Bush administration is all right if that's what you want to do with the loan guarantees, a polite so what.

PINKAS: No, no, no, no, no. We take very seriously America's objections and America's criticism of some of the things we're doing and you know that this is not a deduction in the loan guarantees but just a difference in the interest rate that we pay for borrowing money out there in the market.

LIN: It's not necessarily enough to change Israel's plans. You will continue building the fence.

PINKAS: We will continue the fence.

LIN: You will continue building settlements.

PINKAS: What the U.S. -- no, no, no, no. We're not building settlements. These are two different issues. The U.S. has also objected to the building of settlements and has made its positions clear. The U.S. does not like the alignment of the fence, the exact location where it is being built. That is something that we agree to disagree on for one reason and one reason only.

LIN: So why do you think then the Bush administration chose to make this announcement about the loan guarantees if in effect it knew that it would not necessarily change what Israel is doing on the ground that it objects to?

PINKAS: Well to begin with the administration has to, a) because it's been America's policy since 1967 when Israel acquired those territories and, b) because when Congress approved the loan guarantees it stipulated that for every dollar invested in the West Bank in something that is not security a dollar will be deducted as you indicated earlier.

What I'm saying here what we've been saying that this fence is not the political border that will demarcate the division between Israelis and Palestinians.

We're building this fence as a result of two things, the failure of Camp David in July of 2000 when then President Clinton and then Prime Minister Barak put on the table, laid on the table a comprehensive peace plan that was rejected comprehensively by Mr. Arafat and two suicide bombers who crossed the seam line, who crossed this no man's land with unbearable and intolerable ease and blow themselves up in pizza parlors. That is why we're building the fence.

LIN: And the administration and the president has respected Israel's right to defend itself.

PINKAS: He still does.

LIN: But what it is saying is that the wall as it is being constructed to what they consider deep into, several miles in some portions, into the West Bank into the Palestinian territory dividing up farmlands and preventing Palestinians from getting to work, what they're saying is that it has to stop in order for the road map to peace to continue.

PINKAS: Correct. That's what they're saying. What we're saying is gentlemen you have to believe us that this is not the political border. A political border will be demarcated along demographic lines respecting the two states solution, respecting a negotiated process in which Palestinians will have territorial contiguity and economic viability.

That being said this is truly and genuinely not a political border. This is a security barrier. You would do the same if you had suicide bombers coming from either Canada or Mexico.

LIN: The key is to get to those negotiations which is I think where we are today.

PINKAS: They key is definitely.

LIN: Thank you very much Mr. Ambassador.

PINKAS: My pleasure.

LIN: Alon Pinkas.

Well coming up on NEWSNIGHT another Jackson tape this time one that could be hard for the prosecution to explain. The details in a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Stranger things have happened than a woman calling Michael Jackson a father figure to her children. Here's one such high praise coming from the mother of his latest accuser, just the latest turn in a case with many of them.

The story from CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): On the tape voices described as those of the alleged victim, his brother and their mother talk about Michael Jackson in effusive terms.

CNN Legal Analyst Kimberly Guilfoyle-Newsom heard the roughly 20- minute long tape that was provided by a source close to Michael Jackson's defense team.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE-NEWSOM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They kept saying that God had blessed them to have Michael in their life that they were a family together and that at all times that he never acted inappropriately toward the son.

And just one month after these alleged tapes were made both the mother and the alleged victim in this case signed written affidavits under penalty of perjury stating that Michael Jackson never acted inappropriately towards the victim in this case.

BUCKLEY: Attorney Ira Salzman who has not heard the tape says it and the alleged affidavits could be damaging to the prosecution's case.

IRA SALZMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It depends on what the alleged victim has to say. What the mother has to say isn't terribly determinative one way or the other but if the young man says nothing happened, he never touched me in no uncertain terms that's going to be very powerful.

BUCKLEY: Jackson's attorneys claim the current allegations against the singer are financially motivated. And while the boy and his family are not suing Michael Jackson right now, court records indicate that they have sued for money before.

Four years ago, they filed this lawsuit against a J.C. Penney store after loss prevention agents accused the boy, then 8 years old, of shoplifting. Details of the incident were disputed; charges were ultimately dropped. And the family received a settlement of more than $137,000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: Now, Salzman believes that that material will probably not make it into the courtroom, if, in fact there's a trial of Michael Jackson. But it's quite possible that the tapes and the affidavit will make it into court if there is a trial.

And that could pose a problem for the prosecution, because the question will be raised, why was the alleged victim and the mother back in February and March, at about the time when the tape and the affidavits were signed, why back then were they saying that there was no abuse and now, at the time of trial, they are saying there was, indeed, abuse -- Carol.

LIN: So, Frank, considering all of this, do you think that the district attorney is still intending on filing charges against Michael Jackson? What does this do to his case?

BUCKLEY: Well, so far, we have heard That this is the case.

As you know, yesterday, it was reported that the district attorney's office was not going to be filing formal charges just after Thanksgiving, as they had previously advertised. Now they're going to be filing those formal charges after mid-December. At this point -- you heard Tom Sneddon, the district attorney, talking to Art Harris of CNN saying that: Yes, we would not have brought this case if we didn't feel that we had a solid case.

So, at this point, it appears as though the prosecution is moving forward.

LIN: We'll see what happens. Frank Buckley, thank you very much.

More hints of an improving economy top the "MONEYLINE Roundup" tonight. According to the Labor Department, first-time unemployment claims fell to 351,000 for last week. Anything lower than 400,000 is considered a sign of an improving labor market.

Also on the upswing, consumer confidence. The University of Michigan's monthly index rose to 93.7 for November. That's up from last month, but ever so slightly less than economists had expected.

And major markets made it home in positive territory, nothing spectacularly, one trader calling it a fairly wishy-washy day.

Coming up in our next half-hour here on NEWSNIGHT, the premature end to a basketball career. What's wrong with Alonzo Mourning and what are his chances of getting a kidney transplant?

And later: some hot new movies coming our way and some advice about them from "Variety"'s Peter Bart. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: The biggest story in professional basketball this week was not about the game, but rather about medicine.

The story involves New Jersey Nets center Alonzo Mourning, whose kidney ailment has gotten worse and forced his retirement. Mourning had already missed parts of two other seasons because of his illness. But doctors now say playing more could be life-threatening. It also appears that Mourning's illness and potential need for a kidney transplant have prompted dozens of calls from people offering their kidneys.

Joining us now is Mourning's doctor, Gerald Appel.

Good evening, Dr. Appel. Thanks for being here.

DR. GERALD APPEL, DOCTOR FOR MOURNING: Good evening.

LIN: Not just dozens, but really now hundreds of people have called in.

APPEL: Many hundreds.

Actually, the Kidney and Urology Foundation of America has already gotten over 300 phone calls and requests for people who want to donate. At Columbia University, where Alonzo's transplant will be, we've gotten many, many phone calls, e-mails, faxes. And I'm getting them at home as well.

LIN: Yes. How sick is he?

APPEL: Well, right now, he doesn't feel sick. And...

LIN: He doesn't look sick.

APPEL: No, he sure doesn't. He played a great game last Saturday.

LIN: Fifteen points in 16 minutes.

APPEL: You're watching the game closely. So am I.

And he feels well. But the problem is that the chemistry in his blood is so disordered now because of the kidney failure that it could lead to critically irregularities of the heartbeat. And, at this point, it's just not safe for him to play basketball.

LIN: So it's inevitable he's going to need a kidney transplant.

APPEL: It is inevitable, yes.

LIN: What are the chances he's going to get a kidney to match?

APPEL: Well, it's very good, actually.

We do over 100 transplants a year at Columbia Presbyterian in New York. Many other centers do lots of transplants. Now, the problem is, there's a huge shortage of organs for transplantation in this country; 56,000 people are waiting for kidney transplants. And we only do 12,000 or 13,000 a year in the country, because there just aren't enough organs.

But it turns out that Alonzo has family members that are being tested. He has lots of friends. He's a wonderful person, has done an unbelievable amount for charity and good causes. And he has lots of friends who are coming forward to be tested. And I'm confident, between those people and all the people who are willing to donate, that we will find a suitable donor.

LIN: Does the donor have to be in the same gene pool in order for it to be a match?

APPEL: Well, the donor has to be compatible in terms of the A-B- O blood system. Alonzo is blood type O. And the donor has to be an O. It doesn't have to be an O-positive, O-negative, but it has to be an O. He can't take an A kidney. He can't take a B or an AB kidney.

And we actually have screened some relatives and they were the wrong blood type. They were B's and they're just not suitable.

LIN: So how soon does he need the transplant to live?

APPEL: He would need a transplant within the next month or two.

LIN: That's pretty quick.

APPEL: It's is pretty quick. It's very question, and much quicker than I had expected that -- now, if he doesn't get a transplant, this doesn't mean we're going to Alonzo die. He will get dialysis.

But it's something we'd like to avoid. For Alonzo's lifestyle, to keep him completely healthy and everything, there's nothing that can match a good kidney transplant.

LIN: Yes. How's his attitude these days?

APPEL: His attitude is very good.

He was down the first day or two. The first evening after I told him, I could just tell by listening to his voice how down he was. And, in some ways, he's probably a little lost not playing, not practicing each day, because he works out and practices every day. But, on the other hand, he's a very positive person, has a wonderful, positive attitude, and is already turning around and saying to himself, look, this is the next challenge. The next challenge is a kidney transplant. How do I come across and get there?

And he will do it.

LIN: If he gets a kidney and is transplanted successfully, can he come back to play basketball? Would he?

APPEL: This is a very difficult question.

Now, I know Sean Elliott has looked -- Sean Elliott, who played for the Spurs, came back and played with a kidney transplant from his brother and played for an entire season. But there's a little difference. Alonzo has been playing a long time. He's a center. And it's very bruising. As a doctor watching him play center, it's like watching your son play in little league. You're always worried about him getting hurt.

And it's a rough sport in there. And I'd be very concerned. The transplanted kidney is not put in where the native kidneys are in the back. It's put in, in the front. And it's exposed to potential damage.

LIN: All right, so his spirits are good. He needs the work in a month. And it's good to see that hundreds of people are coming out on his behalf. And if they can't help him, certainly there may be somebody else out there.

APPEL: I certainly hope so.

One of the things is that you say, well, if there's somebody who is famous and important like this, all these people are willing to donate, well, if they're really altruistic, why not donate for anybody? If they can't give the kidney to Alonzo, if he gets another kidney, give it to somebody else. There are all those 56,000 people. Many of them are just as good people, just as charitable. They deserve it as well.

LIN: Yes, everyone with a family who needs them.

Thank you very much, Dr. Appel. Good luck. And we'll be following this story closely with you.

APPEL: Thank you.

LIN: Well, a few more items now making news around the country.

Candidate Howard Dean took time off from the campaign to attend a solemn duty. He was in Hawaii for ceremonies marking the return of the remains of his brother. Charles Dean had been missing since 1974 during the Vietnam War. He and another civilian disappeared while touring Southeast Asia. His remains were discovered in a rice patty of Laos.

The city of New York City has fired the captain of the ferry that crashed last month, killing 10 people, the reason given, not cooperating with investigators. For his part, Michael Gansas has said he remains too traumatized to talk.

Police in central Ohio are trying to figure out whether a deadly shooting yesterday is connected with eight others since May. In all of them, the gunman targeted vehicles traveling on or near a stretch of highway south of Columbus. The latest killed a 62-year-old woman inside her pickup truck.

Finally, the day before Thanksgiving seemed to go smoothly at airports around the country. The Transportation Security Administration says it set a goal of less than 10 minutes delays at checkpoints and met the target.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: They are next in line. We'll have an exclusive look at the next shuttle crew preparing to get the U.S. space program back in space.

You're watching NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: As the work of fixing the space shuttle program goes on, nobody knows for sure when the first flight since the Columbia tragedy will actually take place. But if the when isn't known, the who is, as in who will fly whenever the moment arrives.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN COLLINS, NASA ASTRONAUT: Up. I wanted to fly up.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's not sure when it will happen or what it will take to get there. But Commander Eileen Collins says she and her crew will be ready to fly the first shuttle mission after Columbia, perhaps as soon as September, 2004, more likely early 2005.

COLLINS: This is very hard. The engineering and the organizational changes that we're making are very difficult, but I have confidence that we're going to get there.

O'BRIEN: And in some areas, they're making good progress. On board NASA's plane that simulates weightlessness in brief spurts, affectionately known as the vomit comet, they're refining a technique for repairing damaged insulating tiles in space, using everything from a custom-made goo gun to a 25-cent foam paint brush.

(on camera): You feel confident, if it ever had to be done for real in orbit, it could be done?

SOICHI NOGUCHI, NASA ASTRONAUT: I think this could be done, yes. And still need a couple practice to make it most safer and easier to operate. But, right now, I think it's really a good solution.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): NASA engineers also believe they have a good solution to reduce the risk of insulating foam falling off a shuttle's external fuel tank during launch, which caused the fatal breach in Columbia's wing.

NASA's proposed fix: Remove the foam from the high-risk areas, struts that attach the orbiter and tank, using heaters to keep them from icing up. But changes like that bring a raft of new concerns for the new shuttle program manager, Bill Parsons.

BILL PARSONS, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: As we do other things to this vehicle, we have to understand how that impacts the entire vehicle and what we might have created, another hazard.

O'BRIEN: And there is still at least one engineering riddle without an answer. The foam that struck Columbia breached a carbon panel protecting the orbiter's left wing. The craft disintegrated two weeks later during the heat of reentry, killing the crew of seven.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, we have the plug concepts.

O'BRIEN: NASA is testing some on-orbit carbon-panel repair ideas, a flexible cover, a balloon to fill the void behind a panel, an adhesive patch, or an umbrella-like hole plug. The ideas are new and the engineering jury is still out.

PARSONS: It's like this. We have good days. We have bad days. So, when things don't go as planned and we have to step back and reassess it, well, then, that does take away from us. But these folks are real resilient.

O'BRIEN (on camera): As it turns out, fixing the falling foam or broken thermal tiles or carbon panels may be the easier task now facing NASA, because, along with the nuts-and-bolts recommendations, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board also suggests, NASA cannot fly safely unless it reengineers its culture.

(voice-over): The board said shuttle managers were not listening to their own people, that they ignored many warnings from mid-level engineers. Those managers say they hear the concerns loud and clear.

(on camera): Do you do things differently? Are you thinking differently than did you before?

COLLINS: Let me tell you what I'm doing. As the commander of the next mission, I'm telling my crew, we all need to listen. When people talk to us, we need to listen.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Listening to co-workers. On the voyage to space, technology itself can only take you so far.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, time to head to the movies, the blockbusters and the bombs. We'll figure out which is which with Peter Bark from "Variety' in just a moment.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Along with the ads for Christmas Barbie, Chia Pets and the Clapper, you soon won't be able to avoid ads for the mass of new movies that will be opening in the next few weeks.

So, in order to separate blockbuster from bomb, we've brought in an expert. And while we're not sure he has any opinion about the Clapper, we're sure Peter Bart has plenty of opinions about what the movie studios have been up to. He's the editor of "Variety" and has also written a novel about Hollywood's strange ways called "Dangerous Company." He joins us now from Los Angeles.

Welcome, Peter.

PETER BART, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "VARIETY": Good evening.

LIN: What do you just love out there?

BART: Well, of course, this weekend has something for everything.

It's the start of the great Christmas sweepstakes, which are very important to the studios, getting to be as important as the summer season.

LIN: Right. So we've got some blockbusters coming up. I'm waiting to see Tom Cruise and the "Samurai." What do you think?

BART: Well, the "Samurai," "Master and Commander," of course, the third iteration of "Lord of the Rings."

It's interesting. This year, more than ever, at this time of year, the season is dominated by $100 million-plus pictures, just as summer is, with these enormous blockbuster campaigns. So the more traditional Oscar pictures, like "In America" this weekend is -- the more traditional Oscar pictures are fading from the scene, really. They're being pushed out at Christmastime.

LIN: So are you not going to see anything? Nothing impresses you out there?

BART: Well, one picture I had a good time at was "Bad Santa," which can best be described as the Christmas movie from hell.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: This is Billy Bob Thornton.

BART: Billy Bob, who plays a somewhat inebriated Santa.

But if you remember "The Miracle on 34th Street," this is sort of the nightmare on 42nd Street. I wouldn't take the children to it, but it's a lot of fun.

LIN: Yes. What about "Last Samurai"? I've got to get my Tom Cruise fix here.

(CROSSTALK)

BART: Well, absolutely. You know, that's a big saga, period Japan. Tom -- it's the ultimate movie star picture. And he's terrific in it. It's a very long and serious story. "Master and Commander" is an excellent sea picture as well. That is, again, period, 1805, great piece of filmmaking, though, a lot of good movies out there.

LIN: Yes.

Anything you hate out there? You just say, forget it, don't even bother?

BART: Well, I don't want to do that.

There's always somebody out there who will like everything. There's some very somber pictures out there. "The Missing" is a Western with Cate Blanchett, directed by Ron Howard. It's also a very somber picture, as is "21 Grams."

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: That's a movie you don't even want to see. You won't even go to see that. There's a lot of buzz about Benicio Del Toro in this film.

(CROSSTALK)

BART: It's an excellent picture. I just -- you want to drink first before you take that on. That's all.

LIN: What's it about?

BART: I'm not even going to tell what you it's about. I'll let you discover it.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: We can't even talk about it.

All right, what about "Cold Mountain," Nicole Kidman and Jude Law? This is a movie that I've been looking forward to ever since I read the book.

BART: This is sort of a throwback to "Gone With the Wind." It's a serious Civil War drama. No one has seen it yet. In the next couple of days, there will be the initial screenings. But it certainly is a major Oscar contender going in.

See, the extra little bonus that the studios have in unleashing their big pictures at this time of year, despite -- in addition to hoping for big grosses, they hope for some Oscar nominations, because, as they saw last year with "Chicago," winning an Oscar gave it another $45 to $50 million in worldwide gross. That's a nice incentive to open a movie at this time of year.

LIN: You bet. But something like "Cold Mountain" really has to meet the public's expectations. And they are pretty big at this point.

BART: And also the expectations of the Academy. And this year, all of that is tighter, because the Oscar season has been reduced in length. And, also, those famous screeners that go out to Oscar voters and to critics, they're not going out this year.

LIN: All right, well, thank you very much, Peter Bart, for the preview. Now we can spend our dollars a little more wisely.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Peter Bart of "Variety," you have a good holiday.

BART: Thank you.

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

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Before we go tonight, an update of our top story.

A Chinese immigrant pleaded guilty today to illegally exporting sensitive electronic components to China, some of which can be used in missile systems. Gao Zhan has been in the headlines before. She was at the center of an international incident not long ago, after China threw her in jail on charges of spying for Taiwan.

Tomorrow, on the program, a special hour. NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen has put together a remarkable look at the wounded and injured of Iraq and Afghanistan and the people helping them on the long road back home.

And that's NEWSNIGHT for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm Carol Lin.

Stay tuned for "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT."

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