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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Iowa: Four-Way Tie; Unofficial Pictures Of Hussein Circulate On Internet; President Bush Visits Martin Luther King's Grave Amidst Protesters

Aired January 15, 2004 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
Maybe Iowa is more important than it ought to be. Maybe the state hardly mirrors the country. Maybe it really isn't the great political barometer we'd like to believe it is sometimes.

Maybe all of that is true but still perception often trumps reality and so Iowa counts, not for everything but it counts and, as the caucuses draw near, it is clear that Iowa is a race, a real race and in some respects a telling race.

It is Iowa that begins the program and starts the whip. It begins in Des Moines and our Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, Candy a headline.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, all of the politicians and most of the journalists say the polls don't mean much at this point but I can assure you everyone is watching them as they grow closer and closer and closer. And, of yes, the '04 Democrats have one less rival to worry about.

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

On now to Iraq and a political show of force there today, CNN's Karl Penhaul with the watch, Karl, a headline.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. A cleric flexing his political muscles against the coalition and meanwhile it's Saddam's last day on the bank notes at least.

BROWN: Karl, thank you.

Next to the complications back home, the president's top administrator in Iraq is now in Washington. He's at the White House tomorrow. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King is there tonight, John a headline.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At the White House tomorrow, Aaron, and then to the United Nations on Monday, the Bush administration which for months has kept the United Nations at arm's length now wants its help dealing with those problems with the political transition on the ground in Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: John, thank you. And finally to the Pentagon and what looks to be pictures of Saddam Hussein's first moments in captivity, Jamie McIntyre there for us, Jamie a headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Saddam's picture may be off the bank note in Iraq but new pictures of him are circulating around the Internet taken right after his capture. The Pentagon didn't release them and they won't say they're real but they appear to be and we'll show you what they do and do not show.

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

Also coming up on the program tonight we'll celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday today by visiting some of the places now bear his name. This is a quite a cool story.

Later we'll go "On the Rise" with Meet Up, a Web site that has changed the way people meet to discuss everything from politics to pugs.

And we'll meet up with the rooster at the end of the program to check your morning papers for Friday, all of that and more in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight in Iowa. Four days to go until the caucuses, six candidates remaining and not enough space between four of them at least for the pollsters to hedge. This time there is no need to hype it. It's close and tonight at least there's no telling what Monday night will bring.

We start with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): In the depths of an Iowa winter comes a white hat presidential race, the promise of a free for all. The latest indication is a KCCI TV poll showing Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards within a four point range of each other.

But you don't need numbers to tell you this thing is changing. You hear it in their voices. John Edwards was up ten points in a week.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't leave here today without signing up. We need you. I need you. I need every one of you at these caucuses on Monday night.

CROWLEY: You can see it in their TV ads. Richard Gephardt fell three points.

ANNOUNCER: How much do you really know about Howard Dean? Did you know Howard Dean called Medicare one of the worst federal programs ever?

CROWLEY: Nearly everything about them says things are moving. John Kerry showing upward movement hired a helicopter to drop in and out of Iowa's towns. Everything about them says home stretch, run it wide open.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Stand up. Take on the special interests. Take on Washington. In 1992, Bill Clinton said it's the economy stupid. This time it's the people stupid. Washington is going to change and we're going to change it.

CROWLEY: People-powered Howard, as his campaign calls him, picked up one more person Wednesday in Carol, Iowa, get it?

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, FMR. DEMOCRATIC PRES. CANDIDATE: I'm here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand for me in Monday's caucuses and ask that you stand instead for Howard Dean.

CROWLEY: She was broken nowhere in the polls but Carol Moseley Braun bowed out consoling herself with having gone further than any female presidential candidate.

BRAUN: We will get there one day.

CROWLEY: Braun's endorsement brought out the warm and fuzzy Howard Dean but as he stood with the support of former Senator Braun and Iowa's veteran Senator Tom Harkin it begged the question what's a beltway basher doing with all these insiders?

DEAN: I believe I can bring in the people who have been inside the beltway. They just simply -- they're all good Democrats. They're going to want to win. They just need to be retrained.

CROWLEY: The truth is Braun probably didn't have enough voters to make a difference but the picture was worth the plane flight for the Dean campaign as it fights the perception that the frontrunner has stalled.

DEAN: First of all not much is happening in the polls and second of all the polls really don't matter in the last few days. It's all organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: And he is right about that and that is what begs the major question of the Dean campaign. Can Howard Dean take his cutting edge Internet-powered campaign and turn it into an old-fashioned grassroots turn out the vote machine -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right. Let me try and put two questions in one. Is the Edwards move attributable to anything other than the newspaper endorsement he received? Well, let's start there.

CROWLEY: I think so. He got a lot of good press and certainly we heard from people after the debates, people that were listening to them, that they thought he was very impressive in the debates.

And, remember, this is a trial lawyer. He's very quick on his feet and a lot of people were impressed with how he handled himself in these debates. And, he's the one guy that hasn't gone -- I mean he's been Mr. Smiley, no negative ads, no tough words.

This is all about, you know, thinking oh, all this anger, we don't need that. We need to look ahead. We need to have a vision. So, he's been very upbeat and I think that's helped him too.

BROWN: Someone said to me today, an Iowan said to me today that they thought that that played particularly well in Iowa, which is kind of a gentile state.

CROWLEY: Yes, absolutely and they -- and, you know, everyone here will tell you, look, the people here don't like the negative ads. They don't like all the negative talk.

On the other hand, the candidates are still running those tough commercials and they are still talking tough so, at some level, it does work. I think it's when you reach that magic line and go over and become too mean but you got to figure out where that is.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. We'll talk tomorrow. I'll see you on Saturday.

Other news to report now, in Iraq today tens of thousands of people took to the street in protest. They marched in Mosul in the northern part of the country. About 3,000 people turned out there calling for national unity and rejecting the American plan to start the transition to Iraqi self government by means of committees or caucuses.

What many in this country would concede is an exotic way of picking a candidate isn't exactly going over that well in Iraq, so the marches in Mosul and larger marches elsewhere have turned up most of them inspired it seems by a somewhat reclusive figure who many believe holds true power in much of the country.

Reporting on that CNN's Karl Penhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): No, no to the USA they chant, opposed to the U.S.-led occupation, opposed to the coalition blueprint for the handover of power. This is the political muscle of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of the Shia Muslim majority, now a key power broker.

He once studied with America's arch enemy Ayatollah Khomeini who was regarded as a political moderate. Sistani is calling for general elections to choose an Iraqi transitional government. The coalition administrator said there's no time to organize that before a midyear deadline.

They say the new leadership will be selected by a series of regional committees. But coalition officials and the Iraqi Governing Council are due to meet with the United Nations on January 19. Kofi Annan could be asked to step in and smooth the transition.

ADNAN PACHACHI, IRAQI INDEPENDENT GROUP, INC.: Well, of course this would be one of the things that we'll be discussing in New York, naturally, and we have no idea to what extent the United Nations is prepared to go and whether we can accommodate them or not.

PENHAUL: Away from the political storm clouds, Iraq's blazing a path to a new economic future, end of the road for 10,000 tons of old bank notes with Saddam Hussein's face on it. It's been swapped for the new dinar currency depicting history, nature and famous personalities.

Politically symbolic but the Central Bank also says this is a cornerstone of economic regeneration. Maybe the measure is already working. The new dinar is getting stronger by the day, roughly 1,000 to the dollar, optimism of better economic things to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: Now Grand Ayatollah Sistani does have a cult following. He is also reclusive but he's not an Ayatollah Khomeini nor is he a Mullah Omar and so there's no sign at this stage that he is thinking about leaving any kind of armed resistance against the coalition to press his demands as in the kind of armed resistance that we're seeing in Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq.

The thought is that because he's the spiritual leader of roughly 60 percent of this 25 million population here the thought is that by flexing those political muscles, by pushing his demands through social means, through peaceful means that he can gain what he's looking after -- Aaron.

BROWN: Karl, thank you. It's a considerable cult that is following him.

If it's 60 percent of the population, as Karl just reported, how power is going to get handed over in Iraq will be the focus of a very important meeting at the U.N. on Monday. Paul Bremer will be there. His first stop though is Washington, D.C.

CNN's John King joins us from the White House. John, I think we need to take the American side of what Karl just reported from Iraq. They take at the White House the ayatollah very seriously. He is a major player and he's not considered a bad guy.

KING: Exactly right, Aaron, but they do take him quite seriously so one of the things Paul Bremer will be talking about with the president and the rest of the national security team tomorrow are refinements, the White House calls them, to that caucus plan.

They say flat out that there can be no national election. There are no voter rolls. There has been no census in some time, so they say the ayatollah will not get what he wants, at least not in the short term for national elections and, if he holds out for national elections, the White House is saying back then the U.S. occupation will go on for a whole lot longer.

They know Sistani does not want that, so what they're trying to do is somehow expand participation in the caucuses that meets with his approval. And, Aaron, the most interesting ripple of all this in trying to negotiate that agreement for the first time this administration is now prepared to go to Kofi Annan and ask for help.

BROWN: And let's talk about that. What is it? This time it's serious. I mean there's been some lip service paid to the U.N. in this but they, the White House, need the U.N. right now because?

KING: Because they need a broker, 30,000 people on the streets in Basra today, as Karl Penhaul just reported, the other demonstrations chanting no to America, no to America. The administration hopes if the United Nations comes in you bring the international stamp of approval, if you will, and that you have a middle man, somebody who can broker a negotiation.

And, the administration says, this is proof. Some will call this a shift. Some will call it a flip-flop. The administration will call it an evolution and say it is listening to the members of the Iraqi Governing Council who say we're having a hard time resolving this. We need help. Let's go to the United Nations.

BROWN: And, finally, to what extent, if any, does this end of June deadline for turning the sort of day-to-day civil power over to the Iraqis, how much of that has to do with domestic political concerns for the president's reelection campaign?

KING: Well, the White House would say it has nothing to do with the president's reelection campaign but everything, of course, this president does now has ramifications on his reelection campaign. Nobody here denies that.

They say they will not turn over power until they are confident they are turning power over to a solid, stable, secure new Iraqi government and that is the message, again, back to Ayatollah Sistani, that the United States will have to stay a lot longer if he holds out for national elections. Let's try to reach a deal here.

But it is not secret this president needs to show progress in Iraq to the American people. The Democrats are saying what is happening right now is a dismal failure. The president has to show progress.

One way to show progress is to have caucuses or some kind of elections and to turn over sovereignty on July 1. White House officials say that is still the plan but, Aaron, they do say that if they can't reach a deal on this that deadline could slip.

BROWN: John, thank you, John King, our Senior White House Correspondent tonight.

On to other matters, now you see him, now you don't, now you do again. At the same time Saddam's picture disappeared from the new Iraqi currency, new photos of him taken just after his capture are circulating, where else, on the Internet.

Pentagon officials didn't release the pictures, won't officially verify their authenticity but they do appear to be genuine, the story from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Here's Saddam Hussein right after he was pulled from the infamous spider hole, held down by a U.S. soldier or perhaps a translator or other civilian working with the U.S. military.

While some people have suggested this image may show Saddam bleeding from the mouth, the picture is inconclusive. The unofficial photographs were not released by the Pentagon, which is not commenting on them.

They appear to have been taken by someone in or working closely with the U.S. military and seem to show Saddam Hussein as he's brought into one of his former palaces in Baghdad, now serving as a military headquarters as dozens of U.S. troops look on.

While CNN has not independently verified the authenticity or source of the photos they do appear genuine according to a senior U.S. government official and key details match.

For instance, Saddam appears to be wearing the same clothes and sports the same beard as seen in pictures released by the U.S. government. Another photograph of the box of U.S. currency found with Saddam matches the green case of $750,000 displayed by the U.S. military after his capture.

And, the picture of the commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade, Colonel James Hickey, who commanded 600 troops who took part in the capture matches other known images of Hickey.

The photos don't reveal much more about Operation Red Dawn but they do give a little more of a look at how Saddam Hussein was handled in the hours after his capture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While the release of the photos was not authorized and the Pentagon was not happy that they're out there, it's not clear that anyone is going to be reprimanded. Considering that nearly every soldier in Iraq has a camera in his pocket these days it's unlikely whoever took the pictures will be identified -- Aaron.

BROWN: What does it matter to the Pentagon that these pictures are out there? I mean why a fuss over this at all?

MCINTYRE: Well, of course, there's always a question about what kind of -- whether the United States is adhering to the Geneva Conventions about parading prisoners of war or humiliating them or displaying their pictures.

So, they carefully released only a few and, of course, these were probably taken by somebody basically as a souvenir who then passed them along and they just like to have control over those images but, as I said, it's unlikely anyone is going to be reprimanded about this.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon tonight.

Ahead on the program we go back to Iowa for the panel of political reporters and the latest developments in the presidential campaign.

Later a tour of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America, really neat story, a break first.

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Iowa, as we said earlier, the race is about as tight as it gets, a statistical dead heat according to the latest polls between candidates Dean, Gephardt and now Kerry and Edwards. Not only is there no longer a clear frontrunner, there is one less contender in the mix tonight.

The six who remain are obviously working hard. You figured that part out, not because victory in Monday's caucuses comes with any guarantees but it does offer an opening for all the long shots and a chance to defy expectations. It is a race that has grown in size and stature over relatively few years.

CNN's Bruce Morton has been covering the Iowa caucuses since he was a slightly younger correspondent for CBS News every four years no matter how cold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats held the first one in 1972. They had a frontrunner, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie.

Local political observers say Muskie should wind up with at least half of Iowa's convention delegates and, meanwhile, the string of big name Muskie endorsements continues.

Only a handful of reporters covered it but the news was a strong second place finish by George McGovern, the eventual nominee.

By 1976, everyone knew Iowa mattered. Jimmy Carter just about lived in the state.

Not very many people will participate in the caucuses, about 40,000 maybe of Iowa's 450,000 registered Democrats. That means this is a good state for a man who can spend time on organization. That may help, for instance, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.

Sure enough Carter won and went on to the nomination and a ton of reporters went caucusing that year. Press coverage has been growing ever since.

DAVID YEPSEN, DES MOINES REPORTER: These things have gotten bigger. There are more people. There's more staff. There's more mail. There's more TV ads. It's just bigger. MORTON: In 1980, a tough Republican contest, Ronald Reagan, who didn't campaign much here, John Connelly, Bob Dole, George Bush.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It will be decided on January 21 who won, who lost.

MORTON: Bush won and claimed Big Mo, momentum, but Reagan won New Hampshire and the White House.

In 1984, Walter Mondale, who had been Carter's vice president.

Iowa produced a very big winner, Walter Mondale. Iowa produced a very big loser, John Glenn.

And, Mondale was the eventual nominee.

In 1988, the huge field including the man who's running this time, Representative Dick Gephardt.

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to change this country in fundamental ways. It's your fight too. Thank you very much.

MORTON: Illinois Senator Paul Simon, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

SEN. PAUL SIMON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see my friend the governor of Massachusetts and his wife Kitty have arrived. Mike and Kitty we're happy to have you here.

MORTON: Gephardt won here but Dukakis walked off with the pancakes. He was the nominee.

In 1992, it was a walk for Iowa's own Tom Harkin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This front section here will be Harkin supporters. This section in the front over here Clinton support -- do we have Clinton supporters here?

MORTON: All Harkin but Clinton, of course, was the nominee.

And so they've gone on, more people, a 24-hour news cycle that never stops. Now react candidate. React, it's live. Say something now.

YEPSEN: I miss the good old days when life was simpler and you could hop in the backseat with a candidate and rattle around the state for a while.

MORTON (on camera): So do I, David. You can still do that, of course, but you have to start really early, maybe a year or two early. Rudolph Guiliani is visiting here next week, next week.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Des Moines.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: That's almost too hard to imagine.

We're joined by a good friend, Judy Woodruff of CNN, and Susan Page of "USA Today," Roger Simon of "US News and World Report." They're all in Iowa tonight working the campaign, good to have you all with us.

Judy, let me start with you. I'm afraid I want to talk a bit about polls. Is there anything about the way polling is done or polling has changed that means we ought to pay more, less, or no attention to the polls right now?

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Aaron, and I know you've been hearing this as much as anybody else, polls in a caucus state like this one are notoriously unreliable.

We have to be careful because you're not just asking people who are you going to vote for. Who do you feel so strongly about that you're willing to give up an entire evening on a cold January night and go over there and commit to that person in essence?

Having said that polls are being taken, there are a couple being taken publicly but primarily they are polls being taken inside these campaigns and they are showing movement. This is a close race.

BROWN: Susan is there -- if these polls are showing movement, first of all to the extent you're reporting goes are they all showing roughly the same thing? And secondly, why the movement?

SUSAN PAGE, "USA TODAY": Yes, there's a public poll we've all been looking at that's shown a great surge for Kerry and Edwards, some trouble, some erosion for Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt staying about the same place he's been.

And campaign pollsters tell us their tracking shows about the same thing, so that gives you some confidence in saying that's where the public is moving but, as Judy points out, it's hard to go to a caucus.

You not only have to go there and spend a couple hours. You have to be prepared to stand up and argue with your neighbor and there are an awful lot of people who might have opinions on politics that would be willing to vote in a primary who are just not willing to do that in a caucus.

Let's keep in mind they think there's going to be record turnout this year in the Iowa caucus but that still means that more than 80 percent of Iowa Democrats won't be there.

BROWN: And, Roger, just on the question of movement again and this perception that Governor Dean has stalled in talking to people is it a sense that he just, he peaked. That was his number and he wasn't going to go beyond that or that there is some erosion here?

ROGER SIMON, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": You can come up with almost any explanation you want. He doesn't look particularly good on the stump in Iowa. He looks a little irritated. Perhaps he believes the poll numbers even if his campaign doesn't.

But where he hasn't peaked is in his organization. I mean Dean and Gephardt are the two campaigns in Iowa that have been organized the best the longest and, as both Judy and Susan have said, that ought to mean something on caucus night here.

You have to have the people who have rented the cars to take the people to the polls. You have to have the people to door knock. You have to have the people to work the phones and you can't do it in the last five or six days. You've had to have those people for a long time making those phone calls and identifying your voters.

BROWN: Let me -- it strikes me there's a couple ways to answer this. I'm curious where all of you will go with it. Do you think to any degree it is good for the Democrats to be in a horse race, to have it close? Is that in any sense helpful or would the party be better off as it looks towards the general election as sort of closing this deal out early and moving on -- Judy?

WOODRUFF: Aaron, in the purest sense, sure. It would be great for the Democratic Party if they had all coalesced around one really strong candidate here in January and that person could bring in all the money and win all the support and go roaring into the summer conventions and so forth.

The reality is, it's not that way. It's very seldom, if ever, that way. What this does though, this very tough process, which some people say is too tough because these guys are saying really nasty things about each other is it does season whoever comes out and wins the nomination. They will have fought a tough contest in order to get to the convention and that presumably will stand them in better stead against President Bush.

BROWN: Susan, same thing if you can quickly, is it in any sense beneficial to have this very close race as they come out of Iowa no matter what, sort of no matter how the four shake out, the top four, does it help the party or hurt the party?

PAGE: Well, if you think Howard Dean is a weak general election candidate and there are a lot of Democrats who do, it's probably a good thing because Howard Dean was that phenom of last year.

He was headed toward, we thought early, easy victories in Iowa and New Hampshire perhaps and the fact that he stumbled is good news for those people who think he wasn't the best candidate for the (AUDIO GAP).

BROWN: Well, we had a satellite problem. I know what that looks like. We'll see if we can get it back. We got it back. Susan, are you there?

PAGE: I'm still here. Are you still there, Aaron?

BROWN: I got to be here until 11:00 no matter what. Satellites come. Satellites go. Do you want to finish the thought in 20 seconds? PAGE: Right. I mean it's good news if you think there's an alternative candidate to Howard Dean that's going to be a stronger general election candidate for the Democrats. Democrats disagree about that.

BROWN: Let me -- all right. We're going to end it there. We'll get you all back before this is over and see where this goes because ultimately, it seems to me, we have to write a lead for Tuesday morning and that's going to be an interesting lead if it's close. Thank you all, apologies for the satellite problem.

Still ahead on the program, back to the Red Planet, we can send a guy to Mars. Wait we can't do that yet. As the Martian rover rolls on to the surface for the first time, we'll take a look at that.

Around the universe, almost, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It was a journey of just 10 feet or so that lasted but 78 seconds, but it did set the champagne flowing again. The rover Spirit rolled on to Martian soil today with no snags. For mission scientists, the real fun is about to begin.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Eleven days after it reached the surface of Mars, NASA's Spirit rover is making tracks in the rust-covered soil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and discovery.

O'BRIEN: Spirit's trip off its landing pad was modest, no more than 10 feet. Just the fact that it happened and the rover sent back picture postcard proof was enough to launch another celebration in the control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

JENNIFER TROSPER, MISSION MANAGER: Now we are the mission that we all envisioned 3 1/2 years ago. And that is very exciting.

O'BRIEN: Next, the team will see if Spirit is smart enough to avoid hitting a big rock or driving into a deep hole. The on-board computer is designed to keep the golf-cart-sized rover out of trouble.

And while the team has tested it repeatedly in an ersatz Mars they built in Pasadena, there's nothing quite like the real thing. So far so good for the engineers who got Spirit this far. The rest is up to the scientists.

CHRIS LEWICKI, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: So now is the time where we kind of hand over the keys. We're like -- you know, we've got to drive the night sports car. But, in the end, we're just valets bringing it around the front and handing the keys over to the science team, ready to go.

O'BRIEN (on camera): And they're making a beeline for a crater roughly 300 yards away. Scientists believe there's a good chance there are rocks there that could unlock the big Martian riddle: Where did all the water go and, by inference, was there or is there life in this harsh, forbidding place?

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And speaking of Mars, you only have eight -- that's right, just eight more days to get your 3-D glasses we mentioned to you last night. Next Friday, a week from tomorrow right here on this program, Miles O'Brien will take us on an exclusive 3-D tour of Mars, next Friday, a week from tomorrow.

Now, here is the catch. You're going to need to get or make 3-D glasses, you know, something really attractive like that, to watch what is sure to become known as a 21st century television event. These are -- honestly, they're cheap, or free, in some cases. If you want, however you can go out and get the really cool ones that television anchors have. They are not free or cheap at all. They are, however, just as goofy as the other ones.

For a nifty link to some instructions on how to make your own -- and there's no reason you can't make your own, by the way -- go to our Web page. Listen carefully, please, CNN.com/NEWSNIGHT -- CNN.com/NEWSNIGHT. Or you can buy them. Go directly to RainbowSymphony.com, EyeTricks.com, 3DGlasses.com, or 3DGlassesOnline.com. By next week, we'll have like 700 of these sites. They all assure us they can get you your glasses in just a couple of days. That's next Friday. Our Web page has all the details.

And remember, please, if you make your own, be sure to get your parents' permission before you use a scissors, OK? Next Friday.

On to a sign of the times, one man's way of saying, in so many words, that the current diplomatic impasse between the United States and Brazil over consular matters and territorial integrity is counterproductive in so many words, or in one dramatic gesture.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Did American Airlines pilot Dale Hersh mean to hold that piece of paper using his middle finger? It sure looked off-color to Brazilian officials at the airport. Brazil's ambassador to the U.S., Rubens Barbosa, called it obscene and said the pilot argued with authorities over security procedures.

RUBENS BARBOSA, BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: It was a gesture that here in the states is not a proper one. We know in Brazil what this gesture means.

CANDIOTTI: Hersh's finger flex got him arrested and the rest of the 11-member flight crew detained, then given the boot, or, as the Brazilians put it, denied entry.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They said it was related to an incident involving disrespect for Brazilian authorities.

CANDIOTTI: Hersh's action being interpreted as the latest tiff over new security procedures between in Brazil and the U.S.

In Brazil, arriving Americans have had to submit to fingerprints and photographs ever since the U.S. this month started photographing and fingerprinting all visitors with visas at U.S. airports. About 27 countries are exempt. Brazil isn't one of them. Brazil's president has asked President Bush to reconsider.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a way, this is a discrimination. And this is being felt by the Brazilian population in general.

CANDIOTTI: U.S. officials insist it wouldn't think of telling Brazil what security measures to use and vice versa.

ROGER CHRISTENSEN, U.S. TOURIST: Obviously, it's somewhat offensive to feel like you're being fingerprinted when you haven't done anything wrong. But I also understand that it's a response to what's going on in our country.

CANDIOTTI: Brazil's tourism trade now trying to smooth things over by greeting Americans with free T-shirts and rather colorful samba dancers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the reception's wonderful. Thank you.

CANDIOTTI: As for the American Airlines pilot, he was freed after the airline paid a $12,000 bail. American issued a statement: "The company apologizes to the Brazilian government, the airport authorities, the police or anyone else who may have perceived anything they believe to have been disrespectful. The captain and other crew members certainly meant no disrespect."

(on camera): In their own gesture of goodwill, Brazilian officials say the pilot's bail will be donated to charity, adding, the pilot is welcome back any time.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few more items making news today, starting here right at home. And I do mean at home with the weather.

It's zero tonight in Manhattan, which is much colder than zero anywhere else, minus-nine in Boston, dangerously, terribly cold from Ohio on east. The roads are icy, homeless shelters full. Said one emergency worker in Boston tonight, "This is our Hurricane Hugo." Today was the last day for countries to get in their bids for the 2012 summer Olympic Games. Among the contenders, Havana, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Moscow and New York. It will be warmer by then. The International Olympic Committee will announce the winner July the 6th, 2005.

And in Honolulu at the Sony Open, it doesn't look like Michelle Wie will make the cut. But, wow, she was something today. The 14- year-old teed it up with the big boys and she did just fine, thank you, shot two over par. At 6 feet tall, she outhit her playing partners more than once, and, said one of the men: "Well, we didn't have much in common. I realized that when I asked her when she was going to get her driver's license."

She did just fine.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, Martin Luther King's legacy on streets around America that bear his name.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It says something about how old we are or how young he was when he died to say that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 75 today.

President Bush laid a wreath at his grave this afternoon in Atlanta, where the president's welcome was not altogether warm. Several hundred hecklers were there to greet him. They saw the visit as political. A couple were arrested. Officials at the organization founded by Dr. King's widow say they extended no formal invitation to the president, but did accept his offer come to come down there.

It speaks to mixed feelings, perhaps, less to do with the president or the next president than what's been accomplished in the years since Dr. King was assassinated and, of course, what remains to be done. And it played out across the country, up and down streets that bear his name.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN TILOVE, AUTHOR, "ALONG MARTIN LUTHER KING": "There is a road that winds its way through the heart and soul of black America. It may be called a boulevard, a drive, an avenue, a street or a way. But it's always named Martin Luther King."

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The words are those of author Jonathan Tilove. The pictures are those of photographer Michael Falco. Together, they set out on a journey that resulted in this book, "Along Martin Luther King: Travels on Black America's Main Street."

TILOVE: The book was an attempt to see where a trip along Martin Luther King streets across America would lead.

BURKHARDT: In many ways, it's just one long street, from Miami to Chicago, from Dallas to Thomaston, Georgia, where a hand-painted sign points the way.

(on camera): This was not the first street to be named for Martin Luther King Jr., but it might be a good place to start our journey. It's where his journey started, here in Atlanta. An MLK Drive runs right by where he used to go to school. He graduated from there, Booker T. Washington High School.

TILOVE: This is one of the grandest of the streets, one of the longest. So, this would have been his neighborhood over the last years of his life. His funeral cortege would have passed right under this bridge here.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Unlike most MLK streets, this one actually goes through some white areas, downtown, past the statehouse, and finally ends up, of all places, here at Oakland Cemetery, final resting spot for some 3,000 Confederate soldiers and Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone with the Wind."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do we know how to thank him for the difficult times and how he has always kept us around?

BURKHARDT: This is another place that MLK Boulevard leads to, Belle Glade, Florida, and the T-shirt shop of Lester Finney.

LESTER FINNEY, SHOP OWNER: Any Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard you go, it's not going to be a dead street. It's going to be people there. And so if it's black people there, OK. If you want to call it a black street, you can. But it's a street that has a black man's name.

TILOVE: There are people like Lester Finneys and people like Lester Finney on each of these streets who kind of, without title or portfolio or any kind of pay or recognition, hold these streets together.

BURKHARDT: Then there's those little odd connections, in Selma, Alabama, the corner of MLK and Jeff Davis. Or, in Harlem, it was on this MLK, then 125th Street, that King was stabbed and nearly died in 1958; 40 years later, in Jasper, Texas, it was on MLK Street that James Byrd hitched a ride in a pickup, only to be chained to a bumper and dragged to his death.

Still, the name Martin Luther King has always meant hope. And that's what you'll find on his streets.

FINNEY: Every time you ride down the street and you're looking for a location, you're going to recognize a name that means positivity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Brighter days.

FINNEY: Oh, I just love that song. BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Next on NEWSNIGHT, "On the Rise" with a Web site that's changing the political scene and more America.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Among other things, the dead heat in the Iowa race speaks to the power of the Internet in this election year, particularly for Howard Dean, which brings us to our "On the Rise" segment and MeetUp.com, a Web site that brings people with something in common together, whatever it may be.

It began when a Harvard professor wrote a book about the collapse of the American community. He called the book "Bowling Alone." Scott Heiferman couldn't resist the challenge. He set out to solve the problem. And, for many, he did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT HEIFERMAN, CO-FOUNDER, MEETUP.COM: MeetUp is sort of like Hallmark. Hallmark invents holidays. What do you expect when you go to a meet-up? It's people in your neighborhood that have common interests.

The way that MeetUp works is that the system creates a single day every month where people all around the world can meet up around that one topic.

MATT MEEKER, CO-FOUNDER, MEETUP.COM: Give a zip code, tell us what you're interested in and we'll send you some e-mails making sure you get the right information.

HEIFERMAN: The first Wednesday of every month is the Howard Dean meet-ups. Recently, 900 locations across America had these Howard Dean meet-ups.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are 130,000 Americans all across this country joining us in these meet-up discussions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has anybody been to a meet-up before?

HEIFERMAN: We didn't think it was going to be used as a political tool. And, boom, you have all these people saying that it's the great political mobilizing tool of the presidential campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MeetUp.com is not just about politics, but it's about a lot of hobbyists as well.

MEEKER: Only about 25 percent of our members are signed up for political topics. So there's that whole other 75 percent that are signed up for meeting other dog owners. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a pug meet-up.

MEEKER: One actually really popular topic is dog owners. And so there will be the pug owners or the English bulldog owners. And they just want to meet other people that own these same types of dogs.

HEIFERMAN: And then we see photos of 30 pugs all playing together.

MeetUp was really a simple idea, letting people find the others locally that share that common interest and to organize a gathering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here to brush up on my French.

MEEKER: You can try to do a tasting program. You can set an agenda.

HEIFERMAN: MeetUp is a team of about 17 people based here in New York.

This is the management team here. We just built a platform. It would be absolutely nothing if the people weren't using it. Our job here is to build the tools for people all around the world to organize their meet-ups. And we get the hell out of the way. This is not your typical 1999 dot-com. We knew that we weren't going to raise a huge amount of money and go, you know...

MEEKER: No Super Bowl ads.

(LAUGHTER)

HEIFERMAN: No.

We've never spent a dime on advertising MeetUp, but we put something out there that we think there was a real desire for that didn't exist before.

We've got a long way to go to see MeetUp be an everyday, casual part of America and beyond. Long story short, our goal is to help do a little part in revitalizing American community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "On the Rise."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: OK, I don't what to do with those.

Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world today, a fair amount of politics. We'll start with a couple of British papers. A big day coming in Great Britain; "24 Hours." This is "The Times," kind of center, right of center, I think it's fair to say; "24 Hours That Will Decide Blair's Fate." "Hutton Report" -- that's the report that essentially looked into whether the British intelligence in the Iraq war was sexed up, as they say. "Hutton Report to be Published Day After Vital Vote on Tuition Fees." That's the lead in "The Times."

It's pretty much the lead in "The Guardian," which is a left-of- center paper; "24 Hours in the Life and Death of a Premiership." A picture of Mr. Blair and the same story, basically.

Oh, there was one other thing. Let me go back to this. I almost never do that. Up here, "A Boozy Fop Obsessed with Totty." This is like, I speak this language. I have no idea what that headline means.

"The Des Moines Register" leads with politics, as you'd expect. "Record Turnout Expected" is the headline in Iowa. And "Top Tenderloin. Hamlin Cafe (ph) Serves Supreme Sandwich," something that, if you're going to be in Iowa, you want to know about. "Top Four in Virtual Tie, Latest Polls Show." That's "The Des Moines Register."

"Chattanooga Free Press." I pulled this for some reason. Oh, it must have been this. You think it's easy to remember all these things? "Homeless Lose Access to Library Checkouts. Local Policy Removing Book Privileges Creates Controversy With Advocates." I guess, if you're homeless, you don't get to check books out of the library. I understand why they're doing that. I'm not sure how much sense it makes.

But, anyway, I have an opinion on this one, too, coming up. "Miami Herald" leads with Iraq, more or less. The story that's going to catch your eye, of course, is "The Northeast Shivers." A lot of Northeasterners live down in South Florida, so that makes sense as the lead. Down here is the story I like, though. "Buyers Ask, Where's the Beef From?" There has been this effort to get beef labeled grown in America or raised in America or raised in Argentina or wherever the heck it's raised.

And the industry has fought this tooth and nail. And -- but people want to know. I want to know. Do you want to know? I think you do. Call your congressman.

"The Boston Herald." "Ice Age" is the lead. Quickly, a nice picture there of Boston Harbor and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. We're always proud of them, aren't we?

"USA Today" leads with the Queen Mary 2. "Aboard the Ocean's New Grande Dame, Not Your Grandmother's Queen Mary," though there's a reasonably good chance your grandmother will be on it.

This is the cover of "Sports Illustrated." I just like this because they took a little pop at Rush Limbaugh. Donovan McNabb is the picture. And the headline is, "What a Rush." You may remember that controversy.

The weather tomorrow in Chicago, man, "cranky." So am I. "The Chicago Sun-Times."

Good to have you.

No, wait. We're not going away. We're going to break and then we'll update the stop story. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we leave you tonight, one more look at our top story.

Four days until the Iowa caucuses and the race has turned into a statistical dead heat, at least according to the polls, Howard Dean, John Kerry, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt all within a handful of percentage points there. Carol Moseley Braun dropped out today, throwing her support behind the governor, Governor Dean, that is.

Tomorrow night on this program, with the country closing in on a milestone, 500 Americans killed in Iraq, we'll try to get our arms around the number. NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen has been putting names to numbers and faces to names and stories to it all, where too often we see just statistics. It is powerful and important stuff. Nissen has worked hard on this. Tomorrow night on this program.

Bill Hemmer with a look ahead at "AMERICAN MORNING" now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thank you.

Tomorrow morning here on "AMERICAN MORNING," there's a new novel about a terrorist attack here in the U.S. bearing striking resemblance to the attacks of 9/11. What's so odd about that, you might wonder? Well, the author is a member of Congress. He sits on the Homeland Security Committee in the House. We'll talk to him tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

Hope to see you then -- Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Thank you.

We'll see you tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern time. Good night for all of us.

END

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





Circulate On Internet; President Bush Visits Martin Luther King's Grave Amidst Protesters>


Aired January 15, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.
Maybe Iowa is more important than it ought to be. Maybe the state hardly mirrors the country. Maybe it really isn't the great political barometer we'd like to believe it is sometimes.

Maybe all of that is true but still perception often trumps reality and so Iowa counts, not for everything but it counts and, as the caucuses draw near, it is clear that Iowa is a race, a real race and in some respects a telling race.

It is Iowa that begins the program and starts the whip. It begins in Des Moines and our Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, Candy a headline.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, all of the politicians and most of the journalists say the polls don't mean much at this point but I can assure you everyone is watching them as they grow closer and closer and closer. And, of yes, the '04 Democrats have one less rival to worry about.

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

On now to Iraq and a political show of force there today, CNN's Karl Penhaul with the watch, Karl, a headline.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. A cleric flexing his political muscles against the coalition and meanwhile it's Saddam's last day on the bank notes at least.

BROWN: Karl, thank you.

Next to the complications back home, the president's top administrator in Iraq is now in Washington. He's at the White House tomorrow. Our Senior White House Correspondent John King is there tonight, John a headline.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At the White House tomorrow, Aaron, and then to the United Nations on Monday, the Bush administration which for months has kept the United Nations at arm's length now wants its help dealing with those problems with the political transition on the ground in Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: John, thank you. And finally to the Pentagon and what looks to be pictures of Saddam Hussein's first moments in captivity, Jamie McIntyre there for us, Jamie a headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Saddam's picture may be off the bank note in Iraq but new pictures of him are circulating around the Internet taken right after his capture. The Pentagon didn't release them and they won't say they're real but they appear to be and we'll show you what they do and do not show.

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

Also coming up on the program tonight we'll celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday today by visiting some of the places now bear his name. This is a quite a cool story.

Later we'll go "On the Rise" with Meet Up, a Web site that has changed the way people meet to discuss everything from politics to pugs.

And we'll meet up with the rooster at the end of the program to check your morning papers for Friday, all of that and more in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight in Iowa. Four days to go until the caucuses, six candidates remaining and not enough space between four of them at least for the pollsters to hedge. This time there is no need to hype it. It's close and tonight at least there's no telling what Monday night will bring.

We start with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): In the depths of an Iowa winter comes a white hat presidential race, the promise of a free for all. The latest indication is a KCCI TV poll showing Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards within a four point range of each other.

But you don't need numbers to tell you this thing is changing. You hear it in their voices. John Edwards was up ten points in a week.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't leave here today without signing up. We need you. I need you. I need every one of you at these caucuses on Monday night.

CROWLEY: You can see it in their TV ads. Richard Gephardt fell three points.

ANNOUNCER: How much do you really know about Howard Dean? Did you know Howard Dean called Medicare one of the worst federal programs ever?

CROWLEY: Nearly everything about them says things are moving. John Kerry showing upward movement hired a helicopter to drop in and out of Iowa's towns. Everything about them says home stretch, run it wide open.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Stand up. Take on the special interests. Take on Washington. In 1992, Bill Clinton said it's the economy stupid. This time it's the people stupid. Washington is going to change and we're going to change it.

CROWLEY: People-powered Howard, as his campaign calls him, picked up one more person Wednesday in Carol, Iowa, get it?

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, FMR. DEMOCRATIC PRES. CANDIDATE: I'm here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand for me in Monday's caucuses and ask that you stand instead for Howard Dean.

CROWLEY: She was broken nowhere in the polls but Carol Moseley Braun bowed out consoling herself with having gone further than any female presidential candidate.

BRAUN: We will get there one day.

CROWLEY: Braun's endorsement brought out the warm and fuzzy Howard Dean but as he stood with the support of former Senator Braun and Iowa's veteran Senator Tom Harkin it begged the question what's a beltway basher doing with all these insiders?

DEAN: I believe I can bring in the people who have been inside the beltway. They just simply -- they're all good Democrats. They're going to want to win. They just need to be retrained.

CROWLEY: The truth is Braun probably didn't have enough voters to make a difference but the picture was worth the plane flight for the Dean campaign as it fights the perception that the frontrunner has stalled.

DEAN: First of all not much is happening in the polls and second of all the polls really don't matter in the last few days. It's all organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: And he is right about that and that is what begs the major question of the Dean campaign. Can Howard Dean take his cutting edge Internet-powered campaign and turn it into an old-fashioned grassroots turn out the vote machine -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right. Let me try and put two questions in one. Is the Edwards move attributable to anything other than the newspaper endorsement he received? Well, let's start there.

CROWLEY: I think so. He got a lot of good press and certainly we heard from people after the debates, people that were listening to them, that they thought he was very impressive in the debates.

And, remember, this is a trial lawyer. He's very quick on his feet and a lot of people were impressed with how he handled himself in these debates. And, he's the one guy that hasn't gone -- I mean he's been Mr. Smiley, no negative ads, no tough words.

This is all about, you know, thinking oh, all this anger, we don't need that. We need to look ahead. We need to have a vision. So, he's been very upbeat and I think that's helped him too.

BROWN: Someone said to me today, an Iowan said to me today that they thought that that played particularly well in Iowa, which is kind of a gentile state.

CROWLEY: Yes, absolutely and they -- and, you know, everyone here will tell you, look, the people here don't like the negative ads. They don't like all the negative talk.

On the other hand, the candidates are still running those tough commercials and they are still talking tough so, at some level, it does work. I think it's when you reach that magic line and go over and become too mean but you got to figure out where that is.

BROWN: Candy, thank you. We'll talk tomorrow. I'll see you on Saturday.

Other news to report now, in Iraq today tens of thousands of people took to the street in protest. They marched in Mosul in the northern part of the country. About 3,000 people turned out there calling for national unity and rejecting the American plan to start the transition to Iraqi self government by means of committees or caucuses.

What many in this country would concede is an exotic way of picking a candidate isn't exactly going over that well in Iraq, so the marches in Mosul and larger marches elsewhere have turned up most of them inspired it seems by a somewhat reclusive figure who many believe holds true power in much of the country.

Reporting on that CNN's Karl Penhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): No, no to the USA they chant, opposed to the U.S.-led occupation, opposed to the coalition blueprint for the handover of power. This is the political muscle of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of the Shia Muslim majority, now a key power broker.

He once studied with America's arch enemy Ayatollah Khomeini who was regarded as a political moderate. Sistani is calling for general elections to choose an Iraqi transitional government. The coalition administrator said there's no time to organize that before a midyear deadline.

They say the new leadership will be selected by a series of regional committees. But coalition officials and the Iraqi Governing Council are due to meet with the United Nations on January 19. Kofi Annan could be asked to step in and smooth the transition.

ADNAN PACHACHI, IRAQI INDEPENDENT GROUP, INC.: Well, of course this would be one of the things that we'll be discussing in New York, naturally, and we have no idea to what extent the United Nations is prepared to go and whether we can accommodate them or not.

PENHAUL: Away from the political storm clouds, Iraq's blazing a path to a new economic future, end of the road for 10,000 tons of old bank notes with Saddam Hussein's face on it. It's been swapped for the new dinar currency depicting history, nature and famous personalities.

Politically symbolic but the Central Bank also says this is a cornerstone of economic regeneration. Maybe the measure is already working. The new dinar is getting stronger by the day, roughly 1,000 to the dollar, optimism of better economic things to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: Now Grand Ayatollah Sistani does have a cult following. He is also reclusive but he's not an Ayatollah Khomeini nor is he a Mullah Omar and so there's no sign at this stage that he is thinking about leaving any kind of armed resistance against the coalition to press his demands as in the kind of armed resistance that we're seeing in Sunni Muslim areas of Iraq.

The thought is that because he's the spiritual leader of roughly 60 percent of this 25 million population here the thought is that by flexing those political muscles, by pushing his demands through social means, through peaceful means that he can gain what he's looking after -- Aaron.

BROWN: Karl, thank you. It's a considerable cult that is following him.

If it's 60 percent of the population, as Karl just reported, how power is going to get handed over in Iraq will be the focus of a very important meeting at the U.N. on Monday. Paul Bremer will be there. His first stop though is Washington, D.C.

CNN's John King joins us from the White House. John, I think we need to take the American side of what Karl just reported from Iraq. They take at the White House the ayatollah very seriously. He is a major player and he's not considered a bad guy.

KING: Exactly right, Aaron, but they do take him quite seriously so one of the things Paul Bremer will be talking about with the president and the rest of the national security team tomorrow are refinements, the White House calls them, to that caucus plan.

They say flat out that there can be no national election. There are no voter rolls. There has been no census in some time, so they say the ayatollah will not get what he wants, at least not in the short term for national elections and, if he holds out for national elections, the White House is saying back then the U.S. occupation will go on for a whole lot longer.

They know Sistani does not want that, so what they're trying to do is somehow expand participation in the caucuses that meets with his approval. And, Aaron, the most interesting ripple of all this in trying to negotiate that agreement for the first time this administration is now prepared to go to Kofi Annan and ask for help.

BROWN: And let's talk about that. What is it? This time it's serious. I mean there's been some lip service paid to the U.N. in this but they, the White House, need the U.N. right now because?

KING: Because they need a broker, 30,000 people on the streets in Basra today, as Karl Penhaul just reported, the other demonstrations chanting no to America, no to America. The administration hopes if the United Nations comes in you bring the international stamp of approval, if you will, and that you have a middle man, somebody who can broker a negotiation.

And, the administration says, this is proof. Some will call this a shift. Some will call it a flip-flop. The administration will call it an evolution and say it is listening to the members of the Iraqi Governing Council who say we're having a hard time resolving this. We need help. Let's go to the United Nations.

BROWN: And, finally, to what extent, if any, does this end of June deadline for turning the sort of day-to-day civil power over to the Iraqis, how much of that has to do with domestic political concerns for the president's reelection campaign?

KING: Well, the White House would say it has nothing to do with the president's reelection campaign but everything, of course, this president does now has ramifications on his reelection campaign. Nobody here denies that.

They say they will not turn over power until they are confident they are turning power over to a solid, stable, secure new Iraqi government and that is the message, again, back to Ayatollah Sistani, that the United States will have to stay a lot longer if he holds out for national elections. Let's try to reach a deal here.

But it is not secret this president needs to show progress in Iraq to the American people. The Democrats are saying what is happening right now is a dismal failure. The president has to show progress.

One way to show progress is to have caucuses or some kind of elections and to turn over sovereignty on July 1. White House officials say that is still the plan but, Aaron, they do say that if they can't reach a deal on this that deadline could slip.

BROWN: John, thank you, John King, our Senior White House Correspondent tonight.

On to other matters, now you see him, now you don't, now you do again. At the same time Saddam's picture disappeared from the new Iraqi currency, new photos of him taken just after his capture are circulating, where else, on the Internet.

Pentagon officials didn't release the pictures, won't officially verify their authenticity but they do appear to be genuine, the story from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): Here's Saddam Hussein right after he was pulled from the infamous spider hole, held down by a U.S. soldier or perhaps a translator or other civilian working with the U.S. military.

While some people have suggested this image may show Saddam bleeding from the mouth, the picture is inconclusive. The unofficial photographs were not released by the Pentagon, which is not commenting on them.

They appear to have been taken by someone in or working closely with the U.S. military and seem to show Saddam Hussein as he's brought into one of his former palaces in Baghdad, now serving as a military headquarters as dozens of U.S. troops look on.

While CNN has not independently verified the authenticity or source of the photos they do appear genuine according to a senior U.S. government official and key details match.

For instance, Saddam appears to be wearing the same clothes and sports the same beard as seen in pictures released by the U.S. government. Another photograph of the box of U.S. currency found with Saddam matches the green case of $750,000 displayed by the U.S. military after his capture.

And, the picture of the commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade, Colonel James Hickey, who commanded 600 troops who took part in the capture matches other known images of Hickey.

The photos don't reveal much more about Operation Red Dawn but they do give a little more of a look at how Saddam Hussein was handled in the hours after his capture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While the release of the photos was not authorized and the Pentagon was not happy that they're out there, it's not clear that anyone is going to be reprimanded. Considering that nearly every soldier in Iraq has a camera in his pocket these days it's unlikely whoever took the pictures will be identified -- Aaron.

BROWN: What does it matter to the Pentagon that these pictures are out there? I mean why a fuss over this at all?

MCINTYRE: Well, of course, there's always a question about what kind of -- whether the United States is adhering to the Geneva Conventions about parading prisoners of war or humiliating them or displaying their pictures.

So, they carefully released only a few and, of course, these were probably taken by somebody basically as a souvenir who then passed them along and they just like to have control over those images but, as I said, it's unlikely anyone is going to be reprimanded about this.

BROWN: Jamie, thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon tonight.

Ahead on the program we go back to Iowa for the panel of political reporters and the latest developments in the presidential campaign.

Later a tour of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America, really neat story, a break first.

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In Iowa, as we said earlier, the race is about as tight as it gets, a statistical dead heat according to the latest polls between candidates Dean, Gephardt and now Kerry and Edwards. Not only is there no longer a clear frontrunner, there is one less contender in the mix tonight.

The six who remain are obviously working hard. You figured that part out, not because victory in Monday's caucuses comes with any guarantees but it does offer an opening for all the long shots and a chance to defy expectations. It is a race that has grown in size and stature over relatively few years.

CNN's Bruce Morton has been covering the Iowa caucuses since he was a slightly younger correspondent for CBS News every four years no matter how cold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democrats held the first one in 1972. They had a frontrunner, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie.

Local political observers say Muskie should wind up with at least half of Iowa's convention delegates and, meanwhile, the string of big name Muskie endorsements continues.

Only a handful of reporters covered it but the news was a strong second place finish by George McGovern, the eventual nominee.

By 1976, everyone knew Iowa mattered. Jimmy Carter just about lived in the state.

Not very many people will participate in the caucuses, about 40,000 maybe of Iowa's 450,000 registered Democrats. That means this is a good state for a man who can spend time on organization. That may help, for instance, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.

Sure enough Carter won and went on to the nomination and a ton of reporters went caucusing that year. Press coverage has been growing ever since.

DAVID YEPSEN, DES MOINES REPORTER: These things have gotten bigger. There are more people. There's more staff. There's more mail. There's more TV ads. It's just bigger. MORTON: In 1980, a tough Republican contest, Ronald Reagan, who didn't campaign much here, John Connelly, Bob Dole, George Bush.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It will be decided on January 21 who won, who lost.

MORTON: Bush won and claimed Big Mo, momentum, but Reagan won New Hampshire and the White House.

In 1984, Walter Mondale, who had been Carter's vice president.

Iowa produced a very big winner, Walter Mondale. Iowa produced a very big loser, John Glenn.

And, Mondale was the eventual nominee.

In 1988, the huge field including the man who's running this time, Representative Dick Gephardt.

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to change this country in fundamental ways. It's your fight too. Thank you very much.

MORTON: Illinois Senator Paul Simon, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

SEN. PAUL SIMON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see my friend the governor of Massachusetts and his wife Kitty have arrived. Mike and Kitty we're happy to have you here.

MORTON: Gephardt won here but Dukakis walked off with the pancakes. He was the nominee.

In 1992, it was a walk for Iowa's own Tom Harkin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This front section here will be Harkin supporters. This section in the front over here Clinton support -- do we have Clinton supporters here?

MORTON: All Harkin but Clinton, of course, was the nominee.

And so they've gone on, more people, a 24-hour news cycle that never stops. Now react candidate. React, it's live. Say something now.

YEPSEN: I miss the good old days when life was simpler and you could hop in the backseat with a candidate and rattle around the state for a while.

MORTON (on camera): So do I, David. You can still do that, of course, but you have to start really early, maybe a year or two early. Rudolph Guiliani is visiting here next week, next week.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Des Moines.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: That's almost too hard to imagine.

We're joined by a good friend, Judy Woodruff of CNN, and Susan Page of "USA Today," Roger Simon of "US News and World Report." They're all in Iowa tonight working the campaign, good to have you all with us.

Judy, let me start with you. I'm afraid I want to talk a bit about polls. Is there anything about the way polling is done or polling has changed that means we ought to pay more, less, or no attention to the polls right now?

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Aaron, and I know you've been hearing this as much as anybody else, polls in a caucus state like this one are notoriously unreliable.

We have to be careful because you're not just asking people who are you going to vote for. Who do you feel so strongly about that you're willing to give up an entire evening on a cold January night and go over there and commit to that person in essence?

Having said that polls are being taken, there are a couple being taken publicly but primarily they are polls being taken inside these campaigns and they are showing movement. This is a close race.

BROWN: Susan is there -- if these polls are showing movement, first of all to the extent you're reporting goes are they all showing roughly the same thing? And secondly, why the movement?

SUSAN PAGE, "USA TODAY": Yes, there's a public poll we've all been looking at that's shown a great surge for Kerry and Edwards, some trouble, some erosion for Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt staying about the same place he's been.

And campaign pollsters tell us their tracking shows about the same thing, so that gives you some confidence in saying that's where the public is moving but, as Judy points out, it's hard to go to a caucus.

You not only have to go there and spend a couple hours. You have to be prepared to stand up and argue with your neighbor and there are an awful lot of people who might have opinions on politics that would be willing to vote in a primary who are just not willing to do that in a caucus.

Let's keep in mind they think there's going to be record turnout this year in the Iowa caucus but that still means that more than 80 percent of Iowa Democrats won't be there.

BROWN: And, Roger, just on the question of movement again and this perception that Governor Dean has stalled in talking to people is it a sense that he just, he peaked. That was his number and he wasn't going to go beyond that or that there is some erosion here?

ROGER SIMON, "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT": You can come up with almost any explanation you want. He doesn't look particularly good on the stump in Iowa. He looks a little irritated. Perhaps he believes the poll numbers even if his campaign doesn't.

But where he hasn't peaked is in his organization. I mean Dean and Gephardt are the two campaigns in Iowa that have been organized the best the longest and, as both Judy and Susan have said, that ought to mean something on caucus night here.

You have to have the people who have rented the cars to take the people to the polls. You have to have the people to door knock. You have to have the people to work the phones and you can't do it in the last five or six days. You've had to have those people for a long time making those phone calls and identifying your voters.

BROWN: Let me -- it strikes me there's a couple ways to answer this. I'm curious where all of you will go with it. Do you think to any degree it is good for the Democrats to be in a horse race, to have it close? Is that in any sense helpful or would the party be better off as it looks towards the general election as sort of closing this deal out early and moving on -- Judy?

WOODRUFF: Aaron, in the purest sense, sure. It would be great for the Democratic Party if they had all coalesced around one really strong candidate here in January and that person could bring in all the money and win all the support and go roaring into the summer conventions and so forth.

The reality is, it's not that way. It's very seldom, if ever, that way. What this does though, this very tough process, which some people say is too tough because these guys are saying really nasty things about each other is it does season whoever comes out and wins the nomination. They will have fought a tough contest in order to get to the convention and that presumably will stand them in better stead against President Bush.

BROWN: Susan, same thing if you can quickly, is it in any sense beneficial to have this very close race as they come out of Iowa no matter what, sort of no matter how the four shake out, the top four, does it help the party or hurt the party?

PAGE: Well, if you think Howard Dean is a weak general election candidate and there are a lot of Democrats who do, it's probably a good thing because Howard Dean was that phenom of last year.

He was headed toward, we thought early, easy victories in Iowa and New Hampshire perhaps and the fact that he stumbled is good news for those people who think he wasn't the best candidate for the (AUDIO GAP).

BROWN: Well, we had a satellite problem. I know what that looks like. We'll see if we can get it back. We got it back. Susan, are you there?

PAGE: I'm still here. Are you still there, Aaron?

BROWN: I got to be here until 11:00 no matter what. Satellites come. Satellites go. Do you want to finish the thought in 20 seconds? PAGE: Right. I mean it's good news if you think there's an alternative candidate to Howard Dean that's going to be a stronger general election candidate for the Democrats. Democrats disagree about that.

BROWN: Let me -- all right. We're going to end it there. We'll get you all back before this is over and see where this goes because ultimately, it seems to me, we have to write a lead for Tuesday morning and that's going to be an interesting lead if it's close. Thank you all, apologies for the satellite problem.

Still ahead on the program, back to the Red Planet, we can send a guy to Mars. Wait we can't do that yet. As the Martian rover rolls on to the surface for the first time, we'll take a look at that.

Around the universe, almost, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It was a journey of just 10 feet or so that lasted but 78 seconds, but it did set the champagne flowing again. The rover Spirit rolled on to Martian soil today with no snags. For mission scientists, the real fun is about to begin.

Here's CNN's Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Eleven days after it reached the surface of Mars, NASA's Spirit rover is making tracks in the rust-covered soil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that Spirit is now ready to start its mission of exploration and discovery.

O'BRIEN: Spirit's trip off its landing pad was modest, no more than 10 feet. Just the fact that it happened and the rover sent back picture postcard proof was enough to launch another celebration in the control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

JENNIFER TROSPER, MISSION MANAGER: Now we are the mission that we all envisioned 3 1/2 years ago. And that is very exciting.

O'BRIEN: Next, the team will see if Spirit is smart enough to avoid hitting a big rock or driving into a deep hole. The on-board computer is designed to keep the golf-cart-sized rover out of trouble.

And while the team has tested it repeatedly in an ersatz Mars they built in Pasadena, there's nothing quite like the real thing. So far so good for the engineers who got Spirit this far. The rest is up to the scientists.

CHRIS LEWICKI, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: So now is the time where we kind of hand over the keys. We're like -- you know, we've got to drive the night sports car. But, in the end, we're just valets bringing it around the front and handing the keys over to the science team, ready to go.

O'BRIEN (on camera): And they're making a beeline for a crater roughly 300 yards away. Scientists believe there's a good chance there are rocks there that could unlock the big Martian riddle: Where did all the water go and, by inference, was there or is there life in this harsh, forbidding place?

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And speaking of Mars, you only have eight -- that's right, just eight more days to get your 3-D glasses we mentioned to you last night. Next Friday, a week from tomorrow right here on this program, Miles O'Brien will take us on an exclusive 3-D tour of Mars, next Friday, a week from tomorrow.

Now, here is the catch. You're going to need to get or make 3-D glasses, you know, something really attractive like that, to watch what is sure to become known as a 21st century television event. These are -- honestly, they're cheap, or free, in some cases. If you want, however you can go out and get the really cool ones that television anchors have. They are not free or cheap at all. They are, however, just as goofy as the other ones.

For a nifty link to some instructions on how to make your own -- and there's no reason you can't make your own, by the way -- go to our Web page. Listen carefully, please, CNN.com/NEWSNIGHT -- CNN.com/NEWSNIGHT. Or you can buy them. Go directly to RainbowSymphony.com, EyeTricks.com, 3DGlasses.com, or 3DGlassesOnline.com. By next week, we'll have like 700 of these sites. They all assure us they can get you your glasses in just a couple of days. That's next Friday. Our Web page has all the details.

And remember, please, if you make your own, be sure to get your parents' permission before you use a scissors, OK? Next Friday.

On to a sign of the times, one man's way of saying, in so many words, that the current diplomatic impasse between the United States and Brazil over consular matters and territorial integrity is counterproductive in so many words, or in one dramatic gesture.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Did American Airlines pilot Dale Hersh mean to hold that piece of paper using his middle finger? It sure looked off-color to Brazilian officials at the airport. Brazil's ambassador to the U.S., Rubens Barbosa, called it obscene and said the pilot argued with authorities over security procedures.

RUBENS BARBOSA, BRAZILIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: It was a gesture that here in the states is not a proper one. We know in Brazil what this gesture means.

CANDIOTTI: Hersh's finger flex got him arrested and the rest of the 11-member flight crew detained, then given the boot, or, as the Brazilians put it, denied entry.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They said it was related to an incident involving disrespect for Brazilian authorities.

CANDIOTTI: Hersh's action being interpreted as the latest tiff over new security procedures between in Brazil and the U.S.

In Brazil, arriving Americans have had to submit to fingerprints and photographs ever since the U.S. this month started photographing and fingerprinting all visitors with visas at U.S. airports. About 27 countries are exempt. Brazil isn't one of them. Brazil's president has asked President Bush to reconsider.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a way, this is a discrimination. And this is being felt by the Brazilian population in general.

CANDIOTTI: U.S. officials insist it wouldn't think of telling Brazil what security measures to use and vice versa.

ROGER CHRISTENSEN, U.S. TOURIST: Obviously, it's somewhat offensive to feel like you're being fingerprinted when you haven't done anything wrong. But I also understand that it's a response to what's going on in our country.

CANDIOTTI: Brazil's tourism trade now trying to smooth things over by greeting Americans with free T-shirts and rather colorful samba dancers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the reception's wonderful. Thank you.

CANDIOTTI: As for the American Airlines pilot, he was freed after the airline paid a $12,000 bail. American issued a statement: "The company apologizes to the Brazilian government, the airport authorities, the police or anyone else who may have perceived anything they believe to have been disrespectful. The captain and other crew members certainly meant no disrespect."

(on camera): In their own gesture of goodwill, Brazilian officials say the pilot's bail will be donated to charity, adding, the pilot is welcome back any time.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few more items making news today, starting here right at home. And I do mean at home with the weather.

It's zero tonight in Manhattan, which is much colder than zero anywhere else, minus-nine in Boston, dangerously, terribly cold from Ohio on east. The roads are icy, homeless shelters full. Said one emergency worker in Boston tonight, "This is our Hurricane Hugo." Today was the last day for countries to get in their bids for the 2012 summer Olympic Games. Among the contenders, Havana, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Moscow and New York. It will be warmer by then. The International Olympic Committee will announce the winner July the 6th, 2005.

And in Honolulu at the Sony Open, it doesn't look like Michelle Wie will make the cut. But, wow, she was something today. The 14- year-old teed it up with the big boys and she did just fine, thank you, shot two over par. At 6 feet tall, she outhit her playing partners more than once, and, said one of the men: "Well, we didn't have much in common. I realized that when I asked her when she was going to get her driver's license."

She did just fine.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, Martin Luther King's legacy on streets around America that bear his name.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It says something about how old we are or how young he was when he died to say that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 75 today.

President Bush laid a wreath at his grave this afternoon in Atlanta, where the president's welcome was not altogether warm. Several hundred hecklers were there to greet him. They saw the visit as political. A couple were arrested. Officials at the organization founded by Dr. King's widow say they extended no formal invitation to the president, but did accept his offer come to come down there.

It speaks to mixed feelings, perhaps, less to do with the president or the next president than what's been accomplished in the years since Dr. King was assassinated and, of course, what remains to be done. And it played out across the country, up and down streets that bear his name.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN TILOVE, AUTHOR, "ALONG MARTIN LUTHER KING": "There is a road that winds its way through the heart and soul of black America. It may be called a boulevard, a drive, an avenue, a street or a way. But it's always named Martin Luther King."

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The words are those of author Jonathan Tilove. The pictures are those of photographer Michael Falco. Together, they set out on a journey that resulted in this book, "Along Martin Luther King: Travels on Black America's Main Street."

TILOVE: The book was an attempt to see where a trip along Martin Luther King streets across America would lead.

BURKHARDT: In many ways, it's just one long street, from Miami to Chicago, from Dallas to Thomaston, Georgia, where a hand-painted sign points the way.

(on camera): This was not the first street to be named for Martin Luther King Jr., but it might be a good place to start our journey. It's where his journey started, here in Atlanta. An MLK Drive runs right by where he used to go to school. He graduated from there, Booker T. Washington High School.

TILOVE: This is one of the grandest of the streets, one of the longest. So, this would have been his neighborhood over the last years of his life. His funeral cortege would have passed right under this bridge here.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Unlike most MLK streets, this one actually goes through some white areas, downtown, past the statehouse, and finally ends up, of all places, here at Oakland Cemetery, final resting spot for some 3,000 Confederate soldiers and Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone with the Wind."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do we know how to thank him for the difficult times and how he has always kept us around?

BURKHARDT: This is another place that MLK Boulevard leads to, Belle Glade, Florida, and the T-shirt shop of Lester Finney.

LESTER FINNEY, SHOP OWNER: Any Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard you go, it's not going to be a dead street. It's going to be people there. And so if it's black people there, OK. If you want to call it a black street, you can. But it's a street that has a black man's name.

TILOVE: There are people like Lester Finneys and people like Lester Finney on each of these streets who kind of, without title or portfolio or any kind of pay or recognition, hold these streets together.

BURKHARDT: Then there's those little odd connections, in Selma, Alabama, the corner of MLK and Jeff Davis. Or, in Harlem, it was on this MLK, then 125th Street, that King was stabbed and nearly died in 1958; 40 years later, in Jasper, Texas, it was on MLK Street that James Byrd hitched a ride in a pickup, only to be chained to a bumper and dragged to his death.

Still, the name Martin Luther King has always meant hope. And that's what you'll find on his streets.

FINNEY: Every time you ride down the street and you're looking for a location, you're going to recognize a name that means positivity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Brighter days.

FINNEY: Oh, I just love that song. BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Next on NEWSNIGHT, "On the Rise" with a Web site that's changing the political scene and more America.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Among other things, the dead heat in the Iowa race speaks to the power of the Internet in this election year, particularly for Howard Dean, which brings us to our "On the Rise" segment and MeetUp.com, a Web site that brings people with something in common together, whatever it may be.

It began when a Harvard professor wrote a book about the collapse of the American community. He called the book "Bowling Alone." Scott Heiferman couldn't resist the challenge. He set out to solve the problem. And, for many, he did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT HEIFERMAN, CO-FOUNDER, MEETUP.COM: MeetUp is sort of like Hallmark. Hallmark invents holidays. What do you expect when you go to a meet-up? It's people in your neighborhood that have common interests.

The way that MeetUp works is that the system creates a single day every month where people all around the world can meet up around that one topic.

MATT MEEKER, CO-FOUNDER, MEETUP.COM: Give a zip code, tell us what you're interested in and we'll send you some e-mails making sure you get the right information.

HEIFERMAN: The first Wednesday of every month is the Howard Dean meet-ups. Recently, 900 locations across America had these Howard Dean meet-ups.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are 130,000 Americans all across this country joining us in these meet-up discussions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has anybody been to a meet-up before?

HEIFERMAN: We didn't think it was going to be used as a political tool. And, boom, you have all these people saying that it's the great political mobilizing tool of the presidential campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MeetUp.com is not just about politics, but it's about a lot of hobbyists as well.

MEEKER: Only about 25 percent of our members are signed up for political topics. So there's that whole other 75 percent that are signed up for meeting other dog owners. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a pug meet-up.

MEEKER: One actually really popular topic is dog owners. And so there will be the pug owners or the English bulldog owners. And they just want to meet other people that own these same types of dogs.

HEIFERMAN: And then we see photos of 30 pugs all playing together.

MeetUp was really a simple idea, letting people find the others locally that share that common interest and to organize a gathering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here to brush up on my French.

MEEKER: You can try to do a tasting program. You can set an agenda.

HEIFERMAN: MeetUp is a team of about 17 people based here in New York.

This is the management team here. We just built a platform. It would be absolutely nothing if the people weren't using it. Our job here is to build the tools for people all around the world to organize their meet-ups. And we get the hell out of the way. This is not your typical 1999 dot-com. We knew that we weren't going to raise a huge amount of money and go, you know...

MEEKER: No Super Bowl ads.

(LAUGHTER)

HEIFERMAN: No.

We've never spent a dime on advertising MeetUp, but we put something out there that we think there was a real desire for that didn't exist before.

We've got a long way to go to see MeetUp be an everyday, casual part of America and beyond. Long story short, our goal is to help do a little part in revitalizing American community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: "On the Rise."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: OK, I don't what to do with those.

Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world today, a fair amount of politics. We'll start with a couple of British papers. A big day coming in Great Britain; "24 Hours." This is "The Times," kind of center, right of center, I think it's fair to say; "24 Hours That Will Decide Blair's Fate." "Hutton Report" -- that's the report that essentially looked into whether the British intelligence in the Iraq war was sexed up, as they say. "Hutton Report to be Published Day After Vital Vote on Tuition Fees." That's the lead in "The Times."

It's pretty much the lead in "The Guardian," which is a left-of- center paper; "24 Hours in the Life and Death of a Premiership." A picture of Mr. Blair and the same story, basically.

Oh, there was one other thing. Let me go back to this. I almost never do that. Up here, "A Boozy Fop Obsessed with Totty." This is like, I speak this language. I have no idea what that headline means.

"The Des Moines Register" leads with politics, as you'd expect. "Record Turnout Expected" is the headline in Iowa. And "Top Tenderloin. Hamlin Cafe (ph) Serves Supreme Sandwich," something that, if you're going to be in Iowa, you want to know about. "Top Four in Virtual Tie, Latest Polls Show." That's "The Des Moines Register."

"Chattanooga Free Press." I pulled this for some reason. Oh, it must have been this. You think it's easy to remember all these things? "Homeless Lose Access to Library Checkouts. Local Policy Removing Book Privileges Creates Controversy With Advocates." I guess, if you're homeless, you don't get to check books out of the library. I understand why they're doing that. I'm not sure how much sense it makes.

But, anyway, I have an opinion on this one, too, coming up. "Miami Herald" leads with Iraq, more or less. The story that's going to catch your eye, of course, is "The Northeast Shivers." A lot of Northeasterners live down in South Florida, so that makes sense as the lead. Down here is the story I like, though. "Buyers Ask, Where's the Beef From?" There has been this effort to get beef labeled grown in America or raised in America or raised in Argentina or wherever the heck it's raised.

And the industry has fought this tooth and nail. And -- but people want to know. I want to know. Do you want to know? I think you do. Call your congressman.

"The Boston Herald." "Ice Age" is the lead. Quickly, a nice picture there of Boston Harbor and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. We're always proud of them, aren't we?

"USA Today" leads with the Queen Mary 2. "Aboard the Ocean's New Grande Dame, Not Your Grandmother's Queen Mary," though there's a reasonably good chance your grandmother will be on it.

This is the cover of "Sports Illustrated." I just like this because they took a little pop at Rush Limbaugh. Donovan McNabb is the picture. And the headline is, "What a Rush." You may remember that controversy.

The weather tomorrow in Chicago, man, "cranky." So am I. "The Chicago Sun-Times."

Good to have you.

No, wait. We're not going away. We're going to break and then we'll update the stop story. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we leave you tonight, one more look at our top story.

Four days until the Iowa caucuses and the race has turned into a statistical dead heat, at least according to the polls, Howard Dean, John Kerry, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt all within a handful of percentage points there. Carol Moseley Braun dropped out today, throwing her support behind the governor, Governor Dean, that is.

Tomorrow night on this program, with the country closing in on a milestone, 500 Americans killed in Iraq, we'll try to get our arms around the number. NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen has been putting names to numbers and faces to names and stories to it all, where too often we see just statistics. It is powerful and important stuff. Nissen has worked hard on this. Tomorrow night on this program.

Bill Hemmer with a look ahead at "AMERICAN MORNING" now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Aaron, thank you.

Tomorrow morning here on "AMERICAN MORNING," there's a new novel about a terrorist attack here in the U.S. bearing striking resemblance to the attacks of 9/11. What's so odd about that, you might wonder? Well, the author is a member of Congress. He sits on the Homeland Security Committee in the House. We'll talk to him tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. Eastern.

Hope to see you then -- Aaron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Thank you.

We'll see you tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern time. Good night for all of us.

END

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Circulate On Internet; President Bush Visits Martin Luther King's Grave Amidst Protesters>