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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Trippi Out as Dean Campaign Manager; Democratic Candidates Campaign in South Carolina; Kay Testifies no WMD Found in Iraq

Aired January 28, 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. Success, as they say, has many parents. Failure is an only child. No one knows that better tonight or understands it better than a man most of you have never heard of, a man named Joe Trippi.
Mr. Trippi, as we'll report in detail in a few moments left a very good job today running Howard Dean's campaign. When it was successful raking in all that money, turning the Internet into a cash cow and taking Dean from a relative unknown to frontrunner, Mr. Trippi was a genius. Two defeats later and he's gone.

The shocker in Vermont tops the whip and the program tonight so we turn to CNN's Candy Crowley. Candy, I stole most of the headline. Give me something though.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, as you said, there has been a huge shakeup in the Dean campaign after Plan A, winning Iowa and New Hampshire, didn't work. We have a new chief executive officer of the campaign and one ex campaign manager.

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

On to South Carolina, one of seven states that make the next wave of primaries. Frank Buckley is in Columbia, South Carolina tonight with a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the seven states coming up on February 3rd will test the candidates for the first time in the west and here in the south, also for the first time among a significant number of African American voters and it will test their stamina as they crisscross the country trying to reach voters -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Frank.

To Washington, D.C. and the testimony of the man who was supposed to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, David Ensor covering, David a headline.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, Mr. Kay says he didn't find any weapons. He doesn't expect his successor to find any either. He does say, however, that he thinks the administration was right to go to war in Iraq because of the fear of proliferation of weapons technologies to rogues and terrorist so his conversations, and he's having a lot of them, are providing all sorts of political ammunition for all sorts of politicians -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you.

And finally, Miami and a truly shocking case of a sick prisoner, a youngster whose pleas for help apparently or since this is a legal matter allegedly were ignored, Susan Candiotti covers, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. A 17-year-old dies of a ruptured appendix at a state-run jail and a statewide grand jury -- or rather a state grand jury says it was appalled at its lack of care. Now, two nurses are charged with the teen's murder.

BROWN: Susan, we'll get the details from you in a little bit and back to the rest of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight on the program we'll talk with Senator Edward Kennedy, a key supporter of John Kerry, about where the campaign is now. We'll also get his thoughts on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and a lesson on staying on message at the same time.

We continue tonight our love affair with the still photo, tonight a look at the New Hampshire primary through the stills.

And tomorrow's headlines tonight, where else can you get that but right here? That tells you something doesn't it, all that and more in the hour ahead. We're glad to be back with you.

We begin with the day after the New Hampshire primary now behind the Democratic candidates and looming big just six days from now seven more races all in one day.

For John Kerry these are heady days for the rest of the field varying degrees of desperation setting in. For Howard Dean that meant a major change in a once formidable campaign.

We begin tonight with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): As his rivals were out campaigning in one or several of the seven states that will hold contests next Tuesday, Howard Dean was in Burlington, Vermont in no mood to talk about the turmoil within his campaign.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's not going to be any changes in my staff today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there going to be any changes in coming days?

DEAN: I'm not asking anybody to leave. There may be some additions but nobody is leaving, at least I hope they're not leaving. CROWLEY: It was high tension time in Burlington. When Dean brushed by reporters he had already brought on a Washington veteran to run his campaign and lost his campaign manager in the process.

Roy Neel, a top aid to Al Gore and a Washington adviser to Dean, will come to Burlington to be the chief executive officer. Campaign manager Joe Trippi who set the Internet on fire and ignited Dean's rise from asterisk to frontrunner was asked to stay on in another job but he refused.

Trippi, said one source, flipped out. Later in a tearful meeting Trippi told his staff he was leaving. Later the governor told reporters I hope we can talk him back after he thinks this through a little bit.

After losing the first two contests of the primary season, the Dean shakeup tells the tale of a campaign that has yet to fulfill its own or anyone else's expectations. It is the tale of a campaign struggling both strategically and financially.

Staffers have been told there will be no paycheck for the next two weeks. We have enough to cover current invoices said a source. Dean insisted in a conference call we're not broke but added he does not want to run a campaign in deficit. You are going to see, he promised, a leaner, meaner organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: This evening in Burlington, Roy Neel is settling in and Joe Trippi is saying goodbye to some old staffers. Tomorrow Dean heads for Michigan -- Aaron.

BROWN: We'll get you out of the snow pretty quickly here. What does he get from Mr. Neel and what does he lose in Mr. Trippi?

CROWLEY: You know for Mr. Neel he gets, you know, an old pro and somebody who has run a lot of campaigns. Dean said tonight in a conference call that he felt that it was bigger than Joe and bigger than him and he needed some organizational structure. That's how he put it.

What you lose in Joe Trippi is really what has become the soul of this campaign. This is almost a guru on the Internet to the Deanies, somebody who wrote an e-mail every day some of the staff really liked. He had a temper. He was, as you noted in the beginning, hailed as a genius.

So, they're losing the real character of the campaign, both literally and figuratively and, as I mentioned, the Dean campaign said we tried everything to get him to stay but he wouldn't.

BROWN: Candy, thank you very much, Candy Crowley in Vermont tonight.

That is how Dr. Dean spent his day. His opponents, including the now undisputed frontrunner, Senator John Kerry, spread out across the country barely pausing to catch their breath. Two hundred and sixty- nine delegates up for grabs next Tuesday, the scramble is underway.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): With two wins under his belt now, John Kerry began running a national campaign, first stop Missouri.

JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the Show Me State and we're here to show George Bush the door.

BUCKLEY: Missouri is one of the seven states up for grabs on February 3, the one with the largest number of delegates at stake. One of the most closely watched states next Tuesday will be South Carolina.

It's the first test of the candidates among a significant number of African American voters. A third to a half of the voters will be black and it's the first test of the candidates in a southern state.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not forget where South Carolina is after February the 3rd. I will be back here to campaign in the fall and to represent the state of South Carolina.

BUCKLEY: This is where Senator John Edwards was born and this is where he'll have to fight to stay alive.

EDWARDS: I think that -- I think that I need to win South Carolina and I think I have lots of other opportunities available to me, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri.

BUCKLEY: When Wesley Clark left the state of New Hampshire he too was bound for South Carolina but his plane was diverted to Oklahoma when someone realized the general's long day ahead didn't leave enough time for the flight crew to rest.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is our first stop after New Hampshire and we are so happy to be in Oklahoma this morning and it's just great to be with you here.

BUCKLEY: Like Edwards, Clark now needs a win and his campaign will focus on Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and North Dakota.

CLARK: I'm just a soldier from Arkansas who spent his life trying to help this country.

BUCKLEY: Joe Lieberman's lowly finish in New Hampshire left his campaign fighting rumors he was out already but Lieberman was still standing in Oklahoma.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to unite us again. My whole career is bringing together people across party lines, across normal demographic dividers to make us again what we pledge to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BUCKLEY: And, also remaining in the race the long shots Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton. Al Sharpton expected to be competitive here in South Carolina. Nearly half of the primary voters are expected to be African American.

Al Sharpton is spending a lot of time here in South Carolina and experts here and the polling suggests that Al Sharpton could get anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the vote. At least that was the last polling that we saw.

We're expecting to see all of the candidates here in South Carolina tomorrow for a debate -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, thank you. We'll look forward to the debate tomorrow too.

New Hampshire last night for all the fuss settled nothing though it changed a lot. The candidacies of both Clark and Lieberman look a lot shakier for one thing. They and all the others are now looking, as Frank said, to new battlegrounds in a changed landscape.

Jeff Greenfield tonight on how that new landscape looks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: OK, we know where the candidates are going, to seven states strung from one end of the continent to the other in search of 269 delegates and a showing impressive enough to anoint or resurrect or validate their candidacies.

(on camera): But when they land on the tarmac at Charleston or St. Louis or Phoenix or the other stations on this forced march how will they meet the challenge of making their case? Let's take a look.

KERRY: I love New Hampshire.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): You did what seemed impossible when the year began but now that you're the man to beat the scrutiny and the questions grow tougher. Your potential vulnerabilities are already grist for the media mills and the Bush campaign will be more than ready to paint you as a taller Dukakis.

Your challenge show that you mean to work for every vote and let those Vietnam veterans immunize you on the national security and patriotism front as you did Tuesday night.

KERRY: We're a little older and a little grayer but I'll tell you this we still know how to fight for our country.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We really are going to win this nomination aren't we?

GREENFIELD: Maybe but you really do need to win something pretty soon and the February 3 states don't seem all that promising. Maybe you have the money and the troops to find friendlier ground in Michigan on February 7th, Wisconsin ten days later but with what argument?

DEAN: The power to change this country is in your hands not mine.

GREENFIELD: Your challenge now that you've shaken up your staff, make the call for change powerful enough to paint John Kerry as the agent of the status quo.

EDWARDS: We're going to take this message, this positive uplifting vision of hope...

GREENFIELD: That celebration can't obscure a hard fact, 12 percent of the vote is not a rousing triumph. You put your marker down. You win in South Carolina or it's over.

EDWARDS: We have such important work to do in America.

GREENFIELD: But what's the broader argument that will help you elsewhere should you survive? Your challenge is to make a sunnier more optimistic version of Howard Dean's argument that you are free of the curse of the insider.

CLARK: Never underestimate what a determined soldier can accomplish when he's fighting for his country.

GREENFIELD: Trust us, general, 13 percent of the vote is hard to underestimate. Yes, you head south with money and your Arkansas roots to make a case but what is your case now? It has to be aimed now at Kerry not Howard Dean. Your challenge make the case as the attractive alternative quickly.

For Senator Joe Lieberman, hands down winner of the Mr. Congeniality award, respect did not turn into votes. Your challenge convince your admirers that staying in the race is a principled fight not an ego trip.

(on camera): I guess it's useless to remind ourselves that 98 percent of the delegates remain to be chosen or to point that past campaign where early losers have rallied to become formidable candidates. So let's just note this. In the next 20 days there will be 16 primaries and caucuses that will choose nearly 800 delegates and we may know the identity of the nominee then, definitely, maybe.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight the fallout from the failure to find those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As David Kay testifies on Capitol Hill some members of the Senate call for an independent investigation into what went wrong with American intelligence.

And later the story of the death of a young man in jail and two nurses charged with murder for failing to properly treat his illness, a break first. From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Former top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay had more to say today about weapons of mass destruction and, of course, this is going to cause even more controversy.

In testimony before a Senate committee today his words were quite blunt. It turns out we were all wrong, he told the Senate, wrong to believe Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion, a spectacular U.S. intelligence failure which he says misled the White House and warrants investigation.

Reporting for us CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): The man the CIA sent to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq says the failure to find any reveals weaknesses in America's intelligence agencies.

DAVID KAY, FORMER CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: It turns out we were all wrong probably in my judgment and that is most disturbing.

ENSOR: That judgment prompted questions about what could have gone so wrong.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Do you believe we need an independent outside investigation?

KAY: I generally believe that it's important to acknowledge failure that it is going to take an outside inquiry both to do it and to give yourself and the American people the confidence that you have done it.

ENSOR: That answer pleased McCain and Senate Democrats who are pushing for an outside inquiry into intelligence shortcomings. It did not please the Senate Intelligence Chairman whose committee is finishing up its own report.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: I personally take some umbrage at people who for one reason or another think we need to have an outside investigation before our inquiry is even complete.

ENSOR: Though Kay has created problems for President Bush by saying he expects no weapons to be found in Iraq, Democrats are not happy that he blames the intelligence community not the White House.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Many of us feel that the evidence so far leads only to one conclusion that what has happened was more than a failure of intelligence. It was the result of manipulation of the intelligence to justify a decision to go to war.

ENSOR: Kay repeatedly denied that there was any political pressure to skew the findings on Iraq. KAY: I had innumerable analysts who came to me in apology that the world that we were finding was not the world that they had thought existed and that they had estimated. Reality on the ground differed in advance and never, not in a single case was the explanation I was pressured to do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Kay's explosive comments since leaving the CIA are providing ammunition for all sides in this political year. Irritated intelligence officials argue that Kay's conclusions about the lack of weapons are premature that the search is still on in Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, David Ensor.

The failure so far to find the WMDs has already, as David indicated, become ammunition on the campaign trail but then you probably figured that out too. In the build-up of the invasion of Iraq, the White House spelled out the danger posed by the WMDs in no uncertain terms. Back then the words were unequivocal. The message has since morphed.

From the White House tonight, CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): August, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney making the case for war in Iraq was unambiguous.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Simply stated there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

BASH: After the war ended, Chief U.S. Weapons Inspector David Kay's hunt for those weapons came up empty handed. The administration (unintelligible) then evolved into talk of weapons related programs.

Now that Kay says illicit weapons likely won't be found gone are past White House assertions they'll eventually turn up, placed by promises to review pre-war intelligence while still firmly defending the decision for war from Mr. Cheney in Switzerland last weekend to the president back at the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That Saddam Hussein was a gathering threat to America and others.

BASH: Democrats are hoping to make Kay's revelation an election year issue about the president's credibility.

KERRY: The administration owes the entire country a full explanation on this war, not just their own exaggerations.

DEAN: The president ran as a uniter not a divider and there wasn't any evidence for that anymore than there was for those weapons of mass destruction or all those bombs. BASH: While some Bush advisers privately acknowledge there's a danger Democrats could get some traction, Republicans say there's evidence it won't stick, especially with Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody.

GLENN BOLGER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Americans aren't that focused on whether weapons of mass destruction are found in Iraq or not. There is a perception on their part that it's a good thing that he is no longer in control.

A big political plus for the White House, even in the face of tough questions from Democrats, Kay blamed the intelligence community for faulty information not the White House for manipulating it.

BASH (on camera): In a sign Republicans still see national security as a top political issue for the president, GOP officials tell CNN RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie will give a speech on Thursday using his arsenal of opposition research to whack Democratic frontrunner John Kerry on his defense record.

Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Today's testimony by David Kay leaves open the question was U.S. intelligence on WMD simply bad or was it good intelligence that was used badly? Former CIA Director James Woolsey strongly supported the administration's decision to go to war. We assume he still does and it's good to see him and have him with us again tonight.

R. JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Nice to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Perhaps this is helpful. I hope it is. If we take the politics of this out for a bit explain -- do you believe that Mr. Kay is being straight and honest that the intelligence was bad and the weapons aren't there?

WOOLSEY: I think that's more likely than not. The intelligence officials who are anonymously saying you still need to wait and see do have a point in that some of these volumes may be very small.

For example, Saddam admitted to making 8,500 liters of anthrax after his son-in-law defected in 1995 who was the head of the program and that sounds like a lot but that's actually about one two-car garage full and if it's turned into powder it's four suitcases worth.

So, one can't really say that the search is completely over but if Kay is right, and he has a reputation for I think being a straight shooter, it looks as if this was the first time in history that the American intelligence community had overestimated a weapons of mass destruction program, 11 times.

Beginning in 1949 the "Washington Post" reported this morning, including with Saddam's pre-1991 nuclear weapons programs these programs had been missed or underestimated, India and Pakistan and so forth.

BROWN: But I don't find that anymore comforting either.

WOOLSEY: No. Intelligence is a tough business and it's a matter of judgment but it is -- I think it's far more likely frankly that what has happened here is Saddam's own deception, his intentional deception of his own generals, all of his combat generals thought, according to the "Post" and the "Wall Street Journal" that although they didn't have chemical weapons each of the units on their flanks did and his own scientists deceiving him about the programs, as Kay has reported. It's a complicated and fascinating story.

BROWN: It is all of those things and perhaps others too, including somewhat embarrassing. I'm more interested in the ramifications of it. As best you can kind of work with this the next time an American president or secretary of state or secretary of defense stands up to an international body and says, or frankly to the United States, to Americans, and says American intelligence says X, Y, and Z, why would they believe?

WOOLSEY: Well, I think the answer for the future is if you have a three-legged stool don't try to sit on only one leg of it. The administration had earlier talked about ties with terrorist groups, the awful nature of a dictatorship and weapons of mass destruction programs and the intersection of those potentially being a problem, a serious one partially because terrorists might be given say anthrax.

Because they went to the United Nations in order to get Tony Blair's support and they valued him highly and rightly so, they emphasized weapons of mass destruction, for example, in Secretary Powell's speech instead of this link, possible link with terrorism and the horrible nature of the regime.

After all, Saddam killed approximately ten times as many people as Milosevic, a couple million compared to 200,000 and we went to war with Milosevic twice over human rights alone.

So, the administration I think made a presentational error in not focusing on all of that and by focusing so heavily on the weapons of mass destruction and taking the intelligence community at its word they said the stockpiles, even if they were small stockpiles, they could have killed a lot of people and they haven't found any. It got itself into the box of this being the thing that everybody was focused on but I think it was more presentational than anything else.

BROWN: Mr. Woolsey thanks. It's good to have you with us again sir.

WOOLSEY: Good to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Jim Woolsey the former CIA director.

Some good news, Mr. Woolsey mentioned Tony Blair, for Mr. Blair today who has seen his share of fallout on the WMD issue as well. A report issued today cleared Mr. Blair and his administration of any direct involvement in the suicide of a government expert on Iraqi weapons.

You'll recall Dr. David Kelly killed himself days after he was exposed as the source of a BBC news story that Mr. Blair's office "sexed up a dossier" making the case for war. The incident prompted an inquiry. The senior judge in charge said today that the BBC's report was unfounded. Shortly after that statement the chairman of the BBC resigned.

Before we go to break we'll look at some of the other stories that made headlines around the world starting in Baghdad where investigators are searching for clues as to who might be responsible for today's car bombing outside a hotel frequented by westerners. At least four people died in the blast.

In Afghanistan, a similar story in Kabul, one British soldier was killed, four others wounded when a suicide car bomber set off the taxi he was driving near the land rover the troops were traveling in.

And to Thailand where health experts gathered for an emergency summit in Bangkok on how to stop the spread of the bird flu virus the sides however unable to reach any consensus today.

Still to come tonight on NEWSNIGHT, did Omar Paisley die needlessly and was his death a murder because the nurses who were supposed to treat him did not that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Omar Paisley was no angel. The teenager landed in a juvenile jail after cutting another youngster with a soda can.

The juvenile justice system is still supposed to rehabilitate young people in trouble. But we'll never know if 17-year-old Omar would have turned his life around. He died last June outside his jail cell after complaining for days of severe pain. Now two nurses whose job it was to treat him are facing a possible prison sentence of their own.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Omar Paisley died of a ruptured appendix, allegedly because two nurses at a state-run jail in Miami ignored his pleas for help for at least three days last week. Prosecutors say, they can prove it.

KATHERINE FERNANDEZ RUNDLE, PROSECUTOR: The conduct of the two nurses was so outrageous as to rise to the level of criminal negligence.

CANDIOTTI: The nurses, in handcuffs, are indicted for manslaughter and third-degree murder in what's believed to be a one- of-a-kind case, a grand jury also lambasting the administration and staff at this Miami-Dade County facility for what they call an utter lack of humanity.

RUNDLE: Coldly, coldly and brutally allowed Omar Paisley to spend the last three days of his young life in agony, to finally die alone, sitting in a chair in the hallway.

CANDIOTTI: Omar discovered, says the grand jury, by a volunteer counselor passing by. The grand jury found, one nurse allegedly falsified reports to say she checked on the teen five times.

RICHARD MARX, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She's not guilty. And we will defend her.

CANDIOTTI: The second nurse reportedly told staff she didn't want to examine Omar because of a sick child at home and -- quote -- "She didn't want to catch his virus and take it home." She also pleads not guilty.

CHERRY WILLIAMS, MOTHER OF OMAR: As a medical staff, she's in the wrong field, she in the wrong place.

CANDIOTTI: Omar's mother, herself a nurse's aide at a hospice, now reliving her son's death.

WILLIAMS: I keep ask the question over and over and over, why my son have to lose his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Both nurses are free on bond and face a minimum nine years in prison if convicted. Meantime, it's up to the state and Governor Jeb Bush to decide whether they have the money to pay for the many changes recommended by this grand jury to try to prevent another tragic death at that juvenile jail -- Aaron.

BROWN: Susan, thank you -- Susan Candiotti in Miami tonight.

Some other stories that made news around the country, still in Florida. Florida's Parole Commission voted today to release Ronny Zamora from prison in June, a year early. He was convicted of murder 27 years ago. He was 15 at the time. His lawyers argued that watching too much television caused the teenager to kill. His trial was one of the first to be televised after cameras were allowed in the courtroom.

NASA today released the first color pictures taken by the rover Opportunity. They show layers of Martian rock that could help answer the question whether Mars was formed by water. On the other side of the planet, the Spirit rover is recovering from computer problems. It stopped its science work last week.

And Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, the NFL Hall of Fame receiver, died today in Madison, Wisconsin, where he spent part of his college career. The long bombs caught by Hirsch helped redefine football. His running style determined his nickname. "Crazy Legs" Hirsch was 80 years old.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, "Look At It This Way," our new name for one of our favorite segments, still photography.

Up next, a conversation with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy about why he's supporting John Kerry and more.

But a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If John Kerry ends up winning the Democratic presidential nomination, it won't be because he had all the party bigwigs lining up behind him early on. Howard Dean, who did manage to get some early and important endorsements, is the one who was shaking up his campaign tonight after two second-place finishes, while Kerry seems to be having a fair amount of wind at his back.

What he has had is help from the senior senator from his home state, a man of formidable political skills, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Earlier this afternoon, we spoke with Senator Kennedy about the Kerry candidacy and other things, too, which he turned back to the Kerry candidacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator, just, I guess as quickly as you can, give me a sense, your sense of the state of the Democratic race at this point.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I think my colleague and friend John Kerry is doing very well.

It's a very strong field, but John has done well in Iowa, in the heartland of the country. He's done well up in the Northeast. And now he's traveling down through the South and the Southwest.

First of all, he's been listening very carefully to people. And he's listened to their anxieties and also their hopes and dreams for the future. He's internalized that. He speaks to those issues. And beyond that, he has spelled out a vision for our country for the future. But, most of all, I think, when the people have been going in to vote, both in Iowa and New Hampshire, they are recognizing, John Kerry has the strength, the steeliness, the determination to be a leader.

He was a hero in wartime. He's a strong leader. He's unflinching. It's the kind of leader that we need, not only to lead our country, but to lead our country in the world.

BROWN: How much do you believe Iraq will play in voters' minds come November?

KENNEDY: Well, I think it's a very important issue.

At the time that Americans are losing lives over there, some five lives in the last 24 hours, this has to be of central concern for not just a candidate, but for our country. And I think what we are finding today, with the Kay report, is that Mr. Kay found that there's no weapons of mass destruction. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, we have -- and during the course of those hearings, we found out that the State Department, the Energy Department, and even the defense intelligence had serious questions about where the administration was going and its misuse of intelligence.

John Kerry understands that. John Kerry has -- a veteran. He's a hero. He knows defense policy. He knows foreign policy. And I think he'll make the right decisions to try and make sure that we are able to have American troops return with honor.

BROWN: What I haven't heard from David Kay is a belief that going to war itself was the wrong decision or that the president himself misled the country in that decision. You disagree with both of those things, I guess.

KENNEDY: Well, first of all, whether it's misled or making the wrong determination, I think that the American people were denied the information which was available to the Intelligence Committee and to the community. And if they had, we would not have voted to go to war. I think that's No. 1.

Secondly, even though Mr. Kay thinks it was justified, we have to look at where the greatest threat we have here in the United States. And it's basically the al Qaeda and terror. This war has been a war that we never should have fought. And it's been distracting, in terms of our battle against al Qaeda and the war on terror.

It was interesting, the other night, in the State of the Union address, the president never mentioned Osama bin Laden. We haven't heard his name mentioned. Al Qaeda is alive. It's well. It's killed Americans overseas. It's a serious threat to the -- our country. And I think John Kerry has the strength and has the determination and has the steeliness. You want someone who's going to be constant and who has also -- I think understands these foreign policy and defense issues.

And I think that's what people have been looking for, ultimately, in these caucuses and in the primary.

BROWN: And, finally, Senator, perhaps this is a hanging curve. I hope it's not.

Do you really believe that, in the end, whether it's Senator Kerry or one of the other Democrats, that they can convince the American people, because surely they must, that the Democratic Party, the Democratic position is a better stronger, more secure position on national defense than is the president?

KENNEDY: Oh, absolutely.

One of the most important impressions I formed in this -- in campaigning is going out to those caucus and -- walking into the caucus and seeing people around that are really concerned about the future of this country. They know about -- and particularly the veterans, particularly the veterans. When you have a Jim Rassmann, who was a special forces officer that was blown off John Kerry's ship, boat, small boat, and when John Kerry turned that boat back and hauled Jim Rassmann out of the water, risking his own life, what he has said, we leave no one behind. He didn't leave Jim Rassmann behind. He won't leave veterans behind. He won't leave our national security behind.

These are the inner, steely qualities that John Kerry has. And Americans are appreciating it. I have every confidence that John Kerry, when the next president raises his hand talking about preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, John Kerry is the man to do it.

BROWN: Senator, it's always good to talk to you. Thank you, sir, very much.

KENNEDY: Thank you very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I may be wrong, but I believe the senator is supporting John Kerry. And we're always glad to have him on the program.

A quick check of headlines in our "MONEYLINE Roundup" tonight, beginning with the nearly 15-year-old Exxon Valdez case. A federal judge ordered Exxon to pay about $6.75 billion in damages to Alaskans affected by the spill. This is the latest in a series of rulings on damages in the case, each one of which has been thrown out by higher courts because of the excessive amounts. Exxon says it will appeal today's ruling, too.

Tomorrow, some key testimony in the Martha Stewart case. That's when Douglas Faneuil is expected to testify about her sale of ImClone stock. Faneuil was the assistant to Stewart's broker at the time she sold the stock and, prosecutors believe, will provide the details that support their case against Martha Stewart.

Meanwhile, the markets are an ugly picture. Today, all the major indices -- we love that word -- dropped sharply after the Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates low, but refused to rule out a rate hike in the near future. The markets got hammered.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, "Look At It This Way," a new name for an old favorite of ours, still photos. Tonight, the New Hampshire primary in still life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Political natures are, by their nature, fluid and fast- moving. Next Tuesday alone, as we told you earlier, there will be seven candidates, seven races to cover in one day, which brings us to the election frame by frame, if you will.

Tonight, we continue our love affair with still photos, because we believe that a photograph sometimes can crystallize a story that otherwise gets lost in all the motion and commotion. We start with the New Hampshire primary through the lens of the photographers at "The Concord Monitor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN HABIB, PHOTO EDITOR, "THE CONCORD MONITOR": We spent about a year covering the primary. And one of the things we tried to do is get to know the candidates and the campaign staffs very well over the last year.

And what we try and do is show how they live their lives, how they eat and drink and sleep on the road, how exhausted they get, how frustrated and tired they get. Pictures actually play a large role, because a lot of people would base their decision on a candidate's character and personality and their style. And I think that photographs are the best way, in my opinion, to show what a candidate's personality is really like.

We kind of had a two-part day yesterday. In the morning, we all went out to towns in our region and photographed our community, our local people. I photographed in a 200-year-old town hall people coming to vote. They used a 100-year-old ballot box. There's a real serious tone to the voting. There's a feeling of camaraderie and democracy and excitement, that we take center stage on primary day as voters. But there was also a feeling that this was a very difficult decision.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just served coffee to cold volunteers.

HABIB: Dean giving out coffee in the morning is not as important as Dean giving his concession speech at night. Basically, the mission was to stay at that campaign and just make the best possible picture you can.

This young woman from Tennessee was in the front of the crowd. And she was listening to a song, closing her eyes, and crying just before Dean came up on stage. And myself and other photographers took a picture, because we felt it kind of reflected a lot of the mixed emotions of the night for a lot of Dean supporters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the next president of the United States, John Kerry!

HABIB: I think the only clear winner last night was Kerry. It may seem to the rest of the country just kind of like almost a fait accompli. But it was an incredible surprise to everyone around here the last few weeks that he was able to come back.

Go beyond the surface in your photographs. Look for moments. Look for just that one moment that says something truthful about the candidate or the campaign, and let's put that in the paper. Let's not just buy into the many, many millions of dollars that are spent trying to create an image for the candidate. Let's try and get beneath it and show some level of truth. Most of us are here because we love community journalism. We don't love elbowing with 20 other photographers every day. And I'm ready to get back to covering some town meetings and real local issues. We're all excited that we did what we think is a good job, but also kind of tired and ready to move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The still photos of "The Concord Monitor." And our appreciation to them. And they shot some wonderful pictures. Good for you guys and gals.

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: OK, time -- Aaron, just do the bit. Time to check morning papers from around the country and the world. Here we go.

A couple of British papers. The whole question of weapons of mass destruction, both here and there, are making news. So there's a theme to this tonight, sort of. "The Hutton Report." "The Guardian," left-leaning paper. "Crisis Cuts Through the BBC." The BBC got hammered pretty good today in the Hutton report.

And that's pretty much the way "The Times" -- not our "Times," but their "Times" -- led as well. "Blizzard of Blame Chills BBC. Dyke Under Pressure After Chairman Quits. He Failed to Turn an Acerbic Eye on Downing Street." That would be the other story on the front page. Anything else there I like? Not really.

And while we're overseas, well, actually, while we're abroad, a paper from Canada. "Metro" is the paper. I think this is Toronto, but I'm not absolutely positive, OK? "Depression Linked to Brain Size." Man, I had all sorts of things I can think of, but I'm not saying any of them.

"The Miami Herald" leads thusly: "TV Killer Zamora Free in June." We told you this story a little bit earlier. I'm not sure you can actually see this, but I love this story over here. "Mom's Diet Matters." Actually, it's a tease to a story. "A study links what mother eats to lifespan of her children." Mom, I love you.

"Boston Herald." "Fast and Furious." I'm not sure what the story is. "Mystery of Deadly I-93 Road Rage." They also put politics on the front page. "Stumbling Dean Cans Campaign Boss." And the obligatory Super Bowl story. I think the Super Bowl pregame show started tonight, didn't it?

"The Philadelphia Inquirer" leads with weapons. "Arms Inspector: Iraq Data Almost All Wrong." Also a good local story, "Deal Reached in Pier Collapse." But down at the bottom, I just love this story. "At 14, She's Working for Ph.D. in Engineering," at 14. Oh, and, by the way, she's musically talented, too. How we doing on time, Terry (ph)? Fifteen?

Time to get to "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution." "Gay Adoption Ban Upheld." That's a Florida law that was upheld by an appeals court.

"The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "Don't ask." No, that is the weather tomorrow, "Don't ask," nine degrees, the high, minus-three, the low. Yikes.

We'll wrap up the day in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Recap of our top story tonight.

The day after New Hampshire and another loss, Howard Dean named a new chief operating officer of his campaign. It's Roy Neel, Al Gore's former chief of staff. Shortly after his appointment, Governor Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, resigned.

While the governor was reconfiguring his troops in Vermont, his opponents were on the stump across the country. Six days from now, next Tuesday, they face off in seven races on the same day.

Tomorrow, right here on this program -- this is a wonderful story, a painful one, actually -- Nick Kristof from "The New York Times" joins us. He has been writing about two teenage girls in Cambodia he bought out of sexual slavery to return to their homes. It is a compelling piece of journalism, told by a compelling journalist. And we'll be glad to have Nick with us tomorrow to tell that, and much more on NEWSNIGHT.

For most of you, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Please join us.

Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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





Campaign in South Carolina; Kay Testifies no WMD Found in Iraq>


Aired January 28, 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. Success, as they say, has many parents. Failure is an only child. No one knows that better tonight or understands it better than a man most of you have never heard of, a man named Joe Trippi.
Mr. Trippi, as we'll report in detail in a few moments left a very good job today running Howard Dean's campaign. When it was successful raking in all that money, turning the Internet into a cash cow and taking Dean from a relative unknown to frontrunner, Mr. Trippi was a genius. Two defeats later and he's gone.

The shocker in Vermont tops the whip and the program tonight so we turn to CNN's Candy Crowley. Candy, I stole most of the headline. Give me something though.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, as you said, there has been a huge shakeup in the Dean campaign after Plan A, winning Iowa and New Hampshire, didn't work. We have a new chief executive officer of the campaign and one ex campaign manager.

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

On to South Carolina, one of seven states that make the next wave of primaries. Frank Buckley is in Columbia, South Carolina tonight with a headline -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the seven states coming up on February 3rd will test the candidates for the first time in the west and here in the south, also for the first time among a significant number of African American voters and it will test their stamina as they crisscross the country trying to reach voters -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Frank.

To Washington, D.C. and the testimony of the man who was supposed to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, David Ensor covering, David a headline.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, Mr. Kay says he didn't find any weapons. He doesn't expect his successor to find any either. He does say, however, that he thinks the administration was right to go to war in Iraq because of the fear of proliferation of weapons technologies to rogues and terrorist so his conversations, and he's having a lot of them, are providing all sorts of political ammunition for all sorts of politicians -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you.

And finally, Miami and a truly shocking case of a sick prisoner, a youngster whose pleas for help apparently or since this is a legal matter allegedly were ignored, Susan Candiotti covers, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Aaron. A 17-year-old dies of a ruptured appendix at a state-run jail and a statewide grand jury -- or rather a state grand jury says it was appalled at its lack of care. Now, two nurses are charged with the teen's murder.

BROWN: Susan, we'll get the details from you in a little bit and back to the rest of you shortly.

Also coming up tonight on the program we'll talk with Senator Edward Kennedy, a key supporter of John Kerry, about where the campaign is now. We'll also get his thoughts on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and a lesson on staying on message at the same time.

We continue tonight our love affair with the still photo, tonight a look at the New Hampshire primary through the stills.

And tomorrow's headlines tonight, where else can you get that but right here? That tells you something doesn't it, all that and more in the hour ahead. We're glad to be back with you.

We begin with the day after the New Hampshire primary now behind the Democratic candidates and looming big just six days from now seven more races all in one day.

For John Kerry these are heady days for the rest of the field varying degrees of desperation setting in. For Howard Dean that meant a major change in a once formidable campaign.

We begin tonight with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY (voice-over): As his rivals were out campaigning in one or several of the seven states that will hold contests next Tuesday, Howard Dean was in Burlington, Vermont in no mood to talk about the turmoil within his campaign.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's not going to be any changes in my staff today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there going to be any changes in coming days?

DEAN: I'm not asking anybody to leave. There may be some additions but nobody is leaving, at least I hope they're not leaving. CROWLEY: It was high tension time in Burlington. When Dean brushed by reporters he had already brought on a Washington veteran to run his campaign and lost his campaign manager in the process.

Roy Neel, a top aid to Al Gore and a Washington adviser to Dean, will come to Burlington to be the chief executive officer. Campaign manager Joe Trippi who set the Internet on fire and ignited Dean's rise from asterisk to frontrunner was asked to stay on in another job but he refused.

Trippi, said one source, flipped out. Later in a tearful meeting Trippi told his staff he was leaving. Later the governor told reporters I hope we can talk him back after he thinks this through a little bit.

After losing the first two contests of the primary season, the Dean shakeup tells the tale of a campaign that has yet to fulfill its own or anyone else's expectations. It is the tale of a campaign struggling both strategically and financially.

Staffers have been told there will be no paycheck for the next two weeks. We have enough to cover current invoices said a source. Dean insisted in a conference call we're not broke but added he does not want to run a campaign in deficit. You are going to see, he promised, a leaner, meaner organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: This evening in Burlington, Roy Neel is settling in and Joe Trippi is saying goodbye to some old staffers. Tomorrow Dean heads for Michigan -- Aaron.

BROWN: We'll get you out of the snow pretty quickly here. What does he get from Mr. Neel and what does he lose in Mr. Trippi?

CROWLEY: You know for Mr. Neel he gets, you know, an old pro and somebody who has run a lot of campaigns. Dean said tonight in a conference call that he felt that it was bigger than Joe and bigger than him and he needed some organizational structure. That's how he put it.

What you lose in Joe Trippi is really what has become the soul of this campaign. This is almost a guru on the Internet to the Deanies, somebody who wrote an e-mail every day some of the staff really liked. He had a temper. He was, as you noted in the beginning, hailed as a genius.

So, they're losing the real character of the campaign, both literally and figuratively and, as I mentioned, the Dean campaign said we tried everything to get him to stay but he wouldn't.

BROWN: Candy, thank you very much, Candy Crowley in Vermont tonight.

That is how Dr. Dean spent his day. His opponents, including the now undisputed frontrunner, Senator John Kerry, spread out across the country barely pausing to catch their breath. Two hundred and sixty- nine delegates up for grabs next Tuesday, the scramble is underway.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): With two wins under his belt now, John Kerry began running a national campaign, first stop Missouri.

JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the Show Me State and we're here to show George Bush the door.

BUCKLEY: Missouri is one of the seven states up for grabs on February 3, the one with the largest number of delegates at stake. One of the most closely watched states next Tuesday will be South Carolina.

It's the first test of the candidates among a significant number of African American voters. A third to a half of the voters will be black and it's the first test of the candidates in a southern state.

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not forget where South Carolina is after February the 3rd. I will be back here to campaign in the fall and to represent the state of South Carolina.

BUCKLEY: This is where Senator John Edwards was born and this is where he'll have to fight to stay alive.

EDWARDS: I think that -- I think that I need to win South Carolina and I think I have lots of other opportunities available to me, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri.

BUCKLEY: When Wesley Clark left the state of New Hampshire he too was bound for South Carolina but his plane was diverted to Oklahoma when someone realized the general's long day ahead didn't leave enough time for the flight crew to rest.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is our first stop after New Hampshire and we are so happy to be in Oklahoma this morning and it's just great to be with you here.

BUCKLEY: Like Edwards, Clark now needs a win and his campaign will focus on Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and North Dakota.

CLARK: I'm just a soldier from Arkansas who spent his life trying to help this country.

BUCKLEY: Joe Lieberman's lowly finish in New Hampshire left his campaign fighting rumors he was out already but Lieberman was still standing in Oklahoma.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to unite us again. My whole career is bringing together people across party lines, across normal demographic dividers to make us again what we pledge to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BUCKLEY: And, also remaining in the race the long shots Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton. Al Sharpton expected to be competitive here in South Carolina. Nearly half of the primary voters are expected to be African American.

Al Sharpton is spending a lot of time here in South Carolina and experts here and the polling suggests that Al Sharpton could get anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the vote. At least that was the last polling that we saw.

We're expecting to see all of the candidates here in South Carolina tomorrow for a debate -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, thank you. We'll look forward to the debate tomorrow too.

New Hampshire last night for all the fuss settled nothing though it changed a lot. The candidacies of both Clark and Lieberman look a lot shakier for one thing. They and all the others are now looking, as Frank said, to new battlegrounds in a changed landscape.

Jeff Greenfield tonight on how that new landscape looks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: OK, we know where the candidates are going, to seven states strung from one end of the continent to the other in search of 269 delegates and a showing impressive enough to anoint or resurrect or validate their candidacies.

(on camera): But when they land on the tarmac at Charleston or St. Louis or Phoenix or the other stations on this forced march how will they meet the challenge of making their case? Let's take a look.

KERRY: I love New Hampshire.

GREENFIELD (voice-over): You did what seemed impossible when the year began but now that you're the man to beat the scrutiny and the questions grow tougher. Your potential vulnerabilities are already grist for the media mills and the Bush campaign will be more than ready to paint you as a taller Dukakis.

Your challenge show that you mean to work for every vote and let those Vietnam veterans immunize you on the national security and patriotism front as you did Tuesday night.

KERRY: We're a little older and a little grayer but I'll tell you this we still know how to fight for our country.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We really are going to win this nomination aren't we?

GREENFIELD: Maybe but you really do need to win something pretty soon and the February 3 states don't seem all that promising. Maybe you have the money and the troops to find friendlier ground in Michigan on February 7th, Wisconsin ten days later but with what argument?

DEAN: The power to change this country is in your hands not mine.

GREENFIELD: Your challenge now that you've shaken up your staff, make the call for change powerful enough to paint John Kerry as the agent of the status quo.

EDWARDS: We're going to take this message, this positive uplifting vision of hope...

GREENFIELD: That celebration can't obscure a hard fact, 12 percent of the vote is not a rousing triumph. You put your marker down. You win in South Carolina or it's over.

EDWARDS: We have such important work to do in America.

GREENFIELD: But what's the broader argument that will help you elsewhere should you survive? Your challenge is to make a sunnier more optimistic version of Howard Dean's argument that you are free of the curse of the insider.

CLARK: Never underestimate what a determined soldier can accomplish when he's fighting for his country.

GREENFIELD: Trust us, general, 13 percent of the vote is hard to underestimate. Yes, you head south with money and your Arkansas roots to make a case but what is your case now? It has to be aimed now at Kerry not Howard Dean. Your challenge make the case as the attractive alternative quickly.

For Senator Joe Lieberman, hands down winner of the Mr. Congeniality award, respect did not turn into votes. Your challenge convince your admirers that staying in the race is a principled fight not an ego trip.

(on camera): I guess it's useless to remind ourselves that 98 percent of the delegates remain to be chosen or to point that past campaign where early losers have rallied to become formidable candidates. So let's just note this. In the next 20 days there will be 16 primaries and caucuses that will choose nearly 800 delegates and we may know the identity of the nominee then, definitely, maybe.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight the fallout from the failure to find those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As David Kay testifies on Capitol Hill some members of the Senate call for an independent investigation into what went wrong with American intelligence.

And later the story of the death of a young man in jail and two nurses charged with murder for failing to properly treat his illness, a break first. From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Former top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay had more to say today about weapons of mass destruction and, of course, this is going to cause even more controversy.

In testimony before a Senate committee today his words were quite blunt. It turns out we were all wrong, he told the Senate, wrong to believe Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion, a spectacular U.S. intelligence failure which he says misled the White House and warrants investigation.

Reporting for us CNN's David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): The man the CIA sent to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq says the failure to find any reveals weaknesses in America's intelligence agencies.

DAVID KAY, FORMER CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: It turns out we were all wrong probably in my judgment and that is most disturbing.

ENSOR: That judgment prompted questions about what could have gone so wrong.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Do you believe we need an independent outside investigation?

KAY: I generally believe that it's important to acknowledge failure that it is going to take an outside inquiry both to do it and to give yourself and the American people the confidence that you have done it.

ENSOR: That answer pleased McCain and Senate Democrats who are pushing for an outside inquiry into intelligence shortcomings. It did not please the Senate Intelligence Chairman whose committee is finishing up its own report.

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: I personally take some umbrage at people who for one reason or another think we need to have an outside investigation before our inquiry is even complete.

ENSOR: Though Kay has created problems for President Bush by saying he expects no weapons to be found in Iraq, Democrats are not happy that he blames the intelligence community not the White House.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Many of us feel that the evidence so far leads only to one conclusion that what has happened was more than a failure of intelligence. It was the result of manipulation of the intelligence to justify a decision to go to war.

ENSOR: Kay repeatedly denied that there was any political pressure to skew the findings on Iraq. KAY: I had innumerable analysts who came to me in apology that the world that we were finding was not the world that they had thought existed and that they had estimated. Reality on the ground differed in advance and never, not in a single case was the explanation I was pressured to do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: Kay's explosive comments since leaving the CIA are providing ammunition for all sides in this political year. Irritated intelligence officials argue that Kay's conclusions about the lack of weapons are premature that the search is still on in Iraq -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, David Ensor.

The failure so far to find the WMDs has already, as David indicated, become ammunition on the campaign trail but then you probably figured that out too. In the build-up of the invasion of Iraq, the White House spelled out the danger posed by the WMDs in no uncertain terms. Back then the words were unequivocal. The message has since morphed.

From the White House tonight, CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): August, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney making the case for war in Iraq was unambiguous.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Simply stated there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

BASH: After the war ended, Chief U.S. Weapons Inspector David Kay's hunt for those weapons came up empty handed. The administration (unintelligible) then evolved into talk of weapons related programs.

Now that Kay says illicit weapons likely won't be found gone are past White House assertions they'll eventually turn up, placed by promises to review pre-war intelligence while still firmly defending the decision for war from Mr. Cheney in Switzerland last weekend to the president back at the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That Saddam Hussein was a gathering threat to America and others.

BASH: Democrats are hoping to make Kay's revelation an election year issue about the president's credibility.

KERRY: The administration owes the entire country a full explanation on this war, not just their own exaggerations.

DEAN: The president ran as a uniter not a divider and there wasn't any evidence for that anymore than there was for those weapons of mass destruction or all those bombs. BASH: While some Bush advisers privately acknowledge there's a danger Democrats could get some traction, Republicans say there's evidence it won't stick, especially with Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody.

GLENN BOLGER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Americans aren't that focused on whether weapons of mass destruction are found in Iraq or not. There is a perception on their part that it's a good thing that he is no longer in control.

A big political plus for the White House, even in the face of tough questions from Democrats, Kay blamed the intelligence community for faulty information not the White House for manipulating it.

BASH (on camera): In a sign Republicans still see national security as a top political issue for the president, GOP officials tell CNN RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie will give a speech on Thursday using his arsenal of opposition research to whack Democratic frontrunner John Kerry on his defense record.

Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Today's testimony by David Kay leaves open the question was U.S. intelligence on WMD simply bad or was it good intelligence that was used badly? Former CIA Director James Woolsey strongly supported the administration's decision to go to war. We assume he still does and it's good to see him and have him with us again tonight.

R. JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Nice to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Perhaps this is helpful. I hope it is. If we take the politics of this out for a bit explain -- do you believe that Mr. Kay is being straight and honest that the intelligence was bad and the weapons aren't there?

WOOLSEY: I think that's more likely than not. The intelligence officials who are anonymously saying you still need to wait and see do have a point in that some of these volumes may be very small.

For example, Saddam admitted to making 8,500 liters of anthrax after his son-in-law defected in 1995 who was the head of the program and that sounds like a lot but that's actually about one two-car garage full and if it's turned into powder it's four suitcases worth.

So, one can't really say that the search is completely over but if Kay is right, and he has a reputation for I think being a straight shooter, it looks as if this was the first time in history that the American intelligence community had overestimated a weapons of mass destruction program, 11 times.

Beginning in 1949 the "Washington Post" reported this morning, including with Saddam's pre-1991 nuclear weapons programs these programs had been missed or underestimated, India and Pakistan and so forth.

BROWN: But I don't find that anymore comforting either.

WOOLSEY: No. Intelligence is a tough business and it's a matter of judgment but it is -- I think it's far more likely frankly that what has happened here is Saddam's own deception, his intentional deception of his own generals, all of his combat generals thought, according to the "Post" and the "Wall Street Journal" that although they didn't have chemical weapons each of the units on their flanks did and his own scientists deceiving him about the programs, as Kay has reported. It's a complicated and fascinating story.

BROWN: It is all of those things and perhaps others too, including somewhat embarrassing. I'm more interested in the ramifications of it. As best you can kind of work with this the next time an American president or secretary of state or secretary of defense stands up to an international body and says, or frankly to the United States, to Americans, and says American intelligence says X, Y, and Z, why would they believe?

WOOLSEY: Well, I think the answer for the future is if you have a three-legged stool don't try to sit on only one leg of it. The administration had earlier talked about ties with terrorist groups, the awful nature of a dictatorship and weapons of mass destruction programs and the intersection of those potentially being a problem, a serious one partially because terrorists might be given say anthrax.

Because they went to the United Nations in order to get Tony Blair's support and they valued him highly and rightly so, they emphasized weapons of mass destruction, for example, in Secretary Powell's speech instead of this link, possible link with terrorism and the horrible nature of the regime.

After all, Saddam killed approximately ten times as many people as Milosevic, a couple million compared to 200,000 and we went to war with Milosevic twice over human rights alone.

So, the administration I think made a presentational error in not focusing on all of that and by focusing so heavily on the weapons of mass destruction and taking the intelligence community at its word they said the stockpiles, even if they were small stockpiles, they could have killed a lot of people and they haven't found any. It got itself into the box of this being the thing that everybody was focused on but I think it was more presentational than anything else.

BROWN: Mr. Woolsey thanks. It's good to have you with us again sir.

WOOLSEY: Good to be with you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Jim Woolsey the former CIA director.

Some good news, Mr. Woolsey mentioned Tony Blair, for Mr. Blair today who has seen his share of fallout on the WMD issue as well. A report issued today cleared Mr. Blair and his administration of any direct involvement in the suicide of a government expert on Iraqi weapons.

You'll recall Dr. David Kelly killed himself days after he was exposed as the source of a BBC news story that Mr. Blair's office "sexed up a dossier" making the case for war. The incident prompted an inquiry. The senior judge in charge said today that the BBC's report was unfounded. Shortly after that statement the chairman of the BBC resigned.

Before we go to break we'll look at some of the other stories that made headlines around the world starting in Baghdad where investigators are searching for clues as to who might be responsible for today's car bombing outside a hotel frequented by westerners. At least four people died in the blast.

In Afghanistan, a similar story in Kabul, one British soldier was killed, four others wounded when a suicide car bomber set off the taxi he was driving near the land rover the troops were traveling in.

And to Thailand where health experts gathered for an emergency summit in Bangkok on how to stop the spread of the bird flu virus the sides however unable to reach any consensus today.

Still to come tonight on NEWSNIGHT, did Omar Paisley die needlessly and was his death a murder because the nurses who were supposed to treat him did not that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Omar Paisley was no angel. The teenager landed in a juvenile jail after cutting another youngster with a soda can.

The juvenile justice system is still supposed to rehabilitate young people in trouble. But we'll never know if 17-year-old Omar would have turned his life around. He died last June outside his jail cell after complaining for days of severe pain. Now two nurses whose job it was to treat him are facing a possible prison sentence of their own.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Omar Paisley died of a ruptured appendix, allegedly because two nurses at a state-run jail in Miami ignored his pleas for help for at least three days last week. Prosecutors say, they can prove it.

KATHERINE FERNANDEZ RUNDLE, PROSECUTOR: The conduct of the two nurses was so outrageous as to rise to the level of criminal negligence.

CANDIOTTI: The nurses, in handcuffs, are indicted for manslaughter and third-degree murder in what's believed to be a one- of-a-kind case, a grand jury also lambasting the administration and staff at this Miami-Dade County facility for what they call an utter lack of humanity.

RUNDLE: Coldly, coldly and brutally allowed Omar Paisley to spend the last three days of his young life in agony, to finally die alone, sitting in a chair in the hallway.

CANDIOTTI: Omar discovered, says the grand jury, by a volunteer counselor passing by. The grand jury found, one nurse allegedly falsified reports to say she checked on the teen five times.

RICHARD MARX, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She's not guilty. And we will defend her.

CANDIOTTI: The second nurse reportedly told staff she didn't want to examine Omar because of a sick child at home and -- quote -- "She didn't want to catch his virus and take it home." She also pleads not guilty.

CHERRY WILLIAMS, MOTHER OF OMAR: As a medical staff, she's in the wrong field, she in the wrong place.

CANDIOTTI: Omar's mother, herself a nurse's aide at a hospice, now reliving her son's death.

WILLIAMS: I keep ask the question over and over and over, why my son have to lose his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Both nurses are free on bond and face a minimum nine years in prison if convicted. Meantime, it's up to the state and Governor Jeb Bush to decide whether they have the money to pay for the many changes recommended by this grand jury to try to prevent another tragic death at that juvenile jail -- Aaron.

BROWN: Susan, thank you -- Susan Candiotti in Miami tonight.

Some other stories that made news around the country, still in Florida. Florida's Parole Commission voted today to release Ronny Zamora from prison in June, a year early. He was convicted of murder 27 years ago. He was 15 at the time. His lawyers argued that watching too much television caused the teenager to kill. His trial was one of the first to be televised after cameras were allowed in the courtroom.

NASA today released the first color pictures taken by the rover Opportunity. They show layers of Martian rock that could help answer the question whether Mars was formed by water. On the other side of the planet, the Spirit rover is recovering from computer problems. It stopped its science work last week.

And Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, the NFL Hall of Fame receiver, died today in Madison, Wisconsin, where he spent part of his college career. The long bombs caught by Hirsch helped redefine football. His running style determined his nickname. "Crazy Legs" Hirsch was 80 years old.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, "Look At It This Way," our new name for one of our favorite segments, still photography.

Up next, a conversation with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy about why he's supporting John Kerry and more.

But a break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: If John Kerry ends up winning the Democratic presidential nomination, it won't be because he had all the party bigwigs lining up behind him early on. Howard Dean, who did manage to get some early and important endorsements, is the one who was shaking up his campaign tonight after two second-place finishes, while Kerry seems to be having a fair amount of wind at his back.

What he has had is help from the senior senator from his home state, a man of formidable political skills, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Earlier this afternoon, we spoke with Senator Kennedy about the Kerry candidacy and other things, too, which he turned back to the Kerry candidacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Senator, just, I guess as quickly as you can, give me a sense, your sense of the state of the Democratic race at this point.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I think my colleague and friend John Kerry is doing very well.

It's a very strong field, but John has done well in Iowa, in the heartland of the country. He's done well up in the Northeast. And now he's traveling down through the South and the Southwest.

First of all, he's been listening very carefully to people. And he's listened to their anxieties and also their hopes and dreams for the future. He's internalized that. He speaks to those issues. And beyond that, he has spelled out a vision for our country for the future. But, most of all, I think, when the people have been going in to vote, both in Iowa and New Hampshire, they are recognizing, John Kerry has the strength, the steeliness, the determination to be a leader.

He was a hero in wartime. He's a strong leader. He's unflinching. It's the kind of leader that we need, not only to lead our country, but to lead our country in the world.

BROWN: How much do you believe Iraq will play in voters' minds come November?

KENNEDY: Well, I think it's a very important issue.

At the time that Americans are losing lives over there, some five lives in the last 24 hours, this has to be of central concern for not just a candidate, but for our country. And I think what we are finding today, with the Kay report, is that Mr. Kay found that there's no weapons of mass destruction. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, we have -- and during the course of those hearings, we found out that the State Department, the Energy Department, and even the defense intelligence had serious questions about where the administration was going and its misuse of intelligence.

John Kerry understands that. John Kerry has -- a veteran. He's a hero. He knows defense policy. He knows foreign policy. And I think he'll make the right decisions to try and make sure that we are able to have American troops return with honor.

BROWN: What I haven't heard from David Kay is a belief that going to war itself was the wrong decision or that the president himself misled the country in that decision. You disagree with both of those things, I guess.

KENNEDY: Well, first of all, whether it's misled or making the wrong determination, I think that the American people were denied the information which was available to the Intelligence Committee and to the community. And if they had, we would not have voted to go to war. I think that's No. 1.

Secondly, even though Mr. Kay thinks it was justified, we have to look at where the greatest threat we have here in the United States. And it's basically the al Qaeda and terror. This war has been a war that we never should have fought. And it's been distracting, in terms of our battle against al Qaeda and the war on terror.

It was interesting, the other night, in the State of the Union address, the president never mentioned Osama bin Laden. We haven't heard his name mentioned. Al Qaeda is alive. It's well. It's killed Americans overseas. It's a serious threat to the -- our country. And I think John Kerry has the strength and has the determination and has the steeliness. You want someone who's going to be constant and who has also -- I think understands these foreign policy and defense issues.

And I think that's what people have been looking for, ultimately, in these caucuses and in the primary.

BROWN: And, finally, Senator, perhaps this is a hanging curve. I hope it's not.

Do you really believe that, in the end, whether it's Senator Kerry or one of the other Democrats, that they can convince the American people, because surely they must, that the Democratic Party, the Democratic position is a better stronger, more secure position on national defense than is the president?

KENNEDY: Oh, absolutely.

One of the most important impressions I formed in this -- in campaigning is going out to those caucus and -- walking into the caucus and seeing people around that are really concerned about the future of this country. They know about -- and particularly the veterans, particularly the veterans. When you have a Jim Rassmann, who was a special forces officer that was blown off John Kerry's ship, boat, small boat, and when John Kerry turned that boat back and hauled Jim Rassmann out of the water, risking his own life, what he has said, we leave no one behind. He didn't leave Jim Rassmann behind. He won't leave veterans behind. He won't leave our national security behind.

These are the inner, steely qualities that John Kerry has. And Americans are appreciating it. I have every confidence that John Kerry, when the next president raises his hand talking about preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, John Kerry is the man to do it.

BROWN: Senator, it's always good to talk to you. Thank you, sir, very much.

KENNEDY: Thank you very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: I may be wrong, but I believe the senator is supporting John Kerry. And we're always glad to have him on the program.

A quick check of headlines in our "MONEYLINE Roundup" tonight, beginning with the nearly 15-year-old Exxon Valdez case. A federal judge ordered Exxon to pay about $6.75 billion in damages to Alaskans affected by the spill. This is the latest in a series of rulings on damages in the case, each one of which has been thrown out by higher courts because of the excessive amounts. Exxon says it will appeal today's ruling, too.

Tomorrow, some key testimony in the Martha Stewart case. That's when Douglas Faneuil is expected to testify about her sale of ImClone stock. Faneuil was the assistant to Stewart's broker at the time she sold the stock and, prosecutors believe, will provide the details that support their case against Martha Stewart.

Meanwhile, the markets are an ugly picture. Today, all the major indices -- we love that word -- dropped sharply after the Federal Reserve said it would keep interest rates low, but refused to rule out a rate hike in the near future. The markets got hammered.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, "Look At It This Way," a new name for an old favorite of ours, still photos. Tonight, the New Hampshire primary in still life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Political natures are, by their nature, fluid and fast- moving. Next Tuesday alone, as we told you earlier, there will be seven candidates, seven races to cover in one day, which brings us to the election frame by frame, if you will.

Tonight, we continue our love affair with still photos, because we believe that a photograph sometimes can crystallize a story that otherwise gets lost in all the motion and commotion. We start with the New Hampshire primary through the lens of the photographers at "The Concord Monitor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN HABIB, PHOTO EDITOR, "THE CONCORD MONITOR": We spent about a year covering the primary. And one of the things we tried to do is get to know the candidates and the campaign staffs very well over the last year.

And what we try and do is show how they live their lives, how they eat and drink and sleep on the road, how exhausted they get, how frustrated and tired they get. Pictures actually play a large role, because a lot of people would base their decision on a candidate's character and personality and their style. And I think that photographs are the best way, in my opinion, to show what a candidate's personality is really like.

We kind of had a two-part day yesterday. In the morning, we all went out to towns in our region and photographed our community, our local people. I photographed in a 200-year-old town hall people coming to vote. They used a 100-year-old ballot box. There's a real serious tone to the voting. There's a feeling of camaraderie and democracy and excitement, that we take center stage on primary day as voters. But there was also a feeling that this was a very difficult decision.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just served coffee to cold volunteers.

HABIB: Dean giving out coffee in the morning is not as important as Dean giving his concession speech at night. Basically, the mission was to stay at that campaign and just make the best possible picture you can.

This young woman from Tennessee was in the front of the crowd. And she was listening to a song, closing her eyes, and crying just before Dean came up on stage. And myself and other photographers took a picture, because we felt it kind of reflected a lot of the mixed emotions of the night for a lot of Dean supporters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the next president of the United States, John Kerry!

HABIB: I think the only clear winner last night was Kerry. It may seem to the rest of the country just kind of like almost a fait accompli. But it was an incredible surprise to everyone around here the last few weeks that he was able to come back.

Go beyond the surface in your photographs. Look for moments. Look for just that one moment that says something truthful about the candidate or the campaign, and let's put that in the paper. Let's not just buy into the many, many millions of dollars that are spent trying to create an image for the candidate. Let's try and get beneath it and show some level of truth. Most of us are here because we love community journalism. We don't love elbowing with 20 other photographers every day. And I'm ready to get back to covering some town meetings and real local issues. We're all excited that we did what we think is a good job, but also kind of tired and ready to move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The still photos of "The Concord Monitor." And our appreciation to them. And they shot some wonderful pictures. Good for you guys and gals.

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: OK, time -- Aaron, just do the bit. Time to check morning papers from around the country and the world. Here we go.

A couple of British papers. The whole question of weapons of mass destruction, both here and there, are making news. So there's a theme to this tonight, sort of. "The Hutton Report." "The Guardian," left-leaning paper. "Crisis Cuts Through the BBC." The BBC got hammered pretty good today in the Hutton report.

And that's pretty much the way "The Times" -- not our "Times," but their "Times" -- led as well. "Blizzard of Blame Chills BBC. Dyke Under Pressure After Chairman Quits. He Failed to Turn an Acerbic Eye on Downing Street." That would be the other story on the front page. Anything else there I like? Not really.

And while we're overseas, well, actually, while we're abroad, a paper from Canada. "Metro" is the paper. I think this is Toronto, but I'm not absolutely positive, OK? "Depression Linked to Brain Size." Man, I had all sorts of things I can think of, but I'm not saying any of them.

"The Miami Herald" leads thusly: "TV Killer Zamora Free in June." We told you this story a little bit earlier. I'm not sure you can actually see this, but I love this story over here. "Mom's Diet Matters." Actually, it's a tease to a story. "A study links what mother eats to lifespan of her children." Mom, I love you.

"Boston Herald." "Fast and Furious." I'm not sure what the story is. "Mystery of Deadly I-93 Road Rage." They also put politics on the front page. "Stumbling Dean Cans Campaign Boss." And the obligatory Super Bowl story. I think the Super Bowl pregame show started tonight, didn't it?

"The Philadelphia Inquirer" leads with weapons. "Arms Inspector: Iraq Data Almost All Wrong." Also a good local story, "Deal Reached in Pier Collapse." But down at the bottom, I just love this story. "At 14, She's Working for Ph.D. in Engineering," at 14. Oh, and, by the way, she's musically talented, too. How we doing on time, Terry (ph)? Fifteen?

Time to get to "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution." "Gay Adoption Ban Upheld." That's a Florida law that was upheld by an appeals court.

"The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "Don't ask." No, that is the weather tomorrow, "Don't ask," nine degrees, the high, minus-three, the low. Yikes.

We'll wrap up the day in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Recap of our top story tonight.

The day after New Hampshire and another loss, Howard Dean named a new chief operating officer of his campaign. It's Roy Neel, Al Gore's former chief of staff. Shortly after his appointment, Governor Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, resigned.

While the governor was reconfiguring his troops in Vermont, his opponents were on the stump across the country. Six days from now, next Tuesday, they face off in seven races on the same day.

Tomorrow, right here on this program -- this is a wonderful story, a painful one, actually -- Nick Kristof from "The New York Times" joins us. He has been writing about two teenage girls in Cambodia he bought out of sexual slavery to return to their homes. It is a compelling piece of journalism, told by a compelling journalist. And we'll be glad to have Nick with us tomorrow to tell that, and much more on NEWSNIGHT.

For most of you, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" is next. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time. Please join us.

Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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Campaign in South Carolina; Kay Testifies no WMD Found in Iraq>