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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Bush Appoints Commission to Probe Pre-War Intelligence; Michigan, Washington to Hold Caucuses Tomorrow; Carlie Brucia's Body Found

Aired February 06, 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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
A year from now the report from the president's new commission on intelligence capabilities may tell how to make that intelligence better and more reliable. In a week where we've had major questions raised about what America knew or didn't know about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that will surely be a good thing.

But it is not at all clear, at least not yet, that the commission will answer the question of whether the administration exaggerated the intelligence it had to justify the war and just as surely that means this issue will not go away.

And that is where we begin "The Whip" tonight, the new commission, at the White House Suzanne Malveaux, Suzanne a headline please.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an effort really to restore the administration's credibility here. This is the seventh panel investigation pre-war intelligence, this one selected by the president and the big question is, is it going to be any different?

COOPER: That is the question indeed, back to you in a moment.

On to the presidential campaign with more contests this weekend, Joe Johns with the headline on that tonight from Milwaukee -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Howard Dean began his drive to keep his campaign hopes alive here in Wisconsin and two other candidates are fighting it out in the south -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, back to you Joe in a moment.

In Moscow a terrible explosion in the subway and fingers being pointed at Muslim extremists, Jill Dougherty is in Moscow for us tonight. We'll be back with her shortly.

And finally the tragic end to the search for a missing Florida girl, Susan Candiotti on that tonight, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, tonight more details about what led police to discover Carlie Brucia's body. The suspect didn't cooperate with authorities. He did cooperate with someone else.

COOPER: It's a tragic story. Thanks, Susan, back to all of you in a moment.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT what to do when an infamous organization decides to show its kindler, gentler, well less trashy side, the question should the Klan be allowed to adopt a highway?

Later, an incredible story of innocence lost, child soldiers some of whom are trying to make a new life here in America.

And in Segment 7 tonight what life would be like if everything was on a five second delay. How many mistakes could you have avoided, all that ahead in the program.

We begin with the new commission whose job it will be to investigation the pre-war intelligence on WMDs. After weeks of pressure, President Bush announced on Monday he would create the panel, not only create it but select its members as well. Today we got seven of the names.

Here's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): President Bush named his commission to investigate the intelligence the administration used to justify the Iraq war.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The commission I have appointed today will examine intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and related 21st Century threats and issue specific recommendations to ensure our capabilities are strong.

MALVEAUX: On the nine member panel the commission's co-chairs, Democrat Chuck Robb, a former Senator and governor of Virginia and the son-in-law of the late President Johnson; Republican Lawrence Silverman, a retired federal judge considered a staunch conservative, appointed by Reagan who also served under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

The other members, Democrat Lloyd Cutler, former White House Counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton; Patricia Wald, a former chief judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., Richard Levin, President of Yale University; Admire William Studeman, former deputy director of the CIA and Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, who ran against Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000, considered a maverick and occasional critic of the administration, an appointment targeted at countering criticism that the panel won't be objective.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We will be looking at the entire gamut from the gathering of information to the way it was president to the president, the way it was interpreted.

MALVEAUX: But some lawmakers aren't satisfied with the president's selection. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said: "We have a commission wholly owned by the Executive Branch investigating the Executive Branch."

President Bush said the commission will also examine intelligence regarding North Korea, Iran, Libya and Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Now the deadline for the commission's report is March 31. That is two months after a new president is inaugurated, be that Mr. Bush or someone else but the question here is whether or not a portion of that report will be released to the public or leaked to the press and what impact that has on voters' perceptions of the war -- Anderson.

COOPER: Suzanne, it was interesting to hear John McCain saying that they will be looking not only at intelligence gathering, what could be improved there or not improved there but also sort of any dissemination of it and the interpretation of intelligence by the White House. Did the White House say anything along those lines as well?

MALVEAUX: Well, that really is the controversial part of all of this just how much are they going to get into that, how it was perceived, how it was interpreted, how it was distributed and, of course, how they made their case that these weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat to the United States.

That is something that Democrats and Republicans are debating over. The administration, of course, says it wants to put all of that information out there but that is very subjective -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Suzanne Malveaux thanks very much.

A big task ahead for the new commission, it's not by any stretch the first special panel to spring up via executive order or in the wake of controversy. Remember, the Warren Commission? Special commissions seem to beg the question can they get to the bottom of a problem and really promote change or are they just a way to less political heat?

E. J. Dionne is a syndicated columnist, professor of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and a resident scholar at the Brookings Institution. He's thought a lot about all this. We are pleased he is here. Thanks very much for being with us E. J.

E. J. DIONNE, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Good to be with you.

COOPER: Let's look at commissions. I mean do they work and what are they used for?

DIONNE: They're used to solve technical problems and political problems and they're often better at the technical problems. I think if you look at something like the commission that investigated the Challenger disaster there wasn't any political controversy there. People just wanted to know what happened and that was rather successful. There are commissions put together when both parties agree in advance that they want to get to a result and they have to compromise so you had your Social Security commissions which got both parties off the hook by getting each to do something it didn't quite want to do in terms of raising taxes and cutting benefits.

In this case I think the problem is that this is both a technical and bureaucratic problem and a political problem and you clearly do not have Democrats agreeing with the Republicans that this is the way to go. I think it's notable and a lot of Democrats talked about it today that the deadline of this commission is well after the election.

But the question that a lot of voters will want answered, and certainly the Democrats are going to be pushing forward is how did the White House use this intelligence? Did it say things that went beyond what they knew to move public opinion on the war?

COOPER: So, I guess the cynical way to look at it would be to form this commission, get the results very far down the road when people have sort of moved on to other issues.

DIONNE: Right and I think the White House would have the hope when this issue comes up to say well we've got a commission looking into that. I don't think in this election year that's going to work.

The other thing is the membership of the commission, these are all very distinguished people, it's notable that you don't have anybody on there that I can tell who was say strongly against the war, who dissented from the president's view.

You have distinguished moderate to conservative Democrat Chuck Robb. You've got Lloyd Cutler who is a well established figure in Washington, I think fairly friendly to executive authority from his time in the Carter administration. You don't have a lot of people there who are going to be dissidents.

And, John McCain, who is well respected by Democrats and is a maverick as your piece pointed out, was also a very strong supporter of the war and said today he didn't think the president manipulated intelligence.

COOPER: No sitting Democrats on the commission. I guess some of them, I guess the word sort of went out that none of them wanted to be. I guess you could argue both ways. It shows that both sides are going to use this thing for political ends.

DIONNE: Right and I think that Democrats felt that given the time frame of the commission, no report until after the election, they would be co-opted and would advance, indirectly advance the White House agenda so none of them were willing to join.

COOPER: I did not hear from President Bush's statement about the focus of this commission. I mean in Suzanne Malveaux' piece that just aired, I don't know if you heard it, John McCain said we're going to look at the whole gamut of how the information was collected, how the information was presented to the White House, how it was interpreted by the White House. I didn't necessarily hear that from the White House.

DIONNE: No. I was struck by exactly the same thing and it does show that John McCain still always has that maverick streak in him and I think that McCain will push them to look beyond simply the technical or bureaucratic questions.

But, again, unless something leaks out of the commission, I think the one danger for the White House and for this solution is that as the investigation goes forward does someone on there choose to leak material that might be damaging to the White House.

Some of that happened with the Tower Commission investigating Iran Contra. That's the risk they take but the larger risk is this is going to stay in politics. People are going to argue about the war and why the administration went to war and I don't think the commission can or, for that matter, should do anything to get that out of the public debate.

COOPER: Interesting. E. J. Dionne, thanks for joining us. It was interesting.

DIONNE: Good to be with you.

COOPER: Turning now to real mass destruction, a deadly day in Moscow, at least 39 dead, more than 100 hospitalized from a blast that ripped apart a train during the morning rush hour. Russian officials are calling it a major act of terrorism that may be designed to influence the upcoming presidential elections.

Once again, here's CNN's Jill Dougherty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: A packed Moscow metro car deep underground, morning commuters on their way to work, suddenly a blinding explosion, a bomb investigators believe carried in a suitcase detonates in the second car of a Moscow subway train tearing apart the bodies of people closest to the device.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I felt a heat wave, darkness, and my face burning. I fell on the floor immediately. There was a lot of noise. Only when they opened the doors we could walk away.

DOUGHERTY: As rescuers swarm into the metro, survivors climb or jump out of subway windows, pry open doors then run or walk through the pitch black underground tunnel to safety.

In Moscow hospitals, some of the injured fight for their lives but doctors say the death toll could rise. Russian prosecutors launch their investigation, the immediate suspicion a terrorist act by Chechen rebels, a charge rebel leader (unintelligible) denies. President Vladimir Putin condemns terrorism as the plague of the 21st century and has tough talk for the people who carry it out.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia does not conduct talks with terrorists. Russia destroys them.

DOUGHERTY: As security officials gather evidence, Mr. Putin gets a call from U.S. President George W. Bush expressing his condolences and his solidarity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGHERTY: This bombing comes just one month before Russia holds presidential elections and Mr. Putin himself is making that connection saying that this could be a way of putting pressure on him and sowing fear and discord. More than any other issue Chechnya is associated with this president. His tough stand on it four years ago is what propelled him into office and now it's back with a fury -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jill, since the last terrorist incident involving Chechens in that theater where a number of people died after Russian troops moved in has security increased significantly inside Moscow, around Moscow?

DOUGHERTY: Well, ironically it has, at least that is what we are told. There are constant checks on the street and almost invariably after all of these terrorist attacks, you know, female suicide bombers that we had in December and back in July, they say security is increased.

But the question again, and people were asking it coming out of the metro today, how is it not stopping these attacks? And this one was really the most, the biggest one certainly in Moscow so far.

COOPER: All right, Jill Dougherty live in Moscow, thanks very much Jill.

Today it was the Moscow metro but last May it was a housing complex in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. We know what the blood aftermath looked like but now we're getting a peak into the terrorist training that makes such carnage possible.

Here's CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest alleged al Qaeda video making its way across the Internet this week lays out in stark detail how al Qaeda practiced for and carried out attacks in Riyadh last November.

PAUL EEDLE, AL QAEDA EXPERT: This showed the actual preparations, the preparation of the car, the hand-to-hand training and, most dramatically of all the actual drive to the target.

ARENA: And with an arsenal of shoulder-fired missiles on display a warning to the Saudi kingdom once thought to be immune from al Qaeda attacks. Stop befriending infidels.

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: We are very concerned about attacks in Saudi Arabia and have been for some time. We are always preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

ARENA: The tape is evidence of Osama bin Laden's continuing influence in Saudi Arabia. He condemned the kingdom during the first Gulf War protesting U.S. military presence on what he called holy land.

But al Qaeda did not strike on Saudi soil until last year. Law enforcement sources say the attacks did what diplomacy could not. It made the Saudis realize they had a stake in the war on terror and has greatly improved cooperation with the United States.

Intelligence continues to suggest Saudi Arabia is vulnerable to more attacks. This latest tape offers concrete corroboration.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ahead on the program tonight, Sarasota's sorrow as the body of a missing 11-year-old girl is found and a man charged with her abduction and murder.

And later we'll check in on the presidential campaign as the Democratic frontrunner gets another major endorsement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: In Sarasota, Florida, just after dawn today the worst was confirmed. The body of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia missing since Sunday evening was found. A former mechanic with a long criminal record is charged with her kidnapping and for first degree murder.

For the latest here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The body of a young girl whose friends say never wanted to be alone was dumped in a field behind a church only three miles from where she was last seen alive.

SHERIFF BILL BALKWELL, SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORIDA: My heart, my prayers go out to Carlie's family.

CANDIOTTI: For now police not revealing how the murder was committed. The break came Thursday, two days after suspect Joseph Smith had been arrested on an unrelated charge.

According to a police affidavit the suspect told a witness that he abducted and murdered Carlie Brucia. The unidentified witness, the report says, led police to the body.

The arrest form also says Smith lied to police about his whereabouts when Carlie disappeared. His station wagon allegedly used in the abduction was seen on a surveillance camera at a car wash a few minutes before he approached the girl. The family has been told Carlie's DNA was found in that vehicle. Smith now charged with kidnapping and murder.

CAPT. JEFF BELL, SARASOTA SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We now stand ready to complete our obligation and assure you that he will pay the ultimate price for what he did to her.

CANDIOTTI: A grief-stricken mother consoled throughout the day by well wishers. At the crime scene, while investigators were collecting evidence, Carlie's stepfather encircled by friends and her father who lives in New York tried to make sense of the senseless.

JOEY BRUCIA, CARLIE'S FATHER: She's in a better place. She got there in a horrific manner but now she's watching me all the time.

CANDIOTTI: At the car wash where Carlie was last seen alive classmates remembered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a loving and caring person. She never gave handshakes. She always gave hugs.

CANDIOTTI: Those were everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carlie will always be my baby.

CANDIOTTI: Friday night a vigil at an area church. A community touched by the death of a girl whose disappearance might not have been solved but for a security camera.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And tonight family members continue to question why suspect Smith was free to begin with. As we've told he had two alleged probation violations late last year and a judge decided not to take any action about them.

Tonight, a spokesperson for the State Department of Corrections tells us the secretary of that state agency will be investigation -- Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Susan Candiotti thanks very much live from Florida.

Carlie Brucia didn't know her alleged kidnapper and killer. That alone makes her death not just tragic but rare. Just a fraction of the kids abducted each year are taken by strangers, rarer still for the crime to be recorded by a security camera. For many the grainy, silent video we've been watching since Monday made this crime different.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This one hit home. This one was personal in part because we all witnessed it, watched the girl walking home from a friend's house, saw the man in the mechanic's uniform intercept her, grab her arm, say something to her, then simply walk her out of frame into a nightmare.

For the next five days, people who lived anywhere near Sarasota kept an eye out for the sixth grader with the long blond hair. Across the country people stopped talking during the evening news to hear the latest on the abducted girl, the latest plea from Carlie's mom, her face a graph of hope and dread, the latest on the police search, the efforts by the FBI and NASA to winnow from the grainy video details about the man.

There were in each new report more details about Carlie. She was 11 years old. She had a pink backpack and a cat named Charlie. She loved to sing. She was learning French. She had friends named Allison and Tiffany.

Millions kept Carlie in their thoughts and prayers. Maybe she'd be found unharmed, found even months later like Elizabeth Smart. Millions kept a closer watch on their own children. Look what could happen. Not at midnight in a bad neighborhood but at dinner time to a girl taking a shortcut she knew past the car wash on her way home on a Sunday evening.

Millions of Americans hoped it would turn out differently, feared it would turn out just as it did, felt a stab of sadness when they heard the news on the radio on the way in to work or in the break room, the body found in wooded area next to a church. Even the sheriff cried.

It helped a little to hear that there had been an arrest. Maybe they got the guy. Maybe other little girls in Sarasota were now safe, not that many little girls were going to be walking anywhere alone for a while.

There was the inevitable alchemy of reaction from hope to grief to anger. Who was to blame? Was there anything police or parents or parole boards or passersby could have done?

One more worry to add to the list, orange alerts, poison on a Senator's mail, monsters outside the local car wash, one more reminder that humans have the capacity for such inexplicable evil, yes the capacity for great good too and for resilience and recovery, although that was harder on a day like this to keep in mind.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, the Democratic presidential candidates are heading into three races this weekend, the biggest prize Michigan with 128 delegates. It is the largest state so far to hold a nominating contest.

Polls show John Kerry with a substantial lead in the union stronghold state and today he got another boost from a long time friend of unions and a former foe of his. It's an odd political dance. We call it the rival reversal.

Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the union town of Warren, Michigan, one of John Kerry's former rivals becomes one of his biggest backers to date.

REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D), MISSOURI: We need a leader who we all know can walk into that oval office tomorrow afternoon and be a great president of the United States.

WALLACE: The Senator from Massachusetts who courted Gephardt ever since he got out of the race, according to aides to both men, returns the compliment.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No one has invested more time, more diligently with more commitment than the man who just endorsed me, Dick Gephardt.

WALLACE: In a state that lost 170,000 manufacturing jobs in three years, according to its governor, Gephardt brings Kerry immediate clout with industrial unions whose members question the Senator's support for trade deals like the one linking the United States, Mexico and Canada. Gephardt made opposition to that agreement the centerpiece of his presidential campaign but says Kerry's position now is much closer to his own.

GEPHARDT: John has really come to a view that many of us have and that is that we've got to get labor and environmental provisions in the core text of treaties and he's been very clear about that. Every time I've been with him he has said that he wants to do this.

WALLACE: CNN has learned Gephardt convened a conference call Wednesday with union presidents who endorsed him urging them to back Kerry now. Aides say the Senator met with some of those same labor leaders in Boston on Thursday.

The Senator also won the support of labor friendly Michigan Congressman John Dingell, the endorsements adding to the frontrunner's momentum and his looseness on the trail ahead of Saturday's contest in Michigan and Washington state.

Kelly Wallace CNN, Flint, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the rest of the candidates were campaigning in the Midwest and South today where they are conceding nothing to John Kerry, not yet anyway. Only Howard Dean has set a hard deadline in a state he says he has to win.

CNN's Joe Johns has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHNS (voice-over): In Milwaukee today, Howard Dean was stumping for votes on a make or break mission to win Wisconsin's February 17 primary.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd love to have your help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that would be admirable.

DEAN: I need your help.

JOHNS: One day after sending out an e-mail to supporters asserting that anything less than winning would put him out of the race. The campaign said it raised about $900,000 for advertising in Wisconsin. Dean had first called the tactic "a brilliant ploy" then had to explain.

DEAN: I also think it depends what your definition of the word ploy is. I think it's a brilliant step forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your definition of ploy?

DEAN: My definition of ploy is a strategy.

JOHNS: Meanwhile in the battle for votes in next Tuesday's Tennessee and Virginia primaries, the two southern candidates exchanged words. First, retired General Wesley Clark accused Senator John Edwards essentially of taking votes detrimental to military retirees four years ago.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was the only Democrat who did not vote against corporate subsidies. He voted in favor of corporate subsidies against veterans' benefits.

JOHNS: The Clark campaign accused Edwards of voting against a measure that "would have increased veterans' benefits by closing corporate loopholes." Edwards, who has tried to appeal to voters by staying above the political sniping responded.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My position is that I've supported veterans and this is the kind of attacks that people are sick of.

JOHNS: The exchange underscored the importance of the southern states to Clark and Edwards. The question is whether either of them can keep going if they fail to win Tennessee or Virginia. Edwards' campaign today reported it is in solid financial shape after winning the South Carolina primary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Clark and Edwards plan to come here to Wisconsin this weekend and Dean is pretty much planning to camp out starting early next week -- Anderson.

COOPER: Joe, you've been following the Dean camp in Wisconsin. What do these people feel if they don't do well in Washington this weekend that can't bode well for Wisconsin?

JOHNS: Well, certainly there are a lot of concerns about Washington. They believe they've already put an organization in place and they say now it's up to the organization. Their focus at this point, of course, is Wisconsin and Dean has pretty much said, at least in his e-mail, that if he doesn't do well here, at least number one or number two, he could be out of the race.

COOPER: All right, Joe Johns in Wisconsin thanks Joe.

Three races, 228 delegates at stake this weekend and a front- runner with a healthy lead in the polls, which raises the question, what will it take to stop his momentum? Can it be stopped? With the biggest primary day, Super Tuesday, still weeks away, is it too early to begin thinking about vice presidential pairings?

And on another note, what is going on with President Bush's reelection noncampaign? He seems to be just a couple steps behind the Democrats these days, geographically speaking and on "Meet the Press" this weekend.

A lot to hash over this evening with our guests. Anne Kornblut is the national political correspondent for "The Boston Globe." And Ryan Lizza is covering the campaign for "The New Republic."

I'm glad both of you are with us tonight. Thanks very much.

ANNE KORNBLUT, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Thank you.

RYAN LIZZA, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: Ryan, let me start off with you.

Is John Kerry going to easy -- excuse me -- John Edwards going too easy on John Kerry?

LIZZA: No, I don't think he is.

Look, you know, there's an argument to be made that the only way to topple John Kerry at this point is to tell the American public what the differences are between you and John Kerry. And to the extent that Edwards isn't doing that, it may be sort of hard for people to figure out why they should vote for Edwards and not the front-runner with all the momentum.

But this is the Edwards' strategy. They're trying to win -- they're trying to beat Wes Clark in Tennessee and Virginia on Tuesday. They want Wes Clark out of the race, because they want this race to come down to a two-man race between Kerry and Edwards. The lesson they learned from Iowa is that, when you attack one of the other candidates, it hurts you.

And the voters that peel off from that other candidate won't necessarily go to you, but will go to a third candidate. So, until they're in a two-man race, when they're the only other option besides Kerry, you're probably not going to see Edwards attack anyone. COOPER: Well, Ann, there are also those who say that Edwards is sort of going soft or staying relentlessly upbeat, one, because he's sort of promise promised to do that all along, but, two, because he might be eying a V.P. slot with John Kerry.

KORNBLUT: Well, I would tend to think it's the -- in fact, I know it's the former. This is the entire mantra of the Edwards campaign, is being positive and not being like the other guys.

That said, it's hard to believe that anybody, including Edwards, despite his denials, wouldn't want to leave themselves open to being the vice presidential pick if somebody else becomes the nominee. That's still a ways off. And there's no way Edwards or anyone else is going to say, yes, I'm running for vice president, when they still hope to get the top slot.

COOPER: Ryan, who else is in sort of this V.P. dance, if it's going on at all?

LIZZA: All right, it's definitely early to speculate. I think we still do have a race here. Anything could happen.

But, if Kerry is the nominee, he is probably going to look for someone that will offset some of his perceived disadvantages, someone from a different region. Someone that -- this is maybe an unfair rap against him, but the rap against him is that he's sort of a patrician, New England, you know, raised in Swiss boarding schools, that kind of thing. So he might want someone with a little more of a populist bent.

If that's what they're thinking about, someone who sort of compensates for what his perceived weaknesses, I couldn't think of anyone better than John Edwards. The other option would be to go with someone that can definitely win you a state. It's not totally clear that John Edwards will actually win you any Southern states, but maybe he would at least force Bush to play a little harder in the South.

Some people think Bob Graham would be someone that could win the Democrats the ultimate battleground state of Florida. And there's intriguing picks like Evan Bayh, who is a sort of conservative Democrat from Indiana. Indiana is a very Republican state. It would be a big deal if Kerry could carry that state. So I think those are the two options. You want to go with someone that either offsets your weaknesses or someone that will actually win you a state that you wouldn't win on your own.

COOPER: Anne, let's talk about Tennessee and Virginia coming up. There are three caucuses this weekend. But they, Tennessee and Virginia, seem to be the most important, especially for Edwards, for Clark. Will one of them be out of the race after Tuesday?

KORNBLUT: Well, I think it's probably fair to say one, if not both.

They both desperately need to win one or two of those states. Coming in second doesn't do you quite the good that it could in the earlier races. But, by the same token, the races this weekend aren't completely uninteresting. You have got the race in Michigan, particularly. I think people will be looking to see where a lot of the Gephardt support, if it actually translates into Kerry support, the union support.

And a lot of people in Michigan voted in advance. So did they vote for Dean before the scream, before Iowa? I think that is a lot what people will be looking for, especially to see if Dean has a chance of coming back.

COOPER: Ryan, I know what also a lot of people are going to be looking for is to watch President Bush on "Meet the Press" this weekend.

LIZZA: Yes.

COOPER: Why is he doing this? Is this a sign that the White House is worried?

LIZZA: I think that's the only explanation.

I mean, the State of the Union is the greatest moment for a president of the United States to seem above the fray. It's his greatest imperial moment of the year. And this year, the State of the Union failed. The Democrats are out there hammering him every day. They're getting a lot of positive coverage. John Kerry, all of the sudden, amazingly, is beating the president in the polls.

And they sort of were opting for this 1996 Bill Clinton-style, above-it-all campaign. And it hasn't worked. So, they have -- I think it's about expectations. Look, everyone is saying right now that George Bush is going to go in there with Tim Russert and get his clock cleaned. And George Bush is a self-described master of low expectations.

And he could come out Sunday looking really good. And everybody will say, wow, he went and sat down with Russert and came out OK. So, it sounds to me like a gamble, but maybe a smart one after a State of the Union that didn't work so well.

COOPER: Anne, do you agree with that? Has this part of the campaign already begun?

KORNBLUT: Well, certainly.

If anything, I think it may have begun a little too late for them. They did try to stay above the fray. And now you're seeing him do things like stop at diners spontaneously when he's out on the road, certainly going on "Meet the Press" and following the Democrats around the country to these various states. They definitely have some concern at this point.

COOPER: Ann, when does the $170 million war chest, when does that get opened up?

KORNBLUT: That's a great question. I wish I knew the answer to that. That's what we're all looking for, is the day that -- well, the ads start running from the RNC and from the Bush campaign. Then the campaign will have really officially really begun.

LIZZA: And some of it has been spent. We just don't know really what it's been spent on so far. We haven't seen the ads. But if you look at the reports they've filed with the FEC, they've spent quite a bit of money already.

COOPER: And I guess that's one of the reasons the Democrats are hoping to keep this sort of primary battle, at least some of the sort of excitement of the race going on, I guess, prolonging until the day they actually have one candidate out there.

KORNBLUT: Oh, sure. And this is going to go on. I don't think this is going to be an election that is going to have many lulls in it, if what we've seen so far is the precedent.

COOPER: Yes, it's been pretty exciting thus far.

Anne Kornblut, Ryan Lizza, thanks very much for being with us.

KORNBLUT: Thank you.

LIZZA: Thanks for having us.

COOPER: All right, have a good weekend.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the trashed Klan. Can bad people do good works? The KKK and the Adopt-a-Highway Program.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: I don't understand some of those stories.

Freedom can and has been tested and measured in many ways in this country. Perhaps a bit of poetry when the test happens along a highway. We are a nation of roads, after all, their pavement a concrete symbol of connectedness. But being connected doesn't mean being alike or even looking one another. And with freedom, of course, comes tolerance. In Missouri, both have now been put to the test.

Here's Jeff Flock.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Cleaning up trash along the road in Missouri, there's the Baptist church, the pest control company, the technical college, and the Ku Klux Klan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The KKK can, you know, kiss my behind.

FLOCK: Folks in the town of Potosi, Missouri, south of Saint Louis, tried to keep the Klan out of the Adopt-a-Highway Program. JEFF BRIGGS, MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Because they have a history of discrimination in their membership based on race and because this group has a history of violence.

THOMAS ROBB, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, KNIGHTS OF THE KKK: They came up with numerous reasons. Most of them were silly.

FLOCK: Yes, it discriminates, admits the Klan on its application, but the court ruled the state isn't allowed to.

ROBERT HERMAN, ATTORNEY: Censorship has been shown not to work.

FLOCK: Lawyer Bob Herman says his love of free speech trumped his hate for the KKK. His rabbi didn't like it, but he successfully represented them.

(on camera): You could see this stretch of highway adopted by al Qaeda.

HERMAN: That would be a painful reminder of how valuable our freedom is.

FLOCK: This is the breezy stretch of Route 21 that the Klan adopted, though you can't be too sure, since somebody stole the signs. Some people say they intended to litter even more on this stretch now.

(voice-over): It's pretty clean so far, but don't expect to see men in white hoods carrying trash bags, despite this picture on the Internet.

ROBB: And the only time members of the Knights would wear a robe would be at a cross-lighting ceremony.

FLOCK: Though not a member, Gene Evans tells us he'll help pick up garbage.

GENE EVANS, MISSOURI RESIDENT: You have got some of the nicest people in the world in the KKK.

FLOCK: The Klan did try this once before about 10 years ago on this stretch of Interstate 55 in Saint Louis. Those signs didn't last long either, a TV station capturing these pictures of someone tearing one down. The KKK ended up dropping out of the program after the state renamed the Rosa Parks Highway.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Potosi, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, if you happen to be driving down Highway 21 or any road, for that matter, in a GM car, this is one sign you don't want to ignore. General Motors is recalling 1.8 million cars to repair potential problems with the ignition switch that may cause a fire. There have been reports of 80 incidents reported. There have been no injuries thus far. And then there's political fires. Halliburton has a new TV ad fighting back against what it calls misrepresentations of its work in Iraq during the presidential campaign. The Pentagon's inspector general, you may recall, is looking into whether Halliburton overcharged for fuel taken into Iraq.

Mad cow, what mad cow? Fears of the disease don't seem to be on the minds of McDonald's customers. The fast-food giant reported supersized sales last month, sending its stock to its highest level in more than a year and a half.

Stocks, meanwhile, were up across the board. There were fewer- than-expected jobs added to the economy last month, which is good news to investors, who were worried that too strong a report would lead to an interest rate hike.

And still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, boy soldiers, young men who lost their youth to warfare in Africa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Under pressure from the U.S. and Britain, there may be an end in sight to Africa's longest running civil war. It's in Sudan. Child soldiers who have been caught in the middle of the fighting for years are laying down their arms, but many have nowhere to go, their childhoods robbed by war. These orphans have come to be known as the lost boys. A few thousand have been relocated to the United States over the past few years.

We followed up with some of the lost boys living in Atlanta, Georgia, and found the story of one child soldier.

Here's NEWSNIGHT'S Catherine Mitchell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE MITCHELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Most don't even know their age. They're called the lost boys, the victims of a civil war in Sudan that has claimed more than two million lives and as many childhoods.

ABRAHAM NHIEL, LOST BOY: We've seen a lot of horrible things, a lot of our brothers, friend, relative die.

MITCHELL: Those that survived ended up in refugee camps, until the U.S. government stepped in, relocating close to 4,000 of them to the United States in 2001. This group arrived in Atlanta, worlds away from their country and culture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see a lot of things that, in my culture, is different, totally different. When I see the girls and the man I guess kissing each other, and then they just playing, I just try to hide my eyes, because it's new to me. I have not been in town.

MITCHELL: There is an innocence that hides the scars of a war that has victimized them, abused them and even turned some into soldiers at an age too young to understand.

(on camera): When you were actually fighting, do you know if you killed people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, that question I may not actually answer, but whoever been in a military and fight, you know, you cannot have a gun without killing. So, actually, I may not say I killed, but I was in the army and I fight. And you know what fight means.

MITCHELL: Jon Dut (ph) joined the Sudanese Liberation Army when he was only 8 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was really appalled. And because I'm human, I try to encourage myself. But sometimes, when I think of it and I see a lot of dead bodies, it makes me scared.

MITCHELL: Dut lives Lori (ph) and Charlie Stokes (ph). Mr. Stokes see Dut as a sign of hope for all children of war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would have thought that these kids coming out of that kind of situation and a Jon, who was, you know, put in a foxhole and handed a gun and told, shoot anything that moves, would have been violent. And there's none of that in Jon. To me, he's a wonderful, hopeful sign that these kids are not lost, that, given the right set of circumstances, they can change their world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See you tonight.

MITCHELL: But without the right set of circumstances, Dut knows it won't be easy for child soldiers like him to change. UNICEF estimates that there are more than 300,000 worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I really get education, the help I get from United States, I need also to help people back in where, in Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I got education, I may even try to run for president.

MITCHELL: Like most of the lost boys, Dut tries to look forward and not back. And for all he's experienced and all he's seen, he knows thousands like him will never get that chance.

Catherine Mitchell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A quick look at some of the news making headlines around the world, beginning in Munich, where German police clashed with demonstrators outside a meeting of NATO defense ministers. The officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, talked about sending NATO troops to Afghanistan and reducing the number of U.S. troops in Germany.

To London now, where British, American and Libyan officials met in the latest round of negotiations, since Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi pledged to give up weapons of mass destruction. No word on what went on inside the meeting today.

And, finally, tragedy on the northwest Coast of England. The bodies of 19 cockle pickers were pulled from the icy waters of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. Authorities say they were trapped by the incoming tide. The grim task followed an attempted rescue mission involving two RAF helicopters and numerous lifeboats.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, wouldn't life be better if we all had a five-second delay?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, thanks to Janet Jackson's right breast -- and there's a phrase I never thought I would need to say -- thanks to Janet Jackson's right breast, the days of live television seem temporarily to be numbered.

Not wanting to be caught in the same predicament as the Super Bowl, other traditionally live broadcasts, the Grammys and the Oscars, have already announced that they will be instituting video and audiotape delays ranging from seconds to minutes. That way, if something untoward happens, there's time to edit it out.

Let's look for a moment at how recent history would be different if delays were de reguir (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein significantly sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

Saddam Hussein, he clearly has much to hide.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to California and Texas and New York! And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan! And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House. Yes!

We're going to California and Texas and New York!

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.

Ms. Lewinsky, I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.

MARTHA STEWART, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: ... continue to do that, and I want to focus on my salad because... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more question about this and the media frenzy that has surrounded this the last week or so. How has it been for you to be in the middle of that?

STEWART: I want to focus on my salad.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SINGER (singing): Hurry up. Come on, baby. I'm going to have you naked by the end of this song.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Maybe if we had had a tape delay, I would be able to say de reguir (ph) better.

Anyway, still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll update you on our top story and we'll preview what's going on, on Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A quick recap of our top story.

Today, President Bush announced who will serve on the presidential commission to investigate the intelligence used by the White House to justify war in Iraq. There will be as many as nine people on the panel. Today, Mr. Bush named seven, a mix of Democrats and Republicans, including the co-chairs, former Virginia Senator and Governor Chuck Robb and retired federal Judge Lawrence Silberman. Arizona Senator John McCain is also on the list.

The commission will have until March 2005 to do its work, which will include examining intelligence on North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Afghanistan as well.

And Monday on NEWSNIGHT, forget the soccer moms. NASCAR dads are the newest group the politicians are seeking. Exactly who and what are they, that is what we're going to look in to on Monday on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks for watching NEWSNIGHT. I'm Anderson Cooper. You can join me Monday on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Aaron Brown will be back on Monday. Good night.

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





Michigan, Washington to Hold Caucuses Tomorrow; Carlie Brucia's Body Found>


Aired February 6, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
A year from now the report from the president's new commission on intelligence capabilities may tell how to make that intelligence better and more reliable. In a week where we've had major questions raised about what America knew or didn't know about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that will surely be a good thing.

But it is not at all clear, at least not yet, that the commission will answer the question of whether the administration exaggerated the intelligence it had to justify the war and just as surely that means this issue will not go away.

And that is where we begin "The Whip" tonight, the new commission, at the White House Suzanne Malveaux, Suzanne a headline please.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an effort really to restore the administration's credibility here. This is the seventh panel investigation pre-war intelligence, this one selected by the president and the big question is, is it going to be any different?

COOPER: That is the question indeed, back to you in a moment.

On to the presidential campaign with more contests this weekend, Joe Johns with the headline on that tonight from Milwaukee -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Howard Dean began his drive to keep his campaign hopes alive here in Wisconsin and two other candidates are fighting it out in the south -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, back to you Joe in a moment.

In Moscow a terrible explosion in the subway and fingers being pointed at Muslim extremists, Jill Dougherty is in Moscow for us tonight. We'll be back with her shortly.

And finally the tragic end to the search for a missing Florida girl, Susan Candiotti on that tonight, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, tonight more details about what led police to discover Carlie Brucia's body. The suspect didn't cooperate with authorities. He did cooperate with someone else.

COOPER: It's a tragic story. Thanks, Susan, back to all of you in a moment.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT what to do when an infamous organization decides to show its kindler, gentler, well less trashy side, the question should the Klan be allowed to adopt a highway?

Later, an incredible story of innocence lost, child soldiers some of whom are trying to make a new life here in America.

And in Segment 7 tonight what life would be like if everything was on a five second delay. How many mistakes could you have avoided, all that ahead in the program.

We begin with the new commission whose job it will be to investigation the pre-war intelligence on WMDs. After weeks of pressure, President Bush announced on Monday he would create the panel, not only create it but select its members as well. Today we got seven of the names.

Here's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): President Bush named his commission to investigate the intelligence the administration used to justify the Iraq war.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The commission I have appointed today will examine intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and related 21st Century threats and issue specific recommendations to ensure our capabilities are strong.

MALVEAUX: On the nine member panel the commission's co-chairs, Democrat Chuck Robb, a former Senator and governor of Virginia and the son-in-law of the late President Johnson; Republican Lawrence Silverman, a retired federal judge considered a staunch conservative, appointed by Reagan who also served under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

The other members, Democrat Lloyd Cutler, former White House Counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton; Patricia Wald, a former chief judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., Richard Levin, President of Yale University; Admire William Studeman, former deputy director of the CIA and Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, who ran against Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000, considered a maverick and occasional critic of the administration, an appointment targeted at countering criticism that the panel won't be objective.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We will be looking at the entire gamut from the gathering of information to the way it was president to the president, the way it was interpreted.

MALVEAUX: But some lawmakers aren't satisfied with the president's selection. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said: "We have a commission wholly owned by the Executive Branch investigating the Executive Branch."

President Bush said the commission will also examine intelligence regarding North Korea, Iran, Libya and Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Now the deadline for the commission's report is March 31. That is two months after a new president is inaugurated, be that Mr. Bush or someone else but the question here is whether or not a portion of that report will be released to the public or leaked to the press and what impact that has on voters' perceptions of the war -- Anderson.

COOPER: Suzanne, it was interesting to hear John McCain saying that they will be looking not only at intelligence gathering, what could be improved there or not improved there but also sort of any dissemination of it and the interpretation of intelligence by the White House. Did the White House say anything along those lines as well?

MALVEAUX: Well, that really is the controversial part of all of this just how much are they going to get into that, how it was perceived, how it was interpreted, how it was distributed and, of course, how they made their case that these weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat to the United States.

That is something that Democrats and Republicans are debating over. The administration, of course, says it wants to put all of that information out there but that is very subjective -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Suzanne Malveaux thanks very much.

A big task ahead for the new commission, it's not by any stretch the first special panel to spring up via executive order or in the wake of controversy. Remember, the Warren Commission? Special commissions seem to beg the question can they get to the bottom of a problem and really promote change or are they just a way to less political heat?

E. J. Dionne is a syndicated columnist, professor of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and a resident scholar at the Brookings Institution. He's thought a lot about all this. We are pleased he is here. Thanks very much for being with us E. J.

E. J. DIONNE, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Good to be with you.

COOPER: Let's look at commissions. I mean do they work and what are they used for?

DIONNE: They're used to solve technical problems and political problems and they're often better at the technical problems. I think if you look at something like the commission that investigated the Challenger disaster there wasn't any political controversy there. People just wanted to know what happened and that was rather successful. There are commissions put together when both parties agree in advance that they want to get to a result and they have to compromise so you had your Social Security commissions which got both parties off the hook by getting each to do something it didn't quite want to do in terms of raising taxes and cutting benefits.

In this case I think the problem is that this is both a technical and bureaucratic problem and a political problem and you clearly do not have Democrats agreeing with the Republicans that this is the way to go. I think it's notable and a lot of Democrats talked about it today that the deadline of this commission is well after the election.

But the question that a lot of voters will want answered, and certainly the Democrats are going to be pushing forward is how did the White House use this intelligence? Did it say things that went beyond what they knew to move public opinion on the war?

COOPER: So, I guess the cynical way to look at it would be to form this commission, get the results very far down the road when people have sort of moved on to other issues.

DIONNE: Right and I think the White House would have the hope when this issue comes up to say well we've got a commission looking into that. I don't think in this election year that's going to work.

The other thing is the membership of the commission, these are all very distinguished people, it's notable that you don't have anybody on there that I can tell who was say strongly against the war, who dissented from the president's view.

You have distinguished moderate to conservative Democrat Chuck Robb. You've got Lloyd Cutler who is a well established figure in Washington, I think fairly friendly to executive authority from his time in the Carter administration. You don't have a lot of people there who are going to be dissidents.

And, John McCain, who is well respected by Democrats and is a maverick as your piece pointed out, was also a very strong supporter of the war and said today he didn't think the president manipulated intelligence.

COOPER: No sitting Democrats on the commission. I guess some of them, I guess the word sort of went out that none of them wanted to be. I guess you could argue both ways. It shows that both sides are going to use this thing for political ends.

DIONNE: Right and I think that Democrats felt that given the time frame of the commission, no report until after the election, they would be co-opted and would advance, indirectly advance the White House agenda so none of them were willing to join.

COOPER: I did not hear from President Bush's statement about the focus of this commission. I mean in Suzanne Malveaux' piece that just aired, I don't know if you heard it, John McCain said we're going to look at the whole gamut of how the information was collected, how the information was presented to the White House, how it was interpreted by the White House. I didn't necessarily hear that from the White House.

DIONNE: No. I was struck by exactly the same thing and it does show that John McCain still always has that maverick streak in him and I think that McCain will push them to look beyond simply the technical or bureaucratic questions.

But, again, unless something leaks out of the commission, I think the one danger for the White House and for this solution is that as the investigation goes forward does someone on there choose to leak material that might be damaging to the White House.

Some of that happened with the Tower Commission investigating Iran Contra. That's the risk they take but the larger risk is this is going to stay in politics. People are going to argue about the war and why the administration went to war and I don't think the commission can or, for that matter, should do anything to get that out of the public debate.

COOPER: Interesting. E. J. Dionne, thanks for joining us. It was interesting.

DIONNE: Good to be with you.

COOPER: Turning now to real mass destruction, a deadly day in Moscow, at least 39 dead, more than 100 hospitalized from a blast that ripped apart a train during the morning rush hour. Russian officials are calling it a major act of terrorism that may be designed to influence the upcoming presidential elections.

Once again, here's CNN's Jill Dougherty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: A packed Moscow metro car deep underground, morning commuters on their way to work, suddenly a blinding explosion, a bomb investigators believe carried in a suitcase detonates in the second car of a Moscow subway train tearing apart the bodies of people closest to the device.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I felt a heat wave, darkness, and my face burning. I fell on the floor immediately. There was a lot of noise. Only when they opened the doors we could walk away.

DOUGHERTY: As rescuers swarm into the metro, survivors climb or jump out of subway windows, pry open doors then run or walk through the pitch black underground tunnel to safety.

In Moscow hospitals, some of the injured fight for their lives but doctors say the death toll could rise. Russian prosecutors launch their investigation, the immediate suspicion a terrorist act by Chechen rebels, a charge rebel leader (unintelligible) denies. President Vladimir Putin condemns terrorism as the plague of the 21st century and has tough talk for the people who carry it out.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia does not conduct talks with terrorists. Russia destroys them.

DOUGHERTY: As security officials gather evidence, Mr. Putin gets a call from U.S. President George W. Bush expressing his condolences and his solidarity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOUGHERTY: This bombing comes just one month before Russia holds presidential elections and Mr. Putin himself is making that connection saying that this could be a way of putting pressure on him and sowing fear and discord. More than any other issue Chechnya is associated with this president. His tough stand on it four years ago is what propelled him into office and now it's back with a fury -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jill, since the last terrorist incident involving Chechens in that theater where a number of people died after Russian troops moved in has security increased significantly inside Moscow, around Moscow?

DOUGHERTY: Well, ironically it has, at least that is what we are told. There are constant checks on the street and almost invariably after all of these terrorist attacks, you know, female suicide bombers that we had in December and back in July, they say security is increased.

But the question again, and people were asking it coming out of the metro today, how is it not stopping these attacks? And this one was really the most, the biggest one certainly in Moscow so far.

COOPER: All right, Jill Dougherty live in Moscow, thanks very much Jill.

Today it was the Moscow metro but last May it was a housing complex in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. We know what the blood aftermath looked like but now we're getting a peak into the terrorist training that makes such carnage possible.

Here's CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest alleged al Qaeda video making its way across the Internet this week lays out in stark detail how al Qaeda practiced for and carried out attacks in Riyadh last November.

PAUL EEDLE, AL QAEDA EXPERT: This showed the actual preparations, the preparation of the car, the hand-to-hand training and, most dramatically of all the actual drive to the target.

ARENA: And with an arsenal of shoulder-fired missiles on display a warning to the Saudi kingdom once thought to be immune from al Qaeda attacks. Stop befriending infidels.

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: We are very concerned about attacks in Saudi Arabia and have been for some time. We are always preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

ARENA: The tape is evidence of Osama bin Laden's continuing influence in Saudi Arabia. He condemned the kingdom during the first Gulf War protesting U.S. military presence on what he called holy land.

But al Qaeda did not strike on Saudi soil until last year. Law enforcement sources say the attacks did what diplomacy could not. It made the Saudis realize they had a stake in the war on terror and has greatly improved cooperation with the United States.

Intelligence continues to suggest Saudi Arabia is vulnerable to more attacks. This latest tape offers concrete corroboration.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ahead on the program tonight, Sarasota's sorrow as the body of a missing 11-year-old girl is found and a man charged with her abduction and murder.

And later we'll check in on the presidential campaign as the Democratic frontrunner gets another major endorsement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: In Sarasota, Florida, just after dawn today the worst was confirmed. The body of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia missing since Sunday evening was found. A former mechanic with a long criminal record is charged with her kidnapping and for first degree murder.

For the latest here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The body of a young girl whose friends say never wanted to be alone was dumped in a field behind a church only three miles from where she was last seen alive.

SHERIFF BILL BALKWELL, SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORIDA: My heart, my prayers go out to Carlie's family.

CANDIOTTI: For now police not revealing how the murder was committed. The break came Thursday, two days after suspect Joseph Smith had been arrested on an unrelated charge.

According to a police affidavit the suspect told a witness that he abducted and murdered Carlie Brucia. The unidentified witness, the report says, led police to the body.

The arrest form also says Smith lied to police about his whereabouts when Carlie disappeared. His station wagon allegedly used in the abduction was seen on a surveillance camera at a car wash a few minutes before he approached the girl. The family has been told Carlie's DNA was found in that vehicle. Smith now charged with kidnapping and murder.

CAPT. JEFF BELL, SARASOTA SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We now stand ready to complete our obligation and assure you that he will pay the ultimate price for what he did to her.

CANDIOTTI: A grief-stricken mother consoled throughout the day by well wishers. At the crime scene, while investigators were collecting evidence, Carlie's stepfather encircled by friends and her father who lives in New York tried to make sense of the senseless.

JOEY BRUCIA, CARLIE'S FATHER: She's in a better place. She got there in a horrific manner but now she's watching me all the time.

CANDIOTTI: At the car wash where Carlie was last seen alive classmates remembered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a loving and caring person. She never gave handshakes. She always gave hugs.

CANDIOTTI: Those were everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carlie will always be my baby.

CANDIOTTI: Friday night a vigil at an area church. A community touched by the death of a girl whose disappearance might not have been solved but for a security camera.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And tonight family members continue to question why suspect Smith was free to begin with. As we've told he had two alleged probation violations late last year and a judge decided not to take any action about them.

Tonight, a spokesperson for the State Department of Corrections tells us the secretary of that state agency will be investigation -- Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Susan Candiotti thanks very much live from Florida.

Carlie Brucia didn't know her alleged kidnapper and killer. That alone makes her death not just tragic but rare. Just a fraction of the kids abducted each year are taken by strangers, rarer still for the crime to be recorded by a security camera. For many the grainy, silent video we've been watching since Monday made this crime different.

Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This one hit home. This one was personal in part because we all witnessed it, watched the girl walking home from a friend's house, saw the man in the mechanic's uniform intercept her, grab her arm, say something to her, then simply walk her out of frame into a nightmare.

For the next five days, people who lived anywhere near Sarasota kept an eye out for the sixth grader with the long blond hair. Across the country people stopped talking during the evening news to hear the latest on the abducted girl, the latest plea from Carlie's mom, her face a graph of hope and dread, the latest on the police search, the efforts by the FBI and NASA to winnow from the grainy video details about the man.

There were in each new report more details about Carlie. She was 11 years old. She had a pink backpack and a cat named Charlie. She loved to sing. She was learning French. She had friends named Allison and Tiffany.

Millions kept Carlie in their thoughts and prayers. Maybe she'd be found unharmed, found even months later like Elizabeth Smart. Millions kept a closer watch on their own children. Look what could happen. Not at midnight in a bad neighborhood but at dinner time to a girl taking a shortcut she knew past the car wash on her way home on a Sunday evening.

Millions of Americans hoped it would turn out differently, feared it would turn out just as it did, felt a stab of sadness when they heard the news on the radio on the way in to work or in the break room, the body found in wooded area next to a church. Even the sheriff cried.

It helped a little to hear that there had been an arrest. Maybe they got the guy. Maybe other little girls in Sarasota were now safe, not that many little girls were going to be walking anywhere alone for a while.

There was the inevitable alchemy of reaction from hope to grief to anger. Who was to blame? Was there anything police or parents or parole boards or passersby could have done?

One more worry to add to the list, orange alerts, poison on a Senator's mail, monsters outside the local car wash, one more reminder that humans have the capacity for such inexplicable evil, yes the capacity for great good too and for resilience and recovery, although that was harder on a day like this to keep in mind.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, the Democratic presidential candidates are heading into three races this weekend, the biggest prize Michigan with 128 delegates. It is the largest state so far to hold a nominating contest.

Polls show John Kerry with a substantial lead in the union stronghold state and today he got another boost from a long time friend of unions and a former foe of his. It's an odd political dance. We call it the rival reversal.

Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the union town of Warren, Michigan, one of John Kerry's former rivals becomes one of his biggest backers to date.

REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D), MISSOURI: We need a leader who we all know can walk into that oval office tomorrow afternoon and be a great president of the United States.

WALLACE: The Senator from Massachusetts who courted Gephardt ever since he got out of the race, according to aides to both men, returns the compliment.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No one has invested more time, more diligently with more commitment than the man who just endorsed me, Dick Gephardt.

WALLACE: In a state that lost 170,000 manufacturing jobs in three years, according to its governor, Gephardt brings Kerry immediate clout with industrial unions whose members question the Senator's support for trade deals like the one linking the United States, Mexico and Canada. Gephardt made opposition to that agreement the centerpiece of his presidential campaign but says Kerry's position now is much closer to his own.

GEPHARDT: John has really come to a view that many of us have and that is that we've got to get labor and environmental provisions in the core text of treaties and he's been very clear about that. Every time I've been with him he has said that he wants to do this.

WALLACE: CNN has learned Gephardt convened a conference call Wednesday with union presidents who endorsed him urging them to back Kerry now. Aides say the Senator met with some of those same labor leaders in Boston on Thursday.

The Senator also won the support of labor friendly Michigan Congressman John Dingell, the endorsements adding to the frontrunner's momentum and his looseness on the trail ahead of Saturday's contest in Michigan and Washington state.

Kelly Wallace CNN, Flint, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the rest of the candidates were campaigning in the Midwest and South today where they are conceding nothing to John Kerry, not yet anyway. Only Howard Dean has set a hard deadline in a state he says he has to win.

CNN's Joe Johns has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHNS (voice-over): In Milwaukee today, Howard Dean was stumping for votes on a make or break mission to win Wisconsin's February 17 primary.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd love to have your help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that would be admirable.

DEAN: I need your help.

JOHNS: One day after sending out an e-mail to supporters asserting that anything less than winning would put him out of the race. The campaign said it raised about $900,000 for advertising in Wisconsin. Dean had first called the tactic "a brilliant ploy" then had to explain.

DEAN: I also think it depends what your definition of the word ploy is. I think it's a brilliant step forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your definition of ploy?

DEAN: My definition of ploy is a strategy.

JOHNS: Meanwhile in the battle for votes in next Tuesday's Tennessee and Virginia primaries, the two southern candidates exchanged words. First, retired General Wesley Clark accused Senator John Edwards essentially of taking votes detrimental to military retirees four years ago.

WESLEY CLARK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was the only Democrat who did not vote against corporate subsidies. He voted in favor of corporate subsidies against veterans' benefits.

JOHNS: The Clark campaign accused Edwards of voting against a measure that "would have increased veterans' benefits by closing corporate loopholes." Edwards, who has tried to appeal to voters by staying above the political sniping responded.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My position is that I've supported veterans and this is the kind of attacks that people are sick of.

JOHNS: The exchange underscored the importance of the southern states to Clark and Edwards. The question is whether either of them can keep going if they fail to win Tennessee or Virginia. Edwards' campaign today reported it is in solid financial shape after winning the South Carolina primary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Clark and Edwards plan to come here to Wisconsin this weekend and Dean is pretty much planning to camp out starting early next week -- Anderson.

COOPER: Joe, you've been following the Dean camp in Wisconsin. What do these people feel if they don't do well in Washington this weekend that can't bode well for Wisconsin?

JOHNS: Well, certainly there are a lot of concerns about Washington. They believe they've already put an organization in place and they say now it's up to the organization. Their focus at this point, of course, is Wisconsin and Dean has pretty much said, at least in his e-mail, that if he doesn't do well here, at least number one or number two, he could be out of the race.

COOPER: All right, Joe Johns in Wisconsin thanks Joe.

Three races, 228 delegates at stake this weekend and a front- runner with a healthy lead in the polls, which raises the question, what will it take to stop his momentum? Can it be stopped? With the biggest primary day, Super Tuesday, still weeks away, is it too early to begin thinking about vice presidential pairings?

And on another note, what is going on with President Bush's reelection noncampaign? He seems to be just a couple steps behind the Democrats these days, geographically speaking and on "Meet the Press" this weekend.

A lot to hash over this evening with our guests. Anne Kornblut is the national political correspondent for "The Boston Globe." And Ryan Lizza is covering the campaign for "The New Republic."

I'm glad both of you are with us tonight. Thanks very much.

ANNE KORNBLUT, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Thank you.

RYAN LIZZA, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: Ryan, let me start off with you.

Is John Kerry going to easy -- excuse me -- John Edwards going too easy on John Kerry?

LIZZA: No, I don't think he is.

Look, you know, there's an argument to be made that the only way to topple John Kerry at this point is to tell the American public what the differences are between you and John Kerry. And to the extent that Edwards isn't doing that, it may be sort of hard for people to figure out why they should vote for Edwards and not the front-runner with all the momentum.

But this is the Edwards' strategy. They're trying to win -- they're trying to beat Wes Clark in Tennessee and Virginia on Tuesday. They want Wes Clark out of the race, because they want this race to come down to a two-man race between Kerry and Edwards. The lesson they learned from Iowa is that, when you attack one of the other candidates, it hurts you.

And the voters that peel off from that other candidate won't necessarily go to you, but will go to a third candidate. So, until they're in a two-man race, when they're the only other option besides Kerry, you're probably not going to see Edwards attack anyone. COOPER: Well, Ann, there are also those who say that Edwards is sort of going soft or staying relentlessly upbeat, one, because he's sort of promise promised to do that all along, but, two, because he might be eying a V.P. slot with John Kerry.

KORNBLUT: Well, I would tend to think it's the -- in fact, I know it's the former. This is the entire mantra of the Edwards campaign, is being positive and not being like the other guys.

That said, it's hard to believe that anybody, including Edwards, despite his denials, wouldn't want to leave themselves open to being the vice presidential pick if somebody else becomes the nominee. That's still a ways off. And there's no way Edwards or anyone else is going to say, yes, I'm running for vice president, when they still hope to get the top slot.

COOPER: Ryan, who else is in sort of this V.P. dance, if it's going on at all?

LIZZA: All right, it's definitely early to speculate. I think we still do have a race here. Anything could happen.

But, if Kerry is the nominee, he is probably going to look for someone that will offset some of his perceived disadvantages, someone from a different region. Someone that -- this is maybe an unfair rap against him, but the rap against him is that he's sort of a patrician, New England, you know, raised in Swiss boarding schools, that kind of thing. So he might want someone with a little more of a populist bent.

If that's what they're thinking about, someone who sort of compensates for what his perceived weaknesses, I couldn't think of anyone better than John Edwards. The other option would be to go with someone that can definitely win you a state. It's not totally clear that John Edwards will actually win you any Southern states, but maybe he would at least force Bush to play a little harder in the South.

Some people think Bob Graham would be someone that could win the Democrats the ultimate battleground state of Florida. And there's intriguing picks like Evan Bayh, who is a sort of conservative Democrat from Indiana. Indiana is a very Republican state. It would be a big deal if Kerry could carry that state. So I think those are the two options. You want to go with someone that either offsets your weaknesses or someone that will actually win you a state that you wouldn't win on your own.

COOPER: Anne, let's talk about Tennessee and Virginia coming up. There are three caucuses this weekend. But they, Tennessee and Virginia, seem to be the most important, especially for Edwards, for Clark. Will one of them be out of the race after Tuesday?

KORNBLUT: Well, I think it's probably fair to say one, if not both.

They both desperately need to win one or two of those states. Coming in second doesn't do you quite the good that it could in the earlier races. But, by the same token, the races this weekend aren't completely uninteresting. You have got the race in Michigan, particularly. I think people will be looking to see where a lot of the Gephardt support, if it actually translates into Kerry support, the union support.

And a lot of people in Michigan voted in advance. So did they vote for Dean before the scream, before Iowa? I think that is a lot what people will be looking for, especially to see if Dean has a chance of coming back.

COOPER: Ryan, I know what also a lot of people are going to be looking for is to watch President Bush on "Meet the Press" this weekend.

LIZZA: Yes.

COOPER: Why is he doing this? Is this a sign that the White House is worried?

LIZZA: I think that's the only explanation.

I mean, the State of the Union is the greatest moment for a president of the United States to seem above the fray. It's his greatest imperial moment of the year. And this year, the State of the Union failed. The Democrats are out there hammering him every day. They're getting a lot of positive coverage. John Kerry, all of the sudden, amazingly, is beating the president in the polls.

And they sort of were opting for this 1996 Bill Clinton-style, above-it-all campaign. And it hasn't worked. So, they have -- I think it's about expectations. Look, everyone is saying right now that George Bush is going to go in there with Tim Russert and get his clock cleaned. And George Bush is a self-described master of low expectations.

And he could come out Sunday looking really good. And everybody will say, wow, he went and sat down with Russert and came out OK. So, it sounds to me like a gamble, but maybe a smart one after a State of the Union that didn't work so well.

COOPER: Anne, do you agree with that? Has this part of the campaign already begun?

KORNBLUT: Well, certainly.

If anything, I think it may have begun a little too late for them. They did try to stay above the fray. And now you're seeing him do things like stop at diners spontaneously when he's out on the road, certainly going on "Meet the Press" and following the Democrats around the country to these various states. They definitely have some concern at this point.

COOPER: Ann, when does the $170 million war chest, when does that get opened up?

KORNBLUT: That's a great question. I wish I knew the answer to that. That's what we're all looking for, is the day that -- well, the ads start running from the RNC and from the Bush campaign. Then the campaign will have really officially really begun.

LIZZA: And some of it has been spent. We just don't know really what it's been spent on so far. We haven't seen the ads. But if you look at the reports they've filed with the FEC, they've spent quite a bit of money already.

COOPER: And I guess that's one of the reasons the Democrats are hoping to keep this sort of primary battle, at least some of the sort of excitement of the race going on, I guess, prolonging until the day they actually have one candidate out there.

KORNBLUT: Oh, sure. And this is going to go on. I don't think this is going to be an election that is going to have many lulls in it, if what we've seen so far is the precedent.

COOPER: Yes, it's been pretty exciting thus far.

Anne Kornblut, Ryan Lizza, thanks very much for being with us.

KORNBLUT: Thank you.

LIZZA: Thanks for having us.

COOPER: All right, have a good weekend.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the trashed Klan. Can bad people do good works? The KKK and the Adopt-a-Highway Program.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: I don't understand some of those stories.

Freedom can and has been tested and measured in many ways in this country. Perhaps a bit of poetry when the test happens along a highway. We are a nation of roads, after all, their pavement a concrete symbol of connectedness. But being connected doesn't mean being alike or even looking one another. And with freedom, of course, comes tolerance. In Missouri, both have now been put to the test.

Here's Jeff Flock.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Cleaning up trash along the road in Missouri, there's the Baptist church, the pest control company, the technical college, and the Ku Klux Klan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The KKK can, you know, kiss my behind.

FLOCK: Folks in the town of Potosi, Missouri, south of Saint Louis, tried to keep the Klan out of the Adopt-a-Highway Program. JEFF BRIGGS, MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Because they have a history of discrimination in their membership based on race and because this group has a history of violence.

THOMAS ROBB, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, KNIGHTS OF THE KKK: They came up with numerous reasons. Most of them were silly.

FLOCK: Yes, it discriminates, admits the Klan on its application, but the court ruled the state isn't allowed to.

ROBERT HERMAN, ATTORNEY: Censorship has been shown not to work.

FLOCK: Lawyer Bob Herman says his love of free speech trumped his hate for the KKK. His rabbi didn't like it, but he successfully represented them.

(on camera): You could see this stretch of highway adopted by al Qaeda.

HERMAN: That would be a painful reminder of how valuable our freedom is.

FLOCK: This is the breezy stretch of Route 21 that the Klan adopted, though you can't be too sure, since somebody stole the signs. Some people say they intended to litter even more on this stretch now.

(voice-over): It's pretty clean so far, but don't expect to see men in white hoods carrying trash bags, despite this picture on the Internet.

ROBB: And the only time members of the Knights would wear a robe would be at a cross-lighting ceremony.

FLOCK: Though not a member, Gene Evans tells us he'll help pick up garbage.

GENE EVANS, MISSOURI RESIDENT: You have got some of the nicest people in the world in the KKK.

FLOCK: The Klan did try this once before about 10 years ago on this stretch of Interstate 55 in Saint Louis. Those signs didn't last long either, a TV station capturing these pictures of someone tearing one down. The KKK ended up dropping out of the program after the state renamed the Rosa Parks Highway.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Potosi, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, if you happen to be driving down Highway 21 or any road, for that matter, in a GM car, this is one sign you don't want to ignore. General Motors is recalling 1.8 million cars to repair potential problems with the ignition switch that may cause a fire. There have been reports of 80 incidents reported. There have been no injuries thus far. And then there's political fires. Halliburton has a new TV ad fighting back against what it calls misrepresentations of its work in Iraq during the presidential campaign. The Pentagon's inspector general, you may recall, is looking into whether Halliburton overcharged for fuel taken into Iraq.

Mad cow, what mad cow? Fears of the disease don't seem to be on the minds of McDonald's customers. The fast-food giant reported supersized sales last month, sending its stock to its highest level in more than a year and a half.

Stocks, meanwhile, were up across the board. There were fewer- than-expected jobs added to the economy last month, which is good news to investors, who were worried that too strong a report would lead to an interest rate hike.

And still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, boy soldiers, young men who lost their youth to warfare in Africa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Under pressure from the U.S. and Britain, there may be an end in sight to Africa's longest running civil war. It's in Sudan. Child soldiers who have been caught in the middle of the fighting for years are laying down their arms, but many have nowhere to go, their childhoods robbed by war. These orphans have come to be known as the lost boys. A few thousand have been relocated to the United States over the past few years.

We followed up with some of the lost boys living in Atlanta, Georgia, and found the story of one child soldier.

Here's NEWSNIGHT'S Catherine Mitchell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CATHERINE MITCHELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Most don't even know their age. They're called the lost boys, the victims of a civil war in Sudan that has claimed more than two million lives and as many childhoods.

ABRAHAM NHIEL, LOST BOY: We've seen a lot of horrible things, a lot of our brothers, friend, relative die.

MITCHELL: Those that survived ended up in refugee camps, until the U.S. government stepped in, relocating close to 4,000 of them to the United States in 2001. This group arrived in Atlanta, worlds away from their country and culture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see a lot of things that, in my culture, is different, totally different. When I see the girls and the man I guess kissing each other, and then they just playing, I just try to hide my eyes, because it's new to me. I have not been in town.

MITCHELL: There is an innocence that hides the scars of a war that has victimized them, abused them and even turned some into soldiers at an age too young to understand.

(on camera): When you were actually fighting, do you know if you killed people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, that question I may not actually answer, but whoever been in a military and fight, you know, you cannot have a gun without killing. So, actually, I may not say I killed, but I was in the army and I fight. And you know what fight means.

MITCHELL: Jon Dut (ph) joined the Sudanese Liberation Army when he was only 8 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was really appalled. And because I'm human, I try to encourage myself. But sometimes, when I think of it and I see a lot of dead bodies, it makes me scared.

MITCHELL: Dut lives Lori (ph) and Charlie Stokes (ph). Mr. Stokes see Dut as a sign of hope for all children of war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would have thought that these kids coming out of that kind of situation and a Jon, who was, you know, put in a foxhole and handed a gun and told, shoot anything that moves, would have been violent. And there's none of that in Jon. To me, he's a wonderful, hopeful sign that these kids are not lost, that, given the right set of circumstances, they can change their world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See you tonight.

MITCHELL: But without the right set of circumstances, Dut knows it won't be easy for child soldiers like him to change. UNICEF estimates that there are more than 300,000 worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I really get education, the help I get from United States, I need also to help people back in where, in Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I got education, I may even try to run for president.

MITCHELL: Like most of the lost boys, Dut tries to look forward and not back. And for all he's experienced and all he's seen, he knows thousands like him will never get that chance.

Catherine Mitchell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A quick look at some of the news making headlines around the world, beginning in Munich, where German police clashed with demonstrators outside a meeting of NATO defense ministers. The officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, talked about sending NATO troops to Afghanistan and reducing the number of U.S. troops in Germany.

To London now, where British, American and Libyan officials met in the latest round of negotiations, since Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi pledged to give up weapons of mass destruction. No word on what went on inside the meeting today.

And, finally, tragedy on the northwest Coast of England. The bodies of 19 cockle pickers were pulled from the icy waters of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. Authorities say they were trapped by the incoming tide. The grim task followed an attempted rescue mission involving two RAF helicopters and numerous lifeboats.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, wouldn't life be better if we all had a five-second delay?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, thanks to Janet Jackson's right breast -- and there's a phrase I never thought I would need to say -- thanks to Janet Jackson's right breast, the days of live television seem temporarily to be numbered.

Not wanting to be caught in the same predicament as the Super Bowl, other traditionally live broadcasts, the Grammys and the Oscars, have already announced that they will be instituting video and audiotape delays ranging from seconds to minutes. That way, if something untoward happens, there's time to edit it out.

Let's look for a moment at how recent history would be different if delays were de reguir (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein significantly sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

Saddam Hussein, he clearly has much to hide.

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to California and Texas and New York! And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan! And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House. Yes!

We're going to California and Texas and New York!

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.

Ms. Lewinsky, I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.

MARTHA STEWART, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: ... continue to do that, and I want to focus on my salad because... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more question about this and the media frenzy that has surrounded this the last week or so. How has it been for you to be in the middle of that?

STEWART: I want to focus on my salad.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SINGER (singing): Hurry up. Come on, baby. I'm going to have you naked by the end of this song.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Maybe if we had had a tape delay, I would be able to say de reguir (ph) better.

Anyway, still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll update you on our top story and we'll preview what's going on, on Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A quick recap of our top story.

Today, President Bush announced who will serve on the presidential commission to investigate the intelligence used by the White House to justify war in Iraq. There will be as many as nine people on the panel. Today, Mr. Bush named seven, a mix of Democrats and Republicans, including the co-chairs, former Virginia Senator and Governor Chuck Robb and retired federal Judge Lawrence Silberman. Arizona Senator John McCain is also on the list.

The commission will have until March 2005 to do its work, which will include examining intelligence on North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Afghanistan as well.

And Monday on NEWSNIGHT, forget the soccer moms. NASCAR dads are the newest group the politicians are seeking. Exactly who and what are they, that is what we're going to look in to on Monday on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks for watching NEWSNIGHT. I'm Anderson Cooper. You can join me Monday on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Aaron Brown will be back on Monday. Good night.

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Michigan, Washington to Hold Caucuses Tomorrow; Carlie Brucia's Body Found>