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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Al-Jazeera Shows Tape of Kidnapped American Soldier; Peace Talks in Fallujah; Porn Industry Hit by AIDS Scare
Aired April 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.
In ways that it hasn't always been the war in Iraq gets personal tonight. You'll see it in the face, the single face of a young American being held hostage by some shadowy group in Iraq. We can only imagine what his family in Ohio is going through when they see these same pictures.
That's at the beginning of the program tonight but the end is personal as well, the faces of those noble young men and women who have died in this difficult month of April in Iraq, a bit of their individual stories as best we can piece them together.
We have used this line before. We heard it first spoken by an old friend at a 9/11 memorial service. The number then was 3,000. The number today is 80. It is not that 80 people have died. It is that one person has died 80 separate times. They are not numbers, not simply names on a casualty report.
Tonight in a very small way we will try and make them people to be mourned and respected not just for how they died but for the work they did in our name when they were alive.
But the news of the day comes first and so the program and the whip begins tonight at the Pentagon, CNN's Jamie McIntyre with us again tonight and Jamie the headline from you.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, since April 9 the family of Keith Matt Maupin has been anxious about his fate. Today they got good news and bad news. The good news he's alive. The bad news he's been taken hostage.
BROWN: Jamie, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.
Next to Baghdad and CNN's Karl Penhaul on the morning after a day that held out at least a shred of hope in certain quarters, so Karl a headline from you tonight.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Peace talks in Fallujah, that city the coalition calls a hotbed of foreign terrorists. Meanwhile, south religious leaders say they're drawing a red line around two of Iraq's holiest cities.
BROWN: Karl, thank you. Finally to San Francisco and a story that gets a snicker until you consider it involves a major chunk of the economy and a killer virus to boot, CNN's Ted Rowlands on the AIDS scare that's hit the porn industry.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two people in the porn industry have already tested positive for HIV and there is real fear tonight that others may follow. A moratorium on all video production in the industry has been called for but not everybody tonight is going for it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Ted, thank you, back to you and the rest in a moment.
Also on the program tonight the slow and steady steps in the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Nic Robertson joins us.
Plus, a story we feel it is our duty to bring you. We mentioned this earlier, the names and faces of those lost in recent weeks in Iraq. The number is almost overwhelming but it's the personal stories you'll remember.
And at the end tonight, as always, morning papers and, this being Friday, we'll throw in a tabloid or two just because we can, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin tonight with difficult frames of video. They show an American soldier in the hands of the enemy, a young private in the Army Reserve missing since last week. They also highlight a growing tactic in the insurgency, the taking and sometimes the killing of contractors and aid workers and journalists and now American soldiers.
We have two reports tonight, first our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): On the tape aired by Al-Jazeera, the man in a U.S. military uniform identifies himself as one of the two soldiers currently missing in Iraq.
PFC KEITH MAUPIN, U.S. SOLDIER: My name is Keith Matthew Maupin.
MCINTYRE: The military won't confirm it's him but 20-year-old Private First Class Keith Maupin has been missing an April 9 attack on a convoy of fuel trucks outside Baghdad.
Also missing after the same incident is 40-year-old Sergeant Elmer Krause and several American contractors who work for the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, including Thomas Hamill, who was seen on video shot by Australian television.
On the tape, the hostage takers say their captive is in good health and being treated based on the tenets of Islamic law for the treatment of soldiers taken hostage. Their only hint of demands: "We will keep him until we trade him for our prisoners in the custody of the U.S. enemy." The U.S. insists it won't deal. DAN SENIOR, COALITION SPOKESMAN: We are putting everything behind trying to rescue these hostages. We will not negotiate with the terrorists who have engaged in the hostage taking but we are putting everything behind their release both from an intelligence standpoint, from a military standpoint and other resources we have at our disposal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, the U.S. is still working to identify four bodies found a few days ago near the scene of the attack. It's still undetermined if those four sets of remains are among those who are still missing -- Aaron.
BROWN: Two quick ones. Why do we call him a hostage not a prisoner of war? And why won't the Pentagon confirm his identity? His parents have. His family has.
MCINTYRE: Well, what the -- the Pentagon has said, to take the second one first, is that while they have no reason to suspect that this tape is not what it is that there's no way for them to independently say absolutely what's on the tapes.
They're just being very conservative and a lot of times in these kind of situations they do want to leave it up to the families to say what they want to say. And, as for a hostage versus prisoner of war, well when someone is being held in response to a demand then they call that a hostage.
BROWN: OK, accept them both, thank you Jamie, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Have a good weekend.
It is a bitter irony, I guess, in moments like this. It comes from knowing that so often hope comes with a footnote. Tonight, Private Maupin's friends, his family, those who know him and love him and miss him do have some hope. For a week nobody knew if he was dead or alive. Now they know, the hope and the footnote and the irony all wrapped into one.
CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us from Private Maupin's hometown just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, good evening.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.
And here they have no doubt they are considering him a prisoner of war. Even though the candlelight vigil is over the friends of Matt Maupin who gathered here on these steps say they'll continue to pray for his safety.
And many of them will tell you it's the most helpless feeling in the world, wanting to help his mother get through this but, at the same time, knowing there's nothing they can do to change what's happening to him right now in Iraq.
Many of them gathered here earlier tonight trying to tell the family in no uncertain words we're here if you need us. Maupin grew up just about five miles away from here. Hundreds of people gathered from the suburbs of Cincinnati earlier tonight. Most had seen that video of armed men holding him hostage in Iraq.
At tonight's vigil, some of the veterans wore their military caps as a show of support. Nearly everyone wore yellow ribbons or small photographs of the captured soldier.
Maupin joined the Army Reserve last year to earn money for college and five months ago his transportation unit was shipped off to Iraq. A family friend also said tonight that the family thanked everyone for all of their support that they got here tonight and throughout this past week.
He said they can't wait to welcome Matt Maupin home again but he did also urge the crowd to show support for the men and women still serving overseas and also to have faith in Matt Maupin -- Aaron.
BROWN: If you know tell me and, if you don't we'll just acknowledge it. Do you know what contact they've had from the Pentagon, the family has had from the Pentagon?
LAWRENCE: Well, not exactly sure what contact they've had now but, again, he did -- was reported missing last week and we know that stress counselors from the U.S. Army have been with the family earlier in the week when they had not known his status as of yet so we can imagine that the Army is very much involved in what's happening with the family tonight.
BROWN: Thank you. That tells us a lot. Thank you very much. Good to have you with us tonight too. Welcome.
A piece of the puzzle tonight, the big picture seems a little better. The situation on the ground seems a bit calmer, the political end game somewhat better defined certainly than it was just 48 hours ago.
In Washington today the president signaled his willingness to go along with a special U.N. envoy when it comes to the political transition this summer who will make up the government and, in Iraq, there were signs that talking seems to be working for a change.
So for a look at how things are on the ground tonight, we go back to CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): Hi, Aaron.
Yes, certainly some of the highest level talks so far in Fallujah to try and find a peaceful solution to the battles that have been going on there now for the best part of two weeks.
Ambassador Robert Jones, he's the chief political adviser to the coalition chief Paul Bremer, has been in Fallujah, along with senior military officials. They've been meeting with leaders from Fallujah. We understand those are civilian leaders, however, from Fallujah not leaders of the insurgency that is based there.
Now the coalition authorities have called Fallujah a hotbed of foreign terrorism. We understand for the U.S. Marines on the ground there that up to 2,000 insurgents could be holed up there.
Now there has been no breakthrough in those days, in that day of talks so far. We understand now the talks will continue for a second day tomorrow. We understand that those talks will focus on a lasting cease-fire that will be observed by both the U.S. Marines and the insurgents and also a coalition plan to gather up heavy weaponry that the insurgents have been using.
But the coalition has made it clear that these talks can't go on indefinitely. They say there must be a limit on these talks and, if there is no deal, then the action will pick up again that the U.S. Marines will go in and try and finish off the insurgency there -- Aaron.
BROWN: All right.
PENHAUL: South of Baghdad...
BROWN: I'm sorry. Just before you leave Fallujah let me ask one question there.
PENHAUL: Sure.
BROWN: Are these negotiations in the sense that something is being offered in exchange for something being given or is this a discussion of the American demands?
PENHAUL: It's a little of both, Aaron, from what we can make out. I asked that same question this afternoon in the coalition press briefing. Dan Senor, the coalition spokesman, was a little loathe to spell out the bottom line that the coalition was insisting on but it is quite plain that what the coalition will not allow is for the insurgents to walk away from this.
The coalition is demanding that the leaders, the civilian leaders of Fallujah, hand over those insurgents, hand over any foreign fighters there and also that the weapons are turned in along with those responsible for the death of those four contractors in those horrible images we've seen of late.
BROWN: OK, Karl thank you, Karl Penhaul who is in Baghdad. That's the situation in the north. The situation in the south has been somewhat calmer. We'll talk about that a bit now too as well.
We have, those of you who are with us most nights know we rely on the work of our own correspondents and they've been working incredibly hard. We rely as well on newspaper and magazine reporters who have been in the area. They have been writing compelling stories and in total we hope to give a fuller picture of what is going on.
Tonight we're pleased to be speaking with Christine Spolar of the "Chicago Tribune" and she joins us from there tonight. It's good to see you. How long you been there?
CHRISTINE SPOLAR, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Well, I've been here most of the year. This time I've been back about ten days. I came in last April and have been here about every month since the statue fell.
BROWN: How is today different from ten days ago? Is it dramatically different or just different by degrees?
SPOLAR: It's an interesting time. I was here for the six weeks leading up to the four contractors being killed and you could see it getting more tense by the day then, the day the contractors were killed and then afterwards seemed to be quite a tense time here.
I came back some days ago and it seemed to me then that the tension had broken a little bit. The Iraqis were out in the streets more. I think now the Iraqis think that westerners and Americans are the targets but perhaps they are not and the Iraqi police are not as it was a couple months ago.
BROWN: Well, they have good reason in fact to believe that given the events of the last few days. Do you have -- let's talk about the south and I gather mostly what you guys, what all of you can do right now is work the telephones and work the Iraqi Governing Council but it's very difficult to get around the country.
SPOLAR: That's true. We have sent some drivers out and some of us have gone on the road to Kufa. We had somebody in Kufa yesterday just as the fighting broke out and he was lucky to get out and that -- he saw some men who he thought were members of the Mehdi Army. They had rocket launchers, mortar launchers, Kalashnikovs. They started firing and the troops then came after them so we do have some sense of the action.
As far as what's going on with Najaf and with the negotiations, I've been talking a lot to the governing council and the -- and trying to figure out what's in it for the different clerics and also the political leaders here, how they can calm the situation.
BROWN: And how are they going about this? Who are the key players to watch?
SPOLAR: Well, it's interesting. I mean the governing council was quite pleased I think to see the Iranians come in because they do want to see other regional players get involved in this.
The Americans might not be thrilled with the idea but the Iraqis are saying to me, listen, we have neighbors and those neighbors have influence in our country and they have friends in this country, so if they come that's okay with us. It's our problem but we need -- we will have friends come over and talk to other people inside the country that can help.
So, right now, they are talking. They think the Najaf situation is very different than Fallujah. Najaf can be calmed they think by appealing to the senior clerics and then the clerics talking to Muqtada al-Sadr and seeing that as a localized problem. Fallujah is very different to them. They see it as a nest of terrorists. They see some outside influence and they think the Americans have to be very tough in there. They're quite concerned about the civilian deaths but they think that the Americans have to go in there now and have to kill the terrorists now so that they don't have this problem later when they're in charge.
BROWN: And what's interesting to me watching from afar, watching the Iraqi Governing Council, is they have to be very careful, don't they, in how they say all of this because of the civilian casualties and because ultimately they have to live in this neighborhood.
SPOLAR: Well, they are very blunt that they think the Americans have gone about it too late in Fallujah. They are saying that this was going on for months and that the Americans should have shown their military might for months in Fallujah and quelled the problem quickly. That's the criticism I'm hearing from the Iraqi Governing Council now.
They're quite concerned about the civilian deaths and they are complaining about them but they are saying that the Americans should act now and they will support them now but, if they don't get this problem taken care of this month or in the next few weeks, I think that they will have quite a lot of criticism for the Americans.
BROWN: Christine, be safe out there. Thanks for joining us. We look forward to talking to you again. Thank you.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the president gets some words of support from his good friend the Prime Minister Tony Blair. The subject was Iraq.
And later in the program, Beth Nissen takes a closer look at the men and women who fell in battle over the last two weeks, the faces and the stories that go with the names, a break first.
From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A supporter of President Bush's foreign policy once lamented that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair wasn't available to do all the president's public speaking. Mr. Blair, even his critics concede, makes an eloquent case for what in Great Britain remains a less than popular cause for staying in Iraq and for sticking with the U.S. Today he said the same at the White House.
Here's CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the rising death toll in Iraq and the June 30 deadline for Iraqi sovereignty fast approaching, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to stay the course.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This transfer will demonstrate to the Iraqi people that our coalition has no interest in occupation.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We will not back down in the face of attacks either on us or on defenseless civilians.
MALVEAUX: Their oval office meeting comes at a critical time for both leaders. Blair, who is facing growing criticism for supporting the Iraq War, has privately been pushing Mr. Bush to allow for a greater U.N. role in Iraq's future and Mr. Bush who has seen renewed violence there acknowledged the U.S. needs more help.
BUSH: We welcome the proposals presented by the U.N. Special Envoy Brahimi. He's identified a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people.
MALVEAUX: The Bush administration is now supporting a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would give the U.N. a central role in Iraq's political transformation. Some Democrats see this as evidence the administration initially underestimated the need for international support.
LEON FUERTH, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Faced with the possibility of a total loss of control over the circumstances, it has turned back to the United Nations in a somewhat desperate hope that the U.N. can be the glue that holds all of this together.
MALVEAUX: The two leaders also presented a united front to support Israel's controversial new plan to withdraw from Gaza but keep some West Bank settlements.
While both argued it would jump-start the road map's stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, Blair's pushing for more aid to the Palestinian Authority, an organization the U.S. refuses to deal with under the leadership of Yasser Arafat.
BLAIR: We want the quartet to meet as soon as possible to discuss how it can support the Palestinian Authority in particular economically, politically and in respective security to respond to that offer.
MALVEAUX (on camera): Wrapping up a week of meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Israel and Britain, next week President Bush will hold talks with Jordan's King Abdullah to try to button up support for his Middle East Iraq initiatives.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Yesterday's bin Laden tape was a reminder that the world's most wanted man is still out there somewhere, still alive, still able to communicate, to recruit, inspire some, sicken most others.
The hope was that this spring will be his last, that with the help of the Pakistanis on their side of the border, U.S. troops will finally get their man and they may but they haven't yet. Here's CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the minutes before a remote mountainside raid...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house right here we did a raid on back in January.
ROBERTSON: Company Commander Anthony Gibbs explains why the repeat visit.
ANTHONY GIBBS, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: He's the guy that everyone in this area says they're responsible for the ID attacks along this road. He's trying to tell us that Calan Goul (ph) doesn't live here.
ROBERTSON: Soon clear the man they hold responsible for the roadside bombs, Calan Goul has fled.
GIBBS: They haven't killed any Americans. He's only killed Afghanis.
ROBERTSON: The suspect's father giving the U.S. troops no help.
GIBBS: Now the story is we don't have a brother named Calan Goul. It's Sade Goul (ph) and he runs a well digging machine in Kabul.
ROBERTSON: Gibbs pulls his men out. His three day mission to deny al Qaeda and their supporters territory moves on.
(on camera): This hunt is going deep into the Afghan mountains, up some of the most remote valleys where there's no running water, very little electricity and even less law and order.
(voice-over): But the mission here, a few days walk from the Pakistan border, is not just to round up bad guys.
LT. JONAS ANAZAGASTY, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: If it's starting from scratch, no one's been here then you want to ask them about things that they need and show concern for them, hopefully build a rapport and they might be able to give us information in turn.
ROBERTSON: Gibbs' platoon leader, Jonas Anazagasty, begins the painstaking process.
ANAZAGASTY: How many students go there?
ROBERTSON: Questions about schools, mosques and health clinics slowly coming around to al Qaeda.
ANAZAGASTY: (Unintelligible) the enemy. How does he think that they operate in this area without us seeing them or without them seeing them? ROBERTSON: Building a detailed picture of villages and tribal affiliations now seen as critical in the defeating of anti-coalition forces or ACM.
GIBBS: This is a level one insurgency that we're fighting and so the bigger part of the battle on a day to day basis is winning support of the people because when we win the support of the people, they no longer have, the ACMs no longer have sanctuary here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he says that now I don't have anything to say but (unintelligible) al the time here and many kind of people, different kind of people (unintelligible) and they are talking together (unintelligible).
ROBERTSON: In another village, Gibbs' other platoon commander tries a different technique to get information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's that radio?
ROBERTSON: A radio given to a storekeeper, his identity hidden to guard against retribution.
LT. ED ARNTSON, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: Well, we're not necessarily giving them a radio to try and get information. You hope that he wants to give you information based on his own merits and to help his country out.
ROBERTSON: Over cross-legged lunches like this and visits to villages, Gibbs says he is making progress but with more resources might be closer to bin Laden.
GIBBS: You look up in these mountains and you realize how many places there are to hide.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Catching Saddam Hussein took timely accurate intelligence and so it is here in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden. Even with high tech electronic eavesdropping equipment it is likely missions like this that will turn up the information necessary to capture the al Qaeda leader.
Nic Robertson CNN, the Sarana (ph) Valley, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up we'll talk with Senator John McCain about war, politics, family and the kind of courage it takes to survive it all.
From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's been a brutal month so far.
There are always good reasons to talk with Senator John McCain. They range from the most personal. There is an American being held by an enemy tonight and the senator knows a thing or two about that. We could be the 815th person to ask him if he's interested in being John Kerry's vice presidential running mate, but we won't.
The senator can talk about steroids and baseball, money in politics, or he can talk about courage. He's just written a book on that, "Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Better Life."
We're always pleased to see him. The senator joins us tonight from Phoenix.
Nice to see you, sir.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: I want to talk about the book in a minute.
Let me ask you a couple quick ones before that. Nic just filed out of Afghanistan. Do you ever worry that all the attention and all the money and all the men and women who have gone to Iraq, that we are not as a country paying enough attention to not just the bin Laden part of Afghanistan, but the nation-building part of Afghanistan?
MCCAIN: Well, I worry about it.
And, obviously, one of the great historical mistakes was that we ignored Afghanistan after we were able to remove the Soviet Union in 1989. And there is no doubt in my mind that we don't have a big enough Army and big enough Marine Corps to handle all the obligations we have. But they're doing a pretty good job.
Karzai is gaining more and more control, although it's going to be a long, hard struggle. So, overall, I have guarded optimism.
BROWN: Let's talk a little bit about courage. What is it?
MCCAIN: Well, it's an ability to overcome fear and put together your love of ideals and principles that are greater than yourself and usually associated with a cause that makes you act, many times at great risk, either physically or in many other ways, standing up to the school bully, or, like Roy Benavides, who we write about, do incredible heroics in a ferocious battle in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, for which he won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Or John Lewis, the great civil rights advocate who stood up for social justice, and others that we talk about.
BROWN: In your mind, does courage require a cause?
MCCAIN: I think it usually does, although, in our daily lives, we have to have the ability to love our ideals and love causes greater than ourselves.
But those don't have to be Aung San Suu Kyi, the fighter for independence and freedom of her country from the grip of a bunch of thugs. It can be standing up to a bully. It could be not tolerating a neighbor who abuses our privileges. It can be small things and big things, and it can be physical and it can be moral. And it can be both. Moral courage was displayed by John Lewis in Selma, Alabama, but it turned into an act of physical courage as he had his skull fractured by a storm trooper.
BROWN: Is it teachable?
MCCAIN: Yes. Absolutely.
We're born with a capacity to love. And if we love these ideals, we can pass it onto our children and to our friends and those -- and we have many role models. But we can't tell them to do something and what's right and wrong and then not behave contrary to our advice and our example.
BROWN: Do you think of your Vietnam experience as courageous?
MCCAIN: No. The great privilege in my life, Aaron, was to serve in a company of heroes. I was privileged to observe a thousand acts of courage and compassion and love. And when I failed, I was lifted up and strengthened and sustained by my comrades. And I will always be grateful for it.
BROWN: Isn't that one of the ways that we define courage, that no one who is truly courageous ever acknowledges their own courage?
MCCAIN: Well, I think that is a certain trait. You got me on that one.
BROWN: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
MCCAIN: But this came about, Aaron, after 9/11, when people were afraid to go outside, to go shopping, to go flying. And it was recommended to us by our publishers, Random House, and many others who have said, look, how do I overcome this? And there's nothing wrong with being afraid. It's overcoming it. It's sometimes showing a little bravado.
And it's also, most importantly, a commitment to a cause usually greater than yourself.
BROWN: The book, it's a nice interesting read about a subject I think -- it's one of those words like great and others that we use too often and I think too indiscriminately. It's nice to think about it as it ought to be. We appreciate that.
I know I'll get mail if I don't ask you this on the air. How's your wife doing?
MCCAIN: I thought you were going to ask me about the vice presidency.
BROWN: No, no, I'm not doing that.
MCCAIN: Yes, no, no, and no, no, no, and no.
She's doing fine, thank you. She has left the hospital today. She's in great shape. She's improving. And we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers on her behalf. And thank you so much. And she's going to be just fine.
BROWN: That's great news. And we wish her well and we're always pleased to see you. Come back any old time.
MCCAIN: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, Senator John McCain from Arizona.
For those of you who did not know, his wife, Cindy, had a minor stroke on Monday. But, as the senator said, she's out of the hospital, back at home, and doing pretty well. And that's great news, indeed.
BROWN: Still to come on the program, HIV brings the adult film industry -- that's the adult film industry, isn't it -- to a screeching halt. I get nervous just saying that. It seems there are times when the show doesn't have to go on.
Around the world, this would be NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There are all kinds of occupational hazards. If your occupation happens to be engaging in sex on camera for the titillation of others, then one of those hazards can be very deadly indeed. That is why is there anxiety today out in California, the epicenter of the nation's multibillion-dollar pornography business.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Industry experts say there are over 1,200 regular actors in the southern California- based porn business. Late last week one of them, an established male actor was diagnosed with HIV after a routine blood test. The testing organization says he could have infected as many as 16 different partners, one actress has already tested positive. Health experts say their partners and their partners' partners could be in danger. Still, most actresses like Kay Lani Lei say they are worried.
KAY LANI LEI, ADULT FILM ACTRESS: Have you worked with this person? Are there any links to this person, are there links to this person from you and, of course, check your own health.
ROWLANDS: Many production companies are shutting down until June 8, giving all high-risk partners time to show two clean tests. According to Sharon Mitchell, director of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, most regular porn actors are tested monthly.
SHARON MITCHELL, CLINICAL SEXOLOGIST: These are two isolated cases. This is not an epidemic. We have all the people that were exposed on quarantine.
ROWLANDS: Mitchell says that frequent testing is an important part of keeping situations like this under control. (on camera): But others in the industry say that the best way to stop the spread of AIDS is to require everybody to use condoms.
(voice-over): Peter Rodgers runs a San Francisco-based production company and he believes that regulation may be needed in the industry to make sure that people are safe.
PETER RODGERS, CYBERNET: I think that would level the playing field. Everybody plays with the same rules. I don't see a problem with it.
ROWLANDS: Some of the major porn production companies are saying no the 60-day moratorium, saying that people are overreacting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can tell people what the prudent thing is to do, but we can't control people. People make personal choices. For the performers, it's a high-wire act without a net.
ROWLANDS: It is a multibillion dollar industry that hasn't seen a significant HIV outbreak since 1998 when a male actor infected five women. It will be weeks before anyone knows the extent of this one.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Some other stories from around the country now, all tamer, beginning in California, a major victory for Governor Schwarzenegger, state lawmakers approving a bill that reforms the state's workers compensation law. The governor spent much of his campaign talking about fixing workers comp, which he and many others believe drains the state's treasury and drives away business.
A profession hockey player has been arrested and charged in connection in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme, this according to the FBI. The man arrested, Mike Danton, plays for the Saint Louis Blues.
And 140 years after the fact, a funeral mass for the crew of the Confederate submarine the Hunley was held in Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley made history when it became the first undersea craft to sink a ship. But, it, too, was lost in the process. Nine years ago, divers raised the Hunley. And this week, researchers unveiled facial reconstruction of the crew. A burial service will take place tomorrow.
We have more ahead tonight, a glimpse of the people behind the numbers, a very human toll of two very rough weeks in Iraq. And morning papers, too.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and the world. We'll do this segment early tonight. You don't even want to know why, OK? Yes, now, you do, don't you?
"The International Herald Tribune," published in Paris by "The New York Times," leads with "President Bush and Tony Blair Stand Firm on Iraq. In a Show of Unity, They Back Deadline, June 30, Voice Support For the U.N." Down here is a story everyone is going to be talking about next week, though, I guess starting Sunday, or maybe tomorrow, because "The Washington Post" is going to publish. "Book Tells of Bush's Secret Iraq Plan." This is the new Bob Woodward book. Mr. Woodward will join us on Tuesday night, as I recall.
And it turns out, although this isn't exactly shocking, but it's one of the things that's revealed, the president was talking about a war with Iraq two months into the war with Afghanistan, asking for a plan to be drawn up. Anyway, that's "The International Herald Tribune." And much more on the book all next week. I'm sure that this is going to dominate.
A couple of British papers. In both cases, the pictures caught my eye. "The prime minister and I have made a choice" is the way "The Guardian" leads it. That's a quote from President Bush. And then you see the president and a not especially flattering picture of Mr. Blair, OK? I mean, it's not the worst picture you ever saw in your life, but it's not an especially flattering picture.
But compared to the one the "Times of London" put of Mrs. Blair -- well, need I say more? "Bush Backs Blair on U.N." That would be Mrs. Bush there, the first lady and the picture of Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, over there. Now, come on. You're going to tell me that you did not have a better picture of this nice woman?
Thirty seconds? Really? OK.
In that case, let's just move on to the tabloid. It's not a great tabloid week. What can I do? I don't write this stuff. However, thankfully for -- "The Weekly World News" offers us two items to talk about. "Newlyweds Found in Titanic Life Raft." And what's really remarkable is, groom still kissing bride after 92 years, believe it or not; "12 Members of Congress Are Space Aliens." We won't tell you which ones.
The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "peekaboo." Sounds partly cloudy. We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In a week where there's been fair amount of talk about Vietnam and Iraq, we offer the most telling difference to date. In Iraq, thankfully, we still measure the deaths in the hundreds. A bad days is 405. From time to time, we have asked NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen to put a face on those numbers, to tell us something what about who they were, how they lived, what they dreamed of, how they died. Halfway through a very tough seemed like a good time to ask again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since April 3, the families of more than 80 U.S. troops heard the news they prayed they would not hear, the son, daughter, husband, father, loved one serving in Iraq had been killed there in two of the bloodiest weeks for U.S. troops since the war began.
The fighting and who was doing the fighting has changed since then. Of the first 500 military fatalities, four out of five were U.S. Army. But of the U.S. troops killed in the last two weeks, only half were Army, from the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Armored Division, 13 from the 1st Cavalry, all but one of them killed in a taxi in Baghdad.
The other half, 41 of the dead, were Marines from the Marine 1st Expeditionary Force, almost all of whom died in Al Anbar Province, which includes Fallujah, center of the fiercest recent fighting. April 6 was especially deadly for the Marines there. Ten died in that one day in gunfights with insurgents.
For more than a third of the casualties in the last two weeks, hostile fire was the listed cause of death; 18 others were killed in rocket-propelled grenade attacks, 10 more by IED, improvised explosive devices, including two women, bringing the total of American military women killed in Iraq to 19.
Most of these troops died on the scene; 12 others survived the battle, but died later of injuries despite the efforts of combat medics on the battlefield and surgeons in forward field hospital. The daily listing of the fallen, 12 on April 4, eight on April 8, 15 on April 9, eight more on the 11th, came in such quick succession that it was hard to get a clear picture of who they were. Most were young; 11 were teenagers, some just months out of high school.
Almost a third were under 21, not even old enough to order a beer in a bar. They came from every region in the United States, but especially the Midwest and the South, 13 from Texas, another 13 from California. A few came from big cities, Saint Louis, Houston. Most hailed from smaller towns, Bucksight (ph), Arizona; Bear, Delaware; Versailles, Kentucky.
Hometown newspapers have struggled to keep up to write profiles of those killed in the last two weeks, stories giving details missing from Department of Defense notices, who was married, who had left behind young children, whose wife was expecting a son in August.
Behind the numbers, the totals, there were glimpses of the individual people lost. Private Noah Boye, 21, who played guitars for friends back in Nebraska, who talked about starting a band when he got back to the U.S..
Private 1st Class Christopher Cobb, who played the violin and died in his second month in Iraq at age 19. Staff Sergeant Allan Walker, 28, who wrote poetry and was planning a trip to Ireland this summer. Captain Brent Morel,, 27, who dreamed of being a four-star general one day. Sergeant Gerardo Moreno, 23, who dreamed he would die in battle, and did on April 6 in Ashula, Iraq.
These losses and more than 70 others in the last two weeks alone, these losses added to the inevitable list of casualties in any war, a list that, in this war, is nearing 700.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And we honor them all.
We'll update the day after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Before we leave you for the weekend, a quick recap of our top story.
A tape shown on Arab television today showing Army Private 1st Class Keith Maupin in the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. Private Maupin has been missing since an attack last week of his convoy outside of Baghdad. The kidnappers say he's being treated according to the tenets of Islamic law. They want to trade him for prisoners now in American custody. The American officials in Baghdad say no negotiations.
Monday night on the program, nine years to the day since the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, conspirator Terry Nichols is back on trial. The news of the day and the news of that day and the people who saw their lives changed forever, that's Monday right here on NEWSNIGHT. We hope you'll join us for that.
Have a terrific weekend. We're all back here on Monday. Until then, good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.
In ways that it hasn't always been the war in Iraq gets personal tonight. You'll see it in the face, the single face of a young American being held hostage by some shadowy group in Iraq. We can only imagine what his family in Ohio is going through when they see these same pictures.
That's at the beginning of the program tonight but the end is personal as well, the faces of those noble young men and women who have died in this difficult month of April in Iraq, a bit of their individual stories as best we can piece them together.
We have used this line before. We heard it first spoken by an old friend at a 9/11 memorial service. The number then was 3,000. The number today is 80. It is not that 80 people have died. It is that one person has died 80 separate times. They are not numbers, not simply names on a casualty report.
Tonight in a very small way we will try and make them people to be mourned and respected not just for how they died but for the work they did in our name when they were alive.
But the news of the day comes first and so the program and the whip begins tonight at the Pentagon, CNN's Jamie McIntyre with us again tonight and Jamie the headline from you.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, since April 9 the family of Keith Matt Maupin has been anxious about his fate. Today they got good news and bad news. The good news he's alive. The bad news he's been taken hostage.
BROWN: Jamie, thank you. We'll get to you at the top tonight.
Next to Baghdad and CNN's Karl Penhaul on the morning after a day that held out at least a shred of hope in certain quarters, so Karl a headline from you tonight.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Peace talks in Fallujah, that city the coalition calls a hotbed of foreign terrorists. Meanwhile, south religious leaders say they're drawing a red line around two of Iraq's holiest cities.
BROWN: Karl, thank you. Finally to San Francisco and a story that gets a snicker until you consider it involves a major chunk of the economy and a killer virus to boot, CNN's Ted Rowlands on the AIDS scare that's hit the porn industry.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two people in the porn industry have already tested positive for HIV and there is real fear tonight that others may follow. A moratorium on all video production in the industry has been called for but not everybody tonight is going for it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Ted, thank you, back to you and the rest in a moment.
Also on the program tonight the slow and steady steps in the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Nic Robertson joins us.
Plus, a story we feel it is our duty to bring you. We mentioned this earlier, the names and faces of those lost in recent weeks in Iraq. The number is almost overwhelming but it's the personal stories you'll remember.
And at the end tonight, as always, morning papers and, this being Friday, we'll throw in a tabloid or two just because we can, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin tonight with difficult frames of video. They show an American soldier in the hands of the enemy, a young private in the Army Reserve missing since last week. They also highlight a growing tactic in the insurgency, the taking and sometimes the killing of contractors and aid workers and journalists and now American soldiers.
We have two reports tonight, first our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): On the tape aired by Al-Jazeera, the man in a U.S. military uniform identifies himself as one of the two soldiers currently missing in Iraq.
PFC KEITH MAUPIN, U.S. SOLDIER: My name is Keith Matthew Maupin.
MCINTYRE: The military won't confirm it's him but 20-year-old Private First Class Keith Maupin has been missing an April 9 attack on a convoy of fuel trucks outside Baghdad.
Also missing after the same incident is 40-year-old Sergeant Elmer Krause and several American contractors who work for the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, including Thomas Hamill, who was seen on video shot by Australian television.
On the tape, the hostage takers say their captive is in good health and being treated based on the tenets of Islamic law for the treatment of soldiers taken hostage. Their only hint of demands: "We will keep him until we trade him for our prisoners in the custody of the U.S. enemy." The U.S. insists it won't deal. DAN SENIOR, COALITION SPOKESMAN: We are putting everything behind trying to rescue these hostages. We will not negotiate with the terrorists who have engaged in the hostage taking but we are putting everything behind their release both from an intelligence standpoint, from a military standpoint and other resources we have at our disposal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, the U.S. is still working to identify four bodies found a few days ago near the scene of the attack. It's still undetermined if those four sets of remains are among those who are still missing -- Aaron.
BROWN: Two quick ones. Why do we call him a hostage not a prisoner of war? And why won't the Pentagon confirm his identity? His parents have. His family has.
MCINTYRE: Well, what the -- the Pentagon has said, to take the second one first, is that while they have no reason to suspect that this tape is not what it is that there's no way for them to independently say absolutely what's on the tapes.
They're just being very conservative and a lot of times in these kind of situations they do want to leave it up to the families to say what they want to say. And, as for a hostage versus prisoner of war, well when someone is being held in response to a demand then they call that a hostage.
BROWN: OK, accept them both, thank you Jamie, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Have a good weekend.
It is a bitter irony, I guess, in moments like this. It comes from knowing that so often hope comes with a footnote. Tonight, Private Maupin's friends, his family, those who know him and love him and miss him do have some hope. For a week nobody knew if he was dead or alive. Now they know, the hope and the footnote and the irony all wrapped into one.
CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us from Private Maupin's hometown just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, good evening.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.
And here they have no doubt they are considering him a prisoner of war. Even though the candlelight vigil is over the friends of Matt Maupin who gathered here on these steps say they'll continue to pray for his safety.
And many of them will tell you it's the most helpless feeling in the world, wanting to help his mother get through this but, at the same time, knowing there's nothing they can do to change what's happening to him right now in Iraq.
Many of them gathered here earlier tonight trying to tell the family in no uncertain words we're here if you need us. Maupin grew up just about five miles away from here. Hundreds of people gathered from the suburbs of Cincinnati earlier tonight. Most had seen that video of armed men holding him hostage in Iraq.
At tonight's vigil, some of the veterans wore their military caps as a show of support. Nearly everyone wore yellow ribbons or small photographs of the captured soldier.
Maupin joined the Army Reserve last year to earn money for college and five months ago his transportation unit was shipped off to Iraq. A family friend also said tonight that the family thanked everyone for all of their support that they got here tonight and throughout this past week.
He said they can't wait to welcome Matt Maupin home again but he did also urge the crowd to show support for the men and women still serving overseas and also to have faith in Matt Maupin -- Aaron.
BROWN: If you know tell me and, if you don't we'll just acknowledge it. Do you know what contact they've had from the Pentagon, the family has had from the Pentagon?
LAWRENCE: Well, not exactly sure what contact they've had now but, again, he did -- was reported missing last week and we know that stress counselors from the U.S. Army have been with the family earlier in the week when they had not known his status as of yet so we can imagine that the Army is very much involved in what's happening with the family tonight.
BROWN: Thank you. That tells us a lot. Thank you very much. Good to have you with us tonight too. Welcome.
A piece of the puzzle tonight, the big picture seems a little better. The situation on the ground seems a bit calmer, the political end game somewhat better defined certainly than it was just 48 hours ago.
In Washington today the president signaled his willingness to go along with a special U.N. envoy when it comes to the political transition this summer who will make up the government and, in Iraq, there were signs that talking seems to be working for a change.
So for a look at how things are on the ground tonight, we go back to CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): Hi, Aaron.
Yes, certainly some of the highest level talks so far in Fallujah to try and find a peaceful solution to the battles that have been going on there now for the best part of two weeks.
Ambassador Robert Jones, he's the chief political adviser to the coalition chief Paul Bremer, has been in Fallujah, along with senior military officials. They've been meeting with leaders from Fallujah. We understand those are civilian leaders, however, from Fallujah not leaders of the insurgency that is based there.
Now the coalition authorities have called Fallujah a hotbed of foreign terrorism. We understand for the U.S. Marines on the ground there that up to 2,000 insurgents could be holed up there.
Now there has been no breakthrough in those days, in that day of talks so far. We understand now the talks will continue for a second day tomorrow. We understand that those talks will focus on a lasting cease-fire that will be observed by both the U.S. Marines and the insurgents and also a coalition plan to gather up heavy weaponry that the insurgents have been using.
But the coalition has made it clear that these talks can't go on indefinitely. They say there must be a limit on these talks and, if there is no deal, then the action will pick up again that the U.S. Marines will go in and try and finish off the insurgency there -- Aaron.
BROWN: All right.
PENHAUL: South of Baghdad...
BROWN: I'm sorry. Just before you leave Fallujah let me ask one question there.
PENHAUL: Sure.
BROWN: Are these negotiations in the sense that something is being offered in exchange for something being given or is this a discussion of the American demands?
PENHAUL: It's a little of both, Aaron, from what we can make out. I asked that same question this afternoon in the coalition press briefing. Dan Senor, the coalition spokesman, was a little loathe to spell out the bottom line that the coalition was insisting on but it is quite plain that what the coalition will not allow is for the insurgents to walk away from this.
The coalition is demanding that the leaders, the civilian leaders of Fallujah, hand over those insurgents, hand over any foreign fighters there and also that the weapons are turned in along with those responsible for the death of those four contractors in those horrible images we've seen of late.
BROWN: OK, Karl thank you, Karl Penhaul who is in Baghdad. That's the situation in the north. The situation in the south has been somewhat calmer. We'll talk about that a bit now too as well.
We have, those of you who are with us most nights know we rely on the work of our own correspondents and they've been working incredibly hard. We rely as well on newspaper and magazine reporters who have been in the area. They have been writing compelling stories and in total we hope to give a fuller picture of what is going on.
Tonight we're pleased to be speaking with Christine Spolar of the "Chicago Tribune" and she joins us from there tonight. It's good to see you. How long you been there?
CHRISTINE SPOLAR, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Well, I've been here most of the year. This time I've been back about ten days. I came in last April and have been here about every month since the statue fell.
BROWN: How is today different from ten days ago? Is it dramatically different or just different by degrees?
SPOLAR: It's an interesting time. I was here for the six weeks leading up to the four contractors being killed and you could see it getting more tense by the day then, the day the contractors were killed and then afterwards seemed to be quite a tense time here.
I came back some days ago and it seemed to me then that the tension had broken a little bit. The Iraqis were out in the streets more. I think now the Iraqis think that westerners and Americans are the targets but perhaps they are not and the Iraqi police are not as it was a couple months ago.
BROWN: Well, they have good reason in fact to believe that given the events of the last few days. Do you have -- let's talk about the south and I gather mostly what you guys, what all of you can do right now is work the telephones and work the Iraqi Governing Council but it's very difficult to get around the country.
SPOLAR: That's true. We have sent some drivers out and some of us have gone on the road to Kufa. We had somebody in Kufa yesterday just as the fighting broke out and he was lucky to get out and that -- he saw some men who he thought were members of the Mehdi Army. They had rocket launchers, mortar launchers, Kalashnikovs. They started firing and the troops then came after them so we do have some sense of the action.
As far as what's going on with Najaf and with the negotiations, I've been talking a lot to the governing council and the -- and trying to figure out what's in it for the different clerics and also the political leaders here, how they can calm the situation.
BROWN: And how are they going about this? Who are the key players to watch?
SPOLAR: Well, it's interesting. I mean the governing council was quite pleased I think to see the Iranians come in because they do want to see other regional players get involved in this.
The Americans might not be thrilled with the idea but the Iraqis are saying to me, listen, we have neighbors and those neighbors have influence in our country and they have friends in this country, so if they come that's okay with us. It's our problem but we need -- we will have friends come over and talk to other people inside the country that can help.
So, right now, they are talking. They think the Najaf situation is very different than Fallujah. Najaf can be calmed they think by appealing to the senior clerics and then the clerics talking to Muqtada al-Sadr and seeing that as a localized problem. Fallujah is very different to them. They see it as a nest of terrorists. They see some outside influence and they think the Americans have to be very tough in there. They're quite concerned about the civilian deaths but they think that the Americans have to go in there now and have to kill the terrorists now so that they don't have this problem later when they're in charge.
BROWN: And what's interesting to me watching from afar, watching the Iraqi Governing Council, is they have to be very careful, don't they, in how they say all of this because of the civilian casualties and because ultimately they have to live in this neighborhood.
SPOLAR: Well, they are very blunt that they think the Americans have gone about it too late in Fallujah. They are saying that this was going on for months and that the Americans should have shown their military might for months in Fallujah and quelled the problem quickly. That's the criticism I'm hearing from the Iraqi Governing Council now.
They're quite concerned about the civilian deaths and they are complaining about them but they are saying that the Americans should act now and they will support them now but, if they don't get this problem taken care of this month or in the next few weeks, I think that they will have quite a lot of criticism for the Americans.
BROWN: Christine, be safe out there. Thanks for joining us. We look forward to talking to you again. Thank you.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the president gets some words of support from his good friend the Prime Minister Tony Blair. The subject was Iraq.
And later in the program, Beth Nissen takes a closer look at the men and women who fell in battle over the last two weeks, the faces and the stories that go with the names, a break first.
From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A supporter of President Bush's foreign policy once lamented that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair wasn't available to do all the president's public speaking. Mr. Blair, even his critics concede, makes an eloquent case for what in Great Britain remains a less than popular cause for staying in Iraq and for sticking with the U.S. Today he said the same at the White House.
Here's CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the rising death toll in Iraq and the June 30 deadline for Iraqi sovereignty fast approaching, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to stay the course.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This transfer will demonstrate to the Iraqi people that our coalition has no interest in occupation.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We will not back down in the face of attacks either on us or on defenseless civilians.
MALVEAUX: Their oval office meeting comes at a critical time for both leaders. Blair, who is facing growing criticism for supporting the Iraq War, has privately been pushing Mr. Bush to allow for a greater U.N. role in Iraq's future and Mr. Bush who has seen renewed violence there acknowledged the U.S. needs more help.
BUSH: We welcome the proposals presented by the U.N. Special Envoy Brahimi. He's identified a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people.
MALVEAUX: The Bush administration is now supporting a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would give the U.N. a central role in Iraq's political transformation. Some Democrats see this as evidence the administration initially underestimated the need for international support.
LEON FUERTH, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Faced with the possibility of a total loss of control over the circumstances, it has turned back to the United Nations in a somewhat desperate hope that the U.N. can be the glue that holds all of this together.
MALVEAUX: The two leaders also presented a united front to support Israel's controversial new plan to withdraw from Gaza but keep some West Bank settlements.
While both argued it would jump-start the road map's stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, Blair's pushing for more aid to the Palestinian Authority, an organization the U.S. refuses to deal with under the leadership of Yasser Arafat.
BLAIR: We want the quartet to meet as soon as possible to discuss how it can support the Palestinian Authority in particular economically, politically and in respective security to respond to that offer.
MALVEAUX (on camera): Wrapping up a week of meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Israel and Britain, next week President Bush will hold talks with Jordan's King Abdullah to try to button up support for his Middle East Iraq initiatives.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Yesterday's bin Laden tape was a reminder that the world's most wanted man is still out there somewhere, still alive, still able to communicate, to recruit, inspire some, sicken most others.
The hope was that this spring will be his last, that with the help of the Pakistanis on their side of the border, U.S. troops will finally get their man and they may but they haven't yet. Here's CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the minutes before a remote mountainside raid...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house right here we did a raid on back in January.
ROBERTSON: Company Commander Anthony Gibbs explains why the repeat visit.
ANTHONY GIBBS, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: He's the guy that everyone in this area says they're responsible for the ID attacks along this road. He's trying to tell us that Calan Goul (ph) doesn't live here.
ROBERTSON: Soon clear the man they hold responsible for the roadside bombs, Calan Goul has fled.
GIBBS: They haven't killed any Americans. He's only killed Afghanis.
ROBERTSON: The suspect's father giving the U.S. troops no help.
GIBBS: Now the story is we don't have a brother named Calan Goul. It's Sade Goul (ph) and he runs a well digging machine in Kabul.
ROBERTSON: Gibbs pulls his men out. His three day mission to deny al Qaeda and their supporters territory moves on.
(on camera): This hunt is going deep into the Afghan mountains, up some of the most remote valleys where there's no running water, very little electricity and even less law and order.
(voice-over): But the mission here, a few days walk from the Pakistan border, is not just to round up bad guys.
LT. JONAS ANAZAGASTY, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: If it's starting from scratch, no one's been here then you want to ask them about things that they need and show concern for them, hopefully build a rapport and they might be able to give us information in turn.
ROBERTSON: Gibbs' platoon leader, Jonas Anazagasty, begins the painstaking process.
ANAZAGASTY: How many students go there?
ROBERTSON: Questions about schools, mosques and health clinics slowly coming around to al Qaeda.
ANAZAGASTY: (Unintelligible) the enemy. How does he think that they operate in this area without us seeing them or without them seeing them? ROBERTSON: Building a detailed picture of villages and tribal affiliations now seen as critical in the defeating of anti-coalition forces or ACM.
GIBBS: This is a level one insurgency that we're fighting and so the bigger part of the battle on a day to day basis is winning support of the people because when we win the support of the people, they no longer have, the ACMs no longer have sanctuary here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he says that now I don't have anything to say but (unintelligible) al the time here and many kind of people, different kind of people (unintelligible) and they are talking together (unintelligible).
ROBERTSON: In another village, Gibbs' other platoon commander tries a different technique to get information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's that radio?
ROBERTSON: A radio given to a storekeeper, his identity hidden to guard against retribution.
LT. ED ARNTSON, 101ST PARACHUTE INFANTRY: Well, we're not necessarily giving them a radio to try and get information. You hope that he wants to give you information based on his own merits and to help his country out.
ROBERTSON: Over cross-legged lunches like this and visits to villages, Gibbs says he is making progress but with more resources might be closer to bin Laden.
GIBBS: You look up in these mountains and you realize how many places there are to hide.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Catching Saddam Hussein took timely accurate intelligence and so it is here in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden. Even with high tech electronic eavesdropping equipment it is likely missions like this that will turn up the information necessary to capture the al Qaeda leader.
Nic Robertson CNN, the Sarana (ph) Valley, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up we'll talk with Senator John McCain about war, politics, family and the kind of courage it takes to survive it all.
From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's been a brutal month so far.
There are always good reasons to talk with Senator John McCain. They range from the most personal. There is an American being held by an enemy tonight and the senator knows a thing or two about that. We could be the 815th person to ask him if he's interested in being John Kerry's vice presidential running mate, but we won't.
The senator can talk about steroids and baseball, money in politics, or he can talk about courage. He's just written a book on that, "Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Better Life."
We're always pleased to see him. The senator joins us tonight from Phoenix.
Nice to see you, sir.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: I want to talk about the book in a minute.
Let me ask you a couple quick ones before that. Nic just filed out of Afghanistan. Do you ever worry that all the attention and all the money and all the men and women who have gone to Iraq, that we are not as a country paying enough attention to not just the bin Laden part of Afghanistan, but the nation-building part of Afghanistan?
MCCAIN: Well, I worry about it.
And, obviously, one of the great historical mistakes was that we ignored Afghanistan after we were able to remove the Soviet Union in 1989. And there is no doubt in my mind that we don't have a big enough Army and big enough Marine Corps to handle all the obligations we have. But they're doing a pretty good job.
Karzai is gaining more and more control, although it's going to be a long, hard struggle. So, overall, I have guarded optimism.
BROWN: Let's talk a little bit about courage. What is it?
MCCAIN: Well, it's an ability to overcome fear and put together your love of ideals and principles that are greater than yourself and usually associated with a cause that makes you act, many times at great risk, either physically or in many other ways, standing up to the school bully, or, like Roy Benavides, who we write about, do incredible heroics in a ferocious battle in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, for which he won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Or John Lewis, the great civil rights advocate who stood up for social justice, and others that we talk about.
BROWN: In your mind, does courage require a cause?
MCCAIN: I think it usually does, although, in our daily lives, we have to have the ability to love our ideals and love causes greater than ourselves.
But those don't have to be Aung San Suu Kyi, the fighter for independence and freedom of her country from the grip of a bunch of thugs. It can be standing up to a bully. It could be not tolerating a neighbor who abuses our privileges. It can be small things and big things, and it can be physical and it can be moral. And it can be both. Moral courage was displayed by John Lewis in Selma, Alabama, but it turned into an act of physical courage as he had his skull fractured by a storm trooper.
BROWN: Is it teachable?
MCCAIN: Yes. Absolutely.
We're born with a capacity to love. And if we love these ideals, we can pass it onto our children and to our friends and those -- and we have many role models. But we can't tell them to do something and what's right and wrong and then not behave contrary to our advice and our example.
BROWN: Do you think of your Vietnam experience as courageous?
MCCAIN: No. The great privilege in my life, Aaron, was to serve in a company of heroes. I was privileged to observe a thousand acts of courage and compassion and love. And when I failed, I was lifted up and strengthened and sustained by my comrades. And I will always be grateful for it.
BROWN: Isn't that one of the ways that we define courage, that no one who is truly courageous ever acknowledges their own courage?
MCCAIN: Well, I think that is a certain trait. You got me on that one.
BROWN: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
MCCAIN: But this came about, Aaron, after 9/11, when people were afraid to go outside, to go shopping, to go flying. And it was recommended to us by our publishers, Random House, and many others who have said, look, how do I overcome this? And there's nothing wrong with being afraid. It's overcoming it. It's sometimes showing a little bravado.
And it's also, most importantly, a commitment to a cause usually greater than yourself.
BROWN: The book, it's a nice interesting read about a subject I think -- it's one of those words like great and others that we use too often and I think too indiscriminately. It's nice to think about it as it ought to be. We appreciate that.
I know I'll get mail if I don't ask you this on the air. How's your wife doing?
MCCAIN: I thought you were going to ask me about the vice presidency.
BROWN: No, no, I'm not doing that.
MCCAIN: Yes, no, no, and no, no, no, and no.
She's doing fine, thank you. She has left the hospital today. She's in great shape. She's improving. And we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers on her behalf. And thank you so much. And she's going to be just fine.
BROWN: That's great news. And we wish her well and we're always pleased to see you. Come back any old time.
MCCAIN: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, Senator John McCain from Arizona.
For those of you who did not know, his wife, Cindy, had a minor stroke on Monday. But, as the senator said, she's out of the hospital, back at home, and doing pretty well. And that's great news, indeed.
BROWN: Still to come on the program, HIV brings the adult film industry -- that's the adult film industry, isn't it -- to a screeching halt. I get nervous just saying that. It seems there are times when the show doesn't have to go on.
Around the world, this would be NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There are all kinds of occupational hazards. If your occupation happens to be engaging in sex on camera for the titillation of others, then one of those hazards can be very deadly indeed. That is why is there anxiety today out in California, the epicenter of the nation's multibillion-dollar pornography business.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Industry experts say there are over 1,200 regular actors in the southern California- based porn business. Late last week one of them, an established male actor was diagnosed with HIV after a routine blood test. The testing organization says he could have infected as many as 16 different partners, one actress has already tested positive. Health experts say their partners and their partners' partners could be in danger. Still, most actresses like Kay Lani Lei say they are worried.
KAY LANI LEI, ADULT FILM ACTRESS: Have you worked with this person? Are there any links to this person, are there links to this person from you and, of course, check your own health.
ROWLANDS: Many production companies are shutting down until June 8, giving all high-risk partners time to show two clean tests. According to Sharon Mitchell, director of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, most regular porn actors are tested monthly.
SHARON MITCHELL, CLINICAL SEXOLOGIST: These are two isolated cases. This is not an epidemic. We have all the people that were exposed on quarantine.
ROWLANDS: Mitchell says that frequent testing is an important part of keeping situations like this under control. (on camera): But others in the industry say that the best way to stop the spread of AIDS is to require everybody to use condoms.
(voice-over): Peter Rodgers runs a San Francisco-based production company and he believes that regulation may be needed in the industry to make sure that people are safe.
PETER RODGERS, CYBERNET: I think that would level the playing field. Everybody plays with the same rules. I don't see a problem with it.
ROWLANDS: Some of the major porn production companies are saying no the 60-day moratorium, saying that people are overreacting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can tell people what the prudent thing is to do, but we can't control people. People make personal choices. For the performers, it's a high-wire act without a net.
ROWLANDS: It is a multibillion dollar industry that hasn't seen a significant HIV outbreak since 1998 when a male actor infected five women. It will be weeks before anyone knows the extent of this one.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Some other stories from around the country now, all tamer, beginning in California, a major victory for Governor Schwarzenegger, state lawmakers approving a bill that reforms the state's workers compensation law. The governor spent much of his campaign talking about fixing workers comp, which he and many others believe drains the state's treasury and drives away business.
A profession hockey player has been arrested and charged in connection in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme, this according to the FBI. The man arrested, Mike Danton, plays for the Saint Louis Blues.
And 140 years after the fact, a funeral mass for the crew of the Confederate submarine the Hunley was held in Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley made history when it became the first undersea craft to sink a ship. But, it, too, was lost in the process. Nine years ago, divers raised the Hunley. And this week, researchers unveiled facial reconstruction of the crew. A burial service will take place tomorrow.
We have more ahead tonight, a glimpse of the people behind the numbers, a very human toll of two very rough weeks in Iraq. And morning papers, too.
From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and the world. We'll do this segment early tonight. You don't even want to know why, OK? Yes, now, you do, don't you?
"The International Herald Tribune," published in Paris by "The New York Times," leads with "President Bush and Tony Blair Stand Firm on Iraq. In a Show of Unity, They Back Deadline, June 30, Voice Support For the U.N." Down here is a story everyone is going to be talking about next week, though, I guess starting Sunday, or maybe tomorrow, because "The Washington Post" is going to publish. "Book Tells of Bush's Secret Iraq Plan." This is the new Bob Woodward book. Mr. Woodward will join us on Tuesday night, as I recall.
And it turns out, although this isn't exactly shocking, but it's one of the things that's revealed, the president was talking about a war with Iraq two months into the war with Afghanistan, asking for a plan to be drawn up. Anyway, that's "The International Herald Tribune." And much more on the book all next week. I'm sure that this is going to dominate.
A couple of British papers. In both cases, the pictures caught my eye. "The prime minister and I have made a choice" is the way "The Guardian" leads it. That's a quote from President Bush. And then you see the president and a not especially flattering picture of Mr. Blair, OK? I mean, it's not the worst picture you ever saw in your life, but it's not an especially flattering picture.
But compared to the one the "Times of London" put of Mrs. Blair -- well, need I say more? "Bush Backs Blair on U.N." That would be Mrs. Bush there, the first lady and the picture of Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, over there. Now, come on. You're going to tell me that you did not have a better picture of this nice woman?
Thirty seconds? Really? OK.
In that case, let's just move on to the tabloid. It's not a great tabloid week. What can I do? I don't write this stuff. However, thankfully for -- "The Weekly World News" offers us two items to talk about. "Newlyweds Found in Titanic Life Raft." And what's really remarkable is, groom still kissing bride after 92 years, believe it or not; "12 Members of Congress Are Space Aliens." We won't tell you which ones.
The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "peekaboo." Sounds partly cloudy. We'll wrap up the day in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In a week where there's been fair amount of talk about Vietnam and Iraq, we offer the most telling difference to date. In Iraq, thankfully, we still measure the deaths in the hundreds. A bad days is 405. From time to time, we have asked NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen to put a face on those numbers, to tell us something what about who they were, how they lived, what they dreamed of, how they died. Halfway through a very tough seemed like a good time to ask again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since April 3, the families of more than 80 U.S. troops heard the news they prayed they would not hear, the son, daughter, husband, father, loved one serving in Iraq had been killed there in two of the bloodiest weeks for U.S. troops since the war began.
The fighting and who was doing the fighting has changed since then. Of the first 500 military fatalities, four out of five were U.S. Army. But of the U.S. troops killed in the last two weeks, only half were Army, from the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Armored Division, 13 from the 1st Cavalry, all but one of them killed in a taxi in Baghdad.
The other half, 41 of the dead, were Marines from the Marine 1st Expeditionary Force, almost all of whom died in Al Anbar Province, which includes Fallujah, center of the fiercest recent fighting. April 6 was especially deadly for the Marines there. Ten died in that one day in gunfights with insurgents.
For more than a third of the casualties in the last two weeks, hostile fire was the listed cause of death; 18 others were killed in rocket-propelled grenade attacks, 10 more by IED, improvised explosive devices, including two women, bringing the total of American military women killed in Iraq to 19.
Most of these troops died on the scene; 12 others survived the battle, but died later of injuries despite the efforts of combat medics on the battlefield and surgeons in forward field hospital. The daily listing of the fallen, 12 on April 4, eight on April 8, 15 on April 9, eight more on the 11th, came in such quick succession that it was hard to get a clear picture of who they were. Most were young; 11 were teenagers, some just months out of high school.
Almost a third were under 21, not even old enough to order a beer in a bar. They came from every region in the United States, but especially the Midwest and the South, 13 from Texas, another 13 from California. A few came from big cities, Saint Louis, Houston. Most hailed from smaller towns, Bucksight (ph), Arizona; Bear, Delaware; Versailles, Kentucky.
Hometown newspapers have struggled to keep up to write profiles of those killed in the last two weeks, stories giving details missing from Department of Defense notices, who was married, who had left behind young children, whose wife was expecting a son in August.
Behind the numbers, the totals, there were glimpses of the individual people lost. Private Noah Boye, 21, who played guitars for friends back in Nebraska, who talked about starting a band when he got back to the U.S..
Private 1st Class Christopher Cobb, who played the violin and died in his second month in Iraq at age 19. Staff Sergeant Allan Walker, 28, who wrote poetry and was planning a trip to Ireland this summer. Captain Brent Morel,, 27, who dreamed of being a four-star general one day. Sergeant Gerardo Moreno, 23, who dreamed he would die in battle, and did on April 6 in Ashula, Iraq.
These losses and more than 70 others in the last two weeks alone, these losses added to the inevitable list of casualties in any war, a list that, in this war, is nearing 700.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And we honor them all.
We'll update the day after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Before we leave you for the weekend, a quick recap of our top story.
A tape shown on Arab television today showing Army Private 1st Class Keith Maupin in the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. Private Maupin has been missing since an attack last week of his convoy outside of Baghdad. The kidnappers say he's being treated according to the tenets of Islamic law. They want to trade him for prisoners now in American custody. The American officials in Baghdad say no negotiations.
Monday night on the program, nine years to the day since the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, conspirator Terry Nichols is back on trial. The news of the day and the news of that day and the people who saw their lives changed forever, that's Monday right here on NEWSNIGHT. We hope you'll join us for that.
Have a terrific weekend. We're all back here on Monday. Until then, good night for all of us.
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