Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Iraqi Governor Assassinated; Report Criticizes British Pre-War Intelligence; Pentagon Asks Rockefeller to Apologize

Aired July 14, 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.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone.
In a conversation I had earlier today with John McLaughlin, the acting CIA director, he pointed out a frustrating but nonetheless essential fact of the so-called new normal, "Sooner or later they get lucky."

One way or another, God forbid, the bomber gets through. For anyone who lived through the Cold War it's a familiar notion. Back then the harsh reality had to do with the impossibility of defending against a nuclear attack. The only solution was to prevent a war from starting in the first place. It was not perfect but it worked.

Today, as you'll see in our setup up close program throughout this evening, the country is building a defense system to protect against nuclear threats and retooling the intelligence community to fight terrorism.

But, now as then, neither system will be perfect. They can't be. Nothing is, so now as then we'll have to live with it. We'll have to hope for the best, do better with what we've got and know that sometimes the best might not necessarily be good enough. Sadly, it wasn't good enough today in Iraq.

The whip begins in Baghdad as it so often does. CNN's Jane Arraf is there, Jane a headline please.

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: The worst attack since the handover to sovereignty here breaks the calm in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul is on a state of alert after a regional official there is assassinated -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane, we'll get back to you.

On to London now and a stinging report on the intelligence on which Britain's Tony Blair made the case for war, CNN's Nic Robertson is in London with the story and a headline.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Butler report is the fourth such inquiry into the British government's handling of the war in Iraq, and it appears to be eroding the popularity of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

BLITZER: Nic, thanks very much. The Pentagon next and ruffled feathers over what a United States Senator on the Intelligence Committee is saying, Jamie McIntyre our Senior Pentagon Correspondent, has the call tonight, Jamie the headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Pentagon has taken the unusual step of asking a high-ranking Senator for an apology and a retraction for something he said at a press conference last week. The Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller isn't backing down, insisting his criticism may yet turn out to be on target.

BLITZER: All right, Jamie, we'll be getting back to you as well.

Finally to Chicago the campaign trail and John Edwards' first day without John Kerry by his side CNN's Kelly Wallace reporting for us tonight, Kelly your headline.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in his first solo tour as vice presidential candidate, John Edwards shows he came to do what running mates traditionally do assuming the role of attack dog for the very first time -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Kelly, thanks very much, back with you, back with the rest shortly.

Also on NEWSNIGHT tonight, a vote today on Capitol Hill on gay marriage, the results not unexpected by the questions raised are.

Plus, the Bush twins finally en vogue and on the campaign trail.

And later, there's only one adequate word to describe it, huge, introducing America's next line of defense, all that and more in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight in Baghdad where 46 years ago the Ba'ath Party came to power with bombings and assassinations. Forty-six years later, a former member of the Ba'ath is running Iraq and remnants of his old party and others are doing their best to bring him and his western allies down with bombings and assassinations.

They tried once again today, our report from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): The rage of helplessness. "If there's a terrorist, come and face us. Don't go behind our backs" said this Iraqi National Guard. An anonymous suicide bomber detonated 1,000 pounds of explosives at a checkpoint at the entrance to the Green Zone where U.S. and Iraqi officials are based.

COL MIKE MURRAY, U.S. ARMY: At 9:15 this morning, or approximately 9:15 this morning, a vehicle pulled into the search lane trying to get into this entry control point and detonated.

ARRAF: At least ten Iraqis were killed, three of them National Guardsmen. Dozens more Iraqis were wounded. There might have been more victims if this hadn't been a national holiday, the anniversary of the bloody 1958 coup that toppled the monarchy.

The blast broke Baghdad's recent calm, the first major attack since the U.S. handed back sovereignty on June 28th. The interim government's get tough prime minister touring the scene pledged to find the attackers.

AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: It is an act of aggression against the Iraqi people. We will bring the criminals to justice.

ARRAF: Just hours later, a senior regional official, the governor of Ninevah, which includes the city of Mosul, was assassinated while traveling to Baghdad. His aides said it was a targeted assassination.

Gunmen pulled up and opened fire on Osama Kashmola, a university professor who became governor four months ago. Two bodyguards were also killed in the firefight. Kashmola took the job after others declined, saying they feared for their lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: It had been so quiet here in the last two weeks many Iraqis had started to feel almost safe again. There are police in the streets and families even going out in the evenings but this latest attack is a reminder of how easily that calm can be shattered -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane, is anyone claiming responsibility for the assassination of the governor?

ARRAF: No one is yet, Wolf, and as you know this is sadly not that uncommon. Now he was a very high level official, one of the most high level officials to be killed in the past months. But virtually every day there are assassinations and in most of them no one claims responsibility, which is one of the chilling and unsettling things here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Do these new leaders of this interim Iraqi government, the high profile leaders, are they generally well protected with security guards and, if they are as I assume they are, do they have U.S. military protection all the time as well?

ARRAF: They don't have U.S. military protection. The U.S. makes the point that it's not its job. It can't protect anything but the most senior of leaders here.

And, if you look at the case of the governor of Ninevah, the governor of Mosul, he was traveling with quite heavy security. He was traveling in a convoy with armed security guards but it clearly was a targeted professional assassination, some talk that a grenade was thrown and then he was shot. So, there's very little that one can do here if someone really wants to kill you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf reporting for us from Baghdad. Jane thanks very much. It was another bad day for the spy business, this time in the United Kingdom. A report on the intelligence backstopping Britain's case for going to war came out today. Like its American counterpart it pulls very few punches but spared Prime Minister Tony Blair a knockout blow.

It did, however, leave the prime minister open to a political battering from the opposition party and members indeed, some members at least of his own party as well, once again from London tonight CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Britain's long awaited Butler report, 196 pages, detailing intelligence failings on the country's road to war with Iraq, more grist in the mill for those battering Prime Minister Tony Blair.

MICHAEL HOWARD, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: The issue is the prime minister's credibility. The question he must ask himself is does he have any credibility left?

ROBERTSON: After beating back antiwar protests before the invasion by overtly gambling his own political capital...

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honor.

ROBERTSON: Blair staked his popularity on winning his case for war. In the 14 months since the war ended, the Butler inquiry is the fourth official report to question Blair's push for war.

ANTHONY SELDON, AUTHOR, "BLAIR, THE BIOGRAPHY": Each of these reports was another hammer blow to the core question of trust in his as the prime minister. He's based his leadership upon the fact that people can trust him.

ROBERTSON: So, why is Blair suffering more than President Bush whose own intelligence services were also criticized?

SELDON: President Bush's basis of support goes much deeper. Tony Blair's is much shallower and it's based upon his ability to be the most likely candidate to take Labour into a successful general election.

ROBERTSON: And were opinions count most on the streets, how long that will be is an open question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely gone down, his popularity, yes what it was but there again what he did I think there's a right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not popular at all anymore, is he? It's just no one really wants to know him.

ROBERTSON (on camera): But opinion polls have Blair slipping only a couple of percentage points in the last year and a half and when responding to criticism in the House of Commons following the Butler report, Blair seemed to blossom, looking every inch the leader, thriving on the challenge to his popularity.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Back home, fallout from last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is still thick in the air leaving one U.S. Senator a bit radioactive at least in the eyes of the civilian leadership over at the Pentagon.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the junior Democrat from West Virginia, is the Senator in question. What he said is raising some important tempers and now the Defense Department wants a retraction and an apology.

Senator Rockefeller isn't budging, the story from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): In the crosshairs is policy chief Doug Feith, the number three civilian at the Pentagon. Critics accuse him of running a rogue intelligence operations that competed with the CIA and they have unduly influenced top administration officials who were making the case for war. And this is the remark by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that drew the Pentagon's ire.

SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Was he running a private intelligence failure which is not lawful?

MCINTYRE: Hal Moore, the Pentagon's top liaison with Congress, fired off a terse letter.

"I request that, if you have any evidence supporting the serious charge you floated during your press conference, you provide it" he wrote. "If there is not evidence, then a retraction and apology would be appropriate."

Feith has publicly denied that in searching for links between al Qaeda and countries, including Iraq, he did anything more than take a second look at existing intelligence.

DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY: The idea that we would look at it again in light of September 11 and maybe see some new things in it shouldn't be that surprising.

MCINTYRE: The Senate Intelligence Committee report on prewar intelligence barely mentions Feith and reaches no conclusion that his small team of analysts did anything unlawful.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They were asked to review intelligence reports on a certain subject, which they did, which is a perfectly proper thing for policy people to do. MCINTYRE: But Rockefeller isn't retracting or apologizing, insisting the jury is out while a second phase of the investigation is ongoing.

"When the committee finishes its review of these activities, we will be able to determine if, in fact, Undersecretary Feith was running an unauthorized intelligence activity" he said in a written response to the Pentagon.

Rockefeller argues Feith failed to keep Congress informed, which could violate oversight requirements.

(on camera): Is it your contention that that didn't violate any law?

LAWENCE DI RITA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: Yes, it is. That's our -- that certainly -- that's certainly our belief at the time and it's certainly our continued understanding now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon argues that Feith and his staff didn't gather any intelligence. They simply analyzed it and the Senate Intelligence report seems to suggest that that analysis had little effect on the overall conclusion reached by the experts at the CIA -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie, what about this whole issue of statutory authority for Doug Feith to create that sort of little mini intelligence service he was running over at the Pentagon? Is there an issue over whether or not that was lawful?

MCINTYRE: Well, that is the technical issue that Senator Rockefeller has raised. If it was, as you said, an intelligence operation then it would be subject to congressional oversight.

But, if it was simply a matter of reviewing intelligence, providing policy guidance for the top people in the administration that doesn't really qualify as an intelligence operation but that's why they're having this separate review, which by agreement will probably come out after the election -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, Jamie thanks very much.

Still on the subject of intelligence, I spoke earlier today with the Acting Director of the CIA John McLaughlin about the challenges he and his agency face and, much more to the point that the country faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): By targeting commuter trains only days before the national election and killing scores of people, al Qaeda terrorists successfully disrupted the Spanish election. U.S. officials fear they might try to do the same thing in advance of the U.S. elections in November.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: This is a very serious threat we're facing.

BLITZER: How serious?

MCLAUGHLIN: It's serious in the following sense that I think the quality of the information we have is very good. We have a lot of experience now in terrorism.

BLITZER: McLaughlin, who succeeded George Tenet only days ago, declined to provide specific details of the intelligence that scares him noting that those details could provide useful information to the terrorists.

MCLAUGHLIN: One of the important things terrorists do, I'll tell you it's very simple. It's very simple. They know how to keep a secret. Their work is highly compartmented to a small group of people probably living in a cave somewhere and our country doesn't keep secrets very well, so we have to watch what we release about the details but this is a serious threat period.

BLITZER: He says Osama bin Laden is still very much a player against the United States.

MCLAUGHLIN: Is he's sitting there behind some large console pulling wires and switches? I wouldn't say that but to be sure he remains the leader of al Qaeda. It's his guidance to his followers that certainly inspires them to proceed with the attacks that we have seen in places like Istanbul and Morocco and Spain and so forth.

BLITZER: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, fresh from an inspection tour of preparations for the Democratic Convention in Boston, agrees with McLaughlin's assessment.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: They're credible, trustworthy sources, not terribly specific in terms of who, what, when and where but targeting an (unintelligible), targeting an attempt to undermine the democratic process. Clearly part of that are the two conventions but you have this period of several months upon which we need to heighten our alert and heighten our vigilance.

BLITZER: Still he insists the overall situation is under control.

RIDGE: Get your reservations in early, great restaurants, great historic sites. The community has done everything they can to put people and technology in all the right places. They've got a comprehensive plan overseeing a very complicated -- a very complex city but go prepared to have a good time and enjoy the city as the Democrats nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And in short that's the mixed message of the federal government that has become part of our so-called new normal in this post-9/11 era.

With us now from New York is the former United States Senator Gary Hart. He's a globally recognized expert in the field of international security, most recently the author of an important new book, "The Fourth Power, a Grand Strategy for the United States in the 21st Century." Senator Hart, thanks very much for joining us.

GARY HART, AUTHOR, "THE FOURTH POWER": My pleasure.

BLITZER: So many Americans, myself included, are confused about this mixed message. On the one hand, make reservations. Go out, party, have a great time. Don't change your plans. On the other hand, there are credible, serious threats out there involving this summer and al Qaeda. What are we to make of this?

HART: Well, I think Secretary Ridge has come about as close as he can to say there are threats and they are targeting the political process but we can't shut down a mass democracy of 300 million people.

BLITZER: How concerned are you based on what you know?

HART: Well, I am a lawyer in Denver, Colorado with no access to classified briefings or anything else. All I know is what I hear and read but I have a sense something big is going to happen. I felt that for the last year or so.

BLITZER: Is there anything differently that the federal government should be doing now to protect the American people based on your vast experience, including the commissions that you served the recommendations on counterterrorism that you made?

HART: Well, I think there ought to be a much, much higher degree of urgency about homeland security in terms of training and equipping the National Guard, moving faster on common communications systems and databases.

I think the president and the administration ought to lean much harder on the private sector, the petrochemical industry and energy industry and others to protect their plants. I don't see that happening.

I just don't -- I think there's been so much focus on terrorism abroad and not nearly enough here at home. I meet with local first responders and a lot of them have not heard very much, not received training or drills. They're not really prepared.

BLITZER: What should we make of the fact that it's been now almost three years since there has been a major terror strike on U.S. soil?

HART: It just means to me the clock is ticking. If you look at the major instance of terrorism here and abroad, starting in '93 with the first World Trade Center bombing and then you go basically I think to the Khobar Towers to the embassies in Africa and then the Cole and then the second attack on the World Trade Center there's always been a two or three-year-period in between. So, I hate, I mean I hate to sound alarmist but I think we're due.

BLITZER: Who's more responsible? Who should be held more accountable for the failures in intelligence on WMD leading up to the Iraq War, should it be the intelligence community or the political leadership from the president on down?

HART: Well, I think the buck stops on the president's desk and I think it is the political leadership. I think it's going to be a long time before we know really what happened in the period between 2001 and the invasion of Iraq.

I have a suspicion based upon some years of experience in the intelligence field that the political pressure brought on the intelligence services was such that they came up with a product that they thought the White House wanted.

I think there was a predetermination to go to war in Iraq and a search for evidence that even tangentially would support that. And I think the services, the intelligence services were bent into a pretzel to produce that result.

BLITZER: Senator Hart, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

HART: Great pleasure, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And just ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a little bit of deja vu for John Edwards. He's back on the campaign trail this time without John Kerry.

Plus, they're all grown up now and campaigning for their dad, a look at the Bush twins. We'll get to all of that, a break first.

From Washington this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The full court press for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and many believe civil unions as well ran into trouble today. Supporters go nowhere close to the 67 votes needed to pass the constitutional amendment.

They also failed to get the 60 votes necessary to resume debate and force Senators Kerry and Edwards onto the record during this presidential campaign. In fact, they couldn't even muster a simple majority.

Why they failed has something to do with the Democratic Party solidarity on this issue but perhaps more to do with the philosophical split on the Republican side.

From Capitol Hill tonight, CNN's Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republicans fell 12 votes short of continuing the debate and 19 votes shy of the 67 needed to change the Constitution. Democrats and gay rights groups were ecstatic.

CHERYL JACQUES, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: Today we saw President Bush and the Republican leadership attempt to divide America and it backfired, instead dividing their own party.

HENRY: The Republican sponsor of the amendment insisted the vote was a positive first step.

SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), COLORADO: We think getting the number of votes that we did on a first try in the Senate was definitely a success.

HENRY: But Republicans had been hoping for a much better showing, which became impossible when prominent moderates, like John McCain, peeled off.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The constitutional amendment we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans.

HENRY: This gave cover to Democrats facing tough reelection fights like Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: Senator McCain is right. We should oppose this amendment today.

HENRY: But Republicans believe the vote will backfire on Democrats politically and that the GOP will ultimately prevail on the issue.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: This is a big country and it's a very active one. I think you will see this issue churning and ultimately we will win this fight. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

HENRY (on camera): Senators John Kerry and John Edwards were absent, saying their votes would not have changed the outcome but Edwards did put out a statement charging that Republicans were trying to use the Constitution as a political tool.

A Bush-Cheney campaign adviser responded by saying, in part, "It takes a special kind of Senator to attack others over a vote that they don't show up for."

Ed Henry, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Meantime, Senator Edwards was giving as good as he got, flying solo for the first time since John Kerry picked him. The number two on the ticket spent part of the day campaigning in Iowa where during the caucuses he finished number two. Reporting for us tonight from Chicago CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): Kicking off his first solo tour as vice presidential candidate, John Edwards for the first time assumes the role of attack dog, accusing the president of playing politics with the issue of gay marriage.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democrats and Republicans together joined to reject the politics of division.

WALLACE: Senator Edwards, though, failed to mention how he chose not to remain in Washington for the vote that effectively killed the issue, a move that angered gay rights groups and Edwards refused to talk about earlier on Capitol Hill.

EDWARDS: I don't think we're doing a press right now.

WALLACE: Back in Des Moines, a contrast to the all positive all the time Edwards as presidential candidate but this is what running mates do, fire away at the opposition, such as accusing the president of failing to take the blame for faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq.

EDWARDS: The truth is this. What we need in the White House is somebody who has the strength, courage and leadership to take responsibility and be accountable.

WALLACE: The Bush-Cheney campaign responded calling that: "The latest example of the Kerry campaign's flailing and desperate attempt to distract from their troubling record on Iraq."

Edwards started in the battleground state of Iowa, which Al Gore barely won in 2000, before moving on to Illinois to raise cash and give a boost to U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama, along the way finding time to do interviews.

EDWARDS: And what you're doing, Mr. President, is not working.

WALLACE: With Wisconsin TV stations. No coincidence President Bush happened to be in the state wrapping up a bus tour through three small towns targeting Edwards without mentioning him by name.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You cannot be pro small business and pro trial lawyer at the same time.

WALLACE: In the battle for the small town vote, team Bush-Cheney has a sizable lead over team Kerry-Edwards according to a recent CNN- USA Today Gallup poll.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: But Democrats hope to change that by sending Edwards with his rags to riches story everywhere. From here he heads to Louisiana, Texas, California, Florida and his home state of North Carolina -- Wolf. BLITZER: Kelly, when the Democrats announced the speakers at their upcoming party convention, one Democratic superstar was conspicuously missing from that lineup, namely Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. What's the story behind the story there?

WALLACE: Well, Wolf that certainly raised a few eyebrows. What you are hearing from some Democrats close to John Kerry is she will likely be on the stage with other Senators one of the nights during the convention and that Senator Kerry and John Edwards very much wanted to focus on the Clinton administration.

So there's Bill Clinton and Al Gore on Monday night but then spend the rest of the week really saluting John Edwards and John Kerry giving people an opportunity to get to know them. All the other presidential candidates, including Howard Dean are not getting to speak and also, as you said, Hillary Clinton.

Of course there are those cynics out there who say John Kerry doesn't want to be upstaged by Hillary Clinton, someone who could run for the presidency down the road on her own terms -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, CNN's Kelly Wallace reporting for us tonight from Chicago, Kelly thank you very much.

And remember that sentence typists used to use for warm-up practice, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party?" I certainly do remember that. This season's version might read "all good children."

Here's a report from CNN's Judy Woodruff on the couple of kids who suddenly stepped center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): So far, Jenna and Barbara Bush's days on the campaign trail seem to consist of walking and standing and smiling for the cameras and for the crowds but after so many years of being sheltered from the family business of politics, the Bush daughters' public debut is a big deal.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: I want them to be involved if they want to but, at the same time, you know, I worry about the pain that, you know, they might have because they didn't choose this life, you know, their dad did.

WOODRUFF: For a couple of 22-year-old women, this may be the best part of it, glossy, glamour shots in the August issue of "Vogue" magazine. In an interview for "Vogue," the Bush twins broke their silence about their family, their futures and their decision to join their parents in the campaign.

Jenna is quoted as saying: "It's not like he called me up and asked me. They've never wanted to throw us into that world, and I think our decision probably shocks them. But I love my dad, and I think I'd regret it if I didn't do this" -- end quote. Barbara and Jenna have had a White House connection for almost two-thirds of their lives, with their grandfather serving as vice president and then president, before their own father won the top job. And yet, glimpses of them have been fleeting. Many Americans may only remember this, their run-ins with the law over alcohol three years ago when they were underage.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Our children ought to be totally left alone and allowed to have a totally private life. They're not public citizens. They didn't run for office.

WOODRUFF: Now they are adults and the protective shield has been lowered. Jenna appears to have been the more outspoken sister in the "Vogue" interview, praising her parents' marriage, calling her mom cute with funny quirks and describing her father's interactions with her boyfriends this way: "He's not the shotgun dad type. He's the 'joking around to the point where he scares the heck of them' type."

What's next for the Bush daughters? With an English degree from the University of Texas, Jenna says she plans to teach. She has applied for a job at an elementary school in Harlem. Barbara graduated from Yale and majored in humanities. She plans to work with AIDS-afflicted children in Eastern Europe and Africa. But their father's campaign comes first.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And good luck to both of those college graduates.

One other quick political item before we go, this one. Da coach won't be getting into the race. Mike Ditka, that is, has decided not -- repeat, not -- to step into the vacancy left when Jack Ryan pulled out of the Illinois U.S. Senate race. Until someone is found, that leaves the Democrat, Barack Obama, running virtually unopposed. He was already the odds-on favorite before the Ryan candidacy hit a major snag.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, an exclusive look at a pretty big dish, one that President Bush hopes will keep America safe.

Also later tonight, the human face of AIDS.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: This would be the moment in the "James Bond" movies when Q comes on with a suitcase full of whiz-bang gadgets. So, pay attention 007. Our Q is David Ensor and the gadgets in question have been designed to knock out incoming nuclear missiles from the sky. That's the theory. In practice, though, it's terribly hard, terribly controversial and terribly expensive. The entire program has already cost tens of billions of dollars.

And David Ensor got a look at the eyes and ears of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Simply put, the radar under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas, is huge.

COL. MIKE SMITH, PROJECT MANAGER, X-BAND RADAR: What you're looking at is the world's largest X-band phased array radar. It's 100 feet tall in its present condition there and it weighs about four million pounds.

ENSOR: Workers are racing to complete the radar this year to become part of the multibillion dollar missile defense that President Bush wants to deploy against ballistic missile attack by a rogue state like North Korea. The radar's job, figure out which is the real warhead so that missile interceptors can be launched to try to stop them.

LT. GEN. RONALD KADISH, FORMER DIRECTOR, MISSILE DEFENSE OFFICE: This adds that type of capability and would increase our overall confidence that we're shooting at the right target.

ENSOR: And not a decoy.

KADISH: And not a decoy.

ENSOR: How good is this X-band radar? Colonel Smith says if slugger Barry Bonds could hit a baseball into space from Giant Stadium in San Francisco and the radar were deployed near Washington, it would...

SMITH: Not just see the baseball, but detect the spinning motion on the baseball. That's how powerful this radar is and that's exactly why it was developed.

ENSOR: The radar will soon be placed atop this platform under preparation in Brownsville, Texas. It is a Norwegian-built oil- drilling platform with four engines which the Pentagon plans to deploy in the Pacific Ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deck size here is large enough to hold an entire football field with both end zones.

ENSOR (on camera): Once the radar is in place and has been tested, it will start its roughly six-month journey around Latin America back up through the Pacific Ocean to its future home port, which is an island in Alaska's Aleutian chain.

Based at Adak, Alaska, the giant radar vessel will have a crew of 62 and be provisioned to operate at sea for 60 days without new supplies.

(on camera): One thing walking up here now, the wind that's rocking about in the Pacific Ocean might be a little tougher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's correct. That's why it's a very hearty breed of people that do this kind of thing.

ENSOR (voice-over): The X-band radar vessel will be a strategic target for American's enemies. When at sea, officials say it will have protection from U.S. Navy ships and planes.

(on camera): In order to acquire its target, the X-band radar is on these giant wheels which can rotate at 270 degrees on this track right here. And, of course, if they need to go further than that, they simply use the propellers in the water on the vessel.

(voice-over): Critics question whether the $815 million radar vessel will be able to survive the riggers of the Pacific.

PHILIP COYLE, FORMER ASSISTANT DEFENSE SECRETARY: The issue is not simply the size of the waves, but whether or not all that salt water and spray will affect the highly sophisticated electronics.

ENSOR: But Pentagon officials say, like other radars, the X-band will be covered. The circuitry is extremely robust. And it will sit on two massive pontoons.

(on camera): It's going to take a beating on the way around, isn't it?

SMITH: It is going to take a beating, but it's built to withstand a beating. And that's why exactly we picked an oil-drilling platform, the extreme stability.

ENSOR (voice-over): Built for stability and built to help stop a missile attack against the United States.

David Ensor, CNN, Corpus Christi, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, trouble over timber and the roads that run through it -- that story from Seattle. That's just ahead.

And a bit later, home video from someone's family vacation to a place we can virtually guarantee you that you won't be running into anyone you know.

From Washington, D.C., this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That old saw about a tree falling in the forest without anyone around to hear it may strike you as silly. After all, how many such unspoiled places are there anymore?

The answer, actually, is tens of millions of acres, forests that could only be walk into because there are no roads to drive on, no roads at least at the moment. But there may be soon, and logging as well.

Kimberly Osias has more now on a controversy sure to be as deep as the woods it involves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Robert McCleary, Benji (ph) and Shelby (ph) like to retreat to pristine open spaces to camp, to hike and just get away.

ROBERT MCCLEARY, HIKER: It's just pretty much the way it was back way back when.

OSIAS: This area is called Glacier Peak L, one of hundreds in the U.S. currently designated as roadless, where logging or other commercial activity is off-limits. It was protected under a rule President Clinton signed in his final days in office. But a new plan rolled out by the Bush administration would reduce the protection of these forests. For environmentalists, it's an emotional issue.

TOM UNIACK, WASHINGTON WILDERNESS COALITION: I'm not going to allow this to be taken away from the American people and from my unborn son and, you know, people's grandkids 50, 60, 80 years from now.

OSIAS (on camera): The new directive pushes power down to the states, allowing governors more authority over whether or not to build on previously protected forest lands.

(voice-over): Ninety-seven percent of almost 60 million acres of roadless land is concentrated in 12 mostly Western states. Those in the private sector say national land has always been met for public purpose, from conservation to logging. Not all areas, though, are suitable for commercial use. Some are too expensive or simply too remote. But there's enough potential for industry insiders to have lobbied hard for overturning the Clinton rule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're interested in a timber base. We need to have lands that can be used to grow and harvest timber. That's our interest.

OSIAS: And that's exactly what environmentalists fear, that these untouched forests will be irreparably harmed. For now, the directive faces two months of public comment, then an 18-month period where governors can prepare their requests. Until then, it's a federal issue. The Forest Service decides if hikers or loggers will have a clear path.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, AIDS and the city, what New York has in common with some Third World countries.

And later, the age-old tradition of going on summer vacation with your family to Baghdad -- yes, Baghdad.

From Washington, this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Another headline now from the 15th International AIDS Conference under way in Thailand.

Researchers say the fight against AIDS will fail without addressing the plight of women in the developing world. According to researchers, nearly half of all people living with HIV are women. In good things and in bad, New York City often shows the way. If that is also true of one of the great medical scourges of our time, namely HIV and AIDS, then there is much to worry about.

Here's our report from CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone in the room is HIV positive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm eight years positive.

FEYERICK: They're New Yorkers. And they meet regularly at the William F. Ryan Community Health Center. They talk about life and death from and the disease that has forever changed them.

RODNEY WILSON, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: In the late '80s, I went to about 40 funerals. And that's what really got me -- I went to the last funeral I went to. I will tell you, I saw myself in the coffin.

FEYERICK: In New York City, more than 75,000 men and women have HIV or AIDS. Health experts say numbers like that compare to Third World countries. And they warn the problem's getting worse.

DR. VINCENT JARVIS, DIRECTOR, WILLIAM F. RYAN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER: While New York City has 3 percent of the United States' population, it has over 16 percent of all the cases for HIV and AIDS for the entire United States. We're actually on a lot of fronts losing the battle in the fight against AIDS in this country and particularly in New York City.

FEYERICK: The concern is that patterns in New York City of new HIV infections and diagnosed AIDS cases have often foreshadowed what happens later in many other U.S. cities.

JARVIS: New York City is a trendsetter in many ways. And the rest of the country is not insulated from this problem of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic at all.

DOROTHY WALKER, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: People are dying every day. The epidemic is not over in the United States of America. It's not over in New York City. It's not over in California. It's not over in San Francisco. It's not over in the United States in general.

FEYERICK: Like so many in her support group, Dorothy Walker has seen friends die painfully of AIDS. Many of them were African- American or Latino. While no one is immune, these are communities now at highest risk now being hit hardest.

JARVIS: Please look up.

Middle age African-American men are nearly three times as likely as other New Yorkers to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS. And one in seven black men in this age group is infected.

FEYERICK: Two years ago, Kenneth Butler tested HIV positive.

KENNETH BUTLER, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: Some people believe that this disease does not exist anymore due to the fact that, of course, the medications are making you live longer. They are prolonging life.

FEYERICK: Though new drugs make HIV and AIDS manageable, they still offer no cure.

JARVIS: I think that there is a sense of complacency and so- called AIDS fatigue. However, we must remain vigilant. These numbers are not going away. They're not remaining the same. In fact, they're continuing to increase.

FEYERICK: And while people may be living longer with the virus, they are still dying.

WILSON: I look at my mom and see that she's had friends, lifelong friends. And that's the one thing that I really miss about my life. I don't have lifelong friends. I have new friends now. I had accumulated other friends and they're gone, you know? And that's one of the things that's the most devastating to me about this disease.

FEYERICK: More than 500,000 in the U.S. and counting.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a very rough place on the best of days, but a vacation spot for one Arab-American family. We'll explain.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Are you tired of the same old summertime getaway? How about something really different this year, a place with palm trees, warm waters and 140,000 United States troops?

From David Mattingly, here's a report on one man's sentimental journey home to Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Instead of heading to a North Carolina beach like they do most years, Iraqi-born Ahmad al-Samarraee decided his family would vacation this year in a war zone.

AHMAD AL-SAMARRAEE, FATHER: would be lying to you if I tell I wasn't afraid. I was definitely worried about them.

MATTINGLY: Al-Samarraee took his American wife and three children ages 13, 9, and 5, to Baghdad to reunite with the family he hadn't seen for 23 years.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: But when we first pulled in, the first thing we saw was a car bombing. So it's like OK, not a surprise. We're heard a lot about that stuff.

MATTINGLY: In 1981, al-Samarraee fled Iraq as a teenager after his uncles were imprisoned by Saddam Hussein. He returned to find his family, who once lived in fear of the old regime, now fearing lawlessness and unpredictable violence.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: A lot of people take their freedom and they interpret it their ways. I can carry a gun, shoot whomever I want to. That's not freedom. That's basically chaos.

MATTINGLY: Any sites they wanted to take in were viewed from the safety of their car. Every move they made in Baghdad was made cautiously.

SUSAN AL-SAMARRAEE, WIFE OF AHMAD: You have to have an armed guard. You have to go with a man. You can't go out alone. You have to watch your kids.

MATTINGLY: But watching the kids on home video shows everyone having a good time, actually relaxing and having fun.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: All of Iraq wants to live in peace. That would be worth the war that we went into.

MATTINGLY: The home videos also produced candid glimpses of the calm side of daily Baghdad life, city streets filled with cars, U.S. soldiers patrolling the neighborhood, a loving family enjoying the time it has together.

(on camera): The family's biggest complaint about their Baghdad experience? No electricity, no air condition. They made it back home, however, safe and sound, full of memories that will last a lifetime, already making plans to one day go back.

(voice-over): David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Before we go tonight, here's Heidi Collins with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a look inside the family of Osama bin Laden like you've never seen before. Carmen bin Laden, the former sister-in-law of the world's most wanted terrorist, she tells us about the inner workings of this powerful Saudi clan and whether family loyalty still exists for its most notorious member.

That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 a.m.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi. We, of course, will be watching.

That's all the time we have for NEWSNIGHT tonight. I'm Wolf Blitzer, sitting in for Aaron Brown. Thanks very much for joining 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 July 14, 2004 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone.
In a conversation I had earlier today with John McLaughlin, the acting CIA director, he pointed out a frustrating but nonetheless essential fact of the so-called new normal, "Sooner or later they get lucky."

One way or another, God forbid, the bomber gets through. For anyone who lived through the Cold War it's a familiar notion. Back then the harsh reality had to do with the impossibility of defending against a nuclear attack. The only solution was to prevent a war from starting in the first place. It was not perfect but it worked.

Today, as you'll see in our setup up close program throughout this evening, the country is building a defense system to protect against nuclear threats and retooling the intelligence community to fight terrorism.

But, now as then, neither system will be perfect. They can't be. Nothing is, so now as then we'll have to live with it. We'll have to hope for the best, do better with what we've got and know that sometimes the best might not necessarily be good enough. Sadly, it wasn't good enough today in Iraq.

The whip begins in Baghdad as it so often does. CNN's Jane Arraf is there, Jane a headline please.

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: The worst attack since the handover to sovereignty here breaks the calm in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul is on a state of alert after a regional official there is assassinated -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane, we'll get back to you.

On to London now and a stinging report on the intelligence on which Britain's Tony Blair made the case for war, CNN's Nic Robertson is in London with the story and a headline.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Butler report is the fourth such inquiry into the British government's handling of the war in Iraq, and it appears to be eroding the popularity of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

BLITZER: Nic, thanks very much. The Pentagon next and ruffled feathers over what a United States Senator on the Intelligence Committee is saying, Jamie McIntyre our Senior Pentagon Correspondent, has the call tonight, Jamie the headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Pentagon has taken the unusual step of asking a high-ranking Senator for an apology and a retraction for something he said at a press conference last week. The Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller isn't backing down, insisting his criticism may yet turn out to be on target.

BLITZER: All right, Jamie, we'll be getting back to you as well.

Finally to Chicago the campaign trail and John Edwards' first day without John Kerry by his side CNN's Kelly Wallace reporting for us tonight, Kelly your headline.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in his first solo tour as vice presidential candidate, John Edwards shows he came to do what running mates traditionally do assuming the role of attack dog for the very first time -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Kelly, thanks very much, back with you, back with the rest shortly.

Also on NEWSNIGHT tonight, a vote today on Capitol Hill on gay marriage, the results not unexpected by the questions raised are.

Plus, the Bush twins finally en vogue and on the campaign trail.

And later, there's only one adequate word to describe it, huge, introducing America's next line of defense, all that and more in the hour ahead.

But we begin tonight in Baghdad where 46 years ago the Ba'ath Party came to power with bombings and assassinations. Forty-six years later, a former member of the Ba'ath is running Iraq and remnants of his old party and others are doing their best to bring him and his western allies down with bombings and assassinations.

They tried once again today, our report from CNN's Jane Arraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF (voice-over): The rage of helplessness. "If there's a terrorist, come and face us. Don't go behind our backs" said this Iraqi National Guard. An anonymous suicide bomber detonated 1,000 pounds of explosives at a checkpoint at the entrance to the Green Zone where U.S. and Iraqi officials are based.

COL MIKE MURRAY, U.S. ARMY: At 9:15 this morning, or approximately 9:15 this morning, a vehicle pulled into the search lane trying to get into this entry control point and detonated.

ARRAF: At least ten Iraqis were killed, three of them National Guardsmen. Dozens more Iraqis were wounded. There might have been more victims if this hadn't been a national holiday, the anniversary of the bloody 1958 coup that toppled the monarchy.

The blast broke Baghdad's recent calm, the first major attack since the U.S. handed back sovereignty on June 28th. The interim government's get tough prime minister touring the scene pledged to find the attackers.

AYAD ALLAWI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: It is an act of aggression against the Iraqi people. We will bring the criminals to justice.

ARRAF: Just hours later, a senior regional official, the governor of Ninevah, which includes the city of Mosul, was assassinated while traveling to Baghdad. His aides said it was a targeted assassination.

Gunmen pulled up and opened fire on Osama Kashmola, a university professor who became governor four months ago. Two bodyguards were also killed in the firefight. Kashmola took the job after others declined, saying they feared for their lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARRAF: It had been so quiet here in the last two weeks many Iraqis had started to feel almost safe again. There are police in the streets and families even going out in the evenings but this latest attack is a reminder of how easily that calm can be shattered -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jane, is anyone claiming responsibility for the assassination of the governor?

ARRAF: No one is yet, Wolf, and as you know this is sadly not that uncommon. Now he was a very high level official, one of the most high level officials to be killed in the past months. But virtually every day there are assassinations and in most of them no one claims responsibility, which is one of the chilling and unsettling things here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Do these new leaders of this interim Iraqi government, the high profile leaders, are they generally well protected with security guards and, if they are as I assume they are, do they have U.S. military protection all the time as well?

ARRAF: They don't have U.S. military protection. The U.S. makes the point that it's not its job. It can't protect anything but the most senior of leaders here.

And, if you look at the case of the governor of Ninevah, the governor of Mosul, he was traveling with quite heavy security. He was traveling in a convoy with armed security guards but it clearly was a targeted professional assassination, some talk that a grenade was thrown and then he was shot. So, there's very little that one can do here if someone really wants to kill you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf reporting for us from Baghdad. Jane thanks very much. It was another bad day for the spy business, this time in the United Kingdom. A report on the intelligence backstopping Britain's case for going to war came out today. Like its American counterpart it pulls very few punches but spared Prime Minister Tony Blair a knockout blow.

It did, however, leave the prime minister open to a political battering from the opposition party and members indeed, some members at least of his own party as well, once again from London tonight CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Britain's long awaited Butler report, 196 pages, detailing intelligence failings on the country's road to war with Iraq, more grist in the mill for those battering Prime Minister Tony Blair.

MICHAEL HOWARD, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: The issue is the prime minister's credibility. The question he must ask himself is does he have any credibility left?

ROBERTSON: After beating back antiwar protests before the invasion by overtly gambling his own political capital...

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honor.

ROBERTSON: Blair staked his popularity on winning his case for war. In the 14 months since the war ended, the Butler inquiry is the fourth official report to question Blair's push for war.

ANTHONY SELDON, AUTHOR, "BLAIR, THE BIOGRAPHY": Each of these reports was another hammer blow to the core question of trust in his as the prime minister. He's based his leadership upon the fact that people can trust him.

ROBERTSON: So, why is Blair suffering more than President Bush whose own intelligence services were also criticized?

SELDON: President Bush's basis of support goes much deeper. Tony Blair's is much shallower and it's based upon his ability to be the most likely candidate to take Labour into a successful general election.

ROBERTSON: And were opinions count most on the streets, how long that will be is an open question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely gone down, his popularity, yes what it was but there again what he did I think there's a right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not popular at all anymore, is he? It's just no one really wants to know him.

ROBERTSON (on camera): But opinion polls have Blair slipping only a couple of percentage points in the last year and a half and when responding to criticism in the House of Commons following the Butler report, Blair seemed to blossom, looking every inch the leader, thriving on the challenge to his popularity.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Back home, fallout from last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is still thick in the air leaving one U.S. Senator a bit radioactive at least in the eyes of the civilian leadership over at the Pentagon.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the junior Democrat from West Virginia, is the Senator in question. What he said is raising some important tempers and now the Defense Department wants a retraction and an apology.

Senator Rockefeller isn't budging, the story from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): In the crosshairs is policy chief Doug Feith, the number three civilian at the Pentagon. Critics accuse him of running a rogue intelligence operations that competed with the CIA and they have unduly influenced top administration officials who were making the case for war. And this is the remark by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that drew the Pentagon's ire.

SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Was he running a private intelligence failure which is not lawful?

MCINTYRE: Hal Moore, the Pentagon's top liaison with Congress, fired off a terse letter.

"I request that, if you have any evidence supporting the serious charge you floated during your press conference, you provide it" he wrote. "If there is not evidence, then a retraction and apology would be appropriate."

Feith has publicly denied that in searching for links between al Qaeda and countries, including Iraq, he did anything more than take a second look at existing intelligence.

DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR POLICY: The idea that we would look at it again in light of September 11 and maybe see some new things in it shouldn't be that surprising.

MCINTYRE: The Senate Intelligence Committee report on prewar intelligence barely mentions Feith and reaches no conclusion that his small team of analysts did anything unlawful.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They were asked to review intelligence reports on a certain subject, which they did, which is a perfectly proper thing for policy people to do. MCINTYRE: But Rockefeller isn't retracting or apologizing, insisting the jury is out while a second phase of the investigation is ongoing.

"When the committee finishes its review of these activities, we will be able to determine if, in fact, Undersecretary Feith was running an unauthorized intelligence activity" he said in a written response to the Pentagon.

Rockefeller argues Feith failed to keep Congress informed, which could violate oversight requirements.

(on camera): Is it your contention that that didn't violate any law?

LAWENCE DI RITA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: Yes, it is. That's our -- that certainly -- that's certainly our belief at the time and it's certainly our continued understanding now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon argues that Feith and his staff didn't gather any intelligence. They simply analyzed it and the Senate Intelligence report seems to suggest that that analysis had little effect on the overall conclusion reached by the experts at the CIA -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie, what about this whole issue of statutory authority for Doug Feith to create that sort of little mini intelligence service he was running over at the Pentagon? Is there an issue over whether or not that was lawful?

MCINTYRE: Well, that is the technical issue that Senator Rockefeller has raised. If it was, as you said, an intelligence operation then it would be subject to congressional oversight.

But, if it was simply a matter of reviewing intelligence, providing policy guidance for the top people in the administration that doesn't really qualify as an intelligence operation but that's why they're having this separate review, which by agreement will probably come out after the election -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, Jamie thanks very much.

Still on the subject of intelligence, I spoke earlier today with the Acting Director of the CIA John McLaughlin about the challenges he and his agency face and, much more to the point that the country faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): By targeting commuter trains only days before the national election and killing scores of people, al Qaeda terrorists successfully disrupted the Spanish election. U.S. officials fear they might try to do the same thing in advance of the U.S. elections in November.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: This is a very serious threat we're facing.

BLITZER: How serious?

MCLAUGHLIN: It's serious in the following sense that I think the quality of the information we have is very good. We have a lot of experience now in terrorism.

BLITZER: McLaughlin, who succeeded George Tenet only days ago, declined to provide specific details of the intelligence that scares him noting that those details could provide useful information to the terrorists.

MCLAUGHLIN: One of the important things terrorists do, I'll tell you it's very simple. It's very simple. They know how to keep a secret. Their work is highly compartmented to a small group of people probably living in a cave somewhere and our country doesn't keep secrets very well, so we have to watch what we release about the details but this is a serious threat period.

BLITZER: He says Osama bin Laden is still very much a player against the United States.

MCLAUGHLIN: Is he's sitting there behind some large console pulling wires and switches? I wouldn't say that but to be sure he remains the leader of al Qaeda. It's his guidance to his followers that certainly inspires them to proceed with the attacks that we have seen in places like Istanbul and Morocco and Spain and so forth.

BLITZER: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, fresh from an inspection tour of preparations for the Democratic Convention in Boston, agrees with McLaughlin's assessment.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: They're credible, trustworthy sources, not terribly specific in terms of who, what, when and where but targeting an (unintelligible), targeting an attempt to undermine the democratic process. Clearly part of that are the two conventions but you have this period of several months upon which we need to heighten our alert and heighten our vigilance.

BLITZER: Still he insists the overall situation is under control.

RIDGE: Get your reservations in early, great restaurants, great historic sites. The community has done everything they can to put people and technology in all the right places. They've got a comprehensive plan overseeing a very complicated -- a very complex city but go prepared to have a good time and enjoy the city as the Democrats nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And in short that's the mixed message of the federal government that has become part of our so-called new normal in this post-9/11 era.

With us now from New York is the former United States Senator Gary Hart. He's a globally recognized expert in the field of international security, most recently the author of an important new book, "The Fourth Power, a Grand Strategy for the United States in the 21st Century." Senator Hart, thanks very much for joining us.

GARY HART, AUTHOR, "THE FOURTH POWER": My pleasure.

BLITZER: So many Americans, myself included, are confused about this mixed message. On the one hand, make reservations. Go out, party, have a great time. Don't change your plans. On the other hand, there are credible, serious threats out there involving this summer and al Qaeda. What are we to make of this?

HART: Well, I think Secretary Ridge has come about as close as he can to say there are threats and they are targeting the political process but we can't shut down a mass democracy of 300 million people.

BLITZER: How concerned are you based on what you know?

HART: Well, I am a lawyer in Denver, Colorado with no access to classified briefings or anything else. All I know is what I hear and read but I have a sense something big is going to happen. I felt that for the last year or so.

BLITZER: Is there anything differently that the federal government should be doing now to protect the American people based on your vast experience, including the commissions that you served the recommendations on counterterrorism that you made?

HART: Well, I think there ought to be a much, much higher degree of urgency about homeland security in terms of training and equipping the National Guard, moving faster on common communications systems and databases.

I think the president and the administration ought to lean much harder on the private sector, the petrochemical industry and energy industry and others to protect their plants. I don't see that happening.

I just don't -- I think there's been so much focus on terrorism abroad and not nearly enough here at home. I meet with local first responders and a lot of them have not heard very much, not received training or drills. They're not really prepared.

BLITZER: What should we make of the fact that it's been now almost three years since there has been a major terror strike on U.S. soil?

HART: It just means to me the clock is ticking. If you look at the major instance of terrorism here and abroad, starting in '93 with the first World Trade Center bombing and then you go basically I think to the Khobar Towers to the embassies in Africa and then the Cole and then the second attack on the World Trade Center there's always been a two or three-year-period in between. So, I hate, I mean I hate to sound alarmist but I think we're due.

BLITZER: Who's more responsible? Who should be held more accountable for the failures in intelligence on WMD leading up to the Iraq War, should it be the intelligence community or the political leadership from the president on down?

HART: Well, I think the buck stops on the president's desk and I think it is the political leadership. I think it's going to be a long time before we know really what happened in the period between 2001 and the invasion of Iraq.

I have a suspicion based upon some years of experience in the intelligence field that the political pressure brought on the intelligence services was such that they came up with a product that they thought the White House wanted.

I think there was a predetermination to go to war in Iraq and a search for evidence that even tangentially would support that. And I think the services, the intelligence services were bent into a pretzel to produce that result.

BLITZER: Senator Hart, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

HART: Great pleasure, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And just ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a little bit of deja vu for John Edwards. He's back on the campaign trail this time without John Kerry.

Plus, they're all grown up now and campaigning for their dad, a look at the Bush twins. We'll get to all of that, a break first.

From Washington this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The full court press for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and many believe civil unions as well ran into trouble today. Supporters go nowhere close to the 67 votes needed to pass the constitutional amendment.

They also failed to get the 60 votes necessary to resume debate and force Senators Kerry and Edwards onto the record during this presidential campaign. In fact, they couldn't even muster a simple majority.

Why they failed has something to do with the Democratic Party solidarity on this issue but perhaps more to do with the philosophical split on the Republican side.

From Capitol Hill tonight, CNN's Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republicans fell 12 votes short of continuing the debate and 19 votes shy of the 67 needed to change the Constitution. Democrats and gay rights groups were ecstatic.

CHERYL JACQUES, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: Today we saw President Bush and the Republican leadership attempt to divide America and it backfired, instead dividing their own party.

HENRY: The Republican sponsor of the amendment insisted the vote was a positive first step.

SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R), COLORADO: We think getting the number of votes that we did on a first try in the Senate was definitely a success.

HENRY: But Republicans had been hoping for a much better showing, which became impossible when prominent moderates, like John McCain, peeled off.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The constitutional amendment we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans.

HENRY: This gave cover to Democrats facing tough reelection fights like Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MINORITY LEADER: Senator McCain is right. We should oppose this amendment today.

HENRY: But Republicans believe the vote will backfire on Democrats politically and that the GOP will ultimately prevail on the issue.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: This is a big country and it's a very active one. I think you will see this issue churning and ultimately we will win this fight. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

HENRY (on camera): Senators John Kerry and John Edwards were absent, saying their votes would not have changed the outcome but Edwards did put out a statement charging that Republicans were trying to use the Constitution as a political tool.

A Bush-Cheney campaign adviser responded by saying, in part, "It takes a special kind of Senator to attack others over a vote that they don't show up for."

Ed Henry, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Meantime, Senator Edwards was giving as good as he got, flying solo for the first time since John Kerry picked him. The number two on the ticket spent part of the day campaigning in Iowa where during the caucuses he finished number two. Reporting for us tonight from Chicago CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): Kicking off his first solo tour as vice presidential candidate, John Edwards for the first time assumes the role of attack dog, accusing the president of playing politics with the issue of gay marriage.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democrats and Republicans together joined to reject the politics of division.

WALLACE: Senator Edwards, though, failed to mention how he chose not to remain in Washington for the vote that effectively killed the issue, a move that angered gay rights groups and Edwards refused to talk about earlier on Capitol Hill.

EDWARDS: I don't think we're doing a press right now.

WALLACE: Back in Des Moines, a contrast to the all positive all the time Edwards as presidential candidate but this is what running mates do, fire away at the opposition, such as accusing the president of failing to take the blame for faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq.

EDWARDS: The truth is this. What we need in the White House is somebody who has the strength, courage and leadership to take responsibility and be accountable.

WALLACE: The Bush-Cheney campaign responded calling that: "The latest example of the Kerry campaign's flailing and desperate attempt to distract from their troubling record on Iraq."

Edwards started in the battleground state of Iowa, which Al Gore barely won in 2000, before moving on to Illinois to raise cash and give a boost to U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama, along the way finding time to do interviews.

EDWARDS: And what you're doing, Mr. President, is not working.

WALLACE: With Wisconsin TV stations. No coincidence President Bush happened to be in the state wrapping up a bus tour through three small towns targeting Edwards without mentioning him by name.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You cannot be pro small business and pro trial lawyer at the same time.

WALLACE: In the battle for the small town vote, team Bush-Cheney has a sizable lead over team Kerry-Edwards according to a recent CNN- USA Today Gallup poll.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: But Democrats hope to change that by sending Edwards with his rags to riches story everywhere. From here he heads to Louisiana, Texas, California, Florida and his home state of North Carolina -- Wolf. BLITZER: Kelly, when the Democrats announced the speakers at their upcoming party convention, one Democratic superstar was conspicuously missing from that lineup, namely Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. What's the story behind the story there?

WALLACE: Well, Wolf that certainly raised a few eyebrows. What you are hearing from some Democrats close to John Kerry is she will likely be on the stage with other Senators one of the nights during the convention and that Senator Kerry and John Edwards very much wanted to focus on the Clinton administration.

So there's Bill Clinton and Al Gore on Monday night but then spend the rest of the week really saluting John Edwards and John Kerry giving people an opportunity to get to know them. All the other presidential candidates, including Howard Dean are not getting to speak and also, as you said, Hillary Clinton.

Of course there are those cynics out there who say John Kerry doesn't want to be upstaged by Hillary Clinton, someone who could run for the presidency down the road on her own terms -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, CNN's Kelly Wallace reporting for us tonight from Chicago, Kelly thank you very much.

And remember that sentence typists used to use for warm-up practice, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party?" I certainly do remember that. This season's version might read "all good children."

Here's a report from CNN's Judy Woodruff on the couple of kids who suddenly stepped center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): So far, Jenna and Barbara Bush's days on the campaign trail seem to consist of walking and standing and smiling for the cameras and for the crowds but after so many years of being sheltered from the family business of politics, the Bush daughters' public debut is a big deal.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: I want them to be involved if they want to but, at the same time, you know, I worry about the pain that, you know, they might have because they didn't choose this life, you know, their dad did.

WOODRUFF: For a couple of 22-year-old women, this may be the best part of it, glossy, glamour shots in the August issue of "Vogue" magazine. In an interview for "Vogue," the Bush twins broke their silence about their family, their futures and their decision to join their parents in the campaign.

Jenna is quoted as saying: "It's not like he called me up and asked me. They've never wanted to throw us into that world, and I think our decision probably shocks them. But I love my dad, and I think I'd regret it if I didn't do this" -- end quote. Barbara and Jenna have had a White House connection for almost two-thirds of their lives, with their grandfather serving as vice president and then president, before their own father won the top job. And yet, glimpses of them have been fleeting. Many Americans may only remember this, their run-ins with the law over alcohol three years ago when they were underage.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Our children ought to be totally left alone and allowed to have a totally private life. They're not public citizens. They didn't run for office.

WOODRUFF: Now they are adults and the protective shield has been lowered. Jenna appears to have been the more outspoken sister in the "Vogue" interview, praising her parents' marriage, calling her mom cute with funny quirks and describing her father's interactions with her boyfriends this way: "He's not the shotgun dad type. He's the 'joking around to the point where he scares the heck of them' type."

What's next for the Bush daughters? With an English degree from the University of Texas, Jenna says she plans to teach. She has applied for a job at an elementary school in Harlem. Barbara graduated from Yale and majored in humanities. She plans to work with AIDS-afflicted children in Eastern Europe and Africa. But their father's campaign comes first.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And good luck to both of those college graduates.

One other quick political item before we go, this one. Da coach won't be getting into the race. Mike Ditka, that is, has decided not -- repeat, not -- to step into the vacancy left when Jack Ryan pulled out of the Illinois U.S. Senate race. Until someone is found, that leaves the Democrat, Barack Obama, running virtually unopposed. He was already the odds-on favorite before the Ryan candidacy hit a major snag.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, an exclusive look at a pretty big dish, one that President Bush hopes will keep America safe.

Also later tonight, the human face of AIDS.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: This would be the moment in the "James Bond" movies when Q comes on with a suitcase full of whiz-bang gadgets. So, pay attention 007. Our Q is David Ensor and the gadgets in question have been designed to knock out incoming nuclear missiles from the sky. That's the theory. In practice, though, it's terribly hard, terribly controversial and terribly expensive. The entire program has already cost tens of billions of dollars.

And David Ensor got a look at the eyes and ears of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Simply put, the radar under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas, is huge.

COL. MIKE SMITH, PROJECT MANAGER, X-BAND RADAR: What you're looking at is the world's largest X-band phased array radar. It's 100 feet tall in its present condition there and it weighs about four million pounds.

ENSOR: Workers are racing to complete the radar this year to become part of the multibillion dollar missile defense that President Bush wants to deploy against ballistic missile attack by a rogue state like North Korea. The radar's job, figure out which is the real warhead so that missile interceptors can be launched to try to stop them.

LT. GEN. RONALD KADISH, FORMER DIRECTOR, MISSILE DEFENSE OFFICE: This adds that type of capability and would increase our overall confidence that we're shooting at the right target.

ENSOR: And not a decoy.

KADISH: And not a decoy.

ENSOR: How good is this X-band radar? Colonel Smith says if slugger Barry Bonds could hit a baseball into space from Giant Stadium in San Francisco and the radar were deployed near Washington, it would...

SMITH: Not just see the baseball, but detect the spinning motion on the baseball. That's how powerful this radar is and that's exactly why it was developed.

ENSOR: The radar will soon be placed atop this platform under preparation in Brownsville, Texas. It is a Norwegian-built oil- drilling platform with four engines which the Pentagon plans to deploy in the Pacific Ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deck size here is large enough to hold an entire football field with both end zones.

ENSOR (on camera): Once the radar is in place and has been tested, it will start its roughly six-month journey around Latin America back up through the Pacific Ocean to its future home port, which is an island in Alaska's Aleutian chain.

Based at Adak, Alaska, the giant radar vessel will have a crew of 62 and be provisioned to operate at sea for 60 days without new supplies.

(on camera): One thing walking up here now, the wind that's rocking about in the Pacific Ocean might be a little tougher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's correct. That's why it's a very hearty breed of people that do this kind of thing.

ENSOR (voice-over): The X-band radar vessel will be a strategic target for American's enemies. When at sea, officials say it will have protection from U.S. Navy ships and planes.

(on camera): In order to acquire its target, the X-band radar is on these giant wheels which can rotate at 270 degrees on this track right here. And, of course, if they need to go further than that, they simply use the propellers in the water on the vessel.

(voice-over): Critics question whether the $815 million radar vessel will be able to survive the riggers of the Pacific.

PHILIP COYLE, FORMER ASSISTANT DEFENSE SECRETARY: The issue is not simply the size of the waves, but whether or not all that salt water and spray will affect the highly sophisticated electronics.

ENSOR: But Pentagon officials say, like other radars, the X-band will be covered. The circuitry is extremely robust. And it will sit on two massive pontoons.

(on camera): It's going to take a beating on the way around, isn't it?

SMITH: It is going to take a beating, but it's built to withstand a beating. And that's why exactly we picked an oil-drilling platform, the extreme stability.

ENSOR (voice-over): Built for stability and built to help stop a missile attack against the United States.

David Ensor, CNN, Corpus Christi, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, trouble over timber and the roads that run through it -- that story from Seattle. That's just ahead.

And a bit later, home video from someone's family vacation to a place we can virtually guarantee you that you won't be running into anyone you know.

From Washington, D.C., this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That old saw about a tree falling in the forest without anyone around to hear it may strike you as silly. After all, how many such unspoiled places are there anymore?

The answer, actually, is tens of millions of acres, forests that could only be walk into because there are no roads to drive on, no roads at least at the moment. But there may be soon, and logging as well.

Kimberly Osias has more now on a controversy sure to be as deep as the woods it involves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Robert McCleary, Benji (ph) and Shelby (ph) like to retreat to pristine open spaces to camp, to hike and just get away.

ROBERT MCCLEARY, HIKER: It's just pretty much the way it was back way back when.

OSIAS: This area is called Glacier Peak L, one of hundreds in the U.S. currently designated as roadless, where logging or other commercial activity is off-limits. It was protected under a rule President Clinton signed in his final days in office. But a new plan rolled out by the Bush administration would reduce the protection of these forests. For environmentalists, it's an emotional issue.

TOM UNIACK, WASHINGTON WILDERNESS COALITION: I'm not going to allow this to be taken away from the American people and from my unborn son and, you know, people's grandkids 50, 60, 80 years from now.

OSIAS (on camera): The new directive pushes power down to the states, allowing governors more authority over whether or not to build on previously protected forest lands.

(voice-over): Ninety-seven percent of almost 60 million acres of roadless land is concentrated in 12 mostly Western states. Those in the private sector say national land has always been met for public purpose, from conservation to logging. Not all areas, though, are suitable for commercial use. Some are too expensive or simply too remote. But there's enough potential for industry insiders to have lobbied hard for overturning the Clinton rule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're interested in a timber base. We need to have lands that can be used to grow and harvest timber. That's our interest.

OSIAS: And that's exactly what environmentalists fear, that these untouched forests will be irreparably harmed. For now, the directive faces two months of public comment, then an 18-month period where governors can prepare their requests. Until then, it's a federal issue. The Forest Service decides if hikers or loggers will have a clear path.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, AIDS and the city, what New York has in common with some Third World countries.

And later, the age-old tradition of going on summer vacation with your family to Baghdad -- yes, Baghdad.

From Washington, this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Another headline now from the 15th International AIDS Conference under way in Thailand.

Researchers say the fight against AIDS will fail without addressing the plight of women in the developing world. According to researchers, nearly half of all people living with HIV are women. In good things and in bad, New York City often shows the way. If that is also true of one of the great medical scourges of our time, namely HIV and AIDS, then there is much to worry about.

Here's our report from CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone in the room is HIV positive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm eight years positive.

FEYERICK: They're New Yorkers. And they meet regularly at the William F. Ryan Community Health Center. They talk about life and death from and the disease that has forever changed them.

RODNEY WILSON, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: In the late '80s, I went to about 40 funerals. And that's what really got me -- I went to the last funeral I went to. I will tell you, I saw myself in the coffin.

FEYERICK: In New York City, more than 75,000 men and women have HIV or AIDS. Health experts say numbers like that compare to Third World countries. And they warn the problem's getting worse.

DR. VINCENT JARVIS, DIRECTOR, WILLIAM F. RYAN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER: While New York City has 3 percent of the United States' population, it has over 16 percent of all the cases for HIV and AIDS for the entire United States. We're actually on a lot of fronts losing the battle in the fight against AIDS in this country and particularly in New York City.

FEYERICK: The concern is that patterns in New York City of new HIV infections and diagnosed AIDS cases have often foreshadowed what happens later in many other U.S. cities.

JARVIS: New York City is a trendsetter in many ways. And the rest of the country is not insulated from this problem of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic at all.

DOROTHY WALKER, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: People are dying every day. The epidemic is not over in the United States of America. It's not over in New York City. It's not over in California. It's not over in San Francisco. It's not over in the United States in general.

FEYERICK: Like so many in her support group, Dorothy Walker has seen friends die painfully of AIDS. Many of them were African- American or Latino. While no one is immune, these are communities now at highest risk now being hit hardest.

JARVIS: Please look up.

Middle age African-American men are nearly three times as likely as other New Yorkers to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS. And one in seven black men in this age group is infected.

FEYERICK: Two years ago, Kenneth Butler tested HIV positive.

KENNETH BUTLER, MEMBER, HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP: Some people believe that this disease does not exist anymore due to the fact that, of course, the medications are making you live longer. They are prolonging life.

FEYERICK: Though new drugs make HIV and AIDS manageable, they still offer no cure.

JARVIS: I think that there is a sense of complacency and so- called AIDS fatigue. However, we must remain vigilant. These numbers are not going away. They're not remaining the same. In fact, they're continuing to increase.

FEYERICK: And while people may be living longer with the virus, they are still dying.

WILSON: I look at my mom and see that she's had friends, lifelong friends. And that's the one thing that I really miss about my life. I don't have lifelong friends. I have new friends now. I had accumulated other friends and they're gone, you know? And that's one of the things that's the most devastating to me about this disease.

FEYERICK: More than 500,000 in the U.S. and counting.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a very rough place on the best of days, but a vacation spot for one Arab-American family. We'll explain.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Are you tired of the same old summertime getaway? How about something really different this year, a place with palm trees, warm waters and 140,000 United States troops?

From David Mattingly, here's a report on one man's sentimental journey home to Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Instead of heading to a North Carolina beach like they do most years, Iraqi-born Ahmad al-Samarraee decided his family would vacation this year in a war zone.

AHMAD AL-SAMARRAEE, FATHER: would be lying to you if I tell I wasn't afraid. I was definitely worried about them.

MATTINGLY: Al-Samarraee took his American wife and three children ages 13, 9, and 5, to Baghdad to reunite with the family he hadn't seen for 23 years.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: But when we first pulled in, the first thing we saw was a car bombing. So it's like OK, not a surprise. We're heard a lot about that stuff.

MATTINGLY: In 1981, al-Samarraee fled Iraq as a teenager after his uncles were imprisoned by Saddam Hussein. He returned to find his family, who once lived in fear of the old regime, now fearing lawlessness and unpredictable violence.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: A lot of people take their freedom and they interpret it their ways. I can carry a gun, shoot whomever I want to. That's not freedom. That's basically chaos.

MATTINGLY: Any sites they wanted to take in were viewed from the safety of their car. Every move they made in Baghdad was made cautiously.

SUSAN AL-SAMARRAEE, WIFE OF AHMAD: You have to have an armed guard. You have to go with a man. You can't go out alone. You have to watch your kids.

MATTINGLY: But watching the kids on home video shows everyone having a good time, actually relaxing and having fun.

A. AL-SAMARRAEE: All of Iraq wants to live in peace. That would be worth the war that we went into.

MATTINGLY: The home videos also produced candid glimpses of the calm side of daily Baghdad life, city streets filled with cars, U.S. soldiers patrolling the neighborhood, a loving family enjoying the time it has together.

(on camera): The family's biggest complaint about their Baghdad experience? No electricity, no air condition. They made it back home, however, safe and sound, full of memories that will last a lifetime, already making plans to one day go back.

(voice-over): David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Before we go tonight, here's Heidi Collins with a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," a look inside the family of Osama bin Laden like you've never seen before. Carmen bin Laden, the former sister-in-law of the world's most wanted terrorist, she tells us about the inner workings of this powerful Saudi clan and whether family loyalty still exists for its most notorious member.

That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 a.m.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Heidi. We, of course, will be watching.

That's all the time we have for NEWSNIGHT tonight. I'm Wolf Blitzer, sitting in for Aaron Brown. Thanks very much for joining 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