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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Video Surveillance Surfaces Of 9/11 Hijackers; 9/11 Commission To Suggest Sweeping Reform; Voice Of America Employees Sign Petition;

Aired July 21, 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.
Tomorrow when the 9/11 Commission issues its final report it will not say the attack could have been prevented, though clearly some members believe it could have been.

Nor will the commission lay blame on either the Clinton or the Bush administrations and, on both these points, I think the commission gets its right.

The narrative itself will make it clear that if officials had been both lucky and good, the attack might well have been stopped but it had to be very lucky or very good and clearly neither administration was, some detail on this in a moment.

But the most graphic evidence came out late today, a tape of five of the hijackers as they passed through security at Dulles Airport. This tape, grainy as you will see, shows just how weak that last line of defense actually was. Four of the hijackers appear to set off metal detectors, all four re-screened, all four allowed to board their plane.

There are few things less productive in life than asking what if and yet, as you will see in a moment, it is hard, if not impossible, to look at this extraordinary piece of tape and not ask exactly that.

As it has so many times before, 9/11 begins the program and starts the whip. Kelli Arena in Washington where the commission's final report is the talk of the town tonight, so Kelli start us off with a headline please.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the report is 575 pages long. It's the most authoritative look at 9/11. It details government-wide intelligence failures and recommends some sweeping reform.

BROWN: Kelli, we get to you at the top tonight.

Iraq next where six more foreign hostages were taken today and familiar threats issues, CNN's Matthew Chance in Baghdad, Matt a headline.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Aaron. And yet again a day of intense violence and insecurity here in Iraq. We've witnessed the latest in the succession of car bombs to rip through downtown Baghdad killing innocent passersby and, as you mentioned, those six foreign workers, all truck drivers, abducted by Iraqi insurgents now threatened with execution.

BROWN: Matthew, thank you.

On to a bizarre incident in the air which seemed to some onboard Northwest Flight 327 to be 9/11 all over again or something like it, Miguel Marquez in Los Angeles, a headline tonight.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A group of Arabic men, a four-hour flight, added to suspicion prompts an investigation and answers only prompt more theories about terror. Is it hysteria, paranoia or just regular Americans being aware -- Aaron?

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

Also coming up on the program tonight is the Voice of America, the country's voice to the world, becoming irrelevant replaced by propaganda? Some staffers at Voice of America think so.

And later tonight, the long goodbye of Alzheimer's and the most difficult decision families can make when to allow the life of a loved one to end.

Plus where would NEWSNIGHT be without the rooster? Well, thankfully, we won't have to find out tonight. We'll wrap it up with your morning papers for tomorrow, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with images that are as ordinary as millions of others yet as disturbing as few you're ever likely to see. On the eve of the report of the 9/11 Commission they make for quite a scene setter. As a document of a moment in time they are heartbreaking for in that moment, that ordinary moment, a die was cast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Knowing what we know now the videotape is both stark and chilling. Taken the morning of September 11th, 2001, the tape shows five hijackers passing through the metal screening detectors at Dulles Airport outside of Washington.

The detail is difficult to discern but you can clearly see an airport security officer passing his wand over one of the hijackers. They are all dressed conservatively. They don't stand out. They appear to be composed.

Four of the five hijackers, bound for the American Airlines flight that would crash into the Pentagon a few hours later, were pulled aside for additional screening this after apparently setting off the metal detectors.

The only hijacker who did not require additional screening was the man believed to have been the pilot after Flight 77 was hijacked Hani Hanjour. The Associated Press says it obtained the tape from a law firm which represents survivor families, families suing both the airlines and security firms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: One thing about the tape to remember this is all pre-9/11 of course and, at the time, if you had a small knife, utility knife and you went through security and it set off the metal detectors, you'd be allowed to take your knife onboard.

As we said this tape sets the stage for an avalanche tomorrow, hundreds of pages on the genesis of 9/11 and the failure of two administrations to see the larger threat as well as recommendations for the future.

Precisely what has been -- what is about to be said has been a matter of speculation for weeks. By tomorrow, though, it will be a matter of the public record as well as the fodder for debate and perhaps the stuff of political campaigns.

For now a preview and CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): The leaders of the 9/11 Commission are already lobbying the White House and Congress to be sure their recommendations get serious consideration. The message got through.

REP. JIM TURNER (D), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: It was about partisan reports. It was one that should be read carefully and listened to.

ARENA: The White House says it too will take a close look at the report but President Bush disputes the suggestion his administration did not do enough to prevent an attack.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Had we had any inkling whatsoever that terrorists were about to attack our country, we would have moved heaven and earth to protect America and I'm confident President Clinton would have done the same thing. Any president would.

ARENA: The commission is expected to say both presidents understood the threat posed by Osama bin Laden but did not fully appreciate its severity. Sources tell NN the commission report will not say whether 9/11 could have been prevented but they say it will lay out at least ten missed opportunities that, if seized upon, may have made a difference. These include failure to watch list two hijackers who attended a terrorist meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

MATT LEVITT, FORMER FBI ANALYST: It's impossible to know how many pieces of the puzzle we would have needed to have to be able to have thwarted all or even part of the 9/11 operation.

ARENA: The attacks on September 11th, the commission concludes, were the result of deep institutional failings throughout the government and that intelligence responsibilities are still spread too widely. As a result, sources say, commissioners will recommend the appointment of a cabinet level national intelligence director with budget authority and the creation of a national counterterrorism center that would replace the current Terrorism Threat Integration Center. It also calls for more congressional oversight.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R), MAJORITY LEADER: The words that I heard again and again were words like focus. In terms of Senate oversight we need to have better focus.

ARENA: The commission will also recommend changing the structure of the FBI but it is not calling for an independent domestic intelligence agency, like Britain's MI5.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Lawmakers say they expect to begin talks immediately on those recommendations but they do not expect any action until at least next year -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelli, do we believe that over the last months in a combination of leaks and staff reports which were made public that we basically know the headlines out of this report?

ARENA: I think we do, Aaron. Of course there will be some discussion about Iran and its possible connection to the 9/11 plot, how hijackers went through that country. It will talk about Iraq and how there was no connection between that country and the 9/11 attacks.

But for the most part I think that we have heard much of this discussed very openly in each of the hearings that the commission has had and all of the questions have been raised, Aaron, so I really don't think there will be any surprises. Of course the devil is in the details and it's how all of this will work.

The national intelligence director, how will that position be set up? Will that person not only have budget authority but also hiring and firing authority? These are the questions that we're waiting for the answers on.

BROWN: Kelli, thank you.

We'll also get tomorrow a narrative, a pretty clear narrative of how the hijackings themselves were pulled off, perhaps the most detailed narrative yet. In some ways it is stunning what the 9/11 Commission has done in so few public hearings. There were just 12, so many of those moments in those few hearings, though, made such a grand impression.

That part of the story from CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a city that loves the passive voice, mistakes were made, we remember counterterrorism official Richard Clarke accepting responsibility. RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER WH COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you and for that failure I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.

MORTON: And then CIA Director George Tenet admitted mistakes.

GEORGE TENET, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: We made mistakes. Our failure to watch list Alhazmi and Almihdhar in a timely manner or the FBI's inability to find them in the narrow window of the time afforded them showed systemic weaknesses and the lack of redundancy.

MORTON: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had some of the more combative moments. Here with commission member Richard Ben- Veniste, a Democrat, about a PDB, the president's daily briefing.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country, and I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

BEN-VENISTE: Yes.

RICE: Now, the PDB...

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste, you...

BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the...

RICE: I would like to finish my point here.

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.

RICE: You asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.

BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.

RICE: You said did it not warn of attacks? It did not warn of attacks inside the United States.

MORTON: Rice with another Democratic commission member Bob Kerrey.

BOB KERREY, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: You said the president was tired of swatting flies. Can you tell me one example where the president swatted a fly when it came to al Qaeda prior to 9/11?

RICE: I think what the president was speaking to was...

KERREY: No, no, what fly had he swatted?

MORTON: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, would killing Osama bin Laden have helped?

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Even if bin Laden had been captured or killed in the weeks before September 11th, no one I know believes that it would necessarily have prevented September 11th.

MORTON: They all testified in public. President Bush and Vice President Cheney, of course, spoke to the commission in private and were not under oath.

BUSH: I think it helped them understand how I think and how I run the White House and how we deal with threats.

MORTON: We don't know what the most memorable moments of their appearance were or even which one answered the most questions.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, we put a lot on the table quickly, the report coming out tomorrow. There are some other things we wanted to throw into the political mix as well tonight, the Democratic Convention, of course, next week, the war and public opinion, among other things.

Gathered again is our Brown table. I'll get used to saying it one of these or perhaps I won't. In Washington Nina Easton and Terry Neal of "The Boston Globe," and washingtonpost.com respectively and, from Boston tonight, Wall Street Journalist John Harwood. We are glad to have you all with us.

John, let me start with you. You all agree that the 9/11 report will be politicized so that's not the question. Here's the question. Is there a risk to either side, both sides, in trying to use 9/11 as a political issue?

JOHN HARWOOD, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": There's no doubt about it there's a risk but they're going to politicize it anyway because it is so much a part of the national conversation right now.

Democrats are going to, of course, point to problems with the Bush administration's preparations before 9/11 and things that they didn't do. And you noticed today, President Bush sort of hugging tight to Bill Clinton and saying, "I would have moved heaven and earth just like Bill Clinton would have."

So, it's unavoidable that this enmeshed in partisan politics, like the Berger case that has been drawn into it that was leaked just before the release of this report but there is risk for both sides in going overboard.

BROWN: Terry, just a small snippet in an ad when the president used bodies being taken out of Ground Zero caused some fuss. Is that the kind of thing that the parties have to be careful of as they approach 9/11 in the campaign?

TERRY NEAL, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: Well, absolutely. I think the public is not in the mood to see this thing be overly politicized in that way. Certainly, the public is going to be sensitive about the use of images like that. The public does not want those -- does not want those sorts of images used.

But I agree with John, look at just what happened yesterday to Republicans on the Hill, got briefed on the findings of the commission's report and that day came out and took the parts of that report that pertained to President Clinton and tried to blame what happened on President Clinton.

Democrats are going to do the same sort of thing. It's just the environment that we're living here in Washington. We cannot not have it be politicized here.

BROWN: Nina, the president has always tried to connect, and it's been important for him to do so, the war in Iraq with the broader war on terrorism and the Democrats to my ear have had some struggle dealing with Iraq. Why not just say do you feel safer because of the war in Iraq?

NINA EASTON, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": I think that's an important point. Why not raise that issue? Just going back to the 9/11 Commission report, I think we all have to remember that there's a threat of an attack hanging over us, particularly between now and the election and the commission admirably resisted placing blame and we are going to see blame on both sides.

And, ironically, by the way, the White House contributed to this by not releasing documents in a timely fashion so that the report was delayed by a few months and really does come out right in the heat of the election and right before the Democratic Convention.

But, yes, the question about Iraq will continue to be raised. In fact, our newspaper just this weekend broke the news that casualties are actually up this month dramatically over last month. Things aren't going well right now in Iraq and this will continue to be background noise kind of tied into the 9/11 report.

BROWN: Terry, I know you've been talking to voters out there about how they view Iraq and how they see it in the context of all of the other issues that are on the table.

NEAL: Yes. I've traveled to four battleground states in the last couple months and what I found essentially is that every other issue -- the reason that Iraq is the most important issue is that every other issue, it's kind of the nexus of which all of the other issues sort of revolve.

So, for instance, if you go, as I did, to Wisconsin, you talk to old people about prescription drugs and Medicare reform, what they ultimately do is turn the issue back to Iraq and they say we could have had some real meaningful reform that could have helped us immediately perhaps if we weren't spending $200 billion on a war that we didn't need to fight.

So, or for instance I went to Ohio. There in a very kind of depressed southeastern part of Ohio, people were saying, hey, you know, President Bush tried to cut the Appalachian, you know, Development Commission or whatever it's called by half. That money is used to help people to build infrastructure and that sort of thing and maybe we could have afforded to do that if we hadn't gone to war in Iraq. So, that amplifies everything else (unintelligible).

HARWOOD: Aaron.

BROWN: John -- I'm sorry, John go ahead. We've got about a minute.

HARWOOD: Aaron, I think that Iraq is a part of the broader question though and the question that you posed a minute ago, are we safer? If you had to boil the election down to one single question that's what it is and, if the American people answer yes on November 2nd, George Bush is likely to be reelected. If the answer is no, John Kerry's going to win.

BROWN: Just, John while I've got you, one quick question, 20 seconds to answer it. If there's one thing the Democrats have to avoid next week in Boston it would be what?

HARWOOD: They have to avoid blowing the opportunity to define John Kerry as a strong enough leader to protect the American people. This election is going to end up being decided on pretty simple criteria. John Kerry's got to show he's strong enough to keep the country safe.

BROWN: Terry, Nina and John you'll be with us every night next week. We'll take a look at what they do, how successful or unsuccessful they are. It's good to see you all. Thank you for your work tonight.

NEAL: Thank you.

BROWN: The Brown table. We're too clever by half sometimes.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a tough day in Iraq. Terrorists take six foreign hostages possibly hoping for another troop pullout, take a look at that.

Plus, a government raid in Saudi Arabia turns up the remains of a murdered American. We take a break first.

From New York City this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The latest casualty in Iraq happened overnight at a spot on the map between Baghdad and Tikrit. A soldier in the Army's 1st Infantry Division was killed, six others wounded, a roadside bomb.

It bring the American casualties in the war to 901, 667 in combat, 234 as the result of accidents, suicide or other non-battle related circumstances. Looking at the coalition as a whole there have now been 1,022 fatalities, 61 British, 19 Italians, 11 Spaniards, 7 from Ukraine and a handful of others.

Clearly, Iraq remains a dangerous place tonight. The troops know it. Iraqi civilians certainly know it and, in a growing and chilling way, civilian contractors know it as well.

Last night we reported on the release of a Filipino truck driver amid concerns that giving the kidnappers what they wanted would simply lead to more kidnappings.

It didn't take long. Tonight, six more foreign workers face a grim future, so is this cause and effect, perhaps, an enemy sticking to what works, almost certainly.

From Baghdad tonight CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): These are the images many foreigners in Iraq have come to dread even expect, six hostages all foreign truck drivers easy targets with the threat of execution hanging over them.

"We've captured two Kenyans, three Indians, and one Egyptian" say the kidnappers. "We tell their company to withdraw and to close their offices in Iraq."

The Philippines pulled its forces from Iraq after a hostage threat. These kidnappers may be hoping for a similar success.

It has been a day of appalling violence in Iraq, the latest in a succession of car bombs ripped through a crowded area of the capital. The dead and injured were Iraqis returning from work. The Baghdad Hospital was also targeted. Two Iraqi patients were killed in a grenade attack.

Iraq's descent into chaos has been the focus of talks with regional foreign ministers. In the Egyptian capital, Iran and Syria have been accused of allowing insurgents to pass through their borders into Iraq. Tougher border controls are among the measures now being discussed.

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: We expect from our neighbors to stand by their (unintelligible) to help us in deeds not words and to support the efforts of the new Iraqi sovereign government, to establish a peaceful, responsible Iraq friendly to its neighbors.

CHANCE: Officials of the new Iraq know support from the outside may be crucial if this insurgency is to be defeated or even controlled.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That was Matthew Chance reporting from Baghdad tonight.

On to Saudi Arabia, the scene yesterday, you might recall, of yet another in a series of shootouts involving authorities and al Qaeda. It was, as these things go, no more and no less violent than others, the outcome no less bloody. It did, however come with an especially nasty reminder of what the region and the world is up against.

Reporting from Riyadh, CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blood stains and burn count vehicles testimony to the ferocity of the Saudi security forces' battle with al Qaeda militants to get into this up market Riyadh home.

Inside the house that Saudi security officials describe as one of al Qaeda's main bases, a gruesome discovery in a freezer, the head of U.S. helicopter technician Paul Johnson, missing along with the rest of his body since al Qaeda militants kidnapped and murdered him more than a month ago. Saudi police now investigating if this was the house where he was videotaped before his execution.

Also recovered from the suburban home a surface-to-air missile that had been featured in al Qaeda videos, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, guns, rocket-propelled grenades, video cameras, CDs and the equivalent of $96,000 in cash.

During the shootout two al Qaeda members were killed and three wounded. One of the dead Eissa al-Aushan, on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, is said by the Saudi Interior Ministry to be one of the terror group's top ideologues. The raid also putting the new al Qaeda leader, Saleh al-Oufi, on the run now believed by security forces to be surrounded near Riyadh.

(on camera): Al-Oufi's wife was arrested during the raid. She was, according to a source close to Saudi intelligence, upstairs in the house with other women.

Apart from bringing the Johnson family one step closer to closure, the discovery of Paul Johnson's head and so much military hardware may provide Saudi security forces with much needed vital information about how the terror group operates.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: There's just some of this stuff that just boggles the mind.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight, the story of a recent flight between Detroit and Los Angeles and the 14 Middle Eastern men who came onboard together. That they acted suspiciously is not in dispute. Whether they were a threat is.

And later tonight, living and dying with Alzheimer's, a break first.

On CNN this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The premise underlining the 9/11 Commission was that by figuring out how the attacks happened we might be able to prevent the next one. Nearly three years later, it is fair to ask are we any safer? And where dos the line between vigilance and paranoia begin and end?

On a recent Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Los Angeles, 14 Middle Eastern men boarded the plane together, clearly traveling as a group, according to other passengers. What happened next is full of grays.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no question something happened on Los Angeles-bound Flight 327.

KEVIN JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: I was uncomfortable when we started boarding when I saw how many Middle Eastern men there were.

MARQUEZ: Kevin Jacobsen and his wife, Annie, were on the Northwest flight, as was a team of federal marshals, who back up the Jacobsens story.

DAVE ADAMS, FEDERAL AIR MARSHAL SERVICE: They were acting suspicious. They were going in and out of the lavatories. They were standing up. They were going in the overhead bins. They were talking. They were congregating in the aisles.

MARQUEZ: So concerned, Kevin Jacobsen, during the flight, told attendants. They told him they too were watching the men, the cabin was aware and that marshals were on board. And then, on final approach, with downtown Los Angeles in sight, came the most frightening moment.

ANNIE JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: Suddenly, seven of these men are now standing. Four go to the forward bathroom. Three go to the back. And very slowly, very consecutively, they use the lavatory.

MARQUEZ: Annie Jacobsen, a financial writer, gave her firsthand account to a Web site. The reaction was an Internet phenomenon.

A. JACOBSEN: We had something like two million page views on the second or third day.

MARQUEZ: The Federal Air Marshal Service says the men never did anything criminal. They were questioned after the flight and their backgrounds checked against every available database. Its conclusion, the men were a 14-member Syrian band playing two gigs at a casino near Los Angeles. ADAMS: The supervisor then went out to the casino, verified again that they were booked there, made sure they were playing at the casino.

MARQUEZ: But Jacobsen says terrorists could simply learn to play instruments, and sees a bigger story.

A. JACOBSEN: I would definitely be inclined to think it was a dry run, some kind of intelligence gathering.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Federal officials say everything about the Syrians' story checked out and they have no reason to believe they were anything other than musicians acting strangely.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Annie Jacobsen joins us now from Los Angeles.

Just, Ms. Jacobsen, one quick question. Don't read too much into it. But if it had been just 14 non-Arab men doing exactly the same things that these guys were doing, would you have reacted in the same way?

A. JACOBSEN: Well, Aaron, I think everybody should behave in the air after what happened on September 11. And I would have to -- I'd be speculating if I said how I would react, because these men were Middle Eastern.

BROWN: The fact that they were Middle Eastern clearly played into how you reacted. Is that fair?

A. JACOBSEN: Yes, although I just had a terrific conversation with the Federal Air Marshals Association, who are really standing behind me on this. And they said an interesting thing, which is that, you know, this is not an isolated incident. It is going on. They can either be called dry runs or they can be called probes.

BROWN: There's no doubt in your mind at least that, as you think back on it, this was some sort of dry run or may well have been?

A. JACOBSEN: I certainly feel that way. And, again, you know, I'm getting an overwhelming response from pilots and flight attendants and now the Federal Air Marshals Association saying this kind of thing is going on. And that's news to me. And I think that's news to the American public.

BROWN: Well, let's talk a bit about some of the concerns. You can look at this thing one way and say, well, a lot of things worked. The crew was aware of it. The air marshals were aware of it. When you got to Los Angeles, the FBI was there, lots of that.

But it also exposed, I think, and you're pretty sharp on this, some weaknesses in the system. Talk about the restaurant you had a meal in before you got on the plane inside the security perimeter. A. JACOBSEN: You know, that really felt like a real problem. And I think that's what made me so aware to begin with when we boarded that flight in Detroit. We'd been roaming around the Detroit airport. It was a connecting flight for us, Aaron.

And my husband and my son and I ate in a diner with metal forks and knives.

BROWN: And the point of that is that, once you're inside the perimeter, inside the security perimeter, there's no rescreening. You could have taken that knife and taken it on the airplane and no one would have known the difference.

A. JACOBSEN: Yes, that's absolutely right.

BROWN: Have you asked about that?

A. JACOBSEN: Did who ask about that?

BROWN: Did you ask? Have you ever discussed that with any? Have you ever called anyone and said, hey, what about this?

A. JACOBSEN: That was one of the first calls I made. I called the TSA. And I spoke to a supervisor there. And he said -- this is in my article. He said, that is a problem. We are aware of it. And I'm not going to B.S. you. We don't have an answer yet.

BROWN: Well, actually, there's a pretty easy answer is that, if you're inside the perimeter, you use plastic knives and forks. It's not that complicated.

A. JACOBSEN: OK.

BROWN: Call me crazy.

A. JACOBSEN: You should work for them.

BROWN: No, that's OK. I'll let them try and figure this stuff out.

If it was a dry run, what is it you think they learned?

A. JACOBSEN: Well, they certainly learned how far they could test a situation without being arrested. It's my understanding that they were not arrested, that they were let go.

So they got a lot of information about passengers. I'm sure they got information about air marshals. They got information about how flight attendants deal with them. When pilots come in and out of -- to go use the lavatory themselves.

BROWN: So do you think they were aware that they were being watched?

A. JACOBSEN: Oh, that I don't know. You mean by me? BROWN: No. Well, in reading the article, the impression is that lots of people -- you weren't the only two people who were kind of freaked out by them, that the flight attendants were. Your husband, as I recall, has a kind of connection with another passenger who seemed to be aware.

So there were -- the air marshals were aware, we are told. So lots of people seemed to be aware of them. Do you think they were aware they were being watched?

A. JACOBSEN: You know, it's a terrific question. And maybe that's part of the information that they're getting.

You know, the big problem I have with all this, Aaron, is people have said to me, you know, what about the band? And I don't know about the band. What I do know is that 200 million Americans are flying this summer and that, prior to this, I don't think people were aware that there were these probes going on. And now it's being revealed that these probes are, in fact, going on.

And I think the American flying public wants to know not whether or not these guys can play instruments, whether they were or were not Syrian musicians, but why, you know, terrorists are allowed to gather information, why these policies are in place.

BROWN: Ms. Jacobsen, good to have you with us. It's a fascinating story. Thank you very much.

A. JACOBSEN: Thank you very much.

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, it's called the Voice of America, using news to spread democracy around the world, up until now, an unlikely place for a rebellion.

Plus, front pages from around the world, tomorrow morning's papers.

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Almost from the beginning, the Voice of America has been seen as the Voice of America, a broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government which reaches some 96 million people around the world in 44 languages. Its mission has always been demonstrating American values by telling it like it is.

But as the Bush administration fights to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world, that single voice may be cracking, a fracture that has set off a battle.

Reporting tonight for us, CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 13 hours universal time from the VOA news center in Washington.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 60 years after Voice of America began broadcasting news stories around the world, VOA has itself become the story. A petition signed by almost half its 1,100 employees claims the VOA is being dismantled piece by piece and replaced with news services outside the VOA and calls on Congress to investigate.

TIM SHAMBLE, VOA EMPLOYEE UNION REPRESENT: They're not providing comprehensive news, balanced news, accurate news, in our opinion, because they don't allow for enough news coverage.

KOPPEL: As proof, VOA supporters single out Radio Sawa, a two- year-old Arabic-language station funded by U.S. taxpayers that targets the under-30 audience with mostly pop music and news updates twice an hour, and this brand new $60 million satellite TV network, which broadcasts seven hours of news programs every day.

(on camera): With its state-of-the-art equipment and studios and 150 journalists recruited from here in the U.S. and around the Arab world, Alhurra, or The Free One, as it is known in Arabic, has been on the air and broadcasting throughout the Middle East since February.

(voice-over): Both Alhurra an Radio Sawa replaced similar VOA networks, a decision by the nine-member Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency which administration administers the VOA. The board's chairman says the law requires all broadcasts to be journalistically sound.

KEN TOMLINSON, BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS: We have the same standards of excellence at Alhurra and Sawa that we have at VOA.

KOPPEL: CNN asked Lebanese Hisham Melhem, already familiar with Alhurra programs, to watch a recent newscast.

HISHAM MELHEM, "AS-SAFIR": This broadcast is obviously sympathetic to the Iraqi government and the United States. This is very clear from the selection of topics, people to be interviewed, terminology, and focus.

KOPPEL: For the Broadcasting Board of Governors, it's about keeping pace with a changing world. For VOA staffers, it's become a battle to be the only Voice of America.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories making news around the country today.

In Salt Lake City, new wrinkle in the story of a missing jogger. The parents of her husband say today they have learned their son lied about being accepted to medical school in North Carolina. The couple was expecting a baby and had been preparing to move to North Carolina, ostensibly so the husband could begin his medical school studies. Police have questioned him, impounded his car, though he is not under arrest.

And in Texas, Andrea Yates, the woman who was serving a life sentence for murdering her children three years ago, has been hospitalized because she's refusing to eat. Ms. Yates, who has a history of mental illness, called an ambulance to her home after drowning the children in a bathtub. A Texas jury rejected her insanity defense.

Ahead on the program tonight, two families, two very different, difficult decisions forced on them by the disease that is destroying their parents.

And later, as always, morning papers.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When Ronald Reagan publicly announced his Alzheimer's diagnosis in a letter, he wrote, "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience." He could not, of course. For almost a decade until his death, she cared for him.

As isolated as she may have felt -- and by most accounts, she rarely left the home for more than an hour or two -- Mrs. Reagan was not alone. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's. There's no cure on the horizon and only modest advances in treatment, leaving millions of families to wrestle with terribly difficult decisions. And no decision is more difficult and more personal than the decision of when to allow a loved one, mom or dad, to die.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): This is Michael Beder in 1995, a successful bond trader from New York City. This is Michael Beder now.

NICOLE BEDER, DAUGHTER OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: For the most part, he just lies or sits without really responding to stimulation.

BROWN: This was Heidi Kiykendall in 1993, a mother with a wide circle of friends in Hickory, North Carolina. This is Heidi Kiykendall now.

RANDY BRYANT, SON OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: It was unbelievable how you could see just a real fast decline in her mental thinking. It was quite a shock.

BROWN: Both Beder and Kiykendall have had their minds stolen by Alzheimer's. Both have been in slow decline, dying for years. And for both families, that has meant painful choices about medical treatment and prolonging life.

BRYANT: That's the hardest decision I've ever made. And anyone who ever faces that decision, it's -- I mean, to decide to let your mother die when she -- you think she may improve, is a terrible decision. BROWN: A year and a half ago, Randy Bryant had to decide whether to keep his 89-year-old mother alive with a feeding tube. Randy Bryant said yes.

BRYANT: As long as someone tells you they love you and, honey, call you by your name, hey, could you kill them? I don't think so.

BROWN: Nicole Beder made a very different decision. Her father's living will helped her choose hospice care, where he is kept comfortable, but receives no antibiotics, no life-prolonging medical treatment.

BEDER: I have a pretty good idea of what he would want. So while it can be emotionally difficult to follow through on some of his decisions, I'm confident that they are his. So I guess, as less and less things can make it through to him and can cause him to be happy, you know, there doesn't seem to be much point in being alive.

You awake?

BROWN: At a relatively young age of 61, her father is still in good health physically, leaving his family with the burden been of caring for him indefinitely.

MARTA CURBELO, EX-WIFE OF MICHAEL BEDER: It's very hard for me to see him at times in this place and to know or to think that my daughter is -- our daughter is in pain seeing her father so sick and so disabled, when he was such a vibrant person.

BROWN: Nicole Beder attends an Alzheimer's caregivers support group to cope with the gradual loss of a father who does not comprehend that she's expecting his granddaughter come October.

WENDY PANKEN, ALZHEIMER'S SUPPORT GROUP LEADER: Watching somebody who is losing their capacity to think and to reason and to relate is excruciatingly painful and difficult, because it's what -- it is losing the person as the person is alive.

BRYANT: If you could imagine a train leaving, you have a loved one getting on the train and they're leaving the station, and instead of that train traveling that 50 miles an hour, that train's traveling and just rolling and rolling and rolling on a real slow pace and they can never seem to get out of sight as they wave to you, bye-bye.

BROWN: As you can see, making the decision between life and death is far from black and white.

N. BEDER: There are no wrong decisions. Every decision you make because you care about the person is the right decision. You just have to know if you're doing this out of love for the person and you're doing the right thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Not a lot of time tonight, or not too much time, just the right amount of time to do morning papers from around the country and around the world.

We start with "The Christian Science Monitor." I like this story. "Anti-Iran Sentiment Hardening Fast. Critics in Congress Finger Iranian Ties to al Qaeda and Influence in Iraq Is Cause For a Tougher Approach." Here's the problem. What are we going to do?

"The Oregonian" out West in Portland, Oregon, leads local. "Jets Collide Over Columbia." That would be the Columbia River. "Two Dead." See, that's a pretty cool picture. I'm not sure you can tell, but it appears to be one of the pilots.

And Lance Armstrong is on the front page of many newspapers around the country, as he's taken a giant step or a giant ride or a giant pedal, whatever it is, and he's now won like 200 Tour de Frances. He's the front page of "The Miami Herald," too. "The Leader of the Tour. American Cyclist Lance Armstrong Conquers an Uphill Climb Literally and Figuratively to All But Seal a Sixth Title." They also put this on the page: "Saudis Find Head of U.S. Hostage." I might have phrased that differently, but I'm not in the newspaper business, am I?

I like this story, a couple stories here. "The Detroit Free Press." "GM Profits Up Nearly 50 Percent for the Quarter." That's how "The Free Press" headlined it. How did the other paper in Detroit headline it? "A $1.3 Billion Profit Disappointments GM. Finance Unit Carries Load While U.S. Auto Market Share Slips. Cutback in Europe Looms." Lance Armstrong make this one? No, didn't. OK.

"Washington Times." We just talked about this. "Terrorists Testing Jets, Crews Say," this same story, same flight. But they expanded on it some. And, oh, down here real quick. "Girl Scouts Hire Tough Cookie." I just like the headline. That's it.

Weather in Chicago tomorrow is "ludicrous," if you happen to be there. We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go tonight, a brief ahead to tomorrow's NEWSNIGHT.

As you might imagine, the report from the 9/11 Commission will dominate, if not out-and-out monopolize our hour. Knowing that many of you will have seen just at least the basic facts of the story by then, we'll use that as a jumping-off point for a broader and we hope deeper discussion on it all. We'll look at the unknowns that remain, the security measures taken, not taken, how money has been spent, the impact on the rest of the world, and in some small way, how we, all of us, have changed because of that horrible day, September 11, 2001.

That's tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT. We hope you'll join us.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.

We'll see you at 10:00 Eastern time tomorrow. 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 July 21, 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.
Tomorrow when the 9/11 Commission issues its final report it will not say the attack could have been prevented, though clearly some members believe it could have been.

Nor will the commission lay blame on either the Clinton or the Bush administrations and, on both these points, I think the commission gets its right.

The narrative itself will make it clear that if officials had been both lucky and good, the attack might well have been stopped but it had to be very lucky or very good and clearly neither administration was, some detail on this in a moment.

But the most graphic evidence came out late today, a tape of five of the hijackers as they passed through security at Dulles Airport. This tape, grainy as you will see, shows just how weak that last line of defense actually was. Four of the hijackers appear to set off metal detectors, all four re-screened, all four allowed to board their plane.

There are few things less productive in life than asking what if and yet, as you will see in a moment, it is hard, if not impossible, to look at this extraordinary piece of tape and not ask exactly that.

As it has so many times before, 9/11 begins the program and starts the whip. Kelli Arena in Washington where the commission's final report is the talk of the town tonight, so Kelli start us off with a headline please.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the report is 575 pages long. It's the most authoritative look at 9/11. It details government-wide intelligence failures and recommends some sweeping reform.

BROWN: Kelli, we get to you at the top tonight.

Iraq next where six more foreign hostages were taken today and familiar threats issues, CNN's Matthew Chance in Baghdad, Matt a headline.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Aaron. And yet again a day of intense violence and insecurity here in Iraq. We've witnessed the latest in the succession of car bombs to rip through downtown Baghdad killing innocent passersby and, as you mentioned, those six foreign workers, all truck drivers, abducted by Iraqi insurgents now threatened with execution.

BROWN: Matthew, thank you.

On to a bizarre incident in the air which seemed to some onboard Northwest Flight 327 to be 9/11 all over again or something like it, Miguel Marquez in Los Angeles, a headline tonight.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A group of Arabic men, a four-hour flight, added to suspicion prompts an investigation and answers only prompt more theories about terror. Is it hysteria, paranoia or just regular Americans being aware -- Aaron?

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

Also coming up on the program tonight is the Voice of America, the country's voice to the world, becoming irrelevant replaced by propaganda? Some staffers at Voice of America think so.

And later tonight, the long goodbye of Alzheimer's and the most difficult decision families can make when to allow the life of a loved one to end.

Plus where would NEWSNIGHT be without the rooster? Well, thankfully, we won't have to find out tonight. We'll wrap it up with your morning papers for tomorrow, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with images that are as ordinary as millions of others yet as disturbing as few you're ever likely to see. On the eve of the report of the 9/11 Commission they make for quite a scene setter. As a document of a moment in time they are heartbreaking for in that moment, that ordinary moment, a die was cast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Knowing what we know now the videotape is both stark and chilling. Taken the morning of September 11th, 2001, the tape shows five hijackers passing through the metal screening detectors at Dulles Airport outside of Washington.

The detail is difficult to discern but you can clearly see an airport security officer passing his wand over one of the hijackers. They are all dressed conservatively. They don't stand out. They appear to be composed.

Four of the five hijackers, bound for the American Airlines flight that would crash into the Pentagon a few hours later, were pulled aside for additional screening this after apparently setting off the metal detectors.

The only hijacker who did not require additional screening was the man believed to have been the pilot after Flight 77 was hijacked Hani Hanjour. The Associated Press says it obtained the tape from a law firm which represents survivor families, families suing both the airlines and security firms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: One thing about the tape to remember this is all pre-9/11 of course and, at the time, if you had a small knife, utility knife and you went through security and it set off the metal detectors, you'd be allowed to take your knife onboard.

As we said this tape sets the stage for an avalanche tomorrow, hundreds of pages on the genesis of 9/11 and the failure of two administrations to see the larger threat as well as recommendations for the future.

Precisely what has been -- what is about to be said has been a matter of speculation for weeks. By tomorrow, though, it will be a matter of the public record as well as the fodder for debate and perhaps the stuff of political campaigns.

For now a preview and CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): The leaders of the 9/11 Commission are already lobbying the White House and Congress to be sure their recommendations get serious consideration. The message got through.

REP. JIM TURNER (D), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: It was about partisan reports. It was one that should be read carefully and listened to.

ARENA: The White House says it too will take a close look at the report but President Bush disputes the suggestion his administration did not do enough to prevent an attack.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Had we had any inkling whatsoever that terrorists were about to attack our country, we would have moved heaven and earth to protect America and I'm confident President Clinton would have done the same thing. Any president would.

ARENA: The commission is expected to say both presidents understood the threat posed by Osama bin Laden but did not fully appreciate its severity. Sources tell NN the commission report will not say whether 9/11 could have been prevented but they say it will lay out at least ten missed opportunities that, if seized upon, may have made a difference. These include failure to watch list two hijackers who attended a terrorist meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

MATT LEVITT, FORMER FBI ANALYST: It's impossible to know how many pieces of the puzzle we would have needed to have to be able to have thwarted all or even part of the 9/11 operation.

ARENA: The attacks on September 11th, the commission concludes, were the result of deep institutional failings throughout the government and that intelligence responsibilities are still spread too widely. As a result, sources say, commissioners will recommend the appointment of a cabinet level national intelligence director with budget authority and the creation of a national counterterrorism center that would replace the current Terrorism Threat Integration Center. It also calls for more congressional oversight.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R), MAJORITY LEADER: The words that I heard again and again were words like focus. In terms of Senate oversight we need to have better focus.

ARENA: The commission will also recommend changing the structure of the FBI but it is not calling for an independent domestic intelligence agency, like Britain's MI5.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Lawmakers say they expect to begin talks immediately on those recommendations but they do not expect any action until at least next year -- Aaron.

BROWN: Kelli, do we believe that over the last months in a combination of leaks and staff reports which were made public that we basically know the headlines out of this report?

ARENA: I think we do, Aaron. Of course there will be some discussion about Iran and its possible connection to the 9/11 plot, how hijackers went through that country. It will talk about Iraq and how there was no connection between that country and the 9/11 attacks.

But for the most part I think that we have heard much of this discussed very openly in each of the hearings that the commission has had and all of the questions have been raised, Aaron, so I really don't think there will be any surprises. Of course the devil is in the details and it's how all of this will work.

The national intelligence director, how will that position be set up? Will that person not only have budget authority but also hiring and firing authority? These are the questions that we're waiting for the answers on.

BROWN: Kelli, thank you.

We'll also get tomorrow a narrative, a pretty clear narrative of how the hijackings themselves were pulled off, perhaps the most detailed narrative yet. In some ways it is stunning what the 9/11 Commission has done in so few public hearings. There were just 12, so many of those moments in those few hearings, though, made such a grand impression.

That part of the story from CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a city that loves the passive voice, mistakes were made, we remember counterterrorism official Richard Clarke accepting responsibility. RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER WH COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you and for that failure I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.

MORTON: And then CIA Director George Tenet admitted mistakes.

GEORGE TENET, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: We made mistakes. Our failure to watch list Alhazmi and Almihdhar in a timely manner or the FBI's inability to find them in the narrow window of the time afforded them showed systemic weaknesses and the lack of redundancy.

MORTON: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had some of the more combative moments. Here with commission member Richard Ben- Veniste, a Democrat, about a PDB, the president's daily briefing.

RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country, and I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

BEN-VENISTE: Yes.

RICE: Now, the PDB...

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste, you...

BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the...

RICE: I would like to finish my point here.

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.

RICE: You asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.

BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.

RICE: You said did it not warn of attacks? It did not warn of attacks inside the United States.

MORTON: Rice with another Democratic commission member Bob Kerrey.

BOB KERREY, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: You said the president was tired of swatting flies. Can you tell me one example where the president swatted a fly when it came to al Qaeda prior to 9/11?

RICE: I think what the president was speaking to was...

KERREY: No, no, what fly had he swatted?

MORTON: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, would killing Osama bin Laden have helped?

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Even if bin Laden had been captured or killed in the weeks before September 11th, no one I know believes that it would necessarily have prevented September 11th.

MORTON: They all testified in public. President Bush and Vice President Cheney, of course, spoke to the commission in private and were not under oath.

BUSH: I think it helped them understand how I think and how I run the White House and how we deal with threats.

MORTON: We don't know what the most memorable moments of their appearance were or even which one answered the most questions.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, we put a lot on the table quickly, the report coming out tomorrow. There are some other things we wanted to throw into the political mix as well tonight, the Democratic Convention, of course, next week, the war and public opinion, among other things.

Gathered again is our Brown table. I'll get used to saying it one of these or perhaps I won't. In Washington Nina Easton and Terry Neal of "The Boston Globe," and washingtonpost.com respectively and, from Boston tonight, Wall Street Journalist John Harwood. We are glad to have you all with us.

John, let me start with you. You all agree that the 9/11 report will be politicized so that's not the question. Here's the question. Is there a risk to either side, both sides, in trying to use 9/11 as a political issue?

JOHN HARWOOD, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": There's no doubt about it there's a risk but they're going to politicize it anyway because it is so much a part of the national conversation right now.

Democrats are going to, of course, point to problems with the Bush administration's preparations before 9/11 and things that they didn't do. And you noticed today, President Bush sort of hugging tight to Bill Clinton and saying, "I would have moved heaven and earth just like Bill Clinton would have."

So, it's unavoidable that this enmeshed in partisan politics, like the Berger case that has been drawn into it that was leaked just before the release of this report but there is risk for both sides in going overboard.

BROWN: Terry, just a small snippet in an ad when the president used bodies being taken out of Ground Zero caused some fuss. Is that the kind of thing that the parties have to be careful of as they approach 9/11 in the campaign?

TERRY NEAL, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: Well, absolutely. I think the public is not in the mood to see this thing be overly politicized in that way. Certainly, the public is going to be sensitive about the use of images like that. The public does not want those -- does not want those sorts of images used.

But I agree with John, look at just what happened yesterday to Republicans on the Hill, got briefed on the findings of the commission's report and that day came out and took the parts of that report that pertained to President Clinton and tried to blame what happened on President Clinton.

Democrats are going to do the same sort of thing. It's just the environment that we're living here in Washington. We cannot not have it be politicized here.

BROWN: Nina, the president has always tried to connect, and it's been important for him to do so, the war in Iraq with the broader war on terrorism and the Democrats to my ear have had some struggle dealing with Iraq. Why not just say do you feel safer because of the war in Iraq?

NINA EASTON, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": I think that's an important point. Why not raise that issue? Just going back to the 9/11 Commission report, I think we all have to remember that there's a threat of an attack hanging over us, particularly between now and the election and the commission admirably resisted placing blame and we are going to see blame on both sides.

And, ironically, by the way, the White House contributed to this by not releasing documents in a timely fashion so that the report was delayed by a few months and really does come out right in the heat of the election and right before the Democratic Convention.

But, yes, the question about Iraq will continue to be raised. In fact, our newspaper just this weekend broke the news that casualties are actually up this month dramatically over last month. Things aren't going well right now in Iraq and this will continue to be background noise kind of tied into the 9/11 report.

BROWN: Terry, I know you've been talking to voters out there about how they view Iraq and how they see it in the context of all of the other issues that are on the table.

NEAL: Yes. I've traveled to four battleground states in the last couple months and what I found essentially is that every other issue -- the reason that Iraq is the most important issue is that every other issue, it's kind of the nexus of which all of the other issues sort of revolve.

So, for instance, if you go, as I did, to Wisconsin, you talk to old people about prescription drugs and Medicare reform, what they ultimately do is turn the issue back to Iraq and they say we could have had some real meaningful reform that could have helped us immediately perhaps if we weren't spending $200 billion on a war that we didn't need to fight.

So, or for instance I went to Ohio. There in a very kind of depressed southeastern part of Ohio, people were saying, hey, you know, President Bush tried to cut the Appalachian, you know, Development Commission or whatever it's called by half. That money is used to help people to build infrastructure and that sort of thing and maybe we could have afforded to do that if we hadn't gone to war in Iraq. So, that amplifies everything else (unintelligible).

HARWOOD: Aaron.

BROWN: John -- I'm sorry, John go ahead. We've got about a minute.

HARWOOD: Aaron, I think that Iraq is a part of the broader question though and the question that you posed a minute ago, are we safer? If you had to boil the election down to one single question that's what it is and, if the American people answer yes on November 2nd, George Bush is likely to be reelected. If the answer is no, John Kerry's going to win.

BROWN: Just, John while I've got you, one quick question, 20 seconds to answer it. If there's one thing the Democrats have to avoid next week in Boston it would be what?

HARWOOD: They have to avoid blowing the opportunity to define John Kerry as a strong enough leader to protect the American people. This election is going to end up being decided on pretty simple criteria. John Kerry's got to show he's strong enough to keep the country safe.

BROWN: Terry, Nina and John you'll be with us every night next week. We'll take a look at what they do, how successful or unsuccessful they are. It's good to see you all. Thank you for your work tonight.

NEAL: Thank you.

BROWN: The Brown table. We're too clever by half sometimes.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a tough day in Iraq. Terrorists take six foreign hostages possibly hoping for another troop pullout, take a look at that.

Plus, a government raid in Saudi Arabia turns up the remains of a murdered American. We take a break first.

From New York City this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The latest casualty in Iraq happened overnight at a spot on the map between Baghdad and Tikrit. A soldier in the Army's 1st Infantry Division was killed, six others wounded, a roadside bomb.

It bring the American casualties in the war to 901, 667 in combat, 234 as the result of accidents, suicide or other non-battle related circumstances. Looking at the coalition as a whole there have now been 1,022 fatalities, 61 British, 19 Italians, 11 Spaniards, 7 from Ukraine and a handful of others.

Clearly, Iraq remains a dangerous place tonight. The troops know it. Iraqi civilians certainly know it and, in a growing and chilling way, civilian contractors know it as well.

Last night we reported on the release of a Filipino truck driver amid concerns that giving the kidnappers what they wanted would simply lead to more kidnappings.

It didn't take long. Tonight, six more foreign workers face a grim future, so is this cause and effect, perhaps, an enemy sticking to what works, almost certainly.

From Baghdad tonight CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): These are the images many foreigners in Iraq have come to dread even expect, six hostages all foreign truck drivers easy targets with the threat of execution hanging over them.

"We've captured two Kenyans, three Indians, and one Egyptian" say the kidnappers. "We tell their company to withdraw and to close their offices in Iraq."

The Philippines pulled its forces from Iraq after a hostage threat. These kidnappers may be hoping for a similar success.

It has been a day of appalling violence in Iraq, the latest in a succession of car bombs ripped through a crowded area of the capital. The dead and injured were Iraqis returning from work. The Baghdad Hospital was also targeted. Two Iraqi patients were killed in a grenade attack.

Iraq's descent into chaos has been the focus of talks with regional foreign ministers. In the Egyptian capital, Iran and Syria have been accused of allowing insurgents to pass through their borders into Iraq. Tougher border controls are among the measures now being discussed.

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: We expect from our neighbors to stand by their (unintelligible) to help us in deeds not words and to support the efforts of the new Iraqi sovereign government, to establish a peaceful, responsible Iraq friendly to its neighbors.

CHANCE: Officials of the new Iraq know support from the outside may be crucial if this insurgency is to be defeated or even controlled.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That was Matthew Chance reporting from Baghdad tonight.

On to Saudi Arabia, the scene yesterday, you might recall, of yet another in a series of shootouts involving authorities and al Qaeda. It was, as these things go, no more and no less violent than others, the outcome no less bloody. It did, however come with an especially nasty reminder of what the region and the world is up against.

Reporting from Riyadh, CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blood stains and burn count vehicles testimony to the ferocity of the Saudi security forces' battle with al Qaeda militants to get into this up market Riyadh home.

Inside the house that Saudi security officials describe as one of al Qaeda's main bases, a gruesome discovery in a freezer, the head of U.S. helicopter technician Paul Johnson, missing along with the rest of his body since al Qaeda militants kidnapped and murdered him more than a month ago. Saudi police now investigating if this was the house where he was videotaped before his execution.

Also recovered from the suburban home a surface-to-air missile that had been featured in al Qaeda videos, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, guns, rocket-propelled grenades, video cameras, CDs and the equivalent of $96,000 in cash.

During the shootout two al Qaeda members were killed and three wounded. One of the dead Eissa al-Aushan, on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, is said by the Saudi Interior Ministry to be one of the terror group's top ideologues. The raid also putting the new al Qaeda leader, Saleh al-Oufi, on the run now believed by security forces to be surrounded near Riyadh.

(on camera): Al-Oufi's wife was arrested during the raid. She was, according to a source close to Saudi intelligence, upstairs in the house with other women.

Apart from bringing the Johnson family one step closer to closure, the discovery of Paul Johnson's head and so much military hardware may provide Saudi security forces with much needed vital information about how the terror group operates.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: There's just some of this stuff that just boggles the mind.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight, the story of a recent flight between Detroit and Los Angeles and the 14 Middle Eastern men who came onboard together. That they acted suspiciously is not in dispute. Whether they were a threat is.

And later tonight, living and dying with Alzheimer's, a break first.

On CNN this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The premise underlining the 9/11 Commission was that by figuring out how the attacks happened we might be able to prevent the next one. Nearly three years later, it is fair to ask are we any safer? And where dos the line between vigilance and paranoia begin and end?

On a recent Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Los Angeles, 14 Middle Eastern men boarded the plane together, clearly traveling as a group, according to other passengers. What happened next is full of grays.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no question something happened on Los Angeles-bound Flight 327.

KEVIN JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: I was uncomfortable when we started boarding when I saw how many Middle Eastern men there were.

MARQUEZ: Kevin Jacobsen and his wife, Annie, were on the Northwest flight, as was a team of federal marshals, who back up the Jacobsens story.

DAVE ADAMS, FEDERAL AIR MARSHAL SERVICE: They were acting suspicious. They were going in and out of the lavatories. They were standing up. They were going in the overhead bins. They were talking. They were congregating in the aisles.

MARQUEZ: So concerned, Kevin Jacobsen, during the flight, told attendants. They told him they too were watching the men, the cabin was aware and that marshals were on board. And then, on final approach, with downtown Los Angeles in sight, came the most frightening moment.

ANNIE JACOBSEN, ABOARD NORTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT: Suddenly, seven of these men are now standing. Four go to the forward bathroom. Three go to the back. And very slowly, very consecutively, they use the lavatory.

MARQUEZ: Annie Jacobsen, a financial writer, gave her firsthand account to a Web site. The reaction was an Internet phenomenon.

A. JACOBSEN: We had something like two million page views on the second or third day.

MARQUEZ: The Federal Air Marshal Service says the men never did anything criminal. They were questioned after the flight and their backgrounds checked against every available database. Its conclusion, the men were a 14-member Syrian band playing two gigs at a casino near Los Angeles. ADAMS: The supervisor then went out to the casino, verified again that they were booked there, made sure they were playing at the casino.

MARQUEZ: But Jacobsen says terrorists could simply learn to play instruments, and sees a bigger story.

A. JACOBSEN: I would definitely be inclined to think it was a dry run, some kind of intelligence gathering.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Federal officials say everything about the Syrians' story checked out and they have no reason to believe they were anything other than musicians acting strangely.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Annie Jacobsen joins us now from Los Angeles.

Just, Ms. Jacobsen, one quick question. Don't read too much into it. But if it had been just 14 non-Arab men doing exactly the same things that these guys were doing, would you have reacted in the same way?

A. JACOBSEN: Well, Aaron, I think everybody should behave in the air after what happened on September 11. And I would have to -- I'd be speculating if I said how I would react, because these men were Middle Eastern.

BROWN: The fact that they were Middle Eastern clearly played into how you reacted. Is that fair?

A. JACOBSEN: Yes, although I just had a terrific conversation with the Federal Air Marshals Association, who are really standing behind me on this. And they said an interesting thing, which is that, you know, this is not an isolated incident. It is going on. They can either be called dry runs or they can be called probes.

BROWN: There's no doubt in your mind at least that, as you think back on it, this was some sort of dry run or may well have been?

A. JACOBSEN: I certainly feel that way. And, again, you know, I'm getting an overwhelming response from pilots and flight attendants and now the Federal Air Marshals Association saying this kind of thing is going on. And that's news to me. And I think that's news to the American public.

BROWN: Well, let's talk a bit about some of the concerns. You can look at this thing one way and say, well, a lot of things worked. The crew was aware of it. The air marshals were aware of it. When you got to Los Angeles, the FBI was there, lots of that.

But it also exposed, I think, and you're pretty sharp on this, some weaknesses in the system. Talk about the restaurant you had a meal in before you got on the plane inside the security perimeter. A. JACOBSEN: You know, that really felt like a real problem. And I think that's what made me so aware to begin with when we boarded that flight in Detroit. We'd been roaming around the Detroit airport. It was a connecting flight for us, Aaron.

And my husband and my son and I ate in a diner with metal forks and knives.

BROWN: And the point of that is that, once you're inside the perimeter, inside the security perimeter, there's no rescreening. You could have taken that knife and taken it on the airplane and no one would have known the difference.

A. JACOBSEN: Yes, that's absolutely right.

BROWN: Have you asked about that?

A. JACOBSEN: Did who ask about that?

BROWN: Did you ask? Have you ever discussed that with any? Have you ever called anyone and said, hey, what about this?

A. JACOBSEN: That was one of the first calls I made. I called the TSA. And I spoke to a supervisor there. And he said -- this is in my article. He said, that is a problem. We are aware of it. And I'm not going to B.S. you. We don't have an answer yet.

BROWN: Well, actually, there's a pretty easy answer is that, if you're inside the perimeter, you use plastic knives and forks. It's not that complicated.

A. JACOBSEN: OK.

BROWN: Call me crazy.

A. JACOBSEN: You should work for them.

BROWN: No, that's OK. I'll let them try and figure this stuff out.

If it was a dry run, what is it you think they learned?

A. JACOBSEN: Well, they certainly learned how far they could test a situation without being arrested. It's my understanding that they were not arrested, that they were let go.

So they got a lot of information about passengers. I'm sure they got information about air marshals. They got information about how flight attendants deal with them. When pilots come in and out of -- to go use the lavatory themselves.

BROWN: So do you think they were aware that they were being watched?

A. JACOBSEN: Oh, that I don't know. You mean by me? BROWN: No. Well, in reading the article, the impression is that lots of people -- you weren't the only two people who were kind of freaked out by them, that the flight attendants were. Your husband, as I recall, has a kind of connection with another passenger who seemed to be aware.

So there were -- the air marshals were aware, we are told. So lots of people seemed to be aware of them. Do you think they were aware they were being watched?

A. JACOBSEN: You know, it's a terrific question. And maybe that's part of the information that they're getting.

You know, the big problem I have with all this, Aaron, is people have said to me, you know, what about the band? And I don't know about the band. What I do know is that 200 million Americans are flying this summer and that, prior to this, I don't think people were aware that there were these probes going on. And now it's being revealed that these probes are, in fact, going on.

And I think the American flying public wants to know not whether or not these guys can play instruments, whether they were or were not Syrian musicians, but why, you know, terrorists are allowed to gather information, why these policies are in place.

BROWN: Ms. Jacobsen, good to have you with us. It's a fascinating story. Thank you very much.

A. JACOBSEN: Thank you very much.

BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, it's called the Voice of America, using news to spread democracy around the world, up until now, an unlikely place for a rebellion.

Plus, front pages from around the world, tomorrow morning's papers.

This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Almost from the beginning, the Voice of America has been seen as the Voice of America, a broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government which reaches some 96 million people around the world in 44 languages. Its mission has always been demonstrating American values by telling it like it is.

But as the Bush administration fights to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world, that single voice may be cracking, a fracture that has set off a battle.

Reporting tonight for us, CNN's Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 13 hours universal time from the VOA news center in Washington.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 60 years after Voice of America began broadcasting news stories around the world, VOA has itself become the story. A petition signed by almost half its 1,100 employees claims the VOA is being dismantled piece by piece and replaced with news services outside the VOA and calls on Congress to investigate.

TIM SHAMBLE, VOA EMPLOYEE UNION REPRESENT: They're not providing comprehensive news, balanced news, accurate news, in our opinion, because they don't allow for enough news coverage.

KOPPEL: As proof, VOA supporters single out Radio Sawa, a two- year-old Arabic-language station funded by U.S. taxpayers that targets the under-30 audience with mostly pop music and news updates twice an hour, and this brand new $60 million satellite TV network, which broadcasts seven hours of news programs every day.

(on camera): With its state-of-the-art equipment and studios and 150 journalists recruited from here in the U.S. and around the Arab world, Alhurra, or The Free One, as it is known in Arabic, has been on the air and broadcasting throughout the Middle East since February.

(voice-over): Both Alhurra an Radio Sawa replaced similar VOA networks, a decision by the nine-member Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency which administration administers the VOA. The board's chairman says the law requires all broadcasts to be journalistically sound.

KEN TOMLINSON, BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS: We have the same standards of excellence at Alhurra and Sawa that we have at VOA.

KOPPEL: CNN asked Lebanese Hisham Melhem, already familiar with Alhurra programs, to watch a recent newscast.

HISHAM MELHEM, "AS-SAFIR": This broadcast is obviously sympathetic to the Iraqi government and the United States. This is very clear from the selection of topics, people to be interviewed, terminology, and focus.

KOPPEL: For the Broadcasting Board of Governors, it's about keeping pace with a changing world. For VOA staffers, it's become a battle to be the only Voice of America.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories making news around the country today.

In Salt Lake City, new wrinkle in the story of a missing jogger. The parents of her husband say today they have learned their son lied about being accepted to medical school in North Carolina. The couple was expecting a baby and had been preparing to move to North Carolina, ostensibly so the husband could begin his medical school studies. Police have questioned him, impounded his car, though he is not under arrest.

And in Texas, Andrea Yates, the woman who was serving a life sentence for murdering her children three years ago, has been hospitalized because she's refusing to eat. Ms. Yates, who has a history of mental illness, called an ambulance to her home after drowning the children in a bathtub. A Texas jury rejected her insanity defense.

Ahead on the program tonight, two families, two very different, difficult decisions forced on them by the disease that is destroying their parents.

And later, as always, morning papers.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When Ronald Reagan publicly announced his Alzheimer's diagnosis in a letter, he wrote, "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience." He could not, of course. For almost a decade until his death, she cared for him.

As isolated as she may have felt -- and by most accounts, she rarely left the home for more than an hour or two -- Mrs. Reagan was not alone. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's. There's no cure on the horizon and only modest advances in treatment, leaving millions of families to wrestle with terribly difficult decisions. And no decision is more difficult and more personal than the decision of when to allow a loved one, mom or dad, to die.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): This is Michael Beder in 1995, a successful bond trader from New York City. This is Michael Beder now.

NICOLE BEDER, DAUGHTER OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: For the most part, he just lies or sits without really responding to stimulation.

BROWN: This was Heidi Kiykendall in 1993, a mother with a wide circle of friends in Hickory, North Carolina. This is Heidi Kiykendall now.

RANDY BRYANT, SON OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: It was unbelievable how you could see just a real fast decline in her mental thinking. It was quite a shock.

BROWN: Both Beder and Kiykendall have had their minds stolen by Alzheimer's. Both have been in slow decline, dying for years. And for both families, that has meant painful choices about medical treatment and prolonging life.

BRYANT: That's the hardest decision I've ever made. And anyone who ever faces that decision, it's -- I mean, to decide to let your mother die when she -- you think she may improve, is a terrible decision. BROWN: A year and a half ago, Randy Bryant had to decide whether to keep his 89-year-old mother alive with a feeding tube. Randy Bryant said yes.

BRYANT: As long as someone tells you they love you and, honey, call you by your name, hey, could you kill them? I don't think so.

BROWN: Nicole Beder made a very different decision. Her father's living will helped her choose hospice care, where he is kept comfortable, but receives no antibiotics, no life-prolonging medical treatment.

BEDER: I have a pretty good idea of what he would want. So while it can be emotionally difficult to follow through on some of his decisions, I'm confident that they are his. So I guess, as less and less things can make it through to him and can cause him to be happy, you know, there doesn't seem to be much point in being alive.

You awake?

BROWN: At a relatively young age of 61, her father is still in good health physically, leaving his family with the burden been of caring for him indefinitely.

MARTA CURBELO, EX-WIFE OF MICHAEL BEDER: It's very hard for me to see him at times in this place and to know or to think that my daughter is -- our daughter is in pain seeing her father so sick and so disabled, when he was such a vibrant person.

BROWN: Nicole Beder attends an Alzheimer's caregivers support group to cope with the gradual loss of a father who does not comprehend that she's expecting his granddaughter come October.

WENDY PANKEN, ALZHEIMER'S SUPPORT GROUP LEADER: Watching somebody who is losing their capacity to think and to reason and to relate is excruciatingly painful and difficult, because it's what -- it is losing the person as the person is alive.

BRYANT: If you could imagine a train leaving, you have a loved one getting on the train and they're leaving the station, and instead of that train traveling that 50 miles an hour, that train's traveling and just rolling and rolling and rolling on a real slow pace and they can never seem to get out of sight as they wave to you, bye-bye.

BROWN: As you can see, making the decision between life and death is far from black and white.

N. BEDER: There are no wrong decisions. Every decision you make because you care about the person is the right decision. You just have to know if you're doing this out of love for the person and you're doing the right thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Not a lot of time tonight, or not too much time, just the right amount of time to do morning papers from around the country and around the world.

We start with "The Christian Science Monitor." I like this story. "Anti-Iran Sentiment Hardening Fast. Critics in Congress Finger Iranian Ties to al Qaeda and Influence in Iraq Is Cause For a Tougher Approach." Here's the problem. What are we going to do?

"The Oregonian" out West in Portland, Oregon, leads local. "Jets Collide Over Columbia." That would be the Columbia River. "Two Dead." See, that's a pretty cool picture. I'm not sure you can tell, but it appears to be one of the pilots.

And Lance Armstrong is on the front page of many newspapers around the country, as he's taken a giant step or a giant ride or a giant pedal, whatever it is, and he's now won like 200 Tour de Frances. He's the front page of "The Miami Herald," too. "The Leader of the Tour. American Cyclist Lance Armstrong Conquers an Uphill Climb Literally and Figuratively to All But Seal a Sixth Title." They also put this on the page: "Saudis Find Head of U.S. Hostage." I might have phrased that differently, but I'm not in the newspaper business, am I?

I like this story, a couple stories here. "The Detroit Free Press." "GM Profits Up Nearly 50 Percent for the Quarter." That's how "The Free Press" headlined it. How did the other paper in Detroit headline it? "A $1.3 Billion Profit Disappointments GM. Finance Unit Carries Load While U.S. Auto Market Share Slips. Cutback in Europe Looms." Lance Armstrong make this one? No, didn't. OK.

"Washington Times." We just talked about this. "Terrorists Testing Jets, Crews Say," this same story, same flight. But they expanded on it some. And, oh, down here real quick. "Girl Scouts Hire Tough Cookie." I just like the headline. That's it.

Weather in Chicago tomorrow is "ludicrous," if you happen to be there. We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go tonight, a brief ahead to tomorrow's NEWSNIGHT.

As you might imagine, the report from the 9/11 Commission will dominate, if not out-and-out monopolize our hour. Knowing that many of you will have seen just at least the basic facts of the story by then, we'll use that as a jumping-off point for a broader and we hope deeper discussion on it all. We'll look at the unknowns that remain, the security measures taken, not taken, how money has been spent, the impact on the rest of the world, and in some small way, how we, all of us, have changed because of that horrible day, September 11, 2001.

That's tomorrow on NEWSNIGHT. We hope you'll join us.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.

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

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