Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Arrest In Britain May connect To Planned U.S. attacks; Two arrested in Albany, New York Terror Sting Operation; Muqtada Sadr Loyal Mehdi Army Breaks Truce

Aired August 05, 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.
Here's a question to start the night. If someone makes an allegation in a political campaign, a serious allegation, should we report it simply because it's made? Is the allegation itself news?

Let's say, for example, that someone alleges that a candidate had a drug problem at some point in his life. Should that allegation be reported if we don't know the truth of it or can't confirm any of it just because someone makes the charge?

We actually dealt with this four years ago with one of the candidates for president and we didn't report it because, though we tried to find the evidence, we could not.

Was that the right call? Were we taking sides by not reporting the allegation? Should we just allow anyone to say anything, let the other side deny it and go home, call it a night?

This is the political season and some pretty nasty things are being said and will be said. Do you think we should report them all, throw in the denials and say we've done our job? That's a question for you to consider tonight.

First the whip and another revelation factoring into the latest terror alert it would seem. CNN's Kelli Arena working the story, a long week Kelli, start us with a headline.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, law enforcement sources tell CNN they believe one of the men arrested this week in Britain personally conducted some of the surveillance of potential terror targets here in the United States.

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

Next to Iraq, which finds itself perhaps at another tipping point, CNN's John Vause with the story tonight. Here's his headline.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across Iraq today the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made it clear the truce with U.S. and Iraqi forces is over. Fighting flared in al- Sadr's stronghold of Najaf. It spread to Baghdad as well as to Basra in the south -- Aaron.

BROWN: And finally, Abu Ghraib, the scandal as revealed in the hearings for one of the jailers. CNN's Susan Candiotti comes to us tonight from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. At a hearing this week it's becoming clearer that incidents of abuse were known and reported but apparently never reached the higher chain of command and for the first time public testimony that intelligence agents took part in the abuse.

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

Also coming up on the program tonight a missile, a mosque and an FBI agent.

Plus, two terror arrests make Albany, New York a very busy place today.

Also, gay marriage on the ballot, could it influence the outcome of the presidential race?

And, while he can't vote, we are certain he can read. The rooster stops by with tomorrow morning's papers, all that and more in the hour ahead tonight.

We begin at the end of a very active day in the war on terrorism. An arrest in Saudi Arabia, revelations about a raid in Great Britain, a sting operation in Albany and more.

Some of the threads connect up, others don't. Some might but we don't know yet how. So tonight, more than most nights, the top of the program comes with this promise to be continued. It begins though in the U.K. with a pretty big catch and a frightening picture of what he might have been up to in the U.S.

Starting us off, CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): Law enforcement sources say they believe one of the men arrested this week in Britain personally conducted some of the surveillance of potential terror targets in the United States.

Esa al-Hindi is described as a senior al Qaeda operative. Sources tell CNN he was on the ground in New York City in early 2001 and one source says law enforcement has definitively placed him in three of the buildings that were surveilled, the New York Stock Exchange, the Citigroup Building and the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey.

EVAN KOHLMANN, GLOBALTERRORALERT.COM: He's someone with military experience. He's someone who's perfectly fluent in English, in Urdu, in Arabic. He's a transnational al Qaeda operative who has his fingers in many pots.

ARENA: U.S. officials say al-Hindi can currently be described as al Qaeda's chief of operations in the U.K. They say he moved operational information between key components of al Qaeda in Britain, Pakistan and the United States.

Terrorism experts say al-Hindi is a Muslim convert and former commander of an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Investigators believe he was plotting to attack London's Heathrow Airport based in part on intelligence from Pakistan.

KOHLMANN: I think it's an ominous sign. Whenever there's an attack of this scale going on in London, it's not just a British thing. It's a U.S. thing too because most of the time when al Qaeda strikes, it tends to strike in multiple, simultaneous attacks.

ARENA: Al-Hindi's arrest and others in Pakistan, including that of alleged al Qaeda computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan have led to multiple intelligence leads. Especially troubling government officials say alleged al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan recently contacted an individual or individuals in the United States.

JAMES COMEY, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have, as we've said before, reason to believe that we are in a very serious threat environment and we're working like crazy to try and make sure that threat does not come to fruition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Investigators say given his alleged position, al-Hindi may have knowledge of plans to attack in the United States. The trick, of course, is getting him to divulge all that he knows -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just two questions I think fairly quickly. The Brits are still holding him, correct?

ARENA: That's right.

BROWN: Is there any plan to get him to the United States or into the custody of the United States?

ARENA: Not that I know of, not yet, Aaron.

BROWN: And on this question that first came up yesterday about the contacts with perhaps as many as six people within the United States, is there anything new on that today?

ARENA: No, there isn't.

BROWN: OK.

ARENA: We don't know if the contact -- though one interesting thing that was brought up was that the contact may have been through al-Hindi. We don't know that for sure.

BROWN: OK. We continue to work that. Kelli, thank you.

British police have arrested another man who is in custody and he is of interest to authorities here as well. His name is Barbar Ahmad (ph) and the United States government wants him extradited. Officials say he is sought or that he sought, rather, to use American Internet sites to raise money for terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

On now to Albany, New York and the makings, if you will, of an old normal story gone new. The old concerns an immigrant and a refugee, a pizzeria and a mosque. The new includes all of the above plus the FBI and a terrorist sting operation.

Here's CNN's Alina Cho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mohammed Hossain and Yassin Aref were led away in handcuffs following their arraignment hearing at the federal courthouse in Albany Thursday.

The two men were arrested overnight after FBI agents raided a downtown Albany mosque. Both men were members. Aref was the imam. Authorities say they were caught following a year long investigation and sting operation.

COMEY: A sting in which the government offered two men the opportunity to assist someone who they believed was a terrorist facilitator supplying weapons to be used to commit terrorist acts.

CHO: Law enforcement sources say the men tried to help the FBI informant, posing as a terrorist, launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile that the informant had told the men that the missile, actually a decoy, would be used against Pakistan's U.N. ambassador in retaliation for Pakistan's support for the U.S. in the war on terrorism. Pakistan's deputy ambassador said he had not seen the report.

MASOOD KHALID, PAKISTANI DEP. AMB. TO U.N.: I am not aware of the details as to what was this plot about.

CHO: Hossain, a long time Albany resident, owns a pizzeria and lives with his wife and five children in the apartment upstairs. In a recent interview he said he was proud to be an American.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband is doing business ten years in the downtown. I have the Little Italy Pizza Shop I'm running ten years me and my husband. My customers, our neighbor, everybody know us, so I think -- I don't think anything we are doing wrong against our country.

CHO (on camera): Albany's Muslin leaders urge the media to exercise restraint in this case saying the two men in question are innocent until proven guilty and that Muslim Americans stand by all Americans against all forms of terrorism.

Alina Cho, CNN, Albany, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: As we said at the top a busy day. Authorities in Saudi Arabia say they've got a senior al Qaeda member in custody. Faris al- Zahrani was picked up in a town near the border with Yemen, southwest corner of the country. Nine of the 9/11 hijackers came from that area as well.

That, the raids and everything else notwithstanding, al Qaeda remains a moving target tonight and perhaps, perhaps even a growing one.

And so, from the Pentagon now CNN's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. defense and intelligence sources tell CNN recent information shows al Qaeda activity at locations inside Pakistan may be a sign that terrorist training camps are once again active.

That information in part comes from aerial reconnaissance and imagery taken along the southern border with Afghanistan. Sources say the pictures show cars and vehicles in certain areas that the U.S. believes may be training camps.

But more than a month after the information first came to the attention of the Pentagon and the CIA no one is sure what it all means. Intelligence analysts are trying to determine if indeed al Qaeda has resumed training.

MATTHEW LEVITT, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: The fact that training camps have sprouted up again or, to be more accurate, that they have repopulated is of tremendous concern.

STARR: The Bush administration supports recently stepped up efforts by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's military to shut down Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds along the border with Afghanistan.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I think it's quite clear the Pakistani government has turned on the Taliban. It's turned on al Qaeda. It's turned on any idea that people might receive training or support from Pakistan.

STARR: U.S. officials say there is no indication this recent al Qaeda activity is tied to the increased terrorist threat warnings in the U.S.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Iraq next where the United States is being pushed onto the horns of a dilemma yet again, strike back hard at insurgents and pay a political price or hang back and watch the new Iraqi government pay a military and a political price. The man doing the pushing now is familiar to all and now he says he's leading a revolution.

So reporting from Baghdad, CNN's John Vause.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE (voice-over): From Najaf to Baghdad to Basra, a day of violent uprising by those loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al- Sadr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We got orders from Muqtada al-Sadr to strike the Americans wherever they are.

VAUSE: It flared in Najaf when it became clear Iraqi police and National Guard were outgunned and outnumbered. The governor there called in the U.S. Marines. On the city's outskirts, one U.S. soldier was killed, five wounded when their convoy was hit by a rocket- propelled grenade.

The firing also claimed the lives of an Iraqi policeman, a doctor and two civilians. Seven insurgents were killed according to the U.S. military.

Helicopters flying overhead came under constant attack, one evacuating a wounded soldier was brought down by small arms fire. Two U.S. soldiers were hurt in the emergency landing.

With the people of Najaf under curfew, explosions rocked the city. The fighting raged within half a mile of the sacred Iman Ali Mosque. Those loyal to al-Sadr say the holy shrine was damaged by American troops. The U.S. military describes that claim as suspect. Still, over the mosque loudspeakers calls for the people to rise up and join the fight to defend the holiest site for Shia Muslims.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a U.S. patrol came under heavy attack by his militia. Five soldiers were lightly wounded. And to the south in Basra, British troops fought gun battles with al-Sadr's men shooting two of them dead.

From Iraq's interior minister came praise for his fledgling police force.

FALAH AL-NAKIB, IRAQI INTERIOR MINSTER (through translator): I would like to tell you that your brothers, the Iraqi people and the Iraqi police have gained glorious victories.

VAUSE: Victories which came only with the help of U.S. forces.

(on camera): The fragile truce, which the U.S. negotiated with Muqtada al-Sadr less than two months ago is now dead with each side blaming the other. Regardless of who's at fault it's another serious setback to bringing security to Iraq.

John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And now a world away but not, the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal played out for the third straight day in a hearing room at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. From the beginning the central question, the most hotly disputed one, has had to do with how far up the chain of command this all goes. No one expects it to be answered at a preliminary hearing but lawyers for the defendant did plenty of asking today.

Reporting tonight for us, CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): She appears every bit as young as she is. (Unintelligible) faced and a 21-year-old single mother-to-be, Private First Class Lyndee England is in a world of trouble and she knows it, called by her own attorney the poster child of the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal because of photos like these, posing with stripped Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid, pointing to a row of naked prisoners, holding another detainee by a dog leash.

But now in her military court hearing, witnesses are disclosing the prison abuse was known by others and reported but not stopped. The night these pictures were taken last October, the night of the human pyramid, a guard said he told his sergeant. It went no higher and nothing happened.

The latest bombshell, testimony implicating military intelligence agents for the first time in some of the worst abuse. The November night when three suspected rapists were stacked in a twisted pile, seen in this photo, shot from above.

An intelligence analyst told the court two other intel agents took part in that abuse. One, he said, put his foot on the buttocks of the detainees to make them look as if they were having sex. The analyst told a colleague who told another sergeant. Again, no action, no investigation.

RICHARD HERNANDEZ, PFC ENGLAND'S LAWYER: What we heard today painted a clear picture of sexual abuses by others that went unpunished, inadequate training and a blatant disregard for any investigation of anything that was done. None of these men is facing any court martial or any punishment. Private Lyndee England is facing that punishment. None of the men are.

CANDIOTTI: England, now almost seven months pregnant with another guard's child, has looked pale, uncomfortable, even embarrassed at times, while listening to lewd details of testimony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: England will have a chance to call defense witnesses on Friday. Then it will be up to a military judge to decide whether she should face a full court martial. A trial could send the expectant mother, if convicted, to prison for up to 38 years -- Aaron.

BROWN: She would do 38 years on the abuse charges or is it more complicated than that?

CANDIOTTI: It is more complicated than that. As a matter of fact, and this one's hard to figure out, she actually would face more time in prison, if convicted, of the photographs that show her having sexual contact with other prison guards not detainees. That could send her to prison for up to 22 years. She's up for about 15 years in prison for the abuse scandal involving detainees.

BROWN: We expect to hear...

CANDIOTTI: So, in other words...

BROWN: I'm sorry. Do we expect her to...

CANDIOTTI: I just want to make -- I'm sorry, Aaron.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: I just want to make sure I said that right, for having sex with other prison guards not detainees. That could put her away for up to 22 years if convicted.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: Less time for the alleged abuse with the detainees.

BROWN: And do we expect to hear from her on Friday or not?

CANDIOTTI: It's unlikely she'll testify.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: No one thinks that will happen.

BROWN: Susan, thank you, Susan Candiotti at Fort Bragg.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT tonight, the issue that brought a record voter turnout in Missouri. It's on the ballot in eight other states come fall. A look at how the gay marriage issue factors into this year's election.

And later, our Nissen with a very neat story, S-T-O-R-Y in this case. How many letters would that be?

From NEWNIGHT -- no, from New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The debate over who should be allowed to marry is playing out across the country even as orange alerts and Iraq grab the headlines and generally speaking those who support gay marriage are winning some in the courts and losing at the polls.

Yesterday, a judge in Washington State ruled that a ban on same- sex marriage in that state violates the state's constitution. In Missouri the day before an opposite outcome in a different arena.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Missourians voted for a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage, no surprise. BEV EHLEN, COALITION TO PROTECT MARRIAGE IN MISSOURI: I'm not surprised that Missouri came out loud and clear that marriage is important and we'll do whatever we have to do to protect that institution.

MORTON: And no surprise because the score is now five, zip. Four other states from liberal Hawaii to conservative Nebraska have voted to bar gay marriage. Missouri's turnout was high, 41 percent, compared with 15 to 25 percent in an average primary. What does that mean for the presidential election?

Louisiana votes on a ban next month. Battleground states Arkansas and Oregon, along with five others, will have it on the ballot in November, and three more, including battlegrounds Michigan and Ohio may. So, is this a big plus for George W. Bush? Maybe, but...

CHUCK TODD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HOTLINE: First of all, if you do the math, which a pollster did for us, and assume that every single no vote on the marriage amendment in Missouri was a Democratic voter that means 48 percent of Democratic primary voters voted for this marriage amendment or against gay marriage.

MORTON: Both the candidates, President Bush and John Kerry oppose gay marriage. In battleground Ohio how much will it matter?

PROF. HERB ASHER, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Obviously, the turnout in the general election is higher anyway but I think here in Ohio we already have all the factors in place. People care about the election. We perceive the election to be close and everybody throughout the nation is telling us Ohio's the battleground. So, I don't think having this issue on the ballot will affect turnout very much.

TODD: It does activate possibly the evangelicals to do door-to- door, to do some efforts that maybe they wouldn't have done. They would have shown up to the polls but they may not have worked as hard. This does at least guarantee that they'll work harder.

ASHER: I think the election in Ohio is very much going to turn out to be a turnout election and which party can really get its base out, which party can win whatever swing voters there are.

MORTON: As far as the presidential election goes, having a marriage amendment on the ballot probably helps Bush though experts, as you've heard, aren't sure how much. For the gay movement, they've lost this election five times out of five.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We're joined now by Joan Garry, the Executive Director of GLAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and we're always glad to see you.

JOAN GARRY, GLAD: Nice to see you.

BROWN: Missouri a, I don't know if it was a surprise. It certainly was a slap.

GARRY: It wasn't a good day in Missouri yesterday. I think that you're right about that but we don't expect to win every time. I mean I think, you know, the...

BROWN: The question is do you expect to win at the polls anytime?

GARRY: Well, I think that, you know, it's interesting. I mean one of the pieces that happened in Missouri was obviously good voter turnout for the other side and I think that the goal for us is to use it as just equally as strong a turnout device and really, you know, these kinds of defeats in fact actually mobilize people and they get them more vocal and more visible.

You know and I think what you also have to remember too about this is it's a long term battle. Changing hearts and minds about gay and lesbian issues doesn't happen overnight and you're going to -- I think we're going to see a political and legal (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for a while.

BROWN: Here's just one view of what I think the political problem is, is that it is harder in many respects to undo something that's been done. When a state passes a constitutional amendment it's harder to undo that than it would be not to fight it now or to win -- just to win it outright.

GARRY: Yes, although I think, you know, I think your point about the piece that you ran about what happened in Washington State the day before, I mean what we're seeing are different venues that are providing different levels of opinion

And what we're really seeing is in the courts we're seeing these objective looks at the real lives of people, as opposed to the fear card that I think the anti-gay folks are playing, which says, OK, let's treat them as an abstraction. Let's use euphemisms like protecting marriage and redefining marriage as some mechanism to really play this fear card and get people kind of riled up in that way.

But when you actually make the story real for people and you really introduce them to the Hillary (ph) and Julie Goodrich's (ph) of Massachusetts and the families and couples in Washington State, I think it's a very different issue.

BROWN: Social change is complicated business under any circumstance.

GARRY: No question.

BROWN: Does it seem, just as a reasonable interpretation, that the movement got ahead of where the country was at any given moment, that ten years from now maybe people will feel differently about the issue, they'll think differently about the issue?

GARRY: Well, I would argue differently. You look at interracial marriage as an example. In 1968, Loving, Supreme Court decision, but the majority of Americans did not approve of interracial marriage until 23 years later in 1991. So, I don't think, you know, I think these things move in different ways. You take a decision like...

BROWN: You know what's interesting about that to me is what didn't, and I can't explain this, but what didn't happen then is no one was proposing a constitutional -- there was no serious proposal for a constitutional amendment to ban interracial marriage.

GARRY: Well, you know, if you take the extension and you look at Lawrence v. Texas, Loving v. Virginia, what happened in Lawrence v. Texas, first of all you eliminated the criminality of gay and lesbian people.

But then you also had Antonin Scalia, who talked about the inevitability of gay marriage as a way to wave the flag, which then really did begin bubbling all of this kind of as I call it sort of soup about all of these things. He threw a very big pebble in the pond and it has had all kinds of ramifications.

But I continue to think about this. You know we talk a lot about this gay marriage issue but when you look at where people are about what they think about whether gay and lesbian people should have equal rights and responsibilities, we're in a good place that's getting better.

The gay marriage issue, you know, is a different set of issues and it's different because the anti-gay folks have really painted us in an abstract way and played the fear card.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

GARRY: Thanks.

BROWN: Appreciate it very much.

GARRY: Take care.

BROWN: Thank you.

Coming up on the program still 9/11 and politics, two things that probably shouldn't mix but inevitably will. Some shots fired there today.

And later, the story of some Olympic hopefuls with their first shot at glory without the shadow of a brutal dictator at least, a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It's a potential mine field for both presidential candidates, in an election in which 9/11 and national security are key issues, how to avoid to appear to be exploiting 9/11 for political gain. Dicey business made clear again today when John Kerry spoke at a conference of minority journalists in Washington.

Here's CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a memorable image of September 11. The president is told America is under attack. Visibly stunned, he does not leave a Florida classroom. On a D.C. detour, John Kerry, responding to a question, said he would have acted differently.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to. And I would have attended to it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BASH: Mr. Bush has said he was just trying to project a sense of calm until he had more evidence. Senator Kerry says being president is about having gut instincts in those situations, toughness he found on a battlefield.

Hindsight is 20/20. But this is a candidate trying to fight a Bush campaign painting him as indecisive, not fit to lead and a president Americans still see as best to fight terrorism.

The president in Ohio didn't mention the swipe. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani did, saying -- quote -- "John Kerry must be frustrated in his campaign if he is armchair quarterbacking based on cues from Michael Moore." The controversial film "Fahrenheit 9/11" mocks the president for waiting seven minutes before responding. A Kerry spokeswoman says he never saw the film.

On the trail, no surrender.

KERRY: I pledge to you, Missouri, I can fight a more effective, smarter and better war.

BASH: And like Bill Clinton and Al Gore before them, the Senators John boarded Harry Truman's train, hoping to capture the magic of his 1948 Whistle-Stop Tour.

Dana Bash, CNN, Jefferson City, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories that made news today, beginning at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and a bomb that wasn't. It turned up in a bag at a checkpoint and forced the evacuation of one of the terminals in Dallas-Fort Worth. "It," it turned out, was an old- time microphone. Federal agents today conducted searches at homes in western New York and Ocean County, New Jersey, in connection with the anthrax letters now nearly three years ago. Beyond that, authorities are not saying much.

And a team based in Toronto today unveiled the contender for the $10 million prize for privately funded spacecraft. The Wildfire, they call it. If all goes well, it will be lofted to 80,000 feet by helium balloon. And then it is onward or upward from there. Or at least that's the plan.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, they are there to help, but seem to be causing more confusion than anything else, why the new Medicare cards seem so difficult to use.

And later, they aren't your grandparents' Scrabble. It is much more serious than that.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, a reality check on the new Medicare discount drug cards that were launched two months ago. A new study by the nonpartisan Health Policy Group of the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that at least some of the cards do indeed provide savings. But there are dozens of cards to choose from in each state. And the study also concludes that deciding which to use can be overwhelming.

Of the almost 40 million eligible Americans, barely four million are registered for the cards. And most of them, the study found, were automatically enrolled. So why aren't more people signing up on their own? Tonight, we meet one senior who has tried.

The story reported by CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LILLIE SIMMONS, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: It hadn't answered any of my questions.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sometimes Lillie Simmons feels like she's slowly going insane. In the past two months, she has spent hours trying to figure out which of the more than two dozen Medicare discount cards will help reduce her $600-a-month prescription drug bill the most.

SIMMONS: Anything is easier than what this has been. And today is the perfect sample of it.

COHEN: Today, once again, she's on the government's Web site.

SIMMONS: Now I'm on Medicare.gov.

COHEN: She says the site is too confusing. She can't figure out how to get a list to compare discounted prices for the drugs she takes. She tries several other sites.

SIMMONS: None of these tells you what card is right for you.

COHEN: Mrs. Simmons, who is 69, is comfortable with computers. She and her husband, Jay (ph), run their own business, a lawn care service. And she often uses the Internet and e-mail. Yet she's stumped by this challenge. The government agency that administers the card says help is a phone call away.

DR. MARK MCCLELLAN, MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ADMINISTRATOR: And it really is just as simple as calling 1-800-MEDICARE.

SIMMONS: It just rang and rang, and then got a busy signal.

COHEN: Mrs. Simmons, in fact, has tried to call the 800 number several times.

SIMMONS: Oh, I got somebody.

COHEN: Today, though, is her lucky day. She reaches an operator, but after a 35-minute conversation, feels she's no closer to an answer.

Medicare officials told us that, in three weeks, Mrs. Simmons will receive a list of the five or so cards that will save her the most money for her particular medications. But there's a catch. She has to stay with the card she chooses for the entire year, even though her doctor might change her medicines, and the card is free to change its prices every week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are held hostage. So I don't like that.

COHEN: And that's just one reason why none of the seniors we met at this center have signed up for the card and why, at this geriatrics practice of 500 patients, only one has applied.

DR. ERIC DE JONGE, GERIATRICIAN: It used to be simple. It is just way too complicated right now.

VICKI GOTTLICH, CENTER FOR MEDICARE ADVOCACY: We're hearing from a lot of people who are saying the discount isn't worth it.

COHEN: Still, the government says 20,000 people a day are signing up.

MCCLELLAN: With the drug card, you can reduce your cost for brand name drugs by 15 percent or 20 percent or more, generic drugs by 30 to 60 percent or more.

COHEN: But Lillie Simmons doubts whether she'll end up seeing that kind of savings. The process, she says, is simply too complicated.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Auburn, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: A few other bits of business before we take a break.

Following jobless claims couldn't overcome rising oil prices, at least to investors. Light crude finished the day at a record high, more than $44 a barrel. Fears of terrorism factored in, but so did trouble in Yukos Oil, a large Russian oil company that may be close to bankruptcy. Couple that with weak numbers from retailers and you have the makings of a really bad day on Wall Street, Dow industrials falling 163 points, the second largest one-day-point loss all year. On a percentage basis, though, the Nasdaq and the S&P did even worse.

Still ahead on the program tonight, we'll introduce you to a group of athletes for whom the Olympics this year won't be simply about medals. And no need to set your alarm clock in the morning. We'll have your papers tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: On a day like today in Iraq, a story that doesn't involve fighting and dying is welcome. And here is such a story.

In seven days, the Olympics begin in Athens. And among the athletes competing will be Iraqis. In the grand scheme of what's happening in their homeland, this could seem like a small story, but it is a measure of much larger things as well.

Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're the Olympic hopefuls of the new Iraq, once tortured and intimidated, now with a hero's send-off from Baghdad to Athens. All 31 in the squad say they're proud to be Iraqi, and for the first time in years, unafraid to compete.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We will play much better than before because there's no more pressure on us. Before, we felt threatened and we were playing only for one or two people. Now we will play for all the people of Iraq.

ALA A. HIKMET, SPRINTER (through translator): We want to tell people that Iraq is not isolated from the world. Maybe we won't get the best results, but this is not about medals. We only want to tell the world that we are back again.

CHANCE: In the days of Uday Hussein, it was very different. As Olympic chief, Saddam's sports mad son brutalized a generation of Iraqi athletes. Those who let him down were sadistically punished in special torture chambers in Iraq's own Olympic headquarters. If ever there was a violation of the Olympic ideal, it's this.

(on camera): Look at this thumbscrew, the thumbs inserted there. And then the whole machinery screwed down. It must have been agonizing. These, we're told, are choker collars that were put around the necks of sportsmen who hadn't performed, tight enough until they couldn't breathe.

(voice-over): Mohammad Taha, champion Iraqi weightlifter and veteran of three Olympics, himself tasted Uday's wrath. It was just an article, he said, praising the Sydney Olympics. Uday gave him 100 agonizing lashes.

MOHAMMAD TAHA, FORMER OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTER (through translator): When I watched The ceremony, I started to cry. The tears came from my heart. There was nothing like this for us. There was only fear and panic. If we did badly, we'd only think of our punishment.

CHANCE: As Iraq's new Olympic squad heads to Athens, they leave behind a country fraught with problems, but at least these athletes can now compete without the terror of torture on their return.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, in New Orleans, they've been waging war with words, letter by letter, all week long.

A break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The managing editor of this program believes the greatest invention of the last century was the spell-checker. And for him, it was.

That should give you some idea of how hard it was to sell this otherwise good and wise soul on the merits of the following story, the national Scrabble championships, reported from New Orleans by NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Initially, it looks like the Scrabble you played as a kid, but look more closely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You may begin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more.

NISSEN: This is competitive tournament Scrabble.

JOHN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL SCRABBLE ASSOCIATION: There are over 850 Scrabble experts here from 40 states and five or six different countries. The age range here is from 12 years old to, I think, 93 years old. Scrabble is everywhere and we're thrilled to be on the forefront.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shhhh.

NISSEN: Well, quietly thrilled. It takes intense concentration to make the highest scoring words using randomly drawn sets of seven tiles and place those words strategically on the board before time runs out, concentration and often obsessive preparation.

WILLIAMS: To be a top-level tournament Scrabble player, one really needs to spend about four or five hours a day on the game, studying word lists, practicing against a computer, doing exercises.

NISSEN: Players memorize lists of words, say all three- and four-letter words using the letter Z, words using the letter Q that don't need a U, and, of course, all permissible two-letter words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A-A, A-B, A-D, A-E, A-G.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A-R, A-S, A-T.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: B-A, B-O, B-I, B-E.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: M-M, H-M.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: H-M.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: S-H.

WILLIAMS: There are 97 two-letter words, which every Scrabble tournament player knows by heart.

NISSEN: And needs to know to make parallel words like this one. H-I-D is a legal word. And so are S-I and O-D. Parallel plays help rack up the points. So do bingos.

ANDRE ORNISH, COMPETITOR: A bingo is when you play all seven of your tiles. Then you get a 50-point bonus.

NISSEN: To help make bingos, most competitive players arrange their tiles in alphabetical order into alphagrams. Many have spent hours, years memorizing all the words that can be made from those letter combinations.

WILLIAMS: I go down the street and I see a sign that says, Marines, I look at it and I see remains, seminar. Everybody here pretty much can look at a group of letters and tell you what words are in there.

NISSEN: Those words can be obscure. In this game between defending national champion Joel Sherman and Joe Edley, words including cade, firth, cowry. What do those words mean? To tournament players, the meanings are meaningless.

JOE EDLEY, FORMER CHAMPION: It's not cost-effective to spend time keeping them in your memory. It's just enough to know that they're words.

NISSEN: Even players who know all the words -- and there are some who have memorized the entire official Scrabble players dictionary -- have to contend with the luck of the draw, theirs and their opponents. TREY WRIGHT, TOURNAMENT LEADER: Anything could happen. This is Scrabble. Any of my opponents can beat me if they draw the right tiles.

NISSEN: Players use ritual and talismans, so the tile gods will be kind, not give them a U with no Q, let them draw a blank -- tile, that is.

WILLIAMS: People have their lucky tile bags, their lucky rack, their lucky shirt.

NISSEN: Tournament players are not in it for the money. Top cash prize at thing nationals is $25,000, plus a very nice silver bowl. What draws them is something else, which even amateurs can experience.

WILLIAMS: If you haven't played Scrabble in a while, sit down. It doesn't matter if you play the word cat or you play the word quixotic. You'll remember how much fun it is to get a bunch of letters and randomly throw them around and then find a word and score.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, five, six, 61.

NISSEN: Word up.

Beth Nissen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I love when we do sports on the program.

And the W-I-N-N-E-R -- that's worth nine points face value, by the way, 30-year-old Trey Wright of Van Nuys, California, the new Scrabble champion. But can he do morning papers?

After the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, just because.

"International Herald Tribune," published by "The New York Times" in Paris. That's Paris, France, not Paris, Texas. "Oil Prices Livable, But Maybe Not For Long." One of many papers taking a look at the impact of high oil prices on the world's economy in the case of "The International Herald Tribune." Also, Iraq on the front page. "Radical Cleric Calls For Uprising in Iraq. Two-Month Truce Seems To Be Crumbling." Yes, I would say it seems to be crumbling.

"The Christian Science Monitor." "Economic Risks of High Oil Prices. Energy Credited as Factor Behind Slower-Than-Expected Second- Quarter GDP." Most experts see prices staying high. Once they go up, they do not come down. Also a nice feature story down here. "G.I. Grandaddies. Vietnam Vets Bring Jungle-Tested Grit to a New Tour in Iraq." "The Times" from London. "Manhunt" -- "Manhunt," Aaron -- "As Five al Qaeda Militants Evade Police." We told you about all the people that were caught today. These are the five that got away. "Police Suspect Plan to Attack Heathrow," the airport, "With Huge Lorry" -- that's truck in English -- "Bomb." Anything else I like there? It's too complicated. It's another sex scandal in Britain. But, honestly, there will be another one tomorrow. It's the way the country works.

"The Detroit News." "More Michigan Schools Meet No Child Rules." Some good news there. Also good news at the airport. "Hard-line Approach Cuts Cost at Metro." So it's a good airport in Detroit. We like that airport.

"The Washington Times." "D.C. Rejects Bids For Slots Initiative." Process of Gathering Names Fatally Flawed." They wanted to use slot machines -- some people wanted to use slot machines to close budget gaps in D.C., but it doesn't look like it's going to happen now.

"Times Herald Record" in upstate New York." "Mosque Sting." We told you about this story. "Albany Imam May Be Linked to Al Qaeda. Experts: Missiles Are Cheap, Plentiful." It's always a comforting headline.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico. "County Fair Time Is Here Again." Thank goodness.

And Oprah will keep her show going until 2011, according to "The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather in Chicago tomorrow is "righteous."

And that's our report for tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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


Aired August 5, 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.
Here's a question to start the night. If someone makes an allegation in a political campaign, a serious allegation, should we report it simply because it's made? Is the allegation itself news?

Let's say, for example, that someone alleges that a candidate had a drug problem at some point in his life. Should that allegation be reported if we don't know the truth of it or can't confirm any of it just because someone makes the charge?

We actually dealt with this four years ago with one of the candidates for president and we didn't report it because, though we tried to find the evidence, we could not.

Was that the right call? Were we taking sides by not reporting the allegation? Should we just allow anyone to say anything, let the other side deny it and go home, call it a night?

This is the political season and some pretty nasty things are being said and will be said. Do you think we should report them all, throw in the denials and say we've done our job? That's a question for you to consider tonight.

First the whip and another revelation factoring into the latest terror alert it would seem. CNN's Kelli Arena working the story, a long week Kelli, start us with a headline.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, law enforcement sources tell CNN they believe one of the men arrested this week in Britain personally conducted some of the surveillance of potential terror targets here in the United States.

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

Next to Iraq, which finds itself perhaps at another tipping point, CNN's John Vause with the story tonight. Here's his headline.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across Iraq today the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made it clear the truce with U.S. and Iraqi forces is over. Fighting flared in al- Sadr's stronghold of Najaf. It spread to Baghdad as well as to Basra in the south -- Aaron.

BROWN: And finally, Abu Ghraib, the scandal as revealed in the hearings for one of the jailers. CNN's Susan Candiotti comes to us tonight from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Susan a headline.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. At a hearing this week it's becoming clearer that incidents of abuse were known and reported but apparently never reached the higher chain of command and for the first time public testimony that intelligence agents took part in the abuse.

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

Also coming up on the program tonight a missile, a mosque and an FBI agent.

Plus, two terror arrests make Albany, New York a very busy place today.

Also, gay marriage on the ballot, could it influence the outcome of the presidential race?

And, while he can't vote, we are certain he can read. The rooster stops by with tomorrow morning's papers, all that and more in the hour ahead tonight.

We begin at the end of a very active day in the war on terrorism. An arrest in Saudi Arabia, revelations about a raid in Great Britain, a sting operation in Albany and more.

Some of the threads connect up, others don't. Some might but we don't know yet how. So tonight, more than most nights, the top of the program comes with this promise to be continued. It begins though in the U.K. with a pretty big catch and a frightening picture of what he might have been up to in the U.S.

Starting us off, CNN's Kelli Arena.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): Law enforcement sources say they believe one of the men arrested this week in Britain personally conducted some of the surveillance of potential terror targets in the United States.

Esa al-Hindi is described as a senior al Qaeda operative. Sources tell CNN he was on the ground in New York City in early 2001 and one source says law enforcement has definitively placed him in three of the buildings that were surveilled, the New York Stock Exchange, the Citigroup Building and the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey.

EVAN KOHLMANN, GLOBALTERRORALERT.COM: He's someone with military experience. He's someone who's perfectly fluent in English, in Urdu, in Arabic. He's a transnational al Qaeda operative who has his fingers in many pots.

ARENA: U.S. officials say al-Hindi can currently be described as al Qaeda's chief of operations in the U.K. They say he moved operational information between key components of al Qaeda in Britain, Pakistan and the United States.

Terrorism experts say al-Hindi is a Muslim convert and former commander of an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Investigators believe he was plotting to attack London's Heathrow Airport based in part on intelligence from Pakistan.

KOHLMANN: I think it's an ominous sign. Whenever there's an attack of this scale going on in London, it's not just a British thing. It's a U.S. thing too because most of the time when al Qaeda strikes, it tends to strike in multiple, simultaneous attacks.

ARENA: Al-Hindi's arrest and others in Pakistan, including that of alleged al Qaeda computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan have led to multiple intelligence leads. Especially troubling government officials say alleged al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan recently contacted an individual or individuals in the United States.

JAMES COMEY, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have, as we've said before, reason to believe that we are in a very serious threat environment and we're working like crazy to try and make sure that threat does not come to fruition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Investigators say given his alleged position, al-Hindi may have knowledge of plans to attack in the United States. The trick, of course, is getting him to divulge all that he knows -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just two questions I think fairly quickly. The Brits are still holding him, correct?

ARENA: That's right.

BROWN: Is there any plan to get him to the United States or into the custody of the United States?

ARENA: Not that I know of, not yet, Aaron.

BROWN: And on this question that first came up yesterday about the contacts with perhaps as many as six people within the United States, is there anything new on that today?

ARENA: No, there isn't.

BROWN: OK.

ARENA: We don't know if the contact -- though one interesting thing that was brought up was that the contact may have been through al-Hindi. We don't know that for sure.

BROWN: OK. We continue to work that. Kelli, thank you.

British police have arrested another man who is in custody and he is of interest to authorities here as well. His name is Barbar Ahmad (ph) and the United States government wants him extradited. Officials say he is sought or that he sought, rather, to use American Internet sites to raise money for terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

On now to Albany, New York and the makings, if you will, of an old normal story gone new. The old concerns an immigrant and a refugee, a pizzeria and a mosque. The new includes all of the above plus the FBI and a terrorist sting operation.

Here's CNN's Alina Cho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mohammed Hossain and Yassin Aref were led away in handcuffs following their arraignment hearing at the federal courthouse in Albany Thursday.

The two men were arrested overnight after FBI agents raided a downtown Albany mosque. Both men were members. Aref was the imam. Authorities say they were caught following a year long investigation and sting operation.

COMEY: A sting in which the government offered two men the opportunity to assist someone who they believed was a terrorist facilitator supplying weapons to be used to commit terrorist acts.

CHO: Law enforcement sources say the men tried to help the FBI informant, posing as a terrorist, launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile that the informant had told the men that the missile, actually a decoy, would be used against Pakistan's U.N. ambassador in retaliation for Pakistan's support for the U.S. in the war on terrorism. Pakistan's deputy ambassador said he had not seen the report.

MASOOD KHALID, PAKISTANI DEP. AMB. TO U.N.: I am not aware of the details as to what was this plot about.

CHO: Hossain, a long time Albany resident, owns a pizzeria and lives with his wife and five children in the apartment upstairs. In a recent interview he said he was proud to be an American.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband is doing business ten years in the downtown. I have the Little Italy Pizza Shop I'm running ten years me and my husband. My customers, our neighbor, everybody know us, so I think -- I don't think anything we are doing wrong against our country.

CHO (on camera): Albany's Muslin leaders urge the media to exercise restraint in this case saying the two men in question are innocent until proven guilty and that Muslim Americans stand by all Americans against all forms of terrorism.

Alina Cho, CNN, Albany, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: As we said at the top a busy day. Authorities in Saudi Arabia say they've got a senior al Qaeda member in custody. Faris al- Zahrani was picked up in a town near the border with Yemen, southwest corner of the country. Nine of the 9/11 hijackers came from that area as well.

That, the raids and everything else notwithstanding, al Qaeda remains a moving target tonight and perhaps, perhaps even a growing one.

And so, from the Pentagon now CNN's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. defense and intelligence sources tell CNN recent information shows al Qaeda activity at locations inside Pakistan may be a sign that terrorist training camps are once again active.

That information in part comes from aerial reconnaissance and imagery taken along the southern border with Afghanistan. Sources say the pictures show cars and vehicles in certain areas that the U.S. believes may be training camps.

But more than a month after the information first came to the attention of the Pentagon and the CIA no one is sure what it all means. Intelligence analysts are trying to determine if indeed al Qaeda has resumed training.

MATTHEW LEVITT, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: The fact that training camps have sprouted up again or, to be more accurate, that they have repopulated is of tremendous concern.

STARR: The Bush administration supports recently stepped up efforts by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's military to shut down Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds along the border with Afghanistan.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I think it's quite clear the Pakistani government has turned on the Taliban. It's turned on al Qaeda. It's turned on any idea that people might receive training or support from Pakistan.

STARR: U.S. officials say there is no indication this recent al Qaeda activity is tied to the increased terrorist threat warnings in the U.S.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Iraq next where the United States is being pushed onto the horns of a dilemma yet again, strike back hard at insurgents and pay a political price or hang back and watch the new Iraqi government pay a military and a political price. The man doing the pushing now is familiar to all and now he says he's leading a revolution.

So reporting from Baghdad, CNN's John Vause.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE (voice-over): From Najaf to Baghdad to Basra, a day of violent uprising by those loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al- Sadr.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We got orders from Muqtada al-Sadr to strike the Americans wherever they are.

VAUSE: It flared in Najaf when it became clear Iraqi police and National Guard were outgunned and outnumbered. The governor there called in the U.S. Marines. On the city's outskirts, one U.S. soldier was killed, five wounded when their convoy was hit by a rocket- propelled grenade.

The firing also claimed the lives of an Iraqi policeman, a doctor and two civilians. Seven insurgents were killed according to the U.S. military.

Helicopters flying overhead came under constant attack, one evacuating a wounded soldier was brought down by small arms fire. Two U.S. soldiers were hurt in the emergency landing.

With the people of Najaf under curfew, explosions rocked the city. The fighting raged within half a mile of the sacred Iman Ali Mosque. Those loyal to al-Sadr say the holy shrine was damaged by American troops. The U.S. military describes that claim as suspect. Still, over the mosque loudspeakers calls for the people to rise up and join the fight to defend the holiest site for Shia Muslims.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a U.S. patrol came under heavy attack by his militia. Five soldiers were lightly wounded. And to the south in Basra, British troops fought gun battles with al-Sadr's men shooting two of them dead.

From Iraq's interior minister came praise for his fledgling police force.

FALAH AL-NAKIB, IRAQI INTERIOR MINSTER (through translator): I would like to tell you that your brothers, the Iraqi people and the Iraqi police have gained glorious victories.

VAUSE: Victories which came only with the help of U.S. forces.

(on camera): The fragile truce, which the U.S. negotiated with Muqtada al-Sadr less than two months ago is now dead with each side blaming the other. Regardless of who's at fault it's another serious setback to bringing security to Iraq.

John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And now a world away but not, the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal played out for the third straight day in a hearing room at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. From the beginning the central question, the most hotly disputed one, has had to do with how far up the chain of command this all goes. No one expects it to be answered at a preliminary hearing but lawyers for the defendant did plenty of asking today.

Reporting tonight for us, CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): She appears every bit as young as she is. (Unintelligible) faced and a 21-year-old single mother-to-be, Private First Class Lyndee England is in a world of trouble and she knows it, called by her own attorney the poster child of the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal because of photos like these, posing with stripped Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid, pointing to a row of naked prisoners, holding another detainee by a dog leash.

But now in her military court hearing, witnesses are disclosing the prison abuse was known by others and reported but not stopped. The night these pictures were taken last October, the night of the human pyramid, a guard said he told his sergeant. It went no higher and nothing happened.

The latest bombshell, testimony implicating military intelligence agents for the first time in some of the worst abuse. The November night when three suspected rapists were stacked in a twisted pile, seen in this photo, shot from above.

An intelligence analyst told the court two other intel agents took part in that abuse. One, he said, put his foot on the buttocks of the detainees to make them look as if they were having sex. The analyst told a colleague who told another sergeant. Again, no action, no investigation.

RICHARD HERNANDEZ, PFC ENGLAND'S LAWYER: What we heard today painted a clear picture of sexual abuses by others that went unpunished, inadequate training and a blatant disregard for any investigation of anything that was done. None of these men is facing any court martial or any punishment. Private Lyndee England is facing that punishment. None of the men are.

CANDIOTTI: England, now almost seven months pregnant with another guard's child, has looked pale, uncomfortable, even embarrassed at times, while listening to lewd details of testimony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: England will have a chance to call defense witnesses on Friday. Then it will be up to a military judge to decide whether she should face a full court martial. A trial could send the expectant mother, if convicted, to prison for up to 38 years -- Aaron.

BROWN: She would do 38 years on the abuse charges or is it more complicated than that?

CANDIOTTI: It is more complicated than that. As a matter of fact, and this one's hard to figure out, she actually would face more time in prison, if convicted, of the photographs that show her having sexual contact with other prison guards not detainees. That could send her to prison for up to 22 years. She's up for about 15 years in prison for the abuse scandal involving detainees.

BROWN: We expect to hear...

CANDIOTTI: So, in other words...

BROWN: I'm sorry. Do we expect her to...

CANDIOTTI: I just want to make -- I'm sorry, Aaron.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: I just want to make sure I said that right, for having sex with other prison guards not detainees. That could put her away for up to 22 years if convicted.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: Less time for the alleged abuse with the detainees.

BROWN: And do we expect to hear from her on Friday or not?

CANDIOTTI: It's unlikely she'll testify.

BROWN: OK.

CANDIOTTI: No one thinks that will happen.

BROWN: Susan, thank you, Susan Candiotti at Fort Bragg.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT tonight, the issue that brought a record voter turnout in Missouri. It's on the ballot in eight other states come fall. A look at how the gay marriage issue factors into this year's election.

And later, our Nissen with a very neat story, S-T-O-R-Y in this case. How many letters would that be?

From NEWNIGHT -- no, from New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The debate over who should be allowed to marry is playing out across the country even as orange alerts and Iraq grab the headlines and generally speaking those who support gay marriage are winning some in the courts and losing at the polls.

Yesterday, a judge in Washington State ruled that a ban on same- sex marriage in that state violates the state's constitution. In Missouri the day before an opposite outcome in a different arena.

Here's CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Missourians voted for a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage, no surprise. BEV EHLEN, COALITION TO PROTECT MARRIAGE IN MISSOURI: I'm not surprised that Missouri came out loud and clear that marriage is important and we'll do whatever we have to do to protect that institution.

MORTON: And no surprise because the score is now five, zip. Four other states from liberal Hawaii to conservative Nebraska have voted to bar gay marriage. Missouri's turnout was high, 41 percent, compared with 15 to 25 percent in an average primary. What does that mean for the presidential election?

Louisiana votes on a ban next month. Battleground states Arkansas and Oregon, along with five others, will have it on the ballot in November, and three more, including battlegrounds Michigan and Ohio may. So, is this a big plus for George W. Bush? Maybe, but...

CHUCK TODD, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HOTLINE: First of all, if you do the math, which a pollster did for us, and assume that every single no vote on the marriage amendment in Missouri was a Democratic voter that means 48 percent of Democratic primary voters voted for this marriage amendment or against gay marriage.

MORTON: Both the candidates, President Bush and John Kerry oppose gay marriage. In battleground Ohio how much will it matter?

PROF. HERB ASHER, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Obviously, the turnout in the general election is higher anyway but I think here in Ohio we already have all the factors in place. People care about the election. We perceive the election to be close and everybody throughout the nation is telling us Ohio's the battleground. So, I don't think having this issue on the ballot will affect turnout very much.

TODD: It does activate possibly the evangelicals to do door-to- door, to do some efforts that maybe they wouldn't have done. They would have shown up to the polls but they may not have worked as hard. This does at least guarantee that they'll work harder.

ASHER: I think the election in Ohio is very much going to turn out to be a turnout election and which party can really get its base out, which party can win whatever swing voters there are.

MORTON: As far as the presidential election goes, having a marriage amendment on the ballot probably helps Bush though experts, as you've heard, aren't sure how much. For the gay movement, they've lost this election five times out of five.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We're joined now by Joan Garry, the Executive Director of GLAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and we're always glad to see you.

JOAN GARRY, GLAD: Nice to see you.

BROWN: Missouri a, I don't know if it was a surprise. It certainly was a slap.

GARRY: It wasn't a good day in Missouri yesterday. I think that you're right about that but we don't expect to win every time. I mean I think, you know, the...

BROWN: The question is do you expect to win at the polls anytime?

GARRY: Well, I think that, you know, it's interesting. I mean one of the pieces that happened in Missouri was obviously good voter turnout for the other side and I think that the goal for us is to use it as just equally as strong a turnout device and really, you know, these kinds of defeats in fact actually mobilize people and they get them more vocal and more visible.

You know and I think what you also have to remember too about this is it's a long term battle. Changing hearts and minds about gay and lesbian issues doesn't happen overnight and you're going to -- I think we're going to see a political and legal (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for a while.

BROWN: Here's just one view of what I think the political problem is, is that it is harder in many respects to undo something that's been done. When a state passes a constitutional amendment it's harder to undo that than it would be not to fight it now or to win -- just to win it outright.

GARRY: Yes, although I think, you know, I think your point about the piece that you ran about what happened in Washington State the day before, I mean what we're seeing are different venues that are providing different levels of opinion

And what we're really seeing is in the courts we're seeing these objective looks at the real lives of people, as opposed to the fear card that I think the anti-gay folks are playing, which says, OK, let's treat them as an abstraction. Let's use euphemisms like protecting marriage and redefining marriage as some mechanism to really play this fear card and get people kind of riled up in that way.

But when you actually make the story real for people and you really introduce them to the Hillary (ph) and Julie Goodrich's (ph) of Massachusetts and the families and couples in Washington State, I think it's a very different issue.

BROWN: Social change is complicated business under any circumstance.

GARRY: No question.

BROWN: Does it seem, just as a reasonable interpretation, that the movement got ahead of where the country was at any given moment, that ten years from now maybe people will feel differently about the issue, they'll think differently about the issue?

GARRY: Well, I would argue differently. You look at interracial marriage as an example. In 1968, Loving, Supreme Court decision, but the majority of Americans did not approve of interracial marriage until 23 years later in 1991. So, I don't think, you know, I think these things move in different ways. You take a decision like...

BROWN: You know what's interesting about that to me is what didn't, and I can't explain this, but what didn't happen then is no one was proposing a constitutional -- there was no serious proposal for a constitutional amendment to ban interracial marriage.

GARRY: Well, you know, if you take the extension and you look at Lawrence v. Texas, Loving v. Virginia, what happened in Lawrence v. Texas, first of all you eliminated the criminality of gay and lesbian people.

But then you also had Antonin Scalia, who talked about the inevitability of gay marriage as a way to wave the flag, which then really did begin bubbling all of this kind of as I call it sort of soup about all of these things. He threw a very big pebble in the pond and it has had all kinds of ramifications.

But I continue to think about this. You know we talk a lot about this gay marriage issue but when you look at where people are about what they think about whether gay and lesbian people should have equal rights and responsibilities, we're in a good place that's getting better.

The gay marriage issue, you know, is a different set of issues and it's different because the anti-gay folks have really painted us in an abstract way and played the fear card.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

GARRY: Thanks.

BROWN: Appreciate it very much.

GARRY: Take care.

BROWN: Thank you.

Coming up on the program still 9/11 and politics, two things that probably shouldn't mix but inevitably will. Some shots fired there today.

And later, the story of some Olympic hopefuls with their first shot at glory without the shadow of a brutal dictator at least, a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It's a potential mine field for both presidential candidates, in an election in which 9/11 and national security are key issues, how to avoid to appear to be exploiting 9/11 for political gain. Dicey business made clear again today when John Kerry spoke at a conference of minority journalists in Washington.

Here's CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a memorable image of September 11. The president is told America is under attack. Visibly stunned, he does not leave a Florida classroom. On a D.C. detour, John Kerry, responding to a question, said he would have acted differently.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to. And I would have attended to it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BASH: Mr. Bush has said he was just trying to project a sense of calm until he had more evidence. Senator Kerry says being president is about having gut instincts in those situations, toughness he found on a battlefield.

Hindsight is 20/20. But this is a candidate trying to fight a Bush campaign painting him as indecisive, not fit to lead and a president Americans still see as best to fight terrorism.

The president in Ohio didn't mention the swipe. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani did, saying -- quote -- "John Kerry must be frustrated in his campaign if he is armchair quarterbacking based on cues from Michael Moore." The controversial film "Fahrenheit 9/11" mocks the president for waiting seven minutes before responding. A Kerry spokeswoman says he never saw the film.

On the trail, no surrender.

KERRY: I pledge to you, Missouri, I can fight a more effective, smarter and better war.

BASH: And like Bill Clinton and Al Gore before them, the Senators John boarded Harry Truman's train, hoping to capture the magic of his 1948 Whistle-Stop Tour.

Dana Bash, CNN, Jefferson City, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories that made news today, beginning at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and a bomb that wasn't. It turned up in a bag at a checkpoint and forced the evacuation of one of the terminals in Dallas-Fort Worth. "It," it turned out, was an old- time microphone. Federal agents today conducted searches at homes in western New York and Ocean County, New Jersey, in connection with the anthrax letters now nearly three years ago. Beyond that, authorities are not saying much.

And a team based in Toronto today unveiled the contender for the $10 million prize for privately funded spacecraft. The Wildfire, they call it. If all goes well, it will be lofted to 80,000 feet by helium balloon. And then it is onward or upward from there. Or at least that's the plan.

Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, they are there to help, but seem to be causing more confusion than anything else, why the new Medicare cards seem so difficult to use.

And later, they aren't your grandparents' Scrabble. It is much more serious than that.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, a reality check on the new Medicare discount drug cards that were launched two months ago. A new study by the nonpartisan Health Policy Group of the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that at least some of the cards do indeed provide savings. But there are dozens of cards to choose from in each state. And the study also concludes that deciding which to use can be overwhelming.

Of the almost 40 million eligible Americans, barely four million are registered for the cards. And most of them, the study found, were automatically enrolled. So why aren't more people signing up on their own? Tonight, we meet one senior who has tried.

The story reported by CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LILLIE SIMMONS, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: It hadn't answered any of my questions.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sometimes Lillie Simmons feels like she's slowly going insane. In the past two months, she has spent hours trying to figure out which of the more than two dozen Medicare discount cards will help reduce her $600-a-month prescription drug bill the most.

SIMMONS: Anything is easier than what this has been. And today is the perfect sample of it.

COHEN: Today, once again, she's on the government's Web site.

SIMMONS: Now I'm on Medicare.gov.

COHEN: She says the site is too confusing. She can't figure out how to get a list to compare discounted prices for the drugs she takes. She tries several other sites.

SIMMONS: None of these tells you what card is right for you.

COHEN: Mrs. Simmons, who is 69, is comfortable with computers. She and her husband, Jay (ph), run their own business, a lawn care service. And she often uses the Internet and e-mail. Yet she's stumped by this challenge. The government agency that administers the card says help is a phone call away.

DR. MARK MCCLELLAN, MEDICARE AND MEDICAID ADMINISTRATOR: And it really is just as simple as calling 1-800-MEDICARE.

SIMMONS: It just rang and rang, and then got a busy signal.

COHEN: Mrs. Simmons, in fact, has tried to call the 800 number several times.

SIMMONS: Oh, I got somebody.

COHEN: Today, though, is her lucky day. She reaches an operator, but after a 35-minute conversation, feels she's no closer to an answer.

Medicare officials told us that, in three weeks, Mrs. Simmons will receive a list of the five or so cards that will save her the most money for her particular medications. But there's a catch. She has to stay with the card she chooses for the entire year, even though her doctor might change her medicines, and the card is free to change its prices every week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are held hostage. So I don't like that.

COHEN: And that's just one reason why none of the seniors we met at this center have signed up for the card and why, at this geriatrics practice of 500 patients, only one has applied.

DR. ERIC DE JONGE, GERIATRICIAN: It used to be simple. It is just way too complicated right now.

VICKI GOTTLICH, CENTER FOR MEDICARE ADVOCACY: We're hearing from a lot of people who are saying the discount isn't worth it.

COHEN: Still, the government says 20,000 people a day are signing up.

MCCLELLAN: With the drug card, you can reduce your cost for brand name drugs by 15 percent or 20 percent or more, generic drugs by 30 to 60 percent or more.

COHEN: But Lillie Simmons doubts whether she'll end up seeing that kind of savings. The process, she says, is simply too complicated.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Auburn, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: A few other bits of business before we take a break.

Following jobless claims couldn't overcome rising oil prices, at least to investors. Light crude finished the day at a record high, more than $44 a barrel. Fears of terrorism factored in, but so did trouble in Yukos Oil, a large Russian oil company that may be close to bankruptcy. Couple that with weak numbers from retailers and you have the makings of a really bad day on Wall Street, Dow industrials falling 163 points, the second largest one-day-point loss all year. On a percentage basis, though, the Nasdaq and the S&P did even worse.

Still ahead on the program tonight, we'll introduce you to a group of athletes for whom the Olympics this year won't be simply about medals. And no need to set your alarm clock in the morning. We'll have your papers tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: On a day like today in Iraq, a story that doesn't involve fighting and dying is welcome. And here is such a story.

In seven days, the Olympics begin in Athens. And among the athletes competing will be Iraqis. In the grand scheme of what's happening in their homeland, this could seem like a small story, but it is a measure of much larger things as well.

Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're the Olympic hopefuls of the new Iraq, once tortured and intimidated, now with a hero's send-off from Baghdad to Athens. All 31 in the squad say they're proud to be Iraqi, and for the first time in years, unafraid to compete.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We will play much better than before because there's no more pressure on us. Before, we felt threatened and we were playing only for one or two people. Now we will play for all the people of Iraq.

ALA A. HIKMET, SPRINTER (through translator): We want to tell people that Iraq is not isolated from the world. Maybe we won't get the best results, but this is not about medals. We only want to tell the world that we are back again.

CHANCE: In the days of Uday Hussein, it was very different. As Olympic chief, Saddam's sports mad son brutalized a generation of Iraqi athletes. Those who let him down were sadistically punished in special torture chambers in Iraq's own Olympic headquarters. If ever there was a violation of the Olympic ideal, it's this.

(on camera): Look at this thumbscrew, the thumbs inserted there. And then the whole machinery screwed down. It must have been agonizing. These, we're told, are choker collars that were put around the necks of sportsmen who hadn't performed, tight enough until they couldn't breathe.

(voice-over): Mohammad Taha, champion Iraqi weightlifter and veteran of three Olympics, himself tasted Uday's wrath. It was just an article, he said, praising the Sydney Olympics. Uday gave him 100 agonizing lashes.

MOHAMMAD TAHA, FORMER OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTER (through translator): When I watched The ceremony, I started to cry. The tears came from my heart. There was nothing like this for us. There was only fear and panic. If we did badly, we'd only think of our punishment.

CHANCE: As Iraq's new Olympic squad heads to Athens, they leave behind a country fraught with problems, but at least these athletes can now compete without the terror of torture on their return.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, in New Orleans, they've been waging war with words, letter by letter, all week long.

A break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The managing editor of this program believes the greatest invention of the last century was the spell-checker. And for him, it was.

That should give you some idea of how hard it was to sell this otherwise good and wise soul on the merits of the following story, the national Scrabble championships, reported from New Orleans by NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Initially, it looks like the Scrabble you played as a kid, but look more closely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You may begin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more.

NISSEN: This is competitive tournament Scrabble.

JOHN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL SCRABBLE ASSOCIATION: There are over 850 Scrabble experts here from 40 states and five or six different countries. The age range here is from 12 years old to, I think, 93 years old. Scrabble is everywhere and we're thrilled to be on the forefront.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shhhh.

NISSEN: Well, quietly thrilled. It takes intense concentration to make the highest scoring words using randomly drawn sets of seven tiles and place those words strategically on the board before time runs out, concentration and often obsessive preparation.

WILLIAMS: To be a top-level tournament Scrabble player, one really needs to spend about four or five hours a day on the game, studying word lists, practicing against a computer, doing exercises.

NISSEN: Players memorize lists of words, say all three- and four-letter words using the letter Z, words using the letter Q that don't need a U, and, of course, all permissible two-letter words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A-A, A-B, A-D, A-E, A-G.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A-R, A-S, A-T.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: B-A, B-O, B-I, B-E.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: M-M, H-M.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: H-M.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: S-H.

WILLIAMS: There are 97 two-letter words, which every Scrabble tournament player knows by heart.

NISSEN: And needs to know to make parallel words like this one. H-I-D is a legal word. And so are S-I and O-D. Parallel plays help rack up the points. So do bingos.

ANDRE ORNISH, COMPETITOR: A bingo is when you play all seven of your tiles. Then you get a 50-point bonus.

NISSEN: To help make bingos, most competitive players arrange their tiles in alphabetical order into alphagrams. Many have spent hours, years memorizing all the words that can be made from those letter combinations.

WILLIAMS: I go down the street and I see a sign that says, Marines, I look at it and I see remains, seminar. Everybody here pretty much can look at a group of letters and tell you what words are in there.

NISSEN: Those words can be obscure. In this game between defending national champion Joel Sherman and Joe Edley, words including cade, firth, cowry. What do those words mean? To tournament players, the meanings are meaningless.

JOE EDLEY, FORMER CHAMPION: It's not cost-effective to spend time keeping them in your memory. It's just enough to know that they're words.

NISSEN: Even players who know all the words -- and there are some who have memorized the entire official Scrabble players dictionary -- have to contend with the luck of the draw, theirs and their opponents. TREY WRIGHT, TOURNAMENT LEADER: Anything could happen. This is Scrabble. Any of my opponents can beat me if they draw the right tiles.

NISSEN: Players use ritual and talismans, so the tile gods will be kind, not give them a U with no Q, let them draw a blank -- tile, that is.

WILLIAMS: People have their lucky tile bags, their lucky rack, their lucky shirt.

NISSEN: Tournament players are not in it for the money. Top cash prize at thing nationals is $25,000, plus a very nice silver bowl. What draws them is something else, which even amateurs can experience.

WILLIAMS: If you haven't played Scrabble in a while, sit down. It doesn't matter if you play the word cat or you play the word quixotic. You'll remember how much fun it is to get a bunch of letters and randomly throw them around and then find a word and score.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four, five, six, 61.

NISSEN: Word up.

Beth Nissen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I love when we do sports on the program.

And the W-I-N-N-E-R -- that's worth nine points face value, by the way, 30-year-old Trey Wright of Van Nuys, California, the new Scrabble champion. But can he do morning papers?

After the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Okeydokey, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, just because.

"International Herald Tribune," published by "The New York Times" in Paris. That's Paris, France, not Paris, Texas. "Oil Prices Livable, But Maybe Not For Long." One of many papers taking a look at the impact of high oil prices on the world's economy in the case of "The International Herald Tribune." Also, Iraq on the front page. "Radical Cleric Calls For Uprising in Iraq. Two-Month Truce Seems To Be Crumbling." Yes, I would say it seems to be crumbling.

"The Christian Science Monitor." "Economic Risks of High Oil Prices. Energy Credited as Factor Behind Slower-Than-Expected Second- Quarter GDP." Most experts see prices staying high. Once they go up, they do not come down. Also a nice feature story down here. "G.I. Grandaddies. Vietnam Vets Bring Jungle-Tested Grit to a New Tour in Iraq." "The Times" from London. "Manhunt" -- "Manhunt," Aaron -- "As Five al Qaeda Militants Evade Police." We told you about all the people that were caught today. These are the five that got away. "Police Suspect Plan to Attack Heathrow," the airport, "With Huge Lorry" -- that's truck in English -- "Bomb." Anything else I like there? It's too complicated. It's another sex scandal in Britain. But, honestly, there will be another one tomorrow. It's the way the country works.

"The Detroit News." "More Michigan Schools Meet No Child Rules." Some good news there. Also good news at the airport. "Hard-line Approach Cuts Cost at Metro." So it's a good airport in Detroit. We like that airport.

"The Washington Times." "D.C. Rejects Bids For Slots Initiative." Process of Gathering Names Fatally Flawed." They wanted to use slot machines -- some people wanted to use slot machines to close budget gaps in D.C., but it doesn't look like it's going to happen now.

"Times Herald Record" in upstate New York." "Mosque Sting." We told you about this story. "Albany Imam May Be Linked to Al Qaeda. Experts: Missiles Are Cheap, Plentiful." It's always a comforting headline.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico. "County Fair Time Is Here Again." Thank goodness.

And Oprah will keep her show going until 2011, according to "The Chicago Sun-Times." The weather in Chicago tomorrow is "righteous."

And that's our report for tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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