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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Wal-Mart Launches an Enormous P.R. Campaign; Election Day in Iraq Looming
Aired January 13, 2005 - 13:30 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 everyone, the program begins to night with a story of love and hate, not to mention low, low prices. It's just one of the stops we'll make along the road.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER (voice-over): The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, launches an enormous P.R. campaign. Why, in the face of all it's success, does it feel unloved?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think of it as much as defending the company as I do setting the record straight.
In Iraq, January 30 elections day fast approaching, violence escalating. We'll focus on four regions where it may be too dangerous to vote, they are home to a quarter or Iraq's people.
Keeping the Iraqi's safe enough to vote: The enormous challenge facing 150,00 U.S. troops. We'll look at the role they'll play.
In south Asia, the countries hit hardest by the tsunami, gives American troops a deadline to get out. Indonesia, fair say, is a complicated place.
And on the final day of testimony in his court martial, the alleged ringleader in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal does not take the stand, though his lawyers had promised he would.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Those stories and more ahead in the hour ahead, an hour that begins with the Wal-Mart store.
Everyone loves Wal-Mart, except for those who hate it. Its big stores, low pricing, has both people flocking to buy and others flocking to protest. Now, in truth, more people love it than hate it, or it wouldn't be the success is, but the fight has gotten so big and so nasty, the giant, for all its power, has come out of its shell in Arkansas to begin fighting back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It's the world's largest retailer with sales larger than the gross domestic product of more than 100 countries. Clearly shoppers love it, but the giant feels wildly unloved. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not paying their employees near what they're -- near what they're worth.
LEE SCOTT, CEO WAL-MART: We have a great story to tell and it is time for us to tell that story.
BROWN: Much of criticism comes from unions. Wal-Mart fights unions tooth and nail. But, even the company concedes there area real issues. While it is welcome in many places, it is fought in others more and more, it sees; from California to Vermont to Texas.
The criticisms are varied: Wal-Mart causes traffic nightmares; Wal-Mart pays its employees badly; Wal-Mart, because of its sheer size and pricing power, sucks the oxygen out of small local businesses.
Wal-Mart said that the ad campaign that began today is just the beginning of a new, more aggressive counter-attack by the company.
SCOTT: I don't think of it as much as defending the company as I do setting the record straight.
BROWN: Wal-Mart use to win practically every time it fought a battle over where to put a store or where to expand, but even though it spent nearly half-a-million dollars trying to get a store built in the Los Angeles suburb of Englewood, last year, it failed. For, as reasons, critics say, are as much cultural as economic.
GREG DENIER, UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKER UNION: It's women's groups, it's worker organization, it's religious and community groups saying, if you want to operate in our community, you have to be a positive employer, you have to be a responsible corporate citizen, and you have to be a responsible member of our community.
BROWN: Wal-Mart, no doubt, believes it is a good and responsible member of the community, but is also a defendant in the largest class action lawsuit in the United States these days, a lawsuit that claims women who have been work for the company have been paid lower than men for the same work, and have been denied promotions.
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: People are watching what happens Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the county. If Wal-Mart is allowed to get away this kind of discrimination, then other companies will watch that carefully. If Wal-Mart, the largest employer, is told, no, you can't discriminate against women, then that message will be heard by everyone.
BROWN: Wal-Mart says it does not discriminate against women and is aggressively defending itself. Sure it concede wages are not high at Wal-Mart, but it's prices are so low that without Wal-Mart, millions of Americans wouldn't be able to afford the things they believe they must have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know the prices are pretty good and the quality of the products is pretty good, and the selection.
SCOTT: If you look at the demographics of the customer we serve, 20 percent of our customers don't have checking accounts. We really have got a market share at the most challenged, financially -- citizens who have the most difficult time.
BROWN: Wal-Mart is so enormous, that no matter what it does and what it says, there will always be critics. What's new is the company can't afford to ignore those critics any longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: As we said, some of the reasons for Wal-Mart's troubles are pretty simple, some are not. "Fortune" magazine's Andy Serwer spent time reporting on the company and the family and he's talked to the critics as well, and he joins us tonight.
It's nice to see you. There is this kind of fascinating kind of love/hate thing, because clearly people love to shop there, though, the company's had better years.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes. Well, it's interesting to me, Aaron, you know, and I think a lot of the people who work at Wal- Mart have suggested that the critics of the company are people who aren't affected by higher gas prices, who don't need to shop at Wal- Mart, i.e. wealthy people and urbanites. There's a little bit of an us/them mentality going on. And like all things that the Wal-Mart people say, some of it's true and some of it maybe is not so accurate.
BROWN: When Wal-Mart was building its stores in little towns or medium towns, I guess. Did it have these troubles? Was it only when it came to the big cities it started to have these problems?
SERWER: Well, it's interesting, I think before the middle '90s, you know, Wal-Mart was not perceived as the big bad wolf that it is today. You know, there are a few communities, say in Vermont and Colorado, some outliers who would object to it coming in, but overall, it had a pretty benevolent reputation. And I think what's happened is that the noise has gotten a lot louder, particularly over the past five years. The company has been very dismissive: We don't care about the critics, don't worry, don't listen, the stock prices are going up, our customers are happy. But, the noise has gotten too loud to ignore, plus the stock hasn't gone up. And I really feel like Lee Scott, the CEO of the company, is preaching to those employees, those 1.2 million Americans that work there, saying "I'm going to stand up for you." He's concern about the morale, I think, Aaron.
BROWN: A couple of other things, just set the union stuff aside, I mean, I think people understand, this is a company, that's not alone in this, that aggressively fights to keep unions out.
SERWER: Yes.
BROWN: Setting that aside, one of the criticisms that strikes me as fair, I'm not sure it's Wal-Mart's fault exactly, it's fair, is that when a Wal-Mart moves in, the corner drugstore, or the corner hardware store, the corner haberdasher, if there's such a thing anymore, really can get, and often does get wiped out. And that can destroy a main street. SERWER: Right. Well, that's true, and I think what you have to look at, you know, sort of taking their perspective a little bit, Aaron, it's that not Wal-Mart who is not shopping at those stores anymore, it's all of us. We're going to the Wal-Mart and not going to the hardware store, because we're getting the hammer at the hardware store for $1.99 versus $5.99. And the other thing, I think, to point out here, again, sort of in Wal-Mart's defense, if you will, is that they're not the only company doing this. There is best buy, there is Costco, there's Amazon.com and eBay on line. So, there are a lot players driving prices down. Obviously they're the big kahuna, but it's a thing going on in the entire economy, I think.
BROWN: If you don't shop at Wal-Mart, do they impact your life? Are they so big, that in some respects they're able to set the market on certain products?
SERWER: Well, I think that's probably a valid point. You know, when you talk about say buying a bicycle or toys, for instance, I mean, Wal-Mart is the biggest toy retailer in the United States by far. You look at what's happened to Toys 'R' Us and FAO Schwartz, very difficult to compete. People benchmark it, "how cheap can I get it? Is it at Wal-Mart for 3.99, well why should I pay more than that?
BROWN: And venders desperately want to be in those stores. They will do, I presume, what Wal-Mart wants them to do to be there.
SERWER: There are all sorts of stories of pressure brought to bear on these venders by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart says, you know, we don't squeeze these people to death. Everyone has to make a living. Some venders say, you know, we're getting cut to the bone. And then, of course, there's the thing that venders feel compelled to manufacture off-shore, exporting jobs to China, another part of the Wal-Mart story.
BROWN: It's a great business story, it's nice to see you. You'll probably get up early for "American Morning" tomorrow.
SERWER: That's right.
BROWN: Thanks for staying up late tonight.
SERWER: Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you.
On to extreme weather and that happened again today. Good news for the West coast, though. The storm system, that destroyed so many homes and took so many lives, left the region. If only the weather report ended there tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just amazing how Mother Nature can ruin life in an incident.
BROWN (voice-over): Nature gave us no breaks today. In Utah, more than two dozen homes destroyed, some collapsing into the Santa Clara River. In Arkansas, an overnight tornado tore up 20 miles of Union County, two people died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tried to save my grandfather and just couldn't do it. As soon as I got out the front door, the tornado picked me up and threw me over into mom and dad's, right by their house. And I was flying, talking to god every minute of it. Yes, I didn't think I would make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We was laying in bed and I heard that noise coming and we started to get up and about that time, the end of the house blew off.
BROWN: In Ohio, flooding, literally, throughout the state, authorities advising more than 6,000 people to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It must have been solid ice. I just started sliding and I just couldn't help.
BROWN: And Denver, snow and ice led to a 28 car pile up on one highway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of the way, come one.
BROWN: And it's still only chance (PH).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Here's a quick look of some of the other stories that made headlines around the world today:
Palestinian militants are not yet listening to their newly elected leader.
Well, it's called an M2 disdarm (ph), at least seven people killed after a truck loaded with explosives blew up at a checkpoint in the northern part of the Gaza, five others were wounded. Three Palestinian militant groups claiming responsibility, saying they joined forces for the attack.
The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, could be investigating Armstrong Williams, one of the democratic commissioners who wants to know if the commentator broke any laws when he went on TV and radio supporting the president's No Child Left Behind act without disclosing that the Department of Education had paid him and his family, or rather his company, nearly a quarter of a million dollars to do just that.
My goodness.
Mr. Armstrong now says he should not have taken the money. He also says he sees no reason to pay it back. The White House today said, again, that it does not condone the torture of prisoners, it also denied a report in today's "New York Times" which claimed the White House tried to block a new law that would force the CIA and Pentagon to tell Congress exactly what those agencies do when they interrogate people in custody.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT tonight, in Iraq, what will it take to make the country safe for elections? How many Iraqi's may be left out of the voting?
Also ahead in our "CNN Security Watch" tonight, how computers are making it harder to fight the war on terror in a couple of instances. Two reasons to worry. We'll hear from homeland security director or Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson.
Just the sort of daily reminder, it is a war over there. The good news is for two days in a row, not one single American soldier has been killed in Iraq. In the past week alone, 13 Americans have died. That news is, indeed, good. Insurgents have stepped up their attacks and on the Iraqi security forces at least four police officers killed today. Of course, election day in Iraq is looming, just more than two weeks away. We have two reports tonight beginning with CNN's Jeff Koinange in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a wave of violence that seems never ending, more and more the target is the Shiite majority, likely to dominate after the January 30 elections. An aide to Iraq's highest Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, and a key supporter of the elections was killed Wednesday night as he was leaving a mosque. The aide's son and their body guards were also killed in the attack.
In Baghdad, gunmen kidnapped a Turkish businessman in the streets of the capital, killing his six Iraqi body guards. And for the second time in two weeks there's been two assassination attempts on Iraqi presidential candidate Mithal al-Alusi. The insurgency threatens to overshadow the first democratic election in more than four decades. Even as the Bush administration downplays expectations and admits the search for weapons of mass destruction is over with no weapons found.
"How can I not feel angry about this?" says this pharmaceutical student.
"My manage to the Americans is, get out. We will manage our own affair with his our own hands," says Mohamed, as store clerk.
But as the election approaches, the U.S. presence will grow, not shrink. With more than 150,000 troops available to back up Iraqi forces, securing some 5,000 polling areas on Election Day. There'll be more than 100,000 Iraqi forces available to protect the 13 million eligible voters in Iraq, of which the electoral commission expects more than half to vote.
FARHEED AYAR, Iraqi ELECTION SPOKESMAN: We expect eight million they will come to the election centers.
KOINANGE: Four provinces, making up about a quarter of the population, are still considered unsafe due to continuing insurgent activity: al-Anbar, Ninawa, Salaheddin, as well as parts of Baghdad province. And additional one million eligible Iraqi voters are spread out across the world. Iraq's interim prime minister admits the elections won't be perfect, but insists they go on as planned.
AHAD ALLAWI, INTERIM PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Certainly there are pockets who will not take part in these elections, but not many pockets.
KOINANGE: One group not participating, the Political Front for the Unity for Iraq, a loose coalition of mixed tribe, but dominated by the minority Sunnis. They say the country is simply too insecure for elections.
(on camera): As the Election Draws near, Iraq's beleaguered interim government finds its battering to unite a divided electorate, looking to convince them just to show up and vote.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: If all goes to plan, a mighty big if, all those U.S. troops will be nowhere near the voting booths on Election Day, but what they do between now and then will determine who does get to the polls in Iraq. The American role in the election is a complicated one. Reporting tonight from the Pentagon by CNN's Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq's 125,000 security forces will face their biggest challenge ever on January 30: Keeping the country calm enough, for just one day, so that Iraqis feel safe enough to go to the polls. If it goes well, the one thing you won't see, U.S. troops anywhere near a ballot box. The 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq will be on duty, but the U.S. military strategy, keep the troops behind the scenes and let Iraqis guard the polling places.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an Iraqi election and the Iraqi people need to see their security forces protecting those sites.
STARR: Top commanders are extraordinarily cautious.
LT. GEN. THOMAS METZ, U.S. GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: I can't guarantee you that every person in Iraq that wants to vote, goes to a polling booth and can do that safely.
STARR: U.S. Military commanders know they may, indeed have to back up Iraqi units that still have an uncertain track record in fighting the insurgents. The U.S. military role remains helping Iraqis plan election security, continuing to conduct missions against insurgents, providing nearby Election Day fire power if Iraqis request help. LARRY DIAMOND, HOOVER INSTITUTION: It will be somewhat awkward for American soldiers and Marines to be right in the polling booth. Many Iraqis will feel that that will be intimidating and unacceptable.
STARR: The U.S. has beefed up troops in the four key provinces of the Sunni Triangle, including parts of Baghdad that are most likely to see violence. This is 42 percent of Iraq's population. Any voting by Sunni minorities here would be critical.
(on camera): Finding a way for Iraqis to safely vote is the top priority. One potential idea, consolidate the number of polling places so there are less targets to defend against Election Day attacks. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the story tonight bearing on Iraq, the defense rested today in the court martial of Army Specialist Charles Graner, the alleged ring leader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. All defense lawyers face the delicate question of whether or not to have a client testify in court under oath. At the beginning of the court martial, Graner's attorney said they would hear from the defendant, but cross examination turned out to be the greater risk. Reporting tonight, CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Specialist Charles Graner left court upbeat after a surprise decision not to take the stand to defend himself.
(on camera): Were you disappointed you didn't get a chance to talk to the jury yourself?
SPECIALIST CHARLES GRANER, U.S. ARMY: No, no, I wasn't and I'm still smiling.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The decision came from Graner's attorney.
(on camera): You told the jury they would expect -- that they could expect to hear from Specialist Graner.
DAVE WOMACK, GRANER'S ATTORNEY: And they have through the other evidence. They have heard from him vicariously and that's always the best way to do that.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Much of what they heard was not good, the most damaging testimony coming from three fellow guards who pleaded guilty in the Abu Ghraib scandal. One said she saw Graner put a leash around this detainees neck. Another said Graner punched a prisoner moments after this photo was taken. A sergeant said it was Graner alone who arranged Iraqis in a naked human pyramid. But the same witness cleared of orchestrating this scene of sexual humiliation. That guard said he did it. Graner's lawyer military intelligence set the tone for the abuse. One guard, Megan Ambual (PH), who disclosed she had a fling with Graner, said intelligence agents ordered her to watch prisoners in the shower and mock them. Asked, did her testimony help Graner, she said "I hope it did." So do Graner's parents.
EMMA (PH) GRANER, MOTHER: I love my son, my husband loves our son. We both do. We're very, very proud of him.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): The jury will hear closing arguments in the morning. By this time tomorrow night, Graner, a prison guard for most of his career, could learn whether he'll spend the next several years on the wrong side of the bars.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight in western Sumatra, more than 2,000 people once lived in this village, barely 10 percent survived the tsunami. Nissen tells their story, tonight.
Foreign troops, including the U.S. military, particularly the U.S. military, providing crucial aid to the region, now Indonesia says they must leave by spring. What that deadline means after the break. This is NEWSNIGHT AROUND THE WORLD.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Even before the tsunami struck, life in much of Indonesia was precarious torn by civil wars, home to Islamic terrorist cells. The country has been considered a travel risk for Americans for some time. Today, the U.S. State Department issued a new warning, advising Americans to avoid those areas of Indonesia damaged by the tsunami because of the ongoing terrorist threats and the insurgency. This, as Indonesia gave foreign troops providing tsunami relief of the citizens of that country a deadline to get out. From he State Department, CNN's Andrea Koppel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As images like these were beamed back to the United States, Americans opened their hearts and wallets, pledging an unprecedented $350 million, matching the U.S. government pledge dollar for dollar. Now, one of the hardest-hit countries, Indonesia, is ordering all foreign troops, including the U.S. military, to leave Aceh province by March 26.
HARRY PURWANTO, DEP. CHIEF OF MISSION, INDONESIA EMBASSY: It has already been decided that that's the date when all plans will be geared to that date.
KOPPEL: The Bush administration says that's news to the U.S.
RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: The Indonesians are not saying we don't need the help. Go home. KOPPEL: (on camera): They are.
BOUCHER: No, they're not.
KOPPEL: Yeah, they are.
BOUCHER: They're not saying it to us.
KOPPEL (voice-over): But that is exactly what Harry Purwanto, one of Indonesia's most senior diplomats in Washington told CNN.
PURWANTO: After the 26th of March, all will be taken care of by Indonesians.
KOPPEL: On radio, talk shows reaction was heated.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, "RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW": To me, it's almost a miracle they're giving us three months to get our military out of there. I had the same reaction you did. These ingrates!
PURWANTO: But, Indonesia insists it is grateful for the outpouring of American aid, the concern that Indonesian separatists in Aceh province, hardest hit by the tsunami, might seize upon the presence of hundreds of foreign troops to help their cause.
(on camera): A senior U.S. official told CNN, the U.S. believes the Indonesian government, which only recently took office, may be trying to reassure Indonesians they're still in control. But, when push comes to shove, this official said, we'll allow the U.S. military to stay as long as it needs to get the job done.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is, in the telling of tsunami stories, a danger. They run together some after a while, there's only so much grief we can bear to watch. In that regard, it's important for those of us who tell the stories and for those of you who watch them, to look beyond the grief and the loss. Look ahead at the work to do, the work being done. Beth Nissan tonight on a village that once was on the tip of Aceh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is or was the village of Clincha Rue (ph), one of hundreds of small villages near Aceh province. Before the disaster, say the villagers who survived, this was pleasant place. The word they use is "sweet." Rice farmers lived here and shopkeepers, mechanics. Luc Man, 43, is a truck driver, he was away on a long haul trip that awful day. Came back to find his village, his house, his family gone, as if brushed off the surface of the earth by a giant hand.
"Everything is destroyed, unidentifiable," he says. "I was shocked." He heard that some from the village had escaped, clutched onto logs, scrambled onto rooftops into high tree branches. Lukman (ph) found a stunned group of his neighbors in a nearby town living in the yard of a donated house, sharing one well, one bucket, one pot for rice, about 250 men, women and children, all that was left of a village of more than 2,000.
So many were lost. In camp, there were now only five married couples. The rest of the married villagers were sudden widowers, widows. Erma Rosita's (ph) woman's husband, Azhari (ph), disappeared in a violent swirl of sea water. They were newlyweds.
"I just got married December 24," she says, "two days before this happened." She lost her mother, her sister. Only her 16-year-old brother, Suleman (ph), survived. They are all helping take care of each other and the dozens of village children who have lost parents; 30 village children were orphaned by the tsunami, including 15-year- old Munazar (ph). He often sits apart from the others, thinking about how his mother used to read him stories, twisting and ringing an undershirt like the ones his father used to wear.
Munazar thinks he should go search for the bodies of his parents, his three brothers, but says he can't, not yet.
"I don't want to return there," he says. "I'm so afraid to be there."
Many villagers are afraid to go back, afraid the earth will break and tremble again, send the deadly waters raging back. Lukman (ph) had to force himself to return to Clinsharun (ph), to the cement square that is all there is of home, to set out from there in wide, sad circles, searching for some sign of his wife, his 10-year-old son.
"From here, I have looked all over," he says, "especially over there. That's where corpses and things went." Half a mile away, a line of trees and low-rises caught an unholy tangle of splinted furniture, branches and bodies. This is where Indonesian soldiers are finding most of the bodies from the village, wrapping them in blue plastic, collecting them for burial in a mass grave just up the road. Lukman (ph) had wanted to find his wife and son, give them a proper burial, but says that is not to be.
"Allah has decided not to reunite us," he says. "I leave all this to him. I have surrendered." This is where the village of Clinsharun (ph) stood weeks ago. This is the village of Clinsharun (ph) now and for months, maybe years to come.
Beth Nissen, CNN, Aceh Province, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, CNN "Security Watch," a problem in getting counterterrorism information to those who need it most. And the no-fly list for jetliners, are they effective?
A break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Topping CNN's "Security Watch" tonight, what looks like a multimillion dollar software failure at the FBI, a system that was supposed to allow agents to share counterterrorism information faster.
Top bureau officials now say the virtual case file system simply doesn't work and that a suitable commercial system is available. It took four years to develop the system, $170 million. Since 9/11, the FBI's goal has been to get counterterrorism information out faster to the nation's intelligence community.
The Department of Homeland Security will soon unveil a new security procedure at New York's JFK airport. It's designed to speed up immigration checks on international travelers. But even if it were already in place, it would have done little to help the passengers aboard a New York-bound British Airways jet yesterday. It was turned back to London mid-flight after a passenger was found to be on board also on a list of people not allowed in this country, at least the third time this has happened.
So, why is it so hard to keep people with suspected links to terror off airplanes? We talked earlier today with Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary of homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, Mr. Secretary, once again earlier this week, we had one of those flights that came out of Europe and got airborne and then was forced to turn back because there was someone on it who the United States government didn't want in the country. Why can't we stop these planes from taking off in the first place?
ASA HUTCHINSON, UNDERSECRETARY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, there's two reasons for that.
First of all, we, right now, rely upon the airlines to do the check between the passenger manifest and the watch list. And, quite frankly, they do not get it every time just right. They're not trained law enforcement professionals. That needs to be changed. And so, in this instance, the plane got in the air. The information, the passenger list was provided to the government. Homeland Security officials made the comparison, quickly identified a no-fly list passenger on the plane and directed that it could not enter our airspace or had to be diverted when it came into our airspace.
That's when the decision was made to return it. And so, we need to get the information earlier in advance. Secondly, we need to have the government making these checks, rather than rely upon the airlines, because that's not what they're trained to do. That's the reason for it. We're in the process of this transition. We need to complete that.
BROWN: All right, let's talk about both those things. Why is it that -- why is it that, in the first instance, government doesn't make this determination? Is there something I'm missing here? We have government now checking our bags when we go through security. Government employees are doing all that. Why aren't government agents, for lack of a better word, making the check now?
HUTCHINSON: Well, this was a system that was set up initially after 9/11, where we compile the no-fly list, but that information then is provided to the airlines. And they're not supposed to issue a ticket. It was set up that way because it was the most efficient system at the time.
We certainly now understand we need to change that system, but it takes a reconfiguring of the whole I.T. systems and it takes some real changes. And so, we are actually having to test that, what we call secure flight, so that we would take ownership of both the list and the check itself. Again, right now, we have to rely upon the airlines and we can do a better job than what we're doing right now.
BROWN: So, like so many other things in life, this comes down to a computer problem?
HUTCHINSON: Well, it's a little bit more than that.
For example, right now, that you have a name that's confusingly similar. We have to rely upon the airlines to do that check. We can make the check a lot quicker, but we're getting the information after the plane takes off in the air. Why is that the case? Because the airlines have traditionally not had all of the manifests in place until they close the door, and so they couldn't physically get it to us until after that was accomplished, because you have last-minute passengers.
We're trying to change the rule, looking to change the rule to get it earlier. This takes a complete reconfiguration of the way we do airline business. So, it's not an easy issue for the airlines to change all of a sudden rather than 30 minutes before the plane takes off, we're going to cut the passenger list off. We have to move it further in advance.
BROWN: Let me ask one other thing on this.
This may sound stupid, but why not let the flight continue on and detain the person or -- when we get into the United States, rather than sending it back and, I guess, inconveniencing all the people who are on that flight?
HUTCHINSON: Well, actually, we have done that on some occasions. The first decision was made to divert this flight to Bangor, Maine, which is right after it gets into our airspace, but before it gets into New York City or Washington, D.C., area.
And so that has been done in the past. In this case, that direction was given and British Airways made the decision, let's turn it back. And so, they still had control of the plane before it got here, and they made that decision, probably thinking it was less inconvenient for the passengers.
Two important things. One, we're not going to do anything to compromise the safety of the passengers. We're going to make the best judgments when we get the right information. BROWN: Do you think a year from now, we'll still be having this problem?
HUTCHINSON: No. In fact, we're still testing a system. And our goal is by August to have a completely different system in place. We're really in transition right now, as we expand, get better intelligence on the names that go on the no-fly list.
And then, secondly, we're testing the system where we can take ownership of it.
BROWN: Mr. Secretary, we appreciate your good and hard work in this.
HUTCHINSON: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary of homeland security.
Ahead on the program, you'll meet a woman who makes art for the home the old-fashioned way, one picture at a time, part of our series "On the Rise."
Also on the rise, well, sunrise, that is, morning papers.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: One of the themes we've touched upon tonight, albeit indirectly, is the entrepreneur. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, surely was that. Started out as a small retailer, the company now global. And his family is the richest in America.
Then there's the entrepreneur with a smaller dream, a dream to do what they love to do and make a decent living at it.
Maggie Lindley is one such person. And she is the focus of tonight's "On the Rise."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAGGIE LINDLEY, ARTIST: Maggie Lindley Designs is an art company. It's based on the work that I have done in the past couple years. It's writings. It's a story on canvas. It started off, our main line is a stretched canvas.
What inspires me are words. In my own home, I have got words all over the walls.
Actually, I'll do hot pink and dark apple.
Essentially, it's a shape in the middle of the canvas, a word written on the shape and then whatever I'm thinking at the moment about the word in the middle. The times when it's most rewarding is when somebody looks at our canvases and reads around the edge and they get all teary-eyed. And I actually remember one woman who said, you wrote this for me.
We work in our home. It's actually something that we usually don't tell everybody. Our studio is in our backyard. Thankfully, it's not connected, so no paint fumes get in the house. And the office is right off the kitchen.
A year and a half ago, we were nonexistent, really, to the wholesale community. And we are in now about 200 stores, and growth, exponential growth every year. We love that we're homegrown, that we're small, that we can really cater to our stores. And they love that. They find our product and they feel like they've found a little treasure that they can put in their store, because they're small. They talk to the artist half the time that they call.
My name is Maggie Lindley with Maggie Lindley Designs. You guys placed an order for our canvasses with a word in the middle.
I do all the sales, all the talking to all the customers.
OK. All right. Thanks, Kristin (ph). Goodbye.
I like that part.
So, Maggie Lindley Designs them and she boxes them still.
This is not a 9:00-5:00 operation. It feels like about an 8:00- 1:00-in-the-morning operation. And that's OK, because it's growing and we are workaholics.
People told us they actually like the charm of a fairly earthy kind of company that makes it feel like a product that they have found. It just adds to the charm of it.
I would love for Maggie Lindley Designs to be a product line that creates good, fun things for your home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight, CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," looks back at the remarkable journey of on Dr. Mae Jemison. To borrow a cliche, she reached for the stars. And, in her case, she actually got to touch them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAE JEMISON, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: You know, when you're growing up, you have lots of things you want to do. I always assumed I would go into space.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition and lift-off! MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On September 12th, 1992, at the age of 35, DR. Mae Jemison boldly went where no African-American woman had gone before.
JEMISON: It was really after we got on orbit that I had a sensation that I belonged anywhere in this universe.
O'BRIEN: Jemison makes it her life mission to explore the universe in every way she can. This high achiever is also a chemical engineer, peace corps veteran, physician, author and teacher.
In 1994, Jemison started an international science camp for teens called The Earth We Share. These days, Jemison is the founder and president of the BioSentient Corporation, where she is working on a device that provides mobile monitoring of people's nervous systems.
JEMISON: We think there are real applications in the future for trying to identify certain diseases. It can also help people monitor how effective drugs are.
O'BRIEN: In addition to her work in the sciences, Jemison says she may one day explore the field of politics.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: I love this series. Throughout the year, CNN will look back at major stories from the last 25 years, as we mark a quarter-of- a-century of bringing you the news. We'll revisit the stories that touched our lives and find out what happened to yesterday's newsmakers.
We'll look at tomorrow's papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okeydoke. That was, okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I jumped the cue a little bit there. Sorry, Robert.
We'll start with "The Sun," because how can you resist? If you do morning papers, you do this at home, you would start this way, too. "Harry the Nazi." OK, this is Prince Harry. He's the younger and apparently the dumber of the two. I mean, give that guy a good talking-to, take away his inheritance. It's not like he ever has a job or anything.
"International Herald Tribune," speaking of dumb. "Le Pen," Jean-Marie -- I'll take my glasses off -- Le Pen, the French wacko, OK? "Le Pen Calls Nazis Not So Inhumane. Now, you wonder where Prince Harry gets these ideas.
"Stars and Stripes." "Major League Players Adopt Tougher Steroid Policy. Pact Includes More Frequent Testing, Penalty For First-Time Offenders." Prince Harry made the cover of that one, too. He apologized for wearing the Nazi costume. "To anyone who might have been offended," he said. Imagine. "The Oregonian." "Oregon's" -- I'm obsessing on this, aren't I? "Oregon's Economy Punches Back In. State Adds 34,000 Jobs in 2004, Biggest Year-Over-Year Increase Since the Downturn." "Bush Says Retirement Program Troubled. President Continues to Push Partial Privatization of Social Security," the big battle of the year ahead.
"A Spirited Weekend." "Chattanooga Times Free Press." "More Than 6,000 Cheerleaders Compete For Titles." And that made the front page of the paper. So, good for them. We wish them good luck.
"Philadelphia Inquirer." "U.S. Airways" -- man, it's got nothing but trouble, doesn't it? -- "Gets a Financial Lifeline. Judge Extends a Deal That May Give It Enough Cash to Survive a Winter Slowdown." This is a great story, actually. The president, in an interview with ABC, says the "bring 'em on" -- remember when he said to the insurgents "bring 'em on"? -- was a mistake. He also said "dead and alive" wasn't a very smart thing to say.
The weather for tomorrow in Chicago, for those of you traveling, "wicked."
We'll all be back here tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us then. Until, 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 January 13, 2005 - 13:30 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 everyone, the program begins to night with a story of love and hate, not to mention low, low prices. It's just one of the stops we'll make along the road.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER (voice-over): The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, launches an enormous P.R. campaign. Why, in the face of all it's success, does it feel unloved?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think of it as much as defending the company as I do setting the record straight.
In Iraq, January 30 elections day fast approaching, violence escalating. We'll focus on four regions where it may be too dangerous to vote, they are home to a quarter or Iraq's people.
Keeping the Iraqi's safe enough to vote: The enormous challenge facing 150,00 U.S. troops. We'll look at the role they'll play.
In south Asia, the countries hit hardest by the tsunami, gives American troops a deadline to get out. Indonesia, fair say, is a complicated place.
And on the final day of testimony in his court martial, the alleged ringleader in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal does not take the stand, though his lawyers had promised he would.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Those stories and more ahead in the hour ahead, an hour that begins with the Wal-Mart store.
Everyone loves Wal-Mart, except for those who hate it. Its big stores, low pricing, has both people flocking to buy and others flocking to protest. Now, in truth, more people love it than hate it, or it wouldn't be the success is, but the fight has gotten so big and so nasty, the giant, for all its power, has come out of its shell in Arkansas to begin fighting back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It's the world's largest retailer with sales larger than the gross domestic product of more than 100 countries. Clearly shoppers love it, but the giant feels wildly unloved. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not paying their employees near what they're -- near what they're worth.
LEE SCOTT, CEO WAL-MART: We have a great story to tell and it is time for us to tell that story.
BROWN: Much of criticism comes from unions. Wal-Mart fights unions tooth and nail. But, even the company concedes there area real issues. While it is welcome in many places, it is fought in others more and more, it sees; from California to Vermont to Texas.
The criticisms are varied: Wal-Mart causes traffic nightmares; Wal-Mart pays its employees badly; Wal-Mart, because of its sheer size and pricing power, sucks the oxygen out of small local businesses.
Wal-Mart said that the ad campaign that began today is just the beginning of a new, more aggressive counter-attack by the company.
SCOTT: I don't think of it as much as defending the company as I do setting the record straight.
BROWN: Wal-Mart use to win practically every time it fought a battle over where to put a store or where to expand, but even though it spent nearly half-a-million dollars trying to get a store built in the Los Angeles suburb of Englewood, last year, it failed. For, as reasons, critics say, are as much cultural as economic.
GREG DENIER, UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKER UNION: It's women's groups, it's worker organization, it's religious and community groups saying, if you want to operate in our community, you have to be a positive employer, you have to be a responsible corporate citizen, and you have to be a responsible member of our community.
BROWN: Wal-Mart, no doubt, believes it is a good and responsible member of the community, but is also a defendant in the largest class action lawsuit in the United States these days, a lawsuit that claims women who have been work for the company have been paid lower than men for the same work, and have been denied promotions.
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: People are watching what happens Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the county. If Wal-Mart is allowed to get away this kind of discrimination, then other companies will watch that carefully. If Wal-Mart, the largest employer, is told, no, you can't discriminate against women, then that message will be heard by everyone.
BROWN: Wal-Mart says it does not discriminate against women and is aggressively defending itself. Sure it concede wages are not high at Wal-Mart, but it's prices are so low that without Wal-Mart, millions of Americans wouldn't be able to afford the things they believe they must have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know the prices are pretty good and the quality of the products is pretty good, and the selection.
SCOTT: If you look at the demographics of the customer we serve, 20 percent of our customers don't have checking accounts. We really have got a market share at the most challenged, financially -- citizens who have the most difficult time.
BROWN: Wal-Mart is so enormous, that no matter what it does and what it says, there will always be critics. What's new is the company can't afford to ignore those critics any longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: As we said, some of the reasons for Wal-Mart's troubles are pretty simple, some are not. "Fortune" magazine's Andy Serwer spent time reporting on the company and the family and he's talked to the critics as well, and he joins us tonight.
It's nice to see you. There is this kind of fascinating kind of love/hate thing, because clearly people love to shop there, though, the company's had better years.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes. Well, it's interesting to me, Aaron, you know, and I think a lot of the people who work at Wal- Mart have suggested that the critics of the company are people who aren't affected by higher gas prices, who don't need to shop at Wal- Mart, i.e. wealthy people and urbanites. There's a little bit of an us/them mentality going on. And like all things that the Wal-Mart people say, some of it's true and some of it maybe is not so accurate.
BROWN: When Wal-Mart was building its stores in little towns or medium towns, I guess. Did it have these troubles? Was it only when it came to the big cities it started to have these problems?
SERWER: Well, it's interesting, I think before the middle '90s, you know, Wal-Mart was not perceived as the big bad wolf that it is today. You know, there are a few communities, say in Vermont and Colorado, some outliers who would object to it coming in, but overall, it had a pretty benevolent reputation. And I think what's happened is that the noise has gotten a lot louder, particularly over the past five years. The company has been very dismissive: We don't care about the critics, don't worry, don't listen, the stock prices are going up, our customers are happy. But, the noise has gotten too loud to ignore, plus the stock hasn't gone up. And I really feel like Lee Scott, the CEO of the company, is preaching to those employees, those 1.2 million Americans that work there, saying "I'm going to stand up for you." He's concern about the morale, I think, Aaron.
BROWN: A couple of other things, just set the union stuff aside, I mean, I think people understand, this is a company, that's not alone in this, that aggressively fights to keep unions out.
SERWER: Yes.
BROWN: Setting that aside, one of the criticisms that strikes me as fair, I'm not sure it's Wal-Mart's fault exactly, it's fair, is that when a Wal-Mart moves in, the corner drugstore, or the corner hardware store, the corner haberdasher, if there's such a thing anymore, really can get, and often does get wiped out. And that can destroy a main street. SERWER: Right. Well, that's true, and I think what you have to look at, you know, sort of taking their perspective a little bit, Aaron, it's that not Wal-Mart who is not shopping at those stores anymore, it's all of us. We're going to the Wal-Mart and not going to the hardware store, because we're getting the hammer at the hardware store for $1.99 versus $5.99. And the other thing, I think, to point out here, again, sort of in Wal-Mart's defense, if you will, is that they're not the only company doing this. There is best buy, there is Costco, there's Amazon.com and eBay on line. So, there are a lot players driving prices down. Obviously they're the big kahuna, but it's a thing going on in the entire economy, I think.
BROWN: If you don't shop at Wal-Mart, do they impact your life? Are they so big, that in some respects they're able to set the market on certain products?
SERWER: Well, I think that's probably a valid point. You know, when you talk about say buying a bicycle or toys, for instance, I mean, Wal-Mart is the biggest toy retailer in the United States by far. You look at what's happened to Toys 'R' Us and FAO Schwartz, very difficult to compete. People benchmark it, "how cheap can I get it? Is it at Wal-Mart for 3.99, well why should I pay more than that?
BROWN: And venders desperately want to be in those stores. They will do, I presume, what Wal-Mart wants them to do to be there.
SERWER: There are all sorts of stories of pressure brought to bear on these venders by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart says, you know, we don't squeeze these people to death. Everyone has to make a living. Some venders say, you know, we're getting cut to the bone. And then, of course, there's the thing that venders feel compelled to manufacture off-shore, exporting jobs to China, another part of the Wal-Mart story.
BROWN: It's a great business story, it's nice to see you. You'll probably get up early for "American Morning" tomorrow.
SERWER: That's right.
BROWN: Thanks for staying up late tonight.
SERWER: Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you.
On to extreme weather and that happened again today. Good news for the West coast, though. The storm system, that destroyed so many homes and took so many lives, left the region. If only the weather report ended there tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just amazing how Mother Nature can ruin life in an incident.
BROWN (voice-over): Nature gave us no breaks today. In Utah, more than two dozen homes destroyed, some collapsing into the Santa Clara River. In Arkansas, an overnight tornado tore up 20 miles of Union County, two people died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tried to save my grandfather and just couldn't do it. As soon as I got out the front door, the tornado picked me up and threw me over into mom and dad's, right by their house. And I was flying, talking to god every minute of it. Yes, I didn't think I would make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We was laying in bed and I heard that noise coming and we started to get up and about that time, the end of the house blew off.
BROWN: In Ohio, flooding, literally, throughout the state, authorities advising more than 6,000 people to evacuate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It must have been solid ice. I just started sliding and I just couldn't help.
BROWN: And Denver, snow and ice led to a 28 car pile up on one highway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of the way, come one.
BROWN: And it's still only chance (PH).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Here's a quick look of some of the other stories that made headlines around the world today:
Palestinian militants are not yet listening to their newly elected leader.
Well, it's called an M2 disdarm (ph), at least seven people killed after a truck loaded with explosives blew up at a checkpoint in the northern part of the Gaza, five others were wounded. Three Palestinian militant groups claiming responsibility, saying they joined forces for the attack.
The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, could be investigating Armstrong Williams, one of the democratic commissioners who wants to know if the commentator broke any laws when he went on TV and radio supporting the president's No Child Left Behind act without disclosing that the Department of Education had paid him and his family, or rather his company, nearly a quarter of a million dollars to do just that.
My goodness.
Mr. Armstrong now says he should not have taken the money. He also says he sees no reason to pay it back. The White House today said, again, that it does not condone the torture of prisoners, it also denied a report in today's "New York Times" which claimed the White House tried to block a new law that would force the CIA and Pentagon to tell Congress exactly what those agencies do when they interrogate people in custody.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT tonight, in Iraq, what will it take to make the country safe for elections? How many Iraqi's may be left out of the voting?
Also ahead in our "CNN Security Watch" tonight, how computers are making it harder to fight the war on terror in a couple of instances. Two reasons to worry. We'll hear from homeland security director or Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson.
Just the sort of daily reminder, it is a war over there. The good news is for two days in a row, not one single American soldier has been killed in Iraq. In the past week alone, 13 Americans have died. That news is, indeed, good. Insurgents have stepped up their attacks and on the Iraqi security forces at least four police officers killed today. Of course, election day in Iraq is looming, just more than two weeks away. We have two reports tonight beginning with CNN's Jeff Koinange in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a wave of violence that seems never ending, more and more the target is the Shiite majority, likely to dominate after the January 30 elections. An aide to Iraq's highest Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, and a key supporter of the elections was killed Wednesday night as he was leaving a mosque. The aide's son and their body guards were also killed in the attack.
In Baghdad, gunmen kidnapped a Turkish businessman in the streets of the capital, killing his six Iraqi body guards. And for the second time in two weeks there's been two assassination attempts on Iraqi presidential candidate Mithal al-Alusi. The insurgency threatens to overshadow the first democratic election in more than four decades. Even as the Bush administration downplays expectations and admits the search for weapons of mass destruction is over with no weapons found.
"How can I not feel angry about this?" says this pharmaceutical student.
"My manage to the Americans is, get out. We will manage our own affair with his our own hands," says Mohamed, as store clerk.
But as the election approaches, the U.S. presence will grow, not shrink. With more than 150,000 troops available to back up Iraqi forces, securing some 5,000 polling areas on Election Day. There'll be more than 100,000 Iraqi forces available to protect the 13 million eligible voters in Iraq, of which the electoral commission expects more than half to vote.
FARHEED AYAR, Iraqi ELECTION SPOKESMAN: We expect eight million they will come to the election centers.
KOINANGE: Four provinces, making up about a quarter of the population, are still considered unsafe due to continuing insurgent activity: al-Anbar, Ninawa, Salaheddin, as well as parts of Baghdad province. And additional one million eligible Iraqi voters are spread out across the world. Iraq's interim prime minister admits the elections won't be perfect, but insists they go on as planned.
AHAD ALLAWI, INTERIM PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Certainly there are pockets who will not take part in these elections, but not many pockets.
KOINANGE: One group not participating, the Political Front for the Unity for Iraq, a loose coalition of mixed tribe, but dominated by the minority Sunnis. They say the country is simply too insecure for elections.
(on camera): As the Election Draws near, Iraq's beleaguered interim government finds its battering to unite a divided electorate, looking to convince them just to show up and vote.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: If all goes to plan, a mighty big if, all those U.S. troops will be nowhere near the voting booths on Election Day, but what they do between now and then will determine who does get to the polls in Iraq. The American role in the election is a complicated one. Reporting tonight from the Pentagon by CNN's Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq's 125,000 security forces will face their biggest challenge ever on January 30: Keeping the country calm enough, for just one day, so that Iraqis feel safe enough to go to the polls. If it goes well, the one thing you won't see, U.S. troops anywhere near a ballot box. The 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq will be on duty, but the U.S. military strategy, keep the troops behind the scenes and let Iraqis guard the polling places.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an Iraqi election and the Iraqi people need to see their security forces protecting those sites.
STARR: Top commanders are extraordinarily cautious.
LT. GEN. THOMAS METZ, U.S. GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: I can't guarantee you that every person in Iraq that wants to vote, goes to a polling booth and can do that safely.
STARR: U.S. Military commanders know they may, indeed have to back up Iraqi units that still have an uncertain track record in fighting the insurgents. The U.S. military role remains helping Iraqis plan election security, continuing to conduct missions against insurgents, providing nearby Election Day fire power if Iraqis request help. LARRY DIAMOND, HOOVER INSTITUTION: It will be somewhat awkward for American soldiers and Marines to be right in the polling booth. Many Iraqis will feel that that will be intimidating and unacceptable.
STARR: The U.S. has beefed up troops in the four key provinces of the Sunni Triangle, including parts of Baghdad that are most likely to see violence. This is 42 percent of Iraq's population. Any voting by Sunni minorities here would be critical.
(on camera): Finding a way for Iraqis to safely vote is the top priority. One potential idea, consolidate the number of polling places so there are less targets to defend against Election Day attacks. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On the story tonight bearing on Iraq, the defense rested today in the court martial of Army Specialist Charles Graner, the alleged ring leader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. All defense lawyers face the delicate question of whether or not to have a client testify in court under oath. At the beginning of the court martial, Graner's attorney said they would hear from the defendant, but cross examination turned out to be the greater risk. Reporting tonight, CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Specialist Charles Graner left court upbeat after a surprise decision not to take the stand to defend himself.
(on camera): Were you disappointed you didn't get a chance to talk to the jury yourself?
SPECIALIST CHARLES GRANER, U.S. ARMY: No, no, I wasn't and I'm still smiling.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The decision came from Graner's attorney.
(on camera): You told the jury they would expect -- that they could expect to hear from Specialist Graner.
DAVE WOMACK, GRANER'S ATTORNEY: And they have through the other evidence. They have heard from him vicariously and that's always the best way to do that.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Much of what they heard was not good, the most damaging testimony coming from three fellow guards who pleaded guilty in the Abu Ghraib scandal. One said she saw Graner put a leash around this detainees neck. Another said Graner punched a prisoner moments after this photo was taken. A sergeant said it was Graner alone who arranged Iraqis in a naked human pyramid. But the same witness cleared of orchestrating this scene of sexual humiliation. That guard said he did it. Graner's lawyer military intelligence set the tone for the abuse. One guard, Megan Ambual (PH), who disclosed she had a fling with Graner, said intelligence agents ordered her to watch prisoners in the shower and mock them. Asked, did her testimony help Graner, she said "I hope it did." So do Graner's parents.
EMMA (PH) GRANER, MOTHER: I love my son, my husband loves our son. We both do. We're very, very proud of him.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): The jury will hear closing arguments in the morning. By this time tomorrow night, Graner, a prison guard for most of his career, could learn whether he'll spend the next several years on the wrong side of the bars.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fort Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight in western Sumatra, more than 2,000 people once lived in this village, barely 10 percent survived the tsunami. Nissen tells their story, tonight.
Foreign troops, including the U.S. military, particularly the U.S. military, providing crucial aid to the region, now Indonesia says they must leave by spring. What that deadline means after the break. This is NEWSNIGHT AROUND THE WORLD.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Even before the tsunami struck, life in much of Indonesia was precarious torn by civil wars, home to Islamic terrorist cells. The country has been considered a travel risk for Americans for some time. Today, the U.S. State Department issued a new warning, advising Americans to avoid those areas of Indonesia damaged by the tsunami because of the ongoing terrorist threats and the insurgency. This, as Indonesia gave foreign troops providing tsunami relief of the citizens of that country a deadline to get out. From he State Department, CNN's Andrea Koppel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As images like these were beamed back to the United States, Americans opened their hearts and wallets, pledging an unprecedented $350 million, matching the U.S. government pledge dollar for dollar. Now, one of the hardest-hit countries, Indonesia, is ordering all foreign troops, including the U.S. military, to leave Aceh province by March 26.
HARRY PURWANTO, DEP. CHIEF OF MISSION, INDONESIA EMBASSY: It has already been decided that that's the date when all plans will be geared to that date.
KOPPEL: The Bush administration says that's news to the U.S.
RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: The Indonesians are not saying we don't need the help. Go home. KOPPEL: (on camera): They are.
BOUCHER: No, they're not.
KOPPEL: Yeah, they are.
BOUCHER: They're not saying it to us.
KOPPEL (voice-over): But that is exactly what Harry Purwanto, one of Indonesia's most senior diplomats in Washington told CNN.
PURWANTO: After the 26th of March, all will be taken care of by Indonesians.
KOPPEL: On radio, talk shows reaction was heated.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, "RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW": To me, it's almost a miracle they're giving us three months to get our military out of there. I had the same reaction you did. These ingrates!
PURWANTO: But, Indonesia insists it is grateful for the outpouring of American aid, the concern that Indonesian separatists in Aceh province, hardest hit by the tsunami, might seize upon the presence of hundreds of foreign troops to help their cause.
(on camera): A senior U.S. official told CNN, the U.S. believes the Indonesian government, which only recently took office, may be trying to reassure Indonesians they're still in control. But, when push comes to shove, this official said, we'll allow the U.S. military to stay as long as it needs to get the job done.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is, in the telling of tsunami stories, a danger. They run together some after a while, there's only so much grief we can bear to watch. In that regard, it's important for those of us who tell the stories and for those of you who watch them, to look beyond the grief and the loss. Look ahead at the work to do, the work being done. Beth Nissan tonight on a village that once was on the tip of Aceh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is or was the village of Clincha Rue (ph), one of hundreds of small villages near Aceh province. Before the disaster, say the villagers who survived, this was pleasant place. The word they use is "sweet." Rice farmers lived here and shopkeepers, mechanics. Luc Man, 43, is a truck driver, he was away on a long haul trip that awful day. Came back to find his village, his house, his family gone, as if brushed off the surface of the earth by a giant hand.
"Everything is destroyed, unidentifiable," he says. "I was shocked." He heard that some from the village had escaped, clutched onto logs, scrambled onto rooftops into high tree branches. Lukman (ph) found a stunned group of his neighbors in a nearby town living in the yard of a donated house, sharing one well, one bucket, one pot for rice, about 250 men, women and children, all that was left of a village of more than 2,000.
So many were lost. In camp, there were now only five married couples. The rest of the married villagers were sudden widowers, widows. Erma Rosita's (ph) woman's husband, Azhari (ph), disappeared in a violent swirl of sea water. They were newlyweds.
"I just got married December 24," she says, "two days before this happened." She lost her mother, her sister. Only her 16-year-old brother, Suleman (ph), survived. They are all helping take care of each other and the dozens of village children who have lost parents; 30 village children were orphaned by the tsunami, including 15-year- old Munazar (ph). He often sits apart from the others, thinking about how his mother used to read him stories, twisting and ringing an undershirt like the ones his father used to wear.
Munazar thinks he should go search for the bodies of his parents, his three brothers, but says he can't, not yet.
"I don't want to return there," he says. "I'm so afraid to be there."
Many villagers are afraid to go back, afraid the earth will break and tremble again, send the deadly waters raging back. Lukman (ph) had to force himself to return to Clinsharun (ph), to the cement square that is all there is of home, to set out from there in wide, sad circles, searching for some sign of his wife, his 10-year-old son.
"From here, I have looked all over," he says, "especially over there. That's where corpses and things went." Half a mile away, a line of trees and low-rises caught an unholy tangle of splinted furniture, branches and bodies. This is where Indonesian soldiers are finding most of the bodies from the village, wrapping them in blue plastic, collecting them for burial in a mass grave just up the road. Lukman (ph) had wanted to find his wife and son, give them a proper burial, but says that is not to be.
"Allah has decided not to reunite us," he says. "I leave all this to him. I have surrendered." This is where the village of Clinsharun (ph) stood weeks ago. This is the village of Clinsharun (ph) now and for months, maybe years to come.
Beth Nissen, CNN, Aceh Province, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, CNN "Security Watch," a problem in getting counterterrorism information to those who need it most. And the no-fly list for jetliners, are they effective?
A break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Topping CNN's "Security Watch" tonight, what looks like a multimillion dollar software failure at the FBI, a system that was supposed to allow agents to share counterterrorism information faster.
Top bureau officials now say the virtual case file system simply doesn't work and that a suitable commercial system is available. It took four years to develop the system, $170 million. Since 9/11, the FBI's goal has been to get counterterrorism information out faster to the nation's intelligence community.
The Department of Homeland Security will soon unveil a new security procedure at New York's JFK airport. It's designed to speed up immigration checks on international travelers. But even if it were already in place, it would have done little to help the passengers aboard a New York-bound British Airways jet yesterday. It was turned back to London mid-flight after a passenger was found to be on board also on a list of people not allowed in this country, at least the third time this has happened.
So, why is it so hard to keep people with suspected links to terror off airplanes? We talked earlier today with Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary of homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, Mr. Secretary, once again earlier this week, we had one of those flights that came out of Europe and got airborne and then was forced to turn back because there was someone on it who the United States government didn't want in the country. Why can't we stop these planes from taking off in the first place?
ASA HUTCHINSON, UNDERSECRETARY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, there's two reasons for that.
First of all, we, right now, rely upon the airlines to do the check between the passenger manifest and the watch list. And, quite frankly, they do not get it every time just right. They're not trained law enforcement professionals. That needs to be changed. And so, in this instance, the plane got in the air. The information, the passenger list was provided to the government. Homeland Security officials made the comparison, quickly identified a no-fly list passenger on the plane and directed that it could not enter our airspace or had to be diverted when it came into our airspace.
That's when the decision was made to return it. And so, we need to get the information earlier in advance. Secondly, we need to have the government making these checks, rather than rely upon the airlines, because that's not what they're trained to do. That's the reason for it. We're in the process of this transition. We need to complete that.
BROWN: All right, let's talk about both those things. Why is it that -- why is it that, in the first instance, government doesn't make this determination? Is there something I'm missing here? We have government now checking our bags when we go through security. Government employees are doing all that. Why aren't government agents, for lack of a better word, making the check now?
HUTCHINSON: Well, this was a system that was set up initially after 9/11, where we compile the no-fly list, but that information then is provided to the airlines. And they're not supposed to issue a ticket. It was set up that way because it was the most efficient system at the time.
We certainly now understand we need to change that system, but it takes a reconfiguring of the whole I.T. systems and it takes some real changes. And so, we are actually having to test that, what we call secure flight, so that we would take ownership of both the list and the check itself. Again, right now, we have to rely upon the airlines and we can do a better job than what we're doing right now.
BROWN: So, like so many other things in life, this comes down to a computer problem?
HUTCHINSON: Well, it's a little bit more than that.
For example, right now, that you have a name that's confusingly similar. We have to rely upon the airlines to do that check. We can make the check a lot quicker, but we're getting the information after the plane takes off in the air. Why is that the case? Because the airlines have traditionally not had all of the manifests in place until they close the door, and so they couldn't physically get it to us until after that was accomplished, because you have last-minute passengers.
We're trying to change the rule, looking to change the rule to get it earlier. This takes a complete reconfiguration of the way we do airline business. So, it's not an easy issue for the airlines to change all of a sudden rather than 30 minutes before the plane takes off, we're going to cut the passenger list off. We have to move it further in advance.
BROWN: Let me ask one other thing on this.
This may sound stupid, but why not let the flight continue on and detain the person or -- when we get into the United States, rather than sending it back and, I guess, inconveniencing all the people who are on that flight?
HUTCHINSON: Well, actually, we have done that on some occasions. The first decision was made to divert this flight to Bangor, Maine, which is right after it gets into our airspace, but before it gets into New York City or Washington, D.C., area.
And so that has been done in the past. In this case, that direction was given and British Airways made the decision, let's turn it back. And so, they still had control of the plane before it got here, and they made that decision, probably thinking it was less inconvenient for the passengers.
Two important things. One, we're not going to do anything to compromise the safety of the passengers. We're going to make the best judgments when we get the right information. BROWN: Do you think a year from now, we'll still be having this problem?
HUTCHINSON: No. In fact, we're still testing a system. And our goal is by August to have a completely different system in place. We're really in transition right now, as we expand, get better intelligence on the names that go on the no-fly list.
And then, secondly, we're testing the system where we can take ownership of it.
BROWN: Mr. Secretary, we appreciate your good and hard work in this.
HUTCHINSON: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary of homeland security.
Ahead on the program, you'll meet a woman who makes art for the home the old-fashioned way, one picture at a time, part of our series "On the Rise."
Also on the rise, well, sunrise, that is, morning papers.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: One of the themes we've touched upon tonight, albeit indirectly, is the entrepreneur. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, surely was that. Started out as a small retailer, the company now global. And his family is the richest in America.
Then there's the entrepreneur with a smaller dream, a dream to do what they love to do and make a decent living at it.
Maggie Lindley is one such person. And she is the focus of tonight's "On the Rise."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAGGIE LINDLEY, ARTIST: Maggie Lindley Designs is an art company. It's based on the work that I have done in the past couple years. It's writings. It's a story on canvas. It started off, our main line is a stretched canvas.
What inspires me are words. In my own home, I have got words all over the walls.
Actually, I'll do hot pink and dark apple.
Essentially, it's a shape in the middle of the canvas, a word written on the shape and then whatever I'm thinking at the moment about the word in the middle. The times when it's most rewarding is when somebody looks at our canvases and reads around the edge and they get all teary-eyed. And I actually remember one woman who said, you wrote this for me.
We work in our home. It's actually something that we usually don't tell everybody. Our studio is in our backyard. Thankfully, it's not connected, so no paint fumes get in the house. And the office is right off the kitchen.
A year and a half ago, we were nonexistent, really, to the wholesale community. And we are in now about 200 stores, and growth, exponential growth every year. We love that we're homegrown, that we're small, that we can really cater to our stores. And they love that. They find our product and they feel like they've found a little treasure that they can put in their store, because they're small. They talk to the artist half the time that they call.
My name is Maggie Lindley with Maggie Lindley Designs. You guys placed an order for our canvasses with a word in the middle.
I do all the sales, all the talking to all the customers.
OK. All right. Thanks, Kristin (ph). Goodbye.
I like that part.
So, Maggie Lindley Designs them and she boxes them still.
This is not a 9:00-5:00 operation. It feels like about an 8:00- 1:00-in-the-morning operation. And that's OK, because it's growing and we are workaholics.
People told us they actually like the charm of a fairly earthy kind of company that makes it feel like a product that they have found. It just adds to the charm of it.
I would love for Maggie Lindley Designs to be a product line that creates good, fun things for your home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Tonight, CNN's anniversary series, "Then and Now," looks back at the remarkable journey of on Dr. Mae Jemison. To borrow a cliche, she reached for the stars. And, in her case, she actually got to touch them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAE JEMISON, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: You know, when you're growing up, you have lots of things you want to do. I always assumed I would go into space.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition and lift-off! MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On September 12th, 1992, at the age of 35, DR. Mae Jemison boldly went where no African-American woman had gone before.
JEMISON: It was really after we got on orbit that I had a sensation that I belonged anywhere in this universe.
O'BRIEN: Jemison makes it her life mission to explore the universe in every way she can. This high achiever is also a chemical engineer, peace corps veteran, physician, author and teacher.
In 1994, Jemison started an international science camp for teens called The Earth We Share. These days, Jemison is the founder and president of the BioSentient Corporation, where she is working on a device that provides mobile monitoring of people's nervous systems.
JEMISON: We think there are real applications in the future for trying to identify certain diseases. It can also help people monitor how effective drugs are.
O'BRIEN: In addition to her work in the sciences, Jemison says she may one day explore the field of politics.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: I love this series. Throughout the year, CNN will look back at major stories from the last 25 years, as we mark a quarter-of- a-century of bringing you the news. We'll revisit the stories that touched our lives and find out what happened to yesterday's newsmakers.
We'll look at tomorrow's papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okeydoke. That was, okeydoke, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. I jumped the cue a little bit there. Sorry, Robert.
We'll start with "The Sun," because how can you resist? If you do morning papers, you do this at home, you would start this way, too. "Harry the Nazi." OK, this is Prince Harry. He's the younger and apparently the dumber of the two. I mean, give that guy a good talking-to, take away his inheritance. It's not like he ever has a job or anything.
"International Herald Tribune," speaking of dumb. "Le Pen," Jean-Marie -- I'll take my glasses off -- Le Pen, the French wacko, OK? "Le Pen Calls Nazis Not So Inhumane. Now, you wonder where Prince Harry gets these ideas.
"Stars and Stripes." "Major League Players Adopt Tougher Steroid Policy. Pact Includes More Frequent Testing, Penalty For First-Time Offenders." Prince Harry made the cover of that one, too. He apologized for wearing the Nazi costume. "To anyone who might have been offended," he said. Imagine. "The Oregonian." "Oregon's" -- I'm obsessing on this, aren't I? "Oregon's Economy Punches Back In. State Adds 34,000 Jobs in 2004, Biggest Year-Over-Year Increase Since the Downturn." "Bush Says Retirement Program Troubled. President Continues to Push Partial Privatization of Social Security," the big battle of the year ahead.
"A Spirited Weekend." "Chattanooga Times Free Press." "More Than 6,000 Cheerleaders Compete For Titles." And that made the front page of the paper. So, good for them. We wish them good luck.
"Philadelphia Inquirer." "U.S. Airways" -- man, it's got nothing but trouble, doesn't it? -- "Gets a Financial Lifeline. Judge Extends a Deal That May Give It Enough Cash to Survive a Winter Slowdown." This is a great story, actually. The president, in an interview with ABC, says the "bring 'em on" -- remember when he said to the insurgents "bring 'em on"? -- was a mistake. He also said "dead and alive" wasn't a very smart thing to say.
The weather for tomorrow in Chicago, for those of you traveling, "wicked."
We'll all be back here tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us then. Until, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
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