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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Jury Selection Begins in Michael Jackson Child Molestation Trial; Video Released on Al-Jazeera Appears To Show Terrorists Shooting Down British Plane

Aired January 31, 2005 - 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 everyone.
Celebrity has its place and in its place celebrity is fine. It's fun and it's a diversion and neither is awful in its place. But when celebrity is out of place trouble begins and a courtroom is as about out of place as celebrity gets.

In a courtroom, all are supposed to be equal. Having a fan club should get you no special treatment, good or bad. But here we are again at that uncomfortable intersection of celebrity and the law, a test for the courts and those who cover them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Flash bulbs and fans, a peace sign and protesters, the Michael Jackson child molestation trial finally begins.

In Iraq, as votes are counted, a videotape raises the question are insurgents behind yesterday's crash of a British plane?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: As we run the tapes and things look very suspicious to me, the firing device looks suspicious.

BROWN: The search for the cause of the deadly crash goes on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I loaded it and I pulled the trigger and it just clicked. It didn't fire and that kind of like brought me out of it. I was like what am I doing?

BROWN: The rage one combat veteran brought home from Iraq and what kept him from seeking help sooner?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the last thing you want to be is a weak guy. It's very frowned upon.

BROWN: In the American West, a washed up town reborn, transformed into an anti-terror training ground, how the war on terror helped this corner of the American desert go from bust to boom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a ghost town.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with this. Forty-five million albums sold, seven top ten hits, 37 weeks at the top of the charts. If you were designing a PowerPoint presentation for total planetary fame, those alone would be the bullet points all you would need.

For Michael Jackson that's just one record and nine months in a career that includes buying everything from the Beatles' music to Bubbles the chimp to several new faces a long the way.

He married Elvis' daughter. He made and has blown a fortune. Just about everything that either delights or confuses or disturbs people Michael Jackson has done it or is charged with doing it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): For those who worship at the altar of celebrity today was high church, Michael Jackson arriving at the Santa Maria Courthouse for the official start of his trial, a trial about the ugliest of charges molesting a child. His fans are obsessed with both Michael the star and now Michael the victim.

JENNINE ELCOCK, JACKSON FAN: The fact would be that he opened his heart to a very sick little boy and that, you know, possibly because of the mother or some other bad influence, you know, that the child is being forced to do this, you know, against his will.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People who don't like him just simply think they're guilty and then don't want to hear any more.

MICHEL MARTIN, JACKSON FAN: Michael is a very lonely man. I have yet to see him with his divine mate.

BROWN: But for some of those who turned out in support of Michael Jackson's accuser, a teenage boy who has grappled with cancer, today was more than a case. It was a cause.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here to support the victim, not just this victim, the 40 million adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

BROWN: This most American of spectacles drew Michael Jackson impersonators and hundreds of reporters from around the globe. Because there are no cameras in the courtroom this is as close as most of the media will get. Still photographers caught Jackson going through security before he entered the courtroom.

Jackson's lawyer, as lawyers often do, described his client as upbeat and optimistic. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including child molestation and conspiracy to commit child abduction. And, on Sunday, he released an unusual court-approved video statement on his Web site.

MICHAEL JACKSON: I love my community and I have great faith in our justice system. Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court. I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen.

BROWN: Today was the first day of jury selection. Presiding Judge Rodney Melville told potential jurors the trial could last six months. Despite what you might think of Jackson, the man, or Jackson the phenomenon, this spectator articulated something fundamental today about where we are, all of us, in this moment of time.

ANDY WOOD, JACKSON SPECTATOR: Marcia McLuhan (ph) would be thrilled to see something like this because everyone is contributing to and participating in this media event. Who are the journalists? Who are the civilians? It seems like everyone has a camera. You got a mobile phone camera. You got a big old Sony Handicam and so we're all just media producers now and it's fascinating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: CNN's Ted Rowlands was covering the trial today and he joins us tonight from Santa Maria, good to have you with us.

What was Mr. Jackson like in court today? Was he fidgety? Was he calm? What was he doing?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think if you take into context his other appearances, he was a model defendant today. Clearly, he understands the gravity of the situation now and I'm sure that his lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, has sat him down and talked to him about how he needs to conduct himself.

He had hundreds of fans out here. He didn't jump on the SUV. He arrived on time. He acknowledged his fans but did it in a professional manner by waving and giving the peace sign.

He came into court. He stood up when prospective jurors walked into the courtroom, made eye contact and smiled at the appropriate times. He, like I said, was the model defendant. This is day one of possibly six months but so far so good if you're coaching Michael Jackson on how to conduct himself.

BROWN: OK, a couple quick ones here. The judge in the case is described as pretty tough, pretty much in control of the courtroom, sort of the anti-Lance Ito.

ROWLANDS: Oh, clearly and he has exhibited that throughout all of the pretrial hearings that we've had now for more, the better part of a year. What Rodney Melville says definitely goes and I think both sides are onboard with that. They're aware of the parameters here and I think you're going to see a very quick trial.

In fact, Melville had this January 31st date months ago. Nobody thought that we'd be ready to go, we being everybody involved in covering it and the lawyers obviously but here we are right as Melville said. He wanted it to start today and today they started.

BROWN: Ted, thank you very much, Ted Rowlands who's out covering the trial and expect will be for sometime. Next to Los Angeles where "People" Magazine's Lorenzo Benet joins us, good to have you with us tonight, compare this to other celebrity trials. Compare this to O.J. O.J. was a kind of a domestic celebrity, if you will, fair to say that Michael Jackson is a bigger deal?

LORENZO BENET, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Well, O.J. was more of a whodunit. I think Jackson is more did he do it? So, right away you have two different types of trials going on. Celebrity wise Jackson's bigger, no doubt about it.

There's a potential I think of the celebrity, you know, overwhelming the alleged victim in these cases because, you know, by virtue of their fame and their fortune and the fan support what gets lost here from time to time, and particularly with celebrities, is what actually happened and, you know, the truth.

BROWN: Well, in this case you have a celebrity who is, I'm trying to find the right gentle word, is I think perceived by most people as a bit odd.

BENET: That's true and that might help him in court but also it might hurt him. I think it could help him in the sense that you might have a higher bar, a level of proof. Oh, Michael Jackson's weird. OK, well maybe he's just different from the rest of us.

BROWN: Yes.

BENET: Maybe in his world it's OK to sleep with kids as long as he didn't cross the line that we all know shouldn't be crossed.

BROWN: Has he used his celebrity differently than a Kobe used celebrity or an O.J. used celebrity?

BENET: Well, in the arraignment certainly. I mean it was a circus. You had him dancing on tops of cars. You had fans that were bussed in by his family. It was, you know, music and loud, you know, cheering. Today, much more subdued, much more laid back, you know, obviously he spoke to his attorneys. Obviously, he's respecting the court and obviously he knows now he's in the fight of his life.

BROWN: Does he sell magazines? Will he sell a lot of magazines for you?

BENET: You know that remains to be seen. We haven't put him on the cover in a long time and it's difficult to say how that's going to work. I think there's still a big public interest.

I think as the trial picks up momentum I think people are going to get more interested. Now, it's not on TV. That could have an effect but, at the same time, it's Michael Jackson. You know he's 30, 40 years of, you know, rock history.

BROWN: Yes.

BENET: And it's living, it's breathing and people still know him.

BROWN: In a sense do you know what sells magazines? I mean you guys are hugely successful at it. Do you have a feeling for whether he will, in fact, sell magazines? It seems like a crass way to talk about all this (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BENET: I know and I mean take, for instance, Laci Peterson. That was a very popular trial with our readers and the main reason why I think is because the victim was so sympathetic.

That's a little more difficult here because we're not going to get to know the young man who was allegedly hurt and I think that has a lot to do with public interest and whether it sells magazines or not because Laci was beloved. It remains to be seen how many people are going to support this young boy.

BROWN: Good to talk to you. Thank you.

BENET: You're welcome.

BROWN: We'll check in as this goes and try and understand people's fascination with it. Thank you very much, Lorenzo Benet of "People" Magazine.

There's no easy transition to be honest for the rest of the news of the day. Since the rest of the news is almost all about Iraq, maybe it shouldn't be easy, so we'll just get on with it. Today after a great leap forward, a few steps in the other direction, a videotape that's chilling if it's true, a prison riot as well.

For the latest on all of this we turn to CNN's Anderson Cooper who is in Baghdad again, Anderson, good evening.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, Aaron.

Let's start with the prison riot. It happened down in Camp Bucca in southeastern Iraq near the city of Umm Qasr. This is a camp which has had a lot of problems to say the least over the last year or so. A number of detainees regularly breaking out of that prison, escaping.

There are about 5,400 or so Iraqi detainees at this camp. The melee today involved about 2,400 of them we are told, four compounds. There were ten compounds inside Camp Bucca. Four of them were involved with what was essentially a prison riot.

It began at one compound when, according to military spokespeople, the guards were starting a search for contraband, for shanks, for the like, items, the kind of things prisoners make around the world in prison.

A riot started in one compound. Prisoners started throwing rocks. From past reports that is a relatively common occurrence. It grew though to three other compounds.

Finally, as I said, these four compounds involving some 2,400 prisoners were involved in this melee. For about 45 minutes soldiers tried to use non-lethal force, according to the military, using verbal warnings.

Finally they opened fire. Four Iraqis were killed, six others injured, this on a day when that videotape purportedly to show the downing of the British Hercules transport plane yesterday killing ten British troops. The videotape aired on Al-Jazeera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The video appears to show terrorists shooting down a British plane, which crashed just north of Baghdad yesterday. Ten people are missing and are presumed dead making it the deadliest incident for British forces since the war began.

Two groups have claimed responsibility, including the one behind this video but British authorities say they still have not determined what caused the plane to go down. CNN has also not confirmed the attack or the wreckage but military adviser General Don Shepperd has examined the video.

SHEPPERD: As we run the tapes and things look very suspicious to me. The firing device looks suspicious. The missile is not a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile. It corkscrews. It looks like a radar-guided missile. But the ability of terrorists to get a radar- guided missile and the radars that go with it and operate it is suspect.

COOPER: Whether or not they were involved in the crash, insurgents managed to kill 29 people yesterday. Three U.S. Marines were killed in action today, proof that Iraq is still a violent place but Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said yesterday's election is a sign that things are changing.

"Yesterday, Iraqis poured out into the street," Allawi says. "They marched together in their millions as a national army determined to live in freedom. The terrorists were defeated in Iraq.

Today, a day after the dancing and ink-stained fingers, the waiting began. The preliminary vote count is over and ballot boxes have been sent to Baghdad where tomorrow morning election officials will start recounting the votes. It won't be quick and it won't be easy.

"We have more than 200 employees, 80 computers working 24 hours a day in order to complete the counting" he says. "I would estimate ten days."

The Iraqi Election Commission still won't give an exact estimate of the turnout but says it was high. Yesterday's vote may have been a first step but there's still a long way to go before Iraq can become a peaceful democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And, in Baghdad today you didn't have the usual cacophony of bombs and bullets. Baghdad was relatively quiet today -- Aaron. BROWN: That's a good day by almost any definition, Anderson, thank you, Anderson Cooper in Baghdad.

When we come back souls wounded in battle how the healing process begins, a very good story coming up.

And later an old frontier ghost town becomes a new frontier outpost in the war on terror. We'll take a break first.

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Don't know if you noticed it, one of those soldiers came from Freedom, Maine.

President Bush has indicated he has now agreed to increase the death benefit to soldiers who died in Iraq. It currently stands at $12,000. Under the president's proposal it would go to $100,000 if Congress approves. It would be retroactive to cover everyone who died in Iraq and in Afghanistan as well, died in action.

The lucky ones come home alive and intact but walking off the plane or getting an honorable discharge is not the end for many soldiers. Sometimes, and in truth we really don't know how often, the war continues to rage inside the soldier, certainly not every soldier. We're not always sure why some move on and others can't.

What you're about to see is the story of two men who know all too well how war can linger in the worst of ways. It's reported from Los Angeles tonight by CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two different veterans of two different wars the toll of combat has prompted a common calling. Shad Meshad (ph) served in Vietnam, Chad Ryber (ph) Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today both help fellow veterans serving soldiers and their families at this call center, the National Veterans Foundation that Chad started two decades ago. Here they provide crisis intervention and referrals. They listen to fellow combat veterans who are hurting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we've been there, OK, you hear me?

BUCKLEY: Less than a year ago it was Chad himself who was in pain. It began here October, 2001, Chad's first jump into Afghanistan. He was a U.S. Army Ranger on his way into battle for the first time. Before long, he would kill for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went up the stairs, cleared a room and there was a guy in the corner, Taliban, and took him down.

BUCKLEY: Many more would die in the years that followed, fellow soldiers, the enemy, innocent civilians. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found a lot of fragments of civilians, women.

BUCKLEY: Like warriors before him and warriors since his eyes saw things Chad wishes they hadn't. Today he's able to relive the most painful of the moments in counseling sessions with Shad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're safe here so you can go there. Just look at it. Stop and take a deep breath. Drop your hands. Let's load up, load and release.

BUCKLEY: Ten months ago when Shad and Chad first met the young veteran, by then a Purple Heart recipient and discharged from the Army, was barely functioning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to the point where no one wanted to hang around me. You know, people would tell me to leave because they knew I was a loose cannon. They knew I'd flip out.

BUCKLEY: Because he was drinking heavily, fighting and in a deep emotional pain that he refused to confront until much later, until after he nearly committed murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to a party. I put my .380 in my pocket like I always did and bumped (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you know I drank a half gallon of whiskey that day. I pulled out the weapon. I hit him on the head with it. I loaded it and I pulled the trigger and it just clicked and didn't fire and that kind of like brought me out of it and I was like what am I doing?

BUCKLEY: Chad pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and was facing a lengthy prison term when his public defender began recruiting experts to help convince a judge that the 24-year-old veteran of two combat tours deserved a second chance. That's when Shad Meshad, who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder, first met Chad Ryber.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had the classic symptoms, you know, alienation, anger, very aggravated, nightmares, flashbacks.

BUCKLEY: Many of the symptoms had actually surfaced during his military service but he never once sought help from a counselor or therapist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the last thing you want to be is a weak guy on your team. It's very frowned upon and you wouldn't be respected by anybody if you ever did that.

BUCKLEY (on camera): Chad's view is consistent with those of many combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who participated in an Army study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine. Roughly one in five combat veterans surveyed said they struggled with a mental health problem but only a quarter of those with problems got help. They said one of the biggest obstacles to getting it is the stigma attached to those who do. COL. THOMAS BURKE, D.O.D. DIR., MENTAL HEALTH POLICY: I think that there is a perception that all of those things are true. If you seek mental health care, you're weak. Your career is over that this is going to be perceived by your buddies that you're not reliable. I don't think that that's true.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): Colonel Thomas Burke is the director of mental health policy for the Department of Defense. While he acknowledges the study's findings, the colonel says the military does offer help and it tries to encourage soldiers to seek it out.

BURKE: Today you know, the treatments are available so that soldiers with mental health issues now are not problem soldiers. They are soldiers with problems and those problems have solutions.

BUCKLEY: But Shad Meshad and Chad Ryber know a different reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I need you to do Shaqeel (ph) is I need you to just stay with me. I hear you. I know you're upset. I know you don't want to be redeployed. I just need some time to work with you.

BUCKLEY: They know the reality of vets who call in crisis, soldiers struggling to live with combat experiences who think they are alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to know what I wanted that there's someone else going through the same thing and that they're not the only ones that are having a hard time sitting at a dinner table without trying to, you know, sitting on their hands because they want to flip out, you know.

BUCKLEY: For Chad, life is no longer the battle it was a year ago. He's sober and in the care of his fellow veteran Shad.

When you see that Chad today and know where he came from what is that like for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's powerful. I never thought I'd get this -- I'm proud.

BUCKLEY: But it's the prospect of the untold thousands of others whose struggles haven't ended that drives both of these veterans of two different wars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are tears of joy. Also maybe there are some tears for those that just aren't going to get a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to give everybody the chance that I had at recovery and to make something of their lives rather than just a waste, which was the path I was going.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: If you know someone who needs help, the call center profiled in this piece is the National Veterans Foundation. You can reach the people there at 1-888-777-4443. That's 1-888-777-4443.

Ahead on the program tonight, the votes have been cast, the counting underway and now the pressure on the president coming from the Capitol this time, the war as politics.

And a wakeup call from the rooster. Tomorrow's papers will end it all. We'll take a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In just two days the president will deliver his State of the Union speech and he will undoubtedly talk about the Iraqi elections as an encouraging sign, which they are. Whether they're also a vindication for his Iraq policy depends on how you see the road to yesterday's vote and how you see the road beyond.

Here's CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The Bush administration finally got the pictures it expected when Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Iraqis dancing in the streets. They were celebrating democracy, the chance to control their own destiny. The election instantly changes the terms of the Iraq debate in the United States.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: With yesterday's elections in Iraq, President Bush has a golden opportunity to change course.

SCHNEIDER: What exactly does that mean?

REID: Most of all, we need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there.

SCHNEIDER: Exit strategy has become the Democrats' new mantra. Last week, Senator Edward Kennedy went a step further.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: President Bush had immediately announced his intention to negotiate a timetable for a draw-down of American combat forces with the Iraqi government. At least 12,000 American troops, probably more, should leave at once.

SCHNEIDER: Most Democrats are more cautious. They avoid talking about timetables.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I wouldn't do it precipitously, obviously. My hope is that if we do a better job of training, if the training is accelerated and other countries come to the table in the effort to provide and help provide long-term security, yes, we can begin to reduce American troops.

SCHNEIDER: The change of course Democrats want is from fighting to training.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: That means changing our military focus from combat operations to training the Iraqi army.

SCHNEIDER: Two weeks ago, Americans were asked whether a successful election in Iraq would allow the U.S. to significantly reduce the number of troops there. Most Democrats were pessimistic. They said, no, not for the foreseeable future. Republicans were more hopeful about troop reductions. Now, there's been a successful election in Iraq and the party positions have reversed. Democrats are talking about exit strategies. And Republicans?

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), FOREIGN RELATIONS CMTE: There's no talk among the administration now or indeed anywhere about an exit strategy.

SCHNEIDER: President Bush does talk about training Iraqi security forces. But notice the president's timetable.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Eventually? Democrats don't want to hear eventually. Their view is, OK, the election went well. Great. Now let's talk about an exit strategy.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, there's no doubt in our mind, at least, that yesterday's vote gives the president an upper hand for now in the Iraq debate. After months of bad news and worse pictures, he received good news and even better pictures yesterday. Is it enough for the skeptics?

Philip Gourevitch is foreign correspondent for "The New Yorker Magazine," and, fair to say, a skeptic.

Look, you can't not see the joy of the moment in those pictures yesterday.

PHILIP GOUREVITCH, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORKER": Absolutely not. That was a fantastic set of images. They were overwhelming images.

And what they really reminded you of, as your correspondent just mentioned, that this is what we were told we should see two years ago. And it basically made you realize that, during these two years, while the president and his war planners have spoken about freedom for the Iraqi people and democracy for the Iraqi people, the most fundamental security was totally lacking. The planning for the aftermath was not there. And in many ways, the faults of the war and the joy of yesterday are not mutual contradictions. You can see both of them at the same time.

BROWN: So, you even today don't give the administration any due on this?

GOUREVITCH: Well, let's remember that we didn't go to war for this. I mean, now the argument that the administration is going to be very strong on is the idea that this was why we went to Iraq. In some way, this is the vindication of a policy to find WMD? I missed that, right?

This is a war where we went in and the Bush administration didn't want elections. They were intending to install Ahmad Chalabi. When that didn't work out, there was a plan for sort of imposing certain kinds of arranged councils. And it was basically Ayatollah Sistani who insisted on elections very vigorously and basically sort of made Bush knuckle under, in much the way he did with the Homeland Security Department, which he originally opposed.

Later, he claims that it's his, which is skillful politics. He then made elections his point. And yesterday, there was a very moving set of images.

BROWN: To people opposed to the war and to people opposed to the administration, given what happened yesterday, how do you make the argument from here on out? Because every time you do, let me tell you, the president's going to say, you know what, that's the first free election in that country in more than 50 years. That is the first real election in that part of the world for a long, long time. It is the -- we can fuss about how we got here, but it is the beginning of something important.

And you know what? Maybe it is.

GOUREVITCH: And that maybe has always haunted this war in both directions.

Except for people who are just categorically opposed to this thing on every level and every way and opposed to Bush on every level and every way from the beginning, and as opposed to people who are in the administration and sort of no matter what you can't find fault with this thing, you have to all the time be slightly close to the facts, thinking, well, what if it works? What if it fails. I wish that they'd been asking more often, what if we're not doing this right, questioning themselves.

There are important things that this election does not reverse, that America, in promoting freedom, has nevertheless got itself entangled with an image as involved in torture. That doesn't get erased by this election, nor does it get erased by the way that the Bush administration has been handling it. And that's crucial when what you have done is moved on from the war on terrorism, WMD rhetoric to the promotion of freedom, human rights rhetoric. And America's stature as a beacon does not seem to have changed in the eyes of those Iraqi voters. Many of them seem to have felt at last, instead of being told to what to do by the Americans, we're saying what we want to do.

BROWN: Do you think there are people who oppose the administration who were disappointed by what they saw yesterday?

GOUREVITCH: Well, if so -- I'm sure there are some who were. I don't think -- that's not fair.

BROWN: And shame on them, huh?

GOUREVITCH: Shame on them if anybody feels that way. I think that that's a relatively small, if present -- I mean, some people will probably be very skeptical as to whether what they saw adds up to more than a great day and a great spirit of the Iraqi people that you saw there coming forward, I mean, people who lived under that tyranny for that long and were bowed, but clearly not broken.

But I think -- I think it's very important to keep a sort of perspective, not to be too triumphalist about this, especially if you want to see it succeed, because, unlike other moving elections we've seen, this was a very peculiar election. This wasn't the first South African election.

BROWN: No, it was not.

GOUREVITCH: This was not the Ukrainian election. This was an election that the "Economist" magazine, which has totally supported the war aims all along, described as democracy at gunpoint.

They had to shut the place down. You couldn't have traffic. You had an army of occupation and invasion, a foreign army. And although violence was considered low yesterday, it was pretty high. There were nine suicide bombings. A plane may have been shot down. There were more attacks than we even realize.

BROWN: Yes.

GOUREVITCH: And one has to count election as all the violence in the lead-up to the elections, scores and scores and scores of Iraqi security forces killed and unable to bring this about by themselves. That's not really exactly freedom. It may be a step towards it, but one has to be very careful about just calling it triumph.

BROWN: But it was a nice first step. It's good to see you.

GOUREVITCH: Great to see you.

BROWN: Thank you.

Before we go to break, another moment to remember. As we mark 25 years of CNN reporting, tonight, a face we have not forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): In the early 1980s, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker became pop icons as leaders of the hugely successful PTL Club TV ministries. The couple called their riches a blessing from God. People soon discovered their extravagant lifestyle was financed from the almighty contributions of the ministry's faithful.

Soon their tears of joy became tears of remorse. In 1987 Bakker 'fessed up to an adulterous relationship with church secretary Jessica Hahn and later spent four years in jail for fraud.

Tammy Faye divorced her husband while he was in jail and married his business partner, Roe Messner. In March of 2004 she announced on LARRY KING LIVE she had inoperable lung cancer.

TAMMY FAYE MESSNER, TELEVANGELIST: It was lung cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight months later she appeared again with an update on her condition.

MESSNER: Every bit of the cancer is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim Bakker also remarried and is now back on TV, this time preaching from Branson, Missouri.

JIM BAKKER, TELEVANGELIST: It's so good to get together with God's people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim and Lori Bakker are in the process of adopting five children between the ages of 9 and 15. They've had legal custody of them for four years. One big happy family, albeit a more modest one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Throughout this anniversary year, CNN will look back on many major stories of the last 2 1/2 decades. So keep watching for the stories you remember best.

We'll take a break. When we come back, the courts and the detainees in Guantanamo.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: First, on today's "Security Watch," new rules for the nation's truck drivers. Those who haul hazardous materials now must pay additional fees, submit to criminal background checks, have their fingerprints taken. It's expected to take five years to check all 2.7 million truck drivers in the country. The program meant to prevent terrorists from using trucks as weapons of mass destruction.

Critics say it won't deter the bad guys, who they point out could always steal or hijack trucks or put hazardous materials inside rentals. No end to the tactics a terrorist might use, which takes us to a speck of a town in the American West. The shifting economy reduced it to a ghost town. Things looked pretty bleak until, odd as it may seem, the war on terror came a'knocking.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a really nice town to raise a family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is hometown USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a ghost town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peaceful, quiet. It's a beautiful country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a ghost town anymore.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Playas, New Mexico, is the kind of place maps ignore. But the town is making its mark as the newest nerve center for the war on terror.

VAN ROMERO, NEW MEXICO TECH: This is a real town, real infrastructure that is essentially at our disposal. We control everything here.

LAVANDERA: Playas is an old copper smelting town. Five years ago, the plant shut down and nearly all of the 1,000 people who lived here moved out. Then, a few months ago, it was turned into an anti- terror training center. At the opening ceremony, the ribbon wasn't cut. It was:

(GUNSHOT)

LAVANDERA: Playas has been nicknamed terror town, USA. But don't say that to Bill Cavaliere, the town's only police officer.

BILL CAVALIERE, PLAYAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I think anti-terror town is more appropriate.

LAVANDERA (on camera): New Mexico Tech University bought the town of Playas back in October for $5 million. They've also contracted with the Department of Homeland Security, which will pay $20 million a year for the next five years to conduct training here.

(voice-over): It's now a wide-open classroom to train police officers, firefighters, and other emergency officials in the latest techniques for fighting terrorists.

ROMERO: We can bring first-responders and put them in a situation that they wouldn't be able to experience any place else in the country.

LAVANDERA: Like simulating a suicide bombing in an urban environment.

ROMERO: This is essentially a bus bombing that's taken place. LAVANDERA: During week-long courses in Playas, emergency teams work a fictional scenario. The mission, to keep terrorists from attacking a public event.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got pipe bombs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went down.

LAVANDERA: All this happens in plain view of the 40 people who still live in Playas. Residents say the town is booming again.

LINDA MCCARTY, PLAYAS RESIDENT: That's surprising, that they can come to this little place.

LAVANDERA: Albert Mora is a former welder. He lost his job at the copper plant. At age 58, he's started a new career role-playing in a mock bus bombing.

ALBERT MORA, PLAYAS RESIDENT: I was told today that I need to go to Hollywood to get some acting lessons. I thought I was doing real good, but they kind of kind of hurt my feelings a little bit.

(LAUGHTER)

LAVANDERA: After years of struggling to find work, these residents now find themselves in the middle of the action. They're turning in the grime and grit of the copper smelter for fake blood and scars. Seeing the walking wounded stagger around town has become normal.

MCCARTY: Role players. I was dead on the bus.

CAVALIERE: Playas Police Department. This is Bill.

LAVANDERA: Bill Cavaliere senses his home town is changing, answering a call to duty. He and his neighbors feel this is their chance to fight terror and to make a difference.

CAVALIERE: I really support the military and I really support this anti-terrorist training, really, anything that's going to help protect the United States.

LAVANDERA: This once-forgotten ghost town has been transformed into the most unlikely of modern-day battlefields, a reminder the war on terror is never far from home.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Playas, New Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More tonight, including nothing that makes the legal mess over the detainees held at Guantanamo any tidier, another court case, another case almost certainly headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

We'll break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today a federal judge issued a ruling about the legal rights of the four detainees being held by the military at Guantanamo, but it hardly answered any questions. Truth be told, it raised questions, because it conflicts directly with another ruling issued recently by another judge. So, only one thing is certain. Lawyers will be busy on this issue for a long time to come.

Here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest decision is a reminder that the Bush administration's goal of putting so-called enemy combatants out of reach in Guantanamo Bay has created a jumble of contradictory rulings.

The Supreme Court has said the prisoners have the right to challenge their detention in a court. The Bush administration contends that could be accomplished by military tribunals at Guantanamo. But now a federal district judge in Washington, Joyce Hens Green, has ruled detainees should have full legal protections. "The right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law," she wrote, "is one of the most fundamental rights recognized by the U.S. Constitution."

MICHAEL RATNER, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: Absolutely amazing ruling. It requires the government to now justify each one of these detentions with facts that can be challenged by an attorney in a court.

FRANKEN: Except that, two weeks ago, another federal judge in Washington ruled the detainees have very limited rights. The administration's legal supporters contend the Supreme Court left open the extent of protections the prisoners had coming.

RICHARD SAMP, WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION: That the rights that they have been given are far more than even prisoners of war have been given in past wars in the United States history, and therefore I would predict that the United States Supreme Court will find that the procedures that were afforded are sufficient under the Constitution.

FRANKEN (on camera): The Guantanamo detainees almost certainly will get another hearing before the Supreme Court eventually. Until then, even as allegations of torture and abuse filter out, the administration still reserves the right to determine their future.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I feel like it's time for morning papers, coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK. Watch this, real quick. This is a Guilford College basketball player. Yes, nothing but net, wins the ball game with six- tenths of a second left. OK, we realize we didn't show you the rest of the game. Let him go. There he goes. That's worth seeing twice. It's against Randolph-Macon College of Virginia, Division 3 basketball. I know we never do sports. We thought we would.

Here we go, morning papers. Pretend there's a rooster. Here we go.

"For Insurgents, What's Next?" the way "The Christian Science Monitor" leads. This is the headline I like best. Down at the bottom, "A City Rebuilds With Elephants and Prayer. In Its Wake, Rebuilding After the Tsunami." This is a look at Banda Aceh in Indonesia. Elephants and prayer, that's pretty cool.

"Dallas Morning News." Allawi Calls For Iraqis to Unite."

That is pretty much the headline I think out of Iraq today, except in "The Miami Herald," which headlines this story thusly. I think this is either the realist's headline or the downer headline of the day, OK? "Election in Iraq Could Worsen Strife. If Final Election Results Confirm Low Voter Turnout of Sunni Muslims, It Could Mean as Much as 20 Percent of the Population May Not Accept the Result." Well, that is in fact true. There are other ways to look at this, but that's what they did.

"Washington Times." "Judge Rules in Favor of Detainees." We just told you about that one. "Bush Urges Iraqis to Include Sunnis in New Assembly," because, if they don't, frankly, it's going to be a mess there. Forget that one, OK? I don't know.

"The Rocky Mountain News." "Prof Resigns Post. Churchill Stays at C.U., Colorado University, But Quits as Department Head Amid 9/11 Controversy." This is a professor who basically said the people who died during the attack on 9/11 deserved it. Perhaps it wasn't the most elegant way to put it. And I cleaned it up.

The weather tomorrow in Chicago.

(CHIMES)

BROWN: Thank you -- is "grubby." Beats me.

Wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Just quickly, tomorrow on the program, another look at child slavery as it plays out around the world here on NEWSNIGHT, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us.

Until then, good night for all of us.

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

Aired January 31, 2005 - 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 everyone.
Celebrity has its place and in its place celebrity is fine. It's fun and it's a diversion and neither is awful in its place. But when celebrity is out of place trouble begins and a courtroom is as about out of place as celebrity gets.

In a courtroom, all are supposed to be equal. Having a fan club should get you no special treatment, good or bad. But here we are again at that uncomfortable intersection of celebrity and the law, a test for the courts and those who cover them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Flash bulbs and fans, a peace sign and protesters, the Michael Jackson child molestation trial finally begins.

In Iraq, as votes are counted, a videotape raises the question are insurgents behind yesterday's crash of a British plane?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: As we run the tapes and things look very suspicious to me, the firing device looks suspicious.

BROWN: The search for the cause of the deadly crash goes on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I loaded it and I pulled the trigger and it just clicked. It didn't fire and that kind of like brought me out of it. I was like what am I doing?

BROWN: The rage one combat veteran brought home from Iraq and what kept him from seeking help sooner?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the last thing you want to be is a weak guy. It's very frowned upon.

BROWN: In the American West, a washed up town reborn, transformed into an anti-terror training ground, how the war on terror helped this corner of the American desert go from bust to boom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a ghost town.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with this. Forty-five million albums sold, seven top ten hits, 37 weeks at the top of the charts. If you were designing a PowerPoint presentation for total planetary fame, those alone would be the bullet points all you would need.

For Michael Jackson that's just one record and nine months in a career that includes buying everything from the Beatles' music to Bubbles the chimp to several new faces a long the way.

He married Elvis' daughter. He made and has blown a fortune. Just about everything that either delights or confuses or disturbs people Michael Jackson has done it or is charged with doing it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): For those who worship at the altar of celebrity today was high church, Michael Jackson arriving at the Santa Maria Courthouse for the official start of his trial, a trial about the ugliest of charges molesting a child. His fans are obsessed with both Michael the star and now Michael the victim.

JENNINE ELCOCK, JACKSON FAN: The fact would be that he opened his heart to a very sick little boy and that, you know, possibly because of the mother or some other bad influence, you know, that the child is being forced to do this, you know, against his will.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People who don't like him just simply think they're guilty and then don't want to hear any more.

MICHEL MARTIN, JACKSON FAN: Michael is a very lonely man. I have yet to see him with his divine mate.

BROWN: But for some of those who turned out in support of Michael Jackson's accuser, a teenage boy who has grappled with cancer, today was more than a case. It was a cause.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here to support the victim, not just this victim, the 40 million adult survivors of child sexual abuse.

BROWN: This most American of spectacles drew Michael Jackson impersonators and hundreds of reporters from around the globe. Because there are no cameras in the courtroom this is as close as most of the media will get. Still photographers caught Jackson going through security before he entered the courtroom.

Jackson's lawyer, as lawyers often do, described his client as upbeat and optimistic. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including child molestation and conspiracy to commit child abduction. And, on Sunday, he released an unusual court-approved video statement on his Web site.

MICHAEL JACKSON: I love my community and I have great faith in our justice system. Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court. I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen.

BROWN: Today was the first day of jury selection. Presiding Judge Rodney Melville told potential jurors the trial could last six months. Despite what you might think of Jackson, the man, or Jackson the phenomenon, this spectator articulated something fundamental today about where we are, all of us, in this moment of time.

ANDY WOOD, JACKSON SPECTATOR: Marcia McLuhan (ph) would be thrilled to see something like this because everyone is contributing to and participating in this media event. Who are the journalists? Who are the civilians? It seems like everyone has a camera. You got a mobile phone camera. You got a big old Sony Handicam and so we're all just media producers now and it's fascinating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: CNN's Ted Rowlands was covering the trial today and he joins us tonight from Santa Maria, good to have you with us.

What was Mr. Jackson like in court today? Was he fidgety? Was he calm? What was he doing?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think if you take into context his other appearances, he was a model defendant today. Clearly, he understands the gravity of the situation now and I'm sure that his lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, has sat him down and talked to him about how he needs to conduct himself.

He had hundreds of fans out here. He didn't jump on the SUV. He arrived on time. He acknowledged his fans but did it in a professional manner by waving and giving the peace sign.

He came into court. He stood up when prospective jurors walked into the courtroom, made eye contact and smiled at the appropriate times. He, like I said, was the model defendant. This is day one of possibly six months but so far so good if you're coaching Michael Jackson on how to conduct himself.

BROWN: OK, a couple quick ones here. The judge in the case is described as pretty tough, pretty much in control of the courtroom, sort of the anti-Lance Ito.

ROWLANDS: Oh, clearly and he has exhibited that throughout all of the pretrial hearings that we've had now for more, the better part of a year. What Rodney Melville says definitely goes and I think both sides are onboard with that. They're aware of the parameters here and I think you're going to see a very quick trial.

In fact, Melville had this January 31st date months ago. Nobody thought that we'd be ready to go, we being everybody involved in covering it and the lawyers obviously but here we are right as Melville said. He wanted it to start today and today they started.

BROWN: Ted, thank you very much, Ted Rowlands who's out covering the trial and expect will be for sometime. Next to Los Angeles where "People" Magazine's Lorenzo Benet joins us, good to have you with us tonight, compare this to other celebrity trials. Compare this to O.J. O.J. was a kind of a domestic celebrity, if you will, fair to say that Michael Jackson is a bigger deal?

LORENZO BENET, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Well, O.J. was more of a whodunit. I think Jackson is more did he do it? So, right away you have two different types of trials going on. Celebrity wise Jackson's bigger, no doubt about it.

There's a potential I think of the celebrity, you know, overwhelming the alleged victim in these cases because, you know, by virtue of their fame and their fortune and the fan support what gets lost here from time to time, and particularly with celebrities, is what actually happened and, you know, the truth.

BROWN: Well, in this case you have a celebrity who is, I'm trying to find the right gentle word, is I think perceived by most people as a bit odd.

BENET: That's true and that might help him in court but also it might hurt him. I think it could help him in the sense that you might have a higher bar, a level of proof. Oh, Michael Jackson's weird. OK, well maybe he's just different from the rest of us.

BROWN: Yes.

BENET: Maybe in his world it's OK to sleep with kids as long as he didn't cross the line that we all know shouldn't be crossed.

BROWN: Has he used his celebrity differently than a Kobe used celebrity or an O.J. used celebrity?

BENET: Well, in the arraignment certainly. I mean it was a circus. You had him dancing on tops of cars. You had fans that were bussed in by his family. It was, you know, music and loud, you know, cheering. Today, much more subdued, much more laid back, you know, obviously he spoke to his attorneys. Obviously, he's respecting the court and obviously he knows now he's in the fight of his life.

BROWN: Does he sell magazines? Will he sell a lot of magazines for you?

BENET: You know that remains to be seen. We haven't put him on the cover in a long time and it's difficult to say how that's going to work. I think there's still a big public interest.

I think as the trial picks up momentum I think people are going to get more interested. Now, it's not on TV. That could have an effect but, at the same time, it's Michael Jackson. You know he's 30, 40 years of, you know, rock history.

BROWN: Yes.

BENET: And it's living, it's breathing and people still know him.

BROWN: In a sense do you know what sells magazines? I mean you guys are hugely successful at it. Do you have a feeling for whether he will, in fact, sell magazines? It seems like a crass way to talk about all this (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BENET: I know and I mean take, for instance, Laci Peterson. That was a very popular trial with our readers and the main reason why I think is because the victim was so sympathetic.

That's a little more difficult here because we're not going to get to know the young man who was allegedly hurt and I think that has a lot to do with public interest and whether it sells magazines or not because Laci was beloved. It remains to be seen how many people are going to support this young boy.

BROWN: Good to talk to you. Thank you.

BENET: You're welcome.

BROWN: We'll check in as this goes and try and understand people's fascination with it. Thank you very much, Lorenzo Benet of "People" Magazine.

There's no easy transition to be honest for the rest of the news of the day. Since the rest of the news is almost all about Iraq, maybe it shouldn't be easy, so we'll just get on with it. Today after a great leap forward, a few steps in the other direction, a videotape that's chilling if it's true, a prison riot as well.

For the latest on all of this we turn to CNN's Anderson Cooper who is in Baghdad again, Anderson, good evening.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, Aaron.

Let's start with the prison riot. It happened down in Camp Bucca in southeastern Iraq near the city of Umm Qasr. This is a camp which has had a lot of problems to say the least over the last year or so. A number of detainees regularly breaking out of that prison, escaping.

There are about 5,400 or so Iraqi detainees at this camp. The melee today involved about 2,400 of them we are told, four compounds. There were ten compounds inside Camp Bucca. Four of them were involved with what was essentially a prison riot.

It began at one compound when, according to military spokespeople, the guards were starting a search for contraband, for shanks, for the like, items, the kind of things prisoners make around the world in prison.

A riot started in one compound. Prisoners started throwing rocks. From past reports that is a relatively common occurrence. It grew though to three other compounds.

Finally, as I said, these four compounds involving some 2,400 prisoners were involved in this melee. For about 45 minutes soldiers tried to use non-lethal force, according to the military, using verbal warnings.

Finally they opened fire. Four Iraqis were killed, six others injured, this on a day when that videotape purportedly to show the downing of the British Hercules transport plane yesterday killing ten British troops. The videotape aired on Al-Jazeera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The video appears to show terrorists shooting down a British plane, which crashed just north of Baghdad yesterday. Ten people are missing and are presumed dead making it the deadliest incident for British forces since the war began.

Two groups have claimed responsibility, including the one behind this video but British authorities say they still have not determined what caused the plane to go down. CNN has also not confirmed the attack or the wreckage but military adviser General Don Shepperd has examined the video.

SHEPPERD: As we run the tapes and things look very suspicious to me. The firing device looks suspicious. The missile is not a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile. It corkscrews. It looks like a radar-guided missile. But the ability of terrorists to get a radar- guided missile and the radars that go with it and operate it is suspect.

COOPER: Whether or not they were involved in the crash, insurgents managed to kill 29 people yesterday. Three U.S. Marines were killed in action today, proof that Iraq is still a violent place but Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said yesterday's election is a sign that things are changing.

"Yesterday, Iraqis poured out into the street," Allawi says. "They marched together in their millions as a national army determined to live in freedom. The terrorists were defeated in Iraq.

Today, a day after the dancing and ink-stained fingers, the waiting began. The preliminary vote count is over and ballot boxes have been sent to Baghdad where tomorrow morning election officials will start recounting the votes. It won't be quick and it won't be easy.

"We have more than 200 employees, 80 computers working 24 hours a day in order to complete the counting" he says. "I would estimate ten days."

The Iraqi Election Commission still won't give an exact estimate of the turnout but says it was high. Yesterday's vote may have been a first step but there's still a long way to go before Iraq can become a peaceful democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And, in Baghdad today you didn't have the usual cacophony of bombs and bullets. Baghdad was relatively quiet today -- Aaron. BROWN: That's a good day by almost any definition, Anderson, thank you, Anderson Cooper in Baghdad.

When we come back souls wounded in battle how the healing process begins, a very good story coming up.

And later an old frontier ghost town becomes a new frontier outpost in the war on terror. We'll take a break first.

From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Don't know if you noticed it, one of those soldiers came from Freedom, Maine.

President Bush has indicated he has now agreed to increase the death benefit to soldiers who died in Iraq. It currently stands at $12,000. Under the president's proposal it would go to $100,000 if Congress approves. It would be retroactive to cover everyone who died in Iraq and in Afghanistan as well, died in action.

The lucky ones come home alive and intact but walking off the plane or getting an honorable discharge is not the end for many soldiers. Sometimes, and in truth we really don't know how often, the war continues to rage inside the soldier, certainly not every soldier. We're not always sure why some move on and others can't.

What you're about to see is the story of two men who know all too well how war can linger in the worst of ways. It's reported from Los Angeles tonight by CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two different veterans of two different wars the toll of combat has prompted a common calling. Shad Meshad (ph) served in Vietnam, Chad Ryber (ph) Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today both help fellow veterans serving soldiers and their families at this call center, the National Veterans Foundation that Chad started two decades ago. Here they provide crisis intervention and referrals. They listen to fellow combat veterans who are hurting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we've been there, OK, you hear me?

BUCKLEY: Less than a year ago it was Chad himself who was in pain. It began here October, 2001, Chad's first jump into Afghanistan. He was a U.S. Army Ranger on his way into battle for the first time. Before long, he would kill for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went up the stairs, cleared a room and there was a guy in the corner, Taliban, and took him down.

BUCKLEY: Many more would die in the years that followed, fellow soldiers, the enemy, innocent civilians. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found a lot of fragments of civilians, women.

BUCKLEY: Like warriors before him and warriors since his eyes saw things Chad wishes they hadn't. Today he's able to relive the most painful of the moments in counseling sessions with Shad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're safe here so you can go there. Just look at it. Stop and take a deep breath. Drop your hands. Let's load up, load and release.

BUCKLEY: Ten months ago when Shad and Chad first met the young veteran, by then a Purple Heart recipient and discharged from the Army, was barely functioning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to the point where no one wanted to hang around me. You know, people would tell me to leave because they knew I was a loose cannon. They knew I'd flip out.

BUCKLEY: Because he was drinking heavily, fighting and in a deep emotional pain that he refused to confront until much later, until after he nearly committed murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to a party. I put my .380 in my pocket like I always did and bumped (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you know I drank a half gallon of whiskey that day. I pulled out the weapon. I hit him on the head with it. I loaded it and I pulled the trigger and it just clicked and didn't fire and that kind of like brought me out of it and I was like what am I doing?

BUCKLEY: Chad pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and was facing a lengthy prison term when his public defender began recruiting experts to help convince a judge that the 24-year-old veteran of two combat tours deserved a second chance. That's when Shad Meshad, who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder, first met Chad Ryber.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had the classic symptoms, you know, alienation, anger, very aggravated, nightmares, flashbacks.

BUCKLEY: Many of the symptoms had actually surfaced during his military service but he never once sought help from a counselor or therapist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the last thing you want to be is a weak guy on your team. It's very frowned upon and you wouldn't be respected by anybody if you ever did that.

BUCKLEY (on camera): Chad's view is consistent with those of many combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who participated in an Army study published last summer in the New England Journal of Medicine. Roughly one in five combat veterans surveyed said they struggled with a mental health problem but only a quarter of those with problems got help. They said one of the biggest obstacles to getting it is the stigma attached to those who do. COL. THOMAS BURKE, D.O.D. DIR., MENTAL HEALTH POLICY: I think that there is a perception that all of those things are true. If you seek mental health care, you're weak. Your career is over that this is going to be perceived by your buddies that you're not reliable. I don't think that that's true.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): Colonel Thomas Burke is the director of mental health policy for the Department of Defense. While he acknowledges the study's findings, the colonel says the military does offer help and it tries to encourage soldiers to seek it out.

BURKE: Today you know, the treatments are available so that soldiers with mental health issues now are not problem soldiers. They are soldiers with problems and those problems have solutions.

BUCKLEY: But Shad Meshad and Chad Ryber know a different reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I need you to do Shaqeel (ph) is I need you to just stay with me. I hear you. I know you're upset. I know you don't want to be redeployed. I just need some time to work with you.

BUCKLEY: They know the reality of vets who call in crisis, soldiers struggling to live with combat experiences who think they are alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to know what I wanted that there's someone else going through the same thing and that they're not the only ones that are having a hard time sitting at a dinner table without trying to, you know, sitting on their hands because they want to flip out, you know.

BUCKLEY: For Chad, life is no longer the battle it was a year ago. He's sober and in the care of his fellow veteran Shad.

When you see that Chad today and know where he came from what is that like for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's powerful. I never thought I'd get this -- I'm proud.

BUCKLEY: But it's the prospect of the untold thousands of others whose struggles haven't ended that drives both of these veterans of two different wars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are tears of joy. Also maybe there are some tears for those that just aren't going to get a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to give everybody the chance that I had at recovery and to make something of their lives rather than just a waste, which was the path I was going.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: If you know someone who needs help, the call center profiled in this piece is the National Veterans Foundation. You can reach the people there at 1-888-777-4443. That's 1-888-777-4443.

Ahead on the program tonight, the votes have been cast, the counting underway and now the pressure on the president coming from the Capitol this time, the war as politics.

And a wakeup call from the rooster. Tomorrow's papers will end it all. We'll take a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In just two days the president will deliver his State of the Union speech and he will undoubtedly talk about the Iraqi elections as an encouraging sign, which they are. Whether they're also a vindication for his Iraq policy depends on how you see the road to yesterday's vote and how you see the road beyond.

Here's CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The Bush administration finally got the pictures it expected when Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Iraqis dancing in the streets. They were celebrating democracy, the chance to control their own destiny. The election instantly changes the terms of the Iraq debate in the United States.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: With yesterday's elections in Iraq, President Bush has a golden opportunity to change course.

SCHNEIDER: What exactly does that mean?

REID: Most of all, we need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there.

SCHNEIDER: Exit strategy has become the Democrats' new mantra. Last week, Senator Edward Kennedy went a step further.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: President Bush had immediately announced his intention to negotiate a timetable for a draw-down of American combat forces with the Iraqi government. At least 12,000 American troops, probably more, should leave at once.

SCHNEIDER: Most Democrats are more cautious. They avoid talking about timetables.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I wouldn't do it precipitously, obviously. My hope is that if we do a better job of training, if the training is accelerated and other countries come to the table in the effort to provide and help provide long-term security, yes, we can begin to reduce American troops.

SCHNEIDER: The change of course Democrats want is from fighting to training.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: That means changing our military focus from combat operations to training the Iraqi army.

SCHNEIDER: Two weeks ago, Americans were asked whether a successful election in Iraq would allow the U.S. to significantly reduce the number of troops there. Most Democrats were pessimistic. They said, no, not for the foreseeable future. Republicans were more hopeful about troop reductions. Now, there's been a successful election in Iraq and the party positions have reversed. Democrats are talking about exit strategies. And Republicans?

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), FOREIGN RELATIONS CMTE: There's no talk among the administration now or indeed anywhere about an exit strategy.

SCHNEIDER: President Bush does talk about training Iraqi security forces. But notice the president's timetable.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Eventually? Democrats don't want to hear eventually. Their view is, OK, the election went well. Great. Now let's talk about an exit strategy.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, there's no doubt in our mind, at least, that yesterday's vote gives the president an upper hand for now in the Iraq debate. After months of bad news and worse pictures, he received good news and even better pictures yesterday. Is it enough for the skeptics?

Philip Gourevitch is foreign correspondent for "The New Yorker Magazine," and, fair to say, a skeptic.

Look, you can't not see the joy of the moment in those pictures yesterday.

PHILIP GOUREVITCH, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORKER": Absolutely not. That was a fantastic set of images. They were overwhelming images.

And what they really reminded you of, as your correspondent just mentioned, that this is what we were told we should see two years ago. And it basically made you realize that, during these two years, while the president and his war planners have spoken about freedom for the Iraqi people and democracy for the Iraqi people, the most fundamental security was totally lacking. The planning for the aftermath was not there. And in many ways, the faults of the war and the joy of yesterday are not mutual contradictions. You can see both of them at the same time.

BROWN: So, you even today don't give the administration any due on this?

GOUREVITCH: Well, let's remember that we didn't go to war for this. I mean, now the argument that the administration is going to be very strong on is the idea that this was why we went to Iraq. In some way, this is the vindication of a policy to find WMD? I missed that, right?

This is a war where we went in and the Bush administration didn't want elections. They were intending to install Ahmad Chalabi. When that didn't work out, there was a plan for sort of imposing certain kinds of arranged councils. And it was basically Ayatollah Sistani who insisted on elections very vigorously and basically sort of made Bush knuckle under, in much the way he did with the Homeland Security Department, which he originally opposed.

Later, he claims that it's his, which is skillful politics. He then made elections his point. And yesterday, there was a very moving set of images.

BROWN: To people opposed to the war and to people opposed to the administration, given what happened yesterday, how do you make the argument from here on out? Because every time you do, let me tell you, the president's going to say, you know what, that's the first free election in that country in more than 50 years. That is the first real election in that part of the world for a long, long time. It is the -- we can fuss about how we got here, but it is the beginning of something important.

And you know what? Maybe it is.

GOUREVITCH: And that maybe has always haunted this war in both directions.

Except for people who are just categorically opposed to this thing on every level and every way and opposed to Bush on every level and every way from the beginning, and as opposed to people who are in the administration and sort of no matter what you can't find fault with this thing, you have to all the time be slightly close to the facts, thinking, well, what if it works? What if it fails. I wish that they'd been asking more often, what if we're not doing this right, questioning themselves.

There are important things that this election does not reverse, that America, in promoting freedom, has nevertheless got itself entangled with an image as involved in torture. That doesn't get erased by this election, nor does it get erased by the way that the Bush administration has been handling it. And that's crucial when what you have done is moved on from the war on terrorism, WMD rhetoric to the promotion of freedom, human rights rhetoric. And America's stature as a beacon does not seem to have changed in the eyes of those Iraqi voters. Many of them seem to have felt at last, instead of being told to what to do by the Americans, we're saying what we want to do.

BROWN: Do you think there are people who oppose the administration who were disappointed by what they saw yesterday?

GOUREVITCH: Well, if so -- I'm sure there are some who were. I don't think -- that's not fair.

BROWN: And shame on them, huh?

GOUREVITCH: Shame on them if anybody feels that way. I think that that's a relatively small, if present -- I mean, some people will probably be very skeptical as to whether what they saw adds up to more than a great day and a great spirit of the Iraqi people that you saw there coming forward, I mean, people who lived under that tyranny for that long and were bowed, but clearly not broken.

But I think -- I think it's very important to keep a sort of perspective, not to be too triumphalist about this, especially if you want to see it succeed, because, unlike other moving elections we've seen, this was a very peculiar election. This wasn't the first South African election.

BROWN: No, it was not.

GOUREVITCH: This was not the Ukrainian election. This was an election that the "Economist" magazine, which has totally supported the war aims all along, described as democracy at gunpoint.

They had to shut the place down. You couldn't have traffic. You had an army of occupation and invasion, a foreign army. And although violence was considered low yesterday, it was pretty high. There were nine suicide bombings. A plane may have been shot down. There were more attacks than we even realize.

BROWN: Yes.

GOUREVITCH: And one has to count election as all the violence in the lead-up to the elections, scores and scores and scores of Iraqi security forces killed and unable to bring this about by themselves. That's not really exactly freedom. It may be a step towards it, but one has to be very careful about just calling it triumph.

BROWN: But it was a nice first step. It's good to see you.

GOUREVITCH: Great to see you.

BROWN: Thank you.

Before we go to break, another moment to remember. As we mark 25 years of CNN reporting, tonight, a face we have not forgotten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): In the early 1980s, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker became pop icons as leaders of the hugely successful PTL Club TV ministries. The couple called their riches a blessing from God. People soon discovered their extravagant lifestyle was financed from the almighty contributions of the ministry's faithful.

Soon their tears of joy became tears of remorse. In 1987 Bakker 'fessed up to an adulterous relationship with church secretary Jessica Hahn and later spent four years in jail for fraud.

Tammy Faye divorced her husband while he was in jail and married his business partner, Roe Messner. In March of 2004 she announced on LARRY KING LIVE she had inoperable lung cancer.

TAMMY FAYE MESSNER, TELEVANGELIST: It was lung cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight months later she appeared again with an update on her condition.

MESSNER: Every bit of the cancer is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim Bakker also remarried and is now back on TV, this time preaching from Branson, Missouri.

JIM BAKKER, TELEVANGELIST: It's so good to get together with God's people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim and Lori Bakker are in the process of adopting five children between the ages of 9 and 15. They've had legal custody of them for four years. One big happy family, albeit a more modest one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Throughout this anniversary year, CNN will look back on many major stories of the last 2 1/2 decades. So keep watching for the stories you remember best.

We'll take a break. When we come back, the courts and the detainees in Guantanamo.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: First, on today's "Security Watch," new rules for the nation's truck drivers. Those who haul hazardous materials now must pay additional fees, submit to criminal background checks, have their fingerprints taken. It's expected to take five years to check all 2.7 million truck drivers in the country. The program meant to prevent terrorists from using trucks as weapons of mass destruction.

Critics say it won't deter the bad guys, who they point out could always steal or hijack trucks or put hazardous materials inside rentals. No end to the tactics a terrorist might use, which takes us to a speck of a town in the American West. The shifting economy reduced it to a ghost town. Things looked pretty bleak until, odd as it may seem, the war on terror came a'knocking.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a really nice town to raise a family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is hometown USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a ghost town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire in the hole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peaceful, quiet. It's a beautiful country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a ghost town anymore.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Playas, New Mexico, is the kind of place maps ignore. But the town is making its mark as the newest nerve center for the war on terror.

VAN ROMERO, NEW MEXICO TECH: This is a real town, real infrastructure that is essentially at our disposal. We control everything here.

LAVANDERA: Playas is an old copper smelting town. Five years ago, the plant shut down and nearly all of the 1,000 people who lived here moved out. Then, a few months ago, it was turned into an anti- terror training center. At the opening ceremony, the ribbon wasn't cut. It was:

(GUNSHOT)

LAVANDERA: Playas has been nicknamed terror town, USA. But don't say that to Bill Cavaliere, the town's only police officer.

BILL CAVALIERE, PLAYAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I think anti-terror town is more appropriate.

LAVANDERA (on camera): New Mexico Tech University bought the town of Playas back in October for $5 million. They've also contracted with the Department of Homeland Security, which will pay $20 million a year for the next five years to conduct training here.

(voice-over): It's now a wide-open classroom to train police officers, firefighters, and other emergency officials in the latest techniques for fighting terrorists.

ROMERO: We can bring first-responders and put them in a situation that they wouldn't be able to experience any place else in the country.

LAVANDERA: Like simulating a suicide bombing in an urban environment.

ROMERO: This is essentially a bus bombing that's taken place. LAVANDERA: During week-long courses in Playas, emergency teams work a fictional scenario. The mission, to keep terrorists from attacking a public event.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got pipe bombs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went down.

LAVANDERA: All this happens in plain view of the 40 people who still live in Playas. Residents say the town is booming again.

LINDA MCCARTY, PLAYAS RESIDENT: That's surprising, that they can come to this little place.

LAVANDERA: Albert Mora is a former welder. He lost his job at the copper plant. At age 58, he's started a new career role-playing in a mock bus bombing.

ALBERT MORA, PLAYAS RESIDENT: I was told today that I need to go to Hollywood to get some acting lessons. I thought I was doing real good, but they kind of kind of hurt my feelings a little bit.

(LAUGHTER)

LAVANDERA: After years of struggling to find work, these residents now find themselves in the middle of the action. They're turning in the grime and grit of the copper smelter for fake blood and scars. Seeing the walking wounded stagger around town has become normal.

MCCARTY: Role players. I was dead on the bus.

CAVALIERE: Playas Police Department. This is Bill.

LAVANDERA: Bill Cavaliere senses his home town is changing, answering a call to duty. He and his neighbors feel this is their chance to fight terror and to make a difference.

CAVALIERE: I really support the military and I really support this anti-terrorist training, really, anything that's going to help protect the United States.

LAVANDERA: This once-forgotten ghost town has been transformed into the most unlikely of modern-day battlefields, a reminder the war on terror is never far from home.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Playas, New Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: More tonight, including nothing that makes the legal mess over the detainees held at Guantanamo any tidier, another court case, another case almost certainly headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

We'll break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today a federal judge issued a ruling about the legal rights of the four detainees being held by the military at Guantanamo, but it hardly answered any questions. Truth be told, it raised questions, because it conflicts directly with another ruling issued recently by another judge. So, only one thing is certain. Lawyers will be busy on this issue for a long time to come.

Here's CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest decision is a reminder that the Bush administration's goal of putting so-called enemy combatants out of reach in Guantanamo Bay has created a jumble of contradictory rulings.

The Supreme Court has said the prisoners have the right to challenge their detention in a court. The Bush administration contends that could be accomplished by military tribunals at Guantanamo. But now a federal district judge in Washington, Joyce Hens Green, has ruled detainees should have full legal protections. "The right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law," she wrote, "is one of the most fundamental rights recognized by the U.S. Constitution."

MICHAEL RATNER, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: Absolutely amazing ruling. It requires the government to now justify each one of these detentions with facts that can be challenged by an attorney in a court.

FRANKEN: Except that, two weeks ago, another federal judge in Washington ruled the detainees have very limited rights. The administration's legal supporters contend the Supreme Court left open the extent of protections the prisoners had coming.

RICHARD SAMP, WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION: That the rights that they have been given are far more than even prisoners of war have been given in past wars in the United States history, and therefore I would predict that the United States Supreme Court will find that the procedures that were afforded are sufficient under the Constitution.

FRANKEN (on camera): The Guantanamo detainees almost certainly will get another hearing before the Supreme Court eventually. Until then, even as allegations of torture and abuse filter out, the administration still reserves the right to determine their future.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I feel like it's time for morning papers, coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK. Watch this, real quick. This is a Guilford College basketball player. Yes, nothing but net, wins the ball game with six- tenths of a second left. OK, we realize we didn't show you the rest of the game. Let him go. There he goes. That's worth seeing twice. It's against Randolph-Macon College of Virginia, Division 3 basketball. I know we never do sports. We thought we would.

Here we go, morning papers. Pretend there's a rooster. Here we go.

"For Insurgents, What's Next?" the way "The Christian Science Monitor" leads. This is the headline I like best. Down at the bottom, "A City Rebuilds With Elephants and Prayer. In Its Wake, Rebuilding After the Tsunami." This is a look at Banda Aceh in Indonesia. Elephants and prayer, that's pretty cool.

"Dallas Morning News." Allawi Calls For Iraqis to Unite."

That is pretty much the headline I think out of Iraq today, except in "The Miami Herald," which headlines this story thusly. I think this is either the realist's headline or the downer headline of the day, OK? "Election in Iraq Could Worsen Strife. If Final Election Results Confirm Low Voter Turnout of Sunni Muslims, It Could Mean as Much as 20 Percent of the Population May Not Accept the Result." Well, that is in fact true. There are other ways to look at this, but that's what they did.

"Washington Times." "Judge Rules in Favor of Detainees." We just told you about that one. "Bush Urges Iraqis to Include Sunnis in New Assembly," because, if they don't, frankly, it's going to be a mess there. Forget that one, OK? I don't know.

"The Rocky Mountain News." "Prof Resigns Post. Churchill Stays at C.U., Colorado University, But Quits as Department Head Amid 9/11 Controversy." This is a professor who basically said the people who died during the attack on 9/11 deserved it. Perhaps it wasn't the most elegant way to put it. And I cleaned it up.

The weather tomorrow in Chicago.

(CHIMES)

BROWN: Thank you -- is "grubby." Beats me.

Wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Just quickly, tomorrow on the program, another look at child slavery as it plays out around the world here on NEWSNIGHT, 10:00 Eastern time. We hope you will join us.

Until then, good night for all of us.

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